III.
The earth slept.
Age upon age passed, and through them all the impulse of life beat on. From one form to another it travelled. Mammoth creatures walked the earth and mammoth vegetation covered its surface. From the north swept down the mighty frozen tide bearing death before it, and the mammoth passed away.
The dawning of a new life began to break upon the world, flowers bedecked the earth, and fruits multiplied and increased in the trees. Beneficent nature was planning for the good of her children.
“Friends!” cried one climbing anthropoid to the others, “I feel a strange impulse within me—a yearning as of aspirations undefined. Friends, I believe that we shall yet walk this earth erect!”
“Nonsense,” cried the rest, “we feel no such impulse, and why should you? We never have walked erect. We have no power to walk erect, nor desire to do so. Why do you trouble us with your imbecile folly?”
And gathering about him they drowned his voice in the chorus of their clamoring protests.
IV.
The earth slept.
Age upon age passed and man dwelt upon the earth and fought and toiled and traded with his kind. Man, king of creation, walking erect, engaged in competition with his fellows, and battled fiercely with them in the struggle for existence.