An Introduction to a Biology 



of man life had to express itself through, the arduous 

 medium of modifying its own form ; but with the 

 origin of man life had, like an aeroplane just rising 

 from the ground, gathered sufficient momentum to 

 lift itself from the arduous plane of self- modification 

 to the more elastic medium of a supple intelligence 

 which could give form to matter without incor- 

 porating that matter with its own body. It is as 

 if the superabundant energy of life, which could 

 only spend a mere fraction of itself through that 

 cumbrous medium, the modification of its own form, 

 burst forth, when once that brake was taken ofi 

 by the invention of detachable organs, into a wild 

 career of evolution driven onward by the immense 

 reserves of energy pent up within it. 



§5 



It is a commonplace that it was the assumption 

 of the erect posture by man which released his fore 

 limbs from the drudgery and routine of locomotion, 

 and set free his hands for more delicate and versatile 

 use. But it should be remembered that it was be- 

 cause man had preserved the simple pentadactylous 

 hand of his amphibious ancestors, and had resisted 

 every temptation to specialise his hand in the various 

 directions in which it has been differentiated through- 

 out the vertebrate series ; it was because the line 

 of life which led to man bided its time in this way 

 that when the intelligence of man had reached the 

 stage at which it could devise and fashion imple- 

 ments, his hands were of a form and of a sensitiveness 

 suitable for the purpose. 



Or suppose we do not incline to the view that 



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