12 WHAT EVOLUTION IS 



was supposed in some vague way to 

 have descended from the animal con- 

 cerned. Most primitive human be- 

 ings seem to have had some such 

 traditions as these about animals, but, 

 of course, in no case could these views 

 be said to have more than remotely- 

 implied an evolutionary conception. 

 They merely show that in primitive 

 man kinship with animals was not an 

 unknown idea. 



To certain Greeks organic evolu- 

 tion in the modern sense came nearer 

 to being a reality. Thus the great 

 physical philosopher of the Ionian 

 School, Anaximander (611-547 B.C.), 

 is credited with having held to a 

 form of general evolution in which 

 man was especially involved. Anaxi- 

 mander was apparently impressed 

 with the inability of man in his early 

 stages of life to care for himself, and 

 was thereby led to conclude that 



