SELECTION AS AN EXPLANATION. 33 



(3) Change of selection without change in the environment. 



Darwin's language in describing the relation of these different fac- 

 tors has been shaped by the relation in which man stands to the ani- 

 mals he selects for breeding. Here we speak of the selecting power 

 as being in the man who determines what animals shall survive and 

 breed, and the power of variation as being in the organism which fur- 

 nished the varieties for his selection. But in nature there is no power 

 standing outside of the organism and determining what kinds shall 

 propagate. Any kind, and every kind, that can hit on any means 

 of support will survive and have the opportunity to propagate. 

 The means and methods of survival are often very various, and nature 

 shows no preference for one method above another. It is only 

 through the different degrees of survival that there comes to be any 

 selection, and these degrees of survival depend on the different powers 

 presented by the different varieties of the organism. 



If we wish to draw a true parallel between natural selection and 

 rational selection, we must consider both wild and domestic creatures 

 as gaining opportunity for propagation by adapting themselves to 

 the environment; the one class varying so as to be the best able 

 to perpetuate its kind in the struggle for life among irrational 

 creatures, and the other class by varying so as to be the most pleasing 

 to man, and through his care and protection gaining a chance to live 

 and propagate. The one class adapt themselves to the natural 

 environment, the other class to the rational environment. From 

 this point of view we see that in both classes propagation depends on 

 adaptation, and that adaptation depends on variation; and this 

 dependence is selection. We must, therefore, conclude that change in 

 the character of the selection may be initiated and continued through 

 change in the organism without any change in the environment, except 

 what is produced by the action of the organism. 



(4) Diversity of selection due to power of varied adaptation. 



In more general terms, the relations of the organism to the environ- 

 ment are determined by the power of the organism to use the environ- 

 ment; this power of use being defined as the power of varied and 

 discriminative action with reference to the maintenance of life 

 through the subordination of present means to future ends. This 

 power is found in every living organism, but never in the inor- 

 ganic world. We can not conceive of a living organism entirely 

 destitute of the power of adaptive and discriminative action; for 

 this is the fundamental distinction between the living and the non- 

 living. Nor can we conceive of the prolonged existence, in such a 

 world as this, of any organism entirely destitute of the power of 



