90 LUCK, OR CUNNING?' 



once. This is not the case. Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, 

 and Lamarck believed in natural- selection to the full 

 as much as any follower of Mr. Charles Darwin can 

 do. They did not use the actual words, but the idea 

 underlying them is the essence of their system. Mr. 

 Patrick Matthew epitomised their doctrine more tersely, 

 perhaps, than was done by any other of the pre-Charles- 

 Darwinian evolutionists, in the following passage which 

 appeared in 183 1, and which I have already quoted 

 in "Evolution, Old and New" (pp. 320, 323). The 

 passage runs : — 



" The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised 

 life may, in part, be traced to the extreme fecundity 

 of nature, who, as before stated, has in aU the varieties 

 of her offspring a prolific power much beyond (in 

 many cases a thousandfold) what is necessary to fill 

 up the vacancies caused by senile decay. As the 

 field of existence is limited and preoccupied, it is only 

 the hardier, more robust, better suited to circum- 

 stance individuals, who are able to struggle forward to 

 maturity, these inhabiting only the situations to which 

 they have superior adaptation and greater power of 

 occupancy than any other kind ; the weaker and less 

 circumstance-suited being prematurely destroyed. This 

 principle is in constant action ; it regulates the colour, 

 the figure, the capacities, and instincts; those indi- 

 viduals in each species whose colour and covering are 

 best suited to concealment or protection from enemies, 

 or defence from inclemencies or vicissitudes of climate, 

 whose figure is best accommodated to health, strength, 

 defence, and support; whose capacities and instincts 



