64 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



and they are performed so convincingly that he often 

 deceives himself, as well as others. Like many other 

 exhibitions of the conjuror's art, the illusion is due to 

 the unobserved substitution of one thing, or of one 

 value, for another; in this case, by substituting one 

 meaning of the terms for another. This is the more 

 difficult to detect since fitness and adaptation may be 

 very broadly applied. They have very subtle, as well 

 as very obvious meanings ; they may be variously quali- 

 fied by chance, incidental results, and designs ; and the 

 fitness and adaptation may be fulfilled either before- 

 hand, or presently, or at some future time, or in some 

 other place. 



Using the terms in their broadest sense, we may 

 say with equal propriety: 



(1) That wheels, cogs and axles, springs, pawls, 

 and catches; steam, fire, and electricity are fit to make 

 certain kinds of machines; that such machines are fit 

 for man's use and profit and that man himself is fitted 

 for the profitable usage of machinery. 



(2) That the atoms in a grain of starch, by virtue 

 of their own peculiar attributes, are fitted beforehand 

 to cooperate with one another and thereby produce a 

 substance called starch ; and that starch is fitted before- 

 hand for human food in the sense that it was one of 

 nature's standard products long before man appeared 

 on the face of the globe ; and that subsequently, man was 

 fitted for the consumption of starchy foods. 



(3) That the stream is fitted to its bed, and the bed 

 to the stream, and both fitted for profitable usage by 

 plants and animals, and by man. 



(4) That plant life, as a whole, is fitted to animal 

 life as a whole, both living thereby cooperatively, each 



