of, which otherwise would scarcely be continued
for many generations, except by the favourably-varying branches of a
family: which again is selection rather than use-inheritance.

Where is the necessity for even the remains of the Lamarckian doctrine
of inherited habit? Seeing how powerful the general principle of
selection has shown itself in cases where use-inheritance could have
given no aid or must even have offered its most strenuous opposition,
why should it not equally be able to develop used organs or repress
disused organs or faculties without the assistance of a relatively weak
ally? Selection evolved the remarkable protective coverings of the
armadillo, turtle, crocodile, porcupine, hedgehog, &c.; it formed alike
the rose and its thorn, the nut and its shell; it developed the
peacock's tail and the deer's antlers, the protective mimicry of various
insects and butterflies, and the wonderful instincts of the white ants;
it gave the serpent its deadly poison and the violet its grateful odour;
it painted the gorgeous plumage of the Impeyan pheasant and the
beautiful colours and decorations of countless birds and insects and
flowers. These, and a thousand other achievements, it has evidently
accomplished without the help of use-inheritance. Why should it be
thought incapable of reducing a pigeon's wing or enlarging a duck's
leg? Why should it be credited with the help of an officious ally in
effecting comparatively slight changes, when great and striking
modifications are effected without any such aid?

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Weismann's _Essays on Heredity_, &c. Clarendon Press, 1889.

[16] _Life and Letters_, i. p. 16. Darwin's reverence for his father
"was boundless and most touching. He would have wished to judge
everything else in the world dispassionately, but anything his father
had said was received with almost implicit faith; ... he hoped none of
his sons would ever believe anything because he said it, unless they
were themselves convinced of its truth--a feeling in striking contrast
with his own manner of faith" (_Life and Letters_, i. pp. 10, 11).

[17] _Ibid._, i. p. 38.

[18] _Life and Letters_, ii. p. 14.

[19] _Origin of Species_, pp. 117, 118.

[20] _Ibid._, p. 180.

[21] _Contemporary Review_, December, 1875, pp. 89, 93.

[22] _Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication_, i. 292.

[23] _Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication_, i. 299-301.

[24] To keep pace with this