How prodigal nature seems to be in its production is too
trite a fact to be dwelt upon. We have all read of the millions of
germs which are destroyed for every one that comes to maturity.
Even the higher forms of life are found almost everywhere. Only
small islands have ever been discovered which were uninhabited,
and animals of a higher grade are as widely diffused as man.
If it would be going too far to claim that all conditions may have
forms of life appropriate to them, it would be going as much too
far in the other direction to claim that life can exist only with
the precise surroundings which nurture it on this planet. It is
very remarkable in this connection that while in one direction we
see life coming to an end, in the other direction we see it
flourishing more and more up to the limit. These two directions
are those of heat and cold. We cannot suppose that life would
develop in any important degree in a region of perpetual frost,
such as the polar regions of our globe. But we do not find any end
to it as the climate becomes warmer. On the contrary, every one
knows that the tropics are the most fertile regions of the globe
in its production. The luxuriance of the vegetation and the number
of the animals continually increase the more tropical the climate
becomes.
Pages:
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174