s MY LIFE 



question as to whicH our views had diverged. But I never 



bad the slightest feeling of the kind he supposed, looking 



upon the difference as one which did not at all affect our 

 general agreement, and also as being one on which no one 



could dogmatize, there being much to be said on both sides. 

 The last paragraph shows the extreme interest he took in the 

 personal affairs of all his friends. 



As my article of which he thought so highly is buried in an 

 early volume of Nature, I will here reproduce the rather long 

 paragraph which so specially interested him. It is as follows: — 



" The first objection brought forward (and which had been 

 already advanced by the Duke of Argyll) is, that the very 

 title of Mr. Darwin's celebrated work is a misnomer, and that 

 the real ' origin of species ' is that spontaneous tendency to 

 variation which has not yet been accounted for. Mr. Bennett 

 further remarks that, throughout my volume of ' Essays,' I 

 appear to be unconscious that the theory I advocate does not 

 go to the root of the matter. It is true that I am ' unconscious ' 

 of anything of the kind, for I maintain, and am prepared to 

 prove, that the theory, if true, does go to the very root of the 

 question of the ' origin of species/ The objection, which 

 from its being so often made, and now again brought forward, 

 is evidently thought to be an important one, is founded on a 

 misapprehension of the right meaning of words. It ignores 

 the fact that the word ' species ' denotes something more than 

 ' variety ' or ' individual.' A species is an organic form (or 

 group) which, for periods of great and indefinite length, as 

 compared with the duration of human life, fluctuates only 

 within narrow limits. But the ' spontaneous tendency to varia- 

 tion ' is altogether antagonistic to such comparative stability, 

 and would, if unchecked, entirely destroy all ' species.' Abolish, 

 if possible, selection and survival of the fittest, so that every 

 spontaneous variation should survive in equal proportion with 

 all others, and the result must inevitably be an endless variety 

 of unstable forms, no one of which would answer to what we 

 mean by the word ' species.' No other cause but selection has 

 yet been discovered capable of perpetuating and giving sta- 

 bility to some forms, and causing the disappearance of others, 



