WHAT IS DARWINISM? 79 



was not formed for the purpose of seeing, or 

 the ear for hearing. It so happened that a 

 nerve became sensitive to light ; then in course 

 of time, it happened that a transparent tissue 

 came over it ; and thus in " millions of years " 

 an eye, as we have seen above, happened 

 to be formed. No such organ was ever in- 

 tended or designed by God or man. " An ap- 

 paratus," says Professor Huxley, " thoroughly 

 adapted to a particular purpose, might be the 

 result of a method of trial and error worked by 

 unintelligent agents, as well as by the appli- 

 cation of means appropriate to the end by an 

 intelligent agent." " For the notion that every 

 organism has been created as it is and launched 

 straight at a purpose, Mr. Darwin substitutes 

 the conception of something, which may fairly 

 be termed a method of trial and error. Organ- 

 isms vary incessantly ; of these variations the 

 few meet with surrounding conditions which 

 suit them, and thrive ; the many are unsuited, 

 and become extinguished." " For the teleol- 

 ogist an organism exists, because it was made 

 for the conditions in which it is found ; for the 

 Darwinian an organism exists, because, out of 

 many of its kind, it is the only one which has 

 been able to persist in the conditions in which 



