← Berry Picking | Berry Picking →
Index Entry
operative in his environment and he makes use of those principles. For example, we have the flying bird as a specialist; and the bird does fly beautifully; but when the bird wants to walk, it folds up its wings and therefore has to walk quite awkwardly. The fish swims superbly but can’t walk on land. Man can walk on the land, but he also learns the principle of flight, and he puts on his wings and then flies. Then he takes them off so as not to be encumbered by them when he wants to walk again. He can put on his scales and go into the sea, but he is not encumbered by them when he doesn’t want to use them. So man has the ability to put on and take off much more than other creatures-- which seems to be unique. This is what I mean when I speak about man’s general adaptability: the fact that his functions seem to be as little encumbered as possible.
What is really unique is that man is about halfway in the range of size among all creatures-- halfway, in the middle of them-- and he has extensibility in a great many directions. This, then, says that the specialization should be in the tools and not integral to man himself. The dinosaur had a one-ton tail to knock down bananas when he came to them, but
