20 Heredity, Variation and Genius 



they have been brought into being, although it 

 was not the means by which they originated. 

 Instead of speaking of the origin of species by 

 means of natural selection, as Darwin did, we are 

 henceforth to understand that natural selection 

 comes into action only as the means of prosperous 

 survival after the specific mutation has started on 

 its independent career. 



If specific characters have thus originated on 

 a sudden by a single step, it seems natural to 

 assume definite structural predispositions in germ- 

 cells, ultramicroscopic prefigurations in them, 

 which duly evolve into definite structural muta- 

 tions. It is not difficult to imagine that in the 

 innermost of the infinitely minute and invisible are 

 laid architectural plans or dispositions of atoms as 

 definite as those which are manifest in outward 

 and visible structure. To a creature infinitesi- 

 mally minute enough to dwell inside it and 

 behold its wonderful structure the interior of 

 the atom might disclose a more complex maze 

 of swift and orderly motions than the starry 

 firmament displays, which after all looks a com- 

 parative sluggish and rigid system plodding 

 through the fixed function of advanced age.* Be 



* Not sluggish, it is true, in its voyage from unknown 

 whence to unknown whither, seeing that the solar system can 

 be conceived as a mere atom travelling some four hundred 

 millions of miles per annum from somewhere to somewhere — 

 perhaps with all its hurry only to come round to the same place 

 in some four hundred millions of years and to go on repeating 



