xin.] CRITICISMS ON " THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 1 * 301 



"The assumption that an organism exists only on account of somo 

 definite end in view, and represents something more than the incor- 

 poration of a general idea, or law, implies a one-sided conception of 

 the universe. Assuredly, every organ has, and every organism fulfils, 

 its end, but its purpose is not the condition of its existence. Every 

 organism is also sufficiently perfect for the purpose it serves, and in 

 that, at least, it is useless to seek for a cause of its improvement." 



It is singular how differently one and the same book 

 will impress different minds. That which struck the 

 present writer most forcibly on his first perusal of the 

 * ' Origin of Species ''' was the conviction that Teleology, 

 as commonly understood, had received its deathblow at 

 Mr. Darwin's hands. For the telcological argument runs 

 thus : an organ or organism (A) is precisely fitted to 

 perform a function or purpose (B) ; therefore it was 

 specially constructed to perform that function. In. 

 Paley's famous illustration, the adaptation of all the 

 parts of the watch to the function, or purpose, of show- 

 ing the time, is held to be evidence that the watch was 

 specially contrived to that end ; on the ground, that the 

 only cause we know of, competent to produce such an 

 effect as a watch which shall keep time, is a contriving 

 intelligence adapting the means directly to that end. 



Suppose, however, that any one had been able to show 

 that the watch had not been made directly by any 

 person, but that it was the result of the modification 

 of another watch which kept time but poorly ; and that 

 this again had proceeded from a structure which could 

 hardly be called a watch at all — seeing that it had no 

 figures on the dial and the hands were rudimentary ; 

 and that going back and back in time we came at last 

 to a revolving barrel as the earliest traceable rudiment 

 of the whole fabric. And imagine that it had been 

 possible to show that all these changes had resulted, first, 

 from a tendency of the structure to vary indefinitely ; 

 and secondlv, from something in the surrounding world 



14 



