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It may be safely assumed that, two thousand years ago, before Caesar set foot in southern Britain, the whole country-side visible from the windows of the room in which I write, was in what is called "the state of nature." Except, it may be, by raising a few sepulchral mounds, such as those which still, here and there, break the flowing contours of the downs, man's hands had made no mark upon it; and the thin veil of vegetation which overspread the broad-backed heights and the shelving sides of the coombs was unaffected by his industry. The native grasses and weeds, the scattered patches of gorse, contended with one another for the possession of the scanty surface soil; they fought against the droughts of summer, the frosts of winter, and the furious gales which swept, with unbroken force, now from the Atlantic, and now from the North Sea, at all times of the year; they filled up, as they best might, the gaps made in their ranks by all sorts of underground and overground animal ravagers. One year with another, an average population, the floating balance of the unceasing struggle for existence among the indigenous plants, maintained itself. It is as little to be doubted, that an essentially similar state of nature prevailed, in this region, for many thousand years before the coming of Caesar; and there is no assignable reason for denying that it might continue to exist through an equally prolonged futurity, except for the intervention of man.汉化交流空间) m3 V. y* z/ r8 f8 Z( @" K |5 h# D) C) g赫胥黎独处一室之中，在英伦之南，背山而面野。槛外诸境，历历如在几下。乃悬想二千年前，当罗马列大将恺彻未到时，此间有何景物。计惟有天造草昧，人功未施，其借征人境者，不过几处荒坟，散见坡陀起伏间。而灌木丛林，蒙茸山麓，未经删治如今曰者，则无疑也。怒生之草，交加之藤，势如争长相雄，各据一抔壤土。夏与畏曰争，冬与严霜争，四时之内，飘风怒吹，或西发西洋，或东起北海，旁午交扇，无时而息。上有鸟兽之践啄，下有蚁蝝之啮伤。憔悴孤虚，旋生旋灭。菀枯顷刻，莫可究详。是离离者亦各尽天能，以自存种族而已。数亩之内，战事炽然，强者后亡，弱者先绝。年年岁岁，偏有留遗。未知始自何年，更不知止于何代。苟人事不施于其间，则莽莽榛榛，长此互相吞并，混逐蔓延而已，而诘之者谁耶?