THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



historical conditions, into that great nebulous 

 time from which no voice sounds down to us. 

 Since that time this cave wall has remained un- 

 touched, since that time that rough knife like 

 tool of flint has remained here. Like the myth 

 of the beard of the old Kaiser, that grew 

 through the stone table in Kyffhauser and like 

 the stalactites formed particle by particle, the 

 forming of which mark the ticking of the clock 

 of time, so the falling water drops have grad- 

 ually covered the picture with a stone crust, — 

 so long has it been here. Who has painted that 

 picture ? 



Some being has certainly done it with a hand 

 that was capable of grasping a tool for sketch- 

 ing and painting. This creature must have been 

 contemporary with the mammoth. He must 

 have come into this cave with the picture in his 

 brain to which his hand gave these lines. Per- 

 haps he had fought with a mammoth itself 

 with this flint knife outside and now sketched 

 the picture with the same knife. But the cave 

 is dark. An eye must have been active in such 

 painting. Then this being must have had the 

 gift of creating light and that in a place where 

 no illuminating moss is capable of creating 

 light. Why should this being crawl back into 

 this abyss? Why did he stay here so long in- 

 active that he found time and inclination to peo- 

 ple the walls with giant animal pictures? Did 

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