| → his products be, 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| be his results, 1869 1872 |
|
| → every variation, even 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| OMIT 1869 1872 |
|
| → rejecting that which is 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| variations; rejecting those that are 1869 1872 |
|
| ↑ 1 blocks not present in 1859 1860; present in 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| In order that any great amount of modification should thus in the course of time be produced, it is necessary to believe that when
a variety has
once arisen, it again varies, after perhaps
a long interval of time;
and that its varieties, if favourable, are
again preserved, and so onwards.
|
|
| → and the black-grouse that of peaty earth, 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| OMIT 1869 1872 |
|
|
How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man! how short his time! and consequently how poor will
→his products be,
compared with those accumulated by
during whole geological
Can we wonder, then, that
productions should be far "truer" in character than
productions; that they should be infinitely better adapted to the most complex conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher workmanship? |
|
| It may
said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world,
→every variation, even
the
→rejecting that which is
bad, preserving and adding up all that
good; silently and insensibly working,
at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and
conditions of life. We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the
lapse of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into
geological ages, that we
that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were. ↑
|
|
| Although natural selection can act only through and for the good of each being, yet characters and structures, which we are apt to consider as of very trifling importance, may thus be acted on. When we see leaf-eating insects green, and bark-feeders mottled-grey; the alpine ptarmigan white in winter, the red-grouse the colour of heather,
→and the black-grouse that of peaty earth,
we must believe that these tints are of service to these birds and insects in preserving them from danger. Grouse, if not destroyed at some period of their lives, would increase in countless numbers; they are known to suffer largely from birds of prey; and hawks are guided by eyesight to their
so much so, that on
|
