Ill 



ADAPTATION (Continued) 



The reader may be thinking that I have wandered away from 

 my "Critical Examination of Modern Rationalism " ; but since 

 Haeckel and Biichner avowedly base their Monism and Materi- 

 alism upon Darwinism, and other rationalistic writers dwell 

 much upon it, my object has been through the preceding 

 sections of this Appendix to show conclusively, first, that 

 Darwinism was founded upon errors ; so that the main prop 

 and stay of Materialistic Monism has no foundation in fact. 

 Secondly, that Darwin's alternative to Natural Selection is, 

 after all, the true and correct interpretation of the origin of 

 species by Evolution. 



The reason why Darwinism is accepted by Materialists as 

 the foundation of their system, appears to be because the 

 whole process of Evolution, if based on Natural Selection, is 

 not reducible to any natural law. It is a mechanical hap- 

 hazard system, which Huxley called a " method of trial and 

 error ". 



Since Natural Selection requires indefinite variations, out 

 of which one or two individuals are selected, the rest perishing, 

 there is no definite relationship between the accidental, favour- 

 able variations and the being's recjuirements in adaptation to 

 the new environment. If such happen to occur, so far so good; 

 but if they do not, then all must perish. 



There could scarcely have been a better illustration to dis- 

 prove the whole process of Darwinism, than Darwin's own 

 description of an imaginary "noble and commodious edifice," 



(174) 



