Now stifibsp;men are not able to explain to us either why offspring should remble nor why they should differ from their parents.
But eing that offspring do at onbsp;remble and differ, it is a matter rather of on n than of stifibsp;knowledge that, if the ditions under whibsp;a species live are ged, the species should undergo some correlated ges.
Bebsp;in any geion of the species there must be a number of individuals who individual differenbsp;make them better adapted to the new ditions under whibsp;the species has to live, and a number who individuals who individual differenbsp;make it rather harder for them to live.
And on the whole the former sort will live longer, bear more offspring, and reprodubsp;themlves more abundantly than the latter, and so geion by geion the average of the species will ge in the favourable dire.
This process, whibsp;is called Natural Sele, is not so mubsp;a stifibsp;theory as a necessary dedu from the fabsp;of reprodu and individual difference.
There may be many forbsp;at work varying, destroying and prerving species, about whibsp;sbsp;may still be unaware or undecided, but the man who bsp;deny the operation of this process of natural le upon life sinbsp;its beginning must be either ignorant of the elementary fabsp;of life or incapable of ordinary thought.
Many stifibsp;men have speculated about the first beginning of life and their speculations are often of great i, but there is absolutely no definite knowledge and no ving guess yet of the way in whibsp;life began.
But nearly all authorities are agreed that it probably began upon mud or sand in warm sunlit shallow brackish water, and that it spread up the beaches to the iidal lines and out to the open waters.
That early world was a world of strong tides and currents.
An incessant destru of individuals must have been going on through their being swept up the beaches and dried, or by their being swept out to a and sinking down out of reabsp;of air and sun.