160 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



precisely as if one, to the question, " Why has this tree 

 these leaves ? " should reply, " Because the gardener has 

 not cut them off." That would naturally explain why 

 the tree did not possess more leaves than are actually 

 on it, but it would never explain the presence and 

 origin of the existing foliage, nor do we understand in 

 the least why the bears in the polar regions are white 

 if we are told that bears otherwise coloured could 

 not survive/ l 



(b) Each organism is an harmonious whole, in 

 which the most varied parts are combined into a true 

 unit. It is unimaginable that a symmetrically and 

 harmoniously built complex organism, in which one 

 part is incapable of existing without the others, could 

 build itself unless in the hypothetical commencing 

 form all later organs and parts commenced to form 

 simultaneously, and simultaneously and always per- 

 fected themselves in the most complete harmony with 

 each other. That, however, Darwinism will not and 

 cannot concede. 



If it be also considered that this developing organism 

 at each stage not only now must have been perfectly 

 adapted to the conditions, because otherwise it could 

 not have lived, it is clearly seen that it can only be a 

 matter of accidental variations of some already perfectly 

 developed organs. 



Thus, in brief, without a planned total development 

 no organism could construct itself from simpler forms ; 

 all organisms at all times were just as exactly suited to 



1 H. Driesch : Philos. d. Organischen, I, p. 263. 



