THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 261 



the last result, it is better to be eaten out of the 

 world and, dying, help another to live, than pollute 

 the world by lingering decay. The most, after all, 

 that can be done with life is to give it to others. 

 Till Nature taught her creatures of their own free 

 will to offer the sacrifice, is it strange that she took 

 it by force ? 



There are those indeed who frown upon Science 

 for predicating a Struggle for Life in Nature at all, 

 lest the facts should impugn the beneficence of the 

 universe. But Science did not invent the Struggle 

 for Life. It is there. What Science has really 

 done is to show not only its meaning but its great 

 moral purpose. There are others, again, like Mill, 

 who, seeing the facts, but not seeing that moral 

 purpose, impugn natural theology for still believing 

 in the beneficence of that purpose. Neither attitude, 

 probably, is quite worthy of the names with which 

 these conclusions are associated. Much more reason- 

 able are the verdicts of the two men who are first 

 responsible for bringing the facts before the world, 

 Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace and Mr. Darwin. "When 

 we reflect," says Mr. Darwin, "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 prompt, and that the vigorous, 

 the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply." 



