An Introduction to a Biology 



to acquire the habit of predicting the perform- 

 ance of things, of extending the limits of its 

 vision and of pushing its horizon farther and 

 farther away. 



Life during man's defenceless infancy was so 

 hazardous and earnest a thing that, although the 

 mind by its power of foretelling had insinuated itself 

 into the position of leader previously occupied by 

 the hand, the whole activity of the mind, the only 

 weapon man had, had to be concentrated upon 

 securing the victory in the desperate struggle for 

 his very existence. But in the period of rest which 

 followed the decisive victory which the mind, 

 operating through the hand, won over the elements 

 and the wild beasts, the mind, accustomed to cease- 

 less activity, could not lapse into idleness. It would 

 need a rest, but it would take it, not by doing nothing 

 but by doing something else. Much of it would be 

 needed to retain the ascendancy which he had 

 established, to consolidate the position which he 

 had won. Much of it would be devoted to the 

 peaceful arts of industry and agriculture. But some 

 of it would be free to wander where it listed. Ex- 

 hausted by actual wandering in space, it would take 

 its rest by imagined wandering in time. Only in 

 the case of men like Alfred the Great are all these 

 three activities to be found within the compass of 

 a single mind. As a rule, a man is destined by the 

 original direction of his soul to be either warrior, 

 husbandman or poet. That, however, is a minor 

 point. 



Once the mind has won the leisure which enabled 

 it to wander, there were no limits to its discoursings. 



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