CHAPTER XI. 



POVERTY AND BANKRUPTCY. 



The subject touched upon in our last chapter opens 

 out a wide field of observation and generalisation. 

 The doctrine of evolution includes " retrogradation " 

 or " degeneration " as well as " progression." This is 

 abundantly verified in the animal kingdom, as Pro- 

 fessor Ray Lankester's admirable little volume on 

 the subject demonstrates. Nor is the vegetable 

 kingdom less fruitful in proofs of the same law 

 that, whilst the main mass of living organisms have 

 throughout geological time advanced to higher ground, 

 some have stood still, or merely " marked time," and 

 others have gradually lost ground and dropped out 

 of the ranks. Some of the latter have honestly 

 struggled to keep up the step, and have found them- 

 selves unable; others have done so only by diplomacy 

 and cunning ; or by the development of qualities even 

 more sinister. 



In the vast periods of time which have elapsed 

 since flowering-plants first appeared upon our globe 



