NATURAL SELECTION AND 



pages of history and to trace the consequences 

 of political oppression. An ethnological ex- 

 planation is as yet no explanation, but only a 

 re-statement of the problem to be solved. 



Social variations may arise, then, from ex- 

 ternal influences, from intermixture or contact 

 of races, from more or less conscious imita- 

 tion. Conscious imitation because of some 

 expected advantage already implies reflection, 

 which is a further cause of variation among 

 human beings. If customs or institutions are 

 adopted not unconsciously, but because a re- 

 forming party have felt, and have convinced 

 others, that such a change would be more 

 advantageous to the community than to abide 

 by the old customs, this is a variation resulting 

 from reflection. Like all other variations, it 

 will not become fixed as the characteristic of 

 a type, unless it prove advantageous in some 

 way or other, and for some time ; it differs 

 from other variations in being adopted ex- 

 pressly because of its anticipated utility. 



We are indeed very apt to imagine that many 

 variations, which have proved advantageous 

 because of some purpose they serve, arose at 

 first because of this advantage. We are often 



