"Look at man's mental constitution. Behold the lavish benevolence of God in powers of perception. Watch the law of association, or the mysterious linking together of all you ever thought of, knew or felt, and then giving you the power to take hold of the clew-line and draw through your mind the long train with indescribable velocity - one thought starting up a hundred, and this again a thousand - as the chirp of one bird sometimes wakes a whole forest of voices. Watch your memory - the sheaf-binder that goes forth to gather the harvest of the past and bring it into the present. Your power and velocity of thought - thought of the swift wing and the lightning foot.
In reason and understanding, man is alone. The ox surpasses him in strength, the antelope in speed, the hound in keenness of nostril, the eagle in far-reaching sight, the rabbit in quickness of hearing, the honey-bee in delicacy of tongue, the spider in fineness of touch. Man's power, therefore, consists not in what he can lift or how fast he can run or how strong a wrestler he can throw - for in these respects, the ox, the ostrich, and the bear are his superior - but by reason man comes forth to rule all; through his ingenious contrivance to outrun, out lift, out wrestle, out see, out hear, out do."
One of the reasons I like T.De Witt Talmage is for his vivid illustrations taken from nature. Such perception!
T.De Witt Talmage - Photo by Alexander Kharlamov
2 comments:
How true! I never thought about that before, at least not in those words. I've heard it said, I think on your blog, in fact, that every material thing that exists carries with it an illustration of a spiritual truth. What a great reminder!
Thank you, Fred!
Hi Mel,
I don't think that was said on my blog but I bet its so. Nature poetry has helped me see more deeply into this classroom, but I never thought about the sensitive touch of the spider, I liked that.
Fred
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