110 WHAT IS DARWINISM t 



bodies with a peculiar force and reason." Older 

 writers, says Flourens, in speaking of Nature, 

 " gave to her inclinations, intentions, and views, 

 and horrors (of a vacuum), and sports," etc. 

 He says that one of the principal objects of his 

 book is to show how Mr. Darwin " has deluded 

 himself, and perhaps others, by a constant 

 abuse of figurative language." " He plays with 

 Nature as he pleases, and makes her do what- 

 soever he wishes." When we remember that 

 Mr. Darwin defines Nature to be the aggregate 

 of physical forces, we see how, in attributing 

 everything to Nature, he effectually excludes 

 the supernatural. 



In his volume of " Lay Sermons, Reviews," 

 etc., Professor Huxley has a very severe critique 

 on M. Flourens' s book. He says little, however, 

 in reference to teleology, except in one para- 

 graph, in which we read : " M. Flourens cannot 

 imagine an unconscious selection ; it is for him 

 a contradiction in terms." Huxley's answer 

 is, " The winds and waves of the Bay of Biscay 

 have not much consciousness, and yet they have 

 with great care ' selected,' from an infinity of 

 masses of silex, all grains of sand below a cer- 

 tain size and have "heaped them by themselves 

 over a great area A frosty night selects 



