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368 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



certain number of the more useful routes established 

 before the babe can be trusted from its Mother's 

 side, that the delay of Infancy is required. And 

 even after the child has begun to practise the art 

 of living for itself, time has still to be granted for 

 many purposes — for new route-making, for becoming 

 familiar with established thoroughfares, for practising 

 upon obstacles and gradients, for learning to perform 

 the journeys quickly and without fatigue, for allow- 

 ing acts repeated to accelerate and embody them- 

 selves as habits. In the savage state, where the 

 after-life is simple, the adjustments are made with 

 comparative ease and speed ; but as we rise in the 

 scale of civilization the necessary period of Infancy 

 lengthens step by step until in the case of the 

 most highly educated man, where adjustments must 

 be made to a wide intellectual environment, the 

 age of tutelage extends for almost a quarter of a 

 century. 



The use of all this to morals, the reactions 

 especially upon the Mother, are too obvious to 

 dwell on. Till the brain arrived, everything was too 

 brief, too rapid for ethical achievements ; animals 

 were in a hurry to be born, children thirsted to 

 be free. There was no helplessness to pity, no 

 pain to relieve, no quiet hours, no watching; to 

 the Mother no moment of suspense — the inost 



