Following are two fine figures carrying their children, expressing the idea of the fecundity of the early races.
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A hermes divides this panel from the next. Since in classic times a herm, or hermes, was used to mark distances on the roads, so here the hermes is used to mark distances, or periods in time.
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Panel 2 - We now see the successors of the children of the previous panel grown to manhood. The fact of Natural Selection inflicts itself upon man. Two women are attracted to the same male, a fine intellectual and physical type. The rejected suitors are seen at the end of the panel, one in anger, the other in despair.
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Panel 3 is called The Survival of the Fittest. This is the suggestion that physical strength decides who shall survive. We notice that chieftains struggle to possess the same woman, a woman on the right endeavoring to separate them.
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Panel 4 is called The Lesson of Life.
Elders of experience attempt to give counsel to the love-lorn and impetuous, knowing that impulse may sometimes be a poignant foe.