ical
investigation, which would no longer attempt to find in nature just what
it wanted to find, but would be ready to follow truth at all costs, and to
approach the riddle of life with an open mind."

His "Beitraege zur Kritik der Darwinischen Lehre," which appeared first as
papers in the "Biologisches Centralblatt," did not see the light in book
form until 1898. The doctrine of selection was regarded as so unassailable
that no publisher would take the risk of the book. Its appearance is a
sure indication of the general modification of opinions that had taken
place in the interval. The first and second essays are merely critical
objections to the theory of selection, very similar to those frequently
urged before, but more precisely stated.(52) The third is intended to show
that there is in the forms of life themselves, as a faculty of adaptation
peculiar to them, a primary purposiveness, which is unquestionably active
throughout the lifetime and development of every individual, but which is
also the deepest cause of "phylogenesis," or the formation of a race. This
doctrine makes both the Darwinian and Lamarckian theories merely
secondary. For the phenomena which suggest the Lamarckian interpretation
presuppose this most essential factor--the primary adaptiveness. Wolff
concludes with a very striking instance--discovered by himself--of this
primary adaptiveness of the organism--the regeneration of the lens in the
newt's eye.

More comprehensively, but from a precisely similar standpoint, Driesch has
followed up the discussion of this problem.(53) He is, of all modern
investigators, perhaps the one who has most persistently and thoroughly
worked out the problem of causal and teleological interpretation, and he
has also thrown much light on the scientific and epistemological aspects
of the problem. That he could, in a recent volume of the "Biologisches
Zentralblatt," write a respectful and sympathetic exposition of the
Hegelian nature-philosophy--as regards its aims, though not its methods--is
as remarkable a symptom as we can instance of the modern trend of views
and opinions.(54)

Contrast Between Darwinian and Post-Darwinian Views.

The new views that have thus arisen have been definitely summarised and
clearly contrasted with Darwinism by the botanist Korschinsky. He died
before completing his general work, "Heterogenesis und Evolution," but he
has elsewhere(55) given an excellent summary of his results, wh