14 
NATURAL SELECTION INSUFFICIENT TO THE 
DEVELOPMENT OF MAN. 
By the Rev. GEORGE BUCKLE, M.A. 
I N a well-known passage towards the close of the “ Origin of 
Species,” Mr. Darwin supposes the question to be put to 
him, How far does your doctrine extend, and what amount of 
ground does it cover? The answer is perfectly frank and 
clear. Practically it covers the whole area of life. Every 
class, at least of animals and plants, must own a common 
ancestor, and probably these class-founders are themselves only 
brethren descended from some yet remoter stock. Of the 
former of these two positions he speaks confidently. “ I cannot 
doubt,” he says, “ that the theory of descent, with modification, 
embraces all the members of the same class. I believe that 
animals have descended from at most only four or five pro- 
genitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.” Of the 
latter he speaks with more reserve. “ Analogy would lead me 
one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and 
plants have descended from some one prototype. But analogy 
he adds, “may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless he sees 
sufficient reason to justify him in following its guidance in this 
instance, and finally sums up his opinion in the following 
remarkable words : 66 Therefore I should infer from analogy 
that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on 
this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into 
which life was first breathed.” 
The natural inference from these words would be that Mr. 
Darwin considered his theory of natural selection as sufficient 
to account for all the varieties of life on the face of the earth. 
But it is not a necessary inference. For he is speaking, in 
this passage, not precisely of the doctrine of natural selection, 
but of the doctrine of “ descent with modification ; ” and the 
two ideas are perfectly distinct. For it is quite possible that 
all living beings may be descended from a single primordial 
form, and yet that natural selection may not be the only 
