THE STR UGGLE FOR LIFE. 205 



beneficence of that purpose. Neither attitude, prob- 

 ably, is quite worthy of the names with which these 

 conchisions are associated. Much more reasonable are 

 the verdicts of the two men who are first responsible 

 for bringing the facts before the world, Mr. Alfred 

 Russel Wallace and Mr. Darwin. " When we reflect," 

 says Mr. Darwin, " on this struggle, we may console 

 ourselves with the full belief that the war of nature 

 is not incessant, that no fear is felt, that death is 

 generally prompt, and that the vigorous, the healthy, 

 and the happy survive and multiply." And in much 

 stronger language Mr. Wallace : " On the whole, the 

 popular idea of the struggle for existence entailing 

 misery and pain on the animal world is the very 

 reverse of the truth. What it really brings about 

 is the maximum of life and of the enjoyment of life, 

 with the minimum of suffering and pain. Given the 

 necessity of death and reproduction, and without 

 these there could have been no progressive develop- 

 ment of the organic world— and it is difficult even to 

 imagine a system by which a greater balance of 

 happiness could have been secured." ^ 



We may safely leave Nature here to look after 

 her own ethic. That a price, a price in pain, and 

 assuredly sometimes a very terrible price, has been 

 paid for the evolution of the world, after all is said, is 

 certain. There may be difference of opinion as to the 

 amount of this price, but on one point there can be no 

 dispute— that even at the highest estimate the thing 

 which was bought with it was none too dear. For 

 that thing was nothing less than the present progress 

 of the world. The Struggle for Life has been a vic- 

 ' Darwinism, pp. 30-40. 



