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diff --git a/23427.txt b/23427.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c99bf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/23427.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14385 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Evolution, Old & New, by Samuel Butler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Evolution, Old & New + Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, + as compared with that of Charles Darwin + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Release Date: November 9, 2007 [EBook #23427] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVOLUTION, OLD & NEW *** + + + + +Produced by Stacy Brown, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +Evolution, Old & New + + + "The want of a practical acquaintance with Natural History leads the + author to take an erroneous view of the bearing of his own theories + on those of Mr. Darwin.--_Review of 'Life and Habit,' by Mr. A. R. + Wallace, in 'Nature,' March 27, 1879._ + + "Neither lastly would our observer be driven out of his conclusion, + or from his confidence in its truth, by being told that he knows + nothing at all about the matter. He knows enough for his argument; + he knows the utility of the end; he knows the subserviency and + adaptation of the means to the end. These points being known, his + ignorance concerning other points, his doubts concerning other + points, affect not the certainty of his reasoning. The consciousness + of knowing little need not beget a distrust of that which he does + know." + + Paley's '_Natural Theology_,' chap. i. + + + + +Evolution, Old & New + +Or the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, +as compared with that of Charles Darwin + +_by_ + +Samuel Butler + + + New York + E. P. Dutton & Company + 681 Fifth Avenue + + + + +_Made and printed in Great Britain_ + + + + +NOTE + + + The demand for a new edition of "Evolution, Old and New," gives me + an opportunity of publishing Butler's latest revision of his work. + The second edition of "Evolution, Old and New," which was published + in 1882 and re-issued with a new title-page in 1890, was merely a + re-issue of the first edition with a new preface, an appendix, and + an index. At a later date, though I cannot say precisely when, + Butler revised the text of the book in view of a future edition. The + corrections that he made are mainly verbal and do not, I think, + affect the argument to any considerable extent. Butler, however, + attached sufficient importance to them to incur the expense of + having the stereos of more than fifty pages cancelled and new + stereos substituted. I have also added a few entries to the index, + which are taken from a copy of the book, now in my possession, in + which Butler made a few manuscript notes. + + R. A. STREATFEILD. + + _October, 1911._ + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + +TO + +THE SECOND EDITION + + +Since the proof-sheets of the Appendix to this book left my hands, +finally corrected, and too late for me to be able to recast the first of +the two chapters that compose it, I hear, with the most profound regret, +of the death of Mr. Charles Darwin. + +It being still possible for me to refer to this event in a preface, I +hasten to say how much it grates upon me to appear to renew my attack +upon Mr. Darwin under the present circumstances. + +I have insisted in each of my three books on Evolution upon the +immensity of the service which Mr. Darwin rendered to that +transcendently important theory. In "Life and Habit," I said: "To the +end of time, if the question be asked, 'Who taught people to believe in +Evolution?' the answer must be that it was Mr. Darwin." This is true; +and it is hard to see what palm of higher praise can be awarded to any +philosopher. + +I have always admitted myself to be under the deepest obligations to Mr. +Darwin's works; and it was with the greatest reluctance, not to say +repugnance, that I became one of his opponents. I have partaken of his +hospitality, and have had too much experience of the charming simplicity +of his manner not to be among the readiest to at once admire and envy +it. It is unfortunately true that I believe Mr. Darwin to have behaved +badly to me; this is too notorious to be denied; but at the same time I +cannot be blind to the fact that no man can be judge in his own case, +and that after all Mr. Darwin may have been right, and I wrong. + +At the present moment, let me impress this latter alternative upon my +mind as far as possible, and dwell only upon that side of Mr. Darwin's +work and character, about which there is no difference of opinion among +either his admirers or his opponents. + +_April 21, 1882._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Contrary to the advice of my friends, who caution me to avoid all +appearance of singularity, I venture upon introducing a practice, the +expediency of which I will submit to the judgment of the reader. It is +one which has been adopted by musicians for more than a century--to the +great convenience of all who are fond of music--and I observe that +within the last few years two such distinguished painters as Mr. +Alma-Tadema and Mr. Hubert Herkomer have taken to it. It is a matter for +regret that the practice should not have been general at an earlier +date, not only among painters and musicians, but also among the people +who write books. It consists in signifying the number of a piece of +music, picture, or book by the abbreviation "Op." and the number +whatever it may happen to be. + +No work can be judged intelligently unless not only the author's +relations to his surroundings, but also the relation in which the work +stands to the life and other works of the author, is understood and +borne in mind; nor do I know any way of conveying this information at a +glance, comparable to that which I now borrow from musicians. When we +see the number against a work of Beethoven, we need ask no further to be +informed concerning the general character of the music. The same holds +good more or less with all composers. Handel's works were not +numbered--not at least his operas and oratorios. Had they been so, the +significance of the numbers on Susanna and Theodora would have been at +once apparent, connected as they would have been with the number on +Jephthah, Handel's next and last work, in which he emphatically +repudiates the influence which, perhaps in a time of self-distrust, he +had allowed contemporary German music to exert over him. Many painters +have dated their works, but still more have neglected doing so, and some +of these have been not a little misconceived in consequence. As for +authors, it is unnecessary to go farther back than Lord Beaconsfield, +Thackeray, Dickens, and Scott, to feel how much obliged we should have +been to any custom that should have compelled them to number their works +in the order in which they were written. When we think of Shakespeare, +any doubt which might remain as to the advantage of the proposed +innovation is felt to disappear. + +My friends, to whom I urged all the above, and more, met me by saying +that the practice was doubtless a very good one in the abstract, but +that no one was particularly likely to want to know in what order my +books had been written. To which I answered that even a bad book which +introduced so good a custom would not be without value, though the value +might lie in the custom, and not in the book itself; whereon, seeing +that I was obstinate, they left me, and interpreting their doing so into +at any rate a modified approbation of my design, I have carried it into +practice. + +The edition of the 'Philosophie Zoologique' referred to in the following +volume, is that edited by M. Chas. Martins, Paris, Librairie F. Savy, +24, Rue de Hautefeuille, 1873. + +The edition of the 'Origin of Species' is that of 1876, unless another +edition be especially named. + +The italics throughout the book are generally mine, except in the +quotations from Miss Seward, where they are all her own. + +I am anxious also to take the present opportunity of acknowledging the +obligations I am under to my friend Mr. H. F. Jones, and to other +friends (who will not allow me to mention their names, lest more errors +should be discovered than they or I yet know of), for the invaluable +assistance they have given me while this work was going through the +press. If I am able to let it go before the public with any comfort or +peace of mind, I owe it entirely to the carefulness of their +supervision. + +I am also greatly indebted to Mr. Garnett, of the British Museum, for +having called my attention to many works and passages of which otherwise +I should have known nothing. + +_March 31, 1879._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + + Statement of the Question--Current Opinion adverse to + Teleology 1 + +CHAPTER II. + + The Teleology of Paley and the Theologians 12 + +CHAPTER III. + + Impotence of Paley's Conclusion--The Teleology of the + Evolutionist 24 + +CHAPTER IV. + + Failure of the First Evolutionists to see their Position + as Teleological 34 + +CHAPTER V. + + The Teleological Evolution of Organism--The Philosophy + of the Unconscious 43 + +CHAPTER VI. + + Scheme of the Remainder of the Work--Historical Sketch + of the Theory of Evolution 60 + +CHAPTER VII. + + Pre-Buffonian Evolution, and some German Writers 68 + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Buffon--Memoir 74 + +CHAPTER IX. + + Buffon's Method--The Ironical Character of his Work 78 + +CHAPTER X. + + Supposed Fluctuations of Opinion--Causes or Means of + the Transformation of Species 97 + +CHAPTER XI. + + Buffon--Puller Quotations 107 + +CHAPTER XII. + + Sketch of Dr. Erasmus Darwin's Life 173 + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Philosophy of Dr. Erasmus Darwin 195 + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Fuller Quotations from the 'Zoonomia' 214 + +CHAPTER XV. + + Memoir of Lamarck 235 + +CHAPTER XVI. + + General Misconception concerning Lamarck--His + Philosophical Position 244 + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Summary of the 'Philosophie Zoologique' 261 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Mr. Patrick Matthew, MM. Etienne and Isidore Geoffroy + St. Hilaire, and Mr. Herbert Spencer 315 + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Main Points of Agreement and of Difference between the + Old and New Theories of Evolution 335 + +CHAPTER XX. + + Natural Selection considered as a Means of Modification--The + Confusion which this Expression occasions 345 + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Mr. Darwin's Defence of the Expression, Natural + Selection--Professor Mivart and Natural Selection 362 + +CHAPTER XXII. + + The Case of the Madeira Beetles as illustrating the + Difference between the Evolution of Lamarck and + of Mr. Charles Darwin--Conclusion 373 + +APPENDIX 385 + +INDEX 409 + + + + +EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. CURRENT OPINION ADVERSE TO TELEOLOGY. + + +Of all the questions now engaging the attention of those whose destiny +has commanded them to take more or less exercise of mind, I know of none +more interesting than that which deals with what is called +teleology--that is to say, with design or purpose, as evidenced by the +different parts of animals and plants. + +The question may be briefly stated thus:-- + +Can we or can we not see signs in the structure of animals and plants, +of something which carries with it the idea of contrivance so strongly +that it is impossible for us to think of the structure, without at the +same time thinking of contrivance, or design, in connection with it? + +It is my object in the present work to answer this question in the +affirmative, and to lead my reader to agree with me, perhaps mainly, by +following the history of that opinion which is now supposed to be fatal +to a purposive view of animal and vegetable organs. I refer to the +theory of evolution or descent with modification. + +Let me state the question more at large. + +When we see organs, or living tools--for there is no well-developed +organ of any living being which is not used by its possessor as an +instrument or tool for the effecting of some purpose which he considers +or has considered for his advantage--when we see living tools which are +as admirably fitted for the work required of them, as is the carpenter's +plane for planing, or the blacksmith's hammer and anvil for the +hammering of iron, or the tailor's needle for sewing, what conclusion +shall we adopt concerning them? + +Shall we hold that they must have been designed or contrived, not +perhaps by mental processes indistinguishable from those by which the +carpenter's saw or the watch has been designed, but still by processes +so closely resembling these that no word can be found to express the +facts of the case so nearly as the word "design"? That is to say, shall +we imagine that they were arrived at by a living mind as the result of +scheming and contriving, and thinking (not without occasional mistakes) +which of the courses open to it seemed best fitted for the occasion, or +are we to regard the apparent connection between such an organ, we will +say, as the eye, and the sight which is affected by it, as in no way due +to the design or plan of a living intelligent being, but as caused +simply by the accumulation, one upon another, of an almost infinite +series of small pieces of good fortune? + +In other words, shall we see something for which, as Professor Mivart +has well said, "to us the word 'mind' is the least inadequate and +misleading symbol," as having given to the eagle an eyesight which can +pierce the sun, but which, in the night is powerless; while to the owl +it has given eyes which shun even the full moon, but find a soft +brilliancy in darkness? Or shall we deny that there has been any purpose +or design in the fashioning of these different kinds of eyes, and see +nothing to make us believe that any living being made the eagle's eye +out of something which was not an eye nor anything like one, or that +this living being implanted this particular eye of all others in the +eagle's head, as being most in accordance with the habits of the +creature, and as therefore most likely to enable it to live contentedly +and leave plenitude of offspring? And shall we then go on to maintain +that the eagle's eye was formed little by little by a series of +accidental variations, each one of which was thrown for, as it were, +with dice? + +We shall most of us feel that there must have been a little cheating +somewhere with these accidental variations before the eagle could have +become so great a winner. + +I believe I have now stated the question at issue so plainly that there +can be no mistake about its nature, I will therefore proceed to show as +briefly as possible what have been the positions taken in regard to it +by our forefathers, by the leaders of opinion now living, and what I +believe will be the next conclusion that will be adopted for any length +of time by any considerable number of people. + +In the times of the ancients the preponderance of opinion was in favour +of teleology, though impugners were not wanting. Aristotle[1] leant +towards a denial of purpose, while Plato[2] was a firm believer in +design. From the days of Plato to our own times, there have been but few +objectors to the teleological or purposive view of nature. If an animal +had an eye, that eye was regarded as something which had been designed +in order to enable its owner to see after such fashion as should be most +to its advantage. + +This, however, is now no longer the prevailing opinion either in this +country or in Germany. + +Professor Haeckel holds a high place among the leaders of German +philosophy at the present day. He declares a belief in evolution and in +purposiveness to be incompatible, and denies purpose in language which +holds out little prospect of a compromise. + +"As soon, in fact," he writes, "as we acknowledge the exclusive activity +of the physico-chemical causes in living (organic) bodies as well as in +so-called inanimate (inorganic) nature,"--and this is what Professor +Haeckel holds we are bound to do if we accept the theory of descent with +modification--"we concede exclusive dominion to that view of the +universe, which we may designate as _mechanical_, and which is opposed +to the teleological conception. If we compare all the ideas of the +universe prevalent among different nations at different times, we can +divide them all into two sharply contrasted groups--a _causal_ or +_mechanical_, and a _teleological_ or _vitalistic_. The latter has +prevailed generally in biology until now, and accordingly the animal and +vegetable kingdoms have been considered as the products of a creative +power, acting for a definite purpose. In the contemplation of every +organism, the unavoidable conviction seemed to press itself upon us, +that such a wonderful machine, so complicated an apparatus for motion as +exists in the organism, could only be produced by a power analogous to, +but infinitely more powerful than the power of man in the construction +of his machines."[3] + +A little lower down he continues:-- + +"_I maintain with regard to_" this "_much talked of 'purpose in nature' +that it has no existence but for those persons who observe phenomena in +plants and animals in the most superficial manner_. Without going more +deeply into the matter, we can see at once that the rudimentary organs +are a formidable obstacle to this theory. And, indeed, anyone who makes +a really close study of the organization and mode of life of the various +animals and plants, ... must necessarily come to the conclusion, that +this 'purposiveness' no more exists than the much talked of +'beneficence' of the Creator."[4] + +Professor Haeckel justly sees no alternative between, upon the one hand, +the creation of independent species by a Personal God--by a "Creator," +in fact, who "becomes an organism, who designs a plan, reflects upon and +varies this plan, and finally forms creatures according to it, as a +human architect would construct his building,"[5]--and the denial of all +plan or purpose whatever. There can be no question but that he is right +here. To talk of a "designer" who has no tangible existence, no organism +with which to think, no bodily mechanism with which to carry his +purposes into effect; whose design is not design inasmuch as it has to +contend with no impediments from ignorance or impotence, and who thus +contrives but by a sort of make-believe in which there is no +contrivance; who has a familiar name, but nothing beyond a name which +any human sense has ever been able to perceive--this is an abuse of +words--an attempt to palm off a shadow upon our understandings as though +it were a substance. It is plain therefore that there must either be a +designer who "becomes an organism, designs a plan, &c.," or that there +can be no designer at all and hence no design. + +We have seen which of these alternatives Professor Haeckel has adopted. +He holds that those who accept evolution are bound to reject all +"purposiveness." And here, as I have intimated, I differ from him, for +reasons which will appear presently. I believe in an organic and +tangible designer of every complex structure, for so long a time past, +as that reasonable people will be incurious about all that occurred at +any earlier time. + +Professor Clifford, again, is a fair representative of opinions which +are finding favour with the majority of our own thinkers. He writes:-- + +"There are here some words, however, which require careful definition. +And first the word purpose. A thing serves a purpose when it is adapted +for some end; thus a corkscrew is adapted to the end of extracting corks +from bottles, and our lungs are adapted to the end of respiration. We +may say that the extraction of corks is the purpose of the corkscrew, +and that respiration is the purpose of the lungs, but here we shall have +used the word in two different senses. A man made the corkscrew with a +purpose in his mind, and he knew and intended that it should be used for +pulling out corks. _But nobody made our lungs with a purpose in his mind +and intended that they should be used for breathing._ The respiratory +apparatus was adapted to its purpose by natural selection, namely, by +the gradual preservation of better and better adaptations, and by the +killing-off of the worse and imperfect adaptations."[6] + +No denial of anything like design could be more explicit. For Professor +Clifford is well aware that the very essence of the "Natural Selection" +theory, is that the variations shall have been mainly accidental and +without design of any sort, but that the adaptations of structure to +need shall have come about by the accumulation, through natural +selection, of any variation that _happened_ to be favourable. + +It will be my business on a later page not only to show that the lungs +are as purposive as the corkscrew, but furthermore that if drawing corks +had been a matter of as much importance to us as breathing is, the list +of our organs would have been found to comprise one corkscrew at the +least, and possibly two, twenty, or ten thousand; even as we see that +the trowel without which the beaver cannot plaster its habitation in +such fashion as alone satisfies it, is incorporate into the beaver's own +body by way of a tail, the like of which is to be found in no other +animal. + +To take a name which carries with it a far greater authority, that of +Mr. Charles Darwin. He writes:-- + +"It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye with a telescope. We +know that this instrument has been perfected by the long-continued +efforts of the highest human intellects; and we naturally infer that the +eye has been formed by a somewhat analogous process. But may not this +inference be presumptuous? Have we any right to declare that the Creator +works by intellectual powers like those of man?"[7] + +Here purposiveness is not indeed denied point-blank, but the intention +of the author is unmistakable, it is to refer the wonderful result to +the gradual accumulation of small accidental improvements which were not +due as a rule, if at all, to anything "analogous" to design. + +"Variation," he says, "will cause the slight alterations;" that is to +say, the slight successive variations whose accumulation results in such +a marvellous structure as the eye, are caused by--variation; or in other +words, they are indefinite, due to nothing that we can lay our hands +upon, and therefore certainly not due to design. "Generation," continues +Mr. Darwin, "will multiply them almost infinitely, and natural selection +will pick out with unerring skill each improvement. Let this process go +on for millions of years, and during each year on millions of +individuals of many kinds; and may we not believe that a living optical +instrument might be thus formed as superior to one of glass, as the +works of the Creator are to those of man?"[8] + +The reader will observe that the only skill--and this involves +design--supposed by Mr. Darwin to be exercised in the foregoing process, +is the "unerring skill" of natural selection. Natural selection, +however, is, as he himself tells us, a synonym for the survival of the +fittest, which last he declares to be the "more accurate" expression, +and to be "sometimes" equally convenient.[9] It is clear then that he +only speaks metaphorically when he here assigns "unerring skill" to the +fact that the fittest individuals commonly live longest and transmit +most offspring, and that he sees no evidence of design in the numerous +slight successive "alterations"--or variations--which are "caused by +variation." + +It were easy to multiply quotations which should prove that the denial +of "purposiveness" is commonly conceived to be the inevitable +accompaniment of a belief in evolution. I will, however, content myself +with but one more--from Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire. + +"Whoever," says this author, "holds the doctrine of final causes, will, +if he is consistent, hold also that of the immutability of species; and +again, the opponent of the one doctrine will oppose the other also."[10] + +Nothing can be plainer; I believe, however, that even without quotation +the reader would have recognized the accuracy of my contention that a +belief in the purposiveness or design of animal and vegetable organs is +commonly held to be incompatible with the belief that they have all been +evolved from one, or at any rate, from not many original, and low, forms +of life. Generally, however, as this incompatibility is accepted, it is +not unchallenged. From time to time a voice is uplifted in protest, +whose tones cannot be disregarded. + +"I have always felt," says Sir William Thomson, in his address to the +British Association, 1871, "that this hypothesis" (natural selection) +"does not contain the true theory of evolution, if indeed evolution +there has been, in biology. Sir John Herschel, in expressing a +favourable judgment on the hypothesis of zoological evolution (with +however some reservation in respect to the origin of man), objected to +the doctrine of natural selection on the ground that it was too like the +Laputan method of making books, and that it did not sufficiently take +into account a continually guiding and controlling intelligence. This +seems to me a most valuable and instructive criticism. _I feel +profoundly convinced that the argument of design has been greatly too +much lost sight of in recent zoological speculations._ Reaction against +the frivolities of teleology such as are to be found in the notes of the +learned commentators on Paley's 'Natural Theology,' has, I believe, had +a temporary effect in turning attention from the solid and irrefragable +argument so well put forward in that excellent old book. But +overpoweringly strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie +all around us,"[11] &c. Sir William Thomson goes on to infer that all +living beings depend on an ever-acting Creator and Ruler--meaning, I am +afraid, a Creator who is not an organism. Here I cannot follow him, but +while gladly accepting his testimony to the omnipresence of intelligent +design in almost every structure, whether of animal or plant, I shall +content myself with observing the manner in which plants and animals act +and with the consequences that are legitimately deducible from their +action. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See note to Mr. Darwin, Historical Sketch, &c., 'Origin of Species, +p. xiii. ed. 1876, and Arist. 'Physicae Auscultationes,' lib. ii. cap. +viii. s. 2. + +[2] See Phaedo and Timaeus. + +[3] 'History of Creation,' vol. i. p. 18 (H. S. King and Co., 1876). + +[4] Ibid. p. 19. + +[5] 'History of Creation,' vol. i. p. 73 (H. S. King and Co., 1876). + +[6] 'Fortnightly Review,' new series, vol. xviii. p. 795. + +[7] 'Origin of Species,' p. 146, ed. 1876. + +[8] 'Origin of Species,' p. 146, ed. 1876. + +[9] Page 49. + +[10] 'Vie et Doctrine scientifique d'Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire,' by +Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Paris, 1847, p. 344. + +[11] Address to the British Association, 1871. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE TELEOLOGY OF PALEY AND THE THEOLOGIANS. + + +Let us turn for a while to Paley, to whom Sir W. Thomson has referred +us. His work should be so well known that an apology is almost due for +quoting it, yet I think it likely that at least nine out of ten of my +readers will (like myself till reminded of it by Sir W. Thomson's +address) have forgotten its existence. + +"In crossing a heath," says Paley, "suppose I pitched my foot against a +stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly +answer that for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there for +ever; nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this +answer. But suppose I had found a _watch_ upon the ground, and it should +be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly +think of the answer I had before given--that for anything I knew the +watch might have been always there. Yet, why should not this answer +serve for the watch as well as for the stone? Why is it not as +admissible in the second case as in the first? For this reason, and for +no other, viz. that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what +we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed +and put together for a purpose, e. g. that they are so formed and +adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point +out the hour of the day: that if the different parts had been +differently shaped from what they are, of a different size from what +they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order, than +that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been +carried on in the machine, or none that would have answered the use +which is now served by it. To reckon up a few of the plainest of these +parts, and of their offices all tending to one result: we see a +cylindrical box containing a coiled elastic spring, which, by its +endeavours to relax itself, turns round the box. We next observe a +flexible chain (artificially wrought for the sake of flexure) +communicating the action of the spring from the box to the fusee. We +then find a series of wheels the teeth of which catch in, and apply to +each other, conducting the motion from the fusee to the balance, and +from the balance to the pointer; and at the same time by the size and +shape of those wheels so regulating the motion as to terminate in +causing an index, by an equable and measured progression, to pass over a +given space in a given time. We take notice that the wheels are made of +brass in order to keep them from rust; the springs of steel, no other +metal being so elastic; that over the face of the watch there is placed +a glass, a material employed on no other part of the work, but in the +room of which if there had been any other than a transparent substance, +the hour could not have been observed without opening the case. This +mechanism being observed, ... the inference, we think, is inevitable +that the watch must have had a maker; that there must have existed, at +_some time, and at some place or other, an artificer_ or artificers who +formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who +comprehended its construction and designed its use."[12] + + . . . . . . + +"That an animal is a machine, is a proposition neither correctly true +nor wholly false.... I contend that there is a mechanism in animals; +that this mechanism is as properly such, as it is in machines made by +art; that this mechanism is intelligible and certain; that it is not the +less so because it often begins and terminates with something which is +not mechanical; that wherever it is intelligible and certain, it +demonstrates intention and contrivance, as well in the works of nature +as in those of art; and that it is the best demonstration which either +can afford."[13] + +There is only one legitimate inference deducible from these premises if +they are admitted as sound, namely, that there must have existed "_at +some time, and in some place, an artificer_" who formed the animal +mechanism after much the same mental processes of observation, +endeavour, successful contrivance, and after a not wholly unlike +succession of bodily actions, as those with which a watchmaker has made +a watch. Otherwise the conclusion is impotent, and the whole argument +becomes a mere juggle of words. + +"Now, supposing or admitting," continues Paley, "that we know nothing of +the proper internal constitution of a gland, or of the mode of its +acting upon the blood; then our situation is precisely like that of an +unmechanical looker-on who stands by a stocking loom, a corn mill, a +carding machine, or a threshing machine, at work, the fabric and +mechanism of which, as well as all that passes within, is hidden from +his sight by the outside case; or if seen, would be too complicated for +his uninformed, uninstructed understanding to comprehend. And what is +that situation? This spectator, ignorant as he is, sees at one end a +material enter the machine, as unground grain the mill, raw cotton the +carding machine, sheaves of unthreshed corn the threshing machine, and +when he casts his eye to the other end of the apparatus, he sees the +material issuing from it in a new state and what is more, a state +manifestly adapted for its future uses: the grain in meal fit for the +making of bread, the wool in rovings fit for the spinning into threads, +the sheaf in corn fit for the mill. Is it necessary that this man, in +order to be convinced that design, that intention, that contrivance has +been employed about the machine, should be allowed to pull it to pieces, +should be enabled to examine the parts separately, explore their action +upon one another, or their operation, whether simultaneous or +successive, upon the material which is presented to them? He may long to +do this to satisfy his curiosity; he may desire to do it to improve his +theoretic knowledge; ... but for the purpose of ascertaining the +existence of counsel and design in the formation of the machine, he +wants no such intromission or privity. The effect upon the material, the +change produced in it, the utility of the change for future +applications, abundantly testify, be the concealed part of the machine, +or of its construction, what it will, _the hand and agency of a +contriver_."[14] + +This is admirably put, but it will apply to the mechanism of animal and +vegetable bodies only, if it is used to show that they too must have had +a contriver who has a hand, or something tantamount to one; who does +act; who, being a contriver, has what all other contrivers must have, if +they are to be called contrivers--a body which can suffer more or less +pain or chagrin if the contrivance is unsuccessful. If this is what +Paley means, his argument is indeed irrefragable; but if he does not +intend this, his words are frivolous, as so clear and acute a reasoner +must have perfectly well known. + +Whether Paley's argument will prove a source of lasting strength to +himself or no, is a point which my readers will decide presently; but I +am very clear about its usefulness to my own position. I know few +writers whom I would willingly quote more largely, or from whom I find +it harder to leave off quoting when I have once begun. A few more +passages, however, must suffice. + +"I challenge any man to produce in the joints and pivots of the most +complicated or the most flexible machine that ever was contrived, a +construction _more artificial_" (here we have it again), "or more +evidently artificial than the human neck. Two things were to be done. +The head was to have the power of bending forward and backward as in the +act of nodding, stooping, looking upwards or downwards; and at the same +time of turning itself round upon the body to a certain extent, the +quadrant, we will say, or rather perhaps a hundred and twenty degrees of +a circle. For these two purposes two distinct contrivances are employed. +First the head rests immediately upon the uppermost part of the +vertebra, and is united to it by a hinge-joint; upon this joint the head +plays freely backward and forward as far either way as is necessary or +as the ligaments allow, which was the first thing required. + +"But then the rotatory motion is thus unprovided for; therefore, +secondly, to make the head capable of this a further mechanism is +introduced, not between the head and the uppermost bone of the neck, +where the hinge is, but between that bone and the next underneath it. It +is a mechanism resembling a tenon and mortise. This second or uppermost +bone but one has what the anatomists call a process, viz. a projection +somewhat similar in size and shape to a tooth, which tooth, entering a +corresponding hollow socket in the bone above it, forms a pivot or axle, +upon which that upper bone, together with the head which it supports, +turns freely in a circle, and as far in the circle as the attached +muscles permit the head to turn. Thus are both motions perfect without +interfering with each other. When we nod the head we use the +hinge-joint, which lies between the head and the first bone of the neck. +When we turn the head round, we use the tenon and mortise, which runs +between the first bone of the neck and the second. We see the same +contrivance and the same principle employed in the frame or mounting of +a telescope. It is occasionally requisite that the object end of the +instrument be moved up and down as well as horizontally or equatorially. +For the vertical motion there is a hinge upon which the telescope plays, +for the horizontal or equatorial motion, an axis upon which the +telescope and the hinge turn round together. And this is exactly the +mechanism which is applied to the action of the head, nor will anyone +here doubt of the existence of counsel and design, except it be by that +debility of mind which can trust to its own reasonings in nothing."[15] + + . . . . . . + +"The patella, or knee-pan, is a curious little bone; in its form and +office unlike any other bone in the body. It is circular, the size of a +crown-piece, pretty thick, a little convex on both sides, and covered +with a smooth cartilage. It lies upon the front of the knee, and the +powerful tendons by which the leg is brought forward pass through it (or +rather make it a part of their continuation) from their origin in the +thigh to their insertion in the tibia. It protects both the tendon and +the joint from any injury which either might suffer by the rubbing of +one against the other, or by the pressure of unequal surfaces. It also +gives to the tendons a very considerable mechanical advantage by +altering the line of their direction, and by advancing it farther out of +the centre of motion; and this upon the principles of the resolution of +force, upon which all machinery is founded. These are its uses. But what +is most observable in it is that it appears to be supplemental, as it +were, to the frame; added, as it should almost seem, afterwards; not +quite necessary, but very convenient. It is separate from the other +bones; that is, it is not connected with any other bones by the common +mode of union. It is soft, or hardly formed in infancy; and is produced +by an ossification, of the inception or progress of which no account can +be given from the structure or exercise of the part."[16] + +It is positively painful to me to pass over Paley's description of the +joints, but I must content myself with a single passage from this +admirable chapter. + +"The joints, or rather the ends of the bones which form them, display +also in their configuration another use. The nerves, blood-vessels, and +tendons which are necessary to the life, or for the motion of the limbs, +must, it is evident in their way from the trunk of the body to the place +of their destination, travel over the moveable joints; and it is no less +evident that in this part of their course they will have from sudden +motions, and from abrupt changes of curvature, to encounter the danger +of compression, attrition, or laceration. To guard fibres so tender +against consequences so injurious, their path is in those parts +protected with peculiar care; and that by a provision in the figure of +the bones themselves. The nerves which supply the fore arm, especially +the inferior cubital nerves, are at the elbow conducted by a kind of +covered way, between the condyle, or rather under the inner +extuberances, of the bone which composes the upper part of the arm. At +the knee the extremity of the thigh-bone is divided by a sinus or cliff +into two heads or protuberances; and these heads on the back part stand +out beyond the cylinder of the bone. Through the hollow which lies +between the hind parts of these two heads, that is to say, under the +ham, between the ham strings, and within the concave recess of the bone +formed by the extuberances on either side; in a word, along a defile +between rocks pass the great vessels and nerves which go to the leg. Who +led these vessels by a road so defended and secured? In the joint at the +shoulder, in the edge of the cup which receives the head of the bone, is +a notch which is covered at the top with a ligament. Through this hole +thus guarded the blood-vessels steal to their destination in the arm +instead of mounting over the edge of the concavity."[17] + + . . . . . . + +"What contrivance can be more mechanical than the following, viz.: a +slit in one tendon to let another tendon pass through it? This structure +is found in the tendons which move the toes and fingers. The long +tendon, as it is called in the foot, which bends the first joint of the +toe, passes through the short tendon which bends the second joint; which +course allows to the sinews more liberty and a more commodious action +than it would otherwise have been capable of exerting. There is nothing, +I believe, in a silk or cotton mill, in the belts or straps or ropes by +which the motion is communicated from one part of the machine to another +that is more artificial, or more evidently so, than this perforation. + +"The next circumstance which I shall mention under this head of +muscular arrangement, is so decidedly a mark of intention, that it +always appeared to me to supersede in some measure the necessity of +seeking for any other observation upon the subject; and that +circumstance is the tendons which pass from the leg to the foot being +bound down by a ligament at the ankle, the foot is placed at a +considerable angle with the leg. It is manifest, therefore, that +flexible strings passing along the interior of the angle, if left to +themselves, would, when stretched, start from it. The obvious" (and it +must not be forgotten that the preventive _was_ obvious) "preventive is +to tie them down. And this is done in fact. Across the instep, or rather +just above it, the anatomist finds a strong ligament, under which the +tendons pass to the foot. The effect of the ligament as a bandage can be +made evident to the senses, for if it be cut the tendons start up. The +simplicity, yet the clearness of this contrivance, its exact resemblance +to established resources of art, place it amongst the most indubitable +manifestations of design with which we are acquainted." + +Then follows a passage which is interesting, as being the earliest +attempt I know of to bring forward an argument against evolution, which +was, even in Paley's day, called "Darwinism," after Dr. Erasmus Darwin +its propounder.[18] The argument, I mean, which is drawn from the +difficulty of accounting for the incipiency of complex structures. This +has been used with greater force by the Rev. J. J. Murphy, Professor +Mivart, and others, against that (as I believe) erroneous view of +evolution which is now generally received as Darwinism. + +"There is also a further use," says Paley, "to be made of this present +example, and that is as it precisely contradicts the opinion, that the +parts of animals may have been all formed by what is called appetency, +i. e. endeavour, perpetuated and imperceptibly working its effect +through an incalculable series of generations. We have here no +endeavour, but the reverse of it; a constant resistency and reluctance. +The endeavour is all the other way. The pressure of the ligament +constrains the tendons; the tendons react upon the pressure of the +ligament. It is impossible that the ligament should ever have been +generated by the exercise of the tendons, or in the course of that +exercise, forasmuch as the force of the tendon perpendicularly resists +the fibre which confines it, and is constantly endeavouring not to form +but to rupture and displace the threads of which the ligament is +composed."[19] + +This must suffice. + +"True theories," says M. Flourens, inspired by a passage from +Fontenelle, which he proceeds to quote, "true theories make themselves," +they are not made, but are born and grow; they cannot be stopped from +insisting upon their vitality by anything short of intellectual +violence, nor will a little violence only suffice to kill them. "True +theories," he continues, "are but the spontaneous mental coming +together of facts, which have combined with one another by virtue only +of their own natural affinity."[20] + +When a number of isolated facts, says Fontenelle, take form, group +themselves together coherently, and present the mind so vividly with an +idea of their interdependence and mutual bearing upon each other, that +no matter how violently we tear them asunder they insist on coming +together again; then, and not till then, have we a theory. + +Now I submit that there is hardly one of my readers who can be +considered as free from bias or prejudice, who will not feel that the +idea of design--or perception by an intelligent living being, of ends to +be obtained and of the means of obtaining them--and the idea of the +tendons of the foot and of the ligament which binds them down, come +together so forcibly, that no matter how strongly Professors Haeckel and +Clifford and Mr. Darwin may try to separate them, they are no sooner +pulled asunder than they straightway fly together again of themselves. + +I shall argue, therefore, no further upon this head, but shall assume it +as settled, and shall proceed at once to the consideration that next +suggests itself. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] 'Natural Theology,' ch. i. Sec. 1. + +[13] Ch. vii. + +[14] Ch. vii. + +[15] 'Natural Theology.' ch. viii. + +[16] 'Natural Theology,' ch. viii. + +[17] 'Natural Theology,' ch. viii. + +[18] "What!" says Coleridge, in a note on Stillingfleet, to which Mr. +Garnett, of the British Museum, has kindly called my attention, "Did Sir +Walter Raleigh believe that a male and female ounce (and if so why not +two tigers and lions, &c.?) would have produced in course of generations +a cat, or a cat a lion? This is Darwinising with a vengeance."--See +'Athenaeum,' March 27, 1875, p. 423. + +[19] 'Natural Theology,' ch. ix. + +[20] "La vraie theorie n'est que l'enchainement naturel des faits, qui +des qu'ils sont assez nombreux, se touchent, et se lient, les uns aux +autres par leur seule vertu propre."--Flourens, 'Buffon, Hist. de ses +Travaux.' Paris, 1844, p. 82. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +IMPOTENCE OF PALEY'S CONCLUSION. THE TELEOLOGY OF THE EVOLUTIONIST. + + +Though the ideas of design, and of the foot, have come together in our +minds with sufficient spontaneity, we yet feel that there is a +difference--and a wide difference if we could only lay our hands upon +it--between the design and manufacture of the ligament and tendons of +the foot on the one hand, and on the other the design, manufacture, and +combination of artificial strings, pieces of wood, and bandages, whereby +a model of the foot might be constructed. + +If we conceive of ourselves as looking simultaneously upon a real foot, +and upon an admirably constructed artificial one, placed by the side of +it, the idea of design, and design by an intelligent living being with a +body and soul (without which, as has been already insisted on, the use +of the word design is delusive), will present itself strongly to our +minds in connection both with the true foot, and with the model; but we +find another idea asserting itself with even greater strength, namely, +that the design of the true foot is far more intricate, and yet is +carried into execution in far more masterly manner than that of the +model. We not only feel that there is a wider difference between the +ability, time, and care which have been lavished on the real foot and +upon the model, than there is between the skill and the time taken to +produce Westminster Abbey, and that bestowed upon a gingerbread cake +stuck with sugar plums so as to represent it, but also that these two +objects must have been manufactured on different principles. We do not +for a moment doubt that the real foot was designed, but we are so +astonished at the dexterity of the designer that we are at a loss for +some time to think who could have designed it, where he can live, in +what manner he studied, for how long, and by what processes he carried +out his design, when matured, into actual practice. Until recently it +was thought that there was no answer to many of these questions, more +especially to those which bear upon the mode of manufacture. For the +last hundred years, however, the importance of a study has been +recognized which does actually reveal to us in no small degree the +processes by which the human foot is manufactured, so that in the +endeavour to lay our hands upon the points of difference between the +kind of design with which the foot itself is designed, and the design of +the model, we turn naturally to the guidance of those who have made this +study their specialty; and a very wide difference does this study, +embryology, at once reveal to us. + +Writing of the successive changes through which each embryo is forced to +pass, the late Mr. G. H. Lewes says that "none of these phases have any +adaptation to the future state of the animal, but are in positive +contradiction to it or are simply purposeless; whereas all show stamped +on them the unmistakable characters of _ancestral_ adaptation, and the +progressions of organic evolution. What does the fact imply? There is +not a single known example of a complex organism which is not developed +out of simpler forms. Before it can attain the complex structure which +distinguishes it, there must be an evolution of forms similar to those +which distinguish the structure of organisms lower in the series. On the +hypothesis of a plan which prearranged the organic world, nothing could +be more unworthy of a supreme intelligence than this inability to +construct an organism at once, without making several previous tentative +efforts, undoing to-day what was so carefully done yesterday, and +_repeating for centuries the same tentatives in the same succession_. Do +not let us blink this consideration. There is a traditional phrase much +in vogue among the anthropomorphists, which arose naturally enough from +a tendency to take human methods as an explanation of the Divine--a +phrase which becomes a sort of argument--'The Great Architect.' But if +we are to admit the human point of view, a glance at the facts of +embryology must produce very uncomfortable reflections. For what should +we say to an architect who was unable, or being able was obstinately +unwilling, to erect a palace except by first using his materials in the +shape of a hut, then pulling them down and rebuilding them as a cottage, +then adding story to story and room to room, _not_ with any reference to +the ultimate purposes of the palace, but wholly with reference to the +way in which houses were constructed in ancient times? What should we +say to the architect who could not form a museum out of bricks and +mortar, but was forced to begin as if going to construct a mansion, and +after proceeding some way in this direction, altered his plan into a +palace, and that again into a museum? Yet this is the sort of succession +on which organisms are constructed. The fact has long been familiar; how +has it been reconciled with infinite wisdom? Let the following passage +answer for a thousand:--'The embryo is nothing like the miniature of the +adult. For a long while the body in its entirety and in its details, +presents the strangest of spectacles. Day by day and hour by hour, the +aspect of the scene changes, and this instability is exhibited by the +most essential parts no less than by the accessory parts. One would say +that nature feels her way, and only reaches the goal after many times +missing the path' (on dirait que la nature tatonne et ne conduit son +oeuvre a bon fin, qu'apres s'etre souvent trompee)."[21] + +The above passage does not, I think, affect the evidence for design +which we adduced in the preceding chapter. However strange the process +of manufacture may appear, when the work comes to be turned out the +design is too manifest to be doubted. + +If the reader were to come upon some lawyer's deed which dealt with +matters of such unspeakable intricacy, that it baffled his imagination +to conceive how it could ever have been drafted, and if in spite of this +he were to find the intricacy of the provisions to be made, exceeded +only by the ease and simplicity with which the deed providing for them +was found to work in practice; and after this, if he were to discover +that the deed, by whomsoever drawn, had nevertheless been drafted upon +principles which at first seemed very foreign to any according to which +he was in the habit of drafting deeds himself, as for example, that the +draftsman had begun to draft a will as a marriage settlement, and so +forth--yet an observer would not, I take it, do either of two things. He +would not in the face of the result deny the design, making himself +judge rather of the method of procedure than of the achievement. Nor yet +after insisting in the manner of Paley, on the wonderful proofs of +intention and on the exquisite provisions which were to be found in +every syllable--thus leading us up to the highest pitch of +expectation--would he present us with such an impotent conclusion as +that the designer, though a living person and a true designer, was yet +immaterial and intangible, a something, in fact, which proves to be a +nothing: an omniscient and omnipotent vacuum. + +Our observer would feel he need not have been at such pains to establish +his design if this was to be the upshot of his reasoning. He would +therefore admit the design, and by consequence the designer, but would +probably ask a little time for reflection before he ventured to say who, +or what, or where the designer was. Then gaining some insight into the +manner in which the deed had been drawn, he would conclude that the +draftsman was a specialist who had had long practice in this particular +kind of work, but who now worked almost as it might be said +automatically and without consciousness, and found it difficult to +depart from a habitual method of procedure. + +We turn, then, on Paley, and say to him: "We have admitted your design +and your designer. Where is he? Show him to us. If you cannot show him +to us as flesh and blood, show him as flesh and sap; show him as a +living cell; show him as protoplasm. Lower than this we should not +fairly go; it is not in the bond or _nexus_ of our ideas that something +utterly inanimate and inorganic should scheme, design, contrive, and +elaborate structures which can make mistakes: it may elaborate low +unerring things, like crystals, but it cannot elaborate those which have +the power to err. Nevertheless, we will commit such abuse with our +understandings as to waive this point, and we will ask you to show him +to us as air which, if it cannot be seen, yet can be felt, weighed, +handled, transferred from place to place, be judged by its effects, and +so forth; or if this may not be, give us half a grain of hydrogen, +diffused through all space and invested with some of the minor +attributes of matter; or if you cannot do this, give us an imponderable +like electricity, or even the higher mathematics, but give us something +or throw off the mask and tell us fairly out that it is your paid +profession to hoodwink us on this matter if you can, and that you are +but doing your best to earn an honest living." + +We may fancy Paley as turning the tables upon us and as saying: "But you +too have admitted a designer--you too then must mean a designer with a +body and soul, who must be somewhere to be found in space, and who must +live in time. Where is this your designer? Can you show him more than I +can? Can you lay your finger on him and demonstrate him so that a child +shall see him and know him, and find what was heretofore an isolated +idea concerning him, combine itself instantaneously with the idea of the +designer, we will say, of the human foot, so that no power on earth +shall henceforth tear those two ideas asunder? Surely if you cannot do +this, you too are trifling with words, and abusing your own mind and +that of your reader. Where, then, is your designer of man? Who made him? +And where, again, is your designer of beasts and birds, of fishes, and +of plants?" + +Our answer is simple enough; it is that we can and do point to a living +tangible person with flesh, blood, eyes, nose, ears, organs, senses, +dimensions, who did of his own cunning after infinite proof of every +kind of hazard and experiment scheme out, and fashion each organ of the +human body. This is the person whom we claim as the designer and +artificer of that body, and he is the one of all others the best fitted +for the task by his antecedents, and his practical knowledge of the +requirements of the case--for he is man himself. + +Not man, the individual of any given generation, but man in the entirety +of his existence from the dawn of life onwards to the present moment. In +like manner we say that the designer of all organisms is so incorporate +with the organisms themselves--so lives, moves, and has its being in +those organisms, and is so one with them--they in it, and it in +them--that it is more consistent with reason and the common use of +words to see the designer of each living form in the living form itself, +than to look for its designer in some other place or person. + +Thus we have a third alternative presented to us. + +Mr. Charles Darwin and his followers deny design, as having any +appreciable share in the formation of organism at all. + +Paley and the theologians insist on design, but upon a designer outside +the universe and the organism. + +The third opinion is that suggested in the first instance, and carried +out to a very high degree of development by Buffon. It was improved, +and, indeed, made almost perfect by Dr. Erasmus Darwin, but too much +neglected by him after he had put it forward. It was borrowed, as I +think we may say with some confidence, from Dr. Darwin by Lamarck, and +was followed up by him ardently thenceforth, during the remainder of his +life, though somewhat less perfectly comprehended by him than it had +been by Dr. Darwin. It is that the design which has designed organisms, +has resided within, and been embodied in, the organisms themselves. + +With but a very little change in the present signification of words, the +question resolves itself into this. + +Shall we see God henceforth as embodied in all living forms; as dwelling +in them; as being that power in them whereby they have learnt to fashion +themselves, each one according to its ideas of its own convenience, and +to make itself not only a microcosm, or little world, but a little +unwritten history of the universe from its own point of view into the +bargain? From everlasting, in time past, only in so far as life has +lasted; invisible, only in so far as the ultimate connection between the +will to do and the thing which does is invisible; imperishable, only in +so far as life as a whole is imperishable; omniscient and omnipotent, +within the limits only of a very long and large experience, but ignorant +and impotent in respect of all else--limited in all the above respects, +yet even so incalculably vaster than anything that we can conceive? + +Or shall we see God as we were taught to say we saw him when we were +children--as an artificial and violent attempt to combine ideas which +fly asunder and asunder, no matter how often we try to force them into +combination? + +"The true mainspring of our existence," says Buffon, "lies not in those +muscles, veins, arteries, and nerves, which have been described with so +much minuteness, it is to be found in the more hidden forces which are +not bounden by the gross mechanical laws which we would fain set over +them. Instead of trying to know these forces by their effects, we have +endeavoured to uproot even their very idea, so as to banish them utterly +from philosophy. But they return to us and with renewed vigour; they +return to us in gravitation, in chemical affinity, in the phenomena of +electricity, &c. Their existence rests upon the clearest evidence; the +omnipresence of their action is indisputable, but that action is hidden +away from our eyes, and is a matter of inference only; we cannot +actually see them, therefore we find difficulty in admitting that they +exist; we wish to judge of everything by its exterior; we imagine that +the exterior is the whole, and deeming that it is not permitted us to +go beyond it, we neglect all that may enable us to do so."[22] + +Or may we not say that the unseen parts of God are those deep buried +histories, the antiquity and the repeatedness of which go as far beyond +that of any habit handed down to us from our earliest protoplasmic +ancestor, as the distance of the remotest star in space transcends our +distance from the sun? + +By vivisection and painful introspection we can rediscover many a long +buried history--rekindling that sense of novelty in respect of its +action, whereby we can alone become aware of it. But there are other +remoter histories, and more repeated thoughts and actions, before which +we feel so powerless to reawaken fresh interest concerning them, that we +give up the attempt in despair, and bow our heads, overpowered by the +sense of their immensity. Thus our inability to comprehend God is +coextensive with our difficulty in going back upon the past--and our +sense of him is a dim perception of our own vast and now inconceivably +remote history. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Quatrefages, 'Metamorphoses de l'Homme et des Animaux,' 1862, p. +42; G. H. Lewes, 'Physical Basis of Mind,' 1877, p. 83. + +[22] Tom. ii. p. 486, 1794. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FAILURE OF THE FIRST EVOLUTIONISTS TO SEE THEIR POSITION AS +TELEOLOGICAL. + + +It follows necessarily from the doctrine of Dr. Erasmus Darwin and +Lamarck, if not from that of Buffon himself, that the greater number of +organs are as purposive to the evolutionist as to the theologian, and +far more intelligibly so. Circumstances, however, prevented these +writers from acknowledging this fact to the world, and perhaps even to +themselves. Their _crux_ was, as it still is to so many evolutionists, +the presence of rudimentary organs, and the processes of embryological +development. They would not admit that rudimentary and therefore useless +organs were designed by a Creator to take their place once and for ever +as part of a scheme whose main idea was, that every animal structure was +to serve some useful end in connection with its possessor. + +This was the doctrine of final causes as then commonly held; in the face +of rudimentary organs it was absurd. Buffon was above all things else a +plain matter of fact thinker, who refused to go far beyond the obvious. +Like all other profound writers, he was, if I may say so, profoundly +superficial. He felt that the aim of research does not consist in the +knowing this or that, but in the easing of the desire to know or +understand more completely--in the peace of mind which passeth all +understanding. His was the perfection of a healthy mental organism by +which over effort is felt instinctively to be as vicious and +contemptible as indolence. He knew this too well to know the grounds of +his knowledge, but we smaller people who know it less completely, can +see that such felicitous instinctive tempering together of the two great +contradictory principles, love of effort and love of ease, has underlain +every step of all healthy growth through all conceivable time. Nothing +is worth looking at which is seen either too obviously or with too much +difficulty. Nothing is worth doing or well done which is not done fairly +easily, and some little deficiency of effort is more pardonable than any +very perceptible excess; for virtue has ever erred rather on the side of +self-indulgence than of asceticism, and well-being has ever advanced +through the pleasures rather than through austerity. + +According to Buffon, then--as also according to Dr. Darwin, who was just +such another practical and genial thinker, and who was distinctly a +pupil of Buffon, though a most intelligent and original one--if an organ +after a reasonable amount of inspection appeared to be useless, it was +to be called useless without more ado, and theories were to be ordered +out of court if they were troublesome. In like manner, if animals bred +freely _inter se_ before our eyes, as for example the horse and ass, the +fact was to be noted, but no animals were to be classed as capable of +interbreeding until they had asserted their right to such classification +by breeding with tolerable certainty. If, again, an animal looked as if +it felt, that is to say, if it moved about pretty quickly or made a +noise, it must be held to feel; if it did neither of these things, it +did not look as if it felt and therefore it must be said not to feel. +_De non apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est lex_ was one of the +chief axioms of their philosophy; no writers have had a greater horror +of mystery or of ideas that have not become so mastered as to be, or to +have been, superficial. Lamarck was one of those men of whom I believe +it has been said that they have brain upon the brain. He had his theory +that an animal could not feel unless it had a nervous system, and at +least a spinal marrow--and that it could not think at all without a +brain--all his facts, therefore, have to be made to square with this. +With Buffon and Dr. Darwin we feel safe that however wrong they may +sometimes be, their conclusions have always been arrived at on that +fairly superficial view of things in which, as I have elsewhere said, +our nature alone permits us to be comforted. + +To these writers, then, the doctrine of final causes for rudimentary +organs was a piece of mystification and an absurdity; no less fatal to +any such doctrine were the processes of embryological development. It +was plain that the commonly received teleology must be given up; but the +idea of design or purpose was so associated in their minds with +theological design that they avoided it altogether. They seem to have +forgotten that an internal teleology is as much teleology as an external +one; hence, unfortunately, though their whole theory of development is +intensely purposive, it is the fact rather than the name of teleology +which has hitherto been insisted upon, even by the greatest writers on +evolution--the name having been denied even by those who were most +insisting on the thing itself. + +It is easy to understand the difficulty felt by the fathers of evolution +when we remember how much had to be seen before the facts could lie well +before them. It was necessary to attain, firstly, to a perception of the +unity of person between parents and offspring in successive generations; +secondly, it must be seen that an organism's memory goes back for +generations beyond its birth, to the first beginnings in fact, of which +we know anything whatever; thirdly, the latency of that memory, as of +memory generally till the associated ideas are reproduced, must be +brought to bear upon the facts of heredity; and lastly, the +unconsciousness with which habitual actions come to be performed, must +be assigned as the explanation of the unconsciousness with which we grow +and discharge most of our natural functions. + +Buffon was too busy with the fact that animals descended with +modification at all, to go beyond the development and illustration of +this great truth. I doubt whether he ever saw more than the first, and +that dimly, of the four considerations above stated. + +Dr. Darwin was the first to point out the first two considerations with +some clearness, but he can hardly be said to have understood their full +importance: the two latter ideas do not appear to have occurred to him. + +Lamarck had little if any perception of any one of the four. When, +however, they are firmly seized and brought into their due bearings one +upon another, the facts of heredity become as simple as those of a man +making a tobacco pipe, and rudimentary organs are seen to be essentially +of the same character as the little rudimentary protuberance at the +bottom of the pipe to which I referred in 'Erewhon.'[23] + +These organs are now no longer useful, but they once were so, and were +therefore once purposive, though not so now. They are the expressions of +a bygone usefulness; sayings, as it were, about which there was at one +time infinite wrangling, as to what both the meaning and the expression +should best be, so that they then had living significance in the mouths +of those who used them, though they have become such mere shibboleths +and cant formulae to ourselves that we think no more of their meaning +than we do of Julius Caesar in the month of July. They continue to be +reproduced through the force of habit, and through indisposition to get +out of any familiar groove of action until it becomes too unpleasant for +us to remain in it any longer. It has long been felt that embryology and +rudimentary structures indicated community of descent. Dr. Darwin and +Lamarck insisted on this, as have all subsequent writers on evolution; +but the explanation of why and how the structures come to be +repeated--namely, that they are simply examples of the force of +habit--can only be perceived intelligently by those who admit so much +unity between parents and offspring that the self-development of the +latter can be properly called habitual (as being a repetition of an act +by one and the same individual), and can only be fully sympathized with +by those who recognize that if habit be admitted as the key to the fact +at all, the unconscious manner in which the habit comes to be repeated +is only of a piece with all our other observations concerning habit. For +the fuller development of the foregoing, I must refer the reader to my +work 'Life and Habit.' + +The purposiveness, which even Dr. Darwin, and Lamarck still less, seem +never to have quite recognized in spite of their having insisted so much +on what amounts to the same thing, now comes into full view. It is seen +that the organs external to the body, and those internal to it are, the +second as much as the first, things which we have made for our own +convenience, and with a prevision that we shall have need of them; the +main difference between the manufacture of these two classes of organs +being, that we have made the one kind so often that we can no longer +follow the processes whereby we make them, while the others are new +things which we must make introspectively or not at all, and which are +not yet so incorporate with our vitality as that we should think they +grow instead of being manufactured. The manufacture of the tool, and the +manufacture of the living organ prove therefore to be but two species of +the same genus, which, though widely differentiated, have descended as +it were from one common filament of desire and inventive faculty. The +greater or less complexity of the organs goes for very little. It is +only a question of the amount of intelligence and voluntary +self-adaptation which we must admit, and this must be settled rather by +an appeal to what we find in organism, and observe concerning it, than +by what we may have imagined _a priori_. + +Given a small speck of jelly with some kind of circumstance-suiting +power, some power of slightly varying its actions in accordance with +slightly varying circumstances and desires--given such a jelly-speck +with a power of assimilating other matter, and thus, of reproducing +itself, given also that it should be possessed of a memory, and we can +show how the whole animal world can have descended it may be from an +amoeba without interference from without, and how every organ in every +creature is designed at first roughly and tentatively but finally +fashioned with the most consummate perfection, by the creature which has +had need of that organ, which best knew what it wanted, and was never +satisfied till it had got that which was the best suited to its varying +circumstances in their entirety. We can even show how, if it becomes +worth the Ethiopian's while to try and change his skin, or the leopard's +to change his spots, they can assuredly change them within a not +unreasonable time and adapt their covering to their own will and +convenience, and to that of none other; thus what is commonly conceived +of as direct creation by God is moved back to a time and space +inconceivable in their remoteness, while the aim and design so obvious +in nature are shown to be still at work around us, growing ever busier +and busier, and advancing from day to day both in knowledge and power. + +It was reserved for Mr. Darwin and for those who have too rashly +followed him to deny purpose as having had any share in the development +of animal and vegetable organs; to see no evidence of design in those +wonderful provisions which have been the marvel and delight of observers +in all ages. The one who has drawn our attention more than perhaps any +other living writer to those very marvels of coadaptation, is the +foremost to maintain that they are the result not of desire and design, +either within the creature or without it, but of blind chance, working +no whither, and due but to the accumulation of innumerable lucky +accidents. + +"There are men," writes Professor Tyndall in the 'Nineteenth Century,' +for last November, "and by no means the minority, who, however wealthy +in regard to facts, can never rise into the region of principles; and +they are sometimes intolerant of those that can. They are formed to plod +meritoriously on in the lower levels of thought; unpossessed of the +pinions necessary to reach the heights, they cannot realize the mental +act--the act of inspiration it might well be called--by which a man of +genius, after long pondering and proving, reaches a theoretic conception +which unravels and illuminates the tangle of centuries of observation +and experiment. There are minds, it may be said in passing, who, at the +present moment, stand in this relation to Mr. Darwin." + +The more rhapsodical parts of the above must go for what they are worth, +but I should be sorry to think that what remains conveyed a censure +which might fall justly on myself. As I read the earlier part of the +passage I confess that I imagined the conclusion was going to be very +different from what it proved to be. Fresh from the study of the older +men and also of Mr. Darwin himself, I failed to see that Mr. Darwin had +"unravelled and illuminated" a tangled skein, but believed him, on the +contrary, to have tangled and obscured what his predecessors had made in +great part, if not wholly, plain. With the older writers, I had felt as +though in the hands of men who wished to understand themselves and to +make their reader understand them with the smallest possible exertion. +The older men, if not in full daylight, at any rate saw in what quarter +of the sky the dawn was breaking, and were looking steadily towards it. +It is not they who have put their hands over their own eyes and ours, +and who are crying out that there is no light, but chance and blindness +everywhere. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Page 210, first edition. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE TELEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF ORGANISM--THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE +UNCONSCIOUS. + + +I have stated the foregoing in what I take to be an extreme logical +development, in order that the reader may more easily perceive the +consequences of those premises which I am endeavouring to re-establish. +But it must not be supposed that an animal or plant has ever conceived +the idea of some organ widely different from any it was yet possessed +of, and has set itself to design it in detail and grow towards it. + +The small jelly-speck, which we call the amoeba, has no organs save +what it can extemporize as occasion arises. If it wants to get at +anything, it thrusts out part of its jelly, which thus serves it as an +arm or hand: when the arm has served its purpose, it is absorbed into +the rest of the jelly, and has now to do the duty of a stomach by +helping to wrap up what it has just purveyed. The small round +jelly-speck spreads itself out and envelops its food, so that the whole +creature is now a stomach, and nothing but a stomach. Having digested +its food, it again becomes a jelly-speck, and is again ready to turn +part of itself into hand or foot as its next convenience may dictate. It +is not to be believed that such a creature as this, which is probably +just sensitive to light and nothing more, should be able to form a +conception of an eye and set itself to work to grow one, any more than +it is believable that he who first observed the magnifying power of a +dew drop, or even he who first constructed a rude lens, should have had +any idea in his mind of Lord Rosse's telescope with all its parts and +appliances. Nothing could be well conceived more foreign to experience +and common sense. Animals and plants have travelled to their present +forms as man has travelled to any one of his own most complicated +inventions. Slowly, step by step, through many blunders and mischances +which have worked together for good to those that have persevered in +elasticity. They have travelled as man has travelled, with but little +perception of a want till there was also some perception of a power, and +with but little perception of a power till there was a dim sense of +want; want stimulating power, and power stimulating want; and both so +based upon each other that no one can say which is the true foundation, +but rather that they must be both baseless and, as it were, meteoric in +mid air. They have seen very little ahead of a present power or need, +and have been then most moral, when most inclined to pierce a little +into futurity, but also when most obstinately declining to pierce too +far, and busy mainly with the present. They have been so far blindfolded +that they could see but for a few steps in front of them, yet so far +free to see that those steps were taken with aim and definitely, and not +in the dark. + +"Plus il a su," says Buffon, speaking of man, "plus il a pu, mais aussi +moins il a fait, moins il a su." This holds good wherever life holds +good. Wherever there is life there is a moral government of rewards and +punishments understood by the amoeba neither better nor worse than by +man. The history of organic development is the history of a moral +struggle. + +We know nothing as yet about the origin of a creature able to feel want +and power, nor yet what want and power spring from. It does not seem +worth while to go into these questions until an understanding has been +come to as to whether the interaction of want and power in some low form +or forms of life which could assimilate matter, reproduce themselves, +vary their actions, and be capable of remembering, will or will not +suffice to explain the development of the varied organs and desires +which we see in the higher vertebrates and man. When this question has +been settled, then it will be time to push our inquiries farther back. + +But given such a low form of life as here postulated, and there is no +force in Paley's pretended objection to the Darwinism of his time. + +"Give our philosopher," he says, "appetencies; give him a portion of +living irritable matter (a nerve or the clipping of a nerve) to work +upon; give also to his incipient or progressive forms the power of +propagating their like in every stage of their alteration; and if he is +to be believed, he could replenish the world with all the vegetable and +animal productions which we now see in it."[24] + +After meeting this theory with answers which need not detain us, he +continues:-- + +"The senses of animals appear to me quite incapable of receiving the +explanation of their origin which this theory affords. Including under +the word 'sense' the organ and the perception, we have no account of +either. How will our philosopher get at vision or make an eye? Or, +suppose the eye formed, would the perception follow? The same of the +other senses. And this objection holds its force, ascribe what you will +to the hand of time, to the power of habit, to changes too slow to be +observed by man, or brought within any comparison which he is able to +make of past things with the present. Concede what you please to these +arbitrary and unattested superstitions, how will they help you? Here is +no inception. No laws, no course, no powers of nature which prevail at +present, nor any analogous to these would give commencement to a new +sense; and it is in vain to inquire how that might proceed which would +never _begin_." + +In answer to this, let us suppose that some inhabitants of another world +were to see a modern philosopher so using a microscope that they should +believe it to be a part of the philosopher's own person, which he could +cut off from and join again to himself at pleasure, and suppose there +were a controversy as to how this microscope had originated, and that +one party maintained the man had made it little by little because he +wanted it, while the other declared this to be absurd and impossible; I +ask, would this latter party be justified in arguing that microscopes +could never have been perfected by degrees through the preservation of +and accumulation of small successive improvements, inasmuch as men +could not have begun to want to use microscopes until they had had a +microscope which should show them that such an instrument would be +useful to them, and that hence there is nothing to account for the +_beginning_ of microscopes, which might indeed make some progress when +once originated, but which could never originate? + +It might be pointed out to such a reasoner, firstly, that as regards any +acquired power the various stages in the acquisition of which he might +be supposed able to remember, he would find that, logic notwithstanding, +the wish did originate the power, and yet was originated by it, both +coming up gradually out of something which was not recognisable as +either power or wish, and advancing through vain beating of the air, to +a vague effort, and from this to definite effort with failure, and from +this to definite effort with success, and from this to success with +little consciousness of effort, and from this to success with such +complete absence of effort that he now acts unconsciously and without +power of introspection, and that, do what he will, he can rarely or +never draw a sharp dividing line whereat anything shall be said to +begin, though none less certain that there has been a continuity in +discontinuity, and a discontinuity in continuity between it and certain +other past things; moreover, that his opponents postulated so much +beginning of the microscope as that there should be a dew drop, even as +our evolutionists start with a sense of touch, of which sense all the +others are modifications, so that not one of them but is resolvable into +touch by more or less easy stages; and secondly, that the question is +one of fact and of the more evident deductions therefrom, and should not +be carried back to those remote beginnings where the nature of the facts +is so purely a matter of conjecture and inference. + +No plant or animal, then, according to our view, would be able to +conceive more than a very slight improvement on its organization at a +given time, so clearly as to make the efforts towards it that would +result in growth of the required modification; nor would these efforts +be made with any far-sighted perception of what next and next and after, +but only of what next; while many of the happiest thoughts would come +like all other happy thoughts--thoughtlessly; by a chain of reasoning +too swift and subtle for conscious analysis by the individual, as will +be more fully insisted on hereafter. Some of these modifications would +be noticeable, but the majority would involve no more noticeable +difference than can be detected between the length of the shortest day, +and that of the shortest but one. + +Thus a bird whose toes were not webbed, but who had under force of +circumstances little by little in the course of many generations learned +to swim, either from having lived near a lake, and having learnt the art +owing to its fishing habits, or from wading about in shallow pools by +the sea-side at low water, and finding itself sometimes a little out of +its depth and just managing to scramble over the intermediate yard or so +between it and safety--such a bird did not probably conceive the idea of +swimming on the water and set itself to learn to do so, and then +conceive the idea of webbed feet and set itself to get webbed feet. The +bird found itself in some small difficulty, out of which it either saw, +or at any rate found that it could extricate itself by striking out +vigorously with its feet and extending its toes as far as ever it could; +it thus began to learn the art of swimming and conceived the idea of +swimming synchronously, or nearly so; or perhaps wishing to get over a +yard or two of deep water, and trying to do so without being at the +trouble of rising to fly, it would splash and struggle its way over the +water, and thus practically swim, though without much perception of what +it had been doing. Finding that no harm had come to it, the bird would +do the same again, and again; it would thus presently lose fear, and +would be able to act more calmly; then it would begin to find out that +it could swim a little, and if its food lay much in the water so that it +would be of great advantage to it to be able to alight and rest without +being forced to return to land, it would begin to make a practice of +swimming. It would now discover that it could swim the more easily +according as its feet presented a more extended surface to the water; it +would therefore keep its toes extended whenever it swam, and as far as +in it lay, would make the most of whatever skin was already at the base +of its toes. After very many generations it would become web-footed, if +doing as above described should have been found continuously convenient, +so that the bird should have continuously used the skin about its toes +as much as possible in this direction. + +For there is a margin in every organic structure (and perhaps more than +we imagine in things inorganic also), which will admit of references, +as it were, side notes, and glosses upon the original text. It is on +this margin that we may err or wander--the greatness of a mistake +depending rather upon the extent of the departure from the original +text, than on the direction that the departure takes. A little error on +the bad side is more pardonable, and less likely to hurt the organism +than a too great departure upon the right one. This is a fundamental +proposition in any true system of ethics, the question what is too much +or too sudden being decided by much the same higgling as settles the +price of butter in a country market, and being as invisible as the link +which connects the last moment of desire with the first of power and +performance, and with the material result achieved. + +It is on this margin that the fulcrum is to be found, whereby we obtain +the little purchase over our structure, that enables us to achieve great +results if we use it steadily, with judgment, and with neither too +little effort nor too much. It is by employing this that those who have +a fancy to move their ears or toes without moving other organs learn to +do so. There is a man at the Agricultural Hall now playing the violin +with his toes, and playing it, as I am told, sufficiently well. The eye +of the sailor, the wrist of the conjuror, the toe of the professional +medium, are all found capable of development to an astonishing degree, +even in a single lifetime; but in every case success has been attained +by the simple process of making the best of whatever power a man has had +at any given time, and by being on the look out to take advantage of +accident, and even of misfortune. If a man would learn to paint, he must +not theorize concerning art, nor think much what he would do beforehand, +but he must do _something_--it does not matter what, except that it +should be whatever at the moment will come handiest and easiest to him; +and he must do that something as well as he can. This will presently +open the door for something else, and a way will show itself which no +conceivable amount of searching would have discovered, but which yet +could never have been discovered by sitting still and taking no pains at +all. "Dans l'animal," says Buffon, "il y a moins de jugement que de +sentiment."