132 Species; or, Darwinism. 



the simpler and plainer which evidently sustain the 

 more complex and specialized, would pass out of 

 the stage of species more generally eatable and take 

 rank among the higher and higher, which are more 

 generally the eaters; and the lower ranks would be 

 vacated. But we find a pronounced evolutionist 

 declaring that such an application or inference of 

 evolution will never suit the nutritive arrangements 

 of the universe. M. Gaudry says in his Primary 

 Fossils: " There would be more superior animals 

 than inferior, more eaters than beasts to be eaten; 

 the harmony of the universe would long ago have 

 been broken." So he requires that some of the 

 lower orders should not have advanced in the up- 

 ward march of evolution; they must benignly 

 have remained content with their humble lot, of re- 

 maining edible and acceptable to their betters. — 

 Does it not look as if some mild symptoms of cata- 

 genesis, or evolution downwards, broke in upon us 

 here, when we did not expect it ? The gentle in- 

 firmity makes the system even more engaging, par- 

 ticularly when with such simplicity it serves the in- 

 terest of truth. 



144. The true statement of this factor, the sur- 

 vival of the fittest, will be as follows. It signifies 

 the process of adaptation to environment; and here 

 those varieties in a species have the best chance to 

 live and thrive which are acclimatized, whatever 

 direction their self-adjustment may take; either 

 towards the absolutely better, or the absolutely 



