seldseent

[ Our spec he schal be seldcene . Ancren Riwle , p. 80. seld-shownt (seld'shōn), a. [ seld , adv . , + shown. Cf. selcouth , seldseen .] Rarely shown or exhibited. Seld- shown flamens Do pre among the popular throngs, and puff To win a vulgar station. Shak . , Cor., ii. 1. 229. selet. An obsolete spelling of seall, seal2, seell, select (se-lekt'), v. [ To whom does Mr. Gladstone a ign the office of select ing a religion for the state from among hundreds of religions? Macaulay , Gladstone on Church and State. =Syn. To Elect , Prefer, etc. (see choose ), single out, fix upon, pitch upon. II. in trans. To conduct artificial selection methodically. See second quotation under me thodical selection, below. select (sē-lekt'), a. and n. [ To this must be added industrious and select reading. Milton, Church-Government, Pref., ii. We found a diary of her solemn resolutions tending to practical virtue, with letters from select friends, all put into exact method. Evelyn, Diary, Sept. 17, 1678. 2. Careful or fastidious in choice, or in a ociating with others; exclusive; also, made with or exhibiting carefulne or fastidiousne . [Colloq.] And I have spoken for Gwendolen to be a member of our Archery Club-the Bracken shaw Archery Club - the most select thing anywhere. George Eliot , Daniel Deronda, iii. Select committee, vestry, etc. See the nouns. -Select Meeting, in the Society of Friends, a meeting of ministers and elders. In some yearly meetings the name has of late been superseded by that of Meeting of Ministry and Oversight, with some additions to the membership. = Syn. 1. Picked. See choose. II. n. 1. That which is selected or choice. [Colloq. or trade use.] -2. Selection. [Rare.] Borrow of the profligate speech-makers or lyars of the time in print, and make a select out of a select of them to adorn a party. Roger North , Examen, p. 32. (Davies.) selected (sē-lek'ted), p . a . 1. Specially chosen or preferred; choice; select: as, selected materials. Great princes are her slaves; selected beauties Bow at her beck. Fletcher (and another ?), Prophete , iii. 1. 5473 selectedly (sē-lek'ted-li), adv. With selection. Prime workmen selectedly employed. Heywood, Descrip. of the King's Ship, p. 48. ( Latham .) selection (se-lek's hon), n. [= F. sélection = Sp. seleccion = Pg. selecção , L. selectio (n-), a choosing out, selection, seligere , pp. select us , choose: see select .] 1. The act of selecting, choosing, or preferring; a choosing or picking out of one or more from a number; choice. He who is deficient in the art of selection may, by show- ing nothing but the truth, produce all the effect of the gro est falsehood. Macaulay , History. 2. A thing or number of things chosen or picked out. His company generally consisted of men of rank and fashion, some literary characters, and a selection from the stage. W. Cooke, S. Foote, I. 143. The English public, outside the coteries of culture, does not pretend to care for poetry except in selections . Contemporary Rev. , LII. 479. 3. In biol., the separation of those forms of animal and vegetable life which are to survive from those which are to perish; the facts, principles, or conditions of such distinction between organisms; also, the actual result of such principles or conditions; also, a statement of or a doctrine concerning such facts; especially, natural selection. See phrases below.- Artificial selection, man's agency in modifying the proce es and so changing the results of natural selection; the facts or principles upon which such interference with natural evoIutionary proce es is based and conducted. This has been going on more or le systematically since man has domesticated animals or cultivated plants for his own benefit. Such selection may be either unconscious or methodical (see below). It has constantly tended to the latter, which is now systematically conducted on a large scale, and has resulted in numberle creations of utility or of beauty, or of both, which would not have existed had the animals and plants thus improved been left to themselves - that is, to the operation of natural selection. Examples of artificial selection are seen in the breeding of horses for speed, bottom, or strength, or for any combination of these qualities; of cattle for beef or milk; of sheep for mutton or wool; of dogs for speed, scent, courage, docility, etc.; of pigs for fat pork; of fowls for flesh or eggs; of pigeons for fancied shapes and colors, or as carriers; in the cultivation of ce reals, fruits, and vegetables to improve their respective qualities and increase their yield, and of flowers to enhance beauty and fragrance. - Methodical selection, artificial selection methodically or systematically carried on to or toward a foreseen desired result; the facts or principles upon which such selection is based, and the means of its accomplishment. See above. Methodical selection is that which guides a man who systematically endeavours to modify a breed according to some predetermined standard. Darwin , Var. of Animals and Plants, xx. 177. In the case of methodical selection , a breeder selects for some definite object, and free intercro ing will wholly stop his work. Darwin , Origin of Species, p. 103. Natural selection, the preservation of some forms of animal and vegetable life and the destruction of others, in the natural order of such things, by the operation of natural causes which, in the course of evolution, favor some organisms instead of some others in consequence of differences in the organisms themselves. (a) The fact of the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence which means that those animals and plants which are best adapted, or have the greatest adaptability, to the conditions of their environment do survive other organisms which are le adapted, or le capable of being adapted, to such conditions. This fact rests upon observation, and is unquestionable. (b) The means by which or the conditions under which some forms survive while others perish; the law of the survival of the fittest; the underlying principle of such survival, and the agencies which effect that result. These seem to be mainly intrinsic, or inherent in the organism; and they are correlated, in the most vital manner po ible, with the varying plasticity of different organisms, or their degree of susceptibility to modification by their environment. Those which respond most readily to external influence are the most modifiable under given circumstances, and consequently the most likely to modified in a way that adapts them to their surroundings, which adaptation gives them an advantage over le favored organisms in striving to maintain themselves. Hence (and this is the gist