[25] + +It may appear as though this were blowing hot and cold with the same +breath, inasmuch as I am insisting that important modifications of +structure have been always purposive; and at the same time am denying +that the creature modified has had any purpose in the greater part of +all those actions which have at length modified both structure and +instinct. Thus I say that a bird learns to swim without having any +purpose of learning to swim before it set itself to make those movements +which have resulted in its being able to do so. At the same time I +maintain that it has only learned to swim by trying to swim, and this +involves the very purpose which I have just denied. The reconciliation +of these two apparently irreconcilable contentions must be found in the +consideration that the bird was not the less trying to swim, merely +because it did not know the name we have chosen to give to the art +which it was trying to master, nor yet how great were the resources of +that art. A person, who knew all about swimming, if from some bank he +could watch our supposed bird's first attempt to scramble over a short +space of deep water, would at once declare that the bird was trying to +swim--if not actually swimming. Provided then that there is a very +little perception of, and prescience concerning, the means whereby the +next desired end may be attained, it matters not how little in advance +that end may be of present desires or faculties; it is still reached +through purpose, and must be called purposive. Again, no matter how many +of these small steps be taken, nor how absolute was the want of purpose +or prescience concerning any but the one being actually taken at any +given moment, this does not bar the result from having been arrived at +through design and purpose. If each one of the small steps is purposive +the result is purposive, though there was never purpose extended over +more than one, two, or perhaps at most three, steps at a time. + +Returning to the art of painting for an example, are we to say that the +proficiency which such a student as was supposed above will certainly +attain, is not due to design, merely because it was not until he had +already become three parts excellent that he knew the full purport of +all that he had been doing? When he began he had but vague notions of +what he would do. He had a wish to learn to represent nature, but the +line into which he has settled down has probably proved very different +from that which he proposed to himself originally. Because he has taken +advantage of his accidents, is it, therefore, one whit the less true +that his success is the result of his desires and his design? The +'Times' pointed out not long ago that the theory which now associates +meteors and comets in the most unmistakable manner, was suggested by one +accident, and confirmed by another. But the writer added well that "such +accidents happen only to the zealous student of nature's secrets." In +the same way the bird that is taking to the habit of swimming, and of +making the most of whatever skin it already has between its toes, will +have doubtless to thank accidents for no small part of its progress; but +they will be such accidents as could never have happened to, or been +taken advantage of by any creature which was not zealously trying to +make the most of itself--and between such accidents as this, and design, +the line is hard to draw; for if we go deep enough we shall find that +most of our design resolves itself into as it were a shaking of the bag +to see what will come out that will suit our purpose, and yet at the +same time that most of our shaking of the bag resolves itself into a +design that the bag shall contain only such and such things, or +thereabouts. + +Again, the fact that animals are no longer conscious of +design and purpose in much that they do, but act unreflectingly, +and as we sometimes say concerning ourselves "automatically" or +"mechanically"--that they have no idea whatever of the steps whereby +they have travelled to their present state, and show no sign of doubt +about what must have been at one time the subject of all manner of +doubts, difficulties, and discussions--that whatever sign of reflection +they now exhibit is to be found only in case of some novel feature or +difficulty presenting itself; these facts do not bar that the results +achieved should be attributed to an inception in reason, design, and +purpose, no matter how rapidly and as we call it instinctively, the +creatures may now act. + +For if we look closely at such an invention as the steam engine in its +latest and most complicated developments, about which there can be no +dispute but that they are achievements of reason, purpose, and design, +we shall find them present us with examples of all those features the +presence of which in the handiwork of animals is too often held to bar +reason and purpose from having had any share therein. + +Assuredly such men as the Marquis of Worcester and Captain Savery had +very imperfect ideas as to the upshot of their own action. The simplest +steam engine now in use in England is probably a marvel of ingenuity as +compared with the highest development which appeared possible to these +two great men, while our newest and most highly complicated engines +would seem to them more like living beings than machines. Many, again, +of the steps leading to the present development have been due to action +which had but little heed of the steam engine, being the inventions of +attendants whose desire was to save themselves the trouble of turning +this or that cock, and who were indifferent to any other end than their +own immediate convenience. No step in fact along the whole route was +ever taken with much perception of what would be the next step after the +one being taken at any given moment. + +Nor do we find that an engine made after any old and well-known pattern +is now made with much more consciousness of design than we can suppose a +bird's nest to be built with. The greater number of the parts of any +such engine, are made by the gross as it were like screws and nuts, +which are turned out by machinery and in respect of which the labour of +design is now no more felt than is the design of him who first invented +the wheel. It is only when circumstances require any modification in the +article to be manufactured that thought and design will come into play +again; but I take it few will deny that if circumstances compel a bird +either to give up a nest three-parts built altogether, or to make some +trifling deviation from its ordinary practice, it will in nine cases out +of ten make such deviation as shall show that it had thought the matter +over, and had on the whole concluded to take such and such a course, +that is to say, that it had reasoned and had acted with such purpose as +its reason had dictated. + +And I imagine that this is the utmost that anyone can claim even for +man's own boasted powers. Set the man who has been accustomed to make +engines of one type, to make engines of another type without any +intermediate course of training or instruction, and he will make no +better figure with his engines than a thrush would do if commanded by +her mate to make a nest like a blackbird. It is vain then to contend +that the ease and certainty with which an action is performed, even +though it may have now become matter of such fixed habit that it cannot +be suddenly and seriously modified without rendering the whole +performance abortive, is any argument against that action having been an +achievement of design and reason in respect of each one of the steps +that have led to it; and if in respect of each one of the steps then as +regards the entire action; for we see our own most reasoned actions +become no less easy, unerring, automatic, and unconscious, than the +actions which we call instinctive when they have been repeated a +sufficient number of times. + +This has been often pointed out, but I insisted upon it and developed it +in 'Life and Habit,' more I believe than has been done hitherto, at the +same time making it the key to many phenomena of growth and heredity +which without such key seem explained by words rather than by any +corresponding peace of mind in our ideas concerning them. Seeing that I +dwelt much on the importance of bearing in mind the vanishing tendency +of consciousness, volition, and memory upon their becoming intense, a +tendency which no one after five minutes' reflection will venture to +deny, some reviewers have imagined that I am advocating the same views +as have been put forward by Von Hartmann under the title of 'the +Philosophy of the Unconscious.' Unless, however, I am much mistaken, +their opinion is without foundation. For so far as I can gather, Von +Hartmann personifies the unconscious and makes it act and think--in fact +deifies it--whereas I only infer a certain history for certain of our +growths and actions in consequence of observing that often repeated +actions come in time to be performed unconsciously. I cannot think I +have done more than note a fact which all must acknowledge, and drawn +from it an inference which may or may not be true, but which is at any +rate perfectly intelligible, whereas if Von Hartmann's meaning is +anything like what Mr. Sully says it is,[26] I can only say that it has +not been given to me to form any definite conception whatever as to what +that meaning may be. I am encouraged moreover to hope that I am not in +the same condemnation with Von Hartmann--if, indeed, Von Hartmann is to +be condemned, about which I know nothing--by the following extract from +a German Review of 'Life and Habit.' + + "Der erste dieser beiden Erklaerungsversuche, ist eine wahre + 'Philosophie des Unbewussten' nicht des Hartmann'schen Unbewussten + welches hellsehend und wunderthaetig von aussen in die natuerliche + Entwickelung der Organismen eingreift, sondern eines Unbewussten + welches wie der Verfasser zeigt, in allen organischen Wesen + anzunehmen unsere eigene Erfahrung und die Stufenfolge der + Organismen von den Moneren und Amoeben bis zu den hoechsten + Pflanzen und Thieren und uns selbst aufwaerts--uns gestattet, wenn + nicht uns noethigt. Der Gedankengang dieser neuen oder wenigstens in + diesem Sinne wohl zum ersten Male consequent im Einzelnen + durchgefuehrten Philosophie des Unbewussten ist, seinen Hauptzuegen + nach kurz angedeutet, folgender."[27] + +Even here I am made to personify more than I like; I do not wish to say +that the unconscious does this or that, but that when we have done this +or that sufficiently often we do it unconsciously. + +If the foregoing be granted, and it be admitted that the unconsciousness +and seeming automatism with which any action may be performed is no bar +to its having a foundation in memory, reason, and at one time +consciously recognized effort--and this I believe to be the chief +addition which I have ventured to make to the theory of Buffon and Dr. +Erasmus Darwin--then the wideness of the difference between the +Darwinism of eighty years ago and the Darwinism of to-day becomes +immediately apparent, and it also becomes apparent, how important and +interesting is the issue which is raised between them. + +According to the older Darwinism the lungs are just as purposive as the +corkscrew. They, no less than the corkscrew, are a piece of mechanism +designed and gradually improved upon and perfected by an intelligent +creature for the gratification of its own needs. True there are many +important differences between mechanism which is part of the body, and +mechanism which is no such part, but the differences are such as do not +affect the fact that in each case the result, whether, for example, +lungs or corkscrew, is due to desire, invention, and design. + +And now I will ask one more question, which may seem, perhaps, to have +but little importance, but which I find personally interesting. I have +been told by a reviewer, of whom upon the whole I have little reason to +complain, that the theory I put forward in 'Life and Habit,' and which I +am now again insisting on, is pessimism--pure and simple. I have a very +vague idea what pessimism means, but I should be sorry to believe that I +am a pessimist. Which, I would ask, is the pessimist? He who sees love +of beauty, design, steadfastness of purpose, intelligence, courage, and +every quality to which success has assigned the name of "worth," as +having drawn the pattern of every leaf and organ now and in all past +time, or he who sees nothing in the world of nature but a chapter of +accidents and of forces interacting blindly? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] 'Nat. Theol.,' ch. xxiii. + +[25] 'Oiseaux,' vol. i. p. 5. + +[26] 'Westminster Review,' vol. xlix. p. 124. + +[27] Translation: "The first of these two attempts is a true 'philosophy +of the unconscious,' not Hartmann's unconscious, which influences the +natural evolution of organism from without as though by Providence and +miracle, but of an unconscious, which, as the author shows, our own +experience and the progressive succession of organisms from the monads +and amoebae up to the highest plants and animals, including ourselves, +allows, if it does not compel us to assume [as obtaining] in all organic +beings. This philosophy of the unconscious is new, or at any rate now +for the first time carried out consequentially in detail; its main +features, briefly stated are as follows." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +SCHEME OF THE REMAINDER OF THE WORK. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE THEORY OF +EVOLUTION. + + +I have long felt that evolution must stand or fall according as it is +made to rest or not on principles which shall give a definite purpose +and direction to the variations whose accumulation results in specific, +and ultimately in generic differences. In other words, according as it +is made to stand upon the ground first clearly marked out for it by Dr. +Erasmus Darwin and afterwards adopted by Lamarck, or on that taken by +Mr. Charles Darwin. + +There is some reason to fear that in consequence of the disfavour into +which modern Darwinism is seen to be falling by those who are more +closely watching the course of opinion upon this subject, evolution +itself may be for a time discredited as something inseparable from the +theory that it has come about mainly through "the means" of natural +selection. If people are shown that the arguments by which a somewhat +startling conclusion has been reached will not legitimately lead to that +conclusion, they are very ready to assume that the conclusion must be +altogether unfounded, especially when, as in the present case, there is +a vast mass of vested interests opposed to the conclusion. Few know that +there are other great works upon descent with modification besides Mr. +Darwin's. Not one person in ten thousand has any distinct idea of what +Buffon, Dr. Darwin, and Lamarck propounded. Their names have been +discredited by the very authors who have been most indebted to them; +there is hardly a writer on evolution who does not think it incumbent +upon him to warn Lamarck off the ground which he at any rate made his +own, and to cast a stone at what he will call the "shallow speculations" +or "crude theories" or the "well-known doctrine" of the foremost +exponent of Buffon and Dr. Darwin. Buffon is a great name, Dr. Darwin is +no longer even this, and Lamarck has been so systematically laughed at +that it amounts to little less than philosophical suicide for anyone to +stand up in his behalf. Not one of our scientific elders or chief +priests but would caution a student rather to avoid the three great men +whom I have named than to consult them. It is a perilous task therefore +to try and take evolution from the pedestal on which it now appears to +stand so securely, and to put it back upon the one raised for it by its +propounders; yet this is what I believe will have to be done sooner or +later unless the now general acceptance of evolution is to be shaken +more rudely than some of its upholders may anticipate. I propose +therefore to give a short biographical sketch of the three writers whose +works form new departures in the history of evolution, with a somewhat +full _resume_ of the positions they took in regard to it. I will also +touch briefly upon some other writers who have handled the same subject. +The reader will thus be enabled to follow the development of a great +conception as it has grown up in the minds of successive men of genius, +and by thus growing with it, as it were, through its embryonic stages, +he will make himself more thoroughly master of it in all its bearings. + +I will then contrast the older with the newer Darwinism, and will show +why the 'Origin of Species,' though an episode of incalculable value, +cannot, any more than the 'Vestiges of Creation,' take permanent rank in +the literature of evolution. + +It will appear that the evolution of evolution has gone through the +following principal stages:-- + +I. A general conception of the fact that specific types were not always +immutable. + +This was common to many writers, both ancient and modern; it has been +occasionally asserted from the times of Anaximander and Lucretius to +those of Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh. + +II. A definite conception that animal and vegetable forms were so +extensively mutable that few (and, if so, perhaps but one) could claim +to be of an original stock; the direct effect of changed conditions +being assigned as the cause of modification, and the important +consequences of the struggle for existence being in many respects fully +recognized. The fact of design or purpose in connection with organism, +as causing habits and thus as underlying all variation, was also +indicated with some clearness, but was not thoroughly understood. + +This phase must be identified with the name of Buffon, who, as I will +show reason for believing, would have carried his theory much further if +he had not felt that he had gone as far in the right direction as was +then desirable. Buffon put forward his opinions, with great reserve and +yet with hardly less frankness, in volume after volume from 1749 to +1788, the year of his death, but they do not appear to have taken root +at once in France. They took root in England, and were thence +transplanted back to France. + +III. A development in England of the Buffonian system, marked by +glimpses of the unity between offspring and parents, and broad +suggestions to the effect that the former must be considered as capable +of remembering, under certain circumstances, what had happened to it, +and what it did, when it was part of the personality of those from whom +it had descended. + +A definite belief, openly expressed, that not only are many species +mutable, but that all living forms, whether animal or vegetable, are +descended from a single, or at any rate from not many, original low +forms of life, and this as the direct consequence of the actions and +requirements of the living forms themselves, and as the indirect +consequence of changed conditions. A definite cause is thus supposed to +underlie variations, and the resulting adaptations become purposive; but +this was not said, nor, I am afraid, seen. + +This is the original Darwinism of Dr. Erasmus Darwin. It was put forward +in his 'Zoonomia,' in 1794, and was adopted almost in its entirety by +Lamarck, who, when he had caught the leading idea (probably through a +French translation of the 'Loves of the Plants,' which appeared in +1800), began to expound it in 1801; in 1802, 1803, 1806, and 1809, he +developed it with greater fulness of detail than Dr. Darwin had done, +but perhaps with a somewhat less nice sense of some important points. +Till his death, in 1831, Lamarck, as far as age and blindness would +permit, continued to devote himself to the exposition of the theory of +descent with modification. + +IV. A more distinct perception of the unity of parents and offspring, +with a bolder reference of the facts of heredity (whether of structure +or instinct), to memory pure and simple; a clearer perception of the +consequences that follow from the survival of the fittest, and a just +view of the relation in which those consequences stand to "the +circumstance-suiting" power of animals and plants; a reference of the +variations whose accumulation results in species, to the volition of the +animal or plant which varies, and perhaps a dawning perception that all +adaptations of structure to need must therefore be considered as +"purposive." + +This must be connected with Mr. Matthew's work on 'Naval Timber and +Arboriculture,' which appeared in 1831. The remarks which it contains in +reference to evolution are confined to an appendix, but when brought +together, as by Mr. Matthew himself, in the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' for +April 7, 1860, they form one of the most perfect yet succinct +expositions of the theory of evolution that I have ever seen. I shall +therefore give them in full.[28] This book was well received, and was +reviewed in the 'Quarterly Review,'[29] but seems to have been valued +rather for its views on naval timber than on evolution. Mr. Matthew's +merit lies in a just appreciation of the importance of each one of the +principal ideas which must be present in combination before we can have +a correct conception of evolution, and of their bearings upon one +another. In his scheme of evolution I find each part kept in due +subordination to the others, so that the whole theory becomes more +coherent and better articulated than I have elsewhere found it; but I do +not detect any important addition to the ideas which Dr. Darwin and +Lamarck had insisted upon. + +I pass over the 'Vestiges of Creation,' which should be mentioned only +as having, as Mr. Charles Darwin truly says, "done excellent service in +this country, in calling attention to this subject, in removing +prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground for the reception of +analogous views."[30] The work neither made any addition to ideas which +had been long familiar, nor arranged old ones in a satisfactory manner. +Such as it is, it is Dr. Darwin and Lamarck, but Dr. Darwin and Lamarck +spoiled. The first edition appeared in 1844. + +I also pass over Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire's 'Natural History,' which +appeared 1854-62, and the position of which is best described by calling +it intermediate between the one which Buffon thought fit to pretend to +take, and that actually taken by Lamarck. The same may be said also of +Etienne Geoffroy. I will, however, just touch upon these writers later +on. + +A short notice, again, will suffice for the opinions of Goethe, +Treviranus, and Oken, none of whom can I discover as having originated +any important new idea; but knowing no German, I have taken this +opinion from the resume of each of these writers, given by Professor +Haeckel in his 'History of Creation.' + +V. A time of retrogression, during which we find but little apparent +appreciation of the unity between parents and offspring; no reference to +memory in connection with heredity, whether of instinct or structure; an +exaggerated view of the consequences which may be deduced from the fact +that the fittest commonly survive in the struggle for existence; the +denial of any known principle as underlying variations; comparatively +little appreciation of the circumstance-suiting power of plants and +animals, and a rejection of purposiveness. By far the most important +exponent of this phase of opinion concerning evolution is Mr. Charles +Darwin, to whom, however, we are more deeply indebted than to any other +living writer for the general acceptance of evolution in one shape or +another. The 'Origin of Species' appeared in 1859, the same year, that +is to say, as the second volume of Isidore Geoffroy's 'Histoire +Naturelle Generale.' + +VI. A reaction against modern Darwinism, with a demand for definite +purpose and design as underlying variations. The best known writers who +have taken this line are the Rev. J. J. Murphy and Professor Mivart, +whose 'Habit and intelligence' and 'Genesis of Species' appeared in 1869 +and 1871 respectively. In Germany Professor Hering has revived the idea +of memory as explaining the phenomena of heredity satisfactorily, +without probably having been more aware that it had been advanced +already than I was myself when I put it forward recently in 'Life and +Habit.' I have never seen the lecture in which Professor Hering has +referred the phenomena of heredity to memory, but will give an extract +from it which appeared in the 'Athenaeum,' as translated by Professor Ray +Lankester.[31] The only new feature which I believe I may claim to have +added to received ideas concerning evolution, is a perception of the +fact that the unconsciousness with which we go through our embryonic and +infantile stages, and with which we discharge the greater number and +more important of our natural functions, is of a piece with what we +observe concerning all habitual actions, as well as concerning memory; +an explanation of the phenomena of old age; and of the main principle +which underlies longevity. I may, perhaps, claim also to have more fully +explained the passage of reason into instinct than I yet know of its +having been explained elsewhere.[32] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] See ch. xviii. of this volume. + +[29] Vol. xlix. p. 125. + +[30] 'Origin of Species,' Hist. Sketch, xvii. + +[31] See page 199 of this volume. + +[32] Apropos of this, a friend has kindly sent me the following extract +from Balzac:--"Historiquement, les paysans sont encore au lendemain de +la Jacquerie, leur defaite est restee inscrite dans leur cervelle. _Ils +ne se souviennent plus du fait, il est passe a l'etat d'idee +instinctive._"--Balzac, 'Les Paysans,' v. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +PRE-BUFFONIAN EVOLUTION, AND SOME GERMAN WRITERS. + + +Let us now proceed to the fuller development of the foregoing sketch. + +"Undoubtedly," says Isidore Geoffroy, "from the most ancient times many +philosophers have imagined vaguely that one species can be transformed +into another. This doctrine seems to have been adopted by the Ionian +school from the sixth century before our era.... Undoubtedly also the +same opinion reappeared on several occasions in the middle ages, and in +modern times; it is to be found in some of the hermetic books, where the +transmutation of animal and vegetable species, and that of metals, are +treated as complementary to one another. In modern times we again find +it alluded to by some philosophers, and especially by Bacon, whose +boldness is on this point extreme. Admitting it as 'incontestable that +plants sometimes degenerate so far as to become plants of another +species,' Bacon did not hesitate to try and put his theory into +practice. He tried, in 1635, to give 'the rules' for the art of changing +'plants of one species into those of another.'" + +This must be an error. Bacon died in 1626. The passage of Bacon referred +to is in 'Nat. Hist.,' Cent. vi. ("Experiments in consort touching the +degenerating of plants, and the transmutation of them one into +another"), and is as follows:-- + +"518. This rule is certain, that plants for want of culture degenerate +to be baser in the same kind; and sometimes so far as to change into +another kind. 1. The standing long and not being removed maketh them +degenerate. 2. Drought unless the earth, of itself, be moist doth the +like. 3. So doth removing into worse earth, or forbearing to compost the +earth; as we see that water mint turneth into field mint, and the +colewort into rape by neglect, &c." + +"525. It is certain that in very steril years corn sown will grow to +another kind:-- + + 'Grandia saepe quibus mandavimus hordea sulcis, + Infelix lolium, et steriles dominantur avenae.' + +And generally it is a rule that plants that are brought forth for +culture, as corn, will sooner change into other species, than those that +come of themselves; for that culture giveth but an adventitious nature, +which is more easily put off." + +Changed conditions, according to Bacon (though he does not use these +words), appear to be "the first rule for the transmutation of plants." + +"But how much value," continues M. Geoffroy, "ought to be attached to +such prophetic glimpses, when they were neither led up to, nor justified +by any serious study? They are conjectures only, which, while bearing +evidence to the boldness or rashness of those who hazarded them, remain +almost without effect upon the advance of science. Bacon excepted, they +hardly deserve to be remembered. As for De Maillet, who makes birds +spring from flying fishes, reptiles from creeping fishes, and men from +tritons, his dreams, taken in part from Anaximander, should have their +place not in the history of science, but in that of the aberrations of +the human mind."[33] + +A far more forcible and pregnant passage, however, is the following, +from Sir Walter Raleigh's 'History of the World,' which Mr. Garnett has +been good enough to point out to me:-- + +"For mine owne opinion I find no difference but only in magnitude +between the Cat of Europe, and the Ounce of India; and even those dogges +which are become wild in Hispagniola, with which the Spaniards used to +devour the naked Indians, are now changed to Wolves, and begin to +destroy the breed of their Cattell, and doe often times teare asunder +their owne children. The common crow and rooke of India is full of red +feathers in the droun'd and low islands of Caribana, and the blackbird +and thrush hath his feathers mixt with black and carnation in the north +parts of Virginia. The Dog-fish of England is the Sharke of the South +Ocean. For if colour or magnitude made a difference of Species, then +were the Negroes, which wee call the Blacke-Mores, _non animalia +rationalia_, not Men but some kind of strange Beasts, and so the giants +of the South America should be of another kind than the people of this +part of the World. We also see it dayly that the nature of fruits are +changed by transplantation."[34] + +For information concerning the earliest German writers on evolution, I +turn to Professor Haeckel's 'History of Creation,' and find Goethe's +name to head the list. I do not gather, however, that Goethe added much +to the ideas which Buffon had already made sufficiently familiar. +Professor Haeckel does not seem to be aware of Buffon's work, and quotes +Goethe as making an original discovery when he writes, in the year +1796:--"Thus much then we have gained, that we may assert without +hesitation that all the more perfect organic natures, such as fishes, +amphibious animals, birds, mammals, and man at the head of the last, +were all formed upon one original type, which only varies more or less +in parts which were none the less permanent, and still daily changes and +modifies its form by propagation."[35] But these, as we shall see, are +almost Buffon's own words--words too that Buffon insisted on for many +years. Again Professor Haeckel quotes Goethe as writing in the year +1807:-- + +"If we consider plants and animals in their most imperfect condition, +they can hardly be distinguished." This, however, had long been insisted +upon by Bonnet and Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the first of whom was a +naturalist of world-wide fame, while the 'Zoonomia' of Dr. Darwin had +been translated into German between the years 1795 and 1797, and could +hardly have been unknown to Goethe in 1807, who continues: "But this +much we may say, that the creatures which by degrees emerge as plants +and animals out of a common phase where they are barely distinguishable, +arrive at perfection in two opposite directions, so that the plant in +the end reaches its highest glory in the tree, which is immovable and +stiff, the animal in man who possesses the greatest elasticity and +freedom." Professor Haeckel considers this to be a remarkable passage, +but I do not think it should cause its author to rank among the founders +of the evolution theory, though he may justly claim to have been one of +the first to adopt it. Goethe's anatomical researches appear to have +been more important, but I cannot find that he insisted on any new +principle, or grasped any unfamiliar conception, which had not been long +since grasped and widely promulgated by Buffon and by Dr. Erasmus +Darwin. + +Treviranus (1776-1837), whom Professor Haeckel places second to Goethe, +is clearly a disciple of Buffon, and uses the word "degeneration" in the +same sense as Buffon used it many years earlier, that is to say, as +"descent with modification," without any reference to whether the +offspring was, as Buffon says, "perfectionne ou degrade." He cannot +claim, any more than Goethe, to rank as a principal figure in the +history of evolution. + +Of Oken, Professor Haeckel says that his 'Naturphilosophie,' which +appeared in 1809--in the same year, that is to say, as the 'Philosophie +Zoologique' of Lamarck--was "the nearest approach to the natural theory +of descent, newly established by Mr. Charles Darwin," of any work that +appeared in the first decade of our century. But I do not detect any +important difference of principle between his system and that of Dr. +Erasmus Darwin, among whose disciples he should be reckoned. + +"We now turn," says Professor Haeckel after referring to a few more +German writers who adopted a belief in evolution, "from the German to +the French nature-philosophers who have likewise held the theory of +descent, since the beginning of this century. At their head stands Jean +Lamarck, who occupies the first place next to Darwin and Goethe in the +history of the doctrine of Filiation."[36] This is rather a surprising +assertion, but I will leave the reader of the present volume to assign +the value which should be attached to it. + +Professor Haeckel devotes ten lines to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, who he +declares "expresses views very similar to those of Goethe and Lamarck, +without, however, _then_ knowing anything about these two men;" which is +all the more strange inasmuch as Dr. Darwin preceded them, and was a +good deal better known to them, probably, than they to him; but it is +plain Professor Haeckel has no acquaintance with the 'Zoonomia' of Dr. +Erasmus Darwin. From all, then, that I am able to collect, I conclude +that I shall best convey to the reader an idea of the different phases +which the theory of descent with modification has gone through, by +confining his attention almost entirely to Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +Lamarck, and Mr. Charles Darwin. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[33] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' vol. ii. p. 385, 1859. + +[34] 'History of the World,' bk. i. ch. vii. Sec. 9 ('Athenaeum,' March 27, +1875). + +[35] 'History of Creation,' vol. i. p. 91. + +[36] 'History of Creation,' bk. i. ch. iii. (H. S. King, 1876). + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +BUFFON--MEMOIR. + + +Buffon, says M. Flourens, was born at Montbar, on the 7th of September, +1707; he died in Paris, at the Jardin du Roi, on the 16th of April, +1788, aged 81 years. More than fifty of these years, as he used himself +to say, he had passed at his writing-desk. His father was a councillor +of the parliament of Burgundy. His mother was celebrated for her wit, +and Buffon cherished her memory. + +He studied at Dijon with much _eclat_, and shortly after leaving became +accidentally acquainted with the Duke of Kingston, a young Englishman of +his own age, who was travelling abroad with a tutor. The three travelled +together in France and Italy, and Buffon then passed some months in +England. + +Returning to France, he translated Hales's 'Vegetable Statics' and +Newton's 'Treatise on Fluxions.' He refers to several English writers on +natural history in the course of his work, but I see he repeatedly +spells the English name Willoughby, "Willulghby." He was appointed +superintendent of the Jardin du Roi in 1739, and from thenceforth +devoted himself to science. + +In 1752 Buffon married Mdlle. de Saint Belin, whose beauty and charm of +manner were extolled by all her contemporaries. One son was born to +him, who entered the army, became a colonel, and I grieve to say, was +guillotined at the age of twenty-nine, a few days only before the +extinction of the Reign of Terror. + +Of this youth, who inherited the personal comeliness and ability of his +father, little is recorded except the following story. Having fallen +into the water and been nearly drowned when he was about twelve years +old, he was afterwards accused of having been afraid: "I was so little +afraid," he answered, "that though I had been offered the hundred years +which my grandfather lived, I would have died then and there, if I could +have added one year to the life of my father;" then thinking for a +minute, a flush suffused his face, and he added, "but I should petition +for one quarter of an hour in which to exult over the thought of what I +was about to do." + +On the scaffold he showed much composure, smiling half proudly, half +reproachfully, yet wholly kindly upon the crowd in front of him. +"Citoyens," he said, "Je me nomme Buffon," and laid his head upon the +block. + +The noblest outcome of the old and decaying order, overwhelmed in the +most hateful birth frenzy of the new. So in those cataclysms and +revolutions which take place in our own bodies during their development, +when we seem studying in order to become fishes and suddenly make, as it +were, different arrangements and resolve on becoming men--so, doubtless, +many good cells must go, and their united death cry comes up, it may be, +in the pain which an infant feels on teething. + +But to return. The man who could be father of such a son, and who could +retain that son's affection, as it is well known that Buffon retained +it, may not perhaps always be strictly accurate, but it will be as well +to pay attention to whatever he may think fit to tell us. These are the +only people whom it is worth while to look to and study from. + +"Glory," said Buffon, after speaking of the hours during which he had +laboured, "glory comes always after labour if she can--_and she +generally can_." But in his case she could not well help herself. "He +was conspicuous," says M. Flourens, "for elevation and force of +character, for a love of greatness and true magnificence in all he did. +His great wealth, his handsome person, and graceful manners seemed in +correspondence with the splendour of his genius, so that of all the +gifts which Fortune has it in her power to bestow she had denied him +nothing." + +Many of his epigrammatic sayings have passed into proverbs: for example, +that "genius is but a supreme capacity for taking pains." Another and +still more celebrated passage shall be given in its entirety and with +its original setting. + +"Style," says Buffon, "is the only passport to posterity. It is not +range of information, nor mastery of some little known branch of +science, nor yet novelty of matter that will ensure immortality. Works +that can claim all this will yet die if they are conversant about +trivial objects only, or written without taste, genius and true nobility +of mind; for range of information, knowledge of details, novelty of +discovery are of a volatile essence and fly off readily into other +hands that know better how to treat them. The matter is foreign to the +man, and is not of him; the manner is the man himself."[37] + +"Le style, c'est l'homme meme." Elsewhere he tells us what true style +is, but I quote from memory and cannot be sure of the passage. "Le +style," he says, "est comme le bonheur; il vient de la douceur de +l'ame." + +Is it possible not to think of the following?-- + +"But whether there be prophecies they shall fail; whether there be +tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall vanish +away ... and now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three; but the +greatest of these is charity."[38] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37] 'Discours de Reception a l'Academie Francaise.' + +[38] 1 Cor. xiii. 8, 13. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +BUFFON'S METHOD--THE IRONICAL CHARACTER OF HIS WORK. + + +Buffon's idea of a method amounts almost to the denial of the +possibility of method at all. "The true method," he writes, "is the +complete description and exact history of each particular object,"[39] +and later on he asks, "is it not more simple, more natural and more true +to call an ass an ass, and a cat a cat, than to say, without knowing +why, that an ass is a horse, and a cat a lynx."[40] + +He admits such divisions as between animals and vegetables, or between +vegetables and minerals, but that done, he rejects all others that can +be founded on the nature of things themselves. He concludes that one who +could see things in their entirety and without preconceived opinions, +would classify animals according to the relations in which he found +himself standing towards them:-- + +"Those which he finds most necessary and useful to him will occupy the +first rank; thus he will give the precedence among the lower animals to +the dog and the horse; he will next concern himself with those which +without being domesticated, nevertheless occupy the same country and +climate as himself, as for example stags, hares, and all wild animals; +nor will it be till after he has familiarized himself with all these +that curiosity will lead him to inquire what inhabitants there may be in +foreign climates, such as elephants, dromedaries, &c. The same will hold +good for fishes, birds, insects, shells, and for all nature's other +productions; he will study them in proportion to the profit which he can +draw from them; he will consider them in that order in which they enter +into his daily life; he will arrange them in his head according to this +order, which is in fact that in which he has become acquainted with +them, and in which it concerns him to think about them. This order--the +most natural of all--is the one which I have thought it well to follow +in this volume. My classification has no more mystery in it than the +reader has just seen ... it is preferable to the most profound and +ingenious that can be conceived, for there is none of all the +classifications which ever have been made or ever can be, which has not +more of an arbitrary character than this has. Take it for all in all," +he concludes, "it is more easy, more agreeable, and more useful, to +consider things in their relation to ourselves than from any other +standpoint."[41] + +"Has it not a better effect not only in a treatise on natural history, +but in a picture or any work of art to arrange objects in the order and +place in which they are commonly found, than to force them into +association in virtue of some theory of our own? Is it not better to let +the dog which has toes, come after the horse which has a single hoof, +in the same way as we see him follow the horse in daily life, than to +follow up the horse by the zebra, an animal which is little known to us, +and which has no other connection with the horse than the fact that it +has a single hoof?"[42] + +Can we suppose that Buffon really saw no more connection than this? The +writer whom we shall presently find[43] declining to admit any essential +difference between the skeletons of man and of the horse, can here see +no resemblance between the zebra and the horse, except that they each +have a single hoof. Is he to be taken at his word? + +It is perhaps necessary to tell the reader that Buffon carried the +foregoing scheme into practice as nearly as he could in the first +fifteen volumes of his 'Natural History.' He begins with man--and then +goes on to the horse, the ass, the cow, sheep, goat, pig, dog, &c. One +would be glad to know whether he found it always more easy to decide in +what order of familiarity this or that animal would stand to the +majority of his readers than other classifiers have found it to know +whether an individual more resembles one species or another; probably he +never gave the matter a thought after he had gone through the first +dozen most familiar animals, but settled generally down into a +classification which becomes more and more specific--as when he treats +of the apes and monkeys--till he reaches the birds, when he openly +abandons his original idea, in deference, as he says, to the opinion of +"le peuple des naturalistes." + +Perhaps the key to this piece of apparent extravagance is to be found +in the word "mysterieuse."[44] Buffon wished to raise a standing protest +against mystery mongering. Or perhaps more probably, he wished at once +"to turn to animals and plants under domestication," so as to insist +early on the main object of his work--the plasticity of animal forms. + +I am inclined to think that a vein of irony pervades the whole, or much +the greater part of Buffon's work, and that he intended to convey, one +meaning to one set of readers, and another to another; indeed, it is +often impossible to believe that he is not writing between his lines for +the discerning, what the undiscerning were not intended to see. It must +be remembered that his 'Natural History' has two sides,--a scientific +and a popular one. May we not imagine that Buffon would be unwilling to +debar himself from speaking to those who could understand him, and yet +would wish like Handel and Shakespeare to address the many, as well as +the few? But the only manner in which these seemingly irreconcilable +ends could be attained, would be by the use of language which should be +self-adjusting to the capacity of the reader. So keen an observer can +hardly have been blind to the signs of the times which were already +close at hand. Free-thinker though he was, he was also a powerful member +of the aristocracy, and little likely to demean himself--for so he would +doubtless hold it--by playing the part of Voltaire or Rousseau. He would +help those who could see to see still further, but he would not dazzle +eyes that were yet imperfect with a light brighter than they could +stand. He would therefore impose upon people, as much as he thought was +for their good; but, on the other hand, he would not allow inferior men +to mystify them. + +"In the private character of Buffon," says Sir William Jardine in a +characteristic passage, "we regret there is not much to praise; his +disposition was kind and benevolent, and he was generally beloved by his +inferiors, followers, and dependents, which were numerous over his +extensive property; he was strictly honourable, and was an affectionate +parent. In early youth he had entered into the pleasures and +dissipations of life, and licentious habits seem to have been retained +to the end. But the great blemish in such a mind was his declared +infidelity; it presents one of those exceptions among the persons who +have been devoted to the study of nature; and it is not easy to imagine +a mind apparently with such powers, scarcely acknowledging a Creator, +and when noticed, only by an arraignment for what appeared wanting or +defective in his great works. So openly, indeed, was the freedom of his +religious opinions expressed, that the indignation of the Sorbonne was +provoked. He had to enter into an explanation which he in some way +rendered satisfactory; and while he afterwards attended to the outward +ordinances of religion, he considered them as a system of faith for the +multitude, and regarded those most impolitic who most opposed them."[45] + +This is partly correct and partly not. Buffon was a free-thinker, and as +I have sufficiently explained, a decided opponent of the doctrine that +rudimentary and therefore useless organs were designed by a Creator in +order to serve some useful end throughout all time to the creature in +which they are found. + +He was not, surely, to hide the magnificent conceptions which he had +been the first to grasp, from those who were worthy to receive them; on +the other hand he would not tell the uninstructed what they would +interpret as a license to do whatever they pleased, inasmuch as there +was no God. What he did was to point so irresistibly in the right +direction, that a reader of any intelligence should be in no doubt as to +the road he ought to take, and then to contradict himself so flatly as +to reassure those who would be shocked by a truth for which they were +not yet ready. If I am right in the view which I have taken of Buffon's +work, it is not easy to see how he could have formed a finer scheme, nor +have carried it out more finely. + +I should, however, warn the reader to be on his guard against accepting +my view too hastily. So far as I know I stand alone in taking it. +Neither Dr. Darwin nor Flourens, nor Isidore Geoffroy, nor Mr. Charles +Darwin see any subrisive humour in Buffon's pages; but it must be +remembered that Flourens was a strong opponent of mutability, and +probably paid but little heed to what Buffon said on this question; +Isidore Geoffroy is not a safe guide, as will appear presently; Mr. +Charles Darwin seems to have adopted the one half of Isidore Geoffroy's +conclusions without verifying either; and Dr. Erasmus Darwin, who has no +small share of a very pleasant conscious humour, yet sometimes rises to +such heights of unconscious humour, that Buffon's puny labour may well +have been invisible to him. Dr. Darwin wrote a great deal of poetry, +some of which was about the common pump. Miss Seward tells us, as we +shall see later on, that he "illustrated this familiar object with a +picture of Maternal Beauty administering sustenance to her infant." +Buffon could not have done anything like this. + +Buffon never, then, "arraigned the Creator for what was wanting or +defective in His works;" on the contrary, whenever he has led up by an +irresistible chain of reasoning to conclusions which should make men +recast their ideas concerning the Deity, he invariably retreats under +cover of an appeal to revelation. Naturally enough, the Sorbonne +objected to an artifice which even Buffon could not conceal completely. +They did not like being undermined; like Buffon himself, they preferred +imposing upon the people, to seeing others do so. Buffon made his peace +with the Sorbonne immediately, and, perhaps, from that time forward, +contradicted himself a little more impudently than heretofore. + +It is probably for the reasons above suggested that Buffon did not +propound a connected scheme of evolution or descent with modification, +but scattered his theory in fragments up and down his work in the +prefatory remarks with which he introduces the more striking animals or +classes of animals. He never wastes evolutionary matter in the preface +to an uninteresting animal; and the more interesting the animal, the +more evolution will there be commonly found. When he comes to describe +the animal more familiarly--and he generally begins a fresh chapter or +half chapter when he does so--he writes no more about evolution, but +gives an admirable description, which no one can fail to enjoy, and +which I cannot think is nearly so inaccurate as is commonly supposed. +These descriptions are the parts which Buffon intended for the general +reader, expecting, doubtless, and desiring that such a reader should +skip the dry parts he had been addressing to the more studious. It is +true the descriptions are written _ad captandum_, as are all great +works, but they succeed in captivating, having been composed with all +the pains a man of genius and of great perseverance could bestow upon +them. If I am not mistaken, he looked to these parts of his work to keep +the whole alive till the time should come when the philosophical side of +his writings should be understood and appreciated. + +Thus the goat breeds with the sheep, and may therefore serve as the text +for a dissertation on hybridism, which is accordingly given in the +preface to this animal. The presence of rudimentary organs under a pig's +hoof suggests an attack upon the doctrine of final causes in so far as +it is pretended that every part of every animal or plant was specially +designed with a view to the wants of the animal or plant itself once and +for ever throughout all time. The dog with his great variety of breeds +gives an opportunity for an article on the formation of breeds and +sub-breeds by man's artificial selection. The cat is not honoured with +any philosophical reflections, and comes in for nothing but abuse. The +hare suggests the rabbit, and the rabbit is a rapid breeder, although +the hare is an unusually slow one; but this is near enough, so the hare +shall serve us for the theme of a discourse on the geometrical ratio of +increase and the balance of power which may be observed in nature. When +we come to the carnivora, additional reflections follow upon the +necessity for death, and even for violent death; this leads to the +question whether the creatures that are killed suffer pain; here, then, +will be the proper place for considering the sensations of animals +generally. + +Perhaps the most pregnant passage concerning evolution is to be found in +the preface to the ass, which is so near the beginning of the work as to +be only the second animal of which Buffon treats after having described +man himself. It points strongly in the direction of his having believed +all animal forms to have been descended from one single common ancestral +type. Buffon did not probably choose to take his very first opportunity +in order to insist upon matter that should point in this direction; but +the considerations were too important to be deferred long, and are +accordingly put forward under cover of the ass, his second animal. + +When we consider the force with which Buffon's conclusion is led up to; +the obviousness of the conclusion itself when the premises are once +admitted; the impossibility that such a conclusion should be again lost +sight of if the reasonableness of its being drawn had been once +admitted; the position in his scheme which is assigned to it by its +propounder; the persistency with which he demonstrates during forty +years thereafter that the premises, which he has declared should +establish the conclusion in question, are indisputable;--when we +consider, too, that we are dealing with a man of unquestionable genius, +and that the times and circumstances of his life were such as would go +far to explain reserve and irony--is it, I would ask, reasonable to +suppose that Buffon did not, in his own mind, and from the first, draw +the inference to which he leads his reader, merely because from time to +time he tells the reader, with a shrug of the shoulders, that _he_ draws +no inferences opposed to the Book of Genesis? Is it not more likely that +Buffon intended his reader to draw his inferences for himself, and +perhaps to value them all the more highly on that account? + +The passage to which I am alluding is as follows:-- + +"If from the boundless variety which animated nature presents to us, we +choose the body of some animal or even that of man himself to serve as a +model with which to compare the bodies of other organized beings, we +shall find that though all these beings have an individuality of their +own, and are distinguished from one another by differences of which the +gradations are infinitely subtle, there exists at the same time a +primitive and general design which we can follow for a long way, and the +departures from which (_degenerations_) are far more gentle than those +from mere outward resemblance. For not to mention organs of digestion, +circulation, and generation, which are common to all animals, and +without which the animal would cease to be an animal, and could neither +continue to exist nor reproduce itself--there is none the less even in +those very parts which constitute the main difference in outward +appearance, a striking resemblance which carries with it irresistibly +the idea of a single pattern after which all would appear to have been +conceived. The horse, for example--what can at first sight seem more +unlike mankind? Yet when we compare man and horse point by point and +detail by detail, is not our wonder excited rather by the points of +resemblance than of difference that are to be found between them? Take +the skeleton of a man; bend forward the bones in the region of the +pelvis, shorten the thigh bones, and those of the leg and arm, lengthen +those of the feet and hands, run the joints together, lengthen the jaws, +and shorten the frontal bone, finally, lengthen the spine, and the +skeleton will now be that of a man no longer, but will have become that +of a horse--for it is easy to imagine that in lengthening the spine and +the jaws we shall at the same time have increased the number of the +vertebrae, ribs, and teeth. It is but in the number of these bones, which +may be considered accessory, and by the lengthening, shortening, or mode +of attachment of others, that the skeleton of the horse differs from +that of the human body.... We find ribs in man, in all the quadrupeds, +in birds, in fishes, and we may find traces of them as far down as the +turtle, in which they seem still to be sketched out by means of furrows +that are to be found beneath the shell. Let it be remembered that the +foot of the horse, which seems so different from a man's hand, is, +nevertheless, as M. Daubenton has pointed out, composed of the same +bones, and that we have at the end of each of our fingers a nail +corresponding to the hoof of a horse's foot. Judge, then, whether this +hidden resemblance is not more marvellous than any outward +differences--whether this constancy to a single plan of structure which +we may follow from man to the quadrupeds, from the quadrupeds to the +cetacea, from the cetacea to birds, from birds to reptiles, from +reptiles to fishes--in which all such essential parts as heart, +intestines, spine, are invariably found--whether, I say, this does not +seem to indicate that the Creator when He made them would use but a +single main idea, though at the same time varying it in every +conceivable way, so that man might admire equally the magnificence of +the execution and the simplicity of the design.[46] + +"If we regard the matter thus, not only the ass and the horse, _but even +man himself, the apes, the quadrupeds, and all animals might be regarded +but as forming members of one and the same family_. But are we to +conclude that within this vast family which the Creator has called into +existence out of nothing, there are other and smaller families, +projected as it were by Nature, and brought forth by her in the natural +course of events and after a long time, of which some contain but two +members, as the ass and the horse, others many members, as the weasel, +martin, stoat, ferret, &c., and that on the same principle there are +families of vegetables, containing ten, twenty, or thirty plants, as the +case may be? If such families had any real existence they could have +been formed only by crossing, by the accumulation of successive +variations (_variation successive_), and by degeneration from an +original type; but if we once admit that there are families of plants +and animals, so that the ass may be of the family of the horse, and +that the one may only differ from the other through degeneration from a +common ancestor, we might be driven to admit that the ape is of the +family of man, that he is but a degenerate man, and that he and man have +had a common ancestor, even as the ass and horse have had. It would +follow then that every family, whether animal or vegetable, had sprung +from a single stock, which after a succession of generations, had become +higher in the case of some of its descendants and lower in that of +others." + +What inference could be more aptly drawn? But it was not one which +Buffon was going to put before the general public. He had said enough +for the discerning, and continues with what is intended to make the +conclusions they should draw even plainer to them, while it conceals +them still more carefully from the general reader. + +"The naturalists who are so ready to establish families among animals +and vegetables, do not seem to have sufficiently considered the +consequences which should follow from their premises, for these would +limit direct creation to as small a number of forms as anyone might +think fit (reduisoient le produit immediat de la creation, a un nombre +d'individus aussi petit que l'on voudroit). _For if it were once shown +that we had right grounds for establishing these families; if the point +were once gained that among animals and vegetables there had been, I do +not say several species, but even a single one, which had been produced +in the course of direct descent from another species; if for example it +could be once shown that the ass was but a degeneration from the +horse--then there is no further limit to be set to the power of nature, +and we should not be wrong in supposing that with sufficient time she +could have evolved all other organized forms from one primordial type +(et l'on n'auroit pas tort de supposer, que d'un seul etre elle a su +tirer avec le temps tous les autres etres organises)._" + +Buffon now felt that he had sailed as near the wind as was desirable. +His next sentence is as follows:-- + +"But no! It is certain _from revelation_ that all animals have alike +been favoured with the grace of an act of direct creation, and that the +first pair of every species issued full formed from the hands of the +Creator."[47] + +This might be taken as _bona fide_, if it had been written by Bonnet, +but it is impossible to accept it from Buffon. It is only those who +judge him at second hand, or by isolated passages, who can hold that he +failed to see the consequences of his own premises. No one could have +seen more clearly, nor have said more lucidly, what should suffice to +show a sympathetic reader the conclusion he ought to come to. Even when +ironical, his irony is not the ill-natured irony of one who is merely +amusing himself at other people's expense, but the serious and +legitimate irony of one who must either limit the circle of those to +whom he appeals, or must know how to make the same language appeal +differently to the different capacities of his readers, and who trusts +to the good sense of the discerning to understand the difficulty of his +position, and make due allowance for it. + +The compromise which he thought fit to put before the public was that +"Each species has a type of which the principal features are engraved in +indelible and eternally permanent characters, while all accessory +touches vary."[48] It would be satisfactory to know where an accessory +touch is supposed to begin and end. + +And again:-- + +"The essential characteristics of every animal have been conserved +without alteration in their most important parts.... The individuals of +each genus still represent the same forms as they did in the earliest +ages, especially in the case of the larger animals" (so that the generic +forms even of the larger animals prove not to be the same, but only +'especially' the same as in the earliest ages).[49] + +This transparently illogical position is maintained ostensibly from +first to last, much in the same spirit as in the two foregoing passages, +written at intervals of thirteen years. But they are to be read by the +light of the earlier one--placed as a lantern to the wary upon the +threshold of his work in 1753--to the effect that a single, well +substantiated case of degeneration would make it conceivable that all +living beings were descended from a single common ancestor. If after +having led up to this by a remorseless logic, a man is found +five-and-twenty years later still substantiating cases of degeneration, +as he has been substantiating them unceasingly in thirty quartos during +the whole interval, there should be little question how seriously we +are to take him when he wishes us to stop short of the conclusions he +has told us we ought to draw from the premises that he has made it the +business of his life to establish--especially when we know that he has a +Sorbonne to keep a sharp eye upon him. + +I believe that if the reader will bear in mind the twofold, serious and +ironical, character of Buffon's work he will understand it, and feel an +admiration for it which will grow continually greater and greater the +more he studies it, otherwise he will miss the whole point. + +Buffon on one of the early pages of his first volume protested against +the introduction of either "_plaisanterie_" or "_equivoque_" (p. 25) +into a serious work. But I have observed that there is an unconscious +irony in most disclaimers of this nature. When a writer begins by saying +that he has "an ineradicable tendency to make things clear," we may +infer that we are going to be puzzled; so when he shows that he is +haunted by a sense of the impropriety of allowing humour to intrude into +his work, we may hope to be amused as well as interested. As showing how +far the objection to humour which he expressed upon his twenty-fifth +page succeeded in carrying him safely over his twenty-sixth and +twenty-seventh, I will quote the following, which begins on page +twenty-six:-- + +"Aldrovandus is the most learned and laborious of all naturalists; after +sixty years of work he has left an immense number of volumes behind him, +which have been printed at various times, the greater number of them +after his death. It would be possible to reduce them to a tenth part if +we could rid them of all useless and foreign matter, and of a prolixity +which I find almost overwhelming; were this only done, his books should +be regarded as among the best we have on the subject of natural history +in its entirety. The plan of his work is good, his classification +distinguished for its good sense, his dividing lines well marked, his +descriptions sufficiently accurate--monotonous it is true, but +painstaking; the historical part of his work is less good; it is often +confused and fabulous, and the author shows too manifestly the credulous +tendencies of his mind. + +"While going over his work, I have been struck with that defect, or +rather excess, which we find in almost all the books of a hundred or a +couple of hundred years ago, and which prevails still among the +Germans--I mean with that quantity of useless erudition with which they +intentionally swell out their works, and the result of which is that +their subject is overlaid with a mass of extraneous matter on which they +enlarge with great complacency, but with no consideration whatever for +their readers. They seem, in fact, to have forgotten what they have to +say in their endeavour to tell us what has been said by other people. + +"I picture to myself a man like Aldrovandus, after he has once conceived +the design of writing a complete natural history. I see him in his +library reading, one after the other, ancients, moderns, philosophers, +theologians, jurisconsults, historians, travellers, poets, and reading +with no other end than with that of catching at all words and phrases +which can be forced from far or near into some kind of relation with his +subject. I see him copying all these passages, or getting them copied +for him, and arranging them in alphabetical order. He fills many +portfolios with all manner of notes, often taken without either +discrimination or research, and at last sets himself to write with a +resolve that not one of all these notes shall remain unused. The result +is that when he comes to his account of the cow or of the hen, he will +tell us all that has ever yet been said about cows or hens; all that the +ancients ever thought about them; all that has ever been imagined +concerning their virtues, characters, and courage; every purpose to +which they have ever yet been put; every story of every old woman that +he can lay hold of; all the miracles which certain religions have +ascribed to them; all the superstitions they have given rise to; all the +metaphors and allegories which poets have drawn from them; the +attributes that have been assigned to them; the representations that +have been made of them in hieroglyphics and armorial bearings, in a word +all the histories and all fables in which there was ever yet any mention +either of a cow or hen. How much natural history is likely to be found +in such a lumber room? and how is one to lay one's hand upon the little +that there may actually be?"[50] + +It is hoped that the reader will see Buffon, much us Buffon saw the +learned Aldrovandus. He should see him going into his library, &c., and +quietly chuckling to himself as he wrote such a passage as the one in +which we lately found him saying that the larger animals had +"especially" the same generic forms as they had always had. And the +reader should probably see Daubenton chuckling also. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] Tom. i. p. 24, 1749. + +[40] Tom. i. p. 40, 1749. + +[41] Vol. i. p. 34, 1749. + +[42] Tom. i. p. 36. + +[43] See p. 88 of this volume; see also p. 155, and 164. + +[44] Tom. i. p. 33. + +[45] 'The Naturalist's Library,' vol. ii. p. 23, Edinburgh, 1843. + +[46] Tom. iv. p. 381, 1753. + +[47] Tom. iv. p. 383, 1753 (this was the first volume on the lower +animals). + +[48] Tom. xiii. p. ix. 1765. + +[49] Sup. tom. v. p. 27, 1778. + +[50] Tom. i. p. 28, 1749. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SUPPOSED FLUCTUATIONS OF OPINION--CAUSES OR MEANS OF THE TRANSFORMATION +OF SPECIES. + + +Enough, perhaps, has been already said to disabuse the reader's mind of +the common misconception of Buffon, namely, that he was more or less of +an elegant trifler with science, who cared rather about the language in +which his ideas were clothed than about the ideas themselves, and that +he did not hold the same opinions for long together; but the accusation +of instability has been made in such high quarters that it is necessary +to refute it still more completely. + +Mr. Darwin, for example, in his "Historical Sketch of the Recent +Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species" prefixed to all the later +editions of his own 'Origin of Species,' says of Buffon that he "was the +first author who, in modern times, has treated" the origin of species +"in a scientific spirit. But," he continues, "as his opinions fluctuated +greatly at different periods, and as he does not enter on the causes or +means of the transformation of species, I need not here enter on +details."[51] + +Mr. Darwin seems to have followed the one half of Isidore Geoffroy St. +Hilaire's "full account of Buffon's conclusions" upon the subject of +descent with modification,[52] to which he refers with approval on the +second page of his historical sketch.[53] + +Turning, then, to Isidore Geoffroy's work, I find that in like manner he +too has been following the one half of what Buffon actually said. But +even so, he awards Buffon very high praise. + +"Buffon," he writes, "is to the doctrine of the mutability of species +what Linnaeus is to that of its fixity. It is only since the appearance +of Buffon's 'Natural History,' and in consequence thereof, that the +mutability of species has taken rank among scientific questions."[54] + + . . . . . . + +"Buffon, who comes next in chronological order after Bacon, follows him +in no other respect than that of time. He is entirely original in +arriving at the doctrine of the variability of organic types, and in +enouncing it after long hesitation, during which one can watch the +labour of a great intelligence freeing itself little by little from the +yoke of orthodoxy. + +"But from this source come difficulties in the interpretation of +Buffon's work which have misled many writers. Buffon expresses +absolutely different opinions in different parts of his natural +history--so much so that partisans and opponents of the doctrine of the +fixity of species have alike believed and still believe themselves at +liberty to claim Buffon as one of the great authorities upon their +side." + +Then follow the quotations upon which M. Geoffroy relies--to which I +will return presently--after which the conclusion runs thus:-- + +"The dates, however, of the several passages in question are sufficient +to explain the differences in their tenor, in a manner worthy of Buffon. +Where are the passages in which Buffon affirms the immutability of +species? At the beginning of his work. His first volume on animals[55] +is dated 1753. The two following are those in which Buffon still shares +the views of Linnaeus; they are dated 1755 and 1756. Of what date are +those in which Buffon declares for variability? From 1761 to 1766. And +those in which, after having admitted variability and declared in favour +of it, he proceeds to limit it? From 1765 to 1778. + +"The inference is sufficiently simple. Buffon does but correct himself. +He does not fluctuate. He goes once for all from one opinion to the +other, from what he accepted at starting on the authority of another to +what he recognized as true after twenty years of research. If while +trying to set himself free from the prevailing notions, he in the first +instance went, like all other innovators, somewhat to the opposite +extreme, he essays as soon as may be to retrace his steps in some +measure, and thenceforward to remain unchanged. + +"Let the reader cast his eye over the general table of contents wherein +Buffon, at the end of his 'Natural History,' gives a _resume_ of all of +it that he is anxious to preserve. He passes over alike the passages in +which he affirms and those in which he unreservedly denies the +immutability of species, and indicates only the doctrine of the +permanence of essential features and the variability of details (toutes +les touches accessoires); he repeats this eleven years later in his +'Epoques de la Nature'" (published 1778).[56] + +But I think I can show that the passages which M. Geoffroy brings +forward, to prove that Buffon was in the first instance a supporter of +invariability, do not bear him out in the deduction he has endeavoured +to draw from them. + +"What author," he asks, "has ever pronounced more decidedly than Buffon +in favour of the invariability of species? Where can we find a more +decided expression of opinion than the following? + +"'The different species of animals are separated from one another by a +space which Nature cannot overstep.'" + +On turning, however, to Buffon himself, I find the passage to stand as +follows:-- + +"_Although_ the different species of animals are separated from one +another by a space which Nature cannot overstep--_yet some of them +approach so nearly to one another in so many respects that there is only +room enough left for the getting in of a line of separation between +them_,"[57] and on the following page he distinctly encourages the idea +of the mutability of species in the following passage:-- + +"In place of regarding the ass as a degenerate horse, there would be +more reason in calling the horse a more perfect kind of ass (un ane +perfectionne), and the sheep a more delicate kind of goat, that we have +tended, perfected, and propagated for our use, and that the more perfect +animals in general--especially the domestic animals--_draw their origin +from some less perfect species of that kind of wild animal which they +most resemble. Nature alone not being able to do as much as Nature and +man can do in concert with one another_."[58] + +But Buffon had long ago declared that if the horse and the ass could be +considered as being blood relations there was no stopping short of the +admission that all animals might also be blood relations--that is to +say, descended from common ancestors--and now he tells us that the ass +and horse _are_ in all probability descended from common ancestors. Will +a reader of any literary experience hold that so laborious, and yet so +witty a writer, and one so studious of artistic effect, could ignore the +broad lines he had laid down for himself, or forget how what he had said +would bear on subsequent passages, and subsequent passages on it? A less +painstaking author than Buffon may yet be trusted to remember his own +work well enough to avoid such literary bad workmanship as this. If +Buffon had seen reason to change his mind he would have said so, and +would have contradicted the inference he had originally pronounced to be +deducible from an admission of kinship between the ass and the horse. +This, it is hardly necessary to say, he never does, though he frequently +thinks it well to remind his reader of the fact that the ass and the +horse are in all probability closely related. This is bringing two and +two together with sufficient closeness for all practical purposes. + +Should not M. Geoffroy's question, then, have rather been "Who has ever +pronounced more grudgingly, even in an early volume, &c., &c., and who +has more completely neutralized whatever concession he might appear to +have been making?" + +Nor does the only other passage which M. Geoffroy brings forward to +prove that Buffon was originally a believer in the fixity of species +bear him out much better. It is to be found on the opening page of a +brief introduction to the wild animals. M. Geoffroy quotes it thus: "We +shall see Nature dictating her laws, so simple yet so unchangeable, and +imprinting her own immutable characters upon every species." But M. +Geoffroy does not give the passage which, on the same page, admits +mutability among domesticated animals, in the case of which he declares +we find Nature "rarement perfectionnee, souvent alteree, defiguree;" nor +yet does he deem it necessary to show that the context proves that this +unchangeableness of wild animals is only relative; and this he should +certainly have done, for two pages later on Buffon speaks of the +American tigers, lions, and panthers as being "degenerated, if their +original nature was cruel and ferocious; or, rather, they have +experienced the effect of climate, and under a milder sky have assumed a +milder nature, their excesses have become moderated, and by the changes +which they have undergone they have become more in conformity with the +country they inhabit."[59] + +And again:-- + +"If we consider each species in the different climates which it +inhabits, we shall find perceptible varieties as regards size and form: +they all derive an impress to a greater or less extent from the climate +in which they live. _These changes are only made slowly and +imperceptibly._ Nature's great workman is Time. He marches ever with an +even pace, and does nothing by leaps and bounds, but by degrees, +gradations, and succession he does all things; and the changes which he +works--at first imperceptible--become little by little perceptible, and +show themselves eventually in results about which there can be no +mistake. + +"Nevertheless animals in a free, wild state are perhaps less subject +than any other living beings, man not excepted, to alterations, changes, +and variations of all kinds. Being free to choose their own food and +climate, they vary less than domestic animals vary."[60] The conditions +of their existence, in fact, remaining practically constant, the animals +are no less constant themselves. + +The writer of the above could hardly be claimed as a very thick and thin +partisan of immutability, even though he had not shown from the first +how clearly he saw that there was no middle position between the denial +of all mutability, and the admission that in the course of sufficient +time any conceivable amount of mutability is possible. I will give a +considerable part of what I have found in the first six volumes of +Buffon to bear one way or the other on his views concerning the +mutability of species; and I think the reader, so far from agreeing with +M. Isidore Geoffroy that Buffon began his work with a belief in the +fixity of species, will find, that from the very first chapter onward, +he leant strongly to mutability, even if he did not openly avow his +belief in it. + +In support of this assertion, one quotation must suffice:-- + +"Nature advances by gradations which pass unnoticed. She passes from one +species, and often from one genus to another by imperceptible degrees, +so that we meet with a great number of mean species and objects of such +doubtful characters that we know not where to place them."[61] + +The reader who turns to Buffon himself will find the idea that Buffon +took a less advanced position in his old age than he had taken in middle +life is also without foundation. + +Mr. Darwin has said that Buffon "does not enter into the causes or means +of the transformation of species." It is not easy to admit the justice +of this. Independently of his frequently insisting on the effect of all +kinds of changed surroundings, he has devoted a long chapter of over +sixty quarto pages to this very subject; it is to be found in his +fourteenth volume, and is headed "De la Degeneration des Animaux," of +which words "On descent with modification" will be hardly more than a +literal translation. I shall give a fuller but still too brief outline +of the chapter later on, and will confine myself here to saying that the +three principal causes of modification which Buffon brings forward are +changes of climate, of food, and the effects of domestication. He may +be said to have attributed variation to the direct and specific action +of changed conditions of life, and to have had but little conception of +the view which he was himself to suggest to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and +through him to Lamarck. + +Isidore Geoffroy, writing of Lamarck, and comparing his position with +that taken by Buffon, says, on the whole truly, that "what Buffon +ascribes to the general effects of climate, Lamarck maintains to be +caused, especially in the case of animals, by the force of habits; _so +that, according to him, they are not, properly speaking, modified by the +conditions of their existence, but are only induced by these conditions +to set about modifying themselves_."[62] But it is very hard to say how +much Buffon saw and how much he did not see. He may be trusted to have +seen that if he once allowed the thin end of this wedge into his system, +he could no more assign limits to the effect which living forms might +produce upon their own organisms by effort and ingenuity in the course +of long time, than he could set limits to what he had called the power +of Nature if he was once to admit that an ass and a horse might, through +that power, have been descended from a common ancestor. Nevertheless, he +shows no unwillingness or recalcitrancy about letting the wedge enter, +for he speaks of domestication as inducing modifications "sufficiently +profound to become constant and hereditary in successive generations ... +_by its action on bodily habits it influences also their natures, +instincts, and most inward qualities_."[63] + +This is a very thick thin end to have been allowed to slip in unawares; +but it is astonishing how little Buffon can see when he likes. I hardly +doubt but he would have been well enough pleased to have let the wedge +enter still farther, but this fluctuating writer had assigned himself +his limits some years before, and meant adhering to them. Again, in this +very chapter on Degeneration, to which M. Geoffroy has referred, there +are passages on the callosities on a camel's knees, on the llama, and on +the haunches of pouched monkeys which might have been written by Dr. +Darwin himself.[64] They will appear more fully presently. Buffon now +probably felt that he had said enough, and that others might be trusted +to carry the principle farther when the time was riper for its +enforcement. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[51] 'Origin of Species,' p. xiii. ed. 1876. + +[52] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 405, 1859. + +[53] 'Origin of Species,' p. xiv. 1876. + +[54] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 383. + +[55] Tom. iv. + +[56] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 391, 1859. + +[57] Tom. v. p. 59, 1755. + +[58] Tom. v. p. 60. + +[59] Tom. vi. p. 58, 1756. + +[60] Tom. vi. pp. 59-60, 1756. + +[61] Tom. i. p. 13, 1749. + +[62] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 411, 1859. + +[63] Tom. xi. p. 290, 1764 (misprinted on title-page 1754). + +[64] See tom. xiv. p. 326, 1766; and p. 162 of this volume. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +BUFFON--FULLER QUOTATIONS. + + +Let us now proceed to those fuller quotations which may answer the +double purpose of bearing me out in the view of Buffon's work which I +have taken in the foregoing pages, and of inducing the reader to turn to +Buffon himself. + +I have already said that from the very commencement of his work Buffon +showed a proclivity towards considerations which were certain to lead +him to a theory of evolution, even though he had not, as I believe he +had, already taken a more comprehensive view of the subject than he +thought fit to proclaim unreservedly. + +In 1749, at the beginning of his first volume he writes:-- + +"The first truth that makes itself apparent on serious study of Nature, +is one that man may perhaps find humiliating; it is this--that he, too, +must take his place in the ranks of animals, being, as he is, an animal +in every material point. It is possible also that the instinct of the +lower animals will strike him as more unerring, and their industry more +marvellous than his own. Then, running his eye over the different +objects of which the universe is composed, he will observe with +astonishment that we can descend by almost imperceptible degrees from +the most perfect creature to the most formless matter--from the most +highly organized animal to the most entirely inorganic substance. He +will recognize this gradation as the great work of Nature; and he will +observe it not only as regards size and form, but also in respect of +movements, and in the successive generations of every species.[65] + +"Hence," he continues, "arises the difficulty of arriving at any perfect +system or method in dealing either with Nature as a whole or even with +any single one of her subdivisions. The gradations are so subtle that we +are often obliged to make arbitrary divisions. Nature knows nothing +about our classifications, and does not choose to lend herself to them +without reserve. We therefore see a number of intermediate species and +objects which it is very hard to classify, and which of necessity +derange our system whatever it may be."[66] + +"The attempt to form perfect systems has led to such disastrous results +that it is now more easy to learn botany than the terminology which has +been adopted as its language."[67] + +After saying that "_la marche de la Nature_" has been misunderstood, and +that her progress has ever been by a succession of slow steps, he +maintains that the only proper course is to class together whatever +objects resemble one another, and to separate those which are unlike. If +individual specimens are absolutely alike, or differ so little that the +differences can hardly be perceived, they must be classed as of the same +species; if the differences begin to be perceptible, but if at the same +time there is more resemblance than difference, the individuals +presenting these features should be classed as of a different species, +but as of the same genus; if the differences are still more marked, but +nevertheless do not exceed the resemblances, then they must be taken as +not only specific but generic, though as not sufficient to warrant +the individuals in which they appear, being placed in different +classes. If they are still greater, then the individuals are not even +of the same class; but it should be always understood that the +resemblances and differences are to be considered in reference to the +entirety of the plant or animal, and not in reference to any particular +part only.[68] The two rocks which are equally to be avoided are, on +the one hand, absence of method, and, on the other, a tendency to +over-systematize.[69] + +Like Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and more recently Mr. Francis Darwin, Buffon is +more struck with the resemblances than with the differences between +animals and plants, but he supposes the vegetable kingdom to be a +continuation of the animal, extending lower down the scale, instead of +holding as Dr. Darwin did, that animals and vegetables have been +contemporaneous in their degeneration from a common stock. + +"We see," he writes, "that there is no absolute and essential difference +between animals and vegetables, but that Nature descends by subtle +gradations from what we deem the most perfect animal to one which is +less so, and again from this to the vegetable. The fresh-water polypus +may perhaps be considered as the lowest animal, and as at the same time +the highest plant."[70] + +Looking to the resemblances between animals and plants, he declares that +their modes of reproduction and growth involve such close analogy that +no difference of an essential nature can be admitted between them.