FITNESS AND ADAPTATION 63 



But these difficulties vanish, and the familiar con- 

 cept of evolution, as an aimless, unethical process, dis- 

 appears, when we recognize that cooperation to that 

 end is the creative and saving power of individuality. 

 That cooperation is always expressed in terms of serv- 

 ice and Tightness, or the conveyance of the right thing 

 to the right thing, at the right time and place. That 

 the fittest is the one whose component parts cooper^ 

 ate best, and that his struggle for existence is a struggle 

 to find a better cooperative or constructive way. ThaT 

 things endure because they continue to cooperate, and 

 are eliminated, or disappear, when they do not. That 

 structure is both the material and dynamic expression 

 of cooperative action. That growth, or progress, is 

 merely cooperation on a larger and better scale. That 

 the rate and extent of evolution is measured, not in 

 terms of change or power, but in terms of service and 

 Tightness, or in terms which express the creative value 

 of those changes. That cooperation is right because it 

 is constructive, creative, preservative, and progressive. 

 And that finding the right cooperative way to create- 

 and preserve larger, or more complex, individualities 

 is the essential preliminary to each and every stage of 

 evolution. 



Thus mutual service and Tightness are the creative 

 and preservative factors in evolution. Therein is the 

 index to the universal end, or purpose, in life, and in 

 nature; the criterion of "fitness" and the basis of man's 

 ethics and morality. 



II. The Different Kinds of Fitness 



Fitness and adaptation are the conjuring terms with 

 which the biologist performs his most deceptive tricks ; 



