54 



The Journal of Heredity 



My friend went to a far countr>-. He 

 told me that he was most impressed 

 with the ferocity, chiefly of wild men; 

 and to him nature said, "eat one 

 another." It came my time to go to 

 that country. I saw that men had been 

 savage — men are the most ferocious of 

 animals, and the ferocity has never 

 reached its high point of refined savagery 

 until today. But I saw also that these 

 savage men are passing away. I saw 

 animals that had never tasted blood, 

 that had no means of defence against 

 a rapacious captor, and yet they were 

 multi])lying. E\-ery stone that I up- 

 turned disclosed some tender organism; 

 every bush that I disturbed revealed 

 some timid atom of animal life; every 

 spot where I walked bore some delicate 

 plant, and I recalled the remark of Sir 

 J. William Dawson "that frail and 

 delicate plants may be more ancient 

 than the mountains or plains on which 

 they live;" and if I went on the sea, I 

 saw the medusa;, as frail as a poet's 

 dream, with the very sunshine stream- 

 ing through them, yet holding their own 

 in the mighty upheaval of the oceans; 

 and I reflected on the rnyriads of 

 microscopic things that for untold 

 ages had cast the very rock on which 

 much of the ocean rests. The minor 

 things and the weak things are the most 

 numerous, and they have played the 

 greatest part in the polity of nature. 

 So I came away from that far country 

 impressed with the power of the little 

 feeble things. I had a new understand- 

 ing of the worth of creatures so un- 

 obtrusive and so silent that the multi- 

 tude does not know them ; and I remem- 

 bered the prophecy that a little child 

 shall lead them. 



I saw protective colorings; I saw fleet 

 wings and swift feet; I saw the ability 



to hide and to conceal; I saw habits of 

 adai:)tation ; I saw marvellous powers of 

 reproduction. You have seen them in 

 every field ; you have met them on >'our 

 casual walks, until you accept them as 

 the natural order of things. And you 

 know that the beasts of prey have not 

 prevailed. The whole contrivance of 

 nature is to protect the weak. 



We have wrongly visualized the 

 "struggle." We have, given it an in- 

 tensely human application. We need 

 to go back to Darwin who electrified the 

 phrase "struggle for existence" into 

 life. "I use this term," he said, "in a 

 large and metaphorical sense including 

 dejjcndencc of one being on another, 

 and including (which is more important) 

 not only the Hfc of the individual, but 

 success in leaving progeny." The de- 

 pendence of one being on another, suc- 

 cess in leaving progeny — how accurate 

 and how far-seeing was Darwin I 



You know, you farmers, how diverse 

 are the forms of life ; and you know that 

 somehow they live together and that 

 only rarely do whole races perish by 

 subjugation. You know that the beasts 

 do not set forth to conquer, but only to 

 gain subsistence and to protect them- 

 selves. You know that they do not 

 piu-sue indiscriminately. You know 

 that a henhawk does not attack crows 

 or butterflies. Even a vicious bull does 

 not attack fowls or rabbits or sheep. 

 You know that the great issues are the 

 issues of li\'e and let live. You know 

 that there are whole nations of plants, 

 more unlike than nations of human- 

 kind, living together in mutual inter- 

 de])endence. You know that there 

 are nations of quiet and mightless 

 animals that live in the very regions of 

 the mighty and the stout. And you 

 know that you are glad it is so. 



Reports For Sale at Low Price 



Attention of members is called to the reduction in i)rice of American Breeders' 

 Association annual rejKjrts Nos. 6 and 7-<S, announced on the inside back coyer. 

 In order to dispose f)f the stock it has on hand, and get the volumes into circulation 

 where they will l)e of use, the association is ofi^ering them at one-half the price at 

 which they were issued. This gives a unique ojjjiortunity to acquire two volumes 

 of genetics literature at a very slight expense. 



