2 Prof. Parsons on the Origin of Species. 
~eame established, the same law of struggle, of advantage, of 
life, and of death, would operate upon this new and improve 
variety, and would cause another and a farther improvement. 
‘As this law is universal, and must always have operated upon 
all organisms from the beginning, not only are varieties estab- 
lished in this way, but so likewise varieties become species, 
the beginning been produced by : aaktay~ development. This 
only to suggest—some of the 
results to which I have come. Upon the question whether I 
have not departed so widely from the theory of Darwin, that I 
have no right to use his name, I have nothing to say. I wish 
only that these igen may pass for what they are worth _ 
whatever that may be. 
To say that it is the tendency of all organisms to reproduce 
their like, but with some difference, would be merely to utter a 
truism, for there is almost or quite always some family resem- 
blance between offspring of the same parents, and always so 
much of difference that no two of the offspring are ever undis- 
tinguishable from each other. We may say, however, that one 
certain law of this difference, or variation, is this; that whilea — 
slight difference is universal, great difference is less common, 
and the greater the difference the more rare it is, and therefore E 
the less to be expected in any given instance. The question 
then arises, how far this difference may go; or to say the same 
thing in other words, what limit is there to the possible immedi- 
ate variation of offspring from their parents and kindred? 
_ The law of variation is itself variable; and while we have 
little knowledge of the causes of variation, we have none what- 
ever of the limits to which it may be carried. Indeed, if we 
assume that there must be some limit to the possible extent of 
——— 
