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in nature which countenance or parallel human warfare 

 viz., the battles between different species of ants, be- 

 tween termites and true ants, between thickly grown 

 seedlings, between locusts foodless after eating all the 

 vegetation, between some fishes, and between hives of bees 

 whose normal existence has become disrupted. The inter- 

 necine competition between the black and the brown rat 

 is another example of a presumed natural justification of 

 human warfare as indispensable to the struggle for exist- 

 ence. Unhappily for the theory, the brown did not exter- 

 minate the black, which still exists in our midst ! The 

 brown is the shyer species and confined more to barns, 

 so that it is less frequently seen. There was no competi- 

 tion at all. " Each species has its different aptitudes, 

 capacities, and preferences, and each insinuates itself into 

 the most suitable environment." After roaming about 

 in my mind and consulting various authorities, the only 

 other genuine examples I can find are those of the young 

 of the roaring buckie and common dog- whelk, which 

 attack and devour one another in their egg-cases, the 

 heartiest appetites surviving. There are others, but they 

 are so extremely few as to count a feather's weight in the 

 total order of nature. I cannot go widely into the matter 

 here, but if we ask ourselves what nature cares about 

 more obviously than anything else, and apart from all 

 ethical and metaphysical problems, the answer would 

 surely be "good stock," the survival of the fittest to the 

 given conditions, and the elimination (whether lethal or 

 reproductive) of the less fit. If there is anything that can 

 be dogmatized about modern war without controversy, it 

 is that it replaces good stock by bad stock in the first 

 place, and that it spells havoc, chaos, and dissolution in 

 the second. It is against the orderliness and stability of 

 nature. It is an appallingly efficient flower-killer. If, 

 on the other hand, Mr. Tollinton means that the " struggle 

 for existence " gives a moral certificate to human warfare, 

 he speaks, if he will permit me to say so, upon an insuffi- 



