64 De Vi Physica 



Darwin's almost superhuman reputation 

 rested on the fact that he was popularly 

 believed to have discovered the answer to 

 these questions. Pure delusion ! Not only 

 was he as ignorant of the answer as the 

 rest of the world, but worse : for pure ig- 

 norance is better than the false conceit of 

 knowledge. Darwin both went himself, and 

 led others, astray, and has to a melancholy 

 degree perverted scientific endeavour : teach- 

 ing his disciples to look for the solution 

 of natural problems in a wholly erroneous 

 direction : thus it is that at present we see 

 almost everybody desperately striving to 

 force all the facts of Nature into harmony 

 with 'Natural Selection/ ignoring the organic 

 power that really effects the result. Nature 

 does her work in one way : Darwin and his 

 pupils strenuously labour to explain it, in 

 the most far-fetched, round-about, and per- 

 verse manner, in another. Nothing can cure 



