Man's Place in Nature 197 



This is a question of taste, and cannot be argued 

 about. To most naturalists development is the 

 most beautiful thing in the world, and the Hebrew 

 psalmist was not averse to reminding himself how 

 his members were fashioned when as yet there was 

 none of them. More serious, however, is the idea 

 that if Darwin's Descent of Man be true, then Man 

 loses dignity, sanctity, and ethical value. In the 

 first place, perhaps, it should be noted that the 

 scientific interpretation discloses man as a pre- 

 determined masterpiece of nature, as a creature 

 whose making meant ages of patience, whose birth 

 came about after long travail. Is there loss of 

 dignity and sanctity in this? And again, the 

 more Man is seen as of a piece with nature, as her 

 finest flower, the more meaning does nature come 

 to have for him. She becomes indeed his Alma 

 Mater. 



A simple consideration, which is always use- 

 ful, is that the value of any product is independent 

 of its far-off origin. Our appreciation of things 

 is usually based on what they are, and on what 

 they seem likely to become; it is not affected by 

 their remote pedigree. A bird is not less a bird 

 because the avian stock arose from among the 

 reptiles. It is true, of course, that breeding 

 counts, but that is quite another matter; immediate 

 ancestry is always important because the indi- 

 vidual inheritance is a living mosaic of parental 



