The Story of Mankind [4]
GAINED
LIBERTY OF ACTION AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER
THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN THE UNIVERSE
61. A CHAPTER OF ART
62. THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, INCLUDING SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS
AND A FEW APOLOGIES
63. THE GREAT WAR, WHICH WAS REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A
NEW AND BETTER WORLD
64.ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY
65.CONCERNING THE PICTURES
66.AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN
67.INDEX
THE STORY OF MANKIND
HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there
stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles
wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this
rock to sharpen its beak.
When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day
of eternity will have gone by.
THE SETTING OF THE STAGE
WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark.
Who are we?
Where do we come from?
Whither are we bound?
Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing
this question mark further and further towards that distant
line, beyond the horizon, where we hope to find our answer.
We have not gone very far.
We still know very little but we have reached the point
where (with a fair degree of accuracy) we can guess at many
things.
In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best
belief) the stage was set for the first appearance of man.
If we represent the time during which it has been possible for
animal life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length,
then the tiny line just below indicates the age during which
man (or a creature more or less resembling man) has lived
upon this earth.
Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for
the purpose of conquering the forces of nature. That is the
reason why we are going to study him, rather than cats or
dogs or horses or any of the other animals, who, all in their
own way, have a very interesting historical development behind
them.
In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far
as we now know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of
smoke in the endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course
of millions of years, the surface burned itself out, and was covered
with a thin layer of rocks. Upon these lifeless rocks the
rain descended in endless torrents, wearing out the hard
granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that lay hidden between
the high cliffs of the steaming earth.
Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the
clouds and saw how this little planet was covered with a few
small puddles which were to develop into the mighty oceans of
the eastern and western hemispheres.
Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been
dead, gave birth to life.
The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea.
For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents.
But during all that time it was developing certain habits that
it might survive more easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some
of these cells were happiest in the dark depths of the lakes and
the pools. They took root in the slimy sediments which had
been carried down from the tops of the hills and they became
plants. Others preferred to move about and they grew
strange jointed legs, like scorpions and began to crawl along
the bottom of the sea amidst the plants and the pale green things
that looked like jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales)
depended upon a swimming motion to go from place to place
in their search for food, and gradually they populated the ocean
with myriads of fishes.
Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had
to search for new dwelling places. There was no more room
for them at the bottom of the sea. Reluctantly they left the
water and made a new home in the marshes and on the mud-
banks that lay at the foot of the mountains. Twice a day the
LIBERTY OF ACTION AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER
THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN THE UNIVERSE
61. A CHAPTER OF ART
62. THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, INCLUDING SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS
AND A FEW APOLOGIES
63. THE GREAT WAR, WHICH WAS REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A
NEW AND BETTER WORLD
64.ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY
65.CONCERNING THE PICTURES
66.AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN
67.INDEX
THE STORY OF MANKIND
HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there
stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles
wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this
rock to sharpen its beak.
When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day
of eternity will have gone by.
THE SETTING OF THE STAGE
WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark.
Who are we?
Where do we come from?
Whither are we bound?
Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing
this question mark further and further towards that distant
line, beyond the horizon, where we hope to find our answer.
We have not gone very far.
We still know very little but we have reached the point
where (with a fair degree of accuracy) we can guess at many
things.
In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best
belief) the stage was set for the first appearance of man.
If we represent the time during which it has been possible for
animal life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length,
then the tiny line just below indicates the age during which
man (or a creature more or less resembling man) has lived
upon this earth.
Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for
the purpose of conquering the forces of nature. That is the
reason why we are going to study him, rather than cats or
dogs or horses or any of the other animals, who, all in their
own way, have a very interesting historical development behind
them.
In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far
as we now know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of
smoke in the endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course
of millions of years, the surface burned itself out, and was covered
with a thin layer of rocks. Upon these lifeless rocks the
rain descended in endless torrents, wearing out the hard
granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that lay hidden between
the high cliffs of the steaming earth.
Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the
clouds and saw how this little planet was covered with a few
small puddles which were to develop into the mighty oceans of
the eastern and western hemispheres.
Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been
dead, gave birth to life.
The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea.
For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents.
But during all that time it was developing certain habits that
it might survive more easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some
of these cells were happiest in the dark depths of the lakes and
the pools. They took root in the slimy sediments which had
been carried down from the tops of the hills and they became
plants. Others preferred to move about and they grew
strange jointed legs, like scorpions and began to crawl along
the bottom of the sea amidst the plants and the pale green things
that looked like jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales)
depended upon a swimming motion to go from place to place
in their search for food, and gradually they populated the ocean
with myriads of fishes.
Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had
to search for new dwelling places. There was no more room
for them at the bottom of the sea. Reluctantly they left the
water and made a new home in the marshes and on the mud-
banks that lay at the foot of the mountains. Twice a day the