S UMMER DA VS. 8 1 



thrusting aside and getting the best of the weak. Every- 

 thing is for self. In the struggle for life each is fighting 

 for place as well as for food, and every moment the 

 weakest and the most unfitted individuals are perishing. 

 In the vegetable world the battle is none the less fierce 

 every blade of grass, every branch and twig and flower 

 is constantly trying to best its neighbour in the universal 

 strife. And all this is well that it should be so. Every 

 living organism is furnished with such powers of re- 

 production that, if no checks to its increase existed, it 

 would speedily outgrow its food, and populate continents 

 and rivers and oceans with its own kind alone. This 

 struggle for life, and this preying one on the other is 

 a beneficial provision of Nature ; out of this warfare 

 comes peace and plenty to the favoured few that are 

 able to survive. Our stroll abroad this morning has thus 

 taught us the fundamental conditions of the life around 

 us the bird singing gladsomely on the hedgerows, the 

 insect flitting among the flowers or high up in the air, 

 and the grass and weeds in the fields all are happy and 

 savour strongly of peace ; yet under this veneer of 

 tranquillity the great conflict is raging endlessly and 

 unrelentingly on every side ! 



It is mid-day ; the sun beats fiercely down and not a 

 leaf is stirring. But we can seek the cool shade of the 

 sycamores, the broad leaves will make a most effectual 

 sunguard ; and whilst reclining at full length on the 



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