82 Luck, or Cunning ? 
and “ Fortunate” ‘ Lucky ;”’ it is plain, therefore, that 
with Mr. Darwin natural selection comes to ‘‘ The Preserva- 
tion of Lucky. Races,’’ and that he regarded luck as the 
most important feature in connection with the development 
even of so apparently purposive an organ as the eye, and as 
the one, therefore, on which it was most proper to insist. 
And what is luck but absence of intention or design ? 
What, then, can Mr. Darwin’s title-page amount to when 
written out plainly, but to an assertion that the main means 
of modification has been the preservation of races whose 
variations have been unintentional, that is to say,. not 
connected with effort or intention, devoid of mind or 
meaning, fortuitous, spontaneous, accidental, or whatever 
kindred word is least disagreeable to the reader? It is 
impossible to conceive any more complete denial of mind as 
having had anything to do with organic development, than 
is involved in the title-page of the “ Origin of Species ” 
when its doubtless carefully considered words are studied 
—nor, let me add, is it possible to conceive a title-page 
more likely to make the reader’s attention rest much on 
the main doctrine of evolution, and little, to use the words 
now most in vogue concerning it, on Mr. Darwin's own 
“ distinctive feature.” 
It should be remembered that the full title of the ‘‘ Origin 
of Species’ is, ‘‘ On the origin of species by means of 
natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races 
in the struggle for life.” The significance of the expansion 
of the title escaped the greater number of Mr. Darwin’s 
readers. Perhaps it ought not to have done so, but we 
certainly failed to catch it. The very words themselves 
escaped us—and yet there they were all the time if we had 
only chosen to look. We thought the book was called 
“On the Origin of Species,” and so it was on the outside ; 
so it was also on the inside fly-leaf ; so it was on the title- 
page itself as long as the most prominent type was used ; 
the expanded title was only given once, and then in smaller 
