25 DARWIN’S SINGULAR NOTION
ey contended t if you found a pocket cantly perceivet it elligent entity. So it scomplexity s design. tion eentury,and it gave Darrouble too. “to tter to a friend. In t it “seems, I freely confess,absurd in t possible degree” t natural selection could produce sucrumentin gradual steps.
Even so, and to tion of ers, Dar only insisted tall c in nearly every edition of Origin epped up t of timeo alloion to progress, ually,” according to tist and orian Jeffrey Scz, “Darvirtually all t t still remained among tural orians andgeologists.”
Ironically, considering t Dared a mec become stronger or better or faster—in a ter—but gave noindication of migtised an important fla. Dar any beneficial trait t arose in one generation o subsequentgenerations, trengthe species.
Jenkin pointed out t a favorable trait in one parent become dominant insucceeding generations, but in fact ed to a tumbler of er, you don’t make tronger, you make it dilute solution into anoter, it becomes ill. In trait introduced by one parent ered do matings until it ceased to be apparent at all. t a recipefor c for constancy. Lucky flukes migime to time, but to bring everyto a stable mediocrity. Ifnatural selection o ernative, unconsidered mechanism was required.
Unknoo Dariring monk named Gregor Mendel ion.
Mendel o a er of trianempire in rayed observant provincial monk ofnoticing some interesting traits of inance s in tery’s kitc, Mendel rained scientist—udied pics at tz Pitute an