7i 
charged with having attempted to reinstate the old pagan 
goddess, Chance. It is said that he supposes that the 
fittest survive the chances of the struggle for existence.” 
It is sufficient for the argument which has been urged, 
that death in nature should be to some extent blindfold 
and indiscriminative, so far as the survival of the fittest 
is concerned ; but apart from all these considerations, the 
issue between death and life is often a matter of accident. 
In the one case the course of the victim happens to miss, 
and in the other case to encounter, the course of some 
destructive agency. That risk has been abundantly proved 
to exist with regard to the organic world. If it is super 
stitious not to shut our eyes to the most obvious facts of 
experience and not to argue as if they did not exist, there 
are many who would feel honoured by being designated 
by that opprobrious epithet. 
Mr. Wallace, who pleads that we must get rid of the 
idea of accidental death, asserts that, if all animals were 
exactly alike, death would be accidental. But the facts 
show that a great deal of death is accidental, though 
organisms vary so greatly. Those who are fond of repeat 
ing the dictum that survivors, by the mere fact of their 
survival, prove themselves to be the “ fittest,” would do 
well to amend their statement, and to assert that such 
survivors are either the fittest or the most fortunate— 
which is a different affair altogether. 
(c) “on the whole” and “in the long run.” 
“ [Bijologists who chase 
[A halting theory] through time and space.” 
—COWPER (slightly altered). 
If there is any force in the arguments which have been 
used in the preceding sections, it is obvious that there is