Physical Evolution of Man 593 



come to occupy adjacent areas of countrj^; that one had a more 

 perfect, the other a less perfect manual dexterity in fashioning 

 weapons of war; that the one also had a less rudimentary, the 

 other a more rudimentary language. The former, in measur- 

 ing themselves by cognitic and cogitic action against the latter, 

 would plan or proenviron new and more perfect weapons than 

 their less dexterous neighbors, and in battle — as in more recent 

 football games — would agree to shout the most perfect words 

 for command or team action. The others, poorer alike in 

 planning, in executing, and in linguistic stimulation, would be 

 crushed, unless other and compensating advantages aided 

 them. Environal stimulation and proenvironal aspiration or 

 outreaching to secure best results — as yet unattained — would 

 combine to ensure victory. 



Such was the biological history of Roman conquest over the 

 tribes or nations of Europe and i\.sia. Such still is the history 

 of wars and conquests, where the action of millions of erstwhile 

 fighting hands are concentrated in death-dealing cannon, in 

 explosive bombs, and in repeating guns, aided by the far- 

 reaching linguistic capacity of the telegraph wire, the telephone, 

 or wireless signaling. 



Equally true is it, however, that in spite of disintegrating 

 agencies at work, hand, eye, and bram, as parts of the physical 

 frame, have acted and reacted to map out and struggle toward 

 a proenvironal position and result that lifts man ever higher 

 in physical well-being, in mental superiority to his primitive 

 ancestors, and in enjoyment of progressive social and national 

 peace and prosperity. This has involved synthesis, growth, 

 continued life, and that on an ever higher plane. 



Speech, as Emerson claimed, has had not a little to do with 

 raising man from the state of "a beast in the forest,*' but we 

 would emphatically affirm that had man remained a four-footed 

 beast, instead of gradually becoming a hand-and-foot beast, 

 his brain would have remained relatively simple, his speech 

 would have continued on a level with that of the dog or the cat, 

 his aspirations would have remained limited, and his thought 

 would still have been "chained to the dust." 



