very evolutionary principles to which the
German scientist appeals demolish his theory! He practically says to
Haeckel, "Your philosophy, sir, fails to show how it is possible for the
vacuous mind of the infant to evolve into the genius of the philosopher
in thirty or forty years." In other words, if the infant is nothing but
the form we see it would be utter absurdity to say that that mass of
matter can evolve a high grade of intelligence within a few years when
it takes centuries to make a slight evolutionary gain.
Look at an infant the day it is born. Study its face. One might as well
search the surface of a squash for some indication of intelligence. But
wait only a little while and you shall have evidence not merely of
intelligence but of emotions possible only to the highest order of life.
Clearly, here is not something evolved within a brief period from a mass
of material atoms. Such a theory would be as unscientific as the popular
belief in miraculous creation at which the scientific materialist
scoffs. The swift change from the vacuity of the infant mind to the
intellectual power of the adult in the "fraction of a century" is not
the creation of something but its _manifestation_--_the coming through
into visible expression of that which already exists_. The soul, the
consciousness, the real man, consisting of the whole of the mental and
emotional nature, which has been built up through thousands of years of
evolution, is coming once more to rebirth, to visible expression in a
material body.
The body is, of course, but the new physical instrument of the old
soul--an instrument, as certainly as the violin is the instrument and a
vehicle for the musician's expression. At every turn our materialistic
conceptions mislead us and prevent the perception of nature's truth. It
is because we think of the body as being actually the person, that it
seems improbable that an old soul has entered the infant body. We think
of the power and intelligence of an old soul and then look at the baby
and find no indication of such things. But that is only because the baby
body is such a new and undeveloped instrument that it is at first
useless and only slowly can it be brought under control of the soul and
made to express its intelligence and power. The body is a growing
instrument, not a completed one.
Let us suppose that musical instruments grow as physical bodies do.
Suppose there was a time when the piano was keyless, as a ba
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