174 ON BIO-GEOLOGY. [vn. 



faith in God ; the true and solid faith, which comes 

 often out of sadness, and out of doubt, such as bio-geology 

 may well stir in us at first sight. For our first feeling 

 will be I know mine was when I began to look into 

 these matters one somewhat of dread and of horror. 



Here were all these creatures, animal and vegetable, 

 competing against each other. And their competition 

 was so earnest and complete, that it did not mean as 

 it does among honest shopkeepers in a civilised country 

 I will make a little more money than you; but I will 

 crush you, enslave you, exterminate you, eat you up. 

 "Woe to the weak/' seems to be Nature's watchword. 

 The Psalmist says : "The righteous shall inherit the 

 land/' If you go to a tropical forest, or, indeed, if you 

 observe carefully a square acre of any English land, 

 cultivated or uncultivated, you will find that Nature's 

 text at first sight looks a very different one. She seems 

 to say : Not the righteous, but the strong, shall inherit 

 the land. Plant, insect, bird, what not Find a weaker 

 plant, insect, bird, than yourself, and kill it, and take 

 possession of its little vineyard, and no Naboth/s curse 

 shall follow you: but you shall inherit, and thrive 

 therein, you, and your children after you, if they will 

 be only as strong and as cruel as you are. That is 

 Nature's law: and is it not at first sight a fearful law? 

 Internecine competition, ruthless selfishness, so inter- 

 necine and so ruthless that, as I have wandered in tropic 

 forests, where this temper is shown more quickly and 

 fiercely, though not in the least more evilly, than in 

 our slow and cold temperate one, I have said : Really 

 these trees and plants are as wicked as so many human 

 beings. 



Throughout the great republic of the organic world, 



