Intellect is, in truth, the most precious gift bestowed upon
man by the Divine Bounty. Man alone, among created beings, has this wonderful
power.
All creation, preceding Man, is bound by the stern law of
nature. The great sun, the multitudes of stars, the oceans and seas, the
mountains, the rivers, the trees, and all animals, great or small—none is able
to evade obedience to nature’s law.
Man alone has freedom, and, by his understanding or
intellect, has been able to gain control of and adapt some of those natural
laws to his own needs. By the power of his intellect he has discovered means by
which he not only traverses great continents in express trains and crosses vast
oceans in ships, but, like the fish he travels under water in submarines, and,
imitating the birds, he flies through the air in airships.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, from
a talk, Paris, October 26, 1911, ‘Paris Talks’)
