the types which it had been
best to retain--the reason in all cases being the fitness to correspond
effectively to the conditions prescribed by environment.

It is important to remember that Darwin never claimed that his doctrine
of evolution could account for the occurrence of variations. That it
could do so he expressly denied. "Some," he said, in his great work,
_The Origin of Species_ (1859) "have, even imagined that natural
selection induces variability, whereas it implies only the preservation
of such variations as arise.... Unless such occur, natural selection
can do nothing." What he saw, and proved by an amazing wealth of
illustrative facts, was that any variation in structure or character
which gave to an organism ever so slight an advantage might determine
whether or not it would survive amid the fierce competition around it,
and whether {26} it would obtain a mate and produce offspring. He
shewed that all innate variations (which are to be distinguished from
the acquired characteristics upon the inheritance of which Lamarck had
depended) tend to be transmitted, so that in this manner a favourable
variation might be perpetuated, and in time a new species be developed.

Simple as this account of the matter sounds when once it has been
clearly stated, the discovery--for such it was--opened an entirely new
chapter in the history of science, inasmuch as it completely
revolutionised the conceptions which had previously been entertained
with regard to the relationships and the progress of all living things.

It was Darwinism, accordingly, that provided the principal subject of
the controversy which was waged between the upholders and the
assailants of the older opinions during the latter half of the
nineteenth century.

[1] The actual phrase "Survival of the fittest" was Herbert Spencer's.
Darwin had spoken of "The preservation of favoured races."

{27}

CHAPTER III

THEOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES

We shall not exaggerate if we say that the chief interest aroused by
these discoveries was a theological interest. Of course the men of
science were keenly concerned to understand the new facts and the new
interpretations, and among them there were divided camps and serious
contentions. Sir Richard Owen, for instance, was a vigorous opponent
of Darwin's views. But we cannot think it surprising that the men of
religion should feel that their positions were not only being attacked,
but undermined; an