What Is Man? and Other Essays

, you must free the metal from its obstructing prejudicial ones by education—smelting, refining, and so forth

are gold men, and tin men, and copper men, and leaden mean, and steel men, and so on—and each has the limitations of his nature, his heredities, his training, and his environment.

Everything has its limit—iron ore cannot be educated into gold."

Prejudices which nothing within the rock itself had either power to remove or any desire to remove."

The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing. The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more. The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.

What are the materials of which a steam-engine is made?

Men would admire the other engine and rapturously praise it?

Because its performance is not personal.

While he was thus hesitating, the following incident occurred.

This gives it too much distinction, too much prominence, too much credit. It is only the LAST link in a very long chain of turning-points commissioned to produce the cardinal result; it is not any more important than the humblest of its ten thousand predecessors.