As a matter of fact the world of science is very far from thinking of Natural Selection as anything more than a factor, perhaps even a minor factor, in evolution. The author of the work with which we are dealing tells us that "Darwin's law of selection as a natural explanation of the origin of all fitness in form and function has lost its prestige at the present time, and all of Darwinism which now meets with universal acceptance is the law of the survival of the fittest, a limited application of Darwin's great idea as expressed by Herbert Spencer." But let that pass. In another place the author makes it clear that the explanations of to-day, including his own, do not exhaust the subject, for he says "it is incumbent on us to discover the cause of the orderly origin of every character. The nature of such a law we cannot even dream of at present, for the causes of the majority of vertebrate adaptations remain wholly unknown." In any case we must account for Natural Selection; for if it is a Law—as some doubt—it must have had a Lawgiver. The watch must have been an Idea in some one's mind before it became an accomplished fact, and Natural Selection or any other "Law of Nature" must—unless all reason is nonsense and all nonsense reason—also have been an Idea before it became a factor. Whose Idea? Our author does not help us to answer this question. On the contrary—he tries to set an unclimbable fence in the way of any answer by telling us, though without any convincing argument to support his statement, that we may "exclude the possibility that it" [the internal moving principle] "acts either through supernatural or teleological interposition through an externally creative power." But though he refuses to allow us to look in this direction for a solution of our difficulties, it must be confessed that he does not help us with any other answer satisfying the question of the origin and evolution of Life.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] The Origin and Evolution of Life; or, the Theory of Action, Reaction, and Interaction of Energy. By F. H. Osborn. (G. Bell & Sons.)
[37] By entelechy—an Aristotelian term re-introduced by Driesch—is meant an agency other than one of a purely chemico-physical character, which differentiates living from not-living substance, and is responsible for the phenomenon of life.
INDEX OF NAMES
Agassiz, [142]
Allen, Grant, [85]
Aquinas, St. Thomas, [60], [147], [153]
Austen, Miss, [32]
Avicenna, [153]
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., [116]
Bassi, Laura, [155]
Bateson, W., F.R.S., [4], [7], [11], [118], [150]
Bax, Belfort, [37]
Benson, Mgr., [84], [88], [94], [101]
Bergson, [151], [166]
Bernhardi, [20]
Borden, Sir Robert, [122]
Branco, [162]
Buffon, [100]
Butler, Samuel [44], [61]
Chesterton, G. K., [113]
Clodd, E., [86]
Conklyn, [23]
Cowper, [37]
Crichton-Browne, [20]
Cuvier, [142]
Darwin, [116], [131], [150], [173]
Devas, Mr. [27], [120]
Dewar, Prof. Sir J., F.R.S., [113]
Doyle, Sir A. C., [46], [51]
Driesch, [4], [7], [24], [69], [164], [166], [173]
Fallopius, [96], [144]
Fielding, [31]
Gosse, E., [39]
Gosse, Philip, [98]
Grant Allen, [85]
Healy, Father—Tale of, [40]
Henderson, J. J., [167]
Henslow, [24]
Hull, Fr. E., S.J., [103]
Huxley, [74], [98], [101], [117]
Johnson, Dr. 48, [161], [168]
Joly, Prof., F.R.S., [110]
Kelvin, Lord, [151]
Lankester, [15]
Lauder, Harry, [2]
Leduc, [2], [62]
Lodge, Sir O., [3], [85]
Loeb, J,. [58], [62]
Lucas, E. V., on the War, [47]
Mcdougal, [164]
Mahaffy, Sir John, [111]
Marett, [15], [16]
Masefield, [48]
Mendel, [75], [135]
Milton, [145]
Mivart, Prof., [96]
Needham, John Turberville, [154]
Newman, [33], [38]
Newton, The Rev. J., [38]
Nietzsche, [19]
Osborne, Prof., [160]
Paley, [160]
Pasteur, [157]
Perkin, Prof. W. H., [107]
Pouchet, [157]
Priestley, [156]
Redi, Francisco, [153]
Richardson, [31]
Rignano, [25], [62]
Ryder, Dr., [51]
Sabatier, [113]
Schwann, Theodor, [157]
Scott, Prof., [142]
Scott, The Rev. Thomas, [38]
Sedgwick, Adam, [162]
Spallanzani, Lazaro, [155]
Stensen, Nicolaus, [75], [97], [99]
Tilden, Sir William, [64]
Tyson, Edward, [77]
Wasmann, [26], [150]
Wells, H. G., [49]
Whiffen, [20]