96 PROF. ERNEST W. MACE-RIDE, M.A., F.R.S., ON 



type of animal in the course of generations the type will slowly 

 change. If a species spreads over a wide range of country, 

 portions of it will probably experience different conditions, and 

 rather different types will survive in different places, and thus 

 slowly out of one species two new species will be produced. This 

 survival of different types was metaphorically styled by Darwin 

 a selection by Nature and was compared by him to the selection 

 of certain types for mating by the breeder ; and hence the term 

 Natural Selection. 



The part of the whole theory which creates most difficulties 

 for the theologian is this apparently ruthless waste of young life 

 —the " unfulfilled intention," as Thomas Hardy calls it,sopatent 

 in Nature, and yet whether or not Darwin is right in assuming 

 that by natural selection species are really modified or not, 

 nothing is more absolutely certain than that this waste goes on, 

 and it seems to me that this is the real difficulty to be faced and 

 grappled with in endeavouring to reconcile a religious view of 

 life with the laws of Nature as we know them. 



It is obvious that, unless there are inheritable differences 

 between members of the same species, natural selection can 

 do nothing, and it by no means follows that differences that we 

 can see are differences that can be inherited. A man may be 

 sickly or stunted owing to illness or want of care during his 

 infancy, and yet that man may become the father of a child 

 absolutely free from defect. Now, according to Darwin, inherit- 

 able differences are of two kinds, viz., small intensifications or 

 diminutions in the " points " of an animal requiring a trained eye 

 to detect and appreciate them, and great conspicuous differences 

 which are termed by the breeder " sports." A familiar instance 

 of a " sport " is the Irish yew, which has its branches turned up so 

 that they simulate a kind of urn. This yew, which is now to be 

 found scattered all over these islands, is known to have originated 

 from a sino-le tree found growing on a mountain in Ireland. 

 There is no doubt that some domestic breeds, as for instance 

 hornless cattle, have been produced by some breeders by the 

 preservation of such " sports," and the question arises whether 

 something analogous may not take place in Nature. Darwin 

 comes to the conclusion that sports have had little or nothing 

 to do in the building up of natural species, since to modify a 

 population the new type must turn up frequently if it is to 

 constitute a sufficient proportion of -the survivors to make its 

 influence felt. Thus, to take an instance quoted by Darwin, 

 suppose that it were advantageous to the crows to increase the 

 length of their beaks, this would be brought about not by the 



