CHAP. Ill The Struggle of Life 43 



of seeds from the mummies of the pyramids, or from the 

 graves of the Incas, are far from satisfactory, there is no 

 doubt that seeds of cereals and leguminous plants may 

 retain their life in a dormant state for years, or even for 

 tens of years. 



But desiccation is only one illustration out of a score 

 of the manner in which animals keep their foothold against 

 fate. I need hardly say that they are often unsuccessful ; 

 the individual has often fearful odds against it. How many 

 winged seeds out of a thousand reach a fit resting-place 

 where they may germinate .'' Professor Mobius says that 

 out of a million oyster embryos only one individual grows 

 up, a mortality due to untoward currents and surroundings, 

 as well as to hungry mouths. Yet the average number of 

 thistles and oysters tends to continue, " So careful of the 

 type she seems, so careless of the single life." Yet though 

 the average usually remains constant, there is no use trying 

 to ignore, what Richard Jefferies sometimes exaggerated, 

 that the physical fates are cruel to life. But how much 

 wisdom have they drilled into us ? 



" For life is not as idle ore, 



But iron dug from central gloom, 

 And heated hot with burning fears, 

 And dipt in baths of hissing tears, 



And battered by the shocks of doom 



To shape and use." 



4. Cruelty of the Struggle. — Opinions differ much as 

 to the cruelty of the " struggle for existence," and the 

 question is one of interest and importance. Alfred Russel 

 Wallace and others try to persuade us that our conception 

 of the "cruelty of nature" is an anthropomorphism; that, 

 like Balbus, animals do not fear death ; that the rabbit 

 rather enjoys a run before the fox ; that thrilling pain soon 

 brings its own ansesthetic ; that violent death has its 

 pleasures, and starvation its excitement. Mr. Wallace, 

 who speaks with the authority of long and wide ex- 

 perience, enters a vigorous protest against Professor 

 Huxley's description of the myriads of generations of 



