THE CARP AND THE STICKLEBACK 



that it favours some and does not favour others, that it 

 gives the former the means to live longer and fill a 

 higher position in the scheme of things, whereas it 

 denies the same advantages to the latter, keeping them 

 small in size, and soon bringing them to an end. To 

 us these differences may seem unfair; for why should 

 this be the case, and what reason can there be for be- 

 having so unequally? The question goes beyond the 

 carp and the stickleback; it arises in respect of all the 

 living world, in which big and little elbow one another, 

 ceaselessly, without ever stopping. 



It is not difficult to find the answer. Our old pond, 

 by the constancy of its population, itself provides one. 

 We need only enlarge it and apply it to Nature as a 

 whole; the significance remains. The sticklebacks may 

 disappear every year; the pond still contains them, for 

 those which die are replaced by those which are born, 

 and their generations succeed one another without fail. 

 If the pond, several centuries old, could give an account 

 of itself, it would tell us that it gives to individuals 

 which are perishable only a passing consideration; that 

 it devotes its main attention to keeping up a succession 

 of these individuals in time, keeping up and maintain- 

 ing intact the series of their successive generations. It 

 sees them all pass one after another, and devotes itself to 

 providing what is necessary to preserve the succession, 

 this being its main and preponderant object; as, in a 

 carefully constructed piece of work made up of many 

 tiny consecutive details, we see them all as a whole and 

 so the way in which it is made. 



And this is the case with Nature as a whole. Life 

 fashions the individuals, devotes a moment to their 

 upbringing, gives them the necessary capacity for action; 

 but, above all, is concerned with the succession of its 

 creatures; the succession of their generation in time, 

 and this is its main work, judging by the care it takes to 

 make sure of it. What does it matter to this long series 

 of generations, chained one to another in the course of 



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