The insects formed their skeleton by thickening the horny cuticle of the annelid. They transformed the annelid parapodia into legs and developed wings. They attained life in the air. They devoted the muscles of the body largely to the extremities and gained swift locomotion. They have a fair circulatory and an excellent respiratory system. Best of all, they developed a head and a brain by fusing the three anterior ganglia of the body. The insect could and does think. Such a structure ought to lead to great and high results. But actually their possibilities were very limited. They have not progressed markedly during the last geological period. Their external skeleton was easily attained and brought speedy advantages, which for a time placed them far above all competitors. But it limited their size and length of life and opportunities, and finally their intelligence. They remained largely the slaves of instinct. They followed an attractive and exceedingly promising path, but it led to the bottom of a cliff, not to the summit.
The mollusks, clams, and snails took an easier, down-hill road. They formed a shell, and it developed large enough to cover them. It hampered and almost destroyed locomotion and reduced nerve to a minimum. But nerves are nothing but a nuisance anyhow. And why should they move? Food was plenty down in the mud, and if danger threatened, they withdrew into the shell. They stayed down in the mud and let the world go its way. If grievously afflicted by a parasite they produced a pearl--to save themselves from further discomfort. They developed just enough muscle and nervous system to close the shell or drag it a little way; that was all. Digestion and reproduction retained the supremacy. They were fruitful and multiplied, and produced hosts of other clams and snails. The present was enough for them and they had that.
For if the winner in the struggle for existence is the one who gains the most food, the most entire protection against discomfort, danger from enemies or unfavorable surroundings, and the most fruitful and rapid reproduction--and these are all good--then the clam is the highest product of evolution. It never has been surpassed--I venture to say it never can be--except possibly by the tape-worms. I can never help thinking with what contempt these primitive oysters, if they had had brains enough, would have looked down upon the toiling, struggling, discontented, fighting, aspiring primitive vertebrates. How they would have wondered why God allowed such disagreeable, disturbing, unconventional creatures to exist, and thanked him that he had made the world for them, and heaven too, if there be such a place for mollusks. Their road led to the Slough of Contentment.