II.] DEFINITION OP DARWINISM. 57 



than any enunciation since the promulgation of induc- 

 tive philosophy. Darwin, like Lamarck, saw that all 

 forms of life vary; and like him, too, he perceived that 

 there must be a fierce struggle for place or existence 

 amongst the individuals of the rapidly succeeding gene- 

 rations. This variation and struggle are particularly 

 apparent in cultivated plants; and Darwin saw that the 

 gardener selects the best, and thereby "improves" the 

 breed. "Can it, then, be thought improbable," says 

 Darwin, "seeing that variations useful to man have un- 

 doubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some 

 way to each being in the great and complex battle of 

 life, should occur in the course of many successive 

 generations? If such do occur, can we doubt (remem- 

 bering that many more individuals are born than can 

 possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, 

 however slight, over others, would have the best chance 

 of surviving and procreating their kind?" " This pres- 

 ervation of favorable individual differences and varia- 

 tions, and the destruction of those which are injurious, 

 I have called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the 

 Fittest." This, then, is Darwinism — that the control- 

 ling factor or process in evolution is selective, the 

 survival, in the struggle for existence, of those indi- 

 viduals which are best fitted to survive. But while this 

 is the naked core of Darwinism, there are various correl- 

 ative or incidental hypotheses attached to it. Darwin, 

 for instance, accepted in some degree the views of 

 Lamarck as to the importance of functional characters; 

 he considered that sexual selection, or the choice exer- 

 cised in securing mates, is often an important factor in 

 modifying species; he thought that variation is induced 

 by the modifications of environment, or the "changed 



