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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34730-0.txt b/34730-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4ad6a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/34730-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5387 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 34730 *** + +CHARLES DARWIN + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + +ENGLISH WORTHIES + +EDITED BY ANDREW LANG + + +LONDON + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + +1885 + + + + + +PREFACE + + +In this little volume I have endeavoured to present the life and work of +Charles Darwin viewed as a moment in a great revolution, in due relation +both to those who went before and to those who come after him. +Recognising, as has been well said, that the wave makes the crest, not +the crest the wave, I have tried to let my hero fall naturally into his +proper place in a vast onward movement of the human intellect, of which +he was himself at once a splendid product and a moving cause of the +first importance. I have attempted to show him both as receiving the +torch from Lamarck and Malthus, and as passing it on with renewed +brilliancy to the wide school of evolutionary thinkers whom his work was +instrumental in arousing to fresh and vigorous activity along a thousand +separate and varied lines of thought and action. + +As Mr. Francis Darwin was already engaged upon a life of his father, I +should have shrunk from putting forth my own little book if I had not +succeeded in securing beforehand his kind sanction. That sanction, +however, was at once so frankly and cordially given, that all my +hesitation upon such a score was immediately laid aside; and as I have +necessarily had to deal rather with Darwin's position as a thinker and +worker than with the biographical details of his private life, I trust +the lesser book may not clash with the greater, but to some extent may +supplement and even illustrate it. + +Treating my subject mainly as a study in the interaction of organism and +environment, it has been necessary for me frequently to introduce the +names of living men of science side by side with some of those who have +more or less recently passed away from among us. For uniformity's sake, +as well as for brevity's, I have been compelled, in every instance +alike, to omit the customary conventional handles. I trust those who +thus find themselves docked of their usual titles of respect will kindly +remember that the practice is in fact adopted _honoris causâ_; they are +paying prematurely the usual penalty of intellectual greatness. + +My obligations to Professor Huxley, to Professor Fiske, to Mr. Herbert +Spencer, to Professor Sachs, to Hermann Müller, to Dr. Krause, to +Charles Darwin himself, and to many other historians and critics of +evolutionism, will be sufficiently obvious to all instructed readers, +and are for the most part fully acknowledged already in the text. It +would be absurd to overload so small and popularly written a book with +references and authorities. I hope, therefore, that any other writers to +whom I may inadvertently have neglected to confess my debts will kindly +rest satisfied with this general acknowledgment. There are, however, +three persons in particular from whom I have so largely borrowed facts +or ideas that I owe them more special and definite thanks. From Mr. +Woodall's admirable paper on Charles Darwin, contributed to the +'Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society,' I have taken +much interesting information about my hero's immediate ancestry and +early days. From Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of 'Evolution Old and +New,' I have derived many pregnant suggestions with regard to the true +position and meaning of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and the early +essentially teleological evolutionists--suggestions which I am all the +more anxious to acknowledge since I differ fundamentally from Mr. Butler +in his estimate of the worth of Charles Darwin's distinctive discovery +of natural selection. Finally, to Mr. Bates, the 'Naturalist on the +Amazons,' I am indebted for several valuable items of information as to +the general workings of the pre-Darwinian evolutionary spirit. + +In a book dealing so largely with a contemporary movement, the history +of which has never yet been consecutively written down in full, or +subjected as a whole to searching criticism, there must probably be many +errors of detail, which can hardly be avoided under such circumstances. +I have endeavoured to minimise them as far as possible. For those which +may have escaped my own scrutiny I must trust both for correction and +for indulgence to the kindness of my readers. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN + +II. CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS + +III. EARLY DAYS + +IV. DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS + +V. THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION + +VI. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES + +VII. THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS + +VIII. THE DESCENT OF MAN + +IX. THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP + +X. VICTORY AND REST + +XI. DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT + +XII. THE NET RESULT + +INDEX + + + + + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN. + + +Charles Darwin was a great man, and he accomplished a great work. The +Newton of biology, he found the science of life a chaotic maze; he left +it an orderly system, with a definite plan and a recognisable meaning. +Great men are not accidents; great works are not accomplished in a +single day. Both are the product of adequate causes. The great man +springs from an ancestry competent to produce him; he is the final +flower and ultimate outcome of converging hereditary forces, that +culminate at last in the full production of his splendid and exceptional +personality. The great work which it is his mission to perform in the +world is never wholly of his own inception. It also is the last effect +of antecedent conditions, the slow result of tendencies and ideas long +working unseen or but little noticed beneath the surface of opinion, yet +all gradually conspiring together towards the definitive revolution at +whose head, in the fulness of time, the as yet unborn genius is destined +to place himself. This is especially the case with those extraordinary +waves of mental upheaval, one of which gave us the Italian renaissance, +and another of which is actually in progress around us at the present +day. They have their sources deep down in the past of human thought and +human feeling, and they are themselves but the final manifestation of +innumerable energies which have long been silently agitating the souls +of nations in their profoundest depths. + +Thus, every great man may be regarded as possessing two distinct lines +of ancestry, physical and spiritual, each of which separately demands +elucidation. He owes much in one way to his father and his mother, his +grandfathers and his grandmothers, and his remoter progenitors, from +some or all of whom he derives, in varying degrees and combinations, the +personal qualities whose special interaction constitutes his greatness +and his idiosyncrasy; he owes much in another way to his intellectual +and moral ancestors, the thinkers and workers who have preceded him in +his own department of thought or action, and have made possible in the +course of ages the final development of his special revolution or his +particular system. Viewed as an individual, he is what he is, with all +his powers and faculties and potentialities, in virtue of the brain, the +frame, the temperament, the energy he inherits directly from his actual +ancestors, paternal and maternal; viewed as a factor or element in a +great movement, he is what he is because the movement had succeeded in +reaching such and such a point in its progress already without him, and +waited only for such and such a grand and commanding personality in +order to carry it yet a step further on its course of development. + +No man who ever lived would more cordially have recognised these two +alternative aspects of the great worker's predetermining causes than +Charles Darwin. He knew well that the individual is the direct +cumulative product of his physical predecessors, and that he works and +is worked upon in innumerable ways by the particular environment into +whose midst he is born. Let us see, then, in his own case what were +these two main sets of conditioning circumstances which finally led up +to the joint production of Charles Darwin, the man and the philosopher, +the thinking brain and the moving energy. In other words, what was the +state of the science of life at the time when he first began to observe +and to speculate; and what was the ancestry which made him be born a +person capable of helping it forward at a single bound over its great +restricting dogmatic barrier of the fixity of species? + +Let us begin, in the first place, by clearing the path beforehand of a +popular misconception, so extremely general and almost universal that, +unless it be got rid of at the very outset of our sketch, much of the +real scope and purport of Darwin's life and work must, of necessity, +remain entirely misunderstood by the vast mass of English readers. In +the public mind Darwin is, perhaps, most commonly regarded as the +discoverer and founder of the evolution hypothesis. Two ideas are +usually associated with his name and memory. It is believed that he was +the first propounder of the theory which supposes all plant and animal +forms to be the result, not of special creation, but of slow +modification in pre-existent organisms. It is further and more +particularly believed that he was the first propounder of the theory +which supposes the descent of man to be traceable from a remote and more +or less monkey-like ancestor. Now, as a matter of fact, Darwin was not +the prime originator of either of these two great cardinal ideas. Though +he held both as part of his organised theory of things, he was not by +any means the first or the earliest thinker to hold them or to propound +them publicly. Though he gained for them both a far wider and more +general acceptance than they had ever before popularly received, he laid +no sort of claim himself to originality or proprietorship in either +theory. The grand idea which he did really originate was not the idea of +'descent with modification,' but the idea of 'natural selection,' by +which agency, as he was the first to prove, definite kinds of plants and +animals have been slowly evolved from simpler forms, with definite +adaptations to the special circumstances by which they are surrounded. +In a word, it was the peculiar glory of Charles Darwin, not to have +suggested that all the variety of animal and vegetable life might have +been produced by slow modifications in one or more original types, but +to have shown the nature of the machinery by which such a result could +be actually attained in the practical working out of natural causes. He +did not invent the development theory, but he made it believable and +comprehensible. He was not, as most people falsely imagine, the Moses of +evolutionism, the prime mover in the biological revolution; he was the +Joshua who led the world of thinkers and workers into full fruition of +that promised land which earlier investigators had but dimly descried +from the Pisgah-top of conjectural speculation. + +How far Darwin's special idea of natural selection supplemented and +rendered credible the earlier idea of descent with modification we shall +see more fully when we come to treat of the inception and growth of his +great epoch-making work, 'The Origin of Species;' for the present, it +must suffice to point out that in the world into which he was born, the +theory of evolution already existed in a more or less shadowy and +undeveloped shape. And since it was his task in life to raise this +theory from the rank of a mere plausible and happy guess to the rank of +a highly elaborate and almost universally accepted biological system, we +may pause awhile to consider on the threshold what was the actual state +of natural science at the moment when the great directing and organising +intelligence of Charles Darwin first appeared. + +From time immemorial, in modern Christendom at least, it had been the +general opinion of learned and simple alike that every species of plant +or animal owed its present form and its original existence to a distinct +act of special creation. This _naïf_ belief, unsupported as it was by +any sort of internal evidence, was supposed to rest directly upon the +express authority of a few obscure statements in the Book of Genesis. +The Creator, it was held, had in the beginning formed each kind after a +particular pattern, had endowed it with special organs devised with +supreme wisdom for subserving special functions, and had bestowed upon +it the mystical power of reproducing its like in its own image to all +generations. No variation of importance ever occurred within the types +thus constituted; all plants and animals always retained their special +forms unaltered in any way from era to era. This is the doctrine of the +fixity and immutability of species, almost universal in the civilised +world up to the end of the last century. + +Improbable as such a crude idea now seems to any person even moderately +acquainted with the extraordinary variety and variability of living +forms, it nevertheless contained nothing at all likely to contradict the +ordinary experience of the everyday observer in the last century. The +handful of plants and animals with which he was personally acquainted +consisted for the most part of a few large, highly advanced, and +well-marked forms, not in the least liable to be mistaken for one +another even by the most hasty and casual spectator. A horse can +immediately be discriminated by the naked eye from a donkey, and a cow +from a sheep, without risk of error; nobody is likely to confuse wheat +with barley, or to hesitate between classing any given fruit that is +laid before him as a pear or an apple, a plum or a nectarine. +Variability seldom comes under the notice of the ordinary passing +spectator as it does under that of the prying and curious scientific +observer; and when it comes at all, as in the case of dogs and pigeons, +roses and hyacinths, it is no doubt set down carelessly on a superficial +view as a mere result of human selection or of deliberate mongrel +interbreeding. To the eye of the average man, all the living objects +ordinarily perceived in external nature fall at once under certain fixed +and recognisable kinds, as dogs and horses, elms and ashes, whose limits +he is never at all inclined to confound in any way one with the other. + +Linnæus, the great father of modern scientific biology, had frankly and +perhaps unthinkingly accepted this current and almost universal dogma of +the fixity and immutability of species. Indeed, by defining a kind as a +group of plants or animals so closely resembling one another as to give +rise to the belief that they might all be descended from a single +ancestor or pair of ancestors, he implicitly gave the new sanction of +his weighty authority to the creation hypothesis, and to the prevalent +doctrine of the unchangeability of organic forms. To Linnæus, the +species into which he mapped out all the plants and animals then known, +appeared as the descendants each of a solitary progenitor or of a +primitive couple, called into existence at the beginning of all things +by the direct fiat of a designing Creator. He saw the world of organic +life as composed of so many well-demarcated types, each separate, +distinct, and immutable, each capable of producing its like _ad +infinitum_, and each unable to vary from its central standard in any of +its individuals, except perhaps within very narrow and unimportant +limits. + +But towards the close of the eighteenth century, side by side with the +general awakening of the human intellect and the arrival of a new era of +free social investigation, which culminated in a fresh order of things, +there was developed a more critical and sceptical attitude in the world +of science, which soon produced a notable change of front among thinking +naturalists as to the origin and meaning of specific distinctions. + +Buffon was the first great biological innovator who ventured, in very +doubtful and tentative language, to suggest the possibility of the rise +of species from one another by slow modification of ancestral forms. +Essentially a popular essayist, writing in the volcanic +priest-suppressed France of the _ancien régime_, during the inconsistent +days of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., when it was uncertain whether novel +and heterodox opinions would bring down upon their author fame and +reputation or the Sorbonne and the Bastille, Buffon was careful to put +his conjectural conclusions in a studiously guarded and often even +ironical form. But time after time, in his great discursive work, the +'Histoire Naturelle' (published in successive volumes between 1749 and +1788), he recurs anew to the pregnant suggestion that plants and animals +may not be bound by fixed and immovable limits of species, but may +freely vary in every direction from a common centre, so that one kind +may gradually and slowly be evolved by natural causes from the type of +another. He points out that, underlying all external diversities of +character and shape, fundamental likenesses of type occur in many +animals, which irresistibly suggest the novel notion of common descent +from a single ancestor. Thus regarded, he says, not only the ass and the +horse (to take a particular passage) but even man himself, the monkeys, +the quadrupeds, and all vertebrate animals, might be viewed as merely +forming divergent branches of one and the same great family tree. Every +such family, he believed, whether animal or vegetable, might have sprung +originally from a single stock, which after many generations had here +developed into a higher form, and there degenerated into a lower and +less perfect type of organisation. Granting this--granting that nature +could by slow variation produce one species in the course of direct +descent from another unlike it (for example, the ass from the horse), +then, Buffon observed, there was no further limit to be set to her +powers in this respect, and we might reasonably conclude that from a +single primordial being she has gradually been able in the course of +time to develop the whole continuous gamut of existing animal and +vegetable life. To be sure, Buffon always saves himself from censure by +an obvious afterthought--'But no; it is certain from revelation that +every species was directly created by a separate fiat.' This +half-hearted and somewhat subrisive denial, however, must be taken +merely as a concession to the Sorbonne and to the fashionable exegesis +of his own day; and, even so, the Sorbonne was too much in the end for +the philosophic thinker. He had once in his life at least to make his +submission and demand pardon from the offended orthodoxy of the Paris +faculty. + +The wave of thought and feeling, thus apologetically and tentatively +stirred on the unruffled pond of eighteenth century opinion by the +startling plop of Buffon's little smooth-cut pebble, soon widened out on +every side in concentric circles, and affected with its wash the entire +world of biological science in every country. Before the close of the +eighteenth century speculation as to the origin of species was rife in +all quarters of Europe. In France itself, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, +constitutionally cautious and undecided, but wide of view and free from +prejudice, came slowly to the conclusion, in 1795, that all species are +really derived by modification from one or more primitive types. In +Germany, in the very same year, Goethe, with the keen vision of the +poet and the calm eye of the philosopher uniquely combined, discerned +independently as by a lightning flash the identical idea of the origin +of kinds by modification of pre-existent organisms. 'We may assert +without hesitation,' says that great nebulous thinker and observer, +'that all the more perfect organic natures, such as fishes, amphibians, +birds and mammals, with man at their head, were formed at first on one +original type, which still daily changes and modifies its form by +propagation.' In England, twelve months earlier, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +Charles Darwin's grandfather (of whom more anon), published his +'Zoonomia,' a treatise on the laws of animal life, in which he not only +adopted Buffon's theory of the origin of species by evolution, but also +laid down as the chief cause of such development the actions and needs +of the animals themselves. According to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, animals came +to vary from one another chiefly because they were always altering their +habits and voluntarily accommodating themselves to new actions and +positions in life. His work produced comparatively little effect upon +the world at large in his own time, but it had immense influence upon +the next great prophet of evolution, Lamarck, and through Lamarck on +Lyell, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and the modern school of +evolutionists generally. We shall consider his views in greater detail +when we pass from the spiritual to the physical antecedents of Charles +Darwin. + +It was in 1801 that Lamarck first gave to the world his epoch-making +speculations and suggestions on the origin of species; and from that +date to the day of his death, in 1831, the unwearied old philosopher +continued to devote his whole time and energy, in blindness and poverty, +to the elucidation of this interesting and important subject. A bold, +acute, and vigorous thinker, trained in the great school of Diderot and +D'Alembert, with something of the vivid Celtic poetic imagination, and a +fearless habit of forming his own conclusions irrespective of common or +preconceived ideas, Lamarck went to the very root of the matter in the +most determined fashion, and openly proclaimed in the face of frowning +officialism under the Napoleonic reaction his profound conviction that +all species, including man, were descended by modification from one or +more primordial forms. In Charles Darwin's own words, 'He first did the +eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change, +in the organic as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of +law and not of miraculous interposition. 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. With respect to the means of modification, he +attributed something to the direct action of the physical conditions of +life, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much to +use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter agency +he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature--such as +the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees,' He +believed, in short, that animals had largely developed themselves, by +functional effort followed by increased powers and abilities. + +Lamarck's great work, the 'Philosophie Zoologique,' though opposed by +the austere and formal genius of the immortal Cuvier--a reactionary +biological conservative and obscurantist, equal to the enormous task of +mapping out piecemeal with infinite skill and power the separate +provinces of his chosen science, but incapable of taking in all the +bearings of the whole field at a single vivid and comprehensive +sweep--Lamarck's great work produced a deep and lasting impression upon +the entire subsequent course of evolutionary thought in scientific +Europe. True, owing to the retrograde tendencies of the First Empire, it +caused but little immediate stir at the precise moment of its first +publication; but the seed it sowed sank deep, and, lying fallow long in +men's minds, bore fruit at last in the next generation with the +marvellous fecundity of the germs of genius. Indeed, from the very +beginning of the present century, a ferment of inquiry on the subject of +creation and evolution was everywhere obvious among speculative +thinkers. The profound interest which Goethe took in the dispute on this +very subject in the French Académie des Sciences between Cuvier and +Geoffroy St. Hilaire, amid the thundering guns of a threatened European +convulsion, was but a solitary symptom of the general stir which +preceded the gestation and birth of the Darwinian hypothesis. It is +impossible to take up any scientific memoirs or treatises of the first +half of our own century without seeing at a glance how every mind of +high original scientific importance was permeated and disturbed by the +fundamental questions aroused, but not fully answered, by Buffon, +Lamarck, and Erasmus Darwin. In Lyell's letters and in Agassiz's +lectures, in the 'Botanic Journal' and the 'Philosophical +Transactions,' in treatises on Madeira beetles and the Australian flora, +we find everywhere the thoughts of men profoundly influenced in a +thousand directions by this universal evolutionary solvent and leaven. + +And while the world of thought was thus seething and moving restlessly +before the wave of ideas set in motion by these various independent +philosophers, another group of causes in another field was rendering +smooth the path beforehand for the future champion of the amended +evolutionism. Geology on the one hand and astronomy on the other were +making men's minds gradually familiar with the conception of slow +natural development, as opposed to immediate and miraculous creation. + +The rise of geology had been rapid and brilliant. In the last century it +had been almost universally believed that fossil organisms were the +relics of submerged and destroyed worlds, strange remnants of successive +terrible mundane catastrophes. Cuvier himself, who had rendered immense +services to geological science by his almost unerring reconstructions of +extinct animals, remained a partisan of the old theory of constant +cataclysms and fresh creations throughout his whole life; but Lamarck, +here as elsewhere the prophet of the modern uniformitarian concept of +nature, had already announced his grand idea that the ordinary process +of natural laws sufficed to account for all the phenomena of the earth's +crust. In England, William Smith, the ingenious land surveyor, riding up +and down on his daily task over the face of the country, became +convinced by his observations in the first years of the present century +that a fixed order of sequence could everywhere be traced among the +various superincumbent geological strata. Modern scientific geology +takes its rise from the moment of this luminous and luminiferous +discovery. With astonishing rapidity the sequence of strata was +everywhere noted, and the succession of characteristic fossils mapped +out, with the result of showing, however imperfectly at first, that the +history of organic life upon the globe had followed a slow and regular +course of constant development. Immediately whole schools of eager +workers employed themselves in investigating in separate detail the +phenomena of these successive stages of unfolding life. Murchison, fresh +from the Peninsular campaign, began to study the dawn of organic history +in the gloom of the Silurian and Cambrian epochs. A group of less +articulate but not less active workers like Buckland and Mantell +performed similar services for the carboniferous, the wealden, and the +tertiary deposits. Sedgwick endeavoured to co-ordinate the whole range +of then known facts into a single wide and comprehensive survey. De La +Beche, Phillips, and Agassiz added their share to the great work of +reconstruction. Last of all, among those who were contemporary and all +but coeval with Charles Darwin himself, Lyell boldly fought out the +battle of 'uniformitarianism,' proving, with all the accumulated weight +of his encyclopædic and world-wide knowledge, that every known feature +of geological development could be traced to the agency of causes now in +action, and illustrated by means of slow secular changes still actually +taking place on earth before our very eyes. + +The influence of these novel conceptions upon the growth and spread of +evolutionary ideas was far-reaching and twofold. In the first place, the +discovery of a definite succession of nearly related organic forms, +following one another with evident closeness through the various ages, +inevitably suggested to every inquiring observer the possibility of +their direct descent one from the other. In the second place, the +discovery that geological formations were not really separated each from +its predecessor by violent revolutions, but were the result of gradual +and ordinary changes, discredited the old idea of frequent fresh +creations after each catastrophe, and familiarised the minds of men of +science with the alternative notion of slow and natural evolutionary +processes. The past was seen to be in effect the parent of the present; +the present was recognised as the child of the past. + +Current astronomical theories also pointed inevitably in the same +direction. Kant, whose supereminent fame as a philosopher has almost +overshadowed his just claims as a profound thinker in physical science, +had already in the third quarter of the eighteenth century arrived at +his sublime nebular hypothesis, in which he suggested the possible +development of stars, suns, planets, and satellites by the slow +contraction of very diffuse and incandescent haze-clouds. This +magnificent cosmical conception was seized and adapted by the genius of +Laplace in his celestial system, and made familiar through his great +work to thinking minds throughout the whole of Europe. In England it was +further modified and remodelled by Sir William Herschel, whose period of +active investigation coincided in part with Charles Darwin's early +boyhood. The bearings of the nebular hypothesis upon the rise of +Darwinian evolutionism are by no means remote: the entire modern +scientific movement forms, in fact, a single great organic whole, of +which the special doctrine of biological development is but a small +separate integral part. All the theories and doctrines which go to make +it up display the one common trait that they reject the idea of direct +creative interposition from without, and attribute the entire existing +order of nature to the regular unfolding of one undeviating continuous +law. + +Yet another factor in the intellectual stir and bustle of the time must +needs be mentioned even in so short and cursory a sketch as this of the +causes which led to the Darwinian crisis. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, a +clergyman of the Church of England, published the first edition of his +famous and much-debated 'Essay on the Principle of Population.' Malthus +was the first person who ever called public attention to the tendency of +population to increase up to the utmost limit of subsistence, as well as +to the necessary influence of starvation in checking its further +development beyond that point. Though his essay dealt only with the +question of reproduction in human societies, it was clear that it +possessed innumerable analogies in every domain of animal and vegetable +life. The book ran through many successive editions with extraordinary +rapidity for a work of its class, it was fiercely attacked and bravely +defended, it caused an immense amount of discussion and debate, and +besides its marvellous direct influence as a germinal power upon the +whole subsequent course of politico-economical and sociological thought, +it produced also a remarkable indirect influence on the side current of +biological and speculative opinion. In particular, as we shall more +fully see hereafter, it had an immediate effect in suggesting to the +mind of the great naturalist who forms our present subject the embryo +idea of 'natural selection.' + +Such then was the intellectual and social world into which, early in the +present century, Charles Darwin found himself born. Everywhere around +him in his childhood and youth these great but formless evolutionary +ideas were brewing and fermenting. The scientific society of his elders +and of the contemporaries among whom he grew up was permeated with the +leaven of Laplace and of Lamarck, of Hutton and of Herschel. Inquiry was +especially everywhere rife as to the origin and nature of specific +distinctions among plants and animals. Those who believed in the +doctrine of Buffon and of the 'Zoonomia' and those who disbelieved in +it, alike, were profoundly interested and agitated in soul by the +far-reaching implications of that fundamental problem. On every side +evolutionism, in its crude form, was already in the air. Long before +Charles Darwin himself published his conclusive 'Origin of Species,' +every thinking mind in the world of science, elder and younger, was +deeply engaged upon the self-same problem. Lyell and Horner in alternate +fits were doubting and debating. Herbert Spencer had already frankly +accepted the new idea with the profound conviction of _a priori_ +reasoning. Agassiz was hesitating and raising difficulties. Treviranus +was ardently proclaiming his unflinching adhesion. Oken was spinning in +metaphysical Germany his fanciful parodies of the Lamarckian +hypothesis. Among the depths of Brazilian forests Bates was reading the +story of evolution on the gauze-like wings of tropical butterflies. +Under the scanty shade of Malayan palm-trees Wallace was independently +spelling out in rude outline the very theory of survival of the fittest, +which Charles Darwin himself was simultaneously perfecting and polishing +among the memoirs and pamphlets of his English study. Wollaston in +Madeira was pointing out the strange adaptations of the curious local +snails and beetles. Von Buch in the Canaries was coming to the +conclusion that varieties may be slowly changed into permanent species. +Lecoq and Von Baer were gradually arriving, one by the botanical route, +the other by the embryological, at the same opinion. Before Charles +Darwin was twenty, Dean Herbert had declared from the profound depth of +his horticultural knowledge that kinds were only mere fixed sports; and +Patrick Matthew, in the appendix to a work on 'Naval Timber,' had +casually developed, without perceiving its importance, the actual +distinctive Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Robert Chambers +published in 1844 his 'Vestiges of Creation,' in which Lamarck's theory +was impressed and popularised under a somewhat spoilt and mistaken form: +it was not till 1859 that the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' +burst like a thunderbolt upon the astonished world of unprepared and +unscientific thinkers. + +This general attitude of interest and inquiry is of deep importance to +the proper comprehension of Charles Darwin's life and work, and that for +two distinct reasons. In the first place, the universal stir and deep +prying into evolutionary questions which everywhere existed among +scientific men in his early days was naturally communicated to a lad +born of a scientific family, and inheriting directly in blood and bone +the biological tastes and tendencies of Erasmus Darwin. In the second +place, the existence of such a deep and wide-spread curiosity as to +ultimate origins, and the common prevalence of profound uniformitarian +and evolutionary views among philosophers and thinkers, made the +acceptance of Charles Darwin's particular theory, when it at last +arrived, a comparatively easy and certain matter, because by it the +course of organic development was assimilated, on credible grounds, to +the course of all other development in general, as then already widely +recognised. The first consideration helps us to account in part for the +man himself; the second consideration helps us even more to account for +the great work which he was enabled in the end so successfully to +accomplish. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS. + + +From the environment let us turn to the individual; from the world in +which the man moved to the man who moved in it, and was in time destined +to move it. + +Who was he, and whence did he derive his exceptional energy and +intellectual panoply? + +Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather, the first of the line in whom the +distinctive Darwinian strain of intellect overtly displayed itself, was +the son of one Robert Darwin, a gentleman of Nottinghamshire, 'a person +of curiosity,' with 'a taste for literature and science;' so that for +four generations at least, in the paternal line, the peculiar talents of +the Darwin family had been highly cultivated in either direction. Robert +Darwin was an early member of the Spalding Club, a friend of Stukeley +the antiquary, and an embryo geologist, after the fantastic, +half-superstitious fashion of his own time. Of his four sons, both +Robert, the eldest, and Erasmus, the youngest, were authors and +botanists. Erasmus himself was a Cambridge man, and his natural bent of +mind and energy led him irresistibly on to the study of medicine. Taking +his medical degree at his own university, and afterwards preparing for +practice by attending Hunter's lectures in London, besides going +through the regular medical course at Edinburgh, the young doctor +finally settled down as a physician at Nottingham, whence shortly +afterward he removed to Lichfield, then the centre of a famous literary +coterie. So large a part of Charles Darwin's remarkable idiosyncrasy was +derived by heredity from his paternal grandfather, that it may be worth +while to dwell a little here in passing on the character and career of +this brilliant precursor of the great evolutionist. Both in the physical +and in the spiritual sense, Erasmus Darwin was one among the truest and +most genuine ancestors of his grandson Charles. + +A powerful, robust, athletic man, in florid health and of temperate +habits, yet with the full-blooded tendency of the eighteenth century +vividly displayed in his ample face and broad features, Erasmus Darwin +bubbled over with irrepressible vivacity, the outward and visible sign +of that overflowing energy which forms everywhere one of the most marked +determining conditions of high genius. Strong in body and strong in +mind, a teetotaler before teetotalism, an abolitionist before the +anti-slavery movement, he had a great contempt for weaknesses and +prejudices of every sort, and he rose far superior to the age in which +he lived in breadth of view and freedom from preconceptions. The +eighteenth century considered him, in its cautious, cut-and-dried +fashion, a man of singular talent but of remarkably eccentric and unsafe +opinions. Unfortunately for his lasting fame, Dr. Darwin was much given +to writing poetry; and this poetry, though as ingenious as everything +else he did, had a certain false gallop of verse about it which has +doomed it to become since Canning's parody a sort of warning beacon +against the worst faults of the post-Augustan decadence in the +ten-syllabled metre. Nobody now reads the 'Botanic Garden' except either +to laugh at its exquisite extravagances, or to wonder at the queer +tinsel glitter of its occasional clever rhetorical rhapsodies. + +But in his alternative character of philosophic biologist, rejected by +the age which swallowed his poetry all applausive, Erasmus Darwin is +well worthy of the highest and deepest respect, as a prime founder and +early prophet of the evolutionary system. His 'Zoonomia,' 'which, though +ingenious, is built upon the most absurd hypothesis'--as men still said +only thirty years ago--contains in the germ the whole theory of organic +development as understood up to the very moment of the publication of +the 'Origin of Species.' In it Dr. Darwin calls attention to 'the great +changes introduced into various animals by artificial or accidental +cultivation,' a subject afterwards fully elucidated by his greater +grandson in his work on 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication.' He specially notes 'the immense changes of shape and +colour' produced by man in rabbits and pigeons, the very species on +which Charles Darwin subsequently made some of his most remarkable and +interesting observations. More than any previous writer, Erasmus Darwin, +with 'prophetic sagacity,' insisted strongly on the essential unity of +parent and offspring--a truth which lies at the very base of all modern +philosophical biology. 'Owing to the imperfection of language,' wrote +the Lichfield doctor nearly a hundred years ago, '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 may retain some of the habits of the parent +system.' He laid peculiar stress upon the hereditary nature of some +acquired properties, such as the muscles of dancers or jugglers, and the +diseases incidental to special occupations. Nay, he even anticipated his +great descendant in pointing out that varieties are often produced at +first as mere 'sports' or accidental variations, as in the case of +six-fingered men, five-clawed fowls, or extra-toed cats, and are +afterwards handed down by heredity to succeeding generations. Charles +Darwin would have added that if these new stray peculiarities happened +to prove advantageous to the species they would be naturally favoured in +the struggle for existence, while if they proved disadvantageous, or +even neutral, they would die out at once or be bred out in the course of +a few crosses. That last truth of natural selection was the only +cardinal one in the evolutionary system on which Erasmus Darwin did not +actually forestall his more famous and greater namesake. For its full +perception, the discovery of Malthus had to be collated with the +speculations of Buffon. + +'When we revolve in our minds,' says the eighteenth century prophet of +evolution, '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.' This is a very crude form of evolutionism +indeed, but it is leading up by gradual stages to the finished and +all-sided philosophy of physical life, which at last definitely +formulates itself through the mouth of Charles Darwin. We shall see +hereafter wherein Erasmus Darwin's conception of development chiefly +failed--in attributing evolution for the most part to the exertions and +endeavours of the animal itself, rather than to inevitable survival of +the fittest among innumerable spontaneous variations--but we must at +least conclude our glimpse of his pregnant and suggestive work by +quoting its great fundamental _aperçu_:--'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?' + +A few lines from the 'Temple of Nature,' one of Erasmus Darwin's poetic +rhapsodies, containing his fully matured views on the origin of living +creatures, may be worth reproduction in further elucidation of his +philosophical position:-- + + 'Organic life beneath the shoreless waves + Was born, and nursed in ocean's pearly caves; + First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass. + Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; + These, as successive generations bloom, + New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; + Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, + And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.' + +Have we not here the very beginnings of Charles Darwin? Do we not see, +in these profound and fundamental suggestions, not merely hints as to +the evolution of evolution, but also as to the evolution of the +evolutionist? + +On the other hand, though Erasmus Darwin defined a fool to his friend +Edgeworth as 'a man who never tried an experiment in his life,' he was +wanting himself in the rigorous and patient inductive habit which so +strikingly distinguished his grandson Charles. That trait, as we shall +presently see, the biological chief of the nineteenth century derived in +all probability from another root of his genealogical tree. Erasmus +Darwin gave us brilliant suggestions rather than cumulative proof: he +apologised in his 'Zoonomia' for 'many conjectures not supported by +accurate investigation or conclusive experiments,' Such an apology would +have been simply impossible to the painstaking spirit of his grandson +Charles. + +Erasmus Darwin was twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of +Mr. Charles Howard, of Lichfield, and it was her son, Robert Waring +Darwin, who became the father of our hero, Charles. It is fashionable to +say, in this and sundry other like cases, that the mental energy skips a +generation. People have said so in the case of that intermediate +Mendelssohn who was son of Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher, and +father of Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn, the composer--that mere link in a +marvellous chain who was wont to observe of himself in the decline of +life, that in his youth he was called the son of the great Mendelssohn, +and in his old age the father of the great Mendelssohn. As a matter of +fact, one may fairly doubt whether such a case of actual skipping is +ever possible in the nature of things. In the particular instance of +Robert Waring Darwin at least we may be pretty sure that the distinctive +Darwinian strain of genius lay merely latent rather than dormant: that +it did not display itself to the world at large, but that it persisted +silently as powerful as ever within the remote recesses of the thinking +organism. Not every man brings out before men all that is within him. +Robert Waring Darwin was a physician at Shrewsbury; and he attained at +least sufficient scientific eminence in his own time to become a Fellow +of the Royal Society, in days when that honour was certainly not readily +conferred upon country doctors of modest reputation. Charles Darwin says +of him plainly, 'He was incomparably the most acute observer whom I ever +knew.' It may well have been that Robert Darwin lived and died, as his +famous son lived for fifty years of his great life, in comparative +silence and learned retirement; for we must never forget that if Charles +Darwin had only completed the first half century of his laborious +existence, he would have been remembered merely as the author of an +entertaining work on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' a plausible theory of +coral islands, and a learned monograph on the fossil barnacles. During +all those years, in fact, he had really done little else than collect +material for the work of his lifetime. If we judge men by outward +performance only, we may often be greatly mistaken in our estimates: +potentiality is wider than actuality; what a man does is never a certain +or extreme criterion of what he can do. + +The Darwins, indeed, were all a mighty folk, of varied powers and varied +attainments. Erasmus's brother, Robert, was the author of a work on +botany, which long enjoyed a respectable repute. Of his sons, one, Sir +Francis Darwin, was noted as a keen observer of animals; a second, +Charles, who died at twenty-one, was already the author of a very +valuable medical essay; while the third, Robert, was the Shrewsbury +F.R.S., the father of our great evolutionary thinker. And among Charles +Darwin's own cousins, one is Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the philologist; a +second was the late Sir Henry Holland; and a third is Mr. Francis +Galton, the author of that essentially Darwinian book, 'Hereditary +Genius.' + +Robert Waring Darwin took to himself a wife from another very great and +eminent family. He married Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah +Wedgwood, the famous potter; and from these two silent representatives +of powerful stocks, Charles Robert Darwin, the father of modern +evolutionary biology, was born at Shrewsbury, on February the 12th, +1809. That Wedgwood connection, again, is no mere casual or unimportant +incident in the previous life-history of the Darwinian originality; it +throws a separate clear light of its own upon the peculiar and +admirably compounded idiosyncrasy of Charles Darwin. + +A man, indeed, owes on the average quite as much to his mother's as to +his father's family. It is a mere unscientific old-world prejudice which +makes us for the most part count ancestry in the direct ascending male +line alone, to the complete neglect of the equally important maternal +pedigree. Prom the biological point of view, at least, every individual +is a highly complex compound of hereditary elements, a resultant of +numerous converging forces, a meeting place of two great streams of +inheritance, each of which is itself similarly made up by the like +confluence of innumerable distinct prior tributaries. Between these two +it is almost impossible for us accurately to distribute any given +individuality. How much Charles Darwin owed to the Darwins, and how much +he owed in turn to the Wedgwoods, no man is yet psychologist enough or +physiologist enough to say. But that he owed a great deal to either +strong and vigorous strain we may even now quite safely take for +granted. + +The Wedgwood family were 'throwers' by handicraft, superior artisans +long settled at Burslem, in the Staffordshire potteries. Josiah, the +youngest of thirteen children, lamed by illness in early life, was +turned by this happy accident from his primitive task as a 'thrower' to +the more artistic and original work of producing ornamental coloured +earthenware. Skilful and indefatigable, of indomitable energy and with +great powers of forcing his way in life against all obstacles, young +Wedgwood rose rapidly by his own unaided exertions to be a master +potter, and a manufacturer of the famous unglazed black porcelain. +Those were the darkest days of industrial art and decorative handicraft +in modern England. Josiah Wedgwood, by his marked originality and force +of character, succeeded in turning the current of national taste, and +creating among us a new and distinctly higher type of artistic +workmanship. His activity, however, was not confined to his art alone, +but found itself a hundred other different outlets in the most varied +directions. When his potteries needed enlargement to meet the increased +demand, he founded for the hands employed upon his works the model +industrial village of Etruria. When Brindley began cutting artificial +waterways across the broad face of central England, it was in the great +potter that he found his chief ally in promoting the construction of the +Grand Trunk Canal. Wedgwood, indeed, was a builder of schools and a +maker of roads; a chemist and an artist; a friend of Watt and an +employer of Flaxman. In short, like Erasmus Darwin, he possessed that +prime essential in the character of genius, an immense underlying stock +of energy. And with it there went its best concomitant, the 'infinite +capacity for taking pains.' Is it not probable that in their joint +descendant, the brilliant but discursive and hazardous genius of Erasmus +Darwin was balanced and regulated by soberer qualities inherited +directly from the profound industry of the painstaking potter? When +later on we find Charles Darwin spending hours in noting the successive +movements of the tendrils in a plant, or watching for long years the +habits and manners of earthworms in flower-pots, may we not reasonably +conjecture that he derived no little share of his extraordinary +patience, carefulness, and minuteness of handicraft from his mother's +father, Josiah Wedgwood? + +Such, then, were the two main component elements, paternal and maternal, +from which the striking personality of Charles Darwin was no doubt for +the most part ultimately built up. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLY DAYS. + + +As the Chester express steams out of Shrewsbury station, you see on your +left, overhanging the steep bank of Severn, a large, square, +substantial-looking house, known as the Mount, the birthplace of the +author of the 'Origin of Species.' There, in the comfortable home he had +built for himself, Dr. Robert Darwin, the father, lived and worked for +fifty years of unobtrusive usefulness. He had studied medicine at +Edinburgh and Leyden, and had even travelled a little in Germany, before +he settled down in the quiet old Salopian town, where for half a century +his portly figure and yellow chaise were familiar objects of the +country-side for miles around. Among a literary society which included +Coleridge's friends, the Tayleurs, and where Hazlitt listened with +delight to the great poet's 'music of the spheres,' in High Street +Unitarian Chapel, the Mount kept up with becoming dignity the family +traditions of the Darwins and the Wedgwoods as a local centre of +sweetness and light. + +On February the 12th, 1809, Charles Darwin first saw the light of day in +this his father's house at Shrewsbury. Time and place were both +propitious. Born in a cultivated scientific family, surrounded from his +birth by elevating influences, and secured beforehand from the cramping +necessity of earning his own livelihood by his own exertions, the boy +was destined to grow up to full maturity in the twenty-one years of slow +development that immediately preceded the passing of the first Reform +Act. The thunder of the great European upheaval had grown silent at +Waterloo when he was barely six years old, and his boyhood was passed +amid country sights and sounds during that long period of reconstruction +and assimilation which followed the fierce volcanic outburst of the +French Revolution. Happy in the opportunity of his birth, he came upon +the world eight years after the first publication of Lamarck's +remarkable speculations, and for the first twenty-two years of his life +he was actually the far younger contemporary of the great French +evolutionary philosopher. Eleven years before his arrival upon the scene +Malthus had set forth his 'Principle of Population.' Charles Darwin thus +entered upon a stage well prepared for him, and he entered it with an +idiosyncrasy exactly adapted for making the best of the situation. The +soil had been thoroughly turned and dressed beforehand: Charles Darwin's +seed had only to fall upon it in order to spring up and bear fruit a +hundredfold, in every field of science or speculation. + +For it was not biology alone that he was foredoomed to revolutionise, +but the whole range of human thought, and perhaps even ultimately of +human action. + +Is it mere national prejudice which makes one add with congratulatory +pleasure that Darwin was born in England, rather than in France, in +Germany, or in America? Perhaps so; perhaps not. For the English +intellect does indeed seem more capable than most of uniting high +speculative ability with high practical skill and experience: and of +that union of rare qualities Darwin himself was a most conspicuous +example. It is probable that England has produced more of the great +organising and systematising intellects than any other modern country. + +Among those thinkers in his own line who stood more nearly abreast of +Darwin in the matter of age, Lyell was some eleven years his senior, and +contributed not a little (though quite unconsciously) by his work and +conclusions to the formation of Darwin's own peculiar scientific +opinions. The veteran Owen, who still survives him, was nearly five +years older than Darwin, and also helped to a great extent in giving +form and exactness to his great contemporary's anatomical ideas. +Humboldt, who preceded our English naturalist in the matter of time by +no less than forty years, might yet almost rank as coeval in some +respects, owing to his long and active life, his late maturity, and the +very recent date of his greatest and most thought-compelling work, the +'Cosmos' (begun when Humboldt was seventy-five, and finished when he +lacked but ten years of his century), in itself a sort of preparation +for due acceptance of the Darwinian theories. In fact, as many as fifty +years of their joint lives coincided entirely one with the other's. +Agassiz antedated Darwin by two years. On the other hand, among the men +who most helped on the recognition of Darwin's theories, Hooker and +Lewes were his juniors by eight years, Herbert Spencer by eleven, +Wallace by thirteen, and Huxley by sixteen. His cousin, Francis Galton, +another grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and joint inheritor of the +distinctive family biological ply, was born at the same date as Alfred +Russell Wallace, thirteen years after Charles Darwin. In such a goodly +galaxy of workers was the Darwinian light destined to shine through the +middle of the century, as one star excelleth another in glory. + +Charles Darwin was the second son: but nature refuses doggedly to +acknowledge the custom of primogeniture. His elder brother, Erasmus, a +man of mute and inarticulate ability, with a sardonic humour alien to +his race, extorted unwonted praise from the critical pen of Thomas +Carlyle, who 'for intellect rather preferred him to his brother +Charles.' But whatever spark of the Darwinian genius was really innate +in Erasmus the Less died with him unacknowledged. + +The boy was educated (so they call it) at Shrewsbury Grammar School, +under sturdy Sam Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield; and there he +picked up so much Latin and Greek as was then considered absolutely +essential to the due production of an English gentleman. Happily for the +world, having no taste for the classics, he escaped the ordeal with +little injury to his individuality. His mother had died while he was +still a child, but his father, that 'acute observer,' no doubt taught +him to know and love nature. At sixteen he went to Edinburgh University, +then rendered famous by a little knot of distinguished professors, and +there he remained for two years. Already at school he had made himself +notable by his love of collecting--the first nascent symptom of the +naturalist bent. He collected everything, shells, eggs, minerals, +coins, nay, since postage stamps were then not yet invented, even +franks. But at Edinburgh he gave the earliest distinct evidence of his +definite scientific tastes by contributing to the local academic society +a paper on the floating eggs of the common sea-mat, in which he had even +then succeeded in discovering for the first time organs of locomotion. +Thence he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. The Darwins were +luckily a Cambridge family: luckily, let us say, for had it been +otherwise--had young Darwin been distorted from his native bent by Plato +and Aristotle, and plunged deep into the mysteries of Barbara and +Celarent, as would infallibly have happened to him at the sister +university--who can tell how long we might have had to wait in vain for +the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man'? But Cambridge, which +rejoiced already in the glory of Newton, was now to match it by the +glory of Darwin. In its academical course, the mathematical wedge had +always kept open a dim passage for physical science; and at the exact +moment when Darwin was an undergraduate at Christ's--from 1827 to +1831--the university had the advantage of several good scientific +teachers, and amongst them one, Professor Henslow, a well-known +botanist, who took a special interest in young Darwin's intellectual +development. There, too, he met with Sedgwick, Airy, Ramsay, and +numerous other men of science, whose intercourse with him must no doubt +have contributed largely to mould and form the future cast of his +peculiar philosophical idiosyncrasy. + +It was to Henslow's influence that Darwin in later years attributed in +great part his powerful taste for natural history. But in truth the +ascription of such high praise to his early teacher smacks too much of +the Darwinian modesty to be accepted at once without demur by the candid +critic. The naturalist, like the poet, is born, not made. How much more, +then, must this needs be the case with the grandson of Erasmus Darwin +and of Josiah Wedgwood? As a matter of fact, already at Edinburgh the +lad had loved to spend his days among the sea-beasts and wrack of the +Inches in the Firth of Forth; and it was through the instrumentality of +his 'brother entomologists' that he first became acquainted with Henslow +himself when he removed to Cambridge. The good professor could not make +him into a naturalist: inherited tendencies and native energies had done +that for him already from his very cradle. + +'Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam;' and it was well that Darwin took up +at Cambridge with the study of geology as his first love. For geology +was then the living and moving science, as astronomy had been in the +sixteenth century, and as biology is at the present day--the +growing-point, so to speak, of European development, whence all great +things might naturally be expected. Moreover, it was and is the central +science of the concrete class, having relations with astronomy on the +one hand, and with biology on the other; concerned alike with cosmical +chances or changes on this side, and with the minutest facts of organic +nature on that; the meeting-place and border-land of all the separate +branches of study that finally bear upon the complex problems of our +human life. No other subject of investigation was so well calculated to +rouse Darwin's interest in the ultimate questions of evolution or +creation, of sudden cataclysm or gradual growth, of miraculous +intervention or slow development. Here, if anywhere, his enigmas were +all clearly propounded to him by the inarticulate stony sphinxes; he had +only to riddle them out for himself as he went along in after years with +the aid of the successive side-lights thrown upon the world by the +unconnected lanterns of Lamarck and of Malthus. + +Fortunately for us, then, Darwin did not waste his time at Cambridge +over the vain and frivolous pursuits of the classical tripos. He +preferred to work at his own subjects in his own way, and to leave the +short-lived honours of the schools to those who cared for them and for +nothing higher. He came out with the _οἱ πολλοί_ in 1831, and +thenceforth proceeded to study life in the wider university for which +his natural inclinations more properly fitted him. The world was all +before him where to choose, and he chose that better part which shall +not be taken away from him as long as the very memory of science +survives. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS. + + +Scarcely had Darwin taken his pass degree at Cambridge when the great +event of his life occurred which, more than anything else perhaps, gave +the final direction to his categorical genius in the line it was +thenceforth so successfully to follow. In the autumn of 1831, when +Darwin was just twenty-two, it was decided by Government to send a +ten-gun brig, the 'Beagle,' under command of Captain Fitzroy, to +complete the unfinished survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, to map +out the shores of Chili and Peru, to visit several of the Pacific +archipelagoes, and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round +the whole world. This was an essentially scientific expedition, and +Captain Fitzroy, afterwards so famous as the meteorological admiral, was +a scientific officer of the highest type. He was anxious to be +accompanied on his cruise by a competent naturalist who would undertake +the collection and preservation of the animals and plants discovered on +the voyage, for which purpose he generously offered to give up a share +of his own cabin accommodation. Professor Henslow seized upon the +opportunity to recommend for the post his promising pupil, young Darwin, +'grandson of the poet.' Darwin gladly volunteered his services without +salary, and partly paid his own expenses on condition of being permitted +to retain in his own possession the animals and plants he collected on +the journey. The 'Beagle' set sail from Devonport on December the 27th, +1831; she returned to Falmouth on October the 2nd, 1836. + +That long five years' cruise around the world, the journal of which +Darwin has left us in the 'Voyage of the "Beagle,"' proved a marvellous +epoch in the great naturalist's quiet career. It left its abiding mark +deeply imprinted on all his subsequent life and thinking. Lamarck and +Erasmus Darwin were cabinet biologists, who had never beheld with their +own eyes the great round world and all that therein is; Charles Darwin +had the inestimable privilege of seeing for himself, at first hand, a +large part of the entire globe and of the creatures that inhabit it. +Even to have caught one passing glimpse of the teeming life of the +tropics is in itself an education; to the naturalist it is more, it is a +revelation. Our starved little northern fauna and flora, the mere +leavings of the vast ice sheets that spread across our zone in the +glacial epoch, show us a world depopulated of all its largest, +strangest, and fiercest creatures; a world dwarfed in all its component +elements, and immensely differing in ten thousand ways from that rich, +luxuriant, over-stocked hot-house in which the first great problems of +evolution were practically worked out by survival of the fittest. But +the tropics preserve for us still in all their jungles something of the +tangled, thickly-peopled aspect which our planet must have presented for +countless ages in all latitudes before the advent of primæval man. We +now know that throughout the greater part of geological time, +essentially tropical conditions existed unbroken over the whole surface +of the entire earth, from the Antarctic continent to the shores of +Greenland; so that some immediate acquaintance at least with the +equatorial world is of immense value to the philosophical naturalist for +the sake of the analogies it inevitably suggests; and it is a +significant fact that almost all those great and fruitful thinkers who +in our own time have done good work in the wider combination of +biological facts have themselves passed a considerable number of years +in investigating the conditions of tropical nature. Europe and England +are at the ends of the earth; the tropics are biological head-quarters. +The equatorial zone is therefore the true school for the historian of +life in its more universal and lasting aspects. + +Nor was that all. The particular countries visited by the 'Beagle' +during the course of her long and varied cruise happened to be exactly +such as were naturally best adapted for bringing out the latent +potentialities of Darwin's mind, and suggesting to his active and +receptive brain those deep problems of life and its environment which he +afterwards wrought out with such subtle skill and such consummate +patience in the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man.' The Cape +de Verdes, and the other Atlantic islands, with their scanty population +of plants and animals, composed for the most part of waifs and strays +drifted to their barren rocks by ocean currents, or blown out helplessly +to sea by heavy winds; Brazil, with its marvellous contrasting wealth of +tropical luxuriance and self-strangling fertility, a new province of +interminable delights to the soul of the enthusiastic young collector; +the South American pampas, with their colossal remains of extinct +animals, huge geological precursors of the stunted modern sloths and +armadillos that still inhabit the self-same plains; Tierra del Fuego, +with its almost Arctic climate, and its glimpses into the secrets of the +most degraded savage types; the vast range of the Andes and the +Cordilleras, with their volcanic energy and their closely crowded +horizontal belts of climatic life; the South Sea Islands, those +paradises of the Pacific, Hesperian fables true, alike for the lover of +the picturesque and the biological student; Australia, that surviving +fragment of an extinct world, with an antiquated fauna whose archaic +character still closely recalls the European life of ten million years +back in the secondary epoch: all these and many others equally novel and +equally instructive passed in long alternating panorama before Darwin's +eyes, and left their images deeply photographed for ever after on the +lasting tablets of his retentive memory. That was the real great +university in which he studied nature and read for his degree. Our +evolutionist was now being educated. + +Throughout the whole of the journal of this long cruise, which Darwin +afterwards published in an enlarged form, it is impossible not to be +struck at every turn with the way in which his inquisitive mind again +and again recurs to the prime elements of those great problems towards +whose solution he afterwards so successfully pointed out the path. The +Darwinian ideas are all already there in the germ; the embryo form of +the 'Origin of Species' plays in and out on every page with the +quaintest elusiveness. We are always just on the very point of catching +it; and every now and again we do actually all but catch it in essence +and spirit, though ever still its bodily shape persistently evades us. +Questions of geographical distribution, of geological continuity, of the +influence of climate, of the modifiability of instinct, of the effects +of surrounding conditions, absorb the young observer's vivid interest at +every step, wherever he lands. He is all unconsciously collecting notes +and materials in profuse abundance for his great work; he is thinking in +rough outline the new thoughts which are hereafter to revolutionise the +thought of humanity. + +Five years are a great slice out of a man's life: those five years of +ceaseless wandering by sea and land were spent by Charles Darwin in +accumulating endless observations and hints for the settlement of the +profound fundamental problems in which he was even then so deeply +interested. The 'Beagle' sailed from England to the Cape de Verdes, and +already, even before she had touched her first land, the young +naturalist had observed with interest that the impalpably fine dust +which fell on deck contained no less than sixty-seven distinct organic +forms, two of them belonging to species peculiar to South America. In +some of the dust he found particles of stone so very big that they +measured 'above the thousandth of an inch square;' and after this fact, +says the keen student, 'one need not be surprised at the diffusion of +the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants.' Would +Erasmus Darwin have noticed these minute points and their implications +one wonders? Probably not. May we not see in the observation partly the +hereditary tendencies of Josiah Wedgwood towards minute investigation +and accuracy of detail, partly the influence of the scientific +time-wave, and the careful training under Professor Henslow? Erasmus +Darwin comes before us rather as the brilliant and ingenious amateur, +his grandson Charles as the instructed and fully equipped final product +of the scientific schools. + +At St. Paul's Rocks, once more, a mass of new volcanic peaks rising +abruptly from the midst of the Atlantic, the naturalist of the 'Beagle' +notes with interest that feather and dirt-feeding and parasitic insects +or spiders are the first inhabitants to take up their quarters on +recently formed oceanic islands. This problem of the peopling of new +lands, indeed, so closely connected with the evolution of new species, +necessarily obtruded itself upon his attention again and again during +his five years' cruise; and in some cases, especially that of the +Galapagos Islands, the curious insular faunas and floras which he +observed upon this trip, composed as they were of mere casual straylings +from adjacent shores, produced upon his mind a very deep and lasting +impression, whose traces one may without difficulty discern on every +second page of the 'Origin of Species.' + +On the last day of February, 1832, the 'Beagle' came to anchor in the +harbour of Bahia, and young Darwin caught sight for the first time of +the mutually strangling luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Nowhere on +earth are the finest conditions of tropical life more fully realised +than in the tangled depths of the great uncleared Brazilian forests, +which everywhere gird round like a natural palisade with their +impenetrable belt the narrow and laborious clearings of over-mastered +man. The rich alluvial silt of mighty river systems, the immemorial +manuring of the virgin soil, the fierce energy of an almost equatorial +sun, and the universal presence of abundant water, combine to make life +in that marvellous region unusually wealthy, varied, and crowded, so +that the struggle for existence is there perhaps more directly visible +to the seeing eye than in any other known portion of God's universe. +'Delight itself,' says Darwin in his journal, with that naive simplicity +which everywhere forms the chief charm of his direct and unaffected +literary style--'delight itself is a weak term to express the feelings +of a naturalist who for the first time has wandered by himself in a +Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the +parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the +foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled +me with admiration.' In truth, among those huge buttressed trunks, +overhung by the unbroken canopy of foliage on the vast spreading and +interlacing branches, festooned with lianas and drooping lichens, or +beautified by the pendent alien growth of perfumed orchids, Darwin's +mind must indeed have found congenial food for apt reflection, and +infinite opportunities for inference and induction. Prom the mere +picturesque point of view, indeed, the naturalist enjoys such sights as +this a thousand times more truly and profoundly than the mere casual +unskilled observer: for it is a shallow, self-flattering mistake of +vulgar and narrow minds to suppose that fuller knowledge and clearer +insight can destroy or impair the beauty of beautiful objects--as who +should imagine that a great painter appreciates the sunset less than a +silly boy or a sentimental schoolgirl. As a matter of fact, the +naturalist knows and admires a thousand exquisite points of detail in +every flower and every insect which only he himself and the true artist +can equally delight in. And a keen intellectual and æsthetic joy in the +glorious fecundity and loveliness of nature was everywhere present to +Darwin's mind. But, beyond and above even that, there was also the +architectonic delight of the great organiser in the presence of a noble +organised product: the peculiar pleasure felt only by the man in whose +broader soul all minor details fall at once into their proper place, as +component elements in one great consistent and harmonious whole--a +sympathetic pleasure akin to that with which an architect views the +interior of Ely and of Lincoln, or a musician listens to the linked +harmonies of the 'Messiah' and the 'Creation.' The scheme of nature was +now unfolding itself visibly and clearly before Charles Darwin's very +eyes. + +After eighteen memorable days spent with unceasing delight at Bahia, the +'Beagle' sailed again for Rio, where Darwin stopped for three months, to +improve his acquaintance with the extraordinary wealth of the South +American fauna and flora. Collecting insects was here his chief +occupation, and it is interesting to note even at this early period how +his attention was attracted by some of those strange alluring devices on +the part of the males for charming their partners which afterwards +formed the principal basis for his admirable theory of sexual selection, +so fully developed in the 'Descent of Man.' 'Several times,' he says, +'when a pair [of butterflies], probably male and female, were chasing +each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me; +and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a +toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.' In like manner he observed +here the instincts of tropical ants, the habits of phosphorescent +insects, and the horrid practice of that wasp-like creature, the sphex, +which stuffs the clay cells of its larvæ full of half-dead spiders and +writhing caterpillars, so stung with devilish avoidance of vital parts +as to be left quite paralysed yet still alive, as future food for the +developing grubs. Cases like these helped naturally to shake the young +biologist's primitive faith in the cheap and crude current theories of +universal beneficence, and to introduce that wholesome sceptical +reaction against received dogma which is the necessary groundwork and +due preparation for all great progressive philosophical thinking. + +In July they set sail again for Monte Video, where the important +question of climate and vegetation began to interest young Darwin's +mind. Uruguay is almost entirely treeless; and this curious phenomenon, +in a comparatively moist sub-tropical plain-land, struck him as a +remarkable anomaly, and set him speculating on its probable cause. +Australia, he remembered, was far more arid, and yet its interior was +everywhere covered by whole forests of quaint indigenous gum-trees. +Could it be that there were no trees adapted to the climate? As yet, the +true causes of geographical distribution had not clearly dawned upon +Darwin's mind; but that a young man of twenty-three should seriously +busy himself about such problems of ultimate causation at all is in +itself a sufficiently pointed and remarkable phenomenon. It was here, +too, that he first saw that curious animal, the Tucutuco, a true rodent +with the habits of a mole, which is almost always found in a blind +condition. With reference to this singular creature, there occurs in his +journal one of those interesting anticipatory passages which show the +rough workings of the distinctive evolutionary Darwinian concept in its +earlier stages. 'Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the +Tucutuco,' he writes, 'the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very +serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an +organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been +delighted with this fact, had he known it, when speculating (probably +with more truth than usual with him) on the gradually acquired blindness +of the Aspalax, a gnawer living under the ground, and of the Proteus, a +reptile living in dark caverns filled with water; in both of which +animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a +tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is +extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether +it is connected with the true optic nerve; its vision must certainly be +imperfect, though probably useful to the animal when it leaves its +burrow. In the Tucutuco, which I believe never comes to the surface of +the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and +useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the +animal: no doubt Lamarck would have said that the Tucutuco is now +passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus.' The passage is +instructive both as showing that Darwin was already familiar with +Lamarck's writings, and as pointing out the natural course of his own +future development. + +For the two years from her arrival at Monte Video, the 'Beagle' was +employed in surveying the eastern coast of South America; and Darwin +enjoyed unusual opportunities for studying the geology, the zoology, and +the botany of the surrounding districts during all that period. It was a +suggestive field indeed for the young naturalist. The curious +relationship of the gigantic fossil armour-plated animals to the +existing armadillo, of the huge megatherium to the modern sloths, and of +the colossal ant-eaters to their degenerate descendants at the present +day, formed one of the direct inciting causes to the special study which +produced at last the 'Origin of Species.' In the Introduction to that +immortal work Darwin wrote, some twenty-seven years later, 'When on +board H.M.S. "Beagle" as naturalist, I was much struck with certain +facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South +America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past +inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the +latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin +of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of +our greatest philosophers.' And in the body of the work itself he refers +over and over again to numberless observations made by himself during +this period of rapid psychological development--observations on the +absence of recent geological formations along the lately upheaved South +American coast; on the strange extinction of the horse in La Plata; on +the affinities of the extinct and recent species; on the effect of +minute individual peculiarities in preserving life under special +circumstances; and on the influence of insects and blood-sucking bats in +determining the existence of the larger naturalised mammals in parts of +Brazil and the Argentine Republic. It was the epoch of wide collection +of facts, to be afterwards employed in brilliant generalisations: the +materials for the 'Origin of Species' were being slowly accumulated in +the numberless pigeon-holes of the Darwinian memory. + +Among the facts thus industriously gathered by Darwin in the two years +spent on the South American coast were several curious instincts of the +cuckoo-like molothrus, of the owl of the Pampas, and of the American +ostrich. A few sentences scattered here and there through this part of +the 'Naturalist's Journal' may well be extracted in the present place as +showing, better than any mere secondhand description could do, the slow +germinating process of the 'Origin of Species.' In speaking of the +toxodon, that strange extinct South American mammal, the young author +remarks acutely that, though in size it equalled the elephant and the +megatherium, the structure of its teeth shows it to be closely allied to +the ruminants, while several other details link it to the pachyderms, +and its aquatic peculiarities of ear and nostril approximate it rather +to the manatee and the dugong. 'How wonderfully,' he says, 'are the +different orders, at the present time so well separated, blended +together in different points of the structure of the toxodon.' We now +know that unspecialised ancestral forms always display this close union +of peculiarities afterwards separately developed in distinct species of +their later descendants. + +Still more pregnant with evolutionism in the bud is the prophetic remark +about a certain singular group of South American birds, 'This small +family is one of those which, from its varied relations to other +families, although at present offering only difficulties to the +systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand +scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings +have been created.' Of the agouti, once more, that true friend of the +desert, Darwin notes that it does not now range as far south as Port St. +Julian, though Wood in 1670 found it abundant there; and he asks +suggestively, 'What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and +rarely visited country, the range of an animal like this?' Again, when +speaking of the analogies between the extinct camel-like macrauchenia +and the modern guanaco, as well as of those between the fossil and +living species of South American rodents, he says, with even more +prophetic insight, 'This wonderful relationship in the same continent +between the dead and the living will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw +more light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth, and their +disappearance from it, than any other class of facts.' He was himself +destined in another thirty years to prove the truth of his own +vaticination. + +A yet more remarkable passage in the 'Journal of the "Beagle,"' though +entered under the account of events observed in the year 1834, must +almost certainly have been written somewhat later, and subsequently to +Darwin's first reading of Malthus's momentous work, 'The Principle of +Population,' which (as we know from his own pen) formed a cardinal point +in the great biologist's mental development. It runs as follows in the +published journal:[1]--'We do not steadily bear in mind how profoundly +ignorant we are of the conditions of existence of every animal; nor do +we always remember that some check is constantly preventing the too +rapid increase of every organised being left in a state of nature. The +supply of food, on an average, remains constant; yet the tendency in +every animal to increase by propagation is geometrical, and its +surprising effects have nowhere been more astonishingly shown than in +the case of the European animals run wild during the last few centuries +in America. Every animal in a state of nature regularly breeds; yet in a +species long established any great increase in numbers is obviously +impossible, and must be checked by some means.' Aut Malthus aut +Diabolus. And surely here, if anywhere at all, we tremble on the very +verge of natural selection. + +It would be impossible to follow young Darwin in detail through his +journey to Buenos Ayres, and up the Parana to Santa Fé, which occupied +the autumn of 1833. In the succeeding year he visited Patagonia and the +Falkland Islands, having previously made his first acquaintance with +savage life among the naked Fuegians of the extreme southern point of +the continent. Some of these interesting natives, taken to England by +Captain Fitzroy on a former visit, had accompanied the 'Beagle' through +all her wanderings, and from them Darwin obtained that close insight +into the workings of savage human nature which he afterwards utilised +with such conspicuous ability in the 'Descent of Man.' Through +Magellan's Straits the party made their way up the coasts of Chili, and +Darwin had there an opportunity of investigating the geology and biology +of the Cordillera. The year 1835 was chiefly spent in that temperate +country and in tropical Peru; and as the autumn went on, the 'Beagle' +made her way across a belt of the Pacific to the Galapagos archipelago. + +Small and unimportant as are those little equatorial islands from the +geographical and commercial point of view, they will yet remain for ever +classic ground to the biologists of the future from their close +connection with the master-problems of the 'Origin of Species.' Here +more, perhaps, than anywhere else the naturalist of the 'Beagle' found +himself face to face in real earnest with the ultimate questions of +creation or evolution. A group of tiny volcanic islets, never joined to +any land, nor even united to one another, yet each possessing its own +special zoological features--the Galapagos roused to an extraordinary +degree the irresistible questionings of Darwin's mind. They contain no +frogs, and no mammal save a mouse, brought to them, no doubt, by some +passing ship. The only insects are beetles, which possess peculiar +facilities for being transported in the egg or grub across salt water +upon floating logs. There are two kinds of snake, one tortoise, and four +lizards; but, in striking contrast to this extreme poverty of +terrestrial forms, there are at least fifty-five distinct species of +native birds. A few snails complete the list. Now most of these animals, +though closely resembling the fauna of Ecuador, the nearest mainland, +are specifically distinct; they have varied (as we now know) from their +continental types owing to natural selection under the new circumstances +in which they have been placed. But Darwin had not yet evolved that +potent key to the great riddle of organic existence. He saw the problem, +but not its solution. 'Most of the organic productions,' he says +plainly, 'are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a +difference between the inhabitants of the different islands: yet all +show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from +that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in +width.... Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more +astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their +confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the +boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to +believe that within a period geologically recent the unbroken sea was +here spread out. Hence, both in space and time we seem to be brought +somewhat nearer to that great fact--that mystery of mysteries--the first +appearance of new beings on this earth.' Among the most singular of +these zoological facts may be mentioned the existence in the Galapagos +archipelago of a genus of gigantic and ugly lizard, the amblyrhyncus, +unknown elsewhere, but here assuming the forms of two species, the one +marine and the other terrestrial. In minuter points, the differences of +fauna and flora between the various islands are simply astounding, so as +to compel the idea that each form must necessarily have been developed +not merely for the group, but for the special island which it actually +inhabits. No wonder that Darwin should say in conclusion, 'One is +astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be +used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands; and still +more so at its diverse, yet analogous, action on points so near each +other.' Here again, in real earnest, the young observer trembles visibly +on the very verge of natural selection. In the 'Origin of Species' he +makes full use, more than once, of the remarkable facts he observed with +so much interest in these tiny isolated oceanic specks of the American +galaxy. + +From the Galapagos the 'Beagle' steered a straight course for Tahiti, +and Darwin then beheld with his own eyes the exquisite beauty of the +Polynesian Islands. Thence they sailed for New Zealand, the most truly +insular large mass of land in the whole world, supplied accordingly with +a fauna and flora of most surprising meagreness and poverty of species. +In the woods, our observer noted very few birds, and he remarks with +astonishment that so big an island--as large as Great Britain--should +not possess a single living indigenous mammal, save a solitary rat of +doubtful origin. Australia and Tasmania, with their antiquated and +stranded marsupial inhabitants, almost completed the round trip. Keeling +Island next afforded a basis for the future famous observations upon +coral reefs; and thence by Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, +Pernambuco, and the beautiful Azores, the 'Beagle' made her way home by +slow stages to England, which she reached in safety on October the 2nd, +1836. What an ideal education for the future reconstructor of +biological science! He had now all his problems cut and dried, ready to +his hand, and he had nothing important left to do--except to sit down +quietly in his study, and proceed to solve them. Observation and +collection had given him one half the subject-matter of the 'Origin of +Species;' reflection and Malthus were to give him the other half. Never +had great mind a nobler chance; never, again, had noble chance a great +mind better adapted by nature and heredity to make the most of it. The +man was not wanting to the opportunity, nor was the opportunity wanting +to the man. Organism and environment fell together into perfect harmony; +and so, by a lucky combination of circumstances, the secret of the ages +was finally wrung from not unwilling nature by the far-seeing and +industrious volunteer naturalist of the 'Beagle' expedition. + +It would be giving a very false idea of the interests which stirred +Charles Darwin's mind during his long five years' voyage, however, if we +were to dwell exclusively upon the biological side of his numerous +observations on that memorable cruise. Ethnology, geology, oceanic +phenomena, the height of the snow-line, the climate of the Antarctic +islands, the formation of icebergs, the transport of boulders, the +habits and manners engendered by slavery, all almost equally aroused in +their own way the young naturalist's vivid interest. Nowhere do we get +the faintest trace of narrow specialism; nowhere are we cramped within +the restricted horizon of the mere vulgar beetle-hunter and +butterfly-catcher. The biologist of the 'Beagle' had taken the whole +world of science for his special province. Darwin's mind with all its +vastness was not, indeed, profoundly analytical. The task of working out +the psychological and metaphysical aspects of evolution fell rather to +the great organising and systematising intellect of Herbert Spencer. But +within the realm of material fact, and of the widest possible inferences +based upon such fact, Darwin's keen and comprehensive spirit ranged +freely over the whole illimitable field of nature. 'No one,' says Buckle +with unwonted felicity, 'can have a firm grasp of any science if, by +confining himself to it, he shuts out the light of analogy. He may, no +doubt, work at the details of his subject; he may be useful in adding to +its facts; he will never be able to enlarge its philosophy. For the +philosophy of every department depends on its connection with other +departments, and must therefore be sought at their points of contact. It +must be looked for in the place where they touch and coalesce: it lies, +not in the centre of each science, but on the confines and margin.' This +profound truth Darwin fully and instinctively realised. It was the +all-embracing catholicity of his manifold interests that raised him into +the greatest pure biologist of all time, and that enabled him to +co-ordinate with such splendid results the raw data of so many distinct +and separate sciences. And even as early as the days of the cruise in +the 'Beagle,' that innate catholicity had already asserted itself in +full vigour. Now it is a party of Gauchos throwing the bola that engages +for the moment his eager attention; and now again it is a group of +shivering Fuegians, standing naked with their long hair streaming in the +wind on a snowy promontory of their barren coast. Here he examines the +tubular lightning-holes melted in the solid rock of Maldonado by the +electric energy; and there he observes the moving boulder-streams that +course like torrents down the rugged corries of the Falkland Islands. At +one time he works upon the unstudied geology of the South American +Pampas; at another, he inspects the now classical lagoon and narrow +fringing reef of the Keeling archipelago. Everywhere he sees whatever of +most noteworthy in animate or inanimate nature is there to be seen; and +everywhere he draws from it innumerable lessons, to be applied hereafter +to the special field of study upon which his intense and active energies +were finally concentrated. It is not too much to say, indeed, that it +was the voyage of the 'Beagle' which gave us in the last resort the +'Origin of Species' and its great fellow the 'Descent of Man.' + + +[1] The full narrative was first given to the world in 1839, some three +years after Darwin's return to England, so that much of it evidently +represents the results of his maturer thinking and reading on the facts +collected during his journey round the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION. + + +When Charles Darwin landed in England on his return from the voyage of +the 'Beagle' he was nearly twenty-eight. When he published the first +edition of the 'Origin of Species' he was over fifty. The intermediate +years, though much occupied by many minor works of deep specialist +scientific importance, were still mainly devoted to collecting material +for the one crowning effort of his life, the chief monument of his great +co-ordinating and commanding intellect--the settlement of the question +of organic evolution. + +'There is one thing,' says Professor Fiske, 'which a man of original +scientific or philosophical genius in a rightly ordered world should +never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to earn a +living; for that is a wretched waste of energy, in which the highest +intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment, and runs the +risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.' From this unhappy +necessity Charles Darwin, like his predecessor Lyell, was luckily free. +He settled down early in a home of his own, and worked away at his own +occupations, with no sordid need for earning the day's bread, but with +perfect leisure to carry out the great destiny for which the chances of +the universe had singled him out. His subsequent history is the history +of his wonderful and unique contributions to natural science. + +The first thing to be done, of course, was the arrangement and +classification of the natural history spoils gathered during the cruise, +and the preparation of his own journal of the voyage for publication. +The strict scientific results of the trip were described in the 'Zoology +of the Voyage of the "Beagle,"' the different parts of which were +undertaken by rising men of science of the highest distinction, under +Charles Darwin's own editorship. Sir Richard Owen took in hand the +fossil mammals; Waterhouse arranged their living allies; Gould discussed +the birds, Jenyns the fish, and Bell the amphibians and reptiles. In +this vast co-operative publication Darwin thus obtained the assistance +of many among the most competent specialists in the England of his day, +and learned to understand his own collections by the light thrown upon +them from the focussed lamps of the most minute technical learning. As +for the journal, it was originally published with the general account of +the cruise by Captain Fitzroy in 1839, but was afterwards set forth in a +separate form under the title of 'A Naturalist's Voyage Round the +World.' + +But while Darwin was thus engaged in arranging and classifying the +animals and plants he had brought home with him, the germs of those +inquiring ideas about the origin of species which we have already +observed in his account of the voyage were quickening into fresh life +within him. As he ruminated at his leisure over the results of his +accumulations, he was beginning to work upon the great problem with the +definite and conscious resolution of solving it. 'On my return home, it +occurred to me,' he says, 'in 1837, that something might perhaps be made +out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all +sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five +years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up +some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the +conclusions that then seemed to me probable; from that period to the +present day [1859] I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that +I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them +to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.' + +So Darwin wrote at fifty. The words are weighty and well worthy of +consideration. They give us in a nutshell the true secret of Darwin's +success in compelling the attention and assent of his contemporaries to +his completed theory. For speculations and hypotheses like those of +Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin, however brilliant and luminous they may be, +the hard, dry, scientific mind cares as a rule less than nothing. Men of +genius and insight like Goethe and Oken may, indeed, seize greedily upon +the pregnant suggestion; their intellects are already attuned by nature +to its due reception and assimilation; but the mere butterfly-catchers +and plant-hunters of the world, with whom after all rests ultimately the +practical acceptance or rejection of such a theory, can only be +convinced by long and patient accumulations of facts, by infinite +instances and endless examples, by exhaustive surveys of the whole +field of nature in a thousand petty details piecemeal. They have to be +driven by repeated beating into the right path. Everywhere they fancy +they see the loophole of an objection, which must be carefully closed +beforehand against them with anticipatory argument, as we close hedges +by the wayside against the obtrusive donkey with a cautious bunch of +thorny brambles. Even if Charles Darwin had hit upon the fundamental +idea of natural selection, and had published it, as Wallace did, in the +form of a mere splendid _aperçu_, he would never have revolutionised the +world of biology. When the great discovery was actually promulgated, it +was easy enough to win the assent of philosophical thinkers like Herbert +Spencer; easy enough, even, to gain the ready adhesion of non-biological +but kindred minds, like Leslie Stephen's and John Morley's; those might +all, perhaps, have been readily convinced by far less heavy and crushing +artillery than that so triumphantly marshalled together in the 'Origin +of Species.' But in order to command the slow and grudging adhesion of +the rank and file of scientific workers, the 'hodmen of science,' as +Professor Huxley calls them, it was needful to bring together an +imposing array of closely serried facts, to secure every post in the +rear before taking a single step onward, and to bring to bear upon every +antagonist the exact form of argument with which he was already +thoroughly familiar. It was by carefully pursuing these safe and +cautious philosophical tactics that Charles Darwin gained his great +victory. Where others were pregnant, he was cogent. He met the +Dryasdusts of science on their own ground, and he put them fairly to +flight with their own weapons. More than that, he brought them all over +in the long run as deserters into his own camp, and converted them from +doubtful and suspicious foes into warm adherents of the evolutionary +banner. + +Moreover, fortunately for the world, Darwin's own mind was essentially +one of the inductive type. If a great deductive thinker and speculator +like Herbert Spencer had hit upon the self-same idea of survival of the +fittest, he might have communicated it to a small following of receptive +disciples, who would have understood it and accepted it, on _a priori_ +grounds alone, and gradually passed it on to the grades beneath them; +but he would never have touched the slow and cautious elephantine +intellect of the masses. The common run of mankind are not deductive; +they require to have everything made quite clear to them by example and +instance. The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule +congenitally incapable of appreciating the superior logical certitude of +the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square +on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until +they have measured and weighed as well as they are able by rude +experimental devices a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular +paper. It was a great gain, therefore, that the task of reconstructing +the course of organic evolution should fall to the lot of a highly +trained and masterly intelligence of the inductive order. Darwin had +first to convince himself, and then he could proceed to convince the +world. He set about the task with characteristic patience and +thoroughness. No man that ever lived possessed in a more remarkable +degree than he did the innate capacity for taking trouble. For five +years, as a mere preliminary, he accumulated facts in immense variety, +and then for the first time and in the vaguest possible way he--'allowed +himself to speculate.' That brings us down to the year 1842, when the +first notes of the 'Origin of Species' must have been tentatively +committed to paper. It was in 1859 that the first edition of the +complete work was given to the world. Compare this with the case of +Newton, who similarly kept his grand idea of gravitation for many years +in embryo, until more exact measurements of the moon's mass and distance +should enable him to verify it to his own satisfaction. + +One other item of immense importance in the genesis of the full +Darwinian doctrine deserves mention here--I mean, the exact moment of +time occupied by Charles Darwin in the continuous history of scientific +thought. A generation or two earlier, in Erasmus Darwin's days, biology +had not yet arrived at the true classification of animals and plants +upon an essentially hereditary basis. The Linnæan arrangement, then +universally accepted, was wholly artificial in its main features; it +distributed species without regard to their fundamental likenesses of +structure and organisation. But the natural system of Jussieu and De +Candolle, by arranging plants into truly related groups, made possible +the proofs of an order of affiliation in the vegetable kingdom; while +Cuvier's similar reconstruction of the animal world gave a like foothold +to the evolutionary philosopher in the other great department of organic +nature. The recognition of kinship between the various members of the +same family necessarily preceded the establishment of a regular +genealogical theory of life in its entirety. + +Though we are here concerned mainly with Charles Darwin the thinker and +writer--not with Charles Darwin the husband and father--a few words of +explanation as to his private life must necessarily be added at the +present point, before we pass on to consider the long, slow, and +cautious brewing of that wonderful work, the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +returned home from the voyage of the 'Beagle' at the end of the year +1836. Soon after, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, no doubt +through the influence of his friend Lyell, who was quite enthusiastic +over his splendid geological investigations on the rate of elevation in +the Pampas and the Cordillera. Acting on Lyell's advice, too, he +determined to seek no official appointment, but to devote himself +entirely for the rest of his life to the pursuit of science. In 1838, at +the age of twenty-nine, he read before the Geological Society his paper +on the 'Connection of Volcanic Phenomena with the Elevation of Mountain +Chains,' when, says Lyell admiringly in a private letter, 'he opened +upon De la Beche, Phillips, and others'--the veterans of the +science--'his whole battery of the earthquakes and volcanoes of the +Andes.' Shortly after, the audacious young man was appointed secretary +to the Geological Society, a post which he filled when the voyage of the +'Beagle' was first published in 1839. + +In the early part of that same year, the rising naturalist took to +himself a wife from one of the houses to which he himself owed no small +part of his conspicuous greatness. His choice fell upon his cousin, +Miss Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of Maer Hall; and, +after three years of married life in London, he settled at last at Down +House, near Orpington, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed +his time among his conservatories and his pigeons, his garden and his +fowls, with his children growing up quietly beside him, and the great +thinking world of London within easy reach of a few minutes' journey. +His private means enabled him to live the pleasant life of an English +country gentleman, and devote himself unremittingly to the pursuit of +science. Ill health, indeed, interfered sadly with his powers of work; +but system and patience did wonders during his working days, which were +regularly parcelled out between study and recreation, and utilised and +economised in the very highest possible degree. Early to bed and early +to rise, wandering unseen among the lanes and paths, or riding slowly on +his favourite black cob, the great naturalist passed forty years happily +and usefully at Down, where all the village knew and loved him. A man of +singular simplicity and largeness of heart, Charles Darwin never really +learnt to know his own greatness. And that charming innocence and +ignorance of his real value made the value itself all the greater. His +moral qualities, indeed, were no less admirable and unique in their way +than his intellectual faculties. To that charming candour and delightful +unostentatiousness which everybody must have noticed in his published +writings, he united in private life a kindliness of disposition, a width +of sympathy, and a ready generosity which made him as much beloved by +his friends as he was admired and respected by all Europe. The very +servants who came beneath his roof stopped there for the most part +during their whole lifetime. In his earlier years at Down, the quiet +Kentish home was constantly enlivened by the visits of men like Lyell, +Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and Wollaston. During his later days, it was +the Mecca of a world-wide scientific and philosophic pilgrimage, where +all the greatest men our age has produced sought at times the rare +honour of sitting before the face of the immortal master. But to the +very last Darwin himself never seemed to discover that he was anything +more than just an average man of science among his natural peers. + +Shortly after Darwin went to Down he began one long and memorable +experiment, which in itself casts a flood of light upon his patient and +painstaking method of inquiry. Two years before, he had read at the +Geological Society a paper on the 'Formation of Mould,' which more than +thirty years later he expanded into his famous treatise on the 'Action +of Earthworms.' His uncle and father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, suggested +to him that the apparent sinking of stones on the surface might really +be due to earthworm castings. So, as soon as he had some land of his own +to experiment upon, he began, in 1842, to spread broken chalk over a +field at Down, in which, twenty-nine years later, in 1871, a trench was +dug to test the results. What other naturalist ever waited so long and +so patiently to discover the upshot of a single experiment? Is it +wonderful that a man who worked like that should succeed, not by faith +but by logical power, in removing mountains? + +Unfortunately, we do not know the exact date when Darwin first read +Malthus. But that the perusal of that remarkable book formed a crisis +and turning-point in his mental development we know from his own +distinct statement in a letter to Haeckel, prefixed to the brilliant +German evolutionist's 'History of Creation.' 'It seemed to me probable,' +says Darwin, speaking of his own early development, 'that allied species +were descended from a common ancestor. But during several years I could +not conceive how each form could have been modified so as to become +admirably adapted to its place in nature. I began therefore to study +domesticated animals and cultivated plants, and after a time perceived +that man's power of selecting and breeding from certain individuals was +the most powerful of all means in the production of new races. Having +attended to the habits of animals and their relations to the surrounding +conditions, I was able to realise the severe struggle for existence to +which all organisms are subjected; and my geological observations had +allowed me to appreciate to a certain extent the duration of past +geological periods. With my mind thus prepared I fortunately happened to +read Malthus's "Essay on Population" and the idea of natural selection +through the struggle for existence at once occurred to me. Of all the +subordinate points in the theory, the last which I understood was the +cause of the tendency in the descendants from a common progenitor to +diverge in character.' + +It is impossible, indeed, to overrate the importance of Malthus, viewed +as a schoolmaster to bring men to Darwin, and to bring Darwin himself to +the truth. Without the 'Essay on the Principle of Population' it is +quite conceivable that we should never have had the 'Origin of Species' +or the 'Descent of Man.' + +At the same time, Darwin had not been idle in other departments of +scientific work. Side by side with his collections for his final effort +he had been busy on his valuable treatise upon Coral Reefs, in which he +proved, mainly from his own observations on the Keeling archipelago, +that atolls owe their origin to a subsidence of the supporting +ocean-floor, the rate of upward growth of the reefs keeping pace on the +whole with the gradual depression of the sea-bottom. 'No more admirable +example of scientific method,' says Professor Geikie forty years later, +'was ever given to the world; and even if he had written nothing else, +this treatise alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of +investigators of nature.' But, from our present psychological and +historical point of view, as a moment in the development of Darwin's +influence, and therefore of the evolutionary impulse in general, it +possesses a still greater and more profound importance, because the work +in which the theory is unfolded forms a perfect masterpiece of thorough +and comprehensive inductive method, and gained for its author a +well-deserved reputation as a sound and sober scientific inquirer. The +acquisition of such a reputation, afterwards increased by the +publication of the monograph on the Family Cirripedia (in 1851), proved +of immense use to Charles Darwin in the fierce battle which was to rage +around the unconscious body of the 'Origin of Species.' To be 'sound' is +everywhere of incalculable value; to have approved oneself to the slow +and cautious intelligence of the Philistine classes is a mighty spear +and shield for a strong man; but in England, and above all in scientific +England, it is absolutely indispensable to the thinker who would +accomplish any great revolution. Soundness is to the world of science +what respectability is to the world of business--the _sine qua non_ for +successfully gaining even a hearing from established personages. + +To read the book on Coral Reefs is indeed to take a lesson of the +deepest value in applied inductive canons. Every fact is duly +marshalled: every conclusion is drawn by the truest and most legitimate +process from careful observation or crucial experiment. Bit by bit, +Darwin shows most admirably that, through gradual submergence, fringing +reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and these again into atolls or +lagoon islands; and incidentally he throws a vivid light on the slow +secular movements upward or downward for ever taking place in the +world's crust. But the value of the work as a geological record, great +as it is, is as nothing compared with its value as a training exercise +in inductive logic. Darwin was now learning by experience how to use his +own immense powers. + +Meanwhile, the environment too had been gradually moving. In 1832, the +year after young Darwin set out upon his cruise, Lyell published the +first edition of his 'Principles of Geology,' establishing once for all +the uniformitarian concept of that branch of science. In 1836, the year +when he returned, Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora of North America,' had +accepted within certain cramping limits the idea that 'all species might +once have been varieties, and that many varieties are gradually becoming +species by assuming constant and peculiar characters.' Haldeman in +Boston, and Grant at University College, London, were teaching from +their professorial chairs the self-same novel and revolutionary +doctrine. At last, in 1844, Robert Chambers published anonymously his +famous and much-debated 'Vestiges of Creation,' which brought down the +question of evolution _versus_ creation from the senate of _savants_ to +the arena of the mere general public, and set up at once a universal +fever of inquiry into the mysterious question of the origin of species. +Chambers himself was a man rather of general knowledge and some native +philosophical insight than of any marked scientific accuracy or depth. +His work in its original form displayed comparatively little +acquaintance with the vast ground-work of the question at +issue--zoological, botanical, geological, and so forth--and in Charles +Darwin's own opinion showed 'a great want of scientific caution.' But +its graphic style, its vivid picturesqueness, and to the world at large +the startling novelty of its brilliant and piquant suggestions, made it +burst at once into an unwonted popularity for a work of so distinctly +philosophical a character. In nine years it leaped rapidly through no +less than ten successive editions, and remained until the publication of +the 'Origin of Species' the chief authoritative exponent in England of +the still struggling evolutionary principle. + +The 'Vestiges of Creation' may be succinctly described as Lamarck and +water, the watery element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion +(_more Scotico_) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the +physical universe. Chambers himself, in his latest edition (before the +book was finally killed by the advent of Darwinism), thus briefly +describes his main concepts: 'The several series of animated beings, +from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, +under the providence of God, the results, _first_, of an impulse which +has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite +times, by generation, through grades of organisation, terminating in the +highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, +and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to +be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; _second_, of +another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course +of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external +circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric +agencies.' Now it is clear at once that these two supposed 'impulses' +are really quite miraculous in their essence. They do not help us at all +to a distinct physical and realisable conception of any natural agency +whereby species became differentiated one from the other. They lay the +whole burden of species-making upon a single primordial supernatural +impetus, imparted to the first living germ by the will of the Creator, +and acting ever since continuously it is true, but none the less +miraculously for all that. For many creations Chambers substitutes one +single long creative nisus: where Darwin saw natural selection, his +Scotch predecessor saw a _deus ex machina_, helping on the course of +organic development by a constant but unseen interference from above. He +supposed evolution to be predetermined by some intrinsic and externally +implanted proclivity. In short, Chambers's theory is Lamarck's +theologised, and spoilt in the process. + +The book had nevertheless a most prodigious and perfectly unprecedented +success. The secret of its authorship was keenly debated and jealously +kept. The most ridiculous surmises as to its anonymous origin were +everywhere afloat. Some attributed it to Thackeray, and some to Prince +Albert, some to Lyell, some to Sir John Herschel, and some to Charles +Darwin himself. Obscurantists thought it a wicked book; 'intellectual' +people thought it an advanced book. As a matter of fact it was neither +the one nor the other. It was just a pale and colourless transcript of +the old familiar teleological Lamarckism. Yet it did good in its +generation. The public at large were induced by its ephemeral vogue to +interest themselves in a question to which they had never previously +given even a passing thought, though more practised biologists of +evolutionary tendencies were grieved at heart that evolution should +first have been popularly presented to the English world under so +unscientific, garbled, and mutilated a form. From the philosophic side, +Herbert Spencer found 'this ascription of organic evolution to some +aptitude naturally possessed by organisms or miraculously imposed upon +them' to be 'one of those explanations which explain nothing--a shaping +of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge. The cause assigned,' he +says, 'is not a true cause--not a cause assimilable to known causes--not +a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous effects. It is a +cause unrepresentable in thought: one of those illegitimate symbolic +conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real +conception.' From the scientific side, on the other hand, Darwin felt +sadly the inaccuracy and want of profound technical knowledge everywhere +displayed by the anonymous author. These things might naturally cause +the enemy to blaspheme. No worse calamity, indeed, can happen to a +great truth than for its defence to be intrusted to inefficient hands. +Nevertheless, long after, in the 'Origin of Species,' the great +naturalist wrote with generous appreciation of the 'Vestiges of +Creation,' 'In my own opinion it has done excellent service in this +country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and +in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.' + +Still Darwin gave no sign. A flaccid, cartilaginous, unphilosophic +evolutionism had full possession of the field for the moment, and +claimed, as it were, to be the genuine representative of the young and +vigorous biological creed, while he himself was in truth the real heir +to all the honours of the situation. He was in possession of the +master-key which alone could unlock the bars that opposed the progress +of evolution, and still he waited. He could afford to wait. He was +diligently collecting, amassing, investigating; eagerly reading every +new systematic work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, +every record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract from the +dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of implicit value might swell +the definite co-ordinated series of notes in his own commonplace books +for the now distinctly contemplated 'Origin of Species.' His way was to +make all sure behind him, to summon up all his facts in irresistible +array, and never to set out upon a public progress until he was secure +against all possible attacks of the ever-watchful and alert enemy in the +rear. Few men would have had strength of mind enough to resist the +temptation offered by the publication of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and +the extraordinary success attained by so flabby a presentation of the +evolutionary case: Darwin resisted it, and he did wisely. + +We may, however, take it for granted, I doubt not, that it was the +appearance and success of Chambers's invertebrate book which induced +Darwin, in 1844 (the year of its publication), to enlarge his short +notes 'into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to him +probable.' This sketch he showed to Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, no +doubt as a precaution to ensure his own claim of priority against any +future possible competitor. And having thus eased his mind for the +moment, he continued to observe, to read, to devour 'Transactions,' to +collate instances, with indefatigable persistence for fifteen years +longer. If any man mentally measures out fifteen years of his own life, +and bethinks him of how long a space it seems when thus deliberately +pictured, he will be able to realise a little more definitely--but only +a little--how profound was the patience, the self-denial, the +single-mindedness of Darwin's intense search after the ultimate truths +of natural science. + +What was the sketch that he thus committed to paper in 1844, and +submitted to the judgment of his friend Hooker? It was the germ of the +theory of natural selection. According to that theory, organic +development is due to the survival of the fittest among innumerable +variations, good, bad, and indifferent, from one or more parent stocks. +Darwin's reading of Malthus had suggested to him (apparently as early as +the date of publication of the 'Naturalist's Journal') the idea that +every species of plant and animal must always be producing a far greater +number of seeds, eggs, germs, or young offspring than could possibly be +needed for the maintenance of the average number of the species. Of +these young, by far the greater number must always perish from +generation to generation, for want of space, of food, of air, of raw +material. The survivors in each brood must be those naturally best +adapted for survival. The many would be eaten, starved, overrun, or +crowded out; the few that survive would be those that possessed any +special means of defence against aggressors, any special advantage for +escaping starvation, any special protection against overrunning or +overcrowding foes. Animals and plants, Darwin found on inquiry and +investigation, tended to vary under diverse circumstances from the +parent or parents that originally produced them. These variations were +usually infinitesimal in amount, but sometimes more considerable or even +striking. If any particular variation tended in any way to preserve the +life of the creatures that exhibited it, beyond the average of their +like competitors, that variation would in the long run survive, and the +individuals that possessed it, being thus favoured in the struggle for +existence, would replace the less adapted form from which they sprang. +Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of +the calculus of population to the wide facts of universal life. + +In one sense, indeed, it may be said that, given Malthus on the one hand +and the Lamarckian evolutionism on the other, some great man somewhere +must sooner or later, almost of necessity, have combined the two, and +hit out the doctrine of natural selection as we actually know it. Quite +so; but then the point is just this: Darwin _was_ the great man in +question; he _did_ the work which in the very essence of things some +such great man was naturally and inevitably predestined to do. You can +always easily manage to get on without any particular great man, +provided, of course, you have ready to hand another equally able great +man by whom to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how many +ordinary naturalists possess the width of mind and universality of +interest which would prompt them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest a politico-economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus? How +many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to perceive the +ensuing biological implications? How many, having seen them, have the +skill and the patience to work up the infinite chaos of botanical and +zoological detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the 'Origin +of Species'? Merely to have caught at the grand idea is in itself no +small achievement; others did so and deserve all honour for their +insight; but to flesh it out with all the minute care and conclusive +force of Darwin's masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler +monument of human endeavour. + +During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, however, Darwin's pen was by +no means idle. In the first-named year he published his 'Geological +Observations on Volcanic Islands'--part of the 'Beagle' exploration +series; in 1846 he followed this up by his 'Geological Observations on +South America;' in 1851 he gave to the world his monograph on 'Recent +Barnacles;' and in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same +family. But all these works of restricted interest remained always +subsidiary to the one great central task of his entire lifetime, the +preparation of his projected volume on the Origin of Species. + +All through the middle decades of the century Darwin continued to labour +at his vast accumulation of illustrative facts; and side by side with +his continuous toil, outside opinion kept paving the way for the final +acceptance of his lucid ideas. The public was buying and reading all the +time its ten editions of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It was slowly +digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic +theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a +past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively +established. It was getting accustomed to statements like those of the +younger St. Hilaire, in 1850, that specific characters may be modified +by changes in the environing conditions, and that the modifications thus +produced may often be of generic value--may make a difference so great +that we must regard the product not merely as belonging to a distinct +species, but even to a distinct genus or higher kind. In 1852 Herbert +Spencer published in the 'Leader' his remarkable essay, contrasting the +theories of creation and evolution, as applied to organic beings, with +all the biting force of his profound intelligence; and in 1855, the same +encyclopædic philosopher put forth the first rough sketch of his +'Principles of Psychology,' in which he took the lead in treating the +phenomena of mind from the point of view of gradual development. In that +extraordinary work, the philosopher of evolution traced the origin of +all mental powers and faculties by slow gradations from the very +simplest subjective elements. The 'Principles of Psychology' preceded +the 'Origin of Species' by nearly five years; the first collected volume +of Mr. Spencer's essays preceded Darwin's work by some twelve months. +Baden-Powell's essay on the 'Philosophy of Creation' (much debated and +condemned in ecclesiastical circles), and Professor Owen's somewhat +contradictory utterances on the nature of types and archetypal ideas, +also helped to keep alive interest in the problem of origins up to the +very moment of the final appearance of Darwin's great and splendid +solution. + +It is interesting during these intermediate years to watch from time to +time the occasional side-hints of Darwin's activity and of the interest +it aroused among his scientific contemporaries. In 1854, for example, +Sir Charles Lyell notes, after an evening at Darwin's, how Sir Joseph +Hooker astonished him with an account of that strange orchid, Catasetum, +which bears three totally distinct kinds of flowers on the same plant; +'It will figure,' he says, 'in C. Darwin's book on species, with many +other "ugly facts," as Hooker, clinging like me to the orthodox faith, +calls these and other abnormal vagaries.' On a similar occasion, a +little later, Lyell asks, after meeting 'Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston +at Darwin's,' 'After all, did we not come from an ourang?' Last of all, +in 1857, Darwin himself writes an anticipatory letter to his American +friend, Asa Gray, in which he mentions 'six points'--the cardinal +conceptions of the 'Origin of Species.' His book is now fairly under +weigh; he speaks of it himself to acquaintance and correspondents as an +acknowledged project. + +Events were growing ripe for the birth. A lucky accident precipitated +its parturition in the course of the year 1858. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' + + +The accident came in this wise. + +Alfred Russel Wallace, a young Welsh biologist, went out at twenty-four, +in 1848, to the Amazons River, in company with Bates (the author of 'The +Naturalist on the Amazons'), to collect birds and butterflies, and to +study tropical life in the richest region of equatorial America. Like +all other higher zoologists of their time, the two young explorers were +deeply interested in the profound questions of origin and metamorphosis, +and of geographical distribution, and in the letters that passed between +them before they started they avowed to one another that the object of +their quest was a solution of the pressing biological enigma of creation +or evolution. Starting with fresh hopes and a few pounds in pocket, on +an old, worn-out, and unseaworthy slave-trader, they often discussed +these deep problems of life and nature together upon the Sargasso sea, +or among the palms and lianas of the Brazilian woodlands. The air was +thick with whiffs and foretastes of evolutionism, and the two budding +naturalists of the Amazons expedition had inhaled them eagerly with +every breath. They saw among the mimicking organisms of that equatorial +zone strange puzzles to engage their deepest attention; they recognised +in the veins and spots that diversified the filmy membranes of insects' +wings the hieroglyphs of nature, writing as on a tablet for them to +decipher the story of the slow modification of species. In 1852--the +year when Herbert Spencer in England published his essay on the +'Development Hypothesis,' and when Naudin in France put forth his bold +and able paper on the 'Origin of Species'--Wallace once more returned to +Europe, and gave to the world his interesting 'Travels on the Amazons +and the Rio Negro.' Two years later the indefatigable traveller set out +a second time on a voyage of tropical exploration, among the islands of +the Malay archipelago, and for eight years he wandered about in Malay +huts and remote islets, gathering in solitude and isolation the enormous +store of minute facts which he afterwards lavished with so prodigal a +hand upon 'Tropical Nature,' and the 'Geographical Distribution of +Animals.' + +While Wallace was still at Amboyna, he sent home in 1858 a striking +memoir, addressed to Darwin, with a request that he would forward it to +Sir Charles Lyell, for presentation to the Linnean Society. Darwin +opened and read his brother naturalist's paper, and found to his +surprise that it contained his own theory of natural selection, not +worked out in detail, as he himself was working it out, but still +complete in spirit and essence, with no important portion of the central +idea lacking to its full rotundity of conception. A jealous man would +have thrown obstacles in the way of publication; but both Darwin and +Wallace were born superior to the meannesses of jealousy. The elder +naturalist commended his young rival's paper at once to Sir Charles +Lyell, who sent it on immediately to the Linnean Society. + +But Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, both of whom knew of +Darwin's work, thought it advisable that he should publish, in the +'Journal' of the Society, a few extracts from his own manuscripts, side +by side with Wallace's paper. Darwin, therefore, selected some essential +passages for the purpose from his own long-gathered and voluminous +notes, and the two contributions were read together before the Society +on July the 1st, 1858. That double communication marks the date of birth +of modern evolutionism. It is to the eternal credit of both thinkers +that each accepted his own true position with regard to the great +discovery in perfect sincerity. The elder naturalist never strove for a +moment to press his own claim to priority against the younger: the +younger, with singular generosity and courtesy, waived his own claim to +divide the honours of discovery in favour of the elder. Not one word +save words of fraternal admiration and cordial appreciation ever passed +the lips of either with regard to the other. + +The distinctive notion of natural selection, indeed, like all true and +fruitful ideas, had more than once flashed for a moment across the +penetrating mind of more than one independent investigator. As early as +1813, Dr. Wells, the famous author of the theory of dew, applied that +particular conception to the single case of the production of special +races among mankind. + +'Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first +few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa,' he +wrote, 'some one would be better fitted than the others to bear the +diseases of the country. This race would consequently multiply, while +the others would decrease; not only from their inability to sustain the +attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending with their +more vigorous neighbours.... The same disposition to form varieties +still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time +occur; and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this +would at last become the most prevalent, if not the only race in the +country.' Here we have not merely the radical concept of natural +selection, but also the subordinate idea of its exertion upon what +Darwin calls 'spontaneous variations.' What is wanting in the paper is +the application of the faintly descried law to the facts and +circumstances of general biology: Wells saw only a particular instance, +where Darwin and Wallace more vividly perceived a universal principle. +Again, in 1831, Mr. Patrick Matthew in that singular appendix to his +book on naval timber actually enunciates the same idea, applied this +time to the whole of nature, in words sometimes almost identical with +Darwin's own. 'As nature in all her modifications of life,' says this +unconscious discoverer, '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.... The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised 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 thousandfold) 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.' Of the ideas expressed in these paragraphs, and +others which preceded them, Darwin himself rightly observes, 'He gives +precisely the same view on the origin of species as that propounded by +Mr. Wallace and myself. He clearly saw the full force of the principle +of natural selection.' + +In 1852, once more, so eminent and confirmed an evolutionist as Mr. +Herbert Spencer himself had hit upon a glimpse of the same great truth, +strange to say without perceiving the width and scope of its +implications. 'All mankind,' he wrote in that year in an essay on +population in the 'Westminster Review,' 'in turn subject themselves more +or less to the discipline described; they either may or may not advance +under it; but, in the nature of things, only those who _do_ advance +under it eventually survive. For, necessarily, families and races whom +this increasing difficulty of getting a living which excess of fertility +entails does not stimulate to improvements in production.... are on the +high road to extinction; and must ultimately be supplanted by those whom +the pressure does so stimulate.... And here, indeed, without further +illustration, it will be seen that premature death, under all its forms, +and from all its causes, cannot fail to work in the same direction. For +as those prematurely carried off must, in the average of cases, be those +in whom the power of self-preservation is the least, it unavoidably +follows that those left behind to continue the race must be those in +whom the power of self-preservation is the greatest, must be the select +of their generation.' In this striking pre-Darwinian passage we have a +partial perception of what Mr. Spencer afterwards described as the +survival of the fittest; but, as our great philosopher himself remarks, +it 'shows how near one may be to a great generalisation without seeing +it.' For not only does Mr. Spencer, like Wells before him, limit the +application of the principle to the case of humanity; but, unlike Wells, +he overlooks the all-important factor of spontaneous variation, and the +power of natural selection, acting upon such, to produce specific and +generic divergences of structure. In short, in his own words, the +paragraph 'contains merely a passing recognition of the selective +process, and indicates no suspicion of the enormous range of its +effects, or of the conditions under which a large part of its effects +are produced.' On the other hand, it must be noted that both Spencer and +Matthew, like Darwin himself, based their ideas largely upon the +Malthusian principle, and thus held the two true keys of the situation +fairly within their unconscious hands. + +Frankly to recognise these various foreshadowings of the distinctive +Darwinian theory of natural selection is not in any way to undermine the +foundations of Charles Darwin's own real and exceptional greatness. On +the contrary, the mere fact that his views were so far anticipated by +Wells, Matthew, Spencer, and others, and were simultaneously arrived at +across half the globe by the independent intellect of Alfred Russel +Wallace, is in itself the very best proof and finest criterion of +Charles Darwin's genuine apostleship. No truly grand and fruitful idea +was ever yet the sole property of a single originator. Great +discoveries, says an acute critic, must always be concerned with some +problem of the time which many of the world's foremost minds are just +then cudgelling their active brains about. It was so with the discovery +of the differential calculus, and of the planet Neptune; with the +interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and of the cuneiform +inscriptions; with the undulatory theory of light, with the mechanical +equivalent of heat, with the doctrine of the correlation and +conservation of energies, with the invention of the steam engine, the +locomotive, the telegraph and the telephone; with the nebular +hypothesis, and with spectrum analysis. It was so, too, with the +evolutionary movement. The fertile upturning of virgin sod in the +biological field which produced Darwin's forerunners, as regards the +idea of descent with modification, in the persons of Buffon, Lamarck, +and Erasmus Darwin, necessarily produced a little later, under the fresh +impetus of the Malthusian conception, his forerunners or coadjutors, as +regards the idea of natural selection, in the persons of Wells, Matthew, +and Wallace. It was Darwin's task to recognise the universal, where +Wells and Spencer had seen only the particular; to build up a vast and +irresistible inductive system, where Matthew and Wallace had but thrown +out a pregnant hint of wonderful _a priori_ interest and suggestiveness. +It is one thing to draw out the idea of a campaign, another thing to +carry it to a successful conclusion; one thing rudely to sketch a +ground-plan, another thing finally to pile aloft to the sky the front of +an august and imposing fabric. + +As soon as the papers at the Linnean had been read and printed, Darwin +set to work in real earnest to bring out the first instalment of his +great work. That instalment was the 'Origin of Species.' The first +edition was ready for the public on November the 24th, 1859. + +In his own mind Darwin regarded that immortal work merely in the light +of an abstract of his projected volumes. So immense were his collections +and so voluminous his notes that the 'Origin of Species' itself seemed +to him like a mere small portion of the contemplated publication. And +indeed he did ultimately work out several other portions of his original +plan in his detailed treatises on the Variation of Animals and Plants +under Domestication, on the Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation, and +on the Descent of Man and Sexual Selection. But the immense and +unexpected vogue of his first volume, the almost immediate revolution +which it caused in biological and general opinion, and the all but +universal adhesion to his views of all the greatest and most rising +naturalists, to a great extent saved him the trouble of carrying out in +full the task he had originally contemplated as necessary. Younger and +less occupied labourers took part of the work off their leader's hands; +the great chief was left to prosecute his special researches in some +special lines, and was relieved from the necessity of further proving in +minuter detail what he had already proved with sufficient cogency to +convince all but the wilfully blind or the hopelessly stupid. + +The extraordinary and unprecedented success of the 'Origin of Species' +is the truest test of the advance it made upon all previous evolutionary +theorising. Those who had never been convinced before were now convinced +by sheer force of reasoning; those who believed and those who wavered +had their faith confirmed into something like the reposeful calm of +absolute certitude. + +Let us consider, therefore, what exactly were the additions which +Charles Darwin offered in his epoch-making work to the pre-existing +conceptions of evolutionists. + +In 1852, seven years before the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, Mr. +Herbert Spencer wrote as follows in an essay in the 'Leader' on creation +and evolution. The expressions of so profound and philosophical a +biologist may be regarded as the high-water mark of evolutionary +thinking up to the date of the appearance of Wallace and Darwin's +theory:-- + +'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 +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 admirable passage, written seven years before the publication of +the 'Origin of Species,' contains explicitly almost every idea that +ordinary people, not specially biological in their interests, now +associate with the name of Darwin. That is to say, it contains, in a +very philosophical and abstract form, the theory of 'descent with +modification' _without_ the distinctive Darwinian adjunct of 'natural +selection' or 'survival of the fittest.' Yet it was just that particular +lever, dexterously applied, and carefully weighted with the whole weight +of his endlessly accumulated inductive instances, that finally enabled +our modern Archimedes in so short a time to move the world. The public, +that was deaf to the high philosophy of Herbert Spencer, listened at +once to the practical wisdom of Charles Darwin. They did not care at all +for the _a priori_ proof, but they believed forthwith as soon as a +cautious and careful investigator laid bare before their eyes in minute +detail the _modus operandi_ of nature herself. + +The main argument of Darwin's chief work runs somewhat after the +following fashion[2]:-- + +Variation, to a greater or less degree, is a common and well-known fact +in nature. More especially, animals and plants under domestication tend +to vary from one another far more than do the individuals of any one +species in the wild state. Rabbits in a warren are all alike in shape, +size, colour, and features: rabbits in a hutch vary indefinitely in the +hue of their fur, the length of their ears, the character of their coat, +and half a dozen other minor particulars, well known to the observant +souls of boys and fanciers. This great variability, though partly +perhaps referable to excess of food, is probably due on the whole to +their having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and +somewhat different from, those to which the parent species is commonly +exposed in a state of nature. In other words, variability is one result +of altered and more varied surrounding circumstances. + +Again, this variability is usually indefinite. You cannot say what +direction it will take, or to what particular results it is likely in +any special instance to lead. Marked differences sometimes occur even +between the young of the same litter, or between the seedlings sown from +the same capsule. As a rule, the variations exhibit themselves in +connection with sexual reproduction; but sometimes, as in the case of +'sporting plants,' a new bud suddenly produces leaves or flowers of a +different character from the rest of those on the self-same stem, thus +showing that the tendency to vary is inherent, as it were, in the +organism itself. Upon this fundamental fact of the existence in nature +of numerous and indefinite variations, the whole theory of natural +selection is ultimately built up. In illustrating by example the immense +variability of domesticated creatures, Darwin lays great stress upon the +case of pigeons, with which he was familiar from his long experience as +a breeder and fancier in his own home at Down. Naturalists are almost +universally of opinion that all the breeds of domestic pigeons, from the +carrier to the tumbler, from the runt to the fantail, are alike +descended from the wild rock pigeon of the European coasts. The immense +amount of variation which this original species has undergone in +domestication may be seen by comparing the numberless breeds of pigeon +now exhibited at all our poultry shows with one another. + +But variation gives us only half the elements of the ultimate problem, +even in the case of domestic kinds. For the other half, we must have +recourse to human selection, which, by picking out for seed or breeding +purposes certain specially favoured varieties, has produced at last all +the purposive or intentional diversity between the different existing +stocks or breeds. In these artificially produced domestic races we see +everywhere special adaptations to man's particular use or fancy. The +dray-horse has been fashioned for purposes of strength and +sure-footedness in draught, the race-horse for purposes of fleetness in +running. In the fox-hound, man has encouraged the special properties +that tend to produce a good day's hunting; in the sheepdog, those that +make for the better maintenance and safety of a herd. The cauliflower is +a cabbage, with specialised and somewhat abortive flower-heads; the +fuller's teasel is a sport of the wild form, with curved hooks specially +adapted by a freak of nature for the teasing of wool. So in every case +man, by deliberately picking out for breeding or seeding purposes the +accidental variations which happened best to suit his own needs, has +succeeded at last in producing races admirably fitted in the minutest +particulars for the special functions to which they are applied. There +appears indeed to be hardly any limit to the almost infinite plasticity +and modifiability of domestic animals. 'It would seem,' said a great +sheep-breeder, speaking of sheep, 'as if farmers had chalked out upon a +wall a form perfect in itself, and then proceeded to give it existence.' + +Now, what is thus true within narrow limits, and in a short space of +time about the deliberate action of man, Darwin showed to be also true +within wider limits and spread over longer geological epochs about the +unconscious action of nature. And herein consisted his great advance +upon the earlier evolutionism of Lamarck, Goethe, and Erasmus Darwin. +For while these instinctive pioneers of the evolutionary spirit saw +clearly that animals and plants betrayed signs of common descent from +one or a few original ancestors, they did not see what was the mechanism +by which such organisms had been differentiated into so many distinct +genera and species. They caught, indeed, at the analogy of variation +under domestication and in the wild state, but they missed the subtler +and deeper analogy between human and natural selection. Now, variation +alone would give us a world consisting not of definite kinds fairly well +demarcated one from the other, but of innumerable unclassified and +unorganisable individuals, all shading off indefinitely one into the +other, and incapable of being reduced by human ingenuity to any orderly +hierarchical system. Furthermore, it would give us creatures without +special adaptation of any kind to the peculiar circumstances of their +own environment. To account for adaptation, for the almost perfect +fitness of every plant and every animal to its position in life, for the +existence (in other words) of definitely correlated parts and organs, we +must call in the aid of survival of the fittest. Without that potent +selective agent, our conception of the becoming of life is a mere chaos; +order and organisation are utterly inexplicable save by the brilliant +illuminating ray of the Darwinian principle. That is why Darwin +destroyed at one blow the specious arguments of the early teleologists; +he showed that where Chambers and even Erasmus Darwin had seen the +working of a final cause, we ought rather to recognise the working of an +efficient cause, whose outcome necessarily but fallaciously simulates +the supposed features of an _a priori_ finality. + +From art, then, Darwin harks back once more to nature. He proceeds to +show that variability occurs among all wild plants and animals, though +not so frequently under ordinary circumstances as in the case of +domesticated species. Individual differences everywhere occur between +plant and plant, between animal and animal. Sometimes these differences +are so very numerous that it is impossible to divide the individuals at +all into well-marked kinds; for example, among British wild-roses, +brambles, hawkweeds and epilobes, with a few other very variable +families, Babington makes as many as 251 distinct species, where +Bentham gives only 112--a margin of 139 doubtful forms of shadowy +indefiniteness. Varieties, in fact, are always arising, and dominant +species in particular always tend to vary most in every direction. The +reason why variation is not so marked in the wild state as under +domestication is of course because the conditions are there less +diverse; but where the conditions of wild things are most diverse, as in +the case of dominant kinds, which range over a wide space of country or +of ocean, abundant individual variations habitually occur. Local +varieties thus produced are regarded by Darwin as incipient species: +they are the raw material on which natural selection gradually exerts +itself in the struggle for existence. + +Granting individual variability, then, how do species arise in nature? +And how are all the exquisite adaptations of part to whole, and of whole +to environment, gradually initiated, improved, and perfected? + +Here Malthus and the struggle for life come in to help us. + +For the world is perpetually over-populated. It is not, as many good +people fearfully imagine, on a half-comprehension of the Malthusian +principle, shortly going to be over-populated; it is now, it has always +been, and it will always be, pressed close up to the utmost possible +limit of population. Reproduction is everywhere and in all species for +ever outrunning means of subsistence; and starvation or competition is +for ever keeping down the number of the offspring to the level of the +average or normal supply of raw material. A single red campion produces +in a year three thousand seeds; but there are not this year three +thousand times as many red campions as there were last summer, nor will +there be three thousand times as many more in the succeeding season. The +roe of a cod contains sometimes nearly ten million eggs; but supposing +each of these produced a young fish which arrived at maturity, the whole +sea would immediately become a solid mass of closely packed codfish. +Linnæus reckoned that if an annual plant had two seeds, each of which +produced two seedlings in the succeeding season, and so on continually, +in twenty years their progeny would amount to a million plants. A +struggle for existence necessarily results from this universal tendency +of animals and plants to increase faster than the means of subsistence, +whether those means be food, as in the first case, or carbonic acid, +water, and sunshine as in the second. Animals are all perpetually +battling with one another for the food-supply of the moment; plants are +perpetually battling with one another for their share of the soil, the +rainfall, and the sunshine. + +The case of the plant is a very important one to understand in this +connection, because it is probable that most people greatly +misunderstand the biological meaning of the phrase 'struggle for +existence.' They imagine that the struggle is chiefly conducted between +different species, whereas in reality it is chiefly conducted between +members of the same species. It is not so much the battle between the +tiger and the antelope, between the wolf and the bison, between the +snake and the bird, that ultimately results in natural selection or +survival of the fittest, as the struggle between tiger and tiger, +between bison and bison, between snake and snake, between antelope and +antelope. A human analogy may help to make this difficult principle a +little clearer. The baker does not fear the competition of the butcher +in the struggle for life: it is the competition of the other bakers that +sometimes inexorably crushes him out of existence. The lawyer does not +press hard upon the doctor, nor the architect upon the journeyman +painter. A war in the Soudan or in South Africa is far less fatal to the +workman in our great towns than the ceaseless competition of his +fellow-workmen. It is not the soldier that kills the artisan, but the +number of other artisans who undersell him and crowd to fill up every +vacant position. In this way the great enemies of the individual +herbivore are not the carnivores, but the other herbivores. The lion +eats the antelope, to be sure; but the real struggle lies between lion +and lion for a fair share of meat, or between antelope and antelope for +a fair share of pasturage. _Homo homini lupus_, says the old proverb, +and so, we may add, in a wider sense, _lupus lupo lupus_, also. Of +course, the carnivore plays a great part in the selective process; but +he is the selector only; the real competition is between the selected. +Now, let us take the case of the plant. A thousand seedlings occupy the +space where few alone can ultimately grow; and between these seedlings +the struggle is fierce, the strongest and best adapted ultimately +surviving. To take Darwin's own example, the mistletoe, which is a +parasite, cannot truly be said to struggle with the apple tree on which +it fastens; for if too many parasites cover a tree, it perishes, and so +they kill themselves as well as their host, all alike dying together. +But several seedling mistletoes growing together on the same branch may +fairly be said to struggle with one another for light and air; and since +mistletoe seeds are disseminated by birds and dropped by them in the +angles of branches, the mistletoe may also be said to compete with other +berry-bearing bushes, like cornel and hawthorn, for the ministrations of +the fruit-eating birds. The struggle is fierce between allied kinds, and +fiercest of all between individual members of the same species. + +Owing to this constant struggle, variations, however slight, and from +whatever cause arising, if in any degree profitable to the individual +which presents them, will tend to the preservation of the particular +organism, and, being on the average inherited by its offspring, will +similarly tend to increase and multiply in the world at large. This is +the principle of natural selection or survival of the fittest--the great +principle which Darwin and Wallace added to the evolutionism of Lamarck +and his successors. + +Let us take a single concrete example. In the desert, with its +monotonous sandy colouring, a black insect or a white insect, still more +a red insect or a blue insect, would be immediately detected and +promptly devoured by its natural enemies, the birds and lizards. But any +greyish or yellowish insects would be less likely to attract attention +at first sight, and would be overlooked as long as there were any more +conspicuous individuals of their own kind about for the birds and +lizards to feed on at their leisure. Hence, in a very short time, the +desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest and yellowest +insects; and among these the birds would pick out those which differed +most markedly in hue or shade from the sand around them. But those +which happened to vary most in the direction of a sandy or spotty colour +would be most likely to survive, and to become the parents of future +generations. Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which +inhabit deserts have become sand-coloured; because the least sandy were +perpetually picked out for destruction by their ever-watchful foes, +while the most sandy escaped and multiplied and replenished the earth +with their own likes. + +Conversely, the birds and the lizards again would probably begin by +being black, and white, and blue, and green, like most other birds and +lizards in the world generally. But the insect would have ample warning +of the near approach of such conspicuous self-advertising enemies, and +would avoid them accordingly whenever they appeared within range of his +limited vision, either by lying close, or by shamming death, or by +retreating precipitately to holes and crannies. Therefore, whatever +individual birds or lizards happened to vary most in the direction of +grey or sand-colour, and so to creep unobserved upon the unguarded +insects, would succeed best on the average in catching beetles or desert +grasshoppers. Hence, by the slow dying out of the more highly coloured +and distinctive insect-eaters, before the severe competition of the +greyest and sandiest, all the birds and lizards of the desert have +become at last as absolutely sand-coloured as the insects themselves. +Only the greyest insect could escape the bird; only the greyest bird, +_en revanche_, could surprise and devour the unwary insect. + +Sir Charles Lyell and the elder De Candolle had already seen the great +importance of the struggle for existence in the organic world, but +neither of them had observed the magnificent corollary of natural +selection, which flows from it almost as a mathematical necessity when +once suggested; for, given indefinite variability, and a geometrical, +rate of increase, it must needs follow that some varieties will be +better suited to the circumstances than others, and therefore that they +will survive on the average in increased proportions. A passage from one +of Lyell's early letters will show how near he too went to this great +luminous generalisation, and yet how utterly he missed the true +implications of his own vague and chaotic idea. He writes thus to Sir +John Herschel in 1836, while Darwin was still but homeward bound on the +voyage of the 'Beagle':-- + +'In regard to the origination of new species, I am very glad to find +that you think it probable that it may be carried on through the +intervention of intermediate causes.... An insect may be made in one of +its transformations to resemble a dead stick, or a leaf, or a lichen, or +a stone, so as to be somewhat less easily found by its enemies; or if +this would make it too strong, an occasional variety of the species may +have this advantage conferred on it; or if this would be still too much, +one sex of a certain variety. Probably there is scarcely a dash of +colour on the wing or body of which the choice would be quite arbitrary, +or which might not affect its duration for thousands of years.' + +Now, this comes in some ways perilously near to Darwin indeed; but in +the most important point of all it is wide apart from him as the pole is +from the equator. For Lyell thought of all this as a matter of external +teleological arrangement; he imagined a deliberate power from outside +settling it all by design beforehand, and granting to varieties or +species these special peculiarities in a manner that was at bottom +essentially supernatural, or in other words miraculous; whereas Darwin +thinks of it as the necessary result of the circumstances themselves, an +inevitable outcome of indefinite variability _plus_ the geometrical rate +of increase. Where Lyell sees a final cause, Darwin sees an efficient +cause; and this distinction is fundamental. It marks Darwin's position +as that of a great philosophical thinker, who can dash aside at once all +metaphysical cobwebs, and penetrate to the inmost recesses of things, +unswerved by the vain but specious allurements of obvious and misleading +teleological fallacies. + +Darwin also laid great stress on the immense complexity of the relations +which animals and plants bear to one another, in the struggle for +existence. For example, on the heathy uplands near Farnham in Surrey, +large spaces were at one time enclosed, on which, within ten years, +self-grown fir-trees from the wind-borne seeds of distant clumps sprang +up so thickly as actually to choke one another with their tiny branches. +All over the heaths outside, when Darwin looked for them, he could not +find a single fir, except the old clumps on the hilltops, from which the +seedlings themselves had originally sprung. But, on looking closer among +the stems of the heath, he descried a number of very tiny firs, which +had been perpetually browsed down by the cattle on the commons; and one +of them, with twenty-six rings of growth, had during many years +endeavoured unsuccessfully to raise its head above the surrounding +heather. Hence, as soon as the land was enclosed, and the cattle +excluded, it became covered at once with a thick growth of vigorous +young fir-trees. Yet who would ever have supposed beforehand that the +mere presence or absence of cattle would absolutely have determined the +very existence of the Scotch fir throughout a wide range of well-adapted +sandy English upland? + +To take another curious instance mentioned by Darwin. In Paraguay, +unlike the greater part of neighbouring South America, neither horses +nor cattle have ever run wild. This is due to the presence of a +parasitic fly, which lays its eggs in their bodies when first born, the +maggots killing off the tender young in their first stages. But if any +cause were to alter the number of the dangerous flies, then cattle and +wild horses would abound; and this would alter the vegetation, as Darwin +himself observed in other parts of America; and the change in the +vegetation would affect the insects; and that again the insectivorous +birds; and so on in ever widening circles of incalculable complexity. +Once more, to quote the most famous instance of all, the visits of +humble-bees are absolutely necessary in order to place the pollen in the +right position for setting the seeds of purple clover. Heads from which +Darwin excluded the bees produced no seeds at all. Hence, if humble-bees +became extinct in England, the red clover, too, would die off: and +indeed, in New Zealand, where there are no humble-bees, and where the +efforts to introduce them for this very purpose have been uniformly +unsuccessful, the clover never sets its seed at all, and fresh stocks +have to be imported at great expense every year from Europe. But the +number of humble-bees in any district largely depends upon the number of +field-mice, which destroy the combs and nests in immense quantities. +The number of mice, again, is greatly affected by the proportion of cats +in the neighbourhood; so that Colonel Newman, who paid much attention to +this subject, found humble-bees most numerous in the neighbourhood of +villages and small towns, an effect which he attributed to the abundance +of cats, and the consequent scarcity of the destructive field-mice. Yet +here once more, who could suppose beforehand that the degree to which +the purple clover set its seeds was in part determined by the number of +cats kept in houses in the surrounding district? + +One of Darwin's own favourite examples of the action of natural +selection, which he afterwards expanded largely in his work on Orchids +and in several other volumes, is that which relates to the origin of +conspicuous flowers. Many plants have a sweet excretion, which is +eliminated sometimes even by the leaves, as in the case of the common +laurel. This juice, though small in quantity, is eagerly sought and +eaten by insects. Now let us suppose that, in some variety of an +inconspicuous flower, similar nectar was produced in the neighbourhood +of the petals and stamens. Insects, in seeking the nectar, would dust +their bodies over with the pollen, and would carry it away with them to +the next flower visited. This would result in an act of crossing; and +that act, as Darwin afterwards abundantly proved in a separate and very +laborious treatise, gives rise to exceptionally vigorous seedlings, +which would therefore have the best chance of flourishing and surviving +in the struggle for existence. The flowers which produced most honey +would oftenest be visited, and oftenest crossed; so that they would +finally form a new species. The more brightly coloured among them, +again, would be more readily discriminated than the less brightly +coloured; and this would give them such an advantage that in the long +run, as we actually see, almost all habitually insect-fertilised flowers +would come to have brilliant petals. The germ of this luminous idea, +once more, is to be found in Sprengel's remarkable work on the +fertilisation of flowers--a work far in advance of its time in many +ways, and to which Darwin always expressed his deep obligations; but, as +in so many other instances, while Sprengel looked upon all the little +modifications and adaptations of flower and insect to one another as the +result of distinct creative design, Darwin looked upon them as the +result of natural selection, working upon the basis of indeterminate +spontaneous variations. + +How do these variations arise? Not by chance, of course (for in the +strict scientific sense nothing on earth can be considered as really +fortuitous), but as the outcome for the most part of very minute organic +causes, whose particular action it is impossible for us to predict with +our present knowledge. Some physical cause in each case there must +necessarily be; and indeed it is often possible to show that certain +changes of condition in the parent do result in variations in the +offspring, though what special direction the variation will take can +never be foretold with any accuracy. In short, our ignorance of the laws +of variation is profound, but our knowledge of the fact is clear and +certain. The fact alone is essential to the principle of natural +selection; the cause, though in itself an interesting subject of +inquiry, may be safely laid aside for the present as comparatively +unimportant. What we have actually given to us in the concrete universe +is, organisms varying perpetually in minute points, and a rapid rate of +increase causing every minute point of advantage to be exceptionally +favoured in the struggle for existence. + +But Darwin is remarkable among all broachers of new theories for the +extraordinary candour and openness of his method. He acknowledged +beforehand all the difficulties in the way of his theory, and though he +himself confessed that some of them were serious (a statement which +subsequent research has often rendered unnecessary), he met many of them +with cogent arguments by anticipation, and demolished objections before +they could even be raised against him by hostile critics. Of these +objections, only two need here be mentioned. The first is the question, +why is not all nature even now a confused mass of transitional forms? +Why do genera and species exist as we see them at present in broad +distinction one from the other? To this Darwin answers rightly that, +where the process of species-making is still going on, we do actually +find fine gradations and transitional forms existing between genera, +varieties, and species.[3] But, furthermore, as natural selection acts +solely by the preservation of useful modifications, each better-adapted +new form will always tend in a fully stocked country to oust and +exterminate its own unimproved parent type, as well as all other +competing but less perfect varieties. Thus natural selection and +extinction of intermediates go for ever hand in hand. The more perfect +the new variety, the more absolutely will it kill off the intermediate +forms. The second great difficulty lies in the question of the origin of +instinct, which, as Darwin shows, by careful inductive instances, may +have arisen by the slow and gradual accumulation of numerous slight yet +profitable variations. + +I have dwelt at some length upon those portions of the 'Origin of +Species' which deal in detail with the theory of natural selection, the +chief contribution which Darwin made to the evolutionary movement, +because it is impossible otherwise fully to understand the great gulf +which separates his evolutionism from the earlier evolutionism of +Lamarck and his followers. But it is impracticable here to give any idea +of the immense wealth of example and illustration which Darwin brought +to the elucidation of every part of his complex problem. In order to +gain a full conception of this side of his nature, we must turn to the +original treatise itself, and still more to the subsequent volumes in +which the ground-work of observations and experiments on which he based +his theory was more fully detailed for the specialist public. + +The remainder of Darwin's epoch-making work deals, strictly speaking, +rather with the general theory of 'descent with modification' than with +the special doctrine of natural selection. It restates and reinforces, +by the light of the new additional concept, and with fuller facts and +later knowledge, the four great arguments already known in favour of +organic evolution as a whole, the argument from Geological Succession, +the argument from Geographical Distribution, the argument from +Embryological Development, and the argument from Classificatory +Affinities. Each of these we may briefly summarise. + +The geological record is confessedly imperfect. At the time when Darwin +first published the 'Origin of Species,' it had disclosed to our view +comparatively few intermediate or transitional forms between the chief +great classes of plants or animals; since that time, in singular +confirmation of the Darwinian hypothesis, it has disclosed an immense +number of such connecting types, amongst which may be more particularly +noticed the 'missing links' between the birds and reptiles, the +ancestors of the horses, the camels, and the pigs, and the common +progenitor of the ruminants and the pachyderms, two great groups classed +by Cuvier as distinct orders--all of which instances were incorporated +by Darwin in later editions of his 'Origin of Species.' But, apart from +these special and newly discovered cases, the whole general course of +geological history 'agrees admirably with the theory of descent with +modification through variation and natural selection.' The simpler +animals of early times are followed by the more complex and more +specialised animals of later geological periods. As each main group of +animals appears upon the stage of life, it appears in a very central and +'generalised' form; as time goes on, we find its various members +differing more and more widely from one another, and assuming more and +more specialised adaptive forms. And in each country it is found, as a +rule, that the extinct animals of the later formations bear a close +general resemblance and relationship to the animals which now inhabit +the same regions. For example, the fossil mammals from the Australian +caves are nearly allied to the modern kangaroos, phalangers, and +wombats; and the gigantic extinct sloths and armadillos of South America +are reproduced in their smaller representatives at the present day. So, +too, the moa of New Zealand was a huge apteryx; and the birds +disentombed from the bone-caves of Brazil show close affinities to the +toucans and jacanars that still scream and flit in countless flocks +among Brazilian forests. The obvious implication is that the animals now +inhabiting any given area are the modified descendants of those that +formerly inhabited it. 'On the theory of descent with modification, the +great law of the succession of the same types within the same areas is +at once explained.' + +This last consideration leads us up to the argument from Geographical +Distribution. In considering the various local faunas and floras on the +face of the globe, no point strikes one more forcibly than the fact that +neither their similarities nor their dissimilarities can be accounted +for by climate or physical conditions. The animals of South Africa do +not in the least resemble the animals of the corresponding belt of South +America; the Australian beasts and birds and trees are utterly unlike +those of France and Germany; the fishes and crustaceans of the Pacific +at Panama are widely different from those of the Caribbean at the same +point, separated from them only by the narrow belt of intervening +isthmus. On the other hand, within the same continuous areas of sea or +land, however great the differences of physical conditions, we find +everywhere closely related types in possession of the most distinct and +varied situations. On the burning plains of La Plata we get the agouti +and the bizcacha as the chief rodents; we ascend the Cordillera, and +close to the eternal snows we discover, not hares and rabbits like those +of Europe, but a specialised chilly mountain form of the same distinctly +South American type. We turn to the rivers, and we see no musk-rat or +beaver, but the coypu and capybara, slightly altered varieties of the +original bizcacha ancestor. Australia has no wolf, but it has instead +fierce and active carnivorous marsupials; it has no mice, but some of +its tiny kangaroo-like creatures fulfil analogous functions in its +animal economy. Everywhere the evidence points to the conclusion that +local species have been locally evolved from pre-existing similar +species. The oceanic isles, of which Darwin had had so large an +experience, and especially his old friends the Galapagos, come in +usefully for this stage of the question. They are invariably inhabited, +as Darwin pointed out, and as Wallace has since abundantly shown in the +minutest detail, by waifs and strays from neighbouring continents, +altered and specialised by natural selection in accordance with the +conditions of their new habitat. As a rule, they point back to the +districts whence blow the strongest and most prevalent winds; and the +modifications they have undergone are largely dependent upon the nature +of the other species with which they have to compete, or to whose habits +they must needs accommodate themselves. In such cases it is easy to see +how far Darwin's special conception of natural selection helps to +explain and account for facts not easily explicable by the older +evolutionism of mere descent with modification. + +Embryology, the study of early development in the individual animal or +plant, also throws much side light upon the nature and ancestry of each +species or family. For example, gorse, which is a member of the +pea-flower tribe, has in its adult stage solid, spiny, thorn-like +leaves, none of which in the least resemble the foliage of the clover, +to which it is closely related; but the young seedling in its earliest +stages has trefoil leaves, which only slowly pass by infinitesimal +gradations into flat blades and finally into the familiar defensive +prickles. Here, natural selection under stress of herbivorous animals on +open heaths and commons has spared only those particular gorse-bushes +which varied in the direction of the stiffest and most inedible foliage; +but the young plant in its first days still preserves for us the trefoil +leaf which it shared originally with a vast group of clover-like +congeners. The adult barnacle, once more, presents a certain fallacious +external resemblance to a mollusk, and was actually so classed even by +the penetrating and systematic intellect of Cuvier; but a glance at the +larva shows an instructed eye at once that it is really a shell-making +and abnormal crustacean. On a wider scale, the embryos of mammals are at +first indistinguishable from those of birds or reptiles; the feet of +lizards, the hoofs of horses, the hands of man, the wings of the bat, +the pinions of birds, all arise from the same fundamental shapeless bud, +in the same spot of an almost identical embryo. Even the human foetus, +at a certain stage of its development, is provided with gill-slits, +which point dimly back to the remote ages when its ancestor was +something very like a fish. The embryo is a picture, more or less +obscured and blurred in its outline, of the common progenitor of a whole +great class of plants or animals. + +Finally, classification points in the same way to the affiliation of all +existing genera and species upon certain early divergent ancestors. The +whole scheme of the biological system, as initiated by Linnæus and +improved by Cuvier, Jussieu, De Candolle, and their successors, is +essentially that of a genealogical tree. The prime central vertebrate +ancestor--to take the case of the creatures most familiar to the general +reader--appears to have been an animal not unlike the existing lancelet, +a mud-haunting, cartilaginous, undeveloped fish, whose main lineaments +are also embryologically preserved for us in the ascidian larva and the +common tadpole. From this early common centre have been developed, +apparently, in one direction the fishes, and in another the amphibian +tribes of frogs, newts, salamanders, and axolotls. From an early +amphibian, again, the common ancestor of birds, reptiles, and mammals +seems to have diverged: the intermediate links between bird and reptile +being faintly traced among the extinct deinosaurians and the +archæopteryx, some years subsequently to the first appearance of the +'Origin of Species;' while the ornithorhynchus, which to some extent +connects the mammals, and especially the marsupials, with the lower +egg-laying types of vertebrate, was already well-known and thoroughly +studied before the publication of Darwin's great work. Throughout, the +indications given by all the chief tribes of animals and plants point +back to slow descent and divergence from common ancestors; and all the +subsequent course of palæontological research has supplied us rapidly, +one after another, with the remains of just such undifferentiated +family starting-points. + +Stress has mainly been laid, in this brief and necessarily imperfect +abstract, on the essentially Darwinian principle of natural selection. +But Darwin did not himself attribute everything to this potent factor in +the moulding of species. 'I am convinced,' he wrote pointedly in the +introduction to his first edition, 'that natural selection has been the +main but not the exclusive means of modification.' He attributed +considerable importance as well to the Lamarckian principle of use and +disuse, already so fully insisted upon before him by Mr. Herbert +Spencer. The chief factors in his compound theory, as given in his own +words at the end of his work, areas follows: 'Growth with Reproduction; +Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability, from +the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use +and disuse; a Ratio of Increase, so high as to lead to a Struggle for +Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of +Character, and the Extinction of the less improved forms. Thus, from the +war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we +are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, +directly follows.' + +Such was the simple and inoffensive-looking bombshell which Darwin +launched from his quiet home at Down into the very midst of the +teleological camp in the peaceful year 1859. Subsequent generations will +remember the date as a crisis and turning-point in the history of +mankind. + + +[2] The remainder of the present chapter, which consists almost entirely +of an exposition of the doctrine of natural selection, may safely be +skipped by the reader already well acquainted with the Origin of +Species. The abstract is taken for the most part from the latest and +fullest enlarged edition, but attention is usually called in passing to +the points which did not appear in the first issue of 1859. + +[3] The researches of Seebohm and others have since proved that this is +really the case to a far greater extent than Darwin was aware of in +1859, or, indeed, till many years afterward. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS. + + +So far as the scientific world was concerned the 'Origin of Species' +fell, like a grain of mustard seed, upon good and well-prepared ground; +the plant that sprang from it grew up forthwith into a great and stately +tree, that overshadowed with its spreading branches all the corners of +the earth. + +The soil, indeed, had been carefully broken for it beforehand: Lamarck +and St. Hilaire, Spencer and Chambers, had ploughed and harrowed in all +diligence; and the minds of men were thoroughly ready for the +assimilation of the new doctrine. But the seed itself, too, was the +right germ for the exact moment; it contained within itself the +vivifying principle that enabled it to grow and wax exceeding great +where kindred germs before had withered away, or had borne but scanty +and immature fruit. + +Two conditions contributed to this result, one external, the other +internal. + +First for the less important external consideration. Darwin himself was +a sound man with an established reputation for solidity and learning. +That gained for his theory from the very first outset universal respect +and a fair hearing. Herbert Spencer was known to be a philosopher: and +the practical English nation mistrusts philosophers: those people probe +too deep and soar too high for any sensible person to follow them in all +their flights. Robert Chambers, the unknown author of 'Vestiges of +Creation,' was a shallow sciolist; it was whispered abroad that he was +even inaccurate and slovenly in his facts: and your scientific plodder +detests the very shadow of minute inaccuracy, though it speak with the +tongues of men and angels, and be bound up with all the grasp and power +of a Newton or a Goethe. But Charles Darwin was a known personage, an +F.R.S., a distinguished authority upon coral reefs and barnacles, a +great geologist, a great biologist, a great observer and indefatigable +collector. His book came into the public hands stamped with the +imprimatur of official recognition. Darwin was the father of the infant +theory; Lyell and Hooker stood for its sponsors. The world could not +afford to despise its contents; they could not brand its author offhand +as a clever dreamer or a foolish amateur, or consign him to the dreaded +English limbo of the 'mere theorist.' + +Next, for the other and far more important internal consideration. The +book itself was one of the greatest, the most learned, the most lucid, +the most logical, the most crushing, the most conclusive, that the world +had ever yet seen. Step by step, and principle by principle, it proved +every point in its progress triumphantly before it went on to +demonstrate the next. So vast an array of facts so thoroughly in hand +had never before been mustered and marshalled in favour of any +biological theory. Those who had insight to learn and understand were +convinced at once by the cogency of the argument; those who had not were +overpowered and silenced by the weight of the authority and the mass of +the learning. A hot battle burst forth at once, no doubt, around the +successful volume; but it was one of those battles which are aroused +only by great truths,--a battle in which the victory is a foregone +conclusion, and the rancour of the assailants the highest compliment to +the prowess of the assailed. + +Darwin himself, in his quiet country home at Down, was simply astonished +at the rapid success of his own work. The first edition was published at +the end of November 1859; it was exhausted almost immediately, and a +second was got ready in hot haste by the beginning of January 1860. In +less than six weeks the book had become famous, and Darwin found himself +the centre of a European contest, waged with exceeding bitterness, over +the truth or falsity of his wonderful volume. To the world at large +Darwinism and evolution became at once synonymous terms. The same people +who would entirely ascribe the Protestant Reformation to the account of +Luther, and the inductive philosophy to the account of Bacon, also +believed, in the simplicity of their hearts, that the whole vast +evolutionary movement was due at bottom to that very insidious and +dangerous book of Mr. Darwin's. + +The fact is, profound as had been the impulses in the evolutionary +direction among men of science before Darwin's work appeared at all, +immense as were the throes and pangs of labour throughout all Europe +which preceded and accompanied its actual birth, when it came at last it +came to the general world of unscientific readers with all the sudden +vividness and novelty of a tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it +was yet wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or next to +nothing of this colossal but hidden revolutionary force which had been +gathering head and energy for so many years unseen within the bowels of +the earth; and now that its outer manifestation had actually burst upon +them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic security bodily giving way +beneath their feet, and knew not where to turn in their extremity for +support. Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself at +first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of Genesis, or +rather the belief in their scientific and historical character, already +sapped by the revelations of geology, seemed to orthodox defenders to be +fatally undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once to meet with +general recognition. The first resource of menaced orthodoxy is always +to deny the alleged facts; the second is to patch up tardily the feeble +and hollow _modus vivendi_ of an artificial pact. On this occasion the +orthodox acted strictly after their kind: but to their credit it should +be added that they yielded gracefully in the long run to the unanimous +voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, when all that was +mortal of Charles Darwin was being borne with pomp and pageantry to its +last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, with +generous oblivion, ratified a truce over the dead body of the great +leader, and, outgrowing its original dread of naturalistic +interpretations, accepted his theory without reserve as 'not necessarily +hostile to the main fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render +justice to the vanquished in a memorable struggle. Churchmen followed +respectfully to the grave with frank and noble inconsistency the +honoured remains of the very teacher whom less than a quarter of a +century earlier they had naturally dreaded as loosening the traditional +foundations of all accepted religion and morality. + +But if the attack was fierce and bitter, the defence was assisted by a +sudden access of powerful forces from friendly quarters. A few of the +elder generation of naturalists held out, indeed, for various shorter or +longer periods; some of them never came into the camp at all, but +lingered on, left behind, like stragglers from the onward march, by the +younger biologists, in isolated non-conformity on the lonely heights of +austere officialism. Their business was to ticket and docket and +pigeon-hole, not to venture abroad on untried wings into the airy +regions of philosophical speculation. The elder men, in fact, had many +of them lost that elasticity and modifiability of intellect which is +necessary for the reception of new and revolutionary fundamental +concepts. A mind that has hardened down into the last stage of extreme +maturity may assimilate fresh facts and fresh minor principles, but it +cannot assimilate fresh synthetic systems of the entire cosmos. +Moreover, some of the elder thinkers were committed beforehand to +opposing views, with which they lacked either the courage or the +intellectual power to break; while others were entangled by religious +restrictions, and unable to free themselves from the cramping fetters of +a narrow orthodoxy. But even among his own contemporaries and seniors +Darwin found not a few whose minds were thoroughly prepared beforehand +for the reception of his lucid and luminous hypothesis; while the +younger naturalists, with the plasticity of youth, assimilated almost +to a man, with the utmost avidity, the great truths thus showered down +upon them by the preacher of evolution. + +Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley were among the first to give in +their adhesion and stand up boldly for the new truth by the side of the +reckless and disturbing innovator. In June 1859, nearly a year after the +reading of the Darwin-Wallace papers at the Linnean Society, but five +months previously to the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' Huxley +lectured at the Royal Institution on 'Persistent Types of Animal Life,' +and declared against the old barren theory of successive creations, in +favour of the new and fruitful hypothesis of gradual modification. In +December 1859, a month later than the appearance of Darwin's book, +Hooker published his 'Introduction to the Flora of Australia,' in the +first part of which he championed the belief in the descent and +modification of species, and enforced his views by many original +observations drawn from the domain of botanical science. For fifteen +years, as Darwin himself gratefully observed in his introduction to the +'Origin of Species,' that learned botanist had shared the secret of +natural selection, and aided its author in every possible way by his +large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment. Bates, the +naturalist on the Amazons, followed fast with his beautiful and striking +theory of mimicry, a crucial instance well explained. The facts of the +strange disguises which birds and insects often assume had long been +present to his acute mind, and he hailed with delight the discovery of +the new principle, which at once enabled him to reduce them with ease +to symmetry and order. To Herbert Spencer, an evolutionist in fibre from +the very beginning, the fresh doctrine of natural selection came like a +powerful ally and an unexpected assistant in deciphering the deep +fundamental problems on which he was at that moment actually engaged; +and in his 'Principles of Biology,' even then in contemplation, he at +once adopted and utilised the new truth with all the keen and vigorous +insight of his profound analytic and synthetic intellect. The first part +of that important work was issued to subscribers just three years after +the original appearance of the 'Origin of Species;' the first volume was +fully completed in October 1864. It is to Mr. Spencer that we owe the +pellucid expression 'survival of the fittest,' which conveys even better +than Darwin's own phrase, 'natural selection,' the essential element +added by the 'Origin of Species' to the pre-existing evolutionary +conception. + +The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its big +annual doctrinaire picnic the next summer after the publication of +Darwin's book, at Oxford. The Oxford meeting was a stormy and a +well-remembered one. The 'Origin of Species' was there discussed and +attacked before a biological section strangely enough presided over by +Darwin's old Cambridge teacher, Professor Henslow. Though then a +beneficed parish priest, Henslow had the boldness frankly to avow his +own acceptance of his great pupil's startling conclusions. Huxley +followed in the same path, as did also Lubbock and Hooker. On the whole, +the evolutionists were already in the ascendant; the fresh young +intellects especially being quick to seize upon the new pabulum so +generously dealt out to them by the new evolutionism. + +Among scientific minds of the first order, Lyell alone in England, +heavily weighted by theological preconceptions, for awhile hung back. +All his life long, as his letters show us, the great geologist had felt +the powerful spell of the Lamarckian hypothesis continually enticing him +with its seductive charm. He had fought against it blindly, in the +passionate endeavour to preserve what he thought his higher faith in the +separate and divine creation of man; but ever and anon he returned anew +to the biological Circe with a fresh fascination, as the moth returns to +the beautiful flame that has scorched and singed it. In a well-known +passage in the earlier editions of his 'Principles of Geology,' the +father of uniformitarianism gives at length his own reasons for +dissenting from the doctrine of evolution as then set forth; and even +after Darwin's discovery had supplied him with a new clue, a _vera +causa_, a sufficient power for the modification of species into fresh +forms, theological difficulties made him cling still as long as possible +to the old theory of the origin of man which he loved to describe as +that of the 'archangel ruined.' He was loth to exchange this cherished +belief for the degrading alternative (as it approved itself to him) of +the ape elevated. But in the end, with the fearless honesty of a +searcher after truth, he gave way slowly and regretfully. Always looking +back with something like remorse to the flesh-pots of the ecclesiastical +Egypt, with its enticing visions of fallen grandeur, the great thinker +whose uniformitarian theory of geology had more than aught else paved +the way for the gradual acceptance of Darwin's evolutionism, came out +at last from the house of bondage, and nobly ranged himself on the side +of what his intellect judged to be the truth of nature, though his +emotions urged him hard to blind his judgment and to neglect its lights +for an emotional figment. Science has no more pathetic figure than that +of the old philosopher, in his sixty-sixth year, throwing himself with +all the eagerness of youth into what he had long considered the wrong +scale, and vigorously wrecking in the 'Antiquity of Man' what seemed to +the dimmed vision of his own emotional nature the very foundations of +his beloved creed. But still he did it. He came out and was separate. In +his own idiomatic language, he found at last that 'we must go the whole +ourang;' and, deep as was the pang that the recantation cost him, he +formally retracted the condemnation of 'transformism' in his earlier +works, and accepted, however unwillingly, the theory he had so often and +so deliberately rejected. + +The 'Antiquity of Man' came out in February 1863, some three years after +the 'Origin of Species.' For some time speculation had been active over +the strange hatchets which Boucher de Perthes had recently unearthed +among the Abbeville drift--shapeless masses of chipped flint rudely +fashioned into the form of an axe, which we now call palæolithic +implements, and know to be the handicraft of preglacial men. But until +Lyell's authoritative work appeared the unscientific public could not +tell exactly what to think of these curious and almost unhuman-looking +objects. Lyell at once set all doubts at rest; the magic of his name +silenced the derisive whispers of the dissidents. Already, in the +previous year, the first fasciculus of Colenso's famous work on the +Pentateuch had dealt a serious blow from the ecclesiastical and critical +side at the authenticity and historical truth of the Mosaic cosmogony. +Lyell now from the scientific side completely demolished its literal +truth, as ordinarily interpreted, by throwing back the primitive origin +of our race into a dim past of immeasurable antiquity. In so doing he +was clearing the way for Charles Darwin's second great work, 'The +Descent of Man;' and by incorporating in his book Huxley's remarks on +the Neanderthal skull, and much similar evolutionary matter, he +advertised the new creed in the animal origin of our race with all the +acquired weight of his immense and justly-deserved European reputation. +As a matter of taste, Lyell did not relish the application of +evolutionism to his own species. But, with that perfect loyalty to fact +which he shared so completely with Charles Darwin, as soon as he found +the evidence overwhelming, he gave in. By that grudging concession he +immensely strengthened the position of the new creed. 'I plead guilty,' +he writes to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'to going farther in my reasoning +towards transmutation than in my sentiments and imagination, and perhaps +for that very reason I shall lead more people on to Darwin and you, than +one who, being born later, like Lubbock, has comparatively little to +abandon of old and long-cherished ideas, which constituted the charm to +me of the theoretical part of the science in my earlier days.' And to +Darwin himself he writes regretfully. 'The descent of man from the +brutes takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past +relating to such matters.' This very reluctance itself told powerfully +in favour of Charles Darwin's novel theories: there is no evidence more +valuable to a cause than that which it extorts by moral force, in spite +of himself, from the faltering lips of an unwilling witness. + +The same year that saw the publication of Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' saw +also the first appearance of Huxley's work on 'Man's Place in Nature.' +Darwin himself had been anxious rather than otherwise to avoid too close +reference to the implications of his theory as regards the origin and +destiny of the human race. He had desired that his strictly scientific +views on the rise of specific distinctions should be judged entirely on +their own merits, unhampered by the interference of real or supposed +theological and ethical considerations. His own language on all such +subjects, wherever he was compelled to trench on them in the 'Origin of +Species,' was guarded and conciliatory; he scarcely referred at all to +man or his history; and his occasional notices of the moving principle +and first cause of the entire cosmos were reverential and religious in +the truest sense and in the highest degree. But you cannot let loose a +moral whirlwind, and then attempt to direct its course; you cannot open +the floodgates of opinion or of speculation, and then pretend to set +limits to the scope of their restless motion. Darwin soon found out that +people would insist in drawing inferences beyond what was written, and +in seeing implicit conclusions when they were not definitely formulated +in the words of their author. 'Man is perennially interesting to man,' +says the great chaotic American thinker; and whatever all-embracing +truth you set before him, you may be sure that man will see in it +chiefly the implications that most closely affect his own happiness and +his own destiny. The biological question of the origin of species is a +sufficiently wide one, but it includes also, among other cases, the +origin of the very familiar species _Homo sapiens_ of Linnæus. Some +theologians jumped at once at the conclusion, right or wrong, that if +Darwinism were true man was nothing more than a developed monkey, the +immortal soul was an exploded myth, the foundations of religion itself +were shattered, and the wave of infidelity was doomed to swamp the whole +of Christendom with its blank nihilism. Scientific men, on the other +hand, drew the conclusion that man must be descended, like other +mammals, from some common early vertebrate ancestor, and that the +current views of his origin and destiny must be largely modified by the +evolutionary creed. Of this profound scientific belief Professor +Huxley's maiden work was the earliest outcome. + +Meantime, on the continent of Europe and over-sea in America, the +Darwinian theory was being hotly debated and warmly defended. France, +coldly sceptical and critical, positive rather than imaginative in +matters of science, and little prone by native cast of mind to the +evolutionary attitude, stood aloof to a great extent from the onward +course of the general movement. Here and there, to be sure, a Gaudry or +a Ribot, a Delboeuf or a De Candolle (the two latter a Liège Belgian and +a Genevan Swiss) might heartily throw himself into the new ideas, and +contribute whole squadrons of geological or botanical fact to the final +victory. Yet, as a whole, the dry and cautious French intelligence, ever +inclined to a scientific opportunism, preferred for the moment to stand +by expectant and await the result of the European consensus. But +philosophical Germany, on the other hand, beaming enthusiasm from its +myriad spectacles, eagerly welcomed the novel ideas, and proclaimed from +the housetops the evolutionary faith as a main plank in the rising +platform of the newly-roused Kulturkampf. Fritz Müller began with all +the ardour of a fresh convert to collect his admirable 'Facts for +Darwin;' his brother Hermann sat down with indomitable patience, like +the master's own, to watch the ceaseless action of the bees and +butterflies in the fertilisation of flowers. Rütimeyer applied the +Darwinian principles to the explanation of mammalian relationships, and +Haeckel set to work upon his vast reconstructive 'History of Creation,' +a largely speculative work which, with all its faults, distinctly +carried forward the evolutionary impulse, and set fresh researchers +working upon new lines, to confirm or to disprove its audacious +imaginings. In America, Asa Gray gave to the young creed the high +authority of his well-known name, and Chauncey Wright helped it onward +on the road with all the restrained force of his singular and oblique +but powerful and original personality. If Agassiz and Dawson still +hesitated, Fiske and Youmans were ardent in the faith. If critical +Boston put up its eye-glass doubtfully, Chicago and St. Louis were ready +for conversion. Everywhere Darwin and Darwinism became as household +words; it was the singular fate of the great prophet of evolution, alone +almost among the sons of men, to hear his own name familiarly twisted +during his own lifetime into a colloquial adjective, and to see the +Darwinian theory and the errors of Darwinism staring him in the face a +hundred times a day from every newspaper and every periodical. + +Of course the 'Origin of Species' was largely translated at once into +all the civilised languages of Europe, Russian as well as French, Dutch +as well as German, Swedish as well as Italian, Spanish as well as +Hungarian, nay even, at last, transcending narrow continental limits, +Japanese as well as Hindustani. The revolution which it was rapidly +effecting was indeed a revolution in every mode of thought and feeling +as well as a revolution in mere restricted biological opinion. But all +this time, the modest, single-minded, and unassuming author was working +unmoved among his plants and pigeons in his home at Down, regardless of +the European fame he was so quickly acquiring, and anxious only to bring +to a termination the vast work which he still contemplated. A little +more than eleven years intervened between the publication of the 'Origin +of Species,' in 1859, and the first appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' +in 1871. The interval was occupied in carrying out in part the gigantic +scheme of his original collections for the full treatment of the +development theory. The work published in 1859 Darwin regarded merely as +an abstract and preliminary outline of his full opinions: 'No one can +feel more sensible than I do,' he wrote, 'of the necessity of hereafter +publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my +conclusions have been grounded.' The marvellously learned work on the +'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' which came out in +two volumes in 1867, formed the first instalment of this long-projected +treatise. The second part, as he told Mr. Fiske, was to have treated of +the variation of animals and plants through natural selection; while the +third part would have dealt at length with the phenomena of morphology, +of classification, and of distribution in space and time. But these +latter portions of the work were never written. To say the truth, they +were never needed. So universal was the recognition among the younger +men of Darwin's discovery, that before ten years were over innumerable +workers were pushing out the consequences of natural selection into +every field of biology and palæontology. It seemed no longer so +necessary as it had once seemed to write the larger and more elaborate +treatise he had originally contemplated. + +The volume on the variation of animals and plants contained also +Darwin's one solitary contribution to the pure speculative philosophy of +life--his 'Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis,' by which he strove to +account on philosophical principles for the general facts of physical +and mental heredity. Not to mince matters, it was his one conspicuous +failure, and is now pretty universally admitted as such. Let not the +love of the biographer deceive us; Darwin was here attempting a task +_ultra vires_. As already observed, his mind, vast as it was, leaned +rather to the concrete than to the abstract side: he lacked the +distinctively metaphysical and speculative twist. Strange to say, too, +his abortive theory appeared some years later than Herbert Spencer's +magnificent all-sided conception of 'Physiological Units,' put forth +expressly to meet the self-same difficulty. But while Darwin's +hypothesis is rudely materialistic, Herbert Spencer's is built up by an +acute and subtle analytical perception of all the analogous facts in +universal nature. It is a singular instance of a crude and essentially +unphilosophic conception endeavouring to replace a finished and delicate +philosophical idea. + +Earlier still, in 1862, Darwin had published his wonderful and +fascinating book on the 'Fertilisation of Orchids.' It is delightful to +contemplate the picture of the unruffled naturalist, in the midst of +that universal storm of ecclesiastical obloquy and scientific enthusiasm +which he had roused throughout Europe, sitting down calmly in his +Kentish conservatory to watch the behaviour of catasetums and +masdevallias, and to work out the details of his chosen subject, with +that marvellous patience of which he was so great a master, in the +pettiest minutiæ of fertilisation as displayed by a single highly +developed family of plants. Whoever wishes to learn the full profundity +of Darwin's researches, into every point that he set himself to +investigate, cannot do better than turn for a while to the consideration +of that exquisite treatise on one of the quaintest fairylands of +science. He will there learn by what an extraordinary wealth of cunning +devices natural selection has ensured the due conveyance of the +fecundating pollen from stamens to stigmas within the limits of a single +group of vegetable organisms. Here the fertilising mass is gummed +automatically between the eyes of the exploring bee, and then bent round +by the drying of its stalk so as to come in contact with the stigmatic +surface. There the pollen club is jerked out elastically by a sensitive +fibre, and actually flung by its irritable antennæ at the unconscious +head of the fertilising insect. In one case, the lip of the flower +secretes moisture and forms a sort of cold bath, which wets the wings of +the bees, so compelling them to creep out of the bucket by a passage +close to the anthers and stigma; in another case, the honey is concealed +at the bottom of so long a tube that only the proper fertilising moth +with a proboscis of ten or eleven inches in length can probe the deep +recess in which it is hidden. These, and a hundred other similar +instances, were all carefully considered and described by the great +naturalist as the by-work with which he filled up one of the intervals +between his greater and more comprehensive treatises. + +In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the progress of Darwinism was rapid +and continuous. One by one, the few scientific men who still held out +were overborne by the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh +instances of transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored +countries kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species +and varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his +'First Principles,' his 'Biology,' and the remodelled form of his +'Psychology;' Huxley brought out 'Man's Place in Nature,' the 'Lectures +on Comparative Anatomy,' and the 'Introduction to the Classification of +Animals;' Wallace produced his 'Malay Archipelago' and his +'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection;' and Galton wrote his +admirable work on 'Hereditary Genius,' of which his own family is so +remarkable an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had long since signified their +warm adhesion. At Oxford, Rolleston was bringing up a fresh generation +of young biologists in the new faith; at Cambridge, Darwin's old +university, a whole school of brilliant and accurate physiologists was +beginning to make itself both felt and heard in the world of science. In +the domain of anthropology, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the +new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations into +the Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. All these +diverse lines of thought both showed the wide-spread influence of +Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, +in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. +And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilised +world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement +was well in progress; everywhere the impulse sent forth from that quiet +Kentish home was permeating and quickening the entire pulse of +intelligent humanity. + +Why was it that the 'Origin of Species' possessed this extraordinary +vitalising and kinetic power, this germinal energy, this contagious +force, beyond all other forms of evolutionism previously promulgated? +Why did the world, that listened so coldly to Lamarck and Chambers, turn +so ready an ear to Charles Darwin and natural selection? Partly, no +doubt, because in the fulness of time the moment had come and the +prophet had arisen. All great movements are long brewing, and burst out +at last (like the Reformation and the French Revolution) with explosive +energy. But the cause is largely to be found, also, I believe, in the +peculiar nature of the Darwinian solution. True, a thoroughly logical +mind, a mind of the very highest order, would have said even before +Darwin, 'Creation can have no possible place in the physical series of +things at all. How organisms came to be I do not yet exactly see; but I +am sure they must have come to be by some merely physical process, if we +could only find it out.' And such minds were all actually evolutionary +even before Darwin had made the _modus operandi_ of evolution +intelligible. But most people are not so clear-sighted. They require to +have everything proved to them by the strictest collocation of actual +instances. They will not believe unless one rise from the dead. There +are men who rejected the raw doctrine of special creation on evidence +adduced; and there are men who never even for a moment entertained it as +conceivable. The former compose the mass of the scientific world, and it +was for their conversion that the Darwinian hypothesis was so highly +salutary. As Professor Fiske rightly remarks, 'The truth is that before +the publication of the "Origin of Species" there was no opinion whatever +current respecting the subject that deserved to be called a scientific +hypothesis. That the more complex forms of life must have come into +existence through some process of development from simpler forms was no +doubt the only sensible and rational view to take of the subject; but in +a vague and general opinion of this sort there is nothing that is +properly scientific. A scientific hypothesis must connect the phenomena +with which it deals by alleging a "true cause;" and before 1859 no one +had suggested a "true cause" for the origination of new species, +although the problem was one over which every philosophical naturalist +had puzzled since the beginning of the century. This explains why Mr. +Darwin's success was so rapid and complete, and it also explains why he +came so near being anticipated.' To put it briefly, _a priori_, creation +is from the very first unbelievable; but, as a matter of evidence, +Lamarck failed to make evolution comprehensible, or to give a rationale +of its mode of action, while Darwin's theory of natural selection +succeeded in doing so for those who awaited _a posteriori_ proof. Hence +Darwin was able to convert the world, where Lamarck had only been able +to stir up enquiry among the picked spirits of the scientific and +philosophical coterie. Therein lies the true secret of his rapid, his +brilliant, and his triumphant progress. He had found out not only _that_ +it was so, but _how_ it was so, too. In Aristotelian phrase, he had +discovered the _πῶς_ as well as the _ὅτι_. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DESCENT OF MAN. + + +In 1871, nearly twelve years after the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +published his 'Descent of Man.' + +We have seen already that he would fain have avoided the treatment of +this difficult and dangerous topic a little longer, so as to let his +main theory be fairly judged on its own merits, without the obtrusion of +theological or personal feelings into so purely biological a question; +but the current was too strong for him, and at last he yielded. On the +one hand, the adversaries had drawn for themselves the conclusion of +man's purely animal origin, and held it up to ridicule under false forms +in the most absurd and odious light. On the other hand, imprudent allies +had put forth under the evolutionary ægis their somewhat hypothetical +and extravagant speculations on this involved subject, which Darwin was +naturally anxious to correct and modify by his own more sober and +guarded inferences. The result was the second great finishing work of +the complete Darwinian system of things. + +Ever since evolutionism had begun to be at all it had been observed that +a natural corollary from the doctrine of descent with modification was +the belief in man's common ancestry with the anthropoid apes. As early +as the middle of the last century, indeed, Lord Monboddo, a whimsical +Scotch eccentric, had suggested in his famous book on the origin of +language the idea that men were merely developed monkeys. But this crude +and unorganised statement of a great truth, being ultimately based upon +no distinct physical grounds, deserved scarcely to be classed higher +than the childish evolutionism of 'Telliamed' De Maillet, which makes +birds descend from flying-fish and men the offspring of the hypothetical +tritons. On this point as on most others the earliest definite +scientific views are those of Buffon, who ventured to hint with extreme +caution the possibility of a common ancestry for man and all other +vertebrate animals. Goethe the all-sided had caught a passing glimpse of +the same profound conception about the date of the Reign of Terror; and +Erasmus Darwin had openly announced it, though without much elaboration, +in his precocious and premature 'Zoonomia.' Still more specifically, in +a note to the 'Temple of Nature,' the English evolutionist says: 'It has +been supposed by some that mankind were formerly quadrupeds.... These +philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to imagine that mankind +arose from one family of monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean;' and +in the third canto of that fantastic poem, he enlarges upon the great +part performed by the hand, with its opposable thumb, in the development +and progress of the human species. Lamarck, in his 'Philosophie +Zoologique,' distinctly lays down the doctrine that man is descended +from an ape-like ancestor, which gradually acquired the upright +position, not even now wholly natural to the human race, and maintained +only by the most constant watchfulness. The orang-outang was then the +highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang, +therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the +pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam. + +The introduction of the chimpanzee into our European Zoological Gardens +gave a fresh type of anthropoid to the crude speculators of the middle +decades of the century; and in 1859, Paul du Chaillu, the explorer and +hunter of the Gaboon country, brought over to America and Europe the +first specimens of the true gorilla ever seen by civilised men. There +can be little doubt that the general interest excited by his narrative +of his adventures (published in London in 1861) and by the well-known +stuffed specimen of the huge African anthropoid ape so long conspicuous +in the rooms of the British Museum, and now surviving (somewhat the +worse for wear) in the natural history collection at South Kensington, +did much to kindle public curiosity as to the nature of our relations +with the lower animals. It is no mere accidental circumstance, indeed, +that Huxley should have brought out 'Man's Place in Nature' just two +years after Du Chaillu's 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial +Africa' had made the whole world, lay and learned, familiar with the +name and features of the most human in outer aspect among the anthropoid +family. Thenceforth the gorilla, and not the orang-outang, was popularly +hit upon by scoffer and caricaturist as the imaginary type of our +primitive ancestors. + +On the other hand, during the twelve intervening years immense strides +had been made in every department of anthropological science, and the +whole tenor of modern speculation had been clearing the ground for the +'Descent of Man,' In 1865, Rolle in Germany had published his work on +'Man Viewed by the Light of the Darwinian Theory.' Two years later, +Canestrini in Italy read before the Naturalists' Society of Modena his +interesting paper on rudimentary characters as bearing on the origin of +the human species. In 1868, Büchner brought out his rudely materialistic +sledge-hammer lectures on the Darwinian principle; and in 1869, Barrago +flung straight at the head of the Roman clericals his offensive work on +man and the anthropoid apes. Most of these foreign publications were +unhappily marked by that coarse and almost vituperative opposition to +received views which too often disfigures French and German +controversial literature. In England, on the contrary, under our milder +and gentler ecclesiastical yoke, the contest had been conducted with +greater decorum and with far better results. Wallace had broken ground +tentatively and reverently in his essay on the 'Origin of Human Races,' +where he endeavoured to show that man is the co-descendant with the +anthropoid apes of some ancient lower and extinct form. Lubbock's +'Prehistoric Times' (1865) and 'Origin of Civilisation' (1870) helped to +clear the way in the opposite direction by demolishing the old belief, +firmly upheld by Whately and others, that savages represent a degraded +type, and that the civilised state is natural and, so to speak, +congenital to man. Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind' (1865) did still +more eminent service in the same direction. Colenso's 'Pentateuch and +Book of Joshua Critically Examined,' the publication of which began in +1862, had already shaken the foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony, and +incidentally discredited the received view of the direct creation of the +first human family. McLennan's 'Primitive Marriage' (1865) and Herbert +Spencer's articles on the origin of religion had kept speculation alive +along other paths, all tending ultimately towards the same conclusion. +Darwin's own cousin, Hensleigh Wedgwood, and Canon Farrar, had +independently endeavoured to prove that language, instead of being a +divine gift, might have arisen in a purely natural manner from +instinctive cries and the imitation of external sounds. The Duke of +Argyll and Professor Max Müller, by the obvious feebleness of their +half-hearted replies, had unconsciously aided in disseminating and +enforcing the very views they attempted to combat. Bagehot and Flower, +Maudsley and Jevons, Vogt and Lindsay, Galton and Brown-Séquard had each +in his way contributed facts and arguments ultimately utilised by the +great master architect in building up his consistent and harmonious +edifice. Finally, in 1868, Haeckel had published his 'Natural History of +Creation,' in which he discussed with surprising and perhaps excessive +boldness the various stages in the genealogy of man. These various +works, following so close upon Huxley's 'Man's Place in Nature' and +Lyell's conclusive 'Antiquity of Man,' left Darwin no choice but to set +forth his own reasoned opinions on the subject of the origin and +development of the human species. + +The evidence of the descent of man from some lower form, collected and +marshalled together by Darwin, consists chiefly of minute inferential +proofs which hardly admit of deliberate condensation. In his bodily +structure man is formed on the same underlying type or model as all the +other mammals, bone answering throughout to bone, as, for example, in +the fore limb, where homologous parts have been modified in the dog into +toes, in the bat into wing-supports, in the seal into flippers, and in +man himself into fingers and thumb, while still retaining in every case +their essential fundamental likeness of construction. Even the brain of +man resembles closely the brain of the higher monkeys; the differences +which separate him in this respect from the orang or the gorilla are far +slighter than the differences which separate those apes themselves from +the inferior monkeys. Indeed, as Huxley conclusively showed, on +anatomical grounds alone, man must be classed in the order Primates as +only one among the many divergent forms which that order includes within +its wide limits. + +In his embryonic development man closely resembles the lower animals, +the human creature being almost indistinguishable in certain stages from +the dog, the bat, the seal, and especially the monkeys. At a very early +age he possesses a slight projecting tail; at another, the great toe is +shorter than its neighbours, and projects like the thumb at a slight +angle; and at a third, the convolutions of the brain reach a point of +development about equivalent to that of the adult baboon. In his first +stages man himself stands far more closely related to the apes than the +apes in turn stand to cats or hyænas. + +Rudiments of muscles not normally found in man occur in many aberrant +human individuals. Some people possess the power of moving their scalps +and wagging their ears like dogs and monkeys; others can twitch the skin +of their bodies, as horses do when worried by flies. Mr. Woolner, the +sculptor, pointed out to Darwin a certain little projecting point or +knob on the margin of the ear, observed by him in the course of +modelling, which comparison shows to be the last folded remnant or +rudiment of the once erect and pointed monkey-like ear-tip. The +nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, once more, which in birds can be +drawn so rapidly across the ball of the eye, and which gives the +familiar glazed or murky appearance, is fairly well developed in the +ornithorhynchus and the kangaroo, as well as in a few higher mammals, +like the walrus; but in man, as in the monkey group, it survives only +under the degenerate form of a practically useless rudiment, the +semilunar fold. Man differs from the other Primates in his apparently +hairless condition; but the hair, though short and downy, still remains +on close inspection, and in some races, such as the Ainos of Japan, +forms a shaggy coat like an orang's or a gibbon's. A few long rough +hairs sometimes project from the short smooth down of the eyebrows; and +these peculiar bristles, occasional only in the human species, are +habitual in the chimpanzee and in many baboons. Internal organs show +similar rudiments, of less enthralling interest, it must be candidly +confessed, to the unscientific outside intelligence. Even the bony +skeleton contributes its share of confirmatory evidence; for in the +lower monkeys and in many other mammals a certain main trunk nerve +passes through a special perforation in the shoulder-blade, and this +perforation, though now almost obsolete, sometimes recurs in man, in +which case the nerve in question invariably passes through it, as in the +inferior monkeys. What is still more remarkable is the fact that the +perforation occurs far more frequently (in proportion) among the +skeletons of very ancient races than among those of our own time. One +chief cause why in this and other cases ancient races often present +structures resembling those of the lower animals seems to be that they +stand nearer in the long line of descent to their remote animal-like +progenitors. + +The conclusion at which, after fully examining all the evidence, Darwin +finally arrives is somewhat as follows: + +The early ancestors of man must have been more or less monkey-like +animals, belonging to the great anthropoid group, and related to the +progenitors of the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. They +must have been once covered with hair, both sexes possessing beards. +Their ears were probably pointed and capable of movement, and their +bodies were provided with a movable tail. The foot had a great toe +somewhat thumb-like in its action, with which they could grasp the +branches of trees. They were probably arboreal in their habits, +fruit-eaters by choice, and inhabitants of some warm forest-clad land. +The males had great canine teeth, with which they fought one another for +the possession of the females. At a much earlier period, the internal +anatomical peculiarities approached those of the lowest mammals, and the +eye was provided with a third eyelid. Peering still further back into +the dim abyss of the ages, Darwin vaguely describes the ancestors of +humanity as aquatic animals, allied to the mudfish; for our lungs are +known to consist of modified swim-bladders, which must once have served +our remote progenitors in the office of a float. The gill-clefts on the +neck of the human embryo still point to the spot where the branchiæ +once, no doubt, existed. Our primordial birthplace appears to have been +a shore washed twice a day by the recurrent tides. The heart then took +the shape merely of a simple pulsating vessel; and a long undivided +spinal cord usurped the place of the vertebral column. These extremely +primitive ancestors of man, thus dimly beheld across the gulf of ages, +must have been at least as simply and humbly organised as that very +lowest and earliest of existing vertebrates, the worm-like lancelet. + +From such a rude and indefinite beginning natural selection, aided by +the various concomitant principles, has slowly built up the pedigree of +man. Starting from these remote half-invertebrate forms, whose vague +shape is still perhaps in part preserved for us by the soft and +jelly-like larva of the modern ascidian, we rise by long stages to a +group of early fishes, like the lancelet itself. From these the ganoids +and then the lung-bearing mudfish must have been gradually developed. +From such fish a very small advance would carry us on to the newts and +other amphibians. The duck-billed platypus helps us slightly to bridge +over the gap between the reptiles and the lower mammals, such as the +kangaroo and the wombat, though the connection with the amphibians is +still, as when Darwin wrote, highly problematical. From marsupials, such +as the kangaroo, we ascend gradually to the insectivorous type +represented by the shrews and hedgehogs, and thence once more by very +well-marked intermediate stages to the lemurs of Madagascar, a group +linked on the one hand to the insectivores, and on the other to the true +monkeys. The monkeys, again, 'branched off into two great stems--the New +World and Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, +man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.' + +The word was spoken; the secret was out. The world might well have been +excused for treating it scornfully. But as a matter of fact, the storm +which followed the 'Descent of Man' was as nothing compared with the +torrent of abuse that had pursued the author of the 'Origin of Species.' +In twelve years society had grown slowly accustomed to the once +startling idea, and it listened now with comparatively languid interest +to the final utterance of the great biologist on the question of its own +origin and destinies. In 1859 it cried in horror, 'How very shocking!' +in 1871, it murmured complacently, 'Is that all? Why, everybody knew +that much already!' + +Nevertheless, on the moral and social side, the ultimate importance of +the 'Descent of Man' upon the world's history can hardly be overrated by +a philosophic investigator. Vast as was the revolution effected in +biology by the 'Origin of Species,' it was as nothing compared with the +still wider, deeper, and more subtly-working revolution inaugurated by +the announcement of man's purely animal origin. The main discovery, +strange to say, affected a single branch of thought alone; the minor +corollary drawn from it to a single species has already affected, and is +destined in the future still more profoundedly to affect, every +possible sphere of human energy. Not only has it completely reversed our +entire conception of history generally, by teaching us that man has +slowly risen from a very low and humble beginning, but it has also +revolutionised our whole ideas of our own position and our own destiny, +it has permeated the sciences of language and of medicine, it has +introduced new conceptions of ethics and of religion, and it threatens +in the future to produce immense effects upon the theory and practice of +education, of politics, and of economic and social science. These +wide-reaching and deep-seated results began to be felt from the first +moment when the Darwinian principle was definitely promulgated in the +'Origin of Species,' but their final development and general acceptance +was immensely accelerated by Darwin's own authoritative statement in the +'Descent of Man.' + +To some among us still, as to Lyell before us, this new belief in the +animal origin of man seems far less beautiful, noble, and inspiriting +than the older faith in his special and separate divine creation. Such +thinkers find it somehow more pleasant and comfortable to suppose that +man has fallen than that man has risen; the doctrine of the universal +degradation of humanity paradoxically appears to them more full of +promise and aspiration for the times to come than the doctrine of its +universal elevation. To Darwin himself, however, it seemed otherwise. +'Man,' he says, 'may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, +though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic +scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been +aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny +in the distant future.' Surely this is the truer and manlier way of +looking at the reversed and improved attitude of man. Surely it is +better to climb to the top than to have been placed there--and +fallen--at the very outset. Surely it is a nobler view of life that we +may yet by our own strenuous exertions raise our race some places higher +in the endless and limitless hierarchy of nature than that we are the +miserable and hopelessly degenerate descendants of a ruined and degraded +angelic progenitor. Surely it is well, while we boast with Glaucus that +we indeed are far braver and better than our ancestors, to pray at the +same time, in the words of Hector, that our sons may be yet braver and +better than ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP. + + +In the same volumes with the 'Descent of Man' Darwin included his +admirable treatise on sexual selection. This form of selection he had +already dealt with briefly in the 'Origin of Species;' but as in his +opinion it was largely instrumental in producing the minor differences +which separate one race of men from another, he found it necessary to +enlarge and expand it in connection with his account of the rise and +progress of the human species. + +Among many animals, and especially in the higher classes of animals, the +males and females do not mate together casually; there is a certain +amount of selection or of courtship. In some cases, as with deer and +antelopes, the males fight with one another for the possession of the +females. In other cases, as with the peacock and the humming-birds, the +males display their beauty and their skill before the eyes of the +assembled females. In the first instance, the victor obtains the mates; +in the second instance, the mates themselves select from the group the +handsomest and most personally pleasing competitor. Sexual selection, of +which these are special cases, depends on the advantage possessed by +certain individuals over others of the same sex and species solely in +respect to the question of mating. In all such instances, the males have +acquired their weapons of offence and defence or their ornamental +decorations, not from being better fitted to survive in the struggle for +existence, but from having gained an advantage over other males of the +same kind, and from having transmitted this advantage to offspring of +their own sex alone. + +Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by the selection of +those birds which are victorious in the cockpit, so the strongest and +most vigorous males, or those provided with the best weapons, have +prevailed in the state of nature over their feebler and more cowardly +competitors. Just as man can give beauty, according to his own standard +of taste, to his male poultry, by selecting special birds for their +plumage, their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female birds in +a state of nature have by a long-continued choice of the more attractive +males added to their beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. In these two +ways, Darwin believed, a limited selection has slowly developed weapons +like the horns of buffaloes, the antlers of stags, the tusks of boars, +and the spurs of game-birds, together with the courage, strength, and +pugnacity always associated with such special organs. It has also +developed the ornamental plumage of the peacock, the argus pheasant, and +the birds of paradise; the song of the lark, the thrush, and the +nightingale; the brilliant hues on the face of the mandrill; and the +attractive perfume of the musk-deer, the snakes, and the scented +butterflies. Wherever one sex possesses any decorative or alluring +adjunct not equally shared by the other, Darwin attributed this special +gift either to the law of battle, or to the long and slowly exerted +selective action of their fastidious mates. + +The germ of the doctrine of sexual selection is to be found, like so +many other of Charles Darwin's theories, in a prophetic passage of his +grandfather's 'Zoonomia.' Stags, the Lichfield physician tells us, are +provided with antlers 'for the purpose of combating other stags for the +exclusive possession of the females, who are observed, like the ladies +in the time 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.' + +It must be noticed, however, that Erasmus Darwin here imports into the +question the metaphysical and teleological notion of the final cause, +implying that the struggle of the males was ordained from without, for +this express and preconceived purpose; whereas Charles Darwin, never +transcending the world of phenomena, more logically regards the struggle +itself as an efficient cause, having for its result the survival of the +strongest or the handsomest as the case may be. This distinction is +fundamental; it marks the gulf between the essentially teleological +spirit of the eighteenth century and the essentially positive spirit of +philosophy and science at the present day. + +Here again, too, the immense logical superiority of Charles Darwin's +rigorous and exhaustive inductive method over the loose suggestiveness +of his grandfather Erasmus may easily be observed. For while Erasmus +merely throws out a clever and interesting hint as to the supposed +method and intention of nature, Charles Darwin proves his thesis, point +by point, with almost mathematical exactitude, leaving no objection +unmet behind him, but giving statistical and inductive warrant for every +step in his cumulative argument. He goes carefully into the numerical +proportion of the two sexes in various species; into the relative dates +of arrival in any particular country of the males and females of +migratory birds; into the question whether any individuals ever remain +in the long run unpaired; into the chances of the earliest-mated or most +vigorous couples leaving behind more numerous or stronger offspring to +represent them in the next generation. He collects from every quarter +and from all sources whatever available evidence can be obtained as to +the courtship and rivalry of birds and butterflies, of deer and +antelopes, of fish and lizards. He shows by numerous examples and +quotations how even flies coquet together in their pretty rhythmical +aerial dances; how wasps battle eagerly with one another to secure +possession of their unconcerned mates; how cicadas strive to win their +'voiceless brides' with stridulating music; how sphinx-moths endeavour +to allure their partners with the musky odour of their pencilled wings; +and how emperors and orange-tips display their gorgeous spots and bands +in the broad sunshine before the admiring and attentive eyes of their +observant dames. He traces up the same spirit of rivalry and ostentation +to the cock-pheasant strutting about before the attendant hen, and to +the meeting-places of the blackcock, where all the males of the district +fight with one another and undertake long love-dances in regular +tournaments, while the females stand by and watch the chances and +changes of the contest with affected indifference. Finally, he points +out how similar effects are produced by like causes among the higher +animals, especially among our near relations the monkeys; and then he +proceeds to apply the principles thus firmly grounded to the particular +instance of the human race itself, the primary object of his entire +treatise. + +Some of the most interesting of the modifications due to this particular +form of selective action are to be found amongst the insects and other +low types of animal life. The crickets, the locusts, and the +grasshoppers, for example, are all famous for their musical powers; but +the sounds themselves are produced in the different families by very +different and quaintly varied organs. The song of the crickets is evoked +by the scraping of minute teeth on the under side of either wing-cover; +in the case of the locusts, the left wing, which acts as a bow, overlies +the right wing, which serves as a fiddle; while with the grasshoppers, +the leg does duty as the musical instrument, and has a row of +lancet-shaped elastic knobs along its outer surface, which the insect +rubs across the nerves of the wing-covers when it wishes to charm the +ears and rouse the affection of its silent mate. In a South African +species of the same family, the whole body of the male is fairly +converted into a musical instrument, being immensely inflated, hollow, +and distended like a pellucid air-bladder in order to act as an +efficient sounding-board. Among the beetles, taste seems generally to +have specialised itself rather on form than on music or colour, and the +males are here usually remarkable for their singular and very +complicated horns, often compared in various species to those of stags +or rhinoceroses, and entirely absent in the females of most kinds. But +it is among the butterflies and moths that insect æstheticism has +produced its greatest artistic triumphs; for here the beautiful +eye-spots and delicate markings on the expanded wing-membranes are +almost certainly due to sexual selection. + +The higher animals display like evidence of the same slow selective +action. The courtship of the stickleback, who dances 'mad with delight' +around the mate he has allured into the nest he prepares for her, has +been observed by dozens of observers both before and since in the +domestic aquarium. The gem-like colours of the male dragonet, the +butterfly wings of certain gurnards, and the decorated tails of some +exotic carps all point in the same direction. Our own larger newt is +adorned during the breeding season with a serrated crest edged with +orange; while in the smaller kind the colours of the body acquire at the +same critical period of love-making a vivid brilliancy. The strange +horns and luridly coloured throat-pouches of tropical lizards are +familiar to all visitors in equatorial climates, and they are confined +exclusively to the male sex. Among birds, the superior beauty of the +male plumage is known to everybody; and their greatest glory invariably +coincides with the special season for the selection of mates. In the +spring, as even our poets have told us, the wanton lapwing gets himself +another crest. The law of battle produces the spur of the game-birds and +the still stranger wing-spurs of certain species of the plover kind. +Æsthetic rivalry is answerable rather for vocal music, and for the +plumage of the umbrella-bird, the lyre-bird, the humming-birds, and the +cock of the rocks. Among mammals, strength rather than beauty seems to +have carried the day; horns, and tusks, and spikes, and antlers are here +the special guerdon of the victorious males. Yet even mammals show +occasional signs of distinctly æsthetic and artistic preferences, as in +the gracefully twisted horns of the koodoo, the scent-glands of the +musk-deer or of certain antelopes, the brilliant hues of the male +mandrill, and the tufts and moustaches of so many monkeys. + +It must be frankly conceded that the reception accorded to Darwin's +doctrine of sexual selection, even among the biological public, was far +less unanimous, enthusiastic, and full than that which had been granted +to his more extensive theory of survival of the fittest. Many eminent +naturalists declined from the very outset to accept the conclusions thus +definitely set before them, and others who at first seemed disposed to +bow to the immense weight of Darwin's supreme authority gradually +withdrew their grudging assent from the new doctrine, as they found +their relapse backed up by others, and refused to believe that the +theory of courtship had been fairly proven before the final tribunal of +science. Several critics began by objecting that the whole theory was a +mere afterthought. Darwin, they said, finding that natural selection +did not suffice by itself to explain all the details of structure in +man, had invented sexual selection as a supplementary principle to help +it over the hard places. Those who wrote and spoke in this thoughtless +fashion could have had but a very inadequate idea of Darwin's close +experimental methods of enquiry. As a matter of fact, indeed, they were +entirely wrong; the doctrine of sexual selection itself, already faintly +foreshadowed by Erasmus Darwin in the 'Zoonomia,' had been distinctly +developed in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' with at least +as much provisional elaboration as any other equally important factor in +the biological drama as set forth in that confessedly introductory work. +Nay, Haeckel had caught gladly at the luminous conception there +expressed, even before the appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' and had +worked it out in his 'Generelle Morphologie,' with great insight, to its +legitimate conclusions in many directions. Indeed, the sole reason why +so much space was devoted to the subject in Darwin's work on human +development was simply because there for the first time an opportunity +arose of utilising his vast store of collected information on this +single aspect of the evolutionary process. It was no afterthought, but a +necessary and inevitable component element of the fully-developed +evolutionary concept. + +Still, it cannot be denied that naturalists generally did not accept +with effusion the new clause in the evolutionary creed. Many of them +hesitated; a few acquiesced; the majority more or less openly dissented. +But Darwin's belief remained firm as a rock. 'I am glad you defend +sexual selection,' he wrote a few years later in a private letter; 'I +have no fear about its ultimate fate, though it is now at a discount;' +and in the preface to the second edition of the 'Descent of Man,' he +remarks acutely, 'I have been struck with the likeness of many of the +half-favourable criticisms on sexual selection with those which appeared +at first on natural selection; such as that it would explain some few +details, but certainly was not applicable to the extent to which I have +employed it. My conviction of the power of sexual selection remains +unshaken.... When naturalists have become familiar with the idea, it +will, as I believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has already +been fully and favourably received by several capable judges.' + +In spite of the still continued demurrer of not a few among the leading +evolutionists, it is probable, I think, that Darwin's prophecy on this +matter will yet be justified by the verdict of time. For the opposition +to the doctrine of sexual selection proceeds almost invariably, as it +seems to me, from those persons who still desire to erect an efficient +barrier of one sort or another between the human and animal worlds; +while on the contrary the theory in question is almost if not quite +universally accepted by just those rigorously evolutionary biologists +who are freest from preconceptions or special _a priori_ teleological +objections of any kind whatever. The half of the doctrine which deals +with the law of battle, indeed, can hardly be doubted by any competent +naturalist; the other half, which deals with the supposed æsthetic +preferences of the females, is, no doubt, distasteful to certain +thinkers because it seems to imply the existence in the lower animals of +a sense of beauty which many among us are not even now prepared +generously to admit. The desire to arrogate to mankind alone all the +higher faculties either of sense or intellect has probably much to do +with the current disinclination towards the Darwinian idea of sexual +selection. Thinkers who allow themselves to be emotionally swayed by +such extraneous considerations forget that the beautiful is merely that +which pleases; that beauty has no external objective existence; and that +the range of taste, both among ourselves and among animals at large, is +practically infinite. The greatest blow ever aimed at the Darwinian +theory of sexual selection was undoubtedly that dealt out by Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace (et tu, Brute!) in his able and subtle article on the +Colours of Animals in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' since reprinted in his +delightful work on 'Tropical Nature.' Wallace there urges with his usual +acuteness, ingenuity, and skill several fundamental objections to the +Darwinian hypothesis of no little importance and weight. But it must +always be remembered (with all due respect to the joint discoverer of +natural selection) that Mr. Wallace himself, after publishing his own +admirable essay on the development of man, drew back aghast in the end +from the full consequences of his own admission, and uttered his partial +recantation in the singular words, 'Natural selection could only have +endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape.' It +seems probable that in every case an analogous desire to erect a firm +barrier between man and brute by positing the faculty for perceiving +beauty as a special quasi-divine differentia of the human race has been +at the bottom of the still faintly surviving dislike amongst a section +of scientific men to sexual selection. Nevertheless, a candid and +impartial critic would be compelled frankly to admit that Darwin's +admirable theory of courtship has not on the whole proved so generally +acceptable to the biological world up to the present time as his greater +and far more comprehensive theory of survival of the fittest. It still +waits for its final recognition, towards which it is progressing more +rapidly and surely every day it lives. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +VICTORY AND REST. + + +The last eleven years of Darwin's life were spent in enforcing and +developing the principles already reached, and in enjoying the almost +unchequered progress of the revolution he had so unconsciously to +himself succeeded in inaugurating. + +Only one year elapsed between the publication of the 'Descent of Man' +and that of its next important successor, the 'Expression of the +Emotions.' The occasion of this learned and bulky treatise in itself +stands as an immortal proof of the conscientious way in which Darwin +went to work to anticipate the slightest and most comparatively +impertinent possible objections to his main theories. Sir Charles Bell, +in one of the quaintly antiquated Bridgwater treatises--those marvellous +monuments of sadly misplaced teleological ingenuity--had maintained that +man was endowed with sundry small facial muscles solely for the sake of +expressing his emotions. This view was so obviously opposed to the +belief in the descent of man from some lower form, 'that,' says Darwin, +'it was necessary for me to consider it;' and so he did, in a lengthy +work, where the whole subject is exhaustively treated, and Bell's idea +is completely pulverised by the apt allegation of analogous expressions +in the animal world. In his old age Darwin grew, in fact, only the more +ceaselessly and wonderfully industrious. In 1875, after three years of +comparative silence, came the 'Insectivorous Plants,' a work full of +minute observation on the habits and manners of the sundew, the +butterwort, the Venus's fly-catcher, and the various heterogeneous +bog-haunting species known by the common name of pitcher plants. The +bare mass and weight of the facts which Darwin had collected for the +'Origin of Species' might well-nigh have stifled the very existence of +that marvellous book: it was lucky that the premature publication of +Wallace's paper compelled him to hurry on his 'brief abstract,' for if +he had waited to select and arrange the whole series of observations +that he finally published in his various later justificatory volumes, we +might have looked in vain for the great systematic and organising work, +which would no doubt have been 'surcharged with its own weight, and +strangled with its waste fertility.' But the task that he himself best +loved was to watch in minute detail the principles whose secret he had +penetrated, and whose reserve he had broken, working themselves out +before his very eyes, naked and not ashamed--to catch Actæon-like the +undraped form of nature herself in the actual process of her inmost +being. He could patiently observe the red and slimy hair-glands of the +drosera closing slowly and remorselessly round the insect prey, and +sucking from their bodies with sensitive tentacles the protoplasmic +juices denied to its leaves by the poor and boggy soil, on which alone +its scanty rootlets can properly thrive. He could watch the butterwort +curving round the edges of its wan green foliage upon the captured limbs +of fly or aphis. He could note how the serried mass of finger-like +processes in the utricles of the bladderwort slowly absorb organic +matter from the larva of a gnat, or the minute water-insects entangled +within its living and almost animated lobster-pot. He could track the +long line of treacherous honey-glands by which the sarracenia entices +flies into the festering manure-wells of its sticky pitchers. The +minuteness and skill of all his observations on these lesser problems of +natural selection inevitably inspired faith among outsiders in the +cautious judgment of the observer and experimenter; and day by day +throughout his later years the evidence of the popular acceptance of his +doctrine, and of the dying away of the general ridicule with which it +was first received by the unlearned public, was very gratifying to the +great naturalist. + +A year later, in 1876, came the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation +in the Vegetable Kingdom.' So far as regarded the world of plants, +especially with respect to its higher divisions, this work was of +immense theoretical importance; and it also cast a wonderful side-light +upon the nature of that strange distinction of sex which occurs both in +the vegetable and animal kingdom, and in each is the concomitant--one +might almost say the necessary concomitant--of high development and +complex organisation. The great result attained by Darwin in his long +and toilsome series of experiments on this interesting subject was the +splendid proof of the law that cross-fertilisation produces finer and +healthier offspring, while continuous self-fertilisation tends in the +long run to degradation, degeneration, and final extinction. + +Here as elsewhere, however, Darwin's principle does not spring +spontaneous, like Athene from the head of Zeus, a goddess full-formed, +uncaused, inexplicable: it arises gradually by a slow process of +development and modification from the previous investigations of earlier +biologists. At the close of the last century, in the terrible year of +upheaval 1793, a quiet German botanist, Christian Konrad Sprengel by +name, published at Berlin his long unheeded but intensely interesting +work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers.' In the summer of 1789, while all +Europe was ablaze with the news that the Bastille had been stormed, and +a new era of humanity begun, the calm and peaceful Pomeranian observer +was noting in his own garden the curious fact that many flowers are +incapable of being fertilised without the assistance of flying insects, +which carry pollen from the stamens of one blossom to the sensitive +surface or ovary of the next. Hence he concluded that the secretion of +honey or nectar in flowers, the contrivances by which it is protected +from rain, the bright hues or lines of the corolla, and the sweet +perfume distilled by the blossoms, are all so many cunning devices of +nature to ensure fertilisation by the insect-visitors. Moreover, +Sprengel observed that many flowers are of one sex only, and that in +several others the sexes do not mature simultaneously; 'so that,' said +he, 'nature seems to intend that no flower shall be fertilised by means +of its own pollen.' Indeed, in some instances, as he showed by +experiments upon the yellow day lily, plants impregnated from their own +stamens cannot be made to set seed at all. 