manent process.

"That which endures is not one or other association of living
forms, but the process of which the Cosmos is the product and of
which these are among the transitory expressions. And in the
living world, one of the most characteristic features of this
cosmic process is the struggle for existence, the competition of
each with all, the result of which is the selection, that is to
say, the survival of those forms which, on the whole, are best
adapted to the conditions which at any period obtain; and which
are, therefore, in that respect, and only in that respect, the
fittest. The acme reached by the cosmic process in the vegetation
of the Downs is seen in the turf with its weeds and gorse. Under
the conditions, they have come out of the struggle victorious;
and, by surviving, have proved that they are the fittest to
survive."

For three or four years, the state of nature in a small portion of the
Downs surrounding Huxley's house had been put an end to by the
intervention of man.

"The patch was cut off from the rest by a wall; within the area
thus protected the native vegetation was, as far as possible,
extirpated, while a colony of strange plants was imported and set
down in its place. In short, it was made into a garden. This
artificially treated area presents an aspect extraordinarily
different from that of so much of the land as still remains in
the state of nature outside the wall. Trees, shrubs and herbs,
many of them appertaining to the state of nature in remote parts
of the globe, abound and flourish. Moreover, considerable
quantities of vegetables, fruit, and flowers are produced, of
kinds which neither now exist nor have ever existed except under
conditions such as obtain in the garden and which therefore are
as much works of the art of man as the frames and glass-houses in
which some of them are raised. That the 'state of art' thus
created in the state of nature by man, is sustained by and
dependent on him, would at once become apparent if the watchful
supervision of the gardener were withdrawn, and the antagonistic
influences of the general cosmic process were no longer
sedulously warded off, or counteracted."

He proceeds to describe how, under such circumstances, the artificial
barriers would decay, and the delicate inhabitants