Matt in the Light of Evolution 



animal finds itself in time ill-adapted to the 

 changed surroundings and disappears. 



Thus even conformity to environment cannot 

 guarantee permanent survival of a form, much 

 less can it guarantee progress. The mollusk and 

 many sadly degenerate parasitic forms are ad- 

 mirably conformed to their environment. Con- 

 formity to environment is one condition of sur- 

 vival and hence to the possibility of progress, 

 but it can guarantee neither. The highest and 

 most complex forms find exact and complete 

 conformity far more difficult, more new possi- 

 bilities open before them; hence they have suf- 

 fered even wider extermination than the lower. 



Evidently if clam, parasite, and man have all 

 conformed to environment, if the most degen- 

 erate and the most progressive forms agree in 

 this respect, then they must have conformed to 

 very different environments by very different 

 habits and modes of life. The environment to 

 which we conform is just as important as our 

 conformity to it. 



How can we judge of anything so complex 

 and ill-defined as environment except by noticing 

 the result of conformity to it? Environment 

 stands to the animal in a relation somewhat 



i66 



