THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 47 



nivora. He observes what passes before his eye as 

 one afflicted with a diseased optic nerve, and con- 

 sequently misreads the fair page of Nature which 

 seems to him only a lurid record of tragedies. 



Prepossessed with his master's theory of demonism, 

 with its presentation of Nature's cruelty, truculence, 

 and savagery, he forgets, as well he may, his master's 

 words of consolation, that in the war of Nature death 

 is generally prompt and no fear is felt. He therefore 

 does not see what his forefathers saw, and saw truly, 

 that until the moment of their prompt death even the 

 predestined victims of the carnivora are vigorous, 

 healthy, and happy survivors, and that in the universal 

 joy of life throughout the whole realm of Nature there 

 is practically little alloy of misery, notwithstanding 

 what Darwin calls the war of Nature. The pessimism 

 of the present-day explorers of feral life is repellent to 

 healthy natures. 



But I ask my readers, Have they ever endeavoured 

 to realise what sort of a spectacle the feral world 

 would present if, as the result of a competition for food, 

 there were, as Darwin says there must necessarily be, 

 " in every case, a struggle for existence, either one 

 individual with another of the same species, or with 

 individuals of distinct species," if, in short, the 

 weak of each species must go to the wall and perish, 

 unable to compete with the strong, which have more 

 advantageous variations, and which therefore can 

 procure food more readily ? The weak, then, accord- 

 ing to Darwin's interpretation of the action of the 



