II 
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
37 
benevolent ruler of the universe. Thus, a brilliant writer 
says : “ Pain, grief, disease, and death, are these the inventions 
of a loviirn God ? That no animal shall rise to excellence 
except by being fatal to the life of others, is this the law of 
a kind Creator? It is useless to say that pain has its 
benevolence, that massacre has its mercy. Why is it so 
ordained that bad should be the raw material of good ? Pain 
is not the less pain because it is useful; murder is not less 
murder because it is conducive to development. Here is 
blood upon the hand still, and all the perfumes of Arabia will 
not sweeten it.’’ 1 
Even so thoughtful a writer as Professor Huxley adopts 
similar views. In a recent article on “ The Struggle for 
Existence ” he speaks of the myriads of generations of herbiv¬ 
orous animals which “ have been tormented and devoured by 
carnivores ” ; of the carnivores and herbivores alike “ subject to 
all the miseries incidental to old age, disease, and over-multi¬ 
plication”; and of the “more or less enduring suffering,” 
which is the meed of both vanquished and victor. And he 
concludes that, since thousands of times a minute, were our 
ears sharp enough, we should hear sighs and groans of pain 
like those heard by Dante at the gate of hell, the world 
cannot be governed by what we call benevolence. 2 
Now there is, I think, good reason to believe that all this 
is greatly exaggerated ; that the supposed “ torments ” and 
“ miseries ’’ of animals have little real existence, but are the 
reflection of the imagined sensations of cultivated men and 
women in similar circumstances ; and that the amount of actual 
suffering caused by the struggle for existence among animals 
is altogether insignificant. Let us, therefore, endeavour to 
ascertain what are the real facts on which these tremendous 
accusations are founded. 
In the first place, we must remember that animals are 
entirely spared the pain we suffer in the anticipation of death— 
a pain far greater, in most cases, than the reality. This leads, 
probably, to an almost perpetual enjoyment of their lives; 
since their constant watchfulness against danger, and even 
their actual flight from an enemy, will be the enjoyable 
1 Winwood Reade’s Martyrdom of Man, p. 520. 
2 Nineteenth Century, February 1888, pp. 162, 163. 
