Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

360 THE LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION
time I must confess, that this theory has the disadvantage of requiring the intervention of some distinct individual intelligence, to aid in the production of what we
can hardly avoid considering as the ultimate aim and
outcome of all organized existence-intellectual, everadvancing, spiritual man. It therefore implies, that
the great laws which govern the material universe were
insufficient for his production, unless we consider (as
we may fairly do) that the controlling action of such
higher intelligences is a necessary part of those laws,
just as the action of all surrounding organisms is one of
the agencies in organic development. But even if my
particular view should not be the true one, the difficulties I have put forward remain, and I think prove, that
some more general and more fundamental law underlies that of "1 natural selection." The law of " unconscious intelligence" pervading all organic nature, put
forth by Dr. Laycock and adopted by Mr. Murphy, is
such a law; but to my mind it has the double disadvantage of being both unintelligible and incapable of
any kind of proof. It is more probable, that the true
law lies too deep for us to discover it; but there seems
to me, to be ample indications that such a law does
exist, and is probably connected with the absolute origin of life and organization. (Vote A.)
The Origin of Consciousness.
The question of the origin of sensation and of thought
can be but briefly discussed in this place, since it is a
subject wide enough to require a separate volume for