Chapter 21
MR. DARWIN'S DEFENCE OF THE EXPRESSION, NATURAL SELECTION--PROFESSOR MIVART AND NATURAL SELECTION. So important is it that we should come to a clear understanding upon the positions taken by Mr. Darwin and Lamarck respectively, that at the risk of wearying the reader I will endeavour to exhaust this subject here. In order to do so, I will follow Mr. Darwin's answer to those who have objected to the expression, "natural selection." Mr. Darwin says:-- "Several writers have misapprehended or objected to the term 'natural selection.' Some have even imagined that natural selection induces variability."[365] And small wonder if they have; but those who have fallen into this error are hardly worth considering. The true complaint is that Mr. Darwin has too often written of "natural selection"
- Writer
