112 "THE COMING OF MAN 



seems to be making a losing bargain, while the dominant is 

 conspicuous and his success dazzling. 



Why did any of our ancestors choose a path which sacrificed 

 present ease and comfort to future attainment? They had 

 no choice. Stronger and better armed ganoids forced the prim- 

 itive amphibian ancestor up-stream, and climatic changes 

 drove him out on land. Reptiles taught primitive mammals 

 to be watchful and wary. Morally speaking the carnivora, 

 or possibly reptiles, boosted our primate ancestor into arboreal 

 Hfe. 



Nature's system of education is very simple. She puts the 

 progressive form under conditions where it must die or form 

 habits and environment, which will insure exercise of the 

 higher powers and the development of the highest organs. 

 Many shrink back, balk or fail and die. Some, perhaps only 

 a saving remnant, survive and attain the next higher stage. 

 Here again the same process is repeated. 



Such a system of education is severe and unsparing. Our 

 ancestors were well fed and contented in the water, they were 

 driven out on land. They had just begun to enjoy life on 

 the ground when they were driven into the trees, whence they 

 were later driven down again. Nature's fairy wand is the 

 spur of necessity. She treated all our ancestors much as Poor 

 Joe in Bleak House complained that Detective Bucket had 

 treated him: ^' He always kept a-chivying of me and a-tell- 

 ing me to move on." 



The chivying process seems necessary. When a group of 

 animals has remained for a time under conditions where 

 struggle and effort are unnecessary, further development seems 

 impossible for them. Life acts like wet plaster. As long as 

 you stir it vigorously, you can mold it as you will. Set it 

 down and it soon hardens into a useless mass. 



The pressure of adversity does more than prevent individu- 

 als or groups from straying from the right path and to con- 

 fine them to the line of progress. We have already noticed 

 in the case of man that his deepest needs have often or usually 

 been his best assets. A certain amount of hardship and ad- 



