imitive round-mouthed fishes have
practically disappeared. The ganoids survive in a few species out of
thousands. The amphibia of the carboniferous and the next period and
the reptiles of the mesozoic have disappeared; only a few feeble
degenerate remnants persist. And this was necessarily so. Each
advancing form crowded hardest on those which occupied the same
place and sought the same food, that is, the members of the same
species. And the first to suffer from its competition were its own
brethren. Death, rarely commuted into life imprisonment, is the
verdict pronounced on all forms which will not advance. And does not
the same law of advance or extinction apply to man? What is the
record of successive civilizations but its verification?

Notice once more that as we ascend in the scale of development
natural selection selects more unsparingly and the path to life
narrows. It is a very easy matter for the lowest forms to get food.
Indeed the plant sits still and its food comes to it. And the battle
of brute force can be fought in a multitude of ways--by mere
strength, by activity, by offensive or defensive armor, or even by
running into the mud and skulking. It is harder to gain knowledge,
and yet many roads lead to an education. Colleges are by no means
the only seats of education. And many totally uneducated men have
college diplomas. And life is, after all, the great university, and
here the sluggard fails and the plucky man with the poor "fit" often
carries off the honors.

"But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:
And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of corals or of pearls:
For the price of wisdom is above rubies."

And when it comes to righteousness there is only one right, and
everything else is wrong. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it." Therefore "strive to enter in
at the strait gate." And remember that "strive" means wrestle like
one of the athletes in the old Olympic games.

"I saw also that the Interpreter took Christian again by the hand
and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately
palace beautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was
greatly delighte