64 Difficulty of the Waste of Seeds cleared up. CHAP. 



respecting the waste of seeds whereon Butler insists in 

 the passage quoted above. For, without the high rate 

 of increase, and the consequent great destruction of 

 seeds and germs, there would be no struggle for life ; 

 without the struggle for life there would be no 

 natural selection; and without natural selection to 

 weed out the unfit and to preserve the fit, there 

 would be perhaps no improvement whatever, and 

 certainly much less and much slower improvement 

 than that which actually has been. Thus what 

 appeared, and could not but appear, to Bishop Butler 

 as an apparent failure of Creative purpose, is now 

 seen to be a necessary part of the Creative plan. 

 All special difficulty from the waste of seeds dis- 

 appears. And, though it is a mystery why pain 

 should be permitted at all among animals, which 

 have no moral nature which can either deserve it as 

 vengeance (rt/xw/jia), or derive benefit from it as 

 correction (/coAao-is), yet the perplexity is lightened 

 when we understand that the conflict which is the 

 cause of suffering to individuals, tends nevertheless 

 to the advancement of the race. Unimproved and 

 inferior races are superseded, crushed out, and 

 destroyed, but room is thus made for the improved 

 and superior races. Evil is made to work for ulti- 

 mate good ; the good prevails, survives, and remains, 

 while the evil is destroyed. All evil is self -destructive, 

 and is doomed to extinction. 



Another principle is at the same time shown to 

 prevail in the working of nature ; namely, that all 



