THE FALLACIES OP NATURAL SELECTION. 141 



But, he has, neither, the fact, nor the favorable con- 

 ditions. 



He has not the fact, required to warrant such an im- 

 plication; for, this very point of advance in development 

 . under nature, is what he is endeavoring to prove, by 

 means of an argument from Natural Selection, into the 

 premises of which argument, he has surreptitiously con- 

 veyed this very implication which issues forth, zvith 

 such eclat, as his conclusion/ Advance in develop- 

 ment, figures, both, in his assumption, and in his con- 

 clusion. What he inserts in his premises, he, with 

 ease, extracts in the conclusion. 



' Neither, is he able to establish such an implication, 

 by proof of favorable conditions, under nature ; for, he 

 shows that the very converse there obtains. By the 

 very terms of his argument, the conditions, under nature, 

 to which, he says, all of the organisms, zvithout exception, 

 are subjected, are absolutely required to be adverse, and 

 very unfavorable to development, in order to work the 

 very Selection, which is designed to prove advance in 

 development ! Insufficient food, and all the other ele- 

 ments of the Struggle for Existence, are required to 

 operate upon all, in order to kill off the weaker; and 

 such conditions obviously cannot establish an implica- 

 tion of advance in development, when their effect is 

 death and extinction, to myriads of the numbers ex- 

 posed to them. For; given, the effect of such con- 

 ditions, upon the latter individuals, to be death and 

 extinction; what will, presumptively, be the effect upon 

 the development of those which Natural Selection pre- 

 serves? Will not Natural Selection be doing all that 

 13 



