200 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



be straight as a ladder, or it may be spiral, or it may 

 be a series of straight flights with landings, or it 

 may even be attached to the outside of the house 

 like the "bonnie, bonnie outside stairs" at Thrums. 

 The one thing illegitimate is to omit the stairs, as the 

 amateur who draws his own plans is so apt to do. 

 Well then, in variation, the spiral staircase may be 

 beaten into flat sections, or the outside stair may be 

 brought within doors, or vice versa. Variation may 

 be " casual " in this sense, that it is liable to take any 

 one of several directions. Pattern A or B replaces 

 C, you cannot say why. Variation will not be 

 casual in the sense of omitting what is advantageous 

 or necessary. It will not leave out the staircase. 

 Experience shows that when animal " monstrosi- 

 ties " occur, they are not strictly congenital. They 

 are the result of accident after development had 

 begun. 



As to the reason why variation goes thus or thus 

 in so irregular a fashion; in a different region one 

 would be inclined to interpret irregularity as meaning 

 the (casual or intermittent) blending of several (dis- 

 tinct) laws, the imposing of several curves one upon 

 another. And so we should be brought back to a 

 " chance " [under obscure temporary conditions ?] 

 blending of distinct influences [parental, ancestral ?]. 



Tentatively then we would decide that Darwin 

 appeals to chance and that he is right in doing so. 

 He appeals to chance by the assumption that vari- 

 ation is or may be random in its direction, harmful 

 quite as often as helpful. And still more tenta- 

 tively we propose to identify " chance " in this 

 sense with " chance " in a sense already discussed 



