550 THE CHANGING WORLD 



of endeavor, and was eventually to mark his most substantial triumph 

 in emerging from his humble origin. 



For thousands of years the best that he could contrive by way of 

 a protection from devastating storms and climatic inclemency was 

 to retreat to natural caves and rock shelters, where he disputed 

 possession with cave-bears, cave-hyenas, and other formidable beasts. 

 Whenever food was abundant he gorged himself. When it was 

 scarce he starved. The artificial production of food, in order to 

 secure a constant supply, he had not yet dreamed of, any more 

 than did the wild animals about him. 



Gradually "in man's ceaseless struggle to achieve his destiny," 

 inventions beyond the possibilities of any animal with a lesser brain 

 began to appear in the form of tools, weapons, weaving, pottery, the 

 wheel, dugout canoes, and devices for shelter. There was at first 

 probably little spare time in which to develop these higher arts and 

 accessories of living, for, as in the case of wild animals, the day's work 

 largely consisted in barely keeping alive. Moreover, whatever lei- 

 sure was available could have been but imperfectly applied to the 

 higher life, since the intellectual equipment necessary for this accom- 

 plishment was still wanting to a considerable extent. Even today 

 modern man, already liberated more and more by machinery from 

 continuous toil, is not always mentally equipped to dispose of his 

 spare time with entire edification to himself and to others. 



Another human accomplishment which no animal has ever attained 

 centers around commerce or the acquisition and exchange of property. 

 The great gap between mankind and even the most intelligent of 

 animals is evident when it is realized how foreign to any animal 

 behavior are even the most primitive forms of barter. Beginnings 

 of hoarding, or the possession of property, are perhaps shown by 

 honey-bees and nut-storing squirrels, but it is a long call from this 

 instinctive behavior to the intelligent exercise of forethought that is 

 practiced by economic man. 



Thus, by means of agriculture, domestication, the use of fire, the 

 development of fundamental inventions, the beginnings of economic 

 practices, and above all by the gradual emancipation of the mind 

 from the terrors of superstition and the misunderstandings of igno- 

 rance, did emergent man begin to get the upper hand of things, and 

 to make the grand transition from the more or less animal-like soli- 

 tary life of cave-dwelling to the co-operative social and intellectual 

 life of modern man. 



