An Introduction to a Biology 



for instance, who was flaying a kid with an instru- 

 ment not also adapted for defence would be at a 

 great disadvantage if he were suddenly attacked. 

 But there had soon to be a parting of the ways ; 

 and the difference between essential features of the 

 evolutions along the two diverging routes of weapon 

 and tool may be glanced at. 



§ 7 , 



In fighting or hunting, a prime necessity is to 

 hit your enemy or your quarry before he can hit 

 you, and the dominion of man over the other animals 

 means nothing more than that he can outrange 

 them. This outranging is effected by the artificial 

 elongation of the arm in two ways : either by the 

 actual elongation of the spear or lance which is 

 too good to throw away, or by throwing a detach- 

 able weapon, which may be anything from a stone 

 to an explosive shell. 



He who stands upon the parapet of the great 

 earthen fortress upon the crest of the White Horse 

 Hill, in Berkshire, near Uffington, which was Uffa's 

 farm, but nearer to Woolstone, which was Wulfric's, 

 and withdraws his gaze, in space, from the great 

 Vale spread before him, past the green hollow 

 at the foot of the hill, where from five sources the 

 crystal Ock tumbles and splashes out of the hidden 

 face of the chalk (and doubtless supplied the garrison 

 with water), and, casting his mind's eye back- 

 wards in time a thousand and few hundred years, 

 to the days when not far from there the hosts of King 

 Alfred defeated the Danes, pictures to himself how 

 attackers of the fortress would have to scramble 



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