'So near,' says his able +successor, Hermann Müller, 'was Sprengel to the distinct recognition of +the fact that self-fertilisation leads to worse results than +cross-fertilisation, and that all the arrangements which favour +insect-visits are of value to the plant itself, simply because the +insect-visitors effect cross-fertilisation!' As in most other +anticipatory cases, however, it must be here remarked that Sprengel's +idea was wholly teleological: he conceived of nature as animated by a +direct informing principle, which deliberately aimed at a particular +result; whereas Darwin rather came to the conclusion that +cross-fertilisation as a matter of fact does actually produce beneficial +results, and that therefore those plants which varied most in the +direction of arrangements for favouring insect-visits were likely to be +exceptionally fortunate in the struggle for existence against +competitors otherwise arranged. It is just the usual Darwinian +substitution of an efficient for a final cause. + +Even before Sprengel, Kölreuter had recognised, in 1761, that +self-fertilisation was avoided in nature; and his observations and +experiments on intercrossing and on hybridism were largely relied upon +by Darwin himself, to whom they suggested at an early period many +fruitful lines of original investigation. In 1799, again, Andrew Knight, +following up the same line of thought in England as Sprengel in Germany, +declared as the result of his close experiments upon the garden pea, +that no plant ever fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. +But Knight's law, not being brought into causal connection with any +great fundamental principle of nature, was almost entirely overlooked by +the scientific world until the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of +Species,' half a century later. The same neglect also overtook +Sprengel's immensely interesting and curious work on fertilisation of +flowers. The world, in fact, was not yet ready for the separate +treatment of functional problems connected with the interrelations of +organic beings; so Knight and Sprengel were laid aside unnoticed on the +dusty top bookshelves of public libraries, while the dry classificatory +and systematic biology of the moment had it ail its own way for the time +being on the centre reading-tables. So many separate and independent +strands of thought does it ultimately require to make up the grand final +generalisation which the outer world attributes in its totality to the +one supreme organising intelligence. + +But in the 'Origin of Species' itself Darwin reiterated and emphasised +Knight's law as a general and all-pervading principle of nature, placing +it at the same time on broader and surer biological foundations by +affiliating it intimately upon his own great illuminating and unifying +doctrine of natural selection. He also soon after rescued from oblivion +Sprengel's curious and fairy-like book, showing in full detail in his +work on orchids the wonderful contrivances by which flowers seek to +attract and to secure the assistance of insects for the impregnation of +their embryo seeds. In the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication,' he further showed that breeding in-and-in diminishes the +strength and productiveness of the offspring; while crossing with +another stock produces, on the contrary, the best possible physical +results in both directions. And now at last, in the 'Effects of Cross +and Self fertilisation,' he proved by careful and frequently repeated +experiments that a constant infusion of fresh blood (so to speak) is +essential to the production of the healthiest offspring. In the words of +his own emphatic summing up, 'Nature abhors perpetual +self-fertilisation.' + +The immediate result of these new statements and this fresh rationale of +Knight's law was to bring down Sprengel forthwith from the top shelf, +where he had languished ingloriously for seventy years, and to set a +whole school of ardent botanical observers working hard in the lines he +had laid down upon the mutual correlations of insects and flowers. A +vast literature sprang up at once upon this enchanting and +long-neglected subject, the most eminent workers in the rediscovered +field being Delpino in Italy, Hildebrand and Hermann Müller in Germany, +Axel in Sweden, Lubbock in England, and Fritz Müller in tropical South +America. Darwin found the question, in fact, almost taken out of his +hands before he had time himself to treat of it; for Hildebrand's chief +work was published as early as 1867, while Axel's appeared in 1869, both +of them several years earlier than Darwin's own final essay on the +subject in the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation.' No statement, +perhaps, could more clearly mark the enormous impetus given to +researches in this direction than the fact that D'Arcy Thompson, in his +appendix to Müller's splendid work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers,' +has collected a list of no less than eight hundred and fourteen separate +works or important papers bearing on that special department of botany, +almost all of them subsequent in date to the first publication of the +'Origin of Species.' So widely did the Darwinian wave extend, and so +profoundly did it affect every minute point of biological and +psychological investigation. + +Each of these later works of Darwin's consists, as a rule, of an +expansion of some single chapter or paragraph in the 'Origin of +Species;' or, to speak more correctly, of an arrangement of the +materials collected and the experiments designed for that particular +portion of the great projected encyclopædia of evolutionism, of which +the 'Origin of Species' itself was but a brief anticipatory summary or +rough outline. Thus, the book on Orchids, published in 1862, is already +foreshadowed in a part of the chapter on the Difficulties of the Theory +of Natural Selection; the 'Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants' +(1865) is briefly summarised by anticipation in the long section on +Modes of Transition; the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication' (1868) consists of the vast array of _pièces +justificatives_ for the first chapter of the 'Origin of Species;' and +the germ of the 'Cross and Self Fertilisation' (1876) is to be seen in +the passage 'On the Intercrossing of Individuals' in Chapter IV. of the +same work. It was well indeed that Darwin began by publishing the +shorter and more manageable abstract; the half, as the wise Greek +proverb shrewdly remarks, is often more than the whole; and a world that +eagerly devoured the first great deliverance of the Darwinian principle, +might have stood aghast had it been asked to swallow it piecemeal in +such gigantic treatises as those with which its author afterwards sought +thrice to vanquish all his foes and thrice to slay the slain. + +Yet, with each fresh manifestation of Darwin's inexhaustible resources, +on the other hand, the opposition to his principles grew feebler and +feebler, and the universality of their acceptance more and more +pronounced, till at last, among biologists at least, not to be a +Darwinian was equivalent to being hopelessly left behind by the general +onward movement of the time. In 1874 Tyndall delivered his famous +address at the Belfast meeting of the British Association; and in 1877, +from the same presidential chair at Plymouth, Allen Thomson, long +reputed a doubtful waverer, enforced his cordial adhesion to the +Darwinian principles by his inaugural discourse on 'The Development of +the Forms of Animal Life.' A new generation of active workers, trained +up from the first in the evolutionary school, like Romanes, Ray +Lankester, Thistleton Dyer, Balfour, Sully, and Moggridge, had now risen +gradually around the great master; and in every direction he could see +the seed he had himself planted being watered and nourished in fresh +soil by a hundred ardent and enthusiastic young disciples. Even in +France, ever irresponsive to the touch of new ideas of alien origin, +Colonel Moulinié's admirable and sympathetic translations were beginning +to win over to the evolutionary creed many rising workers; while in +Germany, Victor Carus's excellent versions had from the very first +brought in the enthusiastic Teutonic biologists with a congenial +'swarmery' to the camp of the Darwinians. Correspondents from every part +of the world kept pressing fresh facts and fresh applications upon the +founder of the faith; and Darwin saw his own work so fast being taken +out of his hands by specialist disciples that he abandoned entirely his +original intention of publishing in detail the basis of his first book, +and contented himself instead with tracing out minutely some minor +portions of his contemplated task as specimens of evolutionary method. + +In 1877, in pursuance of this changed purpose, Darwin published his book +on 'Forms of Flowers,' in which he dealt closely with the old problem of +differently shaped blossoms on plants of the same species. It had long +been known, to take a single example, that primroses existed in two +forms, the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, of which the former has the +pin-like summit of the pistil at the top of the tube, and the stamens +concealed half way down its throat; while in the latter these relative +positions are exactly reversed, the stamens answering in place to the +pistil of the alternative form with geometrical accuracy. As early as +1862 Darwin had shown, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' that +this curious arrangement owed its development to the greater security +which it afforded for cross-fertilisation, because in this way each +flower had to be impregnated with the pollen, from a totally distinct +blossom, growing on a different individual plant. In a series of +successive papers read before the same Society in the years between 1863 +and 1868, he had extended a similar course of explanation to the +multiform flowers of the flaxes, the loosestrifes, the featherfoil, the +auricula, the buckbean, and several other well-known plants. At last, in +1877, he gathered together into one of the now familiar green-covered +volumes the whole of his observations on this strange peculiarity, and +proved by abundant illustration and experiment that the diversity of +form is always due through natural selection to the advantage gained by +perfect security of cross-fertilisation, resulting as it invariably does +in the production of the finest, strongest, and most successful +seedlings. Any variation, however peculiar, which helps to ensure this +constant infusion of fresh blood is certain to be favoured in the +struggle for life, owing to the superior vitality of the stock it +begets. But it is worthy of notice, as showing the extreme minuteness +and exhaustiveness of Darwin's method on the small scale, side by side +with his extraordinary and unusual power of rising to the very highest +and grandest generalisations, that the volume which he devoted to the +elucidation of this minor factor in the question of hereditary +advantages runs to nearly as many pages as the last edition of the +'Origin of Species' itself. So great was the wealth of observation and +experiment which he could lavish upon the solution of a single, small, +incidental problem. + +Even fuller in minute original research was the work which Darwin +published in 1880, on 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' detailing the +result of innumerable observations on the seemingly irresponsible yet +almost purposive rotations of the growing rootlets and young stems of +peas and climbers. Anyone who wishes to see on what a wide foundation of +irrefragable fact the great biologist built up the stately fabric of his +vast theories cannot do better than turn for instruction to this +remarkable volume, which the old naturalist gave to the world some time +after passing the allotted span of threescore years and ten. + +It was in the same year (1880) that Huxley delivered at the Royal +Institution his famous address on the Coming of Age of the 'Origin of +Species.' The time was a favourable one for reviewing the silent and +almost unobserved progress of a great revolution. Twenty-one years had +come and gone since the father of modern scientific evolutionism had +launched upon the world his tentative work. In those twenty-one years +the thought of humanity had been twisted around as upon some invisible +pivot, and a new heaven and a new earth had been presented to the eyes +of seers and thinkers. One-and-twenty years before, despite the +influence of Hutton and of Lyell, the dominant view of the earth's past +history revealed but one vast and lawless succession of hideous +catastrophes. Wholesale creations and wholesale extinctions, world-wide +cataclysms followed by fresh world-wide births of interwoven faunas and +floras--these, said Huxley, were the ordinary machinery of the +geological epic brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of the +mighty Cuvier. One-and-twenty years after, the opponents themselves had +given up the game in its fullest form as lost beyond the hope of +possible restitution. Some hesitating thinkers, it is true, while +accepting the evolutionary doctrine more or less in its earlier form, +like Mivart and Meehan, yet refused their assent on one ground or +another to the specific Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Others, +like Wallace, made a special exception with regard to the development of +the human species, which they supposed to be due to other causes from +those implied in the remainder of the organic scale. Yet on the whole, +biological science had fairly carried the day in favour of evolution, in +one form or another, and not even the cavillers dared now to suggest +that whole systems of creation had been swept away _en bloc_, and remade +again in different forms for a succeeding epoch, in accordance with the +belief which was almost universal among geologists up to the exact +moment of the publication of Darwin's masterpiece. + +During the twenty-one years, too, as Huxley likewise pointed out, an +immense number of new facts had come to strengthen the hands of the +evolutionists at the very point where they had before felt themselves +most openly vulnerable. Palæontology had supplied many of those missing +links in the organic chain whose absence from the interrupted and +imperfect geological record had been loudly alleged against the +Darwinian hypothesis in the earlier days of struggle and hesitation. Two +years after the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' the discovery of +a winged and feathered creature, happily preserved for us in the +Solenhofen slates, with lizard-like head and teeth and tail, and +bird-like pinions, feet, and breast, had bridged over in part the great +gap that yawns between the existing birds and reptiles. A few years +later, new fossil reptilian forms, erect on their hind legs like +kangaroos, and with very singular peculiarities of bony structure, had +helped still further to show the nature of the modifications by which +the scale-bearing quadruped type passed slowly into that of the +feather-bearing biped. In 1875, again, Professor Marsh's discovery of +the toothed birds in the American cretaceous strata completed the +illustrative series of transitional forms over what had once been the +most remarkable existing break in the continuity of organic development. +Similarly, Hofmeister's investigations in the vegetable world brought +close together the flowering and flowerless plants, by indicating that +the ferns and the horsetails were connected in curious unforeseen ways, +through the pill-worts and club-mosses, with the earliest and simplest +of forest trees, the firs and the puzzle-monkeys. In minor matters like +progress was continually reported on every side. Gaudry found among the +fossils of Attica the successive stages by which the ancient and +undeveloped civets passed into the more modern and specialised tribe of +the hyænas; Marsh traced out in Western America the ancestry of the +horse from a five-toed creature no bigger than a fox, through +intermediate four-toed and three-toed forms, to the existing single +solid-hoofed type with its digits reduced to the minimum of unity; and +Filhol unearthed among the phosphorites of Quercy the common progenitor +of the most distinct among the recent carnivores, the cats and the dogs, +the plantigrade bears and the digitigrade pumas. 'So far as the animal +world is concerned,' Professor Huxley said in conclusion, reviewing +these additions to the evidence upon that memorable occasion, 'evolution +is no longer a speculation but a statement of historical fact.' Of +Darwin himself he remarked truly, 'He has lived long enough to outlast +detraction and opposition, and to see the stone that the builders +rejected become the head-stone of the corner.' + +It was in 1881 that Darwin published his last volume, 'The Formation of +Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.' In this singularly +fascinating and interesting monograph he took in hand one of the +lowliest and humblest of living forms, the common earthworm, and by an +exhaustive study of its habits and manners strove to show how the +entire existence of vegetable mould--the ordinary covering of fertile +soil upon the face of the earth--is due to the long but unobtrusive +action of these little-noticed and ever-active architects. By the acids +which they evolve, they appear to aid largely in the disintegration of +the stone beneath the surface; by their constant practice of eating +fallen leaves, which they drag down with them into their subterranean +burrows, they produce the fine castings of soft earth, so familiar to +everybody, and thus reinstate the coating of humus above the bare rock +as often as it is washed away again in the course of ordinary denudation +by the rain and the torrents. It is true that subsequent investigation +has shown the possibility of vegetable mould existing under certain +conditions without the intervention of worms to any marked extent; but, +as a whole, there can be little doubt that over most parts of the world +the presence of soil, and therefore of the vegetable growth rooted in +it, is entirely due to the unsuspected yet ceaseless activity of these +humble creatures. + +The germ of the earthworm theory appears to me to have been first +suggested to Darwin's mind by a passage in a work where one would little +have suspected it--White's 'Natural History of Selborne.' 'Earthworms,' +says the idyllic Hampshire naturalist, 'though in appearance a small and +despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a +lamentable chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some +quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to +be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely +without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and +rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing +straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up +such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being +their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably +provide new soils for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth +away; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. +Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former, +because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and +the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But +these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become +cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and, consequently, sterile.' + +If Darwin ever read this interesting passage, which he almost certainly +must at some time have done, it would appear that he had overlooked it +in later life; for he, who was habitually so candid and careful in the +acknowledgment of all his obligations, however great or however small, +does not make any mention of it at all in his 'Vegetable Mould,' though +he alludes incidentally to some other observations of Gilbert White's on +the minor habits and manners of earthworms. But whether Darwin was +originally indebted to White or not for the foundation of his theory on +the subject of mould, the important point to notice is really this, that +what with the observant parson of Selborne was but a casual glimpse, the +mere passing suggestion of a fruitful idea, became with Darwin, in his +wider fashion, a carefully elaborated and powerfully buttressed theory, +supported by long and patient investigation, ample experiment, and vast +collections of minute facts. The difference is strikingly characteristic +of the strong point of Darwin's genius. While he had all the breadth and +universality of the profoundest thinkers, he had also all the marvellous +and inexhaustible patience of the most precise and special microscopical +student. + +For years, indeed, Darwin studied the ways and instincts of the common +earthworm with the same close and accurate observation which he gave to +every other abstruse subject that engaged in any way his acute +intellect. The lawyer's maxim, 'De minimis lex non curat,' he used to +say, never truly applies to science. As early as the year 1837 he read a +paper, before the Geological Society of London, 'On the Formation of +Mould,' in which he developed with some fulness the mother idea of his +complete theory on the earthworm question. He there showed that layers +of cinders, marl, or ashes, which had been strewn thickly over the +surface of meadows, were found a few years after at a depth of some +inches beneath the turf, yet still forming in spite of their burial a +regular and fairly horizontal stratum. This apparent sinking of the +stones, he believed, was due to the quantity of fine earth brought up to +the surface by worms in the form of castings. It was objected to his +theory at the time that the work supposed to be accomplished by the +worms was out of all reasonable proportion to the size and numbers of +the alleged actors. Here Darwin's foot was on his native heath; he felt +himself immediately on solid ground again. The cumulative importance of +separately infinitesimal elements is indeed the very keynote and special +peculiarity of the great biologist's method of thinking. He had found +out in very truth that many a little makes a mickle, that the infinitely +small, infinitely repeated, may become in process of infinite years +infinitely important. So he set himself to work, with characteristic +contempt of time, to weigh and measure worms and worm-castings. + +He began by keeping tame earthworms in flower-pots in his own house, +counting the number of worms and burrows in certain measured spaces of +pasture or garden, and starting his long and slow experiment in his +field at Down already alluded to. He tried issues on their senses, on +their instincts, on their emotions, on their intelligence; he watched +them darting wildly like rabbits into their holes when alarmed from +without, overcoming engineering difficulties in dragging down +oddly-shaped or unfamiliar leaves, and protecting the open mouths of +their tunnels from intruders with a little defensive military glacis of +rounded pebbles. He found that more than 53,000 worms on an average +inhabit every acre of garden land, and that a single casting sometimes +weighs as much as three ounces avoirdupois. Ten tons of soil per acre +pass annually through their bodies, and mould is thrown up by them at an +average rate of 22 inches in a century. Careful observations on the +stones of Stonehenge; on the tiled floors of buried buildings; on Roman +ruins at Silchester and Wroxeter, and on his own meadows and pastures at +Down, finally enabled the cautious experimenter to prove conclusively +the truth of his thesis, and to present to the world the despised +earthworm in a new character, as the friend of man and of agriculture, +the producer and maintainer of the vegetable mould on our hills or +valleys, and the prime cause of the very existence of that cloak of +greensward that clothes our lawns, our fields, and our pleasure-grounds. + +It was his last work. Persistent ill-health and equally persistent study +for seventy-three years had broken down a constitution never really +strong, and consumed from within by the ceaseless fires of its own +overpowering and undying energy. On Tuesday, April the 18th, 1882, he +was seized at midnight by violent pains, and at four o'clock on +Wednesday afternoon he died suddenly in his son's arms, after a very +short but painful illness. So retired was the family life at Down that +the news of the great biologist's death was not actually known in London +itself till two days after he had breathed his last. + +The universal regret and grief expressed at the loss in all civilised +countries was the best measure of the immense change of front which had +slowly come over the whole educated community, in the twenty-three years +since the first publication of the 'Origin of Species.' No sooner was +Darwin's death announced than all lands and all classes vied with one +another in their eagerness to honour the name and memory of the great +biologist. Indeed, the spontaneous and immediate nature of the outburst +of regret and affectionate regard which followed hard upon the news of +Darwin's death, astonished even those who had watched closely the +extraordinary revolution the man himself had brought so well to its +final consummation. In England, it was felt instinctively on every side +that the great naturalist's proper place was in the aisles of +Westminster, hard by the tomb of Newton, his immortal predecessor. To +this universal and deep-seated feeling Darwin's family regretfully +sacrificed their own natural preference for a quiet interment in the +graveyard at Down. On the Wednesday morning next after his death, +Charles Darwin's remains were borne with unwonted marks, of respect and +ceremony, in the assembled presence of all that was noble and good in +Britain, to an honoured grave in the precincts of the great Abbey. +Wallace and Huxley, Lubbock and Hooker, his nearest peers in the domain +of pure science, stood among the bearers who held the pall. Lowell +represented the republics of America and of letters. Statesmen, and +poets, and philosophers, and theologians mingled with the throng of +scientific thinkers who crowded close around the venerated bier. No +incident of fitting pomp or dignity was wanting as the organ pealed out +in solemn strains the special anthem composed for the occasion, to the +appropriate words of the Hebrew poet, 'Happy is the man that findeth +wisdom.' Even the narrow Philistine intelligence itself, which still +knew Darwin only as the man who thought we were all descended from +monkeys, was impressed with the sole standard of greatness open to its +feeble and shallow comprehension by the mere solemnity and ceremony of +the occasion, and began to enquire with blind wonderment what this +thinker had done whom a whole people thus delighted to honour. + +Of Darwin's pure and exalted moral nature no Englishman of the present +generation can trust himself to speak with becoming moderation. His love +of truth, his singleness of heart, his sincerity, his earnestness, his +modesty, his candour, his absolute sinking of self and +selfishness--these, indeed, are all conspicuous to every reader, on the +very face of every word he ever printed. Like his works themselves, they +must long outlive him. But his sympathetic kindliness, his ready +generosity, the staunchness of his friendship, the width and depth and +breadth of his affections, the manner in which 'he bore with those who +blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return,' these things can +never so well be known to any other generation of men as to the three +generations who walked the world with him. Many even of those who did +not know him loved him like a father; to many who never saw his face, +the hope of winning Charles Darwin's approbation and regard was the +highest incentive to thought and action. Towards younger men, +especially, his unremitting kindness was always most noteworthy: he +spoke and wrote to them, not like one of the masters in Israel, but like +a fellow-worker and seeker after truth, interested in their interests, +pleased at their successes, sympathetic with their failures, gentle to +their mistakes. Not that he ever spared rightful criticism; on the +contrary, the love of truth was with him so overpowering and enthralling +a motive that he pointed out what seemed to him errors or misconceptions +in the work of others with perfect frankness, fully expecting them to be +as pleased and delighted at a suggested amendment of their faulty +writing as he himself was in his own case. But his praise was as +generous as his criticism was frank; and, amid all the toil of his +laborious life in his study at Down, he could always find time to read +and comment at full length upon whatever fresh contributions to his own +subjects the merest tyro might venture to submit for his consideration. +He had the sympathetic receptivity of all truly great minds, and when +he died, thousands upon thousands who had never beheld his serene +features and his fatherly eyes felt they had lost indeed a personal +friend. + +Greatness is not always joined with gentleness: in Charles Darwin's +case, by universal consent of all who knew him, 'an intellect which had +no superior' was wedded to 'a character even nobler than the +intellect.' + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT. + + +To most people Darwinism and evolution mean one and the same thing. +After what has here been said, however, with regard to the pre-Darwinian +evolutionary movement, and the distinction between the doctrines of +descent with modification and of natural selection, it need hardly be +added that the two are quite separate and separable in thought, even +within the limits of the purely restricted biological order. Darwinism +is only a part of organic evolution; the theory, as a whole, owes much +to Darwin, but it does not owe everything to him alone. There were +biological evolutionists before ever he published the 'Origin of +Species;' there are biological evolutionists even now who refuse to +accept the truth of his great discovery, and who cling firmly to the +primitive faith set forth in earlier and cruder shapes by Erasmus +Darwin, by Lamarck, or by Robert Chambers. + +Much more, then, must Darwinism and the entire theory of organic +development to which it belongs be carefully discriminated, as a part or +factor, from evolution at large, as a universal and all-embracing +cosmical system. That system itself has gradually emerged as a slow +growth of the past two centuries, a progressive development of the +collective scientific and philosophical mind of humanity, not due in its +totality to any one single commanding thinker, but summing itself up at +last in our own time more fully in the person and teaching of Mr. +Herbert Spencer than of any other solitary mouthpiece. Indeed, +intimately as we all now associate the name of Darwin with the word +'evolution,' that term itself (whose vogue is almost entirely due to Mr. +Spencer's influence) was one but rarely found upon Darwin's own lips, +and but rarely written by his own pen. He speaks rather of development +and of natural selection than of evolution: his own concern was more +with its special aspect as biological modification than with its general +aspect as cosmical unfolding. Let us ask, then, from this wider +standpoint of a great and far-reaching mental revolution, what was +Charles Darwin's exact niche in the evolutionary movement of the two +last centuries? + +Evolutionism, as now commonly understood, may be fairly regarded as a +mode of envisaging to ourselves the history of the universe, a tendency +or frame of mind, a temperament, one might almost say, or habit of +thought rather than a definite creed or body of dogmas. The evolutionist +looks out upon the cosmos as a continuous process unfolding itself in +regular order in obedience to definite natural laws. He sees in it all, +not a warring chaos restrained by the constant interference from without +of a wise and beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of +original elements, perpetually working out their own fresh +redistribution, in accordance with their own inherent energies. He +regards the cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material atoms, +animated by an almost infinite sum-total of energy, potential or +kinetic. + +In the very beginning, so far as the mental vision of the astronomer can +dimly pierce with hypothetical glance the abyss of ages, the matter +which now composes the material universe seems to have existed in a +highly diffuse and nebulous condition. The gravitative force, however, +with which every atom of the whole vast mass was primarily endowed, +caused it gradually to aggregate around certain fixed and definite +centres, which became in time the rallying-points or nuclei of future +suns. The primitive potential energy of separation in the atoms of the +mass was changed into actual energy of motion as they drew closer and +closer together about the common centre, and into molecular energy or +heat as they clashed with one another in bodily impact around the +hardening core. Thus arose stars and suns, composed of fiery atomic +clouds in a constant state of progressive concentration, ever +gathering-in the hem of their outer robes on the surface of the solid +globe within, and ever radiating off their store of associated energy to +the impalpable and hypothetical surrounding ether. This, in necessarily +brief and shadowy abstract, is the nebular theory of Kant and Laplace, +as amended and supplemented by the modern doctrine of the correlation +and conservation of energies. + +Applied to the solar system, of which our own planet forms a component +member, the evolutionary doctrine (in its elder shape) teaches us to +envisage that minor group as the final result of a single great diffuse +nebula, which once spread its faint and cloud-like mass with +inconceivable tenuity, at least as far from its centre, now occupied by +the sun's body, as the furthest point in the orbit of Neptune, the +outermost of the yet known planets. From this remote and immense +periphery it has gradually gathered itself in, growing denser and denser +all the time, towards its common core, and has left behind, at irregular +intervals, concentric rings or belts of nebulous matter, which, after +rupturing at their weakest point, have hardened and concentrated round +their own centre of gravity into Jupiter, Saturn, the Earth, or Venus. +The main central body of all, retreating ever within as it dropped in +its course the raw material of the planetary masses, has formed, at +last, the sun, the great ruler and luminary of our system. Much as this +primitive evolutionary concept of the development and history of the +solar system has been modified and altered of late years by recent +researches into the nature of comets and meteors and of the sun's +surface, it still remains for all practical purposes of popular +exposition the best and simplest mental picture of the general type of +astronomical evolution. For the essential point which it impresses upon +the mind is the idea of the planets in their several orbits and with +their attendant satellites as due, not to external design and special +creation, in the exact order in which we now see them, but to the slow +and regular working out of preordained physical laws, in accordance with +which they have each naturally assumed, by pure force of circumstances, +their existing size, and weight, and orbit, and position. + +Geology has applied a similar conception to the origin and becoming of +the earth's material and external features as we now know them. +Accepting from astronomy the notion of our planet's primary condition as +a cooling sphere of incandescent matter, it goes on to show how the two +great envelopes, atmospheric and oceanic, gaseous and liquid, have +gradually formed around its solid core; how the hard crust of the +central mass has been wrinkled and corrugated into mountain chain and +deep-cut valley, uplifted here into elevated table-land or there +depressed into hollow ocean bed; how sediment has slowly gathered on the +floor of the sea, and how volcanic energies or lateral pressure have +subsequently forced up the resulting deposits into Alpine peaks and +massive continents. In this direction, it was Lyell who principally +introduced into science the uniformitarian or evolutionary principle, +who substituted for the frequent cataclysms and fresh beginnings of the +earlier geologists the grand conception of continuous action, producing +from comparatively infinitesimal but cumulative causes effects which at +last attain by accretion the most colossal proportions. + +Here biology next steps in, with its splendid explanation of organic +life, as due essentially to the secondary action of radiated solar +energy on the outer crust of such a cooling and evolving planet. Falling +on the cells of the simplest green plants, the potent sunlight +dissociates the carbon from the oxygen in the carbonic acid floating in +the atmosphere, and builds it up with the hydrogen of water in the +tissues of the organism into starches and other organic products, which +differ from the inert substances around them, mainly by the possession +of locked-up solar energy. On the energy-yielding food-stuffs thus +stored up the animal in turn feeds and battens, reducing what was before +potential into actual motion, just as the steam-engine reduces the +latent solar energy of coal into visible heat and visible movement in +its furnace and its machinery. How the first organism came to exist +biology has not yet been able fully to explain for us; but aided by +chemical science it has been able to show us in part how some of the +simpler organic bodies may have been originally built up, and it does +not despair of showing us in the end how the earliest organism may +actually have been produced from the prime elements of oxygen, hydrogen, +nitrogen, and carbon. Into this most fundamental of biological problems, +however, Darwin himself, with his constitutional caution and dread of +speculative theorising, was not careful or curious to enter. Even upon +the far less abstruse and hypothetical question, whether all life took +its prime origin from a single starting-point or from several distinct +and separate tribal ancestors, he hardly cared so much as to hazard a +passing speculation. With splendid self-restraint he confined his +attention almost entirely to the more manageable and practical problem +of the origin of species by natural selection, which lay then and there +open for solution before him. Taking for granted the existence of the +original organism or group of organisms, the fact of reproduction, and +the tendency of such reproduction to beget increase in a geometrical +ratio, he deduced from these elementary given factors the necessary +corollary of survival of the fittest, with all its marvellous and +far-reaching implications of adaptation to the environment and specific +distinctions. By doing so, he rendered conceivable the mechanism of +evolution in the organic world, thus bringing another great aspect of +external nature within the range of the developmental as opposed to the +miraculous philosophy of the cosmos. + +Psychology, once more, in the hands of Herbert Spencer and his +followers, not wholly unaided by Darwin himself, has extended the +self-same evolutionary treatment to the involved and elusive phenomena +of mind, and has shown how from the simplest unorganised elements of +feeling, the various mental powers and faculties as we now know them, +both on the intellectual and on the emotional side, have been slowly +built up in the long and ever-varying interaction between the sentient +organism and the natural environment. It has traced the first faint +inception of a nervous system as a mere customary channel of +communication between part and part; the gradual growth of fibre and +ganglion; the vague beginnings of external sense-organ and internal +brain; the final perfection of eye and ear, of sight and hearing, of +pleasure and pain, of intellect and volition. It has thus done for the +subjective or mental half of our complex nature what biology, as +conceived by Darwin, has done for the physical or purely organic half; +it has traced the origin and development of mind, without a single +break, from its first faint and half-unconscious manifestation in the +polyp or the jelly-fish to its final grand and varied outcome in the +soul of the poet or the intellect of the philosopher. + +Finally, sociology has applied the evolutionary method to the origin and +rise of human societies, with their languages, customs, arts, and +institutions, their governmental organisation and their ecclesiastical +polity. Taking from biology the evolving savage, viewed as a developed +and highly gifted product of the anthropoid stock, it has shown by what +stages and through what causes he has slowly aggregated into tribes and +nations; has built up his communal, polygamic, or monogamic family; has +learnt the use of fire, of implements, of pottery, of metals; has +developed the whole resources of oral speech and significant gesture; +has invented writing, pictorial or alphabetic; has grown up to science, +to philosophy, to morals, and to religion. The chief honours of this +particular line of enquiry, the latest and youngest of all to receive +the impact of the evolutionary impulse, belong mainly to Tylor, Lubbock, +and Spencer in England, and to Haeckel, De Mortillet, and Wagner on the +continent. + +In the sublime conception of the external universe and its present +workings which we thus owe to the independent efforts of so many great +progressive thinkers, and which has here been briefly and inadequately +sketched out, Darwin's work in life falls naturally into its own place +as the principal contribution to the evolutionary movement in the +special biological department of thought. Within the more limited range +of that department itself, the evolutionary impulse did not owe its +origin to Charles Darwin personally; it took its rise with Erasmus +Darwin, Buffon, and Lamarck, and it derived from our great modern +English naturalist its final explanation and definitive proof alone. But +just as the evolutionary movement in astronomy and cosmical thought is +rightly associated in all our minds with the mighty theories of Kant, +Laplace, and Herschel; just as the evolutionary movement in geology is +rightly associated with the far lesser yet brilliant and effective +personality of Lyell; just as the evolutionary movement in the +derivative sciences is rightly associated with so many great still +living thinkers; so the evolutionary movement in biology in particular +rightly sums itself up in the honoured name of Charles Darwin. For what +others suspected, he was the first to prove; where others speculated, he +was the first to observe, to experiment, to demonstrate, and to +convince. + +It should be noted, too, that while to us who come after, the great +complex evolutionary movement of the two last centuries justly reveals +itself as one and indivisible, a single grand cosmical drama, having +many acts and many scenes, but all alike inspired by one informing and +pervading unity, yet to those whose half unconscious co-operation slowly +built it up by episodes, piecemeal, each act and each scene unrolled +itself separately as an end in itself, to be then and there attained and +proved, quite apart from the conception of its analytic value as a part +in a great harmonious natural poem of the constitution of things. Though +evolution appears to us now as a single grand continuous process, a +phase of the universe dependent upon a preponderating aggregation of +matter and dissipation of energy, yet to Kant and Laplace it was the +astronomical aspect alone that proved attractive, to Darwin it was the +biological aspect alone, and to many of the modern workers in the minor +fields it is the human and sociological aspect that almost monopolises +the whole wide mental horizon. No greater proof can be given of the +subjective distinctness of parts in what was objectively and +fundamentally a single broad psychological revolution of the human mind, +than the fact that Lyell himself, who more than any one man had +introduced the evolutionary conception into the treatment of geology, +should have stood out so long and fought so blindly against the +evolutionary conception in the organic world. Indeed, it was not until +the various scattered and many-coloured strands of evolutionary thought +had been gathered together and woven into one by the vast catholic and +synthetic intelligence of Herbert Spencer that the idea of evolution as +a whole, as a single continuous cosmical process, began to be +apprehended and gradually assimilated by the picked intelligences of the +several distinct scientific departments. + +Observe also that the evolutionary method has invaded each of the +concrete sciences in the exact order of their natural place in the +hierarchy of knowledge. It had been applied to astronomy by Kant and +Laplace before it was applied to geology by Lyell; it had been applied +to geology by Lyell before it was applied to biology by Darwin; it had +been applied to biology (in part, at least) by Lamarck and the Darwins +before it was applied to psychology by Spencer; and it is only at the +very end of all that it has been applied to sociology and the allied +branches of thought by a hundred different earnest workers in +contemporary Europe. Each stage helped on the next; each was dependent +only on those that went naturally before it, and aided in turn the +subsequent development of those that naturally came after it. + +Nevertheless, the popular instinct which regards Darwinism and evolution +as practically synonymous is to a large extent justified by the actual +facts of the psychological upheaval. Darwin's work forms on the whole +the central keystone of the evolutionary system, and deserves the honour +which has been thrust upon it of supporting by its own mass the entire +superstructure of the development theory. + +For, in the first place, Darwin had to deal with the science of life, +the science where the opposition to evolutionism was sure to be +strongest, and where the forces and tendencies in favour of obscurantism +were sure to gather in fullest force. Every other great onward step in +our knowledge of our own relation to the universe of which we form a +part had been compelled indeed to run the gauntlet, in its own time, of +ecclesiastical censure and of popular dislike. Those inveterate +prejudices of human ignorance which sedulously hide their genuine shape +under the guise of dogma masquerading as religion, had long since +brought to bear their baneful resources upon the discoveries of +Copernicus and the theories of Galileo, as blind, misleading, and +diabolical lights, opposed to the sure and certain warranty of Holy +Scripture. Newton, again, had in due time been blamed in that he boldly +substituted (as his critics declared) the bald and barren formula of +gravitation for the personal superintendence of a divine Providence. +Laplace had been accused of dethroning the deity from the centre and +governance of his celestial system. Around the early geologists the +battle of the six days of creation had raged fiercely for nearly half a +century. But all these varying modes of thought, though deemed heretical +enough in their own day, had touched, as it were, but the minor +ramparts and unimportant out-works of the great obscurantist dogmatic +strongholds: Darwinism, by openly attacking the inmost problems of life +and mind, had brought to bear its powerful artillery upon the very keep +and highest tower of the fortress itself. The belief that the various +stars, planets, and satellites had or had not been wisely created in +their existing positions, and with their present orbits, movements, and +relations accurately fore-measured, did not fundamentally affect, for +good or evil, the cherished dogmas of the ordinary multitude. But the +analogous belief in the distinct and separate creation of plants and +animals, and more especially of the human species, was far more closely +and intimately bound up with all the current religious conceptions. It +was at first supposed, not perhaps without some practical wisdom, that +to upset the primitive faith in the separate creation of living beings +was to loosen and imperil the very foundations of common morality and +revealed religion. The 'argument from design' had been immemorially +regarded as the principal buttress of orthodox thought. Theologians had +unwisely staked their all upon the teleological dogma, and could ill +afford to retire without a blow from that tenaciously defended bastion +of their main position. Hence the evolutionary concept had its hardest +fight to wage over the biological field; and when that field was once +fairly won, it had little more to fear from banded preconceptions and +established prejudices in any other portion of the wide territory it +claimed for its own. + +In the second place, biological evolution, firmly established by Darwin +on a safe, certain, and unimpeachable basis, led naturally and almost +inevitably to all the other innumerable applications of the +evolutionary method, in the domains of psychology, sociology, philology, +political thought, and ethical science. Hence the immediate and visible +results of its promulgation have been far more striking, noticeable, and +evident than those which followed the establishment of the evolutionary +conception in the astronomical and geological departments. It was +possible to accept cosmical evolution and solar evolution and planetary +evolution, without at the same time accepting evolution in the +restricted field of life and mind. But it was impossible to accept +evolution in biology without at the same time extending its application +to psychology, to the social organism, to language, to ethics, to all +the thousand and one varied interests of human life and human +development. Now, most people are little moved by speculations and +hypotheses as to the origin of the milky way or the belt of Orion; they +care very slightly for Jupiter's moons or Saturn's rings; they are +stolidly incurious as to the development of the earth's crust, or the +precise date of the cretaceous epoch; but they understand and begin to +be touched the moment you come to the practical questions of man's +origin, nature, and history. Darwinism compelled their attention by its +immediate connection with their own race; and the proof of this truth is +amply shown by the mere fact that out of all the immense variety of +Charles Darwin's theories and ideas, the solitary one which alone has +succeeded in attaching to itself the public interest and public ridicule +is the theory of man's ultimate descent from a monkey-like ancestor. +Popular instinct, here as elsewhere profoundly true at core in the midst +of all its superficial foolishness, has rightly hit upon the central +element in the Darwinian conception which more than any other has caused +its fruitful and wonderful expansion through every fertile field of +human enquiry. + +In short, it was Darwin's task in life to draw down evolution from +heaven to earth, and to bring within the scope of its luminous method +all that is most interesting to the uninstructed and unsophisticated +heart of the natural man. + +The application of the evolutionary principle to the world of life, +human or animal, thus presents itself as the chief philosophic and +scientific achievement of the nineteenth century. Throughout the whole +middle decades of the present age, the human mind in all its highest +embodiments was eagerly searching, groping, and enquiring after a +naturalistic explanation of the origin and progress of organic life. In +the vast scheme for the System of Synthetic Philosophy which Herbert +Spencer set forth as an anticipatory synopsis of his projected work, the +philosopher of development leapt at once from the First Principles of +evolution as a whole to the Principles of Biology, Psychology, and +Sociology, omitting all reference to the application of evolution to the +vast field of inorganic nature; and he did so on the distinctly stated +ground that its application to organic nature was then and there more +important and interesting. That suggestive expression of belief aptly +sums up the general attitude of scientific and philosophic minds at the +precise moment of the advent of Darwinism. Kant and Laplace and Lyell +had already applied the evolutionary method to suns and systems, to +planets and continents; what was needed next was that some deeply +learned and universally equipped biological leader should help the lame +evolutionism of Lamarck over the organic stile, and leave it free to +roam the boundless fields of what Mr. Spencer has sometimes well +described as the super-organic sciences. For that office, Darwin at the +exact moment presented himself; and his victory and its results rightly +entitle him to the popular regard as the founder of all that most men +mean when they speak together in everyday conversation of the doctrine +of evolution. + +On the other hand, the total esoteric philosophic conception of +evolution as a cosmical process, one and continuous from nebula to man, +from star to soul, from atom to society, we owe rather to the other +great prophet of the evolutionary creed, Herbert Spencer, whose name +will ever be equally remembered side by side with his mighty peer's, in +a place of high collateral glory. It is he who has given us the general +definition of evolution as a progress from an indefinite, incoherent +homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, accompanying an +integration of matter and dissipation of motion, or, as we should now +perhaps more correctly say, of energy. In the establishment of the +various lines of thought which merge at last in that magnificent +cosmical law, it was Darwin's special task to bring the phenomena of +organic life well within the clear ken of known and invariable natural +processes. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE NET RESULT. + + +And now let us ask ourselves, in all sincerity, what was the final +outcome and net result of Darwin's great and useful life? + +If Charles Darwin had never existed at all, there would still have been +a considerable and expansive evolutionary movement both in biology and +in its sister sciences throughout the latter half of the present +century. The harvest indeed was ready, and the labourers, though few, +were full of vigour. Suppose for a moment that that earnest and +single-hearted Darwinian genius had been cut off by some untimely +disease of childhood at five years old, all other conditions remaining +as they were, we should even so have had in our midst to-day, a small +philosophical and influential band of evolutionary workers. Spencer +would none the less have given us his 'First Principles' and the major +part of his 'Principles of Biology,' with comparatively little +alteration or omission. Wallace would none the less have promulgated his +inchoate theory of natural selection, and rallied round his primordial +conception the very best and deepest minds of the biological fraction. +Geology would have enforced the continuity of types; Cope and Marsh +would have unearthed for our edification the ancestral forms of the +evolving horse and the toothed birds of the Western American deposits. +The Solenhofen lithographic slates would still have yielded us the +half-reptilian, half-avian Archæopteryx; the tertiary deposits would +still have presented us with a long suite of gradually specialised and +modified mammalian forms. The Siberian meadows would have sent us that +intermediate creature which Prjevalsky recognises as the half-way house +between the horses and the donkeys; the rivers of Queensland would have +disclosed to our view that strange lung-bearing and gill-breathing +barramunda, in which Günther discerns the missing link between the +ganoid fishes on the one hand, and the mudfish and salamandroid +amphibians on the other. From data such as these, biologists and +palæontologists of the calibre of Huxley, Gaudry, Geikie, Rütimeyer, and +Busk, would necessarily have derived, by the aid of Wallace's pregnant +principle, conclusions not so very far remote from Darwin's own. Heer +and Saporta would have drawn somewhat similar inferences from the fossil +flora of Switzerland and of Greenland; Hooker and De Candolle would have +read pretty much the self-same lessons in the scattered ferns and scanty +palm-trees of oceanic islands. Kowalevsky would have seen in the +ascidian larva a common prototype of the vertebrate series; the +followers of Von Baer would have popularised the embryological +conception of the single origin of animal life. The researches of +Boucher de Perthes, of Lyell, of Evans, of Boyd Dawkins, of Keller, and +of Christy and Lartet, would have unrolled before our eyes, under any +circumstances, the strange story of prehistoric man. On the facts so +gained, Lubbock and Tylor, Schaafhausen and Büchner, would have built up +their various consistent theories of human development and human +culture. In short, even without Charles Darwin, the nineteenth century +would not have stood still; it would have followed in the wake of Buffon +and Diderot, of Lamarck and Laplace, of St. Hilaire and Goethe, of Kant +and Herschel, of Hutton and Lyell, of Malthus and of Spencer. The great +world never rolls down the abysses of time obedient to the nod of one +single overruling Titanic intellect. 'If the doctrine of evolution had +not existed,' says Huxley, 'palæontologists must have invented it.' + +But Charles Darwin acted, nevertheless, the part of an immense and +powerful accelerating energy. The impetus which he gave gained us at +least fifty years of progress; it sent us at a bound from Copernicus to +Newton; so far as ordinary minds were concerned, indeed, it transcended +at a single leap the whole interval from Ptolemy to Herschel. The +comparison is far from being a mere rhetorical one. A close analogy +really exists between the two cases. Before Copernicus, the earth stood +fixed and immovable in the centre of the universe, with obsequious suns, +and planets, and satellites dancing attendance in cycle and epicycle +around the solid mass, to which by day and night they continually +ministered. The great astronomical revolution begun by Copernicus, +Galileo, and Kepler, and completed by Newton, Laplace, and Herschel, +reduced the earth to its true position as a petty planet, revolving +feebly among its bigger brethren round a petty sun, in some lost corner +of a vast, majestic, and almost illimitable galaxy. Even so, before +Darwin, man stood in his own esteem the fixed point of an +anthropocentric universe, divinely born and divinely instructed, with +all the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fruits of +the earth specially created with a definite purpose in subservience to +his lordly wants and interests. The great biological revolution, which +rightly almost sums itself up in the name of Darwin, reduced man at once +to his true position as the last product of kinetic solar energy, +working upon the peculiar chemical elements of an evolving planet. It +showed that every part of every plant and every animal existed primarily +for the sake of that plant or animal alone; it unseated man from his +imaginary throne in the centre of the cosmos, teaching him at once a +lesson of humility and a lesson of aspiration--pointing out to him how +low was the origin from which, in very truth, he first sprang, and +suggesting to him, at the same time, how high was the grand and glorious +destiny to which by his own strenuous and ardent efforts he might yet +perchance some day attain. + +That result, inevitable perhaps in the long run, from the slow unfolding +of human intelligence, was immensely hastened in our own time by the +peculiar idiosyncrasy and lofty personality of Charles Darwin. Without +him we should have had, not only evolutionism, but also, as Wallace's +discovery testifies, natural selection itself into the bargain. But we +should never have had the 'Origin of Species.' We should never have had +that vast and enthusiastic consensus of scientific opinion through an +all but unanimous thinking world, which has forced an immediate +acceptance of evolutionary ideas down the unwilling throats of half +unthinking Europe. The prodigious mass of Darwin's facts, the cautious +working of Darwin's intellect, the immense weight of Darwin's +reputation, the crushing force of Darwin's masterly inductive method, +bore down before them all opposition in the inner circle of biologists, +and secured the triumph of the evolutionary system even in the very +strongholds of ignorance and obscurantism. Without Darwin, a small group +of philosophic thinkers would still be striving to impress upon an +incredulous and somewhat contemptuous world the central truths of the +evolutionary doctrine. The opposition of the elders, long headed even in +the society we actually know by a few stern scientific recalcitrants, +like Owen and Agassiz, Pictet and Dawson, Virchow and Mivart, would have +fought desperately in the last trench for the final figment of the +fixity of species. What is now the general creed, more or less loosely +held and imperfectly understood, of hundreds and thousands among the +intelligent mass, would, under such circumstances, be even yet the mere +party-shibboleth of an esoteric few, struggling hard against the bare +force of overwhelming numbers to ensure not only recognition but a fair +hearing for the first principles of the development theory. It is to +Darwin, and to Darwin almost alone, that we owe the present +comparatively wide acceptance of the all-embracing doctrine of +evolution. + +No other man did so much or could have done so much to ensure its +triumph. He began early in life to collect and arrange a vast +encyclopædia of facts, all finally focussed with supreme skill upon the +great principle he so clearly perceived, and so lucidly expounded. He +brought to bear upon the question an amount of personal observation, of +minute experiment, of world-wide book-knowledge, of universal scientific +ability, such as never perhaps was lavished by any other man upon any +other department of study. His conspicuous and beautiful love of truth, +his unflinching candour, his transparent fearlessness and honesty of +purpose, his child-like simplicity, his modesty of demeanour, his +charming manner, his affectionate disposition, his kindliness to friends, +his courtesy to opponents, his gentleness to harsh and often bitter +assailants, kindled in the minds of men of science everywhere throughout +the world a contagious enthusiasm, only equalled perhaps among the +disciples of Socrates and the great teachers of the revival of learning. +His name became a rallying-point for the children of light in every +country; and what philosophers and speculators might have taken a +century or two more to establish in embryo was firmly grounded, never to +be overthrown, by the vast accumulations of fact and argument in the +'Origin of Species,' and its companion volumes. + +The end of that great Darwinian revolution the world has not yet seen: +in a sense, indeed, it will never see it. For the general acceptance of +Darwin's theory, which we may watch progressing around us every minute +to-day, implies a complete _bouleversement_ of anthropocentric ideas, a +total change in our human conception of our own relations to the world +and the universe, which must work out for ever increasingly +wide-reaching and complex effects in all our dealings with one another +and with the environment at large. There is no department of human +thought or human action which evolutionism leaves exactly where it +stood before the advent of the Darwinian conception. In nothing is this +fact more conspicuously seen than in the immediate obsolescence (if one +may so speak) of all the statical pre-Darwinian philosophies which +ignored development, as soon as ever the new progressive evolutionary +theories had fairly burst upon an astonished world. Dogmatic Comte was +left forthwith to his little band of devoted adherents; shadowy Hegel +was relegated with a bow to the cool shades of the common-rooms of +Oxford; Buckle was exploded like an inflated wind-bag; even Mill +himself--_magnum et venerabile nomen_--with all his mighty steam-hammer +force of logical directness, was felt instinctively to be lacking in +full appreciation of the dynamic and kinetic element in universal +nature. Spencer and Hartmann, Haeckel and Clifford, had the field to +themselves for the establishment of their essentially evolutionary +systems. Great thinkers of the elder generation, like Bain and Lyell, +felt bound to remodel their earlier conceptions by the light of the new +Darwinian hypotheses. Those who failed by congenital constitution to do +so, like Carlyle and Carpenter, were, philosophically speaking, left +hopelessly behind and utterly extinguished. Those who only half +succeeded in thus reading themselves into the new ideas, like Lewes and +Max Müller, lost ground immediately before the eager onslaught of their +younger competitors. 'The world is to the young,' says the eastern +proverb; and in a world peopled throughout in the high places of thought +by men almost without exception evolutionists, there was little or no +place for the timid group of stranded Girondins, who still stood aloof +in sullen antique scientific orthodoxy from what seemed to them the +carmagnoles and orgies of a biological Thermidor. + +At the same time, it must be steadily remembered that there are many +naturalists at the present day, especially among those of the lower +order of intelligence, who, while accepting evolutionism in a general +way, and therefore always describing themselves as Darwinians, do not +believe and often cannot even understand the distinctive Darwinian +addition to the evolutionary doctrine--namely, the principle of natural +selection. Such hazy and indistinct thinkers as these are still really +at the prior stage of Lamarckian evolutionism. It is probable that in +the future, while a formal acceptance of Darwinism becomes general, the +special theory of natural selection will be thoroughly understood and +assimilated only by the more abstract and philosophical minds. Our +children will be taught as a matter of course the doctrine of +development or of descent with modification; but the rationale of that +descent will still remain in all likelihood always beyond the grasp of +most of them: just as thousands accept on authority the Copernican +astronomy, who would never even be capable of comprehending the simplest +proofs of the earth's annual movement round the sun. Thus the name of +Darwin will often no doubt be tacked on to what are in reality the +principles of Lamarck. + +Every day, however, in spite of such half-ignorant adherents, the +effects of true Darwinism are widening and deepening. One group of +earnest workers is using it now as a guide to physiological, +embryological, and anatomical researches. Another is employing it with +zeal and skill in the field of classificatory and physiological botany. +Yet others are working out its psychological implications, enquiring +into instinct and animal intelligence, and solving by its aid abstruse +problems of the human mind and the human emotions. One philosopher has +brought it to bear on questions of ethics, another on questions of +social and political economy. Its principles have been applied in one +place to æsthetics, in another place to logic, in a third place to the +origin and growth of religion. The study of language has derived new +lights from the great central Darwinian luminary. The art of education +is beginning to feel the progressive influence of the Darwinian impulse. +In fact, there is hardly a single original worker in any department of +thought or science who has not been more or less profoundly affected, +whether he knows it or whether he knows it not, by the vast spreading +and circling wave of the Darwinian conceptions. All our ideas have been +revolutionised and evolutionised. The new notions are abroad in the +world, quickening with their fresh and vigorous germinal power the dry +bones of all the sciences, all the arts, and all the philosophies. + +And evolutionism is gradually though slowly filtering downward. It is +permeating the daily press of the nations, and gaining for its +vocabulary a recognised place in the phraseology of the unlearned +vulgar. Such expressions as 'natural selection,' 'survival of the +fittest,' 'struggle for existence,' 'adaptation to the environment,' and +all the rest of it, are becoming as household words upon the lips of +thousands who only know the name of Darwin as a butt for the petty empty +jibes of infinitesimal cheap witlings. And Darwinism will trickle down +still through a thousand channels, by definite popularisation, and still +more by indefinite absorption into the common thought of universal +humanity, till it becomes part and parcel of the general inheritance, +bred in our bone and burnt into our blood, an heir-loom of our race to +all time and in all countries. Great thoughts like his do not readily +die: they expand and grow in ten thousand bosoms, till they transform +the world at last into their own likeness, and adapt it to the +environment they have themselves created by their informing power. + +Happy above ordinary human happiness, Charles Darwin lived himself to +see the prosperous beginning of this great silent philosophical +revolution. Harvey's grand discovery, it has been well said, was scoffed +at for nearly a whole generation. Newton's marvellous law of gravitation +was coldly received even by the gigantic intellect of Leibnitz himself. +Francis Bacon, in disgrace and humiliation, could only commend his name +and memory 'to foreign nations and to the next age.' It is too often so +with thinkers of the first and highest order: it was not so, happily, +with the gentle soul of Charles Darwin. Alone among the prophets and +teachers of triumphant creeds, he saw with his own eyes the adoption of +the faith he had been the first to promulgate in all its fulness by +every fresh and powerful mind of the younger race that grew up around +him. The Nestor of evolutionism, he had lived among two successive +generations of thinkers, and over the third he ruled as king. With that +crowning joy of a great, a noble, and a happy life, let us leave him +here alone in his glory. + + + + +INDEX. + + + AGASSIZ + Anticipations of natural selection + 'Antiquity of Man' + Astronomy + + BADEN-POWELL + Bahia + Bates; in Brazil; on mimicry + 'Beagle,' voyage of the; Zoology of + Bell, Sir C. + Boucher de Perthes + Brazil + British Association + Buffon + + CHAMBERS, Robert; his 'Vestiges of Creation' + Colenso on the Pentateuch + 'Coral Reefs' + Cuvier; as a geologist; system of animals + + DARWIN, Charles, his ancestry; birth; birthplace; contemporaries; + education; at Edinburgh University; at Cambridge; starts on the + voyage of the 'Beagle'; returns to England; publishes his journal; + plans 'Origin of Species'; elected to Royal Society; secretary to + Geological Society; marries; publishes 'Coral Reefs'; geological + observations; Monograph on Barnacles; publishes 'Origin of Species'; + its success; second edition; variation of animals and plants; + pangenesis; fertilisation of orchids; 'Descent of Man'; later works; + last illness and death; character; place in evolutionary movement; + outcome of his work + + DARWIN, Erasmus; his life; appearance; poems; 'Zoonomia'; 'Temple + of Nature'; his marriages; on descent of man; on sexual selection + + Darwin, Erasmus, the younger + Darwin, Robert + Darwin, Robert Waring; his home + De Candolle + Down House, Darwin settles at + Du Chaillu + + EARTHWORMS + Edgeworth + Evolution, general theory of + + FILHOL + Fiske, Prof.; on natural selection + Fitzroy, Captain + Fuegians + + GALAPAGOS ISLANDS + Galton, Francis + Gaudry + Geology, rise of; evolutionary aspect of + Goethe; on animal origin of man + Gorilla + Gray, Asa + + HAECKEL, letter to; 'History of Creation'; on sexual selection + Henslow, Prof.; recommends Darwin to Capt. Fitzroy; at Oxford + Herbert, Dean + Herschel, Sir Wm. + Holland, Sir Henry + Hooker, Sir Joseph; on catasetum; accepts Darwinism; publishes his + 'Flora of Australia' + Horner, Leonard + Humboldt + Huxley, Prof., lecture at Royal Institution; 'Man's Place in + Nature'; on coming of age of 'Origin of Species' + + JUSSIEU + + KANT, nebular hypothesis + Knight's law + Kölreuter + + LAMARCK; Darwin's reading of; on descent of man + Laplace, nebular hypothesis + Lecoq + Linnæus; his artificial system + Lyell; 'Principles of Geology'; extract from letters; anticipations + of natural selection; slow acceptance of Darwinism; 'Antiquity of Man' + + MALTHUS; influence on Darwin + Matthew, Patrick; extracts from + Mimicry + Monte Video, Darwin at + Mould, formation of + Mount, the + Müller, Fritz + Müller, Hermann + Murchison + + 'NATURALIST on the Amazons' + 'Naturalist's Voyage round the World' published + Natural system + Nebular hypothesis + New Zealand, Darwin at + + OKEN + 'Origin of Species,' first planned projected; published; analysis of; + its success; second edition + Owen, Sir R.; on types + + PANGENESIS + 'Philosophie Zoologique' + Population, Malthus's essay on + Powell, Baden- + 'Physiological Units' + Psychology, evolution in + + RAFINESQUE + Rio Janeiro, Darwin at + + ST. HILAIRE, Geoffroy; the younger + St. Paul's Rocks + Sexual selection, first glimpse of; Darwin's theory of + Smith, William + Sociology + Spencer, Herbert; on 'Vestiges of Creation'; essay in the 'Leader'; + 'Principles of Psychology'; essay in 'Westminster Review'; extracts + from 'Leader' essay; accepts Darwin's theory; 'Principles of Biology'; + 'Physiological Units'; theory of evolution + Sprengel + + THOMPSON, Allen + Treviranus + Tucutuco + Tyndall, Prof. + + 'VESTIGES of Creation'; criticism of + Von Baer + Von Buch + + WALLACE, Alfred Russel; goes to Brazil; publishes his travels; in Malay + archipelago; discovers natural selection; paper at Linnean Society; on + sexual selection + Wedgwood, Emma + Wedgwood, Hensleigh + Wedgwood, Josiah + Wedgwood, Susannah + Wells, Dr., anticipates natural selection + White, Gilbert, on worms + Wollaston + Worms, action of + Wright, Chauncey + + 'ZOONOMIA,' Erasmus Darwin's + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 34730 *** diff --git a/34730-h/34730-h.htm b/34730-h/34730-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a49caa --- /dev/null +++ b/34730-h/34730-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5490 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Charles Darwin, by Grant Allen. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.content { + font-size: 0.8em; /* font-weight: bold; */ +} +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + color: #C0C0C0; + font-size: 0.8em; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 34730 ***</div> + +<h1>CHARLES DARWIN</h1><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>GRANT ALLEN</h2> + + +<h4>ENGLISH WORTHIES</h4> + +<h4>EDITED BY ANDREW LANG</h4> + + +<h5>LONDON</h5> + +<h5>LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</h5> + +<h5>1885</h5> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h3> + + +<p>In this little volume I have endeavoured to present the life and work of +Charles Darwin viewed as a moment in a great revolution, in due relation +both to those who went before and to those who come after him. +Recognising, as has been well said, that the wave makes the crest, not +the crest the wave, I have tried to let my hero fall naturally into his +proper place in a vast onward movement of the human intellect, of which +he was himself at once a splendid product and a moving cause of the +first importance. I have attempted to show him both as receiving the +torch from Lamarck and Malthus, and as passing it on with renewed +brilliancy to the wide school of evolutionary thinkers whom his work was +instrumental in arousing to fresh and vigorous activity along a thousand +separate and varied lines of thought and action.</p> + +<p>As Mr. Francis Darwin was already engaged upon a life of his father, I +should have shrunk from putting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> forth my own little book if I had not +succeeded in securing beforehand his kind sanction. That sanction, +however, was at once so frankly and cordially given, that all my +hesitation upon such a score was immediately laid aside; and as I have +necessarily had to deal rather with Darwin's position as a thinker and +worker than with the biographical details of his private life, I trust +the lesser book may not clash with the greater, but to some extent may +supplement and even illustrate it.</p> + +<p>Treating my subject mainly as a study in the interaction of organism and +environment, it has been necessary for me frequently to introduce the +names of living men of science side by side with some of those who have +more or less recently passed away from among us. For uniformity's sake, +as well as for brevity's, I have been compelled, in every instance +alike, to omit the customary conventional handles. I trust those who +thus find themselves docked of their usual titles of respect will kindly +remember that the practice is in fact adopted <i>honoris causâ</i>; they are +paying prematurely the usual penalty of intellectual greatness.</p> + +<p>My obligations to Professor Huxley, to Professor Fiske, to Mr. Herbert +Spencer, to Professor Sachs, to Hermann Müller, to Dr. Krause, to +Charles Darwin himself, and to many other historians and critics of +evolutionism, will be sufficiently obvious to all instructed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> readers, +and are for the most part fully acknowledged already in the text. It +would be absurd to overload so small and popularly written a book with +references and authorities. I hope, therefore, that any other writers to +whom I may inadvertently have neglected to confess my debts will kindly +rest satisfied with this general acknowledgment. There are, however, +three persons in particular from whom I have so largely borrowed facts +or ideas that I owe them more special and definite thanks. From Mr. +Woodall's admirable paper on Charles Darwin, contributed to the +'Transactions of the Shropshire Archæological Society,' I have taken +much interesting information about my hero's immediate ancestry and +early days. From Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of 'Evolution Old and +New,' I have derived many pregnant suggestions with regard to the true +position and meaning of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and the early +essentially teleological evolutionists—suggestions which I am all the +more anxious to acknowledge since I differ fundamentally from Mr. Butler +in his estimate of the worth of Charles Darwin's distinctive discovery +of natural selection. Finally, to Mr. Bates, the 'Naturalist on the +Amazons,' I am indebted for several valuable items of information as to +the general workings of the pre-Darwinian evolutionary spirit.</p> + +<p>In a book dealing so largely with a contemporary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> movement, the history +of which has never yet been consecutively written down in full, or +subjected as a whole to searching criticism, there must probably be many +errors of detail, which can hardly be avoided under such circumstances. +I have endeavoured to minimise them as far as possible. For those which +may have escaped my own scrutiny I must trust both for correction and +for indulgence to the kindness of my readers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="caption">CONTENTS</p> + + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a> THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a> CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a> EARLY DAYS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a> DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a> THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a> THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a> THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a> THE DESCENT OF MAN</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a> THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a> VICTORY AND REST</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a> DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a> THE NET RESULT</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHARLES_DARWIN" id="CHARLES_DARWIN"></a>CHARLES DARWIN.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h2>THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN.</h2> + + +<p>Charles Darwin was a great man, and he accomplished a great work. The +Newton of biology, he found the science of life a chaotic maze; he left +it an orderly system, with a definite plan and a recognisable meaning. +Great men are not accidents; great works are not accomplished in a +single day. Both are the product of adequate causes. The great man +springs from an ancestry competent to produce him; he is the final +flower and ultimate outcome of converging hereditary forces, that +culminate at last in the full production of his splendid and exceptional +personality. The great work which it is his mission to perform in the +world is never wholly of his own inception. It also is the last effect +of antecedent conditions, the slow result of tendencies and ideas long +working unseen or but little noticed beneath the surface of opinion, yet +all gradually conspiring together towards the definitive revolution at +whose head, in the fulness of time, the as yet unborn genius is destined +to place himself. This is especially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> the case with those extraordinary +waves of mental upheaval, one of which gave us the Italian renaissance, +and another of which is actually in progress around us at the present +day. They have their sources deep down in the past of human thought and +human feeling, and they are themselves but the final manifestation of +innumerable energies which have long been silently agitating the souls +of nations in their profoundest depths.</p> + +<p>Thus, every great man may be regarded as possessing two distinct lines +of ancestry, physical and spiritual, each of which separately demands +elucidation. He owes much in one way to his father and his mother, his +grandfathers and his grandmothers, and his remoter progenitors, from +some or all of whom he derives, in varying degrees and combinations, the +personal qualities whose special interaction constitutes his greatness +and his idiosyncrasy; he owes much in another way to his intellectual +and moral ancestors, the thinkers and workers who have preceded him in +his own department of thought or action, and have made possible in the +course of ages the final development of his special revolution or his +particular system. Viewed as an individual, he is what he is, with all +his powers and faculties and potentialities, in virtue of the brain, the +frame, the temperament, the energy he inherits directly from his actual +ancestors, paternal and maternal; viewed as a factor or element in a +great movement, he is what he is because the movement had succeeded in +reaching such and such a point in its progress already without him, and +waited only for such and such a grand and commanding personality in +order to carry it yet a step further on its course of development.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>No man who ever lived would more cordially have recognised these two +alternative aspects of the great worker's predetermining causes than +Charles Darwin. He knew well that the individual is the direct +cumulative product of his physical predecessors, and that he works and +is worked upon in innumerable ways by the particular environment into +whose midst he is born. Let us see, then, in his own case what were +these two main sets of conditioning circumstances which finally led up +to the joint production of Charles Darwin, the man and the philosopher, +the thinking brain and the moving energy. In other words, what was the +state of the science of life at the time when he first began to observe +and to speculate; and what was the ancestry which made him be born a +person capable of helping it forward at a single bound over its great +restricting dogmatic barrier of the fixity of species?</p> + +<p>Let us begin, in the first place, by clearing the path beforehand of a +popular misconception, so extremely general and almost universal that, +unless it be got rid of at the very outset of our sketch, much of the +real scope and purport of Darwin's life and work must, of necessity, +remain entirely misunderstood by the vast mass of English readers. In +the public mind Darwin is, perhaps, most commonly regarded as the +discoverer and founder of the evolution hypothesis. Two ideas are +usually associated with his name and memory. It is believed that he was +the first propounder of the theory which supposes all plant and animal +forms to be the result, not of special creation, but of slow +modification in pre-existent organisms. It is further and more +particularly believed that he was the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> propounder of the theory +which supposes the descent of man to be traceable from a remote and more +or less monkey-like ancestor. Now, as a matter of fact, Darwin was not +the prime originator of either of these two great cardinal ideas. Though +he held both as part of his organised theory of things, he was not by +any means the first or the earliest thinker to hold them or to propound +them publicly. Though he gained for them both a far wider and more +general acceptance than they had ever before popularly received, he laid +no sort of claim himself to originality or proprietorship in either +theory. The grand idea which he did really originate was not the idea of +'descent with modification,' but the idea of 'natural selection,' by +which agency, as he was the first to prove, definite kinds of plants and +animals have been slowly evolved from simpler forms, with definite +adaptations to the special circumstances by which they are surrounded. +In a word, it was the peculiar glory of Charles Darwin, not to have +suggested that all the variety of animal and vegetable life might have +been produced by slow modifications in one or more original types, but +to have shown the nature of the machinery by which such a result could +be actually attained in the practical working out of natural causes. He +did not invent the development theory, but he made it believable and +comprehensible. He was not, as most people falsely imagine, the Moses of +evolutionism, the prime mover in the biological revolution; he was the +Joshua who led the world of thinkers and workers into full fruition of +that promised land which earlier investigators had but dimly descried +from the Pisgah-top of conjectural speculation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>How far Darwin's special idea of natural selection supplemented and +rendered credible the earlier idea of descent with modification we shall +see more fully when we come to treat of the inception and growth of his +great epoch-making work, 'The Origin of Species;' for the present, it +must suffice to point out that in the world into which he was born, the +theory of evolution already existed in a more or less shadowy and +undeveloped shape. And since it was his task in life to raise this +theory from the rank of a mere plausible and happy guess to the rank of +a highly elaborate and almost universally accepted biological system, we +may pause awhile to consider on the threshold what was the actual state +of natural science at the moment when the great directing and organising +intelligence of Charles Darwin first appeared.</p> + +<p>From time immemorial, in modern Christendom at least, it had been the +general opinion of learned and simple alike that every species of plant +or animal owed its present form and its original existence to a distinct +act of special creation. This <i>naïf</i> belief, unsupported as it was by +any sort of internal evidence, was supposed to rest directly upon the +express authority of a few obscure statements in the Book of Genesis. +The Creator, it was held, had in the beginning formed each kind after a +particular pattern, had endowed it with special organs devised with +supreme wisdom for subserving special functions, and had bestowed upon +it the mystical power of reproducing its like in its own image to all +generations. No variation of importance ever occurred within the types +thus constituted; all plants and animals always retained their special +forms unaltered in any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> way from era to era. This is the doctrine of the +fixity and immutability of species, almost universal in the civilised +world up to the end of the last century.</p> + +<p>Improbable as such a crude idea now seems to any person even moderately +acquainted with the extraordinary variety and variability of living +forms, it nevertheless contained nothing at all likely to contradict the +ordinary experience of the everyday observer in the last century. The +handful of plants and animals with which he was personally acquainted +consisted for the most part of a few large, highly advanced, and +well-marked forms, not in the least liable to be mistaken for one +another even by the most hasty and casual spectator. A horse can +immediately be discriminated by the naked eye from a donkey, and a cow +from a sheep, without risk of error; nobody is likely to confuse wheat +with barley, or to hesitate between classing any given fruit that is +laid before him as a pear or an apple, a plum or a nectarine. +Variability seldom comes under the notice of the ordinary passing +spectator as it does under that of the prying and curious scientific +observer; and when it comes at all, as in the case of dogs and pigeons, +roses and hyacinths, it is no doubt set down carelessly on a superficial +view as a mere result of human selection or of deliberate mongrel +interbreeding. To the eye of the average man, all the living objects +ordinarily perceived in external nature fall at once under certain fixed +and recognisable kinds, as dogs and horses, elms and ashes, whose limits +he is never at all inclined to confound in any way one with the other.</p> + +<p>Linnæus, the great father of modern scientific<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> biology, had frankly and +perhaps unthinkingly accepted this current and almost universal dogma of +the fixity and immutability of species. Indeed, by defining a kind as a +group of plants or animals so closely resembling one another as to give +rise to the belief that they might all be descended from a single +ancestor or pair of ancestors, he implicitly gave the new sanction of +his weighty authority to the creation hypothesis, and to the prevalent +doctrine of the unchangeability of organic forms. To Linnæus, the +species into which he mapped out all the plants and animals then known, +appeared as the descendants each of a solitary progenitor or of a +primitive couple, called into existence at the beginning of all things +by the direct fiat of a designing Creator. He saw the world of organic +life as composed of so many well-demarcated types, each separate, +distinct, and immutable, each capable of producing its like <i>ad +infinitum</i>, and each unable to vary from its central standard in any of +its individuals, except perhaps within very narrow and unimportant +limits.</p> + +<p>But towards the close of the eighteenth century, side by side with the +general awakening of the human intellect and the arrival of a new era of +free social investigation, which culminated in a fresh order of things, +there was developed a more critical and sceptical attitude in the world +of science, which soon produced a notable change of front among thinking +naturalists as to the origin and meaning of specific distinctions.</p> + +<p>Buffon was the first great biological innovator who ventured, in very +doubtful and tentative language, to suggest the possibility of the rise +of species from one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> another by slow modification of ancestral forms. +Essentially a popular essayist, writing in the volcanic +priest-suppressed France of the <i>ancien régime</i>, during the inconsistent +days of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., when it was uncertain whether novel +and heterodox opinions would bring down upon their author fame and +reputation or the Sorbonne and the Bastille, Buffon was careful to put +his conjectural conclusions in a studiously guarded and often even +ironical form. But time after time, in his great discursive work, the +'Histoire Naturelle' (published in successive volumes between 1749 and +1788), he recurs anew to the pregnant suggestion that plants and animals +may not be bound by fixed and immovable limits of species, but may +freely vary in every direction from a common centre, so that one kind +may gradually and slowly be evolved by natural causes from the type of +another. He points out that, underlying all external diversities of +character and shape, fundamental likenesses of type occur in many +animals, which irresistibly suggest the novel notion of common descent +from a single ancestor. Thus regarded, he says, not only the ass and the +horse (to take a particular passage) but even man himself, the monkeys, +the quadrupeds, and all vertebrate animals, might be viewed as merely +forming divergent branches of one and the same great family tree. Every +such family, he believed, whether animal or vegetable, might have sprung +originally from a single stock, which after many generations had here +developed into a higher form, and there degenerated into a lower and +less perfect type of organisation. Granting this—granting that nature +could by slow variation produce one species in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> course of direct +descent from another unlike it (for example, the ass from the horse), +then, Buffon observed, there was no further limit to be set to her +powers in this respect, and we might reasonably conclude that from a +single primordial being she has gradually been able in the course of +time to develop the whole continuous gamut of existing animal and +vegetable life. To be sure, Buffon always saves himself from censure by +an obvious afterthought—'But no; it is certain from revelation that +every species was directly created by a separate fiat.' This +half-hearted and somewhat subrisive denial, however, must be taken +merely as a concession to the Sorbonne and to the fashionable exegesis +of his own day; and, even so, the Sorbonne was too much in the end for +the philosophic thinker. He had once in his life at least to make his +submission and demand pardon from the offended orthodoxy of the Paris +faculty.</p> + +<p>The wave of thought and feeling, thus apologetically and tentatively +stirred on the unruffled pond of eighteenth century opinion by the +startling plop of Buffon's little smooth-cut pebble, soon widened out on +every side in concentric circles, and affected with its wash the entire +world of biological science in every country. Before the close of the +eighteenth century speculation as to the origin of species was rife in +all quarters of Europe. In France itself, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, +constitutionally cautious and undecided, but wide of view and free from +prejudice, came slowly to the conclusion, in 1795, that all species are +really derived by modification from one or more primitive types. In +Germany, in the very same year, Goethe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> with the keen vision of the +poet and the calm eye of the philosopher uniquely combined, discerned +independently as by a lightning flash the identical idea of the origin +of kinds by modification of pre-existent organisms. 'We may assert +without hesitation,' says that great nebulous thinker and observer, +'that all the more perfect organic natures, such as fishes, amphibians, +birds and mammals, with man at their head, were formed at first on one +original type, which still daily changes and modifies its form by +propagation.' In England, twelve months earlier, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +Charles Darwin's grandfather (of whom more anon), published his +'Zoonomia,' a treatise on the laws of animal life, in which he not only +adopted Buffon's theory of the origin of species by evolution, but also +laid down as the chief cause of such development the actions and needs +of the animals themselves. According to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, animals came +to vary from one another chiefly because they were always altering their +habits and voluntarily accommodating themselves to new actions and +positions in life. His work produced comparatively little effect upon +the world at large in his own time, but it had immense influence upon +the next great prophet of evolution, Lamarck, and through Lamarck on +Lyell, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and the modern school of +evolutionists generally. We shall consider his views in greater detail +when we pass from the spiritual to the physical antecedents of Charles +Darwin.</p> + +<p>It was in 1801 that Lamarck first gave to the world his epoch-making +speculations and suggestions on the origin of species; and from that +date to the day of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> death, in 1831, the unwearied old philosopher +continued to devote his whole time and energy, in blindness and poverty, +to the elucidation of this interesting and important subject. A bold, +acute, and vigorous thinker, trained in the great school of Diderot and +D'Alembert, with something of the vivid Celtic poetic imagination, and a +fearless habit of forming his own conclusions irrespective of common or +preconceived ideas, Lamarck went to the very root of the matter in the +most determined fashion, and openly proclaimed in the face of frowning +officialism under the Napoleonic reaction his profound conviction that +all species, including man, were descended by modification from one or +more primordial forms. In Charles Darwin's own words, 'He first did the +eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change, +in the organic as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of +law and not of miraculous interposition. 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. With respect to the means of modification, he +attributed something to the direct action of the physical conditions of +life, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much to +use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter agency +he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature—such as +the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees,' He +believed, in short, that animals had largely developed themselves, by +functional effort followed by increased powers and abilities.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>Lamarck's great work, the 'Philosophie Zoologique,' though opposed by +the austere and formal genius of the immortal Cuvier—a reactionary +biological conservative and obscurantist, equal to the enormous task of +mapping out piecemeal with infinite skill and power the separate +provinces of his chosen science, but incapable of taking in all the +bearings of the whole field at a single vivid and comprehensive +sweep—Lamarck's great work produced a deep and lasting impression upon +the entire subsequent course of evolutionary thought in scientific +Europe. True, owing to the retrograde tendencies of the First Empire, it +caused but little immediate stir at the precise moment of its first +publication; but the seed it sowed sank deep, and, lying fallow long in +men's minds, bore fruit at last in the next generation with the +marvellous fecundity of the germs of genius. Indeed, from the very +beginning of the present century, a ferment of inquiry on the subject of +creation and evolution was everywhere obvious among speculative +thinkers. The profound interest which Goethe took in the dispute on this +very subject in the French Académie des Sciences between Cuvier and +Geoffroy St. Hilaire, amid the thundering guns of a threatened European +convulsion, was but a solitary symptom of the general stir which +preceded the gestation and birth of the Darwinian hypothesis. It is +impossible to take up any scientific memoirs or treatises of the first +half of our own century without seeing at a glance how every mind of +high original scientific importance was permeated and disturbed by the +fundamental questions aroused, but not fully answered, by Buffon, +Lamarck, and Erasmus Darwin. In Lyell's letters and in Agassiz's +lectures, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> the 'Botanic Journal' and the 'Philosophical +Transactions,' in treatises on Madeira beetles and the Australian flora, +we find everywhere the thoughts of men profoundly influenced in a +thousand directions by this universal evolutionary solvent and leaven.</p> + +<p>And while the world of thought was thus seething and moving restlessly +before the wave of ideas set in motion by these various independent +philosophers, another group of causes in another field was rendering +smooth the path beforehand for the future champion of the amended +evolutionism. Geology on the one hand and astronomy on the other were +making men's minds gradually familiar with the conception of slow +natural development, as opposed to immediate and miraculous creation.</p> + +<p>The rise of geology had been rapid and brilliant. In the last century it +had been almost universally believed that fossil organisms were the +relics of submerged and destroyed worlds, strange remnants of successive +terrible mundane catastrophes. Cuvier himself, who had rendered immense +services to geological science by his almost unerring reconstructions of +extinct animals, remained a partisan of the old theory of constant +cataclysms and fresh creations throughout his whole life; but Lamarck, +here as elsewhere the prophet of the modern uniformitarian concept of +nature, had already announced his grand idea that the ordinary process +of natural laws sufficed to account for all the phenomena of the earth's +crust. In England, William Smith, the ingenious land surveyor, riding up +and down on his daily task over the face of the country, became +convinced by his observations in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the first years of the present century +that a fixed order of sequence could everywhere be traced among the +various superincumbent geological strata. Modern scientific geology +takes its rise from the moment of this luminous and luminiferous +discovery. With astonishing rapidity the sequence of strata was +everywhere noted, and the succession of characteristic fossils mapped +out, with the result of showing, however imperfectly at first, that the +history of organic life upon the globe had followed a slow and regular +course of constant development. Immediately whole schools of eager +workers employed themselves in investigating in separate detail the +phenomena of these successive stages of unfolding life. Murchison, fresh +from the Peninsular campaign, began to study the dawn of organic history +in the gloom of the Silurian and Cambrian epochs. A group of less +articulate but not less active workers like Buckland and Mantell +performed similar services for the carboniferous, the wealden, and the +tertiary deposits. Sedgwick endeavoured to co-ordinate the whole range +of then known facts into a single wide and comprehensive survey. De La +Beche, Phillips, and Agassiz added their share to the great work of +reconstruction. Last of all, among those who were contemporary and all +but coeval with Charles Darwin himself, Lyell boldly fought out the +battle of 'uniformitarianism,' proving, with all the accumulated weight +of his encyclopædic and world-wide knowledge, that every known feature +of geological development could be traced to the agency of causes now in +action, and illustrated by means of slow secular changes still actually +taking place on earth before our very eyes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>The influence of these novel conceptions upon the growth and spread of +evolutionary ideas was far-reaching and twofold. In the first place, the +discovery of a definite succession of nearly related organic forms, +following one another with evident closeness through the various ages, +inevitably suggested to every inquiring observer the possibility of +their direct descent one from the other. In the second place, the +discovery that geological formations were not really separated each from +its predecessor by violent revolutions, but were the result of gradual +and ordinary changes, discredited the old idea of frequent fresh +creations after each catastrophe, and familiarised the minds of men of +science with the alternative notion of slow and natural evolutionary +processes. The past was seen to be in effect the parent of the present; +the present was recognised as the child of the past.</p> + +<p>Current astronomical theories also pointed inevitably in the same +direction. Kant, whose supereminent fame as a philosopher has almost +overshadowed his just claims as a profound thinker in physical science, +had already in the third quarter of the eighteenth century arrived at +his sublime nebular hypothesis, in which he suggested the possible +development of stars, suns, planets, and satellites by the slow +contraction of very diffuse and incandescent haze-clouds. This +magnificent cosmical conception was seized and adapted by the genius of +Laplace in his celestial system, and made familiar through his great +work to thinking minds throughout the whole of Europe. In England it was +further modified and remodelled by Sir William Herschel, whose period of +active investigation coincided in part with Charles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> Darwin's early +boyhood. The bearings of the nebular hypothesis upon the rise of +Darwinian evolutionism are by no means remote: the entire modern +scientific movement forms, in fact, a single great organic whole, of +which the special doctrine of biological development is but a small +separate integral part. All the theories and doctrines which go to make +it up display the one common trait that they reject the idea of direct +creative interposition from without, and attribute the entire existing +order of nature to the regular unfolding of one undeviating continuous +law.</p> + +<p>Yet another factor in the intellectual stir and bustle of the time must +needs be mentioned even in so short and cursory a sketch as this of the +causes which led to the Darwinian crisis. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, a +clergyman of the Church of England, published the first edition of his +famous and much-debated 'Essay on the Principle of Population.' Malthus +was the first person who ever called public attention to the tendency of +population to increase up to the utmost limit of subsistence, as well as +to the necessary influence of starvation in checking its further +development beyond that point. Though his essay dealt only with the +question of reproduction in human societies, it was clear that it +possessed innumerable analogies in every domain of animal and vegetable +life. The book ran through many successive editions with extraordinary +rapidity for a work of its class, it was fiercely attacked and bravely +defended, it caused an immense amount of discussion and debate, and +besides its marvellous direct influence as a germinal power upon the +whole subsequent course of politico-economical and sociological thought, +it produced also a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> remarkable indirect influence on the side current of +biological and speculative opinion. In particular, as we shall more +fully see hereafter, it had an immediate effect in suggesting to the +mind of the great naturalist who forms our present subject the embryo +idea of 'natural selection.'</p> + +<p>Such then was the intellectual and social world into which, early in the +present century, Charles Darwin found himself born. Everywhere around +him in his childhood and youth these great but formless evolutionary +ideas were brewing and fermenting. The scientific society of his elders +and of the contemporaries among whom he grew up was permeated with the +leaven of Laplace and of Lamarck, of Hutton and of Herschel. Inquiry was +especially everywhere rife as to the origin and nature of specific +distinctions among plants and animals. Those who believed in the +doctrine of Buffon and of the 'Zoonomia' and those who disbelieved in +it, alike, were profoundly interested and agitated in soul by the +far-reaching implications of that fundamental problem. On every side +evolutionism, in its crude form, was already in the air. Long before +Charles Darwin himself published his conclusive 'Origin of Species,' +every thinking mind in the world of science, elder and younger, was +deeply engaged upon the self-same problem. Lyell and Horner in alternate +fits were doubting and debating. Herbert Spencer had already frankly +accepted the new idea with the profound conviction of <i>a priori</i> +reasoning. Agassiz was hesitating and raising difficulties. Treviranus +was ardently proclaiming his unflinching adhesion. Oken was spinning in +metaphysical Germany his fanciful parodies of the Lamarckian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +hypothesis. Among the depths of Brazilian forests Bates was reading the +story of evolution on the gauze-like wings of tropical butterflies. +Under the scanty shade of Malayan palm-trees Wallace was independently +spelling out in rude outline the very theory of survival of the fittest, +which Charles Darwin himself was simultaneously perfecting and polishing +among the memoirs and pamphlets of his English study. Wollaston in +Madeira was pointing out the strange adaptations of the curious local +snails and beetles. Von Buch in the Canaries was coming to the +conclusion that varieties may be slowly changed into permanent species. +Lecoq and Von Baer were gradually arriving, one by the botanical route, +the other by the embryological, at the same opinion. Before Charles +Darwin was twenty, Dean Herbert had declared from the profound depth of +his horticultural knowledge that kinds were only mere fixed sports; and +Patrick Matthew, in the appendix to a work on 'Naval Timber,' had +casually developed, without perceiving its importance, the actual +distinctive Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Robert Chambers +published in 1844 his 'Vestiges of Creation,' in which Lamarck's theory +was impressed and popularised under a somewhat spoilt and mistaken form: +it was not till 1859 that the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' +burst like a thunderbolt upon the astonished world of unprepared and +unscientific thinkers.</p> + +<p>This general attitude of interest and inquiry is of deep importance to +the proper comprehension of Charles Darwin's life and work, and that for +two distinct reasons. In the first place, the universal stir and deep +prying into evolutionary questions which everywhere existed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> among +scientific men in his early days was naturally communicated to a lad +born of a scientific family, and inheriting directly in blood and bone +the biological tastes and tendencies of Erasmus Darwin. In the second +place, the existence of such a deep and wide-spread curiosity as to +ultimate origins, and the common prevalence of profound uniformitarian +and evolutionary views among philosophers and thinkers, made the +acceptance of Charles Darwin's particular theory, when it at last +arrived, a comparatively easy and certain matter, because by it the +course of organic development was assimilated, on credible grounds, to +the course of all other development in general, as then already widely +recognised. The first consideration helps us to account in part for the +man himself; the second consideration helps us even more to account for +the great work which he was enabled in the end so successfully to +accomplish.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<h2>CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS.</h2> + + +<p>From the environment let us turn to the individual; from the world in +which the man moved to the man who moved in it, and was in time destined +to move it.</p> + +<p>Who was he, and whence did he derive his exceptional energy and +intellectual panoply?</p> + +<p>Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather, the first of the line in whom the +distinctive Darwinian strain of intellect overtly displayed itself, was +the son of one Robert Darwin, a gentleman of Nottinghamshire, 'a person +of curiosity,' with 'a taste for literature and science;' so that for +four generations at least, in the paternal line, the peculiar talents of +the Darwin family had been highly cultivated in either direction. Robert +Darwin was an early member of the Spalding Club, a friend of Stukeley +the antiquary, and an embryo geologist, after the fantastic, +half-superstitious fashion of his own time. Of his four sons, both +Robert, the eldest, and Erasmus, the youngest, were authors and +botanists. Erasmus himself was a Cambridge man, and his natural bent of +mind and energy led him irresistibly on to the study of medicine. Taking +his medical degree at his own university, and afterwards preparing for +practice by attending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> Hunter's lectures in London, besides going +through the regular medical course at Edinburgh, the young doctor +finally settled down as a physician at Nottingham, whence shortly +afterward he removed to Lichfield, then the centre of a famous literary +coterie. So large a part of Charles Darwin's remarkable idiosyncrasy was +derived by heredity from his paternal grandfather, that it may be worth +while to dwell a little here in passing on the character and career of +this brilliant precursor of the great evolutionist. Both in the physical +and in the spiritual sense, Erasmus Darwin was one among the truest and +most genuine ancestors of his grandson Charles.</p> + +<p>A powerful, robust, athletic man, in florid health and of temperate +habits, yet with the full-blooded tendency of the eighteenth century +vividly displayed in his ample face and broad features, Erasmus Darwin +bubbled over with irrepressible vivacity, the outward and visible sign +of that overflowing energy which forms everywhere one of the most marked +determining conditions of high genius. Strong in body and strong in +mind, a teetotaler before teetotalism, an abolitionist before the +anti-slavery movement, he had a great contempt for weaknesses and +prejudices of every sort, and he rose far superior to the age in which +he lived in breadth of view and freedom from preconceptions. The +eighteenth century considered him, in its cautious, cut-and-dried +fashion, a man of singular talent but of remarkably eccentric and unsafe +opinions. Unfortunately for his lasting fame, Dr. Darwin was much given +to writing poetry; and this poetry, though as ingenious as everything +else he did, had a certain false gallop of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> verse about it which has +doomed it to become since Canning's parody a sort of warning beacon +against the worst faults of the post-Augustan decadence in the +ten-syllabled metre. Nobody now reads the 'Botanic Garden' except either +to laugh at its exquisite extravagances, or to wonder at the queer +tinsel glitter of its occasional clever rhetorical rhapsodies.</p> + +<p>But in his alternative character of philosophic biologist, rejected by +the age which swallowed his poetry all applausive, Erasmus Darwin is +well worthy of the highest and deepest respect, as a prime founder and +early prophet of the evolutionary system. His 'Zoonomia,' 'which, though +ingenious, is built upon the most absurd hypothesis'—as men still said +only thirty years ago—contains in the germ the whole theory of organic +development as understood up to the very moment of the publication of +the 'Origin of Species.' In it Dr. Darwin calls attention to 'the great +changes introduced into various animals by artificial or accidental +cultivation,' a subject afterwards fully elucidated by his greater +grandson in his work on 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication.' He specially notes 'the immense changes of shape and +colour' produced by man in rabbits and pigeons, the very species on +which Charles Darwin subsequently made some of his most remarkable and +interesting observations. More than any previous writer, Erasmus Darwin, +with 'prophetic sagacity,' insisted strongly on the essential unity of +parent and offspring—a truth which lies at the very base of all modern +philosophical biology. 'Owing to the imperfection of language,' wrote +the Lichfield doctor nearly a hundred years ago,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> '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 may retain some of the habits of the parent +system.' He laid peculiar stress upon the hereditary nature of some +acquired properties, such as the muscles of dancers or jugglers, and the +diseases incidental to special occupations. Nay, he even anticipated his +great descendant in pointing out that varieties are often produced at +first as mere 'sports' or accidental variations, as in the case of +six-fingered men, five-clawed fowls, or extra-toed cats, and are +afterwards handed down by heredity to succeeding generations. Charles +Darwin would have added that if these new stray peculiarities happened +to prove advantageous to the species they would be naturally favoured in +the struggle for existence, while if they proved disadvantageous, or +even neutral, they would die out at once or be bred out in the course of +a few crosses. That last truth of natural selection was the only +cardinal one in the evolutionary system on which Erasmus Darwin did not +actually forestall his more famous and greater namesake. For its full +perception, the discovery of Malthus had to be collated with the +speculations of Buffon.</p> + +<p>'When we revolve in our minds,' says the eighteenth century prophet of +evolution, '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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +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.' This is a very crude form of evolutionism +indeed, but it is leading up by gradual stages to the finished and +all-sided philosophy of physical life, which at last definitely +formulates itself through the mouth of Charles Darwin. We shall see +hereafter wherein Erasmus Darwin's conception of development chiefly +failed—in attributing evolution for the most part to the exertions and +endeavours of the animal itself, rather than to inevitable survival of +the fittest among innumerable spontaneous variations—but we must at +least conclude our glimpse of his pregnant and suggestive work by +quoting its great fundamental <i>aperçu</i>:—'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?'</p> + +<p>A few lines from the 'Temple of Nature,' one of Erasmus Darwin's poetic +rhapsodies, containing his fully matured views on the origin of living +creatures, may be worth reproduction in further elucidation of his +philosophical position:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Organic life beneath the shoreless waves</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Was born, and nursed in ocean's pearly caves;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">These, as successive generations bloom,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Have we not here the very beginnings of Charles Darwin? Do we not see, +in these profound and fundamental suggestions, not merely hints as to +the evolution of evolution, but also as to the evolution of the +evolutionist?</p> + +<p>On the other hand, though Erasmus Darwin defined a fool to his friend +Edgeworth as 'a man who never tried an experiment in his life,' he was +wanting himself in the rigorous and patient inductive habit which so +strikingly distinguished his grandson Charles. That trait, as we shall +presently see, the biological chief of the nineteenth century derived in +all probability from another root of his genealogical tree. Erasmus +Darwin gave us brilliant suggestions rather than cumulative proof: he +apologised in his 'Zoonomia' for 'many conjectures not supported by +accurate investigation or conclusive experiments,' Such an apology would +have been simply impossible to the painstaking spirit of his grandson +Charles.</p> + +<p>Erasmus Darwin was twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of +Mr. Charles Howard, of Lichfield, and it was her son, Robert Waring +Darwin, who became the father of our hero, Charles. It is fashionable to +say, in this and sundry other like cases, that the mental energy skips a +generation. People have said so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> in the case of that intermediate +Mendelssohn who was son of Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher, and +father of Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn, the composer—that mere link in a +marvellous chain who was wont to observe of himself in the decline of +life, that in his youth he was called the son of the great Mendelssohn, +and in his old age the father of the great Mendelssohn. As a matter of +fact, one may fairly doubt whether such a case of actual skipping is +ever possible in the nature of things. In the particular instance of +Robert Waring Darwin at least we may be pretty sure that the distinctive +Darwinian strain of genius lay merely latent rather than dormant: that +it did not display itself to the world at large, but that it persisted +silently as powerful as ever within the remote recesses of the thinking +organism. Not every man brings out before men all that is within him. +Robert Waring Darwin was a physician at Shrewsbury; and he attained at +least sufficient scientific eminence in his own time to become a Fellow +of the Royal Society, in days when that honour was certainly not readily +conferred upon country doctors of modest reputation. Charles Darwin says +of him plainly, 'He was incomparably the most acute observer whom I ever +knew.' It may well have been that Robert Darwin lived and died, as his +famous son lived for fifty years of his great life, in comparative +silence and learned retirement; for we must never forget that if Charles +Darwin had only completed the first half century of his laborious +existence, he would have been remembered merely as the author of an +entertaining work on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' a plausible theory of +coral islands, and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> learned monograph on the fossil barnacles. During +all those years, in fact, he had really done little else than collect +material for the work of his lifetime. If we judge men by outward +performance only, we may often be greatly mistaken in our estimates: +potentiality is wider than actuality; what a man does is never a certain +or extreme criterion of what he can do.</p> + +<p>The Darwins, indeed, were all a mighty folk, of varied powers and varied +attainments. Erasmus's brother, Robert, was the author of a work on +botany, which long enjoyed a respectable repute. Of his sons, one, Sir +Francis Darwin, was noted as a keen observer of animals; a second, +Charles, who died at twenty-one, was already the author of a very +valuable medical essay; while the third, Robert, was the Shrewsbury +F.R.S., the father of our great evolutionary thinker. And among Charles +Darwin's own cousins, one is Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the philologist; a +second was the late Sir Henry Holland; and a third is Mr. Francis +Galton, the author of that essentially Darwinian book, 'Hereditary +Genius.'</p> + +<p>Robert Waring Darwin took to himself a wife from another very great and +eminent family. He married Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah +Wedgwood, the famous potter; and from these two silent representatives +of powerful stocks, Charles Robert Darwin, the father of modern +evolutionary biology, was born at Shrewsbury, on February the 12th, +1809. That Wedgwood connection, again, is no mere casual or unimportant +incident in the previous life-history of the Darwinian originality; it +throws a separate clear light of its own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> upon the peculiar and +admirably compounded idiosyncrasy of Charles Darwin.</p> + +<p>A man, indeed, owes on the average quite as much to his mother's as to +his father's family. It is a mere unscientific old-world prejudice which +makes us for the most part count ancestry in the direct ascending male +line alone, to the complete neglect of the equally important maternal +pedigree. Prom the biological point of view, at least, every individual +is a highly complex compound of hereditary elements, a resultant of +numerous converging forces, a meeting place of two great streams of +inheritance, each of which is itself similarly made up by the like +confluence of innumerable distinct prior tributaries. Between these two +it is almost impossible for us accurately to distribute any given +individuality. How much Charles Darwin owed to the Darwins, and how much +he owed in turn to the Wedgwoods, no man is yet psychologist enough or +physiologist enough to say. But that he owed a great deal to either +strong and vigorous strain we may even now quite safely take for +granted.</p> + +<p>The Wedgwood family were 'throwers' by handicraft, superior artisans +long settled at Burslem, in the Staffordshire potteries. Josiah, the +youngest of thirteen children, lamed by illness in early life, was +turned by this happy accident from his primitive task as a 'thrower' to +the more artistic and original work of producing ornamental coloured +earthenware. Skilful and indefatigable, of indomitable energy and with +great powers of forcing his way in life against all obstacles, young +Wedgwood rose rapidly by his own unaided exertions to be a master +potter, and a manufacturer of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> the famous unglazed black porcelain. +Those were the darkest days of industrial art and decorative handicraft +in modern England. Josiah Wedgwood, by his marked originality and force +of character, succeeded in turning the current of national taste, and +creating among us a new and distinctly higher type of artistic +workmanship. His activity, however, was not confined to his art alone, +but found itself a hundred other different outlets in the most varied +directions. When his potteries needed enlargement to meet the increased +demand, he founded for the hands employed upon his works the model +industrial village of Etruria. When Brindley began cutting artificial +waterways across the broad face of central England, it was in the great +potter that he found his chief ally in promoting the construction of the +Grand Trunk Canal. Wedgwood, indeed, was a builder of schools and a +maker of roads; a chemist and an artist; a friend of Watt and an +employer of Flaxman. In short, like Erasmus Darwin, he possessed that +prime essential in the character of genius, an immense underlying stock +of energy. And with it there went its best concomitant, the 'infinite +capacity for taking pains.' Is it not probable that in their joint +descendant, the brilliant but discursive and hazardous genius of Erasmus +Darwin was balanced and regulated by soberer qualities inherited +directly from the profound industry of the painstaking potter? When +later on we find Charles Darwin spending hours in noting the successive +movements of the tendrils in a plant, or watching for long years the +habits and manners of earthworms in flower-pots, may we not reasonably +conjecture that he derived no little share of his extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +patience, carefulness, and minuteness of handicraft from his mother's +father, Josiah Wedgwood?</p> + +<p>Such, then, were the two main component elements, paternal and maternal, +from which the striking personality of Charles Darwin was no doubt for +the most part ultimately built up.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<h2>EARLY DAYS.</h2> + + +<p>As the Chester express steams out of Shrewsbury station, you see on your +left, overhanging the steep bank of Severn, a large, square, +substantial-looking house, known as the Mount, the birthplace of the +author of the 'Origin of Species.' There, in the comfortable home he had +built for himself, Dr. Robert Darwin, the father, lived and worked for +fifty years of unobtrusive usefulness. He had studied medicine at +Edinburgh and Leyden, and had even travelled a little in Germany, before +he settled down in the quiet old Salopian town, where for half a century +his portly figure and yellow chaise were familiar objects of the +country-side for miles around. Among a literary society which included +Coleridge's friends, the Tayleurs, and where Hazlitt listened with +delight to the great poet's 'music of the spheres,' in High Street +Unitarian Chapel, the Mount kept up with becoming dignity the family +traditions of the Darwins and the Wedgwoods as a local centre of +sweetness and light.</p> + +<p>On February the 12th, 1809, Charles Darwin first saw the light of day in +this his father's house at Shrewsbury. Time and place were both +propitious. Born in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> a cultivated scientific family, surrounded from his +birth by elevating influences, and secured beforehand from the cramping +necessity of earning his own livelihood by his own exertions, the boy +was destined to grow up to full maturity in the twenty-one years of slow +development that immediately preceded the passing of the first Reform +Act. The thunder of the great European upheaval had grown silent at +Waterloo when he was barely six years old, and his boyhood was passed +amid country sights and sounds during that long period of reconstruction +and assimilation which followed the fierce volcanic outburst of the +French Revolution. Happy in the opportunity of his birth, he came upon +the world eight years after the first publication of Lamarck's +remarkable speculations, and for the first twenty-two years of his life +he was actually the far younger contemporary of the great French +evolutionary philosopher. Eleven years before his arrival upon the scene +Malthus had set forth his 'Principle of Population.' Charles Darwin thus +entered upon a stage well prepared for him, and he entered it with an +idiosyncrasy exactly adapted for making the best of the situation. The +soil had been thoroughly turned and dressed beforehand: Charles Darwin's +seed had only to fall upon it in order to spring up and bear fruit a +hundredfold, in every field of science or speculation.</p> + +<p>For it was not biology alone that he was foredoomed to revolutionise, +but the whole range of human thought, and perhaps even ultimately of +human action.</p> + +<p>Is it mere national prejudice which makes one add with congratulatory +pleasure that Darwin was born in England, rather than in France, in +Germany, or in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> America? Perhaps so; perhaps not. For the English +intellect does indeed seem more capable than most of uniting high +speculative ability with high practical skill and experience: and of +that union of rare qualities Darwin himself was a most conspicuous +example. It is probable that England has produced more of the great +organising and systematising intellects than any other modern country.</p> + +<p>Among those thinkers in his own line who stood more nearly abreast of +Darwin in the matter of age, Lyell was some eleven years his senior, and +contributed not a little (though quite unconsciously) by his work and +conclusions to the formation of Darwin's own peculiar scientific +opinions. The veteran Owen, who still survives him, was nearly five +years older than Darwin, and also helped to a great extent in giving +form and exactness to his great contemporary's anatomical ideas. +Humboldt, who preceded our English naturalist in the matter of time by +no less than forty years, might yet almost rank as coeval in some +respects, owing to his long and active life, his late maturity, and the +very recent date of his greatest and most thought-compelling work, the +'Cosmos' (begun when Humboldt was seventy-five, and finished when he +lacked but ten years of his century), in itself a sort of preparation +for due acceptance of the Darwinian theories. In fact, as many as fifty +years of their joint lives coincided entirely one with the other's. +Agassiz antedated Darwin by two years. On the other hand, among the men +who most helped on the recognition of Darwin's theories, Hooker and +Lewes were his juniors by eight years, Herbert Spencer by eleven, +Wallace by thirteen, and Huxley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> by sixteen. His cousin, Francis Galton, +another grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and joint inheritor of the +distinctive family biological ply, was born at the same date as Alfred +Russell Wallace, thirteen years after Charles Darwin. In such a goodly +galaxy of workers was the Darwinian light destined to shine through the +middle of the century, as one star excelleth another in glory.</p> + +<p>Charles Darwin was the second son: but nature refuses doggedly to +acknowledge the custom of primogeniture. His elder brother, Erasmus, a +man of mute and inarticulate ability, with a sardonic humour alien to +his race, extorted unwonted praise from the critical pen of Thomas +Carlyle, who 'for intellect rather preferred him to his brother +Charles.' But whatever spark of the Darwinian genius was really innate +in Erasmus the Less died with him unacknowledged.</p> + +<p>The boy was educated (so they call it) at Shrewsbury Grammar School, +under sturdy Sam Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield; and there he +picked up so much Latin and Greek as was then considered absolutely +essential to the due production of an English gentleman. Happily for the +world, having no taste for the classics, he escaped the ordeal with +little injury to his individuality. His mother had died while he was +still a child, but his father, that 'acute observer,' no doubt taught +him to know and love nature. At sixteen he went to Edinburgh University, +then rendered famous by a little knot of distinguished professors, and +there he remained for two years. Already at school he had made himself +notable by his love of collecting—the first nascent symptom of the +naturalist bent. He collected everything, shells, eggs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> minerals, +coins, nay, since postage stamps were then not yet invented, even +franks. But at Edinburgh he gave the earliest distinct evidence of his +definite scientific tastes by contributing to the local academic society +a paper on the floating eggs of the common sea-mat, in which he had even +then succeeded in discovering for the first time organs of locomotion. +Thence he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. The Darwins were +luckily a Cambridge family: luckily, let us say, for had it been +otherwise—had young Darwin been distorted from his native bent by Plato +and Aristotle, and plunged deep into the mysteries of Barbara and +Celarent, as would infallibly have happened to him at the sister +university—who can tell how long we might have had to wait in vain for +the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man'? But Cambridge, which +rejoiced already in the glory of Newton, was now to match it by the +glory of Darwin. In its academical course, the mathematical wedge had +always kept open a dim passage for physical science; and at the exact +moment when Darwin was an undergraduate at Christ's—from 1827 to +1831—the university had the advantage of several good scientific +teachers, and amongst them one, Professor Henslow, a well-known +botanist, who took a special interest in young Darwin's intellectual +development. There, too, he met with Sedgwick, Airy, Ramsay, and +numerous other men of science, whose intercourse with him must no doubt +have contributed largely to mould and form the future cast of his +peculiar philosophical idiosyncrasy.</p> + +<p>It was to Henslow's influence that Darwin in later years attributed in +great part his powerful taste for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> natural history. But in truth the +ascription of such high praise to his early teacher smacks too much of +the Darwinian modesty to be accepted at once without demur by the candid +critic. The naturalist, like the poet, is born, not made. How much more, +then, must this needs be the case with the grandson of Erasmus Darwin +and of Josiah Wedgwood? As a matter of fact, already at Edinburgh the +lad had loved to spend his days among the sea-beasts and wrack of the +Inches in the Firth of Forth; and it was through the instrumentality of +his 'brother entomologists' that he first became acquainted with Henslow +himself when he removed to Cambridge. The good professor could not make +him into a naturalist: inherited tendencies and native energies had done +that for him already from his very cradle.</p> + +<p>'Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam;' and it was well that Darwin took up +at Cambridge with the study of geology as his first love. For geology +was then the living and moving science, as astronomy had been in the +sixteenth century, and as biology is at the present day—the +growing-point, so to speak, of European development, whence all great +things might naturally be expected. Moreover, it was and is the central +science of the concrete class, having relations with astronomy on the +one hand, and with biology on the other; concerned alike with cosmical +chances or changes on this side, and with the minutest facts of organic +nature on that; the meeting-place and border-land of all the separate +branches of study that finally bear upon the complex problems of our +human life. No other subject of investigation was so well calculated to +rouse Darwin's interest in the ultimate questions of evolution or +creation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> of sudden cataclysm or gradual growth, of miraculous +intervention or slow development. Here, if anywhere, his enigmas were +all clearly propounded to him by the inarticulate stony sphinxes; he had +only to riddle them out for himself as he went along in after years with +the aid of the successive side-lights thrown upon the world by the +unconnected lanterns of Lamarck and of Malthus.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for us, then, Darwin did not waste his time at Cambridge +over the vain and frivolous pursuits of the classical tripos. He +preferred to work at his own subjects in his own way, and to leave the +short-lived honours of the schools to those who cared for them and for +nothing higher. He came out with the <i>οἱ πολλοί</i> in 1831, and +thenceforth proceeded to study life in the wider university for which +his natural inclinations more properly fitted him. The world was all +before him where to choose, and he chose that better part which shall +not be taken away from him as long as the very memory of science +survives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<h2>DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS.</h2> + + +<p>Scarcely had Darwin taken his pass degree at Cambridge when the great +event of his life occurred which, more than anything else perhaps, gave +the final direction to his categorical genius in the line it was +thenceforth so successfully to follow. In the autumn of 1831, when +Darwin was just twenty-two, it was decided by Government to send a +ten-gun brig, the 'Beagle,' under command of Captain Fitzroy, to +complete the unfinished survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, to map +out the shores of Chili and Peru, to visit several of the Pacific +archipelagoes, and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round +the whole world. This was an essentially scientific expedition, and +Captain Fitzroy, afterwards so famous as the meteorological admiral, was +a scientific officer of the highest type. He was anxious to be +accompanied on his cruise by a competent naturalist who would undertake +the collection and preservation of the animals and plants discovered on +the voyage, for which purpose he generously offered to give up a share +of his own cabin accommodation. Professor Henslow seized upon the +opportunity to recommend for the post his promising pupil, young Darwin, +'grandson of the poet.' Darwin gladly volunteered his services without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +salary, and partly paid his own expenses on condition of being permitted +to retain in his own possession the animals and plants he collected on +the journey. The 'Beagle' set sail from Devonport on December the 27th, +1831; she returned to Falmouth on October the 2nd, 1836.</p> + +<p>That long five years' cruise around the world, the journal of which +Darwin has left us in the 'Voyage of the "Beagle,"' proved a marvellous +epoch in the great naturalist's quiet career. It left its abiding mark +deeply imprinted on all his subsequent life and thinking. Lamarck and +Erasmus Darwin were cabinet biologists, who had never beheld with their +own eyes the great round world and all that therein is; Charles Darwin +had the inestimable privilege of seeing for himself, at first hand, a +large part of the entire globe and of the creatures that inhabit it. +Even to have caught one passing glimpse of the teeming life of the +tropics is in itself an education; to the naturalist it is more, it is a +revelation. Our starved little northern fauna and flora, the mere +leavings of the vast ice sheets that spread across our zone in the +glacial epoch, show us a world depopulated of all its largest, +strangest, and fiercest creatures; a world dwarfed in all its component +elements, and immensely differing in ten thousand ways from that rich, +luxuriant, over-stocked hot-house in which the first great problems of +evolution were practically worked out by survival of the fittest. But +the tropics preserve for us still in all their jungles something of the +tangled, thickly-peopled aspect which our planet must have presented for +countless ages in all latitudes before the advent of primæval man. We +now know that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> throughout the greater part of geological time, +essentially tropical conditions existed unbroken over the whole surface +of the entire earth, from the Antarctic continent to the shores of +Greenland; so that some immediate acquaintance at least with the +equatorial world is of immense value to the philosophical naturalist for +the sake of the analogies it inevitably suggests; and it is a +significant fact that almost all those great and fruitful thinkers who +in our own time have done good work in the wider combination of +biological facts have themselves passed a considerable number of years +in investigating the conditions of tropical nature. Europe and England +are at the ends of the earth; the tropics are biological head-quarters. +The equatorial zone is therefore the true school for the historian of +life in its more universal and lasting aspects.</p> + +<p>Nor was that all. The particular countries visited by the 'Beagle' +during the course of her long and varied cruise happened to be exactly +such as were naturally best adapted for bringing out the latent +potentialities of Darwin's mind, and suggesting to his active and +receptive brain those deep problems of life and its environment which he +afterwards wrought out with such subtle skill and such consummate +patience in the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man.' The Cape +de Verdes, and the other Atlantic islands, with their scanty population +of plants and animals, composed for the most part of waifs and strays +drifted to their barren rocks by ocean currents, or blown out helplessly +to sea by heavy winds; Brazil, with its marvellous contrasting wealth of +tropical luxuriance and self-strangling fertility, a new province of +interminable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> delights to the soul of the enthusiastic young collector; +the South American pampas, with their colossal remains of extinct +animals, huge geological precursors of the stunted modern sloths and +armadillos that still inhabit the self-same plains; Tierra del Fuego, +with its almost Arctic climate, and its glimpses into the secrets of the +most degraded savage types; the vast range of the Andes and the +Cordilleras, with their volcanic energy and their closely crowded +horizontal belts of climatic life; the South Sea Islands, those +paradises of the Pacific, Hesperian fables true, alike for the lover of +the picturesque and the biological student; Australia, that surviving +fragment of an extinct world, with an antiquated fauna whose archaic +character still closely recalls the European life of ten million years +back in the secondary epoch: all these and many others equally novel and +equally instructive passed in long alternating panorama before Darwin's +eyes, and left their images deeply photographed for ever after on the +lasting tablets of his retentive memory. That was the real great +university in which he studied nature and read for his degree. Our +evolutionist was now being educated.</p> + +<p>Throughout the whole of the journal of this long cruise, which Darwin +afterwards published in an enlarged form, it is impossible not to be +struck at every turn with the way in which his inquisitive mind again +and again recurs to the prime elements of those great problems towards +whose solution he afterwards so successfully pointed out the path. The +Darwinian ideas are all already there in the germ; the embryo form of +the 'Origin of Species' plays in and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> out on every page with the +quaintest elusiveness. We are always just on the very point of catching +it; and every now and again we do actually all but catch it in essence +and spirit, though ever still its bodily shape persistently evades us. +Questions of geographical distribution, of geological continuity, of the +influence of climate, of the modifiability of instinct, of the effects +of surrounding conditions, absorb the young observer's vivid interest at +every step, wherever he lands. He is all unconsciously collecting notes +and materials in profuse abundance for his great work; he is thinking in +rough outline the new thoughts which are hereafter to revolutionise the +thought of humanity.</p> + +<p>Five years are a great slice out of a man's life: those five years of +ceaseless wandering by sea and land were spent by Charles Darwin in +accumulating endless observations and hints for the settlement of the +profound fundamental problems in which he was even then so deeply +interested. The 'Beagle' sailed from England to the Cape de Verdes, and +already, even before she had touched her first land, the young +naturalist had observed with interest that the impalpably fine dust +which fell on deck contained no less than sixty-seven distinct organic +forms, two of them belonging to species peculiar to South America. In +some of the dust he found particles of stone so very big that they +measured 'above the thousandth of an inch square;' and after this fact, +says the keen student, 'one need not be surprised at the diffusion of +the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants.' Would +Erasmus Darwin have noticed these minute points and their implications +one wonders? Probably not. May we not see in the observation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> partly the +hereditary tendencies of Josiah Wedgwood towards minute investigation +and accuracy of detail, partly the influence of the scientific +time-wave, and the careful training under Professor Henslow? Erasmus +Darwin comes before us rather as the brilliant and ingenious amateur, +his grandson Charles as the instructed and fully equipped final product +of the scientific schools.</p> + +<p>At St. Paul's Rocks, once more, a mass of new volcanic peaks rising +abruptly from the midst of the Atlantic, the naturalist of the 'Beagle' +notes with interest that feather and dirt-feeding and parasitic insects +or spiders are the first inhabitants to take up their quarters on +recently formed oceanic islands. This problem of the peopling of new +lands, indeed, so closely connected with the evolution of new species, +necessarily obtruded itself upon his attention again and again during +his five years' cruise; and in some cases, especially that of the +Galapagos Islands, the curious insular faunas and floras which he +observed upon this trip, composed as they were of mere casual straylings +from adjacent shores, produced upon his mind a very deep and lasting +impression, whose traces one may without difficulty discern on every +second page of the 'Origin of Species.'</p> + +<p>On the last day of February, 1832, the 'Beagle' came to anchor in the +harbour of Bahia, and young Darwin caught sight for the first time of +the mutually strangling luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Nowhere on +earth are the finest conditions of tropical life more fully realised +than in the tangled depths of the great uncleared Brazilian forests, +which everywhere gird round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> like a natural palisade with their +impenetrable belt the narrow and laborious clearings of over-mastered +man. The rich alluvial silt of mighty river systems, the immemorial +manuring of the virgin soil, the fierce energy of an almost equatorial +sun, and the universal presence of abundant water, combine to make life +in that marvellous region unusually wealthy, varied, and crowded, so +that the struggle for existence is there perhaps more directly visible +to the seeing eye than in any other known portion of God's universe. +'Delight itself,' says Darwin in his journal, with that naive simplicity +which everywhere forms the chief charm of his direct and unaffected +literary style—'delight itself is a weak term to express the feelings +of a naturalist who for the first time has wandered by himself in a +Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the +parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the +foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled +me with admiration.' In truth, among those huge buttressed trunks, +overhung by the unbroken canopy of foliage on the vast spreading and +interlacing branches, festooned with lianas and drooping lichens, or +beautified by the pendent alien growth of perfumed orchids, Darwin's +mind must indeed have found congenial food for apt reflection, and +infinite opportunities for inference and induction. Prom the mere +picturesque point of view, indeed, the naturalist enjoys such sights as +this a thousand times more truly and profoundly than the mere casual +unskilled observer: for it is a shallow, self-flattering mistake of +vulgar and narrow minds to suppose that fuller knowledge and clearer +insight can destroy or impair the beauty of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> beautiful objects—as who +should imagine that a great painter appreciates the sunset less than a +silly boy or a sentimental schoolgirl. As a matter of fact, the +naturalist knows and admires a thousand exquisite points of detail in +every flower and every insect which only he himself and the true artist +can equally delight in. And a keen intellectual and æsthetic joy in the +glorious fecundity and loveliness of nature was everywhere present to +Darwin's mind. But, beyond and above even that, there was also the +architectonic delight of the great organiser in the presence of a noble +organised product: the peculiar pleasure felt only by the man in whose +broader soul all minor details fall at once into their proper place, as +component elements in one great consistent and harmonious whole—a +sympathetic pleasure akin to that with which an architect views the +interior of Ely and of Lincoln, or a musician listens to the linked +harmonies of the 'Messiah' and the 'Creation.' The scheme of nature was +now unfolding itself visibly and clearly before Charles Darwin's very +eyes.</p> + +<p>After eighteen memorable days spent with unceasing delight at Bahia, the +'Beagle' sailed again for Rio, where Darwin stopped for three months, to +improve his acquaintance with the extraordinary wealth of the South +American fauna and flora. Collecting insects was here his chief +occupation, and it is interesting to note even at this early period how +his attention was attracted by some of those strange alluring devices on +the part of the males for charming their partners which afterwards +formed the principal basis for his admirable theory of sexual selection, +so fully developed in the 'Descent of Man.' 'Several times,' he says, +'when a pair [of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> butterflies], probably male and female, were chasing +each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me; +and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a +toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.' In like manner he observed +here the instincts of tropical ants, the habits of phosphorescent +insects, and the horrid practice of that wasp-like creature, the sphex, +which stuffs the clay cells of its larvæ full of half-dead spiders and +writhing caterpillars, so stung with devilish avoidance of vital parts +as to be left quite paralysed yet still alive, as future food for the +developing grubs. Cases like these helped naturally to shake the young +biologist's primitive faith in the cheap and crude current theories of +universal beneficence, and to introduce that wholesome sceptical +reaction against received dogma which is the necessary ground-work and +due preparation for all great progressive philosophical thinking.</p> + +<p>In July they set sail again for Monte Video, where the important +question of climate and vegetation began to interest young Darwin's +mind. Uruguay is almost entirely treeless; and this curious phenomenon, +in a comparatively moist sub-tropical plain-land, struck him as a +remarkable anomaly, and set him speculating on its probable cause. +Australia, he remembered, was far more arid, and yet its interior was +everywhere covered by whole forests of quaint indigenous gum-trees. +Could it be that there were no trees adapted to the climate? As yet, the +true causes of geographical distribution had not clearly dawned upon +Darwin's mind; but that a young man of twenty-three should seriously +busy himself about such problems of ultimate causation at all is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> in +itself a sufficiently pointed and remarkable phenomenon. It was here, +too, that he first saw that curious animal, the Tucutuco, a true rodent +with the habits of a mole, which is almost always found in a blind +condition. With reference to this singular creature, there occurs in his +journal one of those interesting anticipatory passages which show the +rough workings of the distinctive evolutionary Darwinian concept in its +earlier stages. 'Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the +Tucutuco,' he writes, 'the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very +serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an +organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been +delighted with this fact, had he known it, when speculating (probably +with more truth than usual with him) on the gradually acquired blindness +of the Aspalax, a gnawer living under the ground, and of the Proteus, a +reptile living in dark caverns filled with water; in both of which +animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a +tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is +extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether +it is connected with the true optic nerve; its vision must certainly be +imperfect, though probably useful to the animal when it leaves its +burrow. In the Tucutuco, which I believe never comes to the surface of +the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and +useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the +animal: no doubt Lamarck would have said that the Tucutuco is now +passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus.' The passage is +instructive both as showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> that Darwin was already familiar with +Lamarck's writings, and as pointing out the natural course of his own +future development.</p> + +<p>For the two years from her arrival at Monte Video, the 'Beagle' was +employed in surveying the eastern coast of South America; and Darwin +enjoyed unusual opportunities for studying the geology, the zoology, and +the botany of the surrounding districts during all that period. It was a +suggestive field indeed for the young naturalist. The curious +relationship of the gigantic fossil armour-plated animals to the +existing armadillo, of the huge megatherium to the modern sloths, and of +the colossal ant-eaters to their degenerate descendants at the present +day, formed one of the direct inciting causes to the special study which +produced at last the 'Origin of Species.' In the Introduction to that +immortal work Darwin wrote, some twenty-seven years later, 'When on +board H.M.S. "Beagle" as naturalist, I was much struck with certain +facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South +America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past +inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the +latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin +of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of +our greatest philosophers.' And in the body of the work itself he refers +over and over again to numberless observations made by himself during +this period of rapid psychological development—observations on the +absence of recent geological formations along the lately upheaved South +American coast; on the strange extinction of the horse in La Plata; on +the affinities of the extinct and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> recent species; on the effect of +minute individual peculiarities in preserving life under special +circumstances; and on the influence of insects and blood-sucking bats in +determining the existence of the larger naturalised mammals in parts of +Brazil and the Argentine Republic. It was the epoch of wide collection +of facts, to be afterwards employed in brilliant generalisations: the +materials for the 'Origin of Species' were being slowly accumulated in +the numberless pigeon-holes of the Darwinian memory.</p> + +<p>Among the facts thus industriously gathered by Darwin in the two years +spent on the South American coast were several curious instincts of the +cuckoo-like molothrus, of the owl of the Pampas, and of the American +ostrich. A few sentences scattered here and there through this part of +the 'Naturalist's Journal' may well be extracted in the present place as +showing, better than any mere secondhand description could do, the slow +germinating process of the 'Origin of Species.' In speaking of the +toxodon, that strange extinct South American mammal, the young author +remarks acutely that, though in size it equalled the elephant and the +megatherium, the structure of its teeth shows it to be closely allied to +the ruminants, while several other details link it to the pachyderms, +and its aquatic peculiarities of ear and nostril approximate it rather +to the manatee and the dugong. 'How wonderfully,' he says, 'are the +different orders, at the present time so well separated, blended +together in different points of the structure of the toxodon.' We now +know that unspecialised ancestral forms always display this close union +of peculiarities afterwards separately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> developed in distinct species of +their later descendants.</p> + +<p>Still more pregnant with evolutionism in the bud is the prophetic remark +about a certain singular group of South American birds, 'This small +family is one of those which, from its varied relations to other +families, although at present offering only difficulties to the +systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand +scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings +have been created.' Of the agouti, once more, that true friend of the +desert, Darwin notes that it does not now range as far south as Port St. +Julian, though Wood in 1670 found it abundant there; and he asks +suggestively, 'What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and +rarely visited country, the range of an animal like this?' Again, when +speaking of the analogies between the extinct camel-like macrauchenia +and the modern guanaco, as well as of those between the fossil and +living species of South American rodents, he says, with even more +prophetic insight, 'This wonderful relationship in the same continent +between the dead and the living will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw +more light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth, and their +disappearance from it, than any other class of facts.' He was himself +destined in another thirty years to prove the truth of his own +vaticination.</p> + +<p>A yet more remarkable passage in the 'Journal of the "Beagle,"' though +entered under the account of events observed in the year 1834, must +almost certainly have been written somewhat later, and subsequently to +Darwin's first reading of Malthus's momentous work,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> 'The Principle of +Population,' which (as we know from his own pen) formed a cardinal point +in the great biologist's mental development. It runs as follows in the +published journal:<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—'We do not steadily bear in mind how profoundly +ignorant we are of the conditions of existence of every animal; nor do +we always remember that some check is constantly preventing the too +rapid increase of every organised being left in a state of nature. The +supply of food, on an average, remains constant; yet the tendency in +every animal to increase by propagation is geometrical, and its +surprising effects have nowhere been more astonishingly shown than in +the case of the European animals run wild during the last few centuries +in America. Every animal in a state of nature regularly breeds; yet in a +species long established any great increase in numbers is obviously +impossible, and must be checked by some means.' Aut Malthus aut +Diabolus. And surely here, if anywhere at all, we tremble on the very +verge of natural selection.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to follow young Darwin in detail through his +journey to Buenos Ayres, and up the Parana to Santa Fé, which occupied +the autumn of 1833. In the succeeding year he visited Patagonia and the +Falkland Islands, having previously made his first acquaintance with +savage life among the naked Fuegians of the extreme southern point of +the continent. Some of these interesting natives, taken to England by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +Captain Fitzroy on a former visit, had accompanied the 'Beagle' through +all her wanderings, and from them Darwin obtained that close insight +into the workings of savage human nature which he afterwards utilised +with such conspicuous ability in the 'Descent of Man.' Through +Magellan's Straits the party made their way up the coasts of Chili, and +Darwin had there an opportunity of investigating the geology and biology +of the Cordillera. The year 1835 was chiefly spent in that temperate +country and in tropical Peru; and as the autumn went on, the 'Beagle' +made her way across a belt of the Pacific to the Galapagos archipelago.</p> + +<p>Small and unimportant as are those little equatorial islands from the +geographical and commercial point of view, they will yet remain for ever +classic ground to the biologists of the future from their close +connection with the master-problems of the 'Origin of Species.' Here +more, perhaps, than anywhere else the naturalist of the 'Beagle' found +himself face to face in real earnest with the ultimate questions of +creation or evolution. A group of tiny volcanic islets, never joined to +any land, nor even united to one another, yet each possessing its own +special zoological features—the Galapagos roused to an extraordinary +degree the irresistible questionings of Darwin's mind. They contain no +frogs, and no mammal save a mouse, brought to them, no doubt, by some +passing ship. The only insects are beetles, which possess peculiar +facilities for being transported in the egg or grub across salt water +upon floating logs. There are two kinds of snake, one tortoise, and four +lizards; but, in striking contrast to this extreme poverty of +terrestrial forms, there are at least fifty-five distinct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> species of +native birds. A few snails complete the list. Now most of these animals, +though closely resembling the fauna of Ecuador, the nearest mainland, +are specifically distinct; they have varied (as we now know) from their +continental types owing to natural selection under the new circumstances +in which they have been placed. But Darwin had not yet evolved that +potent key to the great riddle of organic existence. He saw the problem, +but not its solution. 'Most of the organic productions,' he says +plainly, 'are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a +difference between the inhabitants of the different islands: yet all +show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from +that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in +width.... Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more +astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their +confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the +boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to +believe that within a period geologically recent the unbroken sea was +here spread out. Hence, both in space and time we seem to be brought +somewhat nearer to that great fact—that mystery of mysteries—the first +appearance of new beings on this earth.' Among the most singular of +these zoological facts may be mentioned the existence in the Galapagos +archipelago of a genus of gigantic and ugly lizard, the amblyrhyncus, +unknown elsewhere, but here assuming the forms of two species, the one +marine and the other terrestrial. In minuter points, the differences of +fauna and flora between the various islands are simply astounding, so as +to compel the idea that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> each form must necessarily have been developed +not merely for the group, but for the special island which it actually +inhabits. No wonder that Darwin should say in conclusion, 'One is +astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be +used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands; and still +more so at its diverse, yet analogous, action on points so near each +other.' Here again, in real earnest, the young observer trembles visibly +on the very verge of natural selection. In the 'Origin of Species' he +makes full use, more than once, of the remarkable facts he observed with +so much interest in these tiny isolated oceanic specks of the American +galaxy.</p> + +<p>From the Galapagos the 'Beagle' steered a straight course for Tahiti, +and Darwin then beheld with his own eyes the exquisite beauty of the +Polynesian Islands. Thence they sailed for New Zealand, the most truly +insular large mass of land in the whole world, supplied accordingly with +a fauna and flora of most surprising meagreness and poverty of species. +In the woods, our observer noted very few birds, and he remarks with +astonishment that so big an island—as large as Great Britain—should +not possess a single living indigenous mammal, save a solitary rat of +doubtful origin. Australia and Tasmania, with their antiquated and +stranded marsupial inhabitants, almost completed the round trip. Keeling +Island next afforded a basis for the future famous observations upon +coral reefs; and thence by Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, +Pernambuco, and the beautiful Azores, the 'Beagle' made her way home by +slow stages to England, which she reached in safety on October the 2nd, +1836. What an ideal education<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> for the future reconstructor of +biological science! He had now all his problems cut and dried, ready to +his hand, and he had nothing important left to do—except to sit down +quietly in his study, and proceed to solve them. Observation and +collection had given him one half the subject-matter of the 'Origin of +Species;' reflection and Malthus were to give him the other half. Never +had great mind a nobler chance; never, again, had noble chance a great +mind better adapted by nature and heredity to make the most of it. The +man was not wanting to the opportunity, nor was the opportunity wanting +to the man. Organism and environment fell together into perfect harmony; +and so, by a lucky combination of circumstances, the secret of the ages +was finally wrung from not unwilling nature by the far-seeing and +industrious volunteer naturalist of the 'Beagle' expedition.</p> + +<p>It would be giving a very false idea of the interests which stirred +Charles Darwin's mind during his long five years' voyage, however, if we +were to dwell exclusively upon the biological side of his numerous +observations on that memorable cruise. Ethnology, geology, oceanic +phenomena, the height of the snow-line, the climate of the Antarctic +islands, the formation of icebergs, the transport of boulders, the +habits and manners engendered by slavery, all almost equally aroused in +their own way the young naturalist's vivid interest. Nowhere do we get +the faintest trace of narrow specialism; nowhere are we cramped within +the restricted horizon of the mere vulgar beetle-hunter and +butterfly-catcher. The biologist of the 'Beagle' had taken the whole +world of science for his special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> province. Darwin's mind with all its +vastness was not, indeed, profoundly analytical. The task of working out +the psychological and metaphysical aspects of evolution fell rather to +the great organising and systematising intellect of Herbert Spencer. But +within the realm of material fact, and of the widest possible inferences +based upon such fact, Darwin's keen and comprehensive spirit ranged +freely over the whole illimitable field of nature. 'No one,' says Buckle +with unwonted felicity, 'can have a firm grasp of any science if, by +confining himself to it, he shuts out the light of analogy. He may, no +doubt, work at the details of his subject; he may be useful in adding to +its facts; he will never be able to enlarge its philosophy. For the +philosophy of every department depends on its connection with other +departments, and must therefore be sought at their points of contact. It +must be looked for in the place where they touch and coalesce: it lies, +not in the centre of each science, but on the confines and margin.' This +profound truth Darwin fully and instinctively realised. It was the +all-embracing catholicity of his manifold interests that raised him into +the greatest pure biologist of all time, and that enabled him to +co-ordinate with such splendid results the raw data of so many distinct +and separate sciences. And even as early as the days of the cruise in +the 'Beagle,' that innate catholicity had already asserted itself in +full vigour. Now it is a party of Gauchos throwing the bola that engages +for the moment his eager attention; and now again it is a group of +shivering Fuegians, standing naked with their long hair streaming in the +wind on a snowy promontory of their barren coast.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> Here he examines the +tubular lightning-holes melted in the solid rock of Maldonado by the +electric energy; and there he observes the moving boulder-streams that +course like torrents down the rugged corries of the Falkland Islands. At +one time he works upon the unstudied geology of the South American +Pampas; at another, he inspects the now classical lagoon and narrow +fringing reef of the Keeling archipelago. Everywhere he sees whatever of +most noteworthy in animate or inanimate nature is there to be seen; and +everywhere he draws from it innumerable lessons, to be applied hereafter +to the special field of study upon which his intense and active energies +were finally concentrated. It is not too much to say, indeed, that it +was the voyage of the 'Beagle' which gave us in the last resort the +'Origin of Species' and its great fellow the 'Descent of Man.'</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The full narrative was first given to the world in 1839, +some three years after Darwin's return to England, so that much of it +evidently represents the results of his maturer thinking and reading on +the facts collected during his journey round the world.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<h2>THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION.</h2> + + +<p>When Charles Darwin landed in England on his return from the voyage of +the 'Beagle' he was nearly twenty-eight. When he published the first +edition of the 'Origin of Species' he was over fifty. The intermediate +years, though much occupied by many minor works of deep specialist +scientific importance, were still mainly devoted to collecting material +for the one crowning effort of his life, the chief monument of his great +co-ordinating and commanding intellect—the settlement of the question +of organic evolution.</p> + +<p>'There is one thing,' says Professor Fiske, 'which a man of original +scientific or philosophical genius in a rightly ordered world should +never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to earn a +living; for that is a wretched waste of energy, in which the highest +intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment, and runs the +risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.' From this unhappy +necessity Charles Darwin, like his predecessor Lyell, was luckily free. +He settled down early in a home of his own, and worked away at his own +occupations, with no sordid need for earning the day's bread, but with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +perfect leisure to carry out the great destiny for which the chances of +the universe had singled him out. His subsequent history is the history +of his wonderful and unique contributions to natural science.</p> + +<p>The first thing to be done, of course, was the arrangement and +classification of the natural history spoils gathered during the cruise, +and the preparation of his own journal of the voyage for publication. +The strict scientific results of the trip were described in the 'Zoology +of the Voyage of the "Beagle,"' the different parts of which were +undertaken by rising men of science of the highest distinction, under +Charles Darwin's own editorship. Sir Richard Owen took in hand the +fossil mammals; Waterhouse arranged their living allies; Gould discussed +the birds, Jenyns the fish, and Bell the amphibians and reptiles. In +this vast co-operative publication Darwin thus obtained the assistance +of many among the most competent specialists in the England of his day, +and learned to understand his own collections by the light thrown upon +them from the focussed lamps of the most minute technical learning. As +for the journal, it was originally published with the general account of +the cruise by Captain Fitzroy in 1839, but was afterwards set forth in a +separate form under the title of 'A Naturalist's Voyage Round the +World.'</p> + +<p>But while Darwin was thus engaged in arranging and classifying the +animals and plants he had brought home with him, the germs of those +inquiring ideas about the origin of species which we have already +observed in his account of the voyage were quickening into fresh life +within him. As he ruminated at his leisure over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> the results of his +accumulations, he was beginning to work upon the great problem with the +definite and conscious resolution of solving it. 'On my return home, it +occurred to me,' he says, 'in 1837, that something might perhaps be made +out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all +sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five +years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up +some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the +conclusions that then seemed to me probable; from that period to the +present day [1859] I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that +I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them +to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.'</p> + +<p>So Darwin wrote at fifty. The words are weighty and well worthy of +consideration. They give us in a nutshell the true secret of Darwin's +success in compelling the attention and assent of his contemporaries to +his completed theory. For speculations and hypotheses like those of +Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin, however brilliant and luminous they may be, +the hard, dry, scientific mind cares as a rule less than nothing. Men of +genius and insight like Goethe and Oken may, indeed, seize greedily upon +the pregnant suggestion; their intellects are already attuned by nature +to its due reception and assimilation; but the mere butterfly-catchers +and plant-hunters of the world, with whom after all rests ultimately the +practical acceptance or rejection of such a theory, can only be +convinced by long and patient accumulations of facts, by infinite +instances and endless examples, by exhaustive surveys<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> of the whole +field of nature in a thousand petty details piecemeal. They have to be +driven by repeated beating into the right path. Everywhere they fancy +they see the loophole of an objection, which must be carefully closed +beforehand against them with anticipatory argument, as we close hedges +by the wayside against the obtrusive donkey with a cautious bunch of +thorny brambles. Even if Charles Darwin had hit upon the fundamental +idea of natural selection, and had published it, as Wallace did, in the +form of a mere splendid <i>aperçu</i>, he would never have revolutionised the +world of biology. When the great discovery was actually promulgated, it +was easy enough to win the assent of philosophical thinkers like Herbert +Spencer; easy enough, even, to gain the ready adhesion of non-biological +but kindred minds, like Leslie Stephen's and John Morley's; those might +all, perhaps, have been readily convinced by far less heavy and crushing +artillery than that so triumphantly marshalled together in the 'Origin +of Species.' But in order to command the slow and grudging adhesion of +the rank and file of scientific workers, the 'hodmen of science,' as +Professor Huxley calls them, it was needful to bring together an +imposing array of closely serried facts, to secure every post in the +rear before taking a single step onward, and to bring to bear upon every +antagonist the exact form of argument with which he was already +thoroughly familiar. It was by carefully pursuing these safe and +cautious philosophical tactics that Charles Darwin gained his great +victory. Where others were pregnant, he was cogent. He met the +Dryasdusts of science on their own ground, and he put them fairly to +flight with their own weapons.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> More than that, he brought them all over +in the long run as deserters into his own camp, and converted them from +doubtful and suspicious foes into warm adherents of the evolutionary +banner.</p> + +<p>Moreover, fortunately for the world, Darwin's own mind was essentially +one of the inductive type. If a great deductive thinker and speculator +like Herbert Spencer had hit upon the self-same idea of survival of the +fittest, he might have communicated it to a small following of receptive +disciples, who would have understood it and accepted it, on <i>a priori</i> +grounds alone, and gradually passed it on to the grades beneath them; +but he would never have touched the slow and cautious elephantine +intellect of the masses. The common run of mankind are not deductive; +they require to have everything made quite clear to them by example and +instance. The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule +congenitally incapable of appreciating the superior logical certitude of +the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square +on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until +they have measured and weighed as well as they are able by rude +experimental devices a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular +paper. It was a great gain, therefore, that the task of reconstructing +the course of organic evolution should fall to the lot of a highly +trained and masterly intelligence of the inductive order. Darwin had +first to convince himself, and then he could proceed to convince the +world. He set about the task with characteristic patience and +thoroughness. No man that ever lived possessed in a more remarkable +degree than he did the innate capacity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> for taking trouble. For five +years, as a mere preliminary, he accumulated facts in immense variety, +and then for the first time and in the vaguest possible way he—'allowed +himself to speculate.' That brings us down to the year 1842, when the +first notes of the 'Origin of Species' must have been tentatively +committed to paper. It was in 1859 that the first edition of the +complete work was given to the world. Compare this with the case of +Newton, who similarly kept his grand idea of gravitation for many years +in embryo, until more exact measurements of the moon's mass and distance +should enable him to verify it to his own satisfaction.</p> + +<p>One other item of immense importance in the genesis of the full +Darwinian doctrine deserves mention here—I mean, the exact moment of +time occupied by Charles Darwin in the continuous history of scientific +thought. A generation or two earlier, in Erasmus Darwin's days, biology +had not yet arrived at the true classification of animals and plants +upon an essentially hereditary basis. The Linnæan arrangement, then +universally accepted, was wholly artificial in its main features; it +distributed species without regard to their fundamental likenesses of +structure and organisation. But the natural system of Jussieu and De +Candolle, by arranging plants into truly related groups, made possible +the proofs of an order of affiliation in the vegetable kingdom; while +Cuvier's similar reconstruction of the animal world gave a like foothold +to the evolutionary philosopher in the other great department of organic +nature. The recognition of kinship between the various members of the +same family necessarily preceded the establishment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> of a regular +genealogical theory of life in its entirety.</p> + +<p>Though we are here concerned mainly with Charles Darwin the thinker and +writer—not with Charles Darwin the husband and father—a few words of +explanation as to his private life must necessarily be added at the +present point, before we pass on to consider the long, slow, and +cautious brewing of that wonderful work, the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +returned home from the voyage of the 'Beagle' at the end of the year +1836. Soon after, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, no doubt +through the influence of his friend Lyell, who was quite enthusiastic +over his splendid geological investigations on the rate of elevation in +the Pampas and the Cordillera. Acting on Lyell's advice, too, he +determined to seek no official appointment, but to devote himself +entirely for the rest of his life to the pursuit of science. In 1838, at +the age of twenty-nine, he read before the Geological Society his paper +on the 'Connection of Volcanic Phenomena with the Elevation of Mountain +Chains,' when, says Lyell admiringly in a private letter, 'he opened +upon De la Beche, Phillips, and others'—the veterans of the +science—'his whole battery of the earthquakes and volcanoes of the +Andes.' Shortly after, the audacious young man was appointed secretary +to the Geological Society, a post which he filled when the voyage of the +'Beagle' was first published in 1839.</p> + +<p>In the early part of that same year, the rising naturalist took to +himself a wife from one of the houses to which he himself owed no small +part of his conspicuous greatness. His choice fell upon his cousin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +Miss Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of Maer Hall; and, +after three years of married life in London, he settled at last at Down +House, near Orpington, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed +his time among his conservatories and his pigeons, his garden and his +fowls, with his children growing up quietly beside him, and the great +thinking world of London within easy reach of a few minutes' journey. +His private means enabled him to live the pleasant life of an English +country gentleman, and devote himself unremittingly to the pursuit of +science. Ill health, indeed, interfered sadly with his powers of work; +but system and patience did wonders during his working days, which were +regularly parcelled out between study and recreation, and utilised and +economised in the very highest possible degree. Early to bed and early +to rise, wandering unseen among the lanes and paths, or riding slowly on +his favourite black cob, the great naturalist passed forty years happily +and usefully at Down, where all the village knew and loved him. A man of +singular simplicity and largeness of heart, Charles Darwin never really +learnt to know his own greatness. And that charming innocence and +ignorance of his real value made the value itself all the greater. His +moral qualities, indeed, were no less admirable and unique in their way +than his intellectual faculties. To that charming candour and delightful +unostentatiousness which everybody must have noticed in his published +writings, he united in private life a kindliness of disposition, a width +of sympathy, and a ready generosity which made him as much beloved by +his friends as he was admired and respected by all Europe. The very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +servants who came beneath his roof stopped there for the most part +during their whole lifetime. In his earlier years at Down, the quiet +Kentish home was constantly enlivened by the visits of men like Lyell, +Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and Wollaston. During his later days, it was +the Mecca of a world-wide scientific and philosophic pilgrimage, where +all the greatest men our age has produced sought at times the rare +honour of sitting before the face of the immortal master. But to the +very last Darwin himself never seemed to discover that he was anything +more than just an average man of science among his natural peers.</p> + +<p>Shortly after Darwin went to Down he began one long and memorable +experiment, which in itself casts a flood of light upon his patient and +painstaking method of inquiry. Two years before, he had read at the +Geological Society a paper on the 'Formation of Mould,' which more than +thirty years later he expanded into his famous treatise on the 'Action +of Earthworms.' His uncle and father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, suggested +to him that the apparent sinking of stones on the surface might really +be due to earthworm castings. So, as soon as he had some land of his own +to experiment upon, he began, in 1842, to spread broken chalk over a +field at Down, in which, twenty-nine years later, in 1871, a trench was +dug to test the results. What other naturalist ever waited so long and +so patiently to discover the upshot of a single experiment? Is it +wonderful that a man who worked like that should succeed, not by faith +but by logical power, in removing mountains?</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, we do not know the exact date when Darwin first read +Malthus. But that the perusal of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> that remarkable book formed a crisis +and turning-point in his mental development we know from his own +distinct statement in a letter to Haeckel, prefixed to the brilliant +German evolutionist's 'History of Creation.' 'It seemed to me probable,' +says Darwin, speaking of his own early development, 'that allied species +were descended from a common ancestor. But during several years I could +not conceive how each form could have been modified so as to become +admirably adapted to its place in nature. I began therefore to study +domesticated animals and cultivated plants, and after a time perceived +that man's power of selecting and breeding from certain individuals was +the most powerful of all means in the production of new races. Having +attended to the habits of animals and their relations to the surrounding +conditions, I was able to realise the severe struggle for existence to +which all organisms are subjected; and my geological observations had +allowed me to appreciate to a certain extent the duration of past +geological periods. With my mind thus prepared I fortunately happened to +read Malthus's "Essay on Population" and the idea of natural selection +through the struggle for existence at once occurred to me. Of all the +subordinate points in the theory, the last which I understood was the +cause of the tendency in the descendants from a common progenitor to +diverge in character.'</p> + +<p>It is impossible, indeed, to overrate the importance of Malthus, viewed +as a schoolmaster to bring men to Darwin, and to bring Darwin himself to +the truth. Without the 'Essay on the Principle of Population' it is +quite conceivable that we should never have had the 'Origin of Species' +or the 'Descent of Man.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the same time, Darwin had not been idle in other departments of +scientific work. Side by side with his collections for his final effort +he had been busy on his valuable treatise upon Coral Reefs, in which he +proved, mainly from his own observations on the Keeling archipelago, +that atolls owe their origin to a subsidence of the supporting +ocean-floor, the rate of upward growth of the reefs keeping pace on the +whole with the gradual depression of the sea-bottom. 'No more admirable +example of scientific method,' says Professor Geikie forty years later, +'was ever given to the world; and even if he had written nothing else, +this treatise alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of +investigators of nature.' But, from our present psychological and +historical point of view, as a moment in the development of Darwin's +influence, and therefore of the evolutionary impulse in general, it +possesses a still greater and more profound importance, because the work +in which the theory is unfolded forms a perfect masterpiece of thorough +and comprehensive inductive method, and gained for its author a +well-deserved reputation as a sound and sober scientific inquirer. The +acquisition of such a reputation, afterwards increased by the +publication of the monograph on the Family Cirripedia (in 1851), proved +of immense use to Charles Darwin in the fierce battle which was to rage +around the unconscious body of the 'Origin of Species.' To be 'sound' is +everywhere of incalculable value; to have approved oneself to the slow +and cautious intelligence of the Philistine classes is a mighty spear +and shield for a strong man; but in England, and above all in scientific +England, it is absolutely indispensable to the thinker who would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +accomplish any great revolution. Soundness is to the world of science +what respectability is to the world of business—the <i>sine qua non</i> for +successfully gaining even a hearing from established personages.</p> + +<p>To read the book on Coral Reefs is indeed to take a lesson of the +deepest value in applied inductive canons. Every fact is duly +marshalled: every conclusion is drawn by the truest and most legitimate +process from careful observation or crucial experiment. Bit by bit, +Darwin shows most admirably that, through gradual submergence, fringing +reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and these again into atolls or +lagoon islands; and incidentally he throws a vivid light on the slow +secular movements upward or downward for ever taking place in the +world's crust. But the value of the work as a geological record, great +as it is, is as nothing compared with its value as a training exercise +in inductive logic. Darwin was now learning by experience how to use his +own immense powers.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the environment too had been gradually moving. In 1832, the +year after young Darwin set out upon his cruise, Lyell published the +first edition of his 'Principles of Geology,' establishing once for all +the uniformitarian concept of that branch of science. In 1836, the year +when he returned, Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora of North America,' had +accepted within certain cramping limits the idea that 'all species might +once have been varieties, and that many varieties are gradually becoming +species by assuming constant and peculiar characters.' Haldeman in +Boston, and Grant at University College, London, were teaching from +their professorial chairs the self-same novel and revolutionary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +doctrine. At last, in 1844, Robert Chambers published anonymously his +famous and much-debated 'Vestiges of Creation,' which brought down the +question of evolution <i>versus</i> creation from the senate of <i>savants</i> to +the arena of the mere general public, and set up at once a universal +fever of inquiry into the mysterious question of the origin of species. +Chambers himself was a man rather of general knowledge and some native +philosophical insight than of any marked scientific accuracy or depth. +His work in its original form displayed comparatively little +acquaintance with the vast groundwork of the question at +issue—zoological, botanical, geological, and so forth—and in Charles +Darwin's own opinion showed 'a great want of scientific caution.' But +its graphic style, its vivid picturesqueness, and to the world at large +the startling novelty of its brilliant and piquant suggestions, made it +burst at once into an unwonted popularity for a work of so distinctly +philosophical a character. In nine years it leaped rapidly through no +less than ten successive editions, and remained until the publication of +the 'Origin of Species' the chief authoritative exponent in England of +the still struggling evolutionary principle.</p> + +<p>The 'Vestiges of Creation' may be succinctly described as Lamarck and +water, the watery element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion +(<i>more Scotico</i>) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the +physical universe. Chambers himself, in his latest edition (before the +book was finally killed by the advent of Darwinism), thus briefly +describes his main concepts: 'The several series of animated beings, +from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, +under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> the providence of God, the results, <i>first</i>, of an impulse which +has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite +times, by generation, through grades of organisation, terminating in the +highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, +and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to +be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; <i>second</i>, of +another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course +of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external +circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric +agencies.' Now it is clear at once that these two supposed 'impulses' +are really quite miraculous in their essence. They do not help us at all +to a distinct physical and realisable conception of any natural agency +whereby species became differentiated one from the other. They lay the +whole burden of species-making upon a single primordial supernatural +impetus, imparted to the first living germ by the will of the Creator, +and acting ever since continuously it is true, but none the less +miraculously for all that. For many creations Chambers substitutes one +single long creative nisus: where Darwin saw natural selection, his +Scotch predecessor saw a <i>deus ex machina</i>, helping on the course of +organic development by a constant but unseen interference from above. He +supposed evolution to be predetermined by some intrinsic and externally +implanted proclivity. In short, Chambers's theory is Lamarck's +theologised, and spoilt in the process.</p> + +<p>The book had nevertheless a most prodigious and perfectly unprecedented +success. The secret of its authorship was keenly debated and jealously +kept. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> most ridiculous surmises as to its anonymous origin were +everywhere afloat. Some attributed it to Thackeray, and some to Prince +Albert, some to Lyell, some to Sir John Herschel, and some to Charles +Darwin himself. Obscurantists thought it a wicked book; 'intellectual' +people thought it an advanced book. As a matter of fact it was neither +the one nor the other. It was just a pale and colourless transcript of +the old familiar teleological Lamarckism. Yet it did good in its +generation. The public at large were induced by its ephemeral vogue to +interest themselves in a question to which they had never previously +given even a passing thought, though more practised biologists of +evolutionary tendencies were grieved at heart that evolution should +first have been popularly presented to the English world under so +unscientific, garbled, and mutilated a form. From the philosophic side, +Herbert Spencer found 'this ascription of organic evolution to some +aptitude naturally possessed by organisms or miraculously imposed upon +them' to be 'one of those explanations which explain nothing—a shaping +of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge. The cause assigned,' he +says, 'is not a true cause—not a cause assimilable to known causes—not +a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous effects. It is a +cause unrepresentable in thought: one of those illegitimate symbolic +conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real +conception.' From the scientific side, on the other hand, Darwin felt +sadly the inaccuracy and want of profound technical knowledge everywhere +displayed by the anonymous author. These things might naturally cause +the enemy to blaspheme.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> No worse calamity, indeed, can happen to a +great truth than for its defence to be intrusted to inefficient hands. +Nevertheless, long after, in the 'Origin of Species,' the great +naturalist wrote with generous appreciation of the 'Vestiges of +Creation,' 'In my own opinion it has done excellent service in this +country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and +in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.'</p> + +<p>Still Darwin gave no sign. A flaccid, cartilaginous, unphilosophic +evolutionism had full possession of the field for the moment, and +claimed, as it were, to be the genuine representative of the young and +vigorous biological creed, while he himself was in truth the real heir +to all the honours of the situation. He was in possession of the +master-key which alone could unlock the bars that opposed the progress +of evolution, and still he waited. He could afford to wait. He was +diligently collecting, amassing, investigating; eagerly reading every +new systematic work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, +every record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract from the +dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of implicit value might swell +the definite co-ordinated series of notes in his own commonplace books +for the now distinctly contemplated 'Origin of Species.' His way was to +make all sure behind him, to summon up all his facts in irresistible +array, and never to set out upon a public progress until he was secure +against all possible attacks of the ever-watchful and alert enemy in the +rear. Few men would have had strength of mind enough to resist the +temptation offered by the publication of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and +the extraordinary success attained by so flabby a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> presentation of the +evolutionary case: Darwin resisted it, and he did wisely.</p> + +<p>We may, however, take it for granted, I doubt not, that it was the +appearance and success of Chambers's invertebrate book which induced +Darwin, in 1844 (the year of its publication), to enlarge his short +notes 'into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to him +probable.' This sketch he showed to Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, no +doubt as a precaution to ensure his own claim of priority against any +future possible competitor. And having thus eased his mind for the +moment, he continued to observe, to read, to devour 'Transactions,' to +collate instances, with indefatigable persistence for fifteen years +longer. If any man mentally measures out fifteen years of his own life, +and bethinks him of how long a space it seems when thus deliberately +pictured, he will be able to realise a little more definitely—but only +a little—how profound was the patience, the self-denial, the +single-mindedness of Darwin's intense search after the ultimate truths +of natural science.</p> + +<p>What was the sketch that he thus committed to paper in 1844, and +submitted to the judgment of his friend Hooker? It was the germ of the +theory of natural selection. According to that theory, organic +development is due to the survival of the fittest among innumerable +variations, good, bad, and indifferent, from one or more parent stocks. +Darwin's reading of Malthus had suggested to him (apparently as early as +the date of publication of the 'Naturalist's Journal') the idea that +every species of plant and animal must always be producing a far greater +number of seeds, eggs, germs, or young offspring than could possibly be +needed for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> the maintenance of the average number of the species. Of +these young, by far the greater number must always perish from +generation to generation, for want of space, of food, of air, of raw +material. The survivors in each brood must be those naturally best +adapted for survival. The many would be eaten, starved, overrun, or +crowded out; the few that survive would be those that possessed any +special means of defence against aggressors, any special advantage for +escaping starvation, any special protection against overrunning or +overcrowding foes. Animals and plants, Darwin found on inquiry and +investigation, tended to vary under diverse circumstances from the +parent or parents that originally produced them. These variations were +usually infinitesimal in amount, but sometimes more considerable or even +striking. If any particular variation tended in any way to preserve the +life of the creatures that exhibited it, beyond the average of their +like competitors, that variation would in the long run survive, and the +individuals that possessed it, being thus favoured in the struggle for +existence, would replace the less adapted form from which they sprang. +Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of +the calculus of population to the wide facts of universal life.</p> + +<p>In one sense, indeed, it may be said that, given Malthus on the one hand +and the Lamarckian evolutionism on the other, some great man somewhere +must sooner or later, almost of necessity, have combined the two, and +hit out the doctrine of natural selection as we actually know it. Quite +so; but then the point is just this: Darwin <i>was</i> the great man in +question; he <i>did</i> the work which in the very essence of things some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +such great man was naturally and inevitably predestined to do. You can +always easily manage to get on without any particular great man, +provided, of course, you have ready to hand another equally able great +man by whom to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how many +ordinary naturalists possess the width of mind and universality of +interest which would prompt them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest a politico-economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus? How +many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to perceive the +ensuing biological implications? How many, having seen them, have the +skill and the patience to work up the infinite chaos of botanical and +zoological detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the 'Origin +of Species'? Merely to have caught at the grand idea is in itself no +small achievement; others did so and deserve all honour for their +insight; but to flesh it out with all the minute care and conclusive +force of Darwin's masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler +monument of human endeavour.</p> + +<p>During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, however, Darwin's pen was by +no means idle. In the first-named year he published his 'Geological +Observations on Volcanic Islands'—part of the 'Beagle' exploration +series; in 1846 he followed this up by his 'Geological Observations on +South America;' in 1851 he gave to the world his monograph on 'Recent +Barnacles;' and in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same +family. But all these works of restricted interest remained always +subsidiary to the one great central task of his entire lifetime, the +preparation of his projected volume on the Origin of Species.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>All through the middle decades of the century Darwin continued to labour +at his vast accumulation of illustrative facts; and side by side with +his continuous toil, outside opinion kept paving the way for the final +acceptance of his lucid ideas. The public was buying and reading all the +time its ten editions of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It was slowly +digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic +theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a +past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively +established. It was getting accustomed to statements like those of the +younger St. Hilaire, in 1850, that specific characters may be modified +by changes in the environing conditions, and that the modifications thus +produced may often be of generic value—may make a difference so great +that we must regard the product not merely as belonging to a distinct +species, but even to a distinct genus or higher kind. In 1852 Herbert +Spencer published in the 'Leader' his remarkable essay, contrasting the +theories of creation and evolution, as applied to organic beings, with +all the biting force of his profound intelligence; and in 1855, the same +encyclopædic philosopher put forth the first rough sketch of his +'Principles of Psychology,' in which he took the lead in treating the +phenomena of mind from the point of view of gradual development. In that +extraordinary work, the philosopher of evolution traced the origin of +all mental powers and faculties by slow gradations from the very +simplest subjective elements. The 'Principles of Psychology' preceded +the 'Origin of Species' by nearly five years; the first collected volume +of Mr. Spencer's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> essays preceded Darwin's work by some twelve months. +Baden-Powell's essay on the 'Philosophy of Creation' (much debated and +condemned in ecclesiastical circles), and Professor Owen's somewhat +contradictory utterances on the nature of types and archetypal ideas, +also helped to keep alive interest in the problem of origins up to the +very moment of the final appearance of Darwin's great and splendid +solution.</p> + +<p>It is interesting during these intermediate years to watch from time to +time the occasional side-hints of Darwin's activity and of the interest +it aroused among his scientific contemporaries. In 1854, for example, +Sir Charles Lyell notes, after an evening at Darwin's, how Sir Joseph +Hooker astonished him with an account of that strange orchid, Catasetum, +which bears three totally distinct kinds of flowers on the same plant; +'It will figure,' he says, 'in C. Darwin's book on species, with many +other "ugly facts," as Hooker, clinging like me to the orthodox faith, +calls these and other abnormal vagaries.' On a similar occasion, a +little later, Lyell asks, after meeting 'Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston +at Darwin's,' 'After all, did we not come from an ourang?' Last of all, +in 1857, Darwin himself writes an anticipatory letter to his American +friend, Asa Gray, in which he mentions 'six points'—the cardinal +conceptions of the 'Origin of Species.' His book is now fairly under +weigh; he speaks of it himself to acquaintance and correspondents as an +acknowledged project.</p> + +<p>Events were growing ripe for the birth. A lucky accident precipitated +its parturition in the course of the year 1858.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<h2>'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.'</h2> + + +<p>The accident came in this wise.</p> + +<p>Alfred Russel Wallace, a young Welsh biologist, went out at twenty-four, +in 1848, to the Amazons River, in company with Bates (the author of 'The +Naturalist on the Amazons'), to collect birds and butterflies, and to +study tropical life in the richest region of equatorial America. Like +all other higher zoologists of their time, the two young explorers were +deeply interested in the profound questions of origin and metamorphosis, +and of geographical distribution, and in the letters that passed between +them before they started they avowed to one another that the object of +their quest was a solution of the pressing biological enigma of creation +or evolution. Starting with fresh hopes and a few pounds in pocket, on +an old, worn-out, and unseaworthy slave-trader, they often discussed +these deep problems of life and nature together upon the Sargasso sea, +or among the palms and lianas of the Brazilian woodlands. The air was +thick with whiffs and foretastes of evolutionism, and the two budding +naturalists of the Amazons expedition had inhaled them eagerly with +every breath. They saw among the mimicking organisms of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> equatorial +zone strange puzzles to engage their deepest attention; they recognised +in the veins and spots that diversified the filmy membranes of insects' +wings the hieroglyphs of nature, writing as on a tablet for them to +decipher the story of the slow modification of species. In 1852—the +year when Herbert Spencer in England published his essay on the +'Development Hypothesis,' and when Naudin in France put forth his bold +and able paper on the 'Origin of Species'—Wallace once more returned to +Europe, and gave to the world his interesting 'Travels on the Amazons +and the Rio Negro.' Two years later the indefatigable traveller set out +a second time on a voyage of tropical exploration, among the islands of +the Malay archipelago, and for eight years he wandered about in Malay +huts and remote islets, gathering in solitude and isolation the enormous +store of minute facts which he afterwards lavished with so prodigal a +hand upon 'Tropical Nature,' and the 'Geographical Distribution of +Animals.'</p> + +<p>While Wallace was still at Amboyna, he sent home in 1858 a striking +memoir, addressed to Darwin, with a request that he would forward it to +Sir Charles Lyell, for presentation to the Linnean Society. Darwin +opened and read his brother naturalist's paper, and found to his +surprise that it contained his own theory of natural selection, not +worked out in detail, as he himself was working it out, but still +complete in spirit and essence, with no important portion of the central +idea lacking to its full rotundity of conception. A jealous man would +have thrown obstacles in the way of publication; but both Darwin and +Wallace were born superior to the meannesses of jealousy. The elder +naturalist commended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> his young rival's paper at once to Sir Charles +Lyell, who sent it on immediately to the Linnean Society.</p> + +<p>But Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, both of whom knew of +Darwin's work, thought it advisable that he should publish, in the +'Journal' of the Society, a few extracts from his own manuscripts, side +by side with Wallace's paper. Darwin, therefore, selected some essential +passages for the purpose from his own long-gathered and voluminous +notes, and the two contributions were read together before the Society +on July the 1st, 1858. That double communication marks the date of birth +of modern evolutionism. It is to the eternal credit of both thinkers +that each accepted his own true position with regard to the great +discovery in perfect sincerity. The elder naturalist never strove for a +moment to press his own claim to priority against the younger: the +younger, with singular generosity and courtesy, waived his own claim to +divide the honours of discovery in favour of the elder. Not one word +save words of fraternal admiration and cordial appreciation ever passed +the lips of either with regard to the other.</p> + +<p>The distinctive notion of natural selection, indeed, like all true and +fruitful ideas, had more than once flashed for a moment across the +penetrating mind of more than one independent investigator. As early as +1813, Dr. Wells, the famous author of the theory of dew, applied that +particular conception to the single case of the production of special +races among mankind.</p> + +<p>'Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first +few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa,' he +wrote, 'some one would be better fitted than the others to bear the +diseases of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> the country. This race would consequently multiply, while +the others would decrease; not only from their inability to sustain the +attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending with their +more vigorous neighbours.... The same disposition to form varieties +still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time +occur; and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this +would at last become the most prevalent, if not the only race in the +country.' Here we have not merely the radical concept of natural +selection, but also the subordinate idea of its exertion upon what +Darwin calls 'spontaneous variations.' What is wanting in the paper is +the application of the faintly descried law to the facts and +circumstances of general biology: Wells saw only a particular instance, +where Darwin and Wallace more vividly perceived a universal principle. +Again, in 1831, Mr. Patrick Matthew in that singular appendix to his +book on naval timber actually enunciates the same idea, applied this +time to the whole of nature, in words sometimes almost identical with +Darwin's own. 'As nature in all her modifications of life,' says this +unconscious discoverer, '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.... The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised life +may, in part, be traced to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> 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 thousandfold) 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.' Of the ideas expressed in these paragraphs, and +others which preceded them, Darwin himself rightly observes, 'He gives +precisely the same view on the origin of species as that propounded by +Mr. Wallace and myself. He clearly saw the full force of the principle +of natural selection.'</p> + +<p>In 1852, once more, so eminent and confirmed an evolutionist as Mr. +Herbert Spencer himself had hit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> upon a glimpse of the same great truth, +strange to say without perceiving the width and scope of its +implications. 'All mankind,' he wrote in that year in an essay on +population in the 'Westminster Review,' 'in turn subject themselves more +or less to the discipline described; they either may or may not advance +under it; but, in the nature of things, only those who <i>do</i> advance +under it eventually survive. For, necessarily, families and races whom +this increasing difficulty of getting a living which excess of fertility +entails does not stimulate to improvements in production.... are on the +high road to extinction; and must ultimately be supplanted by those whom +the pressure does so stimulate.... And here, indeed, without further +illustration, it will be seen that premature death, under all its forms, +and from all its causes, cannot fail to work in the same direction. For +as those prematurely carried off must, in the average of cases, be those +in whom the power of self-preservation is the least, it unavoidably +follows that those left behind to continue the race must be those in +whom the power of self-preservation is the greatest, must be the select +of their generation.' In this striking pre-Darwinian passage we have a +partial perception of what Mr. Spencer afterwards described as the +survival of the fittest; but, as our great philosopher himself remarks, +it 'shows how near one may be to a great generalisation without seeing +it.' For not only does Mr. Spencer, like Wells before him, limit the +application of the principle to the case of humanity; but, unlike Wells, +he overlooks the all-important factor of spontaneous variation, and the +power of natural selection, acting upon such, to produce specific and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +generic divergences of structure. In short, in his own words, the +paragraph 'contains merely a passing recognition of the selective +process, and indicates no suspicion of the enormous range of its +effects, or of the conditions under which a large part of its effects +are produced.' On the other hand, it must be noted that both Spencer and +Matthew, like Darwin himself, based their ideas largely upon the +Malthusian principle, and thus held the two true keys of the situation +fairly within their unconscious hands.</p> + +<p>Frankly to recognise these various foreshadowings of the distinctive +Darwinian theory of natural selection is not in any way to undermine the +foundations of Charles Darwin's own real and exceptional greatness. On +the contrary, the mere fact that his views were so far anticipated by +Wells, Matthew, Spencer, and others, and were simultaneously arrived at +across half the globe by the independent intellect of Alfred Russel +Wallace, is in itself the very best proof and finest criterion of +Charles Darwin's genuine apostleship. No truly grand and fruitful idea +was ever yet the sole property of a single originator. Great +discoveries, says an acute critic, must always be concerned with some +problem of the time which many of the world's foremost minds are just +then cudgelling their active brains about. It was so with the discovery +of the differential calculus, and of the planet Neptune; with the +interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and of the cuneiform +inscriptions; with the undulatory theory of light, with the mechanical +equivalent of heat, with the doctrine of the correlation and +conservation of energies, with the invention of the steam engine, the +locomotive, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> telegraph and the telephone; with the nebular +hypothesis, and with spectrum analysis. It was so, too, with the +evolutionary movement. The fertile upturning of virgin sod in the +biological field which produced Darwin's forerunners, as regards the +idea of descent with modification, in the persons of Buffon, Lamarck, +and Erasmus Darwin, necessarily produced a little later, under the fresh +impetus of the Malthusian conception, his forerunners or coadjutors, as +regards the idea of natural selection, in the persons of Wells, Matthew, +and Wallace. It was Darwin's task to recognise the universal, where +Wells and Spencer had seen only the particular; to build up a vast and +irresistible inductive system, where Matthew and Wallace had but thrown +out a pregnant hint of wonderful <i>a priori</i> interest and suggestiveness. +It is one thing to draw out the idea of a campaign, another thing to +carry it to a successful conclusion; one thing rudely to sketch a +ground-plan, another thing finally to pile aloft to the sky the front of +an august and imposing fabric.</p> + +<p>As soon as the papers at the Linnean had been read and printed, Darwin +set to work in real earnest to bring out the first instalment of his +great work. That instalment was the 'Origin of Species.' The first +edition was ready for the public on November the 24th, 1859.</p> + +<p>In his own mind Darwin regarded that immortal work merely in the light +of an abstract of his projected volumes. So immense were his collections +and so voluminous his notes that the 'Origin of Species' itself seemed +to him like a mere small portion of the contemplated publication. And +indeed he did ultimately work out several other portions of his original +plan in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> detailed treatises on the Variation of Animals and Plants +under Domestication, on the Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation, and +on the Descent of Man and Sexual Selection. But the immense and +unexpected vogue of his first volume, the almost immediate revolution +which it caused in biological and general opinion, and the all but +universal adhesion to his views of all the greatest and most rising +naturalists, to a great extent saved him the trouble of carrying out in +full the task he had originally contemplated as necessary. Younger and +less occupied labourers took part of the work off their leader's hands; +the great chief was left to prosecute his special researches in some +special lines, and was relieved from the necessity of further proving in +minuter detail what he had already proved with sufficient cogency to +convince all but the wilfully blind or the hopelessly stupid.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary and unprecedented success of the 'Origin of Species' +is the truest test of the advance it made upon all previous evolutionary +theorising. Those who had never been convinced before were now convinced +by sheer force of reasoning; those who believed and those who wavered +had their faith confirmed into something like the reposeful calm of +absolute certitude.</p> + +<p>Let us consider, therefore, what exactly were the additions which +Charles Darwin offered in his epoch-making work to the pre-existing +conceptions of evolutionists.</p> + +<p>In 1852, seven years before the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, Mr. +Herbert Spencer wrote as follows in an essay in the 'Leader' on creation +and evolution. The expressions of so profound and philosophical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> a +biologist may be regarded as the high-water mark of evolutionary +thinking up to the date of the appearance of Wallace and Darwin's +theory:—</p> + +<p>'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 <i>are</i> 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 +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 <i>is</i> at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +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.'</p> + +<p>This admirable passage, written seven years before the publication of +the 'Origin of Species,' contains explicitly almost every idea that +ordinary people, not specially biological in their interests, now +associate with the name of Darwin. That is to say, it contains, in a +very philosophical and abstract form, the theory of 'descent with +modification' <i>without</i> the distinctive Darwinian adjunct of 'natural +selection' or 'survival of the fittest.' Yet it was just that particular +lever, dexterously applied, and carefully weighted with the whole weight +of his endlessly accumulated inductive instances, that finally enabled +our modern Archimedes in so short a time to move the world. The public, +that was deaf to the high philosophy of Herbert Spencer, listened at +once to the practical wisdom of Charles Darwin. They did not care at all +for the <i>a priori</i> proof, but they believed forthwith as soon as a +cautious and careful investigator laid bare before their eyes in minute +detail the <i>modus operandi</i> of nature herself.</p> + +<p>The main argument of Darwin's chief work runs somewhat after the +following fashion<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>Variation, to a greater or less degree, is a common and well-known fact +in nature. More especially, animals and plants under domestication tend +to vary from one another far more than do the individuals of any one +species in the wild state. Rabbits in a warren are all alike in shape, +size, colour, and features: rabbits in a hutch vary indefinitely in the +hue of their fur, the length of their ears, the character of their coat, +and half a dozen other minor particulars, well known to the observant +souls of boys and fanciers. This great variability, though partly +perhaps referable to excess of food, is probably due on the whole to +their having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and +somewhat different from, those to which the parent species is commonly +exposed in a state of nature. In other words, variability is one result +of altered and more varied surrounding circumstances.</p> + +<p>Again, this variability is usually indefinite. You cannot say what +direction it will take, or to what particular results it is likely in +any special instance to lead. Marked differences sometimes occur even +between the young of the same litter, or between the seedlings sown from +the same capsule. As a rule, the variations exhibit themselves in +connection with sexual reproduction; but sometimes, as in the case of +'sporting plants,' a new bud suddenly produces leaves or flowers of a +different character from the rest of those on the self-same stem, thus +showing that the tendency to vary is inherent, as it were, in the +organism itself. Upon this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> fundamental fact of the existence in nature +of numerous and indefinite variations, the whole theory of natural +selection is ultimately built up. In illustrating by example the immense +variability of domesticated creatures, Darwin lays great stress upon the +case of pigeons, with which he was familiar from his long experience as +a breeder and fancier in his own home at Down. Naturalists are almost +universally of opinion that all the breeds of domestic pigeons, from the +carrier to the tumbler, from the runt to the fantail, are alike +descended from the wild rock pigeon of the European coasts. The immense +amount of variation which this original species has undergone in +domestication may be seen by comparing the numberless breeds of pigeon +now exhibited at all our poultry shows with one another.</p> + +<p>But variation gives us only half the elements of the ultimate problem, +even in the case of domestic kinds. For the other half, we must have +recourse to human selection, which, by picking out for seed or breeding +purposes certain specially favoured varieties, has produced at last all +the purposive or intentional diversity between the different existing +stocks or breeds. In these artificially produced domestic races we see +everywhere special adaptations to man's particular use or fancy. The +dray-horse has been fashioned for purposes of strength and +sure-footedness in draught, the race-horse for purposes of fleetness in +running. In the fox-hound, man has encouraged the special properties +that tend to produce a good day's hunting; in the sheepdog, those that +make for the better maintenance and safety of a herd. The cauliflower is +a cabbage, with specialised and somewhat abortive flower-heads; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +fuller's teasel is a sport of the wild form, with curved hooks specially +adapted by a freak of nature for the teasing of wool. So in every case +man, by deliberately picking out for breeding or seeding purposes the +accidental variations which happened best to suit his own needs, has +succeeded at last in producing races admirably fitted in the minutest +particulars for the special functions to which they are applied. There +appears indeed to be hardly any limit to the almost infinite plasticity +and modifiability of domestic animals. 'It would seem,' said a great +sheep-breeder, speaking of sheep, 'as if farmers had chalked out upon a +wall a form perfect in itself, and then proceeded to give it existence.'</p> + +<p>Now, what is thus true within narrow limits, and in a short space of +time about the deliberate action of man, Darwin showed to be also true +within wider limits and spread over longer geological epochs about the +unconscious action of nature. And herein consisted his great advance +upon the earlier evolutionism of Lamarck, Goethe, and Erasmus Darwin. +For while these instinctive pioneers of the evolutionary spirit saw +clearly that animals and plants betrayed signs of common descent from +one or a few original ancestors, they did not see what was the mechanism +by which such organisms had been differentiated into so many distinct +genera and species. They caught, indeed, at the analogy of variation +under domestication and in the wild state, but they missed the subtler +and deeper analogy between human and natural selection. Now, variation +alone would give us a world consisting not of definite kinds fairly well +demarcated one from the other, but of innumerable unclassified and +unorganisable individuals, all shading off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> indefinitely one into the +other, and incapable of being reduced by human ingenuity to any orderly +hierarchical system. Furthermore, it would give us creatures without +special adaptation of any kind to the peculiar circumstances of their +own environment. To account for adaptation, for the almost perfect +fitness of every plant and every animal to its position in life, for the +existence (in other words) of definitely correlated parts and organs, we +must call in the aid of survival of the fittest. Without that potent +selective agent, our conception of the becoming of life is a mere chaos; +order and organisation are utterly inexplicable save by the brilliant +illuminating ray of the Darwinian principle. That is why Darwin +destroyed at one blow the specious arguments of the early teleologists; +he showed that where Chambers and even Erasmus Darwin had seen the +working of a final cause, we ought rather to recognise the working of an +efficient cause, whose outcome necessarily but fallaciously simulates +the supposed features of an <i>a priori</i> finality.</p> + +<p>From art, then, Darwin harks back once more to nature. He proceeds to +show that variability occurs among all wild plants and animals, though +not so frequently under ordinary circumstances as in the case of +domesticated species. Individual differences everywhere occur between +plant and plant, between animal and animal. Sometimes these differences +are so very numerous that it is impossible to divide the individuals at +all into well-marked kinds; for example, among British wild-roses, +brambles, hawkweeds and epilobes, with a few other very variable +families, Babington makes as many as 251 distinct species, where +Bentham<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> gives only 112—a margin of 139 doubtful forms of shadowy +indefiniteness. Varieties, in fact, are always arising, and dominant +species in particular always tend to vary most in every direction. The +reason why variation is not so marked in the wild state as under +domestication is of course because the conditions are there less +diverse; but where the conditions of wild things are most diverse, as in +the case of dominant kinds, which range over a wide space of country or +of ocean, abundant individual variations habitually occur. Local +varieties thus produced are regarded by Darwin as incipient species: +they are the raw material on which natural selection gradually exerts +itself in the struggle for existence.</p> + +<p>Granting individual variability, then, how do species arise in nature? +And how are all the exquisite adaptations of part to whole, and of whole +to environment, gradually initiated, improved, and perfected?</p> + +<p>Here Malthus and the struggle for life come in to help us.</p> + +<p>For the world is perpetually over-populated. It is not, as many good +people fearfully imagine, on a half-comprehension of the Malthusian +principle, shortly going to be over-populated; it is now, it has always +been, and it will always be, pressed close up to the utmost possible +limit of population. Reproduction is everywhere and in all species for +ever outrunning means of subsistence; and starvation or competition is +for ever keeping down the number of the offspring to the level of the +average or normal supply of raw material. A single red campion produces +in a year three thousand seeds; but there are not this year three +thousand times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> as many red campions as there were last summer, nor will +there be three thousand times as many more in the succeeding season. The +roe of a cod contains sometimes nearly ten million eggs; but supposing +each of these produced a young fish which arrived at maturity, the whole +sea would immediately become a solid mass of closely packed codfish. +Linnæus reckoned that if an annual plant had two seeds, each of which +produced two seedlings in the succeeding season, and so on continually, +in twenty years their progeny would amount to a million plants. A +struggle for existence necessarily results from this universal tendency +of animals and plants to increase faster than the means of subsistence, +whether those means be food, as in the first case, or carbonic acid, +water, and sunshine as in the second. Animals are all perpetually +battling with one another for the food-supply of the moment; plants are +perpetually battling with one another for their share of the soil, the +rainfall, and the sunshine.</p> + +<p>The case of the plant is a very important one to understand in this +connection, because it is probable that most people greatly +misunderstand the biological meaning of the phrase 'struggle for +existence.' They imagine that the struggle is chiefly conducted between +different species, whereas in reality it is chiefly conducted between +members of the same species. It is not so much the battle between the +tiger and the antelope, between the wolf and the bison, between the +snake and the bird, that ultimately results in natural selection or +survival of the fittest, as the struggle between tiger and tiger, +between bison and bison, between snake and snake, between antelope and +antelope. A human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> analogy may help to make this difficult principle a +little clearer. The baker does not fear the competition of the butcher +in the struggle for life: it is the competition of the other bakers that +sometimes inexorably crushes him out of existence. The lawyer does not +press hard upon the doctor, nor the architect upon the journeyman +painter. A war in the Soudan or in South Africa is far less fatal to the +workman in our great towns than the ceaseless competition of his +fellow-workmen. It is not the soldier that kills the artisan, but the +number of other artisans who undersell him and crowd to fill up every +vacant position. In this way the great enemies of the individual +herbivore are not the carnivores, but the other herbivores. The lion +eats the antelope, to be sure; but the real struggle lies between lion +and lion for a fair share of meat, or between antelope and antelope for +a fair share of pasturage. <i>Homo homini lupus</i>, says the old proverb, +and so, we may add, in a wider sense, <i>lupus lupo lupus</i>, also. Of +course, the carnivore plays a great part in the selective process; but +he is the selector only; the real competition is between the selected. +Now, let us take the case of the plant. A thousand seedlings occupy the +space where few alone can ultimately grow; and between these seedlings +the struggle is fierce, the strongest and best adapted ultimately +surviving. To take Darwin's own example, the mistletoe, which is a +parasite, cannot truly be said to struggle with the apple tree on which +it fastens; for if too many parasites cover a tree, it perishes, and so +they kill themselves as well as their host, all alike dying together. +But several seedling mistletoes growing together on the same branch may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +fairly be said to struggle with one another for light and air; and since +mistletoe seeds are disseminated by birds and dropped by them in the +angles of branches, the mistletoe may also be said to compete with other +berry-bearing bushes, like cornel and hawthorn, for the ministrations of +the fruit-eating birds. The struggle is fierce between allied kinds, and +fiercest of all between individual members of the same species.</p> + +<p>Owing to this constant struggle, variations, however slight, and from +whatever cause arising, if in any degree profitable to the individual +which presents them, will tend to the preservation of the particular +organism, and, being on the average inherited by its offspring, will +similarly tend to increase and multiply in the world at large. This is +the principle of natural selection or survival of the fittest—the great +principle which Darwin and Wallace added to the evolutionism of Lamarck +and his successors.</p> + +<p>Let us take a single concrete example. In the desert, with its +monotonous sandy colouring, a black insect or a white insect, still more +a red insect or a blue insect, would be immediately detected and +promptly devoured by its natural enemies, the birds and lizards. But any +greyish or yellowish insects would be less likely to attract attention +at first sight, and would be overlooked as long as there were any more +conspicuous individuals of their own kind about for the birds and +lizards to feed on at their leisure. Hence, in a very short time, the +desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest and yellowest +insects; and among these the birds would pick out those which differed +most markedly in hue or shade from the sand around them. But those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +which happened to vary most in the direction of a sandy or spotty colour +would be most likely to survive, and to become the parents of future +generations. Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which +inhabit deserts have become sand-coloured; because the least sandy were +perpetually picked out for destruction by their ever-watchful foes, +while the most sandy escaped and multiplied and replenished the earth +with their own likes.</p> + +<p>Conversely, the birds and the lizards again would probably begin by +being black, and white, and blue, and green, like most other birds and +lizards in the world generally. But the insect would have ample warning +of the near approach of such conspicuous self-advertising enemies, and +would avoid them accordingly whenever they appeared within range of his +limited vision, either by lying close, or by shamming death, or by +retreating precipitately to holes and crannies. Therefore, whatever +individual birds or lizards happened to vary most in the direction of +grey or sand-colour, and so to creep unobserved upon the unguarded +insects, would succeed best on the average in catching beetles or desert +grasshoppers. Hence, by the slow dying out of the more highly coloured +and distinctive insect-eaters, before the severe competition of the +greyest and sandiest, all the birds and lizards of the desert have +become at last as absolutely sand-coloured as the insects themselves. +Only the greyest insect could escape the bird; only the greyest bird, +<i>en revanche</i>, could surprise and devour the unwary insect.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles Lyell and the elder De Candolle had already seen the great +importance of the struggle for existence in the organic world, but +neither of them had observed the magnificent corollary of natural +selection,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> which flows from it almost as a mathematical necessity when +once suggested; for, given indefinite variability, and a geometrical, +rate of increase, it must needs follow that some varieties will be +better suited to the circumstances than others, and therefore that they +will survive on the average in increased proportions. A passage from one +of Lyell's early letters will show how near he too went to this great +luminous generalisation, and yet how utterly he missed the true +implications of his own vague and chaotic idea. He writes thus to Sir +John Herschel in 1836, while Darwin was still but homeward bound on the +voyage of the 'Beagle':—</p> + +<p>'In regard to the origination of new species, I am very glad to find +that you think it probable that it may be carried on through the +intervention of intermediate causes.... An insect may be made in one of +its transformations to resemble a dead stick, or a leaf, or a lichen, or +a stone, so as to be somewhat less easily found by its enemies; or if +this would make it too strong, an occasional variety of the species may +have this advantage conferred on it; or if this would be still too much, +one sex of a certain variety. Probably there is scarcely a dash of +colour on the wing or body of which the choice would be quite arbitrary, +or which might not affect its duration for thousands of years.'</p> + +<p>Now, this comes in some ways perilously near to Darwin indeed; but in +the most important point of all it is wide apart from him as the pole is +from the equator. For Lyell thought of all this as a matter of external +teleological arrangement; he imagined a deliberate power from outside +settling it all by design beforehand, and granting to varieties or +species these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> special peculiarities in a manner that was at bottom +essentially supernatural, or in other words miraculous; whereas Darwin +thinks of it as the necessary result of the circumstances themselves, an +inevitable outcome of indefinite variability <i>plus</i> the geometrical rate +of increase. Where Lyell sees a final cause, Darwin sees an efficient +cause; and this distinction is fundamental. It marks Darwin's position +as that of a great philosophical thinker, who can dash aside at once all +metaphysical cobwebs, and penetrate to the inmost recesses of things, +unswerved by the vain but specious allurements of obvious and misleading +teleological fallacies.</p> + +<p>Darwin also laid great stress on the immense complexity of the relations +which animals and plants bear to one another, in the struggle for +existence. For example, on the heathy uplands near Farnham in Surrey, +large spaces were at one time enclosed, on which, within ten years, +self-grown fir-trees from the wind-borne seeds of distant clumps sprang +up so thickly as actually to choke one another with their tiny branches. +All over the heaths outside, when Darwin looked for them, he could not +find a single fir, except the old clumps on the hilltops, from which the +seedlings themselves had originally sprung. But, on looking closer among +the stems of the heath, he descried a number of very tiny firs, which +had been perpetually browsed down by the cattle on the commons; and one +of them, with twenty-six rings of growth, had during many years +endeavoured unsuccessfully to raise its head above the surrounding +heather. Hence, as soon as the land was enclosed, and the cattle +excluded, it became covered at once with a thick growth of vigorous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +young fir-trees. Yet who would ever have supposed beforehand that the +mere presence or absence of cattle would absolutely have determined the +very existence of the Scotch fir throughout a wide range of well-adapted +sandy English upland?</p> + +<p>To take another curious instance mentioned by Darwin. In Paraguay, +unlike the greater part of neighbouring South America, neither horses +nor cattle have ever run wild. This is due to the presence of a +parasitic fly, which lays its eggs in their bodies when first born, the +maggots killing off the tender young in their first stages. But if any +cause were to alter the number of the dangerous flies, then cattle and +wild horses would abound; and this would alter the vegetation, as Darwin +himself observed in other parts of America; and the change in the +vegetation would affect the insects; and that again the insectivorous +birds; and so on in ever widening circles of incalculable complexity. +Once more, to quote the most famous instance of all, the visits of +humble-bees are absolutely necessary in order to place the pollen in the +right position for setting the seeds of purple clover. Heads from which +Darwin excluded the bees produced no seeds at all. Hence, if humble-bees +became extinct in England, the red clover, too, would die off: and +indeed, in New Zealand, where there are no humble-bees, and where the +efforts to introduce them for this very purpose have been uniformly +unsuccessful, the clover never sets its seed at all, and fresh stocks +have to be imported at great expense every year from Europe. But the +number of humble-bees in any district largely depends upon the number of +field-mice, which destroy the combs and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> nests in immense quantities. +The number of mice, again, is greatly affected by the proportion of cats +in the neighbourhood; so that Colonel Newman, who paid much attention to +this subject, found humble-bees most numerous in the neighbourhood of +villages and small towns, an effect which he attributed to the abundance +of cats, and the consequent scarcity of the destructive field-mice. Yet +here once more, who could suppose beforehand that the degree to which +the purple clover set its seeds was in part determined by the number of +cats kept in houses in the surrounding district?</p> + +<p>One of Darwin's own favourite examples of the action of natural +selection, which he afterwards expanded largely in his work on Orchids +and in several other volumes, is that which relates to the origin of +conspicuous flowers. Many plants have a sweet excretion, which is +eliminated sometimes even by the leaves, as in the case of the common +laurel. This juice, though small in quantity, is eagerly sought and +eaten by insects. Now let us suppose that, in some variety of an +inconspicuous flower, similar nectar was produced in the neighbourhood +of the petals and stamens. Insects, in seeking the nectar, would dust +their bodies over with the pollen, and would carry it away with them to +the next flower visited. This would result in an act of crossing; and +that act, as Darwin afterwards abundantly proved in a separate and very +laborious treatise, gives rise to exceptionally vigorous seedlings, +which would therefore have the best chance of flourishing and surviving +in the struggle for existence. The flowers which produced most honey +would oftenest be visited, and oftenest crossed; so that they would +finally form a new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> species. The more brightly coloured among them, +again, would be more readily discriminated than the less brightly +coloured; and this would give them such an advantage that in the long +run, as we actually see, almost all habitually insect-fertilised flowers +would come to have brilliant petals. The germ of this luminous idea, +once more, is to be found in Sprengel's remarkable work on the +fertilisation of flowers—a work far in advance of its time in many +ways, and to which Darwin always expressed his deep obligations; but, as +in so many other instances, while Sprengel looked upon all the little +modifications and adaptations of flower and insect to one another as the +result of distinct creative design, Darwin looked upon them as the +result of natural selection, working upon the basis of indeterminate +spontaneous variations.</p> + +<p>How do these variations arise? Not by chance, of course (for in the +strict scientific sense nothing on earth can be considered as really +fortuitous), but as the outcome for the most part of very minute organic +causes, whose particular action it is impossible for us to predict with +our present knowledge. Some physical cause in each case there must +necessarily be; and indeed it is often possible to show that certain +changes of condition in the parent do result in variations in the +offspring, though what special direction the variation will take can +never be foretold with any accuracy. In short, our ignorance of the laws +of variation is profound, but our knowledge of the fact is clear and +certain. The fact alone is essential to the principle of natural +selection; the cause, though in itself an interesting subject of +inquiry, may be safely laid aside for the present as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> comparatively +unimportant. What we have actually given to us in the concrete universe +is, organisms varying perpetually in minute points, and a rapid rate of +increase causing every minute point of advantage to be exceptionally +favoured in the struggle for existence.</p> + +<p>But Darwin is remarkable among all broachers of new theories for the +extraordinary candour and openness of his method. He acknowledged +beforehand all the difficulties in the way of his theory, and though he +himself confessed that some of them were serious (a statement which +subsequent research has often rendered unnecessary), he met many of them +with cogent arguments by anticipation, and demolished objections before +they could even be raised against him by hostile critics. Of these +objections, only two need here be mentioned. The first is the question, +why is not all nature even now a confused mass of transitional forms? +Why do genera and species exist as we see them at present in broad +distinction one from the other? To this Darwin answers rightly that, +where the process of species-making is still going on, we do actually +find fine gradations and transitional forms existing between genera, +varieties, and species.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> But, furthermore, as natural selection acts +solely by the preservation of useful modifications, each better-adapted +new form will always tend in a fully stocked country to oust and +exterminate its own unimproved parent type, as well as all other +competing but less perfect varieties. Thus natural selection and +extinction of intermediates go for ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> hand in hand. The more perfect +the new variety, the more absolutely will it kill off the intermediate +forms. The second great difficulty lies in the question of the origin of +instinct, which, as Darwin shows, by careful inductive instances, may +have arisen by the slow and gradual accumulation of numerous slight yet +profitable variations.