78 The Morality of Nature 



young. And others who reach maturity may still fail early 

 and leave scant posterity, and these offspring are tainted with 

 disabilities inherited. Others again fail even sooner and 

 die early and die without offspring. And of these some 

 suffer for error or failure of their own, but many merely 

 end a line of failing life inherited, and almost hopeless 

 chances of retrieval, because of failure by parents, while 

 others from the same parents may be free from such taint. 

 This seemingly complicated operation is not dependent upon 

 consciousness or morality or intelligence. It occurs in lower 

 life just as effectively as in humanity. A fish, because of 

 imperfect energy in the face of adversity, may fail to reach 

 the sheltered waters usually needed for safe spawning and 

 hatching of the eggs. Then it may well be that the young 

 'develop badly, and ill nourished; or that they suffer other- 

 wise, while constitutionally they are well fitted to prosper. 

 These endure the consequences of insufficiency or error, 

 which may however be light enough to permit recovery. 

 But suppose that a similar lack of energy be repeated in the 

 next season, or in the next generation, then the ill effects 

 are obviously accumulated, and under such a ban there is 

 serious loss. We see in fact exactly such cases, in all races, 

 including the human, wherein a tribe or group of creatures 

 become fewer in numbers and only the fittest survive. And 

 in some changing circumstances there occurs extreme dif- 

 ficulty where none are able to live and the branch of the 

 race in that place is extinguished. And on the other hand 

 we see in some cases a diminution of numbers under changed 

 environment, followed by a rapid refilling of the vacancies 

 as soon as adaptation supplies a form qualified for the new 



