XV. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE THEOEY OP DESCENT 

 WITH MODIFICATION CONSIDEEED. 



Oripn of Several writers have misapprehended or 



Species, objected to the term Natural Selection. Some 

 ^*^^ ■ have even imagined that natural selection in- 

 duces variability, whereas it implies only the preservation 

 of such variations as arise and are beneficial to the being 

 under its conditions of life. No one objects to agricul- 

 turists speaking of the potent effects of man's selection ; 

 and in this case the individual difEerence given by nature, 

 which man for some object selects, must of necessity first 

 occur. Others have objected that the term selection im- 

 pijes conscious choice in the animals which become modi- 

 fied ; and it has even been urged that, as plants have no 

 volition, natural selection is not applicable to them ! In 

 the literal sense of the word, no doubt, natural selection 

 is a false term ; but who ever objected to chemists speak- 

 ing of the elective aflBnities of the various elements ? — 

 and yet an acid can not strictly be said to elect the base 

 with which it in preference combines. It has been said 

 that I speak of natural selection as an active power or 

 Deity ; but who objects to an author speaking of the at- 

 traction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets ? 

 Every one knows what is meant and is implied by such 

 metaphorical expressions ; and they are almost necessary 



