146 THE FALLACIES OF NATUKAL SELECTION. 



what wars between insect and insect, — between insects, 

 snails and other animals, with beasts and birds of 

 prey, — all striving to increase, and all feeding on each 

 other, or on the trees, or their seeds and seedlings, or 

 on the other plants which first clothed the ground, and 

 thus checked the growth of the trees!" 



What is the obvious outcome, of such a condition of 

 affairs ? Is it not, manifestly, degeneration ? 



But, the effect of this Struggle for Existence, is not 

 left to presumption alone, strong as is that presump- 

 tion. Darwin shows the actual effect of the action of 

 this factor, in the many "rudimentary organs," which 

 " plainly show that an early progenitor had the organ 

 in a fully developed state ; and this, in some instances, 

 implies an enormous amount of modification in the 

 descendants." He shows the actual effect of this 

 factor, when he says, that " Rudimentary organs are so 

 extremely common throughout nature, that scarcely a 

 single species can be mentioned, which is free from 

 such a blemish." He shows the actual effect of this 

 factor, in the multitude of "long-lost characters," to 

 which he so frequently refers. He shows the actual 

 effect of this factor when he admits that, " Not but 

 that it" (the Struggle for Existence) "may and will 

 leave many creatures, with simple and unimproved 

 structures, fitted for simpler conditions of life, and in 

 some cases will even degrade and simplify the organi- 

 zation. * * " 



Now, we have not moved beyond the first stage in 

 the order, in which he arrays his argument, before we 

 find that, at that stage, — in the very inducement to his 



