Down the Ages.

It is not, said Mr. Palmer, that the ascent of man can be traced in a steady line upwards and onwards. There have been plenty of zigzags, detours, false starts, corners that were never rounded, and back-slidings. Cases of retrogression are almost as striking as those of progress. But down the ages and through the maze of the existing species of the animal kingdom can be traced a certain increase of the organism's control over the natural forces in which it is placed. The evolutionary trend is to enhance this control through greater complexity in the nervous system and sense-organs.