Chap. III. STKUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. 83 



few plants or aniniiils rani]fc so far, that tbcy are destroyed by 

 the rigor of the climate alone. Not until we reach the extreme 

 confines of life, in the Arctic regions or on the borders of an 

 utter desert, will competition cease. The land may be ex- 

 tremely cold or dry, yet there will be competition between 

 some few species, or between the individuals of the same spe- 

 cies, for the Avarmest or dampest spots. 



Hence, also, we can see that when a plant or animal is 

 placed in a new country among new competitors, tliough the 

 climate may be exactly the same as in its former home, yet 

 the conditions of its life will generally be changed in an essen- 

 tial manner. If we wished to increase its average numbers in 

 its new home, we should have to modify it in a diflerent way 

 to what we should have to do in its native country; for we 

 should have to give it some advantage over a different set of 

 convpetitors or enemies. 



It is good thus to try in imagination to give any form 

 some advantage over another. Probably in no single instance 

 should we know what to do, so as to succeed. It will con- 

 A-ince us of our ignorance on the mutual relations of all organic 

 beings ; a conviction as necessar}', as it seems difficult to ac- 

 quire. All that we can do is, to keep steadily in mind that 

 each organic being is striving to increase in a geometrical 

 ratio ; that each at some period of its life, during some season 

 of the year, during each generation or at intervals, has to 

 struggle for life, and to suffer great destruction. When we 

 reflect on this struggle, we may console ourselves with the full 

 belief that the war of Nature is not incessant, that no fear is 

 felt, that death is generally jirompt, and that the vigorous, the 

 healthy, and the haj^py, survive and multiply. 



