NATURAL SELECTION": OE, THE SUEVIVAL 

 OP THE FITTEST, 



„ . . . The preservation, during the battle for 



Vanation of ,.„ „ ^ . ,. , . , ° - , 



Animals and life, of Tarieties wnicn possess any aayantage 

 Plants under j^ structure. Constitution, or instinct, I have 

 tion, vol. i, called Natural Selection ; and Mr. Herbert 

 page 6. Spencer has well expressed the same idea by 



the Survival of the Fittest. The term "natural selec- 

 tion " is in some respects a bad one, as it seems to imply 

 conscious choice ; but this will be disregarded after a little 

 familiarity. No one objects to chemists speaking of 

 "elective affinity"; and certainly an acid has no more 

 choice in combining with a base than the conditions of 

 life have in determining whether or not a new form be 

 selected or preserved. The term is so far a good one as 

 it brings into connection the production of domestic races 

 by man's power of selection and the natural preservation 

 of varieties and species in a state of nature. For brevity 

 sake I sometimes speak of natural selection as an intelli- 

 gent power ; in the same way as astronomers speak of the 

 attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the 

 planets, or as agriculturists speak of man making domes- 

 tic races by his power of selection. In the one case, as in 