</p> + +<p>I have dwelt at some length upon those portions of the 'Origin of +Species' which deal in detail with the theory of natural selection, the +chief contribution which Darwin made to the evolutionary movement, +because it is impossible otherwise fully to understand the great gulf +which separates his evolutionism from the earlier evolutionism of +Lamarck and his followers. But it is impracticable here to give any idea +of the immense wealth of example and illustration which Darwin brought +to the elucidation of every part of his complex problem. In order to +gain a full conception of this side of his nature, we must turn to the +original treatise itself, and still more to the subsequent volumes in +which the ground-work of observations and experiments on which he based +his theory was more fully detailed for the specialist public.</p> + +<p>The remainder of Darwin's epoch-making work deals, strictly speaking, +rather with the general theory of 'descent with modification' than with +the special doctrine of natural selection. It restates and reinforces, +by the light of the new additional concept, and with fuller facts and +later knowledge, the four great arguments already known in favour of +organic evolution as a whole, the argument from Geological Succession, +the argument from Geographical Distribution, the argument<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> from +Embryological Development, and the argument from Classificatory +Affinities. Each of these we may briefly summarise.</p> + +<p>The geological record is confessedly imperfect. At the time when Darwin +first published the 'Origin of Species,' it had disclosed to our view +comparatively few intermediate or transitional forms between the chief +great classes of plants or animals; since that time, in singular +confirmation of the Darwinian hypothesis, it has disclosed an immense +number of such connecting types, amongst which may be more particularly +noticed the 'missing links' between the birds and reptiles, the +ancestors of the horses, the camels, and the pigs, and the common +progenitor of the ruminants and the pachyderms, two great groups classed +by Cuvier as distinct orders—all of which instances were incorporated +by Darwin in later editions of his 'Origin of Species.' But, apart from +these special and newly discovered cases, the whole general course of +geological history 'agrees admirably with the theory of descent with +modification through variation and natural selection.' The simpler +animals of early times are followed by the more complex and more +specialised animals of later geological periods. As each main group of +animals appears upon the stage of life, it appears in a very central and +'generalised' form; as time goes on, we find its various members +differing more and more widely from one another, and assuming more and +more specialised adaptive forms. And in each country it is found, as a +rule, that the extinct animals of the later formations bear a close +general resemblance and relationship to the animals which now inhabit +the same regions. For example,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> the fossil mammals from the Australian +caves are nearly allied to the modern kangaroos, phalangers, and +wombats; and the gigantic extinct sloths and armadillos of South America +are reproduced in their smaller representatives at the present day. So, +too, the moa of New Zealand was a huge apteryx; and the birds +disentombed from the bone-caves of Brazil show close affinities to the +toucans and jacanars that still scream and flit in countless flocks +among Brazilian forests. The obvious implication is that the animals now +inhabiting any given area are the modified descendants of those that +formerly inhabited it. 'On the theory of descent with modification, the +great law of the succession of the same types within the same areas is +at once explained.'</p> + +<p>This last consideration leads us up to the argument from Geographical +Distribution. In considering the various local faunas and floras on the +face of the globe, no point strikes one more forcibly than the fact that +neither their similarities nor their dissimilarities can be accounted +for by climate or physical conditions. The animals of South Africa do +not in the least resemble the animals of the corresponding belt of South +America; the Australian beasts and birds and trees are utterly unlike +those of France and Germany; the fishes and crustaceans of the Pacific +at Panama are widely different from those of the Caribbean at the same +point, separated from them only by the narrow belt of intervening +isthmus. On the other hand, within the same continuous areas of sea or +land, however great the differences of physical conditions, we find +everywhere closely related types in possession of the most distinct and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +varied situations. On the burning plains of La Plata we get the agouti +and the bizcacha as the chief rodents; we ascend the Cordillera, and +close to the eternal snows we discover, not hares and rabbits like those +of Europe, but a specialised chilly mountain form of the same distinctly +South American type. We turn to the rivers, and we see no musk-rat or +beaver, but the coypu and capybara, slightly altered varieties of the +original bizcacha ancestor. Australia has no wolf, but it has instead +fierce and active carnivorous marsupials; it has no mice, but some of +its tiny kangaroo-like creatures fulfil analogous functions in its +animal economy. Everywhere the evidence points to the conclusion that +local species have been locally evolved from pre-existing similar +species. The oceanic isles, of which Darwin had had so large an +experience, and especially his old friends the Galapagos, come in +usefully for this stage of the question. They are invariably inhabited, +as Darwin pointed out, and as Wallace has since abundantly shown in the +minutest detail, by waifs and strays from neighbouring continents, +altered and specialised by natural selection in accordance with the +conditions of their new habitat. As a rule, they point back to the +districts whence blow the strongest and most prevalent winds; and the +modifications they have undergone are largely dependent upon the nature +of the other species with which they have to compete, or to whose habits +they must needs accommodate themselves. In such cases it is easy to see +how far Darwin's special conception of natural selection helps to +explain and account for facts not easily explicable by the older +evolutionism of mere descent with modification.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>Embryology, the study of early development in the individual animal or +plant, also throws much side light upon the nature and ancestry of each +species or family. For example, gorse, which is a member of the +pea-flower tribe, has in its adult stage solid, spiny, thorn-like +leaves, none of which in the least resemble the foliage of the clover, +to which it is closely related; but the young seedling in its earliest +stages has trefoil leaves, which only slowly pass by infinitesimal +gradations into flat blades and finally into the familiar defensive +prickles. Here, natural selection under stress of herbivorous animals on +open heaths and commons has spared only those particular gorse-bushes +which varied in the direction of the stiffest and most inedible foliage; +but the young plant in its first days still preserves for us the trefoil +leaf which it shared originally with a vast group of clover-like +congeners. The adult barnacle, once more, presents a certain fallacious +external resemblance to a mollusk, and was actually so classed even by +the penetrating and systematic intellect of Cuvier; but a glance at the +larva shows an instructed eye at once that it is really a shell-making +and abnormal crustacean. On a wider scale, the embryos of mammals are at +first indistinguishable from those of birds or reptiles; the feet of +lizards, the hoofs of horses, the hands of man, the wings of the bat, +the pinions of birds, all arise from the same fundamental shapeless bud, +in the same spot of an almost identical embryo. Even the human foetus, +at a certain stage of its development, is provided with gill-slits, +which point dimly back to the remote ages when its ancestor was +something very like a fish. The embryo is a picture, more or less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +obscured and blurred in its outline, of the common progenitor of a whole +great class of plants or animals.</p> + +<p>Finally, classification points in the same way to the affiliation of all +existing genera and species upon certain early divergent ancestors. The +whole scheme of the biological system, as initiated by Linnæus and +improved by Cuvier, Jussieu, De Candolle, and their successors, is +essentially that of a genealogical tree. The prime central vertebrate +ancestor—to take the case of the creatures most familiar to the general +reader—appears to have been an animal not unlike the existing lancelet, +a mud-haunting, cartilaginous, undeveloped fish, whose main lineaments +are also embryologically preserved for us in the ascidian larva and the +common tadpole. From this early common centre have been developed, +apparently, in one direction the fishes, and in another the amphibian +tribes of frogs, newts, salamanders, and axolotls. From an early +amphibian, again, the common ancestor of birds, reptiles, and mammals +seems to have diverged: the intermediate links between bird and reptile +being faintly traced among the extinct deinosaurians and the +archæopteryx, some years subsequently to the first appearance of the +'Origin of Species;' while the ornithorhyncus, which to some extent +connects the mammals, and especially the marsupials, with the lower +egg-laying types of vertebrate, was already well-known and thoroughly +studied before the publication of Darwin's great work. Throughout, the +indications given by all the chief tribes of animals and plants point +back to slow descent and divergence from common ancestors; and all the +subsequent course of palæontological research has supplied us rapidly, +one after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> another, with the remains of just such undifferentiated +family starting-points.</p> + +<p>Stress has mainly been laid, in this brief and necessarily imperfect +abstract, on the essentially Darwinian principle of natural selection. +But Darwin did not himself attribute everything to this potent factor in +the moulding of species. 'I am convinced,' he wrote pointedly in the +introduction to his first edition, 'that natural selection has been the +main but not the exclusive means of modification.' He attributed +considerable importance as well to the Lamarckian principle of use and +disuse, already so fully insisted upon before him by Mr. Herbert +Spencer. The chief factors in his compound theory, as given in his own +words at the end of his work, areas follows: 'Growth with Reproduction; +Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability, from +the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use +and disuse; a Ratio of Increase, so high as to lead to a Struggle for +Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of +Character, and the Extinction of the less improved forms. Thus, from the +war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we +are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, +directly follows.'</p> + +<p>Such was the simple and inoffensive-looking bombshell which Darwin +launched from his quiet home at Down into the very midst of the +teleological camp in the peaceful year 1859. Subsequent generations will +remember the date as a crisis and turning-point in the history of +mankind.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The remainder of the present chapter, which consists almost +entirely of an exposition of the doctrine of natural selection, may +safely be skipped by the reader already well acquainted with the Origin +of Species. The abstract is taken for the most part from the latest and +fullest enlarged edition, but attention is usually called in passing to +the points which did not appear in the first issue of 1859.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The researches of Seebohm and others have since proved that +this is really the case to a far greater extent than Darwin was aware of +in 1859, or, indeed, till many years afterward.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<h2>THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS.</h2> + + +<p>So far as the scientific world was concerned the 'Origin of Species' +fell, like a grain of mustard seed, upon good and well-prepared ground; +the plant that sprang from it grew up forthwith into a great and stately +tree, that overshadowed with its spreading branches all the corners of +the earth.</p> + +<p>The soil, indeed, had been carefully broken for it beforehand: Lamarck +and St. Hilaire, Spencer and Chambers, had ploughed and harrowed in all +diligence; and the minds of men were thoroughly ready for the +assimilation of the new doctrine. But the seed itself, too, was the +right germ for the exact moment; it contained within itself the +vivifying principle that enabled it to grow and wax exceeding great +where kindred germs before had withered away, or had borne but scanty +and immature fruit.</p> + +<p>Two conditions contributed to this result, one external, the other +internal.</p> + +<p>First for the less important external consideration. Darwin himself was +a sound man with an established reputation for solidity and learning. +That gained for his theory from the very first outset universal respect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +and a fair hearing. Herbert Spencer was known to be a philosopher: and +the practical English nation mistrusts philosophers: those people probe +too deep and soar too high for any sensible person to follow them in all +their flights. Robert Chambers, the unknown author of 'Vestiges of +Creation,' was a shallow sciolist; it was whispered abroad that he was +even inaccurate and slovenly in his facts: and your scientific plodder +detests the very shadow of minute inaccuracy, though it speak with the +tongues of men and angels, and be bound up with all the grasp and power +of a Newton or a Goethe. But Charles Darwin was a known personage, an +F.R.S., a distinguished authority upon coral reefs and barnacles, a +great geologist, a great biologist, a great observer and indefatigable +collector. His book came into the public hands stamped with the +imprimatur of official recognition. Darwin was the father of the infant +theory; Lyell and Hooker stood for its sponsors. The world could not +afford to despise its contents; they could not brand its author offhand +as a clever dreamer or a foolish amateur, or consign him to the dreaded +English limbo of the 'mere theorist.'</p> + +<p>Next, for the other and far more important internal consideration. The +book itself was one of the greatest, the most learned, the most lucid, +the most logical, the most crushing, the most conclusive, that the world +had ever yet seen. Step by step, and principle by principle, it proved +every point in its progress triumphantly before it went on to +demonstrate the next. So vast an array of facts so thoroughly in hand +had never before been mustered and marshalled in favour of any +biological theory. Those who had insight to learn and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> understand were +convinced at once by the cogency of the argument; those who had not were +overpowered and silenced by the weight of the authority and the mass of +the learning. A hot battle burst forth at once, no doubt, around the +successful volume; but it was one of those battles which are aroused +only by great truths,—a battle in which the victory is a foregone +conclusion, and the rancour of the assailants the highest compliment to +the prowess of the assailed.</p> + +<p>Darwin himself, in his quiet country home at Down, was simply astonished +at the rapid success of his own work. The first edition was published at +the end of November 1859; it was exhausted almost immediately, and a +second was got ready in hot haste by the beginning of January 1860. In +less than six weeks the book had become famous, and Darwin found himself +the centre of a European contest, waged with exceeding bitterness, over +the truth or falsity of his wonderful volume. To the world at large +Darwinism and evolution became at once synonymous terms. The same people +who would entirely ascribe the Protestant Reformation to the account of +Luther, and the inductive philosophy to the account of Bacon, also +believed, in the simplicity of their hearts, that the whole vast +evolutionary movement was due at bottom to that very insidious and +dangerous book of Mr. Darwin's.</p> + +<p>The fact is, profound as had been the impulses in the evolutionary +direction among men of science before Darwin's work appeared at all, +immense as were the throes and pangs of labour throughout all Europe +which preceded and accompanied its actual birth, when it came at last it +came to the general world of unscientific readers with all the sudden +vividness and novelty of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it +was yet wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or next to +nothing of this colossal but hidden revolutionary force which had been +gathering head and energy for so many years unseen within the bowels of +the earth; and now that its outer manifestation had actually burst upon +them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic security bodily giving way +beneath their feet, and knew not where to turn in their extremity for +support. Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself at +first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of Genesis, or +rather the belief in their scientific and historical character, already +sapped by the revelations of geology, seemed to orthodox defenders to be +fatally undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once to meet with +general recognition. The first resource of menaced orthodoxy is always +to deny the alleged facts; the second is to patch up tardily the feeble +and hollow <i>modus vivendi</i> of an artificial pact. On this occasion the +orthodox acted strictly after their kind: but to their credit it should +be added that they yielded gracefully in the long run to the unanimous +voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, when all that was +mortal of Charles Darwin was being borne with pomp and pageantry to its +last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, with +generous oblivion, ratified a truce over the dead body of the great +leader, and, outgrowing its original dread of naturalistic +interpretations, accepted his theory without reserve as 'not necessarily +hostile to the main fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render +justice to the vanquished in a memorable struggle. Churchmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> followed +respectfully to the grave with frank and noble inconsistency the +honoured remains of the very teacher whom less than a quarter of a +century earlier they had naturally dreaded as loosening the traditional +foundations of all accepted religion and morality.</p> + +<p>But if the attack was fierce and bitter, the defence was assisted by a +sudden access of powerful forces from friendly quarters. A few of the +elder generation of naturalists held out, indeed, for various shorter or +longer periods; some of them never came into the camp at all, but +lingered on, left behind, like stragglers from the onward march, by the +younger biologists, in isolated non-conformity on the lonely heights of +austere officialism. Their business was to ticket and docket and +pigeon-hole, not to venture abroad on untried wings into the airy +regions of philosophical speculation. The elder men, in fact, had many +of them lost that elasticity and modifiability of intellect which is +necessary for the reception of new and revolutionary fundamental +concepts. A mind that has hardened down into the last stage of extreme +maturity may assimilate fresh facts and fresh minor principles, but it +cannot assimilate fresh synthetic systems of the entire cosmos. +Moreover, some of the elder thinkers were committed beforehand to +opposing views, with which they lacked either the courage or the +intellectual power to break; while others were entangled by religious +restrictions, and unable to free themselves from the cramping fetters of +a narrow orthodoxy. But even among his own contemporaries and seniors +Darwin found not a few whose minds were thoroughly prepared beforehand +for the reception of his lucid and luminous hypothesis; while the +younger naturalists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> with the plasticity of youth, assimilated almost +to a man, with the utmost avidity, the great truths thus showered down +upon them by the preacher of evolution.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley were among the first to give in +their adhesion and stand up boldly for the new truth by the side of the +reckless and disturbing innovator. In June 1859, nearly a year after the +reading of the Darwin-Wallace papers at the Linnean Society, but five +months previously to the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' Huxley +lectured at the Royal Institution on 'Persistent Types of Animal Life,' +and declared against the old barren theory of successive creations, in +favour of the new and fruitful hypothesis of gradual modification. In +December 1859, a month later than the appearance of Darwin's book, +Hooker published his 'Introduction to the Flora of Australia,' in the +first part of which he championed the belief in the descent and +modification of species, and enforced his views by many original +observations drawn from the domain of botanical science. For fifteen +years, as Darwin himself gratefully observed in his introduction to the +'Origin of Species,' that learned botanist had shared the secret of +natural selection, and aided its author in every possible way by his +large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment. Bates, the +naturalist on the Amazons, followed fast with his beautiful and striking +theory of mimicry, a crucial instance well explained. The facts of the +strange disguises which birds and insects often assume had long been +present to his acute mind, and he hailed with delight the discovery of +the new principle, which at once enabled him to reduce<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> them with ease +to symmetry and order. To Herbert Spencer, an evolutionist in fibre from +the very beginning, the fresh doctrine of natural selection came like a +powerful ally and an unexpected assistant in deciphering the deep +fundamental problems on which he was at that moment actually engaged; +and in his 'Principles of Biology,' even then in contemplation, he at +once adopted and utilised the new truth with all the keen and vigorous +insight of his profound analytic and synthetic intellect. The first part +of that important work was issued to subscribers just three years after +the original appearance of the 'Origin of Species;' the first volume was +fully completed in October 1864. It is to Mr. Spencer that we owe the +pellucid expression 'survival of the fittest,' which conveys even better +than Darwin's own phrase, 'natural selection,' the essential element +added by the 'Origin of Species' to the pre-existing evolutionary +conception.</p> + +<p>The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its big +annual doctrinaire picnic the next summer after the publication of +Darwin's book, at Oxford. The Oxford meeting was a stormy and a +well-remembered one. The 'Origin of Species' was there discussed and +attacked before a biological section strangely enough presided over by +Darwin's old Cambridge teacher, Professor Henslow. Though then a +beneficed parish priest, Henslow had the boldness frankly to avow his +own acceptance of his great pupil's startling conclusions. Huxley +followed in the same path, as did also Lubbock and Hooker. On the whole, +the evolutionists were already in the ascendant; the fresh young +intellects especially being quick to seize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> upon the new pabulum so +generously dealt out to them by the new evolutionism.</p> + +<p>Among scientific minds of the first order, Lyell alone in England, +heavily weighted by theological preconceptions, for awhile hung back. +All his life long, as his letters show us, the great geologist had felt +the powerful spell of the Lamarckian hypothesis continually enticing him +with its seductive charm. He had fought against it blindly, in the +passionate endeavour to preserve what he thought his higher faith in the +separate and divine creation of man; but ever and anon he returned anew +to the biological Circe with a fresh fascination, as the moth returns to +the beautiful flame that has scorched and singed it. In a well-known +passage in the earlier editions of his 'Principles of Geology,' the +father of uniformitarianism gives at length his own reasons for +dissenting from the doctrine of evolution as then set forth; and even +after Darwin's discovery had supplied him with a new clue, a <i>vera +causa</i>, a sufficient power for the modification of species into fresh +forms, theological difficulties made him cling still as long as possible +to the old theory of the origin of man which he loved to describe as +that of the 'archangel ruined.' He was loth to exchange this cherished +belief for the degrading alternative (as it approved itself to him) of +the ape elevated. But in the end, with the fearless honesty of a +searcher after truth, he gave way slowly and regretfully. Always looking +back with something like remorse to the flesh-pots of the ecclesiastical +Egypt, with its enticing visions of fallen grandeur, the great thinker +whose uniformitarian theory of geology had more than aught else paved +the way for the gradual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> acceptance of Darwin's evolutionism, came out +at last from the house of bondage, and nobly ranged himself on the side +of what his intellect judged to be the truth of nature, though his +emotions urged him hard to blind his judgment and to neglect its lights +for an emotional figment. Science has no more pathetic figure than that +of the old philosopher, in his sixty-sixth year, throwing himself with +all the eagerness of youth into what he had long considered the wrong +scale, and vigorously wrecking in the 'Antiquity of Man' what seemed to +the dimmed vision of his own emotional nature the very foundations of +his beloved creed. But still he did it. He came out and was separate. In +his own idiomatic language, he found at last that 'we must go the whole +ourang;' and, deep as was the pang that the recantation cost him, he +formally retracted the condemnation of 'transformism' in his earlier +works, and accepted, however unwillingly, the theory he had so often and +so deliberately rejected.</p> + +<p>The 'Antiquity of Man' came out in February 1863, some three years after +the 'Origin of Species.' For some time speculation had been active over +the strange hatchets which Boucher de Perthes had recently unearthed +among the Abbeville drift—shapeless masses of chipped flint rudely +fashioned into the form of an axe, which we now call palæolithic +implements, and know to be the handicraft of preglacial men. But until +Lyell's authoritative work appeared the unscientific public could not +tell exactly what to think of these curious and almost unhuman-looking +objects. Lyell at once set all doubts at rest; the magic of his name +silenced the derisive whispers of the dissidents. Already, in the +previous year,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> the first fasciculus of Colenso's famous work on the +Pentateuch had dealt a serious blow from the ecclesiastical and critical +side at the authenticity and historical truth of the Mosaic cosmogony. +Lyell now from the scientific side completely demolished its literal +truth, as ordinarily interpreted, by throwing back the primitive origin +of our race into a dim past of immeasurable antiquity. In so doing he +was clearing the way for Charles Darwin's second great work, 'The +Descent of Man;' and by incorporating in his book Huxley's remarks on +the Neanderthal skull, and much similar evolutionary matter, he +advertised the new creed in the animal origin of our race with all the +acquired weight of his immense and justly-deserved European reputation. +As a matter of taste, Lyell did not relish the application of +evolutionism to his own species. But, with that perfect loyalty to fact +which he shared so completely with Charles Darwin, as soon as he found +the evidence overwhelming, he gave in. By that grudging concession he +immensely strengthened the position of the new creed. 'I plead guilty,' +he writes to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'to going farther in my reasoning +towards transmutation than in my sentiments and imagination, and perhaps +for that very reason I shall lead more people on to Darwin and you, than +one who, being born later, like Lubbock, has comparatively little to +abandon of old and long-cherished ideas, which constituted the charm to +me of the theoretical part of the science in my earlier days.' And to +Darwin himself he writes regretfully. 'The descent of man from the +brutes takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past +relating to such matters.' This very reluctance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> itself told powerfully +in favour of Charles Darwin's novel theories: there is no evidence more +valuable to a cause than that which it extorts by moral force, in spite +of himself, from the faltering lips of an unwilling witness.</p> + +<p>The same year that saw the publication of Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' saw +also the first appearance of Huxley's work on 'Man's Place in Nature.' +Darwin himself had been anxious rather than otherwise to avoid too close +reference to the implications of his theory as regards the origin and +destiny of the human race. He had desired that his strictly scientific +views on the rise of specific distinctions should be judged entirely on +their own merits, unhampered by the interference of real or supposed +theological and ethical considerations. His own language on all such +subjects, wherever he was compelled to trench on them in the 'Origin of +Species,' was guarded and conciliatory; he scarcely referred at all to +man or his history; and his occasional notices of the moving principle +and first cause of the entire cosmos were reverential and religious in +the truest sense and in the highest degree. But you cannot let loose a +moral whirlwind, and then attempt to direct its course; you cannot open +the floodgates of opinion or of speculation, and then pretend to set +limits to the scope of their restless motion. Darwin soon found out that +people would insist in drawing inferences beyond what was written, and +in seeing implicit conclusions when they were not definitely formulated +in the words of their author. 'Man is perennially interesting to man,' +says the great chaotic American thinker; and whatever all-embracing +truth you set before him, you may be sure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> that man will see in it +chiefly the implications that most closely affect his own happiness and +his own destiny. The biological question of the origin of species is a +sufficiently wide one, but it includes also, among other cases, the +origin of the very familiar species <i>Homo sapiens</i> of Linnæus. Some +theologians jumped at once at the conclusion, right or wrong, that if +Darwinism were true man was nothing more than a developed monkey, the +immortal soul was an exploded myth, the foundations of religion itself +were shattered, and the wave of infidelity was doomed to swamp the whole +of Christendom with its blank nihilism. Scientific men, on the other +hand, drew the conclusion that man must be descended, like other +mammals, from some common early vertebrate ancestor, and that the +current views of his origin and destiny must be largely modified by the +evolutionary creed. Of this profound scientific belief Professor +Huxley's maiden work was the earliest outcome.</p> + +<p>Meantime, on the continent of Europe and over-sea in America, the +Darwinian theory was being hotly debated and warmly defended. France, +coldly sceptical and critical, positive rather than imaginative in +matters of science, and little prone by native cast of mind to the +evolutionary attitude, stood aloof to a great extent from the onward +course of the general movement. Here and there, to be sure, a Gaudry or +a Ribot, a Delboeuf or a De Candolle (the two latter a Liège Belgian and +a Genevan Swiss) might heartily throw himself into the new ideas, and +contribute whole squadrons of geological or botanical fact to the final +victory. Yet, as a whole, the dry and cautious French intelligence, ever +inclined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> to a scientific opportunism, preferred for the moment to stand +by expectant and await the result of the European consensus. But +philosophical Germany, on the other hand, beaming enthusiasm from its +myriad spectacles, eagerly welcomed the novel ideas, and proclaimed from +the housetops the evolutionary faith as a main plank in the rising +platform of the newly-roused Kulturkampf. Fritz Müller began with all +the ardour of a fresh convert to collect his admirable 'Facts for +Darwin;' his brother Hermann sat down with indomitable patience, like +the master's own, to watch the ceaseless action of the bees and +butterflies in the fertilisation of flowers. Rütimeyer applied the +Darwinian principles to the explanation of mammalian relationships, and +Haeckel set to work upon his vast reconstructive 'History of Creation,' +a largely speculative work which, with all its faults, distinctly +carried forward the evolutionary impulse, and set fresh researchers +working upon new lines, to confirm or to disprove its audacious +imaginings. In America, Asa Gray gave to the young creed the high +authority of his well-known name, and Chauncey Wright helped it onward +on the road with all the restrained force of his singular and oblique +but powerful and original personality. If Agassiz and Dawson still +hesitated, Fiske and Youmans were ardent in the faith. If critical +Boston put up its eye-glass doubtfully, Chicago and St. Louis were ready +for conversion. Everywhere Darwin and Darwinism became as household +words; it was the singular fate of the great prophet of evolution, alone +almost among the sons of men, to hear his own name familiarly twisted +during his own lifetime into a colloquial adjective, and to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> the +Darwinian theory and the errors of Darwinism staring him in the face a +hundred times a day from every newspaper and every periodical.</p> + +<p>Of course the 'Origin of Species' was largely translated at once into +all the civilised languages of Europe, Russian as well as French, Dutch +as well as German, Swedish as well as Italian, Spanish as well as +Hungarian, nay even, at last, transcending narrow continental limits, +Japanese as well as Hindustani. The revolution which it was rapidly +effecting was indeed a revolution in every mode of thought and feeling +as well as a revolution in mere restricted biological opinion. But all +this time, the modest, single-minded, and unassuming author was working +unmoved among his plants and pigeons in his home at Down, regardless of +the European fame he was so quickly acquiring, and anxious only to bring +to a termination the vast work which he still contemplated. A little +more than eleven years intervened between the publication of the 'Origin +of Species,' in 1859, and the first appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' +in 1871. The interval was occupied in carrying out in part the gigantic +scheme of his original collections for the full treatment of the +development theory. The work published in 1859 Darwin regarded merely as +an abstract and preliminary outline of his full opinions: 'No one can +feel more sensible than I do,' he wrote, 'of the necessity of hereafter +publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my +conclusions have been grounded.' The marvellously learned work on the +'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' which came out in +two volumes in 1867, formed the first instalment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> of this long-projected +treatise. The second part, as he told Mr. Fiske, was to have treated of +the variation of animals and plants through natural selection; while the +third part would have dealt at length with the phenomena of morphology, +of classification, and of distribution in space and time. But these +latter portions of the work were never written. To say the truth, they +were never needed. So universal was the recognition among the younger +men of Darwin's discovery, that before ten years were over innumerable +workers were pushing out the consequences of natural selection into +every field of biology and palæontology. It seemed no longer so +necessary as it had once seemed to write the larger and more elaborate +treatise he had originally contemplated.</p> + +<p>The volume on the variation of animals and plants contained also +Darwin's one solitary contribution to the pure speculative philosophy of +life—his 'Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis,' by which he strove to +account on philosophical principles for the general facts of physical +and mental heredity. Not to mince matters, it was his one conspicuous +failure, and is now pretty universally admitted as such. Let not the +love of the biographer deceive us; Darwin was here attempting a task +<i>ultra vires</i>. As already observed, his mind, vast as it was, leaned +rather to the concrete than to the abstract side: he lacked the +distinctively metaphysical and speculative twist. Strange to say, too, +his abortive theory appeared some years later than Herbert Spencer's +magnificent all-sided conception of 'Physiological Units,' put forth +expressly to meet the self-same difficulty. But while Darwin's +hypothesis is rudely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> materialistic, Herbert Spencer's is built up by an +acute and subtle analytical perception of all the analogous facts in +universal nature. It is a singular instance of a crude and essentially +unphilosophic conception endeavouring to replace a finished and delicate +philosophical idea.</p> + +<p>Earlier still, in 1862, Darwin had published his wonderful and +fascinating book on the 'Fertilisation of Orchids.' It is delightful to +contemplate the picture of the unruffled naturalist, in the midst of +that universal storm of ecclesiastical obloquy and scientific enthusiasm +which he had roused throughout Europe, sitting down calmly in his +Kentish conservatory to watch the behaviour of catasetums and +masdevallias, and to work out the details of his chosen subject, with +that marvellous patience of which he was so great a master, in the +pettiest minutiæ of fertilisation as displayed by a single highly +developed family of plants. Whoever wishes to learn the full profundity +of Darwin's researches, into every point that he set himself to +investigate, cannot do better than turn for a while to the consideration +of that exquisite treatise on one of the quaintest fairylands of +science. He will there learn by what an extraordinary wealth of cunning +devices natural selection has ensured the due conveyance of the +fecundating pollen from stamens to stigmas within the limits of a single +group of vegetable organisms. Here the fertilising mass is gummed +automatically between the eyes of the exploring bee, and then bent round +by the drying of its stalk so as to come in contact with the stigmatic +surface. There the pollen club is jerked out elastically by a sensitive +fibre, and actually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> flung by its irritable antennæ at the unconscious +head of the fertilising insect. In one case, the lip of the flower +secretes moisture and forms a sort of cold bath, which wets the wings of +the bees, so compelling them to creep out of the bucket by a passage +close to the anthers and stigma; in another case, the honey is concealed +at the bottom of so long a tube that only the proper fertilising moth +with a proboscis of ten or eleven inches in length can probe the deep +recess in which it is hidden. These, and a hundred other similar +instances, were all carefully considered and described by the great +naturalist as the by-work with which he filled up one of the intervals +between his greater and more comprehensive treatises.</p> + +<p>In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the progress of Darwinism was rapid +and continuous. One by one, the few scientific men who still held out +were overborne by the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh +instances of transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored +countries kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species +and varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his +'First Principles,' his 'Biology,' and the remodelled form of his +'Psychology;' Huxley brought out 'Man's Place in Nature,' the 'Lectures +on Comparative Anatomy,' and the 'Introduction to the Classification of +Animals;' Wallace produced his 'Malay Archipelago' and his +'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection;' and Galton wrote his +admirable work on 'Hereditary Genius,' of which his own family is so +remarkable an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had long since signified their +warm adhesion. At Oxford,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> Rolleston was bringing up a fresh generation +of young biologists in the new faith; at Cambridge, Darwin's old +university, a whole school of brilliant and accurate physiologists was +beginning to make itself both felt and heard in the world of science. In +the domain of anthropology, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the +new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations into +the Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. All these +diverse lines of thought both showed the wide-spread influence of +Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, +in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. +And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilised +world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement +was well in progress; everywhere the impulse sent forth from that quiet +Kentish home was permeating and quickening the entire pulse of +intelligent humanity.</p> + +<p>Why was it that the 'Origin of Species' possessed this extraordinary +vitalising and kinetic power, this germinal energy, this contagious +force, beyond all other forms of evolutionism previously promulgated? +Why did the world, that listened so coldly to Lamarck and Chambers, turn +so ready an ear to Charles Darwin and natural selection? Partly, no +doubt, because in the fulness of time the moment had come and the +prophet had arisen. All great movements are long brewing, and burst out +at last (like the Reformation and the French Revolution) with explosive +energy. But the cause is largely to be found, also, I believe, in the +peculiar nature of the Darwinian solution. True, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> thoroughly logical +mind, a mind of the very highest order, would have said even before +Darwin, 'Creation can have no possible place in the physical series of +things at all. How organisms came to be I do not yet exactly see; but I +am sure they must have come to be by some merely physical process, if we +could only find it out.' And such minds were all actually evolutionary +even before Darwin had made the <i>modus operandi</i> of evolution +intelligible. But most people are not so clear-sighted. They require to +have everything proved to them by the strictest collocation of actual +instances. They will not believe unless one rise from the dead. There +are men who rejected the raw doctrine of special creation on evidence +adduced; and there are men who never even for a moment entertained it as +conceivable. The former compose the mass of the scientific world, and it +was for their conversion that the Darwinian hypothesis was so highly +salutary. As Professor Fiske rightly remarks, 'The truth is that before +the publication of the "Origin of Species" there was no opinion whatever +current respecting the subject that deserved to be called a scientific +hypothesis. That the more complex forms of life must have come into +existence through some process of development from simpler forms was no +doubt the only sensible and rational view to take of the subject; but in +a vague and general opinion of this sort there is nothing that is +properly scientific. A scientific hypothesis must connect the phenomena +with which it deals by alleging a "true cause;" and before 1859 no one +had suggested a "true cause" for the origination of new species, +although the problem was one over which every philosophical naturalist +had puzzled since the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> beginning of the century. This explains why Mr. +Darwin's success was so rapid and complete, and it also explains why he +came so near being anticipated.' To put it briefly, <i>a priori</i>, creation +is from the very first unbelievable; but, as a matter of evidence, +Lamarck failed to make evolution comprehensible, or to give a rationale +of its mode of action, while Darwin's theory of natural selection +succeeded in doing so for those who awaited <i>a posteriori</i> proof. Hence +Darwin was able to convert the world, where Lamarck had only been able +to stir up enquiry among the picked spirits of the scientific and +philosophical coterie. Therein lies the true secret of his rapid, his +brilliant, and his triumphant progress. He had found out not only <i>that</i> +it was so, but <i>how</i> it was so, too. In Aristotelian phrase, he had +discovered the <i>πῶς</i> as well as the <i>ὅτι</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<h2>THE DESCENT OF MAN.</h2> + + +<p>In 1871, nearly twelve years after the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +published his 'Descent of Man.'</p> + +<p>We have seen already that he would fain have avoided the treatment of +this difficult and dangerous topic a little longer, so as to let his +main theory be fairly judged on its own merits, without the obtrusion of +theological or personal feelings into so purely biological a question; +but the current was too strong for him, and at last he yielded. On the +one hand, the adversaries had drawn for themselves the conclusion of +man's purely animal origin, and held it up to ridicule under false forms +in the most absurd and odious light. On the other hand, imprudent allies +had put forth under the evolutionary ægis their somewhat hypothetical +and extravagant speculations on this involved subject, which Darwin was +naturally anxious to correct and modify by his own more sober and +guarded inferences. The result was the second great finishing work of +the complete Darwinian system of things.</p> + +<p>Ever since evolutionism had begun to be at all it had been observed that +a natural corollary from the doctrine of descent with modification was +the belief in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> man's common ancestry with the anthropoid apes. As early +as the middle of the last century, indeed, Lord Monboddo, a whimsical +Scotch eccentric, had suggested in his famous book on the origin of +language the idea that men were merely developed monkeys. But this crude +and unorganised statement of a great truth, being ultimately based upon +no distinct physical grounds, deserved scarcely to be classed higher +than the childish evolutionism of 'Telliamed' De Maillet, which makes +birds descend from flying-fish and men the offspring of the hypothetical +tritons. On this point as on most others the earliest definite +scientific views are those of Buffon, who ventured to hint with extreme +caution the possibility of a common ancestry for man and all other +vertebrate animals. Goethe the all-sided had caught a passing glimpse of +the same profound conception about the date of the Reign of Terror; and +Erasmus Darwin had openly announced it, though without much elaboration, +in his precocious and premature 'Zoonomia.' Still more specifically, in +a note to the 'Temple of Nature,' the English evolutionist says: 'It has +been supposed by some that mankind were formerly quadrupeds.... These +philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to imagine that mankind +arose from one family of monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean;' and +in the third canto of that fantastic poem, he enlarges upon the great +part performed by the hand, with its opposable thumb, in the development +and progress of the human species. Lamarck, in his 'Philosophie +Zoologique,' distinctly lays down the doctrine that man is descended +from an ape-like ancestor, which gradually acquired the upright +position, not even now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> wholly natural to the human race, and maintained +only by the most constant watchfulness. The orang-outang was then the +highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang, +therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the +pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam.</p> + +<p>The introduction of the chimpanzee into our European Zoological Gardens +gave a fresh type of anthropoid to the crude speculators of the middle +decades of the century; and in 1859, Paul du Chaillu, the explorer and +hunter of the Gaboon country, brought over to America and Europe the +first specimens of the true gorilla ever seen by civilised men. There +can be little doubt that the general interest excited by his narrative +of his adventures (published in London in 1861) and by the well-known +stuffed specimen of the huge African anthropoid ape so long conspicuous +in the rooms of the British Museum, and now surviving (somewhat the +worse for wear) in the natural history collection at South Kensington, +did much to kindle public curiosity as to the nature of our relations +with the lower animals. It is no mere accidental circumstance, indeed, +that Huxley should have brought out 'Man's Place in Nature' just two +years after Du Chaillu's 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial +Africa' had made the whole world, lay and learned, familiar with the +name and features of the most human in outer aspect among the anthropoid +family. Thenceforth the gorilla, and not the orang-outang, was popularly +hit upon by scoffer and caricaturist as the imaginary type of our +primitive ancestors.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, during the twelve intervening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> years immense strides +had been made in every department of anthropological science, and the +whole tenor of modern speculation had been clearing the ground for the +'Descent of Man,' In 1865, Rolle in Germany had published his work on +'Man Viewed by the Light of the Darwinian Theory.' Two years later, +Canestrini in Italy read before the Naturalists' Society of Modena his +interesting paper on rudimentary characters as bearing on the origin of +the human species. In 1868, Büchner brought out his rudely materialistic +sledge-hammer lectures on the Darwinian principle; and in 1869, Barrago +flung straight at the head of the Roman clericals his offensive work on +man and the anthropoid apes. Most of these foreign publications were +unhappily marked by that coarse and almost vituperative opposition to +received views which too often disfigures French and German +controversial literature. In England, on the contrary, under our milder +and gentler ecclesiastical yoke, the contest had been conducted with +greater decorum and with far better results. Wallace had broken ground +tentatively and reverently in his essay on the 'Origin of Human Races,' +where he endeavoured to show that man is the co-descendant with the +anthropoid apes of some ancient lower and extinct form. Lubbock's +'Prehistoric Times' (1865) and 'Origin of Civilisation' (1870) helped to +clear the way in the opposite direction by demolishing the old belief, +firmly upheld by Whately and others, that savages represent a degraded +type, and that the civilised state is natural and, so to speak, +congenital to man. Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind' (1865) did still +more eminent service in the same direction. Colenso's 'Pentateuch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> and +Book of Joshua Critically Examined,' the publication of which began in +1862, had already shaken the foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony, and +incidentally discredited the received view of the direct creation of the +first human family. McLennan's 'Primitive Marriage' (1865) and Herbert +Spencer's articles on the origin of religion had kept speculation alive +along other paths, all tending ultimately towards the same conclusion. +Darwin's own cousin, Hensleigh Wedgwood, and Canon Farrar, had +independently endeavoured to prove that language, instead of being a +divine gift, might have arisen in a purely natural manner from +instinctive cries and the imitation of external sounds. The Duke of +Argyll and Professor Max Müller, by the obvious feebleness of their +half-hearted replies, had unconsciously aided in disseminating and +enforcing the very views they attempted to combat. Bagehot and Flower, +Maudsley and Jevons, Vogt and Lindsay, Galton and Brown-Séquard had each +in his way contributed facts and arguments ultimately utilised by the +great master architect in building up his consistent and harmonious +edifice. Finally, in 1868, Haeckel had published his 'Natural History of +Creation,' in which he discussed with surprising and perhaps excessive +boldness the various stages in the genealogy of man. These various +works, following so close upon Huxley's 'Man's Place in Nature' and +Lyell's conclusive 'Antiquity of Man,' left Darwin no choice but to set +forth his own reasoned opinions on the subject of the origin and +development of the human species.</p> + +<p>The evidence of the descent of man from some lower form, collected and +marshalled together by Darwin, consists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> chiefly of minute inferential +proofs which hardly admit of deliberate condensation. In his bodily +structure man is formed on the same underlying type or model as all the +other mammals, bone answering throughout to bone, as, for example, in +the fore limb, where homologous parts have been modified in the dog into +toes, in the bat into wing-supports, in the seal into flippers, and in +man himself into fingers and thumb, while still retaining in every case +their essential fundamental likeness of construction. Even the brain of +man resembles closely the brain of the higher monkeys; the differences +which separate him in this respect from the orang or the gorilla are far +slighter than the differences which separate those apes themselves from +the inferior monkeys. Indeed, as Huxley conclusively showed, on +anatomical grounds alone, man must be classed in the order Primates as +only one among the many divergent forms which that order includes within +its wide limits.</p> + +<p>In his embryonic development man closely resembles the lower animals, +the human creature being almost indistinguishable in certain stages from +the dog, the bat, the seal, and especially the monkeys. At a very early +age he possesses a slight projecting tail; at another, the great toe is +shorter than its neighbours, and projects like the thumb at a slight +angle; and at a third, the convolutions of the brain reach a point of +development about equivalent to that of the adult baboon. In his first +stages man himself stands far more closely related to the apes than the +apes in turn stand to cats or hyænas.</p> + +<p>Rudiments of muscles not normally found in man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> occur in many aberrant +human individuals. Some people possess the power of moving their scalps +and wagging their ears like dogs and monkeys; others can twitch the skin +of their bodies, as horses do when worried by flies. Mr. Woolner, the +sculptor, pointed out to Darwin a certain little projecting point or +knob on the margin of the ear, observed by him in the course of +modelling, which comparison shows to be the last folded remnant or +rudiment of the once erect and pointed monkey-like ear-tip. The +nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, once more, which in birds can be +drawn so rapidly across the ball of the eye, and which gives the +familiar glazed or murky appearance, is fairly well developed in the +ornithorhyncus and the kangaroo, as well as in a few higher mammals, +like the walrus; but in man, as in the monkey group, it survives only +under the degenerate form of a practically useless rudiment, the +semilunar fold. Man differs from the other Primates in his apparently +hairless condition; but the hair, though short and downy, still remains +on close inspection, and in some races, such as the Ainos of Japan, +forms a shaggy coat like an orang's or a gibbon's. A few long rough +hairs sometimes project from the short smooth down of the eyebrows; and +these peculiar bristles, occasional only in the human species, are +habitual in the chimpanzee and in many baboons. Internal organs show +similar rudiments, of less enthralling interest, it must be candidly +confessed, to the unscientific outside intelligence. Even the bony +skeleton contributes its share of confirmatory evidence; for in the +lower monkeys and in many other mammals a certain main trunk nerve +passes through a special perforation in the shoulder-blade,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> and this +perforation, though now almost obsolete, sometimes recurs in man, in +which case the nerve in question invariably passes through it, as in the +inferior monkeys. What is still more remarkable is the fact that the +perforation occurs far more frequently (in proportion) among the +skeletons of very ancient races than among those of our own time. One +chief cause why in this and other cases ancient races often present +structures resembling those of the lower animals seems to be that they +stand nearer in the long line of descent to their remote animal-like +progenitors.</p> + +<p>The conclusion at which, after fully examining all the evidence, Darwin +finally arrives is somewhat as follows:</p> + +<p>The early ancestors of man must have been more or less monkey-like +animals, belonging to the great anthropoid group, and related to the +progenitors of the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. They +must have been once covered with hair, both sexes possessing beards. +Their ears were probably pointed and capable of movement, and their +bodies were provided with a movable tail. The foot had a great toe +somewhat thumb-like in its action, with which they could grasp the +branches of trees. They were probably arboreal in their habits, +fruit-eaters by choice, and inhabitants of some warm forest-clad land. +The males had great canine teeth, with which they fought one another for +the possession of the females. At a much earlier period, the internal +anatomical peculiarities approached those of the lowest mammals, and the +eye was provided with a third eyelid. Peering still further back into +the dim abyss of the ages, Darwin vaguely describes the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> ancestors of +humanity as aquatic animals, allied to the mudfish; for our lungs are +known to consist of modified swim-bladders, which must once have served +our remote progenitors in the office of a float. The gill-clefts on the +neck of the human embryo still point to the spot where the branchiæ +once, no doubt, existed. Our primordial birthplace appears to have been +a shore washed twice a day by the recurrent tides. The heart then took +the shape merely of a simple pulsating vessel; and a long undivided +spinal cord usurped the place of the vertebral column. These extremely +primitive ancestors of man, thus dimly beheld across the gulf of ages, +must have been at least as simply and humbly organised as that very +lowest and earliest of existing vertebrates, the worm-like lancelet.</p> + +<p>From such a rude and indefinite beginning natural selection, aided by +the various concomitant principles, has slowly built up the pedigree of +man. Starting from these remote half-invertebrate forms, whose vague +shape is still perhaps in part preserved for us by the soft and +jelly-like larva of the modern ascidian, we rise by long stages to a +group of early fishes, like the lancelet itself. From these the ganoids +and then the lung-bearing mudfish must have been gradually developed. +From such fish a very small advance would carry us on to the newts and +other amphibians. The duck-billed platypus helps us slightly to bridge +over the gap between the reptiles and the lower mammals, such as the +kangaroo and the wombat, though the connection with the amphibians is +still, as when Darwin wrote, highly problematical. From marsupials, such +as the kangaroo, we ascend gradually to the insectivorous type +represented by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> shrews and hedgehogs, and thence once more by very +well-marked intermediate stages to the lemurs of Madagascar, a group +linked on the one hand to the insectivores, and on the other to the true +monkeys. The monkeys, again, 'branched off into two great stems—the New +World and Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, +man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.'</p> + +<p>The word was spoken; the secret was out. The world might well have been +excused for treating it scornfully. But as a matter of fact, the storm +which followed the 'Descent of Man' was as nothing compared with the +torrent of abuse that had pursued the author of the 'Origin of Species.' +In twelve years society had grown slowly accustomed to the once +startling idea, and it listened now with comparatively languid interest +to the final utterance of the great biologist on the question of its own +origin and destinies. In 1859 it cried in horror, 'How very shocking!' +in 1871, it murmured complacently, 'Is that all? Why, everybody knew +that much already!'</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, on the moral and social side, the ultimate importance of +the 'Descent of Man' upon the world's history can hardly be overrated by +a philosophic investigator. Vast as was the revolution effected in +biology by the 'Origin of Species,' it was as nothing compared with the +still wider, deeper, and more subtly-working revolution inaugurated by +the announcement of man's purely animal origin. The main discovery, +strange to say, affected a single branch of thought alone; the minor +corollary drawn from it to a single species has already affected, and is +destined in the future still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> more profoundedly to affect, every +possible sphere of human energy. Not only has it completely reversed our +entire conception of history generally, by teaching us that man has +slowly risen from a very low and humble beginning, but it has also +revolutionised our whole ideas of our own position and our own destiny, +it has permeated the sciences of language and of medicine, it has +introduced new conceptions of ethics and of religion, and it threatens +in the future to produce immense effects upon the theory and practice of +education, of politics, and of economic and social science. These +wide-reaching and deep-seated results began to be felt from the first +moment when the Darwinian principle was definitely promulgated in the +'Origin of Species,' but their final development and general acceptance +was immensely accelerated by Darwin's own authoritative statement in the +'Descent of Man.'</p> + +<p>To some among us still, as to Lyell before us, this new belief in the +animal origin of man seems far less beautiful, noble, and inspiriting +than the older faith in his special and separate divine creation. Such +thinkers find it somehow more pleasant and comfortable to suppose that +man has fallen than that man has risen; the doctrine of the universal +degradation of humanity paradoxically appears to them more full of +promise and aspiration for the times to come than the doctrine of its +universal elevation. To Darwin himself, however, it seemed otherwise. +'Man,' he says, 'may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, +though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic +scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been +aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> the distant future.' Surely this is the truer and manlier way of +looking at the reversed and improved attitude of man. Surely it is +better to climb to the top than to have been placed there—and +fallen—at the very outset. Surely it is a nobler view of life that we +may yet by our own strenuous exertions raise our race some places higher +in the endless and limitless hierarchy of nature than that we are the +miserable and hopelessly degenerate descendants of a ruined and degraded +angelic progenitor. Surely it is well, while we boast with Glaucus that +we indeed are far braver and better than our ancestors, to pray at the +same time, in the words of Hector, that our sons may be yet braver and +better than ourselves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h2>THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP.</h2> + + +<p>In the same volumes with the 'Descent of Man' Darwin included his +admirable treatise on sexual selection. This form of selection he had +already dealt with briefly in the 'Origin of Species;' but as in his +opinion it was largely instrumental in producing the minor differences +which separate one race of men from another, he found it necessary to +enlarge and expand it in connection with his account of the rise and +progress of the human species.</p> + +<p>Among many animals, and especially in the higher classes of animals, the +males and females do not mate together casually; there is a certain +amount of selection or of courtship. In some cases, as with deer and +antelopes, the males fight with one another for the possession of the +females. In other cases, as with the peacock and the humming-birds, the +males display their beauty and their skill before the eyes of the +assembled females. In the first instance, the victor obtains the mates; +in the second instance, the mates themselves select from the group the +handsomest and most personally pleasing competitor. Sexual selection, of +which these are special cases, depends on the advantage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> possessed by +certain individuals over others of the same sex and species solely in +respect to the question of mating. In all such instances, the males have +acquired their weapons of offence and defence or their ornamental +decorations, not from being better fitted to survive in the struggle for +existence, but from having gained an advantage over other males of the +same kind, and from having transmitted this advantage to offspring of +their own sex alone.</p> + +<p>Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by the selection of +those birds which are victorious in the cockpit, so the strongest and +most vigorous males, or those provided with the best weapons, have +prevailed in the state of nature over their feebler and more cowardly +competitors. Just as man can give beauty, according to his own standard +of taste, to his male poultry, by selecting special birds for their +plumage, their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female birds in +a state of nature have by a long-continued choice of the more attractive +males added to their beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. In these two +ways, Darwin believed, a limited selection has slowly developed weapons +like the horns of buffaloes, the antlers of stags, the tusks of boars, +and the spurs of game-birds, together with the courage, strength, and +pugnacity always associated with such special organs. It has also +developed the ornamental plumage of the peacock, the argus pheasant, and +the birds of paradise; the song of the lark, the thrush, and the +nightingale; the brilliant hues on the face of the mandrill; and the +attractive perfume of the musk-deer, the snakes, and the scented +butterflies. Wherever one sex possesses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> any decorative or alluring +adjunct not equally shared by the other, Darwin attributed this special +gift either to the law of battle, or to the long and slowly exerted +selective action of their fastidious mates.</p> + +<p>The germ of the doctrine of sexual selection is to be found, like so +many other of Charles Darwin's theories, in a prophetic passage of his +grandfather's 'Zoonomia.' Stags, the Lichfield physician tells us, are +provided with antlers 'for the purpose of combating other stags for the +exclusive possession of the females, who are observed, like the ladies +in the time 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.'</p> + +<p>It must be noticed, however, that Erasmus Darwin here imports into the +question the metaphysical and teleological notion of the final cause, +implying that the struggle of the males was ordained from without, for +this express and preconceived purpose; whereas Charles Darwin, never +transcending the world of phenomena, more logically regards the struggle +itself as an efficient cause, having for its result the survival of the +strongest or the handsomest as the case may be. This distinction is +fundamental; it marks the gulf between the essentially teleological +spirit of the eighteenth century and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> the essentially positive spirit of +philosophy and science at the present day.</p> + +<p>Here again, too, the immense logical superiority of Charles Darwin's +rigorous and exhaustive inductive method over the loose suggestiveness +of his grandfather Erasmus may easily be observed. For while Erasmus +merely throws out a clever and interesting hint as to the supposed +method and intention of nature, Charles Darwin proves his thesis, point +by point, with almost mathematical exactitude, leaving no objection +unmet behind him, but giving statistical and inductive warrant for every +step in his cumulative argument. He goes carefully into the numerical +proportion of the two sexes in various species; into the relative dates +of arrival in any particular country of the males and females of +migratory birds; into the question whether any individuals ever remain +in the long run unpaired; into the chances of the earliest-mated or most +vigorous couples leaving behind more numerous or stronger offspring to +represent them in the next generation. He collects from every quarter +and from all sources whatever available evidence can be obtained as to +the courtship and rivalry of birds and butterflies, of deer and +antelopes, of fish and lizards. He shows by numerous examples and +quotations how even flies coquet together in their pretty rhythmical +aerial dances; how wasps battle eagerly with one another to secure +possession of their unconcerned mates; how cicadas strive to win their +'voiceless brides' with stridulating music; how sphinx-moths endeavour +to allure their partners with the musky odour of their pencilled wings; +and how emperors and orange-tips display their gorgeous spots<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> and bands +in the broad sunshine before the admiring and attentive eyes of their +observant dames. He traces up the same spirit of rivalry and ostentation +to the cock-pheasant strutting about before the attendant hen, and to +the meeting-places of the blackcock, where all the males of the district +fight with one another and undertake long love-dances in regular +tournaments, while the females stand by and watch the chances and +changes of the contest with affected indifference. Finally, he points +out how similar effects are produced by like causes among the higher +animals, especially among our near relations the monkeys; and then he +proceeds to apply the principles thus firmly grounded to the particular +instance of the human race itself, the primary object of his entire +treatise.</p> + +<p>Some of the most interesting of the modifications due to this particular +form of selective action are to be found amongst the insects and other +low types of animal life. The crickets, the locusts, and the +grasshoppers, for example, are all famous for their musical powers; but +the sounds themselves are produced in the different families by very +different and quaintly varied organs. The song of the crickets is evoked +by the scraping of minute teeth on the under side of either wing-cover; +in the case of the locusts, the left wing, which acts as a bow, overlies +the right wing, which serves as a fiddle; while with the grasshoppers, +the leg does duty as the musical instrument, and has a row of +lancet-shaped elastic knobs along its outer surface, which the insect +rubs across the nerves of the wing-covers when it wishes to charm the +ears and rouse the affection of its silent mate. In a South African +species of the same family,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> the whole body of the male is fairly +converted into a musical instrument, being immensely inflated, hollow, +and distended like a pellucid air-bladder in order to act as an +efficient sounding-board. Among the beetles, taste seems generally to +have specialised itself rather on form than on music or colour, and the +males are here usually remarkable for their singular and very +complicated horns, often compared in various species to those of stags +or rhinoceroses, and entirely absent in the females of most kinds. But +it is among the butterflies and moths that insect æstheticism has +produced its greatest artistic triumphs; for here the beautiful +eye-spots and delicate markings on the expanded wing-membranes are +almost certainly due to sexual selection.</p> + +<p>The higher animals display like evidence of the same slow selective +action. The courtship of the stickleback, who dances 'mad with delight' +around the mate he has allured into the nest he prepares for her, has +been observed by dozens of observers both before and since in the +domestic aquarium. The gem-like colours of the male dragonet, the +butterfly wings of certain gurnards, and the decorated tails of some +exotic carps all point in the same direction. Our own larger newt is +adorned during the breeding season with a serrated crest edged with +orange; while in the smaller kind the colours of the body acquire at the +same critical period of love-making a vivid brilliancy. The strange +horns and luridly coloured throat-pouches of tropical lizards are +familiar to all visitors in equatorial climates, and they are confined +exclusively to the male sex. Among birds, the superior beauty of the +male plumage is known to everybody; and their greatest glory invariably +coincides<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> with the special season for the selection of mates. In the +spring, as even our poets have told us, the wanton lapwing gets himself +another crest. The law of battle produces the spur of the game-birds and +the still stranger wing-spurs of certain species of the plover kind. +Æsthetic rivalry is answerable rather for vocal music, and for the +plumage of the umbrella-bird, the lyre-bird, the humming-birds, and the +cock of the rocks. Among mammals, strength rather than beauty seems to +have carried the day; horns, and tusks, and spikes, and antlers are here +the special guerdon of the victorious males. Yet even mammals show +occasional signs of distinctly æsthetic and artistic preferences, as in +the gracefully twisted horns of the koodoo, the scent-glands of the +musk-deer or of certain antelopes, the brilliant hues of the male +mandrill, and the tufts and moustaches of so many monkeys.</p> + +<p>It must be frankly conceded that the reception accorded to Darwin's +doctrine of sexual selection, even among the biological public, was far +less unanimous, enthusiastic, and full than that which had been granted +to his more extensive theory of survival of the fittest. Many eminent +naturalists declined from the very outset to accept the conclusions thus +definitely set before them, and others who at first seemed disposed to +bow to the immense weight of Darwin's supreme authority gradually +withdrew their grudging assent from the new doctrine, as they found +their relapse backed up by others, and refused to believe that the +theory of courtship had been fairly proven before the final tribunal of +science. Several critics began by objecting that the whole theory was a +mere afterthought. Darwin, they said, finding that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> natural selection +did not suffice by itself to explain all the details of structure in +man, had invented sexual selection as a supplementary principle to help +it over the hard places. Those who wrote and spoke in this thoughtless +fashion could have had but a very inadequate idea of Darwin's close +experimental methods of enquiry. As a matter of fact, indeed, they were +entirely wrong; the doctrine of sexual selection itself, already faintly +foreshadowed by Erasmus Darwin in the 'Zoonomia,' had been distinctly +developed in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' with at least +as much provisional elaboration as any other equally important factor in +the biological drama as set forth in that confessedly introductory work. +Nay, Haeckel had caught gladly at the luminous conception there +expressed, even before the appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' and had +worked it out in his 'Generelle Morphologie,' with great insight, to its +legitimate conclusions in many directions. Indeed, the sole reason why +so much space was devoted to the subject in Darwin's work on human +development was simply because there for the first time an opportunity +arose of utilising his vast store of collected information on this +single aspect of the evolutionary process. It was no afterthought, but a +necessary and inevitable component element of the fully-developed +evolutionary concept.</p> + +<p>Still, it cannot be denied that naturalists generally did not accept +with effusion the new clause in the evolutionary creed. Many of them +hesitated; a few acquiesced; the majority more or less openly dissented. +But Darwin's belief remained firm as a rock. 'I am glad you defend +sexual selection,' he wrote a few years later in a private letter; 'I +have no fear about its ultimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> fate, though it is now at a discount;' +and in the preface to the second edition of the 'Descent of Man,' he +remarks acutely, 'I have been struck with the likeness of many of the +half-favourable criticisms on sexual selection with those which appeared +at first on natural selection; such as that it would explain some few +details, but certainly was not applicable to the extent to which I have +employed it. My conviction of the power of sexual selection remains +unshaken.... When naturalists have become familiar with the idea, it +will, as I believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has already +been fully and favourably received by several capable judges.'</p> + +<p>In spite of the still continued demurrer of not a few among the leading +evolutionists, it is probable, I think, that Darwin's prophecy on this +matter will yet be justified by the verdict of time. For the opposition +to the doctrine of sexual selection proceeds almost invariably, as it +seems to me, from those persons who still desire to erect an efficient +barrier of one sort or another between the human and animal worlds; +while on the contrary the theory in question is almost if not quite +universally accepted by just those rigorously evolutionary biologists +who are freest from preconceptions or special <i>a priori</i> teleological +objections of any kind whatever. The half of the doctrine which deals +with the law of battle, indeed, can hardly be doubted by any competent +naturalist; the other half, which deals with the supposed æsthetic +preferences of the females, is, no doubt, distasteful to certain +thinkers because it seems to imply the existence in the lower animals of +a sense of beauty which many among us are not even now prepared +generously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> to admit. The desire to arrogate to mankind alone all the +higher faculties either of sense or intellect has probably much to do +with the current disinclination towards the Darwinian idea of sexual +selection. Thinkers who allow themselves to be emotionally swayed by +such extraneous considerations forget that the beautiful is merely that +which pleases; that beauty has no external objective existence; and that +the range of taste, both among ourselves and among animals at large, is +practically infinite. The greatest blow ever aimed at the Darwinian +theory of sexual selection was undoubtedly that dealt out by Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace (et tu, Brute!) in his able and subtle article on the +Colours of Animals in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' since reprinted in his +delightful work on 'Tropical Nature.' Wallace there urges with his usual +acuteness, ingenuity, and skill several fundamental objections to the +Darwinian hypothesis of no little importance and weight. But it must +always be remembered (with all due respect to the joint discoverer of +natural selection) that Mr. Wallace himself, after publishing his own +admirable essay on the development of man, drew back aghast in the end +from the full consequences of his own admission, and uttered his partial +recantation in the singular words, 'Natural selection could only have +endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape.' It +seems probable that in every case an analogous desire to erect a firm +barrier between man and brute by positing the faculty for perceiving +beauty as a special quasi-divine differentia of the human race has been +at the bottom of the still faintly surviving dislike amongst a section +of scientific men to sexual selection.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> Nevertheless, a candid and +impartial critic would be compelled frankly to admit that Darwin's +admirable theory of courtship has not on the whole proved so generally +acceptable to the biological world up to the present time as his greater +and far more comprehensive theory of survival of the fittest. It still +waits for its final recognition, towards which it is progressing more +rapidly and surely every day it lives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<h2>VICTORY AND REST.</h2> + + +<p>The last eleven years of Darwin's life were spent in enforcing and +developing the principles already reached, and in enjoying the almost +unchequered progress of the revolution he had so unconsciously to +himself succeeded in inaugurating.</p> + +<p>Only one year elapsed between the publication of the 'Descent of Man' +and that of its next important successor, the 'Expression of the +Emotions.' The occasion of this learned and bulky treatise in itself +stands as an immortal proof of the conscientious way in which Darwin +went to work to anticipate the slightest and most comparatively +impertinent possible objections to his main theories. Sir Charles Bell, +in one of the quaintly antiquated Bridgwater treatises—those marvellous +monuments of sadly misplaced teleological ingenuity—had maintained that +man was endowed with sundry small facial muscles solely for the sake of +expressing his emotions. This view was so obviously opposed to the +belief in the descent of man from some lower form, 'that,' says Darwin, +'it was necessary for me to consider it;' and so he did, in a lengthy +work, where the whole subject is exhaustively treated, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> Bell's idea +is completely pulverised by the apt allegation of analogous expressions +in the animal world. In his old age Darwin grew, in fact, only the more +ceaselessly and wonderfully industrious. In 1875, after three years of +comparative silence, came the 'Insectivorous Plants,' a work full of +minute observation on the habits and manners of the sundew, the +butterwort, the Venus's fly-catcher, and the various heterogeneous +bog-haunting species known by the common name of pitcher plants. The +bare mass and weight of the facts which Darwin had collected for the +'Origin of Species' might well-nigh have stifled the very existence of +that marvellous book: it was lucky that the premature publication of +Wallace's paper compelled him to hurry on his 'brief abstract,' for if +he had waited to select and arrange the whole series of observations +that he finally published in his various later justificatory volumes, we +might have looked in vain for the great systematic and organising work, +which would no doubt have been 'surcharged with its own weight, and +strangled with its waste fertility.' But the task that he himself best +loved was to watch in minute detail the principles whose secret he had +penetrated, and whose reserve he had broken, working themselves out +before his very eyes, naked and not ashamed—to catch Actæon-like the +undraped form of nature herself in the actual process of her inmost +being. He could patiently observe the red and slimy hair-glands of the +drosera closing slowly and remorselessly round the insect prey, and +sucking from their bodies with sensitive tentacles the protoplasmic +juices denied to its leaves by the poor and boggy soil, on which alone +its scanty rootlets can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> properly thrive. He could watch the butterwort +curving round the edges of its wan green foliage upon the captured limbs +of fly or aphis. He could note how the serried mass of finger-like +processes in the utricles of the bladderwort slowly absorb organic +matter from the larva of a gnat, or the minute water-insects entangled +within its living and almost animated lobster-pot. He could track the +long line of treacherous honey-glands by which the sarracenia entices +flies into the festering manure-wells of its sticky pitchers. The +minuteness and skill of all his observations on these lesser problems of +natural selection inevitably inspired faith among outsiders in the +cautious judgment of the observer and experimenter; and day by day +throughout his later years the evidence of the popular acceptance of his +doctrine, and of the dying away of the general ridicule with which it +was first received by the unlearned public, was very gratifying to the +great naturalist.</p> + +<p>A year later, in 1876, came the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation +in the Vegetable Kingdom.' So far as regarded the world of plants, +especially with respect to its higher divisions, this work was of +immense theoretical importance; and it also cast a wonderful side-light +upon the nature of that strange distinction of sex which occurs both in +the vegetable and animal kingdom, and in each is the concomitant—one +might almost say the necessary concomitant—of high development and +complex organisation. The great result attained by Darwin in his long +and toilsome series of experiments on this interesting subject was the +splendid proof of the law that cross-fertilisation produces finer and +healthier offspring, while continuous self-fertilisation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> tends in the +long run to degradation, degeneration, and final extinction.</p> + +<p>Here as elsewhere, however, Darwin's principle does not spring +spontaneous, like Athene from the head of Zeus, a goddess full-formed, +uncaused, inexplicable: it arises gradually by a slow process of +development and modification from the previous investigations of earlier +biologists. At the close of the last century, in the terrible year of +upheaval 1793, a quiet German botanist, Christian Konrad Sprengel by +name, published at Berlin his long unheeded but intensely interesting +work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers.' In the summer of 1789, while all +Europe was ablaze with the news that the Bastille had been stormed, and +a new era of humanity begun, the calm and peaceful Pomeranian observer +was noting in his own garden the curious fact that many flowers are +incapable of being fertilised without the assistance of flying insects, +which carry pollen from the stamens of one blossom to the sensitive +surface or ovary of the next. Hence he concluded that the secretion of +honey or nectar in flowers, the contrivances by which it is protected +from rain, the bright hues or lines of the corolla, and the sweet +perfume distilled by the blossoms, are all so many cunning devices of +nature to ensure fertilisation by the insect-visitors. Moreover, +Sprengel observed that many flowers are of one sex only, and that in +several others the sexes do not mature simultaneously; 'so that,' said +he, 'nature seems to intend that no flower shall be fertilised by means +of its own pollen.' Indeed, in some instances, as he showed by +experiments upon the yellow day lily, plants impregnated from their own +stamens cannot be made to set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> seed at all. 'So near,' says his able +successor, Hermann Müller, 'was Sprengel to the distinct recognition of +the fact that self-fertilisation leads to worse results than +cross-fertilisation, and that all the arrangements which favour +insect-visits are of value to the plant itself, simply because the +insect-visitors effect cross-fertilisation!' As in most other +anticipatory cases, however, it must be here remarked that Sprengel's +idea was wholly teleological: he conceived of nature as animated by a +direct informing principle, which deliberately aimed at a particular +result; whereas Darwin rather came to the conclusion that +cross-fertilisation as a matter of fact does actually produce beneficial +results, and that therefore those plants which varied most in the +direction of arrangements for favouring insect-visits were likely to be +exceptionally fortunate in the struggle for existence against +competitors otherwise arranged. It is just the usual Darwinian +substitution of an efficient for a final cause.</p> + +<p>Even before Sprengel, Kölreuter had recognised, in 1761, that +self-fertilisation was avoided in nature; and his observations and +experiments on intercrossing and on hybridism were largely relied upon +by Darwin himself, to whom they suggested at an early period many +fruitful lines of original investigation. In 1799, again, Andrew Knight, +following up the same line of thought in England as Sprengel in Germany, +declared as the result of his close experiments upon the garden pea, +that no plant ever fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. +But Knight's law, not being brought into causal connection with any +great fundamental principle of nature, was almost entirely overlooked by +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> scientific world until the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of +Species,' half a century later. The same neglect also overtook +Sprengel's immensely interesting and curious work on fertilisation of +flowers. The world, in fact, was not yet ready for the separate +treatment of functional problems connected with the interrelations of +organic beings; so Knight and Sprengel were laid aside unnoticed on the +dusty top bookshelves of public libraries, while the dry classificatory +and systematic biology of the moment had it ail its own way for the time +being on the centre reading-tables. So many separate and independent +strands of thought does it ultimately require to make up the grand final +generalisation which the outer world attributes in its totality to the +one supreme organising intelligence.</p> + +<p>But in the 'Origin of Species' itself Darwin reiterated and emphasised +Knight's law as a general and all-pervading principle of nature, placing +it at the same time on broader and surer biological foundations by +affiliating it intimately upon his own great illuminating and unifying +doctrine of natural selection. He also soon after rescued from oblivion +Sprengel's curious and fairy-like book, showing in full detail in his +work on orchids the wonderful contrivances by which flowers seek to +attract and to secure the assistance of insects for the impregnation of +their embryo seeds. In the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication,' he further showed that breeding in-and-in diminishes the +strength and productiveness of the offspring; while crossing with +another stock produces, on the contrary, the best possible physical +results in both directions. And now at last, in the 'Effects of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Cross +and Self fertilisation,' he proved by careful and frequently repeated +experiments that a constant infusion of fresh blood (so to speak) is +essential to the production of the healthiest offspring. In the words of +his own emphatic summing up, 'Nature abhors perpetual +self-fertilisation.'</p> + +<p>The immediate result of these new statements and this fresh rationale of +Knight's law was to bring down Sprengel forthwith from the top shelf, +where he had languished ingloriously for seventy years, and to set a +whole school of ardent botanical observers working hard in the lines he +had laid down upon the mutual correlations of insects and flowers. A +vast literature sprang up at once upon this enchanting and +long-neglected subject, the most eminent workers in the rediscovered +field being Delpino in Italy, Hildebrand and Hermann Müller in Germany, +Axel in Sweden, Lubbock in England, and Fritz Müller in tropical South +America. Darwin found the question, in fact, almost taken out of his +hands before he had time himself to treat of it; for Hildebrand's chief +work was published as early as 1867, while Axel's appeared in 1869, both +of them several years earlier than Darwin's own final essay on the +subject in the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation.' No statement, +perhaps, could more clearly mark the enormous impetus given to +researches in this direction than the fact that D'Arcy Thompson, in his +appendix to Müller's splendid work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers,' +has collected a list of no less than eight hundred and fourteen separate +works or important papers bearing on that special department of botany, +almost all of them subsequent in date to the first publication<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> of the +'Origin of Species.' So widely did the Darwinian wave extend, and so +profoundly did it affect every minute point of biological and +psychological investigation.</p> + +<p>Each of these later works of Darwin's consists, as a rule, of an +expansion of some single chapter or paragraph in the 'Origin of +Species;' or, to speak more correctly, of an arrangement of the +materials collected and the experiments designed for that particular +portion of the great projected encyclopædia of evolutionism, of which +the 'Origin of Species' itself was but a brief anticipatory summary or +rough outline. Thus, the book on Orchids, published in 1862, is already +foreshadowed in a part of the chapter on the Difficulties of the Theory +of Natural Selection; the 'Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants' +(1865) is briefly summarised by anticipation in the long section on +Modes of Transition; the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication' (1868) consists of the vast array of <i>pièces +justificatives</i> for the first chapter of the 'Origin of Species;' and +the germ of the 'Cross and Self Fertilisation' (1876) is to be seen in +the passage 'On the Intercrossing of Individuals' in Chapter IV. of the +same work. It was well indeed that Darwin began by publishing the +shorter and more manageable abstract; the half, as the wise Greek +proverb shrewdly remarks, is often more than the whole; and a world that +eagerly devoured the first great deliverance of the Darwinian principle, +might have stood aghast had it been asked to swallow it piecemeal in +such gigantic treatises as those with which its author afterwards sought +thrice to vanquish all his foes and thrice to slay the slain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yet, with each fresh manifestation of Darwin's inexhaustible resources, +on the other hand, the opposition to his principles grew feebler and +feebler, and the universality of their acceptance more and more +pronounced, till at last, among biologists at least, not to be a +Darwinian was equivalent to being hopelessly left behind by the general +onward movement of the time. In 1874 Tyndall delivered his famous +address at the Belfast meeting of the British Association; and in 1877, +from the same presidential chair at Plymouth, Allen Thomson, long +reputed a doubtful waverer, enforced his cordial adhesion to the +Darwinian principles by his inaugural discourse on 'The Development of +the Forms of Animal Life.' A new generation of active workers, trained +up from the first in the evolutionary school, like Romanes, Ray +Lankester, Thistleton Dyer, Balfour, Sully, and Moggridge, had now risen +gradually around the great master; and in every direction he could see +the seed he had himself planted being watered and nourished in fresh +soil by a hundred ardent and enthusiastic young disciples. Even in +France, ever irresponsive to the touch of new ideas of alien origin, +Colonel Moulinié's admirable and sympathetic translations were beginning +to win over to the evolutionary creed many rising workers; while in +Germany, Victor Carus's excellent versions had from the very first +brought in the enthusiastic Teutonic biologists with a congenial +'swarmery' to the camp of the Darwinians. Correspondents from every part +of the world kept pressing fresh facts and fresh applications upon the +founder of the faith; and Darwin saw his own work so fast being taken +out of his hands by specialist disciples that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> abandoned entirely his +original intention of publishing in detail the basis of his first book, +and contented himself instead with tracing out minutely some minor +portions of his contemplated task as specimens of evolutionary method.</p> + +<p>In 1877, in pursuance of this changed purpose, Darwin published his book +on 'Forms of Flowers,' in which he dealt closely with the old problem of +differently shaped blossoms on plants of the same species. It had long +been known, to take a single example, that primroses existed in two +forms, the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, of which the former has the +pin-like summit of the pistil at the top of the tube, and the stamens +concealed half way down its throat; while in the latter these relative +positions are exactly reversed, the stamens answering in place to the +pistil of the alternative form with geometrical accuracy. As early as +1862 Darwin had shown, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' that +this curious arrangement owed its development to the greater security +which it afforded for cross-fertilisation, because in this way each +flower had to be impregnated with the pollen, from a totally distinct +blossom, growing on a different individual plant. In a series of +successive papers read before the same Society in the years between 1863 +and 1868, he had extended a similar course of explanation to the +multiform flowers of the flaxes, the loosestrifes, the featherfoil, the +auricula, the buckbean, and several other well-known plants. At last, in +1877, he gathered together into one of the now familiar green-covered +volumes the whole of his observations on this strange peculiarity, and +proved by abundant illustration and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> experiment that the diversity of +form is always due through natural selection to the advantage gained by +perfect security of cross-fertilisation, resulting as it invariably does +in the production of the finest, strongest, and most successful +seedlings. Any variation, however peculiar, which helps to ensure this +constant infusion of fresh blood is certain to be favoured in the +struggle for life, owing to the superior vitality of the stock it +begets. But it is worthy of notice, as showing the extreme minuteness +and exhaustiveness of Darwin's method on the small scale, side by side +with his extraordinary and unusual power of rising to the very highest +and grandest generalisations, that the volume which he devoted to the +elucidation of this minor factor in the question of hereditary +advantages runs to nearly as many pages as the last edition of the +'Origin of Species' itself. So great was the wealth of observation and +experiment which he could lavish upon the solution of a single, small, +incidental problem.</p> + +<p>Even fuller in minute original research was the work which Darwin +published in 1880, on 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' detailing the +result of innumerable observations on the seemingly irresponsible yet +almost purposive rotations of the growing rootlets and young stems of +peas and climbers. Anyone who wishes to see on what a wide foundation of +irrefragable fact the great biologist built up the stately fabric of his +vast theories cannot do better than turn for instruction to this +remarkable volume, which the old naturalist gave to the world some time +after passing the allotted span of threescore years and ten.</p> + +<p>It was in the same year (1880) that Huxley delivered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> at the Royal +Institution his famous address on the Coming of Age of the 'Origin of +Species.' The time was a favourable one for reviewing the silent and +almost unobserved progress of a great revolution. Twenty-one years had +come and gone since the father of modern scientific evolutionism had +launched upon the world his tentative work. In those twenty-one years +the thought of humanity had been twisted around as upon some invisible +pivot, and a new heaven and a new earth had been presented to the eyes +of seers and thinkers. One-and-twenty years before, despite the +influence of Hutton and of Lyell, the dominant view of the earth's past +history revealed but one vast and lawless succession of hideous +catastrophes. Wholesale creations and wholesale extinctions, world-wide +cataclysms followed by fresh world-wide births of interwoven faunas and +floras—these, said Huxley, were the ordinary machinery of the +geological epic brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of the +mighty Cuvier. One-and-twenty years after, the opponents themselves had +given up the game in its fullest form as lost beyond the hope of +possible restitution. Some hesitating thinkers, it is true, while +accepting the evolutionary doctrine more or less in its earlier form, +like Mivart and Meehan, yet refused their assent on one ground or +another to the specific Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Others, +like Wallace, made a special exception with regard to the development of +the human species, which they supposed to be due to other causes from +those implied in the remainder of the organic scale. Yet on the whole, +biological science had fairly carried the day in favour of evolution, in +one form or another, and not even the cavillers dared now to suggest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +that whole systems of creation had been swept away <i>en bloc</i>, and remade +again in different forms for a succeeding epoch, in accordance with the +belief which was almost universal among geologists up to the exact +moment of the publication of Darwin's masterpiece.</p> + +<p>During the twenty-one years, too, as Huxley likewise pointed out, an +immense number of new facts had come to strengthen the hands of the +evolutionists at the very point where they had before felt themselves +most openly vulnerable. Palæontology had supplied many of those missing +links in the organic chain whose absence from the interrupted and +imperfect geological record had been loudly alleged against the +Darwinian hypothesis in the earlier days of struggle and hesitation. Two +years after the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' the discovery of +a winged and feathered creature, happily preserved for us in the +Solenhofen slates, with lizard-like head and teeth and tail, and +bird-like pinions, feet, and breast, had bridged over in part the great +gap that yawns between the existing birds and reptiles. A few years +later, new fossil reptilian forms, erect on their hind legs like +kangaroos, and with very singular peculiarities of bony structure, had +helped still further to show the nature of the modifications by which +the scale-bearing quadruped type passed slowly into that of the +feather-bearing biped. In 1875, again, Professor Marsh's discovery of +the toothed birds in the American cretaceous strata completed the +illustrative series of transitional forms over what had once been the +most remarkable existing break in the continuity of organic development. +Similarly, Hofmeister's investigations in the vegetable world<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> brought +close together the flowering and flowerless plants, by indicating that +the ferns and the horsetails were connected in curious unforeseen ways, +through the pill-worts and club-mosses, with the earliest and simplest +of forest trees, the firs and the puzzle-monkeys. In minor matters like +progress was continually reported on every side. Gaudry found among the +fossils of Attica the successive stages by which the ancient and +undeveloped civets passed into the more modern and specialised tribe of +the hyænas; Marsh traced out in Western America the ancestry of the +horse from a five-toed creature no bigger than a fox, through +intermediate four-toed and three-toed forms, to the existing single +solid-hoofed type with its digits reduced to the minimum of unity; and +Filhol unearthed among the phosphorites of Quercy the common progenitor +of the most distinct among the recent carnivores, the cats and the dogs, +the plantigrade bears and the digitigrade pumas. 'So far as the animal +world is concerned,' Professor Huxley said in conclusion, reviewing +these additions to the evidence upon that memorable occasion, 'evolution +is no longer a speculation but a statement of historical fact.' Of +Darwin himself he remarked truly, 'He has lived long enough to outlast +detraction and opposition, and to see the stone that the builders +rejected become the head-stone of the corner.'</p> + +<p>It was in 1881 that Darwin published his last volume, 'The Formation of +Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.' In this singularly +fascinating and interesting monograph he took in hand one of the +lowliest and humblest of living forms, the common earthworm, and by an +exhaustive study of its habits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> and manners strove to show how the +entire existence of vegetable mould—the ordinary covering of fertile +soil upon the face of the earth—is due to the long but unobtrusive +action of these little-noticed and ever-active architects. By the acids +which they evolve, they appear to aid largely in the disintegration of +the stone beneath the surface; by their constant practice of eating +fallen leaves, which they drag down with them into their subterranean +burrows, they produce the fine castings of soft earth, so familiar to +everybody, and thus reinstate the coating of humus above the bare rock +as often as it is washed away again in the course of ordinary denudation +by the rain and the torrents. It is true that subsequent investigation +has shown the possibility of vegetable mould existing under certain +conditions without the intervention of worms to any marked extent; but, +as a whole, there can be little doubt that over most parts of the world +the presence of soil, and therefore of the vegetable growth rooted in +it, is entirely due to the unsuspected yet ceaseless activity of these +humble creatures.</p> + +<p>The germ of the earthworm theory appears to me to have been first +suggested to Darwin's mind by a passage in a work where one would little +have suspected it—White's 'Natural History of Selborne.' 'Earthworms,' +says the idyllic Hampshire naturalist, 'though in appearance a small and +despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a +lamentable chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some +quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to +be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely +without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and +rendering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing +straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up +such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being +their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably +provide new soils for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth +away; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. +Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former, +because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and +the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But +these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become +cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and, consequently, sterile.'</p> + +<p>If Darwin ever read this interesting passage, which he almost certainly +must at some time have done, it would appear that he had overlooked it +in later life; for he, who was habitually so candid and careful in the +acknowledgment of all his obligations, however great or however small, +does not make any mention of it at all in his 'Vegetable Mould,' though +he alludes incidentally to some other observations of Gilbert White's on +the minor habits and manners of earthworms. But whether Darwin was +originally indebted to White or not for the foundation of his theory on +the subject of mould, the important point to notice is really this, that +what with the observant parson of Selborne was but a casual glimpse, the +mere passing suggestion of a fruitful idea, became with Darwin, in his +wider fashion, a carefully elaborated and powerfully buttressed theory, +supported by long and patient investigation, ample<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> experiment, and vast +collections of minute facts. The difference is strikingly characteristic +of the strong point of Darwin's genius. While he had all the breadth and +universality of the profoundest thinkers, he had also all the marvellous +and inexhaustible patience of the most precise and special microscopical +student.</p> + +<p>For years, indeed, Darwin studied the ways and instincts of the common +earthworm with the same close and accurate observation which he gave to +every other abstruse subject that engaged in any way his acute +intellect. The lawyer's maxim, 'De minimis lex non curat,' he used to +say, never truly applies to science. As early as the year 1837 he read a +paper, before the Geological Society of London, 'On the Formation of +Mould,' in which he developed with some fulness the mother idea of his +complete theory on the earthworm question. He there showed that layers +of cinders, marl, or ashes, which had been strewn thickly over the +surface of meadows, were found a few years after at a depth of some +inches beneath the turf, yet still forming in spite of their burial a +regular and fairly horizontal stratum. This apparent sinking of the +stones, he believed, was due to the quantity of fine earth brought up to +the surface by worms in the form of castings. It was objected to his +theory at the time that the work supposed to be accomplished by the +worms was out of all reasonable proportion to the size and numbers of +the alleged actors. Here Darwin's foot was on his native heath; he felt +himself immediately on solid ground again. The cumulative importance of +separately infinitesimal elements is indeed the very keynote and special +peculiarity of the great biologist's method of thinking. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> had found +out in very truth that many a little makes a mickle, that the infinitely +small, infinitely repeated, may become in process of infinite years +infinitely important. So he set himself to work, with characteristic +contempt of time, to weigh and measure worms and worm-castings.</p> + +<p>He began by keeping tame earthworms in flower-pots in his own house, +counting the number of worms and burrows in certain measured spaces of +pasture or garden, and starting his long and slow experiment in his +field at Down already alluded to. He tried issues on their senses, on +their instincts, on their emotions, on their intelligence; he watched +them darting wildly like rabbits into their holes when alarmed from +without, overcoming engineering difficulties in dragging down +oddly-shaped or unfamiliar leaves, and protecting the open mouths of +their tunnels from intruders with a little defensive military glacis of +rounded pebbles. He found that more than 53,000 worms on an average +inhabit every acre of garden land, and that a single casting sometimes +weighs as much as three ounces avoirdupois. Ten tons of soil per acre +pass annually through their bodies, and mould is thrown up by them at an +average rate of 22 inches in a century. Careful observations on the +stones of Stonehenge; on the tiled floors of buried buildings; on Roman +ruins at Silchester and Wroxeter, and on his own meadows and pastures at +Down, finally enabled the cautious experimenter to prove conclusively +the truth of his thesis, and to present to the world the despised +earthworm in a new character, as the friend of man and of agriculture, +the producer and maintainer of the vegetable mould on our hills or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +valleys, and the prime cause of the very existence of that cloak of +greensward that clothes our lawns, our fields, and our pleasure-grounds.</p> + +<p>It was his last work. Persistent ill-health and equally persistent study +for seventy-three years had broken down a constitution never really +strong, and consumed from within by the ceaseless fires of its own +overpowering and undying energy. On Tuesday, April the 18th, 1882, he +was seized at midnight by violent pains, and at four o'clock on +Wednesday afternoon he died suddenly in his son's arms, after a very +short but painful illness. So retired was the family life at Down that +the news of the great biologist's death was not actually known in London +itself till two days after he had breathed his last.</p> + +<p>The universal regret and grief expressed at the loss in all civilised +countries was the best measure of the immense change of front which had +slowly come over the whole educated community, in the twenty-three years +since the first publication of the 'Origin of Species.' No sooner was +Darwin's death announced than all lands and all classes vied with one +another in their eagerness to honour the name and memory of the great +biologist. Indeed, the spontaneous and immediate nature of the outburst +of regret and affectionate regard which followed hard upon the news of +Darwin's death, astonished even those who had watched closely the +extraordinary revolution the man himself had brought so well to its +final consummation. In England, it was felt instinctively on every side +that the great naturalist's proper place was in the aisles of +Westminster, hard by the tomb of Newton, his immortal predecessor. To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +this universal and deep-seated feeling Darwin's family regretfully +sacrificed their own natural preference for a quiet interment in the +graveyard at Down. On the Wednesday morning next after his death, +Charles Darwin's remains were borne with unwonted marks, of respect and +ceremony, in the assembled presence of all that was noble and good in +Britain, to an honoured grave in the precincts of the great Abbey. +Wallace and Huxley, Lubbock and Hooker, his nearest peers in the domain +of pure science, stood among the bearers who held the pall. Lowell +represented the republics of America and of letters. Statesmen, and +poets, and philosophers, and theologians mingled with the throng of +scientific thinkers who crowded close around the venerated bier. No +incident of fitting pomp or dignity was wanting as the organ pealed out +in solemn strains the special anthem composed for the occasion, to the +appropriate words of the Hebrew poet, 'Happy is the man that findeth +wisdom.' Even the narrow Philistine intelligence itself, which still +knew Darwin only as the man who thought we were all descended from +monkeys, was impressed with the sole standard of greatness open to its +feeble and shallow comprehension by the mere solemnity and ceremony of +the occasion, and began to enquire with blind wonderment what this +thinker had done whom a whole people thus delighted to honour.</p> + +<p>Of Darwin's pure and exalted moral nature no Englishman of the present +generation can trust himself to speak with becoming moderation. His love +of truth, his singleness of heart, his sincerity, his earnestness, his +modesty, his candour, his absolute sinking of self and +selfishness—these, indeed, are all conspicuous to every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> reader, on the +very face of every word he ever printed. Like his works themselves, they +must long outlive him. But his sympathetic kindliness, his ready +generosity, the staunchness of his friendship, the width and depth and +breadth of his affections, the manner in which 'he bore with those who +blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return,' these things can +never so well be known to any other generation of men as to the three +generations who walked the world with him. Many even of those who did +not know him loved him like a father; to many who never saw his face, +the hope of winning Charles Darwin's approbation and regard was the +highest incentive to thought and action. Towards younger men, +especially, his unremitting kindness was always most noteworthy: he +spoke and wrote to them, not like one of the masters in Israel, but like +a fellow-worker and seeker after truth, interested in their interests, +pleased at their successes, sympathetic with their failures, gentle to +their mistakes. Not that he ever spared rightful criticism; on the +contrary, the love of truth was with him so overpowering and enthralling +a motive that he pointed out what seemed to him errors or misconceptions +in the work of others with perfect frankness, fully expecting them to be +as pleased and delighted at a suggested amendment of their faulty +writing as he himself was in his own case. But his praise was as +generous as his criticism was frank; and, amid all the toil of his +laborious life in his study at Down, he could always find time to read +and comment at full length upon whatever fresh contributions to his own +subjects the merest tyro might venture to submit for his consideration. +He had the sympathetic receptivity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> of all truly great minds, and when +he died, thousands upon thousands who had never beheld his serene +features and his fatherly eyes felt they had lost indeed a personal +friend.</p> + +<p>Greatness is not always joined with gentleness: in Charles Darwin's +case, by universal consent of all who knew him, 'an intellect which had +no superior' was wedded to 'a character even nobler than the +intellect.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<h2>DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT.</h2> + + +<p>To most people Darwinism and evolution mean one and the same thing. +After what has here been said, however, with regard to the pre-Darwinian +evolutionary movement, and the distinction between the doctrines of +descent with modification and of natural selection, it need hardly be +added that the two are quite separate and separable in thought, even +within the limits of the purely restricted biological order. Darwinism +is only a part of organic evolution; the theory, as a whole, owes much +to Darwin, but it does not owe everything to him alone. There were +biological evolutionists before ever he published the 'Origin of +Species;' there are biological evolutionists even now who refuse to +accept the truth of his great discovery, and who cling firmly to the +primitive faith set forth in earlier and cruder shapes by Erasmus +Darwin, by Lamarck, or by Robert Chambers.</p> + +<p>Much more, then, must Darwinism and the entire theory of organic +development to which it belongs be carefully discriminated, as a part or +factor, from evolution at large, as a universal and all-embracing +cosmical system. That system itself has gradually emerged as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> slow +growth of the past two centuries, a progressive development of the +collective scientific and philosophical mind of humanity, not due in its +totality to any one single commanding thinker, but summing itself up at +last in our own time more fully in the person and teaching of Mr. +Herbert Spencer than of any other solitary mouthpiece. Indeed, +intimately as we all now associate the name of Darwin with the word +'evolution,' that term itself (whose vogue is almost entirely due to Mr. +Spencer's influence) was one but rarely found upon Darwin's own lips, +and but rarely written by his own pen. He speaks rather of development +and of natural selection than of evolution: his own concern was more +with its special aspect as biological modification than with its general +aspect as cosmical unfolding. Let us ask, then, from this wider +standpoint of a great and far-reaching mental revolution, what was +Charles Darwin's exact niche in the evolutionary movement of the two +last centuries?</p> + +<p>Evolutionism, as now commonly understood, may be fairly regarded as a +mode of envisaging to ourselves the history of the universe, a tendency +or frame of mind, a temperament, one might almost say, or habit of +thought rather than a definite creed or body of dogmas. The evolutionist +looks out upon the cosmos as a continuous process unfolding itself in +regular order in obedience to definite natural laws. He sees in it all, +not a warring chaos restrained by the constant interference from without +of a wise and beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of +original elements, perpetually working out their own fresh +redistribution, in accordance with their own inherent energies. He +regards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> the cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material atoms, +animated by an almost infinite sum-total of energy, potential or +kinetic.</p> + +<p>In the very beginning, so far as the mental vision of the astronomer can +dimly pierce with hypothetical glance the abyss of ages, the matter +which now composes the material universe seems to have existed in a +highly diffuse and nebulous condition. The gravitative force, however, +with which every atom of the whole vast mass was primarily endowed, +caused it gradually to aggregate around certain fixed and definite +centres, which became in time the rallying-points or nuclei of future +suns. The primitive potential energy of separation in the atoms of the +mass was changed into actual energy of motion as they drew closer and +closer together about the common centre, and into molecular energy or +heat as they clashed with one another in bodily impact around the +hardening core. Thus arose stars and suns, composed of fiery atomic +clouds in a constant state of progressive concentration, ever +gathering-in the hem of their outer robes on the surface of the solid +globe within, and ever radiating off their store of associated energy to +the impalpable and hypothetical surrounding ether. This, in necessarily +brief and shadowy abstract, is the nebular theory of Kant and Laplace, +as amended and supplemented by the modern doctrine of the correlation +and conservation of energies.</p> + +<p>Applied to the solar system, of which our own planet forms a component +member, the evolutionary doctrine (in its elder shape) teaches us to +envisage that minor group as the final result of a single great diffuse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +nebula, which once spread its faint and cloud-like mass with +inconceivable tenuity, at least as far from its centre, now occupied by +the sun's body, as the furthest point in the orbit of Neptune, the +outermost of the yet known planets. From this remote and immense +periphery it has gradually gathered itself in, growing denser and denser +all the time, towards its common core, and has left behind, at irregular +intervals, concentric rings or belts of nebulous matter, which, after +rupturing at their weakest point, have hardened and concentrated round +their own centre of gravity into Jupiter, Saturn, the Earth, or Venus. +The main central body of all, retreating ever within as it dropped in +its course the raw material of the planetary masses, has formed, at +last, the sun, the great ruler and luminary of our system. Much as this +primitive evolutionary concept of the development and history of the +solar system has been modified and altered of late years by recent +researches into the nature of comets and meteors and of the sun's +surface, it still remains for all practical purposes of popular +exposition the best and simplest mental picture of the general type of +astronomical evolution. For the essential point which it impresses upon +the mind is the idea of the planets in their several orbits and with +their attendant satellites as due, not to external design and special +creation, in the exact order in which we now see them, but to the slow +and regular working out of preordained physical laws, in accordance with +which they have each naturally assumed, by pure force of circumstances, +their existing size, and weight, and orbit, and position.</p> + +<p>Geology has applied a similar conception to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> origin and becoming of +the earth's material and external features as we now know them. +Accepting from astronomy the notion of our planet's primary condition as +a cooling sphere of incandescent matter, it goes on to show how the two +great envelopes, atmospheric and oceanic, gaseous and liquid, have +gradually formed around its solid core; how the hard crust of the +central mass has been wrinkled and corrugated into mountain chain and +deep-cut valley, uplifted here into elevated table-land or there +depressed into hollow ocean bed; how sediment has slowly gathered on the +floor of the sea, and how volcanic energies or lateral pressure have +subsequently forced up the resulting deposits into Alpine peaks and +massive continents. In this direction, it was Lyell who principally +introduced into science the uniformitarian or evolutionary principle, +who substituted for the frequent cataclysms and fresh beginnings of the +earlier geologists the grand conception of continuous action, producing +from comparatively infinitesimal but cumulative causes effects which at +last attain by accretion the most colossal proportions.</p> + +<p>Here biology next steps in, with its splendid explanation of organic +life, as due essentially to the secondary action of radiated solar +energy on the outer crust of such a cooling and evolving planet. Falling +on the cells of the simplest green plants, the potent sunlight +dissociates the carbon from the oxygen in the carbonic acid floating in +the atmosphere, and builds it up with the hydrogen of water in the +tissues of the organism into starches and other organic products, which +differ from the inert substances around them, mainly by the possession +of locked-up solar energy. On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the energy-yielding food-stuffs thus +stored up the animal in turn feeds and battens, reducing what was before +potential into actual motion, just as the steam-engine reduces the +latent solar energy of coal into visible heat and visible movement in +its furnace and its machinery. How the first organism came to exist +biology has not yet been able fully to explain for us; but aided by +chemical science it has been able to show us in part how some of the +simpler organic bodies may have been originally built up, and it does +not despair of showing us in the end how the earliest organism may +actually have been produced from the prime elements of oxygen, hydrogen, +nitrogen, and carbon. Into this most fundamental of biological problems, +however, Darwin himself, with his constitutional caution and dread of +speculative theorising, was not careful or curious to enter. Even upon +the far less abstruse and hypothetical question, whether all life took +its prime origin from a single starting-point or from several distinct +and separate tribal ancestors, he hardly cared so much as to hazard a +passing speculation. With splendid self-restraint he confined his +attention almost entirely to the more manageable and practical problem +of the origin of species by natural selection, which lay then and there +open for solution before him. Taking for granted the existence of the +original organism or group of organisms, the fact of reproduction, and +the tendency of such reproduction to beget increase in a geometrical +ratio, he deduced from these elementary given factors the necessary +corollary of survival of the fittest, with all its marvellous and +far-reaching implications of adaptation to the environment and specific +distinctions. By doing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> so, he rendered conceivable the mechanism of +evolution in the organic world, thus bringing another great aspect of +external nature within the range of the developmental as opposed to the +miraculous philosophy of the cosmos.</p> + +<p>Psychology, once more, in the hands of Herbert Spencer and his +followers, not wholly unaided by Darwin himself, has extended the +self-same evolutionary treatment to the involved and elusive phenomena +of mind, and has shown how from the simplest unorganised elements of +feeling, the various mental powers and faculties as we now know them, +both on the intellectual and on the emotional side, have been slowly +built up in the long and ever-varying interaction between the sentient +organism and the natural environment. It has traced the first faint +inception of a nervous system as a mere customary channel of +communication between part and part; the gradual growth of fibre and +ganglion; the vague beginnings of external sense-organ and internal +brain; the final perfection of eye and ear, of sight and hearing, of +pleasure and pain, of intellect and volition. It has thus done for the +subjective or mental half of our complex nature what biology, as +conceived by Darwin, has done for the physical or purely organic half; +it has traced the origin and development of mind, without a single +break, from its first faint and half-unconscious manifestation in the +polyp or the jelly-fish to its final grand and varied outcome in the +soul of the poet or the intellect of the philosopher.</p> + +<p>Finally, sociology has applied the evolutionary method to the origin and +rise of human societies, with their languages, customs, arts, and +institutions, their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> governmental organisation and their ecclesiastical +polity. Taking from biology the evolving savage, viewed as a developed +and highly gifted product of the anthropoid stock, it has shown by what +stages and through what causes he has slowly aggregated into tribes and +nations; has built up his communal, polygamic, or monogamic family; has +learnt the use of fire, of implements, of pottery, of metals; has +developed the whole resources of oral speech and significant gesture; +has invented writing, pictorial or alphabetic; has grown up to science, +to philosophy, to morals, and to religion. The chief honours of this +particular line of enquiry, the latest and youngest of all to receive +the impact of the evolutionary impulse, belong mainly to Tylor, Lubbock, +and Spencer in England, and to Haeckel, De Mortillet, and Wagner on the +continent.</p> + +<p>In the sublime conception of the external universe and its present +workings which we thus owe to the independent efforts of so many great +progressive thinkers, and which has here been briefly and inadequately +sketched out, Darwin's work in life falls naturally into its own place +as the principal contribution to the evolutionary movement in the +special biological department of thought. Within the more limited range +of that department itself, the evolutionary impulse did not owe its +origin to Charles Darwin personally; it took its rise with Erasmus +Darwin, Buffon, and Lamarck, and it derived from our great modern +English naturalist its final explanation and definitive proof alone. But +just as the evolutionary movement in astronomy and cosmical thought is +rightly associated in all our minds with the mighty theories of Kant, +Laplace, and Herschel;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> just as the evolutionary movement in geology is +rightly associated with the far lesser yet brilliant and effective +personality of Lyell; just as the evolutionary movement in the +derivative sciences is rightly associated with so many great still +living thinkers; so the evolutionary movement in biology in particular +rightly sums itself up in the honoured name of Charles Darwin. For what +others suspected, he was the first to prove; where others speculated, he +was the first to observe, to experiment, to demonstrate, and to +convince.</p> + +<p>It should be noted, too, that while to us who come after, the great +complex evolutionary movement of the two last centuries justly reveals +itself as one and indivisible, a single grand cosmical drama, having +many acts and many scenes, but all alike inspired by one informing and +pervading unity, yet to those whose half unconscious co-operation slowly +built it up by episodes, piecemeal, each act and each scene unrolled +itself separately as an end in itself, to be then and there attained and +proved, quite apart from the conception of its analytic value as a part +in a great harmonious natural poem of the constitution of things. Though +evolution appears to us now as a single grand continuous process, a +phase of the universe dependent upon a preponderating aggregation of +matter and dissipation of energy, yet to Kant and Laplace it was the +astronomical aspect alone that proved attractive, to Darwin it was the +biological aspect alone, and to many of the modern workers in the minor +fields it is the human and sociological aspect that almost monopolises +the whole wide mental horizon. No greater proof can be given of the +subjective distinctness of parts in what was objectively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> and +fundamentally a single broad psychological revolution of the human mind, +than the fact that Lyell himself, who more than any one man had +introduced the evolutionary conception into the treatment of geology, +should have stood out so long and fought so blindly against the +evolutionary conception in the organic world. Indeed, it was not until +the various scattered and many-coloured strands of evolutionary thought +had been gathered together and woven into one by the vast catholic and +synthetic intelligence of Herbert Spencer that the idea of evolution as +a whole, as a single continuous cosmical process, began to be +apprehended and gradually assimilated by the picked intelligences of the +several distinct scientific departments.</p> + +<p>Observe also that the evolutionary method has invaded each of the +concrete sciences in the exact order of their natural place in the +hierarchy of knowledge. It had been applied to astronomy by Kant and +Laplace before it was applied to geology by Lyell; it had been applied +to geology by Lyell before it was applied to biology by Darwin; it had +been applied to biology (in part, at least) by Lamarck and the Darwins +before it was applied to psychology by Spencer; and it is only at the +very end of all that it has been applied to sociology and the allied +branches of thought by a hundred different earnest workers in +contemporary Europe. Each stage helped on the next; each was dependent +only on those that went naturally before it, and aided in turn the +subsequent development of those that naturally came after it.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the popular instinct which regards Darwinism and evolution +as practically synonymous is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> to a large extent justified by the actual +facts of the psychological upheaval. Darwin's work forms on the whole +the central keystone of the evolutionary system, and deserves the honour +which has been thrust upon it of supporting by its own mass the entire +superstructure of the development theory.</p> + +<p>For, in the first place, Darwin had to deal with the science of life, +the science where the opposition to evolutionism was sure to be +strongest, and where the forces and tendencies in favour of obscurantism +were sure to gather in fullest force. Every other great onward step in +our knowledge of our own relation to the universe of which we form a +part had been compelled indeed to run the gauntlet, in its own time, of +ecclesiastical censure and of popular dislike. Those inveterate +prejudices of human ignorance which sedulously hide their genuine shape +under the guise of dogma masquerading as religion, had long since +brought to bear their baneful resources upon the discoveries of +Copernicus and the theories of Galileo, as blind, misleading, and +diabolical lights, opposed to the sure and certain warranty of Holy +Scripture. Newton, again, had in due time been blamed in that he boldly +substituted (as his critics declared) the bald and barren formula of +gravitation for the personal superintendence of a divine Providence. +Laplace had been accused of dethroning the deity from the centre and +governance of his celestial system. Around the early geologists the +battle of the six days of creation had raged fiercely for nearly half a +century. But all these varying modes of thought, though deemed heretical +enough in their own day, had touched, as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> were, but the minor +ramparts and unimportant out-works of the great obscurantist dogmatic +strongholds: Darwinism, by openly attacking the inmost problems of life +and mind, had brought to bear its powerful artillery upon the very keep +and highest tower of the fortress itself. The belief that the various +stars, planets, and satellites had or had not been wisely created in +their existing positions, and with their present orbits, movements, and +relations accurately fore-measured, did not fundamentally affect, for +good or evil, the cherished dogmas of the ordinary multitude. But the +analogous belief in the distinct and separate creation of plants and +animals, and more especially of the human species, was far more closely +and intimately bound up with all the current religious conceptions. It +was at first supposed, not perhaps without some practical wisdom, that +to upset the primitive faith in the separate creation of living beings +was to loosen and imperil the very foundations of common morality and +revealed religion. The 'argument from design' had been immemorially +regarded as the principal buttress of orthodox thought. Theologians had +unwisely staked their all upon the teleological dogma, and could ill +afford to retire without a blow from that tenaciously defended bastion +of their main position. Hence the evolutionary concept had its hardest +fight to wage over the biological field; and when that field was once +fairly won, it had little more to fear from banded preconceptions and +established prejudices in any other portion of the wide territory it +claimed for its own.</p> + +<p>In the second place, biological evolution, firmly established by Darwin +on a safe, certain, and unimpeachable basis, led naturally and almost +inevitably to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> all the other innumerable applications of the +evolutionary method, in the domains of psychology, sociology, philology, +political thought, and ethical science. Hence the immediate and visible +results of its promulgation have been far more striking, noticeable, and +evident than those which followed the establishment of the evolutionary +conception in the astronomical and geological departments. It was +possible to accept cosmical evolution and solar evolution and planetary +evolution, without at the same time accepting evolution in the +restricted field of life and mind. But it was impossible to accept +evolution in biology without at the same time extending its application +to psychology, to the social organism, to language, to ethics, to all +the thousand and one varied interests of human life and human +development. Now, most people are little moved by speculations and +hypotheses as to the origin of the milky way or the belt of Orion; they +care very slightly for Jupiter's moons or Saturn's rings; they are +stolidly incurious as to the development of the earth's crust, or the +precise date of the cretaceous epoch; but they understand and begin to +be touched the moment you come to the practical questions of man's +origin, nature, and history. Darwinism compelled their attention by its +immediate connection with their own race; and the proof of this truth is +amply shown by the mere fact that out of all the immense variety of +Charles Darwin's theories and ideas, the solitary one which alone has +succeeded in attaching to itself the public interest and public ridicule +is the theory of man's ultimate descent from a monkey-like ancestor. +Popular instinct, here as elsewhere profoundly true at core in the midst +of all its superficial foolishness, has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> rightly hit upon the central +element in the Darwinian conception which more than any other has caused +its fruitful and wonderful expansion through every fertile field of +human enquiry.</p> + +<p>In short, it was Darwin's task in life to draw down evolution from +heaven to earth, and to bring within the scope of its luminous method +all that is most interesting to the uninstructed and unsophisticated +heart of the natural man.</p> + +<p>The application of the evolutionary principle to the world of life, +human or animal, thus presents itself as the chief philosophic and +scientific achievement of the nineteenth century. Throughout the whole +middle decades of the present age, the human mind in all its highest +embodiments was eagerly searching, groping, and enquiring after a +naturalistic explanation of the origin and progress of organic life. In +the vast scheme for the System of Synthetic Philosophy which Herbert +Spencer set forth as an anticipatory synopsis of his projected work, the +philosopher of development leapt at once from the First Principles of +evolution as a whole to the Principles of Biology, Psychology, and +Sociology, omitting all reference to the application of evolution to the +vast field of inorganic nature; and he did so on the distinctly stated +ground that its application to organic nature was then and there more +important and interesting. That suggestive expression of belief aptly +sums up the general attitude of scientific and philosophic minds at the +precise moment of the advent of Darwinism. Kant and Laplace and Lyell +had already applied the evolutionary method to suns and systems, to +planets and continents; what was needed next was that some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> deeply +learned and universally equipped biological leader should help the lame +evolutionism of Lamarck over the organic stile, and leave it free to +roam the boundless fields of what Mr. Spencer has sometimes well +described as the super-organic sciences. For that office, Darwin at the +exact moment presented himself; and his victory and its results rightly +entitle him to the popular regard as the founder of all that most men +mean when they speak together in everyday conversation of the doctrine +of evolution.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the total esoteric philosophic conception of +evolution as a cosmical process, one and continuous from nebula to man, +from star to soul, from atom to society, we owe rather to the other +great prophet of the evolutionary creed, Herbert Spencer, whose name +will ever be equally remembered side by side with his mighty peer's, in +a place of high collateral glory. It is he who has given us the general +definition of evolution as a progress from an indefinite, incoherent +homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, accompanying an +integration of matter and dissipation of motion, or, as we should now +perhaps more correctly say, of energy. In the establishment of the +various lines of thought which merge at last in that magnificent +cosmical law, it was Darwin's special task to bring the phenomena of +organic life well within the clear ken of known and invariable natural +processes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h2>THE NET RESULT.</h2> + + +<p>And now let us ask ourselves, in all sincerity, what was the final +outcome and net result of Darwin's great and useful life?</p> + +<p>If Charles Darwin had never existed at all, there would still have been +a considerable and expansive evolutionary movement both in biology and +in its sister sciences throughout the latter half of the present +century. The harvest indeed was ready, and the labourers, though few, +were full of vigour. Suppose for a moment that that earnest and +single-hearted Darwinian genius had been cut off by some untimely +disease of childhood at five years old, all other conditions remaining +as they were, we should even so have had in our midst to-day, a small +philosophical and influential band of evolutionary workers. Spencer +would none the less have given us his 'First Principles' and the major +part of his 'Principles of Biology,' with comparatively little +alteration or omission. Wallace would none the less have promulgated his +inchoate theory of natural selection, and rallied round his primordial +conception the very best and deepest minds of the biological fraction. +Geology would have enforced the continuity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> of types; Cope and Marsh +would have unearthed for our edification the ancestral forms of the +evolving horse and the toothed birds of the Western American deposits. +The Solenhofen lithographic slates would still have yielded us the +half-reptilian, half-avian Archæopteryx; the tertiary deposits would +still have presented us with a long suite of gradually specialised and +modified mammalian forms. The Siberian meadows would have sent us that +intermediate creature which Prjevalsky recognises as the half-way house +between the horses and the donkeys; the rivers of Queensland would have +disclosed to our view that strange lung-bearing and gill-breathing +barramunda, in which Günther discerns the missing link between the +ganoid fishes on the one hand, and the mudfish and salamandroid +amphibians on the other. From data such as these, biologists and +palæontologists of the calibre of Huxley, Gaudry, Geikie, Rütimeyer, and +Busk, would necessarily have derived, by the aid of Wallace's pregnant +principle, conclusions not so very far remote from Darwin's own. Heer +and Saporta would have drawn somewhat similar inferences from the fossil +flora of Switzerland and of Greenland; Hooker and De Candolle would have +read pretty much the self-same lessons in the scattered ferns and scanty +palm-trees of oceanic islands. Kowalevsky would have seen in the +ascidian larva a common prototype of the vertebrate series; the +followers of Von Baer would have popularised the embryological +conception of the single origin of animal life. The researches of +Boucher de Perthes, of Lyell, of Evans, of Boyd Dawkins, of Keller, and +of Christy and Lartet, would have unrolled before our eyes, under any +circumstances, the strange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> story of prehistoric man. On the facts so +gained, Lubbock and Tylor, Schaafhausen and Büchner, would have built up +their various consistent theories of human development and human +culture. In short, even without Charles Darwin, the nineteenth century +would not have stood still; it would have followed in the wake of Buffon +and Diderot, of Lamarck and Laplace, of St. Hilaire and Goethe, of Kant +and Herschel, of Hutton and Lyell, of Malthus and of Spencer. The great +world never rolls down the abysses of time obedient to the nod of one +single overruling Titanic intellect. 'If the doctrine of evolution had +not existed,' says Huxley, 'palæontologists must have invented it.'</p> + +<p>But Charles Darwin acted, nevertheless, the part of an immense and +powerful accelerating energy. The impetus which he gave gained us at +least fifty years of progress; it sent us at a bound from Copernicus to +Newton; so far as ordinary minds were concerned, indeed, it transcended +at a single leap the whole interval from Ptolemy to Herschel. The +comparison is far from being a mere rhetorical one. A close analogy +really exists between the two cases. Before Copernicus, the earth stood +fixed and immovable in the centre of the universe, with obsequious suns, +and planets, and satellites dancing attendance in cycle and epicycle +around the solid mass, to which by day and night they continually +ministered. The great astronomical revolution begun by Copernicus, +Galileo, and Kepler, and completed by Newton, Laplace, and Herschel, +reduced the earth to its true position as a petty planet, revolving +feebly among its bigger brethren round a petty sun, in some lost corner +of a vast, majestic, and almost illimitable galaxy. Even so, before +Darwin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> man stood in his own esteem the fixed point of an +anthropocentric universe, divinely born and divinely instructed, with +all the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fruits of +the earth specially created with a definite purpose in subservience to +his lordly wants and interests. The great biological revolution, which +rightly almost sums itself up in the name of Darwin, reduced man at once +to his true position as the last product of kinetic solar energy, +working upon the peculiar chemical elements of an evolving planet. It +showed that every part of every plant and every animal existed primarily +for the sake of that plant or animal alone; it unseated man from his +imaginary throne in the centre of the cosmos, teaching him at once a +lesson of humility and a lesson of aspiration—pointing out to him how +low was the origin from which, in very truth, he first sprang, and +suggesting to him, at the same time, how high was the grand and glorious +destiny to which by his own strenuous and ardent efforts he might yet +perchance some day attain.</p> + +<p>That result, inevitable perhaps in the long run, from the slow unfolding +of human intelligence, was immensely hastened in our own time by the +peculiar idiosyncrasy and lofty personality of Charles Darwin. Without +him we should have had, not only evolutionism, but also, as Wallace's +discovery testifies, natural selection itself into the bargain. But we +should never have had the 'Origin of Species.' We should never have had +that vast and enthusiastic consensus of scientific opinion through an +all but unanimous thinking world, which has forced an immediate +acceptance of evolutionary ideas down the unwilling throats of half +unthinking Europe. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> prodigious mass of Darwin's facts, the cautious +working of Darwin's intellect, the immense weight of Darwin's +reputation, the crushing force of Darwin's masterly inductive method, +bore down before them all opposition in the inner circle of biologists, +and secured the triumph of the evolutionary system even in the very +strongholds of ignorance and obscurantism. Without Darwin, a small group +of philosophic thinkers would still be striving to impress upon an +incredulous and somewhat contemptuous world the central truths of the +evolutionary doctrine. The opposition of the elders, long headed even in +the society we actually know by a few stern scientific recalcitrants, +like Owen and Agassiz, Pictet and Dawson, Virchow and Mivart, would have +fought desperately in the last trench for the final figment of the +fixity of species. What is now the general creed, more or less loosely +held and imperfectly understood, of hundreds and thousands among the +intelligent mass, would, under such circumstances, be even yet the mere +party-shibboleth of an esoteric few, struggling hard against the bare +force of overwhelming numbers to ensure not only recognition but a fair +hearing for the first principles of the development theory. It is to +Darwin, and to Darwin almost alone, that we owe the present +comparatively wide acceptance of the all-embracing doctrine of +evolution.</p> + +<p>No other man did so much or could have done so much to ensure its +triumph. He began early in life to collect and arrange a vast +encyclopædia of facts, all finally focussed with supreme skill upon the +great principle he so clearly perceived, and so lucidly expounded. He +brought to bear upon the question an amount of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> personal observation, of +minute experiment, of world-wide book-knowledge, of universal scientific +ability, such as never perhaps was lavished by any other man upon any +other department of study. His conspicuous and beautiful love of truth, +his unflinching candour, his transparent fearlessness and honesty of +purpose, his child-like simplicity, his modesty of demeanour, his +charming manner, his affectionate disposition, his kindliness to friends, +his courtesy to opponents, his gentleness to harsh and often bitter +assailants, kindled in the minds of men of science everywhere throughout +the world a contagious enthusiasm, only equalled perhaps among the +disciples of Socrates and the great teachers of the revival of learning. +His name became a rallying-point for the children of light in every +country; and what philosophers and speculators might have taken a +century or two more to establish in embryo was firmly grounded, never to +be overthrown, by the vast accumulations of fact and argument in the +'Origin of Species,' and its companion volumes.</p> + +<p>The end of that great Darwinian revolution the world has not yet seen: +in a sense, indeed, it will never see it. For the general acceptance of +Darwin's theory, which we may watch progressing around us every minute +to-day, implies a complete <i>bouleversement</i> of anthropocentric ideas, a +total change in our human conception of our own relations to the world +and the universe, which must work out for ever increasingly +wide-reaching and complex effects in all our dealings with one another +and with the environment at large. There is no department of human +thought or human action which evolutionism leaves exactly where it +stood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> before the advent of the Darwinian conception. In nothing is this +fact more conspicuously seen than in the immediate obsolescence (if one +may so speak) of all the statical pre-Darwinian philosophies which +ignored development, as soon as ever the new progressive evolutionary +theories had fairly burst upon an astonished world. Dogmatic Comte was +left forthwith to his little band of devoted adherents; shadowy Hegel +was relegated with a bow to the cool shades of the common-rooms of +Oxford; Buckle was exploded like an inflated wind-bag; even Mill +himself—<i>magnum et venerabile nomen</i>—with all his mighty steam-hammer +force of logical directness, was felt instinctively to be lacking in +full appreciation of the dynamic and kinetic element in universal +nature. Spencer and Hartmann, Haeckel and Clifford, had the field to +themselves for the establishment of their essentially evolutionary +systems. Great thinkers of the elder generation, like Bain and Lyell, +felt bound to remodel their earlier conceptions by the light of the new +Darwinian hypotheses. Those who failed by congenital constitution to do +so, like Carlyle and Carpenter, were, philosophically speaking, left +hopelessly behind and utterly extinguished. Those who only half +succeeded in thus reading themselves into the new ideas, like Lewes and +Max Müller, lost ground immediately before the eager onslaught of their +younger competitors. 'The world is to the young,' says the eastern +proverb; and in a world peopled throughout in the high places of thought +by men almost without exception evolutionists, there was little or no +place for the timid group of stranded Girondins, who still stood aloof +in sullen antique scientific orthodoxy from what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> seemed to them the +carmagnoles and orgies of a biological Thermidor.</p> + +<p>At the same time, it must be steadily remembered that there are many +naturalists at the present day, especially among those of the lower +order of intelligence, who, while accepting evolutionism in a general +way, and therefore always describing themselves as Darwinians, do not +believe and often cannot even understand the distinctive Darwinian +addition to the evolutionary doctrine—namely, the principle of natural +selection. Such hazy and indistinct thinkers as these are still really +at the prior stage of Lamarckian evolutionism. It is probable that in +the future, while a formal acceptance of Darwinism becomes general, the +special theory of natural selection will be thoroughly understood and +assimilated only by the more abstract and philosophical minds. Our +children will be taught as a matter of course the doctrine of +development or of descent with modification; but the rationale of that +descent will still remain in all likelihood always beyond the grasp of +most of them: just as thousands accept on authority the Copernican +astronomy, who would never even be capable of comprehending the simplest +proofs of the earth's annual movement round the sun. Thus the name of +Darwin will often no doubt be tacked on to what are in reality the +principles of Lamarck.</p> + +<p>Every day, however, in spite of such half-ignorant adherents, the +effects of true Darwinism are widening and deepening. One group of +earnest workers is using it now as a guide to physiological, +embryological, and anatomical researches. Another is employing it with +zeal and skill in the field of classificatory and physiological<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> botany. +Yet others are working out its psychological implications, enquiring +into instinct and animal intelligence, and solving by its aid abstruse +problems of the human mind and the human emotions. One philosopher has +brought it to bear on questions of ethics, another on questions of +social and political economy. Its principles have been applied in one +place to æsthetics, in another place to logic, in a third place to the +origin and growth of religion. The study of language has derived new +lights from the great central Darwinian luminary. The art of education +is beginning to feel the progressive influence of the Darwinian impulse. +In fact, there is hardly a single original worker in any department of +thought or science who has not been more or less profoundly affected, +whether he knows it or whether he knows it not, by the vast spreading +and circling wave of the Darwinian conceptions. All our ideas have been +revolutionised and evolutionised. The new notions are abroad in the +world, quickening with their fresh and vigorous germinal power the dry +bones of all the sciences, all the arts, and all the philosophies.</p> + +<p>And evolutionism is gradually though slowly filtering downward. It is +permeating the daily press of the nations, and gaining for its +vocabulary a recognised place in the phraseology of the unlearned +vulgar. Such expressions as 'natural selection,' 'survival of the +fittest,' 'struggle for existence,' 'adaptation to the environment,' and +all the rest of it, are becoming as household words upon the lips of +thousands who only know the name of Darwin as a butt for the petty empty +jibes of infinitesimal cheap witlings. And Darwinism<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> will trickle down +still through a thousand channels, by definite popularisation, and still +more by indefinite absorption into the common thought of universal +humanity, till it becomes part and parcel of the general inheritance, +bred in our bone and burnt into our blood, an heir-loom of our race to +all time and in all countries. Great thoughts like his do not readily +die: they expand and grow in ten thousand bosoms, till they transform +the world at last into their own likeness, and adapt it to the +environment they have themselves created by their informing power.</p> + +<p>Happy above ordinary human happiness, Charles Darwin lived himself to +see the prosperous beginning of this great silent philosophical +revolution. Harvey's grand discovery, it has been well said, was scoffed +at for nearly a whole generation. Newton's marvellous law of gravitation +was coldly received even by the gigantic intellect of Leibnitz himself. +Francis Bacon, in disgrace and humiliation, could only commend his name +and memory 'to foreign nations and to the next age.' It is too often so +with thinkers of the first and highest order: it was not so, happily, +with the gentle soul of Charles Darwin. Alone among the prophets and +teachers of triumphant creeds, he saw with his own eyes the adoption of +the faith he had been the first to promulgate in all its fulness by +every fresh and powerful mind of the younger race that grew up around +him. The Nestor of evolutionism, he had lived among two successive +generations of thinkers, and over the third he ruled as king. With that +crowning joy of a great, a noble, and a happy life, let us leave him +here alone in his glory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p> +<span class="caption"><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">AGASSIZ, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Anticipations of natural selection, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Antiquity of Man,' <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Astronomy, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">BADEN-POWELL, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bahia, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bates, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; in Brazil, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; on mimicry, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Beagle,' voyage of the, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; Zoology of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bell, Sir C, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Boucher de Perthes, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brazil, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">British Association, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Buffon, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">CHAMBERS, Robert, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; his 'Vestiges of Creation,' <a href="#Page_70">70</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Colenso on the Pentateuch, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Coral Reefs,' <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cuvier, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; as a geologist, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; system of animals, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">DARWIN, Charles, his ancestry, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>; birth, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; birthplace, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">contemporaries, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; education, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; at Edinburgh University, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">at Cambridge, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; starts on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; returns to</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">England, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; publishes his journal, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; plans 'Origin of Species,' <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">elected to Royal Society, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; secretary to Geological Society, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">marries, <i>ib.</i>; publishes 'Coral Reefs,' <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; geological</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">observations, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>; Monograph on Barnacles, <i>ib</i>.; publishes 'Origin</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">of Species,' <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; its success, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; second edition, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; variation of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">animals and plants, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; pangenesis, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>; fertilisation of orchids, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Descent of Man,' <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; later works, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; last illness and death, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">character, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>; place in evolutionary movement, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; outcome of his work,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">DARWIN, Erasmus, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; his life, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>; appearance, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>; poems, <i>ib</i>.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Zoonomia', <a href="#Page_21">21</a>; 'Temple of Nature,' <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; his marriages, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; on descent of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">man, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; on sexual selection, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin, Erasmus, the younger, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin, Robert, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin, Robert Waring, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>; his home, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">De Candolle, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Down House, Darwin settles at, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Du Chaillu, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">EARTHWORMS, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Edgeworth, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Evolution, general theory of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">FILHOL, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fiske, Prof., <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; on natural selection, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fitzroy, Captain, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fuegians, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Galton, Francis, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gaudry, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Geology, rise of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; evolutionary aspect of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Goethe, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; on animal origin of man, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gorilla, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gray, Asa, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">HAECKEL, letter to, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>; 'History of Creation,' <a href="#Page_124">124</a>; on sexual selection, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Henslow, Prof., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; recommends Darwin to Capt. Fitzroy, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; at Oxford, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Herbert, Dean, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Herschel, Sir Wm., <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Holland, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hooker, Sir Joseph, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; on catasetum, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; accepts Darwinism, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">publishes his 'Flora of Australia,' <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Horner, Leonard, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Humboldt, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Huxley, Prof., lecture at Royal Institution, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; 'Man's Place in</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nature,' <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; on coming of age of 'Origin of Species,' <a href="#Page_166">166</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">JUSSIEU, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">KANT, nebular hypothesis, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Knight's law, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kölreuter, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">LAMARCK, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; Darwin's reading of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; on descent of man, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Laplace, nebular hypothesis, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lecoq, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Linnæus, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; his artificial system, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lyell, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; 'Principles of Geology,' <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; extract from letters, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">anticipations of natural selection, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; slow acceptance of Darwinism,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#Page_119">119</a>; 'Antiquity of Man,' <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">MALTHUS, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>; influence on Darwin, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Matthew, Patrick, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; extracts from, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mimicry, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Monte Video, Darwin at, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mould, formation of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mount, the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Müller, Fritz, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Müller, Hermann, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Murchison, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'NATURALIST on the Amazons,' <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Naturalist's Voyage round the World' published, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Natural system, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nebular hypothesis, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">New Zealand, Darwin at, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">OKEN, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Origin of Species,' first planned, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>; projected, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; published, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">analysis of, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>; its success, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; second edition, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Owen, Sir R., <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; on types, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">PANGENESIS, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Philosophie Zoologique,' <a href="#Page_12">12</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Population, Malthus's essay on, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Powell, Baden-, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Physiological Units,' <a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Psychology, evolution in, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">RAFINESQUE, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rio Janeiro, Darwin at, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">ST. HILAIRE, Geoffroy, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; the younger, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">St. Paul's Rocks, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sexual selection, first glimpse of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; Darwin's theory of, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Smith, William, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sociology, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Spencer, Herbert, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>; on 'Vestiges of Creation,' <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; essay in the</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Leader,' <a href="#Page_77">77</a>; 'Principles of Psychology,' <i>ib.</i>; essay in</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Westminster Review,' <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; extracts from 'Leader' essay, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>; accepts</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin's theory, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>; 'Principles of Biology,' <i>ib.</i>; 'Physiological</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Units,' <a href="#Page_126">126</a>; theory of evolution, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sprengel, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">THOMPSON, Allen, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Treviranus, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tucutuco, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tyndall, Prof., <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'VESTIGES of Creation,' <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; criticism of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Von Baer, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Von Buch, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">WALLACE, Alfred Russel, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; goes to Brazil, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; publishes his travels, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">in Malay archipelago, <i>ib.</i>; discovers natural selection, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">paper at Linnean Society, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; on sexual selection, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Emma, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Hensleigh, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Josiah, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Susannah, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wells, Dr., anticipates natural selection, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">White, Gilbert, on worms, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wollaston, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Worms, action of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wright, Chauncey, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'ZOONOMIA,' Erasmus Darwin's, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 34730 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14f0d53 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #34730 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34730) diff --git a/old/34730-0.txt b/old/34730-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..992f99e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/34730-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5782 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Darwin, by Grant Allen + +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: Charles Darwin + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: December 23, 2010 [EBook #34730] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + + + + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + + + + +CHARLES DARWIN + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + +ENGLISH WORTHIES + +EDITED BY ANDREW LANG + + +LONDON + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + +1885 + + + + + +PREFACE + + +In this little volume I have endeavoured to present the life and work of +Charles Darwin viewed as a moment in a great revolution, in due relation +both to those who went before and to those who come after him. +Recognising, as has been well said, that the wave makes the crest, not +the crest the wave, I have tried to let my hero fall naturally into his +proper place in a vast onward movement of the human intellect, of which +he was himself at once a splendid product and a moving cause of the +first importance. I have attempted to show him both as receiving the +torch from Lamarck and Malthus, and as passing it on with renewed +brilliancy to the wide school of evolutionary thinkers whom his work was +instrumental in arousing to fresh and vigorous activity along a thousand +separate and varied lines of thought and action. + +As Mr. Francis Darwin was already engaged upon a life of his father, I +should have shrunk from putting forth my own little book if I had not +succeeded in securing beforehand his kind sanction. That sanction, +however, was at once so frankly and cordially given, that all my +hesitation upon such a score was immediately laid aside; and as I have +necessarily had to deal rather with Darwin's position as a thinker and +worker than with the biographical details of his private life, I trust +the lesser book may not clash with the greater, but to some extent may +supplement and even illustrate it. + +Treating my subject mainly as a study in the interaction of organism and +environment, it has been necessary for me frequently to introduce the +names of living men of science side by side with some of those who have +more or less recently passed away from among us. For uniformity's sake, +as well as for brevity's, I have been compelled, in every instance +alike, to omit the customary conventional handles. I trust those who +thus find themselves docked of their usual titles of respect will kindly +remember that the practice is in fact adopted _honoris causâ_; they are +paying prematurely the usual penalty of intellectual greatness. + +My obligations to Professor Huxley, to Professor Fiske, to Mr. Herbert +Spencer, to Professor Sachs, to Hermann Müller, to Dr. Krause, to +Charles Darwin himself, and to many other historians and critics of +evolutionism, will be sufficiently obvious to all instructed readers, +and are for the most part fully acknowledged already in the text. It +would be absurd to overload so small and popularly written a book with +references and authorities. I hope, therefore, that any other writers to +whom I may inadvertently have neglected to confess my debts will kindly +rest satisfied with this general acknowledgment. There are, however, +three persons in particular from whom I have so largely borrowed facts +or ideas that I owe them more special and definite thanks. From Mr. +Woodall's admirable paper on Charles Darwin, contributed to the +'Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society,' I have taken +much interesting information about my hero's immediate ancestry and +early days. From Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of 'Evolution Old and +New,' I have derived many pregnant suggestions with regard to the true +position and meaning of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and the early +essentially teleological evolutionists--suggestions which I am all the +more anxious to acknowledge since I differ fundamentally from Mr. Butler +in his estimate of the worth of Charles Darwin's distinctive discovery +of natural selection. Finally, to Mr. Bates, the 'Naturalist on the +Amazons,' I am indebted for several valuable items of information as to +the general workings of the pre-Darwinian evolutionary spirit. + +In a book dealing so largely with a contemporary movement, the history +of which has never yet been consecutively written down in full, or +subjected as a whole to searching criticism, there must probably be many +errors of detail, which can hardly be avoided under such circumstances. +I have endeavoured to minimise them as far as possible. For those which +may have escaped my own scrutiny I must trust both for correction and +for indulgence to the kindness of my readers. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN + +II. CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS + +III. EARLY DAYS + +IV. DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS + +V. THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION + +VI. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES + +VII. THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS + +VIII. THE DESCENT OF MAN + +IX. THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP + +X. VICTORY AND REST + +XI. DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT + +XII. THE NET RESULT + +INDEX + + + + + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN. + + +Charles Darwin was a great man, and he accomplished a great work. The +Newton of biology, he found the science of life a chaotic maze; he left +it an orderly system, with a definite plan and a recognisable meaning. +Great men are not accidents; great works are not accomplished in a +single day. Both are the product of adequate causes. The great man +springs from an ancestry competent to produce him; he is the final +flower and ultimate outcome of converging hereditary forces, that +culminate at last in the full production of his splendid and exceptional +personality. The great work which it is his mission to perform in the +world is never wholly of his own inception. It also is the last effect +of antecedent conditions, the slow result of tendencies and ideas long +working unseen or but little noticed beneath the surface of opinion, yet +all gradually conspiring together towards the definitive revolution at +whose head, in the fulness of time, the as yet unborn genius is destined +to place himself. This is especially the case with those extraordinary +waves of mental upheaval, one of which gave us the Italian renaissance, +and another of which is actually in progress around us at the present +day. They have their sources deep down in the past of human thought and +human feeling, and they are themselves but the final manifestation of +innumerable energies which have long been silently agitating the souls +of nations in their profoundest depths. + +Thus, every great man may be regarded as possessing two distinct lines +of ancestry, physical and spiritual, each of which separately demands +elucidation. He owes much in one way to his father and his mother, his +grandfathers and his grandmothers, and his remoter progenitors, from +some or all of whom he derives, in varying degrees and combinations, the +personal qualities whose special interaction constitutes his greatness +and his idiosyncrasy; he owes much in another way to his intellectual +and moral ancestors, the thinkers and workers who have preceded him in +his own department of thought or action, and have made possible in the +course of ages the final development of his special revolution or his +particular system. Viewed as an individual, he is what he is, with all +his powers and faculties and potentialities, in virtue of the brain, the +frame, the temperament, the energy he inherits directly from his actual +ancestors, paternal and maternal; viewed as a factor or element in a +great movement, he is what he is because the movement had succeeded in +reaching such and such a point in its progress already without him, and +waited only for such and such a grand and commanding personality in +order to carry it yet a step further on its course of development. + +No man who ever lived would more cordially have recognised these two +alternative aspects of the great worker's predetermining causes than +Charles Darwin. He knew well that the individual is the direct +cumulative product of his physical predecessors, and that he works and +is worked upon in innumerable ways by the particular environment into +whose midst he is born. Let us see, then, in his own case what were +these two main sets of conditioning circumstances which finally led up +to the joint production of Charles Darwin, the man and the philosopher, +the thinking brain and the moving energy. In other words, what was the +state of the science of life at the time when he first began to observe +and to speculate; and what was the ancestry which made him be born a +person capable of helping it forward at a single bound over its great +restricting dogmatic barrier of the fixity of species? + +Let us begin, in the first place, by clearing the path beforehand of a +popular misconception, so extremely general and almost universal that, +unless it be got rid of at the very outset of our sketch, much of the +real scope and purport of Darwin's life and work must, of necessity, +remain entirely misunderstood by the vast mass of English readers. In +the public mind Darwin is, perhaps, most commonly regarded as the +discoverer and founder of the evolution hypothesis. Two ideas are +usually associated with his name and memory. It is believed that he was +the first propounder of the theory which supposes all plant and animal +forms to be the result, not of special creation, but of slow +modification in pre-existent organisms. It is further and more +particularly believed that he was the first propounder of the theory +which supposes the descent of man to be traceable from a remote and more +or less monkey-like ancestor. Now, as a matter of fact, Darwin was not +the prime originator of either of these two great cardinal ideas. Though +he held both as part of his organised theory of things, he was not by +any means the first or the earliest thinker to hold them or to propound +them publicly. Though he gained for them both a far wider and more +general acceptance than they had ever before popularly received, he laid +no sort of claim himself to originality or proprietorship in either +theory. The grand idea which he did really originate was not the idea of +'descent with modification,' but the idea of 'natural selection,' by +which agency, as he was the first to prove, definite kinds of plants and +animals have been slowly evolved from simpler forms, with definite +adaptations to the special circumstances by which they are surrounded. +In a word, it was the peculiar glory of Charles Darwin, not to have +suggested that all the variety of animal and vegetable life might have +been produced by slow modifications in one or more original types, but +to have shown the nature of the machinery by which such a result could +be actually attained in the practical working out of natural causes. He +did not invent the development theory, but he made it believable and +comprehensible. He was not, as most people falsely imagine, the Moses of +evolutionism, the prime mover in the biological revolution; he was the +Joshua who led the world of thinkers and workers into full fruition of +that promised land which earlier investigators had but dimly descried +from the Pisgah-top of conjectural speculation. + +How far Darwin's special idea of natural selection supplemented and +rendered credible the earlier idea of descent with modification we shall +see more fully when we come to treat of the inception and growth of his +great epoch-making work, 'The Origin of Species;' for the present, it +must suffice to point out that in the world into which he was born, the +theory of evolution already existed in a more or less shadowy and +undeveloped shape. And since it was his task in life to raise this +theory from the rank of a mere plausible and happy guess to the rank of +a highly elaborate and almost universally accepted biological system, we +may pause awhile to consider on the threshold what was the actual state +of natural science at the moment when the great directing and organising +intelligence of Charles Darwin first appeared. + +From time immemorial, in modern Christendom at least, it had been the +general opinion of learned and simple alike that every species of plant +or animal owed its present form and its original existence to a distinct +act of special creation. This _naïf_ belief, unsupported as it was by +any sort of internal evidence, was supposed to rest directly upon the +express authority of a few obscure statements in the Book of Genesis. +The Creator, it was held, had in the beginning formed each kind after a +particular pattern, had endowed it with special organs devised with +supreme wisdom for subserving special functions, and had bestowed upon +it the mystical power of reproducing its like in its own image to all +generations. No variation of importance ever occurred within the types +thus constituted; all plants and animals always retained their special +forms unaltered in any way from era to era. This is the doctrine of the +fixity and immutability of species, almost universal in the civilised +world up to the end of the last century. + +Improbable as such a crude idea now seems to any person even moderately +acquainted with the extraordinary variety and variability of living +forms, it nevertheless contained nothing at all likely to contradict the +ordinary experience of the everyday observer in the last century. The +handful of plants and animals with which he was personally acquainted +consisted for the most part of a few large, highly advanced, and +well-marked forms, not in the least liable to be mistaken for one +another even by the most hasty and casual spectator. A horse can +immediately be discriminated by the naked eye from a donkey, and a cow +from a sheep, without risk of error; nobody is likely to confuse wheat +with barley, or to hesitate between classing any given fruit that is +laid before him as a pear or an apple, a plum or a nectarine. +Variability seldom comes under the notice of the ordinary passing +spectator as it does under that of the prying and curious scientific +observer; and when it comes at all, as in the case of dogs and pigeons, +roses and hyacinths, it is no doubt set down carelessly on a superficial +view as a mere result of human selection or of deliberate mongrel +interbreeding. To the eye of the average man, all the living objects +ordinarily perceived in external nature fall at once under certain fixed +and recognisable kinds, as dogs and horses, elms and ashes, whose limits +he is never at all inclined to confound in any way one with the other. + +Linnæus, the great father of modern scientific biology, had frankly and +perhaps unthinkingly accepted this current and almost universal dogma of +the fixity and immutability of species. Indeed, by defining a kind as a +group of plants or animals so closely resembling one another as to give +rise to the belief that they might all be descended from a single +ancestor or pair of ancestors, he implicitly gave the new sanction of +his weighty authority to the creation hypothesis, and to the prevalent +doctrine of the unchangeability of organic forms. To Linnæus, the +species into which he mapped out all the plants and animals then known, +appeared as the descendants each of a solitary progenitor or of a +primitive couple, called into existence at the beginning of all things +by the direct fiat of a designing Creator. He saw the world of organic +life as composed of so many well-demarcated types, each separate, +distinct, and immutable, each capable of producing its like _ad +infinitum_, and each unable to vary from its central standard in any of +its individuals, except perhaps within very narrow and unimportant +limits. + +But towards the close of the eighteenth century, side by side with the +general awakening of the human intellect and the arrival of a new era of +free social investigation, which culminated in a fresh order of things, +there was developed a more critical and sceptical attitude in the world +of science, which soon produced a notable change of front among thinking +naturalists as to the origin and meaning of specific distinctions. + +Buffon was the first great biological innovator who ventured, in very +doubtful and tentative language, to suggest the possibility of the rise +of species from one another by slow modification of ancestral forms. +Essentially a popular essayist, writing in the volcanic +priest-suppressed France of the _ancien régime_, during the inconsistent +days of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., when it was uncertain whether novel +and heterodox opinions would bring down upon their author fame and +reputation or the Sorbonne and the Bastille, Buffon was careful to put +his conjectural conclusions in a studiously guarded and often even +ironical form. But time after time, in his great discursive work, the +'Histoire Naturelle' (published in successive volumes between 1749 and +1788), he recurs anew to the pregnant suggestion that plants and animals +may not be bound by fixed and immovable limits of species, but may +freely vary in every direction from a common centre, so that one kind +may gradually and slowly be evolved by natural causes from the type of +another. He points out that, underlying all external diversities of +character and shape, fundamental likenesses of type occur in many +animals, which irresistibly suggest the novel notion of common descent +from a single ancestor. Thus regarded, he says, not only the ass and the +horse (to take a particular passage) but even man himself, the monkeys, +the quadrupeds, and all vertebrate animals, might be viewed as merely +forming divergent branches of one and the same great family tree. Every +such family, he believed, whether animal or vegetable, might have sprung +originally from a single stock, which after many generations had here +developed into a higher form, and there degenerated into a lower and +less perfect type of organisation. Granting this--granting that nature +could by slow variation produce one species in the course of direct +descent from another unlike it (for example, the ass from the horse), +then, Buffon observed, there was no further limit to be set to her +powers in this respect, and we might reasonably conclude that from a +single primordial being she has gradually been able in the course of +time to develop the whole continuous gamut of existing animal and +vegetable life. To be sure, Buffon always saves himself from censure by +an obvious afterthought--'But no; it is certain from revelation that +every species was directly created by a separate fiat.' This +half-hearted and somewhat subrisive denial, however, must be taken +merely as a concession to the Sorbonne and to the fashionable exegesis +of his own day; and, even so, the Sorbonne was too much in the end for +the philosophic thinker. He had once in his life at least to make his +submission and demand pardon from the offended orthodoxy of the Paris +faculty. + +The wave of thought and feeling, thus apologetically and tentatively +stirred on the unruffled pond of eighteenth century opinion by the +startling plop of Buffon's little smooth-cut pebble, soon widened out on +every side in concentric circles, and affected with its wash the entire +world of biological science in every country. Before the close of the +eighteenth century speculation as to the origin of species was rife in +all quarters of Europe. In France itself, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, +constitutionally cautious and undecided, but wide of view and free from +prejudice, came slowly to the conclusion, in 1795, that all species are +really derived by modification from one or more primitive types. In +Germany, in the very same year, Goethe, with the keen vision of the +poet and the calm eye of the philosopher uniquely combined, discerned +independently as by a lightning flash the identical idea of the origin +of kinds by modification of pre-existent organisms. 'We may assert +without hesitation,' says that great nebulous thinker and observer, +'that all the more perfect organic natures, such as fishes, amphibians, +birds and mammals, with man at their head, were formed at first on one +original type, which still daily changes and modifies its form by +propagation.' In England, twelve months earlier, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +Charles Darwin's grandfather (of whom more anon), published his +'Zoonomia,' a treatise on the laws of animal life, in which he not only +adopted Buffon's theory of the origin of species by evolution, but also +laid down as the chief cause of such development the actions and needs +of the animals themselves. According to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, animals came +to vary from one another chiefly because they were always altering their +habits and voluntarily accommodating themselves to new actions and +positions in life. His work produced comparatively little effect upon +the world at large in his own time, but it had immense influence upon +the next great prophet of evolution, Lamarck, and through Lamarck on +Lyell, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and the modern school of +evolutionists generally. We shall consider his views in greater detail +when we pass from the spiritual to the physical antecedents of Charles +Darwin. + +It was in 1801 that Lamarck first gave to the world his epoch-making +speculations and suggestions on the origin of species; and from that +date to the day of his death, in 1831, the unwearied old philosopher +continued to devote his whole time and energy, in blindness and poverty, +to the elucidation of this interesting and important subject. A bold, +acute, and vigorous thinker, trained in the great school of Diderot and +D'Alembert, with something of the vivid Celtic poetic imagination, and a +fearless habit of forming his own conclusions irrespective of common or +preconceived ideas, Lamarck went to the very root of the matter in the +most determined fashion, and openly proclaimed in the face of frowning +officialism under the Napoleonic reaction his profound conviction that +all species, including man, were descended by modification from one or +more primordial forms. In Charles Darwin's own words, 'He first did the +eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change, +in the organic as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of +law and not of miraculous interposition. 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. With respect to the means of modification, he +attributed something to the direct action of the physical conditions of +life, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much to +use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter agency +he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature--such as +the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees,' He +believed, in short, that animals had largely developed themselves, by +functional effort followed by increased powers and abilities. + +Lamarck's great work, the 'Philosophie Zoologique,' though opposed by +the austere and formal genius of the immortal Cuvier--a reactionary +biological conservative and obscurantist, equal to the enormous task of +mapping out piecemeal with infinite skill and power the separate +provinces of his chosen science, but incapable of taking in all the +bearings of the whole field at a single vivid and comprehensive +sweep--Lamarck's great work produced a deep and lasting impression upon +the entire subsequent course of evolutionary thought in scientific +Europe. True, owing to the retrograde tendencies of the First Empire, it +caused but little immediate stir at the precise moment of its first +publication; but the seed it sowed sank deep, and, lying fallow long in +men's minds, bore fruit at last in the next generation with the +marvellous fecundity of the germs of genius. Indeed, from the very +beginning of the present century, a ferment of inquiry on the subject of +creation and evolution was everywhere obvious among speculative +thinkers. The profound interest which Goethe took in the dispute on this +very subject in the French Académie des Sciences between Cuvier and +Geoffroy St. Hilaire, amid the thundering guns of a threatened European +convulsion, was but a solitary symptom of the general stir which +preceded the gestation and birth of the Darwinian hypothesis. It is +impossible to take up any scientific memoirs or treatises of the first +half of our own century without seeing at a glance how every mind of +high original scientific importance was permeated and disturbed by the +fundamental questions aroused, but not fully answered, by Buffon, +Lamarck, and Erasmus Darwin. In Lyell's letters and in Agassiz's +lectures, in the 'Botanic Journal' and the 'Philosophical +Transactions,' in treatises on Madeira beetles and the Australian flora, +we find everywhere the thoughts of men profoundly influenced in a +thousand directions by this universal evolutionary solvent and leaven. + +And while the world of thought was thus seething and moving restlessly +before the wave of ideas set in motion by these various independent +philosophers, another group of causes in another field was rendering +smooth the path beforehand for the future champion of the amended +evolutionism. Geology on the one hand and astronomy on the other were +making men's minds gradually familiar with the conception of slow +natural development, as opposed to immediate and miraculous creation. + +The rise of geology had been rapid and brilliant. In the last century it +had been almost universally believed that fossil organisms were the +relics of submerged and destroyed worlds, strange remnants of successive +terrible mundane catastrophes. Cuvier himself, who had rendered immense +services to geological science by his almost unerring reconstructions of +extinct animals, remained a partisan of the old theory of constant +cataclysms and fresh creations throughout his whole life; but Lamarck, +here as elsewhere the prophet of the modern uniformitarian concept of +nature, had already announced his grand idea that the ordinary process +of natural laws sufficed to account for all the phenomena of the earth's +crust. In England, William Smith, the ingenious land surveyor, riding up +and down on his daily task over the face of the country, became +convinced by his observations in the first years of the present century +that a fixed order of sequence could everywhere be traced among the +various superincumbent geological strata. Modern scientific geology +takes its rise from the moment of this luminous and luminiferous +discovery. With astonishing rapidity the sequence of strata was +everywhere noted, and the succession of characteristic fossils mapped +out, with the result of showing, however imperfectly at first, that the +history of organic life upon the globe had followed a slow and regular +course of constant development. Immediately whole schools of eager +workers employed themselves in investigating in separate detail the +phenomena of these successive stages of unfolding life. Murchison, fresh +from the Peninsular campaign, began to study the dawn of organic history +in the gloom of the Silurian and Cambrian epochs. A group of less +articulate but not less active workers like Buckland and Mantell +performed similar services for the carboniferous, the wealden, and the +tertiary deposits. Sedgwick endeavoured to co-ordinate the whole range +of then known facts into a single wide and comprehensive survey. De La +Beche, Phillips, and Agassiz added their share to the great work of +reconstruction. Last of all, among those who were contemporary and all +but coeval with Charles Darwin himself, Lyell boldly fought out the +battle of 'uniformitarianism,' proving, with all the accumulated weight +of his encyclopædic and world-wide knowledge, that every known feature +of geological development could be traced to the agency of causes now in +action, and illustrated by means of slow secular changes still actually +taking place on earth before our very eyes. + +The influence of these novel conceptions upon the growth and spread of +evolutionary ideas was far-reaching and twofold. In the first place, the +discovery of a definite succession of nearly related organic forms, +following one another with evident closeness through the various ages, +inevitably suggested to every inquiring observer the possibility of +their direct descent one from the other. In the second place, the +discovery that geological formations were not really separated each from +its predecessor by violent revolutions, but were the result of gradual +and ordinary changes, discredited the old idea of frequent fresh +creations after each catastrophe, and familiarised the minds of men of +science with the alternative notion of slow and natural evolutionary +processes. The past was seen to be in effect the parent of the present; +the present was recognised as the child of the past. + +Current astronomical theories also pointed inevitably in the same +direction. Kant, whose supereminent fame as a philosopher has almost +overshadowed his just claims as a profound thinker in physical science, +had already in the third quarter of the eighteenth century arrived at +his sublime nebular hypothesis, in which he suggested the possible +development of stars, suns, planets, and satellites by the slow +contraction of very diffuse and incandescent haze-clouds. This +magnificent cosmical conception was seized and adapted by the genius of +Laplace in his celestial system, and made familiar through his great +work to thinking minds throughout the whole of Europe. In England it was +further modified and remodelled by Sir William Herschel, whose period of +active investigation coincided in part with Charles Darwin's early +boyhood. The bearings of the nebular hypothesis upon the rise of +Darwinian evolutionism are by no means remote: the entire modern +scientific movement forms, in fact, a single great organic whole, of +which the special doctrine of biological development is but a small +separate integral part. All the theories and doctrines which go to make +it up display the one common trait that they reject the idea of direct +creative interposition from without, and attribute the entire existing +order of nature to the regular unfolding of one undeviating continuous +law. + +Yet another factor in the intellectual stir and bustle of the time must +needs be mentioned even in so short and cursory a sketch as this of the +causes which led to the Darwinian crisis. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, a +clergyman of the Church of England, published the first edition of his +famous and much-debated 'Essay on the Principle of Population.' Malthus +was the first person who ever called public attention to the tendency of +population to increase up to the utmost limit of subsistence, as well as +to the necessary influence of starvation in checking its further +development beyond that point. Though his essay dealt only with the +question of reproduction in human societies, it was clear that it +possessed innumerable analogies in every domain of animal and vegetable +life. The book ran through many successive editions with extraordinary +rapidity for a work of its class, it was fiercely attacked and bravely +defended, it caused an immense amount of discussion and debate, and +besides its marvellous direct influence as a germinal power upon the +whole subsequent course of politico-economical and sociological thought, +it produced also a remarkable indirect influence on the side current of +biological and speculative opinion. In particular, as we shall more +fully see hereafter, it had an immediate effect in suggesting to the +mind of the great naturalist who forms our present subject the embryo +idea of 'natural selection.' + +Such then was the intellectual and social world into which, early in the +present century, Charles Darwin found himself born. Everywhere around +him in his childhood and youth these great but formless evolutionary +ideas were brewing and fermenting. The scientific society of his elders +and of the contemporaries among whom he grew up was permeated with the +leaven of Laplace and of Lamarck, of Hutton and of Herschel. Inquiry was +especially everywhere rife as to the origin and nature of specific +distinctions among plants and animals. Those who believed in the +doctrine of Buffon and of the 'Zoonomia' and those who disbelieved in +it, alike, were profoundly interested and agitated in soul by the +far-reaching implications of that fundamental problem. On every side +evolutionism, in its crude form, was already in the air. Long before +Charles Darwin himself published his conclusive 'Origin of Species,' +every thinking mind in the world of science, elder and younger, was +deeply engaged upon the self-same problem. Lyell and Horner in alternate +fits were doubting and debating. Herbert Spencer had already frankly +accepted the new idea with the profound conviction of _a priori_ +reasoning. Agassiz was hesitating and raising difficulties. Treviranus +was ardently proclaiming his unflinching adhesion. Oken was spinning in +metaphysical Germany his fanciful parodies of the Lamarckian +hypothesis. Among the depths of Brazilian forests Bates was reading the +story of evolution on the gauze-like wings of tropical butterflies. +Under the scanty shade of Malayan palm-trees Wallace was independently +spelling out in rude outline the very theory of survival of the fittest, +which Charles Darwin himself was simultaneously perfecting and polishing +among the memoirs and pamphlets of his English study. Wollaston in +Madeira was pointing out the strange adaptations of the curious local +snails and beetles. Von Buch in the Canaries was coming to the +conclusion that varieties may be slowly changed into permanent species. +Lecoq and Von Baer were gradually arriving, one by the botanical route, +the other by the embryological, at the same opinion. Before Charles +Darwin was twenty, Dean Herbert had declared from the profound depth of +his horticultural knowledge that kinds were only mere fixed sports; and +Patrick Matthew, in the appendix to a work on 'Naval Timber,' had +casually developed, without perceiving its importance, the actual +distinctive Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Robert Chambers +published in 1844 his 'Vestiges of Creation,' in which Lamarck's theory +was impressed and popularised under a somewhat spoilt and mistaken form: +it was not till 1859 that the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' +burst like a thunderbolt upon the astonished world of unprepared and +unscientific thinkers. + +This general attitude of interest and inquiry is of deep importance to +the proper comprehension of Charles Darwin's life and work, and that for +two distinct reasons. In the first place, the universal stir and deep +prying into evolutionary questions which everywhere existed among +scientific men in his early days was naturally communicated to a lad +born of a scientific family, and inheriting directly in blood and bone +the biological tastes and tendencies of Erasmus Darwin. In the second +place, the existence of such a deep and wide-spread curiosity as to +ultimate origins, and the common prevalence of profound uniformitarian +and evolutionary views among philosophers and thinkers, made the +acceptance of Charles Darwin's particular theory, when it at last +arrived, a comparatively easy and certain matter, because by it the +course of organic development was assimilated, on credible grounds, to +the course of all other development in general, as then already widely +recognised. The first consideration helps us to account in part for the +man himself; the second consideration helps us even more to account for +the great work which he was enabled in the end so successfully to +accomplish. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS. + + +From the environment let us turn to the individual; from the world in +which the man moved to the man who moved in it, and was in time destined +to move it. + +Who was he, and whence did he derive his exceptional energy and +intellectual panoply? + +Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather, the first of the line in whom the +distinctive Darwinian strain of intellect overtly displayed itself, was +the son of one Robert Darwin, a gentleman of Nottinghamshire, 'a person +of curiosity,' with 'a taste for literature and science;' so that for +four generations at least, in the paternal line, the peculiar talents of +the Darwin family had been highly cultivated in either direction. Robert +Darwin was an early member of the Spalding Club, a friend of Stukeley +the antiquary, and an embryo geologist, after the fantastic, +half-superstitious fashion of his own time. Of his four sons, both +Robert, the eldest, and Erasmus, the youngest, were authors and +botanists. Erasmus himself was a Cambridge man, and his natural bent of +mind and energy led him irresistibly on to the study of medicine. Taking +his medical degree at his own university, and afterwards preparing for +practice by attending Hunter's lectures in London, besides going +through the regular medical course at Edinburgh, the young doctor +finally settled down as a physician at Nottingham, whence shortly +afterward he removed to Lichfield, then the centre of a famous literary +coterie. So large a part of Charles Darwin's remarkable idiosyncrasy was +derived by heredity from his paternal grandfather, that it may be worth +while to dwell a little here in passing on the character and career of +this brilliant precursor of the great evolutionist. Both in the physical +and in the spiritual sense, Erasmus Darwin was one among the truest and +most genuine ancestors of his grandson Charles. + +A powerful, robust, athletic man, in florid health and of temperate +habits, yet with the full-blooded tendency of the eighteenth century +vividly displayed in his ample face and broad features, Erasmus Darwin +bubbled over with irrepressible vivacity, the outward and visible sign +of that overflowing energy which forms everywhere one of the most marked +determining conditions of high genius. Strong in body and strong in +mind, a teetotaler before teetotalism, an abolitionist before the +anti-slavery movement, he had a great contempt for weaknesses and +prejudices of every sort, and he rose far superior to the age in which +he lived in breadth of view and freedom from preconceptions. The +eighteenth century considered him, in its cautious, cut-and-dried +fashion, a man of singular talent but of remarkably eccentric and unsafe +opinions. Unfortunately for his lasting fame, Dr. Darwin was much given +to writing poetry; and this poetry, though as ingenious as everything +else he did, had a certain false gallop of verse about it which has +doomed it to become since Canning's parody a sort of warning beacon +against the worst faults of the post-Augustan decadence in the +ten-syllabled metre. Nobody now reads the 'Botanic Garden' except either +to laugh at its exquisite extravagances, or to wonder at the queer +tinsel glitter of its occasional clever rhetorical rhapsodies. + +But in his alternative character of philosophic biologist, rejected by +the age which swallowed his poetry all applausive, Erasmus Darwin is +well worthy of the highest and deepest respect, as a prime founder and +early prophet of the evolutionary system. His 'Zoonomia,' 'which, though +ingenious, is built upon the most absurd hypothesis'--as men still said +only thirty years ago--contains in the germ the whole theory of organic +development as understood up to the very moment of the publication of +the 'Origin of Species.' In it Dr. Darwin calls attention to 'the great +changes introduced into various animals by artificial or accidental +cultivation,' a subject afterwards fully elucidated by his greater +grandson in his work on 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication.' He specially notes 'the immense changes of shape and +colour' produced by man in rabbits and pigeons, the very species on +which Charles Darwin subsequently made some of his most remarkable and +interesting observations. More than any previous writer, Erasmus Darwin, +with 'prophetic sagacity,' insisted strongly on the essential unity of +parent and offspring--a truth which lies at the very base of all modern +philosophical biology. 'Owing to the imperfection of language,' wrote +the Lichfield doctor nearly a hundred years ago, '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 may retain some of the habits of the parent +system.' He laid peculiar stress upon the hereditary nature of some +acquired properties, such as the muscles of dancers or jugglers, and the +diseases incidental to special occupations. Nay, he even anticipated his +great descendant in pointing out that varieties are often produced at +first as mere 'sports' or accidental variations, as in the case of +six-fingered men, five-clawed fowls, or extra-toed cats, and are +afterwards handed down by heredity to succeeding generations. Charles +Darwin would have added that if these new stray peculiarities happened +to prove advantageous to the species they would be naturally favoured in +the struggle for existence, while if they proved disadvantageous, or +even neutral, they would die out at once or be bred out in the course of +a few crosses. That last truth of natural selection was the only +cardinal one in the evolutionary system on which Erasmus Darwin did not +actually forestall his more famous and greater namesake. For its full +perception, the discovery of Malthus had to be collated with the +speculations of Buffon. + +'When we revolve in our minds,' says the eighteenth century prophet of +evolution, '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.' This is a very crude form of evolutionism +indeed, but it is leading up by gradual stages to the finished and +all-sided philosophy of physical life, which at last definitely +formulates itself through the mouth of Charles Darwin. We shall see +hereafter wherein Erasmus Darwin's conception of development chiefly +failed--in attributing evolution for the most part to the exertions and +endeavours of the animal itself, rather than to inevitable survival of +the fittest among innumerable spontaneous variations--but we must at +least conclude our glimpse of his pregnant and suggestive work by +quoting its great fundamental _aperçu_:--'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?' + +A few lines from the 'Temple of Nature,' one of Erasmus Darwin's poetic +rhapsodies, containing his fully matured views on the origin of living +creatures, may be worth reproduction in further elucidation of his +philosophical position:-- + + 'Organic life beneath the shoreless waves + Was born, and nursed in ocean's pearly caves; + First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass. + Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; + These, as successive generations bloom, + New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; + Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, + And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.' + +Have we not here the very beginnings of Charles Darwin? Do we not see, +in these profound and fundamental suggestions, not merely hints as to +the evolution of evolution, but also as to the evolution of the +evolutionist? + +On the other hand, though Erasmus Darwin defined a fool to his friend +Edgeworth as 'a man who never tried an experiment in his life,' he was +wanting himself in the rigorous and patient inductive habit which so +strikingly distinguished his grandson Charles. That trait, as we shall +presently see, the biological chief of the nineteenth century derived in +all probability from another root of his genealogical tree. Erasmus +Darwin gave us brilliant suggestions rather than cumulative proof: he +apologised in his 'Zoonomia' for 'many conjectures not supported by +accurate investigation or conclusive experiments,' Such an apology would +have been simply impossible to the painstaking spirit of his grandson +Charles. + +Erasmus Darwin was twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of +Mr. Charles Howard, of Lichfield, and it was her son, Robert Waring +Darwin, who became the father of our hero, Charles. It is fashionable to +say, in this and sundry other like cases, that the mental energy skips a +generation. People have said so in the case of that intermediate +Mendelssohn who was son of Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher, and +father of Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn, the composer--that mere link in a +marvellous chain who was wont to observe of himself in the decline of +life, that in his youth he was called the son of the great Mendelssohn, +and in his old age the father of the great Mendelssohn. As a matter of +fact, one may fairly doubt whether such a case of actual skipping is +ever possible in the nature of things. In the particular instance of +Robert Waring Darwin at least we may be pretty sure that the distinctive +Darwinian strain of genius lay merely latent rather than dormant: that +it did not display itself to the world at large, but that it persisted +silently as powerful as ever within the remote recesses of the thinking +organism. Not every man brings out before men all that is within him. +Robert Waring Darwin was a physician at Shrewsbury; and he attained at +least sufficient scientific eminence in his own time to become a Fellow +of the Royal Society, in days when that honour was certainly not readily +conferred upon country doctors of modest reputation. Charles Darwin says +of him plainly, 'He was incomparably the most acute observer whom I ever +knew.' It may well have been that Robert Darwin lived and died, as his +famous son lived for fifty years of his great life, in comparative +silence and learned retirement; for we must never forget that if Charles +Darwin had only completed the first half century of his laborious +existence, he would have been remembered merely as the author of an +entertaining work on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' a plausible theory of +coral islands, and a learned monograph on the fossil barnacles. During +all those years, in fact, he had really done little else than collect +material for the work of his lifetime. If we judge men by outward +performance only, we may often be greatly mistaken in our estimates: +potentiality is wider than actuality; what a man does is never a certain +or extreme criterion of what he can do. + +The Darwins, indeed, were all a mighty folk, of varied powers and varied +attainments. Erasmus's brother, Robert, was the author of a work on +botany, which long enjoyed a respectable repute. Of his sons, one, Sir +Francis Darwin, was noted as a keen observer of animals; a second, +Charles, who died at twenty-one, was already the author of a very +valuable medical essay; while the third, Robert, was the Shrewsbury +F.R.S., the father of our great evolutionary thinker. And among Charles +Darwin's own cousins, one is Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the philologist; a +second was the late Sir Henry Holland; and a third is Mr. Francis +Galton, the author of that essentially Darwinian book, 'Hereditary +Genius.' + +Robert Waring Darwin took to himself a wife from another very great and +eminent family. He married Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah +Wedgwood, the famous potter; and from these two silent representatives +of powerful stocks, Charles Robert Darwin, the father of modern +evolutionary biology, was born at Shrewsbury, on February the 12th, +1809. That Wedgwood connection, again, is no mere casual or unimportant +incident in the previous life-history of the Darwinian originality; it +throws a separate clear light of its own upon the peculiar and +admirably compounded idiosyncrasy of Charles Darwin. + +A man, indeed, owes on the average quite as much to his mother's as to +his father's family. It is a mere unscientific old-world prejudice which +makes us for the most part count ancestry in the direct ascending male +line alone, to the complete neglect of the equally important maternal +pedigree. Prom the biological point of view, at least, every individual +is a highly complex compound of hereditary elements, a resultant of +numerous converging forces, a meeting place of two great streams of +inheritance, each of which is itself similarly made up by the like +confluence of innumerable distinct prior tributaries. Between these two +it is almost impossible for us accurately to distribute any given +individuality. How much Charles Darwin owed to the Darwins, and how much +he owed in turn to the Wedgwoods, no man is yet psychologist enough or +physiologist enough to say. But that he owed a great deal to either +strong and vigorous strain we may even now quite safely take for +granted. + +The Wedgwood family were 'throwers' by handicraft, superior artisans +long settled at Burslem, in the Staffordshire potteries. Josiah, the +youngest of thirteen children, lamed by illness in early life, was +turned by this happy accident from his primitive task as a 'thrower' to +the more artistic and original work of producing ornamental coloured +earthenware. Skilful and indefatigable, of indomitable energy and with +great powers of forcing his way in life against all obstacles, young +Wedgwood rose rapidly by his own unaided exertions to be a master +potter, and a manufacturer of the famous unglazed black porcelain. +Those were the darkest days of industrial art and decorative handicraft +in modern England. Josiah Wedgwood, by his marked originality and force +of character, succeeded in turning the current of national taste, and +creating among us a new and distinctly higher type of artistic +workmanship. His activity, however, was not confined to his art alone, +but found itself a hundred other different outlets in the most varied +directions. When his potteries needed enlargement to meet the increased +demand, he founded for the hands employed upon his works the model +industrial village of Etruria. When Brindley began cutting artificial +waterways across the broad face of central England, it was in the great +potter that he found his chief ally in promoting the construction of the +Grand Trunk Canal. Wedgwood, indeed, was a builder of schools and a +maker of roads; a chemist and an artist; a friend of Watt and an +employer of Flaxman. In short, like Erasmus Darwin, he possessed that +prime essential in the character of genius, an immense underlying stock +of energy. And with it there went its best concomitant, the 'infinite +capacity for taking pains.' Is it not probable that in their joint +descendant, the brilliant but discursive and hazardous genius of Erasmus +Darwin was balanced and regulated by soberer qualities inherited +directly from the profound industry of the painstaking potter? When +later on we find Charles Darwin spending hours in noting the successive +movements of the tendrils in a plant, or watching for long years the +habits and manners of earthworms in flower-pots, may we not reasonably +conjecture that he derived no little share of his extraordinary +patience, carefulness, and minuteness of handicraft from his mother's +father, Josiah Wedgwood? + +Such, then, were the two main component elements, paternal and maternal, +from which the striking personality of Charles Darwin was no doubt for +the most part ultimately built up. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLY DAYS. + + +As the Chester express steams out of Shrewsbury station, you see on your +left, overhanging the steep bank of Severn, a large, square, +substantial-looking house, known as the Mount, the birthplace of the +author of the 'Origin of Species.' There, in the comfortable home he had +built for himself, Dr. Robert Darwin, the father, lived and worked for +fifty years of unobtrusive usefulness. He had studied medicine at +Edinburgh and Leyden, and had even travelled a little in Germany, before +he settled down in the quiet old Salopian town, where for half a century +his portly figure and yellow chaise were familiar objects of the +country-side for miles around. Among a literary society which included +Coleridge's friends, the Tayleurs, and where Hazlitt listened with +delight to the great poet's 'music of the spheres,' in High Street +Unitarian Chapel, the Mount kept up with becoming dignity the family +traditions of the Darwins and the Wedgwoods as a local centre of +sweetness and light. + +On February the 12th, 1809, Charles Darwin first saw the light of day in +this his father's house at Shrewsbury. Time and place were both +propitious. Born in a cultivated scientific family, surrounded from his +birth by elevating influences, and secured beforehand from the cramping +necessity of earning his own livelihood by his own exertions, the boy +was destined to grow up to full maturity in the twenty-one years of slow +development that immediately preceded the passing of the first Reform +Act. The thunder of the great European upheaval had grown silent at +Waterloo when he was barely six years old, and his boyhood was passed +amid country sights and sounds during that long period of reconstruction +and assimilation which followed the fierce volcanic outburst of the +French Revolution. Happy in the opportunity of his birth, he came upon +the world eight years after the first publication of Lamarck's +remarkable speculations, and for the first twenty-two years of his life +he was actually the far younger contemporary of the great French +evolutionary philosopher. Eleven years before his arrival upon the scene +Malthus had set forth his 'Principle of Population.' Charles Darwin thus +entered upon a stage well prepared for him, and he entered it with an +idiosyncrasy exactly adapted for making the best of the situation. The +soil had been thoroughly turned and dressed beforehand: Charles Darwin's +seed had only to fall upon it in order to spring up and bear fruit a +hundredfold, in every field of science or speculation. + +For it was not biology alone that he was foredoomed to revolutionise, +but the whole range of human thought, and perhaps even ultimately of +human action. + +Is it mere national prejudice which makes one add with congratulatory +pleasure that Darwin was born in England, rather than in France, in +Germany, or in America? Perhaps so; perhaps not. For the English +intellect does indeed seem more capable than most of uniting high +speculative ability with high practical skill and experience: and of +that union of rare qualities Darwin himself was a most conspicuous +example. It is probable that England has produced more of the great +organising and systematising intellects than any other modern country. + +Among those thinkers in his own line who stood more nearly abreast of +Darwin in the matter of age, Lyell was some eleven years his senior, and +contributed not a little (though quite unconsciously) by his work and +conclusions to the formation of Darwin's own peculiar scientific +opinions. The veteran Owen, who still survives him, was nearly five +years older than Darwin, and also helped to a great extent in giving +form and exactness to his great contemporary's anatomical ideas. +Humboldt, who preceded our English naturalist in the matter of time by +no less than forty years, might yet almost rank as coeval in some +respects, owing to his long and active life, his late maturity, and the +very recent date of his greatest and most thought-compelling work, the +'Cosmos' (begun when Humboldt was seventy-five, and finished when he +lacked but ten years of his century), in itself a sort of preparation +for due acceptance of the Darwinian theories. In fact, as many as fifty +years of their joint lives coincided entirely one with the other's. +Agassiz antedated Darwin by two years. On the other hand, among the men +who most helped on the recognition of Darwin's theories, Hooker and +Lewes were his juniors by eight years, Herbert Spencer by eleven, +Wallace by thirteen, and Huxley by sixteen. His cousin, Francis Galton, +another grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and joint inheritor of the +distinctive family biological ply, was born at the same date as Alfred +Russell Wallace, thirteen years after Charles Darwin. In such a goodly +galaxy of workers was the Darwinian light destined to shine through the +middle of the century, as one star excelleth another in glory. + +Charles Darwin was the second son: but nature refuses doggedly to +acknowledge the custom of primogeniture. His elder brother, Erasmus, a +man of mute and inarticulate ability, with a sardonic humour alien to +his race, extorted unwonted praise from the critical pen of Thomas +Carlyle, who 'for intellect rather preferred him to his brother +Charles.' But whatever spark of the Darwinian genius was really innate +in Erasmus the Less died with him unacknowledged. + +The boy was educated (so they call it) at Shrewsbury Grammar School, +under sturdy Sam Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield; and there he +picked up so much Latin and Greek as was then considered absolutely +essential to the due production of an English gentleman. Happily for the +world, having no taste for the classics, he escaped the ordeal with +little injury to his individuality. His mother had died while he was +still a child, but his father, that 'acute observer,' no doubt taught +him to know and love nature. At sixteen he went to Edinburgh University, +then rendered famous by a little knot of distinguished professors, and +there he remained for two years. Already at school he had made himself +notable by his love of collecting--the first nascent symptom of the +naturalist bent. He collected everything, shells, eggs, minerals, +coins, nay, since postage stamps were then not yet invented, even +franks. But at Edinburgh he gave the earliest distinct evidence of his +definite scientific tastes by contributing to the local academic society +a paper on the floating eggs of the common sea-mat, in which he had even +then succeeded in discovering for the first time organs of locomotion. +Thence he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. The Darwins were +luckily a Cambridge family: luckily, let us say, for had it been +otherwise--had young Darwin been distorted from his native bent by Plato +and Aristotle, and plunged deep into the mysteries of Barbara and +Celarent, as would infallibly have happened to him at the sister +university--who can tell how long we might have had to wait in vain for +the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man'? But Cambridge, which +rejoiced already in the glory of Newton, was now to match it by the +glory of Darwin. In its academical course, the mathematical wedge had +always kept open a dim passage for physical science; and at the exact +moment when Darwin was an undergraduate at Christ's--from 1827 to +1831--the university had the advantage of several good scientific +teachers, and amongst them one, Professor Henslow, a well-known +botanist, who took a special interest in young Darwin's intellectual +development. There, too, he met with Sedgwick, Airy, Ramsay, and +numerous other men of science, whose intercourse with him must no doubt +have contributed largely to mould and form the future cast of his +peculiar philosophical idiosyncrasy. + +It was to Henslow's influence that Darwin in later years attributed in +great part his powerful taste for natural history. But in truth the +ascription of such high praise to his early teacher smacks too much of +the Darwinian modesty to be accepted at once without demur by the candid +critic. The naturalist, like the poet, is born, not made. How much more, +then, must this needs be the case with the grandson of Erasmus Darwin +and of Josiah Wedgwood? As a matter of fact, already at Edinburgh the +lad had loved to spend his days among the sea-beasts and wrack of the +Inches in the Firth of Forth; and it was through the instrumentality of +his 'brother entomologists' that he first became acquainted with Henslow +himself when he removed to Cambridge. The good professor could not make +him into a naturalist: inherited tendencies and native energies had done +that for him already from his very cradle. + +'Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam;' and it was well that Darwin took up +at Cambridge with the study of geology as his first love. For geology +was then the living and moving science, as astronomy had been in the +sixteenth century, and as biology is at the present day--the +growing-point, so to speak, of European development, whence all great +things might naturally be expected. Moreover, it was and is the central +science of the concrete class, having relations with astronomy on the +one hand, and with biology on the other; concerned alike with cosmical +chances or changes on this side, and with the minutest facts of organic +nature on that; the meeting-place and border-land of all the separate +branches of study that finally bear upon the complex problems of our +human life. No other subject of investigation was so well calculated to +rouse Darwin's interest in the ultimate questions of evolution or +creation, of sudden cataclysm or gradual growth, of miraculous +intervention or slow development. Here, if anywhere, his enigmas were +all clearly propounded to him by the inarticulate stony sphinxes; he had +only to riddle them out for himself as he went along in after years with +the aid of the successive side-lights thrown upon the world by the +unconnected lanterns of Lamarck and of Malthus. + +Fortunately for us, then, Darwin did not waste his time at Cambridge +over the vain and frivolous pursuits of the classical tripos. He +preferred to work at his own subjects in his own way, and to leave the +short-lived honours of the schools to those who cared for them and for +nothing higher. He came out with the _οἱ πολλοί_ in 1831, and +thenceforth proceeded to study life in the wider university for which +his natural inclinations more properly fitted him. The world was all +before him where to choose, and he chose that better part which shall +not be taken away from him as long as the very memory of science +survives. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS. + + +Scarcely had Darwin taken his pass degree at Cambridge when the great +event of his life occurred which, more than anything else perhaps, gave +the final direction to his categorical genius in the line it was +thenceforth so successfully to follow. In the autumn of 1831, when +Darwin was just twenty-two, it was decided by Government to send a +ten-gun brig, the 'Beagle,' under command of Captain Fitzroy, to +complete the unfinished survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, to map +out the shores of Chili and Peru, to visit several of the Pacific +archipelagoes, and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round +the whole world. This was an essentially scientific expedition, and +Captain Fitzroy, afterwards so famous as the meteorological admiral, was +a scientific officer of the highest type. He was anxious to be +accompanied on his cruise by a competent naturalist who would undertake +the collection and preservation of the animals and plants discovered on +the voyage, for which purpose he generously offered to give up a share +of his own cabin accommodation. Professor Henslow seized upon the +opportunity to recommend for the post his promising pupil, young Darwin, +'grandson of the poet.' Darwin gladly volunteered his services without +salary, and partly paid his own expenses on condition of being permitted +to retain in his own possession the animals and plants he collected on +the journey. The 'Beagle' set sail from Devonport on December the 27th, +1831; she returned to Falmouth on October the 2nd, 1836. + +That long five years' cruise around the world, the journal of which +Darwin has left us in the 'Voyage of the "Beagle,"' proved a marvellous +epoch in the great naturalist's quiet career. It left its abiding mark +deeply imprinted on all his subsequent life and thinking. Lamarck and +Erasmus Darwin were cabinet biologists, who had never beheld with their +own eyes the great round world and all that therein is; Charles Darwin +had the inestimable privilege of seeing for himself, at first hand, a +large part of the entire globe and of the creatures that inhabit it. +Even to have caught one passing glimpse of the teeming life of the +tropics is in itself an education; to the naturalist it is more, it is a +revelation. Our starved little northern fauna and flora, the mere +leavings of the vast ice sheets that spread across our zone in the +glacial epoch, show us a world depopulated of all its largest, +strangest, and fiercest creatures; a world dwarfed in all its component +elements, and immensely differing in ten thousand ways from that rich, +luxuriant, over-stocked hot-house in which the first great problems of +evolution were practically worked out by survival of the fittest. But +the tropics preserve for us still in all their jungles something of the +tangled, thickly-peopled aspect which our planet must have presented for +countless ages in all latitudes before the advent of primæval man. We +now know that throughout the greater part of geological time, +essentially tropical conditions existed unbroken over the whole surface +of the entire earth, from the Antarctic continent to the shores of +Greenland; so that some immediate acquaintance at least with the +equatorial world is of immense value to the philosophical naturalist for +the sake of the analogies it inevitably suggests; and it is a +significant fact that almost all those great and fruitful thinkers who +in our own time have done good work in the wider combination of +biological facts have themselves passed a considerable number of years +in investigating the conditions of tropical nature. Europe and England +are at the ends of the earth; the tropics are biological head-quarters. +The equatorial zone is therefore the true school for the historian of +life in its more universal and lasting aspects. + +Nor was that all. The particular countries visited by the 'Beagle' +during the course of her long and varied cruise happened to be exactly +such as were naturally best adapted for bringing out the latent +potentialities of Darwin's mind, and suggesting to his active and +receptive brain those deep problems of life and its environment which he +afterwards wrought out with such subtle skill and such consummate +patience in the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man.' The Cape +de Verdes, and the other Atlantic islands, with their scanty population +of plants and animals, composed for the most part of waifs and strays +drifted to their barren rocks by ocean currents, or blown out helplessly +to sea by heavy winds; Brazil, with its marvellous contrasting wealth of +tropical luxuriance and self-strangling fertility, a new province of +interminable delights to the soul of the enthusiastic young collector; +the South American pampas, with their colossal remains of extinct +animals, huge geological precursors of the stunted modern sloths and +armadillos that still inhabit the self-same plains; Tierra del Fuego, +with its almost Arctic climate, and its glimpses into the secrets of the +most degraded savage types; the vast range of the Andes and the +Cordilleras, with their volcanic energy and their closely crowded +horizontal belts of climatic life; the South Sea Islands, those +paradises of the Pacific, Hesperian fables true, alike for the lover of +the picturesque and the biological student; Australia, that surviving +fragment of an extinct world, with an antiquated fauna whose archaic +character still closely recalls the European life of ten million years +back in the secondary epoch: all these and many others equally novel and +equally instructive passed in long alternating panorama before Darwin's +eyes, and left their images deeply photographed for ever after on the +lasting tablets of his retentive memory. That was the real great +university in which he studied nature and read for his degree. Our +evolutionist was now being educated. + +Throughout the whole of the journal of this long cruise, which Darwin +afterwards published in an enlarged form, it is impossible not to be +struck at every turn with the way in which his inquisitive mind again +and again recurs to the prime elements of those great problems towards +whose solution he afterwards so successfully pointed out the path. The +Darwinian ideas are all already there in the germ; the embryo form of +the 'Origin of Species' plays in and out on every page with the +quaintest elusiveness. We are always just on the very point of catching +it; and every now and again we do actually all but catch it in essence +and spirit, though ever still its bodily shape persistently evades us. +Questions of geographical distribution, of geological continuity, of the +influence of climate, of the modifiability of instinct, of the effects +of surrounding conditions, absorb the young observer's vivid interest at +every step, wherever he lands. He is all unconsciously collecting notes +and materials in profuse abundance for his great work; he is thinking in +rough outline the new thoughts which are hereafter to revolutionise the +thought of humanity. + +Five years are a great slice out of a man's life: those five years of +ceaseless wandering by sea and land were spent by Charles Darwin in +accumulating endless observations and hints for the settlement of the +profound fundamental problems in which he was even then so deeply +interested. The 'Beagle' sailed from England to the Cape de Verdes, and +already, even before she had touched her first land, the young +naturalist had observed with interest that the impalpably fine dust +which fell on deck contained no less than sixty-seven distinct organic +forms, two of them belonging to species peculiar to South America. In +some of the dust he found particles of stone so very big that they +measured 'above the thousandth of an inch square;' and after this fact, +says the keen student, 'one need not be surprised at the diffusion of +the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants.' Would +Erasmus Darwin have noticed these minute points and their implications +one wonders? Probably not. May we not see in the observation partly the +hereditary tendencies of Josiah Wedgwood towards minute investigation +and accuracy of detail, partly the influence of the scientific +time-wave, and the careful training under Professor Henslow? Erasmus +Darwin comes before us rather as the brilliant and ingenious amateur, +his grandson Charles as the instructed and fully equipped final product +of the scientific schools. + +At St. Paul's Rocks, once more, a mass of new volcanic peaks rising +abruptly from the midst of the Atlantic, the naturalist of the 'Beagle' +notes with interest that feather and dirt-feeding and parasitic insects +or spiders are the first inhabitants to take up their quarters on +recently formed oceanic islands. This problem of the peopling of new +lands, indeed, so closely connected with the evolution of new species, +necessarily obtruded itself upon his attention again and again during +his five years' cruise; and in some cases, especially that of the +Galapagos Islands, the curious insular faunas and floras which he +observed upon this trip, composed as they were of mere casual straylings +from adjacent shores, produced upon his mind a very deep and lasting +impression, whose traces one may without difficulty discern on every +second page of the 'Origin of Species.' + +On the last day of February, 1832, the 'Beagle' came to anchor in the +harbour of Bahia, and young Darwin caught sight for the first time of +the mutually strangling luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Nowhere on +earth are the finest conditions of tropical life more fully realised +than in the tangled depths of the great uncleared Brazilian forests, +which everywhere gird round like a natural palisade with their +impenetrable belt the narrow and laborious clearings of over-mastered +man. The rich alluvial silt of mighty river systems, the immemorial +manuring of the virgin soil, the fierce energy of an almost equatorial +sun, and the universal presence of abundant water, combine to make life +in that marvellous region unusually wealthy, varied, and crowded, so +that the struggle for existence is there perhaps more directly visible +to the seeing eye than in any other known portion of God's universe. +'Delight itself,' says Darwin in his journal, with that naive simplicity +which everywhere forms the chief charm of his direct and unaffected +literary style--'delight itself is a weak term to express the feelings +of a naturalist who for the first time has wandered by himself in a +Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the +parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the +foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled +me with admiration.' In truth, among those huge buttressed trunks, +overhung by the unbroken canopy of foliage on the vast spreading and +interlacing branches, festooned with lianas and drooping lichens, or +beautified by the pendent alien growth of perfumed orchids, Darwin's +mind must indeed have found congenial food for apt reflection, and +infinite opportunities for inference and induction. Prom the mere +picturesque point of view, indeed, the naturalist enjoys such sights as +this a thousand times more truly and profoundly than the mere casual +unskilled observer: for it is a shallow, self-flattering mistake of +vulgar and narrow minds to suppose that fuller knowledge and clearer +insight can destroy or impair the beauty of beautiful objects--as who +should imagine that a great painter appreciates the sunset less than a +silly boy or a sentimental schoolgirl. As a matter of fact, the +naturalist knows and admires a thousand exquisite points of detail in +every flower and every insect which only he himself and the true artist +can equally delight in. And a keen intellectual and æsthetic joy in the +glorious fecundity and loveliness of nature was everywhere present to +Darwin's mind. But, beyond and above even that, there was also the +architectonic delight of the great organiser in the presence of a noble +organised product: the peculiar pleasure felt only by the man in whose +broader soul all minor details fall at once into their proper place, as +component elements in one great consistent and harmonious whole--a +sympathetic pleasure akin to that with which an architect views the +interior of Ely and of Lincoln, or a musician listens to the linked +harmonies of the 'Messiah' and the 'Creation.' The scheme of nature was +now unfolding itself visibly and clearly before Charles Darwin's very +eyes. + +After eighteen memorable days spent with unceasing delight at Bahia, the +'Beagle' sailed again for Rio, where Darwin stopped for three months, to +improve his acquaintance with the extraordinary wealth of the South +American fauna and flora. Collecting insects was here his chief +occupation, and it is interesting to note even at this early period how +his attention was attracted by some of those strange alluring devices on +the part of the males for charming their partners which afterwards +formed the principal basis for his admirable theory of sexual selection, +so fully developed in the 'Descent of Man.' 