454 On Archcesthetism. [June, 



ON ARCH^ESTHETISM. 



I. The Hypothesis of Use and Effort. 



THE claims of the theory of Lamarck, that use modifies struc- 

 ture in the animal kingdom, are being more carefully consid- 

 ered than heretofore, and are being admitted in quarters where 

 they have been hitherto neglected or ignored. Eleven years ago 

 I restated the question as follows : l 



" The influences and forces which have operated to produce the 

 type structures of the animal kingdom have been plainly of two 

 kinds: I. Originative, 2. Directive. The prime importance of the 

 former is obvious ; that the latter is only secondary in the order 

 of time or succession, is evident from the fact that it controls the 

 preservation or destruction of the results or creations of the 

 first. 



"Wallace and Darwin have propounded as the cause of modi- 

 fication in descent their law of natural selection. This law has 

 been epitomized by Spencer as the ' survival of the fittest.' This 

 neat expression no doubt covers the case, but it leaves the origin 

 of the fittest entirely untouched. Darwin assumes a ' tendency 

 to variation' in nature, and it is plainly necessary to do this, in 

 order that materials for the exercise of a selection should exist. 

 Darwin and Wallace's law is, then, only restrictive, directive, con- 

 servative or destructive of something already created. I propose 

 then to seek for the originative laws by which these subjects are 

 furnished — in other words, for the causes of the origin of the 

 fittest. 



" It has seemed to the author so clear from the first as to require . 

 no demonstration, that natural selection includes no actively pro- 

 gressive principle whatever; that it must first wait for the devel- 

 opment of variation, and then after securing the survival of the 

 best, wait again for the best to project its own variations for selec- 

 tion. In the question as to whether the latter are any better or 

 worse than the characters of the parent, natural selection in no 

 wise concerns itself." 



In seeking for the causes of the origin of variation, the follow- 

 ing hypothesis was proposed : 



" What are the influences locating growth force ? The only 

 efficient ones with which we are acquainted, are, first, physical 

 and chemical causes ; second, use; and I would add a third, viz . 

 effort. I leave the first as not especially prominent in the econ- 

 omy of type growth among animals, and confine myself to tn 



•The Method of Creation, 1871, pp. 

 Amer. Philos. Soc, pp. 230-246. 



Essay. Proceeds. 



