Lect. III.] MIMETIC TYPES. 81 



Above the Marsupials I have, as yet, only found, two 

 cases, — the Common Shrew and the Rhynchocyon, — in 

 which it is not thus protected, and. these small beasts are 

 among the loAvest of the Eutheria. 



The teaching of all these details is manifestly a 

 doctrine of development. Every new fact (and new 

 facts are pouring in day by day) certainly makes 

 the old theory of creation more and more untenable. 

 The long time during which these pouched beasts have 

 existed, their intermediate position between the Proto- 

 theria and Eutheria, their present isolated position, 

 and their distribution only in territories where archaic 

 forms most abound — all these things look in the same 

 direction, and tell us the same tale. 



There is something very remarkable in the manner in 

 which this group, composed of forms so nearly related 

 to each other, has been broken up into families, 

 mimetic, or imitative, so to speak, of the Orders of the 

 Eutheria. This appears like an attempt on their part to 

 make the best of themselves on their low level. Nature 

 says — " The Eutheria have I loved, but the Metatheria 

 have I hated ; " and yet these latter, also, have attained 

 to much increase, and to a rich variety of life. 



But their date is nearly out. Almost everywhere, in 

 the Northern World, they are extinct ; and wherever the 

 chosen people (the Eutheria) come, there these low- 

 types will of necessity die out. The noble races show 

 no mercy to the ignoble ; when Nature elected that 



