272 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



roots. Essentially, as we have seen, the Struggle 

 for Life is the attempt to solve the fundamental 

 problem of all life — Nutrition. If that could be 

 solved apart from the Struggle for Life, its occu- 

 pation would be gone. Now, it is more than 

 probable that that problem will be otherwise solved. 

 It will be solved by science. At the present moment 

 Chemistry is devoting itself to the experiment of 

 manufacturing nutrition^ and with an enthusiasm 

 which only immediate hope begets. It is not the 

 visionaries who have dared to prophesy here. 

 In a hundred laboratories the problem is being 

 practically worked out, and, as one of the highest 

 authorities assures us, " The time is not far distant 

 when the artificial preparation of articles of food 

 will be accomplished." ^ Already, through the 

 labours of other sciences, the Struggle for Food 

 has been made infinitely easier than it was ; but 

 when the immediate quest succeeds, and the food 

 of Man is made direct from the elements, the 

 Struggle in all its coarser forms will practically 

 be abolished. Civilization cannot ease the whole 

 burden at once ; the Struggle for Life will go on, 

 but it will be the Struggle with its fangs drawn. 



But there is a higher hope than Science. At- 

 tacked from below by Man's intellect, the final 

 * Prof. Remsen, M^'Clur^s Magazine^ Jan., 1894. 



