UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



I conceive that the appearance of life upon this 

 globe was a matter of chance in the same way that 

 fertilization or impregnation in the vegetable and 

 animal world is a matter of chance. There is the 

 possibility of fertilization to start with, and there is 

 the inherent tendency, but unless conditions favor, 



— conditions that are contingent upon many things, 



— it does not take place. In the vegetable world, 

 storms, frosts, rains, floods may prevent fertiliza- 

 tion; or the part played by insects may be nega- 

 tived in some way. In the animal world, external 

 conditions, as well as internal, must also favor, and 

 fortune certainly plays a part in the game. In cold, 

 late springs the first birds' nests contain fewer eggs 

 than the nests do in warm, early seasons. One sum- 

 mer there is an invasion of insect pests — grasshop- 

 pers, or tent-caterpillars, or forest-worms ; the chance 

 conditions favored them. The next season the coun- 

 try may be quite free from them, the conditions 

 having been reversed. The slow or the rapid in- 

 crease of the population of a country is contingent 

 upon many things. Economic conditions play a 

 part, climate plays a part, the geography and the 

 geology play a part. What a part the Gulf Stream 

 has played in the life of the British Islands! What a 

 part a great river, an inland sea, or a much broken 

 coastline plays in the life of the countries to which 

 these belong! Life is expansive, tends to push out 

 and develop, but it is at the mercy of external con- 



254 



