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YOU Were Once a Shrew hlouse
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’ROM the beginning of thought
among men, the philosophers,
lovers of wisdom, as some called
them; students of foolish ques
tions, as others called them, have
f
isked these questions:
“Whence do I come?’’
“Whither am I going?’’
“Why am I here?’’
“Who put me here?”
“What controls me?”
During centuries of feeble thought these
questions were answered by the religions more
or less primitive. During the few centuries of'
Greek and Roman civilization that precede our
sra the philosophers stepped aside from religion
and began thinking on their own accord—but
only guessing.
During the marvellous century that has just
passed man began to think, scientifically and
accurately, taking facts instead of fairy stories
is his basis.
And in that century man conquered the BE
GINNING OF REAL KNOWLEDGE.
♦ e ♦
Darwin and Wallace, hitting the idea at the
same time established clear understanding of
the fact that man is a form of animal life, the
highest form undoubtedly, and is the direct de
scendant of other forms of animal life.
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Now comes the latest, and an intensely in
teresting analysis of our semi human and ani
mal ancestors. And we are told that a little ani
mal called “the jumping shrew” or “shrew
mouse,” was undoubtedly our great great great
grandfather millions of years ago.
This striking picture shows you on one side
a little mouse, with the well developed forehead
—and on the other side man descended through
the ages from the shrew.
The artist, with vivid imagination, places
ten millions of years between the two. That is
exaggeration, perhaps.
We are assured now, by the most learned
men, that this earth has existed in various
'orms beginning with the fiery, whirling mass,
about five hundred millions of years.
Man, in a more or less primitive shape, has
probably lived on this planet 500,000 years, so
that the races which we call old and primitive
All Forms of Life on This Planet Have Changed Through the
Centuries, Each Has Come Out of Some Form That Preceded
It, The First Form Undoubtedly Being the Single Living Cell
Sent to 1 his Planet Through Space, as Soon as the Planet Was
Cold Enough to Permit Life on Its Surface,
From That Single Cell Through the Thousands and the Mill
ions of Centuries, Life Has Changed Until at Last Man Has Ap
peared. Science Tells Us Now That His Real Ancestor Was “The
Jumping Shrew”, Quite a Change in a Few Thousand Centuries,
from the Little Mouse TO YOU,
really have been preceded by thousands of
others, long before Greeks, Romans, Baby
lonians, Assyrians or Egyptians were known.
It is probable that the jumping shrew, our
grandfather, dates back only about 2,630,000
years—that is quite a respectable family tree.
In one of the geological periods known as
the Eocene, or possibly the earlier cretaceous,
in which new forms appeared, this shrew was in
existence, hopping about on the surface of a
planet very different from that we now inhabit.
You might read with interest many volumes
—if they were properly and plainly written—
concerning the marvellous transformations
through which life on this planet, and the planet
itself, have passed.
You would learn that this little mouse, be
longing to the family of moles and hedgehogs,
was the ancestor of man destined to rule the
planet, BECAUSE HE HAD THE MOST
BRAIN IN PROPORTION TO HIS BODY
AND LITTLE MOUSE AS HE WAS HE DE
PENDED UPON HIS BRAIN FOR SUCCESS
RATHER THAN UPON SAVAGERY OR
WEAPONS.
Already, in this first old mouse ancestor of
ours, we find that thought and brain power are
the real forces that lead to the highest places.
While that tiny mouse hopped about cau
tiously among the roots and the thick pollen of
the great fern trees, he was using his brain and
developing it constantly.
Near him were gigantic animals, crocodiles
with tremendous teeth, huge tortoises, some of
the birds and monsters that might have swal
lowed a thousand of the shrew mice at a mouth
ful.
The tortoises had their shells to protect
them so they did not think.
The crocodile had his thick scales, his sharp
teeth. He relied upon them, and he did not
think.
The birds, wonderful creatures, with warm
blood, powerful hearts, eyesight far above our
own, had WlNGS—they relied upon them and
did not think.
