THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNFIT 67 



doxes ? How reconcile them with the doctrine of the 

 survival of the fittest ? 



In Nature the battle is not always to the strong, nor 

 the race to the swift. The survival of the fittest does 

 not mean the survival of the ideally fit, but of those 

 best adapted to their surroundings. Many are the 

 habitations of the earth, and Nature fills each of these 

 with the most suitable occupant at her disposal. Every 

 creature that now exists is a victor in the struggle 

 for existence. Every one has been offered a situation 

 by Nature and accepted it. The mole survives, not 

 because he is a magnificent, comely creature, but be- 

 cause he is willing to live a lowly life under the earth. 

 The brown rat flourishes because it is ready, for the 

 sake of life, to live in dark, noisome drains and eat 

 garbage. 



Every animal now living has survived, because it is 

 willing to occupy the place assigned to it by Nature, no 

 matter how lowly that position be. Many animals 

 have, to use a figure of speech, preferred to perish 

 to thus occupying menial positions ; they have refused 

 to accept the station offered them by Nature ; they 

 have elected to wage war with the giants of the earth 

 and have been defeated, and hence are known to us 

 only as fossils. 



Other great animals have, so to speak, overreached 

 themselves, and hence are no more. There is no room 

 on this little earth for giants. They have all become 

 extinct, with the exception of the elephant, the whale, 

 and the giraffe, and these species are struggling against 

 their inevitable doom. So that even before man came 



