The Metaphysics of Darwinism. 87 



given the creations, the transmissions, the accu 

 mulations, the worst favored must perish and 

 only the fittest survive ; and this fact it is this 

 single ray of light athwart a path of darkness 

 unpenetrated that Darwin designates natural 

 selection. 



Now, the personification of nature is quite legit 

 imate, and often unavoidable^ But when a mere 

 event of nature, like the one we have just de 

 scribed, comes to be invested with a title so sug 

 gestive of volitional attributes as &quot; Natural Selec 

 tion &quot; is, the imagination cannot fail to run riot 

 with the understanding, and the mind is apt to 

 become the slave of what Bacon calls the idola 

 fori. It would indeed be in itself a thankless 

 task to point out the warping influence of met 

 aphorical language on the mind of a great in 

 vestigator like Darwin, but when his lapses 

 (which may do no harm in science) are made the 

 grounds of a metaphysical and ethical philoso 

 phy, the task, however ungrateful, must be under 

 taken. 



The term natural selection is borrowed by 

 analogy from that purposive selection practised 

 by man in the rearing of domesticated animals 

 and cultivated plants. We have already seen that 

 breeders form varieties that pass for &quot; incipient 



