The Theory of Natural Selection. 273 



the argument would not have involved the fallacy 

 which we are now considering. But, as it stands, the 

 argument reverts to the teleology of pre-Darwinian 

 days or the hypothesis of a " purpose " in the literal 

 sense which sees the end from the beginning, instead 

 of a " purpose " in the metaphorical sense of an adap- 

 tation that is evolved by the very modifications which 

 subserve it \ 



Another very prevalent, and more deliberate, fallacy 

 connected with the theory of natural selection is, that 

 it follows deductively from the theory itself that the 

 principle of natural selection must be the sole means 

 of modification in all cases where modification is of 

 an adaptive kind, with the consequence that no 

 other principle can ever have been concerned in the 

 production of structures or instincts which are of any 

 use to their possessors. Whether or not natural 

 selection actually has been the sole means of adaptive 

 modification in the race, as distinguished from the 

 individual, is a question of biological fact 2 ; but it 



1 Since the above was written Prof. Lloyd Morgan has published a 

 closely similar notice of the passage in question. " This language," he 

 says, "seems to savour of teleology (that pitfall of the evolutionist). 

 The cart is put before the horse. ^ The recognition-marks were, I 

 believe, not produced to prevent intercrossing, but intercrossing has 

 been prevented because of preferential mating between individuals 

 possessing special recognition-marks. To miss this point is to miss 

 an important segregation-factor." (Animal Life and Intelligence, p. 

 103.) Again, on pp. 184-9, ^ e furnishes an excellent discussion on the 

 whole subject of the fallacy alluded to in the text, and gives illustrative 

 quotations from other prominent Darwinians. I should like to add 

 that Darwin himself has nowhere fallen into this, or any of the other 

 fallacies, which are mentioned in the text. 



2 Of course adaptive modifications produced in the individual life- 

 time, and not inherited, do not concern the question at all. In this and 



