THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 259 



would be affectation to deny that on the whole 

 these results are good, and appear the worthier the 

 more we penetrate into their inner meaning. Men 

 forget when they denounce the Struggle for Life, 

 that it is to be judged not only on the ground of 

 sentiment but of reason, that not its local or sur- 

 face effects only, but its permanent influence on the 

 order of the world, must be taken into account. 



Even on the lower ranges of Nature the unfav- 

 ourable implications of the Struggle for Life have 

 probably been exaggerated. While it is essential to 

 an understanding of the course of evolution to 

 retain in the imagination a vivid sense of the 

 Struggle itself, we must beware of over-colouring 

 the representation, or flooding it with accompani- 

 ments of emotion borrowed from our own sensations. 

 The word Struggle at all in this connection is little 

 more than a metaphor. When it is said that an 

 animal struggles, all that is really meant is that 

 it lives. An animal, that is to say, does not, in 

 addition to all its other activities, have to employ 

 a vast number of special activities, to the exercise 

 of which the term Struggle is to be applied. It 

 is Life itself which is the Struggle : and the whole 

 Life, and the whole of the activities and powers 

 which make up Life are involved in it. To speak 

 of Struggle in the sense of some special and sepa- 



