WHY PROGRESS IS BY LEAPS. 217 



gains which follow in the train of conquered electricity, but also 

 with regard to every other signal victory which has brought man 

 to his present pinnacle of power and insight. If in former ad- 

 vances this permutative principle has been undetected, it stands 

 forth in clearest relief in that latest and therefore utmost stride 

 of skill and interpretation ushered in by Franklin, Volta, and 

 Faraday. And we shall presently note that this permutative 

 tendency offers a key to some puzzling chapters in the biography 

 of the creatures which man has far outstripped in the race of life, 

 and may also shed a needed ray on the story of the planet where 

 they and he have together struggled and vanquished or suc- 

 cumbed. If all this may be maintained, a permutative tendency 

 can perhaps be suggested with respect to evolution in general as 

 colorab]y as with regard to development in particular realms. Is 

 this a large claim ? To the evidence, then : 



By way of preface, let us for a moment consider the achieve- 

 ment most worthy to be compared with the conquest of electricity, 

 and, indeed, its necessary precursor. 



When man first kindled fire, he rose to a new primacy among 

 created beings. Long before that fateful day he must have no- 

 ticed how the blaze of a tree riven by lightning could bring roots 

 and herbs to refreshing palatability, or, as a far volcano welled 

 forth its lava, how welcome the radiance in wintry air. What, he 

 may have thought, if I can summon fire at my bidding instead of 

 waiting upon heaven to let it fall or earth to belch it forth ? How 

 the wish came to fulfillment has been the subject of many an in- 

 genious guess. The likeliest of them imagines that in striking a 

 bit of quartz against a flint to point an arrow, a spark fell on dry 

 tinder, and that what at first was accident was soon repeated by 

 design. No piecemeal acquisition this, like learning to hit a 

 mark with stone or bolt. The man barely able to light a fire was 

 enormously advantaged as compared with his fellow, however 

 dexterous, who just fell short of this skill. At once the fire- 

 maker took a bound forward that decisively withdrew him from 

 his next of kin. It was as if the globe had expanded itself be- 

 neath his tread ; for now, no longer chained by the sunbeam, all 

 the frozen north was added to his hunting ground. The burning 

 brand cleared his path through the forest or shaped from a tree 

 trunk his rude canoe. It lifted the dreary pall of night. His 

 hearth, heaped with boughs, cheered with light as well as warmth, 

 and became the family rallying place and altar. Baneful roots 

 buried in its embers lost their poison and furnished a toothsome 

 meal, while food of many kinds when roasted or seethed was im- 

 proved in flavor and could be longer stored to abridge the seesaw 

 between plenty and want. As the cook daubed clay on her roast- 

 ing tray of twigs that it might the better withstand flame, she 



VOL. XLIX. 19 



