ces are most favourable to
variation. In the next chapter the Struggle for Existence amongst all
organic beings throughout the world, which inevitably follows from the high
geometrical ratio of their {5} increase, will be treated of. This is the
doctrine of Malthus, applied to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. As
many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive;
and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for
existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any
manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying
conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be
_naturally selected_. From the strong principle of inheritance, any
selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.

This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some
length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how Natural Selection
almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of
life, and leads to what I have called Divergence of Character. In the next
chapter I shall discuss the complex and little known laws of variation and
of correlation of growth. In the four succeeding chapters, the most
apparent and gravest difficulties on the theory will be given: namely,
first, the difficulties of transitions, or in understanding how a simple
being or a simple organ can be changed and perfected into a highly
developed being or elaborately constructed organ; secondly, the subject of
Instinct, or the mental powers of animals; thirdly, Hybridism, or the
infertility of species and the fertility of varieties when intercrossed;
and fourthly, the imperfection of the Geological Record. In the next
chapter I shall consider the geological succession of organic beings
throughout time; in the eleventh and twelfth, their geographical
distribution throughout space; in the thirteenth, their classification or
mutual affinities, both when mature and in an embryonic condition. In the
last chapter I shall give a {6} brief recapitulation of the whole work, and
a few concluding remarks.

No one ought to feel surprise at much remaining as yet unexplained in
regard to the origin of species and varieties, if he makes due allowance
for our profound ignorance in regard to the mutual relations of all the
beings which live around us. Who can explain why one species ranges widely
and is very numerous, and why another allied