134 NATURAL SELECTION AND 



c 



11 



refuses to recognise an "efficient" or "material " 

 cause. Now, surely, a complete account of any 

 institution would tell us not only what purpose 

 that institution now serves, but what it came 

 from ; we need a theory of origin as well as an 

 explanation of present value. But Dr. Reich's 

 view of causation is peculiar in this respect. 

 Thus he says (on p. 19) : "The Americans 

 continue to observe their written constitution, 

 not because it was once written, but because 

 they are determined to revere it as their funda- 

 mental law. It is their merit, not that of 

 Jefferson or Washington." Surely, if we are 

 fully to understand the American constitution, 

 we must take account of the makers of the 

 constitution, its sources and the circumstances 

 in which it came into existence, as well as of 

 the present feelings of the law-abiding citizens 

 of the United States. There is, indeed, an 

 unfortunate quarrel between the " historical ' 

 and the "analytic" methods of dealing with 

 institutions. Voltaire ridiculed- Montesquieu 

 for saying that the English constitution came 

 from the forests of barbarous Germany. " I 

 might as well say that the sermons of Tillotson 

 and Smalridge were composed of old by 



