154 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
The farmer wishing to breed a special race of animals, for 
example, a kind of sheep distinguished by particularly fine 
wool, proceeds in the same manner. The only process 
applied in the improvement of wool consists in this, that the 
farmer with the greatest care and perseverance selects from 
a whole flock of sheep those individuals which have the 
finest wool. These only are used in breeding, and among 
the. descendants of these selected sheep, those again are 
chosen which have the finest wool, ete. If this careful 
selection is carried on through a series of generations, the 
selected breeding-sheep are in the end distinguished by a 
wool which differs very strikingly from the wool of the 
original parent, and this is exactly the advantage which 
the breeder desired. 
The differences of the individuals that come into considera- 
tion in this artificial selection are very slight. An ordinary 
unpractised man is unable to discover the exceedingly 
minute differences of individuals which a practised breeder 
perceives at the first glance. The business of a breeder is 
not easy; it requires an exceedingly sharp eye, great 
patience, and an extremely careful manner of treating the 
organisms to be bred. In each individual generation, the 
differences of individuals are perhaps not seen at all by the 
uninitiated; but by the accumulation of these minute 
differences during a series of generations, the deviation from 
the original form becomes in the end very great. It becomes 
so great that the artificially produced form may in the end 
differ far more from the original form than do two so- 
called “good species” in their natural state. The art of 
breeding has now made such progress, that man can often at 
dliscretion produce certain peculiarities in cultivated species. 
