ROMANES' MENTAL EVOLUTION, ETC. 63 



must now be looked at from a somewhat different 

 point of view from what was formerly the case, it is 

 not on that account rendered less interesting." This 

 is mused forth as a general gnome, and may mean 

 anything or nothing : the writer of the letterpress 

 under the hieroglyph in Old Moore's Almanac could 

 not be more guarded ; but I think I know what it 

 does mean. 



I cannot, of course, be sure; Mr. Darwin did not 

 probably intend that I should ; but I assume with 

 confidence that whether there is design in organism or 

 no, there is at any rate design in this passage of Mr. 

 Darwin's. This, we may be sure, is not a fortuitous 

 variation ; and, moreover, it is introduced for some 

 reason which made Mr. Darwin think it worth while 

 to go out of his way to introduce it. It has no fitness 

 in its connection with Hermann Miiller's book, for 

 what little Hermann Miiller says about teleology at all 

 is to condemn it ; why, then, should Mr. Darwin muse 

 here of all places in the world about the interest 

 attaching to design in organism ? Neither has the 

 passage any connection with the rest of the preface. 

 There is not another word about design, and even here 

 Mr. Darwin seems mainly anxious to face both ways, 

 and pat design as it were on the head while not com- 

 mitting himself to any proposition which could be 

 disputed. 



The explanation is sufficiently obvious. Mr. Darwin 

 wanted to hedge. He saw that the design which his 

 works had been mainly instrumental in pitchforking 

 out of organisms no less manifestly designed than a 



