296 THE FITNESS OF THE ENVIRONMENT 



In such speculations the properties of 

 matter and the process of cosmic evolution 

 have no place. 1 Bergson, indeed, very defi- 

 nitely, and it would seem gratuitously, puts 

 aside cosmic evolution and also, with certain 

 slight reservations, the properties of matter as 

 of no essential consequence in organic evolu- 

 tion; e.g. "This twofold result has been ob- 

 tained in a particular way on our planet. But 

 it might have been obtained by entirely dif- 

 ferent means. It was not necessary that life 

 should fix its choice mainly upon the carbon 

 of carbonic acid. What was essential for it 

 was to store solar energy ; but, instead of ask- 

 ing the sun to separate, for instance, atoms of 

 oxygen and carbon, it might (theoretically 

 at least, and, apart from practical difficulties 



1 Driesck, to be sure, has considered the problem of uni- 

 versal teleology, but unsuccessfully and with obvious vitalistic 

 preconceptions such as individuality. His nearest approach 

 to the thesis of the present work is to be found in the follow- 

 ing lines : "I do not hesitate to confess that, apart from 

 historical teleology relating to the sequence of one state of poli- 

 tics or economy upon another, and apart from phylogeny, 

 there seems to me to be a certain sound foundation in the 

 concept of the general harmony between organic and inor- 

 ganic nature, a something which seems to show that nature 

 is nature for a certain purpose. But I confess at the same time 

 that I am absolutely unable to consider this purpose in 

 any other than a purely anthropomorphic manner." — L.c, 

 Vol. II, pp. 348-349. 



