THE TRUE DARWINISM. 



8 



to build his arches, &c, with them ; but the insecurity of the walls would 

 be an obvious result, and unstable equilibrium would be the consequence. 

 So that, as soon as the weight of the first floor was sufficient, the whole 

 would come down with a crash like a house built of cards, and it would 

 perish in its " development." The unsuitable stones here stand for 

 Darwin's "injurious " individual variations, which thus involve the death 

 of the plant itself. If that be so, why need there be any struggle for 

 existence and natural selection at all ? The struggle may hasten the 

 death, but it would happen in any circumstances. Natural selection 

 really and only means that " some live, but more die." 



Darwinism, in point of fact, stands upon, or falls with, the one word 

 " injurious " being true or otherwise. Thus Weismann maintains : " The 

 minutest change in the least important organ may be enough to render 

 the species incapable of existence." * 



We have seen that variations of structure are produced through 

 the " direct action of changed conditions of life " ; and, according to the 

 theory, the result is a mixture of many individuals with injurious, 

 and a fewer number with (perchance) favourable, or adaptive variations. 

 This Darwin called "Indefinite Results." But he also observed that 

 " Definite Results " sometimes occurred ; by this he meant that all the 

 individuals of a batch of seedlings might vary alike in the same favourable 

 or adaptive manner, there being no injurious or inadaptive variations at 

 all. Hence, there would be no mixture for natural selection to deal with, 

 and all would survive, provided each individual could secure enough 

 nourishment and light ; but, as a matter of fact, the younger individuals 

 would be overshadowed by the older, &c. ; so that the many might perish 

 in the struggle, • though they would have thriven if there had been no 

 struggle at all. Such is what I have elsewhere described as the true 

 meaning and application of Natural Selection.^ 



It may be observed that those who accept Darwinism always speak of 

 adaptive characters, but regard them as due to natural selection. Thus, 

 Dr. D. H. Scott writes : " The word adaptive is used here simply for 

 characters newly developed under the influence of Natural Selection, as 

 distinguished from those which were so developed earlier in the history of 

 the race, and have been transmitted for many generations by inheritance. 

 Personally, I regard all characters alike as adaptive at their origin."? 

 The last sentence is undoubtedly correct, and is the true explanation of 

 all specific and generic characters ; but to attribute the "development " 

 of "adaptive characters " to the "influence " of natural selection is a mis- 

 interpretation of. facts. 



Darwin cautions his readers against supposing natural selection to have 

 any influence, agency, or powers of any kind. He says : " It implies only 

 the preservation of such variations as arise and are beneficial to the being 

 under its conditions of life." § "It may metaphorically be said that 

 natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, 

 the slightest variations ; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding 

 up all that are good." || Since, however, there never are any " injurious " 



* Essays, p. 265. f Journ. R. Hort. Soc. vol. xxxi. 



% Studies in Fossil Botany, p. 524, note. 



§ Origin, dtc, 6th ed., p. 63. || Ibid. p. 65. 



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