,,also ,,by ,,clarence ,,day ,,the ,,crow',s ,,nest ,,thoughts ,,without ,,words ,,god ,,and ,,my ,,father ,,in ,,the ,,green ,,mountain ,,country ,,scenes ,,from ,,the ,,mesozoic ,,life ,,with ,,father ,,this ,,simian ,,world by ,,clarence ,,day ,with ,illustrations by the ,author ,new ,york ,london ,,alfred4,a4,,knopf #aicf ,,copyright #aibj1 ,,by ,,clarence ,,day ,all rights reserved4 ,no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher1 except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper4 ,published ,may #bb1 #aibj ,reprinted ,nine ,times ,eleventh ,printing1 ,march1 #aicf ,manufactured in the ,united ,states of ,america ,how ,i hate the man who talks about the 'brute creation1' with an ugly emphasis on brute4444 ,as for me1 ,i am proud of my close kinship with other animals4 ,i take a jealous pride in my ,simian ancestry4 ,i like to think that ,i was once a magnificent hairy fellow living in the trees1 and that my frame has come down through geological time via sea jelly and worms and ,amphioxus1 ,fish1 ,dinosaurs1 and ,apes4 ,who would exchange these for the pallid couple in the ,garden of ,eden8 ,w4 ,n4 ,p4 ,,barbellion4 ,,this ,,simian ,,world ,,one ,last ,sunday1 ,potter took me out driving along upper ,broadway1 where those long rows of tall new apartment houses were built a few years ago4 ,it was a mild afternoon and great crowds of people were out4 ,sunday afternoon crowds4 ,they were not going anywhere1--they were just strolling up and down1 staring at each other1 and talking4 ,there were thousands and thousands of them4 ,awful1 aren't they6 said ,potter4 ,i didn't know what he meant4 ,when he added1 ,why1 these crowds1 ,i turned and asked1 ,why1 what about them8 ,i wasn't sure whether he had an idea or a headache4 ,other creatures don't do it1 he replied1 with a discouraged expression4 ,are any other beings ever found in such masses1 but vermin8 ,aimless1 staring1 vacant-minded1--look at them6 ,i can get no sense whatever of individual worth1 or of value in men as a race1 when ,i see them like this4 ,it makes one almost despair of civilization4 ,i thought this over for awhile1 to get in touch with his attitude4 ,i myself feel differently at different times about us human-beings3 sometimes ,i get pretty indignant when we are attacked 7for there is altogether too much abuse of us by spectator philosophers7 and yet at other times ,i too feel like a spectator1 an alien3 but even then ,i had never felt so alien or despairing as ,potter4 ,i cast about for the probable cause of our difference4 ,let's remember1 ,i said1 it's a simian civilization4 ,potter was staring disgustedly at some vaudeville sign-boards4 ,yes1 ,i said1 those for example are distinctively simian4 ,why should you feel disappointment at something inevitable8 ,and ,i went on to argue that it wasn't as though we were descended from eagles for instance1 instead of 7broadly speaking7 from ape-like or monkeyish beings4 ,being of simian stock1 we had simian traits4 ,our development naturally bore the marks of our origin4 ,if we had inherited our dispositions from eagles we should have loathed vaudeville4 ,but as cousins of the ,bandarlog1 we loved it4 ,what could you expect8 ,illustration3 ,descended from eagles ,,two ,if we had been made directly from clay1 the way it says in the ,bible1 and had therefore inherited no intermediate characteristics1--if a god1 or some principle of growth1 had gone that way to work with us1 he or it might have molded us into much more splendid forms4 ,but considering our simian descent1 it has done very well4 ,the only people who are disappointed in us are those who still believe that clay story4 ,or who--unconsciously--still let it color their thinking4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there certainly seems to be a power at work in the world1 by virtue of which every living thing grows and develops4 ,and it tends toward splendor4 ,seeds become trees1 and weak little nations grow great4 ,but the push or the force that is doing this1 the yeast as it were1 has to work in and on certain definite kinds of material4 ,because this yeast is in us1 there may be great and undreamed of possibilities awaiting mankind2 but because of our line of descent there are also queer limitations4 ,illustration3 ,strange forgotten dynasties ,,three ,in those distant invisible epochs before men existed1 before even the proud missing link strutted around through the woods 7little realizing how we his greatgrandsons would smile wryly at him1 much as our own descendants may shudder at us1 ages hence7 the various animals were desperately competing for power4 ,they couldn't or didn't live as equals4 ,certain groups sought the headship4 ,many strange forgotten dynasties rose1 met defiance1 and fell4 ,in the end it was our ancestors who won1 and became simian kings1 and bequeathed a whole planet to us--and have never been thanked for it4 ,no monument has been raised to the memory of those first hairy conquerors2 yet had they not fought well and wisely in those far-off times1 some other race would have been masters1 and kept us in cages1 or shot us for sport in the forests while they ruled the world4 99 99 99 99 99 ,so ,potter and ,i1 developing this train of thought1 began to imagine we had lived many ages ago1 and somehow or other had alighted here from some older planet4 ,familiar with the ways of evolution elsewhere in the universe1 we naturally should have wondered what course it would take on this earth4 ,even in this out-of-the-way corner of the ,cosmos1 we might have reflected1 and on this tiny star1 it may be of interest to consider the trend of events4 ,we should have tried to appraise the different species as they wandered around1 each with its own set of good and bad characteristics4 ,which group1 we'd have wondered1 would ever contrive to rule all the rest8 ,and how great a development could they attain to thereafter8 ,,four ,if we had landed here after the great saurians had been swept from the scene1 we might first have considered the lemurs or apes4 ,they had hands4 ,aesthetically viewed1 the poor simians were simply grotesque2 but travelers who knew other planets might have known what beauty may spring from an uncouth beginning in this magic universe4 ,still--those frowzy1 unlovely hordes of apes and monkeys were so completely lacking in signs of kingship2 they were so flighty1 too1 in their ways1 and had so little purpose1 and so much love for absurd and idle chatter1 that they would have struck us1 we thought1 as unlikely material4 ,such traits1 we should have reminded ourselves1 persist4 ,they are not easily left behind1 even after long stages2 and they form a terrible obstacle to all high advancement4 ,,five ,the bees or the ants might have seemed to us more promising4 ,their smallness of size was not necessarily too much of a handicap4 ,they could have made poison their weapon for the subjugation of rivals4 ,and in these orderly insects there was obviously a capacity for labor1 and co-operative labor at that1 which could carry them far4 ,we all know that they have a marked genius3 great gifts of their own4 ,in a civilization of super-ants or bees1 there would have been no problem of the hungry unemployed1 no poverty1 no unstable government1 no riots1 no strikes for short hours1 no derision of eugenics1 no thieves1 perhaps no crime at all4 ,ants are good citizens3 they place group interests first4 ,but they carry it so far1 they have few or no political rights4 ,an ant doesn't have the vote1 apparently3 he just has his duties4 ,this quality may have something to do with their having group wars4 ,the egotism of their individual spirits is allowed scant expression1 so the egotism of the group is extremely ferocious and active4 ,is this one of the reasons why ants fight so much8 ,they go in for ,state ,socialism1 yes1 but they are not internationalists4 ,and ants commit atrocities in and after their battles that are--,i wish ,i could truly say--inhuman4 ,but conversely1 ants are absolutely unselfish within the community4 ,they are skilful4 ,ingenious4 ,their nests and buildings are relatively larger than man's4 ,the scientists speak of their paved streets1 vaulted halls1 their hundreds of different domesticated animals1 their pluck and intelligence1 their individual initiative1 their chaste and industrious lives4 ,darwin said the ant's brain was one of the most marvelous atoms in the world1 perhaps more so than the brain of man--yes1 of present-day man1 who for thousands and thousands of years has had so much more chance to develop his brain4444 ,a thoughtful observer would have weighed all these excellent qualities4 ,when we think of these creatures as little men 7which is all wrong of course7 we see they have their faults4 ,to our eyes they seem too orderly1 for instance4 ,repressively so4 ,their ways are more fixed than those of the old ,egyptians1 and their industry is painful to think of1 it's hyper-,chinese4 ,but we must remember this is a simian comment4 ,the instincts of the species that you and ,i belong to are of an opposite kind2 and that makes it hard for us to judge ants fairly4 ,but we and the ants are alike in one matter3 the strong love of property4 ,and instead of merely struggling with ,nature for it1 they also fight other ants4 ,the custom of plunder seems to be a part of most of their wars4 ,this has gone on for ages among them1 and continues today4 ,raids1 ferocious combats1 and loot are part of an ant's regular life4 ,ant reformers1 if there were any1 might lay this to their property sense1 and talk of abolishing property as a cure for the evil4 ,but that would not help for long unless they could abolish the love of it4 ,ants seem to care even more for property than we do ourselves4 ,we men are inclined to ease up a little when we have all we need4 ,but it is not so with ants3 they can't bear to stop3 they keep right on working4 ,this means that ants do not contemplate3 they heed nothing outside of their own little rounds4 ,it is almost as though their fondness for labor had closed fast their minds4 ,conceivably they might have developed inquiring minds4 ,but this would have run against their strongest instincts4 ,the ant is knowing and wise2 but he doesn't know enough to take a vacation4 ,the worshipper of energy is too physically energetic to see that he cannot explore certain higher fields until he is still4 ,even if such a race had somehow achieved self-consciousness and reason1 would they have been able therewith to rule their instincts1 or to stop work long enough to examine themselves1 or the universe1 or to dream of any noble development8 ,probably not4 ,reason is seldom or never the ruler3 it is the servant of instinct4 ,it would therefore have told the ants that incessant toil was useful and good4 ,toil has brought you up from the ruck of things1 ,reason would have plausibly said4 ,it's by virtue of feverish toil that you have become what you are4 ,being endlessly industrious is the best road--for you--to the heights4 ,and1 self-reassured1 they would then have had orgies of work2 and thus1 by devoted exertion1 have blocked their advancement4 ,work1 and order and gain would have withered their souls4 ,,six ,let us take the great cats4 ,they are free from this talent for slave-hood4 ,stately beasts like the lion have more independence of mind than the ants1--and a self-respect1 we may note1 unknown to primates4 ,or consider the leopards1 with hearts that no tyrant could master4 ,what fearless