68o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The important truth that it has been sought to reach by these con- 

 siderations is, that organic evolution is but one of the minor manifes- 

 tations of universal evolution. It occurs at a stage of the process 

 when the struggle between the contending forces is very great, if not 

 at its greatest. It is the immediate product of that struggle, and 

 cannot exist when either the one or the other greatly predominates. 

 The force to which we universally ascribe all possibility of life is the 

 force which is tending to disintegrate the matter of the globe by ab- 

 sorbing the motion of the sun. The force which constitutes evolution 

 proper is that which bears down all life and reduces the face of Na- 

 ture to a desert waste. The interaction of these two forces, where 

 they are suitably proportioned, effects the organization of portions of 

 the matter on the globe, and organization itself is life. The period of 

 greatest organic perfection on a planet is therefore very different from 

 the period of its greatest cosmical perfection, which corresponds with 

 that of complete equilibration. Cosmical evolution is the histoi-y of 

 the universe, organic evolution is a transient episode in the life of a 

 paltry planet. We can only console ourselves with the belief that, 

 but for this trifling digression of Nature, no being would have existed 

 capable of formulating the laws of the universe. 



Organic evolution must not, however, be restricted to the mere 

 span which the life of an individual represents. To fully comprehend 

 its scope, the conception of the organic aggregate should be extended 

 to embrace all the life, past, present, and future, on the globe. The 

 mysterious process of reproduction, unknown to all other aggregates, 

 has the effect of binding all livinsf organisms into one continuous 

 whole, and giving to all terrestrial life the stamp of unity. The indi- 

 viduals of a race or species do not represent so many distinct aggre- 

 gates. The qualities of antecedent forms, whether inherited or ac- 

 quired, are transmitted to subsequent forms, thus conserving, as it 

 were, all the organization previously evolved. Although the dissolu- 

 tion of the individual aggregate takes place, the work of evolution 

 which has been going on within it is passed on to a new generation, to 

 be there continued and again transmitted. The individual, therefore, 

 becomes of comparatively small importance. The real organic aggre- 

 gate is the race. The race alone is capable of receiving and preserv- 

 ing all the products of organic evolution. Ontogenetic development is 

 lost sight of in the march of phylogenetic development. The individual 

 is merged in the species, the species in the genus, the order, the class, 

 and all are finally swallowed up in the tout ensemble of organized exist- 

 ence. Organic being, as such, is the final term to which the generaliza- 

 tion must be carried before the true scope of organic evolution can be 

 adequately grasped by the mind. Individuals perish and are decom- 

 posed ; species become extinct ; genera, families, and whole classes, 

 are swept from the earth. The broadest divisions into which the 

 organic kingdoms of Nature have been classified have each their 



