5i8 
. . . Now, it is just in such cases that the supplementary or 
Lamarckian principles are supposed by Darwinists to come in ; for, 
to the operation of these principles, it is not necessary that at each 
stage of the process every slight improvement should be a matter of 
life and death to the organisms presenting it. To me, it appears 
that we have here a consideration of the highest importance.”— 
(Romanes. Contemporary Review, voi. Ivi., pp. 254.-255.) 
In contradiction to the assertion that the Natural Selec 
tion of useful variations is always, or at intervals, necessary 
to the evolution of nascent organs, Mr. Darwin assumes that 
organs may be fully developed, though useless, without 
the aid of Natural Selection, and afterwards preserved by 
Natural Selection or through being utilised by their for 
tunate possessors. 
“We may easily err in attributing importance to characters and in 
believing that they have been developed through Natural Selection. 
We must by no means overlook the effects of the definite action of 
changed conditions of life—of so-called spontaneous variations which 
seem to depend in a quite subordinate degree on the nature of the 
conditions ; of the tendency to reversion to long-lost characters ; 
of the complex laws of growth, such as of correlation, of compen 
sation, of the pressure of one part on another. . . . But structures 
thus indirectly gained, although at first of no advantage to a species, 
may subsequently have been taken advantage of by its modified 
descendants under new conditions of life and newly acquired habits.” 
—(Origin of Species, pp. 15y-8.) 
But these qualifications are not easy to understand. 
Why should the action of Natural Selection be inter 
mittent, so that slight modifications should be a matter 
of life and death at one time, and further slight modi 
fications. on the same line of progressive change be 
of no use at another time? If moreover an organ can 
be developed without Natural Selection—as Mr. Darwin 
seems to teach in the passage just quoted—why in 
voke the aid of Natural Selection to supplement the 
process? It must be confessed that Natural Selection 
comes rather late upon the scene, to say the least. More