In those distant invisible epochs before men existed, before even
the proud missing link strutted around through the woods (little
realizing how we his greatgrandsons would smile wryly at him much
as our own descendants may shudder at us, ages hence) the various
animals were desperately competing for power. They couldn't or
didn't live as equals. Certain groups sought the headship.
Many strange forgotten dynasties rose, met defiance, and fell.
In the end it was our ancestors who won, and became simian kings,
and bequeathed a whole planet to us--and have never been thanked
for it. No monument has been raised to the memory of those first
hairy conquerors; yet had they not fought well and wisely in those
far-off times, some other race would have been masters, and kept
us in cages, or show us for sport in the forest while they ruled
the world.
So Potter and I, developing this train of thought, began to imagine
we had lived many ages ago, and somehow or other had alighted
here from some older planet. Familiar with the ways of evolution
elsewhere in the universe, we naturally should have wondered what
course it would take on this earth. "Even in this out-of-the-way
corner of the Cosmos," we might have reflected, "and on this tiny
star, it may be of interest to consider the trend of events." We
should have tried to appraise the different species as they wandered
around, each with its own set of good and bad characteristics. Which
group, we'd have wondered, would ever contrive to rule all the rest?
And how great a development could they attain to thereafter?