However
much we may wish it, we can hardly follow Professor Asa Gray, in his
belief 'that variations have been led along certain beneficial lines, as
a stream is led along useful lines of irrigation.'"[13]
Variations, which by their gradual accumulation give rise to new
species, genera, families, and orders, are themselves, step by step,
accidental. Mr. Darwin sometimes says they happen by chance; sometimes
he says they happen of necessity; at others he says, "We are profoundly
ignorant of their causes." These are only different ways of saying that
they are not intentional. When a man lets anything fall from his hands,
and says it was accidental, he does not mean that it was causeless, he
only means that it was not intentional. And that is precisely what
Darwin means when he says that species arise out of accidental
variations. His whole book is an argument against teleology. The whole
question is, How are we to account for the innumerable varieties, kinds,
and genera of plants and animals, including man? Were they intended? or,
Did they arise from the gradual accumulations of unintentional
variations? His answer to these questions is plain. On page 245, he
says: "Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe than that
the more complex organs and instincts have been perfected not by means
superior to, though analogous with, human reason, but by innumerable
slight variations, each good for the individual possessor.
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