i POPULAR DECEPTIONS 5 



there is another closely connected with 

 it, and that is the emphatic testimony he 

 bears to the fact that the existing popular 

 conception is unconscious of any defect 

 or failing in the all -sufficiency of the 

 Darwinian hypothesis. He speaks of 

 the process brought into clear view by 

 Mr. Darwin, and of those with whom he 

 is about to argue, as men " who conclude 

 that taken alone it accounts for organic 

 evolution." 1 In order to make his own 

 coming contention clearer, he devises 

 new forms of expression for defining 

 accurately the hypothesis of Darwin. 

 He calls it "the natural selection of 

 favourable variations." Again and again 

 he emphasises the fact that these varia- 

 tions, according to the theory, were 

 " spontaneous," and that their utility was 

 only " fortunate," or, in other words, 

 accidental. He speaks of them as 



1 P. 570. 



