482 MAN IN NATURE 



that is, not in a domesticated or artificial condition, so that here 

 nature is opposed to the devices of man. Then he speaks of 

 species as " arising in nature," that is, spontaneously produced 

 in the midst of certain external conditions or environment out- 

 side of the organic world. A little farther on he speaks of use- • 

 ful varieties as given to man by " the hand of Nature," which 

 here becomes an imaginary person ; and it is worthy of notice 

 that in this place the printer or proof-reader has given the word 

 an initial capital, as if a proper name. In the next section he 

 speaks of the " works of Nature " as superior to those of art. 

 Here the word is not only opposed to the artificial, but seems 

 to imply some power above material things and comparable 

 with or excelling the contriving intelligence of man. I do not 

 mean by these examples to imply that Darwin is in this respect 

 more inaccurate than other writers. On the contrary, he is 

 greatly surpassed by many of his contemporaries in the varied 

 and fantastic uses of this versatile word. An illustration which 

 occurs to me here, as at once amusing and instructive, is an 

 expression used by Romanes, one of the cleverest of the fol- 

 lowers of the great evolutionist, and which appears to him to 

 give a satisfactory explanation of the mystery of elevation in 

 nature. He says, " Nature selects the best individuals out of 

 each generation to live." Here nature must be an intelligent 

 agent, or the statement is simply nonsensical. The same alter- 

 native applies to much of the use of the favourite term " natural 

 selection." In short, those who use such modes of expression 

 would be more consistent if they were at once to come back to 

 the definition of Seneca, that nature is " a certain divine purpose 

 manifested in the world," 



The derivation of the word gives us the idea of something 

 produced or becoming, and it is curious that the Greek physis^ 

 though etymologically distinct, conveys the same meaning — a 

 coincidence which may perhaps lead us to a safe and service- 

 able definition. Nature, rightly understood, is, in short, an 



