an! how short his time! and
consequently how poor will be his results, compared with those
accumulated by nature during whole geological periods! Can we wonder,
then, that Nature's productions should be far 'truer' in character than
man's productions; that they should be infinitely better adapted to the
most complex conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of
far higher workmanship?"

Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest is begun by the statement of
the fact that the number of organisms that survive are very small
compared with the number that are born. To quote his own words, "There
is no exception to the rule that every organic being naturally
increases at so high a rate that, if not destroyed, the earth would
soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow-breeding man
has doubled in twenty-five years, and at this rate in less than a
thousand years there would literally not be standing room for the
progeny." It has been computed that if the offspring of the elephant,
which is believed to be the slowest breeding animal known, were to
survive, there would be about 20,000,000 elephants on the earth in 750
years. The roe of a single cod contains eight or nine millions of eggs,
and if each egg were to hatch, and the fish survive, the sea would
shortly become a solid mass of codfish. The house fly is said to have
20,000,000 descendants in a season, counting several generations of
progeny, from its several broods. And some scientist has computed that
the _aphis_, or plant-louse, breeds so rapidly, and in such enormous
quantity, that the tenth generation of one set of parents would be so
large that it would contain more ponderable animal matter than would
the population of China, which is estimated at 500,000,000! And this
without counting the progeny preceding the tenth generation!

The result of the above conditions is very plain. There must ensue a
Struggle for Existence, which necessitates the Survival of the Fittest.
The weak are crushed out by the strong; the swift out-distance the
slow. The individual forms or species best adapted to their environment
and best equipped for the struggle, be the equipment physical or
mental, survive those less well equipped or less well adapted to
environment. Animals evolving variations in structure that give them
even a slight advantage over others not so favored, naturally have a
better chance to survive. And this, briefly, is what Evolutionists call
"