264 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 9 



been a complete inversion of the technique of life. The quality of a 

 man is measured by his recognition and exposition of such qualities 

 as honesty, sympathy, and unselfishness, rather than by his skill in 

 ruthless self-aggrandizement. Truth, chivalry, and kindness are in- 

 consistent with the struggle for existence ; but they are recognized as 

 desirable attributes even by those underdeveloped minds that class 

 them as impracticable ideals. A "realist," who boasts that he "faces 

 facts," denies his humanity and takes pride in beastliness ; an "idealist," 

 who faces noble thoughts, is a man. 



The human race is very young, and few of its members have as yet 

 shown enough precocity to visualize, let alone to attain, the ideal that 

 is humanity. To mankind in the mass a real man is a sort of "foreign 

 devil," to be treated as animals treat aliens in their preserves. Proph- 

 ets are stoned by their generation, even though they are sentimentally 

 canonized by the next. Philosophers are "such stuff as dreams are 

 made on," and therefore unintelligible and irritating to animals, how- 

 ever clever. But men can learn ; their capacity for appreciating wis- 

 dom shows that its acquisition is not beyond their powers. And 

 wisdom, which makes men human, is better than the rubies of material 

 success that may leave him bestial. 



The contrast between the attitude of imaginative insight and that 

 of animal instinct is nowhere more clearly seen than in the realm of 

 ethics and morality. Every action that savors of the struggle for 

 existence is a sin, and every effort in the reverse direction is a virtue. 

 There could be no clearer illustration of the power of the imagination 

 to see beyond knowledge than the pronouncement that "the wages of 

 sin is death," made centuries before the laws of evolution were 

 suspected. 



The exponents of religion, in spite of the Laodicean spirit of com- 

 promise that lessens their effectiveness, give more than lip service to 

 the creed that man should be different from the other animals. A 

 multitude of organizations directly or indirectly sponsored by the 

 churches attempt to translate this pious belief into practical service. 

 Science, especially in its medical branches, caters to all sorts and con- 

 ditions of men with selfless devotion. Some enactments of legislation 

 definitely encourage humanity as an alternative to brutality, and extol 

 principles above opportunism. Perhaps some day even financiers and 

 statesmen may discover that their choice is between the Mammon of 

 deceit and animal avarice and the God of truth and human sympathy, 

 and that there is no middle course. Until then they will continue to 

 lead their dependents and subjects along the well-worn track that 

 opens before all the "beasts that perish." 



The alternative is a great adventure, whose end none can foresee, 

 along the trail blazed by martyred pioneers who have had the courage 

 to be men. 



