306 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [Chap. 



■Nvbioh have little in the shape of novelty to recommend 

 them. But, after all, novelty can hardly be predicated of 

 the views here criticised and opposed. Some of these seem 

 almost a return to the "fortuitous concourse of atoms" 

 of Democritus, and even the very theory of *' Natural Se- 

 lection" itself— a "survival of the fittest" — was in part 

 thought out not hundreds but thousands of years ago. Op- 

 ponents of Aristotle maintained that by the accidental oc- 

 currence of combinations, organisms have been preserved 

 and perpetuated such as final causes, did they exist, would 

 have brought about, disadvantageous combinations or vari- 

 ations being speedily exterminated. " For when the very 

 same combinations happened to be produced which the law 

 of final causes would have called into being, those combina- 

 tions which proved to be advantageous to the organism 

 ■were preserved ; while those which were not advantageous 

 perished, and still perished like the miuotaurs and sphinxes 

 of Empedocles." " 



In conclusion, the author ventures to hope that this 

 treatise may not be deemed useless, but have contributed, 

 however slightly, toward clearing the way for pcnice and 

 conciliation, and for a more ready perception of the harmony 

 which exists between those deductions from our primary 

 intuitions before alluded to, and the teachings of physical 

 science, as far, that is, as concerns the evolution of organic 

 forms — tJie genesis of species. 



The aim has been to support the doctrine that these 

 species have been evolved by ordinary natural laws (for the V 

 most part unknown) controlled by the subordinate action 

 of "Natural Selection," and at the same time to remind 



«8 Quoted from tlie Ramhhr of March, 1860, p. 3Gt : ""On-ou p.\v oZv 

 inavTa avvf^r}^ uxrirep k^u el '4viK(i rov iyiviTO, ravra /xeu dcnidi] a-rrh rod 

 avTOfJLoiTov (TvardvTa iniT-qSiiufS, '6(Ta he fir] outws dffa>\€To /col andWvTat^ 

 KadaKfp 'E/iTTtSo/cA^s Keyu to fiouyeyrj /col a.i'Spojrpupa." — AuiST. Phys.^ 

 ii. c. 8. . 



