36 LAW OF VARIATIONS. 



no-limit, in any theory, would be not only gratuitous, 

 but also in plain derogation of that canon of the 

 inductive philosophy, which enjoins that no principle 

 whatever shall be reasoned from, until_ it first shall 

 have been reasoned to. 



The question, therefore, of the cause, or law of the 

 improvements, is the point where Darwin's claim to 

 the title of a Baconian philosopher should have been 

 made good. A theory, which is to illustrate the sig- 

 nal triumph which "modern thought" has achieved 

 over the ignorance of nineteen centuries, should stand 

 upon a principle, which is as a buttress of adamant, 

 against every assault, — not upon a gratuitous assump-. 

 tion formulated in the teeth of the fact that the law of 

 its data, is yet unresolved; and despite the circum- 

 stance (which we shall develop most clearly), that those' 

 data conclusively negative such assumption. N . 



What is the law of Variation ? What is the cause 

 of the improvements ? 



Darwin says, the reason that animals and plants 

 vary, and improve, is because they possess " an innate 

 tendency" to vary and improve ! 



This assumption of his, is a barren, metaphysical 

 entity, which, by the concurring testimony of every 

 inductive philosopher, from the time of Bacon down to 

 the present, suffices to vitiate, and wholly invalidate 

 every hypothesis in which it is present. In his "Ani- 

 mals and Plants under Domestication]' and in his "Ori- 

 gin of Species]' he generalizes, and explains (!) the 

 facts of variation, by ascribing them to "an innate, „ 

 tendency," to " spontaneous or accidental variability," 



