220 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



the present day. This statement ought to suffice. 

 They are justified from the scientific point of view, 

 and it is absolutely unjustifiable to impute a theo- 

 logical tendency to them. 



Professor Plate referred also to interference on 

 the part of the Creator. He said that the laws of 

 nature were laid down at the beginning of all things, 

 and therefore there was no need for God to interfere 

 further. This is my opinion likewise ; I agree with 

 him completely as far as the natural order is con- 

 cerned, and this order alone was the subject of my 

 lectures and of to-night's discussion. Professor Plate 

 must have misunderstood me, if he imagined that 

 our views on this point were at variance. 



They certainly differ as to the origin of design 

 in nature. Plate says that we must not assume 

 the existence of any immanent design, everything 

 must be motived from the exterior, in consequence 

 of the struggle for existence. This is not true, and 

 I might quote a number of passages, which prove 

 its inaccuracy, from his own valuable and thorough 

 work on Darwin's principle of selection. 1 



He abandons the interior laws of evolution when- 

 ever they are inconvenient, but the capability of 

 reaction to external stimulus, possessed by living 

 organisms, contains in itself these interior laws of 

 evolution, and the principle of adaptation to purpose 



1 The passages in Plate's work to which I refer are especially pp. 14-16, 

 45, 51, 60-62, 142-144 (this is the most conclusive), 184-185, 188, etc., 

 215, etc., 224, 2nd ed., 1903. 



