Mechanism, Vitalism, and Teleology 375 



my mind about the time, as far as I can remember, when I 

 wrote the 'Origin of Species' ; and it is since that time that it 

 has very gradually, with many fluctuations, become weaker. 

 But then arises the doubt, can the mind of man, which has, as 

 I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that 

 possessed by the lowest animal, be trusted when it draws 

 such grand conclusions?" 1 



Finally, Henderson has summed up his conclusions on this 

 subject in the following thoughtful sentences: "We may 

 progressively lay bare the order of nature and define it 

 with the aid of the exact sciences. Thus we may recognize it 

 for what it is, and now at length we clearly see that it is 

 teleological. But we shall never find the explanation of the 

 riddle, for it concerns the origin of things. Upon this sub- 

 ject clear ideas and close reasoning are no longer possible, 

 for thought has arrived at one of its natural frontiers. 

 Nothing more remains but to admit that the riddle surpasses 

 us and to conclude that the contrast of mechanism with 

 teleology is the very foundation of the order of nature, 

 which must ever be regarded from two complementary 

 points of view, as a vast assemblage of changing systems, 

 and as an harmonious unity of changeless laws and qualities 

 working together in the process of evolution." 2 



CONCLUSION 



The great problems of the methods and causes of organic 

 evolution and adaptation are slowly being solved. We have 

 made many false starts and have had to retrace many steps, 

 but nevertheless much progress has been made along many 

 lines. Many attractive theories have had their day and are 

 now abandoned; unfortunately we do not know that many 



and Letters, Vol. I, p. 282. 

 2< The Order of Nature," pp. 208, 209. 



