ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENT 21 



the harmony is but the harmony of gigantic wheels 

 driving round in perfect rhythm, but, as they drive, 

 grinding like the " mills of the gods, exceeding small and 

 most exceeding fine." 



The Struggle for Existence 



Darwin has called this process of friction and change 

 in nature the " struggle for existence." He shows, 

 in the " Origin of Species," how this struggle results 

 in the "elimination" of types " unfitted" to survive, 

 and in the perpetuation of types in all respects "fitted 

 to survive" because their forms and functions have 

 been fashioned by adaptation. For the sake of con- 

 venience and vividness we retain most of the familiar 

 terms of Darwin. But it is not strictly in accordance 

 with the mechanistic view, which we hold, to speak 

 of an automatic reaction as a "struggle" between the 

 reagents. One does not assume struggle or volition 

 on the part of the elements when they enter into chemi- 

 cal combination. In like manner, although it is con- 

 venient to speak of this world-wide activation, which 

 destroys many that a few may survive, in terms of the 

 struggle which it resembles, we do not assume the 

 existence of any "innate faculty" or "will" or "desire 

 to live," either in the individuals which survive or in 

 those which are lost. Many terms of the established 

 vocabulary of evolution have a tendency to convey 

 this teleological meaning, which we wish to avoid. 

 For that reason, whenever in the description of natural 

 processes it is possible to substitute a word or phrase 

 equally brief but more neutral than the old terms, we 

 shall do so, avoiding the phraseology, while main- 



