A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self Culture and CharacterHillis, Newell Dwight
Philosophy
A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self Culture and Character
Hillis, Newell Dwight
Character; Self-culture
In this new view of the human body, science not only exhibits the
growth and perfection of man as the goal toward which God has been
moving from the first, but also throws light upon the sinfulness of
man and the conflicts that rage within the soul. Man is seen to be a
double creature. The spirit man rides a man of flesh and is often
thrown thereby and trampled under foot. There is a lower animal nature
having all the appetites and passions that sustain the physical
organization; but super-imposed thereon, is a spiritual man, with
reason and moral sentiment, with affection and faith. The union of the
two means strife and conflict; the doing what one would not do and the
leaving undone what one would do. The poet describes the condition by
saying: "The devil squatted early on human territory, and God sent an
angel to dispossess him." The animal nature foams out all manner of
passions and lusts. From thence issue also lurid lights and murky
streams. But the under man is not the true man. The soldier rides the
horse, but is himself other than his beast. Man uses an animal at the
bottom, but man is what he is at the top. Sin is the struggle for
supremacy between the animal forces and the higher spiritual powers.
The passions downstairs must be subordinated to the people upstairs.
In some men the animal impulses predominate with terrible force, and
their control is not easy. It is as if a child should try to drive a
chariot drawn by forty steeds of the sun. When a man finds that he can
not dam back the mountain stream, nor stop up its springs, he learns
to use the stream by building a mill, and controlling the pressure of
the flood for grinding his corn. Similarly, the problem of life is for
the upper man to educate, control, and transmute the lower forces
into sympathy and service. The combative powers once turned against
his fellows must be turned against nature and used for hewing down the
forests, bridging rivers, piercing mountains. Thus every animal force
and passion becomes sacred through consecration to mental and
spiritual ends and aims.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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