Darwinism Verified. 15 



as this, no individual peculiarity can be so slight 

 that we are entitled to regard it as unimportant. 

 No peculiarity is really slight that enables its 

 possessor to survive until he transmits it to pos- 

 terity. 



In view of all this we see how misleading it is 

 to describe natural selection (as Mr. Mivart does) 

 as a process which operates only occasionally upon 

 variations assumed to be fortuitous. We see that 

 natural selection, like a power that slumbers not 

 nor sleeps, is ever preserving the stability of spe- 

 cies by seizing all individual peculiarities that os- 

 cillate within narrow limits on either side of the 

 mean that is most advantageous to the species, 

 while cutting off all such peculiarities as trans- 

 gress these limits. Domesticated animals, pro- 

 tected from the exigencies of wild life, often 

 exhibit great varieties in 'colouring, while wild 

 animals of the same genus or species are monoto- 

 nously coloured, because only one kind of colour- 

 ing will aid them in catching prey or eluding ene- 

 mies, and all the variations are killed out. Who 

 can doubt that antelopes are so fleet only because 

 all but the fleetest individuals are sure to be over- 

 taken and eaten by lions ? Protected from the 

 lions, a thousand generations might well make 

 them as lazy and clumsy as sheep. 



