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 by our imaginations, the
reality being made up of full and happy lives, usually terminated by the
quickest and least painful of deaths.
On the whole, then, we conclude that the popular idea of the struggle
for existence entailing misery and pain on the animal world is the very
reverse of the truth. What it really brings about, is, the maximum of
life and of the enjoyment of life with the minimum of suffering and
pain. Given the necessity of death and reproduction--and without these
there could have been no progressive development of the organic
world,--and it is difficult even to imagine a system by which a greater
balance of happiness could have been secured. And this view was
evidently that of Darwin himself, who thus concludes 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 healthy, and the happy survive and multiply.
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