94 ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



quently what infinitely varied diversities of structure might 

 be of use to each being under changing conditions of life. 

 Can it, then, be thought improbable, seeing that variations 

 useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other vari- 

 ations useful in some wzy to each being in the great and com- 

 plex battle of life, should occur in the course of many suc- 

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

 membering 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 of procreating their kind ? On the other hand, 

 we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injuri- 

 ous would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favour- 

 able individual differences and variations, and the destruction 

 of those which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection, 

 or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor 

 injurious would not be affected by natural selection, and 

 would be left either a fluctuating element, as perhaps we see 

 in certain polymorphic species, or would ultimately become 

 fixed, owing to the nature of the organism and the nature of 

 the conditions. 



Several writers have misapprehended or objected to the 

 term Natural Selection. Some have even imagined that nat- 

 ural selection induces variability, whereas it implies only the 

 preservation of such variations as arise and are beneficial to 

 the being under its conditions of life. No one objects to 

 agriculturists speaking of the potent effects of man's selec- 

 tion; and in this case the individual differences given by 

 nature, which man for some object selects, must of necessity 

 first occur. Others have objected that the term selection im- 

 plies conscious choice in the animals which become modified; 

 and it has even been urged that, as plants have no volition, 

 natural selection is not applicable to them! In the literal 

 sense of the word, no doubt, natural selection is a false term ; 

 but who ever objected to chemists speaking of the elective 

 affinities of the various elements? — and yet an acid cannot 

 strictly be said to elect the base with which it in preference 

 combines. It has been said that I speak of natural selection 

 as an active power or Deity; but who objects to an author 

 speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements 



