AMONG THE GREEKS 101 



the existing modes of reproduction of the less 

 perfect were followed by the more perfect. This 

 idea, as we have seen, however, w^as not even re- 

 motely related to our modern conception of 

 primordial asexual organisms, for his 'formless 

 masses' were mythological monsters. 



Survival of the Fittest 



Empedocles further set forth a rude doctrine 

 of the successive production directly from the 

 earth of larger animal types possessing greater 

 or lesser capacity of living and reproducing. The 

 less perfect forms, as well as the more perfect, 

 were produced fortuitously. The misshapen, ill- 

 combined monsters were eliminated, one after 

 the other, until finally Xature produced animals 

 capable of feeding themselves and of propaga- 

 tion. Associated as a theoretical explanation with 

 these vague conceptions of the fact of the grad- 

 ual evolution of life w^as the dimly foreshadowed 

 'survival of the fittest' theory of Empedocles, 

 that the perfect forms were finally produced as 

 the result of a long series of fortuitous combina- 

 tions. Finally, the principles of adaptation, or 

 fitness of certain structures to certain ends, had 

 been clearly brought out, and gave rise to the 

 distinct problem of the origin or cause of adap- 

 tations. 



