Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men (1897) (14783078302)

Identifier: ridpathshistoryo01ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men ..
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology
Publisher: New York, Merrill & Baker
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University



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under howevernearly identical conditions, which are 214 GREAT RACES OE MANKIND. indiscriminable by manifest differencesin their structure, qualities, and physicalfeatures, is impossible. No likeness ofparents, or careful preparation of ante-cedents, or accidental results of creativeforces, or nurture and development, canproduce two organisms which are thesame in all particulars. It is doubtlesstrue that in all the incalculable millions of bushels of wheat which the world hasproduced no two grains were ever pre-cisely alike. Nature in all of her do- doctrine of evolution. But they are onlythe beginning of the phenomena. Giventhe unequal capacities of variation in-living organisms in the ^ifaSarena of life, and we have adaptation,the clue to the real variation which is tofollow. The individuals of a givenspecies begin their existence by gather-ing sustenance and fitting themselves totheir environment. But those havingthe superior powers accomplish thiswork most successfully. In doing so
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naT^f-JC*— VARIATION OF ANIMAL FORMS.—(2) Under Domestication—Italian Greyhound. mains avoids with everlasting persist-ency the exact repetition of any of herresults. It therefore happens that whenthe living organisms which are to in-habit the world are projected into thearena of life they come with unequalpowers and capacities, with differenceswhich, though in many instances minute,are nevertheless appreciable in the con-test which is to ensue, with fitnessesmore or less complete for survival andthe procreation of their kind. These facts constitute the basis of thatvariation which is so fundamental to the they augment and make permanent thevery faculties and organs by whichsuccess is attained. The use of theorgans with which they are endowedincreases their development, and theoffspring of these successful organicforms are born, not with the rudimen-tary powers which were possessed bytheir parents, but with the developedpowers, instincts, and capabilities whichtheir parents poss