Part XII
4 Human mechanisms are not unique in comprising these externally extended devices instrumental to life for it is a characteristic shared by all organic phenomena in varying degrees, as for instance the plant’s annual bloom or the snake’s skin sheath.
5 Nor does the human ‘‘being’’ have any unique principle represented by integral physical characteristic except a highly developed brain and nervous system to differentiate him from other organisms.
6 And man’s brain and nerve system,—rather than being special,—is one of multiplicity of focus and concomitant unit mediocrity in cause and effect articulations of the human integral mechanics.
7 We have said that only in degree both quantitatively and qualitatively,—is man fundamentally differentiated from other life invested organizations, yet we also know that the degree does not apply to integral size, strength or swiftness, at all of which man is just average.
8 Whales run to tens of tons
9 trees to hundreds,
10 bacteria eats at man’s flesh,
11 dogs outrun him,
12 mosquitoes out maneuver him.
13 Looking further therefore
14 the differential degree of man’s supremacy is found to exist only in the extent
15 and refinement
16 of development
17 of the mechanical extensions
18 of man’s integral mechanisms,—
19 and in the extended
20 precision and magnitude of
21 articulated cause and effect,—
22 by life
23 which is central to both,—and equally a characteristic respectively of
24 the integral and extension mechanisms.
25 The pencil and the cup are extensions of man’s hand to perform specialized functions which he may but crudely perform with the hand itself.
26 In the same relationship is the eyeglass to the eye.
27 But the degree goes further for man could not hold hot coffee in his hand nor sterilize foods manually for his mediocre integral digestive system.
28 Therefore in degree
29 these mechanical extensions
30 have in many cases become so relatively superior as to reach superior proportion and by their employment man may be said, with relative accuracy, to perform functions which he could not perform at all without mechanical extensions, such for instance as flying or sampling the temperature within a molten ore furnace or even of the sun and other stars almost precisely.