of Darwin i an natural selection) -(c) The gradual development of individual differences which are favorable to the preservation of the life of the individual, with corresponding gradual extinction of those peculiarities which are unfavorable to that end; also, the transmi ion of such modified characters to offspring, and so the perpetuation of some species and the extinction of others a fact in nature respecting which there is no question, since we know that more species, genera, etc., have perished than are now living. (d) The theory of natural selection; any statement of opinion or belief on that subject, which may or may not adequately reflect the facts in the case. Ignorance alike of these facts and of this theory has been fruitful of misunderstandings and objections respecting the latter. Some of its supporters have made of the theory a cause of the facts which it is simply designed to explain; some of its opponents, unconsciously biased perhaps by such other extremists, have denied that the theory has any validity. Between these extremes, the author of the theory states explicitly that it neither ori ginates variability, nor accounts for the origin of variations, in individuals, still le in species; but that, given the origination and existence of variations, it shows that some of these are preserved while others are not; that favorable variations tend to be perpetuated and unfavorable variations to become extinct; that those variations which best adapt an organism to its environment are most Pope, Iliad, ii. 504. favorable to its preservation; and, consequently, that the 21. Specially set apart or devoted. The limbs they sever from th' inclosing hide, The thighs, selected to the gods, divide. selector theory of natural selection is adequate to explain, to some extent, the observed fact of the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence that is, natural selection in sense ( a ) above. Natural selection, in so far as sex is concerned, is specified as sexual selection (see below). The facts and principles of natural selection, as recognized and used by man for his own benefit in his treatment of plants and animals, come under the head of artificial selection (see above). An extension of the theory of natural selection to the origination (as distinguished from the preservation) of individual variations has been named physical selection (see below). This preservation of favourable variations and the rejections of injurious variations I call Natural Selection . Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection , and would be left a fluctuating ... element, as perhaps we see in the species called polymorphic. Darwin, Origin of Species (ed. 1860), iv. Natural selection implies that the individuals which are best fitted for the complex and in the course of ages changing conditions to which they are exposed generally survive and procreate their kind. Darwin , Var. of Animals and Plants, xx. 178. Physical selection, the law of origin for differential changes or modifications in organisms which have arisen through the action of physical causes in the environment, in habits, etc. It is distinguished from natural selection , which relates not to the origin but to the preservation of these changes. A. Hyatt. - Sexual selection, that province or department of natural selection in which sex is especially concerned, or in which the means by which one sex attracts the other comes prominently into play. Thus, anything which exhibits the strength, prowe , or beauty of the male attracts the female, and decides her preference for one rather than another individual of the opposite sex, with the result of affecting the offspring for the better; and this principle of selection, operative through many generations, may in the end modify the specific characters of animals, and thus become an important factor in natural selection. If it be admitted that the females prefer or are unconsciously excited by the more beautiful males, then the males would slowly but surely be rendered more and more attractive through sexual selection. Darwin, Descent of Man (ed. 1881), p. 496. For my own part, I conclude that of all the causes which have led to the differences in external appearance between the races of men, and to a certain extent between man and the lower animals, sexual selection has been by far the most efficient. Darwin , Descent of Man (ed. 1871), II. 367. Unconscious selection, artificial selection effected unknowingly, or carried on without system or method; man's agency in unmethodical selection, or the result of that agency. See the extract. Unconscious selection in the strictest sense of the word that is, the saving of the more useful animals and the neglect or slaughter of the le useful, without any thought of the future-must have gone on occasionally from the remotest period and amongst the most barbarous nations. Darwin , Var. of Animals and Plants, xx. 199. selective (sē-lektiv), a. [ select + -ive .] Of, pertaining to, or characterized by selection or choice; selecting; using that which is selected or choice. Who can enough wonder at the pitch of this selective providence of the Almighty? Bp. Hall, Contemplations, iii. 122. Selective breeding through many generations has succeeded in producing inherited structural changes, sometimes of very remarkable character. W. H. Flower, Fashion in Deformity, p. 5. Strange to say, so patent a fact as the perpetual presence of selective attention has received hardly any notice from psychologists of the English empiricist school. W. James, Prin. of Psychology, I. 402. Selective absorption, the absorption of substances which arrest certain parts only of the radiation of heat and light from any source: as, the selective absorption of the sun's atmosphere, which is the cause of the larger part of the dark lines in the solar spectrum. See spectrum. This power of absorption is selective, and hence, for the most part, arise the phenomena of color. Tyndall , Light and Elect., p. 69. selectively (sē-lektiv-li), adv . By means of selected specimens; by selection. There is no variation which may not be transmitted, and which, if selectively transmitted, may not become the foundation of a race. Huxley , Lay Sermons, p. 269. selectman (sē-lekt'man), n.; pl. selectmen (-men). [ He soon found, however, that they were merely the se lectmen of the settlement, armed with no weapon but the tongue, and disposed only to meet him on the field of argument. Irving , Knickerbocker, p. 235. As early as 1633, the office of townsman or selectman appears, who seems first to have been appointed by the General Court, as here, at Concord, in 1639. Emerson, Hist. Discourse at Concord.