STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION AT ISSUE. 91 



can best regulate the physical energies to self-advan- 

 tage according to circumstances — in such immense 

 waste of primary and youthful life those only come 

 toward to maturity from the strict ordeal ly which 

 nature tests their adaptation to her standard of perfection 

 and fitness to continue their kind by reproduction." * A 

 little lower down Mr. Matthew speaks of animals under 

 domestication "not having undergone selection hy the 

 law of nature, of which we have spoken, and hence 

 being unable to maintain their ground without culture 

 and protection." 



The distinction between Darwinism and Neo- 

 Darwinism is generally believed to lie in the adoption 

 of a theory of natural selection by the younger 

 Darwin and its non-adoption by the elder. This is 

 true in so far as that the elder Darwin does not use 

 the words " natural selection," while the younger does, 

 but it is not true otherwise. Both writers agree that 

 offspring tends to inherit modifications that have been 

 effected from whatever cause, in parents ; both hold 

 that the best adapted to their surroundings live 

 longest and leave most offspring ; both, therefore, hold 

 that favourable modifications will tend to be preserved 

 and intensified in the course of many generations, 

 and that this leads to divergence of type ; but these 

 opinions involve a theory of natural selection or 

 quasi-selection, whether the words " natural selection " 

 are used or not; indeed it is impossible to include 

 wild species in any theory of descent with modifi- 



* On Naval Timber and Arboriculture, 1831, pp. 384, 385. See 

 also Evolution Old and New, pp. 320, 321. 



