68 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



to our eyes, would acquire colossal speed in order to cover, in 

 the same length of time, the vast span of the heavens. The 

 shadows of the giant trees would be in perpetual movement. 

 The movements of all living objects would seem to us to be 

 accelerated ; even the snails would hurry by at the speed of 

 a trotting horse, and we ourselves would move about through 

 this monstrous space as fast as express trains. 



Assuming, on the other hand, that the moments corre- 

 spondingly shortened, then all movements would remain of 

 normal size, but for their execution the day would stretch 

 out to excessive length, and soon we should no longer be able 

 to cope with the strain imposed by this super-world. 



If we imagine our powers also increased in the like direc- 

 tion, we should become super-men, as possibly — if but in a 

 limited degree — the great artists and geniuses actually are. 



Following up this line of argument, it is not difficult to 

 construct for ourselves a picture of the " subter-man " with 

 his miniature world. And it would not be uninteresting to 

 determine, by means of measurements, to which of the two 

 types our individual fellow-men approximate most nearly. 



In each case it will appear that the duration of the moment 

 stands in close relation to the number of places and to the 

 length of the direction-steps, and this relationship again 

 depends on the power of the mind to form an estimate of the 

 world. 



How closely the world, in regard to its spatial and tem- 

 poral dimensions, hangs together with our requirements and 

 our faculties, can be demonstrated by innumerable examples. 

 I wiU refer to only one other instance — the beneficial effect it 

 has on us that the tree-shadows in which we are resting also 

 seem to be at rest ; on the other hand, every movement of the 

 twigs produced by the wind or by a bird, reveals itself as a 

 movement of the shadow, and awakens our attention. Thus 

 what is going on close at hand is thrown into effective con- 



