DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. 51 



and this is very interesting " another use, as in the black 

 diverging area from the eyes of the swan ; which, as his 

 eyes are placed less prominent than those of other birds, 

 for the convenience of putting down his head under 

 water, prevents the rays of light from being reflected 

 into his eye, and thus dazzling his sight, both in air and 

 beneath the water ; which must have happened if that 

 surface had been white like the rest of his feathers." 

 (How about the " black swan" pace all the other divers ?) 

 In the same way we have the various colours of eggs 

 rationalised, and then this "The final cause of these 

 colours is easily understood, as they serve some purposes 

 of the animal, but the efficient cause would seem almost 

 beyond conjecture." The efficient Cause ! 



The efficient cause of these and all things is, according 

 to the spontaneous, unreflected, instinct of humanity, 

 simply the will of God. 



According to philosophy (which on that head, however, 

 has a good deal more to say for itself), that cause and 

 that will could only be a reasoned universe, a rational 

 object, which, like God Himself, the rational subject, 

 could not in fact not be ! 



Charles Darwin will have neither interpretation. In 

 explanation (just of all and everything), he will take at 

 once a formed organism into the premises of which he 

 will simply not inquire and once ia possession of this 

 organism (which, too, ivithout inquiry, is to be endowed 

 with the power of propagation), he will see t the accidents 

 of the individual (and every individual has accidents 

 " I believe most beings vary at all times " l ) accumulate 

 and accumulate, by the further known necessary fact 

 of successive propagation accumulate into a new en- 



1 Life and Letters, ii. 123 : " I believe most beings vary at all times 

 enough for selection to act on." But how if every variation always 

 returns, less or more, to the original ? 