[71] + +On the other hand, Buffon appears, at first sight, to be more struck +with the points of difference between the mental powers of the lower +animals and man than with those which they present in common. It is +impossible, however, to accept this as Buffon's real opinion, on the +strength of isolated passages, and in face of a large number of others +which point stealthily but irresistibly to an exactly opposite +conclusion. We find passages which show a clear apprehension of facts +that the world is only now beginning to consider established, followed +by others which no man who has kept a dog or cat will be inclined to +agree with. I think I have already explained this sufficiently by +referring it to the impossibility of his taking any other course under +the circumstances of his own position and the times in which he lived. +Buffon does not deal with such pregnant facts, as, for example, the +geometrical ratio of increase, in such manner as to suggest that he was +only half aware of their importance and bearing. On the contrary, in the +very middle of those passages which, if taken literally, should most +shake confidence in his judgment, there comes a sustaining sentence, so +quiet that it shall pass unnoticed by all who are not attentive +listeners, yet so encouraging to those who are taking pains to +understand their author that their interest is revived at once. + +Thus, he has insisted, and means insisting much further, on the many +points of resemblance between man and the lower animals, and it has now +become necessary to neutralize the effect of what he has written upon +the minds of those who are not yet fitted to see instinct and reason as +differentiations of a single faculty. He accordingly does this, and, as +is his wont, he does it handsomely; so handsomely that even his most +admiring followers begin to be uncomfortable. Whereon he begins his next +paragraph with "Animals have excellent senses, but not _generally, all +of them_, as good as man's."[72] We have heard of damning with faint +praise. Is not this to praise with faint damnation? Yet we can lay hold +of nothing. It was not Buffon's intention that we should. An ironical +writer, concerning whom we cannot at once say whether he is in earnest +or not, is an actor who is continually interrupting his performance in +order to remind the spectator that he is acting. Complaint, then, +against an ironical writer on the score that he puzzles us, is a +complaint against irony itself; for a writer is not ironical unless he +puzzles. He should not puzzle unless he believes that this is the best +manner of making his reader understand him in the end, or without having +a _bonne bouche_ for those who will be at the pains to puzzle over him; +and he should make it plain that for long parts of his work together he +is to be taken according to the literal interpretation of his words; +but if he has observed the above duly, he is a successful or +unsuccessful writer according as he puzzles or fails to do so, and +should be praised or blamed accordingly. To condemn irony entirely, is +to say that there should be no people allowed to go about the world but +those to whom irony would be an impertinence. + +Having already in some measure reassured us by the faintness with which +he disparages the senses of the lower animals, Buffon continues, that +these senses, whether in man or in animals, may be greatly developed by +exercise: which we may suppose that a man of even less humour than +Buffon must know to be great nonsense, unless it be taken to involve +that animals as well as man can reflect and remember; it now, therefore, +becomes necessary to reassure the other side, and to maintain that +animals cannot reflect, and have no memory. "_Je crois_," he writes, +"_qu'on peut demontrer que les animaux n'ont aucune connaissance du +passe, aucune idee du temps, et que par consequent ils n'ont pas la +memoire_."[73] + +I am ashamed of even arguing seriously against the supposition that this +was Buffon's real opinion. The very sweepingness of the assertion, the +baldness, and I might say brutality with which it is made, are +convincing in their suggestiveness of one who is laughing very quietly +in his sleeve. + +"Society," he continues, later on, "considered even in the case of a +single human family, involves the power of reason; it involves feeling +in such of the lower animals as form themselves into societies freely +and of their own accord, but it involves nothing whatever in the case of +bees, who have found themselves thrown together through no effort of +their own. Such societies can only be, and it is plain have only been, +the results--neither foreseen, nor ordained, nor conceived by those who +achieve them--of the universal mechanism and of the laws of movement +established by the Creator."[74] A hive of bees, in fact, is to be +considered as composed of "ten thousand animated automata."[75] Years +later he repeats these views with little if any modification.[76] A +still more remarkable passage is to be found a little farther on. "If," +he asks, "animals have neither understanding, mind, nor memory, if they +are wholly without intelligence, and if they are limited to the exercise +and experience of feeling only," and it must be remembered that Buffon +has denied all these powers to the inferior animals, "whence comes that +remarkable prescient instinct which so many of them exhibit? Is the mere +power of feeling sensations sufficient to make them garner up food +during the summer, on which food they may subsist in winter? Does not +this involve the power of comparing dates, and the idea of a coming +future, an '_inquietude raisonnee_'? Why do we find in the hole of the +field-mouse enough acorns to keep him until the following summer? Why do +we find such an abundant store of honey and wax within the bee-hive? Why +do ants store food? Why should birds make nests if they do not know that +they will have need of them? Whence arise the stories that we hear of +the wisdom of foxes, which hide their prey in different spots, that they +may find it at their need and live upon it for days together? Or of the +subtilty of owls, which husband their store of mice by biting off their +feet, so that they cannot run away? Or of the marvellous penetration of +bees, which know beforehand that their queen should lay so many eggs in +such and such a time, and that so many of these eggs should be of a kind +which will develop into drones, and so many more of such another kind as +should become neuters; and who in consequence of this their +foreknowledge build so many larger cells for the first, and so many +smaller for the second?"[77] + +Buffon answers these questions thus:-- + +"Before replying to them," he says, "we should make sure of the facts +themselves;--are they to be depended upon? Have they been narrated by +men of intelligence and philosophers, or are they popular fables only?" +(How many delightful stories of the same character does he not soon +proceed to tell us himself). "I am persuaded that all these pretended +wonders will disappear, and the cause of each one of them be found upon +due examination. But admitting their truth for a moment, and granting to +the narrators of them that animals have a presentiment, a forethought, +and even a certainty concerning coming events, does it therefore follow +that this should spring from intelligence? If so, theirs is assuredly +much greater than our own. For our foreknowledge amounts to conjecture +only; the vaunted light of our reason doth but suffice to show us a +little probability; whereas the forethought of animals is unerring, and +must spring from some principle far higher than any we know of through +our own experience. Does not such a consequence, I ask, _prove repugnant +alike to religion and common sense_?"[78] + +This is Buffon's way. Whenever he has shown us clearly what we ought to +think, he stops short suddenly on religious grounds. It is incredible +that the writer who at the very commencement of his work makes man take +his place among the animals, and who sees a subtle gradation extending +over all living beings "from the most perfect creature"--who must be +man--"to the most entirely inorganic substance"--I say it is incredible +that such a writer should not see that he had made out a stronger case +in favour of the reason of animals than against it. + +According to him, the test whether a thing is to have such and such a +name is whether it looks fairly like other things to which the same name +is given; if it does, it is to have the name; if it does not, it is not. +No one accepted this lesson more heartily than Dr. Darwin, whose shrewd +and homely mind, if not so great as Buffon's, was still one of no common +order. Let us see the view he took of this matter. He writes:-- + +"If we were better acquainted with the histories of those insects which +are formed into societies, as the bees, wasps, and ants, I make no doubt +but we should find that their arts and improvements are not so similar +and uniform as they now appear to us, but that they arose in the same +manner from experience and tradition, as the arts of our own species; +though their reasoning is from fewer ideas, is busied about fewer +objects, and is executed with less energy."[79] + +And again, a little later:-- + +"According to the late observations of Mr. Hunter, it appears that +beeswax is not made from the dust of the anthers of flowers, which they +bring home on their thighs, but that this makes what is termed +bee-bread, and is used for the purpose of feeding the bee-maggots; in +the same way butterflies live on honey, but the previous caterpillar +lives on vegetable leaves, while the maggots of large flies require +flesh for their food. What induces the bee, who lives on honey, to lay +up vegetable powder for its young? What induces the butterfly to lay its +eggs on leaves when itself feeds on honey?... If these are not +deductions from their own previous experience or observation, all the +actions of mankind must be resolved into instincts."[80] + +Or again:-- + +"Common worms stop up their holes with leaves or straws to prevent the +frost from injuring them, or the centipes from devouring them. The +habits of peace or the stratagems of war of these subterranean nations +are covered from our view; but a friend of mine prevailed on a +distressed worm to enter the hole of another worm on a bowling green, +and he presently returned much wounded about the head, ... which +evinces they have design in stopping the mouths of their +habitations."[81] + +Does it not look as if Dr. Darwin had in his mind the very passage of +Buffon which I have been last quoting? and is it likely that the facts +which were accepted by Dr. Darwin without question, or the conclusions +which were obvious to him, were any less accepted by or obvious to +Buffon? + + +_The Goat--Hybridism._ + +In his prefatory remarks upon the goat, Buffon complains of the want of +systematic and certified experiment as to what breeds and species will +be fertile _inter se_, and with what results. The passage is too long to +quote, but is exceedingly good, and throughout involves belief in a very +considerable amount of modification in the course of successive +generations. I may give the following as an example:-- + +"We do not know whether or no the zebra would breed with the horse or +ass--whether the large-tailed Barbary sheep would be fertile if crossed +with our own--whether the chamois is not a wild goat; and whether it +would not form an intermediate breed if crossed with our domesticated +goats; we do not know whether the differences between apes are really +specific, or whether apes are not like dogs, one single species, of +which there are many different breeds.... Our ignorance concerning all +these facts is almost inevitable, as the experiments which would decide +them require more time, pains, and money than can be spared from, the +life and fortune of an ordinary man. I have spent many years in +experiments of this kind, and will give my results when I come to my +chapter on mules; but I may as well say at once that they have thrown +but little light upon the subject, and have been for the most part +unsuccessful."[82] + +"But these," he continues, "are the very points which must determine our +whole knowledge concerning animals, their right division into species, +and the true understanding of their history." He proposes therefore, in +the present lack of knowledge, "to regard all animals as different +species which do not breed together under our eyes," and to leave time +and experiment to correct mistakes.[83] + + +_The Pig--Doctrine of Final Causes._ + +We have seen that the doctrine of the mutability of species has been +unfortunately entangled with that of final causes, or the belief that +every organ and every part of each animal or plant has been designed to +serve some purpose useful to the animal, and this not only useful at +some past time, but useful now, and for all time to come. He who +believes species to be mutable will see in many organs signs of the +history of the individual, but nothing more. Buffon, as I have said, is +explicit in his denial of final causes in the sense expressed above. +After pointing out that the pig is an animal whose relation to other +animals it is difficult to define, he says:-- + +"In a word, it is of a nature altogether equivocal and ambiguous, or, +rather, it must appear so to those who believe the hypothetical order of +their own ideas to be the real order of things, and who see nothing in +the infinite chain of existences but a few apparent points to which they +will refer everything. + +"But we cannot know Nature by inclosing her action within the narrow +circle of our own thoughts.... Instead of limiting her action, we should +extend it through immensity itself; we should regard nothing as +impossible, but should expect to find all things--supposing that all +things are possible--nay, _are_. Doubtful species, then, irregular +productions, anomalous existences will henceforth no longer surprise us, +and will find their place in the infinite order of things as duly as any +others. They fill up the links of the chain; they form knots and +intermediate points, and also they mark its extremities: they are of +especial value to human intelligence, as providing it with cases in +which Nature, being less in conformity with herself, is taken more +unawares, so that we can recognize singular characters and fleeting +traits which show us that her ends are much more general than are our +own views of those ends, and that, though she does nothing in vain, yet +she does but little with the designs which we ascribe to her."[84] + +"The pig," he continues, "is not formed on an original, special, and +perfect type; its type is compounded of that of many other animals. It +has parts which are evidently useless, or which at any rate it cannot +use--such as toes, all the bones of which are perfectly formed but +which are yet of no service to it. Nature then is far from subjecting +herself to final causes in the composition of her creatures. Why should +she not sometimes add superabundant parts, seeing she so often omits +essential ones?" "How many animals are there not which lack sense and +limbs? Why is it considered so necessary that every part in an +individual should be useful to the other parts and to the whole animal? +Should it not be enough that they do not injure each other nor stand in +the way of each other's fair development? All parts coexist which do not +injure each other enough to destroy each other, and perhaps in the +greater number of living beings the parts which must be considered as +relative, useful, or necessary, are fewer than those which are +indifferent, useless, and superabundant. But we--ever on the look out to +refer all parts to a certain end--when we can see no apparent use for +them suppose them to have hidden uses, and imagine connections which are +without foundation, and serve only to obscure our perception of Nature +as she really is: we fail to see that we thus rob philosophy of her true +character, which is to inquire into the 'how' of things--into the manner +in which Nature acts--and that we substitute for this true object a vain +idea, seeking to divine the 'why'--the ends which she has proposed in +acting."[85] + + +_The Dog--Varieties in consequence of Man's Selection._ + +"Of all animals the dog is most susceptible of impressions, and becomes +most easily modified by moral causes. He is also the one whose nature +is most subject to the variations and alterations caused by physical +influences: he varies to a prodigious extent, in temperament, mental +powers, and in habits: his very form is not constant;" ... but presents +so many differences that "dogs have nothing in common but conformity of +interior organization, and the power of interbreeding freely."... + +... "How then can we detect the characters of the original race? How +recognize the effects produced by climate, food, &c.? How, again, +distinguish these from those other effects which come from the +intermixture of races, either when wild or in a state of domestication? +All these causes, in the course of time, alter even the most constant +forms, so that the imprint of Nature does not preserve its sharpness in +races which man has dealt with largely. Those animals which are free to +choose climate and food for themselves can best conserve their original +character, ... but those which man has subjected to his own +influence--which he has taken with him from clime to clime, whose food, +habits, and manner of life he has altered--must also have changed their +form far more than others; and as a matter of fact we find much greater +variety in the species of domesticated animals than in those of wild +ones. Of all these, however, the dog is the one most closely attached to +man, living like man the least regular manner of life; he is also the +one whose feelings so master him as to make him docile, obedient, +susceptible of every kind of impression, and even of every kind of +constraint; it is not surprising, then, that he should of all animals +present us with the greatest variety in shape, stature, colour, and all +physical and mental qualities." + +Here again the direct cause of modification is given as being the inner +feelings of the animal modified, change of conditions being the indirect +cause as with Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck. + +"Other circumstances, however, concur to produce these results. The dog +is short-lived: he breeds often and freely: he is perpetually under the +eye of man; hence when--by some chance common enough with Nature--a +variation or special feature has made its appearance, man has tried to +perpetuate it by uniting together the individuals in which it has +appeared, as people do now who wish to form new breeds of dogs and other +animals. Moreover, though species were all formed at the same time, yet +the number of generations since the creation has been much greater in +the short-lived than in the long-lived species: hence variations, +alterations, and departure from the original type, may be expected to +have become more perceptible in the case of animals which are so much +farther removed from their original stock. + +"Man is now eight times nearer Adam than the dog is to the first +dog--for man lives eighty years, while the dog lives but ten. If, then, +these species have an equal tendency to depart from their original type, +the departure should be eight times more apparent with the dog than with +man."[86] + +Here follow remarks upon the great variability of ephemeral insects and +of animal plants, on the impossibility of discovering the parent-stock +of our wheat and of others of our domesticated plants,[87] and on the +tendency of both plants and animals to resume feral characteristics on +becoming wild again after domestication.[88] + + +_The Hare--Geometrical Ratio of Increase._ + +We have already seen that it was Buffon's pleasure to consider the hare +a rabbit for the time being, and to make it the text for a discourse +upon fecundity. I have no doubt he enjoyed doing this, and would have +found comparatively little pleasure in preaching the same discourse upon +the rabbit. Speaking of the way in which even the races of mankind have +struggled and crowded each other out, Buffon says:-- + +"These great events--these well-marked epochs in the history of the +human race--are yet but ripples, as it were, on the current of life; +which, as a general rule, flows onward evenly and in equal volume. + +"It may be said that the movement of Nature turns upon two immovable +pivots--one, the illimitable fecundity which she has given to all +species; the other, the innumerable difficulties which reduce the +results of that fecundity, and leave throughout time nearly the same +quantity of individuals in every species.[89]... Taking the earth as a +whole, and the human race in its entirety, the numbers of mankind, like +those of animals, should remain nearly constant throughout time; for +they depend upon an equilibrium of physical causes which has long since +been reached, and which neither man's moral nor his physical efforts can +disturb, inasmuch as these moral efforts do but spring from physical +causes, of which they are the special effects. No matter what care man +may take of his own species, he can only make it more abundant in one +place by destroying it or diminishing its numbers in another. When one +part of the globe is overpeopled, men emigrate, spread themselves over +other countries, destroy one another, and establish laws and customs +which sometimes only too surely prevent excess of population. In those +climates where fecundity is greatest, as in China, Egypt, and Guinea, +they banish, mutilate, sell, or drown infants. Here, we condemn them to +a perpetual celibacy. Those who are in being find it easy to assert +rights over the unborn. Regarding themselves as the necessary, they +annihilate the contingent, and suppress future generations for their own +pleasure and advantage. Man does for his own race, without perceiving +it, what he does also for the inferior animals: that is to say, he +protects it and encourages it to increase, or neglects it according to +his sense of need--according as advantage or inconvenience is expected +as the consequence of either course. And since all these moral effects +themselves depend upon physical causes, which have been in permanent +equilibrium ever since the world was formed, it follows that the numbers +of mankind, like those of animals, should remain constant. + +"Nevertheless, this fixed state, this constant number, is not absolute, +all physical and moral causes, and all the results which spring from +them, balance themselves, as though, upon a see-saw, which has a certain +play, but never so much as that equilibrium should be altogether lost. +As everything in the universe is in movement, and as all the forces +which are contained in matter act one against the other and +counterbalance one another, all is done by a kind of oscillation; of +which the mean points are those to which we refer as being the ordinary +course of nature, while the extremes are the periods which deviate from +that course most widely. And, as a matter of fact, with animals as much +as with plants, a time of unusual fecundity is commonly followed by one +of sterility; abundance and dearth come alternately, and often at such +short intervals that we may foretell the production of a coming year by +our knowledge of the past one. Our apples, pears, oaks, beeches, and the +greater number of our fruit and forest trees, bear freely but about one +year in two. Caterpillars, cockchafers, woodlice, which in one year may +multiply with great abundance, will appear but sparsely in the next. +What indeed would become of all the good things of the earth, what would +become of the useful animals, and indeed of man himself, if each +individual in these years of excess was to leave its quotum of +offspring? This, however, does not happen, for destruction and sterility +follow closely upon excessive fecundity, and, independently of the +contagion which follows inevitably upon overcrowding, each species has +its own special sources of death and destruction, which are of +themselves sufficient to compensate for excess in any past generation. + +"Nevertheless the foregoing should not be taken in an absolute sense, +nor yet too strictly,--especially in the case of those races which are +not left entirely to the care of Nature. Those which man takes care +of--commencing with his own--are more abundant than they would be +without his care, yet, as his power of taking this care is limited, the +increase which has taken place is also fixed, and has long been +restrained within impassable boundaries. Again, though in civilized +countries man, and all the animals useful to him, are more numerous than +in other places, yet their numbers never become excessive, for the same +power which brings them into being destroys them as soon as they are +found inconvenient."[90] + + +_The Carnivora--Sensation._ + +Buffon begins his seventh volume with some remarks on the _carnivora_ in +general, which I would gladly quote at fuller length than my space will +allow. He dwells on the fact that the number, as well as the fecundity +of the insect races is greater than that of the mammalia, and even than +of plants; and he points out that "violent death is almost as necessary +an usage as is the law that we must all, in one way or another, die." +This leads him to the question whether animals can feel. "To speak +seriously," (au reel) he says (and why this, if he had always spoken +seriously?[91]), "can we doubt that those animals whose organization +resembles our own, feel the same sensations as we do? They must feel, +for they have senses, and they must feel more and more in proportion as +their senses are more active and more perfect." Those whose organ of any +sense is imperfect, have but imperfect perception in respect of that +sense; and those that are entirely without the organ want also all +corresponding sensation. "Movement is the necessary consequence of acts +of perception. I have already shown that in whatever manner a living +being is organized, if it has perceptions at all, it cannot fail to show +that it has them by some kind of movement of its body. Hence plants, +though highly organized, have no feeling, any more than have those +animals which, like plants, manifest no power of motion. Among animals +there are those which, like the sensitive plant, have but a certain +power of movement about their own parts, and which have no power of +locomotion; such animals have as yet but little perception. Those, +again, which have power of locomotion, but which, like automata, do but +a small number of things, and always after the same fashion, can have +only small powers of perception, and these limited to a small number of +objects. But in the case of man, what automata, indeed, have we not +here! How much do not education and the intercommunication of ideas +increase our powers and vivacity of perception. What difference can we +not see in this respect between civilized and uncivilized races, between +the peasant girl, and the woman of the world? And in like manner among +animals, those which live with us have their perceptions increased in +range, while those that are wild have but their natural instinct, which +is often more certain but always more limited in range than is the +intelligence of domesticated animals."[92] + + . . . . . . + +"For perception to exist in its fullest development in any animal body, +that body must form a whole--an _ensemble_, which shall not only be +capable of feeling in all its parts, but shall be so arranged that all +these feeling parts shall have a close correspondence with one another, +and that no one of them can be disturbed without communicating a portion +of that disturbance to every other part. There must also be a single +chief centre, with which all these different disturbances may be +connected, and from which, as from a common _point d'appui_, the +reactions against them may take their rise. Hence man, and those animals +whose organization most resembles man's, will be the most capable of +perceptions, while those whose unity is less complete, whose parts have +a less close correspondence with each other--which have several centres +of sensation, and which seem, in consequence, less to envelope a single +existence in a single body than to contain many centres of existence +separated and different from one another--these will have fewer and +duller perceptions. The polypus, which can be reproduced by fission; the +wasp, whose head even after separation from the body still moves, lives, +acts, and even eats as heretofore; the lizard which we deprive neither +of sensation nor movement by cutting off part of its body; the lobster +which can restore its amputated limbs; the turtle whose heart beats long +after it has been plucked out, in a word all the animals whose +organization differs from our own, have but small powers of perception, +and the smaller the more they differ from us."[93] + +This is Buffon's way of satirizing our inability to bear in mind that we +are compelled to judge all things by our own standards. He also wishes +to reassure those who might be alarmed at the tendency of some of his +foregoing remarks, and who he knew would find comfort in being told that +a thing which does not express itself as they do does not feel at all. + +The diaphragm according to Buffon appears to be the centre of the powers +of sensation; the slightest injury "even to the attachments of the +diaphragm is followed by strong convulsions, and even by death. The +brain which has been called the seat of 'sensations' is yet not the +centre of 'perception,' since we can wound it, and even take +considerable parts of it away, without death's ensuing, and without +preventing an animal from living, moving and feeling in all its parts." + +Buffon thus distinguishes between "sensation" and "perception." +"Sensation," he says, "is simply the activity of a sense, but perception +is the pleasantness or unpleasantness of this sensation," "perceived by +its being propagated and becoming active throughout the entire system." +I have therefore several times, when translating from Buffon, rendered +the word "_sentiment_" by "perception," and shall continue to do so. "I +say," writes Buffon, "the pleasantness or unpleasantness, because this +is the very essence of perception; the one feature of perception +consists in perceiving either pain or pleasure; and though movements +which do not affect us in either one or the other of these two ways may +indeed take place within us, yet we are indifferent to them, and do not +perceive that we are affected by them. All external movement, and all +exercise of the animal powers, spring from perception; its action is +proportionate to the extent of its excitation, to the extent of the +feeling which is being felt.[94] And this same part, which we regard as +the centre of sensation, will also be that of all the animal powers; or, +if it is preferred to call it so, it will be the common _point d'appui_ +from which they all take rise. The diaphragm is to the animal what the +'stock' is to the plant; both divide an organism transversely, both +serve as the _point d'appui_ of opposing forces; for the forces which +push upward those parts of a tree which should form its trunk and +branches, bear upon and are supported by the 'stock,' as do those +opposing forces, which drive the roots downwards. + + . . . . . . + +"Even on a cursory examination we can see that all our innermost +affections, our most lively emotions, our most expansive moments of +delight, and, on the other hand, our sudden starts, pains, sicknesses, +and swoons--in fact, all our strong impressions concerning the pleasure +or pain of any sensation--make themselves felt within the body, and +about the region of the diaphragm. The brain, on the contrary, shows no +sign of being a seat of perception. In the head there are pure +sensations and nothing else, or rather, there are but the +representations of sensations stripped of the character of perception; +that is to say, we can remember and call to mind whether such and such a +sensation was pleasant to us or otherwise, and if this operation, which +goes on in the head, is followed by a vivid perception, then the +impression made is perceived in the interior of the body, and always in +the region of the diaphragm. Hence, in the foetus where this membrane +is without use, there is no perception, or so little that nothing comes +of it, the movements of the foetus, such as they are, being rather +mechanical than dependent on sensation and will. + +"Whatever the matter may be which serves as the vehicle of perception, +and produces muscular movement, it is certain that it is propagated +through the nerves, and that it communicates itself instantaneously from +one extremity of the system to the other. In whatever manner this +operation is conducted, whether by the vibrations, as it were, of +elastic cords or by a subtle fire, or by a matter resembling +electricity, which not only resides in animal as in all other bodies, +but is being continually renewed in them by the movements of the heart +and lungs, by the friction of the blood within the arteries, and also by +the action of exterior causes upon our organs of sense--in whatever +manner, I say, the operation is conducted, it is nevertheless certain +that the nerves and membranes are the only parts in an animal body that +can feel. The blood, lymphs, and all other fluids, the fats, bone, +flesh, and all other solids, are of themselves void of sensation. And +so also is the brain; it is a soft and inelastic substance, incapable +therefore of producing or of propagating the movement, vibrations, or +concussions which, result in perception. The meninges, on the other +hand, are exceedingly sensitive, and are the envelopes of all the +nerves; like the nerves, they take rise in the head; and, dividing +themselves like the branches of the nerves, they extend even to their +smallest ramifications: they are, so to speak, flattened nerves; they +are of the same substance as the nerves, are nearly of the same degree +of elasticity, and form a necessary part of the system of sensation. If, +then, the seat of the sensations must be placed in the head, let it be +placed in the meninges, and not in the medullary part of the brain, +which is of an entirely different substance."[95] + +If this is so, it appears from what will follow as though the meninges +must be the "stock" rather than the diaphragm. + +"What perhaps has given rise to the opinion that the seat of all +sensations and the centre of all sensibility is in the brain, is the +fact that the nerves, which are the organs of perception, all attach +themselves to the brain, which has hence come to be regarded as the one +common centre which can receive all their vibrations and impressions. +This fact alone has sufficed to indicate the brain as the origin of +perceptions--as the essential organ of sensations; in a word, as the +common sensorium. This supposition has appeared so simple and natural +that its physical impossibility has been overlooked, an impossibility, +however, which should be sufficiently apparent. For how can a part +which cannot feel--a soft inactive substance like the brain--be the very +organ of perception and movement? How can this soft and perceptionless +part not only receive impressions, but preserve them for a length of +time, and transmit their undulatory movements (_en propage les +ebranlements_) throughout all the solid and feeling parts of the body? +It may perhaps be maintained with Descartes and M. de Peyronie that the +principle of sensation does not reside in the brain, but in the pineal +gland or in the _corpus callosum_; but a glance at the conformation of +the brain itself will suffice to show that these parts do not join on to +the nerves, but that they are entirely surrounded by those parts of the +brain which do not feel, and are so separated from the nerves that they +cannot receive any movement from them; whence it follows that this +second supposition is as groundless as the first."[96] + +What, then, asks Buffon, _is_ the use of the brain? Man, the quadrupeds, +and birds all have larger brains, and at the same time more extended +perceptions, than fishes, insects, and those other living beings whose +brains are smaller in proportion. "When the brain is compressed, there +is suspension of all power of movement. If this part is not the source +of our powers of motion, why is it so necessary and so essential? Why, +again, does it seem so proportionate in each animal to the amount of +perceiving power which that animal possesses? + +"I think I can answer this question in a satisfactory manner, difficult +though it seems; but in order that I may do so, I would ask the reader +to lend me his attention for a few moments while we regard the brain +simply _as brain_, and have no other idea concerning it than we can +derive from inspection and reflection. The brain, as well as the +_medulla oblongata_ and the spinal marrow, which are but prolongations +of the brain itself, is only a kind of hardly organized mucilage; we +find in it nothing but the extremities of small arteries, which run into +it in very great numbers, but which convey a white and nourishing lymph +instead of blood. When the parts of the brain are disunited by +maceration, these same small arteries, or lymphatic vessels, appear as +very delicate threads throughout their whole length. The nerves, on the +contrary, do not penetrate the substance of the brain; they abut upon +its surface only; before reaching it they lose their elasticity and +solidity, and the extremities of the nerves which are nearest to the +brain are soft, and nearly mucilaginous. From this exposition, in which +there is nothing hypothetical, it appears that the brain, which is +nourished by the lymphatic arteries, does in its turn provide +nourishment for the nerves, and that we must regard these as a kind of +vegetation which rises as trunks and branches from the brain, and become +subsequently subdivided into an infinite number, as it were, of twigs. +The brain is to the nerves what the earth is to plants: the last +extremities of the nerves are the roots, which with every vegetable are +more soft and tender than the trunk or branches; they contain a ductile +matter fit for the growth and nourishment of the nervous tree or fibre; +they draw the ductile matter from the substance of the brain itself, to +which the arteries are continually bringing the lymph that is necessary +to supply it. The brain, then, instead of being the seat of the +sensations, and the originator of perception, is an organ of secretion +and nutrition only, though a very essential organ, without which the +nerves could neither grow nor be maintained. + +"This organ is greater in man, in quadrupeds, and in birds, because the +number or bulk of the nerves is greater in these animals than in fishes +or insects, whose power of perception is more feeble, for this very +reason, that they have but a small brain; one, in fact, that is +proportioned to the small quantity of nerves which that brain must +support. Nor can I omit to state here that man has not, as has been +pretended by some, a larger brain than has any other animal; for there +are apes and cetacea which have more brain than man in proportion to the +volume of their bodies--another fact which proves that the brain is +neither the seat of sensations nor the originator of perception, since +in that case these animals would have more sensations and perception +than man. + +"If we consider the manner in which plants derive their nourishment, we +shall find that they do not draw up the grosser parts either of earth or +water; these parts must be reduced by warmth into subtle vapours before +the roots can suck them up into the plant. In like manner the nutrition +of the nerves is only effected by means of the more subtle parts of the +humidity of the brain, which are sucked up by the roots or extremities +of the nerves, and are carried thence through all the branches of the +sensory system. This system forms, as we have said, a whole, all whose +parts are interconnected by so close a union that we cannot wound one +without communicating a violent shock to all the others; the wounding or +simply pulling of the smallest nerve is sufficient to cause lively +irritation to all the others, and to put the body in convulsion; nor can +we ease this pain and convulsion except by cutting the nerve higher up +than the injured part; but on this all the parts abutting on this nerve +become thenceforward senseless and immovable for ever. The brain should +not be considered as of the same character, nor as an organic portion of +the nervous system, for it has not the same properties nor the same +substance, being neither solid nor elastic, nor yet capable of feeling. +I admit that on its compression perception ceases, but this very fact +shows it to be a body foreign to the nervous system itself, which, +acting by its weight, or pressure, against the extremities of the +nerves, oppresses them and stupefies them in the same way as a weight +placed upon the arm, leg, or any other part of the body, stupefies the +nerves and deadens the perceptions of that part. And it is evident that +this cessation of sensation on compression is but a suspension and +temporary stupefaction, for the moment the compression of the brain +ceases, perception and the power of movement returns. Again, I admit +that on tearing the medullary substance, and on wounding the brain till +the _corpus callosum_ is reached, convulsion, loss of sensation, and +death ensue; but this is because the nerves are so entirely deranged +that they are, so to speak, torn up by the roots and wounded all +together, and at their source. + +"In further proof that the brain is neither the centre of perception nor +the seat of the sensations, I may remind the reader that animals and +even children have been born without heads and brains, and have yet had +feeling, movement, and life. There are also whole classes of animals, +like insects and worms, with a brain that is by no means a distinct mass +nor of sensible volume, but with only something which corresponds with +the _medulla oblongata_ and the spinal marrow. There would be more +reason, then, in placing the seat of the feelings and perceptions in the +spinal marrow, which no animal is without, than in the brain which is +not an organ common to all creatures that can feel." + +If Buffon's ideas concerning the brain are as just as they appear to be, +the resemblance between plants and animals is more close than is +apparent, even to a superficial observer, on a first inspection of the +phenomena. Such an observer, however, on looking but a little more +intently, will see the higher _vertebrata_ as perambulating vegetables +planted upside down. So the man who had been born blind, on being made +to see, and on looking at the objects before him with unsophisticated +eyes, said without hesitation that he saw "men as trees walking," thus +seeing with more prophetic insight than either he or the bystanders +could interpret. For our skull is as a kind of flower-pot, and holds the +soil from which we spring, that is to say the brain; our mouth and +stomach are roots, in two stories or stages; our bones are the +trellis-work to which we cling while going about in search of +sustenance for our roots; or they are as the woody trunk of a tree; _we_ +are the nerves which are rooted in the brain, and which draw thence the +sustenance which is supplied it by the stomach; our lungs are leaves +which are folded up within us, as the blossom of a fig is hidden within +the fruit itself. + +This is what should follow if Buffon's theory of the brain is allowed to +stand, which I hope will prove to be the case, for it is the only +comfortable thought concerning the brain that I have met with in any +writer. I have given it here at some length on account of its +importance, and for the illustration it affords of Buffon's hatred of +mystery, rather than for its bearing upon evolution. The fact that our +leading men of science have adopted other theories will weigh little +with those who have watched scientific orthodoxy with any closeness. +What Buffon thought of that orthodoxy may be gathered from the +following:-- + +"The greatest obstacles to the advancement of human knowledge lie less +in things themselves than in man's manner of considering them. However +complicated a machine the human body may be, it is still less +complicated than are our own ideas concerning it. It is less difficult +to see Nature as she is, than as she is presented to us. She carries a +veil only, while we would put a mask over her face; we load her with our +own prejudices, and suppose her to act and to conduct her operations +even after the same fashion as ourselves.[97] + + . . . . . . + +"I am by no means speaking of those purely arbitrary systems which we +are able at a glance to detect as chimeras that are being pretended to +us as realities, but I refer to the methods whereby people have set +themselves seriously to study nature. Even the experimental method +itself has been more fertile of error than of truth, for though it is +indeed the surest, yet is it no surer than the hand of him who uses it. +No matter how little we incline out of the straight path, we soon find +ourselves wandering in a sterile wilderness, where we can see but a few +obscure objects scattered sparsely; nevertheless we do violence to these +facts and to ourselves, and resemble them together on a conceit of +analogies and common properties amongst them. Then, passing and +repassing complaisantly over the tortuous path which we have ourselves +beaten, we deem the road a worn one, and though it leads no whither, the +world follows it, adopts it, and accepts its supposed consequences as +first principles. I could show this by laying bare the origin of that +which goes by the name of 'principle' in all the sciences, whether +abstract or natural. In the case of the former, the basis of principle +is abstraction--that is to say, one or more suppositions: in that of the +second, principles are but the consequences, better or worse, of the +methods which may have been followed. And to speak here of anatomy only, +did not he who first surmounted his natural repugnance and set himself +to work to open a human body--did he not believe that through going all +over it, dissecting it, dividing it into all its parts, he would soon +learn its structure, mechanism, and functions? But he found the task +greater than he had expected, and renouncing such pretensions, was fain +to content himself with a method--not for seeing and judging, but for +seeing after an orderly fashion. This method ... is still the sole +business of our ablest anatomists, but it is not science. It is the road +which should lead scienceward, and might perhaps have reached science +itself, if instead of walking ever on a single narrow path men had set +the anatomy of man and that of animals face to face with one another. +For, what real knowledge can be drawn from an isolated pursuit? Is not +the foundation of all science seen to consist in the comparison which +the human mind can draw between different objects in the matter of their +resemblances and differences--of their analogous or conflicting +properties, and of all the relations in which they stand to one another? +The absolute, if it exist at all, is but of the concurrence of man's own +knowledge; we judge and can judge of things only by their bearings one +upon another; hence whenever a method limits us to only a single +subject, whenever we consider it in its solitude and without regard to +its resemblances or to its differences from other objects, we can attain +to no real knowledge, nor yet, much less, reach any general principle. +We do but give names, and make descriptions of a thing, and of all its +parts. Hence comes it that, after three thousand years of dissection, +anatomy is still but a nomenclature, and has hardly advanced a step +towards its true object, which is the science of animal economy. +Furthermore, what defects are there not in the method itself, which +should above all things else be simple and easy to be understood, +depending as it does upon inspection and having denominations only for +its end! For seeing that nomenclature has been mistaken for knowledge, +men have made it their chief business to multiply names, instead of +limiting things; they have crushed themselves under the burden of +details, and been on the look out for differences where there was no +distinction. When they had given a new name they conceived of it as a +new thing, and described the smallest parts with the most minutious +exactness, while the description of some still smaller part, forgotten +or neglected by previous anatomists, has been straightway hailed as a +discovery. The denominations themselves being often taken from things +which had no relation to the object that it was desired to denominate, +have served but to confound confusion. The part of the brain, for +example, which is called testes and nates, wherein does it so differ +from the rest of the brain that it should deserve a name? These names, +taken at haphazard or springing from some preconceived opinion, have +themselves become the parents of new prejudices and speculations; other +names given to parts which have been ill observed, or which are even +non-existent, have been sources of new errors. What functions and uses +has it not been attempted to foist upon the pineal gland, and on the +alleged empty space in the brain which is called the arch, the first of +which is but a gland, while the very existence of the other is +doubtful,--the empty space being perhaps produced by the hand of the +anatomist and the method of dissection."[98] + + +_The Genus felis._ + +In his preliminary remarks upon the lion, Buffon while still professing +to believe in some considerable mutability of species, seems very far +from admitting that all living forms are capable of modification. But he +has shown us long since how clearly he saw the impossibility of limiting +mutability, if he once admitted so much of the thin end of the wedge as +that a horse and an ass might be related. It is plain, therefore, that +he is not speaking "_au reel_" here, and we accordingly find him talking +clap-trap about the nobleness of the lion in having no species +immediately allied to it. A few lines lower on he reminds us in a casual +way that the ass and horse are related. + +He writes:-- + +"Added to all these noble individual features the lion has also what may +be called a _specific_ nobility. For I call those species noble which +are constant, invariable, and which are above suspicion of having +degenerated. These species are commonly isolated, and the only ones of +their genus. They are distinguished by such well-marked features that +they cannot be mistaken, nor confounded with any other species. To begin +for example with man, the noblest of created beings; he is but of a +single species, inasmuch as men and women will breed freely _inter se_ +in spite of all existing differences of race, climate and colour; and +also inasmuch as there is no other animal which can claim either a +distant or near relationship with him. The horse, on the other hand, is +more noble as an individual than as a species, for he has the ass as +his near neighbour, _and seems himself to be nearly enough related to +it_; ... the dog is perhaps of even less noble species, approaching as +he does to the wolf, fox, and jackal, _which we can only consider to be +the degenerated species of a single family_"[99]--all which may seem +very natural opinions for a French aristocrat in the days before the +Revolution, but which cannot for a moment be believed to have been +Buffon's own. I have not ascertained the date of Buffon's little quarrel +with the Sorbonne, but I cannot doubt that if we knew the inner history +of the work we are considering, we should find this passage and others +like it explained by the necessity of quieting orthodox adversaries. He +concludes the paragraph from which I have just been quoting by saying, +"To class man and the ape together, or the lion with the cat, and to say +that the lion is a _cat with a mane and a long tail_--this were to +degrade and disfigure nature instead of describing her and denominating +her species." Buffon very rarely uses italics, but those last given are +his, not mine; could words be better chosen to make us see the lion and +the cat as members of the same genus? No wonder the Sorbonne considered +him an infelicitous writer; why could he not have said "cat," and have +done with it, instead of giving a couple of sly but telling touches, +which make the cat as like a lion as possible, and then telling us that +we must not call her one? Sorbonnes never do like people who write in +this way. + +"The lion, then, belongs to a most noble species, standing as he does +alone, and incapable of being confounded with the tiger, leopard, +ounce, &c., while, on the contrary, those species, which appear to be +least distant from the lion, are very sufficiently indistinguishable, so +that travellers and nomenclators are continually confounding them."[100] + +If this is not pure malice, never was a writer more persistently +unfortunate in little ways. Why remind us here that the species which +come nearest to the lion are so hard to distinguish? Why not have said +nothing about it? As it is, the case stands thus: we are required to +admit close resemblance between the leopard and the tiger, while we are +to deny it between the tiger and the lion, in spite of there being no +greater outward difference between the first than between the second +pair, and in spite of the hurried whisper "_cat with a mane and a long +tail_" still haunting our ears. Isidore Geoffroy and his followers may +consent to this arrangement, but I hope the majority of my readers will +not do so. + +I went on to the account of the tiger with some interest to see the line +which Buffon would take concerning it. I anticipated that we should find +cats, pumas, lynxes, &c., to be really very like tigers, and was +surprised to learn that the "true" tiger, though certainly not unlike +these animals, was still to be distinguished from "many others which had +since been called tigers." He is on no account to be confounded with +these, in spite of the obvious temptation to confound him. He is "a rare +animal, little known to the ancients, and badly described by the +moderns." He is a beast "of great ferocity, of terrible swiftness, and +surpassing even the proportions of the lion." The effect of the +description is that we no longer find the lion standing alone, but with +the tiger on a par with him if not above him; but at the same time we +fall easy victims to the temptation to confound the tiger with "the many +other animals which are also called tigers." A surface stream has swept +the members of the cat family in different directions, but a stealthy +undercurrent has seized them from beneath, and they are now happily +reunited. + + +_Animals of the Old and New World--Changed Geographical Distribution._ + +Writing upon the animals of the old world,[101] and referring to the +humps of the camel and the bison, Buffon shows that very considerable +modification may be effected in some animals within even a few +generations, but he attributes the effect produced to the direct +influence of climate. Buffon concludes his sketch of the animals of the +new world by pointing out that the larger animals of the African torrid +zone have been hindered by sea and desert from finding their way to +America, and by claiming to be the first "even to have suspected" that +there was not a single denizen of the torrid zone of one continent which +was common also to the other.[102] + +The animals common to both continents are those which can stand the cold +and which are generally suited for a temperate climate. These, Buffon +believes, to have travelled either over some land still unknown, or +"more probably," over territory which has long since been submerged. The +species of the old and new world are never without some well-marked +difference, which however should not be held sufficient for us to refuse +to admit their practical identity. But he maintains, I imagine wilfully, +that there is a tendency in all the mammalia to become smaller on being +transported to the new world, and refers the fact to the quality of the +earth, the condition of the climate, the degrees of heat and humidity, +to the height of mountains, amounts of running or stagnant waters, +extent of forest, and above all to the brutal condition of nature in a +new country, which he evidently regards with true aristocratic +abhorrence.[103] + +Then follows a passage which I had better perhaps give in full:-- + +The mammoth "was certainly the greatest and strongest of all quadrupeds; +but it has disappeared; and if so, how many smaller, feebler, and less +remarkable species must have also perished without leaving us any traces +or even hints of their having existed? How many other species have +changed their nature, that is to say, become perfected or degraded, +through great changes in the distribution of land and ocean, through the +cultivation or neglect of the country which they inhabit, through the +long-continued effects of climatic changes, so that they are no longer +the same animals that they once were? Yet of all living beings after +man, the quadrupeds are the ones whose nature is most fixed and form +most constant: birds and fishes vary much more easily; insects still +more again than these, and if we descend to plants, which certainly +cannot be excluded from animated nature, we shall be surprised at the +readiness with which species are seen to vary, and at the ease with +which they change their forms and adopt new natures. + +"It is probable then that all the animals of the new world are derived +from congeners in the old, without any deviation from the ordinary +course of nature. We may believe that having become separated in the +lapse of ages, by vast oceans and countries which they could not +traverse, they have gradually been affected by, and derived impressions +from, a climate which has itself been modified so as to become a new one +through the operation of those same causes which dissociated the +individuals of the old and new world from one another; thus in the +course of time they have grown smaller and changed their characters. +This, however, should not prevent our classifying them as different +species now, for the difference is no less real whether it is caused by +time, climate and soil, or whether it dates from the creation. _Nature I +maintain is in a state of continual flux and movement. It is enough for +man if he can grasp her as she is in his own time, and throw but a +glance or two upon the past and future, so as to try and perceive what +she may have been in former times and what one day she may attain +to._"[104] + + +_The Buffalo--Animals under Domestication._ + +"The bison and the aurochs," says Buffon, "differ only in unessential +characteristics, and are, by consequence, of the same species as our +domestic cattle, so that I believe all the pretended species of the ox, +whether ancient or modern, may be reduced to three--the bull, the +buffalo, and the bubalus. + +"The case of animals under domestication is in many respects different +from that of wild ones; they vary much more in disposition, size and +shape, especially as regards the exterior parts of their bodies: the +effects of climate, so powerful throughout nature, act with far greater +effect upon captive animals than upon wild ones. Food prepared by man, +and often ill chosen, combined with the inclemency of an uncongenial +climate--these eventuate in modifications sufficiently profound to +become constant and hereditary in successive generations. I do not +pretend to say that this general cause of modification is so powerful as +to change radically the nature of beings which have had their impress +stamped upon them in that surest of moulds--heredity; but it +nevertheless changes them in not a few respects; it masks and transforms +their outward appearance; it suppresses some of their parts, and gives +them new ones; it paints them with various colours, and _by its action +on bodily habits influences also their natures, instincts, and most +inward qualities_" (and what is this but "radically changing their +nature"?). "The modification of but a single part, moreover, in a whole +as perfect as an animal body, will necessitate a correlative +modification in every other part, and it is from this cause that our +domestic animals differ almost as much in nature and instinct, as in +form, from those from which they originally sprung."[105] + +Buffon confirms this last assertion by quoting the sheep as an +example--an animal which can now no longer exist in a wild state. Then +returning to cattle, he repeats that many varieties have been formed by +the effects--"diverse in themselves, and diverse in their +combinations--of climate, food, and treatment, whether under +domestication or in their wild state." These are the main causes of +variation ("causes generales de variete"),[106] among our domesticated +animals, but by far the greatest is changed climate in consequence of +their accompanying man in his migrations. The effects of the foregoing +causes of modification, especially the last of them, are repeatedly +insisted on in the course of the forty pages which complete the +preliminary account of the buffalo. + +What holds good for the buffalo does so also for the mouflon or wild +sheep. This, Buffon declares to be the source of all our domesticated +breeds: of these there are in all some four or five, "all of them being +but degenerations from a single stock, produced by man's agency, and +propagated for his convenience."[107] At the same time that man has +protected them he has hunted out the original race which was "less +useful to him,"[108] so that it is now to be found only in a few +secluded spots, such as the mountains of Greece, Cyprus, and Sardinia. +Buffon does not consider even the differences between sheep and goats to +be sufficiently characteristic to warrant their being classed as +different species. + +"I shall never tire," he continues, "of repeating--seeing how important +the matter is--that we must not form our opinions concerning nature, nor +differentiate (differencier) her species, by a reference to minor +special characteristics. And, again, that systems, far from having +illustrated the history of animals, have, on the contrary, served rather +to obscure it ... leading, as they do, to the creation of arbitrary +species which nature knows nothing about; perpetually confounding real +and hypothetical existences; giving us false ideas as to the very +essence of species; uniting them and separating them without foundation +or knowledge, and often without our having seen the animal with which we +are dealing."[109] + + +_First and Second Views of Nature._ + +The twelfth volume begins with a preface, entitled "A First View of +Nature," from which I take the following:-- + +"What cannot Nature effect with such means at her disposal? She can do +all except either create matter or destroy it. These two extremes of +power the deity has reserved for himself only; creation and destruction +are the attributes of his omnipotence. To alter and undo, to develop and +to renew--these are powers which he has handed over to the charge of +Nature."[110] + +The thirteenth volume opens with a second view of nature. After +describing what a man would have observed if he could have lived during +many continuous ages, Buffon goes on to say:-- + +"And as the number, sustenance, and balance of power among species is +constant, Nature would present ever the same appearance, and would be in +all times and under all climates absolutely and relatively the same, if +it were not her fashion to vary her individual forms as much as +possible. The type of each species is founded in a mould of which the +principal features have been cut in characters that are ineffaceable and +eternally permanent, but all the accessory touches vary; no one +individual is the exact facsimile of any other, and no species exists +without a large number of varieties. In the human race on which the +divine seal has been set most firmly, there are yet varieties of black +and white, large and small races, the Patagonian, Hottentot, European, +American, Negro, which, though all descended from a common father, +nevertheless exhibit no very brotherly resemblance to one another."[111] + +On an earlier page there is a passage which I may quote as showing +Buffon to have not been without some--though very imperfect--perception +of the fact which evidently made so deep an impression upon his +successor, Dr. Erasmus Darwin. I refer to that continuity of life in +successive generations, and that oneness of personality between parents +and offspring, which is the only key that will make the phenomena of +heredity intelligible. + +"Man," he says, "and especially educated man, is no longer a single +individual, but represents no small part of the human race in its +entirety. He was the first to receive from his fathers the knowledge +which their own ancestors had handed down to them. These, having +discovered the divine art of fixing their thoughts so that they can +transmit them to their posterity, become, as it were, one and the same +people with their descendants (_se sont, pour ainsi dire, identifies +avec leur neveux_); while our descendants will in their turn be one and +the same people with ourselves (_s'identifieront avec nous_). This +reunion in a single person of the experience of many ages, throws back +the boundaries of man's existence to the utmost limits of the past; he +is no longer a single individual, limited as other beings are to the +sensations and experiences of to-day. In place of the individual we have +to deal, as it were, with the whole species."[112] + +"Differences in exterior are nothing in comparison with those in +interior parts. These last must be regarded as the causes, while the +others are but the effects. The interior parts of living beings are the +foundation of the plan of their design; this is their essential form, +their real shape, their exterior is only the surface, or rather the +drapery in which their true figure is enveloped. How often does not the +study of comparative anatomy show us that two exteriors which differ +widely conceal interiors absolutely like each other, and, on the +contrary, that the smallest internal difference is accompanied by the +most marked differences of outward appearance, changing as it does even +the natural habits, faculties and attributes of the animal?"[113] + + +_Apes and Monkeys._ + +The fourteenth volume is devoted to apes and monkeys, and to the chapter +with which the volumes on quadrupeds are brought to a conclusion--a +chapter for which perhaps the most important position in the whole work +is thus assigned. It is very long, and is headed "On Descent with +Modification" ("De la Degeneration des Animaux"). This is the chapter in +which Buffon enters more fully into the "causes or means" of the +transformation of species. + +At the opening of the chapter on the nomenclature of monkeys, the theory +is broached that there is a certain fixed amount of life-substance as of +matter in nature; and that neither can be either augmented or +diminished. Buffon maintains this organic and living substance to be as +real and durable as inanimate matter; as permanent in its state of life +as the other in that of death; it is spread over the whole of nature, +and passes from vegetables to animals by way of nutrition, and from +animals back to vegetables through putrefaction, thus circulating +incessantly to the animation of all that lives. + +As might be expected, Buffon is loud in his protest against any real +similarity between man and the apes--man has had the spirit of the Deity +breathed into his nostrils, and the lowest creature with this is higher +than the highest without it. Having settled this point, he makes it his +business to show how little difference in other respects there is +between the apes and man. + +"One who could view," he writes, "Nature in her entirety, from first to +last, and then reflect upon the manner in which these two +substances--the living and the inanimate--act and react upon one +another, would see that every living being is a mould which casts into +its own shape those substances upon which it feeds; that it is this +assimilation which constitutes the growth of the body, whose development +is not simply an augmentation of volume, but an extension in all its +dimensions, a penetration of new matter into all parts of its mass: he +would see that these parts augment proportionately with the whole, and +the whole proportionately with these parts, while general configuration +remains the same until the full development is accomplished.... He would +see that man, the quadruped, the cetacean, the bird, reptile, insect, +tree, plant, herb, all are nourished, grow, and reproduce themselves on +this same system, and that though their manner of feeding and of +reproducing themselves may appear so different, this is only because the +general and common cause upon which these operations depend can only +operate in the individual agreeably with the form of each species. +Travelling onward (for it has taken the human mind ages to arrive at +these great truths, from which all others are derived), he would compare +living forms, give them names to distinguish them, and other names to +connect them with each other. Taking his own body as the model with +which all living forms should be compared, and having measured them, +explained them thoroughly, and compared them in all their parts, he +would see that there is but small difference between the forms of living +beings; that by dissecting the ape he could arrive at the anatomy of +man, and that taking some other animal we find always the same ultimate +plan of organization, the same senses, the same viscera, the same bones, +the same flesh, the same movements of the fluids, the same play and +action of the solids; he would find all of them with a heart, veins, +arteries, in all the same organs of circulation, respiration, digestion, +nutrition, secretion; in all of them a solid frame, composed of pieces +put together in nearly the same manner; and he would find this system +always the same, from man to the ape, from the ape to the quadrupeds, +from the quadrupeds to the cetacea, birds, fishes, reptiles; this system +or plan then, I say, if firmly laid hold of and comprehended by the +human mind, is a true copy of nature; it is the simplest and most +general point of view from which we can consider her, and if we extend +our view, and go on from what lives to what vegetates, we may see this +plan--which originally did but vary almost imperceptibly--change its +scope and descend gradually from reptiles to insects, from insects to +worms, from worms to zoophytes, from zoophytes to plants, and yet +keeping ever the same fundamental unity in spite of differences of +detail, insomuch that nutrition, development, and reproduction remain +the common traits of all organic bodies; traits eternally essential and +divinely implanted; which time, far from effacing or destroying, does +but make plainer and plainer continually." + +This is the writer who can see nothing in common between the horse and +the zebra except that each has a solid hoof.[114] He continues:-- + +"If from this grand tableau of resemblances, in which the living +universe presents itself to our eyes as though it were a single family, +we pass to a tableau rather of the differences between living forms, we +shall see that, with the exception of some of the greater species, such +as the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tiger, lion, which must each +have their separate place, the other races seem all to blend with +neighbouring forms, and to fall into groups of likenesses, greater or +lesser, and of genera which our nomenclators represent to us by a +network of shapes, of which some are held together by the feet, others +by the teeth, horns, and skin, and others by points of still minor +importance. And even those whose form strikes us as most perfect, as +approaching most nearly to our own--even the apes--require some +attention before they can be distinguished from one another, for the +privilege of being an isolated species has been assigned less to form +than to size; and man himself, though of a separate species and +differing infinitely from all or any others, has but a medium size, and +is less isolated and has nearer neighbours than have the greater +animals. If we study the Orang-outang with regard only to his +configuration, we might regard him, with equal justice, as either the +highest of the apes or as the lowest of mankind, because, with the +exception of the soul, he wants nothing of what we have ourselves, and +because, as regards his body, he differs less from man than he does from +other animals which are still called apes."[115] + +The want of a soul Buffon maintains to be the only essential difference +between the Orang-outang and man--"his body, limbs, senses, brain and +tongue are the same as ours. He can execute whatever movements man can +execute; yet he can neither think nor speak, nor do any action of a +distinctly human character. Is this merely through want of training? or +may it not be through wrong comparison on our own parts? We compare the +wild ape in the woods to the civilized citizen of our great towns. No +wonder the ape shows to disadvantage. He should be compared with the +hideous Hottentot rather, who is himself almost as much above the lowest +man, as the lowest man is above the Orang-outang."[116] + +The passage is a much stronger one than I have thought it fit to quote. +The reader can refer to it for himself. After reading it I entertain no +further doubt that Buffon intended to convey the impression that men and +apes are descended from common ancestors. He was not, however, going to +avow this conclusion openly. + +"I admit," he continues, "that if we go by mere structure the ape might +be taken for a variety of the human race; the Creator did not choose to +model mankind upon an entirely distinct system from the other animals: +He comprised their form and man's under a plan which is in the main +uniform."[117] Buffon then dwells upon the possession of a soul by man; +"even the lowest creature," he avers, "which had this, would have become +man's rival." + +"The ape then is purely an animal, far from being a variety of our own +species, he does not even come first in the order of animals, since he +is not the most intelligent: the high opinion which men have of the +intelligence of apes is a prejudice based only upon the resemblance +between their outward appearance and our own."[118] But the undiscerning +were not only to be kept quiet, they were to be made happy. With this +end, if I am not much mistaken, Buffon brings his chapter on the +nomenclature of apes to the following conclusion:-- + +"The ape, which the philosopher and the uneducated have alike regarded +as difficult to define, and as being at best equivocal, and midway +between man and the lower animals, proves in fact to be an animal and +nothing more; he is masked externally in the shape of man, but +internally he is found incapable of thought, and of all that constitutes +man; apes are below several of the other animals in respect of qualities +corresponding to their own, and differ essentially from man, in nature, +temperament, the time which must be spent upon their gestation and +education, in their period of growth, duration of life, and in fact in +all those profounder habits which constitute what is called the 'nature' +of any individual existence."[119] This is handsome, and leaves the more +timorous reader in full possession of the field. + +Buffon is accordingly at liberty in the following chapter to bring +together every fact he can lay his hands on which may point the +resemblance between man and the Orang-outang most strongly; but he is +careful to use inverted commas here much more freely than is his wont. +Having thus made out a strong case for the near affinity between man and +the Orang-outang, and having thrown the responsibility on the original +authors of the passages he quotes, he excuses himself for having quoted +them on the ground that "everything may seem important in the history of +a brute which resembles man so nearly," and then insists upon the points +of difference between the Orang-outang and ourselves. They do not, +however, in Buffon's hands come to much, until the end of the chapter, +when, after a _resume_ dwelling on the points of resemblance, the +differences are again emphatically declared to have the best of it. + +I need not follow Buffon through his description of the remaining +monkeys. It comprises 250 pp., and is confined to details with which we +have no concern; but the last chapter--"De la Degeneration des +Animaux"--deserves much fuller quotation than my space will allow me to +make from it. The chapter is very long, comprising, as I have said, over +sixty quarto pages. It is impossible, therefore, for me to give more +than an outline of its contents. + + +_Causes or Means of the Transformation of Species._ + +The human race is declared to be the one most capable of modification, +all its different varieties being descended from a common stock, and +owing their more superficial differences to changes of climate, while +their profounder ones, such as woolly hair, flat noses, and thick lips, +are due to differences of diet, which again will vary with the nature of +the country inhabited by any race. Changes will be exceedingly gradual; +it will take centuries of unbroken habit to bring about modifications +which can be transmitted with certainty so as to eventuate in national +characteristics.[120] It is a pleasure to find that here, too, habit is +assigned as the main cause which underlies heredity. + +Modification will be much prompter with animals. When compelled to +abandon their native land, they undergo such rapid and profound +modification, that at first sight they can hardly be recognized as the +same race, and cannot be detected in their disguise till after the most +careful inspection, and on grounds of analogy only. Domestication will +produce still more surprising results; the stigmata of their captivity, +the marks of their chains, can be seen upon all those animals which man +has enslaved; the older and more confirmed the servitude, the deeper +will be its scars, until at length it will be found impossible to +rehabilitate the creature and restore to it its lost attributes. + +"Temperature of climate, quality of food, and the ills of slavery--here +are the three main causes of the alteration and degeneration of animals. +The consequences of each of these should be particularly considered, so +that by examining Nature as she is to-day we may thus perceive what she +was in her original condition."[121] + +I have more than once admitted that there is a wide difference between +this opinion, which assigns modification to the direct influence of +climate, food, and other changed conditions of life, and that of Dr. +Erasmus Darwin, which assigns only an indirect effect to these, while +the direct effect is given to changed actions in consequence of changed +desires; but it is surprising how nearly Buffon has approached the later +and truer theory, which may perhaps have been suggested to Dr. Darwin by +the following pregnant passage--as pregnant, probably, to Buffon himself +as to another:-- + +"The camel is the animal which seems to me to have felt the weight of +slavery most profoundly. He is born with wens upon his back and +callosities upon his knees and chest; these callosities are the +unmistakable results of rubbing, for they are full of pus and of +corrupted blood. The camel never walks without carrying a heavy burden, +and the pressure of this has hindered, for generations, the free +extension and uniform growth of the muscular parts of the back; whenever +he reposes or sleeps his driver compels him to do so upon his folded +legs, so that little by little this position becomes habitual with him. +All the weight of his body bears, during several hours of the day +continuously, upon his chest and knees, so that the skin of these parts, +pressed and rubbed against the earth, loses its hair, becomes bruised, +hardened, and disorganized. + +"The llama, which like the camel passes its life beneath burdens, and +also reposes only by resting its weight upon its chest, has similar +callosities, which again are perpetuated in successive generations. +Baboons, and pouched monkeys, whose ordinary position is a sitting one, +whether waking or sleeping, have callosities under the region of the +haunches, and this hard skin has even become inseparable from the bone +against which it is being continually pressed by the weight of the body; +in the case, however, of these animals the callosities are dry and +healthy, for they do not come from the constraint of trammels, nor from +the burden of a foreign weight, but are the effects only of the natural +habits of the animal, which cause it to continue longer seated than in +any other position. There are callosities of these pouched monkeys which +resemble the double sole of skin which we have ourselves under our feet; +this sole is a natural hardness which our continued habit of walking or +standing upright will make thicker or thinner according to the greater +or less degree of friction to which we subject our feet."[122] + +This involves the whole theory of Dr. Darwin. + +Wild animals would not change either their food or climate if left to +themselves, and in this case they would not vary, but either man or some +other enemies have harassed most of them into migrations; "those whose +nature was sufficiently flexible to lend itself to the new situation +spread far and wide, while others have had no resource but the deserts +in the neighbourhood of their own countries."[123] + +Since food and climate, and still less man's empire over them, can have +but little effect upon wild animals, Buffon refers their principal +varieties in great measure to their sexual habits, variations being much +less frequent among animals that pair and breed slowly, than among those +which do not mate and breed more freely. After running rapidly over +several animals, and discussing the flexibility or inflexibility of +their organizations, he declares the elephant to be the only one on +which a state of domestication has produced no effect, inasmuch as "it +refuses to breed under confinement, and cannot therefore transmit the +badges of its servitude to its descendants."[124] + +Here is an example of Buffon's covert manner, in the way he maintains +that descent with modification may account not only for specific but for +generic differences. + +"But after having taken a rapid survey of the varieties which indicate +to us the alterations that each species has undergone, there arises a +broader and more important question, how far, namely, species themselves +can change--how far there has been an older degeneration, immemorial +from all antiquity, which has taken place in every family, or, if the +term is preferred, _in all the genera_ under which those species are +comprehended which neighbour one another without presenting points of +any very profound dissimilarity? We have only a few isolated species, +such as man, which form at once the species and the whole genus; the +elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the giraffe form genera, +or simple species, which go down in a single line, with no collateral +branches. All other races appear to form families, in which we may +perceive a common source or stock from which the different branches seem +to have sprung in greater or less numbers according as the individuals +of each species are smaller and more fecund."[125] + +I can see no explanation of the introduction of this passage unless that +it is intended to raise the question whether modification may be not +only specific but generic, the point of the paragraph lying in the +words "dans chaque famille, _ou si l'on veut, dans chacun des genres_." +We are told in the next paragraph, that if we choose to look at the +matter in this light, well--in that case--we ought to see not only the +ass and the horse, but _the zebra too_, as members of the same family; +"the number of their points of resemblance being infinitely greater than +those in respect of which they differ."[126] Thus, at the close of his +work on the quadrupeds, he thinks it well, as at the commencement +seventeen years earlier, to emphasize--in his own quiet way--his +perception that the principles on which he has been insisting should be +carried much farther than he has chosen to carry them. + +His conclusion is, that "after comparing all the animals and bringing +them each under their proper genus, we shall find the two hundred +species we have already described to be reducible into a sufficiently +small number of families or main stocks from which it is not impossible +that all the others may be derived."[127] + +The chapter closes thus:-- + +"To account for the origin of these animals" (certain of those peculiar +to America), "we must go back to the time when the two continents were +not yet separated, and call to mind the earliest geological changes. At +the same time, we must consider the two hundred existing species of +quadrupeds as reduced to thirty-eight families. And though this is not +at all the state of Nature as she is in our time, and as she has been +represented in this volume, and though, in fact, it is a condition which +we can only arrive at by induction, and by analogies almost as +difficult to lay hold of as is the time which has effaced the greater +number of their traces, I shall, nevertheless, endeavour to ascend to +these first ages of Nature by the aid of facts and monuments which yet +remain to us, and to represent the epochs which these facts seem to +indicate."[128] + +The fifteenth volume contains a description of a few more monkeys, as +also of some animals which Buffon had never actually seen, a great part +being devoted to indices. + + +_Supplement._ + +The first four volumes of the Supplement to Buffon's 'Natural History,' +1774-1789, contain little which throws additional light upon his +opinions concerning the mutability of species. At the beginning, +however, of the fifth volume I find the following:-- + +"On comparing these ancient records of the first ages of life [fossils] +with the productions of to-day, we see with sufficient clearness that +the essential form has been preserved without alteration in its +principal parts: there has been no change whatever in the general type +of each species; the plan of the inner parts has been preserved without +variation. However long a time we may imagine for the succession of +ages, whatever number of generations we may suppose, the individuals of +to-day present to us in each genus the same forms as they did in the +earliest ages; and this is more especially true of the greater species, +whose characters are more invariable and nature more fixed; for the +inferior species have, as we have said, experienced in a perceptible +manner all the effects of different causes of degeneration. Only it +should be remarked in regard to these greater species, such as the +elephant and hippopotamus, that in comparing their fossil remains with +the existing forms we find the earlier ones to have been larger. Nature +was then in the full vigour of her youth, and the interior heat of the +earth gave to her productions all the force and all the extent of which +they were capable ... if there have been lost species, that is to say +animals which existed once, but no longer do so, these can only have +been animals which required a heat greater than that of our present +torrid zone."[129] + +The context proves Buffon to have been thinking of such huge creatures +as the megatherium and mastodon, but his words seem to limit the +extinction of species to the denizens of a hot climate which had turned +colder. It is not at all likely that Buffon meant this, as the passage +quoted at p. 146 of this work will suffice to show. The whole paragraph +is ironical. + +I can see nothing to justify the conclusion drawn from this passage by +Isidore Geoffroy, that Buffon had modified his opinions, and was +inclined to believe in a more limited mutability than he had done a few +years earlier. His exoteric position is still identical with what it was +in the outset, and his esoteric may be seen from the spirit which is +hardly concealed under the following:-- + +"I shall be told that analogy points towards the belief that our own +race has followed the same path, and dates from the same period as +other species; that it has spread itself even more widely than they; and +that if man's creation has a later date than that of the other animals, +nothing shows that he has not been subjected to the same laws of nature, +the same alterations, and the same changes as they. We will grant that +the human species does not differ essentially from others in the matter +of bodily organs, and that, in respect of these, our lot has been much +the same as that of other animals."