NATURAL SELECTION CRITICISED. 257 



chemically formed, or whether as only " appeared," does 

 not the petitio principii, the assumed and presupposed 

 First, in good truth even contradict and set at naught 

 the very rationale, the very principles of the middle 

 the middle that is to realise and accomplish all ? That 

 rationale, these principles, are to rest on external accre- 

 tion, while the First by the very terms of it, by very 

 supposition, introduces the principle of intussusception 

 or of evolution from within. All is at last, as in the 

 inorganic, so in the organic, to be reduced to the mere 

 externality of physical law. By external accident of 

 environment, it is to be understood that an external 

 selection, which is absolutely natural, physical, is to put 

 hand on an external accident of variation. Now that 

 which is there to be submitted to this externality the 

 hypothesis, the First is already an internality. Let it 

 be created, let it be chemically formed, let it have only 

 " appeared," it is already a living organism. It is already 

 a concrete, possessed of a concreted interior, and capable 

 of evolution and development. Now, suppose that we 

 ourselves we ourselves in place of Mr, Darwin have 

 been put in possession of this indispensable preliminary, 

 this necessary prius, would we ourselves turn to the 

 machinery of Mr. Darwin even for production of the 

 middle ? By very hypothesis, the First itself is already 

 a middle an organised, concrete, living middle, an 

 interior, which, just as that, needs simply, for evolution 

 and development, the due conditions. What are they 

 what are the due conditions ? Why, what should we 

 require for the fostering of a first life, but that which we 

 already know to foster all life, as we see it ? 



Mr. Darwin would preclude the possibility of this. 

 He will suppose his First only to be influenced from 

 without, and not to develop from within. He denies to 

 it any aboriginal power of adaptation or principle of 



