DARWINISM. 211 



will consequently be likely to leave numerous off- 

 spring. Now, evidently those males which have 

 especially developed weapons for combat, or espe- 

 cially beautiful plumage, will be the victors, and 

 will leave the most vigorous offspring ; and the 

 offspring will all have a tendency to inherit the same 

 highly developed weapons or plumage. This pro- 

 cess bring repeated, the males eventually develop 

 organs like the antlers of the male deer, or the 

 beauty of male birds. Occasionally also these feat- 

 ures are acquired in a less marked degree by the 

 females also, since each sex has a certain tendency 

 to inherit from the other sex. 



By means of these two principles, Darwin has at- 

 tempted to account for the origin of new species 

 from the old upon purely physical laws, easily un- 

 derstood ; for evidently if peculiarities can thus be 

 accumulated and increased, generation after gener- 

 ation, the final result will be new animals very 

 different from the old ones. The strong point of 

 this explanation is its simplicity. It is based upon 

 universally admitted facts, and is readily understood. 

 As soon as the " Origin of Species " made its appear- 

 ance, it became evident that Darwin and Wallace, 

 who had arrived at the same principle indepen- 

 dently, had discovered an important principle, and 

 the ready explanation which natural selection offered 

 to large classes of facts, led almost immediately to 

 its wide acceptance. Evolution was no longer a 

 vague hypothesis which added nothing to knowl- 

 edge, but a logical theory with an intelligible ex- 

 planation. Natural selection was recognized as one 



