﻿286 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



apply to the origin of any other groups. And 

 I believe that an important accessory reason of the 

 continuance of this view for more than thirty years 

 after the publication of the Origin of Species by means 

 of Natural Selection, is to be found in the title of that 

 work. " Natural Selection " has thus become verbally 

 associated with " Origin of Species," till it is thought- 

 lessly felt that, in some way or another, natural selec- 

 tion must have a peculiar reference to those artificially 

 delineated forms which stand anywhere between 

 a fixed variety and a so-called genus. This verbal 

 association has no doubt had the effect of still further 

 preserving the traditional halo of mystery which clings 

 to the idea of a Si species." Hence it comes that the 

 title which Darwin chose — and, looking to the circum- 

 stances of the time, wisely chose — for his great work, 

 has subsequently had the effect of fostering the very 

 idea which it was the object of that work to dissipate, 

 namely, that species are peculiar entities, which differ 

 more or less in origin or kind from all other taxonomic 

 groups. The full title of this work is — The Origin of 

 Species by means of Natural Selection : or the Preserva- 

 tion of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Now, 

 supposing that instead of this its author had chosen 

 some such title as the following: — The Origin of 

 Organic Types by means of Adaptive Evolution : or 

 Survival of the Fittest Forms in the Struggle for Life. 

 Of course this would have been a bad substitute from 

 various points of view ; but could any objection have 

 been urged against it from our present point of view ? 

 I do not see that there could. Yet, if such had been 

 the title, I have little doubt that we should never have 

 heard of those great generalizations with regard to 



