29 See Hertwig’s “Biological Problem of To-day.” London 1896. 30 The justice of this prophecy has been meanwhile illustrated by the recent work of H. Friedmann, “Die Konvergenz der Organismen,” Berlin, 1904. 31 If we wish to, we can even read the “biogenetic law” in Dante. See “Purgatory,” p. 26, where the embryo attains successively to the plant, animal and human stages: “Anima fatta la virtute attiva, Qual d’una _pianta_.... Come fungo marino ... Ma come _d’animal_ divenga _fante_.” This is, of course, nothing else than Aristotle’s theory of evolution, done into terzarima, and corrected by St. Thomas. For the latest application of these views, even in relation to the “biogenetic fundamental law,” see the finely finished “Morpho-genetic Studies” of T. Garbowski (Jena, 1903): “The greater part of what is usually referred to the so-called fundamental biogenetic law depends on illusion, since all things undeveloped or imperfect must bear a greater or less resemblance one to another.” _ 32 I.e._, The occurrence of saltatory, transilient, or discontinuous variations or mutations. _ 33 I.e._, The emergence of a distinctively new pattern of organisation. 34 See H. G. Bronn’s Appendix to his translation of Darwin’s “Origin of Species.” First German edition. 35 Finally and comprehensively in the two volumes we have already mentioned, “Vorträge über die Deszendenztheorie,” Jena, 1902 (Eng. trans., London, 1904). “Natural selection depends essentially upon the cumulative augmentation of the most minute useful variations in the direction of their utility; only the useful is developed and increased, and great effects are brought about slowly through the summing up of many very minute steps.... But the philosophical significance of natural selection lies in the fact that it shows us how to explain the origin of useful, well-adapted structures purely by mechanical factors, and without having to fall back upon a directive principle.” 36 If it were not white it would be observed by the seals, which would thus avoid being devoured by it. See Weismann, I., p. 70. (English edition, p. 65.) 37 It is almost comical when Weismann, the champion of the purely naturalistic outlook, occasionally forgets his rôle altogether, and puts in a word for “chance,” or attempts to soften absolute predetermination. For if even a single wolf should destroy a stag “by chance,” or if a single “id” should “chance” to grow in a manner slightly different from that laid down for it by the compelling force of preceding and accompanying circumstances, the whole Darwinian edifice would be labour lost. 38 See Darwin, “... chance variations. Unless such occur, natural selection can do nothing.”