Nature of Eyolutionary Progress 65 



efficiently operating beings, such as are found in 

 living things, do indeed arise without a contriver, 

 without a pattern or guide. The method, as we saw 

 before, is to move in all directions, until some direc- 

 tion is found in which progress is possible. The 

 method is to produce structures of every possible 

 type, most of them so imperfect and inefficient that 

 they disappear; but, among the rest, some that con- 

 tinue to exist, some that are efficient. These then 

 serve as foundation from which another great set of 

 experiments may be launched, most of them unsuc- 

 cessful, as before, but a few successful. And so the 

 process continues. 



In the study of the progress of life, therefore, we 

 find no reason to doubt that life is travehng a new 

 course, the final goal of which does not now exist, the 

 end of which is not now predictable. Life that is upon 

 a new adventure, life that is moving in directions not 

 laid out beforehand, Hfe that is transforming into 

 what did not before exist, life that is rising to heights 

 not before reached — this is the vision that biology 

 presents to our eyes. And this is a vision that is at 

 least as interesting, as inspiring, as would be life 

 without originality, treading dully a course marked 

 out for it beforehand. 



