IS XATURE CKUEL? 399 



tery to the religious, and has undoubtedly aided in the produc- 

 tion of that widesj^read pessimism which exists to-day; whiK- 

 it has confirmed the materialist, and great numbers of students 

 of science, in the rejection of any supreme intelligence as hav- 

 ing created or designed a universe which, iK'ing founded on 

 cruelty and destruction, they believe to be innnoral. 



I am not aware that Darwin dealt with this question at all, 

 except in the concluding words of his Origin of Species, where 

 he says: 



" Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the 

 most exalted object we are capable of conceiving, namely, the pro- 

 duction of the higher animals, directly follows." 



This admits the facts as generally conceived; and, without 

 palliating them, sets on the other side the great compensating 

 result. 



Much more to the point is the concluding sentence of his 

 chapter on the Struggle for Existence : 



" When we reflect on this struggle, we may console ourselves 

 with the full belief, that the war of nature is not incessant, that no 

 fear is felt, that death is generally prompt, and that the vigorous, 

 the health}^, and the happy survive and multiply." 



These statements are, I believe, strictly true, but they do not 

 comprise all that can be said on the question. Before dealing 

 w^ith the whole subject from the standpoint of evolution, 1 will 

 quote the opinions of tw^o eminent biologists, as showing how 

 the matter has impressed even thoughtful and instructed 

 writers. Professor J. Arthur Thomson (of Aberdeen Tni- 

 versity), wdien reviewing my Darwinism in The Theological 

 Eeview, said: 



"Tone it down as you will, the fact remains that "Darwinism 

 regards animals as going upstairs, in a strugirle for individual ends, 

 often on tlie corpses of their fellows, often Ity a hlood-and-iron com- 

 petitinn, often by a strange mixture of blood and cunning, in which 

 eacli looks out for liimsolf and extinction besots the hindmost. We 



