178 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



said one thing, and sometimes the directly opposite. 

 Sometimes, for example, the conditions of existence 

 " included natural selection " or the fact that the best 

 adapted to their surroundings live longest and leave 

 most offspring ; * sometimes " the principle of natural 

 selection " " fully embraced " " the expression of con- 

 ditions of existence." t It would not be easy to find 

 more unsatisfactoiy writing than this is, nor any more 

 clearly indicating a mind ill at ease with itself. 

 Sometimes " ants work iy inherited instincts and in- 

 herited tools ; " t sometimes, again, it is surprising 

 that the case of ants working by inherited iastincts 

 has not been brought as a demonstrative argument 

 " against the well-known doctrine of inherited habit, 

 as advanced by Lamarck." | Sometimes the wing- 

 lessness of beetles inhabiting ocean islands is " mainly 

 due to natural selection," || and though we might be 

 tempted to ascribe the rudimentary condition of the 

 wing to disuse, we are on no account to do so — though 

 disuse was probably to some extent " combined with " 

 natural selection ; at other times " it is probable that 

 disuse has been the main means of rendering the wings 

 of beetles living on small exposed islands" rudimentary.^ 

 "We may remark in passing that if disuse, as Mr. 

 Darwin admits on this occasion, is the main agent in 

 rendering an organ rudimentary, use should have been 

 the main agent in rendering it the opposite of rudi- 

 mentary — that is to say, in bringing about its 



* Origin of Species, ed. 6, p. 107. t Ibid., ed. 6, p. 166. 



J Ihid., ed. 6, p. 233. § Ibid. 



II Ibid., ed, 6, p. 109. IT Ihid., ed. 6, p. 401. 



