THE PROBLEM STATED. 13 



from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a 

 manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These 

 laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction ; 

 Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction ; Variability 

 from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from 

 use and disuse ; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle 

 for Life, and, as a consequence, to Natural Selection, entailing 

 Divergence of Character, and the Extinction of less improved forms. 

 Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most 

 exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the pro- 

 duction of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur," 

 concludes Mr. Darwin, " in this view of life, with its several powers 

 having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or 

 into one ; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on accord- 

 ing to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless 

 forms, most beautiful and most wonderful, have been, and are being 

 evolved." 



