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diff --git a/38097-h/38097-h.htm b/38097-h/38097-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8766f36 --- /dev/null +++ b/38097-h/38097-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6761 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Aphorisms and Reflections, of T. Huxley + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of +T. H. Huxley, by T. H. Huxley + +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: Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley + +Author: T. H. Huxley + +Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38097] +Last Updated: January 22, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> + </div> + <h1> + APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS + </h1> + <h2> + FROM THE WORKS OF T. H. HUXLEY + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Selected By Henrietta A. Huxley + </h2> + <p> + <br /> 1908 <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF">PREFACE</a><br /> <br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"><b>APHORISMS and REFLECTIONS</b></a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + Although a man by his works and personality shall have made his mark upon + the age he lives in, yet when he has passed away and his influence with + him, the next generation, and still more the succeeding one, will know + little of this work, of his ideals and of the goal he strove to win, + although for the student his scientific work may always live. + </p> + <p> + Thomas Henry Huxley may come to be remembered by the public merely as the + man who held that we were descended from the ape, or as the apostle of + Darwinism, or as the man who worsted Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford. + </p> + <p> + To prevent such limitation, and to afford more intimate and valuable + reasons for remembrance of this man of science and lover of his + fellow-men, I have gathered together passages, on widely differing themes, + from the nine volumes of his "Essays," from his "Scientific Memoirs" and + his "Letters," to be published in a small volume, complete in itself and + of a size that can be carried in the pocket. + </p> + <p> + Some of the passages were picked out for their philosophy, some for their + moral guidances, some for their scientific exposition of natural facts, or + for their insight into social questions; others for their charms of + imagination or genial humour, and many—not the least—for their + pure beauty of lucid English writing. + </p> + <p> + In so much wealth of material it was difficult to restrict the gathering. + </p> + <p> + My great wish is that this small book, by the easy method of its contents, + may attract the attention of those persons who are yet unacquainted with + my husband's writings; of the men and women of leisure, who, although they + may have heard of the "Essays," do not care to work their way through the + nine volumes; of others who would like to read them, but who have either + no time to do so or coin wherewith to buy them. More especially do I hope + that these selections may attract the attention of the working man, whose + cause my husband so ardently espoused, and to whom he was the first to + reveal, by his free lectures, the loveliness of Nature, the many + rainbow-coloured rays of science, and to show forth to his listeners how + all these glorious rays unite in the one pure white light of holy truth. + </p> + <p> + I am most grateful to our son Leonard Huxley for weeding out the + overgrowth of my extracts, for indexing the text of the book and seeing it + through the press for me. + </p> + <p> + Hodeslea, Eastbourne, June 29th, 1907. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> + </div> + <h2> + APHORISMS and REFLECTIONS + </h2> + <p> + I + </p> + <p> + There is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind except veracity of + thought and of action, and the resolute facing of the world as it is when + the garment of make-believe by which pious hands have hidden its uglier + features is stripped off. + </p> + <p> + II + </p> + <p> + Natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas + which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in + desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover + those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality. + </p> + <p> + III + </p> + <p> + The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge + authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind + faith the one unpardonable sin. + </p> + <p> + IV + </p> + <p> + The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, + but by verification. + </p> + <p> + V + </p> + <p> + No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make + up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life. + </p> + <p> + VI + </p> + <p> + Nothing great in science has ever been done by men, whatever their powers, + in whom the divine afflatus of the truth-seeker was wanting. + </p> + <p> + VII + </p> + <p> + In science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of human + activity, there may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, but it is + only in one or two of them. + </p> + <p> + VIII + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets + with, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a third. + </p> + <p> + IX + </p> + <p> + Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that + those who refuse to go beyond fact, rarely get as far as fact; and anyone + who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step + therein has been made by the "anticipation of Nature." + </p> + <p> + X + </p> + <p> + There are three great products of our time.... One of these is that + doctrine concerning the constitution of matter which, for want of a better + name, I will call "molecular"; the second is the doctrine of the + conservation of energy; the third is the doctrine of evolution. + </p> + <p> + XI + </p> + <p> + M. Comte's philosophy, in practice, might be compendiously described as + Catholicism <i>minus</i> Christianity. + </p> + <p> + XII + </p> + <p> + Fact I know; and Law I know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty + shadow of my own mind's throwing? + </p> + <p> + XIII + </p> + <p> + We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain + duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can + influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was + before he entered it. + </p> + <p> + XIV + </p> + <p> + The man of science, who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry, + slides from these formulæ and symbols into what is commonly + understood by materialism, seems to me to place himself on a level with + the mathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's with which he works + his problems for real entities—and with this further disadvantage, + as compared with the mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of + no practical consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may + paralyse the energies and destroy the beauty of a life. + </p> + <p> + XV + </p> + <p> + There are some men who are counted great because they represent the + actuality of their own age, and mirror it as it is. Such an one was + Voltaire, of whom it was epigrammatically said, "he expressed everybody's + thoughts better than anybody." But there are other men who attain + greatness because they embody the potentiality of their own day and + magically reflect the future. They express the thoughts which will be + everybody's two or three centuries after them. Such an one was Descartes. + </p> + <p> + XVI + </p> + <p> + "Learn what is true, in order to do what is right." is the summing up of + the whole duty of man, for all who are unable to satisfy their mental + hunger with the east wind of authority. + </p> + <p> + XVII + </p> + <p> + When I say that Descartes consecrated doubt, you must remember that it was + that sort of doubt which Goethe has called "the active scepticism, whose + whole aim is to conquer itself"; and not that other sort which is born of + flippancy and ignorance, and whose aim is only to perpetuate itself, as an + excuse for idleness and indifference. + </p> + <p> + XVIII + </p> + <p> + What, then, is certain?.... Why, the fact that the thought, the present + consciousness, exists. Our thoughts may be delusive, but they cannot be + fictitious. As thoughts, they are real and existent, and the cleverest + deceiver cannot make them otherwise. + </p> + <p> + XIX + </p> + <p> + Thought is existence. More than that, so far as we are concerned, + existence is thought, all our conceptions of existence being some kind or + other of thought. + </p> + <p> + XX + </p> + <p> + It is enough for all the practical purposes of human existence if we find + that our trust in the representations of consciousness is verified by + results; and that, by their help, we are enabled "to walk sure-footedly in + this life." + </p> + <p> + XXI + </p> + <p> + It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education + is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation + upon the natural organisation of the body; so that acts, which at first + required a conscious effort, eventually became unconscious and mechanical. + </p> + <p> + XXII + </p> + <p> + I protest that if some great Power would agree to make me always think + what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a + sort of clock and wound up every morning before I got out of bed, I should + instantly close with the offer. + </p> + <p> + XXIII + </p> + <p> + The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom to + do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to anyone who will + take it of me. + </p> + <p> + XXIV + </p> + <p> + Whatever evil voices may rage, Science, secure among the powers that are + eternal, will do her work and be blessed. + </p> + <p> + XXV + </p> + <p> + There is assuredly no more effectual method of clearing up one's own mind + on any subject than by talking it over, so to speak, with men of real + power and grasp, who have considered it from a totally different point of + view. + </p> + <p> + XXVI + </p> + <p> + The parallax of time helps us to the true position of a conception, as the + parallax of space helps us to that of a star. + </p> + <p> + XXVII + </p> + <p> + [If animals are conscious automata with souls] the soul stands related to + the body as the bell of a clock to the works, and consciousness answers to + the sound which the bell gives out when it is struck. + </p> + <p> + XXVIII + </p> + <p> + Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise + men. + </p> + <p> + XXIX + </p> + <p> + The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest + man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false. + </p> + <p> + XXX + </p> + <p> + Of all the senseless babble I have ever had occasion to read, the + demonstrations of these philosophers who undertake to tell us all about + the nature of God would be the worst, if they were not surpassed by the + still greater absurdities of the philosophers who try to prove that there + is no God. + </p> + <p> + XXXI + </p> + <p> + That which is to be lamented, I fancy, is not that society should do its + utmost to help capacity to ascend from the lower strata to the higher, but + that it has no machinery by which to facilitate the descent of incapacity + from the higher strata to the lower. + </p> + <p> + XXXII + </p> + <p> + Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth. + </p> + <p> + XXXIII + </p> + <p> + Misery is a match that never goes out. + </p> + <p> + XXXIV + </p> + <p> + Genius as an explosive power beats gunpowder hollow; and if knowledge, + which should give that power guidance, is wanting, the chances are not + small that the rocket will simply run amuck among friends and foes. + </p> + <p> + XXXV + </p> + <p> + Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-respect, are the + qualities which make a real gentleman, or lady, as distinguished from the + veneered article which commonly goes by that name. + </p> + <p> + XXXVI + </p> + <p> + The higher the state of civilisation, the more completely do the actions + of one member of the social body influence all the rest, and the less + possible is it for any one man to do a wrong thing without interfering, + more or less, with the freedom of all his fellow-citizens. + </p> + <p> + XXXVII + </p> + <p> + I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every man, of + all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the happiness of + his fellow men. + </p> + <p> + XXXVIII + </p> + <p> + Education promotes peace by teaching men the realities of life and the + obligations which are involved in the very existence of society; it + promotes intellectual development, not only by training the individual + intellect, but by sifting out from the masses of ordinary or inferior + capacities, those who are competent to increase the general welfare by + occupying higher positions; and, lastly, it promotes morality and + refinement, by teaching men to discipline themselves, and by leading them + to see that the highest, as it is the only permanent, content is to be + attained, not by grovelling in the rank and steaming valleys of sense, but + by continual striving towards those high peaks, where, resting in eternal + calm, reason discerns the undefined but bright ideal of the highest Good—"a + cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night." + </p> + <p> + XXXIX + </p> + <p> + Missionaries, whether of philosophy or of religion, rarely make rapid way, + unless their preachings fall in with the prepossessions of the multitude + of shallow thinkers, or can be made to serve as a stalking-horse for the + promotion of the practical aims of the still larger multitude, who do not + profess to think much, but are quite certain they want a great deal. + </p> + <p> + XL + </p> + <p> + Proclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his + brother. + </p> + <p> + XLI + </p> + <p> + There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics—none + in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering + purpose when the waves rise high. + </p> + <p> + XLII + </p> + <p> + The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, + free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction. + </p> + <p> + XLIII + </p> + <p> + For the welfare of society, as for that of individual men, it is surely + essential that there should be a statute of limitations in respect of the + consequences of wrong-doing. + </p> + <p> + XLIV + </p> + <p> + "Musst immer thun wie neu geboren" is the best of all maxims for the + guidance of the life of States, no less than of individuals. + </p> + <p> + XLV + </p> + <p> + The population question is the real riddle of the sphinx, to which no + political OEdipus has as yet found the answer. In view of the ravages of + the terrible monster, over-multiplication, all other riddles sink into + insignificance. + </p> + <p> + XLVI + </p> + <p> + The "Law of Nature" is not a command to do, or to refrain from doing, + anything. It contains, in reality, nothing but a statement of that which a + given being tends to do under the circumstances of its existence; and + which, in the case of a living and sensitive being, it is necessitated to + do if it is to escape certain kinds of disability, pain, and ultimate + dissolution. + </p> + <p> + XLVII + </p> + <p> + Probably none of the political delusions which have sprung from the + "natural rights" doctrine has been more mischievous than the assertion + that all men have a natural right to freedom, and that those who willingly + submit to any restriction of this freedom, beyond the point determined by + the deductions of <i>a priori</i> philosophers, deserve the title of + slave. But to my mind, this delusion is incomprehensible except as the + result of the error of confounding natural with moral rights. + </p> + <p> + XLVIII + </p> + <p> + The very existence of society depends on the fact that every member of it + tacitly admits that he is not the exclusive possessor of himself, and that + he admits the claim of the polity of which he forms a part, to act, to + some extent, as his master. + </p> + <p> + XLIX + </p> + <p> + Surely there is a time to submit to guidance and a time to take one's own + way at all hazards. + </p> + <p> + L + </p> + <p> + Individualism, pushed to anarchy, in the family is as ill-founded + theoretically and as mischievous practically as it is in the State; while + extreme regimentation is a certain means of either destroying + self-reliance or of maddening to rebellion. + </p> + <p> + LI + </p> + <p> + A man in his development runs for a little while parallel with, though + never passing through, the form of the meanest worm, then travels for a + space beside the fish, then journeys along with the bird and the reptile + for his fellow travellers; and only at last, after a brief companionship + with the highest of the four-footed and four-handed world, rises into the + dignity of pure manhood. + </p> + <p> + LII + </p> + <p> + Not only does every animal live at the expense of some other animal or + plant, but the very plants are at war.... The individuals of a species are + like the crew of a foundered ship, and none but good swimmers have a + chance of reaching the land. + </p> + <p> + LIII + </p> + <p> + When we know that living things are formed of the same elements as the + inorganic world, that they act and react upon it, bound by a thousand ties + of natural piety, is it probable, nay is it possible, that they, and they + alone, should have no order in their seeming disorder, no unity in their + seeming multiplicity, should suffer no explanation by the discovery of + some central and sublime law of mutual connection? + </p> + <p> + LIV + </p> + <p> + The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the + more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial + miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of + admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo. + </p> + <p> + LV + </p> + <p> + Matter and force are the two names of the one artist who fashions the + living as well as the lifeless. + </p> + <p> + LVI + </p> + <p> + There is not throughout Nature a law of wider application than this, that + a body impelled by two forces takes the direction of their resultant. + </p> + <p> + LVII + </p> + <p> + Orthodoxy is the Bourbon of the world of thought. It learns not, neither + can it forget. + </p> + <p> + LVIII + </p> + <p> + Who shall number the patient and earnest seekers after truth, from the + days of Galileo until now, whose lives have been embittered and their good + name blasted by the mistaken zeal of Bibliolaters? Who shall count the + host of weaker men whose sense of truth has been destroyed in the effort + to harmonise impossibilities—whose life has been wasted in the + attempt to force the generous new wine of Science into the old bottles of + Judaism, compelled by the outcry of the same strong party? + </p> + <p> + LIX + </p> + <p> + When Astronomy was young "the morning stars sang together for joy," and + the planets were guided in their courses by celestial hands. Now, the + harmony of the stars has resolved itself into gravitation according to the + inverse squares of the distances, and the orbits of the planets are + deducible from the laws of the forces which allow a schoolboy's stone to + break a window. + </p> + <p> + LX + </p> + <p> + The lightning was the angel of the Lord; but it has pleased Providence, in + these modern times, that science should make it the humble messenger of + man, and we know that every flash that shimmers about the horizon on a + summer's evening is determined by ascertainable conditions, and that its + direction and brightness might, if our knowledge of these were great + enough, have been calculated. + </p> + <p> + LXI + </p> + <p> + Why should the souls [of philosophers] be deeply vexed? The majesty of + Fact is on their side, and the elemental forces of Nature are working for + them. Not a star comes to the meridian at its calculated time but + testifies to the justice of their methods—their beliefs are "one + with the falling rain and with the growing corn." By doubt they are + established, and open inquiry is their bosom friend. + </p> + <p> + LXII + </p> + <p> + Harmonious order governing eternally continuous progress—the web and + woof of matter and force interweaving by slow decrees, without a broken + thread, that veil which lies between us and the Infinite—that + universe which alone we know or can know; such is the picture which + science draws of the world, and in proportion as any part of that picture + is in unison with the rest, so may we feel sure that it is rightly + painted. + </p> + <p> + LXIII + </p> + <p> + Mix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of men, with his mere + natural appliances, to separate all the grains of sand from all the grains + of salt; but a shower of rain will effect the same object in ten minutes. + </p> + <p> + LXIV + </p> + <p> + Elijah's great question, "Will you serve God or Baal? Choose ye," is + uttered audibly enough in the ears of every one of us as we come to + manhood. Let every man who tries to answer it seriously ask himself + whether he can be satisfied with the Baal of authority, and with all the + good things his worshippers are promised in this world and the next. If he + can, let him, if he be so inclined, amuse himself with such scientific + implements as authority tells him are safe and will not cut his fingers; + but let him not imagine he is, or can be, both a true son of the Church + and a loyal soldier of science. + </p> + <p> + LXV + </p> + <p> + Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth. + </p> + <p> + LXVI + </p> + <p> + If the blind acceptance of authority appears to him in its true colours, + as mere private judgment <i>in excelsis</i> and if he have the courage to + stand alone, face to face with the abyss of the eternal and unknowable, + let him be content, once for all, not only to renounce the good things + promised by "Infallibility," but even to bear the bad things which it + prophesies; content to follow reason and fact in singleness and honesty of + purpose, wherever they may lead, in the sure faith that a hell of honest + men will, to him, be more endurable than a paradise full of angelic shams. + </p> + <p> + LXVII + </p> + <p> + History warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as + heresies and to end as superstitions. + </p> + <p> + LXVIII + </p> + <p> + The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the + physical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist + is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals. + </p> + <p> + LXIX + </p> + <p> + The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally + held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors. + </p> + <p> + LXX + </p> + <p> + Every belief is the product of two factors: the first is the state of the + mind to which the evidence in favour of that belief is presented; and the + second is the logical cogency of the evidence itself. + </p> + <p> + LXXI + </p> + <p> + Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed. + </p> + <p> + LXXII + </p> + <p> + The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of + the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode in + which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact. + </p> + <p> + LXXIII + </p> + <p> + There are men (and I think Priestley was one of them) to whom the + satisfaction of throwing down a triumphant fallacy is as great as that + which attends the discovery of a new truth; who feel better satisfied with + the government of the world, when they have been helping Providence by + knocking an imposture on the head; and who care even more for freedom of + thought than for mere advance of knowledge. These men are the Carnots who + organise victory for truth, and they are, at least, as important as the + generals who visibly fight her battles in the field. + </p> + <p> + LXXIV + </p> + <p> + Material advancement has its share in moral and intellectual progress. + Becky Sharp's acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on ten + thousand a year, has its application to nations; and it is futile to + expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and + gross. + </p> + <p> + LXXV + </p> + <p> + If the twentieth century is to be better than the nineteenth, it will be + because there are among us men who walk in Priestley's footsteps. But + whether Priestley's lot be theirs, and a future generation, in justice and + in gratitude, set up their statues; or whether their names and fame are + blotted out from remembrance, their work will live as long as time + endures. To all eternity, the sum of truth and right will have been + increased by their means; to all eternity, falsehood and injustice will be + the weaker because they have lived. + </p> + <p> + LXXVI + </p> + <p> + Science is, I believe, nothing but <i>trained and organised common sense</i>, + differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit: + and its methods differ from those of common sense only so far as the + guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields + his club. + </p> + <p> + LXXVII + </p> + <p> + The vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical faculties, by + no mental processes, other than those which are practised by every one of + us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A detective policeman + discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process + identical with that by which Cuvier restored the extinct animals of + Montmartre from fragments of their bones. + </p> + <p> + LXXVIII + </p> + <p> + There is no side of the human mind which physiological study leaves + uncultivated. Connected by innumerable ties with abstract science, + Physiology is yet in the most intimate relation with humanity; and by + teaching us that law and order, and a definite scheme of development, + regulate even the strangest and wildest manifestations of individual life, + she prepares the student to look for a coal even amidst the erratic + wanderings of mankind, and to believe that history offers something more + than an entertaining chaos—a journal of a toilsome, tragi-comic + march