464 MODERN SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION: 
potency that, pervaded by it, all the economy of nature, 
in both the animal and vegetable worlds, should be so 
nicely self-adjusting that, like a perfect machine from the 
hands of a master maker, it requires no constant tinker- 
ing to preserve the constancy and regularity of its move- 
ments. 
This much I have said in view of the possible accep- 
tance of the Darwinian theory by the scientific world. I 
should have said, in limine, however, that the Darwinian 
hypothesis is not accepted and can never be fully accepted 
by the student of science who is inspired with the spirit 
of the age. From the nature of things it can be proved 
only to a certain point, and while we accept that which is 
proven,—and for it sincerely thank Mr. Darwin, —that 
which is hypothesis, or based only upon probabilities we 
reject, as belonging in the category of mere theories, to 
disprove or purify which the modern scientific reform was 
inaugurated. Much, too, may be said against the suffi- 
ciency of “natural selection in the steagpls of life,” from 
observations made upon the TEP of the economy 
of nature. Necessarily, the action of the Darwinian prin- 
ciple must be limited to the individual, literally and 
purely selfish; and if it can be proved that a broader in- 
fluence pervades the created world, that something akin 
to benevolence enters into the organization of the indi- 
vidual, something which benefits others and not himself, 
one single fact establishing this truth would hurl the en- 
tire Darwinian fabric to the ground, or rather restrict it 
to its proper bearing upon the limits o variation, and the 
mooted question of “what is a species.” One of the most 
potent Mijpacoki in the perpetuation of species is fecun- 
 dity in the individual, whereas we see in social insects 
the tarojomy of the community is best served by a total 
