208 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART m 



partial survival viz. survival of the best (in one 

 respect or in another). I cannot think that, since 

 Malthus and Darwin, any one has the right to deny 

 the existence of a selective process in nature ; and 

 one of its effects must also be admitted its effect 

 in keeping each separate species up to the highest 

 point of efficiency (natural selection B). In one sense 

 therefore, even if hardly more than a truism, we make 

 bold (as our first step) to affirm that natural selection 

 exists. 



Nattiral Selection, C or A, is also to be regarded as 

 a reality. Perhaps the following consideration may 

 enable us to take another step forward. Science now 

 seems to teach that organic evolution is a fact, 

 that, in spite of their apparent fixity and distinctness, 

 species have somehow grown out of each other, and, 

 presumably, are growing still. Then, if that be so, 

 and if a selective process among organisms is simul- 

 taneously taking place, the two processes must have 

 affected each other (C) if they were not really one 

 process (A). In other words: if, from any cause 

 whatever, variations capable of building up a new 

 species are coming into existence, and if it is impossi- 

 ble that all organisms should live out their full span, 

 then the new varieties will be weeded, and weeded 

 selectively, like the rest, and this process must at least 

 contribute something towards maturing the slowly 

 evolving types (C ; but A is possible), as well as 

 towards maintaining in efficiency organisms of the 

 types already constituted (B). Now, if this consider- 

 ation be admitted, we may narrow the problem. We 

 need no longer ask, Does natural selection exist ? Or 

 even, Does it exist as a cause of progress ? We ask, 



