66 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1907 
So far I have only glanced at what occurs in the in- 
dividual. When we consider the race, there is again 
overproduction—an overproduction of individuals; and 
according to the theory of natural selection, there is a 
survival of those which are adapted to the circumstances 
of life, and an elimination of those which are not so 
adapted. The elimination is effected in the so-called 
struggle for existence. The keener the struggle the 
greater the amount of elimination, and the more rigorous 
the consequent (so-called) selection. In the absence of 
struggle, elimination as a factor in progress ceases. 
But the question arises: What is the relation of the 
survival of activities in the individual to the survival of 
individuals in racial evolution? Obviously the answer to 
this question involves a doctrine of heredity. There are 
two factors to be considered,—first, natural ability, and 
secondly, acquired performance. ‘Take skilled activities, 
for example. It is clear that their development in the 
individual depends upon natural ability. If this is con- 
genitally absent there can be no development. The level 
of development is in part determined by natural ability. 
But it is also in part dependent on the use to which 
natural ability is put. The level of my acquired perform- 
ance, let us say in playing billiards or golf, will be in large 
degree dependent upon whether I have cultivated such 
natural ability as I may have inherited or not. Now 
everyone admits that what I have termed natural ability is 
transmitted from parent to offspring. And everyone 
admits that if we could examine statistically a number of 
individuals, we should find (and do find so far as the evi- 
dence goes) that these individuals differ. Such differences 
are technically termed variatzons. Everyone, again, will 
be prepared to admit that if we could examine statistically 
a number of individuals possessed of the same natural 
ability to start with, they would, as adults, exhibit tolerably 
