TIME AND CHANGE 
from one another in their mental endowments, capa- 
cities, and dispositions vastly more than do any 
other creatures upon the earth. This difference 
makes man’s chances of progress so much the 
greater; he has so many more stakes in the game. 
Tf one type of talent fails, another type may win; 
if the lymphatic temperament is not a success, try 
the sanguine or the bilious; blue eyes and black eyes 
and brown eyes will win more triumphs than blue 
or black or brown alone. Arms or legs extra long, 
sight or hearing extra sharp, wit extra keen, judg- 
ment extra sure — all these things open doors to 
more progress. Variation gives natural selection a 
chance to take hold, and where the struggle for life 
is the most severe the changes will be the most rapid 
and the most radical. Without the pressure of the 
environment natural selection would not select. 
The tendency to physical variation in man is prob- 
ably no greater than in other creatures, but his 
tendency to mental variation is enormous. He 
varies daily from mediocrity to genius, hence the 
enormous range of his chances of progress. From 
the first variation that started him on his way in 
his line of descent, variation must have been more 
and more active till he varied in the direction of 
reason, long before the dawn of history, since which 
time his progress has been by rapid strides — and 
more and more rapid till we see his leaps forward in 
recent times. The race owes its rapid progress to 
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