from the soma-plasm, is purely speculative; as is also
the theory of germinal selection. The determinants, ids, and idants,
are purely hypothetical elements. The experiments that have been
devised to demonstrate their existence really prove nothing.

It seems to me quite improper to describe this hypothetical structure
as "Neodarwinism." Darwin was just as convinced as Lamarck of the
transmission of acquired characters and its great importance in the
scheme of evolution. I had the good fortune to visit Darwin at Down
three times and discuss with him the main principles of his system,
and on each occasion we were fully agreed as to the incalculable
importance of what I may call transformative inheritance. It is only
proper to point out that Weismann's theory of the germ-plasm is in
express contradiction to the fundamental principles of Darwin and
Lamarck. Nor is it more acceptable in what one may call its
"ultradarwinism"--the idea that the theory of selection explains
everything in the evolution of the organic world. This belief in the
"omnipotence of natural selection" was not shared by Darwin himself.
Assuredly, I regard it as of the utmost value, as the process of
natural selection through the struggle for life affords an explanation
of the mechanical origin of the adapted organisation. It solves the
great problem: how could the finely adapted structure of the animal or
plant body be formed unless it was built on a preconceived plan? It
thus enables us to dispense with the teleology of the metaphysician
and the dualist, and to set aside the old mythological and poetic
legends of creation. The idea had occurred in vague form to the great
Empedocles 2000 years before the time of Darwin, but it was reserved
for modern research to give it ample expression. Nevertheless, natural
selection does not of itself give the solution of all our evolutionary
problems. It has to be taken in conjunction with the transformism of
Lamarck, with which it is in complete harmony.

The monumental greatness of Charles Darwin, who surpasses every other
student of science in the nineteenth century by the loftiness of his
monistic conception of nature and the progressive influence of his
ideas, is perhaps best seen in the fact that not one of his many
successors has succeeded in modifying his theory of descent in any
essential point or in discovering an entirely new standpoint in the
interpretation of the organic world. Neither Naegeli nor Wei