66 WHAT IS DARWINISM? 



Variations, which by their gradual accumula- 

 tion give rise to new species, genera, families, 

 and orders, are themselves, step by step, 

 accidental. Mr. Darwin sometimes says they 

 happen by chance ; sometimes he says they hap- 

 pen of necessity ; at others he says, " We are 

 profoundly ignorant of their causes." These 

 are only different ways of saying that they are 

 not intentional. When a man lets anything 

 fall from his hands, and says it was accidental, 

 he does not mean that it was causeless, he 

 only means that it was not intentional. And 

 that is precisely what Darwin means when he 

 says that species arise out of accidental varia- 

 tions. His whole book is an argument against 

 teleology. The whole question is, How are we 

 to account for the innumerable varieties, kinds, 

 and genera of plants and animals, including 

 man ? Were they intended ? or, Did they arise 

 from the gradual accumulations of uninten- 

 tional variations ? His answer to these ques- 

 tions is plain. On page 245, he says : " Noth- 

 ing at first can appear more difficult to believe 

 than that the more complex organs and in- 

 stincts have been perfected not by means supe- 

 rior to, though analogous with, human reason, 

 but by innumerable slight variations, each good 



