444 NATURE AND MAN. 



And if we prefer to believe, as I am myself disposed to do, that 

 in all these instances the colour of the environment is reproduced 

 by some sort of physiological reflexion in the integument of the 

 animal (the psychical impression, as in numerous other cases, re- 

 acting in a physical change), we have still to account for the 

 peculiarity of constitution which made those particular races 

 amenable to that influence. 



I trust that I have now satisfied you of the validity of the 

 position I took up in the first instance, that " natural selection " 

 does not — as has been affirmed — effectually dispose of the telea- 

 logical argument, by reducing adaptiveness to an accidental 

 conformity between the capacities of the "fittest" and the ex- 

 ternal conditions of their existence. That conformity cannot 

 exist, unless the beings possessed of it have previously come into 

 existence. There is no such thing as "accidental" variation. 

 A departure from the rule that " like produces like," never takes 

 place without a cause. If it should happen that a variation is — 

 under the circumstances — injurious rather than beneficial, it would 

 not be right to call it " aimless ; " for it may be no less perfectly 

 adapted to conditions which exist elsewhere, than is that variation 

 which gives to the race that possesses it an advantage in the 

 struggle for existence. If a Highland cow were to produce a 

 hairless calf which could not stand the winter cold, or a Pampas 

 cow were to bear a calf with a thick shaggy covering of hair which 

 would unfit it for its tropical habitat, none the less should we 

 recognize the general adaptiveness between each race and its 

 climatic environment, and see the evidence of "design" in the 

 provision for thus peopHng almost every country in which Man 

 can maintain his existence, with races of Oxen serving for his 

 support. 



I have now, in fine, to ask you to follow me through an 

 entirely different line of argument. All the variations among 

 which "natural selection" can be shown to have any effective 

 operation, have reference to comparatively insignificant modifi- 

 cations of structure. Let us grant, for the sake of argument, that 

 all past and present modifications of the original Bird type may 

 have thus arisen. But on the mode in which that singularly 



