THE EVOLUTION OF INTELLIGENCE 125 



labor and the hazard of independent thinking, a creature of 

 habit, most content when most easily able to run along in the 

 fixed grooves of daily life without friction or annoyance. 



Nevertheless, while the average individual may be intrin- 

 sically indisposed to encourage change, except in those circum- 

 stances which occasion him personally acute discomfort, the 

 more active and progressive minds find through the accumu- 

 lated knowledge of the race, now for a few centuries available 

 in permanent written form, and through the amazingly rapid 

 development in the technique of the sciences, the tools at hand 

 for a literally unlimited evolution in the actual conditions of 

 human life. From this practical point of view, therefore, the 

 evolution of intelligence may be considered as close to its 

 beginnings rather than in any sense drawing near to its close. 



