An Introduction to a Biology 



the invention of the wheel and the domestication 

 of the horse can never be more than subject for 

 guesswork, but it is probable that as a human 

 instrument the cart came before the horse. The 

 need for a strong animal to pull a big cart may 

 have been the chief incentive to the domestication 

 of the horse, but it is known that the cart came 

 before the saddle. Man, by the invention of the 

 wheel, as everywhere else in his battle with matter, 

 has secured an advantage only at the price of com- 

 mensurate danger. For although in most cases 

 this brake imposed by Nature was a hindrance, there 

 are times when it is a necessitv ; as when the driver 

 of a tram-car puts, or tries to put, the brake on 

 again when his car is running down a gradient. And 

 in general, although it cannot be doubted that the 

 material welfare of man has been immensely in- 

 creased by the invention of the wheel, without which 

 the machinery necessary to modern industry would 

 be impossible, it is extremely doubtful whether his 

 spiritual welfare has been increased to a like extent ; 

 and it is certain that the wheel has been responsible 

 for many horrible deaths and for many miserable 

 lives. True, without the wheel we should be with- 

 out the automobile and the cinema ; but without 

 it we should also have escaped many of the horrors 

 of civilisation. However, it is too late now. We 

 have grown the wheel and we cannot — at any rate, 

 we will not — cut it off. The earliest form of wheel 

 was probably a tree-trunk along which an object 

 too heavy to lift, like the gigantic monoliths of 

 Stonehenge, was rolled. From this clumsy stage 



a great stride was made forward by the invention 



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