700 Common Words Exercise No. 15
We often hear it said of a man that he had had a long
life or that his life had been cut short”. What do we really mean when we use
the expressions long life and short life? In relations to what is the life of a
particular man long or short? We are, of course, measuring the life of the man
in relation to the number of years which men in the mass can reasonably expect
to live. When we speak of the life of one man in relation to the life of most
men we can with some degree of truth say that it was a long life. But can we
use such an expression if we think of the life of one man in relation to the
time during which man has lived on earth, and further, can we use such an
expression regarding the life of man on earth if we think of it in relation to
the time during which the earth itself has been in existence and in relation to
the time during which the earth is likely to continue in existence? The life of
one man and the life of man as a whole are short beyond statement when
considered in this way. Experts tell us that the difference kinds of material
found upon earth show beyond question that the earth has existed in a form more
or less like its present form for at least two or three thousand million years.
When we consider that we place events in history by using a measurement of time
which finds expression in dates such as 1000 A.D. and 1500 A.D. and that our
present date is less than 2000 A.D. ,we get some idea of how very short our own
history is when considered in relation to the history of the earth upon which
we live. The mind of man is small, and it is impossible for him to picture the
passing of two or three thousand million years. When we ask, How long has man
lived on earth? The experts give us widely differing answers. Their answers, in
fact, differ from the statement that man has lived possibly for a million years
to the statement that he has lived for three hundred thousand years. It is
always difficult not to feel some doubt when faced with such figures, but it
seems that we must at any rate believe that man certainly a very different man
from present man but al all events the beginning of man as he now is has lived
on earth for three hundred thousand years. Taking this figure, man is quite a
recent development, something strange on the face of the good old Earth. But we
cannot stop our questioning at this interesting point. We go further and ask,
For how long is the earth likely to continue in its present state? From the
answer given to us it is clear that we need not fear the immediate end of the
world. There is every reason to believe that life will be possible on earth, in
very much the same forms as at present, for millions of millions of years to
come. Man is but a baby, just starting out in life. It is said that if we take
the possible life of the earth as just one million years a low figure then man
has at least a million times as long to live as he has already lived. He is
like a baby who came into the world a little over half an hour ago and who has
before him a life of 75 years. It is a wonderful thing to think that man has
perhaps several million years in front of him in which to develop. He has
already shown that he can do wonderful things, and we cannot picture the
wonderful future which may before him. Life day by day is wonderful, the
developments of the future may be yet more wonderful they almost certainly will
be more wonderful and we feel that our own lives are too short, and we wish
that it were possible for us to see more than just a very little of that
development before we too become part of the past, however, which perhaps live
on.
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