Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - A History of Evolution (1922).djvu/53

 50 noted publisher of Paris, and was unceremoniously refused. The country which had praised Cuvier, and ridiculed Lamarck and St.-Hilaire was not going to receive willingly the contributions of an iconoclastic Englishman. We are not surprised to find Darwin depressed by the European reception of his theories, and writing to Huxley: "Do you know of any good and speculative foreigners to whom it would be worth while to send my book?"

But what was this "new" theory of evolution that so aroused the world? What were its characteristics, and how did if differ from the theories of Aristotle, Kant, Buffon, and Charles Darwin's own grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin?

The theory of evolution set forth in the "Origin of Species" contained three principal factors: (1) the constant variation of animals and plants, (2) the struggle for existence, and (3) the natural selection of those organisms which possess variations which are of value to them in their attempt to keep alive.

The idea of variation was based upon simple observation. Dr. Herbert Walter has said that "variation is the most constant thing in nature," and paradoxical as that may seem, it is nevertheless true. No man looks exactly like another man, no tree exactly like another tree, no shell exactly like another shell. The Japanese artists appreciate this variation, and make use of their knowledge in painting, which is one of the reasons why their art is not readily appreciated by the occidental who is much in-