[130] + + +_Plants under Domestication._ + +"If more modern and even recent examples are required in order to prove +man's power over the vegetable kingdom, it is only necessary to compare +our vegetables, flowers, and fruits with the same species such as they +were a hundred and fifty years ago; this can be done with much ease and +certainty by running the eye over the great collection of coloured +drawings begun in the time of Gaston of Orleans, and continued to the +present day at the Jardin du Roi. We find with surprise that the finest +flowers of that date, as the ranunculuses, pinks, tulips, bear's ears, +&c., would be rejected now, I do not say by our florists, but by our +village gardeners. These flowers, though then already cultivated, were +still not far above their wild condition. They had a single row of +petals only, long pistils, colours hard and false; they had little +velvety texture, variety, or gradation of tints, and, in fact, presented +all the characteristics of untamed nature. Of herbs there was a single +kind of endive, and two of lettuce--both bad--while we can now reckon +more than fifty lettuces and endives, all excellent. We can even name +the very recent dates of our best pippins and kernel fruits--all of them +differing from those of our forefathers, which they resemble in name +only. In most cases things remain while names change; here, on the +contrary, it is the names that have been constant while the things have +varied.[131] + + . . . . . . + +"It is not that every one of these good varieties did not arise from the +same wild stock; but how many attempts has not man made on Nature before +he succeeded in getting them. How many millions of germs has he not +committed to the earth, before she has rewarded him by producing them? +It was only by sowing, tending, and bringing to maturity an almost +infinite number of plants of the same kind that he was able to recognize +some individuals with fruits sweeter and better than others; and this +first discovery, which itself involves so much care, would have remained +for ever fruitless if he had not made a second, which required as much +genius as the first required patience--I mean the art of grafting those +precious individuals, which, unfortunately, cannot continue a line as +noble as their own, nor themselves propagate their rare and admirable +qualities? And this alone proves that these qualities are purely +individual, and not specific, for the pips or stones of these excellent +fruits bring forth the original wild stock, so that they do not form +species essentially different from this. Man, however, by means of +grafting, produces what may be called secondary species, which he can +propagate at will; for the bud or small branch which he engrafts upon +the stock contains within itself the individual quality which cannot be +transmitted by seed, but which needs only to be developed in order to +bring forth the same fruits as the individual from which it was taken in +order to be grafted on to the wild stock. The wild stock imparts none of +its bad qualities to the bud, for it did not contribute to the forming +thereof, being, as it were, a wet nurse, and no true mother. + +"In the case of animals, the greater number of those features which +appear individual, do not fail to be transmitted to offspring, in the +same way as specific characters. It was easier then for man to produce +an effect upon the natures of animals than of plants. The different +breeds in each animal species are variations that have become constant +and hereditary, while vegetable species on the other hand present no +variations that can be depended on to be transmitted with certainty. + +"In the species of the fowl and the pigeon alone, a large number of +breeds have been formed quite recently, which are all constant, and in +other species we daily improve breeds by crossing them. From time to +time we acclimatize and domesticate some foreign and wild species. All +these examples of modern times prove that man has but tardily discovered +the extent of his own power, and that he is not even yet sufficiently +aware of it. It depends entirely upon the exercise of his intelligence; +the more, therefore, he observes and cultivates nature the more means he +will find of making her subservient to him, and of drawing new riches +from her bosom without diminishing the treasures of her inexhaustible +fecundity."[132] + + +_Birds._ + +In the preface to his volumes upon birds, Buffon says that these are not +only much more numerous than quadrupeds, but that they also exhibit a +far larger number of varieties, and individual variations. + +"The diversities," he declares, "which arise from the effects of climate +and food, of domestication, captivity, transportation, voluntary and +compulsory migration--all the causes in fact of alteration and +degeneration--unite to throw difficulties in the way of the +ornithologist."[133] + +He points out the infinitely keener vision of birds than that of man and +quadrupeds, and connects it with their habits and requirements.[134] He +does not appear to consider it as caused by those requirements, though +it is quite conceivable that he saw this, but thought he had already +said enough. He repeatedly refers to the effects of changed climate and +of domestication, but I find nothing in the first volume which modifies +the position already taken by him in regard to descent with +modification: it is needless, therefore, to repeat the few passages +which are to be found bearing at all upon the subject. The chapter on +the birds that cannot fly, contains a sentence which seems to be the +germ that has been developed, in the hands of Lamarck, into the +comparison between nature and a tree. Buffon says that the chain of +nature is not a single long chain, but is comparable rather to something +woven, "which at certain intervals throws out a branch sideways that +unites it with the strands of some other weft."[135] On the following +page there is a passage which has been quoted as an example of Buffon's +contempt for the men of science of his time. The writer maintains that +the most lucid arrangement of birds, would have been to begin with those +which most resembled quadrupeds. "The ostrich, which approaches the +camel in the shape of its legs, and the porcupine in the quills with +which its wings are armed, should have immediately followed the +quadrupeds, but philosophy is often obliged to make a show of yielding +to popular opinions, and _the tribe of naturalists_ is both numerous and +impatient of any disturbance of its methods. It would only, then, have +regarded this arrangement as an unreasonable innovation caused by a +desire to contradict and to be singular."[136] + +It is, I believe, held not only by "_le peuple des naturalistes_," but +by most sensible persons, that the proposed arrangement would not have +been an improvement. I find, however, in the preface to the third volume +on birds that M. Gueneau de Montbeillard described all the birds from +the ostrich to the quail, so the foregoing passage is perhaps his and +not Buffon's. If so, the imitation is fair, but when we reflect upon it +we feel uncertain whether it is or is not beneath Buffon's dignity. + +Here, as often with pictures and music, we cannot criticise justly +without taking more into consideration than is actually before us. We +feel almost inclined to say that if the passage is by Buffon it is +probably right, and if by M. Gueneau de Montbeillard, probably wrong. It +must also be remembered that, as we learn from the preface already +referred to, Buffon was seized at this point in his work with a long and +painful illness, which continued for two years; a single hasty passage +in so great a writer may well be pardoned under such circumstances. + +Looking through the third and remaining volumes on birds, the greater +part of which was by Gueneau de Montbeillard, and bearing in mind that +in point of date they are synchronous with some of those upon quadrupeds +from which I have already extracted as much as my space will allow, and +not seeing anything on a rapid survey which promises to throw new light +upon the author's opinions, I forbear to quote further. I therefore +leave Buffon with the hope that I have seen him more justly than some +others have done, but with the certainty that the points I have caught +and understood are few in comparison with those that I have missed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[65] 'Hist. Nat.,' tom. i. p. 13, 1749. + +[66] Ibid. + +[67] Ibid. p. 16. + +[68] Tom. i. p. 21. + +[69] Ibid. p. 23. + +[70] Tom. ii. p. 9, 1749. + +[71] Ibid. p. 10. + +[72] Tom. iv. p. 31, 1753. + +[73] Tom. iv. p. 55. + +[74] Tom. iv. p. 98, 1753. + +[75] Ibid. + +[76] Tom. viii. p. 283, &c., 1760. + +[77] Tom. iv. p. 102, 1760. + +[78] Tom. iv. p. 103, 1753. + +[79] Dr. Darwin, 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 183, 1796. + +[80] Ibid. p. 184. + +[81] Dr. Darwin,'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 186. + +[82] Tom. v. p. 63, 1755. + +[83] Ibid. p. 64. + +[84] Tom. v. p. 103, 1755. + +[85] Tom. v. p. 104, 1755. + +[86] Tom. v. pp. 192-195, 1755. + +[87] Tom. v. p. 195. + +[88] Tom. v. pp. 196, 197. + +[89] This passage would seem to be the one which has suggested the +following to the author of 'The Vestiges of Creation':-- + +"He [the Deity] has endowed the families which enjoy His bounty with an +almost infinite fecundity, ... but the limitation of the results of this +fecundity ... is accomplished in a befitting manner by His ordaining +that certain other animals shall have endowments sure so to act as to +bring the rest of animated beings to a proper balance" (p. 317, ed. +1853). + +[90] Tom. vi. p. 252, 1756. + +[91] 'Discours sur la Nature des Animaux,' vol. iv. and p. 113 of +this vol. + +[92] Tom. vii. p. 9, 1758. + +[93] Tom. vii. p. 10, 1758. + +[94] Tom. vii. p. 12, 1758. + +[95] Tom. vii. p. 14, 1758 + +[96] Tom. vii. p. 15, 1758. + +[97] Tom. vii. p. 19, 1758. + +[98] Tom. vii. p. 23, 1758. See Stenon's Discourse upon this subject. + +[99] Tom. ix. p. 10, 1761. + +[100] Tom. ix. p. 11, 1761. + +[101] Tom. ix. p. 68, 1761. + +[102] Ibid. p. 96, 1761. + +[103] Tom. ix. p. 107 and following pages (during which he rails at the +new world generally), 1761. + +[104] Tom. ix. p. 127, 1761. + +[105] Tom. xi. p. 290, 1764 (misprinted on title-page 1754). + +[106] Ibid. p. 296. + +[107] Ibid. p. 363. + +[108] Ibid. p. 363. + +[109] Tom. xi. p. 370, 1764. + +[110] Ibid. xii., preface, iv. 1764. + +[111] Tom. xiii., preface, x. 1765. + +[112] Tom. xiii., preface, iv. 1765. + +[113] Ibid. xiii. p. 37. + +[114] See p. 80 of this volume. + +[115] Tom. xiv. p. 30, 1766. + +[116] Tom. xiv. p. 31, 1766. + +[117] Ibid. p. 32, 1766. + +[118] Tom. xiv. p. 38, 1766. + +[119] Ibid. p. 42, 1766. + +[120] Tom. xiv. p. 316, 1766. + +[121] Ibid. p. 317. + +[122] Tom. xiv. p. 326, 1766. + +[123] Ibid. p. 327. + +[124] Tom. xiv. p. 333. + +[125] Ibid. p. 335, 1766. + +[126] See p. 80 of this volume. + +[127] Tom. xiv. p. 358, 1766. + +[128] Tom. xiv. p. 374, 1766. + +[129] 'Hist. Nat.,' Sup. tom. v. p. 27, 1778. + +[130] Sup. tom. v. p. 187, 1778. + +[131] Sup. tom. v. p. 250, 1778. + +[132] Sup. tom. v. p. 253, 1778. + +[133] 'Oiseaux,' tom. i., preface, v. 1770. + +[134] Ibid. pp. 9-11. + +[135] 'Oiseaux,' tom. i. pp. 394, 395. + +[136] Ibid. p. 396, 1771. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SKETCH OF DR. ERASMUS DARWIN'S LIFE. + + +Proceeding now to the second of the three founders of the theory of +evolution, I find, from a memoir by Dr. Dowson, that Dr. Erasmus Darwin +was born at Elston, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, on the 12th of +December, 1731, being the seventh child and fourth son of Robert Darwin, +"a private gentleman, who had a taste for literature and science, which +he endeavoured to impart to his sons. Erasmus received his early +education at Chesterfield School, and later on was entered at St. John's +College, Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship of about 16_l._ a +year, and distinguished himself by his poetical exercises, which he +composed with uncommon facility. He took the degree of M.B. there in +1755, and afterwards prepared himself for the practice of medicine by +attendance on the lectures of Dr. Hunter in London, and a course of +studies in Edinburgh. + +"He first settled as a physician at Nottingham; but meeting with no +success there, he removed in the autumn of 1756, his twenty-fifth year, +to Lichfield, where he was more fortunate; for a few weeks after his +arrival, to use the words of Miss Seward, 'he brilliantly opened his +career of fame.' A young gentleman of family and fortune lay sick of a +dangerous fever. A physician who had for many years possessed the +confidence of Lichfield and the neighbourhood attended, but at length +pronounced the case hopeless, and took his leave. Dr. Darwin was then +called in, and by 'a reverse and entirely novel kind of treatment' the +patient recovered."[137] + +Of Dr. Darwin's personal appearance Miss Seward says:-- + +"He was somewhat above the middle size; his form athletic, and inclined +to corpulence; his limbs were too heavy for exact proportion; the traces +of a severe smallpox disfigured features and a countenance which, when +they were not animated by social pleasure, were rather saturnine than +sprightly; a stoop in the shoulders, and the then professional +appendage--a large full-bottomed wig--gave at that early period of life +an appearance of nearly twice the years he bore. Florid health and the +earnest of good humour, a funny smile on entering a room and on first +accosting his friends, rendered in his youth that exterior agreeable, to +which beauty and symmetry had not been propitious. + +"He stammered extremely, but whatever he said, whether gravely or in +jest, was always well worth waiting for, though the inevitable +impression it made might not be always pleasant to individual self-love. +Conscious of great native elevation above the general standard of +intellect, he became early in life sore upon opposition, whether in +argument or conduct, and always resented it by sarcasm of very keen +edge. Nor was he less impatient of the sallies of egotism and vanity, +even when they were in so slight a degree that strict politeness would +rather tolerate than ridicule them. Dr. Darwin seldom failed to present +their caricature in jocose but wounding irony. If these ingredients of +colloquial despotism were discernible in _unworn_ existence, they +increased as it advanced, fed by an ever growing reputation within and +without the pale of medicine."[138] + +I imagine that this portrait is somewhat too harshly drawn. Dr. Darwin's +taste for English wines is the worst trait which I have been able to +discover in his character. On this head Miss Seward tells us that "he +despised the prejudice which deems foreign wines more wholesome than the +wines of the country. 'If you must drink wine,' said he, 'let it be +home-made.'" "It is well known," she continues, "that Dr. Darwin's +influence and example have sobered the county of Derby; that +intemperance in fermented fluid of every species is almost unknown among +its gentlemen,"[139] which, if he limited them to cowslip wine, is +hardly to be wondered at. + +Dr. Dowson, quoting Miss Edgeworth, says that Dr. Darwin attributed +almost all the diseases of the upper classes to the too great use of +fermented liquors. "This opinion he supported in his writings with the +force of his eloquence and reason; and still more in conversation by all +those powers of wit, satire, and peculiar humour, which never appeared +fully to the public in his works, but which gained him strong +ascendancy in private society.... When he heard that my father was +bilious, he suspected that this must be the consequence of his having, +since his residence in Ireland, and in compliance with the fashion of +the country, indulged too freely in drinking. His letter, I remember, +concluded with, 'Farewell, my dear friend; God keep you from whisky--if +He can.'"[140] + +On the other hand, Dr. Darwin seems to have been a very large eater. +"Acid fruits with sugar, and all sorts of creams and butter were his +luxuries; but he always ate plentifully of animal food. This liberal +alimentary regimen he prescribed to people of every age where unvitiated +appetite rendered them capable of following it; even to infants." + +Dr. Dowson writes:-- + +"I have mentioned already that he had in his carriage a receptacle for +paper and pencils, with which he wrote as he travelled, and in one +corner a pile of books; but he had also a receptacle for a knife, fork, +and spoon, and in the other corner a hamper, containing fruit and +sweetmeats, cream and sugar. He provided also for his horses by having a +large pail lashed to his carriage for watering them, as well as hay and +oats to be eaten on the road. Mrs. Schimmelpenninck says that when he +came on a professional visit to her father's house they had, as was the +custom whenever he came, 'a luncheon-table set out with hothouse fruits +and West India sweetmeats, clotted cream, stilton cheese, &c. While the +conversation went on, the dishes in his vicinity were rapidly emptied, +and what,' she adds, 'was my astonishment when, at the end of the three +hours during which the meal had lasted, he expressed his joy at hearing +the dressing bell, and hoped dinner would soon be announced.' This was +not mere gluttony; he thought an abundance, or what most people would +consider a superabundance of food, conducive to health. '_Eat or be +eaten_' is said to have been often his medical advice. He had especially +a very high opinion of the nutritive value of sugar, and said 'that if +ever our improved chemistry should discover the art of making sugar from +fossil or aerial matter without the assistance of vegetation, food for +animals would then become as plentiful as water, and mankind might live +upon the earth as thick as blades of grass, with no restraint to their +numbers but want of room.'--Botanic Garden, vol. i. p. 470."[141] + +"Professional generosity," says Miss Seward, "distinguished Dr. Darwin's +practice. Whilst resident in Lichfield he always cheerfully gave to the +priest and lay vicars of its cathedral and their families _his advice_, +but never took fees from any of them. Diligently also did he attend the +health of the poor in that city, and afterwards at Derby, and supplied +their necessities by food, and all sort of charitable assistance. In +each of those towns _his_ was the cheerful board of almost open-housed +hospitality, without extravagance or parade; generosity, wit, and +science were his household gods."[142] + +Of his first marriage the following account is given:-- + +"In 1757 he married Miss Howard, of the Close of Lichfield, a blooming +and lovely young lady of eighteen.... Mrs. Darwin's own mind, by nature +so well endowed, strengthened and expanded in the friendship, +conversation, and confidence of so beloved a preceptor. But alas! upon +her too early youth, and too delicate constitution, the frequency of her +maternal situation, during the first five years of her marriage, had +probably a baneful effect. The potent skill and assiduous cares of _him_ +before whom disease daily vanished from the frame of _others_, could not +expel it radically from that of her he loved. It was, however, kept at +bay during thirteen years. + +"Upon the distinguished happiness of those years she spoke with fervour +to two intimate female friends in the last week of her existence, which +closed at the latter end of the summer 1770. 'Do not weep for my +impending fate,' said the dying angel with a smile of unaffected +cheerfulness. 'In the short term of my life a great deal of happiness +has been comprised. The maladies of my frame were peculiar; those of my +head and stomach which no medicine could eradicate, were spasmodic and +violent; and required stronger measures to render them supportable while +they lasted than my constitution could sustain without injury. The +periods of exemption from those pains were frequently of several days' +duration, and in my intermissions I felt no indications of malady. Pain +taught me the value of ease, and I enjoyed it with a glow of spirit, +seldom, perhaps, felt by the habitually healthy. While Dr. Darwin +combated and assuaged my disease from time to time, his indulgence to +all my wishes, his active desire to see me amused and happy, proved +incessant. His house, as you know, has ever been the resort of people of +science and merit. If, from my husband's great and extensive practice, I +had much less of his society than I wished, yet the conversation of his +friends, and of my own, was ever ready to enliven the hours of his +absence. As occasional malady made me doubly enjoy health, so did those +frequent absences give a zest even to delight, when I could be indulged +with his company. My three boys have ever been docile and affectionate. +Children as they are, I could trust them with important secrets, so +sacred do they hold every promise they make. They scorn deceit and +falsehood of every kind, and have less selfishness than generally +belongs to childhood. Married to any other man, I do not suppose I could +have lived a third part of the years which I have passed with Dr. +Darwin; he has prolonged my days, and he has blessed them.' + +"Thus died this superior woman, in the bloom of life, sincerely +regretted by all who knew how to value her excellence, and +_passionately_ regretted by the selected few whom she honoured with her +personal and confidential friendship."[143] + +I find Miss Seward's pages so fascinating, that I am in danger of +following her even in those parts of her work which have no bearing on +Dr. Darwin. I must, however, pass over her account of Mr. Edgeworth and +of his friend Mr. Day, the author of 'Sandford and Merton,' "which, by +wise parents, is put into every youthful hand," but the description of +Mr. Day's portrait cannot be omitted. + +"In the course of the year 1770, Mr. Day stood for a full-length picture +to Mr. Wright, of Derby. A strong likeness and a dignified portrait were +the result. Drawn in the open air, the surrounding sky is tempestuous, +lurid, dark. He stands leaning his left arm against a column inscribed +to Hambden (_sic_). Mr. Day looks upwards, as enthusiastically +meditating on the contents of a book held in his dropped right hand. The +open leaf is the oration of that virtuous patriot in the senate, against +the grant of ship money, demanded by King Charles I. A flash of +lightning plays in Mr. Day's hair, and illuminates the contents of the +volume. The poetic fancy and what were _then_ the politics of the +original, appear in the choice of subject and attitude. Dr. Darwin sat +to Mr. Wright about the same period. _That_ was a simply contemplative +portrait, of the most perfect resemblance."[144] + + . . . . . . + +"In the year 1768, Dr. Darwin met with an accident of irretrievable +injury to the human frame. His propensity to mechanics had unfortunately +led him to construct a very singular carriage. It was a platform with a +seat fixed upon a very high pair of wheels, and supported in the front +upon the back of the horse, by means of a kind of proboscis which, +forming an arch, reached over the hind-quarters of the horse, and passed +through a ring, placed on an upright piece of iron, which worked in a +socket fixed in the saddle. The horse could thus move from one side of +the road to the other, quartering, as it is called, at the will of the +driver, whose constant attention was necessarily employed to regulate a +piece of machinery contrived, but _not well_ contrived, for that +purpose." + +I cannot help the reader to understand the foregoing description. "From +this whimsical carriage, however, the doctor was several times thrown, +and the last time he used it had the misfortune, from a similar +accident, to break the patella of his right knee, which caused, as it +must always cause, an incurable weakness in the fractured part, and a +lameness not very discernible, indeed, when walking on even +ground."[145] + +Miss Seward presently tells a story which reads as though it might have +been told by Plutarch of some Greek or Roman sage. Much as we must +approve of Dr. Darwin's habitual sobriety, we shall most of us be agreed +that a few more such stories would have been cheaply purchased by a +corresponding number of lapses on the doctor's part. + +Miss Seward writes:-- + +"Since these memoirs commenced, an odd anecdote of Dr. Darwin's early +residence at Lichfield, was narrated to a friend of the author by a +gentleman, who was of the party in which it happened. Mr. Sneyd, then of +Bishton, and a few more gentlemen of Staffordshire, prevailed upon the +doctor to join them in an expedition by water from Burton to Nottingham, +and on to Newark. They had cold provisions on board, and plenty of wine. +It was midsummer; the day ardent and sultry. The noon-tide meal had +been made, and the glass had gone gaily round. It was one of those _few_ +instances in which the medical votary of the Naiads transgressed his +general and strict sobriety," in which, in fact, he may be said to +have--remembered himself. + +"If not absolutely intoxicated, his spirits were in a high state of +vinous exhilaration. On the boat approaching Nottingham, within the +distance of a few fields, he surprised his companions by stepping, +without any previous notice, from the boat into the middle of the river, +and swimming to shore. They saw him get upon the bank, and walk coolly +over the meadows towards the town: they called to him in vain, but he +did not once turn his head. + +"Anxious lest he should take a dangerous cold by remaining in his wet +clothes, and uncertain whether or not he intended to desert the party, +they rowed instantly to the town at which they had not designed to have +touched, and went in search of their river-god. + +"In passing through the market-place they saw him standing upon a tub, +encircled by a crowd of people, and resisting the entreaties of an +apothecary of the place, one of his old acquaintances, who was +importuning him to his house, and to accept other raiments till his own +could be dried. + +"The party on pressing through the crowd were surprised to hear him +speaking without any degree of his usual stammer:--'Have I not told you, +my friend, that I had drank a considerable quantity of wine before I +committed myself to the river. You know my general sobriety, and as a +professional man you _ought_ to know that the _unusual_ existence of +internal stimulus would, in its effects upon the system, counteract the +_external_ cold and moisture.'" + +"Then perceiving his companions near him, he nodded, smiled, and waived +his hand, as enjoining them silence, thus, without hesitation, +addressing the populace:-- + +"'Ye men of Nottingham, listen to me. You are ingenious and industrious +mechanics. By your industry life's comforts are procured for yourselves +and families. If you lose your health the power of being industrious +will forsake you. _That_ you know, but you may _not_ know that to +breathe fresh and changed air constantly, is not less necessary to +preserve health than sobriety itself. Air becomes unwholesome in a few +hours if the windows are shut. Open those of your sleeping rooms +whenever you quit them to go to your workshops. Keep the windows of your +workshops open whenever the weather is not insupportably cold. I have no +_interest_ in giving you this advice; remember what I, your countryman +and a physician, tell you. If you would not bring infection and disease +upon yourselves, and to your wives and little ones, change the air you +breathe, change it many times a day, by opening your windows.' + +"So saying, he stepped down from the tub, and, returning with his party +to their boat, they pursued their voyage."[146] + +Could any missionary be more perfectly sober and sensible, or more alive +to the immorality of trying to effect too sudden a modification in the +organisms he was endeavouring to influence? If the men of Nottingham +want a statue in their market-place, I would respectfully suggest that a +subject is here afforded them. + + * * * * * + +"Dr. Johnson was several times at Lichfield on visits to Mrs. Lucy +Porter, his daughter-in-law, while Dr. Darwin was one of the +inhabitants. They had one or two interviews, but never afterwards sought +each other. Mutual and strong dislike subsisted between them. It is +curious that in Johnson's various letters to Mrs. Thrale, now Mrs. +Piozzi, published by that lady after his death, many of them dated from +Lichfield, the name of Darwin cannot be found, nor, indeed, that of any +of the ingenious and lettered people who lived there; while of its mere +common-life characters there is frequent mention, with many hints of +Lichfield's intellectual barrenness, while it could boast a Darwin and +other men of classical learning, poetic talents, and liberal +information."[147] + +Here there follows a pleasant sketch of the principal Lichfield +notabilities, which I am compelled to omit. + +"_These_ were the men," exclaims Miss Seward, "whose intellectual +existence passed unnoticed by Dr. Johnson in his depreciating estimate +of Lichfield talents. But Johnson liked only _worshippers_. Archdeacon +Vyse, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Robinson paid all the respect and attention to +Dr. Johnson, on these his visits to their town, due to his great +abilities, his high reputation, and to whatever was estimable in his +_mixed_ character; but they were not in the herd that 'paged his heels,' +and sunk in servile silence under the force of his dogmas, when their +hearts and their judgments bore _contrary_ testimony. + +"Certainly, however, it was an arduous hazard to the feelings of the +company to oppose in the slightest degree Dr. Johnson's opinions. His +stentor lungs; that combination of wit, humour, and eloquence, which +'could make the _worse_ appear the _better_ reason,' that sarcastic +contempt of his antagonist, never suppressed or even softened by the due +restraints of good breeding, were sufficient to close the lips in his +presence, of men who could have met him in fair argument, on _any_ +ground, literary or political, moral or characteristic. + +"Where Dr. Johnson was, Dr. Darwin had no chance of being heard, though +at least his equal in genius, his superior in science; nor, indeed, from +his impeded utterance, in the company of any overbearing declaimer; and +he was too intellectually great to be an humble listener to Johnson. +Therefore he shunned him on having experienced what manner of man he +was. The surly dictator felt the mortification, and revenged it by +_affecting_ to avow his disdain of powers too distinguished to be +objects of _genuine_ scorn. + +"Dr. Darwin, in his turn, was not much more just to Dr. Johnson's +genius. He uniformly spoke of him in terms which, had they been +deserved, would have justified Churchill's 'immane Pomposo' as an +appellation of _scorn_; since if his person was huge, and his manners +pompous and violent, so were his talents vast and powerful, in a degree +from which only prejudice and resentment could withhold respect. + +"Though Dr. Darwin's hesitation in speaking precluded his flow of +colloquial eloquence, it did not impede, or at all lessen, the force of +that conciser quality, _wit_. Of satiric wit he possessed a very +peculiar species. It was neither the dead-doing broadside of Dr. +Johnson's satire, nor the aurora borealis of Gray ... whose arch yet coy +and quiet fastidiousness of taste and feeling, as recorded by Mason, +glanced bright and cold through his conversation, while it seemed +difficult to define its nature; and while its effects were rather +_perceived_ than _felt_, exciting surprise more than mirth, and never +awakening the pained sense of being the object of its ridicule. That +unique in humorous verse, the Long Story, is a complete and beautiful +specimen of Gray's singular vein. + +"Darwinian wit is not more easy to be defined; instances will best +convey an idea of its character to those who never conversed with its +possessor. + +"Dr. Darwin was conversing with a brother botanist concerning the plant +kalmia, then a just imported stranger in our greenhouses and gardens. A +lady who was present, concluding he had seen it, which in fact he had +not, asked the doctor what were the colours of the plant. He replied, +'Madam, the kalmia has precisely the colours of a seraph's wing.' So +fancifully did he express his want of consciousness concerning the +appearance of a flower, whose name and rareness were all he knew of the +matter. + +"Dr. Darwin had a large company at tea. His servant announced a +stranger, lady and gentleman. The female was a conspicuous figure, +ruddy, corpulent, and tall. She held by the arm a little, meek-looking, +pale, effeminate man, who, from his close adherence to the side of the +lady, seemed to consider himself as under her protection. + +"'Dr. Darwin, I seek you not as a physician, but as a _Belle Esprit_. I +make this husband of mine,' and she looked down with a side glance upon +the animal, 'treat me every summer with a tour through one of the +British counties, to explore whatever it contains worth the attention of +ingenious people. On arriving at the several inns in our route I always +search out the man of the vicinity most distinguished for his genius and +taste, and introduce myself, that he may direct as the objects of our +examination, whatever is curious in nature, art, or science. Lichfield +will be our headquarters during several days. Come, doctor, whither must +we go; what must we investigate to-morrow, and the next day, and the +next? Here are my tablets and pencil.' + +"'You arrive, madam, at a fortunate juncture. To-morrow you will have an +opportunity of surveying an annual exhibition perfectly worthy your +attention. To-morrow, madam, you will go to Tutbury bull-running.' + +"The satiric laugh with which he stammered out the last word more keenly +pointed this sly, yet broad rebuke to the vanity and arrogance of her +speech. She had been up amongst the boughs, and little expected they +would break under her so suddenly, and with so little mercy. Her large +features swelled, and her eyes flashed with anger--'I was recommended to +a man of genius, and I find him insolent and ill-bred.' Then, gathering +up her meek and alarmed husband, whom she had loosed when she first +spoke, under the shadow of her broad arm and shoulder, she strutted out +of the room. + +"After the departure of this curious couple, his guests told their host +he had been very unmerciful. 'I chose,' replied he, 'to avenge the cause +of the little man, whose nothingness was so ostentatiously displayed by +his lady-wife. Her vanity has had a smart emetic. If it abates the +symptoms, she will have reason to thank her physician who administered +without hope of a fee.'"[148] + +"In the spring of 1778 the children of Colonel and Mrs. Pole of Radburn, +in Derbyshire, had been injured by a dangerous quantity of the cicuta, +injudiciously administered to them in the hooping-cough by a physician +of the neighbourhood. Mrs. Pole brought them to the house of Dr. Darwin +in Lichfield, remaining with them there a few weeks, till by his art the +poison was expelled from their constitutions and their health restored. + +"Mrs. Pole was then in the full bloom of her youth and beauty. Agreeable +features; the glow of health; a fine form, tall and graceful; playful +sprightliness of manner; a benevolent heart, and maternal affection, in +all its unwearied cares and touching tenderness, contributed to inspire +Dr. Darwin's admiration, and to secure his esteem."[149] + +"In the autumn of this year" (1778) "Mrs. Pole of Radburn was taken ill; +her disorder a violent fever. Dr. Darwin was called in, and never +perhaps since the death of Mrs. Darwin, prescribed with such deep +anxiety. Not being requested to continue in the house during the ensuing +night, which he apprehended might prove critical, he passed the +remaining hours till day-dawn beneath a tree opposite her apartment, +watching the passing and repassing lights in the chamber. During the +period in which a life so passionately valued was in danger, he +paraphrased Petrarch's celebrated sonnet, narrating a dream whose +prophecy was accomplished by the death of Laura. It took place the night +on which the vision arose amid his slumber. Dr. Darwin extended the +thought of that sonnet into the following elegy:-- + + "Dread dream, that, hovering in the midnight air, + Clasp'd with thy dusky wing my aching head, + While to imagination's startled ear + Toll'd the slow bell, for bright Eliza dead. + + "Stretched on her sable bier, the grave beside, + A snow-white shroud her breathless bosom bound, + O'er her wan brow the mimic lace was tied, + And loves and virtues hung their garlands round. + + "From those cold lips did softest accents flow? + Round that pale mouth did sweetest dimples play? + On this dull cheek the rose of beauty blow, + And those dim eyes diffuse celestial day? + + "Did this cold hand, unasking Want relieve, + Or wake the lyre to every rapturous sound? + How sad for other's woe this breast would heave! + How light this heart for other's transport bound! + + "Beats not the bell again?--Heavens, do I wake? + Why heave my sighs, why gush my tears anew? + Unreal forms my trembling doubts mistake, + And frantic sorrow fears the vision true. + + "Dreams to Eliza bend thy airy flight, + Go, tell my charmer all my tender fears, + How love's fond woes alarm the silent night, + And steep my pillow in unpitied tears." + +Unwilling as I am to extend this memoir, I must give Miss Seward's +criticism on the foregoing. + +"The second verse of this charming elegy affords an instance of Dr. +Darwin's too exclusive devotion to distinct picture in poetry; that it +sometimes betrayed him into bringing objects so precisely to the eye as +to lose in such precision their power of striking forcibly on the heart. +The pathos in the second verse is much injured by the words 'mimic +lace,' which allude to the perforated borders on the shroud. The +expression is too minute for the solemnity of the subject. Certainly it +cannot be natural for a shocked and agitated mind to observe, or to +describe with such petty accuracy. Besides, the allusion is not +sufficiently obvious. The reader pauses to consider what the poet means +by 'mimic lace.' Such pauses deaden sensation and break the course of +attention. A friend of the doctor's pleaded greatly that the line might +run thus:-- + + "On her wan brow the _shadowy crape_ was tied;" + +but the alteration was rejected. Inattention to the rules of grammar in +the first verse was also pointed out to him at the same time. The dream +is addressed: + + "Dread dream, that clasped my aching head," + +but nothing is said to it, and therefore the sense is left unfinished, +while the elegy proceeds to give a picture of the lifeless beauty. The +same friend suggested a change which would have remedied the defect. +Thus:-- + + "Dread _was the dream_ that in the midnight air + Clasped with its dusky wing my aching head, + While to" &c., &c. + +"Hence not only the grammatic error would have been done away, but the +grating sound produced by the near alliteration of the harsh _dr_ in +'_dr_ead _dr_eam' removed, by placing those words at a greater distance +from each other. + +"This alteration was, for the same reason, rejected. The doctor would +not spare the word _hovering_, which he said strengthened the picture; +but surely the image ought not to be elaborately precise, by which a +dream is transformed into an animal with black wings."[150] + +Then Mrs. Pole got well, and the doctor wrote more verses and Miss +Seward more criticism. It was not for nothing that Dr. Johnson came down +to Lichfield. + + * * * * * + +In 1780 Colonel Pole died, and his widow, still young, handsome, witty, +and--for those days--rich, was in no want of suitors. + +"Colonel Pole," says Miss Seward, "had numbered twice the years of his +fair wife. His temper was said to have been peevish and suspicious; yet +not beneath those circumstances had her kind and cheerful attentions to +him grown cold or remiss. He left her a jointure of 600_l._ per annum, a +son to inherit his estate, and two female children amply portioned. + +"Mrs. Pole, it has already been remarked, had much vivacity and sportive +humour, with very engaging frankness of temper and manners. Early in her +widowhood she was rallied in a large company upon Dr. Darwin's passion +for her, and was asked what she would do with her captive philosopher. +'He is not very fond of churches, I believe,' said she, 'and even if he +would go there for my sake, I shall scarcely follow him. He is too old +for me.' 'Nay, Madam,' was the answer, 'what are fifteen years on the +right side?' She replied, with an arch smile, 'I have had so _much_ of +that right side.' + +"This confession was thought inauspicious for the doctor's hopes, but it +did not prove so. The triumph of intellect was complete."[151] + +Mrs. Pole had taken a strong dislike to Lichfield, and had made it a +condition of her marriage that Dr. Darwin should not reside there after +he had married her. In 1781, therefore, immediately after his marriage, +he removed to Derby, and continued to live there till a fortnight before +his death. + +Here he wrote 'The Botanic Garden' and a great part of the 'Zoonomia.' +Those who wish for a detailed analysis of 'The Botanic Garden' can +hardly do better than turn to Miss Seward's pages. Opening them at +random, I find the following:-- + +"The mention of Brindley, the father of commercial canals, has propriety +as well as happiness. Similitude for their course to the sinuous track +of a serpent, produces a fine picture of a gliding animal of that +species, and it is succeeded by these supremely happy lines:-- + + "'So with strong arms immortal Brindley leads + His long canals, and parts the velvet meads; + Winding in lucid lines, the watery mass + Mines the firm rock, or loads the deep morass;'[152] + &c. &c. &c. + + . . . . . . + +"The mechanism of the pump is next described with curious ingenuity. +Common as is the machine, it is not unworthy a place in this splendid +composition, as being, after the sinking of wells, the earliest of those +inventions, which in situations of exterior aridness gave ready +accession to water. This familiar object is illustrated by a picture of +Maternal Beauty administering sustenance to her infant."[153] + +Here we will leave the poetical part of the 'Botanic Garden.' The notes, +however, to which are "still," as Dr. Dowson says, "instructive and +amusing," and contain matter which, at the time they were written, was +for the most part new. + +Of the 'Zoonomia' there is no occasion to speak here, as a sufficient +number of extracts from those parts that concern us as bearing upon +evolution will be given presently. + +On the 18th of April, 1802, Dr. Darwin had written "one page of a very +sprightly letter to Mr. Edgeworth, describing the Priory and his +purposed alterations there, when the fatal signal was given. He rang the +bell and ordered the servant to send Mrs. Darwin to him. She came +immediately, with his daughter, Miss Emma Darwin. They saw him shivering +and pale. He desired them to send to Derby for his surgeon, Mr. Hadley. +They did so, but all was over before he could arrive. + +"It was reported at Lichfield that, perceiving himself growing rapidly +worse, he said to Mrs. Darwin, 'My dear, you must bleed me instantly.' +'Alas! I dare not, lest--' 'Emma, will you? There is no time to be +lost.' 'Yes, my dear father, if you will direct me.' At that moment he +sank into his chair and expired."[154] + +Dr. Dowson gives the letter to Mr. Edgeworth, which is as follows:-- + + "Dear Edgeworth, + + "I am glad to find that you still amuse yourself with mechanism, in + spite of the troubles of Ireland. + + "The _use_ of turning aside or downwards the claw of a table, I + don't see; as it must then be reared against a wall, for it will + not stand alone. If the use be for carriage, the feet may shut up, + like the usual brass feet of a reflecting telescope. + + "We have all been now removed from Derby about a fortnight, to the + Priory, and all of us like our change of situation. We have a + pleasant house, a good garden, ponds full of fish, and a pleasing + valley, somewhat like Shenstone's--deep, umbrageous, and with a + talkative stream running down it. Our house is near the top of the + valley, well screened by hills from the east and north, and open to + the south, where at four miles distance we see Derby tower. + + "Four or more strong springs rise near the house, and have formed + the valley which, like that of Petrarch, may be called Val Chiusa, + as it begins, or is shut at the situation of the house. I hope you + like the description, and hope farther that yourself and any part + of your family will sometimes do us the pleasure of a visit. + + "Pray tell the authoress" (Miss Maria Edgeworth) "that the + water-nymphs of our valley will be happy to assist her next novel. + + "My bookseller, Mr. Johnson, will not begin to print the 'Temple of + Nature' till the price of paper is fixed by Parliament. I suppose + the present duty is paid...." + +At these words Dr. Darwin's pen stopped. What followed was written on +the opposite side of the paper by another hand. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[137] 'Sketch, &c., of Erasmus Darwin,' pp. 3, 4. + +[138] Miss Seward's 'Memoirs of Dr. Darwin,' p. 3. + +[139] Ibid. + +[140] Dr. Dowson's 'Sketch of Dr. Erasmus Darwin,' p. 50. + +[141] Dr. Dowson's 'Sketch of Dr. Darwin,' p. 53. + +[142] Miss Seward's 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 6. + +[143] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 14. + +[144] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 21. + +[145] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 62. + +[146] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 68. + +[147] Miss Seward's 'Memoirs,' p. 69. + +[148] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 84. + +[149] Ibid., p. 105. + +[150] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 120. + +[151] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 149. + +[152] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 249. + +[153] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 250. + +[154] 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 426. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +PHILOSOPHY OF DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. + + +Considering the wide reputation enjoyed by Dr. Darwin at the beginning +of this century, it is surprising how completely he has been lost sight +of. The 'Botanic Garden' was translated into Portuguese in 1803; the +'Loves of the Plants' into French and Italian in 1800 and 1805; while, +as I have already said, the 'Zoonomia' had appeared some years earlier +in Germany. Paley's 'Natural Theology' is written throughout at the +'Zoonomia,' though he is careful, _more suo_, never to mention this work +by name. Paley's success was probably one of the chief causes of the +neglect into which the Buffonian and Darwinian systems fell in this +country. Dr. Darwin is as reticent about teleology as Buffon, and +presumably for the same reason, but the evidence in favour of design was +too obvious; Paley, therefore, with his usual keen-sightedness seized +upon this weak point, and had the battle all his own way, for Dr. Darwin +died the same year as that in which the 'Natural Theology' appeared. The +unfortunate failure to see that evolution involves design and purpose as +necessarily and far more intelligibly than the theological view of +creation, has retarded our perception of many important facts for +three-quarters of a century. + +However this may be, Dr. Darwin's name has been but little before the +public during the controversies of the last thirty years. Mr. Charles +Darwin, indeed, in the "historical sketch" which he has prefixed to the +later editions of his 'Origin of Species,' says, "It is curious how +largely my grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, anticipated the views and +erroneous grounds of opinion of Lamarck in his 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. pp. +500-510, published in 1794."[155] And a few lines lower Mr. Darwin adds, +"It is rather a singular instance of the manner in which similar views +arise at about the same time, that Goethe in Germany, and Geoffroy St. +Hilaire (as we shall immediately see) in France, came to the same +conclusion on the 'Origin of Species' in the years 1794-1796." +Acquaintance with Buffon's work will explain much of the singularity, +while those who have any knowledge of the writings of Dr. Darwin and +Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire will be aware that neither would admit the +other as "coming to the same conclusion," or even nearly so, as himself. +Dr. Darwin goes beyond his successor, Lamarck, while Etienne Geoffroy +does not even go so far as Dr. Darwin's predecessor, Buffon, had thought +fit to let himself be known as going. I have found no other reference to +Dr. Darwin in the 'Origin of Species,' except the two just given from +the same note. In the first edition I find no mention of him. + +The chief fault to be found with Dr. Darwin's treatise on evolution is +that there is not enough of it; what there is, so far from being +"erroneous," is admirable. But so great a subject should have had a book +to itself, and not a mere fraction of a book. If his opponents, not +venturing to dispute with him, passed over one book in silence, he +should have followed it up with another, and another, and another, year +by year, as Buffon and Lamarck did; it is only thus that men can expect +to succeed against vested interests. Dr. Darwin could speak with a +freedom that was denied to Buffon. He took Buffon at his word as well as +he could, and carried out his principles to what he conceived to be +their logical conclusion. This was doubtless what Buffon had desired and +reckoned on, but, as I have said already, I question how far Dr. Darwin +understood Buffon's humour; he does not present any of the phenomena of +having done so, and therefore I am afraid he must be said to have missed +it. + +Like Buffon, Dr. Darwin had no wish to see far beyond the obvious; he +missed good things sometimes, but he gained more than he lost; he knew +that it is always on the margin, as it were, of the self-evident that +the greatest purchase against the nearest difficulty is obtainable. His +life was not one of Herculean effort, but, like the lives of all those +organisms that are most likely to develop and transmit a useful +modification, it was one of well-sustained activity; it was a +long-continued keeping open of the windows of his own mind, much after +the advice he gave to the Nottingham weavers. Dr. Darwin knew, and, I +imagine, quite instinctively, that nothing tends to oversight like +overseeing. He does not trouble himself about the origin of life; as +for the perceptions and reasoning faculties of animals and plants, it is +enough for him that animals and plants do things which we say involve +sensation and consciousness when we do them ourselves or see others do +them. If, then, plants and animals appear as if they felt and +understood, let the matter rest there, and let us say they feel and +understand--being guided by the common use of language, rather than by +any theories concerning brain and nervous system. If any young writer +happens to be in want of a subject, I beg to suggest that he may find +his opportunity in a 'Philosophy of the Superficial.' + +Though Dr. Darwin was more deeply impressed than Buffon with the oneness +of personality between parents and offspring, so that these latter are +not "new" creatures, but "elongations of the parents," and hence "may +retain some of the habits of the parent system," he did not go on to +infer definitely all that he might easily have inferred from such a +pregnant premiss. He did not refer the repetition by offspring, of +actions which their parents have done for many generations, but which +they can never have seen those parents do, to the memory (in the strict +sense of the word) of their having done those actions when they were in +the persons of their parents; which memory, though dormant until +awakened by the presence of associated ideas, becomes promptly kindled +into activity when a sufficient number of these ideas are reproduced. + +This, I gather, is the theory put forward by Professor Hering, of whose +work, however, I know no more than is told us by Professor Ray +Lankester in an article which, appeared in 'Nature,' July 13th, 1876. +This theory seems to be adopted by Professor Haeckel, and to receive +support from Professor Ray Lankester himself. Knowing no German, I have +been unable to make myself acquainted with Professor Hering's position +in detail, but its similarity to, if not identity with, that taken by +myself subsequently, but independently, in 'Life and Habit,' seems +sufficiently established by the following extracts; it is to be wished, +however, that a full account of this lecture were accessible to English +readers. The extracts are as follows:-- + +"Professor Hering has the merit of introducing some striking phraseology +into his treatment of the subject which serves to emphasize the leading +idea. He points out that since all transmission of 'qualities' from cell +to cell in the growth and repair of one and the same organ, or from +parent to offspring, is a transmission of vibrations or affections of +material particles, whether these qualities manifest themselves as form, +or as a facility for entering on a given series of vibrations, we may +speak of all such phenomena as 'memory,' whether it be the conscious +memory exhibited by the nerve cells of the brain or the unconscious +memory we call habit, or the inherited memory we call instinct; or +whether, again, it be the reproduction of parental form and minute +structure. All equally may be called the 'memory of living matter.' From +the earliest existence of protoplasm to the present day the memory of +living matter is continuous. Though individuals die, the universal +memory of living matter is carried on. + +"Professor Hering, in short, helps us to a comprehensive conception of +the nature of heredity and adaptation, by giving us the term 'memory' +conscious or unconscious, for the continuity of Mr. Herbert Spencer's +polar forces, or polarities of physiological units. + + . . . . . . + +"The undulatory movement of the plastidules is the key to the mechanical +explanation of all the essential phenomena of life. The plastidules are +liable to have their undulations affected by every external force, and, +once modified, the movement does not return to its pristine condition. +By assimilation they continually increase to a certain point in size, +and then divide, and thus perpetuate in the undulatory movement of +successive generations, the impressions or resultants due to the action +of external agencies on individual plastidules. This is Memory. All +plastidules possess memory; and Memory which we see in its ultimate +analysis is identical with reproduction, is the distinguishing feature +of the plastidule; is that which it alone of all molecules possesses, in +addition to the ordinary properties of the physicist's molecule; is, in +fact, that which distinguishes it as vital. To the sensitiveness of the +movement of plastidules is due Variability--to their unconscious Memory +the power of Hereditary Transmission. As we know them to-day they may +'have learnt little, and forgotten nothing' in one organism, and 'have +learnt much, and forgotten much' in another; but in all, their memory if +sometimes fragmentary, yet reaches back to the dawn of life upon the +earth.--E. Ray Lankester." + +Nothing can well be plainer and more uncompromising than the above. +Professor Hering would, I gather, no less than myself, refer the +building of its nest by a bird to the intense--but unconscious, owing to +its very perfection and intensity--recollection by the bird of the nests +it built when it was in the persons of its ancestors; this memory would +begin to stimulate action when the surrounding associations, such as +temperature, state of vegetation, &c., reminded it of the time when it +had been in the habit of beginning to build in countless past +generations. Dr. Darwin does not go so far as this. He says that wild +birds choose spring as their building time "from their _acquired_ +knowledge that the mild temperature of the air is more convenient for +hatching their eggs," and a little lower down he speaks of the fact that +graminivorous animals generally produce their young in spring, as "part +of the traditional knowledge which they learn _from the example_ of +their parents."[156] + +Again he says, that birds "seem to be instructed how to build their +nests _from their observation_ of that in which they were educated, and +from their knowledge of those things that are most agreeable to their +touch in respect to warmth, cleanliness, and stability." + +Had Dr. Darwin laid firmly hold of two superficial facts concerning +memory which we can all of us test for ourselves--I mean its dormancy +until kindled by the return of a sufficient number of associated ideas, +and its unselfconsciousness upon becoming intense and perfect--and had +he connected these two facts with the unity of life through successive +generations--an idea which plainly haunted him--he would have been +saved from having to refer instinct to imitation, in the face of the +fact that in a thousand instances the creature imitating can never have +seen its model, save when it was a part of its parents,--seeing what +they saw, doing what they did, feeling as they felt, and remembering +what they remembered. + +Miss Seward tells us that Dr. Darwin read his chapter on instinct "to a +lady who was in the habit of rearing canary birds. She observed that the +pair which he then saw building their nest in her cage, were a male and +female, who had been hatched and reared in that very _cage_, and were +not in existence when the mossy cradle was fabricated in which _they_ +first saw light." She asked him, and quite reasonably, "how, upon his +principle of imitation, he could account for the nest he then saw +building, being constructed even to the precise disposal of every hair +and shred of wool upon the model of _that_ in which the pair were born, +and on which every other canary bird's nest is constructed, when the +proper materials are furnished. That of the pyefinch," she added, "is of +much compacter form, warmer, and more comfortable. Pull one of these +nests to pieces for its materials; and place another nest before these +canary birds as a pattern, and see if they will make the slightest +attempt to imitate their model! No, the result of their labour will, +upon instinctive hereditary impulse, be exactly the slovenly little +mansion of their race, the same with that which their parents built +before themselves were hatched. The Doctor could not do away the force +of that single fact, with which his system was incompatible, yet he +maintained that system with philosophic sturdiness, though experience +brought confutation from a thousand sources."[157] + +As commonly happens in such disputes, both were right and both were +wrong. The lady was right in refusing to refer instinct to imitation, +and the Doctor was right in maintaining reason and instinct to be but +different degrees of perfection of the same mental processes. Had he +substituted "memory" for "imitation," and asked the lady to define +"sameness" or "personal identity," he would have soon secured his +victory. + +The main fact, compared with which all else is a matter of detail, is +the admission that instinct is only reason become habitual. This +admission involves, consciously or unconsciously, the admission of all +the principles contended for in 'Life and Habit'; principles which, if +admitted, make the facts of heredity intelligible by showing that they +are of the same character as other facts which we call intelligible, but +denial of which makes nonsense of half the terms in common use +concerning it. For the view that instinct is habitual reason involves +sameness of personality and memory as common to parents and offspring; +it involves also the latency of that memory till rekindled by the return +of a sufficient number of its associated ideas, and points the +unconsciousness with which habitual actions are performed. These +principles being grasped, the infertility _inter se_ of widely distant +species, the commonly observed sterility of hybrids, the sterility of +certain animals and plants under confinement, the phenomena of old age +as well as those of growth, and the principle which underlies longevity +and alternate generations, follow logically and coherently, as I showed +in 'Life and Habit.' Moreover, we find that the terms in common use show +an unconscious sense that some such view as I have insisted on was +wanted and would come, for we find them made and to hand already; few if +any will require altering; all that is necessary is to take common words +according to their common meanings. + +Dr. Darwin is very good on this head. Here, as everywhere throughout his +work, if things or qualities appear to resemble one another sufficiently +and without such traits of unlikeness, on closer inspection, as shall +destroy the likeness which was apparent at first, he connects them, all +theories notwithstanding. I have given two instances of his manner of +looking at instinct and reason.[158] "If these are not," he concludes, +"deductions _from their own previous experience, or observation_, all +the actions of mankind must be resolved into instincts."[159] + +If by "previous experience" we could be sure that Dr. Darwin +persistently meant "previous experience in the persons of their +ancestors," he would be in an impregnable position. As it is, we feel +that though he had caught sight of the truth, and had even held it in +his hands, yet somehow or other it just managed to slip through his +fingers. + +Again he writes:-- + +"So flies burn themselves in candles, deceived like mankind by the +misapplication of their knowledge." + +Again:-- + +"An ingenious philosopher has lately denied that animals can enter into +contracts, and thinks this an essential difference between them and the +human creature: but does not daily observation convince us that they +form contracts of friendship with each other and with mankind? When +puppies and kittens play together is there not a tacit contract that +they will not hurt each other? And does not your favourite dog expect +you should give him his daily food for his services and attention to +you? And thus barters his love for your protection? In the same manner +that all contracts are made among men that do not understand each +other's arbitrary language."[160] + +One more extract from a chapter full of excellent passages must suffice. + +"One circumstance I shall relate which fell under my own eye, and showed +the power of reason in a wasp, as it is exercised among men. A wasp on a +gravel walk had caught a fly nearly as large as himself; kneeling on the +ground, I observed him separate the tail and the head from the body +part, to which the wings were attached. He then took the body part in +his paws, and rose about two feet from the ground with it; but a gentle +breeze wafting the wings of the fly turned him round in the air, and he +settled again with his prey upon the gravel. I then distinctly observed +him cut off with his mouth first one of the wings and then the other, +after which he flew away with it, unmolested by the wind. + +"Go, proud reasoner, and call the worm thy sister!"[161] + +Dr. Darwin's views on the essential unity of animal and vegetable life +are put forward in the following admirable chapter on "Vegetable +Animation," which I will give in full, and which is confirmed in all +important respects by the latest conclusions of our best modern +scientists, so, at least, I gather from Mr. Francis Darwin's interesting +lecture.[162] + +"I. 1. The fibres of the vegetable world, as well as those of the +animal, are excitable into a variety of motion by irritations of +external objects. This appears particularly in the mimosa or sensitive +plant, whose leaves contract on the slightest injury: the _Dionaea +muscipula_, which was lately brought over from the marshes of America, +presents us with another curious instance of vegetable irritability; its +leaves are armed with spines on their upper edge, and are spread on the +ground around the stem; when an insect creeps on any of them in its +passage to the flower or seed, the leaf shuts up like a steel rat-trap, +and destroys its enemy.[163] + +"The various secretions of vegetables as of odour, fruit, gum, resin, +wax, honey, seem brought about in the same manner as in the glands of +animals; the tasteless moisture of the earth is converted by the hop +plant into a bitter juice; as by the caterpillar in the nutshell, the +sweet powder is converted into a bitter powder. While the power of +absorption in the roots and barks of vegetables is excited into action +by the fluids applied to their mouths like the lacteals and lymphatics +of animals. + +"2. The individuals of the vegetable world may be considered as inferior +or less perfect animals; a tree is a congeries of many living buds, and +in this respect resembles the branches of the coralline, which are a +congeries of a multitude of animals. Each of these buds of a tree has +its proper leaves or petals for lungs, produces its viviparous or its +oviparous offspring in buds or seeds; has its own roots, which, +extending down the stem of the tree, are interwoven with the roots of +the other buds, and form the bark, which is the only living part of the +stem, is annually renewed and is superinduced upon the former bark, +which then dies, and, with its stagnated juices gradually hardening into +wood, forms the concentric circles which we see in blocks of timber. + +"The following circumstances evince the individuality of the buds of +trees. First, there are many trees whose whole internal wood is +perished, and yet the branches are vegete and healthy. Secondly, the +fibres of the bark of trees are chiefly longitudinal, resembling roots, +as is beautifully seen in those prepared barks that were lately brought +from Otaheita. Thirdly, in horizontal wounds of the bark of trees, the +fibres of the upper lip are always elongated downwards like roots, but +those of the lower lip do not approach to meet them. Fourthly, if you +wrap wet moss round any joint of a vine, or cover it with moist earth, +roots will shoot out from it. Fifthly, by the inoculation or engrafting +of trees many fruits are produced from one stem. Sixthly, a new tree is +produced from a branch plucked from an old one and set in the ground. +Whence it appears that the buds of deciduous trees are so many annual +plants, that the bark is a contexture of the roots of each individual +bud, and that the internal wood is of no other use but to support them +in the air, and that thus they resemble the animal world in their +individuality. + +"The irritability of plants, like that of animals, appears liable to be +increased or decreased by habit; for those trees or shrubs which are +brought from a colder climate to a warmer, put out their leaves and +blossoms a fortnight sooner than the indigenous ones. + +"Professor Kalm, in his travels in New York, observes that the apple +trees brought from England blossom a fortnight sooner than the native +ones. In our country, the shrubs that are brought a degree or two from +the north are observed to flourish better than those which come from the +south. The Siberian barley and cabbage are said to grow larger in this +climate than the similar more southern vegetables; and our hoards of +roots, as of potatoes and onions, germinate with less heat in spring, +after they have been accustomed to the winter's cold, than in autumn, +after the summer's heat. + +"II. The stamens and pistils of flowers show evident marks of +sensibility, not only from many of the stamens and some pistils +approaching towards each other at the season of impregnation, but from +many of them closing their petals and calyxes during the cold part of +the day. For this cannot be ascribed to irritation, because cold means +a defect of the stimulus of heat; but as the want of accustomed stimuli +produces pain, as in coldness, hunger, and thirst of animals, these +motions of vegetables in closing up their flowers must be ascribed to +the disagreeable sensation, and not to the irritation of cold. Others +close up their leaves during darkness, which, like the former, cannot be +owing to irritation, as the irritating material is withdrawn. + +"The approach of the anthers in many flowers to the stigmas, and of the +pistils of some flowers to the anthers, must be ascribed to the passion +of love, and hence belongs to sensation, not to irritation. + +"III. That the vegetable world possesses some degree of voluntary powers +appears from their necessity to sleep, which we have shown in Section +XVIII. to consist in the temporary abolition of voluntary power. This +voluntary power seems to be exerted in the circular movement of the +tendrils of the vines, and other climbing vegetables; or in the efforts +to turn the upper surfaces of their leaves, or their flowers, to the +light. + +"IV. The associations of fibrous motions are observable in the vegetable +world as well as in the animal. The divisions of the leaves of the +sensitive plant have been accustomed to contract at the same time from +the absence of light; hence, if by any other circumstance, as a slight +stroke or injury, one division is irritated into contraction, the +neighbouring ones contract also from their motions being associated with +those of the irritated part. So the various stamina of the class of +syngenesia have been accustomed to contract together in the evening, and +thence if you stimulate any one of them with a pin, according to the +experiment of M. Colvolo, they all contract from their acquired +associations. + +"To evince that the collapsing of the sensitive plant is not owing to +any mechanical vibrations propagated along the whole branch when a +single leaf is struck with the finger, a leaf of it was slit with sharp +scissors, with as little disturbance as possible, and some seconds of +time passed before the plant seemed sensible of the injury, and then the +whole branch collapsed as far as the principal stem. This experiment was +repeated several times with the least possible impulse to the plant. + +"V. 1. For the numerous circumstances in which vegetable buds are +analogous to animals, the reader is referred to the additional notes at +the end of 'Botanic Garden,' Part I. It is there shown that the roots of +vegetables resemble the lacteal system of animals; the sap vessels in +the early spring, before their leaves expand, are analogous to the +placental vessels of the foetus; that the leaves of land plants +resemble lungs, and those of aquatic plants the gills of fish; that +there are other systems of vessels resembling the vena portarum of +quadrupeds, or the aorta of fish; that the digestive power of vegetables +is similar to that of animals converting the fluids which they absorb +into sugar;[164] that their seeds resemble the eggs of animals, and +their buds and bulbs their viviparous offspring; and lastly, that the +anthers and stigmas are real animals attached to their parent tree like +polypi or coral insects, but capable of spontaneous motion; that they +are affected with the passion of love, and furnished with powers of +reproducing their species, and are fed with honey like the moths and +butterflies which plunder their nectaries.[165] + +"The male flowers of Vallisneria approach still nearer to apparent +animality, as they detach themselves from the parent plant, and float on +the surface of the water to the female ones.[166] Other flowers of the +classes of monoecia and dioecia, and polygamia discharge the +fecundating farina, which, floating in the air, is carried to the stigma +of the female flowers, and that at considerable distances. Can this be +effected by any specific attraction? Or, like the diffusion of the +odorous particles of flowers, is it left to the currents of the winds, +and the accidental miscarriages of it counteracted by the quantity of +its production? + +"2. This leads us to a curious inquiry, whether vegetables have ideas of +external things? As all our ideas are originally received by our senses, +the question may be changed to whether vegetables possess any organs of +sense? Certain it is that they possess a sense of heat and cold, another +of moisture and dryness, and another of light and darkness, for they +close their petals occasionally from the presence of cold, moisture, or +darkness. And it has been already shown that these actions cannot be +performed simply from irritation, because cold and darkness are negative +quantities, and on that account sensation, or volition are implied, and +in consequence a sensorium or union of their nerves. So when we go into +the light we contract the iris; not from any stimulus of the light on +the fine muscles of the iris, but from its motions being associated with +the sensation of too much light upon the retina, which could not take +place without a sensorium or centre of union of the nerves of the iris, +with those of vision.[167] + +"Besides these organs of sense, which distinguish cold, moisture, and +darkness, the leaves of mimosa, and of dionaea, and of drosera, and the +stamens of many flowers, as of the berbery, and the numerous class of +syngenesia, are sensible to mechanic impact, that is, they possess a +sense of touch, as well as a common sensorium, by the medium of which +their muscles are excited into action. Lastly, in many flowers the +anthers, when mature, approach the stigma, in others the female organ +approaches to the male. In a plant of collinsonia, a branch of which is +now before me, the two yellow stamens are about three-eighths of an inch +high, and diverge from each other at an angle of about fifteen degrees, +the purple style is half an inch high, and in some flowers is now +applied to the stamen on the right hand, and in others to that of the +left; and will, I suppose, change place to-morrow in those, where the +anthers have not yet effused their powder. + +"I ask by what means are the anthers in many flowers and stigmas in +other flowers directed to find their paramours? How do either of them +know that the other exists in their vicinity? Is this curious kind of +storge produced by mechanic attraction, or by the sensation of love? The +latter opinion is supported by the strongest analogy, because a +reproduction of the species is the consequence; and then another organ +of sense must be wanted to direct these vegetable amourettes to find +each other, one probably analogous to our sense of smell, which in the +animal world directs the new-born infant to its source of nourishment, +and they may thus possess a faculty of perceiving as well as of +producing odours. + +"Thus, besides a kind of taste at the extremity of their roots, similar +to that of the extremities of our lacteal vessels, for the purpose of +selecting their proper food, and besides different kinds of irritability +residing in the various glands, which separate honey, wax, resin, and +other juices from their blood; vegetable life seems to possess an organ +of sense to distinguish the variations of heat, another to distinguish +the varying degrees of moisture, another of light, another of touch, and +probably another analogous to our sense of smell. To these must be added +the indubitable evidence of their passion of love, and I think we may +truly conclude that they are furnished with a common sensorium for each +bud, and that they must occasionally repeat those perceptions, either in +their dreams or waking hours, and consequently possess ideas of so many +of the properties of the external world, and of their own +existence."[168] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[155] 'Origin of Species,' note on p. xiv. + +[156] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 170. + +[157] Miss Seward's 'Memoirs,' &c., p. 491. + +[158] See p. 116 of this volume. + +[159] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 184. + +[160] 'Zoonomia,' p. 171. + +[161] 'Zoonomia,' p. 187. + +[162] 'Nature,' March 14 and 21, 1878. + +[163] See 'Botanic Garden,' part ii., note on Silene. + +[164] 'On the Digestive Powers of Plants.' See Mr. Francis Darwin's +lecture, already referred to. + +[165] See 'Botanic Garden, part i., add. note, p. xxxix. + +[166] Ibid., part ii., art. "Vallisneria." + +[167] See 'Botanic Garden,' part i. cant 3, l. 440. + +[168] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 107. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +FULLER QUOTATIONS FROM THE 'ZOONOMIA.' + + +The following are the passages in the 'Zoonomia' which have the most +important bearing on evolution:-- + +"The ingenious Dr. Hartley, in his work on man, and some other +philosophers have been of opinion, that our immortal part acquires +during this life certain habits of action or of sentiment which become +for ever indissoluble, continuing after death in a future state of +existence; and add that if these habits are of the malevolent kind, they +must render their possessor miserable even in Heaven. I would apply this +ingenious idea to the generation or production of the embryon or new +animal, which partakes so much of the form and propensities of its +parent. + +"_Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new +animal, but is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent, since a +part of the embryon-animal is, or was, a part of the parent, and +therefore in strict language, cannot be said to be entirely new at the +time of its production; and, therefore, it may retain some of the habits +of the parent system._ + +"At the earliest period of its existence the embryon would seem to +consist of a living filament with certain capabilities of irritation, +sensation, volition, and association, and also with some acquired +habits or propensities peculiar to the parents; the former of these are +in common with other animals; the latter seem to distinguish or produce +the kind of animal, whether man or quadruped, with the similarity of +feature or form to the parent."[169] + + * * * * * + +Going on to describe the gradual development of the embryo, Dr. Darwin +continues:-- + +"As the want of this oxygenation of the blood is perpetual (as appears +from the incessant necessity of breathing by lungs or gills), the +vessels become extended by the efforts of pain or desire to seek this +necessary object of oxygenation, and to remove the disagreeable +sensations which this want occasions."[170] + + . . . . . . + +"The lateral production of plants by wires, while each new plant is thus +chained to its parent, and continues to put forth another and another as +the wire creeps onward on the ground, is exactly resembled by the +tape-worm or taenia, so often found in the bowels, stretching itself in a +chain quite from the stomach to the rectum. Linnaeus asserts 'that it +grows old at one extremity, while it continues to generate younger ones +at the other, proceeding _ad infinitum_ like a sort of grass; the +separate joints are called gourd worms, and propagate new joints like +the parent without end, each joint being furnished with its proper mouth +and organs of digestion.'"[171] + + . . . . . . + +"Many ingenious philosophers have found so great difficulty in +conceiving the manner of the reproduction of animals, that they have +supposed all the numerous progeny to have existed in miniature in the +animal originally created; and that these infinitely minute forms are +only evolved or distended, as the embryon increases in the womb. This +idea, besides its being unsupported by any analogy we are acquainted +with, ascribes a greater tenuity to organized matter than we can readily +admit; as these included embryons are supposed each of them to consist +of the various and complicate parts of animal bodies, they must possess +a much greater degree of minuteness than that which was ascribed to the +devils which tempted St. Anthony, of whom 20,000 were said to have been +able to dance a saraband on the point of the finest needle without +incommoding one another."[172] + + . . . . . . + +"I conceive the primordium or rudiment of the embryon as secreted from +the blood of the parent to consist of a simple living filament as a +muscular fibre; which I suppose to be an extremity of a nerve of +locomotion, as a fibre of the retina is an extremity of a nerve of +sensation; as, for instance, one of the fibrils which compose the mouth +of an absorbent vessel. I suppose this living filament of whatever form +it may be, whether sphere, cube, or cylinder, to be endued with the +capability of being excited into action by certain kinds of stimulus. By +the stimulus of the surrounding fluid in which it is received from the +male it may bend into a ring, and thus form the beginning of a tube. +Such moving filaments and such rings are described by those who have +attended to microscopic animalculae. This living ring may now embrace or +absorb a nutritive particle of the fluid in which it swims; and by +drawing it into its pores, or joining it by compression to its +extremities, may increase its own length or crassitude, and by degrees +the living ring may become a living tube. + +"With this new organization, or accretion of parts, new kinds of +irritability may commence; for so long as there was but one living organ +it could only be supposed to possess irritability; since sensibility may +be conceived to be an extension of the effect of irritability over the +rest of the system. These new kinds of irritability and of sensibility +in consequence of new organization appear from variety of facts in the +more mature animals; thus ... the lungs must be previously formed before +their exertions to obtain fresh air can exist; the throat, or +oesophagus, must be formed previous to the sensation or appetites of +hunger and thirst, one of which seems to reside at the upper end and the +other at the lower end of that canal."[173] + +It seems to me Dr. Darwin is wrong in supposing that the organ must have +preceded the power to use it. The organ and its use--the desire to do +and the power to do--have always gone hand in hand, the organism finding +itself able to do more according as it advanced its desires, and +desiring to do more simultaneously with any increase in power, so that +neither appetency nor organism can claim precedence, but power and +desire must be considered as Siamese twins begotten together, conceived +together, born together, and inseparable always from each other. At the +same time they are torn by mutual jealousy; each claims, with some vain +show of reason, to have been the elder brother; each intrigues +incessantly from the beginning to the end of time to prevent the other +from outstripping him; each is in turn successful, but each is doomed to +death with the extinction of the other. + +"So inflamed tendons and membranes, and even bones, acquire new +sensations; and the parts of mutilated animals, as of wounded snails and +polypi and crabs, are reproduced; and at the same time acquire +sensations adapted to their situation. Thus when the head of a snail is +reproduced after decollation with a sharp razor, those curious +telescopic eyes are also reproduced, and acquire their sensibility to +light, as well as their adapted muscles for retraction on the approach +of injury. + +"With every change, therefore, of organic form or addition of organic +parts, I suppose a new kind of irritability or of sensibility to be +produced; such varieties of irritability or of sensibility exist in our +adult state in the glands; every one of which is furnished with an +irritability or a taste or appetency, and a consequent mode of action +peculiar to itself. + +"In this manner I conceive the vessels of the jaws to produce those of +the teeth; those of the fingers to produce the nails; those of the skin +to produce the hair; in the same manner as afterwards, about the age of +puberty, the beard and other great changes in the form of the body and +disposition of the mind are produced in consequence of new developments; +for, if the animal is deprived of these developments, those changes do +not take place. These changes I believe to be formed not by elongation +or distension of primeval stamina, but by apposition of parts; as the +mature crab fish when deprived of a limb, in a certain space of time, +has power to regenerate it; and the tadpole puts forth its feet after +its long exclusion from the spawn, and the caterpillar in changing into +a butterfly acquires a new form with new powers, new sensations, and new +desires."[174] + + . . . . . . + +"From hence I conclude that with the acquisition of new parts, new +sensations and new desires, as well as new powers are produced; and this +by accretion to the old ones and not by distension of them. And finally, +that the most essential parts of the system, as the brain for the +purpose of distributing the powers of life, and the placenta for the +purpose of oxygenating the blood, and the additional absorbent vessels, +for the purpose of acquiring aliment, are first formed by the +irritations above mentioned, and by the pleasurable sensations attending +those irritations, and by the exertions in consequence of painful +sensations similar to those of hunger and suffocation. After these an +apparatus of limbs for future uses, or for the purpose of moving the +body in its present natant state, and of lungs for future respiration, +and of _testes_ for future reproduction, are formed by the irritations +and sensations and consequent exertions of the parts previously +existing, and to which the new parts are to be attached.[175] + + . . . . . . + +"The embryon" must "be supposed to be a living filament, which acquires +or makes new parts, with new irritabilities as it advances in its +growth."[176] + + . . . . . . + +"From this account of reproduction it appears that all animals have a +similar origin, viz. a single living filament; and that the difference +of their forms and qualities has arisen only from the different +irritabilities and sensibilities, or voluntarities, or associabilities, +of this original living filament, and perhaps in some degree from the +different forms of the particles of the fluids by which it has at first +been stimulated into activity."[177] + + . . . . . . + +"All animals, therefore, I contend, have a similar cause of their +organization, originating from a single living filament, endued with +different kinds of irritabilities and sensibilities, or of animal +appetencies, which exist in every gland, and in every moving organ of +the body, and are as essential to living organism as chemical affinities +are to certain combinations of inanimate matter. + +"If I might be indulged to make a simile in a philosophical work, I +should say that the animal appetencies are not only perhaps less +numerous originally than the chemical affinities, but that, like these +latter, they change with every fresh combination; thus vital air and +azote, when combined, produce nitrous acid, which now acquires the +property of dissolving silver; so that with every new additional part to +the embryon, as of the throat or lungs, I suppose a new animal appetency +to be produced."