72 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



must have its nutriment, space for movement, and 

 conditions under which it can seek satisfaction. With 

 out these, life must disappear. In the history of 

 vegetable life, dependence on environment is at its 

 maximum, supplies being drawn from a comparatively 

 limited area. Animal life moves over a considerable 

 space, competing for existing supplies. Everywhere 

 in Nature, animal life has its work prescribed by 

 pressur.e of physical wants. In remote depths of the 

 forest, rarely resounding to the footsteps of men, and 

 in the great wilderness, the pressure is felt. Here is 

 the symbol of the common conditions of life, un 

 ceasing toil to provide for life s Avants, to ward off 

 life s dangers. Not always by co-operation, as in 

 insect life, are supplies found; more commonly by 

 individual struggle for ascendency over others of the 

 same species, and by destruction of lower species. It 

 is with most animals, as with the fishes in a stream, 

 where the largest are in advance taking the food most 

 attractive, the others having what is left. In the 

 history of rational life, there is productive power, 

 multiplying supplies, and providing for distribution of 

 commodities. The common conditions of life are not 

 withdraAvn or altered, so far as dependence on nutri 

 ment is concerned ; but new conditions of supply are 

 superadded. Man sows and reaps, toils and gathers. 

 Multiplication of the fruits of the earth, and increase 

 of flocks and herds, provide for extension of food- 

 supply, whilst facilities of transit prove of such value, 

 that a railroad may deliver from famine. 



More exact formula are needed, if these differences 

 are to be rightly estimated, as bearing on a theory of 

 natural history. Animal life has its experience 



