HUMAN LIFE 



tion, and yet in the very acquirement of 

 this specialization are sown the seeds of 

 species death. What organisms gain in 

 specialization they lose in plasticity. 

 They become so adapted that they lose 

 adaptability. Progress in one direction 

 involves, as someone has said, the closing 

 of the gates in countless other directions; 

 progression thus means a succession of 

 lost opportunities. The Irish stag spe- 

 cializing in antlers was brought by too 

 large antlers to species death. The great 

 Dinosaurs, lords of their epoch, extin- 

 guished themselves by too much much- 

 ness. There are even analogies of these 

 biologic happenings in human history. 

 And there are even biologists who see the 

 triumphantly super-specialized species, 

 man, in actual danger of species death 

 from too much specialization. 



But one of the major lines of human 

 specialization is what might be called a 

 specialization in the direction of safety 

 from over-specialization; it is a specializa- 

 tion in general adaptability, not in par- 

 108 



