If the reader who is unfamiliar with scientific things will obtain and
read Metchnikoff’s “Nature of Man,” he will find there an interesting
summary of the biological facts that bear upon and destroy the delusion
that there is such a thing as individual perfection, that there is even
ideal perfection for humanity. With an abundance of convincing
instances Professor Metchnikoff demonstrates that life is a system of
“disharmonies,” capable of no perfect way, that there is no “perfect”
dieting, no “perfect” sexual life, no “perfect” happiness, no “perfect”
conduct. He releases one from the arbitrary but all too easy assumption
that there is even an ideal “perfection” in organic life. He sweeps out
of the mind with all the confidence and conviction of a physiological
specialist, any idea that there is a perfect man or a conceivable
perfect man. It is in the nature of every man to fall short at every
point from perfection. From the biological point of view we are as
individuals a series of involuntary “tries” on the part of an imperfect
species towards an unknown end.
Our spiritual nature follows our bodily as a glove follows a hand.
We are disharmonious beings and salvation no more makes an end to the
defects of our souls than it makes an end to the decay of our teeth or
to those vestigial structures of our body that endanger our physical
welfare. Salvation leaves us still disharmonious, and adds not an inch
to our spiritual and moral stature.