(fj he was there before Coronado 



heaved. Rain falling on an earth without any plant cover 

 to protect it washed cruel gullies as remorselessly as they 

 are cut in the most unqualified "bad lands" of today. Had 

 any creature of that time been capable of thought, life 

 in any medium other than water would have seemed as 

 fantastic as life without an atmosphere would seem to us. 



Then at some time, geologists say it was probably some- 

 thing like three hundred million years ago, the first living 

 thing dared to expose itself temporarily to the deadly air. 

 If it was an animal, as some think most probable, then it 

 must have rushed back ( or perhaps ducked back ) before 

 the gills through which it breathed could dry out. It could 

 hardly have done much more during many thousands of 

 years after the first bold venture, because it could not 

 actually live beyond easy reach of water until its whole 

 anatomy and physiology had undergone fundamental 

 changes. But patience is a quality which the universe 

 seems never to have lacked (until man came along) and 

 it was always the animal which broke most rashly with 

 all previous tradition, which presently became the most 

 highly developed and the most competent — as well as 

 the least patient. 



So far as I am concerned I see no reason to apologize 

 for calling that animal a "hero'' or for referring to his 

 "courage." Such terms can have no real meaning except 

 in connection with something which is alive and when we 

 talk about "the suffering earth" or the "nobility" of a 

 mountain range we are merely using a figure of speech. 

 But it is hard to say just where reality begins or to decide 

 just which animal or even which plant is still too simple 

 to be capable of something genuinely analogous to daring 

 and courage. If these virtues are real in man, then they 



