V. 



NATURAL SELECTION: OR, THE SURVIVAL 

 OF THE FITTEST. 



Y . . . The preservation, during the battle for 

 Animals and life, of varieties which possess any advantage 

 Plants under j n structure, constitution, or instinct, I have 



I Jompsticu.- 



tion, vol. i, called Natural Selection ; and Mr. Herbert 

 page 6. Spencer has well expressed the same idea by 



the Survival of the Fittest. The term "natural selec- 

 tion " is in some respects a bad one, as it seems to imply 

 conscious choice ; but this will be disregarded after a little 

 familiarity. No one objects to chemists speaking of 

 "elective affinity"; and certainly an acid has no more 

 choice in combining with a base than the conditions of 

 life have in determining whether or not a new form be 

 selected or preserved. The term is so far a good one as 

 it brings into connection the production of domestic races 

 by man's power of selection and the natural preservation 

 of varieties and species in a state of nature. For brevity 

 sake I sometimes speak of natural selection as an intelli- 

 gent power ; in the same way as astronomers speak of the 

 attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the 

 planets, or as agriculturists speak of man making domes- 

 tic races by his power of selection. In the one case, as in 



