PROPERTY AND COMMON SENSE. 14; 



both aside in one or two short semi-contemptuous 

 sentences, and said no more about them — not, at least, 

 until late in life he wrote his " Erasmus Darwin," and 

 even then his remarks were purely biographical; he 

 did not say one syllable by way of refutation, or even 

 of explanation. 



I am free to confess that, overwhelming as is the 

 evidence brought forward by Mr. Spencer in the 

 articles already referred to, as showing that accidental 

 variations, unguided by the helm of any main general 

 principle which should as it were keep their heads 

 straight, could never accumulate with the results sup- 

 posed by Mr. Darwin ; and overwhelming, again, as is 

 the consideration that Mr. Spencer's most crushing 

 argument was allowed by Mr. Darwin to go without 

 reply, still the considerations arising from the dis- 

 coveries of the last forty years or so in connection 

 with protoplasm, seem to me almost more overwhelm- 

 ing still. This evidence proceeds on different lines 

 from that adduced by Mr. Spencer, but it points to 

 the same conclusion, namely, that though luck will 

 avail much if backed by cunning and experience, it is 

 unavailing for any permanent result without them. 

 There is an irony which seems almost always to attend 

 on those who maintain that protoplasm is the only 

 living substance which ere long points their conclusions 

 the opposite way to that which they desire — in the 

 very last direction, indeed, in which they of all people 

 in the world would willingly see them pointed. 



It may be asked why I should have so strong 

 an objection to seeing protoplasm as the only living 



K 



