Man has been thrown naked into the world, feeble, incapable of flying
like the bird, running like the stag, or creeping like the serpent;
without means of defense, in the midst of terrible enemies armed with
claws and stings; without means to brave the inclemency of the seasons,
in the midst of animals protected by fleece, by scales, by furs; without
shelter, when all others have their den, their hole, their shell;
without arms, when all about him are armed against him. And yet he has
demanded of the lion his cave for a lodging and the lion retires before
his eyes; he has despoiled the bear of his skin, and of it made his
first clothing; he has plucked the horn from the bull, and this is his
first drinking-cup; then he has dug even into the bowels of the earth,
to seek there the instruments of his future strength; from a rib, a
sinew, and a reed, he has made arms; and the eagle, who, seeing him at
first in his weakness and nakedness, prepares to seize him as his prey,
struck in mid-air, falls dead at his feet, only to furnish a feather to
adorn his head. Among animals, is there one, who under such conditions
could have preserved life? Let us for a moment separate the workman from
his work, God from nature. Nature has done all for this insect,--of
which they had been discoursing,--nothing for man. It is that man should
be the product of intelligence rather than of matter; and God, in
granting him this celestial gift, this ray of light from the divine
fire, created him feeble and unprotected, that he might make use of it,
that he might be constrained to find in himself the elements of his
greatness.
--_By X. B. Saintine, in Picciola; or,
The Prison Flower._
1207
Wherever a man goes to dwell his character goes with him.
1208
Our acts make or mar us,--we are the children of our own deeds.
--_Victor Hugo._
1209