46 DARWIN AND NATURAL SELECTION 



* explain ' only why certain types of organic specifi- 

 cations, imaginable a 'priori, do not actually exist, 

 but it never explains at all the existence of the 

 specifications of animal and vegetable forms that 

 are actually found. In speaking of an ' explanation ' 

 of the origin of the living specific forms by natural 

 selection, one therefore confuses the sufficient 

 reason for the non-existence of what there is not, 

 with the sufficient reason for the existence of what 

 there is." And again, " that dogmatic Darwinism 

 has been found to be unable to explain every kind 

 of mutual adaptations, e.g., those existing between 

 plants and insects ; that it can never account for 

 the origin of those properties that are indifferent 

 to the life of the bearer, being mere features of 

 organization as an arrangement of parts ; that it 

 fails in the face of all portions of organization 

 which are composed of many different parts 

 like the eye and nevertheless are functional units 

 in any passive or active way ; and that last, not 

 least, it has been found to be quite inadequate to 

 explain the first origin of all newly-formed con- 

 stituents of organization, even if they are not 

 indifferent : for how could any rudiment of an 

 organ, which is not functioning at all, not only 

 be useful to its bearer, but be useful in such a 

 degree as to decide about life or death."* Finally, 

 as regards the views of the powerful writer from 

 whom the last two quotations have been made : 

 " It is altogether impossible to account for the 

 restitutive power of organisms by the simple means 

 of fluctuating variation and natural selection 



* Driesch, Science and Philosophy of the Organism, p. 266. 



