STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION AT ISSUE. 9 



may we not believe that a living optical instrument 

 might be thus formed as superior to one of glass, as the 

 works of the Creator are to those of man ? " * 



The reader will observe that the only skill and 

 this involves design supposed by Mr. Darwin to be 

 exercised in the foregoing process, is the "unerring 

 skill " of natural selection. Natural selection, however, 

 is, as he himself tells us, a synonym for the survival of 

 the fittest, which last he declares to be the "more 

 accurate " expression, and to be " sometimes " equally 

 convenient.t It is clear then that he only speaks 

 metaphorically when he here assigns " unerring skill " 

 to the fact that the fittest individuals commonly live 

 longest and transmit most offspring, and that he sees 

 no evidence of design in the numerous slight succes- 

 sive "alterations" or variations which are "caused 

 by variation." 



It were easy to multiply quotations which should 

 prove that the denial of " purposiveness " is commonly 

 conceived to be the inevitable accompaniment of a be- 

 lief in evolution. I will, however, content myself with 

 but one more from Isidore Geoffrey St. Hilaire. 



" Whoever," says this author, " holds the doctrine of 

 final causes, will, if he is consistent, hold also that of the 

 immutability of species; and again, the opponent of the 

 one doctrine will oppose the other also." J 



Nothing can be plainer ; I believe, however, that even 

 without quotation the reader would have recognized 



* ' Origin of Species,' p. 146, ed. 1876. 

 t Page 49. 



\ 'Vie et Doctrine scientifique d'Etieime Geoffroy St. Hilaire,' by 

 Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Park, 1847, p. 344. 