and resolute leopard-men they could have fathered6 ,how magnificently such a civilization would have made its force tell6 ,a race of civilized beings descended from these great cats would have been rich in hermits and solitary thinkers4 ,the recluse would not have been stigmatized as peculiar1 as he is by us simians4 ,they would not have been a credulous people1 or easily religious4 ,false prophets and swindlers would have found few dupes4 ,and what generals they would have made6 what consummate politicians6 ,don't imagine them as a collection of tigers walking around on their hind-legs4 ,they would have only been like tigers in the sense that we men are like monkeys4 ,their development in appearance and character would have been quite transforming4 ,instead of the small flat head of the tiger1 they would have had clear smooth brows2 and those who were not bald would have had neatly parted hair--perhaps striped4 ,their mouths would have been smaller and more sensitive3 their faces most dignified4 ,where now they express chiefly savageness1 they would have expressed fire and grace4 ,they would have been courteous and suave4 ,no vulgar crowding would have occurred on the streets of their cities4 ,no mobs4 ,no ignominious subway-jams4 ,imagine a cultivated coterie of such men and women1 at a ball1 dancing4 ,how few of us humans are graceful4 ,they would have all been ,pavlovas4 99 99 99 99 99 ,like ants and bees1 the cat race is nervous4 ,their temperaments are high-strung4 ,they would never have become as poised or as placid as--say--super-cows4 ,yet they would have had less insanity1 probably1 than we4 ,monkeys' 7and elephants'7 minds seem precariously balanced1 unstable4 ,the great cats are saner4 ,they are intense1 they would have needed sanitariums3 but fewer asylums4 ,and their asylums would have been not for weak-minded souls1 but for furies4 ,they would have been strong at slander4 ,they would have been far more violent than we1 in their hates1 and they would have had fewer friendships4 ,yet they might not have been any poorer in real friendships than we4 ,the real friendships among men are so rare that when they occur they are famous4 ,friends as loyal as ,damon and ,pythias were1 are exceptions4 ,good fellowship is common1 but unchanging affection is not4 ,we like those who like us1 as a rule1 and dislike those who don't4 ,most of our ties have no better footing than that2 and those who have many such ties are called warm-hearted4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the super-cat-men would have rated cleanliness higher4 ,some of us primates have learned to keep ourselves clean1 but it's no large proportion2 and even the cleanest of us see no grandeur in soap-manufacturing1 and we don't look to manicures and plumbers for social prestige4 ,a feline race would have honored such occupations4 ,j4 de ,courcy ,tiger would have felt that nothing but making soap1 or being a plumber1 was compatible with a high social position2 and the rich ,vera ,pantherbilt would have deigned to dine only with manicures4 ,none but the lowest dregs of such a race would have been lawyers spending their span of life on this mysterious earth studying the long dusty records of dead and gone quarrels4 ,we simians naturally admire a profession full of wrangle and chatter4 ,but that is a monkeyish way of deciding disputes1 not a feline4 ,we fight best in armies1 gregariously1 where the risk is reduced2 but we disapprove usually of murderers1 and of almost all private combat4 ,with the great cats1 it would have been just the other way round4 7,lions and leopards fight each other singly1 not in bands1 as do monkeys47 ,as a matter of fact1 few of us delight in really serious fighting4 ,we do love to bicker2 and we box and knock each other around1 to exhibit our strength2 but few normal simians are keen about bloodshed and killing2 we do it in war only because of patriotism1 revenge1 duty1 glory4 ,a feline civilization would have cared nothing for duty or glory1 but they would have taken a far higher pleasure in gore4 ,if a planet of super-cat-men could look down upon ours1 they would not know which to think was the most amazing3 the way we tamely live1 five million or so in a city1 with only a few police to keep us quiet1 while we commit only one or two murders a day1 and hardly have a respectable number of brawls2 or the way great armies of us are trained to fight1--not liking it much1 and yet doing more killing in war-time and shedding more blood than even the fiercest lion on his cruelest days4 ,which would perplex a gentlemanly super-cat spectator the more1 our habits of wholesale slaughter in the field1 or our spiritless making a fetish of order1 at home8 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is fair to judge peoples by the rights they will sacrifice most for4 ,super-cat-men would have been outraged1 had their right of personal combat been questioned4 ,the simian submits with odd readiness to the loss of this privilege4 ,what outrages him is to make him stop wagging his tongue4 ,he becomes most excited and passionate about the right of free speech1 even going so far in his emotion as to declare it is sacred4 ,he looks upon other creatures pityingly because they are dumb4 ,if one of his own children is born dumb1 he counts it a tragedy4 ,even that mere hesitation in speech1 known as stammering1 he deems a misfortune4 ,so precious to a simian is the privilege of making sounds with his tongue1 that when he wishes to punish severely those men he calls criminals1 he forbids them to chatter1 and forces them by threats to be silent4 ,it is felt that this punishment is entirely too cruel however1 and that even the worst offenders should be allowed to talk part of each day4 ,whatever a simian does1 there must always be some talking about it4 ,he can't even make peace without a kind of chatter called a peace conference4 ,super-cats would not have had to make peace3 they would have just walked off and stopped fighting4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in a world of super-cat-men1 ,i suppose there would have been fewer sailors2 and people would have cared less for seaside resorts1 or for swimming4 ,cats hate getting wet1 so men descended from them might have hated it4 ,they would have felt that even going in wading was a sign of great hardihood1 and only the most daring young fellows1 showing off1 would have done it4 ,among them there would have been no anti-vivisection societies3 ,no ,young ,cats ,christian ,associations or ,red ,cross work3 ,no vegetarians3 ,no early closing laws3 ,much more hunting and trapping3 ,no riding to hounds2 that's pure simian4 ,just think how it would have entranced the old-time monkeys to foresee such a game6 ,a game where they'd all prance off on captured horses1 tearing pell-mell through the woods in gay red coats1 attended by yelping packs of servant-dogs4 ,it is excellent sport--but how cats would scorn to hunt in that way6 ,they would not have knighted explorers--they would have all been explorers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,imagine that you are strolling through a super-cat city at night4 ,over yonder is the business quarter1 its evening shops blazing with jewels4 ,the great stock-yards lie to the east where you hear those sad sounds3 that low mooing as of innumerable herds1 waiting slaughter4 ,beyond lie the silent aquariums and the crates of fresh mice4 7,they raise mice instead of hens in the country1 in ,super-cat ,land47 ,to the west is a beautiful but weirdly bacchanalian park1 with long groves of catnip1 where young super-cats have their fling1 and where a few crazed catnip addicts live on till they die1 unable to break off their strangely undignified orgies4 ,and here where you stand is the sumptuous residence district4 ,houses with spacious grounds everywhere3 no densely-packed buildings4 ,the streets have been swept up--or lapped up--until they are spotless4 ,not a scrap of paper is lying around anywhere3 no rubbish1 no dust4 ,few of the pavements are left bare1 as ours are1 and those few are polished3 the rest have deep soft velvet carpets4 ,no footfalls are heard4 ,illustration3 ,punctilious1 haughty1 inflammable ,there are no lights in these streets1 though these people are abroad much at night4 ,all you see are stars overhead and the glowing eyes of cat ladies1 of lithe silken ladies who pass you1 or of stiff-whiskered men4 ,beware of those men and the gleam of their split-pupiled stare4 ,they are haughty1 punctilious1 inflammable3 self-absorbed too1 however4 ,they will probably not even notice you2 but if they do1 you are lost4 ,they take offense in a flash1 abhor strangers1 despise hospitality1 and would think nothing of killing you or me on their way home to dinner4 ,follow one of them4 ,enter this house4 ,ah what splendor6 ,no servants1 though a few abject monkeys wait at the back-doors1 and submissively run little errands4 ,but of course they are never let inside3 they would seem out of place4 ,gorgeous couches1 rich colors1 silken walls1 an oriental magnificence4 ,in here is the ballroom4 ,but wait3 what is this in the corner8 ,a large triumphal statue--of a cat overcoming a dog4 ,and look at this dining-room1 its exquisite appointments1 its daintiness3 faucets for hot and cold milk in the pantry1 and a gold bowl of cream4 ,some one is entering4 ,hush6 ,if ,i could but describe her6 ,languorous1 slender and passionate4 ,sleepy eyes that see everything4 ,an indolent purposeful step4 ,an unimaginable grace4 ,if you were her lover1 my boy1 you would learn how fierce love can be1 how capricious and sudden1 how hostile1 how ecstatic1 how violent6 99 99 99 99 99 ,think what the state of the arts would have been in such cities4 ,they would have had few comedies on their stage2 no farces4 ,cats care little for fun4 ,in the circus1 superlative acrobats4 ,no clowns4 ,illustration3 ,one of their poets ,in drama and singing they would have surpassed us probably4 ,even in the stage of arrested development as mere animals1 in which we see cats1 they wail with a passionate intensity at night in our yards4 ,imagine how a ,caruso descended from such beings would sing4 ,in literature they would not have begged for happy endings4 ,they would have been personally more self-assured than we1 far freer of cheap imitativeness of each other in manners and art1 and hence more original in art2 more clearly aware of what they really desired1 not cringingly watchful of what was expected of them2 less widely observant perhaps1 more deeply thoughtful4 ,their artists would have produced less however1 even though they felt more4 ,a super-cat artist would have valued the pictures he drew for their effects on himself2 he wouldn't have cared a rap whether anyone else saw them or not4 ,he would not have bothered1 usually1 to give any form to his conceptions4 ,simply to have had the sensation would have for him been enough4 ,but since simians love to be noticed1 it does not content them to have a conception2 they must wrestle with it until it takes a form in which others can see it4 ,they doom the artistic impulse to toil with its nose to the grindstone1 until their idea is expressed in a book or a statue4 ,are they right8 ,i have doubts4 ,the artistic impulse seems not to wish to produce finished work4 ,it certainly deserts us half-way1 after the idea is born2 and if we go on1 art is labor4 ,with the cats1 art is joy4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but the dominant