THE PHANTOMS BEHIND US 



upon the form that she perfected in man, who 

 knows ? 



The horse appears to have been evolved in North 

 America, true cattle in Asia, elephants in Africa. 

 Can we narrow their line of descent down to a single 

 pair for each? Many forms allied to the horse ap- 

 peared in Europe and Asia in Miocene times. We 

 find monkeys in different parts of the world in the 

 same geologic horizons; did they all have a com- 

 mon origin? 



Life's apprenticeship has been a long one. The 

 earlier forms of vertebrate life were very large; later 

 they became very small. Nature seems to have ex- 

 perimented with bulk, as if she thought size w^ould 

 win in the race. Hence those huge uncouth forms 

 among the reptiles and early mammals. The scheme 

 did not work well; bulk was not the thing, after all. 

 Most of the gigantic forms became extinct. Then 

 she tried smaller and more agile forms with larger 

 brains — less flesh and more wit. On this line Na- 

 ture continued to work tiU she produced her mas- 

 terpiece in man — a rather feeble and nearly wea- 

 ponless animal, but with an intangible armory of 

 weapons and tools in his brain that enables him 

 to put all creatures under his feet. 



