CHAPTER XIII. 



THE DESTRUCTIVE AGENCIES OF NATURE. 



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 BaXX'*ati fie Trvpai VZKVWV KCLIOVTO 9ap.tiai. 



II. i. 50-52. 



THE end and object of Nature being to people 

 the earth with the highest organisms which it 

 is capable of supporting at each successive 

 period, a continual and very large destruc- 

 tion of species, as well as of individuals 

 becomes necessary ; for species pass through 

 their appointed cycle of birth, growth, decay, 

 and death, in a similar manner to individuals. 

 Darwin justly observes that " we may safely 

 infer that not one living species will transmit 

 its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity. 

 And of the species now living, very few will 

 transmit progeny of any kind to a far distant 

 futurity."* 



Every species exists merely on sufferance, or 



* " Origin of Species," p. 524. 



