nature. These generalizations, early developed, and seemingly supported by the observations of countless generations, came to be among the most firmly established scientific inductions of our primeval ancestor. They obtained a hold upon the mentality of our race that led subsequent generation to think and speak of them as "innate" ideas.
The observations upon which they were based are now for the most part susceptible of other interpretations; but the old interpretations have precedent and prejudice back of them, and they represent ideas more difficult than almost any others to eradicate. Always superstitions based upon unwarranted early scientific deductions have been the most implacable foes to the progress of science. These are still as firmly fixed in the minds of a large majority of our race as they were in the mind of our prehistoric ancestor. The fact of this heritage must not be forgotten in estimating the debt of gratitude which historic man owes to his primitive forebears.
The Highway
I SAW a wide, sun-beaten street
Wherethrough a throng, with hurrying feet
But downcast and unlustrous eyes,
Swept by—in search of Paradise.
The street stretched on, a long straight line.
To the horizon's far confine,
Undeviating, shadeless, bare;
And the poor souls that plodded there
Were blind with sun and choked with dust,
Yet toiled on in the joyless trust
That somehow, somewhere, far or near,
The haven they longed for must appear.
And all along this barren way
Were walls to guard the lands that lay
Green-wooded, cool, on either side.
"Ah, lift your eyes and look," I cried;
"Behold, where close beside you lies
The flowery vale of Paradise!
One step, one leap, and you are free
To wander through the shadowy lea,
Or lie outstretched on Nature's breast
And slake your troubled souls with rest."
But words were vain, for few among
The thousands in that hurrying throng
Stayed even to answer; and those few
Said: "Nay, we do as others do!
We follow on, we may not stay;
We dare not leave the world's highway!
Go pipe your song, and dream your dream,
And feed your soul on things that seem;
But be our haven near or far,
We place our trust in things that are."
