An address introductory to the course of lectures in the St. Louis Medical College / by Charles A. Pope.

  • Pope, Charles A. (Charles Alexander), 1818-1870.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address introductory to the course of lectures in the St. Louis Medical College / by Charles A. Pope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ADDRESS. Man is a microcosm. The crowned head of created material beings, he epitomizes Nature, and images in himself all that is beneath him, in the inorganic and organic universe — in the min- eral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. Materially, he is of the dust of the earth, the brother of the rocks and the mountains, of the rivers and the ocean, destined to act his part in the great drama of sentient, intellectual and moral existence, and then to return to the bosom of the earth, from which he sprang. As a material being, he possesses the properties, and is subject to the laws of matter. Gravitation, impenetrability, indestructi- bility—whatever may be asserted of matter, may also be asserted of him. The atoms which compose his frame to-day, were once dormant in the soil or the rocks, floating in the seas, whispering in the zephyr, or careering in the storm-cloud—were reflecting the tints of the rose and violet, or performing functions in the inferior animals, thousands of years before his birth ; and after having fulfilled their destiny with him, shall again mingle with the soil and the rocks, the zephyr and the storm — shall again be incorporated with the trees of the forest and the flowers of the field, with the lowly insect and the mighty animal. Yet, none of these myriad atoms shall be lost. He who congregated them in the organism of material man, follows them through all their cease- less mutations, and can again call them from the mountain's height or the vasty deep. He, Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, is alike cognizant of the smallest atoms. They, as well as the winds and the waves, obey Him. Rising from the comparative death of the inorganic world, into the active kingdoms of plants and animals, we find, as it were,