1 84 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



in Darwinism, to the necessity of regarding variation 

 per se as telic not casual. 



We do not mean here to affirm that variation must 

 be advantageous, or even that it must proceed along 

 definite lines. We merely claim that such possibilities 

 should not be forgotten. The questions are questions 

 of fact, and further evidence is required. Causeless 

 variations are inconceivable things ; in that view, pre- 

 sumably, all will agree. But, just as little as the 

 evolutionist would waste time over a hypothesis which 

 involved surrendering the causal law, so little would 

 others consent to trifle with a great question by framing 

 the hypothesis of variations perversely opposed to the 

 specific type. Still, within limits, we might conceive 

 of " casual " variations, if variability worked along one 

 of several fixed possible directions, while the reasons 

 why it chose one track rather than another were highly 

 obscure. 



Let us take an illustration. Every house of two or 

 more storeys must include a staircase. The stair may 

 be straight as a ladder, or it may be spiral, or it may be 

 a series of straight flights with landings, or it may even 

 be attached to the outside of the house like the " bonnie, 

 bonnie outside stairs" at Thrums. The one thing 

 illegitimate is to omit the stairs, as the amateur who 

 draws his own plans is so apt to do. Well then, in 

 variation, the spiral staircase may be beaten into flat 

 sections, or the outside stair may be brought within 

 doors, or vice versa. Variation may be " casual " in 

 this sense, that it is liable to take any one of several 

 directions. Pattern A or B replaces C, you cannot say 

 why. Variation will not be casual in the sense of 

 omitting what is advantageous or necessary. It will 

 not leave out the staircase. Experience shows that 



