242 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



strength and flexibility and good luck that plants and 

 animals may attain congenial places and invade suc- 

 cessfully large areas. On the other hand, the habita- 

 tion of man may be considered as life in a cultivated 

 garden, where the gardener restricts multiplication, 

 gives each plant space and nourishment, and shields it 

 from the vicissitudes of climate. He uproots the nat- 

 ural inhabitants, modifies the soil and conditions to 

 suit exotics, and gives the weak equal advantages with 

 the strong. As a result, natural evolution has become 

 so modified and weakened that man is in a class by 

 himself, and develops under different laws from the 

 rest of the world. 



So far as I can see, nothing in biology has been dis- 

 covered which contradicts this opinion of Huxley. It 

 is, however, difficult to see how and when a break of 

 so fundamental a nature between man and the rest 

 of life could occur in a continuous evolution in which 

 man is included. But it seems certain that man has 

 attained to so complex and rich a character, his aims 

 are so diversified, that any law of evolution of his 

 future development simple enough for us to compre- 

 hend is out of the question. Where any such a law 

 would operate to emphasize a certain attribute, it would 

 diminish another which would be considered by many 

 to be equally important. Instead of strength, flexi- 

 bility, and good-luck only, there are a thousand other 

 influences to be balanced. 