[178] + + * * * * * + +Here, again, it should be insisted on that neither can the "additional +part" precede "the appetency," nor the appetency precede the additional +part for long together--the two advance nearly _pari passu_; sometimes +the power a little ahead of the desire, stimulates the desire to an +activity it would not otherwise have known; as those who have more money +than they once had, feel new wants which they would not have known if +they had not obtained the power to gratify them; sometimes, on the other +hand, the desire is a little more active than the power, and pulls the +power up to itself by means of the effort made to gratify the desire--as +those who want a little more of this or that than they have money to pay +for, will try all manner of shifts to earn the additional money they +want, unless it is so much in excess of their present means that they +give up the endeavour as hopeless; but whichever gets ahead, immediately +sets to work to pull the other level with it, the getting ahead either +of power or desire being exclusively the work of external agencies, +while the coming up level of the other is due to agencies that are +incorporate with the organism itself. Thus an unusually abundant supply +of food, due to causes entirely beyond the control of the individual, is +an external agency; it will immediately set power a little ahead of +desire. On this the individual will eat as much as it can--thus learning +_pro tanto_ to be able to eat more, and to want more under ordinary +circumstances--and will also breed rapidly up to the balance of the +abundance. This is the work of the agencies incorporate in the organism, +and will bring desire level with power again. Famine, on the other hand, +puts desire ahead of power, and the incorporate agencies must either +bring power up by resource and invention, or must pull desire back by +eating less, both as individuals, and as the race, that is to say, by +breeding less freely; for breeding is an assimilation of outside matter +so closely akin to feeding, that it is only the feeding of the race, as +against that of the individual. + +I do not think the reader will find any clearer manner of picturing to +himself the development of organism than by keeping the normal growth of +wealth continually in his mind. He will find few of the phenomena of +organic development which have not their counterpart in the acquisition +of wealth. Thus a too sudden acquisition, owing to accidental and +external circumstances and due to no internal source of energy, will be +commonly lost in the next few generations. So a sudden sport due to a +lucky accident of soil will not generally be perpetuated if the +offspring plant be restored to its normal soil. Again, if the advance in +power carry power suddenly far beyond any past desire, or be far greater +than any past-remembered advance of power beyond desire--then desire +will not come up level easily, but only with difficulty and all manner +of extravagance, such as is likely to destroy the power itself. Demand +and Supply are also good illustrations. + +But to return to Dr. Darwin. + +"When we revolve in our minds," he writes, "first the great changes +which we see naturally produced in animals after their nativity, as in +the production of the butterfly with painted wings from the crawling +caterpillar; or of the respiring frog from the subnatant tadpole; from +the boy to the bearded man, from the infant girl to the woman,--in both +which cases mutilation will prevent due development. + +"Secondly, when we think over the great changes introduced into various +animals by artificial or accidental cultivation, as in horses, which we +have exercised for the different purposes of strength or swiftness, in +carrying burthens or in running races, or in dogs which have been +cultivated for strength and courage, as the bull-dog; or for acuteness +of his sense of smell, as the hound or spaniel; or for the swiftness of +his foot, as the greyhound; or for his swimming in the water or for +drawing snow sledges, as the rough-haired dogs of the north; or, lastly, +as a play dog for children, as the lapdog; with the changes of the forms +of the cattle which have been domesticated from the greatest antiquity, +as camels and sheep, which have undergone so total a transformation that +we are now ignorant from what species of wild animal they had their +origin. Add to these the great changes of shape and colour which we +daily see produced in smaller animals from our domestication of them, as +rabbits or pigeons, or from the difference of climates and even of +seasons; thus the sheep of warm climates are covered with hair instead +of wool; and the hares and partridges of the latitudes which are long +buried in snow become white during the winter months; add to these the +various changes produced in the forms of mankind by their early modes of +exertion, or by the diseases occasioned by their habits of life, both of +which become hereditary, and that through many generations. Those who +labour at the anvil, the oar, or the loom, as well as those who carry +sedan chairs or who have been educated to dance upon the rope, are +distinguishable by the shape of their limbs; and the diseases occasioned +by intoxication deform the countenance with leprous eruptions, or the +body with tumid viscera, or the joints with knots and distortions. + +"Thirdly, when we enumerate the great changes produced in the species of +animals before their nativity, as, for example, when the offspring +reproduces the effects produced upon the parent by accident or +cultivation; or the changes produced by the mixture of species, as in +mules; or the changes produced probably by the exuberance of nourishment +supplied to the fetus, as in monstrous births with additional limbs; +many of these enormities of shape are propagated and continued as a +variety at least, if not as a new species of animal. I have seen a breed +of cats with an additional claw on every foot; of poultry also with an +additional claw, and with wings to their feet; and of others without +rumps. Mr. Buffon mentions a breed of dogs without tails which are +common at Rome and Naples--which he supposes to have been produced by a +custom long established of cutting their tails close off. There are many +kinds of pigeons admired for their peculiarities which are more or less +thus produced and propagated.[179] + + . . . . . . + +"When we consider all these changes of animal form and innumerable +others which may be collected from the books of natural history, we +cannot but be convinced that the fetus or embryon is formed by +apposition of new parts, and not by the distention of a primordial nest +of germs included one within another like the cups of a conjurer. + +"Fourthly, when we revolve in our minds the great similarity of +structure which obtains in all the warm-blooded animals, as well +quadrupeds, birds, and amphibious animals, as in mankind; from the mouse +and bat to the elephant and whale; one is led to conclude that they have +alike been produced from a similar living filament. In some this +filament in its advance to maturity has acquired hands and fingers with +a fine sense of touch, as in mankind. In others it has acquired claws or +talons, as in tigers and eagles. In others, toes with an intervening web +or membrane, as in seals and geese. In others it has acquired cloven +hoofs, as in cows and swine; and whole hoofs in others, as in the horse: +while in the bird kind this original living filament has put forth wings +instead of arms or legs, and feathers instead of hair. In some it has +protruded horns on the forehead instead of teeth in the fore part of the +upper jaw; in others, tusks instead of horns; and in the others, beaks +instead of either. And all this exactly as is seen daily in the +transmutation of the tadpole, which acquires legs and lungs when he +wants them, and loses his tail when it is no longer of service to him. + +"Fifthly, from their first rudiment or primordium to the termination of +their lives, all animals undergo perpetual transformations; _which are +in part produced by their own exertions in consequence of their desires +and aversions, of their pleasures and their pains, or of irritations or +of associations; and many of these acquired forms or propensities are +transmitted to their posterity_. + +"As air and water are supplied to animals in sufficient profusion, the +three great objects of desire which have changed the forms of many +animals by their desires to gratify them are those of lust, hunger, and +security. A great want of one part of the animal world has consisted in +the desire of the exclusive possession of the females; and these have +acquired weapons to combat each other for this purpose, as the very +thick, shield-like, horny skin on the shoulder of the boar is a defence +only against animals of his own species who strike obliquely upwards, +nor are his tusks for other purposes except to defend himself, as he is +not naturally a carnivorous animal. So the horns of the stag are sharp +to offend his adversary, but are branched for the purpose of parrying or +receiving the thrust of horns similar to his own, and have therefore +been formed for the purpose of combating other stags, for the exclusive +possession of the females; who are observed like the ladies in the times +of chivalry to attend the car of the victor. + +"The birds which do not carry food to their young, and do not therefore +marry, are armed with spurs for the purpose of fighting for the +exclusive possession of the females, as cocks and quails. It is certain +that these weapons are not provided for their defence against other +adversaries, because the females of these species are without this +armour. The final cause of this contest among the males seems to be +_that the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species, +which should thence become improved_."[180] + +Dr. Darwin would have been on stronger ground if he had said that the +_effect_ of the contest among the males was that the fittest should +survive, and hence transmit any fit modifications which had occurred to +them as vitally true, rather than that the desire to attain this end had +caused the contest; but either way the sentence just given is sufficient +to show that he was not blind to the fact that the fittest commonly +survive, and to the consequences of this fact. The use, however, of the +word "thence," as well as of the expression "final cause," is loose, as +Dr. Darwin would no doubt readily have admitted. Improvement in the +species is due quite as much, by Dr. Darwin's own showing, to the causes +which have led to such and such an animal's making itself the fittest, +as to the fact that if fittest it will be more likely to survive and +transmit its improvement. There have been two factors in modification; +the one provides variations, the other accumulates them; neither can +claim exclusive right to the word "thence," as though the modification +was due to it and to it only. Dr. Darwin's use of the word "thence" +here is clearly a slip, and nothing else; but it is one which brings him +for the moment into the very error into which his grandson has fallen +more disastrously. + +"Another great want," he continues, "consists in the means of procuring +food, which has diversified the forms of all species of animals. Thus +the nose of the swine has become hard for the purpose of turning up the +soil in search of insects and of roots. The trunk of the elephant is an +elongation of the nose for the purpose of pulling down the branches of +trees for his food, and for taking up water without bending his knees. +Beasts of prey have acquired strong jaws or talons. Cattle have acquired +a rough tongue and a rough palate to pull off the blades of grass, as +cows and sheep. Some birds have acquired harder beaks to crack nuts, as +the parrot. Others have acquired beaks to break the harder seeds, as +sparrows. Others for the softer kinds of flowers, or the buds of trees, +as the finches. Other birds have acquired long beaks to penetrate the +moister soils in search of insects or roots, as woodcocks, and others +broad ones to filtrate the water of lakes and to retain aquatic insects. +All which seem to have been gradually produced during many generations +_by the perpetual endeavour of the creature to supply the want of food, +and to have been delivered to their posterity with constant improvement +of them for the purposes required_. + +"The third great want among animals is that of security, which seems to +have diversified the forms of their bodies and the colour of them; these +consist in the means of escaping other animals more powerful than +themselves. Hence some animals have acquired wings instead of legs, as +the smaller birds, for purposes of escape. Others, great length of fin +or of membrane, as the flying fish and the bat. Others have acquired +hard or armed shells, as the tortoise and the _Echinus marinus_. + +"Mr. Osbeck, a pupil of Linnaeus, mentions the American frog-fish, +_Lophius Histrio_, which inhabits the large floating islands of sea-weed +about the Cape of Good Hope, and has fulcra resembling leaves, that the +fishes of prey may mistake it for the sea-weed, which it inhabits.[181] + +"The contrivances for the purposes of security extend even to +vegetables, as is seen in the wonderful and various means of their +concealing or defending their honey from insects and their seeds from +birds. On the other hand, swiftness of wing has been acquired by hawks +and swallows to pursue their prey; and a proboscis of admirable +structure has been acquired by the bee, the moth, and the humming bird +for the purpose of plundering the nectaries of flowers. _All which seem +to have been formed by the original living filament, excited into action +by the necessities of the creatures which possess them_, and on which +their existence depends. + +"From thus meditating on the great similarity of the structure of the +warm-blooded animals, and at the same time of the great changes they +undergo both before and after their nativity; and by considering in how +minute a portion of time many of the changes of animals above described +have been produced; would it be too bold to imagine that in the great +length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages +before the commencement of the history of mankind--would it be too bold +to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living +filament, which the Great First Cause endued with animality, with the +power of attaining new parts, attended with new propensities, directed +by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations; and thus +possessing the faculty of continuing to improve, by its own inherent +activity, and of delivering down those improvements by generation to its +posterity world without end! + +"Sixthly, the cold-blooded animals, as the fish tribes, which are +furnished with but one ventricle of the heart, and with gills instead of +lungs, and with fins instead of feet or wings, bear a great similarity +to each other; but they differ nevertheless so much in their general +structure from the warm-blooded animals, that it may not seem probable +at first view that the same living filament could have given origin to +this kingdom of animals, as to the former. Yet are there some creatures +which unite or partake of both these orders of animation, as the whales +and seals; and more particularly the frog, who changes from an aquatic +animal furnished with gills to an aerial one furnished with lungs. + +"The numerous tribes of insects without wings, from the spider to the +scorpion, from the flea to the lobster; or with wings, from the gnat or +the ant to the wasp and the dragon-fly, differ so totally from each +other, and from the red-blooded classes above described, both in the +forms of their bodies and in their modes of life; besides the organ of +sense, which they seem to possess in their antennae or horns, to which +it has been thought by some naturalists that other creatures have +nothing similar; that it can scarcely be supposed that this nature of +animals could have been produced by the same kind of living filament as +the red-blooded classes above mentioned. And yet the changes which many +of them undergo in their early state to that of their maturity, are as +different as one animal can be from another. As those of the gnat, which +passes his early state in water, and then stretching out his new wings +and expanding his new lungs, rises in the air; as of the caterpillar and +bee-nymph, which feed on vegetable leaves or farina, and at length +bursting from their self-formed graves, become beautiful winged +inhabitants of the skies, journeying from flower to flower, and +nourished by the ambrosial food of honey. + +"There is still another class of animals which are termed vermes by +Linnaeus, which are without feet or brain, and are hermaphrodites, as +worms, leeches, snails, shell-fish, coralline insects, and sponges, +which possess the simplest structure of all animals, and appear totally +different from those already described. The simplicity of their +structure, however, can afford no argument against their having been +produced from a single living filament, as above contended. + +"Last of all, the various tribes of vegetables are to be enumerated +amongst the inferior orders of animals. Of these the anthers and stigmas +have already been shown to possess some organs of sense, to be nourished +by honey, and to have the power of generation like insects, and have +thence been announced amongst the animal kingdom in Section XIII.; and +to these must be added the buds and bulbs, which constitute the +viviparous offspring of vegetation. The former I suppose to be beholden +to a single living filament for their seminal or amatorial procreation; +and the latter to the same cause for their lateral or branching +generation, which they possess in common with the polypus, taenia, and +volvox, and the simplicity of which is an argument in favour of the +similarity of its cause. + +"Linnaeus supposes, in the introduction to his natural orders, that very +few vegetables were at first created, and that their numbers were +increased by their intermarriages, and adds, 'Suaderet haec Creatoris +leges a simplicibus ad composita.' Many other changes appear to have +arisen in them by their perpetual contest for light and air above +ground, and for food or moisture beneath the soil. As noted in the +'Botanic Garden,' Part II., note on Cuscuta. Other changes of vegetables +from climate or other causes are remarked in the note on Curcuma in the +same work. From these one might be led to imagine that each plant at +first consisted of a single bulb or flower to each root, as the +gentianella and daisy, and that in the contest for air and light, new +buds grew on the old decaying flower-stem, shooting down their elongated +roots to the ground, and that in process of ages tall trees were thus +formed, and an individual bulb became a swarm of vegetables. Other +plants which in this contest for light and air were too slender to rise +by their own strength, learned by degrees to adhere to their neighbours, +either by putting forth roots like the ivy, or by tendrils like the +vine, or by spiral contortions like the honeysuckle, or by growing upon +them like the mistleto, and taking nourishment from their barks, or by +only lodging or adhering on them and deriving nourishment from the air +as tillandsia. + +"Shall we then say that the vegetable living filament was originally +different from that of each tribe of animals above described? And that +the productive living filament of each of those tribes was different +from the other? Or as the earth and ocean were probably peopled with +vegetable productions long before the existence of animals; and many +families of these animals, long before other families of them, shall we +conjecture _that one and the same kind of living filament is and has +been the cause of all organic life_?[182] + + . . . . . . + +"The late Mr. David Hume in his posthumous works places the powers of +generation much above those of our boasted reason, and adds, that reason +can only make a machine, as a clock or a ship, but the power of +generation makes the maker of the machine; and probably from having +observed that the greatest part of the earth has been formed out of +organic recrements, as the immense beds of limestone, chalk, marble, +from the shells of fish; and the extensive provinces of clay, sandstone, +ironstone, coals, from decomposed vegetables; all of which have been +first produced by generation, or by the secretion of organic life; he +concludes that the world itself might have been generated rather than +created; that it might have been gradually produced from very small +beginnings, increasing by the activity of its inherent principles, +rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fire. +What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of the great Architect! +The Cause of causes! Parent of parents! Ens entium!"[183] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[169] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 484. + +[170] Ibid. p. 485. + +[171] Ibid. p. 493. + +[172] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 494. + +[173] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 497. + +[174] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 498. + +[175] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 500. + +[176] Ibid. p. 501. + +[177] Ibid. p. 502. + +[178] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 503. + +[179] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 505. + +[180] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 507. + +[181] 'Voyage to China,' p. 113. + +[182] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 511. + +[183] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 513. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. + + +I take the following memoir of Lamarck entirely from the biographical +sketch prefixed by M. Martins to his excellent edition of the +'Philosophie Zoologique.'[184] From this sketch I find that "Lamarck was +born August 1, 1744, at Barenton, in Picardy, being the eleventh child +of Pierre de Monet, squire of the place, a man of old family, but poor. +His father intended him for the Church, the ordinary resource of younger +sons at that time, and accordingly placed him under the care of the +Jesuits at Amiens. But this was not his vocation: the annals of his +family spoke all to him of military glory; his eldest brother had died +in the breaches at the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom; two others were still +serving in the army, and France was exhausting her energies in an +unequal struggle. His father would not yield to his wishes, but on his +death, in 1760, Lamarck was left free to take his own line, and made his +way at once--upon a very bad horse--to the army of Germany, then +encamped at Lippstadt in Westphalia. + +"He was the bearer of a letter written by Madame de Lameth, one of his +neighbours in the country, and recommending him to M. de Lastic, colonel +of the regiment of Beaujolais. This gentleman, on seeing before him a +lad of seventeen, whose somewhat stunted growth made him look still +younger than he really was, sent the youth immediately to his own +quarters. The next day a battle was immediately impending, and M. de +Lastic, on passing his regiment in review, saw his protege in the first +rank of a company of grenadiers. The French army was under the orders of +the Marshal de Broglie and of the Prince de Soubise; the allied troops +were commanded by Ferdinand of Brunswick. The two French generals were +beaten owing to their divided counsels, and Lamarck's company, almost +annihilated by the enemy's fire, was forgotten in the confusion of the +retreat. All the officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, were +killed, and only fourteen men out of the whole company remained alive: +the eldest proposed to retreat, but Lamarck, improvising himself as +commander, declared that they ought not to retire without orders. +Presently the colonel seeing that this company did not rally sent an +orderly officer who made his way up to it by protected paths. Next day +Lamarck was made an officer, and shortly afterwards lieutenant. + +"Fortunately for science," continues M. Martins, "this brilliant _debut_ +was not to decide his career. After peace had been signed he was sent +into garrison at Toulon and Monaco, where an inflammation of the +lymphatic ganglions of the neck necessitated an operation which left him +deeply scarred for life. + +"The vegetation in the neighbourhood of Toulon and Monaco now arrested +the young officer's attention. He had already derived some little +knowledge of botany from the '_Traite des Plantes usuelles_' of Chomel. +Having retired from the service, and having nothing beyond his modest +pension of four hundred francs a year, he took a situation at Paris with +a banker; but drawn irresistibly to the study of nature, he used to +study from his attic window the forms and movements of clouds, and made +himself familiar with the plants in the Jardin du Roi or in the public +gardens. He began to feel that he was on his right path, and understood, +as Voltaire said of Condorcet, that discoveries of permanent value could +make him no less illustrious than military glory. + +"Dissatisfied with the botanical systems of his time, in six months he +wrote his '_Flore francaise_,' preceded by the '_Cle dichotomique_,' +with the help of which it is easy even for a beginner to arrive with +certainty at the name of the plant before him." Of this work, M. Martins +tells us in a note, that the second edition, published by Candolle in +1815, is still the standard work on French plants. + +"In 1778 Rousseau had brought botany into vogue. Women and men of +fashion took to it. Buffon had the three volumes of '_Flore francaise_' +printed at the royal press, and in the following year Lamarck entered +the Academy of Sciences. Buffon being anxious that his son should +travel, gave him Lamarck for his companion and tutor. He thus made a +trip through Holland, Germany, and Hungary, and became acquainted with +Gleditsch at Berlin, with Jacquin at Vienna, and with Murray at +Gottingen. + +"The '_Encyclopedie methodique_,' begun by Diderot and D'Alembert, was +not yet completed. For this work Lamarck wrote four volumes, describing +all the then known plants whose names began with the letters from A to +P. This great work was completed by Poiret, and comprises twelve +volumes, which appeared between the years 1783 and 1817. A still more +important work, also part of the Encyclopedia, and continually quoted by +botanists, is the '_Illustration des Genres_.' In this work Lamarck +describes two thousand _genera_, and illustrates them, according to the +title-page, with nine hundred engravings. Only a botanist can form any +idea of the research in collections, gardens, and books, which such a +work must have involved. But Lamarck's activity was inexhaustible. +Sonnerat returned from India in 1781 with a very large number of dried +plants; no one except Lamarck thought it worth while to inspect them, +and Sonnerat, charmed with his enthusiasm, gave him the whole +magnificent collection. + +"In spite, however, of his incessant toil, Lamarck's position continued +to be most precarious. He lived by his pen, as a publisher's hack, and +it was with difficulty that he obtained even the poorly paid post of +keeper of the king's cabinet of dried plants. Like most other +naturalists he had thus to contend with incessant difficulties during a +period of fifteen years. + +"At length fortune bettered his condition while changing the direction +of his labours. France was now under the Convention; what Carnot had +done for the army Lakanal undertook to do for the natural sciences. At +his suggestion a museum of natural history was established. Professors +had been found for all the chairs save that of Zoology; but in that time +of enthusiasm, so different from the present, France could find men of +war and men of science wherever and whenever she had need of them. +Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire was twenty-one years old, and was engaged +in the study of mineralogy under Hauey. Daubenton said to him, 'I will +undertake the responsibility for your inexperience. I have a father's +authority over you. Take this professorship, and let us one day say that +you have made zoology a French science.' Geoffroy accepted, and +undertook the higher animals. Lakanal knew that a single professor could +not suffice for the task of arranging the collections of the entire +animal kingdom, and as Geoffroy was to class the vertebrate animals +only, there remained the invertebrata--that is to say, insects, +molluscs, worms, zoophytes--in a word, what was then the chaos of the +unknown. 'Lamarck,' says M. Michelet, 'accepted the unknown.' He had +devoted some attention to the study of shells with Bruguieres, but he +had still everything to learn, or I should perhaps say rather, +everything to create in that unexplored territory into which Linnaeus had +declined to enter, and into which he had thus introduced none of the +order he had so well known how to establish among the higher animals. + +"Lamarck began his course of lectures at the museum in 1794, after a +year's preparation, and at once established that great division of +animals into vertebrate and invertebrate, which science has ever since +recognized. + +"Dividing the vertebrate animals--as Linnaeus had already divided +them--into mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes, he divided the +invertebrates into molluscs, insects, worms, echinoderms, and polyps. In +1799 he separated the crustacea from the insects, with which they had +been classed hitherto; in 1800 he established the arachnids as a class +distinct from the insects; in 1802 that of the annelids, a subdivision +of the worms, and that of the radiata as distinct from the polyps. Time +has approved the wisdom of these divisions, founded all of them upon the +organic type of the creatures themselves--that is to say, upon the +rational method introduced into zoology by Cuvier, Lamarck, and Geoffroy +St. Hilaire. + +"This introduction being devoted only to Lamarck's labours as a +naturalist, we will pass over certain works in which he treats of +physics and chemistry. These attempts--errors of a powerful mind which +thought itself able by the help of pure reason to establish truths which +rest only upon experience--attempts, moreover, which were some of them +but resuscitations of exploded theories, such as that of +'phlogistic'--had not even the honour of being refuted: they did not +deserve to be so, and should be a warning to all those who would write +upon a subject without the necessary practical knowledge. + + . . . . . . + +"At the beginning of this century there was not yet any such science as +geology. People observed but little, and in lieu of observation made +theories to embrace the entire globe. Lamarck made his in 1802, and +twenty-three years later the judicious Cuvier still yielded to the +prevailing custom in publishing his 'Discoveries on the Earth's +Revolutions.' + +"Lamarck's merit was to have discovered that there had been no +catastrophes, but that the gradual action of forces during thousands of +ages accounted for the changes observable upon the face of the earth, +better than any sudden and violent perturbations. 'Nature,' he writes, +'has no difficulty on the score of time; she has it always at command; +it is with her a boundless space in which she has room for the greatest +as for the smallest operations.'" + +Here we must not forget Buffon's fine passage, "Nature's great workman +is Time," &c. See page 103. + +"Lamarck," continues M. Martins, "was the first to distinguish littoral +from ocean fossils, but no one accepts his theory that oceans make their +beds deeper owing to the action of the tides, and distribute themselves +differently over the earth's surface without any change of level of the +different parts of that surface. + + . . . . . . + +"Settling down to a single branch of science, in consequence of his +professorship, Lamarck now devoted himself to the twofold labour of +lecturing and classifying the collections at the museum. In 1802 he +published his 'Considerations on the Organization of Living Bodies'; in +1809 his '_Philosophie Zoologique_,' a development of the +'Considerations'; and from 1816 to 1822 his Natural History of the +invertebrate animals, in seven volumes. This is his great work, and, +being entirely a work of description and classification, was received +with the unanimous approbation of the scientific world. His 'Fossil +Shells of the Neighbourhood of Paris'--a work in which his profound +knowledge of existing shells enabled him to class with certainty the +remains of forms that had disappeared thousands of ages ago--met also +with a favourable reception. + +"Lamarck was fifty years old before he began to study zoology; and +prolonged microscopic examinations first fatigued and at length +enfeebled his eyesight. The clouds which obscured it gradually +thickened, and he became quite blind. Married four times, the father of +seven children, he saw his small patrimony and even his earlier savings +swallowed up by one of those hazardous investments with which promoters +impose on the credulity of the public. His small endowment as professor +alone protected him from destitution. Men of science whom his reputation +as a botanist and zoologist had attracted near him, wondered at the +manner in which he was neglected. + + . . . . . . + +"He passed the last ten years of his laborious life in darkness, tended +only by the affectionate care of his two daughters. The eldest wrote +from his dictation part of the sixth and seventh volumes of his work on +the invertebrate animals. From the time her father became confined to +his room his daughter never left the house; and when first she did so +after his death, she was distressed by the fresh air to which she had +been so long a stranger. + +"Lamarck died December 18, 1829, at the age of eighty-five. Latreille +and Blainville were his successors at the museum. The incredible +activity of the first professor had so greatly increased the number of +the known invertebrata that it was found necessary to endow two +professors, where one had originally been sufficient. + +"His two daughters were left penniless. In the year 1832 I myself saw +Mlle. Cornelie de Lamarck earning a scanty pittance by fastening dried +plants on to paper, in the museum of which her father had been a +professor. Many a species named and described by him must have passed +under her eyes and increased the bitterness of her regret."[185] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[184] Paris, 1873. + +[185] Introduction Biographique to M. Martins' edition of the 'Phil. +Zool.,' pp. ix-xx. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +GENERAL MISCONCEPTION CONCERNING LAMARCK--HIS PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION. + + +"If Cuvier," says M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire,[186] "is the modern +successor of Linnaeus, so is Lamarck of Buffon. But Cuvier does not go so +far as Linnaeus, and Lamarck goes much farther than Buffon. Lamarck, +moreover, took his own line, and his conjectures are not only much +bolder, or rather more hazardous, but they are profoundly different from +Buffon's. + +"It is well known that the vast labours of Lamarck were divided between +botany and physical science in the eighteenth century, and between +zoology and natural philosophy in the nineteenth; it is, however, less +generally known that Lamarck was long a partisan of the immutability of +species. It was not till 1801, when he was already old, that he freed +himself from the ideas then generally prevailing. But Lamarck, having +once made up his mind, never changed it; in his ripe age he exhibits all +the ardour of youth in propagating and defending his new convictions. + +"In the three years, 1801, 1802, 1803, he enounced them twice in his +lectures, and three times in his writings.[187] He returns to the +subject and states his views precisely in 1806,[188] and in 1809 he +devotes a great part of his principal work, the 'Philosophie +Zoologique,' to their demonstration.[189] Here he might have rested and +have quietly awaited the judgment of his peers; but he is too much +convinced; he believes the future of science to depend so much upon his +doctrine that to his dying day he feels compelled to explain it further +and insist upon it. When already over seventy years of age he enounces +it again, and maintains it as firmly as ever in 1815, in his 'Histoire +des Animaux sans Vertebres,' and in 1820 in his 'Systeme des +Connaissances Positives.'[190] + +"This doctrine, so dearly cherished by its author, and the conception, +exposition, and defence of which so laboriously occupied the second half +of his scientific career, has been assuredly too much admired by some, +who have forgotten that Lamarck had a precursor, and that that precursor +was Buffon. It has, on the other hand, been too severely condemned by +others who have involved it in its entirety in broad and sweeping +condemnation. As if it were possible that so great labour on the part of +so great a naturalist should have led him to 'a fantastic conclusion' +only--to a 'flighty error,' and, as has been often said, though not +written, to 'one absurdity the more.' Such was the language which +Lamarck heard during his protracted old age, saddened alike by the +weight of years and blindness; this was what people did not hesitate to +utter over his grave yet barely closed, and what, indeed, they are still +saying--commonly, too, without any knowledge of what Lamarck maintained, +but merely repeating at second hand bad caricatures of his teaching. + +"When will the time come when we may see Lamarck's theory +discussed--and, I may as well at once say, refuted in some important +points--with at any rate the respect due to one of the most illustrious +masters of our science? And when will this theory, the hardihood of +which has been greatly exaggerated, become freed from the +interpretations and commentaries by the false light of which so many +naturalists have formed their opinion concerning it? If its author is to +be condemned, let it be, at any rate, not before he has been +heard."[191] + +It is not necessary for me to give the extracts from Lamarck which M. +Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire quotes in order to show what he really +maintained, inasmuch as they will be given at greater length in the +following chapter; but I may perhaps say that I have not found M. +Geoffroy refuting Lamarck in any essential point. + +Professor Haeckel says that to Lamarck "will always belong the immortal +glory of having for the first time worked out the theory of descent as +an independent scientific theory of the first order, and as the +philosophical foundation of the whole science of Biology." + + . . . . . . + +"The 'Philosophie Zoologique,'" continues Professor Haeckel, "is the +first connected exposition of the theory of descent carried out strictly +into all its consequences; ... and with the exception of Darwin's work, +which appeared exactly half a century later, we know of none which we +could in this respect place by the side of the 'Philosophie Zoologique.' +How far it was in advance of its time is perhaps best seen from the +circumstance that it was not understood by most men, and for fifty years +was not spoken of at all."[192] + +This is an exaggeration, both as regards the originality of Lamarck's +work and the reception it has met with. It is probably more accurate to +say with M. Martins that Lamarck's theory has "never yet had the honour +of being discussed seriously,"[193] not, at least, in connection with +the name of its originators. + +So completely has this been so that the author of the 'Vestiges of +Creation,' even in the edition of 1860, in which he unreservedly +acknowledges the adoption of Lamarck's views, not unfrequently speaks +disparagingly of Lamarck himself, and never gives him his due meed of +recognition. I am not, therefore, wholly displeased to find this author +conceiving himself to have been treated by Mr. Charles Darwin with some +of the injustice which he has himself inflicted on Lamarck. + +In the 1859 edition of the 'Origin of Species,' and in a very prominent +place, Mr. Darwin says:--"The author of the 'Vestiges of Creation' would +I presume say, that after a certain number of unknown generations, some +bird had given birth to a woodpecker, and some plant to a misseltoe, and +that these had been produced perfect as we now see them."[194] This is +the only allusion to the 'Vestiges' which I have found in the first +edition of the 'Origin of Species.' + +Those who have read the 1853 edition of the 'Vestiges' will not be +surprised to find the author rejoining, in his edition of 1860, that it +was to be regretted Mr. Darwin should have read the 'Vestiges' "nearly +as much amiss as though, like its declared opponents, he had an interest +in misunderstanding it." And a little lower he adds that Mr. Darwin's +book in no essential respect contradicts the 'Vestiges'; "on the +contrary, while adding to its explanations of nature, it expresses +substantially the same general ideas."[195] It is right to say that the +passage thus objected to is not to be found in later editions of the +'Origin of Species,' while in the historical sketch we now read as +follows:--"In my opinion it (the 'Vestiges of Creation') has done +excellent service in this country by calling attention to the subject, +removing prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground for the reception +of analogous views." + +Mr. Darwin, the main part of whose work on the 'Origin of Species' is +taken up with supporting the theory of descent with modification (which +frequently in the recapitulation chapter of the 'Origin of Species' he +seems to treat as synonymous with natural selection), has fallen into +the common error of thinking that Lamarck can be ignored or passed over +in a couple of sentences. I only find Lamarck's name twice in the 1859 +edition of the 'Origin,' once on p. 242, where Mr. Darwin writes: "I am +surprised that no one has advanced this demonstrative case of neuter +insects, against the well-known doctrine of Lamarck;" and again, p. 427, +where Lamarck is stated to have been the first to call attention to the +"very important distinction between real affinities and analogical or +adaptive resemblances." How far from demonstrative is the particular +case which in 1859 Mr. Darwin considered so fatal to "the well-known +doctrine of Lamarck"--which should surely, one would have thought, +include the doctrine of descent with modification, which Mr. Darwin is +himself supporting--I have attempted to show in 'Life and Habit,' but +had perhaps better recapitulate briefly here. + +Mr. Darwin writes: "In the simpler case of neuter insects all of one +caste, _which, as I believe, have been rendered different from the +fertile males and females through natural selection_...."[196] He thus +attributes the sterility and peculiar characteristics, we will say, of +the common hive working bees--"neuter insects all of one caste"--to +natural selection. Now, nothing is more certain than that these +characteristics--sterility, a cavity in the thigh for collecting wax, a +proboscis for gathering honey, &c.--are due to the treatment which the +eggs laid by the queen bee receive after they have left her body. Take +an egg and treat it in a certain way, and it becomes a working bee; +treat the same egg in a certain other way, and it becomes a queen. If +the bees are in danger of becoming queenless they take eggs which were +in the way of being developed into working bees, and change their food +and cells, whereon they develop into queens instead. How Mr. Darwin +could attribute the neutralization of the working bees--an act which is +obviously one of abortion committed by the body politic of the hive on a +balance of considerations--to the action of what he calls "natural +selection," and how, again, he could suppose that what he was advancing +had any but a confirmatory bearing upon Lamarck's position, is +incomprehensible, unless the passage in question be taken as a mere +slip. That attention has been called to it is plain, for the words "the +well-known doctrine of Lamarck" have been changed in later editions into +"the well-known doctrine of inherited habit as advanced by +Lamarck,"[197] but this correction, though some apparent improvement on +the original text, does little indeed in comparison with what is wanted. + +Mr. Darwin has since introduced a paragraph concerning Lamarck into the +"historical sketch," already more than once referred to in these pages. +In this he summarises the theory which I am about to lay before the +reader, by saying that Lamarck "upheld the doctrine that all species, +including man, are descended from other species." If Lamarck had been +alive he would probably have preferred to see Mr. Darwin write that he +upheld "the doctrine of descent with modification as the explanation of +all differentiations of structure and instinct." Mr. Darwin continues, +that Lamarck "seems" to have been chiefly led to his conclusion on the +gradual change of species, "by the difficulty of distinguishing species +and varieties, by the almost perfect gradation of forms in certain +groups, and by the analogy of domestic productions." + +Lamarck would probably have said that though he did indeed turn--as Mr. +Darwin has done, and as Buffon and Dr. Darwin had done before him--to +animals and plants under domestication, in illustration and support of +the theory of descent with modification; and that though he did also +insist, as so many other writers have done, on the arbitrary and +artificial nature of the distinction between species and varieties, he +was mainly led to agree with Buffon and Dr. Darwin by a broad survey of +the animal kingdom, with the details also of which few naturalists have +ever been better acquainted. + +"Great," says Mr. Darwin, "is the power of steady +misrepresentation,"--and greatly indeed has the just fame of Lamarck +been eclipsed in consequence; "but," as Mr. Darwin finely continues, +"the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long +endure."[198] + +That Lamarck anticipated it, was prepared to face it, and even felt that +things were thus, after all, as they should be, will appear from the +shrewd and pleasant passage which is to be found near the close of his +preface:-- + +"So great is the power of preconceived opinion, especially when any +personal interest is enlisted on the same side as itself, that though +it is hard to deduce new truths from the study of nature, it is still +harder to get them recognized by other people. + +"These difficulties, however, are on the whole more beneficial than +hurtful to the cause of science; for it is through them that a number of +eccentric, though perhaps plausible speculations, perish in their +infancy, and are never again heard of. Sometimes, indeed, valuable ideas +are thus lost; but it is better that a truth, when once caught sight of, +should have to struggle for a long time without meeting the attention it +deserves, than that every outcome of a heated imagination should be +readily received. + +"The more I reflect upon the numerous causes which affect our judgments, +the more convinced I am that, with the exception of such physical and +moral facts as no one can now throw doubt upon, all else is matter of +opinion and argument; and we know well that there is hardly an argument +to be found anywhere, against which another argument cannot plausibly be +adduced. Hence, though it is plain that the various opinions of men +differ greatly in probability and in the weight which should be attached +to them, it seems to me that we are wrong when we blame those who differ +from us. + +"Are we then to recognize no opinions as well founded but those which +are generally received? Nay--experience teaches us plainly that the +highest and most cultivated minds must be at all times in an exceedingly +small minority. No one can dispute this. Authority should be told by +weight and not by number--but in good truth authority is a hard thing +to weigh. + +"Nor again--in spite of the many and severe conditions which a judgment +must fulfil before it can be declared good--is it quite certain that +those whom public opinion has declared to be authorities, are always +right in the conclusions they arrive at. + +"Positive facts are the only solid ground for man; the deductions he +draws from them are a very different matter. Outside the facts of nature +all is a question of probabilities, and the most that can be said is +that some conclusions are more probable than others." + +Lamarck's poverty was perhaps one main reason of the ease with which it +was found possible to neglect his philosophical opinions. Science is not +a kingdom into which a poor man can enter easily, if he happens to +differ from a philosopher who gives good dinners, and has "his sisters +and his cousins and his aunts" to play the part of chorus to him. +Lamarck's two daughters do not appear to have been the kind of persons +who could make effective sisters or cousins or aunts. Men of science are +of like passions even with the other holy ones who have set themselves +up in all ages as the pastors and prophets of mankind. The saint has +commonly deemed it to be for the interests of saintliness that he should +strain a point or two in his own favour--and the more so according as +his reputation for an appearance of candour has been the better earned. +If, then, Lamarck's opponents could keep choruses, while Lamarck had +nothing to fall back upon but the merits of his case only, it is not +surprising that he should have found himself neglected by the +scientists of his own time. Moreover he was too old to have undertaken +such an unequal contest. If he had been twenty years younger when he +began it, he would probably have enjoyed his full measure of success +before he died. + +Not that Lamarck can claim, as a thinker, to stand on the same level +with Dr. Darwin, and still less so with Buffon. He attempted to go too +fast and too far. Seeing that if we accept descent with modification, +the question arises whether what we call life and consciousness may not +themselves be evolved from some thing or things which looked at one time +so little living and conscious that we call them inanimate--and being +anxious to see his theory reach, and to follow it, as far back as +possible, he speculates about the origin of life; having formed a theory +thereon, he is more inclined to interpret the phenomena of lower animal +life so as to make them fit in with his theory, than as he would have +interpreted them if there had been no theory at stake. + +Thus his denial that sensation, and much more, intelligence and +deliberate action, can exist without a brain and a nervous system, has +led him to deny sensation, consciousness, and intelligence to many +animals which act in such manner as would certainly have made him say +that they feel and know what they are about, if he had formed no theory +about brains and nervous systems. + +Nothing can be more different than the manners in which Lamarck and Dr. +Darwin wrote on this head. Lamarck over and over again maintains that +where there is no nervous system there can be no sensation. Combating, +for example, the assertion of Cabanis, that to live is to feel, he says +that "the greater number of the polypi and all the infusoria, having no +nervous system, it must be said of them as also of worms, that to live +is still not to feel; and so again of plants."[199] + +How different from this is the un-theory-ridden language of Dr. Darwin, +quoted on p. 116 of this work. + +Lamarck again writes:-- + +"The very imperfect animals of the lowest classes, having no nervous +system, are simply irritable, have nothing but certain habits, +experience no sensations, and never conceive ideas." + +This, in the face of the performances of the amoeba--a minute jelly +speck, without any special organ whatever--in making its tests, cannot +be admitted. Is it possible that Lamarck was in some measure misled by +believing Buffon to be in earnest when he advanced propositions little +less monstrous? + +"But," continues Lamarck, "the less imperfect animals which have a +nervous system, though they have not the organ of intelligence, have +instinct, habits, and proclivities; they feel sensations, and yet form +no ideas whatever. I venture to say that where there is no organ for a +faculty that faculty cannot exist."[200] + +Who can tell what ideas a worm does or does not form? We can watch its +actions, and see that they are such as involve what we call design and a +perception of its own interest. Under these circumstances it seems +better to call the worm a reasonable creature with Dr. Darwin than to +say with Lamarck that because worms do not appear to have that organ +which he assumes to be the sole means of causing sensation and ideas, +therefore they can neither feel nor think. Doubtless they cannot feel +and think as many sensations and thoughts as we can, but our ideas of +what they can and cannot feel must be formed through consideration of +what we see them do, and must be biassed by no theories of what they +ought to be able to feel or not feel. + +Again Lamarck, shortly after an excellent passage in which he points out +that the lower animals gain by experience just as man does (and here +probably he had in his mind the passage of Buffon referred to at p. 112 +of this work), nevertheless writes:-- + +"If the facts and considerations put forward in this volume be held +worthy of attention, it will follow necessarily that there are some +animals which have neither reason nor instinct" (I should be glad to see +one of these animals and to watch its movements), "such as those which +have no power of feeling; that there are others which have instinct but +no degree whatever of reason" (whereas from Dr. Darwin's premises it +should follow, and would doubtless be readily admitted by him, that +instinct is reason, but reason many times repeated made perfect, and +finally repeated by rote; so that far from being prior to reason, as +Lamarck here implies, it can only come long afterwards), "such as those +which have a system enabling them to feel, but which still lack the +organ of intelligence; and finally, that there are those which have not +only instinct, but over and above this a certain degree of reasoning +power, such as those creatures which have one system for sensations and +another for acts involving intelligence. Instinct is with these last +animals the motive power of almost all their actions, and they rarely +use what little reason they have. Man, who comes next above them, is +also possessed of instincts which inspire some of his actions, but he +can acquire much reason, and can use it so as to direct the greater part +of his actions."[201] + +All this will be felt to be less satisfactory than the simple directness +of Dr. Darwin. It comes in great measure from following Buffon without +being _en rapport_ with him. On the other hand, Lamarck must be admitted +to have elaborated the theory of "descent with modification" with no +less clearness than Dr. Darwin, and with much greater fulness of detail. +There is no substantial difference between the points they wish to +establish; Dr. Darwin has the advantage in that not content with +maintaining that there will be a power of adaptation to the conditions +of an animal's existence which will determine its organism, he goes on +to say what the principal conditions are, and shows more lucidly than +Lamarck has done (though Lamarck adopts the same three causes in a +passage which will follow), that struggle, and consequently +modification, will be chiefly conversant about the means of subsistence, +of reproduction, and of self-protection. Nevertheless, though Dr. Darwin +has said enough to show that he had the whole thing clearly before him, +and could have elaborated it as finely as or better than Lamarck +himself has done, if he had been so minded, yet the palm must be given +to Lamarck on the score of what he actually did, and this I observe to +be the verdict of history, for whereas Lamarck's name is still daily +quoted, Dr. Darwin's is seldom mentioned, and never with the applause +which it deserves. + +The resemblance between the two writers--that is to say, the complete +coincidence of their views--is so remarkable that the question is forced +upon us how far Lamarck knew the substance of Dr. Darwin's theory. +Lamarck knew Buffon personally; he had been tutor to Buffon's son, and +Buffon had three of Lamarck's volumes on the French Flora printed at the +royal printing press;--how can we account for Lamarck's having had +Buffon's theory of descent with modification before him for so many +years, and yet remaining a partisan of immutability till 1801? Before +this year we find no trace of his having accepted evolution; +thenceforward he is one of the most ardent and constant exponents which +this doctrine has ever had. What was it that repelled him in Buffon's +system? How is it that in the 'Philosophie Zoologique' there is not, so +far as I can remember, a single reference to Buffon, from whom, however, +as we shall see, many paragraphs are taken with but very little +alteration? + +I am inclined to think that the secret of this sudden conversion must be +found in a French translation by M. Deleuze of Dr. Darwin's poem, 'The +Loves of the Plants' which appeared in 1800. Lamarck--the most eminent +botanist of his time--was sure to have heard of and seen this, and would +probably know the translator, who would be able to give him a fair idea +of the 'Zoonomia.' + +I will give a few of the passages which Lamarck would find in this +translation. Speaking of Dr. Darwin, M. Deleuze says:--"Il falloit +encore qu'un nouvel observateur, entrant dans la route qui venoit de +s'ouvrir, s'y frayat des sentiers ignores; que liant la physique +vegetale a la botanique il nous montrat dans les plantes, non seulement +des corps organises soumis a des lois constantes, mais des etres doues +sinon de sensibilite, au moins d'une irritabilite particuliere, d'un +principe de vie _qui leur fait executer des mouvements analogues a leurs +besoins_....[202] + +"Il est des animaux et des plantes qui par le laps du tems paroissent +avoir eprouve des changemens dans leur organisation, _pour s'accommoder +a de nouveaux genres de nourriture et aux moyens de se la procurer_. +Peut-etre les productions de la nature font elles des progres vers la +perfection. Cette idee appuyee par les observations modernes sur +l'accroissement progressif des parties solides du globe, s'accorde avec +la dignite et la providence du createur de l'univers."[203] + +"La nature semble s'etre fait un jeu d'etablir entre tous les etres +organises une sorte de guerre qui entretient leur activite: si elle a +donne aux uns des moyens de defense, elle a donne aux autres des moyens +d'attaque."[204] + +Turning to the 'Botanic Garden' itself, I find that this admirable +sentence belongs to M. Deleuze, and not to Dr. Darwin, who, however, has +said what comes to much the same thing,[205] as may be seen p. 227 of +this volume. But the authorship is immaterial; whether the passage was +by Dr. Darwin or M. Deleuze, it was, in all probability, known to +Lamarck before his change of front. + + * * * * * + +The note on Trapa Natans again[206] suggests itself as the source from +which the passage in the 'Philosophie Zoologique' about the Ranunculus +aquatilis is taken,[207] while one of the most important passages in the +work, a summary, in fact, of the principal means of modification, seems +to be taken, the first half of it from Buffon, and the second from Dr. +Darwin. I have called attention to it on pp. 300, 301. + +We may then suppose that Lamarck failed to understand Buffon, and +conceived that he ought either to have gone much farther, or not so far; +not being yet prepared to go the whole length himself, he opposed +mutability till Dr. Darwin's additions to Buffon's ostensible theory +reached him, whereon he at once adopted them, and having received +nothing but a few notes and hints, felt himself at liberty to work the +theory out independently and claim it. In so original a work as the +'_Philosophie Zoologique_' must always be considered, this may be +legitimate, but I find in it, as Isidore Geoffroy seems also to have +found, a little more claim to complete independence than is acceptable +to one who is fresh from Buffon and Dr. Darwin. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[186] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 404, 1859. + +[187] 'Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres,' Paris, in-8, an. ix. (1801); +'Discours d'Ouverture,' p. 12, &c.; 'Recherches sur l'Organisation des +Corps Vivants,' Paris, in-8, 1802, p. 50, &c.; 'Discours d'Ouverture +d'un Cours de Zoologie pour l'an ix.,' Paris, in-8, 1803. This discourse +is entirely devoted to the consideration of the question, "What is +Species?" + +[188] 'Discours d'Ouverture d'un Cours de Zoologie,' 1806, Paris, in-8, +p. 8, &c. + +[189] See following chapter. + +[190] 'Hist, des Anim. sans Verteb.,' tom, i., Introduction, 1^re ed., +1815; 'Syst. des Conn. Positives,' Paris, in-8, 1820, 1^re part, +2^me sect. ch. ii. p. 114, &c. + +[191] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 407. + +[192] 'History of Creation,' English translation, vol. i. pp. 111, 112. + +[193] M. Martins' edition of the 'Philosophie Zoologique,' Paris, 1873. +Introd., p. vi. + +[194] 'Origin of Species,' p. 3, 1859. + +[195] 'Vestiges of Creation,' ed. 1860, Proofs, Illustrations, &c., p. +lxiv. + +[196] 'Origin of Species,' ed. 1, p. 239; ed. 6, p. 231. + +[197] 'Origin of Species,' ed. 1, p. 242; ed. 6, 1876, p. 233. + +[198] 'Origin of Species,' p. 421, ed. 1876. + +[199] 'Phil. Zool.,' vol. i. p. 404. + +[200] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 324. + +[201] 'Phil. Zool.,' vol. ii. p. 410. + +[202] 'Les Amours des Plantes,' Discours Prelim., p. 7. Paris, 1800. + +[203] Ibid., Notes du chant i., p. 202. + +[204] Ibid. p. 238. + +[205] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 507. + +[206] 'Les Amours des Plantes,' p. 360. + +[207] Vol. i. p. 231, ed. M. Martins, 1873. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +SUMMARY OF THE 'PHILOSOPHIE ZOOLOGIQUE.' + + +The first part of the '_Philosophie Zoologique_' is the one which deals +with the doctrine of evolution or descent with modification. It is to +this, therefore, that our attention will be confined. Yet only a +comparatively small part of the three hundred and fifty pages which +constitute Lamarck's first part are devoted to setting forth the reasons +which led him to arrive at his conclusions--the greater part of the +volume being occupied with the classification of animals, which we may +again omit, as foreign to our purpose. + +I shall condense whenever I can, but I do not think the reader will find +that I have left out much that bears upon the argument. I shall also use +inverted commas while translating with such freedom as to omit several +lines together, where I can do so without suppressing anything essential +to the elucidation of Lamarck's meaning. I shall, however, throughout +refer the reader to the page of the original work from which I am +translating. + +"The common origin of bodily and mental phenomena," says Lamarck in his +preliminary chapter, "has been obscured, because we have studied them +chiefly in man, who, as the most highly developed of living beings, +presents the problem in its most difficult and complicated aspect. If we +had begun our study with that of the lowest organisms, and had proceeded +from these to the more complex ones, we should have seen the progression +which is observable in organization, and the successive acquisition of +various special organs, with new faculties for every additional organ. +We should thus have seen that sense of needs--originally hardly +perceptible, but gradually increasing in intensity and variety--has led +to the attempt to gratify them; that the actions thus induced, having +become habitual and energetic, have occasioned the development of organs +adapted for their performance; that the force which excites organic +movements can in the case of the lowest animals exist outside them and +yet animate them; that this force was subsequently introduced into the +animals themselves, and fixed within them; and, lastly, that it gave +rise to sensibility and, in the end, to intelligence."[208] The reader +had better be on his guard here, and whenever Lamarck is speculating +about the lowest forms of action and sensation. I have thought it well, +however, to give enough of these speculations, as occasion arises, to +show their tendency. + +"Sensation is not the proximate cause of organic movements. It may be so +with the higher animals, but it cannot be shown to be so with plants, +nor even with all known animals. At the outset of life there was none of +that sensation which could only arise where organic beings had already +attained a considerable development. Nature has done all by slow +gradations, both organs and faculties being the outcome of a progressive +development.[209] + +"The mere composition of an animal is but a small part of what deserves +study in connection with the animal itself. The effects of its +surroundings in causing new wants, the effects of its wants in giving +rise to actions, those of its actions in developing habits and +tendencies, the effects of use and disuse as affecting any organ, the +means which nature takes to preserve and make perfect what has been +already acquired--these are all matters of the highest importance.[210] + +"In their bearing upon these questions the invertebrate animals are more +important and interesting than the vertebrate, for they are more in +number, and being more in number are more varied; their variations are +more marked, and the steps by which they have advanced in complexity are +more easily observed.[211] + +"I propose, therefore, to divide this work into three parts, of which +the first shall deal with the conventions necessary for the treatment of +the subject, the importance of analogical structures, and the meaning +which should be attached to the word species. I will point out on the +one hand the evidence of a graduated descending scale, as existing +between the highest and the lowest organisms; and, on the other, the +effect of surroundings and habits on the organs of living beings, as the +cause of their development or arrest of development. Lastly, I will +treat of the natural order of animals, and show what should be their +fittest classification and arrangement."[212] + +It seems unnecessary to give Lamarck's intentions with regard to his +second and third parts, as they do not here concern us; they deal with +the origin of life and mind. + +The first chapter of the work opens with the importance of bearing in +mind the difference between the conventional and the natural, that is to +say, between words and things. Here, as indeed largely throughout this +part of his work, he follows Buffon, by whom he is evidently influenced. + +"The conventional deals with systems of arrangement, classification, +orders, families, genera, and the nomenclature, whether of different +sections or of individual objects. + +"An arrangement should be called systematic, or arbitrary, when it does +not conform to the genealogical order taken by nature in the development +of the things arranged, and when, by consequence it is not founded upon +well-considered analogies. There is such a thing as a natural order in +every department of nature; it is the order in which its several +component items have been successively developed.[213] + +"Some lines certainly seem to have been drawn by Nature herself. It was +hard to believe that mammals, for example, and birds, were not +well-defined classes. Nevertheless the sharpness of definition was an +illusion, and due only to our limited knowledge. The ornithorhynchus and +the echidna bridge the gulf.[214] + +"Simplicity is the main end of any classification. If all the races, or +as they are called, species, of any kingdom were perfectly known, and if +the true analogies between each species, and between the groups which +species form, were also known, so that their approximations to each +other and the position of the several groups were in conformity with the +natural analogies between them--then classes, orders, sections, and +genera would be families, larger or smaller; for each division would be +a greater or smaller section of a natural order or sequence.[215] But in +this case it would be very difficult to assign the limits of each +division; they would be continually subjected to arbitrary alteration, +and agreement would only exist where plain and palpable gaps were +manifest in our series. Happily, however, for classifiers there are, and +will always probably remain, a number of unknown forms."[216] + +That the foregoing is still felt to be true by those who accept +evolution, may be seen from the following passage, taken from Mr. +Darwin's 'Origin of Species':-- + +"As all the organic beings which have ever lived can be arranged within +a few great classes; and as all within each class have, according to our +theory, been connected together by fine gradations, the best, and if our +collections were nearly perfect, the only possible arrangement would be +genealogical: descent being the hidden bond of connection which +naturalists have been seeking under the term of the Natural System. On +this view, we can understand how it is that in the eyes of most +naturalists, the structure of the embryo is even more important for +classifications than that of the adult."[217] + +In his second chapter Lamarck deals with the importance of comparative +anatomy, and the study of homologous structures. These indicate a sort +of blood relationship between the individuals in which they are found, +and are our safest guide to any natural system of classification. Their +importance is not confined to the study of classes, families, or even +species; they must be studied also in the individuals of each species, +as it is thus only, that we can recognize either identity or difference +of species. The results arrived at, however, are only trustworthy over a +limited period, for though the individuals of any species commonly so +resemble one another at any given time, as to enable us to generalize +from them, at the date of our observing them, yet species are not fixed +and immutable through all time: they change, though with such extreme +slowness that we do not observe their doing so, and when we come upon a +species that _has_ changed, we consider it as a new one, and as having +always been such as we now see it.[218] + +"It is none the less true that when we compare the same kind of organs +in different individuals, we can quickly and easily tell whether they +are very like each other or not, and hence, whether the animals or +plants in which they are found, should be set down as members of the +same or of a different species. It is only therefore the general +inference drawn from the apparent immutability of species, that has +been too inconsiderately drawn.[219] + +"The analogies and points of agreement between living organisms, are +always incomplete when based upon the consideration of any single organ +only. But though still incomplete, they will be much more important +according as the organ on which they are founded is an essential one or +otherwise. + +"With animals, those analogies are most important which exist between +organs most necessary for the conservation of their life. With plants, +between their organs of generation. Hence, with animals, it will be the +interior structure which will determine the most important analogies: +with plants it will be the manner in which they fructify.[220] + +"With animals we should look to nerves, organs of respiration, and those +of the circulation; with plants, to the embryo and its accessories, the +sexual organs of their flowers, &c.[221] To do this, will set us on to +the Natural Method, which is as it were a sketch traced by man of the +order taken by Nature in her productions.[222] Nevertheless the +divisions which we shall be obliged to establish, will still be +arbitrary and artificial, though presenting to our view sections +arranged in the order which Nature has pursued.[223] + +"What, then," he asks,[224] "_is_ species--and can we show that species +has changed--however slowly?" He now covers some of the ground since +enlarged upon in Mr. Darwin's second chapter, in which the arbitrary +nature of the distinction between species and varieties is so well +exposed. "I shall show," says Lamarck (in substance, but I am compelled +to condense much), "that the habits by which we now recognize any +species, are due to the conditions of life [_circonstances_] under which +it has for a long time existed, and that these habits have had such an +influence upon the structure of each individual of the species, as to +have at length modified this structure, and adapted it to the habits +which have been contracted.[225] + +"The individuals of any species," he continues, "certainly resemble +their parents; it is a universal law of nature that all offspring should +differ but little from its immediate progenitors, but this does not +justify the ordinary belief that species never vary. Indeed, naturalists +themselves are in continual difficulty as regards distinguishing species +from varieties; they do not recognize the fact that species are only +constant as long as the conditions in which they are placed are +constant. Individuals vary and form breeds which blend so insensibly +into the neighbouring species, that the distinctions made by naturalists +between species and varieties, are for the most part arbitrary, and the +confusion upon this head is becoming day by day more serious.[226] + +"Not perceiving that species will not vary as long as the conditions in +which they are placed remain essentially unchanged, naturalists have +supposed that each species was due to a special act of creation on the +part of the Supreme Author of all things. Assuredly, nothing can exist +but by the will of this Supreme Author, but can we venture to assign +rules to him in the execution of his will? May not his infinite power +have chosen to create an order of things which should evolve in +succession all that we know as well as all that we do not know? Whether +we regard species as created or evolved, the boundlessness of his power +remains unchanged, and incapable of any diminution whatsoever. Let us +then confine ourselves simply to observing the facts around us, and if +we find any clue to the path taken by Nature, let us say fearlessly that +it has pleased her Almighty Author that she should take this path.[227] + +"What applies to species applies also to genera; the further our +knowledge extends, the more difficult do we find it to assign its exact +limits to any genus. Gaps in our collections are being continually +filled up, to the effacement of our dividing lines of demarcation. We +are thus compelled to settle the limits of species and variety +arbitrarily, and in a manner about which there will be constant +disagreement. Naturalists are daily classifying new species which blend +into one another so insensibly that there can hardly be found words to +express the minute differences between them. The gaps that exist are +simply due to our not having yet found the connecting species. + +"I do not, however, mean to say that animal life forms a simple and +continuously blended series. Life is rather comparable to a +ramification. In life we should see, as it were, a ramified continuity, +if certain species had not been lost. The species which, according to +this illustration, stands at the extremity of each bough, should bear a +resemblance, at least upon one side, to the other neighbouring species; +and this certainly is what we observe in nature. + +"Having arranged living forms in such an order as this, let us take one, +and then, passing over several boughs, let us take another at some +distance from it; a wide difference will now be seen between the species +which the forms selected represent. Our earliest collections supplied us +with such distantly allied forms only; now, however, that we have such +an infinitely greater number of specimens, we can see that many of them +blend one into the other without presenting noteworthy differences at +any step."[228] + +This has been well extended by Mr. Darwin in a passage which +begins:--"The affinities of all beings of the same class have sometimes +been represented by a great tree. I believe that this simile largely +speaks the truth."[229] + +"What, then," continues Lamarck, "can be the cause of all this? Surely +the following: namely, that when individuals of any species change their +situation, climate, mode of existence, or habits [conditions of life], +their structure, form, organization, and in fact their whole being +becomes little by little modified, till in the course of time it +responds to the changes experienced by the creature."[230] + +In his preface Lamarck had already declared that "the thread which gives +us a clue to the causes of the various phenomena of animal +organization, in the manifold diversity of its developments, is to be +found in the fact that Nature conserves in offspring all that their life +and environments has developed in parents." Heredity--"the hidden bond +of common descent"--tempered with the modifications induced by changed +habits--which changed habits are due to new conditions and +surroundings--this with Lamarck, as with Buffon and Dr. Darwin, is the +explanation of the diversity of forms which we observe in nature. He now +goes on to support this--briefly, in accordance with his design--but +with sufficient detail to prevent all possibility of mistake about his +meaning. + +"In the same climate differences in situation, and a greater or less +degree of exposure, affect simply, in the first instance, the +individuals exposed to them; but in the course of time, these repeated +differences of surroundings in individuals which reproduce themselves +continually under similar circumstances, induce differences which become +part of their very nature; so that after many successive generations, +these individuals, which were originally, we will say, of any given +species, become transformed into a different one."[231] + +"Let us suppose that a grass growing in a low-lying meadow gets carried +by some accident to the brow of a neighbouring hill, where the soil is +still damp enough for the plant to be able to exist. Let it live here +for many generations, till it has become thoroughly accustomed to its +position, and let it then gradually find its way to the dry and almost +arid soil of a mountain side; if the plant is able to stand the change +and to perpetuate itself for many generations, it will have become so +changed that botanists will class it as a new species."[232] + +"The same sort of process goes on in the animal kingdom, but animals are +modified more slowly than plants."[233] + +The sterility of hybrids, to which Mr. Darwin devotes a great part of +the ninth chapter of his 'Origin of Species,'[234] is then touched +on--briefly, but sufficiently--as follows:-- + +"The idea that species were fixed and immutable involved the belief that +distinct species could not be fertile _inter se_. But unfortunately +observation has proved, and daily proves, that this supposition is +unfounded. Hybrids are very common among plants, and quite sufficiently +so among animals to show that the boundaries of these so-called +immutable species are not so well defined as has been supposed. Often, +indeed, there is no offspring between the individuals of what are called +distinct species, especially when they are widely different, and again, +the offspring when produced is generally sterile; but when there is less +difference between the parents, both the difficulty of breeding the +hybrid, and its sterility when produced, are found to disappear. In this +very power of crossing we see a source from which breeds, and ultimately +species, may arise."[235] + +Mr. Darwin arrives at the same conclusion. He writes:-- + +"We must, therefore, either give up the belief of the universal +sterility of species when crossed, or we must look at this sterility in +animals, not as an indelible characteristic, but as one capable of being +removed by domestication. + +"Finally, on considering all the ascertained facts on the intercrossing +of plants and animals, it may be concluded that some degree of +sterility, both in first crosses and in hybrids, is an exceedingly +general result, but that it cannot, under our present state of +knowledge, be considered as absolutely universal."[236] + +Returning to Lamarck, we find him saying:-- + +"The limits, therefore, of so-called species are not so constant and +unvarying as is commonly supposed. Consider also the following. All +living forms upon the face of the globe have been brought forth in the +course of infinite time by the process of generation only. Nature has +directly created none but the lowest organisms; these she is still +producing every day, they being, as it were, the first sketches of life, +and produced by what is called spontaneous generation. Organs have been +gradually developed in these low forms, and these organs have in the +course of time increased in diversity and complexity. The power of +growth in each living body has given rise to various modes of +reproduction, and thus progress, already acquired, has been preserved +and handed down to offspring.[237] With sufficient time, favourable +conditions of life [_circonstances_], successive changes in the surface +of the globe, and the power of new surroundings and habits to modify the +organs of living bodies, all animal and vegetable forms have been +imperceptibly rendered such as we now see them. It follows that species +will be constant only in relation to their environments, and cannot be +as old as Nature herself. + +"But what are we to say of instinct? Can we suppose that all the tricks, +cunning, artifices, precautions, patience, and skill of animals are due +to evolution only? Must we not see here the design of an all-powerful +Creator? No one certainly will assign limits to the Creator's power, but +it is a bold thing to say that he did not choose to work in this way or +that way, when his own handiwork declares to us that this is the way he +chose. I find proof in Nature--meaning by nature the _ensemble_ of all +that is,[238] but regarding her as herself the effect of an unknown +first cause[239]--that she is the author of organization, life, and even +sensation; that she has multiplied and diversified the organs and mental +powers of the creatures which she sustains and reproduces; that she has +developed in animals, through the sole instrumentality of sense of need +as establishing and directing their habits, all actions and all habits, +from the simplest up to those which constitute instinct, industry, and +finally reason.[240] + +"Against this it is alleged that we have no reason to believe species to +have changed within any known era. The skeletons of some Egyptian birds, +preserved two or three thousand years ago, differ in no particular from +the same kind of creatures at the present day. But this is what we +should expect, inasmuch as the position and climate of Egypt itself do +not appear to have changed. If the conditions of life have not varied, +why should the species subjected to those conditions have done so? +Moreover, birds can move about freely, and if one place does not suit +them they can find another that does. All that these Egyptian mummies +really prove is, that there were animals in Egypt two or three thousand +years ago which are like the animals of to-day; but how short a space is +two or three thousand years, as compared with the time which Nature has +had at her disposal! A time infinitely great _qua_ man, is still +infinitely short _qua_ Nature.[241] + +"If, however, we turn to animals under confinement, we find immediate +proof that the most startling changes are capable of being produced +after some generations of changed habits. In the sixth chapter we shall +have occasion to observe the power of changed conditions +[_circonstances_] to develop new desires in animals, and to induce new +courses of action; we shall see the power which these new actions will +have, after a certain amount of repetition, to engender new habits and +tendencies; and we shall also note the effects of use and disuse in +either fortifying and developing an organ, or in diminishing it and +causing it to disappear. With plants under domestication, we shall find +corresponding phenomena. Species will thus appear to be unchangeable for +comparatively short periods only."[242] + +It is interesting to see that Mr. Darwin lays no less stress on the +study of animals and plants under domestication than Buffon, Dr. Darwin, +and Lamarck. Indeed, all four writers appear to have been in great +measure led to their conclusions by this very study. "At the +commencement of my investigations," writes Mr. Darwin, "it seemed to me +probable that a careful study of domesticated animals and of cultivated +plants would offer the best chance of making out this obscure problem. +Nor have I been disappointed; in this and in all other perplexing cases, +I have invariably found that our knowledge, imperfect though it be, of +variation under domestication, afforded the best and safest clue. I may +venture to express my conviction of the high value of such studies, +though they have been very commonly neglected by naturalists."[243] + +In justice to the three writers whom I have named, it should be borne in +mind that they also ventured to express their conviction of the high +value of these studies. Buffon, indeed, as we have seen, gives animals +under domestication the foremost place in his work. He does not treat of +wild animals till he has said all he has to say upon our most important +domesticated breeds,--on whose descent from one or two wild stocks he is +never weary of insisting. It was doubtless because of the opportunities +they afforded him for demonstrating the plasticity of living organism +that the most important position in his work was assigned to them. + +Lamarck professes himself unable to make up his mind about extinct +species; how far, that is to say, whole breeds must be considered as +having died out, or how far the difference between so many now living +and fossil forms is due to the fact that our living species are +modified descendants of the fossil ones. Such large parts of the globe +were still practically unknown in Lamarck's time, and the recent +discovery of the ornithorhynchus has raised such hopes as to what might +yet be found in Australia, that he was inclined to think that only such +creatures as man found hurtful to him, as, for example, the megatherium +and the mastodon, had become truly extinct, nor was he, it would seem, +without a hope that these would yet one day be discovered. The climatic +and geological changes that have occurred in past ages, would, he +believed, account for all the difference which we observe between living +and fossil forms, inasmuch as they would have changed the conditions +under which animals lived, and therefore their habits and organs would +have become correspondingly modified. He therefore rather wondered to +find so much, than so little, resemblance between existing and fossil +forms. + +Buffon took a juster view of this matter; it will be remembered that he +concluded his remarks upon the mammoth by saying that many species had +doubtless disappeared without leaving any living descendants, while +others had left descendants which had become modified. + +Lamarck anticipated Lyell in supposing geological changes to have been +due almost entirely to the continued operation of the causes which we +observe daily at work in nature: thus he writes:-- + +"Every observer knows that the surface of the earth has changed; every +valley has been exalted, the crooked has been made straight, and the +rough places plain; not even is climate itself stable. Hence changed +conditions; and these involve changed needs and habits of life; if such +changes can give rise to modifications or developments, it is clear that +every living body must vary, especially in its outward character, though +the variation can only be perceptible after several generations. + +"It is not surprising then that so few living species should be +represented in the geologic record. It is surprising rather that we +should find any living species represented at all.[244] + +"Catastrophes have indeed been supposed, and they are an easy way of +getting out of the difficulty; but unfortunately, they are not supported +by evidence. Local catastrophes have undoubtedly occurred, as +earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, of which the effects can be +sufficiently seen; but why suppose any universal catastrophe, when the +ordinary progress of nature suffices to account for the phenomena? +Nature is never _brusque_. She proceeds slowly step by step, +and this with occasional local catastrophes will remove all our +difficulties."