40 "THE COMING OF MAN 



brought under the control of the seeing, combining and con- 

 trolling brain. Training of the hand and finger under the di- 

 rection of the eye means mental development. The brain of 

 an anthropoid is an organ of vast complexity which bristles 

 with possibilities. The ape is no longer a mere reflexive or 

 instinctive machine. He learns by experience and has far 

 more than a dawning intelligence. He has achieved much, he 

 is still indefinitely far from anything approaching complete 

 attainment. 



Arboreal training can do little more for him. Complete 

 adaptation to arboreal life might make him a sloth. It is 

 high time he was promoted to a different school with more 

 difficult problems better suited to awaken his dawning powers. 

 But " there's the rub." That school must be on the ground 

 which is in possession of the keen, swift, athletic, gladiatorial 

 well-armed carnivora. He is weak, defenceless, unfitted for 

 swift locomotion on the ground. The chances are all against 

 him. Why should he descend? Nature seems to have blun- 

 dered. She has given the weapons, skill and strength to the 

 brute; the better brain with all its possibilities is in the head 

 of a weakling. She ought to have kept them both combined 

 in one individual or group. Now they are hopelessly sep- 

 arated. The outlook is certainly anything but encouraging. 



