More progress..... (3)

THE CONQUEST OF THE ANIMALS :

Our memories are too forgetful, and our imagination too unimaginative, to let us realise the gift we have in our security from the larger and sub human beasts of prey. Animals are now our playthings and our helpless food, but there was a time when man was hunted as well as hunter, when every step from cave or hut was an adventure, and the possession of the earth was still at stake. This war to make the planet human was surely the most vital in human history; by it's side all other wars were but family quarrels. That struggle between strength of body and power of mind was waged through long and unrecorded years, and when at last it was won, man's safety on earth was transmitted across a thousand generations, to be part of our heritage at birth.


AGRICULTURE :

Civilization was impossible in the hunting stage; it called for a permanent habitat, a settled way of life. it came with the home and the school, and these could not be till the products of the field replaced the animals of the forest or the herd as the food of man. No doubt it took centuries to make this greatest of all transitions in human history, but when at last it was made, progress began.

Civilization came through two things chiefly, the home, which developed those social dispositions that form the psychological cement of society, and agriculture, which took man from his wandering life as hunter, herder and killer, and settled him long enough in one place to let him build homes, schools, churches, colleges, universities, civilization.


More thanks to W.Durant.