THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



I. The Conflict of Science and Tradition. 



The doctrine that on mankind's account all other 

 beings came into existence, and that non-human 

 beings are mere hunks of matter devoid of all 

 psychic qualities found in man, is a doctrine 

 about as sagacious as the old geocentric theory 

 of the universe. Conceit is a distinctly human 

 emotion. No other animal has it. But it has 

 been lavished upon man with a generosity suffi- 

 cient to compensate for its total absence from the 

 rest of the universe. Man has always overesti- 

 mated himself. In whatever age or province of 

 the world you look down on the human imagina- 

 tion, you find it industriously digging disparities 

 and establishing gulfs. Man, according to him- 

 self, has had great difficulty many times in the 

 history of the world in escaping the divine. Ac- 

 cording to the facts, he has only in recent bio- 

 logical times and after great labour and uncertainty 

 abandoned his tail and his all-fours. According 

 to himself, man was made * in the image of his 

 maker,' and has been endowed with powers and 



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