472 DIRECTIVE FACTORS IN EVOLUTION: 



But it must be noted that it would not occur to scientific 

 investigators, as such, to speak of the factors of evolution 

 as means to an end. That is a point of view beyond science, 

 though naturally taken by those who feel the extraordinary 

 value and significance of certain results of evolution, — such 

 as the beauty of Nature, or the moving equilibrium of things, 

 or the progressiveness of organisation, or the emancipation 

 of mind, or the incomparable worth of a noble human life. 



SUMMARY. 



The central idea in Darwinism is the selection of the relatively 

 fitter variants in the struggle for existence. 



An immediate logical recoil from Darwinism has been based on 

 the fact that Natural Selection is not originative, only directive; 

 and that it is rather eliminative than selective. But these points 

 are freely admitted by Darwinians; the recoil is due to a misunder- 

 standing of insufficiently criticised phraseology. 



A sentimental recoil from Darwinism has been based on the sup- 

 posed mechanical character of the selective process (but many 

 organisms share as agents in their own evolution), and on the sup- 

 posed grimness of the eliminative methods (but this is a very partial 

 view). 



Since Darwin's day the theory of Selection has undergone some 

 modification. Its position has been strengthened by the demon- 

 stration of several cases of Natural Selection at work, by 

 actual proof of a differential death-rate. It is not a mere inter- 

 pretative hypothesis. Its position has been strengthened by a 

 recognition of the manifoldness of the selective processes, e.g., 

 lethal and reproductive. There has also been a clearer view 

 of the probable consequences, e.g., exuberant decorativeness, that 

 may ensue in situations where the elimination has been greatly 

 relaxed. The estimate of the scope of Natural Selection is affected 

 by the view taken in regard to the raw materials supplied. If 

 these reach by mutational abruptness to some degree of perfectness, 

 there is little for Natural Selection to do in the way of accumulating 

 minutiae. If they are in large measure definite, then Natural Selec- 

 tion has not to sift out the serviceable from a large casual crop. It 



