This simian world . it entered ourheads. And all that while the contest for leadershipblindly went on, without any species makinguse of this obvious aid. The lesson to be learnedwas simple: the reward was the rule of a only one species, our own, has ever had thatmuch brains. It makes you wonder what other obvious les-sons may still be unlearned. It is not necessarily stupid however, to failto use tools. To use tools involves using reason, -37- This Simian World instead of sticking to instinct. Now, sticking toinstinct has its disadvantages, but so has usingreason. Whichever faculty
This simian world . it entered ourheads. And all that while the contest for leadershipblindly went on, without any species makinguse of this obvious aid. The lesson to be learnedwas simple: the reward was the rule of a only one species, our own, has ever had thatmuch brains. It makes you wonder what other obvious les-sons may still be unlearned. It is not necessarily stupid however, to failto use tools. To use tools involves using reason, -37- This Simian World instead of sticking to instinct. Now, sticking toinstinct has its disadvantages, but so has usingreason. Whichever faculty you use, the otheratrophies, and partly deserts you. We are tryingto use both. But we still dont know which hasthe more value. A sudden vision comes to me of one of thefirst far-away ape-men who tried to use reasoninstead of instinct as a guide for his imagine him, perched in his tree, torn betweenthose two voices, wailing loudly at night by ariver, in his puzzled distress. My poor far-off brother! -%-?. EIGHT We have been considering which species wason the whole most finely equipped to be rulers,and thereafter achieve a high civilization; butthat wasnt the problem. The real problemwas which would do it:—a different matter. To do it there was need of a species that hadat least these two qualities: some quenchlessdesire, to urge them on and on; and also adapt-ability of a thousand kinds to their environment. The rhinoceros cares little for slogs through the world. But we! we areexperts. Adaptability is what we depend on. Wetalk of our mastery of nature, which sounds verygrand; but the fact is we respectfully adapt our-selves first, to her ways. We attain no powerover nature till we learn natural laws, and ourlordship depends on the adroitness with whichwe learn and conform. Adroitness however is merely an ability towin; back of it there must be some spur to make -39- This Simian World us use our adroitness. Why dont we all die orgive up when were sic
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