The same rule will apply to every period
of life and to every danger to which plants or animals are exposed. The
best organised, or the most healthy, or the most active, or the best
protected, or the most intelligent, will inevitably, in the long run,
gain an advantage over those which are inferior in these qualities; that
is, _the fittest will survive_, the fittest being, in each particular
case, those which are superior in the special qualities on which safety
depends. At one period of life, or to escape one kind of danger,
concealment may be necessary; at another time, to escape another danger,
swiftness; at another, intelligence or cunning; at another, the power to
endure rain or cold or hunger; and those which possess all these
faculties in the fullest perfection will generally survive.
Having fully grasped these facts in all their fulness and in their
endless and complex results, we have next to consider the phenomena of
variation, discussed in the third and fourth chapters; and it is here
that perhaps the greatest difficulty will be felt in appreciating the
full importance of the evidence as set forth.
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