246 CHARLES DEKONINCK 



ological mechanisms may help to explain. Meantime, we must 

 remember that the good was first recognized by Aristotle ^ as 

 a special kind of cause — the first but most obscure of all causes. 

 But though it would be foolish to ignore the difficulties which 

 this doctrine must entail, will it be any less foolish to conclude 

 that it is therefore unscientific? I fail to see why Natural 

 Selection must be understood as devoid of purpose, or why 

 " the struggle for existence " is to be taken as sheer metaphor. 



Charles DeKoninck 



TJniversite Laval, 



Quebec, Canada. 



' Plato also considered the good as a cause, but not as a cause sui generis. 



