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VARIATION 203

maternal units will give the impress. ^fe Here, then,
we have a clue to the multiplied variations, and
sometimes extreme variations, that arise in races
which have once begun to vary. Amid countless
different combinations of units derived from parents,
and through them from ancestors, immediate and
remote—and the various conflicts in their slightly
different organic polarities, opposing and conspiring
with one another in all ways and degrees, there will
from time to time arise special proportions causing
special deviations. From the general law of proba-
bilities it may be concluded that while these involved
influences, derived from many progenitors, must, on
the average of cases, obscure and partially neutralise
one another; there must occasionally result such
combinations of them as will produce considerable
divergences from average structures; and at rare
intervals, such combinations as will produce very
marked divergences. There is thus a correspondence
between the inferable results and the results as
habitually witnessed."

In conclusion, after his wonted manner, Spencer
pointed out that Variation, like everything else, is
necessitated by the Persistence of Force. "The
members of a species inhabiting any area cannot be
subject to like sets of forces over the whole of that
area. And if, in different parts of the area, different
kinds or amounts or combinations of forces act on them,
they cannot but become different in themselves and
in their progeny. To say otherwise, is to say that
differences in the forces will not produce differences
in the effects; which is to deny the persistence of
force."



	VARIATION 203 maternal units will give the impress. ^fe Here, then, we have a clue to the multiplied variations, and sometimes extreme variations, that arise in races which have once begun to vary. Amid countless different combinations of units derived from parents, and through them from ancestors, immediate and remote—and the various conflicts in their slightly different organic polarities, opposing and conspiring with one another in all ways and degrees, there will from time to time arise special proportions causing special deviations. From the general law of proba- bilities it may be concluded that while these involved influences, derived from many progenitors, must, on the average of cases, obscure and partially neutralise one another; there must occasionally result such combinations of them as will produce considerable divergences from average structures; and at rare intervals, such combinations as will produce very marked divergences. There is thus a correspondence between the inferable results and the results as habitually witnessed." In conclusion, after his wonted manner, Spencer pointed out that Variation, like everything else, is necessitated by the Persistence of Force. "The members of a species inhabiting any area cannot be subject to like sets of forces over the whole of that area. And if, in different parts of the area, different kinds or amounts or combinations of forces act on them, they cannot but become different in themselves and in their progeny. To say otherwise, is to say that differences in the forces will not produce differences in the effects; which is to deny the persistence of force."