Vv. VARIETIES, ETC. 53 
and varieties, but otherwise also on the very foundations of phyto- 
geography, phyto-geology, and other departments of botanical 
science, so soon as we rise above the a b ¢ of descriptive botany. 
First, the selection theory cannot be accepted as a true causal 
theory of variation in plants and animals. The variations must 
have already come into existence, before “ natural selection” could 
begin at all. It thus fails to explain the mutation of species into 
species, if such mutation does actually occur. It assumes that 
new species are (and have been) coming into existence very 
gradually, and as gradually are gaining the places of other ceasing 
species which are ousted by them. On this yet unsubstantiated 
‘assumption, the theory very plausibly explains how existing 
species might be lost or extinguished, and how the new species 
might become substituted for them. It tells us that when 
variations a b ¢ d ete. have successively accumulated or combined 
in the descendants of a given species, those descendants will have 
become so unlike their remote ancestor, as properly to be accepted 
in our systems of classification as a new and distinct species. But 
this brings us no nearer towards a real answer to the question, 
how variation a or b or ¢ or d can have arisen. 
Unfortunately, Mr. Darwin has not kept his phraseology clear 
from the vulgar error of attempting to exp’ain natural events by 
fitting them to the human standard of thought and language, 
instead of fitting that very plastic standard to the natural events 
observed. Selection is a human act, an act of will and effort, and 
the prefixed Natural fails to change the fundamental idea of 
intentional choice,—choice for a purpose or with a motive. Apart 
from Mr. Darwin's unlucky phraseology, and the false bias given 
by it to the thoughts of his followers, the true question is, ‘Are 
new species developed from older species, by accumulated varia- 
tions, which better adapt them to changing external conditions ?’ 
But in answering this question of fact, we still fail to reach the 
causal origin of the variations. Indeed, it would scarcely be wrong 
to assert, that the very title itself of Mr. Darwin's admirable 
volume is a misnomer,—false in phrase, unsound in idea. Natural 
Selection cannot properly be said to originate either varieties or 
