76 The Morality of Nature 



these selected parents. Obviously the character of the mass 

 of the maturing generation is changed by the weeding out 

 process. As an aggregate it is not just what it was in its 

 greater numbers at birth. Many have died, because of active 

 error, others simply have failed to maintain their existence 

 under the adversities of circumstances. Some deaths have 

 perhaps happened because of changed conditions for which 

 only a few subjects were by nature fitted. But for what- 

 ever reasons, some were lost, and others, the survivors who 

 have succeeded, are obviously in some degree qualified. Now 

 this different qualification, whether it be little or great will 

 continue if its cause continues, and will impress itself by 

 heredity upon the next generated offspring. Usually, but 

 not always, the impress is infinitesimally small in the case 

 of creatures which enjoy circumstances changing slowly, 

 and calling for little change in themselves. Most of the 

 losses by death, in such creatures, must therefore be ascribed 

 to only comparative inferiority, which is not a fault as faults 

 are defined by human codes, but is still failure. It is the 

 kind of failure shown by nine seedlings when a gardener 

 sows ten seeds and leaves only the strongest plant to grow, 

 and plucks out the others to make more room. In nature's 

 process the circumstances are fortuitous instead of 

 being directed, and the preference is less abruptly declared, 

 and the most fit are not always the strongest — nor the rich- 

 est — nor the greediest. In an age of wealth which encour- 

 ages unprincipled men and sterile women poverty may be an 

 advantage, and the poor and ignorant may become the 

 most fit and may survive to inherit the earth. The survivors 

 who produce young for the new generation, will be those 



