DARWIN AND NATURAL SELECTION 53 



some previous writers, that whilst the minor 

 changes swing backwards and forwards like a pen- 

 dulum across the mean, no real advance occurs 

 through them. In his opinion, it is only the greater 

 variations, which he calls Mutations, which really 

 count. These occur suddenly ; at periods and not 

 continuously ; and hence are discontinuous, and 

 thus in harmony with nature, which, as we see it, 

 is also clearly discontinuous. This theory is at 

 present the subject of a very active discussion, and 

 cannot in anyway be said to be decided one way 

 or the other. 



From what has been said it will clearly be seen 

 that there has been a very remarkable change in 

 scientific opinion during the past twenty-five 

 years, and that that change of opinion, though 

 many would be very loath to admit it, has been 

 away from the materialistic pole and towards its 

 antipodes the old explanations of Christian 

 philosophy. Further still, some men of science 

 whose minds have not previously been turned in 

 that direction are obviously on the road to the 

 discovery of a Plan and an Author and Guider of 

 Nature. How this is coming about may be judged 

 by a number of utterances, of which one, now to 

 be quoted, by Professor Bateson, one of the most 

 distinguished, as he is certainly one of the most 

 open-minded of modern biologists, is certainly 

 very remarkable.* 



" With the experimental proof that variation 

 consists largely in the unpacking and repacking 

 of an original complexity, it is not so certain as 



* Darwin and Modern Science, p. 101. 