characteristic of this fine race is cunning4 ,and hence ,i think it would have been through their craftiness1 chiefly1 that they would have felt the impulse to study1 and the wish to advance4 ,craft is a cat's delight3 craft they never can have too much of4 ,so it would have been from one triumph of cunning to another that they would have marched4 ,that would have been the greatest driving force of their civilization4 ,this would have meant great progress in invention and science--or in some fields of science1 the economic for instance4 ,but it would have retarded them in others4 ,craft studies the world calculatingly1 from without1 instead of understandingly from within4 ,especially would it have cheapened the feline philosophies2 for not simply how to know but how to circumvent the universe would have been their desire4 ,mankind's curiosity is disinterested2 it seems purer by contrast4 ,that is to say1 made as we are1 it seems purer to us4 ,what we call disinterested1 however1 super-cats might call aimless4 7,aimlessness is one of the regular simian traits47 ,i don't mean to be prejudiced in favor of the simian side4 ,curiosity may be as debasing1 ,i grant you1 as craft4 ,and craft might turn into artifices of a kind which would be noble and fine4 ,just as the ignorant and fitful curiosity of some little monkey is hardly to be compared to the astronomer's magnificent search1 so the craft and cunning we see in our pussies would bear small relation to the high-minded planning of some ruler of the race we are imagining4 ,and yet--craft is self-defeating in the end4 ,transmute it into its finest possible form1 let it be as subtle and civilized as you please1 as yearning and noble1 as enlightened1 it still sets itself over against the wholeness of things2 its role is that of the part at war with the whole4 ,milton's ,lucifer had the mind of a fine super-cat4 ,that craft may defeat itself in the end1 however1 is not the real point4 ,that doesn't explain why the lions aren't ruling the planet4 ,the trouble is1 it would defeat itself in the beginning4 ,it would have too bitterly stressed the struggle for existence4 ,conflict and struggle make civilizations virile1 but they do not by themselves make civilizations4 ,mutual aid and support are needed for that4 ,there the felines are lacking4 ,they do not co-operate well2 they have small group-devotion4 ,their lordliness1 their strong self-regard1 and their coolness of heart1 have somehow thwarted the chance of their racial progress4 ,,seven ,there are many other beasts that one might once have thought had a chance4 ,some1 like horses and deer1 were not bold enough2 or were stupid1 like buffaloes4 ,some had over-trustful characters1 like the seals2 or exploitable characters1 like cows1 and chickens1 and sheep4 ,such creatures sentence themselves to be captives1 by their lack of ambition4 ,dogs8 ,they have more spirit4 ,but they have lost their chance of kingship through worshipping us4 ,the dog's finer qualities can't be praised too warmly2 there is a purity about his devotion which makes mere men feel speechless3 but with all love for dogs1 one must grant they are vassals1 not rulers4 ,they are too parasitic--the one willing servant class of the world4 ,and we have betrayed them by making under-simians of them4 ,we have taught them some of our own ways of behaving1 and frowned upon theirs4 ,loving us1 they let us stop their developing in tune with their natures2 and they've patiently tried ever since to adopt ways of ours4 ,they have done it1 too2 but of course they can't get far3 it's not their own road4 ,dogs have more love than integrity4 ,they've been true to us1 yes1 but they haven't been true to themselves4 ,pigs8 ,the pig is remarkably intelligent and brave1--but he's gross2 and grossness delays one's achievement1 it takes so much time4 ,the snake too1 though wise1 has a way of eating himself into stupors4 ,if super-snake-men had had banquets they would have been too vast to describe4 ,each little snake family could have eaten a herd of cattle at ,christmas4 ,goats1 then8 ,bears or turtles8 ,wolves1 whales1 crows8 ,each had brains and pride1 and would have been glad to rule the world if they could2 but each had their defects1 and their weaknesses for such a position4 ,the elephant8 ,ah6 ,evolution has had its tragedies1 hasn't it1 as well as its triumphs2 and well should the elephant know it4 ,he had the best chance of all4 ,wiser even than the lion1 or the wisest of apes1 his wisdom furthermore was benign where theirs was sinister4 ,consider his dignity1 his poise and skill4 ,he was plastic1 too4 ,he had learned to eat many foods and endure many climates4 ,once1 some say1 this race explored the globe4 ,their bones are found everywhere1 in ,south ,america even2 so the elephants' ,columbus may have found some road here before ours4 ,they are cosmopolitans1 these suave and well-bred beings4 ,they have rich emotional natures1 long memories1 loyalty2 they are steady and sure2 and not narrow1 not self-absorbed1 for they seem interested in everything4 ,what was it then1 that put them out of the race8 ,could it have been a quite natural belief that they had already won8 ,and when they saw that they hadn't1 and that the monkey-men were getting ahead1 were they too great-minded and decent to exterminate their puny rivals8 ,it may have been their tolerance and patience that betrayed them4 ,they wait too long before they resent an imposition or insult4 ,just as ants are too energetic and cats too shrewd for their own highest good1 so the elephants suffer from too much patience4 ,their exhibitions of it may seem superb1--such power and such restraint1 combined1 are noble1--but a quality carried to excess defeats itself4 ,kings who won't lift their scepters must yield in the end2 and1 the worst of it is1 to upstarts who snatch at their crowns4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i fancy the elephants would have been gentler masters than we3 more live-and-let-live in allowing other species to stay here4 ,our way is to kill good and bad1 male and female and babies1 till the few last survivors lie hidden away from our guns4 ,all species must surrender unconditionally--those are our terms--and come and live in barns alongside us2 or on us1 as parasites4 ,the creatures that want to live a life of their own1 we call wild4 ,if wild1 then no matter how harmless we treat them as outlaws1 and those of us who are specially well brought up shoot them for fun4 ,some might be our friends4 ,we don't wish it4 ,we keep them all terrorized4 ,when one of us conquering monkey-men enters the woods1 most animals that scent him slink away1 or race off in a panic4 ,it is not that we have planned this deliberately3 but they know what we're like4 ,race by race they have been slaughtered4 ,soon all will be gone4 ,we give neither freedom nor life-room to those we defeat4 ,if we had been as strong as the elephants1 we might have been kinder4 ,when great power comes naturally to people1 it is used more urbanely4 ,we use it as parvenus do1 because that's what we are4 ,the elephant1 being born to it1 is easy-going1 confident1 tolerant4 ,he would have been a more humane king4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a race descended from elephants would have had to build on a large scale4 ,imagine a crowd of huge1 wrinkled1 slow-moving elephant-men getting into a vast elephant omnibus4 ,and would they have ever tried airships8 ,the elephant is stupid when it comes to learning how to use tools4 ,so are all other species except our own4 ,isn't it strange8 ,a tool1 in the most primitive sense1 is any object1 lying around1 that can obviously be used as an instrument for this or that purpose4 ,many creatures use objects as materials1 as birds use twigs for nests4 ,but the step that no animal takes is learning freely to use things as instruments4 ,when an elephant plucks off a branch and swishes his flanks1 and thus keeps away insects1 he is using a tool4 ,but he does it only by a vague and haphazard association of ideas4 ,if he once became a conscious user of tools he would of course go much further4 ,we ourselves1 who are so good at it now1 were slow enough in beginning4 ,think of the long epochs that passed before it entered our heads4 ,and all that while the contest for leadership blindly went on1 without any species making use of this obvious aid4 ,the lesson to be learned was simple3 the reward was the rule of a planet4 ,yet only one species1 our own1 has ever had that much brains4 ,it makes you wonder what other obvious lessons may still be unlearned4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is not necessarily stupid however1 to fail to use tools4 ,to use tools involves using reason1 instead of sticking to instinct4 ,now1 sticking to instinct has its disadvantages1 but so has using reason4 ,whichever faculty you use1 the other atrophies1 and partly deserts you4 ,we are trying to use both4 ,but we still don't know which has the more value4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a sudden vision comes to me of one of the first far-away ape-men who tried to use reason instead of instinct as a guide for his conduct4 ,i imagine him1 perched in his tree1 torn between those two voices1 wailing loudly at night by a river1 in his puzzled distress4 ,my poor far-off brother6 ,illustration3 ,the ,first ,thinker4 ,,eight ,we have been considering which species was on the whole most finely equipped to be rulers1 and thereafter achieve a high civilization2 but that wasn't the problem4 ,the real problem was which would do it3--a different matter4 ,to do it there was need of a species that had at least these two qualities3 some quenchless desire1 to urge them on and on2 and also adaptability of a thousand kinds to their environment4 ,the rhinoceros cares little for adaptability4 ,he slogs through the world4 ,but we6 we are experts4 ,adaptability is what we depend on4 ,we talk of our mastery of nature1 which sounds very grand2 but the fact is we respectfully adapt ourselves first1 to her ways4 ,we attain no power over nature till we learn natural laws1 and our lordship depends on the adroitness with which we learn and conform4 ,adroitness however is merely an ability to win2 back of it there must be some spur to make us use our adroitness4 ,why don't we all die or give up when we're sick of the world8 ,because the love of life is reenforced1 in most energized beings1 by some longing that pushes them forward1 in defeat and in darkness4 ,all creatures wish to live1 and to perpetuate their species1 of course2 but those two wishes alone evidently do not carry any race far4 ,in addition to these1 a race1 to be great1 needs some hunger1 some itch1 to spur it up the hard path we lately have learned to call evolution4 ,the love of toil in the ants1 and of craft in cats1 are examples 7imaginary or not74 ,what other such lust could exert great driving force8 ,with us is it curiosity8 endless interest in one's environment8 ,many animals have some curiosity1 but some is not enough2 and in but few is it one of the master passions4 ,by a master passion1 ,i mean a passion that is really your master3 some appetite which habitually1 day in1 day out1 makes its subjects forget fatigue or danger1 and sacrifice their ease to its gratification4 ,that is the kind of hold that curiosity has on the monkeys4 ,,nine ,imagine a prehistoric prophet observing these beings1 and forecasting what kind of civilizations their descendants would build4 ,anyone could have foreseen certain parts of the simians' history3 could have guessed that their curiosity would unlock for them1 one by one1 nature's doors1 and--idly--bestow on them stray bits of valuable knowledge3 could have pictured them spreading inquiringly all over the globe1 stumbling on their inventions--and idly passing on and forgetting them4 ,to have to learn the same thing over and over again wastes the time of a race4 ,but this is continually necessary1 with simians1 because of their disorder4 ,disorder1 a prophet would have sighed3 that is one of their handicaps2 one that they will never get rid of1 whatever it costs4 ,having so much curiosity makes a race scatter-brained4 ,yes1 he would have dismally continued1 it will be a queer mixture3 these simians will attain to vast stores of knowledge1 in time1 that is plain4 ,but after spending centuries groping to discover some art1 in after-centuries they will now and then find it's forgotten4 ,how incredible it would seem on other planets to hear of lost arts4 ,there is a strong streak of triviality in them1 which you don't see in cats4 ,they won't have fine enough characters to concentrate on the things of most weight4 ,they will talk and think far more of trifles than of what is important4 ,even when they are reasonably civilized1 this will be so4 ,great discoveries sometimes will fail to be heard of1 because too much else is2 and many will thus disappear1 and these men will not know it4#a #a ,we did rescue ,mendel's from the dust heap2 but perhaps it was an exception4 99 99 99 99 99 ,let me interrupt this lament to say a word for myself and my ancestors4 ,it is easy to blame us as undiscriminating1 but we are at least full of zest4 ,and it's well to be interested1 eagerly and intensely1 in so many things1 because there is often no knowing which may turn out important4 ,we don't go around being interested on purpose1 hoping to profit by it1 but a profit may come4 ,and anyway it is generous of us not to be too self-absorbed4 ,other creatures go to the other extreme to an amazing extent4 ,they are ridiculously oblivious to what is going on4 ,the smallest ant in the garden will ignore the largest woman who visits it4 ,she is a huge and most dangerous super-mammoth in relation to him1 and her tread shakes the earth2 but he has no time to be bothered1 investigating such-like phenomena4 ,he won't even get out of her way4 ,he has his work to do1 hang it4 ,birds and squirrels have less of this glorious independence of spirit4 ,they watch you closely--if you move around4 ,but not if you keep still4 ,in other words1 they pay no more attention than they can help1 even to mammoths4 ,we of course observe everything1 or try to4 ,we could spend our lives looking on4 ,consider our museums for instance3 they are a sign of our breed4 ,it makes us smile to see birds1 like the magpie1 with a mania for this collecting--but only monkeyish beings could reverence museums as we do1 and pile such heterogeneous trifles and quantities in them4 ,old furniture1 egg-shells1 watches1 bits of stone4444 ,and next door1 a menagerie4 ,though our victory over all other animals is now aeons old1 we still bring home captives and exhibit them caged in our cities4 ,and when a species dies out--or is crowded 7by us7 off the planet--we even collect the bones of the vanquished and show them like trophies4 99 99 99 99 99 ,curiosity is a valuable trait4 ,it will make the simians learn many things4 ,but the curiosity of a simian is as excessive as the toil of an ant4 ,each simian will wish to know more than his head can hold1 let alone ever deal with2 and those whose minds are active will wish to know everything going4 ,it would stretch a god's skull to accomplish such an ambition1 yet simians won't like to think it's beyond their powers4 ,even small tradesmen and clerks1 no matter how thrifty1 will be eager to buy costly encyclopedias1 or books of all knowledge4 ,almost every simian family1 even the dullest1 will think it is due to themselves to keep all knowledge handy4 ,their idea of a liberal education will therefore be a great hodge-podge2 and he who narrows his field and digs deep will be viewed as an alien4 ,if more than one man in a hundred should thus dare to concentrate1 the ruinous effects of being a specialist will be sadly discussed4 ,it may make a man exceptionally useful1 they will have to admit2 but still they will feel badly1 and fear that civilization will suffer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,one of their curious educational ideas--but a natural one--will be shown in the efforts they will make to learn more than one language4 ,they will set their young to spending a decade or more of their lives in studying duplicate systems--whole systems--of chatter4 ,those who thus learn several different ways to say the same things1 will command much respect1 and those who learn many will be looked on with awe--by true simians4 ,and persons without this accomplishment will be looked down on a little1 and will actually feel quite apologetic about it themselves4 ,consider how enormously complicated a complete language must be1 with its long and arbitrary vocabulary1 its intricate system of sounds2 the many forms that single words may take1 especially if they are verbs2 the rules of grammar1 the sentence structure1 the idioms1 slang and inflections4 ,heavens1 what a genius for tongues these simians have6#b ,where another race1 after the most frightful discord and pains1 might have slowly constructed one language before this earth grew cold1 this race will create literally hundreds1 each complete in itself1 and many of them with quaint little systems of writing attached4 ,and the owners of this linguistic gift are so humble about it1 they will marvel at bees1 for their hives1 and at beavers' mere dams4 #b ,you remember what ,kipling says in the ,jungle ,books1 about how disgusted the quiet animals were with the ,bandarlog1 because they were eternally chattering1 would never keep still4 ,well1 this is the good side of it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,to return1 however1 to their fear of being too narrow1 in going to the other extreme they will run to incredible lengths4 ,every civilized simian1 every day of his life1 in addition to whatever older facts he has picked up1 will wish to know all the news of all the world4 ,if he felt any true concern to know it1 this would be rather fine of him3 it would imply such a close solidarity on the part of this genus4 7,such a close solidarity would seem crushing1 to others2 but that is another matter47 ,it won't be true concern1 however1 it will be merely a blind inherited instinct4 ,he'll forget what he's read1 the very next hour1 or moment4 ,yet there he will faithfully sit1 the ridiculous creature1 reading of bombs in ,spain or floods in ,thibet1 and especially insisting on all the news he can get of the kind our race loved when they scampered and fought in the forest1 news that will stir his most primitive simian feelings1--wars1 accidents1 love affairs1 and family quarrels4 ,to feed himself with this largely purposeless provender1 he will pay thousands of simians to be reporters of such events day and night2 and they will report them on such a voluminous scale as to smother or obscure more significant news altogether4 ,great printed sheets will be read by every one every day2 and even the laziest of this lazy race will not think it labor to perform this toil4 ,they won't like to eat in the morning without their papers1 such slaves they will be to this droll greed for knowing4 ,they won't even think it is droll1 it is so in their blood4 ,their swollen desire for investigating everything about them1 including especially other people's affairs1 will be quenchless4 ,few will feel that they really are fully informed2 and all will give much of each day all their lives to the news4 ,books too will be used to slake this unappeasable thirst4 ,they will actually hold books in deep reverence4 ,books6 ,bottled chatter6 things that some other simian has formerly said4 ,they will dress them in costly bindings1 keep them under glass1 and take an affecting pride in the number they read4 ,libraries1--store-houses of books1--will dot their world4 ,the destruction of one will be a crime against civilization4 7,meaning1 again1 a simian civilization47 ,well1 it is an offense to be sure--a barbaric offense4 ,but so is defacing forever a beautiful landscape2 and they won't even notice that sometimes2 they won't shudder anyway1 the way they instinctively do at the loss of a library4 99 99 99 99 99 ,all this is inevitable and natural1 and they cannot help it4 ,there even are ways one can justify excesses like this4 ,if their hunger for books ever seems indiscriminate to them when they themselves stop to examine it1 they will have their excuses4 ,they will argue that some bits of knowledge they once had thought futile1 had later on come in most handy1 in unthought of ways4 ,true enough6 ,for their scientists4 ,but not for their average men3 they will simply be like obstinate housekeepers who clog up their homes1 preserving odd boxes and wrappings1 and stray lengths of string1 to exult if but one is of some trifling use ere they die4 ,it will be in this spirit that simians will cherish their books1 and pile them up everywhere into great indiscriminate mounds2 and these mounds will seem signs of culture and sagacity to them4 ,those who know many facts will feel wise6 ,they will despise those who don't4 ,they will even believe1 many of them1 that knowledge is power4 ,unfortunate dupes of this saying will keep on reading1 ambitiously1 till they have stunned their native initiative1 and made their thoughts weak2 and will then wonder dazedly what in the world is the matter1 and why the great power they were expecting to gain fails to appear4 ,again1 if they ever forget what they read1 they'll be worried4 ,those who can forget--those with fresh eyes who have swept from their minds such facts as the exact month and day that their children were born1 or the numbers on houses1 or the names 7the mere meaningless labels7 of the people they meet1--will be urged to go live in sanitariums or see memory doctors6 99 99 99 99 99 ,by nature their itch is rather for knowing1 than for understanding or thinking4 ,some of them will learn to think1 doubtless1 and even to concentrate1 but their eagerness to acquire those accomplishments will not be strong or insistent4 ,creatures whose mainspring is curiosity will enjoy the accumulating of facts1 far more than the pausing at times to reflect on those facts4 ,if they do not reflect on them1 of course they'll be slow to find out about the ideas and relationships lying behind them2 and they will be curious about those ideas2 so you would suppose they'd reflect4 ,but deep thinking is painful4 ,it means they must channel the spready rivers of their attention4 ,that cannot be done without discipline and drills for the mind2 and they will abhor doing that2 their minds will work better when they are left free to run off at tangents4 ,compare them in this with other species4 ,each has its own kind of strength4 ,to be compelled to be so quick-minded as the simians would be torture1 to cows4 ,cows could dwell on one idea1 week by week1 without trying at all2 but they'd all have brain-fever in an hour at a simian tea4 ,a super-cow people would revel in long thoughtful books on abstruse philosophical subjects1 and would sit up late reading them4 ,most of