THE GENEALOGY OF ANIMALS 97 



A large part of the life of the earth has 

 remained steadfastly where it was cradled, beneath 

 the waves. But more restless portions have left 

 the sea and crept forth upon the land, or swarmed 

 into the air. One migration, the most numerous, 

 is represented by the insects. Another, the most 

 enterprising, was the amphibian. After ages of 

 evolution the amphibian branch divided. One 

 branch acquired wings and sailed off into the air. 

 The other divided and subdivided. One of these 

 subdivisions entered the forests, climbed and 

 clambered among the trees, acquired perpendicu- 

 larity and hands, descended and walked upon the 

 soil, invented agriculture, built cities and states, 

 and imagined itself immortal. Human society is 

 but the van — the hither terminus — of an evolu- 

 tional process which had its beginning away back 

 in the protoplasm of primeval waters. There is 

 not a form that creeps beneath the sea but can 

 claim kinship with the eagle. The philosopher is 

 the remote posterity of the meek and lowly 

 amoeba. 



XI. Conclusion. 



The resemblances, homologies, and metamor- 

 phoses existing everywhere among animal forms 

 are, therefore, evidence of the most logical con- 

 sanguinities. It is all so perfectly plain. The 

 structures of organic beings have come about as a 

 result of the action and reaction of environment 

 upon these structures. Every being — and not 

 only every being, but every species, the whole 



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