THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. 213 



carrion hawks, buzzards, condors, petrels, parrots. " If 

 we look to the waters of the sea, the number of 

 organic beings is indeed infinite." " How surprising it is 

 that any creatures (worms) should be able to exist in 

 brine, and that they should be found crawling among 

 crystals of sulphate of soda and lime ! " On these worms, 

 flamingoes " in considerable numbers " feed, as the worms 

 themselves " on infusoria or confervas." " Well may 

 we affirm, that every part of the world is habitable ! 

 Whether lakes of brine, or those subterranean ones 

 hidden beneath volcanic mountains warm mineral 

 springs the wide expanse and depths of the ocean the 

 upper regions of the atmosphere, and even the surface of 

 perpetual snow all support organic beings." All that 

 relates to " the grand scheme, common to the present and 

 past ages, on which organised beings have been created." 

 And in such a presence, " it is not possible to give an 

 adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonish- 

 ment, and devotion which fill and elevate the mind." l 



So far, we have, on the part of Mr. Darwin, one sole 

 reference to life life infinite in its numbers, infinite in its 

 varieties ; and there is not as yet a note, a hint, a whisper, 

 of those mortal straits in bitter struggle from whose fatal 

 pressure only the fittest emerge. No doubt there is 

 strife life in some only through death in others. But 

 yet scarlet blood cannot be called the colour of the 

 scene. There is infinitely more of a smile in it than of 

 a shriek. What is savage is in its paucity out of all 

 proportion to what is tame. 



But Mr. Darwin, too, gives his authority to the positive 

 pleasures of existence, to the actual joys of nature. Even 

 vultures, which are gluttons of flesh the greediest, have, 

 Mr. Darwin (p. 59) assures us, "pleasure in Society" 

 " On a fine day a flock may often be observed at a great 

 1 Journal, pp. 07, 94, 26. 



