KIRTLEY F. MATHER 13 



man. The scientist must be skeptical that there is any 

 final goal; rather he would anticipate that always new 

 purposes will arise just as soon as an old purpose has 

 been consummated. Life is characterized by a cease- 

 less urge; should it stop developing it would no longer 

 be life. The process continues from goal to goal, 

 with never a final limit. Eye hath not seen, ear hath 

 not heard, neither hath it entered into the mind of 

 man, the things that are possible for cosmic energy to 

 do in the sort of universe which man is gradually 

 learning to appreciate. 



Certainly, it is only during recent geologic time that 

 nature has definitely set itself to the task of produc- 

 ing a man. Nothing in the evolution of Paleozoic 

 animals, for example, offers the least suggestion that 

 there was then the purpose of creating a biped mam- 

 mal which would specialize in mentality. On the con- 

 trary, the particular modifications in the anatomy of 

 fishes, which made possible the rise of air-breathing 

 amphibians, among whom must have been the remote 

 ancestors of man, were actually inimical to the devel- 

 opment of brains. It required the long dark ages of 

 the Mesozoic era, with its conquering horde of cold- 

 blooded, small-brained reptiles, before that handicap 

 was overcome and the palm of victory could be 

 awarded to wits rather than weight, to mind rather 

 than muscle. Many of the anatomical details of the 

 human body are even yet a handicap to a creature who 

 habitually stands in an erect attitude upon his hind 

 limbs. They were obviously designed for a quadruped 

 rather than a biped. So far as his body structure is 

 concerned, man is at best an afterthought of nature. 



