THE METHOD 79 



it is apparent that favorable always means those 

 variations that can easiest procure the means of sub- 

 sistence, and this is called the survival of the fittest. 

 So that the full definition is: Evolution by natural 

 selection in the survival of the fittest. It will become 

 evident by careful study that this method is really the 

 only one adapted to build up a strong, enduring, and 

 capable species, or race, so far brought forward. In 

 doing this, new species naturally result from the adap- 

 tations constantly being made. 



ENVIRONMENT NON-ADAPTIVE. The big-horned sheep 

 is the boldest mountaineer among animals, in the 

 Sierras of western America. He possesses many anatom- 

 ical and physiological features that contribute toward 

 his special adaptation to his habitat. His coat of hair 

 is of such thickness and density, that when he lies, at 

 night, upon a bed of snow, the heat of his body makes 

 no impression on his frozen bed. He is, therefore, 

 unconscious of a low temperature. His stomach is 

 adapted to the digestion of mountain verdure. His 

 body, legs, and hoofs, are adapted to climbing, or 

 descending steep, rocky cliffs, or jumping great chasms, 

 or leaping from the edges of precipices. The believer 

 in special creation will contend that this animal was 

 created, with this kind of a body and coat, to enable 

 him to lead his peculiar life, in such a region. That is, 

 that his habitat, and adapted morphology were pre- 

 determined, or designed. But the evolutionist says, 

 that the sheep's primitive ancestor was not formed as 

 he is. Neither was his habitat, nor the mountain 

 region, at first, in the shape it now is, nor was its tem- 

 perature always Arctic, nor much different from the 

 contiguous territory. As the mountainous region has 

 been evolved by gradual changes in altitude, by slow 



