THE EVOLUTION PROCESS 247 



possibly receive even by some mildewing 

 attenuation of the classic economic hypothesis 

 of the progress of the species essentially 

 through the internecine struggle among its 

 individuals at the margin of subsistence. 



Our theory thus furnishes a re-interpreta- 

 tion of the forms attained by plants and 

 animals comparable to that afforded by the 

 received hypothesis (and, if space allowed, 

 traceable into no less refinement of detail), 

 yet with an essentially allied view of the 

 process and factors of organic evolution as a 

 whole. Most briefly stated, the view of evo- 

 lution thus reached is that of definite varia- 

 tion : its branchings essentially dichotomous 

 rather than indefinite, with progress essen- 

 tially through the subordination of individual 

 struggle and development to species-maintain- 

 ing ends. The ideal of evolution is thus no 

 gladiator's show, but an Eden; and though 

 competition can never be wholly eliminated 

 the line of progress is thus no straight line 

 but at most an asymptote it is much for our 

 pure natural history to see no longer struggle, 

 but love as " creation's final law." 



Natural selection remains still a vera causa 

 in the origin of species; but the function 

 ascribed to it is practically reversed. It 

 exchanges its former supremacy as the 



