20 PROFESSOR T. MCKENNY HUGHES, M.A. 



drop into some treacherous pool. So nature deprived it of 

 wings, and, instead, lengthened its antennae, so that it could 

 feel in time to save itself when, with less impetuous leaps, it 

 came against an obstacle. 



Do these changes also point to a great lapse of time ? or 

 may we believe that among the lower forms of life, and those 

 in which the generations follow one another most rapidly, 

 these changes also may be much more rapid ? There is 

 nothing in the nature of the case to show that evolution must 

 be slow. If forms of life are modified by their environment, 

 the rate of change in the organic being may yet be slow; but, 

 as far as we can see, it often is very rapid. What an oppor- 

 tunity for studying such questions. An animal, the type of 

 liveliness the sunny grasshopper, the flying ruby emerald or 

 topaz is plunged at once and for ever into the darkness of 

 earth's innermost recesses. No need of wings, where it dare 

 not fly ; no use for eyes, where it cannot see ; no advantage 

 in gorgeous hue, where there is no light to be reflected. 

 What will become of it. Nature cuts off its wings ; nature 

 blinds its eyes ; nature washes out its brilliant colours ; but, 

 in compensation, gives it means to guard against its new 

 dangers by lengthening out its antennas, to let it feel its way 

 about. 



If this process is still going on, what will it come to ? Does 

 it go on indefinitely throughout all nature, or are there limits 

 of evolution for all, or its own limit for each form? On the 

 one hand, from analogy we learn that we must not assume, 

 because development goes on constantly within our short 

 experience, that it must go on in the same way indefinitely. 

 Were a being from a treeless planet to visit our earth and 

 report upon what he observed of the growth of an oak, he 

 might record that the tree developed in the same way each 

 year bud, leaf, flower, fruit; and that twig, branch, and bowl 

 grew in proportion ; and the roots shot out downwards and 

 sideways, seeking, with what looked almost like intelligence, the 

 best-suited soil. He saw no reason why it might not go on 

 for ever while our earth could bear it. How different the fact. 

 The oak tree has its term of life. So may species, for aught 

 we can at present certainly say, have their term of life. But 

 what determines it ? Again, I appeal to analogy not as an 

 argument so much as in illustration. Fairy-rings on the grass 

 are the annular spaces on which a certain fungus grows. 

 This fungus scatters its spores all round, but they will grow 

 only on the virgin soil outside, and, as they will not grow 

 ^where they have grown before, inside the ring the species 

 becomes extinct. 



