86 Luck, or Cunning ? 
and preoccupied, it is only the hardier, more robust, better 
suited to circumstance individuals, who are able to struggle 
forward to maturity, these inhabiting only the situations 
to which they have superior adaptation and greater power 
of occupancy than any other kind; the weaker and less 
circumstance-suited being prematurely destroyed. This 
principle is in constant action ; it regulates the colour, the 
figure, the capacities, and instincts; those individuals 
in each species whose colour and covering are best suited 
to concealment or protection from enemies, or defence from 
inclemencies or vicissitudes of climate, whose figure is best 
accommodated to health, strength, defence, and support ; 
whose capacities and instincts can best regulate the physical 
energies to self-advantage according to circumstances—in 
such immense waste of primary and youthful life those only 
come forward to maturity from the sivict ordeal by which 
nature tests their adaptation to her standard of perfection 
and fitness to continue their kind by reproduction.”* A 
little lower down Mr. Matthew speaks of animals under 
domestication “‘ not having undergone selection by the law 
of nature, of which we have spoken, and hence being unable to 
maintain their ground without culture and protection.” 
The distinction between Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism 
is generally believed to lie in the adoption of a theory of 
natural selection by the younger Darwin and its non- 
adoption by the elder. This is true in so far as that the 
elder Darwin does not use the words “‘ natural selection,” 
while the younger does, but it is not true otherwise. Both 
writers agree that offspring tends to inherit modifications 
that have been effected, from whatever cause, in parents ; 
both hold that the best adapted to their surroundings live 
longest and leave most offspring ; both, therefore, hold 
that favourable modifications will tend to be preserved 
and intensified in the course of many generations, and that 
* “On Naval Timber and Arboriculture,’ 1831, pp. 384, 385. 
See also ‘‘ Evolution Old and New,” pp. 320, 321. 
