Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.
From THE OUTERMOST HOUSE by Henry Beston
Wow, I had to ponder those words twice!
Profound… I am a writer of wildlife articles and have just been extremely “humbled”. I feel what Henry Beston has written, I have just never been able to put it into words. Thanks so much for sharing.
Those words moved me beyond measure. I appreciate your comment and am glad that I shared them with you. ng
our human capabilities are far limited in understanding the Lord’s original intent of allowing us the great privilege of knowing & touching his live masterpieces