DISHARMONIES AND OTHER SHADOWS 585 



of ' wildness ' about parasitism, just as about some other 

 ways of life. No explanation can be offered except that or- 

 ganisms have in them something akin to the artist's genius. 

 They have endless resources and they are free. Some have 

 explained that it is not the destructiveness of parasites they 

 object to, nor their ugliness, nor even their feckless drifting 

 life, but their devilishness. The ichneumon-fly lays her eggs 

 in a caterpillar; the hatched grubs feed on the living tissues; 

 they make their way out to begin a new phase of life after 

 they have killed their host. It is very difficult, however, to 

 avoid anthropomorphism in such cases. Perhaps it does not 

 matter much to the caterpillar whether it is devoured from 

 the inside or from the outside, and perhaps the ichneumon 

 larva should rather be called beasts of prey than parasites. 

 In any case it is certain that what the ichneumon-insect does 

 to the caterpillar is not so repulsive as what man often does 

 to man, for man knows or should know what he is doing. 

 In both cases there is devilry, but the ichneumon's is un- 

 conscious. Moreover, it plays a very important role in the 

 extraordinarily well equilibrated economy of Nature. 



6. Cruelty of Nature. 



The system of Animate Nature is evolved on the scheme 

 that many kinds of living creatures use others as food. If 

 this be cruelty, then Man is in it too. But in most cases 

 there is no reason to drag in the idea of cruelty; taken in 

 the strict sense the word does not and cannot grip. 



It should be remembered, if it makes any difference, that 

 many animals are vegetarian and that many depend upon 

 organic debris. Thus great hordes of marine animals live 

 on the detritus washed outwards and downwards from the 

 littoral vegetation of Alga? and sea-grass. That all living 



