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CHAPTER IV - THE DAWN OF MIND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2010

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Summary

The most beautiful witness to the Evolution of Man is the Mind of a little child. The stealing in of that inexplicable light—yet not more light than sound or touch—called consciousness, the first flicker of memory, the gradual governance of will, the silent ascendancy of reason—these are studies in Evolution the oldest, the sweetest, and the most full of meaning for mankind. Evolution, after all, is a study for the nursery. It was ages before Darwin or Lamarck or Lucretius that Maternity, bending over the hollowed cradle in the forest for a first smile of recognition from her babe, expressed the earliest trust in the doctrine of development. Every mother since then is an unconscious Evolutionist, and every little child a living witness to Ascent.

Is the Mind a new or an old thing in the world? Is it an Evolution from beneath or an original gift from heaven? Did the Mind, in short, come down the ages like the Body, and does the mother's faith in the intellectual unfolding of her babe include a remoter origin for all human faculty? Let the mother look at her child and answer. “It is the very breath of God,” she says; “this Child-Life is Divine.” And she is right. But let her look again. That forehead, whose is it? It is hers. And the frown which darkened it just now?

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The Ascent of Man , pp. 151 - 194
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1894

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  • THE DAWN OF MIND
  • Henry Drummond
  • Book: The Ascent of Man
  • Online publication: 05 October 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511692857.007
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  • THE DAWN OF MIND
  • Henry Drummond
  • Book: The Ascent of Man
  • Online publication: 05 October 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511692857.007
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • THE DAWN OF MIND
  • Henry Drummond
  • Book: The Ascent of Man
  • Online publication: 05 October 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511692857.007
Available formats
×