On looking over your fourth chapter, I find that
these alterations of terms can be in most cases easily made, while in
some cases the addition of "or survival of the fittest" after "natural
selection" would be best; and in others, less likely to be
misunderstood, the original term might stand alone.
I could not venture to propose to any other person so great an
alteration of terms, but you, I am sure, will give it an impartial
consideration, and, if you really think the change will produce a better
understanding of your work, will not hesitate to adopt it. It is
evidently also necessary not to personify "nature" too much, though I am
very apt to do it myself, since people will not understand that all such
phrases are metaphors. Natural Selection is, when understood, so
necessary and self-evident a principle that it is a pity it should be in
any way obscured; and it therefore occurs to me that the free use of
"survival of the fittest", which is a compact and accurate definition of
it, would tend much to its being more widely accepted and prevent its
being so much misrepresented and misunderstood.
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