CHAPTER III 



THE ARREST OF THE BODY 



** /^^N the Earth there will never be a higher 

 ^-^ Creature than Man."^ It is a daring pro- 

 phecy, but every probability of Science attests the 

 likelihood of its fulfilment. The goal looked for- 

 ward to from the beginning of time has been 

 attained. Nature has succeeded in making a Man; 

 she can go no further; Organic Evolution has done 

 its work. 



This is not a conceit of Science, nor a reminis- 

 cence of the pre-Copernican idea that the centre of 

 the universe is the world, and the centre of the 

 world Man. It is the sober scientific probability 

 that with the body of Man the final fruit of the tree 

 of Organic Evolution has appeared; that the highest 

 possibilities open to fliesh and bone and nerve and 



* Fiske, Destiny of Man, p. 26. What follows owes much to 

 this suggestive brochure^ 



126 



