670 Studies in the Theory of Descent. 



theory" (loc. cit. p. 17). But although we must 

 also confess with the critic of the " Philosophy of 

 the Unconscious," that " the facts of heredity have 

 hitherto defied every scientific explanation," 

 this furnishes us with no excuse for flying to a 

 metaphysical explanation, " which is here certainly 

 least able to satisfy the inability to understand 

 the connection arising from natural laws.'' 



It is not to be wondered a*t that Von Hartmann, 

 on the ground of the " Unconscious " on which he 

 takes his stand, speaks of the law of correlation 

 as an unconscious acknowledgment of a " non- 

 mechanical universal principle on the side of 

 Darwinism." By " correlation " he understands 

 something quite different to the idea which we 

 attach to this expression. He supposes that 

 41 Darwinism sees itself compelled to acknowledge 

 through empirical facts the uniform correlation of 

 characters pertaining to the specific type ; but it 

 thereby contradicts its mechanical principles of 

 explanation, all of which amount to the same 

 thing as conceiving the type as a mosaic, 

 chequered, superficial, and accidental aggregate 

 of characters, which have been singly acquired, 

 contemporaneously or successively, by selection 

 or habit." I do not believe, however, that any 

 such conception has ever been admitted either by 



18 " Das Unbewusste vom Standpunkte der Physiologic u. 

 Descendenztheorie," Berlin, 1872, p. 89. The second edition 

 appeared in 1877, > n Von Hartmann's own name. 



