440 DIRECTIVE FACTORS IN EVOLUTION: 



sooner or later eliminated. Darwin stated his theory in a 

 couple of sentences : " As many more individuals of each 

 species are born than can possibly survive, and as, conse- 

 quently, there is frequently recurring struggle for existence, 

 it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any 

 manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes 

 varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of sur- 

 viving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong 

 principle of inheritance any selected variety will tend to 

 propagate its new and modified form.'^ 



§ 2. Logical Objections to Darwinism, 



From Darwinism there have been several hasty recoils, 

 some logical and others sentimental, but both due to mis- 

 understanding. Let us take first the logical, and second 

 the emotional or sentimental recoils. At a later stage 

 we shall consider the emendations of Darwinism which 

 further investigation has necessitated — a very different 

 matter. 



(a) It is a misunderstanding of Darwinism to dwell on 

 the fact that Natural Selection is not originative, only direc- 

 tive; that it is comparable to the action of pruning shears 

 or of a sieve, not to the welling forth of a spring; that it 

 corresponds to Siva, the destroyer, rather than to Brahma, 

 the creator. That is quite true, but while Darwin sometimes 

 spoke for brevity's sake of the creative work of Natural 

 Selection, he made it quite clear that the sifting process 

 could only operate on the raw materials which the variability 

 of organisms brought within its scope. When we say that 

 the strange shape of an evergreen in the garden is due to 

 the gardener's shears, we do not forget the growing living 

 plant. So when we say that the wing of a bird is the out- 



