ANTAGONISM. 619 



— for botli these involve discontent — no fear, no good or bad, what 

 would life be ? If fully carried out, is not a life without antago- 

 nism no life at all, a barren metaphysical conception of existence, 

 or rather alleged conception, for we can not present to the mind 

 the form of such conception ? In the most ordinary actions, such 

 as are necessary to sustain existence, we find, as I have already 

 pointed out, a struggle more or less intense, but we also find a 

 reciprocal interdependence of effort and result. The graminivo- 

 rous animal is, during his waking hours, always at work, always 

 making a small but continuous eif ort, selecting his pastures, crop- 

 ping vegetables, avoiding enemies, etc. The carnivora suffer more 

 in their normal existence ; their hunger is greater, and their physi- 

 cal exertion, when they are driven by hunger to make efforts to 

 obtain food, is more violent than with the herbivora if they capt- 

 ure their prey by speed or battle, or their mental efforts are 

 greater if they capture it by craft. But then their gratification 

 is also more intense, and thus there is a sort of rough equation 

 between their pain and their pleasure : the more sustained the 

 labor, the more permanent is the gratification. As with food or 

 exercise, deficiency is as injurious in one as is excess in another 

 direction ; so, as affecting the mind of communities, as I have 

 stated it to be with individuals, the effect of a life of ease and too 

 much repose is as much to be avoided as a life of unremitting 

 toil. The Pitcairn-Islanders, who managed in some way to adapt 

 their wants to their supply and to avoid undue increase of popu- 

 lation, are said never to have reached old age. In consequence of 

 the uneventful, unexcited lives they led, they died of inaction, not 

 from deficiency of food or shelter, but of excitement. They should 

 have migrated to England ! They died as hares do when their 

 ears are stuffed with cotton, i. e., from want of anxiety. We have 

 hope in our suffering, and in the mid-gush of our pleasures some- 

 thing bitter surges up : 



" We look before and after, and pine for what is not, 

 Our sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught. 

 Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought." 



The question may possibly occur to you, Have we more or less 

 antagonism now than in former times ? We certainly have more 

 complexity, more differentiation, in our mental characteristics, 

 and probably in our physical, so far as the structure of the brain 

 is concerned ; but is there less antagonism ? With greater com- 

 plexity come increased wants, more continuous cares. Higher 

 cerebral development is accompanied with greater nervous irri- 

 tability, with greater social intricacies — we have more frequent 

 petty annoyances, and they affect us more. With all our so-called 

 social improvements, is there not the same struggle between crime 