the ambitious simians who try it--out of pride--go to sleep4 ,the typical simian brain is supremely distractable1 and it's really too jumpy by nature to endure much reflection4 ,therefore many more of them will be well-informed than sagacious4 ,this will result in their knowing most things far too soon1 at too early a stage of civilization to use them aright4 ,they will learn to make valuable explosives at a stage in their growth1 when they will use them not only in industries1 but for killing brave men4 ,they will devise ways to mine coal efficiently1 in enormous amounts1 at a stage when they won't know enough to conserve it1 and will waste their few stores4 ,they will use up a lot of it in a simian habit#c called travel4 ,this will consist in queer little hurried runs over the globe1 to see ten thousand things in the hope of thus filling their minds4 #c ,even in a wild state1 the monkey is restless and does not live in lairs4 ,their minds will be full enough4 ,their intelligence will be active and keen4 ,it will have a constant tendency however to outstrip their wisdom4 ,their intelligence will enable them to build great industrial systems before they have the wisdom and goodness to run them aright4 ,they will form greater political empires than they will have strength to guide4 ,they will endlessly quarrel about which is the best scheme of government1 without stopping to realize that learning to govern comes first4 7,the average simian will imagine he knows without learning47 ,the natural result will be industrial and political wars4 ,in a world of unmanageable structures1 wild smashes must come4 ,,ten ,inventions will come so easily to simians 7in comparison with all other creatures7 and they will take such childish pleasure in monkeying around1 making inventions1 that their many devices will be more of a care than a comfort4 ,in their homes a large part of their time will have to be spent keeping their numerous ingenuities in good working order--their elaborate bell-ringing arrangements1 their locks and their clocks4 ,in the field of science to be sure1 this fertility in invention will lead to a long list of important and beautiful discoveries3 telescopes and the calculus1 radiographs1 and the spectrum4 ,discoveries great enough1 almost1 to make angels of them4 ,but here again their simian-ness will cheat them of half of their dues1 for they will neglect great discoveries of the truest importance1 and honor extravagantly those of less value and splendor if only they cater especially to simian traits4 ,to consider examples3 ,a discovery that helps them to talk1 just to talk1 more and more1 will be hailed by these beings as one of the highest of triumphs4 ,talking to each other over wires will come in this class4 ,the lightning when harnessed and tamed will be made to trot round1 conveying the most trivial cacklings all day and night4 ,huge seas of talk of every sort and kind1 in print1 speech1 and writing1 will roll unceasingly over their civilized realms1 involving an unbelievable waste in labor and time1 and sapping the intelligence talk is supposed to upbuild4 ,in a simian civilization1 great halls will be erected for lectures1 and great throngs will actually pay to go inside at night to hear some self-satisfied talk-maker chatter for hours4 ,almost any subject will do for a lecture1 or talk2 yet very few subjects will be counted important enough for the average man to do any thinking on them1 off by himself4 ,in their futurist books they will dream of an even worse state1 a more dreadful indulgence in communication than the one just described4 ,this they'll hope to achieve by a system called mental telepathy4 ,they will long to communicate wordlessly1 mind impinging on mind1 until all their minds are awash with messages every moment1 and withdrawal from the stream is impossible anywhere on earth4 ,this will foster the brotherhood of man4 7,conglomerateness being their ideal47 ,super-cats would have invented more barriers instead of more channels4 ,discoveries in surgery and medicine will also be over-praised4 ,the reason will be that the race will so need these discoveries4 ,unlike the great cats1 simians tend to undervalue the body4 ,having less self-respect1 less proper regard for their egos1 they care less than the cats do for the casing of the ego1--the body4 ,the more civilized they grow the more they will let their bodies deteriorate4 ,they will let their shoulders stoop1 their lungs shrink1 and their stomachs grow fat4 ,no other species will be quite so deformed and distorted4 ,athletics they will watch1 yes1 but on the whole sparingly practise4 ,their snuffy old scholars will even be proud to decry them4 ,where once the simians swung high through forests1 or scampered like deer1 their descendants will plod around farms1 or mince along city streets1 moving constrictedly1 slowly1 their litheness half gone4 ,they will think of ,nature as something to go out and look at4 ,they will try to live wholly apart from her and forget they're her sons4 ,forget8 ,they will even deny it1 and declare themselves sons of ,god4 ,in spite of her wonders they will regard ,nature as somehow too humble to be the true parent of such prominent people as simians4 ,they will lose all respect for the dignity of fair ,mother ,earth1 and whisper to each other she is an evil and indecent old person4 ,they will snatch at her gifts1 pry irreverently into her mysteries1 and ignore half the warnings they get from her about how to live4 ,ailments of every kind will abound among such folk1 inevitably1 and they will resort to extraordinary expedients in their search for relief4 ,although squeamish as a race about inflicting much pain in cold blood1 they will systematically infect other animals with their own rank diseases1 or cut out other animals' organs1 or kill and dissect them1 hoping thus to learn how to offset their neglect of themselves4 ,conditions among them will be such that this will really be necessary4 ,few besides impractical sentimentalists will therefore oppose it4 ,but the idea will be to gain health by legerdemain1 by a trick1 instead of by taking the trouble to live healthy lives4 ,strange barrack-like buildings called hospitals will stand in their cities1 where their trick-men1 the surgeons1 will slice them right open when ill2 and thousands of zealous young pharmacists will mix little drugs1 which thousands of wise-looking simians will firmly prescribe4 ,each generation will change its mind as to these drugs1 and laugh at all former opinions2 but each will use some of them1 and each will feel assured that in this respect they know the last word4 ,and1 in obstinate blindness1 this people will wag their poor heads1 and attribute their diseases not to simian-ness but to civilization4 ,the advantages that any man or race has1 can sometimes be handicaps4 ,having hands1 which so aids a race1 for instance1 can also be harmful4 ,the simians will do so many things with their hands1 it will be bad for their bodies4 ,instead of roaming far and wide over the country1 getting vigorous exercise1 they will use their hands to catch and tame horses1 build carriages1 motors1 and then when they want a good outing they will go for a ride1 with their bodies slumped down1 limp and sluggish1 and losing their spring4 ,then too their brains will do harm1 and great harm1 to their bodies4 ,the brain will give them such an advantage over all other animals that they will insensibly be led to rely too much on it1 to give it too free a rein1 and to find the mirrors in it too fascinating4 ,this organ1 this outgrowth1 this new part of them1 will grow over-active1 and its many fears and fancies will naturally injure the body4 ,the interadjustment is delicate and intimate1 the strain is continuous4 ,when the brain fails to act with the body1 or1 worse1 works against it1 the body will sicken no matter what cures doctors try4 ,as in bodily self-respect1 so in racial self-respect1 they'll be wanting4 ,they will have plenty of racial pride and prejudice1 but that is not the same thing4 ,that will make them angry when simians of one color mate with those of another4 ,but a general deterioration in physique will cause much less excitement4 ,they will talk about improving the race--they will talk about everything--but they won't use their chances to do it4 ,whenever a new discovery makes life less hard1 for example1 these heedless beings will seldom preserve this advantage1 or use their new wealth to take more time thereafter for thought1 or to gain health and strength or do anything else to make the race better4 ,instead1 they will use the new ease just to increase in numbers2 and they will keep on at this until misery once more has checked them4 ,life will then be as hard as ever1 naturally1 and the chance will be gone4 ,they will have a proverb1 ,the poor ye have always with you1--said by one who knew simians4 ,their ingenious minds will have an answer to this4 ,they will argue it is well that life should be ,spartan and hard1 because of the discipline and its strengthening effects on the character4 ,but the good effects of this sort of discipline will be mixed with sad wreckage4 ,and only creatures incapable of disciplining themselves could thus argue4 ,it is an odd expedient to get yourself into trouble just for discipline's sake4 ,the fact is1 however1 the argument won't be sincere4 ,when their nations grow so over-populous and their families so large it means misery1 that will not be a sign of their having felt ready for discipline4 ,it will be a sign of their not having practised it in their sexual lives4 ,,eleven ,the simians are always being stirred by desire and passion4 ,it constantly excites them1 constantly runs through their minds4 ,wild or tame1 primitive or cultured1 this is a brand of the breed4 ,other species have times and seasons for sexual matters1 but the simian-folk are thus preoccupied all the year round4 ,this super-abundance of desire is not necessarily good or bad1 of itself4 ,but to shape it for the best it will have to be studied--and faced4 ,this they will not do4 ,some of them won't like to study it1 deeming it bad--deeming it bad yet yielding constantly to it4 ,others will hesitate because they will deem it so sacred1 or will secretly fear that study might show them it ought to be curbed4 ,meantime1 this part of their nature will be coloring all their activities4 ,it will beautify their arts1 and erotically confuse their religions4 ,it will lend a little interest to even their dull social functions4 ,it will keep alive degrading social evils in all their great towns4 ,through these latter evils1 too1 their politics will be corrupted2 especially their best and most democratic attempts at self-government4 ,self-government works best among those who have learned to self-govern4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the far distant ages that lie before us what will be the result of this constant preoccupation with desire8 ,will it kill us or save us8 ,will this trait and our insatiable curiosity interact on each other8 ,that might further eugenics4 ,that might give us a better chance to breed finely than all other species4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we already owe a great deal to passion3 more than men ever realize4 ,wasn't it ,darwin who once even risked the conjecture that the vocal organs themselves were developed for sexual purposes1 the object being to call or charm one's mate4 ,hence--perhaps--only animals that were