Or let us suppose that a stretch of water is inhabited by a species of carp, which have hitherto had no large enemy, and so have become lazy and slow, and that there migrates from the sea into this stretch of water a large species of pike. At first numerous carp will fall victims to the pike, and the pike will rapidly increase in number. But if all the carp were not equally lazy and dull-witted, if some of them were quicker and more intelligent, these would, on an average, become more rarely the victims of the pike, and numerous individuals with these better qualities would survive in each generation, till ultimately there were no others, and the useful characters would gradually become intensified, and so a more active and wary race of carp would arise.
Let us suppose, however, that the increased activity and wariness would not alone suffice to preserve the colony from extinction; it might require also an increased fertility to prevent the normal number from being permanently lowered; but even this could eventually be brought about by natural selection, if the nature of the species and the general conditions of its life permitted. For there are variations of fertility in every species, and if the chance of seeing some of its eggs become mature animals were greater for the more fertile female than for the less fertile, _ceteris paribus_, a process of selection must take place, which would result in an increase of fertility as far as that was possible.
Obviously, such processes of natural selection can affect all parts and characters--size and form of the body, as well as isolated parts, the external skin and its colour, every internal organ--and not bodily characters alone, but psychical ones as well, such as intelligence and instincts. According to this principle, it is only characters which are biologically indifferent that cannot be altered through natural selection.
Natural selection can also bring about changes at every age, for the elimination of individuals begins from the egg, and any kind of egg which is in some way better able to escape elimination will transmit its useful characters to its descendants, because the resulting young animals will thus more frequently reach full development than the young from other eggs. In the same way, at every succeeding stage of development, every character favourable to the preservation of the individual will be maintained and intensified.