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very first step of all was believed to be an insoluble problem. But this 

 is now all changed. The whole scientific and literary world, even the 

 whole educated public, accepts as a matter of common knowledge the 

 origin of species from other allied species by the ordinary process of 

 natural birth, the idea of special creation being all but extinct. 



A summary of the Darwinian theory of the origin of species by 

 Alfred Russel Wallace, is as follows : — " The theory of natural selection 

 rests on two main classes of facts which apply to all organized beings 

 without exception, and which thus take rank as fundamental principles 

 or laws. The first is the power of rapid multiplication in a geometrical 

 progression ; the second, that the offspring always vary slightly from 

 their parents, though generally very closely resembling them. From 

 the first fact or law there follows necessarily a constant struggle for 

 existence, because while the offspring always exceed the parents in 

 number, generally to an enormous extent, yet the total number of living 

 organisms in the world does not and cannot increase year by year, con- 

 sequently every year, on the average, as many die as are born, plants as 

 well as animals ; and the majority die premature deaths. They kill 

 each other in a thousand different ways ; they starve each other by some 

 consuming the food that others want ; they are destroyed largely by the 

 powers of nature — by cold, by heat, by rain and storm, by flood and 

 fire. There is a perpetual struggle among them, which shall live and 

 which shall die ; and this struggle is tremendously severe because so few 

 can possibly remain alive — one in five, one in ten, often only one in a 

 hundred or even a thousand. 



"Then comes the question, Why do some live rather than others'? 

 If all the individuals of each species were exactly alike in every respect* 

 we could only say it is a matter of chance. But they are not alike. We 

 find that they vary in niariy different ways. Some are stronger, some 

 swifter, some hardier in constitution, some more cunning. An obscure 

 color may render concealment more easy tor some. Keen sight may 

 enable others to discover prey, or escape from an enemy better than 

 their fellows. Among plants the smallest differences may be useful or 

 the reverse. The earliest and strongest shoots may escape the slug ; 

 their greater vigor may enable them to flower and seed in unfavorable 

 weather ; plants best armed with spines or hairs may escape being 



