156 THE NEXT GENERATION 



More than this, in the case of man, while brain developed, 

 hand and fingers developed too, until at last the human ani- 

 mal, man, found himself the owner of a brain able to plan 

 great things, and of hands able to carry out great plans. 



Thus man stood at the beginning of his new era, and it 

 was at this point that a different kind of inheritance stepped 

 in and helped take charge of human affairs ; for after the 

 brain was well developed, each generation began to make 

 improvements of its own, and to inherit other improvements 

 which previous generations had made. 



To understand the situation, forget the present for a 

 moment ; sweep away all thought of our modern civilization, 

 all memory of our towns and of our cities, of our homes, our 

 schools, our shops, our libraries, our banks, and our churches ; 

 forget our waving fields of corn and grain, our orchards, 

 our mines, our railroads, our steamers crossing the ocean, our 

 wireless stations and our aeroplanes. 



Then go back in thought to our earliest ancestors. They 

 were men and women with bodies, brains, and hands like ours, 

 but nowhere in those prehistoric times do we find a sign of 

 the comforts and the inventions which surround us to-day. 



Without fire, living in caves, with leaves and skins for 

 covering, eating raw food as they could get it, our remote 

 ancestors lived and died in the midst of discomforts which 

 would appall us, their descendants. 



Even language was but getting its start. One by one, how- 

 ever, new sounds and new words were invented for this thing 

 and that, until, in course of time, men and women were talk- 

 ing. They could now counsel with each other. This was a 

 priceless advantage which could be passed on from one gen- 

 eration to the next. It was a giant stride upward ; not a 

 longer one, however, than was taken by the first fire-maker. 



