WHAT IS DARWINISM 1 ! 105 



Janet. 



Janet, a professor of philosophy, is the au- 

 thor of a book on the Materialism of Biichner. 1 

 The greater part of the last chapter of his 

 work is devoted to Darwinism. He says, " Dr. 

 Biichner invoked (Darwin's book) as a striking 

 confirmation of his doctrine." (p. 154) What 

 Biichner's doctrine is has been shown on a 

 previous page. The points of coincidence be- 

 tween Darwin's system and his are, that both 

 regard mind as a mere function of living mat- 

 ter ; and both refer all the organs and organ- 

 isms of living things to the unconscious, unin- 

 telligent operation of physical causes. Biich- 

 ner's way of accounting for complicated organs 

 was, " that the energy of the elements and 

 forces of matter, which in their fated and acci- 

 dental occurrence must have produced innu- 

 merable forms, which must needs limit each 

 other mutually, and correspond, apparently, 

 the one with the other, as if they were made 

 for that purpose. Out of all those forms, they 



1 The Materialism of the Present Day: a Critique of Dr. 

 Biichner's System. By Paul Janet, Member of the Institute of 

 France, Professor of Philosophy at the Paris Paculte des Let- 

 tres. Translated from the French, by Gustave Masson, B. A 

 London and Paris, 1867. 



