MAN AND NATURE 



that is its counterpart, as he doubtless never would 

 have done had he remained subject to the more pam- 

 pering conditions of the tropics. 



The most important, perhaps, of the new things 

 which he was taught by the seemingly adverse condi- 

 tions of an inhospitable climate, was to provide for 

 the needs of a wandering life and of varying seasons 

 by domesticating animals that could afford him an 

 ever-present food supply. In so doing he ceased to be 

 a mere fisher and hunter, and became a herdsman. 

 One other step, and he had conceived the idea of pro- 

 viding for himself a supply of vegetable foods, to take 

 the place of that which nature had provided so boun- 

 tifully in his old home in the tropics. When this idea 

 was put into execution man became an agriculturist, and 

 had entered upon the high road to civilization. 



All these stages of progress had been entered upon 

 prior to the time of which the oldest known remains 

 of the cave-dweller give us knowledge. It were idle 

 to conjecture the precise sequence in which these earliest 

 steps toward civilization were taken, and even more 

 idle to conjecture the length of time which elapsed 

 between one step and its successor. But all questions 

 of precise sequence aside, it is clear that here were 

 four or five great ages succeeding one to another, that 

 marked the onward and upward progress of our prim- 

 eval ancestor before he achieved the stage of devel- 

 opment that enabled him to leave permanent records 

 of his existence. And what is particularly signifi- 

 cant from our present standpoint it is equally clear 

 that each of the great ages thus vaguely outlined was 



