There are degrees and kinds of life that are brought but little, or not at all, into competition. For example, between grass and the animals that feed upon it, there is practically no competition, for the more grass the more animals, and animals do not diminish the grass-growing area. There is no conflict between rock and the vegetation that grows upon it.
It should also be observed that the struggle for existence naturally tempers itself in certain cases; for, if the herbivorous animals are too much diminished, the carnivorous must suffer correspondingly for want of food. Such extensive limitations to the universality of the law of the survival of the fittest should be taken into consideration.
Survival of the fittest applies with less qualification to the many seeds that cannot all grow, to plants struggling for space, and to animals seeking food in times of scarcity and want.
