DARWIN AND NATURAL SELECTION 45 



would agree with Fr. Wasmann* that natural 

 selection is " indispensable as a subsidiary factor, 

 but only a factor" and with Batesont that " by 

 the arbitrament of natural selection all must 

 succeed or fall," but that its scope " is closely 

 limited by the laws of variation." 



It is closely limited by the laws of variation. In 

 what directions is it limited ? What actually can 

 it do ? What cannot it do ? All these are questions 

 which have been discussed again and again by 

 men of science ever since the Theory of Natural 

 Selection first saw the light. It will be quite worth 

 while devoting a few minutes to the consideration 

 of this point, since it leads up to and controls the 

 next step of the argument in which we are en- 

 gaged. 



" Natural Selection may explain the survival of 

 the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the 

 fittest ! " (p. 89). Thus neatly summed up by a 

 friend of Kellog's, the question might almost be 

 left. But it will be well to particularize. Driesch, 

 in his masterly lectures, given under the Gifford 

 Trust, and a fit companion of the admirable 

 courses in that series by Professor Ward and by 

 Lord Haldane, criticizes most carefully! the claims 

 of natural selection, and tells his auditors that|| 

 " it always acts negatively only, never positively. 

 And, therefore, it can ' explain ' if you will allow 

 me to make use of this ambiguous word it can 



* The Problem of Evolution, p. 42. 

 t Mendel's Principles of Heredity ', p. 289. 



As has been already pointed out in the preceding article. 

 See p. 25. 

 Q Driesch, Science and Philosophy o/ the Organism^ p. 262. 



