Twilight

When God sends the dawn, He sends it for all.”

-Cervantes

In “The Outline of History,” Mr. Wells writes: “Somewhere, about 50,000 years ago, if not earlier, appeared Homo Neanderthalensis (also called Homo Antiques and Homo Primo genus) a quite passable human being.” 

In the cold, shivering twilight, preceding the daybreak of civilization, the dominating emotion of man was fear. He shrank in terror in the presence of forces beyond his control and ruthlessly destroyed beings within his dominion. Self-preservation was the controlling motive. Life was his most sacred possession and was to be preserved at any cost. Lives of other beings, human or brute, were of no significance

Selfishness was unrivalled, supreme and unopposed except by selfishness. That which was coveted was appropriated if not guarded by superior forces. The human animal, though lacking the strength of the lion, the ferocity of the tiger, and the agility of the ape, possessed a brain of potentiality and thereby gained dominion over the lower orders.

Sex attraction served to propagate the species, but man long remained slightly above beasts of prey. He heard the song of bird and witnessed the play of the young, but he was serious. His world was filled with dread things of reality and even more dread things of imagination. Suspicion begat fear and fear begat enmity.

In course of time, religion came with its rites invoking the aid of good spirits which were even more powerful than the bad spirits, and thus for the time being tempered the agony of fears. But primitive man had enemies real as well as imaginary, and they were not subject to priestly sorceries. The bludgeon and, in course of time, the bow and arrow were brought into play to defend man from his flesh-and-blood enemies. Then, as now, offence was considered the best method of defense. Fear took no chances. Better slay first and think later. Strangers possibly might not be harboring ill-will, but the natural assumption was that they were and that they were waiting opportunity to give it expression.

In Mr. Wells’ “Somewhere” men were harassed by enemies real and enemies imaginary. Night hours were rendered hideous by the play of evil spirits in flashing lightening and booming thunder, and the day was filled with terrors of skulking enemies of the wooden glens; and neither day nor night offered respite from fears.

Then one who might have led the way out of the era of distraction was born. In course of time he learned to lift his thoughts above the common level. To him, precedent had meaning if it squared with reason; not otherwise. His thoughts were free from bias. Neither thunder nor lightening caused him to tremble, nor did he fear the stranger. He could have led his people out of their wilderness but for an untoward event. He ventured too far. One morning as he stood on a high rock gazing at the rising sun as had been his custom, there was a sharp twang of a bowstring, the whir of an arrow, the thud of a fallen body, and far down in the valley by the swift-flowing, rock bound stream lay all that was left of him who had lived in advance of his times. He was the first in whose bosom dwelt the spirit of goodwill toward all men.

A Teacher, whose name became immortal, arose to embrace the doctrine of the brotherhood of man, giving it religious sanction as a part of the “inspired word”. He suffered contumely, ridicule, disdain, and eventually death for having lived too far in advance of His times, but His doctrines lived in the hearts of His devoted followers who grew in number until they girded the earth. Other religions taught the doctrine of universal brotherhood and made it an essential part of their faiths.

Centuries later was born in Scotland another who lived in advance of his time, one who stoutly refused to do obeisance to unreasoning precedent; one whose soul overflowed with the poetry of life. Of all the words of the Scottish bard, none will be more highly appraised nor longer remembered, than

“Then let us pray that come what may,

As come it will for a’ that,

That sense and worth o’er a’ the earth

May bear the gree, and a’ that.

For a’ that and a’ that,

It’s coming yet, for a’ that,

That man to man the world o’er

Shall brothers be, for a’ that

In the compass of these words have been found all the philosophy, all the hope, the substance of every prayer of the first seer, but how vain were the aspirations and hopes of this widely separated twain. Primordial forces were to be reckoned with, as is the case even now though generations have lived and died since the lips of the sage of Ayr were sealed in death. 

As the sun breaks through the clouds, so the love of fellowship has from time to time throughout the ages broken through the crust of suspicion and hatred. Slowly and gradually men who have loved fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers have drawn neighbors and friends within their circles. The primitive manifestations were crude but culture is not a sine qua non of good will. Rare Ben Johnson surrounded himself with men of his kind, but Burns perforce found companionship in yokels.