Revolution and Other Essays: World of Jack London The Dignity of
Dollars Jack London  Man is a blind, helpless creature. He looks
back with pride upon his goodly heritage of the ages, and yet
obeys unwittingly every mandate of that heritage; for it is
incarnate with him, and in it are imbedded the deepest roots of
his soul. Strive as he will, he cannot escape it—unless he be a
genius, one of those rare creations to whom alone is granted the
privilege of doing entirely new and original things in entirely
new and original ways. But the common clay-born man, possessing
only talents, may do only what has been done before him. At the
best, if he work hard, and cherish himself exceedingly, he may
duplicate any or all previous performances of his kind; he may
even do some of them better; but there he stops, the composite
hand of his whole ancestry bearing heavily upon him.  And again,
in the matter of his ideas, which have been thrust upon him, and
which he has been busily garnering from the great world ever
since t