38 ORGANIC BEHAVIOUR 
his own exertions a fortune but also inherits one, is better off 
than his neighbour, of equal business capacity, who is entirely 
dependent on his own exertions. The inheritance of a small 
capital may, indeed, make just the difference between success 
and failure. Even with it, if he had no power of acquiring 
more, he might remain a poor man. Inheritance and acqui- 
sition combined may best lead to survival in competition. 
Thus modification may supply the conditions under which 
coincident variations are favoured, and, given time, to reach 
step by step, through natural selection, a fully adaptive level. 
If this be so we may accept many of the facts adduced by the 
transmissionist in favour of the direct inheritance of acquired 
characters, and at the same time interpret them on selectionist 
principles. 
If, however, acquired characters are not hereditary the 
method of natural selection in racial progress is curiously 
indirect. Apart from the preservation of their fecundity, the 
cells on which the continuity of life, in all the higher animals, 
depends, have themselves taken little part in the struggle for 
existence. Just as in the forest tree, the firmly implanted 
roots, the sturdy stem, and the strong branches have to bear 
the stress of the winter storm, that the flowers of spring may 
ripen the seeds which contain the potentiality of all this 
strength ; so do muscle, sinew, and brain secure the survival 
of the animal, that his descendants may carry on the struggle. 
One may liken the cellular constituents of the animal to a hive 
of bees with fertile drones and queen, and sterile workers. It 
is on the exertions of the latter that, in the struggle for 
existence, the continued existence of the swarm depends, while 
it is by the pairing of the fertile drone and queen that the 
continuity of the race is secured. No worker can transmit 
the qualities which are so essential to the well-being of the 
community. But in the eggs of their sister the queen-mother 
these qualities lie dormant. And since the race is one race, 
the workers by their exertions contribute indirectly to the 
maintenance of those hereditary aptitudes to which they are 
unable to contribute directly. For it is essential to bear in 
