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organised forms of life has taken place, and demonstrated how 

 this succession of life has spread over the earth, the weak in 

 all cases giving place to the strong, it will appeal to you 

 how illogical and unlikely it is that the weak, primitive, and 

 early-developed forms, which have been driven by the com- 

 petition of improved and stronger organisms to the uttermost 

 ends of the earth, their last foothold prior to their final ex- 

 tinction, can extend their range to the disadvantage of stronger 

 species. Still, this palpable and logical scheme of life may 

 easily be obscured and confused by incorrect or artificial systems 

 of classification, for the many anomalies and absence of order 

 and intelligibility, which formerly existed in the geographical 

 distribution of the Helicidie, were due in a great measure to 

 an imperfect or incorrect knowledge of the true relationship 

 of the component species. 



A truly natural classification is thus an essential preliminary 

 to a proper understanding of life-distribution, for this docs 

 not take place at random, but is in orderly sequence, and im- 

 perceptibly passes from the most simple to the most advanced 

 in the scale of life. 



The conditions or environment under which life exists have 

 also a great effect in modifying the appearance of living 

 organisms, for its subtle and overwhelming influence moulds 

 more or less perceptibly the form, the habits, and the character 

 of all organised life, and is so universal and pervading that 

 none can possibly escape its modifying powers. The races of 

 mankind are equally subject to its influences, which profoundly 

 affect not only the external morphology but also the mental 

 powers and dispositions of the individual and the race, giving 

 rise to those national characteristics which are distinctive of 

 every well-marked country, and to which any invaders or 

 immigrants gradually approximate. 



Viewed in this light, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that 

 countries of the weakest evolutionary powers, as New Zealand, 

 Australia, South America, and even North America, all countries 

 which have probably never independently evolved any but the 

 lowliest type of life, can never hope to rival, in all that consti- 

 tutes true progress and intellectual advancement, the European 

 region, from whence practically every form of improved life 