nowhither. + </p> + <p> + LXXIX + </p> + <p> + I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and evil + inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his own + share with more courage and submission; and will, at any rate, view with + suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the Divine government, which + would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake,—to be + corrected by and by. On the other hand, the predominance of happiness + among living things—their lavish beauty—the secret and + wonderful harmony which pervades them all, from the highest to the lowest, + are equally striking refutations of that modern Manichean doctrine, which + exhibits the world as a slave-mill, worked with many tears, for mere + utilitarian ends. + </p> + <p> + LXXX + </p> + <p> + To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side + stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, + nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach him + something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of + those which are worth turning round. Surely our innocent pleasures are not + so abundant in this life that we can afford to despise this or any other + source of them. We should fear being banished for our neglect to that + limbo where the great Florentine tells us are those who, during this life, + "wept when they might be joyful." + </p> + <p> + LXXXI + </p> + <p> + No slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the master + will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man. + </p> + <p> + LXXXII + </p> + <p> + Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may be + doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of + ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance is + of a different sort—that the class feeling is in favour of a + different class—and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of + wrong-headedness in each case—but it is questionable if the one is + either a bit better, or a bit worse, than the other. The old protectionist + theory is the doctrine of trades unions as applied by the squires, and the + modern trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires applied by the + artisans. Why should we be worse off under one <i>régime</i> than + under the other? + </p> + <p> + LXXXIII + </p> + <p> + The life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or + less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing + something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated + than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man + and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. + The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, + the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on + the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, + just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a + mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who + plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing + generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who + plays ill is checkmated—without haste, but without remorse. + </p> + <p> + LXXXIV + </p> + <p> + Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under + which name I include not merely things and their forces, but men and + then-ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an + earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws. + </p> + <p> + LXXXV + </p> + <p> + To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And + then, long before we were susceptible of any other mode of instruction, + Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its + educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with + Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross + disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past for + any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as fresh as it + was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the + eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her patient education of + us in that great university, the universe, of which we are all members—Nature + having no Test-Acts. + </p> + <p> + LXXXVI + </p> + <p> + Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which + govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and successful + men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the "Poll," who pick up + just enough to get through without much discredit Those who won't learn at + all are plucked; and then you can't come up again. Nature's pluck means + extermination. + </p> + <p> + LXXXVII + </p> + <p> + Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience—incapacity + meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature's discipline is not even a + word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is + left to you to find out why your ears are boxed. + </p> + <p> + LXXXVIII + </p> + <p> + All artificial education ought to be an anticipation of natural education. + </p> + <p> + LXXXIX + </p> + <p> + That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in + youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease + and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose + intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal + strength and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be + turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as force the + anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great + and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one + who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are + trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender + conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of + art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. + </p> + <p> + XC + </p> + <p> + The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, + is wisdom. + </p> + <p> + XCI + </p> + <p> + Next to being right in this world, the best of all things is to be clearly + and definitely wrong, because you will come out somewhere. If you go + buzzing about between right and wrong, vibrating and fluctuating, you come + out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and thoroughly and persistently + wrong, you must, some of these days, have the extreme good fortune of + knocking your head against a fact, and that sets you all straight again. + </p> + <p> + XCII + </p> + <p> + No man ever understands Shakespeare until he is old, though the youngest + may admire him, the reason being that he satisfies the artistic instinct + of the youngest and harmonises with the ripest and richest experience of + the oldest. + </p> + <p> + XCIII + </p> + <p> + It is not a question whether one order of study or another should + predominate. It is a question of what topics of education you shall select + which will combine all the needful elements in such due proportion as to + give the greatest amount of food, support, and encouragement to those + faculties which enable us to appreciate truth, and to profit by those + sources of innocent happiness which are open to us, and, at the same time, + to avoid that which is bad, and coarse, and ugly, and keep clear of the + multitude of pitfalls and dangers which beset those who break through the + natural or moral laws. + </p> + <p> + XCIV + </p> + <p> + Writing is a form of drawing; therefore if you five the same attention and + trouble to drawing as you do to writing, depend upon it, there is nobody + who cannot be made to draw, more or less well.... I do not say for one + moment you would make an artistic draughtsman. Artists are not made; they + grow..... You can teach simple drawing, and you will find it an implement + of learning of extreme value. I do not think its value can be exaggerated, + because it gives you the means of training the young in attention and + accuracy, which are the two things in which all mankind are more deficient + than in any other mental quality whatever. + </p> + <p> + XCV + </p> + <p> + If a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out of his Bible, + and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes, and Bishop Berkeley, + to mention only a few of our illustrious writers—I say, if he cannot + get it out of those writers, he cannot get it out of anything; and I would + assuredly devote a very large portion of the time of every English child + to the careful study of the models of English writing of such varied and + wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is still more important and still + more neglected, the habit of using that language with precision, with + force, and with art. + </p> + <p> + XCVI + </p> + <p> + I fancy we are almost the only nation in the world who seem to think that + composition comes by nature. The French attend to their own language, the + Germans study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth + their while. + </p> + <p> + XCVII + </p> + <p> + Many of the faults and mistakes of the ancient philosophers are traceable + to the fact that they knew no language but their own, and were often led + into confusing the symbol with the thought which it embodied. + </p> + <p> + XCVIII + </p> + <p> + If the time given to education permits, add Latin and German. Latin, + because it is the key to nearly one-half of English and to all the Romance + languages; and German, because it is the key to almost all the remainder + of English, and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us have + sprung, and who have a character and a literature of a fateful force in + the history of the world, such as probably has been allotted to those of + no other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, and ourselves. + </p> + <p> + XCIX + </p> + <p> + In an ideal University,.... the force of living example should fire the + student with a noble ambition to emulate the learning of learned men, and + to follow in the footsteps of the explorers of new fields of knowledge. + And the very air he breathes should be charged with that enthusiasm for + truth, that fanaticism of veracity, which is a greater possession than + much learning; a nobler gift than the power of increasing knowledge; by go + much greater and nobler than these, as the moral nature of man is greater + than the intellectual; for veracity is the heart of morality. Do what you + can to do what you ought, and leave hoping and fearing alone. + </p> + <p> + CI + </p> + <p> + On the face of the matter, it is absurd to ask whether it is more + important to know the limits of one's powers; or the ends for which they + ought to be exerted; or the conditions under which they must be exerted. + One may as well inquire which of the terms of a Rule of Three sum one + ought to know in order to get a trustworthy result. Practical life is such + a sum, in which your duty multiplied into your capacity, and divided by + your circumstances, gives you the fourth term in the proportion, which is + your deserts, with great accuracy. + </p> + <p> + CII + </p> + <p> + Books are the money of Literature, but only the counters of Science. + </p> + <p> + CIII + </p> + <p> + Medicine was the foster-mother of Chemistry, because it has to do with the + preparation of drugs and the detection of poisons; of Botany, because it + enabled the physician to recognise medicinal herbs; of Comparative Anatomy + and Physiology, because the man who studied Human Anatomy and Physiology + for purely medical purposes was led to extend his studies to the rest of + the animal world. + </p> + <p> + CIV + </p> + <p> + A thorough study of Human Physiology is, in itself, an education broader + and more comprehensive than much that passes under that name. There is no + side of the intellect which it does not call into play, no region of human + knowledge into which either its roots, or its branches, do not extend; + like the Atlantic between the Old and the New Worlds, its waves wash the + shores of the two worlds of matter and of mind; its tributary streams flow + from both; through its waters, as yet unfurrowed by the keel of any + Columbus, lies the road, if such there be, from the one to the other; far + away from that North-west Passage of mere speculation, in which so many + brave souls have been hopelessly frozen up. + </p> + <p> + CV + </p> + <p> + You know that among the Bees, it depends on the kind of cell in which the + egg is deposited, and the quantity and quality of food which is supplied + to the grub, whether it shall turn out a busy little worker or a big idle + queen. And, in the human hive, the cells of the endowed larvae are always + tending to enlarge, and their food to improve, until we get queens, + beautiful to behold, but which gather no honey and build no comb. + </p> + <p> + CVI + </p> + <p> + Examination, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad master; and there + seems to me to be some danger of its becoming our master. I by no means + stand alone in this opinion. Experienced friends of mine do not hesitate + to say that students whose career they watch appear to them to become + deteriorated by the constant effort to pass this or that examination, just + as we hear of mens brains becoming affected by the daily necessity of + catching a train. They work to pass, not to know; and outraged Science + takes Her revenge. They do pass, and they don't know. + </p> + <p> + CVII + </p> + <p> + A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. + </p> + <p> + CVIII + </p> + <p> + There is but one right, and the possibilities of wrong are infinite. + </p> + <p> + CIX + </p> + <p> + It is given to few to add to the store of knowledge, to strike new springs + of thought, or to shape new forms of beauty. But so sure as it is that men + live not by bread, but by ideas, so sure is it that the future of the + world lies in the hands of those who are able to carry the interpretation + of nature a step further than their predecessors. + </p> + <p> + CX + </p> + <p> + Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation. + </p> + <p> + CXI + </p> + <p> + Whatever practical people may say, this world is, after all, absolutely + governed by ideas, and very often by the wildest and most hypothetical + ideas. It is a matter of the very greatest importance that our theories of + things, and even of things that seem a long way apart from our daily + lives, should be as far as possible true, and as far as possible removed + from error. + </p> + <p> + CXII + </p> + <p> + All truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified. + </p> + <p> + CXIII + </p> + <p> + You may read any quantity of books, and you may be almost as ignorant as + you were at starting, if you don't have, at the back of your minds, the + change for words in definite images which can only be acquired through the + operation of your observing faculties on the phenomena of nature. + </p> + <p> + CXIV + </p> + <p> + The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is to my mind, a + very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not believe + that it is other than a very valuable possession, however infinitesimal + its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is dangerous, where is + the man who has so much as to be out of danger? + </p> + <p> + CXV + </p> + <p> + Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of + cleverness. + </p> + <p> + CXVI + </p> + <p> + The body is a machine of the nature of an army..... Of this army each cell + is a soldier, an organ a brigade, the central nervous system headquarters + and field telegraph, the alimentary and circulatory system the + commissariat Losses are made good by recruits born in camp, and the life + of the individual is a campaign, conducted successfully for a number of + years, but with certain defeat in the long run. + </p> + <p> + CXVII + </p> + <p> + So far as the laws of conduct are determined by the intellect, I apprehend + that they belong to science, and to that part of science which is called + morality. But the engagement of the affections in favour of that + particular kind of conduct which we call good, seems to me to be something + quite beyond mere science. And I cannot but think that it, together with + the awe and reverence, which have no kinship with base fear, but arise + whenever one tries to pierce below the surface of things, whether they be + material or spiritual, constitutes all that has any unchangeable reality + in religion. + </p> + <p> + CXVIII + </p> + <p> + Just as I think it would be a mistake to confound the science, morality, + with the affection, religion; so do I conceive it to be a most lamentable + and mischievous error, that the science, theology, is so confounded in the + minds of many—indeed, I might say, of the majority of men. + </p> + <p> + CXIX + </p> + <p> + My belief is, that no human being, and no society composed of human + beings, ever did, or ever will, come to much, unless their conduct was + governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal. + </p> + <p> + CXX + </p> + <p> + Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make + yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether + you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and, + however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that + he learns thoroughly. + </p> + <p> + CXXI + </p> + <p> + The great end of life is not knowledge, but action. What men need is, as + much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise into a basis for + action; give them more and it may become injurious. One knows people who + are as heavy and stupid from undigested learning as others are from + over-fulness of meat and drink. + </p> + <p> + CXXII + </p> + <p> + There is no mode of exercising the faculty of observation and the faculty + of accurate reproduction of that which is observed, no discipline which so + readily tests error in these matters, as drawing properly taught And by + that I do not mean artistic drawing; I mean figuring natural objects. I do + not wish to exaggerate, but I declare to you that, in my judgment, the + child who has been taught to make an accurate elevation, plan and section + of a pint pot has had an admirable training in accuracy of eye and hand. + </p> + <p> + CXXIII + </p> + <p> + Accuracy is the foundation of everything else. + </p> + <p> + CXXIV + </p> + <p> + Anybody who knows his business in science can make anything subservient to + that purpose. You know it was said of Dean Swift that he could write an + admirable poem upon a broomstick, and the man who has a real knowledge of + science can make the commonest object in the world subservient to an + introduction to the principles and greater truths of natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + CXXV + </p> + <p> + My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get + right. + </p> + <p> + CXXVI + </p> + <p> + I remember somewhere reading of an interview between the poet Southey and + a good Quaker. Southey was a man of marvellous powers of work. He had a + habit of dividing his time into little parts each of which was filled up, + and he told the Quaker what he did in this hour and that, and so on + through the day until far into the night The Quaker listened, and at the + close said, "Well, but, friend Southey, when dost thee think?" + </p> + <p> + CXXVII + </p> + <p> + The knowledge which is absolutely requisite in dealing with young children + is the knowledge you possess, as you would know your own business, and + which you can just turn about as if you were explaining to a boy a matter + of everyday life. + </p> + <p> + CXXVIII + </p> + <p> + You may develop the intellectual side of people as far as you like, and + you may confer upon them all the skill that training and instruction can + give; but, if there is not, underneath all that outside form and + superficial polish, the firm fibre of healthy manhood and earnest desire + to do well, your labour is absolutely in vain. + </p> + <p> + CXXIX + </p> + <p> + Our sole chance of succeeding in a competition, which must constantly + become more and more severe, is that our people shall not only have the + knowledge and the skill which are required, but that they shall have the + will and the energy and the honesty, without which neither knowledge nor + skill can be of any permanent avail. + </p> + <p> + CXXX + </p> + <p> + It is a great many years since, at the outset of my career, I had to think + seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the + conclusion that the chief good, for me, was freedom to learn, think, and + say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction, and + have availed myself of the "rara temporum félicitas ubi sentire quæ + velis, et quae sentias dicere licet," which is now enjoyable, to the best + of my ability; and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I + should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of + the line of action I have adopted. + </p> + <p> + CXXXI + </p> + <p> + The scientific imagination always restrains itself within the limits of + probability. + </p> + <p> + CXXXII + </p> + <p> + It is a "law of nature," verifiable by everyday experience, that our + already formed convictions, our strong desires, our intent occupation with + particular ideas, modify our mental operations to a most marvellous + extent, and produce enduring changes in the direction and in the intensity + of our intellectual and moral activities. + </p> + <p> + CXXXIII + </p> + <p> + Men can intoxicate themselves with ideas as effectually as with alcohol or + with bang, and produce, by dint of intense thinking, mental conditions + hardly distinguishable from monomania. + </p> + <p> + CXXXIV + </p> + <p> + Demoniac possession is mythical; but the faculty of being possessed, more + or less completely, by an idea is probably the fundamental condition of + what is called genius, whether it show itself in the saint, the artist, or + the man of science. One calls it faith, another calls it inspiration, a + third calls it insight; but the "intending of the mind," to borrow + Newton's well-known phrase, the concentration of all the rays of + intellectual energy on some one point, until it glows and colours the + whole cast of thought with its peculiar light, is common to all. + </p> + <p> + CXXXV + </p> + <p> + Whatever happens, science may bide her time in patience and in confidence. + </p> + <p> + CXXXVI + </p> + <p> + The only people, scientific or other, who never make mistakes are those + who do nothing. + </p> + <p> + CXXXVII + </p> + <p> + The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their + readiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge these + inevitable lapses. + </p> + <p> + CXXXVIII + </p> + <p> + Quite apart from deliberate and conscious fraud (which is a rarer thing + than is often supposed), people whose mythopæic faculty is once + stirred are capable of saving the thing that is not, and of acting as they + should not, to an extent which is hardly imaginable by persons who are not + so easily affected by the contagion of blind faith. There is no falsify so + gross that honest men and, still more, virtuous women, anxious to promote + a good cause, will not lend themselves to it without any clear + consciousness of the moral bearings of what they are doing. + </p> + <p> + CXXXIX + </p> + <p> + This modern reproduction of the ancient prophet, with his "Thus saith the + Lord," "This is the work of the Lord," steeped in supernaturalism and + glorying in blind faith, is the mental antipodes of the philosopher, + founded in naturalism and a fanatic for evidence, to whom these + affirmations inevitably suggest the previous question: "How do you know + that the Lord saith it?" "How do you know that the Lord doeth it?" and who + is compelled to demand that rational ground for belief, without which, to + the man of science, assent is merely an immoral pretence. + </p> + <p> + And it is this rational ground of belief which the writers of the Gospels, + no less than Paul, and Eginhard, and Fox, so little dream of offering that + they would regard the demand for it as a kind of blasphemy. + </p> + <p> + CXL + </p> + <p> + To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual affairs + would be about as reasonable as to object to live one's life, with due + thought for the morrow, because no man can be sure he will be alive an + hour hence. + </p> + <p> + CXLI + </p> + <p> + I verily believe that the great good which has been effected in the world + by Christianity has been largely counteracted by the pestilent doctrine on + which all the Churches have insisted, that honest disbelief in their more + or less astonishing creeds is a moral offence, indeed a sin of the deepest + dye, deserving and involving the same future retribution as murder and + robbery. If we could only see in one view, the torrents of hypocrisy and + cruelty, the lies, the slaughter, the violations of every obligation of + humanity, which have flowed from this source along the course of the + history of Christian nations, our worst imaginations of Hell would pale + beside the vision. + </p> + <p> + CXLII + </p> + <p> + Agnostioism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which + lies in the rigorous application of a single principle. That principle is + of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; as old as the writer who + said, "Try all things, hold fast by that which is good"; it is the + foundation of the Reformation, which simply illustrated the axiom that + every man should be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him; it + is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of modern + science. