Darwin’s Variations 159 
survival of the fittest, but two, inasmuch as there are two 
classes of variations from which nature (supposing no ex- 
ception taken to her personification) can select. The 
bottles have the same labels, and they are of the same 
colour, but the one holds brandy, and the other toast and 
water. Nature can, by a figure of speech, be said to select 
from variations that are mainly functional or from varia- 
tions that are mainly accidental ; in the first case she will 
eventually get an accumulation of variation, and widely 
different types will come into existence ; in the second, the 
variations will not occur with sufficient steadiness for 
accumulation to be possible. In the body of Mr. Darwin’s 
book the variations are supposed to be mainly due to acci- 
dent, and function, though not denied all efficacy, is de- 
clared to be the greatly subordinate factor; natural 
selection, therefore, has been hitherto throughout tanta- 
mount to luck ; in the peroration the position is reversed 
in toto ; the selection is now made from variations into 
which luck has entered so little that it may be neglected, the 
greatly preponderating factor being function ; here, then, 
natural selection is tantamount to cunning. We are such 
slaves of words that, seeing the words “‘ natural selection”’ 
employed—and forgetting that the results ensuing on 
natural selection will depend entirely on what it is that 
is selected from, so that the gist of the matter lies in this 
and not in the words “ natural selection ’—it escaped us 
that a change of front had been made, and a conclusion 
entirely alien to the tenor of the whole book smuggled into 
the last paragraph as the one which it had been written to 
support ; the book preached luck, the peroration cunning. 
And there can be no doubt Mr. Darwin intended that the 
change of front should escape us ; for it cannot be believed 
that he did not perfectly well know what he had done. 
Mr. Darwin edited and re-edited with such minuteness of 
revision that it may be said no detail escaped him provided 
it was small enough ; it is incredible that he should have 
