What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals — and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
—Hamlet, Act II, Scene II (Arden Shakespeare)
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor.
—Psalm 8:3-5 (Today's New International Version)
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
—Genesis 2:7 (Today's New International Version)
2 comments:
Stephen,
I found this quote which comes from Evolution and Dogma (1896), an early Catholic pro-evolution book by Fr. John Zahm, one of the foremost scholars affiliated with the University of Notre Dame:
"As to man, Evolution, far from depriving him of his high estate, confirms him in it, and that, too, by the strongest and noblest of titles. It recognizes that although descended from humble lineage, he is “the beauty of the world, and the paragon of animals; “that although from dust— tracing his lineage back to its first beginnings—he is of the “quintessence of dust.” It teaches, and in the most eloquent language, that he is the highest term of a long and majestic development, and replaces him “in his old position of headship in the universe, even as in the days of Dante and Aquinas.” "
ah. Hamlet. I knew I recognised the quote from somewhere. :) Lovely name.
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