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Writing Objectives: Write a book review of Richard Selzer’s Mortal Lessons which appeals to this college audience.

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“The lousy origin of the human species may offend the sensibilities of many, still it is a sweet and appealing idea that humbles as it elevates all creatures great and small.”

Richard Selzer Mortal Lessons

Humility. Random House denotes it as the quality or condition of being humble; a modest sense of one’s own importance or rank. Others have described this uniquely human phenomenon in more poetic terms. For instance, Englishman John Ruskin once asserted, “I believe the first test of a truly great man is humility.” Obviously then, I must interject, a “truly great man” is hard to come by these days.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon expressed his views on the subject in yet another manner when he said, “Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.” How true! I think to myself, yet all I have to do is take a look around at my fellow human beings (or even glance into the mirror) in order to see that people, in general, overestimate themselves. Humanity largely does not understand humility.

It is this very point that Richard Selzer addresses in Mortal Lessons and particularly in the sentence printed above, taken from the chapter entitled “The Twelve Spheres.” It is probably best to examine the statement first in its context. In this section Selzer has just talked about things that are incomprehensible to human reason, the Chinese system of acupuncture being one. He goes on to compare the Chinese myth of creation to ours (thereby indicating that ours, too, is merely a myth). He comes to the conclusion that “aside from certain details of costume and a tendency toward slowness theirs took 18,000 years,” the Chinese creation myth closely resembles our own. His subsequent statement, the one I have chosen to dwell upon, must now be examined.

Since I share in the American ideology (so vividly displayed by our nation’s doctors) that when a problem arises, dissection is the answer, I think it best to break this sentence apart in order to study it. Selzer begins, “The lousy origin of the human species may offend the sensibilities of many…” I believe he is referring to the “lousy origin” of our evolutionary past. And, of course, this is offensive to our sensibilities. How can it be that we humans, the ones to whom God granted “dominion over all the earth,” are actually descendants of a tree shrew that lived 80 million years ago in Africa? Furthermore, who wants to call the ape his brother? Our first inclination is to deny our quadrumanous past.

Selzer continues, “…still it is a sweet an appealing idea that humbles as it elevates all creatures great and small.” The idea that we all have a common origin, that we owe every breath that we take to the first air breathing animal to spring from the nothingness of the Silurian period of the Paleozoic Era, that if it were not for apes we would not be here, is indeed a cause for humility. And though we all continue to evolve further, to become “elevated” to new levels, if you will, nothing can change the fact that we have descended from apes. Our humility must always remain.

Now, it may seem from this argument that part of Selzer’s purpose is to debate the “fact” of evolution over the “myth” of creation. However, judging from his tone throughout the essays in the book, I think it is safe to say that this is not his purpose. His intention, rather, is merely to show us the implications that our universally humble beginnings should have in our lives. He mentions the “truth” rather than the “fact” of evolution in hopes that we might be able to keep the proper perspective in our day-to-day lives. Have we really any compelling reason as a group to assume such a feeling of superiority over all other life? And who is to say on an individual level that one person is any better than another?

I think Selzer is using creation as a medium through which to express his disgust with our grapplings for predominant status. He is not so much criticizing the idea of creation itself; it just happens to be an idea with which we are all familiar, and it happens to serve the purpose for his argument.

The creation “myth” for each culture or religion is similar in that it serves the purpose of ascribing to each person a certain sense of importance. Isn’t it much more pleasant to picture our ancestors, beginning with Adam and Eve, as fully upright (in posture at least)? From dust and rib God created man and woman, but where in the Bible can we find proof that they stood on two feet and were not covered with hair from head to toe? Some simpleton, before considering his thought seriously, might argue that…well, Eve was able to reach up and grab the fruit from the tree, wasn’t she?

Obviously that point is self-defeating as Selzer points out in “Bone.” For if this is so, man in his “brazen reach for ascendancy” committed the sin for which the world has ever since been made to pay. By projecting in this chapter his opinion that man was once on all-fours and his “standing up” is the cause of many of our woes even today, Selzer makes a larger point. Just as he does in the other sentence, Selzer subtly bids us to reevaluate our superiority feelings. Why hide the fact that our tendency toward boldness and audacity causes us only grief, and furthermore, is not even warranted? We are no greater than the apes from which we descended.

Selzer expands on his humility theme in “Bone” when he addresses Jeremiah as a pithecanthropoid. If it is not enough that he includes a great Biblical prophet in a genus of pre-Neanderthal men, maybe his point is clarified in the words of Jeremiah. In warning the Israelites of the forthcoming wrath of God he says, “Down, you fools. Get down, before it is too late.” Not only do we need to humble ourselves before man, but also before God.

In a more modern context, even Indiana Jones in “The Last Crusade” was saved from decapitation by remembering that “a penitent man is humble before God.” He dropped to the ground just in time to avoid a rotary blade that sought to make bloody meal of his head.

I think Selzer’s point in all of his references to humility is in keeping with the title of his book: Mortal Lessons. He is interested in the fact that we are indeed mortal. Knowing that there will come an end to our earthly life should make a profound difference in the way in which we live it. We need to keep things in perspective.

Yes, maybe it is true; my sensibilities are a bit offended by the thought of the “lousy origins of the human species.” But what better way to instill the quality of humility into the human race? Thank you, Richard Selzer, for humbling us.