274 



ON THE DIRECTIVITY OF LIFE. 



received, as the only evolutionist present in 1868, when on the 

 Council of the Institute. Mr. Orchard gives a hint luhy evolution 

 has failed in the Institute, if one may judge from the following 

 sentence: — "The several geological strata which, in Sedgwick's 

 time, revealed distinct series of fossils, . . . makes the same 

 revelation to-day, and tells us that Sedgwick was right in believing 

 in a succession of separate creative acts." This clearly shows that 

 Mr. Orchard is not aware of the many gaps in palaeontology and in 

 living organisms being filled up, as in the mammalia, shells, and 

 early plants, etc., all strongly corroborating evolution. 



Mr. Woods Smyth says, I " used to make much of ' Divine 

 Directivity.' " I have no recollection of ever having referred 

 directivity to any other source than life, for I have always treated 

 it from a scientific, not philosophic or theological standpoint. 



I am not aware "that species have originated through one or 

 two factors alone." The external conditions include all the factors, 

 such as light, heat, moisture, drought, soils, etc. These act on the 

 entirety of the plant — the total result is adaptation to these. 



"Selection" produces "Nothing"; neither artificial nor natural. 

 Man only isolates a variety which Nature has produced. In Nature, 

 a variety A lives, and B dies, because it dies a natural death or is 

 killed. Natural selection did not produce A. My opinion is that 

 Isolation not Selection is the important factor, because it saves the 

 variety from the struggle for existence, which is detrimental to 

 health and development, and leaves it to grow to maturity in peace, 

 just as man endeavours to raise new varieties under cultivation. 



I may be wrong, but it gives me the impression that my critics 

 generally have not acquired their knowledge first hand from Nature 

 herself. Unless this is done, and the student does so on ecological 

 lines, little progress can be expected. As Galileo said that the earth 

 moved for all his " questioning,""^ so 1 venture to add evolution is a 

 long since proven fact, notwithstanding my opponents. 



* "Tortures.^ 



