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Evolutionist Point of View . 651 
There is here at hand another consideration which must 
not be overlooked. In turning over the evidences of extindt 
faunas we often come upon the traces of some highly-spe- 
cialised animal group, strong, fierce, formidably armed, and 
possessing as it might seem every attribute needful for 
success in the great struggle for existence, and for trans- 
mitting its descendants down to the present day. Such a 
group, for instance, was that of the Machairodon, or sabre- 
toothed tiger, — a form including several species, distributed 
over North America, Europe, India, and probably over other 
parts of the globe. Yet it has “ died and left no sign.” No 
Machairodon survives, nor yet any Carnivore which can 
trace its descent to this terrible monster. The dominant 
forms of the present day seem to have sprung from species 
less powerful and less specially endowed for a life of rapine. 
The principle involved in these fadts has been embodied by 
Prof. Cope in the “ dodtrine of the non-specialised.” The 
meaning of this dodtrine may, we think, be gathered from 
the case of the Machairodon. The ascending line of deve- 
lopment proceeds not from the more specialised forms who 
at their time seem the highest beings in existence, and 
qualified to become the progenitors of still superior types in 
the future, but from some species or group of species of less 
striking attributes and of a more generalised character. 
The suggestion has been thrown out, we believe, by Prof. 
Cope himself, that the same principle may be traced in the 
career of human communities. If we take a survey of the 
world at intervals of say a thousand years, we shall find 
that not only nations, but races, • occupy a very different 
position at any such survey from what the former survey 
would have led us to expedt. Who, for instance, looking a 
thousand years ago upon that race which is conventionally 
called the Anglo-Saxon, would have ventured to give a fore- 
cast of the part which it has since played in the history of 
the world; But, according to this same dodtrine of the non- 
specialised, the hegemony of the civilised world a thousand 
years hence will not remain with this race, probably even 
not with any branch of the Teutonic stock, but will have 
fallen into very different hands, which it would be out of 
place here to indicate. 
4. The last error of the orators and writers of “ progress” 
is taken from a false analogy. They liken humanity, not to 
a growing tree, sending out branches in various diredtions, 
but to a traveller marching along a road, who must either 
come to a stand or go on in one given diredtion. That 
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