THE FALLACIES OF NATURAL SELECTION. 15T 



to arise, " in the course of thousands of generations," 

 he explicitly disclaims any intention to maintain that 

 Natural Selection causes, or in any way produces their 

 appearance, and alleges that Natural Selection confines 

 its operation, solely to the preservation and accumula- 

 tion of those variations after they have arisen. But, 

 this disclaimer he employs, solely in relation to these 

 marked variations assumed to arise "in the course of 

 thousands of generations;" and it ever seems, to the 

 reader, not to apply to those very slight increments of 

 development, which Darwin intimates, as strongly as 

 he may, without explicit expression, to be the outcome 

 of the mere selection of "the strongest and most vig- 

 orous." The idea which, wittingly or unwittingly, has 

 been conveyed by Darwin, and which has caused 

 Natural Selection to be so widely reputed as a most 

 potent factor of development, is, that, although the 

 pronounced, tangible variations assumed to arise " in 

 the course of thousands of generations," are not, in any 

 way, produced by Natural Selection, but are merely 

 preserved and accumulated by that factor; yet that 

 Natural Selection does produce very slight, scarcely 

 appreciable increments of development, by means of 

 the survival exclusively of "the stronger and more 

 vigorous." Had Darwin's disclaimer, of any desire to 

 maintain that Natural Selection induced the appear- 

 ance of variations, been explicitly declared to cover 

 these slight advances in development (which every 

 one who reads Darwin's works, needs must conclude 

 that he meant to represent as having been produced 

 by the mere selection of "the stronger and more.vig- 

 14* 