'Several times,' he says, +'when a pair [of butterflies], probably male and female, were chasing +each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me; +and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a +toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.' In like manner he observed +here the instincts of tropical ants, the habits of phosphorescent +insects, and the horrid practice of that wasp-like creature, the sphex, +which stuffs the clay cells of its larvæ full of half-dead spiders and +writhing caterpillars, so stung with devilish avoidance of vital parts +as to be left quite paralysed yet still alive, as future food for the +developing grubs. Cases like these helped naturally to shake the young +biologist's primitive faith in the cheap and crude current theories of +universal beneficence, and to introduce that wholesome sceptical +reaction against received dogma which is the necessary groundwork and +due preparation for all great progressive philosophical thinking. + +In July they set sail again for Monte Video, where the important +question of climate and vegetation began to interest young Darwin's +mind. Uruguay is almost entirely treeless; and this curious phenomenon, +in a comparatively moist sub-tropical plain-land, struck him as a +remarkable anomaly, and set him speculating on its probable cause. +Australia, he remembered, was far more arid, and yet its interior was +everywhere covered by whole forests of quaint indigenous gum-trees. +Could it be that there were no trees adapted to the climate? As yet, the +true causes of geographical distribution had not clearly dawned upon +Darwin's mind; but that a young man of twenty-three should seriously +busy himself about such problems of ultimate causation at all is in +itself a sufficiently pointed and remarkable phenomenon. It was here, +too, that he first saw that curious animal, the Tucutuco, a true rodent +with the habits of a mole, which is almost always found in a blind +condition. With reference to this singular creature, there occurs in his +journal one of those interesting anticipatory passages which show the +rough workings of the distinctive evolutionary Darwinian concept in its +earlier stages. 'Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the +Tucutuco,' he writes, 'the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very +serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an +organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been +delighted with this fact, had he known it, when speculating (probably +with more truth than usual with him) on the gradually acquired blindness +of the Aspalax, a gnawer living under the ground, and of the Proteus, a +reptile living in dark caverns filled with water; in both of which +animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a +tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is +extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether +it is connected with the true optic nerve; its vision must certainly be +imperfect, though probably useful to the animal when it leaves its +burrow. In the Tucutuco, which I believe never comes to the surface of +the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and +useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the +animal: no doubt Lamarck would have said that the Tucutuco is now +passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus.' The passage is +instructive both as showing that Darwin was already familiar with +Lamarck's writings, and as pointing out the natural course of his own +future development. + +For the two years from her arrival at Monte Video, the 'Beagle' was +employed in surveying the eastern coast of South America; and Darwin +enjoyed unusual opportunities for studying the geology, the zoology, and +the botany of the surrounding districts during all that period. It was a +suggestive field indeed for the young naturalist. The curious +relationship of the gigantic fossil armour-plated animals to the +existing armadillo, of the huge megatherium to the modern sloths, and of +the colossal ant-eaters to their degenerate descendants at the present +day, formed one of the direct inciting causes to the special study which +produced at last the 'Origin of Species.' In the Introduction to that +immortal work Darwin wrote, some twenty-seven years later, 'When on +board H.M.S. "Beagle" as naturalist, I was much struck with certain +facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South +America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past +inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the +latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin +of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of +our greatest philosophers.' And in the body of the work itself he refers +over and over again to numberless observations made by himself during +this period of rapid psychological development--observations on the +absence of recent geological formations along the lately upheaved South +American coast; on the strange extinction of the horse in La Plata; on +the affinities of the extinct and recent species; on the effect of +minute individual peculiarities in preserving life under special +circumstances; and on the influence of insects and blood-sucking bats in +determining the existence of the larger naturalised mammals in parts of +Brazil and the Argentine Republic. It was the epoch of wide collection +of facts, to be afterwards employed in brilliant generalisations: the +materials for the 'Origin of Species' were being slowly accumulated in +the numberless pigeon-holes of the Darwinian memory. + +Among the facts thus industriously gathered by Darwin in the two years +spent on the South American coast were several curious instincts of the +cuckoo-like molothrus, of the owl of the Pampas, and of the American +ostrich. A few sentences scattered here and there through this part of +the 'Naturalist's Journal' may well be extracted in the present place as +showing, better than any mere secondhand description could do, the slow +germinating process of the 'Origin of Species.' In speaking of the +toxodon, that strange extinct South American mammal, the young author +remarks acutely that, though in size it equalled the elephant and the +megatherium, the structure of its teeth shows it to be closely allied to +the ruminants, while several other details link it to the pachyderms, +and its aquatic peculiarities of ear and nostril approximate it rather +to the manatee and the dugong. 'How wonderfully,' he says, 'are the +different orders, at the present time so well separated, blended +together in different points of the structure of the toxodon.' We now +know that unspecialised ancestral forms always display this close union +of peculiarities afterwards separately developed in distinct species of +their later descendants. + +Still more pregnant with evolutionism in the bud is the prophetic remark +about a certain singular group of South American birds, 'This small +family is one of those which, from its varied relations to other +families, although at present offering only difficulties to the +systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand +scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings +have been created.' Of the agouti, once more, that true friend of the +desert, Darwin notes that it does not now range as far south as Port St. +Julian, though Wood in 1670 found it abundant there; and he asks +suggestively, 'What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and +rarely visited country, the range of an animal like this?' Again, when +speaking of the analogies between the extinct camel-like macrauchenia +and the modern guanaco, as well as of those between the fossil and +living species of South American rodents, he says, with even more +prophetic insight, 'This wonderful relationship in the same continent +between the dead and the living will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw +more light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth, and their +disappearance from it, than any other class of facts.' He was himself +destined in another thirty years to prove the truth of his own +vaticination. + +A yet more remarkable passage in the 'Journal of the "Beagle,"' though +entered under the account of events observed in the year 1834, must +almost certainly have been written somewhat later, and subsequently to +Darwin's first reading of Malthus's momentous work, 'The Principle of +Population,' which (as we know from his own pen) formed a cardinal point +in the great biologist's mental development. It runs as follows in the +published journal:[1]--'We do not steadily bear in mind how profoundly +ignorant we are of the conditions of existence of every animal; nor do +we always remember that some check is constantly preventing the too +rapid increase of every organised being left in a state of nature. The +supply of food, on an average, remains constant; yet the tendency in +every animal to increase by propagation is geometrical, and its +surprising effects have nowhere been more astonishingly shown than in +the case of the European animals run wild during the last few centuries +in America. Every animal in a state of nature regularly breeds; yet in a +species long established any great increase in numbers is obviously +impossible, and must be checked by some means.' Aut Malthus aut +Diabolus. And surely here, if anywhere at all, we tremble on the very +verge of natural selection. + +It would be impossible to follow young Darwin in detail through his +journey to Buenos Ayres, and up the Parana to Santa Fé, which occupied +the autumn of 1833. In the succeeding year he visited Patagonia and the +Falkland Islands, having previously made his first acquaintance with +savage life among the naked Fuegians of the extreme southern point of +the continent. Some of these interesting natives, taken to England by +Captain Fitzroy on a former visit, had accompanied the 'Beagle' through +all her wanderings, and from them Darwin obtained that close insight +into the workings of savage human nature which he afterwards utilised +with such conspicuous ability in the 'Descent of Man.' Through +Magellan's Straits the party made their way up the coasts of Chili, and +Darwin had there an opportunity of investigating the geology and biology +of the Cordillera. The year 1835 was chiefly spent in that temperate +country and in tropical Peru; and as the autumn went on, the 'Beagle' +made her way across a belt of the Pacific to the Galapagos archipelago. + +Small and unimportant as are those little equatorial islands from the +geographical and commercial point of view, they will yet remain for ever +classic ground to the biologists of the future from their close +connection with the master-problems of the 'Origin of Species.' Here +more, perhaps, than anywhere else the naturalist of the 'Beagle' found +himself face to face in real earnest with the ultimate questions of +creation or evolution. A group of tiny volcanic islets, never joined to +any land, nor even united to one another, yet each possessing its own +special zoological features--the Galapagos roused to an extraordinary +degree the irresistible questionings of Darwin's mind. They contain no +frogs, and no mammal save a mouse, brought to them, no doubt, by some +passing ship. The only insects are beetles, which possess peculiar +facilities for being transported in the egg or grub across salt water +upon floating logs. There are two kinds of snake, one tortoise, and four +lizards; but, in striking contrast to this extreme poverty of +terrestrial forms, there are at least fifty-five distinct species of +native birds. A few snails complete the list. Now most of these animals, +though closely resembling the fauna of Ecuador, the nearest mainland, +are specifically distinct; they have varied (as we now know) from their +continental types owing to natural selection under the new circumstances +in which they have been placed. But Darwin had not yet evolved that +potent key to the great riddle of organic existence. He saw the problem, +but not its solution. 'Most of the organic productions,' he says +plainly, 'are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a +difference between the inhabitants of the different islands: yet all +show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from +that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in +width.... Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more +astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their +confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the +boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to +believe that within a period geologically recent the unbroken sea was +here spread out. Hence, both in space and time we seem to be brought +somewhat nearer to that great fact--that mystery of mysteries--the first +appearance of new beings on this earth.' Among the most singular of +these zoological facts may be mentioned the existence in the Galapagos +archipelago of a genus of gigantic and ugly lizard, the amblyrhyncus, +unknown elsewhere, but here assuming the forms of two species, the one +marine and the other terrestrial. In minuter points, the differences of +fauna and flora between the various islands are simply astounding, so as +to compel the idea that each form must necessarily have been developed +not merely for the group, but for the special island which it actually +inhabits. No wonder that Darwin should say in conclusion, 'One is +astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be +used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands; and still +more so at its diverse, yet analogous, action on points so near each +other.' Here again, in real earnest, the young observer trembles visibly +on the very verge of natural selection. In the 'Origin of Species' he +makes full use, more than once, of the remarkable facts he observed with +so much interest in these tiny isolated oceanic specks of the American +galaxy. + +From the Galapagos the 'Beagle' steered a straight course for Tahiti, +and Darwin then beheld with his own eyes the exquisite beauty of the +Polynesian Islands. Thence they sailed for New Zealand, the most truly +insular large mass of land in the whole world, supplied accordingly with +a fauna and flora of most surprising meagreness and poverty of species. +In the woods, our observer noted very few birds, and he remarks with +astonishment that so big an island--as large as Great Britain--should +not possess a single living indigenous mammal, save a solitary rat of +doubtful origin. Australia and Tasmania, with their antiquated and +stranded marsupial inhabitants, almost completed the round trip. Keeling +Island next afforded a basis for the future famous observations upon +coral reefs; and thence by Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, +Pernambuco, and the beautiful Azores, the 'Beagle' made her way home by +slow stages to England, which she reached in safety on October the 2nd, +1836. What an ideal education for the future reconstructor of +biological science! He had now all his problems cut and dried, ready to +his hand, and he had nothing important left to do--except to sit down +quietly in his study, and proceed to solve them. Observation and +collection had given him one half the subject-matter of the 'Origin of +Species;' reflection and Malthus were to give him the other half. Never +had great mind a nobler chance; never, again, had noble chance a great +mind better adapted by nature and heredity to make the most of it. The +man was not wanting to the opportunity, nor was the opportunity wanting +to the man. Organism and environment fell together into perfect harmony; +and so, by a lucky combination of circumstances, the secret of the ages +was finally wrung from not unwilling nature by the far-seeing and +industrious volunteer naturalist of the 'Beagle' expedition. + +It would be giving a very false idea of the interests which stirred +Charles Darwin's mind during his long five years' voyage, however, if we +were to dwell exclusively upon the biological side of his numerous +observations on that memorable cruise. Ethnology, geology, oceanic +phenomena, the height of the snow-line, the climate of the Antarctic +islands, the formation of icebergs, the transport of boulders, the +habits and manners engendered by slavery, all almost equally aroused in +their own way the young naturalist's vivid interest. Nowhere do we get +the faintest trace of narrow specialism; nowhere are we cramped within +the restricted horizon of the mere vulgar beetle-hunter and +butterfly-catcher. The biologist of the 'Beagle' had taken the whole +world of science for his special province. Darwin's mind with all its +vastness was not, indeed, profoundly analytical. The task of working out +the psychological and metaphysical aspects of evolution fell rather to +the great organising and systematising intellect of Herbert Spencer. But +within the realm of material fact, and of the widest possible inferences +based upon such fact, Darwin's keen and comprehensive spirit ranged +freely over the whole illimitable field of nature. 'No one,' says Buckle +with unwonted felicity, 'can have a firm grasp of any science if, by +confining himself to it, he shuts out the light of analogy. He may, no +doubt, work at the details of his subject; he may be useful in adding to +its facts; he will never be able to enlarge its philosophy. For the +philosophy of every department depends on its connection with other +departments, and must therefore be sought at their points of contact. It +must be looked for in the place where they touch and coalesce: it lies, +not in the centre of each science, but on the confines and margin.' This +profound truth Darwin fully and instinctively realised. It was the +all-embracing catholicity of his manifold interests that raised him into +the greatest pure biologist of all time, and that enabled him to +co-ordinate with such splendid results the raw data of so many distinct +and separate sciences. And even as early as the days of the cruise in +the 'Beagle,' that innate catholicity had already asserted itself in +full vigour. Now it is a party of Gauchos throwing the bola that engages +for the moment his eager attention; and now again it is a group of +shivering Fuegians, standing naked with their long hair streaming in the +wind on a snowy promontory of their barren coast. Here he examines the +tubular lightning-holes melted in the solid rock of Maldonado by the +electric energy; and there he observes the moving boulder-streams that +course like torrents down the rugged corries of the Falkland Islands. At +one time he works upon the unstudied geology of the South American +Pampas; at another, he inspects the now classical lagoon and narrow +fringing reef of the Keeling archipelago. Everywhere he sees whatever of +most noteworthy in animate or inanimate nature is there to be seen; and +everywhere he draws from it innumerable lessons, to be applied hereafter +to the special field of study upon which his intense and active energies +were finally concentrated. It is not too much to say, indeed, that it +was the voyage of the 'Beagle' which gave us in the last resort the +'Origin of Species' and its great fellow the 'Descent of Man.' + + +[1] The full narrative was first given to the world in 1839, some three +years after Darwin's return to England, so that much of it evidently +represents the results of his maturer thinking and reading on the facts +collected during his journey round the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION. + + +When Charles Darwin landed in England on his return from the voyage of +the 'Beagle' he was nearly twenty-eight. When he published the first +edition of the 'Origin of Species' he was over fifty. The intermediate +years, though much occupied by many minor works of deep specialist +scientific importance, were still mainly devoted to collecting material +for the one crowning effort of his life, the chief monument of his great +co-ordinating and commanding intellect--the settlement of the question +of organic evolution. + +'There is one thing,' says Professor Fiske, 'which a man of original +scientific or philosophical genius in a rightly ordered world should +never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to earn a +living; for that is a wretched waste of energy, in which the highest +intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment, and runs the +risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.' From this unhappy +necessity Charles Darwin, like his predecessor Lyell, was luckily free. +He settled down early in a home of his own, and worked away at his own +occupations, with no sordid need for earning the day's bread, but with +perfect leisure to carry out the great destiny for which the chances of +the universe had singled him out. His subsequent history is the history +of his wonderful and unique contributions to natural science. + +The first thing to be done, of course, was the arrangement and +classification of the natural history spoils gathered during the cruise, +and the preparation of his own journal of the voyage for publication. +The strict scientific results of the trip were described in the 'Zoology +of the Voyage of the "Beagle,"' the different parts of which were +undertaken by rising men of science of the highest distinction, under +Charles Darwin's own editorship. Sir Richard Owen took in hand the +fossil mammals; Waterhouse arranged their living allies; Gould discussed +the birds, Jenyns the fish, and Bell the amphibians and reptiles. In +this vast co-operative publication Darwin thus obtained the assistance +of many among the most competent specialists in the England of his day, +and learned to understand his own collections by the light thrown upon +them from the focussed lamps of the most minute technical learning. As +for the journal, it was originally published with the general account of +the cruise by Captain Fitzroy in 1839, but was afterwards set forth in a +separate form under the title of 'A Naturalist's Voyage Round the +World.' + +But while Darwin was thus engaged in arranging and classifying the +animals and plants he had brought home with him, the germs of those +inquiring ideas about the origin of species which we have already +observed in his account of the voyage were quickening into fresh life +within him. As he ruminated at his leisure over the results of his +accumulations, he was beginning to work upon the great problem with the +definite and conscious resolution of solving it. 'On my return home, it +occurred to me,' he says, 'in 1837, that something might perhaps be made +out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all +sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five +years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up +some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the +conclusions that then seemed to me probable; from that period to the +present day [1859] I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that +I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them +to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.' + +So Darwin wrote at fifty. The words are weighty and well worthy of +consideration. They give us in a nutshell the true secret of Darwin's +success in compelling the attention and assent of his contemporaries to +his completed theory. For speculations and hypotheses like those of +Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin, however brilliant and luminous they may be, +the hard, dry, scientific mind cares as a rule less than nothing. Men of +genius and insight like Goethe and Oken may, indeed, seize greedily upon +the pregnant suggestion; their intellects are already attuned by nature +to its due reception and assimilation; but the mere butterfly-catchers +and plant-hunters of the world, with whom after all rests ultimately the +practical acceptance or rejection of such a theory, can only be +convinced by long and patient accumulations of facts, by infinite +instances and endless examples, by exhaustive surveys of the whole +field of nature in a thousand petty details piecemeal. They have to be +driven by repeated beating into the right path. Everywhere they fancy +they see the loophole of an objection, which must be carefully closed +beforehand against them with anticipatory argument, as we close hedges +by the wayside against the obtrusive donkey with a cautious bunch of +thorny brambles. Even if Charles Darwin had hit upon the fundamental +idea of natural selection, and had published it, as Wallace did, in the +form of a mere splendid _aperçu_, he would never have revolutionised the +world of biology. When the great discovery was actually promulgated, it +was easy enough to win the assent of philosophical thinkers like Herbert +Spencer; easy enough, even, to gain the ready adhesion of non-biological +but kindred minds, like Leslie Stephen's and John Morley's; those might +all, perhaps, have been readily convinced by far less heavy and crushing +artillery than that so triumphantly marshalled together in the 'Origin +of Species.' But in order to command the slow and grudging adhesion of +the rank and file of scientific workers, the 'hodmen of science,' as +Professor Huxley calls them, it was needful to bring together an +imposing array of closely serried facts, to secure every post in the +rear before taking a single step onward, and to bring to bear upon every +antagonist the exact form of argument with which he was already +thoroughly familiar. It was by carefully pursuing these safe and +cautious philosophical tactics that Charles Darwin gained his great +victory. Where others were pregnant, he was cogent. He met the +Dryasdusts of science on their own ground, and he put them fairly to +flight with their own weapons. More than that, he brought them all over +in the long run as deserters into his own camp, and converted them from +doubtful and suspicious foes into warm adherents of the evolutionary +banner. + +Moreover, fortunately for the world, Darwin's own mind was essentially +one of the inductive type. If a great deductive thinker and speculator +like Herbert Spencer had hit upon the self-same idea of survival of the +fittest, he might have communicated it to a small following of receptive +disciples, who would have understood it and accepted it, on _a priori_ +grounds alone, and gradually passed it on to the grades beneath them; +but he would never have touched the slow and cautious elephantine +intellect of the masses. The common run of mankind are not deductive; +they require to have everything made quite clear to them by example and +instance. The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule +congenitally incapable of appreciating the superior logical certitude of +the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square +on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until +they have measured and weighed as well as they are able by rude +experimental devices a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular +paper. It was a great gain, therefore, that the task of reconstructing +the course of organic evolution should fall to the lot of a highly +trained and masterly intelligence of the inductive order. Darwin had +first to convince himself, and then he could proceed to convince the +world. He set about the task with characteristic patience and +thoroughness. No man that ever lived possessed in a more remarkable +degree than he did the innate capacity for taking trouble. For five +years, as a mere preliminary, he accumulated facts in immense variety, +and then for the first time and in the vaguest possible way he--'allowed +himself to speculate.' That brings us down to the year 1842, when the +first notes of the 'Origin of Species' must have been tentatively +committed to paper. It was in 1859 that the first edition of the +complete work was given to the world. Compare this with the case of +Newton, who similarly kept his grand idea of gravitation for many years +in embryo, until more exact measurements of the moon's mass and distance +should enable him to verify it to his own satisfaction. + +One other item of immense importance in the genesis of the full +Darwinian doctrine deserves mention here--I mean, the exact moment of +time occupied by Charles Darwin in the continuous history of scientific +thought. A generation or two earlier, in Erasmus Darwin's days, biology +had not yet arrived at the true classification of animals and plants +upon an essentially hereditary basis. The Linnæan arrangement, then +universally accepted, was wholly artificial in its main features; it +distributed species without regard to their fundamental likenesses of +structure and organisation. But the natural system of Jussieu and De +Candolle, by arranging plants into truly related groups, made possible +the proofs of an order of affiliation in the vegetable kingdom; while +Cuvier's similar reconstruction of the animal world gave a like foothold +to the evolutionary philosopher in the other great department of organic +nature. The recognition of kinship between the various members of the +same family necessarily preceded the establishment of a regular +genealogical theory of life in its entirety. + +Though we are here concerned mainly with Charles Darwin the thinker and +writer--not with Charles Darwin the husband and father--a few words of +explanation as to his private life must necessarily be added at the +present point, before we pass on to consider the long, slow, and +cautious brewing of that wonderful work, the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +returned home from the voyage of the 'Beagle' at the end of the year +1836. Soon after, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, no doubt +through the influence of his friend Lyell, who was quite enthusiastic +over his splendid geological investigations on the rate of elevation in +the Pampas and the Cordillera. Acting on Lyell's advice, too, he +determined to seek no official appointment, but to devote himself +entirely for the rest of his life to the pursuit of science. In 1838, at +the age of twenty-nine, he read before the Geological Society his paper +on the 'Connection of Volcanic Phenomena with the Elevation of Mountain +Chains,' when, says Lyell admiringly in a private letter, 'he opened +upon De la Beche, Phillips, and others'--the veterans of the +science--'his whole battery of the earthquakes and volcanoes of the +Andes.' Shortly after, the audacious young man was appointed secretary +to the Geological Society, a post which he filled when the voyage of the +'Beagle' was first published in 1839. + +In the early part of that same year, the rising naturalist took to +himself a wife from one of the houses to which he himself owed no small +part of his conspicuous greatness. His choice fell upon his cousin, +Miss Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of Maer Hall; and, +after three years of married life in London, he settled at last at Down +House, near Orpington, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed +his time among his conservatories and his pigeons, his garden and his +fowls, with his children growing up quietly beside him, and the great +thinking world of London within easy reach of a few minutes' journey. +His private means enabled him to live the pleasant life of an English +country gentleman, and devote himself unremittingly to the pursuit of +science. Ill health, indeed, interfered sadly with his powers of work; +but system and patience did wonders during his working days, which were +regularly parcelled out between study and recreation, and utilised and +economised in the very highest possible degree. Early to bed and early +to rise, wandering unseen among the lanes and paths, or riding slowly on +his favourite black cob, the great naturalist passed forty years happily +and usefully at Down, where all the village knew and loved him. A man of +singular simplicity and largeness of heart, Charles Darwin never really +learnt to know his own greatness. And that charming innocence and +ignorance of his real value made the value itself all the greater. His +moral qualities, indeed, were no less admirable and unique in their way +than his intellectual faculties. To that charming candour and delightful +unostentatiousness which everybody must have noticed in his published +writings, he united in private life a kindliness of disposition, a width +of sympathy, and a ready generosity which made him as much beloved by +his friends as he was admired and respected by all Europe. The very +servants who came beneath his roof stopped there for the most part +during their whole lifetime. In his earlier years at Down, the quiet +Kentish home was constantly enlivened by the visits of men like Lyell, +Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and Wollaston. During his later days, it was +the Mecca of a world-wide scientific and philosophic pilgrimage, where +all the greatest men our age has produced sought at times the rare +honour of sitting before the face of the immortal master. But to the +very last Darwin himself never seemed to discover that he was anything +more than just an average man of science among his natural peers. + +Shortly after Darwin went to Down he began one long and memorable +experiment, which in itself casts a flood of light upon his patient and +painstaking method of inquiry. Two years before, he had read at the +Geological Society a paper on the 'Formation of Mould,' which more than +thirty years later he expanded into his famous treatise on the 'Action +of Earthworms.' His uncle and father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, suggested +to him that the apparent sinking of stones on the surface might really +be due to earthworm castings. So, as soon as he had some land of his own +to experiment upon, he began, in 1842, to spread broken chalk over a +field at Down, in which, twenty-nine years later, in 1871, a trench was +dug to test the results. What other naturalist ever waited so long and +so patiently to discover the upshot of a single experiment? Is it +wonderful that a man who worked like that should succeed, not by faith +but by logical power, in removing mountains? + +Unfortunately, we do not know the exact date when Darwin first read +Malthus. But that the perusal of that remarkable book formed a crisis +and turning-point in his mental development we know from his own +distinct statement in a letter to Haeckel, prefixed to the brilliant +German evolutionist's 'History of Creation.' 'It seemed to me probable,' +says Darwin, speaking of his own early development, 'that allied species +were descended from a common ancestor. But during several years I could +not conceive how each form could have been modified so as to become +admirably adapted to its place in nature. I began therefore to study +domesticated animals and cultivated plants, and after a time perceived +that man's power of selecting and breeding from certain individuals was +the most powerful of all means in the production of new races. Having +attended to the habits of animals and their relations to the surrounding +conditions, I was able to realise the severe struggle for existence to +which all organisms are subjected; and my geological observations had +allowed me to appreciate to a certain extent the duration of past +geological periods. With my mind thus prepared I fortunately happened to +read Malthus's "Essay on Population" and the idea of natural selection +through the struggle for existence at once occurred to me. Of all the +subordinate points in the theory, the last which I understood was the +cause of the tendency in the descendants from a common progenitor to +diverge in character.' + +It is impossible, indeed, to overrate the importance of Malthus, viewed +as a schoolmaster to bring men to Darwin, and to bring Darwin himself to +the truth. Without the 'Essay on the Principle of Population' it is +quite conceivable that we should never have had the 'Origin of Species' +or the 'Descent of Man.' + +At the same time, Darwin had not been idle in other departments of +scientific work. Side by side with his collections for his final effort +he had been busy on his valuable treatise upon Coral Reefs, in which he +proved, mainly from his own observations on the Keeling archipelago, +that atolls owe their origin to a subsidence of the supporting +ocean-floor, the rate of upward growth of the reefs keeping pace on the +whole with the gradual depression of the sea-bottom. 'No more admirable +example of scientific method,' says Professor Geikie forty years later, +'was ever given to the world; and even if he had written nothing else, +this treatise alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of +investigators of nature.' But, from our present psychological and +historical point of view, as a moment in the development of Darwin's +influence, and therefore of the evolutionary impulse in general, it +possesses a still greater and more profound importance, because the work +in which the theory is unfolded forms a perfect masterpiece of thorough +and comprehensive inductive method, and gained for its author a +well-deserved reputation as a sound and sober scientific inquirer. The +acquisition of such a reputation, afterwards increased by the +publication of the monograph on the Family Cirripedia (in 1851), proved +of immense use to Charles Darwin in the fierce battle which was to rage +around the unconscious body of the 'Origin of Species.' To be 'sound' is +everywhere of incalculable value; to have approved oneself to the slow +and cautious intelligence of the Philistine classes is a mighty spear +and shield for a strong man; but in England, and above all in scientific +England, it is absolutely indispensable to the thinker who would +accomplish any great revolution. Soundness is to the world of science +what respectability is to the world of business--the _sine qua non_ for +successfully gaining even a hearing from established personages. + +To read the book on Coral Reefs is indeed to take a lesson of the +deepest value in applied inductive canons. Every fact is duly +marshalled: every conclusion is drawn by the truest and most legitimate +process from careful observation or crucial experiment. Bit by bit, +Darwin shows most admirably that, through gradual submergence, fringing +reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and these again into atolls or +lagoon islands; and incidentally he throws a vivid light on the slow +secular movements upward or downward for ever taking place in the +world's crust. But the value of the work as a geological record, great +as it is, is as nothing compared with its value as a training exercise +in inductive logic. Darwin was now learning by experience how to use his +own immense powers. + +Meanwhile, the environment too had been gradually moving. In 1832, the +year after young Darwin set out upon his cruise, Lyell published the +first edition of his 'Principles of Geology,' establishing once for all +the uniformitarian concept of that branch of science. In 1836, the year +when he returned, Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora of North America,' had +accepted within certain cramping limits the idea that 'all species might +once have been varieties, and that many varieties are gradually becoming +species by assuming constant and peculiar characters.' Haldeman in +Boston, and Grant at University College, London, were teaching from +their professorial chairs the self-same novel and revolutionary +doctrine. At last, in 1844, Robert Chambers published anonymously his +famous and much-debated 'Vestiges of Creation,' which brought down the +question of evolution _versus_ creation from the senate of _savants_ to +the arena of the mere general public, and set up at once a universal +fever of inquiry into the mysterious question of the origin of species. +Chambers himself was a man rather of general knowledge and some native +philosophical insight than of any marked scientific accuracy or depth. +His work in its original form displayed comparatively little +acquaintance with the vast ground-work of the question at +issue--zoological, botanical, geological, and so forth--and in Charles +Darwin's own opinion showed 'a great want of scientific caution.' But +its graphic style, its vivid picturesqueness, and to the world at large +the startling novelty of its brilliant and piquant suggestions, made it +burst at once into an unwonted popularity for a work of so distinctly +philosophical a character. In nine years it leaped rapidly through no +less than ten successive editions, and remained until the publication of +the 'Origin of Species' the chief authoritative exponent in England of +the still struggling evolutionary principle. + +The 'Vestiges of Creation' may be succinctly described as Lamarck and +water, the watery element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion +(_more Scotico_) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the +physical universe. Chambers himself, in his latest edition (before the +book was finally killed by the advent of Darwinism), thus briefly +describes his main concepts: 'The several series of animated beings, +from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, +under the providence of God, the results, _first_, of an impulse which +has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite +times, by generation, through grades of organisation, terminating in the +highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, +and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to +be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; _second_, of +another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course +of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external +circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric +agencies.' Now it is clear at once that these two supposed 'impulses' +are really quite miraculous in their essence. They do not help us at all +to a distinct physical and realisable conception of any natural agency +whereby species became differentiated one from the other. They lay the +whole burden of species-making upon a single primordial supernatural +impetus, imparted to the first living germ by the will of the Creator, +and acting ever since continuously it is true, but none the less +miraculously for all that. For many creations Chambers substitutes one +single long creative nisus: where Darwin saw natural selection, his +Scotch predecessor saw a _deus ex machina_, helping on the course of +organic development by a constant but unseen interference from above. He +supposed evolution to be predetermined by some intrinsic and externally +implanted proclivity. In short, Chambers's theory is Lamarck's +theologised, and spoilt in the process. + +The book had nevertheless a most prodigious and perfectly unprecedented +success. The secret of its authorship was keenly debated and jealously +kept. The most ridiculous surmises as to its anonymous origin were +everywhere afloat. Some attributed it to Thackeray, and some to Prince +Albert, some to Lyell, some to Sir John Herschel, and some to Charles +Darwin himself. Obscurantists thought it a wicked book; 'intellectual' +people thought it an advanced book. As a matter of fact it was neither +the one nor the other. It was just a pale and colourless transcript of +the old familiar teleological Lamarckism. Yet it did good in its +generation. The public at large were induced by its ephemeral vogue to +interest themselves in a question to which they had never previously +given even a passing thought, though more practised biologists of +evolutionary tendencies were grieved at heart that evolution should +first have been popularly presented to the English world under so +unscientific, garbled, and mutilated a form. From the philosophic side, +Herbert Spencer found 'this ascription of organic evolution to some +aptitude naturally possessed by organisms or miraculously imposed upon +them' to be 'one of those explanations which explain nothing--a shaping +of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge. The cause assigned,' he +says, 'is not a true cause--not a cause assimilable to known causes--not +a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous effects. It is a +cause unrepresentable in thought: one of those illegitimate symbolic +conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real +conception.' From the scientific side, on the other hand, Darwin felt +sadly the inaccuracy and want of profound technical knowledge everywhere +displayed by the anonymous author. These things might naturally cause +the enemy to blaspheme. No worse calamity, indeed, can happen to a +great truth than for its defence to be intrusted to inefficient hands. +Nevertheless, long after, in the 'Origin of Species,' the great +naturalist wrote with generous appreciation of the 'Vestiges of +Creation,' 'In my own opinion it has done excellent service in this +country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and +in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.' + +Still Darwin gave no sign. A flaccid, cartilaginous, unphilosophic +evolutionism had full possession of the field for the moment, and +claimed, as it were, to be the genuine representative of the young and +vigorous biological creed, while he himself was in truth the real heir +to all the honours of the situation. He was in possession of the +master-key which alone could unlock the bars that opposed the progress +of evolution, and still he waited. He could afford to wait. He was +diligently collecting, amassing, investigating; eagerly reading every +new systematic work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, +every record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract from the +dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of implicit value might swell +the definite co-ordinated series of notes in his own commonplace books +for the now distinctly contemplated 'Origin of Species.' His way was to +make all sure behind him, to summon up all his facts in irresistible +array, and never to set out upon a public progress until he was secure +against all possible attacks of the ever-watchful and alert enemy in the +rear. Few men would have had strength of mind enough to resist the +temptation offered by the publication of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and +the extraordinary success attained by so flabby a presentation of the +evolutionary case: Darwin resisted it, and he did wisely. + +We may, however, take it for granted, I doubt not, that it was the +appearance and success of Chambers's invertebrate book which induced +Darwin, in 1844 (the year of its publication), to enlarge his short +notes 'into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to him +probable.' This sketch he showed to Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, no +doubt as a precaution to ensure his own claim of priority against any +future possible competitor. And having thus eased his mind for the +moment, he continued to observe, to read, to devour 'Transactions,' to +collate instances, with indefatigable persistence for fifteen years +longer. If any man mentally measures out fifteen years of his own life, +and bethinks him of how long a space it seems when thus deliberately +pictured, he will be able to realise a little more definitely--but only +a little--how profound was the patience, the self-denial, the +single-mindedness of Darwin's intense search after the ultimate truths +of natural science. + +What was the sketch that he thus committed to paper in 1844, and +submitted to the judgment of his friend Hooker? It was the germ of the +theory of natural selection. According to that theory, organic +development is due to the survival of the fittest among innumerable +variations, good, bad, and indifferent, from one or more parent stocks. +Darwin's reading of Malthus had suggested to him (apparently as early as +the date of publication of the 'Naturalist's Journal') the idea that +every species of plant and animal must always be producing a far greater +number of seeds, eggs, germs, or young offspring than could possibly be +needed for the maintenance of the average number of the species. Of +these young, by far the greater number must always perish from +generation to generation, for want of space, of food, of air, of raw +material. The survivors in each brood must be those naturally best +adapted for survival. The many would be eaten, starved, overrun, or +crowded out; the few that survive would be those that possessed any +special means of defence against aggressors, any special advantage for +escaping starvation, any special protection against overrunning or +overcrowding foes. Animals and plants, Darwin found on inquiry and +investigation, tended to vary under diverse circumstances from the +parent or parents that originally produced them. These variations were +usually infinitesimal in amount, but sometimes more considerable or even +striking. If any particular variation tended in any way to preserve the +life of the creatures that exhibited it, beyond the average of their +like competitors, that variation would in the long run survive, and the +individuals that possessed it, being thus favoured in the struggle for +existence, would replace the less adapted form from which they sprang. +Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of +the calculus of population to the wide facts of universal life. + +In one sense, indeed, it may be said that, given Malthus on the one hand +and the Lamarckian evolutionism on the other, some great man somewhere +must sooner or later, almost of necessity, have combined the two, and +hit out the doctrine of natural selection as we actually know it. Quite +so; but then the point is just this: Darwin _was_ the great man in +question; he _did_ the work which in the very essence of things some +such great man was naturally and inevitably predestined to do. You can +always easily manage to get on without any particular great man, +provided, of course, you have ready to hand another equally able great +man by whom to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how many +ordinary naturalists possess the width of mind and universality of +interest which would prompt them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest a politico-economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus? How +many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to perceive the +ensuing biological implications? How many, having seen them, have the +skill and the patience to work up the infinite chaos of botanical and +zoological detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the 'Origin +of Species'? Merely to have caught at the grand idea is in itself no +small achievement; others did so and deserve all honour for their +insight; but to flesh it out with all the minute care and conclusive +force of Darwin's masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler +monument of human endeavour. + +During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, however, Darwin's pen was by +no means idle. In the first-named year he published his 'Geological +Observations on Volcanic Islands'--part of the 'Beagle' exploration +series; in 1846 he followed this up by his 'Geological Observations on +South America;' in 1851 he gave to the world his monograph on 'Recent +Barnacles;' and in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same +family. But all these works of restricted interest remained always +subsidiary to the one great central task of his entire lifetime, the +preparation of his projected volume on the Origin of Species. + +All through the middle decades of the century Darwin continued to labour +at his vast accumulation of illustrative facts; and side by side with +his continuous toil, outside opinion kept paving the way for the final +acceptance of his lucid ideas. The public was buying and reading all the +time its ten editions of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It was slowly +digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic +theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a +past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively +established. It was getting accustomed to statements like those of the +younger St. Hilaire, in 1850, that specific characters may be modified +by changes in the environing conditions, and that the modifications thus +produced may often be of generic value--may make a difference so great +that we must regard the product not merely as belonging to a distinct +species, but even to a distinct genus or higher kind. In 1852 Herbert +Spencer published in the 'Leader' his remarkable essay, contrasting the +theories of creation and evolution, as applied to organic beings, with +all the biting force of his profound intelligence; and in 1855, the same +encyclopædic philosopher put forth the first rough sketch of his +'Principles of Psychology,' in which he took the lead in treating the +phenomena of mind from the point of view of gradual development. In that +extraordinary work, the philosopher of evolution traced the origin of +all mental powers and faculties by slow gradations from the very +simplest subjective elements. The 'Principles of Psychology' preceded +the 'Origin of Species' by nearly five years; the first collected volume +of Mr. Spencer's essays preceded Darwin's work by some twelve months. +Baden-Powell's essay on the 'Philosophy of Creation' (much debated and +condemned in ecclesiastical circles), and Professor Owen's somewhat +contradictory utterances on the nature of types and archetypal ideas, +also helped to keep alive interest in the problem of origins up to the +very moment of the final appearance of Darwin's great and splendid +solution. + +It is interesting during these intermediate years to watch from time to +time the occasional side-hints of Darwin's activity and of the interest +it aroused among his scientific contemporaries. In 1854, for example, +Sir Charles Lyell notes, after an evening at Darwin's, how Sir Joseph +Hooker astonished him with an account of that strange orchid, Catasetum, +which bears three totally distinct kinds of flowers on the same plant; +'It will figure,' he says, 'in C. Darwin's book on species, with many +other "ugly facts," as Hooker, clinging like me to the orthodox faith, +calls these and other abnormal vagaries.' On a similar occasion, a +little later, Lyell asks, after meeting 'Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston +at Darwin's,' 'After all, did we not come from an ourang?' Last of all, +in 1857, Darwin himself writes an anticipatory letter to his American +friend, Asa Gray, in which he mentions 'six points'--the cardinal +conceptions of the 'Origin of Species.' His book is now fairly under +weigh; he speaks of it himself to acquaintance and correspondents as an +acknowledged project. + +Events were growing ripe for the birth. A lucky accident precipitated +its parturition in the course of the year 1858. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' + + +The accident came in this wise. + +Alfred Russel Wallace, a young Welsh biologist, went out at twenty-four, +in 1848, to the Amazons River, in company with Bates (the author of 'The +Naturalist on the Amazons'), to collect birds and butterflies, and to +study tropical life in the richest region of equatorial America. Like +all other higher zoologists of their time, the two young explorers were +deeply interested in the profound questions of origin and metamorphosis, +and of geographical distribution, and in the letters that passed between +them before they started they avowed to one another that the object of +their quest was a solution of the pressing biological enigma of creation +or evolution. Starting with fresh hopes and a few pounds in pocket, on +an old, worn-out, and unseaworthy slave-trader, they often discussed +these deep problems of life and nature together upon the Sargasso sea, +or among the palms and lianas of the Brazilian woodlands. The air was +thick with whiffs and foretastes of evolutionism, and the two budding +naturalists of the Amazons expedition had inhaled them eagerly with +every breath. They saw among the mimicking organisms of that equatorial +zone strange puzzles to engage their deepest attention; they recognised +in the veins and spots that diversified the filmy membranes of insects' +wings the hieroglyphs of nature, writing as on a tablet for them to +decipher the story of the slow modification of species. In 1852--the +year when Herbert Spencer in England published his essay on the +'Development Hypothesis,' and when Naudin in France put forth his bold +and able paper on the 'Origin of Species'--Wallace once more returned to +Europe, and gave to the world his interesting 'Travels on the Amazons +and the Rio Negro.' Two years later the indefatigable traveller set out +a second time on a voyage of tropical exploration, among the islands of +the Malay archipelago, and for eight years he wandered about in Malay +huts and remote islets, gathering in solitude and isolation the enormous +store of minute facts which he afterwards lavished with so prodigal a +hand upon 'Tropical Nature,' and the 'Geographical Distribution of +Animals.' + +While Wallace was still at Amboyna, he sent home in 1858 a striking +memoir, addressed to Darwin, with a request that he would forward it to +Sir Charles Lyell, for presentation to the Linnean Society. Darwin +opened and read his brother naturalist's paper, and found to his +surprise that it contained his own theory of natural selection, not +worked out in detail, as he himself was working it out, but still +complete in spirit and essence, with no important portion of the central +idea lacking to its full rotundity of conception. A jealous man would +have thrown obstacles in the way of publication; but both Darwin and +Wallace were born superior to the meannesses of jealousy. The elder +naturalist commended his young rival's paper at once to Sir Charles +Lyell, who sent it on immediately to the Linnean Society. + +But Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, both of whom knew of +Darwin's work, thought it advisable that he should publish, in the +'Journal' of the Society, a few extracts from his own manuscripts, side +by side with Wallace's paper. Darwin, therefore, selected some essential +passages for the purpose from his own long-gathered and voluminous +notes, and the two contributions were read together before the Society +on July the 1st, 1858. That double communication marks the date of birth +of modern evolutionism. It is to the eternal credit of both thinkers +that each accepted his own true position with regard to the great +discovery in perfect sincerity. The elder naturalist never strove for a +moment to press his own claim to priority against the younger: the +younger, with singular generosity and courtesy, waived his own claim to +divide the honours of discovery in favour of the elder. Not one word +save words of fraternal admiration and cordial appreciation ever passed +the lips of either with regard to the other. + +The distinctive notion of natural selection, indeed, like all true and +fruitful ideas, had more than once flashed for a moment across the +penetrating mind of more than one independent investigator. As early as +1813, Dr. Wells, the famous author of the theory of dew, applied that +particular conception to the single case of the production of special +races among mankind. + +'Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first +few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa,' he +wrote, 'some one would be better fitted than the others to bear the +diseases of the country. This race would consequently multiply, while +the others would decrease; not only from their inability to sustain the +attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending with their +more vigorous neighbours.... The same disposition to form varieties +still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time +occur; and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this +would at last become the most prevalent, if not the only race in the +country.' Here we have not merely the radical concept of natural +selection, but also the subordinate idea of its exertion upon what +Darwin calls 'spontaneous variations.' What is wanting in the paper is +the application of the faintly descried law to the facts and +circumstances of general biology: Wells saw only a particular instance, +where Darwin and Wallace more vividly perceived a universal principle. +Again, in 1831, Mr. Patrick Matthew in that singular appendix to his +book on naval timber actually enunciates the same idea, applied this +time to the whole of nature, in words sometimes almost identical with +Darwin's own. 'As nature in all her modifications of life,' says this +unconscious discoverer, '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.... The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised 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 thousandfold) 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.' Of the ideas expressed in these paragraphs, and +others which preceded them, Darwin himself rightly observes, 'He gives +precisely the same view on the origin of species as that propounded by +Mr. Wallace and myself. He clearly saw the full force of the principle +of natural selection.' + +In 1852, once more, so eminent and confirmed an evolutionist as Mr. +Herbert Spencer himself had hit upon a glimpse of the same great truth, +strange to say without perceiving the width and scope of its +implications. 'All mankind,' he wrote in that year in an essay on +population in the 'Westminster Review,' 'in turn subject themselves more +or less to the discipline described; they either may or may not advance +under it; but, in the nature of things, only those who _do_ advance +under it eventually survive. For, necessarily, families and races whom +this increasing difficulty of getting a living which excess of fertility +entails does not stimulate to improvements in production.... are on the +high road to extinction; and must ultimately be supplanted by those whom +the pressure does so stimulate.... And here, indeed, without further +illustration, it will be seen that premature death, under all its forms, +and from all its causes, cannot fail to work in the same direction. For +as those prematurely carried off must, in the average of cases, be those +in whom the power of self-preservation is the least, it unavoidably +follows that those left behind to continue the race must be those in +whom the power of self-preservation is the greatest, must be the select +of their generation.' In this striking pre-Darwinian passage we have a +partial perception of what Mr. Spencer afterwards described as the +survival of the fittest; but, as our great philosopher himself remarks, +it 'shows how near one may be to a great generalisation without seeing +it.' For not only does Mr. Spencer, like Wells before him, limit the +application of the principle to the case of humanity; but, unlike Wells, +he overlooks the all-important factor of spontaneous variation, and the +power of natural selection, acting upon such, to produce specific and +generic divergences of structure. In short, in his own words, the +paragraph 'contains merely a passing recognition of the selective +process, and indicates no suspicion of the enormous range of its +effects, or of the conditions under which a large part of its effects +are produced.' On the other hand, it must be noted that both Spencer and +Matthew, like Darwin himself, based their ideas largely upon the +Malthusian principle, and thus held the two true keys of the situation +fairly within their unconscious hands. + +Frankly to recognise these various foreshadowings of the distinctive +Darwinian theory of natural selection is not in any way to undermine the +foundations of Charles Darwin's own real and exceptional greatness. On +the contrary, the mere fact that his views were so far anticipated by +Wells, Matthew, Spencer, and others, and were simultaneously arrived at +across half the globe by the independent intellect of Alfred Russel +Wallace, is in itself the very best proof and finest criterion of +Charles Darwin's genuine apostleship. No truly grand and fruitful idea +was ever yet the sole property of a single originator. Great +discoveries, says an acute critic, must always be concerned with some +problem of the time which many of the world's foremost minds are just +then cudgelling their active brains about. It was so with the discovery +of the differential calculus, and of the planet Neptune; with the +interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and of the cuneiform +inscriptions; with the undulatory theory of light, with the mechanical +equivalent of heat, with the doctrine of the correlation and +conservation of energies, with the invention of the steam engine, the +locomotive, the telegraph and the telephone; with the nebular +hypothesis, and with spectrum analysis. It was so, too, with the +evolutionary movement. The fertile upturning of virgin sod in the +biological field which produced Darwin's forerunners, as regards the +idea of descent with modification, in the persons of Buffon, Lamarck, +and Erasmus Darwin, necessarily produced a little later, under the fresh +impetus of the Malthusian conception, his forerunners or coadjutors, as +regards the idea of natural selection, in the persons of Wells, Matthew, +and Wallace. It was Darwin's task to recognise the universal, where +Wells and Spencer had seen only the particular; to build up a vast and +irresistible inductive system, where Matthew and Wallace had but thrown +out a pregnant hint of wonderful _a priori_ interest and suggestiveness. +It is one thing to draw out the idea of a campaign, another thing to +carry it to a successful conclusion; one thing rudely to sketch a +ground-plan, another thing finally to pile aloft to the sky the front of +an august and imposing fabric. + +As soon as the papers at the Linnean had been read and printed, Darwin +set to work in real earnest to bring out the first instalment of his +great work. That instalment was the 'Origin of Species.' The first +edition was ready for the public on November the 24th, 1859. + +In his own mind Darwin regarded that immortal work merely in the light +of an abstract of his projected volumes. So immense were his collections +and so voluminous his notes that the 'Origin of Species' itself seemed +to him like a mere small portion of the contemplated publication. And +indeed he did ultimately work out several other portions of his original +plan in his detailed treatises on the Variation of Animals and Plants +under Domestication, on the Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation, and +on the Descent of Man and Sexual Selection. But the immense and +unexpected vogue of his first volume, the almost immediate revolution +which it caused in biological and general opinion, and the all but +universal adhesion to his views of all the greatest and most rising +naturalists, to a great extent saved him the trouble of carrying out in +full the task he had originally contemplated as necessary. Younger and +less occupied labourers took part of the work off their leader's hands; +the great chief was left to prosecute his special researches in some +special lines, and was relieved from the necessity of further proving in +minuter detail what he had already proved with sufficient cogency to +convince all but the wilfully blind or the hopelessly stupid. + +The extraordinary and unprecedented success of the 'Origin of Species' +is the truest test of the advance it made upon all previous evolutionary +theorising. Those who had never been convinced before were now convinced +by sheer force of reasoning; those who believed and those who wavered +had their faith confirmed into something like the reposeful calm of +absolute certitude. + +Let us consider, therefore, what exactly were the additions which +Charles Darwin offered in his epoch-making work to the pre-existing +conceptions of evolutionists. + +In 1852, seven years before the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, Mr. +Herbert Spencer wrote as follows in an essay in the 'Leader' on creation +and evolution. The expressions of so profound and philosophical a +biologist may be regarded as the high-water mark of evolutionary +thinking up to the date of the appearance of Wallace and Darwin's +theory:-- + +'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 +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 admirable passage, written seven years before the publication of +the 'Origin of Species,' contains explicitly almost every idea that +ordinary people, not specially biological in their interests, now +associate with the name of Darwin. That is to say, it contains, in a +very philosophical and abstract form, the theory of 'descent with +modification' _without_ the distinctive Darwinian adjunct of 'natural +selection' or 'survival of the fittest.' Yet it was just that particular +lever, dexterously applied, and carefully weighted with the whole weight +of his endlessly accumulated inductive instances, that finally enabled +our modern Archimedes in so short a time to move the world. The public, +that was deaf to the high philosophy of Herbert Spencer, listened at +once to the practical wisdom of Charles Darwin. They did not care at all +for the _a priori_ proof, but they believed forthwith as soon as a +cautious and careful investigator laid bare before their eyes in minute +detail the _modus operandi_ of nature herself. + +The main argument of Darwin's chief work runs somewhat after the +following fashion[2]:-- + +Variation, to a greater or less degree, is a common and well-known fact +in nature. More especially, animals and plants under domestication tend +to vary from one another far more than do the individuals of any one +species in the wild state. Rabbits in a warren are all alike in shape, +size, colour, and features: rabbits in a hutch vary indefinitely in the +hue of their fur, the length of their ears, the character of their coat, +and half a dozen other minor particulars, well known to the observant +souls of boys and fanciers. This great variability, though partly +perhaps referable to excess of food, is probably due on the whole to +their having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and +somewhat different from, those to which the parent species is commonly +exposed in a state of nature. In other words, variability is one result +of altered and more varied surrounding circumstances. + +Again, this variability is usually indefinite. You cannot say what +direction it will take, or to what particular results it is likely in +any special instance to lead. Marked differences sometimes occur even +between the young of the same litter, or between the seedlings sown from +the same capsule. As a rule, the variations exhibit themselves in +connection with sexual reproduction; but sometimes, as in the case of +'sporting plants,' a new bud suddenly produces leaves or flowers of a +different character from the rest of those on the self-same stem, thus +showing that the tendency to vary is inherent, as it were, in the +organism itself. Upon this fundamental fact of the existence in nature +of numerous and indefinite variations, the whole theory of natural +selection is ultimately built up. In illustrating by example the immense +variability of domesticated creatures, Darwin lays great stress upon the +case of pigeons, with which he was familiar from his long experience as +a breeder and fancier in his own home at Down. Naturalists are almost +universally of opinion that all the breeds of domestic pigeons, from the +carrier to the tumbler, from the runt to the fantail, are alike +descended from the wild rock pigeon of the European coasts. The immense +amount of variation which this original species has undergone in +domestication may be seen by comparing the numberless breeds of pigeon +now exhibited at all our poultry shows with one another. + +But variation gives us only half the elements of the ultimate problem, +even in the case of domestic kinds. For the other half, we must have +recourse to human selection, which, by picking out for seed or breeding +purposes certain specially favoured varieties, has produced at last all +the purposive or intentional diversity between the different existing +stocks or breeds. In these artificially produced domestic races we see +everywhere special adaptations to man's particular use or fancy. The +dray-horse has been fashioned for purposes of strength and +sure-footedness in draught, the race-horse for purposes of fleetness in +running. In the fox-hound, man has encouraged the special properties +that tend to produce a good day's hunting; in the sheepdog, those that +make for the better maintenance and safety of a herd. The cauliflower is +a cabbage, with specialised and somewhat abortive flower-heads; the +fuller's teasel is a sport of the wild form, with curved hooks specially +adapted by a freak of nature for the teasing of wool. So in every case +man, by deliberately picking out for breeding or seeding purposes the +accidental variations which happened best to suit his own needs, has +succeeded at last in producing races admirably fitted in the minutest +particulars for the special functions to which they are applied. There +appears indeed to be hardly any limit to the almost infinite plasticity +and modifiability of domestic animals. 'It would seem,' said a great +sheep-breeder, speaking of sheep, 'as if farmers had chalked out upon a +wall a form perfect in itself, and then proceeded to give it existence.' + +Now, what is thus true within narrow limits, and in a short space of +time about the deliberate action of man, Darwin showed to be also true +within wider limits and spread over longer geological epochs about the +unconscious action of nature. And herein consisted his great advance +upon the earlier evolutionism of Lamarck, Goethe, and Erasmus Darwin. +For while these instinctive pioneers of the evolutionary spirit saw +clearly that animals and plants betrayed signs of common descent from +one or a few original ancestors, they did not see what was the mechanism +by which such organisms had been differentiated into so many distinct +genera and species. They caught, indeed, at the analogy of variation +under domestication and in the wild state, but they missed the subtler +and deeper analogy between human and natural selection. Now, variation +alone would give us a world consisting not of definite kinds fairly well +demarcated one from the other, but of innumerable unclassified and +unorganisable individuals, all shading off indefinitely one into the +other, and incapable of being reduced by human ingenuity to any orderly +hierarchical system. Furthermore, it would give us creatures without +special adaptation of any kind to the peculiar circumstances of their +own environment. To account for adaptation, for the almost perfect +fitness of every plant and every animal to its position in life, for the +existence (in other words) of definitely correlated parts and organs, we +must call in the aid of survival of the fittest. Without that potent +selective agent, our conception of the becoming of life is a mere chaos; +order and organisation are utterly inexplicable save by the brilliant +illuminating ray of the Darwinian principle. That is why Darwin +destroyed at one blow the specious arguments of the early teleologists; +he showed that where Chambers and even Erasmus Darwin had seen the +working of a final cause, we ought rather to recognise the working of an +efficient cause, whose outcome necessarily but fallaciously simulates +the supposed features of an _a priori_ finality. + +From art, then, Darwin harks back once more to nature. He proceeds to +show that variability occurs among all wild plants and animals, though +not so frequently under ordinary circumstances as in the case of +domesticated species. Individual differences everywhere occur between +plant and plant, between animal and animal. Sometimes these differences +are so very numerous that it is impossible to divide the individuals at +all into well-marked kinds; for example, among British wild-roses, +brambles, hawkweeds and epilobes, with a few other very variable +families, Babington makes as many as 251 distinct species, where +Bentham gives only 112--a margin of 139 doubtful forms of shadowy +indefiniteness. Varieties, in fact, are always arising, and dominant +species in particular always tend to vary most in every direction. The +reason why variation is not so marked in the wild state as under +domestication is of course because the conditions are there less +diverse; but where the conditions of wild things are most diverse, as in +the case of dominant kinds, which range over a wide space of country or +of ocean, abundant individual variations habitually occur. Local +varieties thus produced are regarded by Darwin as incipient species: +they are the raw material on which natural selection gradually exerts +itself in the struggle for existence. + +Granting individual variability, then, how do species arise in nature? +And how are all the exquisite adaptations of part to whole, and of whole +to environment, gradually initiated, improved, and perfected? + +Here Malthus and the struggle for life come in to help us. + +For the world is perpetually over-populated. It is not, as many good +people fearfully imagine, on a half-comprehension of the Malthusian +principle, shortly going to be over-populated; it is now, it has always +been, and it will always be, pressed close up to the utmost possible +limit of population. Reproduction is everywhere and in all species for +ever outrunning means of subsistence; and starvation or competition is +for ever keeping down the number of the offspring to the level of the +average or normal supply of raw material. A single red campion produces +in a year three thousand seeds; but there are not this year three +thousand times as many red campions as there were last summer, nor will +there be three thousand times as many more in the succeeding season. The +roe of a cod contains sometimes nearly ten million eggs; but supposing +each of these produced a young fish which arrived at maturity, the whole +sea would immediately become a solid mass of closely packed codfish. +Linnæus reckoned that if an annual plant had two seeds, each of which +produced two seedlings in the succeeding season, and so on continually, +in twenty years their progeny would amount to a million plants. A +struggle for existence necessarily results from this universal tendency +of animals and plants to increase faster than the means of subsistence, +whether those means be food, as in the first case, or carbonic acid, +water, and sunshine as in the second. Animals are all perpetually +battling with one another for the food-supply of the moment; plants are +perpetually battling with one another for their share of the soil, the +rainfall, and the sunshine. + +The case of the plant is a very important one to understand in this +connection, because it is probable that most people greatly +misunderstand the biological meaning of the phrase 'struggle for +existence.' They imagine that the struggle is chiefly conducted between +different species, whereas in reality it is chiefly conducted between +members of the same species. It is not so much the battle between the +tiger and the antelope, between the wolf and the bison, between the +snake and the bird, that ultimately results in natural selection or +survival of the fittest, as the struggle between tiger and tiger, +between bison and bison, between snake and snake, between antelope and +antelope. A human analogy may help to make this difficult principle a +little clearer. The baker does not fear the competition of the butcher +in the struggle for life: it is the competition of the other bakers that +sometimes inexorably crushes him out of existence. The lawyer does not +press hard upon the doctor, nor the architect upon the journeyman +painter. A war in the Soudan or in South Africa is far less fatal to the +workman in our great towns than the ceaseless competition of his +fellow-workmen. It is not the soldier that kills the artisan, but the +number of other artisans who undersell him and crowd to fill up every +vacant position. In this way the great enemies of the individual +herbivore are not the carnivores, but the other herbivores. The lion +eats the antelope, to be sure; but the real struggle lies between lion +and lion for a fair share of meat, or between antelope and antelope for +a fair share of pasturage. _Homo homini lupus_, says the old proverb, +and so, we may add, in a wider sense, _lupus lupo lupus_, also. Of +course, the carnivore plays a great part in the selective process; but +he is the selector only; the real competition is between the selected. +Now, let us take the case of the plant. A thousand seedlings occupy the +space where few alone can ultimately grow; and between these seedlings +the struggle is fierce, the strongest and best adapted ultimately +surviving. To take Darwin's own example, the mistletoe, which is a +parasite, cannot truly be said to struggle with the apple tree on which +it fastens; for if too many parasites cover a tree, it perishes, and so +they kill themselves as well as their host, all alike dying together. +But several seedling mistletoes growing together on the same branch may +fairly be said to struggle with one another for light and air; and since +mistletoe seeds are disseminated by birds and dropped by them in the +angles of branches, the mistletoe may also be said to compete with other +berry-bearing bushes, like cornel and hawthorn, for the ministrations of +the fruit-eating birds. The struggle is fierce between allied kinds, and +fiercest of all between individual members of the same species. + +Owing to this constant struggle, variations, however slight, and from +whatever cause arising, if in any degree profitable to the individual +which presents them, will tend to the preservation of the particular +organism, and, being on the average inherited by its offspring, will +similarly tend to increase and multiply in the world at large. This is +the principle of natural selection or survival of the fittest--the great +principle which Darwin and Wallace added to the evolutionism of Lamarck +and his successors. + +Let us take a single concrete example. In the desert, with its +monotonous sandy colouring, a black insect or a white insect, still more +a red insect or a blue insect, would be immediately detected and +promptly devoured by its natural enemies, the birds and lizards. But any +greyish or yellowish insects would be less likely to attract attention +at first sight, and would be overlooked as long as there were any more +conspicuous individuals of their own kind about for the birds and +lizards to feed on at their leisure. Hence, in a very short time, the +desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest and yellowest +insects; and among these the birds would pick out those which differed +most markedly in hue or shade from the sand around them. But those +which happened to vary most in the direction of a sandy or spotty colour +would be most likely to survive, and to become the parents of future +generations. Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which +inhabit deserts have become sand-coloured; because the least sandy were +perpetually picked out for destruction by their ever-watchful foes, +while the most sandy escaped and multiplied and replenished the earth +with their own likes. + +Conversely, the birds and the lizards again would probably begin by +being black, and white, and blue, and green, like most other birds and +lizards in the world generally. But the insect would have ample warning +of the near approach of such conspicuous self-advertising enemies, and +would avoid them accordingly whenever they appeared within range of his +limited vision, either by lying close, or by shamming death, or by +retreating precipitately to holes and crannies. Therefore, whatever +individual birds or lizards happened to vary most in the direction of +grey or sand-colour, and so to creep unobserved upon the unguarded +insects, would succeed best on the average in catching beetles or desert +grasshoppers. Hence, by the slow dying out of the more highly coloured +and distinctive insect-eaters, before the severe competition of the +greyest and sandiest, all the birds and lizards of the desert have +become at last as absolutely sand-coloured as the insects themselves. +Only the greyest insect could escape the bird; only the greyest bird, +_en revanche_, could surprise and devour the unwary insect. + +Sir Charles Lyell and the elder De Candolle had already seen the great +importance of the struggle for existence in the organic world, but +neither of them had observed the magnificent corollary of natural +selection, which flows from it almost as a mathematical necessity when +once suggested; for, given indefinite variability, and a geometrical, +rate of increase, it must needs follow that some varieties will be +better suited to the circumstances than others, and therefore that they +will survive on the average in increased proportions. A passage from one +of Lyell's early letters will show how near he too went to this great +luminous generalisation, and yet how utterly he missed the true +implications of his own vague and chaotic idea. He writes thus to Sir +John Herschel in 1836, while Darwin was still but homeward bound on the +voyage of the 'Beagle':-- + +'In regard to the origination of new species, I am very glad to find +that you think it probable that it may be carried on through the +intervention of intermediate causes.... An insect may be made in one of +its transformations to resemble a dead stick, or a leaf, or a lichen, or +a stone, so as to be somewhat less easily found by its enemies; or if +this would make it too strong, an occasional variety of the species may +have this advantage conferred on it; or if this would be still too much, +one sex of a certain variety. Probably there is scarcely a dash of +colour on the wing or body of which the choice would be quite arbitrary, +or which might not affect its duration for thousands of years.' + +Now, this comes in some ways perilously near to Darwin indeed; but in +the most important point of all it is wide apart from him as the pole is +from the equator. For Lyell thought of all this as a matter of external +teleological arrangement; he imagined a deliberate power from outside +settling it all by design beforehand, and granting to varieties or +species these special peculiarities in a manner that was at bottom +essentially supernatural, or in other words miraculous; whereas Darwin +thinks of it as the necessary result of the circumstances themselves, an +inevitable outcome of indefinite variability _plus_ the geometrical rate +of increase. Where Lyell sees a final cause, Darwin sees an efficient +cause; and this distinction is fundamental. It marks Darwin's position +as that of a great philosophical thinker, who can dash aside at once all +metaphysical cobwebs, and penetrate to the inmost recesses of things, +unswerved by the vain but specious allurements of obvious and misleading +teleological fallacies. + +Darwin also laid great stress on the immense complexity of the relations +which animals and plants bear to one another, in the struggle for +existence. For example, on the heathy uplands near Farnham in Surrey, +large spaces were at one time enclosed, on which, within ten years, +self-grown fir-trees from the wind-borne seeds of distant clumps sprang +up so thickly as actually to choke one another with their tiny branches. +All over the heaths outside, when Darwin looked for them, he could not +find a single fir, except the old clumps on the hilltops, from which the +seedlings themselves had originally sprung. But, on looking closer among +the stems of the heath, he descried a number of very tiny firs, which +had been perpetually browsed down by the cattle on the commons; and one +of them, with twenty-six rings of growth, had during many years +endeavoured unsuccessfully to raise its head above the surrounding +heather. Hence, as soon as the land was enclosed, and the cattle +excluded, it became covered at once with a thick growth of vigorous +young fir-trees. Yet who would ever have supposed beforehand that the +mere presence or absence of cattle would absolutely have determined the +very existence of the Scotch fir throughout a wide range of well-adapted +sandy English upland? + +To take another curious instance mentioned by Darwin. In Paraguay, +unlike the greater part of neighbouring South America, neither horses +nor cattle have ever run wild. This is due to the presence of a +parasitic fly, which lays its eggs in their bodies when first born, the +maggots killing off the tender young in their first stages. But if any +cause were to alter the number of the dangerous flies, then cattle and +wild horses would abound; and this would alter the vegetation, as Darwin +himself observed in other parts of America; and the change in the +vegetation would affect the insects; and that again the insectivorous +birds; and so on in ever widening circles of incalculable complexity. +Once more, to quote the most famous instance of all, the visits of +humble-bees are absolutely necessary in order to place the pollen in the +right position for setting the seeds of purple clover. Heads from which +Darwin excluded the bees produced no seeds at all. Hence, if humble-bees +became extinct in England, the red clover, too, would die off: and +indeed, in New Zealand, where there are no humble-bees, and where the +efforts to introduce them for this very purpose have been uniformly +unsuccessful, the clover never sets its seed at all, and fresh stocks +have to be imported at great expense every year from Europe. But the +number of humble-bees in any district largely depends upon the number of +field-mice, which destroy the combs and nests in immense quantities. +The number of mice, again, is greatly affected by the proportion of cats +in the neighbourhood; so that Colonel Newman, who paid much attention to +this subject, found humble-bees most numerous in the neighbourhood of +villages and small towns, an effect which he attributed to the abundance +of cats, and the consequent scarcity of the destructive field-mice. Yet +here once more, who could suppose beforehand that the degree to which +the purple clover set its seeds was in part determined by the number of +cats kept in houses in the surrounding district? + +One of Darwin's own favourite examples of the action of natural +selection, which he afterwards expanded largely in his work on Orchids +and in several other volumes, is that which relates to the origin of +conspicuous flowers. Many plants have a sweet excretion, which is +eliminated sometimes even by the leaves, as in the case of the common +laurel. This juice, though small in quantity, is eagerly sought and +eaten by insects. Now let us suppose that, in some variety of an +inconspicuous flower, similar nectar was produced in the neighbourhood +of the petals and stamens. Insects, in seeking the nectar, would dust +their bodies over with the pollen, and would carry it away with them to +the next flower visited. This would result in an act of crossing; and +that act, as Darwin afterwards abundantly proved in a separate and very +laborious treatise, gives rise to exceptionally vigorous seedlings, +which would therefore have the best chance of flourishing and surviving +in the struggle for existence. The flowers which produced most honey +would oftenest be visited, and oftenest crossed; so that they would +finally form a new species. The more brightly coloured among them, +again, would be more readily discriminated than the less brightly +coloured; and this would give them such an advantage that in the long +run, as we actually see, almost all habitually insect-fertilised flowers +would come to have brilliant petals. The germ of this luminous idea, +once more, is to be found in Sprengel's remarkable work on the +fertilisation of flowers--a work far in advance of its time in many +ways, and to which Darwin always expressed his deep obligations; but, as +in so many other instances, while Sprengel looked upon all the little +modifications and adaptations of flower and insect to one another as the +result of distinct creative design, Darwin looked upon them as the +result of natural selection, working upon the basis of indeterminate +spontaneous variations. + +How do these variations arise? Not by chance, of course (for in the +strict scientific sense nothing on earth can be considered as really +fortuitous), but as the outcome for the most part of very minute organic +causes, whose particular action it is impossible for us to predict with +our present knowledge. Some physical cause in each case there must +necessarily be; and indeed it is often possible to show that certain +changes of condition in the parent do result in variations in the +offspring, though what special direction the variation will take can +never be foretold with any accuracy. In short, our ignorance of the laws +of variation is profound, but our knowledge of the fact is clear and +certain. The fact alone is essential to the principle of natural +selection; the cause, though in itself an interesting subject of +inquiry, may be safely laid aside for the present as comparatively +unimportant. What we have actually given to us in the concrete universe +is, organisms varying perpetually in minute points, and a rapid rate of +increase causing every minute point of advantage to be exceptionally +favoured in the struggle for existence. + +But Darwin is remarkable among all broachers of new theories for the +extraordinary candour and openness of his method. He acknowledged +beforehand all the difficulties in the way of his theory, and though he +himself confessed that some of them were serious (a statement which +subsequent research has often rendered unnecessary), he met many of them +with cogent arguments by anticipation, and demolished objections before +they could even be raised against him by hostile critics. Of these +objections, only two need here be mentioned. The first is the question, +why is not all nature even now a confused mass of transitional forms? +Why do genera and species exist as we see them at present in broad +distinction one from the other? To this Darwin answers rightly that, +where the process of species-making is still going on, we do actually +find fine gradations and transitional forms existing between genera, +varieties, and species.[3] But, furthermore, as natural selection acts +solely by the preservation of useful modifications, each better-adapted +new form will always tend in a fully stocked country to oust and +exterminate its own unimproved parent type, as well as all other +competing but less perfect varieties. Thus natural selection and +extinction of intermediates go for ever hand in hand. The more perfect +the new variety, the more absolutely will it kill off the intermediate +forms. The second great difficulty lies in the question of the origin of +instinct, which, as Darwin shows, by careful inductive instances, may +have arisen by the slow and gradual accumulation of numerous slight yet +profitable variations. + +I have dwelt at some length upon those portions of the 'Origin of +Species' which deal in detail with the theory of natural selection, the +chief contribution which Darwin made to the evolutionary movement, +because it is impossible otherwise fully to understand the great gulf +which separates his evolutionism from the earlier evolutionism of +Lamarck and his followers. But it is impracticable here to give any idea +of the immense wealth of example and illustration which Darwin brought +to the elucidation of every part of his complex problem. In order to +gain a full conception of this side of his nature, we must turn to the +original treatise itself, and still more to the subsequent volumes in +which the ground-work of observations and experiments on which he based +his theory was more fully detailed for the specialist public. + +The remainder of Darwin's epoch-making work deals, strictly speaking, +rather with the general theory of 'descent with modification' than with +the special doctrine of natural selection. It restates and reinforces, +by the light of the new additional concept, and with fuller facts and +later knowledge, the four great arguments already known in favour of +organic evolution as a whole, the argument from Geological Succession, +the argument from Geographical Distribution, the argument from +Embryological Development, and the argument from Classificatory +Affinities. Each of these we may briefly summarise. + +The geological record is confessedly imperfect. At the time when Darwin +first published the 'Origin of Species,' it had disclosed to our view +comparatively few intermediate or transitional forms between the chief +great classes of plants or animals; since that time, in singular +confirmation of the Darwinian hypothesis, it has disclosed an immense +number of such connecting types, amongst which may be more particularly +noticed the 'missing links' between the birds and reptiles, the +ancestors of the horses, the camels, and the pigs, and the common +progenitor of the ruminants and the pachyderms, two great groups classed +by Cuvier as distinct orders--all of which instances were incorporated +by Darwin in later editions of his 'Origin of Species.' But, apart from +these special and newly discovered cases, the whole general course of +geological history 'agrees admirably with the theory of descent with +modification through variation and natural selection.' The simpler +animals of early times are followed by the more complex and more +specialised animals of later geological periods. As each main group of +animals appears upon the stage of life, it appears in a very central and +'generalised' form; as time goes on, we find its various members +differing more and more widely from one another, and assuming more and +more specialised adaptive forms. And in each country it is found, as a +rule, that the extinct animals of the later formations bear a close +general resemblance and relationship to the animals which now inhabit +the same regions. For example, the fossil mammals from the Australian +caves are nearly allied to the modern kangaroos, phalangers, and +wombats; and the gigantic extinct sloths and armadillos of South America +are reproduced in their smaller representatives at the present day. So, +too, the moa of New Zealand was a huge apteryx; and the birds +disentombed from the bone-caves of Brazil show close affinities to the +toucans and jacanars that still scream and flit in countless flocks +among Brazilian forests. The obvious implication is that the animals now +inhabiting any given area are the modified descendants of those that +formerly inhabited it. 'On the theory of descent with modification, the +great law of the succession of the same types within the same areas is +at once explained.' + +This last consideration leads us up to the argument from Geographical +Distribution. In considering the various local faunas and floras on the +face of the globe, no point strikes one more forcibly than the fact that +neither their similarities nor their dissimilarities can be accounted +for by climate or physical conditions. The animals of South Africa do +not in the least resemble the animals of the corresponding belt of South +America; the Australian beasts and birds and trees are utterly unlike +those of France and Germany; the fishes and crustaceans of the Pacific +at Panama are widely different from those of the Caribbean at the same +point, separated from them only by the narrow belt of intervening +isthmus. On the other hand, within the same continuous areas of sea or +land, however great the differences of physical conditions, we find +everywhere closely related types in possession of the most distinct and +varied situations. On the burning plains of La Plata we get the agouti +and the bizcacha as the chief rodents; we ascend the Cordillera, and +close to the eternal snows we discover, not hares and rabbits like those +of Europe, but a specialised chilly mountain form of the same distinctly +South American type. We turn to the rivers, and we see no musk-rat or +beaver, but the coypu and capybara, slightly altered varieties of the +original bizcacha ancestor. Australia has no wolf, but it has instead +fierce and active carnivorous marsupials; it has no mice, but some of +its tiny kangaroo-like creatures fulfil analogous functions in its +animal economy. Everywhere the evidence points to the conclusion that +local species have been locally evolved from pre-existing similar +species. The oceanic isles, of which Darwin had had so large an +experience, and especially his old friends the Galapagos, come in +usefully for this stage of the question. They are invariably inhabited, +as Darwin pointed out, and as Wallace has since abundantly shown in the +minutest detail, by waifs and strays from neighbouring continents, +altered and specialised by natural selection in accordance with the +conditions of their new habitat. As a rule, they point back to the +districts whence blow the strongest and most prevalent winds; and the +modifications they have undergone are largely dependent upon the nature +of the other species with which they have to compete, or to whose habits +they must needs accommodate themselves. In such cases it is easy to see +how far Darwin's special conception of natural selection helps to +explain and account for facts not easily explicable by the older +evolutionism of mere descent with modification. + +Embryology, the study of early development in the individual animal or +plant, also throws much side light upon the nature and ancestry of each +species or family. For example, gorse, which is a member of the +pea-flower tribe, has in its adult stage solid, spiny, thorn-like +leaves, none of which in the least resemble the foliage of the clover, +to which it is closely related; but the young seedling in its earliest +stages has trefoil leaves, which only slowly pass by infinitesimal +gradations into flat blades and finally into the familiar defensive +prickles. Here, natural selection under stress of herbivorous animals on +open heaths and commons has spared only those particular gorse-bushes +which varied in the direction of the stiffest and most inedible foliage; +but the young plant in its first days still preserves for us the trefoil +leaf which it shared originally with a vast group of clover-like +congeners. The adult barnacle, once more, presents a certain fallacious +external resemblance to a mollusk, and was actually so classed even by +the penetrating and systematic intellect of Cuvier; but a glance at the +larva shows an instructed eye at once that it is really a shell-making +and abnormal crustacean. On a wider scale, the embryos of mammals are at +first indistinguishable from those of birds or reptiles; the feet of +lizards, the hoofs of horses, the hands of man, the wings of the bat, +the pinions of birds, all arise from the same fundamental shapeless bud, +in the same spot of an almost identical embryo. Even the human foetus, +at a certain stage of its development, is provided with gill-slits, +which point dimly back to the remote ages when its ancestor was +something very like a fish. The embryo is a picture, more or less +obscured and blurred in its outline, of the common progenitor of a whole +great class of plants or animals. + +Finally, classification points in the same way to the affiliation of all +existing genera and species upon certain early divergent ancestors. The +whole scheme of the biological system, as initiated by Linnæus and +improved by Cuvier, Jussieu, De Candolle, and their successors, is +essentially that of a genealogical tree. The prime central vertebrate +ancestor--to take the case of the creatures most familiar to the general +reader--appears to have been an animal not unlike the existing lancelet, +a mud-haunting, cartilaginous, undeveloped fish, whose main lineaments +are also embryologically preserved for us in the ascidian larva and the +common tadpole. From this early common centre have been developed, +apparently, in one direction the fishes, and in another the amphibian +tribes of frogs, newts, salamanders, and axolotls. From an early +amphibian, again, the common ancestor of birds, reptiles, and mammals +seems to have diverged: the intermediate links between bird and reptile +being faintly traced among the extinct deinosaurians and the +archæopteryx, some years subsequently to the first appearance of the +'Origin of Species;' while the ornithorhynchus, which to some extent +connects the mammals, and especially the marsupials, with the lower +egg-laying types of vertebrate, was already well-known and thoroughly +studied before the publication of Darwin's great work. Throughout, the +indications given by all the chief tribes of animals and plants point +back to slow descent and divergence from common ancestors; and all the +subsequent course of palæontological research has supplied us rapidly, +one after another, with the remains of just such undifferentiated +family starting-points. + +Stress has mainly been laid, in this brief and necessarily imperfect +abstract, on the essentially Darwinian principle of natural selection. +But Darwin did not himself attribute everything to this potent factor in +the moulding of species. 'I am convinced,' he wrote pointedly in the +introduction to his first edition, 'that natural selection has been the +main but not the exclusive means of modification.' He attributed +considerable importance as well to the Lamarckian principle of use and +disuse, already so fully insisted upon before him by Mr. Herbert +Spencer. The chief factors in his compound theory, as given in his own +words at the end of his work, areas follows: 'Growth with Reproduction; +Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability, from +the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use +and disuse; a Ratio of Increase, so high as to lead to a Struggle for +Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of +Character, and the Extinction of the less improved forms. Thus, from the +war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we +are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, +directly follows.' + +Such was the simple and inoffensive-looking bombshell which Darwin +launched from his quiet home at Down into the very midst of the +teleological camp in the peaceful year 1859. Subsequent generations will +remember the date as a crisis and turning-point in the history of +mankind. + + +[2] The remainder of the present chapter, which consists almost entirely +of an exposition of the doctrine of natural selection, may safely be +skipped by the reader already well acquainted with the Origin of +Species. The abstract is taken for the most part from the latest and +fullest enlarged edition, but attention is usually called in passing to +the points which did not appear in the first issue of 1859. + +[3] The researches of Seebohm and others have since proved that this is +really the case to a far greater extent than Darwin was aware of in +1859, or, indeed, till many years afterward. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS. + + +So far as the scientific world was concerned the 'Origin of Species' +fell, like a grain of mustard seed, upon good and well-prepared ground; +the plant that sprang from it grew up forthwith into a great and stately +tree, that overshadowed with its spreading branches all the corners of +the earth. + +The soil, indeed, had been carefully broken for it beforehand: Lamarck +and St. Hilaire, Spencer and Chambers, had ploughed and harrowed in all +diligence; and the minds of men were thoroughly ready for the +assimilation of the new doctrine. But the seed itself, too, was the +right germ for the exact moment; it contained within itself the +vivifying principle that enabled it to grow and wax exceeding great +where kindred germs before had withered away, or had borne but scanty +and immature fruit. + +Two conditions contributed to this result, one external, the other +internal. + +First for the less important external consideration. Darwin himself was +a sound man with an established reputation for solidity and learning. +That gained for his theory from the very first outset universal respect +and a fair hearing. Herbert Spencer was known to be a philosopher: and +the practical English nation mistrusts philosophers: those people probe +too deep and soar too high for any sensible person to follow them in all +their flights. Robert Chambers, the unknown author of 'Vestiges of +Creation,' was a shallow sciolist; it was whispered abroad that he was +even inaccurate and slovenly in his facts: and your scientific plodder +detests the very shadow of minute inaccuracy, though it speak with the +tongues of men and angels, and be bound up with all the grasp and power +of a Newton or a Goethe. But Charles Darwin was a known personage, an +F.R.S., a distinguished authority upon coral reefs and barnacles, a +great geologist, a great biologist, a great observer and indefatigable +collector. His book came into the public hands stamped with the +imprimatur of official recognition. Darwin was the father of the infant +theory; Lyell and Hooker stood for its sponsors. The world could not +afford to despise its contents; they could not brand its author offhand +as a clever dreamer or a foolish amateur, or consign him to the dreaded +English limbo of the 'mere theorist.' + +Next, for the other and far more important internal consideration. The +book itself was one of the greatest, the most learned, the most lucid, +the most logical, the most crushing, the most conclusive, that the world +had ever yet seen. Step by step, and principle by principle, it proved +every point in its progress triumphantly before it went on to +demonstrate the next. So vast an array of facts so thoroughly in hand +had never before been mustered and marshalled in favour of any +biological theory. Those who had insight to learn and understand were +convinced at once by the cogency of the argument; those who had not were +overpowered and silenced by the weight of the authority and the mass of +the learning. A hot battle burst forth at once, no doubt, around the +successful volume; but it was one of those battles which are aroused +only by great truths,--a battle in which the victory is a foregone +conclusion, and the rancour of the assailants the highest compliment to +the prowess of the assailed. + +Darwin himself, in his quiet country home at Down, was simply astonished +at the rapid success of his own work. The first edition was published at +the end of November 1859; it was exhausted almost immediately, and a +second was got ready in hot haste by the beginning of January 1860. In +less than six weeks the book had become famous, and Darwin found himself +the centre of a European contest, waged with exceeding bitterness, over +the truth or falsity of his wonderful volume. To the world at large +Darwinism and evolution became at once synonymous terms. The same people +who would entirely ascribe the Protestant Reformation to the account of +Luther, and the inductive philosophy to the account of Bacon, also +believed, in the simplicity of their hearts, that the whole vast +evolutionary movement was due at bottom to that very insidious and +dangerous book of Mr. Darwin's. + +The fact is, profound as had been the impulses in the evolutionary +direction among men of science before Darwin's work appeared at all, +immense as were the throes and pangs of labour throughout all Europe +which preceded and accompanied its actual birth, when it came at last it +came to the general world of unscientific readers with all the sudden +vividness and novelty of a tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it +was yet wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or next to +nothing of this colossal but hidden revolutionary force which had been +gathering head and energy for so many years unseen within the bowels of +the earth; and now that its outer manifestation had actually burst upon +them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic security bodily giving way +beneath their feet, and knew not where to turn in their extremity for +support. Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself at +first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of Genesis, or +rather the belief in their scientific and historical character, already +sapped by the revelations of geology, seemed to orthodox defenders to be +fatally undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once to meet with +general recognition. The first resource of menaced orthodoxy is always +to deny the alleged facts; the second is to patch up tardily the feeble +and hollow _modus vivendi_ of an artificial pact. On this occasion the +orthodox acted strictly after their kind: but to their credit it should +be added that they yielded gracefully in the long run to the unanimous +voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, when all that was +mortal of Charles Darwin was being borne with pomp and pageantry to its +last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, with +generous oblivion, ratified a truce over the dead body of the great +leader, and, outgrowing its original dread of naturalistic +interpretations, accepted his theory without reserve as 'not necessarily +hostile to the main fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render +justice to the vanquished in a memorable struggle. Churchmen followed +respectfully to the grave with frank and noble inconsistency the +honoured remains of the very teacher whom less than a quarter of a +century earlier they had naturally dreaded as loosening the traditional +foundations of all accepted religion and morality. + +But if the attack was fierce and bitter, the defence was assisted by a +sudden access of powerful forces from friendly quarters. A few of the +elder generation of naturalists held out, indeed, for various shorter or +longer periods; some of them never came into the camp at all, but +lingered on, left behind, like stragglers from the onward march, by the +younger biologists, in isolated non-conformity on the lonely heights of +austere officialism. Their business was to ticket and docket and +pigeon-hole, not to venture abroad on untried wings into the airy +regions of philosophical speculation. The elder men, in fact, had many +of them lost that elasticity and modifiability of intellect which is +necessary for the reception of new and revolutionary fundamental +concepts. A mind that has hardened down into the last stage of extreme +maturity may assimilate fresh facts and fresh minor principles, but it +cannot assimilate fresh synthetic systems of the entire cosmos. +Moreover, some of the elder thinkers were committed beforehand to +opposing views, with which they lacked either the courage or the +intellectual power to break; while others were entangled by religious +restrictions, and unable to free themselves from the cramping fetters of +a narrow orthodoxy. But even among his own contemporaries and seniors +Darwin found not a few whose minds were thoroughly prepared beforehand +for the reception of his lucid and luminous hypothesis; while the +younger naturalists, with the plasticity of youth, assimilated almost +to a man, with the utmost avidity, the great truths thus showered down +upon them by the preacher of evolution. + +Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley were among the first to give in +their adhesion and stand up boldly for the new truth by the side of the +reckless and disturbing innovator. In June 1859, nearly a year after the +reading of the Darwin-Wallace papers at the Linnean Society, but five +months previously to the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' Huxley +lectured at the Royal Institution on 'Persistent Types of Animal Life,' +and declared against the old barren theory of successive creations, in +favour of the new and fruitful hypothesis of gradual modification. In +December 1859, a month later than the appearance of Darwin's book, +Hooker published his 'Introduction to the Flora of Australia,' in the +first part of which he championed the belief in the descent and +modification of species, and enforced his views by many original +observations drawn from the domain of botanical science. For fifteen +years, as Darwin himself gratefully observed in his introduction to the +'Origin of Species,' that learned botanist had shared the secret of +natural selection, and aided its author in every possible way by his +large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment. Bates, the +naturalist on the Amazons, followed fast with his beautiful and striking +theory of mimicry, a crucial instance well explained. The facts of the +strange disguises which birds and insects often assume had long been +present to his acute mind, and he hailed with delight the discovery of +the new principle, which at once enabled him to reduce them with ease +to symmetry and order. To Herbert Spencer, an evolutionist in fibre from +the very beginning, the fresh doctrine of natural selection came like a +powerful ally and an unexpected assistant in deciphering the deep +fundamental problems on which he was at that moment actually engaged; +and in his 'Principles of Biology,' even then in contemplation, he at +once adopted and utilised the new truth with all the keen and vigorous +insight of his profound analytic and synthetic intellect. The first part +of that important work was issued to subscribers just three years after +the original appearance of the 'Origin of Species;' the first volume was +fully completed in October 1864. It is to Mr. Spencer that we owe the +pellucid expression 'survival of the fittest,' which conveys even better +than Darwin's own phrase, 'natural selection,' the essential element +added by the 'Origin of Species' to the pre-existing evolutionary +conception. + +The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its big +annual doctrinaire picnic the next summer after the publication of +Darwin's book, at Oxford. The Oxford meeting was a stormy and a +well-remembered one. The 'Origin of Species' was there discussed and +attacked before a biological section strangely enough presided over by +Darwin's old Cambridge teacher, Professor Henslow. Though then a +beneficed parish priest, Henslow had the boldness frankly to avow his +own acceptance of his great pupil's startling conclusions. Huxley +followed in the same path, as did also Lubbock and Hooker. On the whole, +the evolutionists were already in the ascendant; the fresh young +intellects especially being quick to seize upon the new pabulum so +generously dealt out to them by the new evolutionism. + +Among scientific minds of the first order, Lyell alone in England, +heavily weighted by theological preconceptions, for awhile hung back. +All his life long, as his letters show us, the great geologist had felt +the powerful spell of the Lamarckian hypothesis continually enticing him +with its seductive charm. He had fought against it blindly, in the +passionate endeavour to preserve what he thought his higher faith in the +separate and divine creation of man; but ever and anon he returned anew +to the biological Circe with a fresh fascination, as the moth returns to +the beautiful flame that has scorched and singed it. In a well-known +passage in the earlier editions of his 'Principles of Geology,' the +father of uniformitarianism gives at length his own reasons for +dissenting from the doctrine of evolution as then set forth; and even +after Darwin's discovery had supplied him with a new clue, a _vera +causa_, a sufficient power for the modification of species into fresh +forms, theological difficulties made him cling still as long as possible +to the old theory of the origin of man which he loved to describe as +that of the 'archangel ruined.' He was loth to exchange this cherished +belief for the degrading alternative (as it approved itself to him) of +the ape elevated. But in the end, with the fearless honesty of a +searcher after truth, he gave way slowly and regretfully. Always looking +back with something like remorse to the flesh-pots of the ecclesiastical +Egypt, with its enticing visions of fallen grandeur, the great thinker +whose uniformitarian theory of geology had more than aught else paved +the way for the gradual acceptance of Darwin's evolutionism, came out +at last from the house of bondage, and nobly ranged himself on the side +of what his intellect judged to be the truth of nature, though his +emotions urged him hard to blind his judgment and to neglect its lights +for an emotional figment. Science has no more pathetic figure than that +of the old philosopher, in his sixty-sixth year, throwing himself with +all the eagerness of youth into what he had long considered the wrong +scale, and vigorously wrecking in the 'Antiquity of Man' what seemed to +the dimmed vision of his own emotional nature the very foundations of +his beloved creed. But still he did it. He came out and was separate. In +his own idiomatic language, he found at last that 'we must go the whole +ourang;' and, deep as was the pang that the recantation cost him, he +formally retracted the condemnation of 'transformism' in his earlier +works, and accepted, however unwillingly, the theory he had so often and +so deliberately rejected. + +The 'Antiquity of Man' came out in February 1863, some three years after +the 'Origin of Species.' For some time speculation had been active over +the strange hatchets which Boucher de Perthes had recently unearthed +among the Abbeville drift--shapeless masses of chipped flint rudely +fashioned into the form of an axe, which we now call palæolithic +implements, and know to be the handicraft of preglacial men. But until +Lyell's authoritative work appeared the unscientific public could not +tell exactly what to think of these curious and almost unhuman-looking +objects. Lyell at once set all doubts at rest; the magic of his name +silenced the derisive whispers of the dissidents. Already, in the +previous year, the first fasciculus of Colenso's famous work on the +Pentateuch had dealt a serious blow from the ecclesiastical and critical +side at the authenticity and historical truth of the Mosaic cosmogony. +Lyell now from the scientific side completely demolished its literal +truth, as ordinarily interpreted, by throwing back the primitive origin +of our race into a dim past of immeasurable antiquity. In so doing he +was clearing the way for Charles Darwin's second great work, 'The +Descent of Man;' and by incorporating in his book Huxley's remarks on +the Neanderthal skull, and much similar evolutionary matter, he +advertised the new creed in the animal origin of our race with all the +acquired weight of his immense and justly-deserved European reputation. +As a matter of taste, Lyell did not relish the application of +evolutionism to his own species. But, with that perfect loyalty to fact +which he shared so completely with Charles Darwin, as soon as he found +the evidence overwhelming, he gave in. By that grudging concession he +immensely strengthened the position of the new creed. 'I plead guilty,' +he writes to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'to going farther in my reasoning +towards transmutation than in my sentiments and imagination, and perhaps +for that very reason I shall lead more people on to Darwin and you, than +one who, being born later, like Lubbock, has comparatively little to +abandon of old and long-cherished ideas, which constituted the charm to +me of the theoretical part of the science in my earlier days.' And to +Darwin himself he writes regretfully. 'The descent of man from the +brutes takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past +relating to such matters.' This very reluctance itself told powerfully +in favour of Charles Darwin's novel theories: there is no evidence more +valuable to a cause than that which it extorts by moral force, in spite +of himself, from the faltering lips of an unwilling witness. + +The same year that saw the publication of Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' saw +also the first appearance of Huxley's work on 'Man's Place in Nature.' +Darwin himself had been anxious rather than otherwise to avoid too close +reference to the implications of his theory as regards the origin and +destiny of the human race. He had desired that his strictly scientific +views on the rise of specific distinctions should be judged entirely on +their own merits, unhampered by the interference of real or supposed +theological and ethical considerations. His own language on all such +subjects, wherever he was compelled to trench on them in the 'Origin of +Species,' was guarded and conciliatory; he scarcely referred at all to +man or his history; and his occasional notices of the moving principle +and first cause of the entire cosmos were reverential and religious in +the truest sense and in the highest degree. But you cannot let loose a +moral whirlwind, and then attempt to direct its course; you cannot open +the floodgates of opinion or of speculation, and then pretend to set +limits to the scope of their restless motion. Darwin soon found out that +people would insist in drawing inferences beyond what was written, and +in seeing implicit conclusions when they were not definitely formulated +in the words of their author. 'Man is perennially interesting to man,' +says the great chaotic American thinker; and whatever all-embracing +truth you set before him, you may be sure that man will see in it +chiefly the implications that most closely affect his own happiness and +his own destiny. The biological question of the origin of species is a +sufficiently wide one, but it includes also, among other cases, the +origin of the very familiar species _Homo sapiens_ of Linnæus. Some +theologians jumped at once at the conclusion, right or wrong, that if +Darwinism were true man was nothing more than a developed monkey, the +immortal soul was an exploded myth, the foundations of religion itself +were shattered, and the wave of infidelity was doomed to swamp the whole +of Christendom with its blank nihilism. Scientific men, on the other +hand, drew the conclusion that man must be descended, like other +mammals, from some common early vertebrate ancestor, and that the +current views of his origin and destiny must be largely modified by the +evolutionary creed. Of this profound scientific belief Professor +Huxley's maiden work was the earliest outcome. + +Meantime, on the continent of Europe and over-sea in America, the +Darwinian theory was being hotly debated and warmly defended. France, +coldly sceptical and critical, positive rather than imaginative in +matters of science, and little prone by native cast of mind to the +evolutionary attitude, stood aloof to a great extent from the onward +course of the general movement. Here and there, to be sure, a Gaudry or +a Ribot, a Delboeuf or a De Candolle (the two latter a Liège Belgian and +a Genevan Swiss) might heartily throw himself into the new ideas, and +contribute whole squadrons of geological or botanical fact to the final +victory. Yet, as a whole, the dry and cautious French intelligence, ever +inclined to a scientific opportunism, preferred for the moment to stand +by expectant and await the result of the European consensus. But +philosophical Germany, on the other hand, beaming enthusiasm from its +myriad spectacles, eagerly welcomed the novel ideas, and proclaimed from +the housetops the evolutionary faith as a main plank in the rising +platform of the newly-roused Kulturkampf. Fritz Müller began with all +the ardour of a fresh convert to collect his admirable 'Facts for +Darwin;' his brother Hermann sat down with indomitable patience, like +the master's own, to watch the ceaseless action of the bees and +butterflies in the fertilisation of flowers. Rütimeyer applied the +Darwinian principles to the explanation of mammalian relationships, and +Haeckel set to work upon his vast reconstructive 'History of Creation,' +a largely speculative work which, with all its faults, distinctly +carried forward the evolutionary impulse, and set fresh researchers +working upon new lines, to confirm or to disprove its audacious +imaginings. In America, Asa Gray gave to the young creed the high +authority of his well-known name, and Chauncey Wright helped it onward +on the road with all the restrained force of his singular and oblique +but powerful and original personality. If Agassiz and Dawson still +hesitated, Fiske and Youmans were ardent in the faith. If critical +Boston put up its eye-glass doubtfully, Chicago and St. Louis were ready +for conversion. Everywhere Darwin and Darwinism became as household +words; it was the singular fate of the great prophet of evolution, alone +almost among the sons of men, to hear his own name familiarly twisted +during his own lifetime into a colloquial adjective, and to see the +Darwinian theory and the errors of Darwinism staring him in the face a +hundred times a day from every newspaper and every periodical. + +Of course the 'Origin of Species' was largely translated at once into +all the civilised languages of Europe, Russian as well as French, Dutch +as well as German, Swedish as well as Italian, Spanish as well as +Hungarian, nay even, at last, transcending narrow continental limits, +Japanese as well as Hindustani. The revolution which it was rapidly +effecting was indeed a revolution in every mode of thought and feeling +as well as a revolution in mere restricted biological opinion. But all +this time, the modest, single-minded, and unassuming author was working +unmoved among his plants and pigeons in his home at Down, regardless of +the European fame he was so quickly acquiring, and anxious only to bring +to a termination the vast work which he still contemplated. A little +more than eleven years intervened between the publication of the 'Origin +of Species,' in 1859, and the first appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' +in 1871. The interval was occupied in carrying out in part the gigantic +scheme of his original collections for the full treatment of the +development theory. The work published in 1859 Darwin regarded merely as +an abstract and preliminary outline of his full opinions: 'No one can +feel more sensible than I do,' he wrote, 'of the necessity of hereafter +publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my +conclusions have been grounded.' The marvellously learned work on the +'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' which came out in +two volumes in 1867, formed the first instalment of this long-projected +treatise. The second part, as he told Mr. Fiske, was to have treated of +the variation of animals and plants through natural selection; while the +third part would have dealt at length with the phenomena of morphology, +of classification, and of distribution in space and time. But these +latter portions of the work were never written. To say the truth, they +were never needed. So universal was the recognition among the younger +men of Darwin's discovery, that before ten years were over innumerable +workers were pushing out the consequences of natural selection into +every field of biology and palæontology. It seemed no longer so +necessary as it had once seemed to write the larger and more elaborate +treatise he had originally contemplated. + +The volume on the variation of animals and plants contained also +Darwin's one solitary contribution to the pure speculative philosophy of +life--his 'Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis,' by which he strove to +account on philosophical principles for the general facts of physical +and mental heredity. Not to mince matters, it was his one conspicuous +failure, and is now pretty universally admitted as such. Let not the +love of the biographer deceive us; Darwin was here attempting a task +_ultra vires_. As already observed, his mind, vast as it was, leaned +rather to the concrete than to the abstract side: he lacked the +distinctively metaphysical and speculative twist. Strange to say, too, +his abortive theory appeared some years later than Herbert Spencer's +magnificent all-sided conception of 'Physiological Units,' put forth +expressly to meet the self-same difficulty. But while Darwin's +hypothesis is rudely materialistic, Herbert Spencer's is built up by an +acute and subtle analytical perception of all the analogous facts in +universal nature. It is a singular instance of a crude and essentially +unphilosophic conception endeavouring to replace a finished and delicate +philosophical idea. + +Earlier still, in 1862, Darwin had published his wonderful and +fascinating book on the 'Fertilisation of Orchids.' It is delightful to +contemplate the picture of the unruffled naturalist, in the midst of +that universal storm of ecclesiastical obloquy and scientific enthusiasm +which he had roused throughout Europe, sitting down calmly in his +Kentish conservatory to watch the behaviour of catasetums and +masdevallias, and to work out the details of his chosen subject, with +that marvellous patience of which he was so great a master, in the +pettiest minutiæ of fertilisation as displayed by a single highly +developed family of plants. Whoever wishes to learn the full profundity +of Darwin's researches, into every point that he set himself to +investigate, cannot do better than turn for a while to the consideration +of that exquisite treatise on one of the quaintest fairylands of +science. He will there learn by what an extraordinary wealth of cunning +devices natural selection has ensured the due conveyance of the +fecundating pollen from stamens to stigmas within the limits of a single +group of vegetable organisms. Here the fertilising mass is gummed +automatically between the eyes of the exploring bee, and then bent round +by the drying of its stalk so as to come in contact with the stigmatic +surface. There the pollen club is jerked out elastically by a sensitive +fibre, and actually flung by its irritable antennæ at the unconscious +head of the fertilising insect. In one case, the lip of the flower +secretes moisture and forms a sort of cold bath, which wets the wings of +the bees, so compelling them to creep out of the bucket by a passage +close to the anthers and stigma; in another case, the honey is concealed +at the bottom of so long a tube that only the proper fertilising moth +with a proboscis of ten or eleven inches in length can probe the deep +recess in which it is hidden. These, and a hundred other similar +instances, were all carefully considered and described by the great +naturalist as the by-work with which he filled up one of the intervals +between his greater and more comprehensive treatises. + +In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the progress of Darwinism was rapid +and continuous. One by one, the few scientific men who still held out +were overborne by the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh +instances of transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored +countries kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species +and varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his +'First Principles,' his 'Biology,' and the remodelled form of his +'Psychology;' Huxley brought out 'Man's Place in Nature,' the 'Lectures +on Comparative Anatomy,' and the 'Introduction to the Classification of +Animals;' Wallace produced his 'Malay Archipelago' and his +'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection;' and Galton wrote his +admirable work on 'Hereditary Genius,' of which his own family is so +remarkable an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had long since signified their +warm adhesion. At Oxford, Rolleston was bringing up a fresh generation +of young biologists in the new faith; at Cambridge, Darwin's old +university, a whole school of brilliant and accurate physiologists was +beginning to make itself both felt and heard in the world of science. In +the domain of anthropology, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the +new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations into +the Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. All these +diverse lines of thought both showed the wide-spread influence of +Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, +in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. +And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilised +world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement +was well in progress; everywhere the impulse sent forth from that quiet +Kentish home was permeating and quickening the entire pulse of +intelligent humanity. + +Why was it that the 'Origin of Species' possessed this extraordinary +vitalising and kinetic power, this germinal energy, this contagious +force, beyond all other forms of evolutionism previously promulgated? +Why did the world, that listened so coldly to Lamarck and Chambers, turn +so ready an ear to Charles Darwin and natural selection? Partly, no +doubt, because in the fulness of time the moment had come and the +prophet had arisen. All great movements are long brewing, and burst out +at last (like the Reformation and the French Revolution) with explosive +energy. But the cause is largely to be found, also, I believe, in the +peculiar nature of the Darwinian solution. True, a thoroughly logical +mind, a mind of the very highest order, would have said even before +Darwin, 'Creation can have no possible place in the physical series of +things at all. How organisms came to be I do not yet exactly see; but I +am sure they must have come to be by some merely physical process, if we +could only find it out.' And such minds were all actually evolutionary +even before Darwin had made the _modus operandi_ of evolution +intelligible. But most people are not so clear-sighted. They require to +have everything proved to them by the strictest collocation of actual +instances. They will not believe unless one rise from the dead. There +are men who rejected the raw doctrine of special creation on evidence +adduced; and there are men who never even for a moment entertained it as +conceivable. The former compose the mass of the scientific world, and it +was for their conversion that the Darwinian hypothesis was so highly +salutary. As Professor Fiske rightly remarks, 'The truth is that before +the publication of the "Origin of Species" there was no opinion whatever +current respecting the subject that deserved to be called a scientific +hypothesis. That the more complex forms of life must have come into +existence through some process of development from simpler forms was no +doubt the only sensible and rational view to take of the subject; but in +a vague and general opinion of this sort there is nothing that is +properly scientific. A scientific hypothesis must connect the phenomena +with which it deals by alleging a "true cause;" and before 1859 no one +had suggested a "true cause" for the origination of new species, +although the problem was one over which every philosophical naturalist +had puzzled since the beginning of the century. This explains why Mr. +Darwin's success was so rapid and complete, and it also explains why he +came so near being anticipated.' To put it briefly, _a priori_, creation +is from the very first unbelievable; but, as a matter of evidence, +Lamarck failed to make evolution comprehensible, or to give a rationale +of its mode of action, while Darwin's theory of natural selection +succeeded in doing so for those who awaited _a posteriori_ proof. Hence +Darwin was able to convert the world, where Lamarck had only been able +to stir up enquiry among the picked spirits of the scientific and +philosophical coterie. Therein lies the true secret of his rapid, his +brilliant, and his triumphant progress. He had found out not only _that_ +it was so, but _how_ it was so, too. In Aristotelian phrase, he had +discovered the _πῶς_ as well as the _ὅτι_. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DESCENT OF MAN. + + +In 1871, nearly twelve years after the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +published his 'Descent of Man.' + +We have seen already that he would fain have avoided the treatment of +this difficult and dangerous topic a little longer, so as to let his +main theory be fairly judged on its own merits, without the obtrusion of +theological or personal feelings into so purely biological a question; +but the current was too strong for him, and at last he yielded. On the +one hand, the adversaries had drawn for themselves the conclusion of +man's purely animal origin, and held it up to ridicule under false forms +in the most absurd and odious light. On the other hand, imprudent allies +had put forth under the evolutionary ægis their somewhat hypothetical +and extravagant speculations on this involved subject, which Darwin was +naturally anxious to correct and modify by his own more sober and +guarded inferences. The result was the second great finishing work of +the complete Darwinian system of things. + +Ever since evolutionism had begun to be at all it had been observed that +a natural corollary from the doctrine of descent with modification was +the belief in man's common ancestry with the anthropoid apes. As early +as the middle of the last century, indeed, Lord Monboddo, a whimsical +Scotch eccentric, had suggested in his famous book on the origin of +language the idea that men were merely developed monkeys. But this crude +and unorganised statement of a great truth, being ultimately based upon +no distinct physical grounds, deserved scarcely to be classed higher +than the childish evolutionism of 'Telliamed' De Maillet, which makes +birds descend from flying-fish and men the offspring of the hypothetical +tritons. On this point as on most others the earliest definite +scientific views are those of Buffon, who ventured to hint with extreme +caution the possibility of a common ancestry for man and all other +vertebrate animals. Goethe the all-sided had caught a passing glimpse of +the same profound conception about the date of the Reign of Terror; and +Erasmus Darwin had openly announced it, though without much elaboration, +in his precocious and premature 'Zoonomia.' Still more specifically, in +a note to the 'Temple of Nature,' the English evolutionist says: 'It has +been supposed by some that mankind were formerly quadrupeds.... These +philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to imagine that mankind +arose from one family of monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean;' and +in the third canto of that fantastic poem, he enlarges upon the great +part performed by the hand, with its opposable thumb, in the development +and progress of the human species. Lamarck, in his 'Philosophie +Zoologique,' distinctly lays down the doctrine that man is descended +from an ape-like ancestor, which gradually acquired the upright +position, not even now wholly natural to the human race, and maintained +only by the most constant watchfulness. The orang-outang was then the +highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang, +therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the +pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam. + +The introduction of the chimpanzee into our European Zoological Gardens +gave a fresh type of anthropoid to the crude speculators of the middle +decades of the century; and in 1859, Paul du Chaillu, the explorer and +hunter of the Gaboon country, brought over to America and Europe the +first specimens of the true gorilla ever seen by civilised men. There +can be little doubt that the general interest excited by his narrative +of his adventures (published in London in 1861) and by the well-known +stuffed specimen of the huge African anthropoid ape so long conspicuous +in the rooms of the British Museum, and now surviving (somewhat the +worse for wear) in the natural history collection at South Kensington, +did much to kindle public curiosity as to the nature of our relations +with the lower animals. It is no mere accidental circumstance, indeed, +that Huxley should have brought out 'Man's Place in Nature' just two +years after Du Chaillu's 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial +Africa' had made the whole world, lay and learned, familiar with the +name and features of the most human in outer aspect among the anthropoid +family. Thenceforth the gorilla, and not the orang-outang, was popularly +hit upon by scoffer and caricaturist as the imaginary type of our +primitive ancestors. + +On the other hand, during the twelve intervening years immense strides +had been made in every department of anthropological science, and the +whole tenor of modern speculation had been clearing the ground for the +'Descent of Man,' In 1865, Rolle in Germany had published his work on +'Man Viewed by the Light of the Darwinian Theory.' Two years later, +Canestrini in Italy read before the Naturalists' Society of Modena his +interesting paper on rudimentary characters as bearing on the origin of +the human species. In 1868, Büchner brought out his rudely materialistic +sledge-hammer lectures on the Darwinian principle; and in 1869, Barrago +flung straight at the head of the Roman clericals his offensive work on +man and the anthropoid apes. Most of these foreign publications were +unhappily marked by that coarse and almost vituperative opposition to +received views which too often disfigures French and German +controversial literature. In England, on the contrary, under our milder +and gentler ecclesiastical yoke, the contest had been conducted with +greater decorum and with far better results. Wallace had broken ground +tentatively and reverently in his essay on the 'Origin of Human Races,' +where he endeavoured to show that man is the co-descendant with the +anthropoid apes of some ancient lower and extinct form. Lubbock's +'Prehistoric Times' (1865) and 'Origin of Civilisation' (1870) helped to +clear the way in the opposite direction by demolishing the old belief, +firmly upheld by Whately and others, that savages represent a degraded +type, and that the civilised state is natural and, so to speak, +congenital to man. Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind' (1865) did still +more eminent service in the same direction. Colenso's 'Pentateuch and +Book of Joshua Critically Examined,' the publication of which began in +1862, had already shaken the foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony, and +incidentally discredited the received view of the direct creation of the +first human family. McLennan's 'Primitive Marriage' (1865) and Herbert +Spencer's articles on the origin of religion had kept speculation alive +along other paths, all tending ultimately towards the same conclusion. +Darwin's own cousin, Hensleigh Wedgwood, and Canon Farrar, had +independently endeavoured to prove that language, instead of being a +divine gift, might have arisen in a purely natural manner from +instinctive cries and the imitation of external sounds. The Duke of +Argyll and Professor Max Müller, by the obvious feebleness of their +half-hearted replies, had unconsciously aided in disseminating and +enforcing the very views they attempted to combat. Bagehot and Flower, +Maudsley and Jevons, Vogt and Lindsay, Galton and Brown-Séquard had each +in his way contributed facts and arguments ultimately utilised by the +great master architect in building up his consistent and harmonious +edifice. Finally, in 1868, Haeckel had published his 'Natural History of +Creation,' in which he discussed with surprising and perhaps excessive +boldness the various stages in the genealogy of man. These various +works, following so close upon Huxley's 'Man's Place in Nature' and +Lyell's conclusive 'Antiquity of Man,' left Darwin no choice but to set +forth his own reasoned opinions on the subject of the origin and +development of the human species. + +The evidence of the descent of man from some lower form, collected and +marshalled together by Darwin, consists chiefly of minute inferential +proofs which hardly admit of deliberate condensation. In his bodily +structure man is formed on the same underlying type or model as all the +other mammals, bone answering throughout to bone, as, for example, in +the fore limb, where homologous parts have been modified in the dog into +toes, in the bat into wing-supports, in the seal into flippers, and in +man himself into fingers and thumb, while still retaining in every case +their essential fundamental likeness of construction. Even the brain of +man resembles closely the brain of the higher monkeys; the differences +which separate him in this respect from the orang or the gorilla are far +slighter than the differences which separate those apes themselves from +the inferior monkeys. Indeed, as Huxley conclusively showed, on +anatomical grounds alone, man must be classed in the order Primates as +only one among the many divergent forms which that order includes within +its wide limits. + +In his embryonic development man closely resembles the lower animals, +the human creature being almost indistinguishable in certain stages from +the dog, the bat, the seal, and especially the monkeys. At a very early +age he possesses a slight projecting tail; at another, the great toe is +shorter than its neighbours, and projects like the thumb at a slight +angle; and at a third, the convolutions of the brain reach a point of +development about equivalent to that of the adult baboon. In his first +stages man himself stands far more closely related to the apes than the +apes in turn stand to cats or hyænas. + +Rudiments of muscles not normally found in man occur in many aberrant +human individuals. Some people possess the power of moving their scalps +and wagging their ears like dogs and monkeys; others can twitch the skin +of their bodies, as horses do when worried by flies. Mr. Woolner, the +sculptor, pointed out to Darwin a certain little projecting point or +knob on the margin of the ear, observed by him in the course of +modelling, which comparison shows to be the last folded remnant or +rudiment of the once erect and pointed monkey-like ear-tip. The +nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, once more, which in birds can be +drawn so rapidly across the ball of the eye, and which gives the +familiar glazed or murky appearance, is fairly well developed in the +ornithorhynchus and the kangaroo, as well as in a few higher mammals, +like the walrus; but in man, as in the monkey group, it survives only +under the degenerate form of a practically useless rudiment, the +semilunar fold. Man differs from the other Primates in his apparently +hairless condition; but the hair, though short and downy, still remains +on close inspection, and in some races, such as the Ainos of Japan, +forms a shaggy coat like an orang's or a gibbon's. A few long rough +hairs sometimes project from the short smooth down of the eyebrows; and +these peculiar bristles, occasional only in the human species, are +habitual in the chimpanzee and in many baboons. Internal organs show +similar rudiments, of less enthralling interest, it must be candidly +confessed, to the unscientific outside intelligence. Even the bony +skeleton contributes its share of confirmatory evidence; for in the +lower monkeys and in many other mammals a certain main trunk nerve +passes through a special perforation in the shoulder-blade, and this +perforation, though now almost obsolete, sometimes recurs in man, in +which case the nerve in question invariably passes through it, as in the +inferior monkeys. What is still more remarkable is the fact that the +perforation occurs far more frequently (in proportion) among the +skeletons of very ancient races than among those of our own time. One +chief cause why in this and other cases ancient races often present +structures resembling those of the lower animals seems to be that they +stand nearer in the long line of descent to their remote animal-like +progenitors. + +The conclusion at which, after fully examining all the evidence, Darwin +finally arrives is somewhat as follows: + +The early ancestors of man must have been more or less monkey-like +animals, belonging to the great anthropoid group, and related to the +progenitors of the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. They +must have been once covered with hair, both sexes possessing beards. +Their ears were probably pointed and capable of movement, and their +bodies were provided with a movable tail. The foot had a great toe +somewhat thumb-like in its action, with which they could grasp the +branches of trees. They were probably arboreal in their habits, +fruit-eaters by choice, and inhabitants of some warm forest-clad land. +The males had great canine teeth, with which they fought one another for +the possession of the females. At a much earlier period, the internal +anatomical peculiarities approached those of the lowest mammals, and the +eye was provided with a third eyelid. Peering still further back into +the dim abyss of the ages, Darwin vaguely describes the ancestors of +humanity as aquatic animals, allied to the mudfish; for our lungs are +known to consist of modified swim-bladders, which must once have served +our remote progenitors in the office of a float. The gill-clefts on the +neck of the human embryo still point to the spot where the branchiæ +once, no doubt, existed. Our primordial birthplace appears to have been +a shore washed twice a day by the recurrent tides. The heart then took +the shape merely of a simple pulsating vessel; and a long undivided +spinal cord usurped the place of the vertebral column. These extremely +primitive ancestors of man, thus dimly beheld across the gulf of ages, +must have been at least as simply and humbly organised as that very +lowest and earliest of existing vertebrates, the worm-like lancelet. + +From such a rude and indefinite beginning natural selection, aided by +the various concomitant principles, has slowly built up the pedigree of +man. Starting from these remote half-invertebrate forms, whose vague +shape is still perhaps in part preserved for us by the soft and +jelly-like larva of the modern ascidian, we rise by long stages to a +group of early fishes, like the lancelet itself. From these the ganoids +and then the lung-bearing mudfish must have been gradually developed. +From such fish a very small advance would carry us on to the newts and +other amphibians. The duck-billed platypus helps us slightly to bridge +over the gap between the reptiles and the lower mammals, such as the +kangaroo and the wombat, though the connection with the amphibians is +still, as when Darwin wrote, highly problematical. From marsupials, such +as the kangaroo, we ascend gradually to the insectivorous type +represented by the shrews and hedgehogs, and thence once more by very +well-marked intermediate stages to the lemurs of Madagascar, a group +linked on the one hand to the insectivores, and on the other to the true +monkeys. The monkeys, again, 'branched off into two great stems--the New +World and Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, +man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.' + +The word was spoken; the secret was out. The world might well have been +excused for treating it scornfully. But as a matter of fact, the storm +which followed the 'Descent of Man' was as nothing compared with the +torrent of abuse that had pursued the author of the 'Origin of Species.' +In twelve years society had grown slowly accustomed to the once +startling idea, and it listened now with comparatively languid interest +to the final utterance of the great biologist on the question of its own +origin and destinies. In 1859 it cried in horror, 'How very shocking!' +in 1871, it murmured complacently, 'Is that all? Why, everybody knew +that much already!' + +Nevertheless, on the moral and social side, the ultimate importance of +the 'Descent of Man' upon the world's history can hardly be overrated by +a philosophic investigator. Vast as was the revolution effected in +biology by the 'Origin of Species,' it was as nothing compared with the +still wider, deeper, and more subtly-working revolution inaugurated by +the announcement of man's purely animal origin. The main discovery, +strange to say, affected a single branch of thought alone; the minor +corollary drawn from it to a single species has already affected, and is +destined in the future still more profoundedly to affect, every +possible sphere of human energy. Not only has it completely reversed our +entire conception of history generally, by teaching us that man has +slowly risen from a very low and humble beginning, but it has also +revolutionised our whole ideas of our own position and our own destiny, +it has permeated the sciences of language and of medicine, it has +introduced new conceptions of ethics and of religion, and it threatens +in the future to produce immense effects upon the theory and practice of +education, of politics, and of economic and social science. These +wide-reaching and deep-seated results began to be felt from the first +moment when the Darwinian principle was definitely promulgated in the +'Origin of Species,' but their final development and general acceptance +was immensely accelerated by Darwin's own authoritative statement in the +'Descent of Man.' + +To some among us still, as to Lyell before us, this new belief in the +animal origin of man seems far less beautiful, noble, and inspiriting +than the older faith in his special and separate divine creation. Such +thinkers find it somehow more pleasant and comfortable to suppose that +man has fallen than that man has risen; the doctrine of the universal +degradation of humanity paradoxically appears to them more full of +promise and aspiration for the times to come than the doctrine of its +universal elevation. To Darwin himself, however, it seemed otherwise. +'Man,' he says, 'may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, +though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic +scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been +aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny +in the distant future.' Surely this is the truer and manlier way of +looking at the reversed and improved attitude of man. Surely it is +better to climb to the top than to have been placed there--and +fallen--at the very outset. Surely it is a nobler view of life that we +may yet by our own strenuous exertions raise our race some places higher +in the endless and limitless hierarchy of nature than that we are the +miserable and hopelessly degenerate descendants of a ruined and degraded +angelic progenitor. Surely it is well, while we boast with Glaucus that +we indeed are far braver and better than our ancestors, to pray at the +same time, in the words of Hector, that our sons may be yet braver and +better than ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP. + + +In the same volumes with the 'Descent of Man' Darwin included his +admirable treatise on sexual selection. This form of selection he had +already dealt with briefly in the 'Origin of Species;' but as in his +opinion it was largely instrumental in producing the minor differences +which separate one race of men from another, he found it necessary to +enlarge and expand it in connection with his account of the rise and +progress of the human species. + +Among many animals, and especially in the higher classes of animals, the +males and females do not mate together casually; there is a certain +amount of selection or of courtship. In some cases, as with deer and +antelopes, the males fight with one another for the possession of the +females. In other cases, as with the peacock and the humming-birds, the +males display their beauty and their skill before the eyes of the +assembled females. In the first instance, the victor obtains the mates; +in the second instance, the mates themselves select from the group the +handsomest and most personally pleasing competitor. Sexual selection, of +which these are special cases, depends on the advantage possessed by +certain individuals over others of the same sex and species solely in +respect to the question of mating. In all such instances, the males have +acquired their weapons of offence and defence or their ornamental +decorations, not from being better fitted to survive in the struggle for +existence, but from having gained an advantage over other males of the +same kind, and from having transmitted this advantage to offspring of +their own sex alone. + +Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by the selection of +those birds which are victorious in the cockpit, so the strongest and +most vigorous males, or those provided with the best weapons, have +prevailed in the state of nature over their feebler and more cowardly +competitors. Just as man can give beauty, according to his own standard +of taste, to his male poultry, by selecting special birds for their +plumage, their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female birds in +a state of nature have by a long-continued choice of the more attractive +males added to their beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. In these two +ways, Darwin believed, a limited selection has slowly developed weapons +like the horns of buffaloes, the antlers of stags, the tusks of boars, +and the spurs of game-birds, together with the courage, strength, and +pugnacity always associated with such special organs. It has also +developed the ornamental plumage of the peacock, the argus pheasant, and +the birds of paradise; the song of the lark, the thrush, and the +nightingale; the brilliant hues on the face of the mandrill; and the +attractive perfume of the musk-deer, the snakes, and the scented +butterflies. Wherever one sex possesses any decorative or alluring +adjunct not equally shared by the other, Darwin attributed this special +gift either to the law of battle, or to the long and slowly exerted +selective action of their fastidious mates. + +The germ of the doctrine of sexual selection is to be found, like so +many other of Charles Darwin's theories, in a prophetic passage of his +grandfather's 'Zoonomia.' Stags, the Lichfield physician tells us, are +provided with antlers 'for the purpose of combating other stags for the +exclusive possession of the females, who are observed, like the ladies +in the time 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.' + +It must be noticed, however, that Erasmus Darwin here imports into the +question the metaphysical and teleological notion of the final cause, +implying that the struggle of the males was ordained from without, for +this express and preconceived purpose; whereas Charles Darwin, never +transcending the world of phenomena, more logically regards the struggle +itself as an efficient cause, having for its result the survival of the +strongest or the handsomest as the case may be. This distinction is +fundamental; it marks the gulf between the essentially teleological +spirit of the eighteenth century and the essentially positive spirit of +philosophy and science at the present day. + +Here again, too, the immense logical superiority of Charles Darwin's +rigorous and exhaustive inductive method over the loose suggestiveness +of his grandfather Erasmus may easily be observed. For while Erasmus +merely throws out a clever and interesting hint as to the supposed +method and intention of nature, Charles Darwin proves his thesis, point +by point, with almost mathematical exactitude, leaving no objection +unmet behind him, but giving statistical and inductive warrant for every +step in his cumulative argument. He goes carefully into the numerical +proportion of the two sexes in various species; into the relative dates +of arrival in any particular country of the males and females of +migratory birds; into the question whether any individuals ever remain +in the long run unpaired; into the chances of the earliest-mated or most +vigorous couples leaving behind more numerous or stronger offspring to +represent them in the next generation. He collects from every quarter +and from all sources whatever available evidence can be obtained as to +the courtship and rivalry of birds and butterflies, of deer and +antelopes, of fish and lizards. He shows by numerous examples and +quotations how even flies coquet together in their pretty rhythmical +aerial dances; how wasps battle eagerly with one another to secure +possession of their unconcerned mates; how cicadas strive to win their +'voiceless brides' with stridulating music; how sphinx-moths endeavour +to allure their partners with the musky odour of their pencilled wings; +and how emperors and orange-tips display their gorgeous spots and bands +in the broad sunshine before the admiring and attentive eyes of their +observant dames. He traces up the same spirit of rivalry and ostentation +to the cock-pheasant strutting about before the attendant hen, and to +the meeting-places of the blackcock, where all the males of the district +fight with one another and undertake long love-dances in regular +tournaments, while the females stand by and watch the chances and +changes of the contest with affected indifference. Finally, he points +out how similar effects are produced by like causes among the higher +animals, especially among our near relations the monkeys; and then he +proceeds to apply the principles thus firmly grounded to the particular +instance of the human race itself, the primary object of his entire +treatise. + +Some of the most interesting of the modifications due to this particular +form of selective action are to be found amongst the insects and other +low types of animal life. The crickets, the locusts, and the +grasshoppers, for example, are all famous for their musical powers; but +the sounds themselves are produced in the different families by very +different and quaintly varied organs. The song of the crickets is evoked +by the scraping of minute teeth on the under side of either wing-cover; +in the case of the locusts, the left wing, which acts as a bow, overlies +the right wing, which serves as a fiddle; while with the grasshoppers, +the leg does duty as the musical instrument, and has a row of +lancet-shaped elastic knobs along its outer surface, which the insect +rubs across the nerves of the wing-covers when it wishes to charm the +ears and rouse the affection of its silent mate. In a South African +species of the same family, the whole body of the male is fairly +converted into a musical instrument, being immensely inflated, hollow, +and distended like a pellucid air-bladder in order to act as an +efficient sounding-board. Among the beetles, taste seems generally to +have specialised itself rather on form than on music or colour, and the +males are here usually remarkable for their singular and very +complicated horns, often compared in various species to those of stags +or rhinoceroses, and entirely absent in the females of most kinds. But +it is among the butterflies and moths that insect æstheticism has +produced its greatest artistic triumphs; for here the beautiful +eye-spots and delicate markings on the expanded wing-membranes are +almost certainly due to sexual selection. + +The higher animals display like evidence of the same slow selective +action. The courtship of the stickleback, who dances 'mad with delight' +around the mate he has allured into the nest he prepares for her, has +been observed by dozens of observers both before and since in the +domestic aquarium. The gem-like colours of the male dragonet, the +butterfly wings of certain gurnards, and the decorated tails of some +exotic carps all point in the same direction. Our own larger newt is +adorned during the breeding season with a serrated crest edged with +orange; while in the smaller kind the colours of the body acquire at the +same critical period of love-making a vivid brilliancy. The strange +horns and luridly coloured throat-pouches of tropical lizards are +familiar to all visitors in equatorial climates, and they are confined +exclusively to the male sex. Among birds, the superior beauty of the +male plumage is known to everybody; and their greatest glory invariably +coincides with the special season for the selection of mates. In the +spring, as even our poets have told us, the wanton lapwing gets himself +another crest. The law of battle produces the spur of the game-birds and +the still stranger wing-spurs of certain species of the plover kind. +Æsthetic rivalry is answerable rather for vocal music, and for the +plumage of the umbrella-bird, the lyre-bird, the humming-birds, and the +cock of the rocks. Among mammals, strength rather than beauty seems to +have carried the day; horns, and tusks, and spikes, and antlers are here +the special guerdon of the victorious males. Yet even mammals show +occasional signs of distinctly æsthetic and artistic preferences, as in +the gracefully twisted horns of the koodoo, the scent-glands of the +musk-deer or of certain antelopes, the brilliant hues of the male +mandrill, and the tufts and moustaches of so many monkeys. + +It must be frankly conceded that the reception accorded to Darwin's +doctrine of sexual selection, even among the biological public, was far +less unanimous, enthusiastic, and full than that which had been granted +to his more extensive theory of survival of the fittest. Many eminent +naturalists declined from the very outset to accept the conclusions thus +definitely set before them, and others who at first seemed disposed to +bow to the immense weight of Darwin's supreme authority gradually +withdrew their grudging assent from the new doctrine, as they found +their relapse backed up by others, and refused to believe that the +theory of courtship had been fairly proven before the final tribunal of +science. Several critics began by objecting that the whole theory was a +mere afterthought. Darwin, they said, finding that natural selection +did not suffice by itself to explain all the details of structure in +man, had invented sexual selection as a supplementary principle to help +it over the hard places. Those who wrote and spoke in this thoughtless +fashion could have had but a very inadequate idea of Darwin's close +experimental methods of enquiry. As a matter of fact, indeed, they were +entirely wrong; the doctrine of sexual selection itself, already faintly +foreshadowed by Erasmus Darwin in the 'Zoonomia,' had been distinctly +developed in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' with at least +as much provisional elaboration as any other equally important factor in +the biological drama as set forth in that confessedly introductory work. +Nay, Haeckel had caught gladly at the luminous conception there +expressed, even before the appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' and had +worked it out in his 'Generelle Morphologie,' with great insight, to its +legitimate conclusions in many directions. Indeed, the sole reason why +so much space was devoted to the subject in Darwin's work on human +development was simply because there for the first time an opportunity +arose of utilising his vast store of collected information on this +single aspect of the evolutionary process. It was no afterthought, but a +necessary and inevitable component element of the fully-developed +evolutionary concept. + +Still, it cannot be denied that naturalists generally did not accept +with effusion the new clause in the evolutionary creed. Many of them +hesitated; a few acquiesced; the majority more or less openly dissented. +But Darwin's belief remained firm as a rock. 'I am glad you defend +sexual selection,' he wrote a few years later in a private letter; 'I +have no fear about its ultimate fate, though it is now at a discount;' +and in the preface to the second edition of the 'Descent of Man,' he +remarks acutely, 'I have been struck with the likeness of many of the +half-favourable criticisms on sexual selection with those which appeared +at first on natural selection; such as that it would explain some few +details, but certainly was not applicable to the extent to which I have +employed it. My conviction of the power of sexual selection remains +unshaken.... When naturalists have become familiar with the idea, it +will, as I believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has already +been fully and favourably received by several capable judges.' + +In spite of the still continued demurrer of not a few among the leading +evolutionists, it is probable, I think, that Darwin's prophecy on this +matter will yet be justified by the verdict of time. For the opposition +to the doctrine of sexual selection proceeds almost invariably, as it +seems to me, from those persons who still desire to erect an efficient +barrier of one sort or another between the human and animal worlds; +while on the contrary the theory in question is almost if not quite +universally accepted by just those rigorously evolutionary biologists +who are freest from preconceptions or special _a priori_ teleological +objections of any kind whatever. The half of the doctrine which deals +with the law of battle, indeed, can hardly be doubted by any competent +naturalist; the other half, which deals with the supposed æsthetic +preferences of the females, is, no doubt, distasteful to certain +thinkers because it seems to imply the existence in the lower animals of +a sense of beauty which many among us are not even now prepared +generously to admit. The desire to arrogate to mankind alone all the +higher faculties either of sense or intellect has probably much to do +with the current disinclination towards the Darwinian idea of sexual +selection. Thinkers who allow themselves to be emotionally swayed by +such extraneous considerations forget that the beautiful is merely that +which pleases; that beauty has no external objective existence; and that +the range of taste, both among ourselves and among animals at large, is +practically infinite. The greatest blow ever aimed at the Darwinian +theory of sexual selection was undoubtedly that dealt out by Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace (et tu, Brute!) in his able and subtle article on the +Colours of Animals in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' since reprinted in his +delightful work on 'Tropical Nature.' Wallace there urges with his usual +acuteness, ingenuity, and skill several fundamental objections to the +Darwinian hypothesis of no little importance and weight. But it must +always be remembered (with all due respect to the joint discoverer of +natural selection) that Mr. Wallace himself, after publishing his own +admirable essay on the development of man, drew back aghast in the end +from the full consequences of his own admission, and uttered his partial +recantation in the singular words, 'Natural selection could only have +endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape.' It +seems probable that in every case an analogous desire to erect a firm +barrier between man and brute by positing the faculty for perceiving +beauty as a special quasi-divine differentia of the human race has been +at the bottom of the still faintly surviving dislike amongst a section +of scientific men to sexual selection. Nevertheless, a candid and +impartial critic would be compelled frankly to admit that Darwin's +admirable theory of courtship has not on the whole proved so generally +acceptable to the biological world up to the present time as his greater +and far more comprehensive theory of survival of the fittest. It still +waits for its final recognition, towards which it is progressing more +rapidly and surely every day it lives. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +VICTORY AND REST. + + +The last eleven years of Darwin's life were spent in enforcing and +developing the principles already reached, and in enjoying the almost +unchequered progress of the revolution he had so unconsciously to +himself succeeded in inaugurating. + +Only one year elapsed between the publication of the 'Descent of Man' +and that of its next important successor, the 'Expression of the +Emotions.' The occasion of this learned and bulky treatise in itself +stands as an immortal proof of the conscientious way in which Darwin +went to work to anticipate the slightest and most comparatively +impertinent possible objections to his main theories. Sir Charles Bell, +in one of the quaintly antiquated Bridgwater treatises--those marvellous +monuments of sadly misplaced teleological ingenuity--had maintained that +man was endowed with sundry small facial muscles solely for the sake of +expressing his emotions. This view was so obviously opposed to the +belief in the descent of man from some lower form, 'that,' says Darwin, +'it was necessary for me to consider it;' and so he did, in a lengthy +work, where the whole subject is exhaustively treated, and Bell's idea +is completely pulverised by the apt allegation of analogous expressions +in the animal world. In his old age Darwin grew, in fact, only the more +ceaselessly and wonderfully industrious. In 1875, after three years of +comparative silence, came the 'Insectivorous Plants,' a work full of +minute observation on the habits and manners of the sundew, the +butterwort, the Venus's fly-catcher, and the various heterogeneous +bog-haunting species known by the common name of pitcher plants. The +bare mass and weight of the facts which Darwin had collected for the +'Origin of Species' might well-nigh have stifled the very existence of +that marvellous book: it was lucky that the premature publication of +Wallace's paper compelled him to hurry on his 'brief abstract,' for if +he had waited to select and arrange the whole series of observations +that he finally published in his various later justificatory volumes, we +might have looked in vain for the great systematic and organising work, +which would no doubt have been 'surcharged with its own weight, and +strangled with its waste fertility.' But the task that he himself best +loved was to watch in minute detail the principles whose secret he had +penetrated, and whose reserve he had broken, working themselves out +before his very eyes, naked and not ashamed--to catch Actæon-like the +undraped form of nature herself in the actual process of her inmost +being. He could patiently observe the red and slimy hair-glands of the +drosera closing slowly and remorselessly round the insect prey, and +sucking from their bodies with sensitive tentacles the protoplasmic +juices denied to its leaves by the poor and boggy soil, on which alone +its scanty rootlets can properly thrive. He could watch the butterwort +curving round the edges of its wan green foliage upon the captured limbs +of fly or aphis. He could note how the serried mass of finger-like +processes in the utricles of the bladderwort slowly absorb organic +matter from the larva of a gnat, or the minute water-insects entangled +within its living and almost animated lobster-pot. He could track the +long line of treacherous honey-glands by which the sarracenia entices +flies into the festering manure-wells of its sticky pitchers. The +minuteness and skill of all his observations on these lesser problems of +natural selection inevitably inspired faith among outsiders in the +cautious judgment of the observer and experimenter; and day by day +throughout his later years the evidence of the popular acceptance of his +doctrine, and of the dying away of the general ridicule with which it +was first received by the unlearned public, was very gratifying to the +great naturalist. + +A year later, in 1876, came the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation +in the Vegetable Kingdom.' So far as regarded the world of plants, +especially with respect to its higher divisions, this work was of +immense theoretical importance; and it also cast a wonderful side-light +upon the nature of that strange distinction of sex which occurs both in +the vegetable and animal kingdom, and in each is the concomitant--one +might almost say the necessary concomitant--of high development and +complex organisation. The great result attained by Darwin in his long +and toilsome series of experiments on this interesting subject was the +splendid proof of the law that cross-fertilisation produces finer and +healthier offspring, while continuous self-fertilisation tends in the +long run to degradation, degeneration, and final extinction. + +Here as elsewhere, however, Darwin's principle does not spring +spontaneous, like Athene from the head of Zeus, a goddess full-formed, +uncaused, inexplicable: it arises gradually by a slow process of +development and modification from the previous investigations of earlier +biologists. At the close of the last century, in the terrible year of +upheaval 1793, a quiet German botanist, Christian Konrad Sprengel by +name, published at Berlin his long unheeded but intensely interesting +work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers.' In the summer of 1789, while all +Europe was ablaze with the news that the Bastille had been stormed, and +a new era of humanity begun, the calm and peaceful Pomeranian observer +was noting in his own garden the curious fact that many flowers are +incapable of being fertilised without the assistance of flying insects, +which carry pollen from the stamens of one blossom to the sensitive +surface or ovary of the next. Hence he concluded that the secretion of +honey or nectar in flowers, the contrivances by which it is protected +from rain, the bright hues or lines of the corolla, and the sweet +perfume distilled by the blossoms, are all so many cunning devices of +nature to ensure fertilisation by the insect-visitors. Moreover, +Sprengel observed that many flowers are of one sex only, and that in +several others the sexes do not mature simultaneously; 'so that,' said +he, 'nature seems to intend that no flower shall be fertilised by means +of its own pollen.' Indeed, in some instances, as he showed by +experiments upon the yellow day lily, plants impregnated from their own +stamens cannot be made to set seed at all. 'So near,' says his able +successor, Hermann Müller, 'was Sprengel to the distinct recognition of +the fact that self-fertilisation leads to worse results than +cross-fertilisation, and that all the arrangements which favour +insect-visits are of value to the plant itself, simply because the +insect-visitors effect cross-fertilisation!' As in most other +anticipatory cases, however, it must be here remarked that Sprengel's +idea was wholly teleological: he conceived of nature as animated by a +direct informing principle, which deliberately aimed at a particular +result; whereas Darwin rather came to the conclusion that +cross-fertilisation as a matter of fact does actually produce beneficial +results, and that therefore those plants which varied most in the +direction of arrangements for favouring insect-visits were likely to be +exceptionally fortunate in the struggle for existence against +competitors otherwise arranged. It is just the usual Darwinian +substitution of an efficient for a final cause. + +Even before Sprengel, Kölreuter had recognised, in 1761, that +self-fertilisation was avoided in nature; and his observations and +experiments on intercrossing and on hybridism were largely relied upon +by Darwin himself, to whom they suggested at an early period many +fruitful lines of original investigation. In 1799, again, Andrew Knight, +following up the same line of thought in England as Sprengel in Germany, +declared as the result of his close experiments upon the garden pea, +that no plant ever fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. +But Knight's law, not being brought into causal connection with any +great fundamental principle of nature, was almost entirely overlooked by +the scientific world until the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of +Species,' half a century later. The same neglect also overtook +Sprengel's immensely interesting and curious work on fertilisation of +flowers. The world, in fact, was not yet ready for the separate +treatment of functional problems connected with the interrelations of +organic beings; so Knight and Sprengel were laid aside unnoticed on the +dusty top bookshelves of public libraries, while the dry classificatory +and systematic biology of the moment had it ail its own way for the time +being on the centre reading-tables. So many separate and independent +strands of thought does it ultimately require to make up the grand final +generalisation which the outer world attributes in its totality to the +one supreme organising intelligence. + +But in the 'Origin of Species' itself Darwin reiterated and emphasised +Knight's law as a general and all-pervading principle of nature, placing +it at the same time on broader and surer biological foundations by +affiliating it intimately upon his own great illuminating and unifying +doctrine of natural selection. He also soon after rescued from oblivion +Sprengel's curious and fairy-like book, showing in full detail in his +work on orchids the wonderful contrivances by which flowers seek to +attract and to secure the assistance of insects for the impregnation of +their embryo seeds. In the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication,' he further showed that breeding in-and-in diminishes the +strength and productiveness of the offspring; while crossing with +another stock produces, on the contrary, the best possible physical +results in both directions. And now at last, in the 'Effects of Cross +and Self fertilisation,' he proved by careful and frequently repeated +experiments that a constant infusion of fresh blood (so to speak) is +essential to the production of the healthiest offspring. In the words of +his own emphatic summing up, 'Nature abhors perpetual +self-fertilisation.' + +The immediate result of these new statements and this fresh rationale of +Knight's law was to bring down Sprengel forthwith from the top shelf, +where he had languished ingloriously for seventy years, and to set a +whole school of ardent botanical observers working hard in the lines he +had laid down upon the mutual correlations of insects and flowers. A +vast literature sprang up at once upon this enchanting and +long-neglected subject, the most eminent workers in the rediscovered +field being Delpino in Italy, Hildebrand and Hermann Müller in Germany, +Axel in Sweden, Lubbock in England, and Fritz Müller in tropical South +America. Darwin found the question, in fact, almost taken out of his +hands before he had time himself to treat of it; for Hildebrand's chief +work was published as early as 1867, while Axel's appeared in 1869, both +of them several years earlier than Darwin's own final essay on the +subject in the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation.' No statement, +perhaps, could more clearly mark the enormous impetus given to +researches in this direction than the fact that D'Arcy Thompson, in his +appendix to Müller's splendid work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers,' +has collected a list of no less than eight hundred and fourteen separate +works or important papers bearing on that special department of botany, +almost all of them subsequent in date to the first publication of the +'Origin of Species.' So widely did the Darwinian wave extend, and so +profoundly did it affect every minute point of biological and +psychological investigation. + +Each of these later works of Darwin's consists, as a rule, of an +expansion of some single chapter or paragraph in the 'Origin of +Species;' or, to speak more correctly, of an arrangement of the +materials collected and the experiments designed for that particular +portion of the great projected encyclopædia of evolutionism, of which +the 'Origin of Species' itself was but a brief anticipatory summary or +rough outline. Thus, the book on Orchids, published in 1862, is already +foreshadowed in a part of the chapter on the Difficulties of the Theory +of Natural Selection; the 'Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants' +(1865) is briefly summarised by anticipation in the long section on +Modes of Transition; the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication' (1868) consists of the vast array of _pièces +justificatives_ for the first chapter of the 'Origin of Species;' and +the germ of the 'Cross and Self Fertilisation' (1876) is to be seen in +the passage 'On the Intercrossing of Individuals' in Chapter IV. of the +same work. It was well indeed that Darwin began by publishing the +shorter and more manageable abstract; the half, as the wise Greek +proverb shrewdly remarks, is often more than the whole; and a world that +eagerly devoured the first great deliverance of the Darwinian principle, +might have stood aghast had it been asked to swallow it piecemeal in +such gigantic treatises as those with which its author afterwards sought +thrice to vanquish all his foes and thrice to slay the slain. + +Yet, with each fresh manifestation of Darwin's inexhaustible resources, +on the other hand, the opposition to his principles grew feebler and +feebler, and the universality of their acceptance more and more +pronounced, till at last, among biologists at least, not to be a +Darwinian was equivalent to being hopelessly left behind by the general +onward movement of the time. In 1874 Tyndall delivered his famous +address at the Belfast meeting of the British Association; and in 1877, +from the same presidential chair at Plymouth, Allen Thomson, long +reputed a doubtful waverer, enforced his cordial adhesion to the +Darwinian principles by his inaugural discourse on 'The Development of +the Forms of Animal Life.' A new generation of active workers, trained +up from the first in the evolutionary school, like Romanes, Ray +Lankester, Thistleton Dyer, Balfour, Sully, and Moggridge, had now risen +gradually around the great master; and in every direction he could see +the seed he had himself planted being watered and nourished in fresh +soil by a hundred ardent and enthusiastic young disciples. Even in +France, ever irresponsive to the touch of new ideas of alien origin, +Colonel Moulinié's admirable and sympathetic translations were beginning +to win over to the evolutionary creed many rising workers; while in +Germany, Victor Carus's excellent versions had from the very first +brought in the enthusiastic Teutonic biologists with a congenial +'swarmery' to the camp of the Darwinians. Correspondents from every part +of the world kept pressing fresh facts and fresh applications upon the +founder of the faith; and Darwin saw his own work so fast being taken +out of his hands by specialist disciples that he abandoned entirely his +original intention of publishing in detail the basis of his first book, +and contented himself instead with tracing out minutely some minor +portions of his contemplated task as specimens of evolutionary method. + +In 1877, in pursuance of this changed purpose, Darwin published his book +on 'Forms of Flowers,' in which he dealt closely with the old problem of +differently shaped blossoms on plants of the same species. It had long +been known, to take a single example, that primroses existed in two +forms, the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, of which the former has the +pin-like summit of the pistil at the top of the tube, and the stamens +concealed half way down its throat; while in the latter these relative +positions are exactly reversed, the stamens answering in place to the +pistil of the alternative form with geometrical accuracy. As early as +1862 Darwin had shown, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' that +this curious arrangement owed its development to the greater security +which it afforded for cross-fertilisation, because in this way each +flower had to be impregnated with the pollen, from a totally distinct +blossom, growing on a different individual plant. In a series of +successive papers read before the same Society in the years between 1863 +and 1868, he had extended a similar course of explanation to the +multiform flowers of the flaxes, the loosestrifes, the featherfoil, the +auricula, the buckbean, and several other well-known plants. At last, in +1877, he gathered together into one of the now familiar green-covered +volumes the whole of his observations on this strange peculiarity, and +proved by abundant illustration and experiment that the diversity of +form is always due through natural selection to the advantage gained by +perfect security of cross-fertilisation, resulting as it invariably does +in the production of the finest, strongest, and most successful +seedlings. Any variation, however peculiar, which helps to ensure this +constant infusion of fresh blood is certain to be favoured in the +struggle for life, owing to the superior vitality of the stock it +begets. But it is worthy of notice, as showing the extreme minuteness +and exhaustiveness of Darwin's method on the small scale, side by side +with his extraordinary and unusual power of rising to the very highest +and grandest generalisations, that the volume which he devoted to the +elucidation of this minor factor in the question of hereditary +advantages runs to nearly as many pages as the last edition of the +'Origin of Species' itself. So great was the wealth of observation and +experiment which he could lavish upon the solution of a single, small, +incidental problem. + +Even fuller in minute original research was the work which Darwin +published in 1880, on 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' detailing the +result of innumerable observations on the seemingly irresponsible yet +almost purposive rotations of the growing rootlets and young stems of +peas and climbers. Anyone who wishes to see on what a wide foundation of +irrefragable fact the great biologist built up the stately fabric of his +vast theories cannot do better than turn for instruction to this +remarkable volume, which the old naturalist gave to the world some time +after passing the allotted span of threescore years and ten. + +It was in the same year (1880) that Huxley delivered at the Royal +Institution his famous address on the Coming of Age of the 'Origin of +Species.' The time was a favourable one for reviewing the silent and +almost unobserved progress of a great revolution. Twenty-one years had +come and gone since the father of modern scientific evolutionism had +launched upon the world his tentative work. In those twenty-one years +the thought of humanity had been twisted around as upon some invisible +pivot, and a new heaven and a new earth had been presented to the eyes +of seers and thinkers. One-and-twenty years before, despite the +influence of Hutton and of Lyell, the dominant view of the earth's past +history revealed but one vast and lawless succession of hideous +catastrophes. Wholesale creations and wholesale extinctions, world-wide +cataclysms followed by fresh world-wide births of interwoven faunas and +floras--these, said Huxley, were the ordinary machinery of the +geological epic brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of the +mighty Cuvier. One-and-twenty years after, the opponents themselves had +given up the game in its fullest form as lost beyond the hope of +possible restitution. Some hesitating thinkers, it is true, while +accepting the evolutionary doctrine more or less in its earlier form, +like Mivart and Meehan, yet refused their assent on one ground or +another to the specific Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Others, +like Wallace, made a special exception with regard to the development of +the human species, which they supposed to be due to other causes from +those implied in the remainder of the organic scale. Yet on the whole, +biological science had fairly carried the day in favour of evolution, in +one form or another, and not even the cavillers dared now to suggest +that whole systems of creation had been swept away _en bloc_, and remade +again in different forms for a succeeding epoch, in accordance with the +belief which was almost universal among geologists up to the exact +moment of the publication of Darwin's masterpiece. + +During the twenty-one years, too, as Huxley likewise pointed out, an +immense number of new facts had come to strengthen the hands of the +evolutionists at the very point where they had before felt themselves +most openly vulnerable. Palæontology had supplied many of those missing +links in the organic chain whose absence from the interrupted and +imperfect geological record had been loudly alleged against the +Darwinian hypothesis in the earlier days of struggle and hesitation. Two +years after the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' the discovery of +a winged and feathered creature, happily preserved for us in the +Solenhofen slates, with lizard-like head and teeth and tail, and +bird-like pinions, feet, and breast, had bridged over in part the great +gap that yawns between the existing birds and reptiles. A few years +later, new fossil reptilian forms, erect on their hind legs like +kangaroos, and with very singular peculiarities of bony structure, had +helped still further to show the nature of the modifications by which +the scale-bearing quadruped type passed slowly into that of the +feather-bearing biped. In 1875, again, Professor Marsh's discovery of +the toothed birds in the American cretaceous strata completed the +illustrative series of transitional forms over what had once been the +most remarkable existing break in the continuity of organic development. +Similarly, Hofmeister's investigations in the vegetable world brought +close together the flowering and flowerless plants, by indicating that +the ferns and the horsetails were connected in curious unforeseen ways, +through the pill-worts and club-mosses, with the earliest and simplest +of forest trees, the firs and the puzzle-monkeys. In minor matters like +progress was continually reported on every side. Gaudry found among the +fossils of Attica the successive stages by which the ancient and +undeveloped civets passed into the more modern and specialised tribe of +the hyænas; Marsh traced out in Western America the ancestry of the +horse from a five-toed creature no bigger than a fox, through +intermediate four-toed and three-toed forms, to the existing single +solid-hoofed type with its digits reduced to the minimum of unity; and +Filhol unearthed among the phosphorites of Quercy the common progenitor +of the most distinct among the recent carnivores, the cats and the dogs, +the plantigrade bears and the digitigrade pumas. 'So far as the animal +world is concerned,' Professor Huxley said in conclusion, reviewing +these additions to the evidence upon that memorable occasion, 'evolution +is no longer a speculation but a statement of historical fact.' Of +Darwin himself he remarked truly, 'He has lived long enough to outlast +detraction and opposition, and to see the stone that the builders +rejected become the head-stone of the corner.' + +It was in 1881 that Darwin published his last volume, 'The Formation of +Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.' In this singularly +fascinating and interesting monograph he took in hand one of the +lowliest and humblest of living forms, the common earthworm, and by an +exhaustive study of its habits and manners strove to show how the +entire existence of vegetable mould--the ordinary covering of fertile +soil upon the face of the earth--is due to the long but unobtrusive +action of these little-noticed and ever-active architects. By the acids +which they evolve, they appear to aid largely in the disintegration of +the stone beneath the surface; by their constant practice of eating +fallen leaves, which they drag down with them into their subterranean +burrows, they produce the fine castings of soft earth, so familiar to +everybody, and thus reinstate the coating of humus above the bare rock +as often as it is washed away again in the course of ordinary denudation +by the rain and the torrents. It is true that subsequent investigation +has shown the possibility of vegetable mould existing under certain +conditions without the intervention of worms to any marked extent; but, +as a whole, there can be little doubt that over most parts of the world +the presence of soil, and therefore of the vegetable growth rooted in +it, is entirely due to the unsuspected yet ceaseless activity of these +humble creatures. + +The germ of the earthworm theory appears to me to have been first +suggested to Darwin's mind by a passage in a work where one would little +have suspected it--White's 'Natural History of Selborne.' 'Earthworms,' +says the idyllic Hampshire naturalist, 'though in appearance a small and +despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a +lamentable chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some +quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to +be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely +without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and +rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing +straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up +such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being +their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably +provide new soils for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth +away; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. +Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former, +because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and +the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But +these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become +cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and, consequently, sterile.' + +If Darwin ever read this interesting passage, which he almost certainly +must at some time have done, it would appear that he had overlooked it +in later life; for he, who was habitually so candid and careful in the +acknowledgment of all his obligations, however great or however small, +does not make any mention of it at all in his 'Vegetable Mould,' though +he alludes incidentally to some other observations of Gilbert White's on +the minor habits and manners of earthworms. But whether Darwin was +originally indebted to White or not for the foundation of his theory on +the subject of mould, the important point to notice is really this, that +what with the observant parson of Selborne was but a casual glimpse, the +mere passing suggestion of a fruitful idea, became with Darwin, in his +wider fashion, a carefully elaborated and powerfully buttressed theory, +supported by long and patient investigation, ample experiment, and vast +collections of minute facts. The difference is strikingly characteristic +of the strong point of Darwin's genius. While he had all the breadth and +universality of the profoundest thinkers, he had also all the marvellous +and inexhaustible patience of the most precise and special microscopical +student. + +For years, indeed, Darwin studied the ways and instincts of the common +earthworm with the same close and accurate observation which he gave to +every other abstruse subject that engaged in any way his acute +intellect. The lawyer's maxim, 'De minimis lex non curat,' he used to +say, never truly applies to science. As early as the year 1837 he read a +paper, before the Geological Society of London, 'On the Formation of +Mould,' in which he developed with some fulness the mother idea of his +complete theory on the earthworm question. He there showed that layers +of cinders, marl, or ashes, which had been strewn thickly over the +surface of meadows, were found a few years after at a depth of some +inches beneath the turf, yet still forming in spite of their burial a +regular and fairly horizontal stratum. This apparent sinking of the +stones, he believed, was due to the quantity of fine earth brought up to +the surface by worms in the form of castings. It was objected to his +theory at the time that the work supposed to be accomplished by the +worms was out of all reasonable proportion to the size and numbers of +the alleged actors. Here Darwin's foot was on his native heath; he felt +himself immediately on solid ground again. The cumulative importance of +separately infinitesimal elements is indeed the very keynote and special +peculiarity of the great biologist's method of thinking. He had found +out in very truth that many a little makes a mickle, that the infinitely +small, infinitely repeated, may become in process of infinite years +infinitely important. So he set himself to work, with characteristic +contempt of time, to weigh and measure worms and worm-castings. + +He began by keeping tame earthworms in flower-pots in his own house, +counting the number of worms and burrows in certain measured spaces of +pasture or garden, and starting his long and slow experiment in his +field at Down already alluded to. He tried issues on their senses, on +their instincts, on their emotions, on their intelligence; he watched +them darting wildly like rabbits into their holes when alarmed from +without, overcoming engineering difficulties in dragging down +oddly-shaped or unfamiliar leaves, and protecting the open mouths of +their tunnels from intruders with a little defensive military glacis of +rounded pebbles. He found that more than 53,000 worms on an average +inhabit every acre of garden land, and that a single casting sometimes +weighs as much as three ounces avoirdupois. Ten tons of soil per acre +pass annually through their bodies, and mould is thrown up by them at an +average rate of 22 inches in a century. Careful observations on the +stones of Stonehenge; on the tiled floors of buried buildings; on Roman +ruins at Silchester and Wroxeter, and on his own meadows and pastures at +Down, finally enabled the cautious experimenter to prove conclusively +the truth of his thesis, and to present to the world the despised +earthworm in a new character, as the friend of man and of agriculture, +the producer and maintainer of the vegetable mould on our hills or +valleys, and the prime cause of the very existence of that cloak of +greensward that clothes our lawns, our fields, and our pleasure-grounds. + +It was his last work. Persistent ill-health and equally persistent study +for seventy-three years had broken down a constitution never really +strong, and consumed from within by the ceaseless fires of its own +overpowering and undying energy. On Tuesday, April the 18th, 1882, he +was seized at midnight by violent pains, and at four o'clock on +Wednesday afternoon he died suddenly in his son's arms, after a very +short but painful illness. So retired was the family life at Down that +the news of the great biologist's death was not actually known in London +itself till two days after he had breathed his last. + +The universal regret and grief expressed at the loss in all civilised +countries was the best measure of the immense change of front which had +slowly come over the whole educated community, in the twenty-three years +since the first publication of the 'Origin of Species.' No sooner was +Darwin's death announced than all lands and all classes vied with one +another in their eagerness to honour the name and memory of the great +biologist. Indeed, the spontaneous and immediate nature of the outburst +of regret and affectionate regard which followed hard upon the news of +Darwin's death, astonished even those who had watched closely the +extraordinary revolution the man himself had brought so well to its +final consummation. In England, it was felt instinctively on every side +that the great naturalist's proper place was in the aisles of +Westminster, hard by the tomb of Newton, his immortal predecessor. To +this universal and deep-seated feeling Darwin's family regretfully +sacrificed their own natural preference for a quiet interment in the +graveyard at Down. On the Wednesday morning next after his death, +Charles Darwin's remains were borne with unwonted marks, of respect and +ceremony, in the assembled presence of all that was noble and good in +Britain, to an honoured grave in the precincts of the great Abbey. +Wallace and Huxley, Lubbock and Hooker, his nearest peers in the domain +of pure science, stood among the bearers who held the pall. Lowell +represented the republics of America and of letters. Statesmen, and +poets, and philosophers, and theologians mingled with the throng of +scientific thinkers who crowded close around the venerated bier. No +incident of fitting pomp or dignity was wanting as the organ pealed out +in solemn strains the special anthem composed for the occasion, to the +appropriate words of the Hebrew poet, 'Happy is the man that findeth +wisdom.' Even the narrow Philistine intelligence itself, which still +knew Darwin only as the man who thought we were all descended from +monkeys, was impressed with the sole standard of greatness open to its +feeble and shallow comprehension by the mere solemnity and ceremony of +the occasion, and began to enquire with blind wonderment what this +thinker had done whom a whole people thus delighted to honour. + +Of Darwin's pure and exalted moral nature no Englishman of the present +generation can trust himself to speak with becoming moderation. His love +of truth, his singleness of heart, his sincerity, his earnestness, his +modesty, his candour, his absolute sinking of self and +selfishness--these, indeed, are all conspicuous to every reader, on the +very face of every word he ever printed. Like his works themselves, they +must long outlive him. But his sympathetic kindliness, his ready +generosity, the staunchness of his friendship, the width and depth and +breadth of his affections, the manner in which 'he bore with those who +blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return,' these things can +never so well be known to any other generation of men as to the three +generations who walked the world with him. Many even of those who did +not know him loved him like a father; to many who never saw his face, +the hope of winning Charles Darwin's approbation and regard was the +highest incentive to thought and action. Towards younger men, +especially, his unremitting kindness was always most noteworthy: he +spoke and wrote to them, not like one of the masters in Israel, but like +a fellow-worker and seeker after truth, interested in their interests, +pleased at their successes, sympathetic with their failures, gentle to +their mistakes. Not that he ever spared rightful criticism; on the +contrary, the love of truth was with him so overpowering and enthralling +a motive that he pointed out what seemed to him errors or misconceptions +in the work of others with perfect frankness, fully expecting them to be +as pleased and delighted at a suggested amendment of their faulty +writing as he himself was in his own case. But his praise was as +generous as his criticism was frank; and, amid all the toil of his +laborious life in his study at Down, he could always find time to read +and comment at full length upon whatever fresh contributions to his own +subjects the merest tyro might venture to submit for his consideration. +He had the sympathetic receptivity of all truly great minds, and when +he died, thousands upon thousands who had never beheld his serene +features and his fatherly eyes felt they had lost indeed a personal +friend. + +Greatness is not always joined with gentleness: in Charles Darwin's +case, by universal consent of all who knew him, 'an intellect which had +no superior' was wedded to 'a character even nobler than the +intellect.' + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT. + + +To most people Darwinism and evolution mean one and the same thing. +After what has here been said, however, with regard to the pre-Darwinian +evolutionary movement, and the distinction between the doctrines of +descent with modification and of natural selection, it need hardly be +added that the two are quite separate and separable in thought, even +within the limits of the purely restricted biological order. Darwinism +is only a part of organic evolution; the theory, as a whole, owes much +to Darwin, but it does not owe everything to him alone. There were +biological evolutionists before ever he published the 'Origin of +Species;' there are biological evolutionists even now who refuse to +accept the truth of his great discovery, and who cling firmly to the +primitive faith set forth in earlier and cruder shapes by Erasmus +Darwin, by Lamarck, or by Robert Chambers. + +Much more, then, must Darwinism and the entire theory of organic +development to which it belongs be carefully discriminated, as a part or +factor, from evolution at large, as a universal and all-embracing +cosmical system. That system itself has gradually emerged as a slow +growth of the past two centuries, a progressive development of the +collective scientific and philosophical mind of humanity, not due in its +totality to any one single commanding thinker, but summing itself up at +last in our own time more fully in the person and teaching of Mr. +Herbert Spencer than of any other solitary mouthpiece. Indeed, +intimately as we all now associate the name of Darwin with the word +'evolution,' that term itself (whose vogue is almost entirely due to Mr. +Spencer's influence) was one but rarely found upon Darwin's own lips, +and but rarely written by his own pen. He speaks rather of development +and of natural selection than of evolution: his own concern was more +with its special aspect as biological modification than with its general +aspect as cosmical unfolding. Let us ask, then, from this wider +standpoint of a great and far-reaching mental revolution, what was +Charles Darwin's exact niche in the evolutionary movement of the two +last centuries? + +Evolutionism, as now commonly understood, may be fairly regarded as a +mode of envisaging to ourselves the history of the universe, a tendency +or frame of mind, a temperament, one might almost say, or habit of +thought rather than a definite creed or body of dogmas. The evolutionist +looks out upon the cosmos as a continuous process unfolding itself in +regular order in obedience to definite natural laws. He sees in it all, +not a warring chaos restrained by the constant interference from without +of a wise and beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of +original elements, perpetually working out their own fresh +redistribution, in accordance with their own inherent energies. He +regards the cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material atoms, +animated by an almost infinite sum-total of energy, potential or +kinetic. + +In the very beginning, so far as the mental vision of the astronomer can +dimly pierce with hypothetical glance the abyss of ages, the matter +which now composes the material universe seems to have existed in a +highly diffuse and nebulous condition. The gravitative force, however, +with which every atom of the whole vast mass was primarily endowed, +caused it gradually to aggregate around certain fixed and definite +centres, which became in time the rallying-points or nuclei of future +suns. The primitive potential energy of separation in the atoms of the +mass was changed into actual energy of motion as they drew closer and +closer together about the common centre, and into molecular energy or +heat as they clashed with one another in bodily impact around the +hardening core. Thus arose stars and suns, composed of fiery atomic +clouds in a constant state of progressive concentration, ever +gathering-in the hem of their outer robes on the surface of the solid +globe within, and ever radiating off their store of associated energy to +the impalpable and hypothetical surrounding ether. This, in necessarily +brief and shadowy abstract, is the nebular theory of Kant and Laplace, +as amended and supplemented by the modern doctrine of the correlation +and conservation of energies. + +Applied to the solar system, of which our own planet forms a component +member, the evolutionary doctrine (in its elder shape) teaches us to +envisage that minor group as the final result of a single great diffuse +nebula, which once spread its faint and cloud-like mass with +inconceivable tenuity, at least as far from its centre, now occupied by +the sun's body, as the furthest point in the orbit of Neptune, the +outermost of the yet known planets. From this remote and immense +periphery it has gradually gathered itself in, growing denser and denser +all the time, towards its common core, and has left behind, at irregular +intervals, concentric rings or belts of nebulous matter, which, after +rupturing at their weakest point, have hardened and concentrated round +their own centre of gravity into Jupiter, Saturn, the Earth, or Venus. +The main central body of all, retreating ever within as it dropped in +its course the raw material of the planetary masses, has formed, at +last, the sun, the great ruler and luminary of our system. Much as this +primitive evolutionary concept of the development and history of the +solar system has been modified and altered of late years by recent +researches into the nature of comets and meteors and of the sun's +surface, it still remains for all practical purposes of popular +exposition the best and simplest mental picture of the general type of +astronomical evolution. For the essential point which it impresses upon +the mind is the idea of the planets in their several orbits and with +their attendant satellites as due, not to external design and special +creation, in the exact order in which we now see them, but to the slow +and regular working out of preordained physical laws, in accordance with +which they have each naturally assumed, by pure force of circumstances, +their existing size, and weight, and orbit, and position. + +Geology has applied a similar conception to the origin and becoming of +the earth's material and external features as we now know them. +Accepting from astronomy the notion of our planet's primary condition as +a cooling sphere of incandescent matter, it goes on to show how the two +great envelopes, atmospheric and oceanic, gaseous and liquid, have +gradually formed around its solid core; how the hard crust of the +central mass has been wrinkled and corrugated into mountain chain and +deep-cut valley, uplifted here into elevated table-land or there +depressed into hollow ocean bed; how sediment has slowly gathered on the +floor of the sea, and how volcanic energies or lateral pressure have +subsequently forced up the resulting deposits into Alpine peaks and +massive continents. In this direction, it was Lyell who principally +introduced into science the uniformitarian or evolutionary principle, +who substituted for the frequent cataclysms and fresh beginnings of the +earlier geologists the grand conception of continuous action, producing +from comparatively infinitesimal but cumulative causes effects which at +last attain by accretion the most colossal proportions. + +Here biology next steps in, with its splendid explanation of organic +life, as due essentially to the secondary action of radiated solar +energy on the outer crust of such a cooling and evolving planet. Falling +on the cells of the simplest green plants, the potent sunlight +dissociates the carbon from the oxygen in the carbonic acid floating in +the atmosphere, and builds it up with the hydrogen of water in the +tissues of the organism into starches and other organic products, which +differ from the inert substances around them, mainly by the possession +of locked-up solar energy. On the energy-yielding food-stuffs thus +stored up the animal in turn feeds and battens, reducing what was before +potential into actual motion, just as the steam-engine reduces the +latent solar energy of coal into visible heat and visible movement in +its furnace and its machinery. How the first organism came to exist +biology has not yet been able fully to explain for us; but aided by +chemical science it has been able to show us in part how some of the +simpler organic bodies may have been originally built up, and it does +not despair of showing us in the end how the earliest organism may +actually have been produced from the prime elements of oxygen, hydrogen, +nitrogen, and carbon. Into this most fundamental of biological problems, +however, Darwin himself, with his constitutional caution and dread of +speculative theorising, was not careful or curious to enter. Even upon +the far less abstruse and hypothetical question, whether all life took +its prime origin from a single starting-point or from several distinct +and separate tribal ancestors, he hardly cared so much as to hazard a +passing speculation. With splendid self-restraint he confined his +attention almost entirely to the more manageable and practical problem +of the origin of species by natural selection, which lay then and there +open for solution before him. Taking for granted the existence of the +original organism or group of organisms, the fact of reproduction, and +the tendency of such reproduction to beget increase in a geometrical +ratio, he deduced from these elementary given factors the necessary +corollary of survival of the fittest, with all its marvellous and +far-reaching implications of adaptation to the environment and specific +distinctions. By doing so, he rendered conceivable the mechanism of +evolution in the organic world, thus bringing another great aspect of +external nature within the range of the developmental as opposed to the +miraculous philosophy of the cosmos. + +Psychology, once more, in the hands of Herbert Spencer and his +followers, not wholly unaided by Darwin himself, has extended the +self-same evolutionary treatment to the involved and elusive phenomena +of mind, and has shown how from the simplest unorganised elements of +feeling, the various mental powers and faculties as we now know them, +both on the intellectual and on the emotional side, have been slowly +built up in the long and ever-varying interaction between the sentient +organism and the natural environment. It has traced the first faint +inception of a nervous system as a mere customary channel of +communication between part and part; the gradual growth of fibre and +ganglion; the vague beginnings of external sense-organ and internal +brain; the final perfection of eye and ear, of sight and hearing, of +pleasure and pain, of intellect and volition. It has thus done for the +subjective or mental half of our complex nature what biology, as +conceived by Darwin, has done for the physical or purely organic half; +it has traced the origin and development of mind, without a single +break, from its first faint and half-unconscious manifestation in the +polyp or the jelly-fish to its final grand and varied outcome in the +soul of the poet or the intellect of the philosopher. + +Finally, sociology has applied the evolutionary method to the origin and +rise of human societies, with their languages, customs, arts, and +institutions, their governmental organisation and their ecclesiastical +polity. Taking from biology the evolving savage, viewed as a developed +and highly gifted product of the anthropoid stock, it has shown by what +stages and through what causes he has slowly aggregated into tribes and +nations; has built up his communal, polygamic, or monogamic family; has +learnt the use of fire, of implements, of pottery, of metals; has +developed the whole resources of oral speech and significant gesture; +has invented writing, pictorial or alphabetic; has grown up to science, +to philosophy, to morals, and to religion. The chief honours of this +particular line of enquiry, the latest and youngest of all to receive +the impact of the evolutionary impulse, belong mainly to Tylor, Lubbock, +and Spencer in England, and to Haeckel, De Mortillet, and Wagner on the +continent. + +In the sublime conception of the external universe and its present +workings which we thus owe to the independent efforts of so many great +progressive thinkers, and which has here been briefly and inadequately +sketched out, Darwin's work in life falls naturally into its own place +as the principal contribution to the evolutionary movement in the +special biological department of thought. Within the more limited range +of that department itself, the evolutionary impulse did not owe its +origin to Charles Darwin personally; it took its rise with Erasmus +Darwin, Buffon, and Lamarck, and it derived from our great modern +English naturalist its final explanation and definitive proof alone. But +just as the evolutionary movement in astronomy and cosmical thought is +rightly associated in all our minds with the mighty theories of Kant, +Laplace, and Herschel; just as the evolutionary movement in geology is +rightly associated with the far lesser yet brilliant and effective +personality of Lyell; just as the evolutionary movement in the +derivative sciences is rightly associated with so many great still +living thinkers; so the evolutionary movement in biology in particular +rightly sums itself up in the honoured name of Charles Darwin. For what +others suspected, he was the first to prove; where others speculated, he +was the first to observe, to experiment, to demonstrate, and to +convince. + +It should be noted, too, that while to us who come after, the great +complex evolutionary movement of the two last centuries justly reveals +itself as one and indivisible, a single grand cosmical drama, having +many acts and many scenes, but all alike inspired by one informing and +pervading unity, yet to those whose half unconscious co-operation slowly +built it up by episodes, piecemeal, each act and each scene unrolled +itself separately as an end in itself, to be then and there attained and +proved, quite apart from the conception of its analytic value as a part +in a great harmonious natural poem of the constitution of things. Though +evolution appears to us now as a single grand continuous process, a +phase of the universe dependent upon a preponderating aggregation of +matter and dissipation of energy, yet to Kant and Laplace it was the +astronomical aspect alone that proved attractive, to Darwin it was the +biological aspect alone, and to many of the modern workers in the minor +fields it is the human and sociological aspect that almost monopolises +the whole wide mental horizon. No greater proof can be given of the +subjective distinctness of parts in what was objectively and +fundamentally a single broad psychological revolution of the human mind, +than the fact that Lyell himself, who more than any one man had +introduced the evolutionary conception into the treatment of geology, +should have stood out so long and fought so blindly against the +evolutionary conception in the organic world. Indeed, it was not until +the various scattered and many-coloured strands of evolutionary thought +had been gathered together and woven into one by the vast catholic and +synthetic intelligence of Herbert Spencer that the idea of evolution as +a whole, as a single continuous cosmical process, began to be +apprehended and gradually assimilated by the picked intelligences of the +several distinct scientific departments. + +Observe also that the evolutionary method has invaded each of the +concrete sciences in the exact order of their natural place in the +hierarchy of knowledge. It had been applied to astronomy by Kant and +Laplace before it was applied to geology by Lyell; it had been applied +to geology by Lyell before it was applied to biology by Darwin; it had +been applied to biology (in part, at least) by Lamarck and the Darwins +before it was applied to psychology by Spencer; and it is only at the +very end of all that it has been applied to sociology and the allied +branches of thought by a hundred different earnest workers in +contemporary Europe. Each stage helped on the next; each was dependent +only on those that went naturally before it, and aided in turn the +subsequent development of those that naturally came after it. + +Nevertheless, the popular instinct which regards Darwinism and evolution +as practically synonymous is to a large extent justified by the actual +facts of the psychological upheaval. Darwin's work forms on the whole +the central keystone of the evolutionary system, and deserves the honour +which has been thrust upon it of supporting by its own mass the entire +superstructure of the development theory. + +For, in the first place, Darwin had to deal with the science of life, +the science where the opposition to evolutionism was sure to be +strongest, and where the forces and tendencies in favour of obscurantism +were sure to gather in fullest force. Every other great onward step in +our knowledge of our own relation to the universe of which we form a +part had been compelled indeed to run the gauntlet, in its own time, of +ecclesiastical censure and of popular dislike. Those inveterate +prejudices of human ignorance which sedulously hide their genuine shape +under the guise of dogma masquerading as religion, had long since +brought to bear their baneful resources upon the discoveries of +Copernicus and the theories of Galileo, as blind, misleading, and +diabolical lights, opposed to the sure and certain warranty of Holy +Scripture. Newton, again, had in due time been blamed in that he boldly +substituted (as his critics declared) the bald and barren formula of +gravitation for the personal superintendence of a divine Providence. +Laplace had been accused of dethroning the deity from the centre and +governance of his celestial system. Around the early geologists the +battle of the six days of creation had raged fiercely for nearly half a +century. But all these varying modes of thought, though deemed heretical +enough in their own day, had touched, as it were, but the minor +ramparts and unimportant out-works of the great obscurantist dogmatic +strongholds: Darwinism, by openly attacking the inmost problems of life +and mind, had brought to bear its powerful artillery upon the very keep +and highest tower of the fortress itself. The belief that the various +stars, planets, and satellites had or had not been wisely created in +their existing positions, and with their present orbits, movements, and +relations accurately fore-measured, did not fundamentally affect, for +good or evil, the cherished dogmas of the ordinary multitude. But the +analogous belief in the distinct and separate creation of plants and +animals, and more especially of the human species, was far more closely +and intimately bound up with all the current religious conceptions. It +was at first supposed, not perhaps without some practical wisdom, that +to upset the primitive faith in the separate creation of living beings +was to loosen and imperil the very foundations of common morality and +revealed religion. The 'argument from design' had been immemorially +regarded as the principal buttress of orthodox thought. Theologians had +unwisely staked their all upon the teleological dogma, and could ill +afford to retire without a blow from that tenaciously defended bastion +of their main position. Hence the evolutionary concept had its hardest +fight to wage over the biological field; and when that field was once +fairly won, it had little more to fear from banded preconceptions and +established prejudices in any other portion of the wide territory it +claimed for its own. + +In the second place, biological evolution, firmly established by Darwin +on a safe, certain, and unimpeachable basis, led naturally and almost +inevitably to all the other innumerable applications of the +evolutionary method, in the domains of psychology, sociology, philology, +political thought, and ethical science. Hence the immediate and visible +results of its promulgation have been far more striking, noticeable, and +evident than those which followed the establishment of the evolutionary +conception in the astronomical and geological departments. It was +possible to accept cosmical evolution and solar evolution and planetary +evolution, without at the same time accepting evolution in the +restricted field of life and mind. But it was impossible to accept +evolution in biology without at the same time extending its application +to psychology, to the social organism, to language, to ethics, to all +the thousand and one varied interests of human life and human +development. Now, most people are little moved by speculations and +hypotheses as to the origin of the milky way or the belt of Orion; they +care very slightly for Jupiter's moons or Saturn's rings; they are +stolidly incurious as to the development of the earth's crust, or the +precise date of the cretaceous epoch; but they understand and begin to +be touched the moment you come to the practical questions of man's +origin, nature, and history. Darwinism compelled their attention by its +immediate connection with their own race; and the proof of this truth is +amply shown by the mere fact that out of all the immense variety of +Charles Darwin's theories and ideas, the solitary one which alone has +succeeded in attaching to itself the public interest and public ridicule +is the theory of man's ultimate descent from a monkey-like ancestor. +Popular instinct, here as elsewhere profoundly true at core in the midst +of all its superficial foolishness, has rightly hit upon the central +element in the Darwinian conception which more than any other has caused +its fruitful and wonderful expansion through every fertile field of +human enquiry. + +In short, it was Darwin's task in life to draw down evolution from +heaven to earth, and to bring within the scope of its luminous method +all that is most interesting to the uninstructed and unsophisticated +heart of the natural man. + +The application of the evolutionary principle to the world of life, +human or animal, thus presents itself as the chief philosophic and +scientific achievement of the nineteenth century. Throughout the whole +middle decades of the present age, the human mind in all its highest +embodiments was eagerly searching, groping, and enquiring after a +naturalistic explanation of the origin and progress of organic life. In +the vast scheme for the System of Synthetic Philosophy which Herbert +Spencer set forth as an anticipatory synopsis of his projected work, the +philosopher of development leapt at once from the First Principles of +evolution as a whole to the Principles of Biology, Psychology, and +Sociology, omitting all reference to the application of evolution to the +vast field of inorganic nature; and he did so on the distinctly stated +ground that its application to organic nature was then and there more +important and interesting. That suggestive expression of belief aptly +sums up the general attitude of scientific and philosophic minds at the +precise moment of the advent of Darwinism. Kant and Laplace and Lyell +had already applied the evolutionary method to suns and systems, to +planets and continents; what was needed next was that some deeply +learned and universally equipped biological leader should help the lame +evolutionism of Lamarck over the organic stile, and leave it free to +roam the boundless fields of what Mr. Spencer has sometimes well +described as the super-organic sciences. For that office, Darwin at the +exact moment presented himself; and his victory and its results rightly +entitle him to the popular regard as the founder of all that most men +mean when they speak together in everyday conversation of the doctrine +of evolution. + +On the other hand, the total esoteric philosophic conception of +evolution as a cosmical process, one and continuous from nebula to man, +from star to soul, from atom to society, we owe rather to the other +great prophet of the evolutionary creed, Herbert Spencer, whose name +will ever be equally remembered side by side with his mighty peer's, in +a place of high collateral glory. It is he who has given us the general +definition of evolution as a progress from an indefinite, incoherent +homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, accompanying an +integration of matter and dissipation of motion, or, as we should now +perhaps more correctly say, of energy. In the establishment of the +various lines of thought which merge at last in that magnificent +cosmical law, it was Darwin's special task to bring the phenomena of +organic life well within the clear ken of known and invariable natural +processes. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE NET RESULT. + + +And now let us ask ourselves, in all sincerity, what was the final +outcome and net result of Darwin's great and useful life? + +If Charles Darwin had never existed at all, there would still have been +a considerable and expansive evolutionary movement both in biology and +in its sister sciences throughout the latter half of the present +century. The harvest indeed was ready, and the labourers, though few, +were full of vigour. Suppose for a moment that that earnest and +single-hearted Darwinian genius had been cut off by some untimely +disease of childhood at five years old, all other conditions remaining +as they were, we should even so have had in our midst to-day, a small +philosophical and influential band of evolutionary workers. Spencer +would none the less have given us his 'First Principles' and the major +part of his 'Principles of Biology,' with comparatively little +alteration or omission. Wallace would none the less have promulgated his +inchoate theory of natural selection, and rallied round his primordial +conception the very best and deepest minds of the biological fraction. +Geology would have enforced the continuity of types; Cope and Marsh +would have unearthed for our edification the ancestral forms of the +evolving horse and the toothed birds of the Western American deposits. +The Solenhofen lithographic slates would still have yielded us the +half-reptilian, half-avian Archæopteryx; the tertiary deposits would +still have presented us with a long suite of gradually specialised and +modified mammalian forms. The Siberian meadows would have sent us that +intermediate creature which Prjevalsky recognises as the half-way house +between the horses and the donkeys; the rivers of Queensland would have +disclosed to our view that strange lung-bearing and gill-breathing +barramunda, in which Günther discerns the missing link between the +ganoid fishes on the one hand, and the mudfish and salamandroid +amphibians on the other. From data such as these, biologists and +palæontologists of the calibre of Huxley, Gaudry, Geikie, Rütimeyer, and +Busk, would necessarily have derived, by the aid of Wallace's pregnant +principle, conclusions not so very far remote from Darwin's own. Heer +and Saporta would have drawn somewhat similar inferences from the fossil +flora of Switzerland and of Greenland; Hooker and De Candolle would have +read pretty much the self-same lessons in the scattered ferns and scanty +palm-trees of oceanic islands. Kowalevsky would have seen in the +ascidian larva a common prototype of the vertebrate series; the +followers of Von Baer would have popularised the embryological +conception of the single origin of animal life. The researches of +Boucher de Perthes, of Lyell, of Evans, of Boyd Dawkins, of Keller, and +of Christy and Lartet, would have unrolled before our eyes, under any +circumstances, the strange story of prehistoric man. On the facts so +gained, Lubbock and Tylor, Schaafhausen and Büchner, would have built up +their various consistent theories of human development and human +culture. In short, even without Charles Darwin, the nineteenth century +would not have stood still; it would have followed in the wake of Buffon +and Diderot, of Lamarck and Laplace, of St. Hilaire and Goethe, of Kant +and Herschel, of Hutton and Lyell, of Malthus and of Spencer. The great +world never rolls down the abysses of time obedient to the nod of one +single overruling Titanic intellect. 'If the doctrine of evolution had +not existed,' says Huxley, 'palæontologists must have invented it.' + +But Charles Darwin acted, nevertheless, the part of an immense and +powerful accelerating energy. The impetus which he gave gained us at +least fifty years of progress; it sent us at a bound from Copernicus to +Newton; so far as ordinary minds were concerned, indeed, it transcended +at a single leap the whole interval from Ptolemy to Herschel. The +comparison is far from being a mere rhetorical one. A close analogy +really exists between the two cases. Before Copernicus, the earth stood +fixed and immovable in the centre of the universe, with obsequious suns, +and planets, and satellites dancing attendance in cycle and epicycle +around the solid mass, to which by day and night they continually +ministered. The great astronomical revolution begun by Copernicus, +Galileo, and Kepler, and completed by Newton, Laplace, and Herschel, +reduced the earth to its true position as a petty planet, revolving +feebly among its bigger brethren round a petty sun, in some lost corner +of a vast, majestic, and almost illimitable galaxy. Even so, before +Darwin, man stood in his own esteem the fixed point of an +anthropocentric universe, divinely born and divinely instructed, with +all the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fruits of +the earth specially created with a definite purpose in subservience to +his lordly wants and interests. The great biological revolution, which +rightly almost sums itself up in the name of Darwin, reduced man at once +to his true position as the last product of kinetic solar energy, +working upon the peculiar chemical elements of an evolving planet. It +showed that every part of every plant and every animal existed primarily +for the sake of that plant or animal alone; it unseated man from his +imaginary throne in the centre of the cosmos, teaching him at once a +lesson of humility and a lesson of aspiration--pointing out to him how +low was the origin from which, in very truth, he first sprang, and +suggesting to him, at the same time, how high was the grand and glorious +destiny to which by his own strenuous and ardent efforts he might yet +perchance some day attain. + +That result, inevitable perhaps in the long run, from the slow unfolding +of human intelligence, was immensely hastened in our own time by the +peculiar idiosyncrasy and lofty personality of Charles Darwin. Without +him we should have had, not only evolutionism, but also, as Wallace's +discovery testifies, natural selection itself into the bargain. But we +should never have had the 'Origin of Species.' We should never have had +that vast and enthusiastic consensus of scientific opinion through an +all but unanimous thinking world, which has forced an immediate +acceptance of evolutionary ideas down the unwilling throats of half +unthinking Europe. The prodigious mass of Darwin's facts, the cautious +working of Darwin's intellect, the immense weight of Darwin's +reputation, the crushing force of Darwin's masterly inductive method, +bore down before them all opposition in the inner circle of biologists, +and secured the triumph of the evolutionary system even in the very +strongholds of ignorance and obscurantism. Without Darwin, a small group +of philosophic thinkers would still be striving to impress upon an +incredulous and somewhat contemptuous world the central truths of the +evolutionary doctrine. The opposition of the elders, long headed even in +the society we actually know by a few stern scientific recalcitrants, +like Owen and Agassiz, Pictet and Dawson, Virchow and Mivart, would have +fought desperately in the last trench for the final figment of the +fixity of species. What is now the general creed, more or less loosely +held and imperfectly understood, of hundreds and thousands among the +intelligent mass, would, under such circumstances, be even yet the mere +party-shibboleth of an esoteric few, struggling hard against the bare +force of overwhelming numbers to ensure not only recognition but a fair +hearing for the first principles of the development theory. It is to +Darwin, and to Darwin almost alone, that we owe the present +comparatively wide acceptance of the all-embracing doctrine of +evolution. + +No other man did so much or could have done so much to ensure its +triumph. He began early in life to collect and arrange a vast +encyclopædia of facts, all finally focussed with supreme skill upon the +great principle he so clearly perceived, and so lucidly expounded. He +brought to bear upon the question an amount of personal observation, of +minute experiment, of world-wide book-knowledge, of universal scientific +ability, such as never perhaps was lavished by any other man upon any +other department of study. His conspicuous and beautiful love of truth, +his unflinching candour, his transparent fearlessness and honesty of +purpose, his child-like simplicity, his modesty of demeanour, his +charming manner, his affectionate disposition, his kindliness to friends, +his courtesy to opponents, his gentleness to harsh and often bitter +assailants, kindled in the minds of men of science everywhere throughout +the world a contagious enthusiasm, only equalled perhaps among the +disciples of Socrates and the great teachers of the revival of learning. +His name became a rallying-point for the children of light in every +country; and what philosophers and speculators might have taken a +century or two more to establish in embryo was firmly grounded, never to +be overthrown, by the vast accumulations of fact and argument in the +'Origin of Species,' and its companion volumes. + +The end of that great Darwinian revolution the world has not yet seen: +in a sense, indeed, it will never see it. For the general acceptance of +Darwin's theory, which we may watch progressing around us every minute +to-day, implies a complete _bouleversement_ of anthropocentric ideas, a +total change in our human conception of our own relations to the world +and the universe, which must work out for ever increasingly +wide-reaching and complex effects in all our dealings with one another +and with the environment at large. There is no department of human +thought or human action which evolutionism leaves exactly where it +stood before the advent of the Darwinian conception. In nothing is this +fact more conspicuously seen than in the immediate obsolescence (if one +may so speak) of all the statical pre-Darwinian philosophies which +ignored development, as soon as ever the new progressive evolutionary +theories had fairly burst upon an astonished world. Dogmatic Comte was +left forthwith to his little band of devoted adherents; shadowy Hegel +was relegated with a bow to the cool shades of the common-rooms of +Oxford; Buckle was exploded like an inflated wind-bag; even Mill +himself--_magnum et venerabile nomen_--with all his mighty steam-hammer +force of logical directness, was felt instinctively to be lacking in +full appreciation of the dynamic and kinetic element in universal +nature. Spencer and Hartmann, Haeckel and Clifford, had the field to +themselves for the establishment of their essentially evolutionary +systems. Great thinkers of the elder generation, like Bain and Lyell, +felt bound to remodel their earlier conceptions by the light of the new +Darwinian hypotheses. Those who failed by congenital constitution to do +so, like Carlyle and Carpenter, were, philosophically speaking, left +hopelessly behind and utterly extinguished. Those who only half +succeeded in thus reading themselves into the new ideas, like Lewes and +Max Müller, lost ground immediately before the eager onslaught of their +younger competitors. 'The world is to the young,' says the eastern +proverb; and in a world peopled throughout in the high places of thought +by men almost without exception evolutionists, there was little or no +place for the timid group of stranded Girondins, who still stood aloof +in sullen antique scientific orthodoxy from what seemed to them the +carmagnoles and orgies of a biological Thermidor. + +At the same time, it must be steadily remembered that there are many +naturalists at the present day, especially among those of the lower +order of intelligence, who, while accepting evolutionism in a general +way, and therefore always describing themselves as Darwinians, do not +believe and often cannot even understand the distinctive Darwinian +addition to the evolutionary doctrine--namely, the principle of natural +selection. Such hazy and indistinct thinkers as these are still really +at the prior stage of Lamarckian evolutionism. It is probable that in +the future, while a formal acceptance of Darwinism becomes general, the +special theory of natural selection will be thoroughly understood and +assimilated only by the more abstract and philosophical minds. Our +children will be taught as a matter of course the doctrine of +development or of descent with modification; but the rationale of that +descent will still remain in all likelihood always beyond the grasp of +most of them: just as thousands accept on authority the Copernican +astronomy, who would never even be capable of comprehending the simplest +proofs of the earth's annual movement round the sun. Thus the name of +Darwin will often no doubt be tacked on to what are in reality the +principles of Lamarck. + +Every day, however, in spite of such half-ignorant adherents, the +effects of true Darwinism are widening and deepening. One group of +earnest workers is using it now as a guide to physiological, +embryological, and anatomical researches. Another is employing it with +zeal and skill in the field of classificatory and physiological botany. +Yet others are working out its psychological implications, enquiring +into instinct and animal intelligence, and solving by its aid abstruse +problems of the human mind and the human emotions. One philosopher has +brought it to bear on questions of ethics, another on questions of +social and political economy. Its principles have been applied in one +place to æsthetics, in another place to logic, in a third place to the +origin and growth of religion. The study of language has derived new +lights from the great central Darwinian luminary. The art of education +is beginning to feel the progressive influence of the Darwinian impulse. +In fact, there is hardly a single original worker in any department of +thought or science who has not been more or less profoundly affected, +whether he knows it or whether he knows it not, by the vast spreading +and circling wave of the Darwinian conceptions. All our ideas have been +revolutionised and evolutionised. The new notions are abroad in the +world, quickening with their fresh and vigorous germinal power the dry +bones of all the sciences, all the arts, and all the philosophies. + +And evolutionism is gradually though slowly filtering downward. It is +permeating the daily press of the nations, and gaining for its +vocabulary a recognised place in the phraseology of the unlearned +vulgar. Such expressions as 'natural selection,' 'survival of the +fittest,' 'struggle for existence,' 'adaptation to the environment,' and +all the rest of it, are becoming as household words upon the lips of +thousands who only know the name of Darwin as a butt for the petty empty +jibes of infinitesimal cheap witlings. And Darwinism will trickle down +still through a thousand channels, by definite popularisation, and still +more by indefinite absorption into the common thought of universal +humanity, till it becomes part and parcel of the general inheritance, +bred in our bone and burnt into our blood, an heir-loom of our race to +all time and in all countries. Great thoughts like his do not readily +die: they expand and grow in ten thousand bosoms, till they transform +the world at last into their own likeness, and adapt it to the +environment they have themselves created by their informing power. + +Happy above ordinary human happiness, Charles Darwin lived himself to +see the prosperous beginning of this great silent philosophical +revolution. Harvey's grand discovery, it has been well said, was scoffed +at for nearly a whole generation. Newton's marvellous law of gravitation +was coldly received even by the gigantic intellect of Leibnitz himself. +Francis Bacon, in disgrace and humiliation, could only commend his name +and memory 'to foreign nations and to the next age.' It is too often so +with thinkers of the first and highest order: it was not so, happily, +with the gentle soul of Charles Darwin. Alone among the prophets and +teachers of triumphant creeds, he saw with his own eyes the adoption of +the faith he had been the first to promulgate in all its fulness by +every fresh and powerful mind of the younger race that grew up around +him. The Nestor of evolutionism, he had lived among two successive +generations of thinkers, and over the third he ruled as king. With that +crowning joy of a great, a noble, and a happy life, let us leave him +here alone in his glory. + + + + +INDEX. + + + AGASSIZ + Anticipations of natural selection + 'Antiquity of Man' + Astronomy + + BADEN-POWELL + Bahia + Bates; in Brazil; on mimicry + 'Beagle,' voyage of the; Zoology of + Bell, Sir C. + Boucher de Perthes + Brazil + British Association + Buffon + + CHAMBERS, Robert; his 'Vestiges of Creation' + Colenso on the Pentateuch + 'Coral Reefs' + Cuvier; as a geologist; system of animals + + DARWIN, Charles, his ancestry; birth; birthplace; contemporaries; + education; at Edinburgh University; at Cambridge; starts on the + voyage of the 'Beagle'; returns to England; publishes his journal; + plans 'Origin of Species'; elected to Royal Society; secretary to + Geological Society; marries; publishes 'Coral Reefs'; geological + observations; Monograph on Barnacles; publishes 'Origin of Species'; + its success; second edition; variation of animals and plants; + pangenesis; fertilisation of orchids; 'Descent of Man'; later works; + last illness and death; character; place in evolutionary movement; + outcome of his work + + DARWIN, Erasmus; his life; appearance; poems; 'Zoonomia'; 'Temple + of Nature'; his marriages; on descent of man; on sexual selection + + Darwin, Erasmus, the younger + Darwin, Robert + Darwin, Robert Waring; his home + De Candolle + Down House, Darwin settles at + Du Chaillu + + EARTHWORMS + Edgeworth + Evolution, general theory of + + FILHOL + Fiske, Prof.; on natural selection + Fitzroy, Captain + Fuegians + + GALAPAGOS ISLANDS + Galton, Francis + Gaudry + Geology, rise of; evolutionary aspect of + Goethe; on animal origin of man + Gorilla + Gray, Asa + + HAECKEL, letter to; 'History of Creation'; on sexual selection + Henslow, Prof.; recommends Darwin to Capt. Fitzroy; at Oxford + Herbert, Dean + Herschel, Sir Wm. + Holland, Sir Henry + Hooker, Sir Joseph; on catasetum; accepts Darwinism; publishes his + 'Flora of Australia' + Horner, Leonard + Humboldt + Huxley, Prof., lecture at Royal Institution; 'Man's Place in + Nature'; on coming of age of 'Origin of Species' + + JUSSIEU + + KANT, nebular hypothesis + Knight's law + Kölreuter + + LAMARCK; Darwin's reading of; on descent of man + Laplace, nebular hypothesis + Lecoq + Linnæus; his artificial system + Lyell; 'Principles of Geology'; extract from letters; anticipations + of natural selection; slow acceptance of Darwinism; 'Antiquity of Man' + + MALTHUS; influence on Darwin + Matthew, Patrick; extracts from + Mimicry + Monte Video, Darwin at + Mould, formation of + Mount, the + Müller, Fritz + Müller, Hermann + Murchison + + 'NATURALIST on the Amazons' + 'Naturalist's Voyage round the World' published + Natural system + Nebular hypothesis + New Zealand, Darwin at + + OKEN + 'Origin of Species,' first planned projected; published; analysis of; + its success; second edition + Owen, Sir R.; on types + + PANGENESIS + 'Philosophie Zoologique' + Population, Malthus's essay on + Powell, Baden- + 'Physiological Units' + Psychology, evolution in + + RAFINESQUE + Rio Janeiro, Darwin at + + ST. HILAIRE, Geoffroy; the younger + St. Paul's Rocks + Sexual selection, first glimpse of; Darwin's theory of + Smith, William + Sociology + Spencer, Herbert; on 'Vestiges of Creation'; essay in the 'Leader'; + 'Principles of Psychology'; essay in 'Westminster Review'; extracts + from 'Leader' essay; accepts Darwin's theory; 'Principles of Biology'; + 'Physiological Units'; theory of evolution + Sprengel + + THOMPSON, Allen + Treviranus + Tucutuco + Tyndall, Prof. + + 'VESTIGES of Creation'; criticism of + Von Baer + Von Buch + + WALLACE, Alfred Russel; goes to Brazil; publishes his travels; in Malay + archipelago; discovers natural selection; paper at Linnean Society; on + sexual selection + Wedgwood, Emma + Wedgwood, Hensleigh + Wedgwood, Josiah + Wedgwood, Susannah + Wells, Dr., anticipates natural selection + White, Gilbert, on worms + Wollaston + Worms, action of + Wright, Chauncey + + 'ZOONOMIA,' Erasmus Darwin's + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Darwin, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34730-0.txt or 34730-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/3/34730/ + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + +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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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: Charles Darwin + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: December 23, 2010 [EBook #34730] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + + + + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + + + + +CHARLES DARWIN + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + +ENGLISH WORTHIES + +EDITED BY ANDREW LANG + + +LONDON + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + +1885 + + + + + +PREFACE + + +In this little volume I have endeavoured to present the life and work of +Charles Darwin viewed as a moment in a great revolution, in due relation +both to those who went before and to those who come after him. +Recognising, as has been well said, that the wave makes the crest, not +the crest the wave, I have tried to let my hero fall naturally into his +proper place in a vast onward movement of the human intellect, of which +he was himself at once a splendid product and a moving cause of the +first importance. I have attempted to show him both as receiving the +torch from Lamarck and Malthus, and as passing it on with renewed +brilliancy to the wide school of evolutionary thinkers whom his work was +instrumental in arousing to fresh and vigorous activity along a thousand +separate and varied lines of thought and action. + +As Mr. Francis Darwin was already engaged upon a life of his father, I +should have shrunk from putting forth my own little book if I had not +succeeded in securing beforehand his kind sanction. That sanction, +however, was at once so frankly and cordially given, that all my +hesitation upon such a score was immediately laid aside; and as I have +necessarily had to deal rather with Darwin's position as a thinker and +worker than with the biographical details of his private life, I trust +the lesser book may not clash with the greater, but to some extent may +supplement and even illustrate it. + +Treating my subject mainly as a study in the interaction of organism and +environment, it has been necessary for me frequently to introduce the +names of living men of science side by side with some of those who have +more or less recently passed away from among us. For uniformity's sake, +as well as for brevity's, I have been compelled, in every instance +alike, to omit the customary conventional handles. I trust those who +thus find themselves docked of their usual titles of respect will kindly +remember that the practice is in fact adopted _honoris causâ_; they are +paying prematurely the usual penalty of intellectual greatness. + +My obligations to Professor Huxley, to Professor Fiske, to Mr. Herbert +Spencer, to Professor Sachs, to Hermann Müller, to Dr. Krause, to +Charles Darwin himself, and to many other historians and critics of +evolutionism, will be sufficiently obvious to all instructed readers, +and are for the most part fully acknowledged already in the text. It +would be absurd to overload so small and popularly written a book with +references and authorities. I hope, therefore, that any other writers to +whom I may inadvertently have neglected to confess my debts will kindly +rest satisfied with this general acknowledgment. There are, however, +three persons in particular from whom I have so largely borrowed facts +or ideas that I owe them more special and definite thanks. From Mr. +Woodall's admirable paper on Charles Darwin, contributed to the +'Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society,' I have taken +much interesting information about my hero's immediate ancestry and +early days. From Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of 'Evolution Old and +New,' I have derived many pregnant suggestions with regard to the true +position and meaning of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and the early +essentially teleological evolutionists--suggestions which I am all the +more anxious to acknowledge since I differ fundamentally from Mr. Butler +in his estimate of the worth of Charles Darwin's distinctive discovery +of natural selection. Finally, to Mr. Bates, the 'Naturalist on the +Amazons,' I am indebted for several valuable items of information as to +the general workings of the pre-Darwinian evolutionary spirit. + +In a book dealing so largely with a contemporary movement, the history +of which has never yet been consecutively written down in full, or +subjected as a whole to searching criticism, there must probably be many +errors of detail, which can hardly be avoided under such circumstances. +I have endeavoured to minimise them as far as possible. For those which +may have escaped my own scrutiny I must trust both for correction and +for indulgence to the kindness of my readers. