because it is all routine 19 



individual had to submit to a like setback 

 once more; and that after a yet further 

 advance the same thing recurred again, and 

 so on indefinitely. The result would clearly 

 be that the latest acquisitions would be the 

 least straightened out, the least automatic 

 and the least fixed. Now we know directly 

 by observation that in like manner the 

 memories and dexterities that are acquired 

 latest are the least engrained and the most 

 likely to fail. And turning from the indi- 

 vidual to the race, Darwin has shewn that 

 here it is specific characters, which are 

 acquired later, rather than the generic, upon 

 which they are superposed, that are pecu- 

 liarly liable to variation. 



Now the situation we have supposed 

 closely resembles that of a new complex 

 organism. Though not identical with the 

 old it is nevertheless continuous with it, and 



2—2 



