Article October 19, 1946 Issue

Signs of the Times

Man's True Status

with contributions from H. F. Rall

Sarasota Herald Tribune
Florida

Long years ago a man fell to meditating upon things in general. In the course of his reflections he indulged in a little thought upon himself and his fellow men. He looked out upon the great world round about him and was impressed with the fact that man was a very infinitesimal part of it. He then looked out into the heavens and, limited though his knowledge was of the vast reaches of the universe, he was still more deeply impressed with his own insignificance. His meditations took this form: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" ...

When this wise man of old took his eyes off the vastness of the heavens and fixed them upon himself, he perceived that man had an importance above everything else that came under his observation. He beheld man as the sovereign of all he surveyed. A great modern philosopher remarked that "on earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind." Someone has said that the astronomer who looks at the star is greater than the star, for he is conscious of the star but the star is not conscious of him. Greatness does not consist in mass but in mind. ...

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