EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION 19 



are ready to dwell with amazement on what seems 

 the waste of life. Just here comes into view the new 

 induction, survival of the fittest/ opening a path 

 way through a labyrinth of difficulties, even if it be 

 remarked that the generalisation does not apply to 

 human life, as it does to animal. Life is everywhere 

 being tried and tested, and is thus, in course of its 

 history, developed. Not the death in the world, but 

 the life in it, becomes again the object most con 

 spicuous. Life s slowly winding history has begun to 

 appear distinctly. Death is for the sake of life. This 

 is the later and grander induction. The system of 

 organic existence in the world is being deciphered. 

 In all directions it becomes apparent that if life is 

 strangely sacrificed, such sacrifice secures that a 

 stronger life shall emerge to fill a larger place in 

 nature. 



This movement of thought must push upwards, 

 seeking interpretation of man s place in Nature, 

 stimulated by all that now lies visible on lower levels. 

 Man is the croAvning feature in the scheme of exist 

 ence. How shall we account for his appearance ? 

 What is his place in natural history ? As he is the 

 highest, is he also the latest ? When we have traced 

 man to a remote age, can we account for his appearance 

 by the history of earlier life on the earth ? How shall 

 we deal with the extremely remote epoch, before man 

 had arrived at the dignity of manhood, as Darwin put 

 it? 1 Passing further down the stream of time, after 

 human agency has become a factor on the scene, has 

 the progress of lower orders gone on as before, perhaps 

 even at accelerated pace ? And if so, what is man s 



Descent of Man, p. 46. 



