RATIONALISM AND SCIENCE 229 



Natural Selection of Darwinism is, in fact, a Dens ex 

 inachind for Haeckelian Monists and Darwinians like 

 Weismann. It comes in handy whenever and wherever 

 some explanation is wanted. It can do anything and 

 everything, without giving one the trouble of thinking or 

 investigating the causes of phenomena. 



Thus, the Mind and Reason are equally regarded as 

 being due to Natural Selection ; so too is the aesthetic 

 sense, while Morals follow suit. Thus it is said : " The 

 capacity of the human intellect is in conformity with 

 what we might expect, on the theory that it has been 

 evolved for practical purposes by the process of Natural 

 Selection " } 



" Reason is ' the roof and crown of things ' ; it is the 

 final result of a long process of Natural Selection." '^ " The 

 development of the aesthetic sentiments may be explained 

 as one of the inevitable results of the operation of Natural 

 Selection." ^ 



Since, however, Darwin came to see that self-adapta- 

 tion to the "definite" action of the environment is the 

 cause of new variations in animals and plants : experience 

 shows us that aestheticism and tastes for forms of art are 

 matters of cultivation. This means that the more we 

 exercise our brains in studying these things, the more the 

 brain will respond and become educated. 



Such is only a particular instance of the universal 

 process of " response to the environment," perfectly 

 analogous to the education of reason and other mental 

 traits by practice. It thus falls under the law of use, by 

 which structure is developed in the bodies of animals and 

 plants. 



As another trait of the mind, is the love of beauty. 



^Mr. Balfour'' s Apologetics, p. 87. 



■•^ Op. cit., p. 93. 3 p_ yj_ 



