THE SUKVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 221 



himself fittest to survive ? Now that is what we have 

 before us. There is no truth in the proposition, The 

 Fittest are the Survivors, unless it be absolutely true also 

 that the Survivors are the Fittest. If those who do 

 survive are, simply by surviving, the fittest to survive, 

 then the survival of the fittest is an established fact, but 

 not unless ! Unless survival be the very definition of 

 the fittest, survival of the fittest is as idle, empty, and, at 

 the same time, mischievous a cry as Plundering and 

 Blundering, or Masses and Classes, or any other such 

 cries in favour with, and characteristic of, this poverty- 

 stricken generation. 



Or, to take it in yet another way : " The Survival of 

 the Fittest : " What does that mean ? what is it that is 

 meant by the Fittest ? is it that what is meant by the 

 Fittest is the Fittest to Survive ? Why, then, in one 

 way, the survival of the fittest can only concern a 

 question in medicine. What can enable an animal body 

 a man, say to be the fittest to survive ? Plainly 

 that, born with every organ in the perfection proper to 

 it, he (the man) is maintained ever afterwards in the 

 full enjoyment of every due condition. Barring con- 

 tingency, then this fittest to survive really it may be 

 granted would survive. Are we to understand, then, 

 that fittest means no more than that ? The survival of 

 the fittest, means simply the fittest to survive ? Or, if 

 not the fittest to survive, then the fittest to do what ? 

 The fittest to weigh heavy? How about his cracking 

 the ice, sinking in the marsh, or upsetting the row-boat ? 

 Is it to be 'tallest is to be fittest ? Then how about the 

 bunks, etc., on board ship ? In short, to be tall or short, 

 to be light or heavy, to be small or large, to be strong or 

 weak, to be clever or uncle ver, to be brave or cowardly, 

 is 80 f ar as survival is concerned a question that 

 varies with a thousand circumstances, a question that is 



