342 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



comparisons refer to the law of " natural selection," 

 which is placed in parallel with Newton's law of 

 " universal gravity." Now, although " natural selec- 

 tion," the automatic process which ensures the survival 

 of the fittest and the extinction of the less adaptive 

 members in a crowd of living beings, is a definite 

 formula which allows us to understand and clearly 

 define one of the many factors which are at work in 

 the development, in the genesis and growth, of living 

 beings, it is only one. It is not a prime mover or force, 

 like the force of gravity ; it is a check upon the over- 

 luxuriance of other existing forces of production and 

 development. These are only very imperfectly known ; 

 whereas Newton not only discovered the " law of gravita- 

 tion," but also the correct expression for the general and 

 all-pervading laws of motion which obtain, even where 

 gravitation or any similar force ceases to be a valid con- 

 ception. Again, Newton's greatness does not rest on 

 the " law of gravitation " alone, but much more on the 

 general foundations of dynamics and natural philosophy 

 which he has laid. So also Darwin's greatness is not 

 limited to the formula of " natural selection," but 

 depends on the novel conception which he has intro- 

 duced into the study of nature on the large scale and as 

 a whole, viewing it as a scene of conflict and ceaseless 

 development. From this time dates the study of nature 

 as a whole l in contradistinction to that of natural 



this I shall treat in the next chap- 

 ter. See also the various writings 

 of Hans Driesch, such as 'Analyt- 

 ische Theorie der organischen Ent- 

 wicklung ' (Leipzig, 1894) ; ' Die 

 Biologic als selbstiindige Grund- 



wissenschaft (1893), especially p. 7 

 of the latter. 



1 Though this was prepared, as 

 Darwin himself points out, by A. 

 von Humboldt. 



