TIME AND CHANGE 



In the early Tertiary, millions of years ago, the 

 earth seems to have been ripe for man. The fruits 

 and vegetables and the forest trees were much as we 

 know them, the animals that have been most serv- 

 iceable to us were here, spring and summer and 

 fall and winter came and went, evidently birds sang, 

 insects hummed, flowers bloomed, fruits and grains 

 and nuts ripened, and yet man as man was not. 



Under the city of London is a vast deposit of 

 clay in which thousands of specimens of fossil 

 fruit have been found like our date, cocoanut, areca, 

 custard-apple, gourd, melon, coffee, bean, pepper, 

 and cotton plant, but no sign of man. Why was 

 his development so tardy? What animal profited 

 by this rich vegetable life? The hope and promise 

 of the human species at that time probably slept in 

 some lowly marsupial. Man has gathered up into 

 himself, as he traveled his devious way, all the best 

 powers of the animal kingdom he has passed through. 

 His brain supphes him with all that his body lacks, 

 and more. His specialization is in this highly de- 

 veloped organ. It is this that separates him so 

 widely from all other animals. 



Man has no wings, and yet he can soar above the 

 clouds; he is not swift of foot, and yet he can out- 

 speed the fleetest hound or horse; he has but feeble 

 weapons in his organization, and yet he can slay 

 or master all the great beasts; his eye is not so sharp 

 as that of the eagle or the vulture, and yet he can see 



26 



