INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 

 [1888.] 



The vast and varied procession of events, 

 which we call Nature, affords a sublime spectacle 

 and an inexhaustible wealth of attractive prob- 

 lems to the speculative observer. If we confine 

 our attention to that aspect which engages the 

 attention of the intellect, nature appears a beau- 

 tiful and harmonious whole, the incarnation of a 

 faultless logical process, from certain premisses in 

 the past to an inevitable conclusion in the future. 

 But if it be regarded from a less elevated, though 

 more human, point of view; if our moral sympa- 

 thies are allowed to influence our judgment, and 

 we permit ourselves to criticise our great mother 

 as we criticise one another; then our verdict, at 

 least so far as sentient nature is concerned, can 

 hardly be so favourable. 



In sober truth, to those who have made a 

 study of the phenomena of life as they are ex- 

 hibited by the higher forms of the animal world, 



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