230 THE LAW. 



[Term of the Human Race.] 



This curious speculation as to the inherent limit of species 

 suggests another equally curious, and of still greater import 

 to man. Generally speaking, the species that has the widest 

 geographical range has also the longest duration in point of 

 time this wider range increasing its chances of surviving 

 the occurrence of local catastrophes and the vicissitudes of 

 climate. Man, of all animals, is the most cosmopolitan in 

 his nature, being found, in one or other variety of his species, 

 in every region of the globe. It might, therefore, be natu- 

 rally inferred from this that the existence of the human 

 race will be of corresponding duration ; and this inference, 

 geologically speaking, would be correct were it not for 

 another law that seems to regulate vitality. Throughout 

 the whole systems of geology the higher seems to have a 

 more limited duration than the lower orders, their persist- 

 ence in time being inversely proportional to their biological 

 pre-eminence. Thus, the mammalia of the tertiary epoch 

 had a briefer existence than the reptiles of the Wealden and 

 oolite ; these reptiles a more restricted time-range than the 

 pala3ozoic Crustacea ; and these again a more limited base 

 of specific duration than the lower shell-fish and corals, 

 some of which in their generic aspects (like the lingula and 

 terebratula) are extant to the present day. If, then, this 

 generalisation can be established, we are forced to the con- 

 clusion that the term of the human species, as well as of 

 those domesticated animals on which he so much relies, 

 notwithstanding their wide geographical range, will be brief 

 in proportion to their organisation. 



Startling as such speculations may be, it must ever be 

 remembered that there are a thousand qualifying circum- 

 stances in Man's case which do not apply to our reasonings 



