A MILLION YEARS OF CHILDHOOD 9 



But this is mere rhetoric of the most misleading 

 character. Ten thousand years ago there was nothing 

 remotely approaching these artistic powers ; yet all 

 admit that our Beethovens and Shakespeares have 

 been developed out of Neolithic men. Five hundred 

 thousand years ago there was nothing on earth above 

 the level of a Bushman, yet no serious person doubts 

 that civilized man, even the highest, has been evolved 

 from this lowly savage of half-a-million years ago. 

 And when you remember that this early prehistoric 

 savage had already undergone a million years of 

 human development you begin to see that, if there is 

 any mystery about man's advance, it is in the slow- 

 ness of the advance during an appallingly long period. 

 The race has made more progress during the last ten 

 thousand years than it made during the first million 

 years of its existence. It is, therefore, quite absurd to 

 raise difficulties about the early period of man's 

 evolution. 



For our present purpose, however, it is important 

 to try to understand this earlier and longer period. 

 If we can ascertain why man made so little advance 

 during the earlier period, we have a clue to the more 

 rapid progress of recent times. One part of the 

 explanation is clear, and it must be noted at once. 

 Whatever be the share of heredity in evolution — a 

 point still in dispute, though the importance of 

 heredity is certainly far greater than used to be 

 thought — the work of environment, of natural selec- 

 tion, is clearly essential. Now the modern environ- 

 ment of civilized man intensely favours intelligence. 

 It is still a very imperfectly organized environment 

 for the promotion of fine character, but it does 

 undoubtedly promote mental power. That is one 



