79 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



llood 

 ody 



could only continue for a short time and 

 have since been removed from the catalog 

 of living beings. ... To regard these 

 imperfect sketches of animal life as being 

 as good as others, to admit final causes for 

 such ill-proportioned creatures, and to find 

 that Nature is as admirable in them as in 

 her finest works, is to take a most narrow 

 view of the world and make our own ideas 

 of finality the tests of Nature's aims." 



In this quotation we have a memorable 

 example of the errors into which the great- 

 est thinkers may sometimes fall. It records 

 a rash judgment (with respect to the sloth) 

 which the illustrious zoologist Buffon al- 

 lowed himself to make, and which he has 

 recorded in the thirteenth volume of his im- 

 mortal "Natural History." MIVART Types 

 of Animal Life, ch. 9, p. 246. (L. B. & Co., 

 1893.) 



386. BODIES. CELESTIAL, VIEWED 

 AS ABODES OF SENTIENT BEINGS 

 General Belief that Other Worlds Are In- 

 habited. In fact, it is in this way that we 

 view all the celestial bodies. We are not 

 contented when studying the sun, for ex- 

 ample, with the mere consideration of the 

 wonderful processes taking place upon his 

 surface and around him; but we inquire 

 how these processes are related to his power 

 of supplying our wants, and the wants of 

 all that live upon the earth, by means of the 

 light and heat which he emits. We study 

 our moon in the same spirit; we see that, 

 whether she be herself inhabited or not, she 

 was not created in vain she rules our 

 tides, she gives us an important tho in- 

 termitting supply of light by night, she 

 serves as a measure of time, she helps to 

 guide the seaman over the trackless waves 

 of ocean, and she subserves our wants in a 

 variety of other ways. And it is the same 

 method of viewing the celestial bodies which 

 has led nearly all men to believe in the ex- 

 istence of multitudes of other worlds than 

 ours. PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 85. 

 (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



387. BODY AND MIND TRAINED IN 

 UNISON BY THE GREEKS To the 

 Greeks the idea that the human being con- 

 sists of two halves whose prerogatives are 

 unequal was wholly foreign; they made the 

 equilibrium between the intellectual and the 

 physical life the groundwork of education. 

 As a consequence, even their culture of the 

 physical life was of a character to cultivate 

 the mind. The greatest possible comprehen- 

 siveness of exercise, systematically directed, 

 enlivened by music and combat, was calcu- 

 lated to contribute to the elasticity and ac- 

 tivity of the body, to endurance in running 

 and in wrestling, and also to bestow a firm, 

 light step, a free, - spirited carriage, the 

 freshness of health, and a clear, unshrink- 

 ing eye; while stimulating the mental 

 power to prudence and manly self-assertion, 

 and to presence of mind; in fact, to become 

 possessed of the kind of virtues that should 



distinguish the noble and well bred from 

 the low and uncultivated, the free citizen 

 loving his country from those of servile 

 spirit, egoistic, who think of nothing but 

 material gain. KUPPERS Der Apoxyomenos 

 des Lysippos und die griechische Paldstre. 

 (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



388. BODY A WONDERFUL CONTRI- 

 VANCE OF CREATIVE SKILL Not an Ob- 

 ject of Contempt. I have no wish whatever 

 to exalt unduly the body; I have, if pos- 

 sible, still less desire to degrade the mind; 

 but I do protest, with all the energy I dare 

 use, against the unjust and most unscien- 

 tific practise of declaring the body vile and 

 despicable, of looking down upon the high- 

 est and most wonderful contrivance of 

 creative skill as something of which man 

 dare venture to feel ashamed. MAUDSLEY 

 Body and Mind, lect. 3, p. 95. (A., 1898.) 



389. BODY, MEDIEVAL CONTEMPT 



FOR Regarded as "Prison-house" of the 

 Spirit False Views of Insanity. [Under 

 the medieval philosophy] the body was 

 looked down upon with contempt, as vile 

 and despicable, the temple of Satan, the 

 home of the fleshly lusts which war against 

 the soul, and as needing to be vigilantly 

 kept in subjection, to be crucified daily with 

 its affections and lusts. It was the earthly 

 prison-house of the spirit whose pure im- 

 mortal longings were to get free from it. 

 Such was the monstrous doctrine of the 

 relation of mind and body. What place 

 could a rational theory of insanity have in 

 such an atmosphere of thought and feeling? 

 The conception of it as a disease was impos- 

 sible: it was ascribed to a supernatural 

 operation, divine or diabolical, as the case 

 might be was a real possession of the indi- 

 vidual by some extrinsic superior power. 

 MAUDSLEY Body and Mind, lect. 4, p. 101. 

 (A., 1898.) 



390. BODY OF MAN A MACHINE 



Descartes's Illustration of a Bathing Diana 

 Mind the Engineer Controlling the 

 Mechanism. Thus, as you may have seen 

 in the grottoes and the fountains in royal 

 gardens, the force with which the water 

 issues from its reservoir is sufficient to 

 move various machines, and even to make 

 them play instruments, or pronounce words 

 according to the different disposition of the 

 pipes which lead the water. And, in truth, 

 the nerves of the machine which I am de- 

 scribing may very well be compared to the 

 pipes of these water- works ; its muscles and 

 its tendons to the other various engines and 

 springs which seem to move them; its ani- 

 mal spirits to the water which impels them, 

 of which the heart is the fountain; while 

 the cavities of the brain are the central 

 office. Moreover, respiration and other such 

 actions as are natural and usual in the 

 body, and which depend on the course of the 

 spirits, are like the movements of a clock, 

 or of a mill, which may be kept up by the 