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN + +II. CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS + +III. EARLY DAYS + +IV. DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS + +V. THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION + +VI. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES + +VII. THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS + +VIII. THE DESCENT OF MAN + +IX. THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP + +X. VICTORY AND REST + +XI. DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT + +XII. THE NET RESULT + +INDEX + + + + + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN. + + +Charles Darwin was a great man, and he accomplished a great work. The +Newton of biology, he found the science of life a chaotic maze; he left +it an orderly system, with a definite plan and a recognisable meaning. +Great men are not accidents; great works are not accomplished in a +single day. Both are the product of adequate causes. The great man +springs from an ancestry competent to produce him; he is the final +flower and ultimate outcome of converging hereditary forces, that +culminate at last in the full production of his splendid and exceptional +personality. The great work which it is his mission to perform in the +world is never wholly of his own inception. It also is the last effect +of antecedent conditions, the slow result of tendencies and ideas long +working unseen or but little noticed beneath the surface of opinion, yet +all gradually conspiring together towards the definitive revolution at +whose head, in the fulness of time, the as yet unborn genius is destined +to place himself. This is especially the case with those extraordinary +waves of mental upheaval, one of which gave us the Italian renaissance, +and another of which is actually in progress around us at the present +day. They have their sources deep down in the past of human thought and +human feeling, and they are themselves but the final manifestation of +innumerable energies which have long been silently agitating the souls +of nations in their profoundest depths. + +Thus, every great man may be regarded as possessing two distinct lines +of ancestry, physical and spiritual, each of which separately demands +elucidation. He owes much in one way to his father and his mother, his +grandfathers and his grandmothers, and his remoter progenitors, from +some or all of whom he derives, in varying degrees and combinations, the +personal qualities whose special interaction constitutes his greatness +and his idiosyncrasy; he owes much in another way to his intellectual +and moral ancestors, the thinkers and workers who have preceded him in +his own department of thought or action, and have made possible in the +course of ages the final development of his special revolution or his +particular system. Viewed as an individual, he is what he is, with all +his powers and faculties and potentialities, in virtue of the brain, the +frame, the temperament, the energy he inherits directly from his actual +ancestors, paternal and maternal; viewed as a factor or element in a +great movement, he is what he is because the movement had succeeded in +reaching such and such a point in its progress already without him, and +waited only for such and such a grand and commanding personality in +order to carry it yet a step further on its course of development. + +No man who ever lived would more cordially have recognised these two +alternative aspects of the great worker's predetermining causes than +Charles Darwin. He knew well that the individual is the direct +cumulative product of his physical predecessors, and that he works and +is worked upon in innumerable ways by the particular environment into +whose midst he is born. Let us see, then, in his own case what were +these two main sets of conditioning circumstances which finally led up +to the joint production of Charles Darwin, the man and the philosopher, +the thinking brain and the moving energy. In other words, what was the +state of the science of life at the time when he first began to observe +and to speculate; and what was the ancestry which made him be born a +person capable of helping it forward at a single bound over its great +restricting dogmatic barrier of the fixity of species? + +Let us begin, in the first place, by clearing the path beforehand of a +popular misconception, so extremely general and almost universal that, +unless it be got rid of at the very outset of our sketch, much of the +real scope and purport of Darwin's life and work must, of necessity, +remain entirely misunderstood by the vast mass of English readers. In +the public mind Darwin is, perhaps, most commonly regarded as the +discoverer and founder of the evolution hypothesis. Two ideas are +usually associated with his name and memory. It is believed that he was +the first propounder of the theory which supposes all plant and animal +forms to be the result, not of special creation, but of slow +modification in pre-existent organisms. It is further and more +particularly believed that he was the first propounder of the theory +which supposes the descent of man to be traceable from a remote and more +or less monkey-like ancestor. Now, as a matter of fact, Darwin was not +the prime originator of either of these two great cardinal ideas. Though +he held both as part of his organised theory of things, he was not by +any means the first or the earliest thinker to hold them or to propound +them publicly. Though he gained for them both a far wider and more +general acceptance than they had ever before popularly received, he laid +no sort of claim himself to originality or proprietorship in either +theory. The grand idea which he did really originate was not the idea of +'descent with modification,' but the idea of 'natural selection,' by +which agency, as he was the first to prove, definite kinds of plants and +animals have been slowly evolved from simpler forms, with definite +adaptations to the special circumstances by which they are surrounded. +In a word, it was the peculiar glory of Charles Darwin, not to have +suggested that all the variety of animal and vegetable life might have +been produced by slow modifications in one or more original types, but +to have shown the nature of the machinery by which such a result could +be actually attained in the practical working out of natural causes. He +did not invent the development theory, but he made it believable and +comprehensible. He was not, as most people falsely imagine, the Moses of +evolutionism, the prime mover in the biological revolution; he was the +Joshua who led the world of thinkers and workers into full fruition of +that promised land which earlier investigators had but dimly descried +from the Pisgah-top of conjectural speculation. + +How far Darwin's special idea of natural selection supplemented and +rendered credible the earlier idea of descent with modification we shall +see more fully when we come to treat of the inception and growth of his +great epoch-making work, 'The Origin of Species;' for the present, it +must suffice to point out that in the world into which he was born, the +theory of evolution already existed in a more or less shadowy and +undeveloped shape. And since it was his task in life to raise this +theory from the rank of a mere plausible and happy guess to the rank of +a highly elaborate and almost universally accepted biological system, we +may pause awhile to consider on the threshold what was the actual state +of natural science at the moment when the great directing and organising +intelligence of Charles Darwin first appeared. + +From time immemorial, in modern Christendom at least, it had been the +general opinion of learned and simple alike that every species of plant +or animal owed its present form and its original existence to a distinct +act of special creation. This _naïf_ belief, unsupported as it was by +any sort of internal evidence, was supposed to rest directly upon the +express authority of a few obscure statements in the Book of Genesis. +The Creator, it was held, had in the beginning formed each kind after a +particular pattern, had endowed it with special organs devised with +supreme wisdom for subserving special functions, and had bestowed upon +it the mystical power of reproducing its like in its own image to all +generations. No variation of importance ever occurred within the types +thus constituted; all plants and animals always retained their special +forms unaltered in any way from era to era. This is the doctrine of the +fixity and immutability of species, almost universal in the civilised +world up to the end of the last century. + +Improbable as such a crude idea now seems to any person even moderately +acquainted with the extraordinary variety and variability of living +forms, it nevertheless contained nothing at all likely to contradict the +ordinary experience of the everyday observer in the last century. The +handful of plants and animals with which he was personally acquainted +consisted for the most part of a few large, highly advanced, and +well-marked forms, not in the least liable to be mistaken for one +another even by the most hasty and casual spectator. A horse can +immediately be discriminated by the naked eye from a donkey, and a cow +from a sheep, without risk of error; nobody is likely to confuse wheat +with barley, or to hesitate between classing any given fruit that is +laid before him as a pear or an apple, a plum or a nectarine. +Variability seldom comes under the notice of the ordinary passing +spectator as it does under that of the prying and curious scientific +observer; and when it comes at all, as in the case of dogs and pigeons, +roses and hyacinths, it is no doubt set down carelessly on a superficial +view as a mere result of human selection or of deliberate mongrel +interbreeding. To the eye of the average man, all the living objects +ordinarily perceived in external nature fall at once under certain fixed +and recognisable kinds, as dogs and horses, elms and ashes, whose limits +he is never at all inclined to confound in any way one with the other. + +Linnæus, the great father of modern scientific biology, had frankly and +perhaps unthinkingly accepted this current and almost universal dogma of +the fixity and immutability of species. Indeed, by defining a kind as a +group of plants or animals so closely resembling one another as to give +rise to the belief that they might all be descended from a single +ancestor or pair of ancestors, he implicitly gave the new sanction of +his weighty authority to the creation hypothesis, and to the prevalent +doctrine of the unchangeability of organic forms. To Linnæus, the +species into which he mapped out all the plants and animals then known, +appeared as the descendants each of a solitary progenitor or of a +primitive couple, called into existence at the beginning of all things +by the direct fiat of a designing Creator. He saw the world of organic +life as composed of so many well-demarcated types, each separate, +distinct, and immutable, each capable of producing its like _ad +infinitum_, and each unable to vary from its central standard in any of +its individuals, except perhaps within very narrow and unimportant +limits. + +But towards the close of the eighteenth century, side by side with the +general awakening of the human intellect and the arrival of a new era of +free social investigation, which culminated in a fresh order of things, +there was developed a more critical and sceptical attitude in the world +of science, which soon produced a notable change of front among thinking +naturalists as to the origin and meaning of specific distinctions. + +Buffon was the first great biological innovator who ventured, in very +doubtful and tentative language, to suggest the possibility of the rise +of species from one another by slow modification of ancestral forms. +Essentially a popular essayist, writing in the volcanic +priest-suppressed France of the _ancien régime_, during the inconsistent +days of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., when it was uncertain whether novel +and heterodox opinions would bring down upon their author fame and +reputation or the Sorbonne and the Bastille, Buffon was careful to put +his conjectural conclusions in a studiously guarded and often even +ironical form. But time after time, in his great discursive work, the +'Histoire Naturelle' (published in successive volumes between 1749 and +1788), he recurs anew to the pregnant suggestion that plants and animals +may not be bound by fixed and immovable limits of species, but may +freely vary in every direction from a common centre, so that one kind +may gradually and slowly be evolved by natural causes from the type of +another. He points out that, underlying all external diversities of +character and shape, fundamental likenesses of type occur in many +animals, which irresistibly suggest the novel notion of common descent +from a single ancestor. Thus regarded, he says, not only the ass and the +horse (to take a particular passage) but even man himself, the monkeys, +the quadrupeds, and all vertebrate animals, might be viewed as merely +forming divergent branches of one and the same great family tree. Every +such family, he believed, whether animal or vegetable, might have sprung +originally from a single stock, which after many generations had here +developed into a higher form, and there degenerated into a lower and +less perfect type of organisation. Granting this--granting that nature +could by slow variation produce one species in the course of direct +descent from another unlike it (for example, the ass from the horse), +then, Buffon observed, there was no further limit to be set to her +powers in this respect, and we might reasonably conclude that from a +single primordial being she has gradually been able in the course of +time to develop the whole continuous gamut of existing animal and +vegetable life. To be sure, Buffon always saves himself from censure by +an obvious afterthought--'But no; it is certain from revelation that +every species was directly created by a separate fiat.' This +half-hearted and somewhat subrisive denial, however, must be taken +merely as a concession to the Sorbonne and to the fashionable exegesis +of his own day; and, even so, the Sorbonne was too much in the end for +the philosophic thinker. He had once in his life at least to make his +submission and demand pardon from the offended orthodoxy of the Paris +faculty. + +The wave of thought and feeling, thus apologetically and tentatively +stirred on the unruffled pond of eighteenth century opinion by the +startling plop of Buffon's little smooth-cut pebble, soon widened out on +every side in concentric circles, and affected with its wash the entire +world of biological science in every country. Before the close of the +eighteenth century speculation as to the origin of species was rife in +all quarters of Europe. In France itself, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, +constitutionally cautious and undecided, but wide of view and free from +prejudice, came slowly to the conclusion, in 1795, that all species are +really derived by modification from one or more primitive types. In +Germany, in the very same year, Goethe, with the keen vision of the +poet and the calm eye of the philosopher uniquely combined, discerned +independently as by a lightning flash the identical idea of the origin +of kinds by modification of pre-existent organisms. 'We may assert +without hesitation,' says that great nebulous thinker and observer, +'that all the more perfect organic natures, such as fishes, amphibians, +birds and mammals, with man at their head, were formed at first on one +original type, which still daily changes and modifies its form by +propagation.' In England, twelve months earlier, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +Charles Darwin's grandfather (of whom more anon), published his +'Zoonomia,' a treatise on the laws of animal life, in which he not only +adopted Buffon's theory of the origin of species by evolution, but also +laid down as the chief cause of such development the actions and needs +of the animals themselves. According to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, animals came +to vary from one another chiefly because they were always altering their +habits and voluntarily accommodating themselves to new actions and +positions in life. His work produced comparatively little effect upon +the world at large in his own time, but it had immense influence upon +the next great prophet of evolution, Lamarck, and through Lamarck on +Lyell, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and the modern school of +evolutionists generally. We shall consider his views in greater detail +when we pass from the spiritual to the physical antecedents of Charles +Darwin. + +It was in 1801 that Lamarck first gave to the world his epoch-making +speculations and suggestions on the origin of species; and from that +date to the day of his death, in 1831, the unwearied old philosopher +continued to devote his whole time and energy, in blindness and poverty, +to the elucidation of this interesting and important subject. A bold, +acute, and vigorous thinker, trained in the great school of Diderot and +D'Alembert, with something of the vivid Celtic poetic imagination, and a +fearless habit of forming his own conclusions irrespective of common or +preconceived ideas, Lamarck went to the very root of the matter in the +most determined fashion, and openly proclaimed in the face of frowning +officialism under the Napoleonic reaction his profound conviction that +all species, including man, were descended by modification from one or +more primordial forms. In Charles Darwin's own words, 'He first did the +eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change, +in the organic as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of +law and not of miraculous interposition. 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. With respect to the means of modification, he +attributed something to the direct action of the physical conditions of +life, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much to +use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter agency +he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature--such as +the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees,' He +believed, in short, that animals had largely developed themselves, by +functional effort followed by increased powers and abilities. + +Lamarck's great work, the 'Philosophie Zoologique,' though opposed by +the austere and formal genius of the immortal Cuvier--a reactionary +biological conservative and obscurantist, equal to the enormous task of +mapping out piecemeal with infinite skill and power the separate +provinces of his chosen science, but incapable of taking in all the +bearings of the whole field at a single vivid and comprehensive +sweep--Lamarck's great work produced a deep and lasting impression upon +the entire subsequent course of evolutionary thought in scientific +Europe. True, owing to the retrograde tendencies of the First Empire, it +caused but little immediate stir at the precise moment of its first +publication; but the seed it sowed sank deep, and, lying fallow long in +men's minds, bore fruit at last in the next generation with the +marvellous fecundity of the germs of genius. Indeed, from the very +beginning of the present century, a ferment of inquiry on the subject of +creation and evolution was everywhere obvious among speculative +thinkers. The profound interest which Goethe took in the dispute on this +very subject in the French Académie des Sciences between Cuvier and +Geoffroy St. Hilaire, amid the thundering guns of a threatened European +convulsion, was but a solitary symptom of the general stir which +preceded the gestation and birth of the Darwinian hypothesis. It is +impossible to take up any scientific memoirs or treatises of the first +half of our own century without seeing at a glance how every mind of +high original scientific importance was permeated and disturbed by the +fundamental questions aroused, but not fully answered, by Buffon, +Lamarck, and Erasmus Darwin. In Lyell's letters and in Agassiz's +lectures, in the 'Botanic Journal' and the 'Philosophical +Transactions,' in treatises on Madeira beetles and the Australian flora, +we find everywhere the thoughts of men profoundly influenced in a +thousand directions by this universal evolutionary solvent and leaven. + +And while the world of thought was thus seething and moving restlessly +before the wave of ideas set in motion by these various independent +philosophers, another group of causes in another field was rendering +smooth the path beforehand for the future champion of the amended +evolutionism. Geology on the one hand and astronomy on the other were +making men's minds gradually familiar with the conception of slow +natural development, as opposed to immediate and miraculous creation. + +The rise of geology had been rapid and brilliant. In the last century it +had been almost universally believed that fossil organisms were the +relics of submerged and destroyed worlds, strange remnants of successive +terrible mundane catastrophes. Cuvier himself, who had rendered immense +services to geological science by his almost unerring reconstructions of +extinct animals, remained a partisan of the old theory of constant +cataclysms and fresh creations throughout his whole life; but Lamarck, +here as elsewhere the prophet of the modern uniformitarian concept of +nature, had already announced his grand idea that the ordinary process +of natural laws sufficed to account for all the phenomena of the earth's +crust. In England, William Smith, the ingenious land surveyor, riding up +and down on his daily task over the face of the country, became +convinced by his observations in the first years of the present century +that a fixed order of sequence could everywhere be traced among the +various superincumbent geological strata. Modern scientific geology +takes its rise from the moment of this luminous and luminiferous +discovery. With astonishing rapidity the sequence of strata was +everywhere noted, and the succession of characteristic fossils mapped +out, with the result of showing, however imperfectly at first, that the +history of organic life upon the globe had followed a slow and regular +course of constant development. Immediately whole schools of eager +workers employed themselves in investigating in separate detail the +phenomena of these successive stages of unfolding life. Murchison, fresh +from the Peninsular campaign, began to study the dawn of organic history +in the gloom of the Silurian and Cambrian epochs. A group of less +articulate but not less active workers like Buckland and Mantell +performed similar services for the carboniferous, the wealden, and the +tertiary deposits. Sedgwick endeavoured to co-ordinate the whole range +of then known facts into a single wide and comprehensive survey. De La +Beche, Phillips, and Agassiz added their share to the great work of +reconstruction. Last of all, among those who were contemporary and all +but coeval with Charles Darwin himself, Lyell boldly fought out the +battle of 'uniformitarianism,' proving, with all the accumulated weight +of his encyclopædic and world-wide knowledge, that every known feature +of geological development could be traced to the agency of causes now in +action, and illustrated by means of slow secular changes still actually +taking place on earth before our very eyes. + +The influence of these novel conceptions upon the growth and spread of +evolutionary ideas was far-reaching and twofold. In the first place, the +discovery of a definite succession of nearly related organic forms, +following one another with evident closeness through the various ages, +inevitably suggested to every inquiring observer the possibility of +their direct descent one from the other. In the second place, the +discovery that geological formations were not really separated each from +its predecessor by violent revolutions, but were the result of gradual +and ordinary changes, discredited the old idea of frequent fresh +creations after each catastrophe, and familiarised the minds of men of +science with the alternative notion of slow and natural evolutionary +processes. The past was seen to be in effect the parent of the present; +the present was recognised as the child of the past. + +Current astronomical theories also pointed inevitably in the same +direction. Kant, whose supereminent fame as a philosopher has almost +overshadowed his just claims as a profound thinker in physical science, +had already in the third quarter of the eighteenth century arrived at +his sublime nebular hypothesis, in which he suggested the possible +development of stars, suns, planets, and satellites by the slow +contraction of very diffuse and incandescent haze-clouds. This +magnificent cosmical conception was seized and adapted by the genius of +Laplace in his celestial system, and made familiar through his great +work to thinking minds throughout the whole of Europe. In England it was +further modified and remodelled by Sir William Herschel, whose period of +active investigation coincided in part with Charles Darwin's early +boyhood. The bearings of the nebular hypothesis upon the rise of +Darwinian evolutionism are by no means remote: the entire modern +scientific movement forms, in fact, a single great organic whole, of +which the special doctrine of biological development is but a small +separate integral part. All the theories and doctrines which go to make +it up display the one common trait that they reject the idea of direct +creative interposition from without, and attribute the entire existing +order of nature to the regular unfolding of one undeviating continuous +law. + +Yet another factor in the intellectual stir and bustle of the time must +needs be mentioned even in so short and cursory a sketch as this of the +causes which led to the Darwinian crisis. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, a +clergyman of the Church of England, published the first edition of his +famous and much-debated 'Essay on the Principle of Population.' Malthus +was the first person who ever called public attention to the tendency of +population to increase up to the utmost limit of subsistence, as well as +to the necessary influence of starvation in checking its further +development beyond that point. Though his essay dealt only with the +question of reproduction in human societies, it was clear that it +possessed innumerable analogies in every domain of animal and vegetable +life. The book ran through many successive editions with extraordinary +rapidity for a work of its class, it was fiercely attacked and bravely +defended, it caused an immense amount of discussion and debate, and +besides its marvellous direct influence as a germinal power upon the +whole subsequent course of politico-economical and sociological thought, +it produced also a remarkable indirect influence on the side current of +biological and speculative opinion. In particular, as we shall more +fully see hereafter, it had an immediate effect in suggesting to the +mind of the great naturalist who forms our present subject the embryo +idea of 'natural selection.' + +Such then was the intellectual and social world into which, early in the +present century, Charles Darwin found himself born. Everywhere around +him in his childhood and youth these great but formless evolutionary +ideas were brewing and fermenting. The scientific society of his elders +and of the contemporaries among whom he grew up was permeated with the +leaven of Laplace and of Lamarck, of Hutton and of Herschel. Inquiry was +especially everywhere rife as to the origin and nature of specific +distinctions among plants and animals. Those who believed in the +doctrine of Buffon and of the 'Zoonomia' and those who disbelieved in +it, alike, were profoundly interested and agitated in soul by the +far-reaching implications of that fundamental problem. On every side +evolutionism, in its crude form, was already in the air. Long before +Charles Darwin himself published his conclusive 'Origin of Species,' +every thinking mind in the world of science, elder and younger, was +deeply engaged upon the self-same problem. Lyell and Horner in alternate +fits were doubting and debating. Herbert Spencer had already frankly +accepted the new idea with the profound conviction of _a priori_ +reasoning. Agassiz was hesitating and raising difficulties. Treviranus +was ardently proclaiming his unflinching adhesion. Oken was spinning in +metaphysical Germany his fanciful parodies of the Lamarckian +hypothesis. Among the depths of Brazilian forests Bates was reading the +story of evolution on the gauze-like wings of tropical butterflies. +Under the scanty shade of Malayan palm-trees Wallace was independently +spelling out in rude outline the very theory of survival of the fittest, +which Charles Darwin himself was simultaneously perfecting and polishing +among the memoirs and pamphlets of his English study. Wollaston in +Madeira was pointing out the strange adaptations of the curious local +snails and beetles. Von Buch in the Canaries was coming to the +conclusion that varieties may be slowly changed into permanent species. +Lecoq and Von Baer were gradually arriving, one by the botanical route, +the other by the embryological, at the same opinion. Before Charles +Darwin was twenty, Dean Herbert had declared from the profound depth of +his horticultural knowledge that kinds were only mere fixed sports; and +Patrick Matthew, in the appendix to a work on 'Naval Timber,' had +casually developed, without perceiving its importance, the actual +distinctive Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Robert Chambers +published in 1844 his 'Vestiges of Creation,' in which Lamarck's theory +was impressed and popularised under a somewhat spoilt and mistaken form: +it was not till 1859 that the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' +burst like a thunderbolt upon the astonished world of unprepared and +unscientific thinkers. + +This general attitude of interest and inquiry is of deep importance to +the proper comprehension of Charles Darwin's life and work, and that for +two distinct reasons. In the first place, the universal stir and deep +prying into evolutionary questions which everywhere existed among +scientific men in his early days was naturally communicated to a lad +born of a scientific family, and inheriting directly in blood and bone +the biological tastes and tendencies of Erasmus Darwin. In the second +place, the existence of such a deep and wide-spread curiosity as to +ultimate origins, and the common prevalence of profound uniformitarian +and evolutionary views among philosophers and thinkers, made the +acceptance of Charles Darwin's particular theory, when it at last +arrived, a comparatively easy and certain matter, because by it the +course of organic development was assimilated, on credible grounds, to +the course of all other development in general, as then already widely +recognised. The first consideration helps us to account in part for the +man himself; the second consideration helps us even more to account for +the great work which he was enabled in the end so successfully to +accomplish. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS. + + +From the environment let us turn to the individual; from the world in +which the man moved to the man who moved in it, and was in time destined +to move it. + +Who was he, and whence did he derive his exceptional energy and +intellectual panoply? + +Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather, the first of the line in whom the +distinctive Darwinian strain of intellect overtly displayed itself, was +the son of one Robert Darwin, a gentleman of Nottinghamshire, 'a person +of curiosity,' with 'a taste for literature and science;' so that for +four generations at least, in the paternal line, the peculiar talents of +the Darwin family had been highly cultivated in either direction. Robert +Darwin was an early member of the Spalding Club, a friend of Stukeley +the antiquary, and an embryo geologist, after the fantastic, +half-superstitious fashion of his own time. Of his four sons, both +Robert, the eldest, and Erasmus, the youngest, were authors and +botanists. Erasmus himself was a Cambridge man, and his natural bent of +mind and energy led him irresistibly on to the study of medicine. Taking +his medical degree at his own university, and afterwards preparing for +practice by attending Hunter's lectures in London, besides going +through the regular medical course at Edinburgh, the young doctor +finally settled down as a physician at Nottingham, whence shortly +afterward he removed to Lichfield, then the centre of a famous literary +coterie. So large a part of Charles Darwin's remarkable idiosyncrasy was +derived by heredity from his paternal grandfather, that it may be worth +while to dwell a little here in passing on the character and career of +this brilliant precursor of the great evolutionist. Both in the physical +and in the spiritual sense, Erasmus Darwin was one among the truest and +most genuine ancestors of his grandson Charles. + +A powerful, robust, athletic man, in florid health and of temperate +habits, yet with the full-blooded tendency of the eighteenth century +vividly displayed in his ample face and broad features, Erasmus Darwin +bubbled over with irrepressible vivacity, the outward and visible sign +of that overflowing energy which forms everywhere one of the most marked +determining conditions of high genius. Strong in body and strong in +mind, a teetotaler before teetotalism, an abolitionist before the +anti-slavery movement, he had a great contempt for weaknesses and +prejudices of every sort, and he rose far superior to the age in which +he lived in breadth of view and freedom from preconceptions. The +eighteenth century considered him, in its cautious, cut-and-dried +fashion, a man of singular talent but of remarkably eccentric and unsafe +opinions. Unfortunately for his lasting fame, Dr. Darwin was much given +to writing poetry; and this poetry, though as ingenious as everything +else he did, had a certain false gallop of verse about it which has +doomed it to become since Canning's parody a sort of warning beacon +against the worst faults of the post-Augustan decadence in the +ten-syllabled metre. Nobody now reads the 'Botanic Garden' except either +to laugh at its exquisite extravagances, or to wonder at the queer +tinsel glitter of its occasional clever rhetorical rhapsodies. + +But in his alternative character of philosophic biologist, rejected by +the age which swallowed his poetry all applausive, Erasmus Darwin is +well worthy of the highest and deepest respect, as a prime founder and +early prophet of the evolutionary system. His 'Zoonomia,' 'which, though +ingenious, is built upon the most absurd hypothesis'--as men still said +only thirty years ago--contains in the germ the whole theory of organic +development as understood up to the very moment of the publication of +the 'Origin of Species.' In it Dr. Darwin calls attention to 'the great +changes introduced into various animals by artificial or accidental +cultivation,' a subject afterwards fully elucidated by his greater +grandson in his work on 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication.' He specially notes 'the immense changes of shape and +colour' produced by man in rabbits and pigeons, the very species on +which Charles Darwin subsequently made some of his most remarkable and +interesting observations. More than any previous writer, Erasmus Darwin, +with 'prophetic sagacity,' insisted strongly on the essential unity of +parent and offspring--a truth which lies at the very base of all modern +philosophical biology. 'Owing to the imperfection of language,' wrote +the Lichfield doctor nearly a hundred years ago, '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 may retain some of the habits of the parent +system.' He laid peculiar stress upon the hereditary nature of some +acquired properties, such as the muscles of dancers or jugglers, and the +diseases incidental to special occupations. Nay, he even anticipated his +great descendant in pointing out that varieties are often produced at +first as mere 'sports' or accidental variations, as in the case of +six-fingered men, five-clawed fowls, or extra-toed cats, and are +afterwards handed down by heredity to succeeding generations. Charles +Darwin would have added that if these new stray peculiarities happened +to prove advantageous to the species they would be naturally favoured in +the struggle for existence, while if they proved disadvantageous, or +even neutral, they would die out at once or be bred out in the course of +a few crosses. That last truth of natural selection was the only +cardinal one in the evolutionary system on which Erasmus Darwin did not +actually forestall his more famous and greater namesake. For its full +perception, the discovery of Malthus had to be collated with the +speculations of Buffon. + +'When we revolve in our minds,' says the eighteenth century prophet of +evolution, '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.' This is a very crude form of evolutionism +indeed, but it is leading up by gradual stages to the finished and +all-sided philosophy of physical life, which at last definitely +formulates itself through the mouth of Charles Darwin. We shall see +hereafter wherein Erasmus Darwin's conception of development chiefly +failed--in attributing evolution for the most part to the exertions and +endeavours of the animal itself, rather than to inevitable survival of +the fittest among innumerable spontaneous variations--but we must at +least conclude our glimpse of his pregnant and suggestive work by +quoting its great fundamental _aperçu_:--'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?' + +A few lines from the 'Temple of Nature,' one of Erasmus Darwin's poetic +rhapsodies, containing his fully matured views on the origin of living +creatures, may be worth reproduction in further elucidation of his +philosophical position:-- + + 'Organic life beneath the shoreless waves + Was born, and nursed in ocean's pearly caves; + First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass. + Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; + These, as successive generations bloom, + New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; + Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, + And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.' + +Have we not here the very beginnings of Charles Darwin? Do we not see, +in these profound and fundamental suggestions, not merely hints as to +the evolution of evolution, but also as to the evolution of the +evolutionist? + +On the other hand, though Erasmus Darwin defined a fool to his friend +Edgeworth as 'a man who never tried an experiment in his life,' he was +wanting himself in the rigorous and patient inductive habit which so +strikingly distinguished his grandson Charles. That trait, as we shall +presently see, the biological chief of the nineteenth century derived in +all probability from another root of his genealogical tree. Erasmus +Darwin gave us brilliant suggestions rather than cumulative proof: he +apologised in his 'Zoonomia' for 'many conjectures not supported by +accurate investigation or conclusive experiments,' Such an apology would +have been simply impossible to the painstaking spirit of his grandson +Charles. + +Erasmus Darwin was twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of +Mr. Charles Howard, of Lichfield, and it was her son, Robert Waring +Darwin, who became the father of our hero, Charles. It is fashionable to +say, in this and sundry other like cases, that the mental energy skips a +generation. People have said so in the case of that intermediate +Mendelssohn who was son of Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher, and +father of Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn, the composer--that mere link in a +marvellous chain who was wont to observe of himself in the decline of +life, that in his youth he was called the son of the great Mendelssohn, +and in his old age the father of the great Mendelssohn. As a matter of +fact, one may fairly doubt whether such a case of actual skipping is +ever possible in the nature of things. In the particular instance of +Robert Waring Darwin at least we may be pretty sure that the distinctive +Darwinian strain of genius lay merely latent rather than dormant: that +it did not display itself to the world at large, but that it persisted +silently as powerful as ever within the remote recesses of the thinking +organism. Not every man brings out before men all that is within him. +Robert Waring Darwin was a physician at Shrewsbury; and he attained at +least sufficient scientific eminence in his own time to become a Fellow +of the Royal Society, in days when that honour was certainly not readily +conferred upon country doctors of modest reputation. Charles Darwin says +of him plainly, 'He was incomparably the most acute observer whom I ever +knew.' It may well have been that Robert Darwin lived and died, as his +famous son lived for fifty years of his great life, in comparative +silence and learned retirement; for we must never forget that if Charles +Darwin had only completed the first half century of his laborious +existence, he would have been remembered merely as the author of an +entertaining work on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' a plausible theory of +coral islands, and a learned monograph on the fossil barnacles. During +all those years, in fact, he had really done little else than collect +material for the work of his lifetime. If we judge men by outward +performance only, we may often be greatly mistaken in our estimates: +potentiality is wider than actuality; what a man does is never a certain +or extreme criterion of what he can do. + +The Darwins, indeed, were all a mighty folk, of varied powers and varied +attainments. Erasmus's brother, Robert, was the author of a work on +botany, which long enjoyed a respectable repute. Of his sons, one, Sir +Francis Darwin, was noted as a keen observer of animals; a second, +Charles, who died at twenty-one, was already the author of a very +valuable medical essay; while the third, Robert, was the Shrewsbury +F.R.S., the father of our great evolutionary thinker. And among Charles +Darwin's own cousins, one is Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the philologist; a +second was the late Sir Henry Holland; and a third is Mr. Francis +Galton, the author of that essentially Darwinian book, 'Hereditary +Genius.' + +Robert Waring Darwin took to himself a wife from another very great and +eminent family. He married Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah +Wedgwood, the famous potter; and from these two silent representatives +of powerful stocks, Charles Robert Darwin, the father of modern +evolutionary biology, was born at Shrewsbury, on February the 12th, +1809. That Wedgwood connection, again, is no mere casual or unimportant +incident in the previous life-history of the Darwinian originality; it +throws a separate clear light of its own upon the peculiar and +admirably compounded idiosyncrasy of Charles Darwin. + +A man, indeed, owes on the average quite as much to his mother's as to +his father's family. It is a mere unscientific old-world prejudice which +makes us for the most part count ancestry in the direct ascending male +line alone, to the complete neglect of the equally important maternal +pedigree. Prom the biological point of view, at least, every individual +is a highly complex compound of hereditary elements, a resultant of +numerous converging forces, a meeting place of two great streams of +inheritance, each of which is itself similarly made up by the like +confluence of innumerable distinct prior tributaries. Between these two +it is almost impossible for us accurately to distribute any given +individuality. How much Charles Darwin owed to the Darwins, and how much +he owed in turn to the Wedgwoods, no man is yet psychologist enough or +physiologist enough to say. But that he owed a great deal to either +strong and vigorous strain we may even now quite safely take for +granted. + +The Wedgwood family were 'throwers' by handicraft, superior artisans +long settled at Burslem, in the Staffordshire potteries. Josiah, the +youngest of thirteen children, lamed by illness in early life, was +turned by this happy accident from his primitive task as a 'thrower' to +the more artistic and original work of producing ornamental coloured +earthenware. Skilful and indefatigable, of indomitable energy and with +great powers of forcing his way in life against all obstacles, young +Wedgwood rose rapidly by his own unaided exertions to be a master +potter, and a manufacturer of the famous unglazed black porcelain. +Those were the darkest days of industrial art and decorative handicraft +in modern England. Josiah Wedgwood, by his marked originality and force +of character, succeeded in turning the current of national taste, and +creating among us a new and distinctly higher type of artistic +workmanship. His activity, however, was not confined to his art alone, +but found itself a hundred other different outlets in the most varied +directions. When his potteries needed enlargement to meet the increased +demand, he founded for the hands employed upon his works the model +industrial village of Etruria. When Brindley began cutting artificial +waterways across the broad face of central England, it was in the great +potter that he found his chief ally in promoting the construction of the +Grand Trunk Canal. Wedgwood, indeed, was a builder of schools and a +maker of roads; a chemist and an artist; a friend of Watt and an +employer of Flaxman. In short, like Erasmus Darwin, he possessed that +prime essential in the character of genius, an immense underlying stock +of energy. And with it there went its best concomitant, the 'infinite +capacity for taking pains.' Is it not probable that in their joint +descendant, the brilliant but discursive and hazardous genius of Erasmus +Darwin was balanced and regulated by soberer qualities inherited +directly from the profound industry of the painstaking potter? When +later on we find Charles Darwin spending hours in noting the successive +movements of the tendrils in a plant, or watching for long years the +habits and manners of earthworms in flower-pots, may we not reasonably +conjecture that he derived no little share of his extraordinary +patience, carefulness, and minuteness of handicraft from his mother's +father, Josiah Wedgwood? + +Such, then, were the two main component elements, paternal and maternal, +from which the striking personality of Charles Darwin was no doubt for +the most part ultimately built up. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLY DAYS. + + +As the Chester express steams out of Shrewsbury station, you see on your +left, overhanging the steep bank of Severn, a large, square, +substantial-looking house, known as the Mount, the birthplace of the +author of the 'Origin of Species.' There, in the comfortable home he had +built for himself, Dr. Robert Darwin, the father, lived and worked for +fifty years of unobtrusive usefulness. He had studied medicine at +Edinburgh and Leyden, and had even travelled a little in Germany, before +he settled down in the quiet old Salopian town, where for half a century +his portly figure and yellow chaise were familiar objects of the +country-side for miles around. Among a literary society which included +Coleridge's friends, the Tayleurs, and where Hazlitt listened with +delight to the great poet's 'music of the spheres,' in High Street +Unitarian Chapel, the Mount kept up with becoming dignity the family +traditions of the Darwins and the Wedgwoods as a local centre of +sweetness and light. + +On February the 12th, 1809, Charles Darwin first saw the light of day in +this his father's house at Shrewsbury. Time and place were both +propitious. Born in a cultivated scientific family, surrounded from his +birth by elevating influences, and secured beforehand from the cramping +necessity of earning his own livelihood by his own exertions, the boy +was destined to grow up to full maturity in the twenty-one years of slow +development that immediately preceded the passing of the first Reform +Act. The thunder of the great European upheaval had grown silent at +Waterloo when he was barely six years old, and his boyhood was passed +amid country sights and sounds during that long period of reconstruction +and assimilation which followed the fierce volcanic outburst of the +French Revolution. Happy in the opportunity of his birth, he came upon +the world eight years after the first publication of Lamarck's +remarkable speculations, and for the first twenty-two years of his life +he was actually the far younger contemporary of the great French +evolutionary philosopher. Eleven years before his arrival upon the scene +Malthus had set forth his 'Principle of Population.' Charles Darwin thus +entered upon a stage well prepared for him, and he entered it with an +idiosyncrasy exactly adapted for making the best of the situation. The +soil had been thoroughly turned and dressed beforehand: Charles Darwin's +seed had only to fall upon it in order to spring up and bear fruit a +hundredfold, in every field of science or speculation. + +For it was not biology alone that he was foredoomed to revolutionise, +but the whole range of human thought, and perhaps even ultimately of +human action. + +Is it mere national prejudice which makes one add with congratulatory +pleasure that Darwin was born in England, rather than in France, in +Germany, or in America? Perhaps so; perhaps not. For the English +intellect does indeed seem more capable than most of uniting high +speculative ability with high practical skill and experience: and of +that union of rare qualities Darwin himself was a most conspicuous +example. It is probable that England has produced more of the great +organising and systematising intellects than any other modern country. + +Among those thinkers in his own line who stood more nearly abreast of +Darwin in the matter of age, Lyell was some eleven years his senior, and +contributed not a little (though quite unconsciously) by his work and +conclusions to the formation of Darwin's own peculiar scientific +opinions. The veteran Owen, who still survives him, was nearly five +years older than Darwin, and also helped to a great extent in giving +form and exactness to his great contemporary's anatomical ideas. +Humboldt, who preceded our English naturalist in the matter of time by +no less than forty years, might yet almost rank as coeval in some +respects, owing to his long and active life, his late maturity, and the +very recent date of his greatest and most thought-compelling work, the +'Cosmos' (begun when Humboldt was seventy-five, and finished when he +lacked but ten years of his century), in itself a sort of preparation +for due acceptance of the Darwinian theories. In fact, as many as fifty +years of their joint lives coincided entirely one with the other's. +Agassiz antedated Darwin by two years. On the other hand, among the men +who most helped on the recognition of Darwin's theories, Hooker and +Lewes were his juniors by eight years, Herbert Spencer by eleven, +Wallace by thirteen, and Huxley by sixteen. His cousin, Francis Galton, +another grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and joint inheritor of the +distinctive family biological ply, was born at the same date as Alfred +Russell Wallace, thirteen years after Charles Darwin. In such a goodly +galaxy of workers was the Darwinian light destined to shine through the +middle of the century, as one star excelleth another in glory. + +Charles Darwin was the second son: but nature refuses doggedly to +acknowledge the custom of primogeniture. His elder brother, Erasmus, a +man of mute and inarticulate ability, with a sardonic humour alien to +his race, extorted unwonted praise from the critical pen of Thomas +Carlyle, who 'for intellect rather preferred him to his brother +Charles.' But whatever spark of the Darwinian genius was really innate +in Erasmus the Less died with him unacknowledged. + +The boy was educated (so they call it) at Shrewsbury Grammar School, +under sturdy Sam Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield; and there he +picked up so much Latin and Greek as was then considered absolutely +essential to the due production of an English gentleman. Happily for the +world, having no taste for the classics, he escaped the ordeal with +little injury to his individuality. His mother had died while he was +still a child, but his father, that 'acute observer,' no doubt taught +him to know and love nature. At sixteen he went to Edinburgh University, +then rendered famous by a little knot of distinguished professors, and +there he remained for two years. Already at school he had made himself +notable by his love of collecting--the first nascent symptom of the +naturalist bent. He collected everything, shells, eggs, minerals, +coins, nay, since postage stamps were then not yet invented, even +franks. But at Edinburgh he gave the earliest distinct evidence of his +definite scientific tastes by contributing to the local academic society +a paper on the floating eggs of the common sea-mat, in which he had even +then succeeded in discovering for the first time organs of locomotion. +Thence he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. The Darwins were +luckily a Cambridge family: luckily, let us say, for had it been +otherwise--had young Darwin been distorted from his native bent by Plato +and Aristotle, and plunged deep into the mysteries of Barbara and +Celarent, as would infallibly have happened to him at the sister +university--who can tell how long we might have had to wait in vain for +the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man'? But Cambridge, which +rejoiced already in the glory of Newton, was now to match it by the +glory of Darwin. In its academical course, the mathematical wedge had +always kept open a dim passage for physical science; and at the exact +moment when Darwin was an undergraduate at Christ's--from 1827 to +1831--the university had the advantage of several good scientific +teachers, and amongst them one, Professor Henslow, a well-known +botanist, who took a special interest in young Darwin's intellectual +development. There, too, he met with Sedgwick, Airy, Ramsay, and +numerous other men of science, whose intercourse with him must no doubt +have contributed largely to mould and form the future cast of his +peculiar philosophical idiosyncrasy. + +It was to Henslow's influence that Darwin in later years attributed in +great part his powerful taste for natural history. But in truth the +ascription of such high praise to his early teacher smacks too much of +the Darwinian modesty to be accepted at once without demur by the candid +critic. The naturalist, like the poet, is born, not made. How much more, +then, must this needs be the case with the grandson of Erasmus Darwin +and of Josiah Wedgwood? As a matter of fact, already at Edinburgh the +lad had loved to spend his days among the sea-beasts and wrack of the +Inches in the Firth of Forth; and it was through the instrumentality of +his 'brother entomologists' that he first became acquainted with Henslow +himself when he removed to Cambridge. The good professor could not make +him into a naturalist: inherited tendencies and native energies had done +that for him already from his very cradle. + +'Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam;' and it was well that Darwin took up +at Cambridge with the study of geology as his first love. For geology +was then the living and moving science, as astronomy had been in the +sixteenth century, and as biology is at the present day--the +growing-point, so to speak, of European development, whence all great +things might naturally be expected. Moreover, it was and is the central +science of the concrete class, having relations with astronomy on the +one hand, and with biology on the other; concerned alike with cosmical +chances or changes on this side, and with the minutest facts of organic +nature on that; the meeting-place and border-land of all the separate +branches of study that finally bear upon the complex problems of our +human life. No other subject of investigation was so well calculated to +rouse Darwin's interest in the ultimate questions of evolution or +creation, of sudden cataclysm or gradual growth, of miraculous +intervention or slow development. Here, if anywhere, his enigmas were +all clearly propounded to him by the inarticulate stony sphinxes; he had +only to riddle them out for himself as he went along in after years with +the aid of the successive side-lights thrown upon the world by the +unconnected lanterns of Lamarck and of Malthus. + +Fortunately for us, then, Darwin did not waste his time at Cambridge +over the vain and frivolous pursuits of the classical tripos. He +preferred to work at his own subjects in his own way, and to leave the +short-lived honours of the schools to those who cared for them and for +nothing higher. He came out with the _oi polloi_ in 1831, and +thenceforth proceeded to study life in the wider university for which +his natural inclinations more properly fitted him. The world was all +before him where to choose, and he chose that better part which shall +not be taken away from him as long as the very memory of science +survives. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS. + + +Scarcely had Darwin taken his pass degree at Cambridge when the great +event of his life occurred which, more than anything else perhaps, gave +the final direction to his categorical genius in the line it was +thenceforth so successfully to follow. In the autumn of 1831, when +Darwin was just twenty-two, it was decided by Government to send a +ten-gun brig, the 'Beagle,' under command of Captain Fitzroy, to +complete the unfinished survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, to map +out the shores of Chili and Peru, to visit several of the Pacific +archipelagoes, and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round +the whole world. This was an essentially scientific expedition, and +Captain Fitzroy, afterwards so famous as the meteorological admiral, was +a scientific officer of the highest type. He was anxious to be +accompanied on his cruise by a competent naturalist who would undertake +the collection and preservation of the animals and plants discovered on +the voyage, for which purpose he generously offered to give up a share +of his own cabin accommodation. Professor Henslow seized upon the +opportunity to recommend for the post his promising pupil, young Darwin, +'grandson of the poet.' Darwin gladly volunteered his services without +salary, and partly paid his own expenses on condition of being permitted +to retain in his own possession the animals and plants he collected on +the journey. The 'Beagle' set sail from Devonport on December the 27th, +1831; she returned to Falmouth on October the 2nd, 1836. + +That long five years' cruise around the world, the journal of which +Darwin has left us in the 'Voyage of the "Beagle,"' proved a marvellous +epoch in the great naturalist's quiet career. It left its abiding mark +deeply imprinted on all his subsequent life and thinking. Lamarck and +Erasmus Darwin were cabinet biologists, who had never beheld with their +own eyes the great round world and all that therein is; Charles Darwin +had the inestimable privilege of seeing for himself, at first hand, a +large part of the entire globe and of the creatures that inhabit it. +Even to have caught one passing glimpse of the teeming life of the +tropics is in itself an education; to the naturalist it is more, it is a +revelation. Our starved little northern fauna and flora, the mere +leavings of the vast ice sheets that spread across our zone in the +glacial epoch, show us a world depopulated of all its largest, +strangest, and fiercest creatures; a world dwarfed in all its component +elements, and immensely differing in ten thousand ways from that rich, +luxuriant, over-stocked hot-house in which the first great problems of +evolution were practically worked out by survival of the fittest. But +the tropics preserve for us still in all their jungles something of the +tangled, thickly-peopled aspect which our planet must have presented for +countless ages in all latitudes before the advent of primæval man. We +now know that throughout the greater part of geological time, +essentially tropical conditions existed unbroken over the whole surface +of the entire earth, from the Antarctic continent to the shores of +Greenland; so that some immediate acquaintance at least with the +equatorial world is of immense value to the philosophical naturalist for +the sake of the analogies it inevitably suggests; and it is a +significant fact that almost all those great and fruitful thinkers who +in our own time have done good work in the wider combination of +biological facts have themselves passed a considerable number of years +in investigating the conditions of tropical nature. Europe and England +are at the ends of the earth; the tropics are biological head-quarters. +The equatorial zone is therefore the true school for the historian of +life in its more universal and lasting aspects. + +Nor was that all. The particular countries visited by the 'Beagle' +during the course of her long and varied cruise happened to be exactly +such as were naturally best adapted for bringing out the latent +potentialities of Darwin's mind, and suggesting to his active and +receptive brain those deep problems of life and its environment which he +afterwards wrought out with such subtle skill and such consummate +patience in the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man.' The Cape +de Verdes, and the other Atlantic islands, with their scanty population +of plants and animals, composed for the most part of waifs and strays +drifted to their barren rocks by ocean currents, or blown out helplessly +to sea by heavy winds; Brazil, with its marvellous contrasting wealth of +tropical luxuriance and self-strangling fertility, a new province of +interminable delights to the soul of the enthusiastic young collector; +the South American pampas, with their colossal remains of extinct +animals, huge geological precursors of the stunted modern sloths and +armadillos that still inhabit the self-same plains; Tierra del Fuego, +with its almost Arctic climate, and its glimpses into the secrets of the +most degraded savage types; the vast range of the Andes and the +Cordilleras, with their volcanic energy and their closely crowded +horizontal belts of climatic life; the South Sea Islands, those +paradises of the Pacific, Hesperian fables true, alike for the lover of +the picturesque and the biological student; Australia, that surviving +fragment of an extinct world, with an antiquated fauna whose archaic +character still closely recalls the European life of ten million years +back in the secondary epoch: all these and many others equally novel and +equally instructive passed in long alternating panorama before Darwin's +eyes, and left their images deeply photographed for ever after on the +lasting tablets of his retentive memory. That was the real great +university in which he studied nature and read for his degree. Our +evolutionist was now being educated. + +Throughout the whole of the journal of this long cruise, which Darwin +afterwards published in an enlarged form, it is impossible not to be +struck at every turn with the way in which his inquisitive mind again +and again recurs to the prime elements of those great problems towards +whose solution he afterwards so successfully pointed out the path. The +Darwinian ideas are all already there in the germ; the embryo form of +the 'Origin of Species' plays in and out on every page with the +quaintest elusiveness. We are always just on the very point of catching +it; and every now and again we do actually all but catch it in essence +and spirit, though ever still its bodily shape persistently evades us. +Questions of geographical distribution, of geological continuity, of the +influence of climate, of the modifiability of instinct, of the effects +of surrounding conditions, absorb the young observer's vivid interest at +every step, wherever he lands. He is all unconsciously collecting notes +and materials in profuse abundance for his great work; he is thinking in +rough outline the new thoughts which are hereafter to revolutionise the +thought of humanity. + +Five years are a great slice out of a man's life: those five years of +ceaseless wandering by sea and land were spent by Charles Darwin in +accumulating endless observations and hints for the settlement of the +profound fundamental problems in which he was even then so deeply +interested. The 'Beagle' sailed from England to the Cape de Verdes, and +already, even before she had touched her first land, the young +naturalist had observed with interest that the impalpably fine dust +which fell on deck contained no less than sixty-seven distinct organic +forms, two of them belonging to species peculiar to South America. In +some of the dust he found particles of stone so very big that they +measured 'above the thousandth of an inch square;' and after this fact, +says the keen student, 'one need not be surprised at the diffusion of +the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants.' Would +Erasmus Darwin have noticed these minute points and their implications +one wonders? Probably not. May we not see in the observation partly the +hereditary tendencies of Josiah Wedgwood towards minute investigation +and accuracy of detail, partly the influence of the scientific +time-wave, and the careful training under Professor Henslow? Erasmus +Darwin comes before us rather as the brilliant and ingenious amateur, +his grandson Charles as the instructed and fully equipped final product +of the scientific schools. + +At St. Paul's Rocks, once more, a mass of new volcanic peaks rising +abruptly from the midst of the Atlantic, the naturalist of the 'Beagle' +notes with interest that feather and dirt-feeding and parasitic insects +or spiders are the first inhabitants to take up their quarters on +recently formed oceanic islands. This problem of the peopling of new +lands, indeed, so closely connected with the evolution of new species, +necessarily obtruded itself upon his attention again and again during +his five years' cruise; and in some cases, especially that of the +Galapagos Islands, the curious insular faunas and floras which he +observed upon this trip, composed as they were of mere casual straylings +from adjacent shores, produced upon his mind a very deep and lasting +impression, whose traces one may without difficulty discern on every +second page of the 'Origin of Species.' + +On the last day of February, 1832, the 'Beagle' came to anchor in the +harbour of Bahia, and young Darwin caught sight for the first time of +the mutually strangling luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Nowhere on +earth are the finest conditions of tropical life more fully realised +than in the tangled depths of the great uncleared Brazilian forests, +which everywhere gird round like a natural palisade with their +impenetrable belt the narrow and laborious clearings of over-mastered +man. The rich alluvial silt of mighty river systems, the immemorial +manuring of the virgin soil, the fierce energy of an almost equatorial +sun, and the universal presence of abundant water, combine to make life +in that marvellous region unusually wealthy, varied, and crowded, so +that the struggle for existence is there perhaps more directly visible +to the seeing eye than in any other known portion of God's universe. +'Delight itself,' says Darwin in his journal, with that naive simplicity +which everywhere forms the chief charm of his direct and unaffected +literary style--'delight itself is a weak term to express the feelings +of a naturalist who for the first time has wandered by himself in a +Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the +parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the +foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled +me with admiration.' In truth, among those huge buttressed trunks, +overhung by the unbroken canopy of foliage on the vast spreading and +interlacing branches, festooned with lianas and drooping lichens, or +beautified by the pendent alien growth of perfumed orchids, Darwin's +mind must indeed have found congenial food for apt reflection, and +infinite opportunities for inference and induction. Prom the mere +picturesque point of view, indeed, the naturalist enjoys such sights as +this a thousand times more truly and profoundly than the mere casual +unskilled observer: for it is a shallow, self-flattering mistake of +vulgar and narrow minds to suppose that fuller knowledge and clearer +insight can destroy or impair the beauty of beautiful objects--as who +should imagine that a great painter appreciates the sunset less than a +silly boy or a sentimental schoolgirl. As a matter of fact, the +naturalist knows and admires a thousand exquisite points of detail in +every flower and every insect which only he himself and the true artist +can equally delight in. And a keen intellectual and æsthetic joy in the +glorious fecundity and loveliness of nature was everywhere present to +Darwin's mind. But, beyond and above even that, there was also the +architectonic delight of the great organiser in the presence of a noble +organised product: the peculiar pleasure felt only by the man in whose +broader soul all minor details fall at once into their proper place, as +component elements in one great consistent and harmonious whole--a +sympathetic pleasure akin to that with which an architect views the +interior of Ely and of Lincoln, or a musician listens to the linked +harmonies of the 'Messiah' and the 'Creation.' The scheme of nature was +now unfolding itself visibly and clearly before Charles Darwin's very +eyes. + +After eighteen memorable days spent with unceasing delight at Bahia, the +'Beagle' sailed again for Rio, where Darwin stopped for three months, to +improve his acquaintance with the extraordinary wealth of the South +American fauna and flora. Collecting insects was here his chief +occupation, and it is interesting to note even at this early period how +his attention was attracted by some of those strange alluring devices on +the part of the males for charming their partners which afterwards +formed the principal basis for his admirable theory of sexual selection, +so fully developed in the 'Descent of Man.' 'Several times,' he says, +'when a pair [of butterflies], probably male and female, were chasing +each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me; +and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a +toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.' In like manner he observed +here the instincts of tropical ants, the habits of phosphorescent +insects, and the horrid practice of that wasp-like creature, the sphex, +which stuffs the clay cells of its larvæ full of half-dead spiders and +writhing caterpillars, so stung with devilish avoidance of vital parts +as to be left quite paralysed yet still alive, as future food for the +developing grubs. Cases like these helped naturally to shake the young +biologist's primitive faith in the cheap and crude current theories of +universal beneficence, and to introduce that wholesome sceptical +reaction against received dogma which is the necessary groundwork and +due preparation for all great progressive philosophical thinking. + +In July they set sail again for Monte Video, where the important +question of climate and vegetation began to interest young Darwin's +mind. Uruguay is almost entirely treeless; and this curious phenomenon, +in a comparatively moist sub-tropical plain-land, struck him as a +remarkable anomaly, and set him speculating on its probable cause. +Australia, he remembered, was far more arid, and yet its interior was +everywhere covered by whole forests of quaint indigenous gum-trees. +Could it be that there were no trees adapted to the climate? As yet, the +true causes of geographical distribution had not clearly dawned upon +Darwin's mind; but that a young man of twenty-three should seriously +busy himself about such problems of ultimate causation at all is in +itself a sufficiently pointed and remarkable phenomenon. It was here, +too, that he first saw that curious animal, the Tucutuco, a true rodent +with the habits of a mole, which is almost always found in a blind +condition. With reference to this singular creature, there occurs in his +journal one of those interesting anticipatory passages which show the +rough workings of the distinctive evolutionary Darwinian concept in its +earlier stages. 'Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the +Tucutuco,' he writes, 'the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very +serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an +organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been +delighted with this fact, had he known it, when speculating (probably +with more truth than usual with him) on the gradually acquired blindness +of the Aspalax, a gnawer living under the ground, and of the Proteus, a +reptile living in dark caverns filled with water; in both of which +animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a +tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is +extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether +it is connected with the true optic nerve; its vision must certainly be +imperfect, though probably useful to the animal when it leaves its +burrow. In the Tucutuco, which I believe never comes to the surface of +the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and +useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the +animal: no doubt Lamarck would have said that the Tucutuco is now +passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus.' The passage is +instructive both as showing that Darwin was already familiar with +Lamarck's writings, and as pointing out the natural course of his own +future development. + +For the two years from her arrival at Monte Video, the 'Beagle' was +employed in surveying the eastern coast of South America; and Darwin +enjoyed unusual opportunities for studying the geology, the zoology, and +the botany of the surrounding districts during all that period. It was a +suggestive field indeed for the young naturalist. The curious +relationship of the gigantic fossil armour-plated animals to the +existing armadillo, of the huge megatherium to the modern sloths, and of +the colossal ant-eaters to their degenerate descendants at the present +day, formed one of the direct inciting causes to the special study which +produced at last the 'Origin of Species.' In the Introduction to that +immortal work Darwin wrote, some twenty-seven years later, 'When on +board H.M.S. "Beagle" as naturalist, I was much struck with certain +facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South +America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past +inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the +latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin +of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of +our greatest philosophers.' And in the body of the work itself he refers +over and over again to numberless observations made by himself during +this period of rapid psychological development--observations on the +absence of recent geological formations along the lately upheaved South +American coast; on the strange extinction of the horse in La Plata; on +the affinities of the extinct and recent species; on the effect of +minute individual peculiarities in preserving life under special +circumstances; and on the influence of insects and blood-sucking bats in +determining the existence of the larger naturalised mammals in parts of +Brazil and the Argentine Republic. It was the epoch of wide collection +of facts, to be afterwards employed in brilliant generalisations: the +materials for the 'Origin of Species' were being slowly accumulated in +the numberless pigeon-holes of the Darwinian memory. + +Among the facts thus industriously gathered by Darwin in the two years +spent on the South American coast were several curious instincts of the +cuckoo-like molothrus, of the owl of the Pampas, and of the American +ostrich. A few sentences scattered here and there through this part of +the 'Naturalist's Journal' may well be extracted in the present place as +showing, better than any mere secondhand description could do, the slow +germinating process of the 'Origin of Species.' In speaking of the +toxodon, that strange extinct South American mammal, the young author +remarks acutely that, though in size it equalled the elephant and the +megatherium, the structure of its teeth shows it to be closely allied to +the ruminants, while several other details link it to the pachyderms, +and its aquatic peculiarities of ear and nostril approximate it rather +to the manatee and the dugong. 'How wonderfully,' he says, 'are the +different orders, at the present time so well separated, blended +together in different points of the structure of the toxodon.' We now +know that unspecialised ancestral forms always display this close union +of peculiarities afterwards separately developed in distinct species of +their later descendants. + +Still more pregnant with evolutionism in the bud is the prophetic remark +about a certain singular group of South American birds, 'This small +family is one of those which, from its varied relations to other +families, although at present offering only difficulties to the +systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand +scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings +have been created.' Of the agouti, once more, that true friend of the +desert, Darwin notes that it does not now range as far south as Port St. +Julian, though Wood in 1670 found it abundant there; and he asks +suggestively, 'What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and +rarely visited country, the range of an animal like this?' Again, when +speaking of the analogies between the extinct camel-like macrauchenia +and the modern guanaco, as well as of those between the fossil and +living species of South American rodents, he says, with even more +prophetic insight, 'This wonderful relationship in the same continent +between the dead and the living will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw +more light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth, and their +disappearance from it, than any other class of facts.' He was himself +destined in another thirty years to prove the truth of his own +vaticination. + +A yet more remarkable passage in the 'Journal of the "Beagle,"' though +entered under the account of events observed in the year 1834, must +almost certainly have been written somewhat later, and subsequently to +Darwin's first reading of Malthus's momentous work, 'The Principle of +Population,' which (as we know from his own pen) formed a cardinal point +in the great biologist's mental development. It runs as follows in the +published journal:[1]--'We do not steadily bear in mind how profoundly +ignorant we are of the conditions of existence of every animal; nor do +we always remember that some check is constantly preventing the too +rapid increase of every organised being left in a state of nature. The +supply of food, on an average, remains constant; yet the tendency in +every animal to increase by propagation is geometrical, and its +surprising effects have nowhere been more astonishingly shown than in +the case of the European animals run wild during the last few centuries +in America. Every animal in a state of nature regularly breeds; yet in a +species long established any great increase in numbers is obviously +impossible, and must be checked by some means.' Aut Malthus aut +Diabolus. And surely here, if anywhere at all, we tremble on the very +verge of natural selection. + +It would be impossible to follow young Darwin in detail through his +journey to Buenos Ayres, and up the Parana to Santa Fé, which occupied +the autumn of 1833. In the succeeding year he visited Patagonia and the +Falkland Islands, having previously made his first acquaintance with +savage life among the naked Fuegians of the extreme southern point of +the continent. Some of these interesting natives, taken to England by +Captain Fitzroy on a former visit, had accompanied the 'Beagle' through +all her wanderings, and from them Darwin obtained that close insight +into the workings of savage human nature which he afterwards utilised +with such conspicuous ability in the 'Descent of Man.' Through +Magellan's Straits the party made their way up the coasts of Chili, and +Darwin had there an opportunity of investigating the geology and biology +of the Cordillera. The year 1835 was chiefly spent in that temperate +country and in tropical Peru; and as the autumn went on, the 'Beagle' +made her way across a belt of the Pacific to the Galapagos archipelago. + +Small and unimportant as are those little equatorial islands from the +geographical and commercial point of view, they will yet remain for ever +classic ground to the biologists of the future from their close +connection with the master-problems of the 'Origin of Species.' Here +more, perhaps, than anywhere else the naturalist of the 'Beagle' found +himself face to face in real earnest with the ultimate questions of +creation or evolution. A group of tiny volcanic islets, never joined to +any land, nor even united to one another, yet each possessing its own +special zoological features--the Galapagos roused to an extraordinary +degree the irresistible questionings of Darwin's mind. They contain no +frogs, and no mammal save a mouse, brought to them, no doubt, by some +passing ship. The only insects are beetles, which possess peculiar +facilities for being transported in the egg or grub across salt water +upon floating logs. There are two kinds of snake, one tortoise, and four +lizards; but, in striking contrast to this extreme poverty of +terrestrial forms, there are at least fifty-five distinct species of +native birds. A few snails complete the list. Now most of these animals, +though closely resembling the fauna of Ecuador, the nearest mainland, +are specifically distinct; they have varied (as we now know) from their +continental types owing to natural selection under the new circumstances +in which they have been placed. But Darwin had not yet evolved that +potent key to the great riddle of organic existence. He saw the problem, +but not its solution. 'Most of the organic productions,' he says +plainly, 'are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a +difference between the inhabitants of the different islands: yet all +show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from +that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in +width.... Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more +astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their +confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the +boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to +believe that within a period geologically recent the unbroken sea was +here spread out. Hence, both in space and time we seem to be brought +somewhat nearer to that great fact--that mystery of mysteries--the first +appearance of new beings on this earth.' Among the most singular of +these zoological facts may be mentioned the existence in the Galapagos +archipelago of a genus of gigantic and ugly lizard, the amblyrhyncus, +unknown elsewhere, but here assuming the forms of two species, the one +marine and the other terrestrial. In minuter points, the differences of +fauna and flora between the various islands are simply astounding, so as +to compel the idea that each form must necessarily have been developed +not merely for the group, but for the special island which it actually +inhabits. No wonder that Darwin should say in conclusion, 'One is +astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be +used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands; and still +more so at its diverse, yet analogous, action on points so near each +other.' Here again, in real earnest, the young observer trembles visibly +on the very verge of natural selection. In the 'Origin of Species' he +makes full use, more than once, of the remarkable facts he observed with +so much interest in these tiny isolated oceanic specks of the American +galaxy. + +From the Galapagos the 'Beagle' steered a straight course for Tahiti, +and Darwin then beheld with his own eyes the exquisite beauty of the +Polynesian Islands. Thence they sailed for New Zealand, the most truly +insular large mass of land in the whole world, supplied accordingly with +a fauna and flora of most surprising meagreness and poverty of species. +In the woods, our observer noted very few birds, and he remarks with +astonishment that so big an island--as large as Great Britain--should +not possess a single living indigenous mammal, save a solitary rat of +doubtful origin. Australia and Tasmania, with their antiquated and +stranded marsupial inhabitants, almost completed the round trip. Keeling +Island next afforded a basis for the future famous observations upon +coral reefs; and thence by Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, +Pernambuco, and the beautiful Azores, the 'Beagle' made her way home by +slow stages to England, which she reached in safety on October the 2nd, +1836. What an ideal education for the future reconstructor of +biological science! He had now all his problems cut and dried, ready to +his hand, and he had nothing important left to do--except to sit down +quietly in his study, and proceed to solve them. Observation and +collection had given him one half the subject-matter of the 'Origin of +Species;' reflection and Malthus were to give him the other half. Never +had great mind a nobler chance; never, again, had noble chance a great +mind better adapted by nature and heredity to make the most of it. The +man was not wanting to the opportunity, nor was the opportunity wanting +to the man. Organism and environment fell together into perfect harmony; +and so, by a lucky combination of circumstances, the secret of the ages +was finally wrung from not unwilling nature by the far-seeing and +industrious volunteer naturalist of the 'Beagle' expedition. + +It would be giving a very false idea of the interests which stirred +Charles Darwin's mind during his long five years' voyage, however, if we +were to dwell exclusively upon the biological side of his numerous +observations on that memorable cruise. Ethnology, geology, oceanic +phenomena, the height of the snow-line, the climate of the Antarctic +islands, the formation of icebergs, the transport of boulders, the +habits and manners engendered by slavery, all almost equally aroused in +their own way the young naturalist's vivid interest. Nowhere do we get +the faintest trace of narrow specialism; nowhere are we cramped within +the restricted horizon of the mere vulgar beetle-hunter and +butterfly-catcher. The biologist of the 'Beagle' had taken the whole +world of science for his special province. Darwin's mind with all its +vastness was not, indeed, profoundly analytical. The task of working out +the psychological and metaphysical aspects of evolution fell rather to +the great organising and systematising intellect of Herbert Spencer. But +within the realm of material fact, and of the widest possible inferences +based upon such fact, Darwin's keen and comprehensive spirit ranged +freely over the whole illimitable field of nature. 'No one,' says Buckle +with unwonted felicity, 'can have a firm grasp of any science if, by +confining himself to it, he shuts out the light of analogy. He may, no +doubt, work at the details of his subject; he may be useful in adding to +its facts; he will never be able to enlarge its philosophy. For the +philosophy of every department depends on its connection with other +departments, and must therefore be sought at their points of contact. It +must be looked for in the place where they touch and coalesce: it lies, +not in the centre of each science, but on the confines and margin.' This +profound truth Darwin fully and instinctively realised. It was the +all-embracing catholicity of his manifold interests that raised him into +the greatest pure biologist of all time, and that enabled him to +co-ordinate with such splendid results the raw data of so many distinct +and separate sciences. And even as early as the days of the cruise in +the 'Beagle,' that innate catholicity had already asserted itself in +full vigour. Now it is a party of Gauchos throwing the bola that engages +for the moment his eager attention; and now again it is a group of +shivering Fuegians, standing naked with their long hair streaming in the +wind on a snowy promontory of their barren coast. Here he examines the +tubular lightning-holes melted in the solid rock of Maldonado by the +electric energy; and there he observes the moving boulder-streams that +course like torrents down the rugged corries of the Falkland Islands. At +one time he works upon the unstudied geology of the South American +Pampas; at another, he inspects the now classical lagoon and narrow +fringing reef of the Keeling archipelago. Everywhere he sees whatever of +most noteworthy in animate or inanimate nature is there to be seen; and +everywhere he draws from it innumerable lessons, to be applied hereafter +to the special field of study upon which his intense and active energies +were finally concentrated. It is not too much to say, indeed, that it +was the voyage of the 'Beagle' which gave us in the last resort the +'Origin of Species' and its great fellow the 'Descent of Man.' + + +[1] The full narrative was first given to the world in 1839, some three +years after Darwin's return to England, so that much of it evidently +represents the results of his maturer thinking and reading on the facts +collected during his journey round the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION. + + +When Charles Darwin landed in England on his return from the voyage of +the 'Beagle' he was nearly twenty-eight. When he published the first +edition of the 'Origin of Species' he was over fifty. The intermediate +years, though much occupied by many minor works of deep specialist +scientific importance, were still mainly devoted to collecting material +for the one crowning effort of his life, the chief monument of his great +co-ordinating and commanding intellect--the settlement of the question +of organic evolution. + +'There is one thing,' says Professor Fiske, 'which a man of original +scientific or philosophical genius in a rightly ordered world should +never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to earn a +living; for that is a wretched waste of energy, in which the highest +intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment, and runs the +risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.' From this unhappy +necessity Charles Darwin, like his predecessor Lyell, was luckily free. +He settled down early in a home of his own, and worked away at his own +occupations, with no sordid need for earning the day's bread, but with +perfect leisure to carry out the great destiny for which the chances of +the universe had singled him out. His subsequent history is the history +of his wonderful and unique contributions to natural science. + +The first thing to be done, of course, was the arrangement and +classification of the natural history spoils gathered during the cruise, +and the preparation of his own journal of the voyage for publication. +The strict scientific results of the trip were described in the 'Zoology +of the Voyage of the "Beagle,"' the different parts of which were +undertaken by rising men of science of the highest distinction, under +Charles Darwin's own editorship. Sir Richard Owen took in hand the +fossil mammals; Waterhouse arranged their living allies; Gould discussed +the birds, Jenyns the fish, and Bell the amphibians and reptiles. In +this vast co-operative publication Darwin thus obtained the assistance +of many among the most competent specialists in the England of his day, +and learned to understand his own collections by the light thrown upon +them from the focussed lamps of the most minute technical learning. As +for the journal, it was originally published with the general account of +the cruise by Captain Fitzroy in 1839, but was afterwards set forth in a +separate form under the title of 'A Naturalist's Voyage Round the +World.' + +But while Darwin was thus engaged in arranging and classifying the +animals and plants he had brought home with him, the germs of those +inquiring ideas about the origin of species which we have already +observed in his account of the voyage were quickening into fresh life +within him. As he ruminated at his leisure over the results of his +accumulations, he was beginning to work upon the great problem with the +definite and conscious resolution of solving it. 'On my return home, it +occurred to me,' he says, 'in 1837, that something might perhaps be made +out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all +sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five +years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up +some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the +conclusions that then seemed to me probable; from that period to the +present day [1859] I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that +I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them +to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.' + +So Darwin wrote at fifty. The words are weighty and well worthy of +consideration. They give us in a nutshell the true secret of Darwin's +success in compelling the attention and assent of his contemporaries to +his completed theory. For speculations and hypotheses like those of +Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin, however brilliant and luminous they may be, +the hard, dry, scientific mind cares as a rule less than nothing. Men of +genius and insight like Goethe and Oken may, indeed, seize greedily upon +the pregnant suggestion; their intellects are already attuned by nature +to its due reception and assimilation; but the mere butterfly-catchers +and plant-hunters of the world, with whom after all rests ultimately the +practical acceptance or rejection of such a theory, can only be +convinced by long and patient accumulations of facts, by infinite +instances and endless examples, by exhaustive surveys of the whole +field of nature in a thousand petty details piecemeal. They have to be +driven by repeated beating into the right path. Everywhere they fancy +they see the loophole of an objection, which must be carefully closed +beforehand against them with anticipatory argument, as we close hedges +by the wayside against the obtrusive donkey with a cautious bunch of +thorny brambles. Even if Charles Darwin had hit upon the fundamental +idea of natural selection, and had published it, as Wallace did, in the +form of a mere splendid _aperçu_, he would never have revolutionised the +world of biology. When the great discovery was actually promulgated, it +was easy enough to win the assent of philosophical thinkers like Herbert +Spencer; easy enough, even, to gain the ready adhesion of non-biological +but kindred minds, like Leslie Stephen's and John Morley's; those might +all, perhaps, have been readily convinced by far less heavy and crushing +artillery than that so triumphantly marshalled together in the 'Origin +of Species.' But in order to command the slow and grudging adhesion of +the rank and file of scientific workers, the 'hodmen of science,' as +Professor Huxley calls them, it was needful to bring together an +imposing array of closely serried facts, to secure every post in the +rear before taking a single step onward, and to bring to bear upon every +antagonist the exact form of argument with which he was already +thoroughly familiar. It was by carefully pursuing these safe and +cautious philosophical tactics that Charles Darwin gained his great +victory. Where others were pregnant, he was cogent. He met the +Dryasdusts of science on their own ground, and he put them fairly to +flight with their own weapons. More than that, he brought them all over +in the long run as deserters into his own camp, and converted them from +doubtful and suspicious foes into warm adherents of the evolutionary +banner. + +Moreover, fortunately for the world, Darwin's own mind was essentially +one of the inductive type. If a great deductive thinker and speculator +like Herbert Spencer had hit upon the self-same idea of survival of the +fittest, he might have communicated it to a small following of receptive +disciples, who would have understood it and accepted it, on _a priori_ +grounds alone, and gradually passed it on to the grades beneath them; +but he would never have touched the slow and cautious elephantine +intellect of the masses. The common run of mankind are not deductive; +they require to have everything made quite clear to them by example and +instance. The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule +congenitally incapable of appreciating the superior logical certitude of +the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square +on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until +they have measured and weighed as well as they are able by rude +experimental devices a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular +paper. It was a great gain, therefore, that the task of reconstructing +the course of organic evolution should fall to the lot of a highly +trained and masterly intelligence of the inductive order. Darwin had +first to convince himself, and then he could proceed to convince the +world. He set about the task with characteristic patience and +thoroughness. No man that ever lived possessed in a more remarkable +degree than he did the innate capacity for taking trouble. For five +years, as a mere preliminary, he accumulated facts in immense variety, +and then for the first time and in the vaguest possible way he--'allowed +himself to speculate.' That brings us down to the year 1842, when the +first notes of the 'Origin of Species' must have been tentatively +committed to paper. It was in 1859 that the first edition of the +complete work was given to the world. Compare this with the case of +Newton, who similarly kept his grand idea of gravitation for many years +in embryo, until more exact measurements of the moon's mass and distance +should enable him to verify it to his own satisfaction. + +One other item of immense importance in the genesis of the full +Darwinian doctrine deserves mention here--I mean, the exact moment of +time occupied by Charles Darwin in the continuous history of scientific +thought. A generation or two earlier, in Erasmus Darwin's days, biology +had not yet arrived at the true classification of animals and plants +upon an essentially hereditary basis. The Linnæan arrangement, then +universally accepted, was wholly artificial in its main features; it +distributed species without regard to their fundamental likenesses of +structure and organisation. But the natural system of Jussieu and De +Candolle, by arranging plants into truly related groups, made possible +the proofs of an order of affiliation in the vegetable kingdom; while +Cuvier's similar reconstruction of the animal world gave a like foothold +to the evolutionary philosopher in the other great department of organic +nature. The recognition of kinship between the various members of the +same family necessarily preceded the establishment of a regular +genealogical theory of life in its entirety. + +Though we are here concerned mainly with Charles Darwin the thinker and +writer--not with Charles Darwin the husband and father--a few words of +explanation as to his private life must necessarily be added at the +present point, before we pass on to consider the long, slow, and +cautious brewing of that wonderful work, the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +returned home from the voyage of the 'Beagle' at the end of the year +1836. Soon after, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, no doubt +through the influence of his friend Lyell, who was quite enthusiastic +over his splendid geological investigations on the rate of elevation in +the Pampas and the Cordillera. Acting on Lyell's advice, too, he +determined to seek no official appointment, but to devote himself +entirely for the rest of his life to the pursuit of science. In 1838, at +the age of twenty-nine, he read before the Geological Society his paper +on the 'Connection of Volcanic Phenomena with the Elevation of Mountain +Chains,' when, says Lyell admiringly in a private letter, 'he opened +upon De la Beche, Phillips, and others'--the veterans of the +science--'his whole battery of the earthquakes and volcanoes of the +Andes.' Shortly after, the audacious young man was appointed secretary +to the Geological Society, a post which he filled when the voyage of the +'Beagle' was first published in 1839. + +In the early part of that same year, the rising naturalist took to +himself a wife from one of the houses to which he himself owed no small +part of his conspicuous greatness. His choice fell upon his cousin, +Miss Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of Maer Hall; and, +after three years of married life in London, he settled at last at Down +House, near Orpington, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed +his time among his conservatories and his pigeons, his garden and his +fowls, with his children growing up quietly beside him, and the great +thinking world of London within easy reach of a few minutes' journey. +His private means enabled him to live the pleasant life of an English +country gentleman, and devote himself unremittingly to the pursuit of +science. Ill health, indeed, interfered sadly with his powers of work; +but system and patience did wonders during his working days, which were +regularly parcelled out between study and recreation, and utilised and +economised in the very highest possible degree. Early to bed and early +to rise, wandering unseen among the lanes and paths, or riding slowly on +his favourite black cob, the great naturalist passed forty years happily +and usefully at Down, where all the village knew and loved him. A man of +singular simplicity and largeness of heart, Charles Darwin never really +learnt to know his own greatness. And that charming innocence and +ignorance of his real value made the value itself all the greater. His +moral qualities, indeed, were no less admirable and unique in their way +than his intellectual faculties. To that charming candour and delightful +unostentatiousness which everybody must have noticed in his published +writings, he united in private life a kindliness of disposition, a width +of sympathy, and a ready generosity which made him as much beloved by +his friends as he was admired and respected by all Europe. The very +servants who came beneath his roof stopped there for the most part +during their whole lifetime. In his earlier years at Down, the quiet +Kentish home was constantly enlivened by the visits of men like Lyell, +Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and Wollaston. During his later days, it was +the Mecca of a world-wide scientific and philosophic pilgrimage, where +all the greatest men our age has produced sought at times the rare +honour of sitting before the face of the immortal master. But to the +very last Darwin himself never seemed to discover that he was anything +more than just an average man of science among his natural peers. + +Shortly after Darwin went to Down he began one long and memorable +experiment, which in itself casts a flood of light upon his patient and +painstaking method of inquiry. Two years before, he had read at the +Geological Society a paper on the 'Formation of Mould,' which more than +thirty years later he expanded into his famous treatise on the 'Action +of Earthworms.' His uncle and father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, suggested +to him that the apparent sinking of stones on the surface might really +be due to earthworm castings. So, as soon as he had some land of his own +to experiment upon, he began, in 1842, to spread broken chalk over a +field at Down, in which, twenty-nine years later, in 1871, a trench was +dug to test the results. What other naturalist ever waited so long and +so patiently to discover the upshot of a single experiment? Is it +wonderful that a man who worked like that should succeed, not by faith +but by logical power, in removing mountains? + +Unfortunately, we do not know the exact date when Darwin first read +Malthus. But that the perusal of that remarkable book formed a crisis +and turning-point in his mental development we know from his own +distinct statement in a letter to Haeckel, prefixed to the brilliant +German evolutionist's 'History of Creation.' 'It seemed to me probable,' +says Darwin, speaking of his own early development, 'that allied species +were descended from a common ancestor. But during several years I could +not conceive how each form could have been modified so as to become +admirably adapted to its place in nature. I began therefore to study +domesticated animals and cultivated plants, and after a time perceived +that man's power of selecting and breeding from certain individuals was +the most powerful of all means in the production of new races. Having +attended to the habits of animals and their relations to the surrounding +conditions, I was able to realise the severe struggle for existence to +which all organisms are subjected; and my geological observations had +allowed me to appreciate to a certain extent the duration of past +geological periods. With my mind thus prepared I fortunately happened to +read Malthus's "Essay on Population" and the idea of natural selection +through the struggle for existence at once occurred to me. Of all the +subordinate points in the theory, the last which I understood was the +cause of the tendency in the descendants from a common progenitor to +diverge in character.' + +It is impossible, indeed, to overrate the importance of Malthus, viewed +as a schoolmaster to bring men to Darwin, and to bring Darwin himself to +the truth. Without the 'Essay on the Principle of Population' it is +quite conceivable that we should never have had the 'Origin of Species' +or the 'Descent of Man.' + +At the same time, Darwin had not been idle in other departments of +scientific work. Side by side with his collections for his final effort +he had been busy on his valuable treatise upon Coral Reefs, in which he +proved, mainly from his own observations on the Keeling archipelago, +that atolls owe their origin to a subsidence of the supporting +ocean-floor, the rate of upward growth of the reefs keeping pace on the +whole with the gradual depression of the sea-bottom. 'No more admirable +example of scientific method,' says Professor Geikie forty years later, +'was ever given to the world; and even if he had written nothing else, +this treatise alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of +investigators of nature.' But, from our present psychological and +historical point of view, as a moment in the development of Darwin's +influence, and therefore of the evolutionary impulse in general, it +possesses a still greater and more profound importance, because the work +in which the theory is unfolded forms a perfect masterpiece of thorough +and comprehensive inductive method, and gained for its author a +well-deserved reputation as a sound and sober scientific inquirer. The +acquisition of such a reputation, afterwards increased by the +publication of the monograph on the Family Cirripedia (in 1851), proved +of immense use to Charles Darwin in the fierce battle which was to rage +around the unconscious body of the 'Origin of Species.' To be 'sound' is +everywhere of incalculable value; to have approved oneself to the slow +and cautious intelligence of the Philistine classes is a mighty spear +and shield for a strong man; but in England, and above all in scientific +England, it is absolutely indispensable to the thinker who would +accomplish any great revolution. Soundness is to the world of science +what respectability is to the world of business--the _sine qua non_ for +successfully gaining even a hearing from established personages. + +To read the book on Coral Reefs is indeed to take a lesson of the +deepest value in applied inductive canons. Every fact is duly +marshalled: every conclusion is drawn by the truest and most legitimate +process from careful observation or crucial experiment. Bit by bit, +Darwin shows most admirably that, through gradual submergence, fringing +reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and these again into atolls or +lagoon islands; and incidentally he throws a vivid light on the slow +secular movements upward or downward for ever taking place in the +world's crust. But the value of the work as a geological record, great +as it is, is as nothing compared with its value as a training exercise +in inductive logic. Darwin was now learning by experience how to use his +own immense powers. + +Meanwhile, the environment too had been gradually moving. In 1832, the +year after young Darwin set out upon his cruise, Lyell published the +first edition of his 'Principles of Geology,' establishing once for all +the uniformitarian concept of that branch of science. In 1836, the year +when he returned, Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora of North America,' had +accepted within certain cramping limits the idea that 'all species might +once have been varieties, and that many varieties are gradually becoming +species by assuming constant and peculiar characters.' Haldeman in +Boston, and Grant at University College, London, were teaching from +their professorial chairs the self-same novel and revolutionary +doctrine. At last, in 1844, Robert Chambers published anonymously his +famous and much-debated 'Vestiges of Creation,' which brought down the +question of evolution _versus_ creation from the senate of _savants_ to +the arena of the mere general public, and set up at once a universal +fever of inquiry into the mysterious question of the origin of species. +Chambers himself was a man rather of general knowledge and some native +philosophical insight than of any marked scientific accuracy or depth. +His work in its original form displayed comparatively little +acquaintance with the vast ground-work of the question at +issue--zoological, botanical, geological, and so forth--and in Charles +Darwin's own opinion showed 'a great want of scientific caution.' But +its graphic style, its vivid picturesqueness, and to the world at large +the startling novelty of its brilliant and piquant suggestions, made it +burst at once into an unwonted popularity for a work of so distinctly +philosophical a character. In nine years it leaped rapidly through no +less than ten successive editions, and remained until the publication of +the 'Origin of Species' the chief authoritative exponent in England of +the still struggling evolutionary principle. + +The 'Vestiges of Creation' may be succinctly described as Lamarck and +water, the watery element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion +(_more Scotico_) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the +physical universe. Chambers himself, in his latest edition (before the +book was finally killed by the advent of Darwinism), thus briefly +describes his main concepts: 'The several series of animated beings, +from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, +under the providence of God, the results, _first_, of an impulse which +has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite +times, by generation, through grades of organisation, terminating in the +highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, +and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to +be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; _second_, of +another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course +of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external +circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric +agencies.' Now it is clear at once that these two supposed 'impulses' +are really quite miraculous in their essence. They do not help us at all +to a distinct physical and realisable conception of any natural agency +whereby species became differentiated one from the other. They lay the +whole burden of species-making upon a single primordial supernatural +impetus, imparted to the first living germ by the will of the Creator, +and acting ever since continuously it is true, but none the less +miraculously for all that. For many creations Chambers substitutes one +single long creative nisus: where Darwin saw natural selection, his +Scotch predecessor saw a _deus ex machina_, helping on the course of +organic development by a constant but unseen interference from above. He +supposed evolution to be predetermined by some intrinsic and externally +implanted proclivity. In short, Chambers's theory is Lamarck's +theologised, and spoilt in the process. + +The book had nevertheless a most prodigious and perfectly unprecedented +success. The secret of its authorship was keenly debated and jealously +kept. The most ridiculous surmises as to its anonymous origin were +everywhere afloat. Some attributed it to Thackeray, and some to Prince +Albert, some to Lyell, some to Sir John Herschel, and some to Charles +Darwin himself. Obscurantists thought it a wicked book; 'intellectual' +people thought it an advanced book. As a matter of fact it was neither +the one nor the other. It was just a pale and colourless transcript of +the old familiar teleological Lamarckism. Yet it did good in its +generation. The public at large were induced by its ephemeral vogue to +interest themselves in a question to which they had never previously +given even a passing thought, though more practised biologists of +evolutionary tendencies were grieved at heart that evolution should +first have been popularly presented to the English world under so +unscientific, garbled, and mutilated a form. From the philosophic side, +Herbert Spencer found 'this ascription of organic evolution to some +aptitude naturally possessed by organisms or miraculously imposed upon +them' to be 'one of those explanations which explain nothing--a shaping +of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge. The cause assigned,' he +says, 'is not a true cause--not a cause assimilable to known causes--not +a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous effects. It is a +cause unrepresentable in thought: one of those illegitimate symbolic +conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real +conception.' From the scientific side, on the other hand, Darwin felt +sadly the inaccuracy and want of profound technical knowledge everywhere +displayed by the anonymous author. These things might naturally cause +the enemy to blaspheme. No worse calamity, indeed, can happen to a +great truth than for its defence to be intrusted to inefficient hands. +Nevertheless, long after, in the 'Origin of Species,' the great +naturalist wrote with generous appreciation of the 'Vestiges of +Creation,' 'In my own opinion it has done excellent service in this +country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and +in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.' + +Still Darwin gave no sign. A flaccid, cartilaginous, unphilosophic +evolutionism had full possession of the field for the moment, and +claimed, as it were, to be the genuine representative of the young and +vigorous biological creed, while he himself was in truth the real heir +to all the honours of the situation. He was in possession of the +master-key which alone could unlock the bars that opposed the progress +of evolution, and still he waited. He could afford to wait. He was +diligently collecting, amassing, investigating; eagerly reading every +new systematic work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, +every record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract from the +dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of implicit value might swell +the definite co-ordinated series of notes in his own commonplace books +for the now distinctly contemplated 'Origin of Species.' His way was to +make all sure behind him, to summon up all his facts in irresistible +array, and never to set out upon a public progress until he was secure +against all possible attacks of the ever-watchful and alert enemy in the +rear. Few men would have had strength of mind enough to resist the +temptation offered by the publication of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and +the extraordinary success attained by so flabby a presentation of the +evolutionary case: Darwin resisted it, and he did wisely. + +We may, however, take it for granted, I doubt not, that it was the +appearance and success of Chambers's invertebrate book which induced +Darwin, in 1844 (the year of its publication), to enlarge his short +notes 'into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to him +probable.' This sketch he showed to Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, no +doubt as a precaution to ensure his own claim of priority against any +future possible competitor. And having thus eased his mind for the +moment, he continued to observe, to read, to devour 'Transactions,' to +collate instances, with indefatigable persistence for fifteen years +longer. If any man mentally measures out fifteen years of his own life, +and bethinks him of how long a space it seems when thus deliberately +pictured, he will be able to realise a little more definitely--but only +a little--how profound was the patience, the self-denial, the +single-mindedness of Darwin's intense search after the ultimate truths +of natural science. + +What was the sketch that he thus committed to paper in 1844, and +submitted to the judgment of his friend Hooker? It was the germ of the +theory of natural selection. According to that theory, organic +development is due to the survival of the fittest among innumerable +variations, good, bad, and indifferent, from one or more parent stocks. +Darwin's reading of Malthus had suggested to him (apparently as early as +the date of publication of the 'Naturalist's Journal') the idea that +every species of plant and animal must always be producing a far greater +number of seeds, eggs, germs, or young offspring than could possibly be +needed for the maintenance of the average number of the species. Of +these young, by far the greater number must always perish from +generation to generation, for want of space, of food, of air, of raw +material. The survivors in each brood must be those naturally best +adapted for survival. The many would be eaten, starved, overrun, or +crowded out; the few that survive would be those that possessed any +special means of defence against aggressors, any special advantage for +escaping starvation, any special protection against overrunning or +overcrowding foes. Animals and plants, Darwin found on inquiry and +investigation, tended to vary under diverse circumstances from the +parent or parents that originally produced them. These variations were +usually infinitesimal in amount, but sometimes more considerable or even +striking. If any particular variation tended in any way to preserve the +life of the creatures that exhibited it, beyond the average of their +like competitors, that variation would in the long run survive, and the +individuals that possessed it, being thus favoured in the struggle for +existence, would replace the less adapted form from which they sprang. +Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of +the calculus of population to the wide facts of universal life. + +In one sense, indeed, it may be said that, given Malthus on the one hand +and the Lamarckian evolutionism on the other, some great man somewhere +must sooner or later, almost of necessity, have combined the two, and +hit out the doctrine of natural selection as we actually know it. Quite +so; but then the point is just this: Darwin _was_ the great man in +question; he _did_ the work which in the very essence of things some +such great man was naturally and inevitably predestined to do. You can +always easily manage to get on without any particular great man, +provided, of course, you have ready to hand another equally able great +man by whom to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how many +ordinary naturalists possess the width of mind and universality of +interest which would prompt them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest a politico-economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus? How +many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to perceive the +ensuing biological implications? How many, having seen them, have the +skill and the patience to work up the infinite chaos of botanical and +zoological detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the 'Origin +of Species'? Merely to have caught at the grand idea is in itself no +small achievement; others did so and deserve all honour for their +insight; but to flesh it out with all the minute care and conclusive +force of Darwin's masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler +monument of human endeavour. + +During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, however, Darwin's pen was by +no means idle. In the first-named year he published his 'Geological +Observations on Volcanic Islands'--part of the 'Beagle' exploration +series; in 1846 he followed this up by his 'Geological Observations on +South America;' in 1851 he gave to the world his monograph on 'Recent +Barnacles;' and in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same +family. But all these works of restricted interest remained always +subsidiary to the one great central task of his entire lifetime, the +preparation of his projected volume on the Origin of Species. + +All through the middle decades of the century Darwin continued to labour +at his vast accumulation of illustrative facts; and side by side with +his continuous toil, outside opinion kept paving the way for the final +acceptance of his lucid ideas. The public was buying and reading all the +time its ten editions of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It was slowly +digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic +theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a +past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively +established. It was getting accustomed to statements like those of the +younger St. Hilaire, in 1850, that specific characters may be modified +by changes in the environing conditions, and that the modifications thus +produced may often be of generic value--may make a difference so great +that we must regard the product not merely as belonging to a distinct +species, but even to a distinct genus or higher kind. In 1852 Herbert +Spencer published in the 'Leader' his remarkable essay, contrasting the +theories of creation and evolution, as applied to organic beings, with +all the biting force of his profound intelligence; and in 1855, the same +encyclopædic philosopher put forth the first rough sketch of his +'Principles of Psychology,' in which he took the lead in treating the +phenomena of mind from the point of view of gradual development. In that +extraordinary work, the philosopher of evolution traced the origin of +all mental powers and faculties by slow gradations from the very +simplest subjective elements. The 'Principles of Psychology' preceded +the 'Origin of Species' by nearly five years; the first collected volume +of Mr. Spencer's essays preceded Darwin's work by some twelve months. +Baden-Powell's essay on the 'Philosophy of Creation' (much debated and +condemned in ecclesiastical circles), and Professor Owen's somewhat +contradictory utterances on the nature of types and archetypal ideas, +also helped to keep alive interest in the problem of origins up to the +very moment of the final appearance of Darwin's great and splendid +solution. + +It is interesting during these intermediate years to watch from time to +time the occasional side-hints of Darwin's activity and of the interest +it aroused among his scientific contemporaries. In 1854, for example, +Sir Charles Lyell notes, after an evening at Darwin's, how Sir Joseph +Hooker astonished him with an account of that strange orchid, Catasetum, +which bears three totally distinct kinds of flowers on the same plant; +'It will figure,' he says, 'in C. Darwin's book on species, with many +other "ugly facts," as Hooker, clinging like me to the orthodox faith, +calls these and other abnormal vagaries.' On a similar occasion, a +little later, Lyell asks, after meeting 'Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston +at Darwin's,' 'After all, did we not come from an ourang?' Last of all, +in 1857, Darwin himself writes an anticipatory letter to his American +friend, Asa Gray, in which he mentions 'six points'--the cardinal +conceptions of the 'Origin of Species.' His book is now fairly under +weigh; he speaks of it himself to acquaintance and correspondents as an +acknowledged project. + +Events were growing ripe for the birth. A lucky accident precipitated +its parturition in the course of the year 1858. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' + + +The accident came in this wise. + +Alfred Russel Wallace, a young Welsh biologist, went out at twenty-four, +in 1848, to the Amazons River, in company with Bates (the author of 'The +Naturalist on the Amazons'), to collect birds and butterflies, and to +study tropical life in the richest region of equatorial America. Like +all other higher zoologists of their time, the two young explorers were +deeply interested in the profound questions of origin and metamorphosis, +and of geographical distribution, and in the letters that passed between +them before they started they avowed to one another that the object of +their quest was a solution of the pressing biological enigma of creation +or evolution. Starting with fresh hopes and a few pounds in pocket, on +an old, worn-out, and unseaworthy slave-trader, they often discussed +these deep problems of life and nature together upon the Sargasso sea, +or among the palms and lianas of the Brazilian woodlands. The air was +thick with whiffs and foretastes of evolutionism, and the two budding +naturalists of the Amazons expedition had inhaled them eagerly with +every breath. They saw among the mimicking organisms of that equatorial +zone strange puzzles to engage their deepest attention; they recognised +in the veins and spots that diversified the filmy membranes of insects' +wings the hieroglyphs of nature, writing as on a tablet for them to +decipher the story of the slow modification of species. In 1852--the +year when Herbert Spencer in England published his essay on the +'Development Hypothesis,' and when Naudin in France put forth his bold +and able paper on the 'Origin of Species'--Wallace once more returned to +Europe, and gave to the world his interesting 'Travels on the Amazons +and the Rio Negro.' Two years later the indefatigable traveller set out +a second time on a voyage of tropical exploration, among the islands of +the Malay archipelago, and for eight years he wandered about in Malay +huts and remote islets, gathering in solitude and isolation the enormous +store of minute facts which he afterwards lavished with so prodigal a +hand upon 'Tropical Nature,' and the 'Geographical Distribution of +Animals.' + +While Wallace was still at Amboyna, he sent home in 1858 a striking +memoir, addressed to Darwin, with a request that he would forward it to +Sir Charles Lyell, for presentation to the Linnean Society. Darwin +opened and read his brother naturalist's paper, and found to his +surprise that it contained his own theory of natural selection, not +worked out in detail, as he himself was working it out, but still +complete in spirit and essence, with no important portion of the central +idea lacking to its full rotundity of conception. A jealous man would +have thrown obstacles in the way of publication; but both Darwin and +Wallace were born superior to the meannesses of jealousy. The elder +naturalist commended his young rival's paper at once to Sir Charles +Lyell, who sent it on immediately to the Linnean Society. + +But Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, both of whom knew of +Darwin's work, thought it advisable that he should publish, in the +'Journal' of the Society, a few extracts from his own manuscripts, side +by side with Wallace's paper. Darwin, therefore, selected some essential +passages for the purpose from his own long-gathered and voluminous +notes, and the two contributions were read together before the Society +on July the 1st, 1858. That double communication marks the date of birth +of modern evolutionism. It is to the eternal credit of both thinkers +that each accepted his own true position with regard to the great +discovery in perfect sincerity. The elder naturalist never strove for a +moment to press his own claim to priority against the younger: the +younger, with singular generosity and courtesy, waived his own claim to +divide the honours of discovery in favour of the elder. Not one word +save words of fraternal admiration and cordial appreciation ever passed +the lips of either with regard to the other. + +The distinctive notion of natural selection, indeed, like all true and +fruitful ideas, had more than once flashed for a moment across the +penetrating mind of more than one independent investigator. As early as +1813, Dr. Wells, the famous author of the theory of dew, applied that +particular conception to the single case of the production of special +races among mankind. + +'Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first +few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa,' he +wrote, 'some one would be better fitted than the others to bear the +diseases of the country. This race would consequently multiply, while +the others would decrease; not only from their inability to sustain the +attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending with their +more vigorous neighbours.... The same disposition to form varieties +still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time +occur; and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this +would at last become the most prevalent, if not the only race in the +country.' Here we have not merely the radical concept of natural +selection, but also the subordinate idea of its exertion upon what +Darwin calls 'spontaneous variations.' What is wanting in the paper is +the application of the faintly descried law to the facts and +circumstances of general biology: Wells saw only a particular instance, +where Darwin and Wallace more vividly perceived a universal principle. +Again, in 1831, Mr. Patrick Matthew in that singular appendix to his +book on naval timber actually enunciates the same idea, applied this +time to the whole of nature, in words sometimes almost identical with +Darwin's own. 'As nature in all her modifications of life,' says this +unconscious discoverer, '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.... The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised 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 thousandfold) 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.' Of the ideas expressed in these paragraphs, and +others which preceded them, Darwin himself rightly observes, 'He gives +precisely the same view on the origin of species as that propounded by +Mr. Wallace and myself. He clearly saw the full force of the principle +of natural selection.' + +In 1852, once more, so eminent and confirmed an evolutionist as Mr. +Herbert Spencer himself had hit upon a glimpse of the same great truth, +strange to say without perceiving the width and scope of its +implications. 'All mankind,' he wrote in that year in an essay on +population in the 'Westminster Review,' 'in turn subject themselves more +or less to the discipline described; they either may or may not advance +under it; but, in the nature of things, only those who _do_ advance +under it eventually survive. For, necessarily, families and races whom +this increasing difficulty of getting a living which excess of fertility +entails does not stimulate to improvements in production.... are on the +high road to extinction; and must ultimately be supplanted by those whom +the pressure does so stimulate.... And here, indeed, without further +illustration, it will be seen that premature death, under all its forms, +and from all its causes, cannot fail to work in the same direction. For +as those prematurely carried off must, in the average of cases, be those +in whom the power of self-preservation is the least, it unavoidably +follows that those left behind to continue the race must be those in +whom the power of self-preservation is the greatest, must be the select +of their generation.' In this striking pre-Darwinian passage we have a +partial perception of what Mr. Spencer afterwards described as the +survival of the fittest; but, as our great philosopher himself remarks, +it 'shows how near one may be to a great generalisation without seeing +it.' For not only does Mr. Spencer, like Wells before him, limit the +application of the principle to the case of humanity; but, unlike Wells, +he overlooks the all-important factor of spontaneous variation, and the +power of natural selection, acting upon such, to produce specific and +generic divergences of structure. In short, in his own words, the +paragraph 'contains merely a passing recognition of the selective +process, and indicates no suspicion of the enormous range of its +effects, or of the conditions under which a large part of its effects +are produced.' On the other hand, it must be noted that both Spencer and +Matthew, like Darwin himself, based their ideas largely upon the +Malthusian principle, and thus held the two true keys of the situation +fairly within their unconscious hands. + +Frankly to recognise these various foreshadowings of the distinctive +Darwinian theory of natural selection is not in any way to undermine the +foundations of Charles Darwin's own real and exceptional greatness. On +the contrary, the mere fact that his views were so far anticipated by +Wells, Matthew, Spencer, and others, and were simultaneously arrived at +across half the globe by the independent intellect of Alfred Russel +Wallace, is in itself the very best proof and finest criterion of +Charles Darwin's genuine apostleship. No truly grand and fruitful idea +was ever yet the sole property of a single originator. Great +discoveries, says an acute critic, must always be concerned with some +problem of the time which many of the world's foremost minds are just +then cudgelling their active brains about. It was so with the discovery +of the differential calculus, and of the planet Neptune; with the +interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and of the cuneiform +inscriptions; with the undulatory theory of light, with the mechanical +equivalent of heat, with the doctrine of the correlation and +conservation of energies, with the invention of the steam engine, the +locomotive, the telegraph and the telephone; with the nebular +hypothesis, and with spectrum analysis. It was so, too, with the +evolutionary movement. The fertile upturning of virgin sod in the +biological field which produced Darwin's forerunners, as regards the +idea of descent with modification, in the persons of Buffon, Lamarck, +and Erasmus Darwin, necessarily produced a little later, under the fresh +impetus of the Malthusian conception, his forerunners or coadjutors, as +regards the idea of natural selection, in the persons of Wells, Matthew, +and Wallace. It was Darwin's task to recognise the universal, where +Wells and Spencer had seen only the particular; to build up a vast and +irresistible inductive system, where Matthew and Wallace had but thrown +out a pregnant hint of wonderful _a priori_ interest and suggestiveness. +It is one thing to draw out the idea of a campaign, another thing to +carry it to a successful conclusion; one thing rudely to sketch a +ground-plan, another thing finally to pile aloft to the sky the front of +an august and imposing fabric. + +As soon as the papers at the Linnean had been read and printed, Darwin +set to work in real earnest to bring out the first instalment of his +great work. That instalment was the 'Origin of Species.' The first +edition was ready for the public on November the 24th, 1859. + +In his own mind Darwin regarded that immortal work merely in the light +of an abstract of his projected volumes. So immense were his collections +and so voluminous his notes that the 'Origin of Species' itself seemed +to him like a mere small portion of the contemplated publication. And +indeed he did ultimately work out several other portions of his original +plan in his detailed treatises on the Variation of Animals and Plants +under Domestication, on the Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation, and +on the Descent of Man and Sexual Selection. But the immense and +unexpected vogue of his first volume, the almost immediate revolution +which it caused in biological and general opinion, and the all but +universal adhesion to his views of all the greatest and most rising +naturalists, to a great extent saved him the trouble of carrying out in +full the task he had originally contemplated as necessary. Younger and +less occupied labourers took part of the work off their leader's hands; +the great chief was left to prosecute his special researches in some +special lines, and was relieved from the necessity of further proving in +minuter detail what he had already proved with sufficient cogency to +convince all but the wilfully blind or the hopelessly stupid. + +The extraordinary and unprecedented success of the 'Origin of Species' +is the truest test of the advance it made upon all previous evolutionary +theorising. Those who had never been convinced before were now convinced +by sheer force of reasoning; those who believed and those who wavered +had their faith confirmed into something like the reposeful calm of +absolute certitude. + +Let us consider, therefore, what exactly were the additions which +Charles Darwin offered in his epoch-making work to the pre-existing +conceptions of evolutionists. + +In 1852, seven years before the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, Mr. +Herbert Spencer wrote as follows in an essay in the 'Leader' on creation +and evolution. The expressions of so profound and philosophical a +biologist may be regarded as the high-water mark of evolutionary +thinking up to the date of the appearance of Wallace and Darwin's +theory:-- + +'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 +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 admirable passage, written seven years before the publication of +the 'Origin of Species,' contains explicitly almost every idea that +ordinary people, not specially biological in their interests, now +associate with the name of Darwin. That is to say, it contains, in a +very philosophical and abstract form, the theory of 'descent with +modification' _without_ the distinctive Darwinian adjunct of 'natural +selection' or 'survival of the fittest.' Yet it was just that particular +lever, dexterously applied, and carefully weighted with the whole weight +of his endlessly accumulated inductive instances, that finally enabled +our modern Archimedes in so short a time to move the world. The public, +that was deaf to the high philosophy of Herbert Spencer, listened at +once to the practical wisdom of Charles Darwin. They did not care at all +for the _a priori_ proof, but they believed forthwith as soon as a +cautious and careful investigator laid bare before their eyes in minute +detail the _modus operandi_ of nature herself. + +The main argument of Darwin's chief work runs somewhat after the +following fashion[2]:-- + +Variation, to a greater or less degree, is a common and well-known fact +in nature. More especially, animals and plants under domestication tend +to vary from one another far more than do the individuals of any one +species in the wild state. Rabbits in a warren are all alike in shape, +size, colour, and features: rabbits in a hutch vary indefinitely in the +hue of their fur, the length of their ears, the character of their coat, +and half a dozen other minor particulars, well known to the observant +souls of boys and fanciers. This great variability, though partly +perhaps referable to excess of food, is probably due on the whole to +their having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and +somewhat different from, those to which the parent species is commonly +exposed in a state of nature. In other words, variability is one result +of altered and more varied surrounding circumstances. + +Again, this variability is usually indefinite. You cannot say what +direction it will take, or to what particular results it is likely in +any special instance to lead. Marked differences sometimes occur even +between the young of the same litter, or between the seedlings sown from +the same capsule. As a rule, the variations exhibit themselves in +connection with sexual reproduction; but sometimes, as in the case of +'sporting plants,' a new bud suddenly produces leaves or flowers of a +different character from the rest of those on the self-same stem, thus +showing that the tendency to vary is inherent, as it were, in the +organism itself. Upon this fundamental fact of the existence in nature +of numerous and indefinite variations, the whole theory of natural +selection is ultimately built up. In illustrating by example the immense +variability of domesticated creatures, Darwin lays great stress upon the +case of pigeons, with which he was familiar from his long experience as +a breeder and fancier in his own home at Down. Naturalists are almost +universally of opinion that all the breeds of domestic pigeons, from the +carrier to the tumbler, from the runt to the fantail, are alike +descended from the wild rock pigeon of the European coasts. The immense +amount of variation which this original species has undergone in +domestication may be seen by comparing the numberless breeds of pigeon +now exhibited at all our poultry shows with one another. + +But variation gives us only half the elements of the ultimate problem, +even in the case of domestic kinds. For the other half, we must have +recourse to human selection, which, by picking out for seed or breeding +purposes certain specially favoured varieties, has produced at last all +the purposive or intentional diversity between the different existing +stocks or breeds. In these artificially produced domestic races we see +everywhere special adaptations to man's particular use or fancy. The +dray-horse has been fashioned for purposes of strength and +sure-footedness in draught, the race-horse for purposes of fleetness in +running. In the fox-hound, man has encouraged the special properties +that tend to produce a good day's hunting; in the sheepdog, those that +make for the better maintenance and safety of a herd. The cauliflower is +a cabbage, with specialised and somewhat abortive flower-heads; the +fuller's teasel is a sport of the wild form, with curved hooks specially +adapted by a freak of nature for the teasing of wool. So in every case +man, by deliberately picking out for breeding or seeding purposes the +accidental variations which happened best to suit his own needs, has +succeeded at last in producing races admirably fitted in the minutest +particulars for the special functions to which they are applied. There +appears indeed to be hardly any limit to the almost infinite plasticity +and modifiability of domestic animals. 'It would seem,' said a great +sheep-breeder, speaking of sheep, 'as if farmers had chalked out upon a +wall a form perfect in itself, and then proceeded to give it existence.' + +Now, what is thus true within narrow limits, and in a short space of +time about the deliberate action of man, Darwin showed to be also true +within wider limits and spread over longer geological epochs about the +unconscious action of nature. And herein consisted his great advance +upon the earlier evolutionism of Lamarck, Goethe, and Erasmus Darwin. +For while these instinctive pioneers of the evolutionary spirit saw +clearly that animals and plants betrayed signs of common descent from +one or a few original ancestors, they did not see what was the mechanism +by which such organisms had been differentiated into so many distinct +genera and species. They caught, indeed, at the analogy of variation +under domestication and in the wild state, but they missed the subtler +and deeper analogy between human and natural selection. Now, variation +alone would give us a world consisting not of definite kinds fairly well +demarcated one from the other, but of innumerable unclassified and +unorganisable individuals, all shading off indefinitely one into the +other, and incapable of being reduced by human ingenuity to any orderly +hierarchical system. Furthermore, it would give us creatures without +special adaptation of any kind to the peculiar circumstances of their +own environment. To account for adaptation, for the almost perfect +fitness of every plant and every animal to its position in life, for the +existence (in other words) of definitely correlated parts and organs, we +must call in the aid of survival of the fittest. Without that potent +selective agent, our conception of the becoming of life is a mere chaos; +order and organisation are utterly inexplicable save by the brilliant +illuminating ray of the Darwinian principle. That is why Darwin +destroyed at one blow the specious arguments of the early teleologists; +he showed that where Chambers and even Erasmus Darwin had seen the +working of a final cause, we ought rather to recognise the working of an +efficient cause, whose outcome necessarily but fallaciously simulates +the supposed features of an _a priori_ finality. + +From art, then, Darwin harks back once more to nature. He proceeds to +show that variability occurs among all wild plants and animals, though +not so frequently under ordinary circumstances as in the case of +domesticated species. Individual differences everywhere occur between +plant and plant, between animal and animal. Sometimes these differences +are so very numerous that it is impossible to divide the individuals at +all into well-marked kinds; for example, among British wild-roses, +brambles, hawkweeds and epilobes, with a few other very variable +families, Babington makes as many as 251 distinct species, where +Bentham gives only 112--a margin of 139 doubtful forms of shadowy +indefiniteness. Varieties, in fact, are always arising, and dominant +species in particular always tend to vary most in every direction. The +reason why variation is not so marked in the wild state as under +domestication is of course because the conditions are there less +diverse; but where the conditions of wild things are most diverse, as in +the case of dominant kinds, which range over a wide space of country or +of ocean, abundant individual variations habitually occur. Local +varieties thus produced are regarded by Darwin as incipient species: +they are the raw material on which natural selection gradually exerts +itself in the struggle for existence. + +Granting individual variability, then, how do species arise in nature? +And how are all the exquisite adaptations of part to whole, and of whole +to environment, gradually initiated, improved, and perfected? + +Here Malthus and the struggle for life come in to help us. + +For the world is perpetually over-populated. It is not, as many good +people fearfully imagine, on a half-comprehension of the Malthusian +principle, shortly going to be over-populated; it is now, it has always +been, and it will always be, pressed close up to the utmost possible +limit of population. Reproduction is everywhere and in all species for +ever outrunning means of subsistence; and starvation or competition is +for ever keeping down the number of the offspring to the level of the +average or normal supply of raw material. A single red campion produces +in a year three thousand seeds; but there are not this year three +thousand times as many red campions as there were last summer, nor will +there be three thousand times as many more in the succeeding season. The +roe of a cod contains sometimes nearly ten million eggs; but supposing +each of these produced a young fish which arrived at maturity, the whole +sea would immediately become a solid mass of closely packed codfish. +Linnæus reckoned that if an annual plant had two seeds, each of which +produced two seedlings in the succeeding season, and so on continually, +in twenty years their progeny would amount to a million plants. A +struggle for existence necessarily results from this universal tendency +of animals and plants to increase faster than the means of subsistence, +whether those means be food, as in the first case, or carbonic acid, +water, and sunshine as in the second. Animals are all perpetually +battling with one another for the food-supply of the moment; plants are +perpetually battling with one another for their share of the soil, the +rainfall, and the sunshine. + +The case of the plant is a very important one to understand in this +connection, because it is probable that most people greatly +misunderstand the biological meaning of the phrase 'struggle for +existence.' They imagine that the struggle is chiefly conducted between +different species, whereas in reality it is chiefly conducted between +members of the same species. It is not so much the battle between the +tiger and the antelope, between the wolf and the bison, between the +snake and the bird, that ultimately results in natural selection or +survival of the fittest, as the struggle between tiger and tiger, +between bison and bison, between snake and snake, between antelope and +antelope. A human analogy may help to make this difficult principle a +little clearer. The baker does not fear the competition of the butcher +in the struggle for life: it is the competition of the other bakers that +sometimes inexorably crushes him out of existence. The lawyer does not +press hard upon the doctor, nor the architect upon the journeyman +painter. A war in the Soudan or in South Africa is far less fatal to the +workman in our great towns than the ceaseless competition of his +fellow-workmen. It is not the soldier that kills the artisan, but the +number of other artisans who undersell him and crowd to fill up every +vacant position. In this way the great enemies of the individual +herbivore are not the carnivores, but the other herbivores. The lion +eats the antelope, to be sure; but the real struggle lies between lion +and lion for a fair share of meat, or between antelope and antelope for +a fair share of pasturage. _Homo homini lupus_, says the old proverb, +and so, we may add, in a wider sense, _lupus lupo lupus_, also. Of +course, the carnivore plays a great part in the selective process; but +he is the selector only; the real competition is between the selected. +Now, let us take the case of the plant. A thousand seedlings occupy the +space where few alone can ultimately grow; and between these seedlings +the struggle is fierce, the strongest and best adapted ultimately +surviving. To take Darwin's own example, the mistletoe, which is a +parasite, cannot truly be said to struggle with the apple tree on which +it fastens; for if too many parasites cover a tree, it perishes, and so +they kill themselves as well as their host, all alike dying together. +But several seedling mistletoes growing together on the same branch may +fairly be said to struggle with one another for light and air; and since +mistletoe seeds are disseminated by birds and dropped by them in the +angles of branches, the mistletoe may also be said to compete with other +berry-bearing bushes, like cornel and hawthorn, for the ministrations of +the fruit-eating birds. The struggle is fierce between allied kinds, and +fiercest of all between individual members of the same species. + +Owing to this constant struggle, variations, however slight, and from +whatever cause arising, if in any degree profitable to the individual +which presents them, will tend to the preservation of the particular +organism, and, being on the average inherited by its offspring, will +similarly tend to increase and multiply in the world at large. This is +the principle of natural selection or survival of the fittest--the great +principle which Darwin and Wallace added to the evolutionism of Lamarck +and his successors. + +Let us take a single concrete example. In the desert, with its +monotonous sandy colouring, a black insect or a white insect, still more +a red insect or a blue insect, would be immediately detected and +promptly devoured by its natural enemies, the birds and lizards. But any +greyish or yellowish insects would be less likely to attract attention +at first sight, and would be overlooked as long as there were any more +conspicuous individuals of their own kind about for the birds and +lizards to feed on at their leisure. Hence, in a very short time, the +desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest and yellowest +insects; and among these the birds would pick out those which differed +most markedly in hue or shade from the sand around them. But those +which happened to vary most in the direction of a sandy or spotty colour +would be most likely to survive, and to become the parents of future +generations. Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which +inhabit deserts have become sand-coloured; because the least sandy were +perpetually picked out for destruction by their ever-watchful foes, +while the most sandy escaped and multiplied and replenished the earth +with their own likes. + +Conversely, the birds and the lizards again would probably begin by +being black, and white, and blue, and green, like most other birds and +lizards in the world generally. But the insect would have ample warning +of the near approach of such conspicuous self-advertising enemies, and +would avoid them accordingly whenever they appeared within range of his +limited vision, either by lying close, or by shamming death, or by +retreating precipitately to holes and crannies. Therefore, whatever +individual birds or lizards happened to vary most in the direction of +grey or sand-colour, and so to creep unobserved upon the unguarded +insects, would succeed best on the average in catching beetles or desert +grasshoppers. Hence, by the slow dying out of the more highly coloured +and distinctive insect-eaters, before the severe competition of the +greyest and sandiest, all the birds and lizards of the desert have +become at last as absolutely sand-coloured as the insects themselves. +Only the greyest insect could escape the bird; only the greyest bird, +_en revanche_, could surprise and devour the unwary insect. + +Sir Charles Lyell and the elder De Candolle had already seen the great +importance of the struggle for existence in the organic world, but +neither of them had observed the magnificent corollary of natural +selection, which flows from it almost as a mathematical necessity when +once suggested; for, given indefinite variability, and a geometrical, +rate of increase, it must needs follow that some varieties will be +better suited to the circumstances than others, and therefore that they +will survive on the average in increased proportions. A passage from one +of Lyell's early letters will show how near he too went to this great +luminous generalisation, and yet how utterly he missed the true +implications of his own vague and chaotic idea. He writes thus to Sir +John Herschel in 1836, while Darwin was still but homeward bound on the +voyage of the 'Beagle':-- + +'In regard to the origination of new species, I am very glad to find +that you think it probable that it may be carried on through the +intervention of intermediate causes.... An insect may be made in one of +its transformations to resemble a dead stick, or a leaf, or a lichen, or +a stone, so as to be somewhat less easily found by its enemies; or if +this would make it too strong, an occasional variety of the species may +have this advantage conferred on it; or if this would be still too much, +one sex of a certain variety. Probably there is scarcely a dash of +colour on the wing or body of which the choice would be quite arbitrary, +or which might not affect its duration for thousands of years.' + +Now, this comes in some ways perilously near to Darwin indeed; but in +the most important point of all it is wide apart from him as the pole is +from the equator. For Lyell thought of all this as a matter of external +teleological arrangement; he imagined a deliberate power from outside +settling it all by design beforehand, and granting to varieties or +species these special peculiarities in a manner that was at bottom +essentially supernatural, or in other words miraculous; whereas Darwin +thinks of it as the necessary result of the circumstances themselves, an +inevitable outcome of indefinite variability _plus_ the geometrical rate +of increase. Where Lyell sees a final cause, Darwin sees an efficient +cause; and this distinction is fundamental. It marks Darwin's position +as that of a great philosophical thinker, who can dash aside at once all +metaphysical cobwebs, and penetrate to the inmost recesses of things, +unswerved by the vain but specious allurements of obvious and misleading +teleological fallacies. + +Darwin also laid great stress on the immense complexity of the relations +which animals and plants bear to one another, in the struggle for +existence. For example, on the heathy uplands near Farnham in Surrey, +large spaces were at one time enclosed, on which, within ten years, +self-grown fir-trees from the wind-borne seeds of distant clumps sprang +up so thickly as actually to choke one another with their tiny branches. +All over the heaths outside, when Darwin looked for them, he could not +find a single fir, except the old clumps on the hilltops, from which the +seedlings themselves had originally sprung. But, on looking closer among +the stems of the heath, he descried a number of very tiny firs, which +had been perpetually browsed down by the cattle on the commons; and one +of them, with twenty-six rings of growth, had during many years +endeavoured unsuccessfully to raise its head above the surrounding +heather. Hence, as soon as the land was enclosed, and the cattle +excluded, it became covered at once with a thick growth of vigorous +young fir-trees. Yet who would ever have supposed beforehand that the +mere presence or absence of cattle would absolutely have determined the +very existence of the Scotch fir throughout a wide range of well-adapted +sandy English upland? + +To take another curious instance mentioned by Darwin. In Paraguay, +unlike the greater part of neighbouring South America, neither horses +nor cattle have ever run wild. This is due to the presence of a +parasitic fly, which lays its eggs in their bodies when first born, the +maggots killing off the tender young in their first stages. But if any +cause were to alter the number of the dangerous flies, then cattle and +wild horses would abound; and this would alter the vegetation, as Darwin +himself observed in other parts of America; and the change in the +vegetation would affect the insects; and that again the insectivorous +birds; and so on in ever widening circles of incalculable complexity. +Once more, to quote the most famous instance of all, the visits of +humble-bees are absolutely necessary in order to place the pollen in the +right position for setting the seeds of purple clover. Heads from which +Darwin excluded the bees produced no seeds at all. Hence, if humble-bees +became extinct in England, the red clover, too, would die off: and +indeed, in New Zealand, where there are no humble-bees, and where the +efforts to introduce them for this very purpose have been uniformly +unsuccessful, the clover never sets its seed at all, and fresh stocks +have to be imported at great expense every year from Europe. But the +number of humble-bees in any district largely depends upon the number of +field-mice, which destroy the combs and nests in immense quantities. +The number of mice, again, is greatly affected by the proportion of cats +in the neighbourhood; so that Colonel Newman, who paid much attention to +this subject, found humble-bees most numerous in the neighbourhood of +villages and small towns, an effect which he attributed to the abundance +of cats, and the consequent scarcity of the destructive field-mice. Yet +here once more, who could suppose beforehand that the degree to which +the purple clover set its seeds was in part determined by the number of +cats kept in houses in the surrounding district? + +One of Darwin's own favourite examples of the action of natural +selection, which he afterwards expanded largely in his work on Orchids +and in several other volumes, is that which relates to the origin of +conspicuous flowers. Many plants have a sweet excretion, which is +eliminated sometimes even by the leaves, as in the case of the common +laurel. This juice, though small in quantity, is eagerly sought and +eaten by insects. Now let us suppose that, in some variety of an +inconspicuous flower, similar nectar was produced in the neighbourhood +of the petals and stamens. Insects, in seeking the nectar, would dust +their bodies over with the pollen, and would carry it away with them to +the next flower visited. This would result in an act of crossing; and +that act, as Darwin afterwards abundantly proved in a separate and very +laborious treatise, gives rise to exceptionally vigorous seedlings, +which would therefore have the best chance of flourishing and surviving +in the struggle for existence. The flowers which produced most honey +would oftenest be visited, and oftenest crossed; so that they would +finally form a new species. The more brightly coloured among them, +again, would be more readily discriminated than the less brightly +coloured; and this would give them such an advantage that in the long +run, as we actually see, almost all habitually insect-fertilised flowers +would come to have brilliant petals. The germ of this luminous idea, +once more, is to be found in Sprengel's remarkable work on the +fertilisation of flowers--a work far in advance of its time in many +ways, and to which Darwin always expressed his deep obligations; but, as +in so many other instances, while Sprengel looked upon all the little +modifications and adaptations of flower and insect to one another as the +result of distinct creative design, Darwin looked upon them as the +result of natural selection, working upon the basis of indeterminate +spontaneous variations. + +How do these variations arise? Not by chance, of course (for in the +strict scientific sense nothing on earth can be considered as really +fortuitous), but as the outcome for the most part of very minute organic +causes, whose particular action it is impossible for us to predict with +our present knowledge. Some physical cause in each case there must +necessarily be; and indeed it is often possible to show that certain +changes of condition in the parent do result in variations in the +offspring, though what special direction the variation will take can +never be foretold with any accuracy. In short, our ignorance of the laws +of variation is profound, but our knowledge of the fact is clear and +certain. The fact alone is essential to the principle of natural +selection; the cause, though in itself an interesting subject of +inquiry, may be safely laid aside for the present as comparatively +unimportant. What we have actually given to us in the concrete universe +is, organisms varying perpetually in minute points, and a rapid rate of +increase causing every minute point of advantage to be exceptionally +favoured in the struggle for existence. + +But Darwin is remarkable among all broachers of new theories for the +extraordinary candour and openness of his method. He acknowledged +beforehand all the difficulties in the way of his theory, and though he +himself confessed that some of them were serious (a statement which +subsequent research has often rendered unnecessary), he met many of them +with cogent arguments by anticipation, and demolished objections before +they could even be raised against him by hostile critics. Of these +objections, only two need here be mentioned. The first is the question, +why is not all nature even now a confused mass of transitional forms? +Why do genera and species exist as we see them at present in broad +distinction one from the other? To this Darwin answers rightly that, +where the process of species-making is still going on, we do actually +find fine gradations and transitional forms existing between genera, +varieties, and species.[3] But, furthermore, as natural selection acts +solely by the preservation of useful modifications, each better-adapted +new form will always tend in a fully stocked country to oust and +exterminate its own unimproved parent type, as well as all other +competing but less perfect varieties. Thus natural selection and +extinction of intermediates go for ever hand in hand. The more perfect +the new variety, the more absolutely will it kill off the intermediate +forms. The second great difficulty lies in the question of the origin of +instinct, which, as Darwin shows, by careful inductive instances, may +have arisen by the slow and gradual accumulation of numerous slight yet +profitable variations. + +I have dwelt at some length upon those portions of the 'Origin of +Species' which deal in detail with the theory of natural selection, the +chief contribution which Darwin made to the evolutionary movement, +because it is impossible otherwise fully to understand the great gulf +which separates his evolutionism from the earlier evolutionism of +Lamarck and his followers. But it is impracticable here to give any idea +of the immense wealth of example and illustration which Darwin brought +to the elucidation of every part of his complex problem. In order to +gain a full conception of this side of his nature, we must turn to the +original treatise itself, and still more to the subsequent volumes in +which the ground-work of observations and experiments on which he based +his theory was more fully detailed for the specialist public. + +The remainder of Darwin's epoch-making work deals, strictly speaking, +rather with the general theory of 'descent with modification' than with +the special doctrine of natural selection. It restates and reinforces, +by the light of the new additional concept, and with fuller facts and +later knowledge, the four great arguments already known in favour of +organic evolution as a whole, the argument from Geological Succession, +the argument from Geographical Distribution, the argument from +Embryological Development, and the argument from Classificatory +Affinities. Each of these we may briefly summarise. + +The geological record is confessedly imperfect. At the time when Darwin +first published the 'Origin of Species,' it had disclosed to our view +comparatively few intermediate or transitional forms between the chief +great classes of plants or animals; since that time, in singular +confirmation of the Darwinian hypothesis, it has disclosed an immense +number of such connecting types, amongst which may be more particularly +noticed the 'missing links' between the birds and reptiles, the +ancestors of the horses, the camels, and the pigs, and the common +progenitor of the ruminants and the pachyderms, two great groups classed +by Cuvier as distinct orders--all of which instances were incorporated +by Darwin in later editions of his 'Origin of Species.' But, apart from +these special and newly discovered cases, the whole general course of +geological history 'agrees admirably with the theory of descent with +modification through variation and natural selection.' The simpler +animals of early times are followed by the more complex and more +specialised animals of later geological periods. As each main group of +animals appears upon the stage of life, it appears in a very central and +'generalised' form; as time goes on, we find its various members +differing more and more widely from one another, and assuming more and +more specialised adaptive forms. And in each country it is found, as a +rule, that the extinct animals of the later formations bear a close +general resemblance and relationship to the animals which now inhabit +the same regions. For example, the fossil mammals from the Australian +caves are nearly allied to the modern kangaroos, phalangers, and +wombats; and the gigantic extinct sloths and armadillos of South America +are reproduced in their smaller representatives at the present day. So, +too, the moa of New Zealand was a huge apteryx; and the birds +disentombed from the bone-caves of Brazil show close affinities to the +toucans and jacanars that still scream and flit in countless flocks +among Brazilian forests. The obvious implication is that the animals now +inhabiting any given area are the modified descendants of those that +formerly inhabited it. 'On the theory of descent with modification, the +great law of the succession of the same types within the same areas is +at once explained.' + +This last consideration leads us up to the argument from Geographical +Distribution. In considering the various local faunas and floras on the +face of the globe, no point strikes one more forcibly than the fact that +neither their similarities nor their dissimilarities can be accounted +for by climate or physical conditions. The animals of South Africa do +not in the least resemble the animals of the corresponding belt of South +America; the Australian beasts and birds and trees are utterly unlike +those of France and Germany; the fishes and crustaceans of the Pacific +at Panama are widely different from those of the Caribbean at the same +point, separated from them only by the narrow belt of intervening +isthmus. On the other hand, within the same continuous areas of sea or +land, however great the differences of physical conditions, we find +everywhere closely related types in possession of the most distinct and +varied situations. On the burning plains of La Plata we get the agouti +and the bizcacha as the chief rodents; we ascend the Cordillera, and +close to the eternal snows we discover, not hares and rabbits like those +of Europe, but a specialised chilly mountain form of the same distinctly +South American type. We turn to the rivers, and we see no musk-rat or +beaver, but the coypu and capybara, slightly altered varieties of the +original bizcacha ancestor. Australia has no wolf, but it has instead +fierce and active carnivorous marsupials; it has no mice, but some of +its tiny kangaroo-like creatures fulfil analogous functions in its +animal economy. Everywhere the evidence points to the conclusion that +local species have been locally evolved from pre-existing similar +species. The oceanic isles, of which Darwin had had so large an +experience, and especially his old friends the Galapagos, come in +usefully for this stage of the question. They are invariably inhabited, +as Darwin pointed out, and as Wallace has since abundantly shown in the +minutest detail, by waifs and strays from neighbouring continents, +altered and specialised by natural selection in accordance with the +conditions of their new habitat. As a rule, they point back to the +districts whence blow the strongest and most prevalent winds; and the +modifications they have undergone are largely dependent upon the nature +of the other species with which they have to compete, or to whose habits +they must needs accommodate themselves. In such cases it is easy to see +how far Darwin's special conception of natural selection helps to +explain and account for facts not easily explicable by the older +evolutionism of mere descent with modification. + +Embryology, the study of early development in the individual animal or +plant, also throws much side light upon the nature and ancestry of each +species or family. For example, gorse, which is a member of the +pea-flower tribe, has in its adult stage solid, spiny, thorn-like +leaves, none of which in the least resemble the foliage of the clover, +to which it is closely related; but the young seedling in its earliest +stages has trefoil leaves, which only slowly pass by infinitesimal +gradations into flat blades and finally into the familiar defensive +prickles. Here, natural selection under stress of herbivorous animals on +open heaths and commons has spared only those particular gorse-bushes +which varied in the direction of the stiffest and most inedible foliage; +but the young plant in its first days still preserves for us the trefoil +leaf which it shared originally with a vast group of clover-like +congeners. The adult barnacle, once more, presents a certain fallacious +external resemblance to a mollusk, and was actually so classed even by +the penetrating and systematic intellect of Cuvier; but a glance at the +larva shows an instructed eye at once that it is really a shell-making +and abnormal crustacean. On a wider scale, the embryos of mammals are at +first indistinguishable from those of birds or reptiles; the feet of +lizards, the hoofs of horses, the hands of man, the wings of the bat, +the pinions of birds, all arise from the same fundamental shapeless bud, +in the same spot of an almost identical embryo. Even the human foetus, +at a certain stage of its development, is provided with gill-slits, +which point dimly back to the remote ages when its ancestor was +something very like a fish. The embryo is a picture, more or less +obscured and blurred in its outline, of the common progenitor of a whole +great class of plants or animals. + +Finally, classification points in the same way to the affiliation of all +existing genera and species upon certain early divergent ancestors. The +whole scheme of the biological system, as initiated by Linnæus and +improved by Cuvier, Jussieu, De Candolle, and their successors, is +essentially that of a genealogical tree. The prime central vertebrate +ancestor--to take the case of the creatures most familiar to the general +reader--appears to have been an animal not unlike the existing lancelet, +a mud-haunting, cartilaginous, undeveloped fish, whose main lineaments +are also embryologically preserved for us in the ascidian larva and the +common tadpole. From this early common centre have been developed, +apparently, in one direction the fishes, and in another the amphibian +tribes of frogs, newts, salamanders, and axolotls. From an early +amphibian, again, the common ancestor of birds, reptiles, and mammals +seems to have diverged: the intermediate links between bird and reptile +being faintly traced among the extinct deinosaurians and the +archæopteryx, some years subsequently to the first appearance of the +'Origin of Species;' while the ornithorhynchus, which to some extent +connects the mammals, and especially the marsupials, with the lower +egg-laying types of vertebrate, was already well-known and thoroughly +studied before the publication of Darwin's great work. Throughout, the +indications given by all the chief tribes of animals and plants point +back to slow descent and divergence from common ancestors; and all the +subsequent course of palæontological research has supplied us rapidly, +one after another, with the remains of just such undifferentiated +family starting-points. + +Stress has mainly been laid, in this brief and necessarily imperfect +abstract, on the essentially Darwinian principle of natural selection. +But Darwin did not himself attribute everything to this potent factor in +the moulding of species. 'I am convinced,' he wrote pointedly in the +introduction to his first edition, 'that natural selection has been the +main but not the exclusive means of modification.' He attributed +considerable importance as well to the Lamarckian principle of use and +disuse, already so fully insisted upon before him by Mr. Herbert +Spencer. The chief factors in his compound theory, as given in his own +words at the end of his work, areas follows: 'Growth with Reproduction; +Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability, from +the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use +and disuse; a Ratio of Increase, so high as to lead to a Struggle for +Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of +Character, and the Extinction of the less improved forms. Thus, from the +war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we +are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, +directly follows.' + +Such was the simple and inoffensive-looking bombshell which Darwin +launched from his quiet home at Down into the very midst of the +teleological camp in the peaceful year 1859. Subsequent generations will +remember the date as a crisis and turning-point in the history of +mankind. + + +[2] The remainder of the present chapter, which consists almost entirely +of an exposition of the doctrine of natural selection, may safely be +skipped by the reader already well acquainted with the Origin of +Species. The abstract is taken for the most part from the latest and +fullest enlarged edition, but attention is usually called in passing to +the points which did not appear in the first issue of 1859. + +[3] The researches of Seebohm and others have since proved that this is +really the case to a far greater extent than Darwin was aware of in +1859, or, indeed, till many years afterward. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS. + + +So far as the scientific world was concerned the 'Origin of Species' +fell, like a grain of mustard seed, upon good and well-prepared ground; +the plant that sprang from it grew up forthwith into a great and stately +tree, that overshadowed with its spreading branches all the corners of +the earth. + +The soil, indeed, had been carefully broken for it beforehand: Lamarck +and St. Hilaire, Spencer and Chambers, had ploughed and harrowed in all +diligence; and the minds of men were thoroughly ready for the +assimilation of the new doctrine. But the seed itself, too, was the +right germ for the exact moment; it contained within itself the +vivifying principle that enabled it to grow and wax exceeding great +where kindred germs before had withered away, or had borne but scanty +and immature fruit. + +Two conditions contributed to this result, one external, the other +internal. + +First for the less important external consideration. Darwin himself was +a sound man with an established reputation for solidity and learning. +That gained for his theory from the very first outset universal respect +and a fair hearing. Herbert Spencer was known to be a philosopher: and +the practical English nation mistrusts philosophers: those people probe +too deep and soar too high for any sensible person to follow them in all +their flights. Robert Chambers, the unknown author of 'Vestiges of +Creation,' was a shallow sciolist; it was whispered abroad that he was +even inaccurate and slovenly in his facts: and your scientific plodder +detests the very shadow of minute inaccuracy, though it speak with the +tongues of men and angels, and be bound up with all the grasp and power +of a Newton or a Goethe. But Charles Darwin was a known personage, an +F.R.S., a distinguished authority upon coral reefs and barnacles, a +great geologist, a great biologist, a great observer and indefatigable +collector. His book came into the public hands stamped with the +imprimatur of official recognition. Darwin was the father of the infant +theory; Lyell and Hooker stood for its sponsors. The world could not +afford to despise its contents; they could not brand its author offhand +as a clever dreamer or a foolish amateur, or consign him to the dreaded +English limbo of the 'mere theorist.' + +Next, for the other and far more important internal consideration. The +book itself was one of the greatest, the most learned, the most lucid, +the most logical, the most crushing, the most conclusive, that the world +had ever yet seen. Step by step, and principle by principle, it proved +every point in its progress triumphantly before it went on to +demonstrate the next. So vast an array of facts so thoroughly in hand +had never before been mustered and marshalled in favour of any +biological theory. Those who had insight to learn and understand were +convinced at once by the cogency of the argument; those who had not were +overpowered and silenced by the weight of the authority and the mass of +the learning. A hot battle burst forth at once, no doubt, around the +successful volume; but it was one of those battles which are aroused +only by great truths,--a battle in which the victory is a foregone +conclusion, and the rancour of the assailants the highest compliment to +the prowess of the assailed. + +Darwin himself, in his quiet country home at Down, was simply astonished +at the rapid success of his own work. The first edition was published at +the end of November 1859; it was exhausted almost immediately, and a +second was got ready in hot haste by the beginning of January 1860. In +less than six weeks the book had become famous, and Darwin found himself +the centre of a European contest, waged with exceeding bitterness, over +the truth or falsity of his wonderful volume. To the world at large +Darwinism and evolution became at once synonymous terms. The same people +who would entirely ascribe the Protestant Reformation to the account of +Luther, and the inductive philosophy to the account of Bacon, also +believed, in the simplicity of their hearts, that the whole vast +evolutionary movement was due at bottom to that very insidious and +dangerous book of Mr. Darwin's. + +The fact is, profound as had been the impulses in the evolutionary +direction among men of science before Darwin's work appeared at all, +immense as were the throes and pangs of labour throughout all Europe +which preceded and accompanied its actual birth, when it came at last it +came to the general world of unscientific readers with all the sudden +vividness and novelty of a tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it +was yet wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or next to +nothing of this colossal but hidden revolutionary force which had been +gathering head and energy for so many years unseen within the bowels of +the earth; and now that its outer manifestation had actually burst upon +them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic security bodily giving way +beneath their feet, and knew not where to turn in their extremity for +support. Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself at +first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of Genesis, or +rather the belief in their scientific and historical character, already +sapped by the revelations of geology, seemed to orthodox defenders to be +fatally undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once to meet with +general recognition. The first resource of menaced orthodoxy is always +to deny the alleged facts; the second is to patch up tardily the feeble +and hollow _modus vivendi_ of an artificial pact. On this occasion the +orthodox acted strictly after their kind: but to their credit it should +be added that they yielded gracefully in the long run to the unanimous +voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, when all that was +mortal of Charles Darwin was being borne with pomp and pageantry to its +last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, with +generous oblivion, ratified a truce over the dead body of the great +leader, and, outgrowing its original dread of naturalistic +interpretations, accepted his theory without reserve as 'not necessarily +hostile to the main fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render +justice to the vanquished in a memorable struggle. Churchmen followed +respectfully to the grave with frank and noble inconsistency the +honoured remains of the very teacher whom less than a quarter of a +century earlier they had naturally dreaded as loosening the traditional +foundations of all accepted religion and morality. + +But if the attack was fierce and bitter, the defence was assisted by a +sudden access of powerful forces from friendly quarters. A few of the +elder generation of naturalists held out, indeed, for various shorter or +longer periods; some of them never came into the camp at all, but +lingered on, left behind, like stragglers from the onward march, by the +younger biologists, in isolated non-conformity on the lonely heights of +austere officialism. Their business was to ticket and docket and +pigeon-hole, not to venture abroad on untried wings into the airy +regions of philosophical speculation. The elder men, in fact, had many +of them lost that elasticity and modifiability of intellect which is +necessary for the reception of new and revolutionary fundamental +concepts. A mind that has hardened down into the last stage of extreme +maturity may assimilate fresh facts and fresh minor principles, but it +cannot assimilate fresh synthetic systems of the entire cosmos. +Moreover, some of the elder thinkers were committed beforehand to +opposing views, with which they lacked either the courage or the +intellectual power to break; while others were entangled by religious +restrictions, and unable to free themselves from the cramping fetters of +a narrow orthodoxy. But even among his own contemporaries and seniors +Darwin found not a few whose minds were thoroughly prepared beforehand +for the reception of his lucid and luminous hypothesis; while the +younger naturalists, with the plasticity of youth, assimilated almost +to a man, with the utmost avidity, the great truths thus showered down +upon them by the preacher of evolution. + +Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley were among the first to give in +their adhesion and stand up boldly for the new truth by the side of the +reckless and disturbing innovator. In June 1859, nearly a year after the +reading of the Darwin-Wallace papers at the Linnean Society, but five +months previously to the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' Huxley +lectured at the Royal Institution on 'Persistent Types of Animal Life,' +and declared against the old barren theory of successive creations, in +favour of the new and fruitful hypothesis of gradual modification. In +December 1859, a month later than the appearance of Darwin's book, +Hooker published his 'Introduction to the Flora of Australia,' in the +first part of which he championed the belief in the descent and +modification of species, and enforced his views by many original +observations drawn from the domain of botanical science. For fifteen +years, as Darwin himself gratefully observed in his introduction to the +'Origin of Species,' that learned botanist had shared the secret of +natural selection, and aided its author in every possible way by his +large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment. Bates, the +naturalist on the Amazons, followed fast with his beautiful and striking +theory of mimicry, a crucial instance well explained. The facts of the +strange disguises which birds and insects often assume had long been +present to his acute mind, and he hailed with delight the discovery of +the new principle, which at once enabled him to reduce them with ease +to symmetry and order. To Herbert Spencer, an evolutionist in fibre from +the very beginning, the fresh doctrine of natural selection came like a +powerful ally and an unexpected assistant in deciphering the deep +fundamental problems on which he was at that moment actually engaged; +and in his 'Principles of Biology,' even then in contemplation, he at +once adopted and utilised the new truth with all the keen and vigorous +insight of his profound analytic and synthetic intellect. The first part +of that important work was issued to subscribers just three years after +the original appearance of the 'Origin of Species;' the first volume was +fully completed in October 1864. It is to Mr. Spencer that we owe the +pellucid expression 'survival of the fittest,' which conveys even better +than Darwin's own phrase, 'natural selection,' the essential element +added by the 'Origin of Species' to the pre-existing evolutionary +conception. + +The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its big +annual doctrinaire picnic the next summer after the publication of +Darwin's book, at Oxford. The Oxford meeting was a stormy and a +well-remembered one. The 'Origin of Species' was there discussed and +attacked before a biological section strangely enough presided over by +Darwin's old Cambridge teacher, Professor Henslow. Though then a +beneficed parish priest, Henslow had the boldness frankly to avow his +own acceptance of his great pupil's startling conclusions. Huxley +followed in the same path, as did also Lubbock and Hooker. On the whole, +the evolutionists were already in the ascendant; the fresh young +intellects especially being quick to seize upon the new pabulum so +generously dealt out to them by the new evolutionism. + +Among scientific minds of the first order, Lyell alone in England, +heavily weighted by theological preconceptions, for awhile hung back. +All his life long, as his letters show us, the great geologist had felt +the powerful spell of the Lamarckian hypothesis continually enticing him +with its seductive charm. He had fought against it blindly, in the +passionate endeavour to preserve what he thought his higher faith in the +separate and divine creation of man; but ever and anon he returned anew +to the biological Circe with a fresh fascination, as the moth returns to +the beautiful flame that has scorched and singed it. In a well-known +passage in the earlier editions of his 'Principles of Geology,' the +father of uniformitarianism gives at length his own reasons for +dissenting from the doctrine of evolution as then set forth; and even +after Darwin's discovery had supplied him with a new clue, a _vera +causa_, a sufficient power for the modification of species into fresh +forms, theological difficulties made him cling still as long as possible +to the old theory of the origin of man which he loved to describe as +that of the 'archangel ruined.' He was loth to exchange this cherished +belief for the degrading alternative (as it approved itself to him) of +the ape elevated. But in the end, with the fearless honesty of a +searcher after truth, he gave way slowly and regretfully. Always looking +back with something like remorse to the flesh-pots of the ecclesiastical +Egypt, with its enticing visions of fallen grandeur, the great thinker +whose uniformitarian theory of geology had more than aught else paved +the way for the gradual acceptance of Darwin's evolutionism, came out +at last from the house of bondage, and nobly ranged himself on the side +of what his intellect judged to be the truth of nature, though his +emotions urged him hard to blind his judgment and to neglect its lights +for an emotional figment. Science has no more pathetic figure than that +of the old philosopher, in his sixty-sixth year, throwing himself with +all the eagerness of youth into what he had long considered the wrong +scale, and vigorously wrecking in the 'Antiquity of Man' what seemed to +the dimmed vision of his own emotional nature the very foundations of +his beloved creed. But still he did it. He came out and was separate. In +his own idiomatic language, he found at last that 'we must go the whole +ourang;' and, deep as was the pang that the recantation cost him, he +formally retracted the condemnation of 'transformism' in his earlier +works, and accepted, however unwillingly, the theory he had so often and +so deliberately rejected. + +The 'Antiquity of Man' came out in February 1863, some three years after +the 'Origin of Species.' For some time speculation had been active over +the strange hatchets which Boucher de Perthes had recently unearthed +among the Abbeville drift--shapeless masses of chipped flint rudely +fashioned into the form of an axe, which we now call palæolithic +implements, and know to be the handicraft of preglacial men. But until +Lyell's authoritative work appeared the unscientific public could not +tell exactly what to think of these curious and almost unhuman-looking +objects. Lyell at once set all doubts at rest; the magic of his name +silenced the derisive whispers of the dissidents. Already, in the +previous year, the first fasciculus of Colenso's famous work on the +Pentateuch had dealt a serious blow from the ecclesiastical and critical +side at the authenticity and historical truth of the Mosaic cosmogony. +Lyell now from the scientific side completely demolished its literal +truth, as ordinarily interpreted, by throwing back the primitive origin +of our race into a dim past of immeasurable antiquity. In so doing he +was clearing the way for Charles Darwin's second great work, 'The +Descent of Man;' and by incorporating in his book Huxley's remarks on +the Neanderthal skull, and much similar evolutionary matter, he +advertised the new creed in the animal origin of our race with all the +acquired weight of his immense and justly-deserved European reputation. +As a matter of taste, Lyell did not relish the application of +evolutionism to his own species. But, with that perfect loyalty to fact +which he shared so completely with Charles Darwin, as soon as he found +the evidence overwhelming, he gave in. By that grudging concession he +immensely strengthened the position of the new creed. 'I plead guilty,' +he writes to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'to going farther in my reasoning +towards transmutation than in my sentiments and imagination, and perhaps +for that very reason I shall lead more people on to Darwin and you, than +one who, being born later, like Lubbock, has comparatively little to +abandon of old and long-cherished ideas, which constituted the charm to +me of the theoretical part of the science in my earlier days.' And to +Darwin himself he writes regretfully. 'The descent of man from the +brutes takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past +relating to such matters.' This very reluctance itself told powerfully +in favour of Charles Darwin's novel theories: there is no evidence more +valuable to a cause than that which it extorts by moral force, in spite +of himself, from the faltering lips of an unwilling witness. + +The same year that saw the publication of Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' saw +also the first appearance of Huxley's work on 'Man's Place in Nature.' +Darwin himself had been anxious rather than otherwise to avoid too close +reference to the implications of his theory as regards the origin and +destiny of the human race. He had desired that his strictly scientific +views on the rise of specific distinctions should be judged entirely on +their own merits, unhampered by the interference of real or supposed +theological and ethical considerations. His own language on all such +subjects, wherever he was compelled to trench on them in the 'Origin of +Species,' was guarded and conciliatory; he scarcely referred at all to +man or his history; and his occasional notices of the moving principle +and first cause of the entire cosmos were reverential and religious in +the truest sense and in the highest degree. But you cannot let loose a +moral whirlwind, and then attempt to direct its course; you cannot open +the floodgates of opinion or of speculation, and then pretend to set +limits to the scope of their restless motion. Darwin soon found out that +people would insist in drawing inferences beyond what was written, and +in seeing implicit conclusions when they were not definitely formulated +in the words of their author. 'Man is perennially interesting to man,' +says the great chaotic American thinker; and whatever all-embracing +truth you set before him, you may be sure that man will see in it +chiefly the implications that most closely affect his own happiness and +his own destiny. The biological question of the origin of species is a +sufficiently wide one, but it includes also, among other cases, the +origin of the very familiar species _Homo sapiens_ of Linnæus. Some +theologians jumped at once at the conclusion, right or wrong, that if +Darwinism were true man was nothing more than a developed monkey, the +immortal soul was an exploded myth, the foundations of religion itself +were shattered, and the wave of infidelity was doomed to swamp the whole +of Christendom with its blank nihilism. Scientific men, on the other +hand, drew the conclusion that man must be descended, like other +mammals, from some common early vertebrate ancestor, and that the +current views of his origin and destiny must be largely modified by the +evolutionary creed. Of this profound scientific belief Professor +Huxley's maiden work was the earliest outcome. + +Meantime, on the continent of Europe and over-sea in America, the +Darwinian theory was being hotly debated and warmly defended. France, +coldly sceptical and critical, positive rather than imaginative in +matters of science, and little prone by native cast of mind to the +evolutionary attitude, stood aloof to a great extent from the onward +course of the general movement. Here and there, to be sure, a Gaudry or +a Ribot, a Delboeuf or a De Candolle (the two latter a Liège Belgian and +a Genevan Swiss) might heartily throw himself into the new ideas, and +contribute whole squadrons of geological or botanical fact to the final +victory. Yet, as a whole, the dry and cautious French intelligence, ever +inclined to a scientific opportunism, preferred for the moment to stand +by expectant and await the result of the European consensus. But +philosophical Germany, on the other hand, beaming enthusiasm from its +myriad spectacles, eagerly welcomed the novel ideas, and proclaimed from +the housetops the evolutionary faith as a main plank in the rising +platform of the newly-roused Kulturkampf. Fritz Müller began with all +the ardour of a fresh convert to collect his admirable 'Facts for +Darwin;' his brother Hermann sat down with indomitable patience, like +the master's own, to watch the ceaseless action of the bees and +butterflies in the fertilisation of flowers. Rütimeyer applied the +Darwinian principles to the explanation of mammalian relationships, and +Haeckel set to work upon his vast reconstructive 'History of Creation,' +a largely speculative work which, with all its faults, distinctly +carried forward the evolutionary impulse, and set fresh researchers +working upon new lines, to confirm or to disprove its audacious +imaginings. In America, Asa Gray gave to the young creed the high +authority of his well-known name, and Chauncey Wright helped it onward +on the road with all the restrained force of his singular and oblique +but powerful and original personality. If Agassiz and Dawson still +hesitated, Fiske and Youmans were ardent in the faith. If critical +Boston put up its eye-glass doubtfully, Chicago and St. Louis were ready +for conversion. Everywhere Darwin and Darwinism became as household +words; it was the singular fate of the great prophet of evolution, alone +almost among the sons of men, to hear his own name familiarly twisted +during his own lifetime into a colloquial adjective, and to see the +Darwinian theory and the errors of Darwinism staring him in the face a +hundred times a day from every newspaper and every periodical. + +Of course the 'Origin of Species' was largely translated at once into +all the civilised languages of Europe, Russian as well as French, Dutch +as well as German, Swedish as well as Italian, Spanish as well as +Hungarian, nay even, at last, transcending narrow continental limits, +Japanese as well as Hindustani. The revolution which it was rapidly +effecting was indeed a revolution in every mode of thought and feeling +as well as a revolution in mere restricted biological opinion. But all +this time, the modest, single-minded, and unassuming author was working +unmoved among his plants and pigeons in his home at Down, regardless of +the European fame he was so quickly acquiring, and anxious only to bring +to a termination the vast work which he still contemplated. A little +more than eleven years intervened between the publication of the 'Origin +of Species,' in 1859, and the first appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' +in 1871. The interval was occupied in carrying out in part the gigantic +scheme of his original collections for the full treatment of the +development theory. The work published in 1859 Darwin regarded merely as +an abstract and preliminary outline of his full opinions: 'No one can +feel more sensible than I do,' he wrote, 'of the necessity of hereafter +publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my +conclusions have been grounded.' The marvellously learned work on the +'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' which came out in +two volumes in 1867, formed the first instalment of this long-projected +treatise. The second part, as he told Mr. Fiske, was to have treated of +the variation of animals and plants through natural selection; while the +third part would have dealt at length with the phenomena of morphology, +of classification, and of distribution in space and time. But these +latter portions of the work were never written. To say the truth, they +were never needed. So universal was the recognition among the younger +men of Darwin's discovery, that before ten years were over innumerable +workers were pushing out the consequences of natural selection into +every field of biology and palæontology. It seemed no longer so +necessary as it had once seemed to write the larger and more elaborate +treatise he had originally contemplated. + +The volume on the variation of animals and plants contained also +Darwin's one solitary contribution to the pure speculative philosophy of +life--his 'Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis,' by which he strove to +account on philosophical principles for the general facts of physical +and mental heredity. Not to mince matters, it was his one conspicuous +failure, and is now pretty universally admitted as such. Let not the +love of the biographer deceive us; Darwin was here attempting a task +_ultra vires_. As already observed, his mind, vast as it was, leaned +rather to the concrete than to the abstract side: he lacked the +distinctively metaphysical and speculative twist. Strange to say, too, +his abortive theory appeared some years later than Herbert Spencer's +magnificent all-sided conception of 'Physiological Units,' put forth +expressly to meet the self-same difficulty. But while Darwin's +hypothesis is rudely materialistic, Herbert Spencer's is built up by an +acute and subtle analytical perception of all the analogous facts in +universal nature. It is a singular instance of a crude and essentially +unphilosophic conception endeavouring to replace a finished and delicate +philosophical idea. + +Earlier still, in 1862, Darwin had published his wonderful and +fascinating book on the 'Fertilisation of Orchids.' It is delightful to +contemplate the picture of the unruffled naturalist, in the midst of +that universal storm of ecclesiastical obloquy and scientific enthusiasm +which he had roused throughout Europe, sitting down calmly in his +Kentish conservatory to watch the behaviour of catasetums and +masdevallias, and to work out the details of his chosen subject, with +that marvellous patience of which he was so great a master, in the +pettiest minutiæ of fertilisation as displayed by a single highly +developed family of plants. Whoever wishes to learn the full profundity +of Darwin's researches, into every point that he set himself to +investigate, cannot do better than turn for a while to the consideration +of that exquisite treatise on one of the quaintest fairylands of +science. He will there learn by what an extraordinary wealth of cunning +devices natural selection has ensured the due conveyance of the +fecundating pollen from stamens to stigmas within the limits of a single +group of vegetable organisms. Here the fertilising mass is gummed +automatically between the eyes of the exploring bee, and then bent round +by the drying of its stalk so as to come in contact with the stigmatic +surface. There the pollen club is jerked out elastically by a sensitive +fibre, and actually flung by its irritable antennæ at the unconscious +head of the fertilising insect. In one case, the lip of the flower +secretes moisture and forms a sort of cold bath, which wets the wings of +the bees, so compelling them to creep out of the bucket by a passage +close to the anthers and stigma; in another case, the honey is concealed +at the bottom of so long a tube that only the proper fertilising moth +with a proboscis of ten or eleven inches in length can probe the deep +recess in which it is hidden. These, and a hundred other similar +instances, were all carefully considered and described by the great +naturalist as the by-work with which he filled up one of the intervals +between his greater and more comprehensive treatises. + +In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the progress of Darwinism was rapid +and continuous. One by one, the few scientific men who still held out +were overborne by the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh +instances of transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored +countries kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species +and varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his +'First Principles,' his 'Biology,' and the remodelled form of his +'Psychology;' Huxley brought out 'Man's Place in Nature,' the 'Lectures +on Comparative Anatomy,' and the 'Introduction to the Classification of +Animals;' Wallace produced his 'Malay Archipelago' and his +'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection;' and Galton wrote his +admirable work on 'Hereditary Genius,' of which his own family is so +remarkable an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had long since signified their +warm adhesion. At Oxford, Rolleston was bringing up a fresh generation +of young biologists in the new faith; at Cambridge, Darwin's old +university, a whole school of brilliant and accurate physiologists was +beginning to make itself both felt and heard in the world of science. In +the domain of anthropology, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the +new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations into +the Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. All these +diverse lines of thought both showed the wide-spread influence of +Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, +in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. +And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilised +world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement +was well in progress; everywhere the impulse sent forth from that quiet +Kentish home was permeating and quickening the entire pulse of +intelligent humanity. + +Why was it that the 'Origin of Species' possessed this extraordinary +vitalising and kinetic power, this germinal energy, this contagious +force, beyond all other forms of evolutionism previously promulgated? +Why did the world, that listened so coldly to Lamarck and Chambers, turn +so ready an ear to Charles Darwin and natural selection? Partly, no +doubt, because in the fulness of time the moment had come and the +prophet had arisen. All great movements are long brewing, and burst out +at last (like the Reformation and the French Revolution) with explosive +energy. But the cause is largely to be found, also, I believe, in the +peculiar nature of the Darwinian solution. True, a thoroughly logical +mind, a mind of the very highest order, would have said even before +Darwin, 'Creation can have no possible place in the physical series of +things at all. How organisms came to be I do not yet exactly see; but I +am sure they must have come to be by some merely physical process, if we +could only find it out.' And such minds were all actually evolutionary +even before Darwin had made the _modus operandi_ of evolution +intelligible. But most people are not so clear-sighted. They require to +have everything proved to them by the strictest collocation of actual +instances. They will not believe unless one rise from the dead. There +are men who rejected the raw doctrine of special creation on evidence +adduced; and there are men who never even for a moment entertained it as +conceivable. The former compose the mass of the scientific world, and it +was for their conversion that the Darwinian hypothesis was so highly +salutary. As Professor Fiske rightly remarks, 'The truth is that before +the publication of the "Origin of Species" there was no opinion whatever +current respecting the subject that deserved to be called a scientific +hypothesis. That the more complex forms of life must have come into +existence through some process of development from simpler forms was no +doubt the only sensible and rational view to take of the subject; but in +a vague and general opinion of this sort there is nothing that is +properly scientific. A scientific hypothesis must connect the phenomena +with which it deals by alleging a "true cause;" and before 1859 no one +had suggested a "true cause" for the origination of new species, +although the problem was one over which every philosophical naturalist +had puzzled since the beginning of the century. This explains why Mr. +Darwin's success was so rapid and complete, and it also explains why he +came so near being anticipated.' To put it briefly, _a priori_, creation +is from the very first unbelievable; but, as a matter of evidence, +Lamarck failed to make evolution comprehensible, or to give a rationale +of its mode of action, while Darwin's theory of natural selection +succeeded in doing so for those who awaited _a posteriori_ proof. Hence +Darwin was able to convert the world, where Lamarck had only been able +to stir up enquiry among the picked spirits of the scientific and +philosophical coterie. Therein lies the true secret of his rapid, his +brilliant, and his triumphant progress. He had found out not only _that_ +it was so, but _how_ it was so, too. In Aristotelian phrase, he had +discovered the _pôs_ as well as the _hoti_. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DESCENT OF MAN. + + +In 1871, nearly twelve years after the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +published his 'Descent of Man.' + +We have seen already that he would fain have avoided the treatment of +this difficult and dangerous topic a little longer, so as to let his +main theory be fairly judged on its own merits, without the obtrusion of +theological or personal feelings into so purely biological a question; +but the current was too strong for him, and at last he yielded. On the +one hand, the adversaries had drawn for themselves the conclusion of +man's purely animal origin, and held it up to ridicule under false forms +in the most absurd and odious light. On the other hand, imprudent allies +had put forth under the evolutionary ægis their somewhat hypothetical +and extravagant speculations on this involved subject, which Darwin was +naturally anxious to correct and modify by his own more sober and +guarded inferences. The result was the second great finishing work of +the complete Darwinian system of things. + +Ever since evolutionism had begun to be at all it had been observed that +a natural corollary from the doctrine of descent with modification was +the belief in man's common ancestry with the anthropoid apes. As early +as the middle of the last century, indeed, Lord Monboddo, a whimsical +Scotch eccentric, had suggested in his famous book on the origin of +language the idea that men were merely developed monkeys. But this crude +and unorganised statement of a great truth, being ultimately based upon +no distinct physical grounds, deserved scarcely to be classed higher +than the childish evolutionism of 'Telliamed' De Maillet, which makes +birds descend from flying-fish and men the offspring of the hypothetical +tritons. On this point as on most others the earliest definite +scientific views are those of Buffon, who ventured to hint with extreme +caution the possibility of a common ancestry for man and all other +vertebrate animals. Goethe the all-sided had caught a passing glimpse of +the same profound conception about the date of the Reign of Terror; and +Erasmus Darwin had openly announced it, though without much elaboration, +in his precocious and premature 'Zoonomia.' Still more specifically, in +a note to the 'Temple of Nature,' the English evolutionist says: 'It has +been supposed by some that mankind were formerly quadrupeds.... These +philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to imagine that mankind +arose from one family of monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean;' and +in the third canto of that fantastic poem, he enlarges upon the great +part performed by the hand, with its opposable thumb, in the development +and progress of the human species. Lamarck, in his 'Philosophie +Zoologique,' distinctly lays down the doctrine that man is descended +from an ape-like ancestor, which gradually acquired the upright +position, not even now wholly natural to the human race, and maintained +only by the most constant watchfulness. The orang-outang was then the +highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang, +therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the +pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam. + +The introduction of the chimpanzee into our European Zoological Gardens +gave a fresh type of anthropoid to the crude speculators of the middle +decades of the century; and in 1859, Paul du Chaillu, the explorer and +hunter of the Gaboon country, brought over to America and Europe the +first specimens of the true gorilla ever seen by civilised men. There +can be little doubt that the general interest excited by his narrative +of his adventures (published in London in 1861) and by the well-known +stuffed specimen of the huge African anthropoid ape so long conspicuous +in the rooms of the British Museum, and now surviving (somewhat the +worse for wear) in the natural history collection at South Kensington, +did much to kindle public curiosity as to the nature of our relations +with the lower animals. It is no mere accidental circumstance, indeed, +that Huxley should have brought out 'Man's Place in Nature' just two +years after Du Chaillu's 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial +Africa' had made the whole world, lay and learned, familiar with the +name and features of the most human in outer aspect among the anthropoid +family. Thenceforth the gorilla, and not the orang-outang, was popularly +hit upon by scoffer and caricaturist as the imaginary type of our +primitive ancestors. + +On the other hand, during the twelve intervening years immense strides +had been made in every department of anthropological science, and the +whole tenor of modern speculation had been clearing the ground for the +'Descent of Man,' In 1865, Rolle in Germany had published his work on +'Man Viewed by the Light of the Darwinian Theory.' Two years later, +Canestrini in Italy read before the Naturalists' Society of Modena his +interesting paper on rudimentary characters as bearing on the origin of +the human species. In 1868, Büchner brought out his rudely materialistic +sledge-hammer lectures on the Darwinian principle; and in 1869, Barrago +flung straight at the head of the Roman clericals his offensive work on +man and the anthropoid apes. Most of these foreign publications were +unhappily marked by that coarse and almost vituperative opposition to +received views which too often disfigures French and German +controversial literature. In England, on the contrary, under our milder +and gentler ecclesiastical yoke, the contest had been conducted with +greater decorum and with far better results. Wallace had broken ground +tentatively and reverently in his essay on the 'Origin of Human Races,' +where he endeavoured to show that man is the co-descendant with the +anthropoid apes of some ancient lower and extinct form. Lubbock's +'Prehistoric Times' (1865) and 'Origin of Civilisation' (1870) helped to +clear the way in the opposite direction by demolishing the old belief, +firmly upheld by Whately and others, that savages represent a degraded +type, and that the civilised state is natural and, so to speak, +congenital to man. Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind' (1865) did still +more eminent service in the same direction. Colenso's 'Pentateuch and +Book of Joshua Critically Examined,' the publication of which began in +1862, had already shaken the foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony, and +incidentally discredited the received view of the direct creation of the +first human family. McLennan's 'Primitive Marriage' (1865) and Herbert +Spencer's articles on the origin of religion had kept speculation alive +along other paths, all tending ultimately towards the same conclusion. +Darwin's own cousin, Hensleigh Wedgwood, and Canon Farrar, had +independently endeavoured to prove that language, instead of being a +divine gift, might have arisen in a purely natural manner from +instinctive cries and the imitation of external sounds. The Duke of +Argyll and Professor Max Müller, by the obvious feebleness of their +half-hearted replies, had unconsciously aided in disseminating and +enforcing the very views they attempted to combat. Bagehot and Flower, +Maudsley and Jevons, Vogt and Lindsay, Galton and Brown-Séquard had each +in his way contributed facts and arguments ultimately utilised by the +great master architect in building up his consistent and harmonious +edifice. Finally, in 1868, Haeckel had published his 'Natural History of +Creation,' in which he discussed with surprising and perhaps excessive +boldness the various stages in the genealogy of man. These various +works, following so close upon Huxley's 'Man's Place in Nature' and +Lyell's conclusive 'Antiquity of Man,' left Darwin no choice but to set +forth his own reasoned opinions on the subject of the origin and +development of the human species. + +The evidence of the descent of man from some lower form, collected and +marshalled together by Darwin, consists chiefly of minute inferential +proofs which hardly admit of deliberate condensation. In his bodily +structure man is formed on the same underlying type or model as all the +other mammals, bone answering throughout to bone, as, for example, in +the fore limb, where homologous parts have been modified in the dog into +toes, in the bat into wing-supports, in the seal into flippers, and in +man himself into fingers and thumb, while still retaining in every case +their essential fundamental likeness of construction. Even the brain of +man resembles closely the brain of the higher monkeys; the differences +which separate him in this respect from the orang or the gorilla are far +slighter than the differences which separate those apes themselves from +the inferior monkeys. Indeed, as Huxley conclusively showed, on +anatomical grounds alone, man must be classed in the order Primates as +only one among the many divergent forms which that order includes within +its wide limits. + +In his embryonic development man closely resembles the lower animals, +the human creature being almost indistinguishable in certain stages from +the dog, the bat, the seal, and especially the monkeys. At a very early +age he possesses a slight projecting tail; at another, the great toe is +shorter than its neighbours, and projects like the thumb at a slight +angle; and at a third, the convolutions of the brain reach a point of +development about equivalent to that of the adult baboon. In his first +stages man himself stands far more closely related to the apes than the +apes in turn stand to cats or hyænas. + +Rudiments of muscles not normally found in man occur in many aberrant +human individuals. Some people possess the power of moving their scalps +and wagging their ears like dogs and monkeys; others can twitch the skin +of their bodies, as horses do when worried by flies. Mr. Woolner, the +sculptor, pointed out to Darwin a certain little projecting point or +knob on the margin of the ear, observed by him in the course of +modelling, which comparison shows to be the last folded remnant or +rudiment of the once erect and pointed monkey-like ear-tip. The +nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, once more, which in birds can be +drawn so rapidly across the ball of the eye, and which gives the +familiar glazed or murky appearance, is fairly well developed in the +ornithorhynchus and the kangaroo, as well as in a few higher mammals, +like the walrus; but in man, as in the monkey group, it survives only +under the degenerate form of a practically useless rudiment, the +semilunar fold. Man differs from the other Primates in his apparently +hairless condition; but the hair, though short and downy, still remains +on close inspection, and in some races, such as the Ainos of Japan, +forms a shaggy coat like an orang's or a gibbon's. A few long rough +hairs sometimes project from the short smooth down of the eyebrows; and +these peculiar bristles, occasional only in the human species, are +habitual in the chimpanzee and in many baboons. Internal organs show +similar rudiments, of less enthralling interest, it must be candidly +confessed, to the unscientific outside intelligence. Even the bony +skeleton contributes its share of confirmatory evidence; for in the +lower monkeys and in many other mammals a certain main trunk nerve +passes through a special perforation in the shoulder-blade, and this +perforation, though now almost obsolete, sometimes recurs in man, in +which case the nerve in question invariably passes through it, as in the +inferior monkeys. What is still more remarkable is the fact that the +perforation occurs far more frequently (in proportion) among the +skeletons of very ancient races than among those of our own time. One +chief cause why in this and other cases ancient races often present +structures resembling those of the lower animals seems to be that they +stand nearer in the long line of descent to their remote animal-like +progenitors. + +The conclusion at which, after fully examining all the evidence, Darwin +finally arrives is somewhat as follows: + +The early ancestors of man must have been more or less monkey-like +animals, belonging to the great anthropoid group, and related to the +progenitors of the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. They +must have been once covered with hair, both sexes possessing beards. +Their ears were probably pointed and capable of movement, and their +bodies were provided with a movable tail. The foot had a great toe +somewhat thumb-like in its action, with which they could grasp the +branches of trees. They were probably arboreal in their habits, +fruit-eaters by choice, and inhabitants of some warm forest-clad land. +The males had great canine teeth, with which they fought one another for +the possession of the females. At a much earlier period, the internal +anatomical peculiarities approached those of the lowest mammals, and the +eye was provided with a third eyelid. Peering still further back into +the dim abyss of the ages, Darwin vaguely describes the ancestors of +humanity as aquatic animals, allied to the mudfish; for our lungs are +known to consist of modified swim-bladders, which must once have served +our remote progenitors in the office of a float. The gill-clefts on the +neck of the human embryo still point to the spot where the branchiæ +once, no doubt, existed. Our primordial birthplace appears to have been +a shore washed twice a day by the recurrent tides. The heart then took +the shape merely of a simple pulsating vessel; and a long undivided +spinal cord usurped the place of the vertebral column. These extremely +primitive ancestors of man, thus dimly beheld across the gulf of ages, +must have been at least as simply and humbly organised as that very +lowest and earliest of existing vertebrates, the worm-like lancelet. + +From such a rude and indefinite beginning natural selection, aided by +the various concomitant principles, has slowly built up the pedigree of +man. Starting from these remote half-invertebrate forms, whose vague +shape is still perhaps in part preserved for us by the soft and +jelly-like larva of the modern ascidian, we rise by long stages to a +group of early fishes, like the lancelet itself. From these the ganoids +and then the lung-bearing mudfish must have been gradually developed. +From such fish a very small advance would carry us on to the newts and +other amphibians. The duck-billed platypus helps us slightly to bridge +over the gap between the reptiles and the lower mammals, such as the +kangaroo and the wombat, though the connection with the amphibians is +still, as when Darwin wrote, highly problematical. From marsupials, such +as the kangaroo, we ascend gradually to the insectivorous type +represented by the shrews and hedgehogs, and thence once more by very +well-marked intermediate stages to the lemurs of Madagascar, a group +linked on the one hand to the insectivores, and on the other to the true +monkeys. The monkeys, again, 'branched off into two great stems--the New +World and Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, +man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.' + +The word was spoken; the secret was out. The world might well have been +excused for treating it scornfully. But as a matter of fact, the storm +which followed the 'Descent of Man' was as nothing compared with the +torrent of abuse that had pursued the author of the 'Origin of Species.' +In twelve years society had grown slowly accustomed to the once +startling idea, and it listened now with comparatively languid interest +to the final utterance of the great biologist on the question of its own +origin and destinies. In 1859 it cried in horror, 'How very shocking!' +in 1871, it murmured complacently, 'Is that all? Why, everybody knew +that much already!' + +Nevertheless, on the moral and social side, the ultimate importance of +the 'Descent of Man' upon the world's history can hardly be overrated by +a philosophic investigator. Vast as was the revolution effected in +biology by the 'Origin of Species,' it was as nothing compared with the +still wider, deeper, and more subtly-working revolution inaugurated by +the announcement of man's purely animal origin. The main discovery, +strange to say, affected a single branch of thought alone; the minor +corollary drawn from it to a single species has already affected, and is +destined in the future still more profoundedly to affect, every +possible sphere of human energy. Not only has it completely reversed our +entire conception of history generally, by teaching us that man has +slowly risen from a very low and humble beginning, but it has also +revolutionised our whole ideas of our own position and our own destiny, +it has permeated the sciences of language and of medicine, it has +introduced new conceptions of ethics and of religion, and it threatens +in the future to produce immense effects upon the theory and practice of +education, of politics, and of economic and social science. These +wide-reaching and deep-seated results began to be felt from the first +moment when the Darwinian principle was definitely promulgated in the +'Origin of Species,' but their final development and general acceptance +was immensely accelerated by Darwin's own authoritative statement in the +'Descent of Man.' + +To some among us still, as to Lyell before us, this new belief in the +animal origin of man seems far less beautiful, noble, and inspiriting +than the older faith in his special and separate divine creation. Such +thinkers find it somehow more pleasant and comfortable to suppose that +man has fallen than that man has risen; the doctrine of the universal +degradation of humanity paradoxically appears to them more full of +promise and aspiration for the times to come than the doctrine of its +universal elevation. To Darwin himself, however, it seemed otherwise. +'Man,' he says, 'may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, +though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic +scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been +aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny +in the distant future.' Surely this is the truer and manlier way of +looking at the reversed and improved attitude of man. Surely it is +better to climb to the top than to have been placed there--and +fallen--at the very outset. Surely it is a nobler view of life that we +may yet by our own strenuous exertions raise our race some places higher +in the endless and limitless hierarchy of nature than that we are the +miserable and hopelessly degenerate descendants of a ruined and degraded +angelic progenitor. Surely it is well, while we boast with Glaucus that +we indeed are far braver and better than our ancestors, to pray at the +same time, in the words of Hector, that our sons may be yet braver and +better than ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP. + + +In the same volumes with the 'Descent of Man' Darwin included his +admirable treatise on sexual selection. This form of selection he had +already dealt with briefly in the 'Origin of Species;' but as in his +opinion it was largely instrumental in producing the minor differences +which separate one race of men from another, he found it necessary to +enlarge and expand it in connection with his account of the rise and +progress of the human species. + +Among many animals, and especially in the higher classes of animals, the +males and females do not mate together casually; there is a certain +amount of selection or of courtship. In some cases, as with deer and +antelopes, the males fight with one another for the possession of the +females. In other cases, as with the peacock and the humming-birds, the +males display their beauty and their skill before the eyes of the +assembled females. In the first instance, the victor obtains the mates; +in the second instance, the mates themselves select from the group the +handsomest and most personally pleasing competitor. Sexual selection, of +which these are special cases, depends on the advantage possessed by +certain individuals over others of the same sex and species solely in +respect to the question of mating. In all such instances, the males have +acquired their weapons of offence and defence or their ornamental +decorations, not from being better fitted to survive in the struggle for +existence, but from having gained an advantage over other males of the +same kind, and from having transmitted this advantage to offspring of +their own sex alone. + +Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by the selection of +those birds which are victorious in the cockpit, so the strongest and +most vigorous males, or those provided with the best weapons, have +prevailed in the state of nature over their feebler and more cowardly +competitors. Just as man can give beauty, according to his own standard +of taste, to his male poultry, by selecting special birds for their +plumage, their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female birds in +a state of nature have by a long-continued choice of the more attractive +males added to their beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. In these two +ways, Darwin believed, a limited selection has slowly developed weapons +like the horns of buffaloes, the antlers of stags, the tusks of boars, +and the spurs of game-birds, together with the courage, strength, and +pugnacity always associated with such special organs. It has also +developed the ornamental plumage of the peacock, the argus pheasant, and +the birds of paradise; the song of the lark, the thrush, and the +nightingale; the brilliant hues on the face of the mandrill; and the +attractive perfume of the musk-deer, the snakes, and the scented +butterflies. Wherever one sex possesses any decorative or alluring +adjunct not equally shared by the other, Darwin attributed this special +gift either to the law of battle, or to the long and slowly exerted +selective action of their fastidious mates. + +The germ of the doctrine of sexual selection is to be found, like so +many other of Charles Darwin's theories, in a prophetic passage of his +grandfather's 'Zoonomia.' Stags, the Lichfield physician tells us, are +provided with antlers 'for the purpose of combating other stags for the +exclusive possession of the females, who are observed, like the ladies +in the time 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.' + +It must be noticed, however, that Erasmus Darwin here imports into the +question the metaphysical and teleological notion of the final cause, +implying that the struggle of the males was ordained from without, for +this express and preconceived purpose; whereas Charles Darwin, never +transcending the world of phenomena, more logically regards the struggle +itself as an efficient cause, having for its result the survival of the +strongest or the handsomest as the case may be. This distinction is +fundamental; it marks the gulf between the essentially teleological +spirit of the eighteenth century and the essentially positive spirit of +philosophy and science at the present day. + +Here again, too, the immense logical superiority of Charles Darwin's +rigorous and exhaustive inductive method over the loose suggestiveness +of his grandfather Erasmus may easily be observed. For while Erasmus +merely throws out a clever and interesting hint as to the supposed +method and intention of nature, Charles Darwin proves his thesis, point +by point, with almost mathematical exactitude, leaving no objection +unmet behind him, but giving statistical and inductive warrant for every +step in his cumulative argument. He goes carefully into the numerical +proportion of the two sexes in various species; into the relative dates +of arrival in any particular country of the males and females of +migratory birds; into the question whether any individuals ever remain +in the long run unpaired; into the chances of the earliest-mated or most +vigorous couples leaving behind more numerous or stronger offspring to +represent them in the next generation. He collects from every quarter +and from all sources whatever available evidence can be obtained as to +the courtship and rivalry of birds and butterflies, of deer and +antelopes, of fish and lizards. He shows by numerous examples and +quotations how even flies coquet together in their pretty rhythmical +aerial dances; how wasps battle eagerly with one another to secure +possession of their unconcerned mates; how cicadas strive to win their +'voiceless brides' with stridulating music; how sphinx-moths endeavour +to allure their partners with the musky odour of their pencilled wings; +and how emperors and orange-tips display their gorgeous spots and bands +in the broad sunshine before the admiring and attentive eyes of their +observant dames. He traces up the same spirit of rivalry and ostentation +to the cock-pheasant strutting about before the attendant hen, and to +the meeting-places of the blackcock, where all the males of the district +fight with one another and undertake long love-dances in regular +tournaments, while the females stand by and watch the chances and +changes of the contest with affected indifference. Finally, he points +out how similar effects are produced by like causes among the higher +animals, especially among our near relations the monkeys; and then he +proceeds to apply the principles thus firmly grounded to the particular +instance of the human race itself, the primary object of his entire +treatise. + +Some of the most interesting of the modifications due to this particular +form of selective action are to be found amongst the insects and other +low types of animal life. The crickets, the locusts, and the +grasshoppers, for example, are all famous for their musical powers; but +the sounds themselves are produced in the different families by very +different and quaintly varied organs. The song of the crickets is evoked +by the scraping of minute teeth on the under side of either wing-cover; +in the case of the locusts, the left wing, which acts as a bow, overlies +the right wing, which serves as a fiddle; while with the grasshoppers, +the leg does duty as the musical instrument, and has a row of +lancet-shaped elastic knobs along its outer surface, which the insect +rubs across the nerves of the wing-covers when it wishes to charm the +ears and rouse the affection of its silent mate. In a South African +species of the same family, the whole body of the male is fairly +converted into a musical instrument, being immensely inflated, hollow, +and distended like a pellucid air-bladder in order to act as an +efficient sounding-board. Among the beetles, taste seems generally to +have specialised itself rather on form than on music or colour, and the +males are here usually remarkable for their singular and very +complicated horns, often compared in various species to those of stags +or rhinoceroses, and entirely absent in the females of most kinds. But +it is among the butterflies and moths that insect æstheticism has +produced its greatest artistic triumphs; for here the beautiful +eye-spots and delicate markings on the expanded wing-membranes are +almost certainly due to sexual selection. + +The higher animals display like evidence of the same slow selective +action. The courtship of the stickleback, who dances 'mad with delight' +around the mate he has allured into the nest he prepares for her, has +been observed by dozens of observers both before and since in the +domestic aquarium. The gem-like colours of the male dragonet, the +butterfly wings of certain gurnards, and the decorated tails of some +exotic carps all point in the same direction. Our own larger newt is +adorned during the breeding season with a serrated crest edged with +orange; while in the smaller kind the colours of the body acquire at the +same critical period of love-making a vivid brilliancy. The strange +horns and luridly coloured throat-pouches of tropical lizards are +familiar to all visitors in equatorial climates, and they are confined +exclusively to the male sex. Among birds, the superior beauty of the +male plumage is known to everybody; and their greatest glory invariably +coincides with the special season for the selection of mates. In the +spring, as even our poets have told us, the wanton lapwing gets himself +another crest. The law of battle produces the spur of the game-birds and +the still stranger wing-spurs of certain species of the plover kind. +Æsthetic rivalry is answerable rather for vocal music, and for the +plumage of the umbrella-bird, the lyre-bird, the humming-birds, and the +cock of the rocks. Among mammals, strength rather than beauty seems to +have carried the day; horns, and tusks, and spikes, and antlers are here +the special guerdon of the victorious males. Yet even mammals show +occasional signs of distinctly æsthetic and artistic preferences, as in +the gracefully twisted horns of the koodoo, the scent-glands of the +musk-deer or of certain antelopes, the brilliant hues of the male +mandrill, and the tufts and moustaches of so many monkeys. + +It must be frankly conceded that the reception accorded to Darwin's +doctrine of sexual selection, even among the biological public, was far +less unanimous, enthusiastic, and full than that which had been granted +to his more extensive theory of survival of the fittest. Many eminent +naturalists declined from the very outset to accept the conclusions thus +definitely set before them, and others who at first seemed disposed to +bow to the immense weight of Darwin's supreme authority gradually +withdrew their grudging assent from the new doctrine, as they found +their relapse backed up by others, and refused to believe that the +theory of courtship had been fairly proven before the final tribunal of +science. Several critics began by objecting that the whole theory was a +mere afterthought. Darwin, they said, finding that natural selection +did not suffice by itself to explain all the details of structure in +man, had invented sexual selection as a supplementary principle to help +it over the hard places. Those who wrote and spoke in this thoughtless +fashion could have had but a very inadequate idea of Darwin's close +experimental methods of enquiry. As a matter of fact, indeed, they were +entirely wrong; the doctrine of sexual selection itself, already faintly +foreshadowed by Erasmus Darwin in the 'Zoonomia,' had been distinctly +developed in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' with at least +as much provisional elaboration as any other equally important factor in +the biological drama as set forth in that confessedly introductory work. +Nay, Haeckel had caught gladly at the luminous conception there +expressed, even before the appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' and had +worked it out in his 'Generelle Morphologie,' with great insight, to its +legitimate conclusions in many directions. Indeed, the sole reason why +so much space was devoted to the subject in Darwin's work on human +development was simply because there for the first time an opportunity +arose of utilising his vast store of collected information on this +single aspect of the evolutionary process. It was no afterthought, but a +necessary and inevitable component element of the fully-developed +evolutionary concept. + +Still, it cannot be denied that naturalists generally did not accept +with effusion the new clause in the evolutionary creed. Many of them +hesitated; a few acquiesced; the majority more or less openly dissented. +But Darwin's belief remained firm as a rock. 'I am glad you defend +sexual selection,' he wrote a few years later in a private letter; 'I +have no fear about its ultimate fate, though it is now at a discount;' +and in the preface to the second edition of the 'Descent of Man,' he +remarks acutely, 'I have been struck with the likeness of many of the +half-favourable criticisms on sexual selection with those which appeared +at first on natural selection; such as that it would explain some few +details, but certainly was not applicable to the extent to which I have +employed it. My conviction of the power of sexual selection remains +unshaken.... When naturalists have become familiar with the idea, it +will, as I believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has already +been fully and favourably received by several capable judges.' + +In spite of the still continued demurrer of not a few among the leading +evolutionists, it is probable, I think, that Darwin's prophecy on this +matter will yet be justified by the verdict of time. For the opposition +to the doctrine of sexual selection proceeds almost invariably, as it +seems to me, from those persons who still desire to erect an efficient +barrier of one sort or another between the human and animal worlds; +while on the contrary the theory in question is almost if not quite +universally accepted by just those rigorously evolutionary biologists +who are freest from preconceptions or special _a priori_ teleological +objections of any kind whatever. The half of the doctrine which deals +with the law of battle, indeed, can hardly be doubted by any competent +naturalist; the other half, which deals with the supposed æsthetic +preferences of the females, is, no doubt, distasteful to certain +thinkers because it seems to imply the existence in the lower animals of +a sense of beauty which many among us are not even now prepared +generously to admit. The desire to arrogate to mankind alone all the +higher faculties either of sense or intellect has probably much to do +with the current disinclination towards the Darwinian idea of sexual +selection. Thinkers who allow themselves to be emotionally swayed by +such extraneous considerations forget that the beautiful is merely that +which pleases; that beauty has no external objective existence; and that +the range of taste, both among ourselves and among animals at large, is +practically infinite. The greatest blow ever aimed at the Darwinian +theory of sexual selection was undoubtedly that dealt out by Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace (et tu, Brute!) in his able and subtle article on the +Colours of Animals in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' since reprinted in his +delightful work on 'Tropical Nature.' Wallace there urges with his usual +acuteness, ingenuity, and skill several fundamental objections to the +Darwinian hypothesis of no little importance and weight. But it must +always be remembered (with all due respect to the joint discoverer of +natural selection) that Mr. Wallace himself, after publishing his own +admirable essay on the development of man, drew back aghast in the end +from the full consequences of his own admission, and uttered his partial +recantation in the singular words, 'Natural selection could only have +endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape.' It +seems probable that in every case an analogous desire to erect a firm +barrier between man and brute by positing the faculty for perceiving +beauty as a special quasi-divine differentia of the human race has been +at the bottom of the still faintly surviving dislike amongst a section +of scientific men to sexual selection. Nevertheless, a candid and +impartial critic would be compelled frankly to admit that Darwin's +admirable theory of courtship has not on the whole proved so generally +acceptable to the biological world up to the present time as his greater +and far more comprehensive theory of survival of the fittest. It still +waits for its final recognition, towards which it is progressing more +rapidly and surely every day it lives. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +VICTORY AND REST. + + +The last eleven years of Darwin's life were spent in enforcing and +developing the principles already reached, and in enjoying the almost +unchequered progress of the revolution he had so unconsciously to +himself succeeded in inaugurating. + +Only one year elapsed between the publication of the 'Descent of Man' +and that of its next important successor, the 'Expression of the +Emotions.' The occasion of this learned and bulky treatise in itself +stands as an immortal proof of the conscientious way in which Darwin +went to work to anticipate the slightest and most comparatively +impertinent possible objections to his main theories. Sir Charles Bell, +in one of the quaintly antiquated Bridgwater treatises--those marvellous +monuments of sadly misplaced teleological ingenuity--had maintained that +man was endowed with sundry small facial muscles solely for the sake of +expressing his emotions. This view was so obviously opposed to the +belief in the descent of man from some lower form, 'that,' says Darwin, +'it was necessary for me to consider it;' and so he did, in a lengthy +work, where the whole subject is exhaustively treated, and Bell's idea +is completely pulverised by the apt allegation of analogous expressions +in the animal world. In his old age Darwin grew, in fact, only the more +ceaselessly and wonderfully industrious. In 1875, after three years of +comparative silence, came the 'Insectivorous Plants,' a work full of +minute observation on the habits and manners of the sundew, the +butterwort, the Venus's fly-catcher, and the various heterogeneous +bog-haunting species known by the common name of pitcher plants. The +bare mass and weight of the facts which Darwin had collected for the +'Origin of Species' might well-nigh have stifled the very existence of +that marvellous book: it was lucky that the premature publication of +Wallace's paper compelled him to hurry on his 'brief abstract,' for if +he had waited to select and arrange the whole series of observations +that he finally published in his various later justificatory volumes, we +might have looked in vain for the great systematic and organising work, +which would no doubt have been 'surcharged with its own weight, and +strangled with its waste fertility.' But the task that he himself best +loved was to watch in minute detail the principles whose secret he had +penetrated, and whose reserve he had broken, working themselves out +before his very eyes, naked and not ashamed--to catch Actæon-like the +undraped form of nature herself in the actual process of her inmost +being. He could patiently observe the red and slimy hair-glands of the +drosera closing slowly and remorselessly round the insect prey, and +sucking from their bodies with sensitive tentacles the protoplasmic +juices denied to its leaves by the poor and boggy soil, on which alone +its scanty rootlets can properly thrive. He could watch the butterwort +curving round the edges of its wan green foliage upon the captured limbs +of fly or aphis. He could note how the serried mass of finger-like +processes in the utricles of the bladderwort slowly absorb organic +matter from the larva of a gnat, or the minute water-insects entangled +within its living and almost animated lobster-pot. He could track the +long line of treacherous honey-glands by which the sarracenia entices +flies into the festering manure-wells of its sticky pitchers. The +minuteness and skill of all his observations on these lesser problems of +natural selection inevitably inspired faith among outsiders in the +cautious judgment of the observer and experimenter; and day by day +throughout his later years the evidence of the popular acceptance of his +doctrine, and of the dying away of the general ridicule with which it +was first received by the unlearned public, was very gratifying to the +great naturalist. + +A year later, in 1876, came the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation +in the Vegetable Kingdom.' So far as regarded the world of plants, +especially with respect to its higher divisions, this work was of +immense theoretical importance; and it also cast a wonderful side-light +upon the nature of that strange distinction of sex which occurs both in +the vegetable and animal kingdom, and in each is the concomitant--one +might almost say the necessary concomitant--of high development and +complex organisation. The great result attained by Darwin in his long +and toilsome series of experiments on this interesting subject was the +splendid proof of the law that cross-fertilisation produces finer and +healthier offspring, while continuous self-fertilisation tends in the +long run to degradation, degeneration, and final extinction. + +Here as elsewhere, however, Darwin's principle does not spring +spontaneous, like Athene from the head of Zeus, a goddess full-formed, +uncaused, inexplicable: it arises gradually by a slow process of +development and modification from the previous investigations of earlier +biologists. At the close of the last century, in the terrible year of +upheaval 1793, a quiet German botanist, Christian Konrad Sprengel by +name, published at Berlin his long unheeded but intensely interesting +work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers.' In the summer of 1789, while all +Europe was ablaze with the news that the Bastille had been stormed, and +a new era of humanity begun, the calm and peaceful Pomeranian observer +was noting in his own garden the curious fact that many flowers are +incapable of being fertilised without the assistance of flying insects, +which carry pollen from the stamens of one blossom to the sensitive +surface or ovary of the next. Hence he concluded that the secretion of +honey or nectar in flowers, the contrivances by which it is protected +from rain, the bright hues or lines of the corolla, and the sweet +perfume distilled by the blossoms, are all so many cunning devices of +nature to ensure fertilisation by the insect-visitors. Moreover, +Sprengel observed that many flowers are of one sex only, and that in +several others the sexes do not mature simultaneously; 'so that,' said +he, 'nature seems to intend that no flower shall be fertilised by means +of its own pollen.' Indeed, in some instances, as he showed by +experiments upon the yellow day lily, plants impregnated from their own +stamens cannot be made to set seed at all. 