Is it necessary to remark that there is no evidence whatever pointing to this as the early state of man? That it is merely an assumption assumed to help along one particular theory of evolution, and is contradicted by those modern researches tending to show that savages, when actually degraded, are degenerate rather than primitive? Yet Browne illustrates his text with an original pen-and-ink sketch of this Missing Link. The drawing is extremely good and spirited. One only wishes it were a photograph. And he continues: “Since blows could not subdue the hostile rocks or streams [the rocks were hostile, evidently, because they supplied caves, and the streams because they supplied fish], our ancestor tried to subdue them with magic.... Self-preservation must have forced them to [the] certainty [that spells would work], for without it self-preservation would have been impossible. Man had to have faith in himself or die--and he would not die. So he had faith [in himself, you will note] and developed religion.”[159] This is so vivid that it sounds like the description of an eye-witness. And he goes on in a no less certain tone: “By the word faith we mean that indispensable--and therefore imperishable--illusion in the heart of man that, though he may seem a mere worm on the earth, he nevertheless can make himself the lord of the universe. By the word religion, however, we mean one special technique by which man seeks to realize that illusion. It was by no means the first such technique to be invented by man; and it may not be the last, either. Long before man thought of religion, he tried to control the ‘powers’ of the universe by [this] magic.”[160] Very well. Man, once half ape, has become, in seeming at least, a mere worm; but he entertains an indispensable and “therefore” imperishable illusion that he can make himself lord of the universe--certainly a strange conviction for either a worm or an ape to entertain. To support this illusion, he first invents magic, which is an attempt to coerce the “powers,” and then invents religion--which Browne later explains as an attempt to “cajole” the powers. Religion and magic are merely two different kinds of technic, each designed to fool the technician until by dint of fooling illusion becomes reality. The “powers” are not fooled because they are always enclosed in quotation marks, which I understand to indicate that they do not exist. What next? “He [‘dawn man’] saw on every side of him the fell and bewildering ‘powers,’ and illogically but naturally his first concern was not how they worked but how they could be avoided.”[161] We thus make our acquaintance with the Browne idea of “logic.” A logical dawn man would have waited to be devoured by the fell powers, imaginary or not, before trying to avoid them. Logic would have compelled him to understand before doing anything else. Fortunately for us, dawn man was illogical. He escaped extinction.