1 30 Species; or, Darwinism. 



up by the next larger; and so on out to sea, where 

 the full-grown cod-fish lies in wait to devour his 

 brethren and cousins in every degree, and literally 

 eats his w r ay through a hundred miles into shore. 

 Upon the cod again, as well as upon the smaller 

 fry which he pursues, rushes the greedy shark, the 

 " bottle-nose," a small species of whale, the " pot- 

 head," the porpoise, and all the big marauders of 

 the ocean. Or, again, consider those other orders, 

 the microbes, which are not meant principally to 

 be eaten, but rather to eat up and eat out of or- 

 ganic existence all bodies of higher complex struct- 

 ure, as soon as dead. These, if not quickly disin- 

 tegrated, would keep large quantities of matter 

 locked up, so to say, and lying idle in a dead state, 

 instead of being out and free in physical circulation. 

 Nature sets on them the microbe, multiplying any 

 single one of these microscopic animals at the rate 

 of a million millions in a short season. Now what 

 does the struggle for existence mean among them ? 

 To come forward and eat? Yes; but then they 

 die, countless billions of them, with the thing they 

 eat; and nothing alive remains of either. The ele- 

 ments of all are circulating freely again, in air or 

 water, to provide for the general life of other spe- 

 cies in creation, which need those same elements. 

 It is not precisely a struggle here for the individ- 

 ual's own life. It is a work going on under a higher 

 principle in nature, which is providing for one or- 

 der by means of another; just as in the human 



