ii TAUTOLOGY 93 



confession of ignorance, what is there 

 remaining ? Mr. Spencer's answer to 

 this question is that the " survival of the 

 fittest " remains. Yes, but this is a mere 

 restatement of certain facts under an 

 altered form of words which pretends to 

 explain them, whilst in reality it contains 

 no explanatory element whatever. The 

 survival of the fittest? Fittest for what? 

 For surviving. So that the phrase 

 means no more than this, that the sur- 

 vivor does survive. It surely did not 

 need the united exertions of the greatest 

 natural observer of modern times and the 

 reasonings of one of the most ingenious 

 of modern philosophers to assure us of 

 the truth of this identical proposition. 

 Yet, in the article now under review, it 

 is at least a comfort to find that Mr. 

 Spencer confesses to the empty certitude 

 which his phrase contains. He says it 

 is a self-evident proposition like an axiom 



