CHAPTER XVIII. 



DARWINISM. 



The Coining of the Word — ^^^lat it Means — Its Relation to Evolution 

 — " The Survival of the Fittest " — " The Struggle for Existence " 

 — The Descent — Examples of Evolution. 



HE scientific labours of 

 Danvin have resulted in 

 the addition of a new 

 word — Darwioism — to 

 the English language, — 

 indeed, to that of the 

 world. Literally, Darwin- 

 ism is Charles Darwin's 

 explanation of the law 

 or method of evolution. 

 To enable the reader to 

 obtain a clear understand- 

 ing of what was, in reality, the life-work of the great 

 naturalist, we may refer briefly to the theory and 

 history of evolution. We first hear of the word, or 

 ; find it, in scientific literature in the early part of the 

 \^ eighteenth century. Previous to this, or in the 

 seventeenth century, the popular idea of the genera- 

 tion of life was that promulgated by Aristotle, his 



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