COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



" During the first stages of human progress, 

 the method of estimating epochs does not differ 

 in nature from that employed by the more in- 

 telligent animals. There are historical traces of 

 the fact that originally the civilized races ad- 

 justed their actions to the longer sequences in 

 the environment just as Australians and Bush- 

 men do now, by observing their coincidence 

 with the migrations of birds, the floodings of 

 rivers, the flowerings of plants. And it is ob- 

 vious that the savages who, after the ripening 

 of a certain berry, travel to the seashore, know- 

 ing that they will then find a particular shell- 

 fish in season, are guided by much the same 

 process as the dog who, on seeing the cloth 

 laid for dinner, goes to the window to watch 

 for his master. But when these phenomena of 

 the seasons are observed to coincide with re- 

 curring phenomena in the heavens, — when, as 

 was the case with the aboriginal Hottentots, 

 periods come to be measured partly by astro- 

 nomical and partly by terrestrial changes, — 

 then we see making its appearance a means 

 whereby the correspondence in time may be in- 

 definitely extended. The sun's daily move- 

 ments and the monthly phases of the moon 

 having once been generalized, and some small 

 power of counting having been reached, it be- 

 comes possible to recognize the interval between 

 antecedents and consequents that are long apart, 

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