HUXLEY AND NATURAL 



of Organic Nature " ; here, too, he expressed his 

 opinions about natural selection with great clearness 

 and force. These lectures are reprinted as the 

 concluding part of " Darwiniana," and the references 

 are to the pages of that volume of his collected 

 essays. 



On page 464 we read 



" Here are the phenomena of Hybridism staring you in the 

 face, and you cannot say, ' I can, by selective modification, 

 produce these same results.' Now, it is admitted on all hands, 

 at present, so far as experiments have gone, it has not been 

 found possible to produce this complete physiological diver- 

 gence by selective breeding. ... If we were shewn that 

 this must be the necessary and inevitable results of all ex- 

 periments, I hold that Mr. Darwin's hypothesis would be 

 utterly shattered." 



He then goes on to show that this is very far from 

 proved, and concludes (page 466) 



"that though Mr. Darwin's hypothesis does not completely 

 extricate us from this difficulty at present, we have not the 

 least right to say it will not do so." 



A passage on page 467 shows that Huxley placed 

 natural selection infinitely higher than any other 

 attempt to account for evolution, and indeed that 

 he regarded all other attempts with scorn. 



" I really believe that the alternative is either Darwinism 

 or nothing, for I do not know of any rational conception or 

 theory of the Organic universe which has any scientific 

 position at all beside Mr. Darwin's. . . . Whatever may 

 be the objections to his views, certainly all other theories are 

 absolutely out of court." 

 i 



