74 NATURAL SELECTION. 



borne in mind how infinitely complex and close-fitting are 

 the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other 

 and to their physical conditions of life; and consequently 

 what infinitely varied diversities of structure might be of 

 use to each being under changing conditions of life._ Can 

 it then be thought improbable, seeing that variations 

 useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other 

 variations useful in some way to each being in the great 

 and complex battle of life, should occur in the course of 

 many successive generations? If such do occur, can we 

 doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born 

 than can possibly survive) that individuals having any ad- 

 vantage, however slight, over others, would have the best 

 chance of surviving and procreating their kind ? On the 

 other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least 

 degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preser- 

 vation of favorable individual differences and variations, 

 and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have 

 called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. 

 Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected 

 by natural selection, and would be left either a fluctuating 

 element, as perhaps we see in certain polymorphic species, 

 or would ultimately become fixed, owing to the nature of 

 the organism and the nature of the conditions. 



Several writers have misapprehended or objected to the 

 term Natural Selection. Some have even imagined that 

 natural selection induces variability, whereas it implies 

 only the preservation of such variations as arise and are 

 beneficial to the being under its conditions of life. No 

 one objects to agriculturists speaking of the potent effects 

 of man's selection; and in this case the individual differ- 

 ences given by nature, which man for some object selects, 

 must of necessity first occur. Others have objected that 

 the term selection implies conscious choice in the animals 

 which become modified; and it has even been urged that, 

 as plants have no volition, natural selection is not applica- 

 ble to them! In the literal sense of the word, no doubt, 

 natural selection is a false term; but who ever objected to 

 chemists speaking of the elective affinities of the various 

 elements? — and yet an acid cannot strictly be said to elect 

 the base with which it in preference combines. It has 

 been said that I speak of natural selection as an active 



