Thought-Culture; or, Practical Mental Training

most defenseless original: "defenceless". Had a being from another planet been asked to predict original: "prophesy" the future, he would undoubtedly have said that this helpless animal would be the first to be exterminated. And yet every one of those fierce creatures succumbed either to the change of climate or to man’s inferior strength The author notes the irony that these powerful creatures were defeated by humans, despite our lack of natural physical weapons like claws or massive strength..

The reason was that man had one resource denied to the animals—the power of progressive thought The ability to learn from the past, adapt, and improve techniques over time.. The land sank, the sea cut off England from the mainland This refers to the end of the last Ice Age, when rising sea levels flooded the land bridge (Doggerland) that once connected Britain to continental Europe., the climate changed, and even the strongest animals were helpless. But man changed his clothing as the climate changed. He made fires; he built a shelter original: "retreat" to keep off death by cold. He thought of ways to kill or to subdue the strongest animals. If lions, tigers, or bears had the power of progressive thought, they could have worked together, and it would have been possible for them to exterminate man before he reached the stage of civilization. . . .

Man no longer sleeps in caves. Smoke no longer fills his home or finds its way out through the cracks original: "chinks" in the walls or a hole in the roof. In traveling, he is no longer restricted to his own feet or even to horses. For all this improvement, man is