86 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



lost and still perish, according to what Em- 

 pedocles says concerning the bull species with 

 human heads. This, therefore, and similar rea- 

 soning, may lead some to doubt on this subject. 



It is, however, impossible that these (adap- 

 tive) parts should subsist (arise) in this manner ; 

 for these parts, and everything which is produced 

 in Nature, are either always, or, for the most 

 part, thus {L e, adaptively) produced; but this 

 is not the case with anything which is produced 

 by fortune or chance,^ even as it does not appear 

 to be fortune or chance that it frequently rains 

 in winter. ... If these things appear to be 

 either by chance, or to be for some purpose, — 

 and we have shown that they cannot be by 

 chance — then it follows that they must be for 

 some purpose. There is, therefore, a purpose in 

 things which are produced by, and exist from. 

 Nature. 



\^A Sequence of Purposive Productions'] 



Since, also. Nature is twofold, consisting of 

 matter and of form, the latter being an end for 

 the sake of which the rest subsists, form will also 

 be a cause for the sake of which natural produc- 

 tions subsist. . . . Further still, it is necessary 



^Compare Darwin: "I have hitherto sometimes spoken as if the 

 variations . . . were due to chance. This, of course, is a wholly- 

 incorrect expression, but it merely serves to acknowledge plainly 

 our ignorance of the cause of each particular variation." 



