DARWIN'S VARIATIONS. 179 



"development. The ostensible raison d'Stre, however, 

 of the " Origin of Species " is to maintain that this 

 is not the case. 



There is hardly an opinion on the subject of descent 

 with modification which does not find support in some 

 one passage or another of the " Origin of Species." 

 If it were desired to show that there is no substantial 

 difference between the doctrine of Erasmus Darwin and 

 that of his grandson, it would be easy to make out 

 a good case for this, in spite of Mr. Darwin's calling 

 his grandfather's views " erroneous," in the historical 

 sketch prefixed to the later editions of the " Origin of 

 Species." Passing over the passage already quoted 

 on p. 62 of this book, in which Mr. Darwin declares 

 " habit omnipotent and its effects hereditary " — a sen- 

 tence, by the way, than which none can be either 

 more unfalteringly Lamarckian or less tainted with the 

 vices of Mr. Darwin's later style — passing this over 

 as having been written some twenty years before 

 the " Origin of Species " — the last paragraph of the 

 " Origin of Species" itself is purely Lamarckian and 

 Erasmus-Darwinian. It declares the laws in accordance 

 with which organic forms assumed their present shape 

 to be — " Growth with reproduction ; Variability from 

 the indirect and direct action of the external conditions 

 of life and from use and disuse, &c." ''' Wherein does 

 this differ from the confession of faith made by 

 Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck ? Where are the 

 accidental fortuitous, spontaneous variations now ? 

 And if they are not found important enough to demand 

 * Origin of Species, ed. i, p. 490. 