continuously concerned with their matings would be at all likely to form an elaborate language4 ,and without an elaborate language1 growth is apt to be slow4 ,if we owe this to passion1 what follows8 ,does it mean1 for example1 that the more different mates that each simian once learned to charm1 the more rapidly language1 and with it civilization1 advanced8 ,,twelve ,a doctor1 who was making a study of monkeys1 once told me that he was trying experiments that bore on the polygamy question4 ,he had a young monkey named ,jack who had mated with a female named ,jill2 and in another cage another newly-wedded pair1 ,arabella and ,archer4 ,each pair seemed absorbed in each other1 and devoted and happy4 ,they even hugged each other at mealtime and exchanged bits of food4 ,after a time their transports grew less fiery1 and their affections less fixed4 ,archer got a bit bored4 ,he was decent about it1 though1 and when ,arabella cuddled beside him he would more or less perfunctorily embrace her4 ,but when he forgot1 she grew cross4 ,the same thing occurred a little later in the ,jack and ,jill cage1 only there it was ,jill who became a little tired of ,jack4 ,soon each pair was quarreling4 ,they usually made up1 pretty soon1 and started loving again4 ,but it petered out2 each time more quickly4 ,illustration3 ,archer felt bored ,meanwhile the two families had become interested in watching each other4 ,when ,jill had repulsed ,jack1 and he had moped about it awhile1 he would begin staring at ,arabella1 over opposite1 and trying to attract her attention4 ,this got ,jack in trouble all around4 ,arabella indignantly made faces at him and then turned her back2 and as for ,jill1 she grew furious1 and tore out his fur4 ,but in the next stage1 they even stopped hating each other4 ,each pair grew indifferent4 ,then the doctor put ,jack in with ,arabella1 and ,archer with ,jill4 ,arabella promptly yielded to ,jack4 ,new devotion4 ,more transports4 ,jill and ,archer were shocked4 ,jill clung to the bars of her cage1 quivering1 and screaming remonstrance2 and even blase ,archer chattered angrily at some of the scenes4 ,then the doctor hung curtains between the cages to shut out the view4 ,jill and ,archer1 left to each other1 grew interested4 ,they soon were inseparable4 ,the four monkeys1 thus re-distributed1 were now happy once more1 and full of new liveliness and spirit4 ,but before very long1 each pair quarreled--and made up--and quarreled--and then grew indifferent1 and had cynical thoughts about life4 ,at this point1 the doctor put them back with their original mates4 ,and--they met with a rush6 ,gave cries of recognition and joy1 like faithful souls reunited4 ,and when they were tired1 they affectionately curled up together2 and hugged each other even at mealtime1 and exchanged bits of food4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this was as far as the doctor had gotten1 at the time that ,i met him2 and as ,i have lost touch with him since1 ,i don't know how things were afterward4 ,his theory at the time was1 that variety was good for fidelity4 ,so many of us feel this way1 it may be in the blood1 he concluded4 ,some creatures1 such as wolves1 are more serious2 or perhaps more cold-blooded4 ,never mate but once4 ,well--we're not wolves4 ,we can't make wolves our models4 ,of course we are not monkeys either1 but at any rate they are our cousins4 ,perhaps wolves can be continent without any trouble at all1 but it's harder for simians3 it may affect their nervous systems injuriously4 ,if we want to know how to behave1 according to the way ,nature made us1 ,i say that with all due allowances we should study the monkeys4 ,to be sure1 these particular monkeys were living in idleness4 ,this corresponds to living in high social circles with us1 where men do not have to work1 and lack some of the common incentives to home-building4 ,the experiment was not conclusive4 ,still1 even in low social circles-- ,,thirteen ,are we or are we not simians8 ,it is no use for any man to try to think anything else out until he has decided first of all where he stands on that question4 ,it is not only in love affairs3 let us lay all that aside for the moment4 ,it is in ethics1 economics1 art1 education1 philosophy1 what-not4 ,if we are fallen angels1 we should go this road3 if we are super-apes1 that4 ,our problem is not to discover what we ought to do if we were different1 but what we ought to do1 being what we are4 ,there is no end to the beings we can imagine different from ourselves2 but they do not exist1 and we cannot be sure they would be better than we if they did4 ,for1 when we imagine them1 we must imagine their entire environment2 they would have to be a part of some whole that does not now exist4 ,and that new whole1 that new reality1 being merely a figment of our little minds1 would probably be inferior to the reality that is4 ,for there is this to be said in favor of reality3 that we have nothing to compare it with4 ,our fantasies are always incomplete1 because they are fantasies4 ,and reality is complete4 ,we cannot compare their incompleteness with its completeness4#d #d ,from an anonymous article entitled ,tolstoy and ,russia in the ,london ,times1 ,sept4 #bf1 #aiah4 ,too many moralists begin with a dislike of reality3 a dislike of men as they are4 ,they are free to dislike them--but not at the same time to be moralists4 ,their feeling leads them to ignore the obligation which should rest on all teachers1 to discover the best that man can do1 not to set impossibilities before him and tell him that if he does not perform them he is damned4 ,man is moldable2 very2 and it is desirable that he should aspire4 ,but he is apt to be hasty about accepting any and all general ideals without figuring out whether they are suitable for simian use4 ,one result of his habit of swallowing whole most of the ideals that occur to him1 is that he has swallowed a number that strongly conflict4 ,any ideal whatever strains our digestions if it is hard to assimilate3 but when two at once act on us in different ways1 it is unbearable4 ,in such a case1 the poets will prefer the ideal that's idealest3 the hard-headed instinctively choose the one adapted to simians4 ,whenever this is argued1 extremists spring up on each side4 ,one extremist will say that being mere simians we cannot transcend much1 and will seem to think that having limitations we should preserve them forever4 ,the other will declare that we are not merely simians1 never were just plain animals2 or1 if we were1 souls were somehow smuggled in to us1 since which time we have been different4 ,we have all been perfect at heart since that date1 equipped with beautiful spirits1 which only a strange perverse obstinacy leads us to soil4 ,what this obstinacy is1 is the problem that confronts theologians4 ,they won't think of it as simian-ness2 they call it original sin4 ,they regard it as the voice of some devil1 and say good men should not listen to it4 ,the scientists say it isn't a devil1 it is part of our nature1 which should of course be civilized and guided1 but should not be stamped out4 7,it might mutilate us dangerously to become under-simianized4 ,look at ,mrs4 ,humphry ,ward and ,george ,washington4 ,worthy souls1 but no flavor47 99 99 99 99 99 ,in every field of thought then1 two schools appear1 that are divided on this3 ,must we forever be at heart high-grade simians8 ,or are we at heart something else8 ,for example1 in education1 we have in the main two great systems4 ,one depends upon discipline4 ,the other on exciting the interest4 ,the teacher who does not recognize or allow for our simian nature1 keeps little children at work for long periods at dull and dry tasks4 ,without some such discipline1 he fears that his boys will lack strength4 ,the other system believes they will learn more when their interest is roused2 and when their minds1 which are mobile by nature1 are allowed to keep moving4 ,or in politics3 the best government for simians seems to be based on a parliament3 a talk-room1 where endless vague thoughts can be expressed4 ,this is the natural child of those primeval sessions that gave pleasure to apes4 ,it is neither an ideal nor a rational arrangement of course4 ,small executive committees would be better4 ,but not if we are simians4 ,or in industry3 ,why do factory workers produce more in eight hours a day than in ten8 ,it is absurd4 ,super-sheep could not do it4 ,but that is the way men are made4 ,to preach to such beings about the dignity of labor is futile4 ,the dignity of labor is not a simian conception at all4 ,true simians hate to have to work steadily3 they call it grind and confinement4 ,they are always ready to pity the toilers who are condemned to this fate1 and to congratulate those who escape it1 or who can do something else4 ,when they see some performer in spangles risk his life1 at a circus1 swinging around on trapezes1 high up in the air1 and when they are told he must do it daily1 do they pity him8 ,no6 ,super-elephants would say1 and quite properly1 ,what a horrible life6 ,but it naturally seems stimulating to simians4 ,boys envy the fellow4 ,on the other hand whenever we are told about factory life1 we instinctively shudder to think of enduring such evils4 ,we see some old workman1 filling cans with a whirring machine2 and we hear the humanitarians telling us1 indignant and grieving1 that he actually must stand in that nice1 warm1 dry room every day1 safe from storms and wild beasts1 and with nothing to do but fill cans2 and at once we groan3 ,how deadly6 ,what monotonous toil6 ,shorten his hours6 ,his work would seem blissful to super-spiders1--but to us it's intolerable4 ,the factory system is meant for other species than ours4 ,our monkey-blood is also apparent in our judgments of crime4 ,if a crime is committed on impulse1 we partly forgive it4 ,why8 ,because1 being simians1 with a weakness for yielding to impulses1 we like to excuse ourselves by feeling not accountable for them4 ,elephants would have probably taken an opposite stand4 ,they aren't creatures of impulse1 and would be shocked at crimes due to such causes2 their fault is the opposite one of pondering too long over injuries1 and becoming vindictive in the end1 out of all due proportion4 ,if a young super-elephant were to murder another on impulse1 they would consider him a dangerous character and string him right up4 ,but if he could prove that he had long thought of doing it1 they would tend to forgive him4 ,poor fellow1 he brooded1 they would say4 ,that's upsetting to any one4 ,as to modesty and decency1 if we are simians we have done well1 considering3 but if we are something else--fallen angels--we have indeed fallen far4 ,not being modest by instinct we invent artificial ideals1 which are doubtless well-meaning but are inherently of course second-rate1 so that even at our best we smell prudish4 ,and as for our worst1 when we as we say let ourselves go1 we dirty the life-force unspeakably1 with chuckles and leers4 ,but a race so indecent by nature as the simians are would naturally have a hard time behaving as though they were not3 and the strain of pretending that their thoughts were all pretty and sweet1 would naturally send them to smutty extremes for relief4 ,the standards of purity we have adopted are far too strict--for simians4 ,,fourteen ,we were speaking a while ago of the fertility with which simians breed4 ,this is partly due to the constant love interest they take in each other1 but it is also