Nevertheless, this difficulty, though appearing to our imagination[14]
insuperably great, cannot be considered real, if we admit the following
propositions, namely, that all parts of the organizations and instincts
offer, at least, individual differences; that there is a struggle for
existence, which leads to the preservation of profitable deviations of
structure or instinct; and, lastly, that gradations in the state of
perfection of each organ may have existed, each good of its kind." He
says, over and over, that if beauty or any variation of structure can be
shown to be intended, it would "annihilate his theory." His doctrine is
that such unintended variations, which happen to be useful in the
struggle for life, are preserved, on the principle of the survival of
the fittest. He urges the usual objections to teleology derived from
undeveloped or useless organs, as web-feet in the upland goose and
frigate-bird, which never swim.
What, however, perhaps more than anything, makes clear his rejection of
design is the manner in which he deals with the complicated organs of
plants and animals. Why don't he say, they are the product of the divine
intelligence? If God made them, it makes no difference, so far as the
question of design is concerned, how He made them: whether at once or by
a process of evolution. But instead of referring them to the purpose of
God, he laboriously endeavors to prove that they may be accounted for
without any design or purpose whatever.
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