EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



and then crying ; possessed of an almost ludicrous- 

 ly hypersensitive interior ; unable to fast for more 

 than two or three hours, yet having the most pre- 

 cise and complicated dietetic requirements ; needing 

 the most carefully maintained warmth; easily in- 

 jured by draughts ; the prey of bacteria (which take 

 up a permanent abode in its alimentary canal by 

 the eleventh day) where is to be found a more 

 complete picture of helpless dependence? Can 

 we wonder that one in seven, even in the most 

 wealthy and civilized lands, dies before the first 

 anniversary of its birthday? 



Yet this is the creature which has spread over 

 the earth so that he numbers some fifteen hun- 

 dred millions to-day. He is the "lord of creation," 

 master of creatures bigger, stronger, fleeter, longer- 

 lived than himself. The earth is his and the ful- 

 ness thereof. Yet without love not one single speci- 

 men of him has a chance of reaching maturity, 

 or even surviving for a week. Verily love is the 

 greatest thing in the world. 1 



1 The infant's requirements, if I interpret them aright, 

 afford an evolutionary explanation of at least one adult feat- 

 ure which has often puzzled me. For sleep it is desirable to 

 exclude light and sound; while we have eyelids, no appartus 

 for closing the ears is known save, I believe, in certain animals 

 which inhabit the sea, and whose ears are of small auditory 

 importance. In these days, when barrel organs assail us with 

 the "Ave Maria," playing Bach's accompaniment in G and 

 Gounod's air in somewhat more than G, and when the motor- 

 car makes night hideous, one sighs for earlids. And I have 

 even wondered why natural selection has not so endowed us; 

 for it might seem an advantage to be able at will to protect 

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