CHAPTER V 



THE WEB OF LIFE 



(Intricacy of Intee-Relations) 



'Sbe Is all tbings. Sbc rewar&s bcrself aiiD puntebes 

 becself ; is ber own jog anO ber own miserB. . . .' 



' Iber cbtlDren are numberless. Xto none fs sbe altogetber 

 miserlg ; but sbe bas ber favourites, on wbom sbe squan&ers 

 mucb, anb for wbom sbe makes great sacrifices.' 



— Ooethe's Aphorisms, translated by Huxley. 



The Balance of Nature — Linkages — The Living Earth — Mutual 

 Dependence for the Continuance of Life — Ants and Seeds — 

 Mussels and Minnows — Bees and Flowers — Other Illustrations 

 — Inter-Relations of a Pitcher-plant — Ants and Plants 

 — Epizoic Associations — Shelter Associations — CommensaKsm — 

 Symbiosis — Parasitism — Domestic Complications — The Cuc- 

 koo's Habit — Animal Societies — The Ant Hill — The Bee Hive 

 — The Termitary — Other Illustrations — Domestication — Guests 

 and Pets — Slave-making — Man and the Web of Life. 



ONE of Darwin's master-ideas has during tlie last 

 half-century passed into general intellectual cur- 

 rency — the idea of the web of life. Nothing is unimportant, 

 nothing is isolated, nature is a vast system of inter-relations 

 and linkages. Earthworms have made most of the fertile 

 soil of the Earth ; cats have to do with next year's clover- 

 crop ; eighty seeds may germinate from one clodlet on one 

 bird's foot. These are Darwinian instances and we are 



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