APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1932, Page 1

APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS

1 lint which endures is not one or another association of living forms, hut the process ol which the cosmos is the product, and of which these are among the transitory expressions. And in the living world, one of the most characteristic features of this o.os--01 ic process is the struggle for existence, the competition of each with all. tlie result ol which is the selection, that is to say, the survival of those forms which, on the whole, are best adapted to the conditions which at any period obtain ; and which are there- I lore, in that respect, and only in that respect, the fittest. The acme reached by the cosmic process in the vogetatin of the downs is seen in the turf, with its weeds and gorse. Under the conditions, they have conic out of the. struggle victorious; and, by surviving, 1 have proved that they are the fittest to survive. * -X- -X- 4£ As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree fronp its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and ail other kinds of supernatural intervention, As the expression of a fixed order, exery stage of which is effect of causes operating according to definite rules, the conception no less e-x-

eludes that of chance. ft is very desirable to remoniber that evolution is not an explanation of the cosmic statement of the method and results of that process. And, further, that, if there, is no proof that the cosmic process was set going l>v any agent, then that agent will he creator of it and all its products, although supernatural intervention may remain strictly excluded from its further course.