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of the + intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard + to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect do + not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or + demonstrable. That I take to be the agnostic faith, which if a man keep + whole and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the + face, whatever the future may have in store for him. + </p> + <p> + CXLIII + </p> + <p> + The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest + blunders and commit the fewest sins. + </p> + <p> + CXLIV + </p> + <p> + That one should rejoice in the good man, forgive the bad man, and pity and + help all men to the best of one's ability, is surely indisputable. It is + the glory of Judaism and of Christianity to have proclaimed this truth, + through all their aberrations. But the worship of a God who needs + forgiveness and help, and deserves pity every hour of his existence, is no + better than that of any other voluntarily selected fetish. The Emperor + Julian's project was hopeful in comparison with the prospects of the + Comtist Anthropolatry. + </p> + <p> + CXLV + </p> + <p> + The Cleric asserts that it is morally wrong not to believe certain + propositions, whatever the results of a strict scientific investigation of + the evidence of these propositions. He tells us "that religious error is, + in itself, of an immoral nature." He declares that he has prejudged + certain conclusions, and looks upon those who show cause for arrest of + judgment as emissaries of Satan. It necessarily follows that, for him, the + attainment of faith, not the ascertainment of truth, is the highest aim of + mental life. And, on careful analysis of the nature of this faith, it will + too often be found to be, not the mystic process of unity with the Divine, + understood by the religious enthusiast; but that which the candid + simplicity of a Sunday scholar once defined it to be. "Faith," said this + unconscious plagiarist of Tertullian, "is the power of saying you believe + things which are incredible." + </p> + <p> + CXLVI + </p> + <p> + The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social + theories, of the modern world have grown out of those of Greece and Rome—not + by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early + Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the + things of this world, were alike despicable. + </p> + <p> + CXLVII + </p> + <p> + All that is best in the ethics of the modern world, in so far as it has + not Grown out of Greek thought, or Barbarian manhood, is the direct + development of the ethics of old Israel. There is no code of legislation, + ancient or modern, at once so just and so merciful, so tender to the weak + and poor, as the Jewish law; and, if the Gospels are to be trusted, Jesus + of Nazareth himself declared that he taught nothing but that which lay + implicitly, or explicitly, in the religious and ethical system of his + people. + </p> + <p> + CXLVIII + </p> + <p> + The first-recorded judicial murder of a scientific thinker was compassed + and effected, not by a despot, nor by priests, but was brought about by + eloquent demagogues, to whom, of all men, thorough search-ings of the + intellect are most dangerous and therefore most hateful. + </p> + <p> + CXLIX + </p> + <p> + Platonic philosophy is probably the grandest example of the unscientific + use of the imagination extant; and it would be hard to estimate the amount + of detriment to clear thinking effected, directly and indirectly, by the + theory of ideas, on the one hand, and by the unfortunate doctrine of the + baseness of matter, on the other. + </p> + <p> + CL + </p> + <p> + The development of exact natural knowledge in all its vast range, from + physics to history and criticism, is the consequence of the working out, + in this province, of the resolution to "take nothing for truth without + clear knowledge that it is such"; to consider all beliefs open to + criticism; to regard the value of authority as neither greater nor less + than as much as it can prove itself to be worth. The modern spirit is not + the spirit "which always denies," delighting only in destruction; still + less is it that which builds castles in the air rather than not construct; + it is that spirit which works and will work "without haste and without + rest," gathering harvest after harvest of truth into its barns and + devouring error with unquenchable fire. + </p> + <p> + CLI + </p> + <p> + In truth, the laboratory is the fore-court of the temple of philosophy; + and whoso has not offered sacrifices and undergone purification there has + little chance of admission into the sanctuary. + </p> + <p> + CLII + </p> + <p> + The memorable service rendered to the cause of sound thinking by Descartes + consisted in this: that he laid the foundation of modern philosophical + criticism by his inquiry into the nature of certainty. + </p> + <p> + CLIII + </p> + <p> + There is no question in the mind of anyone acquainted with the facts that, + so far as observation and experiment can take us, the structure and the + functions of the nervous system are fundamentally the same in an ape, or + in a dog, and in a man. And the suggestion that we must stop at the exact + point at which direct proof fails us, and refuse to believe that the + similarity which extends so far stretches yet further, is no better than a + quibble. Robinson Crusoe did not feel bound to conclude, from the single + human footprint which he saw in the sand, that the maker of the impression + had only one leg. + </p> + <p> + CLIV + </p> + <p> + Descartes, as we have seen, illustrates what he means by an innate idea, + by the analogy of hereditary diseases or hereditary mental peculiarities, + such as generosity. On the other hand, hereditary mental tendencies may + justly be termed instincts; and still more appropriately might those + special proclivities, which constitute what we call genus, come into the + same category. + </p> + <p> + CLV + </p> + <p> + The child who is impelled to draw as soon as it can hold a pencil; the + Mozart who breaks out into music as early; the boy Bidder who worked out + the most complicated sums without learning arithmetic; the boy Pascal who + evolved Euclid out of his own consciousness: all these may be said to have + been impelled by instinct, as much as are the beaver and the bee. And the + man of genius is distinct in kind from the man of cleverness, by reason of + the working within him of strong innate tendencies—which cultivation + may improve, but which it can no more create than horticulture can make + thistles bear figs. The analogy between a musical instrument and the mind + holds good here also. Art and industry may get much music, of a sort, out + of a penny whistle; but, when all is done, it has no chance against an + organ. The innate musical potentialities of the two are infinitely + different. + </p> + <p> + CLVI + </p> + <p> + It is notorious that, to the unthinking mass of mankind, nine-tenths of + the facts of fife do not suggest the relation of cause and effect; and + they practically deny the existence of any such relation by attributing + them to chance. Few gamblers but would stare if they were told that the + falling of a die on a particular face is as much the effect of a definite + cause as the fact of its falling; it is a proverb that "the wind bloweth + where it listeth"; and even thoughtful men usually receive with surprise + the suggestion, that the form of the crest of every wave that breaks, + wind-driven, on the sea-shore, and the direction of every particle of foam + that flies before the gale, are the exact effects of definite causes; and, + as such, must be capable of being determined, deductively, from the laws + of motion and the properties of air and water. So again, there are large + numbers of highly intelligent persons who rather pride themselves on their + fixed belief that our volitions have no cause; or that the will causes + itself, which is either the same thing, or a contradiction in terms. + </p> + <p> + CLVII + </p> + <p> + To say that an idea is necessary is simply to affirm that we cannot + conceive the contrary; and the fact that we cannot conceive the contrary + of any belief may be a presumption, but is certainly no proof, of its + truth. + </p> + <p> + CLVIII + </p> + <p> + It is remarkable that Hume does not refer to the sentimental arguments for + the immortality of the soul which are so much in vogue at the present day; + and which are based upon our desire for a longer conscious existence than + that which nature appears to have allotted to us. Perhaps he did not think + them worth notice. For indeed it is not a little strange, that our strong + desire that a certain occurrence should happen should be put forward as + evidence that it will happen. If my intense desire to see the friend, from + whom I have parted, does not bring him from the other side of the world, + or take me thither; if the mother's agonised prayer that her child should + live has not prevented him from dying; experience certainly affords no + presumption that the strong desire to be alive after death, which we call + the aspiration after immortality, is any more likely to be gratified. As + Hume truly says, "All doctrines are to be suspected which are favoured by + our passions"; and the doctrine, that we are immortal because we should + extremely like to be so, contains the quintessence of suspiciousness. + </p> + <p> + CLIX + </p> + <p> + If every man possessed everything he wanted, and no one had the power to + interfere with such possession; or if no man desired that which could + damage his fellow-man, justice would have no part to play in the universe. + </p> + <p> + CLX + </p> + <p> + To fail in justice, or in benevolence, is to be displeased with one's + self. But happiness is impossible without inward self-approval; and, + hence, every man who has any regard to his own happiness and welfare, will + find his best reward in the practice of every moral duty. + </p> + <p> + CLXI + </p> + <p> + Virtue is undoubtedly beneficent; but the man is to be envied to whom her + ways seem in anywise playful. And though she may not talk much about + suffering and self-denial, her silence on that topic may be accounted for + on the principle <i>ça va sans dire</i>. + </p> + <p> + CLXII + </p> + <p> + If mankind cannot be engaged in practices "full of austerity and rigour?" + by the love of righteousness and the fear of evil, without seeking for + other compensation than that which flows from the gratification of such + love and the consciousness of escape from debasement, they are in a bad + case. For they will assuredly find that virtue presents no very close + likeness to the sportive leader of the Joyous hours in Hume's rosy + picture; but that she is an awful Goddess, whose ministers are the Furies, + and whose highest reward is peace. + </p> + <p> + CLXIII + </p> + <p> + Under its theological aspect, morality is obedience to the will of God; + and the ground for such obedience is two-fold: either we ought to obey God + because He will punish us if we disobey Him, which is an argument based on + the utility of obedience; or our obedience ought to flow from our love + towards God, which is an argument based on pure feeling and for which no + reason can be given. For, if any man should say that he takes no pleasure + in the contemplation of the ideal of perfect holiness, or, in other words, + that he does not love God, the attempt to argue him into acquiring that + pleasure would be as hopeless as the endeavour to persuade Peter Bell of + the "witchery of the soft blue sky." + </p> + <p> + CLXIV + </p> + <p> + In whichever way we look at the matter, morality is based on feeling, not + on reason; though reason alone is competent to trace out the effects of + our actions and thereby dictate conduct. Justice is founded on the love of + one's neighbour; and goodness is a kind of beauty. The moral law, like the + laws of physical nature, rests in the long run upon instinctive + intuitions, and is neither more nor less "innate" and "necessary" than + they are. Some people cannot by any means be got to understand the first + book of Euclid; but the truths of mathematics are no less necessary and + binding on the great mass of mankind. Some there are who cannot feel the + difference between the "Sonata Appassionata" and "Cherry Ripe"; or between + a grave-stone-cutter's cherub and the Apollo Belvidere; but the canons of + art are none the less acknowledged. While some there may be, who, devoid + of sympathy, are incapable of a sense of duty; but neither does their + existence affect the foundations of morality. Such pathological deviations + from true manhood are merely the halt, the lame, and the blind of the + world of consciousness; and the anatomist of the mind leaves them aside, + as the anatomist of the body would ignore abnormal specimens. + </p> + <p> + And as there are Pascals and Mozarts, Newtons and Raffaelles, in whom the + innate faculty for science or art seems to need but a touch to spring into + full vigour, and through whom the human race obtains new possibilities of + knowledge and new conceptions of beauty: so there have been men of moral + genius, to whom we owe ideals of duty and visions of moral perfection, + which ordinary mankind could never have attained: though, happily for + them, they can feel the beauty of a vision, which lay beyond the reach of + their dull imaginations, and count life well spent in shaping some faint + image of it in the actual world. + </p> + <p> + CLXV + </p> + <p> + The horror of "Materialism" which weighs upon the minds of so many + excellent people appears to depend, in part, upon the purely accidental + connexion of some forms of materialistic philosophy with ethical and + religious tenets by which they are repelled; and, partly, on the survival + of a very ancient superstition concerning the nature of matter. + </p> + <p> + This superstition, for the tenacious vitality of which the idealistic + philosophers who are, more or less, disciples of Plato and the theologians + who have been influenced by them, are responsible, assumes that matter is + something, not merely inert and perishable, but essentially base and + evil-natured, if not actively antagonistic to, at least a negative + deadweight upon, the good. + </p> + <p> + CLXVI + </p> + <p> + Judging by contemporary literature, there are numbers of highly cultivated + and indeed superior persons to whom the material world is altogether + contemptible; who can see nothing in a handful of garden soil, or a rusty + nail, but types of the passive and the corruptible. + </p> + <p> + To modern science, these assumptions are as much out of date as the + equally venerable errors, that the sun goes round the earth every + four-and-twenty hours, or that water is an elementary body. The handful of + soil is a factory thronged with swarms of busy workers; the rusty nail is + an aggregation of millions of particles, moving with inconceivable + velocity in a dance of infinite complexity yet perfect measure; harmonic + with like performances throughout the solar system. If there is good + ground for any conclusion, there is such for the belief that the substance + of these particles has existed and will exist, that the energy which stirs + them has persisted and will persist, without assignable limit, either in + the past or the future. Surely, as Heracleitus said of his kitchen with + its pots and pans, "Here also are the gods." Little as we have, even yet, + learned of the material universe, that little makes for the belief that it + is a system of unbroken order and perfect symmetry, of which the form + incessantly changes, while the substance and the energy are imperishable. + </p> + <p> + CLXVII + </p> + <p> + Of all the dangerous mental habits, that which schoolboys call + "cocksureness" is probably the most perilous; and the inestimable value of + metaphysical discipline is that it furnishes an effectual counterpoise to + this evil proclivity. Whoso has mastered the elements of philosophy knows + that the attribute of unquestionable certainty appertains only to the + existence of a state of consciousness so long as it exists; all other + beliefs are mere probabilities of a higher or lower order. Sound + metaphysic is an amulet which renders its possessor proof alike against + the poison of superstition and the counter-poison of shallow negation; by + showing that the affirmations of the former and the denials of the latter + alike deal with matters about which, for lack of evidence, nothing can be + either affirmed or denied. + </p> + <p> + CLXVIII + </p> + <p> + If the question is asked, What then do we know about matter and motion? + there is but one reply possible. All that we know about motion is that it + is a name for certain changes in the relations of our visual, tactile, and + muscular sensations; and all that we know about matter is that it is the + hypothetical substance of physical phenomena, the assumption of the + existence of which is as pure a piece of metaphysical speculation as is + that of the existence of the substance of mind. + </p> + <p> + Our sensations, our pleasures, our pains, and the relations of these, make + up the sum total of the elements of positive, unquestionable knowledge. We + call a large section of these sensations and then-relations matter and + motion; the rest we term mind and thinking; and experience shows that + there is a certain constant order of succession between some of the former + and some of the latter. + </p> + <p> + This is all that just metaphysical criticism leaves of the idols set up by + the spurious metaphysics of vulgar common sense. It is consistent either + with pure Materialism, or with pure Idealism, but it is neither. For the + Idealist, not content with declaring the truth that our knowledge is + limited to facts of consciousness, affirms the wholly unprovable + proposition that nothing exists beyond these and the substance of mind. + And, on the other hand, the Materialist, holding by the truth that, for + anything that appears to the contrary, material phenomena are the causes + of mental phenomena, asserts his unprovable dogma, that material phenomena + and the substance of matter are the sole primary existences. Strike out + the propositions about which neither controversialist does or can know + anything, and there is nothing left for them to quarrel about. Make a + desert of the Unknowable, and the divine Astraea of philosophic peace will + commence her blessed reign. + </p> + <p> + CLXIX + </p> + <p> + "Magna est Veritas et prævalebit!" Truth is great, certainly, but, + considering her greatness, it is curious what a long time she is apt to + take about prevailing. + </p> + <p> + CLXX + </p> + <p> + To my observation, human nature has not sensibly changed through the last + thirty years. I doubt not that there are truths as plainly obvious and as + generally denied, as those contained in "Man's Place in Nature," now + awaiting enunciation. If there is a young man of the present generation, + who has taken as much trouble as I did to assure himself that they are + truths, let him come out with them, without troubling his head about the + barking of the dogs of St. Ernulphus, "Veritas prævalebit"—some + day; and, even if she does not prevail in his time, he himself will be all + the better and the wiser for having tried to help her. And let him + recollect that such great reward is full payment for all his labour and + pains. + </p> + <p> + CLXXI + </p> + <p> + Ancient traditions, when tested by the severe processes of modern + investigations, commonly enough fade away into mere dreams: but it is + singular how often the dream turns out to have been a half-waking one? + presaging a reality. Ovid foreshadowed the discoveries of the geologist: + the Atlantis was an imagination, but Columbus found a western world: and + though the quaint forms of Centaurs and Satyrs have an existence only in + the realms of art, creatures approaching man more nearly than they in + essential structure, and yet as thoroughly brutal as the goat's or horse's + half of the mythical compound, are now not only known, but notorious. + </p> + <p> + CLXXII + </p> + <p> + It is a truth of very wide, if not of universal, application, that every + living creature commences its existence under a form different from, and + simpler than, that which it eventually attains. + </p> + <p> + The oak is a more complex thing than the little rudimentary plant + contained in the acorn; the caterpillar is more complex than the egg; the + butterfly than the caterpillar; and each of these beings, in passing from + its rudimentary to its perfect condition, runs through a series of + changes, the sum of which is called its development In the higher animals + these changes are extremely complicated; but, within the last half + century, the labours of such men as Von Baer, Rathke, Reichert, Bischoff, + and Remak, have almost completely unravelled them, so that the successive + stages of development which are exhibited by a dog, for example, are now + as well known to the embryologist as are the steps of the metamorphosis of + the silk-worm moth to the schoolboy. It will be useful to consider with + attention the nature and the order of the stages of canine development, as + an example of the process in the higher animals generally. + </p> + <p> + CLXXIII + </p> + <p> + Exactly in those respects in which the developing Man differs from the + Dog, he resembles the ape, which, like man, has a spheroidal yolk-sac and + a discoidal, sometimes partially lobed, placenta. So that it is only quite + in the later stages of development that the young human being presents + marked differences from the young ape, while the latter departs as much + from the dog in its development, as the man does. + </p> + <p> + Startling as the last assertion may appear to be, it is demonstrably true, + and it alone appears to me sufficient to place beyond all doubt the + structural unity of man with the rest of the animal world, and more + particularly and closely with the apes. + </p> + <p> + Thus, identical in the physical processes by which he originates—identical + in the early stages of his formation—identical in the mode of his + nutrition before and after birth, with the animals which lie immediately + below him in the scale—Man, if his adult and perfect structure be + compared with theirs, exhibits, as might be expected, a marvellous + likeness of organisation. He resembles them as they resemble one another—he + differs from them as they differ from one another. + </p> + <p> + CLXXIV + </p> + <p> + If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about + its altar-piece or painted window. + </p> + <p> + CLXXV + </p> + <p> + Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series of + gradations as this*—leading us insensibly from the crown and summit + of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a step, + as it seems, to the lowest, smallest, and least intelligent of the + placental Mammalia. It is as if nature herself had foreseen the arrogance + of man, and with Roman severity had provided that his intellect, by its + very triumphs, should call into prominence the slaves, admonishing the + conqueror that he is but dust. + </p> + <p> + CLXXVI + </p> + <p> + If Man be separated by no greater structural barrier from the brutes than + they are from one another—then it seems to follow that if any + process of physical causation can be discovered by which the genera and + families of ordinary animals have been produced, that process of causation + is amply sufficient to account for the origin of Man. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * This alludes to a foregoing enumeration of the seven + families of Primates headed by the Anthropini containing man + alone. +</pre> + <p> + CLXXVII + </p> + <p> + The whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and crushing + an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary + causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the universe; that, in + view of the intimate relations between Man and the rest of the living + world, and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, + I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of + Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed—from tne + inorganic to the organic—from blind force to conscious intellect and + will. + </p> + <p> + CLXXVIII + </p> + <p> + Science has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and enunciated + truth. + </p> + <p> + CLXXIX + </p> + <p> + Thoughtful men, once escaped from the blinding influences of traditional + prejudice, will find in the lowly stock whence Man has sprung the best + evidence of the splendour of his capacities; and will discern in his long + progress through the Past a reasonable ground of faith in his attainment + of a nobler Future... + </p> + <p> + And after passion and prejudice have died away, the same result will + attend the teachings of the naturalist respecting that great Alps and + Andes of the living world—Man. Our reverence for the nobility of + manhood will not be lessened by the knowledge that Man is, in substance + and in structure, one with the brutes; for he alone possesses the + marvellous endowment of intelligible and rational speech, whereby, in the + secular period of his existence, he has slowly accumulated and organised + the experience which is almost wholly lost with the cessation of every + individual life in other animals; so that, now, he stands raised upon it + as on a mountain top, far above the level of nis humble fellows, and + transfigured from his grosser nature by reflecting, here and there, a ray + from the infinite source of truth. + </p> + <p> + CLXXX + </p> + <p> + Ethnology, as thus defined, is a branch of Anthropology, the great science + which unravels the complexities of human structure; traces out the + relations of man to other animals; studies all that is especially human in + the mode in which man's complex functions are performed; and searches + after the conditions whicn have determined his presence IN the world. And + Anthropology is a section of Zoology, which again is the animal half of + Biology—the science of life and living things. + </p> + <p> + Such is the position of ethnology, such are the objects of the + ethnologist. The paths or methods, by following which he may hope to reach + his goal, are diverse. He may work at man from the point of view of the + pure zoologist, and investigate the anatomical and physiological + peculiarities of Negroes, Australians, or Mongolians, just as he would + inquire into those of pointers, terriers, and turnspits,—"persistent + modifications" of man's almost universal companion. Or he may seek aid + from researches into the most human manifestation of humanity-Language; + and assuming that what is true of speech is true of the speaker—a + hypothesis as questionable in science as it is in ordinary life—he + may apply to mankind themselves the conclusions drawn from a searching + analysis of their words and grammatical forms. + </p> + <p> + Or, the ethnologist may turn to the study of the practical life of men; + and relying upon the inherent conservatism and small inventiveness of + untutored mankind, he may hope to discover in manners and customs, or in + weapons, dwellings, and other handiwork, a clue to the origin of the + resemblances and differences of nations. Or, he may resort to that kind of + evidence which is yielded by History proper, and consists of the beliefs + of men concerning past events, embodied in traditional, or in written, + testimony. Or, when that thread breaks, Archaeology, which is the + interpretation of the unrecorded remains of man's works, belonging to the + epoch since the world has reached its present condition, may still guide + him. And, when even the dim light of archaeology fades, there yet remains + Palaeontology which, in these latter years, has brought to daylight once + more the exuvia of ancient populations, whose world was not our world, who + have been buried in river beds immemorially dry, or carried by the rush of + waters into caves, inaccessible to inundation since the dawn of tradition. