DISHARMONIES AND OTHER SHADOWS 599 



Who shall impiously prescribe its limits, especially in the 

 Kingdom of Man, where Personality seems to be beginning 

 to transcend Organism? 



SUMMARY. 



It is a defensible position that Animate Nature and its evolution 

 are congruent with a spiritual or religious interpretation. A 

 scientific view of the system of which we form a part cannot, in- 

 deed, prove anything about the value or significance of Nature, but 

 it is not inconsistent with the idea that Nature may be a Divine 

 creation. Perhaps this is even suggested by the beauty, the har- 

 mony, and the progressiveness of Animate Nature. But there are 

 many shadows. 



There is a notable lack of plasticity in highly adaptive organic 

 structure, and if environmental conditions change, highly specialised 

 types may perish because of their very perfection. Only in intelli- 

 gent resourcefulness is there a way of escape. But every art is 

 limited by its medium, and the extinction of types is often the nem- 

 esis of their long-continued stability. Moreover, the external vicis- 

 situdes have doubtless had a very important role in organic evolu- 

 tion. And even though lost races leave no direct descendants, some 

 of their gains may be continued on collateral lines. 



There are some cases where arrangements that are usually well- 

 adapted are fatally inadequate in a crisis, as when the moth flies 

 into the flame or the lemmings swim out into the sea. But adapta- 

 tions must be, on the whole, in reference to normally recurrent rou- 

 tine, not in reference to very exceptional conditions; though as a 

 matter of fact there are some adaptations which meet rare difficul- 

 ties. Imperfection of adaptation is often illustrated when organ- 

 isms are changing their habits or their habitat, and it would be a 

 magical world if it were not so. 



It is quite futile to try to make a cosmic shadow out of the fre- 

 quency of. disease. In natural conditions constitutional disease is 

 unknown if it arises it is not allowed to grip ; and microbie disease 

 so common when Man interferes is exceedingly rare in wild 

 life. 



Another shadow is the frequency of parasitism. Parasitic plants 

 and animals are legion and almost no living creature escapes them. 

 It is abhorrent that fine organisation should be spoilt, but many 



