TO EAT AND TO BE EATEN. 609 



throws only into stronger relief the utter waste of powers and oppor- 

 tunities on the part of most other Englishmen in like positions. 

 Ninety-nine people out of a hundred, put in Lyell's place, would have 

 been nothing better than masters of fox-hounds or slaughterers of 

 tame pheasants. When one thinks of the life-work performed by 

 such men as Lyell and the great band of thinkers to which he be- 

 longed, one sees only the best side of wealth and position : one feels 

 for a moment half inclined to thank the constitution of things as they 

 are here in England for the chance it offers to such broad-minded and 

 comprehensive workers as these. But then one thinks also of the 

 extraordinary rarity of men who so make use of their opportunities, 

 who regard their wealth as anything more than an easy means of the 

 vulgarest personal gratification. It is lamentable to remember all the 

 thousands of conservatories all over England in each of which, with- 

 out perceptible difference to the owner, a few useful experiments 

 might be tried, a few valuable observations made ; and yet how 

 many of them are ever used for any other purpose than to provide 

 distorted flowers for a dinner-table, for a lady's hair, or for a fop's 

 button-hole ? We must congratulate ourselves if now and then, at 

 rare intervals, we get a single Lyell out of all this mass of wasted 

 humanity. After all, that result is in itself a great thing. We have 

 always enough of narrow specialists in science, men valuable and 

 important in their own way, though that is not the highest way ; 

 but we have never too many of the great co-ordinating and organiz- 

 ing intelligences, who take the scattered strands of scientific thought, 

 and weave them together into one consistent and harmonious whole. 

 Among such men as these Lyell stands well to the front, though not 

 exactly in the very first rank. Fortnightly Review. 



-++- 



TO EAT AND TO BE EATEN. 



By CHAELES MOEEIS. 



"^TATTTRE has many of what we are accustomed to call the small 

 -i-N economies of life. She does nothing without a purpose, and 

 she has a horror of waste. In the world of living beings, particu- 

 larly, is she careful of her materials. It is no easy lift to bring matter 

 up to the organic level. She has to call in the sun to her assistance, 

 and get their united shoulders under the load, ere it can be raised to 

 the required height ; and she can not afford to let it down again while 

 there is any pith left in it. 



It is interesting to follow her through this portion of her house- 

 keeping, and watch the care with which she gets all the life-force pos- 

 sible out of her organic stock in trade, letting not a crumb go to 

 vol. xx. 39 



