COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



habitually taking refuge in flight, would have 

 greatly increased both in fleetness and in tim- 

 idity ; the largest and most clumsy of the 

 species, unable to save themselves by fleeing, 

 would often be forced to stand and fight for 

 their lives, and would thus ultimately have 

 gained in size, strength, and courage ; while 

 those who were neither nimble enough to get 

 out of the way nor strong enough to fight suc- 

 cessfully would have all been killed off. And 

 thus, after a while, by perpetual destruction of 

 the means and preservation of the extremes, we 

 should get two kinds of ruminant as diflFerent 

 from one another as the antelope which es- 

 capes by his fleetness and cautious timidity, 

 and the bufi^alo which boldly withstands the 

 lion and not unfrequently conquers or repulses 

 him. Secondly, let us observe what must have 

 been going on all the while with the attacking 

 carnivora. The lighter and less powerful of 

 these would find manifest advantage in crouch- 

 ing amid dense foliage and springing down upon 

 unwary victims passing below. The larger and 

 more powerful individuals would more fre- 

 quently roam about the open country, attack- 

 ing the larger ruminants and giving chase to 

 the nimbler ones, and would thus increase in 

 strength and fleetness. And thus there would 

 be initiated such difl^erences of size and habit as 

 characterize the leopard and the lion. 

 26 . 



