, 1903.
_Lesson XX._ The purpose of this lesson is to show the way in which man
began the conquest of the animal world. Lead the child to see that it
has taken a long time to make the earth a good home for man, and that
one reason why we can learn more than the lower races knew is because
they spent their time in making the earth a better place in which to
live. (See pp. 147-148.)
_Lesson XXI._ This lesson is based upon well-authenticated facts
supplied by Professor Boyd Dawkins. It portrays not merely the
intelligence of animals, but man's alertness to take suggestions. It
also suggests to the child a relation that exists between him and the
larger world to which he is already looking with expectancy. (See
_Supplementary Facts_, pp. 142-144, for information regarding the
rhinoceros, the mammoth, and the sabre-toothed felis.)
_Lesson XXII._ This lesson, together with the two following, in which
the probable method of subduing fire is portrayed, marks the climax of
interest in the story of the Tree-dwellers. No greater conquest has ever
been made. In writing of this subject, Mr. Geiger says: "And if we
admire in genius not only superior intellectual endowment but the
boldness of attempting to think of what has never been thought of by any
one before, and to undertake what has never been done before, it was
surely an act of genius when man approached the dreaded glow, when he
bore the flame before him over the earth on the top of the ignited log
of wood--an act of daring without a prototype in the animal world, and
in its consequences for the development of human culture truly
immeasurable."
Only the first step in the conquest of fire is portrayed in this lesson.
That is _fear_.
References: Mason, _Origins of Invention_, Chapter III.
Katharine E. Dopp, _The Place of Industries in Elementary Education_,
pp. 22-24.
_Lesson XXIII._ This lesson shows how man, first through fear and then
through the desire to make friends with the dreaded object in order to
secure its protection, subdued fire. Its significance with reference to
social life is portrayed in this and in the following lessons.
_Lesson XXIV._ The purpose of this lesson is to enable the child to see
the way in which simple societies were formed, the necessity for the
division of labor, and an early, if not the earliest, form of worship.
This lesson also illustrates a step in advance in the development of the
primitive family.
_Lesson XXV._ This
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