died, but remnant cells in the body of each had clubbed together in a life-preserving union so effective that a return of prosperity was followed by a reconstitution of mites and by a plague of them. Of course great caution must be exercised with regard to all such stories, as well as in regard to the toads within stones. Of common little animals known as Rotifers, it is often said, and sometimes rightly, that they can survive prolonged desiccation. In a small pool on the top of a granite block, there flourished a family of these Rotifers. Now this little pool was periodically swept dry by the wind, and in the hollow there remained only a scum of dust. But when the rain returned and filled the pool, there were the Rotifers as lively as ever. What inference was more natural than that the Rotifers survived the desiccation, and lay dormant till moisture returned? But Professor Zacharias thought he would like to observe the actual revivification, and taking some of the dusty scum home, placed it under his microscope on a moist slide, and waited results. There were the corpses of the Rotifers plain enough, but they did not revive even in abundant moisture. What was the explanation? The eggs of these Rotifers survived, they developed rapidly, they reinstated the family. And of course it is much easier to understand how single cells, as eggs are, could survive being dried up, while their much more complex parents perished. I do not suggest that no Rotifers can survive desiccation, it is certain that some do; but the story I have told shows the need of caution. There is no doubt, moreover, that certain simple "worms," known as "pasteeels," "vinegar-eels,” etc., from their frequent occurrence in such substances, can survive desiccation for many years. Repeated experiments have shown that they can lie dormant for as long as, but not longer than, fourteen years! and it is interesting to notice that the more prolonged the period of desiccation has been, the longer do these threadworms take to revive after moisture has been supplied. It seems as if the life retreated further and further, till at length it may retreat beyond recall. In regard to plants there are many similar facts, for though accounts of the germination

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 Möbius 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?

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 anaesthetic; that violent death has its pleasures, and starvation its excitement. Mr. Wallace, who speaks with the authority of long and wide experience, enters a vigorous protest against Professor Huxley's description of the myriads of generations of

herbivorous animals "which have been tormented and devoured by carnivores"; of both alike "subject to all the miseries incidental to old age, disease, and over-multiplication"; of the "more or less enduring suffering" which is the meed of both vanquished and victor; of the whole creation groaning in pain. "There is good reason to believe," says Mr. Wallace, "that the supposed torments and miseries of animals have little real existence, but are the reflection of the imagined sensations of cultivated men and women in similar circumstances; and that the amount of actual suffering caused by the struggle for existence among animals is altogether insignificant." "Animals are spared from the pain of anticipating death; violent deaths, if not too prolonged, are painless and easy; neither do those which die of cold or hunger suffer much; the popular idea of the struggle for existence entailing misery and pain on the animal world is the very reverse of the truth." He concludes by quoting the conclusion of Darwin's 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 healthy, and the happy survive and multiply.” Yet it was Darwin who confessed that he found in the world "too much misery."

We have so little security in appreciating the real lifethe mental and physical pain or happiness-of animals, that there is apt to be exaggeration on both sides, according as a pessimistic or an optimistic mood predominates. I therefore leave it to be settled by your own observation whether hunted and captured, dying and starving, maimed and halffrozen animals have to endure "an altogether insignificant amount of actual suffering in the struggle for existence.”

But I think we must admit that there is much truth in what Mr. Wallace urges. Moreover, the term cruelty can hardly be used with accuracy when the involved infliction of pain is necessary. In many cases the carnivores are less "cruel to their victims than we are to our domesticated animals. We must also remember that the "struggle

for existence" is often applicable only in its "wide and metaphorical sense." And it is fair to balance the happiness and mutual helpfulness of animals against the pain and deathful competition which undoubtedly exist.

What we must protest against is that one-sided interpretation according to which individualistic competition is nature's sole method of progress. We are told that animals have got on by their struggle for individual ends; that they. have made progress on the corpses of their fellows, by a "blood and iron" competition in which each looks out for himself, and extinction besets the hindmost. To those who accept this interpretation the means employed seem justified by the results attained. But it is only in after-dinner talk that we can slur over whatever there is of pain and cruelty, overcrowding and starvation, hate and individualism, by saying complacently that they are justified in us their children; that we can rest satisfied that what has been called "a scheme of salvation for the elect by the damnation of the vast majority" is a true statement of the facts; that we can seriously accept a one-sided account of nature's regime as a justification of our own ethical and economic practice.

The conclusions, which I shall afterwards seek to substantiate, are, that the struggle for existence, with its associated natural selection, often involves cruelty, but certainly does not always do so; that joy and happiness, helpfulness and co-operation, love and sacrifice, are also facts of nature, that they also are justified by natural selection; that the precise nature of the means employed and ends attained must be carefully considered when we seek from the records of animal evolution support or justification for human conduct; and that the tragic chapters in the history of animals (and of men) must be philosophically considered in such light as we can gather from what we know of the whole book.

1. Insulation

CHAPTER IV

SHIFTS FOR A LIVING

2. Concealment-3. Parasitism — 4. General Resemblance to Surroundings—5. Variable Colouring—6. Rapid Change of Colour-7. Special Protective Resemblance-8. Warning Colours-9. Mimicry - 10. Masking-II. Combination of Advantageous Qualities—12. Surrender of Parts

GRANTING the struggle with fellows, foes, and fate, we are led by force of sympathy as well as of logic to think of the shifts for a living which tend to be evolved in such conditions, and also of some other ways by which animals escape from the intensity of the struggle.

1. Insulation.-Some animals have got out of the struggle through no merit of their own, but as the result of geological changes which have insulated them from their enemies. Thus, in Cretaceous times probably, the marsupials which inhabited the Australasian region were insulated. In that region they were then the only representatives of Mammalia, and so, excepting the “native dog," some rodents and bats, and more modern imports, they still continue to be. By their insulation they were saved from that contest with stronger mammals in which all the marsupials left on the other continents were exterminated, with the exception of the opossums, which hide in American forests. A similar geological insulation accounts for the large number of lemurs in the island of Madagascar.