H G Wells had a clear idea about humanity’s place on Earth and how we got to where we are by evolving in parallel with all other life on Earth.  His science-fiction story War of the Words tells the story of Earth’s invasion by Martians.  Humanity’s technology is insufficient to thwart the invasion, but when all seems lost our smallest relatives, bacteria, go in and rescue us all by fatally infecting the Martians. 

The conclusion to Wells’ story is homage to our co-evolution which earns us our unassailable place on Earth (unassailable by Martians, that is). 

Here is the relevant paragraph of War of the Worlds:

These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things – taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle, and to many – those that cause putrefaction in dead matter, for instance – our living frames are altogether immune. But there are no bacteria in Mars, and directly these invaders arrived, directly they drank and fed, our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro. It was inevitable. By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are. For neither do men live nor die in vain.

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our place on Earth

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