DED UCTION. A NTICJPA TION. 1 5 / 



the doctrine that only variations favorable to 

 the species could be preserved. It was an 

 inevitable inference from the nature of the 

 cause of adaptations that there could be no 

 such thing in nature as an adaptation for the 

 exclusive benefit of any other species than the 

 one possessing it. Darwin was so confident 

 of this deduction, although it could never be 

 rigidly verified by observation, that he boldly 

 staked the fate of his whole theory on the 

 truth of the inference. " If it could be proved 

 that any part of the structure of any one species 

 had been formed for the exclusive good of 

 another species, it would annihilate my theory, 

 for such could not have been produced through 

 natural selection." 1 He could never know 

 from direct observation that there were no such 

 cases in existence, but he was driven to the 

 assertion of their non-existence by the nature 

 of the cause of adaptations. Doubtless this 

 deduction gave the severest blow that was ever 

 dealt to the belief in general benevolence in 

 Nature, and it has proved the final blow. It 

 was the apparently awful consequences of this 

 inevitable deduction that roused the bitter 

 opposition of the religious forces of the world. 

 It seemed to establish forever the doctrine that 



1 Origin of Species, p. 162. 



