IX 



MAN AND ENVIRONMENT 



MAN is Nature's mouthpiece and interpreter, the con- 

 scious expression of what is best in her, as well 

 as of some which is not so good and must be out- 

 grown. Nature is very slowly and patiently educating, guid- 

 ing and moulding him as she has all his humbler ancestors. 

 The individual, the species, or the larger group which fails 

 to obey her laws and conform to her ways is slowly but surely 

 weeded out. Only those which meet the requirements of her 

 tests survive. If we neglect or resist her training we go down 

 and out. The penalty of disobedience and non-conformity is 

 death. 



Conformity means literally taking the form of the impress 

 of environment, like wax under the pressure of the seal or 

 clay in the hands of the potter. Every part of our body 

 bears the impress and stamp of the conditions under which it 

 arose. Our cells are bathed in lymph like unicellular organ- 

 isms in a primeval ocean. Our trunk was constructed by 

 writhing worms. Our backbone in its various forms during 

 successive stages of development points to changing conditions 

 and habits of ancient vertebrate life. Legs and arms, jointed 

 appendages, tell of emergence on land; every bone and joint 

 is the solution of problems of physics and engineering. Our 

 hands were shaped and finished in an arboreal gymnasium; 

 our feet modified to suit life on the ground. Our nervous 

 system tells the same story. Man is a walking museum of 

 palaeontology, every part bearing the impress of conditions at 

 the time of its origin. The same may be said of every ani- 

 mal. Says Weissman : " When you take away all the ad- 



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