184 DARWINISM AND HUIIAN LIFE 



the severity of industrial competition, which had 

 increased Ibitterly between Malthus's time and 

 Darwin's, was at least subconsciously in the mind 

 of both Darwin and Wallace, and gave spring to 

 the theory which they projected upon nature.^ 



Darwin's Position. — Let us try to understand 

 Darwin's problem. His studies as a naturalist 

 had made him acquainted with a large number of 

 animals and plants, and two facts had especially 

 impressed him: first, that the various kinds are 

 suited to the niches which they fill — suited often 

 as hand to glove ; and second, that in many cases 

 the various kinds are closely Hnked together by 

 resemblances which evidently mean blood-relation- 

 ship. What Darwin wished to get at was a theory 

 of the origin of one species from another, and a 

 theory of the origin of the adaptations with which 

 the world of life is full. He found the answer to 

 both his questions in discovering a process actually 

 at work — Nature's sifting of the changes that crop 

 up. He defined it as " the preservation, during 

 the battle for hfe, of varieties which possess any 

 advantage in structure, constitution, or instinct." 



1 Following Bacon, we may draw a useful distinction between 

 a scientific theory in the stage of suggestion — an anticipation of 

 nature, and a scientific theory in the stage of verification — an inter- 

 pretation of nature. In the stage of suggestion the theory of 

 natural selection was in greater part sociomorphic ; but it passed, 

 by Darwin's careful workmanship, into the stage of verification, 

 and it should be remembered that the validity of a scientific theory 

 is not affected by what suggested it. A theory is to be estimated 

 by its power of formulating a definite order of facts. 



At the same time those who insist on using the formula of natural 

 selection in the interpretation of human affairs, and who call it 

 a biological formula, must remember the history — that it was from 

 the human domain that the suggestion of the theory came. Per- 

 haps there is some supplementary suggestion from human s ociety, 

 equally valuable, which no Darwin has yet arisen to appreciate. 



