NATURE'S INSURGENT SON n 



in the free untouched conditions under which animals 

 and plants exist, and have existed for ages, on this globe. 

 Both animals and plants produce germs, or young, in 

 excess usually in vast excess. The world, the earth's 

 surface, is practically full, that is to say, fully occupied. 

 Only one pair of young can grow up to take the place 

 of the pair male and female which have launched a 

 dozen, or it may be as many as a hundred thousand, 

 young individuals on the world. The property of Varia- 

 tion ensures that amongst this excess of young there are 

 many differences. Eventually those survive which are 

 most fitted to the special conditions under which this 

 particular organism has to live. The conditions may, 

 and indeed in long lapses of time must, change, and 

 thus some variation not previously favoured will gain 

 the day and survive. The ' struggle for existence ' of 

 Darwin is the struggle amongst all the superabundant 

 young of a given species, in a given area, to gain the 

 necessary food, to escape voracious enemies, and gain 

 protection from excesses of heat, cold, moisture, and 

 dryness. One pair in the new generation only one 

 pair survive for every parental pair. Animal popula- 

 tion does not increase : ' Increase and multiply ' has 

 never been said by Nature to her lower creatures. 

 Locally, and from time to time, owing to exceptional 

 changes, a species may multiply here and decrease there; 

 but it is important to realize that the * struggle for 

 existence' in Nature that is to say, among the animals 

 and plants of this earth untouched by man is a 

 desperate one, however tranquil and peaceful the battle- 

 field may appear to us. The struggle for existence 

 takes place, not as a clever French writer l glibly informs 



1 M. Paul Bourget of the Academic Franchise, is not only a charming 

 writer of modern ' novels,' but claims to be a ' psychologist,' a title 



