CHAPTER XVI 
NATURAL SELECTION 
CHARLES DARWIN 
Intropuctory Notr.—This entire chapter is made up of carefully chosen 
passages from Darwin’s Origin of Species. So much has falsely been called 
“Darwinism” that it is well for the reader to have a statement of Darwin’s views 
in his own words. Every student of evolution should read the whole of the Origin 
of Species. It is all so good that one finds it difficult to leave out anything. The 
following excerpts will, we believe, give the gist of natural selection. 
We present first certain of the ideas that underlie or are postulates of the 
theory; then the theory itself is’ presented; the theory of sexual selection inter- 
polated; and then follow examples of the way in which adaptations are accounted 
for by natural selection. Darwin’s own statement of the most serious difficulties 
and objections to the theory, and his answers to these, bring this chapter to a close. 
FOUNDATION STONES OF NATURAL SELECTION 
DARWIN’S OWN ESTIMATE AS TO THE ROLE OF NATURAL SELECTION IN EVOLUTION 
No one ought to feel surprised at much remaining as yet unex- 
plained in regard to the origin of species and varieties, if he make due 
allowance for our profound ignorance in regard to the mutual relations 
of the many beings which live around us. Who can explain why one 
species ranges widely and is very numerous, and why another allied 
species has a narrow range and israre? Yet-these relations are of the 
highest importance, for they determine the present welfare and, as I 
believe, the future success and modification of every inhabitant of this 
world. Still less do we know of the mutual relations of the innumer- 
able inhabitants of the world during the many past geological epochs 
in its history. Although much remains obscure, and will long remain 
obscure, I can entertain no doubt, after the most deliberate study 
and dispassionate judgment of which I am capable, that the view 
which most naturalists until recently entertained, and which I for- 
merly entertained—namely, that each species has been independently 
created—is erroneous. I am fully convinced that species are not 
immutable; but that those belonging to what are called the same 
genera are lineal descendants of some other and generally extinct 
species, in the same manner as the acknowledged varieties of any one 
species are the descendants of that species. Furthermore, I am con- 
vinced that Natural Selection has been the most important, but not 
the exclusive, means of modification. 
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