MAN 213 



position, instead of freeing him from dependence upon 

 environment and subjection to law, makes him thus 

 more sensitive, as well as more capable of exact con- 

 formity to an environment of almost infinite complex- 

 ity ; and more sure of absolute ruin, if ignorant, negli- 

 gent, or disobedient. The words of the German poet 

 are literally true : 



" Nach ehernen, eisernen, grossen Gesetzen, 

 Miissen wir alle unseres Daseins 

 Kreise vollenden." 



But man is an animal. And the principal character- 

 istic of an animal is that it eats a certain amount of 

 solid food. The plant lives on fluid nutriment, and 

 this comes to it by the process of diffusion in every 

 drop of water and breath of air. The acquisition of 

 food requires no effort, and the plant makes none. It 

 has therefore always remained stationary and almost 

 insensible. Not taking the first step it has never 

 taken any of the higher ones. But solid food would 

 not, as a rule, come to the animal though stationary 

 and sessile animals are not uncommon in the water- 

 he must go in search of it. This called into play the 

 powers of locomotion and perception. And in the 

 sequence of function we have seen digestion calling 

 for the development of muscle ; and muscle, of nerve 

 and brain. And the brain became the organ of mind. 



Man as a mere animal is necessarily active and ener- 

 getic ; otherwise he stagnates and degenerates. Labor 

 is a curse, but work a blessing ; and man's best work, 

 of every kind, is done in the friction of life, not in 

 ease and quiet. Man is, further, a being composed of 

 cells, tissues, and organs, which were successively de- 



