vi PREFACE 



being in truth too much occupied with assailing other 

 points of his doctrine, did not attack his fundamental 

 principle of the Struggle for Existence, while the men 

 of science who were in agreement with him accepted 

 the principle as an axiomatic statement requiring 

 neither investigation nor verification. It has therefore 

 fallen to me to do what scientists have all along 

 neglected to do, namely, to inquire if there really is, 

 in Nature, such a struggle for existence as Darwin has 

 formulated and stated to be the universal experience 

 of life. In proceeding to my inquiry, what caused 

 me no small surprise was the very insufficient grounds 

 upon which Darwin based his universal struggle. 

 " A struggle for existence," he pronounces, " follows 

 from the high rate at which all organic beings tend to 

 increase." " Hence, as more individuals are produced 

 than can possibly survive, there must, in every case, 

 be a struggle for existence, either one individual with 

 another of the same species, or with the individuals of 

 distinct species, or with the physical conditions of 

 life." I looked for the signs and evidences of such a 

 struggle as is here affirmed to be inevitable. But 

 sign or evidence of its being in progress I saw none. 

 I perceived nowhere the reign of tooth and claw, 

 except in the single case where carnivorous creatures 

 are seeking their food from God, where no fear is felt 

 by their prey, and death is ever prompt. I saw 

 nowhere starvation working havoc among creatures 

 unable to obtain sustenance from being less fitted than 

 their feUows to find food and live. Neither did I 



