Excerpt from The Origin of the Fittest: Essays on Evolution In reaching conclusions, the author has endeavored to avoid, as much as possible, any bias due to the influence of any opinions whatsoever on evolution and allied subjects which were already in the field. He therefore avoided, for a time, reading the works of the masters of the subject, apply ing to them for confirmation or criticism only after the publication of his own results. It is therefore true that the generalizations contained in these essays have been worked out by the author from such material as has come under his own eyes, with little other aid. It has also followed that not a few of the conclusions he has reached were not new. On the other hand, some of the principles enunciated had not been clearly stated prior to the publication of these essays. In some cases the work accomplished has con sisted in throwing well-known principles into accord with each other, as in the case of the laws of acceleration and retardation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.