Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 5 — John Shaqi
Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 5Christian, Eugene
Science
Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 5
Christian, Eugene
Diet; Diet in disease; Food
This development of the grain-binder is a process of evolution. In order
to understand a machine so as to use it intelligently, or to make
improvements upon it, it is necessary not only to know the machine as it
actually is, but also to know the history of its development up to its
present form.
[Sidenote: To know man is to know evolution]
The story of the evolution of a machine is, at best, but a crude
illustration of the evolution of man. Nevertheless, the conclusion is
the same. If we are to understand man, we must study not only his
present physical and mental state, but also the history of his
development. Yet those whose work is concerned directly with
man--whether they be teachers, guiding the growth of the child;
statesmen, formulating the laws and regulations by which men are to be
controlled in their public actions; or physicians, who are supposed to
instruct and to guide men in the care of their physical well-being--are
often densely ignorant of the most rudimentary knowledge of the
evolution of man as it is now known and understood by the leading
scientists of the world.
Our entire system of education, our ideas of health and dis-ease, our
social customs, the principles of our form of government; our ideas of
right and wrong, of rewards and punishments, are all fundamentally
concerned with the evolution of man, and when this knowledge is studied
with as much application as are the ancient languages, we may expect to
see humanity progress at a rate hitherto unknown.
[Sidenote: Significance of the term "evolution"]
The evolution of man has been very much misunderstood. The term
"evolution" is a broad one. It may refer to the growth of the
individual, or to the race. It may mean the development of strictly
physical organs, or of mental habits, of social customs, or of material
products of man's genius, as the great works of civilization in the form
of recorded learning, and the wonderful products of man's building
ingenuity as seen in modern cities.
The subject of the evolution of the human race may be grouped into three
general kinds of development or growth:
1 The development of the physical man
2 The development of the mind
3 The development of custom and of external civilization
Evolution in these three directions has taken place simultaneously. The
mind and the body depend upon each other for their life and actions;
while customs are merely the product of many minds working together and
communicating their ideas to each other.
* * * * *
The human race is but the sum of the individuals composing it. We cannot
consider the development of the individual without considering him in
his relation to the race, neither can we understand the development of
the race without understanding the growth of the individual.
[Sidenote: Difference between inherited and acquired characteristics]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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