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXI + </p> + <p> + The rapid increase of natural knowledge, which is the chief characteristic + of our age, is effected in various ways. The main army of science moves to + the conquest of new worlds slowly and surely, nor ever cedes an inch of + the territory gained. But the advance is covered and facilitated by the + ceaseless activity of clouds of light troops provided with a weapon—always + efficient, if not always an arm of precision—the scientific + imagination. It is the business of these <i>enfants perdus</i> of science + to make raids into the realm of ignorance wherever they see, or think they + see, a chance; and cheerfully to accept defeat, or it may be annihilation, + as the reward of error. Unfortunately the public, which watches the + progress of the campaign, too often mistakes a dashing incursion of the + Uhlans for a forward movement of the main body; fondly imagining that the + strategic movement to the rear, which occasionally follows, indicates a + battle lost by science. And it must be confessed that the error is too + often justified by the effects of the irrepressible tendency which men of + science share with all other sorts of men known to me, to be impatient of + that most wholesome state of mind—suspended judgment; to assume the + objective truth of speculations which, from the nature of the evidence in + their favour, can have no claim to be more than working hypotheses. + </p> + <p> + The history of the "Aryan question" affords a striking illustration of + these general remarks. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXII + </p> + <p> + Language is rooted half in the bodily and half in the mental nature of + man. The vocal sounds which form the raw materials of language could not + be produced without a peculiar conformation of the organs of speech; the + enunciation of duly accented syllables would be impossible without the + nicest coordination of the action of the muscles which move these organs; + and such co-ordination depends on the mechanism of certain portions of the + nervous system. It is therefore conceivable that the structure of this + highly complex speaking apparatus should determine a man's linguistic + potentiality; that is to say, should enable him to use a language of one + class and not of another. It is further conceivable that a particular + linguistic potentiality should be inherited and become as good a race mark + as any other. As a matter of fact, it is not proven that the linguistic + potentialities of all men are the same. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXIII + </p> + <p> + Community of language is no proof of unity of race, is not even + presumptive evidence of racial identity. All that it does prove is that, + at some time or other, free and prolonged intercourse has taken place + between the speakers of the same language. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXIV + </p> + <p> + The capacity of the population of Europe for independent progress while in + the copper and early bronze stage—the "palaeo-metallic" stage, as it + might be called—appears to me to be demonstrated in a remarkable + manner by the remains of their architecture. From the crannog to the + elaborate pile-dwelling, and from the rudest enclosure to the complex + fortification of the terramare, there is an advance which is obviously a + native product. So with the sepulchral constructions; the stone cist, with + or without a preservative or memorial cairn, grows into the chambered + graves lodged in tumuli; into such megalithic edifices as the dromic + vaults of Maes How and New Grange; to culminate in the finished masonry of + the tombs of Mycenae, constructed on exactly the same plan. Can anyone + look at the varied series of forms which lie between the primitive five or + six flat stones fitted together into a mere box, and such a building as + Maes How, and yet imagine that the latter is the result of foreign + tuition? But the men who built Maes How, without metal tools, could + certainly have built the so-called "treasure-house" of Mycenae, with them. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXV + </p> + <p> + Reckoned by centuries, the remoteness of the quaternary, or pleistocene, + age from our own is immense, and it is difficult to form an adequate + notion of its duration. Undoubtedly there is an abysmal difference between + the Neanderthaloid race and the comely living specimens of the blond + long-heads with whom we are familiar. But the abyss of time between the + period at which North Europe was first covered with ice, when savages + pursued mammoths and scratched their portraits with sharp stones in + central France, and the present day, ever widens as we learn more about + the events which bridge it. And, if the differences between the + Neanderthaloid men and ourselves could be divided into as many parts as + that time contains centuries, the progress from part to part would + probably be almost imperceptible. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXVI + </p> + <p> + I have not been one of those fortunate persons who are able to regard a + popular lecture as a mere <i>hors d'oeuvre</i>, unworthy of being ranked + among the serious efforts of a philosopher; and who keep their fame as + scientific hierophants unsullied by attempts—at least of the + successful sort—to be understanded of the people. + </p> + <p> + On the contrary, I found that the task of putting the truths learned in + the field, the laboratory and the museum, into language which, without + bating a jot of scientific accuracy shall be generally intelligible, taxed + such scientific and literary faculty as I possessed to the uttermost; + indeed my experience has furnished me with no better corrective of the + tendency to scholastic pedantry which besets all those who are absorbed in + pursuits remote from the common ways of men, and become habituated to + think and speak in the technical dialect of their own little world, as if + there were no other. + </p> + <p> + If the popular lecture thus, as I believe, finds one moiety of its + justification in the self-discipline of the lecturer, it surely finds the + other half in its effect on the auditory. For though various sadly comical + experiences of the results of my own efforts have led me to entertain a + very moderate estimate of the purely intellectual value of lectures; + though I venture to doubt if more than one in ten of an average audience + carries away an accurate notion of what the speaker has been driving at; + yet is that not equally true of the oratory of the hustings, of the House + of Commons, and even of the pulpit? + </p> + <p> + Yet the children of this world are wise in their generation; and both the + politician and the priest are justified by results. The living voice has + an influence over human action altogether independent of the intellectual + worth of that which it utters. Many years ago, I was a guest at a great + City dinner. A famous orator, endowed with a voice of rare flexibility and + power; a born actor, ranging with ease through every part, from refined + comedy to tragic unction, was called upon to reply to a toast. The orator + was a very busy man, a charming conversationalist and by no means despised + a good dinner; and, I imagine, rose without having given a thought to what + he was going to say. The rhythmic roll of sound was admirable, the + gestures perfect, the earnestness impressive; nothing was lacking save + sense and, occasionally, grammar. When the speaker sat down the applause + was terrific and one of my neighbours was especially enthusiastic. So when + he had quieted down, I asked him what the orator had said. And he could + not tell me. + </p> + <p> + That sagacious person John Wesley is reported to have replied to some one + who questioned the propriety of his adaptation of sacred words to + extremely secular airs, that he did not see why the Devil should be left + in possession of all the best tunes. And I do not see why science should + not turn to account the peculiarities of human nature thus exploited by + other agencies: all the more because science, by the nature of its being, + cannot desire to stir the passions, or profit by the weaknesses, of human + nature. The most zealous of popular lecturers can aim at nothing more than + the awakening of a sympathy for abstract truth, in those who do not really + follow his arguments; and of a desire to know more and better in the few + who do. + </p> + <p> + At the same time it must be admitted that the popularisation of science, + whether by lecture or essay, has its drawbacks. Success in this department + has its perils for those who succeed. The "people who fail" take their + revenge, as we have recently had occasion to observe, by ignoring all the + rest of a man's work and glibly labelling him a mere populariser. If the + falsehood were not too glaring, they would say the same of Faraday and + Helmholtz and Kelvin. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXVII + </p> + <p> + Of the affliction caused by persons who think that what they have picked + up from popular exposition qualifies them for discussing the great + problems of science, it may be said, as the Radical toast said of the + power of the Crown in bygone days, that it "has increased, is increasing, + and ought to be diminished." The oddities of "English as she is spoke" + might be abundantly paralleled by those of "Science as she is + misunderstood" in the sermon, the novel, and the leading article; and a + collection of the grotesque travesties of scientific conceptions, in the + shape of essays on such trifles as "the Nature of Life" and the "Origin of + All Things," which reach me, from time to time, might well be bound up + with them. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXVIII + </p> + <p> + The essay on Geological Reform unfortunately brought me, I will not say + into collision, but into a position of critical remonstrance with regard + to some charges of physical heterodoxy, brought by my distinguished friend + Lord Kelvin, against British Geology. As President of the Geological + Society of London at that time (1869), I thought I might venture to plead + that we were not such heretics as we seemed to be; and that, even if we + were, recantation would not affect the question of evolution. + </p> + <p> + I am glad to see that Lord Kelvin has just reprinted his reply to my plea, + and I refer the reader to it. I shall not presume to question anything, + that on such ripe consideration, Lord Kelvin has to say upon the physical + problems involved. But I may remark that no one can have asserted more + strongly than I have done, the necessity of looking to physics and + mathematics, for help in regard to the earliest history of the globe. + </p> + <p> + And I take the opportunity of repeating the opinion that, whether what we + call geological time has the lower limit assigned to it by Lord Kelvin, or + the higher assumed by other philosophers; whether the germs of all living + things have originated in the globe itself, or whether they have been + imported on, or in, meteorites from without, the problem of the origin of + those successive Faunae and Florae of the earth, the existence of which is + fully demonstrated by palaeontology, remains exactly where it was. + </p> + <p> + For I think it will be admitted, that the germs brought to us by + meteorites, if any, were not ova of elephants, nor of crocodiles; not + cocoa-nuts nor acorns; not even eggs of shell-fish and corals; but only + those of the lowest forms of animal and vegetable life. Therefore, since + it is proved that, from a very remote epoch of geological time, the earth + has been peopled by a continual succession of the higher forms of animals + and plants, these either must have been created, or they have arisen by + evolution. And in respect of certain groups of animals, the + well-established facts of palaeontology leave no rational doubt that they + arose by the latter method. + </p> + <p> + In the second place, there are no data whatever, which justify the + biologist in assigning any, even approximately definite, period of time, + either long or short, to the evolution of one species from another by the + process of variation and selection. In the essay on Geological + Contemporaneity and Persistent Types of Life I have taken pains to prove + that the change of animals has gone on at very different rates in + different groups of living beings; that some types have persisted with + little change from the palaeozoic epoch till now, while others have + changed rapidly within the limits of an epoch. In 1862 (see Coll. Ess viii + pp. 303,304) in 1863 (vol ii., p 461) and again in 1864 (ibid., pp. 89-91) + I argued, not as a matter of speculation, but from palaeontological facts, + the bearing of which I believe, up to that time, had not been shown, that + any adequate hypothesis of the causes of evolution must be consistent with + progression, stationariness and retrogression, of the same type at + different epochs; of different types in the same epoch; and that Darwin's + hypothesis fulfilled these conditions. + </p> + <p> + According to that hypothesis, two factors are at work, variation and + selection. Next to nothing is known of the causes of the former process; + nothing whatever of the time required for the production of a certain + amount of deviation from the existing type. And, as respects selection, + which operates by extinguishing all but a small minority of variations, we + have not the slightest means of estimating the rapidity with which it does + its work. All that we are justified in saying is that the rate at which it + takes place may vary almost indefinitely. If the famous paint-root of + Florida, which kills white pigs but not black ones, were abundant and + certain in its action, black pigs might be substituted for white in the + course of two or three years. If, on the other hand, it was rare and + uncertain in action, the white pigs might linger on for centuries. + </p> + <p> + CLXXXIX + </p> + <p> + A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few + passages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming + mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the truth + of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope to enable you to + read, with your own eyes, to-night. Let me add, that few chapters of human + history have a more profound significance for ourselves. I weigh my words + well when I assert, that the man who should know the true history of the + bit of chalk which every carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, + though ignorant of all other history, is likely, if he will think his + knowledge out to its ultimate results, to have a truer, and therefore a + better, conception of this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to + it, than the most learned student who is deep-read in the records of + humanity and ignorant of those of Nature. + </p> + <p> + CXC + </p> + <p> + The examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of the manner + in which the components of the chalk are arranged, and of their relative + proportions. But, by rubbing up some chalk with a brush in water and then + pouring off the milky fluid, so as to obtain sediments of different + degrees of fineness, the granules and the minute rounded bodies may be + pretty well separated from one another, and submitted to microscopic + examination, either as opaque or as transparent objects. By combining the + views obtained in these various methods, each of the rounded bodies may be + proved to be a beautifully-constructed calcareous fabric, made up of a + number of chambers, communicating freely with one another. The chambered + bodies are of various forms. One of the commonest is something like a + badly-grown raspberry, being formed of a number of nearly globular + chambers of different sizes congregated together. It is called <i>Globigerina</i>, + and some specimens of chalk consist of little else than <i>Globigerinæ</i> + and granules. Let us fix our attention upon the <i>Globigerina</i>. It is + the spoor of the game we are tracking. If we can learn what it is and what + are the conditions of its existence, we shall see our way to the origin + and past history of the chalk. + </p> + <p> + CXCI + </p> + <p> + It so happens that calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the <i>Globigerinæ</i> + of the chalk, are being formed, at the present moment, by minute living + creatures, which flourish in multitudes, literally more numerous than the + sands of the sea-shore, over a large extent of that part of the earth's + surface which is covered by the ocean. + </p> + <p> + The history of the discovery of these living <i>Globigerinæ</i> and + of the part which they play in rock building, is singular enough. It is a + discovery which, like others of no less scientific importance, has arisen, + incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and exceedingly + practical interests. When men first took to the sea, they speedily learned + to look out for shoals and rocks; and the more the burthen of their ships + increased, the more imperatively necessary it became for sailors to + ascertain with precision the depth of the waters they traversed. Out of + this necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding line; and, + ultimately, marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts + and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon + charts. + </p> + <p> + CXCII + </p> + <p> + Lieut Brooke, of the American Navy, some years ago invented a most + ingenious machine, by which a considerable portion of the superficial + layer of the sea-bottom can be scooped out and brought up from any depth + to which the lead descends. In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the + bottom of the North Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a + depth of more than 10,000 feet, or two miles, by the help of this sounding + apparatus. The specimens were sent for examination to Ehrenberg of Berlin, + and to Bailey of West Point, and those able microscopists found that this + deep-sea mud was almost entirety composed of the skeletons of living + organisms—the greater proportion of these being just like the <i>Globigerinæ</i> + already known to occur in the chalk. + </p> + <p> + Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests of science, + but Lieut Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high commercial value, + when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable between this + country and the United States was undertaken. For it became a matter of + immense importance to know, not only the depth of the sea over the whole + line along which the cable was to be laid, but the exact nature of the + bottom, so as to guard against chances of cutting or fraying the strands + of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently ordered Captain Dayman, an + old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain the depth over the whole + line of the cable, and to bring back specimens of the bottom. In former + days, such a command as this might have sounded very much like one of the + impossible things which the young Prince in the Fairy Tales is ordered to + do before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. However, in the months + of June and July, 1857, my friend performed the task assigned to nim with + great expedition and precision, without, so far as I know, having met with + any reward of that kind. The specimens of Atlantic mud which he procured + were sent to me to be examined and reported upon. + </p> + <p> + CXCIII + </p> + <p> + The result of all these operations is, that we know the contours and the + nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic for a distance of + 1,700 miles from east to west, as well as we know that of any part of the + dry land. It is a prodigious plain-one of the widest and most even plains + in the world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a waggon all + the way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay in + Newfoundland. And, except upon one sharp incline about 200 miles from Valentia, + I am not quite sure that it would even be necessary to put the skid on, so + gentle are the ascents and descents upon that long route. From Valentia + the road would lie down-hill for about 200 miles to the point at which the + bottom is now covered by 1,700 fathoms of sea-water. Then would come the + central plain, more than a thousand miles wide, the inequalities of the + surface of which would be hardly perceptible, though the depth of water + upon it now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet; and there are places in + which Mont Blanc might be sunk without showing its peak above water. + Beyond this, the ascent on the American side commences, and gradually + leads, for about 300 miles, to the Newfoundland shore. + </p> + <p> + CXCIV + </p> + <p> + When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct + species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the + chalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met + with only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any one + of them inhabited fresh water—the collateral evidence that the chalk + represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the proof + derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now allow + that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have as strong + grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at present + occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we have for + any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification for any + other belief. + </p> + <p> + No less certain it is that the time during which the countries we now call + south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, + were more or less completely covered by a deep sea, was of considerable + duration. We have already seen that the chalk is, in places, more than a + thousand feet thick. I think you will agree with me that it must have + taken some time for the skeletons of animalcules of a hundredth of an inch + in diameter to heap up such a mass as that. + </p> + <p> + CXCV + </p> + <p> + If the decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin; the attachment, growth + to maturity, and decay of the <i>Crania</i>; and the subsequent attachment + and growth of the coralline, took a year (which is a low-estimate enough), + the accumulation of the inch of chalk must have taken more than a year: + and the deposit of a thousand feet of chalk must, consequently, have taken + more than twelve thousand years. + </p> + <p> + CXCVI + </p> + <p> + There is a writing upon the wall of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso runs may + read it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be impeached, that + the ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and remained dry land, + until it was covered with forest, stocked with the great game the spoils + of which have rejoiced your geologists. How long it remained in that + condition cannot be said; but "the whirligig of time brought its revenges" + in those days as in these. That dry land, with the bones and teeth of + generations of long-lived elephants, hidden away among the gnarled roots + and dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the bottom of the + icy sea, which covered it with huge masses of drift and boulder clay. + Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, now restricted to the extreme north, + paddled about where birds had twittered among the topmost twigs of the + fir-trees. How long this state of things endured we know not, but at + length it came to an end. The upheaved glacial mud hardened into the soil + of modern Norfolk. Forests grew once more, the wolf and the beaver + replaced the reindeer and the elephant; and at length what we call the + history of England dawned. + </p> + <p> + CXCVII + </p> + <p> + Direct proof may be given that some parts of the land of the northern + hemisphere are at this moment insensibly rising and others insensibly + sinking; and there is indirect, but perfectly satisfactory, proof, that an + enormous area now covered by the Pacific has been deepened thousands of + feet, since the present inhabitants of that sea came into existence. Thus + there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the physical changes + of the globe, in past times, have been effected by other than natural + causes. + </p> + <p> + CXCVIII + </p> + <p> + A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to put the bit + of chalk with which we started into the hot but obscure flame of burning + hydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. It seems to me that this + physical metamorphosis is no false image of what has been the result of + our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, though nowise brilliant, thought + to-night. It has become luminous, and its clear rays, penetrating the + abyss of the remote past, have brought within our ken some stages of the + evolution of the earth. And in the shifting "without haste, but without + rest" of the land and sea, as in the endless variation of the forms + assumed by living beings, we have observed nothing but the natural product + of the forces originally possessed by the substance of the universe. + </p> + <p> + CXCIX + </p> + <p> + In certain parts of the sea bottom in the immediate vicinity of the + British Islands, as in the Clyde district, among the Hebrides, in the + Moray Firth, and in the German Ocean, there are depressed areæ, + forming a kind of submarine valleys, the centres of which are from 80 to + 100 fathoms, or more, deep. These depressions are inhabited by assemblages + of marine animals, which differ from those found over the adjacent and + shallower region, and resemble those which are met with much farther + north, on the Norwegian coast. Forbes called these Scandinavian + detachments "Northern outliers." + </p> + <p> + How did these isolated patches of a northern population get into these + deep places? To explain the mystery, Forbes called to mind the fact that, + in the epoch which immediately preceded the present, the climate was much + colder (whence the name of "glacial epoch" applied to it); and that the + shells which are found fossil, or sub-fossil, in deposits of that age are + precisely such as are now to be met with only in the Scandinavian, or + still more Arctic, regions. Undoubtedly, during the glacial epoch, the + general population of our seas had, universally, the northern aspect which + is now presented only by the "northern outliers"; just as the vegetation + of the land, down to the sea-level, had the northern character which is, + at present, exhibited only by the plants which live on the tops of our + mountains. But, as the glacial epoch passed away, and the present climatal + conditions were developed, the northern plants were able to maintain + themselves only on the bleak heights, on which southern forms could not + compete with them. And, in like manner, Forbes suggested that, after the + glacial epoch, the northern animals then inhabiting the sea became + restricted to the deeps in which they could hold their own against + invaders from the south, better fitted than they to flourish in the warmer + waters of the shallows. Thus depth in the sea corresponded in its effect + upon distribution to height on the land. + </p> + <p> + CC + </p> + <p> + Among the scientific instructions for the voyage* drawn up by a committee + of the Royal Society, there is a remarkable letter from Von Humboldt to + Lord Minto, then First Lord of the Admiralty, in which, among other + things, he dwells upon the significance of the researches into the + microscopic composition of rocks, and the discovery of the great share + which microscopic organisms take in the formation of the crust of the + earth at the present day, made by Ehrenberg in the years 1836-39. + Ehrenberg, in fact, had shown that the extensive beds of "rotten-stone" or + "Tripoli" which occur in various parts of the world, and notably at Bilin + in Bohemia, consisted of accumulations of the silicious cases and + skeletons of <i>Diatomaceæ</i> sponges, and <i>Radiolaria</i>; he + had proved that similar deposits were being formed by Diatomaceæ, in + the pools of the Thiergarten in Berlin and elsewhere, and had pointed out + that, if it were commercially worth while, rotten-stone might be + manufactured by a process of diatom-culture. Observations conducted at + Cuxhaven, in 1839, had revealed the existence, at the surface of the + waters of the Baltic, of living Diatoms and <i>Radiolaria</i> of the same + species as those which, in a fossil state, constitute extensive rocks of + tertiary age at Caltanisetta, Zante, and Oran, on the shores of the + Mediterranean. