evelop evolution-theory was to discover the good in
everything, a task which, in the complete absence of any control or test
whereby to check the truth of the discovery, is not very onerous. The
doctrine "que tout est au mieux" was therefore preached with fresh
vigour, and examples of that illuminating principle were discovered with
a facility that Pangloss himself might have envied, till at last even
the spectators wearied of such dazzling performances.

But in all seriousness, why should indefinite and unlimited variation
have been regarded as a more probable account of the origin of
Adaptation? Only, I think, because the obstacle was shifted one plane
back, and so looked rather less prominent. The abundance of Adaptation,
we all grant, is an immense, almost an unsurpassable difficulty in
all non-Lamarckian views of Evolution; but if the steps by which
that adaptation arose were fortuitous, to imagine them insensible is
assuredly no help. In one most important respect indeed, as has often
been observed, it is a multiplication of troubles. For the smaller
the steps, the less could Natural Selection act upon them. Definite
variations--and of the occurrence of definite variations in abundance we
have now the most convincing proof--have at least the obvious merit
that they can make and often do make a real difference in the chances of
life.

There is another aspect of the Adaptation problem to which I can only
allude very briefly. May not our present ideas of the universality and
precision of Adaptation be greatly exaggerated? The fit of organism to
its environment is not after all so very close--a proposition unwelcome
perhaps, but one which could be illustrated by very copious evidence.
Natural Selection is stern, but she has her tolerant moods.

We have now most certain and irrefragable proof that much definiteness
exists in living things apart from Selection, and also much that
may very well have been preserved and so in a sense constituted by
Selection. Here the matter is likely to rest. There is a passage in the
sixth edition of the "Origin" which has I think been overlooked. On page
70 Darwin says "The tuft of hair on the breast of the wild turkey-cock
cannot be of any use, and it is doubtful whether it can be ornamental in
the eyes of the female bird." This tuft of hair is a most definite and
unusual structure, and I am afraid that the remark that it "cannot be
of any use" may have been made inadvertently; but i