298 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART iv 



first, it does not now arise from a rearrangement of 

 dead matter. If " all were in motion," including the 

 initiation de novo of life, then we should see through 

 the difficulty. Infusorians would be infusorians 

 only that and nothing more because they had not 

 had time to climb up the ladder. But apparently, in 

 point of fact, they have had just as much time as 

 the cedars of Lebanon or the crowning race of 

 man ; and in that time, of course, a vastly greater 

 number of generations. Then why are they still 

 mere common infusorians ? Take it either way ; 

 why have they not progressed out of that state of 

 being ; or, at any rate, why have they not varied ? 

 Through billions on billions of generations to put 

 it modestly they have been competing against each 

 other and against the cruelty of environment. Why 

 are they still no fitter ? or, if they are fit enough to 

 survive -why has any other organism taken the 

 trouble to build up new and higher forms of life? 

 There seems reason to think that this consideration 

 points to some grave flaw or gap in naturalistic theo- 

 ries of evolution. 1 



On the whole, from our human point of view, we 

 consider that the evolution of species has been at- 

 tended with progress, because " higher " animals and 

 plants have appeared, and, above all, because man has 

 emerged. We must also admit that the evolutionary 



1 Mr. A. R. Wallace suggests that the lower types fill up the few 

 places of that kind which nature allots ! Mr. Wallace is a little in- 

 clined to switch on and off selective struggle at his arbitrary pleasure 

 and convenience. His own position is exceptional (see p. 228) ; but, 

 on the naturalistic view, ought not the lowest forms to be originating 

 before our eyes? 



