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  THE 
  ISSUES 
  OF 
  LIFE 
  

  

  Tt 
  is 
  clearest 
  to 
  start 
  with 
  the 
  familiar 
  fact 
  of 
  observation 
  

   that 
  the 
  life 
  of 
  organisms 
  is 
  seldom 
  an 
  easy 
  affair. 
  The 
  

   living 
  creature 
  is 
  by 
  its 
  very 
  nature 
  insurgent 
  and 
  it 
  finds 
  

   itself 
  encompassed 
  by 
  limitations 
  and 
  difficulties. 
  As 
  Spi- 
  

   noza 
  maintained, 
  every 
  individual 
  thing, 
  so 
  far 
  as 
  in 
  it 
  lies, 
  

   endeavours 
  to 
  persist 
  in 
  its 
  own 
  being. 
  How 
  much 
  more 
  

   a 
  living 
  agent, 
  that 
  eats 
  into 
  its 
  environment, 
  that 
  grows 
  

   and 
  stores 
  and 
  multiplies 
  its 
  kind 
  ! 
  The 
  vigorous 
  creature 
  

   is 
  ever 
  hustling 
  and 
  jostling 
  in 
  its 
  will 
  to 
  live. 
  Now, 
  as 
  

   every 
  one 
  knows, 
  this 
  insurgence 
  of 
  life 
  meets 
  three 
  main 
  

   difficulties, 
  and 
  the 
  struggle 
  for 
  existence 
  in 
  the 
  strict 
  sense 
  

   is 
  the 
  reacting 
  clash. 
  

  

  The 
  first 
  difficulty 
  is 
  in 
  the 
  tendency 
  to 
  over-population. 
  

   One 
  weed 
  could 
  cover 
  the 
  earth 
  in 
  three 
  years, 
  one 
  codfish 
  

   could 
  soon 
  fill 
  up 
  the 
  vastness 
  of 
  the 
  sea, 
  and 
  one 
  fly 
  could 
  

   soon 
  shut 
  out 
  the 
  sun. 
  This 
  tendency 
  to 
  overwhelming 
  abun- 
  

   dance 
  limits 
  the 
  foothold 
  and 
  food-supply 
  of 
  the 
  prolific 
  

   organisms 
  and 
  of 
  others 
  in 
  the 
  same 
  area; 
  there 
  are 
  indi- 
  

   vidual 
  reactions 
  against 
  the 
  limitations, 
  and 
  these 
  constitute 
  

   the 
  struggle 
  for 
  existence 
  which 
  soon 
  counteracts 
  one 
  of 
  its 
  

   own 
  causes. 
  A 
  second 
  difficulty 
  follows 
  from 
  the 
  pattern 
  of 
  

   the 
  web 
  of 
  life, 
  that 
  is 
  to 
  say, 
  from 
  the 
  nutritive 
  inter-rela- 
  

   tions 
  that 
  have 
  in 
  the 
  course 
  of 
  time 
  been 
  established. 
  Plants 
  

   have 
  banked 
  for 
  animals, 
  which 
  draw 
  on 
  them. 
  The 
  higher 
  

   animals 
  devour 
  the 
  lower, 
  and 
  Nature 
  is 
  run 
  on 
  a 
  plan 
  of 
  

   successive 
  reincarnations. 
  This 
  conjugation 
  of 
  the 
  verb 
  to 
  

   eat 
  involves 
  difficulties, 
  and 
  leads 
  to 
  the 
  struggle 
  for 
  ex- 
  

   istence. 
  A 
  third 
  limitation 
  is 
  the 
  irregular 
  changefulness 
  

  

  A 
  

  

  of 
  the 
  physical 
  environment. 
  

  

  None 
  of 
  the 
  reasons 
  which 
  we 
  have 
  just 
  recalled 
  can 
  be 
  

   said 
  to 
  necessitate 
  the 
  struggle 
  for 
  existence. 
  (1) 
  There 
  

   might 
  have 
  been 
  a 
  flood-bed 
  for 
  the 
  teeming 
  river 
  of 
  life, 
  

  

  