Weismannism up to date (1893). l 39 



ordered evolution of a comparatively small number 

 of " determinants," a considerable array of arguments 

 might be adduced in support of either view. Thus, 

 Galton might well maintain that his interpretation 

 of the observable facts is most in accordance with the 

 general analogies supplied by organic nature as a 

 whole. The ancient aphorism of Heraclitus, " Struggle 

 is the father, king, and lord of all things," has been in 

 large measure justified by Darwin and his followers, 

 at any rate within the range of biology. Not only 

 have we the "struggle for existence" where "the 

 origin of species " is concerned ; but Roux has well 

 argued, in his remarkable work on Der Kampf der 

 Theile im Organismus, that the principle of " struggle " 

 is concerned to an equally important extent as 

 between all the constituent parts of the same indi- 

 vidual. But if this is so— if every tissue-cell of the 

 organism owes its maintenance to success in a general 

 contest for nutriment, &c, — do we not find at least 

 a probability that it owes its origin as a visible 

 cell to a similar success in a similarly general contest 

 among the invisible elements from which tissue-cells 

 are developed ? Nay, does it not seem well nigh 

 incredible that when this selection-principle is seen to 

 be the governing cause of evolution everywhere else, 

 it should cease to play any part at all just at the 

 place where we are unable to see what is going on ? 

 As we are agreed that this " father of all things " 

 is of prime importance in phylogeny — to say nothing 

 of physiology, psychology, and sociology,— must we 

 not deem it absurd to suppose that it is supplanted 

 in ontogeny by the opposite principle of absolute 

 peace ? 



