2 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



show the same as if in miniature. What the mammals 

 are acting is being caricatured by the amphibians ; and so 

 it appears all round, as if one were in a multiplying-mirror 

 show. It is like a world of echoes. 



Succession of Players. The stage is crowded with 

 actors and actresses who always appear to be artistic in 

 their proper setting or scenery. Some are on the boards 

 as individuals for minutes, like some of the microbes ; some 

 for hours, like some midges ; some for days, like the adult 

 and aerial phases of May-flies or Ephemerids ; some for 

 weeks, like the house-flies ; some for months, like the 

 humble-bees ; some for years, like the eagle ; some for 

 centuries, like the Californian Big Trees ; but all in turn 

 yield to Time's tooth. So automatic, however, is the suc- 

 cession among the short-lived creatures which it is permitted 

 to any one of us to observe, that no gap is ever apparent. 

 There is always an understudy ready to fill the vacant place. 

 When we lengthen out our vision scientifically we see, 

 however, that in spite of the apparent sameness there is 

 continual change, and that one cast succeeds another 

 as age follows age. Many great actors of superlative 

 merit, like the Sea- Scorpions, the Giant Saurians and 

 the Flying Dragons, have altogether ceased to be, and 

 have left no direct successors at all. Nor has their 

 mantle fallen on any. The play goes on, but the players 

 change. 



Progress of the Drama. The age-long drama, whose 

 progress, or, it may be, merely changeful sequence, is called 

 Evolution, was aptly likened by Samuel Butler to the 

 development of a fugue, ' where, when the subject and 

 counter-subject have been announced, there must thence- 

 forth be nothing new, and yet all must be new. So through- 



