THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



certain ending within an allotted time of every indi- 

 vidual life, great or small, is as fully under the pre- 

 vision of wise laws as the replacement thereof by 

 the birth of a new, young and vigorous life that is 

 lent us for a little while ; then, too, returns whence it 

 was sent. Death was intended to come and must 

 come. Where the action of life's forces has been 

 perfect and their operation unimpeded by accidental 

 causes, the threescore years and ten for man, or the 

 longer limit of fourscore years, should generally be 

 passed. That it is not so, is frequently* due to our 

 ignorance, our own fault, or the fault of those whose 

 lives are our inheritance. 



The philosophy of evolution teaches that while the 

 qualities inherited from their immediate ancestors are 

 usually reproduced in the offspring, Atavism, or a re- 

 version to the characteristics of some ancestor in the 

 far distant past, quite frequently appears. This re- 

 version is not necessarily an injury ; it may reproduce 

 the traits of a certain line of ancestors that were 

 better in some respects, than those shown on the 

 average by the more immediate progenitors ; but, on 

 the other hand, an inferior type may appear. The latter 

 is more frequently the case, for since both natural 

 and sexual selection have tended to advance the race, 

 atavism would most probably lead back to conditions 

 less favorable than those now existing. A less health- 



