SELECTION 175 



occasional exaggeration of organs beyond the 

 limits of demonstrable utility, as may be 

 illustrated in artificial conditions by the six 

 feet long tail-feathers of some Japanese 

 cocks; the occurrence of definitely directed, 

 appropriate, and simultaneous variations, 

 and much more besides. It plays into the 

 hands of personal selection; or, as Weismann 

 more elegantly phrases it, " it supplies the 

 stones out of which personal selection builds 

 her temples and palaces : adaptations." 



FAMILY AND GROUP SELECTIONS. Though 

 Darwin did not wholly overlook this (indeed 

 in at least one notable passage he expresses 

 it) there is no doubt that the general tone 

 and treatment of Darwinism, even hitherto, 

 has been deeply coloured by the acute indi- 

 vidualism of Darwin's and the preceding age. 

 We may therefore restate here the concluding 

 thesis of our own "Evolution of Sex" (1889), 

 since elaborated in various ways by Drum- 

 mond, by Kropotkin and others. It is that 

 the general progress both of the plant and 

 the animal world, and notably the great up- 

 lifts (see Chapter III above), must be viewed 

 not simply as individual but very largely in 

 terms of sex and parenthood, of family and 

 association; and hence of gregarious flocks 

 and herds, of co-operative packs, of evolving 



