New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-08-11
III

Inc most important subject with which the
mind Of prmeval man had to busy itself for the
sake of physical comfort and the improvement
OF the race was fire. Here. again, can
be made out from the evidence at hand. observa-
ton led to invention. There must have been a
time, perhaps a long time, when man had no
fire unless nature made 1t for him. by striking
tree with lightning, by rousing a volcano, by
rubbing two trees together in the wind. or by
spontaneous combustion That time of privaton
must have left bitter memory. else there would
not have been in late times that painful of
the sacred fire which kept 1t burning necessarily.
The Greek story about fire concealed in
narthex stalk by Prometheus. the Alaskan tale
repeated by DR.. Mason Of the raven that stole
fire from an old magician who had all the stars
well the and moon hidden In box.
and the Poynesian belief that men owed
knowledge Of fire to the god Of earthquakes. all
point back to the time when embers had to be
carefully watched and when the tribes that lost
fire had to get 1t again the best way they could.
But to this time Of hepessness succeeded that
Of invention when various devices. the fire sticks,
the fire drill, the flint and steel. or rather fin.
and pyrites, enabled man to start fire with
more or less ease. But 1t is said that there are
tribes. among them the Andaman islanders. who
making fire, and who watchfully preserve 1t.
They do from necessity what many race more
advanced has done from superstitious attach
ment TO religious tradition. On the other
hand. there are tribes that extnguish all fires
at certain dates and these. according TO DR..
Mason. betray a Renaissance of a time when
they first discovered fire kindled by natural
causes These tribes also, forgetting the orig
inal reason for their conduct. surround the act
Of putting out the fire and reminding II with a
religious ceremonial.
After discussing at length the most note
worthy primitive inve ltions for use In domestic
life in hunting and in war DR.. Mason concludes
that the devices Of early man are those out Of
which all subsequent expedients take their rise.
The former cover in general way all the activ-
tiles of human life. The inventive genius OF
man is awakened by the desire for food for
shelter. for clothing. for rest, for travel. for
delight of the senses, for knowledge for social
enjoyment. for spiritual satisfaction. Thus he
includes among inventions not merely tools and
weapons and machines, but Languages. insti-
tutions, aesthetic arts. PHILOSOPHERS. creeds and
cults" The process is one which tends to make
the life of man artificial The change involved
In the process Is one Of ever-increasing complex
ity. not only in the things invented and in the
apparatus and processes employed. but also in
the mind Of the inventor and the society to
which he belongs. The mental, or as DR.. Mason
calls them. the psychical changes, which are
collective as we'll as individual, include the OBJ
servaton Of what goes in the natural world.
the determination to initiate the method Of
nature, discovery that the same result can be
achieved in a different way from that observed
in nature. the combination of mental activities
that discerns the relation of one simple instru-
ment to another and produces machines, inven-
ton for the sake Of inventing and cooperative
invention. This series implies growing COM
plexity not merely Of the individual mind but
in the relations OF many minds 10 one another.