WHAT IS DARWINISM? 107 



tation of species, neither for nor against the 

 principle of natural selection. The only positive 

 conclusion of our debate is this : no principle 

 hitherto known, neither the action of media, 

 nor habit, nor natural selection, can account 

 for organic adaptations without the interven- 

 tion of the principle of finality. Natural selec- 

 tion, unguided, submitted to the laws of a pure 

 mechanism, and exclusively determined by ac- 

 cidents, seems to me, under another name, 

 the chance proclaimed by Epicurus, equally 

 barren, equally incomprehensible ; on the other 

 hand, natural selection guided beforehand by a 

 provident will, directed towards a precise end 

 by intentional laws, might be the means which 

 nature has selected to pass from one stage of 

 being to another, from one form to another, to 

 bring to perfection life throughout the universe, 

 and to rise by a continuous process from the 

 monad to man. Now, I ask Mr. Darwin him- 

 self, what interest has he in maintaining that 

 natural selection is not guided — not directed ? 

 What interest has he in substituting accidental 

 causes for every final cause ? I cannot see. 

 Let him admit that in natural, as well as in 

 artificial selection, there may be a choice and 

 direction; his principle immediately becomes 



