SERIAL ORGANIC EVOLUTION 251 



the selective influence of environment. Moreover, 

 all the latest researches into heredity have tended 

 to reduce the shaping value of environment, by 

 showing that only germinal variations are inherit- 

 able. Up to quite recent date it was believed 

 that acquired dijfferences might be inherited, and 

 thus aid in the moulding of species, but now it is 

 almost universally held that only germinal char- 

 acteristics are transmitted to offspring. Germinal 

 variations, again, can only be selected by sexual 

 selection or by death. 



The more we examine the matter, the more 

 certain it seems that evolution of species owed as 

 little to environment as any pictures painted by 

 an artist, or any statues carved by a sculptor. 

 And this being so, is it necessary or advantageous 

 to consider evolution as a slow process, requiring 

 long ages } 



We have said that all life is usually supposed to 

 have sprung from one prototype. But nothing is 

 gained by this assumption, and it is not probable. 

 The common stem of all life was the cooling world, 

 but it is surely likely that, at various points on its 

 surface, various protoplasmic combinations with 

 different potentialities of variation arose, and that 

 from these were evolved most of the present-day 

 species. A mere likeness between species, not 

 even embryonic resemblances, does not necessarily 



