Essays on Life 



gence that even he who has been more espe- 

 cially the alter ego of Mr. Darwin should have 

 felt constrained to close the chapter of Charles- 

 Darwinism as a living theory, and relegate it 

 to the important but not very creditable place 

 in history which it must henceforth occupy. 

 It is astonishing, however, that Mr. Wallace 

 should have quoted the extract from the 

 " Origin of Species " just given, as he has done 

 on p. 412 of his " Darwinism," without betray- 

 ing any sign that he has caught its driftlessness 

 for drift, other than a desire to hedge, it 

 assuredly has not got. The battle now turns 

 on the question whether modifications of either 

 structure or instinct due to use or disuse are 

 ever inherited, or whether they are not. Can 

 the effects of habit be transmitted to progeny 

 at all ? We know that more usually they are 

 not transmitted to any perceptible extent, but 

 we believe also that occasionally, and indeed 

 not infrequently, they are inherited and even 

 intensified. What are our grounds for this 

 opinion ? It will be my object to put these 

 forward in the following number of the Uni- 

 versal Review. 



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