9 o DISCRIMINATIONS CHAP. 



be done, out of countless alternatives 

 before her. Then we have only to shut 

 our eyes, blindly or conveniently, to the 

 absolute difference between the idea of 

 merely selecting out of already existing 

 things, and of selecting by prevision out of 

 conceivable things yet to be we have 

 only to cherish or even to tolerate this 

 gross confusion of thought and then we 

 can cram into our theories of Natural 

 Selection the very highest exercises of 

 Mind and Will. Let us carry out con- 

 sistently the analogy of thought involved 

 in the agency of a human breeder ; let 

 us emancipate this conception from the 

 narrow limits of operation within which 

 we know it to be humanly confined ; let 

 us conceive a strictly homologous agency 

 in Nature which has power not merely to 

 select among organs already so developed 

 as to be fit for use, but to select and 

 direct beforehand the development of 



