ANCIENT AND LIVING FORMS. 341 



OK THE STATE OF DEVELOPMENT OF ANCIENT COMPARED 



WITH LIVING FORMS. 



We have seen in the fourth chapter that the degree of 

 differentiation and specialization of the parts in organic 

 beings, when arrived at maturity, is the best standard, as 

 yet suggested, of their degree of perfection or highness. 

 We have also seen, that, as the specialization of parts is an 

 advantage to each being, so natural selection will tend to 

 render the organization of each being more specialized and 

 perfect, and in this sense higher; not but that it may leave 

 many creatures with simple and unimproved structures fitted 

 for simple conditions of life, and in some cases will even 

 degrade or simplify the organization, yet leaving such de- 

 graded beings better fitted for their new walks of life. In 

 another and more general manner, new species become supe- 

 rior to their predecessors ; for they have to beat in the strug- 

 gle for life all the older forms, with which they come into close 

 competition. We may therefore conclude that if under a 

 nearly similar climate the eocene inhabitants of the world 

 could be put into competition with the existing inhabitants, 

 the former would be beaten and exterminated by the latter, as 

 would the secondary by the eocene, and the palaeozic by the 

 secondary forms. So that by this fundamental test of vic- 

 tory in the battle for life, as well as by the standard of the 

 specialization of organs, modern forms ought, on the theory 

 of natural selection, to stand higher than ancient forms. Is 

 this the case ? A large majority of palaeontologists would 

 answer in the affirmative ; and it seems that this answer 

 must be admitted as true, though difficult of proof. 



It is no valid objection to this conclusion, that certain 

 Brachiopods have been but slightly modified from an ex- 

 tremely remote geological epoch ; and that certain land and 

 fresh-water shells have remained nearly the same, from the 

 time when, as far as is known, they first appeared. It is 

 not an insuperable difficulty that Foraminifera have not, as 

 insisted on by Dr. Carpenter, progressed in organization 

 since even the Laurentian epoch ; for some organisms would 

 have to remain fitted for simple conditions of life, and what 

 could be better fitted for this end than these lowly organized 

 Protozoa ? Such objections as the above would be fatal to 

 my view, if it included advance in organization as a neces- 

 sary contingent. They would likewise be fatal, if the above 