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Of the Challenger. +</pre> + <p> + Moreover, in the fresh-water rotten-stone beds of Bilin, Ehrenberg had + traced out the metamorphosis, effected apparently by the action of + percolating water, of the primitively loose and friable deposit of + organized particles, in which the silex exists in the hydrated or soluble + condition. The silex, in fact undergoes solution and slow redeposition, + until, in ultimate result, the excessively finegrained sand, each particle + of which is a skeleton, becomes converted into a dense opaline stone, with + only here and there an indication of an organism. + </p> + <p> + From the consideration of these facts, Ehrenberg, as early as the year + 1839, had arrived at the conclusion that rocks, altogether similar to + those which constitute a large part of the crust of the earth, must be + forming, at the present day, at the bottom of the sea; and he threw out + the suggestion that even where no trace of organic structure is to be + found in the older rocks, it may have been lost by metamorphosis. + </p> + <p> + CCI + </p> + <p> + It is highly creditable to the ingenuity of our ancestors that the + peculiar property of fermented liquids, in virtue of which they "make glad + the heart of man," seems to have been known in the remotest periods of + which we have any record. All savages take to alcoholic fluids as if they + were to the manner born. Our Vedic forefathers intoxicated themselves with + the juice of the "soma"; Noah, by a not unnatural reaction against a + superfluity of water, appears to have taken the earliest practicable + opportunity of qualifying that which he was obliged to drink; and the + ghosts of the ancient Egyptians were solaced by pictures of banquets in + which the wine-cup passes round, graven on the walls of their tombs. A + knowledge of the process of fermentation, therefore, was in all + probability possessed by the prehistoric populations of the globe; and it + must have become a matter of great interest even to primaeval wine-bibbers + to study the methods by which fermented liquids could be surely + manufactured. No doubt it was soon discovered that the most certain, as + well as the most expeditious, way of making a sweet juice ferment was to + add to it a little of the scum, or lees, of another fermenting juice. And + it can hardly be questioned that this singular excitation of fermentation + in one fluid, by a sort of infection, or inoculation, of a little ferment + taken from some other fluid, together with the strange swelling, foaming, + and hissing of the fermented substance, must have always attracted + attention from the more thoughtful. Nevertheless, the commencement of the + scientific analysis of the Sphenomena dates from a period not earlier than + the first half of the seventeenth century. At this time, Van Helmont made + a first step, by pointing out that the peculiar hissing and bubbling of a + fermented liquid is due, not to the evolution of common air (which he, as + the inventor of the term "gas," calls "gas ventosum"), but to that of a + peculiar kind of air such as is occasionally met with in caves, mines, and + wells, and which he calls "gas sylvestre." + </p> + <p> + But a century elapsed before the nature of this "gas sylvestre," or as it + was afterwards called, "fixed air," was clearly determined, and it was + found to be identical with that deadly "choke-damp" by which the lives of + those who descend into old wells, or mines, or brewers' vats, are + sometimes suddenly ended; and with the poisonous aeriform fluid which is + produced by the combustion of charcoal, and now goes by the name of + carbonic acid gas. + </p> + <p> + During the same time it gradually became evident that the presence of + sugar was essential to the production of alcohol and the evolution of + carbonic acid gas, which are the two great and conspicuous products of + fermentation. And finally, in 1787, the Italian chemist, Fabroni, made the + capital discovery that the yeast ferment, the presence of which is + necessary to fermentation, is what he termed a "vegeto-animal" substance; + that is, a body which gives off ammoniacal salts when it is burned, and + is, in other ways, similar to the gluten of plants and the albumen and + casein of animals. + </p> + <p> + CCII + </p> + <p> + The living club-mosses are, for the most part, insignificant and creeping + herbs, which, superficially, very closely resemble true mosses, and none + of them reach more than two or three feet in height. But, in their + essential structure, they very closely resemble the earliest + Lepidodendroid trees of the coal: their stems and leaves are similar; so + are their cones; and no less like are the sporangia and spores; while even + in their size, the spores of the <i>Lepidodendron</i> and those of the + existing <i>Lycopodium</i>, or club-moss, very closely approach one + another. + </p> + <p> + Thus, the singular conclusion is forced upon us, that the greater and the + smaller sacs of the "Better-Bed" and other coals, in which the primitive + structure is well preserved, are simply the sporangia and spores of + certain plants, many of whicn were closely allied to the existing + club-mosses. And if, as I believe, it can be demonstrated that ordinary + coal Is nothing but "saccular" coal which has undergone a certain amount + of that alteration which, if continued, would convert it into anthracite; + then, the conclusion is obvious, that the great mass of the coal we burn + is the result of the accumulation of the spores and spore-cases of plants, + other parts of which have furnished the carbonized stems and the mineral + charcoal, or have left their impressions on the surfaces of the layer. + </p> + <p> + CCIII + </p> + <p> + The position of the beds which constitute the coal-measures is infinitely + diverse. Sometimes they are tilted up vertically, sometimes they are + horizontal, sometimes curved into great basins; sometimes they come to the + surface, sometimes they are covered up by thousands of feet of rock. But, + whatever then-present position, there is abundant and conclusive evidence + that every under-clay was once a surface soil. Not only do carbonized + root-fibres frequently abound in these under-clays; but the stools of + trees, the trunks of which are broken off and confounded with the bed of + coal, have been repeatedly found passing into radiating roots, still + embedded in the under-clay. On many parts of the coast of England, what + are commonly known as "submarine forests" are to be seen at low water. + They consist, for the most part, of short stools of oak, beech, and + fir-trees, still fixed by their long roots in the bed of blue clay in + which they originally grew. If one of these submarine forest beds should + be gradually depressed and covered up by new deposits, it would present + just the same characters as an under-clay of the coal, if the <i>Sigillaria</i> + and <i>Lepidodendron</i> of the ancient world were substituted for the + oak, or the beech, of our own times. + </p> + <p> + In a tropical forest, at the present day, the trunks of fallen trees, and + the stools of such trees as may have been broken by the violence of + storms, remain entire for but a short time. Contrary to what might be + expected, the dense wood of the tree decays, and suffers from the ravages + of insects, more swiftly than the bark. And the traveller, setting his + foot on a prostrate trunk, finds that it is a mere shell, which breaks + under his weight, and lands his foot amidst the insects, or the reptiles, + which have sought food or refuge within. + </p> + <p> + CCIV + </p> + <p> + The coal accumulated upon the area covered by one of the great forests of + the carboniferous epoch would, in course of time, have been wasted away by + the small, but constant, wear and tear of rain and streams, had the land + which supported it remained at the same level, or been gradually raised to + a greater elevation. And, no doubt, as much coal as now exists has been + destroyed, after its formation, in this way. + </p> + <p> + CCV + </p> + <p> + Once more, an invariably-recurring lesson of geological history, at + whatever point its study is taken up: the lesson of the almost infinite + slowness of the modification of living forms. The lines of the pedigrees + of living things break off almost before they begin to converge. + </p> + <p> + CCVI + </p> + <p> + Yet another curious consideration. Let us suppose that one of the stupid, + salamander-like Labyrinthodonts, which pottered, with much belly and + little leg, like Falstaff in his old age, among the coal-forests, could + have had thinking power enough in his small brain to reflect upon the + showers of spores which kept on falling through years and centuries, while + perhaps not one in ten million fulfilled its apparent purpose, and + reproduced the organism which gave it birth: surely he might have been + excused for moralizing upon the thoughtless and wanton extravagance which + Nature displayed in her operations. + </p> + <p> + But we have the advantage over our shovel-headed predecessor—or + possibly ancestor—and can perceive that a certain vein of thrift + runs through this apparent prodigality. Nature is never in a hurry, and + seems to have had always before her eyes the adage, "Keep a thing long + enough, and you will find a use for it." She has kept her beds of coal + many millions of years without being able to find much use for them; she + has sent them down beneath the sea, and the sea-beasts could make nothing + of them; she has raised them up into dry land, and laid the black veins + bare, and still, for ages and ages, there was no living thing on the face + of the earth that could see any sort of value in them; and it was only the + other day, so to speak, that she turned a new creature out of her + workshop, who by degrees acquired sufficient wits to make a fire, and then + to discover that the black rock would burn. + </p> + <p> + I suppose that nineteen hundred years ago, when Julius Cæsar was + good enough to deal with Britain as we have dealt with New Zealand, the + primæval Briton, blue with cold and woad, may have known that the + strange black stone, of which he found lumps here and there in his + wanderings, would burn, and so help to warm his body and cook his food. + Saxon, Dane, and Norman swarmed into the land. The English people grew + into a powerful nation, and Nature still waited for a full return of the + capital she had invested in the ancient club-mosses. The eighteenth + century arrived, and with it James Watt. The brain of that man was the + spore out of which was developed the modern steam-engine, and all the + prodigious trees and branches of modern industry which have grown out of + this. But coal is as much an essential condition of this growth and + development as carbonic acid is for that of a club-moss. Wanting coal, we + could not have smelted the iron needed to make our engines, nor have + worked our engines when we had got them. But take away the engines, and + the great towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire vanish like a dream. + Manufactures give place to agriculture and pasture, and not ten men can + live where now ten thousand are amply supported. + </p> + <p> + Thus, all this abundant wealth of money and of vivid life is Nature's + interest upon her investment in club-mosses, and the like, so long ago. + But what becomes of the coal which is burnt in yielding this interest? + Heat comes out of it, light comes out of it; and if we could gather + together all that goes up the chimney, and all that remains in the grate + of a thoroughly-burnt coal-fire, we should find ourselves in possession of + a quantity of carbonic acid, water, ammonia, and mineral matters, exactly + equal in weight to the coal. But these are the very matters with which + Nature supplied the club-mosses which made the coal. She is paid back + principal and interest at the same time; and she straightway invests the + carbonic acid, the water, and the ammonia in new forms of life, feeding + with them the plants that now live. Thrifty Nature! Surely no prodigal, + but most notable of housekeepers! + </p> + <p> + CCVII + </p> + <p> + Here, then, is a capital fact. The movements of the lobster are due to + muscular contractility. But why does a muscle contract at one time and not + at another? Why does one whole group of muscles contract when the lobster + wishes to extend his tail and another group when he desires to bend it? + What is it originates, directs, and controls the motive power? + </p> + <p> + Experiment, the great instrument for the ascertainment of truth in + physical science, answers this question for us. In the head of the lobster + there lies a small mass of that peculiar tissue which is known as nervous + substance. Cords of similar matter connect this brain of the lobster, + directly or indirectly, with the muscles. Now, if these communicating + cords are cut, the brain remaining entire, the power of exerting what we + call voluntary motion m the parts below the section is destroyed; and, on + the other hand, if, the cords remaining entire, the brain mass be + destroyed, the same voluntary mobility is equally lost, whence the + inevitable conclusion is, that the power of originating these motions + resides in the brain and is propagated along the nervous cords. + </p> + <p> + In the higher animals the phenomena which attend this transmission have + been investigated, and the exertion of the peculiar energy which resides + in the nerves has been found to be accompanied by a disturbance of the + electrical state of their molecules. + </p> + <p> + If we could exactly estimate the signification of this disturbance; if we + could obtain the value of a given exertion of nerve force by determining + the quantity of electricity, or of heat, of which it is the equivalent; if + we could ascertain upon what arrangement, or other condition of the + molecules of matter, the manifestation of the nervous and muscular + energies depends (and doubtless science will some day or other ascertain + these points), physiologists would have attained their ultimate goal in + this direction; they would have determined the relation of the motive + force of animals to the other forms of force found in nature; and if the + same process had been successfully performed for all the operations which + are carried on in, and by, the animal frame, physiology would be perfect, + and the facts of morphology and distribution would be deducible from the + laws which physiologists had established, combined with those determining + the condition of the surrounding universe. + </p> + <p> + CCVIII + </p> + <p> + The object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the attention and + excite the enthusiasm of the student; and this, I am sure, may be effected + to a far greater extent by the oral discourse and by the personal + influence of a respected teacher than in any other way. Secondly, lectures + have the double use of guiding the student to the salient points of a + subject, and at the same time forcing him to attend to the whole of it, + and not merely to that part which takes his fancy. And lastly, lectures + afford the student the opportunity of seeking explanations of those + difficulties which will, and indeed ought to, arise in the course of his + studies. + </p> + <p> + CCIX + </p> + <p> + What books shall I read? is a question constantly put by the student to + the teacher. My reply usually is, "None: write your notes out carefully + and fully; strive to understand them thoroughly; come to me for the + explanation of anything you cannot understand; and I would rather you did + not distract your mind by reading." A properly composed course of lectures + ought to contain fully as much matter as a student can assimilate in the + time occupied by its delivery; and the teacher should always recollect + that his business is to feed and not to cram the intellect. Indeed, I + believe that a student who gains from a course of lectures the simple + habit of concentrating his attention upon a definitely limited series of + facts, until they are thoroughly mastered, has made a step of immeasurable + importance. + </p> + <p> + CCX + </p> + <p> + However good lectures may be, and however extensive the course of + reading-by which they are followed up, they are but accessories to the + great instrument of scientific teaching—demonstration. If I insist + unweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science as + an educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of science, if + properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by all other + means of education. I have the greatest respect and love for literature; + nothing would grieve me more than to see literary training other than a + very prominent branch of education: indeed, I wish that real literary + discipline were far more attended to than it is; but I cannot shut my eyes + to the fact that there is a vast difference between men who have had a + purely literary, and those who have had a sound scientific, training. + </p> + <p> + CCXI + </p> + <p> + In the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and books are the + source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning and knowledge are + distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, is the source of the + latter. + </p> + <p> + CCXII + </p> + <p> + All that literature has to bestow may be obtained by reading and by + practical exercise in writing and in speaking; but I do not exaggerate + when I say that none of the best gifts of science are to be won by these + means. On the contrary, the great benefit which a scientific education + bestows, whether as training or as knowledge, is dependent upon the extent + to which the mind of the student is brought into immediate contact with + facts—upon the degree to which he learns the habit of appealing + directly to Nature, and of acquiring through his senses concrete images of + those properties of things, which are, and always will be, but + approximatively expressed in human language. Our way of looking at Nature, + and of speaking about her, varies from year to year; but a fact once seen, + a relation of cause and effect, once demonstratively apprehended, are + possessions which neither change nor pass away, but, on the contrary, form + fixed centres, about which other truths aggregate by natural affinity. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint the + fundamental, irrefragable facts of his science, not only by words upon the + mind, but by sensible impressions upon tne eye, and ear, and touch of the + student, in so complete a manner, that every term used, or law enunciated, + should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular structural, or + other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the law, or the + illustration of the term. + </p> + <p> + CCXIII + </p> + <p> + What is the purpose of primary intellectual education? I apprehend that + its first object is to train the young in the use of those tools wherewith + men extract knowledge from the ever-shifting; succession of phenomena + which pass before their eyes; and that its second object is to inform them + of the fundamental laws which have been found by experience to govern the + course of things, so that they may not be turned out into the world naked, + defenceless, and a prey to the events they might control. + </p> + <p> + A boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in order that he may + have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could ever be + opened to him by oral intercourse with his fellow men; he learns to write, + that his means of communication with the rest of mankind may be + indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store up the knowledge + he acquires. He is taught elementary mathematics, that he may understand + all those relations of number and form, upon which the transactions of + men, associated in complicated societies, are built, and that he may have + some practice in deductive reasoning. + </p> + <p> + All these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering are intellectual + tools, whose use should, before all things, be learned, and learned + thoroughly; so that the youth may be enabled to make his life that which + it ought to be, a continual progress in learning and in wisdom. + </p> + <p> + CCXIV + </p> + <p> + In addition, primary education endeavours to fit a boy out with a certain + equipment of positive knowledge. He is taught the great laws of morality; + the religion of his sect; so much history and geography as will tell him + where the great countries of the world are, what they are, and now they + have become what they are. + </p> + <p> + But if I regard it closely, a curious reflection arises. I suppose that, + fifteen hundred years ago, the child of any well-to-do Roman citizen was + taught just these same things; reading and writing in his own, and, + perhaps, the Greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and the religion, + morality, history, and geography current in his time. Furthermore, I do + not think I err in affirming that, if such a Christian Roman boy, who had + finished his education, could be transplanted into one of our public + schools, and pass through its course of instruction, he would not meet + with a single unfamiliar line of thought; amidst all the new facts he + would have to learn, not one would suggest a different mode of regarding + the universe from that current in his own time. + </p> + <p> + And yet surely there is some great difference between the civilisation of + the fourth century and that of the nineteenth, and still more between the + intellectual habits and tone of thought of that day and this? + </p> + <p> + And what has made this difference? I answer fearlessly—The + prodigious development of physical science within the last two centuries. + </p> + <p> + CCXV + </p> + <p> + Modern civilisation rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to + our own country, and our position among the leading nations of the world + is gone to-morrow; for it is physical science only that makes intelligence + and moral energy stronger than brute force. + </p> + <p> + CCXVI + </p> + <p> + The whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way + into the works of our best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who + affects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with + her spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods. I believe + that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen