0)1 the Origin of Species. 113 



and these supporting forms increase far more rapidly tlian those that 

 subsist on them. So much so, that vast quantities of organic food 

 go to waste, or would do so but for the hordes of scavengers of 

 low organization that seem specially created to gather up the 

 frao^ments of nature's bounteous feast. Plant life thrives on the 

 exhaustless stores of inorganic food provided for it by the soil and 

 the atmosphere. Plant life supports animal life ; but who ever 

 saw the floor of the ocean denuded of its algae, or the landscape 

 bared of its verdure by the struggle of feeders for existence, except 

 in a rare and exceptional case, as in a flight of locusts ? There is 

 always enough and to spare. Again, do the insects fail or become 

 scarce under the ceaseless attacks of the insectivorous birds ? Do 

 not Clios and Salpas and coral polyps abound almost as much as if 

 not preyed on by countless fishes and other animals ? The beautiful 

 harmony of nature provides that the feeders shall multiply more 

 slowly than the food, and that the food shall be kept under by the 

 feeders. When any form does locally multiply too far, the checks 

 appear, usually in the form of a diminished reproduction or in the 

 more rapid removal of the infirm, the sickly and the aged. When 

 through the slow operation of physical causes or the introduction 

 of new species, certain forms of life can no longer find the means of 

 subsistence, all the facts we know indicate their disappearance, not 

 their change into new forms. Nay, species verging to extinction 

 or struggling for existence, like the red deer of Scotland, degene- 

 rate rather than improve, and must necessarily do so, so long as 

 the laws of organic being remain what they are. In short, the 

 struggle for existence is a myth, and its employment as a means of 

 improvement still more mythical. 



Were we bound to argue for such a thesis as that proposed by 

 Mr. Darwin, we should much rather take up our ground on the 

 improvement of the physical conditions of the earth, and maintain 

 that each species finding its means of subsistence and happiness 

 constantly extending, exerted itself for their occupancy, and so 

 developed new powers. This would have the advantage of giving 

 a more agreeable view of nature, and of accounting for elevation ; 

 as if nature, like a skilful breeder, were giving constantly better 

 food or pasture, instead of imitating the luckless experimenter who 

 strove to reduce the daUy food of the horse to a single straw. 



The remarks that we have made on natural selection, and the 

 struggle for existence, afford a key to the whole of Mr. Darwin's 

 argument, which amounts to little else than a wholesale appropria 



Can. Nat. 3 Vol . V. N o 



