124 THE ORIOIM OF SPECIES 



the older forms, with which they come into close com- 

 petition. We may therefore conclude that if under a 

 nearly similar climate the eocene inhabitants of the world 

 could be put into competition with the existing inhab- 

 itants, the former would be beaten and exterminated by 

 the latter, as would the secondary by the eocene, and 

 the paleozoic by the secondary forms. So that by this 

 fundamental test of victory in the battle for life, as well 

 as by the standard of the specialization of organs, modern 

 forms ought, on the theory of natural selection, to stand 

 higher than ancient forms. Is this the case ? A large 

 majority of paleontologists would answer in the affirma- 

 tive; and it seems that this answer must be admitted 

 as true, though difficult of proof. 



It is no valid objection to this conclusion that certain 

 Brachiopods have been but slightly modified from an 

 extremely remote geological epoch; and that certain land 

 and fresh-water shells have remained nearly the same, 

 from the time when, as far as is known, they first ap- 

 peared. It is not an insuperable difficulty that Foram- 

 inifera have not, as insisted on by Dr. Carpenter, pro- 

 gressed in organization since even the Laurentian epoch; 

 for some organisms would have to remain fitted for sim- 

 ple conditions of life, and what could be better fitted for 

 this end than these lowly organized Protozoa ? Such ob- 

 jections as the above would be fatal to my view, if it 

 included advance in organization as a necessary contin- 

 gent. They would likewise be fatal, if the above Foram- 

 inifera, for instance, could be proved to have first come 

 into existence during the Laurentian epoch, or the above 

 Brachiopods during the Cambrian formation; for in this 

 case there would not have been time sufficient for the 



