THE PHANTOMS BEHIND US 



processes, or the evolutionary processes; they are 

 formed on the pattern of our own brief span of Hfe. 

 In a few cases in the familiar life about us we see the 

 evolutionary process abridged, and transformations 

 like those of unrecorded time take place before our 

 eyes, as when the tadpole becomes the frog or the 

 grub becomes the butterfly. These rapid changes 

 are analogous to those which in the depths of geo- 

 logic time have evolved the bird from the fish or the 

 reptile, or the seal and the manatee from a four- 

 footed land animal. Our common bluebird has long 

 been recognized as a descendant of the thrush family ; 

 this origin is evident in the speckled breast of the 

 young birds and in the voices of the mature birds. 

 I have heard a bluebird with an unmistakable thrush 

 note. The transformation has doubtless been so 

 slow that an analogous change taking place in any 

 of the bird forms of our own time would entirely 

 escape observation. The bluebird may have been 

 as long in getting his blue coat as man has been in 

 getting his upright position. 



Looking into the laws and processes of the com- 

 mon nature about us for clues to the origin of man 

 is not unlike looking into the records of the phono- 

 graph for the secret of the music which that won- 

 derful instrument voices for us. Something, some 

 active principle or agent, has to invoke the music 

 that slumbers or is latent in these lines. 



In like manner some principle or force that we 



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