ABSTRACT
It must be remembered moreover that Darwin was no propagandist of this or that creed, of this or that philosophy. For according to Darwin’s own showing nature knows no such thing as development in the sense of improvement. For what is Darwin’s idea of development, it is merely numerical increase in a species, and the greater specialisation of parts of the units that compose the organism. Darwin of course teaches directly nothing of the kind, he is dumb on the subject; but the whole of his reasoning leads up to it, and it is difficult to place on it any other construction. For even the very thoughts and emotions of man are, according to Darwin, merely the refined and intricate outcome of innumerable and infinite adaptations preserved and perpetuated by his law of Natural Selection. No wonder Darwin wants time if accident set the type of Shakespeare’s mental activities.
