254 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART iv 



He held that sex originated in the course of evolu- 

 tion, and was absolutely due, whatever that might 

 mean, to natural selection. This he still maintained. 



A similar view had been broached by him as to 

 natural death ; he still maintained it. 



He had formulated a doctrine of "germ plasm." 

 This has been modified, refined, elaborated, re-christ- 

 ened, and, in fact, transformed more than once, both 

 before and after 1893. But this and other technical 

 changes of great importance do not sensibly affect 

 the " fairy tale," nor the basis of Mr. Benjamin Kidd's 

 social gospel, preached by him in the name of Weis- 

 mann. We do not therefore dwell upon these 

 changes. 



Next there is a group of three very important 

 points, which imply each other, and stand or fall to- 

 gether ; that amphimixis is the only cause of varia- 

 tions ; that environment is impotent to originate 

 them, in view of the "continuity" and "absolute 

 stability " of the germ plasm ; that every higher and 

 highest organism is simply a unicellular organism of 

 an improved or rearranged kind, with its appendages 

 and necessary consequences. The central point here 

 is the stability of the germ plasm. Weismann gives 

 that up (1893). The second point of our present 

 group of three is therefore gone. In consequence 

 the first point must be at least modified, and it turns 

 out to be absolutely inverted. Amphimixis is never 

 to be the cause of variations ; they are to go back to 

 differences and irregularities in nutrition. At the 

 same time, by a curious codicil, Weismann insists that 

 these differences could never become effective unless 

 when they were cumulated by amphimixis. Accord- 



