70 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



phrase sums up. This is the more desirable since 

 there is often tyranny in a phrase, especially when 

 it is misunderstood. Are we sure that we under- 

 stand what the struggle for existence means ? 

 Are we clear that it means much more than the 

 bare words suggest ? Do we understand that 

 the phrase is a biological formula which has at 

 the same time the misfortune of being an anthro- 

 pomorphic metaphor ? 



From ancient days there had been a recognition 

 of a struggle in nature we find the idea expressed 

 by Aristotle and by Lucretius, and more definitely 

 by several of the pioneers of modern evolution 

 theory but it was Darwin who first realised its 

 length and breadth, its height and depth, and, 

 what is more, its dynamic significance. 1 



THE ANTHROPOMORPHISM OF THE IDEA. In 

 trying to understand the past and present of 

 living creatures naturalists have followed with 

 some success two very different methods, which 

 seem opposed to one another, but are rather 

 complementary. The one method is to inquire 

 into the material machinery of vital activity, to 

 throw on the puzzling drama of life the light of 

 chemistry and physics. This is a sound method 

 as far as it goes. The celery is blanched because 



1 It is interesting to notice how often Tennyson turns to certain 

 aspects of the struggle for existence, as when he speaks of Nature 

 " red in tooth and claw with ravine," " So careless of the single 

 life," or in the well-known lines : 



" For life is not as idle ore ; 



But iron dug from central gloom, 

 And heated hot with burning fears, 

 And dip't in baths of hissing tears, 



And batter'd by the shocks of doom 



To shape and use." 



