The Evolution of Beauty . 
375 
1878.] 
upon it a special share of attention. Inherited “ tenden- 
cies ” are indeed admitted by modern evolutionists, but with 
a very vague conception of what it is which “ tends;” and 
generally the evolving organism is treated rather as a tabula 
rasa, on which surrounding conditions paint themselves in a 
cumulative manner, than as a centre of force to whose in- 
herent activity is largely due the character of the complex 
product. 
The existence of a “ vital force,” under some name or 
other, is not perhaps denied, but it is comparatively ignored ; 
the main arguments being expended in attempting to show 
that the variations of form, colour, ornament, and disposi- 
tion may be accounted for by the mere action of surrounding 
conditions ; that Education is everything, original Consti- 
tution of quite secondary importance. Yet the fact is surely 
evident that every organism has within itself a force which 
will expend its activity in a definite direction, and that its 
environment has only power to modify that line of activity 
within very narrow limits. 
An acorn cannot be made to grow into anything but an 
oak, with perhaps some small variation of form or colour ; 
and though it be granted that variations in the same direc- 
tion, impressed upon many successive generations, may 
effect large changes in the end, this is the result of guiding 
rather than of creating. It is the turning of the stream 
into a new channel, not the making of the river ; and the 
most important factor in the product is, after all, the current 
with its perpetual activity, rather than the physical condi- 
tions to which it partially submits. 
A recent article in the “ Quarterly Journal of Science,” 
on “ The Adtion of Light upon the Colouration of the 
Organic World,” presents a fair example of the manner in 
which this question is commonly treated. Impartiality and 
sound logic are not wanting, but the argument is invali- 
dated because it ignores one of the primary factors of the 
problem. 
To discuss the manner in which the surface-colouring of 
plants and animals is produced by insects or by light, with- 
out reference to the internal forces upon which these 
influences act, is like calculating the velocity of the hands 
of a watch upon the basis of the decreased temperature 
by which it is slightly accelerated, without taking account 
of the spring, or of the fact that the velocity will remain 
nearly the same whether the temperature be lowered or 
elevated. 
Is it not possible to get a more satisfactory view of 
