NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



must pass beyond the idea of competition altogether, 

 to cases where the living creature has to gird up its 

 loins in some way against the difficulties of its physi- 

 cal surroundings. This may be called the struggle 

 with Fate, and it is illustrated between birds and the 

 winter's cold, between aquatic animals and changes 

 in the water, between plants and drought, between 

 plants and frost. So we see that the " struggle for 

 existence " is wider than is suggested by the words 

 taken literally. It includes all the answers back 

 that living creatures make to the difficulties that 

 beset them. " Behold the life of ease, it drifts ; 

 the sharpened life commands its course " : that is 

 the idea of the struggle for existence. There is an 

 extraordinary abundance of life, but the forces of 

 nature and the changes of nature are quite careless 

 of it ; the river of life is always tending to overflow 

 its banks, and there may be more mouths to fill than 

 there is food to fill them with ; love calls and hunger 

 calls and there is often no satisfaction ; there are 

 many risks in the life-history of falling through 

 holes in the Mirza bridge which all living creatures 

 have to cross ; the living creature has a will of its 

 own a will to live. All this, and more, is condensed 

 in the three words " struggle for existence." 



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