374 Problems of Organic Adaptation 



whom Bernard Shaw counts the chief of scientific sinners 

 because of his advocacy of a mechanistic conception of evo- 

 lution, believed that extreme mechanism was consistent with 

 extreme teleology; indeed, he maintained* "The most com- 

 plete mechanism conceivable is likewise the most complete 

 teleology conceivable. With this conception vanish all ap- 

 prehensions that the new views of evolution would cause 

 man to lose the best that he possesses morality and purely 

 human culture." And no less a mechanist than Huxley said, 

 "Perhaps the most remarkable service to the philosophy 

 of biology rendered by Mr. Darwin is the reconciliation 

 of teleology and morphology, and the explanation of the 

 facts of both which his views offer. The teleology which 

 supposes that the eye, such as we see it in man or one of the 

 higher Vertebrata, was made with the precise structure 

 which it exhibits, for the purpose of enabling the animal 

 which possesses it to see, has undoubtedly received its death- 

 blow. Nevertheless it is necessary to remember that there 

 is a wider teleology, which is not touched by the doctrine 

 of evolution, but is actually based upon the fundamental 

 proposition of evolution. That proposition is that the whole 

 world, living and not living, is the result of the mutual inter- 

 action, according to definite laws, of the forces possessed 

 by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the 

 universe was composed." 1 And Darwin confesses "the ex- 

 treme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this 

 immense and wonderful universe, including man with his 

 capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as 

 the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting 

 I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelli- 

 gent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I 

 deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion was strong in 



iHuxley, Collected Essays, Vol. 2, p. 110. 



