World Set Free

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. A quarter of a million years ago the utmost man was a savage, a being scarcely articulate, sheltering in holes in the rocks, armed with a rough-hewn flint or a fire-pointed stick, naked, living in small family groups, killed by some younger man SO soon as his first virile activity declined. Over most of the great wildernesses of earth you would have sought him in vain; only in a few temperate and sub-tropical river valleys would you have found the squatting lairs of his little herds, a male, a few females, a child or so. He knew no future then, no kind of life except the life he led. He fled the cave-bear over the rocks full Of iron ore and the promise Of sword and Spear; he froze to death upon a ledge of coal; he drank water muddy with th clay that would one day make cups Of porcelain he chewed the ear of wild wheat he had pluc and gazed with a dim speculation in his ey the birds that soared beyond his reach. Suddenly he became aware of the scent another male and rose up roaring, his roars formless precursors of moral admonitions.