ORGANIC EVOLUTION 57 



species which De Vries claims are formed by one vari- 

 ation would show no "links" when the actual muta- 

 tion is not seen in the wild state. In fact, in mutations 

 there would be no link. The derived form would not 

 be recognized as a modification of the preceding one. 

 It is for this reason that De Vries makes his experi- 

 ments upon domestic species entirely. 



VARIATION, A LAW. The fact is, that variation is 

 a law of nature. Not only two things seen at the same 

 moment vary, but the same thing seen in successive 

 moments is not the same, to the human mind. There 

 is a ceaseless flow of variations, in the attitudes 

 and conditions of human cognition, and a slower 

 change in the object. Our bodies, and especially the 

 physiognomy, change from day to day, not only be- 

 cause a real molecular change has occurred, but also 

 because at each period they are a day older. Plow 

 and duration are said to be the very essence of reality. 

 The more stable an object is, the more degenerate. 

 The inorganic is on that account, far less interesting 

 and important than the organic. The latter moves 

 and reproduces itself, then the reproduction is never 

 just like the producer, and the descendants of an organ- 

 ism are not themselves alike. "We may say summarily 

 that there seems to be a tendency, when experiments 

 are repeated again and again, for the results to vary 

 more or less about an ideal standard, form or type. 

 For we may regard each human individual, say, as a 

 repetition of the experiment of producing a human 

 being; each rainstorm as nature's repeated attempt to 

 produce rain, etc. That many such experiments are 

 conducted simultaneously does not effect the logic of 

 the situation, just as the result is indifferent whether 

 we toss one penny many times, or many pennies at 



