Chapter VI: Transformism 208

_Argument._--A reasoned classification of organisms suggests that
a process of evolution has taken place. It suggests logical relation-
ships between organisms, while the results of embryology and
palæontology suggest chronological relationships. Yet this kinship
of organisms might only be a logical, and not a material
one. Evolution may have occurred somewhere, but it might be
argued that the ideas of species have generated each other in a
Creative Thought. But transformism may be produced experimentally,
and so science has adopted a mechanistic hypothesis of
the nature of the process. Transformism of species depends on
the occurrence of variations, but these arise spontaneously and
independently of each other, and they must be co-ordinated.
This co-ordination of variations cannot be the work of the environ
ment. Variations are cumulative, and they exhibit direction, and
this direction is either an accidental one, or it is the expression of
an impetus or directing agency in the varying organism itself.
The problem of the cause of variation is only a pseudo-problem.