92 DISCRIMINATIONS CHAP. 



Darwin's theory on account of that very 

 element on which much of its popular 

 success has undoubtedly depended. Mr. 

 Spencer dismisses with something like 

 contempt the ideas connected with the 

 agency of a human breeder. He has, 

 therefore, always condemned the phrase 

 under which this idea is implied. He 

 will have nothing to do with the con- 

 ception of mind guiding and directing 

 the course of development. Therefore, 

 he has long suggested the adoption of 

 an alternative phrase for the Darwin 

 theory, which phrase is the " survival of 

 the fittest." It has always seemed to 

 me that the insuperable objection to this 

 phrase is that it means nothing but a 

 mere truism. If we eliminate from 

 Darwin's theory the mental element of 

 selection, and if we eliminate also, as we 

 must do, the element of pure chance, 

 which, of course, is nothing but a 



