296 Proceedings of the Boy at Physical Society. 



garden of Nature, nor with the precarioiisness of the showers 

 of heaven which water them. He plants his own vineyard, 

 and waters it if necessary. He not only recognises the 

 physical cause of a given effect, hut often adjusts the cause 

 so as to produce the effect. Instead of being entirely con- 

 trolled by nature, he, to a large extent, controls the opera- 

 tions of nature, or takes means to counteract them. In 

 short, he reasons both by induction and deduction. The 

 primary step which enabled Homo sapiens to shoot up so 

 conspicuously above all his fellow- creatures was very simple, 

 probably a pure accident due to some change in the environ- 

 ment. For some reason or other one of the semi-erect 

 Quadrumana of the Tertiary period, probably of arboreal 

 habits, took to walking on his hind legs. The fore limbs, being 

 thus set free from taking part in the work of locomotion and 

 the support of the body, were henceforth exclusively used as 

 manipulative organs, or hands. Bipedal locomotion was, of 

 itself, an insignificant change, displaying less mechanical 

 ingenuity than the flying apparatus of the Pterodactyle. 

 Nor was it an innovation on the evolutionary processes 

 previously in vogue in the animal world, as any one must 

 acknowledge who has watched the firm and dignified mien 

 of that comical looking creature, the Penguin, now in the 

 Zoological Gardens in London, as he makes his bipedal 

 perambulations around his premises. The new element 

 consequent on the attainment of the erect attitude by man, 

 was the use to which the hands were put. By substituting 

 for Nature's appliances, implements, weapons, and tools made 

 by his own hands, new stimulants for thought were brought 

 on the stage of life, the consequences of which were pro- 

 found and far-reaching. Thus man may be distinguished 

 from all other animals by the fact that he alone can 

 manufacture and use tools skilfully. Having elsewhere 

 ("Prehistoric Problems," chap, ii.) discussed the influence 

 which the attainment of the erect posture, with its con- 

 comitant morphological changes, had on the intellectual 

 development of man, I need not here pursue this part of 

 the subject. 



The Biblical account of the creation of the world and the 



