200 Asa Gray. 



Both of these doctrines are anti-Darwinian, though not at 

 variance with Natural Selection. They take away what has 

 often been urged against Darwinism : the idea that the envi- 

 ronment under natural selection dominates in the determina- 

 tion of the direction of variation, and hence that evolution 

 comes chiefly through external conditions ; and substitutes the 

 idea that the environment works under organic control through 

 Natural Selection. One view implies that the environment in- 

 fluence is superior to organic law in the process ; the other, 

 that organic law is superior to the environment. Moreover, 

 Gray's last sentence expresses the opinion that Darwin's Nat- 

 ural Selection cannot produce the " survival of the fittest," 

 though " survival of the fittest " is the result brought about. 

 There is an " inscrutable something " that " produces." The 

 writer would go a little farther and say that the " survival of 

 the fittest," under " natural selection," is survival, not the 

 production of " the fittest ;" but this substitute I have reason 

 to believe that Gray would not accept. 



Further, Gray was a theistic Darwinian, as abundantly 

 shown in his Darwiniana, and alike also in his " Natural Sci- 

 ence and Religion." Here is his creed in his own words, as 

 published in the Preface to the Darwiniana : " I am scienti- 

 fically and in my own fashion a Darwinian, philosophically, 

 a convinced theist, and religiously, an accepter of the ' creed 

 commonly called the Nicene,' as the exponent of the Christian 

 faith." 



Gray's various literary or less scientific papers, contributions 

 mostly to the " North American Review," " Nation," and the 

 " Atlantic Monthly," always show the clear thinker, the grace- 

 ful writer and the well-stored head, whatever the topic ; and 

 when it is scientific, his method of popularizing and illustra- 

 ting his views is of the most attractive kind. His last con- 

 tribution to the "Nation" was a long characteristic notice of 

 Darwin's Life and Letters, in November, showing no waning 

 in his faculties ; on the contrary, there is manifest the same 

 clear-headed, judicial and sprightly reviewer, as honest as ever 

 in his opinions and in his modesty amid Darwin's profuse 

 (he says effusive) commendations. 



