432 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



save this, viz., that he has not resolved the law or cause 

 of such possible variations, and thereby ascertained 

 whether the variations are amenable or not to any 

 limit; and that he has illegitimately referred them to 

 an "innate tendency" which he has the grace to con- 

 fess, is but a name for his ignorance. 



8. Darwin's next proposition is, that there is, and 

 has ever been, a fearful Struggle for Existence waging 

 almost incessantly under Nature, among the different 

 animals and plants. 



No exception has been taken to this proposition. 



9. His next proposition is, that the effect of this 

 Struggle for Existence, is the Natural .Selection of 

 "the strongest and most vigorous" individuals, and 

 the extinction of the weakest and least fitted to live; 

 and he implies that, by this Selection of " the strongest 

 and most vigorous," slight increments of development 

 are secured, in each generation. 



Exception has been taken to this proposition, be- 

 cause there is a fallacy resident in the terms " strongest 

 and most vigorous." Viewed with reference to the 

 hard conditions of the Struggle for Existence which 

 he pictures, to which even these elect are subjected, 

 the terms to be used, should have been, the least weak 

 and the least degenerate. When these terms are used, 

 no implication of any advance in development arises, 

 as it does, when the terms, '" strongest and most vig- 

 orous," are used. The implication of advance in de- 

 velopment, from the Selection of the best of any one 

 generation, may arise only where exist, both, Selec- 

 tion, and favorable conditions. Under domestication, 



