Humanoid

“ Sunrise and sunset, seedtime and harvest, life, death, and the hereafter are some of the mysteries which have always puzzled the human mind. The primitive races, knowing nothing of science, looked upon the forces of nature as gigantic personalities, or gods, who controlled human destiny. ”

“ The three great classes of facts on which the whole argument rests, viewing man as an animal and omitting all reference to his intellect, are the resemblances of his bodily structure to that of the other mammals, the similarity between his embryonic development and theirs, and the rudiments. I reserve for separate discussion the counter-proof which may be derived from the nature of the human mind, and the special adaptation of the human structure to become the temporary residence and instrument of a spiritual and immortal being. ”

“ The soul, or 'psyche' of man has evolved, as function of the cerebro-spinal nerve-chord simultaneously with the latter, and just as, even yet, brain and spinal column develop from the simple nerve-chord, [Pg 24] so the human mind, or the soul-activity of the whole human race, has evolved, gradually and step by step, from the lower vertebrate soul. ”

“ Anthropomorphism, and the personification of the things and phenomena of nature, and their images and specific types, were the great source whence issued superstitions, mythologies, and religions, and, also, as we shall presently see, the scientific errors to be found among all the families of the human race. ”

“ Whether the Structure of the Human Brain entitles Man to form a distinct Sub-class of the Mammalia. Intelligence of the lower Animals compared to the Intellect and Reason of Man. Grounds on which Man has been referred to a distinct Kingdom of Nature. Immaterial Principle common to Man and Animals. Non-discovery of intermediate Links among Fossil Anthropomorphous Species. Hallam on the compound Nature of Man, and his Place in the Creation. Great Inequality of mental Endowment in different Human Races and Individuals developed by Variation and ordinary Generation. ”

“ But the theory we are discussing involves not merely the personification of heavenly bodies and natural phenomena but their complete anthropomorphisation [406] —a very doubtful process in the best of cases—whereas the story which it seeks to explain bears no trace even of derivation from a folk-tale. In other words we are asked to assume a most complex and precarious hypothesis [Pg 266] in order to account for a story for which parallels are to be found very frequently in almost all stages of human society. ”

“ But, again, improved surroundings—the dry earth, with forest, field, and flower, the brighter sunlight and the purer air, demanded new organs to appropriate and new senses to enjoy; and a race appeared with improved organs of sense to receive impressions from this better outer world, improved modes of action, and above all in place, and superior to all in function, an organ of intelligence was added. The old methods of soul-manifestation continue; both reflex and instinctive action find their appropriate place in the higher organization ”

“ During the discussion a variety of theories were advanced by the prominent members, embracing involution and evolution, to account for the infinitesimal size of the Animalculan race of humanity, and causes of reduction. Some advocated psychological condensation of the souls of our race after death, the degrees of perfection being indicated by the gradations of size distinguishing the castes of giantesco, medium, and tit. Others that they were the concentrated essences of our human vitality in happy translation exonerated from the corruptions of organic support. ”

“ In other words, we have what the scientist calls the non-human primate, a low form of animal without intellect, but capable of so improving its own physical organization as to create for itself and within itself that essence which we recognize as the human mind. ”

“ These colossal figures, this struggle between man and the animal creation, gives, like all the works of the ancients, an admirable idea of the physical power of human nature. But this power has something noble in it, which is no longer found in modern society, where all bodily exercises are for the most part left to the common people. ”

“ They, so to say, are qualities of the personalities of all highly organized creatures, as the human, the anthropoid, the horse, dog and some other animals. These qualities constitute an inner perceptivity of the animal soul, by some of your thinkers designated as conscious mind or objective self. They are independent of physical visuality and are controlled through vibratory activity. ”

“ When development had reached its height through adjustment to external realities, then commenced the development by adjustment to internal realities—to the Divine Human. Through this adjustment came the human, as a superstructure to the animal.
If the eye developed by adjustment to light, the ear to sound, and the animal to nature in general, is it unreasonable to ask what did the human develop in adjustment to? ”

“ We all agree, for the fact is patent, that our own bodies, and indeed the body of every living creature, are evolved from a seemingly simple germ by natural laws, without visible action of any designing will or mind, into the full organisation of a human or other creature. ”

“ There are so many different composed Parts, and so much of variety of Action in every several Part of one Creature, as 'tis impossible for Human Perception to perceive them; nay, not every Corporeal Motion of one Creature, doth perceive all the varieties of the same Society ”

“ All the characters of a living being, every physical structure and every mental trait, may be placed in one of two categories. Either they are inborn or they are acquired. An inborn or innate character is one which, in common parlance, arises in the individual 'by nature.' Thus arms, legs, eyes, ears, head, etc., and all inborn characters. ”

“ Consequently, if we are right in regarding the human race, or the human individual whose brain is below the mean by several grammes, as tending towards the anthropoid ape, we ought to consider the race, or the individual whose brain is above the mean as approximating to the cebus, or even the passerines or conirostres. ”

“ In studying the biography, if I may so express myself, of an individual animal, we have to acquaint ourselves with the circumstances in which nature has placed it,—its adaptation to these, both in structure and instinct,—the points of resemblance which it presents to the individuals of other races and families, and the laws which determine its terms of development, vigorous existence, and decay. ”

“ Grant that in the manner now described, the human race originated, and became living creatures—destined, it may be, to undergo new changes and to ascend into new orders of being—the animal nature to be perfected in the progressive modifications of his type. ”

