490 CONCLUSION. Chap. XIV. 



ditions of life, and from use and disuse ; a Eatio of In- 

 crease 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 con- 

 ceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, 

 directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, 

 with its several powers, having been originally breathed 

 into a few forms or into one ; and that, whilst this planet 

 has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gra- 

 vity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most 

 beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, 

 evolved. 



