400 METAPHYSICAL EVOLUTION. 



less susceptibility to influences of conscious stimuli may remain in 

 some portions of the organism, and thus subordinate modifica- 

 tions of structure have their origin. When conditions of life 

 change, as they often have done during geologic time, those 

 changes of structure which are possible take place under the 

 stimulus of roused consciousness. But if the changes be radical, 

 affecting the foundation processes of vital economy, the specialized 

 forms must undoubtedly perish, and the life of the succeeding 

 time be derived from forms of less pronounced character. The 

 adaptability of generalized types, as to habits, and the absence of 

 mechanical peculiarities in their structure, explain fully the cause 

 of their standing in ancestral relation to all the typical faunse of 

 the earth. 



Nowhere is this truth more remarkably-illustrated than in the 

 case of man, the predominant mammal of the present period. 

 From the generalized mammalian fauna of the Eocene, the Car- 

 nivora develoj^ed a highly organized apparatus for the destruction 

 of life and appropriation of living beings as food. The cloven- 

 footed and odd-toed hoofed orders * are the result of constantly 

 increasing growth of the mechanical appliances for rapid motion 

 over the ground ; the former superadding exceptional powers of 

 assimilation of innutritions food. The proboscidians developed 

 huge bulk and an extraordinary prehensile organ. The Qiiadru- 

 mana produced none of these things. In respect to speed of limb 

 and jjowers of digestion, both in function and structure, they re- 

 main nearly in the generalized condition from which the other 

 orders of mammals have risen. The limbs and teeth of man re- 

 tain the characters of the primitive type. Yet but two species of 

 proboscidians remain ; the Perissodactyle multitudes are repre- 

 sented by but a few vanishing species. The day of the Car- 

 nivora has passed forever, and the remaining Artiodactyle herds 

 exist but by the permission of their master, man. But past geo- 

 logic time reveals no such abundance of true Quadrumana as the 

 present period displays. These animals were evidently unable to 

 compete with those of other types in seizing on the opportuni- 

 ties of living. They were excluded from the chase by the more 

 sanguinary ancestors of the Carnivora, and from the field by the 

 multiplying herds of the swifter or more resistant hoofed animals. 

 They possessed neither bulk, nor speed, nor cruelty to serve them 



* Represented by the ox and the horse. 



