THE FALLACIES OF NATURAL SELECTION. 141 



argument, — degeneration (which is the converse and 

 refutation of the conclusion, at which his argument 

 aims), is established, beyond question, by, both, an 

 overwhelming presumption, arising from the very 

 terms used in the inducement to such argument, and 

 by facts conceded by Darwin, to be incident to the 

 conditions under which works the main factor that 

 he employs. 



The reader doubtless fancies, that, assuredly, the 

 very first care, with Darwin, will be to obviate, — or, at 

 least to endeavor to obviate, — this strong and apparently 

 insuperable objection to his argument. But, no ; Dar- 

 win proceeds with his ratiocination, — or induction, for 

 it is always well nigh impossible to determine how he 

 reasons, — as serenely and complacently, as if he had 

 essayed, exclusively, to prove the descent of a mouse 

 from an elephant, instead of the descent of an elephant 

 from a mouse. 



By the methods with which he argues, the outcome 

 may be, as of old, the evolution of a ridiculous, little 

 mouse ; but it will never be the evolution of any other 

 organism. 



2. His next proposition, in order, is that, in this 

 Struggle for Existence, "the strongest and most vig- 

 orous" alone survive. 



There is a fallacy, lying perdu, in these terms, 

 "strongest and most vigorous." They beg the whole 

 question ; and they beg it, in the face of a state of facts, 

 which wholly disprove the gratuitous assumption. 



Viewed with reference to the circumstances of the 

 fearful "battle for life," to which, Darwin says, all or- 



