102 CRITICISMS ON "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" m 



deduction from the observed relations of organisms 

 to the conditions which lie . around them, with a 

 metaphysical " forme substantielle," or a chimerical 

 personification of the powers of Nature, would be 

 incredible, were it not that other passages of his 

 work leave no room for doubt upon the subject. 



" On imagine une Election naturelle que, pour plus de menage- 

 ment, on me dit etre inconscicnle, sans s'apercevoir que le contre- 

 sens litteral est precisement la : Election inconsciente." (P. 52.) 



" J'ai deja dit ce qu'il faut penser de I Election naturelle. Ou 

 Tilectioti naturcllc n'est rien, ou c'est la nature : mais la nature 

 douee detection, mais la nature personnifiee : derniere erreur du 

 dernier siecle : Le xix e ne fait plus de personnifications." (P. 

 53.) 



M. Flourens cannot imagine an unconscious 

 selection it is for him a contradiction in terms. 

 Did M. Flourens ever visit one of the prettiest 

 watering-places of " la belle France," the Baie 

 d'Arcachon ? If so, he will probably have passed 

 through the district of the Landes, and will have 

 had an opportunity of observing the formation of 

 "dunes" on a grand scale. What are these 

 " dunes " ? The winds and waves of the Bay of 

 Biscay have not much consciousness, and yet they 

 have with great care " selected," from among an 

 infinity of masses of silex of all shapes and sizes, 

 which have been submitted to their action, all the 

 grains of sand below a certain size, and have 

 heaped them by themselves over a great area. 

 This sand has been " unconsciously selected " from 



