TAILS 



THE late Richard Jefferies once defined man 

 as "an animal with arms." The definition, 

 so far as it goes, is a good one, for it is to his 

 arms, quite as much as to his superior brain, 

 that man owes his present supreme position at the head 

 of animal creation. 



So much has been written regarding the large brain 

 of man that the other factor which has contributed to 

 his triumph is in danger of being utterly neglected. 

 The arms and brain of man are the two physical 

 necessities to him as a species ; take away either, and 

 he becomes something else. To endeavour to decide 

 which of the two organs is the more useful would be as 

 futile as to attempt to prove that the right wheel is 

 more essential to a dog-cart than the left. 



Consider what a helpless creature man would be 

 were his arms replaced by a second pair of legs. We 

 human beings would still be dwellers in caves, living in 

 terror of the lion, the tiger, the wolf, and the wild boar. 

 On the other hand, arms, without a suitable brain, will 

 not make a man ; for monkeys have arms. 



Since the rest of the animals do not possess these 

 organs, they must be very helpless creatures as com- 

 D 33 



