left, by natural selection, unimproved or but little improved, and might remain for ages in their present lowly condition. And geology tells us that some of the lowest forms, as the foraminifera (Fig. 9), infusoria, and rhizopods, have remained for an enormous period in nearly their present state. But," adds Darwin, with a characteristically impartial view of matters, "to suppose that most of the many now existing low forms have not in the least advanced since the first dawn of life would be extremely rash; for every naturalist who has dissected some of the beings now ranked as very low in the scale must have been struck with their really wondrous and beautiful organization."
|
| Fig. 9.—Globigerina, etc. |
Thus one of the plainest facts of natural history, namely, that in even one group or class of animals we find forms of exceedingly low structure included along with animals of high organization—the apparently diverse bodies being really modeled on the one and the same type—is explained by the consideration that with different conditions, or with various conditions acting differently upon unlike constitutions, we expect to find extreme differences in the rank to which the members of a class may attain. In the class of fishes we find the worm-like, clear-bodied lancelet of an inch long; associated with the ferocious shark, the active dogfish, or the agile food-fishes of our table. But, as Darwin remarks, the shark would not tend to supplant the lancelet, their spheres and their conditions of existence being of diverse nature. The same remark applies to many other classes of living beings. So that lowly beings still live as such among us, and preserve the primitive simplicity of their race, firstly, because the conditions of life and their limited numbers may not have induced any great competition or struggle for existence. On the "let-well-alone" principle we may understand why some animals, such as the lancelet itself, have lagged behind in the race after progress. Then, secondly, as Darwin remarks, favorable variations, by way of beginning the work of progress, may never have appeared—a result due, probably, as much to hidden causes within the living being as to outside conditions. We may not fail to note, lastly, that the simpler and more uniform these latter conditions are—as represented in the abysses of the ocean, for example—the less
