1466 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer 

 of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and 

 is sometimes equally convenient. 



The elder De Candolle and Lyell have largely 

 and philosophically shown that all organic beings 

 are exposed to severe competition. In regard to 

 plants, no one has treated this subject with more 

 spirit and ability than W. Herbert, Dean of Man- 

 chester, evidently the result of his great horticultural 

 knowledge. Nothing is easier than to admit in words 

 the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more 

 difficult at least I have found it so than constantly 

 to bear this conclusion in mind. Yet unless it be 

 thoroughly ingrained in the mind, the whole econ- 

 omy of nature, with every fact on distribution, 

 rarity, abundance, extinction, and variation, will be 

 dimly seen or quite misunderstood. We behold the 

 face of nature bright with gladness, we often see 

 superabundance of food ; we do not see or we forget 

 that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly 

 live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly de- 

 stroying life; or we forget how largely these song- 

 sters, or their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed 

 by birds and beasts of prey; we do not always bear 

 in mind that, though food may be now superabun- 

 dant, it is not so at all seasons of each recurring year. 



I should premise that I use this term Struggle for 

 Existence in a large and metaphorical sense, includ- 

 ing dependence of one being on another, and in- 

 cluding (which is more important) not only the 

 life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny. 

 Two canine animals, in a time of dearth, may be 



