Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . wlieu tliey agreenpon any subject; and now tliero is almost complete unanimity amongstbiologists aljout evolution, tbough tlicre is still cunsiderable difference as totile nuans, sucli as how far natural selection has acted, and how far , or whether there exists some mysterious innate tendency toperfcotil)ility. Upon tlie (picstion how far external conditions have hada direct ]iart in caus
Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . wlieu tliey agreenpon any subject; and now tliero is almost complete unanimity amongstbiologists aljout evolution, tbough tlicre is still cunsiderable difference as totile nuans, sucli as how far natural selection has acted, and how far , or whether there exists some mysterious innate tendency toperfcotil)ility. Upon tlie (picstion how far external conditions have hada direct ]iart in causing the trausnmtation of species, Darwinsown opinion Huctuated. So also as to the causes of evolution BIOLOGY. 437 1865) assigned by Lamarck, viz. inheritance of the effects of the useand disuse of organs. He never came to hold, as Mr. Wallacedoes, that practically the sole cause of evolution onbiological grounds is natural selection. The mysterious innatetendency to perfectibility spoken of above, however, he entirelyrejected ; exactly as he rejected the tendency lie had been atfirst inclined to assume, for each species to rcacii a term of its Environ-ment SIR ) OWEX, BY H. W. IICKJiRSGILL, \. (Xatioual PorlraU Gallcnj.) life as the individual does. Species, he came to hold, haveneither a natural term of their life nor a natural tendency toimprove, but simply an indefinite variability. Thus the factthat species may remain long stationary or may degenerate is noditticulty on the Darwinian, as it is on the Lamarckian, theoryof evolution. Darwin himself made this reply against objectorswho pointed to facts of a similar kind in the case of humancivilisations. As Spencer puts it, survival of the fittest isnot always survival of the best. Still, on the whole and in thelong run, according to both Darwin and Spencer, the successful 438 THE RULE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. 11846 Darwins Later Works. Gal ton. forms of organic life and the successful types of
Size: 1391px × 1797px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1901
