CH. xvn METAPHYSICS OF NATURAL SELECTION 197 



had been no intelligence in the case, and if natural 

 selection, or what is called natural selection, had been 

 lord of all. The intelligent race will gain additional 

 marks as against all non-intelligent races ; within the 

 intelligent race itself, the prize will still go to the best 

 to the cleverest or swiftest or strongest. 



Can we finally decide whether or not we ought to 

 believe in A as an actual process ? Is there any region 

 in which " natural selection " acts alone ? Or more 

 broadly is it legitimate to regard Natural Selection A 

 as the great evolutionary force in nature ? 



It looks like a question of figures. Are there 

 candidates enough 1 Is the " pluck " sufficiently severe ? 

 You may get enough of your chosen sort out of any 

 random bunch of samples if it is big enough. That 

 is one view. Others again might affirm that the question 

 is not one of numbers but of time. In (almost) endless 

 time, any bunch that is regularly furnished will grow 

 big enough by accumulation. 



Here Mr. Sutherland gives us one shred of evidence ; 

 and perhaps we may be able to make use of it even if we 

 do not dogmatically decide to regard natural selection 

 as "a question of figures." The evidence is this, that 

 the higher races in nature, when they produce offspring, 

 follow a method of quality, not quantity. That implies 

 that, in the higher races, natural selection, even if 

 not suspended, has at least incomparably less room to 

 work in. Yet evolutionary advance has certainly not 

 been slower in these, the characteristically highest 

 forms! This fact does not seem very favourable to 

 what is claimed for Natural Selection A, that we ought 

 to regard it as a reality, and perhaps as the dominant 

 reality in evolution. For either 



(1) Though natural selection was predominant 



