How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

imagine that the entire human race might easily have gone the way of the ichthyosaurus but for the fact that nature had endowed us with a little bigger brain and the ability to compensate for our defects. The dawn of mankind is shrouded in darkness, and our interpretations must, perforce, remain conjectures. No one knows how and when the transformation occurred. Yet, if some sceptic were to doubt the above deductions, we would still have very important biological data to demonstrate the existence of a universal sense of inferiority in all human beings. One of the most significant and unique characteristics of man is the fact that the growth of his mental faculties and the growth of his physical apparatus for accomplishing his purposes proceed at disproportionate speeds, the mental faculties being well developed long before the physical apparatus is capable of the required coordinations. This remarkable fact is due to the late development of man’s brain, and its relative completeness at birth, and it is this phenomenon which distinguishes man from all other living animals, in whom the growth of mental faculties and motor apparatus proceeds in a nearly parallel curve. The young robin which has grown old enough to distinguish a worm has likewise developed physically to the point where he can catch the worm and eat it. Kittens pass through a relatively short period of helplessness, but when they are old enough to know what a mouse is they are simultaneously capable of stalking it, catching it, and eating it. Young calves can distinguish poisonous from edible grasses at an early age. Young turtles are barely hatched from their eggs when they make unerringly for the sea, and begin life as independent organisms. Contrast the situation of the human baby ! The baby can recognize its bottle long before it is old enough to reach for it and feed itself. The baby cries if it is uncomfortable, but the satisfaction of its wishes depends entirely upon the good will of a parent or a nurse. Long before the child can walk, it can realize that its parents move with comparative ease. The mysteries ot speech remain