24 WORLD-MAKING 



of protoplasm, living or dead. All experimental attempts to 

 produce by synthesis the complex albuminous substances, or to 

 obtain the living from the non-living, have so far been fruitless, 

 and indeed we cannot imagine any process by which such 

 changes could be effected. That they have been effected we 

 know, but the process employed by their maker is still as 

 mysterious to us as it probably was to him who wrote the 

 words : — " And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarmers." 

 How vast is the gap in our knowledge and our practical power 

 implied in this admission, which must, however, be made by 

 every mind not absolutely blinded by a superstitious belief in 

 those forms of words which too often pass current as 

 philosophy. 



But if we are content to start with a number of organisms 

 ready made — a somewhat humiliating start, however — we still 

 have to ask — How do these vary so as to give new species ? 

 It is a singular illusion, and especially in the case of men who 

 profess to be believers in natural law, that variation may be 

 boundless, aimless and fortuitous, and that it is by spontaneous 

 selection from varieties thus produced that development arises. 

 But surely the supposition of mere chance and magic is un- 

 worthy of science. Varieties must have causes, and their 

 causes and their effects must be regulated by some law or laws. 

 Now it is easy to see that they cannot be caused by a mere 

 innate tendency in the organism itself. Every organism is so 

 nicely equilibrated that it has no such spontaneous tendency, 

 except within the limits set by its growth and the law of its 

 periodical changes. There may, however, be equilibrium 

 more or less stable. I believe all attempts hitherto made have 

 failed to account for the fixity of certain, nay, of very many, 

 types throughout geological time, but the mere consideration 

 that one may be in a more stable state of equilibrium than 

 another, so far explains it. A rocking stone has no more 

 spontaneous tendency to move than an ordinary boulder, but 



