A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of WisdomAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of Wisdom
Atkinson, William Walker
Yoga, Jñana
One must remember that the most savage races known to us today are
practically as far different from the highest American, European or
Hindu types of Man as from the highest Apes. Indeed, it would seem far
easier for a high Ape to evolve into a Kaffir, Hottentot, or Digger
Indian, than for the latter to evolve into an Emerson, Shakespeare, or
Hindu Sage. As Huxley has shown, the brain-structure of Man compared
with that of the Chimpanzee shows differences but slight when compared
with the difference between that of the Chimpanzee and that of the
Lemur. The same authority informs us that in the important feature of
the deeper brain furrows, and intricate convolutions, the chasm between
the highest civilized man and the lowest savage is far greater than
between the lowest savage and the highest man-like ape. Darwin,
describing the Fuegians, who are among the very lowest forms of
savages, says: "Their very signs and expressions are less intelligible
to us than those of the domesticated animal. They are men who do not
possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of human
reason, or at least of arts consequent upon that reason."
Professor Clodd, in describing the "primitive man," says: "Doubtless he
was lower than the lowest of the savages of today--a powerful, cunning
biped, with keen sense organs always sharper, in virtue of constant
exercise, in the savage than in the civilized man (who supplements them
by science), strong instincts, uncontrolled and fitful emotions, small
faculty of wonder, and nascent reasoning power; unable to forecast
tomorrow, or to comprehend yesterday, living from hand to mouth on the
wild products of Nature, clothed in skin and bark, or daubed with clay,
and finding shelter in trees and caves; ignorant of the simplest arts,
save to chip a stone missile, and perhaps to produce fire; strong in
his needs of life and vague sense of right to it and to what he could
get, but slowly impelled by common perils and passions to form ties,
loose and haphazard at the outset, with his kind, the power of
combination with them depending on sounds, signs and gestures."
Such was the ancestral man. Those who are interested in him are
referred to the two wonderful tales of the cave-man written in the form
of stories by two great modern novelists. The books referred to are (1)
"_The Story of Ab_," by Stanley Waterloo, and (2) "_Before Adam_," by
Jack London. They may be obtained from any bookseller. Both are works
of fiction, with the scientific facts cleverly interwoven into them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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