2 A MILLION YEARS OF CHILDHOOD 



We now know that there was a time when the 

 whole human race had no more title to be called 

 civilized than has to-day the most primitive wanderer 

 in the forests of Central Africa ; and that somehow 

 the greater part of the race has risen very far above 

 that condition. Thus " the evolution of civilization " 

 means the slow and gradual development of the higher 

 and more complex institutions — the higher standards 

 of art and knowledge and commerce and politics — 

 which do, in spite of all their defects, raise us to a 

 level of thought and sentiment which is as high above 

 that of early man as his level was above that of the 

 man-like apes. 



The story of man before he became civilized was 

 told in my earlier work, and all that we need do 

 here is to consider certain features of it which it is 

 important to bear in mind. This is important not 

 only as knowledge of the past, but even for the proper 

 understanding of our position to-day. Most people 

 know the theory which Mr. G. B. Shaw has for some 

 years been hurling at our degenerate human race. 

 He has lately re-affirmed it very emphatically in his 

 Back to Methuselah. The human race, he says, has 

 had a long trial, and has proved unworthy of its 

 high destiny. It is therefore possible that the Vital 

 Principle — Mr. Shaw's God, or Soul of the Universe — 

 will withdraw from humanity, and take up some other- 

 branch of the tree of life for the highest purposes. 



This is an extreme and grotesque form of pessimism. 

 It is now absolutely impossible for any other branch 

 of the animal world to overtake, much less outstrip , 

 humanity in intellectual development. But the pessi- 

 mistic feeling which has driven Mr. Shaw to imagine 

 this absurdity is, in more or less degree, shared by 



