THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



mountain forest a great unity sunk in harmo- 

 nious tranquility. Now, I hear far-off voices. 

 Human beings are passing by, shielded from my 

 sight by the great stone blocks. They are strang- 

 ers, I do not know them. How much may be 

 hidden by such distant voices good and bad! 

 What an infinite variety is comprised in this 

 little word "man," how much that is noble and 

 sublime and how much that is brutal ! And yet, 

 while those feeble undulations of the air which 

 carry those voices toward me are still trembling 

 in my ear, I am thinking of the simple message 

 of the gospel, according to which all men without 

 distinction are my brothers. Our civilization 

 has at last risen to the point of impressing us 

 with the fact that this many-headed mass of fif- 

 teen hundred million people on the surface of this 

 globe are bound by one common tie of sacred- 

 ness which is expressed in the word, man ! They 

 are all one unit, these human beings, one great 

 family assembled on the surface of this globe, 

 ready to share their sins, to forgive one another, 

 to enjoy their pleasures together, to go hand in 

 hand on their way through this great valley of 

 riddles, the universe. 



But a clearer and sharper sound, not articu- 

 lated into words, mingles with those indistinct 



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