Criticisms of Organic Selection 155 



were of utility — i.e., which were useful enough to en- 

 able a creature to escape with his life — would bring 

 about indirectly the sort of effect upon pairing that sexual 

 selection brings about directly. But whether he did or 

 not, evidently the special case of sexual selection, as thus 

 distinguished, does not cover the entire case, and there 

 is the same reason for giving the whole influence or ' fac- 

 tor ' a name that Darwin had for giving a special name to 

 the particular case of sexual selection. 



In short, does not the formulation of any sort of influ- 

 ence which regulates the operation of natural selection 

 really indicate a * factor ' in the whole evolution movement ? 

 Darwin formulated sexual selection as such a factor. Wal- 

 lace's * recognition-mark ' theory of the origin of bright plu- 

 mage in male birds is another such formulation. Organic 

 selection formulates a general factor by which the opera- 

 tion of natural selection is regulated ; ' newness ' in any 

 other sense I am not disposed to maintain for it. 



Darwin's personal use of the principle of sexual selec- 

 tion, I may add, seemed to require a very high psychologi- 

 cal development on the part of the choosing mate, the 

 female ; but the way that the principle may be generalized 

 — although still with reference to the special case of mat- 

 ing — may be seen in the very interesting suggestions of 

 Groos {Die Spiele der Thiere, pp. 230 ff., Eng. trans., 

 pp. 230 ff. ; made earlier by Hirn, and reprinted in his 

 Origins of Art). 



More than one of my critics have spoken of the relation 

 of organic selection to natural selection. It is discussed at 

 some length in the Naturalist article (see Chap. VIII. § 7^). 

 Professor Cattell says : " It is the essence of natural selec- 



1 See also the remarks in Chap. III. § 5. 



