WHAT IS DARWINISM? 83 



such as we see it in man or in the higher ver- 

 tebrata, was made with the precise structure 

 which it exhibits, to make the animal which 

 possesses it to see, has undoubtedly received its 

 death-blow. But it is necessary to remember 

 that there is a higher teleology, which is not 

 touched by the doctrine of evolution, but is act- 

 ually based on the fundamental proposition of 

 evolution. That proposition is, that the whole 

 world, living and not living, is the result of the 

 mutual interaction, according to definite laws, 

 of forces possessed by the molecules of which 

 the primitive nebulosity of the universe was 

 composed. If this be true, it is no less certain 

 that the existing world lay potentially in the 

 cosmic vapor ; and that a sufficient intelligence 

 could, from a knowledge of the properties of 

 that vapor, have predicted, say, the state of 

 fauna of Great Britain in 1869, with as much 

 certainty as one can say what will happen to 

 the vapor of the breath on a cold winter's 

 day." This is the doctrine of the self-evolution 

 of the universe. We know not what may lie 

 behind this in Mr. Huxley's mind ; but we are 

 very sure that there is not an idea in the 

 above paragraph which Epicurus of old, and 

 Biichner, Voght, Haeckel, and other " Material- 



