NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 7 



their business to interrupt the supposed feeble and 

 limited efforts of Nature, as yet unexplored and un- 

 appreciated have passed out of mind. The consensus 

 is complete : Man is held to be a part of Nature, a 

 product of the definite and orderly evolution which is 

 universal ; a being resulting from and driven by the 

 one great nexus of mechanism which we call Nature. 

 He stands alone, face to face with that relentless 

 mechanism. It is his destiny to understand and to 

 control it. 



5. UNWARRANTED INFERENCES FROM THE 

 EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



There are not wanting those who, accepting this 

 conclusion, seek to belittle Man and endeavour to 

 represent that the veil is lifted, that all is ' explained ' 

 obvious, commonplace, and mean in regard to the 

 significance of life and of Man, because it has become 

 clear that the kosmic process has brought them forth 

 in due order. There are others who rightly perceive 

 that life is no common property of our cooling matter, 

 but unique and exceptional, and that Man stands apart 

 from and above all natural products, whether animate 

 or inanimate. Some of these thinkers appear to 

 accept the conclusion that if life and Man are regarded 

 as products of the kosmic process that is, of Nature 

 ' life ' and ' Man ' lose so much in importance and 

 significance that dire consequences must follow to 

 Man's conception of his dignity and to the essential 

 features of his systems of conduct and social organiza- 

 tion. Accordingly they cling to the belief that living 

 matter and Man have not proceeded from an orderly 

 evolution of Nature, but are ' super ' natural. It is 



