THE LONG ROAD 



tige — of no use any more. Our dread of snakes we 

 no doubt inherited from our simian ancestors. 



How life refined and humanized as time went on, 

 sobered down and became more meditative, keep- 

 ing step, no doubt, with the amelioration of the soil 

 out of which all life finally comes. Life's bank ac- 

 count in the soil was constantly increasing; more 

 and more of the inorganic was wrought up into the 

 organic; the value of every clod underfoot was raised. 

 The riot of gigantic forms ceased, and they became 

 ashes. The giant and uncouth vegetation ceased, 

 and left ashes or coal. The beech, the maple, the 

 oak, the olive, the palm came in. The giant sea- 

 serpents disappeared; the horse, the ox, the swine, 

 the dog, the quail, the dove came in. The placental 

 mammals developed. The horse grew in size and 

 beauty. When we first come upon his trail, he is a 

 four-hoof- toed animal no larger than a fox. Later 

 on we find him the size of a sheep with one of his 

 toes gone; still later — many hundred thousand 

 years, no doubt — we find him the size of a donkey, 

 with still fewer toes, and so on till we reach the 

 superb creature we know. 



The creative energy seems to have worked in 

 geologic time and in the geologic field just as it 

 works here and now, in yonder vineyard or in yonder 

 marsh, — blindly, experimentally, but persistently 

 and successfully. The winged seeds find their proper 

 soil, because they search in every direction; the 



S3 



