strongly as I could in the "Origin,"
declaring that Natural Selection can do nothing without previous
variability; and I have tried to put equally strongly that variability
is governed by many laws, mostly quite unknown. My title deceives
people, and I wish I had made it rather different. Your phyllotaxis
(143/3. Falconer, page 80: "The law of Phyllotaxis...is nearly as
constant in its manifestation as any of the physical laws connected with
the material world.") will serve as example, for I quite agree that the
spiral arrangement of a certain number of whorls of leaves (however that
may have primordially arisen, and whether quite as invariable as you
state), governs the limits of variability, and therefore governs what
Natural Selection can do. Let me explain how it arose that I laid so
much stress on Natural Selection, and I still think justly. I came to
think from geographical distribution, etc., etc., that species probably
change; but for years I was stopped dead by my utter incapability of
seeing how every part of each creature (a woodpecker or swallow, for
instance) had become adapted to its conditions of life. This seemed
to me, and does still seem, the problem to solve; and I think Natural
Selection solves it, as artificial selection solves the adaptation of
domestic races for man's use. But I suspect that you mean something
further,--that there is some unknown law of evolution by which species
necessarily change; and if this be so, I cannot agree. This, however,
is too large a question even for so unreasonably long a letter as
this. Nevertheless, just to explain by mere valueless conjectures how I
imagine the teeth of your elephants change, I should look at the change
as indirectly resulting from changes in the form of the jaws, or from
the development of tusks, or in the case of the primigenius even from
correlation with the woolly covering; in all cases Natural Selection
checking the variation. If, indeed, an elephant would succeed better by
feeding on some new kinds of food, then any variation of any kind in the
teeth which favoured their grinding power would be preserved. Now, I can
fancy you holding up your hands and crying out what bosh! To return
to your concluding sentence: far from being surprised, I look at it
as absolutely certain that very much in the "Origin" will be proved
rubbish; but I expect and hope that the framework will stand. (143/4.
Falconer, page 80: "He [Darwin] has laid the foundations o