114 LVCK, OR CUNNING? 



potent factor of evolution, as well as the design tliat is 

 involved in the supposition that modification is, in the 

 main, functionally induced ? Again he writes, " As 

 regards the circumstances that give rise to variation, 

 the principal are climatic changes, different tempera- 

 tures of any of a creature's environments, differences of 

 abode, of habit, of the most frequent actions, and lastly 

 of the means of obtaining food, self-defence, reproduc- 

 tion," &c. * I will not dwell on the small incon- 

 sistencies which may be found in the passages quoted 

 above; the reader will doubtless see them, and wiU 

 also doubtless see that in spite of them there can be 

 no doubt that Lamarck, while believing modification to 

 be effected mainly by the survival in the struggle for 

 existence of modifications which had been induced 

 functionally, would not have hesitated to admit the 

 survival of favourable variations due to mere accident, 

 as also a potent factor in inducing the results we see 

 around us. 



For the rest, Mr. Spencer's articles have relieved 

 me from the necessity of going into the evidence 

 which proves that such structures as a giraffe's neck, 

 for example, cannot possibly have been produced by 

 the accumulation of variations which had their origin 

 mainly in accident. There is no occasion to add any- 

 thing to what Mr. Spencer has said on this score, and 

 I am satisfied that those who do not find his argument 

 convince them would not be convinced by anything 

 I might say ; I shall, therefore, omit what I had 

 written on this subject, and confine myself to giving 

 * Phil. Zool., vol. i. p. 237. 



