THE EPOCH OF HOPE 89 



possess. I have in the last chapter illustrated how the Human 

 Mind has been evolved on the same principles as that of an 

 animal, child or savage up to a certain point in its develop- 

 ment of thought and imagination. I have shown that in 

 childhood observation and imagination are much more active 

 than in after life ; so also in the savage we find the same 

 qualities are more marked than in more civilised communities, 

 and in some ways his memory is more retentive of observation 

 but is less active as regards thought, imagination and compre- 

 hension. But in the same way his physical qualities are 

 often more pronounced, such as touch, smell, etc., and these 

 again are more strongly developed in animals than in men. 



But in after life man's powers of observation and imagina- 

 tion decrease as he acquires knowledge and regains the powers 

 of memory. As in the earlier ages of the evolution of his 

 mind, we find these qualities exert a greater influence on his 

 actions than they do in his subsequent development, so we 

 find his imagination is stronger at this period of evolution 

 than at any other stage of creation, which is one of the reasons 

 why superstitions and magic are the groundwork of all early 

 forms of religious beliefs, and why, as the mind and soul of 

 mankind is further evolved by knowledge and science, man's 

 soul clamours for a more reasonable elucidation of his beliefs. 



But to return to the age we are now reviewing in the course 

 of evolution with our Tables of Trinity, we find that this age 

 of civilisation and the dawn in mankind of the faculty of 

 Imagination coincide. Man is just beginning to imagine (he 

 could never have done this had he not learnt to stand upright) 

 that it would be an improvement if he had a cover for his head, 

 so he decided to interweave the branches of the trees above 

 him, and as he was naturally of a cruel disposition it is easy 

 to imagine that the young olive branches of his family are 

 made to assist him in his new labours with ruthless severity, 

 and these get more cuffs and blows than government protec- 

 tion to spare them from the wrath of their early school-master 

 of two or three hundred thousand years ago. But as he sat 

 down and watched the young idea learn to shoot that young 

 idea in its turn being more desirous to achieve than to work 

 when there were birds, mice and rabbits to be caught and 

 having keener Imagination than their parents it led to their 

 getting a stage further than their parents and not only entwin- 