is now + slowly taking place by her agency. She is teaching the world that the + ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not authority; + she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is creating a + firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical + laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an + intelligent being. + </p> + <p> + But of all this your old stereotyped system of education takes no note. + Physical science, its methods, its problems, and its difficulties, will + meet the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a + manner that he shall enter the world as ignorant of the existence of the + methods and facts of science as the day he was born. The modern world is + full of artillery; and we turn out our children to do battle in it, + equipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. + </p> + <p> + CCXVII + </p> + <p> + Posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy this deplorable state + of things. Nay, if we live twenty years longer, our own consciences will + cry shame on us. + </p> + <p> + It is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy it is to make the + elements of physical science an integral part of primary education. I have + endeavoured to show you how that may be done for that branch of science + which it is my business to pursue; and I can but add, that I should look + upon the day when every schoolmaster throughout this land was a centre of + genuine, however rudimentary, scientific knowledge as an epoch in the + history of the country. + </p> + <p> + But let me entreat you to remember my last words. Addressing myself to + you, as teachers, I would say, mere book learning in physical science is a + sham and a delusion—what you teach, unless you wish to be impostors, + that you must first know; and real knowledge in science means personal + acquaintance with the facts, be they few or many. + </p> + <p> + CCXVIII + </p> + <p> + The first distinct enunciation of the hypothesis that all living matter + has sprung from pre-existing living matter came from a contemporary, + though a junior, of Harvey, a native of that country, fertile in men great + in all departments of human activity, which was to intellectual Europe, in + the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, what Germany is in the + nineteenth. It was in Italy, and from Italian teachers, that Harvey + received the most important part of his scientific education. And it was a + student trained in the same schools, Francesco Redi—a man of the + widest knowledge and most versatile abilities, distinguished alike as + scholar, poet, physician and, naturalist—who, just two hundred and + two years ago,* published his "Esperienze intorno alia Generazione + degl'Insetti," and gave to the world the idea, the growth of which it is + my purpose to trace. Redi's book went through five editions in twenty + years; and the extreme simplicity of his experiments, and the clearness of + his arguments, gained for his views and for their consequences, almost + universal acceptance. + </p> + <p> + Redi did not trouble himself much with speculative considerations, but + attacked particular cases of what was supposed to be "spontaneous + generation" experimentally. Here are dead animals, or pieces of meat, says + he; I expose them to the air in hot weather, and in a few days they swarm + with maggots. You tell me that these are generated in the dead flesh; but + if I put similar bodies, while quite fresh, into a jar, and tie some fine + gauze over the top of the jar, not a maggot makes its appearance, while + the dead substances, nevertheless, putrefy just in the same way as before. + It is obvious, therefore, that the maggots are not generated by the + corruption of the meat; and that the cause of their formation must be a + something which is kept away by gauze. But gauze will not keep away + aeriform bodies, or fluids. This something must therefore, exist in the + form of solid particles too big to get through the gauze. Nor is one long + left in doubt what these solid particles are; for the blow-flies, + attracted by the odour of the meat, swarm round the vessel, and, urged by + a powerful but in this case misleading instinct, lay eggs out of which + maggots are immediately hatched, upon the gauze. The conclusion, + therefore, is unavoidable; the maggots are not generated by the meat, but + the eggs which give rise to them are brought through the air by the flies. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * These words were written in 1870. +</pre> + <p> + These experiments seem almost childishly simple, and one wonders how it + was that no one ever thought of them before. Simple as they are, however, + they are worthy of the most careful study, for every piece of experimental + work since done, in regard to this subject, has been shaped upon the model + furnished by the Italian philosopher. As the results of his experiments + were the same, however varied the nature of the materials he used, it is + not wonderful that there arose in Redi's mind a presumption that, in all + such cases of the seeming production of life from dead matter, the real + explanation was the introduction of living germs from without into that + dead matter. And thus the hypothesis that living matter always arises by + the agency of pre-existing living matter, took definite shape; and had, + henceforward, a right to be considered and a claim to be refuted, in each + particular case, before the production of living matter in any other way + could be admitted by careful reasoners. It will be necessary for me to + refer to this hypothesis so frequently, that, to save circumlocution, I + shall call it the hypothesis of <i>Biogenesis</i>; and I shall term the + contrary doctrine—that living matter may be produced by not living + matter—the hypothesis of <i>Abiogenesis</i>. + </p> + <p> + In the seventeenth century, as I have said, the latter was the dominant + view, sanctioned alike by antiquity and by authority; and it is + interesting to observe that Redi did not escape the customary tax upon a + discoverer of having to defend himself against the charge of impugning the + authority of the Scriptures; for his adversaries declared that the + generation of bees from the carcase of a dead lion is affirmed, in the + Book of Judges, to have been the origin of the famous riddle with which + Samson perplexed the Philistines:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Out of the cater came forth meat, + And out of the strong came forth sweetness" +</pre> + <p> + CCXIX + </p> + <p> + The great tragedy of Science—the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis + by an ugly fact. + </p> + <p> + CCXX + </p> + <p> + It remains yet in the order of logic, though not of history, to show that + among these solid destructible particles there really do exist germs + capable of giving rise to the development of living forms in suitable + menstrua. This piece of work was done by M. Pasteur in those beautiful + researches which will ever render his name famous; and which, in spite of + all attacks upon them, appear to me now, as they did seven years ago, to + be models of accurate experimentation and logical reasoning. He strained + air through cotton-wool, and found, as Schroeder and Dusch had done, that + it contained nothing competent to give rise to the development of life in + fluids highly fitted for that purpose. But the important further links in + the chain of evidence added by Pasteur are three. In the first place he + subjected to microscopic examination the cottonwool which had served as + strainer, and found that sundry bodies clearly recognisable as germs were + among the solid particles strained off. Secondly, he proved that these + germs were competent to give rise to living forms by simply sowing them in + a solution fitted for their development. And, thirdly, he showed that the + incapacity of air strained through cotton-wool to give rise to life was + not due to any occult change effected in the constituents of the air by + the wool, by proving that the cotton-wool might be dispensed with + altogether, and perfectly free access left between the exterior air and + that in the experimental flask. If the neck of the flask is drawn out into + a tube and bent downwards; and if, after the contained fluid has been + carefully boiled, the tube is heated sufficiently to destroy any germs + which may be present in the air which enters as the fluid cools, the + apparatus may be left to itself for any time and no life will appear in + the fluid. The reason is plain. Although there is free communication + between the atmosphere laden with germs and the germless air in the flask, + contact between the two takes place only in the tube; and as the germs + cannot fall upwards, and there are no currents, they never reach the + interior of the flask. But if the tube be broken short off where it + proceeds from the flask, and free access be thus given to germs falling + vertically out of the air, the fluid, which has remained clear and desert + for months, becomes, in a few days, turbid and full of life. + </p> + <p> + CCXXI + </p> + <p> + In autumn it is not uncommon to see flies motionless upon a window-pane, + with a sort of magic circle, in white, drawn round them. On microscopic + examination, the magic circle is found to consist of innumerable spores, + which have been thrown off in all directions by a minute fungus called <i>Empusa + museæ</i> the spore-forming filaments of which stand out like a pile + of velvet from the body of the fly. These spore-forming filaments are + connected with others which fill the interior of the fly's body like so + much fine wool, having eaten away and destroyed the creature's viscera. + This is the full-grown condition of the <i>Empusa</i>. If traced back to + its earliest stages, in flies which are still active, and to all + appearance healthy, it is found to exist in the form of minute corpuscles + which float in the blood of the fly. These multiply and lengthen into + filaments, at the expense of the fly's substance; and when they have at + last killed the patient, they grow out of its body and give off spores. + Healthy flies shut up with diseased ones catch this mortal disease, and + perish like the others. A most competent observer, M. Cohn, who studied + the development of the <i>Empusa</i> very carefully, was utterly unable to + discover in what manner the smallest germs of the <i>Empusa</i> got into + the fly. The spores could not be made to give rise to such germs by + cultivation; nor were such germs discoverable in the air, or in the food + of the fly. It looked exceedingly like a case of Abiogenesis, or, at any + rate, of Xenogenesis; and it is only quite recently that the real course + of events has been made out. It has been ascertained that when one of the + spores falls upon the body of a fly, it begins to germinate, and sends out + a process which bores its way through the fly's skin; this, having reached + the interior cavities of its body, gives off the minute floating + corpuscles which are the earliest stage of the <i>Empusa</i>. The disease + is "contagious", because a healthy fly coming in contact with a diseased + one, from which the spore-bearing filaments protrude, is pretty sure to + carry off a spore or two. It is "infectious" because the spores become + scattered about all sorts of matter m the neighbourhood of the slain + flies. Silkworms are liable to many diseases; and, even before 1853, a + peculiar epizootic, frequently accompanied by the appearance of dark spots + upon the skin (whence the name of "Pébrine" which it has received), + had been noted for its mortality. But in the years following 1853 this + malady broke out with such extreme violence, that, in 1858, the silk-crop + was reduced to a third of the amount which it had reached in 1853; and, up + till within the last year or two, it has never attained half the yield of + 1853. This means not only that the great number of people engaged in silk + growing are some thirty millions sterling poorer than they might have + been; it means not only that high prices have had to be paid for imported + silkworm eggs, and that, after investing his money in them, in paying for + mulberry-leaves and for attendance, the cultivator has constantly seen his + silkworms perish and himself plunged in ruin; but it means that the looms + of Lyons have lacked employment, and that, for years, enforced idleness + and misery have been the portion of a vast population which, in former + days, was industrious and well-to-do. + </p> + <p> + In reading the Report made by M. de Quatrefages in 1859, it is exceedingly + interesting to observe that his elaborate study of the Pébrine + forced the conviction upon his mind that, in its mode of occurrence and + propagation, the disease of the silkworm is, in every respect, comparable + to the cholera among mankind. But it differs from the cholera, and so far + is a more formidable malady, in being hereditary, and in being, under some + circumstances, contagious as well as infectious. + </p> + <p> + The Italian naturalist, Filippi, discovered in the blood of the silkworms + affected by this strange disorder a multitude of cylindrical corpuscles, + each about 1/6000th of an inch long. These have been carefully studied by + Lebert, and named by him <i>Panhistophyton</i>; for the reason that in + subjects in which the disease is strongly developed, the corpuscles swarm + in every tissue and organ of the body, and even pass into the undeveloped + eggs of the female moth. But are these corpuscles causes, or mere + concomitants, of the disease? Some naturalists took one view and some + another; and it was not until the French Government, alarmed by the + continued ravages of the malady, and the inefficiency of the remedies + which had been suggested, despatched M. Pasteur to study it, that the + question received its final settlement; at a great sacrifice, not only of + the time and peace of mind of that eminent philosopher, but, I regret to + have to add, of his health. + </p> + <p> + But the sacrifice has not been in vain. It is now certain that this + devastating, cholera-like Pébrine is the effect of the growth and + multiplication of the <i>Panhistophyton</i> in the silkworm. It is + contagious and infectious, because the corpuscles of the <i>Panhistophyton</i> + pass away from the bodies of the diseased caterpillars, directly or + indirectly, to the alimentary canal of healthy silkworms in their + neighbourhood; it is hereditary because the corpuscles enter into the eggs + while they are being formed, and consequently are carried within them when + they are laid; and for this reason, also? it presents the very singular + peculiarity of being inherited only on the mother's side. There is not a + single one of all the apparently capricious and unaccountable phenomena + presented by the Pébrine, but has received its explanation from the + fact that the disease is the result of the presence of the microscopic + organism, <i>Panhistophyton</i>. + </p> + <p> + CCXXII + </p> + <p> + I commenced this Address by asking you to follow me in an attempt to trace + the path which has been followed by a scientific idea, in its long and + slow progress from the position of a probable hypothesis to that of an + established law of nature. Our survey has not taken us into very + attractive regions; it has lain, chiefly, in a land flowing with the + abominable, and peopled with mere grubs and mouldiness. And it may be + imagined with what smiles and shrugs, practical and serious contemporaries + of Redi and of Spallanzani may have commented on the waste of their high + abilities in toiling at the solution of problems which, though curious + enough in themselves, could be of no conceivable utility to mankind. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, you will have observed that before we had travelled very far + upon our road, there appeared, on the right hand and on the left, fields + laden with a harvest of golden grain, immediately convertible into those + things which the most solidly practical men will admit to have value—viz., + money and life. + </p> + <p> + The direct loss to France caused by the Pébrine in seventeen years + cannot be estimated at less than fifty millions sterling; and if we add to + this what Redi's idea, in Pasteur's hands, has done for the wine-grower + and for the vinegar-maker; and try to capitalise its value, we shall find + that it will go a long way towards repairing; the money losses caused by + the frightful and calamitous war of this autumn (1870). And as to the + equivalent of Redi's thought in life, how can we overestimate the value of + that knowledge of the nature of epidemic and epizootic diseases, and + consequently of the means of checking, or eradicating them, the dawn of + which has assuredly commenced? + </p> + <p> + Looking back no further than ten years, it is possible to select three + (1863, 1864, and 1869) in which the total number of deaths from + scarlet-fever alone amounted to ninety thousand. That is the return of + killed, the maimed and disabled being left out of sight Why, it is to be + hoped that the list of killed in the present bloodiest of all wars will + not amount to more than this! But the facts which I have placed before you + must leave the least sanguine without a doubt that the nature and the + causes of this scourge will, one day, be as well understood as those of + the Pébrine are now; and that the long-suffered massacre of our + innocents will come to an end. + </p> + <p> + And thus mankind will have one more admonition that "the people perish for + lack of knowledge"; and that the alleviation of the miseries, and the + promotion of the welfare, of men must be sought, by those who will not + lose their pains, in that diligent, patient, loving study of all the + multitudinous aspects of Nature, the results of which constitute exact + knowledge, or Science. + </p> + <p> + CCXXIII + </p> + <p> + I find three, more or less contradictory, systems of geological thought, + each of which might fairly enough claim these appellations, standing side + by side in Britain. I shall call one of them Catastrophisim another + Uniformitarianism, the third Evolutionism; and I shall try briefly to + sketch the characters of each, that you may say whether the classification + is, or is not, exhaustive. + </p> + <p> + By Catastrophism I mean any form of geological speculation which, in order + to account for the phenomena of geology supposes the operation of forces + different in their nature, or immeasurably different in power, from those + which we at present see in action in the universe. + </p> + <p> + The Mosaic cosmogony is, in this sense, catastrophic, because it assumes + the operation of extra-natural power. The doctrine of violent upheavals, + <i>débâcles</i> and cataclysms in general, is catastrophic, + so far as it assumes that these were brought about by causes which have + now no parallel. There was a time when catastrophism might, pre-eminently, + have claimed the title of "British popular geology"; and assuredly it has + yet many adherents, and reckons among its supporters some of the most + honoured members of this Society. + </p> + <p> + By Uniformitarianism I mean especially the teaching of Hutton and of + Lyell. + </p> + <p> + That great though incomplete work, "The Theory of the Earth", seems to me + to be one of the most remarkable contributions to geology which is + recorded in the annals of the science. So far as the not-living world is + concerned, uniformitarianism lies there, not only in germ, but in blossom + and fruit. + </p> + <p> + If one asks how it is that Hutton was led to entertain views so far in + advance of those prevalent in his time, in some respects; while, in + others, they seem almost curiously limited, the answer appears to me to be + plain. + </p> + <p> + Hutton was in advance of the geological speculation of his time, because, + in the first place, he had amassed a vast store of knowledge of the facts + of geology, gathered by personal observation in travels of considerable + extent; and because, in the second place, he was thoroughly trained in the + physical and chemical science of his day, and thus possessed, as much as + any one in his time could possess it, the knowledge which is requisite for + the just interpretation of geological phenomena, and the habit of thought + which fits a man for scientific inquiry. + </p> + <p> + It is to this thorough scientific training that I ascribe Hutton's steady + and persistent refusal to look to other causes than those now in operation + for the explanation of geological phenomena. + </p> + <p> + The internal heat of the earth, the elevation and depression of its crust, + its belchings forth of vapours, ashes, and lava, are its activities, in as + strict a sense as are warmth and the movements and products of respiration + the activities of an animal. The phenomena of the seasons, of the trade + winds, of the Gulf-stream, are as much the results of the reaction between + these inner activities and outward forces as are the budding of the leaves + in spring and their falling in autumn the effects of the interaction + between the organisation of a plant and the solar light and heat. And, as + the study of the activities of the living being is called its physiology, + so are these phenomena the subject-matter of an analogous telluric + physiology, to which we sometimes give the name of meteorology, sometimes + that of physical geography, sometimes that of geology. Again, the earth + has a place in space and in time, and relations to other bodies in both + these respects, which constitute its distribution. This subject is usually + left to the astronomer; but a knowledge of its broad outlines seems to me + to be an essential constituent of the stock of geological ideas. + </p> + <p> + CCXXIV + </p> + <p> + All that can be ascertained concerning the structure succession of + conditions, actions, and position m space of the earth, is the matter of + fact of its natural history. But? as in biology, there remains the matter + of reasoning from these facts to their causes, which is just as much + science as the other, and indeed more; and this constitutes geological + aetiology. + </p> + <p> + CCXXV + </p> + <p> + I suppose that it would be very easy to pick holes in the details of + Kant's speculations, whether cosmo-logical, or specially telluric, in + their application. But for all that, he seems to me to have been the first + person to frame a complete system of geological speculation by founding + the doctrine of evolution. + </p> + <p> + I have said that the three schools of geological speculation which I have + termed Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and Evolutionism, are commonly + supposed to be antagonistic to one another; and I presume it will have + become obvious that in my belief, the last is destined to swallow up the + other two. But it is proper to remark that each of the latter has kept + alive the tradition of precious truths. + </p> + <p> + To my mind there appears to be no sort of necessary theoretical antagonism + between Catastrophism and Uniformitarianism. On the contrary, it is very + conceivable that catastrophes may be part and parcel of uniformity. Let me + illustrate my case by analogy. The working of a clock is a model of + uniform action; good time-keeping means uniformity of action. But the + striking of the clock is essentially a catastrophe; the hammer might be + made to blow up a barrel of gunpowder, or turn on a deluge of water; and, + by proper arrangement, the clock, instead of marking the hours, might + strike at all sorts of irregular periods, never twice alike, in the + intervals, force, or number of its blows. Nevertheless, all these + irregular, and apparently lawless, catastrophes would be the result of an + absolutely uniformitarian action; and we might have two schools of + clock-theorists, one studying the hammer and the other the pendulum. + </p> + <p> + CCXXVI + </p> + <p> + Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which + grinds your stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you + get out depends upon what you put in; and as the grandest mill in tne + world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulæ + will not get a definite result out of loose data. + </p> + <p> + CCXXVII + </p> + <p> + The motive of the drama of human life is the necessity, laid upon every + man who comes into the world, of discovering the mean between + self-assertion and self-restraint suited to his character and his + circumstances. And the eternally tragic aspect of the drama lies in this: + that the problem set before us is one the elements of which can be but + imperfectly known, and of which even an approximately right solution + rarely presents itself, until that stern critic, aged experience, has been + furnished with ample justification for venting his sarcastic humour upon + the irreparable blunders we have already made. + </p> + <p> + CCXXVIII + </p> + <p> + That which endures is not one or another association of living forms, but + the process of which the cosmos is the product, and of which these are + among the transitory expressions. And in the living world, one of the most + characteristic features of this cosmic process is the struggle for + existence, the competition of each with all, the result of which is the + selection, that is to say, the survival of those forms which, on the + whole, are best adapted to the conditions which at any period obtain; and + which are therefore, in that respect, and only in that respect, the + fittest. The acme reached by the cosmic process in the vegetation of the + downs is seen in the turf, with its weed and gorse. Under the conditions, + they have come out of the struggle victorious; and, by surviving, have + proved that they are the fittest to survive. + </p> + <p> + CCXXIX + </p> + <p> + As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree + from its seed; or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and + all other kinds of supernatural intervention. As the expression of a fixed + order, every stage of which is the effect of causes operating according to + definite rules, the conception of evolution no less excludes that of + chance. It