696 DISHARMONIES AND OTHER SHADOWS 



of natural selection is supposed to bring into relief are really 

 centrally significant and ubiquitous aspects, is, Professor 

 Lovejoy admits, " a question which contemporary biology is 

 diligently endeavouring to settle by its own proper methods. 

 One can only say now that the dominant tendency is dis- 

 tinctly towards an answer in the negative" (1909, p. 95). 

 We have tried to show that this dominant tendency is 

 reasonable. 



§ 9. A Balanced View. 



These are not all the shadows by any means, but they 

 must serve for illustration. In other studies we have seen 

 that the struggle for existence is often an endeavour after 

 well-being; not a miserable internecine squabble around the 

 platter of subsistence, but including all the answers-back 

 which able-bodied, able-minded creatures make to environing 

 difficulties and limitations. We have seen that natural selec- 

 tion is neither altogether automatic nor in any case arbitrary, 

 but is a discriminative sifting in relation to an established 

 Systema Naturae — a fact which helps to secure progressive- 

 ness. We have seen that variation is not haphazard nor 

 fortuitous, and that heredity does not leave us stifling in a 

 fatalistic atmosphere. We, have seen that beauty is Nature's 

 universal hall-mark on fully-formed, independent, healthy 

 organisms, living in natural conditions. And lastly we have 

 seen that many of the shadows become less perplexing when 

 carefully scrutinised. 



Our thesis is violently opposed to the view of some of 

 the greatest thinkers. Aristotle, who knew Animate Nature 

 with an intimacy insured by his genius and patience, spoke 

 of the lack of order in Nature and likened it to what may 



