SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT 27 



things to vary : that explanation is purely verbal. 

 To say that a thing inheres in, or sticks in, something 

 else, does not explain why it inheres or how it got 

 stuck there. 



Of course there is the question of the action of 

 the environment as to which so much doubt exists 

 to-day. Of this it may be said that even if we grant 

 it all the influence which its warmest advocate 

 could ask, it still does not explain the question, 

 because it does not explain how living matter 

 acquired the property of responding to the in- 

 fluence of the environment. We have seen that 

 Darwin in set terms disclaims the efficacy of Natural 

 Selection as a cause of variations, and in face of the 

 fact is it not extraordinary to find a man of science 

 stating that " we must assume Natural Selection 

 to be the principle of the explanation of the ^~ 

 metamorphoses, because all other apparent prin- ' 

 ciples fail us, and it is inconceivable that there J| 

 should be another capable of explaining the adap- * 

 tation of organisms without assuming the help of ' 

 a principle of design." Yet in such terms illogical * 

 in the extreme, so it seems to me, does Weismann T ' 

 address himself to the solution of the difficulty, o*"*^ 

 And, in so doing, he seems to me to throw a light A*^ 

 upon the point with which we are concerned. If, * 

 he says, Natural Selection cannot explain the * 

 matter, then we must haVfe recourse to the only 

 other possible alternative that, to him, appalling 

 alternative the principle of design.. 



We need not hesitate to grant *kfet these are ^ 

 the two alternatives with which we have to do. 

 Now let us for a moment suppose that Natural 



