THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 63 



tion. But ib may be sfcatei], in general terms, that tlie 

 outward circumstances which surround an animal, some- 

 times spoken of as its " environment," may produce 

 variations as well as select them. The study of the 

 correlation of slight differences in the structure of any 

 kind of animal with slight differences in the climate, 

 soil, and other characters of the various districts in 

 which it is found, may be expected to afford us much 

 further knowledge. Evolution is still at work ; and 

 the student of evolution finds in the history of the 

 past a suggestion of the story of the future. We have 

 reason to believe that, so far, the latest products of 

 the evolution of animal life have been, broadly speak- 

 ing, the best — the most complex in structure, the most 

 intelligent in mind ; and therefore we may reasonably 

 suppose that the future still holds the best of nature's 

 work in store. The world of the future will contain 

 new and beautiful forms of animal life which we have 

 not seen. 



The life of human beings, too, is governed by the 

 same laws as the world of animal life : it is a storv of 

 upward progress, urged on by hardship and the 

 struggle for existence, towards the attainment of a 

 nobler type. The working of evolution has produced 

 citizens instead of barbarians ; it has made artists and 

 musicians, surgeons, mathematicians and engineers, 

 o-ut of the descendants of savages and cave-men. We 

 have many indications that our race has not yet 

 attained its maximum of power ; its future will sur- 

 pass its present, even as its present surpasses its past. 



