The perpetual image
of it is Lot's wife, who, looking backwards upon that from which she had
escaped, was turned into a pillar of salt. Nature may or may not have a
purpose, and exhibit designs for that purpose; she may or may not, in
philosophical language, be teleological. Man is and must be
teleological. We must live for the morrow, for what will be, whether as
individuals or as a nation, or our ways are the ways of death. This is
looked upon as a human failing--that man never is, but always to be
blest; that man is never satisfied, that he will not rest content with
present achievement.
Well, it is stated of our first cousin, once removed, the orang-outang,
that in the adult state he is aroused only for the snatching of food,
and then "relapses into repose." His reach does not exceed his grasp,
and one need not preach contentment to him. But we, the latest and
highest products of the struggle for existence, we are strugglers by
constitution; and when we relapse into repose we degenerate. Only on
condition of living for the morrow can we remain human. Put a sound limb
on crutches and you paralyze it; wear smoked glasses and your eyes
become intolerant of light, or wear glasses that make the muscle of
accommodation superfluous and it atrophies; take pepsin and hydrochloric
acid and the stomach will become incapable of producing them; cease to
chew and your teeth decay; let the newspaper prepare your mental food as
the cook cuts up your physical food, and you will become incapable of
thought--that is, of mental mastication and digestion.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56