I TWO OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED 

 leory of the origin of species, and every the- 

 ry which could not account for it would be, so 

 ir, imperfect." ^ 



We have now reached a point at which we 

 may pause for a moment to contemplate the 

 theory of natural selection in its logical aspect, 

 and to mark its character as a scientific hypo- 

 thesis. A moment's inspection will reveal the 

 absurdity of the thoughtless remark — some- 

 times heard from theologians and penny-a-liners 

 — that the Darwinian theory rests upon purely 

 gratuitous assumptions and can never be sub- 

 mitted to verification. On the contrary, the 

 theory of natural selection, when analyzed, will 

 be found to consist of eleven propositions, of 

 which nine are demonstrated truths, the tenth 

 is a corollary from its nine predecessors, and the 

 eleventh is a perfectly legitimate postulate. Let 

 us enumerate these propositions : — 



1. More organisms perish than survive; 



2. No two individuals are exactly alike ; 



3. Individual peculiarities are transmissible to 

 offspring; 



4. Individuals whose peculiarities bring them 

 into closest adaptation with their environment 

 are those which survive and transmit their pe- 

 culiar organizations ; 



5. The survival of the fittest thus tends to 



^ Huxley, Lay Sermons y p. 303. 



67 



