ii4 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



boughs. So the thumb of the ape is of little use, and is 

 therefore comparatively little developed as compared with that 

 of man. He now provides himself with a long stick, or 

 more probably two long walking sticks, and starts to support 

 his weight on them in a perpendicular position. This he 

 would do when using them as walking sticks instead of hold- 

 ing on to a horizontal bough of a tree. Thus the thumb becomes 

 more necessary. It was centuries of progression in this 

 manner that evolved the muscular power that made the human 

 thumb what it is to-day. It was to this physical develop- 

 ment more than all else that man owes his mind. We 

 may correctly say that the evolution of his thumb was his 

 first entrance upon the road to civilisation, so small are the 

 causes that grow into great events, for once the thumb and an 

 upright position are evolved he is master with his spear of the 

 fiercest beast in the forest. 



But as the greatest superiority amongst animals is measured 

 by their activity, not only physically (as when we find the 

 quick boxer or swordsman defeats the heavy-weight), but 

 also mentally as in the case of the man whose judgment is 

 rapid and decision of action thereon is prompt who is ever more 

 able to become successful in business and to rise in society 

 than the slow man no matter how great may be the latter's 

 brain capacity or genius. So we find that a thumb, and a 

 thumb only, could have enabled man to evolve a mind superior 

 to that of a dog or a horse and thus defeat these powerful 

 competitors for animal superiority. The evolution of a 

 thumb enabled him to lambaste the dog with a stick, 

 and to fix a bit in the mouth of a horse and so compel these 

 two most powerful of all the animal kingdom (who had even 

 beaten him in the most important of all evolutions, that of 

 rapid motion and energy), to become his slaves and vassals, 

 and so make secure once and for all, his supremacy over the 

 animal kingdom which but for the horse and dog turning 

 traitors would have enabled the animal kingdom to remain 

 man's master for thousands of years longer ere his brains 

 would have outwitted them. Without the assistance of these 

 traitors the animal's physical superiority would have won the 

 battle. 



But so great an advantage was the evolution of the thumb 

 that it soon started a hitherto unfelt impetus on the part of 



