Heredity, Variation and Genius J2> 



Not a function of the body has the indepen- 

 dence which common language might seem to 

 imply : to walk implies the ground to walk on, 

 digestion implies matter from without to feed it, 

 and respiration, although thought and spoken of 

 as the function of the lungs, much as if it was 

 their work only, is really a process in which 

 the physical medium is just as essential a factor 

 as any bodily agency concerned in it. There 

 could be no function of each particular cell 

 ministering to respiration if the oxygen from 

 without was not carried bodily to it to perform 

 its function in it. The superior nerve-cell minis- 

 tering to the noblest thought of the finest mind 

 owns a like absolute dependence ; and the noble 

 thought is just the supreme evolution of Nature 

 through man, who, thrilled with the joy of creative 

 activity in him, glorifies and magnifies it mightily. 

 It is his happy privilege to confer his own title 

 of nobility, and his worship of humanity is a 

 monstrous self-idolatry. As he thus thinks, feels 

 and lives in strict correlation with external Nature, 

 something of the outer world, received through 

 the senses and perhaps imperceptibly also from 

 outside their range, is contained in every func- 

 tion of the body, in every thought and feeling of 

 its mental organization. He could not think the 

 outer world if it were not only present to but in 

 his thought. 



Unity in the partial separation which individ- 

 uality is, that is the basic fact. It is not man 



