82 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



case of persistent types, no variation at all. Neither is 

 it confined to the evolution of new biological forms. 

 When the atoms of the nebula, from which the solar sys- 

 tem was evolved, selected the proper direction of move- 

 ment, which finally resulted in the condensation of the 

 atoms into the present forms of the solar system, that 

 was a process of natural selection which has character- 

 ized that, and all other atoms in every combination they 

 have since made, whether into molecules, ids, physio- 

 logical units, ions, biogens or electric discharges. 

 Nature, itself, is a selective process, by which inte- 

 gration, and dissipation are, for the time being, always 

 adapted in every locality, and in every phase of them, 

 to the requirement of the universe as a whole. 



Darwin confined his work to organisms, and did not 

 elaborate this feature of natural selection, as above 

 stated. Yet the reader will recognize that the principle 

 has a very wide application, and may thus be recognized, 

 in the minds of naturalists, a universal one. 



SEXUAL SELECTION. Whether the process of organic 

 evolution is accounted for by natural selection, which 

 Darwin defines as the preservation of variations favor- 

 able to the individual, in its struggle for existence; or 

 by sexual selection, which contributes to the perpetua- 

 tion of the race; or by the use, or disuse of parts, yet 

 all these processes elaborately discussed, also by Darwin, 

 are natural, as contradistinguished from special creation. 

 It seems also, that they could all be classified under the 

 head of natural selection, in which case the definition 

 should be enlarged to read, the adaptation of individual 

 variations favorable to the organism, in its struggle for 

 existence, and to the propagation of a strong race. 



In sexual selection, such as occurs when the males 

 fight for the females, and the latter almost uncon- 



