THE LONG ROAD 
tige — of no use any more. Our dread of snakes we 
no doubt inherited from our simian ancestors. 
How life refined and humanized as time went on, 
sobered down and became more meditative, keep- 
ing step, no doubt, with the amelioration of the soil 
out of which all life finally comes. Life’s bank ac- 
count in the soil was constantly increasing; more 
and more of the inorganic was wrought up into the 
organic; the value of every clod underfoot was raised. 
The riot of gigantic forms ceased, and they became 
ashes. The giant and uncouth vegetation ceased, 
and left ashes or coal. The beech, the maple, the 
oak, the olive, the palm came in. The giant sea- 
serpents disappeared; the horse, the ox, the swine, 
the dog, the quail, the dove came in. The placental 
mammals developed. The horse grew in size and 
beauty. When we first come upon his trail, he is a 
four-hoof-toed animal no larger than a fox. Later 
on we find him the size of a sheep with one of his 
toes gone; still later — many hundred thousand 
years, no doubt — we find him the size of a donkey, 
with still fewer toes, and so on till we reach the 
superb creature we know. 
The creative energy seems to have worked in 
geologic time and in the geologic field just as it 
works here and now, in yonder vineyard or in yonder 
marsh, — blindly, experimentally, but persistently 
and successfully. The winged seeds find their proper 
soil, because they search in every direction; the 
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