THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 37 



numerous in proportion to the adults than are 

 required to continue the species in undiminished 

 numbers ; while, without our being necessitated to 

 have recourse to believe in a mysterious supernatural 

 invisible absorption, or silent snowlike melting away 

 of hosts of young carnivora, it explains why it was 

 that Darwin found the causes which check the increase 

 of those vigorous kinds that he supposes to swarm in 

 numbers, most obscure. I showed also that the 

 elimination, speedy and painless, in the earliest stage 

 of existence, of so great a number of individuals, born 

 of prolific species, is an argument, not of Nature's 

 cruelty, but of her kindly care and regard for her 

 offspring, and is the mode by which she averts from 

 them the horrible fate which is contemplated for them 

 in Darwin's struggle for existence. I showed, too, 

 that her method of elimination is perfectly congruous 

 to the nature and habits of the creatures who carry 

 out the ordinance of Nature. Moreover, I have 

 showed her regulating the eliminating process by 

 establishing a temporary divergence of interests 

 between the male and female parents. 



" Having found, then, that the elimination of the 

 reproduced excess of carnivorous animals before they 

 become food-seekers is a necessary logical conclusion 

 from the facts and phenomena, and from all the 

 conditions of feral life, and having shown that such 

 elimination takes place in the case of all prolific 

 animals, the habit of whose males, when the females 

 have young, is known, I find the Zoological Gardens 



