111.1 ORGANIC STABILITY. 25
of frequently recurrent forms. The word etymologically compares these forms to the identical medals that may be struck by one or other of a set of dies. The central idea on which the phrase " stable forms " is based is of the same kind, while the phrase further accounts for their origin, vaguely it may be, but still significantly, by showing that though we know little or nothing of details, the result of organic groupings is analogous to much that we notice elsewhere on every side.
Subordinate positions of Stability.-Of course there are different degrees of stability. If the same structural form recurs in successively descending generations, its stability must be great, otherwise it could not have withstood the effects of the admixture of equal doses of alien elements in successive generations. Such a form well deserves to be called typical. A breeder would always be able to establish it. It tends of itself to become a new and stable variety ; therefore all the breeder has to attend to is to give fair play to its tendency, by weeding out from among its offspring such reversions to other forms as may crop up from time to time, and by preserving the breed from rival admixtures until it has become confirmed, and adapted in every minute particular to its surroundings.
Personal Forms may be compared to Human Inventions, as these also may be divided into types, sub-types, and deviations from them. Every important invention is a new type, and of such a definite kind as to admit of clear verbal description, and so of becoming
