Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/33

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of man. That this end is the motive in the creating cause and that it has ruled are proved by its realization in present results. This fact renders the phrase, Natural Selection, inadequate. A full and truthful statement of the law requires the greater and nobler term, Divine Selection. And since use in the final kingdom of man and of God rules throughout, the term Survival of the Fittest is likewise misleading and insufficient. The law is correctly expressed as the Survival of the Useful.

Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest express one phase of laws ever operative. But we must confine the laws to the field where they are applicable, and interpret them in the light of their higher and final purpose. Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest are true only when seen from the standpoint of the interior cause that works through these laws, by which cause they must be interpreted and modified. Both are statements of merely external appearances within which is a Divine purpose and cause. Through the "struggle for existence," human faculties and energies are brought into competition and are thereby developed. This development brings man more fully into Divine order, for he who is best fitted to survive is the most in Divine order.

Survival of the Fittest, when rightly inter-