Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/40

 phases of character that constitute a human being. When people are isolated and brought under sufficiently new influences, a particular trait of their character is called into action, and a new type will result from some special trait becoming dominant. So a variety of species may be produced by selecting a constituent essential of the species and predominantly developing it. It is also possible, and to some it seems highly probable, that the ability to vary a species is in some cases greatly increased by the original creation of several or many varieties, which being proximate in kind, became mixed and blended in a common type. That common type, being composed of the elements that united in its formation, must still preserve all the primary tendencies in a kind of equilibrium that produced and preserves the common type. A slight disturbance of that balance by the reappearance of a component tendency with unusual strength, would cause some variation in color or form. Favoring this variation would eventually result in the reproduction of a component variety in its primeval appearance with more or less accuracy. If it be true that the ability to develop variety of species is partially due to the early blending of primary types, it is evident that there can be produced not only the primary types, but also as many