MAN AND NATURE 



been described as "the tool-making animal." The 

 description is absolutely accurate; it is inclusive and 

 exclusive. No non-human animal makes any form 

 of implement to aid it in performing its daily work; 

 and contrariwise every human tribe, however low its 

 stage of savagery, makes use of more or less crude 

 forms of implements. There must have been a time, 

 to be sure, when there existed a man so low in intelli- 

 gence that he had not put into execution the idea of 

 making even the simplest tool. But the period when 

 such a man existed so vastly antedates all records that 

 it need not here concern us. For the purpose of classi- 

 fying all existing men, and all the tribes of men of 

 which history and pre-historic archaeology give us any 

 record, the definition of man as the tool-making animal 

 is accurate and sufficient. 



At first thought it might seem that an equally com- 

 prehensive definition might describe man as the working 

 animal. But a moment's consideration shows the 

 fallacy of such a suggestion. Man is, to be sure, the 

 animal that works effectively, thanks to the implements 

 with which he has learned to provide himself; but he 

 shares with all animate creatures the task of laboring 

 for his daily necessities. This is indeed a work-a-day 

 world, and no creature can live in it without taking 

 its share in that perpetual conflict which bodily neces- 

 sities make imperative. Most lower animals confine 

 their work to the mere securing of food, and to the 

 construction of rude habitations. Some, indeed, go 

 a step farther and lay up stores of food, in chance bur- 

 rows or hollow trees; a few even manufacture rela- 



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