2S4 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



thinkable ; and that we have no alternative, therefore, 

 but to accept the second." 



I like our looking a " way " which is " practically 

 unthinkable " " clearly in the face." I particularly 

 like " practically unthinkable." I suppose we can think 

 it in theory, but not in practice. I like almost every- 

 thing Mr. Allen says or does ; it is not necessary to 

 go far in search of his good things ; dredge up any 

 bit of mud from him at random and we are pretty sure 

 to find an oyster with a pearl in it, if we look it 

 clearly in the face ; I mean, there is sure to be some- 

 thing whieh wUl be at any rate " almost " practically 

 unthinkable. But however this may be, when Mr. 

 Allen wrote his article in " Mind " two years ago, he 

 was in substantial agreement with myself about the 

 value of natural selection as a means of modification 

 — by natural selection I mean, of course, the commonly 

 known Charles-Darwinian natural selection from for- 

 tuitous variations; now, however, in 1885, he is aU 

 for this same natural selection again, and in the preface 

 to his " Charles Darwin " writes (after a handsome 

 acknowledgment of " Evolution Old and New ") that 

 he " differs from " me " fundamentally in " my " estimate 

 of the worth of Charles Darwin's distinctive discovery 

 of natural selection." 



This he certainly does, for on page 8 1 of the work 

 itself he speaks of " the distinctive notion of natural 

 selection " as having, " bke all true and fruitful ideas, 

 more than once flashed," &c. I have explained v^qive 

 ad nauseam, and will henceforth explain no longer, that 

 natural selection is no " distinctive notion " of Mr. 



