34^ DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



But if we reflect on monstrosities in nature, the parasites, 

 and the deep-sea animals (some of which have mouths 

 of extraordinary proportions, others have stomachs that 

 can take in a larger fish than the devourer, and others 

 have eyes on the end of long stalks), we must ascribe 

 to variations a faculty of indefinite advance. Natural 

 selection may produce the greatest monstrosities if they 

 are capable of life and are adapted to their environment. 

 Japanese breeders have even succeeded in creating cocks 

 with tail-feathers four yards long by artificial selection. 



We turn now to those writers who ascribe the 

 development of the organic world to a formative energy 

 that was present in living matter from the beginning. 

 This energy is supposed entirely of itself to impel 

 organisms to assume more and more advanced forms. 

 Living things would have the forms they exhibit to-day, 

 on the whole, even if they had been subject to quite 

 different influences, and if the geological changes of the 

 earth had been different. Natural selection, they say, 

 does not create species by adapting animals to new 

 conditions, but the animal forms were built up by the 

 internal force, without any influence from external 

 conditions. This was done by the species diverging 

 from each other in characteristics of no value in animal 

 life. 



We need not delay long with this theory, because we 

 know that the foundation of it is unsound. We have 

 seen that the species is first and foremost a collection 

 of adaptations. But adaptations cannot arise from some 

 independent formative energy working on its own 



