Search -
The Miscellaneous Writings of John Fiske (v. 4); With Many Portraits of Illustrious Philosophers, Scientists, and Other Men of Note
The Miscellaneous Writings of John Fiske With Many Portraits of Illustrious Philosophers Scientists and Other Men of Note - v. 4 Author:John Fiske Volume: v. 4 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1902 Original Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin and Company Subjects: History / General Literary Collections / American / General Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Philosophy / General Notes: This i... more »s a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER XXII GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY THERE are two things, said Kant, which fill me with awe because of their sublimity, -- the starry heavens above us, and the moral law within us. From the modern point of view there is interest as well as instruction to be found in the implied antithesis. While in the study of the stellar universe we contemplate the process of evolution on a scale so vast that reason and imagination are alike baffled in the effort to trace out its real significance, and we are overpowered by the sense of the infinity that surrounds us ; on the other hand, in the study of the moral sense we contemplate the last and noblest product of evolution which we can ever know, -- the attribute latest to be unfolded in the development of psychical life, and by the possession of which we have indeed become as gods, knowing the good and the evil. The theorems of astronomy and the theorems of ethics present to us the process of evolution in its extremes of extension and of intension respectively. For although upon other worlds far out in space there may be modes of existence immeasurably transcending Humanity, yet these must remain unknowable by us. And while this possibility should be allowed its due weight in restraining us from the vain endeavour to formulate the infinite and eternal Sustainer of the universe in terms of our own human nature, as ...« less