12, DARWINISM. 



the antlered stag 1 ; devours fish like a shark; spreads 

 nets for his prey like a spider ; and in some instances 

 acquires a well-developed taste for the flesh of his 

 fellow-man. Practically with all living animals, the 

 first consideration is food. If all living- animals could 

 obtain abundance of pleasant and suitable food without 

 preying on one another, the scene of war which Nature 

 presents would perhaps in a great measure disappear. 

 Yet this warfare is as conspicuous in the vegetable as 

 it is in the animal kingdom. There is a certain amount 

 of nourishment in a given piece of ground, and for 

 that nourishment the plants upon it will compete, some 

 thriving and multiplying to the hindrance and de- 

 struction of the others. Here again, if the surface 

 of the globe supplied nutriment for all its plants, 

 there would be at least no need for this destructive com- 

 petition. 



And how is it that this wide, wide world does not 

 supply food enough for all the vegetable forms that 

 make an effort to live upon it? The answer to this 

 curious question has long been known, though not 

 sufficiently attended to. It would not be fair to say 

 that Nature is stingy in her supplies of food, but 

 rather that she is too generously prolific of forms of 

 life. For, take the supposition that all living creatures, 

 whether animal or vegetable, were shielded from all 

 enemies and influences at present hurtful to them, and 

 let us see to what it would bring us. A single grain 

 of wheat produces an ear containing ten, twenty, or 

 some larger number of grains. But if the ear con- 



