DARWIN 339 



any great difficulty, or affords a proof of some 

 innate tendency in plants toward perfection." 

 This standpoint is further brought out in Dar- 

 win's very interesting correspondence with Asa 

 Gray upon the evidence for design in Nature: "I 

 cannot think that the world, as we see it, is the re- 

 sult of chance; and yet I cannot look at each sep- 

 arate thing as the result of Design. To take a 

 crucial example, you lead me to infer that you 

 believe 'that variation has been led along certain 

 beneficial lines.' I cannot believe this."^ Again: 

 *'I must think that it is illogical to suppose that 

 the variations, which natural selection preserves 

 for the good of any being have been designed."^ 

 In still another passage:^ "I am inclined to look 

 at everything as resulting from designed laws, 

 with the details, whether good or bad, left to the 

 working out of what we may call chance. Not 

 that this notion at all satisfies me." 



This makes sufficiently clear Darwin's opin- 

 ions at this time upon the theories of all his pred- 

 ecessors except one, namely, St. Hilaire. Hux- 

 ley, in his early correspondence upon the Origin 

 of Species, tried to convince Darwin of the pos- 

 sibility of occasional rapid leaps or changes in 

 Nature, analogous to those which St. Hilaire 

 had advocated, although Huxley probably did 



'^Life and Letters. Letter to Asa Gray, Nov. 26, 1860. 

 2Loc. cit. Letter to Asa Gray, Sept. 17, 1861 (?). 

 ^Loc. cit. Letter to Asa Gray, May 22, 1860. 



