Survival of the Fittest. 427 



all variations, no matter how slight they may be, or from what 

 cause soever they may proceed, will, if they be in any degree 

 profitable to the individuals of a species in their infinitely 

 complex relations to other organic beings and their physical 

 conditions of life, unavoidably conduce to the preservation of 

 such individuals, and generally be inherited by the offspring. 

 The offspring, too, will thus have a better chance of surviving, 

 for, of the many individuals of a species that are periodically 

 born, but a very small number can survive. That principle, 

 by which each slight variation, if useful to the individual, is 

 preserved, has been termed Natural Selection by Darwin, in 

 order to distinguish it from the selection which is exercised 

 by man over the plants and animals which he has brought 

 under subjection for his own wants. But the expression 

 Survival of the Fittest so frequently used by Spencer, is 

 more accurate, and sometimes equally convenient. Man can 

 certainly produce great results by this power, and can adapt, 

 through the accumulation of slight but useful variations 

 given to him by the hand of nature, organic beings to his 

 own uses. But Natural Selection, as is well known, is a 

 power incessantly ready for action, and is as infinitely 

 superior to man's feeble efforts as the works of nature are to 

 those of art. 



All organic beings are exposed to severe competition. 

 Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the 

 universal struggle for life, or more difficult than constantly to 

 bear this conclusion, which has been reached through the 

 investigations and researches of De Candolle, Lyell, Herbert, 

 Darwin and others, in mind. Unless, however, it be thor- 

 oughly ingrained in the mind, the whole economy of nature, 

 with every fact on distribution, rarity, abundance, extinction 

 and variation, will be but dimly perceived or quite misunder- 

 stood. We behold the face of nature radiant with gladness, 

 and food everywhere in excessive abundance, but we do not 

 see that the birds which are happily singing round us mostly 

 live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying 



