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A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga838
individual forms or species best adapted to their environment and best
equipped for the struggle, be the equipment physical or mental, survive
those less well equipped or less well adapted to environment. Animals
evolving variations in structure that give them even a slight advantage over
others not so favored, naturally have a better chance to survive. And this,
briefly, is what Evolutionists call “The Survival of the Fittest.”
As appertaining to the Struggle for Existence, color and mimicry are
important factors. Grant Allen, in his work on Darwin, says concerning
this, and also as illustrating “Natural Selection”: “In the desert with its
monotonous sandy coloring, a black insect or a white insect, still more a red
insect or a blue insect, would be immediately detected and devoured by
its natural enemies, the birds and the lizards. But any greyish or yellowish
insects would be less likely to attract attention at first sight, and would be
overlooked as long as there were any more conspicuous individuals of their
own kind about for the birds and lizards to feed on. Hence, in a very short
time the desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest and yellowest
insects; and among these the birds would pick out those which differed most
markedly in hue and shade from the sand around them. But those which
happened to vary most in the direction of a sandy or spotty color would
be more likely to survive, and to become the parents of future generations.
Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which inhabit deserts have
become sand-colored, because the less sandy were perpetually picked out
for destruction by their ever-watchful foes, while the most sandy escaped,
and multiplied and replenished the earth with their own likes.”
Prof. Clodd, remarking upon this fact, adds: “Thus, then, is explained the
tawny color of the larger animals that inhabit the desert; the stripes upon
the tiger, which parallel with the vertical stems of bamboo, conceal him as
he stealthily nears his prey; the brilliant green of tropical birds; the leaflike
form and colors of certain insects; the dried, twig-like form of many
caterpillars; the bark-like appearance of tree-frogs; the harmony of the
ptarmigan’s summer plumage with the lichen-colored stones upon which it