2 A GREAT CONFESSION CHAP. 



priate objects of recognition. He is the 

 author of that other phrase, " the survival 

 of the fittest," which has almost super- 

 seded Darwin's own original phrase of 

 "natural selection." Nothing could be 

 happier than this invention for the 

 purpose of giving vogue to whatever it 

 might be supposed to mean. There is 

 a roundness, neatness, and compactness 

 about it, which imparts to it all the 

 qualities of a projectile with immense 

 penetrating power. It is a signal 

 illustration of itself. It is the fittest of 

 all phrases to survive. There is a sense 

 of self-evident truth about it which fills 

 us with satisfaction. It may perhaps be 

 suspected sometimes of being a perfect 

 specimen of the knowledge that puffeth 

 up, because there is a suggestion about 

 it not easily dismissed that it is tauto- 

 logical. The survival of the fittest may 

 be translated into the survival of that 



