CHAP, vii EVOLUTION IN DARWIN 75 



cruder and less verified doctrine, of a direct self- 

 adjustment of the organism to the environment as 

 a source of variation. Plainly, however, if this does 

 occur, then, so far as it occurs, it supersedes natural 

 selection. The supplement to the theory will dis- 

 place the theory itself. Those called in to give help 

 as allies will remain as absolute sovereigns. There 

 is no need of indirect methods for compassing a 

 teleological result, if such a result may come about 

 directly through the living powers of the organism. 

 We shall do well then to neglect this admission by 

 Darwin in favour of extreme Lamarckism, par- 

 ticularly as it seems to be a mere obiter dictum)- 



Even use-inheritance, however, will avail to shorten 

 the process of natural selection. The offspring will 

 start at the point which the parents had reached when 

 it was conceived, not at the point where the parents 

 themselves started, nor yet at that points/us a certain 

 amount of casual variation. On the other hand, we 

 shall have to notice later on that this accelerating 

 process of use-inheritance is much less confidently 

 believed in to-day than in the hour of Darwin's abso- 

 lute supremacy. 



1 Darwin's clearest references to the causes of variation are prob- 

 ably found in his Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestica- 

 tion. The theme is therefore a restricted one, and it must be added 

 that the language employed is less clear than would be wished. The 

 following references may be consulted: vol. ii. pp. 290, 305, 311, 552. 

 It should be added that to a certain extent any reliance on Lamarckian 

 factors, even for " use-inheritance," tends to throw the tedious process 

 of natural selection into the background. 



