he
conditions of their existence, through their own continual restless
activity and exertion, an ascent of their own accord to ever greater
heights and perfections. A theory of this kind might easily form part of a
religious conception of the world. We might think of the world with
primitive tendencies and capacities, in which the potentialities of its
evolution were implied, and so ordered that it had to struggle by its own
exertions to achieve the full realisation of its possibilities, to attain
to ever higher--up to the highest--forms of Being. The process of nature
would thus be the direct anticipation of what occurs in the history of man
and of mind. And the task set to the freedom of individual men, and to
mankind as a whole, namely, to work out their own nature through their own
labour and exertion, and to ascend to perfection--this deepest meaning of
all individual and collective existence--would have its exact prelude and
preparation in the general nature and evolution of all living creatures.
The transition from these theories of nature to a teleological outlook
from the highest and most human point of view is so obvious as to be
almost unavoidable. And although a natural science which keeps to its own
business and within its own boundaries has certainly no right to make this
transition for itself, it has still less right to prevent its being made
outside of its limits.

Theory of Definite Variation.

But the question now arises, whether both Darwinism and Lamarckism must
not be replaced, or at least reduced to the level of accessory theories
and factors, by another theory of evolution which was in the field before
Darwin, and which since his time has been advanced anew, especially by
Naegeli, and has now many adherents who support it in whole or in part.
This view affects the very foundations of the Darwinian doctrine. The
theory of "indefinite" variation, bringing about easy transitions and
affecting every part of the organism separately, which is the necessary
correlate of the "struggle for existence," is rejected altogether.
Evolution takes place only along a few definite lines, predetermined
through the internal organisation and the laws of growth. It is wholly
indifferent to "utility," and brings forth only what it must according to
its own inner laws, not seldom even the monstrous. According to this view,
new species arise, not in easy transition, but with a visible leap, by a
considerable and