ii LESSONS FROM METAMORPHOSES 129 



since the globe was cool enough to 

 allow of life, then, he argues, no less 

 than 250 years would be available out 

 of each minute of man's development 

 for those analogous changes which have 

 raised some Protozoon into Man. Mr. 

 Spencer makes no mention of the con- 

 spicuous wonders effected in insect and 

 crustacean metamorphoses during periods 

 relatively much shorter. He makes no 

 allusion to the fact that specialists often 

 speak of embryonic stages, common in 

 some genera, being "hurried over" in 

 the case of others, so that the final 

 stages are more quickly reached. An 

 idea so suggestive of a directing and 

 creative energy thus visibly subordinat- 

 ing the machinery of generation to 

 special ends, is an idea which goes far 

 beyond Mr. Spencer's new argument 

 deprecating the over-importance hitherto 



attached by thoughtless evolutionists to 

 K 



