Miscellaneous Papers. 157 



entirety. Let us listen briefly to what Darwin himself says in 

 "Origin of Species" (I, p. 150): 



"If, under changing conditions of life organic beings present individual 

 differences in almost every part of their structure— and this cannot be dis- 

 puted—and if, owing to the rate of increase, there would be a severe strug- 

 gle for life— and this cannot be disputed— then, considering the infinite 

 complexity of the relations of all organic beings to each other and their 

 conditions of life, causing an infinite variety in structure, constitution and 

 habits, to be advantageous to them, it would be most extraordinary if no 

 variations had ever occurred useful to each being's own welfare, in the 

 same manner as so many variations have occurred useful to man. But if 

 variations useful to any organic being ever do occur, assuredly individuals 

 thus characterized will have the best chance of being preserved in the 

 struggle for life, and from the strong principle of inheritance, these will 

 tend to produce offspring similarly characterized. This principle of preser- 

 vation, or the survival of the fittest, I have called 'natural selection.'" 



Again (p. 151): 



"Natural selection acts exclusively by the preservation and accumula- 

 tion of variations which are beneficial under the organic and inorganic con- 

 ditions to which each creature is exposed at all periods of life. The ultimate 

 result is that each creature tends to become more and more improved in re- 

 lation to its conditions. This improvement inevitably leads to the gradual 

 advancement of the greater number of living beings throughout the world. " 



Again (p. 153) : 



"But it may be objected that if all organic beings thus tend to rise in 

 the scale, how is it that throughout the world a multitude of the lowest 

 forms still exist? ... On our theory, the continued existence of the 

 lowest forms offers no difficulty, for natural selection or the survival of the 

 fittest does not necessarily include progressive development; it only takes 

 advantage of such variations as arise and are beneficial to each creature 

 under its own complex relations of life." 



Again (pp. 75-76): 



"How have all those exquisite adaptations of one part of the organism 

 to another part, of one being to another being and to the conditions of life 

 been perfected? We see beautiful coadaptations plainly, as in the wood- 

 pecker and the mistletoe; in the humblest parasite that clings to the hairs 

 of a quadruped or the feathers of a bird; in the structure of a beetle that 

 dives through the water; in the plumed seed that is wafted by the gentlest 

 breeze — in short, we see beautiful adaptations everywhere and in every 

 part of the organic world. ' ' 



Again (p. 118): 



"Natural selection acts only by the preservation and accumulation of 

 small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being. . , . 

 Natural selection will banish belief in the continued creation of organic 

 beings or of any great and sudden modification of structure." 



