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which Mr. Reddie fathers on me— yet to which I gave in reality neither birth, 
house, or lodging— that the new species are always progressing upwards. I 
do not believe it. The variations may as likely be downwards, or side- 
ways ; Darwin repeatedly repudiates the idea of there being any necessary 
tendency to pass upwards from a lower to a higher species. Now as to the 
later speakers. The principal point to be noticed in Captain Fishbourne’s 
speech is his total misunderstanding of what is meant by natural selection. 
Let me read what Darwin has said in explanation of this much-abused term : 
« Others have objected that the term selection implies conscious choice in 
the animals which become modified ; and it has even been urged that, as 
plants have no volition, natural selection is not applicable to them ! In the 
literal sense of the word, no doubt, natural selection is a misnomer ; but 
whoever objected to chemists speaking of the elective affinities of the various 
elements ? And yet an acid cannot strictly be said to elect the base with 
which it will in preference combine. It has been said that I speak of natural 
selection as an active power or Deity ; but who objects to an author speaking 
of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets ? Every 
one knows what is meant and is implied by such metaphorical expressions, 
and they are almost necessary for brevity. So, again, it is difficult to avoid 
personifying the word Nature ; but I mean by Nature only the aggregate 
action and product of many natural laws, and by laws the sequence of events 
as ascertained by us.”-(P. 91-2.) Now, I think in the face of this it behoves 
every one who wishes to speak of natural selection to understand what it 
means — 
Captain Fishbourne. — But the quotation goes on, “ Further, we must 
suppose that there is a power (natural selection) always intently watching 
each slight accidental alteration with the transparent layers, and carefully 
selecting each alteration which, under various circumstances, may m any 
degree tend to produce a distincter image. We must suppose each new 
state of the instrument to be multiplied by the million, and each to be 
preserved till a better be produced, and then the old ones destroyed. n 
living bodies, variation will cause the slightest alterations, generation will 
multiply them almost infinitely, and natural selection will pick out with 
renewing skill each improvement.” 
Mr Warington. — That occurs after the passage I have read. Surely you 
are bound to interpret one by the other. I will read another, page 95: 
« It may metaphorically be said that natural selection is daily and hour y 
scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest— 
rejecting that which is had, preserving and adding up all that is good. 
Darwin says distinctly that when he speaks thus he speaks metaphorically, 
not literally. The remarks of Mr. Manners I pass over, because to enter 
fully into the interpretation of the account of creation in Genesis would take 
quite another evening. Perhaps some day I may go into it. Then as to 
Dr. Thornton’s objection, that there is no real struggle for existence because 
all forms have existence : so they have, but yet we commonly speak of a person 
“ struggling for existence,” certainly not in the sense of struggling to come 
