14. Wait a while before you decide, and think what every creature needs to keep it alive. Plants, it is true, can live on water and air, but animals cannot; and if there were not myriads of plants to spare, there would not be food enough. Then consider again how many animals live upon each other. If worms, snails, and insects were not over-abundant, how would the birds live? On what would lions, tigers, and wolves feed if other animals were not plentiful? while, on the other hand, if a great number of larger animals did not die and decay, what would the flesh-feeding snails, maggots, and other insects find to eat? For this reason alone there is excuse for the over-abundance which Life thrusts into the world.

15. But there is something deeper to consider. If in each large school every boy had a prize at the end of the half-year, whether he had worked or not, do you think all the boys would work as hard as they do, or learn as well? If every man had all he required, and could live comfortably, and bring up his children to enjoy life without working for it, do you think people would take such trouble to learn trades and professions, and to improve themselves so as to be more able than others? Would they work hard, day and night, to make new inventions, or discover new lands, or be so useful, or learn so much as they do now?

16. No; it is the struggle for life and the necessity for work which make people invent and plan, and improve themselves and things around them. And so it is with plants and animals. Life has to educate all her children, and she does it by giving the prize of success, health, strength, and enjoyment to those who can best fight the battle of existence, and do their work best in the world.

17. Every plant, as well as every animal, has to get its own food and earn its own livelihood, and protect itself from the attacks of others. Would the spider toil so industriously to spin her web if food came to her unsought? Would the caddis worm have learned to build a tube of sand and shells to protect its soft body, or the oyster to take lime from the sea water to form a strong shell for its home, if they had no enemies to struggle against, and needed no protection? Would the bird have learned to build her nest, or the beaver his house, if there had been no need for their industry?

18. But as it is, since the whole world is teeming with life, and countless numbers of seeds and eggs and young beginnings of creatures are only waiting for the chance to fill any vacant nook or corner, every living thing must learn to do its best; and so it comes to pass that the whole planet is used to the best advantage, and Life teaches her children to get all the good out of it that they can.

19. If the ocean be full, some must learn to live upon the land, and so we have, for example, sea snails and land snails; and, whereas the one kind can only breathe by gills in the water, the other breathes air by means of air chambers; while between the two are some marsh snails of the tropics which combine both, and can breathe in both water and air.

20. Then again, while many creatures love the bright light of day, others take advantage of the dark corners of the earth, where room is left for them to live. You can scarcely lift a stone by the seaside without finding some living thing under it, nor turn up a spadeful of dirt without disturbing some little creature which is content to find its home and food in the dark ground. Nay, many animals for whom there is no chance of life on the earth, in the water, or in the air, find a refuge in the bodies of other animals, and feed on them.

1. Invisible, germs, alley, rearing, stagnant, minute, microscopic, testifying, myriads, replenish, launched, unchecked, existence, unsought, teeming.

2. What is an insect? What are weeds? What is an animal? What is life? Can you see it everywhere? Mention the reasons for the apparent overcrowding in the animal and vegetable kingdoms?

LXXX. NORTH WIND.

1. Loud wind, strong wind, sweeping o'er the mountains;

Fresh wind, free wind, blowing from the sea! Pour forth thy vials like streams from airy fountains,

Draughts of life to me.

2. Clear wind, cold wind, like a northern giant;

Stars brightly threading thy cloud-driven hair, Thrilling the blank night with thy voice defiant, Lo! I meet thee there.

3. Fierce wind, mad wind, howling o'er the nations! Knew'st thou how leapeth my heart as thou goest by,

Ah! thou wouldst pause awhile in a sudden patience

Like a human sigh.

4. Sharp wind, keen wind, cutting as word-arrows, Empty thy quiverful! pass by! what is't to thee

That in some mortal eyes life's whole bright circle narrows

To one misery?

5. Loud wind, strong wind, stay thou in the mountains;

Fresh wind, free wind, trouble not the sea! Or lay thy deathly hand upon my heart's warm fountains,

That I hear not thee.

1. Vials, draughts, threading, defiant, patience, quiverful, misery.

2. In this country what wind is the coldest? Whence does the poet imagine that this wind comes? What kind of "vials" are supposed to renew health? What is meant by "stars threading hair"? What are "word-arrows"?

LXXXI. LIFE AND HER CHILDREN.

PART II.

1. In order that all these animal creations may live, each in its different way, they must have their own particular tools to work with, and weapons with which to defend themselves. How multiform and how ingenious these are!

2. The animal works and fights with its teeth, its claws, its tail, its sting, or its feelers; or it constructs cunning traps by means of material which it gives out from its own body, like the spider. It hides from its enemy by having a shape or color like the rocks or the leaves, the grass or the water,