THE PHANTOMS BEHIND US 
upon the form that she perfected in man, who 
knows ? 
The horse appears to have been evolved in North 
America, true cattle in Asia, elephants in Africa. 
Can we narrow their line of descent down to a single 
pair for each? Many forms allied to the horse ap- 
peared in Europe and Asia in Miocene times. We 
find monkeys in different parts of the world in the 
same geologic horizons; did they all have a com- 
mon origin? 
Life’s apprenticeship has been a long one. The 
earlier forms of vertebrate life were very large; later 
they became very small. Nature seems to have ex- 
perimented with bulk, as if she thought size would 
win in the race. Hence those huge uncouth forms 
among the reptiles and early mammals. The scheme 
did not work well; bulk was not the thing, after all. 
Most of the gigantic forms became extinct. Then 
she tried smaller and more agile forms with larger 
brains — less flesh and more wit. On this line Na- 
ture continued to work till she produced her mas- 
terpiece in man — a rather feeble and nearly wea- 
ponless animal, but with an intangible armory of 
weapons and tools in his brain that enables him 
to put all creatures under his feet. 
