where various kinds of superiority are manifested 
in a race, Natural Selection will not act—does not 
lead to the belief in a direct action of the medium, 
but in the assurance that such a state of things tends to 
establish a fixity of species, as already proved from con 
sidering what would take place in artificial breeding 
if the breeder were foolish enough to select first the fattest, 
then the swiftest, and then the strongest, and thus to 
imitate a process which must often, if not always, take 
place in nature. 
If it could be proved that there were only three factors 
of Organic Evolution, and that we knew all about them, 
the method of argument here applied could not be ac 
cepted. But if it should turn out that there were other 
factors, which had been overlooked, Mr. Spencer’s argu 
ment would be still less tenable ; and we may quote 
the author himself against the idea of finality in this 
respect:— 
“ Inattention and reluctant attention lead to the ignoring of facts 
which really exist in abundance, as is well illustrated in the case of 
pre-historic implements. Biassed by the current belief that no traces 
of man were to be found on the earth’s surface, save in certain 
superficial formations of very recent date, geologists and anthropolo 
gists not only neglected to seek such traces, but for a long time con 
tinued to pooh-pooh those who said they had found them. When 
M. Boucher de Perthes at length succeeded in drawing the eyes of 
scientific men to the flint implements discovered by him in the 
quarternary deposits of the Somme valley, and when geologists and 
anthropologists had thus been convinced that evidences of human 
existence were to be found in formations of considerable age, and 
thereafter began to search for them, they found plenty of them 
all over the world. Or, again, to take an instance closely germane to 
the matter, we may recall the fact that the contemptuous attitude 
towards the hypothesis of Organic Evolution which naturalists in 
general maintained before the publication of Mr. Darwin’s work, 
prevented them from seeing the multitudinous facts by which it is 
supported. Similarly, it is very possible that their alienation from 
the belief that there is a transmission of those changes of structure 
which are produced by changes of action, makes naturalists slight