ii ORGANIC EVOLUTION 95 



the Darwinian theory thus reduced to 

 emptiness something which, he says, 

 lies behind and above it, and which only 

 emerges with all the greater certainty 

 when the ruins of that theory have been 

 cleared away. This substitute is the 

 generalised term "organic evolution." 

 But what is this ? Is it anything more 

 than the general idea of development in 

 its special application to organic life ? 

 No, it is nothing more. It is again the 

 mere assertion of a self-evident proposi- 

 tion that organic forms have been de- 

 veloped somehow. We know it in the 

 case of our own bodies and in the case 

 of all contemporary living things. Mr. 

 Spencer gives us no short and clear 

 definition of what he means by organic 

 evolution either in itself or as dis- 

 tinguished from the form of it taken in 

 the Darwinian theory of natural selection. 

 He refers to some of the characteristic 



