35P' /s Organic Variation Fortuitous ? [May, 
next day he felt as if he had bees in a great hollow in his 
head, as well as a slight headache. The organs of locomo- 
tion were first affected, next came sight and hearing, but 
Herr Maclay is very positive that there were no dreams, 
hallucinations, or visions of any sort whatever. 
VI. IS ORGANIC VARIATION FORTUITOUS ?* 
& OMITTING the broad fadt that the organic world, 
like the organic individual, has been produced not by 
any sudden and arbitrary intervention of supernatural 
power, but by a gradual course of Evolution, the question 
remains — What is the efficient cause of such Evolution ? 
Are species, as we find them, due to the mere accumulation of 
fortuitous changes through an almost infinite succession of 
ages ? Or can we trace “ in the inner domain of life ” other 
and more powerful fadtors than Natural Seledtion ? A pro- 
found thinker suggests as such agencies “ Habit and Intel- 
ligence.” By Habit he understands “ that law in virtue of 
which all the adtions and the characters of living beings tend 
to repeat and to perpetuate themselves not only in the indi- 
vidual, but in its offspring. Mr. Murphy’s “ Habit,” there- 
fore, includes what is commonly known as heredity. He 
considers intelligence “ an attribute of all living beings, and 
coextensive with life.” But by intelligence he means “ not 
only the conscious intelligence of the mind, but also the 
organising intelligence which adapts the eye for seeing, the 
ear for hearing, and every other part of the organism for its 
work.” It will easily be seen that the inquiry thus opened 
must be to no small extent a critique of the hypothesis 
commonly known as Darwinism. But from the majority of 
writers who have undertaken such a task Mr. Murphy differs 
most favourably. He is a decided Evolutionist, agreeing 
with Darwin “ in the belief that all species have been derived 
by descent with modification, probably from one, certainly 
from a few original germs.” He admits Natural Seledtion 
to be “ a really operative agent — a vera causa ,” but he differs 
from Darwin and from his diredt disciples by contending — 
and in our opinion with great cogency — that “ the process of 
* Habit and Intelligence : a Series of Essays on the Laws of Life and 
Mind. By J. J. Murphy. London: Macmillan and Co, 
