Crossing the Penobscot, one found a visible descent in the scale of humanity.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces - in nature, in society, in man himself.
Humanity at the centre of the primates, Homo sapiens, in humanity, is the end-product of a gradual work of creation, the successive sketches for which still surround us on every side.
Once in a while, a person finds his humanity in a way that astounds his contemporaries.
There is a descent from God through the world to animals, and an ascent from animals through the world to God. He is the highest point of the scale, pure act and active power, the purest light.
I see humanity now as one vast plant, needing for its highest fulfillment only love, the natural blessings of the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing and selection.
Each time we enter imaginatively into the life of another, it's a small step upwards in the elevation of the human race.
It soon became obvious that we were but on the threshold of the discovery.
I'm just the smallest dot in a big map of human history.
Knowing that we are primates, I think, is a fascinating discovery, and a very interesting and rather cheering one.
I live on the other side of Charles Darwin and I can no longer see human light as having been created perfect and falling into sin, I see us rather emerging into higher and higher levels of consciousness and higher and higher levels of complication.