196 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v 



study of the phenomena of life as they are 

 exhibited by the higher forms of the animal 

 world, the optimistic dogma, that this is the best 

 of all possible worlds, will seem little better than 

 a libel upon possibility. It is really only another 

 instance to be added to the many extant, of the 

 audacity of cb priori speculators who, having 

 created God in their own image, find no difficulty 

 in assuming that the Almighty must have been 

 actuated by the same motives as themselves. 

 They are quite sure that, had any other course 

 been practicable, He would no more have made 

 infinite suffering a necessary ingredient of His 

 handiwork than a respectable philosopher would 

 have done the like. 



But even the modified optimism of the time- 

 honoured thesis of physico-theology, that the 

 sentient world is, on the whole, regulated by 

 principles of benevolence, does but ill stand the 

 test of impartial confrontation with the facts of 

 the case. No doubt it is quite true that sen 

 tient nature affords hosts of examples of subtle 

 contrivances directed towards the production of 

 pleasure or the avoidance of pain ; and it may be 

 proper to say that these are evidences of benevo 

 lence. But if so, why is it not equally proper to 

 say of the equally numerous arrangements, the no 

 less necessary result of which is the production 

 of pain, that they are evidences of malevolence ? 



If a vast amount of that which, in a piece of 

 human workmanship, we should call skill, is 



