102 CRITICISMS ON "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES " m 



deduction from the observed relations of organisms 

 to the conditions which lie around them, with a 

 metaphysical " forme substantielle," or a chimerical 

 personification of the powers of Nature, would be 

 incredible, were it not that other passages of his 

 work leave no room for doubt upon the subject. 



"On imagine une election naturelle que, pour plus de menage- 

 ment, on me dit etre inconscienie, sans s'apercevoir que le contre- 

 sens litteral est precisement la : Election inconsciente." (P. 52.) 



" J'ai deja dit ce qu'il faut penser de I' election naturelle. Ou 

 Selection naturelle n'est rien, ou c'est la nature : mais la nature 

 douee Selection, mais la nature personnifiee : derniere erreur du 

 dernier siecle : Le xix e ne fait plus de personnifications." (P. 

 53.) 



M. Flourens cannot imagine an unconscious 

 selection it is for him a contradiction in terms. 

 Did M. Flourens ever visit one of the prettiest 

 watering-places of "la belle France," the Baie 

 d'Arcachon ? If so, he will probably have passed 

 through the district of the Landes, and will have 

 had an opportunity of observing the formation of 

 "dunes" on a grand scale. What are these 

 " dunes " ? The winds and waves of the Bay of 

 Biscay have not much consciousness, and yet they 

 have with great care " selected," from among an 

 infinity of masses of silex of all shapes and sizes, 

 which have been submitted to their action, all the 

 grains of sand below a certain size, and have 

 heaped them by themselves over a great area. 

 This sand has been " unconsciously selected " from 





