se numbers in the aggregate are to be reckoned by the scores,
if not by the hundreds of millions. Until this modern age, the throng
goes forward blindly, groping its way towards the higher planes of life.
At length certain of the more advanced forms attain to a measure of
intellectual elevation. Still, for all this advance, the life is not
organized so as to attain any large ends; no society arises from it.

Suddenly, in the last geological epoch, man, the descendant of a group
which like all others had led the narrow life of the preparatory ages,
appears upon the scene. At first, and in his lower human estate, his
position was not noticeably higher than that of his kindred, but there
was in him the seed of a great unlikeness, of very new things, in that
his desires had an element of the unlimited which was to grow apace, and
in time to make him greedy of on-going. As this innovating creature
sought for agents of power in the wilderness about him, he blindly laid
hands upon such of the fellow tenants of the wilds as might serve his
immediate needs. This species, both animals and plants, endowed with the
capacity for variation, the plasticity which is in general a
characteristic of all organic forms, were early led by their new master,
as of old they had been guided by the old organic laws. They changed
according to his choice, abandoning their ancient ways for the novel
paths of civilization. With this association of the higher forms of the
earth under the leadership of man, there began an entirely new and
unprecedented condition of the world's affairs. In place of the ancient
law of nature there came the control of our species which had been, in a
way, chosen to be the overlord of life.

At first, the number of species of animals and plants which man brought
under his control was very limited; it was indeed confined to those
which might readily be subjugated to meet immediate needs. Gradually,
however, the list has been extended until it included thousands of
forms, which, while they meet no need such as the savage recognizes, are
gratifying to the taste or the ambitions of civilized peoples. These
aesthetic devices, or those of necessity, are advancing so rapidly that
each generation sees hundreds of new animal and plant species added to
our living collections, so that our plant and animal gardens now contain
a large share of the more attractive forms which are to be found in the
various geographical realms. Our tille