Natural Selection 
horse to the drinking fountain, but you cannot 
make him drink.” You may be able to bring a 
child into the world, but you cannot secure its 
survival. Variation brings into being mutants, 
which are incipient species, but variation cannot 
determine their survival. It is at this stage that 
natural selection steps in. 
But because natural selection allows certain 
mutations to persist, it is not correct to say that 
natural selection has caused these mutations or 
made or originated the species to which they give 
rise. 
The Civil Service Commissioners do not make 
Indian civil servants: they merely determine 
which of a number of ready-made men shall 
become civil servants. Similarly, natural selec- 
tion does not make new species, it simply decides 
which of a number of ready-made organisms shall 
survive and establish themselves as new species. 
Nor does natural selection always do as much as 
this ; for it is not the only determinant of survival. 
Its position is sometimes comparable to that of 
the Medical Board which inspects and rejects 
the physically unfit of the candidates which have 
already been selected by some other authority. 
The examination conducted by natural selec- 
tion may be compared to a competitive one. A 
separate, independent examination is held for 
each particular locality ; consequently the severity 
of the competition will vary with the locality. 
2B 385 
