roduce a new being. But
why one seedling out of thousands presents some new character transcends
the wildest powers of conjecture. It was in this sense that I spoke of
"climate," etc., possibly producing without selection a hooked seed,
or any not great variation. (135/5. This statement probably occurs in a
letter, and not in Darwin's published works.)

I have for years and years been fighting with myself not to attribute
too much to Natural Selection--to attribute something to direct action
of conditions; and perhaps I have too much conquered my tendency to lay
hardly any stress on conditions of life.

I am not shaken about "saltus" (135/6. Sir Joseph had written, March
17th, 1862: "Huxley is rather disposed to think you have overlooked
saltus, but I am not sure that he is right--saltus quoad individuals is
not saltus quoad species--as I pointed out in the Begonia case, though
perhaps that was rather special pleading in the present state of
science." For the Begonia case, see "Life and Letters," II., page
275, also letter 110, page 166.), I did not write without going pretty
carefully into all the cases of normal structure in animals resembling
monstrosities which appear per saltus.

LETTER 136. TO J.D. HOOKER. 26th [March, 1862].

Thanks also for your own (136/1. See note in Letter 135.) and Bates'
letter now returned. They are both excellent; you have, I think, said
all that can be said against direct effects of conditions, and capitally
put. But I still stick to my own and Bates' side. Nevertheless I am
pleased to attribute little to conditions, and I wish I had done what
you suggest--started on the fundamental principle of variation being
an innate principle, and afterwards made a few remarks showing that
hereafter, perhaps, this principle would be explicable. Whenever my
book on poultry, pigeons, ducks, and rabbits is published, with all the
measurements and weighings of bones, I think you will see that "use
and disuse" at least have some effect. I do not believe in perfect
reversion. I rather demur to your doctrine of "centrifugal variation."
(136/2. The "doctrine of centrifugal variation" is given in Sir J.D.
Hooker's "Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania" (Part III. of the
Botany of the Antarctic Expedition), 1859, page viii. In paragraph 10
the author writes: "The tendency of varieties, both in nature and under
cultivation...is rather to depart more and more widely from the original
type than to r