THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 251 



at the helix, gave him the trumpet. Two flints 

 struck together yielded fire. 



Trifling, almost puerile, as these beginnings look to 

 us now, remember they were once the serious realities 

 of life. The club and spear of the savage are toys 

 to us to-day ; but we forget that the rude shafts 

 of wood which adorn our halls were all the world 

 to early Man, and represented the highest expression 

 and daily instrument of his evolution. These primi- 

 tive weapons are the pathetic expression of the 

 world's first Struggle. As the earliest contribution 

 of mankind to solve its still fundamental difficulty 

 — the problem of Nutrition — they are of enduring 

 interest to the human race. So far from being, 

 as one might suppose, mere implements of de- 

 struction, they are implements of self-preservation; 

 they entered the world not from hate of Man but for 

 love of life. Why was the spear invented, and the 

 sling, and the bow ? In the first instance because 

 Man needed the bird and the deer for food. Why 

 from implements of the chase did they change i ito 

 implements of war? Because other men warued 

 the bird and the deer, and the first possessor, as 

 populations multiplied, must protect his food-supply. 

 The parent of all industries is Hunger : the creator 

 of civilization in its earlier forms is the Struggle 

 for Life. 



