" All the time another system
has been slowly developing. The complicated nervous system has
required ages for its construction and arrangement. Only in the
highest mammals does the brain assert its right to supremacy. But
once established on its throne the brain reigns supreme; its right
is challenged by no other organ. The possibilities of all the other
organs, _as supreme rulers_, have been exhausted. Each one has been
thoroughly tested, and its inadequacy proven beyond doubt by actual
experiment. These formerly supreme lower organs must serve the
higher. The age of man's existence on the globe is, and must remain,
the era of mind. For the mind alone has an inexhaustible store of
possibilities.
The development of all these systems is simultaneous. From the very
beginning all the functions have been represented, all the systems
have been gradually advancing. Hydra has a nervous system just as
really as man. It has no brain, but it has the potentiality and
promise of one, and is taking the necessary steps toward its
attainment. But while the development of all is simultaneous, their
culmination and supremacy is successive, first stomach and muscle,
then brain and mind. That was not first which is spiritual, but that
which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. But now
that the mind has once become supreme, man must live and work
chiefly for its higher development.
Pages:
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160