DARWIN AND NATURAL SELECTION 55 



has been put into living things which causes them 

 to vary, and, still more, if it causes them so to 

 vary that the result is a constant progress towards 

 a definite goal, that power must have been infused 

 and that course, with its goal, foreseen and fore- 

 ordained by a Supreme intelligence. Plate thinks 

 that we can know nothing of the " lawgiver." 

 That is another question ; it is something now- 

 adays to have His existence admitted. Let us 

 gather together some of the opinions and deduct- 

 ions which, as we have seen, are held to-day by 

 various not insignificant men of science. There is 

 the opinion that the changes which produce 

 evolution originate from within, and not from 

 without. There is the further opinion that these 

 internal changes are the result of an inherent 

 tendency, a power urging and guiding the organ- 

 ism along the path of progress. There is the view 

 that this path of progress is pre-determined. There 

 is the view that the changes which really count 

 are sudden, considerable and discontinuous. 

 Finally, there is the view that these sudden and 

 considerable changes take place, not constantly, 

 but at certain epochs in the history of a species : 

 discontinuity in time as well as discontinuity in 

 variation. Professor Poulton, who does not, as we 

 gather from his writings, believe in any such in- 

 ternal force, admits or pleads whichever is the 

 right word to use that the " idea of evolution 

 under the compulsion of an internal force residing 

 in the idioplasm is in essence but little removed 

 from special creation."* It must be admitted that 



* Darwin and the f( Origin," p. 20. 



