Wenley library 9-24-37 MOTTOES. 66 DARWIN. 'No shadow of reason can be assigned for the belief that variations -which have been the groundwork, through natural selection, of the formation of the most perfectly adapted animals in the world, were intentionally and specially guided" (Var. Ans. and Pts., 1st ed. vol. ii. 431). "The old argument from design in Nature fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings, than in the course which the wind blows" (Life and Letters, i. 309). ARISTOTLE. Nature makes all things for some end, ἡ φύσις ἕνεκά του ποιεῖ Távτa (De partibus, i. 1, 6). Since we see several causes existent in nature, as the final cause on the one hand, and the efficient cause on the other, it is for us to determine in their regard, which is by nature the first, and which the second. But that is seen to be first which we call the final cause, design. For this is reason, but reason is the principle alike in the things of art and in the things of nature. In these latter, however—in the works of nature, the final cause and the good is more plainly manifest than in the works of art, for necessity does not similarly obtain in them (De partibus, i. 1, 2). ARISTOTLE (continued). We must not allow ourselves to be childishly disgusted with the observation of the less attractive organisms, for in all the things of nature there is something that is admirable. Just as Heraclitus, according to the story, exclaimed to the visitors who surprised him in the kitchen by the fire, "Come in, for here, too, are the gods;" so we, too, must approach to the inspection of every animal with never a wry face, since there is what is natural and beautiful in all things. For in all the works of nature there is not chance but design, and that, too, in the highest (De partibus, i. 1, 5). PHILO. Οὐδὲν τῶν τεχνικῶν ἔργων ἀπαντοματίζεται. HEGEL. The Principle of Design, consciously signalised by Socrates, was developed and completed into full recognition by Plato, and especially Aristotle. Aristotle declared the main quest, or the most essential knowledge (ἐπιστήμη ἀρχικωτάτη), to be the recognition of the end (réλ05—Zweck): but that is the good of everything, or just generally the best in all nature. PREFACE. PERHAPS it may be thought that, on the whole, I might very well have spared myself this small venture; but the truth is that, days, weeks, months, years, I have remained so assiduously by these matters, that I cannot but seem to myself to be still burthened with a certain responsibility in their regard. Mr. Darwin (Life and Letters, ii. 222) tells W. B. Carpenter: "I have found the most extraordinary difficulty in making even able men understand at what I was driving." Nor can he always withhold similar expressions of inquietude from others of his correspondents. This review and Harvey's letter have convinced me that I must be a very bad explainer; neither really understand what I mean by natural selection; I am inclined to give up the attempt as hopeless those who do not understand, it seems, cannot be made to understand." So he complains (p. 316) to Sir Joseph Hooker; while to Sir Charles Lyell (p. 317) he writes thus: "I am beginning to despair of ever making the majority understand my notions; several reviews and several letters have shown me too clearly how little I am understood." These very experts themselves (Hooker and Lyell), he confesses to Gray, "sometimes use expressions to which I demur." With such facts in front of us-though I fear it can only be regarded as impertinence to say so-it is just possible that what exact point is concerned in the Origin of Species, is not fairly understood even yet. I am not sure, in fact, that any one ever thinks that there is at all any exact point concerned. Evolution, taken quite generally, rather perhaps quite vaguely, is conceived to be enough; and it never enters one's head that there is any the least need to go deeper. But theories of evolution are by no means one only-there are several of them; and if they are all right in that they hold of evolution, they are not all therefore necessarily right in that they are theories. I have not the slightest doubt myself that there is a true theory of evolution, but In view, then, of the difficulty-say of statementwhich we see deplored by Mr. Darwin himself, perhaps it may be allowable for another, without undue conceit, to attempt to make all Mr. Darwin's proceedings plainfairly, faithfully, and fully plain-even as he meant them. Now, the single Darwinian proposition may be expressed thus: Species are naturally modified into species, by natural variation, naturally realised into a new natural relation, through natural divergence (selection); and naturally in the struggle for existence. And it is this sentence which it is my endeavour in |