FINAL CAUSES 131 



But is he not here inverting the process ? Nature 

 did not prepare grass /or herbivorous cattle, nor did she 

 develop herbivorous cattle /or the carnivora. Every 

 organism was, of course, independent of all others that 

 came into existence after it, as they entered the world in 

 an ever-ascending scale ; though each one is now depend- 

 ent upon some other or others if regarded in the reverse 

 order. Thus the lamb was not made for the wolf, but 

 the wolf's teeth have been secured to it as the best 

 adapted for tearing flesh of some kind. Teeth are an 

 internal finality, but the lamb cannot be regarded as 

 external finality for the teeth. 



The oak-gall produced specially by and for the cynips 

 would seem to be a much better case of external finality ; 

 or again, the honey of flowers for insects. Organic 

 internal finality is the result of adaptation to the environ- 

 ment, but the environment cannot adapt itself to the 

 organism. 



The eleventh chapter is devoted to the consideration 

 of various forms of objections which the author describes 

 with his usual acumen. He shows, for example, that 

 when Descartes objects because, as he says, we cannot 

 find out God's ends, he confounds absolute with relative 

 ends. The former, he observes, may well be beyond our 

 reach, but the latter are matters for investigation, and 

 come within the region of experience. 



The objection of Mdupertuis, quoted as follows by 

 M. Janet, is based upon the conditions 0/ existence, and, 

 is singularly like Darwinism : " Might it not be said," he 

 writes, " that in the fortuitous combination of the produc- 

 tions of Nature, as it was only those in which certain 

 relations of convenience were found that could exist, yt is 

 not wonderful that this convenience is found in all the 

 species that actually exist? Chance, it might be said, 



