4b 



gay presently will similarly show that it fails to apply to animals 

 and plants generally. 



Yet he and others tell us that this is the basis, the origin of the 

 struggle for existence. " Reproduction is everywhere, and in all 

 species," he says, " outrunning means of subsistence ; and starva- 

 tion or competition is for ever keeping down the number of the 

 offspring to the level of the average or normal supply of raw 

 material. 



And Darwin himself asserts this geometrical increase to be the 

 cause of the struggle. Malthus applied the princinle to man only. 

 Darwin applies it equally to all animal and plant life. From which 

 follow curious conclusions. Correct me if I am wrong in pointing 

 out how this application of the principle breaks nown. 



Man, says Malthus, increases geometrically. 



His food increases arithmetically. 



Therefore the end is starvation. 



But his food consists of animals and plants. And Darwin says 

 they increase geometrically. Therefore there is no danger of 

 starvation ; consequently Malthus was wrong. 



Again, according to the Darwinites generally, animals increase 

 geometrically and their food arithmetically. 



But, the carnivorous animals feed upon other animals, which 

 likewise increase geometrically. Which is absurd. 



And if animals feed on plants, still according to the hypothesis, 

 the plants increase also geometrically. 



The whole application breaks down, at whatever point you test 

 it. And therefore, though Malthus set Darwin upon a certain 

 track of thought, we cannot look on Malthusianism as forming any 

 part of the real basis of natural selection. Directly Darwin applied 

 it to animals and plants he, ipso facto disproved it with relation to 

 man. No single law, no single "tendency" in nature is ever 

 allowed to act alone, and therefore none ever completely fulfils 

 itielf. Every effect is a resultant of many tendencies ; no cause, 

 no antecedent remains unchecked. 



Still it is a fact that Nature is wonderfully prolific ; we are 

 tempted at times to think wastefuUy so. So far as the mere 

 simple arrangements go for the continuation of the species of either 

 animals or plants, the geometrical ratio is an exceedingly high one. 

 It is not a case of doubling in 25 years ; it is often a " tendency " 

 of a thousand-fold in one year. Count the number of cores in a 

 cob of maize, and multiply it by the number of cobs on one plant, 

 all from one seed. You will find in some cases the ratio is not 

 limited to one or two thousand Huxley says ti>at a single plant 

 producing 50 seeds a year would, if unchecked, cover the whole 

 globe in nine years. A single red campion will produce 3,000 