[245] + +In his fourth chapter Lamarck points out that animals move themselves, +or parts of themselves, not through impulsion or movement communicated +to them as from one billiard ball to another, but by reason of a cause +which excites their irritability, which cause is within some animals and +forms part of them, while it is wholly outside of others.[246] + +I should again warn the reader to be on his guard against the opinion +that any animals can be said to live if they have no "inward motion" of +their own which prompts them to act. We cannot call anything alive which +moves only as wind and water may make it move, but without any impulse +from within to execute the smallest action and without any capacity of +feeling. Such a creature does not look sufficiently like the other +things which we call alive; it should be first shown to us, so that we +may make up our minds whether the facts concerning it have been truly +stated, and if so, what it most resembles; we may then classify it +accordingly. + +"Some animals change their place by creeping, some by walking, some by +running or leaping; others again fly, while others live in the water and +swim. + +"The origin of these different kinds of locomotion is to be found in the +two great wants of animal life: 1, the means of procuring food; 2, the +search after mates with a view to reproduction. + +"Since then the power of locomotion was a matter affecting their +individual self-preservation, as well as that of their race, the +existence of the want led to the means of its being gratified."[247] + +Lamarck is practically at one with Dr. Erasmus Darwin, that modification +will commonly travel along three main lines which spring from the need +of reproduction, of procuring food, and (Dr. Darwin has added) the power +of self-protection; but Dr. Darwin's treatment of this part of his +subject is more lucid and satisfactory than Lamarck's, inasmuch as he +immediately brings forward instances of various modifications which have +in each case been due to one of the three main desires above specified, +namely, reproduction, subsistence, and self-defence. + +Lamarck concludes the chapter with some passages which show that he was +alive--as what Frenchman could fail to be after Buffon had written?--to +the consequences which must follow from the geometrical ratio of +increase, and to the struggle for existence, with consequent survival of +the fittest, which must always be one of the conditions of any wild +animal's existence. The paragraphs, indeed, on this subject are taken +with very little alteration from Buffon's work. As Lamarck's theory is +based upon the fact that it is on the nature of these conditions that +the habits and consequently the structure of any animal will depend, he +must have seen that the shape of many of its organs must vary greatly in +correlation to the conditions to which it was subjected in the matter of +self-protection. I do not see, then, that there is any substantial +difference between the positions taken by Dr. Erasmus Darwin and by +Lamarck in this respect. + +"Let us conclude," he writes, "by showing the means employed by nature +to prevent the number of her creatures from injuring the conservation of +what has been produced already, and of the general order which should +subsist.[248] + + . . . . . . + +"In consequence of the extremely rapid rate of increase of the smaller, +and especially of the most imperfect, animals, their numbers would +become so great as to prove injurious to the conservation of breeds, and +to the progress already made towards more perfect organization, unless +nature had taken precautions to keep them down within certain fixed +limits which she cannot exceed."[249] + +This seems to contain, and in a nutshell, as much of the essence of what +Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Charles Darwin have termed the survival of +the fittest in the struggle for existence, as was necessary for +Lamarck's purpose. + +To Lamarck, as to Dr. Darwin and Buffon, it was perfectly clear that the +facts, that animals have to find their food under varying circumstances, +and that they must defend themselves in all manner of varying ways +against other creatures which would eat them if they could, were simply +some of the conditions of their existence. In saying that the +surrounding circumstances--which amount to the conditions of +existence--determined the direction in which any plant or animal should +be slowly modified, Lamarck includes as a matter of course the fact that +the "stronger and better armed should eat the weaker," and thus survive +and bear offspring which would inherit the strength and better armour of +its parents. Nothing therefore can be more at variance with the truth +than to represent Lamarck and the other early evolutionists as ignoring +the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest; these are +inevitably implied whenever they use the word "_circonstances_" or +environment, as I will more fully show later on, and are also expressly +called attention to by the greater number of them.[250] + +"Animals, except those which are herbivorous, prey upon one another; and +the herbivorous are exposed to the attacks of the flesh-eating races. + +"_The strongest and best armed for attack eat the weaker_, and the +greater kinds eat the smaller. Individuals of the same race rarely eat +one another; they war only with other races than their own."[251] + +Dr. Darwin here again has the advantage over Lamarck; for he has pointed +out how the males contend with one another for the possession of the +females, which I do not find Lamarck to have done, though he would at +once have admitted the fact. Lamarck continues:-- + +"The smaller kinds of animals breed so numerously and so rapidly that +they would people the globe to the exclusion of other forms of life, if +nature had not limited their inconceivable multitude. As, however, they +are the prey of a number of other creatures, live but a short time, and +perish easily with cold, they are kept always within the proportions +necessary for the maintenance both of their own and of other races.[252] + +"As regards the larger and stronger animals, they would become dominant, +and be injurious to the conservation of many other races, if they could +multiply in too great numbers. But as it is, they devour one another, +and breed but slowly, and few at a birth, so that equilibrium is duly +preserved among them. Man alone is the unquestionably dominant animal, +but men war among themselves, so that it may be safely said the world +will never be peopled to its utmost capacity."[253] + +In his fifth chapter Lamarck returns to the then existing arrangement +and classification of animals. + +"Naturalists having remarked that many species, and some genera and even +families present characters which as it were isolate them, it has been +imagined that these approached or drew further from each other according +as their points of agreement or difference seemed greater or less when +set down as it were on a chart or map. They regard the small well-marked +series which have been styled natural families, as groups which should +be placed between the isolated species and their nearest neighbours so +as to form a kind of reticulation. This idea, which some of our modern +naturalists have held to be admirable, is evidently mistaken, and will +be discarded on a profounder and more extended knowledge of +organization, and more especially when the distinction has been duly +drawn between what is due to the action of special conditions and to +general advance of organization."[254] + +I take it that Lamarck is here attempting to express what Mr. Charles +Darwin has rendered much more clearly in the following excellent +passage:-- + +"It should always be borne in mind what sort of intermediate forms must, +on the theory [what theory?], have formerly existed. I have found it +difficult when looking at any two species to avoid picturing to myself +forms _directly_ intermediate between them. But this is a wholly false +view; we should always look for forms intermediate between each species +and a common but unknown progenitor; and the progenitor will generally +have differed in some respects from all its modified descendants. To +give a simple illustration: the fantail and pouter pigeons are both +descended from the rock pigeon. If we possessed all the intermediate +varieties which have ever existed, we should have an extremely close +series, between both and the rock pigeon; but we should have no +varieties directly intermediate between the fantail and the pouter; +none, for instance, combining a tail somewhat expanded with a crop +somewhat enlarged, the characteristic features of these two breeds. +These two breeds, moreover, have become so much modified that, if we had +no historical or indirect evidence regarding their origin, it would not +have been possible to have determined, from a mere comparison of their +structure with that of the rock pigeon C. livia, whether they had +descended from this species, or from some other allied form, as C. +oenas. + +"So with natural species, if we look to forms very distinct--for +instance, to the horse and the tapir--we have no reason to suppose that +links directly intermediate between them ever existed, but between each +and an unknown common parent. The common parent will have had in its +whole organization much general resemblance to the tapir and the horse; +but in some points of structure it may have differed considerably from +both, even perhaps more than they differ from each other. Hence in all +such cases we should be unable to recognize the parent form of any two +or more species, even if we closely compared the structure of the parent +with that of its modified descendants, unless at the same time we had a +nearly perfect chain of the intermediate links. + + . . . . . . + +"By the theory of natural selection [surely this is a slip for "by the +theory of descent with modification"] all living species have been +connected with the parent species of each genus, by differences not +greater than we see between the natural and domestic varieties of the +same species at the present day; and their parent species, now generally +extinct, have in their turn been similarly connected with more ancient +forms, and so on backwards, always converging to the common ancestor of +each great class; so that the number of intermediate and transitional +links between all living and extinct species must have been +inconceivably great. But assuredly if this theory [the theory of descent +with modification or that of "natural selection"?] be true, such have +lived upon the earth."[255] + +To return, however, to Lamarck. + +"Though Nature," he continues, "in the course of long time has evolved +all animals and plants in a true scale of progression, the steps of this +scale can be perceived only in the principal groups of living forms; it +cannot be perceived in species nor even in genera. The reason of this +lies in the extreme diversity of the surroundings in which each +different race of animals and plants has existed. These surroundings +have often been out of harmony with the growing organization of the +plants and animals themselves; this has led to anomalies, and, as it +were, digressions, which the mere development of organization by itself +could not have occasioned."[256] Or, in other words, to that divergency +of type which is so well insisted on by Mr. Charles Darwin. + +"It is only therefore the principal groups of animal and vegetable life +which can be arranged in a vertical line of descent; species and even +genera cannot always be so--for these contain beings whose organization +has been dependent on the possession of such and such a special system +of essential organs. + +"Each great and separate group has its own system of essential organs, +and it is these systems which can be seen to descend, within the limits +of the group, from their most complex to their simplest form. But each +organ, considered individually, does not descend by equally regular +gradation; the gradations are less and less regular according as the +organ is of less importance, and is more susceptible of modification by +the conditions which surround it. Organs of small importance, and not +essential to existence, are not always either perfected or degraded at +an equal rate, so that in observing all the species of any class we find +an organ in one species in the highest degree of perfection, while +another organ, which in this same species is impoverished or very +imperfect, is highly developed in another species of the same +group."[257] + +The facts maintained in the preceding paragraph are in great measure +supported by Mr. Charles Darwin, who, however, assigns their cause to +natural selection. + +Mr. Darwin writes, "Ordinary specific characters are more variable than +generic;" and again, a little lower down, "The points in which all the +species of a genus resemble each other, and in which they differ from +allied genera, are called generic characters; and these characters may +be attributed to inheritance from a common progenitor, for it can rarely +happen that natural selection will have modified several distinct +species fitted to more or less widely different habits, in exactly the +same manner; and as these so called generic characters have been +inherited from before the period when the several species first branched +off from their common progenitor, and subsequently have not varied or +come to differ in any degree, or only in a slight degree, it is not +probable that they should vary at the present day. On the other hand, +the points in which species differ from other species of the same genus +are called specific characters; and as these specific characters have +varied and come to differ since the period when the species branched off +from a common progenitor, it is probable that they should still often be +in some degree variable, or at least more variable than those parts of +the organization which have for a very long time remained +constant."[258] + +The fact, then, that it is specific characters which vary most is agreed +upon by both Lamarck and Mr. Darwin. Lamarck, however, maintains that it +is these specific characters which are most capable of being affected by +the habits of the creature, and that it is for this reason they will be +most variable, while Mr. Darwin simply says they _are_ most variable, +and that, this being so, the favourable variations will be preserved and +accumulated--an assertion which Lamarck would certainly not demur to. + +"Irregular degrees of perfection," says Lamarck, "and degradation in the +less essential organs, are due to the fact that these are more liable +than the more essential ones to the influence of external circumstances: +these induce corresponding differences in the more outward parts of the +animal, and give rise to such considerable and singular difference in +species, that instead of being able to arrange them in a direct line of +descent, as we can arrange the main groups, these species often form +lateral ramifications round about the main groups to which they belong, +and in their extreme development are truly isolated."[259] + +In his summary of the second chapter of his 'Origin of Species,' Mr. +Darwin well confirms this when he says, "In large genera the species are +apt to be closely, but unequally, allied together, forming little +clusters round other species." + +"A longer time," says Lamarck, "and a greater influence of surrounding +conditions, is necessary in order to modify interior organs. +Nevertheless we see that Nature does pass from one system to another +without any sudden leap, when circumstances require it, provided the +systems are not too far apart. Her method is to proceed from the more +simple to the more complex.[260] + +"She does this not only in the race, but in the individual." Here +Lamarck, like Dr. Erasmus Darwin, shows his perception of the importance +of embryology in throwing light on the affinities of animals--as since +more fully insisted on by the author of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and +by Mr. Darwin,[261] as well as by other writers. "Breathing through +gills is nearer to breathing through lungs than breathing through +trachea is. Not only do we see Nature pass from gills to lungs in +families which are not too far apart, as may be seen by considering the +case of fishes and reptiles; but she does so during the existence of a +single individual, which may successively make use both of the one and +of the other system. The frog while yet a tadpole breathes through +gills; on becoming a frog it breathes through lungs; but we cannot find +that Nature in any case passes from trachea to lungs."[262] + +Lamarck now rapidly reviews previous classifications, and propounds his +own, which stands thus:--I. Vertebrata, consisting of Mammals, Birds, +Fishes, and Reptiles. II. Invertebrata, consisting of Molluscs, +Centipedes, Annelids, Crustacea, Arachnids, Insects, Worms, Radiata, +Polyps, Infusoria. + +"The degradation of organism," he concludes, "in this descending scale +is not perfectly even, and cannot be made so by any classification, +nevertheless there is such evidence of sustained degradation in the +principal groups as must point in the direction of some underlying +general principle."[263] + +Lamarck's sixth chapter is headed "Degradation and Simplification of the +Animal Chain as we proceed downwards from the most complex to the most +simple Organisms." + +"This is a positive fact, and results from the operation of a constant +law of nature; but a disturbing cause, which can be easily recognized, +varies the regular operation of the law from one end to the other of the +chain of life.[264] + +"We can see, nevertheless, that special organs become more and more +simple the lower we descend; that they become changed, impoverished, and +attenuated little by little; that they lose their local centres, and +finally become definitely annihilated before we reach the lowest +extremity of the chain.[265] + +"As has been said already, the degradation of organism is not always +regular; such and such an organ often fails or changes suddenly, and +sometimes in its changes assumes forms which are not allied with any +others by steps that we can recognize. An organ may disappear and +reappear several times before being entirely lost: but this is what we +might expect, for the cause which has led to the evolution of living +organisms has evolved many varieties, due to external influences. +Nevertheless, looking at organization broadly, we observe a descending +scale."[266] + +"If the tendency to progressive development was the only cause which had +influenced the forms and organs of animals, development would have been +regular throughout the animal chain; but it has not been so: Nature is +compelled to submit her productions to an environment which acts upon +them, and variation in environment will induce variation in organism: +this is the true cause of the sometimes strange deviations from the +direct line of progression which we shall have to observe.[267] + +"If Nature had only called aquatic beings into existence, and if these +beings had lived always in the same climate, in the same kind of water, +and at the same depth, the organization of these animals would doubtless +have presented an even and regular scale of development. But there has +been fresh water, salt water, running and stagnant water, warm and cold +climates, an infinite variety of depth: animals exposed to these and +other differences in their surroundings have varied in accordance with +them.[268] In like manner those animals which have been gradually fitted +for living in air instead of water have been subjected to an endless +diversity in their surroundings. The following law, then, may be now +propounded, namely:-- + +"_That anomalies in the development of organism are due to the +influences of the environment and to the habits of the creature._[269] + +"Some have said that the anomalies above mentioned are so great +as to disprove the existence of any scale which should indicate +descent; but the nearer we approach species, the smaller we see +differences become, till with species itself we find them at times +almost imperceptible."[270] + +Lamarck here devotes about seventy pages to a survey of the animal +kingdom in its entirety, beginning with the mammals and ending with the +infusoria. He points out the manner in which organ after organ +disappears as we descend the scale, till we are left with a form which, +though presenting all the characteristics of life, has yet no special +organ whatever. I am obliged to pass this classification over, but do so +very unwillingly, for it is illustrative of Lamarck, both at his best +and at his worst. + +The seventh chapter is headed-- + +"On the influence of their surroundings on the actions and habits of +animals, and on the effect of these habits and actions in modifying +their organization." + +"The effect of different conditions of our organization upon our +character, tendencies, actions, and even our ideas, has been often +remarked, but no attention has yet been paid to that of our actions and +habits upon our organization itself. These actions and habits depend +entirely upon our relations to the surroundings in which we habitually +exist; we shall have occasion, therefore, to see how great is the effect +of environment upon organization. + +"But for our having domesticated plants and animals we should never have +arrived at the perception of this truth; for though the influence of the +environment is at all times and everywhere active upon all living +bodies, its effects are so gradual that they can only be perceived over +long periods of time.[271] + +"Taking the chain of life in the inverse order of nature--that is to +say, from man downwards--we certainly perceive a sustained but irregular +degradation of organism, with an increasing simplicity both in organism +and faculties. + +"This fact should throw light upon the order taken by nature, but it +does not show us why the gradation is so irregular, nor why throughout +its extent we find so many anomalies or digressions which have +apparently no order at all in their manifold varieties.[272] The +explanation of this must be sought for in the infinite diversity of +circumstances under which organisms have been developed. On the one +hand, there is a tendency to a regular progressive development; on the +other, there is a host of widely different surroundings which tend +continually to destroy the regularity of development. + +"It is necessary to explain what is meant by such expressions as 'the +effect of its environment upon the form and organization of an animal.' +It must not be supposed that its surroundings directly effect any +modification whatever in the form and organization of an animal.[273] +Great changes in surroundings involve great changes in the wants of +animals, and these changes in their wants involve corresponding changes +in their actions. If these new wants become permanent, or of very long +duration, the animals contract new habits, which last as long as the +wants which gave rise to them.[274] A great change in surroundings, if +it persist for a long time, must plainly, therefore, involve the +contraction of new habits. These new habits in their turn involve a +preference for the employment of such and such an organ over such and +such another organ, and in certain cases the total disuse of an organ +which is no longer wanted. This is perfectly self-evident.[275] + +"On the one hand, new wants have rendered a part necessary, which part +has accordingly been created by a succession of efforts: use has kept it +in existence, gradually strengthening and developing it till in the end +it attains a considerable degree of perfection. On the other, new +circumstances having in some cases rendered such or such a part useless, +disuse has led to its gradually ceasing to receive the development which +the other parts attain to; on this it becomes reduced, and in time +disappears.[276] + +"Plants have neither actions nor habits properly so called, nevertheless +they change in a changed environment as much as animals do. This is due +to changes in nutrition, absorption and transpiration, to degrees of +heat, light, and moisture, and to the preponderance over others which +certain of the vital functions attain to." + +Lamarck is led into the statement that plants have neither actions nor +habits, by his theories about the nervous system and the brain. Plain +matter-of-fact people will prefer the view taken by Buffon, Dr. Darwin, +and, more recently, by Mr. Francis Darwin, that there is no radical +difference between plants and animals. + +"The differences between well-nourished and ill-nourished plants become +little by little very noticeable. If individuals, whether animal or +vegetable, are continually ill-fed and exposed to hardships for several +generations, their organization becomes eventually modified, and the +modification is transmitted until a race is formed which is quite +distinct from those descendants of the common parent stock which have +been placed in favourable circumstances.[277] In a dry spring the meagre +and stunted herbage seeds early. When, on the other hand, the spring is +warm but with occasional days of rain, there is an excellent hay-crop. +If, however, any cause perpetuates unfavourable circumstances, plants +will vary correspondingly, first in appearance and general conditions, +and then in several particulars of their actual character, certain +organs having received more development than others, these differences +will in the course of time become hereditary.[278] + +"Nature changes a plant or animal's surroundings gradually--man +sometimes does so suddenly. All botanists know that plants vary so +greatly under domestication that in time they become hardly +recognizable. They undergo so much change that botanists do not at all +like describing domesticated varieties. Wheat itself is an example. +Where can wheat be found as a wild plant, unless it have escaped from +some neighbouring cultivation? Where are our cauliflowers, our lettuces, +to be found wild, with the same characters as they possess in our +kitchen gardens? + +"The same applies to our domesticated breeds of animals. What a variety +of breeds has not man produced among fowls and pigeons, of which we can +find no undomesticated examples!"[279] + +The foregoing remarks on the effects of domestication seem to have been +inspired by those given p. 123 and pp. 168, 169 of this volume.[280] + +"Some, doubtless, have changed less than others, owing to their having +undergone a less protracted domestication, and a less degree of change +in climate; nevertheless, though our ducks and geese, for example, are +of the same type as their wild progenitors, they have lost the power of +long and sustained flight, and have become in other respects +considerably modified.[281] + +"A bird, after having been kept five or six years in a cage, cannot on +being liberated fly like its brethren which have been always free. Such +a change in a single lifetime has not effected any transmissible +modification of type; but captivity, continued during many successive +generations, would undoubtedly do so. If to the effects of captivity +there be added also those of changed climate, changed food, and changed +actions for the purpose of laying hold of food, these, united together +and become constant, would in the course of time develop an entirely new +breed." + +This, again, is almost identical with the passage from Buffon,[282] p. +148 of this volume. See also pp. 169, 170. + +"Where can our many domestic breeds of dogs be found in a wild state? +Where are our bulldogs, greyhounds, spaniels, and lapdogs, breeds +presenting differences which, in wild animals, would be certainly called +specific? These are all descended from an animal nearly allied to the +wolf, if not from the wolf itself. Such an animal was domesticated by +early man, taken at successive intervals into widely different climates, +trained to different habits, carried by man in his migrations as a +precious capital into the most distant countries, and crossed from time +to time with other breeds which had been developed in similar ways. +Hence our present multiform breeds."[283] + +Here, also, it is impossible to forget Buffon's passages on the dog, +given pp. 121, 122. See also p. 223. + +"Observe the gradations which are found between the _ranunculus +aquatilis_ and the _ranunculus hederaceus_: the latter--a land +plant--resembles those parts of the former which grow above the surface +of the water, but not those that grow beneath it.[284] + +"The modifications of animals arise more slowly than those of plants; +they are therefore less easily watched, and less easily assignable to +their true causes, but they arise none the less surely. As regards these +causes, the most potent is diversity of the surroundings in which they +exist, but there are also many others.[285] + +"The climate of the same place changes, and the place itself changes +with changed climate and exposure, but so slowly that we imagine all +lands to be stable in their conditions. This, however, is not true; +climatic and other changes induce corresponding changes in environment +and habit, and these modify the structure of the living forms which are +subjected to them. Indeed, we see intermediate forms and species +corresponding to intermediate conditions. + +"To the above causes must be ascribed the infinite variety of existing +forms, independently of any tendency towards progressive +development."[286] + +The reader has now before him a fair sample of "the well-known doctrine +of inherited habit as advanced by Lamarck."[287] In what way, let me ask +in passing, does "the case of neuter insects" prove "demonstrative" +against it, unless it is held equally demonstrative against Mr. Darwin's +own position? Lamarck continues:-- + +"The character of any habitable quarter of the globe is _qua_ man +constant: the constancy of type in species is therefore also _qua_ man +persistent. But this is an illusion. We establish, therefore, the three +following propositions:-- + +"1. That every considerable and sustained change in the surroundings of +any animal involves a real change in its needs. + +"2. That such change of needs involves the necessity of changed action +in order to satisfy these needs, and, in consequence, of new +habits.[288] + +"3. It follows that such and such parts, formerly less used, are now +more frequently employed, and in consequence become more highly +developed; new parts also become insensibly evolved in the creature by +its own efforts from within. + +"From the foregoing these two general laws may be deduced:-- + +"_Firstly. That in every animal which has not passed its limit of +development, the more frequent and sustained employment of any organ +develops and aggrandizes it, giving it a power proportionate to the +duration of its employment, while the same organ in default of constant +use becomes insensibly weakened and deteriorated, decreasing +imperceptibly in power until it finally disappears._[289] + +"_Secondly. That these gains or losses of organic development, due to +use or disuse, are transmitted to offspring, provided they have been +common to both sexes, or to the animals from which the offspring have +descended._"[290] + +Lamarck now sets himself to establish the fact that animals have +developed modifications which have been transmitted to their offspring. + +"Naturalists," he says, "have believed that the possession of certain +organs has led to their employment. This is not so: it is need and use +which have developed the organs, and even called them into existence." +[I have already sufficiently insisted that it is impossible to dispense +with either of these two views. Demand and Supply have gone hand in +hand, each reacting upon the other.] "Otherwise a special act of +creation would be necessary for every different combination of +conditions; and it would be also necessary that the conditions should +remain always constant. + +"If this were really so we should have no racehorses like those of +England, nor drayhorses so heavy in build and so unlike the racehorse; +for there are no such breeds in a wild state. For the same reason, we +should have no turnspit dogs with crooked legs, no greyhounds nor +water-spaniels; we should have no tailless breed of fowls nor fantail +pigeons, &c. Nor should we be able to cultivate wild plants in our +gardens, for any length of time we please, without fear of their +changing. + +"'Habit,' says the proverb, 'is a second nature'; what possible meaning +can this proverb have, if descent with modification is unfounded?[291] + +"As regards the circumstances which give rise to variation, the +principal are climatic changes, different temperatures of any of a +creature's environments, differences of abode, of habit, of the most +frequent actions; and lastly, of the means of obtaining food, +self-defence, reproduction, &c., &c."[292] + +Here we have absolute agreement with Dr. Erasmus Darwin,[293] except +that there seems a tendency in this passage to assign more effect to the +direct action of conditions than is common with Lamarck. He seems to be +mixing Buffon and Dr. Darwin. + +"In consequence of change in any of these respects, the faculties of an +animal become extended and enlarged by use: they become diversified +through the long continuance of the new habits, until little by little +their whole structure and nature, as well as the organs originally +affected, participate in the effects of all these influences, and are +modified to an extent which is capable of transmission to +offspring."[294] + +This sentence alone would be sufficient to show that Lamarck was as much +alive as Buffon and Dr. Darwin were before him, to the fact that one of +the most important conditions of an animal's life, is the relation in +which it stands to the other inhabitants of the same neighbourhood--from +which the survival of the fittest follows as a self-evident proposition. +Nothing, therefore, can be more unfounded than the attempt, so +frequently made by writers who have not read Lamarck, or who think +others may be trusted not to do so, to represent him as maintaining +something perfectly different from what is maintained by modern writers +on evolution. The difference, in so far as there is any difference, is +one of detail only. Lamarck would not have hesitated to admit, that, if +animals are modified in a direction which is favourable to them, they +will have a better chance of surviving and transmitting their +favourable modifications. In like manner, our modern evolutionists +should allow that animals are modified not because they subsequently +survive, but because they have done this or that which has led to their +modification, and hence to their surviving. + +Having established that animals and plants are capable of being +materially changed in the course of a few generations, Lamarck proceeds +to show that their modification is due to changed distribution of the +use and disuse of their organs at any given time. + +"_The disuse of an organ_," he writes, "_if it becomes constant in +consequence of new habits, gradually reduces the organ, and leads +finally to its disappearance_."[295] + +"Thus whales have lost their teeth, though teeth are still found in the +embryo. So, again, M. Geoffroy has discovered in birds the groove where +teeth were formerly placed. The ant-eater, which belongs to a genus that +has long relinquished the habit of masticating its food, is as toothless +as the whale."[296] + +Then are adduced further examples of rudimentary organs, which will be +given in another place, and need not be repeated here. Speaking of the +fact, however, that serpents have no legs, though they are higher in the +scale of life than the batrachians, Lamarck attributes this "to the +continued habit of trying to squeeze through very narrow places, where +four feet would be in the way, and would be very little good to them, +inasmuch as more than four would be wanted in order to turn bodies that +were already so much elongated."[297] + +If it be asked why, on Lamarck's theory, if serpents wanted more legs +they could not have made them, the answer is that the attempt to do this +would be to unsettle a question which had been already so long settled, +that it would be impossible to reopen it. The animal must adapt itself +to four legs, or must get rid of all or some of them if it does not like +them; but it has stood so long committed to the theory that if there are +to be legs at all, there are to be not more than four, that it is +impossible for it now to see this matter in any other light. + +The experiments of M. Brown Sequard on guinea pigs, quoted by Mr. +Darwin,[298] suggest that the form of the serpent may be due to its +having lost its legs by successive accidents in squeezing through narrow +places, and that the wounds having been followed by disease, the +creature may have bitten the limbs off, in which case the loss might +have been very readily transmitted to offspring; the animal would +accordingly take to a sinuous mode of progression that would doubtless +in time elongate the body still further. M. Brown Sequard "carefully +recorded" thirteen cases, and saw even a greater number, in which the +loss of toes by guinea pigs which had gnawed their own toes off, was +immediately transmitted to offspring. Accidents followed by disease seem +to have been somewhat overlooked as a possible means of modification. +The missing forefinger to the hand of the potto[299] would appear at +first sight to have been lost by some such mishap. Returning to Lamarck, +we find him saying:-- + +"Even in the lifetime of a single individual we can see organic changes +in consequence of changed habits. Thus M. Tenon has constantly found the +intestinal canal of drunkards to be greatly shorter than that of people +who do not drink. This is due to the fact that habitual drunkards eat +but little solid food, so that the stomach and intestines are more +rarely distended. The same applies to people who lead studious and +sedentary lives. The stomachs of such persons and of drunkards have +little power, and a small quantity will fill them, while those of men +who take plenty of exercise remain in full vigour and are even +increased."[300] + +It becomes now necessary to establish the converse proposition, namely +that:-- + +"_The frequent use of an organ increases its power; it even develops the +organ itself, and makes it acquire dimensions and powers which it is not +found to have in animals which make no use of such an organ._ + +"In support of this we see that the bird whose needs lead it to the +water, in which to find its prey, extends the toes of its feet when it +wants to strike the water, and move itself upon the surface. The skin at +the base of the toes of such a bird contracts the habit of extending +itself from continual practice. To this cause, in the course of time, +must be attributed the wide membrane which unites the toes of ducks, +geese, &c. The same efforts to swim, that is to say, to push the water +for the purpose of moving itself forward, has extended the membrane +between the toes of frogs, turtles, the otter, and the beaver."[301] + +[This is taken, I believe, from Dr. Darwin or Buffon, but I have lost +the passage, if, indeed, I ever found it. It had been met by Paley some +years earlier (1802) in the following:-- + +"There is nothing in the action of swimming as carried on by a bird upon +the surface of the water that should generate a membrane between the +toes. As to that membrane it is an action of constant resistance.... The +web feet of amphibious quadrupeds, seals, otters, &c., fall under the +same observation."[302]] + +"On the other hand those birds whose habits lead them to perch on trees, +and which have sprung from parents that have long contracted this habit, +have their toes shaped in a perfectly different manner. Their claws +become lengthened, sharpened, and curved, so as to enable the creature +to lay hold of the boughs on which it so often rests. The shore bird +again, which does not like to swim, is nevertheless continually obliged +to enter the water when searching after its prey. Not liking to plunge +its body in the water, it makes every endeavour to extend and lengthen +its lower limbs. In the course of long time these birds have come to be +elevated, as it were, on stilts, and have got long legs bare of feathers +as far as their thighs, and often still higher. The same bird is +continually trying to extend its neck in order to fish without wetting +its body, and in the course of time its neck has become modified +accordingly.[303] + +"Swans, indeed, and geese have short legs and very long necks, but this +is because they plunge their heads as low in the water as they can in +their search for aquatic larvae and other animalcules, but make no effort +to lengthen their legs."[304] + +This too is taken from some passage which I have either never seen or +have lost sight of. Paley never gives a reference to an opponent, though +he frequently does so when quoting an author on his own side, but I can +hardly doubt that he had in his mind the passage from which Lamarck in +1809 derived the foregoing, when in 1802 he wrote Sec. 5 of chapter xv. and +the latter half of chapter xxiii. of his 'Natural Theology.' + +"The tongues of the ant-eater and the woodpecker," continues Lamarck, +"have become elongated from similar causes. Humming birds catch hold of +things with their tongues; serpents and lizards use their tongues to +touch and reconnoitre objects in front of them, hence their tongues have +come to be forked. + +"Need--always occasioned by the circumstances in which an animal is +placed, and followed by sustained efforts at gratification--can not only +modify an organ, that is to say, augment or reduce it, but can change +its position when the case requires its removal.[305] + +"Ocean fishes have occasion to see what is on either side of them, and +have their eyes accordingly placed on either side their head. Some +fishes, however, have their abode near coasts on submarine banks and +inclinations, and are thus forced to flatten themselves as much as +possible in order to get as near as they can to the shore. In this +situation they receive more light from above than from below, and find +it necessary to pay attention to whatever happens to be above them; this +need has involved the displacement of their eyes, which now take the +remarkable position which we observe in the case of soles, turbots, +plaice, &c. The transfer of position is not even yet complete in the +case of these fishes, and the eyes are not, therefore, symmetrically +placed; but they are so with the skate, whose head and whole body are +equally disposed on either side a longitudinal section. Hence the eyes +of this fish are placed symmetrically upon the uppermost side.[306] + +"The eyes of serpents are placed on the sides and upper portions of the +head, so that they can easily see what is on one side of them or above +them; but they can only see very little in front of them, and supplement +this deficiency of power with their tongue, which is very long and +supple, and is in many kinds so divided that it can touch more than one +object at a time; the habit of reconnoitring objects in front of them +with their tongues has even led to their being able to pass it through +the end of their nostrils without being obliged to open their jaws.[307] + +"Herbivorous mammals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, ox, buffalo, +horse, &c., owe their great size to their habit of daily distending +themselves with food and taking comparatively little exercise. They +employ their feet for standing, walking, or running, but not for +climbing trees. Hence the thick horn which covers their toes. These toes +have become useless to them, and are now in many cases rudimentary only. +Some pachyderms have five toes covered with horn; some four, some +three. The ruminants, which appear to be the earliest mammals that +confined themselves to a life upon the ground, have but two hooves, +while the horse has only one.[308] + +"Some herbivorous animals, especially among the ruminants, have been +incessantly preyed upon by carnivorous animals, against which their only +refuge is in flight. Necessity has therefore developed the light and +active limbs of antelopes, gazelles, &c. Ruminants, only using their +jaws to graze with, have but little power in them, and therefore +generally fight with their heads. The males fight frequently with one +another, and their desires prompt an access of fluids to the parts of +their heads with which they fight; thus the horns and bosses have arisen +with which the heads of most of these animals are armed.[309] The +giraffe owes its long neck to its continued habit of browsing upon +trees, whence also the great length of its fore legs as compared with +its hinder ones. Carnivorous animals, in like manner, have had their +organs modified in correlation with their desires and habits. Some +climb, some scratch in order to burrow in the earth, some tear their +prey; they therefore have need of toes, and we find their toes separated +and armed with claws. Some of them are great hunters, and also plunge +their claws deeply into the bodies of their victims, trying to tear out +the part on which they have seized; this habit has developed a size and +curvature of claw which would impede them greatly in travelling over +stony ground; they have therefore been obliged to make efforts to draw +back their too projecting claws, and so, little by little, has arisen +the peculiar sheath into which cats, tigers, lions, &c., withdraw their +claws when they no longer wish to use them.[310] + +"We see then that the long-sustained and habitual exercise of any part +of a living organism, in consequence of the necessities engendered by +its environment, develops such part, and gives it a form which it would +never have attained if the exercise had not become an habitual action. +All known animals furnish us with examples of this.[311] If anyone +maintains that the especially powerful development of any organ has had +nothing to do with its habitual use--that use has added nothing, and +disuse detracted nothing from its efficiency, but that the organ has +always been as we now see it from the creation of the particular species +onwards--I would ask why cannot our domesticated ducks fly like wild +ducks? I would also quote a multitude of examples of the effects of use +and disuse upon our own organs, effects which, if the use and disuse +were constant for many generations, would become much more marked. + +"A great number of facts show, as will be more fully insisted on, that +when its will prompts an animal to this or that action, the organs which +are to execute it receive an excess of nervous fluid, and this is the +determinant cause of the movements necessary for the required action. +Modifications acquired in this way eventually become permanent in the +breed that has acquired them, and are transmitted to offspring, without +the offspring's having itself gone through the processes of acquisition +which were necessary in the case of the ancestor.[312] Frequent crosses, +however, with unmodified individuals, destroy the effect produced. It is +only owing to the isolation of the races of man through geographical and +other causes, that man himself presents so many varieties, each with a +distinctive character. + +"A review of all existing classes, orders, genera, and species would +show that their structure, organs, and faculties, are in all cases +solely attributable to the surroundings to which each creature has been +subjected by nature, and to the habits which individuals have been +compelled to contract; and that they are not at all the result of a form +originally bestowed, which has imposed certain habits upon the +creature.[313] + +"It is unnecessary to multiply instances; the fact is simply this, that +all animals have certain habits, and that their organization is always +in perfect harmony with these habits.[314] The conclusion hitherto +accepted is that the Author of Nature, when he created animals, foresaw +all the possible circumstances in which they would be placed, and gave +an unchanging organism to each creature, in accordance with its future +destiny. The conclusion, on the other hand, here maintained is that +nature has evolved all existing forms of life successively, beginning +with the simplest organisms and gradually proceeding to those which are +more complete. Forms of life have spread themselves throughout all the +habitable parts of the earth, and each species has received its habits +and corresponding modification of organs, from the influence of the +surroundings in which it found itself placed.[315] + +"The first conclusion supposes an unvarying organism and unvarying +conditions. The second, which is my theory (_la mienne propre_), +supposes that each animal is capable of modifications which in the +course of generations amount to a wide divergence of type. + +"If a single animal can be shown to have varied considerably under +domestication, the first conclusion is proved to be inadmissible, and +the second to be in conformity with the laws of nature." + +This is a milder version of Buffon's conclusion (see _ante_, pp. 90, +91). It is a little grating to read the words "la mienne propre," +and to recall no mention of Buffon in the 'Philosophie Zoologique.' + +"Animal forms then are the result of conditions of life and of the +habits engendered thereby. With new forms new faculties are developed, +and thus nature has little by little evolved the existing +differentiations of animal and vegetable life."[316] + +Lamarck makes no exception in man's favour to the rule of descent with +modification. He supposes that a race of quadrumanous apes gradually +acquired the upright position in walking, with a corresponding +modification of the feet and facial angle. Such a race having become +master of all the other animals, spread itself over all parts of the +world that suited it. It hunted out the other higher races which were in +a condition to dispute with it for enjoyment of the world's +productions, and drove them to take refuge in such places as it did not +desire to occupy. It checked the increase of the races nearest itself, +and kept them exiled in woods and desert places, so that their further +development was arrested, while itself, able to spread in all +directions, to multiply without opposition, and to lead a social life, +it developed new requirements one after another, which urged it to +industrial pursuits, and gradually perfected its capabilities. +Eventually this pre-eminent race, having acquired absolute supremacy, +came to be widely different from even the most perfect of the lower +animals. + +"Certain apes approach man more nearly than any other animal approaches +him; nevertheless, they are far inferior to him, both in bodily and +mental capacity. Some of them frequently stand upright, but as they do +not habitually maintain this attitude, their organization has not been +sufficiently modified to prevent it from being irksome to them to stand +for long together. They fall on all fours immediately at the approach of +danger. This reveals their true origin.[317] + +"But is the upright position altogether natural, even to man? He uses it +in moving from place to place, but still standing is a fatiguing +position, and one which can only be maintained for a limited time, and +by the aid of muscular contraction. The vertebrate column does not pass +through the axis of the head so as to maintain it in like equilibrium +with other limbs. The head, chest, stomach, and intestines weigh almost +entirely on the anterior part of the vertebrate column, and this column +itself is placed obliquely, so that, as M. Richerand has observed, +continual watchfulness and muscular exertion are necessary to avoid the +falls towards which the weight and disposition of our parts are +continually inclining us. 'Children,' he remarks, 'have a constant +tendency to assume the position of quadrupeds.'"[318] + +"Surely these facts should reveal man's origin as analogous to that of +the other mammals, if his organization only be looked to. But the +following consideration must be added. New wants, developed in societies +which had become numerous, must have correspondingly multiplied the +ideas of this dominant race, whose individuals must have therefore +gradually felt the need of fuller communication with each other. Hence +the necessity for increasing and varying the number of the signs +suitable for mutual understanding. It is plain therefore that incessant +efforts would be made in this direction.[319] + +"The lower animals, though often social, have been kept in too great +subjection for any such development of power. They continue, therefore, +stationary as regards their wants and ideas, very few of which need be +communicated from one individual to another. A few movements of the +body, a few simple cries and whistles, or inflexions of voice, would +suffice for their purpose. With the dominant race, on the other hand, +the continued multiplication of ideas which it was desirable to +communicate rapidly, would exhaust the power of pantomimic gesture and +of all possible inflexions of the voice--therefore by a succession of +efforts this race arrived at the utterance of articulate sounds. A few +only would be at first made use of, and these would be supplemented by +inflexions of the voice: presently they would increase in number, +variety, and appropriateness, with the increase of needs and of the +efforts made to speak. Habitual exercise would increase the power of the +lips and tongue to articulate distinctly. + +"The diversity of language is due to geographical distribution, with +consequent greater or less isolation of certain races, and corruption of +the signs originally agreed upon for each idea. Man's own wants, +therefore, will have achieved the whole result. They will have given +rise to endeavour, and habitual use will have developed the organs of +articulation."[320] + +How, let me ask again, is "the case of neuter insects" "demonstrative" +against the "well-known" theory put forward in the foregoing chapter? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[208] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i., edited by M. Martins, 1873, pp. 25, 26. + +[209] 'Phil. Zool.' tom. i. pp. 26, 27. + +[210] Page 28. + +[211] Pages 28-31. + +[212] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 34, 35. + +[213] Page 42. + +[214] Page 46. + +[215] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 50. + +[216] Pages 50, 51. + +[217] 'Origin of Species,' p. 395, ed. 1876. + +[218] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 61. + +[219] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 62. + +[220] Page 63. + +[221] Page 64. + +[222] Page 65. + +[223] Page 67. + +[224] Chap. iii. + +[225] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 72. + +[226] Pages 71-73. + +[227] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 74, 75. + +[228] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 75-77. + +[229] 'Origin of Species,' p. 104, ed. 1876. + +[230] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 79. + +[231] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 79, 80. + +[232] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 80. + +[233] Page 80. + +[234] Ed. 1876. + +[235] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 81. + +[236] 'Origin of Species,' p. 241. + +[237] 'Phil. Zool.,' p. 82. + +[238] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 83. + +[239] Pages 349-351. + +[240] Page 84. + +[241] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 88. + +[242] Page 90. + +[243] 'Origin of Species,' p. 3. + +[244] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 94. + +[245] Pages 95-96. + +[246] Page 97. + +[247] Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 98. + +[248] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 111. + +[249] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 112. + +[250] See pp. 227 and 259 of this book. + +[251] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 113. + +[252] Page 113. + +[253] 'Phil Zool.,' tom. i. p. 113. + +[254] This passage is rather obscure. I give it therefore in the +original:-- + +"Ainsi les naturalistes ayant remarque que beaucoup d'especes, certains +genres, et meme quelques familles paraissent dans une sorte d'isolement, +quant a leurs caracteres, plusieurs se sont imagines que les etres +vivants, dans l'un ou l'autre regne, s'avoisinaient, ou s'eloignaient +entre eux, relativement a leurs _rapports naturels_, dans une +disposition semblable aux differents points d'une carte de geographie ou +d'une mappemonde. Ils regardent les petites series bien prononcees qu'on +a nommees familles naturelles, comme devant etre disposees entre elles +de maniere a former une reticulation. Cette idee qui a paru sublime a +quelques modernes, est evidemment une erreur, et, sans doute, elle se +dissipera des qu'on aura des connaissances plus profondes et plus +generales de l'organisation, et surtout lorsqu'on distinguera ce qui +appartient a l'influence des lieux d'habitation et des habitudes +contractees, de ce qui resulte des progres plus ou moins avances dans la +composition ou le perfectionnement de l'organisation."--(p. 120). + +[255] 'Origin of Species,' pp. 265, 266. + +[256] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 121. + +[257] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 122. + +[258] 'Origin of Species,' pp. 122, 123. + +[259] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123. + +[260] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123. + +[261] 'Origin of Species,' chap. xiv. + +[262] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123. + +[263] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 140. + +[264] Page 142. + +[265] Page 143. + +[266] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 143. + +[267] Page 144. + +[268] Ibid. + +[269] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 145. + +[270] Page 146. + +[271] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 221. + +[272] Page 222. + +[273] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 223. + +[274] Page 224. + +[275] Page 223. + +[276] Page 225. + +[277] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 225. + +[278] Page 226. + +[279] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 228. + +[280] See Buffon, 'Hist. Nat.,' tom. v. pp. 196, 197, and Supp. tom. v. +pp. 250-253. + +[281] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 229. + +[282] 'Hist. Nat.,' tom. xi. p. 290. + +[283] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 231. + +[284] Page 231. See Dr. Darwin's note on _Trapa natans_, 'Botanic +Garden,' part ii. canto 4, l. 204. + +[285] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 232. + +[286] Page 233. See Buffon on Climate, tom. ix., 'The Animals of the Old +and New Worlds.' + +[287] 'Origin of Species,' p. 233, ed. 1876. + +[288] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p 234. + +[289] Page 235. + +[290] Page 236. + +[291] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 237. + +[292] Page 238. + +[293] See _ante_, pp. 220-228. + +[294] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 239. + +[295] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p 240. + +[296] Page 241. + +[297] Page 245. + +[298] 'Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. p. 467, &c. + +[299] See frontispiece to Professor Mivart's 'Genesis of Species.' + +[300] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 247. + +[301] Page 248. + +[302] 'Nat. Theol.,' vol. xii., end of Sec. viii. + +[303] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 249. + +[304] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 250. + +[305] Page 250. + +[306] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 251. + +[307] Page 252. + +[308] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 253. + +[309] Page 254. + +[310] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 256. + +[311] Page 257. + +[312] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 259. + +[313] Page 260. + +[314] Page 263. + +[315] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 263. + +[316] Page 265. + +[317] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343. + +[318] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343. + +[319] Page 346. + +[320] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 347. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +MR. PATRICK MATTHEW, MM. ETIENNE AND ISIDORE GEOFFROY ST. HILAIRE, AND +MR. HERBERT SPENCER. + + +The same complaint must be made against Mr. Matthew's excellent survey +of the theory of evolution, as against Dr. Erasmus Darwin's original +exposition of the same theory, namely, that it is too short. It may be +very true that brevity is the soul of wit, but the leaders of science +will generally succeed in burking new-born wit, unless the brevity of +its soul is found compatible with a body of some bulk. + +Mr. Darwin writes thus concerning Mr. Matthew in the historical sketch +to which I have already more than once referred. + +"In 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew published his work on 'Naval Timber and +Arboriculture,' in which he gives precisely the same view on the origin +of species as that (presently to be alluded to) propounded by Mr. +Wallace and myself in the 'Linnean Journal,' and as that enlarged in the +present volume. Unfortunately the view was given by Mr. Matthew very +briefly, in scattered passages in an appendix to a work on a different +subject, so that it remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew +attention to it in the 'Gardener's Chronicle' for April 7, 1860. The +differences of Mr. Matthew's view from mine are not of much importance; +he seems to consider that the world was nearly depopulated at successive +periods, and then re-stocked, and he gives as an alternative, that new +forms may be generated 'without the presence of any mould or germ of +former aggregates.' I am not sure that I understand some passages; but +it seems that he attributes much influence to the direct action of the +conditions of life. He clearly saw, however, the full force of the +principle of natural selection."[321] + +Nothing could well be more misleading. If Mr. Matthew's view of the +origin of species is "precisely the same as that" propounded by Mr. +Darwin, it is hard to see how Mr. Darwin can call those of Lamarck and +Dr. Erasmus Darwin "erroneous"; for Mr. Matthew's is nothing but an +excellent and well-digested summary of the conclusions arrived at by +these two writers and by Buffon. If, again, Mr. Darwin is correct in +saying that Mr. Matthew "clearly saw the full force of the principle of +natural selection," he condemns the view he has himself taken of it in +his 'Origin of Species,' for Mr. Darwin has assigned a far more +important and very different effect to the fact that the fittest +commonly survive in the struggle for existence, than Mr. Matthew has +done. Mr. Matthew sees a cause underlying all variations; he takes the +most teleological or purposive view of organism that has been taken by +any writer (not a theologian) except myself, while Mr. Darwin's view, if +not the least teleological, is certainly nearly so, and his confession +of inability to detect any general cause underlying variations, leaves, +as will appear presently, less than common room for ambiguity. Here are +Mr. Matthew's own words:-- + +"There is a law universal in nature, tending to render every +reproductive being the best possibly suited to the condition that its +kind, or that organized matter is susceptible of, and which appears +intended to model the physical and mental or instinctive, powers to +their highest perfection, and to continue them so. This law sustains the +lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the fox in his +wiles. As nature in all her modifications of life has a power of +increase far beyond what is needed to supply the place of what falls by +Time's decay, those individuals who possess not the requisite strength, +swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall prematurely without +reproducing--either a prey to their natural devourers, or sinking under +disease, generally induced by want of nourishment, their place being +occupied by the more perfect of their own kind, who are pressing on the +means of existence. + +"Throughout this volume, we have felt considerable inconvenience from +the adopted dogmatical classification of plants, and have all along been +floundering between species and variety, which certainly under culture +soften into each other. A particular conformity, each after its own +kind, when in a state of nature, termed species, no doubt exists to a +considerable degree. This conformity has existed during the last forty +centuries; geologists discover a like particular conformity--fossil +species--through the deep deposition of each great epoch; but they also +discover an almost complete difference to exist between the species or +stamp of life of one epoch from that of every other. We are therefore +led to admit either a repeated miraculous conception, or _a power of +change under change of circumstances_ to belong to living organized +matter, or rather to the congeries of inferior life which appears to +form superior." (By this I suppose Mr. Matthew to imply his assent to +the theory, that our personality or individuality is but as it were "the +consensus, or full flowing river of a vast number of subordinate +individualities or personalities, each one of which is a living being +with thoughts and wishes of its own.") "The derangements and changes in +organized existence, induced by a change of circumstances from the +interference of man, afford us proof of the plastic quality of superior +life; and the likelihood that circumstances have been very different in +the different epochs, though steady in each, tend strongly to heighten +the probability of the latter theory. + +"When we view the immense calcareous and bituminous formations, +principally from the waters and atmosphere, and consider the oxidations +and depositions which have taken place, either gradually or during some +of the great convulsions, it appears at least probable that the liquid +elements containing life have varied considerably at different times in +composition and weight; that our atmosphere has contained a much greater +proportion of carbonic acid or oxygen; and our waters, aided by excess +of carbonic acid, and greater heat resulting from greater density of +atmosphere, have contained a greater quantity of lime, and other mineral +solutions. Is the inference, then, unphilosophic that living things +which are proved to have _a circumstance-suiting power_ (a very slight +change of circumstance by culture inducing a corresponding change of +character), may have gradually accommodated themselves to the variations +of the elements containing them, and without new creation, have +presented the diverging changeable phenomena of past and present +organized existence? + +"The destructive liquid currents before which the hardest mountains have +been swept and comminuted into gravel, sand, and mud, which intervened +between and divided these epochs, probably extending over the whole +surface of the globe and destroying nearly all living things, must have +reduced existence so much that an unoccupied field would be formed for +new diverging ramifications of life, which from the connected sexual +system of vegetables, and the natural instinct of animals to herd and +combine with their own kind, would fall into specific groups--these +remnants in the course of time moulding and accommodating their being +anew to the change of circumstances, and to every possible means of +subsistence--and the millions of ages of regularity which appear to have +followed between the epochs, probably after this accommodation was +completed, affording fossil deposit of regular specific character. + + . . . . . . + +"In endeavouring to trace ... the principle of these changes of fashion +which have taken place in the domiciles of life the following questions +occur: Do they arise from admixture of species nearly allied producing +intermediate species? Are they the diverging ramifications of the +living principle under modification of circumstance? or have they +resulted from the combined agency of both? + +"_Is there only one living principle? Does organized existence, and +perhaps all material existence, consist of one Proteus principle of +life_ capable of gradual circumstance-suited modifications and +aggregations without bound, under the solvent or motion-giving principle +of heat or light? There is more beauty and unity of design in this +continual balancing of life to circumstance, and greater conformity to +those dispositions of nature that are manifest to us, than in total +destruction and new creation. It is improbable that much of this +diversification is owing to commixture of species nearly allied; all +change by this appears very limited and confined within the bounds of +what is called species; the progeny of the same parents under great +difference of circumstance, might in several generations even become +distinct species, incapable of co-reproduction. + +"The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organized life may, in +part, be traced to the extreme fecundity of nature, who, as before +stated, has in all the varieties of her offspring a prolific power much +beyond (in many cases a thousand fold) what is necessary to fill up the +vacancies caused by senile decay. As the field of existence is limited +and preoccupied, it is only the hardier, more robust, better suited to +circumstance individuals, who are able to struggle forward to maturity, +these inhabiting only the situations to which they have _superior +adaptation and greater power of occupancy than any other kind; the +weaker and less circumstance-suited being prematurely destroyed_. This +principle is in constant action; it regulates the colour, the figure, +the capacities, and instincts; those individuals in each species whose +colour and covering are best suited to concealment or protection from +enemies, or defence from inclemencies and vicissitudes of climate, whose +figure is best accommodated to health, strength, defence, and support; +whose capacities and instincts can best regulate the physical energies +to self-advantage according to circumstances--in such immense waste of +primary and youthful life those only come forward to maturity from the +strict ordeal by which nature tests their adaptation to her standard of +perfection and fitness to continue their kind by reproduction. + +"From the unremitting operation of this law acting in concert with the +tendency which the progeny have to take the more particular qualities of +the parents, together with the connected sexual system in vegetables and +instinctive limitation to its own kind in animals, a considerable +uniformity of figure, colour, and character is induced constituting +species; the breed gradually acquiring the very best possible adaptation +of these to its condition which it is susceptible of, and when +alteration of circumstance occurs, thus changing in character to suit +these, as far as its nature is susceptible of change. + +"This circumstance-adaptive law operating upon the slight but continued +natural disposition to sport in the progeny (seedling variety) _does not +preclude the supposed influence which volition or sensation may have had +over the configuration of the body_. To examine into the disposition to +sport in the progeny, even when there is only one parent as in many +vegetables, and to investigate how much variation is modified by the +mind or nervous sensation of the parents, or of the living thing itself +during its progress to maturity; how far it depends upon external +circumstance, and how far on the will, irritability, and muscular +exertion, is open to examination and experiment. In the first place, we +ought to examine its dependency upon the preceding links of the +particular chain of life, variety being often merely types or +approximations of former parentage; thence the variation of the family +as well as of the individual must be embraced by our experiments. + +"This continuation of family type, not broken by casual particular +aberration, is mental as well as corporeal, and is exemplified in many +of the dispositions or instincts of particular races of men. _These +innate or continuous ideas or habits seem proportionally greater in the +insect tribes, and in those especially of shorter revolution; and +forming an abiding memory, may resolve much of the enigma of instinct, +and the foreknowledge which these tribes have of what is necessary to +completing their round of life, reducing this to knowledge or +impressions and habits acquired by a long experience._ + +"This greater continuity of existence, or rather continuity of +perceptions and impressions in insects, is highly probable; _it is even +difficult in some to ascertain the particular steps when each individual +commences_, under the different phases of egg, larva, pupa, or if much +consciousness of individuality exists. The continuation of reproduction +for several generations by the females alone in some of these tribes, +_tends to the probability of the greater continuity of existence; and +the subdivisions of life by cuttings (even in animal life), at any rate, +must stagger the advocate of individuality_. + +"Among the millions of specific varieties of living things which occupy +the humid portions of the surface of our planet, as far back as can be +traced, there does not appear, with the exception of man, to have been +any particular engrossing race, but a pretty fair balance of power of +occupancy--or rather most wonderful variation of circumstance parallel +to the nature of every species, _as if circumstance and species had +grown up together_. There are, indeed, several races which have +threatened ascendancy in some particular regions; but it is man alone +from whom any general imminent danger to the existence of his brethren +is to be dreaded. + +"As far back as history reaches, man had already had considerable +influence, and had made encroachments upon his fellow denizens, probably +occasioning the destruction of many species, and the production and +continuation of a number of varieties, and even species, which he found +more suited to supply his wants, but which from the infirmity of their +condition--_not having undergone selection by the law of nature_, of +which we have spoken--cannot maintain their ground without culture and +protection. + +"It is only however in the present age that man has begun to reap the +fruits of his tedious education, and has proven how much 'knowledge is +power.' He has now acquired a dominion over the material world, and a +consequent power of increase, so as to render it probable that the whole +surface of the earth may soon be overrun by this engrossing anomaly, to +the annihilation of every wonderful and beautiful variety of animal +existence which does not administer to his wants, principally as +laboratories of preparation to befit cruder elemental matter for +assimilation by his organs. + + . . . . . . + +"The consequences are being now developed of our deplorable ignorance +of, or inattention to, one of the most evident traits of natural +history--that vegetables, as well as animals, are generally liable to an +almost unlimited diversification, regulated by climate, soil, +nourishment, and new commixture of already-formed varieties. In those +with which man is most intimate, and where his agency in throwing them +from their natural locality and disposition has brought out this power +of diversification in stronger shades, it has been forced upon his +notice, as in man himself, in the dog, horse, cow, sheep, poultry,--in +the apple, pear, plum, gooseberry, potato, pea, which sport in infinite +varieties, differing considerably in size, colour, taste, firmness of +texture, period of growth, almost in every recognizable quality. In all +these kinds man is influential in preventing deterioration, by careful +selection of the largest or most valuable as breeders."[322] + + +_Etienne and Isidore Geoffroy._ + +"Both Cuvier and Etienne Geoffroy," says Isidore Geoffroy, "had early +perceived the philosophical importance of a question (evolution) which +must be admitted as--with that of unity of composition--the greatest in +natural history. We find them laying it down in the year 1795 in one of +their joint 'Memoirs' (on the Orangs), in the very plainest terms, in +the following question, 'Must we see,' they inquire, 'what we commonly +call species, as the modified descendants of the same original form?' + +"Both were at that time doubtful. Some years afterwards Cuvier not only +answered this question in the negative, but declared, and pretended to +prove, that the same forms have been perpetuated from the beginning of +things. Lamarck, his antagonist _par excellence_ on this point, +maintained the contrary position with no less distinctness, showing that +living beings are unceasingly variable with change of their +surroundings, and giving with some boldness a zoological genesis in +conformity with this doctrine. + +"Geoffroy St. Hilaire had long pondered over this difficult subject. The +doctrine which in his old age he so firmly defended, does not seem to +have been conceived by him till after he had completed his 'Philosophie +Anatomique,' and except through lectures delivered orally to the museum +and the faculty, it was not published till 1828; nor again in the work +then published do we find his theory in its neatest expression and +fullest development." + +Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire tells us in a note that the work referred +to as first putting his father's views before the public in a printed +form, was a report to the Academy of Sciences on a memoir by M. Roulin; +but that before this report some indications of them are to be found in +a paper on the Gavials, published in 1825. Their best rendering, +however, and fullest development is in several memoirs, published in +succession, between the years 1828 and 1837. + +"This doctrine," he continues, "is diametrically opposed to that of +Cuvier, and is not entirely the same as Lamarck's. Geoffroy St. Hilaire +refutes the one, he restrains and corrects the other. Cuvier, according +to him, sums up against the facts, while Lamarck goes further than they +will bear him out. Essentially however on questions of this nature he is +a follower of Lamarck, and took pleasure on several occasions in +describing himself as the disciple of his illustrious _confrere_."[323] + +I have been unable to detect any substantial difference of opinion +between Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Lamarck, except that the first +maintained that a line must be drawn somewhere--and did not draw +it--while the latter said that no line could be drawn, and therefore +drew none. Mr. Darwin is quite correct in saying that Geoffroy St. +Hilaire "relied chiefly on the conditions of life, or the 'monde +ambiant,' as the cause of change." But this is only Lamarck over again, +for though Lamarck attributes variation directly to change of habits in +the creature, he is almost wearisome in his insistence on the fact that +the habit will not change, unless the conditions of life also do so. +With both writers then it is change in the relative positions of the +exterior circumstances, and of the organism, which results in variation, +and finally in specific modification. + +Here is another sketch of Etienne Geoffroy, also by his son Isidore. + +In 1795, while Lamarck was still a believer in immutability, Etienne +Geoffroy St. Hilaire "had ventured to say that species might well be +'degenerations from a single type,'" but, though he never lost sight of +the question, he waited more than a quarter of a century before passing +from meditation to action. "He at length put forward his opinion in +1825, he returned to it, but still briefly, in 1828 and 1829, and did +not set himself to develop and establish it till the year 1831--the year +following the memorable discussion in the Academy, on the unity of +organic composition."[324] + +"If," says his son, "he began by paying homage to his illustrious +precursor, and by laying it down as a general axiom, that there is no +such thing as fixity in nature, and especially in animated nature, he +follows this adhesion to the general doctrine of variability by a +dissent which goes to the very heart of the matter. And this dissent +becomes deeper and deeper in his later works. Not only is Geoffroy St. +Hilaire at pains to deny the unlimited extension of variability which +is the foundation of the Lamarckian system, but he moreover and +particularly declines to explain those degenerations which he admits as +possible, by changes of action and habit on the part of the creature +varying--Lamarck's favourite hypothesis, which he laboured to +demonstrate without even succeeding in making it appear probable."[325] + +Isidore Geoffroy then declares that his father, "though chronologically +a follower of Lamarck, should be ranked philosophically as having +continued the work of Buffon, to whom all his differences of opinion +with Lamarck serve to bring him nearer."[326] If he had understood +Buffon he would not have said so. + +His conclusions are thus summed up:--"Geoffroy St. Hilaire maintains +that species are variable if the environment varies in character; +differences, then, more or less considerable according to the power of +the modifying causes _may have_ been produced in the course of time, and +the living forms of to-day _may be_ the descendants of more ancient +forms."[327] + +It is not easy to see that much weight should be attached to Geoffroy +St. Hilaire's opinion. He seems to have been a person of hesitating +temperament, under an impression that there was an opening just then +through which a judicious trimmer might pass himself in among men of +greater power. If his son has described his teaching correctly, it +amounts practically to a _bona fide_ endorsement of what Buffon can only +be considered to have pretended to believe. The same objection that must +be fatal to the view pretended by Buffon, is so in like manner to those +put forward seriously of both the Geoffroys--for Isidore Geoffroy +followed his father, but leant a little more openly towards Lamarck. He +writes:-- + +"The characters of species are neither absolutely fixed, as has been +maintained by some; nor yet, still more, indefinitely variable as +according to others. They are fixed for each species as long as that +species continues to reproduce itself in an unchanged environment; but +they become modified if the environment changes."[328] + +This is all that Lamarck himself would expect, as no one could be more +fully aware than M. Geoffroy, who, however, admits that degeneration may +extend to generic differences.[329] + +I have been unable to find in M. Isidore Geoffroy's work anything like a +refutation of Lamarck's contention that the modifications in animals and +plants are due to the needs and wishes of the animals and plants +themselves; on the contrary, to some extent he countenances this view +himself, for he says, "hence arise notable differences of habitation and +climate, and these in their turn induce secondary differences in diet +_and even in habits_."[330] From which it must follow, though I cannot +find it said expressly, that the author attributes modification in some +measure to changed habits, and therefore to the changed desires from +which the change of habits has arisen; but in the main he appears to +refer modification to the direct action of a changed environment. + + +_Mr. Herbert Spencer._ + +"Those who cavalierly reject the theory of Lamarck and his followers as +not adequately supported by facts," wrote Mr. Herbert Spencer,[331] +"seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at +all"--inasmuch as no one pretends to have seen an act of direct +creation. Mr. Spencer points out that, according to the best +authorities, there are some 320,000 species of plants now existing, and +about 2,000,000 species of animals, including insects, and that if the +extinct forms which have successively appeared and disappeared be added +to these, there cannot have existed in all less than some ten million +species. "Which," asks Mr. Spencer, "is the most rational theory about +these ten millions of species? Is it most likely that there have been +ten millions of special creations? or, is it most likely that by +continual modification _due to change of circumstances_, ten millions of +varieties may have been produced as varieties are being produced still?" + + . . . . . . + +"Even could the supporters of the development hypothesis merely show +that the production of species by the process of modification is +conceivable, they would be in a better position than their opponents. +But they can do much more than this; they can show that the process of +modification has effected and is effecting great changes in all +organisms, subject to modifying influences ... they can show that any +existing species--animal or vegetable--when placed under conditions +different from its previous ones, _immediately begins to undergo certain +changes of structure_ fitting it for the new conditions. They can show +that in successive generations these changes continue until ultimately +the new conditions become the natural ones. They can show that in +cultivated plants and domesticated animals, and in the several races of +men, these changes have uniformly taken place. They can show that the +degrees of difference, so produced, are often, as in dogs, greater than +those on which distinctions of species are in other cases founded. They +can show that it is a matter of dispute whether some of these modified +forms _are_ varieties or modified species. They can show too that the +changes daily taking place in ourselves; the facility that attends long +practice, and the loss of aptitude that begins when practice ceases; the +strengthening of passions habitually gratified, and the weakening of +those habitually curbed; the development of every faculty, bodily, moral +or intellectual, according to the use made of it, are all explicable on +this same principle. And thus they can show that throughout all organic +nature there _is_ at work a modifying influence of the kind they assign +as the cause of these specific differences, an influence which, though +slow in its action, does in time, if the circumstances demand it, +produce marked changes; an influence which, to all appearance, would +produce in the millions of years, and under the great varieties of +condition which geological records imply, any amount of change." + +This leaves nothing to be desired. It is Buffon, Dr. Darwin, and +Lamarck, well expressed. Those were the days before "Natural Selection" +had been discharged into the waters of the evolution controversy, like +the secretion of a cuttle fish. Changed circumstances immediately induce +changed habits, and hence a changed use of some organs, and disuse of +others: as a consequence of this, organs and instincts become changed, +"and these changes continue in successive generations, until ultimately +the new conditions become the natural ones." This is the whole theory of +"development," "evolution," or "descent with modification." Volumes may +be written to adduce the details which warrant us in accepting it, and +to explain the causes which have brought it about, but I fail to see how +anything essential can be added to the theory itself, which is here so +well supported by Mr. Spencer, and which is exactly as Lamarck left it. +All that remains is to have a clear conception of the oneness of +personality between parents and offspring, of the eternity, and latency, +of memory, and of the unconsciousness with which habitual actions are +repeated, which last point, indeed, Mr. Spencer has himself touched +upon. + +Mr. Spencer continues--"That by any series of changes a zoophyte should +ever become a mammal, seems to those who are not familiar with zoology, +and who have not seen how clear becomes the relationship between the +simplest and the most complex forms, when all intermediate forms are +examined, a very grotesque notion ... they never realize the fact that +by small increments of modification, any amount of modification may in +time be generated. That surprise which they feel on finding one whom +they last saw as a boy, grown into a man, becomes incredulity when the +degree of change is greater. Nevertheless, abundant instances are at +hand of the mode in which we may pass to the most diverse forms by +insensible gradations." + +Nothing can be more satisfactory and straightforward. I will make one +more quotation from this excellent article:-- + +"But the blindness of those who think it absurd to suppose that complex +organic forms may have arisen by successive modifications out of simple +ones, becomes astonishing when we remember that complex organic forms +are daily being thus produced. A tree differs from a seed immeasurably +in every respect--in bulk, in structure, in colour, in form, in specific +gravity, in chemical composition--differs so greatly that no visible +resemblance of any kind can be pointed out between them. Yet is the one +changed in the course of a few years into the other--changed so +gradually that at no moment can it be said, 'Now the seed ceases to be, +and the tree exists.' What can be more widely contrasted than a +newly-born child, and the small, semi-transparent gelatinous spherule +constituting the human ovum? The infant is so complex in structure that +a cyclopaedia is needed to describe its constituent parts. The germinal +vesicle is so simple, that a line will contain all that can be said of +it. Nevertheless, a few months suffices to develop the one out of the +other, and that too by a series of modifications so small, that were +the embryo examined at successive minutes, not even a microscope would +disclose any sensible changes. That the uneducated and ill-educated +should think the hypothesis that all races of beings, man inclusive, may +in process of time have been evolved from the simplest monad a ludicrous +one is not to be wondered at. But for the physiologist, who knows that +every individual being _is_ so evolved--who knows further that in their +earliest condition the germs of all plants and animals whatsoever are so +similar, 'that there is no appreciable distinction among them which +would enable it to be determined whether a particular molecule is the +germ of a conferva or of an oak, of a zoophyte or of a man'[332]--for +him to make a difficulty of the matter is inexcusable. Surely, if a +single structureless cell may, when subjected to certain influences, +become a man in the space of twenty years, there is nothing absurd in +the hypothesis that under certain other influences a cell may, in the +course of millions of years, give origin to the human race. The two +processes are generically the same, and differ only in length and +complexity." + + * * * * * + +The very important extract from Professor Hering's lecture should +perhaps have been placed here. The reader will, however, find it on page +199. