Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge.

  • Oliver Lodge
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/194 (page 18)
    in the light of the seons of preparation, the lowliness of human origin, and its vast almost limitless future, we seem driven to believe that the ultimate destiny of man- man as a race—will be something extra¬ ordinarily magnificent. And what are we to say for man as an individual? Are we to suppose, because he is at present weak and ineffective, that therefore he is of no value; that he can be scrapped and turned down into obli\ ion as though he had never been? Are we to think that evolution is only concerned with the race, and has no permanent interest in individuals? Although it may be called unreasonable to think so, yet that is a mode of thought that has been adopted, now and again, by thinking persons. And it seems a mode of thought which, in certain moods, is likely to return with oppressive frequency and debilitating effect. A great deal depends upon whether we can regard each individual as an unfinished article. In the infinitude of time, seventy or eighty years is indeed a flash in the pan. And if the individual only endures as long as that, he is very temporary and insignifi¬ cant. But, as a matter of fact, is he thus