Adaptation and Utility legitimate; also in Hume's Opinion irresistible--The
Principle of Design, taken with Specific Creation, totally insufficient and
largely inapplicable; but, taken with the Doctrine of the Evolution of
Species in Nature, applicable, pertinent, and, moreover,
necessary.--Illustrations from Abortive Organs, supposed Waste of Being,
etc.--All Nature being of a Piece, Design must either pervade or be absent
from the Whole.--Its Absence not to be inferred because the Events take
place in Nature--Illustration of the Nature and Province of Natural
Selection.--It picks out, but does not originate Variations; these not a
Product of, but a Response to, the Environment; not physical, but
physiological--Adaptations in Nature not explained by Natural Selection
apart from Design or Final Cause--Absurdity of associating Design only with
Miracle--What is meant by Nature.--The Tradition of the DIVINE in Nature,
testified to by Aristotle, comes down to our Day with Undiminished Value



PREFACE

These papers are now collected at the request of friends and correspondents,
who think that they may be useful; and two new essays are added. Most of
the articles were written as occasion called for them within the past
sixteen years, and contributed to various periodicals, with little thought
of their forming a series, and none of ever bringing them together into a
volume, although one of them (the third) was once reprinted in a pamphlet
form. It is, therefore, inevitable that there should be considerable
iteration in the argument, if not in the language. This could not be
eliminated except by recasting the whole, which was neither practicable nor
really desirable. It is better that they should record, as they do, the
writer's freely-expressed thoughts upon the subject at the time; and to