History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised EditionDraper, John William
History
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised Edition
Draper, John William
Europe -- Civilization
shines upon his eyes, he sees not; sounds fall upon his ear, he hears
not. From these low beginnings we might describe the successive
re-enforcements through infancy, childhood, and youth to maturity. And
what is the result to which all this carries us? Is it not that, in the
philosophical contemplation of man, we are constrained to reject the
idea of personality, of individuality, and to adopt that of a cycle of
progress; to abandon all contemplation of his mere substantial form, and
consider his abstract relation? All organic forms, if compared together
and examined from one common point of view, are found to be constructed
upon an identical scheme. It is as in some mathematical expression
containing constants and variables; the actual result changes
accordingly as we assign successively different values to the variables,
yet in those different results, no matter how numerous they may be, the
original formula always exists. From such a universal conception of the
condition and career of man, we rise at once to the apprehension of his
relations to others like himself--that is to say, his relations as a
member of society. We perceive, in this light, that society must run a
course the counterpart of that we have traced for the individual, and
that the appearance of isolation presented by the individual is
altogether illusory. Each individual man drew his life from another, and
to another man he gives rise, losing, in point of fact, his aspect of
individuality when these his race connexions are considered. One epoch
in life is not all life. The mature individual cannot be disentangled
from the multitudinous forms through which he has passed; and,
considering the nature of his primitive conception and the issue of his
reproduction, man cannot be separated from his race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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