One of Mr. Ingersoll’s most eloquent chapters is on “Man as an
Automaton,” played upon by the blind forces of nature. A clot in
the brain explains Benedict Arnold’s treason. A foul taint in
the arteries that is like a fungus luring a merchant ship on the
rocks. Penury and vicious environment fill our jails and must
fill them. But the argument was born of a great man’s beautiful
sympathy for his fellow sufferers. It did not issue from logic
or nature or events. Indeed, all life and daily experience stood
up and shouted against his affirmation. What! Man a puppet with
whom nature plays an endless game of battledore and shuttlecock!
Man a victim of heredity and environment! Some years ago I met a
successful merchant, living in a beautiful house on one of the
best avenues in his great city. His mother was an evil woman,
his father a river thief, he was kicked around the river front
until he was eight, slept in the loft of a livery stable until
he was nine, killed a man when he was ten, taken home by one
of the participants in the trial, became the partner of his
benefactor and achieved universal recognition and honor.--N.
D. HILLIS.
(1986)
See COLLEGE OR EXPERIENCE.