Art and Science 



ignorance to arise spontaneously. It appears 

 that I formerly underrated the frequency and 

 value of these latter forms of variation, as lead- 

 ing to permanent modifications of structure 

 independently of natural selection." 



The " numerous, successive, slight, favour- 

 able variations " above referred to are intended 

 to be fortuitous, accidental, spontaneous. It 

 is the essence of Mr. Darwin's theory that 

 this should be so. Mr. Darwin's solemn state- 

 ment, therefore, of his theory, after he had 

 done his best or his worst with it, is, when 

 stripped of surplusage, as follows : 



"The modification of species has been 

 mainly effected by accumulation of spon- 

 taneous variations; it has been aided in an 

 important manner by accumulation of varia- 

 tions due to use and disuse, and in an unim- 

 portant manner by spontaneous variations ; I 

 do not even now think that spontaneous varia- 

 tions have been very important, but I used once 

 to think them less important than I do now." 



It is a discouraging symptom of the age 

 that such a system should have been so long 

 belauded, and it is a sign of returning intelli- 



273 s 



