232 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



as accounting for the preservation of some struc- 

 tures, although it fails to account for the preser- 

 vation of others. And so the fact that Natural 

 Selection cannot have operated on structures 

 of mere beauty and variety is no proof that 

 the theory of Natural Selection is false, but only 

 that it is incomplete. It does not account for the 

 origin of any structure ; and it accounts for the 

 preservation of only a certain number. Surely, 

 then, Mr Darwin assigns to his "law" of Natural 

 Selection a range far wider than really belongs 

 to it, when, on the strength of it, he denies that 

 beauty for its own sake can be an end or object 

 in Organic Forms. He says — " This doctrine, if 

 true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory." 

 Why should this be fatal to his theory, except on 

 the supposition that Natural Selection gives a 

 complete account both of the Origin of new Forms, 

 (of which, in reality, it gives no account at all,) and 

 of their preservation, of which it does give some 

 account, but one which is only partial ? I dwell 

 on this, because it lies at the very root of the 

 question, how far Mr Darwin's theory can be said 

 to suggest anything in the nature of a Creative 



