EVOLUTION AS A NATURAL PROCESS 131 



We must devote some time to the subject of inheri- 

 tance at a later juncture, but before leaving the matter 

 an additional point must be estabhshed here; the 

 selective process deals immediately with congenital 

 results, as the heritable characters that make for success 

 or failure in life, but by doing this it really selects the 

 group of congenital factors behind and antecedent to 

 their effects. For example, an ape that survives be- 

 cause of its superior cunning, does so because it varies 

 congenitally in an improved direction ; and the factors 

 that have made it superior are indirectly but no less 

 certainly preserved through the survival of their results 

 in the way of efficiency. Hereditary strains are thus the 

 ultimate things selected through the organic constitu- 

 tions that they determine and produce. 



Natural selection, as the whole of this intricate 

 process, is simply trial and error on a gigantic scale. 

 Nature is such that thousands of varying individuals 

 are produced in order that a mere handful or only 

 one survivor may be chosen to bear the burden of carry- 

 ing on the species for another generation. The effect 

 of nature's process is judicial, as it were. We may 

 liken the many and varied conditions of life to as many 

 jurymen, before which every living thing must appear 

 for judgment as to its fitness or lack of it. A unani- 

 mous verdict of complete or partial approval must be 

 rendered, or an animal dies, for the failure to meet a 

 single vital condition results in sure destruction. Of 

 course, we cannot regard selection as involving anything 

 like a primitive conscious choice. It is because we 



