Origin of Species Variorum

→ possessors, and may never have been of any use to their progenitors; but this does not prove that they were formed solely for beauty or variety. 1872

possessors. 1859 1860 1861 1866

possessors, and may never have been of any use to their progenitors. 1869

→ OMIT 1872

as recently remarked, 1869

→ and the various causes of modifications, lately specified, 1872

correlated variation, and reversion 1869

→ effect, probably a great effect, independently of any advantage thus gained. 1872

effects. 1869

→ a still more 1872

the most 1869

→ very close and direct 1872

direct 1869

↑ 3 blocks not present in 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860 1861 1866

Physical conditions probably have had some little effect on structure, quite independently of any good thus gained. Correlation of growth has no doubt played a most important part, and a useful modification of one part will often have entailed on other parts diversified changes of no direct use. So again characters which formerly were useful, or which formerly had arisen from correlation of growth, or from other unknown cause, may reappear from the law of reversion, though now of no direct use.

↑ 1 blocks not present in 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860 1861

The effects of sexual selection, when displayed in beauty to charm the females, can be called useful only in rather a forced sense.

→ fore-leg 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872

fore leg of 1859

→ webbed feet no doubt were as useful to 1872

to 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ OMIT 1872

webbed feet no doubt were as useful 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ were originally developed, on the principle of utility, probably through the reduction 1872

which have been inherited from a common progenitor, were formerly 1859 1860 1861 1866

which have been in- herited from some ancient progenitor, were formerly 1869

→ numerous bones in the fin of some ancient fish-like progenitor of the whole class. 1872

special use to that progenitor, or its progenitors, than they now are to these animals having such widely diversified habits. 1859 1860 1861 1866

special use than they now are to these animals with their widely diversified habits, and might consequently have been modified through natural selection. 1869

→ is 1872

may safely be accepted as true, and as 1866 1869

→ OMIT 1872

of any particular object 1866

of any object 1869

→ of what is beautiful, is not innate or unalterable. 1872

is not an innate and unalterable element in the mind. 1866 1869

→ for instance, in the 1872

in 1866 1869

This

Such

doctrine,

doctrines,

if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory.

Yet

....

I fully admit that many structures are

now of

no direct use to their →possessors, and may never have been of any use to their progenitors; but this does not prove that they were formed solely for beauty or variety. No

doubt,

doubt

→OMIT the definite action of changed conditions, →and the various causes of modifications, lately specified, have all produced

their

→effect, probably a great effect, independently of any advantage thus gained. But →a still more important consideration is that the chief part of the organisation of every living creature is

simply

....

due to inheritance; and consequently, though each

assuredly

being assuredly

is well fitted for its place in nature, many structures

now have

have now

no →very close and direct relation to

existing

present

habits of life. ↑ ↑ Thus, we can hardly believe that the webbed feet of the upland goose or of the frigate-bird are of special use to these birds; we cannot believe that the

same

similar

bones in the arm of the monkey, in the →fore-leg

the

of the

horse, in the wing of the bat, and in the flipper of the seal, are of special use to these animals. We may safely attribute these structures to inheritance. But →webbed feet no doubt were as useful to the progenitor of the upland goose and of the frigate-bird, →OMIT as they now are to the most aquatic of

existing

living

birds. So we may believe that the progenitor of the seal

had

did

not

possess a

flipper, but a foot with five toes fitted for walking or grasping; and we may further venture to believe that the several bones in the limbs of the monkey, horse, and bat, →were originally developed, on the principle of utility, probably through the reduction of more →numerous bones in the fin of some ancient fish-like progenitor of the whole class. It is scarcely possible to decide how much allowance ought to be made for such causes of change, as the definite action of external conditions, so-called spontaneous variations, and the complex laws of growth; but with these important exceptions, we may conclude that the structure of every living creature either now is, or was formerly, of some direct or indirect use to its possessor.

With respect to the

view

belief

that organic beings have been created beautiful for the delight of

man,—a

man,—

view

a belief

which it has

lately

....

been pronounced →is subversive of my whole