306 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



which have little in the shape of novelty to recommend 

 them. But, after all, novelty can hardly be predicated of 

 the views here criticised and opposed. Some of these seem 

 almost a return to the "fortuitous concourse of atoms" 

 of Democritus, and even the very theory of " Natural Se- 

 lection" itself a "survival of the fittest" was in part 

 thought out not hundreds but thousands of years ago. Op- 

 ponents of Aristotle maintained that by the accidental oc- 

 currence of combinations, organisms have been preserved 

 and perpetuated such as final causes, did they exist, would 

 have brought about, disadvantageous combinations or vari- 

 ations being speedily exterminated. " For when the very 

 same combinations happened to be produced which the law 

 of final causes would have called into being, those combina- 

 tions which proved to be advantageous to the organism 

 were preserved ; w T hile those which were not advantageous 

 perished, and still perished like the minotaurs and sphinxes 

 of Empedocles." 68 



In conclusion, the author ventures to hope that this 

 treatise may not be deemed useless, but have contributed, 

 however slightly, toward clearing the way for peace and 

 conciliation, and for a more ready perception of the harmony 

 which exists between those deductions from our primary 

 intuitions before alluded to, and the teachings of physical 

 science, as far, that is, as concerns the evolution of organic 

 forms the genesis of species. 



The aim has been to support the doctrine that these 

 species have been evolved by ordinary natural laws (for the 

 most part unknown) controlled by the subordinate action 

 of " Natural Selection," and at the same time to remind 



68 Quoted from the Rambler of March, 1860, p. 364 : ""OTTOU ^v ovv 

 airavra crwe/JTj, 8>o"irep K&V et eVe/ca TOU eyfj/ero, ravra /*ej> eVciflrj airb rod 

 avro/J-dTov ffvffr&VTa eirtTTjSeuos, oVa 8e ^] O'SJTWS airdbtero Kal air6\\vTai, 

 Kaddirep 'EjU7re8o/cA.7}s Aeyei TO. /Joyyej//} /cai wSpOTrpwpa." ARIST. Phys. t 

 ii. c. 8. 



