THE PHANTOMS BEHIND US 



upon the form that she perfected in man, who 

 knows ? 



The horse appears to have been evolved in North 

 America, true cattle in Asia, elephants in Africa. 

 Can we narrow their line of descent down to a single 

 pair for each? Many forms allied to the horse ap 

 peared in Europe and Asia in Miocene times. We 

 find monkeys in different parts of the world in the 

 same geologic horizons; did they all have a com 

 mon origin? 



Life s apprenticeship has been a long one. The 

 earlier forms of vertebrate life were very large; later 

 they became very small. Nature seems to have ex 

 perimented with bulk, as if she thought size would 

 win in the race. Hence those huge uncouth forms 

 among the reptiles and early mammals. The scheme 

 did not work well; bulk was not the thing, after all. 

 Most of the gigantic forms became extinct. Then 

 she tried smaller and more agile forms with larger 

 brains less flesh and more wit. On this line Na 

 ture continued to work till she produced her mas 

 terpiece in man a rather feeble and nearly wea 

 ponless animal, but with an intangible armory of 

 weapons and tools in his brain that enables him 

 to put all creatures under his feet. 



