268 Thomas 1 Icnry Huxley 



"Before the deposition of the chalk, a vastly longer period 

 elapsed, throughout which it is easy to follow the traces of the 

 same process of ceaseless modification and of the same inter- 

 ueciue struggle for existence of living things; and when we 

 can go no further back, it is not because there is any reason to 

 think we have reached the beginning, but because the trail of 

 the most ancient life remains hidden or has become obliterated." 



The state of nature, then, is a fleeting and imper- 

 manent process. 



"That which endures is not one or other association of living 

 forms, but the process of which the Cosmos is the product and 

 of which these are among the transitory expressions. And in 

 the living world, one of the most characteristic features of this 

 cosmic process is the struggle for existence, the competition of 

 each with all, the result of which is the selection, that is to say, 

 the survival of those forms which, on the whole, are best adapted 

 to the conditions which at any period obtain ; and which are, 

 therefore, in that respect, and only in that respect, the fittest. 

 The acme reached by the cosmic process in the vegetation of the 

 Downs is seen in the turf with its weeds and gorse. Under the 

 conditions, they have come out of the struggle victorious ; and, 

 by surviving, have proved that they are the fittest to survive." 



For three or four years, the state of nature in a small 

 portion of the Downs stirrounding Huxley's house had 

 been put an end to by the intervention of man. 



"The patch was cut off from the rest by a wall ; within the 

 area thus protected the native vegetation was, as far as possible, 

 extirpated, while a colony of strange plants was imported and 

 set down in its place. In short, it was made into a garden. 

 This artificially treated area presents an aspect extraordinarily 

 different from that of so much of the land as still remains in 

 the state of nature outside the wall. Trees, shrubs and herbs, 

 many of them appertaining to the state of nature in remote 

 parts of the globe, abound and flourish. Moreover, consider- 

 able quantities of vegetables, fruit, and flowers are produced, 

 of kinds which neither now exist nor have ever existed ex- 

 cept under conditions such as obtain in the garden and which 



