Page:Divine Selection or The Survival of the Useful.djvu/42



HE Survival of the Useful being a true statement of the law, rather than "survival of the fittest," as Mr. Spencer has called it, suggests that Mr. Darwin's companion phrase, "natural selection," is also wanting. Yet Mr. Darwin's expression is more fitting, for it presents one phase of an undeniable and a fundamental truth. Because the Creator effects His purpose in nature by the instrumentality of nature, it follows that nature appears to do her own selecting.

That distinguished and conscientious scientist, Asa Gray, thus pointedly suggests the wanting factor in natural selection, "Given differences and an internal tendency to differ more, i.e.,