structure. Though with a naked and unprotected body, _this_ gave him
clothing against the varying inclemencies of the seasons. Though unable to
compete with the deer in swiftness, or with the wild bull in strength,
_this_ gave him weapons with which to capture or overcome both. Though less
capable than most other animals of living on the herbs and the fruits that
unaided nature supplies, this wonderful faculty taught him to govern and
direct nature to his own benefit, and make her produce food for him when
and where he pleased. From the moment when the first skin was used as a
covering; when the first rude spear was formed to assist in the chase; when
fire was first used to cook his food; when the first seed was sown or shoot
planted, a grand revolution was effected in nature, a revolution which in
all the previous ages of the earth's history had had no parallel, for a
being had arisen who was no longer necessarily subject to change with the
changing universe, a being who was in some degree superior to nature,
inasmuch as he knew how to control and regulate her action, and could {285}
keep himself in harmony with her, not by a change in body, but by an
advance in mind."

"On this view of his special attributes, we may admit 'that he is indeed a
being apart.' Man has not only escaped 'Natural Selection' himself, but he
is actually able to take away some of that power from nature which before
his appearance she universally exercised. We can anticipate the time when
the earth will produce only cultivated plants and domestic animals; when
man's selection shall have supplanted 'Natural Selection;' and when the
ocean will be the only domain in which that power can be exerted."

Baden Powell[309] observes on this subject: "The relation of the animal man
to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual man, resembles that of a crystal
slumbering in its native quarry to the same crystal mounted in the
polarizing apparatus of the philosopher. The difference is not in physical
nature, but in investing that nature with a new and higher application. Its
continuity with the material world remains the same, but a new relation is
developed in it, and it claims kindred with ethereal matter and with
celestial light."

This well expresses the distinction between the merely physical and the
hyperphysical natures of man, and the subsumption of the former into the
latter which dominates it.

The same author in speaking of man's moral and spirit