26 



Selection spurns beauty, and that if it did not, my theory must 

 fall to the ground never mind that I stand and fall myself by 

 my theory. 



I believe that though man does appreciate and admire beauty, 

 whether in form, colour, harmony, or any other mode, monkeys 

 do not ; so that if you ask me how man, who has come from the 

 monkey, has come by this faculty, which the mcnkey has not, I 

 must decline to answer the question. Pardunncz. 



I believe, I say, that Natural Selection improved us by giving 

 us the power to value beauty which she herself ignores and sets 

 aside. You may say this is nonsense. You may say so if you 

 like. I have said it, and I mean to stand by it. 



I believe, on my theory, that Nature makes species ; but that 

 man can only make varieties by culture. It is mere assertion, 

 and the argument, if carried out, annihilates my theory. Let it 

 do so if it likes what care I ? I believe that " if nature had to 

 make " the bill of a pigeon short, it would be a slow process 

 indeed, and you would see all the young pigeons in the eggs 

 stri ving with one another to see which could come out with the 

 shortest and strongest bill. If you can't see this you must be 

 very dull indeed in comparison with me. I have said elsewhere 

 that Natural Selection is only the " sequence of events." It 

 might perhaps take ten thousand million years to make one bill 

 strong enough, so that the whole brood would have been dead 

 and gone thousands and millions of years before the necessary 

 degree of strength could be arrived at. I am not able to re- 

 concile these palpable and gross contradictions ; it is quite enough 

 for me to be able to swallow them and any number more. 



I believe that the old-fashioned Book which tells us that "we 

 are but of yesterday, and know nothing" is quite out of date. 



I believe, on the contrary, that we are of to-day, and know 

 everything. 



I believe that though I was born with a "bee in my bonnet," 

 I am descended from a monkey and not from a bee, for all the 

 wisdom of its instinct. 



I believe ihat Natural Selection is - k ;i power incessantly ready 

 for action" upon a creature, and therefore something outside it, 



