THE INCOMPLETENESS OF DARWINISM. 21$ 



The Incompleteness of Darwinism. 



It will be noticed, in the first place, that there are 

 two factors in this theory which are simply taken as 

 facts, without themselves being explained. The 

 whole theory is based upon the fact that animals in- 

 herit the peculiarities of their parents, but it gives 

 no reason for this fact. That animals do transmit 

 their characteristics to their offspring is a fact, but 

 why they do so we do not know. Without an 

 explanation of this fact, the mystery of life remains 

 as great as ever. Natural Selection has nothing to 

 say upon this point. Darwin saw the necessity of 

 meeting this factor in some way in any attempt to 

 discover the origin of species, and consequently ad- 

 vanced an hypothesis for the purpose. A rather 

 remarkable piece of pure hypothesis it was, for 

 which there is or can be no direct evidence. This 

 matter will be considered more at length in the next 

 chapter. 



A more unfortunate lack in the Darwinian hy- 

 pothesis, is its failure to account for the variations 

 which it needs. Natural selection works entirely by 

 the selection of variations, but is itself unable to 

 account for a single one. It can originate nothing. 

 Given the variations and it readily preserves the 

 favorable ones, but it does not of itself explain the 

 appearance of any thing. Much literature has been 

 written upon the subject of variation, but it only 

 serves to emphasize our ignorance. Darwin assumed 

 that animals had an inherent tendency to vary, and 

 thought it in vain to attempt to show the cause of 

 any particular variation. Each variation has un- 



