204 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



extent, present enjoyment, and look for future re- 

 turn. The same is true of all development. Sessile 

 forms and mollusks, and, in a less degree, crabs and 

 reptiles, worked for immediate return. They are like 

 extravagant heirs who draw on their capital and 

 sooner or later come to poverty. The primitive ver- 

 tebrate, the mammal, and the other ancestors of man 

 used their capital prospectively, and it increased, as if 

 at compound interest. 



The spendthrift appears at first sight to have the 

 greatest enjoyment in life, the rising business man 

 works hard and foregoes much. I believe that the 

 latter is really by far the happier of the two. But, if 

 you can spend only a day or two in a city, and your 

 examination is superficial, you may easily make the 

 mistake of considering the spendthrift as the most 

 successful man in the community. So, in our brief 

 visit to the world in times past, we picked out the 

 crab, the reptile, and the carnivore as its rising mem- 

 bers. 



Once more, capital can be spent very quickly ; to 

 use it prospectively requires time. This is a truism ; 

 but it does no harm to call attention to truisms which 

 have been neglected. Organs and powers of great 

 prospective value are slow and difficult of develop- 

 ment. If their increase is to be at all rapid, they 

 miist start early. If their development and culture 

 is deferred, there will be little or no advance, but 

 probably degeneration. Extravagance grows rapidly 

 and soon becomes irresistible ; habits of saving must 

 be formed early. The same is true of the develop- 

 ment of all other virtues. 



There is in the child an orderly sequence of devel- 



