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the other. That there is such a law as natural selection has only 

 to be expressed to be admitted; the fittest must always have the 

 best chance of surviving. The various qualities which may thus 

 be increased and rendered permanent, in a race, will vary as the 

 circumstances. Thus, in the case of an herbiverous animal kept in 

 check by carnivora, fleetness may be an advantage ; the most rapid 

 of flight will escape, the slower will be devoured. Increased fleet- 

 ness will be the result. Strength may give the law — the law of 

 battle may determine — thus strength will be increased. Social 

 animals may join in giving battle to an enemy, the stragglers will 

 perish; thus the love of society, of companionship, will increase. 

 The qualities that lead to social life will be developed. It may be 

 that an enemy attacks the young only ; in this case the existence 

 of the race may depend on the strength of the paternal feeling. 

 Only the parents whose devotion is greatest will be able to rear 

 their offspring. It is obvious that this great law of natural selec- 

 tion may act in any direction. It will, however, always act for 

 the benefit of the possessor of the organ or quality which is being 

 changed. In low forms it may act on colour, by making the in- 

 dividual less conspicuous. It may even act as a degrading agency, 

 if by rendering a given species more simple, or capable of living 

 on a different kind of food, it enables it to exist when otherwise it 

 might become extinct. With the highest race in any given area, 

 its action must always be in the direction of improvement. With 

 a being such as man is, and has been, so unprotected by offensive 

 or defensive weapons, the direction of its force must lie in the im- 

 provement of his intellectual and moral powers. Only by the 

 exercise of these qualities can he cope with the difficulties and 

 dangers of his position : only by these can he adapt himself to the 

 various climates of the world: only by these can he select the 

 vegetable and animal organisms most suited to his use for food, 

 for clothing, for shelter : only by the exercise of these can he 

 unite with his fellows and form those unions called nations, king- 

 doms, republics. It is only the development of the moral element 

 that can give to these the cohesion and solidarity necessary to 

 success in the struggle for existence. That struggle still goes on. 



