2 J. T. On lick — Inconsistencies of Utilitarianism. 



the theory of natural selection, but it fairly represents that 

 phase of biological theory which considers diversity of natural 

 selection through exposure to different environments the only 

 cause of divergence. The following passage will show the 

 exclusive nature of his theory : "A great body of facts on the 

 one hand, and some weighty arguments on the other, alike 

 prove that specific characters have been, and could only have 

 been, developed and fixed by natural selection because of their 

 utility. We may admit that among the great number of vari- 

 ations and sports which continually arise many are altogether 

 useless without being hurtful ; but no cause or influence has 

 been adduced adequate to render such characters fixed and 

 constant throughout the vast number of individuals which con- 

 stitute any of the more dominant species." — Darwinism, p. 142. 

 This is in strong contrast with the following passage from the 

 close of the Introduction of the sixth edition of the "Origin 

 of Species," which is the last one that received the revision of 

 the author : " I am fully convinced that species are not immu- 

 table, but those belonging to what are called the same genera 

 are lineal descendants of some other and generally extinct 

 species, in the same manner as the acknowledged varieties of 

 any one species are the descendants of that species. Further- 

 more, I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the 

 most important, but not the exclusive, means of modification." 

 On page 421 of the same edition, Darwin calls attention to the 

 fact that this passage has u been placed in a most conspicuous 

 position " in the different editions of his work, and complains 

 of the writers who misrepresent his conclusions on this point. 



Facts that are Neglected or Denied. 



Though Darwin maintains that besides the inherited effects of 

 use and disuse and the direct action of the external conditions 

 there are other forms of variation leading to permanent modi- 

 fications of structure independently of natural selection 

 {Origin of Species, 6th London ed., p. 421), he does not 

 attempt to explain how these divergences arise. Neither Dar- 

 win nor Wallace appears to have observed, that, as in domesti- 

 cation, the isolated breeding of other, than average forms, 

 in whatever way it is secured, is the one necessary, and always 

 effective, cause of divergence, so, in nature, wherever there 

 arises the isolated breeding of other than average forms, 

 there divergence will be produced ; or that, as exposure to 

 different environments is only one of the causes that lead iso- 

 lated bands of men to desire and select different types of vari- 

 ation in the same species of animal, so exposure of wild spe- 

 cies to different environments is only one of several classes of 



