30 THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



background of our thinking to-day, for taken 

 broadly, the interaction between the organism 

 and its environment was a mechanistic concep- 

 tion of evolution even though the details of the 

 theory were inadequate to establish his con- 

 tention. 



In our own time the French metaphysician 

 Bergson in his Evolution Creatrice has pro- 

 posed in mystical form a thought that has at 

 least a superficial resemblance to St. Hilaire's 

 concej^tion. The response of living things is no 

 longer hit in one species and miss in another; 

 it is precise, exact; yet not mechanical in the 

 sense at least in which we usually employ the 

 word mechanical. For Bergson claims that 

 the one chief feature of living material is that 

 it responds favorably to the situation in which 

 it linds itself; at least so far as lies within the 

 possible physical limitations of its organization. 

 Evolution has followed no ^^I'eordained plan; 

 it has had no creator; it has brought about its 

 own creation by responding adaptively to each 

 situation as it arose. 



But note : the man of science believes that the 

 organism responds today as it does, because at 



