TIME AND CHANGE 



from one another in their mental endowments, capa- 

 cities, and dispositions vastly more than do any 

 other creatures upon the earth. This difference 

 makes man's chances of progress so much the 

 greater; he has so many more stakes in the game. 

 If one type of talent fails, another type may win; 

 if the lymphatic temperament is not a success, try 

 the sanguine or the bilious; blue eyes and black eyes 

 and brown eyes will win more triumphs than blue 

 or black or brown alone. Arms or legs extra long, 

 sight or hearing extra sharp, wit extra keen, judg- 

 ment extra sure — all these things open doors to 

 more progress. Variation gives natural selection a 

 chance to take hold, and where the struggle for life 

 is the most severe the changes will be the most rapid 

 and the most radical. Without the pressure of the 

 environment natural selection would not select. 

 The tendency to physical variation in man is prob- 

 ably no greater than in other creatures, but his 

 tendency to mental variation is enormous. He 

 varies daily from mediocrity to genius, hence the 

 enormous range of his chances of progress. From 

 the first variation that started him on his way in 

 his line of descent, variation must have been more 

 and more active till he varied in the direction of 

 reason, long before the dawn of history, since which 

 time his progress has been by rapid strides — and 

 more and more rapid till we see his leaps forward in 

 recent times. The race owes its rapid progress to 



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