Man a New Synthesis 207 



"asserts that there is more in the chord than can be 

 interpreted as the outcome of summation only." 



"Every distinctively new type of living creature is 

 like Browning's chord. More prosaically, it is like 

 one of the new carbon-compounds made by the syn- 

 thetic chemist — a creator in his way. Something 

 startlingly novel emerges out of the new concate- 

 nation. So the new emergent animal type — whether it 

 be fish or frog, bird or mammal — is more than an ad- 

 ditive summation. Every one of them meant a Colum- 

 bus voyage — the discovery of a new world. Indeed, 

 every one of them meant the making of a new world, 

 for the new type is an agent that turns on its environ- 

 ment with a new lever. 



What has been taking place throughout the ages 

 of ascent resembles what we see when a number of 

 men of diverse gifts unite to form a firm or some 

 similar association. Each member of the firm is ad- 

 mirable by himself, yet not extraordinary. But when 

 they unite their forces and work into one another's 

 hands they create an integrate that may have un- 

 predictable efficiency. It is much more than the addi- 

 tive sum of its parts; it illustrates the mystery of 

 the esprit de corps. 



Now the same idea applies a fortiori to the ascent 

 of man. He was a new synthesis, if ever there was 

 one; no mechanical resultant, but a vital new crea- 

 tion ; not involving any breach of continuity, or any 

 interpolation of supra-mundane influence, but mak- 

 ing a fresh disclosure of the unending riches of 



