394 Animal Life and Intelligence. 



of unfulfilled ideals. The very struggle for existence, keen 

 as it often is, by calling into play the full exercise of the 

 activities, ministers to the health and happiness of brutes 

 as well as men. Sir W. E. Grove has preached * the 

 advantages of antagonism. Speaking of the rabbit, he 

 says, " To keep itself healthy, it must exert itself for its 

 food; this, and perhaps avoiding its enemies, gives it 

 exercise and care, brings all its organs into use, and thus 

 it acquires its most perfect form of life. An estate in 

 Somersetshire, which I once took temporarily, was on the 

 slope of the Mendip Hills. The rabbits on one part of it, 

 that on the hillside, were in perfect condition, not too fat 

 nor too thin, sleek, active, and vigorous, and yielding to 

 their antagonists, myself and family, excellent food. Those 

 in the valley, where the pasturage was rich and luxuriant, 

 were all diseased, most of them unfit for human food, and 

 many lying dead on the fields. They had not to struggle 

 for life ; their short life was miserable and their death 

 early; they wanted the sweet uses of adversity — that is, 

 of antagonism." Without endorsing the view that these 

 rabbits were unhealthy only because they had too much 

 food and comfort — for the food, though abundant, may have 

 been in some way noxious, and the damp situation may 

 have been prejudicial — we may still believe that a struggle 

 for life is better for animals (and men) than unlimited ease 

 and plenty. 



Under the influence, then, of these bodily pleasures and 

 wants, the activities of animals are drawn out and guided. 

 As Darwin says, in his autobiography,! " An animal may 

 be led to pursue that course of action which is most 

 beneficial to the species by suffering, such as pain, hunger, 

 thirst, and fear ; or by pleasure, as in eating and drinking, 

 and in the propagation of the species ; or by both means 

 combined, as in the search for food. But pain or sufiering 

 of any kind, if long continued, causes depression, and 

 lessens the power of action, yet it is adapted to make a 

 creature guard itself against any great or sudden evil. 



* Nature, vol. xxxvii. p. 619. f Vol- i- P- 310, under date 1876. 



