70 



am a simple enquirer ; to me evolution presents itself as a theory well 

 worthy of the investigation of every intelligent man. I am only at the 

 threshold of it, and cannot pretend to be a judge, except in so far as 

 may be necessary for my personal guidance. 



The moot idea of evolution seems to me to be over-production, in 

 the sense that an enormous number of life germs produced by nature 

 cannot in the nature of things reach maturity. In the organic 

 world, wherever we look, we find large numbers of life germs being 

 constantly produced, the greater proportion of which never can live out 

 the term of their natural life, and comparatively few of which can live 

 even long enough to reproduce their kind. The i-easons for this 

 are not far to seek. For one thing there is not usually sufficient food 

 for them all. Again all are more or less subject to attacks from enemies, 

 many of them serving as food for a higher organisation than them- 

 selves ; and climate being also a very destructive influence amongst them. 

 From these and other subordinate causes arise what the evolutionists 

 call the struggle for existence — a struggle of terrible appearance, when 

 looked at apart from its consequences. The effect of this struggle, so 

 evolutionists say, is that only such of the plants and animals as are the 

 strongest and healthiest of their kind, and best adapted to their environ- 

 ment, survive ; and by means, and because of this struggle, the species, 

 whatever that species may be, is safe from deterioration and brought to 

 a far higher state of perfection than it would otherwise arrive at. 



If Malthus be right, 1 suppose the time will come when this 

 delightful state of things will prevail amongst human beings, but, per- 

 haps some of you will think that as to human beings, the struggle for 

 existence is already great enough, quite sufficient to induce every 

 thoughtful man to make the best of himself — physically, mentally, and 

 morally — and so help to produce the much desired-improvements in 

 his fellows and descendants without the necessity for the introduction 

 of the more formidable agencies to which I have alluded. 



Working by the side of this " struggle for existence " is another 

 law, namely, that of inherited qualities. Every living thing seems to 

 bring forth after its kind — one blade of grass is very like another of 

 the same kind — one sheep is very similar to another. Every gardener 

 and every farmer knows the tendency of plants and animals to inherit 

 the good or bad qualities of their respective parents ; hence if a plant 

 or an animal either inherits or acquires qualities which make it in any 



