PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS 95 



abroad its seed, and the animals that manure it with their 

 dung ; I say, when these things are considered, it seems 

 impossible that any variation which may arise in a species 

 in nature should not tend in some way or other either to 

 be a little better or worse than the previous stock ; if it is 

 a little better it will have an advantage over and tend to 

 extirpate the latter in this crush and struggle ; and if it is 

 a little worse it will itself be extirpated. 



I know nothing that more appropriately expresses this, 

 than the phrase, " the struggle for existence " ; because it 

 brings before your minds, in a vivid sort of way, some of 

 the simplest possible circumstances connected with it. 

 When a struggle is intense there must be some who are sure 

 to be trodden down, crushed, and overpowered by others ; 

 and there will be some who just manage to get through only 

 by the help of the slightest accident. I recollect reading 

 an account of the famous retreat of the French troops, 

 under Napoleon, from Moscow. Worn out, tired, and 

 dejected, they at length came to a great river over which 

 there was but one bridge for the passage of the vast army. 

 Disorganized and demoralized as that army was, the 

 struggle must certainly have been a terrible one every 

 one heeding only himself, and crushing through the ranks 

 and treading down his fellows. The writer of the narrative, 

 who was himself one of those who were fortunate enough 

 to succeed in getting over, and not among the thousands 

 who were left behind or forced into the river, ascribed his 

 escape to the fact that he saw striding onward through 

 the mass a great strong fellow, one of the French 

 Cuirassiers, who had on a large blue cloak and he had 

 enough presence of mind to catch and retain a hold of this 

 strong man's cloak. He says, " I caught hold of his 

 cloak, and although he swore at me and cut at and struck 

 me by turns, and at last, when he found he could not shake 

 me off, fell to entreating me to leave go or I should prevent 

 him from escaping, besides not assisting myself, I still kept 

 tight hold of him, and would not quit my grasp until he 

 had at last dragged me through." Here you see was a 

 case of selective saving if we may so term it depending 

 for its success on the strength of the cloth of the Cuirassier's 

 cloak. It is the same in nature ; every species has its 

 bridge of Beresina ; it has to fight its way through and 

 struggle with other species ; and when well nigh over- 

 powered, it may be that the smallest chance, something 



