r understanding
them, but he was able to cause nature to express itself, by finding a way
to release nature's stored up energy. Through the work of his brain and
its direction in the use of his muscles, he found that some of his
appliances were not good; he made better ones, and thus slowly at first,
the progress of humanity went on. I will not enlarge upon the history of
the evolution of civilization because it is told in many books.

In the earliest times the religious, philosophical, legal and ethical
systems had not been invented. The morale at that time was a natural
morale. Humans knew that they did not create nature. They did not feel it
"proper" to "expropriate the creator" and legalistically appropriate the
earth and its treasure for themselves. They felt, in their unsophisticated
morale, that being called into existence they had a natural right to exist
and to use freely the gifts of nature in the preservation of their life;
and that is what they did.

After the death of a man, some of the objects produced by him still
survived, such as weapons, fishing or hunting instruments, or the caves
adapted for living; a baby had to be nourished for some years by its
parents or it would have died. Those facts had important consequences;
objects made by someone for some particular use could be used by someone
else, even after the death of one or more successive users; again the
experiences acquired by one member of a family or a group of people were
taught by example or precept to others of the same generation and to the
next generation. Such simple facts are the corner stones of our whole
civilization and they are the direct result of the HUMAN CAPACITY OF
TIME-BINDING.

The world to-day is full of controversy about wealth, capital, and money,
and because humanity, through its peculiar time-binding power, binds this
element "time" in an ever larger and larger degree, the controversy
becomes more and more acute. Civilization as a process is the process of
binding time; progress is made by the fact that each generation adds to
the material and spiritual wealth which it inherits. Past achievements--the
fruit of bygone time--thus live in the present, are augmented in the
present, and transmitted to the future; the process goes on; time, the
essential element, is so involved that, though it increases
arithmetically, its fruit, civilization, advances geometrically.

But there is another peculiarity in wealth and money: If