266 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



over the animals. The sense of our rationality saves 

 us from such a thing. All men know the powers and 

 responsibilities of a rational life. In accordance with 

 this knowledge, we think and speak, and regulate 

 things in society. Hence the difference we make be 

 tween the sober man and the intemperate. Hence 

 denial of our hospitality to the man who cannot be 

 trusted to appear in a condition deserving a welcome. 

 Self-regulation of physical craving, is a first requisite 

 of the rational life. It is a power manifestly in pos 

 session of every man, unless it be sacrificed by irra 

 tional indulgence. Thus did Socrates keep rigidly to 

 the interpretation of our nature, when he declared that 

 temperance is the foundation virtue in human char 

 acter. This is simply the proclamation of the truth, 

 that the rational nature must take possession of the 

 physical, ruling it as a constituent part of a rational life. 

 In passing onwards to sketch the familiar charac 

 teristics of intelligent life, as concerned both with 

 knowledge and practice, I would guard against 

 abstraction. Let us take life in the concrete, keeping 

 closely by physical conditions all the while. There is 

 nothing to gain, everything to lose, by one-sided treat 

 ment of this many-sided life of ours. Whether, there 

 fore, we regard man as he moves in a world of know 

 ledge, or in a world of action, we see the rational in 

 the physical. Rational power and physical are cor 

 related in the field of activity. When we deal with 

 mental phenomena we do not part from physical ; 

 we only remark how different they are, while observ 

 ing that they are closely connected. When we speak 

 of mind/ we do not forget to speak of brain/ though 

 it is best when we are least aware of its existence ; 



