62 COMT.K TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART n 



means, one takes it, the evolution of organisms, a doctrine 

 of evolution versus (special) creation as accounting for 

 species, though the phrase organic evolution is some- 

 times perhaps used by other writers 1 in a wider, or 

 vaguer, or deeper significance. Darwin himself, as a 

 specialist, had nothing to say to us on the origin of life, 

 nothing, assuredly, on the origin of the universe. At 

 one point, indeed, he unavoidably opened up very deep 

 problems. For among the species with which he dealt 

 was the human race ; and a discussion of the origin of 

 mind involves a reference to the beginnings and ends of 

 all things ; it forces us back to first principles and 

 drives us on to the final problems. But of this, perhaps, 

 Darwin was never adequately aware. Every one who 

 has studied philosophy sees it, but Darwin, though a 

 specialist of genius, and a specialist on a great scale, was 

 still, after all, a specialist. And he never claimed to 

 bring the world a new cosmical philosophy ; it was 

 enough for him to introduce one new hypothesis, linking 

 together all forms of life, and to see this hypothesis 

 conquering mind after mind, until the whole civilised 

 world seemed to bow to its discoverer. Darwin dealt 

 with the evolution of species, Spencer has dealt with 

 the evolution of the universe. 



What, again, was the special contribution made by 

 Darwin to his problem so old a problem, with which 

 so many minds had grappled, and, on the whole, so very 

 unsuccessfully ? Primarily of course it was the doctrine 

 of natural selection through the struggle for existence. 

 As students of social philosophy, we are specially inter- 

 ested to recall that Malthus's doctrine of population 

 directed Darwin's attention to the aspect of struggle in 



1 e.g. Dr. E. Caird. In a deeper significance, perhaps, as implying 

 necessary or organic relation between the organism and its environment. 



