WHAT IS DARWINISM? 93 



account for the appearances of design in nature 

 without assuming final causes, or, a mind work- 

 ing for a foreseen and intended end. " All that 

 had appeared before Darwin," he says, " failed 

 to secure success, and to meet with general 

 acceptance of the doctrine of the mechanical 

 production of vegetable and animal organisms. 

 This was accomplished by Darwin's theory." 

 (p-20) 



The precise difficulty which Mr. Darwin s 

 doctrine has, according to Haeckel, enabled 

 men of science to surmount, is thus clearly 

 stated on p. 633. It is, "that organs for a 

 definite end should be produced by unde- 

 signing or mechanical causes." This difficulty 

 is overcome by the doctrine of evolution. 

 " Through the theory of descent, we are for the 

 first time able to establish the monistic doc- 

 trine of the unity of nature, that a mechanic- 

 causal explanation of the most complicated 

 organisms, e. g. the formation and constitution 

 of the organs of sense, have no more difficulty 

 for the common understanding, than the me- 

 chanical explanation of any physical process, 

 as, for example, earthquakes, the direction of 

 the winds, or the currents of the sea. We 

 thus arrive at the conviction of the last im- 



