6 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



shadow and substance of early mosses and ferns. Evolution 

 is gaining momentum, but not until September are the dry 

 upland meadows of the earth covered with grasses and 

 flowering plants and deciduous trees. Monstrous reptiles, 

 as in a frightful nightmare, appear and disappear in the fall; 

 and a magnificent and very rapid spread of the warm- 

 blooded and very brainy mammals and birds begins. 



The primate monkey races ahead of all other mammals 

 and the promise of man is in the air. All through Decem- 

 ber the primates diverge, but it is not until near the last week 

 of the year that the great apes appear. Now the rumor of 

 man is very strong; near-men are being rushed forward by 

 an evolution that is moving at a tremendously accelerated 

 pace. Then, on the last day of the year, December 31, just 

 some four hours before midnight, man appears, walking 

 gracefully erect and equipped with sensitive, marvelously 

 dexterous hands that are free to become the investigating 

 and limitlessly adaptive tools of a great brain. An hour, or 

 so, later he makes tentative efforts at social life, but it is not 

 until the last minute of the year that his first civilization is 

 organized. 



The long record of life on this earth would seem to show 

 how slowly and with what desperate gambles and fatal 

 losses nature finally resolves fundamental problems. This is 

 something we must examine very closely, particularly 

 where it concerns man's social evolution. Once a basic 

 problem has been solved, nature has been able to move for- 

 ward at ever-increasing speeds. Obviously, the main prob- 

 lems of man's social evolution have not yet been fully 

 solved, but there is no reason to suppose that their solution 

 is beyond the power of the process. 



How nature solved these difliculties for some one lucky 

 organism, and why there are always countless others that 

 fail along the way, are questions of great importance to the 

 evolutionist, who sees the over-all fact of evolution but has 

 only a limited vision of the "how" or the mechanics of the 



