This simian world . U^ Imm Ul»4h TWO If we had been made directly from clay, theway it says in the Bible, and had therefore in-herited no intermediate characteristics,—if a god,or some principle of growth, had gone that wayto work with us, he or it might have molded usinto much more splendid forms. But considering our simian descent, it hasdone very well. The only people who are dis-appointed in us are those who still believe thatclay story. Or who—unconsciously—still let itcolor their thinking. There certainly seems to be a power at workin the world, by virtue of which every livingthing grows
This simian world . U^ Imm Ul»4h TWO If we had been made directly from clay, theway it says in the Bible, and had therefore in-herited no intermediate characteristics,—if a god,or some principle of growth, had gone that wayto work with us, he or it might have molded usinto much more splendid forms. But considering our simian descent, it hasdone very well. The only people who are dis-appointed in us are those who still believe thatclay story. Or who—unconsciously—still let itcolor their thinking. There certainly seems to be a power at workin the world, by virtue of which every livingthing grows and develops. And it tends towardsplendor. Seeds become trees, and weak littlenations grow great. But the push or the forcethat is doing this, the yeast as it were, has to workin and on certain definite kinds of material. Be--6- This Simian World cause this yeast is in us, there may be great andundreamed of possibilities awaiting mankind;but because of our line of descent there are alsoqueer limitations. -7-. \ S THREE In those distant invisible epochs before menexisted, before even the proud missing linkstrutted around through the woods (little real-izing how we his greatgrandsons would smilewryly at him, much as our own descendants mayshudder at us, ages hence) the various animalswere desperately competing for power. Theycouldnt or didnt live as equals. Certain groupssought the headship. Many strange forgotten dynasties rose, metdefiance, and fell. In the end it was our an-cestors who won, and became simian kings, and-8- This Simian World bequeathed a whole planet to us—and have neverbeen thanked for it. No monument has beenraised to the memory of those first hairy con-querors; yet had they not fought well and wiselyin those far-off times, some other race wouldhave been masters, and kept us in cages, or shotus for sport in the forests while they ruled theworld. So Potter and I, developing this train ofthought, began to imagine we had lived manyages ago, and somehow
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