This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...was the result of arboreal life. But most mammals remained on the ground, and thus cut themselves off from the possibility of attaining the very highest stage. It is evident that we must distinguish very sharply between fitness and dominance. The dominant forms, like paleozoic mollusks and mesozoic reptiles, are those ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...was the result of arboreal life. But most mammals remained on the ground, and thus cut themselves off from the possibility of attaining the very highest stage. It is evident that we must distinguish very sharply between fitness and dominance. The dominant forms, like paleozoic mollusks and mesozoic reptiles, are those which are reaping to the full the benefits of the use of some power already attained, at the expense or to the neglect of the development of some higher power of greater capacity. They have gained present prosperity at the expense of all possibility of future progress. Such prosperity and dominance must be brief. They are like certain unwise investors who lose their whole capital in the effort to gain a high rate of interest. Such a policy must end in bankruptcy and beggary. The mollusk sleeping in his shell is sure to be surpassed by the form which is investing all its energy of development in some organ of higher possibilities and capacities. The hulking brute of a reptile will in time yield place to the brainier mammal. But, if we focus our attention upon the present alone and close our eyes to the future, the dominant form will almost certainly appear to be the fittest, although its doom is sure and downfall near. The fittest is the form which keeps up and improves all the attainments of its ancestors, but steadily exercises and develops the organ of highest capacities and possibilities. But such complex organs or institutions are and must be of slow growth. The seed is planted by one generation, and fostered with much pains and labor by descendants. The real and full harvest is reaped only at a far later time. The development of the higher power or possibility involves necessarily a distinct and often considerable loss or renunciation of ...
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