Survival of the Fittest. 427 
all variations, no matter how slight they may be, or from what 
cause soever they may proceed, will, if they be in any degree 
profitable to the individuals of a species in their infinitely 
complex relations to other organic beings and their physical 
conditions of life, unavoidably conduce to the preservation of 
such individuals, and generally be inherited by the offspring. 
The offspring, too, will thus have a better chance of surviving, 
for, of the many individuals of a species that are periodically 
born, but a very small number can survive. That principle, 
by which each slight variation, if useful to the individual, is 
preserved, has been termed Natural Selection by Darwin, in 
order to distinguish it from the selection which is exercised 
by man over the plants and animals which he has brought 
under subjection for his own wants. But the expression— 
Survival of the Fittest—so frequently used by Spencer, is 
more accurate, and sometimes equally convenient. Man can 
certainly produce great results by this power, and can adapt, 
through the accumulation of slight but useful variations 
given to him by the hand of nature, organic beings to his 
own uses. But Natural Selection, as is well known, is a 
power incessantly ready for action, and is as infinitely 
superior to man’s feeble efforts as the works of nature are to 
those of art. 
All organic beings are exposed to severe competition. 
Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the 
universal struggle for life, or more difficult than constantly to 
bear this conclusion, which has been reached through the 
investigations and researches of De Candolle, Lyell, Herbert, 
Darwin and others, in mind. Unless, however, it be thor- 
oughly ingrained in the mind, the whole economy of nature, 
with every fact on distribution, rarity, abundance, extinction 
and variation, will be but dimly perceived or quite misunder- 
stood. We behold the face of nature radiant with gladness, 
and food everywhere in excessive abundance, but we do not 
see that the birds which are happily singing round us mostly 
live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying 
