52 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



Nature for preserving the species are of a predeter- 

 mined and fixed character ; for under normal con- 

 ditions the numbers of the various species in their 

 feral haunts do not vary from one generation to 

 another, nor do the relative proportions of the adults 

 and the young. It is thus clearly demonstrated that 

 the elimination of the young broods has stopped at a 

 predetermined point, and that the number saved has 

 been truly and finely calculated. 



For unless both the elimination and the preservation 

 had been nicely proportioned in relation to each 

 other, the balance of Nature would be fatally dis- 

 turbed. It is within our power to discover in what 

 manner and by what methods Nature operates to 

 produce her adjustments, though the perfection and 

 fineness to which these adjustments attain must ever 

 beget surprise in our minds: for in her adjustive 

 processes Nature is too subtle and occult for our eye 

 completely to follow her hand. We can speak of her 

 work in the block, but we are unable to perceive her 

 fingers working out the finer issues of her relative 

 adjustments. When, however, we have ascertained the 

 principle by which the increase of all prolific species 

 is held in check, we have acquired a certain power of 

 following in the steps of Nature in regard to the 

 method employed by her to make the preservation of 

 the broods sufficient, and no more than sufficient, for 

 the maintenance of her various feral types. Let us 

 take some region stocked immemorially with all the 

 forms which it holds to-day, say, the Himalayan 



