The History of Creation, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes

CHAPTER XI.

Chapter 11111 wordsPublic domain

NATURAL SELECTION BY THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. DIVISION OF LABOUR AND PROGRESS.

Interaction of the two Organic Formative Causes, Inheritance and Adaptation.—Natural and Artificial Selection.—Struggle for Existence, or Competition for the Necessaries of Life.—Disproportion between the Number of Possible or Potential, and the Number of Real or Actual Individuals.—Complicated Correlations of all Neighbouring Organisms.—Mode of Action in Natural Selection.—Homochromic Selection as the Cause of Sympathetic Colourings.—Sexual Selection as the Cause of the Secondary Sexual Characters.—Law of Separation or Division of Labour (Polymorphism, Differentiation, Divergence of Characters).—Transition of Varieties into Species.—Idea of Species.—Hybridism.—Law of Progress or Perfecting (Progresses, Teleosis) 252