128 CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE 



which may arise in a species in nature should not tend 

 in some way or other either to be a little better or 

 worse than the previous stock ; if it is a little better 

 it will have an advantage over and tend to extirpate 

 the latter in this crush and struggle; and if it is a 

 little worse it will itself be extirpated. 



I know nothing that more appropriately ex- 

 presses this, than the phrase, " the struggle for exist- 

 ence ; " because it brings before your minds, in a vivid 

 sort of way, some of the simplest possible circumstances 

 connected with it. When a struggle is intense there 

 must be some who are sure to be trodden down, 

 crushed, and overpowered by others; and there will 

 be some who just manage to get through only by the 

 help of the slightest accident. I recollect reading an 

 account of the famous retreat of the French troops, 

 under Napoleon, from Moscow. Worn out, tired, and 

 dejected, they at length came to a great river over which 

 there was but one bridge for the passage of the vast army. 

 Disorganized and demoralized as that arrav was, the 

 struggle must certainly have been a terrible one — every 

 one heeding only himself, and crushing through the ranks 

 and treading down his fellows. The writer of the narra- 

 tive, who was himself one of those who were fortunate 

 enough to succeed in getting over, and not among the 

 thousands who were left behind or forced into the 

 river, ascribed his escape to the fact that he saw 

 striding onward through the mass a great strong fellow, 

 — one of the French Cuirassiers, who had on a large 

 blue cloak — and he had enough presence of mind to 

 catch and retain a hold of this strong man's cloak. 

 He says, " I caught hold of his cloak, and although 



