CHAPTER III. 



THE ARREST OF THE BODY. 



" ON the Earth there will never be a higher Creat- 

 ure than Man." 1 It is a daring prophecy, but every 

 probability of Science attests the likelihood of its ful- 

 filment. The goal looked forward to from the begin- 

 ning 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 reminiscence 

 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 flesh and bone and nerve and muscle have 

 now been realized ; that in whatever direction, and 

 with whatever materials, Evolution still may work, it 

 will never produce any material thing more perfect in 

 design or workmanship ; that in Man, in short, about 

 this time in history, we are confronted with a stupen- 

 dous crisis in Nature, the Arrest of the Animal. 



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

 suggestive brochure. 



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