WHAT IS DARWINISM? 31 



Natural Selection. 



As Natural Selection which works so slowly 

 is a main element in Mr. Darwin's theory, it is 

 necessary to understand distinctly what he 

 means by it. On this point he leaves us no 

 room for doubt. On p. 92, he says : " This 

 preservation of favorable variations, and the 

 destruction of injurious variations, I call Natu- 

 ral Selection, or, the Survival of the Fittest." 

 "Owing to the struggle (for life) variations, 

 however slight and from whatever cause pro- 

 ceeding, if they be in any degree profitable to 

 the individuals of a species, in their infinitely 

 complex relations to other organic beings and 

 to their physical conditions of life, will tend to 

 the preservation of such individuals, and will 

 generally be inherited by their offspring. The 

 offspring also will th^s have a better chance of 

 surviving, for, of the many individuals of any 

 species which are periodically born, but a small 

 number can survive. I have called this prin- 

 ciple, by which each slight variation, if useful, 

 is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in 

 order to mark its relation to man's power of 

 selection. But the expression often used by 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fit- 



