TELEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF ORGANISM. 59 



to complain, that the theory I put forward in ' Life 

 and Habit,' and which I am now again insisting on, is 

 pessimism pure and simple. I have a very vague 

 idea what pessimism means, but I should be sorry to 

 believe that I am a pessimist. Which, I would ask, is 

 the pessimist ? He who sees love of beauty, design, 

 steadfastness of purpose, intelligence, courage, and 

 every quality to which success has assigned the name 

 of " worth/' as having drawn the pattern of every leaf 

 and organ now and in all past time, or he who sees 

 nothing in the world of nature but a chapter of acci- 

 dents and of forces interacting blindly ? 