'So near,' says his able +successor, Hermann Müller, 'was Sprengel to the distinct recognition of +the fact that self-fertilisation leads to worse results than +cross-fertilisation, and that all the arrangements which favour +insect-visits are of value to the plant itself, simply because the +insect-visitors effect cross-fertilisation!' As in most other +anticipatory cases, however, it must be here remarked that Sprengel's +idea was wholly teleological: he conceived of nature as animated by a +direct informing principle, which deliberately aimed at a particular +result; whereas Darwin rather came to the conclusion that +cross-fertilisation as a matter of fact does actually produce beneficial +results, and that therefore those plants which varied most in the +direction of arrangements for favouring insect-visits were likely to be +exceptionally fortunate in the struggle for existence against +competitors otherwise arranged. It is just the usual Darwinian +substitution of an efficient for a final cause. + +Even before Sprengel, Kölreuter had recognised, in 1761, that +self-fertilisation was avoided in nature; and his observations and +experiments on intercrossing and on hybridism were largely relied upon +by Darwin himself, to whom they suggested at an early period many +fruitful lines of original investigation. In 1799, again, Andrew Knight, +following up the same line of thought in England as Sprengel in Germany, +declared as the result of his close experiments upon the garden pea, +that no plant ever fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. +But Knight's law, not being brought into causal connection with any +great fundamental principle of nature, was almost entirely overlooked by +the scientific world until the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of +Species,' half a century later. The same neglect also overtook +Sprengel's immensely interesting and curious work on fertilisation of +flowers. The world, in fact, was not yet ready for the separate +treatment of functional problems connected with the interrelations of +organic beings; so Knight and Sprengel were laid aside unnoticed on the +dusty top bookshelves of public libraries, while the dry classificatory +and systematic biology of the moment had it ail its own way for the time +being on the centre reading-tables. So many separate and independent +strands of thought does it ultimately require to make up the grand final +generalisation which the outer world attributes in its totality to the +one supreme organising intelligence. + +But in the 'Origin of Species' itself Darwin reiterated and emphasised +Knight's law as a general and all-pervading principle of nature, placing +it at the same time on broader and surer biological foundations by +affiliating it intimately upon his own great illuminating and unifying +doctrine of natural selection. He also soon after rescued from oblivion +Sprengel's curious and fairy-like book, showing in full detail in his +work on orchids the wonderful contrivances by which flowers seek to +attract and to secure the assistance of insects for the impregnation of +their embryo seeds. In the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication,' he further showed that breeding in-and-in diminishes the +strength and productiveness of the offspring; while crossing with +another stock produces, on the contrary, the best possible physical +results in both directions. And now at last, in the 'Effects of Cross +and Self fertilisation,' he proved by careful and frequently repeated +experiments that a constant infusion of fresh blood (so to speak) is +essential to the production of the healthiest offspring. In the words of +his own emphatic summing up, 'Nature abhors perpetual +self-fertilisation.' + +The immediate result of these new statements and this fresh rationale of +Knight's law was to bring down Sprengel forthwith from the top shelf, +where he had languished ingloriously for seventy years, and to set a +whole school of ardent botanical observers working hard in the lines he +had laid down upon the mutual correlations of insects and flowers. A +vast literature sprang up at once upon this enchanting and +long-neglected subject, the most eminent workers in the rediscovered +field being Delpino in Italy, Hildebrand and Hermann Müller in Germany, +Axel in Sweden, Lubbock in England, and Fritz Müller in tropical South +America. Darwin found the question, in fact, almost taken out of his +hands before he had time himself to treat of it; for Hildebrand's chief +work was published as early as 1867, while Axel's appeared in 1869, both +of them several years earlier than Darwin's own final essay on the +subject in the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation.' No statement, +perhaps, could more clearly mark the enormous impetus given to +researches in this direction than the fact that D'Arcy Thompson, in his +appendix to Müller's splendid work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers,' +has collected a list of no less than eight hundred and fourteen separate +works or important papers bearing on that special department of botany, +almost all of them subsequent in date to the first publication of the +'Origin of Species.' So widely did the Darwinian wave extend, and so +profoundly did it affect every minute point of biological and +psychological investigation. + +Each of these later works of Darwin's consists, as a rule, of an +expansion of some single chapter or paragraph in the 'Origin of +Species;' or, to speak more correctly, of an arrangement of the +materials collected and the experiments designed for that particular +portion of the great projected encyclopædia of evolutionism, of which +the 'Origin of Species' itself was but a brief anticipatory summary or +rough outline. Thus, the book on Orchids, published in 1862, is already +foreshadowed in a part of the chapter on the Difficulties of the Theory +of Natural Selection; the 'Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants' +(1865) is briefly summarised by anticipation in the long section on +Modes of Transition; the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication' (1868) consists of the vast array of _pièces +justificatives_ for the first chapter of the 'Origin of Species;' and +the germ of the 'Cross and Self Fertilisation' (1876) is to be seen in +the passage 'On the Intercrossing of Individuals' in Chapter IV. of the +same work. It was well indeed that Darwin began by publishing the +shorter and more manageable abstract; the half, as the wise Greek +proverb shrewdly remarks, is often more than the whole; and a world that +eagerly devoured the first great deliverance of the Darwinian principle, +might have stood aghast had it been asked to swallow it piecemeal in +such gigantic treatises as those with which its author afterwards sought +thrice to vanquish all his foes and thrice to slay the slain. + +Yet, with each fresh manifestation of Darwin's inexhaustible resources, +on the other hand, the opposition to his principles grew feebler and +feebler, and the universality of their acceptance more and more +pronounced, till at last, among biologists at least, not to be a +Darwinian was equivalent to being hopelessly left behind by the general +onward movement of the time. In 1874 Tyndall delivered his famous +address at the Belfast meeting of the British Association; and in 1877, +from the same presidential chair at Plymouth, Allen Thomson, long +reputed a doubtful waverer, enforced his cordial adhesion to the +Darwinian principles by his inaugural discourse on 'The Development of +the Forms of Animal Life.' A new generation of active workers, trained +up from the first in the evolutionary school, like Romanes, Ray +Lankester, Thistleton Dyer, Balfour, Sully, and Moggridge, had now risen +gradually around the great master; and in every direction he could see +the seed he had himself planted being watered and nourished in fresh +soil by a hundred ardent and enthusiastic young disciples. Even in +France, ever irresponsive to the touch of new ideas of alien origin, +Colonel Moulinié's admirable and sympathetic translations were beginning +to win over to the evolutionary creed many rising workers; while in +Germany, Victor Carus's excellent versions had from the very first +brought in the enthusiastic Teutonic biologists with a congenial +'swarmery' to the camp of the Darwinians. Correspondents from every part +of the world kept pressing fresh facts and fresh applications upon the +founder of the faith; and Darwin saw his own work so fast being taken +out of his hands by specialist disciples that he abandoned entirely his +original intention of publishing in detail the basis of his first book, +and contented himself instead with tracing out minutely some minor +portions of his contemplated task as specimens of evolutionary method. + +In 1877, in pursuance of this changed purpose, Darwin published his book +on 'Forms of Flowers,' in which he dealt closely with the old problem of +differently shaped blossoms on plants of the same species. It had long +been known, to take a single example, that primroses existed in two +forms, the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, of which the former has the +pin-like summit of the pistil at the top of the tube, and the stamens +concealed half way down its throat; while in the latter these relative +positions are exactly reversed, the stamens answering in place to the +pistil of the alternative form with geometrical accuracy. As early as +1862 Darwin had shown, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' that +this curious arrangement owed its development to the greater security +which it afforded for cross-fertilisation, because in this way each +flower had to be impregnated with the pollen, from a totally distinct +blossom, growing on a different individual plant. In a series of +successive papers read before the same Society in the years between 1863 +and 1868, he had extended a similar course of explanation to the +multiform flowers of the flaxes, the loosestrifes, the featherfoil, the +auricula, the buckbean, and several other well-known plants. At last, in +1877, he gathered together into one of the now familiar green-covered +volumes the whole of his observations on this strange peculiarity, and +proved by abundant illustration and experiment that the diversity of +form is always due through natural selection to the advantage gained by +perfect security of cross-fertilisation, resulting as it invariably does +in the production of the finest, strongest, and most successful +seedlings. Any variation, however peculiar, which helps to ensure this +constant infusion of fresh blood is certain to be favoured in the +struggle for life, owing to the superior vitality of the stock it +begets. But it is worthy of notice, as showing the extreme minuteness +and exhaustiveness of Darwin's method on the small scale, side by side +with his extraordinary and unusual power of rising to the very highest +and grandest generalisations, that the volume which he devoted to the +elucidation of this minor factor in the question of hereditary +advantages runs to nearly as many pages as the last edition of the +'Origin of Species' itself. So great was the wealth of observation and +experiment which he could lavish upon the solution of a single, small, +incidental problem. + +Even fuller in minute original research was the work which Darwin +published in 1880, on 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' detailing the +result of innumerable observations on the seemingly irresponsible yet +almost purposive rotations of the growing rootlets and young stems of +peas and climbers. Anyone who wishes to see on what a wide foundation of +irrefragable fact the great biologist built up the stately fabric of his +vast theories cannot do better than turn for instruction to this +remarkable volume, which the old naturalist gave to the world some time +after passing the allotted span of threescore years and ten. + +It was in the same year (1880) that Huxley delivered at the Royal +Institution his famous address on the Coming of Age of the 'Origin of +Species.' The time was a favourable one for reviewing the silent and +almost unobserved progress of a great revolution. Twenty-one years had +come and gone since the father of modern scientific evolutionism had +launched upon the world his tentative work. In those twenty-one years +the thought of humanity had been twisted around as upon some invisible +pivot, and a new heaven and a new earth had been presented to the eyes +of seers and thinkers. One-and-twenty years before, despite the +influence of Hutton and of Lyell, the dominant view of the earth's past +history revealed but one vast and lawless succession of hideous +catastrophes. Wholesale creations and wholesale extinctions, world-wide +cataclysms followed by fresh world-wide births of interwoven faunas and +floras--these, said Huxley, were the ordinary machinery of the +geological epic brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of the +mighty Cuvier. One-and-twenty years after, the opponents themselves had +given up the game in its fullest form as lost beyond the hope of +possible restitution. Some hesitating thinkers, it is true, while +accepting the evolutionary doctrine more or less in its earlier form, +like Mivart and Meehan, yet refused their assent on one ground or +another to the specific Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Others, +like Wallace, made a special exception with regard to the development of +the human species, which they supposed to be due to other causes from +those implied in the remainder of the organic scale. Yet on the whole, +biological science had fairly carried the day in favour of evolution, in +one form or another, and not even the cavillers dared now to suggest +that whole systems of creation had been swept away _en bloc_, and remade +again in different forms for a succeeding epoch, in accordance with the +belief which was almost universal among geologists up to the exact +moment of the publication of Darwin's masterpiece. + +During the twenty-one years, too, as Huxley likewise pointed out, an +immense number of new facts had come to strengthen the hands of the +evolutionists at the very point where they had before felt themselves +most openly vulnerable. Palæontology had supplied many of those missing +links in the organic chain whose absence from the interrupted and +imperfect geological record had been loudly alleged against the +Darwinian hypothesis in the earlier days of struggle and hesitation. Two +years after the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' the discovery of +a winged and feathered creature, happily preserved for us in the +Solenhofen slates, with lizard-like head and teeth and tail, and +bird-like pinions, feet, and breast, had bridged over in part the great +gap that yawns between the existing birds and reptiles. A few years +later, new fossil reptilian forms, erect on their hind legs like +kangaroos, and with very singular peculiarities of bony structure, had +helped still further to show the nature of the modifications by which +the scale-bearing quadruped type passed slowly into that of the +feather-bearing biped. In 1875, again, Professor Marsh's discovery of +the toothed birds in the American cretaceous strata completed the +illustrative series of transitional forms over what had once been the +most remarkable existing break in the continuity of organic development. +Similarly, Hofmeister's investigations in the vegetable world brought +close together the flowering and flowerless plants, by indicating that +the ferns and the horsetails were connected in curious unforeseen ways, +through the pill-worts and club-mosses, with the earliest and simplest +of forest trees, the firs and the puzzle-monkeys. In minor matters like +progress was continually reported on every side. Gaudry found among the +fossils of Attica the successive stages by which the ancient and +undeveloped civets passed into the more modern and specialised tribe of +the hyænas; Marsh traced out in Western America the ancestry of the +horse from a five-toed creature no bigger than a fox, through +intermediate four-toed and three-toed forms, to the existing single +solid-hoofed type with its digits reduced to the minimum of unity; and +Filhol unearthed among the phosphorites of Quercy the common progenitor +of the most distinct among the recent carnivores, the cats and the dogs, +the plantigrade bears and the digitigrade pumas. 'So far as the animal +world is concerned,' Professor Huxley said in conclusion, reviewing +these additions to the evidence upon that memorable occasion, 'evolution +is no longer a speculation but a statement of historical fact.' Of +Darwin himself he remarked truly, 'He has lived long enough to outlast +detraction and opposition, and to see the stone that the builders +rejected become the head-stone of the corner.' + +It was in 1881 that Darwin published his last volume, 'The Formation of +Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.' In this singularly +fascinating and interesting monograph he took in hand one of the +lowliest and humblest of living forms, the common earthworm, and by an +exhaustive study of its habits and manners strove to show how the +entire existence of vegetable mould--the ordinary covering of fertile +soil upon the face of the earth--is due to the long but unobtrusive +action of these little-noticed and ever-active architects. By the acids +which they evolve, they appear to aid largely in the disintegration of +the stone beneath the surface; by their constant practice of eating +fallen leaves, which they drag down with them into their subterranean +burrows, they produce the fine castings of soft earth, so familiar to +everybody, and thus reinstate the coating of humus above the bare rock +as often as it is washed away again in the course of ordinary denudation +by the rain and the torrents. It is true that subsequent investigation +has shown the possibility of vegetable mould existing under certain +conditions without the intervention of worms to any marked extent; but, +as a whole, there can be little doubt that over most parts of the world +the presence of soil, and therefore of the vegetable growth rooted in +it, is entirely due to the unsuspected yet ceaseless activity of these +humble creatures. + +The germ of the earthworm theory appears to me to have been first +suggested to Darwin's mind by a passage in a work where one would little +have suspected it--White's 'Natural History of Selborne.' 'Earthworms,' +says the idyllic Hampshire naturalist, 'though in appearance a small and +despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a +lamentable chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some +quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to +be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely +without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and +rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing +straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up +such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being +their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably +provide new soils for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth +away; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. +Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former, +because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and +the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But +these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become +cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and, consequently, sterile.' + +If Darwin ever read this interesting passage, which he almost certainly +must at some time have done, it would appear that he had overlooked it +in later life; for he, who was habitually so candid and careful in the +acknowledgment of all his obligations, however great or however small, +does not make any mention of it at all in his 'Vegetable Mould,' though +he alludes incidentally to some other observations of Gilbert White's on +the minor habits and manners of earthworms. But whether Darwin was +originally indebted to White or not for the foundation of his theory on +the subject of mould, the important point to notice is really this, that +what with the observant parson of Selborne was but a casual glimpse, the +mere passing suggestion of a fruitful idea, became with Darwin, in his +wider fashion, a carefully elaborated and powerfully buttressed theory, +supported by long and patient investigation, ample experiment, and vast +collections of minute facts. The difference is strikingly characteristic +of the strong point of Darwin's genius. While he had all the breadth and +universality of the profoundest thinkers, he had also all the marvellous +and inexhaustible patience of the most precise and special microscopical +student. + +For years, indeed, Darwin studied the ways and instincts of the common +earthworm with the same close and accurate observation which he gave to +every other abstruse subject that engaged in any way his acute +intellect. The lawyer's maxim, 'De minimis lex non curat,' he used to +say, never truly applies to science. As early as the year 1837 he read a +paper, before the Geological Society of London, 'On the Formation of +Mould,' in which he developed with some fulness the mother idea of his +complete theory on the earthworm question. He there showed that layers +of cinders, marl, or ashes, which had been strewn thickly over the +surface of meadows, were found a few years after at a depth of some +inches beneath the turf, yet still forming in spite of their burial a +regular and fairly horizontal stratum. This apparent sinking of the +stones, he believed, was due to the quantity of fine earth brought up to +the surface by worms in the form of castings. It was objected to his +theory at the time that the work supposed to be accomplished by the +worms was out of all reasonable proportion to the size and numbers of +the alleged actors. Here Darwin's foot was on his native heath; he felt +himself immediately on solid ground again. The cumulative importance of +separately infinitesimal elements is indeed the very keynote and special +peculiarity of the great biologist's method of thinking. He had found +out in very truth that many a little makes a mickle, that the infinitely +small, infinitely repeated, may become in process of infinite years +infinitely important. So he set himself to work, with characteristic +contempt of time, to weigh and measure worms and worm-castings. + +He began by keeping tame earthworms in flower-pots in his own house, +counting the number of worms and burrows in certain measured spaces of +pasture or garden, and starting his long and slow experiment in his +field at Down already alluded to. He tried issues on their senses, on +their instincts, on their emotions, on their intelligence; he watched +them darting wildly like rabbits into their holes when alarmed from +without, overcoming engineering difficulties in dragging down +oddly-shaped or unfamiliar leaves, and protecting the open mouths of +their tunnels from intruders with a little defensive military glacis of +rounded pebbles. He found that more than 53,000 worms on an average +inhabit every acre of garden land, and that a single casting sometimes +weighs as much as three ounces avoirdupois. Ten tons of soil per acre +pass annually through their bodies, and mould is thrown up by them at an +average rate of 22 inches in a century. Careful observations on the +stones of Stonehenge; on the tiled floors of buried buildings; on Roman +ruins at Silchester and Wroxeter, and on his own meadows and pastures at +Down, finally enabled the cautious experimenter to prove conclusively +the truth of his thesis, and to present to the world the despised +earthworm in a new character, as the friend of man and of agriculture, +the producer and maintainer of the vegetable mould on our hills or +valleys, and the prime cause of the very existence of that cloak of +greensward that clothes our lawns, our fields, and our pleasure-grounds. + +It was his last work. Persistent ill-health and equally persistent study +for seventy-three years had broken down a constitution never really +strong, and consumed from within by the ceaseless fires of its own +overpowering and undying energy. On Tuesday, April the 18th, 1882, he +was seized at midnight by violent pains, and at four o'clock on +Wednesday afternoon he died suddenly in his son's arms, after a very +short but painful illness. So retired was the family life at Down that +the news of the great biologist's death was not actually known in London +itself till two days after he had breathed his last. + +The universal regret and grief expressed at the loss in all civilised +countries was the best measure of the immense change of front which had +slowly come over the whole educated community, in the twenty-three years +since the first publication of the 'Origin of Species.' No sooner was +Darwin's death announced than all lands and all classes vied with one +another in their eagerness to honour the name and memory of the great +biologist. Indeed, the spontaneous and immediate nature of the outburst +of regret and affectionate regard which followed hard upon the news of +Darwin's death, astonished even those who had watched closely the +extraordinary revolution the man himself had brought so well to its +final consummation. In England, it was felt instinctively on every side +that the great naturalist's proper place was in the aisles of +Westminster, hard by the tomb of Newton, his immortal predecessor. To +this universal and deep-seated feeling Darwin's family regretfully +sacrificed their own natural preference for a quiet interment in the +graveyard at Down. On the Wednesday morning next after his death, +Charles Darwin's remains were borne with unwonted marks, of respect and +ceremony, in the assembled presence of all that was noble and good in +Britain, to an honoured grave in the precincts of the great Abbey. +Wallace and Huxley, Lubbock and Hooker, his nearest peers in the domain +of pure science, stood among the bearers who held the pall. Lowell +represented the republics of America and of letters. Statesmen, and +poets, and philosophers, and theologians mingled with the throng of +scientific thinkers who crowded close around the venerated bier. No +incident of fitting pomp or dignity was wanting as the organ pealed out +in solemn strains the special anthem composed for the occasion, to the +appropriate words of the Hebrew poet, 'Happy is the man that findeth +wisdom.' Even the narrow Philistine intelligence itself, which still +knew Darwin only as the man who thought we were all descended from +monkeys, was impressed with the sole standard of greatness open to its +feeble and shallow comprehension by the mere solemnity and ceremony of +the occasion, and began to enquire with blind wonderment what this +thinker had done whom a whole people thus delighted to honour. + +Of Darwin's pure and exalted moral nature no Englishman of the present +generation can trust himself to speak with becoming moderation. His love +of truth, his singleness of heart, his sincerity, his earnestness, his +modesty, his candour, his absolute sinking of self and +selfishness--these, indeed, are all conspicuous to every reader, on the +very face of every word he ever printed. Like his works themselves, they +must long outlive him. But his sympathetic kindliness, his ready +generosity, the staunchness of his friendship, the width and depth and +breadth of his affections, the manner in which 'he bore with those who +blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return,' these things can +never so well be known to any other generation of men as to the three +generations who walked the world with him. Many even of those who did +not know him loved him like a father; to many who never saw his face, +the hope of winning Charles Darwin's approbation and regard was the +highest incentive to thought and action. Towards younger men, +especially, his unremitting kindness was always most noteworthy: he +spoke and wrote to them, not like one of the masters in Israel, but like +a fellow-worker and seeker after truth, interested in their interests, +pleased at their successes, sympathetic with their failures, gentle to +their mistakes. Not that he ever spared rightful criticism; on the +contrary, the love of truth was with him so overpowering and enthralling +a motive that he pointed out what seemed to him errors or misconceptions +in the work of others with perfect frankness, fully expecting them to be +as pleased and delighted at a suggested amendment of their faulty +writing as he himself was in his own case. But his praise was as +generous as his criticism was frank; and, amid all the toil of his +laborious life in his study at Down, he could always find time to read +and comment at full length upon whatever fresh contributions to his own +subjects the merest tyro might venture to submit for his consideration. +He had the sympathetic receptivity of all truly great minds, and when +he died, thousands upon thousands who had never beheld his serene +features and his fatherly eyes felt they had lost indeed a personal +friend. + +Greatness is not always joined with gentleness: in Charles Darwin's +case, by universal consent of all who knew him, 'an intellect which had +no superior' was wedded to 'a character even nobler than the +intellect.' + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT. + + +To most people Darwinism and evolution mean one and the same thing. +After what has here been said, however, with regard to the pre-Darwinian +evolutionary movement, and the distinction between the doctrines of +descent with modification and of natural selection, it need hardly be +added that the two are quite separate and separable in thought, even +within the limits of the purely restricted biological order. Darwinism +is only a part of organic evolution; the theory, as a whole, owes much +to Darwin, but it does not owe everything to him alone. There were +biological evolutionists before ever he published the 'Origin of +Species;' there are biological evolutionists even now who refuse to +accept the truth of his great discovery, and who cling firmly to the +primitive faith set forth in earlier and cruder shapes by Erasmus +Darwin, by Lamarck, or by Robert Chambers. + +Much more, then, must Darwinism and the entire theory of organic +development to which it belongs be carefully discriminated, as a part or +factor, from evolution at large, as a universal and all-embracing +cosmical system. That system itself has gradually emerged as a slow +growth of the past two centuries, a progressive development of the +collective scientific and philosophical mind of humanity, not due in its +totality to any one single commanding thinker, but summing itself up at +last in our own time more fully in the person and teaching of Mr. +Herbert Spencer than of any other solitary mouthpiece. Indeed, +intimately as we all now associate the name of Darwin with the word +'evolution,' that term itself (whose vogue is almost entirely due to Mr. +Spencer's influence) was one but rarely found upon Darwin's own lips, +and but rarely written by his own pen. He speaks rather of development +and of natural selection than of evolution: his own concern was more +with its special aspect as biological modification than with its general +aspect as cosmical unfolding. Let us ask, then, from this wider +standpoint of a great and far-reaching mental revolution, what was +Charles Darwin's exact niche in the evolutionary movement of the two +last centuries? + +Evolutionism, as now commonly understood, may be fairly regarded as a +mode of envisaging to ourselves the history of the universe, a tendency +or frame of mind, a temperament, one might almost say, or habit of +thought rather than a definite creed or body of dogmas. The evolutionist +looks out upon the cosmos as a continuous process unfolding itself in +regular order in obedience to definite natural laws. He sees in it all, +not a warring chaos restrained by the constant interference from without +of a wise and beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of +original elements, perpetually working out their own fresh +redistribution, in accordance with their own inherent energies. He +regards the cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material atoms, +animated by an almost infinite sum-total of energy, potential or +kinetic. + +In the very beginning, so far as the mental vision of the astronomer can +dimly pierce with hypothetical glance the abyss of ages, the matter +which now composes the material universe seems to have existed in a +highly diffuse and nebulous condition. The gravitative force, however, +with which every atom of the whole vast mass was primarily endowed, +caused it gradually to aggregate around certain fixed and definite +centres, which became in time the rallying-points or nuclei of future +suns. The primitive potential energy of separation in the atoms of the +mass was changed into actual energy of motion as they drew closer and +closer together about the common centre, and into molecular energy or +heat as they clashed with one another in bodily impact around the +hardening core. Thus arose stars and suns, composed of fiery atomic +clouds in a constant state of progressive concentration, ever +gathering-in the hem of their outer robes on the surface of the solid +globe within, and ever radiating off their store of associated energy to +the impalpable and hypothetical surrounding ether. This, in necessarily +brief and shadowy abstract, is the nebular theory of Kant and Laplace, +as amended and supplemented by the modern doctrine of the correlation +and conservation of energies. + +Applied to the solar system, of which our own planet forms a component +member, the evolutionary doctrine (in its elder shape) teaches us to +envisage that minor group as the final result of a single great diffuse +nebula, which once spread its faint and cloud-like mass with +inconceivable tenuity, at least as far from its centre, now occupied by +the sun's body, as the furthest point in the orbit of Neptune, the +outermost of the yet known planets. From this remote and immense +periphery it has gradually gathered itself in, growing denser and denser +all the time, towards its common core, and has left behind, at irregular +intervals, concentric rings or belts of nebulous matter, which, after +rupturing at their weakest point, have hardened and concentrated round +their own centre of gravity into Jupiter, Saturn, the Earth, or Venus. +The main central body of all, retreating ever within as it dropped in +its course the raw material of the planetary masses, has formed, at +last, the sun, the great ruler and luminary of our system. Much as this +primitive evolutionary concept of the development and history of the +solar system has been modified and altered of late years by recent +researches into the nature of comets and meteors and of the sun's +surface, it still remains for all practical purposes of popular +exposition the best and simplest mental picture of the general type of +astronomical evolution. For the essential point which it impresses upon +the mind is the idea of the planets in their several orbits and with +their attendant satellites as due, not to external design and special +creation, in the exact order in which we now see them, but to the slow +and regular working out of preordained physical laws, in accordance with +which they have each naturally assumed, by pure force of circumstances, +their existing size, and weight, and orbit, and position. + +Geology has applied a similar conception to the origin and becoming of +the earth's material and external features as we now know them. +Accepting from astronomy the notion of our planet's primary condition as +a cooling sphere of incandescent matter, it goes on to show how the two +great envelopes, atmospheric and oceanic, gaseous and liquid, have +gradually formed around its solid core; how the hard crust of the +central mass has been wrinkled and corrugated into mountain chain and +deep-cut valley, uplifted here into elevated table-land or there +depressed into hollow ocean bed; how sediment has slowly gathered on the +floor of the sea, and how volcanic energies or lateral pressure have +subsequently forced up the resulting deposits into Alpine peaks and +massive continents. In this direction, it was Lyell who principally +introduced into science the uniformitarian or evolutionary principle, +who substituted for the frequent cataclysms and fresh beginnings of the +earlier geologists the grand conception of continuous action, producing +from comparatively infinitesimal but cumulative causes effects which at +last attain by accretion the most colossal proportions. + +Here biology next steps in, with its splendid explanation of organic +life, as due essentially to the secondary action of radiated solar +energy on the outer crust of such a cooling and evolving planet. Falling +on the cells of the simplest green plants, the potent sunlight +dissociates the carbon from the oxygen in the carbonic acid floating in +the atmosphere, and builds it up with the hydrogen of water in the +tissues of the organism into starches and other organic products, which +differ from the inert substances around them, mainly by the possession +of locked-up solar energy. On the energy-yielding food-stuffs thus +stored up the animal in turn feeds and battens, reducing what was before +potential into actual motion, just as the steam-engine reduces the +latent solar energy of coal into visible heat and visible movement in +its furnace and its machinery. How the first organism came to exist +biology has not yet been able fully to explain for us; but aided by +chemical science it has been able to show us in part how some of the +simpler organic bodies may have been originally built up, and it does +not despair of showing us in the end how the earliest organism may +actually have been produced from the prime elements of oxygen, hydrogen, +nitrogen, and carbon. Into this most fundamental of biological problems, +however, Darwin himself, with his constitutional caution and dread of +speculative theorising, was not careful or curious to enter. Even upon +the far less abstruse and hypothetical question, whether all life took +its prime origin from a single starting-point or from several distinct +and separate tribal ancestors, he hardly cared so much as to hazard a +passing speculation. With splendid self-restraint he confined his +attention almost entirely to the more manageable and practical problem +of the origin of species by natural selection, which lay then and there +open for solution before him. Taking for granted the existence of the +original organism or group of organisms, the fact of reproduction, and +the tendency of such reproduction to beget increase in a geometrical +ratio, he deduced from these elementary given factors the necessary +corollary of survival of the fittest, with all its marvellous and +far-reaching implications of adaptation to the environment and specific +distinctions. By doing so, he rendered conceivable the mechanism of +evolution in the organic world, thus bringing another great aspect of +external nature within the range of the developmental as opposed to the +miraculous philosophy of the cosmos. + +Psychology, once more, in the hands of Herbert Spencer and his +followers, not wholly unaided by Darwin himself, has extended the +self-same evolutionary treatment to the involved and elusive phenomena +of mind, and has shown how from the simplest unorganised elements of +feeling, the various mental powers and faculties as we now know them, +both on the intellectual and on the emotional side, have been slowly +built up in the long and ever-varying interaction between the sentient +organism and the natural environment. It has traced the first faint +inception of a nervous system as a mere customary channel of +communication between part and part; the gradual growth of fibre and +ganglion; the vague beginnings of external sense-organ and internal +brain; the final perfection of eye and ear, of sight and hearing, of +pleasure and pain, of intellect and volition. It has thus done for the +subjective or mental half of our complex nature what biology, as +conceived by Darwin, has done for the physical or purely organic half; +it has traced the origin and development of mind, without a single +break, from its first faint and half-unconscious manifestation in the +polyp or the jelly-fish to its final grand and varied outcome in the +soul of the poet or the intellect of the philosopher. + +Finally, sociology has applied the evolutionary method to the origin and +rise of human societies, with their languages, customs, arts, and +institutions, their governmental organisation and their ecclesiastical +polity. Taking from biology the evolving savage, viewed as a developed +and highly gifted product of the anthropoid stock, it has shown by what +stages and through what causes he has slowly aggregated into tribes and +nations; has built up his communal, polygamic, or monogamic family; has +learnt the use of fire, of implements, of pottery, of metals; has +developed the whole resources of oral speech and significant gesture; +has invented writing, pictorial or alphabetic; has grown up to science, +to philosophy, to morals, and to religion. The chief honours of this +particular line of enquiry, the latest and youngest of all to receive +the impact of the evolutionary impulse, belong mainly to Tylor, Lubbock, +and Spencer in England, and to Haeckel, De Mortillet, and Wagner on the +continent. + +In the sublime conception of the external universe and its present +workings which we thus owe to the independent efforts of so many great +progressive thinkers, and which has here been briefly and inadequately +sketched out, Darwin's work in life falls naturally into its own place +as the principal contribution to the evolutionary movement in the +special biological department of thought. Within the more limited range +of that department itself, the evolutionary impulse did not owe its +origin to Charles Darwin personally; it took its rise with Erasmus +Darwin, Buffon, and Lamarck, and it derived from our great modern +English naturalist its final explanation and definitive proof alone. But +just as the evolutionary movement in astronomy and cosmical thought is +rightly associated in all our minds with the mighty theories of Kant, +Laplace, and Herschel; just as the evolutionary movement in geology is +rightly associated with the far lesser yet brilliant and effective +personality of Lyell; just as the evolutionary movement in the +derivative sciences is rightly associated with so many great still +living thinkers; so the evolutionary movement in biology in particular +rightly sums itself up in the honoured name of Charles Darwin. For what +others suspected, he was the first to prove; where others speculated, he +was the first to observe, to experiment, to demonstrate, and to +convince. + +It should be noted, too, that while to us who come after, the great +complex evolutionary movement of the two last centuries justly reveals +itself as one and indivisible, a single grand cosmical drama, having +many acts and many scenes, but all alike inspired by one informing and +pervading unity, yet to those whose half unconscious co-operation slowly +built it up by episodes, piecemeal, each act and each scene unrolled +itself separately as an end in itself, to be then and there attained and +proved, quite apart from the conception of its analytic value as a part +in a great harmonious natural poem of the constitution of things. Though +evolution appears to us now as a single grand continuous process, a +phase of the universe dependent upon a preponderating aggregation of +matter and dissipation of energy, yet to Kant and Laplace it was the +astronomical aspect alone that proved attractive, to Darwin it was the +biological aspect alone, and to many of the modern workers in the minor +fields it is the human and sociological aspect that almost monopolises +the whole wide mental horizon. No greater proof can be given of the +subjective distinctness of parts in what was objectively and +fundamentally a single broad psychological revolution of the human mind, +than the fact that Lyell himself, who more than any one man had +introduced the evolutionary conception into the treatment of geology, +should have stood out so long and fought so blindly against the +evolutionary conception in the organic world. Indeed, it was not until +the various scattered and many-coloured strands of evolutionary thought +had been gathered together and woven into one by the vast catholic and +synthetic intelligence of Herbert Spencer that the idea of evolution as +a whole, as a single continuous cosmical process, began to be +apprehended and gradually assimilated by the picked intelligences of the +several distinct scientific departments. + +Observe also that the evolutionary method has invaded each of the +concrete sciences in the exact order of their natural place in the +hierarchy of knowledge. It had been applied to astronomy by Kant and +Laplace before it was applied to geology by Lyell; it had been applied +to geology by Lyell before it was applied to biology by Darwin; it had +been applied to biology (in part, at least) by Lamarck and the Darwins +before it was applied to psychology by Spencer; and it is only at the +very end of all that it has been applied to sociology and the allied +branches of thought by a hundred different earnest workers in +contemporary Europe. Each stage helped on the next; each was dependent +only on those that went naturally before it, and aided in turn the +subsequent development of those that naturally came after it. + +Nevertheless, the popular instinct which regards Darwinism and evolution +as practically synonymous is to a large extent justified by the actual +facts of the psychological upheaval. Darwin's work forms on the whole +the central keystone of the evolutionary system, and deserves the honour +which has been thrust upon it of supporting by its own mass the entire +superstructure of the development theory. + +For, in the first place, Darwin had to deal with the science of life, +the science where the opposition to evolutionism was sure to be +strongest, and where the forces and tendencies in favour of obscurantism +were sure to gather in fullest force. Every other great onward step in +our knowledge of our own relation to the universe of which we form a +part had been compelled indeed to run the gauntlet, in its own time, of +ecclesiastical censure and of popular dislike. Those inveterate +prejudices of human ignorance which sedulously hide their genuine shape +under the guise of dogma masquerading as religion, had long since +brought to bear their baneful resources upon the discoveries of +Copernicus and the theories of Galileo, as blind, misleading, and +diabolical lights, opposed to the sure and certain warranty of Holy +Scripture. Newton, again, had in due time been blamed in that he boldly +substituted (as his critics declared) the bald and barren formula of +gravitation for the personal superintendence of a divine Providence. +Laplace had been accused of dethroning the deity from the centre and +governance of his celestial system. Around the early geologists the +battle of the six days of creation had raged fiercely for nearly half a +century. But all these varying modes of thought, though deemed heretical +enough in their own day, had touched, as it were, but the minor +ramparts and unimportant out-works of the great obscurantist dogmatic +strongholds: Darwinism, by openly attacking the inmost problems of life +and mind, had brought to bear its powerful artillery upon the very keep +and highest tower of the fortress itself. The belief that the various +stars, planets, and satellites had or had not been wisely created in +their existing positions, and with their present orbits, movements, and +relations accurately fore-measured, did not fundamentally affect, for +good or evil, the cherished dogmas of the ordinary multitude. But the +analogous belief in the distinct and separate creation of plants and +animals, and more especially of the human species, was far more closely +and intimately bound up with all the current religious conceptions. It +was at first supposed, not perhaps without some practical wisdom, that +to upset the primitive faith in the separate creation of living beings +was to loosen and imperil the very foundations of common morality and +revealed religion. The 'argument from design' had been immemorially +regarded as the principal buttress of orthodox thought. Theologians had +unwisely staked their all upon the teleological dogma, and could ill +afford to retire without a blow from that tenaciously defended bastion +of their main position. Hence the evolutionary concept had its hardest +fight to wage over the biological field; and when that field was once +fairly won, it had little more to fear from banded preconceptions and +established prejudices in any other portion of the wide territory it +claimed for its own. + +In the second place, biological evolution, firmly established by Darwin +on a safe, certain, and unimpeachable basis, led naturally and almost +inevitably to all the other innumerable applications of the +evolutionary method, in the domains of psychology, sociology, philology, +political thought, and ethical science. Hence the immediate and visible +results of its promulgation have been far more striking, noticeable, and +evident than those which followed the establishment of the evolutionary +conception in the astronomical and geological departments. It was +possible to accept cosmical evolution and solar evolution and planetary +evolution, without at the same time accepting evolution in the +restricted field of life and mind. But it was impossible to accept +evolution in biology without at the same time extending its application +to psychology, to the social organism, to language, to ethics, to all +the thousand and one varied interests of human life and human +development. Now, most people are little moved by speculations and +hypotheses as to the origin of the milky way or the belt of Orion; they +care very slightly for Jupiter's moons or Saturn's rings; they are +stolidly incurious as to the development of the earth's crust, or the +precise date of the cretaceous epoch; but they understand and begin to +be touched the moment you come to the practical questions of man's +origin, nature, and history. Darwinism compelled their attention by its +immediate connection with their own race; and the proof of this truth is +amply shown by the mere fact that out of all the immense variety of +Charles Darwin's theories and ideas, the solitary one which alone has +succeeded in attaching to itself the public interest and public ridicule +is the theory of man's ultimate descent from a monkey-like ancestor. +Popular instinct, here as elsewhere profoundly true at core in the midst +of all its superficial foolishness, has rightly hit upon the central +element in the Darwinian conception which more than any other has caused +its fruitful and wonderful expansion through every fertile field of +human enquiry. + +In short, it was Darwin's task in life to draw down evolution from +heaven to earth, and to bring within the scope of its luminous method +all that is most interesting to the uninstructed and unsophisticated +heart of the natural man. + +The application of the evolutionary principle to the world of life, +human or animal, thus presents itself as the chief philosophic and +scientific achievement of the nineteenth century. Throughout the whole +middle decades of the present age, the human mind in all its highest +embodiments was eagerly searching, groping, and enquiring after a +naturalistic explanation of the origin and progress of organic life. In +the vast scheme for the System of Synthetic Philosophy which Herbert +Spencer set forth as an anticipatory synopsis of his projected work, the +philosopher of development leapt at once from the First Principles of +evolution as a whole to the Principles of Biology, Psychology, and +Sociology, omitting all reference to the application of evolution to the +vast field of inorganic nature; and he did so on the distinctly stated +ground that its application to organic nature was then and there more +important and interesting. That suggestive expression of belief aptly +sums up the general attitude of scientific and philosophic minds at the +precise moment of the advent of Darwinism. Kant and Laplace and Lyell +had already applied the evolutionary method to suns and systems, to +planets and continents; what was needed next was that some deeply +learned and universally equipped biological leader should help the lame +evolutionism of Lamarck over the organic stile, and leave it free to +roam the boundless fields of what Mr. Spencer has sometimes well +described as the super-organic sciences. For that office, Darwin at the +exact moment presented himself; and his victory and its results rightly +entitle him to the popular regard as the founder of all that most men +mean when they speak together in everyday conversation of the doctrine +of evolution. + +On the other hand, the total esoteric philosophic conception of +evolution as a cosmical process, one and continuous from nebula to man, +from star to soul, from atom to society, we owe rather to the other +great prophet of the evolutionary creed, Herbert Spencer, whose name +will ever be equally remembered side by side with his mighty peer's, in +a place of high collateral glory. It is he who has given us the general +definition of evolution as a progress from an indefinite, incoherent +homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, accompanying an +integration of matter and dissipation of motion, or, as we should now +perhaps more correctly say, of energy. In the establishment of the +various lines of thought which merge at last in that magnificent +cosmical law, it was Darwin's special task to bring the phenomena of +organic life well within the clear ken of known and invariable natural +processes. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE NET RESULT. + + +And now let us ask ourselves, in all sincerity, what was the final +outcome and net result of Darwin's great and useful life? + +If Charles Darwin had never existed at all, there would still have been +a considerable and expansive evolutionary movement both in biology and +in its sister sciences throughout the latter half of the present +century. The harvest indeed was ready, and the labourers, though few, +were full of vigour. Suppose for a moment that that earnest and +single-hearted Darwinian genius had been cut off by some untimely +disease of childhood at five years old, all other conditions remaining +as they were, we should even so have had in our midst to-day, a small +philosophical and influential band of evolutionary workers. Spencer +would none the less have given us his 'First Principles' and the major +part of his 'Principles of Biology,' with comparatively little +alteration or omission. Wallace would none the less have promulgated his +inchoate theory of natural selection, and rallied round his primordial +conception the very best and deepest minds of the biological fraction. +Geology would have enforced the continuity of types; Cope and Marsh +would have unearthed for our edification the ancestral forms of the +evolving horse and the toothed birds of the Western American deposits. +The Solenhofen lithographic slates would still have yielded us the +half-reptilian, half-avian Archæopteryx; the tertiary deposits would +still have presented us with a long suite of gradually specialised and +modified mammalian forms. The Siberian meadows would have sent us that +intermediate creature which Prjevalsky recognises as the half-way house +between the horses and the donkeys; the rivers of Queensland would have +disclosed to our view that strange lung-bearing and gill-breathing +barramunda, in which Günther discerns the missing link between the +ganoid fishes on the one hand, and the mudfish and salamandroid +amphibians on the other. From data such as these, biologists and +palæontologists of the calibre of Huxley, Gaudry, Geikie, Rütimeyer, and +Busk, would necessarily have derived, by the aid of Wallace's pregnant +principle, conclusions not so very far remote from Darwin's own. Heer +and Saporta would have drawn somewhat similar inferences from the fossil +flora of Switzerland and of Greenland; Hooker and De Candolle would have +read pretty much the self-same lessons in the scattered ferns and scanty +palm-trees of oceanic islands. Kowalevsky would have seen in the +ascidian larva a common prototype of the vertebrate series; the +followers of Von Baer would have popularised the embryological +conception of the single origin of animal life. The researches of +Boucher de Perthes, of Lyell, of Evans, of Boyd Dawkins, of Keller, and +of Christy and Lartet, would have unrolled before our eyes, under any +circumstances, the strange story of prehistoric man. On the facts so +gained, Lubbock and Tylor, Schaafhausen and Büchner, would have built up +their various consistent theories of human development and human +culture. In short, even without Charles Darwin, the nineteenth century +would not have stood still; it would have followed in the wake of Buffon +and Diderot, of Lamarck and Laplace, of St. Hilaire and Goethe, of Kant +and Herschel, of Hutton and Lyell, of Malthus and of Spencer. The great +world never rolls down the abysses of time obedient to the nod of one +single overruling Titanic intellect. 'If the doctrine of evolution had +not existed,' says Huxley, 'palæontologists must have invented it.' + +But Charles Darwin acted, nevertheless, the part of an immense and +powerful accelerating energy. The impetus which he gave gained us at +least fifty years of progress; it sent us at a bound from Copernicus to +Newton; so far as ordinary minds were concerned, indeed, it transcended +at a single leap the whole interval from Ptolemy to Herschel. The +comparison is far from being a mere rhetorical one. A close analogy +really exists between the two cases. Before Copernicus, the earth stood +fixed and immovable in the centre of the universe, with obsequious suns, +and planets, and satellites dancing attendance in cycle and epicycle +around the solid mass, to which by day and night they continually +ministered. The great astronomical revolution begun by Copernicus, +Galileo, and Kepler, and completed by Newton, Laplace, and Herschel, +reduced the earth to its true position as a petty planet, revolving +feebly among its bigger brethren round a petty sun, in some lost corner +of a vast, majestic, and almost illimitable galaxy. Even so, before +Darwin, man stood in his own esteem the fixed point of an +anthropocentric universe, divinely born and divinely instructed, with +all the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fruits of +the earth specially created with a definite purpose in subservience to +his lordly wants and interests. The great biological revolution, which +rightly almost sums itself up in the name of Darwin, reduced man at once +to his true position as the last product of kinetic solar energy, +working upon the peculiar chemical elements of an evolving planet. It +showed that every part of every plant and every animal existed primarily +for the sake of that plant or animal alone; it unseated man from his +imaginary throne in the centre of the cosmos, teaching him at once a +lesson of humility and a lesson of aspiration--pointing out to him how +low was the origin from which, in very truth, he first sprang, and +suggesting to him, at the same time, how high was the grand and glorious +destiny to which by his own strenuous and ardent efforts he might yet +perchance some day attain. + +That result, inevitable perhaps in the long run, from the slow unfolding +of human intelligence, was immensely hastened in our own time by the +peculiar idiosyncrasy and lofty personality of Charles Darwin. Without +him we should have had, not only evolutionism, but also, as Wallace's +discovery testifies, natural selection itself into the bargain. But we +should never have had the 'Origin of Species.' We should never have had +that vast and enthusiastic consensus of scientific opinion through an +all but unanimous thinking world, which has forced an immediate +acceptance of evolutionary ideas down the unwilling throats of half +unthinking Europe. The prodigious mass of Darwin's facts, the cautious +working of Darwin's intellect, the immense weight of Darwin's +reputation, the crushing force of Darwin's masterly inductive method, +bore down before them all opposition in the inner circle of biologists, +and secured the triumph of the evolutionary system even in the very +strongholds of ignorance and obscurantism. Without Darwin, a small group +of philosophic thinkers would still be striving to impress upon an +incredulous and somewhat contemptuous world the central truths of the +evolutionary doctrine. The opposition of the elders, long headed even in +the society we actually know by a few stern scientific recalcitrants, +like Owen and Agassiz, Pictet and Dawson, Virchow and Mivart, would have +fought desperately in the last trench for the final figment of the +fixity of species. What is now the general creed, more or less loosely +held and imperfectly understood, of hundreds and thousands among the +intelligent mass, would, under such circumstances, be even yet the mere +party-shibboleth of an esoteric few, struggling hard against the bare +force of overwhelming numbers to ensure not only recognition but a fair +hearing for the first principles of the development theory. It is to +Darwin, and to Darwin almost alone, that we owe the present +comparatively wide acceptance of the all-embracing doctrine of +evolution. + +No other man did so much or could have done so much to ensure its +triumph. He began early in life to collect and arrange a vast +encyclopædia of facts, all finally focussed with supreme skill upon the +great principle he so clearly perceived, and so lucidly expounded. He +brought to bear upon the question an amount of personal observation, of +minute experiment, of world-wide book-knowledge, of universal scientific +ability, such as never perhaps was lavished by any other man upon any +other department of study. His conspicuous and beautiful love of truth, +his unflinching candour, his transparent fearlessness and honesty of +purpose, his child-like simplicity, his modesty of demeanour, his +charming manner, his affectionate disposition, his kindliness to friends, +his courtesy to opponents, his gentleness to harsh and often bitter +assailants, kindled in the minds of men of science everywhere throughout +the world a contagious enthusiasm, only equalled perhaps among the +disciples of Socrates and the great teachers of the revival of learning. +His name became a rallying-point for the children of light in every +country; and what philosophers and speculators might have taken a +century or two more to establish in embryo was firmly grounded, never to +be overthrown, by the vast accumulations of fact and argument in the +'Origin of Species,' and its companion volumes. + +The end of that great Darwinian revolution the world has not yet seen: +in a sense, indeed, it will never see it. For the general acceptance of +Darwin's theory, which we may watch progressing around us every minute +to-day, implies a complete _bouleversement_ of anthropocentric ideas, a +total change in our human conception of our own relations to the world +and the universe, which must work out for ever increasingly +wide-reaching and complex effects in all our dealings with one another +and with the environment at large. There is no department of human +thought or human action which evolutionism leaves exactly where it +stood before the advent of the Darwinian conception. In nothing is this +fact more conspicuously seen than in the immediate obsolescence (if one +may so speak) of all the statical pre-Darwinian philosophies which +ignored development, as soon as ever the new progressive evolutionary +theories had fairly burst upon an astonished world. Dogmatic Comte was +left forthwith to his little band of devoted adherents; shadowy Hegel +was relegated with a bow to the cool shades of the common-rooms of +Oxford; Buckle was exploded like an inflated wind-bag; even Mill +himself--_magnum et venerabile nomen_--with all his mighty steam-hammer +force of logical directness, was felt instinctively to be lacking in +full appreciation of the dynamic and kinetic element in universal +nature. Spencer and Hartmann, Haeckel and Clifford, had the field to +themselves for the establishment of their essentially evolutionary +systems. Great thinkers of the elder generation, like Bain and Lyell, +felt bound to remodel their earlier conceptions by the light of the new +Darwinian hypotheses. Those who failed by congenital constitution to do +so, like Carlyle and Carpenter, were, philosophically speaking, left +hopelessly behind and utterly extinguished. Those who only half +succeeded in thus reading themselves into the new ideas, like Lewes and +Max Müller, lost ground immediately before the eager onslaught of their +younger competitors. 'The world is to the young,' says the eastern +proverb; and in a world peopled throughout in the high places of thought +by men almost without exception evolutionists, there was little or no +place for the timid group of stranded Girondins, who still stood aloof +in sullen antique scientific orthodoxy from what seemed to them the +carmagnoles and orgies of a biological Thermidor. + +At the same time, it must be steadily remembered that there are many +naturalists at the present day, especially among those of the lower +order of intelligence, who, while accepting evolutionism in a general +way, and therefore always describing themselves as Darwinians, do not +believe and often cannot even understand the distinctive Darwinian +addition to the evolutionary doctrine--namely, the principle of natural +selection. Such hazy and indistinct thinkers as these are still really +at the prior stage of Lamarckian evolutionism. It is probable that in +the future, while a formal acceptance of Darwinism becomes general, the +special theory of natural selection will be thoroughly understood and +assimilated only by the more abstract and philosophical minds. Our +children will be taught as a matter of course the doctrine of +development or of descent with modification; but the rationale of that +descent will still remain in all likelihood always beyond the grasp of +most of them: just as thousands accept on authority the Copernican +astronomy, who would never even be capable of comprehending the simplest +proofs of the earth's annual movement round the sun. Thus the name of +Darwin will often no doubt be tacked on to what are in reality the +principles of Lamarck. + +Every day, however, in spite of such half-ignorant adherents, the +effects of true Darwinism are widening and deepening. One group of +earnest workers is using it now as a guide to physiological, +embryological, and anatomical researches. Another is employing it with +zeal and skill in the field of classificatory and physiological botany. +Yet others are working out its psychological implications, enquiring +into instinct and animal intelligence, and solving by its aid abstruse +problems of the human mind and the human emotions. One philosopher has +brought it to bear on questions of ethics, another on questions of +social and political economy. Its principles have been applied in one +place to æsthetics, in another place to logic, in a third place to the +origin and growth of religion. The study of language has derived new +lights from the great central Darwinian luminary. The art of education +is beginning to feel the progressive influence of the Darwinian impulse. +In fact, there is hardly a single original worker in any department of +thought or science who has not been more or less profoundly affected, +whether he knows it or whether he knows it not, by the vast spreading +and circling wave of the Darwinian conceptions. All our ideas have been +revolutionised and evolutionised. The new notions are abroad in the +world, quickening with their fresh and vigorous germinal power the dry +bones of all the sciences, all the arts, and all the philosophies. + +And evolutionism is gradually though slowly filtering downward. It is +permeating the daily press of the nations, and gaining for its +vocabulary a recognised place in the phraseology of the unlearned +vulgar. Such expressions as 'natural selection,' 'survival of the +fittest,' 'struggle for existence,' 'adaptation to the environment,' and +all the rest of it, are becoming as household words upon the lips of +thousands who only know the name of Darwin as a butt for the petty empty +jibes of infinitesimal cheap witlings. And Darwinism will trickle down +still through a thousand channels, by definite popularisation, and still +more by indefinite absorption into the common thought of universal +humanity, till it becomes part and parcel of the general inheritance, +bred in our bone and burnt into our blood, an heir-loom of our race to +all time and in all countries. Great thoughts like his do not readily +die: they expand and grow in ten thousand bosoms, till they transform +the world at last into their own likeness, and adapt it to the +environment they have themselves created by their informing power. + +Happy above ordinary human happiness, Charles Darwin lived himself to +see the prosperous beginning of this great silent philosophical +revolution. Harvey's grand discovery, it has been well said, was scoffed +at for nearly a whole generation. Newton's marvellous law of gravitation +was coldly received even by the gigantic intellect of Leibnitz himself. +Francis Bacon, in disgrace and humiliation, could only commend his name +and memory 'to foreign nations and to the next age.' It is too often so +with thinkers of the first and highest order: it was not so, happily, +with the gentle soul of Charles Darwin. Alone among the prophets and +teachers of triumphant creeds, he saw with his own eyes the adoption of +the faith he had been the first to promulgate in all its fulness by +every fresh and powerful mind of the younger race that grew up around +him. The Nestor of evolutionism, he had lived among two successive +generations of thinkers, and over the third he ruled as king. With that +crowning joy of a great, a noble, and a happy life, let us leave him +here alone in his glory. + + + + +INDEX. + + + AGASSIZ + Anticipations of natural selection + 'Antiquity of Man' + Astronomy + + BADEN-POWELL + Bahia + Bates; in Brazil; on mimicry + 'Beagle,' voyage of the; Zoology of + Bell, Sir C. + Boucher de Perthes + Brazil + British Association + Buffon + + CHAMBERS, Robert; his 'Vestiges of Creation' + Colenso on the Pentateuch + 'Coral Reefs' + Cuvier; as a geologist; system of animals + + DARWIN, Charles, his ancestry; birth; birthplace; contemporaries; + education; at Edinburgh University; at Cambridge; starts on the + voyage of the 'Beagle'; returns to England; publishes his journal; + plans 'Origin of Species'; elected to Royal Society; secretary to + Geological Society; marries; publishes 'Coral Reefs'; geological + observations; Monograph on Barnacles; publishes 'Origin of Species'; + its success; second edition; variation of animals and plants; + pangenesis; fertilisation of orchids; 'Descent of Man'; later works; + last illness and death; character; place in evolutionary movement; + outcome of his work + + DARWIN, Erasmus; his life; appearance; poems; 'Zoonomia'; 'Temple + of Nature'; his marriages; on descent of man; on sexual selection + + Darwin, Erasmus, the younger + Darwin, Robert + Darwin, Robert Waring; his home + De Candolle + Down House, Darwin settles at + Du Chaillu + + EARTHWORMS + Edgeworth + Evolution, general theory of + + FILHOL + Fiske, Prof.; on natural selection + Fitzroy, Captain + Fuegians + + GALAPAGOS ISLANDS + Galton, Francis + Gaudry + Geology, rise of; evolutionary aspect of + Goethe; on animal origin of man + Gorilla + Gray, Asa + + HAECKEL, letter to; 'History of Creation'; on sexual selection + Henslow, Prof.; recommends Darwin to Capt. Fitzroy; at Oxford + Herbert, Dean + Herschel, Sir Wm. + Holland, Sir Henry + Hooker, Sir Joseph; on catasetum; accepts Darwinism; publishes his + 'Flora of Australia' + Horner, Leonard + Humboldt + Huxley, Prof., lecture at Royal Institution; 'Man's Place in + Nature'; on coming of age of 'Origin of Species' + + JUSSIEU + + KANT, nebular hypothesis + Knight's law + Kölreuter + + LAMARCK; Darwin's reading of; on descent of man + Laplace, nebular hypothesis + Lecoq + Linnæus; his artificial system + Lyell; 'Principles of Geology'; extract from letters; anticipations + of natural selection; slow acceptance of Darwinism; 'Antiquity of Man' + + MALTHUS; influence on Darwin + Matthew, Patrick; extracts from + Mimicry + Monte Video, Darwin at + Mould, formation of + Mount, the + Müller, Fritz + Müller, Hermann + Murchison + + 'NATURALIST on the Amazons' + 'Naturalist's Voyage round the World' published + Natural system + Nebular hypothesis + New Zealand, Darwin at + + OKEN + 'Origin of Species,' first planned projected; published; analysis of; + its success; second edition + Owen, Sir R.; on types + + PANGENESIS + 'Philosophie Zoologique' + Population, Malthus's essay on + Powell, Baden- + 'Physiological Units' + Psychology, evolution in + + RAFINESQUE + Rio Janeiro, Darwin at + + ST. HILAIRE, Geoffroy; the younger + St. Paul's Rocks + Sexual selection, first glimpse of; Darwin's theory of + Smith, William + Sociology + Spencer, Herbert; on 'Vestiges of Creation'; essay in the 'Leader'; + 'Principles of Psychology'; essay in 'Westminster Review'; extracts + from 'Leader' essay; accepts Darwin's theory; 'Principles of Biology'; + 'Physiological Units'; theory of evolution + Sprengel + + THOMPSON, Allen + Treviranus + Tucutuco + Tyndall, Prof. + + 'VESTIGES of Creation'; criticism of + Von Baer + Von Buch + + WALLACE, Alfred Russel; goes to Brazil; publishes his travels; in Malay + archipelago; discovers natural selection; paper at Linnean Society; on + sexual selection + Wedgwood, Emma + Wedgwood, Hensleigh + Wedgwood, Josiah + Wedgwood, Susannah + Wells, Dr., anticipates natural selection + White, Gilbert, on worms + Wollaston + Worms, action of + Wright, Chauncey + + 'ZOONOMIA,' Erasmus Darwin's + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Darwin, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34730-8.txt or 34730-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/3/34730/ + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + +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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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: Charles Darwin + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: December 23, 2010 [EBook #34730] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + + + + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>CHARLES DARWIN</h1><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>GRANT ALLEN</h2> + + +<h4>ENGLISH WORTHIES</h4> + +<h4>EDITED BY ANDREW LANG</h4> + + +<h5>LONDON</h5> + +<h5>LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</h5> + +<h5>1885</h5> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h3> + + +<p>In this little volume I have endeavoured to present the life and work of +Charles Darwin viewed as a moment in a great revolution, in due relation +both to those who went before and to those who come after him. +Recognising, as has been well said, that the wave makes the crest, not +the crest the wave, I have tried to let my hero fall naturally into his +proper place in a vast onward movement of the human intellect, of which +he was himself at once a splendid product and a moving cause of the +first importance. I have attempted to show him both as receiving the +torch from Lamarck and Malthus, and as passing it on with renewed +brilliancy to the wide school of evolutionary thinkers whom his work was +instrumental in arousing to fresh and vigorous activity along a thousand +separate and varied lines of thought and action.</p> + +<p>As Mr. Francis Darwin was already engaged upon a life of his father, I +should have shrunk from putting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> forth my own little book if I had not +succeeded in securing beforehand his kind sanction. That sanction, +however, was at once so frankly and cordially given, that all my +hesitation upon such a score was immediately laid aside; and as I have +necessarily had to deal rather with Darwin's position as a thinker and +worker than with the biographical details of his private life, I trust +the lesser book may not clash with the greater, but to some extent may +supplement and even illustrate it.</p> + +<p>Treating my subject mainly as a study in the interaction of organism and +environment, it has been necessary for me frequently to introduce the +names of living men of science side by side with some of those who have +more or less recently passed away from among us. For uniformity's sake, +as well as for brevity's, I have been compelled, in every instance +alike, to omit the customary conventional handles. I trust those who +thus find themselves docked of their usual titles of respect will kindly +remember that the practice is in fact adopted <i>honoris causâ</i>; they are +paying prematurely the usual penalty of intellectual greatness.</p> + +<p>My obligations to Professor Huxley, to Professor Fiske, to Mr. Herbert +Spencer, to Professor Sachs, to Hermann Müller, to Dr. Krause, to +Charles Darwin himself, and to many other historians and critics of +evolutionism, will be sufficiently obvious to all instructed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> readers, +and are for the most part fully acknowledged already in the text. It +would be absurd to overload so small and popularly written a book with +references and authorities. I hope, therefore, that any other writers to +whom I may inadvertently have neglected to confess my debts will kindly +rest satisfied with this general acknowledgment. There are, however, +three persons in particular from whom I have so largely borrowed facts +or ideas that I owe them more special and definite thanks. From Mr. +Woodall's admirable paper on Charles Darwin, contributed to the +'Transactions of the Shropshire Archæological Society,' I have taken +much interesting information about my hero's immediate ancestry and +early days. From Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of 'Evolution Old and +New,' I have derived many pregnant suggestions with regard to the true +position and meaning of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and the early +essentially teleological evolutionists—suggestions which I am all the +more anxious to acknowledge since I differ fundamentally from Mr. Butler +in his estimate of the worth of Charles Darwin's distinctive discovery +of natural selection. Finally, to Mr. Bates, the 'Naturalist on the +Amazons,' I am indebted for several valuable items of information as to +the general workings of the pre-Darwinian evolutionary spirit.</p> + +<p>In a book dealing so largely with a contemporary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> movement, the history +of which has never yet been consecutively written down in full, or +subjected as a whole to searching criticism, there must probably be many +errors of detail, which can hardly be avoided under such circumstances. +I have endeavoured to minimise them as far as possible. For those which +may have escaped my own scrutiny I must trust both for correction and +for indulgence to the kindness of my readers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="caption">CONTENTS</p> + + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a> THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a> CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a> EARLY DAYS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a> DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a> THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a> THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a> THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a> THE DESCENT OF MAN</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a> THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a> VICTORY AND REST</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a> DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a> THE NET RESULT</p> + +<p class="content"><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHARLES_DARWIN" id="CHARLES_DARWIN"></a>CHARLES DARWIN.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h2>THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN.</h2> + + +<p>Charles Darwin was a great man, and he accomplished a great work. The +Newton of biology, he found the science of life a chaotic maze; he left +it an orderly system, with a definite plan and a recognisable meaning. +Great men are not accidents; great works are not accomplished in a +single day. Both are the product of adequate causes. The great man +springs from an ancestry competent to produce him; he is the final +flower and ultimate outcome of converging hereditary forces, that +culminate at last in the full production of his splendid and exceptional +personality. The great work which it is his mission to perform in the +world is never wholly of his own inception. It also is the last effect +of antecedent conditions, the slow result of tendencies and ideas long +working unseen or but little noticed beneath the surface of opinion, yet +all gradually conspiring together towards the definitive revolution at +whose head, in the fulness of time, the as yet unborn genius is destined +to place himself. This is especially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> the case with those extraordinary +waves of mental upheaval, one of which gave us the Italian renaissance, +and another of which is actually in progress around us at the present +day. They have their sources deep down in the past of human thought and +human feeling, and they are themselves but the final manifestation of +innumerable energies which have long been silently agitating the souls +of nations in their profoundest depths.</p> + +<p>Thus, every great man may be regarded as possessing two distinct lines +of ancestry, physical and spiritual, each of which separately demands +elucidation. He owes much in one way to his father and his mother, his +grandfathers and his grandmothers, and his remoter progenitors, from +some or all of whom he derives, in varying degrees and combinations, the +personal qualities whose special interaction constitutes his greatness +and his idiosyncrasy; he owes much in another way to his intellectual +and moral ancestors, the thinkers and workers who have preceded him in +his own department of thought or action, and have made possible in the +course of ages the final development of his special revolution or his +particular system. Viewed as an individual, he is what he is, with all +his powers and faculties and potentialities, in virtue of the brain, the +frame, the temperament, the energy he inherits directly from his actual +ancestors, paternal and maternal; viewed as a factor or element in a +great movement, he is what he is because the movement had succeeded in +reaching such and such a point in its progress already without him, and +waited only for such and such a grand and commanding personality in +order to carry it yet a step further on its course of development.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>No man who ever lived would more cordially have recognised these two +alternative aspects of the great worker's predetermining causes than +Charles Darwin. He knew well that the individual is the direct +cumulative product of his physical predecessors, and that he works and +is worked upon in innumerable ways by the particular environment into +whose midst he is born. Let us see, then, in his own case what were +these two main sets of conditioning circumstances which finally led up +to the joint production of Charles Darwin, the man and the philosopher, +the thinking brain and the moving energy. In other words, what was the +state of the science of life at the time when he first began to observe +and to speculate; and what was the ancestry which made him be born a +person capable of helping it forward at a single bound over its great +restricting dogmatic barrier of the fixity of species?</p> + +<p>Let us begin, in the first place, by clearing the path beforehand of a +popular misconception, so extremely general and almost universal that, +unless it be got rid of at the very outset of our sketch, much of the +real scope and purport of Darwin's life and work must, of necessity, +remain entirely misunderstood by the vast mass of English readers. In +the public mind Darwin is, perhaps, most commonly regarded as the +discoverer and founder of the evolution hypothesis. Two ideas are +usually associated with his name and memory. It is believed that he was +the first propounder of the theory which supposes all plant and animal +forms to be the result, not of special creation, but of slow +modification in pre-existent organisms. It is further and more +particularly believed that he was the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> propounder of the theory +which supposes the descent of man to be traceable from a remote and more +or less monkey-like ancestor. Now, as a matter of fact, Darwin was not +the prime originator of either of these two great cardinal ideas. Though +he held both as part of his organised theory of things, he was not by +any means the first or the earliest thinker to hold them or to propound +them publicly. Though he gained for them both a far wider and more +general acceptance than they had ever before popularly received, he laid +no sort of claim himself to originality or proprietorship in either +theory. The grand idea which he did really originate was not the idea of +'descent with modification,' but the idea of 'natural selection,' by +which agency, as he was the first to prove, definite kinds of plants and +animals have been slowly evolved from simpler forms, with definite +adaptations to the special circumstances by which they are surrounded. +In a word, it was the peculiar glory of Charles Darwin, not to have +suggested that all the variety of animal and vegetable life might have +been produced by slow modifications in one or more original types, but +to have shown the nature of the machinery by which such a result could +be actually attained in the practical working out of natural causes. He +did not invent the development theory, but he made it believable and +comprehensible. He was not, as most people falsely imagine, the Moses of +evolutionism, the prime mover in the biological revolution; he was the +Joshua who led the world of thinkers and workers into full fruition of +that promised land which earlier investigators had but dimly descried +from the Pisgah-top of conjectural speculation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>How far Darwin's special idea of natural selection supplemented and +rendered credible the earlier idea of descent with modification we shall +see more fully when we come to treat of the inception and growth of his +great epoch-making work, 'The Origin of Species;' for the present, it +must suffice to point out that in the world into which he was born, the +theory of evolution already existed in a more or less shadowy and +undeveloped shape. And since it was his task in life to raise this +theory from the rank of a mere plausible and happy guess to the rank of +a highly elaborate and almost universally accepted biological system, we +may pause awhile to consider on the threshold what was the actual state +of natural science at the moment when the great directing and organising +intelligence of Charles Darwin first appeared.</p> + +<p>From time immemorial, in modern Christendom at least, it had been the +general opinion of learned and simple alike that every species of plant +or animal owed its present form and its original existence to a distinct +act of special creation. This <i>naïf</i> belief, unsupported as it was by +any sort of internal evidence, was supposed to rest directly upon the +express authority of a few obscure statements in the Book of Genesis. +The Creator, it was held, had in the beginning formed each kind after a +particular pattern, had endowed it with special organs devised with +supreme wisdom for subserving special functions, and had bestowed upon +it the mystical power of reproducing its like in its own image to all +generations. No variation of importance ever occurred within the types +thus constituted; all plants and animals always retained their special +forms unaltered in any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> way from era to era. This is the doctrine of the +fixity and immutability of species, almost universal in the civilised +world up to the end of the last century.</p> + +<p>Improbable as such a crude idea now seems to any person even moderately +acquainted with the extraordinary variety and variability of living +forms, it nevertheless contained nothing at all likely to contradict the +ordinary experience of the everyday observer in the last century. The +handful of plants and animals with which he was personally acquainted +consisted for the most part of a few large, highly advanced, and +well-marked forms, not in the least liable to be mistaken for one +another even by the most hasty and casual spectator. A horse can +immediately be discriminated by the naked eye from a donkey, and a cow +from a sheep, without risk of error; nobody is likely to confuse wheat +with barley, or to hesitate between classing any given fruit that is +laid before him as a pear or an apple, a plum or a nectarine. +Variability seldom comes under the notice of the ordinary passing +spectator as it does under that of the prying and curious scientific +observer; and when it comes at all, as in the case of dogs and pigeons, +roses and hyacinths, it is no doubt set down carelessly on a superficial +view as a mere result of human selection or of deliberate mongrel +interbreeding. To the eye of the average man, all the living objects +ordinarily perceived in external nature fall at once under certain fixed +and recognisable kinds, as dogs and horses, elms and ashes, whose limits +he is never at all inclined to confound in any way one with the other.</p> + +<p>Linnæus, the great father of modern scientific<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> biology, had frankly and +perhaps unthinkingly accepted this current and almost universal dogma of +the fixity and immutability of species. Indeed, by defining a kind as a +group of plants or animals so closely resembling one another as to give +rise to the belief that they might all be descended from a single +ancestor or pair of ancestors, he implicitly gave the new sanction of +his weighty authority to the creation hypothesis, and to the prevalent +doctrine of the unchangeability of organic forms. To Linnæus, the +species into which he mapped out all the plants and animals then known, +appeared as the descendants each of a solitary progenitor or of a +primitive couple, called into existence at the beginning of all things +by the direct fiat of a designing Creator. He saw the world of organic +life as composed of so many well-demarcated types, each separate, +distinct, and immutable, each capable of producing its like <i>ad +infinitum</i>, and each unable to vary from its central standard in any of +its individuals, except perhaps within very narrow and unimportant +limits.</p> + +<p>But towards the close of the eighteenth century, side by side with the +general awakening of the human intellect and the arrival of a new era of +free social investigation, which culminated in a fresh order of things, +there was developed a more critical and sceptical attitude in the world +of science, which soon produced a notable change of front among thinking +naturalists as to the origin and meaning of specific distinctions.</p> + +<p>Buffon was the first great biological innovator who ventured, in very +doubtful and tentative language, to suggest the possibility of the rise +of species from one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> another by slow modification of ancestral forms. +Essentially a popular essayist, writing in the volcanic +priest-suppressed France of the <i>ancien régime</i>, during the inconsistent +days of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., when it was uncertain whether novel +and heterodox opinions would bring down upon their author fame and +reputation or the Sorbonne and the Bastille, Buffon was careful to put +his conjectural conclusions in a studiously guarded and often even +ironical form. But time after time, in his great discursive work, the +'Histoire Naturelle' (published in successive volumes between 1749 and +1788), he recurs anew to the pregnant suggestion that plants and animals +may not be bound by fixed and immovable limits of species, but may +freely vary in every direction from a common centre, so that one kind +may gradually and slowly be evolved by natural causes from the type of +another. He points out that, underlying all external diversities of +character and shape, fundamental likenesses of type occur in many +animals, which irresistibly suggest the novel notion of common descent +from a single ancestor. Thus regarded, he says, not only the ass and the +horse (to take a particular passage) but even man himself, the monkeys, +the quadrupeds, and all vertebrate animals, might be viewed as merely +forming divergent branches of one and the same great family tree. Every +such family, he believed, whether animal or vegetable, might have sprung +originally from a single stock, which after many generations had here +developed into a higher form, and there degenerated into a lower and +less perfect type of organisation. Granting this—granting that nature +could by slow variation produce one species in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> course of direct +descent from another unlike it (for example, the ass from the horse), +then, Buffon observed, there was no further limit to be set to her +powers in this respect, and we might reasonably conclude that from a +single primordial being she has gradually been able in the course of +time to develop the whole continuous gamut of existing animal and +vegetable life. To be sure, Buffon always saves himself from censure by +an obvious afterthought—'But no; it is certain from revelation that +every species was directly created by a separate fiat.' This +half-hearted and somewhat subrisive denial, however, must be taken +merely as a concession to the Sorbonne and to the fashionable exegesis +of his own day; and, even so, the Sorbonne was too much in the end for +the philosophic thinker. He had once in his life at least to make his +submission and demand pardon from the offended orthodoxy of the Paris +faculty.</p> + +<p>The wave of thought and feeling, thus apologetically and tentatively +stirred on the unruffled pond of eighteenth century opinion by the +startling plop of Buffon's little smooth-cut pebble, soon widened out on +every side in concentric circles, and affected with its wash the entire +world of biological science in every country. Before the close of the +eighteenth century speculation as to the origin of species was rife in +all quarters of Europe. In France itself, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, +constitutionally cautious and undecided, but wide of view and free from +prejudice, came slowly to the conclusion, in 1795, that all species are +really derived by modification from one or more primitive types. In +Germany, in the very same year, Goethe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> with the keen vision of the +poet and the calm eye of the philosopher uniquely combined, discerned +independently as by a lightning flash the identical idea of the origin +of kinds by modification of pre-existent organisms. 'We may assert +without hesitation,' says that great nebulous thinker and observer, +'that all the more perfect organic natures, such as fishes, amphibians, +birds and mammals, with man at their head, were formed at first on one +original type, which still daily changes and modifies its form by +propagation.' In England, twelve months earlier, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +Charles Darwin's grandfather (of whom more anon), published his +'Zoonomia,' a treatise on the laws of animal life, in which he not only +adopted Buffon's theory of the origin of species by evolution, but also +laid down as the chief cause of such development the actions and needs +of the animals themselves. According to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, animals came +to vary from one another chiefly because they were always altering their +habits and voluntarily accommodating themselves to new actions and +positions in life. His work produced comparatively little effect upon +the world at large in his own time, but it had immense influence upon +the next great prophet of evolution, Lamarck, and through Lamarck on +Lyell, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and the modern school of +evolutionists generally. We shall consider his views in greater detail +when we pass from the spiritual to the physical antecedents of Charles +Darwin.</p> + +<p>It was in 1801 that Lamarck first gave to the world his epoch-making +speculations and suggestions on the origin of species; and from that +date to the day of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> death, in 1831, the unwearied old philosopher +continued to devote his whole time and energy, in blindness and poverty, +to the elucidation of this interesting and important subject. A bold, +acute, and vigorous thinker, trained in the great school of Diderot and +D'Alembert, with something of the vivid Celtic poetic imagination, and a +fearless habit of forming his own conclusions irrespective of common or +preconceived ideas, Lamarck went to the very root of the matter in the +most determined fashion, and openly proclaimed in the face of frowning +officialism under the Napoleonic reaction his profound conviction that +all species, including man, were descended by modification from one or +more primordial forms. In Charles Darwin's own words, 'He first did the +eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change, +in the organic as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of +law and not of miraculous interposition. 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. With respect to the means of modification, he +attributed something to the direct action of the physical conditions of +life, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much to +use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter agency +he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature—such as +the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees,' He +believed, in short, that animals had largely developed themselves, by +functional effort followed by increased powers and abilities.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>Lamarck's great work, the 'Philosophie Zoologique,' though opposed by +the austere and formal genius of the immortal Cuvier—a reactionary +biological conservative and obscurantist, equal to the enormous task of +mapping out piecemeal with infinite skill and power the separate +provinces of his chosen science, but incapable of taking in all the +bearings of the whole field at a single vivid and comprehensive +sweep—Lamarck's great work produced a deep and lasting impression upon +the entire subsequent course of evolutionary thought in scientific +Europe. True, owing to the retrograde tendencies of the First Empire, it +caused but little immediate stir at the precise moment of its first +publication; but the seed it sowed sank deep, and, lying fallow long in +men's minds, bore fruit at last in the next generation with the +marvellous fecundity of the germs of genius. Indeed, from the very +beginning of the present century, a ferment of inquiry on the subject of +creation and evolution was everywhere obvious among speculative +thinkers. The profound interest which Goethe took in the dispute on this +very subject in the French Académie des Sciences between Cuvier and +Geoffroy St. Hilaire, amid the thundering guns of a threatened European +convulsion, was but a solitary symptom of the general stir which +preceded the gestation and birth of the Darwinian hypothesis. It is +impossible to take up any scientific memoirs or treatises of the first +half of our own century without seeing at a glance how every mind of +high original scientific importance was permeated and disturbed by the +fundamental questions aroused, but not fully answered, by Buffon, +Lamarck, and Erasmus Darwin. In Lyell's letters and in Agassiz's +lectures, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> the 'Botanic Journal' and the 'Philosophical +Transactions,' in treatises on Madeira beetles and the Australian flora, +we find everywhere the thoughts of men profoundly influenced in a +thousand directions by this universal evolutionary solvent and leaven.</p> + +<p>And while the world of thought was thus seething and moving restlessly +before the wave of ideas set in motion by these various independent +philosophers, another group of causes in another field was rendering +smooth the path beforehand for the future champion of the amended +evolutionism. Geology on the one hand and astronomy on the other were +making men's minds gradually familiar with the conception of slow +natural development, as opposed to immediate and miraculous creation.</p> + +<p>The rise of geology had been rapid and brilliant. In the last century it +had been almost universally believed that fossil organisms were the +relics of submerged and destroyed worlds, strange remnants of successive +terrible mundane catastrophes. Cuvier himself, who had rendered immense +services to geological science by his almost unerring reconstructions of +extinct animals, remained a partisan of the old theory of constant +cataclysms and fresh creations throughout his whole life; but Lamarck, +here as elsewhere the prophet of the modern uniformitarian concept of +nature, had already announced his grand idea that the ordinary process +of natural laws sufficed to account for all the phenomena of the earth's +crust. In England, William Smith, the ingenious land surveyor, riding up +and down on his daily task over the face of the country, became +convinced by his observations in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the first years of the present century +that a fixed order of sequence could everywhere be traced among the +various superincumbent geological strata. Modern scientific geology +takes its rise from the moment of this luminous and luminiferous +discovery. With astonishing rapidity the sequence of strata was +everywhere noted, and the succession of characteristic fossils mapped +out, with the result of showing, however imperfectly at first, that the +history of organic life upon the globe had followed a slow and regular +course of constant development. Immediately whole schools of eager +workers employed themselves in investigating in separate detail the +phenomena of these successive stages of unfolding life. Murchison, fresh +from the Peninsular campaign, began to study the dawn of organic history +in the gloom of the Silurian and Cambrian epochs. A group of less +articulate but not less active workers like Buckland and Mantell +performed similar services for the carboniferous, the wealden, and the +tertiary deposits. Sedgwick endeavoured to co-ordinate the whole range +of then known facts into a single wide and comprehensive survey. De La +Beche, Phillips, and Agassiz added their share to the great work of +reconstruction. Last of all, among those who were contemporary and all +but coeval with Charles Darwin himself, Lyell boldly fought out the +battle of 'uniformitarianism,' proving, with all the accumulated weight +of his encyclopædic and world-wide knowledge, that every known feature +of geological development could be traced to the agency of causes now in +action, and illustrated by means of slow secular changes still actually +taking place on earth before our very eyes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>The influence of these novel conceptions upon the growth and spread of +evolutionary ideas was far-reaching and twofold. In the first place, the +discovery of a definite succession of nearly related organic forms, +following one another with evident closeness through the various ages, +inevitably suggested to every inquiring observer the possibility of +their direct descent one from the other. In the second place, the +discovery that geological formations were not really separated each from +its predecessor by violent revolutions, but were the result of gradual +and ordinary changes, discredited the old idea of frequent fresh +creations after each catastrophe, and familiarised the minds of men of +science with the alternative notion of slow and natural evolutionary +processes. The past was seen to be in effect the parent of the present; +the present was recognised as the child of the past.</p> + +<p>Current astronomical theories also pointed inevitably in the same +direction. Kant, whose supereminent fame as a philosopher has almost +overshadowed his just claims as a profound thinker in physical science, +had already in the third quarter of the eighteenth century arrived at +his sublime nebular hypothesis, in which he suggested the possible +development of stars, suns, planets, and satellites by the slow +contraction of very diffuse and incandescent haze-clouds. This +magnificent cosmical conception was seized and adapted by the genius of +Laplace in his celestial system, and made familiar through his great +work to thinking minds throughout the whole of Europe. In England it was +further modified and remodelled by Sir William Herschel, whose period of +active investigation coincided in part with Charles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> Darwin's early +boyhood. The bearings of the nebular hypothesis upon the rise of +Darwinian evolutionism are by no means remote: the entire modern +scientific movement forms, in fact, a single great organic whole, of +which the special doctrine of biological development is but a small +separate integral part. All the theories and doctrines which go to make +it up display the one common trait that they reject the idea of direct +creative interposition from without, and attribute the entire existing +order of nature to the regular unfolding of one undeviating continuous +law.</p> + +<p>Yet another factor in the intellectual stir and bustle of the time must +needs be mentioned even in so short and cursory a sketch as this of the +causes which led to the Darwinian crisis. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, a +clergyman of the Church of England, published the first edition of his +famous and much-debated 'Essay on the Principle of Population.' Malthus +was the first person who ever called public attention to the tendency of +population to increase up to the utmost limit of subsistence, as well as +to the necessary influence of starvation in checking its further +development beyond that point. Though his essay dealt only with the +question of reproduction in human societies, it was clear that it +possessed innumerable analogies in every domain of animal and vegetable +life. The book ran through many successive editions with extraordinary +rapidity for a work of its class, it was fiercely attacked and bravely +defended, it caused an immense amount of discussion and debate, and +besides its marvellous direct influence as a germinal power upon the +whole subsequent course of politico-economical and sociological thought, +it produced also a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> remarkable indirect influence on the side current of +biological and speculative opinion. In particular, as we shall more +fully see hereafter, it had an immediate effect in suggesting to the +mind of the great naturalist who forms our present subject the embryo +idea of 'natural selection.'</p> + +<p>Such then was the intellectual and social world into which, early in the +present century, Charles Darwin found himself born. Everywhere around +him in his childhood and youth these great but formless evolutionary +ideas were brewing and fermenting. The scientific society of his elders +and of the contemporaries among whom he grew up was permeated with the +leaven of Laplace and of Lamarck, of Hutton and of Herschel. Inquiry was +especially everywhere rife as to the origin and nature of specific +distinctions among plants and animals. Those who believed in the +doctrine of Buffon and of the 'Zoonomia' and those who disbelieved in +it, alike, were profoundly interested and agitated in soul by the +far-reaching implications of that fundamental problem. On every side +evolutionism, in its crude form, was already in the air. Long before +Charles Darwin himself published his conclusive 'Origin of Species,' +every thinking mind in the world of science, elder and younger, was +deeply engaged upon the self-same problem. Lyell and Horner in alternate +fits were doubting and debating. Herbert Spencer had already frankly +accepted the new idea with the profound conviction of <i>a priori</i> +reasoning. Agassiz was hesitating and raising difficulties. Treviranus +was ardently proclaiming his unflinching adhesion. Oken was spinning in +metaphysical Germany his fanciful parodies of the Lamarckian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +hypothesis. Among the depths of Brazilian forests Bates was reading the +story of evolution on the gauze-like wings of tropical butterflies. +Under the scanty shade of Malayan palm-trees Wallace was independently +spelling out in rude outline the very theory of survival of the fittest, +which Charles Darwin himself was simultaneously perfecting and polishing +among the memoirs and pamphlets of his English study. Wollaston in +Madeira was pointing out the strange adaptations of the curious local +snails and beetles. Von Buch in the Canaries was coming to the +conclusion that varieties may be slowly changed into permanent species. +Lecoq and Von Baer were gradually arriving, one by the botanical route, +the other by the embryological, at the same opinion. Before Charles +Darwin was twenty, Dean Herbert had declared from the profound depth of +his horticultural knowledge that kinds were only mere fixed sports; and +Patrick Matthew, in the appendix to a work on 'Naval Timber,' had +casually developed, without perceiving its importance, the actual +distinctive Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Robert Chambers +published in 1844 his 'Vestiges of Creation,' in which Lamarck's theory +was impressed and popularised under a somewhat spoilt and mistaken form: +it was not till 1859 that the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' +burst like a thunderbolt upon the astonished world of unprepared and +unscientific thinkers.</p> + +<p>This general attitude of interest and inquiry is of deep importance to +the proper comprehension of Charles Darwin's life and work, and that for +two distinct reasons. In the first place, the universal stir and deep +prying into evolutionary questions which everywhere existed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> among +scientific men in his early days was naturally communicated to a lad +born of a scientific family, and inheriting directly in blood and bone +the biological tastes and tendencies of Erasmus Darwin. In the second +place, the existence of such a deep and wide-spread curiosity as to +ultimate origins, and the common prevalence of profound uniformitarian +and evolutionary views among philosophers and thinkers, made the +acceptance of Charles Darwin's particular theory, when it at last +arrived, a comparatively easy and certain matter, because by it the +course of organic development was assimilated, on credible grounds, to +the course of all other development in general, as then already widely +recognised. The first consideration helps us to account in part for the +man himself; the second consideration helps us even more to account for +the great work which he was enabled in the end so successfully to +accomplish.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<h2>CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS.</h2> + + +<p>From the environment let us turn to the individual; from the world in +which the man moved to the man who moved in it, and was in time destined +to move it.</p> + +<p>Who was he, and whence did he derive his exceptional energy and +intellectual panoply?</p> + +<p>Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather, the first of the line in whom the +distinctive Darwinian strain of intellect overtly displayed itself, was +the son of one Robert Darwin, a gentleman of Nottinghamshire, 'a person +of curiosity,' with 'a taste for literature and science;' so that for +four generations at least, in the paternal line, the peculiar talents of +the Darwin family had been highly cultivated in either direction. Robert +Darwin was an early member of the Spalding Club, a friend of Stukeley +the antiquary, and an embryo geologist, after the fantastic, +half-superstitious fashion of his own time. Of his four sons, both +Robert, the eldest, and Erasmus, the youngest, were authors and +botanists. Erasmus himself was a Cambridge man, and his natural bent of +mind and energy led him irresistibly on to the study of medicine. Taking +his medical degree at his own university, and afterwards preparing for +practice by attending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> Hunter's lectures in London, besides going +through the regular medical course at Edinburgh, the young doctor +finally settled down as a physician at Nottingham, whence shortly +afterward he removed to Lichfield, then the centre of a famous literary +coterie. So large a part of Charles Darwin's remarkable idiosyncrasy was +derived by heredity from his paternal grandfather, that it may be worth +while to dwell a little here in passing on the character and career of +this brilliant precursor of the great evolutionist. Both in the physical +and in the spiritual sense, Erasmus Darwin was one among the truest and +most genuine ancestors of his grandson Charles.</p> + +<p>A powerful, robust, athletic man, in florid health and of temperate +habits, yet with the full-blooded tendency of the eighteenth century +vividly displayed in his ample face and broad features, Erasmus Darwin +bubbled over with irrepressible vivacity, the outward and visible sign +of that overflowing energy which forms everywhere one of the most marked +determining conditions of high genius. Strong in body and strong in +mind, a teetotaler before teetotalism, an abolitionist before the +anti-slavery movement, he had a great contempt for weaknesses and +prejudices of every sort, and he rose far superior to the age in which +he lived in breadth of view and freedom from preconceptions. The +eighteenth century considered him, in its cautious, cut-and-dried +fashion, a man of singular talent but of remarkably eccentric and unsafe +opinions. Unfortunately for his lasting fame, Dr. Darwin was much given +to writing poetry; and this poetry, though as ingenious as everything +else he did, had a certain false gallop of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> verse about it which has +doomed it to become since Canning's parody a sort of warning beacon +against the worst faults of the post-Augustan decadence in the +ten-syllabled metre. Nobody now reads the 'Botanic Garden' except either +to laugh at its exquisite extravagances, or to wonder at the queer +tinsel glitter of its occasional clever rhetorical rhapsodies.</p> + +<p>But in his alternative character of philosophic biologist, rejected by +the age which swallowed his poetry all applausive, Erasmus Darwin is +well worthy of the highest and deepest respect, as a prime founder and +early prophet of the evolutionary system. His 'Zoonomia,' 'which, though +ingenious, is built upon the most absurd hypothesis'—as men still said +only thirty years ago—contains in the germ the whole theory of organic +development as understood up to the very moment of the publication of +the 'Origin of Species.' In it Dr. Darwin calls attention to 'the great +changes introduced into various animals by artificial or accidental +cultivation,' a subject afterwards fully elucidated by his greater +grandson in his work on 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication.' He specially notes 'the immense changes of shape and +colour' produced by man in rabbits and pigeons, the very species on +which Charles Darwin subsequently made some of his most remarkable and +interesting observations. More than any previous writer, Erasmus Darwin, +with 'prophetic sagacity,' insisted strongly on the essential unity of +parent and offspring—a truth which lies at the very base of all modern +philosophical biology. 'Owing to the imperfection of language,' wrote +the Lichfield doctor nearly a hundred years ago,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> '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 may retain some of the habits of the parent +system.' He laid peculiar stress upon the hereditary nature of some +acquired properties, such as the muscles of dancers or jugglers, and the +diseases incidental to special occupations. Nay, he even anticipated his +great descendant in pointing out that varieties are often produced at +first as mere 'sports' or accidental variations, as in the case of +six-fingered men, five-clawed fowls, or extra-toed cats, and are +afterwards handed down by heredity to succeeding generations. Charles +Darwin would have added that if these new stray peculiarities happened +to prove advantageous to the species they would be naturally favoured in +the struggle for existence, while if they proved disadvantageous, or +even neutral, they would die out at once or be bred out in the course of +a few crosses. That last truth of natural selection was the only +cardinal one in the evolutionary system on which Erasmus Darwin did not +actually forestall his more famous and greater namesake. For its full +perception, the discovery of Malthus had to be collated with the +speculations of Buffon.</p> + +<p>'When we revolve in our minds,' says the eighteenth century prophet of +evolution, '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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +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.' This is a very crude form of evolutionism +indeed, but it is leading up by gradual stages to the finished and +all-sided philosophy of physical life, which at last definitely +formulates itself through the mouth of Charles Darwin. We shall see +hereafter wherein Erasmus Darwin's conception of development chiefly +failed—in attributing evolution for the most part to the exertions and +endeavours of the animal itself, rather than to inevitable survival of +the fittest among innumerable spontaneous variations—but we must at +least conclude our glimpse of his pregnant and suggestive work by +quoting its great fundamental <i>aperçu</i>:—'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?'</p> + +<p>A few lines from the 'Temple of Nature,' one of Erasmus Darwin's poetic +rhapsodies, containing his fully matured views on the origin of living +creatures, may be worth reproduction in further elucidation of his +philosophical position:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Organic life beneath the shoreless waves</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Was born, and nursed in ocean's pearly caves;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">These, as successive generations bloom,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Have we not here the very beginnings of Charles Darwin? Do we not see, +in these profound and fundamental suggestions, not merely hints as to +the evolution of evolution, but also as to the evolution of the +evolutionist?</p> + +<p>On the other hand, though Erasmus Darwin defined a fool to his friend +Edgeworth as 'a man who never tried an experiment in his life,' he was +wanting himself in the rigorous and patient inductive habit which so +strikingly distinguished his grandson Charles. That trait, as we shall +presently see, the biological chief of the nineteenth century derived in +all probability from another root of his genealogical tree. Erasmus +Darwin gave us brilliant suggestions rather than cumulative proof: he +apologised in his 'Zoonomia' for 'many conjectures not supported by +accurate investigation or conclusive experiments,' Such an apology would +have been simply impossible to the painstaking spirit of his grandson +Charles.</p> + +<p>Erasmus Darwin was twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of +Mr. Charles Howard, of Lichfield, and it was her son, Robert Waring +Darwin, who became the father of our hero, Charles. It is fashionable to +say, in this and sundry other like cases, that the mental energy skips a +generation. People have said so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> in the case of that intermediate +Mendelssohn who was son of Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher, and +father of Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn, the composer—that mere link in a +marvellous chain who was wont to observe of himself in the decline of +life, that in his youth he was called the son of the great Mendelssohn, +and in his old age the father of the great Mendelssohn. As a matter of +fact, one may fairly doubt whether such a case of actual skipping is +ever possible in the nature of things. In the particular instance of +Robert Waring Darwin at least we may be pretty sure that the distinctive +Darwinian strain of genius lay merely latent rather than dormant: that +it did not display itself to the world at large, but that it persisted +silently as powerful as ever within the remote recesses of the thinking +organism. Not every man brings out before men all that is within him. +Robert Waring Darwin was a physician at Shrewsbury; and he attained at +least sufficient scientific eminence in his own time to become a Fellow +of the Royal Society, in days when that honour was certainly not readily +conferred upon country doctors of modest reputation. Charles Darwin says +of him plainly, 'He was incomparably the most acute observer whom I ever +knew.' It may well have been that Robert Darwin lived and died, as his +famous son lived for fifty years of his great life, in comparative +silence and learned retirement; for we must never forget that if Charles +Darwin had only completed the first half century of his laborious +existence, he would have been remembered merely as the author of an +entertaining work on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' a plausible theory of +coral islands, and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> learned monograph on the fossil barnacles. During +all those years, in fact, he had really done little else than collect +material for the work of his lifetime. If we judge men by outward +performance only, we may often be greatly mistaken in our estimates: +potentiality is wider than actuality; what a man does is never a certain +or extreme criterion of what he can do.</p> + +<p>The Darwins, indeed, were all a mighty folk, of varied powers and varied +attainments. Erasmus's brother, Robert, was the author of a work on +botany, which long enjoyed a respectable repute. Of his sons, one, Sir +Francis Darwin, was noted as a keen observer of animals; a second, +Charles, who died at twenty-one, was already the author of a very +valuable medical essay; while the third, Robert, was the Shrewsbury +F.R.S., the father of our great evolutionary thinker. And among Charles +Darwin's own cousins, one is Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the philologist; a +second was the late Sir Henry Holland; and a third is Mr. Francis +Galton, the author of that essentially Darwinian book, 'Hereditary +Genius.'</p> + +<p>Robert Waring Darwin took to himself a wife from another very great and +eminent family. He married Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah +Wedgwood, the famous potter; and from these two silent representatives +of powerful stocks, Charles Robert Darwin, the father of modern +evolutionary biology, was born at Shrewsbury, on February the 12th, +1809. That Wedgwood connection, again, is no mere casual or unimportant +incident in the previous life-history of the Darwinian originality; it +throws a separate clear light of its own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> upon the peculiar and +admirably compounded idiosyncrasy of Charles Darwin.</p> + +<p>A man, indeed, owes on the average quite as much to his mother's as to +his father's family. It is a mere unscientific old-world prejudice which +makes us for the most part count ancestry in the direct ascending male +line alone, to the complete neglect of the equally important maternal +pedigree. Prom the biological point of view, at least, every individual +is a highly complex compound of hereditary elements, a resultant of +numerous converging forces, a meeting place of two great streams of +inheritance, each of which is itself similarly made up by the like +confluence of innumerable distinct prior tributaries. Between these two +it is almost impossible for us accurately to distribute any given +individuality. How much Charles Darwin owed to the Darwins, and how much +he owed in turn to the Wedgwoods, no man is yet psychologist enough or +physiologist enough to say. But that he owed a great deal to either +strong and vigorous strain we may even now quite safely take for +granted.</p> + +<p>The Wedgwood family were 'throwers' by handicraft, superior artisans +long settled at Burslem, in the Staffordshire potteries. Josiah, the +youngest of thirteen children, lamed by illness in early life, was +turned by this happy accident from his primitive task as a 'thrower' to +the more artistic and original work of producing ornamental coloured +earthenware. Skilful and indefatigable, of indomitable energy and with +great powers of forcing his way in life against all obstacles, young +Wedgwood rose rapidly by his own unaided exertions to be a master +potter, and a manufacturer of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> the famous unglazed black porcelain. +Those were the darkest days of industrial art and decorative handicraft +in modern England. Josiah Wedgwood, by his marked originality and force +of character, succeeded in turning the current of national taste, and +creating among us a new and distinctly higher type of artistic +workmanship. His activity, however, was not confined to his art alone, +but found itself a hundred other different outlets in the most varied +directions. When his potteries needed enlargement to meet the increased +demand, he founded for the hands employed upon his works the model +industrial village of Etruria. When Brindley began cutting artificial +waterways across the broad face of central England, it was in the great +potter that he found his chief ally in promoting the construction of the +Grand Trunk Canal. Wedgwood, indeed, was a builder of schools and a +maker of roads; a chemist and an artist; a friend of Watt and an +employer of Flaxman. In short, like Erasmus Darwin, he possessed that +prime essential in the character of genius, an immense underlying stock +of energy. And with it there went its best concomitant, the 'infinite +capacity for taking pains.' Is it not probable that in their joint +descendant, the brilliant but discursive and hazardous genius of Erasmus +Darwin was balanced and regulated by soberer qualities inherited +directly from the profound industry of the painstaking potter? When +later on we find Charles Darwin spending hours in noting the successive +movements of the tendrils in a plant, or watching for long years the +habits and manners of earthworms in flower-pots, may we not reasonably +conjecture that he derived no little share of his extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +patience, carefulness, and minuteness of handicraft from his mother's +father, Josiah Wedgwood?</p> + +<p>Such, then, were the two main component elements, paternal and maternal, +from which the striking personality of Charles Darwin was no doubt for +the most part ultimately built up.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<h2>EARLY DAYS.</h2> + + +<p>As the Chester express steams out of Shrewsbury station, you see on your +left, overhanging the steep bank of Severn, a large, square, +substantial-looking house, known as the Mount, the birthplace of the +author of the 'Origin of Species.' There, in the comfortable home he had +built for himself, Dr. Robert Darwin, the father, lived and worked for +fifty years of unobtrusive usefulness. He had studied medicine at +Edinburgh and Leyden, and had even travelled a little in Germany, before +he settled down in the quiet old Salopian town, where for half a century +his portly figure and yellow chaise were familiar objects of the +country-side for miles around. Among a literary society which included +Coleridge's friends, the Tayleurs, and where Hazlitt listened with +delight to the great poet's 'music of the spheres,' in High Street +Unitarian Chapel, the Mount kept up with becoming dignity the family +traditions of the Darwins and the Wedgwoods as a local centre of +sweetness and light.</p> + +<p>On February the 12th, 1809, Charles Darwin first saw the light of day in +this his father's house at Shrewsbury. Time and place were both +propitious. Born in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> a cultivated scientific family, surrounded from his +birth by elevating influences, and secured beforehand from the cramping +necessity of earning his own livelihood by his own exertions, the boy +was destined to grow up to full maturity in the twenty-one years of slow +development that immediately preceded the passing of the first Reform +Act. The thunder of the great European upheaval had grown silent at +Waterloo when he was barely six years old, and his boyhood was passed +amid country sights and sounds during that long period of reconstruction +and assimilation which followed the fierce volcanic outburst of the +French Revolution. Happy in the opportunity of his birth, he came upon +the world eight years after the first publication of Lamarck's +remarkable speculations, and for the first twenty-two years of his life +he was actually the far younger contemporary of the great French +evolutionary philosopher. Eleven years before his arrival upon the scene +Malthus had set forth his 'Principle of Population.' Charles Darwin thus +entered upon a stage well prepared for him, and he entered it with an +idiosyncrasy exactly adapted for making the best of the situation. The +soil had been thoroughly turned and dressed beforehand: Charles Darwin's +seed had only to fall upon it in order to spring up and bear fruit a +hundredfold, in every field of science or speculation.</p> + +<p>For it was not biology alone that he was foredoomed to revolutionise, +but the whole range of human thought, and perhaps even ultimately of +human action.</p> + +<p>Is it mere national prejudice which makes one add with congratulatory +pleasure that Darwin was born in England, rather than in France, in +Germany, or in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> America? Perhaps so; perhaps not. For the English +intellect does indeed seem more capable than most of uniting high +speculative ability with high practical skill and experience: and of +that union of rare qualities Darwin himself was a most conspicuous +example. It is probable that England has produced more of the great +organising and systematising intellects than any other modern country.</p> + +<p>Among those thinkers in his own line who stood more nearly abreast of +Darwin in the matter of age, Lyell was some eleven years his senior, and +contributed not a little (though quite unconsciously) by his work and +conclusions to the formation of Darwin's own peculiar scientific +opinions. The veteran Owen, who still survives him, was nearly five +years older than Darwin, and also helped to a great extent in giving +form and exactness to his great contemporary's anatomical ideas. +Humboldt, who preceded our English naturalist in the matter of time by +no less than forty years, might yet almost rank as coeval in some +respects, owing to his long and active life, his late maturity, and the +very recent date of his greatest and most thought-compelling work, the +'Cosmos' (begun when Humboldt was seventy-five, and finished when he +lacked but ten years of his century), in itself a sort of preparation +for due acceptance of the Darwinian theories. In fact, as many as fifty +years of their joint lives coincided entirely one with the other's. +Agassiz antedated Darwin by two years. On the other hand, among the men +who most helped on the recognition of Darwin's theories, Hooker and +Lewes were his juniors by eight years, Herbert Spencer by eleven, +Wallace by thirteen, and Huxley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> by sixteen. His cousin, Francis Galton, +another grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and joint inheritor of the +distinctive family biological ply, was born at the same date as Alfred +Russell Wallace, thirteen years after Charles Darwin. In such a goodly +galaxy of workers was the Darwinian light destined to shine through the +middle of the century, as one star excelleth another in glory.</p> + +<p>Charles Darwin was the second son: but nature refuses doggedly to +acknowledge the custom of primogeniture. His elder brother, Erasmus, a +man of mute and inarticulate ability, with a sardonic humour alien to +his race, extorted unwonted praise from the critical pen of Thomas +Carlyle, who 'for intellect rather preferred him to his brother +Charles.' But whatever spark of the Darwinian genius was really innate +in Erasmus the Less died with him unacknowledged.</p> + +<p>The boy was educated (so they call it) at Shrewsbury Grammar School, +under sturdy Sam Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield; and there he +picked up so much Latin and Greek as was then considered absolutely +essential to the due production of an English gentleman. Happily for the +world, having no taste for the classics, he escaped the ordeal with +little injury to his individuality. His mother had died while he was +still a child, but his father, that 'acute observer,' no doubt taught +him to know and love nature. At sixteen he went to Edinburgh University, +then rendered famous by a little knot of distinguished professors, and +there he remained for two years. Already at school he had made himself +notable by his love of collecting—the first nascent symptom of the +naturalist bent. He collected everything, shells, eggs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> minerals, +coins, nay, since postage stamps were then not yet invented, even +franks. But at Edinburgh he gave the earliest distinct evidence of his +definite scientific tastes by contributing to the local academic society +a paper on the floating eggs of the common sea-mat, in which he had even +then succeeded in discovering for the first time organs of locomotion. +Thence he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. The Darwins were +luckily a Cambridge family: luckily, let us say, for had it been +otherwise—had young Darwin been distorted from his native bent by Plato +and Aristotle, and plunged deep into the mysteries of Barbara and +Celarent, as would infallibly have happened to him at the sister +university—who can tell how long we might have had to wait in vain for +the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man'? But Cambridge, which +rejoiced already in the glory of Newton, was now to match it by the +glory of Darwin. In its academical course, the mathematical wedge had +always kept open a dim passage for physical science; and at the exact +moment when Darwin was an undergraduate at Christ's—from 1827 to +1831—the university had the advantage of several good scientific +teachers, and amongst them one, Professor Henslow, a well-known +botanist, who took a special interest in young Darwin's intellectual +development. There, too, he met with Sedgwick, Airy, Ramsay, and +numerous other men of science, whose intercourse with him must no doubt +have contributed largely to mould and form the future cast of his +peculiar philosophical idiosyncrasy.</p> + +<p>It was to Henslow's influence that Darwin in later years attributed in +great part his powerful taste for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> natural history. But in truth the +ascription of such high praise to his early teacher smacks too much of +the Darwinian modesty to be accepted at once without demur by the candid +critic. The naturalist, like the poet, is born, not made. How much more, +then, must this needs be the case with the grandson of Erasmus Darwin +and of Josiah Wedgwood? As a matter of fact, already at Edinburgh the +lad had loved to spend his days among the sea-beasts and wrack of the +Inches in the Firth of Forth; and it was through the instrumentality of +his 'brother entomologists' that he first became acquainted with Henslow +himself when he removed to Cambridge. The good professor could not make +him into a naturalist: inherited tendencies and native energies had done +that for him already from his very cradle.</p> + +<p>'Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam;' and it was well that Darwin took up +at Cambridge with the study of geology as his first love. For geology +was then the living and moving science, as astronomy had been in the +sixteenth century, and as biology is at the present day—the +growing-point, so to speak, of European development, whence all great +things might naturally be expected. Moreover, it was and is the central +science of the concrete class, having relations with astronomy on the +one hand, and with biology on the other; concerned alike with cosmical +chances or changes on this side, and with the minutest facts of organic +nature on that; the meeting-place and border-land of all the separate +branches of study that finally bear upon the complex problems of our +human life. No other subject of investigation was so well calculated to +rouse Darwin's interest in the ultimate questions of evolution or +creation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> of sudden cataclysm or gradual growth, of miraculous +intervention or slow development. Here, if anywhere, his enigmas were +all clearly propounded to him by the inarticulate stony sphinxes; he had +only to riddle them out for himself as he went along in after years with +the aid of the successive side-lights thrown upon the world by the +unconnected lanterns of Lamarck and of Malthus.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for us, then, Darwin did not waste his time at Cambridge +over the vain and frivolous pursuits of the classical tripos. He +preferred to work at his own subjects in his own way, and to leave the +short-lived honours of the schools to those who cared for them and for +nothing higher. He came out with the <i>οἱ πολλοί</i> in 1831, and +thenceforth proceeded to study life in the wider university for which +his natural inclinations more properly fitted him. The world was all +before him where to choose, and he chose that better part which shall +not be taken away from him as long as the very memory of science +survives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<h2>DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS.</h2> + + +<p>Scarcely had Darwin taken his pass degree at Cambridge when the great +event of his life occurred which, more than anything else perhaps, gave +the final direction to his categorical genius in the line it was +thenceforth so successfully to follow. In the autumn of 1831, when +Darwin was just twenty-two, it was decided by Government to send a +ten-gun brig, the 'Beagle,' under command of Captain Fitzroy, to +complete the unfinished survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, to map +out the shores of Chili and Peru, to visit several of the Pacific +archipelagoes, and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round +the whole world. This was an essentially scientific expedition, and +Captain Fitzroy, afterwards so famous as the meteorological admiral, was +a scientific officer of the highest type. He was anxious to be +accompanied on his cruise by a competent naturalist who would undertake +the collection and preservation of the animals and plants discovered on +the voyage, for which purpose he generously offered to give up a share +of his own cabin accommodation. Professor Henslow seized upon the +opportunity to recommend for the post his promising pupil, young Darwin, +'grandson of the poet.' Darwin gladly volunteered his services without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +salary, and partly paid his own expenses on condition of being permitted +to retain in his own possession the animals and plants he collected on +the journey. The 'Beagle' set sail from Devonport on December the 27th, +1831; she returned to Falmouth on October the 2nd, 1836.</p> + +<p>That long five years' cruise around the world, the journal of which +Darwin has left us in the 'Voyage of the "Beagle,"' proved a marvellous +epoch in the great naturalist's quiet career. It left its abiding mark +deeply imprinted on all his subsequent life and thinking. Lamarck and +Erasmus Darwin were cabinet biologists, who had never beheld with their +own eyes the great round world and all that therein is; Charles Darwin +had the inestimable privilege of seeing for himself, at first hand, a +large part of the entire globe and of the creatures that inhabit it. +Even to have caught one passing glimpse of the teeming life of the +tropics is in itself an education; to the naturalist it is more, it is a +revelation. Our starved little northern fauna and flora, the mere +leavings of the vast ice sheets that spread across our zone in the +glacial epoch, show us a world depopulated of all its largest, +strangest, and fiercest creatures; a world dwarfed in all its component +elements, and immensely differing in ten thousand ways from that rich, +luxuriant, over-stocked hot-house in which the first great problems of +evolution were practically worked out by survival of the fittest. But +the tropics preserve for us still in all their jungles something of the +tangled, thickly-peopled aspect which our planet must have presented for +countless ages in all latitudes before the advent of primæval man. We +now know that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> throughout the greater part of geological time, +essentially tropical conditions existed unbroken over the whole surface +of the entire earth, from the Antarctic continent to the shores of +Greenland; so that some immediate acquaintance at least with the +equatorial world is of immense value to the philosophical naturalist for +the sake of the analogies it inevitably suggests; and it is a +significant fact that almost all those great and fruitful thinkers who +in our own time have done good work in the wider combination of +biological facts have themselves passed a considerable number of years +in investigating the conditions of tropical nature. Europe and England +are at the ends of the earth; the tropics are biological head-quarters. +The equatorial zone is therefore the true school for the historian of +life in its more universal and lasting aspects.</p> + +<p>Nor was that all. The particular countries visited by the 'Beagle' +during the course of her long and varied cruise happened to be exactly +such as were naturally best adapted for bringing out the latent +potentialities of Darwin's mind, and suggesting to his active and +receptive brain those deep problems of life and its environment which he +afterwards wrought out with such subtle skill and such consummate +patience in the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man.' The Cape +de Verdes, and the other Atlantic islands, with their scanty population +of plants and animals, composed for the most part of waifs and strays +drifted to their barren rocks by ocean currents, or blown out helplessly +to sea by heavy winds; Brazil, with its marvellous contrasting wealth of +tropical luxuriance and self-strangling fertility, a new province of +interminable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> delights to the soul of the enthusiastic young collector; +the South American pampas, with their colossal remains of extinct +animals, huge geological precursors of the stunted modern sloths and +armadillos that still inhabit the self-same plains; Tierra del Fuego, +with its almost Arctic climate, and its glimpses into the secrets of the +most degraded savage types; the vast range of the Andes and the +Cordilleras, with their volcanic energy and their closely crowded +horizontal belts of climatic life; the South Sea Islands, those +paradises of the Pacific, Hesperian fables true, alike for the lover of +the picturesque and the biological student; Australia, that surviving +fragment of an extinct world, with an antiquated fauna whose archaic +character still closely recalls the European life of ten million years +back in the secondary epoch: all these and many others equally novel and +equally instructive passed in long alternating panorama before Darwin's +eyes, and left their images deeply photographed for ever after on the +lasting tablets of his retentive memory. That was the real great +university in which he studied nature and read for his degree. Our +evolutionist was now being educated.</p> + +<p>Throughout the whole of the journal of this long cruise, which Darwin +afterwards published in an enlarged form, it is impossible not to be +struck at every turn with the way in which his inquisitive mind again +and again recurs to the prime elements of those great problems towards +whose solution he afterwards so successfully pointed out the path. The +Darwinian ideas are all already there in the germ; the embryo form of +the 'Origin of Species' plays in and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> out on every page with the +quaintest elusiveness. We are always just on the very point of catching +it; and every now and again we do actually all but catch it in essence +and spirit, though ever still its bodily shape persistently evades us. +Questions of geographical distribution, of geological continuity, of the +influence of climate, of the modifiability of instinct, of the effects +of surrounding conditions, absorb the young observer's vivid interest at +every step, wherever he lands. He is all unconsciously collecting notes +and materials in profuse abundance for his great work; he is thinking in +rough outline the new thoughts which are hereafter to revolutionise the +thought of humanity.</p> + +<p>Five years are a great slice out of a man's life: those five years of +ceaseless wandering by sea and land were spent by Charles Darwin in +accumulating endless observations and hints for the settlement of the +profound fundamental problems in which he was even then so deeply +interested. The 'Beagle' sailed from England to the Cape de Verdes, and +already, even before she had touched her first land, the young +naturalist had observed with interest that the impalpably fine dust +which fell on deck contained no less than sixty-seven distinct organic +forms, two of them belonging to species peculiar to South America. In +some of the dust he found particles of stone so very big that they +measured 'above the thousandth of an inch square;' and after this fact, +says the keen student, 'one need not be surprised at the diffusion of +the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants.' Would +Erasmus Darwin have noticed these minute points and their implications +one wonders? Probably not. May we not see in the observation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> partly the +hereditary tendencies of Josiah Wedgwood towards minute investigation +and accuracy of detail, partly the influence of the scientific +time-wave, and the careful training under Professor Henslow? Erasmus +Darwin comes before us rather as the brilliant and ingenious amateur, +his grandson Charles as the instructed and fully equipped final product +of the scientific schools.</p> + +<p>At St. Paul's Rocks, once more, a mass of new volcanic peaks rising +abruptly from the midst of the Atlantic, the naturalist of the 'Beagle' +notes with interest that feather and dirt-feeding and parasitic insects +or spiders are the first inhabitants to take up their quarters on +recently formed oceanic islands. This problem of the peopling of new +lands, indeed, so closely connected with the evolution of new species, +necessarily obtruded itself upon his attention again and again during +his five years' cruise; and in some cases, especially that of the +Galapagos Islands, the curious insular faunas and floras which he +observed upon this trip, composed as they were of mere casual straylings +from adjacent shores, produced upon his mind a very deep and lasting +impression, whose traces one may without difficulty discern on every +second page of the 'Origin of Species.'</p> + +<p>On the last day of February, 1832, the 'Beagle' came to anchor in the +harbour of Bahia, and young Darwin caught sight for the first time of +the mutually strangling luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Nowhere on +earth are the finest conditions of tropical life more fully realised +than in the tangled depths of the great uncleared Brazilian forests, +which everywhere gird round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> like a natural palisade with their +impenetrable belt the narrow and laborious clearings of over-mastered +man. The rich alluvial silt of mighty river systems, the immemorial +manuring of the virgin soil, the fierce energy of an almost equatorial +sun, and the universal presence of abundant water, combine to make life +in that marvellous region unusually wealthy, varied, and crowded, so +that the struggle for existence is there perhaps more directly visible +to the seeing eye than in any other known portion of God's universe. +'Delight itself,' says Darwin in his journal, with that naive simplicity +which everywhere forms the chief charm of his direct and unaffected +literary style—'delight itself is a weak term to express the feelings +of a naturalist who for the first time has wandered by himself in a +Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the +parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the +foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled +me with admiration.' In truth, among those huge buttressed trunks, +overhung by the unbroken canopy of foliage on the vast spreading and +interlacing branches, festooned with lianas and drooping lichens, or +beautified by the pendent alien growth of perfumed orchids, Darwin's +mind must indeed have found congenial food for apt reflection, and +infinite opportunities for inference and induction. Prom the mere +picturesque point of view, indeed, the naturalist enjoys such sights as +this a thousand times more truly and profoundly than the mere casual +unskilled observer: for it is a shallow, self-flattering mistake of +vulgar and narrow minds to suppose that fuller knowledge and clearer +insight can destroy or impair the beauty of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> beautiful objects—as who +should imagine that a great painter appreciates the sunset less than a +silly boy or a sentimental schoolgirl. As a matter of fact, the +naturalist knows and admires a thousand exquisite points of detail in +every flower and every insect which only he himself and the true artist +can equally delight in. And a keen intellectual and æsthetic joy in the +glorious fecundity and loveliness of nature was everywhere present to +Darwin's mind. But, beyond and above even that, there was also the +architectonic delight of the great organiser in the presence of a noble +organised product: the peculiar pleasure felt only by the man in whose +broader soul all minor details fall at once into their proper place, as +component elements in one great consistent and harmonious whole—a +sympathetic pleasure akin to that with which an architect views the +interior of Ely and of Lincoln, or a musician listens to the linked +harmonies of the 'Messiah' and the 'Creation.' The scheme of nature was +now unfolding itself visibly and clearly before Charles Darwin's very +eyes.</p> + +<p>After eighteen memorable days spent with unceasing delight at Bahia, the +'Beagle' sailed again for Rio, where Darwin stopped for three months, to +improve his acquaintance with the extraordinary wealth of the South +American fauna and flora. Collecting insects was here his chief +occupation, and it is interesting to note even at this early period how +his attention was attracted by some of those strange alluring devices on +the part of the males for charming their partners which afterwards +formed the principal basis for his admirable theory of sexual selection, +so fully developed in the 'Descent of Man.' 'Several times,' he says, +'when a pair [of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> butterflies], probably male and female, were chasing +each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me; +and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a +toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.' In like manner he observed +here the instincts of tropical ants, the habits of phosphorescent +insects, and the horrid practice of that wasp-like creature, the sphex, +which stuffs the clay cells of its larvæ full of half-dead spiders and +writhing caterpillars, so stung with devilish avoidance of vital parts +as to be left quite paralysed yet still alive, as future food for the +developing grubs. Cases like these helped naturally to shake the young +biologist's primitive faith in the cheap and crude current theories of +universal beneficence, and to introduce that wholesome sceptical +reaction against received dogma which is the necessary ground-work and +due preparation for all great progressive philosophical thinking.</p> + +<p>In July they set sail again for Monte Video, where the important +question of climate and vegetation began to interest young Darwin's +mind. Uruguay is almost entirely treeless; and this curious phenomenon, +in a comparatively moist sub-tropical plain-land, struck him as a +remarkable anomaly, and set him speculating on its probable cause. +Australia, he remembered, was far more arid, and yet its interior was +everywhere covered by whole forests of quaint indigenous gum-trees. +Could it be that there were no trees adapted to the climate? As yet, the +true causes of geographical distribution had not clearly dawned upon +Darwin's mind; but that a young man of twenty-three should seriously +busy himself about such problems of ultimate causation at all is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> in +itself a sufficiently pointed and remarkable phenomenon. It was here, +too, that he first saw that curious animal, the Tucutuco, a true rodent +with the habits of a mole, which is almost always found in a blind +condition. With reference to this singular creature, there occurs in his +journal one of those interesting anticipatory passages which show the +rough workings of the distinctive evolutionary Darwinian concept in its +earlier stages. 'Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the +Tucutuco,' he writes, 'the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very +serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an +organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been +delighted with this fact, had he known it, when speculating (probably +with more truth than usual with him) on the gradually acquired blindness +of the Aspalax, a gnawer living under the ground, and of the Proteus, a +reptile living in dark caverns filled with water; in both of which +animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a +tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is +extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether +it is connected with the true optic nerve; its vision must certainly be +imperfect, though probably useful to the animal when it leaves its +burrow. In the Tucutuco, which I believe never comes to the surface of +the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and +useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the +animal: no doubt Lamarck would have said that the Tucutuco is now +passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus.' The passage is +instructive both as showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> that Darwin was already familiar with +Lamarck's writings, and as pointing out the natural course of his own +future development.</p> + +<p>For the two years from her arrival at Monte Video, the 'Beagle' was +employed in surveying the eastern coast of South America; and Darwin +enjoyed unusual opportunities for studying the geology, the zoology, and +the botany of the surrounding districts during all that period. It was a +suggestive field indeed for the young naturalist. The curious +relationship of the gigantic fossil armour-plated animals to the +existing armadillo, of the huge megatherium to the modern sloths, and of +the colossal ant-eaters to their degenerate descendants at the present +day, formed one of the direct inciting causes to the special study which +produced at last the 'Origin of Species.' In the Introduction to that +immortal work Darwin wrote, some twenty-seven years later, 'When on +board H.M.S. "Beagle" as naturalist, I was much struck with certain +facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South +America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past +inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the +latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin +of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of +our greatest philosophers.' And in the body of the work itself he refers +over and over again to numberless observations made by himself during +this period of rapid psychological development—observations on the +absence of recent geological formations along the lately upheaved South +American coast; on the strange extinction of the horse in La Plata; on +the affinities of the extinct and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> recent species; on the effect of +minute individual peculiarities in preserving life under special +circumstances; and on the influence of insects and blood-sucking bats in +determining the existence of the larger naturalised mammals in parts of +Brazil and the Argentine Republic. It was the epoch of wide collection +of facts, to be afterwards employed in brilliant generalisations: the +materials for the 'Origin of Species' were being slowly accumulated in +the numberless pigeon-holes of the Darwinian memory.</p> + +<p>Among the facts thus industriously gathered by Darwin in the two years +spent on the South American coast were several curious instincts of the +cuckoo-like molothrus, of the owl of the Pampas, and of the American +ostrich. A few sentences scattered here and there through this part of +the 'Naturalist's Journal' may well be extracted in the present place as +showing, better than any mere secondhand description could do, the slow +germinating process of the 'Origin of Species.' In speaking of the +toxodon, that strange extinct South American mammal, the young author +remarks acutely that, though in size it equalled the elephant and the +megatherium, the structure of its teeth shows it to be closely allied to +the ruminants, while several other details link it to the pachyderms, +and its aquatic peculiarities of ear and nostril approximate it rather +to the manatee and the dugong. 'How wonderfully,' he says, 'are the +different orders, at the present time so well separated, blended +together in different points of the structure of the toxodon.' We now +know that unspecialised ancestral forms always display this close union +of peculiarities afterwards separately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> developed in distinct species of +their later descendants.</p> + +<p>Still more pregnant with evolutionism in the bud is the prophetic remark +about a certain singular group of South American birds, 'This small +family is one of those which, from its varied relations to other +families, although at present offering only difficulties to the +systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand +scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings +have been created.' Of the agouti, once more, that true friend of the +desert, Darwin notes that it does not now range as far south as Port St. +Julian, though Wood in 1670 found it abundant there; and he asks +suggestively, 'What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and +rarely visited country, the range of an animal like this?' Again, when +speaking of the analogies between the extinct camel-like macrauchenia +and the modern guanaco, as well as of those between the fossil and +living species of South American rodents, he says, with even more +prophetic insight, 'This wonderful relationship in the same continent +between the dead and the living will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw +more light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth, and their +disappearance from it, than any other class of facts.' He was himself +destined in another thirty years to prove the truth of his own +vaticination.</p> + +<p>A yet more remarkable passage in the 'Journal of the "Beagle,"' though +entered under the account of events observed in the year 1834, must +almost certainly have been written somewhat later, and subsequently to +Darwin's first reading of Malthus's momentous work,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> 'The Principle of +Population,' which (as we know from his own pen) formed a cardinal point +in the great biologist's mental development. It runs as follows in the +published journal:<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—'We do not steadily bear in mind how profoundly +ignorant we are of the conditions of existence of every animal; nor do +we always remember that some check is constantly preventing the too +rapid increase of every organised being left in a state of nature. The +supply of food, on an average, remains constant; yet the tendency in +every animal to increase by propagation is geometrical, and its +surprising effects have nowhere been more astonishingly shown than in +the case of the European animals run wild during the last few centuries +in America. Every animal in a state of nature regularly breeds; yet in a +species long established any great increase in numbers is obviously +impossible, and must be checked by some means.' Aut Malthus aut +Diabolus. And surely here, if anywhere at all, we tremble on the very +verge of natural selection.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to follow young Darwin in detail through his +journey to Buenos Ayres, and up the Parana to Santa Fé, which occupied +the autumn of 1833. In the succeeding year he visited Patagonia and the +Falkland Islands, having previously made his first acquaintance with +savage life among the naked Fuegians of the extreme southern point of +the continent. Some of these interesting natives, taken to England by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +Captain Fitzroy on a former visit, had accompanied the 'Beagle' through +all her wanderings, and from them Darwin obtained that close insight +into the workings of savage human nature which he afterwards utilised +with such conspicuous ability in the 'Descent of Man.' Through +Magellan's Straits the party made their way up the coasts of Chili, and +Darwin had there an opportunity of investigating the geology and biology +of the Cordillera. The year 1835 was chiefly spent in that temperate +country and in tropical Peru; and as the autumn went on, the 'Beagle' +made her way across a belt of the Pacific to the Galapagos archipelago.</p> + +<p>Small and unimportant as are those little equatorial islands from the +geographical and commercial point of view, they will yet remain for ever +classic ground to the biologists of the future from their close +connection with the master-problems of the 'Origin of Species.' Here +more, perhaps, than anywhere else the naturalist of the 'Beagle' found +himself face to face in real earnest with the ultimate questions of +creation or evolution. A group of tiny volcanic islets, never joined to +any land, nor even united to one another, yet each possessing its own +special zoological features—the Galapagos roused to an extraordinary +degree the irresistible questionings of Darwin's mind. They contain no +frogs, and no mammal save a mouse, brought to them, no doubt, by some +passing ship. The only insects are beetles, which possess peculiar +facilities for being transported in the egg or grub across salt water +upon floating logs. There are two kinds of snake, one tortoise, and four +lizards; but, in striking contrast to this extreme poverty of +terrestrial forms, there are at least fifty-five distinct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> species of +native birds. A few snails complete the list. Now most of these animals, +though closely resembling the fauna of Ecuador, the nearest mainland, +are specifically distinct; they have varied (as we now know) from their +continental types owing to natural selection under the new circumstances +in which they have been placed. But Darwin had not yet evolved that +potent key to the great riddle of organic existence. He saw the problem, +but not its solution. 'Most of the organic productions,' he says +plainly, 'are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a +difference between the inhabitants of the different islands: yet all +show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from +that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in +width.... Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more +astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their +confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the +boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to +believe that within a period geologically recent the unbroken sea was +here spread out. Hence, both in space and time we seem to be brought +somewhat nearer to that great fact—that mystery of mysteries—the first +appearance of new beings on this earth.' Among the most singular of +these zoological facts may be mentioned the existence in the Galapagos +archipelago of a genus of gigantic and ugly lizard, the amblyrhyncus, +unknown elsewhere, but here assuming the forms of two species, the one +marine and the other terrestrial. In minuter points, the differences of +fauna and flora between the various islands are simply astounding, so as +to compel the idea that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> each form must necessarily have been developed +not merely for the group, but for the special island which it actually +inhabits. No wonder that Darwin should say in conclusion, 'One is +astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be +used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands; and still +more so at its diverse, yet analogous, action on points so near each +other.' Here again, in real earnest, the young observer trembles visibly +on the very verge of natural selection. In the 'Origin of Species' he +makes full use, more than once, of the remarkable facts he observed with +so much interest in these tiny isolated oceanic specks of the American +galaxy.</p> + +<p>From the Galapagos the 'Beagle' steered a straight course for Tahiti, +and Darwin then beheld with his own eyes the exquisite beauty of the +Polynesian Islands. Thence they sailed for New Zealand, the most truly +insular large mass of land in the whole world, supplied accordingly with +a fauna and flora of most surprising meagreness and poverty of species. +In the woods, our observer noted very few birds, and he remarks with +astonishment that so big an island—as large as Great Britain—should +not possess a single living indigenous mammal, save a solitary rat of +doubtful origin. Australia and Tasmania, with their antiquated and +stranded marsupial inhabitants, almost completed the round trip. Keeling +Island next afforded a basis for the future famous observations upon +coral reefs; and thence by Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, +Pernambuco, and the beautiful Azores, the 'Beagle' made her way home by +slow stages to England, which she reached in safety on October the 2nd, +1836. What an ideal education<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> for the future reconstructor of +biological science! He had now all his problems cut and dried, ready to +his hand, and he had nothing important left to do—except to sit down +quietly in his study, and proceed to solve them. Observation and +collection had given him one half the subject-matter of the 'Origin of +Species;' reflection and Malthus were to give him the other half. Never +had great mind a nobler chance; never, again, had noble chance a great +mind better adapted by nature and heredity to make the most of it. The +man was not wanting to the opportunity, nor was the opportunity wanting +to the man. Organism and environment fell together into perfect harmony; +and so, by a lucky combination of circumstances, the secret of the ages +was finally wrung from not unwilling nature by the far-seeing and +industrious volunteer naturalist of the 'Beagle' expedition.</p> + +<p>It would be giving a very false idea of the interests which stirred +Charles Darwin's mind during his long five years' voyage, however, if we +were to dwell exclusively upon the biological side of his numerous +observations on that memorable cruise. Ethnology, geology, oceanic +phenomena, the height of the snow-line, the climate of the Antarctic +islands, the formation of icebergs, the transport of boulders, the +habits and manners engendered by slavery, all almost equally aroused in +their own way the young naturalist's vivid interest. Nowhere do we get +the faintest trace of narrow specialism; nowhere are we cramped within +the restricted horizon of the mere vulgar beetle-hunter and +butterfly-catcher. The biologist of the 'Beagle' had taken the whole +world of science for his special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> province. Darwin's mind with all its +vastness was not, indeed, profoundly analytical. The task of working out +the psychological and metaphysical aspects of evolution fell rather to +the great organising and systematising intellect of Herbert Spencer. But +within the realm of material fact, and of the widest possible inferences +based upon such fact, Darwin's keen and comprehensive spirit ranged +freely over the whole illimitable field of nature. 'No one,' says Buckle +with unwonted felicity, 'can have a firm grasp of any science if, by +confining himself to it, he shuts out the light of analogy. He may, no +doubt, work at the details of his subject; he may be useful in adding to +its facts; he will never be able to enlarge its philosophy. For the +philosophy of every department depends on its connection with other +departments, and must therefore be sought at their points of contact. It +must be looked for in the place where they touch and coalesce: it lies, +not in the centre of each science, but on the confines and margin.' This +profound truth Darwin fully and instinctively realised. It was the +all-embracing catholicity of his manifold interests that raised him into +the greatest pure biologist of all time, and that enabled him to +co-ordinate with such splendid results the raw data of so many distinct +and separate sciences. And even as early as the days of the cruise in +the 'Beagle,' that innate catholicity had already asserted itself in +full vigour. Now it is a party of Gauchos throwing the bola that engages +for the moment his eager attention; and now again it is a group of +shivering Fuegians, standing naked with their long hair streaming in the +wind on a snowy promontory of their barren coast.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> Here he examines the +tubular lightning-holes melted in the solid rock of Maldonado by the +electric energy; and there he observes the moving boulder-streams that +course like torrents down the rugged corries of the Falkland Islands. At +one time he works upon the unstudied geology of the South American +Pampas; at another, he inspects the now classical lagoon and narrow +fringing reef of the Keeling archipelago. Everywhere he sees whatever of +most noteworthy in animate or inanimate nature is there to be seen; and +everywhere he draws from it innumerable lessons, to be applied hereafter +to the special field of study upon which his intense and active energies +were finally concentrated. It is not too much to say, indeed, that it +was the voyage of the 'Beagle' which gave us in the last resort the +'Origin of Species' and its great fellow the 'Descent of Man.'</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The full narrative was first given to the world in 1839, +some three years after Darwin's return to England, so that much of it +evidently represents the results of his maturer thinking and reading on +the facts collected during his journey round the world.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<h2>THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION.</h2> + + +<p>When Charles Darwin landed in England on his return from the voyage of +the 'Beagle' he was nearly twenty-eight. When he published the first +edition of the 'Origin of Species' he was over fifty. The intermediate +years, though much occupied by many minor works of deep specialist +scientific importance, were still mainly devoted to collecting material +for the one crowning effort of his life, the chief monument of his great +co-ordinating and commanding intellect—the settlement of the question +of organic evolution.</p> + +<p>'There is one thing,' says Professor Fiske, 'which a man of original +scientific or philosophical genius in a rightly ordered world should +never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to earn a +living; for that is a wretched waste of energy, in which the highest +intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment, and runs the +risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.' From this unhappy +necessity Charles Darwin, like his predecessor Lyell, was luckily free. +He settled down early in a home of his own, and worked away at his own +occupations, with no sordid need for earning the day's bread, but with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +perfect leisure to carry out the great destiny for which the chances of +the universe had singled him out. His subsequent history is the history +of his wonderful and unique contributions to natural science.</p> + +<p>The first thing to be done, of course, was the arrangement and +classification of the natural history spoils gathered during the cruise, +and the preparation of his own journal of the voyage for publication. +The strict scientific results of the trip were described in the 'Zoology +of the Voyage of the "Beagle,"' the different parts of which were +undertaken by rising men of science of the highest distinction, under +Charles Darwin's own editorship. Sir Richard Owen took in hand the +fossil mammals; Waterhouse arranged their living allies; Gould discussed +the birds, Jenyns the fish, and Bell the amphibians and reptiles. In +this vast co-operative publication Darwin thus obtained the assistance +of many among the most competent specialists in the England of his day, +and learned to understand his own collections by the light thrown upon +them from the focussed lamps of the most minute technical learning. As +for the journal, it was originally published with the general account of +the cruise by Captain Fitzroy in 1839, but was afterwards set forth in a +separate form under the title of 'A Naturalist's Voyage Round the +World.'</p> + +<p>But while Darwin was thus engaged in arranging and classifying the +animals and plants he had brought home with him, the germs of those +inquiring ideas about the origin of species which we have already +observed in his account of the voyage were quickening into fresh life +within him. As he ruminated at his leisure over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> the results of his +accumulations, he was beginning to work upon the great problem with the +definite and conscious resolution of solving it. 'On my return home, it +occurred to me,' he says, 'in 1837, that something might perhaps be made +out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all +sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five +years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up +some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the +conclusions that then seemed to me probable; from that period to the +present day [1859] I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that +I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them +to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.'</p> + +<p>So Darwin wrote at fifty. The words are weighty and well worthy of +consideration. They give us in a nutshell the true secret of Darwin's +success in compelling the attention and assent of his contemporaries to +his completed theory. For speculations and hypotheses like those of +Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin, however brilliant and luminous they may be, +the hard, dry, scientific mind cares as a rule less than nothing. Men of +genius and insight like Goethe and Oken may, indeed, seize greedily upon +the pregnant suggestion; their intellects are already attuned by nature +to its due reception and assimilation; but the mere butterfly-catchers +and plant-hunters of the world, with whom after all rests ultimately the +practical acceptance or rejection of such a theory, can only be +convinced by long and patient accumulations of facts, by infinite +instances and endless examples, by exhaustive surveys<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> of the whole +field of nature in a thousand petty details piecemeal. They have to be +driven by repeated beating into the right path. Everywhere they fancy +they see the loophole of an objection, which must be carefully closed +beforehand against them with anticipatory argument, as we close hedges +by the wayside against the obtrusive donkey with a cautious bunch of +thorny brambles. Even if Charles Darwin had hit upon the fundamental +idea of natural selection, and had published it, as Wallace did, in the +form of a mere splendid <i>aperçu</i>, he would never have revolutionised the +world of biology. When the great discovery was actually promulgated, it +was easy enough to win the assent of philosophical thinkers like Herbert +Spencer; easy enough, even, to gain the ready adhesion of non-biological +but kindred minds, like Leslie Stephen's and John Morley's; those might +all, perhaps, have been readily convinced by far less heavy and crushing +artillery than that so triumphantly marshalled together in the 'Origin +of Species.' But in order to command the slow and grudging adhesion of +the rank and file of scientific workers, the 'hodmen of science,' as +Professor Huxley calls them, it was needful to bring together an +imposing array of closely serried facts, to secure every post in the +rear before taking a single step onward, and to bring to bear upon every +antagonist the exact form of argument with which he was already +thoroughly familiar. It was by carefully pursuing these safe and +cautious philosophical tactics that Charles Darwin gained his great +victory. Where others were pregnant, he was cogent. He met the +Dryasdusts of science on their own ground, and he put them fairly to +flight with their own weapons.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> More than that, he brought them all over +in the long run as deserters into his own camp, and converted them from +doubtful and suspicious foes into warm adherents of the evolutionary +banner.</p> + +<p>Moreover, fortunately for the world, Darwin's own mind was essentially +one of the inductive type. If a great deductive thinker and speculator +like Herbert Spencer had hit upon the self-same idea of survival of the +fittest, he might have communicated it to a small following of receptive +disciples, who would have understood it and accepted it, on <i>a priori</i> +grounds alone, and gradually passed it on to the grades beneath them; +but he would never have touched the slow and cautious elephantine +intellect of the masses. The common run of mankind are not deductive; +they require to have everything made quite clear to them by example and +instance. The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule +congenitally incapable of appreciating the superior logical certitude of +the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square +on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until +they have measured and weighed as well as they are able by rude +experimental devices a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular +paper. It was a great gain, therefore, that the task of reconstructing +the course of organic evolution should fall to the lot of a highly +trained and masterly intelligence of the inductive order. Darwin had +first to convince himself, and then he could proceed to convince the +world. He set about the task with characteristic patience and +thoroughness. No man that ever lived possessed in a more remarkable +degree than he did the innate capacity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> for taking trouble. For five +years, as a mere preliminary, he accumulated facts in immense variety, +and then for the first time and in the vaguest possible way he—'allowed +himself to speculate.' That brings us down to the year 1842, when the +first notes of the 'Origin of Species' must have been tentatively +committed to paper. It was in 1859 that the first edition of the +complete work was given to the world. Compare this with the case of +Newton, who similarly kept his grand idea of gravitation for many years +in embryo, until more exact measurements of the moon's mass and distance +should enable him to verify it to his own satisfaction.</p> + +<p>One other item of immense importance in the genesis of the full +Darwinian doctrine deserves mention here—I mean, the exact moment of +time occupied by Charles Darwin in the continuous history of scientific +thought. A generation or two earlier, in Erasmus Darwin's days, biology +had not yet arrived at the true classification of animals and plants +upon an essentially hereditary basis. The Linnæan arrangement, then +universally accepted, was wholly artificial in its main features; it +distributed species without regard to their fundamental likenesses of +structure and organisation. But the natural system of Jussieu and De +Candolle, by arranging plants into truly related groups, made possible +the proofs of an order of affiliation in the vegetable kingdom; while +Cuvier's similar reconstruction of the animal world gave a like foothold +to the evolutionary philosopher in the other great department of organic +nature. The recognition of kinship between the various members of the +same family necessarily preceded the establishment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> of a regular +genealogical theory of life in its entirety.</p> + +<p>Though we are here concerned mainly with Charles Darwin the thinker and +writer—not with Charles Darwin the husband and father—a few words of +explanation as to his private life must necessarily be added at the +present point, before we pass on to consider the long, slow, and +cautious brewing of that wonderful work, the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +returned home from the voyage of the 'Beagle' at the end of the year +1836. Soon after, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, no doubt +through the influence of his friend Lyell, who was quite enthusiastic +over his splendid geological investigations on the rate of elevation in +the Pampas and the Cordillera. Acting on Lyell's advice, too, he +determined to seek no official appointment, but to devote himself +entirely for the rest of his life to the pursuit of science. In 1838, at +the age of twenty-nine, he read before the Geological Society his paper +on the 'Connection of Volcanic Phenomena with the Elevation of Mountain +Chains,' when, says Lyell admiringly in a private letter, 'he opened +upon De la Beche, Phillips, and others'—the veterans of the +science—'his whole battery of the earthquakes and volcanoes of the +Andes.' Shortly after, the audacious young man was appointed secretary +to the Geological Society, a post which he filled when the voyage of the +'Beagle' was first published in 1839.</p> + +<p>In the early part of that same year, the rising naturalist took to +himself a wife from one of the houses to which he himself owed no small +part of his conspicuous greatness. His choice fell upon his cousin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +Miss Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of Maer Hall; and, +after three years of married life in London, he settled at last at Down +House, near Orpington, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed +his time among his conservatories and his pigeons, his garden and his +fowls, with his children growing up quietly beside him, and the great +thinking world of London within easy reach of a few minutes' journey. +His private means enabled him to live the pleasant life of an English +country gentleman, and devote himself unremittingly to the pursuit of +science. Ill health, indeed, interfered sadly with his powers of work; +but system and patience did wonders during his working days, which were +regularly parcelled out between study and recreation, and utilised and +economised in the very highest possible degree. Early to bed and early +to rise, wandering unseen among the lanes and paths, or riding slowly on +his favourite black cob, the great naturalist passed forty years happily +and usefully at Down, where all the village knew and loved him. A man of +singular simplicity and largeness of heart, Charles Darwin never really +learnt to know his own greatness. And that charming innocence and +ignorance of his real value made the value itself all the greater. His +moral qualities, indeed, were no less admirable and unique in their way +than his intellectual faculties. To that charming candour and delightful +unostentatiousness which everybody must have noticed in his published +writings, he united in private life a kindliness of disposition, a width +of sympathy, and a ready generosity which made him as much beloved by +his friends as he was admired and respected by all Europe. The very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +servants who came beneath his roof stopped there for the most part +during their whole lifetime. In his earlier years at Down, the quiet +Kentish home was constantly enlivened by the visits of men like Lyell, +Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and Wollaston. During his later days, it was +the Mecca of a world-wide scientific and philosophic pilgrimage, where +all the greatest men our age has produced sought at times the rare +honour of sitting before the face of the immortal master. But to the +very last Darwin himself never seemed to discover that he was anything +more than just an average man of science among his natural peers.</p> + +<p>Shortly after Darwin went to Down he began one long and memorable +experiment, which in itself casts a flood of light upon his patient and +painstaking method of inquiry. Two years before, he had read at the +Geological Society a paper on the 'Formation of Mould,' which more than +thirty years later he expanded into his famous treatise on the 'Action +of Earthworms.' His uncle and father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, suggested +to him that the apparent sinking of stones on the surface might really +be due to earthworm castings. So, as soon as he had some land of his own +to experiment upon, he began, in 1842, to spread broken chalk over a +field at Down, in which, twenty-nine years later, in 1871, a trench was +dug to test the results. What other naturalist ever waited so long and +so patiently to discover the upshot of a single experiment? Is it +wonderful that a man who worked like that should succeed, not by faith +but by logical power, in removing mountains?</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, we do not know the exact date when Darwin first read +Malthus. But that the perusal of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> that remarkable book formed a crisis +and turning-point in his mental development we know from his own +distinct statement in a letter to Haeckel, prefixed to the brilliant +German evolutionist's 'History of Creation.' 'It seemed to me probable,' +says Darwin, speaking of his own early development, 'that allied species +were descended from a common ancestor. But during several years I could +not conceive how each form could have been modified so as to become +admirably adapted to its place in nature. I began therefore to study +domesticated animals and cultivated plants, and after a time perceived +that man's power of selecting and breeding from certain individuals was +the most powerful of all means in the production of new races. Having +attended to the habits of animals and their relations to the surrounding +conditions, I was able to realise the severe struggle for existence to +which all organisms are subjected; and my geological observations had +allowed me to appreciate to a certain extent the duration of past +geological periods. With my mind thus prepared I fortunately happened to +read Malthus's "Essay on Population" and the idea of natural selection +through the struggle for existence at once occurred to me. Of all the +subordinate points in the theory, the last which I understood was the +cause of the tendency in the descendants from a common progenitor to +diverge in character.'</p> + +<p>It is impossible, indeed, to overrate the importance of Malthus, viewed +as a schoolmaster to bring men to Darwin, and to bring Darwin himself to +the truth. Without the 'Essay on the Principle of Population' it is +quite conceivable that we should never have had the 'Origin of Species' +or the 'Descent of Man.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the same time, Darwin had not been idle in other departments of +scientific work. Side by side with his collections for his final effort +he had been busy on his valuable treatise upon Coral Reefs, in which he +proved, mainly from his own observations on the Keeling archipelago, +that atolls owe their origin to a subsidence of the supporting +ocean-floor, the rate of upward growth of the reefs keeping pace on the +whole with the gradual depression of the sea-bottom. 'No more admirable +example of scientific method,' says Professor Geikie forty years later, +'was ever given to the world; and even if he had written nothing else, +this treatise alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of +investigators of nature.' But, from our present psychological and +historical point of view, as a moment in the development of Darwin's +influence, and therefore of the evolutionary impulse in general, it +possesses a still greater and more profound importance, because the work +in which the theory is unfolded forms a perfect masterpiece of thorough +and comprehensive inductive method, and gained for its author a +well-deserved reputation as a sound and sober scientific inquirer. The +acquisition of such a reputation, afterwards increased by the +publication of the monograph on the Family Cirripedia (in 1851), proved +of immense use to Charles Darwin in the fierce battle which was to rage +around the unconscious body of the 'Origin of Species.' To be 'sound' is +everywhere of incalculable value; to have approved oneself to the slow +and cautious intelligence of the Philistine classes is a mighty spear +and shield for a strong man; but in England, and above all in scientific +England, it is absolutely indispensable to the thinker who would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +accomplish any great revolution. Soundness is to the world of science +what respectability is to the world of business—the <i>sine qua non</i> for +successfully gaining even a hearing from established personages.</p> + +<p>To read the book on Coral Reefs is indeed to take a lesson of the +deepest value in applied inductive canons. Every fact is duly +marshalled: every conclusion is drawn by the truest and most legitimate +process from careful observation or crucial experiment. Bit by bit, +Darwin shows most admirably that, through gradual submergence, fringing +reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and these again into atolls or +lagoon islands; and incidentally he throws a vivid light on the slow +secular movements upward or downward for ever taking place in the +world's crust. But the value of the work as a geological record, great +as it is, is as nothing compared with its value as a training exercise +in inductive logic. Darwin was now learning by experience how to use his +own immense powers.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the environment too had been gradually moving. In 1832, the +year after young Darwin set out upon his cruise, Lyell published the +first edition of his 'Principles of Geology,' establishing once for all +the uniformitarian concept of that branch of science. In 1836, the year +when he returned, Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora of North America,' had +accepted within certain cramping limits the idea that 'all species might +once have been varieties, and that many varieties are gradually becoming +species by assuming constant and peculiar characters.' Haldeman in +Boston, and Grant at University College, London, were teaching from +their professorial chairs the self-same novel and revolutionary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +doctrine. At last, in 1844, Robert Chambers published anonymously his +famous and much-debated 'Vestiges of Creation,' which brought down the +question of evolution <i>versus</i> creation from the senate of <i>savants</i> to +the arena of the mere general public, and set up at once a universal +fever of inquiry into the mysterious question of the origin of species. +Chambers himself was a man rather of general knowledge and some native +philosophical insight than of any marked scientific accuracy or depth. +His work in its original form displayed comparatively little +acquaintance with the vast groundwork of the question at +issue—zoological, botanical, geological, and so forth—and in Charles +Darwin's own opinion showed 'a great want of scientific caution.' But +its graphic style, its vivid picturesqueness, and to the world at large +the startling novelty of its brilliant and piquant suggestions, made it +burst at once into an unwonted popularity for a work of so distinctly +philosophical a character. In nine years it leaped rapidly through no +less than ten successive editions, and remained until the publication of +the 'Origin of Species' the chief authoritative exponent in England of +the still struggling evolutionary principle.</p> + +<p>The 'Vestiges of Creation' may be succinctly described as Lamarck and +water, the watery element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion +(<i>more Scotico</i>) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the +physical universe. Chambers himself, in his latest edition (before the +book was finally killed by the advent of Darwinism), thus briefly +describes his main concepts: 'The several series of animated beings, +from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, +under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> the providence of God, the results, <i>first</i>, of an impulse which +has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite +times, by generation, through grades of organisation, terminating in the +highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, +and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to +be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; <i>second</i>, of +another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course +of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external +circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric +agencies.' Now it is clear at once that these two supposed 'impulses' +are really quite miraculous in their essence. They do not help us at all +to a distinct physical and realisable conception of any natural agency +whereby species became differentiated one from the other. They lay the +whole burden of species-making upon a single primordial supernatural +impetus, imparted to the first living germ by the will of the Creator, +and acting ever since continuously it is true, but none the less +miraculously for all that. For many creations Chambers substitutes one +single long creative nisus: where Darwin saw natural selection, his +Scotch predecessor saw a <i>deus ex machina</i>, helping on the course of +organic development by a constant but unseen interference from above. He +supposed evolution to be predetermined by some intrinsic and externally +implanted proclivity. In short, Chambers's theory is Lamarck's +theologised, and spoilt in the process.</p> + +<p>The book had nevertheless a most prodigious and perfectly unprecedented +success. The secret of its authorship was keenly debated and jealously +kept. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> most ridiculous surmises as to its anonymous origin were +everywhere afloat. Some attributed it to Thackeray, and some to Prince +Albert, some to Lyell, some to Sir John Herschel, and some to Charles +Darwin himself. Obscurantists thought it a wicked book; 'intellectual' +people thought it an advanced book. As a matter of fact it was neither +the one nor the other. It was just a pale and colourless transcript of +the old familiar teleological Lamarckism. Yet it did good in its +generation. The public at large were induced by its ephemeral vogue to +interest themselves in a question to which they had never previously +given even a passing thought, though more practised biologists of +evolutionary tendencies were grieved at heart that evolution should +first have been popularly presented to the English world under so +unscientific, garbled, and mutilated a form. From the philosophic side, +Herbert Spencer found 'this ascription of organic evolution to some +aptitude naturally possessed by organisms or miraculously imposed upon +them' to be 'one of those explanations which explain nothing—a shaping +of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge. The cause assigned,' he +says, 'is not a true cause—not a cause assimilable to known causes—not +a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous effects. It is a +cause unrepresentable in thought: one of those illegitimate symbolic +conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real +conception.' From the scientific side, on the other hand, Darwin felt +sadly the inaccuracy and want of profound technical knowledge everywhere +displayed by the anonymous author. These things might naturally cause +the enemy to blaspheme.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> No worse calamity, indeed, can happen to a +great truth than for its defence to be intrusted to inefficient hands. +Nevertheless, long after, in the 'Origin of Species,' the great +naturalist wrote with generous appreciation of the 'Vestiges of +Creation,' 'In my own opinion it has done excellent service in this +country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and +in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.'</p> + +<p>Still Darwin gave no sign. A flaccid, cartilaginous, unphilosophic +evolutionism had full possession of the field for the moment, and +claimed, as it were, to be the genuine representative of the young and +vigorous biological creed, while he himself was in truth the real heir +to all the honours of the situation. He was in possession of the +master-key which alone could unlock the bars that opposed the progress +of evolution, and still he waited. He could afford to wait. He was +diligently collecting, amassing, investigating; eagerly reading every +new systematic work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, +every record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract from the +dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of implicit value might swell +the definite co-ordinated series of notes in his own commonplace books +for the now distinctly contemplated 'Origin of Species.' His way was to +make all sure behind him, to summon up all his facts in irresistible +array, and never to set out upon a public progress until he was secure +against all possible attacks of the ever-watchful and alert enemy in the +rear. Few men would have had strength of mind enough to resist the +temptation offered by the publication of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and +the extraordinary success attained by so flabby a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> presentation of the +evolutionary case: Darwin resisted it, and he did wisely.</p> + +<p>We may, however, take it for granted, I doubt not, that it was the +appearance and success of Chambers's invertebrate book which induced +Darwin, in 1844 (the year of its publication), to enlarge his short +notes 'into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to him +probable.' This sketch he showed to Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, no +doubt as a precaution to ensure his own claim of priority against any +future possible competitor. And having thus eased his mind for the +moment, he continued to observe, to read, to devour 'Transactions,' to +collate instances, with indefatigable persistence for fifteen years +longer. If any man mentally measures out fifteen years of his own life, +and bethinks him of how long a space it seems when thus deliberately +pictured, he will be able to realise a little more definitely—but only +a little—how profound was the patience, the self-denial, the +single-mindedness of Darwin's intense search after the ultimate truths +of natural science.</p> + +<p>What was the sketch that he thus committed to paper in 1844, and +submitted to the judgment of his friend Hooker? It was the germ of the +theory of natural selection. According to that theory, organic +development is due to the survival of the fittest among innumerable +variations, good, bad, and indifferent, from one or more parent stocks. +Darwin's reading of Malthus had suggested to him (apparently as early as +the date of publication of the 'Naturalist's Journal') the idea that +every species of plant and animal must always be producing a far greater +number of seeds, eggs, germs, or young offspring than could possibly be +needed for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> the maintenance of the average number of the species. Of +these young, by far the greater number must always perish from +generation to generation, for want of space, of food, of air, of raw +material. The survivors in each brood must be those naturally best +adapted for survival. The many would be eaten, starved, overrun, or +crowded out; the few that survive would be those that possessed any +special means of defence against aggressors, any special advantage for +escaping starvation, any special protection against overrunning or +overcrowding foes. Animals and plants, Darwin found on inquiry and +investigation, tended to vary under diverse circumstances from the +parent or parents that originally produced them. These variations were +usually infinitesimal in amount, but sometimes more considerable or even +striking. If any particular variation tended in any way to preserve the +life of the creatures that exhibited it, beyond the average of their +like competitors, that variation would in the long run survive, and the +individuals that possessed it, being thus favoured in the struggle for +existence, would replace the less adapted form from which they sprang. +Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of +the calculus of population to the wide facts of universal life.</p> + +<p>In one sense, indeed, it may be said that, given Malthus on the one hand +and the Lamarckian evolutionism on the other, some great man somewhere +must sooner or later, almost of necessity, have combined the two, and +hit out the doctrine of natural selection as we actually know it. Quite +so; but then the point is just this: Darwin <i>was</i> the great man in +question; he <i>did</i> the work which in the very essence of things some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +such great man was naturally and inevitably predestined to do. You can +always easily manage to get on without any particular great man, +provided, of course, you have ready to hand another equally able great +man by whom to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how many +ordinary naturalists possess the width of mind and universality of +interest which would prompt them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest a politico-economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus? How +many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to perceive the +ensuing biological implications? How many, having seen them, have the +skill and the patience to work up the infinite chaos of botanical and +zoological detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the 'Origin +of Species'? Merely to have caught at the grand idea is in itself no +small achievement; others did so and deserve all honour for their +insight; but to flesh it out with all the minute care and conclusive +force of Darwin's masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler +monument of human endeavour.</p> + +<p>During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, however, Darwin's pen was by +no means idle. In the first-named year he published his 'Geological +Observations on Volcanic Islands'—part of the 'Beagle' exploration +series; in 1846 he followed this up by his 'Geological Observations on +South America;' in 1851 he gave to the world his monograph on 'Recent +Barnacles;' and in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same +family. But all these works of restricted interest remained always +subsidiary to the one great central task of his entire lifetime, the +preparation of his projected volume on the Origin of Species.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>All through the middle decades of the century Darwin continued to labour +at his vast accumulation of illustrative facts; and side by side with +his continuous toil, outside opinion kept paving the way for the final +acceptance of his lucid ideas. The public was buying and reading all the +time its ten editions of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It was slowly +digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic +theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a +past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively +established. It was getting accustomed to statements like those of the +younger St. Hilaire, in 1850, that specific characters may be modified +by changes in the environing conditions, and that the modifications thus +produced may often be of generic value—may make a difference so great +that we must regard the product not merely as belonging to a distinct +species, but even to a distinct genus or higher kind. In 1852 Herbert +Spencer published in the 'Leader' his remarkable essay, contrasting the +theories of creation and evolution, as applied to organic beings, with +all the biting force of his profound intelligence; and in 1855, the same +encyclopædic philosopher put forth the first rough sketch of his +'Principles of Psychology,' in which he took the lead in treating the +phenomena of mind from the point of view of gradual development. In that +extraordinary work, the philosopher of evolution traced the origin of +all mental powers and faculties by slow gradations from the very +simplest subjective elements. The 'Principles of Psychology' preceded +the 'Origin of Species' by nearly five years; the first collected volume +of Mr. Spencer's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> essays preceded Darwin's work by some twelve months. +Baden-Powell's essay on the 'Philosophy of Creation' (much debated and +condemned in ecclesiastical circles), and Professor Owen's somewhat +contradictory utterances on the nature of types and archetypal ideas, +also helped to keep alive interest in the problem of origins up to the +very moment of the final appearance of Darwin's great and splendid +solution.</p> + +<p>It is interesting during these intermediate years to watch from time to +time the occasional side-hints of Darwin's activity and of the interest +it aroused among his scientific contemporaries. In 1854, for example, +Sir Charles Lyell notes, after an evening at Darwin's, how Sir Joseph +Hooker astonished him with an account of that strange orchid, Catasetum, +which bears three totally distinct kinds of flowers on the same plant; +'It will figure,' he says, 'in C. Darwin's book on species, with many +other "ugly facts," as Hooker, clinging like me to the orthodox faith, +calls these and other abnormal vagaries.' On a similar occasion, a +little later, Lyell asks, after meeting 'Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston +at Darwin's,' 'After all, did we not come from an ourang?' Last of all, +in 1857, Darwin himself writes an anticipatory letter to his American +friend, Asa Gray, in which he mentions 'six points'—the cardinal +conceptions of the 'Origin of Species.' His book is now fairly under +weigh; he speaks of it himself to acquaintance and correspondents as an +acknowledged project.</p> + +<p>Events were growing ripe for the birth. A lucky accident precipitated +its parturition in the course of the year 1858.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<h2>'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.'</h2> + + +<p>The accident came in this wise.</p> + +<p>Alfred Russel Wallace, a young Welsh biologist, went out at twenty-four, +in 1848, to the Amazons River, in company with Bates (the author of 'The +Naturalist on the Amazons'), to collect birds and butterflies, and to +study tropical life in the richest region of equatorial America. Like +all other higher zoologists of their time, the two young explorers were +deeply interested in the profound questions of origin and metamorphosis, +and of geographical distribution, and in the letters that passed between +them before they started they avowed to one another that the object of +their quest was a solution of the pressing biological enigma of creation +or evolution. Starting with fresh hopes and a few pounds in pocket, on +an old, worn-out, and unseaworthy slave-trader, they often discussed +these deep problems of life and nature together upon the Sargasso sea, +or among the palms and lianas of the Brazilian woodlands. The air was +thick with whiffs and foretastes of evolutionism, and the two budding +naturalists of the Amazons expedition had inhaled them eagerly with +every breath. They saw among the mimicking organisms of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> equatorial +zone strange puzzles to engage their deepest attention; they recognised +in the veins and spots that diversified the filmy membranes of insects' +wings the hieroglyphs of nature, writing as on a tablet for them to +decipher the story of the slow modification of species. In 1852—the +year when Herbert Spencer in England published his essay on the +'Development Hypothesis,' and when Naudin in France put forth his bold +and able paper on the 'Origin of Species'—Wallace once more returned to +Europe, and gave to the world his interesting 'Travels on the Amazons +and the Rio Negro.' Two years later the indefatigable traveller set out +a second time on a voyage of tropical exploration, among the islands of +the Malay archipelago, and for eight years he wandered about in Malay +huts and remote islets, gathering in solitude and isolation the enormous +store of minute facts which he afterwards lavished with so prodigal a +hand upon 'Tropical Nature,' and the 'Geographical Distribution of +Animals.'</p> + +<p>While Wallace was still at Amboyna, he sent home in 1858 a striking +memoir, addressed to Darwin, with a request that he would forward it to +Sir Charles Lyell, for presentation to the Linnean Society. Darwin +opened and read his brother naturalist's paper, and found to his +surprise that it contained his own theory of natural selection, not +worked out in detail, as he himself was working it out, but still +complete in spirit and essence, with no important portion of the central +idea lacking to its full rotundity of conception. A jealous man would +have thrown obstacles in the way of publication; but both Darwin and +Wallace were born superior to the meannesses of jealousy. The elder +naturalist commended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> his young rival's paper at once to Sir Charles +Lyell, who sent it on immediately to the Linnean Society.</p> + +<p>But Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, both of whom knew of +Darwin's work, thought it advisable that he should publish, in the +'Journal' of the Society, a few extracts from his own manuscripts, side +by side with Wallace's paper. Darwin, therefore, selected some essential +passages for the purpose from his own long-gathered and voluminous +notes, and the two contributions were read together before the Society +on July the 1st, 1858. That double communication marks the date of birth +of modern evolutionism. It is to the eternal credit of both thinkers +that each accepted his own true position with regard to the great +discovery in perfect sincerity. The elder naturalist never strove for a +moment to press his own claim to priority against the younger: the +younger, with singular generosity and courtesy, waived his own claim to +divide the honours of discovery in favour of the elder. Not one word +save words of fraternal admiration and cordial appreciation ever passed +the lips of either with regard to the other.</p> + +<p>The distinctive notion of natural selection, indeed, like all true and +fruitful ideas, had more than once flashed for a moment across the +penetrating mind of more than one independent investigator. As early as +1813, Dr. Wells, the famous author of the theory of dew, applied that +particular conception to the single case of the production of special +races among mankind.</p> + +<p>'Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first +few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa,' he +wrote, 'some one would be better fitted than the others to bear the +diseases of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> the country. This race would consequently multiply, while +the others would decrease; not only from their inability to sustain the +attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending with their +more vigorous neighbours.... The same disposition to form varieties +still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time +occur; and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this +would at last become the most prevalent, if not the only race in the +country.' Here we have not merely the radical concept of natural +selection, but also the subordinate idea of its exertion upon what +Darwin calls 'spontaneous variations.' What is wanting in the paper is +the application of the faintly descried law to the facts and +circumstances of general biology: Wells saw only a particular instance, +where Darwin and Wallace more vividly perceived a universal principle. +Again, in 1831, Mr. Patrick Matthew in that singular appendix to his +book on naval timber actually enunciates the same idea, applied this +time to the whole of nature, in words sometimes almost identical with +Darwin's own. 'As nature in all her modifications of life,' says this +unconscious discoverer, '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.... The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised life +may, in part, be traced to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> 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 thousandfold) 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.' Of the ideas expressed in these paragraphs, and +others which preceded them, Darwin himself rightly observes, 'He gives +precisely the same view on the origin of species as that propounded by +Mr. Wallace and myself. He clearly saw the full force of the principle +of natural selection.'</p> + +<p>In 1852, once more, so eminent and confirmed an evolutionist as Mr. +Herbert Spencer himself had hit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> upon a glimpse of the same great truth, +strange to say without perceiving the width and scope of its +implications. 'All mankind,' he wrote in that year in an essay on +population in the 'Westminster Review,' 'in turn subject themselves more +or less to the discipline described; they either may or may not advance +under it; but, in the nature of things, only those who <i>do</i> advance +under it eventually survive. For, necessarily, families and races whom +this increasing difficulty of getting a living which excess of fertility +entails does not stimulate to improvements in production.... are on the +high road to extinction; and must ultimately be supplanted by those whom +the pressure does so stimulate.... And here, indeed, without further +illustration, it will be seen that premature death, under all its forms, +and from all its causes, cannot fail to work in the same direction. For +as those prematurely carried off must, in the average of cases, be those +in whom the power of self-preservation is the least, it unavoidably +follows that those left behind to continue the race must be those in +whom the power of self-preservation is the greatest, must be the select +of their generation.' In this striking pre-Darwinian passage we have a +partial perception of what Mr. Spencer afterwards described as the +survival of the fittest; but, as our great philosopher himself remarks, +it 'shows how near one may be to a great generalisation without seeing +it.' For not only does Mr. Spencer, like Wells before him, limit the +application of the principle to the case of humanity; but, unlike Wells, +he overlooks the all-important factor of spontaneous variation, and the +power of natural selection, acting upon such, to produce specific and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +generic divergences of structure. In short, in his own words, the +paragraph 'contains merely a passing recognition of the selective +process, and indicates no suspicion of the enormous range of its +effects, or of the conditions under which a large part of its effects +are produced.' On the other hand, it must be noted that both Spencer and +Matthew, like Darwin himself, based their ideas largely upon the +Malthusian principle, and thus held the two true keys of the situation +fairly within their unconscious hands.</p> + +<p>Frankly to recognise these various foreshadowings of the distinctive +Darwinian theory of natural selection is not in any way to undermine the +foundations of Charles Darwin's own real and exceptional greatness. On +the contrary, the mere fact that his views were so far anticipated by +Wells, Matthew, Spencer, and others, and were simultaneously arrived at +across half the globe by the independent intellect of Alfred Russel +Wallace, is in itself the very best proof and finest criterion of +Charles Darwin's genuine apostleship. No truly grand and fruitful idea +was ever yet the sole property of a single originator. Great +discoveries, says an acute critic, must always be concerned with some +problem of the time which many of the world's foremost minds are just +then cudgelling their active brains about. It was so with the discovery +of the differential calculus, and of the planet Neptune; with the +interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and of the cuneiform +inscriptions; with the undulatory theory of light, with the mechanical +equivalent of heat, with the doctrine of the correlation and +conservation of energies, with the invention of the steam engine, the +locomotive, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> telegraph and the telephone; with the nebular +hypothesis, and with spectrum analysis. It was so, too, with the +evolutionary movement. The fertile upturning of virgin sod in the +biological field which produced Darwin's forerunners, as regards the +idea of descent with modification, in the persons of Buffon, Lamarck, +and Erasmus Darwin, necessarily produced a little later, under the fresh +impetus of the Malthusian conception, his forerunners or coadjutors, as +regards the idea of natural selection, in the persons of Wells, Matthew, +and Wallace. It was Darwin's task to recognise the universal, where +Wells and Spencer had seen only the particular; to build up a vast and +irresistible inductive system, where Matthew and Wallace had but thrown +out a pregnant hint of wonderful <i>a priori</i> interest and suggestiveness. +It is one thing to draw out the idea of a campaign, another thing to +carry it to a successful conclusion; one thing rudely to sketch a +ground-plan, another thing finally to pile aloft to the sky the front of +an august and imposing fabric.</p> + +<p>As soon as the papers at the Linnean had been read and printed, Darwin +set to work in real earnest to bring out the first instalment of his +great work. That instalment was the 'Origin of Species.' The first +edition was ready for the public on November the 24th, 1859.</p> + +<p>In his own mind Darwin regarded that immortal work merely in the light +of an abstract of his projected volumes. So immense were his collections +and so voluminous his notes that the 'Origin of Species' itself seemed +to him like a mere small portion of the contemplated publication. And +indeed he did ultimately work out several other portions of his original +plan in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> detailed treatises on the Variation of Animals and Plants +under Domestication, on the Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation, and +on the Descent of Man and Sexual Selection. But the immense and +unexpected vogue of his first volume, the almost immediate revolution +which it caused in biological and general opinion, and the all but +universal adhesion to his views of all the greatest and most rising +naturalists, to a great extent saved him the trouble of carrying out in +full the task he had originally contemplated as necessary. Younger and +less occupied labourers took part of the work off their leader's hands; +the great chief was left to prosecute his special researches in some +special lines, and was relieved from the necessity of further proving in +minuter detail what he had already proved with sufficient cogency to +convince all but the wilfully blind or the hopelessly stupid.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary and unprecedented success of the 'Origin of Species' +is the truest test of the advance it made upon all previous evolutionary +theorising. Those who had never been convinced before were now convinced +by sheer force of reasoning; those who believed and those who wavered +had their faith confirmed into something like the reposeful calm of +absolute certitude.</p> + +<p>Let us consider, therefore, what exactly were the additions which +Charles Darwin offered in his epoch-making work to the pre-existing +conceptions of evolutionists.</p> + +<p>In 1852, seven years before the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, Mr. +Herbert Spencer wrote as follows in an essay in the 'Leader' on creation +and evolution. The expressions of so profound and philosophical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> a +biologist may be regarded as the high-water mark of evolutionary +thinking up to the date of the appearance of Wallace and Darwin's +theory:—</p> + +<p>'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 <i>are</i> 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 +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 <i>is</i> at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +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.'</p> + +<p>This admirable passage, written seven years before the publication of +the 'Origin of Species,' contains explicitly almost every idea that +ordinary people, not specially biological in their interests, now +associate with the name of Darwin. That is to say, it contains, in a +very philosophical and abstract form, the theory of 'descent with +modification' <i>without</i> the distinctive Darwinian adjunct of 'natural +selection' or 'survival of the fittest.' Yet it was just that particular +lever, dexterously applied, and carefully weighted with the whole weight +of his endlessly accumulated inductive instances, that finally enabled +our modern Archimedes in so short a time to move the world. The public, +that was deaf to the high philosophy of Herbert Spencer, listened at +once to the practical wisdom of Charles Darwin. They did not care at all +for the <i>a priori</i> proof, but they believed forthwith as soon as a +cautious and careful investigator laid bare before their eyes in minute +detail the <i>modus operandi</i> of nature herself.</p> + +<p>The main argument of Darwin's chief work runs somewhat after the +following fashion<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>Variation, to a greater or less degree, is a common and well-known fact +in nature. More especially, animals and plants under domestication tend +to vary from one another far more than do the individuals of any one +species in the wild state. Rabbits in a warren are all alike in shape, +size, colour, and features: rabbits in a hutch vary indefinitely in the +hue of their fur, the length of their ears, the character of their coat, +and half a dozen other minor particulars, well known to the observant +souls of boys and fanciers. This great variability, though partly +perhaps referable to excess of food, is probably due on the whole to +their having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and +somewhat different from, those to which the parent species is commonly +exposed in a state of nature. In other words, variability is one result +of altered and more varied surrounding circumstances.</p> + +<p>Again, this variability is usually indefinite. You cannot say what +direction it will take, or to what particular results it is likely in +any special instance to lead. Marked differences sometimes occur even +between the young of the same litter, or between the seedlings sown from +the same capsule. As a rule, the variations exhibit themselves in +connection with sexual reproduction; but sometimes, as in the case of +'sporting plants,' a new bud suddenly produces leaves or flowers of a +different character from the rest of those on the self-same stem, thus +showing that the tendency to vary is inherent, as it were, in the +organism itself. Upon this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> fundamental fact of the existence in nature +of numerous and indefinite variations, the whole theory of natural +selection is ultimately built up. In illustrating by example the immense +variability of domesticated creatures, Darwin lays great stress upon the +case of pigeons, with which he was familiar from his long experience as +a breeder and fancier in his own home at Down. Naturalists are almost +universally of opinion that all the breeds of domestic pigeons, from the +carrier to the tumbler, from the runt to the fantail, are alike +descended from the wild rock pigeon of the European coasts. The immense +amount of variation which this original species has undergone in +domestication may be seen by comparing the numberless breeds of pigeon +now exhibited at all our poultry shows with one another.</p> + +<p>But variation gives us only half the elements of the ultimate problem, +even in the case of domestic kinds. For the other half, we must have +recourse to human selection, which, by picking out for seed or breeding +purposes certain specially favoured varieties, has produced at last all +the purposive or intentional diversity between the different existing +stocks or breeds. In these artificially produced domestic races we see +everywhere special adaptations to man's particular use or fancy. The +dray-horse has been fashioned for purposes of strength and +sure-footedness in draught, the race-horse for purposes of fleetness in +running. In the fox-hound, man has encouraged the special properties +that tend to produce a good day's hunting; in the sheepdog, those that +make for the better maintenance and safety of a herd. The cauliflower is +a cabbage, with specialised and somewhat abortive flower-heads; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +fuller's teasel is a sport of the wild form, with curved hooks specially +adapted by a freak of nature for the teasing of wool. So in every case +man, by deliberately picking out for breeding or seeding purposes the +accidental variations which happened best to suit his own needs, has +succeeded at last in producing races admirably fitted in the minutest +particulars for the special functions to which they are applied. There +appears indeed to be hardly any limit to the almost infinite plasticity +and modifiability of domestic animals. 'It would seem,' said a great +sheep-breeder, speaking of sheep, 'as if farmers had chalked out upon a +wall a form perfect in itself, and then proceeded to give it existence.'</p> + +<p>Now, what is thus true within narrow limits, and in a short space of +time about the deliberate action of man, Darwin showed to be also true +within wider limits and spread over longer geological epochs about the +unconscious action of nature. And herein consisted his great advance +upon the earlier evolutionism of Lamarck, Goethe, and Erasmus Darwin. +For while these instinctive pioneers of the evolutionary spirit saw +clearly that animals and plants betrayed signs of common descent from +one or a few original ancestors, they did not see what was the mechanism +by which such organisms had been differentiated into so many distinct +genera and species. They caught, indeed, at the analogy of variation +under domestication and in the wild state, but they missed the subtler +and deeper analogy between human and natural selection. Now, variation +alone would give us a world consisting not of definite kinds fairly well +demarcated one from the other, but of innumerable unclassified and +unorganisable individuals, all shading off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> indefinitely one into the +other, and incapable of being reduced by human ingenuity to any orderly +hierarchical system. Furthermore, it would give us creatures without +special adaptation of any kind to the peculiar circumstances of their +own environment. To account for adaptation, for the almost perfect +fitness of every plant and every animal to its position in life, for the +existence (in other words) of definitely correlated parts and organs, we +must call in the aid of survival of the fittest. Without that potent +selective agent, our conception of the becoming of life is a mere chaos; +order and organisation are utterly inexplicable save by the brilliant +illuminating ray of the Darwinian principle. That is why Darwin +destroyed at one blow the specious arguments of the early teleologists; +he showed that where Chambers and even Erasmus Darwin had seen the +working of a final cause, we ought rather to recognise the working of an +efficient cause, whose outcome necessarily but fallaciously simulates +the supposed features of an <i>a priori</i> finality.</p> + +<p>From art, then, Darwin harks back once more to nature. He proceeds to +show that variability occurs among all wild plants and animals, though +not so frequently under ordinary circumstances as in the case of +domesticated species. Individual differences everywhere occur between +plant and plant, between animal and animal. Sometimes these differences +are so very numerous that it is impossible to divide the individuals at +all into well-marked kinds; for example, among British wild-roses, +brambles, hawkweeds and epilobes, with a few other very variable +families, Babington makes as many as 251 distinct species, where +Bentham<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> gives only 112—a margin of 139 doubtful forms of shadowy +indefiniteness. Varieties, in fact, are always arising, and dominant +species in particular always tend to vary most in every direction. The +reason why variation is not so marked in the wild state as under +domestication is of course because the conditions are there less +diverse; but where the conditions of wild things are most diverse, as in +the case of dominant kinds, which range over a wide space of country or +of ocean, abundant individual variations habitually occur. Local +varieties thus produced are regarded by Darwin as incipient species: +they are the raw material on which natural selection gradually exerts +itself in the struggle for existence.</p> + +<p>Granting individual variability, then, how do species arise in nature? +And how are all the exquisite adaptations of part to whole, and of whole +to environment, gradually initiated, improved, and perfected?</p> + +<p>Here Malthus and the struggle for life come in to help us.</p> + +<p>For the world is perpetually over-populated. It is not, as many good +people fearfully imagine, on a half-comprehension of the Malthusian +principle, shortly going to be over-populated; it is now, it has always +been, and it will always be, pressed close up to the utmost possible +limit of population. Reproduction is everywhere and in all species for +ever outrunning means of subsistence; and starvation or competition is +for ever keeping down the number of the offspring to the level of the +average or normal supply of raw material. A single red campion produces +in a year three thousand seeds; but there are not this year three +thousand times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> as many red campions as there were last summer, nor will +there be three thousand times as many more in the succeeding season. The +roe of a cod contains sometimes nearly ten million eggs; but supposing +each of these produced a young fish which arrived at maturity, the whole +sea would immediately become a solid mass of closely packed codfish. +Linnæus reckoned that if an annual plant had two seeds, each of which +produced two seedlings in the succeeding season, and so on continually, +in twenty years their progeny would amount to a million plants. A +struggle for existence necessarily results from this universal tendency +of animals and plants to increase faster than the means of subsistence, +whether those means be food, as in the first case, or carbonic acid, +water, and sunshine as in the second. Animals are all perpetually +battling with one another for the food-supply of the moment; plants are +perpetually battling with one another for their share of the soil, the +rainfall, and the sunshine.</p> + +<p>The case of the plant is a very important one to understand in this +connection, because it is probable that most people greatly +misunderstand the biological meaning of the phrase 'struggle for +existence.' They imagine that the struggle is chiefly conducted between +different species, whereas in reality it is chiefly conducted between +members of the same species. It is not so much the battle between the +tiger and the antelope, between the wolf and the bison, between the +snake and the bird, that ultimately results in natural selection or +survival of the fittest, as the struggle between tiger and tiger, +between bison and bison, between snake and snake, between antelope and +antelope. A human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> analogy may help to make this difficult principle a +little clearer. The baker does not fear the competition of the butcher +in the struggle for life: it is the competition of the other bakers that +sometimes inexorably crushes him out of existence. The lawyer does not +press hard upon the doctor, nor the architect upon the journeyman +painter. A war in the Soudan or in South Africa is far less fatal to the +workman in our great towns than the ceaseless competition of his +fellow-workmen. It is not the soldier that kills the artisan, but the +number of other artisans who undersell him and crowd to fill up every +vacant position. In this way the great enemies of the individual +herbivore are not the carnivores, but the other herbivores. The lion +eats the antelope, to be sure; but the real struggle lies between lion +and lion for a fair share of meat, or between antelope and antelope for +a fair share of pasturage. <i>Homo homini lupus</i>, says the old proverb, +and so, we may add, in a wider sense, <i>lupus lupo lupus</i>, also. Of +course, the carnivore plays a great part in the selective process; but +he is the selector only; the real competition is between the selected. +Now, let us take the case of the plant. A thousand seedlings occupy the +space where few alone can ultimately grow; and between these seedlings +the struggle is fierce, the strongest and best adapted ultimately +surviving. To take Darwin's own example, the mistletoe, which is a +parasite, cannot truly be said to struggle with the apple tree on which +it fastens; for if too many parasites cover a tree, it perishes, and so +they kill themselves as well as their host, all alike dying together. +But several seedling mistletoes growing together on the same branch may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +fairly be said to struggle with one another for light and air; and since +mistletoe seeds are disseminated by birds and dropped by them in the +angles of branches, the mistletoe may also be said to compete with other +berry-bearing bushes, like cornel and hawthorn, for the ministrations of +the fruit-eating birds. The struggle is fierce between allied kinds, and +fiercest of all between individual members of the same species.</p> + +<p>Owing to this constant struggle, variations, however slight, and from +whatever cause arising, if in any degree profitable to the individual +which presents them, will tend to the preservation of the particular +organism, and, being on the average inherited by its offspring, will +similarly tend to increase and multiply in the world at large. This is +the principle of natural selection or survival of the fittest—the great +principle which Darwin and Wallace added to the evolutionism of Lamarck +and his successors.</p> + +<p>Let us take a single concrete example. In the desert, with its +monotonous sandy colouring, a black insect or a white insect, still more +a red insect or a blue insect, would be immediately detected and +promptly devoured by its natural enemies, the birds and lizards. But any +greyish or yellowish insects would be less likely to attract attention +at first sight, and would be overlooked as long as there were any more +conspicuous individuals of their own kind about for the birds and +lizards to feed on at their leisure. Hence, in a very short time, the +desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest and yellowest +insects; and among these the birds would pick out those which differed +most markedly in hue or shade from the sand around them. But those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +which happened to vary most in the direction of a sandy or spotty colour +would be most likely to survive, and to become the parents of future +generations. Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which +inhabit deserts have become sand-coloured; because the least sandy were +perpetually picked out for destruction by their ever-watchful foes, +while the most sandy escaped and multiplied and replenished the earth +with their own likes.</p> + +<p>Conversely, the birds and the lizards again would probably begin by +being black, and white, and blue, and green, like most other birds and +lizards in the world generally. But the insect would have ample warning +of the near approach of such conspicuous self-advertising enemies, and +would avoid them accordingly whenever they appeared within range of his +limited vision, either by lying close, or by shamming death, or by +retreating precipitately to holes and crannies. Therefore, whatever +individual birds or lizards happened to vary most in the direction of +grey or sand-colour, and so to creep unobserved upon the unguarded +insects, would succeed best on the average in catching beetles or desert +grasshoppers. Hence, by the slow dying out of the more highly coloured +and distinctive insect-eaters, before the severe competition of the +greyest and sandiest, all the birds and lizards of the desert have +become at last as absolutely sand-coloured as the insects themselves. +Only the greyest insect could escape the bird; only the greyest bird, +<i>en revanche</i>, could surprise and devour the unwary insect.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles Lyell and the elder De Candolle had already seen the great +importance of the struggle for existence in the organic world, but +neither of them had observed the magnificent corollary of natural +selection,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> which flows from it almost as a mathematical necessity when +once suggested; for, given indefinite variability, and a geometrical, +rate of increase, it must needs follow that some varieties will be +better suited to the circumstances than others, and therefore that they +will survive on the average in increased proportions. A passage from one +of Lyell's early letters will show how near he too went to this great +luminous generalisation, and yet how utterly he missed the true +implications of his own vague and chaotic idea. He writes thus to Sir +John Herschel in 1836, while Darwin was still but homeward bound on the +voyage of the 'Beagle':—</p> + +<p>'In regard to the origination of new species, I am very glad to find +that you think it probable that it may be carried on through the +intervention of intermediate causes.... An insect may be made in one of +its transformations to resemble a dead stick, or a leaf, or a lichen, or +a stone, so as to be somewhat less easily found by its enemies; or if +this would make it too strong, an occasional variety of the species may +have this advantage conferred on it; or if this would be still too much, +one sex of a certain variety. Probably there is scarcely a dash of +colour on the wing or body of which the choice would be quite arbitrary, +or which might not affect its duration for thousands of years.'</p> + +<p>Now, this comes in some ways perilously near to Darwin indeed; but in +the most important point of all it is wide apart from him as the pole is +from the equator. For Lyell thought of all this as a matter of external +teleological arrangement; he imagined a deliberate power from outside +settling it all by design beforehand, and granting to varieties or +species these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> special peculiarities in a manner that was at bottom +essentially supernatural, or in other words miraculous; whereas Darwin +thinks of it as the necessary result of the circumstances themselves, an +inevitable outcome of indefinite variability <i>plus</i> the geometrical rate +of increase. Where Lyell sees a final cause, Darwin sees an efficient +cause; and this distinction is fundamental. It marks Darwin's position +as that of a great philosophical thinker, who can dash aside at once all +metaphysical cobwebs, and penetrate to the inmost recesses of things, +unswerved by the vain but specious allurements of obvious and misleading +teleological fallacies.</p> + +<p>Darwin also laid great stress on the immense complexity of the relations +which animals and plants bear to one another, in the struggle for +existence. For example, on the heathy uplands near Farnham in Surrey, +large spaces were at one time enclosed, on which, within ten years, +self-grown fir-trees from the wind-borne seeds of distant clumps sprang +up so thickly as actually to choke one another with their tiny branches. +All over the heaths outside, when Darwin looked for them, he could not +find a single fir, except the old clumps on the hilltops, from which the +seedlings themselves had originally sprung. But, on looking closer among +the stems of the heath, he descried a number of very tiny firs, which +had been perpetually browsed down by the cattle on the commons; and one +of them, with twenty-six rings of growth, had during many years +endeavoured unsuccessfully to raise its head above the surrounding +heather. Hence, as soon as the land was enclosed, and the cattle +excluded, it became covered at once with a thick growth of vigorous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +young fir-trees. Yet who would ever have supposed beforehand that the +mere presence or absence of cattle would absolutely have determined the +very existence of the Scotch fir throughout a wide range of well-adapted +sandy English upland?</p> + +<p>To take another curious instance mentioned by Darwin. In Paraguay, +unlike the greater part of neighbouring South America, neither horses +nor cattle have ever run wild. This is due to the presence of a +parasitic fly, which lays its eggs in their bodies when first born, the +maggots killing off the tender young in their first stages. But if any +cause were to alter the number of the dangerous flies, then cattle and +wild horses would abound; and this would alter the vegetation, as Darwin +himself observed in other parts of America; and the change in the +vegetation would affect the insects; and that again the insectivorous +birds; and so on in ever widening circles of incalculable complexity. +Once more, to quote the most famous instance of all, the visits of +humble-bees are absolutely necessary in order to place the pollen in the +right position for setting the seeds of purple clover. Heads from which +Darwin excluded the bees produced no seeds at all. Hence, if humble-bees +became extinct in England, the red clover, too, would die off: and +indeed, in New Zealand, where there are no humble-bees, and where the +efforts to introduce them for this very purpose have been uniformly +unsuccessful, the clover never sets its seed at all, and fresh stocks +have to be imported at great expense every year from Europe. But the +number of humble-bees in any district largely depends upon the number of +field-mice, which destroy the combs and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> nests in immense quantities. +The number of mice, again, is greatly affected by the proportion of cats +in the neighbourhood; so that Colonel Newman, who paid much attention to +this subject, found humble-bees most numerous in the neighbourhood of +villages and small towns, an effect which he attributed to the abundance +of cats, and the consequent scarcity of the destructive field-mice. Yet +here once more, who could suppose beforehand that the degree to which +the purple clover set its seeds was in part determined by the number of +cats kept in houses in the surrounding district?</p> + +<p>One of Darwin's own favourite examples of the action of natural +selection, which he afterwards expanded largely in his work on Orchids +and in several other volumes, is that which relates to the origin of +conspicuous flowers. Many plants have a sweet excretion, which is +eliminated sometimes even by the leaves, as in the case of the common +laurel. This juice, though small in quantity, is eagerly sought and +eaten by insects. Now let us suppose that, in some variety of an +inconspicuous flower, similar nectar was produced in the neighbourhood +of the petals and stamens. Insects, in seeking the nectar, would dust +their bodies over with the pollen, and would carry it away with them to +the next flower visited. This would result in an act of crossing; and +that act, as Darwin afterwards abundantly proved in a separate and very +laborious treatise, gives rise to exceptionally vigorous seedlings, +which would therefore have the best chance of flourishing and surviving +in the struggle for existence. The flowers which produced most honey +would oftenest be visited, and oftenest crossed; so that they would +finally form a new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> species. The more brightly coloured among them, +again, would be more readily discriminated than the less brightly +coloured; and this would give them such an advantage that in the long +run, as we actually see, almost all habitually insect-fertilised flowers +would come to have brilliant petals. The germ of this luminous idea, +once more, is to be found in Sprengel's remarkable work on the +fertilisation of flowers—a work far in advance of its time in many +ways, and to which Darwin always expressed his deep obligations; but, as +in so many other instances, while Sprengel looked upon all the little +modifications and adaptations of flower and insect to one another as the +result of distinct creative design, Darwin looked upon them as the +result of natural selection, working upon the basis of indeterminate +spontaneous variations.</p> + +<p>How do these variations arise? Not by chance, of course (for in the +strict scientific sense nothing on earth can be considered as really +fortuitous), but as the outcome for the most part of very minute organic +causes, whose particular action it is impossible for us to predict with +our present knowledge. Some physical cause in each case there must +necessarily be; and indeed it is often possible to show that certain +changes of condition in the parent do result in variations in the +offspring, though what special direction the variation will take can +never be foretold with any accuracy. In short, our ignorance of the laws +of variation is profound, but our knowledge of the fact is clear and +certain. The fact alone is essential to the principle of natural +selection; the cause, though in itself an interesting subject of +inquiry, may be safely laid aside for the present as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> comparatively +unimportant. What we have actually given to us in the concrete universe +is, organisms varying perpetually in minute points, and a rapid rate of +increase causing every minute point of advantage to be exceptionally +favoured in the struggle for existence.</p> + +<p>But Darwin is remarkable among all broachers of new theories for the +extraordinary candour and openness of his method. He acknowledged +beforehand all the difficulties in the way of his theory, and though he +himself confessed that some of them were serious (a statement which +subsequent research has often rendered unnecessary), he met many of them +with cogent arguments by anticipation, and demolished objections before +they could even be raised against him by hostile critics. Of these +objections, only two need here be mentioned. The first is the question, +why is not all nature even now a confused mass of transitional forms? +Why do genera and species exist as we see them at present in broad +distinction one from the other? To this Darwin answers rightly that, +where the process of species-making is still going on, we do actually +find fine gradations and transitional forms existing between genera, +varieties, and species.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> But, furthermore, as natural selection acts +solely by the preservation of useful modifications, each better-adapted +new form will always tend in a fully stocked country to oust and +exterminate its own unimproved parent type, as well as all other +competing but less perfect varieties. Thus natural selection and +extinction of intermediates go for ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> hand in hand. The more perfect +the new variety, the more absolutely will it kill off the intermediate +forms. The second great difficulty lies in the question of the origin of +instinct, which, as Darwin shows, by careful inductive instances, may +have arisen by the slow and gradual accumulation of numerous slight yet +profitable variations.