34 CHANGE 



ters, so that the combination of any one male 

 cell with any one female cell is one of many 

 possible combinations, each of which might have 

 produced an individual possessing some characters 

 peculiar to itself. An element of chance is thus 

 introduced into the formation of offspring which 

 must contribute very greatly to the variety of life. 

 The origin of the changes whether fluctuations 

 or mutations that occur in individuals, and are 

 the steps by which new species may arise, remain 

 a mystery, unless we ascribe them to an inherent 

 or " bathmic " changefulness of Life, assisted by 

 the clash that results from the meeting of the 

 male and female elements in sexual reproduction. 

 Darwinists and Mendelists agree in holding that 

 the changes are purposeless that they may be 

 injurious or beneficial, and if beneficial are only 

 so incidentally. If they are injurious they are 

 eliminated by the struggle for life. If they are 

 beneficial they are established, according to the 

 Darwinian hypothesis, by the assistance they 

 afford to their possessors ; according to the 

 Mendelian belief they can become fixed by their 

 own vitality, irrespective of environal influences. 

 Mendelism can, therefore, explain the establish- 

 ment of changes that are neutral neither in- 

 jurious nor beneficial which, on the Darwinian 

 theory, would have little chance of persistence. 

 Darwinists are, accordingly, put to it to discover 

 some positive utility in all peculiarities that have 

 survived. Vast numbers of these are obviously 

 useful, and, as knowledge extends, utility is 

 discovered in characters the practical value of 

 which was at first not apparent. But it is hardly 

 possible to believe that utility underlies all that 

 is curious and beautiful in the animal and 

 vegetable worlds. It has been shown that, in 

 some cases, colours may be protective ; but 



