The sun., 1904-07-15
THE BATTLEFIELD OF LIFE.
Nature Destroys Her Works to Mako
Room for Bettcr.

To THE EDITOR OF THE suN-sir: All Of the
correspondents who make the second half Of
your editorial page almost as interesting and
instructive as the first half OF 1t, and who
have been recently wrestling so learnedly
with "The Riddle Of the Universe" the origin
Of good and evil, seem to me to make the
common error Of regarding the whole matter
from the anthropocentric point Of view. II
one assumes in advance that the universe or
the earth was created. or came into being.
or developed to present conditions. with
special reference to the welfare Of man. or
Of any other particular animal or vegetable.
or all of them together. he must necessarily
admit that the means were very clumsily
adapted to the end
Iliya Metohnikofr. the disti nguished sue
cessor Of Pasteur. in his recent remarkable
work. "The Nature OF Man," has clearly
enough demonstrated. II universal iexpe-
rience had not done so before. that the whole
expanss Of nature is one vast battlefield, upon
which every organism that comes into being
Is at once confronted by enemies on all sides.
and even within itself. to whose attacks 1t
sooner or later suocumbs. What to SUPER
fetal observation seems so nicely adjusted
balance in the order Of nature reveals itself
to the more careful Investigations Of science
as the veriest tumble Of disharmonies and
antagonisms. In which no form Of individual
or special life can maintain itself for moro
than the brief period during which environ
ment temporarily and partially favors 1t.
From one hundred to one hundred and nifty
millions OF species Of animals have oome
into being on this little earth which are now
found only in q fossil condition. What would
these say Of the benefcence Of nature. could
they speak to us from their multitudinous
gravesf OF the present two or three million
species Of animals. man Is the latest arrival.
with the exception Of the parasites who prey
upon him. and has. with the exception OF
these parasites. the least ground for claiming
that the sorry scheme Of things entire was
arranged for his special benefit, or indeed
with any reference whatever to his welfare.
The cockroach and certain scorpions. which
Soxid Claim Special proSdence on Their
has 1 been ad justed to their conditions Of lie
or i win % probably % CONTINUE to favor Their eI.
istence long after man shall disappear from
Rs glimpse, Of the Rs St Homl Sas %sd Rsd
never @ read MetchnikofY. or he would have
known that his paragon Of animals MIN d Ills Is
begins to conspire against his life; and every
organ Of his body as It develops In form de-
veops diseases t9 fhst XII lbaTn h% IA M form o, life
in nature which is not a mere aocident Of
9d tNa, net 60 any af
dSdual and species The soG1m ~ vds disasteF se
invisible ali about us. and TO attempt to eI-
as Idle he as I To explain tie fact that the lower
intestine in man develops daily ,2s,o ,oo9, goo. goo
e which . war hs5 upon hs @ @ I've Sn
ssF2n nd Rappnesa pf ss f1'aassGa IL o
nfo Sopes that viii in discover
and remove the "disharmonies" in mans
organism and enryir9nment: :a and enable n7d MN nm
finally expiring in painless euthanasia. The
first forsets i hat man is q, religious animal.
vironment. % not because Il is true but because
it is useful. II you please, it Is one ne Of the
des9s upon which he yess t na oy seea
animal. an The second forsets that. I al dis
harmonies were removed man St you'd "a live ,sS 70
crowd himself to death. Disharmonies. by
killing of every. generation quickly. make
ropm for the next next ,.rs IN ma of the North.
western, Canadian provinces In which the
has which
there f are no % coarse fish in the lake to devopr
the spawn or young Of the whitehsh, and the
water supplies abundant food for the latter
whitensh multiply 50 rapidly and live 80
long that every ten or twelve years they crowa
sns sssss snSses Witch sqSh s tSs
matches out and produces the same conditions
over again. This is precisely what would
disharmonies from his life; II there were no
diseases. no hunger. no wars. no Sloeum DIS
asters, no deaths except by euthanesia. The
race would grow so numerous that we should
finally ali rot to death together. and there
would not even be spawn left from which
Bad as It is. therefore. "the scheme Of things
entire" can neither be improved nor clearly
else, 1t Is clear, however. that It is the mis-
cries, the enormous preponderance Of pre-
mature deaths by disease or accident. the
not the happinesses Of human life, that make
the continued life Of the species on earth pos.
room for more She never finishes anything
or permits anything to become perfect.
Don't call this pessimism. There ia. as have