If Variation may be in any way definite, the question once more arises, may it not be definite in direction? The belief that it is has had many supporters, from Lamarck onwards, who held that it was guided by need, and others who, like Nägeli, while laying no emphasis on need, yet were convinced that there was guidance of some kind. The latter view under the name of "Orthogenesis," devised I believe by Eimer, at the present day commends itself to some naturalists. The objection to such a suggestion is of course that no fragment of real evidence can be produced in its support. On the other hand, with the experimental proof that variation consists largely in the unpacking and repacking of an original complexity, it is not so certain as we might like to think that the order of these events is not predetermined. For instance the original "pack" may have been made in such a way that at the _n_th division of the germ-cells of a Sweet Pea a colour-factor might be dropped, and that at the _n_+_n_th division the hooded variety be given off, and so on. I see no ground whatever for holding such a view, but in fairness the possibility should not be forgotten, and in the light of modern research it scarcely looks so absurdly improbable as before. No one can survey the work of recent years without perceiving that evolutionary orthodoxy developed too fast, and that a great deal has got to come down; but this satisfaction at least remains, that in the experimental methods which Mendel inaugurated, we have means of reaching certainty in regard to the physiology of Heredity and Variation upon which a more lasting structure may be built. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 56: _Vénus Physique, contenant deux Dissertations, l'une sur l'origine des Hommes et des Animaux_; _Et l'autre sur l'origine des Noirs_, La Haye, 1746, pp. 124 and 129. For an introduction to the writings of Maupertuis I am indebted to an article by Professor Lovejoy in _Popular Sci. Monthly_, 1902.] [Footnote 57: For the fullest account of the views of these pioneers of Evolution, see the works of Samuel Butler, especially _Evolution, Old and New_ (2nd edit.) 1882. Butler's claims on behalf of Buffon have met with some acceptance; but after reading what Butler has said, and a considerable part of Buffon's own works, the word "hinted" seems to me a sufficiently correct description of the part he played. It is interesting to note that in the chapter on the Ass, which contains some of his evolutionary passages, there is a reference to "_plusieurs idées très-élevées sur la génération_" contained in the Letters of Maupertuis.] [Footnote 58: See especially W. Lawrence, _Lectures on Physiology_, London, 1823, pp. 213 f.]