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[321] 'Origin of Species,' Hist. Sketch, p. xvi. + +[322] See 'Naval Timber and Arboriculture,' by Patrick Matthew, +published by Adam and C. Black, Edinburgh, and Longmans and Co., London, +1831, pp. 364, 365, 381-388, and also 106-108, 'Gardeners' Chronicle,' +April 7, 1860. + +[323] 'Vie et Doctrine Scientifique de Geoffroy Etienne St. Hilaire,' +Paris, Strasbourg, 1847, pp. 344-346. + +[324] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. 413. + +[325] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 415. + +[326] Ibid. + +[327] Ibid. p. 421. + +[328] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' vol. ii. p. 431, 1859. + +[329] 'Origin of Species,' Hist. Sketch, p. xix. + +[330] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' vol. ii. p. 432. + +[331] See 'The Leader,' March 20, 1852, "The Haythorne Papers." + +[332] Carpenter's 'Principles of Physiology', 3rd ed., p. 867. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +MAIN POINTS OF AGREEMENT AND OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW +THEORIES OF EVOLUTION. + + +Having put before the reader with some fulness the theories of the three +writers to whom we owe the older or teleological view of evolution, I +will now compare that view more closely with the theory of Mr. Darwin +and Mr. Wallace, to whom, in spite of my profound difference of opinion +with them on the subject of natural selection, I admit with pleasure +that I am under deep obligation. For the sake of brevity, I shall take +Lamarck as the exponent of the older view, and Mr. Darwin as that of the +one now generally accepted. + +We have seen, that up to a certain point there is very little difference +between Lamarck and Mr. Darwin. Lamarck maintains that animals and +plants vary: so does Mr. Darwin. Lamarck maintains that variations +having once arisen have a tendency to be transmitted to offspring and +accumulated: so does Mr. Darwin. Lamarck maintains that the accumulation +of variations, so small, each one of them, that it cannot be, or is not +noticed, nevertheless will lead in the course of that almost infinite +time during which life has existed upon earth, to very wide differences +in form, structure, and instincts: so does Mr. Darwin. Finally, Lamarck +declares that all, or nearly all, the differences which we observe +between various kinds of animals and plants are due to this exceedingly +gradual and imperceptible accumulation, during many successive +generations, of variations each one of which was in the outset small: so +does Mr. Darwin. But in the above we have a complete statement of the +fact of evolution, or descent with modification--wanting nothing, but +entire, and incapable of being added to except in detail, and by way of +explanation of the causes which have brought the fact about. As regards +the general conclusion arrived at, therefore, I am unable to detect any +difference of opinion between Lamarck and Mr. Darwin. They are both bent +on establishing the theory of evolution in its widest extent. + +The late Sir Charles Lyell, in his 'Principles of Geology,' bears me out +here. In a note to his _resume_ of the part of the 'Philosophie +Zoologique' which bears upon evolution, he writes:-- + +"I have reprinted in this chapter word for word my abstract of Lamarck's +doctrine of transmutation, as drawn up by me in 1832 in the first +edition of the 'Principles of Geology.'[333] I have thought it right to +do this in justice to Lamarck, in order to show how nearly the opinions +taught by him at the commencement of this century resembled those now in +vogue amongst a large body of naturalists respecting the infinite +variability of species, and the progressive development in past time of +the organic world. The reader must bear in mind that when I made this +analysis of the 'Philosophie Zoologique' in 1832, I was altogether +opposed to the doctrine that the animals and plants now living were the +lineal descendants of distinct species, only known to us in a fossil +state, and ... so far from exaggerating, I did not do justice to the +arguments originally adduced by Lamarck and Geoffroy St. Hilaire, +especially those founded on the occurrence of rudimentary organs. There +is therefore no room for suspicion that my account of the Lamarckian +hypothesis, written by me thirty-five years ago, derived any colouring +from my own views tending to bring it more into harmony with the theory +since propounded by Darwin."[334] So little difference did Sir Charles +Lyell discover between the views of Lamarck and those of his successors. + +With the identity, however, of the main proposition which, both Lamarck +and Mr. Darwin alike endeavour to establish, the points of agreement +between the two writers come to an end. Lamarck's great aim was to +discover the cause of those variations whose accumulation results in +specific, and finally in generic, differences. Not content with +establishing the fact of descent with modification, he, like his +predecessors, wishes to explain how it was that the fact came about. He +finds its explanation in changed surroundings--that is to say, in +changed conditions of existence--as the indirect cause, and in the +varying needs arising from these changed conditions as the direct cause. + +According to Lamarck, there is a broad principle which underlies +variation generally, and this principle is the power which all living +beings possess of slightly varying their actions in accordance with +varying needs, coupled with the fact observable throughout nature that +use develops, and disuse enfeebles an organ, and that the effects, +whether of use or disuse, become hereditary after many generations. + +This resolves itself into the effect of the mutual interaction of mind +on body and of body on mind. Thus he writes:-- + +"The physical and the mental are to start with undoubtedly one and the +same thing; this fact is most easily made apparent through study of the +organization of the various orders of known animals. From the common +source there proceeded certain effects, and these effects, in the outset +hardly separated, have in the course of time become so perfectly +distinct, that when looked at in their extremest development they appear +to have little or nothing in common. + +"The effect of the body upon the mind has been already sufficiently +recognized; not so that of the mind upon the body itself. The two, one +in the outset though they were, interact upon each other more and more +the more they present the appearance of having become widely sundered, +and it can be shown that each is continually modifying the other and +causing it to vary."[335] + +And again, later:-- + +"I shall show that the habits by which we now recognize any creature +are due to the environment (_circonstances_) under which it has for a +long while existed, _and that these habits have had such an influence +upon the structure of each individual of the species as to have at +length_" (that is to say, through many successive slight variations, +each due to habit engendered by the wishes of the animal itself), +"modified this structure and adapted it to the habits contracted."[336] + +These quotations must suffice, for the reader has already had Lamarck's +argument sufficiently put before him. + +Variation, and consequently modification, are, according to Lamarck, the +outward and visible signs of the impressions made upon animals and +plants in the course of their long and varied history, each organ +chronicling a time during which such and such thoughts and actions +dominated the creature, and specific changes being the effect of certain +long-continued wishes upon the body, and of certain changed surroundings +upon the wishes. Plants and animals are living forms of faith, or faiths +of form, whichever the reader pleases. + +Mr. Darwin, on the other hand, repeatedly avows ignorance, and profound +ignorance, concerning the causes of those variations which, or nothing, +must be the fountain-heads of species. Thus he writes of "the complex +and _little known_ laws of variation."[337] "There is also _some +probability_ in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that variability +_may be partly_ connected with excess of food."[338] "Many laws regulate +variation, _some few of which_ can be _dimly seen_."[339] "The results +of the _unknown_, or _but dimly understood_, laws of variation are +infinitely complex and diversified."[340] "We are _profoundly ignorant_ +of the cause of each slight variation or individual difference."[341] +"We are _far too ignorant_ to speculate on the relative importance of +the several known and unknown causes of variation."[342] He admits, +indeed, the effects of use and disuse to have been important, but how +important we have no means of knowing; he also attributes considerable +effect to the action of changed conditions of life--but how considerable +again we know not; nevertheless, he sees no great principle underlying +the variations generally, and tending to make them appear for a length +of time together in any definite direction advantageous to the creature +itself, but either expressly, as at times, or by implication, as +throughout his works, ascribes them to accident or chance. + +In other words, he admits his ignorance concerning them, and dwells only +on the accumulation of variations the appearance of which for any length +of time in any given direction he leaves unaccounted for. + +Lamarck, again, having established his principle that sense of need is +the main direct cause of variation, and having also established that the +variations thus engendered are inherited, so that divergences accumulate +and result in species and genera, is comparatively indifferent to +further details. His work is avowedly an outline. Nevertheless, we have +seen that he was quite alive to the effects of the geometrical ratio of +increase, and of the struggle for existence which thence inevitably +follows. + +Mr. Darwin, on the other hand, comparatively indifferent to, or at any +rate silent concerning the causes of those variations which appeared so +all-important to Lamarck, inasmuch as they are the raindrops which unite +to form the full stream of modification, goes into very full detail upon +natural selection, or the survival of the fittest, and maintains it to +have been "the most important but not the exclusive means of +modification."[343] + +It will be readily seen that, according to Lamarck, the variations which +when accumulated amount to specific and generic differences, will have +been due to causes which have been mainly of the same kind for long +periods together. Conditions of life change for the most part slowly, +steadily, and in a set direction; as in the direction of steady, gradual +increase or decrease of cold or moisture; of the steady, gradual +increase of such and such an enemy, or decrease of such and such a kind +of food; of the gradual upheaval or submergence of such and such a +continent, and consequent drying up or encroachment of such and such a +sea, and so forth. The thoughts of the creature varying will thus have +been turned mainly in one direction for long together; and hence the +consequent modifications will also be mainly in fixed and definite +directions for many successive generations; as in the direction of a +warmer or cooler covering; of a better means of defence or of attack in +relation to such and such another species; of a longer neck and longer +legs, or of whatever other modification the gradually changing +circumstances may be rendering expedient. It is easy to understand the +accumulation of slight successive modifications which thus make their +appearance in given organs and in a set direction. + +With Mr. Darwin, on the contrary, the variations being accidental, and +due to no special and uniform cause, will not appear for any length of +time in any given direction, nor in any given organ, but will be just as +liable to appear in one organ as in another, and may be in one +generation in one direction, and in another in another. + +In confirmation of the above, and in illustration of the important +consequences that will follow according as we adopt the old or the more +recent theory, I would quote the following from Mr. Mivart's 'Genesis of +Species.' + +Shortly before maintaining that two similar structures have often been +developed independently of one another, Mr. Mivart points out that if we +are dependent upon indefinite variations only, as provided for us by Mr. +Darwin, this would be "so improbable as to be practically +impossible."[344] The number of possible variations being indefinitely +great, "it is therefore an indefinitely great number to one against a +similar series of variations occurring and being similarly preserved in +any two independent instances." It will be felt (as Mr. Mivart presently +insists) that this objection does not apply to a system which maintains +that in case an animal feels any given want it will gradually develop +the structure which shall meet the want--that is to say, if the want be +not so great and so sudden as to extinguish the creature to which it has +become a necessity. For if there be such a power of self-adaptation as +thus supposed, two or more very widely different animals feeling the +same kind of want might easily adopt similar means to gratify it, and +hence develop eventually a substantially similar structure; just as two +men, without any kind of concert, have often hit upon like means of +compassing the same ends. Mr. Spencer's theory--so Mr. Mivart tells +us--and certainly that of Lamarck, whose disciple Mr. Spencer would +appear to be,[345] admits "a certain peculiar, but limited power of +response and adaptation in each animal and plant"--to the conditions of +their existence. "Such theories," says Mr. Mivart, "have not to contend +against the difficulty proposed, and it has been urged that even very +complex extremely similar structures have again and again been developed +quite independently one of the other, and this because the process has +taken place not by merely haphazard, indefinite variations in all +directions, but by the concurrence of some other internal natural law or +laws co-operating with external influences and with Natural Selection in +the evolution of organic forms. + +"_It must never be forgotten that to admit any such constant operation +of any such unknown natural cause is to deny the purely Darwinian theory +which relies upon the survival of the fittest by means of minute +fortuitous indefinite variations._ + +"Among many other obligations which the author has to acknowledge to +Professor Huxley, are the pointing out of this very difficulty, and the +calling his attention to the striking resemblance between certain teeth +of the dog, and of the thylacine, as one instance, and certain ornithic +peculiarities of pterodactyles as another."[346] + +In brief then, changed distribution of use and disuse in consequence of +changed conditions of the environment is with Lamarck the main cause of +modification. According to Mr. Darwin natural selection, or the survival +of favourable but accidental variations, is the most important means of +modification. In a word, with Lamarck the variations are definite; with +Mr. Darwin indefinite. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[333] Vol. ii. chap. i. + +[334] Vol. ii. chap, xxxiv., ed. 1872. + +[335] 'Philosophie Zoologique,' ed. M. Martins, Paris, Lyons, 1873, tom. +i. p. 24. + +[336] 'Philosophie Zoologique,' tom. i. p. 72. + +[337] 'Origin of Species,' p. 3. + +[338] Ibid. p. 5. + +[339] 'Origin of Species,' p. 8. + +[340] Ibid. p. 9. + +[341] Ibid. p. 158. + +[342] Ibid. p. 159. + +[343] 'Origin of Species,' p. 4. + +[344] 'Genesis of Species,' p. 74, 1871. + +[345] See _ante_, p. 330, line 1 after heading. + +[346] 'Genesis of Species,' p. 76, ed. 1871. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +NATURAL SELECTION CONSIDERED AS A MEANS OF MODIFICATION. THE CONFUSION +WHICH THIS EXPRESSION OCCASIONS. + + +When Mr. Darwin says that natural selection is the most important +"means" of modification, I am not sure that I understand what he wishes +to imply by the word "means." I do not see how the fact that those +animals which are best fitted for the conditions of their existence +commonly survive in the struggle for life, can be called in any special +sense a "means" of modification. + +"Means" is a dangerous word; it slips too easily into "cause." We have +seen Mr. Darwin himself say that Buffon did not enter on "the _causes or +means_"[347] of modification, as though these two words were synonymous, +or nearly so. Nevertheless, the use of the word "means" here enables Mr. +Darwin to speak of Natural Selection as if it were an active cause +(which he constantly does), and yet to avoid expressly maintaining that +it is a cause of modification. This, indeed, he has not done in express +terms, but he does it by implication when he writes, "Natural Selection +_might be most effective in giving_ the proper colour to each kind of +grouse, and in _keeping_ that colour when once acquired." Such language, +says the late Mr. G. H. Lewes, "is misleading;" it makes "selection an +agent."[348] + +It is plain that natural selection cannot be considered a cause of +variation; and if not of variation, which is as the rain drop, then not +of specific and generic modification, which are as the river; for the +variations must make their appearance before they can be selected. +Suppose that it is an advantage to a horse to have an especially hard +and broad hoof, then a horse born with such a hoof will indeed probably +survive in the struggle for existence, but he was not born with the +larger and harder hoof _because of his subsequently surviving_. He +survived because he was born fit--not, he was born fit because he +survived. The variation must arise first and be preserved afterwards. + +Mr. Darwin therefore is in the following dilemma. If he does not treat +natural selection as a cause of variation, the 'Origin of Species' will +turn out to have no _raison d'etre_. It will have professed to have +explained to us the manner in which species has originated, but it will +have left us in the dark concerning the origin of those variations +which, when added together, amount to specific and generic differences. +Thus, as I said in 'Life and Habit,' Mr. Darwin will have made us think +we know the whole road, in spite of his having almost ostentatiously +blindfolded us at every step in the journey. The 'Origin of Species' +would thus prove to be no less a piece of intellectual sleight-of-hand +than Paley's 'Natural Theology.' + +If, on the other hand, Mr. Darwin maintains natural selection to be a +cause of variation, this comes to saying that when an animal has varied +in an advantageous direction, the fact of its subsequently surviving in +the struggle for existence is the cause of its having varied in the +advantageous direction--or more simply still--that the fact of its +having varied is the cause of its having varied. + +And this is what we have already seen Mr. Darwin actually to say, in a +passage quoted near the beginning of this present book. When writing of +the eye he says, "Variation will cause the slight alterations;"[349] but +the "slight alterations" _are_ the variations; so that Mr. Darwin's +words come to this--that "variation will cause the variations." + +There does not seem any better way out of this dilemma than that which +Mr. Darwin has adopted--namely, to hold out natural selection as "a +means" of modification, and thenceforward to treat it as an efficient +cause; but at the same time to protest again and again that it is +not a cause. Accordingly he writes that "Natural Selection _acts +only by the preservation and accumulation_ of small inherited +modifications,"[350]--that is to say, it has had no share in inducing or +causing these modifications. Again, "What applies to one animal will +apply throughout all time to all animals--_that is, if they vary, for +otherwise natural selection can effect nothing_"[351]; and again, "for +natural selection only _takes advantage of such variations as +arise_"[352]--the variations themselves arising, as we have just seen, +from variation. + +Nothing, then, can be clearer from these passages than that natural +selection is not a cause of modification; while, on the other hand, +nothing can be clearer, from a large number of such passages, as, for +instance, "natural selection may be _effective_ in _giving_ and +_keeping_ colour,"[353] than that natural selection is an efficient +cause; and in spite of its being expressly declared to be only a "means" +of modification, it will be accepted as cause by the great majority of +readers. + +Mr. Darwin explains this apparent inconsistency thus:--He maintains that +though the advantageous modification itself is fortuitous, or without +known cause or principle underlying it, yet its becoming the predominant +form of the species in which it appears is due to the fact that those +animals which have been advantageously modified commonly survive in +times of difficulty, while the unmodified individuals perish: offspring +therefore is more frequently left by the favourably modified animal, and +thus little by little the whole species will come to inherit the +modification. Hence the survival of the fittest becomes a means of +modification, though it is no cause of variation. + +It will appear more clearly later on how much this amounts to. I will +for the present content myself with the following quotation from the +late Mr. G. H. Lewes in reference to it. Mr. Lewes writes:-- + +"Mr. Darwin seems to imply that the external conditions which cause a +variation are to be distinguished from the conditions which accumulate +and perfect such variation, that is to say, he implies a radical +difference between the process of variation and the process of +selection. This I have already said does not seem to me acceptable; the +selection I conceive to be simply the variation which has +survived."[354] + +Certainly those animals and plants which are best fitted for their +environment, or, as Lamarck calls it, "_circonstances_"--those animals, +in fact, which are best fitted to comply with the conditions of their +existence--are most likely to survive and transmit their especial +fitness. No one would admit this more readily than Lamarck. This is no +theory; it is a commonly observed fact in nature which no one will +dispute, but it is not more "a means of modification" than many other +commonly observed facts concerning animals. + +Why is "the survival of the fittest" more a means of modification than, +we will say, the fact that animals live at all, or that they live in +successive generations, being born, continuing their species, and dying, +instead of living on for ever as one single animal in the common +acceptation of the term; or than that they eat and drink? + +The heat whereby the water is heated, the water which is turned into +steam, the piston on which the steam acts, the driving wheel, &c., &c., +are all one as much as another a means whereby a train is made to go +from one place to another; it is impossible to say that any one of them +is the main means. So (_mutatis mutandis_) with modification. There is +no reason therefore why "the survival of the fittest" should claim to +be an especial "means of modification" rather than any other necessary +adjunct of animal or vegetable life. + +I find that the late Mr. G. H. Lewes has insisted on this objection in +his 'Physical Basis of Mind.' I observe, also, that in the very passage +in which he does so, Mr. Lewes appears to have been misled by Mr. +Darwin's use of that dangerous word "means," and, at the same time, by +his frequent treatment of natural selection as though it were an active +cause; so that Mr. Lewes supposes Mr. Darwin to have fallen into the +very error of which, as I have above shown, he is evidently struggling +to keep clear--namely, that of maintaining natural selection to be a +"cause" of variation. Mr. Lewes then continues:-- + +"He [Mr. Darwin] separates Natural Selection from all the primary causes +of variation either internal or external--either as results of the laws +of growth, of the correlations of variation, of use and disuse, &c., and +limits it to the slow accumulation of such variations as are profitable +in the struggle with competitors. And for his purpose this separation is +necessary. But biological philosophy must, I think, regard the +distinction as artificial, _referring only to one of the great factors +in the production of species_."[355] + +The fact that one in a brood or litter is born fitter for the conditions +of its existence than its brothers and sisters, and, again, the causes +that have led to this one's having been born fitter--which last is what +the older evolutionists justly dwelt upon as the most interesting +consideration in connection with the whole subject--are more noteworthy +factors of modification than the factor that an animal, if born fitter +for its conditions, will commonly survive longer in the struggle for +existence. If the first of these can be explained in such a manner as to +be accepted as true, or highly probable, we have a substantial gain to +our knowledge. The second is little--if at all--better than a truism. +Granted, if it were not generally the case that those forms are most +likely to survive which are best fitted for the conditions of their +existence, no adaptation of form to conditions of existence could ever +have come about. "The survival of the fittest" therefore, or, perhaps +better, "the fertility of the fittest," is thus a _sine qua non_ for +modification. But, as we have just insisted, this does not render "the +fertility of the fittest" an especial "means of modification," rather +than any other _sine qua non_ for modification. + +But, to look at the matter in another light. Mr. Darwin maintains +natural selection to be "the most important but not the exclusive means +of modification." + +For "natural selection" substitute the words "survival of the fittest," +which we may do with Mr. Darwin's own consent abundantly given. + +To the words "survival of the fittest" add what is elided, but what is, +nevertheless, unquestionably as much implied as though it were said +openly whenever these words are used, and without which "fittest" has no +force--I mean, "for the conditions of their existence." + +We thus find that when Mr. Darwin says that natural selection is the +most important, but not exclusive means of modification, he means that +the survival in the struggle for existence of those creatures which are +best fitted to comply with the conditions of their existence is the most +important, but not exclusive means whereby the descendants of a +creature, we will say, A, have become modified, so as to be now +represented by a creature, we will say, B. + +But the word "_circonstances_," so frequently used by Lamarck for the +conditions of an animal's existence, contains, by implication, the idea +of animals _which shall exist or not according as they fulfil those +conditions or fail to fulfil them_. Conditions of existence are +conditions which something capable of existing must fulfil if it would +exist at all, and nothing is a condition of an animal's existence which +that animal need not comply with and may yet continue to exist. Again, +the words "animals" and "plants" comprehend the ideas of "fit," +"fitter," and "fittest," "unfit," "unfitter," and "unfittest" for +certain conditions, for we know of no animals or plants in which we do +not observe degrees of fitness or unfitness for their "_circonstances_" +or environment, or conditions of existence. + +The use, therefore, of the term "conditions of existence" is sufficient +to show that the person using it intends to imply that those animals and +plants will live longest (or survive) and thrive best which are best +able to fulfil those conditions. Hence it implies neither more nor less +than what is implied by the words "struggle for existence, with +consequent survival of the fittest"--that is to say, if we hold the +complying with any condition of life to which difficulty is attached to +be part of "the struggle" for life, and this we should certainly do. + +The words "conditions of existence" may, then, be used instead of the +"struggle for existence with consequent survival of the fittest," for as +they cannot imply any less than the "struggle, &c.," when they are set +out in full, and without suppression, so neither do they imply more; for +nothing is a condition of existence, in so far as its power of effecting +the modification of any animal is concerned, which does not also involve +more or less difficulty or struggle; for if there is no difficulty or +struggle there will be nothing to bring about change of habit, and hence +of structure. This identity of meaning may be also seen if we call to +mind that the conditions of existence can be only a synonym for "the +conditions of continuing to live," and "the conditions of continuing to +live" a synonym for "the conditions of continuing to live a longer +time," and "the conditions of continuing to live a longer time," for +"the conditions of survival," and "the conditions of survival," for "the +survival of the fittest," inasmuch as the being fittest is the condition +of being the longest survivor. + +But we have already seen that "the survival of the fittest," is, +according to Mr. Darwin, a synonym for "natural selection"; hence it +follows that "the conditions of existence" imply neither more nor less +than what is implied by "natural selection" when this expression is +properly explained, and may be used instead of it; so that when Mr. +Darwin says that "natural selection" is the main but not exclusive means +of modification, he must mean, consciously or unconsciously, that "the +conditions of existence" are the main but not exclusive means of +modification. But this is only falling in with "the views and erroneous +grounds of opinion," as Mr. Darwin briefly calls them, of Lamarck +himself; a fact which Mr. Darwin's readers would have seen more readily +if he had kept to the use of the words "survival of the fittest" instead +of "natural selection." Of that expression Mr. Darwin says[356] that it +is "more accurate" than natural selection, but naively adds, "and +sometimes equally convenient." + +I have said that there is a practical identity of meaning between +"natural selection" and "the conditions of existence," when both +expressions are fully extended. I say this, however, without prejudice +to my right of maintaining that, of the two expressions, the one is +accurate, lucid, and calculated to keep the thread of the argument well +in sight of the reader, while the other is inaccurate, and always, if I +may say so, less "convenient," as being always liable to lead the reader +astray. Nor should it be lost sight of that Lamarck and Dr. Erasmus +Darwin maintain that species and genera have arisen _because animals can +fashion themselves into accord with_ their conditions, so that, as +Lamarck is so continually insisting, the action of the conditions is +indirect only--changed use and disuse being the direct causes; while, +according to Mr. Darwin, it is natural selection itself (which, as we +have seen, is but another way of saying conditions of existence) that is +the most important means of modification. + +The identity of meaning above insisted on was, on the face of it, almost +as obscure as that between "_eveque_ and bishop." Yet we know that +"_eveque_" is "episc" and "bishop" "piscop," and that "episcopus" is the +Latin for bishop; the words, therefore, are really one and the same, in +spite of the difference in their appearance. I think I can show, +moreover, that Mr. Darwin himself holds natural selection and the +conditions of existence to be one and the same thing. For he writes, "in +one sense," and it is hard to see any sense but one in what follows, +"the conditions of life may be said not only to cause variability" (so +that here Mr. Darwin appears to support Lamarck's main thesis) "either +directly or indirectly, but likewise to include natural selection; for +the conditions determine whether this or that variety shall +survive."[357] But later on we find that "the expression of conditions +of existence, so often insisted upon by the illustrious Cuvier" (and +surely also by the illustrious Lamarck, though he calls them +"_circonstances_") "is fully embraced by the principle of natural +selection."[358] So we see that the conditions of life "_include_" +natural selection, and yet the conditions of existence "_are fully +embraced by_" natural selection, which, I take it, is an enigmatic way +of saying that they are one and the same thing, for it is not until two +bodies absolutely coincide and occupy the same space that the one can be +said both to include and to be embraced by the other. + +The difficulty, again, of understanding Mr. Darwin's meaning is enhanced +by his repeatedly writing of "natural selection," or the fact that the +fittest survive in the struggle for existence, as though it were the +same thing as "evolution" or the descent, through the accumulation of +small modifications in many successive generations, of one species from +another and different one. In the concluding and recapitulatory chapter +of the 'Origin of Species,' he writes:-- + +"Turning to geographical distribution, the difficulties encountered _on +the theory of descent with modification_ are serious enough;"[359] and +in the next paragraph, "As, according to _the theory of natural +selection, &c._," the context showing that in each case descent with +modification is intended. + +Again:-- + +"On the theory of the _natural selection_ of successive, slight, but +profitable, modifications,"[360] that is to say, on the theory of the +survival of the fittest; while on the next page we find "_the theory of +descent with modification_," and "_the principle of natural selection_," +used as though they were convertible terms. + +Again:-- + +"The existence of closely allied or representative species in any two +areas implies, _on the theory of descent with modification, &c._;"[361] +and, in the next paragraph, "_the theory of natural selection_, with its +contingencies of extinction and divergence of character," is substituted +as though the two expressions were identical. + +This is calculated to mislead. Independently of the fact that "natural +selection," or "the survival of the fittest," is in no sense a theory, +but simply an observed fact, yet even if the words are allowed to stand +for "descent with modification by means of natural selection," it is +still misleading to write as though this were synonymous with "the +theory of evolution," or "the theory of descent with modification." To +do this prevents the reader from bearing in mind that "evolution by +means of the circumstance-suiting power of plants and animals" as +advanced by the earlier evolutionists; and "evolution by means of lucky +accidents" with comparatively little circumstance-suiting power, are two +very different things, of which the one may be true and the other +untrue. It leads the reader to forget that evolution by no means stands +or falls with evolution by means of natural selection, and makes him +think that if he accepts evolution at all, he is bound to Mr. Darwin's +view of it. Hence, when he falls in with such writers as Professor +Mivart and the Rev. J. J. Murphy, who show, and very plainly, that the +survival of the fittest, unsupplemented by something which shall give a +definite aim to the variations which successively occur, fails to +account for the coadaptations of need and structure, he imagines that +evolution has much less to say for itself than it really has. If Mr. +Darwin, instead of taking the line which he has thought fit to adopt +towards Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, and the author of the +'Vestiges,' had shown us what these men taught, why they taught it, +wherein they were wrong, and how he proposed to set them right, he would +have taken a course at once more agreeable with ordinary practice, and +more likely to clear misconception from his own mind and from those of +his readers. + +Mr. Darwin says,[362] "it is easy to hide our ignorance under such +expressions as 'the plan of creation' and 'unity of design.'" Surely, +also, it is easy to hide want of precision of thought, and the absence +of any fundamental difference between his own main conclusion and that +of Dr. Darwin and Lamarck whom he condemns, under the term "natural +selection." + +I assure the reader that I find the task of forming a clear, +well-defined conception of Mr. Darwin's meaning, as expressed in his +'Origin of Species,' comparable only to that of one who has to act on +the advice of a lawyer who has obscured the main issue as far as he can, +and whose chief aim has been to make as many loopholes as possible for +himself to escape through in case of his being called to account. Or, +again, to that of one who has to construe an Act of Parliament which was +originally framed so as to throw dust in the eyes of those who would +oppose the measure, and which, having been since found unworkable, has +had clauses repealed and inserted up and down it, till it is in an +inextricable tangle of confusion and contradiction. + +As an example of my meaning, I will quote a passage to which I called +attention in 'Life and Habit.' It runs:-- + +"In the earlier editions of this work I underrated, as now seems +probable, the frequency and importance of modifications due to +spontaneous variability. But it is impossible to attribute to _this +cause_" (i. e. spontaneous variability, which is itself only an +expression for unknown causes) "the innumerable structures which are so +well adapted to the habits of life of each species. I can no more +believe in _this_" (i. e. that the innumerable structures, &c., can be +due to unknown causes) "than that the well adapted form of a racehorse +or greyhound, which, before the principle of selection by man was well +understood, excited so much surprise in the minds of the older +naturalists, can _thus_" (i. e. by attributing them to unknown causes) +"be explained."[363] + +This amounts to saying that unknown causes can do so much, but cannot do +so much more. On this passage I wrote, in 'Life and Habit':-- + +"It is impossible to believe that, after years of reflection upon his +subject, Mr. Darwin should have written as above, especially in such a +place, if his mind was clear about his own position. Immediately after +the admission of a certain amount of miscalculation there comes a more +or less exculpatory sentence, which sounds so right that ninety-nine +people out of a hundred would walk through it, unless led by some +exigency of their own position to examine it closely, but which yet, +upon examination, proves to be as nearly meaningless as a sentence can +be."[364] + +No one, to my knowledge, has impugned the justice of this criticism, and +I may say that further study of Mr. Darwin's works has only strengthened +my conviction of the confusion and inaccuracy of thought, which detracts +so greatly from their value. + +So little is it generally understood that "evolution" and what is called +"Darwinism" convey indeed the same main conclusion, but that this +conclusion has been reached by two distinct roads, one of which is +impregnable, while the other has already fallen into the hands of the +enemy, that in the last November number of the 'Nineteenth Century' +Professor Tyndall, while referring to descent with modification or +evolution, speaks of it as though it were one and inseparable from Mr. +Darwin's theory that it has come about mainly by means of natural +selection. He writes:-- + +"_Darwin's theory_, as pointed out nine or ten years ago by Helmholtz +and Hooker, was then exactly in this condition of growth; and had they +to speak of the subject to-day they would be able to announce an +enormous strengthening of the theoretic fibre. Fissures in continuity +which then existed, and which left little hope of being ever spanned, +have been since bridged over, so that the further _the theory_ is tested +the more fully does it harmonize with progressive experience and +discovery. We shall never probably fill all the gaps; but this will not +prevent a profound belief in the truth of _the theory_ from taking root +in the general mind. Much less will it justify a total denial of _the +theory_. The man of science, who assumes in such a case the position of +a denier, is sure to be stranded and isolated." + +This is in the true vein of the professional and orthodox scientist; of +that new orthodoxy which is clamouring for endowment, and which would +step into the Pope's shoes to-morrow, if we would only let it. If +Professor Tyndall means that those who deny evolution will find +themselves presently in a very small minority, I agree with him; but if +he means that evolution is Mr. Darwin's theory, and that he who rejects +what Mr. Darwin calls "the theory of natural selection" will find +himself stranded, his assertion will pass muster with those only who +know little of the history and literature of evolution. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[347] 'Origin of Species,' Hist. Sketch, p. xiii. + +[348] 'Physical Basis of Mind,' p. 108. + +[349] 'Origin of Species,' p. 146. + +[350] Ibid. p. 75. + +[351] Ibid. p. 88. + +[352] 'Origin of Species,' p. 98. + +[353] Ibid. p. 66. + +[354] 'Physical Basis of the Mind,' p. 109, 1878. + +[355] 'Physical Basis of the Mind,' p. 107, 1878. + +[356] 'Origin of Species,' p. 49. + +[357] 'Origin of Species,' p. 107. + +[358] Ibid. p. 166. + +[359] 'Origin of Species,' p. 406. + +[360] Ibid, p. 416. + +[361] Ibid. p. 419. + +[362] 'Origin of Species,' p. 422. + +[363] 'Origin of Species,' p. 171, ed. 1876. + +[364] 'Life and Habit,' p. 260. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +MR. DARWIN'S DEFENCE OF THE EXPRESSION, NATURAL SELECTION--PROFESSOR +MIVART AND NATURAL SELECTION. + + +So important is it that we should come to a clear understanding upon the +positions taken by Mr. Darwin and Lamarck respectively, that at the risk +of wearying the reader I will endeavour to exhaust this subject here. In +order to do so, I will follow Mr. Darwin's answer to those who have +objected to the expression, "natural selection." + +Mr. Darwin says:-- + +"Several writers have misapprehended or objected to the term 'natural +selection.' Some have even imagined that natural selection induces +variability."[365] + +And small wonder if they have; but those who have fallen into this error +are hardly worth considering. The true complaint is that Mr. Darwin has +too often written of "natural selection" as though it does induce +variability, and that his language concerning it is so confusing that +the reader is not helped to see that it really comes to nothing but a +cloak of difference from his predecessors, under which there lurks a +concealed identity of opinion as to the main facts. The reader is thus +led to look upon it as something positive and special, and, in spite of +Mr. Darwin's disclaimer, to think of it as an actively efficient cause. + +Few will deny that this complaint is a just one, or that ninety-nine out +of a hundred readers of average intelligence, if asked, after reading +Mr. Darwin's 'Origin of Species,' what was the most important cause of +modification, would answer "natural selection." Let the same readers +have read the 'Zoonomia' of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, or the 'Philosophie +Zoologique' of Lamarck, and they would at once reply, "the wishes of an +animal or plant, as varying with its varying conditions," or more +briefly, "sense of need." + +"Whereas," continues Mr. Darwin, "it" (natural selection) "implies only +the preservation of such variations as arise, and are beneficial to the +being under its conditions of life. No one objects to agriculturists +speaking of the potent effects of man's selection." + +Of course not; for there _is_ an actual creature man, who actually does +select with a set purpose in order to produce such and such a result, +which result he presently produces. + +"And in this case the individual differences given by nature, which man +for some object selects, must first occur." + +This shows that the complaint has already reached Mr. Darwin, that in +not showing us how "the individual differences first occur," he is +really leaving us absolutely in the dark as to the cause of all +modification--giving us an 'Origin of Species' with "the origin" cut +out; but I do not think that any reader who has not been compelled to go +somewhat deeply into the question would find out that this is the real +gist of the objection which Mr. Darwin is appearing to combat. A general +impression is left upon the reader that some very foolish objectors are +being put to silence, that Mr. Darwin is the most candid literary +opponent in the world, and as just as Aristides himself; but if the +unassisted reader will cross-question himself what it is all about, I +shall be much surprised if he is ready with his answer. + +"Others"--to resume our criticism on Mr. Darwin's defence--"have +objected that the term implies conscious choice in the animals which +become modified, and it has been even urged that as plants have no +volition, natural selection is not applicable to them!" + +This--unfortunately--must have been the objection of a slovenly, or +wilfully misapprehending reader, and was unworthy of serious notice. But +its introduction here tends to draw the reader from the true ground of +complaint, which is that at the end of Mr. Darwin's book we stand much +in the same place as we did when we started, as regards any knowledge of +what is the "origin of species." + +"In the literal sense of the word, no doubt, natural selection is a +false term." + +Then why use it when another, and, by Mr. Darwin's own admission, a +"more accurate" one is to hand in "the survival of the fittest"?[366] +This term is not appreciably longer than natural selection. Mr. Darwin +may say, indeed, that it is "sometimes" as convenient a term as natural +selection; but the kind of men who exercise permanent effect upon the +opinions of other people will bid such a passage as this stand aside +somewhat sternly. If a term is not appreciably longer than another, and +if at the same time it more accurately expresses the idea which is +intended to be conveyed, it is not sometimes only, but always, more +convenient, and should immediately be substituted for the less accurate +one. + +No one complains of the use of what is, strictly speaking, an inaccurate +expression, when it is nevertheless the best that we can get. It may be +doubted whether there is any such thing possible as a perfectly accurate +expression. All words that are not simply names of things are apt to +turn out little else than compendious false analogies; but we have a +right to complain when a writer tells us that he is using a less +accurate expression when a more accurate one is ready to his hand. +Hence, when Mr. Darwin continues, "Who ever objected to chemists +speaking of the elective affinities of the various elements? and yet an +acid cannot strictly be said to elect the base with which it by +preference combines," he is beside the mark. Chemists do not speak of +"elective affinities" in spite of there being a more accurate and not +appreciably longer expression at their disposal. + +"It has been said," continues Mr. Darwin, "that I speak of natural +selection as an active power or deity. But who objects to an author +speaking of the attraction of gravity? Everyone knows what is meant and +implied by such metaphorical expressions, and they are almost necessary +for brevity." + +Mr. Darwin certainly does speak of natural selection "acting," +"accumulating," "operating"; and if "every-one knew what was meant and +implied by this metaphorical expression," as they now do, or think they +do, in the case of the attraction of gravity, there might be less ground +of complaint; but the expression was known to very few at the time Mr. +Darwin introduced it, and was used with so much ambiguity, and with so +little to protect the reader from falling into the error of supposing +that it was the cause of the modifications which we see around us, that +we had a just right to complain, even in the first instance; much more +should we do so on the score of the retention of the expression when a +more accurate one had been found. + +If the "survival of the fittest" had been used, to the total excision of +"natural selection" from every page in Mr. Darwin's book--it would have +been easily seen that "the survival of the fittest" is no more a cause +of modification, and hence can give no more explanation concerning the +origin of species, than the fact of a number of competitors in a race +failing to run the whole course, or to run it as quickly as the winner, +can explain how the winner came to have good legs and lungs. According +to Lamarck, the winner will have got these by means of sense of need, +and consequent practice and training, on his own part, and on that of +his forefathers; according to Mr. Darwin, the "most important means" of +his getting them is his "happening" to be born with them, coupled, with +the fact that his uncles and aunts for many generations could not run +so well as his ancestors in the direct line. But can the fact of his +uncles and aunts running less well than his fathers and mothers be a +means of his fathers and mothers coming to run _better than they used to +run_? + +If the reader will bear in mind the idea of the runners in a race, it +will help him to see the point at issue between Mr. Darwin and Lamarck. +Perhaps also the double meaning of the word race, as expressing equally +a breed and a competition, may not be wholly without significance. What +we want to be told is, not that a runner will win the prize if he can +run "ever such a little" faster than his fellows--we know this--but by +what process he comes to be able to run ever such a little faster. + +"So, again," continues Mr. Darwin, "it is difficult to avoid +personifying nature, but I mean by nature only the aggregate action and +product of many natural laws, and by laws the sequence of events as +ascertained by us." + +This, again, is raising up a dead man in order to knock him down. Nature +has been personified for more than two thousand years, and every one +understands that nature is no more really a woman than hope or justice, +or than God is like the pictures of the mediaeval painters; no one whose +objection was worth notice could have objected to the personification of +nature. + +Mr. Darwin concludes:-- + +"With a little familiarity, such superficial objections will be +forgotten."[367] + +As a matter of fact, I do not see any greater tendency to acquiesce in +Mr. Darwin's claim on behalf of natural selection than there was a few +years ago, but on the contrary, that discontent is daily growing. To say +nothing of the Rev. J. J. Murphy and Professor Mivart, the late Mr. G. +H. Lewes did not find the objection a superficial one, nor yet did he +find it disappear "with a little familiarity"; on the contrary, the more +familiar he became with it the less he appeared to like it. I may even +go, without fear, so far as to say that any writer who now uses the +expression "natural selection," writes himself down thereby as behind +the age. It is with great pleasure that I observe Mr. Francis Darwin in +his recent lecture[368] to have kept clear of it altogether, and to have +made use of no expression, and advocated no doctrine to which either Dr. +Erasmus Darwin or Lamarck would not have readily assented. I think I may +affirm confidently that a few years ago any such lecture would have +contained repeated reference to Natural Selection. For my own part I +know of few passages in any theological writer which please me less than +the one which I have above followed sentence by sentence. I know of few +which should better serve to show us the sort of danger we should run if +we were to let men of science get the upper hand of us. + +Natural Selection, then, is only another way of saying "Nature." Mr. +Darwin seems to be aware of this when he writes, "Nature, if I may be +allowed to personify the natural preservation or survival of the +fittest." And again, at the bottom of the same page, "It may +metaphorically be said that _natural selection is daily and hourly +scrutinizing_ throughout the world the slightest variations."[369] It +may be metaphorically said that _Nature_ is daily and hourly +scrutinizing, but it cannot be said consistently with any right use of +words, metaphorical or otherwise, that natural selection scrutinizes, +unless natural selection is merely a somewhat cumbrous synonym for +Nature. When, therefore, Mr. Darwin says that natural selection is the +"most important, but not the exclusive means" whereby any modification +has been effected, he is really saying that Nature is the most important +means of modification--which is only another way of telling us that +variation causes variations, and is all very true as far as it goes. + +I did not read Professor Mivart's 'Lessons from Nature,' until I had +written all my own criticism on Mr. Darwin's position. From that work, +however, I now quote the following:-- + +"It cannot then be contested that the far-famed 'Origin of Species,' +that, namely, by 'Natural Selection,' has been repudiated in fact, +though not expressly even by its own author. This circumstance, which is +simply undeniable, might dispense us from any further consideration of +the hypothesis itself. But the "conspiracy of silence," which has +accompanied the repudiation tends to lead the unthinking many to suppose +that the same importance still attaches to it as at first. On this +account it may be well to ask the question, what, after all, _is_ +'Natural Selection'? + +"The answer may seem surprising to some, but it is none the less true, +that 'Natural Selection' is simply nothing. It is an apparently positive +name for a really negative effect, and is therefore an eminently +misleading term. By 'Natural Selection' is meant the result of all the +destructive agencies of Nature, destructive to individuals and to races +by destroying their lives or their powers of propagation. Evidently, +_the cause of the distinction of species_ (supposing such distinction to +be brought about in natural generation) _must be that which causes +variation, and variation in one determinate direction in at least +several individuals simultaneously_." I should like to have added here +the words "and during many successive generations," but they will go +very sufficiently without saying. + +"At the same time," continues Professor Mivart, "it is freely conceded +that the destructive agencies in nature do succeed in preventing the +perpetuation of monstrous, abortive, and feeble attempts at the +performance of the evolutionary process, that they rapidly remove +antecedent forms when new ones are evolved more in harmony with +surrounding conditions, and that their action results in the formation +of new characters when these have once attained sufficient completeness +to be of real utility to their possessor. + +"Continued reflection, and five years further pondering over the +problems of specific origin have more and more convinced me that the +conception, that the origin of all species 'man included' is due simply +to conditions which are (to use Mr. Darwin's own words) 'strictly +accidental,' is a conception utterly irrational." + + . . . . . . + +"With regard to the conception as now put forward by Mr. Darwin, I +cannot truly characterize it but by an epithet which I employ only with +much reluctance. I weigh my words and have present to my mind the many +distinguished naturalists who have accepted the notion, and yet I cannot +hesitate to call it a '_puerile hypothesis_.'"[370] + +I am afraid I cannot go with Professor Mivart farther than this point, +though I have a strong feeling as though his conclusion is true, that +"the material universe is always and everywhere sustained and directed +by an infinite cause, for which to us the word mind is the least +inadequate and misleading symbol." But I feel that any attempt to deal +with such a question is going far beyond that sphere in which man's +powers may be at present employed with advantage: I trust, therefore, +that I may never try to verify it, and am indifferent whether it is +correct or not. + +Again, I should probably differ from Professor Mivart in finding this +mind inseparable from the material universe in which we live and move. +So that I could neither conceive of such a mind influencing and +directing the universe from a point as it were outside the universe +itself, nor yet of a universe as existing without there being +present--or having been present--in its every particle something for +which mind should be the least inadequate and misleading symbol. But the +subject is far beyond me. + +As regards Professor Mivart's denunciations of natural selection, I +have only one fault to find with them, namely, that they do not speak +out with sufficient bluntness. The difficulty of showing the fallacy of +Mr. Darwin's position, is the difficulty of grasping a will-o'-the-wisp. +A concluding example will put this clearly before the reader, and at the +same time serve to illustrate the most tangible feature of difference +between Mr. Darwin and Lamarck. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[365] 'Origin of Species,' p. 62. + +[366] 'Origin of Species,' p. 49. + +[367] 'Origin of Species,' p. 63. + +[368] 'Nature,' March 14 and 21, 1878. + +[369] 'Origin of Species,' p. 65. + +[370] 'Lessons from Nature,' p. 300. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE CASE OF THE MADEIRA BEETLES AS ILLUSTRATING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN +THE EVOLUTION OF LAMARCK AND OF MR. CHARLES DARWIN--CONCLUSION. + + +An island of no very great extent is surrounded by a sea which cuts it +off for many miles from the nearest land. It lies a good deal exposed to +winds, so that the beetles which live upon it are in continual danger of +being blown out to sea if they fly during the hours and seasons when the +wind is blowing. It is found that an unusually large proportion of the +beetles inhabiting this island are either without wings or have their +wings in a useless and merely rudimentary state; and that a large number +of kinds which are very common on the nearest mainland, but which are +compelled to use their wings in seeking their food, are here entirely +wanting. It is also observed that the beetles on this island generally +lie much concealed until the wind lulls and the sun shines. These are +the facts; let us now see how Lamarck would treat them. + +Lamarck would say that the beetles once being on this island it became +one of the conditions of their existence that they should not get blown +out to sea. For once blown out to sea, they would be quite certain to be +drowned. Beetles, when they fly, generally fly for some purpose, and do +not like having that purpose interfered with by something which can +carry them all-whithers, whether they like it or no. If they are flying +and find the wind taking them in a wrong direction, or seaward--which +they know will be fatal to them--they stop flying as soon as may be, and +alight on _terra firma_. But if the wind is very prevalent the beetles +can find but little opportunity for flying at all: they will therefore +lie quiet all day and do as best they can to get their living on foot +instead of on the wing. There will thus be a long-continued disuse of +wings, and this will gradually diminish the development of the wings +themselves, till after a sufficient number of generations these will +either disappear altogether, or be seen in a rudimentary condition only. +For each beetle which has made but little use of its wings will be +liable to leave offspring with a slightly diminished wing, some other +organ which has been used instead of the wing becoming proportionately +developed. It is thus seen that the conditions of existence are the +indirect cause of the wings becoming rudimentary, inasmuch as they +preclude the beetles from using them; the disuse however on the part of +the beetles themselves is the direct cause. + +Now let us see how Mr. Darwin deals with the same case. He writes:-- + +"In some cases we might easily set down to disuse, modifications of +structure which are _wholly_ or _mainly_ due to natural selection." Then +follow the facts about the beetles of Madeira, as I have given them +above. While we are reading them we naturally make up our minds that +the winglessness of the beetles will prove due either wholly, or at any +rate mainly, to natural selection, and that though it would be easy to +set it down to disuse, yet we must on no account do so. The facts having +been stated, Mr. Darwin continues:--"These several considerations make +me believe that the wingless condition of so many Madeira beetles is +mainly due to the action of natural selection," and when we go on to the +words that immediately follow, "combined probably with disuse," we are +almost surprised at finding that disuse has had anything to do with the +matter. We feel a languid wish to know exactly how much and in what way +it has entered into the combination; but we find it difficult to think +the matter out, and are glad to take it for granted that the part played +by disuse must be so unimportant that we need not consider it. Mr. +Darwin continues:-- + +"For during many successive generations each individual beetle which +flew least, either from its wings having been ever so little less +perfectly developed, or from indolent habit, will have had the best +chance of surviving from not having been blown out to sea; and on the +other hand those beetles which most readily took to flight would +oftenest be blown out to sea and perish."[371] + +So apt are we to believe what we are told, when it is told us gravely +and with authority, and when there is no statement at hand to contradict +it, that we fail to see that Mr. Darwin is all the time really +attributing the winglessness of the Madeira beetles either to the _qua_ +him _unknown causes_ which have led to the "ever so little less perfect +development of wing" on the part of the beetles that leave +offspring--that is to say, is admitting that he can give no account of +the matter--or else to the "indolent habit" of the parent beetles which +has led them to disuse their wings, and hence gradually to lose +them--which is neither more nor less than the "erroneous grounds of +opinion," and "well-known doctrine" of Lamarck. + +For Mr. Darwin cannot mean that the fact of some beetles being blown out +to sea is the most important means whereby certain other beetles come to +have smaller wings--that the Madeira beetles in fact come to have +smaller wings mainly because their large winged uncles and aunts--go +away. + +But if he does not mean this, what becomes of natural selection? + +For in this case we are left exactly where Lamarck left us, and must +hold that such beetles as have smaller wings have them because the +conditions of life or "circumstances" in which their parents were +placed, rendered it inconvenient to them to fly, and thus led them to +leave off using their wings. + +Granted, that if there had been nothing to take unmodified beetles away, +there would have been less room and scope for the modified beetles; also +that unmodified beetles would have intermixed with the modified, and +impeded the prevalence of the modification. But anything else than such +removal of unmodified individuals would be contrary to our hypothesis. +The very essence of conditions of existence is that there _shall be_ +something to take away those which do not comply with the conditions; +if there is nothing to render such and such a course a _sine qua non_ +for life, there is no condition of existence in respect of this course, +and no modification according to Lamarck could follow, as there would be +no changed distribution of use. + +I think that if I were to leave this matter here I should have said +enough to make the reader feel that Lamarck's system is direct, +intelligible and sufficient--while Mr. Darwin's is confused and +confusing. I may however quote Mr. Darwin himself as throwing his theory +about the Madeira beetles on one side in a later passage, for he +writes:-- + +"It is probable that _disuse has been the main agent in rendering organs +rudimentary_," or in other words that Lamarck was quite right--nor does +one see why if disuse is after all the main agent in rendering an organ +rudimentary, use should not have been the main agent in developing +it--but let that pass. "It (disuse) would at first lead," continues Mr. +Darwin, "by slow steps to the more and more complete reduction of a +part, until at last it became rudimentary--as in the case of the eyes of +animals inhabiting dark caverns, and of the wings of birds inhabiting +oceanic islands, which have seldom been forced by beasts of prey to take +flight, and have ultimately lost the power of flying. Again, an organ +useful under certain conditions, might become injurious under others, +_as with the wings of beetles living on small and exposed +islands_;"[372] so that the rudimentary condition of the Madeira +beetles' wings is here set down as mainly due to disuse--while above we +find it mainly due to natural selection--I should say that immediately +after the word "islands" just quoted, Mr. Darwin adds "and in this case +natural selection will have aided in reducing the organ, until it was +rendered harmless and rudimentary," but this is Mr. Darwin's manner, and +must go for what it is worth. + +How refreshing to turn to the simple straightforward language of +Lamarck. + +"Long continued disuse," he writes, "in consequence of the habits which +an animal has contracted, gradually reduces an organ, and leads to its +final disappearance.... + +"Eyes placed in the head form an essential part of that plan on which we +observe all vertebrate organisms to be constructed. Nevertheless the +mole which uses its vision very little, has eyes which are only very +small and hardly apparent. + +"The _aspalax_ of Olivier, which lives underground like the mole, and +exposes itself even less than the mole to the light of day, has wholly +lost the use of its sight, nor does it retain more than mere traces of +visual organs, these traces again being hidden under the skin and under +certain other parts which cover them up and leave not even the smallest +access to the light. The Proteus, an aquatic reptile akin to the +Salamander and living in deep and obscure cavities under water, has, +like the aspalax, no longer anything but traces of eyes +remaining--traces which are again entirely hidden and covered up.[373] + +"The following consideration should be decisive. + +"Light cannot penetrate everywhere, and as a consequence, animals which +live habitually in places which it cannot reach, do not have an +opportunity of using eyes, even though they have got them; but animals +which form part of a system of organization which comprises eyes as an +invariable rule among its organs, must have had eyes originally. Since +then we find among these animals some which have lost their eyes, and +which have only concealed traces of these organs, it is evident that the +impoverishment, and even disappearance of the organs in question, must +be the effect of long-continued disuse. + +"A proof of this is to be found in the fact that the organ of hearing is +never in like case with that of sight; we always find it in animals of +whose system of organization hearing is a component part; and for the +following reason, namely, that sound, which is the effect of vibration +upon the ear, can penetrate everywhere, and pass even through massive +intermediate bodies. Any animal, therefore, with an organic system of +which the ear is an essential part, can always find a use for its ears, +no matter where it inhabits. We never, therefore, come upon rudimentary +ears among the vertebrata, and when, going down the scale of life lower +than the vertebrata, we come to a point at which the ear is no longer to +be found; we never come upon ears again in any lower class. + +"Not so with the organ of sight: we see this organ disappear, reappear, +and disappear again with the possibility or impossibility of using eyes +on the part of the creature itself.[374] + +"The great development of mantle in the acephalous molluscs has rendered +eyes, and even a head, entirely useless to them. These organs, though +belonging to the type of the organism, and by rights included in it, +have had to disappear and become annihilated owing to continued default +of use. + + . . . . . . + +"Many insects which, by the analogy of their order and even genus, +should have wings, have nevertheless lost them more or less completely +through disuse. A number of coleoptera, orthoptera, hymenoptera, and +hemiptera give us examples, the habits of these animals never leading +them to use their wings."[375] + + * * * * * + +I will here bring this present volume to a conclusion, hoping, however, +to return to the same subject shortly, but to that part of it which +bears upon longevity and the phenomena of old age. In 'Life and Habit' I +pointed out that if differentiations of structure and instinct are +considered as due to the different desires under different circumstances +of an organism, which must be regarded as a single creature, though its +development has extended over millions of years, and which is guided +mainly by habit and memory until some disturbing cause compels +invention--then the longevity of each generation or stage of this +organism should depend upon the lateness of the average age of +reproduction in each generation; so that an organism (using the word in +its usual signification) which did not upon the average begin to +reproduce itself till it was twenty, should be longer lived than one +that on the average begins to reproduce itself at a year old. I also +maintained that the phenomena of old age should be referred to failure +of memory on the part of the organism, which in the embryonic stages, +infancy, youth, and early manhood, leans upon the memory of what it did +when it was in the persons of its ancestors; in middle life, carries its +action onward by means of the impetus, already received, and by the +force of habit; and in old age becomes puzzled, having no experience of +any past existence at seventy-five, we will say, to guide it, and +therefore forgetting itself more and more completely till it dies. I +hope to extend this, and to bring forward arguments in support of it in +a future work. + +Of the importance of the theory put forward in 'Life and Habit'--I am +daily more and more convinced. Unless we admit oneness of personality +between parents and offspring, memory of the often repeated facts of +past existences, the latency of that memory until it is rekindled by the +presence of the associated ideas, or of a sufficient number of them, and +the far-reaching consequences of the unconsciousness which results from +habitual action, evolution does not greatly add to our knowledge as to +how we shall live here to the best advantage. Add these considerations, +and its value as a guide becomes immediately apparent; a new light is +poured upon a hundred problems of the greatest delicacy and difficulty. +Not the least interesting of these is the gradual extension of human +longevity--an extension, however, which cannot be effected till many +many generations as yet unborn have come and gone. There is nothing, +however, to prevent man's becoming as long lived as the oak if he will +persevere for many generations in the steps which can alone lead to this +result. Another interesting achievement which should be more quickly +attainable, though still not in our own time, is the earlier maturity of +those animals whose rapid maturity is an advantage to us, but whose +longevity is not to our purpose. + + * * * * * + +The question--Evolution or Direct Creation of all species?--has been +settled in favour of Evolution. A hardly less interesting and important +battle has now to be fought over the question whether we are to accept +the evolution of the founders of the theory--with the adjuncts hinted at +by Dr. Darwin and Mr. Matthew, and insisted on, so far as I can gather, +by Professor Hering and myself--or the evolution of Mr. Darwin, which +denies the purposiveness or teleology inherent in evolution as first +propounded. I am assured that such of my readers as I can persuade to +prefer the old evolution to the new will have but little reason to +regret their preference. + + * * * * * + +P.S.--As these sheets leave my hands, my attention is called to a review +of Professor Haeckel's 'Evolution of Man,' by Mr. A. E. Wallace, in the +'Academy' for April 12, 1879. "Professor Haeckel maintains," says Mr. +Wallace, "_that the struggle for existence in nature evolves new forms +without design, just as the will of man produces new varieties in +cultivation with design_." I maintain in preference with the older +evolutionists, that in consequence of change in the conditions of their +existence, _organisms design new forms for themselves, and carry those +designs out in additions to, and modifications of, their own bodies_. + +"The science of rudimentary organs," continues Mr. Wallace, "which +Haeckel terms 'dysteleology, or the doctrine of purposelessness,' is +here discussed, and a number of interesting examples are given, the +conclusion being that they prove the mechanical or monistic conception +of the origin of organisms to be correct, and the idea of any 'all-wise +creative plan an ancient fable.'" I see no reason to suppose, or again +not to suppose, an all-wise creative plan. I decline to go into this +question, believing it to be not yet ripe, nor nearly ripe, for +consideration. I see purpose, however, in rudimentary organs as much as +in useful ones, but a spent or extinct purpose--a purpose which has been +fulfilled, and is now forgotten--the rudimentary organ being repeated +from force of habit, indolence, and dislike of change, so long as it +does not, to use the words of Buffon, "stand in the way of the fair +development" of other parts which are found useful and necessary. I +demur, therefore, to the inference of "purposelessness" which I gather +that Professor Haeckel draws from these organs. + +In the 'Academy' for April 19, 1879, Mr. Wallace quotes Professor +Haeckel as saying that our "highly purposive and admirably-constituted +sense-organs have developed without premeditated aim; that they have +originated by the same mechanical process of Natural Selection, by the +same constant interaction of Adaptation and Heredity [what _is_ Heredity +but another word for unknown causes, unless it is explained in some such +manner as in 'Life and Habit'?] by which all the other purposive +contrivances of the animal organization have been slowly and gradually +evolved during the struggle for existence." + +I see no evidence for "premeditated aim" at any modification very far in +advance of an existing organ, any more than I do for "premeditated aim" +on man's part at any as yet inconceivable mechanical invention; but as +in the case of man's inventions, so also in that of the organs of +animals and plants, modification is due to the accumulation of small, +well-considered improvements, as found necessary in practice, and the +conduct of their affairs. Each step having been purposive, the whole +road has been travelled purposively; nor is the purposiveness of such an +organ, we will say, as the eye, barred by the fact that invention has +doubtless been aided by some of those happy accidents which from time to +time happen to all who keep their wits about them, and know how to turn +the gifts of Fortune to account. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[371] 'Origin of Species,' p. 109. + +[372] 'Origin of Species, p. 401. + +[373] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 242. + +[374] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 244. + +[375] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 245. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +REVIEWS OF 'EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW.' + + +Those who have been at the pains to read the foregoing book will, +perhaps, pardon me if I put before them a short account of the reception +it has met with: I will not waste time by arguing with my critics at any +length; it will be enough if I place some of their remarks upon my book +under the same cover as the book itself, with here and there a word or +two of comment. + +The only reviews which have come under my notice appeared in the +'Academy' and the 'Examiner,' both of May 17, 1879; the 'Edinburgh Daily +Review,' May 23, 1879; 'City Press,' May 21, 1879; 'Field,' May 26, +1879; 'Saturday Review,' May 31, 1879; 'Daily Chronicle,' May 31, 1879; +'Graphic' and 'Nature,' both June 12, 1879; 'Pall Mall Gazette,' June +18, 1879; 'Literary World,' June 20, 1879; 'Scotsman,' June 24, 1879; +'British Journal of Homoeopathy' and 'Mind,' both July 1, 1879; +'Journal of Science,' July 18, 1879; 'Westminster Review,' July, 1879; +'Athenaeum,' July 26, 1879; 'Daily News,' July 29, 1879; 'Manchester +City News,' August 16, 1879; 'Nonconformist,' November 26, 1879; +'Popular Science Review,' Jan. 1, 1880; 'Morning Post,' Jan. 12, 1880. + +Some of the most hostile passages in the reviews above referred to are +as follows:-- + +"From beginning to end, our eccentric author treats us to a dazzling +flood of epigram, invective, and what appears to be argument; and +finally leaves us without a single clear idea as to what he has been +driving at." + + . . . . . . + +"Mr. Butler comes forward, as it were, to proclaim himself a +professional satirist, and a mystifier who will do his best to leave you +utterly in the dark with regard to his system of juggling. Is he a +teleological theologian making fun of evolution? Is he an evolutionist +making fun of teleology? Is he a man of letters making fun of science? +Or is he a master of pure irony making fun of all three, and of his +audience as well? For our part we decline to commit ourselves, and +prefer to observe, as Mr. Butler observes of Von Hartmann, that if his +meaning is anything like what he says it is, we can only say that it has +not been given us to form any definite conception whatever as to what +that meaning may be."--'Academy,' May 17, 1879, Signed Grant Allen. + + * * * * * + +Here is another criticism of "Evolution, Old and New"--also, I believe I +am warranted in saying, by Mr. Grant Allen. These two criticisms +appeared on the same day; how many more Mr. Allen may have written later +on I do not know. + +We find the writer who in the 'Academy' declares that he has been left +without "a single clear idea" as to what 'Evolution, Old and New,' has +been driving at saying on the same day in the 'Examiner' that +'Evolution, Old and New,' "has a more evident purpose than any of its +predecessors." If so, I am afraid the predecessors must have puzzled Mr. +Allen very unpleasantly. What the purpose of 'Evolution, Old and New,' +is, he proceeds to explain:-- + +"As to his (Mr. Butler's) main argument, it comes briefly to this: +natural selection does not originate favourable varieties, it only +passively permits them to exist; therefore it is the unknown cause which +produced the variations, not the natural selection which spared them, +that ought to count as the mainspring of evolution. That unknown cause +Mr. Butler boldly declares to be the will of the organism itself. An +intelligent ascidian wanted a pair of eyes,[376] so set to work and made +itself a pair, exactly as a man makes a microscope; a talented fish +conceived the idea of walking on dry land, so it developed legs, turned +its swim bladder into a pair of lungs, and became an amphibian; an +aesthetic guinea-fowl admired bright colours, so it bought a paint-box, +studied Mr. Whistler's ornamental designs, and, painting itself a gilded +and ocellated tail, was thenceforth a peacock. But how about plants? Mr. +Butler does not shirk even this difficulty. The theory must be +maintained at all hazards.... This is the sort of mystical nonsense +from which we had hoped Mr. Darwin had for ever saved us."--'Examiner,' +May 17, 1879. + + * * * * * + +In this last article, Mr. Allen has said that I am a man of genius, +"with the unmistakable signet-mark upon my forehead." I have been +subjected to a good deal of obloquy and misrepresentation at one time or +another, but this passage by Mr. Allen is the only one I have seen that +has made me seriously uneasy about the prospects of my literary +reputation. + +I see Mr. Allen has been lately writing an article in the 'Fortnightly +Review' on the decay of criticism. Looking over it somewhat hurriedly, +my eye was arrested by the following:-- + +"Nowadays any man can write, because there are papers enough to give +employment to everybody. No reflection, no deliberation, no care; all is +haste, fatal facility, stock phrases, commonplace ideas, and a ready pen +that can turn itself to any task with equal ease, because supremely +ignorant of all alike." + + . . . . . . + +"The writer takes to his craft nowadays, not because he has taste for +literature, but because he has an incurable faculty for scribbling. He +has no culture, and he soon loses the power of taking pains, if he ever +possessed it. But he can talk with glib superficiality and imposing +confidence about every conceivable subject, from a play or a picture to +a sermon or a metaphysical essay. It is the utter indifference to +subject-matter, joined with the vulgar unscrupulousness of pretentious +ignorance, that strikes the keynote of our existing criticism. Men write +without taking the trouble to read or think."[377] + + * * * * * + +The 'Saturday Review' attacked 'Evolution, Old and New,' I may almost +say savagely. It wrote: "When Mr. Butler's 'Life and Habit' came before +us, we doubted whether his ambiguously expressed speculations belonged +to the regions of playful but possibly scientific imagination, or of +unscientific fancies; and we gave him the benefit of the doubt. In fact, +we strained a point or two to find a reasonable meaning for him. He has +now settled the question against himself. Not professing to have any +particular competence in biology, natural history, or the scientific +study of evidence in any shape whatever, and, indeed, rather glorying in +his freedom from any such superfluities, he undertakes to assure the +overwhelming majority of men of science, and the educated public who +have followed their lead, that, while they have done well to be +converted to the doctrine of the evolution and transmutation of species, +they have been converted on entirely wrong grounds." + + . . . . . . + +"When a writer who has not given as many weeks to the subject as Mr. +Darwin has given years [as a matter of fact, it is now twenty years +since I began to publish on the subject of Evolution] is not content to +air his own crude, though clever, fallacies, but presumes to criticize +Mr. Darwin with the superciliousness of a young schoolmaster looking +over a boy's theme, it is difficult not to take him more seriously than +he deserves or perhaps desires. One would think that Mr. Butler was the +travelled and laborious observer of Nature, and Mr. Darwin the pert +speculator, who takes all his facts at secondhand." + + . . . . . . + +"Let us once more consider how matters stood a year or two before the +'Origin of Species' first appeared. The continuous evolution of animated +Nature had in its favour the difficulty of drawing fixed lines between +species and even larger divisions, all the indications of comparative +anatomy and embryology, and a good deal of general scientific +presumption. Several well-known writers, and some eminent enough to +command respect, had expressed their belief in it. One or two far-seeing +thinkers, among whom the place of honour must be assigned to Mr. Herbert +Spencer, had done more. They had used their philosophic insight, which, +to science, is the eye of faith, to descry the promised land almost +within reach; they knew and announced how rich and spacious the heritage +would be, if once the entry could be made good. But on that 'if' +everything hung. Nature was not bound to give up her secret, or was +bound only in a mocking covenant with an impossible condition: _Si caelum +digito tetigeris_; if only some fortunate hand could touch the +inaccessible firmament, and bring down the golden chain to earth! But +fruition seemed out of sight. Even those who were most willing to +advance in this direction, could only regret that they saw no road +clear. There was a tempting vision, but nothing proven--many would have +said nothing provable. A few years passed, and all this was changed. +The doubtful speculation had become a firm and connected theory. In the +room of scattered foragers and scouts, there was an irresistibly +advancing column. Nature had surrendered her stronghold, and was +disarmed of her secret. And if we ask who were the men by whom this was +done, the answer is notorious, and there is but one answer possible: the +names that are for ever associated with this great triumph are those of +Charles Darwin and Wallace."[378] + +I gave the lady or gentleman who wrote this an opportunity of +acknowledging the authorship; but she or he preferred, not I think +unnaturally, to remain anonymous. + +The only other criticism of 'Evolution, Old and New,' to which I would +call attention, appeared in 'Nature,' in a review of 'Unconscious +Memory,' by Mr. Romanes, and contained the following passages:-- + +"But to be serious, if in charity we could deem Mr. Butler a lunatic, we +should not be unprepared for any aberration of common sense that he +might display.... A certain nobody writes a book ['Evolution, Old and +New'] accusing the most illustrious man in his generation of burying the +claims of certain illustrious predecessors out of the sight of all men. +In the hope of gaining some notoriety by deserving, and perhaps +receiving a contemptuous refutation from the eminent man in question, he +publishes this book which, if it deserved serious consideration, would +be not more of an insult to the particular man of science whom it +accuses of conscious and wholesale plagiarism [there is no such +accusation in 'Evolution, Old and New'] than it would be to men of +science in general for requiring such elementary instruction on some of +the most famous literature in science from an upstart ignoramus, who, +until two or three years ago, considered himself a painter by +profession."