Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/39

 when his prehuman-nature gave way to humanhood. He was manufacturing implements in Europe as early as 150,000 years ago. Long before this his speech must have had its beginnings.

During many ages the prehuman ancestors of man had aspired, subconsciously perhaps, to an upright carriage. For ages, man himself had known the benefit of the nearly erect posture. His changed physical attitude was, in some mysterious manner, the forerunner of his spiritual attitude. He was beginning to look toward the stars. But the slow change from four legs to two did not carry with it unalloyed blessings. As man arose from the more or less horizontal to the approximately perpendicular posture, he began to hope, to dream, to laugh, and to weep. Spiritual suffering came not through the “fall” of man but through his rise. His new posture also imposed anatomical penalties, the effects of which have not yet passed away. The abdominal cavity, for instance, is ill-suited to