“ However, it is not my intention to write a history of civilization, still less to develop any elaborate hypothesis of anthropogeny. My object is merely to carry into an investigation of human psychology a continuation of the principles which I have already applied to the attempted elucidation of animal psychology. ”

“ Everything appeared to him in an anthropomorphic form of thought; and thus the first primitive concepts regarding the world came into being, in which the stone, the mountain, the heavenly orbs, were viewed as animate anthropomorphic beings endowed with will-power, and willing to help man or threatening to endanger him. The observation [Pg 19] of the activities of man’s own body and of his mind led to the formulation of the idea of a soul independent from the body; and with increasing knowledge and with increasing philosophic thought, religion and science grew out of these simple beginnings. ”

“ We have seen the lowly creature, endowed with its single nerve-centre, and its radiating nerve-filaments, expressing all its relations to the outer world by simple reflex action; and, if, as we should expect, the order of appearance in Nature corresponded with the order of development, for untold ages all over the silent, ocean-clothed earth, no higher form of life, and no higher expression of soul, was present. ”

“ As the animal kingdom developed into higher and higher forms of life, and skulls and brains became the order of the day, the special sense-organs became possessed of larger powers, at the same time that the whole nervous organisation assumed higher and more complex functions, resulting eventually in a very gradual unfolding of the most wonderful of all the latent potentialities of universal life—the marvel of consciousness. ”

“ This means, I presume, that an animal, having the corporeal form and bodily powers of man, may have been developed out of some lower form of life by a process of evolution; and that, after this anthropoid animal had existed for a longer or shorter time, God made a soul by direct creation, and put it into the manlike body, which, heretofore, had been devoid of that anima rationalis, which is supposed to be man's distinctive character. ”

“ Where and when and what was the first animal that possessed a nervous organization which would manifest the power of variation in so marked a degree as to render it proper to speak of the animal as possessing or evincing mind? Are not the works of naturalists of the evolution school filled with comparisons of the minds of different animals, and do they not contend that in many of them there are manifestations of mental power, of the exercise of reason and comparison, and a volitional action according to varying circumstances? ”

“ Now the nine millions of human creatures which we here refer to present at first sight all the attributes of the human race; they have the hyoid bone, the coracoid process, the acromion, the zygomatic arch. ”

“ He sees through this haze the men of an early period “like trees walking;” and, even should he believe them to be beings of the same race with himself, and of nearly the same shape and size—a belief not always entertained—it is impossible for him, from the atmosphere which surrounds them, to catch those finer traits of form and feature by which he could best identify them with the species. ”

“ And the next hour was spent in a pleasant talk about the form and habits of these tiny creatures, a talk that the boys never forgot, for it taught them, for the first time, the great plan of creation, that develops in each living creature the bodily form which will help it most to live its little life, an explanation so clearly and vividly given that even Fred felt no need of the pictures to understand the mechanism of their small bodies. ”

“ Everything had its demons; they animated equally a human being and his brother, the animal. Everything was considered according to its anthropomorphic or theriomorphic attributes, as human being or animal. ”

“ With some glorious exceptions, indeed, the naturalists of the day gone by showed us a science that was but a skeleton—little but dry bones; with some inglorious exceptions, indeed, the naturalists of the day that is now, have been desirous to show us a living, breathing, and moving body—to explain, as far as they might, its mechanism and its spirit. ”

“ The purely psychological branch of the subject takes up half of the space allotted to Geist in the Encyklopädie. It falls under the three heads of anthropology, phenomenology and psychology proper. Anthropology treats of the mind in union with the body—of the natural soul—and discusses the relations of the soul with the planets, the races of mankind, the differences of age, dreams, animal magnetism, insanity and phrenology. ”

“ The extraordinary variability of modern Man (considered as one species) in stature, shape of skull, size and power of brain, colour, hairiness, quality of hair, and other characters, physical and mental, may be referred chiefly to his having become adapted to various local conditions upon settling here or there for long periods of time after wandering over the world in quest of game. ”

“ It may be said that, so far from having a materialistic tendency, the supposed introduction into the earth at successive geological periods of life—sensation—instinct—the intelligence of the higher mammalia bordering on reason—and lastly the improvable reason of Man himself, presents us with a picture of the ever-increasing dominion of mind over matter. ”

“ A large proportion of the activity of the more active creatures,—as the human species (especially the young) , quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and insects,—is due to the presence of an active machinery provided with superabundance of motive power. ”

“ Though, after occupying themselves with primitive arts and products, anthropologists have devoted their attention mainly to the physical characters of the human races, it must, I think, be admitted that the study of these yields in importance to the study of their psychical characters. ”

“ We have vertebrates in businesses, business with brains, spinal cords, sympathetic nervous systems all complete. In states, armies, and more vaguely in philosophies, policies, and all structures of thought, whether they be theories, or poems, or plays, or novels, the vertebrate idea is found.
Why is the life history of a man so extraordinarily like the life history of a nation, and the story of a man’s day a little poetical simile of a man’s life? ”

“ The unity of this research then, is not, as will be seen, the single archaic motive, as for instance here animals appearing and acting as human beings, a motive which besides very likely roots in the comtemplation of nature in times past. ”

“ What class of creatures can it be that lives and thrives "in the midst of the matters complained of?" Have they got any legs?—if so, how many, or is the structure of their bodies annular? Do they change into anything, lie torpid, and then change again into something else, with wings? ”