THE EVOLUTION OF COLONIES. 807 



vegetable, from one entire kingdom lie is altogether cut off. !N^or was 

 he ever a zoophyte, a mollusc, a fish, a reptile, a whale, a carnivore, 

 or a rodent, and the palpable moral and physical characteristics of 

 certain of these species which are plainly inherited at times by man 

 (for who has not made acquaintance with the human mollusc, or come 

 into unpleasant contact with the tiger, wolf, fox, ox, or dog type?) 

 may be explained as reversions to species which the human pedigree 

 just touched as it skirted their base. 



Lastly, it is consistent with the analogy that the embryo should 

 sometimes outstrip its parent species. Each generation being an 

 advance upon its predecessors, each new embryo must possess new 

 potentialities of development. Even in apparently stationary species 

 there will usually be a capacity of adjustment to changed circum- 

 stances. 



In the parallelism between the embryo and the species lies the 

 key to colonial evolution. The genesis and growth of each colony 

 repeat the origin and development of its parent state. There is 

 again, no exact reproduction. Much in the history of every country 

 belongs to what we call the chapter of accidents because we have 

 not yet found its law. This may or may not be reproduced in a 

 colony. There is also a good deal in the history of every colony 

 determined by local circumstances. For all such it would be in vain 

 to look for an analogue in the mother country's development. On 

 certain lines the analogy conspicuously fails in appearance, but even 

 on these there will always be discoverable traces in the new of the 

 corresponding stages in the old country. In others it would be a 

 mere academic exercise to trace fantastic resemblances. None the 

 less is it true that up to the point in the growth of a colony when it 

 ceases to be dependent on its metropolis the political and social evo- 

 lution recapitulates in a few years the entire evolution which the 

 mother country may have taken centuries to accomplish. 



Colonial history will thus reflect light on national history, and 

 national history profoundly studied will make colonial history lumi- 

 nous. What would not a Mommsen or other reconstructor of an- 

 cient civilizations from often enigmatical inscriptions on chance- 

 found stones have given to discover such a wealth of material in the 

 correspondence of Romans and provincials, in dispatches, books, 

 pamphlets, and newspapers, as we possess in relation to the early 

 foundation of colonies? In a sense he already possesses it. It is 

 ancient history that we are studying when we peruse these modern 

 records. The beginnings of extinct states rise again before our eyes. 

 Obscure struggles, " battles of kites and crows," the long travail of 

 national growth, will emerge from the dark. More than this : as the 

 biologist assumes the existence of undiscovered species, the historian 



