PDF - Wallace Online

16 6 NATURAL SELECTION vn-*being " an end in itself," and with the statement of its beinggiven to natural objects " for its own sake."How New Forms are, produced byVariation and SelectionLet us now consider another of the popular objectionswhich the Duke of Argyllthus sets forth :"Mr. Darwin does not pretend to have discovered anylaw or rule, according to which new forms have been bornfrom old forms. He does not hold that outward conditions,however changed, are sufficient to account for them. . . . Histheory seems to be far better than a mere theory to be anestablished scientific truth in so far as it accounts, in part atleast, for the. success and establishment and spread of newforms when they have arisen. But it does not even suggest thelaw under which, or by or according to which, such new formsare introduced. Natural Selection can do nothing, exceptwith the materials presented to its hands. It cannot selectexcept among the things open to selection. . . . Strictlyspeaking, therefore, Mr. Darwin's theory is not a theory onthe Origin of Species at all, but only a theory on the causeswhich lead to the relative success or failure of such new formsas may be born into the world " (Reign of Law, p. 230).In this and many other passages in his work the Dukeof Argyll sets forth his idea of creation as a "creation bybirth," but maintains that each birth of a new form fromparents differing from itself has been produced by a specialinterference of the Creator, in order to direct the process ofdevelopment into certain channels that each new; species isin fact a " special creation," although brought into existencethrough the ordinary laws of reproduction. He maintains,therefore, that the laws of multiplication and variation cannotfurnish the right kinds of materials at the right times fornatural selection to work on. I believe, on the contrary,that it can be logically proved from the six axiomatic lawsbefore laid down, that such materials would be furnished ;butI prefer to show there are abundance of facts which demonstratethat they are furnished.The experience of all cultivators of plants and breeders ofanimals shows that, when a sufficient number of individualsare examined, variations of any required kind can always be