262 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



And in much stronger language Mr. Wallace: "On 

 the whole, the popular idea of the struggle for 

 existence entailing misery and pain on the animal 

 world is the very reverse of the truth. What it really 

 brings about is the maximum of life and of the enjoy- 

 ment of life, with the minimum of suffering and pain. 

 Given the necessity of death and reproduction, and 

 without these there could have been no progressive 

 development of the organic world — and it is diffi- 

 cult even to imagine a system by which a greater 

 balance of happiness could have been secured." ^ 



We may safely leave Nature here to look after her 

 own ethic. That a price, a price in pain, and assuredly 

 sometimes a very terrible price, has been paid for 

 the evolution of the world, after all is said, is certain. 

 There may be difference of opinion as to the amount 

 of this price, but on one point there can be no 

 dispute — that even at the highest estimate the thing 

 which was bought with it was none too dear. For 

 that thing was nothing less than the present pro- 

 gress of the world. The Struggle for Life has been 

 a victorious struggle ; it has succeeded in its stu- 

 pendous task ; and there is nothing of order or 

 beauty or perfection in living Nature that does not 

 owe something to its having been carried on. The 

 first duty of those who demur to the cost of pro- 

 ^ Darwinism^ pp. 30-40 



