THE USE OF FIRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 67, 14 March 1912, Page 8

THE USE OF FIRE.

A very spirited defence of tiro inventor and investigator as against the soldier and the statesman was made by Mr A. A. Campbell Swinton as President of the It out gen Society. To-day, when a coal famine fis feared, his praise of that unknown prehistoric genius who kindled the first fire is of special interest. It is given verbation in nature. Human Need of Fire. “All advance in the relations between man and nature whereby man gains to any greater extent the' masr. tery may be described as scientific, progress; and rin this connection we must recognise that many things which wo now look upon, and have for ages regarded as entirely commonplace were at the time of their inception, really very remarkable indeed. “Take, for instance, the application to human needs of fire. Animals, even of the highest types, make no use of it. There must have been a period when man also did not understand its properties, and, like the animals from which ho has sprung, was afraid of it and left it severely alone. A time must next have come, and with that time the valorous man who first Iliad the temerity to experiment with this very, powerful and destructive agent. “Think of this prehistoric investigator into the means and effects of combustion in that far distant age; consider his inferior mental equipment ; imagine his savage surroundings; take into account, also, his lack ol any but the most primitive apnliances. Must wo not laud his enterprise and admire his courage? Must wo not also acknowledge the enormous advantages his investigations have gained for all his posterity? The warming of their bodies and the cooking of both animal and vegetable nutriment would, no doubt, lie the first uses to which our remote ancestors would apply the now agent; but soon would follow the firing of pottery, up to that date me. cly sun-baked, then the reduction and smelting of metals,

and iin.d!y .1 h<■ whole galaxy m hi arts. “What is scientific progress il tins is not? And yet it leaves of! where what wo usually mean by scnence begins, namely, about the Graeco-Ro-man period. Look out, however, into London to-day, and recognise how little of all wo see around us could have over existed but for those early liigh-temporature experiments made s ) many thousands of years ago. A About them, could human beings oven live in tlhis northern climate? Great Human Periods. “Hero may I point out that, cimously enough, it is only when we go back to the earliest evidences of primitive human life upon this planet that we take the true philosophical course of naming the periods wo are dealing with after the main material advances in scientific progress matb during those periods by the Han nan race. We talk of the Stone Age, of the* Bronze'Ago, or the Iron Age, to denote those vast expanses of time during which the primitive inventor was discovering the means of applying new materials to make what was then the groat necessity of mankind, namely, weapons for the chase, for self-pro-tection, and for war upon his enemies “Later in history wo find that tin. 3 really philosophical method is abandoned. As we come to know more as regards the position, supremacy, and conditions of particular races, and still further when we become better acquainted jwitji the deeds and achievements of particular individuals, wo find that historians have a tendency to overlook the enormous influence of the results obtained by scientific investigators and discoverers, and to make it appear as though the current of events were really governed by those who, from ' accident of birth, official position, political influence, or martial achievements, have made for themselves reputations as leaders of men. Our Greatest Men. “To see that this view is wrong we have only tc survey the past. Can it for an instant bo doubted that the labours of the unknown prehistoric individual to whom I have just alluded, who first discovered the properties of fire, or of those who oniginated the smelting of metals, who launched their frail, and at that time novel, coracles upon the ocean, and first applied wheels to the primitive cart, are more living factors to-day than the valour of all the warriors, the wisdom 'of all the statesmen, or the wiles of all the politicians that the world has seen? It is a truism, indeed, that the world Jcnow.s little of its greatest men. “Can it he questioned that the discoveries of Archimedds and his disciples have more effect to-day' than the battles of Afe’xahder or 56f I Hannibal? Or if w© dvu’ix to modern times, can it be gainsaidofthat AYattpiajul ■ Stevenson., Davy %nd; (Faraday/ixliavo, done more to change both the course of history and tho material conditions of life than did Napoleon or Wellington, Walpole or Pitt ? “For the undue amount of influence on tho progress of the world that is attributed to leaders of men, in comparison'!'With that exported by investigators of i nature, historians are no doubt to blame. ;x .1 , .. ! Exceptional' Individuals. “Since the earliest times there has never been a better organised and more successful mutual admiration society than that formed by tho writers of the, world, who have always been chiefly concerned to discuss ono another and one another’s scripts. This, and the fact that the written word endures, has given to tho wielders of the pen a prominence in history to which they are scarcely entitled by their influence on progress. “At the present time, when it is the fashion to ascribe the production of all wealth to tho manual labourer, and all progress to the politician, it is more than ever necessary that correct views, should ho insisted on. Let us, therefore,' emphasise the fact that from the beginning of the world all advance has been due, not to tho many, but to a few exceptional individuals ; and had ifc not been for the genius of these we should still be naked savages, not even painted with the proverbial woad.” A Wcrm’s-Eye View. “The Englishman who made bis first visit to New York recently by the Lusitania, and went back on the same boat thirty hours later, saw all ho could in a bird’s-eye view of tho city; but he, was beaten by that other stranger from up tho river who went down in tho sub-way and returned by the same route, boasting that he had had a worm’s eye view of New York.” says tho New York Independent.