102 ORGANIC EVOLUTION" 



alight occurs to change them — and the assertion 

 that, in virtue of some wholly mystic and unintel- 

 ligible principle, they are constantly undergoing 

 change. This latter assertion, upon the validity of 

 which the objection depends, is entirely without any 

 warrant in fact, and, on analysis, is seen to involve 

 the assumption that certain phenomena occur with- 

 out a cause or that the cause is supernatural — a 

 " hidden purpose " or " teleological principle." l 



Many years ago, before the doctrine of organic 

 evolution had been placed on a philosophical basis, 

 the great Cuvier used the fact of the persistence 

 of types as an argument against the then highly 

 unorthodox views of Lamarck. There being every 

 reason to suppose that I should not improve on 

 Huxley's reference to this fact, did I make the 

 attempt, I will quote his words : 2 



The French expedition to Egypt had called the atten- 

 tion of learned men to the wonderful store of antiquities 

 in that country, and there had been brought back to 

 France numerous mummified corpses of the animals which 

 the ancient Egyptians revered and preserved, and which, 

 at a reasonable computation, must have lived not less 

 than three or four thousand years before the time at 

 which they were thus brought to light. Cuvier endea- 

 voured to test the hypothesis that animals have under- 

 gone gradual and progressive modifications of structure, 

 by comparing the skeletons and such other parts of the 

 mummies as were in a fitting state of preservation, with 



1 Teleology (from Gr. tele-, at a distance, as in telegraph) is the 

 " science " which explains final causes, i.e. causation by the end or 

 purpose towards which things are supposed to move. 



2 " Lectures on Evolution." 