Gigantic monsters that are only memories
to-day, reproduced in our museums, had their
vast bodies, their huge crushing bones. They
relied upon them, and did not think.
The little mouse, weak, defenceless, HAD
TO THINK.
And because he HAD to think and DID
think, that humble animal gave to this great and
beautiful world the thinking men destined to
rule it, regulate it, drain its swamps, cultivate
its deserts, and bring it into harmony with the
rest of the universe.
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In thousands of ways your humble little
hopping ancestor of two and one-half million
years ago was superior to his competitors. He
could jump. That helped him to get out of the
way of big feet and away from sharp teeth.
AND HE COULD THINK.
Those were his only virtues. But because
he had those two fine qualities, that humble lit
tle citizen of the Eocene age, has among his de
scendants Beethoven, Archimedes, Jane Addams
and Paderewski.
All of those mentioned, and every other
well-known individual, simply represent one
kind OF THOUGHT, and thought was the only
wealth, the only inheritance that the little
mouse of ages gone by had to leave to his de
scendants.
The theories of science, the recent discussion of man’s
iescent, the analysis of success by the thinking men of
the scientific world—all of these recent speculations
backed up by proof—are intensely interesting.
We learn that the shrew mouse and his descendants,
all the way down from a tiny creature as big as your
numb, to the man of to-day, developed rapidly and took
control of the world, because they did not have to waste
time, “adapting themselves to'their environment.” That
leans, that they did not have to use energy changing the
forms of their bodies, developing new weapons, slowly al
tering skeletons, etc. Instead of getting new weapons,
teeth, claws, etc., they used the BRAIN. They kept mak
ing that brain bigger and bigger inventing tools and
weapons, and the brain conquered the tiger’s teeth, the
elephant’s trunk, the bird’s wings, and all the other sub
stitutes for thought.
It is interesting to know that power is developed in
proportion to the ability of the animal, and later of the
man, to live and develop independently of conditions sur
rounding them.
We find to-day that the most successful races of men
are those that have changed the least; that is to say, those
that retain the animal characteristics.
The Aryan race, so called, originating probably in the
northwestern corner of Europe, compelled to develop fam
ily ties by the cold of Winter that has kept the family
around the fire, is nearer to the animal than other races
less successful.
The ruling race of this planet is a carnivorous race,
not so far from the cannibal that he once was. He is a
hairy individual, with beard all over his face. He is a
fighting, aggressive individual. He seems close to the ani
mal; yet hairy and meat-eating fighter that he is, he rules
with great ease three hundred millions of smooth-faced
peaceful vegetarians, Asiatics in one single locality.
If our little grandfather, the jumping shrew, had not
started to solve all his problems with thought; if he had
put his energy into growing muscle, or teeth, or “adapt
ing himself to his environment,” he wouldn’t have the
fine race of sons and daughters that he now has —namely,
the human race.
Men and women, remember that what applies to
the jumping shrew, alleged to be your ancestor, applies
also to you. The more you make yourself independent of
your surroundings, the more ably you cope with condi
tions as you find them, the greater and more rapid will
be your success.
If you use your hours, days and months of youth in
wasteful attempts to develop muscle, you will take just so
much away from your brain—and be just so much less of
a human being.
* « ♦
Those that dislike the idea of monkey ancestors mav
find comfort in this new theory about the jumping shrew.
According to the modern scientists, the monkey, the big
gorilla, are simply half-developed human beings gone
wrong.
They reached a certain stage and stuck there. The
gorilla, huge and powerful, depended upon his strength,
his teeth, his wonderful arms. And he stayed a gorilla.
He never learned to think.
The other monkeys depended upon their agility, their
swiftness, their ability to climb, which was almost as
good as the ability to fly—and they didn't get very far
Other, wiser, descendants of the little shrew wasted
no time trying to be like the gorilla, or like Jack Johnson
or Jeffries.
They put all their energy and vitality into the devel
opment of their BRAIN. That is why they now own
museums lined with stuffed gorillas, zoological gardens
supplied with living elephants and other samples of 'l‘ e
monsters that attached more importance to physical power
than to thought.