TIME AND CHANGE 



the amphibians in July or August, the reptiles in 

 August or September, the mammals in October or 

 November, and man in December, — separated 

 from the first beginnings of life by all those mil- 

 lions upon millions of years. 



If life is a ferment, as we are told it is, how long 

 it took this yeast to leaven the whole loaf! Man 

 is evidently the end of the series, he is the top of 

 the biological tree. His specialization upon physical 

 lines seems to have ended far back in geologic time; 

 his future speciaHzation and development is evi- 

 dently to be upon mental and spiritual lines. Na- 

 ture, as I have said, began to tend more and more to 

 brains in the early Tertiary, — the autumn of the 

 great year; her best harvest began to mature then, 

 her grain began to ripen. Indeed, this increased 

 cephalization of animal life in the fall of the great 

 year does suggest a kind of ripening process, the 

 turning of the sap and milk, which had been so 

 abundant and so riotous in the earlier period, into 

 fibre and fruit and seed. 



May it not be that that long and sultry spring and 

 summer of the earth's early history, a time prob- 

 ably longer than has since elapsed, played a part 

 in the development of life analogous to that played 

 by our spring and summer, making it opulent, varied, 

 gigantic, and making possible the condensation 

 and refinement that came with man in the recent 

 period.'^ 



22 



