THE BIRTH OF THE SPIRIT 65 



is quite as rational to assume that the spirit is 

 a separate direct creation of God as it is to believe 

 that the spirit "returns to God who gave it" after 

 the body is placed in the grave. If the latter is 

 a belief dear to all the world, the former may well 

 be used as its harmonious if not inevitable foun- 

 dation. 



In the attainment of human condition the child 

 has a long way to go farther than any other ani- 

 mal born into the world. There is more differ- 

 ence between the infant homo and the adult homo 

 than between the infancy and adulthood of any 

 other being which comes into the world. Not only 

 is the distance to be traveled greater, but there is 

 actually to be a translation from one kind of be- 

 ing into another, which does not occur with any 

 other being subject to birth. Says Major J. W. 

 Powell ("From Barbarism to Civilization," 505, 

 p. 97) : "Every child is born destitute of things 

 possessed in manhood, which distinguishes him 

 from the lower animals. Of all industries he is 

 artless; of all languages he is speechless; of all 

 reasoning he is thoughtless; of all philosophies 

 he is opinionless ; but arts, institutions, languages, 

 opinions, and mentations he acquires as the years 

 go by from childhood to manhood. In all these 

 respects the new-born babe is hardly the peer of 

 the new-born beast; but as the years go by, ever 

 and ever he exhibits his superiority in all of the 

 great classes of activities, until the distance by 

 which he is separated from the brute is so great 



5 



