64 The Morality of Nature 



we want to understand how these ancestors — the several 

 creatures who showed pecuHarities among a uniform general 

 species — came to acquire those characters. To do so let us 

 see how the descendants, the young living now under 

 observation, proceed to acquire new characters. And by 

 character let it be understood that conduct, or way of using 

 a physical structure, may be meant, and discussed, at the 

 same time as the actual physical structure. 



The beginning of a new character seems to be usually a 

 novelty which is in biological study called a variation. Just 

 why a variation appears is not evident. It is possible that 

 in the multiplication of former heredities by sexual or other 

 conjugations, the mere physical elements in the chromosomes 

 may develop purely fortuitous novelties, by new combina- 

 tions of old factors. But a belief more in accord with the 

 known righteousness of nature, is that visible variations are 

 the product of unrecognized pre-existing conditions and 

 causes, which have worked to this result although we do 

 not yet perceive the connection. Or to put that belief into 

 more scientific words it may be surmised that variations are 

 produced by the action of the environment upon previous 

 inheritance. Or it may well be that variation is the rule 

 of nature and uniformity of type the exception, maintained 

 only in uniform environment. 



By environment we mean all and every one of the things 

 which make up the world or universe in which the creature 

 lives, or that part of it which afifects him. 



It is well known that environment, as modified by the con- 

 duct of the creature, decides which variations shall be 

 preserved. That is to say, the conduct of a creature in using 



