94 DISCRIMINATIONS CHAP. 



in mathematics. 1 The negation of it, he 

 says, is inconceivable. But if so, it tells 

 us nothing. If we do enter at all on the 

 field of speculation on the origin and 

 development of organic things, we do 

 not need to be assured that the fittest 

 things for surviving do, accordingly, and 

 necessarily, survive. What we want to 

 know or at least to have some glimpse 

 of is the processes of development, 

 through which fitness has been attained 

 for creatures moving along innumerable 

 divergent paths of energy and of enjoy- 

 ment. A theory which, in answer to our 

 inquiries on this high theme, tells us 

 confessedly nothing but the self-evident 

 proposition that the creatures fittest to 

 survive do actually survive, is mani- 

 festly nothing but a mockery and a 

 snare. 



But Mr. Spencer has a substitute for 

 1 Pp. 748, 749. 



