158 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
to endeavour to hold fast and develop the modified forms by 
Inheritance. He starts from the universal fact that children 
resemble their parents, that “the apple does not fall far 
from the tree.” This phenomenon of Inheritance has hitherto 
been scientifically examined only to a very small extent, 
which may partly arise from the fact that the phenomenon 
is of such everyday occurrence. Every one considers it 
quite natural that every species should produce its like ; 
that a horse should not suddenly produce a goose, or a goose 
a frog. We are accustomed to look upon these everyday 
occurrences of Inheritance as self-evident. But this phe- 
nomenon is not so simply self-evident as it appears at 
first sight, and in the examination of Inheritance the fact is 
very frequently overlooked that the different descendants, 
derived from one and the same parents, are in reality never 
quite identical, and also never absolutely like the parents, 
but are always slightly different. We cannot formulate the 
principle of Inheritance, as “Like produces like,” but we 
must limit the expression to “Similar things produce 
similar things.” The gardener, as well as the farmer, 
avails himself of the fact of Inheritance in its widest 
form, and indeed with special regard to the fact that not 
only those qualities of organisms are transmitted by 
inheritance which they have inherited from their parents, 
but those also which they themselves have acquired. This 
is an important point upon which very much depends. An 
organism can transmit to its descendants not only those 
qualities of form, colour, and size which it has inherited 
from its parents, but it can also transmit changes of these 
qualities, which it has acquired during its own life through 
the influence of outward circumstances, such as climate, 
nourishment, training, etc. 
Beale 
