THE EVOLUTION OP- A MOTHER 359 



Mammalia have taken their place in the van of 

 the procession of life. Under the earlier system 

 life had a bad start ; each animal had to push its 

 way upward single-handed from the ^g'g. It was 

 planted, so to speak, on the first rung of the ladder, 

 and as the risks of life are immeasurably great 

 in infancy, it had all these risks to take. Under the 

 new system it is launched into the battle already 

 nourished and strong, and passed scatheless through 

 the first vicissitudes of youth. In the higher Mam- 

 malia, in virtue of the possession by this group of 

 a placenta in addition to the ordinary Mammalian 

 characteristics, the young have a double chance of 

 a successful start. The development, in fact, of 

 higher forms of life on the earth has depended on 

 the physical perfecting of Mothers, and of the 

 physiological ties which bind them to their young. 

 With the immense structural advance of the Mam- 

 malia, an order of being was introduced into Natures 

 whose continuity as an all but immortal series could 

 never be broken. Thus whatever moral relations 

 underlie the extraordinary physical characteristic 

 of this highest class of animals, there is the added 

 guarantee that they can never be destroyed. 



With the physical programme carried out to the 

 last detail, the ethical drama opened. An early 

 result, partly of her sex, and partly of her passive 



