DARWINISM AXP POLITICS. 



tone from that of his jubilant disciples. Things 

 do not look so clear to him. He marvels at 

 this wonderful universe, and especially at the 

 nature of man, but "I ca nnot see," he says, 

 " as plainly as others do, an d as I should w ish 

 to do, evid ence ofdesign and beneficenc e on 

 all sides of us . There see ms to me too mu ch 

 misery in the world/' 1 



' If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design, 

 Why then a Borgia or a Catiline ? " 



asks Pope with the contented optimism of his 

 easy-going age. And if the fratricidal morality 

 of the bee-hive and the fiendish cunning- of the 

 Sphex are to be admired, is there not a similar 

 justification for military despotism and tyranni- 

 cal cruelty, or for the ingenious device of the 

 sweating system ? 



" We dined, as a rule, on each other. 

 What matter ? the toughest survived." 3 



This is a sufficient morality in the mesozoic 

 epoch for the ichthyosaurus, to whom the senti- 



1 From a letter to Dr. Asa Gray, in Life ami Letters^ 

 II. 512. 



2 May Kendall, Dreams to Sell, "Ballad of the Ich- 

 thyosaurus." 



