150 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



an ultramicroscopic molecule spontaneously generated in a 

 cooling warm moist environment, the further multiplication 

 of Continuity resulting in the primitive unicellular organism. 



If the surrounding environment of primitive Life was 

 aqueous, and if at later dates Life appeared in terrestrial or 

 aerial environment where, however, water had to be obtainable, 

 it is clear that at given periods certain types forsook watery 

 for aerial surroundings, or were obliged to live in the latter. 

 And here we return to a most important point, namely, that 

 with respect to types of living Continuity the waters of the globe 

 at the present day reflect the straight road of living evolution ; 

 that is, we find in them Individual forms which in the ascend- 

 ing scale of Continuity clearly indicate the course of the main 

 road traversed by Evolution in the past. This road ran 

 in a watery environment from the first living organism right 

 up to the Segmental Individual. 



The highest forms of Segmental Individual are terres- 

 trial, and the very highest is Man himself ; and as we shall 

 see, if is practically certain that the main road leading to 

 Man had reached segmental Continuity before it left the 

 water for the land. Further, it is most probable that all 

 terrestrial Individuals of Continuity lower than segmental 

 have sprung from primitive watery types of a Continuity 

 similar to that which they exhibit, and not from land types 

 of lower Continuity. 



It is true that we can arrange existing and extinct land 

 organisms in groups which successively exhibit the intensi- 

 fication of Continuity, but the series is an incomplete one 

 and in no way supports a suggestion that there was a terres- 

 trial main road as well as an aqueous one. The waters of 

 the globe have been the reservoir or storehouse of primitive 

 types from which the earth has been stocked at various times. 

 It is clear that terrestrial Individuals have in the past evolved 

 strange new forms ; the case of the whale is an example 

 of such evolution ; but it is most unlikely that any land- 

 Individual has ever multiplied its Continuity into a higher 

 form. It is to be understood, naturally, that at different 

 periods different species of a given Continuity-type have 

 acted as " primitive types " for special lines of terrestrial 

 evolution. This becomes obvious in the case of Phanerogams, 

 and also as regards terrestrial segmental Individuals. The 



