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are against me, I am against facts. I have nothing to do with them 

 in any such case. 



I believe that all living beings have this struggle against each 

 other, and that the weaker must go to the wall and be exterminated, 

 although I see that all sorts keep their own places as of old, and that 

 the weaker of countless kinds, such as the herring, still exist in 

 innumerable numbers, so to speak. It is a most defenceless creature, 

 and must have been overlooked and neglected by natural selection, 

 for still it nourishes and abounds beyond all calculation. This fact 

 you may say is too much for me. Not so, I am too much for it. 



I believe that the forms are so nearly balanced that things remain 

 in stata quo " for a long period of time," in fact for unknown ages ; 

 so that it would seem as if the result of some omniscience which saw 

 into all futurity beforehand, had arranged for the general good of all, 

 but for all that I hold that natural selection still acts and always has 

 acted for the benefit of individuals only. 



I believe that the order of Nature is and always has been well 

 balanced, though arranged by no superior intelligence, whilo numerous 

 destructive creatures let loose by natural selection to live by destruction, 

 are still, as always before, neither too many nor too few. 



I believe that " the modified offspring from the more highly im- 

 proved branches in. the line of descent will, it is probable, often take 

 the place of, and so destroy, the earlier and less improved branches :" 

 but I cannot tell you what I mean by " improving animals," nor when 

 an animal is "less improved" than it ought to be. I cannot tell you 

 of any animal that would be better for improving, nor what improve- 

 ment it needs, nor how I would improve it. How can I tell you when 

 I have elsewhere said myself, ' Who will pretend that he knows the 

 history of any organised being sufficiently well to say whether any 

 particular change would be to its advantage?" And, ag'ain, "What 

 advantage would it 'be to an earth-worm to be highly organised?" No, 

 I cannot tell you what advantage it would be to a camel to be turned 

 into a lion, or an ostrich into a hawk. 



I believe, however, for all that, that " the ultimate result will be 

 that each creature will tend to become more and more improved in 

 relation to its condition of life." No doubt these assertions are self 

 contradictory, but so let them be. 



I believe, yes I believe, that this improvement will take place with 

 the greater number of beings throughout the world. You may reply 

 that in that case there would in time be no more natural selection, 

 her work being done ; and you may ask me what will be the next step ? 

 Possum non mi recordo. 



I believe in these improvements and transformations, but I cannot 

 at present explain t > you how a transformed animal is an improved 

 one. You may say that a camel turned into a horse is not therefore 

 "improved." If I choose to say it is, is not that enough? 



I believe in all such metamorphoses, though I have no answer to 

 give to the question how, if an elephant were to be changed into an 

 ass, it would be improved, its superior intellect being lost by the 

 exchange. 



I believe in them, I say, because I believe in them, although you 

 may ridicule my idea of improving Nature, and may consider it as 

 misplaced and audacious as to attempt a new creation, and may ask 

 me what is to become of all the living creatures when they have been 

 " improved " up to the status of man ? 



I believe it is not the veriest nonsense, though I cannot tell you 

 whether they must all become men in form as well as in sense, or 

 must remain in appearance what we see them to be now. You may 



B 



