APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 95 



merely a generalized statement of the method and 

 results of that process. And, further, that, if there 

 is proof that the cosmic process was set going by any 

 agent, then that agent will be the creator of it and 

 of all its products, although, supernatural interven- 

 tion may remain strictly excluded from its further 

 course. 



All plants and animals exhibit the tendency to vary, 

 the causes of which have yet to be ascertained ; it 

 is the tendency of the conditions of life, at any given 

 time, while favouring the existence of the variations 

 best adapted to them, to oppose that of the rest and 

 thus to exercise selection ; and all living things tend 

 to multiply without limit, while the means of support 

 are limited ; the obvious cause of which is the pro- 

 duction of offspring more numerous than their pro- 

 genitors, but with egual expectation of life in the 

 actuarial sense. Without the first tendency there 

 could be no evolution. Without the second, there 

 would be no good reason why one variation should 

 disappear and another take its place ; that is to say, 

 there would be no selection. Without the third, the 

 struggle for existence, the agent of the selective 

 process in the state of nature, would vanish. 



The faith which is born of knowledge finds its 

 object in an eternal order, bringing forth ceaseless 

 change, through endless time, in endless space ; the 

 manifestations of the cosmic energy alternating 

 between phases of potentiality and phases of ex- 

 plication. 



