12 ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



regard as work of the most aggravated kind. Thus 

 it chanced that one day he amused himself by 

 reading the " Essay on Population " which an 

 English clergyman named Malthus had published 

 in 1798. Malthus pointed out that the popula- 

 tion tends to increase in geometrical progression : 

 whereas the means of subsistence increase, at most, 

 in only arithmetical progression — a nice quandary 

 for the population. This observation of Malthus 

 gave Darwin an idea which, though it is, in essence, 

 as old as Empedocles, will for ever be associated with 

 his name. The argument is very simple. The 

 individuals of any generation vary within wide 

 limits. Some are fleeter, some stronger, some 

 craftier than others. If, then, there is not enough 

 food " to go round," will not the strongest, the 

 fleetest, the craftiest get more than their share, 

 whilst the less favoured starve ? And will not the 

 fleetness and strength of those thus selected by 

 nature be transmitted to their progeny ; whilst the 

 others will leave few descendants or none to inherit 

 their weakness or dull wits ? This is the theory 

 which Darwin called by the unfortunate name of 

 "Natural Selection." When it was submitted to 

 the public in 1859 in the " Origin of Species," 

 Spencer, who was engaged in constructing a philo- 

 sophic system which should establish his idea of 

 Evolution or Ordered Change, and apply it to all 

 things whatsoever, accepted the Darwinian theory 

 with delight, and happily re-christened it " the 

 survival of the fittest." Darwin, never loth to 

 accept help from any quarter, adopted this phrase in 

 all subsequent editions of his masterpiece. 