reenforced by their reliance on numbers4 ,that reliance will be deep1 since1 to their numbers1 they will owe much success4 ,it will be thus that they will drive out other species1 and garrison the globe4 ,such a race would naturally come to esteem fertility4 ,it will seem profane not to4 ,as time goes on1 however1 the advantage of numbers will end2 and in their higher stages1 large numbers will be a great drawback4 ,the resources of a planet are limited1 at each stage of the arts4 ,also1 there is only a limited space on a planet4 ,yet it will come hard to them to think of ever checking their increase4 ,they will bring more young into existence than they can either keep well or feed4 ,the earth will be covered with them everywhere1 as far as eye can see4 ,north and south1 east and west1 there will always be simians huddling4 ,their cities will be far more distressing than cities of vermin1--for vermin are healthy and calm and successful in life4 ,ah1 those masses of people--unintelligent1 superstitious1 uncivilized6 ,what a dismal drain they will be on the race's strength6 ,not merely will they lessen its ultimate chance of achievement2 their hardships will always distress and preoccupy minds1--fine1 generous minds1--that might have done great things if free3 that might have done something constructive at least1 for their era1 instead of being burned out attacking mere anodyne-problems4 ,nature will do what it can to lessen the strain1 providing an appropriate remedy for their bad behavior in plagues4 ,many epochs will pass before the simians will learn or dare to control them--for they won't think they can1 any more than they dare control propagation4 ,they will reverently call their propagation and plagues acts of ,god4 ,when they get tired of reverence and stop their plagues1 it will be too soon4 ,their inventiveness will be--as usual--ahead of their wisdom2 and they will unfortunately end the good effects of plagues 7as a check7 before they are advanced enough to keep down their numbers themselves4 ,meanwhile1 when1 owing to the pressure of other desires1 any group of primates does happen to become less prolific1 they will feel ashamed1 talk of race suicide1 and call themselves decadent4 ,and they will often be right3 for though some regulation of the birth-rate is an obvious good1 and its diminution often desirable in any planet's history1 yet among simians it will be apt to come from second-rate motives4 ,greed1 selfishness or fear-thoughts will be the incentives1 the bribes4 ,contrivances1 rather than continence1 will be the method4 ,how audacious1 and how disconcerting to ,nature1 to baffle her thus6 ,even into her shrine they must thrust their bold paws to control her4 ,another race viewing them in the garlanded chambers of love1 unpacking their singular devices1 might think them grotesque3 but the busy little simians will be blind to such quaint incongruities4 ,still1 there is a great gift that their excess of passion will bestow on this race3 it will give them romance4 ,it will teach them what little they ever will learn about love4 ,other animals have little romance3 there is none in the rut3 that seasonal madness that drives them to mate with perhaps the first comer4 ,but the simians will attain to a fine discrimination in love1 and this will be their path to the only spiritual heights they can reach4 ,for1 in love1 their inmost selves will draw near1 in the silence of truth2 learning little by little what the deepest sincerity means1 and what clean hearts and minds and what crystal-clear sight it demands4 ,such intercommunication of spirit with spirit is at the beginning of all true understanding4 ,it is the beginning of silent cosmic wisdom3 it may lead to knowing the ways of that power called ,god4 ,,fifteen ,not content with the whole of a planet and themselves too1 to study1 this race's children will also study the heavens4 ,how few kinds of creatures would ever have felt that impulse1 and yet how natural it will seem to these6 ,how boundless and magnificent is the curiosity of these tiny beings1 who sit and peer out at the night from their small whirling globe1 considering deeply the huge cold seas of space1 and learning with wonderful skill to measure the stars4 ,in studies so vast1 however1 they are tested to the core4 ,in these great journeys the traveler must pay dear for his flaws4 ,for it always is when you most finely are exerting your strength that every weakness you have most tells against you4 ,one weakness of the primates is the character of their self-consciousness4 ,this useful faculty1 that can probe so deep1 has one naive defect--it relies too readily on its own findings4 ,it doesn't suspect enough its own unconfessed predilections4 ,it assumes that it can be completely impartial--but isn't4 ,to instance an obvious way in which it will betray them3 beings that are intensely self-conscious and aware of their selves1 will also instinctively feel that their universe is4 ,what active principle animates the world1 they will ask4 ,a great blind force8 ,it is possible4 ,but they will recoil from admitting any such possibility4 ,a self-aware purposeful force then8 ,that is better6 7,more simian47 ,a blind force can't have been the creator of all4 ,it's unthinkable4 ,any theory their brains find unthinkable cannot be true4 7,this is not to argue that it really is a blind force--or the opposite4 ,it is merely an instance of how little impartial they are47 99 99 99 99 99 ,a second typical weakness of this race will come from their fears4 ,they are not either self-sufficing or gallant enough to travel great roads without cringing1--clear-eyed1 unafraid4 ,they are finely made1 but not nobly made1--in that sense4 ,they will therefore have a too urgent need of religion4 ,few primates have the courage to face--alone--the still inner mysteries3 ,infinity1 ,space and ,time4 ,they will think it too terrible1 they will feel it would turn them to water1 to live through unearthly moments of vision without creeds or beliefs4 ,so they'll get beliefs first4 ,ah1 poor creatures6 ,the cart before the horse6 ,ah1 the blasphemy 7pitiful67 of their seeking high spiritual temples1 with god-maps or bibles about them1 made below in advance6 ,think of their entering into the presence of ,truth1 declaring so loudly and boldly they know her already1 yet far from willing to stand or fall by her flames--to rise like a phoenix or die as an honorable cinder6--but creeping in1 clad in their queer blindfolded beliefs1 designed to shield them from her stern1 bright tests6 ,think of ,truth sadly--or merrily--eyeing such worms6 ,,sixteen ,imagine you are watching the ,bandarlog at play in the forest4 ,as you behold them and comprehend their natures1 now hugely brave and boastful1 now full of dread1 the most weakly emotional of any intelligent species1 ever trying to attract the notice of some greater animal1 not happy indeed unless noticed1--is it not plain they are bound to invent things called gods8 ,don't think for the moment of whether there are gods or not2 think of how sure these beings would be to invent them4 7,not wait to find them47 ,having small self-reliance they can not bear to face life alone4 ,with no self-sufficingness1 they must have the countenance of others4 ,it is these pressing needs that will hurry the primates to build1 out of each shred of truth they can possibly twist to their purpose1 and out of imaginings that will impress them because they are vast1 deity after deity to prop up their souls4 ,what a strange company they will be1 these gods1 in their day1 each of them an old bearded simian up in the sky1 who begins by fishing the universe out of a void1 like a conjurer taking a rabbit out of a hat4 7,a hat which1 if it resembled a void1 wasn't there47 ,and after creating enormous suns and spheres1 and filling the farthest heavens with vaster stars1 one god will turn back and long for the smell of roast flesh1 another will call desert tribes to holy wars1 and a third will grieve about divorce or dancing4 ,all gods that any groups of simians ever conceive of1 from the woodenest little idol in the forest to the mightiest ,spirit1 no matter how much they may differ1 will have one trait in common3 a readiness to drop any cosmic affair at short notice1 focus their minds on the far-away pellet called ,earth1 and become immediately wholly concerned1 aye1 engrossed1 with any individual worshipper's woes or desires1--a readiness to notice a fellow when he is going to bed4 ,this will bring indescribable comfort to simian hearts2 and a god that neglects this duty won't last very long1 no matter how competent he may be in other respects4 ,but one must reciprocate4 ,for the maker of the ,cosmos1 as they see him1 wants noticing too2 he is fond of the deference and attention that simians pay him1 and naturally he will be angry if it is withheld2--or if he is not1 it will be most magnanimous of him4 ,hence prayers and hymns4 ,hence queer vague attempts at communing with this noble kinsman4 ,to desire communion with gods is a lofty desire1 but hard to attain through an ignobly definite creed4 ,dealing with the highest1 most wordless states of being1 the simians will attempt to conceive them in material form4 ,they will have beliefs1 for example1 as to the furnishings and occupations in heaven4 ,and why8 ,why1 to help men to have religious conceptions without themselves being seers1--which in any true sense of religious is an impossible plan4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in their efforts to be concrete they will make their creeds amusingly simian4 ,consider the simian amorousness of ,jupiter1 and the brawls on ,olympus4 ,again1 in the old ,jewish ,bible1 what tempts the first pair8 ,the ,tree of ,knowledge1 of course4 ,it appealed to the curiosity of their nature1 and who could control that6 ,and ,satan in the ,bible is distinctly a simian's devil4 ,the snake1 it is known1 is the animal monkeys most dread4 ,hence when men give their devil a definite form they make him a snake4 ,a race of super-chickens would have pictured their devil a hawk4 ,,seventeen ,what are the handicaps this race will have in building religions8 ,the greatest is this3 they have such small psychic powers4 ,the over-activity of their minds will choke the birth of such powers1 or dull them4 ,the race will be less in touch with ,nature1 some day1 than its dogs4 ,it will substitute the compass for its once innate sense of direction4 ,it will lose its gifts of natural intuition1 premonition1 and rest1 by encouraging its use of the mind to be cheaply incessant4 ,this lack of psychic power will cheat them of insight and poise2 for minds that are wandering and active1 not receptive and still1 can seldom or never be hushed to a warm inner peace4 ,one service these restless minds however will do3 they eventually will see through the religions they themselves invented4 ,but ages will be thrown away in repeating this process4 ,a simian creed will not be very hard thus to pierce4 ,when forming a religion1 they will be in far too much haste1 to wait to apply a strict test to their holy men's visions4 ,furthermore they will have so few visions1 that any will awe them2 so naturally they will accept any vision as valid4 ,then their rapid and fertile inventiveness will come into play1 and spin the wildest creeds from each vision living dust ever dreamed4 ,they will next expect everybody to believe whatever a few men have seen1 on the slippery ground that if you simply try