380 



MEMOIRS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



concerned with special services to the general life * of the 



organism, or 



even to 



life external to 



organic species 



the general life of the world, or ultimately even to the 

 highest and best life of the world. • This doctrine deprived of its grander fea- 

 tures, as the doctrine of Final Causes in natural history, and limited simply to 



7 • 



the conception of the parts and characters of organic structures as all, or nearly 

 all, related essentially to the preservation and continuance of the life itself 



■ 



which they embody, or to the principle of self-conservation, is the ground of the 

 importance claimed for the principle of Natural Selection in the generation of 



But another school of naturalists, whose influence has been 

 steadily gaining ground, has always strenuously opposed this view, and questioned 



■ 



the validity of the induction on which it rests. Though it is true that the higher 

 animals and plants exhibit a great many special adaptations to the conditions of 

 their existence, yet, it is objected, in a far greater number of characteristics 

 they, in common with the rest of the organic world, exhibit no such adapta- 

 tions. In those most important features of organic structures, which are now 

 called genetic characters, and were formerly called affinities, few or no specific 

 uses can in general be discovered ; and it is considered unphilosophical to base 

 an induction on the comparatively few cases of this class of characters which 

 have obvious utilities. It is thought unphilosophical to presume on such meagre 

 grounds that all these characters are either now, or have been, of service to 



the life of the 



ganism ; thus confounding these g 



characters with those 



that are properly called adaptive. By positing this distinction of genetic and 

 adaptive characters as a fundamental and absolute one, the theory of organic 

 types opposes itself to the conception of utility as a property of organic struc- 

 tures in general, and conceives, on the other hand, that an organism consists 

 essentially of certain constituent parts and characters which are of no service 

 to its general life, and are ends, so far as we can know, in themselves; though 

 other and subordinate ones may stand incidentally in this menial relation. 



This contrast being a merely speculative difference of 



opinion, a 



reference to 



in a scientific inquiry, would be out of 



were it not that scientific 



inquiries are almost never free from such biases. These almost always exert an 

 unperceived influence, unless specially guarded against; and in calling attention 

 here to this question in biological, philosophy, it is only for the purpose of 



characterizing it as a strictly open question 



As 



is 



so often the case in su 



ch 



debates, both sides are 



cred 



to the other 



ght and both wrong ; 



ght, so far as each refuses 



main 



d 



exclusive position, and wrong, so far as e 



ach 