</p> + +<p>I have dwelt at some length upon those portions of the 'Origin of +Species' which deal in detail with the theory of natural selection, the +chief contribution which Darwin made to the evolutionary movement, +because it is impossible otherwise fully to understand the great gulf +which separates his evolutionism from the earlier evolutionism of +Lamarck and his followers. But it is impracticable here to give any idea +of the immense wealth of example and illustration which Darwin brought +to the elucidation of every part of his complex problem. In order to +gain a full conception of this side of his nature, we must turn to the +original treatise itself, and still more to the subsequent volumes in +which the ground-work of observations and experiments on which he based +his theory was more fully detailed for the specialist public.</p> + +<p>The remainder of Darwin's epoch-making work deals, strictly speaking, +rather with the general theory of 'descent with modification' than with +the special doctrine of natural selection. It restates and reinforces, +by the light of the new additional concept, and with fuller facts and +later knowledge, the four great arguments already known in favour of +organic evolution as a whole, the argument from Geological Succession, +the argument from Geographical Distribution, the argument<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> from +Embryological Development, and the argument from Classificatory +Affinities. Each of these we may briefly summarise.</p> + +<p>The geological record is confessedly imperfect. At the time when Darwin +first published the 'Origin of Species,' it had disclosed to our view +comparatively few intermediate or transitional forms between the chief +great classes of plants or animals; since that time, in singular +confirmation of the Darwinian hypothesis, it has disclosed an immense +number of such connecting types, amongst which may be more particularly +noticed the 'missing links' between the birds and reptiles, the +ancestors of the horses, the camels, and the pigs, and the common +progenitor of the ruminants and the pachyderms, two great groups classed +by Cuvier as distinct orders—all of which instances were incorporated +by Darwin in later editions of his 'Origin of Species.' But, apart from +these special and newly discovered cases, the whole general course of +geological history 'agrees admirably with the theory of descent with +modification through variation and natural selection.' The simpler +animals of early times are followed by the more complex and more +specialised animals of later geological periods. As each main group of +animals appears upon the stage of life, it appears in a very central and +'generalised' form; as time goes on, we find its various members +differing more and more widely from one another, and assuming more and +more specialised adaptive forms. And in each country it is found, as a +rule, that the extinct animals of the later formations bear a close +general resemblance and relationship to the animals which now inhabit +the same regions. For example,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> the fossil mammals from the Australian +caves are nearly allied to the modern kangaroos, phalangers, and +wombats; and the gigantic extinct sloths and armadillos of South America +are reproduced in their smaller representatives at the present day. So, +too, the moa of New Zealand was a huge apteryx; and the birds +disentombed from the bone-caves of Brazil show close affinities to the +toucans and jacanars that still scream and flit in countless flocks +among Brazilian forests. The obvious implication is that the animals now +inhabiting any given area are the modified descendants of those that +formerly inhabited it. 'On the theory of descent with modification, the +great law of the succession of the same types within the same areas is +at once explained.'</p> + +<p>This last consideration leads us up to the argument from Geographical +Distribution. In considering the various local faunas and floras on the +face of the globe, no point strikes one more forcibly than the fact that +neither their similarities nor their dissimilarities can be accounted +for by climate or physical conditions. The animals of South Africa do +not in the least resemble the animals of the corresponding belt of South +America; the Australian beasts and birds and trees are utterly unlike +those of France and Germany; the fishes and crustaceans of the Pacific +at Panama are widely different from those of the Caribbean at the same +point, separated from them only by the narrow belt of intervening +isthmus. On the other hand, within the same continuous areas of sea or +land, however great the differences of physical conditions, we find +everywhere closely related types in possession of the most distinct and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +varied situations. On the burning plains of La Plata we get the agouti +and the bizcacha as the chief rodents; we ascend the Cordillera, and +close to the eternal snows we discover, not hares and rabbits like those +of Europe, but a specialised chilly mountain form of the same distinctly +South American type. We turn to the rivers, and we see no musk-rat or +beaver, but the coypu and capybara, slightly altered varieties of the +original bizcacha ancestor. Australia has no wolf, but it has instead +fierce and active carnivorous marsupials; it has no mice, but some of +its tiny kangaroo-like creatures fulfil analogous functions in its +animal economy. Everywhere the evidence points to the conclusion that +local species have been locally evolved from pre-existing similar +species. The oceanic isles, of which Darwin had had so large an +experience, and especially his old friends the Galapagos, come in +usefully for this stage of the question. They are invariably inhabited, +as Darwin pointed out, and as Wallace has since abundantly shown in the +minutest detail, by waifs and strays from neighbouring continents, +altered and specialised by natural selection in accordance with the +conditions of their new habitat. As a rule, they point back to the +districts whence blow the strongest and most prevalent winds; and the +modifications they have undergone are largely dependent upon the nature +of the other species with which they have to compete, or to whose habits +they must needs accommodate themselves. In such cases it is easy to see +how far Darwin's special conception of natural selection helps to +explain and account for facts not easily explicable by the older +evolutionism of mere descent with modification.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>Embryology, the study of early development in the individual animal or +plant, also throws much side light upon the nature and ancestry of each +species or family. For example, gorse, which is a member of the +pea-flower tribe, has in its adult stage solid, spiny, thorn-like +leaves, none of which in the least resemble the foliage of the clover, +to which it is closely related; but the young seedling in its earliest +stages has trefoil leaves, which only slowly pass by infinitesimal +gradations into flat blades and finally into the familiar defensive +prickles. Here, natural selection under stress of herbivorous animals on +open heaths and commons has spared only those particular gorse-bushes +which varied in the direction of the stiffest and most inedible foliage; +but the young plant in its first days still preserves for us the trefoil +leaf which it shared originally with a vast group of clover-like +congeners. The adult barnacle, once more, presents a certain fallacious +external resemblance to a mollusk, and was actually so classed even by +the penetrating and systematic intellect of Cuvier; but a glance at the +larva shows an instructed eye at once that it is really a shell-making +and abnormal crustacean. On a wider scale, the embryos of mammals are at +first indistinguishable from those of birds or reptiles; the feet of +lizards, the hoofs of horses, the hands of man, the wings of the bat, +the pinions of birds, all arise from the same fundamental shapeless bud, +in the same spot of an almost identical embryo. Even the human foetus, +at a certain stage of its development, is provided with gill-slits, +which point dimly back to the remote ages when its ancestor was +something very like a fish. The embryo is a picture, more or less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +obscured and blurred in its outline, of the common progenitor of a whole +great class of plants or animals.</p> + +<p>Finally, classification points in the same way to the affiliation of all +existing genera and species upon certain early divergent ancestors. The +whole scheme of the biological system, as initiated by Linnæus and +improved by Cuvier, Jussieu, De Candolle, and their successors, is +essentially that of a genealogical tree. The prime central vertebrate +ancestor—to take the case of the creatures most familiar to the general +reader—appears to have been an animal not unlike the existing lancelet, +a mud-haunting, cartilaginous, undeveloped fish, whose main lineaments +are also embryologically preserved for us in the ascidian larva and the +common tadpole. From this early common centre have been developed, +apparently, in one direction the fishes, and in another the amphibian +tribes of frogs, newts, salamanders, and axolotls. From an early +amphibian, again, the common ancestor of birds, reptiles, and mammals +seems to have diverged: the intermediate links between bird and reptile +being faintly traced among the extinct deinosaurians and the +archæopteryx, some years subsequently to the first appearance of the +'Origin of Species;' while the ornithorhyncus, which to some extent +connects the mammals, and especially the marsupials, with the lower +egg-laying types of vertebrate, was already well-known and thoroughly +studied before the publication of Darwin's great work. Throughout, the +indications given by all the chief tribes of animals and plants point +back to slow descent and divergence from common ancestors; and all the +subsequent course of palæontological research has supplied us rapidly, +one after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> another, with the remains of just such undifferentiated +family starting-points.</p> + +<p>Stress has mainly been laid, in this brief and necessarily imperfect +abstract, on the essentially Darwinian principle of natural selection. +But Darwin did not himself attribute everything to this potent factor in +the moulding of species. 'I am convinced,' he wrote pointedly in the +introduction to his first edition, 'that natural selection has been the +main but not the exclusive means of modification.' He attributed +considerable importance as well to the Lamarckian principle of use and +disuse, already so fully insisted upon before him by Mr. Herbert +Spencer. The chief factors in his compound theory, as given in his own +words at the end of his work, areas follows: 'Growth with Reproduction; +Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability, from +the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use +and disuse; a Ratio of Increase, so high as to lead to a Struggle for +Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of +Character, and the Extinction of the less improved forms. Thus, from the +war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we +are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, +directly follows.'</p> + +<p>Such was the simple and inoffensive-looking bombshell which Darwin +launched from his quiet home at Down into the very midst of the +teleological camp in the peaceful year 1859. Subsequent generations will +remember the date as a crisis and turning-point in the history of +mankind.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The remainder of the present chapter, which consists almost +entirely of an exposition of the doctrine of natural selection, may +safely be skipped by the reader already well acquainted with the Origin +of Species. The abstract is taken for the most part from the latest and +fullest enlarged edition, but attention is usually called in passing to +the points which did not appear in the first issue of 1859.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The researches of Seebohm and others have since proved that +this is really the case to a far greater extent than Darwin was aware of +in 1859, or, indeed, till many years afterward.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<h2>THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS.</h2> + + +<p>So far as the scientific world was concerned the 'Origin of Species' +fell, like a grain of mustard seed, upon good and well-prepared ground; +the plant that sprang from it grew up forthwith into a great and stately +tree, that overshadowed with its spreading branches all the corners of +the earth.</p> + +<p>The soil, indeed, had been carefully broken for it beforehand: Lamarck +and St. Hilaire, Spencer and Chambers, had ploughed and harrowed in all +diligence; and the minds of men were thoroughly ready for the +assimilation of the new doctrine. But the seed itself, too, was the +right germ for the exact moment; it contained within itself the +vivifying principle that enabled it to grow and wax exceeding great +where kindred germs before had withered away, or had borne but scanty +and immature fruit.</p> + +<p>Two conditions contributed to this result, one external, the other +internal.</p> + +<p>First for the less important external consideration. Darwin himself was +a sound man with an established reputation for solidity and learning. +That gained for his theory from the very first outset universal respect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +and a fair hearing. Herbert Spencer was known to be a philosopher: and +the practical English nation mistrusts philosophers: those people probe +too deep and soar too high for any sensible person to follow them in all +their flights. Robert Chambers, the unknown author of 'Vestiges of +Creation,' was a shallow sciolist; it was whispered abroad that he was +even inaccurate and slovenly in his facts: and your scientific plodder +detests the very shadow of minute inaccuracy, though it speak with the +tongues of men and angels, and be bound up with all the grasp and power +of a Newton or a Goethe. But Charles Darwin was a known personage, an +F.R.S., a distinguished authority upon coral reefs and barnacles, a +great geologist, a great biologist, a great observer and indefatigable +collector. His book came into the public hands stamped with the +imprimatur of official recognition. Darwin was the father of the infant +theory; Lyell and Hooker stood for its sponsors. The world could not +afford to despise its contents; they could not brand its author offhand +as a clever dreamer or a foolish amateur, or consign him to the dreaded +English limbo of the 'mere theorist.'</p> + +<p>Next, for the other and far more important internal consideration. The +book itself was one of the greatest, the most learned, the most lucid, +the most logical, the most crushing, the most conclusive, that the world +had ever yet seen. Step by step, and principle by principle, it proved +every point in its progress triumphantly before it went on to +demonstrate the next. So vast an array of facts so thoroughly in hand +had never before been mustered and marshalled in favour of any +biological theory. Those who had insight to learn and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> understand were +convinced at once by the cogency of the argument; those who had not were +overpowered and silenced by the weight of the authority and the mass of +the learning. A hot battle burst forth at once, no doubt, around the +successful volume; but it was one of those battles which are aroused +only by great truths,—a battle in which the victory is a foregone +conclusion, and the rancour of the assailants the highest compliment to +the prowess of the assailed.</p> + +<p>Darwin himself, in his quiet country home at Down, was simply astonished +at the rapid success of his own work. The first edition was published at +the end of November 1859; it was exhausted almost immediately, and a +second was got ready in hot haste by the beginning of January 1860. In +less than six weeks the book had become famous, and Darwin found himself +the centre of a European contest, waged with exceeding bitterness, over +the truth or falsity of his wonderful volume. To the world at large +Darwinism and evolution became at once synonymous terms. The same people +who would entirely ascribe the Protestant Reformation to the account of +Luther, and the inductive philosophy to the account of Bacon, also +believed, in the simplicity of their hearts, that the whole vast +evolutionary movement was due at bottom to that very insidious and +dangerous book of Mr. Darwin's.</p> + +<p>The fact is, profound as had been the impulses in the evolutionary +direction among men of science before Darwin's work appeared at all, +immense as were the throes and pangs of labour throughout all Europe +which preceded and accompanied its actual birth, when it came at last it +came to the general world of unscientific readers with all the sudden +vividness and novelty of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it +was yet wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or next to +nothing of this colossal but hidden revolutionary force which had been +gathering head and energy for so many years unseen within the bowels of +the earth; and now that its outer manifestation had actually burst upon +them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic security bodily giving way +beneath their feet, and knew not where to turn in their extremity for +support. Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself at +first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of Genesis, or +rather the belief in their scientific and historical character, already +sapped by the revelations of geology, seemed to orthodox defenders to be +fatally undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once to meet with +general recognition. The first resource of menaced orthodoxy is always +to deny the alleged facts; the second is to patch up tardily the feeble +and hollow <i>modus vivendi</i> of an artificial pact. On this occasion the +orthodox acted strictly after their kind: but to their credit it should +be added that they yielded gracefully in the long run to the unanimous +voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, when all that was +mortal of Charles Darwin was being borne with pomp and pageantry to its +last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, with +generous oblivion, ratified a truce over the dead body of the great +leader, and, outgrowing its original dread of naturalistic +interpretations, accepted his theory without reserve as 'not necessarily +hostile to the main fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render +justice to the vanquished in a memorable struggle. Churchmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> followed +respectfully to the grave with frank and noble inconsistency the +honoured remains of the very teacher whom less than a quarter of a +century earlier they had naturally dreaded as loosening the traditional +foundations of all accepted religion and morality.</p> + +<p>But if the attack was fierce and bitter, the defence was assisted by a +sudden access of powerful forces from friendly quarters. A few of the +elder generation of naturalists held out, indeed, for various shorter or +longer periods; some of them never came into the camp at all, but +lingered on, left behind, like stragglers from the onward march, by the +younger biologists, in isolated non-conformity on the lonely heights of +austere officialism. Their business was to ticket and docket and +pigeon-hole, not to venture abroad on untried wings into the airy +regions of philosophical speculation. The elder men, in fact, had many +of them lost that elasticity and modifiability of intellect which is +necessary for the reception of new and revolutionary fundamental +concepts. A mind that has hardened down into the last stage of extreme +maturity may assimilate fresh facts and fresh minor principles, but it +cannot assimilate fresh synthetic systems of the entire cosmos. +Moreover, some of the elder thinkers were committed beforehand to +opposing views, with which they lacked either the courage or the +intellectual power to break; while others were entangled by religious +restrictions, and unable to free themselves from the cramping fetters of +a narrow orthodoxy. But even among his own contemporaries and seniors +Darwin found not a few whose minds were thoroughly prepared beforehand +for the reception of his lucid and luminous hypothesis; while the +younger naturalists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> with the plasticity of youth, assimilated almost +to a man, with the utmost avidity, the great truths thus showered down +upon them by the preacher of evolution.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley were among the first to give in +their adhesion and stand up boldly for the new truth by the side of the +reckless and disturbing innovator. In June 1859, nearly a year after the +reading of the Darwin-Wallace papers at the Linnean Society, but five +months previously to the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' Huxley +lectured at the Royal Institution on 'Persistent Types of Animal Life,' +and declared against the old barren theory of successive creations, in +favour of the new and fruitful hypothesis of gradual modification. In +December 1859, a month later than the appearance of Darwin's book, +Hooker published his 'Introduction to the Flora of Australia,' in the +first part of which he championed the belief in the descent and +modification of species, and enforced his views by many original +observations drawn from the domain of botanical science. For fifteen +years, as Darwin himself gratefully observed in his introduction to the +'Origin of Species,' that learned botanist had shared the secret of +natural selection, and aided its author in every possible way by his +large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment. Bates, the +naturalist on the Amazons, followed fast with his beautiful and striking +theory of mimicry, a crucial instance well explained. The facts of the +strange disguises which birds and insects often assume had long been +present to his acute mind, and he hailed with delight the discovery of +the new principle, which at once enabled him to reduce<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> them with ease +to symmetry and order. To Herbert Spencer, an evolutionist in fibre from +the very beginning, the fresh doctrine of natural selection came like a +powerful ally and an unexpected assistant in deciphering the deep +fundamental problems on which he was at that moment actually engaged; +and in his 'Principles of Biology,' even then in contemplation, he at +once adopted and utilised the new truth with all the keen and vigorous +insight of his profound analytic and synthetic intellect. The first part +of that important work was issued to subscribers just three years after +the original appearance of the 'Origin of Species;' the first volume was +fully completed in October 1864. It is to Mr. Spencer that we owe the +pellucid expression 'survival of the fittest,' which conveys even better +than Darwin's own phrase, 'natural selection,' the essential element +added by the 'Origin of Species' to the pre-existing evolutionary +conception.</p> + +<p>The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its big +annual doctrinaire picnic the next summer after the publication of +Darwin's book, at Oxford. The Oxford meeting was a stormy and a +well-remembered one. The 'Origin of Species' was there discussed and +attacked before a biological section strangely enough presided over by +Darwin's old Cambridge teacher, Professor Henslow. Though then a +beneficed parish priest, Henslow had the boldness frankly to avow his +own acceptance of his great pupil's startling conclusions. Huxley +followed in the same path, as did also Lubbock and Hooker. On the whole, +the evolutionists were already in the ascendant; the fresh young +intellects especially being quick to seize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> upon the new pabulum so +generously dealt out to them by the new evolutionism.</p> + +<p>Among scientific minds of the first order, Lyell alone in England, +heavily weighted by theological preconceptions, for awhile hung back. +All his life long, as his letters show us, the great geologist had felt +the powerful spell of the Lamarckian hypothesis continually enticing him +with its seductive charm. He had fought against it blindly, in the +passionate endeavour to preserve what he thought his higher faith in the +separate and divine creation of man; but ever and anon he returned anew +to the biological Circe with a fresh fascination, as the moth returns to +the beautiful flame that has scorched and singed it. In a well-known +passage in the earlier editions of his 'Principles of Geology,' the +father of uniformitarianism gives at length his own reasons for +dissenting from the doctrine of evolution as then set forth; and even +after Darwin's discovery had supplied him with a new clue, a <i>vera +causa</i>, a sufficient power for the modification of species into fresh +forms, theological difficulties made him cling still as long as possible +to the old theory of the origin of man which he loved to describe as +that of the 'archangel ruined.' He was loth to exchange this cherished +belief for the degrading alternative (as it approved itself to him) of +the ape elevated. But in the end, with the fearless honesty of a +searcher after truth, he gave way slowly and regretfully. Always looking +back with something like remorse to the flesh-pots of the ecclesiastical +Egypt, with its enticing visions of fallen grandeur, the great thinker +whose uniformitarian theory of geology had more than aught else paved +the way for the gradual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> acceptance of Darwin's evolutionism, came out +at last from the house of bondage, and nobly ranged himself on the side +of what his intellect judged to be the truth of nature, though his +emotions urged him hard to blind his judgment and to neglect its lights +for an emotional figment. Science has no more pathetic figure than that +of the old philosopher, in his sixty-sixth year, throwing himself with +all the eagerness of youth into what he had long considered the wrong +scale, and vigorously wrecking in the 'Antiquity of Man' what seemed to +the dimmed vision of his own emotional nature the very foundations of +his beloved creed. But still he did it. He came out and was separate. In +his own idiomatic language, he found at last that 'we must go the whole +ourang;' and, deep as was the pang that the recantation cost him, he +formally retracted the condemnation of 'transformism' in his earlier +works, and accepted, however unwillingly, the theory he had so often and +so deliberately rejected.</p> + +<p>The 'Antiquity of Man' came out in February 1863, some three years after +the 'Origin of Species.' For some time speculation had been active over +the strange hatchets which Boucher de Perthes had recently unearthed +among the Abbeville drift—shapeless masses of chipped flint rudely +fashioned into the form of an axe, which we now call palæolithic +implements, and know to be the handicraft of preglacial men. But until +Lyell's authoritative work appeared the unscientific public could not +tell exactly what to think of these curious and almost unhuman-looking +objects. Lyell at once set all doubts at rest; the magic of his name +silenced the derisive whispers of the dissidents. Already, in the +previous year,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> the first fasciculus of Colenso's famous work on the +Pentateuch had dealt a serious blow from the ecclesiastical and critical +side at the authenticity and historical truth of the Mosaic cosmogony. +Lyell now from the scientific side completely demolished its literal +truth, as ordinarily interpreted, by throwing back the primitive origin +of our race into a dim past of immeasurable antiquity. In so doing he +was clearing the way for Charles Darwin's second great work, 'The +Descent of Man;' and by incorporating in his book Huxley's remarks on +the Neanderthal skull, and much similar evolutionary matter, he +advertised the new creed in the animal origin of our race with all the +acquired weight of his immense and justly-deserved European reputation. +As a matter of taste, Lyell did not relish the application of +evolutionism to his own species. But, with that perfect loyalty to fact +which he shared so completely with Charles Darwin, as soon as he found +the evidence overwhelming, he gave in. By that grudging concession he +immensely strengthened the position of the new creed. 'I plead guilty,' +he writes to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'to going farther in my reasoning +towards transmutation than in my sentiments and imagination, and perhaps +for that very reason I shall lead more people on to Darwin and you, than +one who, being born later, like Lubbock, has comparatively little to +abandon of old and long-cherished ideas, which constituted the charm to +me of the theoretical part of the science in my earlier days.' And to +Darwin himself he writes regretfully. 'The descent of man from the +brutes takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past +relating to such matters.' This very reluctance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> itself told powerfully +in favour of Charles Darwin's novel theories: there is no evidence more +valuable to a cause than that which it extorts by moral force, in spite +of himself, from the faltering lips of an unwilling witness.</p> + +<p>The same year that saw the publication of Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' saw +also the first appearance of Huxley's work on 'Man's Place in Nature.' +Darwin himself had been anxious rather than otherwise to avoid too close +reference to the implications of his theory as regards the origin and +destiny of the human race. He had desired that his strictly scientific +views on the rise of specific distinctions should be judged entirely on +their own merits, unhampered by the interference of real or supposed +theological and ethical considerations. His own language on all such +subjects, wherever he was compelled to trench on them in the 'Origin of +Species,' was guarded and conciliatory; he scarcely referred at all to +man or his history; and his occasional notices of the moving principle +and first cause of the entire cosmos were reverential and religious in +the truest sense and in the highest degree. But you cannot let loose a +moral whirlwind, and then attempt to direct its course; you cannot open +the floodgates of opinion or of speculation, and then pretend to set +limits to the scope of their restless motion. Darwin soon found out that +people would insist in drawing inferences beyond what was written, and +in seeing implicit conclusions when they were not definitely formulated +in the words of their author. 'Man is perennially interesting to man,' +says the great chaotic American thinker; and whatever all-embracing +truth you set before him, you may be sure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> that man will see in it +chiefly the implications that most closely affect his own happiness and +his own destiny. The biological question of the origin of species is a +sufficiently wide one, but it includes also, among other cases, the +origin of the very familiar species <i>Homo sapiens</i> of Linnæus. Some +theologians jumped at once at the conclusion, right or wrong, that if +Darwinism were true man was nothing more than a developed monkey, the +immortal soul was an exploded myth, the foundations of religion itself +were shattered, and the wave of infidelity was doomed to swamp the whole +of Christendom with its blank nihilism. Scientific men, on the other +hand, drew the conclusion that man must be descended, like other +mammals, from some common early vertebrate ancestor, and that the +current views of his origin and destiny must be largely modified by the +evolutionary creed. Of this profound scientific belief Professor +Huxley's maiden work was the earliest outcome.</p> + +<p>Meantime, on the continent of Europe and over-sea in America, the +Darwinian theory was being hotly debated and warmly defended. France, +coldly sceptical and critical, positive rather than imaginative in +matters of science, and little prone by native cast of mind to the +evolutionary attitude, stood aloof to a great extent from the onward +course of the general movement. Here and there, to be sure, a Gaudry or +a Ribot, a Delboeuf or a De Candolle (the two latter a Liège Belgian and +a Genevan Swiss) might heartily throw himself into the new ideas, and +contribute whole squadrons of geological or botanical fact to the final +victory. Yet, as a whole, the dry and cautious French intelligence, ever +inclined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> to a scientific opportunism, preferred for the moment to stand +by expectant and await the result of the European consensus. But +philosophical Germany, on the other hand, beaming enthusiasm from its +myriad spectacles, eagerly welcomed the novel ideas, and proclaimed from +the housetops the evolutionary faith as a main plank in the rising +platform of the newly-roused Kulturkampf. Fritz Müller began with all +the ardour of a fresh convert to collect his admirable 'Facts for +Darwin;' his brother Hermann sat down with indomitable patience, like +the master's own, to watch the ceaseless action of the bees and +butterflies in the fertilisation of flowers. Rütimeyer applied the +Darwinian principles to the explanation of mammalian relationships, and +Haeckel set to work upon his vast reconstructive 'History of Creation,' +a largely speculative work which, with all its faults, distinctly +carried forward the evolutionary impulse, and set fresh researchers +working upon new lines, to confirm or to disprove its audacious +imaginings. In America, Asa Gray gave to the young creed the high +authority of his well-known name, and Chauncey Wright helped it onward +on the road with all the restrained force of his singular and oblique +but powerful and original personality. If Agassiz and Dawson still +hesitated, Fiske and Youmans were ardent in the faith. If critical +Boston put up its eye-glass doubtfully, Chicago and St. Louis were ready +for conversion. Everywhere Darwin and Darwinism became as household +words; it was the singular fate of the great prophet of evolution, alone +almost among the sons of men, to hear his own name familiarly twisted +during his own lifetime into a colloquial adjective, and to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> the +Darwinian theory and the errors of Darwinism staring him in the face a +hundred times a day from every newspaper and every periodical.</p> + +<p>Of course the 'Origin of Species' was largely translated at once into +all the civilised languages of Europe, Russian as well as French, Dutch +as well as German, Swedish as well as Italian, Spanish as well as +Hungarian, nay even, at last, transcending narrow continental limits, +Japanese as well as Hindustani. The revolution which it was rapidly +effecting was indeed a revolution in every mode of thought and feeling +as well as a revolution in mere restricted biological opinion. But all +this time, the modest, single-minded, and unassuming author was working +unmoved among his plants and pigeons in his home at Down, regardless of +the European fame he was so quickly acquiring, and anxious only to bring +to a termination the vast work which he still contemplated. A little +more than eleven years intervened between the publication of the 'Origin +of Species,' in 1859, and the first appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' +in 1871. The interval was occupied in carrying out in part the gigantic +scheme of his original collections for the full treatment of the +development theory. The work published in 1859 Darwin regarded merely as +an abstract and preliminary outline of his full opinions: 'No one can +feel more sensible than I do,' he wrote, 'of the necessity of hereafter +publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my +conclusions have been grounded.' The marvellously learned work on the +'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' which came out in +two volumes in 1867, formed the first instalment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> of this long-projected +treatise. The second part, as he told Mr. Fiske, was to have treated of +the variation of animals and plants through natural selection; while the +third part would have dealt at length with the phenomena of morphology, +of classification, and of distribution in space and time. But these +latter portions of the work were never written. To say the truth, they +were never needed. So universal was the recognition among the younger +men of Darwin's discovery, that before ten years were over innumerable +workers were pushing out the consequences of natural selection into +every field of biology and palæontology. It seemed no longer so +necessary as it had once seemed to write the larger and more elaborate +treatise he had originally contemplated.</p> + +<p>The volume on the variation of animals and plants contained also +Darwin's one solitary contribution to the pure speculative philosophy of +life—his 'Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis,' by which he strove to +account on philosophical principles for the general facts of physical +and mental heredity. Not to mince matters, it was his one conspicuous +failure, and is now pretty universally admitted as such. Let not the +love of the biographer deceive us; Darwin was here attempting a task +<i>ultra vires</i>. As already observed, his mind, vast as it was, leaned +rather to the concrete than to the abstract side: he lacked the +distinctively metaphysical and speculative twist. Strange to say, too, +his abortive theory appeared some years later than Herbert Spencer's +magnificent all-sided conception of 'Physiological Units,' put forth +expressly to meet the self-same difficulty. But while Darwin's +hypothesis is rudely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> materialistic, Herbert Spencer's is built up by an +acute and subtle analytical perception of all the analogous facts in +universal nature. It is a singular instance of a crude and essentially +unphilosophic conception endeavouring to replace a finished and delicate +philosophical idea.</p> + +<p>Earlier still, in 1862, Darwin had published his wonderful and +fascinating book on the 'Fertilisation of Orchids.' It is delightful to +contemplate the picture of the unruffled naturalist, in the midst of +that universal storm of ecclesiastical obloquy and scientific enthusiasm +which he had roused throughout Europe, sitting down calmly in his +Kentish conservatory to watch the behaviour of catasetums and +masdevallias, and to work out the details of his chosen subject, with +that marvellous patience of which he was so great a master, in the +pettiest minutiæ of fertilisation as displayed by a single highly +developed family of plants. Whoever wishes to learn the full profundity +of Darwin's researches, into every point that he set himself to +investigate, cannot do better than turn for a while to the consideration +of that exquisite treatise on one of the quaintest fairylands of +science. He will there learn by what an extraordinary wealth of cunning +devices natural selection has ensured the due conveyance of the +fecundating pollen from stamens to stigmas within the limits of a single +group of vegetable organisms. Here the fertilising mass is gummed +automatically between the eyes of the exploring bee, and then bent round +by the drying of its stalk so as to come in contact with the stigmatic +surface. There the pollen club is jerked out elastically by a sensitive +fibre, and actually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> flung by its irritable antennæ at the unconscious +head of the fertilising insect. In one case, the lip of the flower +secretes moisture and forms a sort of cold bath, which wets the wings of +the bees, so compelling them to creep out of the bucket by a passage +close to the anthers and stigma; in another case, the honey is concealed +at the bottom of so long a tube that only the proper fertilising moth +with a proboscis of ten or eleven inches in length can probe the deep +recess in which it is hidden. These, and a hundred other similar +instances, were all carefully considered and described by the great +naturalist as the by-work with which he filled up one of the intervals +between his greater and more comprehensive treatises.</p> + +<p>In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the progress of Darwinism was rapid +and continuous. One by one, the few scientific men who still held out +were overborne by the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh +instances of transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored +countries kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species +and varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his +'First Principles,' his 'Biology,' and the remodelled form of his +'Psychology;' Huxley brought out 'Man's Place in Nature,' the 'Lectures +on Comparative Anatomy,' and the 'Introduction to the Classification of +Animals;' Wallace produced his 'Malay Archipelago' and his +'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection;' and Galton wrote his +admirable work on 'Hereditary Genius,' of which his own family is so +remarkable an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had long since signified their +warm adhesion. At Oxford,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> Rolleston was bringing up a fresh generation +of young biologists in the new faith; at Cambridge, Darwin's old +university, a whole school of brilliant and accurate physiologists was +beginning to make itself both felt and heard in the world of science. In +the domain of anthropology, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the +new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations into +the Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. All these +diverse lines of thought both showed the wide-spread influence of +Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, +in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. +And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilised +world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement +was well in progress; everywhere the impulse sent forth from that quiet +Kentish home was permeating and quickening the entire pulse of +intelligent humanity.</p> + +<p>Why was it that the 'Origin of Species' possessed this extraordinary +vitalising and kinetic power, this germinal energy, this contagious +force, beyond all other forms of evolutionism previously promulgated? +Why did the world, that listened so coldly to Lamarck and Chambers, turn +so ready an ear to Charles Darwin and natural selection? Partly, no +doubt, because in the fulness of time the moment had come and the +prophet had arisen. All great movements are long brewing, and burst out +at last (like the Reformation and the French Revolution) with explosive +energy. But the cause is largely to be found, also, I believe, in the +peculiar nature of the Darwinian solution. True, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> thoroughly logical +mind, a mind of the very highest order, would have said even before +Darwin, 'Creation can have no possible place in the physical series of +things at all. How organisms came to be I do not yet exactly see; but I +am sure they must have come to be by some merely physical process, if we +could only find it out.' And such minds were all actually evolutionary +even before Darwin had made the <i>modus operandi</i> of evolution +intelligible. But most people are not so clear-sighted. They require to +have everything proved to them by the strictest collocation of actual +instances. They will not believe unless one rise from the dead. There +are men who rejected the raw doctrine of special creation on evidence +adduced; and there are men who never even for a moment entertained it as +conceivable. The former compose the mass of the scientific world, and it +was for their conversion that the Darwinian hypothesis was so highly +salutary. As Professor Fiske rightly remarks, 'The truth is that before +the publication of the "Origin of Species" there was no opinion whatever +current respecting the subject that deserved to be called a scientific +hypothesis. That the more complex forms of life must have come into +existence through some process of development from simpler forms was no +doubt the only sensible and rational view to take of the subject; but in +a vague and general opinion of this sort there is nothing that is +properly scientific. A scientific hypothesis must connect the phenomena +with which it deals by alleging a "true cause;" and before 1859 no one +had suggested a "true cause" for the origination of new species, +although the problem was one over which every philosophical naturalist +had puzzled since the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> beginning of the century. This explains why Mr. +Darwin's success was so rapid and complete, and it also explains why he +came so near being anticipated.' To put it briefly, <i>a priori</i>, creation +is from the very first unbelievable; but, as a matter of evidence, +Lamarck failed to make evolution comprehensible, or to give a rationale +of its mode of action, while Darwin's theory of natural selection +succeeded in doing so for those who awaited <i>a posteriori</i> proof. Hence +Darwin was able to convert the world, where Lamarck had only been able +to stir up enquiry among the picked spirits of the scientific and +philosophical coterie. Therein lies the true secret of his rapid, his +brilliant, and his triumphant progress. He had found out not only <i>that</i> +it was so, but <i>how</i> it was so, too. In Aristotelian phrase, he had +discovered the <i>πῶς</i> as well as the <i>ὅτι</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<h2>THE DESCENT OF MAN.</h2> + + +<p>In 1871, nearly twelve years after the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +published his 'Descent of Man.'</p> + +<p>We have seen already that he would fain have avoided the treatment of +this difficult and dangerous topic a little longer, so as to let his +main theory be fairly judged on its own merits, without the obtrusion of +theological or personal feelings into so purely biological a question; +but the current was too strong for him, and at last he yielded. On the +one hand, the adversaries had drawn for themselves the conclusion of +man's purely animal origin, and held it up to ridicule under false forms +in the most absurd and odious light. On the other hand, imprudent allies +had put forth under the evolutionary ægis their somewhat hypothetical +and extravagant speculations on this involved subject, which Darwin was +naturally anxious to correct and modify by his own more sober and +guarded inferences. The result was the second great finishing work of +the complete Darwinian system of things.</p> + +<p>Ever since evolutionism had begun to be at all it had been observed that +a natural corollary from the doctrine of descent with modification was +the belief in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> man's common ancestry with the anthropoid apes. As early +as the middle of the last century, indeed, Lord Monboddo, a whimsical +Scotch eccentric, had suggested in his famous book on the origin of +language the idea that men were merely developed monkeys. But this crude +and unorganised statement of a great truth, being ultimately based upon +no distinct physical grounds, deserved scarcely to be classed higher +than the childish evolutionism of 'Telliamed' De Maillet, which makes +birds descend from flying-fish and men the offspring of the hypothetical +tritons. On this point as on most others the earliest definite +scientific views are those of Buffon, who ventured to hint with extreme +caution the possibility of a common ancestry for man and all other +vertebrate animals. Goethe the all-sided had caught a passing glimpse of +the same profound conception about the date of the Reign of Terror; and +Erasmus Darwin had openly announced it, though without much elaboration, +in his precocious and premature 'Zoonomia.' Still more specifically, in +a note to the 'Temple of Nature,' the English evolutionist says: 'It has +been supposed by some that mankind were formerly quadrupeds.... These +philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to imagine that mankind +arose from one family of monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean;' and +in the third canto of that fantastic poem, he enlarges upon the great +part performed by the hand, with its opposable thumb, in the development +and progress of the human species. Lamarck, in his 'Philosophie +Zoologique,' distinctly lays down the doctrine that man is descended +from an ape-like ancestor, which gradually acquired the upright +position, not even now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> wholly natural to the human race, and maintained +only by the most constant watchfulness. The orang-outang was then the +highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang, +therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the +pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam.</p> + +<p>The introduction of the chimpanzee into our European Zoological Gardens +gave a fresh type of anthropoid to the crude speculators of the middle +decades of the century; and in 1859, Paul du Chaillu, the explorer and +hunter of the Gaboon country, brought over to America and Europe the +first specimens of the true gorilla ever seen by civilised men. There +can be little doubt that the general interest excited by his narrative +of his adventures (published in London in 1861) and by the well-known +stuffed specimen of the huge African anthropoid ape so long conspicuous +in the rooms of the British Museum, and now surviving (somewhat the +worse for wear) in the natural history collection at South Kensington, +did much to kindle public curiosity as to the nature of our relations +with the lower animals. It is no mere accidental circumstance, indeed, +that Huxley should have brought out 'Man's Place in Nature' just two +years after Du Chaillu's 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial +Africa' had made the whole world, lay and learned, familiar with the +name and features of the most human in outer aspect among the anthropoid +family. Thenceforth the gorilla, and not the orang-outang, was popularly +hit upon by scoffer and caricaturist as the imaginary type of our +primitive ancestors.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, during the twelve intervening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> years immense strides +had been made in every department of anthropological science, and the +whole tenor of modern speculation had been clearing the ground for the +'Descent of Man,' In 1865, Rolle in Germany had published his work on +'Man Viewed by the Light of the Darwinian Theory.' Two years later, +Canestrini in Italy read before the Naturalists' Society of Modena his +interesting paper on rudimentary characters as bearing on the origin of +the human species. In 1868, Büchner brought out his rudely materialistic +sledge-hammer lectures on the Darwinian principle; and in 1869, Barrago +flung straight at the head of the Roman clericals his offensive work on +man and the anthropoid apes. Most of these foreign publications were +unhappily marked by that coarse and almost vituperative opposition to +received views which too often disfigures French and German +controversial literature. In England, on the contrary, under our milder +and gentler ecclesiastical yoke, the contest had been conducted with +greater decorum and with far better results. Wallace had broken ground +tentatively and reverently in his essay on the 'Origin of Human Races,' +where he endeavoured to show that man is the co-descendant with the +anthropoid apes of some ancient lower and extinct form. Lubbock's +'Prehistoric Times' (1865) and 'Origin of Civilisation' (1870) helped to +clear the way in the opposite direction by demolishing the old belief, +firmly upheld by Whately and others, that savages represent a degraded +type, and that the civilised state is natural and, so to speak, +congenital to man. Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind' (1865) did still +more eminent service in the same direction. Colenso's 'Pentateuch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> and +Book of Joshua Critically Examined,' the publication of which began in +1862, had already shaken the foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony, and +incidentally discredited the received view of the direct creation of the +first human family. McLennan's 'Primitive Marriage' (1865) and Herbert +Spencer's articles on the origin of religion had kept speculation alive +along other paths, all tending ultimately towards the same conclusion. +Darwin's own cousin, Hensleigh Wedgwood, and Canon Farrar, had +independently endeavoured to prove that language, instead of being a +divine gift, might have arisen in a purely natural manner from +instinctive cries and the imitation of external sounds. The Duke of +Argyll and Professor Max Müller, by the obvious feebleness of their +half-hearted replies, had unconsciously aided in disseminating and +enforcing the very views they attempted to combat. Bagehot and Flower, +Maudsley and Jevons, Vogt and Lindsay, Galton and Brown-Séquard had each +in his way contributed facts and arguments ultimately utilised by the +great master architect in building up his consistent and harmonious +edifice. Finally, in 1868, Haeckel had published his 'Natural History of +Creation,' in which he discussed with surprising and perhaps excessive +boldness the various stages in the genealogy of man. These various +works, following so close upon Huxley's 'Man's Place in Nature' and +Lyell's conclusive 'Antiquity of Man,' left Darwin no choice but to set +forth his own reasoned opinions on the subject of the origin and +development of the human species.</p> + +<p>The evidence of the descent of man from some lower form, collected and +marshalled together by Darwin, consists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> chiefly of minute inferential +proofs which hardly admit of deliberate condensation. In his bodily +structure man is formed on the same underlying type or model as all the +other mammals, bone answering throughout to bone, as, for example, in +the fore limb, where homologous parts have been modified in the dog into +toes, in the bat into wing-supports, in the seal into flippers, and in +man himself into fingers and thumb, while still retaining in every case +their essential fundamental likeness of construction. Even the brain of +man resembles closely the brain of the higher monkeys; the differences +which separate him in this respect from the orang or the gorilla are far +slighter than the differences which separate those apes themselves from +the inferior monkeys. Indeed, as Huxley conclusively showed, on +anatomical grounds alone, man must be classed in the order Primates as +only one among the many divergent forms which that order includes within +its wide limits.</p> + +<p>In his embryonic development man closely resembles the lower animals, +the human creature being almost indistinguishable in certain stages from +the dog, the bat, the seal, and especially the monkeys. At a very early +age he possesses a slight projecting tail; at another, the great toe is +shorter than its neighbours, and projects like the thumb at a slight +angle; and at a third, the convolutions of the brain reach a point of +development about equivalent to that of the adult baboon. In his first +stages man himself stands far more closely related to the apes than the +apes in turn stand to cats or hyænas.</p> + +<p>Rudiments of muscles not normally found in man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> occur in many aberrant +human individuals. Some people possess the power of moving their scalps +and wagging their ears like dogs and monkeys; others can twitch the skin +of their bodies, as horses do when worried by flies. Mr. Woolner, the +sculptor, pointed out to Darwin a certain little projecting point or +knob on the margin of the ear, observed by him in the course of +modelling, which comparison shows to be the last folded remnant or +rudiment of the once erect and pointed monkey-like ear-tip. The +nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, once more, which in birds can be +drawn so rapidly across the ball of the eye, and which gives the +familiar glazed or murky appearance, is fairly well developed in the +ornithorhyncus and the kangaroo, as well as in a few higher mammals, +like the walrus; but in man, as in the monkey group, it survives only +under the degenerate form of a practically useless rudiment, the +semilunar fold. Man differs from the other Primates in his apparently +hairless condition; but the hair, though short and downy, still remains +on close inspection, and in some races, such as the Ainos of Japan, +forms a shaggy coat like an orang's or a gibbon's. A few long rough +hairs sometimes project from the short smooth down of the eyebrows; and +these peculiar bristles, occasional only in the human species, are +habitual in the chimpanzee and in many baboons. Internal organs show +similar rudiments, of less enthralling interest, it must be candidly +confessed, to the unscientific outside intelligence. Even the bony +skeleton contributes its share of confirmatory evidence; for in the +lower monkeys and in many other mammals a certain main trunk nerve +passes through a special perforation in the shoulder-blade,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> and this +perforation, though now almost obsolete, sometimes recurs in man, in +which case the nerve in question invariably passes through it, as in the +inferior monkeys. What is still more remarkable is the fact that the +perforation occurs far more frequently (in proportion) among the +skeletons of very ancient races than among those of our own time. One +chief cause why in this and other cases ancient races often present +structures resembling those of the lower animals seems to be that they +stand nearer in the long line of descent to their remote animal-like +progenitors.</p> + +<p>The conclusion at which, after fully examining all the evidence, Darwin +finally arrives is somewhat as follows:</p> + +<p>The early ancestors of man must have been more or less monkey-like +animals, belonging to the great anthropoid group, and related to the +progenitors of the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. They +must have been once covered with hair, both sexes possessing beards. +Their ears were probably pointed and capable of movement, and their +bodies were provided with a movable tail. The foot had a great toe +somewhat thumb-like in its action, with which they could grasp the +branches of trees. They were probably arboreal in their habits, +fruit-eaters by choice, and inhabitants of some warm forest-clad land. +The males had great canine teeth, with which they fought one another for +the possession of the females. At a much earlier period, the internal +anatomical peculiarities approached those of the lowest mammals, and the +eye was provided with a third eyelid. Peering still further back into +the dim abyss of the ages, Darwin vaguely describes the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> ancestors of +humanity as aquatic animals, allied to the mudfish; for our lungs are +known to consist of modified swim-bladders, which must once have served +our remote progenitors in the office of a float. The gill-clefts on the +neck of the human embryo still point to the spot where the branchiæ +once, no doubt, existed. Our primordial birthplace appears to have been +a shore washed twice a day by the recurrent tides. The heart then took +the shape merely of a simple pulsating vessel; and a long undivided +spinal cord usurped the place of the vertebral column. These extremely +primitive ancestors of man, thus dimly beheld across the gulf of ages, +must have been at least as simply and humbly organised as that very +lowest and earliest of existing vertebrates, the worm-like lancelet.</p> + +<p>From such a rude and indefinite beginning natural selection, aided by +the various concomitant principles, has slowly built up the pedigree of +man. Starting from these remote half-invertebrate forms, whose vague +shape is still perhaps in part preserved for us by the soft and +jelly-like larva of the modern ascidian, we rise by long stages to a +group of early fishes, like the lancelet itself. From these the ganoids +and then the lung-bearing mudfish must have been gradually developed. +From such fish a very small advance would carry us on to the newts and +other amphibians. The duck-billed platypus helps us slightly to bridge +over the gap between the reptiles and the lower mammals, such as the +kangaroo and the wombat, though the connection with the amphibians is +still, as when Darwin wrote, highly problematical. From marsupials, such +as the kangaroo, we ascend gradually to the insectivorous type +represented by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> shrews and hedgehogs, and thence once more by very +well-marked intermediate stages to the lemurs of Madagascar, a group +linked on the one hand to the insectivores, and on the other to the true +monkeys. The monkeys, again, 'branched off into two great stems—the New +World and Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, +man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.'</p> + +<p>The word was spoken; the secret was out. The world might well have been +excused for treating it scornfully. But as a matter of fact, the storm +which followed the 'Descent of Man' was as nothing compared with the +torrent of abuse that had pursued the author of the 'Origin of Species.' +In twelve years society had grown slowly accustomed to the once +startling idea, and it listened now with comparatively languid interest +to the final utterance of the great biologist on the question of its own +origin and destinies. In 1859 it cried in horror, 'How very shocking!' +in 1871, it murmured complacently, 'Is that all? Why, everybody knew +that much already!'</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, on the moral and social side, the ultimate importance of +the 'Descent of Man' upon the world's history can hardly be overrated by +a philosophic investigator. Vast as was the revolution effected in +biology by the 'Origin of Species,' it was as nothing compared with the +still wider, deeper, and more subtly-working revolution inaugurated by +the announcement of man's purely animal origin. The main discovery, +strange to say, affected a single branch of thought alone; the minor +corollary drawn from it to a single species has already affected, and is +destined in the future still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> more profoundedly to affect, every +possible sphere of human energy. Not only has it completely reversed our +entire conception of history generally, by teaching us that man has +slowly risen from a very low and humble beginning, but it has also +revolutionised our whole ideas of our own position and our own destiny, +it has permeated the sciences of language and of medicine, it has +introduced new conceptions of ethics and of religion, and it threatens +in the future to produce immense effects upon the theory and practice of +education, of politics, and of economic and social science. These +wide-reaching and deep-seated results began to be felt from the first +moment when the Darwinian principle was definitely promulgated in the +'Origin of Species,' but their final development and general acceptance +was immensely accelerated by Darwin's own authoritative statement in the +'Descent of Man.'</p> + +<p>To some among us still, as to Lyell before us, this new belief in the +animal origin of man seems far less beautiful, noble, and inspiriting +than the older faith in his special and separate divine creation. Such +thinkers find it somehow more pleasant and comfortable to suppose that +man has fallen than that man has risen; the doctrine of the universal +degradation of humanity paradoxically appears to them more full of +promise and aspiration for the times to come than the doctrine of its +universal elevation. To Darwin himself, however, it seemed otherwise. +'Man,' he says, 'may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, +though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic +scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been +aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> the distant future.' Surely this is the truer and manlier way of +looking at the reversed and improved attitude of man. Surely it is +better to climb to the top than to have been placed there—and +fallen—at the very outset. Surely it is a nobler view of life that we +may yet by our own strenuous exertions raise our race some places higher +in the endless and limitless hierarchy of nature than that we are the +miserable and hopelessly degenerate descendants of a ruined and degraded +angelic progenitor. Surely it is well, while we boast with Glaucus that +we indeed are far braver and better than our ancestors, to pray at the +same time, in the words of Hector, that our sons may be yet braver and +better than ourselves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h2>THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP.</h2> + + +<p>In the same volumes with the 'Descent of Man' Darwin included his +admirable treatise on sexual selection. This form of selection he had +already dealt with briefly in the 'Origin of Species;' but as in his +opinion it was largely instrumental in producing the minor differences +which separate one race of men from another, he found it necessary to +enlarge and expand it in connection with his account of the rise and +progress of the human species.</p> + +<p>Among many animals, and especially in the higher classes of animals, the +males and females do not mate together casually; there is a certain +amount of selection or of courtship. In some cases, as with deer and +antelopes, the males fight with one another for the possession of the +females. In other cases, as with the peacock and the humming-birds, the +males display their beauty and their skill before the eyes of the +assembled females. In the first instance, the victor obtains the mates; +in the second instance, the mates themselves select from the group the +handsomest and most personally pleasing competitor. Sexual selection, of +which these are special cases, depends on the advantage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> possessed by +certain individuals over others of the same sex and species solely in +respect to the question of mating. In all such instances, the males have +acquired their weapons of offence and defence or their ornamental +decorations, not from being better fitted to survive in the struggle for +existence, but from having gained an advantage over other males of the +same kind, and from having transmitted this advantage to offspring of +their own sex alone.</p> + +<p>Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by the selection of +those birds which are victorious in the cockpit, so the strongest and +most vigorous males, or those provided with the best weapons, have +prevailed in the state of nature over their feebler and more cowardly +competitors. Just as man can give beauty, according to his own standard +of taste, to his male poultry, by selecting special birds for their +plumage, their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female birds in +a state of nature have by a long-continued choice of the more attractive +males added to their beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. In these two +ways, Darwin believed, a limited selection has slowly developed weapons +like the horns of buffaloes, the antlers of stags, the tusks of boars, +and the spurs of game-birds, together with the courage, strength, and +pugnacity always associated with such special organs. It has also +developed the ornamental plumage of the peacock, the argus pheasant, and +the birds of paradise; the song of the lark, the thrush, and the +nightingale; the brilliant hues on the face of the mandrill; and the +attractive perfume of the musk-deer, the snakes, and the scented +butterflies. Wherever one sex possesses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> any decorative or alluring +adjunct not equally shared by the other, Darwin attributed this special +gift either to the law of battle, or to the long and slowly exerted +selective action of their fastidious mates.</p> + +<p>The germ of the doctrine of sexual selection is to be found, like so +many other of Charles Darwin's theories, in a prophetic passage of his +grandfather's 'Zoonomia.' Stags, the Lichfield physician tells us, are +provided with antlers 'for the purpose of combating other stags for the +exclusive possession of the females, who are observed, like the ladies +in the time 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.'</p> + +<p>It must be noticed, however, that Erasmus Darwin here imports into the +question the metaphysical and teleological notion of the final cause, +implying that the struggle of the males was ordained from without, for +this express and preconceived purpose; whereas Charles Darwin, never +transcending the world of phenomena, more logically regards the struggle +itself as an efficient cause, having for its result the survival of the +strongest or the handsomest as the case may be. This distinction is +fundamental; it marks the gulf between the essentially teleological +spirit of the eighteenth century and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> the essentially positive spirit of +philosophy and science at the present day.</p> + +<p>Here again, too, the immense logical superiority of Charles Darwin's +rigorous and exhaustive inductive method over the loose suggestiveness +of his grandfather Erasmus may easily be observed. For while Erasmus +merely throws out a clever and interesting hint as to the supposed +method and intention of nature, Charles Darwin proves his thesis, point +by point, with almost mathematical exactitude, leaving no objection +unmet behind him, but giving statistical and inductive warrant for every +step in his cumulative argument. He goes carefully into the numerical +proportion of the two sexes in various species; into the relative dates +of arrival in any particular country of the males and females of +migratory birds; into the question whether any individuals ever remain +in the long run unpaired; into the chances of the earliest-mated or most +vigorous couples leaving behind more numerous or stronger offspring to +represent them in the next generation. He collects from every quarter +and from all sources whatever available evidence can be obtained as to +the courtship and rivalry of birds and butterflies, of deer and +antelopes, of fish and lizards. He shows by numerous examples and +quotations how even flies coquet together in their pretty rhythmical +aerial dances; how wasps battle eagerly with one another to secure +possession of their unconcerned mates; how cicadas strive to win their +'voiceless brides' with stridulating music; how sphinx-moths endeavour +to allure their partners with the musky odour of their pencilled wings; +and how emperors and orange-tips display their gorgeous spots<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> and bands +in the broad sunshine before the admiring and attentive eyes of their +observant dames. He traces up the same spirit of rivalry and ostentation +to the cock-pheasant strutting about before the attendant hen, and to +the meeting-places of the blackcock, where all the males of the district +fight with one another and undertake long love-dances in regular +tournaments, while the females stand by and watch the chances and +changes of the contest with affected indifference. Finally, he points +out how similar effects are produced by like causes among the higher +animals, especially among our near relations the monkeys; and then he +proceeds to apply the principles thus firmly grounded to the particular +instance of the human race itself, the primary object of his entire +treatise.</p> + +<p>Some of the most interesting of the modifications due to this particular +form of selective action are to be found amongst the insects and other +low types of animal life. The crickets, the locusts, and the +grasshoppers, for example, are all famous for their musical powers; but +the sounds themselves are produced in the different families by very +different and quaintly varied organs. The song of the crickets is evoked +by the scraping of minute teeth on the under side of either wing-cover; +in the case of the locusts, the left wing, which acts as a bow, overlies +the right wing, which serves as a fiddle; while with the grasshoppers, +the leg does duty as the musical instrument, and has a row of +lancet-shaped elastic knobs along its outer surface, which the insect +rubs across the nerves of the wing-covers when it wishes to charm the +ears and rouse the affection of its silent mate. In a South African +species of the same family,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> the whole body of the male is fairly +converted into a musical instrument, being immensely inflated, hollow, +and distended like a pellucid air-bladder in order to act as an +efficient sounding-board. Among the beetles, taste seems generally to +have specialised itself rather on form than on music or colour, and the +males are here usually remarkable for their singular and very +complicated horns, often compared in various species to those of stags +or rhinoceroses, and entirely absent in the females of most kinds. But +it is among the butterflies and moths that insect æstheticism has +produced its greatest artistic triumphs; for here the beautiful +eye-spots and delicate markings on the expanded wing-membranes are +almost certainly due to sexual selection.</p> + +<p>The higher animals display like evidence of the same slow selective +action. The courtship of the stickleback, who dances 'mad with delight' +around the mate he has allured into the nest he prepares for her, has +been observed by dozens of observers both before and since in the +domestic aquarium. The gem-like colours of the male dragonet, the +butterfly wings of certain gurnards, and the decorated tails of some +exotic carps all point in the same direction. Our own larger newt is +adorned during the breeding season with a serrated crest edged with +orange; while in the smaller kind the colours of the body acquire at the +same critical period of love-making a vivid brilliancy. The strange +horns and luridly coloured throat-pouches of tropical lizards are +familiar to all visitors in equatorial climates, and they are confined +exclusively to the male sex. Among birds, the superior beauty of the +male plumage is known to everybody; and their greatest glory invariably +coincides<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> with the special season for the selection of mates. In the +spring, as even our poets have told us, the wanton lapwing gets himself +another crest. The law of battle produces the spur of the game-birds and +the still stranger wing-spurs of certain species of the plover kind. +Æsthetic rivalry is answerable rather for vocal music, and for the +plumage of the umbrella-bird, the lyre-bird, the humming-birds, and the +cock of the rocks. Among mammals, strength rather than beauty seems to +have carried the day; horns, and tusks, and spikes, and antlers are here +the special guerdon of the victorious males. Yet even mammals show +occasional signs of distinctly æsthetic and artistic preferences, as in +the gracefully twisted horns of the koodoo, the scent-glands of the +musk-deer or of certain antelopes, the brilliant hues of the male +mandrill, and the tufts and moustaches of so many monkeys.</p> + +<p>It must be frankly conceded that the reception accorded to Darwin's +doctrine of sexual selection, even among the biological public, was far +less unanimous, enthusiastic, and full than that which had been granted +to his more extensive theory of survival of the fittest. Many eminent +naturalists declined from the very outset to accept the conclusions thus +definitely set before them, and others who at first seemed disposed to +bow to the immense weight of Darwin's supreme authority gradually +withdrew their grudging assent from the new doctrine, as they found +their relapse backed up by others, and refused to believe that the +theory of courtship had been fairly proven before the final tribunal of +science. Several critics began by objecting that the whole theory was a +mere afterthought. Darwin, they said, finding that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> natural selection +did not suffice by itself to explain all the details of structure in +man, had invented sexual selection as a supplementary principle to help +it over the hard places. Those who wrote and spoke in this thoughtless +fashion could have had but a very inadequate idea of Darwin's close +experimental methods of enquiry. As a matter of fact, indeed, they were +entirely wrong; the doctrine of sexual selection itself, already faintly +foreshadowed by Erasmus Darwin in the 'Zoonomia,' had been distinctly +developed in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' with at least +as much provisional elaboration as any other equally important factor in +the biological drama as set forth in that confessedly introductory work. +Nay, Haeckel had caught gladly at the luminous conception there +expressed, even before the appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' and had +worked it out in his 'Generelle Morphologie,' with great insight, to its +legitimate conclusions in many directions. Indeed, the sole reason why +so much space was devoted to the subject in Darwin's work on human +development was simply because there for the first time an opportunity +arose of utilising his vast store of collected information on this +single aspect of the evolutionary process. It was no afterthought, but a +necessary and inevitable component element of the fully-developed +evolutionary concept.</p> + +<p>Still, it cannot be denied that naturalists generally did not accept +with effusion the new clause in the evolutionary creed. Many of them +hesitated; a few acquiesced; the majority more or less openly dissented. +But Darwin's belief remained firm as a rock. 'I am glad you defend +sexual selection,' he wrote a few years later in a private letter; 'I +have no fear about its ultimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> fate, though it is now at a discount;' +and in the preface to the second edition of the 'Descent of Man,' he +remarks acutely, 'I have been struck with the likeness of many of the +half-favourable criticisms on sexual selection with those which appeared +at first on natural selection; such as that it would explain some few +details, but certainly was not applicable to the extent to which I have +employed it. My conviction of the power of sexual selection remains +unshaken.... When naturalists have become familiar with the idea, it +will, as I believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has already +been fully and favourably received by several capable judges.'</p> + +<p>In spite of the still continued demurrer of not a few among the leading +evolutionists, it is probable, I think, that Darwin's prophecy on this +matter will yet be justified by the verdict of time. For the opposition +to the doctrine of sexual selection proceeds almost invariably, as it +seems to me, from those persons who still desire to erect an efficient +barrier of one sort or another between the human and animal worlds; +while on the contrary the theory in question is almost if not quite +universally accepted by just those rigorously evolutionary biologists +who are freest from preconceptions or special <i>a priori</i> teleological +objections of any kind whatever. The half of the doctrine which deals +with the law of battle, indeed, can hardly be doubted by any competent +naturalist; the other half, which deals with the supposed æsthetic +preferences of the females, is, no doubt, distasteful to certain +thinkers because it seems to imply the existence in the lower animals of +a sense of beauty which many among us are not even now prepared +generously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> to admit. The desire to arrogate to mankind alone all the +higher faculties either of sense or intellect has probably much to do +with the current disinclination towards the Darwinian idea of sexual +selection. Thinkers who allow themselves to be emotionally swayed by +such extraneous considerations forget that the beautiful is merely that +which pleases; that beauty has no external objective existence; and that +the range of taste, both among ourselves and among animals at large, is +practically infinite. The greatest blow ever aimed at the Darwinian +theory of sexual selection was undoubtedly that dealt out by Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace (et tu, Brute!) in his able and subtle article on the +Colours of Animals in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' since reprinted in his +delightful work on 'Tropical Nature.' Wallace there urges with his usual +acuteness, ingenuity, and skill several fundamental objections to the +Darwinian hypothesis of no little importance and weight. But it must +always be remembered (with all due respect to the joint discoverer of +natural selection) that Mr. Wallace himself, after publishing his own +admirable essay on the development of man, drew back aghast in the end +from the full consequences of his own admission, and uttered his partial +recantation in the singular words, 'Natural selection could only have +endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape.' It +seems probable that in every case an analogous desire to erect a firm +barrier between man and brute by positing the faculty for perceiving +beauty as a special quasi-divine differentia of the human race has been +at the bottom of the still faintly surviving dislike amongst a section +of scientific men to sexual selection.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> Nevertheless, a candid and +impartial critic would be compelled frankly to admit that Darwin's +admirable theory of courtship has not on the whole proved so generally +acceptable to the biological world up to the present time as his greater +and far more comprehensive theory of survival of the fittest. It still +waits for its final recognition, towards which it is progressing more +rapidly and surely every day it lives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<h2>VICTORY AND REST.</h2> + + +<p>The last eleven years of Darwin's life were spent in enforcing and +developing the principles already reached, and in enjoying the almost +unchequered progress of the revolution he had so unconsciously to +himself succeeded in inaugurating.</p> + +<p>Only one year elapsed between the publication of the 'Descent of Man' +and that of its next important successor, the 'Expression of the +Emotions.' The occasion of this learned and bulky treatise in itself +stands as an immortal proof of the conscientious way in which Darwin +went to work to anticipate the slightest and most comparatively +impertinent possible objections to his main theories. Sir Charles Bell, +in one of the quaintly antiquated Bridgwater treatises—those marvellous +monuments of sadly misplaced teleological ingenuity—had maintained that +man was endowed with sundry small facial muscles solely for the sake of +expressing his emotions. This view was so obviously opposed to the +belief in the descent of man from some lower form, 'that,' says Darwin, +'it was necessary for me to consider it;' and so he did, in a lengthy +work, where the whole subject is exhaustively treated, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> Bell's idea +is completely pulverised by the apt allegation of analogous expressions +in the animal world. In his old age Darwin grew, in fact, only the more +ceaselessly and wonderfully industrious. In 1875, after three years of +comparative silence, came the 'Insectivorous Plants,' a work full of +minute observation on the habits and manners of the sundew, the +butterwort, the Venus's fly-catcher, and the various heterogeneous +bog-haunting species known by the common name of pitcher plants. The +bare mass and weight of the facts which Darwin had collected for the +'Origin of Species' might well-nigh have stifled the very existence of +that marvellous book: it was lucky that the premature publication of +Wallace's paper compelled him to hurry on his 'brief abstract,' for if +he had waited to select and arrange the whole series of observations +that he finally published in his various later justificatory volumes, we +might have looked in vain for the great systematic and organising work, +which would no doubt have been 'surcharged with its own weight, and +strangled with its waste fertility.' But the task that he himself best +loved was to watch in minute detail the principles whose secret he had +penetrated, and whose reserve he had broken, working themselves out +before his very eyes, naked and not ashamed—to catch Actæon-like the +undraped form of nature herself in the actual process of her inmost +being. He could patiently observe the red and slimy hair-glands of the +drosera closing slowly and remorselessly round the insect prey, and +sucking from their bodies with sensitive tentacles the protoplasmic +juices denied to its leaves by the poor and boggy soil, on which alone +its scanty rootlets can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> properly thrive. He could watch the butterwort +curving round the edges of its wan green foliage upon the captured limbs +of fly or aphis. He could note how the serried mass of finger-like +processes in the utricles of the bladderwort slowly absorb organic +matter from the larva of a gnat, or the minute water-insects entangled +within its living and almost animated lobster-pot. He could track the +long line of treacherous honey-glands by which the sarracenia entices +flies into the festering manure-wells of its sticky pitchers. The +minuteness and skill of all his observations on these lesser problems of +natural selection inevitably inspired faith among outsiders in the +cautious judgment of the observer and experimenter; and day by day +throughout his later years the evidence of the popular acceptance of his +doctrine, and of the dying away of the general ridicule with which it +was first received by the unlearned public, was very gratifying to the +great naturalist.</p> + +<p>A year later, in 1876, came the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation +in the Vegetable Kingdom.' So far as regarded the world of plants, +especially with respect to its higher divisions, this work was of +immense theoretical importance; and it also cast a wonderful side-light +upon the nature of that strange distinction of sex which occurs both in +the vegetable and animal kingdom, and in each is the concomitant—one +might almost say the necessary concomitant—of high development and +complex organisation. The great result attained by Darwin in his long +and toilsome series of experiments on this interesting subject was the +splendid proof of the law that cross-fertilisation produces finer and +healthier offspring, while continuous self-fertilisation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> tends in the +long run to degradation, degeneration, and final extinction.</p> + +<p>Here as elsewhere, however, Darwin's principle does not spring +spontaneous, like Athene from the head of Zeus, a goddess full-formed, +uncaused, inexplicable: it arises gradually by a slow process of +development and modification from the previous investigations of earlier +biologists. At the close of the last century, in the terrible year of +upheaval 1793, a quiet German botanist, Christian Konrad Sprengel by +name, published at Berlin his long unheeded but intensely interesting +work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers.' In the summer of 1789, while all +Europe was ablaze with the news that the Bastille had been stormed, and +a new era of humanity begun, the calm and peaceful Pomeranian observer +was noting in his own garden the curious fact that many flowers are +incapable of being fertilised without the assistance of flying insects, +which carry pollen from the stamens of one blossom to the sensitive +surface or ovary of the next. Hence he concluded that the secretion of +honey or nectar in flowers, the contrivances by which it is protected +from rain, the bright hues or lines of the corolla, and the sweet +perfume distilled by the blossoms, are all so many cunning devices of +nature to ensure fertilisation by the insect-visitors. Moreover, +Sprengel observed that many flowers are of one sex only, and that in +several others the sexes do not mature simultaneously; 'so that,' said +he, 'nature seems to intend that no flower shall be fertilised by means +of its own pollen.' Indeed, in some instances, as he showed by +experiments upon the yellow day lily, plants impregnated from their own +stamens cannot be made to set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> seed at all. 'So near,' says his able +successor, Hermann Müller, 'was Sprengel to the distinct recognition of +the fact that self-fertilisation leads to worse results than +cross-fertilisation, and that all the arrangements which favour +insect-visits are of value to the plant itself, simply because the +insect-visitors effect cross-fertilisation!' As in most other +anticipatory cases, however, it must be here remarked that Sprengel's +idea was wholly teleological: he conceived of nature as animated by a +direct informing principle, which deliberately aimed at a particular +result; whereas Darwin rather came to the conclusion that +cross-fertilisation as a matter of fact does actually produce beneficial +results, and that therefore those plants which varied most in the +direction of arrangements for favouring insect-visits were likely to be +exceptionally fortunate in the struggle for existence against +competitors otherwise arranged. It is just the usual Darwinian +substitution of an efficient for a final cause.</p> + +<p>Even before Sprengel, Kölreuter had recognised, in 1761, that +self-fertilisation was avoided in nature; and his observations and +experiments on intercrossing and on hybridism were largely relied upon +by Darwin himself, to whom they suggested at an early period many +fruitful lines of original investigation. In 1799, again, Andrew Knight, +following up the same line of thought in England as Sprengel in Germany, +declared as the result of his close experiments upon the garden pea, +that no plant ever fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. +But Knight's law, not being brought into causal connection with any +great fundamental principle of nature, was almost entirely overlooked by +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> scientific world until the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of +Species,' half a century later. The same neglect also overtook +Sprengel's immensely interesting and curious work on fertilisation of +flowers. The world, in fact, was not yet ready for the separate +treatment of functional problems connected with the interrelations of +organic beings; so Knight and Sprengel were laid aside unnoticed on the +dusty top bookshelves of public libraries, while the dry classificatory +and systematic biology of the moment had it ail its own way for the time +being on the centre reading-tables. So many separate and independent +strands of thought does it ultimately require to make up the grand final +generalisation which the outer world attributes in its totality to the +one supreme organising intelligence.</p> + +<p>But in the 'Origin of Species' itself Darwin reiterated and emphasised +Knight's law as a general and all-pervading principle of nature, placing +it at the same time on broader and surer biological foundations by +affiliating it intimately upon his own great illuminating and unifying +doctrine of natural selection. He also soon after rescued from oblivion +Sprengel's curious and fairy-like book, showing in full detail in his +work on orchids the wonderful contrivances by which flowers seek to +attract and to secure the assistance of insects for the impregnation of +their embryo seeds. In the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication,' he further showed that breeding in-and-in diminishes the +strength and productiveness of the offspring; while crossing with +another stock produces, on the contrary, the best possible physical +results in both directions. And now at last, in the 'Effects of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Cross +and Self fertilisation,' he proved by careful and frequently repeated +experiments that a constant infusion of fresh blood (so to speak) is +essential to the production of the healthiest offspring. In the words of +his own emphatic summing up, 'Nature abhors perpetual +self-fertilisation.'</p> + +<p>The immediate result of these new statements and this fresh rationale of +Knight's law was to bring down Sprengel forthwith from the top shelf, +where he had languished ingloriously for seventy years, and to set a +whole school of ardent botanical observers working hard in the lines he +had laid down upon the mutual correlations of insects and flowers. A +vast literature sprang up at once upon this enchanting and +long-neglected subject, the most eminent workers in the rediscovered +field being Delpino in Italy, Hildebrand and Hermann Müller in Germany, +Axel in Sweden, Lubbock in England, and Fritz Müller in tropical South +America. Darwin found the question, in fact, almost taken out of his +hands before he had time himself to treat of it; for Hildebrand's chief +work was published as early as 1867, while Axel's appeared in 1869, both +of them several years earlier than Darwin's own final essay on the +subject in the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation.' No statement, +perhaps, could more clearly mark the enormous impetus given to +researches in this direction than the fact that D'Arcy Thompson, in his +appendix to Müller's splendid work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers,' +has collected a list of no less than eight hundred and fourteen separate +works or important papers bearing on that special department of botany, +almost all of them subsequent in date to the first publication<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> of the +'Origin of Species.' So widely did the Darwinian wave extend, and so +profoundly did it affect every minute point of biological and +psychological investigation.</p> + +<p>Each of these later works of Darwin's consists, as a rule, of an +expansion of some single chapter or paragraph in the 'Origin of +Species;' or, to speak more correctly, of an arrangement of the +materials collected and the experiments designed for that particular +portion of the great projected encyclopædia of evolutionism, of which +the 'Origin of Species' itself was but a brief anticipatory summary or +rough outline. Thus, the book on Orchids, published in 1862, is already +foreshadowed in a part of the chapter on the Difficulties of the Theory +of Natural Selection; the 'Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants' +(1865) is briefly summarised by anticipation in the long section on +Modes of Transition; the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication' (1868) consists of the vast array of <i>pièces +justificatives</i> for the first chapter of the 'Origin of Species;' and +the germ of the 'Cross and Self Fertilisation' (1876) is to be seen in +the passage 'On the Intercrossing of Individuals' in Chapter IV. of the +same work. It was well indeed that Darwin began by publishing the +shorter and more manageable abstract; the half, as the wise Greek +proverb shrewdly remarks, is often more than the whole; and a world that +eagerly devoured the first great deliverance of the Darwinian principle, +might have stood aghast had it been asked to swallow it piecemeal in +such gigantic treatises as those with which its author afterwards sought +thrice to vanquish all his foes and thrice to slay the slain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yet, with each fresh manifestation of Darwin's inexhaustible resources, +on the other hand, the opposition to his principles grew feebler and +feebler, and the universality of their acceptance more and more +pronounced, till at last, among biologists at least, not to be a +Darwinian was equivalent to being hopelessly left behind by the general +onward movement of the time. In 1874 Tyndall delivered his famous +address at the Belfast meeting of the British Association; and in 1877, +from the same presidential chair at Plymouth, Allen Thomson, long +reputed a doubtful waverer, enforced his cordial adhesion to the +Darwinian principles by his inaugural discourse on 'The Development of +the Forms of Animal Life.' A new generation of active workers, trained +up from the first in the evolutionary school, like Romanes, Ray +Lankester, Thistleton Dyer, Balfour, Sully, and Moggridge, had now risen +gradually around the great master; and in every direction he could see +the seed he had himself planted being watered and nourished in fresh +soil by a hundred ardent and enthusiastic young disciples. Even in +France, ever irresponsive to the touch of new ideas of alien origin, +Colonel Moulinié's admirable and sympathetic translations were beginning +to win over to the evolutionary creed many rising workers; while in +Germany, Victor Carus's excellent versions had from the very first +brought in the enthusiastic Teutonic biologists with a congenial +'swarmery' to the camp of the Darwinians. Correspondents from every part +of the world kept pressing fresh facts and fresh applications upon the +founder of the faith; and Darwin saw his own work so fast being taken +out of his hands by specialist disciples that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> abandoned entirely his +original intention of publishing in detail the basis of his first book, +and contented himself instead with tracing out minutely some minor +portions of his contemplated task as specimens of evolutionary method.</p> + +<p>In 1877, in pursuance of this changed purpose, Darwin published his book +on 'Forms of Flowers,' in which he dealt closely with the old problem of +differently shaped blossoms on plants of the same species. It had long +been known, to take a single example, that primroses existed in two +forms, the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, of which the former has the +pin-like summit of the pistil at the top of the tube, and the stamens +concealed half way down its throat; while in the latter these relative +positions are exactly reversed, the stamens answering in place to the +pistil of the alternative form with geometrical accuracy. As early as +1862 Darwin had shown, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' that +this curious arrangement owed its development to the greater security +which it afforded for cross-fertilisation, because in this way each +flower had to be impregnated with the pollen, from a totally distinct +blossom, growing on a different individual plant. In a series of +successive papers read before the same Society in the years between 1863 +and 1868, he had extended a similar course of explanation to the +multiform flowers of the flaxes, the loosestrifes, the featherfoil, the +auricula, the buckbean, and several other well-known plants. At last, in +1877, he gathered together into one of the now familiar green-covered +volumes the whole of his observations on this strange peculiarity, and +proved by abundant illustration and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> experiment that the diversity of +form is always due through natural selection to the advantage gained by +perfect security of cross-fertilisation, resulting as it invariably does +in the production of the finest, strongest, and most successful +seedlings. Any variation, however peculiar, which helps to ensure this +constant infusion of fresh blood is certain to be favoured in the +struggle for life, owing to the superior vitality of the stock it +begets. But it is worthy of notice, as showing the extreme minuteness +and exhaustiveness of Darwin's method on the small scale, side by side +with his extraordinary and unusual power of rising to the very highest +and grandest generalisations, that the volume which he devoted to the +elucidation of this minor factor in the question of hereditary +advantages runs to nearly as many pages as the last edition of the +'Origin of Species' itself. So great was the wealth of observation and +experiment which he could lavish upon the solution of a single, small, +incidental problem.</p> + +<p>Even fuller in minute original research was the work which Darwin +published in 1880, on 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' detailing the +result of innumerable observations on the seemingly irresponsible yet +almost purposive rotations of the growing rootlets and young stems of +peas and climbers. Anyone who wishes to see on what a wide foundation of +irrefragable fact the great biologist built up the stately fabric of his +vast theories cannot do better than turn for instruction to this +remarkable volume, which the old naturalist gave to the world some time +after passing the allotted span of threescore years and ten.</p> + +<p>It was in the same year (1880) that Huxley delivered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> at the Royal +Institution his famous address on the Coming of Age of the 'Origin of +Species.' The time was a favourable one for reviewing the silent and +almost unobserved progress of a great revolution. Twenty-one years had +come and gone since the father of modern scientific evolutionism had +launched upon the world his tentative work. In those twenty-one years +the thought of humanity had been twisted around as upon some invisible +pivot, and a new heaven and a new earth had been presented to the eyes +of seers and thinkers. One-and-twenty years before, despite the +influence of Hutton and of Lyell, the dominant view of the earth's past +history revealed but one vast and lawless succession of hideous +catastrophes. Wholesale creations and wholesale extinctions, world-wide +cataclysms followed by fresh world-wide births of interwoven faunas and +floras—these, said Huxley, were the ordinary machinery of the +geological epic brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of the +mighty Cuvier. One-and-twenty years after, the opponents themselves had +given up the game in its fullest form as lost beyond the hope of +possible restitution. Some hesitating thinkers, it is true, while +accepting the evolutionary doctrine more or less in its earlier form, +like Mivart and Meehan, yet refused their assent on one ground or +another to the specific Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Others, +like Wallace, made a special exception with regard to the development of +the human species, which they supposed to be due to other causes from +those implied in the remainder of the organic scale. Yet on the whole, +biological science had fairly carried the day in favour of evolution, in +one form or another, and not even the cavillers dared now to suggest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +that whole systems of creation had been swept away <i>en bloc</i>, and remade +again in different forms for a succeeding epoch, in accordance with the +belief which was almost universal among geologists up to the exact +moment of the publication of Darwin's masterpiece.</p> + +<p>During the twenty-one years, too, as Huxley likewise pointed out, an +immense number of new facts had come to strengthen the hands of the +evolutionists at the very point where they had before felt themselves +most openly vulnerable. Palæontology had supplied many of those missing +links in the organic chain whose absence from the interrupted and +imperfect geological record had been loudly alleged against the +Darwinian hypothesis in the earlier days of struggle and hesitation. Two +years after the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' the discovery of +a winged and feathered creature, happily preserved for us in the +Solenhofen slates, with lizard-like head and teeth and tail, and +bird-like pinions, feet, and breast, had bridged over in part the great +gap that yawns between the existing birds and reptiles. A few years +later, new fossil reptilian forms, erect on their hind legs like +kangaroos, and with very singular peculiarities of bony structure, had +helped still further to show the nature of the modifications by which +the scale-bearing quadruped type passed slowly into that of the +feather-bearing biped. In 1875, again, Professor Marsh's discovery of +the toothed birds in the American cretaceous strata completed the +illustrative series of transitional forms over what had once been the +most remarkable existing break in the continuity of organic development. +Similarly, Hofmeister's investigations in the vegetable world<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> brought +close together the flowering and flowerless plants, by indicating that +the ferns and the horsetails were connected in curious unforeseen ways, +through the pill-worts and club-mosses, with the earliest and simplest +of forest trees, the firs and the puzzle-monkeys. In minor matters like +progress was continually reported on every side. Gaudry found among the +fossils of Attica the successive stages by which the ancient and +undeveloped civets passed into the more modern and specialised tribe of +the hyænas; Marsh traced out in Western America the ancestry of the +horse from a five-toed creature no bigger than a fox, through +intermediate four-toed and three-toed forms, to the existing single +solid-hoofed type with its digits reduced to the minimum of unity; and +Filhol unearthed among the phosphorites of Quercy the common progenitor +of the most distinct among the recent carnivores, the cats and the dogs, +the plantigrade bears and the digitigrade pumas. 'So far as the animal +world is concerned,' Professor Huxley said in conclusion, reviewing +these additions to the evidence upon that memorable occasion, 'evolution +is no longer a speculation but a statement of historical fact.' Of +Darwin himself he remarked truly, 'He has lived long enough to outlast +detraction and opposition, and to see the stone that the builders +rejected become the head-stone of the corner.'</p> + +<p>It was in 1881 that Darwin published his last volume, 'The Formation of +Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.' In this singularly +fascinating and interesting monograph he took in hand one of the +lowliest and humblest of living forms, the common earthworm, and by an +exhaustive study of its habits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> and manners strove to show how the +entire existence of vegetable mould—the ordinary covering of fertile +soil upon the face of the earth—is due to the long but unobtrusive +action of these little-noticed and ever-active architects. By the acids +which they evolve, they appear to aid largely in the disintegration of +the stone beneath the surface; by their constant practice of eating +fallen leaves, which they drag down with them into their subterranean +burrows, they produce the fine castings of soft earth, so familiar to +everybody, and thus reinstate the coating of humus above the bare rock +as often as it is washed away again in the course of ordinary denudation +by the rain and the torrents. It is true that subsequent investigation +has shown the possibility of vegetable mould existing under certain +conditions without the intervention of worms to any marked extent; but, +as a whole, there can be little doubt that over most parts of the world +the presence of soil, and therefore of the vegetable growth rooted in +it, is entirely due to the unsuspected yet ceaseless activity of these +humble creatures.</p> + +<p>The germ of the earthworm theory appears to me to have been first +suggested to Darwin's mind by a passage in a work where one would little +have suspected it—White's 'Natural History of Selborne.' 'Earthworms,' +says the idyllic Hampshire naturalist, 'though in appearance a small and +despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a +lamentable chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some +quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to +be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely +without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and +rendering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing +straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up +such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being +their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably +provide new soils for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth +away; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. +Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former, +because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and +the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But +these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become +cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and, consequently, sterile.'</p> + +<p>If Darwin ever read this interesting passage, which he almost certainly +must at some time have done, it would appear that he had overlooked it +in later life; for he, who was habitually so candid and careful in the +acknowledgment of all his obligations, however great or however small, +does not make any mention of it at all in his 'Vegetable Mould,' though +he alludes incidentally to some other observations of Gilbert White's on +the minor habits and manners of earthworms. But whether Darwin was +originally indebted to White or not for the foundation of his theory on +the subject of mould, the important point to notice is really this, that +what with the observant parson of Selborne was but a casual glimpse, the +mere passing suggestion of a fruitful idea, became with Darwin, in his +wider fashion, a carefully elaborated and powerfully buttressed theory, +supported by long and patient investigation, ample<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> experiment, and vast +collections of minute facts. The difference is strikingly characteristic +of the strong point of Darwin's genius. While he had all the breadth and +universality of the profoundest thinkers, he had also all the marvellous +and inexhaustible patience of the most precise and special microscopical +student.</p> + +<p>For years, indeed, Darwin studied the ways and instincts of the common +earthworm with the same close and accurate observation which he gave to +every other abstruse subject that engaged in any way his acute +intellect. The lawyer's maxim, 'De minimis lex non curat,' he used to +say, never truly applies to science. As early as the year 1837 he read a +paper, before the Geological Society of London, 'On the Formation of +Mould,' in which he developed with some fulness the mother idea of his +complete theory on the earthworm question. He there showed that layers +of cinders, marl, or ashes, which had been strewn thickly over the +surface of meadows, were found a few years after at a depth of some +inches beneath the turf, yet still forming in spite of their burial a +regular and fairly horizontal stratum. This apparent sinking of the +stones, he believed, was due to the quantity of fine earth brought up to +the surface by worms in the form of castings. It was objected to his +theory at the time that the work supposed to be accomplished by the +worms was out of all reasonable proportion to the size and numbers of +the alleged actors. Here Darwin's foot was on his native heath; he felt +himself immediately on solid ground again. The cumulative importance of +separately infinitesimal elements is indeed the very keynote and special +peculiarity of the great biologist's method of thinking. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> had found +out in very truth that many a little makes a mickle, that the infinitely +small, infinitely repeated, may become in process of infinite years +infinitely important. So he set himself to work, with characteristic +contempt of time, to weigh and measure worms and worm-castings.</p> + +<p>He began by keeping tame earthworms in flower-pots in his own house, +counting the number of worms and burrows in certain measured spaces of +pasture or garden, and starting his long and slow experiment in his +field at Down already alluded to. He tried issues on their senses, on +their instincts, on their emotions, on their intelligence; he watched +them darting wildly like rabbits into their holes when alarmed from +without, overcoming engineering difficulties in dragging down +oddly-shaped or unfamiliar leaves, and protecting the open mouths of +their tunnels from intruders with a little defensive military glacis of +rounded pebbles. He found that more than 53,000 worms on an average +inhabit every acre of garden land, and that a single casting sometimes +weighs as much as three ounces avoirdupois. Ten tons of soil per acre +pass annually through their bodies, and mould is thrown up by them at an +average rate of 22 inches in a century. Careful observations on the +stones of Stonehenge; on the tiled floors of buried buildings; on Roman +ruins at Silchester and Wroxeter, and on his own meadows and pastures at +Down, finally enabled the cautious experimenter to prove conclusively +the truth of his thesis, and to present to the world the despised +earthworm in a new character, as the friend of man and of agriculture, +the producer and maintainer of the vegetable mould on our hills or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +valleys, and the prime cause of the very existence of that cloak of +greensward that clothes our lawns, our fields, and our pleasure-grounds.</p> + +<p>It was his last work. Persistent ill-health and equally persistent study +for seventy-three years had broken down a constitution never really +strong, and consumed from within by the ceaseless fires of its own +overpowering and undying energy. On Tuesday, April the 18th, 1882, he +was seized at midnight by violent pains, and at four o'clock on +Wednesday afternoon he died suddenly in his son's arms, after a very +short but painful illness. So retired was the family life at Down that +the news of the great biologist's death was not actually known in London +itself till two days after he had breathed his last.</p> + +<p>The universal regret and grief expressed at the loss in all civilised +countries was the best measure of the immense change of front which had +slowly come over the whole educated community, in the twenty-three years +since the first publication of the 'Origin of Species.' No sooner was +Darwin's death announced than all lands and all classes vied with one +another in their eagerness to honour the name and memory of the great +biologist. Indeed, the spontaneous and immediate nature of the outburst +of regret and affectionate regard which followed hard upon the news of +Darwin's death, astonished even those who had watched closely the +extraordinary revolution the man himself had brought so well to its +final consummation. In England, it was felt instinctively on every side +that the great naturalist's proper place was in the aisles of +Westminster, hard by the tomb of Newton, his immortal predecessor. To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +this universal and deep-seated feeling Darwin's family regretfully +sacrificed their own natural preference for a quiet interment in the +graveyard at Down. On the Wednesday morning next after his death, +Charles Darwin's remains were borne with unwonted marks, of respect and +ceremony, in the assembled presence of all that was noble and good in +Britain, to an honoured grave in the precincts of the great Abbey. +Wallace and Huxley, Lubbock and Hooker, his nearest peers in the domain +of pure science, stood among the bearers who held the pall. Lowell +represented the republics of America and of letters. Statesmen, and +poets, and philosophers, and theologians mingled with the throng of +scientific thinkers who crowded close around the venerated bier. No +incident of fitting pomp or dignity was wanting as the organ pealed out +in solemn strains the special anthem composed for the occasion, to the +appropriate words of the Hebrew poet, 'Happy is the man that findeth +wisdom.' Even the narrow Philistine intelligence itself, which still +knew Darwin only as the man who thought we were all descended from +monkeys, was impressed with the sole standard of greatness open to its +feeble and shallow comprehension by the mere solemnity and ceremony of +the occasion, and began to enquire with blind wonderment what this +thinker had done whom a whole people thus delighted to honour.</p> + +<p>Of Darwin's pure and exalted moral nature no Englishman of the present +generation can trust himself to speak with becoming moderation. His love +of truth, his singleness of heart, his sincerity, his earnestness, his +modesty, his candour, his absolute sinking of self and +selfishness—these, indeed, are all conspicuous to every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> reader, on the +very face of every word he ever printed. Like his works themselves, they +must long outlive him. But his sympathetic kindliness, his ready +generosity, the staunchness of his friendship, the width and depth and +breadth of his affections, the manner in which 'he bore with those who +blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return,' these things can +never so well be known to any other generation of men as to the three +generations who walked the world with him. Many even of those who did +not know him loved him like a father; to many who never saw his face, +the hope of winning Charles Darwin's approbation and regard was the +highest incentive to thought and action. Towards younger men, +especially, his unremitting kindness was always most noteworthy: he +spoke and wrote to them, not like one of the masters in Israel, but like +a fellow-worker and seeker after truth, interested in their interests, +pleased at their successes, sympathetic with their failures, gentle to +their mistakes. Not that he ever spared rightful criticism; on the +contrary, the love of truth was with him so overpowering and enthralling +a motive that he pointed out what seemed to him errors or misconceptions +in the work of others with perfect frankness, fully expecting them to be +as pleased and delighted at a suggested amendment of their faulty +writing as he himself was in his own case. But his praise was as +generous as his criticism was frank; and, amid all the toil of his +laborious life in his study at Down, he could always find time to read +and comment at full length upon whatever fresh contributions to his own +subjects the merest tyro might venture to submit for his consideration. +He had the sympathetic receptivity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> of all truly great minds, and when +he died, thousands upon thousands who had never beheld his serene +features and his fatherly eyes felt they had lost indeed a personal +friend.</p> + +<p>Greatness is not always joined with gentleness: in Charles Darwin's +case, by universal consent of all who knew him, 'an intellect which had +no superior' was wedded to 'a character even nobler than the +intellect.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<h2>DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT.</h2> + + +<p>To most people Darwinism and evolution mean one and the same thing. +After what has here been said, however, with regard to the pre-Darwinian +evolutionary movement, and the distinction between the doctrines of +descent with modification and of natural selection, it need hardly be +added that the two are quite separate and separable in thought, even +within the limits of the purely restricted biological order. Darwinism +is only a part of organic evolution; the theory, as a whole, owes much +to Darwin, but it does not owe everything to him alone. There were +biological evolutionists before ever he published the 'Origin of +Species;' there are biological evolutionists even now who refuse to +accept the truth of his great discovery, and who cling firmly to the +primitive faith set forth in earlier and cruder shapes by Erasmus +Darwin, by Lamarck, or by Robert Chambers.</p> + +<p>Much more, then, must Darwinism and the entire theory of organic +development to which it belongs be carefully discriminated, as a part or +factor, from evolution at large, as a universal and all-embracing +cosmical system. That system itself has gradually emerged as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> slow +growth of the past two centuries, a progressive development of the +collective scientific and philosophical mind of humanity, not due in its +totality to any one single commanding thinker, but summing itself up at +last in our own time more fully in the person and teaching of Mr. +Herbert Spencer than of any other solitary mouthpiece. Indeed, +intimately as we all now associate the name of Darwin with the word +'evolution,' that term itself (whose vogue is almost entirely due to Mr. +Spencer's influence) was one but rarely found upon Darwin's own lips, +and but rarely written by his own pen. He speaks rather of development +and of natural selection than of evolution: his own concern was more +with its special aspect as biological modification than with its general +aspect as cosmical unfolding. Let us ask, then, from this wider +standpoint of a great and far-reaching mental revolution, what was +Charles Darwin's exact niche in the evolutionary movement of the two +last centuries?</p> + +<p>Evolutionism, as now commonly understood, may be fairly regarded as a +mode of envisaging to ourselves the history of the universe, a tendency +or frame of mind, a temperament, one might almost say, or habit of +thought rather than a definite creed or body of dogmas. The evolutionist +looks out upon the cosmos as a continuous process unfolding itself in +regular order in obedience to definite natural laws. He sees in it all, +not a warring chaos restrained by the constant interference from without +of a wise and beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of +original elements, perpetually working out their own fresh +redistribution, in accordance with their own inherent energies. He +regards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> the cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material atoms, +animated by an almost infinite sum-total of energy, potential or +kinetic.</p> + +<p>In the very beginning, so far as the mental vision of the astronomer can +dimly pierce with hypothetical glance the abyss of ages, the matter +which now composes the material universe seems to have existed in a +highly diffuse and nebulous condition. The gravitative force, however, +with which every atom of the whole vast mass was primarily endowed, +caused it gradually to aggregate around certain fixed and definite +centres, which became in time the rallying-points or nuclei of future +suns. The primitive potential energy of separation in the atoms of the +mass was changed into actual energy of motion as they drew closer and +closer together about the common centre, and into molecular energy or +heat as they clashed with one another in bodily impact around the +hardening core. Thus arose stars and suns, composed of fiery atomic +clouds in a constant state of progressive concentration, ever +gathering-in the hem of their outer robes on the surface of the solid +globe within, and ever radiating off their store of associated energy to +the impalpable and hypothetical surrounding ether. This, in necessarily +brief and shadowy abstract, is the nebular theory of Kant and Laplace, +as amended and supplemented by the modern doctrine of the correlation +and conservation of energies.</p> + +<p>Applied to the solar system, of which our own planet forms a component +member, the evolutionary doctrine (in its elder shape) teaches us to +envisage that minor group as the final result of a single great diffuse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +nebula, which once spread its faint and cloud-like mass with +inconceivable tenuity, at least as far from its centre, now occupied by +the sun's body, as the furthest point in the orbit of Neptune, the +outermost of the yet known planets. From this remote and immense +periphery it has gradually gathered itself in, growing denser and denser +all the time, towards its common core, and has left behind, at irregular +intervals, concentric rings or belts of nebulous matter, which, after +rupturing at their weakest point, have hardened and concentrated round +their own centre of gravity into Jupiter, Saturn, the Earth, or Venus. +The main central body of all, retreating ever within as it dropped in +its course the raw material of the planetary masses, has formed, at +last, the sun, the great ruler and luminary of our system. Much as this +primitive evolutionary concept of the development and history of the +solar system has been modified and altered of late years by recent +researches into the nature of comets and meteors and of the sun's +surface, it still remains for all practical purposes of popular +exposition the best and simplest mental picture of the general type of +astronomical evolution. For the essential point which it impresses upon +the mind is the idea of the planets in their several orbits and with +their attendant satellites as due, not to external design and special +creation, in the exact order in which we now see them, but to the slow +and regular working out of preordained physical laws, in accordance with +which they have each naturally assumed, by pure force of circumstances, +their existing size, and weight, and orbit, and position.</p> + +<p>Geology has applied a similar conception to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> origin and becoming of +the earth's material and external features as we now know them. +Accepting from astronomy the notion of our planet's primary condition as +a cooling sphere of incandescent matter, it goes on to show how the two +great envelopes, atmospheric and oceanic, gaseous and liquid, have +gradually formed around its solid core; how the hard crust of the +central mass has been wrinkled and corrugated into mountain chain and +deep-cut valley, uplifted here into elevated table-land or there +depressed into hollow ocean bed; how sediment has slowly gathered on the +floor of the sea, and how volcanic energies or lateral pressure have +subsequently forced up the resulting deposits into Alpine peaks and +massive continents. In this direction, it was Lyell who principally +introduced into science the uniformitarian or evolutionary principle, +who substituted for the frequent cataclysms and fresh beginnings of the +earlier geologists the grand conception of continuous action, producing +from comparatively infinitesimal but cumulative causes effects which at +last attain by accretion the most colossal proportions.</p> + +<p>Here biology next steps in, with its splendid explanation of organic +life, as due essentially to the secondary action of radiated solar +energy on the outer crust of such a cooling and evolving planet. Falling +on the cells of the simplest green plants, the potent sunlight +dissociates the carbon from the oxygen in the carbonic acid floating in +the atmosphere, and builds it up with the hydrogen of water in the +tissues of the organism into starches and other organic products, which +differ from the inert substances around them, mainly by the possession +of locked-up solar energy. On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the energy-yielding food-stuffs thus +stored up the animal in turn feeds and battens, reducing what was before +potential into actual motion, just as the steam-engine reduces the +latent solar energy of coal into visible heat and visible movement in +its furnace and its machinery. How the first organism came to exist +biology has not yet been able fully to explain for us; but aided by +chemical science it has been able to show us in part how some of the +simpler organic bodies may have been originally built up, and it does +not despair of showing us in the end how the earliest organism may +actually have been produced from the prime elements of oxygen, hydrogen, +nitrogen, and carbon. Into this most fundamental of biological problems, +however, Darwin himself, with his constitutional caution and dread of +speculative theorising, was not careful or curious to enter. Even upon +the far less abstruse and hypothetical question, whether all life took +its prime origin from a single starting-point or from several distinct +and separate tribal ancestors, he hardly cared so much as to hazard a +passing speculation. With splendid self-restraint he confined his +attention almost entirely to the more manageable and practical problem +of the origin of species by natural selection, which lay then and there +open for solution before him. Taking for granted the existence of the +original organism or group of organisms, the fact of reproduction, and +the tendency of such reproduction to beget increase in a geometrical +ratio, he deduced from these elementary given factors the necessary +corollary of survival of the fittest, with all its marvellous and +far-reaching implications of adaptation to the environment and specific +distinctions. By doing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> so, he rendered conceivable the mechanism of +evolution in the organic world, thus bringing another great aspect of +external nature within the range of the developmental as opposed to the +miraculous philosophy of the cosmos.</p> + +<p>Psychology, once more, in the hands of Herbert Spencer and his +followers, not wholly unaided by Darwin himself, has extended the +self-same evolutionary treatment to the involved and elusive phenomena +of mind, and has shown how from the simplest unorganised elements of +feeling, the various mental powers and faculties as we now know them, +both on the intellectual and on the emotional side, have been slowly +built up in the long and ever-varying interaction between the sentient +organism and the natural environment. It has traced the first faint +inception of a nervous system as a mere customary channel of +communication between part and part; the gradual growth of fibre and +ganglion; the vague beginnings of external sense-organ and internal +brain; the final perfection of eye and ear, of sight and hearing, of +pleasure and pain, of intellect and volition. It has thus done for the +subjective or mental half of our complex nature what biology, as +conceived by Darwin, has done for the physical or purely organic half; +it has traced the origin and development of mind, without a single +break, from its first faint and half-unconscious manifestation in the +polyp or the jelly-fish to its final grand and varied outcome in the +soul of the poet or the intellect of the philosopher.</p> + +<p>Finally, sociology has applied the evolutionary method to the origin and +rise of human societies, with their languages, customs, arts, and +institutions, their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> governmental organisation and their ecclesiastical +polity. Taking from biology the evolving savage, viewed as a developed +and highly gifted product of the anthropoid stock, it has shown by what +stages and through what causes he has slowly aggregated into tribes and +nations; has built up his communal, polygamic, or monogamic family; has +learnt the use of fire, of implements, of pottery, of metals; has +developed the whole resources of oral speech and significant gesture; +has invented writing, pictorial or alphabetic; has grown up to science, +to philosophy, to morals, and to religion. The chief honours of this +particular line of enquiry, the latest and youngest of all to receive +the impact of the evolutionary impulse, belong mainly to Tylor, Lubbock, +and Spencer in England, and to Haeckel, De Mortillet, and Wagner on the +continent.</p> + +<p>In the sublime conception of the external universe and its present +workings which we thus owe to the independent efforts of so many great +progressive thinkers, and which has here been briefly and inadequately +sketched out, Darwin's work in life falls naturally into its own place +as the principal contribution to the evolutionary movement in the +special biological department of thought. Within the more limited range +of that department itself, the evolutionary impulse did not owe its +origin to Charles Darwin personally; it took its rise with Erasmus +Darwin, Buffon, and Lamarck, and it derived from our great modern +English naturalist its final explanation and definitive proof alone. But +just as the evolutionary movement in astronomy and cosmical thought is +rightly associated in all our minds with the mighty theories of Kant, +Laplace, and Herschel;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> just as the evolutionary movement in geology is +rightly associated with the far lesser yet brilliant and effective +personality of Lyell; just as the evolutionary movement in the +derivative sciences is rightly associated with so many great still +living thinkers; so the evolutionary movement in biology in particular +rightly sums itself up in the honoured name of Charles Darwin. For what +others suspected, he was the first to prove; where others speculated, he +was the first to observe, to experiment, to demonstrate, and to +convince.</p> + +<p>It should be noted, too, that while to us who come after, the great +complex evolutionary movement of the two last centuries justly reveals +itself as one and indivisible, a single grand cosmical drama, having +many acts and many scenes, but all alike inspired by one informing and +pervading unity, yet to those whose half unconscious co-operation slowly +built it up by episodes, piecemeal, each act and each scene unrolled +itself separately as an end in itself, to be then and there attained and +proved, quite apart from the conception of its analytic value as a part +in a great harmonious natural poem of the constitution of things. Though +evolution appears to us now as a single grand continuous process, a +phase of the universe dependent upon a preponderating aggregation of +matter and dissipation of energy, yet to Kant and Laplace it was the +astronomical aspect alone that proved attractive, to Darwin it was the +biological aspect alone, and to many of the modern workers in the minor +fields it is the human and sociological aspect that almost monopolises +the whole wide mental horizon. No greater proof can be given of the +subjective distinctness of parts in what was objectively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> and +fundamentally a single broad psychological revolution of the human mind, +than the fact that Lyell himself, who more than any one man had +introduced the evolutionary conception into the treatment of geology, +should have stood out so long and fought so blindly against the +evolutionary conception in the organic world. Indeed, it was not until +the various scattered and many-coloured strands of evolutionary thought +had been gathered together and woven into one by the vast catholic and +synthetic intelligence of Herbert Spencer that the idea of evolution as +a whole, as a single continuous cosmical process, began to be +apprehended and gradually assimilated by the picked intelligences of the +several distinct scientific departments.</p> + +<p>Observe also that the evolutionary method has invaded each of the +concrete sciences in the exact order of their natural place in the +hierarchy of knowledge. It had been applied to astronomy by Kant and +Laplace before it was applied to geology by Lyell; it had been applied +to geology by Lyell before it was applied to biology by Darwin; it had +been applied to biology (in part, at least) by Lamarck and the Darwins +before it was applied to psychology by Spencer; and it is only at the +very end of all that it has been applied to sociology and the allied +branches of thought by a hundred different earnest workers in +contemporary Europe. Each stage helped on the next; each was dependent +only on those that went naturally before it, and aided in turn the +subsequent development of those that naturally came after it.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the popular instinct which regards Darwinism and evolution +as practically synonymous is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> to a large extent justified by the actual +facts of the psychological upheaval. Darwin's work forms on the whole +the central keystone of the evolutionary system, and deserves the honour +which has been thrust upon it of supporting by its own mass the entire +superstructure of the development theory.</p> + +<p>For, in the first place, Darwin had to deal with the science of life, +the science where the opposition to evolutionism was sure to be +strongest, and where the forces and tendencies in favour of obscurantism +were sure to gather in fullest force. Every other great onward step in +our knowledge of our own relation to the universe of which we form a +part had been compelled indeed to run the gauntlet, in its own time, of +ecclesiastical censure and of popular dislike. Those inveterate +prejudices of human ignorance which sedulously hide their genuine shape +under the guise of dogma masquerading as religion, had long since +brought to bear their baneful resources upon the discoveries of +Copernicus and the theories of Galileo, as blind, misleading, and +diabolical lights, opposed to the sure and certain warranty of Holy +Scripture. Newton, again, had in due time been blamed in that he boldly +substituted (as his critics declared) the bald and barren formula of +gravitation for the personal superintendence of a divine Providence. +Laplace had been accused of dethroning the deity from the centre and +governance of his celestial system. Around the early geologists the +battle of the six days of creation had raged fiercely for nearly half a +century. But all these varying modes of thought, though deemed heretical +enough in their own day, had touched, as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> were, but the minor +ramparts and unimportant out-works of the great obscurantist dogmatic +strongholds: Darwinism, by openly attacking the inmost problems of life +and mind, had brought to bear its powerful artillery upon the very keep +and highest tower of the fortress itself. The belief that the various +stars, planets, and satellites had or had not been wisely created in +their existing positions, and with their present orbits, movements, and +relations accurately fore-measured, did not fundamentally affect, for +good or evil, the cherished dogmas of the ordinary multitude. But the +analogous belief in the distinct and separate creation of plants and +animals, and more especially of the human species, was far more closely +and intimately bound up with all the current religious conceptions. It +was at first supposed, not perhaps without some practical wisdom, that +to upset the primitive faith in the separate creation of living beings +was to loosen and imperil the very foundations of common morality and +revealed religion. The 'argument from design' had been immemorially +regarded as the principal buttress of orthodox thought. Theologians had +unwisely staked their all upon the teleological dogma, and could ill +afford to retire without a blow from that tenaciously defended bastion +of their main position. Hence the evolutionary concept had its hardest +fight to wage over the biological field; and when that field was once +fairly won, it had little more to fear from banded preconceptions and +established prejudices in any other portion of the wide territory it +claimed for its own.</p> + +<p>In the second place, biological evolution, firmly established by Darwin +on a safe, certain, and unimpeachable basis, led naturally and almost +inevitably to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> all the other innumerable applications of the +evolutionary method, in the domains of psychology, sociology, philology, +political thought, and ethical science. Hence the immediate and visible +results of its promulgation have been far more striking, noticeable, and +evident than those which followed the establishment of the evolutionary +conception in the astronomical and geological departments. It was +possible to accept cosmical evolution and solar evolution and planetary +evolution, without at the same time accepting evolution in the +restricted field of life and mind. But it was impossible to accept +evolution in biology without at the same time extending its application +to psychology, to the social organism, to language, to ethics, to all +the thousand and one varied interests of human life and human +development. Now, most people are little moved by speculations and +hypotheses as to the origin of the milky way or the belt of Orion; they +care very slightly for Jupiter's moons or Saturn's rings; they are +stolidly incurious as to the development of the earth's crust, or the +precise date of the cretaceous epoch; but they understand and begin to +be touched the moment you come to the practical questions of man's +origin, nature, and history. Darwinism compelled their attention by its +immediate connection with their own race; and the proof of this truth is +amply shown by the mere fact that out of all the immense variety of +Charles Darwin's theories and ideas, the solitary one which alone has +succeeded in attaching to itself the public interest and public ridicule +is the theory of man's ultimate descent from a monkey-like ancestor. +Popular instinct, here as elsewhere profoundly true at core in the midst +of all its superficial foolishness, has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> rightly hit upon the central +element in the Darwinian conception which more than any other has caused +its fruitful and wonderful expansion through every fertile field of +human enquiry.</p> + +<p>In short, it was Darwin's task in life to draw down evolution from +heaven to earth, and to bring within the scope of its luminous method +all that is most interesting to the uninstructed and unsophisticated +heart of the natural man.</p> + +<p>The application of the evolutionary principle to the world of life, +human or animal, thus presents itself as the chief philosophic and +scientific achievement of the nineteenth century. Throughout the whole +middle decades of the present age, the human mind in all its highest +embodiments was eagerly searching, groping, and enquiring after a +naturalistic explanation of the origin and progress of organic life. In +the vast scheme for the System of Synthetic Philosophy which Herbert +Spencer set forth as an anticipatory synopsis of his projected work, the +philosopher of development leapt at once from the First Principles of +evolution as a whole to the Principles of Biology, Psychology, and +Sociology, omitting all reference to the application of evolution to the +vast field of inorganic nature; and he did so on the distinctly stated +ground that its application to organic nature was then and there more +important and interesting. That suggestive expression of belief aptly +sums up the general attitude of scientific and philosophic minds at the +precise moment of the advent of Darwinism. Kant and Laplace and Lyell +had already applied the evolutionary method to suns and systems, to +planets and continents; what was needed next was that some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> deeply +learned and universally equipped biological leader should help the lame +evolutionism of Lamarck over the organic stile, and leave it free to +roam the boundless fields of what Mr. Spencer has sometimes well +described as the super-organic sciences. For that office, Darwin at the +exact moment presented himself; and his victory and its results rightly +entitle him to the popular regard as the founder of all that most men +mean when they speak together in everyday conversation of the doctrine +of evolution.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the total esoteric philosophic conception of +evolution as a cosmical process, one and continuous from nebula to man, +from star to soul, from atom to society, we owe rather to the other +great prophet of the evolutionary creed, Herbert Spencer, whose name +will ever be equally remembered side by side with his mighty peer's, in +a place of high collateral glory. It is he who has given us the general +definition of evolution as a progress from an indefinite, incoherent +homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, accompanying an +integration of matter and dissipation of motion, or, as we should now +perhaps more correctly say, of energy. In the establishment of the +various lines of thought which merge at last in that magnificent +cosmical law, it was Darwin's special task to bring the phenomena of +organic life well within the clear ken of known and invariable natural +processes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h2>THE NET RESULT.</h2> + + +<p>And now let us ask ourselves, in all sincerity, what was the final +outcome and net result of Darwin's great and useful life?</p> + +<p>If Charles Darwin had never existed at all, there would still have been +a considerable and expansive evolutionary movement both in biology and +in its sister sciences throughout the latter half of the present +century. The harvest indeed was ready, and the labourers, though few, +were full of vigour. Suppose for a moment that that earnest and +single-hearted Darwinian genius had been cut off by some untimely +disease of childhood at five years old, all other conditions remaining +as they were, we should even so have had in our midst to-day, a small +philosophical and influential band of evolutionary workers. Spencer +would none the less have given us his 'First Principles' and the major +part of his 'Principles of Biology,' with comparatively little +alteration or omission. Wallace would none the less have promulgated his +inchoate theory of natural selection, and rallied round his primordial +conception the very best and deepest minds of the biological fraction. +Geology would have enforced the continuity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> of types; Cope and Marsh +would have unearthed for our edification the ancestral forms of the +evolving horse and the toothed birds of the Western American deposits. +The Solenhofen lithographic slates would still have yielded us the +half-reptilian, half-avian Archæopteryx; the tertiary deposits would +still have presented us with a long suite of gradually specialised and +modified mammalian forms. The Siberian meadows would have sent us that +intermediate creature which Prjevalsky recognises as the half-way house +between the horses and the donkeys; the rivers of Queensland would have +disclosed to our view that strange lung-bearing and gill-breathing +barramunda, in which Günther discerns the missing link between the +ganoid fishes on the one hand, and the mudfish and salamandroid +amphibians on the other. From data such as these, biologists and +palæontologists of the calibre of Huxley, Gaudry, Geikie, Rütimeyer, and +Busk, would necessarily have derived, by the aid of Wallace's pregnant +principle, conclusions not so very far remote from Darwin's own. Heer +and Saporta would have drawn somewhat similar inferences from the fossil +flora of Switzerland and of Greenland; Hooker and De Candolle would have +read pretty much the self-same lessons in the scattered ferns and scanty +palm-trees of oceanic islands. Kowalevsky would have seen in the +ascidian larva a common prototype of the vertebrate series; the +followers of Von Baer would have popularised the embryological +conception of the single origin of animal life. The researches of +Boucher de Perthes, of Lyell, of Evans, of Boyd Dawkins, of Keller, and +of Christy and Lartet, would have unrolled before our eyes, under any +circumstances, the strange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> story of prehistoric man. On the facts so +gained, Lubbock and Tylor, Schaafhausen and Büchner, would have built up +their various consistent theories of human development and human +culture. In short, even without Charles Darwin, the nineteenth century +would not have stood still; it would have followed in the wake of Buffon +and Diderot, of Lamarck and Laplace, of St. Hilaire and Goethe, of Kant +and Herschel, of Hutton and Lyell, of Malthus and of Spencer. The great +world never rolls down the abysses of time obedient to the nod of one +single overruling Titanic intellect. 'If the doctrine of evolution had +not existed,' says Huxley, 'palæontologists must have invented it.'</p> + +<p>But Charles Darwin acted, nevertheless, the part of an immense and +powerful accelerating energy. The impetus which he gave gained us at +least fifty years of progress; it sent us at a bound from Copernicus to +Newton; so far as ordinary minds were concerned, indeed, it transcended +at a single leap the whole interval from Ptolemy to Herschel. The +comparison is far from being a mere rhetorical one. A close analogy +really exists between the two cases. Before Copernicus, the earth stood +fixed and immovable in the centre of the universe, with obsequious suns, +and planets, and satellites dancing attendance in cycle and epicycle +around the solid mass, to which by day and night they continually +ministered. The great astronomical revolution begun by Copernicus, +Galileo, and Kepler, and completed by Newton, Laplace, and Herschel, +reduced the earth to its true position as a petty planet, revolving +feebly among its bigger brethren round a petty sun, in some lost corner +of a vast, majestic, and almost illimitable galaxy. Even so, before +Darwin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> man stood in his own esteem the fixed point of an +anthropocentric universe, divinely born and divinely instructed, with +all the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fruits of +the earth specially created with a definite purpose in subservience to +his lordly wants and interests. The great biological revolution, which +rightly almost sums itself up in the name of Darwin, reduced man at once +to his true position as the last product of kinetic solar energy, +working upon the peculiar chemical elements of an evolving planet. It +showed that every part of every plant and every animal existed primarily +for the sake of that plant or animal alone; it unseated man from his +imaginary throne in the centre of the cosmos, teaching him at once a +lesson of humility and a lesson of aspiration—pointing out to him how +low was the origin from which, in very truth, he first sprang, and +suggesting to him, at the same time, how high was the grand and glorious +destiny to which by his own strenuous and ardent efforts he might yet +perchance some day attain.</p> + +<p>That result, inevitable perhaps in the long run, from the slow unfolding +of human intelligence, was immensely hastened in our own time by the +peculiar idiosyncrasy and lofty personality of Charles Darwin. Without +him we should have had, not only evolutionism, but also, as Wallace's +discovery testifies, natural selection itself into the bargain. But we +should never have had the 'Origin of Species.' We should never have had +that vast and enthusiastic consensus of scientific opinion through an +all but unanimous thinking world, which has forced an immediate +acceptance of evolutionary ideas down the unwilling throats of half +unthinking Europe. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> prodigious mass of Darwin's facts, the cautious +working of Darwin's intellect, the immense weight of Darwin's +reputation, the crushing force of Darwin's masterly inductive method, +bore down before them all opposition in the inner circle of biologists, +and secured the triumph of the evolutionary system even in the very +strongholds of ignorance and obscurantism. Without Darwin, a small group +of philosophic thinkers would still be striving to impress upon an +incredulous and somewhat contemptuous world the central truths of the +evolutionary doctrine. The opposition of the elders, long headed even in +the society we actually know by a few stern scientific recalcitrants, +like Owen and Agassiz, Pictet and Dawson, Virchow and Mivart, would have +fought desperately in the last trench for the final figment of the +fixity of species. What is now the general creed, more or less loosely +held and imperfectly understood, of hundreds and thousands among the +intelligent mass, would, under such circumstances, be even yet the mere +party-shibboleth of an esoteric few, struggling hard against the bare +force of overwhelming numbers to ensure not only recognition but a fair +hearing for the first principles of the development theory. It is to +Darwin, and to Darwin almost alone, that we owe the present +comparatively wide acceptance of the all-embracing doctrine of +evolution.</p> + +<p>No other man did so much or could have done so much to ensure its +triumph. He began early in life to collect and arrange a vast +encyclopædia of facts, all finally focussed with supreme skill upon the +great principle he so clearly perceived, and so lucidly expounded. He +brought to bear upon the question an amount of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> personal observation, of +minute experiment, of world-wide book-knowledge, of universal scientific +ability, such as never perhaps was lavished by any other man upon any +other department of study. His conspicuous and beautiful love of truth, +his unflinching candour, his transparent fearlessness and honesty of +purpose, his child-like simplicity, his modesty of demeanour, his +charming manner, his affectionate disposition, his kindliness to friends, +his courtesy to opponents, his gentleness to harsh and often bitter +assailants, kindled in the minds of men of science everywhere throughout +the world a contagious enthusiasm, only equalled perhaps among the +disciples of Socrates and the great teachers of the revival of learning. +His name became a rallying-point for the children of light in every +country; and what philosophers and speculators might have taken a +century or two more to establish in embryo was firmly grounded, never to +be overthrown, by the vast accumulations of fact and argument in the +'Origin of Species,' and its companion volumes.</p> + +<p>The end of that great Darwinian revolution the world has not yet seen: +in a sense, indeed, it will never see it. For the general acceptance of +Darwin's theory, which we may watch progressing around us every minute +to-day, implies a complete <i>bouleversement</i> of anthropocentric ideas, a +total change in our human conception of our own relations to the world +and the universe, which must work out for ever increasingly +wide-reaching and complex effects in all our dealings with one another +and with the environment at large. There is no department of human +thought or human action which evolutionism leaves exactly where it +stood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> before the advent of the Darwinian conception. In nothing is this +fact more conspicuously seen than in the immediate obsolescence (if one +may so speak) of all the statical pre-Darwinian philosophies which +ignored development, as soon as ever the new progressive evolutionary +theories had fairly burst upon an astonished world. Dogmatic Comte was +left forthwith to his little band of devoted adherents; shadowy Hegel +was relegated with a bow to the cool shades of the common-rooms of +Oxford; Buckle was exploded like an inflated wind-bag; even Mill +himself—<i>magnum et venerabile nomen</i>—with all his mighty steam-hammer +force of logical directness, was felt instinctively to be lacking in +full appreciation of the dynamic and kinetic element in universal +nature. Spencer and Hartmann, Haeckel and Clifford, had the field to +themselves for the establishment of their essentially evolutionary +systems. Great thinkers of the elder generation, like Bain and Lyell, +felt bound to remodel their earlier conceptions by the light of the new +Darwinian hypotheses. Those who failed by congenital constitution to do +so, like Carlyle and Carpenter, were, philosophically speaking, left +hopelessly behind and utterly extinguished. Those who only half +succeeded in thus reading themselves into the new ideas, like Lewes and +Max Müller, lost ground immediately before the eager onslaught of their +younger competitors. 'The world is to the young,' says the eastern +proverb; and in a world peopled throughout in the high places of thought +by men almost without exception evolutionists, there was little or no +place for the timid group of stranded Girondins, who still stood aloof +in sullen antique scientific orthodoxy from what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> seemed to them the +carmagnoles and orgies of a biological Thermidor.</p> + +<p>At the same time, it must be steadily remembered that there are many +naturalists at the present day, especially among those of the lower +order of intelligence, who, while accepting evolutionism in a general +way, and therefore always describing themselves as Darwinians, do not +believe and often cannot even understand the distinctive Darwinian +addition to the evolutionary doctrine—namely, the principle of natural +selection. Such hazy and indistinct thinkers as these are still really +at the prior stage of Lamarckian evolutionism. It is probable that in +the future, while a formal acceptance of Darwinism becomes general, the +special theory of natural selection will be thoroughly understood and +assimilated only by the more abstract and philosophical minds. Our +children will be taught as a matter of course the doctrine of +development or of descent with modification; but the rationale of that +descent will still remain in all likelihood always beyond the grasp of +most of them: just as thousands accept on authority the Copernican +astronomy, who would never even be capable of comprehending the simplest +proofs of the earth's annual movement round the sun. Thus the name of +Darwin will often no doubt be tacked on to what are in reality the +principles of Lamarck.</p> + +<p>Every day, however, in spite of such half-ignorant adherents, the +effects of true Darwinism are widening and deepening. One group of +earnest workers is using it now as a guide to physiological, +embryological, and anatomical researches. Another is employing it with +zeal and skill in the field of classificatory and physiological<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> botany. +Yet others are working out its psychological implications, enquiring +into instinct and animal intelligence, and solving by its aid abstruse +problems of the human mind and the human emotions. One philosopher has +brought it to bear on questions of ethics, another on questions of +social and political economy. Its principles have been applied in one +place to æsthetics, in another place to logic, in a third place to the +origin and growth of religion. The study of language has derived new +lights from the great central Darwinian luminary. The art of education +is beginning to feel the progressive influence of the Darwinian impulse. +In fact, there is hardly a single original worker in any department of +thought or science who has not been more or less profoundly affected, +whether he knows it or whether he knows it not, by the vast spreading +and circling wave of the Darwinian conceptions. All our ideas have been +revolutionised and evolutionised. The new notions are abroad in the +world, quickening with their fresh and vigorous germinal power the dry +bones of all the sciences, all the arts, and all the philosophies.</p> + +<p>And evolutionism is gradually though slowly filtering downward. It is +permeating the daily press of the nations, and gaining for its +vocabulary a recognised place in the phraseology of the unlearned +vulgar. Such expressions as 'natural selection,' 'survival of the +fittest,' 'struggle for existence,' 'adaptation to the environment,' and +all the rest of it, are becoming as household words upon the lips of +thousands who only know the name of Darwin as a butt for the petty empty +jibes of infinitesimal cheap witlings. And Darwinism<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> will trickle down +still through a thousand channels, by definite popularisation, and still +more by indefinite absorption into the common thought of universal +humanity, till it becomes part and parcel of the general inheritance, +bred in our bone and burnt into our blood, an heir-loom of our race to +all time and in all countries. Great thoughts like his do not readily +die: they expand and grow in ten thousand bosoms, till they transform +the world at last into their own likeness, and adapt it to the +environment they have themselves created by their informing power.</p> + +<p>Happy above ordinary human happiness, Charles Darwin lived himself to +see the prosperous beginning of this great silent philosophical +revolution. Harvey's grand discovery, it has been well said, was scoffed +at for nearly a whole generation. Newton's marvellous law of gravitation +was coldly received even by the gigantic intellect of Leibnitz himself. +Francis Bacon, in disgrace and humiliation, could only commend his name +and memory 'to foreign nations and to the next age.' It is too often so +with thinkers of the first and highest order: it was not so, happily, +with the gentle soul of Charles Darwin. Alone among the prophets and +teachers of triumphant creeds, he saw with his own eyes the adoption of +the faith he had been the first to promulgate in all its fulness by +every fresh and powerful mind of the younger race that grew up around +him. The Nestor of evolutionism, he had lived among two successive +generations of thinkers, and over the third he ruled as king. With that +crowning joy of a great, a noble, and a happy life, let us leave him +here alone in his glory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p> +<span class="caption"><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">AGASSIZ, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Anticipations of natural selection, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Antiquity of Man,' <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Astronomy, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">BADEN-POWELL, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bahia, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bates, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; in Brazil, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; on mimicry, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Beagle,' voyage of the, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; Zoology of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bell, Sir C, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Boucher de Perthes, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brazil, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">British Association, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Buffon, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">CHAMBERS, Robert, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; his 'Vestiges of Creation,' <a href="#Page_70">70</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Colenso on the Pentateuch, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Coral Reefs,' <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cuvier, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; as a geologist, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; system of animals, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">DARWIN, Charles, his ancestry, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>; birth, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; birthplace, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">contemporaries, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; education, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; at Edinburgh University, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">at Cambridge, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; starts on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; returns to</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">England, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; publishes his journal, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; plans 'Origin of Species,' <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">elected to Royal Society, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; secretary to Geological Society, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">marries, <i>ib.</i>; publishes 'Coral Reefs,' <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; geological</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">observations, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>; Monograph on Barnacles, <i>ib</i>.; publishes 'Origin</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">of Species,' <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; its success, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; second edition, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; variation of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">animals and plants, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; pangenesis, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>; fertilisation of orchids, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Descent of Man,' <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; later works, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; last illness and death, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">character, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>; place in evolutionary movement, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; outcome of his work,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">DARWIN, Erasmus, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; his life, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>; appearance, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>; poems, <i>ib</i>.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Zoonomia', <a href="#Page_21">21</a>; 'Temple of Nature,' <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; his marriages, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; on descent of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">man, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; on sexual selection, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin, Erasmus, the younger, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin, Robert, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin, Robert Waring, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>; his home, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">De Candolle, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Down House, Darwin settles at, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Du Chaillu, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">EARTHWORMS, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Edgeworth, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Evolution, general theory of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">FILHOL, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fiske, Prof., <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; on natural selection, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fitzroy, Captain, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fuegians, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Galton, Francis, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gaudry, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Geology, rise of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; evolutionary aspect of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Goethe, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; on animal origin of man, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gorilla, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gray, Asa, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">HAECKEL, letter to, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>; 'History of Creation,' <a href="#Page_124">124</a>; on sexual selection, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Henslow, Prof., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; recommends Darwin to Capt. Fitzroy, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; at Oxford, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Herbert, Dean, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Herschel, Sir Wm., <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Holland, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hooker, Sir Joseph, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; on catasetum, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; accepts Darwinism, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">publishes his 'Flora of Australia,' <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Horner, Leonard, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Humboldt, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Huxley, Prof., lecture at Royal Institution, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; 'Man's Place in</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nature,' <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; on coming of age of 'Origin of Species,' <a href="#Page_166">166</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">JUSSIEU, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">KANT, nebular hypothesis, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Knight's law, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kölreuter, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">LAMARCK, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; Darwin's reading of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; on descent of man, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Laplace, nebular hypothesis, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lecoq, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Linnæus, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; his artificial system, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lyell, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; 'Principles of Geology,' <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; extract from letters, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">anticipations of natural selection, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>; slow acceptance of Darwinism,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#Page_119">119</a>; 'Antiquity of Man,' <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">MALTHUS, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>; influence on Darwin, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Matthew, Patrick, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; extracts from, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mimicry, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Monte Video, Darwin at, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mould, formation of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mount, the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Müller, Fritz, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Müller, Hermann, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Murchison, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'NATURALIST on the Amazons,' <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Naturalist's Voyage round the World' published, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Natural system, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nebular hypothesis, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">New Zealand, Darwin at, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">OKEN, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Origin of Species,' first planned, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>; projected, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; published, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">analysis of, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>; its success, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; second edition, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Owen, Sir R., <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; on types, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">PANGENESIS, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Philosophie Zoologique,' <a href="#Page_12">12</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Population, Malthus's essay on, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Powell, Baden-, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Physiological Units,' <a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Psychology, evolution in, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">RAFINESQUE, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rio Janeiro, Darwin at, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">ST. HILAIRE, Geoffroy, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; the younger, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">St. Paul's Rocks, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sexual selection, first glimpse of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; Darwin's theory of, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Smith, William, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sociology, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Spencer, Herbert, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>; on 'Vestiges of Creation,' <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; essay in the</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Leader,' <a href="#Page_77">77</a>; 'Principles of Psychology,' <i>ib.</i>; essay in</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Westminster Review,' <a href="#Page_84">84</a>; extracts from 'Leader' essay, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>; accepts</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darwin's theory, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>; 'Principles of Biology,' <i>ib.</i>; 'Physiological</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Units,' <a href="#Page_126">126</a>; theory of evolution, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sprengel, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">THOMPSON, Allen, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Treviranus, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tucutuco, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tyndall, Prof., <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'VESTIGES of Creation,' <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; criticism of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Von Baer, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Von Buch, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">WALLACE, Alfred Russel, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; goes to Brazil, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; publishes his travels, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">in Malay archipelago, <i>ib.</i>; discovers natural selection, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">paper at Linnean Society, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; on sexual selection, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Emma, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Hensleigh, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Josiah, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wedgwood, Susannah, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wells, Dr., anticipates natural selection, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">White, Gilbert, on worms, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wollaston, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Worms, action of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wright, Chauncey, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'ZOONOMIA,' Erasmus Darwin's, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></span><br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Darwin, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34730-h.htm or 34730-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/3/34730/ + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + +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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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: Charles Darwin + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: December 23, 2010 [EBook #34730] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + + + + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + + + + +CHARLES DARWIN + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + +ENGLISH WORTHIES + +EDITED BY ANDREW LANG + + +LONDON + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + +1885 + + + + + +PREFACE + + +In this little volume I have endeavoured to present the life and work of +Charles Darwin viewed as a moment in a great revolution, in due relation +both to those who went before and to those who come after him. +Recognising, as has been well said, that the wave makes the crest, not +the crest the wave, I have tried to let my hero fall naturally into his +proper place in a vast onward movement of the human intellect, of which +he was himself at once a splendid product and a moving cause of the +first importance. I have attempted to show him both as receiving the +torch from Lamarck and Malthus, and as passing it on with renewed +brilliancy to the wide school of evolutionary thinkers whom his work was +instrumental in arousing to fresh and vigorous activity along a thousand +separate and varied lines of thought and action. + +As Mr. Francis Darwin was already engaged upon a life of his father, I +should have shrunk from putting forth my own little book if I had not +succeeded in securing beforehand his kind sanction. That sanction, +however, was at once so frankly and cordially given, that all my +hesitation upon such a score was immediately laid aside; and as I have +necessarily had to deal rather with Darwin's position as a thinker and +worker than with the biographical details of his private life, I trust +the lesser book may not clash with the greater, but to some extent may +supplement and even illustrate it. + +Treating my subject mainly as a study in the interaction of organism and +environment, it has been necessary for me frequently to introduce the +names of living men of science side by side with some of those who have +more or less recently passed away from among us. For uniformity's sake, +as well as for brevity's, I have been compelled, in every instance +alike, to omit the customary conventional handles. I trust those who +thus find themselves docked of their usual titles of respect will kindly +remember that the practice is in fact adopted _honoris causa_; they are +paying prematurely the usual penalty of intellectual greatness. + +My obligations to Professor Huxley, to Professor Fiske, to Mr. Herbert +Spencer, to Professor Sachs, to Hermann Mueller, to Dr. Krause, to +Charles Darwin himself, and to many other historians and critics of +evolutionism, will be sufficiently obvious to all instructed readers, +and are for the most part fully acknowledged already in the text. It +would be absurd to overload so small and popularly written a book with +references and authorities. I hope, therefore, that any other writers to +whom I may inadvertently have neglected to confess my debts will kindly +rest satisfied with this general acknowledgment. There are, however, +three persons in particular from whom I have so largely borrowed facts +or ideas that I owe them more special and definite thanks. From Mr. +Woodall's admirable paper on Charles Darwin, contributed to the +'Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society,' I have taken +much interesting information about my hero's immediate ancestry and +early days. From Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of 'Evolution Old and +New,' I have derived many pregnant suggestions with regard to the true +position and meaning of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and the early +essentially teleological evolutionists--suggestions which I am all the +more anxious to acknowledge since I differ fundamentally from Mr. Butler +in his estimate of the worth of Charles Darwin's distinctive discovery +of natural selection. Finally, to Mr. Bates, the 'Naturalist on the +Amazons,' I am indebted for several valuable items of information as to +the general workings of the pre-Darwinian evolutionary spirit. + +In a book dealing so largely with a contemporary movement, the history +of which has never yet been consecutively written down in full, or +subjected as a whole to searching criticism, there must probably be many +errors of detail, which can hardly be avoided under such circumstances. +I have endeavoured to minimise them as far as possible. For those which +may have escaped my own scrutiny I must trust both for correction and +for indulgence to the kindness of my readers. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN + +II. CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS + +III. EARLY DAYS + +IV. DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS + +V. THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION + +VI. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES + +VII. THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS + +VIII. THE DESCENT OF MAN + +IX. THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP + +X. VICTORY AND REST + +XI. DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT + +XII. THE NET RESULT + +INDEX + + + + + +CHARLES DARWIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE WORLD INTO WHICH DARWIN WAS BORN. + + +Charles Darwin was a great man, and he accomplished a great work. The +Newton of biology, he found the science of life a chaotic maze; he left +it an orderly system, with a definite plan and a recognisable meaning. +Great men are not accidents; great works are not accomplished in a +single day. Both are the product of adequate causes. The great man +springs from an ancestry competent to produce him; he is the final +flower and ultimate outcome of converging hereditary forces, that +culminate at last in the full production of his splendid and exceptional +personality. The great work which it is his mission to perform in the +world is never wholly of his own inception. It also is the last effect +of antecedent conditions, the slow result of tendencies and ideas long +working unseen or but little noticed beneath the surface of opinion, yet +all gradually conspiring together towards the definitive revolution at +whose head, in the fulness of time, the as yet unborn genius is destined +to place himself. This is especially the case with those extraordinary +waves of mental upheaval, one of which gave us the Italian renaissance, +and another of which is actually in progress around us at the present +day. They have their sources deep down in the past of human thought and +human feeling, and they are themselves but the final manifestation of +innumerable energies which have long been silently agitating the souls +of nations in their profoundest depths. + +Thus, every great man may be regarded as possessing two distinct lines +of ancestry, physical and spiritual, each of which separately demands +elucidation. He owes much in one way to his father and his mother, his +grandfathers and his grandmothers, and his remoter progenitors, from +some or all of whom he derives, in varying degrees and combinations, the +personal qualities whose special interaction constitutes his greatness +and his idiosyncrasy; he owes much in another way to his intellectual +and moral ancestors, the thinkers and workers who have preceded him in +his own department of thought or action, and have made possible in the +course of ages the final development of his special revolution or his +particular system. Viewed as an individual, he is what he is, with all +his powers and faculties and potentialities, in virtue of the brain, the +frame, the temperament, the energy he inherits directly from his actual +ancestors, paternal and maternal; viewed as a factor or element in a +great movement, he is what he is because the movement had succeeded in +reaching such and such a point in its progress already without him, and +waited only for such and such a grand and commanding personality in +order to carry it yet a step further on its course of development. + +No man who ever lived would more cordially have recognised these two +alternative aspects of the great worker's predetermining causes than +Charles Darwin. He knew well that the individual is the direct +cumulative product of his physical predecessors, and that he works and +is worked upon in innumerable ways by the particular environment into +whose midst he is born. Let us see, then, in his own case what were +these two main sets of conditioning circumstances which finally led up +to the joint production of Charles Darwin, the man and the philosopher, +the thinking brain and the moving energy. In other words, what was the +state of the science of life at the time when he first began to observe +and to speculate; and what was the ancestry which made him be born a +person capable of helping it forward at a single bound over its great +restricting dogmatic barrier of the fixity of species? + +Let us begin, in the first place, by clearing the path beforehand of a +popular misconception, so extremely general and almost universal that, +unless it be got rid of at the very outset of our sketch, much of the +real scope and purport of Darwin's life and work must, of necessity, +remain entirely misunderstood by the vast mass of English readers. In +the public mind Darwin is, perhaps, most commonly regarded as the +discoverer and founder of the evolution hypothesis. Two ideas are +usually associated with his name and memory. It is believed that he was +the first propounder of the theory which supposes all plant and animal +forms to be the result, not of special creation, but of slow +modification in pre-existent organisms. It is further and more +particularly believed that he was the first propounder of the theory +which supposes the descent of man to be traceable from a remote and more +or less monkey-like ancestor. Now, as a matter of fact, Darwin was not +the prime originator of either of these two great cardinal ideas. Though +he held both as part of his organised theory of things, he was not by +any means the first or the earliest thinker to hold them or to propound +them publicly. Though he gained for them both a far wider and more +general acceptance than they had ever before popularly received, he laid +no sort of claim himself to originality or proprietorship in either +theory. The grand idea which he did really originate was not the idea of +'descent with modification,' but the idea of 'natural selection,' by +which agency, as he was the first to prove, definite kinds of plants and +animals have been slowly evolved from simpler forms, with definite +adaptations to the special circumstances by which they are surrounded. +In a word, it was the peculiar glory of Charles Darwin, not to have +suggested that all the variety of animal and vegetable life might have +been produced by slow modifications in one or more original types, but +to have shown the nature of the machinery by which such a result could +be actually attained in the practical working out of natural causes. He +did not invent the development theory, but he made it believable and +comprehensible. He was not, as most people falsely imagine, the Moses of +evolutionism, the prime mover in the biological revolution; he was the +Joshua who led the world of thinkers and workers into full fruition of +that promised land which earlier investigators had but dimly descried +from the Pisgah-top of conjectural speculation. + +How far Darwin's special idea of natural selection supplemented and +rendered credible the earlier idea of descent with modification we shall +see more fully when we come to treat of the inception and growth of his +great epoch-making work, 'The Origin of Species;' for the present, it +must suffice to point out that in the world into which he was born, the +theory of evolution already existed in a more or less shadowy and +undeveloped shape. And since it was his task in life to raise this +theory from the rank of a mere plausible and happy guess to the rank of +a highly elaborate and almost universally accepted biological system, we +may pause awhile to consider on the threshold what was the actual state +of natural science at the moment when the great directing and organising +intelligence of Charles Darwin first appeared. + +From time immemorial, in modern Christendom at least, it had been the +general opinion of learned and simple alike that every species of plant +or animal owed its present form and its original existence to a distinct +act of special creation. This _naif_ belief, unsupported as it was by +any sort of internal evidence, was supposed to rest directly upon the +express authority of a few obscure statements in the Book of Genesis. +The Creator, it was held, had in the beginning formed each kind after a +particular pattern, had endowed it with special organs devised with +supreme wisdom for subserving special functions, and had bestowed upon +it the mystical power of reproducing its like in its own image to all +generations. No variation of importance ever occurred within the types +thus constituted; all plants and animals always retained their special +forms unaltered in any way from era to era. This is the doctrine of the +fixity and immutability of species, almost universal in the civilised +world up to the end of the last century. + +Improbable as such a crude idea now seems to any person even moderately +acquainted with the extraordinary variety and variability of living +forms, it nevertheless contained nothing at all likely to contradict the +ordinary experience of the everyday observer in the last century. The +handful of plants and animals with which he was personally acquainted +consisted for the most part of a few large, highly advanced, and +well-marked forms, not in the least liable to be mistaken for one +another even by the most hasty and casual spectator. A horse can +immediately be discriminated by the naked eye from a donkey, and a cow +from a sheep, without risk of error; nobody is likely to confuse wheat +with barley, or to hesitate between classing any given fruit that is +laid before him as a pear or an apple, a plum or a nectarine. +Variability seldom comes under the notice of the ordinary passing +spectator as it does under that of the prying and curious scientific +observer; and when it comes at all, as in the case of dogs and pigeons, +roses and hyacinths, it is no doubt set down carelessly on a superficial +view as a mere result of human selection or of deliberate mongrel +interbreeding. To the eye of the average man, all the living objects +ordinarily perceived in external nature fall at once under certain fixed +and recognisable kinds, as dogs and horses, elms and ashes, whose limits +he is never at all inclined to confound in any way one with the other. + +Linnaeus, the great father of modern scientific biology, had frankly and +perhaps unthinkingly accepted this current and almost universal dogma of +the fixity and immutability of species. Indeed, by defining a kind as a +group of plants or animals so closely resembling one another as to give +rise to the belief that they might all be descended from a single +ancestor or pair of ancestors, he implicitly gave the new sanction of +his weighty authority to the creation hypothesis, and to the prevalent +doctrine of the unchangeability of organic forms. To Linnaeus, the +species into which he mapped out all the plants and animals then known, +appeared as the descendants each of a solitary progenitor or of a +primitive couple, called into existence at the beginning of all things +by the direct fiat of a designing Creator. He saw the world of organic +life as composed of so many well-demarcated types, each separate, +distinct, and immutable, each capable of producing its like _ad +infinitum_, and each unable to vary from its central standard in any of +its individuals, except perhaps within very narrow and unimportant +limits. + +But towards the close of the eighteenth century, side by side with the +general awakening of the human intellect and the arrival of a new era of +free social investigation, which culminated in a fresh order of things, +there was developed a more critical and sceptical attitude in the world +of science, which soon produced a notable change of front among thinking +naturalists as to the origin and meaning of specific distinctions. + +Buffon was the first great biological innovator who ventured, in very +doubtful and tentative language, to suggest the possibility of the rise +of species from one another by slow modification of ancestral forms. +Essentially a popular essayist, writing in the volcanic +priest-suppressed France of the _ancien regime_, during the inconsistent +days of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., when it was uncertain whether novel +and heterodox opinions would bring down upon their author fame and +reputation or the Sorbonne and the Bastille, Buffon was careful to put +his conjectural conclusions in a studiously guarded and often even +ironical form. But time after time, in his great discursive work, the +'Histoire Naturelle' (published in successive volumes between 1749 and +1788), he recurs anew to the pregnant suggestion that plants and animals +may not be bound by fixed and immovable limits of species, but may +freely vary in every direction from a common centre, so that one kind +may gradually and slowly be evolved by natural causes from the type of +another. He points out that, underlying all external diversities of +character and shape, fundamental likenesses of type occur in many +animals, which irresistibly suggest the novel notion of common descent +from a single ancestor. Thus regarded, he says, not only the ass and the +horse (to take a particular passage) but even man himself, the monkeys, +the quadrupeds, and all vertebrate animals, might be viewed as merely +forming divergent branches of one and the same great family tree. Every +such family, he believed, whether animal or vegetable, might have sprung +originally from a single stock, which after many generations had here +developed into a higher form, and there degenerated into a lower and +less perfect type of organisation. Granting this--granting that nature +could by slow variation produce one species in the course of direct +descent from another unlike it (for example, the ass from the horse), +then, Buffon observed, there was no further limit to be set to her +powers in this respect, and we might reasonably conclude that from a +single primordial being she has gradually been able in the course of +time to develop the whole continuous gamut of existing animal and +vegetable life. To be sure, Buffon always saves himself from censure by +an obvious afterthought--'But no; it is certain from revelation that +every species was directly created by a separate fiat.' This +half-hearted and somewhat subrisive denial, however, must be taken +merely as a concession to the Sorbonne and to the fashionable exegesis +of his own day; and, even so, the Sorbonne was too much in the end for +the philosophic thinker. He had once in his life at least to make his +submission and demand pardon from the offended orthodoxy of the Paris +faculty. + +The wave of thought and feeling, thus apologetically and tentatively +stirred on the unruffled pond of eighteenth century opinion by the +startling plop of Buffon's little smooth-cut pebble, soon widened out on +every side in concentric circles, and affected with its wash the entire +world of biological science in every country. Before the close of the +eighteenth century speculation as to the origin of species was rife in +all quarters of Europe. In France itself, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, +constitutionally cautious and undecided, but wide of view and free from +prejudice, came slowly to the conclusion, in 1795, that all species are +really derived by modification from one or more primitive types. In +Germany, in the very same year, Goethe, with the keen vision of the +poet and the calm eye of the philosopher uniquely combined, discerned +independently as by a lightning flash the identical idea of the origin +of kinds by modification of pre-existent organisms. 'We may assert +without hesitation,' says that great nebulous thinker and observer, +'that all the more perfect organic natures, such as fishes, amphibians, +birds and mammals, with man at their head, were formed at first on one +original type, which still daily changes and modifies its form by +propagation.' In England, twelve months earlier, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +Charles Darwin's grandfather (of whom more anon), published his +'Zoonomia,' a treatise on the laws of animal life, in which he not only +adopted Buffon's theory of the origin of species by evolution, but also +laid down as the chief cause of such development the actions and needs +of the animals themselves. According to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, animals came +to vary from one another chiefly because they were always altering their +habits and voluntarily accommodating themselves to new actions and +positions in life. His work produced comparatively little effect upon +the world at large in his own time, but it had immense influence upon +the next great prophet of evolution, Lamarck, and through Lamarck on +Lyell, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and the modern school of +evolutionists generally. We shall consider his views in greater detail +when we pass from the spiritual to the physical antecedents of Charles +Darwin. + +It was in 1801 that Lamarck first gave to the world his epoch-making +speculations and suggestions on the origin of species; and from that +date to the day of his death, in 1831, the unwearied old philosopher +continued to devote his whole time and energy, in blindness and poverty, +to the elucidation of this interesting and important subject. A bold, +acute, and vigorous thinker, trained in the great school of Diderot and +D'Alembert, with something of the vivid Celtic poetic imagination, and a +fearless habit of forming his own conclusions irrespective of common or +preconceived ideas, Lamarck went to the very root of the matter in the +most determined fashion, and openly proclaimed in the face of frowning +officialism under the Napoleonic reaction his profound conviction that +all species, including man, were descended by modification from one or +more primordial forms. In Charles Darwin's own words, 'He first did the +eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change, +in the organic as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of +law and not of miraculous interposition. 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. With respect to the means of modification, he +attributed something to the direct action of the physical conditions of +life, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much to +use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter agency +he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature--such as +the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees,' He +believed, in short, that animals had largely developed themselves, by +functional effort followed by increased powers and abilities. + +Lamarck's great work, the 'Philosophie Zoologique,' though opposed by +the austere and formal genius of the immortal Cuvier--a reactionary +biological conservative and obscurantist, equal to the enormous task of +mapping out piecemeal with infinite skill and power the separate +provinces of his chosen science, but incapable of taking in all the +bearings of the whole field at a single vivid and comprehensive +sweep--Lamarck's great work produced a deep and lasting impression upon +the entire subsequent course of evolutionary thought in scientific +Europe. True, owing to the retrograde tendencies of the First Empire, it +caused but little immediate stir at the precise moment of its first +publication; but the seed it sowed sank deep, and, lying fallow long in +men's minds, bore fruit at last in the next generation with the +marvellous fecundity of the germs of genius. Indeed, from the very +beginning of the present century, a ferment of inquiry on the subject of +creation and evolution was everywhere obvious among speculative +thinkers. The profound interest which Goethe took in the dispute on this +very subject in the French Academie des Sciences between Cuvier and +Geoffroy St. Hilaire, amid the thundering guns of a threatened European +convulsion, was but a solitary symptom of the general stir which +preceded the gestation and birth of the Darwinian hypothesis. It is +impossible to take up any scientific memoirs or treatises of the first +half of our own century without seeing at a glance how every mind of +high original scientific importance was permeated and disturbed by the +fundamental questions aroused, but not fully answered, by Buffon, +Lamarck, and Erasmus Darwin. In Lyell's letters and in Agassiz's +lectures, in the 'Botanic Journal' and the 'Philosophical +Transactions,' in treatises on Madeira beetles and the Australian flora, +we find everywhere the thoughts of men profoundly influenced in a +thousand directions by this universal evolutionary solvent and leaven. + +And while the world of thought was thus seething and moving restlessly +before the wave of ideas set in motion by these various independent +philosophers, another group of causes in another field was rendering +smooth the path beforehand for the future champion of the amended +evolutionism. Geology on the one hand and astronomy on the other were +making men's minds gradually familiar with the conception of slow +natural development, as opposed to immediate and miraculous creation. + +The rise of geology had been rapid and brilliant. In the last century it +had been almost universally believed that fossil organisms were the +relics of submerged and destroyed worlds, strange remnants of successive +terrible mundane catastrophes. Cuvier himself, who had rendered immense +services to geological science by his almost unerring reconstructions of +extinct animals, remained a partisan of the old theory of constant +cataclysms and fresh creations throughout his whole life; but Lamarck, +here as elsewhere the prophet of the modern uniformitarian concept of +nature, had already announced his grand idea that the ordinary process +of natural laws sufficed to account for all the phenomena of the earth's +crust. In England, William Smith, the ingenious land surveyor, riding up +and down on his daily task over the face of the country, became +convinced by his observations in the first years of the present century +that a fixed order of sequence could everywhere be traced among the +various superincumbent geological strata. Modern scientific geology +takes its rise from the moment of this luminous and luminiferous +discovery. With astonishing rapidity the sequence of strata was +everywhere noted, and the succession of characteristic fossils mapped +out, with the result of showing, however imperfectly at first, that the +history of organic life upon the globe had followed a slow and regular +course of constant development. Immediately whole schools of eager +workers employed themselves in investigating in separate detail the +phenomena of these successive stages of unfolding life. Murchison, fresh +from the Peninsular campaign, began to study the dawn of organic history +in the gloom of the Silurian and Cambrian epochs. A group of less +articulate but not less active workers like Buckland and Mantell +performed similar services for the carboniferous, the wealden, and the +tertiary deposits. Sedgwick endeavoured to co-ordinate the whole range +of then known facts into a single wide and comprehensive survey. De La +Beche, Phillips, and Agassiz added their share to the great work of +reconstruction. Last of all, among those who were contemporary and all +but coeval with Charles Darwin himself, Lyell boldly fought out the +battle of 'uniformitarianism,' proving, with all the accumulated weight +of his encyclopaedic and world-wide knowledge, that every known feature +of geological development could be traced to the agency of causes now in +action, and illustrated by means of slow secular changes still actually +taking place on earth before our very eyes. + +The influence of these novel conceptions upon the growth and spread of +evolutionary ideas was far-reaching and twofold. In the first place, the +discovery of a definite succession of nearly related organic forms, +following one another with evident closeness through the various ages, +inevitably suggested to every inquiring observer the possibility of +their direct descent one from the other. In the second place, the +discovery that geological formations were not really separated each from +its predecessor by violent revolutions, but were the result of gradual +and ordinary changes, discredited the old idea of frequent fresh +creations after each catastrophe, and familiarised the minds of men of +science with the alternative notion of slow and natural evolutionary +processes. The past was seen to be in effect the parent of the present; +the present was recognised as the child of the past. + +Current astronomical theories also pointed inevitably in the same +direction. Kant, whose supereminent fame as a philosopher has almost +overshadowed his just claims as a profound thinker in physical science, +had already in the third quarter of the eighteenth century arrived at +his sublime nebular hypothesis, in which he suggested the possible +development of stars, suns, planets, and satellites by the slow +contraction of very diffuse and incandescent haze-clouds. This +magnificent cosmical conception was seized and adapted by the genius of +Laplace in his celestial system, and made familiar through his great +work to thinking minds throughout the whole of Europe. In England it was +further modified and remodelled by Sir William Herschel, whose period of +active investigation coincided in part with Charles Darwin's early +boyhood. The bearings of the nebular hypothesis upon the rise of +Darwinian evolutionism are by no means remote: the entire modern +scientific movement forms, in fact, a single great organic whole, of +which the special doctrine of biological development is but a small +separate integral part. All the theories and doctrines which go to make +it up display the one common trait that they reject the idea of direct +creative interposition from without, and attribute the entire existing +order of nature to the regular unfolding of one undeviating continuous +law. + +Yet another factor in the intellectual stir and bustle of the time must +needs be mentioned even in so short and cursory a sketch as this of the +causes which led to the Darwinian crisis. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, a +clergyman of the Church of England, published the first edition of his +famous and much-debated 'Essay on the Principle of Population.' Malthus +was the first person who ever called public attention to the tendency of +population to increase up to the utmost limit of subsistence, as well as +to the necessary influence of starvation in checking its further +development beyond that point. Though his essay dealt only with the +question of reproduction in human societies, it was clear that it +possessed innumerable analogies in every domain of animal and vegetable +life. The book ran through many successive editions with extraordinary +rapidity for a work of its class, it was fiercely attacked and bravely +defended, it caused an immense amount of discussion and debate, and +besides its marvellous direct influence as a germinal power upon the +whole subsequent course of politico-economical and sociological thought, +it produced also a remarkable indirect influence on the side current of +biological and speculative opinion. In particular, as we shall more +fully see hereafter, it had an immediate effect in suggesting to the +mind of the great naturalist who forms our present subject the embryo +idea of 'natural selection.' + +Such then was the intellectual and social world into which, early in the +present century, Charles Darwin found himself born. Everywhere around +him in his childhood and youth these great but formless evolutionary +ideas were brewing and fermenting. The scientific society of his elders +and of the contemporaries among whom he grew up was permeated with the +leaven of Laplace and of Lamarck, of Hutton and of Herschel. Inquiry was +especially everywhere rife as to the origin and nature of specific +distinctions among plants and animals. Those who believed in the +doctrine of Buffon and of the 'Zoonomia' and those who disbelieved in +it, alike, were profoundly interested and agitated in soul by the +far-reaching implications of that fundamental problem. On every side +evolutionism, in its crude form, was already in the air. Long before +Charles Darwin himself published his conclusive 'Origin of Species,' +every thinking mind in the world of science, elder and younger, was +deeply engaged upon the self-same problem. Lyell and Horner in alternate +fits were doubting and debating. Herbert Spencer had already frankly +accepted the new idea with the profound conviction of _a priori_ +reasoning. Agassiz was hesitating and raising difficulties. Treviranus +was ardently proclaiming his unflinching adhesion. Oken was spinning in +metaphysical Germany his fanciful parodies of the Lamarckian +hypothesis. Among the depths of Brazilian forests Bates was reading the +story of evolution on the gauze-like wings of tropical butterflies. +Under the scanty shade of Malayan palm-trees Wallace was independently +spelling out in rude outline the very theory of survival of the fittest, +which Charles Darwin himself was simultaneously perfecting and polishing +among the memoirs and pamphlets of his English study. Wollaston in +Madeira was pointing out the strange adaptations of the curious local +snails and beetles. Von Buch in the Canaries was coming to the +conclusion that varieties may be slowly changed into permanent species. +Lecoq and Von Baer were gradually arriving, one by the botanical route, +the other by the embryological, at the same opinion. Before Charles +Darwin was twenty, Dean Herbert had declared from the profound depth of +his horticultural knowledge that kinds were only mere fixed sports; and +Patrick Matthew, in the appendix to a work on 'Naval Timber,' had +casually developed, without perceiving its importance, the actual +distinctive Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Robert Chambers +published in 1844 his 'Vestiges of Creation,' in which Lamarck's theory +was impressed and popularised under a somewhat spoilt and mistaken form: +it was not till 1859 that the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' +burst like a thunderbolt upon the astonished world of unprepared and +unscientific thinkers. + +This general attitude of interest and inquiry is of deep importance to +the proper comprehension of Charles Darwin's life and work, and that for +two distinct reasons. In the first place, the universal stir and deep +prying into evolutionary questions which everywhere existed among +scientific men in his early days was naturally communicated to a lad +born of a scientific family, and inheriting directly in blood and bone +the biological tastes and tendencies of Erasmus Darwin. In the second +place, the existence of such a deep and wide-spread curiosity as to +ultimate origins, and the common prevalence of profound uniformitarian +and evolutionary views among philosophers and thinkers, made the +acceptance of Charles Darwin's particular theory, when it at last +arrived, a comparatively easy and certain matter, because by it the +course of organic development was assimilated, on credible grounds, to +the course of all other development in general, as then already widely +recognised. The first consideration helps us to account in part for the +man himself; the second consideration helps us even more to account for +the great work which he was enabled in the end so successfully to +accomplish. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHARLES DARWIN AND HIS ANTECEDENTS. + + +From the environment let us turn to the individual; from the world in +which the man moved to the man who moved in it, and was in time destined +to move it. + +Who was he, and whence did he derive his exceptional energy and +intellectual panoply? + +Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather, the first of the line in whom the +distinctive Darwinian strain of intellect overtly displayed itself, was +the son of one Robert Darwin, a gentleman of Nottinghamshire, 'a person +of curiosity,' with 'a taste for literature and science;' so that for +four generations at least, in the paternal line, the peculiar talents of +the Darwin family had been highly cultivated in either direction. Robert +Darwin was an early member of the Spalding Club, a friend of Stukeley +the antiquary, and an embryo geologist, after the fantastic, +half-superstitious fashion of his own time. Of his four sons, both +Robert, the eldest, and Erasmus, the youngest, were authors and +botanists. Erasmus himself was a Cambridge man, and his natural bent of +mind and energy led him irresistibly on to the study of medicine. Taking +his medical degree at his own university, and afterwards preparing for +practice by attending Hunter's lectures in London, besides going +through the regular medical course at Edinburgh, the young doctor +finally settled down as a physician at Nottingham, whence shortly +afterward he removed to Lichfield, then the centre of a famous literary +coterie. So large a part of Charles Darwin's remarkable idiosyncrasy was +derived by heredity from his paternal grandfather, that it may be worth +while to dwell a little here in passing on the character and career of +this brilliant precursor of the great evolutionist. Both in the physical +and in the spiritual sense, Erasmus Darwin was one among the truest and +most genuine ancestors of his grandson Charles. + +A powerful, robust, athletic man, in florid health and of temperate +habits, yet with the full-blooded tendency of the eighteenth century +vividly displayed in his ample face and broad features, Erasmus Darwin +bubbled over with irrepressible vivacity, the outward and visible sign +of that overflowing energy which forms everywhere one of the most marked +determining conditions of high genius. Strong in body and strong in +mind, a teetotaler before teetotalism, an abolitionist before the +anti-slavery movement, he had a great contempt for weaknesses and +prejudices of every sort, and he rose far superior to the age in which +he lived in breadth of view and freedom from preconceptions. The +eighteenth century considered him, in its cautious, cut-and-dried +fashion, a man of singular talent but of remarkably eccentric and unsafe +opinions. Unfortunately for his lasting fame, Dr. Darwin was much given +to writing poetry; and this poetry, though as ingenious as everything +else he did, had a certain false gallop of verse about it which has +doomed it to become since Canning's parody a sort of warning beacon +against the worst faults of the post-Augustan decadence in the +ten-syllabled metre. Nobody now reads the 'Botanic Garden' except either +to laugh at its exquisite extravagances, or to wonder at the queer +tinsel glitter of its occasional clever rhetorical rhapsodies. + +But in his alternative character of philosophic biologist, rejected by +the age which swallowed his poetry all applausive, Erasmus Darwin is +well worthy of the highest and deepest respect, as a prime founder and +early prophet of the evolutionary system. His 'Zoonomia,' 'which, though +ingenious, is built upon the most absurd hypothesis'--as men still said +only thirty years ago--contains in the germ the whole theory of organic +development as understood up to the very moment of the publication of +the 'Origin of Species.' In it Dr. Darwin calls attention to 'the great +changes introduced into various animals by artificial or accidental +cultivation,' a subject afterwards fully elucidated by his greater +grandson in his work on 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication.' He specially notes 'the immense changes of shape and +colour' produced by man in rabbits and pigeons, the very species on +which Charles Darwin subsequently made some of his most remarkable and +interesting observations. More than any previous writer, Erasmus Darwin, +with 'prophetic sagacity,' insisted strongly on the essential unity of +parent and offspring--a truth which lies at the very base of all modern +philosophical biology. 'Owing to the imperfection of language,' wrote +the Lichfield doctor nearly a hundred years ago, '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 may retain some of the habits of the parent +system.' He laid peculiar stress upon the hereditary nature of some +acquired properties, such as the muscles of dancers or jugglers, and the +diseases incidental to special occupations. Nay, he even anticipated his +great descendant in pointing out that varieties are often produced at +first as mere 'sports' or accidental variations, as in the case of +six-fingered men, five-clawed fowls, or extra-toed cats, and are +afterwards handed down by heredity to succeeding generations. Charles +Darwin would have added that if these new stray peculiarities happened +to prove advantageous to the species they would be naturally favoured in +the struggle for existence, while if they proved disadvantageous, or +even neutral, they would die out at once or be bred out in the course of +a few crosses. That last truth of natural selection was the only +cardinal one in the evolutionary system on which Erasmus Darwin did not +actually forestall his more famous and greater namesake. For its full +perception, the discovery of Malthus had to be collated with the +speculations of Buffon. + +'When we revolve in our minds,' says the eighteenth century prophet of +evolution, '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.' This is a very crude form of evolutionism +indeed, but it is leading up by gradual stages to the finished and +all-sided philosophy of physical life, which at last definitely +formulates itself through the mouth of Charles Darwin. We shall see +hereafter wherein Erasmus Darwin's conception of development chiefly +failed--in attributing evolution for the most part to the exertions and +endeavours of the animal itself, rather than to inevitable survival of +the fittest among innumerable spontaneous variations--but we must at +least conclude our glimpse of his pregnant and suggestive work by +quoting its great fundamental _apercu_:--'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?' + +A few lines from the 'Temple of Nature,' one of Erasmus Darwin's poetic +rhapsodies, containing his fully matured views on the origin of living +creatures, may be worth reproduction in further elucidation of his +philosophical position:-- + + 'Organic life beneath the shoreless waves + Was born, and nursed in ocean's pearly caves; + First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass. + Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; + These, as successive generations bloom, + New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; + Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, + And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.' + +Have we not here the very beginnings of Charles Darwin? Do we not see, +in these profound and fundamental suggestions, not merely hints as to +the evolution of evolution, but also as to the evolution of the +evolutionist? + +On the other hand, though Erasmus Darwin defined a fool to his friend +Edgeworth as 'a man who never tried an experiment in his life,' he was +wanting himself in the rigorous and patient inductive habit which so +strikingly distinguished his grandson Charles. That trait, as we shall +presently see, the biological chief of the nineteenth century derived in +all probability from another root of his genealogical tree. Erasmus +Darwin gave us brilliant suggestions rather than cumulative proof: he +apologised in his 'Zoonomia' for 'many conjectures not supported by +accurate investigation or conclusive experiments,' Such an apology would +have been simply impossible to the painstaking spirit of his grandson +Charles. + +Erasmus Darwin was twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of +Mr. Charles Howard, of Lichfield, and it was her son, Robert Waring +Darwin, who became the father of our hero, Charles. It is fashionable to +say, in this and sundry other like cases, that the mental energy skips a +generation. People have said so in the case of that intermediate +Mendelssohn who was son of Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher, and +father of Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn, the composer--that mere link in a +marvellous chain who was wont to observe of himself in the decline of +life, that in his youth he was called the son of the great Mendelssohn, +and in his old age the father of the great Mendelssohn. As a matter of +fact, one may fairly doubt whether such a case of actual skipping is +ever possible in the nature of things. In the particular instance of +Robert Waring Darwin at least we may be pretty sure that the distinctive +Darwinian strain of genius lay merely latent rather than dormant: that +it did not display itself to the world at large, but that it persisted +silently as powerful as ever within the remote recesses of the thinking +organism. Not every man brings out before men all that is within him. +Robert Waring Darwin was a physician at Shrewsbury; and he attained at +least sufficient scientific eminence in his own time to become a Fellow +of the Royal Society, in days when that honour was certainly not readily +conferred upon country doctors of modest reputation. Charles Darwin says +of him plainly, 'He was incomparably the most acute observer whom I ever +knew.' It may well have been that Robert Darwin lived and died, as his +famous son lived for fifty years of his great life, in comparative +silence and learned retirement; for we must never forget that if Charles +Darwin had only completed the first half century of his laborious +existence, he would have been remembered merely as the author of an +entertaining work on the voyage of the 'Beagle,' a plausible theory of +coral islands, and a learned monograph on the fossil barnacles. During +all those years, in fact, he had really done little else than collect +material for the work of his lifetime. If we judge men by outward +performance only, we may often be greatly mistaken in our estimates: +potentiality is wider than actuality; what a man does is never a certain +or extreme criterion of what he can do. + +The Darwins, indeed, were all a mighty folk, of varied powers and varied +attainments. Erasmus's brother, Robert, was the author of a work on +botany, which long enjoyed a respectable repute. Of his sons, one, Sir +Francis Darwin, was noted as a keen observer of animals; a second, +Charles, who died at twenty-one, was already the author of a very +valuable medical essay; while the third, Robert, was the Shrewsbury +F.R.S., the father of our great evolutionary thinker. And among Charles +Darwin's own cousins, one is Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, the philologist; a +second was the late Sir Henry Holland; and a third is Mr. Francis +Galton, the author of that essentially Darwinian book, 'Hereditary +Genius.' + +Robert Waring Darwin took to himself a wife from another very great and +eminent family. He married Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah +Wedgwood, the famous potter; and from these two silent representatives +of powerful stocks, Charles Robert Darwin, the father of modern +evolutionary biology, was born at Shrewsbury, on February the 12th, +1809. That Wedgwood connection, again, is no mere casual or unimportant +incident in the previous life-history of the Darwinian originality; it +throws a separate clear light of its own upon the peculiar and +admirably compounded idiosyncrasy of Charles Darwin. + +A man, indeed, owes on the average quite as much to his mother's as to +his father's family. It is a mere unscientific old-world prejudice which +makes us for the most part count ancestry in the direct ascending male +line alone, to the complete neglect of the equally important maternal +pedigree. Prom the biological point of view, at least, every individual +is a highly complex compound of hereditary elements, a resultant of +numerous converging forces, a meeting place of two great streams of +inheritance, each of which is itself similarly made up by the like +confluence of innumerable distinct prior tributaries. Between these two +it is almost impossible for us accurately to distribute any given +individuality. How much Charles Darwin owed to the Darwins, and how much +he owed in turn to the Wedgwoods, no man is yet psychologist enough or +physiologist enough to say. But that he owed a great deal to either +strong and vigorous strain we may even now quite safely take for +granted. + +The Wedgwood family were 'throwers' by handicraft, superior artisans +long settled at Burslem, in the Staffordshire potteries. Josiah, the +youngest of thirteen children, lamed by illness in early life, was +turned by this happy accident from his primitive task as a 'thrower' to +the more artistic and original work of producing ornamental coloured +earthenware. Skilful and indefatigable, of indomitable energy and with +great powers of forcing his way in life against all obstacles, young +Wedgwood rose rapidly by his own unaided exertions to be a master +potter, and a manufacturer of the famous unglazed black porcelain. +Those were the darkest days of industrial art and decorative handicraft +in modern England. Josiah Wedgwood, by his marked originality and force +of character, succeeded in turning the current of national taste, and +creating among us a new and distinctly higher type of artistic +workmanship. His activity, however, was not confined to his art alone, +but found itself a hundred other different outlets in the most varied +directions. When his potteries needed enlargement to meet the increased +demand, he founded for the hands employed upon his works the model +industrial village of Etruria. When Brindley began cutting artificial +waterways across the broad face of central England, it was in the great +potter that he found his chief ally in promoting the construction of the +Grand Trunk Canal. Wedgwood, indeed, was a builder of schools and a +maker of roads; a chemist and an artist; a friend of Watt and an +employer of Flaxman. In short, like Erasmus Darwin, he possessed that +prime essential in the character of genius, an immense underlying stock +of energy. And with it there went its best concomitant, the 'infinite +capacity for taking pains.' Is it not probable that in their joint +descendant, the brilliant but discursive and hazardous genius of Erasmus +Darwin was balanced and regulated by soberer qualities inherited +directly from the profound industry of the painstaking potter? When +later on we find Charles Darwin spending hours in noting the successive +movements of the tendrils in a plant, or watching for long years the +habits and manners of earthworms in flower-pots, may we not reasonably +conjecture that he derived no little share of his extraordinary +patience, carefulness, and minuteness of handicraft from his mother's +father, Josiah Wedgwood? + +Such, then, were the two main component elements, paternal and maternal, +from which the striking personality of Charles Darwin was no doubt for +the most part ultimately built up. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLY DAYS. + + +As the Chester express steams out of Shrewsbury station, you see on your +left, overhanging the steep bank of Severn, a large, square, +substantial-looking house, known as the Mount, the birthplace of the +author of the 'Origin of Species.' There, in the comfortable home he had +built for himself, Dr. Robert Darwin, the father, lived and worked for +fifty years of unobtrusive usefulness. He had studied medicine at +Edinburgh and Leyden, and had even travelled a little in Germany, before +he settled down in the quiet old Salopian town, where for half a century +his portly figure and yellow chaise were familiar objects of the +country-side for miles around. Among a literary society which included +Coleridge's friends, the Tayleurs, and where Hazlitt listened with +delight to the great poet's 'music of the spheres,' in High Street +Unitarian Chapel, the Mount kept up with becoming dignity the family +traditions of the Darwins and the Wedgwoods as a local centre of +sweetness and light. + +On February the 12th, 1809, Charles Darwin first saw the light of day in +this his father's house at Shrewsbury. Time and place were both +propitious. Born in a cultivated scientific family, surrounded from his +birth by elevating influences, and secured beforehand from the cramping +necessity of earning his own livelihood by his own exertions, the boy +was destined to grow up to full maturity in the twenty-one years of slow +development that immediately preceded the passing of the first Reform +Act. The thunder of the great European upheaval had grown silent at +Waterloo when he was barely six years old, and his boyhood was passed +amid country sights and sounds during that long period of reconstruction +and assimilation which followed the fierce volcanic outburst of the +French Revolution. Happy in the opportunity of his birth, he came upon +the world eight years after the first publication of Lamarck's +remarkable speculations, and for the first twenty-two years of his life +he was actually the far younger contemporary of the great French +evolutionary philosopher. Eleven years before his arrival upon the scene +Malthus had set forth his 'Principle of Population.' Charles Darwin thus +entered upon a stage well prepared for him, and he entered it with an +idiosyncrasy exactly adapted for making the best of the situation. The +soil had been thoroughly turned and dressed beforehand: Charles Darwin's +seed had only to fall upon it in order to spring up and bear fruit a +hundredfold, in every field of science or speculation. + +For it was not biology alone that he was foredoomed to revolutionise, +but the whole range of human thought, and perhaps even ultimately of +human action. + +Is it mere national prejudice which makes one add with congratulatory +pleasure that Darwin was born in England, rather than in France, in +Germany, or in America? Perhaps so; perhaps not. For the English +intellect does indeed seem more capable than most of uniting high +speculative ability with high practical skill and experience: and of +that union of rare qualities Darwin himself was a most conspicuous +example. It is probable that England has produced more of the great +organising and systematising intellects than any other modern country. + +Among those thinkers in his own line who stood more nearly abreast of +Darwin in the matter of age, Lyell was some eleven years his senior, and +contributed not a little (though quite unconsciously) by his work and +conclusions to the formation of Darwin's own peculiar scientific +opinions. The veteran Owen, who still survives him, was nearly five +years older than Darwin, and also helped to a great extent in giving +form and exactness to his great contemporary's anatomical ideas. +Humboldt, who preceded our English naturalist in the matter of time by +no less than forty years, might yet almost rank as coeval in some +respects, owing to his long and active life, his late maturity, and the +very recent date of his greatest and most thought-compelling work, the +'Cosmos' (begun when Humboldt was seventy-five, and finished when he +lacked but ten years of his century), in itself a sort of preparation +for due acceptance of the Darwinian theories. In fact, as many as fifty +years of their joint lives coincided entirely one with the other's. +Agassiz antedated Darwin by two years. On the other hand, among the men +who most helped on the recognition of Darwin's theories, Hooker and +Lewes were his juniors by eight years, Herbert Spencer by eleven, +Wallace by thirteen, and Huxley by sixteen. His cousin, Francis Galton, +another grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and joint inheritor of the +distinctive family biological ply, was born at the same date as Alfred +Russell Wallace, thirteen years after Charles Darwin. In such a goodly +galaxy of workers was the Darwinian light destined to shine through the +middle of the century, as one star excelleth another in glory. + +Charles Darwin was the second son: but nature refuses doggedly to +acknowledge the custom of primogeniture. His elder brother, Erasmus, a +man of mute and inarticulate ability, with a sardonic humour alien to +his race, extorted unwonted praise from the critical pen of Thomas +Carlyle, who 'for intellect rather preferred him to his brother +Charles.' But whatever spark of the Darwinian genius was really innate +in Erasmus the Less died with him unacknowledged. + +The boy was educated (so they call it) at Shrewsbury Grammar School, +under sturdy Sam Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield; and there he +picked up so much Latin and Greek as was then considered absolutely +essential to the due production of an English gentleman. Happily for the +world, having no taste for the classics, he escaped the ordeal with +little injury to his individuality. His mother had died while he was +still a child, but his father, that 'acute observer,' no doubt taught +him to know and love nature. At sixteen he went to Edinburgh University, +then rendered famous by a little knot of distinguished professors, and +there he remained for two years. Already at school he had made himself +notable by his love of collecting--the first nascent symptom of the +naturalist bent. He collected everything, shells, eggs, minerals, +coins, nay, since postage stamps were then not yet invented, even +franks. But at Edinburgh he gave the earliest distinct evidence of his +definite scientific tastes by contributing to the local academic society +a paper on the floating eggs of the common sea-mat, in which he had even +then succeeded in discovering for the first time organs of locomotion. +Thence he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. The Darwins were +luckily a Cambridge family: luckily, let us say, for had it been +otherwise--had young Darwin been distorted from his native bent by Plato +and Aristotle, and plunged deep into the mysteries of Barbara and +Celarent, as would infallibly have happened to him at the sister +university--who can tell how long we might have had to wait in vain for +the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man'? But Cambridge, which +rejoiced already in the glory of Newton, was now to match it by the +glory of Darwin. In its academical course, the mathematical wedge had +always kept open a dim passage for physical science; and at the exact +moment when Darwin was an undergraduate at Christ's--from 1827 to +1831--the university had the advantage of several good scientific +teachers, and amongst them one, Professor Henslow, a well-known +botanist, who took a special interest in young Darwin's intellectual +development. There, too, he met with Sedgwick, Airy, Ramsay, and +numerous other men of science, whose intercourse with him must no doubt +have contributed largely to mould and form the future cast of his +peculiar philosophical idiosyncrasy. + +It was to Henslow's influence that Darwin in later years attributed in +great part his powerful taste for natural history. But in truth the +ascription of such high praise to his early teacher smacks too much of +the Darwinian modesty to be accepted at once without demur by the candid +critic. The naturalist, like the poet, is born, not made. How much more, +then, must this needs be the case with the grandson of Erasmus Darwin +and of Josiah Wedgwood? As a matter of fact, already at Edinburgh the +lad had loved to spend his days among the sea-beasts and wrack of the +Inches in the Firth of Forth; and it was through the instrumentality of +his 'brother entomologists' that he first became acquainted with Henslow +himself when he removed to Cambridge. The good professor could not make +him into a naturalist: inherited tendencies and native energies had done +that for him already from his very cradle. + +'Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam;' and it was well that Darwin took up +at Cambridge with the study of geology as his first love. For geology +was then the living and moving science, as astronomy had been in the +sixteenth century, and as biology is at the present day--the +growing-point, so to speak, of European development, whence all great +things might naturally be expected. Moreover, it was and is the central +science of the concrete class, having relations with astronomy on the +one hand, and with biology on the other; concerned alike with cosmical +chances or changes on this side, and with the minutest facts of organic +nature on that; the meeting-place and border-land of all the separate +branches of study that finally bear upon the complex problems of our +human life. No other subject of investigation was so well calculated to +rouse Darwin's interest in the ultimate questions of evolution or +creation, of sudden cataclysm or gradual growth, of miraculous +intervention or slow development. Here, if anywhere, his enigmas were +all clearly propounded to him by the inarticulate stony sphinxes; he had +only to riddle them out for himself as he went along in after years with +the aid of the successive side-lights thrown upon the world by the +unconnected lanterns of Lamarck and of Malthus. + +Fortunately for us, then, Darwin did not waste his time at Cambridge +over the vain and frivolous pursuits of the classical tripos. He +preferred to work at his own subjects in his own way, and to leave the +short-lived honours of the schools to those who cared for them and for +nothing higher. He came out with the _oi polloi_ in 1831, and +thenceforth proceeded to study life in the wider university for which +his natural inclinations more properly fitted him. The world was all +before him where to choose, and he chose that better part which shall +not be taken away from him as long as the very memory of science +survives. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS. + + +Scarcely had Darwin taken his pass degree at Cambridge when the great +event of his life occurred which, more than anything else perhaps, gave +the final direction to his categorical genius in the line it was +thenceforth so successfully to follow. In the autumn of 1831, when +Darwin was just twenty-two, it was decided by Government to send a +ten-gun brig, the 'Beagle,' under command of Captain Fitzroy, to +complete the unfinished survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, to map +out the shores of Chili and Peru, to visit several of the Pacific +archipelagoes, and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round +the whole world. This was an essentially scientific expedition, and +Captain Fitzroy, afterwards so famous as the meteorological admiral, was +a scientific officer of the highest type. He was anxious to be +accompanied on his cruise by a competent naturalist who would undertake +the collection and preservation of the animals and plants discovered on +the voyage, for which purpose he generously offered to give up a share +of his own cabin accommodation. Professor Henslow seized upon the +opportunity to recommend for the post his promising pupil, young Darwin, +'grandson of the poet.' Darwin gladly volunteered his services without +salary, and partly paid his own expenses on condition of being permitted +to retain in his own possession the animals and plants he collected on +the journey. The 'Beagle' set sail from Devonport on December the 27th, +1831; she returned to Falmouth on October the 2nd, 1836. + +That long five years' cruise around the world, the journal of which +Darwin has left us in the 'Voyage of the "Beagle,"' proved a marvellous +epoch in the great naturalist's quiet career. It left its abiding mark +deeply imprinted on all his subsequent life and thinking. Lamarck and +Erasmus Darwin were cabinet biologists, who had never beheld with their +own eyes the great round world and all that therein is; Charles Darwin +had the inestimable privilege of seeing for himself, at first hand, a +large part of the entire globe and of the creatures that inhabit it. +Even to have caught one passing glimpse of the teeming life of the +tropics is in itself an education; to the naturalist it is more, it is a +revelation. Our starved little northern fauna and flora, the mere +leavings of the vast ice sheets that spread across our zone in the +glacial epoch, show us a world depopulated of all its largest, +strangest, and fiercest creatures; a world dwarfed in all its component +elements, and immensely differing in ten thousand ways from that rich, +luxuriant, over-stocked hot-house in which the first great problems of +evolution were practically worked out by survival of the fittest. But +the tropics preserve for us still in all their jungles something of the +tangled, thickly-peopled aspect which our planet must have presented for +countless ages in all latitudes before the advent of primaeval man. We +now know that throughout the greater part of geological time, +essentially tropical conditions existed unbroken over the whole surface +of the entire earth, from the Antarctic continent to the shores of +Greenland; so that some immediate acquaintance at least with the +equatorial world is of immense value to the philosophical naturalist for +the sake of the analogies it inevitably suggests; and it is a +significant fact that almost all those great and fruitful thinkers who +in our own time have done good work in the wider combination of +biological facts have themselves passed a considerable number of years +in investigating the conditions of tropical nature. Europe and England +are at the ends of the earth; the tropics are biological head-quarters. +The equatorial zone is therefore the true school for the historian of +life in its more universal and lasting aspects. + +Nor was that all. The particular countries visited by the 'Beagle' +during the course of her long and varied cruise happened to be exactly +such as were naturally best adapted for bringing out the latent +potentialities of Darwin's mind, and suggesting to his active and +receptive brain those deep problems of life and its environment which he +afterwards wrought out with such subtle skill and such consummate +patience in the 'Origin of Species' and the 'Descent of Man.' The Cape +de Verdes, and the other Atlantic islands, with their scanty population +of plants and animals, composed for the most part of waifs and strays +drifted to their barren rocks by ocean currents, or blown out helplessly +to sea by heavy winds; Brazil, with its marvellous contrasting wealth of +tropical luxuriance and self-strangling fertility, a new province of +interminable delights to the soul of the enthusiastic young collector; +the South American pampas, with their colossal remains of extinct +animals, huge geological precursors of the stunted modern sloths and +armadillos that still inhabit the self-same plains; Tierra del Fuego, +with its almost Arctic climate, and its glimpses into the secrets of the +most degraded savage types; the vast range of the Andes and the +Cordilleras, with their volcanic energy and their closely crowded +horizontal belts of climatic life; the South Sea Islands, those +paradises of the Pacific, Hesperian fables true, alike for the lover of +the picturesque and the biological student; Australia, that surviving +fragment of an extinct world, with an antiquated fauna whose archaic +character still closely recalls the European life of ten million years +back in the secondary epoch: all these and many others equally novel and +equally instructive passed in long alternating panorama before Darwin's +eyes, and left their images deeply photographed for ever after on the +lasting tablets of his retentive memory. That was the real great +university in which he studied nature and read for his degree. Our +evolutionist was now being educated. + +Throughout the whole of the journal of this long cruise, which Darwin +afterwards published in an enlarged form, it is impossible not to be +struck at every turn with the way in which his inquisitive mind again +and again recurs to the prime elements of those great problems towards +whose solution he afterwards so successfully pointed out the path. The +Darwinian ideas are all already there in the germ; the embryo form of +the 'Origin of Species' plays in and out on every page with the +quaintest elusiveness. We are always just on the very point of catching +it; and every now and again we do actually all but catch it in essence +and spirit, though ever still its bodily shape persistently evades us. +Questions of geographical distribution, of geological continuity, of the +influence of climate, of the modifiability of instinct, of the effects +of surrounding conditions, absorb the young observer's vivid interest at +every step, wherever he lands. He is all unconsciously collecting notes +and materials in profuse abundance for his great work; he is thinking in +rough outline the new thoughts which are hereafter to revolutionise the +thought of humanity. + +Five years are a great slice out of a man's life: those five years of +ceaseless wandering by sea and land were spent by Charles Darwin in +accumulating endless observations and hints for the settlement of the +profound fundamental problems in which he was even then so deeply +interested. The 'Beagle' sailed from England to the Cape de Verdes, and +already, even before she had touched her first land, the young +naturalist had observed with interest that the impalpably fine dust +which fell on deck contained no less than sixty-seven distinct organic +forms, two of them belonging to species peculiar to South America. In +some of the dust he found particles of stone so very big that they +measured 'above the thousandth of an inch square;' and after this fact, +says the keen student, 'one need not be surprised at the diffusion of +the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants.' Would +Erasmus Darwin have noticed these minute points and their implications +one wonders? Probably not. May we not see in the observation partly the +hereditary tendencies of Josiah Wedgwood towards minute investigation +and accuracy of detail, partly the influence of the scientific +time-wave, and the careful training under Professor Henslow? Erasmus +Darwin comes before us rather as the brilliant and ingenious amateur, +his grandson Charles as the instructed and fully equipped final product +of the scientific schools. + +At St. Paul's Rocks, once more, a mass of new volcanic peaks rising +abruptly from the midst of the Atlantic, the naturalist of the 'Beagle' +notes with interest that feather and dirt-feeding and parasitic insects +or spiders are the first inhabitants to take up their quarters on +recently formed oceanic islands. This problem of the peopling of new +lands, indeed, so closely connected with the evolution of new species, +necessarily obtruded itself upon his attention again and again during +his five years' cruise; and in some cases, especially that of the +Galapagos Islands, the curious insular faunas and floras which he +observed upon this trip, composed as they were of mere casual straylings +from adjacent shores, produced upon his mind a very deep and lasting +impression, whose traces one may without difficulty discern on every +second page of the 'Origin of Species.' + +On the last day of February, 1832, the 'Beagle' came to anchor in the +harbour of Bahia, and young Darwin caught sight for the first time of +the mutually strangling luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Nowhere on +earth are the finest conditions of tropical life more fully realised +than in the tangled depths of the great uncleared Brazilian forests, +which everywhere gird round like a natural palisade with their +impenetrable belt the narrow and laborious clearings of over-mastered +man. The rich alluvial silt of mighty river systems, the immemorial +manuring of the virgin soil, the fierce energy of an almost equatorial +sun, and the universal presence of abundant water, combine to make life +in that marvellous region unusually wealthy, varied, and crowded, so +that the struggle for existence is there perhaps more directly visible +to the seeing eye than in any other known portion of God's universe. +'Delight itself,' says Darwin in his journal, with that naive simplicity +which everywhere forms the chief charm of his direct and unaffected +literary style--'delight itself is a weak term to express the feelings +of a naturalist who for the first time has wandered by himself in a +Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the +parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the +foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled +me with admiration.' In truth, among those huge buttressed trunks, +overhung by the unbroken canopy of foliage on the vast spreading and +interlacing branches, festooned with lianas and drooping lichens, or +beautified by the pendent alien growth of perfumed orchids, Darwin's +mind must indeed have found congenial food for apt reflection, and +infinite opportunities for inference and induction. Prom the mere +picturesque point of view, indeed, the naturalist enjoys such sights as +this a thousand times more truly and profoundly than the mere casual +unskilled observer: for it is a shallow, self-flattering mistake of +vulgar and narrow minds to suppose that fuller knowledge and clearer +insight can destroy or impair the beauty of beautiful objects--as who +should imagine that a great painter appreciates the sunset less than a +silly boy or a sentimental schoolgirl. As a matter of fact, the +naturalist knows and admires a thousand exquisite points of detail in +every flower and every insect which only he himself and the true artist +can equally delight in. And a keen intellectual and aesthetic joy in the +glorious fecundity and loveliness of nature was everywhere present to +Darwin's mind. But, beyond and above even that, there was also the +architectonic delight of the great organiser in the presence of a noble +organised product: the peculiar pleasure felt only by the man in whose +broader soul all minor details fall at once into their proper place, as +component elements in one great consistent and harmonious whole--a +sympathetic pleasure akin to that with which an architect views the +interior of Ely and of Lincoln, or a musician listens to the linked +harmonies of the 'Messiah' and the 'Creation.' The scheme of nature was +now unfolding itself visibly and clearly before Charles Darwin's very +eyes. + +After eighteen memorable days spent with unceasing delight at Bahia, the +'Beagle' sailed again for Rio, where Darwin stopped for three months, to +improve his acquaintance with the extraordinary wealth of the South +American fauna and flora. Collecting insects was here his chief +occupation, and it is interesting to note even at this early period how +his attention was attracted by some of those strange alluring devices on +the part of the males for charming their partners which afterwards +formed the principal basis for his admirable theory of sexual selection, +so fully developed in the 'Descent of Man.' 