PT. n. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Buckle. 75 



tions with regard to time must be absolutely worth- 

 less. I cannot feel at all convinced of the fact that, 

 even on Mr. Darwin's own hypothesis, and granting 

 to him all that he asks us to admit, all the opera- 

 tions of nature can be aifected by this admittedly 

 tedious process of Natural Selection. We must 

 remember that this term Natural Selection does not 

 really express any exercise of the will or of the 

 understanding; it is a purely involuntary course upon 

 which the living being, whether animal or vegetable, 

 is forced by the pressure of circumstances. There 

 is no guiding direction from above ; an accidental 

 variation is supposed to confer some advantage in 

 the struggle for existence, and the advantage thus 

 obtained secures for itself a certain stability in the 

 future, which gradually ripens the accidental variation 

 into a permanent one, and the permanent variation 

 into a species. In all this there is no exercise of 

 choice or of will, no intelligence exerted either by 

 the being himself or on the part of any Higher Power. 

 Results which we have always supposed to display an 

 Intelligent Will either proceeding from the individual 

 being himself or from a Higher Power, or from both, 

 are under Mr. Darwin's thepry the consequences of 

 these different directions into which these bodies are 



