The Evolution of Organisms 173 



his critical spirit that he has come to doubt whether 

 the great drama is a moral spectacle ? 



Darwin painted a picture of nature which has 

 impressed itself now on two generations of stu- 

 dents. Every competent judge recognizes its 

 strength and insight, but it is anti-Darwinian to call 

 it finished or perfect. The most prominent fea- 

 tures which it brought out were— that flux of form 

 which we call variation, the tendency of the river 

 of life to overflow its banks, the ceaseless struggle 

 for existence, the discriminate elimination which 

 results, and the subtle interrelations and adapta- 

 tions of the web of life. It is with the struggle for 

 existence that we have now especially to deal. 



Darwin pointed out that the phrase "struggle 

 for existence" was to be taken in a wide and meta- 

 phorical sense, and he has a number of very inter- 

 esting saving clauses. But the general perspective 

 of his picture is clear, and leaves us with the im- 

 pression of a sombre, more or less sanguinary, 

 ceaseless struggle. We remember that the work 

 of IVlalthus influenced Darwin (as it also influ- 

 enced WaUace and Spencer); we may go further 

 and recognize some truth in Geddes' thesis that 

 science is a social phenomenon, and that the Dar- 

 winian conception was in part an unconscious pro- 

 jection on nature of the competitive conditions and 

 competitive creed of the early industrial age. A 

 reproduction of the picture has never the subdety 



