AND SUBORDINATION. 79 



employs. It is the nature of man to seek for power, to struggle 

 for pre-eminence in the profession or branch of labor to which 

 he devotes himseif. This produces competition, and as, from 

 the very nature of things, it is impossible that all should be 

 successful, each physician and lawyer, manufacturer, merchant, 

 and tradesman sees, in all those who are engaged in the same 

 occupation, competitors who are dangerous in proportion to the 

 amount of their success. A social organization in which there 

 shall be co-operation without competition is clearly an impossi- 

 bility. It may form a theme for poets and a dream of philan- 

 thropy, but as human nature is at present constituted, it is a 

 state of things which can never be realized. A state of warfare 

 appears to be the natural state of man. This may be an unpalat- 

 able truth, but it is far better to give true than false views of life. 



It would not be difficult to prove that there is antago- 

 nism amongst all the inferior forms of animal life, and thus 

 show it to be a universal law of Nature. Even the flowers 

 which decorate our fields and forests, are mutually opposed to 

 each other. Each has to struggle into existence against a host 

 of competitors; for Nature, although she has been prolific of 

 the seeds of life, has limited the supply of room and food. 

 Shrubs and trees prevent, by the extent of soil which they 

 occupy, the vegetation of species of a humbler growth. Millions 

 of seeds are annually produced which never germinate. Borne 

 away from the plants which produced them by the winds or 

 waves, they fall into situations unfavorable to their growth, or 

 upon a soil which is already pre-occupied by other plants. A 

 number of ferns growing on a hill-side, will successfully main- 

 tain their monopoly of the ground for ages against all other 

 intruders, notwithstanding the facilities afforded to the sur- 

 rounding plants for the dispersion of their seeds. If, for exam- 

 ple, a seed from a neighboring thistle or dandelion should fall 

 amongst them, it cannot germinate, because they have pos- 

 session of the ground, absorb all its food in the struggle 

 amongst themselves, so that it is impossible that any should 

 be afforded for the stranger. 



To man, however, the "Minister and Interpreter of Nature,"* 



* Homo naturao minister et interpres, tantum facit et intelligit, quantum de naturse 

 ordine re vel mente observaverit,nec amplius scit aut potest. Bacon's NovitmOrganum. 



