NUMBER XXXV 

 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 



THIS phrase the struggle for existence was 

 used by the greatest of naturalists, Charles 

 Darwin, to include all the answers back that living 

 creatures make to the difficulties that beset them. 

 It means not only keen competition for food and 

 foothold, but all sorts of endeavours after well- 

 being ; it means not only efforts for self, but efforts 

 which secure the safety and prosperity of the young 

 ones. 



In the case of man, it means that when Nature has 

 said to him, " You must die," he has always 

 answered back, " I will live." It means that he has 

 fought with wild beasts and worsted them or tamed 

 them, that he has sifted out the wholesome from 

 the poisonous plants, that, cowering and crouching 

 for ages but never giving in, he has watched the 

 forces of nature until he has mastered their secrets, 

 that he has been to his fellow-men since the beginning 

 a strange mixture of selfishness and sympathy, that 

 he has kept up an age-long endeavour after well- 

 being always at his best when rowing hard against 

 the stream. 



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