The expression of conditions of existence, so often insisted on by the illustrious Cuvier, is fully embraced by the principle of natural selection.

For natural selection acts by either now adapting the varying parts of each being to its organic and inorganic conditions of life; or by having adapted them during past periods of time: the adaptations being aided in many cases by the increased use or disuse of parts, being affected by the direct action of external conditions of life, and subjected in all cases to the several laws of growth and variation.

Hence, in fact, the law of the Conditions of Existence is the higher law; as it includes, through the inheritance of former variations and adaptations, that of Unity of Type.

Longevity -- Modifications not necessarily simultaneous -- Modifications apparently of no direct service -- Progressive development -- Characters of small functional importance, the most constant -- Supposed incompetence of natural selection to account for the incipient stages of useful structures -- Causes which interfere with the acquisition through natural selection of useful structures -- Gradations of structure with changed functions -- Widely different organs in members of the same class, developed from one and the same source -- Reasons for disbelieving in great and abrupt modifications.

I will devote this chapter to the consideration of various miscellaneous objections which have been advanced against my views, as some of the previous discussions may thus be made clearer; but it would be useless to discuss all of them, as many have been made by writers who have not taken the trouble to understand the subject.