470 DIRECTIVE FACTORS IN EVOLUTION: 



their argument was to inquire how far the intelligence, which 

 adaptations certainly suggest, may be resident as intelligence 

 or some analogous form in the creatures themselves. Modern 

 study shows that many animals work out their own salvation. 



(2) The second reason why modern naturalists do not 

 occupy the old position is because their outlook is evolution- 

 ist. When they scrutinise the magnificent series of adapta- 

 tions more closely they discern less perfect stages of them 

 in antecedent forms of life. The eye of a fly is an extraor- 

 dinary instrument, but there is a long ladder of eyes ap- 

 proximating to it. The community of hive-bees or of social 

 wasps amazes us — at first almost bewilders us, — with its 

 complexity and subtlety, but there is a long series of grada- 

 tions connecting it with the life of solitary bees and wasps. 

 Moreover, as we look around, we see that many adaptations 

 are still in progress, and very far from perfect. 



(3) The third reason is, that, given a sufficient crop of 

 variations, plenty of time, and a process of sifting, the 

 Darwinian can give a plausible and approximate — we do 

 not say an easy or complete — account of the way in which 

 most of the wonderful adaptations have been evolved. The 

 hard-shelled Darwinian says : These effective adaptations you 

 so justly admire are the outcome of natural tentatives and 

 natural sif tings. We assume that the forms of life are 

 restlessly but not inconsistently variable, that they are con- 

 tinually offering new qualities and characters to the sieve 

 of selection, and that the conditions of life are such that 

 they eliminate in a very discriminating fashion the relatively 

 less fit. If these assumptions are granted, we can account 

 for adaptations. The immediate operation of a Divine 

 Adapter is a hypothesis of which, we say it with the utmost 

 reverence, we cannot scientifically make any use. 



