THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



ence does not enter as a determining factor to such an 

 extent that small variations become important. A 

 struggle for existence may affect individuals, but it is 

 not applicable to species, because as soon as destruc- 

 tion is continued to a certain point the pressure is 

 removed and the survivors are free again to multiply. 

 This idea of the struggle for existence, of such a 

 narrow margin between existence and extermination 

 that the least upset in the balance would cause a spe- 

 cies either to become dominant or disappear, became 

 an obsession with the Darwinians and during the lat- 

 ter part of the last century the world was pictured as 

 a grim spectacle of blood and conflict. The fact that 

 all conflict is between individuals and not between 

 species was lost sight of, and also the equally strong 

 factor of mutual help and support within the species 

 was not considered. It is safe to say that Lamarck, 

 who doubted whether any species of plants or animals 

 was ever exterminated by conflict or by inability to 

 conform to the slow changes of environment, except 

 the unusual case of those which were pursued and at- 

 tacked by man, had a keener insight into the powers 

 of nature to protect life than had Darwin. It is, nev- 

 ertheless, true that many species have appeared and 

 become abundant, and have then disappeared, but 

 the cause of the inability of a species to maintain it- 

 self is absolutely unknown. The struggle for exist- 

 ence during those relatively infrequent universal 

 changes of conditions may account for the disappear- 



