102 ^HE COMING OF MAN 



was weak and defenceless, he used a pebble or sharp stone 

 as a weapon, and learned to shape an axe and other tools. 

 Population increased and game became scarce; he became an 

 agriculturist. Society arose and new needs with it. There 

 is interdependence and mutual aid and cooperation. Man has 

 become a moral being; and has discovered a spiritual world 

 which alone can satisfy his spiritual needs. 



Man's greatest, most valuable and essential assets and pos- 

 session are probably not his attainments, for these are small; 

 not his Castles in Spain, for these are remote; they are his 

 ever-present bitter needs. ^ From them spring discovery, in- 

 vention, progress. As soon as these are satisfied, we die. It 

 is as well we should. Nature does not spoil her children as 

 fond parents do. 



Man selected certain materials furnished by Nature and has 

 given them a form answering to his needs. From a pauper 

 dependent on her gifts he has become a partner, possibly a 

 leading partner, with her. Here and there he is trying to 

 make her his servant. He has framed a new environment, 

 built up between himself and her as a defence against her 

 slings and arrows, and as a means of farther utilization of 

 her bountiful gifts. This environment is to some small ex- 

 tent natural, but very largely artificial, the work of his hands. 

 He, not Nature, has framed it; it is his experiment. Without 

 it, sometimes with it, he remains a savage. It increases in 

 amount, complexity, advantages, opportunities and dangers 

 with the progress of civilization. 



But while he has been fashioning and building it, and be- 

 come more and more dependent upon it, it has steadily changed 

 and molded him for better and worse. He adds arts and 

 sciences unattainable without it. But the artificial environ- 

 ment tends to master and enslave him. He craves not only 

 the supply of his natural, but of a host of artificial needs, some 

 of which are or may be excellent. He craves luxuries satisfy- 

 ing every appetite, desire and whim; life has become strangely, 

 intolerably dull, he must have artificial stimulants and all 



* loi :6o. 



