Essays on Life 



common to all writers on evolution, but upon 

 the nature and causes of the variations that 

 are supposed to be selected from and thus 

 accumulated. Are these mainly attributable 

 to the inherited effects of use and disuse, 

 supplemented by occasional sports and happy 

 accidents ? Or are they mainly due to sports 

 and happy accidents, supplemented by occa- 

 sional inherited effects of use and disuse ? 



The Lamarckian system has all along been 

 maintained by Mr. Herbert Spencer, who, in 

 his " Principles of Biology," published in 1865, 

 showed how impossible it was that accidental 

 variations should accumulate at all. I am not 

 sure how far Mr. Spencer would consent to 

 being called a Lamarckian pure and simple, 

 nor yet how far it is strictly accurate to call 

 him one ; nevertheless, I can see no important 

 difference in the main positions taken by him 

 and by Lamarck. 



The question at issue between the Lamarck- 

 ians, supported by Mr. Spencer and a growing 

 band of those who have risen in rebellion 

 against the Charles-Darwinian system on the 



one hand, and Messrs. Darwin and Wallace 



240 



