4 A WONDERER UNDER SEA 



Teachings of man's activities on the planet. I must prove 

 this latter statement before I go any farther. 



As far as we can tell from our present knowledge, life, 

 in all the cosmos, has come into existence only certainly 

 upon the Earth and possibly upon Mars. The former was 

 a momentous occasion and of infinitely greater import 

 to us than any other — except one. 



This exception I call the First Wonderer, and it has 

 become very real to me since I saw the expression on the 

 face of a man, sculptured in bronze, and squatting in the 

 center of the great drawing room of the Bohemian Club 

 in San Francisco. He is half seated, half crouched, and 

 with two flints he has just struck a spark. But the ex- 

 pression on his face seems to me not amazement at the 

 flash, not astonishment at something new, not mental 

 adumbration of future possible uses — but a struggling 

 wonder at the half -realization that he knows he is won- 

 dering. 



Here is an event equal in importance, to you and to me, 

 with the beginnings of life itself. We know that this 

 figure deserves to be called a man — that his nth, nth, 

 nth great-grandchild will be Rodin's "Thinker," able to 

 stand up and say "I am I," something that no ant or ele- 

 phant can ever do, no crow, dog, monkey, nor any con- 

 tented dweller in Nirvana or Garden of Eden. 



The direct relation that this has to our theme is that it 

 marked the first great extension of human activity, first 

 within, introspection, and then out and around, inclusive 



