352 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



of progeny to parent is often as decided. The 

 larval forms of the Star-fish or the Sea Urchin, or 

 their kinsman the Holothurian, are disguised past 

 all recognition; and among the Insects the relation 

 between Butterflies and Moths and their respective 

 caterpillars is beyond any possible clue. No doubt 

 there are other modes of recognition in Nature 

 than those which depend on the sense of sight. 

 But looked at on every side, the fact remains 

 that the power to identify their young is all but 

 absent until the higher animals appear. 



The next work of Nature, therefore, was to make 

 the young resemble the parent, to make, in short, 

 the children presentable at birth. And the means 

 taken to effect this are worth noting. Nature always 

 makes her changes with a marvellous economy, 

 and generally, as in this case, with a quite start- 

 ling simplicity. To start making a new kind of 

 embryo, a plan obvious to us, was not thought 

 of. That would have been to have lost all the 

 time spent on them already. If Nature begins 

 a thing and wishes to make a change, she never 

 goes back to the beginning ' and starts de novo. 

 Her respect for her own work is profound. To 

 begin at the beginning again would not only be 

 lost work, but waste of future time ; and Evolution, 

 slow as it may seem, never fails to take the quickest 



