Show the world it I 1 nl we tho earth which we fand today bright with varied hues vocal with innumerable sounds rich in arnite and fragrant with odors lay for an almost incalculable period of time destitute or all but destitute of color soundless save tor the noise of aavo and tempest and with no promise as yet of tho rich profusion of vegetable and animal forms and fill it that now diversify its surface with the thrill and manifold activities of lifo we often speak of man as the heir of all the ages but not often realize the probably do we pause to we talk of significance of the word evolution ant seldom make any due effort to grasp the plenitude and grandeur of the thought these senses of which we have the use and each of which brings a different world within our ken whence are they it seems so natural to sec it seems EO natural to hear to touch to smell tu taste forget through what slow processes by what an incalculable number of slight accretions and delicate modifications these wonderful channels of knowledge and sensation have been made for us we go back through abo ages and we come to a sightless voiceless world for a period probably as long as all the rest of geological time the only forms of life were protozoa sight was developed among the wonderful crustaceans of tho silurian period but as yet there were no organs of hearing the first of an insect wing was heard it it was heard in the devonian age the birth epoch of the first vertebrates fishes but long ages had to pass before the first bee hummed over a flower or the first butterfly fluttered its wings in the sunshine popular science monthly |