162 NATURAL SELECTION VII 
ment is, however, more plausible. The uncertainty of opinion 
among naturalists as to which are species and which varieties, 
is one of Mr. Darwin’s very strong arguments that these two 
names cannot belong to things quite distinct in nature and 
origin. The reviewer says that this argument is of no weight, 
because the works of man present exactly the same phenomena ; 
and he instances patent inventions, and the excessive difficulty 
of determining whether they are new or old. I accept the 
analogy, though it is a very imperfect one, and maintain that, 
such as it is, it is all in favour of Mr. Darwin’s views. For 
are not all inventions of the same kind directly affiliated to a 
common ancestor? Are not improved steam-engines or clocks 
the lineal descendants of some existing steam-engine or clock ? 
Is there ever a new creation in art or science any more than 
in nature? Did ever patentee absolutely originate any 
complete and entire invention, no portion of which was 
derived from anything that had been made or described 
before? It is therefore clear that the difficulty of distin- 
guishing the various classes of inventions which claim to be 
new, is of the same nature as the difficulty of distinguish- 
ing varieties and species, because neither are absolutely new 
creations, but both are alike descendants of pre-existing forms, 
from which and from each other they differ by varying and 
often imperceptible degrees. It appears, then, that however 
plausible this writer’s objections may seem, whenever he 
descends from generalities to any specific statement, his 
supposed difficulties turn out to be in reality strongly con- 
firmatory of Mr. Darwin’s view. 
The Times on Natural Selection 
The extraordinary misconception of the whole subject by 
popular writers and reviewers is well shown by an article 
which appeared in the Times newspaper on “The Reign of 
Law.” Alluding to the supposed economy of nature, in the 
adaptation of each species to its own place and its special use, 
the reviewer remarks: “To this universal law of the greatest 
economy, the law of natural selection stands in direct 
antagonism as the law of ‘greatest possible waste’ of time 
and of creative power. To conceive a duck with webbed feet 
and a spoon-shaped bill, living by suction, to pass naturally 
