THE FALLACIES OF NATURAL SELECTION. 161 



tions," may develop another such variation ; and, that, 

 by the indefinitely continued accumulation of such 

 variations, these individuals may develop into organ- 

 isms as high as any in the scale of development. 



Respecting his assumption, of the variations occur- 

 ring " in the course of thousands of generations," he 

 says: 



" Can it be thought improbable {sic) seeing that va- 

 riations useful to Man have undoubtedly occurred, 

 that other variations useful, in some way, to each 

 being, in the great and complex battle for life, should 

 sometimes occur in the course of thousands (sic) of 

 generations? If such variations do occur (sic) can 

 we doubt (remembering that many more individuals' 

 are born than can possibly survive), that individuals 

 having an advantage, however slight, over others, 

 would have the best chance of surviving and procre- 

 ating their kind ? " 



Now, this is honest, frank, and ingenuous. He does 

 not here, — as he does when treating of the survival of 

 the merely " stronger and more vigorous " — endeavor to 

 prove, by fallacious argument, that there are advances 

 in development. But, he assumes that there are such 

 advances in development; — the only appearance of an 

 argument, in this connection, being his appeal to the 

 circumstance that it cannot be alleged that the proba- 

 bilities are against his assumption, inasmuch as such 

 things occur under domestication. The probabilities, 

 however, do obtain, against his argument ; for, the con- 

 ditions of life are different, being favorable to develop- 

 ment in the one place, and unfavorable in the other. 

 Having assumed these variations, he then proceeds 



