THE UNDERLYING IDEA 57 



the ones that suit him best. Generation by generation 

 he gets his domesticated animals to conform more 

 nearly to the standard of his desires. Natural selec- 

 tion works in exactly similar fashion. Of all the 

 eggs that are produced by the animals at large in 

 nature an overwhelming proportion never develop at 

 all. They dry up, are eaten by their enemies, find 

 no suitable place or time for development and decay, 

 or are overtaken by some other calamity. Of the 

 animals which emerge from the remainder an over- 

 whelming majority come to an untimely end within 

 the first few days of life. Each has countless enemies 

 which prey upon him, and these have scarcely de- 

 voured him before they themselves become the prey 

 of some stronger creature. Until Mr. Darwin gave 

 us his elemental idea it was taken for granted that 

 it was a matter of pure accident which survived and 

 which yielded in the struggle and cares of life. It 

 was Darwin who showed us that in this tremendous 

 struggle against those of his own kind in the search 

 for the same food, against the elements, in securing 

 a mate, any animals possessing a superiority, however 

 slight, must have some little advantage in the battle. 

 Certainly, where so many must utterly fail, only those 

 could possibly succeed who were well fitted to the 

 circumstances in which they must live. We used to 

 think animals were destroyed by the "accidents" of 



