[page] 292

NEW EDITION OF DARWIN'S ''ORIGIN OF SPECIES.''

Some idea of the amount of interest experienced in regard to the view of Mr. Darwin upon the genesis of species may be gathered from the fact of the recent publication, by Murray, of the sixth edition of the work entitled "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection." Numerous corrections and additions have been made to the work as it was previously known; and with his usual candor, Mr. Darwin has made use of the numerous criticisms of his works that have appeared, and has allowed them to modify materially his opinions in certain directions. As might have been expected, much of the new matter is devoted to answering the objections of Mr. Mivart perhaps the most able of his antagonists. Mr. Bennett, in his notes on the work, thinks that each successive edition of the "Origin of Species" lessens the distance between Mr. Darwin and those who believe that the influence of natural selection, though a vera causa, have been overrated as an element in the evolution of species.

If it is admitted that important modifications are due to "spontaneous variability," that natural selection is not the exclusive means of modification, Darwinians and non-Darwinians have equally before them the problem to discover what these other laws are which are co-efficient in the production of new species, and what part each of these plays in producing the final result. –12 A, Feb. 22, 1872, 316.