38 Evolution by Expansion . [January, 
theory. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light hardly 
concerns us more than how life itself originated.” 
Not common sense only, but Reason rebels, when required 
to acquiesce in a theory which supposes that an eye, perfect 
and elaborately constructed in accordance with occult laws 
of physics, could have been formed by a series of accidental 
variations— as it would if required to believe that a philo- 
sophical instrument made by man could have been evolved 
by such means. 
But there is no difficulty in allowing that the most perfect 
eye has been gradually developed from the most imperfect, 
provided we recognise the existence of an agent adequate to 
the accomplishment or achievement of such development. 
The existence of the evidences of design in creation is so 
much a matter of opinion that it would serve no purpose to 
discuss it here ; if, however, it be once admitted that design 
is apparent in the different forms of life, the theory that 
natural selection has been the chief agent in their formation 
becomes untenable. 
It is needless to point out how the above difficulties to the 
theory of natural selection tend to corroborate the theory 
advocated in this paper. 
When Darwin evades more searching investigation of 
his difficulties by coming to the conclusion that to attempt 
to explain them more fully than he does would involve an 
inquiry into the origin of life itself : when he uses such ex- 
pressions as “ the mysterious laws of correlation when, 
indeed, he assumes that an organism has the faculty of 
adapting itself to its condition of life, has the power of 
improving its members or organs, and altering them to serve 
for new purposes ; when he absolutely founds his theory on 
the supposition that an organism is endowed with the 
power, by a long series of efforts, and the inheritance of 
slight variations, of developing into a new and more highly 
organised structure, does he not tacitly admit the existence 
of an inherent force or energy, or, in other words, of a power 
of expansion ? External conditions would have no more 
effect on organic than on inorganic matter, were not the 
former endowed with a power of growth, development, 
expansion. Were organisms merely plastic there could be 
no progress, no improvement, no ascent to higher forms of 
life ; there might be variety or change, but there would be 
nothing new or essentially different. “ Ex nihilo, nihil fit 
in default of a power of expansion extraneous influences 
would have nothing to work upon, no energy to direCt, no 
growth to mould to the changing conditions of life. 
