148 THE FALLACIES OF NATURAL SELECTION. 



ganisms have been subjected, the terms, "strongest 

 and most vigorous," are, even in a grammatical sense, 

 incorrect. 



Viewed with reference to the same circumstances of 

 the Struggle for Existence, and viewed with reference 

 to the inference, intended to be drawn from the appli- 

 cation of such terms, the terms "strongest and most 

 vigorous," are wholly false/in the connection in which 

 Darwin uses them. 



"The strongest and most vigorous survive!" Let us 

 define terms. Are these elect, which have survived, to 

 be styled "strongest and most vigorous;" when, the 

 sole idea possible to be gained, of the state of their 

 strength, or of their weakness, is that which is_to be 

 gathered from the conditions, to which they, similarly 

 with those which succumbed, have been subjected? 

 and when such conditions are represented, by the very 

 argument, to be adverse, and wholly unfavorable to 

 strength or to development? According to the argu- 

 ment, the Struggle for Existence has acted upon those 

 styled "the strongest and most vigorous," as well as 

 upon those, yclept, the "weakest." Those, in which 

 the conditions induced such impaired constitutions as 

 were incompatible with prolonged existence, were, evi- 

 dently, to be termed the weakest and most degenerate. 

 What then, manifestly are the survivors correctly to 

 be styled, which were alike subjected to such adverse 

 conditions, and which owe their prolonged existence 

 to a mere "grain in the balance?" What do even 

 merely grammatical principles prescribe, that these 

 should be called, which had also to fight the con- 



