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BLTMl NATION ANT) SKLECTTON. 



would attend the use of such a term, not the least of which 

 is, that it serves to distinguish between artificial selection 

 and " natural selection." 



Mr. Herbert Spencer's term, '' Survival of the Fittest," 

 says Mr. Wallace, is the plain expression of the fact ; 

 " Natural Selection" is a motaj)liorical expression of it. Yes ; 

 but in the first place, Mr. Spencer's phrase gives no inkling 

 of the process by which such survival is brought about; 

 and, in the second place, it is questionable whether any 

 phrase, which does so indicate the process, can escape the 

 charge of being in some degree rnotajihorical. The sting 

 of Mr. Wallace's criticism, therefore, would appear to lie 

 (appropriately) in the tail, where ho points out that Nature 

 does not so much select special varieties as exterminate the 

 most unfavourable ones. This seems to me a valid criticism ; 

 one which Mr. Darwin does not sufficiently meet ; and one 

 which still holds good. I would, however, venture to 

 suggest that the word " eliminate," though somewhat meta- 

 phorical, is more satisfactory than Wallace's word, " ox- 

 terminate"; and I further venture to suggest that the use 

 of the phrase. Natural Elimination, would emphasize tlio 

 fact that, whereas in artificial selection it is almost invari- 

 ably the fittest which are chosen out for survival, it is not 

 so under Nature ; the " survival of the fittest " under Nature 

 being in the main the net result of a slow and gradual 

 process of the elimination of the unfit. The well-adapted 

 are not selected ; but the ill-adapted are rejected ; or rather, 

 the failures are just inevitably eliminated. 



I do not mean for one moment to hint that Mr. Dai'win 

 failed to recognise this fact. But I do think he failed to 

 give it adequate expression. I do think that if he had 

 employed the term " Selection " for the choosing out the 

 mDre fit, and " Elimination " for weeding out the less fit, 



