64 THE RISE OF MAN. 



there is a tendency that makes both the tares and the 

 wheat grow together in liberal exuberance. If nature had 

 not hard times in store for her creatures, evolution would 

 lack definiteness and would scatter in many directions ; for 

 in that case freakish and degenerated formations would 

 not be excluded but grow in unlimited possibilities. We 

 owe it to hard times that the evolution of life favors a 

 definite type which leads higher and produces better and 

 stronger creatures, thereby pruning the exuberance of 

 wild tendencies and cutting off the aberrations from the 

 straight and narrow path of progress. 



Professor Lloyd Morgan in his book on Animal Life 

 and Intelligence (p. 114 ff.) explains the effect of an al- 

 ternation of good and hard times thus : 



"During good times varieties, which would be other- 

 wise unable to hold their own, might arise and have time 

 to establish themselves. In an expanding area migration 

 would take place, local segregation in the colonial areas 

 would be rendered possible, differential elimination in the 

 different migration-areas would produce divergence. 

 There would be diminished elimination of neutral varia- 

 tions, thus affording opportunities for experimental com- 

 binations. In general, good times would favour variation 

 and divergence. 



' ' During the exhibitions at South Kensington there 

 were good times for rats. But when the show was over, 

 there followed times that were cruelly hard. The keenest 

 competition for the scanty food arose, and the poor ani- 

 mals were forced to prey upon each other. ' Their cra- 

 vings for food,' we read in Nature ', 'culminated in a 

 fierce onslaught on one another, which was evidenced by 

 the piteous cries of those being devoured. The method 

 of seizing their victims was to suddenly make a raid upon 

 one weaker or smaller than themselves, and, after over- 

 powering it by numbers, to tear it in pieces.' Blimina- 

 tion by competition, passing in this way into elimination 



