Man in the Light of Evolution 



discovered that " a man's life consisteth not in 

 the abundance of the things which he pos- 

 sesseth." Perhaps, if every one of us would 

 recognize his responsibility for other posses- 

 sions beside wealth, and his duty to give freely 

 of the best which he has abundantly of any 

 kind — whether money, learning, wisdom, cour- 

 age, hope, health, cheer, and comfort of any 

 sort — the inequality might be made a very 

 real and positive rather than a very doubtful 

 blessing. 



Here, as in the last chapter, we have to draw 

 a very sharp distinction between social surround- 

 ings and social environment. If we can discover 

 the nature and elements of a man's social envi- 

 ronment, we know whither he is tending and 

 what he will become, for it determines his char- 

 acter and doom. It is of far greater immediate 

 importance than physical environment, for It 

 molds directly his moral and religious develop- 

 ment. But some or many institutions and tend- 

 encies affect us indirectly and slightly; they are 

 hardly more than surroundings which spell op- 

 portunity to be used or neglected as we will. 

 A man maybe the slave of democracy, free under 

 tyranny, poor but making many rich, a boor in 



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