166 



NATURAL SELECTION 



what, on Darwin's theory, the ancestors of existing animals 

 ought to be ; and this, it must be remembered, is the evidence 

 of one of the strongest opponents of the theory of natural 

 selection. 



Conclusion 



I have thus endeavoured to meet fairly, and to answer 

 plainly, a few of the most common objections to the theory of 

 natural selection, and I have done so in every case by refer- 

 ring to admitted facts and to logical deductions from those 

 facts. 



As an indication and general summary of the line of 

 argument I have adopted, I here give a brief demonstration 

 in a tabular form of the Origin of Species by means of Natural 

 Selection, referring for the facts to Mr. Darwin's works, and 

 to the pages in this volume, where they are more or less fully 

 treated. 



A Demonstration of the Origin of Species by Natural Selection 



PROVED FACTS 



TOTAL NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS 

 STATIONARY, p. 23. 



STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. 



HEREDITY WITH VARIATION, or 

 general likeness with individual 

 differences of parents and off- 

 springs, pp. 142, 156, 179 (Origin 

 of Species, chaps, i. ii. v.) 



SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 



CHANGE OF EXTERNAL CONDITIONS, 

 universal and unceasing. See 

 Lyell's Principles of Geology. 



NECESSARY CONSEQUENCES 

 (afterwards taken as Proved Facts) 



the 



deaths equalling the births on 

 the average, p. 24 (Origin of 

 Species, chap. iii. ) 



SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, or 

 Natural Selection ; meaning, 

 simply, that on the whole those 

 die who are least fitted to main- 

 tain their existence (Origin of 

 Species, chap, iv.) 



CHANGES OF ORGANIC FORMS, to 

 keep them in harmony with the 

 Changed Conditions ; and as the 

 changes of conditions are perman- 

 ent changes, in the sense of not 

 reverting back to identical pre- 

 vious conditions, the changes of 

 organic forms must be in the 

 same sense permanent, and thus 



. originate SPECIES. 



