PT. n. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Buckle. 71 



one, accord my conviction to the truth of the com- 

 plex system into which he has fashioned them. 



As I mentioned in a previous part of this Essay, 

 all Science is founded either upon abstract mathe- 

 matical reasoning, upon the evidence of collected 

 facts, or upon facts elicited by experiment. Mr. 

 Darwin's theory is founded chiefly upon the two 

 first: his hypothesis of Natural Selection rests in the 

 first place upon the mathematical and arithmetical 

 truth that as all forms of Life are preserved or 

 maintained by some sort of aliment, and that as the 

 food, if not a finite quantity, at any rate increases 

 at a much slower rate than Life would, if supplied 

 with food to an unlimited extent, therefore the 

 amount of Life is necessarily confined to the amount 

 of food. This, as Mr. Darwin observes, is the 

 doctrine of Mr. Malthus (which he regarded solely 

 with relation to the human race) extended to all 

 living beings. Mr. Darwin draws this conclusion, 

 that the struggle for food, which is in other words 

 the Struggle for Existence, to which food is necessary, 

 pervades all animated nature ; to this extent we must 

 admit the soundness of Mr. Darwin's principles; 

 organised life is everywhere dependent upon food, 

 and the chief business of existence it to satisfy the 



