8 LUCK, OR CUNNING ? 



lation. In "Life and Habit," following Mt. Mivart, and, 

 ^s I now find, Mr. Herbert Spencer, I showed (pp. 279— 

 281) how impossible it was for variations to accumulate 

 unless they were for the most part underlain by a 

 sustained general principle; but this subject will be 

 touched upon more fully later on. 



The accumulation of accidental variations which 

 pwed nothing to mind either in their inception, or 

 their accumulation, the pitchforking, in fact, of mind 

 out of the universe, or at Knj rate its exclusion from 

 all share worth talking about in the process of organic 

 development, this was the pill Mr. Darwin had given 

 us to swallow ; but so thickly had he gilded it with 

 descent with modification, that we did as we were told, 

 swallowed it without a murmur, were lavish in our 

 expressions of gratitude, and, for some twenty years 

 or so, through the mouths of our leading biologists, 

 ordered design peremptorily out of court, if she so 

 much as dared to show herself. Indeed, we have even 

 given life pensions to some of the most notable of these 

 biologists, I suppose in order to reward them for having 

 hoodwinked us so much to our satisfaction. 



HappUy the old saying, " Naturam, expellas /ti/rcd, 

 tamen usque recurret," still holds true, and the reaction 

 that has been gaining force for some time will doubt- 

 less ere long brush aside the cobwebs with which those 

 who have a vested interest in Mr. Darwin's reputation 

 as a philosopher still try to fog our outlook. Professor 

 Mivart was, as I have said, among the first to awaken 

 us to Mr. Darwin's denial of design, and to the 

 absurdity involved therein. He well showed how 



