draw the working plans for
one; but he invented the eighteen thousand details of the most wonderful
machine the world has ever known. He watched over the expert draftsmen,
and superintended the building of that marvel. Pratt & Whitney built
it; but it was Paige's machine, nevertheless--the child of his marvelous
gift. We don't create any of our traits; we inherit all of them. They
have come down to us from what we impudently call the lower animals.
Man is the last expression, and combines every attribute of the animal
tribes that preceded him. One or two conspicuous traits distinguish each
family of animals from the others, and those one or two traits are found
in every member of each family, and are so prominent as to eternally and
unchangeably establish the character of that branch of the animal world.
In these cases we concede that the several temperaments constitute a law
of God, a command of God, and that whatsoever is done in obedience to
that law is blameless. Man, in his evolution, inherited the whole sum of
these numerous traits, and with each trait its share of the law of God.
He widely differs from them in this: that he possesses not a single
characteristic that is equally prominent in each member of his race. You
can say the housefly is limitlessly brave, and in saying it you describe
the whole house-fly tribe; you can say the rabbit is limitlessly timid,
and by the phrase you describe the whole rabbit tribe; you can say the
spider and the tiger are limitlessly murderous, and by that phrase you
describe the whole spider and tiger tribes; you can say the lamb is
limitlessly innocent and sweet and gentle, and by that phrase you
describe all the lambs. There is hardly a creature that you cannot
definitely and satisfactorily describe by one single trait--except
man. Men are not all cowards like the rabbit, nor all brave like the
house-fly, nor all sweet and innocent and gentle like the lamb, nor all
murderous like the spider and the tiger and the wasp, nor all thieves
like the fox and the bluejay, nor all vain like the peacock, nor all
frisky like the monkey. These things are all in him somewhere, and
they develop according to the proportion of each he received in his
allotment: We describe a man by his vicious traits and condemn him; or
by his fine traits and gifts, and praise him and accord him high merit
for their possession. It is comical. He did not invent these things;
he did not stock himself with them. Go