102 CRITICISMS ON “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES” tr 
deduction from the observed relations of organisms 
to the conditions which lie around them, with a 
metaphysical “ forme substantielle,” or a chimerical 
personification of the powers of Nature, would be 
incredible, were it not that other passages of his 
work leave no room for doubt upon the subject. 
Ay Tew eT ror Se ee 
‘“On imagine une élection naturelle que, pour plus de ménage- ~ 
ment, on me dit étre inconsciente, sans s’apercevoir que le contre- — 
sens littéral est précisément li: élection inconsciente.” (P. 52.) — 
‘«J’ai déja dit ce qu’il faut penser de 7’élection naturelle. Ou 
Vélection naturelle n’est rien, ou c’est la nature : mais la nature 
douée d@’élection, mais la nature personnifiée ; derniére erreur du - 
dernier siécle : Le xixe ne fait plus de personnifications.” (P. 
53.) 
M. Flourens cannot imagine an unconscious 
selection—it is for him a contradiction in terms. 
Did M. Flourens ever visit one of the prettiest 
watering-places of “la belle France,” the Baie 
d’Arcachon? If so, he will probably have passed 
through the district of the Landes, and will have 
had an opportunity of observing the formation of 
“dunes” on a grand scale. What are these 
“dunes”? The winds and waves of the Bay of 
Biscay have not much consciousness, and yet they 
have with great care “selected,” from among an 
infinity of masses of silex of all shapes and sizes, 
which have been submitted to their action, all the 
grains of sand below a certain size, and have 
heaped them by themselves over a great area. 
This sand has been “ unconsciously selected ” from 
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siete Nic are 