--'Nature,' Jan. 27, 1881. + + * * * * * + +In a subsequent letter to 'Nature,' Mr. Romanes said he had been "acting +the part of policeman" by writing as he had done. Any unscrupulous +reviewer may call himself a policeman if he likes, but he must not +expect those whom he assails to recognize his pretensions. 'Evolution, +Old and New,' was not written for the kind of people whom Mr. Romanes +calls men of science; if "men of science" means men like Mr. Romanes, I +trust they say well who maintain that I am not a man of science; I +believe the men to whom Mr. Romanes refers to be men, not of that kind +of science which desires to know, but of that kind whose aim is to +thrust itself upon the public as actually knowing. 'Evolution, Old and +New,' could be of no use to these; certainly, it was not intended as an +insult to them, but if they are insulted by it, I do not know that I am +sorry, for I value their antipathy and opposition as much as I should +dislike their approbation: of one thing, however, I am certain--namely, +that before 'Evolution, Old and New,' was written, Professors Huxley and +Tyndall, for example, knew very little of the earlier history of +Evolution. Professor Huxley, in his article on Evolution in the ninth +edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' published in 1878, says of the +two great pioneers of Evolution, that Buffon "contributed nothing to +the general doctrine of Evolution,"[379] and that Erasmus Darwin "can +hardly be said to have made any real advance on his predecessors."[380] + +Professor Haeckel evidently knew little of Erasmus Darwin, and still +less, apparently, about Buffon.[381] Professor Tyndall,[382] in 1878, +spoke of Evolution as "Darwin's theory"; and I have just read Mr. Grant +Allen as saying that Evolutionism "is an almost exclusively English +impulse."[383] + +Since 'Evolution, Old and New,' was published, I have observed several +of the so-called men of science--among them Professor Huxley and Mr. +Romanes--airing Buffon; but I never observed any of them do this till +within the last three years. I maintain that "men of science" were, and +still are, very ignorant concerning the history of Evolution; but, +whether they were or were not, I did not write 'Evolution, Old and New,' +for them; I wrote for the general public, who have been kind enough to +testify their appreciation of it in a sufficiently practical manner. + +The way in which Mr. Charles Darwin met 'Evolution, Old and New,' has +been so fully dealt with in my book, 'Unconscious Memory;' in the +'Athenaeum,' Jan. 31, 1880; the 'St. James's Gazette,' Dec. 8, 1880; and +'Nature,' Feb. 3, 1881, that I need not return to it here, more +especially as Mr. Darwin has, by his silence, admitted that he has no +defence to make. + +I have quoted by no means the moat exceptionable parts of Mr. Romanes' +article, and have given them a permanence they would not otherwise +attain, inasmuch as nothing can better show the temper of the kind of +men who are now--as I said in the body of the foregoing work--clamouring +for endowment, and who would step into the Pope's shoes to-morrow if we +would only let them. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[376] See p. 44, and the whole of chap. v., where I say of this +supposition, that "nothing could be conceived more foreign +to experience and common sense." + +[377] 'Fortnightly Review,' March 1, 1882, pp. 344, 345. + +[378] 'Saturday Review,' May 31, 1879, pp. 682-3. + +[379] P. 748. + +[380] _Ibid._ + +[381] See pp. 71-73. + +[382] 'Nineteenth Century' for November, pp. 360, 361. + +[383] 'Fortnightly Review,' March, 1882. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ROME AND PANTHEISM. + + +Evolution would after all be a poor doctrine if it did not affect human +affairs at every touch and turn. I propose to devote the second chapter +of this Appendix to the consideration of an aspect of Evolution which +will always interest a very large number of people--the development of +the relation that may exist between religion and science. + +If the Church of Rome would only develop some doctrine or, I know not +how, provide some means by which men like myself, who cannot pretend to +believe in the miraculous element of Christianity, could yet join her as +a conservative stronghold, I, for one, should gladly do so. I believe +the difference between her faith and that of all who can be called +gentlemen to be one of words rather than things. Our practical working +ideal is much the same as hers; when we use the word "gentleman" we mean +the same thing that the Church of Rome does; so that, if we get down +below the words that formulate her teaching, there are few points upon +which we should not agree. But, alas! words are often so very important. + +How is it possible for myself, for example, to give people to understand +that I believe in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception or in the +Lourdes miracles? If the Pope could spare time to think about so +insignificant a person, would he wish me to pretend such beliefs or +think better of me if I did pretend them? I should be sorry to see him +turn suddenly round and deny his own faith, and I am persuaded that, in +like manner, he would have me continue to hold my own in peace; +nevertheless, the duty of subordinating private judgment to the +avoidance of schism is so obvious that, if we could see a practicable +way of bridging the gulf between ourselves and Rome, we should be +heartily glad to bridge it. + +I speak as though the Church of Rome was the only one we can look to. I +do not see how it is easy to dispute this. Protestantism has been tried +and failed; it has long ceased to grow, but it has by no means ceased to +disintegrate. Note the manner in which it is torn asunder by +dissensions, and the rancour which these dissensions engender--a rancour +which finds its way into the political and social life of Europe, with +incalculable damage to the health and well-being of the world. Who can +doubt but that there will be a split even in the Church of England ere +so many years are over? Protestantism is like one of those drops of +glass which tend to split up into minuter and minuter fragments the +moment the bond that united them has been removed. It is as though the +force of gravity had lost its hold, and a universal power of repulsion +taken the place of attraction. This may, perhaps, come about some day in +the material as well as in the spiritual and political world, but the +spirit of the age is as yet one of aggregation; the spirit of +Protestantism is one of disintegration. I maintain, therefore, that it +is not likely to be permanent. + +All the great powers of Europe have from numberless distinct tribes +become first a few kingdoms or dukedoms, then two or three nations, and +now homogeneous wholes, so that there is no chance of their further +dismemberment through internal discontent; a process which has been +going on for so many hundreds of years all over Europe is not likely to +be arrested without ample warning. True, during the Roman Empire the +world was practically bonded together, yet broke in pieces again; but +this, I imagine, was because the bonding was prophetic and superficial +rather than genuine. Nature very commonly makes one or two false starts, +and misses her aim a time or two before she hits it. She nearly hit it +in the time of Alexander the Great, but this was a short-lived success; +in the case of the Roman Empire she succeeded better and for longer +together. Where Nature has once or twice hit her mark as near as this +she will commonly hit it outright eventually; the disruption of the +Roman Empire, therefore, does not militate against the supposition that +the normal condition of right-minded people is one which tends towards +aggregation, or, in other words, towards compromise and the merging of +much of one's own individuality for the sake of union and concerted +action. + +See, again, how Rome herself, within the limits of Italy, was an +aggregation, an aggregation which has now within these last few years +come together again after centuries of disruption; all middle-aged men +have seen many small countries come together in their own lifetime, +while in America a gigantic attempt at disruption has completely failed. +Success will, of course, sometimes attend disruption, but on the whole +the balance inclines strongly in favour of aggregation and homogeneity; +analogy points in the direction of supposing that the great civilized +nations of Europe, as they are the coalition of subordinate provinces, +so must coalesce themselves also to form a larger, but single empire. +Wars will then cease, and surely anything that seems likely to tend +towards so desirable an end deserves respectful consideration. + +The Church of Rome is essentially a unifier. It is a great thing that +nations should have so much in common as the acknowledgment of the same +tribunal for the settlement of spiritual and religious questions, and +there is no head under which Christendom can unite with as little +disturbance as under Rome. Nothing more tends to keep men apart than +religious differences; this certainly ought not to be the case, but it +no less certainly is, and therefore we should strain many points and +subordinate our private judgment to a very considerable extent if called +upon to do so. A man, under these circumstances, is right in saying he +believes in much that he does not believe in. Nevertheless there are +limits to this, and the Church of Rome requires more of us at present +than we can by any means bring ourselves into assenting to. + +It may be asked, Why have a Church at all? Why not unite in community of +negation rather than of assertion? When I wrote 'Evolution, Old and +New,' three years ago, I thought, as now, that the only possible Church +must be a development of the Church of Rome; and seeing no chance of +agreement between avowed free-thinkers, like myself, and Rome (for I +believed Rome immovable), I leaned towards absolute negation as the best +chance for unity among civilized nations; but even then, I expressed +myself as "having a strong feeling as though Professor Mivart's +conclusion is true, that 'the material universe is always and everywhere +sustained and directed by an infinite cause, for which to us the word +mind is the least inadequate and misleading symbol.'"[384] + +I had hardly finished 'Evolution, Old and New,' before I began to deal +with this question according to my lights, in a series of articles upon +God[385] which appeared in the 'Examiner' during the summer of 1879, and +I returned to the same matter more than once in 'Unconscious Memory,' my +next succeeding work. The articles I intend recasting and rewriting, as +they go upon a false assumption; but subsequent reflection has only +confirmed me in the general result I arrived at--namely, the +omnipresence of mind in the universe. + +I have therefore come to see that we can go farther than negation, and +in this case--a positive expression of faith as regards an invisible +universe of some sort being possible--a Church of some sort is also +possible, which shall formulate and express the general convictions as +regards man's position in respect of this faith. I think the instinct +which has led so many countries towards a double legislative chamber, +and ourselves, till at any rate quite recently, to a double system of +jurisprudence, law and equity, was not arrived at without having passed +through the stages of reason and reflection. There are a variety of +delicate, almost intangible, questions which belong rather to conscience +than to law, and for which a Church is a fitter tribunal--at any rate +for many ages hence--than a parliament or law court. There is room, +therefore, for both a State and a Church, each of which should be +influenced by the action of the other. + +I do not say that I personally should like to see the Church of Rome as +at present constituted in the position which I should be glad to see +attained by an ideal Church. If it were in that position I would attack +it to the utmost of my power; but I have little hesitation in thinking +that the world with a very possible feasible Church, would be better +than the world with no Church at all; and, if so, I have still less +hesitation in concluding, for the reasons already given, that it is to +Rome we must turn as the source from which the Church of the future is +to be evolved, if it is to come at all. + +For the new, if it is to strike deep root and be permanent, must grow +out of the old, without too violent a transition. Some violence there +will always be, even in the kindliest birth; but the less the better, +and a leap greater than the one from Judaism to Christianity is not +desirable, even if it were possible. As a free-thinker, therefore, but +also as one who wishes to take a practical view of the manner in which +things will, and ought to go, I neither expect to see the religions of +the world come once for all to an end with the belief in +Christianity--which to me is tantamount to saying with Rome--nor am I at +all sure that such a consummation is more desirable than likely to come +about. The ultimate fight will, I believe, be between Rome and +Pantheism; and the sooner the two contending parties can be ranged into +their opposite camps by the extinction of all intermediate creeds, the +sooner will an issue of some sort be arrived at. This will not happen in +our time, but we should work towards it. + +When it arrives, what is to happen? Is Pantheism to absorb Rome, and, if +so, what sort of a religious formula is to be the result? or is Rome so +to modify her dogmas that the Pantheist can join her without doing too +much violence to his convictions? We who are outside the Church's pale +are in the habit of thinking that she will make little if any advances +in our direction. The dream of a Pantheistic Rome seems so wild as +hardly to be entertained seriously; nevertheless I am much mistaken if I +do not detect at least one sign as though more were within the bounds of +possibility than even the most sanguine of us could have hoped for a few +years back. We do not expect the Church to go our whole length; it is +the business of some to act as pioneers, but this is the last function a +Church should assume. A Church should be as the fly-wheel of a +steam-engine, which conserves, regulates and distributes energy, but +does not originate it. In all cases it is more moral and safer to be a +little behind the age than a little in front of it; a Church, therefore, +ought to cling to an old-established belief, even though her leaders +know it to be unfounded, so long as any considerable number of her +members would be shocked at its abandonment. The question is whether +there are any signs as though the Church of Rome thought the time had +come when she might properly move a step forward, and I rejoice to +think, as I have said above, that at any rate one such sign--and a very +important one--has come under my notice. + +In his Encyclical of August 4, 1879, the Pope desires the Bishops and +Clergy to restore the golden wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, and to spread +it far and wide. "Vos omnes," he writes, "Venerabiles Fratres, quam +enixe hortamur ut ad Catholicae fidei tutelam et decus, ad societatis +bonum, ad scientiarum omnium incrementum auream Sancti Thomae sapientiam +restituatis, et quam latissime propagetis." He proceeds then with the +following remarkable passage: "We say the wisdom of St. Thomas. For +whatever has been worked out with too much subtleness by the doctors of +the schools, or handed down inconsiderately, whatever is not consistent +with the teachings of a later age, or finally, is in any way NOT +PROBABLE, We in no wise intend to propose for acceptance in these +days."[386] + +It would be almost possible to suppose that these words had been written +inadvertently, so the Pope practically repeats them thus: "We willingly +and gratefully declare that whatsoever can be excepted with advantage, +is to be excepted, no matter by whom it has been invented."[387] + +The passage just quoted is so pregnant that a few words of comment may +be very well excused. In the first place, I cannot but admire the +latitude which the Pope not only tolerates, but enjoins: he defines +nothing, but declares point blank that if we find anything in St. Thomas +Aquinas "not consistent with the assured teachings of a later age, or +finally IN ANY WAY NOT PROBABLE"--(what is not involved here?)--we are +"in no wise to suppose" that it is being proposed for our acceptance. +But it is a small step from allowing latitude in accepting or rejecting +the parts of St. Thomas Aquinas which conflict with the assured result +of later discoveries to allowing a similar latitude in respect, we will +say, of St. Jude; and if of St. Jude, then of St. James the Less; and if +of St. James the Less, then surely ere very long of St. James the +Greater and St. John and St. Paul; nor will the matter stop there. How +marvellously closely are the two extremes of doctrine approaching to one +another! We, on the one hand, who begin with _tabulae rasae_ having made a +clean sweep of every shred of doctrine, lay hold of the first thing we +can grasp with any firmness, and work back from it. We grope our way to +evolution; through this to purposive evolution; through this to the +omnipresence of mind and design throughout the universe; what is this +but God? So that we can say with absolute freedom from _equivoque_ that +we are what we are through the will of God. The theologian, on the other +hand, starts with God, and finds himself driven through this to +evolution, as surely as we found ourselves driven through evolution to +the omnipresence of God. + +Let us look a little more closely at the ground which the Church of Rome +and the Evolutionist hold in common. St. Paul speaks of there being "one +body and one spirit," and of one God as being "above all, and through +all, and in you all."[388] Again, he tells us that we are members of +God's body, "of his flesh and of his bones;"[389] in another place he +writes that God has reconciled us to himself, "in the body of his +flesh,"[390] and in yet another of the Spirit of God "dwelling in +us."[391] St. Paul indeed is continually using language which implies +the closest physical as well as spiritual union between God and those at +any rate of mankind who were Christians. Then he speaks of our "being +builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit,"[392] and +of our being "filled with the fulness of God."[393] He calls Christian +men's bodies "temples of the Holy Spirit,"[394] in fact it is not too +much to say that he regarded Christian men's limbs as the actual living +organs of God himself, for the expressions quoted above--and many others +could be given--come to no less than this. It follows that since any man +could unite himself to "the flesh and bones" of God by becoming a +Christian, Paul had a perception of the unity at any rate of human life; +and what Paul admitted I am persuaded the Church of Rome will not deny. + +Granted that Paul's notion of the unity of all mankind in one spirit +animating, or potentially animating the whole was mystical, I submit +that the main difference between him and the Evolutionist is that the +first uses certain expressions more or less prophetically, and without +perhaps a full perception of their import; while the second uses the +same expressions literally, and with the ordinary signification attached +to the words that compose them. It is not so much that we do not hold +what Paul held, but that we hold it with the greater definiteness and +comprehension which modern discovery has rendered possible. We not only +accept his words, but we extend them, and not only accept them as +articles of faith to be taken on the word of others, but as so +profoundly entering into our views of the world around us that that +world loses the greater part of its significance if we may not take such +sayings as that "we are God's flesh and his bones" as meaning neither +more nor less than what appears upon the face of them. We believe that +what we call our life is part of the universal life of the Deity--which +is literally and truly made manifest to us in flesh that can be seen and +handled--ever changing, but the same yesterday, and to-day, and for +ever. + +So much for the closeness with which we have come together on matters of +fact, and now for the _rapprochement_ between us in respect of how much +conformity is required for the sake of avoiding schism. We find +ourselves driven through considerations of great obviousness and +simplicity to the conclusion that a man both may and should keep no +small part of his opinions to himself, if they are too widely different +from those of other people for the sake of union and the strength gained +by concerted action; and we also find the Pope declaring of one of the +brightest saints and luminaries of the Church that we need not follow +him when it is plainly impossible for us to do so. Is it so very much to +hope that ere many years are over the approximation will become closer +still? + +I have sometimes imagined that the doctrine of Papal Infallibility may +be the beginning of a way out of the difficulty, and that its promoters +were so eager for it, rather for the facilities it afforded for the +repealing of old dogmas than for the imposition of new ones. The Pope +cannot, even now, under any circumstances, declare a dogma of the Church +to be obsolete or untrue, but I should imagine he can, in council, _ex +cathedra_, modify the interpretation to be put upon any dogma, if he +should find the interpretation commonly received to be prejudicial to +the good of the Church: and if so, the manner in which Rome can put +herself more in harmony with the spirit of recent discoveries, without +putting herself in an illogical position, is not likely to escape eyes +so keen as those of the Catholic hierarchy. No sensible man will +hesitate to admit that many an interpretation which was natural to and +suitable for one age is unnatural to and unsuitable for another; as +circumstances are always changing, so men's moods and the meanings they +attach to words, and the state of their knowledge changes; and hence, +also, the interpretation of the dogmas in which their conclusions are +summarized. There is nothing to be ashamed of or that needs explaining +away in this; nothing can remain changeless under changed conditions; +and that institution is most likely to be permanent which contains +provision for such changes as time may prove to be expedient, with the +least disturbance. I can see nothing, therefore, illogical or that needs +concealment in the fact of an infallible Pope putting a widely different +interpretation upon a dogma now, to what a no less infallible Pope put +upon the same dogma fifteen hundred, or even fifteen years ago; it is +only right, reasonable, and natural that this should be so. The Church +of England may have made no provision for the virtual pruning off of +dogmas that have become rudimentary, but the Encyclical from which I +have just quoted leads me to think that the Church of Rome has found +one, and, in her own cautious way, is proceeding to make use of it. If +so, she may possibly in the end get rid of Protestantism by putting +herself more in harmony with the spirit of the age than Protestantism +can do. In this case, the spiritual reunion of Christendom under Rome +ceases to be impossible, or even, I should think improbable. I heartily +wish that my conjecture concerning future possibilities is not +unfounded. + +Scientists have been right in preaching evolution, but they have +preached it in such a way as to make it almost as much of a +stumbling-block as of an assistance. For though the fact that animals +and plants are descended from a common stock is accepted by the greater +and more reasonable part of mankind, these same people feel that the +evidence in favour of design in the universe is no less strong than that +in favour of evolution, and our scientists, for the most part, uphold a +theory of evolution of which the cardinal doctrine is that design and +evolution have nothing to do with one another; the jar they raise, +therefore, is as bad as the jar they have allayed. + +It has been the object of the foregoing work to show that those who take +this line are wrong, and that evolution not only tolerates design, but +cannot get on without it. The unscrupulousness with which I have been +attacked, together with the support given me by the general public, are +sufficient proofs that I have not written in vain. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[384] P. 371. + +[385] Published as "God the Known and God the Unknown" in 1909. +(Fifield.) + +[386] "Sapientiam Sancti Thomae dicimus: si quid enim est a doctoribus +scholasticis vel nimia subtilitate quaesitum, vel parum considerate +traditum, si quid cum exploratis posterioris aevi doctrinis minus +cohaerens, vel denique quoque modo non probabile, id nullo pacto in animo +est aetate nostra ad imitandum proponi." + +[387] "Edicimus libenti gratoque animo excipiendum esse quidquid +utiliter fuerit a quopiam inventum atque excogitatum." + +[388] Eph. iv. 3, 4, 5. + +[389] Eph. v. 30. + +[390] Col. i. 22. + +[391] Rom. viii. 2. + +[392] Eph. ii. 22. + +[393] Eph. iii. 19. + +[394] 1 Cor. vii. 19. + + + + +INDEX + + +ABORTION, neutralization of working bees an act of, 250 + +Accessory touches, varying Buffon on, 92 + +Accident, many of our best thoughts come thoughtlessly, 48, 384 + +---- profiting by, 51, 53 + +---- and discovery of theory connecting meteors with comets, 53 + +---- shaking the bag to see what will come out, 53 + +---- effects of, transmitted to offspring, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 224 + +---- and design, the line between these hard to draw, 384 + +Accidental variations thrown for as with dice, 3 + +Accumulation of variations, C. Darwin deals with the, and not with + the origin of, 340, 341 + +---- of small divergencies, Buffon on the, 103 + +Accurate, survival of fittest more accurate than Nat. Sel. and + _sometimes_ equally convenient, 9, 354, 365 + +Act of Parliament, Natural Selection compared to a certain kind of, 358 + +Age, old, the phenomena of, 67, 204, 381 + +Aggregation, the spirit of the age tends towards, 397, 398 + +Ahead, no organism sees very far, 44, 48, 54, 384 + +Aldrovandus, Buffon on the learned, 93 + +Alive, when we must not say that an animal is alive (to be + retracted), 279 + +Allen, Grant, on 'Evolution, Old and New,' 386-388 + +---- on the decay of criticism, 388 + +---- calls Evolutionism "an almost exclusively English impulse," 393 + +Alternations of fat and lean years, Buffon on, 125 + +Amoeba, the, did not conceive the idea of an eye and work towards + it, 43, 44, 384 + +Analogies, false, all words are apt to turn out to be, 365 + +Animals, contracts among, Dr. E. Darwin on, 205 + +Ape, the, and man, 90 + +Apes and monkeys, Buffon on, 153 + +---- and children fall on all-fours at the approach of danger, 312 + +Apparentibus, _de non_, _et non existentibus, &c._, 36 + +Appearances, rather superficial, our only guide to + classification, 34, 35, 36, 198, 204 + +Appetency, Paley's argument against the view that structures have been + developed through, 22, 45 + +Aristides, C. Darwin as just as, 363 + +Aristotle denied teleology, 4 + +Artificial and real foot, differences between, 25 + +Asceticism, virtue errs on the side of excess rather than on that of, 35 + +Ass, the, and horse, Buffon's pregnant passage on their + relationship, 80, 90, 91, 100, 101, 142, 143, 155, 164, 311 + +Authority, a hard thing to weigh, 253 + + +BACON, F., on evolution, 69 + +Balzac, quotation from, on memory and instinct, 67 + +Bark, Erasmus Darwin's theory of, 208 + +Beaver, trowel incorporated into the beaver's organism, 8 + +Bees, neutralization of working, an act of abortion, 250 + +Beetles, Madeira, Lamarck and C. Darwin's views of their winglessness + compared, 373, 380 + +Begin, How could the eye _begin_? 46, 47 + +Beginnings, of complex structures, a difficulty in the way of natural + selection, 21, 22 + +---- difficulty of accounting for, 46, 47 + +---- a matter of conjecture and inference, 48 + +Behind, more moral to be behind the age than in front of it, 401 + +Best, making the best of whatever power one has, 50 + +Bird, how birds became web-footed, 48, 49, 51 + +---- a, will modify its nest a little, under altered circumstances, 55 + +---- Buffon on, 170, &c. + +---- nests, Dr. Erasmus Darwin's failure to connect the power to make + them with memory, 201, 203 + +---- aquatic and wading, Lamarck on, 305 + +Bishop, and Eveque, common derivation of, 355 + +Blindfolded, we are so far, that we can see a few steps in front, + but no more, 44 + +---- us, C. Darwin has almost ostentatiously, 346 + +Blindly, forces interacting blindly, 59 + +Body and mind, Lamarck on, 338, 339, 341 + +Brain, Lamarck had brain upon the brain, 36 + +---- Buffon on the, 131, 133, &c. + +Brevity may be the soul of wit, but, &c., 315 + +Breeding, and feeding, 222 + +Brown-Sequard, his experiments on guinea-pigs' legs, 303 + +Buds, individuality of, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on the, 207, 208 + +Buffalo, Buffon on the, 148, &c. + +Buffon, profoundly superficial, 34 + +---- _plus il a su, plus il a pu, &c._, 44 + +---- _dans l'animal il y a moins de jugement que de sentiment_, 51 + +---- ignorance concerning, 61 + +---- memoir of, 74, &c. + +---- on glory, genius, and style, 76, 77 + +---- ironical character of his work and method (_see_ Irony), 78, + &c., 171 + +---- on the ass, horse, and zebra, 80, 90, 91, 100, 101, 142, + 143, 155, 164, 311 + +---- would not play the part of Rousseau or Voltaire, 81 + +---- Sir W. Jardine on, and the Sorbonne, 82 + +---- regards all animal and vegetable life as from one common source, 90 + +---- if a single species has ever been found under domestication, + &c., 91 + +---- on plaisanterie, and the learned Aldrovandus, 93, &c. + +---- his compromise, 92 + +---- accessory touches, 92 + +---- "_especially_" the same, 96 + +---- fluctuation of opinion an unfounded charge, 97, &c., 164 + +---- on the accumulation of small divergencies, 103 + +---- began preaching evolution almost on his first page, 104 + +---- chapter on the _degeneration des animaux_, equivalent to "on + descent with modification," 104, &c. + +---- difference of opinion between him and Erasmus Darwin and + Lamarck, 105 + +---- probably did not differ from Lamarck, 105 + +---- on direct action of changed conditions, 105, 145, 147 + +---- on man and the lower animals, 108 + +---- on classification, 108, 109, 141 + +---- on animals and plants, 109, 110 + +---- on reason and instinct, 110, 115 + +---- on final causes (the pig), 118, &c. + +---- on hybridism, 117, 118 + +---- rudimentary organs, 120 + +---- on animals under domestication, 121, &c., 148 + +---- deals with these early, as giving him the best opportunities + for illustrating the theory of evolution, 276 + +---- approaches natural selection in his "by _some chance_ common + enough in Nature," 122 + +---- preaching on the hare when he should have preached on the rabbit + out of pure love of mischief, 123 + +---- resumption of feral characteristics, 123 + +---- on the geometrical ratio of increase, 123, &c. + +---- alternation of fat and lean years, 125 + +---- equilibrium of Nature, 125 + +---- "au reel," 126 + +---- on violent death, 126 + +---- on sensation, 126, &c. + +---- on the interaction of organ and sense, 127 + +---- the carnivora, 126 + +---- his criterion of what name a thing is to bear, 127 + +---- his criterion of perception and sensation, 127 + +---- on the unity of the individual, 127, 128 + +---- satirizes our habit of judging all things by our own standards, 129 + +---- the diaphragm, 129 + +---- on the stock and the diaphragm, 130 + +---- distinction between perception and sensation, 129, 130 + +---- on the meninges, 132 + +---- on the brain, 131, 133, &c. + +---- on scientific orthodoxy and mystification, 138 + +---- on the relativity of science, 140 + +---- on nomenclature and knowledge, 141 + +---- on the genus _felis_, 143 + +---- on the lion and the tiger, 143, 145 + +---- on the animals of the old and new world, 145, &c. + +---- on changed geographical distribution of land and water, 145, 164 + +---- on extinct species, 146 + +---- hates the new world, 146 + +---- on heredity and habit, 148, 159, 160, 161, 162 + +---- approaches Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, _re_ the Buffalo, Camel, + and Llama, 148, 160, 161 + +---- on oneness of personality between parents and offspring, 151 + +---- on the organic and inorganic, 153, &c. + +---- on apes and monkeys, 153, &c. + +---- on the causes or means of the transformation of species, 159, &c. + +---- on generic (as well as specific) differences, 164 + +---- on plants under domestication, 167 + +---- on pigeons and fowls, 169 + +---- on birds, 170, &c. + +---- the assistance he rendered to Lamarck, 237, 258 + +---- Isidore Geoffroy's failure to understand, 328 + +---- Colonel, 75 + +Bulk, a _sine qua non_ for success in literature or science, 315 + +Bull running, Tutbury, and Erasmus Darwin, 187 + + +CAMEL, Buffon on the hereditary ills of the, 161 + +Cant, and rudimentary organs, 38 + +Captandum, all good things are done ad, 85 + +Carnivora, Buffon on the, 126 + +Carriage, Dr. Erasmus Darwin's, 181 + +Cat, family, Buffon on the, 142, &c. + +---- with a mane and long tail, 143 + +Cataclysms, the good cells that get exterminated during the cataclysms + of our own development, 75 + +Catastrophes, Lamarck on, 277 + +Causes, or "means," of modification, 301 + +---- C. Darwin says that Buffon has not entered on the, 104, &c. + +---- C. Darwin gets us into a fog about, 345, &c. + +Change, under changed circumstances, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 318 + +Charity, the greatest of these is, 77 + +Church, a, like a second chamber, 400 + +---- the world better with than without, 400 + +---- should be like the fly-wheel of a steam engine, 104 + +_Circonstances_ (_see_ Conditions of Existence), Lamarck on, 268, 281 + +Circumstance, suiting power, a, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 318-321 + +Classification, rather superficial appearances our best guide + to, 34, 35, 36, 198, 204 + +---- Buffon on, 108, 109, 141 + +Clear, an ineradicable tendency to make things, 92 + +Clifford, Professor, on "Design," 6, 7 + +Climbing plants, the movements of, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on, 209 + +Coherency, the persistency of ideas the best argument in support of + their legitimate connection, 23 + +Coleridge, on "Darwinising," 21 + +Common terms, our, involve the connection between memory and + heredity, 201, 205 + +---- descent, the "hidden bond" of Lamarck, as also of C. Darwin, 271 + +Comparative anatomy, Lamarck on, 266, &c. + +Complex structures, the incipiency of, a difficulty in the way of the + natural selection view of evolution, 21, 22 + +Compromise, Buffon's, 92 + +Conditions of existence, the very essence of condition involves that + there shall be penalty in case of non-fulfilment, 352, 376, 377 + +---- and the winglessness of Madeira beetles, 373, &c. + +---- according to C. Darwin, "include" and yet "are fully embraced by" + natural selection, 355 + +---- identical with "natural selection," 351-354 + +---- Etienne Geoffroy, and Lamarck on, 326, 327, 328 + +---- Buffon on the, 103; + difference between Buffon's and Lamarck's view of their action, 105 + +---- direct action of changed, Buffon on the, 145, 147, 160 + +---- Lamarck on, 105, 268, 270, 271, 275, 277, 278, 281, 291, + 292, 294, 295, 298, 299, 300, &c. + +Continuity in discontinuity, and _vice versa_, 47 + +Contracts of animals, Dr. E. Darwin on the, 205 + +Contrivance, does organism show signs of this? 2 + +Convenient, not only _sometimes_, but always, more, 365 + +Corkscrew for corks, and lungs for respiration, Prof. Clifford on, 7. + See also p. 58 + +---- we should have grown a, if drawing corks had been important + to us, 7 + +Creator, a, who is not an organism, unintelligible, 6, 11, 24 + +Criticising, difficulty of, without knowing more than the mere facts + which are to be criticised, 172 + +Criticism, Miss Seward's, on Dr. Darwin's "Elegy," 189 + +---- Grant Allen on the decay of, 388 + +Crux, the, of the early evolutionist, 35 + +Cuttle-fish, natural selection like the secretion of a, 332 + + +DAMNATION, praising with faint, 111 + +Darwin, Charles, on the eye, denies design, 8 + +---- declares variation to be the cause of variation, 8, 347, 369 + +---- and blind chance working on whither; the accumulation of + innumerable lucky accidents, 41, 42 + +---- our indebtedness to, 62, 66, 335 + +---- has adopted one half of Isidore Geoffroy's conclusion without + verifying either, 83 + +---- on Buffon's fluctuation of opinion, 97 + +---- on Isidore Geoffroy, 97 + +---- his assertion that Buffon has not entered on the "causes or + means" of transformation, 104 + +---- his meagre notice of his grandfather, 196 + +---- his treatment of the author of the "Vestiges of Creation," 65, + 247, 248 + +---- attributes the characteristics of neuter insects to natural + selection, 249 + +---- his treatment of Lamarck, 249, 250, 251, 298, 314, 376 + +---- "great is the power of steady misrepresentation," 251 + +---- his "happy simplicity" about animals and plants under + domestication, 276 + +---- his notice of Mr. Patrick Matthew in the imperfect historical + sketch which he has prefaced to the "Origin of Species," 315, 316 + +---- points of agreement between him and Lamarck, 335-337 + +---- sees no broad principle underlying variation, 339 + +---- dwells on the accumulation of variations, the origination of + which he leaves unaccounted for, 340, 341 + +---- his variations being due to no general underlying principle, will + not tend to appear in definite directions, nor to many individuals + at a time, nor to be constant for long together, 342 + +---- speaks of natural selection as a cause of modification, while + declaring it to be a means only, 345, &c. + +---- his explanation of this, 384, &c. + +---- his dilemma, as regards the "Origin of Species," 346 + +---- declares the fact of variation to be the cause of variation, + 8, 347, 369 + +---- if he had told us more of what Buffon, &c., said, and where + they were wrong, he would have taken a course, &c., 357 + +---- on the ease with which we can hide our ignorance under a cloud + of words, 358 + +---- apologizes for having underrated the frequency and importance + of variation due to spontaneous variability, 358 + +---- his "Origin of Species" like the opinion of a lawyer who wanted + to leave loopholes, or an Act of Parliament full of repealed and + inserted clauses, 358 + +---- accused of confusion and inaccuracy of thought, 359 + +---- as just as Aristides himself, 364 + +---- most candid literary opponent in the world, 364 + +---- declares Nature to be the most important means of modification, + and variation to be the cause of variations, 369 + +---- like a will-o'-the-wisp, 372 + +---- disuse, the main agent in reducing wings of Madeira beetles, 377 + +---- how he and Lamarck treat the winglessness of Madeira beetles + respectively, 373-380 + +---- an example of his "manner," 378 + +---- the way in which he met "Evolution, Old and New," 393 + +Darwin, Erasmus, never quite recognized design, 39 + +---- ignorance concerning, 61 + +---- on reason and instinct, 115, &c. + +---- life of, 173, &c. + +---- in Nottingham market-place, 182, 184, 197 + +---- and Dr. Johnson, 184, 185 + +---- and Tutbury bull running, 187 + +---- his poetry about the pump, and illustration, 84, 193 + +---- should have given his evolution theory a book to itself, 197 + +---- had no wish to see far beyond the obvious, 197 + +---- must be admitted to have missed detecting Buffon's + humour, 83, 84, 197 + +---- did not attribute instincts and structures to memory pure + and simple, 198 + +---- on the reasoning powers of animals, and on instinct, 201, 205 + +---- his failure to connect memory and instinct, as with birds' + nests, 201-203 + +---- failed to see the four main propositions which I contended + for in "Life and Habit," 37, 203, 204 + +---- on the analogies between animal and vegetable life, 206, &c. + +---- on sensitive plants, 206, 210 + +---- on the individuality of buds, and his theory of bark, 207, 208 + +---- on the movements of climbing plants, 209 + +---- on the oneness of personality between parents and offspring, 214; + the embryo not a new animal, 215 + +---- on animals under domestication, 223 + +---- on the effects of accidents transmitted to offspring, 224 + +---- sees struggle, and hence modification, turn mainly round three + great wants, 226, 229, 257, 279 + +---- on desire as a means of modification, 226, 228, 259 + +---- by a slip approaches the error of his grandson, 227, 228 + +---- on embryonic metamorphoses, 230, 231 + +---- believed animals and plants to be descended from a common + stock, 233 + +---- and Lamarck compared, 257 + +---- on the struggle of existence, and the survival of the + fittest, 227, 232, 259 + +Darwin, Mrs. Erasmus, death-bed of, 178 + +Darwin, Francis, mentioned, 109 + +---- his interesting lecture, 206 + +---- does not use the expression "natural selection," 368 + +Darwinising, Coleridge on, 21 + +Darwinism, the old Darwinism involves desire, invention, and design, 58 + +---- modern, falling into disfavour, 60 + +---- and evolution not to be confounded, 360, 361 + +Day, the portrait of, by Wright of Derby, 180 + +Death, violent, Buffon on, 126 + +---- of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 193, 194 + +Death-bed of Mrs. Erasmus Darwin, 178 + +Deed, illustration drawn from a very intricate, 28 + +Definite, with Lamarck the variations are, 341, 344 + +_Degenerations_, 87 + +Demand and supply, like power and desire, 222, 300 + +Demonstrative case, "this demonstrative case of neuter insects, + &c.," 249, 298, 314 + +Descent, with modification, spoken of as though synonymous with + natural selection, 248, 356 + +Design, and organism, shall we or shall we not connect these ideas? 2 + +---- Aristotle denied, Plato upheld, Haeckel on, 4 + +---- Prof. Clifford's denial of, 6, 7 + +---- does certainly involve a designer who has an organism, who + can think, and make mistakes, 6, 24 + +---- a belief in both design and evolution, commonly held to + be incompatible, 9 + +---- Sir W. Thomson and Sir J. Herschel on, 11 + +---- Paley on, 12, &c. + +---- light thrown by embryology on the method of, 25 + +---- G. H. Lewes opposes, 26 + +---- the three positions in respect to, taken by Charles Darwin, + Paley, and the earlier evolutionists, 31 + +---- the first evolutionists did not see that their view of + evolution involved design, 34 + +---- from within as much design as from without, 36 + +---- was equivalent to theological design, with the early + evolutionists, 36 + +---- if each step is taken designedly, the whole is done + designedly, 52, 384 + +---- and accident, the line between them hard to draw; shaking + the bag, &c., 53, 384 + +---- instinct originated in, 54 + +---- as much lost sight of with old-established forms of the + steam-engine as with birds' nests or the wheel, 55 + +---- Dr. E. Darwin's failure to see that evolution involves design, 195 + +---- we feel the want of, as much as we do of evolution, 407 + +---- evolution not only tolerates, but cannot get on without, 408 + +Designer, "I believe in an organic and tangible designer of every + complex structure," 6 + +---- "where is he? show him to us," &c., 29, 30 + +---- the, of any organism, the organism itself, 30, 31, 40 + +Desire and power, interaction of, 44, 45, 47, 127, 217, 221, 300, 322 + +---- and power, like wealth, 222 + +---- as a means of modification, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on, 226, 228, 259 + +Development, the history of organic, the history of a moral struggle, 45 + +---- always due to making the best of the present, 50 + +Devils, 20,000, dancing a saraband on the point of a needle, 216 + +Dew drop, or lens, the, and Lord Rosse's telescope, 44, 47 + +Diaphragm, Buffon on the, 129 + +Dice, accidental variations thrown for as with, 3 + +Difference between animal and ordinary mechanism, 24 + +---- the main, between the manufacture of tools and that of organs, 39 + +Dilemma, C. Darwin's, 346 + +Direct action of changed conditions, Buffon on the, 105, 145, 147, 160 + +Discontinuity in continuity, 47 + +Disease, accidents followed by, 303 + +Disintegration, Protestantism tends towards, 397 + +Distribution, geographical, changed, Buffon on, 145, 164 + +Disuse, and the winglessness of Madeira beetles, we are almost surprised + to find that they are connected at all, 375 + +---- the main agent in reducing the wings of Madeira beetles, 377 + +---- some examples of the effect of, adduced by Lamarck, 378 + +Dog, Buffon on the, 120 + +---- Lamarck on the various breeds of the, 297 + +Domestication, a single case of a species formed under domestication + sufficient to remove the _a priori_ difficulty from a + comprehensive theory of evolution, 90, 91, 311 + +---- plants under, Buffon on, 167, &c. + +---- Buffon on animals under, 103, 120, &c., 148, &c., 159, &c., 276 + +---- animals under, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on, 223 + +---- animals under, Buffon on, 121, &c., 148, 276 + +---- C. Darwin on, 276 + +---- animals and plants under, Lamarck on, 275, 293, 296, 297, 300 + +---- animals and plants under, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 324 + +Door, the doing anything well will open the door for doing + something else, 51 + +Ducks, our domesticated, why they cannot fly like wild ones, 296, 309 + + +EARN, "you are but doing your best to earn an honest living," 29 + +Ears are never found in a rudimentary condition, 379 + +Eat, or be eaten, 177 + +Effort, Paley's argument that structures have not been developed + through, 22, 45 + +---- too much, as vicious as indolence, 35 + +---- "neither too much nor too little," 50 + +---- Herculean, condemned, 197 + +Egyptian mummies, Lamarck on, 274, 275 + +Embryology, the light it throws upon the mode in which organisms + have been designed, 25 + +Embryonic metamorphoses, Erasmus Darwin on, 230, 231 + +Embryonic development, Lamarck on, 289 + +Encyclical, the Pope's, on St. Thomas Aquinas, 402, &c. + +Endeavour, Paley's argument against the view that structures have + been developed through, 22, 45 + +Endowment, the new orthodoxy, which is clamouring for, 360 + +English wines, Dr. Erasmus Darwin's preference for, 175 + +Environment. _See_ Conditions of Existence + +Equilibrium, the, of Nature, Buffon on the, 125 + +Err, the power to, rated highly, 29 + +---- "it is on this margin that we may err or wander," 50 + +---- virtue ever errs on the side of excess, 35 + +Error, importance of, dependent on the distance, rather than the + direction, 50 + +"Especially" the same, 92, 96 + +Ethiopian, the, can change his skin, if it becomes worth his while + to try long enough, 40 + +Eveque and bishop, common derivation of, 355 + +Everlasting, God, how far, 32 + +Evolution, commonly held incompatible with design, 9 + +---- Paley, its first serious opponent in England, 21 + +---- Sir Walter Raleigh on, 21, 70 + +---- must stand or fall according as it rests on a purposive + foundation or no, 60 + +---- brief summary of its six principal stages, 62, &c. + +---- Bacon on, 69 + +---- the theory of, as apart from the evidence in support of it, 332 + +---- C. Darwin and Lamarck are equally intent upon establishing + the same theory of evolution, 335-337 + +---- and Darwinism, not to be confounded, 360, 361 + +---- Rome and Pantheism meet in, 403 + +Evolutionists, the early, did not know that they accepted teleology, 34 + +---- the early, saw design, only as design by the God of theologians, 36 + +Experience and instinct, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 322 + +Extinct species, Lamarck on, 277 + +---- Buffon on, 146, 277 + +Eye, no creature that had nothing like an eye ever set itself to + conceive one and grow one, 44, 387 + +---- Paley asks "how will our philosopher get an eye?" 46 + +---- of flat fish, Lamarck on the, 307 + +---- Lamarck on the, of underground and cave-inhabiting animals, 378 + +---- disappear and reappear in the scale of organism according to the + power of using them, 379 + + +FAITH, forms of, or faiths of form, &c., 339 + +Familiarity, with a little, such superficial objections will be + forgotten, 367 + +Far ahead, no organism ever saw an improvement a long way off and made + towards it, 43, 44, 48, 49, 54, 384 + +Father, the man who could be father of such a son and retain his + affection, &c., 76 + +Factors, there have been two, of modification, one producing and the + other accumulating variations, 227 + +Fecundity, alternate years of, Buffon on, 125 + +Feeding and breeding, 222 + +Feel, if plants and animals look as if they feel, let us say + they feel, 198 + +Feeling, there is more feeling than reason in animals, 51 + +Feral characteristics, resumption of, Buffon on, 123 + +Final causes, the doctrine of, as commonly held in the time of the + early evolutionists, 34, 36 + +---- Buffon on, 118, &c. + +Fitness, the cause of, more important than the fact that fitness is + commonly fit, and therefore successful, 351 + +Flat fish, Lamarck on the eyes of, 307 + +Fluctuation of opinion, C. Darwin on Buffon's, the charge + refuted, 97, &c., 164, 166 + +Fontenelle, on theories, 22 + +Foot, and model of foot, differences between, 24 + +Forms of faith, or faiths of form, &c., 339 + +Four main points which the early evolutionists failed to see in + their connection and bearing on each other, 37, 203 + +Four main principles, the, which I contended for in "Life and + Habit," 37, 203, 380, 381 + +Fowls and pigeons, Buffon on, 169 + + +GARNETT, Mr. R., and "Darwinising," 21 + +Genius, Mr. Allen says I am a, 388 + +Gentleman, the Church of Rome means the same by the word as we do, 395 + +Geoffroy, Etienne, how small a way he goes, 196 + +---- and Isidore, trimmers, 328 + +---- on Buffon, 328 + +---- on conditions of existence, 326, 327 + +---- declares against Lamarck's hypothesis, 328 + +---- his position, 325-328 + +Geoffroy, Isidore, on evolution and final causes, 9 + +---- on Buffon's fluctuation of opinion, 98, &c., 164, 166 + +---- points out the difference between the views of Buffon + and Lamarck, 105 + +---- statement that Buffon's opinions fluctuated again refuted, 166 + +---- and Lamarck's hypothesis, 244-246, 329 + +---- on Buffon, 328 + +---- his position, 329 + +Genealogical order, Lamarck on, 264 + +---- C. Darwin on, 265 + +Generation more remarkable than reason, Hume on, 233 + +Generic differences (as well as specific), Buffon on, 164 + +Genius, a supreme capacity for taking pains, 76 + +Geographical distribution, changed, Buffon on, 145, &c., 164 + +Geometrical ratio of increase, Buffon on, 123 + +---- Lamarck, on, 280 + +---- Patrick Matthew on, 320, 321 + +Germ of oak indistinguishable from that of a man, 334 + +Germans, Buffon on the, 93 + +Glory "comes after labour if she can," &c., 76 + +Go away, because their uncles, aunts, 376 + +God, embodied in living forms, and dwelling in them, 31 + +---- how far everlasting, invisible, imperishable, omnipotent, &c., 32 + +---- the unseen parts of, are as a deep-buried history, 33 + +Goethe, as an evolutionist, 71 + +Gradations infinitely subtle, 87 + +Grant Allen, on "Evolution, Old and New," 386-388 + +---- on the decay of criticism, 388 + +---- says that "Evolutionism is an almost exclusively English + impulse," 393 + +Greyhound or racehorse, the well-adapted form of the, 359 + +Growth attended at each step by a felicitous tempering of two + antagonistic principles, 35 + +Gueneau de Montbeillard, 172, 173 + + +HABIT," "Life and. _See_ "Life and Habit." + +---- rudimentary organs repeated through mere force of, 38, 39 + +---- Buffon on, 148, 159, 160, 161, 162 + +---- a second Nature, Lamarck on, 300 + +Habits, or use, and organ, Lamarck on the interaction of, 292, 311 + +Haeckel, on design, 4, 5 + +---- on Goethe as an evolutionist, 71 + +---- does not appear to know of Buffon as an evolutionist, 71, 393 + +---- his surprising statement concerning Lamarck, 73 + +---- his ignorance concerning Erasmus Darwin, 73, 393 + +---- on Lamarck, 246, 247 + +---- A. R. Wallace's review of his "Evolution of Man," 382, 384 + +Hamlet, the "Origin of Species" like "Hamlet" without Hamlet, 363 + +Handiest, a man should do whatever comes handiest, 51, 52 + +Hare, Buffon on the, 123, &c. + +Hartmann's philosophy of the unconscious, and "Life and Habit," 56, 57 + +Hearing, when we once reach animals so low as to have no organ of, + we lose this organ for good and all, 379 + +Heredity and habit, Buffon on, 148, 159, 160, 161, 162 + +---- only another term for unknown causes, unless the "Life and Habit" + theory be adopted, 384 + +Hering, Professor, referred to, 66, 67 + +---- his theory as given in "Nature" by Ray Lankester, 198-200 + +Herschel, Sir John, compares natural selection to the Laputan + method of making books, 10 + +Higgling and haggling of the market, 50 + +History of the universe, each organism is a, from its own point + of view, 31 + +Horse and ass, Buffon's most pregnant passage on the, 80, 90, 91, + 100, 101, 142, 143, 155, 164, 311 + +---- and man, skeleton of the, 88, 89 + +---- and zebra, Buffon on the, example of irony, 80, 155, 164 + +Hume, his saying that generation is more remarkable than reason, 233 + +Huxley, Professor, referred to, 93 + +---- pointed out to Professor Mivart the difficulty in the way of + natural selection, 344 + +---- his ignorance concerning the earlier history of evolution, 392, 393 + +Hybridism, Buffon on, 117, 118 + +Hybrids, sterility of, Lamarck on, and C. Darwin on, 272, 273 + + +IDEAS, the bond or nexus of our, 23, 29, 30 + +Ignorance, the prevailing, concerning the earlier evolutionists, 61 + +---- it is easy to hide our, under such expressions as "plan of + creation," or natural selection, 358 + +Imitation, instinct not referable to, as maintained by Erasmus + Darwin, 202 + +Immutability of species and design commonly accepted together, 9, 10 + +Improvements, small successive, in man's inventions, 44, 46, + 47, 54, 55, 384 + +Inaccuracy of thought, C. Darwin accused of, 359 + +Incipiency, of complex structures, a difficulty in the way of the + Natural selection view of evolution, 21, 22 + +Incorporate, the designer is, with the organism, 30 + +Increase, geometrical ratio of Buffon on the, 123 + +---- Lamarck on, 280 + +---- Patrick Matthew on, 320, 321 + +Indefinite, with C. Darwin the variations are, 342, 344 + +Indifference, I say I am more indifferent than I think I am, whether + mind is or is not the least misleading symbol for the cause that + sustains the universe, 371 + +Indirect action of conditions of existence according to + Lamarck, 294, 299, 306. (_See_ "Conditions of Existence") + +Individuality, Buffon on, 128 + +---- of buds, Erasmus Darwin on the, 207, 208 + +---- our, a _consensus_, or full-flowing river, 318 + +Infallibility, possible results of the doctrine of Papal, 406 + +Insectivorous plants, Erasmus Darwin on, 206 + +Instep, ligament that binds the tendons of the, Paley on the, 22 + +Instinct, present, does not bar its having arisen in reason and + reflection, 53, 54 + +---- returns to its earlier phase, _i. e._ to reason on the presence + of the unfamiliar, 54, 55, 56 + +---- and reason, Buffon on, 110-116 + +---- Darwin, Erasmus, on, 115, 116, 204 + +---- not referable to imitation, as maintained by Erasmus Darwin, 202 + +---- is reason become habitual, 203 + +---- reason perfected and got by rote, 256 + +---- and reason, Lamarck on, 256, 257, 274 + +---- referred to experience and memory, by Patrick Matthew, 322 + +Insult, "Evolution, Old and New," not intended as an insult to men + of science, 392 + +Interaction of want and power, 44, 45, 47, 217, 218, 221, 300, 323 + +---- of body and mind, Lamarck on the, 338, 339, 341 + +Interesting, the more interesting the animal the more evolution Buffon + puts into his account of it, 84 + +Intermediate forms, Lamarck on, 283, 286 + +---- C. Darwin, 284, 285 + +Inventions, small successive improvements in man's, and development of, + analogous to that of organism, 44, 46, 47, 54, 55, 384 + +Irony, good-natured and the reverse, 91 + +---- an apology for, and explanation how far it is legitimate, 111, 112 + +---- Buffon's, 78, &c., 91, 92, 93, 155, 157, 163, 164 + + +JARDINE, Sir W., on Buffon's character, 82 + +Johnson, Dr., and Erasmus Darwin, 184, 185 + +Joints, Paley on the human, 19, 20 + +Juggle, Paley's argument a juggle, unless man has had a _bona fide_ + personal, and therefore organic designer, 14, 16 + + +KNEE-PAN, Paley on the human, 18 + +Knowledge, nomenclature mistaken for, 141 + + +LABOUR, glory comes after, if she can, 76 + +Lamarck, had brain upon the brain, 36 + +---- never quite recognized design, 39 + +---- Haeckel's surprising statement concerning, 73 + +---- wherein he mainly differs from Buffon, 105 + +---- memoir of, 235 + +---- his connection with Buffon, as tutor to his son, &c., 237, 258 + +---- his daughters, 242, 253 + +---- his poverty and blindness, 242, 253 + +---- Isidore Geoffroy on, bad caricature of his teaching, 244-246 + +---- Haeckel on, 246, 247 + +---- never seriously discussed, 247 + +---- "the well-known doctrine of," C. Darwin's reference + to, 249, 250, 251, 298, 314, 376 + +---- on the opposition his theory met with, 252 + +---- too old to have begun his unequal contest, 253 + +---- on the feeling of animals, 254, 255 + +---- too theory-ridden, 254 + +---- misled by Buffon (query), 255 + +---- took from Buffon without sufficient acknowledgment, + 255, 258, 260, 311 + +---- as compared with Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 257 + +---- like Dr. E. Darwin, sees struggle and modification turn + mainly round three great wants, 257, 279, 300, 309 + +---- when and how he came over to the side of mutability, 258 + +---- and the French translation of the "Loves of the Plant," 259 + +---- on comparative anatomy, 266 + +---- on species, 267, &c. + +---- on conditions of existence (_circonstances_), 105, 268, 270, 271, + 275, 277, 278, 281, 291, 292, 294, 295, 298, 299, 300, &c. + +---- on instinct, 274 + +---- on animals and plants under domestication, 275, 293, 296, 297, 300 + +---- on extinct species, 277 + +---- anticipated Lyell in rejecting catastrophes, 277 + +---- on the geometrical ratio of increase and struggle for + existence, 280-282 + +---- on embryonic development, 289 + +---- the main principles which he supposes to underlie + variations, 292, 299, 338, 339 + +---- his contention that plants have neither actions nor habits, 295 + +---- on use and disuse, 294, 296, 299, 301, 302, 304, 305, 307-309 + +---- on the various breeds of the dog, 297 + +---- habit a second nature, 300 + +---- like Erasmus Darwin and Buffon, understood the survival of + the fittest, 301 + +---- on the way in which serpents have lost their legs, 303 + +---- on wading and aquatic birds, 305 + +---- on the eyes of flat fish, 307 + +---- on man, 311, &c. + +---- on a single instance of considerable variation under + domestication, 311 + +---- on speech, 313, 314 + +---- on the upright position of man and certain apes, 313 + +---- his, and Etienne Geoffroy's views on conditions of + existence, 326, 327, 328 + +---- his hypothesis, and Isidore Geoffroy, 329 + +---- Herbert Spencer on, 330, 331 + +---- desired to discover the law underlying variations, 337 + +---- the extent to which he and C. Darwin take common ground, 335-337 + +---- on body and mind, 338, 339, 341 + +---- on his theory variations will be definite, will appear in large + numbers of individuals at the same time, for long periods + together, 341 + +---- how he and C. Darwin treat the winglessness of Madeira beetles + respectively, 373-380 + +---- on the eyes and ears of cave-inhabiting animals, 378, 379 + +Laputan method of making books, the, and natural selection, 11 + +Lawyer's deed, if we come across a very intricate, &c., 27 + +Leopard, the, can change his spots if it becomes worth his while to + try long enough, 40 + +Lewes, G. H., on embryology, 25 + +---- his objection to the tentativeness with which the same errors + are repeated generation after generation, 26 + +---- his objection to C. Darwin's language concerning natural + selection, 346 + +Lewes, G. H., on natural selection, 348, 349, 359 + +Life, some remarks about the criterion of, that I must retract, 279 + +---- one Proteus principal of, 320 + +"Life and Habit," what I believe to have been its most important + features, 67, 203, 204 + +---- recapitulation of the main principle insisted on, 37, 56, + 203, 380, 381, 384 + +---- and Hartmann's philosophy of the unconscious, German review, 56, 57 + +Lifetime, considerable modifications effected during a single, 304 + +---- the changes undergone by organisms during a single, Herbert + Spencer, on, 332-334 + +Ligament, the, which binds down the tendons of the instep, 21 + +Living, Paley is but doing his best to earn an honest, 29 + +---- forms of faith, or faiths of form, 339 + +Lines, no sharp can be drawn, 47 + +Lion and tiger, Buffon on the, 143, 145 + +Llama, Buffon on the hereditary ills of the, 161 + +Longevity, the principle underlying, 67, 380, 381 + +Loopholes for escape, the "Origin of Species" full of, 358 + +"Loves of the Plants," French translation of the, 63, 259 + +Lungs for respiration, and corkscrew for corks, Professor + Clifford on, 7. (_See_ also p. 58) + +Lyell, Sir C., and Lamarck, 277 + +---- on the similarity between Lamarck's theory and Mr. + Darwin's, 336, 337 + + +MACHINE, Paley declares animals to be neither wholly machines + nor wholly not machines, 14 + +Madeira beetles, the ways in which Lamarck and C. Darwin would + treat their winglessness, 373-380 + +Maillet, de, referred to, 70 + +Mainspring, the true, of our existence lies not in these + muscles, &c., 32 + +Man, the designer of man, 30 + +---- and horse, skeleton of the, 88, 89 + +---- and the ape, 90 + +---- and the lower animals, Buffon on, 107, 108 + +---- Lamarck on, 311, &c. + +Manner, the, is the man himself, 77 + +---- "but this is Mr. Darwin's", 378 + +Manufacture, the, of tools and of organs, two species of + the same genus, 39 + +Margin, there is a margin in every organic structure, &c., 49, 50 + +---- on the margin of the self-evident the greatest purchase is + obtainable, 197 + +Market, the higgling and haggling of the, 50 + +Martins, M., his life of Lamarck, 235, &c. + +Matter less important than the manner, 77 + +---- and mind, inseparable, 371 + +Matthew, Mr. Patrick, his work on naval timber and arboriculture, 64, 65 + +---- extracts from, 315, &c. + +---- Mr. C. Darwin on, 315 + +---- on animals and plants under domestication, 324 + +---- on will as influencing organism, 320, 321, 322 + +---- on the struggle for existence with survival of the + fittest, 320, 322 + +---- and natural selection, 323 + +---- on instinct and memory, and on the continued personality + of parents in offspring, 321, 322, 323 + +Means, C. Darwin's dangerous use of this word, 345 + +---- one _sine qua non_ for a thing is as much a means of that + thing's coming about as anything else is, 349 + +Mechanism of animals, Paley on the, 14 + +Mechanism of animals, evidence of design in any ordinary, 15 + +Memory, and life and heredity, 37, 38, 39, 56, 67, 198-203, + 332, 380, 381 + +---- Professor Hering on, 198-200 + +---- Patrick Matthew on, 322 + +Meteoric, both want and power are, 44, 45 + +Meninges, Buffon on the, 132 + +Microcosm, each organism a history of the universe from its + own point of view, 31 + +Microscope, illustration from successive improvements in the, 46, 47 + +Mind, "the least inadequate and misleading symbol," for the power + that has designed organism, 3, 371 + +---- and body, Lamarck on, 338, 339, 341 + +---- and matter inseparable, 371 + +Misfortune, take advantage of, 51 + +Misrepresentation, "great is the power of steady," 251 + +Missionaries should avoid trying to effect sudden modifications, 183 + +Mistake, the power to make, rated highly, 29 + +---- importance of, depends on magnitude rather than on the + direction, 50 + +Mivart, Professor, says that, "Mind is the least adequate and + misleading symbol," &c., 3, 371 + +---- referred to, 22, 66, 67 + +---- admits that his objection does not tell against the Lamarckian + theory of evolution, 343 + +---- points out that the admission of a principle underlying variations + is fatal to C. Darwin's theory concerning natural selection, 343 + +---- on C. Darwin's "haphazard, indefinite variations," 343 + +---- how Professor Huxley pointed out to him the objection to C. + Darwin's theory concerning natural selection, 344 + +---- asks what is natural selection? and declares it to be repudiated + by its propounder, 369 + +---- declares it to be "nothing," and a puerile + hypothesis, 370, 371 + +---- declares the causes of variation to be the causes of the + distinction of species, 370 + +Model, artificial, of a foot, and true foot, difference between, 24 + +Modification. It is only on modification that reason reasserts + itself, 55 + +---- there have been two factors of, one producing variations, and + the other accumulating them, 227 + +---- arrived at by struggle round three great wants, Erasmus + Darwin on, 226-229 + +---- Lamarck on the same, 257, 279, 300, 301 + +---- the cause of survival, not survival the cause of modification, 302 + +Moral, an organism is most, when looking a little ahead, but not + too far, 44 + +---- struggle, the history of organic development, the history of a, 45 + +---- more, and safer, to be behind the age than in front of it, 401 + +Movement, Buffon's great criterion of sensation, 127 + +Mummies, Egyptian, Lamarck on, 274, 275 + +Murphy, Rev. J. J., mentioned, 22 + +---- referred to, 66, 67 + +Mutability of species commonly held to be incompatible with a + belief in design, 9, 10 + +Mystery-mongering, that Buffon wished to protest against, 81, 171 + +Mystification, scientific, and orthodoxy, Buffon on, 138 + + +NAIVELY, as Mr. Darwin naively adds, "_sometimes_ equally + convenient," 354 + +Natural selection, the essence of the theory is that the variations + shall have been mainly accidental, 7 + +Natural selection, the unerring skill of, 9 + +---- Sir William Thomson and Sir John Herschel on, 10 + +---- Button, and, "by _some chance_ common enough with Nature," 122 + +---- spoken of as though synonymous with descent with + modification, 248, 285, 356 + +---- C. Darwin attributes the instincts of neuter insects to, 249 + +---- Mr. Patrick Matthew and, 323 + +---- like the secretion of a cuttle-fish, 332 + +---- G. H. Lewes's objection to C. Darwin's language concerning, 346 + +---- if this is declared to be a cause, the fact of variation + is declared to be the cause of variation, 347 + +---- declared by C. Darwin to be a means of variation, 347 + +---- treated as a cause, 348 + +---- G. H. Lewes on, 348, 349, 350 + +---- identity with "conditions of existence," 351-354 + +---- according to C. Darwin, "fully embraces" and yet "is included + in" conditions of existence, 355 + +---- a cloak for want of precision of thought, and of substantial + difference from Lamarck, 358 + +---- "some have even imagined that it induces variability;" and small + wonder, considering C. Darwin's language concerning it, 362 + +---- C. Darwin's reply to those who have objected to the term, 362-368 + +---- a cloak of difference from C. Darwin's predecessors, under which + there lurks a concealed identity of opinion as to main facts, 362, 363 + +---- "implies only the preservation of such variations as arise," + &c., 363 + +---- admitted by C. Darwin to be a false term, 364 + +---- the complaint is that the expression has been retained when + an avowedly more accurate one is to hand, 365, 366 + +---- only another way of saying Nature, 368, 369 + +---- the dislike of it is increasing, 368, 369 + +---- Francis Darwin does not use the expression, 368, 369 + +---- daily and hourly scrutinizing throughout the world, &c., 369 + +---- practically repudiated by C. Darwin himself, 369 + +---- Professor Mivart declares it to be "simply nothing," 370 + +---- a "puerile hypothesis," 371 + +---- and not disuse, the true main cause of the winglessness of + Madeira beetles, according to C. Darwin, 374 + +---- _not_ the main cause of the winglessness of Madeira beetles, + according to C. Darwin, 377 + +---- "combined probably with disuse," will account, according to + C. Darwin, for the winglessness of Madeira beetles, 375 + +_Naturalistes_, _le peuple des_, 80, 171 + +Nature, the personification of comparatively venial, 367 + +---- and natural selection the same thing, 368, 369 + +---- the most important means of modification, and variation the + cause of variation, 369 + +Neck, Paley on the human, 17, 18 + +Need, sense of, the main idea in connection with evolution that is + left with the reader by the "Zoonomia," or "Philosophie + Zoologique," 363 + +Needle, 20,000 devils dancing a saraband on the point of a, 216 + +Nest, a bird will alter its nest a little, to meet altered + circumstances, 55 + +Nests, birds', Dr. E. Darwin on, 201 + +Neuter insects, "the demonstrative case of neuter insects," + &c., 249, 298, 314 + +New countries, Buffon a hater of, 146 + +Nomenclature, mistaken for knowledge, 141 + +Nottingham market-place, Erasmus Darwin in, 182, 184, 197 + + +OAK and man, the germs of, indistinguishable, 334 + +---- man may become as long-lived as the, 382 + +Obvious, Erasmus Darwin had no wish to see far beyond the, 197 + +Oken, alluded to, 72 + +Old age, the phenomena of, 67, 204, 381 + +---- and new worlds, Buffon on the fauna of, 145, &c. + +One source for all life, Buffon on, 91 + +---- Erasmus Darwin on, 109, 233 + +Oneness of personality between parents and offspring, 37, 38, 39 + +---- Buffon on the, 151 + +---- Erasmus Darwin and Professor Hering on the, 198-200 + +---- Dr. E. Darwin's failure to grasp the whole facts in connection + with this, 198, 201, 203 + +---- Dr. E. Darwin on, 214, 215 + +---- Patrick Matthew on, 322, 323 + +---- mentioned, 332, 380, 381 + +Orang-outang, Buffon on the, 156-159 + +Organ and use. _See_ "Use." + +---- and sense, interaction of the, Buffon on, 127 + +---- and faculty, Lamarck on, 255 + +Organs are living tools, 2 + +---- the manufacture of, and that of tools, two species of the + same genus, 39, 43, &c. + +---- are the expressions of mental phases, 339, 341 + +Organic structures have a margin, 49, 50 + +Organic strictures and inorganic, Buffon on the, 153, &c. + +Organisms, have been developed as man's inventions + have, 44, 46, 47, 384 + +"Origin of Species," the, cannot take permanent rank in the + literature of evolution, 62 + +---- has no _raison d'etre_, if natural selection is not a + cause of variation, 346 + +---- a piece of intellectual sleight of hand, 346 + +---- compared to the advice of a lawyer who wanted to leave + plenty of loopholes, or to a cobbled Act of Parliament, 358 + +---- is "Hamlet" with the part of Hamlet cut out, 363 + +---- most readers would say that it advocated natural selection as + the most important cause of variation, 363 + +---- and the "Zoonomia," or the "Philosophie Zoologique"; the one + upholds natural selection, the other, sense of need, 363 + +Orthodoxy, scientific, and mystification, Buffon on, 138 + +---- scientific, clamouring for endowment, 360 + +---- dangers of, 368 + +Overseeing tends to oversight, 197 + + +PAINS, genius a supreme capacity for taking, 76 + +Painting, a man should do _something_, no matter what, 51, 52 + +Paley, quotations from, 12, &c. + +---- his argument a juggle, unless some one designed man, much as + man designed the watch, 14, 16 + +---- on ordinary mechanism, as showing design, 15 + +---- on the human neck, 16, 17 + +---- on the patella, 18 + +---- on the joints, 19, 20 + +---- as a writer against evolution, 21 + +---- on the ligament that binds the tendons of the instep, 21, 22 + +---- opposes the view that structures have been formed through + appetency, endeavour or effort, 22, 45 + +---- we turn on him and say, Show us your designer, 29 + +---- asks, How will our philosopher get an eye? 46 + +---- his "Natural Theology" written throughout at the "Zoonomia," 195 + +---- never gives a reference when quoting an opponent, 195, 306 + +Pantheism and Rome will in the end be the two sole combatants, 401 + +---- common ground held by Rome and Pantheism, 403-405 + +---- of Paul, 404 + +Parents and offspring, oneness of personality between (_see_ + "Personality") + +Passions, of like passions, men of science are, with other + pastors and prophets, 253 + +Patella, or knee-pan, Paley on the, 18 + +Paul, St., his pantheistic tendencies, 404 + +---- we want to accept him literally, 405 + +Peace, the, that passeth understanding, 35 + +Perception and sensation, Buffon on the difference between, 129, 130 + +Personality, oneness of, between parents and offspring, 37, 38, 39 + +---- Buffon on the, 151 + +---- Erasmus Darwin and Professor Hering on the, 198-200 + +---- Erasmus Darwin's failure to grasp the whole conception, + 198, 201, 203 + +---- Erasmus Darwin on the, 214, 215 + +---- Patrick Matthew on the, 322, 323 + +---- mentioned, 332, 380, 381 + +Personification, the, of Nature, comparatively venial, 367 + +Pessimism: "Which is the pessimist I or Mr. Darwin?" 59 + +Peuple des Naturalistes, le, 80, 171 + +"Philosophie Zoologique," summary of, 261-314 + +---- the, leaves "sense of need" on the reader's mind; the + "Origin of Species," natural selection, 363 + +Pig, Buffon on the, 118, &c. + +Pigeons and fowls, Buffon on, 169 + +Plaisanterie, Button's disclaimer of, 93 + +Planted upside down, the vertebrata regarded as vegetables, 137 + +Plants under domestication, Buffon on, 167, &c. + +---- Dr. Erasmus Darwin, on the life of, 206, &c. + +---- Lamarck's assertion that they have no action nor habits, 294, 295 + +Plato upheld teleology, 4 + +_Plus il a su_, &c., 44 + +Poem, a, by Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 189 + +Poetry, Dr. Erasmus Darwin's, 83, 189, 193 + +Pope's shoes, scientists would step into the, if we would let + them, 360, 394 + +Portrait of Mr. Day, author of "Sandford and Merton," 180 + +Potto, the missing forefinger of the, 303 + +Power and desire, interaction of, 44, 45, 47, 127, 217, 221, 300, 323 + +Praising, with faint damnation, 111 + +Prescience, need not extend over more than the next step, and yet the + whole road may have been travelled presciently, 52, 384 + +Present, development due to a wise use of the, 50-52 + +Probable, whatever in the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas is not probable + is to be rejected, 402, 403 + +Proficiency is due to design if each step was taken designedly, though + the end was not far foreseen, 52, 384 + +Protestantism tends towards disintegration, 396 + +Proteus principle of life, one, 320 + +Pump, Erasmus Darwin's poetry about the, 84, 193 + +Purpose, instinctive actions were once done with a, 54 + +---- spent or extinct, and rudimentary organs, 38, 383 + +Purposive, if each step is purposive, the whole is purposive, 52, 384 + +Purposiveness: I maintain the lungs to be as purposive us the + corkscrew, 5, 6, 7, 58 + + +RACE, the runners in a, and natural selection, 366, 367 + +---- significance of the words being used for a breed and a + competition, 366, 367 + +Racehorse or greyhound, "the well-adapted forms of the," 359 + +Ranunculus aquatilis, Lamarck's passage on, 260, 297 + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, and evolution, 21, 70 + +Ray Lankester, Professor, on Hering's theory connecting memory + and heredity, 198-200 + +Reason, there is less reason than feeling in animals, Buffon, 51 + +---- perfected becomes instinct, but reasserts itself when the + circumstances alter, 54, 55, 56, 203 + +---- and instinct, Buffon on, 110, 116 + +---- Erasmus Darwin on, 115, 116, 201-205 + +---- a less remarkable faculty than generation, Hume on, 233 + +---- and instinct, Lamarck on, 256, 274 + +---- declared to be incipient instinct, 256 + +_Reel_, _au_, Buffon's use of these words, 126 + +Relativity of the sciences, Buffon on the, 140 + +Religion, Buffon's appeals to, 91, 115 + +Reopen settled questions, animals cannot, serpents must have no + more than four legs, 303 + +Resume earlier habits, the tendency to, on the approach of a + difficulty, 312, 313 + +Retrogressive, Mr. Darwin's views of evolution retrogressive, 66 + +Revelation, Buffon's appeals to, against evolution, 91, 115 + +Reviews of "Evolution, Old and New," 385, &c. + +Riches, the normal growth of, and evolution, 222 + +Roman Empire, the, prophetic, 397 + +Romanes, G. R., on "Evolution, Old and New," 391-393 + +Rome, Church of, means the same by "gentleman" as we do, 395 + +---- I would join, if I could, 395, 396 + +---- a unifier, 398 + +---- the only source from which a church can come, 398-401 + +---- and Pantheism, the ultimate fight will be between, 401 + +---- points of agreement between Rome and Pantheists, 403-405 + +---- may, and should get rid of Protestantism by outbidding it, 407 + +Rousseau, Buffon would not play part of, 81 + +Rudimentary organs, the crux of the early evolutionist in respect of + design, 34 + +---- are now mere cant formulae, force of habit, 38, 383 + +---- like the protuberance at the bottom of a tobacco-pipe, 38 + +---- Buffon would not accept them as designed, 83 + +---- Buffon on, 120 + +---- Professor Haeckel on, 383 + +Run, how did the winner come to be able to run ever such a little + faster than his fellows, 367 + +Runners in a race and natural selection, 366, 367 + + +"SANDFORD and Merton," Miss Seward on the author of, 179, 180 + +Saints will commonly strain a point or two in their own favour, 253 + +_Saturday Review_ on "Evolution, Old and New," 389-391 + +Savery, Captain, 54 + +Science, men of, of like passions with other priests and prophets, 253 + +---- not a kingdom into which a poor man can enter easily, 253 + +---- the leaders of will generally burke new-born wit unless, &c., 315 + +---- not of that kind which desires to know, 392 + +Scientific orthodoxy and mystification, Buffon on, 138 + +---- danger of, 360, 368 + +Scramble, birds learned to swim through scrambling, 48, 51 + +Self-indulgence, virtue has ever erred rather on the side of, than + on that of asceticism, 35 + +Sensation, Buffon on, 126, 129 + +Sense, "in one sense," 355 + +Sensitive plants, Dr. E. Darwin on, 206, 210 + +Seriously, Buffon speaking, 126 + +Serpents, how it is that they have lost their legs, 302 + +Seward, Miss, her life of Erasmus Darwin, 174, &c. + +Shakspeare and Handel address the many as well as the few, 81 + +Shortest day, and shortest day but one, no difference perceptible + between, 48 + +Skeletons, the, of man and of the horse, 88, &c. + +Skill, the unerring, of natural selection, 9 + +Siamese twins, desire and power compared to, 218, 300 + +Simplicity, happy, an example of, 276 + +Sisters, "his, and his cousins and his aunts," 253 + +Slit, a slit in one tendon to let another pass through, 20 + +Something a man should do, no matter what, 51 + +Sometimes, "equally convenient" ("the survival of the fittest" + with natural selection), 9, 354, 365 + +Son, the people who can get good sons and retain their affection + are the only ones worth studying from, 76 + +Sorbonne, the, and Buffon, 82, 84 + +Sorbonnes, never do like people who write in this way, 143 + +Specialists, embryos are, 28 + +Species, Buffon on the causes or means of transformation, 159, &c. + +---- Lamarck on, 267, &c. + +---- clusters of, Lamarck on, 288 + +---- C. Darwin on, 289 + +Specific characteristics vary more than generic, Lamarck on, 287, 288 + +---- C. Darwin on, 288 + +Speech, Lamarck on, 313, 314 + +Spencer, Herbert, on Lamarck's hypothesis, 330, 331 + +---- a follower of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, 332 + +Spent, or extinct purpose, and rudimentary organs, 383 + +Spontaneous: C. Darwin uses this word in connection with + variability, 358 + +---- variability (or unknown causes), C. Darwin, on what it will + account for, or make known, 358 + +Steam engine, latest development of, not foreseen, though each + immediate step in advance was so, 54, 384 + +---- design lost sight of in the most common patterns, as with + a bird's-nest, or the wheel, 55 + +Step, if each step is purposive, the whole road has been + travelled purposively, 52, 384 + +---- only the few nearest are taken definitely, 44, 384 + +Sterility of hybrids, Lamarck on, 272 + +---- C. Darwin on, 273 + +Stock, Buffon on the, and the diaphragm, 130 + +Stronger, the, succeed, and the weaker fail, 320, 321 + +Strongest, the, eat the weaker, 282 + +Struggle for existence, Buffon on the, 123 + +---- and hence modification, according to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, mainly + conversant about three wants, 226-229, 232 + +---- comparison between Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck's views on the + foregoing, 257 + +---- Lamarck on the foregoing, 279 + +---- and survival of the fittest, Lamarck on the, 281, 282 + +---- Patrick Matthew on, 321 + +Style, Buffon on, 76, 77 + +Sudden, the question what is too, to be settled by higgling and + haggling, 50 + +---- modifications, missionaries should avoid trying to effect, 183 + +Superficial, philosophy of the, 34, 35, 36, 198, 204 + +Supply and demand, and desire and power, 223, 300 + +Survival of the fittest, a synonym for natural selection, 9 + +---- Dr. Erasmus Darwin on the, 227 + +---- in the struggle for existence, Lamarck on the, 281, 282 + +---- understood and admitted by Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and + Lamarck, 301 + +---- subsequent to modification, and therefore not the cause + of it, 302, 346 + +---- Patrick Matthew on, 321 + +---- this is not a theory, but a fact, 356, 357 + +Swimming, no shore bird ever set itself to learn, of malice + prepense, 48, 51 + + +TAIL, the beaver's, has become an incarnate trowel, 8 + +Teething, the pain an infant feels is the death-cry of many a + good cell, 75 + +Teleological, failure of the early evolutionists to see their + position as, 34 + +Teleology, statement of the question, 1 + +---- Aristotle denied, Plato upheld, 4 + +---- the, of Paley and the theologians, 12, &c. + +---- internal as much teleology as external, 36 + +---- _See_ also "Design." + +Telescope, Lord Rosse's, and dew-drop, 44, 47 + +Tempering, the felicitous, of two great contradictory principles, 35 + +Tendon, a slit in one, to let another pass through, 20 + +Terminology of botany harder than botany, 108 + +---- Buffon on, 140, 141 + +Test, Buffon's, as to the name an object is to bear, 115 + +---- of perception and sensation, Buffon's, 127 + +Theological writer, few passages in any, displease me more, &c., 368 + +Theory, the survival of the fittest is a fact, not a theory, 356, 357 + +Theories, true, Fontenelle on, 22, 23 + +---- to be ordered out of court if troublesome, 35 + +This: "I can no more believe in this," &c., 359 + +---- "it is impossible to attribute to this cause," 358 + +Thomas, St., Aquinas, Papal encyclical on, 402, 403 + +Thomson, Sir W., natural selection and design, 10 + +Thought is expressed in organ, 339, 341 + +Time, Buffon on, 103 + +---- Lamarck on, 241 + +Tobacco-pipe, a rudimentary organ on a, 38 + +Toes, a man who plays the violin with his, 50 + +Tools, organs are living tools, 2 + +---- the manufacture of, and that of organs, two species of the + same genus, 39 + +Touch, all senses modifications of the sense of touch, 47 + +Transformation of species, Buffon on the causes or means of, 159 + +Translation of the "Loves of the Plants" into French, 63, 258, 259 + +Translation of the "Zoonomia" into German, 71 + +---- of Dr. E. Darwin's other works, 195 + +Trapa Natans, Erasmus Darwin's note on, 260 + +Treviranus alluded to, 72 + +Tree, life seen as a tree, by Lamarck, 269 + +---- by C. Darwin, 270 + +---- nature compared to a, by Buffon, 171 + +Trees, the blind man who saw men as trees walking, 137 + +Trowel, the beaver has an incarnate trowel, 8 + +True, vitally, 227 + +---- all very, as far as it goes (that Nature is the most + important means of modification), 369 + +Truism, the survival of the fittest, a, 351 + +Tutbury bull running, 187 + +Tyndall, Professor, a rhapsody about C. Darwin, 41 + +---- calls evolution C. Darwin's theory, 360, 361 + + +UNCLES and aunts do not beget their nephews and nieces, 367, 376 + +Unconscious, our acquired habits come to be done as unconsciously + as though instinctive, on repetition, 56 + +---- difference between my view of the, and Von Hartmann's, 58 + +Unconsciousness, the, with which habitual actions come to be + performed, 37, 38, 39, 56-58, 67, 203, 332, 381 + +Understanding, the peace of mind that passeth, 35 + +Unity of the individual, Buffon on the, 127, 128. (_See_ "Oneness") + +"Unknown causes," according to Mr. Darwin, can do so much, but + not so much more, 359 + +---- their identity with spontaneous variability, 359 + +---- heredity only another name for, unless the "Life and Habit" + theory be adopted, 384 + +Upright position in man and certain apes, and children, Lamarck + on, 312 + +Upside down, the vertebrata are perambulating vegetables planted, 137 + +Use and organ, 44, 45, 47, 217, 218, 221, 292, 294, 296, 299, 301, + 302, 304, 305, 307-309, 311, 323 + + +VACUUM, an omniscient and omnipotent, 28 + +Vague, efforts and desires are vague in the outset, 47, 52, 384 + +Variation, C. Darwin declares the fact of variation to be the cause + of variation, 8, 9, 347, 369 + +Variations, one factor of modification provides, the other + accumulates, 227 + +---- Lamarck strove to discover the law underlying, 337 + +---- C. Darwin sees no cause underlying them, 339, 340 + +---- according to Lamarck, they will tend to appear in definite + directions in large numbers of individuals, for long periods + together; according to C. Darwin they will not do thus, 341 + +---- must appear before they can be preserved, 346 + +---- the cause of variations is the cause of species (Professor + Mivart on this), 370 + +Vary, man cannot vary his practices much more than animals can, 55 + +"Vestiges of Creation," the, 65 + +---- C. Darwin on the, 65 + +---- the author of, on Lamarck, 247 + +---- Darwin's treatment of, 247, 248 + +Virtue has ever erred on the side of excess than on that of + asceticism, 35 + +Violin, a man who plays the, with his toes, 50 + +Vitally true, 227 + +Volition. (_See_ "Will") + +Voltaire, Buffon would not play the part of, 81 + + +WALLACE, A. R., his review of Professor Haeckel's "Evolution + of Man," 382-384 + +Want and power, interaction of, 44, 45, 47, 48, 217, 218, + 221, 300, 323 + +Wasp, cutting a fly in half, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on, 205 + +Watch, Paley's argument from the, 13 + +Weaker, the strongest eat the, 282 + +Wealth, the normal growth of, and evolution, 222 + +Web-footed, how birds, became, 48, 49, 51 + +---- development of, birds, Lamarck on, 305 + +---- Paley on, 305 + +Wedge, Buffon let in the thin end of the wedge, by saying + that changed habits modify form, 105, 106 + +Whisky, God keep you from--if he can, 176 + +Will, Patrick Matthew on, as influencing organism, 320-322. + (_See_ also "Desire," "Design," "Want," "Wish") + +Will-o'-the-wisp, C. Darwin like a, 372 + +Wish and power, their interaction, 44, 45, 47, 48, 217, 218, 221, + 300, 323 + +Wit, brevity may be its soul, but the leaders of science, &c., 315 + +Worcester, the Marquis of, 54 + +Words are apt to turn out compendious false analogies, 365 + +Worms, reasonable creatures, 255 + +Worth, nothing worth looking at or doing, except at a fair price, 35 + +Wright, of Derby, his portrait of Mr. Day, 180 + + +ZEBRA and horse, Buffon on the, 80, 155, 164 + +"Zoonomia," German translation of the, 71 + +---- Paley's "Natural Theology" written at the, 195 + +---- fuller quotations from the, 214, &c. + +---- the, and the "Origin of Species," the different ideas that an + average reader would carry away with him from these two works + ("Sense of Need" and "Natural Selection"), 363 + + + + +_The Mayflower Press, Plymouth, England._ William Brendon & Son, Ltd. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Evolution, Old & New, by Samuel Butler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVOLUTION, OLD & NEW *** + +***** This file should be named 23427.txt or 23427.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/4/2/23427/ + +Produced by Stacy Brown, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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