Note 666 — PART III THE THEORY OF PLAY

Weismann insists that individual selection must give the impetus to such specially directed evolution of the germ substance; but it seems to me that his theory can not escape the objection that it lacks proper grounds for selection unless the specially directed variations in the germ substance arise independently of individual selection. It may then be said that even in a quite constant species there are, as a result of germinal selection, dispositions to specially directed variations (the lower jaw of the Hapsburgs, for instance, or the appearance of a specialised genius in a talented family), which, so long as the environment remains constant, very soon meet the opposition of individual selection. But when outer conditions are changed, the useful variations arise again, encounter and finally overcome individual selection. Whether the struggle for existence really plays such a rôle in the germ substance, however, it is difficult to assert with assurance.