8 
it entails, and the cost at which it is purchased. Nature gives 
us nothing. This, too, is bought at a price. 
The Palzontologist, as he writes the history of the great 
dominant forms of life that at successive epochs have held sway 
on the earth, or stood as the representatives of the highest 
organization of their time, continually makes use of such terms as 
these :—‘‘No sooner had this species attained its maximum of 
size and power than it was trampled out of existence by more 
virile races in the conflict of life.” ‘‘ It attained its highest point, 
became most specialized, just before it disappeared.” Have we 
then at last arrived at a definition of Progress from a study of 
Palzontology and shall we put it thus: ‘‘ The acquisition by 
any organism of these properties and qualities which ensure its 
extinction.” It is one at any rate which seems justified by the 
conclusions of Science, one in conformity with the lessons of 
Geology. It is the other side of the shield which is not so often 
presented to our view. 
Looking again at that brief sketch of the course of life on 
the globe, let us see if in any other respects it may be illusory. 
It is deceptive if it suggests that all forms of life took part in this 
advance, that none fell behind in the race, that none were 
stationary, that none were degenerating. It is illusory in so far 
as it fails to bring before us these facts :— 
1. That, co-existing with these higher forms of developing 
life, there were comparatively non-progressive forms. We may 
speak of some of these also as types of arrested development. 
2. That, together with progressing forms, there were species 
which were degenerating and passing out of existence. 
3. That at any epoch its most highly developed forms of 
life were a small portion of the total life of the globe. 
4. The picture is misleading in so far as it represents that 
the higher forms of any epoch had their origin and genesis in the 
highest types of the preceding one. 
5. Lastly, and this is the most important of all, it is illusory 
if it implies that there is az absolute scale of life to which all forms 
of existence may be referred, and by which their place and rank 
may be determined. 
Regard the infinite multitude of existences which make 
up the world as we see it around us to-day, from the simple 
cellular structures of microscopic size, which constitute “the 
green mantle of the standing pool,” up to the creature who 
might realize our ideal of being but “a little lower than the 
angels,”—all forms of life that have ever existed are, in a 
manner, represented. Many species have undergone no appre- 
ciable modification since they first appeared in Cambrian or 
Pre-cambrian times. Untold millenniums have passed by and 
