ich may be thus produced known, but
one thing is certain, that, if certain breeds of dogs, or of pigeons,
or of horses, were known only in a fossil state, no naturalist would
hesitate in regarding them as distinct species.

But, in all these cases we have HUMAN INTERFERENCE. Without the breeder
there would be no selection, and without the selection no race. Before
admitting the possibility of natural species having originated in any
similar way, it must be proved that there is in nature some power which
takes the place of man, and performs a selection sua sponte. It is the
claim of Mr. Darwin that he professes to have discovered the existence
and the modus operandi of this natural selection, as he terms it; and,
if he be right, the process is perfectly simple and comprehensible, and
irresistibly deducible from very familiar but well nigh forgotten facts.

Who, for instance, has duly reflected upon all the consequences of the
marvellous struggle for existence which is daily and hourly going on
among living beings? Not only does every animal live at the expense of
some other animal or plant, but the very plants are at war. The ground
is full of seeds that cannot rise into seedlings; the seedlings rob one
another of air, light and water, the strongest robber winning the day,
and extinguishing his competitors. Year after year, the wild animals
with which man never interferes are, on the average, neither more nor
less numerous than they were; and yet we know that the annual produce
of every pair is from one to perhaps a million young,--so that it is
mathematically certain that, on the average, as many are killed by
natural causes as are born every year, and those only escape which
happen to be a little better fitted to resist destruction than those
which die. The individuals of a species are like the crew of a foundered
ship, and none but good swimmers have a chance of reaching the land.

Such being unquestionably the necessary conditions under which living
creatures exist, Mr. Darwin discovers in them the instrument of natural
selection. Suppose that in the midst of this incessant competition some
individuals of a species (A) present accidental variations which happen
to fit them a little better than their fellows for the struggle in which
they are engaged, then the chances are in favour, not only of these
individuals being better nourished than the others, but of their
predominating over their fellows in other ways, and o