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YOU Were Once a Shrew hlouse .<KiRS!w C " A I / | - a^l jl KO' j 'WsBL x ex / ' ;> ik ■B|tiF • Y t AKS M Z ’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. < < £ 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. A * £ 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.