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Show 40 DARWINISM CHAP. 1I is hca.rtrcnding. \V c have a. horror of all violent n,nd sudden death, because we think of the life full of promise cut short, of hopes and expectations unfulfilled, and of the grief of mourning relatives. But all this is quito out of place iu the case of animals, for whom a violent and a sudden dQath is in every way the best. Thus the poet's picture of "Nature red in tooth and claw With ravine" is a picture the evil of which is read into it hy our imaginations, the rca1ity being mn,de up of full and hn,ppy lives, usually terminated by the quickest and least painful of deaths. On the whole, then, we conclude that tho popubr iclca of the struggle for existence entailing misery and pain 'on the animal world is the very reverse of the tmth. \Vhat it really brings about, is, the maximum of life and of the enjoyment of life with the minimum of suffering and pain. Gi von the necessity of death and reproduction-and without thcs' there could have been no progressive development of the organic world,-and it is difficult even to imu.ginc a fly stcm by which a greater bn,lance of happiness could hn,vc been secured. And this view was evidently that of Darwin himself, who thus concludes his chapter on the struggle for cxi.tcnce: "When we reflect on this struggle, we may con ole ourselves with the full belief tha,t the war of nature is not inccssa.nt, that no fear is felt, that death is generally prompt, a1Hl thn,t the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive anll multiply." OHAPTEH. Ill THE VATUABILITY 01!' SPJWIES IN A HTATE 01!' NATURF: Importance of variability- Popular i(l ea regarding it- Variability of the lower auim ttl l:l - The variability of inl:lects- \'ariation amoug Jizanls -Variation among binls- Diagram:5 of bird-variation- Numb •r of varying imlivitluals- Yariation in th ' man11nalia- Variation in intemal organs- Variations in th ' skull Variations in the habits of Animals- Tho Variability of plants- Species which vary littleConcln<. liug remarks. THE foundation of the Darwinian theory is the variability of species, and it is quite useless to attempt even to understand tha.t theory, much less to appreciate the completeness of the proof of it, unless we first obtain a clear conception of the nature and extent of this variability. The most frequent and the most misleading of the objections to the efficacy of natura.l selection arise from ignorance of this subject, an ignorance shared by many natnra-lists, for it is only since Mr. Darwin has taught us their importance thn,t varieties have been systematically collected and recorded; a.nd even now very few collectors or students bestow upon them the attention they deserve. By tho older naturalists, indeed, varietiesespecially if numerous, small, and of frequent occurrencewere looked upon as an unmitigated nuisance, becau. e they rendered it almost impossible to give precise definitions of species, then considerod the chief end of systematic natural history. Hence it was the custom to describe what wn.s supposed to be the " typical form " of species, and most ~ollect?rs w~rc satisfied if they possessed this typical form m thmr cabmcts. Now, however, a collection is vu.lued in propo:tion ::LS it co.ntains mustrative specimens of all tho yanet1es thn,t occur 111 each species, and in some cases thesQ |