The Evolution of Organisms 143 



in an Ichthyosaur's stomach and the embryos 

 within the mother; he discovers ancient general- 

 ized types, Hke Phenacodus, uniting widely sepa- 

 rate modern orders; he binds birds to reptiles 

 (through the Deinosaurs) and flowering to flower- 

 less plants (through the Pteridosperms); he tracks 

 the transformations of the Ammonites, and works 

 out the pedigree of the horse and the elephant. 



General Impressions. — Looking back on the his- 

 tory which the palaeontologists have with infinite 

 patience disclosed, we cannot but be impressed 

 by some general facts. 



First of all, it is noteworthy that, as Whit- 

 man said, "everything is equally perfect." When 

 we look at a series of human inventions, such as the 

 historical gallery of microscopes at the Paris Ex- 

 position, or a chronological series of bicycles or 

 locomotives, we feel at once that the early stages 

 are crude and clumsy, showing the prentice hand. 

 But this cannot be said of Nature's series. There 

 is no crudity, no suggestion of the half-finished, 

 about the early Graptolites, or Trilobites, about 

 the Ammonites and Nautili, about the Ganoid 

 fishes or the ancient Saurians. 



Secondly, no one can think over the evolu- 

 tion of plants and animals without feeling that the 

 fountain of life is practically inexhaustible. All 

 idea of limitation or economy is irrelevant. There 

 is a suggestion of infinite resource. We seem to be 



