ii SELECTION CAN'T ORIGINATE 85 



some process of "natural selection" as 

 to account, by the same formula, for the 

 intricate and glorious harmonies between 

 structure and functions in organic life. 



It has been seen, moreover, more 

 and more clearly, that whilst that branch 

 of his theory which rested on fortuity 

 was obviously incompetent, that other 

 branch of it which claimed affiliation 

 with the directing agency of mind and 

 choice was as incompetent as its strange 

 ally. Selection, as we know it, cannot 

 make things ; it can only choose among 

 materials already made and open to the 

 exercise of choice. Therefore selection, 

 whether by man or by what men are 

 pleased to call Nature, can never 

 account for the origin of anything. 

 Then, other flaws, equally damaging to 

 the theory, have been, one after another, 

 detected and exposed. There are a 

 multitude of structures in which no 



