CHAPTER V. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. 



Is it a fact that, in a state of nature, there is a struggle 

 for existence on the part of living organisms generally ? 



Just on the spur of the moment, when we hear this 

 question, we are apt to answer, Most assuredly there is. 

 For lions and tigers, sharks and sword-fish, hawks and 

 vultures, spiders, ants, and ichneumonidai rush at oiice 

 into our thoughts, and we quote to ourselves 



" Of nature red in tooth and claw, 

 With ravine." 



But the question is, With all that carnivorousness in 

 heast and bird, in fish and insect, does not the balance 

 of life remain pretty well the same ? 



Certainly the beds of the earth are but the graves of 

 the extinct whole genera have perished. That, how- 

 ever, may be, at least partly, due to catastrophes. 

 Catastrophes do periodically occur, and with enormous 

 sacrifice of life. There are deluges and there are 

 droughts, there are ardours and there are rigours ; and 

 deluge or drought, ardour or rigour, the one or the other 

 may be the premiss of a quite overwhelming slaughter. 

 Nevertheless, ever again, from the miserablest remains 

 somehow is not the loss repaired and the balance made 

 good on the whole ? On the whole only it must be, 



