CONCLUSION 186 



ample, A certain two- winged fly, ages before the flood 

 was happy enough buzzing about the forest glades of the 

 primeval world. It was carnivorous in appetite, and 

 very partial to animal blood. Then cold times came 

 and life was a serious matter for many folk, the fly 

 included. On one auspicious occasion it nestled close 

 up to a shivering biped, and liked itself immensely on 

 finding a cosy place at last. When times were better 

 and there was an opportunity to resume its former life 

 again, this inconsiderate fly said to itself, " Well, I don't 

 know, I rather like this chap, he's quite a warm customer. 

 After all, who wants to buzz, when there's a nice ante- 

 diluvian armpit to live under ? " So, from being driven 

 under the said armpit by necessity, it took to staying on 

 by deliberate choice, and then, as everything useless or 

 neglected in Nature is ruthlessly scrapped, the fly lost 

 its wings, could not revert to its former life, was now 

 dependent on the biped, and there you have a common 

 flea ! It is strange to think of it as spinning and hum- 

 ming around in those bygone days, no doubt having 

 to be flicked off our grand-great-grandfather's nose, but 

 it is perfectly true that fleas have degenerated by the 

 very means they adopted to save themselves from extinc- 

 tion, becoming in the process a nuisance and a menace 

 to a higher being. This kind of thing is always going on, 

 and to my mind is working out some plan, or at any rate 

 will arrive at a fixed result which we have yet to guess 

 at and to further if we can. There have been controllers 

 galore in the late conflict of nations, but they all pale 

 into miserable insignificance beside the great control that 

 does in truth hold the future for us as it were in the hollow 

 of a hand. 



It used to be the fashion at one time, in Victorian 

 times, to feel very placid and detached about Ufe ; as a 

 thing that was now definitely explained away as just 

 adaptation to environment or a royal game of chance. 

 How intelligent men, and great men, came to such a 



