But the law of progress, even now so dimly discernible in environment, is written in our minds in letters of fire.  For we have already seen that environment can be understood only by tracing its effects in the development of life.  What is best and highest in us is the record of the working of what is best and highest in environment.  And the personal God so dimly seen in environment is revealed in man’s soul.  Man must study himself, if he is to know what environment requires of him.  And if the knowledge of himself and of the laws of his being is the highest knowledge, is not the vision of, and struggle toward, higher attainments, not yet realized and hence necessarily foreseen, the only mode of farther progress?  And what is this pursuit of, and devotion to, ideals not yet realized and but dimly foreseen, if it is not Faith, “the substance of things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen?” By it alone can man “obtain a good report.”  Man must “walk by faith, not by sight.”  “For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

CHAPTER VIII

MAN

In Kingsley’s fascinating historical romance, Raphael Aben-Ezra says to Hypatia, “Is it not possible that we have been so busy discussing what the philosopher should be, that we have forgotten that he must first of all be a man?” This truth we too often forget.  No statesman, philosopher, least of all teacher, can be truly great who is not, first of all, and above all, a great man.  And in our study of man are we not prone to forget that he stands in certain very definite and close relations with surrounding nature?

Man has been the object of so much special study, his position, owing to his higher moral and mental power, is so unique that he has often been regarded not only as a special creation, but as created to occupy a position not only unique, but also exceptional, above many of the very laws of nature, and not bound by them.  Many speak and write of him as if it were his chief glory and prerogative to be as far removed as possible, not only from the animal, but even from the whole realm of nature.  The mistake of making him an exception arises, after all, not so much from too high a conception of man, at least of his possibilities, as from too low a view of nature.

But however this view may have arisen, it is one-sided and mistaken.  Man certainly has a place in Nature—­not above it.  If he is the goal toward which the ascending series of living forms has continually tended, he is a part of the series—­the real goal lies far above him.

Pascal says, “It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how closely he resembles the brute without showing him at the same time his greatness.  It is equally dangerous to impress upon him his greatness without his lowliness.  It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both.  But it is of great advantage to point out to him both characteristics side by side.”