believing it1 you will then feel it's true4 ,such religions are vicarious2 their prophets alone will see ,god1 and the rest will be supposed to be introduced to him by the prophets4 ,these believers will have no white insight at all of their own4 ,now1 a second-hand believer who is warmed at one remove--if at all--by the breath of the spirit1 will want to have exact definitions in the beliefs he accepts4 ,not having had a vision to go by1 he needs plain commandments4 ,he will always try to crystallize creeds4 ,and that1 plainly1 is fatal4 ,for as time goes on1 new and remoter aspects of truth are discovered1 which can seldom or never be fitted into creeds that are changeless4 99 99 99 99 99 ,over and over again1 this will be the process3 ,a spiritual personality will be born2 see new truth2 and be killed4 ,his new truth not only will not fit into too rigid creeds1 but whatever false finality is in them it must contradict4 ,so1 the seer will be killed4 ,his truth being mighty1 however1 it will kill the creeds too4 ,there will then be nothing left to believe in--except the dead seer4 ,for a few generations he may then be understandingly honored4 ,but his priests will feel that is not enough3 he must be honored uncritically3 so uncritically that1 whatever his message1 it must be deemed the ,whole ,truth4 ,some of his message they themselves will have garbled2 and it was not1 at best1 final2 but still it will be made into a fixed creed and given his name4 ,truth will be given his name4 ,all men who thereafter seek truth must find only his kind1 else they won't be his followers4 7,to be his co-seekers won't do47 ,priests will always hate any new seers who seek further for truth4 ,their feeling will be that their seer found it1 and thus ended all that4 ,just believe what he says4 ,the job's over4 ,no more truth need be sought4 ,it's a comforting thing to believe cosmic search nicely settled4 ,thus the mold will be hardened4 ,so new truths1 when they come1 can but break it4 ,then men will feel distraught and disillusioned1 and civilizations will fall4 ,thus each cycle will run4 ,so long as men intertwine falsehoods with every seer's visions1 both perish1 and every civilization that is built on them must perish too4 ,,eighteen ,if men can ever learn to accept all their truths as not final1 and if they can ever learn to build on something better than dogma1 they may not be found saying1 discouragedly1 every once in so often1 that every civilization carries in it the seeds of decay4 ,it will carry such seeds with great certainty1 though1 when they're put there1 by the very race1 too1 that will later deplore the results4 ,why shouldn't creeds totter when they are jerry-built creeds8 ,on stars where creeds come late in the life of a race2 where they spring from the riper1 not cruder1 reactions of spirit2 where they grow out of nobly developed psychic powers that have put their possessors in tune with cosmic music2 and where no cheap hallucinations discredit their truths2 they perhaps run a finer1 more beautiful course than the simians'1 and open the eyes of the soul to far loftier visions4 ,,nineteen ,it has always been a serious matter for men when a civilization decayed4 ,but it may at some future day prove far more serious still4 ,our hold on the planet is not absolute4 ,our descendants may lose it4 ,germs may do them out of it4 ,a chestnut fungus springs up1 defies us1 and kills all our chestnuts4 ,the boll weevil very nearly baffles us4 ,the fly seems unconquerable4 ,only a strong civilization1 when such foes are about1 can preserve us4 ,and our present efforts to cope with such beings are fumbling and slow4 ,we haven't the habit of candidly facing this danger4 ,we read our biological history but we don't take it in4 ,we blandly assume we were always intended to rule1 and that no other outcome could even be considered by ,nature4 ,this is one of the remnants of ignorance certain religions have left3 but it's odd that men who don't believe in ,easter should still believe this4 ,for the facts are of course this is a hard and precarious world1 where every mistake and infirmity must be paid for in full4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if mankind ever is swept aside as a failure however1 what a brilliant and enterprising failure he at least will have been4 ,i felt this with a kind of warm suddenness only today1 as ,i finished these dreamings and drove through the gates of the park4 ,i had been shutting my modern surroundings out of my thoughts1 so completely1 and living as it were in the wild world of ages ago1 that when ,i let myself come back suddenly to the twentieth century1 and stare at the park and the people1 the change was tremendous4 ,all around me were the well-dressed descendants of primitive animals1 whizzing about in bright motors1 past tall1 soaring buildings4 ,what gifted1 energetic achievers they suddenly seemed6 ,i thought of a photograph ,i had once seen1 of a ship being torpedoed4 ,there it was1 the huge1 finely made structure1 awash in the sea1 with tiny black spots hanging on to its side--crew and passengers4 ,the great ship1 even while sinking1 was so mighty1 and those atoms so helpless4 ,yet1 it was those tiny beings that had created that ship4 ,they had planned it and built it and guided its bulk through the waves4 ,they had also invented a torpedo that could rend it asunder4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is possible that our race may be an accident1 in a meaningless universe1 living its brief life uncared-for1 on this dark1 cooling star3 but even so--and all the more--what marvelous creatures we are6 ,what fairy story1 what tale from the ,arabian ,nights of the jinns1 is a hundredth part as wonderful as this true fairy story of simians6 ,it is so much more heartening1 too1 than the tales we invent4 ,a universe capable of giving birth to many such accidents is--blind or not--a good world to live in1 a promising universe4 ,and if there are no other such accidents1 if we stand alone1 if all the uncountable armies of planets are empty1 or peopled by animals only1 with no keys to thought1 then we have done something so mighty1 what may it not lead to6 ,what powers may we not develop before the ,sun dies6 ,we once thought we lived on ,god's footstool3 it may be a throne4 ,this is no world for pessimists4 ,an amoeba on the beach1 blind and helpless1 a mere bit of pulp1--that amoeba has grandsons today who read ,kant and play symphonies4 ,will those grandsons in turn have descendants who will sail through the void1 discover the foci of forces1 the means to control them1 and learn how to marshal the planets and grapple with space8 ,would it after all be any more startling than our rise from the slime8 ,no sensible amoeba would have ever believed for a minute that any of his most remote children would build and run dynamos4 ,few sensible men of today stop to feel1 in their hearts1 that we live in the very same world where that miracle happened4 ,this world1 and our racial adventure1 are magical still4 ,,twenty ,yet although for high-spirited marchers the march is sufficient1 there still is that other way of looking at it that we dare not forget4 ,our adventure may satisfy us3 does it satisfy ,nature8 ,she is letting us camp for awhile here among the wrecked graveyards of mightier dynasties1 not one of which met her tests4 ,their bones are the message the epochs she murdered have left us3 we have learned to decipher their sickening warning at last4 99 99 99 99 99 ,yes1 and even if we are permitted to have a long reign1 and are not laid away with the failures1 are we a success8 ,we need so much spiritual insight1 and we have so little4 ,our airships may some day float over the hills of ,arcturus1 but how will that help us if we cannot find the soul of the world8 ,is that soul alive and loving8 or cruel8 or callous8 or dead8 ,we have no sure vision4 ,hopes1 guesses1 beliefs--that is all4 ,there are sounds we are deaf to1 there are strange sights invisible to us4 ,there are whole realms of splendor1 it may be1 of which we are heedless2 and which we are as blind to as ants to the call of the sea4 ,life is enormously flexible--look at all that we've done to our dogs1--but we carry our hairy past with us wherever we go4 ,the wise ,st4 ,bernards and the selfish toy lap-dogs are brothers1 and some things are possible for them and others are not4 ,so with us4 ,there are definite limits to simian civilizations1 due in part to some primitive traits that help keep us alive1 and in part to the mere fact that every being has to be something1 and when one is a simian one is not also everything else4 ,our main-springs are fixed1 and our principal traits are deep-rooted4 ,we cannot now re-live the ages whose imprint we bear4 ,we have but to look back on our past to have hope in our future3 but--it will be only our future1 not some other race's4 ,we shall win our own triumphs1 yet know that they would have been different1 had we cared above all for creativeness1 beauty1 or love4 99 99 99 99 99 ,so we run about1 busy and active1 marooned on this star1 always violently struggling1 yet with no clearly seen goal before us4 ,men1 animals1 insects--what tribe of us asks any object1 except to keep trying to satisfy its own master appetite8 ,if the ants were earth's lords they would make no more use of their lordship than to learn and enjoy every possible method of toiling4 ,cats would spend their span of life1 say1 trying new kinds of guile4 ,and we1 who crave so much to know1 crave so little but knowing4 ,some of us wish to know ,nature most2 those are the scientists4 ,others1 the saints and philosophers1 wish to know ,god4 ,both are alike in their hearts1 yes1 in spite of their quarrels4 ,both seek to assuage1 to no end1 the old simian thirst4 ,if we wanted to be ,gods--but ah1 can we grasp that ambition8 ,a ,,note ,,on ,,the ,,type ,,in ,,which ,,this ,,book ,,is ,,set ,the text of this book was set on the linotype in ,baskerville4 ,the punches for this face were cut under the supervision of ,george ,w4 ,jones1 an eminent ,english printer4 ,linotype ,baskerville is a facsimile cutting from type cast from the original matrices of a face designed by ,john ,baskerville4 ,the original face was the forerunner of the modern group of type faces4 ,john ,baskerville 7#agjf-ge71 of ,birmingham1 ,england1 a writing-master1 with a special renown for cutting inscriptions in stone1 began experimenting about #agej with punch-cutting and making typographical material4 ,it was not until #ageg that he published his first work1 a ,virgil in royal quarto1 with great-primer letters4 ,this was followed by his famous editions of ,milton1 the ,bible1 the ,book of ,common ,prayer1 and several ,latin classic authors4 ,his types1 at first criticized as unnecessarily slender1 delicate1 and feminine1 in time were recognized as both distinct and elegant1 and both his types and his printing were greatly admired4 ,printers1 however1 preferred the stronger types of ,caslon1 and ,baskerville before his death repented of having attempted the business of printing4 ,for four years after his death his widow continued to conduct his business4 ,she then sold all his punches and matrices to the ,societe ,litteraire-typographique1 which used some of the types for the sumptuous ,kehl edition of ,voltaire's works in seventy volumes4-- ,,composed1 ,,printed ,,and ,,bound ,,by ,h4 ,,wolff1 ,,new ,,york4 ,,paper ,,made ,,by ,p4 ,f4 ,,glatfelter ,,co41 ,,spring ,,grove1 ,,pa4