xvm GAINS FKOM KNOWLEDGE 223 



number of steps, each one insignificant in itself. 

 The great men mark the fact that during such and 

 such a time so much progress has been made, but 

 the great onward sweep of knowledge has come as 

 truly from the work of the lesser as from that of the 

 greater men. We cannot all do great work ; we 

 cannot hope that the work of each one of us will 

 mark the beginning of a period, but we should not 

 forget that the doing of small pieces of work lies 

 within our power, and that is one of the great 

 necessities for progress. 



Here is an interesting little quotation from a 

 book by a French author, called Anatole France, on 

 this subject. The hero of the book has been talk- 

 ing to his little boy about the first men of Europe, 

 who lived in caves and had only weapons of flint 

 or of bone, and who yet had learnt many things. 

 He ends up by saying : 



" But the task is not yet finished. We should 

 be less generous than the Men of the Caves if, now 

 that our turn has come, we did not strive to render 

 life better and more secure for our children than it 

 is for ourselves. For that there are two secrets 

 loving and knowing. By knowledge and by love 

 the world is made." 



We have seen here that what the slow develop- 

 ment of agriculture has done has been " to render 

 life better and more secure " for mankind, but in 



