238 DARWIN. 



is further brought out in Darwin's very interesting 

 correspondence with Asa Gray upon the evidence 

 for Design in Nature : " I cannot think the world, 

 as we see it, is the result of chance ; and yet I 

 cannot look at each separate thing as the result of 

 Design. To take a crucial example, you lead me 

 to infer that you believe ' that variation has been 

 led along certain beneficial lines.' I cannot believe 

 this." 1 Again : " I must think that it is illogical 

 to suppose that the variations, which natural selec- 

 tion preserves for the good of any being, have been 

 designed." In still another passage: 2 "I am in- 

 clined to look at everything as resulting from 

 designed laws, with the details, whether good or 

 bad, left to the working out of what we may call 

 * chance.' Not that this notion at all satisfies me." 

 This makes sufficiently clear Darwin's opinions 

 at this time upon the theories of all his predeces- 

 sors except one, namely, St. Hilaire. Huxley, in 

 his early correspondence upon the Origin of Spe- 

 cies, tried to convince Darwin of the possibility of 

 occasional rapid leaps or changes in Nature, anal- 

 ogous to those which St. Hilaire had advocated, 

 although Huxley probably did not have this author 

 in mind nor contemplate any great extremes of 

 transformation. Darwin held to his original prop- 

 osition, handed down from Leibnitz : ' Natura non 

 facit saltum' concluding : " It would take a great 



1 Life and Letters, Vol. II., p. 353, and p. 378. 



2 Life and Letters, Vol. II., p. 312. 



