The world is one thing to a bird, or a fish, but quite another
thing to Cuvier or Agassiz. Then man entered the scene.
Stretching out his hand he waved a wonder-working wand. He
touched the wood, and it became a wagon; he touched the ore and
it became an engine; he touched the boughs and they became the
reeds of an organ; he touched the wild animal, and it became a
burden-bearer for his weary feet; while his intellect turned the
stone into geology, and the stars into astronomy, and the fields
into husbandry, and his duties into ethics. When the flint
and steel meet, something beyond either appears--a tongue of
flame. And when man and nature met, something new emerged--art,
industry, ethics, cities and civilization. There is nothing
great in nature but man. Take man out of this wondrous city with
its cathedrals, galleries, and homes, and Broadway would become
a streak of iron-rust. The earth wears man upon her bosom as the
circling ring wears a sparkling gem. The bog puts forth a white
lily; genius is a flower rooted in earth, but borrowing its
bloom and beauty from heaven.--N. D. HILLIS.
(1966)
=Man’s Part=--See EVANGELIZATION.
=Man’s Part in Religion=--See FAITH.