GREAT STEPS IN EVOLUTION 101 



when we reflect on the greatness of the re- 

 sult of this last great step in organic evolu- 

 tion. For "What a piece of work is a man! 

 How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty, 

 in form and moving how express and admir- 

 able! in action how like an angel! in appre- 

 hension how like a god! " 



A chapter can merely hint at the great 

 steps in evolution, and we must leave the 

 reader to develop the subject. For this is 

 certain that we cannot appreciate the fact 

 of evolution, or form a sound judgment in 

 regard to its factors, unless we think of the 

 age-long process in some detail and recognize 

 at once the grandeur and the difficulty of 

 each of its greater uplifts. 



EVOLUTION AS RETROGRESSIVE: DETERI- 

 ORATION AND PARASITISM. Of "Degenera- 

 tion: a chapter in Darwinism," Sir Ray 

 Lankester many years ago wrote a whole 

 volume, compact yet readable: still, even 

 to-day, the old optimism of political progress 

 too largely colours the public mind; so, 

 despite knowledge and care, all save the most 

 pessimistic of us tend sometimes to speak, 

 and it may be even write, as if evolution 

 necessarily implied progress, and as if the 

 surviving fittest were also the best, in its 

 ordinary sense, of better than mere good. 

 Hence the need of frankly facing some of 



