ee ete ee EEE A 
ihe Ba a? 

1891.] The Coming Man. 617 
THE COMING MAN. 
BY S. V. CLEVENGER. 
ANCHO PANZA remarked that men were as God made 
them, and sometimes a great deal worse. But it is becom- 
ing known that the world is really improving; that a line touch- 
ing the dark ages and passing through our present imperfect 
civilization may be produced indefinitely, in imagination, toward 
better things. So Sancho’s horizon was cramped, and we may 
now believe that man in general is better than he was born. 
Of course “perfection” in anything is unattainable, and dis- 
cussion of the “ perfect man” could only be carried to any sort 
of a conclusion by, first of all, recognizing that there cannot be 
such a creation, for the very conception involves contradictions. 
Herbert Spencer has ably gone over this and kindred subjects 
in showing that everything is relative, and that no matter what 
advances may be made, others are still possible. Equilibrium 
means death, a cessation of inter- and counter-action. “ Perfec- 
tion ” is inconceivable, and the ignorant, who imagine they can 
conceive it, may be convinced that their ideal was a frightful hob- 
goblin after all. 
Picture to yourself what the African, the American Indian, or 
the primitive people of any country, would regard as the perfect 
man, and compare their wild and, in the main, hideous concep- 
tions with those of “ civilized” men,—particularly that portion to 
whom thought is an effort. But as the science of comparative 
mythology plainly shows that deification is this same process ; 
that gods were always big men; anthropomorphism, from which 
no one can completely free himself, runs rampant through our 
ideas of any sort of superiority, whether of this world or another, 
The Joves, Wodins, Thors, Brahmas were muscular and some- 
times noisy, and some early races allotted many legs and arms 
or other parts to their gods; or, as in an Egyptian instance, con- 
ferred extraordinary length of arms, as symbolizing great power, 