'Several times,' he says, +'when a pair [of butterflies], probably male and female, were chasing +each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me; +and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a +toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.' In like manner he observed +here the instincts of tropical ants, the habits of phosphorescent +insects, and the horrid practice of that wasp-like creature, the sphex, +which stuffs the clay cells of its larvae full of half-dead spiders and +writhing caterpillars, so stung with devilish avoidance of vital parts +as to be left quite paralysed yet still alive, as future food for the +developing grubs. Cases like these helped naturally to shake the young +biologist's primitive faith in the cheap and crude current theories of +universal beneficence, and to introduce that wholesome sceptical +reaction against received dogma which is the necessary groundwork and +due preparation for all great progressive philosophical thinking. + +In July they set sail again for Monte Video, where the important +question of climate and vegetation began to interest young Darwin's +mind. Uruguay is almost entirely treeless; and this curious phenomenon, +in a comparatively moist sub-tropical plain-land, struck him as a +remarkable anomaly, and set him speculating on its probable cause. +Australia, he remembered, was far more arid, and yet its interior was +everywhere covered by whole forests of quaint indigenous gum-trees. +Could it be that there were no trees adapted to the climate? As yet, the +true causes of geographical distribution had not clearly dawned upon +Darwin's mind; but that a young man of twenty-three should seriously +busy himself about such problems of ultimate causation at all is in +itself a sufficiently pointed and remarkable phenomenon. It was here, +too, that he first saw that curious animal, the Tucutuco, a true rodent +with the habits of a mole, which is almost always found in a blind +condition. With reference to this singular creature, there occurs in his +journal one of those interesting anticipatory passages which show the +rough workings of the distinctive evolutionary Darwinian concept in its +earlier stages. 'Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the +Tucutuco,' he writes, 'the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very +serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an +organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been +delighted with this fact, had he known it, when speculating (probably +with more truth than usual with him) on the gradually acquired blindness +of the Aspalax, a gnawer living under the ground, and of the Proteus, a +reptile living in dark caverns filled with water; in both of which +animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a +tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is +extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether +it is connected with the true optic nerve; its vision must certainly be +imperfect, though probably useful to the animal when it leaves its +burrow. In the Tucutuco, which I believe never comes to the surface of +the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and +useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the +animal: no doubt Lamarck would have said that the Tucutuco is now +passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus.' The passage is +instructive both as showing that Darwin was already familiar with +Lamarck's writings, and as pointing out the natural course of his own +future development. + +For the two years from her arrival at Monte Video, the 'Beagle' was +employed in surveying the eastern coast of South America; and Darwin +enjoyed unusual opportunities for studying the geology, the zoology, and +the botany of the surrounding districts during all that period. It was a +suggestive field indeed for the young naturalist. The curious +relationship of the gigantic fossil armour-plated animals to the +existing armadillo, of the huge megatherium to the modern sloths, and of +the colossal ant-eaters to their degenerate descendants at the present +day, formed one of the direct inciting causes to the special study which +produced at last the 'Origin of Species.' In the Introduction to that +immortal work Darwin wrote, some twenty-seven years later, 'When on +board H.M.S. "Beagle" as naturalist, I was much struck with certain +facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South +America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past +inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the +latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin +of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of +our greatest philosophers.' And in the body of the work itself he refers +over and over again to numberless observations made by himself during +this period of rapid psychological development--observations on the +absence of recent geological formations along the lately upheaved South +American coast; on the strange extinction of the horse in La Plata; on +the affinities of the extinct and recent species; on the effect of +minute individual peculiarities in preserving life under special +circumstances; and on the influence of insects and blood-sucking bats in +determining the existence of the larger naturalised mammals in parts of +Brazil and the Argentine Republic. It was the epoch of wide collection +of facts, to be afterwards employed in brilliant generalisations: the +materials for the 'Origin of Species' were being slowly accumulated in +the numberless pigeon-holes of the Darwinian memory. + +Among the facts thus industriously gathered by Darwin in the two years +spent on the South American coast were several curious instincts of the +cuckoo-like molothrus, of the owl of the Pampas, and of the American +ostrich. A few sentences scattered here and there through this part of +the 'Naturalist's Journal' may well be extracted in the present place as +showing, better than any mere secondhand description could do, the slow +germinating process of the 'Origin of Species.' In speaking of the +toxodon, that strange extinct South American mammal, the young author +remarks acutely that, though in size it equalled the elephant and the +megatherium, the structure of its teeth shows it to be closely allied to +the ruminants, while several other details link it to the pachyderms, +and its aquatic peculiarities of ear and nostril approximate it rather +to the manatee and the dugong. 'How wonderfully,' he says, 'are the +different orders, at the present time so well separated, blended +together in different points of the structure of the toxodon.' We now +know that unspecialised ancestral forms always display this close union +of peculiarities afterwards separately developed in distinct species of +their later descendants. + +Still more pregnant with evolutionism in the bud is the prophetic remark +about a certain singular group of South American birds, 'This small +family is one of those which, from its varied relations to other +families, although at present offering only difficulties to the +systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand +scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings +have been created.' Of the agouti, once more, that true friend of the +desert, Darwin notes that it does not now range as far south as Port St. +Julian, though Wood in 1670 found it abundant there; and he asks +suggestively, 'What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and +rarely visited country, the range of an animal like this?' Again, when +speaking of the analogies between the extinct camel-like macrauchenia +and the modern guanaco, as well as of those between the fossil and +living species of South American rodents, he says, with even more +prophetic insight, 'This wonderful relationship in the same continent +between the dead and the living will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw +more light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth, and their +disappearance from it, than any other class of facts.' He was himself +destined in another thirty years to prove the truth of his own +vaticination. + +A yet more remarkable passage in the 'Journal of the "Beagle,"' though +entered under the account of events observed in the year 1834, must +almost certainly have been written somewhat later, and subsequently to +Darwin's first reading of Malthus's momentous work, 'The Principle of +Population,' which (as we know from his own pen) formed a cardinal point +in the great biologist's mental development. It runs as follows in the +published journal:[1]--'We do not steadily bear in mind how profoundly +ignorant we are of the conditions of existence of every animal; nor do +we always remember that some check is constantly preventing the too +rapid increase of every organised being left in a state of nature. The +supply of food, on an average, remains constant; yet the tendency in +every animal to increase by propagation is geometrical, and its +surprising effects have nowhere been more astonishingly shown than in +the case of the European animals run wild during the last few centuries +in America. Every animal in a state of nature regularly breeds; yet in a +species long established any great increase in numbers is obviously +impossible, and must be checked by some means.' Aut Malthus aut +Diabolus. And surely here, if anywhere at all, we tremble on the very +verge of natural selection. + +It would be impossible to follow young Darwin in detail through his +journey to Buenos Ayres, and up the Parana to Santa Fe, which occupied +the autumn of 1833. In the succeeding year he visited Patagonia and the +Falkland Islands, having previously made his first acquaintance with +savage life among the naked Fuegians of the extreme southern point of +the continent. Some of these interesting natives, taken to England by +Captain Fitzroy on a former visit, had accompanied the 'Beagle' through +all her wanderings, and from them Darwin obtained that close insight +into the workings of savage human nature which he afterwards utilised +with such conspicuous ability in the 'Descent of Man.' Through +Magellan's Straits the party made their way up the coasts of Chili, and +Darwin had there an opportunity of investigating the geology and biology +of the Cordillera. The year 1835 was chiefly spent in that temperate +country and in tropical Peru; and as the autumn went on, the 'Beagle' +made her way across a belt of the Pacific to the Galapagos archipelago. + +Small and unimportant as are those little equatorial islands from the +geographical and commercial point of view, they will yet remain for ever +classic ground to the biologists of the future from their close +connection with the master-problems of the 'Origin of Species.' Here +more, perhaps, than anywhere else the naturalist of the 'Beagle' found +himself face to face in real earnest with the ultimate questions of +creation or evolution. A group of tiny volcanic islets, never joined to +any land, nor even united to one another, yet each possessing its own +special zoological features--the Galapagos roused to an extraordinary +degree the irresistible questionings of Darwin's mind. They contain no +frogs, and no mammal save a mouse, brought to them, no doubt, by some +passing ship. The only insects are beetles, which possess peculiar +facilities for being transported in the egg or grub across salt water +upon floating logs. There are two kinds of snake, one tortoise, and four +lizards; but, in striking contrast to this extreme poverty of +terrestrial forms, there are at least fifty-five distinct species of +native birds. A few snails complete the list. Now most of these animals, +though closely resembling the fauna of Ecuador, the nearest mainland, +are specifically distinct; they have varied (as we now know) from their +continental types owing to natural selection under the new circumstances +in which they have been placed. But Darwin had not yet evolved that +potent key to the great riddle of organic existence. He saw the problem, +but not its solution. 'Most of the organic productions,' he says +plainly, 'are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a +difference between the inhabitants of the different islands: yet all +show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from +that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in +width.... Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more +astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their +confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the +boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to +believe that within a period geologically recent the unbroken sea was +here spread out. Hence, both in space and time we seem to be brought +somewhat nearer to that great fact--that mystery of mysteries--the first +appearance of new beings on this earth.' Among the most singular of +these zoological facts may be mentioned the existence in the Galapagos +archipelago of a genus of gigantic and ugly lizard, the amblyrhyncus, +unknown elsewhere, but here assuming the forms of two species, the one +marine and the other terrestrial. In minuter points, the differences of +fauna and flora between the various islands are simply astounding, so as +to compel the idea that each form must necessarily have been developed +not merely for the group, but for the special island which it actually +inhabits. No wonder that Darwin should say in conclusion, 'One is +astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be +used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands; and still +more so at its diverse, yet analogous, action on points so near each +other.' Here again, in real earnest, the young observer trembles visibly +on the very verge of natural selection. In the 'Origin of Species' he +makes full use, more than once, of the remarkable facts he observed with +so much interest in these tiny isolated oceanic specks of the American +galaxy. + +From the Galapagos the 'Beagle' steered a straight course for Tahiti, +and Darwin then beheld with his own eyes the exquisite beauty of the +Polynesian Islands. Thence they sailed for New Zealand, the most truly +insular large mass of land in the whole world, supplied accordingly with +a fauna and flora of most surprising meagreness and poverty of species. +In the woods, our observer noted very few birds, and he remarks with +astonishment that so big an island--as large as Great Britain--should +not possess a single living indigenous mammal, save a solitary rat of +doubtful origin. Australia and Tasmania, with their antiquated and +stranded marsupial inhabitants, almost completed the round trip. Keeling +Island next afforded a basis for the future famous observations upon +coral reefs; and thence by Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, +Pernambuco, and the beautiful Azores, the 'Beagle' made her way home by +slow stages to England, which she reached in safety on October the 2nd, +1836. What an ideal education for the future reconstructor of +biological science! He had now all his problems cut and dried, ready to +his hand, and he had nothing important left to do--except to sit down +quietly in his study, and proceed to solve them. Observation and +collection had given him one half the subject-matter of the 'Origin of +Species;' reflection and Malthus were to give him the other half. Never +had great mind a nobler chance; never, again, had noble chance a great +mind better adapted by nature and heredity to make the most of it. The +man was not wanting to the opportunity, nor was the opportunity wanting +to the man. Organism and environment fell together into perfect harmony; +and so, by a lucky combination of circumstances, the secret of the ages +was finally wrung from not unwilling nature by the far-seeing and +industrious volunteer naturalist of the 'Beagle' expedition. + +It would be giving a very false idea of the interests which stirred +Charles Darwin's mind during his long five years' voyage, however, if we +were to dwell exclusively upon the biological side of his numerous +observations on that memorable cruise. Ethnology, geology, oceanic +phenomena, the height of the snow-line, the climate of the Antarctic +islands, the formation of icebergs, the transport of boulders, the +habits and manners engendered by slavery, all almost equally aroused in +their own way the young naturalist's vivid interest. Nowhere do we get +the faintest trace of narrow specialism; nowhere are we cramped within +the restricted horizon of the mere vulgar beetle-hunter and +butterfly-catcher. The biologist of the 'Beagle' had taken the whole +world of science for his special province. Darwin's mind with all its +vastness was not, indeed, profoundly analytical. The task of working out +the psychological and metaphysical aspects of evolution fell rather to +the great organising and systematising intellect of Herbert Spencer. But +within the realm of material fact, and of the widest possible inferences +based upon such fact, Darwin's keen and comprehensive spirit ranged +freely over the whole illimitable field of nature. 'No one,' says Buckle +with unwonted felicity, 'can have a firm grasp of any science if, by +confining himself to it, he shuts out the light of analogy. He may, no +doubt, work at the details of his subject; he may be useful in adding to +its facts; he will never be able to enlarge its philosophy. For the +philosophy of every department depends on its connection with other +departments, and must therefore be sought at their points of contact. It +must be looked for in the place where they touch and coalesce: it lies, +not in the centre of each science, but on the confines and margin.' This +profound truth Darwin fully and instinctively realised. It was the +all-embracing catholicity of his manifold interests that raised him into +the greatest pure biologist of all time, and that enabled him to +co-ordinate with such splendid results the raw data of so many distinct +and separate sciences. And even as early as the days of the cruise in +the 'Beagle,' that innate catholicity had already asserted itself in +full vigour. Now it is a party of Gauchos throwing the bola that engages +for the moment his eager attention; and now again it is a group of +shivering Fuegians, standing naked with their long hair streaming in the +wind on a snowy promontory of their barren coast. Here he examines the +tubular lightning-holes melted in the solid rock of Maldonado by the +electric energy; and there he observes the moving boulder-streams that +course like torrents down the rugged corries of the Falkland Islands. At +one time he works upon the unstudied geology of the South American +Pampas; at another, he inspects the now classical lagoon and narrow +fringing reef of the Keeling archipelago. Everywhere he sees whatever of +most noteworthy in animate or inanimate nature is there to be seen; and +everywhere he draws from it innumerable lessons, to be applied hereafter +to the special field of study upon which his intense and active energies +were finally concentrated. It is not too much to say, indeed, that it +was the voyage of the 'Beagle' which gave us in the last resort the +'Origin of Species' and its great fellow the 'Descent of Man.' + + +[1] The full narrative was first given to the world in 1839, some three +years after Darwin's return to England, so that much of it evidently +represents the results of his maturer thinking and reading on the facts +collected during his journey round the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION. + + +When Charles Darwin landed in England on his return from the voyage of +the 'Beagle' he was nearly twenty-eight. When he published the first +edition of the 'Origin of Species' he was over fifty. The intermediate +years, though much occupied by many minor works of deep specialist +scientific importance, were still mainly devoted to collecting material +for the one crowning effort of his life, the chief monument of his great +co-ordinating and commanding intellect--the settlement of the question +of organic evolution. + +'There is one thing,' says Professor Fiske, 'which a man of original +scientific or philosophical genius in a rightly ordered world should +never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to earn a +living; for that is a wretched waste of energy, in which the highest +intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment, and runs the +risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.' From this unhappy +necessity Charles Darwin, like his predecessor Lyell, was luckily free. +He settled down early in a home of his own, and worked away at his own +occupations, with no sordid need for earning the day's bread, but with +perfect leisure to carry out the great destiny for which the chances of +the universe had singled him out. His subsequent history is the history +of his wonderful and unique contributions to natural science. + +The first thing to be done, of course, was the arrangement and +classification of the natural history spoils gathered during the cruise, +and the preparation of his own journal of the voyage for publication. +The strict scientific results of the trip were described in the 'Zoology +of the Voyage of the "Beagle,"' the different parts of which were +undertaken by rising men of science of the highest distinction, under +Charles Darwin's own editorship. Sir Richard Owen took in hand the +fossil mammals; Waterhouse arranged their living allies; Gould discussed +the birds, Jenyns the fish, and Bell the amphibians and reptiles. In +this vast co-operative publication Darwin thus obtained the assistance +of many among the most competent specialists in the England of his day, +and learned to understand his own collections by the light thrown upon +them from the focussed lamps of the most minute technical learning. As +for the journal, it was originally published with the general account of +the cruise by Captain Fitzroy in 1839, but was afterwards set forth in a +separate form under the title of 'A Naturalist's Voyage Round the +World.' + +But while Darwin was thus engaged in arranging and classifying the +animals and plants he had brought home with him, the germs of those +inquiring ideas about the origin of species which we have already +observed in his account of the voyage were quickening into fresh life +within him. As he ruminated at his leisure over the results of his +accumulations, he was beginning to work upon the great problem with the +definite and conscious resolution of solving it. 'On my return home, it +occurred to me,' he says, 'in 1837, that something might perhaps be made +out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all +sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five +years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up +some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the +conclusions that then seemed to me probable; from that period to the +present day [1859] I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that +I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them +to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.' + +So Darwin wrote at fifty. The words are weighty and well worthy of +consideration. They give us in a nutshell the true secret of Darwin's +success in compelling the attention and assent of his contemporaries to +his completed theory. For speculations and hypotheses like those of +Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin, however brilliant and luminous they may be, +the hard, dry, scientific mind cares as a rule less than nothing. Men of +genius and insight like Goethe and Oken may, indeed, seize greedily upon +the pregnant suggestion; their intellects are already attuned by nature +to its due reception and assimilation; but the mere butterfly-catchers +and plant-hunters of the world, with whom after all rests ultimately the +practical acceptance or rejection of such a theory, can only be +convinced by long and patient accumulations of facts, by infinite +instances and endless examples, by exhaustive surveys of the whole +field of nature in a thousand petty details piecemeal. They have to be +driven by repeated beating into the right path. Everywhere they fancy +they see the loophole of an objection, which must be carefully closed +beforehand against them with anticipatory argument, as we close hedges +by the wayside against the obtrusive donkey with a cautious bunch of +thorny brambles. Even if Charles Darwin had hit upon the fundamental +idea of natural selection, and had published it, as Wallace did, in the +form of a mere splendid _apercu_, he would never have revolutionised the +world of biology. When the great discovery was actually promulgated, it +was easy enough to win the assent of philosophical thinkers like Herbert +Spencer; easy enough, even, to gain the ready adhesion of non-biological +but kindred minds, like Leslie Stephen's and John Morley's; those might +all, perhaps, have been readily convinced by far less heavy and crushing +artillery than that so triumphantly marshalled together in the 'Origin +of Species.' But in order to command the slow and grudging adhesion of +the rank and file of scientific workers, the 'hodmen of science,' as +Professor Huxley calls them, it was needful to bring together an +imposing array of closely serried facts, to secure every post in the +rear before taking a single step onward, and to bring to bear upon every +antagonist the exact form of argument with which he was already +thoroughly familiar. It was by carefully pursuing these safe and +cautious philosophical tactics that Charles Darwin gained his great +victory. Where others were pregnant, he was cogent. He met the +Dryasdusts of science on their own ground, and he put them fairly to +flight with their own weapons. More than that, he brought them all over +in the long run as deserters into his own camp, and converted them from +doubtful and suspicious foes into warm adherents of the evolutionary +banner. + +Moreover, fortunately for the world, Darwin's own mind was essentially +one of the inductive type. If a great deductive thinker and speculator +like Herbert Spencer had hit upon the self-same idea of survival of the +fittest, he might have communicated it to a small following of receptive +disciples, who would have understood it and accepted it, on _a priori_ +grounds alone, and gradually passed it on to the grades beneath them; +but he would never have touched the slow and cautious elephantine +intellect of the masses. The common run of mankind are not deductive; +they require to have everything made quite clear to them by example and +instance. The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule +congenitally incapable of appreciating the superior logical certitude of +the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square +on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until +they have measured and weighed as well as they are able by rude +experimental devices a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular +paper. It was a great gain, therefore, that the task of reconstructing +the course of organic evolution should fall to the lot of a highly +trained and masterly intelligence of the inductive order. Darwin had +first to convince himself, and then he could proceed to convince the +world. He set about the task with characteristic patience and +thoroughness. No man that ever lived possessed in a more remarkable +degree than he did the innate capacity for taking trouble. For five +years, as a mere preliminary, he accumulated facts in immense variety, +and then for the first time and in the vaguest possible way he--'allowed +himself to speculate.' That brings us down to the year 1842, when the +first notes of the 'Origin of Species' must have been tentatively +committed to paper. It was in 1859 that the first edition of the +complete work was given to the world. Compare this with the case of +Newton, who similarly kept his grand idea of gravitation for many years +in embryo, until more exact measurements of the moon's mass and distance +should enable him to verify it to his own satisfaction. + +One other item of immense importance in the genesis of the full +Darwinian doctrine deserves mention here--I mean, the exact moment of +time occupied by Charles Darwin in the continuous history of scientific +thought. A generation or two earlier, in Erasmus Darwin's days, biology +had not yet arrived at the true classification of animals and plants +upon an essentially hereditary basis. The Linnaean arrangement, then +universally accepted, was wholly artificial in its main features; it +distributed species without regard to their fundamental likenesses of +structure and organisation. But the natural system of Jussieu and De +Candolle, by arranging plants into truly related groups, made possible +the proofs of an order of affiliation in the vegetable kingdom; while +Cuvier's similar reconstruction of the animal world gave a like foothold +to the evolutionary philosopher in the other great department of organic +nature. The recognition of kinship between the various members of the +same family necessarily preceded the establishment of a regular +genealogical theory of life in its entirety. + +Though we are here concerned mainly with Charles Darwin the thinker and +writer--not with Charles Darwin the husband and father--a few words of +explanation as to his private life must necessarily be added at the +present point, before we pass on to consider the long, slow, and +cautious brewing of that wonderful work, the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +returned home from the voyage of the 'Beagle' at the end of the year +1836. Soon after, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, no doubt +through the influence of his friend Lyell, who was quite enthusiastic +over his splendid geological investigations on the rate of elevation in +the Pampas and the Cordillera. Acting on Lyell's advice, too, he +determined to seek no official appointment, but to devote himself +entirely for the rest of his life to the pursuit of science. In 1838, at +the age of twenty-nine, he read before the Geological Society his paper +on the 'Connection of Volcanic Phenomena with the Elevation of Mountain +Chains,' when, says Lyell admiringly in a private letter, 'he opened +upon De la Beche, Phillips, and others'--the veterans of the +science--'his whole battery of the earthquakes and volcanoes of the +Andes.' Shortly after, the audacious young man was appointed secretary +to the Geological Society, a post which he filled when the voyage of the +'Beagle' was first published in 1839. + +In the early part of that same year, the rising naturalist took to +himself a wife from one of the houses to which he himself owed no small +part of his conspicuous greatness. His choice fell upon his cousin, +Miss Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of Maer Hall; and, +after three years of married life in London, he settled at last at Down +House, near Orpington, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed +his time among his conservatories and his pigeons, his garden and his +fowls, with his children growing up quietly beside him, and the great +thinking world of London within easy reach of a few minutes' journey. +His private means enabled him to live the pleasant life of an English +country gentleman, and devote himself unremittingly to the pursuit of +science. Ill health, indeed, interfered sadly with his powers of work; +but system and patience did wonders during his working days, which were +regularly parcelled out between study and recreation, and utilised and +economised in the very highest possible degree. Early to bed and early +to rise, wandering unseen among the lanes and paths, or riding slowly on +his favourite black cob, the great naturalist passed forty years happily +and usefully at Down, where all the village knew and loved him. A man of +singular simplicity and largeness of heart, Charles Darwin never really +learnt to know his own greatness. And that charming innocence and +ignorance of his real value made the value itself all the greater. His +moral qualities, indeed, were no less admirable and unique in their way +than his intellectual faculties. To that charming candour and delightful +unostentatiousness which everybody must have noticed in his published +writings, he united in private life a kindliness of disposition, a width +of sympathy, and a ready generosity which made him as much beloved by +his friends as he was admired and respected by all Europe. The very +servants who came beneath his roof stopped there for the most part +during their whole lifetime. In his earlier years at Down, the quiet +Kentish home was constantly enlivened by the visits of men like Lyell, +Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and Wollaston. During his later days, it was +the Mecca of a world-wide scientific and philosophic pilgrimage, where +all the greatest men our age has produced sought at times the rare +honour of sitting before the face of the immortal master. But to the +very last Darwin himself never seemed to discover that he was anything +more than just an average man of science among his natural peers. + +Shortly after Darwin went to Down he began one long and memorable +experiment, which in itself casts a flood of light upon his patient and +painstaking method of inquiry. Two years before, he had read at the +Geological Society a paper on the 'Formation of Mould,' which more than +thirty years later he expanded into his famous treatise on the 'Action +of Earthworms.' His uncle and father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, suggested +to him that the apparent sinking of stones on the surface might really +be due to earthworm castings. So, as soon as he had some land of his own +to experiment upon, he began, in 1842, to spread broken chalk over a +field at Down, in which, twenty-nine years later, in 1871, a trench was +dug to test the results. What other naturalist ever waited so long and +so patiently to discover the upshot of a single experiment? Is it +wonderful that a man who worked like that should succeed, not by faith +but by logical power, in removing mountains? + +Unfortunately, we do not know the exact date when Darwin first read +Malthus. But that the perusal of that remarkable book formed a crisis +and turning-point in his mental development we know from his own +distinct statement in a letter to Haeckel, prefixed to the brilliant +German evolutionist's 'History of Creation.' 'It seemed to me probable,' +says Darwin, speaking of his own early development, 'that allied species +were descended from a common ancestor. But during several years I could +not conceive how each form could have been modified so as to become +admirably adapted to its place in nature. I began therefore to study +domesticated animals and cultivated plants, and after a time perceived +that man's power of selecting and breeding from certain individuals was +the most powerful of all means in the production of new races. Having +attended to the habits of animals and their relations to the surrounding +conditions, I was able to realise the severe struggle for existence to +which all organisms are subjected; and my geological observations had +allowed me to appreciate to a certain extent the duration of past +geological periods. With my mind thus prepared I fortunately happened to +read Malthus's "Essay on Population" and the idea of natural selection +through the struggle for existence at once occurred to me. Of all the +subordinate points in the theory, the last which I understood was the +cause of the tendency in the descendants from a common progenitor to +diverge in character.' + +It is impossible, indeed, to overrate the importance of Malthus, viewed +as a schoolmaster to bring men to Darwin, and to bring Darwin himself to +the truth. Without the 'Essay on the Principle of Population' it is +quite conceivable that we should never have had the 'Origin of Species' +or the 'Descent of Man.' + +At the same time, Darwin had not been idle in other departments of +scientific work. Side by side with his collections for his final effort +he had been busy on his valuable treatise upon Coral Reefs, in which he +proved, mainly from his own observations on the Keeling archipelago, +that atolls owe their origin to a subsidence of the supporting +ocean-floor, the rate of upward growth of the reefs keeping pace on the +whole with the gradual depression of the sea-bottom. 'No more admirable +example of scientific method,' says Professor Geikie forty years later, +'was ever given to the world; and even if he had written nothing else, +this treatise alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of +investigators of nature.' But, from our present psychological and +historical point of view, as a moment in the development of Darwin's +influence, and therefore of the evolutionary impulse in general, it +possesses a still greater and more profound importance, because the work +in which the theory is unfolded forms a perfect masterpiece of thorough +and comprehensive inductive method, and gained for its author a +well-deserved reputation as a sound and sober scientific inquirer. The +acquisition of such a reputation, afterwards increased by the +publication of the monograph on the Family Cirripedia (in 1851), proved +of immense use to Charles Darwin in the fierce battle which was to rage +around the unconscious body of the 'Origin of Species.' To be 'sound' is +everywhere of incalculable value; to have approved oneself to the slow +and cautious intelligence of the Philistine classes is a mighty spear +and shield for a strong man; but in England, and above all in scientific +England, it is absolutely indispensable to the thinker who would +accomplish any great revolution. Soundness is to the world of science +what respectability is to the world of business--the _sine qua non_ for +successfully gaining even a hearing from established personages. + +To read the book on Coral Reefs is indeed to take a lesson of the +deepest value in applied inductive canons. Every fact is duly +marshalled: every conclusion is drawn by the truest and most legitimate +process from careful observation or crucial experiment. Bit by bit, +Darwin shows most admirably that, through gradual submergence, fringing +reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and these again into atolls or +lagoon islands; and incidentally he throws a vivid light on the slow +secular movements upward or downward for ever taking place in the +world's crust. But the value of the work as a geological record, great +as it is, is as nothing compared with its value as a training exercise +in inductive logic. Darwin was now learning by experience how to use his +own immense powers. + +Meanwhile, the environment too had been gradually moving. In 1832, the +year after young Darwin set out upon his cruise, Lyell published the +first edition of his 'Principles of Geology,' establishing once for all +the uniformitarian concept of that branch of science. In 1836, the year +when he returned, Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora of North America,' had +accepted within certain cramping limits the idea that 'all species might +once have been varieties, and that many varieties are gradually becoming +species by assuming constant and peculiar characters.' Haldeman in +Boston, and Grant at University College, London, were teaching from +their professorial chairs the self-same novel and revolutionary +doctrine. At last, in 1844, Robert Chambers published anonymously his +famous and much-debated 'Vestiges of Creation,' which brought down the +question of evolution _versus_ creation from the senate of _savants_ to +the arena of the mere general public, and set up at once a universal +fever of inquiry into the mysterious question of the origin of species. +Chambers himself was a man rather of general knowledge and some native +philosophical insight than of any marked scientific accuracy or depth. +His work in its original form displayed comparatively little +acquaintance with the vast ground-work of the question at +issue--zoological, botanical, geological, and so forth--and in Charles +Darwin's own opinion showed 'a great want of scientific caution.' But +its graphic style, its vivid picturesqueness, and to the world at large +the startling novelty of its brilliant and piquant suggestions, made it +burst at once into an unwonted popularity for a work of so distinctly +philosophical a character. In nine years it leaped rapidly through no +less than ten successive editions, and remained until the publication of +the 'Origin of Species' the chief authoritative exponent in England of +the still struggling evolutionary principle. + +The 'Vestiges of Creation' may be succinctly described as Lamarck and +water, the watery element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion +(_more Scotico_) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the +physical universe. Chambers himself, in his latest edition (before the +book was finally killed by the advent of Darwinism), thus briefly +describes his main concepts: 'The several series of animated beings, +from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, +under the providence of God, the results, _first_, of an impulse which +has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite +times, by generation, through grades of organisation, terminating in the +highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, +and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to +be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; _second_, of +another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course +of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external +circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric +agencies.' Now it is clear at once that these two supposed 'impulses' +are really quite miraculous in their essence. They do not help us at all +to a distinct physical and realisable conception of any natural agency +whereby species became differentiated one from the other. They lay the +whole burden of species-making upon a single primordial supernatural +impetus, imparted to the first living germ by the will of the Creator, +and acting ever since continuously it is true, but none the less +miraculously for all that. For many creations Chambers substitutes one +single long creative nisus: where Darwin saw natural selection, his +Scotch predecessor saw a _deus ex machina_, helping on the course of +organic development by a constant but unseen interference from above. He +supposed evolution to be predetermined by some intrinsic and externally +implanted proclivity. In short, Chambers's theory is Lamarck's +theologised, and spoilt in the process. + +The book had nevertheless a most prodigious and perfectly unprecedented +success. The secret of its authorship was keenly debated and jealously +kept. The most ridiculous surmises as to its anonymous origin were +everywhere afloat. Some attributed it to Thackeray, and some to Prince +Albert, some to Lyell, some to Sir John Herschel, and some to Charles +Darwin himself. Obscurantists thought it a wicked book; 'intellectual' +people thought it an advanced book. As a matter of fact it was neither +the one nor the other. It was just a pale and colourless transcript of +the old familiar teleological Lamarckism. Yet it did good in its +generation. The public at large were induced by its ephemeral vogue to +interest themselves in a question to which they had never previously +given even a passing thought, though more practised biologists of +evolutionary tendencies were grieved at heart that evolution should +first have been popularly presented to the English world under so +unscientific, garbled, and mutilated a form. From the philosophic side, +Herbert Spencer found 'this ascription of organic evolution to some +aptitude naturally possessed by organisms or miraculously imposed upon +them' to be 'one of those explanations which explain nothing--a shaping +of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge. The cause assigned,' he +says, 'is not a true cause--not a cause assimilable to known causes--not +a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous effects. It is a +cause unrepresentable in thought: one of those illegitimate symbolic +conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real +conception.' From the scientific side, on the other hand, Darwin felt +sadly the inaccuracy and want of profound technical knowledge everywhere +displayed by the anonymous author. These things might naturally cause +the enemy to blaspheme. No worse calamity, indeed, can happen to a +great truth than for its defence to be intrusted to inefficient hands. +Nevertheless, long after, in the 'Origin of Species,' the great +naturalist wrote with generous appreciation of the 'Vestiges of +Creation,' 'In my own opinion it has done excellent service in this +country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and +in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.' + +Still Darwin gave no sign. A flaccid, cartilaginous, unphilosophic +evolutionism had full possession of the field for the moment, and +claimed, as it were, to be the genuine representative of the young and +vigorous biological creed, while he himself was in truth the real heir +to all the honours of the situation. He was in possession of the +master-key which alone could unlock the bars that opposed the progress +of evolution, and still he waited. He could afford to wait. He was +diligently collecting, amassing, investigating; eagerly reading every +new systematic work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, +every record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract from the +dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of implicit value might swell +the definite co-ordinated series of notes in his own commonplace books +for the now distinctly contemplated 'Origin of Species.' His way was to +make all sure behind him, to summon up all his facts in irresistible +array, and never to set out upon a public progress until he was secure +against all possible attacks of the ever-watchful and alert enemy in the +rear. Few men would have had strength of mind enough to resist the +temptation offered by the publication of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and +the extraordinary success attained by so flabby a presentation of the +evolutionary case: Darwin resisted it, and he did wisely. + +We may, however, take it for granted, I doubt not, that it was the +appearance and success of Chambers's invertebrate book which induced +Darwin, in 1844 (the year of its publication), to enlarge his short +notes 'into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to him +probable.' This sketch he showed to Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, no +doubt as a precaution to ensure his own claim of priority against any +future possible competitor. And having thus eased his mind for the +moment, he continued to observe, to read, to devour 'Transactions,' to +collate instances, with indefatigable persistence for fifteen years +longer. If any man mentally measures out fifteen years of his own life, +and bethinks him of how long a space it seems when thus deliberately +pictured, he will be able to realise a little more definitely--but only +a little--how profound was the patience, the self-denial, the +single-mindedness of Darwin's intense search after the ultimate truths +of natural science. + +What was the sketch that he thus committed to paper in 1844, and +submitted to the judgment of his friend Hooker? It was the germ of the +theory of natural selection. According to that theory, organic +development is due to the survival of the fittest among innumerable +variations, good, bad, and indifferent, from one or more parent stocks. +Darwin's reading of Malthus had suggested to him (apparently as early as +the date of publication of the 'Naturalist's Journal') the idea that +every species of plant and animal must always be producing a far greater +number of seeds, eggs, germs, or young offspring than could possibly be +needed for the maintenance of the average number of the species. Of +these young, by far the greater number must always perish from +generation to generation, for want of space, of food, of air, of raw +material. The survivors in each brood must be those naturally best +adapted for survival. The many would be eaten, starved, overrun, or +crowded out; the few that survive would be those that possessed any +special means of defence against aggressors, any special advantage for +escaping starvation, any special protection against overrunning or +overcrowding foes. Animals and plants, Darwin found on inquiry and +investigation, tended to vary under diverse circumstances from the +parent or parents that originally produced them. These variations were +usually infinitesimal in amount, but sometimes more considerable or even +striking. If any particular variation tended in any way to preserve the +life of the creatures that exhibited it, beyond the average of their +like competitors, that variation would in the long run survive, and the +individuals that possessed it, being thus favoured in the struggle for +existence, would replace the less adapted form from which they sprang. +Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of +the calculus of population to the wide facts of universal life. + +In one sense, indeed, it may be said that, given Malthus on the one hand +and the Lamarckian evolutionism on the other, some great man somewhere +must sooner or later, almost of necessity, have combined the two, and +hit out the doctrine of natural selection as we actually know it. Quite +so; but then the point is just this: Darwin _was_ the great man in +question; he _did_ the work which in the very essence of things some +such great man was naturally and inevitably predestined to do. You can +always easily manage to get on without any particular great man, +provided, of course, you have ready to hand another equally able great +man by whom to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how many +ordinary naturalists possess the width of mind and universality of +interest which would prompt them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest a politico-economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus? How +many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to perceive the +ensuing biological implications? How many, having seen them, have the +skill and the patience to work up the infinite chaos of botanical and +zoological detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the 'Origin +of Species'? Merely to have caught at the grand idea is in itself no +small achievement; others did so and deserve all honour for their +insight; but to flesh it out with all the minute care and conclusive +force of Darwin's masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler +monument of human endeavour. + +During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, however, Darwin's pen was by +no means idle. In the first-named year he published his 'Geological +Observations on Volcanic Islands'--part of the 'Beagle' exploration +series; in 1846 he followed this up by his 'Geological Observations on +South America;' in 1851 he gave to the world his monograph on 'Recent +Barnacles;' and in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same +family. But all these works of restricted interest remained always +subsidiary to the one great central task of his entire lifetime, the +preparation of his projected volume on the Origin of Species. + +All through the middle decades of the century Darwin continued to labour +at his vast accumulation of illustrative facts; and side by side with +his continuous toil, outside opinion kept paving the way for the final +acceptance of his lucid ideas. The public was buying and reading all the +time its ten editions of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It was slowly +digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic +theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a +past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively +established. It was getting accustomed to statements like those of the +younger St. Hilaire, in 1850, that specific characters may be modified +by changes in the environing conditions, and that the modifications thus +produced may often be of generic value--may make a difference so great +that we must regard the product not merely as belonging to a distinct +species, but even to a distinct genus or higher kind. In 1852 Herbert +Spencer published in the 'Leader' his remarkable essay, contrasting the +theories of creation and evolution, as applied to organic beings, with +all the biting force of his profound intelligence; and in 1855, the same +encyclopaedic philosopher put forth the first rough sketch of his +'Principles of Psychology,' in which he took the lead in treating the +phenomena of mind from the point of view of gradual development. In that +extraordinary work, the philosopher of evolution traced the origin of +all mental powers and faculties by slow gradations from the very +simplest subjective elements. The 'Principles of Psychology' preceded +the 'Origin of Species' by nearly five years; the first collected volume +of Mr. Spencer's essays preceded Darwin's work by some twelve months. +Baden-Powell's essay on the 'Philosophy of Creation' (much debated and +condemned in ecclesiastical circles), and Professor Owen's somewhat +contradictory utterances on the nature of types and archetypal ideas, +also helped to keep alive interest in the problem of origins up to the +very moment of the final appearance of Darwin's great and splendid +solution. + +It is interesting during these intermediate years to watch from time to +time the occasional side-hints of Darwin's activity and of the interest +it aroused among his scientific contemporaries. In 1854, for example, +Sir Charles Lyell notes, after an evening at Darwin's, how Sir Joseph +Hooker astonished him with an account of that strange orchid, Catasetum, +which bears three totally distinct kinds of flowers on the same plant; +'It will figure,' he says, 'in C. Darwin's book on species, with many +other "ugly facts," as Hooker, clinging like me to the orthodox faith, +calls these and other abnormal vagaries.' On a similar occasion, a +little later, Lyell asks, after meeting 'Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston +at Darwin's,' 'After all, did we not come from an ourang?' Last of all, +in 1857, Darwin himself writes an anticipatory letter to his American +friend, Asa Gray, in which he mentions 'six points'--the cardinal +conceptions of the 'Origin of Species.' His book is now fairly under +weigh; he speaks of it himself to acquaintance and correspondents as an +acknowledged project. + +Events were growing ripe for the birth. A lucky accident precipitated +its parturition in the course of the year 1858. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' + + +The accident came in this wise. + +Alfred Russel Wallace, a young Welsh biologist, went out at twenty-four, +in 1848, to the Amazons River, in company with Bates (the author of 'The +Naturalist on the Amazons'), to collect birds and butterflies, and to +study tropical life in the richest region of equatorial America. Like +all other higher zoologists of their time, the two young explorers were +deeply interested in the profound questions of origin and metamorphosis, +and of geographical distribution, and in the letters that passed between +them before they started they avowed to one another that the object of +their quest was a solution of the pressing biological enigma of creation +or evolution. Starting with fresh hopes and a few pounds in pocket, on +an old, worn-out, and unseaworthy slave-trader, they often discussed +these deep problems of life and nature together upon the Sargasso sea, +or among the palms and lianas of the Brazilian woodlands. The air was +thick with whiffs and foretastes of evolutionism, and the two budding +naturalists of the Amazons expedition had inhaled them eagerly with +every breath. They saw among the mimicking organisms of that equatorial +zone strange puzzles to engage their deepest attention; they recognised +in the veins and spots that diversified the filmy membranes of insects' +wings the hieroglyphs of nature, writing as on a tablet for them to +decipher the story of the slow modification of species. In 1852--the +year when Herbert Spencer in England published his essay on the +'Development Hypothesis,' and when Naudin in France put forth his bold +and able paper on the 'Origin of Species'--Wallace once more returned to +Europe, and gave to the world his interesting 'Travels on the Amazons +and the Rio Negro.' Two years later the indefatigable traveller set out +a second time on a voyage of tropical exploration, among the islands of +the Malay archipelago, and for eight years he wandered about in Malay +huts and remote islets, gathering in solitude and isolation the enormous +store of minute facts which he afterwards lavished with so prodigal a +hand upon 'Tropical Nature,' and the 'Geographical Distribution of +Animals.' + +While Wallace was still at Amboyna, he sent home in 1858 a striking +memoir, addressed to Darwin, with a request that he would forward it to +Sir Charles Lyell, for presentation to the Linnean Society. Darwin +opened and read his brother naturalist's paper, and found to his +surprise that it contained his own theory of natural selection, not +worked out in detail, as he himself was working it out, but still +complete in spirit and essence, with no important portion of the central +idea lacking to its full rotundity of conception. A jealous man would +have thrown obstacles in the way of publication; but both Darwin and +Wallace were born superior to the meannesses of jealousy. The elder +naturalist commended his young rival's paper at once to Sir Charles +Lyell, who sent it on immediately to the Linnean Society. + +But Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, both of whom knew of +Darwin's work, thought it advisable that he should publish, in the +'Journal' of the Society, a few extracts from his own manuscripts, side +by side with Wallace's paper. Darwin, therefore, selected some essential +passages for the purpose from his own long-gathered and voluminous +notes, and the two contributions were read together before the Society +on July the 1st, 1858. That double communication marks the date of birth +of modern evolutionism. It is to the eternal credit of both thinkers +that each accepted his own true position with regard to the great +discovery in perfect sincerity. The elder naturalist never strove for a +moment to press his own claim to priority against the younger: the +younger, with singular generosity and courtesy, waived his own claim to +divide the honours of discovery in favour of the elder. Not one word +save words of fraternal admiration and cordial appreciation ever passed +the lips of either with regard to the other. + +The distinctive notion of natural selection, indeed, like all true and +fruitful ideas, had more than once flashed for a moment across the +penetrating mind of more than one independent investigator. As early as +1813, Dr. Wells, the famous author of the theory of dew, applied that +particular conception to the single case of the production of special +races among mankind. + +'Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first +few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa,' he +wrote, 'some one would be better fitted than the others to bear the +diseases of the country. This race would consequently multiply, while +the others would decrease; not only from their inability to sustain the +attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending with their +more vigorous neighbours.... The same disposition to form varieties +still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time +occur; and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this +would at last become the most prevalent, if not the only race in the +country.' Here we have not merely the radical concept of natural +selection, but also the subordinate idea of its exertion upon what +Darwin calls 'spontaneous variations.' What is wanting in the paper is +the application of the faintly descried law to the facts and +circumstances of general biology: Wells saw only a particular instance, +where Darwin and Wallace more vividly perceived a universal principle. +Again, in 1831, Mr. Patrick Matthew in that singular appendix to his +book on naval timber actually enunciates the same idea, applied this +time to the whole of nature, in words sometimes almost identical with +Darwin's own. 'As nature in all her modifications of life,' says this +unconscious discoverer, '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.... The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised 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 thousandfold) 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.' Of the ideas expressed in these paragraphs, and +others which preceded them, Darwin himself rightly observes, 'He gives +precisely the same view on the origin of species as that propounded by +Mr. Wallace and myself. He clearly saw the full force of the principle +of natural selection.' + +In 1852, once more, so eminent and confirmed an evolutionist as Mr. +Herbert Spencer himself had hit upon a glimpse of the same great truth, +strange to say without perceiving the width and scope of its +implications. 'All mankind,' he wrote in that year in an essay on +population in the 'Westminster Review,' 'in turn subject themselves more +or less to the discipline described; they either may or may not advance +under it; but, in the nature of things, only those who _do_ advance +under it eventually survive. For, necessarily, families and races whom +this increasing difficulty of getting a living which excess of fertility +entails does not stimulate to improvements in production.... are on the +high road to extinction; and must ultimately be supplanted by those whom +the pressure does so stimulate.... And here, indeed, without further +illustration, it will be seen that premature death, under all its forms, +and from all its causes, cannot fail to work in the same direction. For +as those prematurely carried off must, in the average of cases, be those +in whom the power of self-preservation is the least, it unavoidably +follows that those left behind to continue the race must be those in +whom the power of self-preservation is the greatest, must be the select +of their generation.' In this striking pre-Darwinian passage we have a +partial perception of what Mr. Spencer afterwards described as the +survival of the fittest; but, as our great philosopher himself remarks, +it 'shows how near one may be to a great generalisation without seeing +it.' For not only does Mr. Spencer, like Wells before him, limit the +application of the principle to the case of humanity; but, unlike Wells, +he overlooks the all-important factor of spontaneous variation, and the +power of natural selection, acting upon such, to produce specific and +generic divergences of structure. In short, in his own words, the +paragraph 'contains merely a passing recognition of the selective +process, and indicates no suspicion of the enormous range of its +effects, or of the conditions under which a large part of its effects +are produced.' On the other hand, it must be noted that both Spencer and +Matthew, like Darwin himself, based their ideas largely upon the +Malthusian principle, and thus held the two true keys of the situation +fairly within their unconscious hands. + +Frankly to recognise these various foreshadowings of the distinctive +Darwinian theory of natural selection is not in any way to undermine the +foundations of Charles Darwin's own real and exceptional greatness. On +the contrary, the mere fact that his views were so far anticipated by +Wells, Matthew, Spencer, and others, and were simultaneously arrived at +across half the globe by the independent intellect of Alfred Russel +Wallace, is in itself the very best proof and finest criterion of +Charles Darwin's genuine apostleship. No truly grand and fruitful idea +was ever yet the sole property of a single originator. Great +discoveries, says an acute critic, must always be concerned with some +problem of the time which many of the world's foremost minds are just +then cudgelling their active brains about. It was so with the discovery +of the differential calculus, and of the planet Neptune; with the +interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and of the cuneiform +inscriptions; with the undulatory theory of light, with the mechanical +equivalent of heat, with the doctrine of the correlation and +conservation of energies, with the invention of the steam engine, the +locomotive, the telegraph and the telephone; with the nebular +hypothesis, and with spectrum analysis. It was so, too, with the +evolutionary movement. The fertile upturning of virgin sod in the +biological field which produced Darwin's forerunners, as regards the +idea of descent with modification, in the persons of Buffon, Lamarck, +and Erasmus Darwin, necessarily produced a little later, under the fresh +impetus of the Malthusian conception, his forerunners or coadjutors, as +regards the idea of natural selection, in the persons of Wells, Matthew, +and Wallace. It was Darwin's task to recognise the universal, where +Wells and Spencer had seen only the particular; to build up a vast and +irresistible inductive system, where Matthew and Wallace had but thrown +out a pregnant hint of wonderful _a priori_ interest and suggestiveness. +It is one thing to draw out the idea of a campaign, another thing to +carry it to a successful conclusion; one thing rudely to sketch a +ground-plan, another thing finally to pile aloft to the sky the front of +an august and imposing fabric. + +As soon as the papers at the Linnean had been read and printed, Darwin +set to work in real earnest to bring out the first instalment of his +great work. That instalment was the 'Origin of Species.' The first +edition was ready for the public on November the 24th, 1859. + +In his own mind Darwin regarded that immortal work merely in the light +of an abstract of his projected volumes. So immense were his collections +and so voluminous his notes that the 'Origin of Species' itself seemed +to him like a mere small portion of the contemplated publication. And +indeed he did ultimately work out several other portions of his original +plan in his detailed treatises on the Variation of Animals and Plants +under Domestication, on the Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation, and +on the Descent of Man and Sexual Selection. But the immense and +unexpected vogue of his first volume, the almost immediate revolution +which it caused in biological and general opinion, and the all but +universal adhesion to his views of all the greatest and most rising +naturalists, to a great extent saved him the trouble of carrying out in +full the task he had originally contemplated as necessary. Younger and +less occupied labourers took part of the work off their leader's hands; +the great chief was left to prosecute his special researches in some +special lines, and was relieved from the necessity of further proving in +minuter detail what he had already proved with sufficient cogency to +convince all but the wilfully blind or the hopelessly stupid. + +The extraordinary and unprecedented success of the 'Origin of Species' +is the truest test of the advance it made upon all previous evolutionary +theorising. Those who had never been convinced before were now convinced +by sheer force of reasoning; those who believed and those who wavered +had their faith confirmed into something like the reposeful calm of +absolute certitude. + +Let us consider, therefore, what exactly were the additions which +Charles Darwin offered in his epoch-making work to the pre-existing +conceptions of evolutionists. + +In 1852, seven years before the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, Mr. +Herbert Spencer wrote as follows in an essay in the 'Leader' on creation +and evolution. The expressions of so profound and philosophical a +biologist may be regarded as the high-water mark of evolutionary +thinking up to the date of the appearance of Wallace and Darwin's +theory:-- + +'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 +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 admirable passage, written seven years before the publication of +the 'Origin of Species,' contains explicitly almost every idea that +ordinary people, not specially biological in their interests, now +associate with the name of Darwin. That is to say, it contains, in a +very philosophical and abstract form, the theory of 'descent with +modification' _without_ the distinctive Darwinian adjunct of 'natural +selection' or 'survival of the fittest.' Yet it was just that particular +lever, dexterously applied, and carefully weighted with the whole weight +of his endlessly accumulated inductive instances, that finally enabled +our modern Archimedes in so short a time to move the world. The public, +that was deaf to the high philosophy of Herbert Spencer, listened at +once to the practical wisdom of Charles Darwin. They did not care at all +for the _a priori_ proof, but they believed forthwith as soon as a +cautious and careful investigator laid bare before their eyes in minute +detail the _modus operandi_ of nature herself. + +The main argument of Darwin's chief work runs somewhat after the +following fashion[2]:-- + +Variation, to a greater or less degree, is a common and well-known fact +in nature. More especially, animals and plants under domestication tend +to vary from one another far more than do the individuals of any one +species in the wild state. Rabbits in a warren are all alike in shape, +size, colour, and features: rabbits in a hutch vary indefinitely in the +hue of their fur, the length of their ears, the character of their coat, +and half a dozen other minor particulars, well known to the observant +souls of boys and fanciers. This great variability, though partly +perhaps referable to excess of food, is probably due on the whole to +their having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and +somewhat different from, those to which the parent species is commonly +exposed in a state of nature. In other words, variability is one result +of altered and more varied surrounding circumstances. + +Again, this variability is usually indefinite. You cannot say what +direction it will take, or to what particular results it is likely in +any special instance to lead. Marked differences sometimes occur even +between the young of the same litter, or between the seedlings sown from +the same capsule. As a rule, the variations exhibit themselves in +connection with sexual reproduction; but sometimes, as in the case of +'sporting plants,' a new bud suddenly produces leaves or flowers of a +different character from the rest of those on the self-same stem, thus +showing that the tendency to vary is inherent, as it were, in the +organism itself. Upon this fundamental fact of the existence in nature +of numerous and indefinite variations, the whole theory of natural +selection is ultimately built up. In illustrating by example the immense +variability of domesticated creatures, Darwin lays great stress upon the +case of pigeons, with which he was familiar from his long experience as +a breeder and fancier in his own home at Down. Naturalists are almost +universally of opinion that all the breeds of domestic pigeons, from the +carrier to the tumbler, from the runt to the fantail, are alike +descended from the wild rock pigeon of the European coasts. The immense +amount of variation which this original species has undergone in +domestication may be seen by comparing the numberless breeds of pigeon +now exhibited at all our poultry shows with one another. + +But variation gives us only half the elements of the ultimate problem, +even in the case of domestic kinds. For the other half, we must have +recourse to human selection, which, by picking out for seed or breeding +purposes certain specially favoured varieties, has produced at last all +the purposive or intentional diversity between the different existing +stocks or breeds. In these artificially produced domestic races we see +everywhere special adaptations to man's particular use or fancy. The +dray-horse has been fashioned for purposes of strength and +sure-footedness in draught, the race-horse for purposes of fleetness in +running. In the fox-hound, man has encouraged the special properties +that tend to produce a good day's hunting; in the sheepdog, those that +make for the better maintenance and safety of a herd. The cauliflower is +a cabbage, with specialised and somewhat abortive flower-heads; the +fuller's teasel is a sport of the wild form, with curved hooks specially +adapted by a freak of nature for the teasing of wool. So in every case +man, by deliberately picking out for breeding or seeding purposes the +accidental variations which happened best to suit his own needs, has +succeeded at last in producing races admirably fitted in the minutest +particulars for the special functions to which they are applied. There +appears indeed to be hardly any limit to the almost infinite plasticity +and modifiability of domestic animals. 'It would seem,' said a great +sheep-breeder, speaking of sheep, 'as if farmers had chalked out upon a +wall a form perfect in itself, and then proceeded to give it existence.' + +Now, what is thus true within narrow limits, and in a short space of +time about the deliberate action of man, Darwin showed to be also true +within wider limits and spread over longer geological epochs about the +unconscious action of nature. And herein consisted his great advance +upon the earlier evolutionism of Lamarck, Goethe, and Erasmus Darwin. +For while these instinctive pioneers of the evolutionary spirit saw +clearly that animals and plants betrayed signs of common descent from +one or a few original ancestors, they did not see what was the mechanism +by which such organisms had been differentiated into so many distinct +genera and species. They caught, indeed, at the analogy of variation +under domestication and in the wild state, but they missed the subtler +and deeper analogy between human and natural selection. Now, variation +alone would give us a world consisting not of definite kinds fairly well +demarcated one from the other, but of innumerable unclassified and +unorganisable individuals, all shading off indefinitely one into the +other, and incapable of being reduced by human ingenuity to any orderly +hierarchical system. Furthermore, it would give us creatures without +special adaptation of any kind to the peculiar circumstances of their +own environment. To account for adaptation, for the almost perfect +fitness of every plant and every animal to its position in life, for the +existence (in other words) of definitely correlated parts and organs, we +must call in the aid of survival of the fittest. Without that potent +selective agent, our conception of the becoming of life is a mere chaos; +order and organisation are utterly inexplicable save by the brilliant +illuminating ray of the Darwinian principle. That is why Darwin +destroyed at one blow the specious arguments of the early teleologists; +he showed that where Chambers and even Erasmus Darwin had seen the +working of a final cause, we ought rather to recognise the working of an +efficient cause, whose outcome necessarily but fallaciously simulates +the supposed features of an _a priori_ finality. + +From art, then, Darwin harks back once more to nature. He proceeds to +show that variability occurs among all wild plants and animals, though +not so frequently under ordinary circumstances as in the case of +domesticated species. Individual differences everywhere occur between +plant and plant, between animal and animal. Sometimes these differences +are so very numerous that it is impossible to divide the individuals at +all into well-marked kinds; for example, among British wild-roses, +brambles, hawkweeds and epilobes, with a few other very variable +families, Babington makes as many as 251 distinct species, where +Bentham gives only 112--a margin of 139 doubtful forms of shadowy +indefiniteness. Varieties, in fact, are always arising, and dominant +species in particular always tend to vary most in every direction. The +reason why variation is not so marked in the wild state as under +domestication is of course because the conditions are there less +diverse; but where the conditions of wild things are most diverse, as in +the case of dominant kinds, which range over a wide space of country or +of ocean, abundant individual variations habitually occur. Local +varieties thus produced are regarded by Darwin as incipient species: +they are the raw material on which natural selection gradually exerts +itself in the struggle for existence. + +Granting individual variability, then, how do species arise in nature? +And how are all the exquisite adaptations of part to whole, and of whole +to environment, gradually initiated, improved, and perfected? + +Here Malthus and the struggle for life come in to help us. + +For the world is perpetually over-populated. It is not, as many good +people fearfully imagine, on a half-comprehension of the Malthusian +principle, shortly going to be over-populated; it is now, it has always +been, and it will always be, pressed close up to the utmost possible +limit of population. Reproduction is everywhere and in all species for +ever outrunning means of subsistence; and starvation or competition is +for ever keeping down the number of the offspring to the level of the +average or normal supply of raw material. A single red campion produces +in a year three thousand seeds; but there are not this year three +thousand times as many red campions as there were last summer, nor will +there be three thousand times as many more in the succeeding season. The +roe of a cod contains sometimes nearly ten million eggs; but supposing +each of these produced a young fish which arrived at maturity, the whole +sea would immediately become a solid mass of closely packed codfish. +Linnaeus reckoned that if an annual plant had two seeds, each of which +produced two seedlings in the succeeding season, and so on continually, +in twenty years their progeny would amount to a million plants. A +struggle for existence necessarily results from this universal tendency +of animals and plants to increase faster than the means of subsistence, +whether those means be food, as in the first case, or carbonic acid, +water, and sunshine as in the second. Animals are all perpetually +battling with one another for the food-supply of the moment; plants are +perpetually battling with one another for their share of the soil, the +rainfall, and the sunshine. + +The case of the plant is a very important one to understand in this +connection, because it is probable that most people greatly +misunderstand the biological meaning of the phrase 'struggle for +existence.' They imagine that the struggle is chiefly conducted between +different species, whereas in reality it is chiefly conducted between +members of the same species. It is not so much the battle between the +tiger and the antelope, between the wolf and the bison, between the +snake and the bird, that ultimately results in natural selection or +survival of the fittest, as the struggle between tiger and tiger, +between bison and bison, between snake and snake, between antelope and +antelope. A human analogy may help to make this difficult principle a +little clearer. The baker does not fear the competition of the butcher +in the struggle for life: it is the competition of the other bakers that +sometimes inexorably crushes him out of existence. The lawyer does not +press hard upon the doctor, nor the architect upon the journeyman +painter. A war in the Soudan or in South Africa is far less fatal to the +workman in our great towns than the ceaseless competition of his +fellow-workmen. It is not the soldier that kills the artisan, but the +number of other artisans who undersell him and crowd to fill up every +vacant position. In this way the great enemies of the individual +herbivore are not the carnivores, but the other herbivores. The lion +eats the antelope, to be sure; but the real struggle lies between lion +and lion for a fair share of meat, or between antelope and antelope for +a fair share of pasturage. _Homo homini lupus_, says the old proverb, +and so, we may add, in a wider sense, _lupus lupo lupus_, also. Of +course, the carnivore plays a great part in the selective process; but +he is the selector only; the real competition is between the selected. +Now, let us take the case of the plant. A thousand seedlings occupy the +space where few alone can ultimately grow; and between these seedlings +the struggle is fierce, the strongest and best adapted ultimately +surviving. To take Darwin's own example, the mistletoe, which is a +parasite, cannot truly be said to struggle with the apple tree on which +it fastens; for if too many parasites cover a tree, it perishes, and so +they kill themselves as well as their host, all alike dying together. +But several seedling mistletoes growing together on the same branch may +fairly be said to struggle with one another for light and air; and since +mistletoe seeds are disseminated by birds and dropped by them in the +angles of branches, the mistletoe may also be said to compete with other +berry-bearing bushes, like cornel and hawthorn, for the ministrations of +the fruit-eating birds. The struggle is fierce between allied kinds, and +fiercest of all between individual members of the same species. + +Owing to this constant struggle, variations, however slight, and from +whatever cause arising, if in any degree profitable to the individual +which presents them, will tend to the preservation of the particular +organism, and, being on the average inherited by its offspring, will +similarly tend to increase and multiply in the world at large. This is +the principle of natural selection or survival of the fittest--the great +principle which Darwin and Wallace added to the evolutionism of Lamarck +and his successors. + +Let us take a single concrete example. In the desert, with its +monotonous sandy colouring, a black insect or a white insect, still more +a red insect or a blue insect, would be immediately detected and +promptly devoured by its natural enemies, the birds and lizards. But any +greyish or yellowish insects would be less likely to attract attention +at first sight, and would be overlooked as long as there were any more +conspicuous individuals of their own kind about for the birds and +lizards to feed on at their leisure. Hence, in a very short time, the +desert would be depopulated of all but the greyest and yellowest +insects; and among these the birds would pick out those which differed +most markedly in hue or shade from the sand around them. But those +which happened to vary most in the direction of a sandy or spotty colour +would be most likely to survive, and to become the parents of future +generations. Thus, in the course of long ages, all the insects which +inhabit deserts have become sand-coloured; because the least sandy were +perpetually picked out for destruction by their ever-watchful foes, +while the most sandy escaped and multiplied and replenished the earth +with their own likes. + +Conversely, the birds and the lizards again would probably begin by +being black, and white, and blue, and green, like most other birds and +lizards in the world generally. But the insect would have ample warning +of the near approach of such conspicuous self-advertising enemies, and +would avoid them accordingly whenever they appeared within range of his +limited vision, either by lying close, or by shamming death, or by +retreating precipitately to holes and crannies. Therefore, whatever +individual birds or lizards happened to vary most in the direction of +grey or sand-colour, and so to creep unobserved upon the unguarded +insects, would succeed best on the average in catching beetles or desert +grasshoppers. Hence, by the slow dying out of the more highly coloured +and distinctive insect-eaters, before the severe competition of the +greyest and sandiest, all the birds and lizards of the desert have +become at last as absolutely sand-coloured as the insects themselves. +Only the greyest insect could escape the bird; only the greyest bird, +_en revanche_, could surprise and devour the unwary insect. + +Sir Charles Lyell and the elder De Candolle had already seen the great +importance of the struggle for existence in the organic world, but +neither of them had observed the magnificent corollary of natural +selection, which flows from it almost as a mathematical necessity when +once suggested; for, given indefinite variability, and a geometrical, +rate of increase, it must needs follow that some varieties will be +better suited to the circumstances than others, and therefore that they +will survive on the average in increased proportions. A passage from one +of Lyell's early letters will show how near he too went to this great +luminous generalisation, and yet how utterly he missed the true +implications of his own vague and chaotic idea. He writes thus to Sir +John Herschel in 1836, while Darwin was still but homeward bound on the +voyage of the 'Beagle':-- + +'In regard to the origination of new species, I am very glad to find +that you think it probable that it may be carried on through the +intervention of intermediate causes.... An insect may be made in one of +its transformations to resemble a dead stick, or a leaf, or a lichen, or +a stone, so as to be somewhat less easily found by its enemies; or if +this would make it too strong, an occasional variety of the species may +have this advantage conferred on it; or if this would be still too much, +one sex of a certain variety. Probably there is scarcely a dash of +colour on the wing or body of which the choice would be quite arbitrary, +or which might not affect its duration for thousands of years.' + +Now, this comes in some ways perilously near to Darwin indeed; but in +the most important point of all it is wide apart from him as the pole is +from the equator. For Lyell thought of all this as a matter of external +teleological arrangement; he imagined a deliberate power from outside +settling it all by design beforehand, and granting to varieties or +species these special peculiarities in a manner that was at bottom +essentially supernatural, or in other words miraculous; whereas Darwin +thinks of it as the necessary result of the circumstances themselves, an +inevitable outcome of indefinite variability _plus_ the geometrical rate +of increase. Where Lyell sees a final cause, Darwin sees an efficient +cause; and this distinction is fundamental. It marks Darwin's position +as that of a great philosophical thinker, who can dash aside at once all +metaphysical cobwebs, and penetrate to the inmost recesses of things, +unswerved by the vain but specious allurements of obvious and misleading +teleological fallacies. + +Darwin also laid great stress on the immense complexity of the relations +which animals and plants bear to one another, in the struggle for +existence. For example, on the heathy uplands near Farnham in Surrey, +large spaces were at one time enclosed, on which, within ten years, +self-grown fir-trees from the wind-borne seeds of distant clumps sprang +up so thickly as actually to choke one another with their tiny branches. +All over the heaths outside, when Darwin looked for them, he could not +find a single fir, except the old clumps on the hilltops, from which the +seedlings themselves had originally sprung. But, on looking closer among +the stems of the heath, he descried a number of very tiny firs, which +had been perpetually browsed down by the cattle on the commons; and one +of them, with twenty-six rings of growth, had during many years +endeavoured unsuccessfully to raise its head above the surrounding +heather. Hence, as soon as the land was enclosed, and the cattle +excluded, it became covered at once with a thick growth of vigorous +young fir-trees. Yet who would ever have supposed beforehand that the +mere presence or absence of cattle would absolutely have determined the +very existence of the Scotch fir throughout a wide range of well-adapted +sandy English upland? + +To take another curious instance mentioned by Darwin. In Paraguay, +unlike the greater part of neighbouring South America, neither horses +nor cattle have ever run wild. This is due to the presence of a +parasitic fly, which lays its eggs in their bodies when first born, the +maggots killing off the tender young in their first stages. But if any +cause were to alter the number of the dangerous flies, then cattle and +wild horses would abound; and this would alter the vegetation, as Darwin +himself observed in other parts of America; and the change in the +vegetation would affect the insects; and that again the insectivorous +birds; and so on in ever widening circles of incalculable complexity. +Once more, to quote the most famous instance of all, the visits of +humble-bees are absolutely necessary in order to place the pollen in the +right position for setting the seeds of purple clover. Heads from which +Darwin excluded the bees produced no seeds at all. Hence, if humble-bees +became extinct in England, the red clover, too, would die off: and +indeed, in New Zealand, where there are no humble-bees, and where the +efforts to introduce them for this very purpose have been uniformly +unsuccessful, the clover never sets its seed at all, and fresh stocks +have to be imported at great expense every year from Europe. But the +number of humble-bees in any district largely depends upon the number of +field-mice, which destroy the combs and nests in immense quantities. +The number of mice, again, is greatly affected by the proportion of cats +in the neighbourhood; so that Colonel Newman, who paid much attention to +this subject, found humble-bees most numerous in the neighbourhood of +villages and small towns, an effect which he attributed to the abundance +of cats, and the consequent scarcity of the destructive field-mice. Yet +here once more, who could suppose beforehand that the degree to which +the purple clover set its seeds was in part determined by the number of +cats kept in houses in the surrounding district? + +One of Darwin's own favourite examples of the action of natural +selection, which he afterwards expanded largely in his work on Orchids +and in several other volumes, is that which relates to the origin of +conspicuous flowers. Many plants have a sweet excretion, which is +eliminated sometimes even by the leaves, as in the case of the common +laurel. This juice, though small in quantity, is eagerly sought and +eaten by insects. Now let us suppose that, in some variety of an +inconspicuous flower, similar nectar was produced in the neighbourhood +of the petals and stamens. Insects, in seeking the nectar, would dust +their bodies over with the pollen, and would carry it away with them to +the next flower visited. This would result in an act of crossing; and +that act, as Darwin afterwards abundantly proved in a separate and very +laborious treatise, gives rise to exceptionally vigorous seedlings, +which would therefore have the best chance of flourishing and surviving +in the struggle for existence. The flowers which produced most honey +would oftenest be visited, and oftenest crossed; so that they would +finally form a new species. The more brightly coloured among them, +again, would be more readily discriminated than the less brightly +coloured; and this would give them such an advantage that in the long +run, as we actually see, almost all habitually insect-fertilised flowers +would come to have brilliant petals. The germ of this luminous idea, +once more, is to be found in Sprengel's remarkable work on the +fertilisation of flowers--a work far in advance of its time in many +ways, and to which Darwin always expressed his deep obligations; but, as +in so many other instances, while Sprengel looked upon all the little +modifications and adaptations of flower and insect to one another as the +result of distinct creative design, Darwin looked upon them as the +result of natural selection, working upon the basis of indeterminate +spontaneous variations. + +How do these variations arise? Not by chance, of course (for in the +strict scientific sense nothing on earth can be considered as really +fortuitous), but as the outcome for the most part of very minute organic +causes, whose particular action it is impossible for us to predict with +our present knowledge. Some physical cause in each case there must +necessarily be; and indeed it is often possible to show that certain +changes of condition in the parent do result in variations in the +offspring, though what special direction the variation will take can +never be foretold with any accuracy. In short, our ignorance of the laws +of variation is profound, but our knowledge of the fact is clear and +certain. The fact alone is essential to the principle of natural +selection; the cause, though in itself an interesting subject of +inquiry, may be safely laid aside for the present as comparatively +unimportant. What we have actually given to us in the concrete universe +is, organisms varying perpetually in minute points, and a rapid rate of +increase causing every minute point of advantage to be exceptionally +favoured in the struggle for existence. + +But Darwin is remarkable among all broachers of new theories for the +extraordinary candour and openness of his method. He acknowledged +beforehand all the difficulties in the way of his theory, and though he +himself confessed that some of them were serious (a statement which +subsequent research has often rendered unnecessary), he met many of them +with cogent arguments by anticipation, and demolished objections before +they could even be raised against him by hostile critics. Of these +objections, only two need here be mentioned. The first is the question, +why is not all nature even now a confused mass of transitional forms? +Why do genera and species exist as we see them at present in broad +distinction one from the other? To this Darwin answers rightly that, +where the process of species-making is still going on, we do actually +find fine gradations and transitional forms existing between genera, +varieties, and species.[3] But, furthermore, as natural selection acts +solely by the preservation of useful modifications, each better-adapted +new form will always tend in a fully stocked country to oust and +exterminate its own unimproved parent type, as well as all other +competing but less perfect varieties. Thus natural selection and +extinction of intermediates go for ever hand in hand. The more perfect +the new variety, the more absolutely will it kill off the intermediate +forms. The second great difficulty lies in the question of the origin of +instinct, which, as Darwin shows, by careful inductive instances, may +have arisen by the slow and gradual accumulation of numerous slight yet +profitable variations. + +I have dwelt at some length upon those portions of the 'Origin of +Species' which deal in detail with the theory of natural selection, the +chief contribution which Darwin made to the evolutionary movement, +because it is impossible otherwise fully to understand the great gulf +which separates his evolutionism from the earlier evolutionism of +Lamarck and his followers. But it is impracticable here to give any idea +of the immense wealth of example and illustration which Darwin brought +to the elucidation of every part of his complex problem. In order to +gain a full conception of this side of his nature, we must turn to the +original treatise itself, and still more to the subsequent volumes in +which the ground-work of observations and experiments on which he based +his theory was more fully detailed for the specialist public. + +The remainder of Darwin's epoch-making work deals, strictly speaking, +rather with the general theory of 'descent with modification' than with +the special doctrine of natural selection. It restates and reinforces, +by the light of the new additional concept, and with fuller facts and +later knowledge, the four great arguments already known in favour of +organic evolution as a whole, the argument from Geological Succession, +the argument from Geographical Distribution, the argument from +Embryological Development, and the argument from Classificatory +Affinities. Each of these we may briefly summarise. + +The geological record is confessedly imperfect. At the time when Darwin +first published the 'Origin of Species,' it had disclosed to our view +comparatively few intermediate or transitional forms between the chief +great classes of plants or animals; since that time, in singular +confirmation of the Darwinian hypothesis, it has disclosed an immense +number of such connecting types, amongst which may be more particularly +noticed the 'missing links' between the birds and reptiles, the +ancestors of the horses, the camels, and the pigs, and the common +progenitor of the ruminants and the pachyderms, two great groups classed +by Cuvier as distinct orders--all of which instances were incorporated +by Darwin in later editions of his 'Origin of Species.' But, apart from +these special and newly discovered cases, the whole general course of +geological history 'agrees admirably with the theory of descent with +modification through variation and natural selection.' The simpler +animals of early times are followed by the more complex and more +specialised animals of later geological periods. As each main group of +animals appears upon the stage of life, it appears in a very central and +'generalised' form; as time goes on, we find its various members +differing more and more widely from one another, and assuming more and +more specialised adaptive forms. And in each country it is found, as a +rule, that the extinct animals of the later formations bear a close +general resemblance and relationship to the animals which now inhabit +the same regions. For example, the fossil mammals from the Australian +caves are nearly allied to the modern kangaroos, phalangers, and +wombats; and the gigantic extinct sloths and armadillos of South America +are reproduced in their smaller representatives at the present day. So, +too, the moa of New Zealand was a huge apteryx; and the birds +disentombed from the bone-caves of Brazil show close affinities to the +toucans and jacanars that still scream and flit in countless flocks +among Brazilian forests. The obvious implication is that the animals now +inhabiting any given area are the modified descendants of those that +formerly inhabited it. 'On the theory of descent with modification, the +great law of the succession of the same types within the same areas is +at once explained.' + +This last consideration leads us up to the argument from Geographical +Distribution. In considering the various local faunas and floras on the +face of the globe, no point strikes one more forcibly than the fact that +neither their similarities nor their dissimilarities can be accounted +for by climate or physical conditions. The animals of South Africa do +not in the least resemble the animals of the corresponding belt of South +America; the Australian beasts and birds and trees are utterly unlike +those of France and Germany; the fishes and crustaceans of the Pacific +at Panama are widely different from those of the Caribbean at the same +point, separated from them only by the narrow belt of intervening +isthmus. On the other hand, within the same continuous areas of sea or +land, however great the differences of physical conditions, we find +everywhere closely related types in possession of the most distinct and +varied situations. On the burning plains of La Plata we get the agouti +and the bizcacha as the chief rodents; we ascend the Cordillera, and +close to the eternal snows we discover, not hares and rabbits like those +of Europe, but a specialised chilly mountain form of the same distinctly +South American type. We turn to the rivers, and we see no musk-rat or +beaver, but the coypu and capybara, slightly altered varieties of the +original bizcacha ancestor. Australia has no wolf, but it has instead +fierce and active carnivorous marsupials; it has no mice, but some of +its tiny kangaroo-like creatures fulfil analogous functions in its +animal economy. Everywhere the evidence points to the conclusion that +local species have been locally evolved from pre-existing similar +species. The oceanic isles, of which Darwin had had so large an +experience, and especially his old friends the Galapagos, come in +usefully for this stage of the question. They are invariably inhabited, +as Darwin pointed out, and as Wallace has since abundantly shown in the +minutest detail, by waifs and strays from neighbouring continents, +altered and specialised by natural selection in accordance with the +conditions of their new habitat. As a rule, they point back to the +districts whence blow the strongest and most prevalent winds; and the +modifications they have undergone are largely dependent upon the nature +of the other species with which they have to compete, or to whose habits +they must needs accommodate themselves. In such cases it is easy to see +how far Darwin's special conception of natural selection helps to +explain and account for facts not easily explicable by the older +evolutionism of mere descent with modification. + +Embryology, the study of early development in the individual animal or +plant, also throws much side light upon the nature and ancestry of each +species or family. For example, gorse, which is a member of the +pea-flower tribe, has in its adult stage solid, spiny, thorn-like +leaves, none of which in the least resemble the foliage of the clover, +to which it is closely related; but the young seedling in its earliest +stages has trefoil leaves, which only slowly pass by infinitesimal +gradations into flat blades and finally into the familiar defensive +prickles. Here, natural selection under stress of herbivorous animals on +open heaths and commons has spared only those particular gorse-bushes +which varied in the direction of the stiffest and most inedible foliage; +but the young plant in its first days still preserves for us the trefoil +leaf which it shared originally with a vast group of clover-like +congeners. The adult barnacle, once more, presents a certain fallacious +external resemblance to a mollusk, and was actually so classed even by +the penetrating and systematic intellect of Cuvier; but a glance at the +larva shows an instructed eye at once that it is really a shell-making +and abnormal crustacean. On a wider scale, the embryos of mammals are at +first indistinguishable from those of birds or reptiles; the feet of +lizards, the hoofs of horses, the hands of man, the wings of the bat, +the pinions of birds, all arise from the same fundamental shapeless bud, +in the same spot of an almost identical embryo. Even the human foetus, +at a certain stage of its development, is provided with gill-slits, +which point dimly back to the remote ages when its ancestor was +something very like a fish. The embryo is a picture, more or less +obscured and blurred in its outline, of the common progenitor of a whole +great class of plants or animals. + +Finally, classification points in the same way to the affiliation of all +existing genera and species upon certain early divergent ancestors. The +whole scheme of the biological system, as initiated by Linnaeus and +improved by Cuvier, Jussieu, De Candolle, and their successors, is +essentially that of a genealogical tree. The prime central vertebrate +ancestor--to take the case of the creatures most familiar to the general +reader--appears to have been an animal not unlike the existing lancelet, +a mud-haunting, cartilaginous, undeveloped fish, whose main lineaments +are also embryologically preserved for us in the ascidian larva and the +common tadpole. From this early common centre have been developed, +apparently, in one direction the fishes, and in another the amphibian +tribes of frogs, newts, salamanders, and axolotls. From an early +amphibian, again, the common ancestor of birds, reptiles, and mammals +seems to have diverged: the intermediate links between bird and reptile +being faintly traced among the extinct deinosaurians and the +archaeopteryx, some years subsequently to the first appearance of the +'Origin of Species;' while the ornithorhynchus, which to some extent +connects the mammals, and especially the marsupials, with the lower +egg-laying types of vertebrate, was already well-known and thoroughly +studied before the publication of Darwin's great work. Throughout, the +indications given by all the chief tribes of animals and plants point +back to slow descent and divergence from common ancestors; and all the +subsequent course of palaeontological research has supplied us rapidly, +one after another, with the remains of just such undifferentiated +family starting-points. + +Stress has mainly been laid, in this brief and necessarily imperfect +abstract, on the essentially Darwinian principle of natural selection. +But Darwin did not himself attribute everything to this potent factor in +the moulding of species. 'I am convinced,' he wrote pointedly in the +introduction to his first edition, 'that natural selection has been the +main but not the exclusive means of modification.' He attributed +considerable importance as well to the Lamarckian principle of use and +disuse, already so fully insisted upon before him by Mr. Herbert +Spencer. The chief factors in his compound theory, as given in his own +words at the end of his work, areas follows: 'Growth with Reproduction; +Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability, from +the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use +and disuse; a Ratio of Increase, so high as to lead to a Struggle for +Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of +Character, and the Extinction of the less improved forms. Thus, from the +war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we +are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, +directly follows.' + +Such was the simple and inoffensive-looking bombshell which Darwin +launched from his quiet home at Down into the very midst of the +teleological camp in the peaceful year 1859. Subsequent generations will +remember the date as a crisis and turning-point in the history of +mankind. + + +[2] The remainder of the present chapter, which consists almost entirely +of an exposition of the doctrine of natural selection, may safely be +skipped by the reader already well acquainted with the Origin of +Species. The abstract is taken for the most part from the latest and +fullest enlarged edition, but attention is usually called in passing to +the points which did not appear in the first issue of 1859. + +[3] The researches of Seebohm and others have since proved that this is +really the case to a far greater extent than Darwin was aware of in +1859, or, indeed, till many years afterward. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS. + + +So far as the scientific world was concerned the 'Origin of Species' +fell, like a grain of mustard seed, upon good and well-prepared ground; +the plant that sprang from it grew up forthwith into a great and stately +tree, that overshadowed with its spreading branches all the corners of +the earth. + +The soil, indeed, had been carefully broken for it beforehand: Lamarck +and St. Hilaire, Spencer and Chambers, had ploughed and harrowed in all +diligence; and the minds of men were thoroughly ready for the +assimilation of the new doctrine. But the seed itself, too, was the +right germ for the exact moment; it contained within itself the +vivifying principle that enabled it to grow and wax exceeding great +where kindred germs before had withered away, or had borne but scanty +and immature fruit. + +Two conditions contributed to this result, one external, the other +internal. + +First for the less important external consideration. Darwin himself was +a sound man with an established reputation for solidity and learning. +That gained for his theory from the very first outset universal respect +and a fair hearing. Herbert Spencer was known to be a philosopher: and +the practical English nation mistrusts philosophers: those people probe +too deep and soar too high for any sensible person to follow them in all +their flights. Robert Chambers, the unknown author of 'Vestiges of +Creation,' was a shallow sciolist; it was whispered abroad that he was +even inaccurate and slovenly in his facts: and your scientific plodder +detests the very shadow of minute inaccuracy, though it speak with the +tongues of men and angels, and be bound up with all the grasp and power +of a Newton or a Goethe. But Charles Darwin was a known personage, an +F.R.S., a distinguished authority upon coral reefs and barnacles, a +great geologist, a great biologist, a great observer and indefatigable +collector. His book came into the public hands stamped with the +imprimatur of official recognition. Darwin was the father of the infant +theory; Lyell and Hooker stood for its sponsors. The world could not +afford to despise its contents; they could not brand its author offhand +as a clever dreamer or a foolish amateur, or consign him to the dreaded +English limbo of the 'mere theorist.' + +Next, for the other and far more important internal consideration. The +book itself was one of the greatest, the most learned, the most lucid, +the most logical, the most crushing, the most conclusive, that the world +had ever yet seen. Step by step, and principle by principle, it proved +every point in its progress triumphantly before it went on to +demonstrate the next. So vast an array of facts so thoroughly in hand +had never before been mustered and marshalled in favour of any +biological theory. Those who had insight to learn and understand were +convinced at once by the cogency of the argument; those who had not were +overpowered and silenced by the weight of the authority and the mass of +the learning. A hot battle burst forth at once, no doubt, around the +successful volume; but it was one of those battles which are aroused +only by great truths,--a battle in which the victory is a foregone +conclusion, and the rancour of the assailants the highest compliment to +the prowess of the assailed. + +Darwin himself, in his quiet country home at Down, was simply astonished +at the rapid success of his own work. The first edition was published at +the end of November 1859; it was exhausted almost immediately, and a +second was got ready in hot haste by the beginning of January 1860. In +less than six weeks the book had become famous, and Darwin found himself +the centre of a European contest, waged with exceeding bitterness, over +the truth or falsity of his wonderful volume. To the world at large +Darwinism and evolution became at once synonymous terms. The same people +who would entirely ascribe the Protestant Reformation to the account of +Luther, and the inductive philosophy to the account of Bacon, also +believed, in the simplicity of their hearts, that the whole vast +evolutionary movement was due at bottom to that very insidious and +dangerous book of Mr. Darwin's. + +The fact is, profound as had been the impulses in the evolutionary +direction among men of science before Darwin's work appeared at all, +immense as were the throes and pangs of labour throughout all Europe +which preceded and accompanied its actual birth, when it came at last it +came to the general world of unscientific readers with all the sudden +vividness and novelty of a tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it +was yet wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or next to +nothing of this colossal but hidden revolutionary force which had been +gathering head and energy for so many years unseen within the bowels of +the earth; and now that its outer manifestation had actually burst upon +them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic security bodily giving way +beneath their feet, and knew not where to turn in their extremity for +support. Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself at +first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of Genesis, or +rather the belief in their scientific and historical character, already +sapped by the revelations of geology, seemed to orthodox defenders to be +fatally undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once to meet with +general recognition. The first resource of menaced orthodoxy is always +to deny the alleged facts; the second is to patch up tardily the feeble +and hollow _modus vivendi_ of an artificial pact. On this occasion the +orthodox acted strictly after their kind: but to their credit it should +be added that they yielded gracefully in the long run to the unanimous +voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, when all that was +mortal of Charles Darwin was being borne with pomp and pageantry to its +last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, with +generous oblivion, ratified a truce over the dead body of the great +leader, and, outgrowing its original dread of naturalistic +interpretations, accepted his theory without reserve as 'not necessarily +hostile to the main fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render +justice to the vanquished in a memorable struggle. Churchmen followed +respectfully to the grave with frank and noble inconsistency the +honoured remains of the very teacher whom less than a quarter of a +century earlier they had naturally dreaded as loosening the traditional +foundations of all accepted religion and morality. + +But if the attack was fierce and bitter, the defence was assisted by a +sudden access of powerful forces from friendly quarters. A few of the +elder generation of naturalists held out, indeed, for various shorter or +longer periods; some of them never came into the camp at all, but +lingered on, left behind, like stragglers from the onward march, by the +younger biologists, in isolated non-conformity on the lonely heights of +austere officialism. Their business was to ticket and docket and +pigeon-hole, not to venture abroad on untried wings into the airy +regions of philosophical speculation. The elder men, in fact, had many +of them lost that elasticity and modifiability of intellect which is +necessary for the reception of new and revolutionary fundamental +concepts. A mind that has hardened down into the last stage of extreme +maturity may assimilate fresh facts and fresh minor principles, but it +cannot assimilate fresh synthetic systems of the entire cosmos. +Moreover, some of the elder thinkers were committed beforehand to +opposing views, with which they lacked either the courage or the +intellectual power to break; while others were entangled by religious +restrictions, and unable to free themselves from the cramping fetters of +a narrow orthodoxy. But even among his own contemporaries and seniors +Darwin found not a few whose minds were thoroughly prepared beforehand +for the reception of his lucid and luminous hypothesis; while the +younger naturalists, with the plasticity of youth, assimilated almost +to a man, with the utmost avidity, the great truths thus showered down +upon them by the preacher of evolution. + +Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley were among the first to give in +their adhesion and stand up boldly for the new truth by the side of the +reckless and disturbing innovator. In June 1859, nearly a year after the +reading of the Darwin-Wallace papers at the Linnean Society, but five +months previously to the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' Huxley +lectured at the Royal Institution on 'Persistent Types of Animal Life,' +and declared against the old barren theory of successive creations, in +favour of the new and fruitful hypothesis of gradual modification. In +December 1859, a month later than the appearance of Darwin's book, +Hooker published his 'Introduction to the Flora of Australia,' in the +first part of which he championed the belief in the descent and +modification of species, and enforced his views by many original +observations drawn from the domain of botanical science. For fifteen +years, as Darwin himself gratefully observed in his introduction to the +'Origin of Species,' that learned botanist had shared the secret of +natural selection, and aided its author in every possible way by his +large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment. Bates, the +naturalist on the Amazons, followed fast with his beautiful and striking +theory of mimicry, a crucial instance well explained. The facts of the +strange disguises which birds and insects often assume had long been +present to his acute mind, and he hailed with delight the discovery of +the new principle, which at once enabled him to reduce them with ease +to symmetry and order. To Herbert Spencer, an evolutionist in fibre from +the very beginning, the fresh doctrine of natural selection came like a +powerful ally and an unexpected assistant in deciphering the deep +fundamental problems on which he was at that moment actually engaged; +and in his 'Principles of Biology,' even then in contemplation, he at +once adopted and utilised the new truth with all the keen and vigorous +insight of his profound analytic and synthetic intellect. The first part +of that important work was issued to subscribers just three years after +the original appearance of the 'Origin of Species;' the first volume was +fully completed in October 1864. It is to Mr. Spencer that we owe the +pellucid expression 'survival of the fittest,' which conveys even better +than Darwin's own phrase, 'natural selection,' the essential element +added by the 'Origin of Species' to the pre-existing evolutionary +conception. + +The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its big +annual doctrinaire picnic the next summer after the publication of +Darwin's book, at Oxford. The Oxford meeting was a stormy and a +well-remembered one. The 'Origin of Species' was there discussed and +attacked before a biological section strangely enough presided over by +Darwin's old Cambridge teacher, Professor Henslow. Though then a +beneficed parish priest, Henslow had the boldness frankly to avow his +own acceptance of his great pupil's startling conclusions. Huxley +followed in the same path, as did also Lubbock and Hooker. On the whole, +the evolutionists were already in the ascendant; the fresh young +intellects especially being quick to seize upon the new pabulum so +generously dealt out to them by the new evolutionism. + +Among scientific minds of the first order, Lyell alone in England, +heavily weighted by theological preconceptions, for awhile hung back. +All his life long, as his letters show us, the great geologist had felt +the powerful spell of the Lamarckian hypothesis continually enticing him +with its seductive charm. He had fought against it blindly, in the +passionate endeavour to preserve what he thought his higher faith in the +separate and divine creation of man; but ever and anon he returned anew +to the biological Circe with a fresh fascination, as the moth returns to +the beautiful flame that has scorched and singed it. In a well-known +passage in the earlier editions of his 'Principles of Geology,' the +father of uniformitarianism gives at length his own reasons for +dissenting from the doctrine of evolution as then set forth; and even +after Darwin's discovery had supplied him with a new clue, a _vera +causa_, a sufficient power for the modification of species into fresh +forms, theological difficulties made him cling still as long as possible +to the old theory of the origin of man which he loved to describe as +that of the 'archangel ruined.' He was loth to exchange this cherished +belief for the degrading alternative (as it approved itself to him) of +the ape elevated. But in the end, with the fearless honesty of a +searcher after truth, he gave way slowly and regretfully. Always looking +back with something like remorse to the flesh-pots of the ecclesiastical +Egypt, with its enticing visions of fallen grandeur, the great thinker +whose uniformitarian theory of geology had more than aught else paved +the way for the gradual acceptance of Darwin's evolutionism, came out +at last from the house of bondage, and nobly ranged himself on the side +of what his intellect judged to be the truth of nature, though his +emotions urged him hard to blind his judgment and to neglect its lights +for an emotional figment. Science has no more pathetic figure than that +of the old philosopher, in his sixty-sixth year, throwing himself with +all the eagerness of youth into what he had long considered the wrong +scale, and vigorously wrecking in the 'Antiquity of Man' what seemed to +the dimmed vision of his own emotional nature the very foundations of +his beloved creed. But still he did it. He came out and was separate. In +his own idiomatic language, he found at last that 'we must go the whole +ourang;' and, deep as was the pang that the recantation cost him, he +formally retracted the condemnation of 'transformism' in his earlier +works, and accepted, however unwillingly, the theory he had so often and +so deliberately rejected. + +The 'Antiquity of Man' came out in February 1863, some three years after +the 'Origin of Species.' For some time speculation had been active over +the strange hatchets which Boucher de Perthes had recently unearthed +among the Abbeville drift--shapeless masses of chipped flint rudely +fashioned into the form of an axe, which we now call palaeolithic +implements, and know to be the handicraft of preglacial men. But until +Lyell's authoritative work appeared the unscientific public could not +tell exactly what to think of these curious and almost unhuman-looking +objects. Lyell at once set all doubts at rest; the magic of his name +silenced the derisive whispers of the dissidents. Already, in the +previous year, the first fasciculus of Colenso's famous work on the +Pentateuch had dealt a serious blow from the ecclesiastical and critical +side at the authenticity and historical truth of the Mosaic cosmogony. +Lyell now from the scientific side completely demolished its literal +truth, as ordinarily interpreted, by throwing back the primitive origin +of our race into a dim past of immeasurable antiquity. In so doing he +was clearing the way for Charles Darwin's second great work, 'The +Descent of Man;' and by incorporating in his book Huxley's remarks on +the Neanderthal skull, and much similar evolutionary matter, he +advertised the new creed in the animal origin of our race with all the +acquired weight of his immense and justly-deserved European reputation. +As a matter of taste, Lyell did not relish the application of +evolutionism to his own species. But, with that perfect loyalty to fact +which he shared so completely with Charles Darwin, as soon as he found +the evidence overwhelming, he gave in. By that grudging concession he +immensely strengthened the position of the new creed. 'I plead guilty,' +he writes to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'to going farther in my reasoning +towards transmutation than in my sentiments and imagination, and perhaps +for that very reason I shall lead more people on to Darwin and you, than +one who, being born later, like Lubbock, has comparatively little to +abandon of old and long-cherished ideas, which constituted the charm to +me of the theoretical part of the science in my earlier days.' And to +Darwin himself he writes regretfully. 'The descent of man from the +brutes takes away much of the charm from my speculations on the past +relating to such matters.' This very reluctance itself told powerfully +in favour of Charles Darwin's novel theories: there is no evidence more +valuable to a cause than that which it extorts by moral force, in spite +of himself, from the faltering lips of an unwilling witness. + +The same year that saw the publication of Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' saw +also the first appearance of Huxley's work on 'Man's Place in Nature.' +Darwin himself had been anxious rather than otherwise to avoid too close +reference to the implications of his theory as regards the origin and +destiny of the human race. He had desired that his strictly scientific +views on the rise of specific distinctions should be judged entirely on +their own merits, unhampered by the interference of real or supposed +theological and ethical considerations. His own language on all such +subjects, wherever he was compelled to trench on them in the 'Origin of +Species,' was guarded and conciliatory; he scarcely referred at all to +man or his history; and his occasional notices of the moving principle +and first cause of the entire cosmos were reverential and religious in +the truest sense and in the highest degree. But you cannot let loose a +moral whirlwind, and then attempt to direct its course; you cannot open +the floodgates of opinion or of speculation, and then pretend to set +limits to the scope of their restless motion. Darwin soon found out that +people would insist in drawing inferences beyond what was written, and +in seeing implicit conclusions when they were not definitely formulated +in the words of their author. 'Man is perennially interesting to man,' +says the great chaotic American thinker; and whatever all-embracing +truth you set before him, you may be sure that man will see in it +chiefly the implications that most closely affect his own happiness and +his own destiny. The biological question of the origin of species is a +sufficiently wide one, but it includes also, among other cases, the +origin of the very familiar species _Homo sapiens_ of Linnaeus. Some +theologians jumped at once at the conclusion, right or wrong, that if +Darwinism were true man was nothing more than a developed monkey, the +immortal soul was an exploded myth, the foundations of religion itself +were shattered, and the wave of infidelity was doomed to swamp the whole +of Christendom with its blank nihilism. Scientific men, on the other +hand, drew the conclusion that man must be descended, like other +mammals, from some common early vertebrate ancestor, and that the +current views of his origin and destiny must be largely modified by the +evolutionary creed. Of this profound scientific belief Professor +Huxley's maiden work was the earliest outcome. + +Meantime, on the continent of Europe and over-sea in America, the +Darwinian theory was being hotly debated and warmly defended. France, +coldly sceptical and critical, positive rather than imaginative in +matters of science, and little prone by native cast of mind to the +evolutionary attitude, stood aloof to a great extent from the onward +course of the general movement. Here and there, to be sure, a Gaudry or +a Ribot, a Delboeuf or a De Candolle (the two latter a Liege Belgian and +a Genevan Swiss) might heartily throw himself into the new ideas, and +contribute whole squadrons of geological or botanical fact to the final +victory. Yet, as a whole, the dry and cautious French intelligence, ever +inclined to a scientific opportunism, preferred for the moment to stand +by expectant and await the result of the European consensus. But +philosophical Germany, on the other hand, beaming enthusiasm from its +myriad spectacles, eagerly welcomed the novel ideas, and proclaimed from +the housetops the evolutionary faith as a main plank in the rising +platform of the newly-roused Kulturkampf. Fritz Mueller began with all +the ardour of a fresh convert to collect his admirable 'Facts for +Darwin;' his brother Hermann sat down with indomitable patience, like +the master's own, to watch the ceaseless action of the bees and +butterflies in the fertilisation of flowers. Ruetimeyer applied the +Darwinian principles to the explanation of mammalian relationships, and +Haeckel set to work upon his vast reconstructive 'History of Creation,' +a largely speculative work which, with all its faults, distinctly +carried forward the evolutionary impulse, and set fresh researchers +working upon new lines, to confirm or to disprove its audacious +imaginings. In America, Asa Gray gave to the young creed the high +authority of his well-known name, and Chauncey Wright helped it onward +on the road with all the restrained force of his singular and oblique +but powerful and original personality. If Agassiz and Dawson still +hesitated, Fiske and Youmans were ardent in the faith. If critical +Boston put up its eye-glass doubtfully, Chicago and St. Louis were ready +for conversion. Everywhere Darwin and Darwinism became as household +words; it was the singular fate of the great prophet of evolution, alone +almost among the sons of men, to hear his own name familiarly twisted +during his own lifetime into a colloquial adjective, and to see the +Darwinian theory and the errors of Darwinism staring him in the face a +hundred times a day from every newspaper and every periodical. + +Of course the 'Origin of Species' was largely translated at once into +all the civilised languages of Europe, Russian as well as French, Dutch +as well as German, Swedish as well as Italian, Spanish as well as +Hungarian, nay even, at last, transcending narrow continental limits, +Japanese as well as Hindustani. The revolution which it was rapidly +effecting was indeed a revolution in every mode of thought and feeling +as well as a revolution in mere restricted biological opinion. But all +this time, the modest, single-minded, and unassuming author was working +unmoved among his plants and pigeons in his home at Down, regardless of +the European fame he was so quickly acquiring, and anxious only to bring +to a termination the vast work which he still contemplated. A little +more than eleven years intervened between the publication of the 'Origin +of Species,' in 1859, and the first appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' +in 1871. The interval was occupied in carrying out in part the gigantic +scheme of his original collections for the full treatment of the +development theory. The work published in 1859 Darwin regarded merely as +an abstract and preliminary outline of his full opinions: 'No one can +feel more sensible than I do,' he wrote, 'of the necessity of hereafter +publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my +conclusions have been grounded.' The marvellously learned work on the +'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' which came out in +two volumes in 1867, formed the first instalment of this long-projected +treatise. The second part, as he told Mr. Fiske, was to have treated of +the variation of animals and plants through natural selection; while the +third part would have dealt at length with the phenomena of morphology, +of classification, and of distribution in space and time. But these +latter portions of the work were never written. To say the truth, they +were never needed. So universal was the recognition among the younger +men of Darwin's discovery, that before ten years were over innumerable +workers were pushing out the consequences of natural selection into +every field of biology and palaeontology. It seemed no longer so +necessary as it had once seemed to write the larger and more elaborate +treatise he had originally contemplated. + +The volume on the variation of animals and plants contained also +Darwin's one solitary contribution to the pure speculative philosophy of +life--his 'Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis,' by which he strove to +account on philosophical principles for the general facts of physical +and mental heredity. Not to mince matters, it was his one conspicuous +failure, and is now pretty universally admitted as such. Let not the +love of the biographer deceive us; Darwin was here attempting a task +_ultra vires_. As already observed, his mind, vast as it was, leaned +rather to the concrete than to the abstract side: he lacked the +distinctively metaphysical and speculative twist. Strange to say, too, +his abortive theory appeared some years later than Herbert Spencer's +magnificent all-sided conception of 'Physiological Units,' put forth +expressly to meet the self-same difficulty. But while Darwin's +hypothesis is rudely materialistic, Herbert Spencer's is built up by an +acute and subtle analytical perception of all the analogous facts in +universal nature. It is a singular instance of a crude and essentially +unphilosophic conception endeavouring to replace a finished and delicate +philosophical idea. + +Earlier still, in 1862, Darwin had published his wonderful and +fascinating book on the 'Fertilisation of Orchids.' It is delightful to +contemplate the picture of the unruffled naturalist, in the midst of +that universal storm of ecclesiastical obloquy and scientific enthusiasm +which he had roused throughout Europe, sitting down calmly in his +Kentish conservatory to watch the behaviour of catasetums and +masdevallias, and to work out the details of his chosen subject, with +that marvellous patience of which he was so great a master, in the +pettiest minutiae of fertilisation as displayed by a single highly +developed family of plants. Whoever wishes to learn the full profundity +of Darwin's researches, into every point that he set himself to +investigate, cannot do better than turn for a while to the consideration +of that exquisite treatise on one of the quaintest fairylands of +science. He will there learn by what an extraordinary wealth of cunning +devices natural selection has ensured the due conveyance of the +fecundating pollen from stamens to stigmas within the limits of a single +group of vegetable organisms. Here the fertilising mass is gummed +automatically between the eyes of the exploring bee, and then bent round +by the drying of its stalk so as to come in contact with the stigmatic +surface. There the pollen club is jerked out elastically by a sensitive +fibre, and actually flung by its irritable antennae at the unconscious +head of the fertilising insect. In one case, the lip of the flower +secretes moisture and forms a sort of cold bath, which wets the wings of +the bees, so compelling them to creep out of the bucket by a passage +close to the anthers and stigma; in another case, the honey is concealed +at the bottom of so long a tube that only the proper fertilising moth +with a proboscis of ten or eleven inches in length can probe the deep +recess in which it is hidden. These, and a hundred other similar +instances, were all carefully considered and described by the great +naturalist as the by-work with which he filled up one of the intervals +between his greater and more comprehensive treatises. + +In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the progress of Darwinism was rapid +and continuous. One by one, the few scientific men who still held out +were overborne by the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh +instances of transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored +countries kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species +and varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his +'First Principles,' his 'Biology,' and the remodelled form of his +'Psychology;' Huxley brought out 'Man's Place in Nature,' the 'Lectures +on Comparative Anatomy,' and the 'Introduction to the Classification of +Animals;' Wallace produced his 'Malay Archipelago' and his +'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection;' and Galton wrote his +admirable work on 'Hereditary Genius,' of which his own family is so +remarkable an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had long since signified their +warm adhesion. At Oxford, Rolleston was bringing up a fresh generation +of young biologists in the new faith; at Cambridge, Darwin's old +university, a whole school of brilliant and accurate physiologists was +beginning to make itself both felt and heard in the world of science. In +the domain of anthropology, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the +new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations into +the Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. All these +diverse lines of thought both showed the wide-spread influence of +Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, +in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. +And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilised +world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement +was well in progress; everywhere the impulse sent forth from that quiet +Kentish home was permeating and quickening the entire pulse of +intelligent humanity. + +Why was it that the 'Origin of Species' possessed this extraordinary +vitalising and kinetic power, this germinal energy, this contagious +force, beyond all other forms of evolutionism previously promulgated? +Why did the world, that listened so coldly to Lamarck and Chambers, turn +so ready an ear to Charles Darwin and natural selection? Partly, no +doubt, because in the fulness of time the moment had come and the +prophet had arisen. All great movements are long brewing, and burst out +at last (like the Reformation and the French Revolution) with explosive +energy. But the cause is largely to be found, also, I believe, in the +peculiar nature of the Darwinian solution. True, a thoroughly logical +mind, a mind of the very highest order, would have said even before +Darwin, 'Creation can have no possible place in the physical series of +things at all. How organisms came to be I do not yet exactly see; but I +am sure they must have come to be by some merely physical process, if we +could only find it out.' And such minds were all actually evolutionary +even before Darwin had made the _modus operandi_ of evolution +intelligible. But most people are not so clear-sighted. They require to +have everything proved to them by the strictest collocation of actual +instances. They will not believe unless one rise from the dead. There +are men who rejected the raw doctrine of special creation on evidence +adduced; and there are men who never even for a moment entertained it as +conceivable. The former compose the mass of the scientific world, and it +was for their conversion that the Darwinian hypothesis was so highly +salutary. As Professor Fiske rightly remarks, 'The truth is that before +the publication of the "Origin of Species" there was no opinion whatever +current respecting the subject that deserved to be called a scientific +hypothesis. That the more complex forms of life must have come into +existence through some process of development from simpler forms was no +doubt the only sensible and rational view to take of the subject; but in +a vague and general opinion of this sort there is nothing that is +properly scientific. A scientific hypothesis must connect the phenomena +with which it deals by alleging a "true cause;" and before 1859 no one +had suggested a "true cause" for the origination of new species, +although the problem was one over which every philosophical naturalist +had puzzled since the beginning of the century. This explains why Mr. +Darwin's success was so rapid and complete, and it also explains why he +came so near being anticipated.' To put it briefly, _a priori_, creation +is from the very first unbelievable; but, as a matter of evidence, +Lamarck failed to make evolution comprehensible, or to give a rationale +of its mode of action, while Darwin's theory of natural selection +succeeded in doing so for those who awaited _a posteriori_ proof. Hence +Darwin was able to convert the world, where Lamarck had only been able +to stir up enquiry among the picked spirits of the scientific and +philosophical coterie. Therein lies the true secret of his rapid, his +brilliant, and his triumphant progress. He had found out not only _that_ +it was so, but _how_ it was so, too. In Aristotelian phrase, he had +discovered the _pos_ as well as the _hoti_. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DESCENT OF MAN. + + +In 1871, nearly twelve years after the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin +published his 'Descent of Man.' + +We have seen already that he would fain have avoided the treatment of +this difficult and dangerous topic a little longer, so as to let his +main theory be fairly judged on its own merits, without the obtrusion of +theological or personal feelings into so purely biological a question; +but the current was too strong for him, and at last he yielded. On the +one hand, the adversaries had drawn for themselves the conclusion of +man's purely animal origin, and held it up to ridicule under false forms +in the most absurd and odious light. On the other hand, imprudent allies +had put forth under the evolutionary aegis their somewhat hypothetical +and extravagant speculations on this involved subject, which Darwin was +naturally anxious to correct and modify by his own more sober and +guarded inferences. The result was the second great finishing work of +the complete Darwinian system of things. + +Ever since evolutionism had begun to be at all it had been observed that +a natural corollary from the doctrine of descent with modification was +the belief in man's common ancestry with the anthropoid apes. As early +as the middle of the last century, indeed, Lord Monboddo, a whimsical +Scotch eccentric, had suggested in his famous book on the origin of +language the idea that men were merely developed monkeys. But this crude +and unorganised statement of a great truth, being ultimately based upon +no distinct physical grounds, deserved scarcely to be classed higher +than the childish evolutionism of 'Telliamed' De Maillet, which makes +birds descend from flying-fish and men the offspring of the hypothetical +tritons. On this point as on most others the earliest definite +scientific views are those of Buffon, who ventured to hint with extreme +caution the possibility of a common ancestry for man and all other +vertebrate animals. Goethe the all-sided had caught a passing glimpse of +the same profound conception about the date of the Reign of Terror; and +Erasmus Darwin had openly announced it, though without much elaboration, +in his precocious and premature 'Zoonomia.' Still more specifically, in +a note to the 'Temple of Nature,' the English evolutionist says: 'It has +been supposed by some that mankind were formerly quadrupeds.... These +philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to imagine that mankind +arose from one family of monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean;' and +in the third canto of that fantastic poem, he enlarges upon the great +part performed by the hand, with its opposable thumb, in the development +and progress of the human species. Lamarck, in his 'Philosophie +Zoologique,' distinctly lays down the doctrine that man is descended +from an ape-like ancestor, which gradually acquired the upright +position, not even now wholly natural to the human race, and maintained +only by the most constant watchfulness. The orang-outang was then the +highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang, +therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the +pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam. + +The introduction of the chimpanzee into our European Zoological Gardens +gave a fresh type of anthropoid to the crude speculators of the middle +decades of the century; and in 1859, Paul du Chaillu, the explorer and +hunter of the Gaboon country, brought over to America and Europe the +first specimens of the true gorilla ever seen by civilised men. There +can be little doubt that the general interest excited by his narrative +of his adventures (published in London in 1861) and by the well-known +stuffed specimen of the huge African anthropoid ape so long conspicuous +in the rooms of the British Museum, and now surviving (somewhat the +worse for wear) in the natural history collection at South Kensington, +did much to kindle public curiosity as to the nature of our relations +with the lower animals. It is no mere accidental circumstance, indeed, +that Huxley should have brought out 'Man's Place in Nature' just two +years after Du Chaillu's 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial +Africa' had made the whole world, lay and learned, familiar with the +name and features of the most human in outer aspect among the anthropoid +family. Thenceforth the gorilla, and not the orang-outang, was popularly +hit upon by scoffer and caricaturist as the imaginary type of our +primitive ancestors. + +On the other hand, during the twelve intervening years immense strides +had been made in every department of anthropological science, and the +whole tenor of modern speculation had been clearing the ground for the +'Descent of Man,' In 1865, Rolle in Germany had published his work on +'Man Viewed by the Light of the Darwinian Theory.' Two years later, +Canestrini in Italy read before the Naturalists' Society of Modena his +interesting paper on rudimentary characters as bearing on the origin of +the human species. In 1868, Buechner brought out his rudely materialistic +sledge-hammer lectures on the Darwinian principle; and in 1869, Barrago +flung straight at the head of the Roman clericals his offensive work on +man and the anthropoid apes. Most of these foreign publications were +unhappily marked by that coarse and almost vituperative opposition to +received views which too often disfigures French and German +controversial literature. In England, on the contrary, under our milder +and gentler ecclesiastical yoke, the contest had been conducted with +greater decorum and with far better results. Wallace had broken ground +tentatively and reverently in his essay on the 'Origin of Human Races,' +where he endeavoured to show that man is the co-descendant with the +anthropoid apes of some ancient lower and extinct form. Lubbock's +'Prehistoric Times' (1865) and 'Origin of Civilisation' (1870) helped to +clear the way in the opposite direction by demolishing the old belief, +firmly upheld by Whately and others, that savages represent a degraded +type, and that the civilised state is natural and, so to speak, +congenital to man. Tylor's 'Early History of Mankind' (1865) did still +more eminent service in the same direction. Colenso's 'Pentateuch and +Book of Joshua Critically Examined,' the publication of which began in +1862, had already shaken the foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony, and +incidentally discredited the received view of the direct creation of the +first human family. McLennan's 'Primitive Marriage' (1865) and Herbert +Spencer's articles on the origin of religion had kept speculation alive +along other paths, all tending ultimately towards the same conclusion. +Darwin's own cousin, Hensleigh Wedgwood, and Canon Farrar, had +independently endeavoured to prove that language, instead of being a +divine gift, might have arisen in a purely natural manner from +instinctive cries and the imitation of external sounds. The Duke of +Argyll and Professor Max Mueller, by the obvious feebleness of their +half-hearted replies, had unconsciously aided in disseminating and +enforcing the very views they attempted to combat. Bagehot and Flower, +Maudsley and Jevons, Vogt and Lindsay, Galton and Brown-Sequard had each +in his way contributed facts and arguments ultimately utilised by the +great master architect in building up his consistent and harmonious +edifice. Finally, in 1868, Haeckel had published his 'Natural History of +Creation,' in which he discussed with surprising and perhaps excessive +boldness the various stages in the genealogy of man. These various +works, following so close upon Huxley's 'Man's Place in Nature' and +Lyell's conclusive 'Antiquity of Man,' left Darwin no choice but to set +forth his own reasoned opinions on the subject of the origin and +development of the human species. + +The evidence of the descent of man from some lower form, collected and +marshalled together by Darwin, consists chiefly of minute inferential +proofs which hardly admit of deliberate condensation. In his bodily +structure man is formed on the same underlying type or model as all the +other mammals, bone answering throughout to bone, as, for example, in +the fore limb, where homologous parts have been modified in the dog into +toes, in the bat into wing-supports, in the seal into flippers, and in +man himself into fingers and thumb, while still retaining in every case +their essential fundamental likeness of construction. Even the brain of +man resembles closely the brain of the higher monkeys; the differences +which separate him in this respect from the orang or the gorilla are far +slighter than the differences which separate those apes themselves from +the inferior monkeys. Indeed, as Huxley conclusively showed, on +anatomical grounds alone, man must be classed in the order Primates as +only one among the many divergent forms which that order includes within +its wide limits. + +In his embryonic development man closely resembles the lower animals, +the human creature being almost indistinguishable in certain stages from +the dog, the bat, the seal, and especially the monkeys. At a very early +age he possesses a slight projecting tail; at another, the great toe is +shorter than its neighbours, and projects like the thumb at a slight +angle; and at a third, the convolutions of the brain reach a point of +development about equivalent to that of the adult baboon. In his first +stages man himself stands far more closely related to the apes than the +apes in turn stand to cats or hyaenas. + +Rudiments of muscles not normally found in man occur in many aberrant +human individuals. Some people possess the power of moving their scalps +and wagging their ears like dogs and monkeys; others can twitch the skin +of their bodies, as horses do when worried by flies. Mr. Woolner, the +sculptor, pointed out to Darwin a certain little projecting point or +knob on the margin of the ear, observed by him in the course of +modelling, which comparison shows to be the last folded remnant or +rudiment of the once erect and pointed monkey-like ear-tip. The +nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, once more, which in birds can be +drawn so rapidly across the ball of the eye, and which gives the +familiar glazed or murky appearance, is fairly well developed in the +ornithorhynchus and the kangaroo, as well as in a few higher mammals, +like the walrus; but in man, as in the monkey group, it survives only +under the degenerate form of a practically useless rudiment, the +semilunar fold. Man differs from the other Primates in his apparently +hairless condition; but the hair, though short and downy, still remains +on close inspection, and in some races, such as the Ainos of Japan, +forms a shaggy coat like an orang's or a gibbon's. A few long rough +hairs sometimes project from the short smooth down of the eyebrows; and +these peculiar bristles, occasional only in the human species, are +habitual in the chimpanzee and in many baboons. Internal organs show +similar rudiments, of less enthralling interest, it must be candidly +confessed, to the unscientific outside intelligence. Even the bony +skeleton contributes its share of confirmatory evidence; for in the +lower monkeys and in many other mammals a certain main trunk nerve +passes through a special perforation in the shoulder-blade, and this +perforation, though now almost obsolete, sometimes recurs in man, in +which case the nerve in question invariably passes through it, as in the +inferior monkeys. What is still more remarkable is the fact that the +perforation occurs far more frequently (in proportion) among the +skeletons of very ancient races than among those of our own time. One +chief cause why in this and other cases ancient races often present +structures resembling those of the lower animals seems to be that they +stand nearer in the long line of descent to their remote animal-like +progenitors. + +The conclusion at which, after fully examining all the evidence, Darwin +finally arrives is somewhat as follows: + +The early ancestors of man must have been more or less monkey-like +animals, belonging to the great anthropoid group, and related to the +progenitors of the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. They +must have been once covered with hair, both sexes possessing beards. +Their ears were probably pointed and capable of movement, and their +bodies were provided with a movable tail. The foot had a great toe +somewhat thumb-like in its action, with which they could grasp the +branches of trees. They were probably arboreal in their habits, +fruit-eaters by choice, and inhabitants of some warm forest-clad land. +The males had great canine teeth, with which they fought one another for +the possession of the females. At a much earlier period, the internal +anatomical peculiarities approached those of the lowest mammals, and the +eye was provided with a third eyelid. Peering still further back into +the dim abyss of the ages, Darwin vaguely describes the ancestors of +humanity as aquatic animals, allied to the mudfish; for our lungs are +known to consist of modified swim-bladders, which must once have served +our remote progenitors in the office of a float. The gill-clefts on the +neck of the human embryo still point to the spot where the branchiae +once, no doubt, existed. Our primordial birthplace appears to have been +a shore washed twice a day by the recurrent tides. The heart then took +the shape merely of a simple pulsating vessel; and a long undivided +spinal cord usurped the place of the vertebral column. These extremely +primitive ancestors of man, thus dimly beheld across the gulf of ages, +must have been at least as simply and humbly organised as that very +lowest and earliest of existing vertebrates, the worm-like lancelet. + +From such a rude and indefinite beginning natural selection, aided by +the various concomitant principles, has slowly built up the pedigree of +man. Starting from these remote half-invertebrate forms, whose vague +shape is still perhaps in part preserved for us by the soft and +jelly-like larva of the modern ascidian, we rise by long stages to a +group of early fishes, like the lancelet itself. From these the ganoids +and then the lung-bearing mudfish must have been gradually developed. +From such fish a very small advance would carry us on to the newts and +other amphibians. The duck-billed platypus helps us slightly to bridge +over the gap between the reptiles and the lower mammals, such as the +kangaroo and the wombat, though the connection with the amphibians is +still, as when Darwin wrote, highly problematical. From marsupials, such +as the kangaroo, we ascend gradually to the insectivorous type +represented by the shrews and hedgehogs, and thence once more by very +well-marked intermediate stages to the lemurs of Madagascar, a group +linked on the one hand to the insectivores, and on the other to the true +monkeys. The monkeys, again, 'branched off into two great stems--the New +World and Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, +man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.' + +The word was spoken; the secret was out. The world might well have been +excused for treating it scornfully. But as a matter of fact, the storm +which followed the 'Descent of Man' was as nothing compared with the +torrent of abuse that had pursued the author of the 'Origin of Species.' +In twelve years society had grown slowly accustomed to the once +startling idea, and it listened now with comparatively languid interest +to the final utterance of the great biologist on the question of its own +origin and destinies. In 1859 it cried in horror, 'How very shocking!' +in 1871, it murmured complacently, 'Is that all? Why, everybody knew +that much already!' + +Nevertheless, on the moral and social side, the ultimate importance of +the 'Descent of Man' upon the world's history can hardly be overrated by +a philosophic investigator. Vast as was the revolution effected in +biology by the 'Origin of Species,' it was as nothing compared with the +still wider, deeper, and more subtly-working revolution inaugurated by +the announcement of man's purely animal origin. The main discovery, +strange to say, affected a single branch of thought alone; the minor +corollary drawn from it to a single species has already affected, and is +destined in the future still more profoundedly to affect, every +possible sphere of human energy. Not only has it completely reversed our +entire conception of history generally, by teaching us that man has +slowly risen from a very low and humble beginning, but it has also +revolutionised our whole ideas of our own position and our own destiny, +it has permeated the sciences of language and of medicine, it has +introduced new conceptions of ethics and of religion, and it threatens +in the future to produce immense effects upon the theory and practice of +education, of politics, and of economic and social science. These +wide-reaching and deep-seated results began to be felt from the first +moment when the Darwinian principle was definitely promulgated in the +'Origin of Species,' but their final development and general acceptance +was immensely accelerated by Darwin's own authoritative statement in the +'Descent of Man.' + +To some among us still, as to Lyell before us, this new belief in the +animal origin of man seems far less beautiful, noble, and inspiriting +than the older faith in his special and separate divine creation. Such +thinkers find it somehow more pleasant and comfortable to suppose that +man has fallen than that man has risen; the doctrine of the universal +degradation of humanity paradoxically appears to them more full of +promise and aspiration for the times to come than the doctrine of its +universal elevation. To Darwin himself, however, it seemed otherwise. +'Man,' he says, 'may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, +though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic +scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been +aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny +in the distant future.' Surely this is the truer and manlier way of +looking at the reversed and improved attitude of man. Surely it is +better to climb to the top than to have been placed there--and +fallen--at the very outset. Surely it is a nobler view of life that we +may yet by our own strenuous exertions raise our race some places higher +in the endless and limitless hierarchy of nature than that we are the +miserable and hopelessly degenerate descendants of a ruined and degraded +angelic progenitor. Surely it is well, while we boast with Glaucus that +we indeed are far braver and better than our ancestors, to pray at the +same time, in the words of Hector, that our sons may be yet braver and +better than ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE THEORY OF COURTSHIP. + + +In the same volumes with the 'Descent of Man' Darwin included his +admirable treatise on sexual selection. This form of selection he had +already dealt with briefly in the 'Origin of Species;' but as in his +opinion it was largely instrumental in producing the minor differences +which separate one race of men from another, he found it necessary to +enlarge and expand it in connection with his account of the rise and +progress of the human species. + +Among many animals, and especially in the higher classes of animals, the +males and females do not mate together casually; there is a certain +amount of selection or of courtship. In some cases, as with deer and +antelopes, the males fight with one another for the possession of the +females. In other cases, as with the peacock and the humming-birds, the +males display their beauty and their skill before the eyes of the +assembled females. In the first instance, the victor obtains the mates; +in the second instance, the mates themselves select from the group the +handsomest and most personally pleasing competitor. Sexual selection, of +which these are special cases, depends on the advantage possessed by +certain individuals over others of the same sex and species solely in +respect to the question of mating. In all such instances, the males have +acquired their weapons of offence and defence or their ornamental +decorations, not from being better fitted to survive in the struggle for +existence, but from having gained an advantage over other males of the +same kind, and from having transmitted this advantage to offspring of +their own sex alone. + +Just as man can improve the breed of his game-cocks by the selection of +those birds which are victorious in the cockpit, so the strongest and +most vigorous males, or those provided with the best weapons, have +prevailed in the state of nature over their feebler and more cowardly +competitors. Just as man can give beauty, according to his own standard +of taste, to his male poultry, by selecting special birds for their +plumage, their port, their wattles, or their hackles, so female birds in +a state of nature have by a long-continued choice of the more attractive +males added to their beauty and their ornamental adjuncts. In these two +ways, Darwin believed, a limited selection has slowly developed weapons +like the horns of buffaloes, the antlers of stags, the tusks of boars, +and the spurs of game-birds, together with the courage, strength, and +pugnacity always associated with such special organs. It has also +developed the ornamental plumage of the peacock, the argus pheasant, and +the birds of paradise; the song of the lark, the thrush, and the +nightingale; the brilliant hues on the face of the mandrill; and the +attractive perfume of the musk-deer, the snakes, and the scented +butterflies. Wherever one sex possesses any decorative or alluring +adjunct not equally shared by the other, Darwin attributed this special +gift either to the law of battle, or to the long and slowly exerted +selective action of their fastidious mates. + +The germ of the doctrine of sexual selection is to be found, like so +many other of Charles Darwin's theories, in a prophetic passage of his +grandfather's 'Zoonomia.' Stags, the Lichfield physician tells us, are +provided with antlers 'for the purpose of combating other stags for the +exclusive possession of the females, who are observed, like the ladies +in the time 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.' + +It must be noticed, however, that Erasmus Darwin here imports into the +question the metaphysical and teleological notion of the final cause, +implying that the struggle of the males was ordained from without, for +this express and preconceived purpose; whereas Charles Darwin, never +transcending the world of phenomena, more logically regards the struggle +itself as an efficient cause, having for its result the survival of the +strongest or the handsomest as the case may be. This distinction is +fundamental; it marks the gulf between the essentially teleological +spirit of the eighteenth century and the essentially positive spirit of +philosophy and science at the present day. + +Here again, too, the immense logical superiority of Charles Darwin's +rigorous and exhaustive inductive method over the loose suggestiveness +of his grandfather Erasmus may easily be observed. For while Erasmus +merely throws out a clever and interesting hint as to the supposed +method and intention of nature, Charles Darwin proves his thesis, point +by point, with almost mathematical exactitude, leaving no objection +unmet behind him, but giving statistical and inductive warrant for every +step in his cumulative argument. He goes carefully into the numerical +proportion of the two sexes in various species; into the relative dates +of arrival in any particular country of the males and females of +migratory birds; into the question whether any individuals ever remain +in the long run unpaired; into the chances of the earliest-mated or most +vigorous couples leaving behind more numerous or stronger offspring to +represent them in the next generation. He collects from every quarter +and from all sources whatever available evidence can be obtained as to +the courtship and rivalry of birds and butterflies, of deer and +antelopes, of fish and lizards. He shows by numerous examples and +quotations how even flies coquet together in their pretty rhythmical +aerial dances; how wasps battle eagerly with one another to secure +possession of their unconcerned mates; how cicadas strive to win their +'voiceless brides' with stridulating music; how sphinx-moths endeavour +to allure their partners with the musky odour of their pencilled wings; +and how emperors and orange-tips display their gorgeous spots and bands +in the broad sunshine before the admiring and attentive eyes of their +observant dames. He traces up the same spirit of rivalry and ostentation +to the cock-pheasant strutting about before the attendant hen, and to +the meeting-places of the blackcock, where all the males of the district +fight with one another and undertake long love-dances in regular +tournaments, while the females stand by and watch the chances and +changes of the contest with affected indifference. Finally, he points +out how similar effects are produced by like causes among the higher +animals, especially among our near relations the monkeys; and then he +proceeds to apply the principles thus firmly grounded to the particular +instance of the human race itself, the primary object of his entire +treatise. + +Some of the most interesting of the modifications due to this particular +form of selective action are to be found amongst the insects and other +low types of animal life. The crickets, the locusts, and the +grasshoppers, for example, are all famous for their musical powers; but +the sounds themselves are produced in the different families by very +different and quaintly varied organs. The song of the crickets is evoked +by the scraping of minute teeth on the under side of either wing-cover; +in the case of the locusts, the left wing, which acts as a bow, overlies +the right wing, which serves as a fiddle; while with the grasshoppers, +the leg does duty as the musical instrument, and has a row of +lancet-shaped elastic knobs along its outer surface, which the insect +rubs across the nerves of the wing-covers when it wishes to charm the +ears and rouse the affection of its silent mate. In a South African +species of the same family, the whole body of the male is fairly +converted into a musical instrument, being immensely inflated, hollow, +and distended like a pellucid air-bladder in order to act as an +efficient sounding-board. Among the beetles, taste seems generally to +have specialised itself rather on form than on music or colour, and the +males are here usually remarkable for their singular and very +complicated horns, often compared in various species to those of stags +or rhinoceroses, and entirely absent in the females of most kinds. But +it is among the butterflies and moths that insect aestheticism has +produced its greatest artistic triumphs; for here the beautiful +eye-spots and delicate markings on the expanded wing-membranes are +almost certainly due to sexual selection. + +The higher animals display like evidence of the same slow selective +action. The courtship of the stickleback, who dances 'mad with delight' +around the mate he has allured into the nest he prepares for her, has +been observed by dozens of observers both before and since in the +domestic aquarium. The gem-like colours of the male dragonet, the +butterfly wings of certain gurnards, and the decorated tails of some +exotic carps all point in the same direction. Our own larger newt is +adorned during the breeding season with a serrated crest edged with +orange; while in the smaller kind the colours of the body acquire at the +same critical period of love-making a vivid brilliancy. The strange +horns and luridly coloured throat-pouches of tropical lizards are +familiar to all visitors in equatorial climates, and they are confined +exclusively to the male sex. Among birds, the superior beauty of the +male plumage is known to everybody; and their greatest glory invariably +coincides with the special season for the selection of mates. In the +spring, as even our poets have told us, the wanton lapwing gets himself +another crest. The law of battle produces the spur of the game-birds and +the still stranger wing-spurs of certain species of the plover kind. +AEsthetic rivalry is answerable rather for vocal music, and for the +plumage of the umbrella-bird, the lyre-bird, the humming-birds, and the +cock of the rocks. Among mammals, strength rather than beauty seems to +have carried the day; horns, and tusks, and spikes, and antlers are here +the special guerdon of the victorious males. Yet even mammals show +occasional signs of distinctly aesthetic and artistic preferences, as in +the gracefully twisted horns of the koodoo, the scent-glands of the +musk-deer or of certain antelopes, the brilliant hues of the male +mandrill, and the tufts and moustaches of so many monkeys. + +It must be frankly conceded that the reception accorded to Darwin's +doctrine of sexual selection, even among the biological public, was far +less unanimous, enthusiastic, and full than that which had been granted +to his more extensive theory of survival of the fittest. Many eminent +naturalists declined from the very outset to accept the conclusions thus +definitely set before them, and others who at first seemed disposed to +bow to the immense weight of Darwin's supreme authority gradually +withdrew their grudging assent from the new doctrine, as they found +their relapse backed up by others, and refused to believe that the +theory of courtship had been fairly proven before the final tribunal of +science. Several critics began by objecting that the whole theory was a +mere afterthought. Darwin, they said, finding that natural selection +did not suffice by itself to explain all the details of structure in +man, had invented sexual selection as a supplementary principle to help +it over the hard places. Those who wrote and spoke in this thoughtless +fashion could have had but a very inadequate idea of Darwin's close +experimental methods of enquiry. As a matter of fact, indeed, they were +entirely wrong; the doctrine of sexual selection itself, already faintly +foreshadowed by Erasmus Darwin in the 'Zoonomia,' had been distinctly +developed in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species' with at least +as much provisional elaboration as any other equally important factor in +the biological drama as set forth in that confessedly introductory work. +Nay, Haeckel had caught gladly at the luminous conception there +expressed, even before the appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' and had +worked it out in his 'Generelle Morphologie,' with great insight, to its +legitimate conclusions in many directions. Indeed, the sole reason why +so much space was devoted to the subject in Darwin's work on human +development was simply because there for the first time an opportunity +arose of utilising his vast store of collected information on this +single aspect of the evolutionary process. It was no afterthought, but a +necessary and inevitable component element of the fully-developed +evolutionary concept. + +Still, it cannot be denied that naturalists generally did not accept +with effusion the new clause in the evolutionary creed. Many of them +hesitated; a few acquiesced; the majority more or less openly dissented. +But Darwin's belief remained firm as a rock. 'I am glad you defend +sexual selection,' he wrote a few years later in a private letter; 'I +have no fear about its ultimate fate, though it is now at a discount;' +and in the preface to the second edition of the 'Descent of Man,' he +remarks acutely, 'I have been struck with the likeness of many of the +half-favourable criticisms on sexual selection with those which appeared +at first on natural selection; such as that it would explain some few +details, but certainly was not applicable to the extent to which I have +employed it. My conviction of the power of sexual selection remains +unshaken.... When naturalists have become familiar with the idea, it +will, as I believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has already +been fully and favourably received by several capable judges.' + +In spite of the still continued demurrer of not a few among the leading +evolutionists, it is probable, I think, that Darwin's prophecy on this +matter will yet be justified by the verdict of time. For the opposition +to the doctrine of sexual selection proceeds almost invariably, as it +seems to me, from those persons who still desire to erect an efficient +barrier of one sort or another between the human and animal worlds; +while on the contrary the theory in question is almost if not quite +universally accepted by just those rigorously evolutionary biologists +who are freest from preconceptions or special _a priori_ teleological +objections of any kind whatever. The half of the doctrine which deals +with the law of battle, indeed, can hardly be doubted by any competent +naturalist; the other half, which deals with the supposed aesthetic +preferences of the females, is, no doubt, distasteful to certain +thinkers because it seems to imply the existence in the lower animals of +a sense of beauty which many among us are not even now prepared +generously to admit. The desire to arrogate to mankind alone all the +higher faculties either of sense or intellect has probably much to do +with the current disinclination towards the Darwinian idea of sexual +selection. Thinkers who allow themselves to be emotionally swayed by +such extraneous considerations forget that the beautiful is merely that +which pleases; that beauty has no external objective existence; and that +the range of taste, both among ourselves and among animals at large, is +practically infinite. The greatest blow ever aimed at the Darwinian +theory of sexual selection was undoubtedly that dealt out by Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace (et tu, Brute!) in his able and subtle article on the +Colours of Animals in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' since reprinted in his +delightful work on 'Tropical Nature.' Wallace there urges with his usual +acuteness, ingenuity, and skill several fundamental objections to the +Darwinian hypothesis of no little importance and weight. But it must +always be remembered (with all due respect to the joint discoverer of +natural selection) that Mr. Wallace himself, after publishing his own +admirable essay on the development of man, drew back aghast in the end +from the full consequences of his own admission, and uttered his partial +recantation in the singular words, 'Natural selection could only have +endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape.' It +seems probable that in every case an analogous desire to erect a firm +barrier between man and brute by positing the faculty for perceiving +beauty as a special quasi-divine differentia of the human race has been +at the bottom of the still faintly surviving dislike amongst a section +of scientific men to sexual selection. Nevertheless, a candid and +impartial critic would be compelled frankly to admit that Darwin's +admirable theory of courtship has not on the whole proved so generally +acceptable to the biological world up to the present time as his greater +and far more comprehensive theory of survival of the fittest. It still +waits for its final recognition, towards which it is progressing more +rapidly and surely every day it lives. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +VICTORY AND REST. + + +The last eleven years of Darwin's life were spent in enforcing and +developing the principles already reached, and in enjoying the almost +unchequered progress of the revolution he had so unconsciously to +himself succeeded in inaugurating. + +Only one year elapsed between the publication of the 'Descent of Man' +and that of its next important successor, the 'Expression of the +Emotions.' The occasion of this learned and bulky treatise in itself +stands as an immortal proof of the conscientious way in which Darwin +went to work to anticipate the slightest and most comparatively +impertinent possible objections to his main theories. Sir Charles Bell, +in one of the quaintly antiquated Bridgwater treatises--those marvellous +monuments of sadly misplaced teleological ingenuity--had maintained that +man was endowed with sundry small facial muscles solely for the sake of +expressing his emotions. This view was so obviously opposed to the +belief in the descent of man from some lower form, 'that,' says Darwin, +'it was necessary for me to consider it;' and so he did, in a lengthy +work, where the whole subject is exhaustively treated, and Bell's idea +is completely pulverised by the apt allegation of analogous expressions +in the animal world. In his old age Darwin grew, in fact, only the more +ceaselessly and wonderfully industrious. In 1875, after three years of +comparative silence, came the 'Insectivorous Plants,' a work full of +minute observation on the habits and manners of the sundew, the +butterwort, the Venus's fly-catcher, and the various heterogeneous +bog-haunting species known by the common name of pitcher plants. The +bare mass and weight of the facts which Darwin had collected for the +'Origin of Species' might well-nigh have stifled the very existence of +that marvellous book: it was lucky that the premature publication of +Wallace's paper compelled him to hurry on his 'brief abstract,' for if +he had waited to select and arrange the whole series of observations +that he finally published in his various later justificatory volumes, we +might have looked in vain for the great systematic and organising work, +which would no doubt have been 'surcharged with its own weight, and +strangled with its waste fertility.' But the task that he himself best +loved was to watch in minute detail the principles whose secret he had +penetrated, and whose reserve he had broken, working themselves out +before his very eyes, naked and not ashamed--to catch Actaeon-like the +undraped form of nature herself in the actual process of her inmost +being. He could patiently observe the red and slimy hair-glands of the +drosera closing slowly and remorselessly round the insect prey, and +sucking from their bodies with sensitive tentacles the protoplasmic +juices denied to its leaves by the poor and boggy soil, on which alone +its scanty rootlets can properly thrive. He could watch the butterwort +curving round the edges of its wan green foliage upon the captured limbs +of fly or aphis. He could note how the serried mass of finger-like +processes in the utricles of the bladderwort slowly absorb organic +matter from the larva of a gnat, or the minute water-insects entangled +within its living and almost animated lobster-pot. He could track the +long line of treacherous honey-glands by which the sarracenia entices +flies into the festering manure-wells of its sticky pitchers. The +minuteness and skill of all his observations on these lesser problems of +natural selection inevitably inspired faith among outsiders in the +cautious judgment of the observer and experimenter; and day by day +throughout his later years the evidence of the popular acceptance of his +doctrine, and of the dying away of the general ridicule with which it +was first received by the unlearned public, was very gratifying to the +great naturalist. + +A year later, in 1876, came the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation +in the Vegetable Kingdom.' So far as regarded the world of plants, +especially with respect to its higher divisions, this work was of +immense theoretical importance; and it also cast a wonderful side-light +upon the nature of that strange distinction of sex which occurs both in +the vegetable and animal kingdom, and in each is the concomitant--one +might almost say the necessary concomitant--of high development and +complex organisation. The great result attained by Darwin in his long +and toilsome series of experiments on this interesting subject was the +splendid proof of the law that cross-fertilisation produces finer and +healthier offspring, while continuous self-fertilisation tends in the +long run to degradation, degeneration, and final extinction. + +Here as elsewhere, however, Darwin's principle does not spring +spontaneous, like Athene from the head of Zeus, a goddess full-formed, +uncaused, inexplicable: it arises gradually by a slow process of +development and modification from the previous investigations of earlier +biologists. At the close of the last century, in the terrible year of +upheaval 1793, a quiet German botanist, Christian Konrad Sprengel by +name, published at Berlin his long unheeded but intensely interesting +work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers.' In the summer of 1789, while all +Europe was ablaze with the news that the Bastille had been stormed, and +a new era of humanity begun, the calm and peaceful Pomeranian observer +was noting in his own garden the curious fact that many flowers are +incapable of being fertilised without the assistance of flying insects, +which carry pollen from the stamens of one blossom to the sensitive +surface or ovary of the next. Hence he concluded that the secretion of +honey or nectar in flowers, the contrivances by which it is protected +from rain, the bright hues or lines of the corolla, and the sweet +perfume distilled by the blossoms, are all so many cunning devices of +nature to ensure fertilisation by the insect-visitors. Moreover, +Sprengel observed that many flowers are of one sex only, and that in +several others the sexes do not mature simultaneously; 'so that,' said +he, 'nature seems to intend that no flower shall be fertilised by means +of its own pollen.' Indeed, in some instances, as he showed by +experiments upon the yellow day lily, plants impregnated from their own +stamens cannot be made to set seed at all. 'So near,' says his able +successor, Hermann Mueller, 'was Sprengel to the distinct recognition of +the fact that self-fertilisation leads to worse results than +cross-fertilisation, and that all the arrangements which favour +insect-visits are of value to the plant itself, simply because the +insect-visitors effect cross-fertilisation!' As in most other +anticipatory cases, however, it must be here remarked that Sprengel's +idea was wholly teleological: he conceived of nature as animated by a +direct informing principle, which deliberately aimed at a particular +result; whereas Darwin rather came to the conclusion that +cross-fertilisation as a matter of fact does actually produce beneficial +results, and that therefore those plants which varied most in the +direction of arrangements for favouring insect-visits were likely to be +exceptionally fortunate in the struggle for existence against +competitors otherwise arranged. It is just the usual Darwinian +substitution of an efficient for a final cause. + +Even before Sprengel, Koelreuter had recognised, in 1761, that +self-fertilisation was avoided in nature; and his observations and +experiments on intercrossing and on hybridism were largely relied upon +by Darwin himself, to whom they suggested at an early period many +fruitful lines of original investigation. In 1799, again, Andrew Knight, +following up the same line of thought in England as Sprengel in Germany, +declared as the result of his close experiments upon the garden pea, +that no plant ever fertilises itself for a perpetuity of generations. +But Knight's law, not being brought into causal connection with any +great fundamental principle of nature, was almost entirely overlooked by +the scientific world until the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of +Species,' half a century later. The same neglect also overtook +Sprengel's immensely interesting and curious work on fertilisation of +flowers. The world, in fact, was not yet ready for the separate +treatment of functional problems connected with the interrelations of +organic beings; so Knight and Sprengel were laid aside unnoticed on the +dusty top bookshelves of public libraries, while the dry classificatory +and systematic biology of the moment had it ail its own way for the time +being on the centre reading-tables. So many separate and independent +strands of thought does it ultimately require to make up the grand final +generalisation which the outer world attributes in its totality to the +one supreme organising intelligence. + +But in the 'Origin of Species' itself Darwin reiterated and emphasised +Knight's law as a general and all-pervading principle of nature, placing +it at the same time on broader and surer biological foundations by +affiliating it intimately upon his own great illuminating and unifying +doctrine of natural selection. He also soon after rescued from oblivion +Sprengel's curious and fairy-like book, showing in full detail in his +work on orchids the wonderful contrivances by which flowers seek to +attract and to secure the assistance of insects for the impregnation of +their embryo seeds. In the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication,' he further showed that breeding in-and-in diminishes the +strength and productiveness of the offspring; while crossing with +another stock produces, on the contrary, the best possible physical +results in both directions. And now at last, in the 'Effects of Cross +and Self fertilisation,' he proved by careful and frequently repeated +experiments that a constant infusion of fresh blood (so to speak) is +essential to the production of the healthiest offspring. In the words of +his own emphatic summing up, 'Nature abhors perpetual +self-fertilisation.' + +The immediate result of these new statements and this fresh rationale of +Knight's law was to bring down Sprengel forthwith from the top shelf, +where he had languished ingloriously for seventy years, and to set a +whole school of ardent botanical observers working hard in the lines he +had laid down upon the mutual correlations of insects and flowers. A +vast literature sprang up at once upon this enchanting and +long-neglected subject, the most eminent workers in the rediscovered +field being Delpino in Italy, Hildebrand and Hermann Mueller in Germany, +Axel in Sweden, Lubbock in England, and Fritz Mueller in tropical South +America. Darwin found the question, in fact, almost taken out of his +hands before he had time himself to treat of it; for Hildebrand's chief +work was published as early as 1867, while Axel's appeared in 1869, both +of them several years earlier than Darwin's own final essay on the +subject in the 'Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation.' No statement, +perhaps, could more clearly mark the enormous impetus given to +researches in this direction than the fact that D'Arcy Thompson, in his +appendix to Mueller's splendid work on the 'Fertilisation of Flowers,' +has collected a list of no less than eight hundred and fourteen separate +works or important papers bearing on that special department of botany, +almost all of them subsequent in date to the first publication of the +'Origin of Species.' So widely did the Darwinian wave extend, and so +profoundly did it affect every minute point of biological and +psychological investigation. + +Each of these later works of Darwin's consists, as a rule, of an +expansion of some single chapter or paragraph in the 'Origin of +Species;' or, to speak more correctly, of an arrangement of the +materials collected and the experiments designed for that particular +portion of the great projected encyclopaedia of evolutionism, of which +the 'Origin of Species' itself was but a brief anticipatory summary or +rough outline. Thus, the book on Orchids, published in 1862, is already +foreshadowed in a part of the chapter on the Difficulties of the Theory +of Natural Selection; the 'Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants' +(1865) is briefly summarised by anticipation in the long section on +Modes of Transition; the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication' (1868) consists of the vast array of _pieces +justificatives_ for the first chapter of the 'Origin of Species;' and +the germ of the 'Cross and Self Fertilisation' (1876) is to be seen in +the passage 'On the Intercrossing of Individuals' in Chapter IV. of the +same work. It was well indeed that Darwin began by publishing the +shorter and more manageable abstract; the half, as the wise Greek +proverb shrewdly remarks, is often more than the whole; and a world that +eagerly devoured the first great deliverance of the Darwinian principle, +might have stood aghast had it been asked to swallow it piecemeal in +such gigantic treatises as those with which its author afterwards sought +thrice to vanquish all his foes and thrice to slay the slain. + +Yet, with each fresh manifestation of Darwin's inexhaustible resources, +on the other hand, the opposition to his principles grew feebler and +feebler, and the universality of their acceptance more and more +pronounced, till at last, among biologists at least, not to be a +Darwinian was equivalent to being hopelessly left behind by the general +onward movement of the time. In 1874 Tyndall delivered his famous +address at the Belfast meeting of the British Association; and in 1877, +from the same presidential chair at Plymouth, Allen Thomson, long +reputed a doubtful waverer, enforced his cordial adhesion to the +Darwinian principles by his inaugural discourse on 'The Development of +the Forms of Animal Life.' A new generation of active workers, trained +up from the first in the evolutionary school, like Romanes, Ray +Lankester, Thistleton Dyer, Balfour, Sully, and Moggridge, had now risen +gradually around the great master; and in every direction he could see +the seed he had himself planted being watered and nourished in fresh +soil by a hundred ardent and enthusiastic young disciples. Even in +France, ever irresponsive to the touch of new ideas of alien origin, +Colonel Moulinie's admirable and sympathetic translations were beginning +to win over to the evolutionary creed many rising workers; while in +Germany, Victor Carus's excellent versions had from the very first +brought in the enthusiastic Teutonic biologists with a congenial +'swarmery' to the camp of the Darwinians. Correspondents from every part +of the world kept pressing fresh facts and fresh applications upon the +founder of the faith; and Darwin saw his own work so fast being taken +out of his hands by specialist disciples that he abandoned entirely his +original intention of publishing in detail the basis of his first book, +and contented himself instead with tracing out minutely some minor +portions of his contemplated task as specimens of evolutionary method. + +In 1877, in pursuance of this changed purpose, Darwin published his book +on 'Forms of Flowers,' in which he dealt closely with the old problem of +differently shaped blossoms on plants of the same species. It had long +been known, to take a single example, that primroses existed in two +forms, the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, of which the former has the +pin-like summit of the pistil at the top of the tube, and the stamens +concealed half way down its throat; while in the latter these relative +positions are exactly reversed, the stamens answering in place to the +pistil of the alternative form with geometrical accuracy. As early as +1862 Darwin had shown, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' that +this curious arrangement owed its development to the greater security +which it afforded for cross-fertilisation, because in this way each +flower had to be impregnated with the pollen, from a totally distinct +blossom, growing on a different individual plant. In a series of +successive papers read before the same Society in the years between 1863 +and 1868, he had extended a similar course of explanation to the +multiform flowers of the flaxes, the loosestrifes, the featherfoil, the +auricula, the buckbean, and several other well-known plants. At last, in +1877, he gathered together into one of the now familiar green-covered +volumes the whole of his observations on this strange peculiarity, and +proved by abundant illustration and experiment that the diversity of +form is always due through natural selection to the advantage gained by +perfect security of cross-fertilisation, resulting as it invariably does +in the production of the finest, strongest, and most successful +seedlings. Any variation, however peculiar, which helps to ensure this +constant infusion of fresh blood is certain to be favoured in the +struggle for life, owing to the superior vitality of the stock it +begets. But it is worthy of notice, as showing the extreme minuteness +and exhaustiveness of Darwin's method on the small scale, side by side +with his extraordinary and unusual power of rising to the very highest +and grandest generalisations, that the volume which he devoted to the +elucidation of this minor factor in the question of hereditary +advantages runs to nearly as many pages as the last edition of the +'Origin of Species' itself. So great was the wealth of observation and +experiment which he could lavish upon the solution of a single, small, +incidental problem. + +Even fuller in minute original research was the work which Darwin +published in 1880, on 'The Power of Movement in Plants,' detailing the +result of innumerable observations on the seemingly irresponsible yet +almost purposive rotations of the growing rootlets and young stems of +peas and climbers. Anyone who wishes to see on what a wide foundation of +irrefragable fact the great biologist built up the stately fabric of his +vast theories cannot do better than turn for instruction to this +remarkable volume, which the old naturalist gave to the world some time +after passing the allotted span of threescore years and ten. + +It was in the same year (1880) that Huxley delivered at the Royal +Institution his famous address on the Coming of Age of the 'Origin of +Species.' The time was a favourable one for reviewing the silent and +almost unobserved progress of a great revolution. Twenty-one years had +come and gone since the father of modern scientific evolutionism had +launched upon the world his tentative work. In those twenty-one years +the thought of humanity had been twisted around as upon some invisible +pivot, and a new heaven and a new earth had been presented to the eyes +of seers and thinkers. One-and-twenty years before, despite the +influence of Hutton and of Lyell, the dominant view of the earth's past +history revealed but one vast and lawless succession of hideous +catastrophes. Wholesale creations and wholesale extinctions, world-wide +cataclysms followed by fresh world-wide births of interwoven faunas and +floras--these, said Huxley, were the ordinary machinery of the +geological epic brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of the +mighty Cuvier. One-and-twenty years after, the opponents themselves had +given up the game in its fullest form as lost beyond the hope of +possible restitution. Some hesitating thinkers, it is true, while +accepting the evolutionary doctrine more or less in its earlier form, +like Mivart and Meehan, yet refused their assent on one ground or +another to the specific Darwinian doctrine of natural selection. Others, +like Wallace, made a special exception with regard to the development of +the human species, which they supposed to be due to other causes from +those implied in the remainder of the organic scale. Yet on the whole, +biological science had fairly carried the day in favour of evolution, in +one form or another, and not even the cavillers dared now to suggest +that whole systems of creation had been swept away _en bloc_, and remade +again in different forms for a succeeding epoch, in accordance with the +belief which was almost universal among geologists up to the exact +moment of the publication of Darwin's masterpiece. + +During the twenty-one years, too, as Huxley likewise pointed out, an +immense number of new facts had come to strengthen the hands of the +evolutionists at the very point where they had before felt themselves +most openly vulnerable. Palaeontology had supplied many of those missing +links in the organic chain whose absence from the interrupted and +imperfect geological record had been loudly alleged against the +Darwinian hypothesis in the earlier days of struggle and hesitation. Two +years after the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' the discovery of +a winged and feathered creature, happily preserved for us in the +Solenhofen slates, with lizard-like head and teeth and tail, and +bird-like pinions, feet, and breast, had bridged over in part the great +gap that yawns between the existing birds and reptiles. A few years +later, new fossil reptilian forms, erect on their hind legs like +kangaroos, and with very singular peculiarities of bony structure, had +helped still further to show the nature of the modifications by which +the scale-bearing quadruped type passed slowly into that of the +feather-bearing biped. In 1875, again, Professor Marsh's discovery of +the toothed birds in the American cretaceous strata completed the +illustrative series of transitional forms over what had once been the +most remarkable existing break in the continuity of organic development. +Similarly, Hofmeister's investigations in the vegetable world brought +close together the flowering and flowerless plants, by indicating that +the ferns and the horsetails were connected in curious unforeseen ways, +through the pill-worts and club-mosses, with the earliest and simplest +of forest trees, the firs and the puzzle-monkeys. In minor matters like +progress was continually reported on every side. Gaudry found among the +fossils of Attica the successive stages by which the ancient and +undeveloped civets passed into the more modern and specialised tribe of +the hyaenas; Marsh traced out in Western America the ancestry of the +horse from a five-toed creature no bigger than a fox, through +intermediate four-toed and three-toed forms, to the existing single +solid-hoofed type with its digits reduced to the minimum of unity; and +Filhol unearthed among the phosphorites of Quercy the common progenitor +of the most distinct among the recent carnivores, the cats and the dogs, +the plantigrade bears and the digitigrade pumas. 'So far as the animal +world is concerned,' Professor Huxley said in conclusion, reviewing +these additions to the evidence upon that memorable occasion, 'evolution +is no longer a speculation but a statement of historical fact.' Of +Darwin himself he remarked truly, 'He has lived long enough to outlast +detraction and opposition, and to see the stone that the builders +rejected become the head-stone of the corner.' + +It was in 1881 that Darwin published his last volume, 'The Formation of +Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.' In this singularly +fascinating and interesting monograph he took in hand one of the +lowliest and humblest of living forms, the common earthworm, and by an +exhaustive study of its habits and manners strove to show how the +entire existence of vegetable mould--the ordinary covering of fertile +soil upon the face of the earth--is due to the long but unobtrusive +action of these little-noticed and ever-active architects. By the acids +which they evolve, they appear to aid largely in the disintegration of +the stone beneath the surface; by their constant practice of eating +fallen leaves, which they drag down with them into their subterranean +burrows, they produce the fine castings of soft earth, so familiar to +everybody, and thus reinstate the coating of humus above the bare rock +as often as it is washed away again in the course of ordinary denudation +by the rain and the torrents. It is true that subsequent investigation +has shown the possibility of vegetable mould existing under certain +conditions without the intervention of worms to any marked extent; but, +as a whole, there can be little doubt that over most parts of the world +the presence of soil, and therefore of the vegetable growth rooted in +it, is entirely due to the unsuspected yet ceaseless activity of these +humble creatures. + +The germ of the earthworm theory appears to me to have been first +suggested to Darwin's mind by a passage in a work where one would little +have suspected it--White's 'Natural History of Selborne.' 'Earthworms,' +says the idyllic Hampshire naturalist, 'though in appearance a small and +despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a +lamentable chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some +quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to +be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely +without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and +rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing +straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up +such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being +their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably +provide new soils for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth +away; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. +Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former, +because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and +the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But +these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become +cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and, consequently, sterile.' + +If Darwin ever read this interesting passage, which he almost certainly +must at some time have done, it would appear that he had overlooked it +in later life; for he, who was habitually so candid and careful in the +acknowledgment of all his obligations, however great or however small, +does not make any mention of it at all in his 'Vegetable Mould,' though +he alludes incidentally to some other observations of Gilbert White's on +the minor habits and manners of earthworms. But whether Darwin was +originally indebted to White or not for the foundation of his theory on +the subject of mould, the important point to notice is really this, that +what with the observant parson of Selborne was but a casual glimpse, the +mere passing suggestion of a fruitful idea, became with Darwin, in his +wider fashion, a carefully elaborated and powerfully buttressed theory, +supported by long and patient investigation, ample experiment, and vast +collections of minute facts. The difference is strikingly characteristic +of the strong point of Darwin's genius. While he had all the breadth and +universality of the profoundest thinkers, he had also all the marvellous +and inexhaustible patience of the most precise and special microscopical +student. + +For years, indeed, Darwin studied the ways and instincts of the common +earthworm with the same close and accurate observation which he gave to +every other abstruse subject that engaged in any way his acute +intellect. The lawyer's maxim, 'De minimis lex non curat,' he used to +say, never truly applies to science. As early as the year 1837 he read a +paper, before the Geological Society of London, 'On the Formation of +Mould,' in which he developed with some fulness the mother idea of his +complete theory on the earthworm question. He there showed that layers +of cinders, marl, or ashes, which had been strewn thickly over the +surface of meadows, were found a few years after at a depth of some +inches beneath the turf, yet still forming in spite of their burial a +regular and fairly horizontal stratum. This apparent sinking of the +stones, he believed, was due to the quantity of fine earth brought up to +the surface by worms in the form of castings. It was objected to his +theory at the time that the work supposed to be accomplished by the +worms was out of all reasonable proportion to the size and numbers of +the alleged actors. Here Darwin's foot was on his native heath; he felt +himself immediately on solid ground again. The cumulative importance of +separately infinitesimal elements is indeed the very keynote and special +peculiarity of the great biologist's method of thinking. He had found +out in very truth that many a little makes a mickle, that the infinitely +small, infinitely repeated, may become in process of infinite years +infinitely important. So he set himself to work, with characteristic +contempt of time, to weigh and measure worms and worm-castings. + +He began by keeping tame earthworms in flower-pots in his own house, +counting the number of worms and burrows in certain measured spaces of +pasture or garden, and starting his long and slow experiment in his +field at Down already alluded to. He tried issues on their senses, on +their instincts, on their emotions, on their intelligence; he watched +them darting wildly like rabbits into their holes when alarmed from +without, overcoming engineering difficulties in dragging down +oddly-shaped or unfamiliar leaves, and protecting the open mouths of +their tunnels from intruders with a little defensive military glacis of +rounded pebbles. He found that more than 53,000 worms on an average +inhabit every acre of garden land, and that a single casting sometimes +weighs as much as three ounces avoirdupois. Ten tons of soil per acre +pass annually through their bodies, and mould is thrown up by them at an +average rate of 22 inches in a century. Careful observations on the +stones of Stonehenge; on the tiled floors of buried buildings; on Roman +ruins at Silchester and Wroxeter, and on his own meadows and pastures at +Down, finally enabled the cautious experimenter to prove conclusively +the truth of his thesis, and to present to the world the despised +earthworm in a new character, as the friend of man and of agriculture, +the producer and maintainer of the vegetable mould on our hills or +valleys, and the prime cause of the very existence of that cloak of +greensward that clothes our lawns, our fields, and our pleasure-grounds. + +It was his last work. Persistent ill-health and equally persistent study +for seventy-three years had broken down a constitution never really +strong, and consumed from within by the ceaseless fires of its own +overpowering and undying energy. On Tuesday, April the 18th, 1882, he +was seized at midnight by violent pains, and at four o'clock on +Wednesday afternoon he died suddenly in his son's arms, after a very +short but painful illness. So retired was the family life at Down that +the news of the great biologist's death was not actually known in London +itself till two days after he had breathed his last. + +The universal regret and grief expressed at the loss in all civilised +countries was the best measure of the immense change of front which had +slowly come over the whole educated community, in the twenty-three years +since the first publication of the 'Origin of Species.' No sooner was +Darwin's death announced than all lands and all classes vied with one +another in their eagerness to honour the name and memory of the great +biologist. Indeed, the spontaneous and immediate nature of the outburst +of regret and affectionate regard which followed hard upon the news of +Darwin's death, astonished even those who had watched closely the +extraordinary revolution the man himself had brought so well to its +final consummation. In England, it was felt instinctively on every side +that the great naturalist's proper place was in the aisles of +Westminster, hard by the tomb of Newton, his immortal predecessor. To +this universal and deep-seated feeling Darwin's family regretfully +sacrificed their own natural preference for a quiet interment in the +graveyard at Down. On the Wednesday morning next after his death, +Charles Darwin's remains were borne with unwonted marks, of respect and +ceremony, in the assembled presence of all that was noble and good in +Britain, to an honoured grave in the precincts of the great Abbey. +Wallace and Huxley, Lubbock and Hooker, his nearest peers in the domain +of pure science, stood among the bearers who held the pall. Lowell +represented the republics of America and of letters. Statesmen, and +poets, and philosophers, and theologians mingled with the throng of +scientific thinkers who crowded close around the venerated bier. No +incident of fitting pomp or dignity was wanting as the organ pealed out +in solemn strains the special anthem composed for the occasion, to the +appropriate words of the Hebrew poet, 'Happy is the man that findeth +wisdom.' Even the narrow Philistine intelligence itself, which still +knew Darwin only as the man who thought we were all descended from +monkeys, was impressed with the sole standard of greatness open to its +feeble and shallow comprehension by the mere solemnity and ceremony of +the occasion, and began to enquire with blind wonderment what this +thinker had done whom a whole people thus delighted to honour. + +Of Darwin's pure and exalted moral nature no Englishman of the present +generation can trust himself to speak with becoming moderation. His love +of truth, his singleness of heart, his sincerity, his earnestness, his +modesty, his candour, his absolute sinking of self and +selfishness--these, indeed, are all conspicuous to every reader, on the +very face of every word he ever printed. Like his works themselves, they +must long outlive him. But his sympathetic kindliness, his ready +generosity, the staunchness of his friendship, the width and depth and +breadth of his affections, the manner in which 'he bore with those who +blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return,' these things can +never so well be known to any other generation of men as to the three +generations who walked the world with him. Many even of those who did +not know him loved him like a father; to many who never saw his face, +the hope of winning Charles Darwin's approbation and regard was the +highest incentive to thought and action. Towards younger men, +especially, his unremitting kindness was always most noteworthy: he +spoke and wrote to them, not like one of the masters in Israel, but like +a fellow-worker and seeker after truth, interested in their interests, +pleased at their successes, sympathetic with their failures, gentle to +their mistakes. Not that he ever spared rightful criticism; on the +contrary, the love of truth was with him so overpowering and enthralling +a motive that he pointed out what seemed to him errors or misconceptions +in the work of others with perfect frankness, fully expecting them to be +as pleased and delighted at a suggested amendment of their faulty +writing as he himself was in his own case. But his praise was as +generous as his criticism was frank; and, amid all the toil of his +laborious life in his study at Down, he could always find time to read +and comment at full length upon whatever fresh contributions to his own +subjects the merest tyro might venture to submit for his consideration. +He had the sympathetic receptivity of all truly great minds, and when +he died, thousands upon thousands who had never beheld his serene +features and his fatherly eyes felt they had lost indeed a personal +friend. + +Greatness is not always joined with gentleness: in Charles Darwin's +case, by universal consent of all who knew him, 'an intellect which had +no superior' was wedded to 'a character even nobler than the +intellect.' + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +DARWIN'S PLACE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT. + + +To most people Darwinism and evolution mean one and the same thing. +After what has here been said, however, with regard to the pre-Darwinian +evolutionary movement, and the distinction between the doctrines of +descent with modification and of natural selection, it need hardly be +added that the two are quite separate and separable in thought, even +within the limits of the purely restricted biological order. Darwinism +is only a part of organic evolution; the theory, as a whole, owes much +to Darwin, but it does not owe everything to him alone. There were +biological evolutionists before ever he published the 'Origin of +Species;' there are biological evolutionists even now who refuse to +accept the truth of his great discovery, and who cling firmly to the +primitive faith set forth in earlier and cruder shapes by Erasmus +Darwin, by Lamarck, or by Robert Chambers. + +Much more, then, must Darwinism and the entire theory of organic +development to which it belongs be carefully discriminated, as a part or +factor, from evolution at large, as a universal and all-embracing +cosmical system. That system itself has gradually emerged as a slow +growth of the past two centuries, a progressive development of the +collective scientific and philosophical mind of humanity, not due in its +totality to any one single commanding thinker, but summing itself up at +last in our own time more fully in the person and teaching of Mr. +Herbert Spencer than of any other solitary mouthpiece. Indeed, +intimately as we all now associate the name of Darwin with the word +'evolution,' that term itself (whose vogue is almost entirely due to Mr. +Spencer's influence) was one but rarely found upon Darwin's own lips, +and but rarely written by his own pen. He speaks rather of development +and of natural selection than of evolution: his own concern was more +with its special aspect as biological modification than with its general +aspect as cosmical unfolding. Let us ask, then, from this wider +standpoint of a great and far-reaching mental revolution, what was +Charles Darwin's exact niche in the evolutionary movement of the two +last centuries? + +Evolutionism, as now commonly understood, may be fairly regarded as a +mode of envisaging to ourselves the history of the universe, a tendency +or frame of mind, a temperament, one might almost say, or habit of +thought rather than a definite creed or body of dogmas. The evolutionist +looks out upon the cosmos as a continuous process unfolding itself in +regular order in obedience to definite natural laws. He sees in it all, +not a warring chaos restrained by the constant interference from without +of a wise and beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of +original elements, perpetually working out their own fresh +redistribution, in accordance with their own inherent energies. He +regards the cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material atoms, +animated by an almost infinite sum-total of energy, potential or +kinetic. + +In the very beginning, so far as the mental vision of the astronomer can +dimly pierce with hypothetical glance the abyss of ages, the matter +which now composes the material universe seems to have existed in a +highly diffuse and nebulous condition. The gravitative force, however, +with which every atom of the whole vast mass was primarily endowed, +caused it gradually to aggregate around certain fixed and definite +centres, which became in time the rallying-points or nuclei of future +suns. The primitive potential energy of separation in the atoms of the +mass was changed into actual energy of motion as they drew closer and +closer together about the common centre, and into molecular energy or +heat as they clashed with one another in bodily impact around the +hardening core. Thus arose stars and suns, composed of fiery atomic +clouds in a constant state of progressive concentration, ever +gathering-in the hem of their outer robes on the surface of the solid +globe within, and ever radiating off their store of associated energy to +the impalpable and hypothetical surrounding ether. This, in necessarily +brief and shadowy abstract, is the nebular theory of Kant and Laplace, +as amended and supplemented by the modern doctrine of the correlation +and conservation of energies. + +Applied to the solar system, of which our own planet forms a component +member, the evolutionary doctrine (in its elder shape) teaches us to +envisage that minor group as the final result of a single great diffuse +nebula, which once spread its faint and cloud-like mass with +inconceivable tenuity, at least as far from its centre, now occupied by +the sun's body, as the furthest point in the orbit of Neptune, the +outermost of the yet known planets. From this remote and immense +periphery it has gradually gathered itself in, growing denser and denser +all the time, towards its common core, and has left behind, at irregular +intervals, concentric rings or belts of nebulous matter, which, after +rupturing at their weakest point, have hardened and concentrated round +their own centre of gravity into Jupiter, Saturn, the Earth, or Venus. +The main central body of all, retreating ever within as it dropped in +its course the raw material of the planetary masses, has formed, at +last, the sun, the great ruler and luminary of our system. Much as this +primitive evolutionary concept of the development and history of the +solar system has been modified and altered of late years by recent +researches into the nature of comets and meteors and of the sun's +surface, it still remains for all practical purposes of popular +exposition the best and simplest mental picture of the general type of +astronomical evolution. For the essential point which it impresses upon +the mind is the idea of the planets in their several orbits and with +their attendant satellites as due, not to external design and special +creation, in the exact order in which we now see them, but to the slow +and regular working out of preordained physical laws, in accordance with +which they have each naturally assumed, by pure force of circumstances, +their existing size, and weight, and orbit, and position. + +Geology has applied a similar conception to the origin and becoming of +the earth's material and external features as we now know them. +Accepting from astronomy the notion of our planet's primary condition as +a cooling sphere of incandescent matter, it goes on to show how the two +great envelopes, atmospheric and oceanic, gaseous and liquid, have +gradually formed around its solid core; how the hard crust of the +central mass has been wrinkled and corrugated into mountain chain and +deep-cut valley, uplifted here into elevated table-land or there +depressed into hollow ocean bed; how sediment has slowly gathered on the +floor of the sea, and how volcanic energies or lateral pressure have +subsequently forced up the resulting deposits into Alpine peaks and +massive continents. In this direction, it was Lyell who principally +introduced into science the uniformitarian or evolutionary principle, +who substituted for the frequent cataclysms and fresh beginnings of the +earlier geologists the grand conception of continuous action, producing +from comparatively infinitesimal but cumulative causes effects which at +last attain by accretion the most colossal proportions. + +Here biology next steps in, with its splendid explanation of organic +life, as due essentially to the secondary action of radiated solar +energy on the outer crust of such a cooling and evolving planet. Falling +on the cells of the simplest green plants, the potent sunlight +dissociates the carbon from the oxygen in the carbonic acid floating in +the atmosphere, and builds it up with the hydrogen of water in the +tissues of the organism into starches and other organic products, which +differ from the inert substances around them, mainly by the possession +of locked-up solar energy. On the energy-yielding food-stuffs thus +stored up the animal in turn feeds and battens, reducing what was before +potential into actual motion, just as the steam-engine reduces the +latent solar energy of coal into visible heat and visible movement in +its furnace and its machinery. How the first organism came to exist +biology has not yet been able fully to explain for us; but aided by +chemical science it has been able to show us in part how some of the +simpler organic bodies may have been originally built up, and it does +not despair of showing us in the end how the earliest organism may +actually have been produced from the prime elements of oxygen, hydrogen, +nitrogen, and carbon. Into this most fundamental of biological problems, +however, Darwin himself, with his constitutional caution and dread of +speculative theorising, was not careful or curious to enter. Even upon +the far less abstruse and hypothetical question, whether all life took +its prime origin from a single starting-point or from several distinct +and separate tribal ancestors, he hardly cared so much as to hazard a +passing speculation. With splendid self-restraint he confined his +attention almost entirely to the more manageable and practical problem +of the origin of species by natural selection, which lay then and there +open for solution before him. Taking for granted the existence of the +original organism or group of organisms, the fact of reproduction, and +the tendency of such reproduction to beget increase in a geometrical +ratio, he deduced from these elementary given factors the necessary +corollary of survival of the fittest, with all its marvellous and +far-reaching implications of adaptation to the environment and specific +distinctions. By doing so, he rendered conceivable the mechanism of +evolution in the organic world, thus bringing another great aspect of +external nature within the range of the developmental as opposed to the +miraculous philosophy of the cosmos. + +Psychology, once more, in the hands of Herbert Spencer and his +followers, not wholly unaided by Darwin himself, has extended the +self-same evolutionary treatment to the involved and elusive phenomena +of mind, and has shown how from the simplest unorganised elements of +feeling, the various mental powers and faculties as we now know them, +both on the intellectual and on the emotional side, have been slowly +built up in the long and ever-varying interaction between the sentient +organism and the natural environment. It has traced the first faint +inception of a nervous system as a mere customary channel of +communication between part and part; the gradual growth of fibre and +ganglion; the vague beginnings of external sense-organ and internal +brain; the final perfection of eye and ear, of sight and hearing, of +pleasure and pain, of intellect and volition. It has thus done for the +subjective or mental half of our complex nature what biology, as +conceived by Darwin, has done for the physical or purely organic half; +it has traced the origin and development of mind, without a single +break, from its first faint and half-unconscious manifestation in the +polyp or the jelly-fish to its final grand and varied outcome in the +soul of the poet or the intellect of the philosopher. + +Finally, sociology has applied the evolutionary method to the origin and +rise of human societies, with their languages, customs, arts, and +institutions, their governmental organisation and their ecclesiastical +polity. Taking from biology the evolving savage, viewed as a developed +and highly gifted product of the anthropoid stock, it has shown by what +stages and through what causes he has slowly aggregated into tribes and +nations; has built up his communal, polygamic, or monogamic family; has +learnt the use of fire, of implements, of pottery, of metals; has +developed the whole resources of oral speech and significant gesture; +has invented writing, pictorial or alphabetic; has grown up to science, +to philosophy, to morals, and to religion. The chief honours of this +particular line of enquiry, the latest and youngest of all to receive +the impact of the evolutionary impulse, belong mainly to Tylor, Lubbock, +and Spencer in England, and to Haeckel, De Mortillet, and Wagner on the +continent. + +In the sublime conception of the external universe and its present +workings which we thus owe to the independent efforts of so many great +progressive thinkers, and which has here been briefly and inadequately +sketched out, Darwin's work in life falls naturally into its own place +as the principal contribution to the evolutionary movement in the +special biological department of thought. Within the more limited range +of that department itself, the evolutionary impulse did not owe its +origin to Charles Darwin personally; it took its rise with Erasmus +Darwin, Buffon, and Lamarck, and it derived from our great modern +English naturalist its final explanation and definitive proof alone. But +just as the evolutionary movement in astronomy and cosmical thought is +rightly associated in all our minds with the mighty theories of Kant, +Laplace, and Herschel; just as the evolutionary movement in geology is +rightly associated with the far lesser yet brilliant and effective +personality of Lyell; just as the evolutionary movement in the +derivative sciences is rightly associated with so many great still +living thinkers; so the evolutionary movement in biology in particular +rightly sums itself up in the honoured name of Charles Darwin. For what +others suspected, he was the first to prove; where others speculated, he +was the first to observe, to experiment, to demonstrate, and to +convince. + +It should be noted, too, that while to us who come after, the great +complex evolutionary movement of the two last centuries justly reveals +itself as one and indivisible, a single grand cosmical drama, having +many acts and many scenes, but all alike inspired by one informing and +pervading unity, yet to those whose half unconscious co-operation slowly +built it up by episodes, piecemeal, each act and each scene unrolled +itself separately as an end in itself, to be then and there attained and +proved, quite apart from the conception of its analytic value as a part +in a great harmonious natural poem of the constitution of things. Though +evolution appears to us now as a single grand continuous process, a +phase of the universe dependent upon a preponderating aggregation of +matter and dissipation of energy, yet to Kant and Laplace it was the +astronomical aspect alone that proved attractive, to Darwin it was the +biological aspect alone, and to many of the modern workers in the minor +fields it is the human and sociological aspect that almost monopolises +the whole wide mental horizon. No greater proof can be given of the +subjective distinctness of parts in what was objectively and +fundamentally a single broad psychological revolution of the human mind, +than the fact that Lyell himself, who more than any one man had +introduced the evolutionary conception into the treatment of geology, +should have stood out so long and fought so blindly against the +evolutionary conception in the organic world. Indeed, it was not until +the various scattered and many-coloured strands of evolutionary thought +had been gathered together and woven into one by the vast catholic and +synthetic intelligence of Herbert Spencer that the idea of evolution as +a whole, as a single continuous cosmical process, began to be +apprehended and gradually assimilated by the picked intelligences of the +several distinct scientific departments. + +Observe also that the evolutionary method has invaded each of the +concrete sciences in the exact order of their natural place in the +hierarchy of knowledge. It had been applied to astronomy by Kant and +Laplace before it was applied to geology by Lyell; it had been applied +to geology by Lyell before it was applied to biology by Darwin; it had +been applied to biology (in part, at least) by Lamarck and the Darwins +before it was applied to psychology by Spencer; and it is only at the +very end of all that it has been applied to sociology and the allied +branches of thought by a hundred different earnest workers in +contemporary Europe. Each stage helped on the next; each was dependent +only on those that went naturally before it, and aided in turn the +subsequent development of those that naturally came after it. + +Nevertheless, the popular instinct which regards Darwinism and evolution +as practically synonymous is to a large extent justified by the actual +facts of the psychological upheaval. Darwin's work forms on the whole +the central keystone of the evolutionary system, and deserves the honour +which has been thrust upon it of supporting by its own mass the entire +superstructure of the development theory. + +For, in the first place, Darwin had to deal with the science of life, +the science where the opposition to evolutionism was sure to be +strongest, and where the forces and tendencies in favour of obscurantism +were sure to gather in fullest force. Every other great onward step in +our knowledge of our own relation to the universe of which we form a +part had been compelled indeed to run the gauntlet, in its own time, of +ecclesiastical censure and of popular dislike. Those inveterate +prejudices of human ignorance which sedulously hide their genuine shape +under the guise of dogma masquerading as religion, had long since +brought to bear their baneful resources upon the discoveries of +Copernicus and the theories of Galileo, as blind, misleading, and +diabolical lights, opposed to the sure and certain warranty of Holy +Scripture. Newton, again, had in due time been blamed in that he boldly +substituted (as his critics declared) the bald and barren formula of +gravitation for the personal superintendence of a divine Providence. +Laplace had been accused of dethroning the deity from the centre and +governance of his celestial system. Around the early geologists the +battle of the six days of creation had raged fiercely for nearly half a +century. But all these varying modes of thought, though deemed heretical +enough in their own day, had touched, as it were, but the minor +ramparts and unimportant out-works of the great obscurantist dogmatic +strongholds: Darwinism, by openly attacking the inmost problems of life +and mind, had brought to bear its powerful artillery upon the very keep +and highest tower of the fortress itself. The belief that the various +stars, planets, and satellites had or had not been wisely created in +their existing positions, and with their present orbits, movements, and +relations accurately fore-measured, did not fundamentally affect, for +good or evil, the cherished dogmas of the ordinary multitude. But the +analogous belief in the distinct and separate creation of plants and +animals, and more especially of the human species, was far more closely +and intimately bound up with all the current religious conceptions. It +was at first supposed, not perhaps without some practical wisdom, that +to upset the primitive faith in the separate creation of living beings +was to loosen and imperil the very foundations of common morality and +revealed religion. The 'argument from design' had been immemorially +regarded as the principal buttress of orthodox thought. Theologians had +unwisely staked their all upon the teleological dogma, and could ill +afford to retire without a blow from that tenaciously defended bastion +of their main position. Hence the evolutionary concept had its hardest +fight to wage over the biological field; and when that field was once +fairly won, it had little more to fear from banded preconceptions and +established prejudices in any other portion of the wide territory it +claimed for its own. + +In the second place, biological evolution, firmly established by Darwin +on a safe, certain, and unimpeachable basis, led naturally and almost +inevitably to all the other innumerable applications of the +evolutionary method, in the domains of psychology, sociology, philology, +political thought, and ethical science. Hence the immediate and visible +results of its promulgation have been far more striking, noticeable, and +evident than those which followed the establishment of the evolutionary +conception in the astronomical and geological departments. It was +possible to accept cosmical evolution and solar evolution and planetary +evolution, without at the same time accepting evolution in the +restricted field of life and mind. But it was impossible to accept +evolution in biology without at the same time extending its application +to psychology, to the social organism, to language, to ethics, to all +the thousand and one varied interests of human life and human +development. Now, most people are little moved by speculations and +hypotheses as to the origin of the milky way or the belt of Orion; they +care very slightly for Jupiter's moons or Saturn's rings; they are +stolidly incurious as to the development of the earth's crust, or the +precise date of the cretaceous epoch; but they understand and begin to +be touched the moment you come to the practical questions of man's +origin, nature, and history. Darwinism compelled their attention by its +immediate connection with their own race; and the proof of this truth is +amply shown by the mere fact that out of all the immense variety of +Charles Darwin's theories and ideas, the solitary one which alone has +succeeded in attaching to itself the public interest and public ridicule +is the theory of man's ultimate descent from a monkey-like ancestor. +Popular instinct, here as elsewhere profoundly true at core in the midst +of all its superficial foolishness, has rightly hit upon the central +element in the Darwinian conception which more than any other has caused +its fruitful and wonderful expansion through every fertile field of +human enquiry. + +In short, it was Darwin's task in life to draw down evolution from +heaven to earth, and to bring within the scope of its luminous method +all that is most interesting to the uninstructed and unsophisticated +heart of the natural man. + +The application of the evolutionary principle to the world of life, +human or animal, thus presents itself as the chief philosophic and +scientific achievement of the nineteenth century. Throughout the whole +middle decades of the present age, the human mind in all its highest +embodiments was eagerly searching, groping, and enquiring after a +naturalistic explanation of the origin and progress of organic life. In +the vast scheme for the System of Synthetic Philosophy which Herbert +Spencer set forth as an anticipatory synopsis of his projected work, the +philosopher of development leapt at once from the First Principles of +evolution as a whole to the Principles of Biology, Psychology, and +Sociology, omitting all reference to the application of evolution to the +vast field of inorganic nature; and he did so on the distinctly stated +ground that its application to organic nature was then and there more +important and interesting. That suggestive expression of belief aptly +sums up the general attitude of scientific and philosophic minds at the +precise moment of the advent of Darwinism. Kant and Laplace and Lyell +had already applied the evolutionary method to suns and systems, to +planets and continents; what was needed next was that some deeply +learned and universally equipped biological leader should help the lame +evolutionism of Lamarck over the organic stile, and leave it free to +roam the boundless fields of what Mr. Spencer has sometimes well +described as the super-organic sciences. For that office, Darwin at the +exact moment presented himself; and his victory and its results rightly +entitle him to the popular regard as the founder of all that most men +mean when they speak together in everyday conversation of the doctrine +of evolution. + +On the other hand, the total esoteric philosophic conception of +evolution as a cosmical process, one and continuous from nebula to man, +from star to soul, from atom to society, we owe rather to the other +great prophet of the evolutionary creed, Herbert Spencer, whose name +will ever be equally remembered side by side with his mighty peer's, in +a place of high collateral glory. It is he who has given us the general +definition of evolution as a progress from an indefinite, incoherent +homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, accompanying an +integration of matter and dissipation of motion, or, as we should now +perhaps more correctly say, of energy. In the establishment of the +various lines of thought which merge at last in that magnificent +cosmical law, it was Darwin's special task to bring the phenomena of +organic life well within the clear ken of known and invariable natural +processes. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE NET RESULT. + + +And now let us ask ourselves, in all sincerity, what was the final +outcome and net result of Darwin's great and useful life? + +If Charles Darwin had never existed at all, there would still have been +a considerable and expansive evolutionary movement both in biology and +in its sister sciences throughout the latter half of the present +century. The harvest indeed was ready, and the labourers, though few, +were full of vigour. Suppose for a moment that that earnest and +single-hearted Darwinian genius had been cut off by some untimely +disease of childhood at five years old, all other conditions remaining +as they were, we should even so have had in our midst to-day, a small +philosophical and influential band of evolutionary workers. Spencer +would none the less have given us his 'First Principles' and the major +part of his 'Principles of Biology,' with comparatively little +alteration or omission. Wallace would none the less have promulgated his +inchoate theory of natural selection, and rallied round his primordial +conception the very best and deepest minds of the biological fraction. +Geology would have enforced the continuity of types; Cope and Marsh +would have unearthed for our edification the ancestral forms of the +evolving horse and the toothed birds of the Western American deposits. +The Solenhofen lithographic slates would still have yielded us the +half-reptilian, half-avian Archaeopteryx; the tertiary deposits would +still have presented us with a long suite of gradually specialised and +modified mammalian forms. The Siberian meadows would have sent us that +intermediate creature which Prjevalsky recognises as the half-way house +between the horses and the donkeys; the rivers of Queensland would have +disclosed to our view that strange lung-bearing and gill-breathing +barramunda, in which Guenther discerns the missing link between the +ganoid fishes on the one hand, and the mudfish and salamandroid +amphibians on the other. From data such as these, biologists and +palaeontologists of the calibre of Huxley, Gaudry, Geikie, Ruetimeyer, and +Busk, would necessarily have derived, by the aid of Wallace's pregnant +principle, conclusions not so very far remote from Darwin's own. Heer +and Saporta would have drawn somewhat similar inferences from the fossil +flora of Switzerland and of Greenland; Hooker and De Candolle would have +read pretty much the self-same lessons in the scattered ferns and scanty +palm-trees of oceanic islands. Kowalevsky would have seen in the +ascidian larva a common prototype of the vertebrate series; the +followers of Von Baer would have popularised the embryological +conception of the single origin of animal life. The researches of +Boucher de Perthes, of Lyell, of Evans, of Boyd Dawkins, of Keller, and +of Christy and Lartet, would have unrolled before our eyes, under any +circumstances, the strange story of prehistoric man. On the facts so +gained, Lubbock and Tylor, Schaafhausen and Buechner, would have built up +their various consistent theories of human development and human +culture. In short, even without Charles Darwin, the nineteenth century +would not have stood still; it would have followed in the wake of Buffon +and Diderot, of Lamarck and Laplace, of St. Hilaire and Goethe, of Kant +and Herschel, of Hutton and Lyell, of Malthus and of Spencer. The great +world never rolls down the abysses of time obedient to the nod of one +single overruling Titanic intellect. 'If the doctrine of evolution had +not existed,' says Huxley, 'palaeontologists must have invented it.' + +But Charles Darwin acted, nevertheless, the part of an immense and +powerful accelerating energy. The impetus which he gave gained us at +least fifty years of progress; it sent us at a bound from Copernicus to +Newton; so far as ordinary minds were concerned, indeed, it transcended +at a single leap the whole interval from Ptolemy to Herschel. The +comparison is far from being a mere rhetorical one. A close analogy +really exists between the two cases. Before Copernicus, the earth stood +fixed and immovable in the centre of the universe, with obsequious suns, +and planets, and satellites dancing attendance in cycle and epicycle +around the solid mass, to which by day and night they continually +ministered. The great astronomical revolution begun by Copernicus, +Galileo, and Kepler, and completed by Newton, Laplace, and Herschel, +reduced the earth to its true position as a petty planet, revolving +feebly among its bigger brethren round a petty sun, in some lost corner +of a vast, majestic, and almost illimitable galaxy. Even so, before +Darwin, man stood in his own esteem the fixed point of an +anthropocentric universe, divinely born and divinely instructed, with +all the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fruits of +the earth specially created with a definite purpose in subservience to +his lordly wants and interests. The great biological revolution, which +rightly almost sums itself up in the name of Darwin, reduced man at once +to his true position as the last product of kinetic solar energy, +working upon the peculiar chemical elements of an evolving planet. It +showed that every part of every plant and every animal existed primarily +for the sake of that plant or animal alone; it unseated man from his +imaginary throne in the centre of the cosmos, teaching him at once a +lesson of humility and a lesson of aspiration--pointing out to him how +low was the origin from which, in very truth, he first sprang, and +suggesting to him, at the same time, how high was the grand and glorious +destiny to which by his own strenuous and ardent efforts he might yet +perchance some day attain. + +That result, inevitable perhaps in the long run, from the slow unfolding +of human intelligence, was immensely hastened in our own time by the +peculiar idiosyncrasy and lofty personality of Charles Darwin. Without +him we should have had, not only evolutionism, but also, as Wallace's +discovery testifies, natural selection itself into the bargain. But we +should never have had the 'Origin of Species.' We should never have had +that vast and enthusiastic consensus of scientific opinion through an +all but unanimous thinking world, which has forced an immediate +acceptance of evolutionary ideas down the unwilling throats of half +unthinking Europe. The prodigious mass of Darwin's facts, the cautious +working of Darwin's intellect, the immense weight of Darwin's +reputation, the crushing force of Darwin's masterly inductive method, +bore down before them all opposition in the inner circle of biologists, +and secured the triumph of the evolutionary system even in the very +strongholds of ignorance and obscurantism. Without Darwin, a small group +of philosophic thinkers would still be striving to impress upon an +incredulous and somewhat contemptuous world the central truths of the +evolutionary doctrine. The opposition of the elders, long headed even in +the society we actually know by a few stern scientific recalcitrants, +like Owen and Agassiz, Pictet and Dawson, Virchow and Mivart, would have +fought desperately in the last trench for the final figment of the +fixity of species. What is now the general creed, more or less loosely +held and imperfectly understood, of hundreds and thousands among the +intelligent mass, would, under such circumstances, be even yet the mere +party-shibboleth of an esoteric few, struggling hard against the bare +force of overwhelming numbers to ensure not only recognition but a fair +hearing for the first principles of the development theory. It is to +Darwin, and to Darwin almost alone, that we owe the present +comparatively wide acceptance of the all-embracing doctrine of +evolution. + +No other man did so much or could have done so much to ensure its +triumph. He began early in life to collect and arrange a vast +encyclopaedia of facts, all finally focussed with supreme skill upon the +great principle he so clearly perceived, and so lucidly expounded. He +brought to bear upon the question an amount of personal observation, of +minute experiment, of world-wide book-knowledge, of universal scientific +ability, such as never perhaps was lavished by any other man upon any +other department of study. His conspicuous and beautiful love of truth, +his unflinching candour, his transparent fearlessness and honesty of +purpose, his child-like simplicity, his modesty of demeanour, his +charming manner, his affectionate disposition, his kindliness to friends, +his courtesy to opponents, his gentleness to harsh and often bitter +assailants, kindled in the minds of men of science everywhere throughout +the world a contagious enthusiasm, only equalled perhaps among the +disciples of Socrates and the great teachers of the revival of learning. +His name became a rallying-point for the children of light in every +country; and what philosophers and speculators might have taken a +century or two more to establish in embryo was firmly grounded, never to +be overthrown, by the vast accumulations of fact and argument in the +'Origin of Species,' and its companion volumes. + +The end of that great Darwinian revolution the world has not yet seen: +in a sense, indeed, it will never see it. For the general acceptance of +Darwin's theory, which we may watch progressing around us every minute +to-day, implies a complete _bouleversement_ of anthropocentric ideas, a +total change in our human conception of our own relations to the world +and the universe, which must work out for ever increasingly +wide-reaching and complex effects in all our dealings with one another +and with the environment at large. There is no department of human +thought or human action which evolutionism leaves exactly where it +stood before the advent of the Darwinian conception. In nothing is this +fact more conspicuously seen than in the immediate obsolescence (if one +may so speak) of all the statical pre-Darwinian philosophies which +ignored development, as soon as ever the new progressive evolutionary +theories had fairly burst upon an astonished world. Dogmatic Comte was +left forthwith to his little band of devoted adherents; shadowy Hegel +was relegated with a bow to the cool shades of the common-rooms of +Oxford; Buckle was exploded like an inflated wind-bag; even Mill +himself--_magnum et venerabile nomen_--with all his mighty steam-hammer +force of logical directness, was felt instinctively to be lacking in +full appreciation of the dynamic and kinetic element in universal +nature. Spencer and Hartmann, Haeckel and Clifford, had the field to +themselves for the establishment of their essentially evolutionary +systems. Great thinkers of the elder generation, like Bain and Lyell, +felt bound to remodel their earlier conceptions by the light of the new +Darwinian hypotheses. Those who failed by congenital constitution to do +so, like Carlyle and Carpenter, were, philosophically speaking, left +hopelessly behind and utterly extinguished. Those who only half +succeeded in thus reading themselves into the new ideas, like Lewes and +Max Mueller, lost ground immediately before the eager onslaught of their +younger competitors. 'The world is to the young,' says the eastern +proverb; and in a world peopled throughout in the high places of thought +by men almost without exception evolutionists, there was little or no +place for the timid group of stranded Girondins, who still stood aloof +in sullen antique scientific orthodoxy from what seemed to them the +carmagnoles and orgies of a biological Thermidor. + +At the same time, it must be steadily remembered that there are many +naturalists at the present day, especially among those of the lower +order of intelligence, who, while accepting evolutionism in a general +way, and therefore always describing themselves as Darwinians, do not +believe and often cannot even understand the distinctive Darwinian +addition to the evolutionary doctrine--namely, the principle of natural +selection. Such hazy and indistinct thinkers as these are still really +at the prior stage of Lamarckian evolutionism. It is probable that in +the future, while a formal acceptance of Darwinism becomes general, the +special theory of natural selection will be thoroughly understood and +assimilated only by the more abstract and philosophical minds. Our +children will be taught as a matter of course the doctrine of +development or of descent with modification; but the rationale of that +descent will still remain in all likelihood always beyond the grasp of +most of them: just as thousands accept on authority the Copernican +astronomy, who would never even be capable of comprehending the simplest +proofs of the earth's annual movement round the sun. Thus the name of +Darwin will often no doubt be tacked on to what are in reality the +principles of Lamarck. + +Every day, however, in spite of such half-ignorant adherents, the +effects of true Darwinism are widening and deepening. One group of +earnest workers is using it now as a guide to physiological, +embryological, and anatomical researches. Another is employing it with +zeal and skill in the field of classificatory and physiological botany. +Yet others are working out its psychological implications, enquiring +into instinct and animal intelligence, and solving by its aid abstruse +problems of the human mind and the human emotions. One philosopher has +brought it to bear on questions of ethics, another on questions of +social and political economy. Its principles have been applied in one +place to aesthetics, in another place to logic, in a third place to the +origin and growth of religion. The study of language has derived new +lights from the great central Darwinian luminary. The art of education +is beginning to feel the progressive influence of the Darwinian impulse. +In fact, there is hardly a single original worker in any department of +thought or science who has not been more or less profoundly affected, +whether he knows it or whether he knows it not, by the vast spreading +and circling wave of the Darwinian conceptions. All our ideas have been +revolutionised and evolutionised. The new notions are abroad in the +world, quickening with their fresh and vigorous germinal power the dry +bones of all the sciences, all the arts, and all the philosophies. + +And evolutionism is gradually though slowly filtering downward. It is +permeating the daily press of the nations, and gaining for its +vocabulary a recognised place in the phraseology of the unlearned +vulgar. Such expressions as 'natural selection,' 'survival of the +fittest,' 'struggle for existence,' 'adaptation to the environment,' and +all the rest of it, are becoming as household words upon the lips of +thousands who only know the name of Darwin as a butt for the petty empty +jibes of infinitesimal cheap witlings. And Darwinism will trickle down +still through a thousand channels, by definite popularisation, and still +more by indefinite absorption into the common thought of universal +humanity, till it becomes part and parcel of the general inheritance, +bred in our bone and burnt into our blood, an heir-loom of our race to +all time and in all countries. Great thoughts like his do not readily +die: they expand and grow in ten thousand bosoms, till they transform +the world at last into their own likeness, and adapt it to the +environment they have themselves created by their informing power. + +Happy above ordinary human happiness, Charles Darwin lived himself to +see the prosperous beginning of this great silent philosophical +revolution. Harvey's grand discovery, it has been well said, was scoffed +at for nearly a whole generation. Newton's marvellous law of gravitation +was coldly received even by the gigantic intellect of Leibnitz himself. +Francis Bacon, in disgrace and humiliation, could only commend his name +and memory 'to foreign nations and to the next age.' It is too often so +with thinkers of the first and highest order: it was not so, happily, +with the gentle soul of Charles Darwin. Alone among the prophets and +teachers of triumphant creeds, he saw with his own eyes the adoption of +the faith he had been the first to promulgate in all its fulness by +every fresh and powerful mind of the younger race that grew up around +him. The Nestor of evolutionism, he had lived among two successive +generations of thinkers, and over the third he ruled as king. With that +crowning joy of a great, a noble, and a happy life, let us leave him +here alone in his glory. + + + + +INDEX. + + + AGASSIZ + Anticipations of natural selection + 'Antiquity of Man' + Astronomy + + BADEN-POWELL + Bahia + Bates; in Brazil; on mimicry + 'Beagle,' voyage of the; Zoology of + Bell, Sir C. + Boucher de Perthes + Brazil + British Association + Buffon + + CHAMBERS, Robert; his 'Vestiges of Creation' + Colenso on the Pentateuch + 'Coral Reefs' + Cuvier; as a geologist; system of animals + + DARWIN, Charles, his ancestry; birth; birthplace; contemporaries; + education; at Edinburgh University; at Cambridge; starts on the + voyage of the 'Beagle'; returns to England; publishes his journal; + plans 'Origin of Species'; elected to Royal Society; secretary to + Geological Society; marries; publishes 'Coral Reefs'; geological + observations; Monograph on Barnacles; publishes 'Origin of Species'; + its success; second edition; variation of animals and plants; + pangenesis; fertilisation of orchids; 'Descent of Man'; later works; + last illness and death; character; place in evolutionary movement; + outcome of his work + + DARWIN, Erasmus; his life; appearance; poems; 'Zoonomia'; 'Temple + of Nature'; his marriages; on descent of man; on sexual selection + + Darwin, Erasmus, the younger + Darwin, Robert + Darwin, Robert Waring; his home + De Candolle + Down House, Darwin settles at + Du Chaillu + + EARTHWORMS + Edgeworth + Evolution, general theory of + + FILHOL + Fiske, Prof.; on natural selection + Fitzroy, Captain + Fuegians + + GALAPAGOS ISLANDS + Galton, Francis + Gaudry + Geology, rise of; evolutionary aspect of + Goethe; on animal origin of man + Gorilla + Gray, Asa + + HAECKEL, letter to; 'History of Creation'; on sexual selection + Henslow, Prof.; recommends Darwin to Capt. Fitzroy; at Oxford + Herbert, Dean + Herschel, Sir Wm. + Holland, Sir Henry + Hooker, Sir Joseph; on catasetum; accepts Darwinism; publishes his + 'Flora of Australia' + Horner, Leonard + Humboldt + Huxley, Prof., lecture at Royal Institution; 'Man's Place in + Nature'; on coming of age of 'Origin of Species' + + JUSSIEU + + KANT, nebular hypothesis + Knight's law + Koelreuter + + LAMARCK; Darwin's reading of; on descent of man + Laplace, nebular hypothesis + Lecoq + Linnaeus; his artificial system + Lyell; 'Principles of Geology'; extract from letters; anticipations + of natural selection; slow acceptance of Darwinism; 'Antiquity of Man' + + MALTHUS; influence on Darwin + Matthew, Patrick; extracts from + Mimicry + Monte Video, Darwin at + Mould, formation of + Mount, the + Mueller, Fritz + Mueller, Hermann + Murchison + + 'NATURALIST on the Amazons' + 'Naturalist's Voyage round the World' published + Natural system + Nebular hypothesis + New Zealand, Darwin at + + OKEN + 'Origin of Species,' first planned projected; published; analysis of; + its success; second edition + Owen, Sir R.; on types + + PANGENESIS + 'Philosophie Zoologique' + Population, Malthus's essay on + Powell, Baden- + 'Physiological Units' + Psychology, evolution in + + RAFINESQUE + Rio Janeiro, Darwin at + + ST. HILAIRE, Geoffroy; the younger + St. Paul's Rocks + Sexual selection, first glimpse of; Darwin's theory of + Smith, William + Sociology + Spencer, Herbert; on 'Vestiges of Creation'; essay in the 'Leader'; + 'Principles of Psychology'; essay in 'Westminster Review'; extracts + from 'Leader' essay; accepts Darwin's theory; 'Principles of Biology'; + 'Physiological Units'; theory of evolution + Sprengel + + THOMPSON, Allen + Treviranus + Tucutuco + Tyndall, Prof. + + 'VESTIGES of Creation'; criticism of + Von Baer + Von Buch + + WALLACE, Alfred Russel; goes to Brazil; publishes his travels; in Malay + archipelago; discovers natural selection; paper at Linnean Society; on + sexual selection + Wedgwood, Emma + Wedgwood, Hensleigh + Wedgwood, Josiah + Wedgwood, Susannah + Wells, Dr., anticipates natural selection + White, Gilbert, on worms + Wollaston + Worms, action of + Wright, Chauncey + + 'ZOONOMIA,' Erasmus Darwin's + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Darwin, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DARWIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34730.txt or 34730.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/3/34730/ + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + +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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