102 NATURAL SELECTION. [Chap. IT. 



or survival of the fittest, cares nothing for appearances, 

 except in so far as they are useful to any being. She 

 can act on every internal organ, on every shade of con- 

 stitutional difference, on the whole machinery of life. 

 Man selects only for Ms own good : Nature only for 

 that of the being which she tends. Every selected 

 character is fully exercised by her, as is implied by the 

 fact of their selection. Man keeps the natives of many 

 climates in the same country ; he seldom exercises each 

 selected character in some peculiar and fitting manner ; 

 he feeds a long and a short beaked pigeon on the same 

 food ; he does not exercise a lon^-backed or loncr-lesfsjed 

 quadruped in any peculiar manner ; he exposes sheep 

 with Ion" and short wool to the same climate. He does 



o 



not allow the most vigorous males to struggle for the 

 females. He does not rigidly destroy all inferior animals, 

 but protects during each varying season, as far as lies in 

 his power, all his productions. He often begins his 

 selection by some half-monstrous form ; or at least by 

 some modification prominent enough to catch the eye or 

 to be plainly useful to him. Under nature, the slightest 

 differences of structure or constitution may well turn the 

 nicely-balanced scale in the struggle for life, and so be 

 preserved. How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of 

 man ! how short his time ! and consequently how poor 

 will be his results, compared with those accumulated by 

 Nature during whole geological periods! Can we wonder, 

 then, that Nature's productions should be far " truer " 

 in character than man's productions ; that they should 

 be infinitely better adapted to the most complex condi- 

 tions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far 

 higher workmanship ? 



It may metaphorically be said that natural selection 



