114 THE ARREST OF THE BODY. 



intelligence reaches, as I have sought to show, the 

 highest development possible to a vertebrate animal, 

 while intelligence has grown to reflection and volition. 

 On these grounds, I believe, not that Man is the 

 highest possible intelligence, but that the human body- 

 is the highest form of human life possible, subject to 

 the conditions of matter on the surface of the globe, 

 and that the structure completes the design of the ani- 

 mal kingdom." x 



Never was the body of Man greater than with this 

 sentence of suspension passed on it, and never was 

 Evolution more wonderful or more beneficent than 

 when the signal was given to stop working at Man's 

 animal frame. This was an era in the world's history. 

 For it betokened nothing less than that the cycle of 

 matter was now complete, and the one prefatory task 

 of the ages finished. Henceforth the Weltanschauung 

 is forever changed. From this pinnacle of matter is 

 seen at last what matter is for, and all the lower lives 

 that ever lived appear as but the scaffolding for this 

 final work. The whole sub-human universe finds its 

 reason for existence in its last creation, its final justifi- 

 cation in the new immaterial order which opened with 

 its close. Cut off Man from Nature, and, metaphys- 

 ical necessity apart, there remains in Nature no 

 divinity. To include Man in Evolution is not to lower 

 Man to the level of Nature, but to raise Nature to his 

 high estate. There he was made, these atoms are his 

 confederates, these plant cells raised him from the 

 dust, these travailing animals furthered his Ascent : 

 shall he excommunicate them now that their work is 

 done? Plant and animal have each their end, but 

 1 Journal of Anatomy, Vol. xviii., p. 362. 



