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CHAPTER IV. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE AND 

 NATURAL SELECTION. 



LIFE, under favourable conditions, is not a 

 struggle, but the harmonious development of 

 an organism. When, however, development 

 is obstructed or impaired by unfavourable 

 conditions, life does become a struggle, and as 

 every species of animal (civilised man per- 

 haps excepted) and plant tends to increase 

 faster than the food available for subsistence, 

 the conditions of life become unfavourable, 

 and the struggle for existence all-pervading, 

 save where man intervenes. The survivors 

 in the conflict thus inevitable, will have 

 proved themselves fitter to exist than those 

 that perished, presumably because they 

 possessed some advantage over their less 

 fortunate fellows : when the struggle was 

 nearly balanced, that advantage may have 

 been of a trifling character, but, according 

 to Darwin, minute differences are accumu- 



