NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



hand, as a symbol ; it is the external counterpart 

 of the tear which comes sometimes to all of us to 

 blot out God's sun. Its shadow is Death's. 



For in the midst of all the bustle of life, all the 

 gaiety of summer days, he with the ever-harvesting 

 sickle walks with swift feet. He mingles with the 

 haymakers, and one is carried senseless off the 

 field ; he troubles the waters of the seaside town, 

 and the ranks of the children who romped merrily 

 on the sands are thinned ; he passes among the 

 flocks, and many need no more shepherding ; he 

 breathes among the dancing day-flies, and they sink 

 with the setting sun. And why in the midst of life 

 is there so much death, against which there is no 

 standing even among the strongest ? It is in part 

 due to the fact that although the sunlight is the 

 most powerful antagonist of the pestilence that 

 walketh in darkness, that is to say, the disease- 

 germs or Bacteria, the warmth and overflowing 

 plenty of summer days favour their multiplication. 

 It is partly because the machinery of life is by no 

 means perfectly self -repairing, and that the creature 

 in living is continually going into debt. And it is 

 partly because, during an early chapter in life's 

 history, death was made a price for giving rise to 

 new lives, as is illustrated by so many butterflies 

 and other animals, not to speak of flowers, which 

 die soon after they have secured the continuance 

 of their kind. 



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