96 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



murder him. This is why Cain the husbandman became the 



murderer, and Abel the huntsman and shepherd did not. 



This is how Abel offered a more pleasing offering than Cain, 

 for he offered a heart possessed of honour, mercy and 

 justice, and so found mercy in the sight of God ; whereas the 

 heart of Cain was smeared with the blood of war and robbery, 

 the outcome of commerce, barter, selfish greed, envy and hate 

 that city life had engendered, and this constituted him a mur- 

 derer in God's sight. This brings me to the next day after the 

 age of Imagination, which is personified by the Biblical descrip- 

 tion of Adam and Eye, which personifies the stage in 

 evolution when Imagination dawns in the soul of mankind 

 during the Stick Age, an age which is devoted to the first 

 development of his mind and is marked by his becoming carni- 

 vorous and so eating of the forbidden fruit. This brings me 

 to the Eighth Day, the Age of Agriculture, the day that is 

 to be devoted to the dawn of Comprehension in the mind of 

 mankind which is personified in the Bible as the Age of Cain 

 and Abel. So as it is by studying the past evils of history that 

 we can alone learn how to prevent the same evils recurring in 

 the future, and that the surest way to learn to lead a useful 

 life is by gaining a true idea of the aims and objects for which 

 we were created, and the manner in which we can breed up or 

 evolve the fittest classes of mankind in the generations yet to 

 come which can only be achieved by a more perfect knowledge 

 of how our present state of existence has been attained. 



Another lesson of evolution is the law of heredity. This 

 I cannot too strongly impress on the reader, for we must 

 in the future seek to prevent the breeding of criminals, not 

 endeavour to convert the sinner, but condone his follies so far 

 as possible, at the same time taking stringent measure to 

 insure that the criminal classes are not allowed to impose or 

 trespass on the liberties of the more just and peaceful members 

 of the community. In this respect we will have to impose 

 heavy penalties, for the cure must come by increased freedom 

 to those who succeed or are anxious to work or make the best 

 use of their time and skill, and protecting those from molesta- 

 tion, or from their freedom of action being fettered or 

 obstructed by any excessive use or abuse by their neighbour of 

 unwise liberties permitted to him by the creation of legalised 

 state or industrial privileges. So progress the stages of man's 



