LIFE THE TRAVELER 



knows what it wants from the first, as the architect 

 does when he begins his building, or as the breeder 

 does, say, when he sets out to produce a pouter or 

 a tumbler pigeon. 



In his work on "Heredity," Weismann proceeds 

 further to illustrate his conception of the positive 

 character of natural selection in originating new 

 species, by comparing it to a traveler on a journey. 

 His traveler proceeds from a certain point on foot by 

 short stages at any given time and in any direction 

 — the direction being determined by the lay of the 

 land, and by its features of mountain, wood, and 

 stream, and other obstacles. He will take the line of 

 least resistance. But if he is a real traveler, and not 

 a vagrant, an aimless wanderer in the wilderness, 

 will he not be going somewhere, aiming at some pre- 

 determined goal? Some purpose, and not the lay of 

 the land, set him traveling; he will keep, in a general 

 way, a given direction. His course will be modified 

 more or less by the obstacles he encounters, but 

 these obstacles will not keep him going, nor deter- 

 mine his goal. 



Will the organizing impulse, set aimlessly wander- 

 ing in the wilderness of inert matter, and taking only 

 the line of least resistance, finally attain to all the 

 beautiful and wonderful living forms that people 

 the earth? Will it evolve the fish, the bird, the 

 mammal, and finally man? Do we find anything 

 in the constitution of the primary elements that 



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