less written at
least three essays or reviews in its exposition and vindication. He is
freely referred to on the continent of Europe, at least, as an ardent
advocate of the doctrine; and he quotes without protest such
designations of himself. At any rate, as he assures his readers that he
has no bias against Mr. Darwin's views, as he has devoted much time and
attention to the subject, and as he is one of the most prominent
naturalists of the age, there can be no question as to his competency as
a witness as to what Darwinism is.

His testimony that Mr. Darwin's doctrine excludes all teleology, or
final causes, is explicit. In his review of the "Criticisms on the
Origin of Species," he says, "that when he first read Mr. Darwin's book,
that which struck him most forcibly was the conviction that teleology,
as commonly understood, had received its death-blow at Mr. Darwin's
hands. For the teleological argument runs thus: An organ is precisely
fitted to perform a function or purpose; therefore, it was specially
constructed to perform that function. In Paley's famous illustration,
the adaptation of all the parts of a watch to the function or purpose of
showing the time, is held to be evidence that the watch was specially
contrived to that end; on the ground that the only cause we know of
competent to produce such an effect as a watch which shall keep time, is
a contriving intelligence adapting the means directly to that end."[24]
This, Mr. Huxley tells us, is precisely what Darwin denies with
reference to the organs of plants and animals. The eye was not formed
for the purpose of seeing, or the ear for hearing. It so happened that a
nerve became sensitive to light; then in course of time, it happened
that a transparent tissue came over it; and thus in "millions of years"
an eye, as we have seen above, happened to be formed. No such organ was
ever intended or designed by God or man. "An apparatus," says Professor
Huxley, "thoroughly adapted to a particular purpose, might be the result
of a method of trial and error worked by unintelligent agents, as well
as by the application of means appropriate to the end by an intelligent
agent." "For the notion that every organism has been created as it is
and launched straight at a purpose, Mr. Darwin substitutes the
conception of something, which may fairly be termed a method of trial
and error. Organisms vary incessantly; of these variations the few meet
with surrounding conditions whic