44 " Natural Selection " 



and yet Darwin's whole theory of " natural selection " 

 rested upon the " survival of the fittest." Mr. Balfour 

 proves that this law does not operate, and that in fact 

 the only law in nature is the survival of those races or 

 species which are adapted to their surroundings. In 

 other words, environment is the sole agent determining 

 the evolution of species, and the Darwinian hypothesis 

 of " natural selection " is totally devoid of support from 

 the observed phenomena of nature. Mr. Balfour 

 proceeds to pour forth satire upon this already dis- 

 credited law ; he continues : " Those who are 

 interested in the subject will read constantly that 

 in certain cases the biologically fit are diminishing in 

 number through the diminution of the birth-rate, and 

 that the biologically unfit are increasing in number 

 because their birth-rate is high. But, according to the 

 true doctrine of 'natural selection' as I conceive it, that 

 is all wrong. The professional classes, we are told, 

 have families so small that it is impossible for them to 

 keep up their numbers. They are biologically unfit 

 for that very reason. Fitness means — and can only 

 mean from the naturalistic point of view — that you are 

 in harmony with your surroundings. And if your 

 numbers diminish you are not in harmony with your 

 surroundings, for there is not that adaptation which 

 fitness in the naturalistic sense implies. In the same 

 way I am told that the number of feeble-minded is 

 greatly increasing ; that can only mean, from a natural- 

 istic point of view, that the feeble-minded are getting 

 more adapted to their surroundings." The supreme 

 logical faculty of Mr. Balfour is here used to slay 

 mercilessly the already discredited hypothesis of 

 " natural selection." It reduces the conclusion to which 

 it would lead us to a veritable travesty. If present- 

 day science is to remain logically sound, it must per- 

 force discard this theory, which has held sway too long, 



