290 Sir William B. Grove [April 20, 



its food ; this, and perhaps the avoiding its enemies, gives its exercise 

 and care, brings all its organs into use, and thus it acquires its most 

 perfect form of life. I have witnessed this effect myself, and that is 

 the reason why I choose the rabbit as an example. An estate in 

 Somersetshire, which I once took temporarily, was on the slope of the 

 Mendip Hills. The rabbits on one part of it, viz. that on the hill- 

 side, were in perfect condition, not too fat nor too thin, sleek, active, 

 and vigorous, and yielding to their antagonists, myself and family, 

 excellent food. Those in the valley, where the pasturage was rich 

 and luxui'iant, were all diseased, most of them unfit for human food, 

 and many lying dead on the fields. They had not to struggle for life, 

 theii" short life was miserable and their death early, they wanted the 

 sweet uses of adversity — that is, of antagonism. 



The same story may be told of other animals. Carnivora, beasts 

 or birds of prey, live on weaker animals ; weaker animals herd 

 together to resist, or, by better chance of warning, to escape, beasts 

 of prey; while they, the Herbivora, in their turn are destroying 

 vegetable organisms. 



I now come to the most delicate part of my subject, viz. man (I in- 

 clude women of course !). Is man exempt from this continual struggle '? 



It is needless to say that war is antagonism. Is not peace so also, 

 though in a different form ? It is a common-place remark to say that 

 the idle man is worn out by ennui, i.e. by internal antagonism. 

 Kingsley's " Do-as-you-like " race — who were fed by a substance 

 dro2)ping from trees, who did no work, and who gradually degenerated 

 until they became inferior to apes, and ultimately died out from having 

 nothing to do, nothing to struggle with — is a caricature illustrative 

 of the matter. That the worry of competition is nearly equivalent 

 to the hardships and perils of military life, seems proved to me by 

 the readiness with which military life is voluntarily undertaken, ill 

 as it is paid. If it were well paid, half our men would be in the 

 military or naval service, and I am not sure that we should not have 

 regiments of Amazons ! The increased risk of life or limbs and the 

 arduous natm-e of the work do not prevent men belonging to all 

 classes from entering these services, little remunerative as they are. 

 Others take the risks of travelling in the deserts of Africa or wintering 

 in the polar regions, of being eaten by lions or frozen to death, of 

 falling from a Swiss mountain or foundering in a yacht, in preference 

 to a life of tranquillity ; and sportsmen prefer the danger of endeavour- 

 ing to kill an animal that can and may kill them, to shooting tame 

 pheasants at a hattue or partridges in a turnip-field. 



Then, in what is euphemistically called a life of peace, buyer and 

 seller, master and servant, landlord and tenant, debtor and creditor, 

 are all in a state of simmering antagonism ; and the inventions and 

 so-called improvements of applied science and art do not lessen it. 

 Exercise is antagonism ; at each step force is used to lift wj) our 

 bodies and push back the earth ; as the eminent Joseph Montgolfier 

 said, that when he saw a company dancing, he mentally inverted his 



