THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



pressure different, the light different. But the 

 mass pressed on. It paid to experiment. The 

 struggle of this creative power with space turn- 

 ed into a new great struggle: the struggle for 

 adaptation. Layer upon layer was a new envir- 

 onment to be conquered by life. 



It has been the great thought of Darwin that 

 this struggle for adaptation has been the means 

 of bringing life to its present greatness. He 

 first pointed out the tremendous power of adap- 

 tation. We thank him for having pointed out 

 the principal lines of evolution. To him the 

 great honor belongs of having shown how evolu- 

 tion has proceeded from the one-celled primitive 

 creature up to man. But we do not overlook in 

 the depth of this thought the little w^ords "its 

 force." It is only in life that the capacity for 

 evolution and the power to release and develop 

 the sti-uggle for existence resides. As a little 

 weak mass of protoplasmic matter the primitive 

 cell sank into this unending ocean, why did it 

 not remain lying in it, remain what it was, like 

 the nickel iron ball of the evaporated meteor 

 with which we began our journey? Millions of 

 years passed and this little lump of slime is a 

 fish with an abundance of organs, with a brain 

 and eye and lighting apparatus. Millions more 

 and the fish is a man, who on his trans-Atlantic 

 steamer journeys from continent, locating his 

 position in the water wastes with a magnetic or- 



