Chapter II 

 Darwinism* 



DARWIN stated that, in nature, " individual 

 variations were constantly being produced " ; 

 some of these were successful or permanent ; others 

 not so, and evanescent ; some injurious, and there- 

 fore also transitory. He called this process " natural 

 selection " ; it is a necessary complement of the 

 " survival of the fittest." The process, to put it briefly, 

 is this : In nature the struggle causes the weak to die 

 and the strong to live in virtue of greater strength, or 

 cunning, or greater power of flight whether on land, 

 water, or air. Each species acquires some attribute 

 which enables it to overcome another and thus secure 

 the food by which it lives ; the constant struggle forces 

 nature to make special efforts to endow its various 

 forms with attributes which will make them more 

 certain of survival. The forms acquiring these attri- 

 butes unite and perpetuate themselves — the others are 

 slain or starved and disappear. Natural selection by 

 means of the struggle for existence brings about the 

 " survival of the fittest," and as a result we have the 

 evolutionary process in nature. 



It cannot be admitted that Darwin has any right to 

 claim the evolutionary process as his own. It had 

 been anticipated by other men of science, notably by 

 Lamarck, but until the publication of the " Origin of 

 Species " it had never seized the public mind. His 

 theory and processes were accepted almost unani- 



* The Editor of the "Westminster Review" has kindly given 

 his consent to the incorporation in this work of the article on 

 " Darwinism " published in his Journal in April, 1911. 



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