The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2Schlegel, Friedrich von
Philosophy
The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2
Schlegel, Friedrich von
History; History -- Philosophy
Thus have I now taken a general survey of the early condition of the
globe, considered as the habitation of man, and as far as was necessary
for that object; and in this rapid sketch, I have endeavoured, as far as
was possible for a layman, to place in the clearest light the most
remarkable and best attested facts and discoveries of geology, with a
constant attention to the testimony of primitive and historical
tradition. No longer embarrassed by these physical discussions, we may
now proceed to meet the main question: "What relation hath man to this
his habitation--earth; what place doth he occupy therein; and what rank
doth he hold among the other creatures and co-habitants of this globe,
what is his proper destiny upon, and in relation to, the earth, and what
is it which really constitutes him Man?"
The absolute, and, for that reason, Pagan system of natural philosophy
spoken of above, has indeed in these latter times had the courage,
laudable perhaps in the perverse course which it had taken, to rank man
with the ape, as a peculiar species of the general kind. When in its
anatomical investigations, it has numbered the various characteristics
of this human ape, according to the number of its vertebræ, its toes,
&c. it concedes to man, as his distinguishing quality, not what we are
wont to call reason, perfectibility, or the faculty of speech, but "a
capacity for Constitutions!" Thus man would be a liberal ape! And so far
from disagreeing with the author of this opinion, we think man may
undoubtedly become so to a certain extent, although the idea that he was
originally nothing more than a nobler or better disciplined ape is alike
opposed to the voice of history, and the testimony of natural science.
If in the examination of man's nature we will confine our view
exclusively to the lower world of animals, I should say that the
possible contagion and communication of various diseases, and organic
properties and powers of animals, would prove in man rather a greater
sympathy and affinity of organic life and animal blood with the cow, the
sheep, the camel, the horse and the elephant, than with the ape. Even in
the venomous serpent and the mad dog, this deadly affinity of blood and
this fearful contact of internal life exist in a different and nearer
degree, than have yet been discovered in the ape. The docility too, of
the elephant and other generous animals, bears much stronger marks of
analogy with reason than the cunning of the ape, in which the native
sense of a sound, unprejudiced mind will always recognize an
unsuccessful and abortive imitation of man. The resemblance of
physiognomy and cast of countenance in the lion, the bull, and the
eagle, to the human face--a resemblance so celebrated in sculpture and
the imitative arts, and which was interwoven into the whole mythology
and symbolism of the ancients--this resemblance is founded on far deeper
and more spiritual ideas than any mere comparison of dead bones in an
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