llowing:--

"It cannot then be contested that the far-famed 'Origin of Species,'
that, namely, by 'Natural Selection,' has been repudiated in fact,
though not expressly even by its own author. This circumstance, which is
simply undeniable, might dispense us from any further consideration of
the hypothesis itself. But the "conspiracy of silence," which has
accompanied the repudiation tends to lead the unthinking many to suppose
that the same importance still attaches to it as at first. On this
account it may be well to ask the question, what, after all, _is_
'Natural Selection'?

"The answer may seem surprising to some, but it is none the less true,
that 'Natural Selection' is simply nothing. It is an apparently positive
name for a really negative effect, and is therefore an eminently
misleading term. By 'Natural Selection' is meant the result of all the
destructive agencies of Nature, destructive to individuals and to races
by destroying their lives or their powers of propagation. Evidently,
_the cause of the distinction of species_ (supposing such distinction to
be brought about in natural generation) _must be that which causes
variation, and variation in one determinate direction in at least
several individuals simultaneously_." I should like to have added here
the words "and during many successive generations," but they will go
very sufficiently without saying.

"At the same time," continues Professor Mivart, "it is freely conceded
that the destructive agencies in nature do succeed in preventing the
perpetuation of monstrous, abortive, and feeble attempts at the
performance of the evolutionary process, that they rapidly remove
antecedent forms when new ones are evolved more in harmony with
surrounding conditions, and that their action results in the formation
of new characters when these have once attained sufficient completeness
to be of real utility to their possessor.

"Continued reflection, and five years further pondering over the
problems of specific origin have more and more convinced me that the
conception, that the origin of all species 'man included' is due simply
to conditions which are (to use Mr. Darwin's own words) 'strictly
accidental,' is a conception utterly irrational."

. . . . . .

"With regard to the conception as now put forward by Mr. Darwin, I
cannot truly characterize it but by an epithet which I employ only with
much reluctance. I weigh my words and have present to my mind the ma