THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



be discarded in its entirety, we must not exaggerate the 

 bearing its passing away will have upon the Darwin- 

 ian theory in general. Certain naturalists see in it such 

 an important corollary of the theory of natural selec- 

 tion, that if the theory of sexual selection was aban- 

 doned, they would consider the theory of natural se- 

 lection as doomed. We refuse to share this extreme 

 view."^« 



As a scientific problem, natural selection pre-sup- 

 poses a very narrow margin between life and extinc- 

 tion. The phrase "struggle for existence" certainly 

 implies the will of the individual to live and to trans- 

 mit its acquired strength. Now Darwin cannot mean 

 that at all, as he applies the term to plants which are 

 passive. Although he protests against Design and ten- 

 dencies to progress, he is forced to fall back on those 

 ideas when confronted by difficulties; he frequently 

 escapes from a predicament by using those very 

 words, and he thus tacitly assumes a guiding, or di- 

 recting force. And this directing force, disguised un- 

 der the esoteric name of nature, or natural law, is, so 

 far as one can see, nothing but the logoi spermatikoi 

 of the pantheistic stoics or the Divine Creator of the 

 special creationist. The organic world presents itself 

 to us under the three aspects of intense and persistent 

 slaughter, of enormous power of fertility, and of the 

 most ingenious expedients to avert danger and extinc- 

 tion. We are alternately revolted by the seemingly 



26 Delage and Goldsmith, The Theories of Evolution, p. 107. 



C 234 3 



