156 NATURAL SELECTION VII 
being “an end in itself,” and with the statement of its being 
given to natural objects “for its own sake.” 
How New Forms are produced by Variation and Selection 
Let us now consider another of the popular objections 
which the Duke of Argyll thus sets forth :— 
“Mr. Darwin does not pretend to have discovered any 
law or rule, according to which new forms have been born 
from old forms. He does not hold that outward conditions, 
however changed, are sufficient to account for them. . . . His 
theory seems to be far better than a mere theory—to be an 
established scientific truth—in so far as it accounts, in part at 
least, for the success and establishment and spread of new 
forms when they have arisen. But it does not even suggest the 
law under which, or by or according to which, such new forms 
are introduced. Natural Selection can do nothing, except 
with the materials presented to its hands. It cannot select 
except among the things open to selection. . . . Strictly 
speaking, therefore, Mr. Darwin’s theory is not a theory on 
the Origin of Species at all, but only a theory on the causes 
which lead to the relative success or failure of such new forms 
as may be born into the world” (Reign of Law, p. 230). 
In this and many other passages in his work the Duke 
of Argyll sets forth his idea of creation as a “creation by 
birth,” but maintains that each birth of a new form from 
parents differing from itself has been produced by a special 
interference of the Creator, in order to direct the process of 
development into certain channels; that each new species is 
in fact a “special creation,” although brought into existence 
through the ordinary laws of reproduction. He maintains, 
therefore, that the laws of multiplication and variation cannot 
furnish the right kinds of materials at the right times for 
natural selection to work on. I believe, on the contrary, 
that it can be logically proved from the six axiomatic laws 
before laid down, that such materials would be furnished ; but 
I prefer to show there are abundance of facts which demon- 
strate that they are furnished. 
The experience of all cultivators of plants and breeders of 
animals shows that, when a sufficient number of individuals 
are examined, variations of any required kind can always be 
