142 



THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



No animal and no plant exhibits such a multifarious 

 purposeful intercourse with surrounding nature: they 

 are all confined within very narrow limits to definite 

 objects and definite conditions of life ; they are 

 specialized in their entire construction, i.e. adapted in 

 one direction, which is the direct opposite of ' perfect ' 

 (volJcommen). 



It is therefore incomprehensible when Franz (p. 36) 

 writes : ' It appears to me, for instance, that by 

 the formation of the intestinal canal, the formation 

 of the foot and the arming of the head, the Ruminants 

 have decidedly assumed a similar supreme position 

 (Gipfelstellung),' as has man, in the general opinion, 

 by virtue of his brain. The quadruple divided stomach 

 of the Cow and the horns on the head are certainly very 

 purposeful instruments for a strong grass-eater and 

 an otherwise quite unarmed beast. If man has no 

 specialized formation of the intestinal canal, what he 

 has permits other nutrition than only green fodder, 

 which under the circumstances is very much to the 

 purpose and is recognized by all as ' perfection/ As 

 substitute for the horns, which can only be used in 

 close combat, he has known how to provide himself 

 with firearms, or traps, as opposed to which even the 

 mighty herds of the Bison have at last had to yield. 

 In the invention and manufacture of such extremely 

 and vitally purposeful things his brain has done him 

 the greatest service. His weapons, it is true, do not 

 grow upon him, as do the horns on an ox, but his under- 

 standing has ' grown ' instead, and the gun is just as 



