CHAPTER XVIII. 



DARWINISM. 



The Coining of the Word What it Means Its Relation to Evolution 

 ' ' The Survival of the Fittest " " The Struggle for Existence " 

 The Descent Examples of Evolution. 



HE scientific labours of 

 Darwin have resulted in 

 the addition of a new 

 word Darwinism to 

 the English language, 

 indeed, to that of the 

 world. Literally, Darwin- 

 ism is Charles Darwin's 

 explanation of the law 

 or method of evolution. 

 To enable the reader to 

 obtain a clear understand- 

 ing of what was, in reality, the life-work of the great 

 naturalist, we may refer briefly to the theory and 

 history of evolution. We first hear of the word, or 

 find it, in scientific literature in the early part of the 

 eighteenth century. Previous to this, or in the 

 seventeenth century, the popular idea of the genera- 

 tion of life was that promulgated by Aristotle, his 

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