PRE-EXISTENCF, AND ACCIDENTAL VARIATIONS. 415 



wide, the spiritual selection Is supposed to work 

 within them. And as no direct evidence can ever 

 prove that an indefinite number of other combin- 

 ations would not have equally well satisfied the 

 conditions of all the physical factors, it is clear that 

 our theory can never be disproved by the facts of 

 heredity. On the contrary, it might perhaps serve 

 to explain some of its most perplexing physical 

 aspects, such as the origination of the so-called 

 ** accidental variations" which play so important 

 a part in biological history. At present the vari- 

 ations which produce a man of genius or generate 

 a new species, are to science utterly inexplicable ; 

 for that is the meaning of *' accidental." The 

 constitution of the parents no doubt renders them 

 possible, for else they would not occur, but it In no 

 wise explains them. For they are cases which 

 border upon the impossible, and what is wanted is 

 some explanation of how and why these exceptional 

 possibilities are occasionally realized, and how the 

 forces which resist any divergence from the normal 

 combinations are occasionally overcome. And we 

 delude ourselves if we suppose that we have cast 

 any light upon the subject by adducing the parallel 

 of exceptional combinations in the realm of mathe- 

 matical probabilities. For In throwing dice, e.g., no 

 one combination is in itself any more probable than 

 any other, nor is there any force acting so as to 

 make the succession of i, 2, 5 any easier than three 

 sixes. It is only because there are so many more 

 of the combinations we call ordinary possible, that 

 they occur more frequently, and no greater energy 

 is required to throw ten sixes in succession than to, 

 throw any other series. 



But a case of heredity Is totally different. The 



