436 Life and Immortality. 



the song-thrush. The small Asiatic cockroach has every- 

 where in Russia driven before it its great congener, and the 

 imported European hive-bee is rapidly exterminating in 

 Australia the small, stingless bee, indigenous to the country. 

 Hundreds of such cases might be cited, but we forbear. We 

 can clearly see why the competition should be most severe 

 between allied forms, which fill nearly the same place in the 

 economy of nature ; but it is perhaps not possible to indi- 

 vidualize a case and say with preciseness why such species 

 has been victorious over another in the battle of life. That 

 the structure of every organic being is related, in the most 

 essential yet often hidden manner to that of all the other 

 organisms with which it comes into competition for food or 

 residence, or from which it has to escape, or on which it 

 preys, is a corollary of the highest importance deducible 

 from the foregoing remarks. Very obvious is this in the 

 structure of the teeth and talons of the tiger, and in that of 

 the legs and claws of the parasite which clings to the hair on 

 the tiger's body. But in the beautifully-plumed seed of the 

 dandelion and the flattened and fringed legs of the water- 

 beetle the relation seems at first restricted to the elements of 

 air and water, yet the advantage of plumed seeds undoubt- 

 edly stands in the most intimate relation to the land, being 

 already densely clothed with other plants, so that the seeds 

 may be widely diffused and fall on unoccupied ground, while 

 in the water-beetle, the structure of its legs, so admirably 

 adapted for diving, allows it to compete with other aquatic 

 insects, to hunt for its own prey and to escape destruction 

 by other predaceous animals. All organic beings, it will thus 

 be seen, are not only striving to increase in numbers, but are 

 called upon some time in their lives to struggle for existence 

 or to suffer serious if not utter destruction. When we reflect 

 on this struggle, we can console ourselves with the full belief 

 that this war of nature is not incessant, that no fear is felt, 

 that death is generally sudden, and that the vigorous, healthy 

 and happy survive and multiply. 



