150 THE DAWN OF MIND. 



stance only equalled in strangeness by another— 

 the suddenness with which that rise took place. Both 

 facts are without a parallel in nature. Why, of the 

 countless thousands of species of animals, each with 

 some shadowy rudiment of a Mind, all should have 

 remained comparatively at the same dead level, 

 while Man alone shot past and developed powers of 

 a quality and with a speed unknown in the world's 

 history, is a question which it is impossible not to 

 raise. That by far the greatest step in the world's 

 history should not only have been taken at the 

 eleventh hour, but that it took only an hour to do 

 it — for compared with the time when animals began 

 their first activities, the birth of Man is a thing of 

 yesterday — seems almost the denial of Evolution. 

 What was it in Man's case that gave his mental 

 powers their unprecedented start or facilitated a 

 growth so rapid and so vast? 



The factors in all Evolution, and above all in this, 

 are too subtle to encourage one to speculate with 

 final assurance on so fine a problem. Nevertheless, 

 when it is asked, What brought about this sudden 

 rise of intelligence in the case of Man, there is a 

 wonderful unanimity among men of science as to the 

 answer. It came about, it is supposed, in connection 

 with the acquisition by Man of the power to express 

 his mind, that is to speak. Evolution, up to this time, 

 had only one way of banking the gains it won — hered- 

 ity. To hand on any improvement physically was 

 a slow and precarious work. But with the discovery 

 of language there arose a new method of passing on a 

 step in progress. Instead of sowing the gain on the 

 wind of heredity, it was fastened on the wings of 



