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SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 



which applies to the derived forms, and not to the primor- 

 dial living matter, held to be a vera causa of the origin of 

 species, but it is maintained that the changes effected by it 

 are physical, and the cause of the variation in the forms 

 succeeding the first living matter also physical, and that 

 the changes result from the operation of the same laws 

 that prevail in the non-living world. 



It is, however, very remarkable that those who assert 

 the truth of the doctrine of natural selection, and affirm 

 natural selection to be a vera causa, have not to this day 

 defined exactly what the phrase means. " Survival of the 

 fittest," surely only expresses what is supposed to be a fact, 

 viz., that " the fittest survive," and that all creatures which 

 do survive, are really the fittest to survive. But how it is 

 proved that the actual survivors are really the fittest, and 

 that the peculiarities they possess, ensure them being so, 

 does not appear. It is true that we are told that the doc- 

 trine of natural selection " implies that variations or indi- 

 vidual differences of a favourable nature, occasionally 

 arise in a few species, and are then preserved." (O. of S. 

 fifth ed., p. 148.) But this again is a mere statement of 

 what is held to be fact. There is no attempt to explain the 

 actual phenomena that must according to the theory occur, 

 nor the nature of the variations or differences when they 

 begin to be perceptible, nor is their occurrence accounted for. 

 We ought surely to be enlightened concerning the probable 

 origin of the variations or internal tendencies to change of 

 which "natural selection " is supposed to be always ready to 

 take advantage. We ought to be informed exactly what 

 "natural selection" is supposed to be whether force, power, 

 or property, and why he, she, or it, is always on the watch or 

 look out by what means the watching or looking out is 



