THE UNDERLYING IDEA 57 
the ones that suit him best. Generation by generation 
he gets his domesticated animals to conform more 
nearly to the standard of his desires. Natural selec- 
tion works in exactly similar fashion. Of all the 
eggs that are produced by the animals at large in 
nature an overwhelming proportion never develop at 
all. They dry up, are eaten by their enemies, find 
no suitable place or time for development and decay, 
or are overtaken by some other calamity. Of the 
animals which emerge from the remainder an over- 
whelming majority come to an untimely end within 
the first few days of life. Each has countless enemies 
which prey upon him, and these have scarcely de- 
voured him before they themselves become the prey 
of some stronger creature. Until Mr. Darwin gave 
us his elemental idea it was taken for granted that 
it was a matter of pure accident which survived and 
which yielded in the struggle and cares of life. It 
was Darwin who showed us that in this tremendous 
struggle against those of his own kind in the search 
for the same food, against the elements, in securing 
a mate, any animals possessing a superiority, however 
slight, must have some little advantage in the battle. 
Certainly, where so many must utterly fail, only those 
could possibly succeed who were well fitted to the 
circumstances in which they must live. We used to 
think animals were destroyed by the “accidents” of 
