22 Heredity, Variation and Genius 



mutation. The novel output which in some 

 species of plants apparently occurs at long and 

 uncertain intervals, abruptly and unaccountably, 

 though it look now like a special creation or 

 spontaneous product, is just the natural and neces- 

 sary physical effect of the internal complicated 

 processes. After all is said, the organic composi- 

 tion of a species may well be as definite and 

 special as that of a chemical compound, more 

 complex vital compositions occurring not other- 

 wise than as more complex chemical compositions 

 are formed in the orderly ascent of things, and 

 the fit mutation owe more to the inherent infor- 

 mation of the vital unity from which it proceeds 

 than to external determination. 



A notable fact in heredity is the occasional 

 reversion to an old mould of individual being, a 

 son or daughter who is unlike either parent 

 reproducing with curious fidelity the likeness or 

 peculiarities of some remote ancestor. In the 

 same remarkable manner two persons descended 

 from widely separate branches of a common stock 

 sometimes exhibit a singular likeness, so close 

 perhaps as almost to seem a reincarnation. Evi- 

 dently there is a tendency of reproductive germi- 

 nal elements, under the impact of some shock to 

 their customary combinations, to revert to a former 

 combination either in whole or in part, to hit 

 again upon a stable state in which they have been 

 before. For here as throughout the universe 

 unstable tends to fall into more stable matter in 



