78 WHAT IS DARWINISM? 



inent naturalists of the age, there can be no 

 question as to his competency as a witness as 

 to what Darwinism is. 



His testimony that Mr. Darwin's doctrine' 

 excludes all teleology, or final causes, is ex- 

 plicit. In his review of the " Criticisms on the 

 Origin of Species," he says, " that when he 

 first read Mr. Darwin's book, that which struck 

 him most forcibly was the conviction that tele- 

 ology, as commonly understood, had received 

 its death-blow at Mr. Darwin's hands. For 

 the teleological argument runs thus : An organ 

 is precisely fitted to perform a function or 

 purpose ; therefore, it was specially constructed 

 to perform that function. In Paley's famous 

 illustration, the adaptation of all the parts of a 

 watch to the function or purpose of showing 

 the tune, is held to be evidence that the watch 

 was specially contrived to that end ; on the 

 ground that the only cause we know of compe- 

 tent to produce such "an effect as a watch 

 which shall keep time, is a contriving intelli- 

 gence adapting the means directly to that 

 end." ^ This, Mr. Huxley tells us, is pre- 

 cisely what Darwin denies with reference to 

 the organs of plants and animals. The eye 



1 Lay Sermons^ etc., p. 330. 



