ROSS ON EVOLUTION. 43^5^ 



and adds to his intelligence, the greater animals which he refuse^' 

 to take under his protection are rapidly disappearing before him. 



The process of extinction, therefore, has been proceeding during ■ 

 the Recent or Human Epoch with a constantly accelerating and^. 

 unparalleled rapidity. But while Man is rapidly exterminjadng; 

 most Species which are within his reach, and which he cBoes nor 

 choose to protect, the number which he takes under his protection 

 is continually increasing, and it so happens (though of course there 

 is no chance in the matter) that the Species, which for economic 

 purposes he takes under his protection, are precisely tliose whichi 

 are the representative types of the Families or great Groups- to 

 w^hich they belong, — the topmost buds of the greater brancliea- of ' 

 the tree of life. They are thus the natural centres of differ^irtiation, , 

 possessing at once the greatest vital power and the greatest possi- 

 bilities of variation, hence also of cultivation and of naturalization 

 ♦f'every part of the Earth, — processes which I need not say are 

 being accelerated yearly, almost daily, with the increasing facilities 

 for locomotion which are so characteristic of the current century, — 

 processes which have already afforded results the most invaluable 

 to mankind, and promise incalculable advantiiges in the future. 



But it is in Man, himself, the representative of the entire Group 

 of organic types, — the topmost *' upright" stem of the Tree of 

 Life, that all the possibilities of differentiation and of culture cul- 

 minate, and I do not therefore share the gloomy anticipation of 

 Prof. Dawson, that there will " ensue a period of decadence until 

 it (the human race) becomes extinct," but believe that in Man as in 

 the lower animals, while the inferior and more synthetic types will 

 be successively exterminated, the higher and more differentiated 

 types will be continually expanding, and that the '* meek shall 

 inherit the Earth." 



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