ction; it
is when he wants to establish that a blind and designless nature has
been able to obtain, by the occurrence of circumstances, the same
results which man obtains by thoughtful and well calculated industry."
(p. 174)

Towards the end of his volume he says: "We shall conclude by a general
observation. Notwithstanding the numerous objections we have raised
against Mr. Darwin's theory, we do not declare ourselves hostile to a
system of which zooelogists are the only competent judges. We are neither
for nor against the transmutation of species, neither for nor against
the principle of natural selection. The only positive conclusion of our
debate is this: no principle hitherto known, neither the action of
media, nor habit, nor natural selection, can account for organic
adaptations without the intervention of the principle of finality.
Natural selection, unguided, submitted to the laws of a pure mechanism,
and exclusively determined by accidents, seems to me, under another
name, the chance proclaimed by Epicurus, equally barren, equally
incomprehensible; on the other hand, natural selection guided beforehand
by a provident will, directed towards a precise end by intentional laws,
might be the means which nature has selected to pass from one stage of
being to another, from one form to another, to bring to perfection life
throughout the universe, and to rise by a continuous process from the
monad to man. Now, I ask Mr. Darwin himself, what interest has he in
maintaining that natural selection is not guided--not directed? What
interest has he in substituting accidental causes for every final cause?
I cannot see. Let him admit that in natural, as well as in artificial
selection, there may be a choice and direction; his principle
immediately becomes much more fruitful than it was before. His
hypothesis, then, whilst having the advantage of exempting science from
the necessity of introducing the personal and miraculous intervention of
God in the creation of each species, yet would be free from the
banishing out of the universe an all-provident thought, and of
submitting everything to blind and brute chance." (pp. 198, 199)
Professor Janet asks far too much of Mr. Darwin. To ask him to give up
his denial of final causes is like asking the Romanists to give up the
Pope. That principle is the life and soul of his system.

FOOTNOTE:

[34] _The Materialism of the Present Day: a Critique of Dr. Buechner's
System_. By Paul Jan