But however this view may have arisen, it is one-sided and mistaken.
Man certainly has a place in Nature--not above it. If he is the
goal toward which the ascending series of living forms has
continually tended, he is a part of the series--the real goal lies
far above him.
Pascal says, "It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how closely
he resembles the brute without showing him at the same time his
greatness. It is equally dangerous to impress upon him his greatness
without his lowliness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in
ignorance of both. But it is of great advantage to point out to him
both characteristics side by side."
A great German thinker began his work on the human soul with a
discussion of the law of gravitation.
All study of man must begin with the study of the atom. Man's life
we have seen to be the aggregate of the work of all the cells of his
body. But the protoplasm which composes his cells is a chemical
compound, and hence subject to all the laws of all the atoms of
which it is composed. And its molecules, or the smallest
mechanically separable compounds of these atoms, are arranged and
related according to the laws of physics, so as to permit or produce
the play of certain forces which are always the result of atomic or
molecular combination. Every motive or thought demands the
combustion of a certain amount of material which has been already
assimilated in the microscopic cellular laboratories of our body.
Pages:
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276