242 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



This is how birds live, and this is how birds are 

 made. They are the children of Struggle. Beak 

 and limb, claw and wing, shape, strength, all down 

 to the last detail, are the expressions of their mode 

 of life. 



This is how the early savage lived, and this is 

 how he was made. The first practical problem in 

 the Ascent of Man was to get him started on his 

 upward path. It was not enough for Nature to 

 equip him with a body, and plant his foot on the 

 lowest rung of the ladder. She must introduce into 

 her economy some great principle which should 

 secure, not for him alone but for every living thing, 

 that they should work upward toward the top. 

 The inertia of things is such that without compul- 

 sion they will never move. And so admirably has 

 this compulsion been applied that its forces are 

 hidden in the very nature of life itself — the very 

 act of living contains within it the principles of 

 progress. An animal cannot be without beco7ning. 



The first great principle into the hands of which 

 this mighty charge was given is the Struggle 

 for Life. It is one of the chief keys for un- 

 locking the mystery of Man's Ascent, and so im- 

 portant in all development that Mr. Darwin assigns 

 it the supreme rank among the factors in Evolution. 

 " Unless," he says, " it be thoroughly engrained in 



