ks to half
its dimensions.

And, finally, if we can rid ourselves of the peculiar fascination which
this theory exercises, we soon begin to discover what extraordinary
improbability and fundamental artificiality it implies. "Utility" is
maintained to be that which absolutely, almost tyrannically, determines
form and development in the realm of the living. Is this an idea that
finds any analogy elsewhere in nature? Those who uphold the theory most
strongly are wont to compare the development of organisms to
crystal-formation in order in some way to tack on the living to the
not-living. Crystal-formation, with its processes of movement and
form-development, is, they say, a kind of connecting link between the
living and the not-living. And in truth we find here, as in the realm of
life, species-formation, development into individuals, stages and systems.
But all this takes place without any hint of "struggle for existence," of
laboriously "selective" processes, or of ingenious accumulation of
"variations." The "species" of crystals are formed not according to
utility, but according to inherent, determining laws of development, to
which the diversity of their individual appearances is due. If "Life" were
only a higher potential of what is already stirring in crystallisation, as
this view suggests, then we should expect to find fixed tendencies,
determined from within, in accordance with which life would pass through
the cycle of its forms and possibilities, and rise spontaneously through
gradual stages.

CHAPTER VII. CRITICS OF DARWINISM.

Let us turn now to the other side. What is opposed to Darwinism in the
biological investigations of the experts of to-day is in part simple
criticism of the Darwinian position as a whole or in some of its details,
and in part constructive individual theories and interpretations of the
evolution of organisms.

A. Fleischmann's book, "Die Darwinsche Theorie,"(39) is professedly only
critical. He suggests no theory of his own as to the evolution of life in
contrast to Darwin's; for, as we have already seen in connection with his
earlier book, "Die Deszendenztheorie," he denies evolution altogether. His
agnostic position is maintained, if possible, more resolutely than before.
Natural science, according to him, must keep to facts. Drawing conclusions
and spinning theories is inexact, and distracts from objective study. The
Darwinian theory of selection seems to him a particularl