370 SYMBIOGEN'ESIS 



not do, so in 1861 the power was allowed, by the help of brackets, 

 actually to become natural selection, and remained eo till 1869, when 

 Mr. Darwin could stand it no longer, and doubtless for the reason 

 given above, altered the passage to "a power represented by natural 

 selection," at the same time cutting out the word " accidental." 



He found his natural selection hung round his neck like a mill- 

 stone. There is hardly a page in the Origin of Species in which traces 

 of the struggle going on in Mr. Darwin's mind are not discernible, with 

 a result alike exasperating and pitiable. 



It is only too true that Darwinism has stagnated because 

 of the ballast of " Natural Selection," the dead weight of 

 which has had the effect of converting many Darwinists into 

 Obstructionists. The violent objection to every attempt at 

 values or ethics is a case in point. In order that every living 

 being may be duly set down as "naturally selected" (by 

 omnipotent "chance"), no rival factors such as Bio-morality 

 must be conceded! You may speak of "callous" physical 

 nature (because this helps to emphasize the concept of the 

 "blind struggle"); but on no account must you use similar 

 epithets with reference to organisms themselves. Anything 

 approaching Bio-morality is strictly anathema in the eyes of 

 Obstructionists. It must be rigidly denied or ridiculed. There 

 is the organism, and there is its environment; and if the 

 organism does not adapt itself in a manner to gain the " favour " 

 of "Natural Selection," there is a speedy alternative for it 

 death. Yoila tout! Why trouble about morality which causes 

 quite enough vexation in the human sphere ! The denial of 

 ethics is on a par with the denial of the well authenticated 

 facts of the zoological distribution of disease, necessitated by 

 the corollary that wild nature being thoroughly " naturally 

 selected " cannot harbour disease. Tet, impressed by the facts 

 of co-operation, a few fair-minded Darwinians are now 

 admitting that " the selective process has to be envisaged in 

 relation to the web of life." With co-operation and the time- 

 element duly focussed, however, evolution becomes intelligible, 

 as we have seen, as a qualitative process with a strong bio- 

 moral sanction behind it and without needing any mysterious 



