28 daewin's theory. 



The question of the origination of these improve- 

 ments, or variations (which are modestly assumed to 

 occur but once in a thousand generations), is equally- 

 left unresolved by Darwin, and referred, as are the 

 variations under domestication, to "an innate ten- 

 dency to vary," or to " spontaneous variability !" 



It is impossible to deny, that there is such a Struggle 

 for Existence, as Darwin pictures ; and, equally impos- 

 sible to deny, that there is some such process as 

 Natural Selection, in operation under nature, favoring 

 at times the preservation of the strongest and most 

 fitted. It is scarcely possible, even, to read Darwin's 

 graphic description of the Struggle for Existence, 

 among animals and plants, under nature, and not mar- 

 vel that any survived. Under nature, he says, organ- 

 isms are subjected to the greatest vicissitudes, and to 

 the severest competition with their fellows, with other 

 species, and with the adverse conditions of nature. 

 They all enter into competition, for the means of sub- 

 sistence. All, almost without exception, he says, have 

 to struggle against the hard conditions of life, and 

 against their competitors, from the moment of their 

 birth, to the hour of their death. * He alleges, that 

 there is no exception to the rule, that every organic 

 being naturally increases at so high a rate that, if num- 

 bers were not destroyed, the earth would soon be cov- 

 ered with the progeny of a single pair. The struggle, 

 he holds, will almost invariably be the most severe, 

 between the individuals of the same species ; for, they 

 frequent the sf me districts, require the same food, and 

 are exposed to the same dangers. Consequent upon 



