its constant growth, its wondrous symmetry, and
the unique flexibility of the hands, with which he can perform ever new
and greater achievements. Above all, we see the nobility of man in his
high forehead and receding jaw, which contrast so strikingly with the
structure of most animals and even with many of the lower races. Indeed,
primitive man could scarcely imagine a nobler pattern by which to model
his deity than the figure of a man.

7. In fact, the Biblical verse, "God created man after the image of the
divine beings" (_elohim_), was originally taken literally, in the sense
that angels posed as models for the creation of man.(636) The phrase was
referred to the spiritual, god-like nature of man only when the difference
between material and spiritual things became better understood, and man
obtained a clearer knowledge of himself. Man grew to feel that his craving
for the perfect, whether in the field of truth and right, or of beauty, is
the force which lifts him, in spite of all his limitations, into the realm
of the divine. His soaring imagination and ceaseless longing for
perfection disclose before his eyes a partial vista of the infinite. The
human spirit carries mortal man above the confines of time and space into
those boundless realms where God resides in lonely majesty.(637)

Man did not emanate perfect from the hand of the Creator, but ready for an
ever greater perfection. Being the last of all created beings, as the
Midrash says, he can be put to shame by the smallest insect, which is
prior to him. Yet before the beginning of creation a light shone upon his
spirit that has illumined his achievements through untold
generations.(638)

8. The resemblance of man to God is attributed also to his free will and
self-consciousness, by which he claims moral dignity and mastery over all
things.(639) Still, all these superior qualities which we call human are
not ready-made endowments, free gifts bestowed by God; they are simply
potentialities which may be gradually developed. Man must strive to attain
the place destined for him in the scheme of creation by the exertion of
his own will and the unfolding of the powers that lie within him. The
impulse toward self-perfection, which is constantly stimulated by the
desire to overcome obstacles and to extend one's power, knowledge, and
possessions, forms the kernel of the divine in man. This is the "spirit in
man, and the breath of the Almighty, that giveth them understa