278 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



prize " is the aggregate of many items, some of which 

 appear to us very insignificant. Hence, when we ask, 

 " Who will survive? " the answer is necessarily vague. 

 Mr. Darwin's answer is, Those best conformed to their 

 environment ; and Mr. Spencer's statement of the sur- 

 vival of the fittest means the same thing. 



The judges who pronounce and execute the verdict 

 of death, or award the prize of life, are the forces and 

 conditions of environment. We have already consid- 

 ered the meaning of this word. Many of its forces 

 and conditions are still unknown, or but very imper- 

 fectly understood. But known or unknown, visible or 

 invisible, the result of their united action is the ex- 

 tinction or degradation of these individuals which 

 deviate from certain fairly well-marked lines of devel- 

 opment. We must keep clearly before our minds the 

 fact that the world of living beings makes up by far 

 the most important part of the environment of any 

 individual plant or animal. Two plants may be 

 equally well suited to the soil and climate of any 

 region ; but if one have a scanty development of root 

 or leaf, or is for any reason more liable to attacks from 

 insects or germs, other things being equal, it will in 

 time be crowded out by its competitor. Worms are 

 eaten by lower vertebrates, and these by higher. An 

 animal's environment, like that of a merchant or manu- 

 facturer, is very largely a matter of the ability and 

 methods of its competitors. And man, compelled to 

 live in society, makes that part of the environment by 

 which he is most largely moulded. 



This process of extinction Mr. Darwin has called 

 " natural selection." Natural selection is not a force, 

 but a process, resulting from the combined action of 



