THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 



the name of variation. Among, the slight differences 

 which occur, the favourable ones are shown by the 

 survival of the individual, the unfavourable ones by its 

 death. Now, although offspring do not precisely re- 

 semble their parents, yet they do so in the main ; and 

 any one particular characteristic has its chance of being 

 inherited ; and if inherited, it will again and again be 

 picked out for possible inheritance by the survival of its 

 possessor, when other individuals that are without it die 

 and leave no offspring. In this way, the " struggle for 

 existence" results in the "natural selection" of indivi- 

 duals possessing certain qualities, and in the " survival 

 of the fittest " to contend with the given circumstances 

 of the kind of animal or plant concerned. By this 

 process the characters of a race of animals or plants 

 may, in an seonic period, be entirely changed. That 

 the processes of artifidal selection, undertaken by 

 gardeners and breeders of stock, have resulted, and 

 do commonly result, in the production of new kinds, 

 everybody knows. The steps by which this result 

 is attained are practically identical with what has 

 just been described. Every individual that does not 

 possess a certain given characteristic is weeded out ; 

 it is destroyed, and leaves no offspring. In time is 

 thus produced a kind, or breed, which has the de- 

 sired characteristic fixed. Thus we get distinct 

 breeds, for instance, of pigeons or of dogs, so unlike 

 that if. found wild they would be called different species. 

 The short-nosed pug and the long-nosed cx)llie, the 

 tiny timid lapdog, that shivers in its silk-lined basket, 



