Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/170

 knowledge and skill and power of man than the theory of Evolution that though originally developed from a very low order of being, man has now reached the superior or " Brain Age." Perhaps after all we shall find that the in- ventions and conveniences, the general education and wider diffusion and increase of knowledge, are not attributable to a greater brain capacity, but to more favorable circumstances for the use of brains. That the brain capacity to-day is greater than in by-gone ages, we deny ; while we freely admit that, owing to advantageous circumstances, the use of what brain capacity men hav" to-day is more general than at any former period, and hence makes a much larger showing. In the study of painting and sculpture, do not the students of this " Brain Age " go back to the great masters of the past ? Do they not by so doing acknowledge a brain power and originality of design as well as a skill of workman- ship worthy of imitation? Does not the present "Brain Age" draw largely upon the original designs of the past ages for its architecture ? Do not the orators and logicians of this " Brain Age " study and copy the methods and syl- logysms of Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes and others of the past? Might not many of the public speakers of to-day well covet the tongue of a Demosthenes or an Apollo, and much more the clear reasoning power of the Apostle Paul? To go still further back : while we might well refer to the rhetorical powers of several of the prophets, and to the sub- lime poetic paintings interspersed throughout the Psalms, we refer these "Brain Age" philosophers to the wisdom and logic, no less than to the fine moral sensibilities, of Job and his comforters. And what shall we say of Moses, " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians?" The laws given through him have been the foundation for the laws of all civilized nations, and are still recognized as the em* bodinaent of marvelous wisdom*

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