704 Studies in the Theory of Descent. 



Now if this wide deviation in every part were in 

 itself no obstacle to the assumption of a designing 

 and re-modelling power, it would become so by 

 the circumstance that all the parts of the organism 

 must stand in the most precis^ relation to the 

 external conditions of life, if the organism is to be 

 capable of existing all the parts must be exactly 

 adapted to certain conditions of life. How can 

 this be brought about by a transforming force 

 acting spasmodically ? Von Hartmann who, in 

 spite of his clear perception and widely extended 

 scientific knowledge, cannot possibly possess a 

 strong conviction of that harmony between structure 

 and life-conditions prevailing throughout the whole 

 system of the organism, and which personal re- 

 search and contemplation are alone able to give 

 simply bridges over the difficulty by permitting 

 natural selection to come to his aid as an 

 " auxiliary principle " of the re-modelling power. 

 It would not be supposed that naturalists would 

 resort to the same device nevertheless those who 

 support the phyletic force and per saltum de- 

 velopment generally invoke natural selection as 

 the principle which governs adaptation. But 

 when does this agency come into operation ? 

 When by germinal metamorphosis a new form 

 has arisen, this, from the first moment of its ex- 

 istence, must be adapted to the new conditions of 

 life or it must perish. No time is allowed for it 

 to continue in an unadapted state throughout a 



