XVI 



PLANTS IN RELATION TO MAN 333 



I am as fully imbued with the teachings of evolution as 

 they can be ; and I still uphold, as I have always done, the 

 essential teachings of Darwinism. 



Darwin always admitted, and even urged, that " Natural 

 Selection has been the most important but not the exclusive 

 means of modification." He always adduced the " laws of 

 Growth with Reproduction," and of " Inheritance with 

 Variability," as being fundamental facts of nature, without 

 which Natural Selection would be powerless or even non- 

 existent, and which, then as now, were and are wholly 

 beyond explanation or even comprehension. He elaborated 

 his theory of Panagenesis for the purpose of rendering the 

 many strange facts of inheritance more unintelligible, but 

 even if it were proved to be an exact representation of the 

 facts it would not be an explanation, because, as Weismann, 

 Kerner, and many others admit, it would not account for 

 the forces, the directive agency, and the organising power 

 which are essential features of growth. This is felt so 

 strongly by all the great workers in physiology, that even 

 Haeckel has been driven to postulate " mind, soul, or 

 volition," not only in every cell but in each organic molecule 

 or physiological unit. And then, to save himself from the 

 slur of being " unscientific," and of introducing the very 

 organising power he had derided when suggested by others, 

 he loudly proclaims that his " soul-atom," though it has 

 " will," is yet wholly " unconscious." 2 



I again urge, therefore, that our greatest authorities 

 admit the necessity of some mind — some organising and 

 directive power — in nature ; but they seem to contemplate 

 merely some unknown forces or some innate rudimentary 

 mind in cell or atom. Such vague and petty suppositions, 

 however, do not meet the necessities of the problem. I 

 admit that such forces and such rudimentary mind-power 

 may and probably do exist, but I maintain that they are 

 wholly inadequate, and that some vast intelligence, some 

 pervading spirit is required to guide these lower forces in 

 accordance with a pre-ordained system of evolution of the 

 organic world. 



If, however, we go as far as this, we must go farther. 

 1 The Riddle of the Universe, p. 64. 