is very desirable to remember that evolution is not an + explanation of the cosmic process, but merely a generalized statement of + the method and results of that process. And, further, that, if there is + proof that the cosmic process was set going by any agent, then that agent + will be the creator of it and of all its products, although, supernatural + intervention may remain strictly excluded from its further course. + </p> + <p> + CCXXX + </p> + <p> + All plants and animals exhibit the tendency to vary, the causes of which + have yet to be ascertained; it is the tendency of the conditions of life, + at any given time, while favouring the existence of the variations best + adapted to them, to oppose that of the rest and thus to exercise + selection; and all living things tend to multiply without limit, while the + means of support are limited; the obvious cause of which is the production + of offspring more numerous than their progenitors, but with actual + expectation of life in the actuarial sense. Without tne first tendency + there could be no evolution. Without the second, there would be no good + reason why one variation should disappear and another take its place; that + is to say, there would be no selection. Without the third, the struggle + for existence, the agent of the selective process in the state of nature, + would vanish. + </p> + <p> + CCXXXI + </p> + <p> + The faith which is born of knowledge finds its object in an eternal order, + bringing forth ceaseless chance, through endless time, in endless space; + the manifestations of the cosmic energy alternating between phases of + potentiality and phases of explication. + </p> + <p> + CCXXXII + </p> + <p> + With all their enormous differences in natural endowment, men agree in one + thing, and that is their innate desire to enjoy the pleasures and escape + the pains of life; and, in short, to do nothing but that which it pleases + them to do, without the least reference to the welfare of the society into + which they are born. That is their inheritance (the reality at the bottom + of the doctrine of original sin) from the long series of ancestors, human + and semi-human and brutal, in whom the strength of this innate tendency to + self-assertion was the condition of victory in the struggle for existence. + That is the reason of the <i>aviditas vitæ</i>—the insatiable + hunger for enjoyment—of all mankind, which is one of the essential + conditions of success in the war with the state of nature outside; and yet + the sure agent of the destruction of society if allowed free play within. + </p> + <p> + CCXXXIII + </p> + <p> + The check upon this free play of self-assertion, or natural liberty, which + is the necessary condition for the origin of human society, is the product + of organic necessities of a different land from those upon which the + constitution of the hive depends. One of these is the mutual affection of + parent and offspring, intensified by the long infancy of the human + species. But the most important is the tendency, so strongly developed in + man, to reproduce in himself actions and feelings similar to, or + correlated with, those of other men. Man is the most consummate of all + mimics in the animal world; none but himself can draw or model; none comes + near him in the scope, variety, and exactness of vocal imitation; none is + such a master of gesture; while he seems to be impelled thus to imitate + for the pure pleasure of it. And there is no such another emotional + chameleon. By a purely reflex operation of the mind, we take the hue of + passion of those who are about us, or, it may be, the complementary + colour. It is not by any conscious "putting one's self in the place" of a + joyful or a suffering person that the state of mind we call sympathy + usually arises; indeed, it is often contrary to one's sense of right, and + in spite of one's will, that "fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind," or + the reverse. However complete may be the indifference to public opinion, + in a cool, intellectual view, of the traditional sage, it has not yet been + my fortune to meet with any actual sage who took its hostile + manifestations with entire equanimity. Indeed, I doubt if the philosopher + lives, or ever has lived, who could know himself to be heartily despised + by a street boy without some irritation. And, though one cannot justify + Haman for wishing to hang Mordecai on such a very high gibbet, yet, + really, the consciousness of the Vizier of Ahasuerus, as he went in and + out of the gate, that this obscure Jew had no respect for him, must have + been very annoying. + </p> + <p> + It is needful only to look around us, to see that the greatest restrainer + of the anti-social tendencies of men is fear, not of the law, but of the + opinion of their fellows. The conventions of honour bad men who break + legal, moral, and religious bonds; and, while people endure the extremity + of physical pain rather than part with life, shame drives the weakest to + suicide. + </p> + <p> + Every forward step of social progress brings men into closer relations + with their fellows, and increases the importance of the pleasures and + pains derived from sympathy. We judge the acts of others by our own + sympathies, and we judge our own acts by the sympathies of others, every + day and all day long, from childhood upwards, until associations, as + indissoluble as those of language, are formed between certain acts and the + feelings of approbation or disapprobation. It becomes impossible to + imagine some acts without disapprobation, or others without approbation of + the actor, whether he be one's self or anyone else. We come to think in + the acquired dialect of morals. An artificial personality, the "man + within," as Adam Smith calls conscience, is built up beside the natural + personality. He is the watchman of society, charged to restrain the + antisocial tendencies of the natural man within the limits required by + social welfare. + </p> + <p> + CCXXXIV + </p> + <p> + I have termed this evolution of the feelings out of which the primitive + bonds of human society are so largely forged, into the organized and + personified sympathy we call conscience, the ethical process. So far as it + tends to make any human society more efficient in the struggle for + existence with the state of nature, or with other societies, it works in + harmonious contrast with the cosmic process. But it is none the less true + that, since law and morals are restraints upon the struggle for existence + between men in society, the ethical process is in opposition to the + principle of the cosmic process, and tends to the suppression of the + qualities best fitted for success in that struggle. + </p> + <p> + CCXXXV + </p> + <p> + Moralists of all ages and of all faiths, attending only to the relations + of men towards one another in an ideal society, have agreed upon the + "golden rule," "Do as you would be done by." In other words, let sympathy + be your guide; put yourself in the place of the man towards whom your + action is directed; and do to him what you would like to have done to + yourself under the circumstances. However much one may admire the + generosity of such a rule of conduct; however confident one may be that + average men may be thoroughly depended upon not to carry it out to its + full logical consequences; it is nevertheless desirable to recognise the + fact that these consequences are incompatible with the existence of a + civil state, under any circumstances of this world which have obtained, + or, so far as one can see, are likely to come to pass. + </p> + <p> + For I imagine there can be no doubt that the great desire of every + wrongdoer is to escape from the painful consequences of his actions. If I + put myself in the place of the man who has robbed me, I find that I am + possessed by an exceeding desire not to be fined or imprisoned; if in that + of the man who has smitten me on one cheek, I contemplate with + satisfaction the absence of any worse result than the turning of the other + cheek for like treatment. Strictly observed, the "golden rule" involves + the negation of law by the refusal to put it in motion against + law-breakers; and, as regards the external relations of a polity, it is + the refusal to continue the struggle for existence. It can be obeyed, even + partially, only under the protection of a society which repudiates it + without such shelter the followers of the "golden rule" may indulge in + hopes of heaven, but they must reckon with the certainty that other people + will be masters of the earth. + </p> + <p> + What would become of the garden if the gardener treated all the weeds and + slugs and birds and trespassers as he would like to be treated if he were + in their place? + </p> + <p> + CCXXXVI + </p> + <p> + In a large proportion of cases, crime and pauperism have nothing to do + with heredity; but are the consequence, partly, of circumstances and, + partly, of the possession of qualities, which, under different conditions + of life, might have excited esteem and even admiration. It was a shrewd + man of the world who, in discussing sewage problems, remarked that dirt is + riches in the wrong; place; and that sound aphorism has moral + applications. The benevolence and open-handed generosity which adorn a + rich man may make a pauper of a poor one; the energy and courage to which + the successful soldier owes his rise, the cool and daring subtlety to + which the great financier owes his fortune, may very easily, under + unfavourable conditions, lead their possessors to the gallows, or to the + hulks. Moreover, it is fairly probable that the children of a "failure" + will receive from their other parent just that little modification of + character which makes all the difference. I sometimes wonder whether + people, who talk so freely about extirpating the unfit, ever + dispassionately consider their own history. Surely, one must be very "fit" + indeed not to know of an occasion, or perhaps two, in one's life, when it + would have been only too easy to qualify for a place among the "unfit." + </p> + <p> + CCXXXVII + </p> + <p> + In the struggle for the means of enjoyment, the qualities which ensure + success are energy, industry, intellectual capacity, tenacity of purpose, + and, at least as much sympathy as is necessary to make a man understand + the feelings of his fellows. Were there none of those artificial + arrangements by which fools and knaves are kept at the top of society + instead of sinking to their natural place at the bottom, the struggle for + the means of enjoyment would ensure a constant circulation of the human + units of the social compound, from the bottom to the top and from the top + to the bottom. The survivors of the contest, those who continued to form + the great bulk of the polity, would not be those "fittest" who got to the + very top, but the great body of the moderately "fit," whose numbers and + superior propagative power enable them always to swamp the exceptionally + endowed minority. + </p> + <p> + I think it must be obvious to every one that, whether we consider the + internal or the external interests of society, it is desirable they should + be in the hands of those who are endowed with the largest share of energy, + of industry, of intellectual capacity, of tenacity of purpose, while they + are not devoid of sympathetic humanity; and, in so far as the struggle for + the means of enjoyment tends to place such men in possession of wealth and + influence, it is a process which tends to the good of society. But the + process, as we have seen, has no real resemblance to that which adapts + living beings to current conditions in the state of nature; nor any to the + artificial selection of the horticulturist. + </p> + <p> + CCXXXVIII + </p> + <p> + Even should the whole human race be absorbed in one vast polity, within + which "absolute political justice" reigns, the struggle for existence with + the state of nature outside it, and the tendency to the return of the + struggle within, in consequence of over-multiplication, will remain; and, + unless men's inheritance from the ancestors who fought a good fight in the + state of nature, their dose of original sin, is rooted out by some method + at present unrevealed, at any rate to disbelievers in supernaturalism, + every child born into the world will still bring with him the instinct of + unlimited self-assertion. He will have to learn the lesson of + self-restraint and renunciation. But the practice of self-restraint and + renunciation is not happiness, though it may be something much better. + </p> + <p> + That man, as a "political animal," is susceptible of a vast amount of + improvement, by education, by instruction, and by the application of his + intelligence to the adaptation of tne conditions of life to his higher + needs, I entertain not the slightest doubt. But, so long as he remains + liable to error, intellectual or moral; so long as he is compelled to be + perpetually on guard against the cosmic forces, whose ends are not his + ends, without and within himself; so long as he is haunted by inexpugnable + memories and hopeless aspirations; so long as the recognition of his + intellectual limitations forces him to acknowledge his incapacity to + penetrate the mystery of existence; the prospect of attaining untroubled + happiness, or of a state which can, even remotely, deserve the title of + perfection, appears to me to be as misleading an illusion as ever was + dangled before the eyes of poor humanity. And there have been many of + them. + </p> + <p> + That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle to maintain + and improve, in opposition to the State of Nature, the State of Art of an + organized polity; in which, and by which, man may develop a worthy + civilization, capable of maintaining and constantly improving itself, + until the evolution of our globe shall have entered so far upon its + downward course that the cosmic process resumes its sway; and, once more, + the State of Nature prevails over the surface of our planet. + </p> + <p> + CCXXXIX + </p> + <p> + From very low forms up to the highest—in the animal no less than in + the vegetable kingdom—the process of life presents the same + appearance of cyclical evolution. Nay, we have but to cast our eyes over + the rest of the world and cyclical change presents itself on all sides. It + meets us in the water that flows to the sea and returns to the springs; in + the heavenly bodies that wax and wane, go and return to their places; in + the inexorable sequence of the ages of man's life; in that successive + rise, apogee, and fall of dynasties and of states which is the most + prominent topic of civil history. + </p> + <p> + CCXL + </p> + <p> + As no man fording a swift stream can dip his foot twice into the same + water, so no man can, with exactness, affirm of anything in the sensible + world that it is. As he utters the words, nay, as he thinks them, the + predicate ceases to be applicable; the present has become the past; the + "is" should be "was." And the more we learn of the nature of things, the + more evident is it that what we call rest is only unperceived activity; + that seeming peace is silent but strenuous battle. In every part, at every + moment, the state of the cosmos is the expression of a transitory + adjustment of contending forces; a scene of strife, in which all the + combatants fall in turn. What is true of each part is true of the whole. + Natural knowledge tends more and more to the conclusion that "all the + choir of heaven and furniture of the earth" are the transitory forms of + parcels of cosmic substance wending along the road of evolution, from + nebulous potentiality, through endless growths of sun and planet and + satellite; through all varieties of matter; through infinite diversities + of life and thought; possibly, through modes of being of which we neither + have a conception, nor are competent to form any, back to the indefinable + latency from which they arose. Thus the most obvious attribute of the + cosmos is its impermanence. It assumes the aspect not so much of a + permanent entity as of a changeful process, in which naught endures save + the flow of energy and the rational order which pervades it. + </p> + <p> + CCLXI + </p> + <p> + Man, the animal, in fact, has worked his way to the headship of the + sentient world, and has become the superb animal which he is in virtue of + his success in the struggle for existence. The conditions having been of a + certain order, man's organization has adjusted itself to them better than + mat of his competitors in the cosmic strife. In the case of mankind, the + self-assertion, the unscrupulous seizing upon all that can be grasped, the + tenacious holding of all that can be kept, which constitute the essence of + the struggle for existence, have answered. For his successful progress, + throughout the savage state, man has been largely indebted to those + qualities which he shares with the ape and the tiger; his exceptional + physical organization; his cunning, his sociability, his curiosity, and + his imitativeness; his ruthless and ferocious destructiveness when his + anger is roused by opposition. + </p> + <p> + But, in proportion as men have passed from anarchy to social organization, + and in proportion as civilization has grown in worth, these deeply + ingrained serviceable qualities have become defects. After the manner of + successful persons, civilized man would gladly kick down the ladder by + which he has climbed. He would be only too pleased to see "the ape and + tiger die." But they decline to suit his convenience; and the unwelcome + intrusion of these boon companions of his hot youth into the ranged + existence of civil life adds pains and griefs, innumerable and + immeasurably great, to those which the cosmic process necessarily brings + on the mere animal. In fact, civilized man brands all these ape and tiger + promptings with the name of sins; he punishes many of the acts which flow + from them as crimes; and, in extreme cases, he does his best to put an end + to the survival of the fittest of former days by axe and rope. + </p> + <p> + CCXLII + </p> + <p> + In Hindustan, as in Ionia, a period of relatively high and tolerably + stable civilization had succeeded long ages of semi-barbarism and + struggle. Out of wealth and security had come leisure and refinement, and, + close at their heels, had followed the malady of thought. To the struggle + for bare existence, which never ends, though it may be alleviated and + partially disguised for a fortunate few, succeeded the struggle to make + existence intelligible and to bring the order of things into harmony with + the moral sense of man, which also never ends, but, for the thinking few, + becomes keener with every increase of knowledge and with every step + towards the realization of a worthy ideal of life. + </p> + <p> + Two thousand five hundred years ago the value of civilization was as + apparent as it is now; then, as now, it was obvious that only in the + garden of an orderly polity can the finest fruits humanity is capable of + bearing be produced. But it had also become evident that the blessings of + culture were not unmixed. The garden was apt to turn into a hothouse. The + stimulation of the senses, the pampering of the emotions, endlessly + multiplied the sources of pleasure. The constant widening of the + intellectual field indefinitely extended the range of that especially + human faculty of looking before and after, which adds to the fleeting + present those old and new worlds of the past and the future, wherein men + dwell the more the higher their culture. But that very sharpening of the + sense and that subtle refinement of emotion, which brought such a wealth + of pleasures, were fatally attended by a proportional enlargement of the + capacity for suffering; and the divine faculty of imagination, while it + created new heavens and new earths, provided them with the corresponding + hells of futile regret for the past and morbid anxiety for the future. + </p> + <p> + CCXLIII + </p> + <p> + One of the oldest and most important elements in such systems is the + conception of justice. Society is impossible unless those who are + associated agree to observe certain rules of conduct towards one another; + its stability depends on the steadiness with which they abide by that + agreement; and, so far as they waver, that mutual trust which is the bond + of society is weakened or destroyed. Wolves could not hunt in packs except + for the real, though unexpressed, understanding that they should not + attack one another during the chase. The most rudimentary polity is a pack + of men living under the like tacit, or expressed, understanding; and + having made the very important advance upon wolf society, that they agree + to use the force of the whole body against individuals who violate it and + in favour of those who observe it. This observance of a common + understanding, with the consequent distribution of punishments and rewards + according to accepted rules, received the name of justice, while the + contrary was called injustice. Early ethics did not take much note of the + animus of the violator of the rules. But civilization could not advance + far without the establishment of a capital distinction between the case of + involuntary and that of wilful misdeed; between a merely wrong action and + a guilty one. + </p> + <p> + And, with increasing refinement of moral appreciation, the problem of + desert, which arises out of this distinction, acquired more and more + theoretical and practical importance. If life must be given for life, yet + it was recognized that the unintentional slayer did not altogether deserve + death; and, by a sort of compromise between the public and the private + conception of justice, a sanctuary was provided in which he might take + refuge from the avenger of blood. + </p> + <p> + The idea of justice thus underwent a gradual sublimation from punishment + and reward according to acts, to punishment and reward according to + desert; or, in other words, according to motive. Righteousness, that is, + action from right motive, not only became synonymous with justice, but the + positive constituent of innocence and the very heart of goodness. + </p> + <p> + CCXLIV + </p> + <p> + Everyday experience familiarizes us with the facts which are grouped under + the name of heredity. Every one of us bears upon him obvious marks of his + parentage, perhaps of remoter relationships. More particularly, the sum of + tendencies to act in a certain, way, which we call "character," is often + to be traced through a long series of progenitors and collaterals. So we + may justly say that this "character"—this moral and intellectual + essence of a man—does veritably pass over from one fleshy tabernacle + to another, ana does really transmigrate from generation to generation. In + the new-born infant the character of the stock lies latent, and the Ego is + little more than a bundle of potentialities. But, very early, these become + actualities; from childhood to age they manifest themselves in dulness or + brightness, weakness or strength, viciousness or uprightness; and with + each feature modified by confluence with another character, if by nothing + else, the character passes on to its incarnation in new bodies. + </p> + <p> + CCXLV + </p> + <p> + Only one rule of conduct could be based upon the remarkable theory of + which I have endeavoured to give a reasoned outline. It was folly to + continue to exist when an overplus of pain was certain; and the + probabilities in favour of the increase of misery with the prolongation of + existence, were so overwhelming. Slaying the body only made matters worse; + there was nothing for it but to slay the soul by the voluntary arrest of + all its activities. Property, social ties, family affections, common + companionship, must be abandoned; the most natural appetites, even that + for food, must be suppressed, or at least minimized; until all that + remained of a man was the impassive, extenuated, mendicant monk, + self-hypnotised into cataleptic trances, which the deluded mystic took for + foretastes of the final union with Brahma. + </p> + <p> + CCXLVI + </p> + <p> + If the cosmos is the effect of an immanent, omnipotent, and infinitely + beneficent cause, the existence in it of real evil, still less of + necessarily inherent evil, is plainly inadmissible. Yet the universal + experience of mankind testified then, as now, that, whether we look within + us or without us, evil stares us in the face on all sides; that if + anything is real, pain and sorrow and wrong are realities. + </p> + <p> + It would be a new thing in history if <i>a priori</i> philosophers were + daunted by the factious opposition of experience; and the Stoics were the + last men to allow themselves to be beaten by mere facts. "Give me a + doctrine and I will find the reasons for it," said Chrysippus. So they + perfected, if they did not invent, that ingenious and plausible form of + pleading, the Theodicy; for the purpose of showing firstly, that there is + no such thing as evil; secondly, that if there is, it is the necessary + correlate of good; and, moreover, that it is either due to our own fault, + or inflicted for our benefit. + </p> + <p> + CCXLVII + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, it is much easier to shut one's eyes to good than to evil. + Pain and sorrow knock at our doors more loudly than pleasure and + happiness; and the prints of their heavy footsteps are less easily + effaced. + </p> + <p> + CCXLVIII + </p> + <p> + In the language of the Stoa, "Nature" was a word of many meanings. There + was the "Nature" of the cosmos, and the "Nature" of man. In the latter, + the animal "nature," which man shares with a moiety of the living part of + the cosmos, was distinguished from a higher "nature." Even in this higher + nature there were grades of rank. The logical faculty is an instrument + which may be turned to account for any purpose. The passions and the + emotions are so closely tied to tne lower nature that they may be + considered to be pathological, rather than normal, phenomena. The one + supreme, hegemonic, faculty, which constitutes the essential "nature" of + man, is most nearly represented by that which, in the language of a later + philosophy, has been called the pure reason. It is this "nature" which + holds up the ideal of the supreme good and demands absolute submission of + the will to its behests. It is this which commands all men to love one + another, to return good for evil, to regard one another as fellow-citizens + of one great state. Indeed, seeing that the progress towards perfection of + a civilised state, or polity, depends on the obedience of its members to + these commands, the Stoics sometimes termed the pure reason the + "political" nature. Unfortunately, the sense of the adjective has + undergone so much modification that the application of it to that which + commands the sacrifice of self to the common good would now sound almost + grotesque. + </p> + <p> + CCXLIX + </p> + <p> + The majority of us, I apprehend, profess neither pessimism nor optimism. + We hold that the world is neither so good, nor so bad, as it conceivably + might be; and, as most of us have reason, now and again, to discover that + it can be. Those who have failed to experience the joys that make life + worth living are, probably, in as small a minority as those who have never + known the griefs that rob existence of its savour and turn its richest + fruits into mere dust and ashes. + </p> + <p> + CCL + </p> + <p> + There is another fallacy which appears to me to pervade the so-called + "ethics of evolution." It is the notion that because, on the whole, + animals and plants have advanced in perfection of organization by means of + the struggle for existence and the consequent "survival of the fittest"; + therefore men in society, men as ethical beings, must look to the same + process to help them towards perfection. I suspect that this fallacy has + arisen out of the unfortunate ambiguity of the phrase "survival of the + fittest." "Fittest" has a connotation of "best"; and about "best" there + hangs a moral flavour. In cosmic nature, however, what is "fittest" + depends upon the conditions. Long since, I ventured to point out that if + our hemisphere were to cool again, the survival of the fittest might bring + about, in the vegetable kingdom, a population of more and more stunted and + humbler and humbler organisms, until the "fittest" that survived might be + nothing but lichens, diatoms, and such microscopic organisms as those + which give red snow its colour; while, if it became hotter, the pleasant + valleys of the Thames and Isis might be uninhabitable by any animated + beings save those that flourish in a tropical jungle. They, as the + fittest, the best adapted to the changed conditions, would survive. + </p> + <p> + CCLI + </p> + <p> + The practice of that which is ethically best—what we call goodness + or virtue—involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is + opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for + existence. In place of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint; + in place of thrusting aside, or treading down, all competitors, it + requires that the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his + fellows; its influence is directed, not so much to the survival of the + fittest, as to the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It + repudiates the gladiatorial theory of existence. It demands that each man + who enters into the enjoyment of the advantages of a polity shall be + mindful of his debt to those who have laboriously constructed it: and + shall take heed that no act of his weakens the fabric in which he has been + permitted to live. Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of + curbing the cosmic process and reminding the individual of his duty to the + community, to the protection and influence of which he owes, if not + existence itself, at least the life of something better than a brutal + savage. + </p> + <p> + CCLII + </p> + <p> + The theory of evolution encourages no millennial anticipations. If, for + millions of years, our globe has taken the upward road, yet, some time, + the summit will be reached and the downward route will be commenced. The + most daring imagination will hardly venture upon the suggestion that the + power and the intelligence of man can ever arrest the procession of the + great year. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, the cosmic nature born with us and, to a large extent, necessary + for our maintenance, is the outcome of millions of years of severe + training, and it would be folly to imagine that a few centuries will + suffice to subdue its masterfulness to purely ethical ends. Ethical nature + may count upon having to reckon with a tenacious and powerful enemy as + long as the world lasts. But, on the other hand, I see no limit to the + extent to which intelligence and will, guided by sound principles of + investigation, and organized in common effort, may modify the conditions + of existence, for a period longer than that now covered by history. And + much may be done to change the nature of man himself. The intelligence + which has converted the brother of the wolf into the faithful guardian of + the flock ought to be able to do something towards curbing the instincts + of savagery in civilized men. + </p> + <p> + But if we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the essential + evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the infancy of exact + knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than a score of centuries + ago, I deem it an essential condition of the realization of that hope that + we should cast aside the notion that the escape from pain and sorrow is + the proper object of life. + </p> + <p> + CCLIII + </p> + <p> + We have long since emerged from the heroic childhood of our race, when + good and evil could be met with the same "frolic welcome"; the attempts to + escape from evil, whether Indian or Greek, have ended in flight from the + battle-field; it remains to us to throw aside the youthful over-confidence + and the no less youthful discouragement of nonage. We are grown men, and + must play the man + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + strong in will + To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield, +</pre> + <p> + cherishing the good that falls in our way, and bearing the evil, in and + around us, with stout hearts set on diminishing it. So far, we all may + strive in one faith towards one hope: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It may be that the gulfs will wash us down, + It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, + + .... but something ere the end, + Some work of noble note may yet be done. +</pre> + <p> + CCLIV + </p> + <p> + I do not suppose that I am exceptionally endowed because I have all my + life enjoyed a keen perception of the beauty offered us by nature and by + art Now physical science may and probably will, some day, enable our + posterity to set forth the exact physical concomitants and conditions of + the strange rapture of beauty. But if ever that day arrives, the rapture + will remain, just as it is now, outside and beyond the physical world; + and, even in the mental world, something superadded to mere sensation. I + do not wish to crow unduly over my humble cousin the orang, but in the + aesthetic province, as in that of tine intellect, I am afraid he is + nowhere. I doubt not he would detect a fruit amidst a wilderness of leaves + where I could see nothing; but I am tolerably confident that he has never + been awestruck, as I have been, by the dim religious gloom, as of a temple + devoted to the earthgods, of the tropical forests which he inhabits. Yet I + doubt not that our poor long-armed and short-legged friend, as he sits + meditatively munching his durian fruit, has something behind that sad + Socratic face of his which is utterly "beyond the bounds of physical + science." Physical science may know all about his clutching the fruit and + munching it and digesting it, and how the physical titillation of his + palate is transmitted to some microscopic cells of the gray matter of his + brain. But the feelings of sweetness and of satisfaction which, for a + moment, hang out their signal lights in his melancholy eyes, are as + utterly outside the bounds of physics as is the "fine frenzy" of a human + rhapsodist. + </p> + <p> + CCIV + </p> + <p> + When I was a mere boy, with a perverse tendency to think when I ought to + have been playing, my mind was greatly exercised by this formidable + problem, What would become of things if they lost their qualities? As the + qualities had no objective existence, and the thing without qualities was + nothing, the solid world seemed whittled away—to my great horror. As + I grew older, and learned to use the terms "matter" and "force," the + boyish problem was revived, <i>mutato nomine</i>. On the one hand, the + notion of matter without force seemed to resolve the world into a set of + geometrical ghosts, too dead even to jabber. On the other hand, + Boscovich's hypothesis, by which matter was resolved into centres of + force, was very attractive. But when one tried to think it out, what in + the world became of force considered as an objective entity? Force, even + the most materialistic of philosophers will agree with the most + idealistic, is nothing but a name for the cause of motion. And if, with + Boscovich, I resolved things into centres of force, then matter vanished + altogether and left immaterial entities in its place. One might as well + frankly accept Idealism and have done with it. + </p> + <p> + CCLVI + </p> + <p> + Tolerably early in life I discovered that one of the unpardonable sins, in + the eyes of most people, is for a man to presume to go about unlabeled. + The world regards such a person as the police do an unmuzzled dog, not + under proper control. I could find no label that would suit me, so, in my + desire to range myself and be respectable, I invented one; and, as the + chief thing I was sure of was that I did not know a great many things that + the -ists and the -ites about me professed to be familiar with, I called + myself an Agnostic. Surely no denomination could be more modest or more + appropriate; and I cannot imagine why I should be every now and then haled + out of my refuge and declared sometimes to be a Materialist, sometimes an + Atheist, sometimes a Positivist, and sometimes, alas and alack, a cowardly + or reactionary Obscurantist. + </p> + <p> + CCLVII + </p> + <p> + Lastly, with respect to the old riddle of the freedom of the will. In the + only sense in which the word freedom is intelligible to me—that is + to say, the absence of any restraint upon doing what one likes within + certain limits—physical science certainly gives no more ground for + doubting it than the common sense of mankind does. And if physical + science, in strengthening our belief in the universality of causation and + abolishing chance as an absurdity, leads to the conclusion of determinism, + it does no more than follow the track of consistent and logical thinkers + in philosophy and in theology, before it existed or was thought of. + Whoever accepts the universality of the law of causation as a dogma of + philosophy, denies the existence of uncaused phenomena. And the essence of + that which is improperly called the freewill doctrine is that + occasionally, at any rate, human volition is self-caused, that is to say, + not caused at all; for to cause oneself one must have anteceded oneself—which + is, to say the least of it, difficult to imagine. + </p> + <p> + CCLVIII + </p> + <p> + If the diseases of society consist in the weakness of its faith in the + existence of the God of the theologians, in a future state, and in + uncaused volitions, the indication, as the doctors say, is to suppress + Theology and Philosophy, whose bickerings about things of which they know + nothing have been the prime cause and continual sustenance of that evil + scepticism which is the Nemesis of meddling with the unknowable. + </p> + <p> + Cinderella is modestly conscious of her ignorance of these high matters. + She lights the fire, sweeps the house, and provides the dinner; and is + rewarded by being told that she is a base creature, devoted to low and + material interests. But in her garret she has fairy visions out of the ken + of the pair of shrews who are quarrelling downstairs. She sees the order + which pervades the seeming disorder of the world; the great drama of + evolution, with its full share of pity and terror, but also with abundant + goodness and beauty, unrolls itself before her eyes; and she learns, in + her heart of hearts, the lesson, that the foundation of morality is to + have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe + that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible + propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge. + </p> + <p> + She knows that the safety of morality lies neither in the adoption of this + or that philosophical speculation, or this or that theological creed, but + in a real and living belief in that fixed order of nature which sends + social disorganisation upon the track of immorality, as surely as it sends + physical disease after physical trespasses. And of that firm and lively + faith it is her high mission to be the priestess. + </p> + <p> + CCLIX + </p> + <p> + The first act of a new-born child is to draw a deep breath. In fact, it + will never draw a deeper, inasmuch as the passages and chambers of the + lungs, once distended with air, do not empty themselves again; it is only + a fraction of their contents which passes in and out with the flow and the + ebb of the respiratory tide. Mechanically, this act of drawing breath, or + inspiration, is of the same nature as that by which the handles of a + bellows are separated, in order to fill the bellows with air; and, in like + manner, it involves that expenditure of energy which we call exertion, or + work, or labour. It is, therefore, no mere metaphor to say that man is + destined to a life of toil: the work of respiration which began with his + first breath ends only with his last; nor does one born in the purple get + off with a lighter task than the child who first sees light under a hedge. + </p> + <p> + How is it that the new-born infant is enabled to perform this first + instalment of the sentence of lifelong labour which no man may escape? + Whatever else a child may be, in respect of this particular question, it + is a complicated piece of mechanism, built up out of materials supplied by + its mother; and in the course of such building-up, provided with a set of + motors—the muscles. Each of these muscles contains a stock of + substance capable of yielding energy under certain conditions, one of + which is a change of state in the nerve-fibres connected with it The + powder in a loaded gun is such another stock of substance capable of + yielding energy in consequence of a change of state in the mechanism of + the lock, which intervenes between the finger of the man who pulls the + trigger and the cartridge. If that change is brought about, the potential + energy of the powder passes suddenly into actual energy, and does the work + of propelling the bullet The powder, therefore, may be appropriately + called work-stuff not only because it is stuff which is easily made to + yield work in the physical sense, but because a good deal of work in the + economical sense has contributed to its production. Labour was necessary + to collect, transport, and purify the raw sulphur and saltpetre; to cut + wood and convert it into powdered charcoal; to mix these ingredients in + the right proportions; to give the mixture the proper grain, and so on. + The powder once formed part of the stock, or capital, of a powder-maker: + and it is not only certain natural bodies which are collected and stored + in the gunpowder, but the labour bestowed on the operations mentioned may + be figuratively said to be incorporated in it. + </p> + <p> + CCLX + </p> + <p> + In principle, the work-stuff stored in the muscles of the new-born child + is comparable to that stored in the gun-barrel. The infant is launched + into altogether new surroundings; and these operate through the mechanism + of the nervous machinery, with the result that the potential energy of + some of the work-stuff in the muscles which bring about inspiration is + suddenly converted into actual energy; and this, operating through the + mechanism of the respiratory apparatus, gives rise to an act of + inspiration. As the bullet is propelled by the "going off" of the powder, + as it might be said that the ribs are raised and the midriff depressed by + the "going off" of certain portions of muscular work-stuff. This + work-stuff is part of a stock or capital of that commodity stored up in + the child s organism before birth, at the expense of the mother; and the + mother has made good her expenditure by drawing upon the capital of + food-stuffs which furnished her daily maintenance. + </p> + <p> + Under these circumstances, it does not appear to me to be open to doubt + that the primary act of outward labour in the series which necessarily + accompany the life of man is dependent upon the pre-existence of a stock + of material which is not only of use to him, but which is disposed in such + a manner as to be utilisable with facility. And I further imagine that the + propriety of the application of the term "capital" to this stock of useful + substance cannot be justly called in question; inasmuch as it is easy to + prove that the essential constituents of the work-stuff accumulated in the + child's muscles have merely been transferred from the store of + food-stuffs, which everybody admits to be capital, by means of the + maternal organism to that of the child, in which they are again deposited + to await use. Every subsequent act of labour, in like manner, involves an + equivalent consumption of the child's store of work-stuff—its vital + capital; and one of the main objects of the process of breathing is to get + rid of some of the effects of that consumption. It follows, then, that, + even if no other than the respiratory work were going on in the organism, + the capital of work-stuff, which the child brought with it into the world, + must sooner or later be used up, and the movements of breathing must come + to an end; just as the see-saw of the piston of a steam-engine stops when + the coal in the fireplace has burnt away. Milk, however, is a stock of + materials which essentially consists of savings from the food-stuffs + supplied to the mother. And these savings are in such a physical and + chemical condition that the organism of the child can easily convert them + into work-stuff. That is to say, by borrowing directly from the vital + capital of the mother, indirectly from the store in the natural bodies + accessible to her; it can make good the loss of its own. The operation of + borrowing, however, involves further work; that is, the labour of sucking, + which is a mechanical operation of much the same nature as breathing. The + child thus pays for the capital it borrows m labour; but as the value in + work-stuff of the milk obtained is very far greater than the value of that + labour, estimated by the consumption of work-stuff it involves, the + operation yields a large profit to the infant. The overplus of food-stuff + suffices to increase the child's capital of work-stuff; and to supply not + only the materials for the enlargement of the "buildings and machinery" + which is expressed by the child's growth, but also the energy required to + put all these materials together, and to carry them to their proper + places. Thus, throughout the years of infancy, and so long thereafter as + the youth or man is not thrown upon his own resources, he lives by + consuming the vital capital provided by others. + </p> + <p> + CCLXI + </p> + <p> + Let us now suppose the child come to man's estate in the condition of a + wandering savage, dependent for his food upon what he can pick up or + catch, after the fashion of the Australian aborigines. It is plain that + the place of mother, as the supplier of vital capital, is now taken by the + fruits, seeds, and roots of plants and by various kinds of animals.... + </p> + <p> + The savage, like the child, borrows the capital he needs, and, at any + rate, intentionally, does nothing towards repayment; it would plainly be + an improper use of the word "produce" to say that his labour in hunting + for the roots, or the fruits, or the eggs, or the grubs and snakes, which + he finds and eats, "produces" or contributes to "produce" them. The same + thing is true of more advanced tribes, who are still merely hunters, such + as the Esquimaux. They may expend more labour and skill; but it is spent + in destruction. + </p> + <p> + CCLXII + </p> + <p> + When we find set forth as an "absolute" truth the statement that the + essential factors in economic production are land, capital and labour—when + this is offered as an axiom whence all sorts of other important truths may + be deduced—it is needful to remember that the assertion is true only + with a qualification. Undoubtedly "vital capital" is essential; for, as we + have seen, no human work can be done unless it exists, not even that + internal work of the body which is necessary to passive life. But, with + respect to labour (that is, human labour) I hope to have left no doubt on + the reader's mind that, m regard to production, the importance of human + labour may be so small as to be almost a vanishing quantity. + </p> + <p> + CCLXIII + </p> + <p> + The one thing needful for economic production is the green plant, as the + sole producer of vital capital from natural inorganic bodies. Men might + exist without labour (in the ordinary sense) and without land; without + plants they must inevitably perish. + </p> + <p> + CCLXIV + </p> + <p> + Since no amount of labour can produce an ounce of food-stuff beyond the + maximum producible by a limited number of plants, under the most + favourable circumstances in regard to those conditions which are not + affected by labour, it follows that, if the number of men to be fed + increases indefinitely, a time must come when some will have to starve. + That is the essence of the so-called Malthusian doctrine; and it is a + truth which, to my mind, is as plain as the general proposition that a + quantity which constantly increases will, some time or other, exceed any + greater quantity the amount of which is fixed. + </p> + <p> + CCLXV + </p> + <p> + "Virtually" is apt to cover more intellectual sins than "charity" does + moral delicts. + </p> + <p> + CCLXVI + </p> + <p> + The notion that the value of a thing bears any necessary relation to the + amount of labour (average or otherwise) bestowed upon it, is a fallacy + which needs no further refutation than it has already received. The + average amount of labour bestowed upon warming-pans confers no value upon + them in the eyes of a Gold-Coast negro; nor would an Esquimaux give a + slice of blubber for the most elaborate of ice-machines. + </p> + <p> + CCLXVII + </p> + <p> + Who has ever imagined that wealth which, in the hands of an employer, is + capital, ceases to be capital if it is in the hands of a labourer? Suppose + a workman to be paid thirty shillings on Saturday evening for six days' + labour, that thirty shillings comes out of the employer's capital, and + receives the name of "wages" simply because it is exchanged for labour. In + the workman's pocket, as he goes home, it is a part of his capital, in + exactly the same sense as, half an hour before, it was part of the + employer's capital; he is a capitalist just as much as if he were a + Rothschild. + </p> + <p> + CCLXVIII + </p> + <p> + I think it may be not too much to say that, of all the political delusions + which are current in this queer world, the very stupidest are those which + assume that labour and capital are necessarily antagonistic; that all + capital is produced by labour and therefore, by natural right, is the + property of the labourer; that the possessor of capital is a robber who + preys on the workman and appropriates to himself that which he has had no + share in producing. + </p> + <p> + On the contrary, capital and labour are necessarily, close allies; capital + is never a product of human labour alone; it exists apart from human + labour; it is the necessary antecedent of labour; and it furnishes the + materials on which labour is employed. The only indispensable form of + capital—vital capital—cannot be produced by human labour. All + that man can do is to favour its formation by the real producers. There is + no intrinsic relation between the amount of labour bestowed on an article + and its value in exchange. The claim of labour to the total result of + operations which are rendered possible only by capital is simply an <i>a + priori</i> iniquity. + </p> + <p> + CCLXIX + </p> + <p> + The vast and varied procession of events, which we call Nature, affords a + sublime spectacle and an inexhaustible wealth of attractive problems to + the speculative observer. If we confine our attention to that aspect which + engages the attention of the intellect, nature appears a beautiful and + harmonious whole, the incarnation of a faultless logical process, from + certain premisses in the past to an inevitable conclusion in the future. + But if it be regarded from a less elevated, though more human, point of + view; if our moral sympathies are allowed to influence our judgment, and + we permit ourselves to criticize our great mother as we criticize one + another; then our verdict, at least so far as sentient nature is + concerned, can hardly be so favourable. + </p> + <p> + In sober truth, to those who have made a study of the phenomena of life as + they are exhibited by the higher forms of the animal world, the optimistic + dogma, that this is the best of all possible worlds, will seem little + better than a libel upon possibility. It is really only another instance + to be added to the many extant, of the audacity of <i>a priori</i> + speculators who, having created God in their own image, find no difficulty + in assuming that the Almighty must have been actuated by the same motives + as themselves. They are quite sure that, had any other course been + practicable, He would no more have made infinite suffering a necessary + ingredient of His handiwork than a respectable philosopher would have done + the like. + </p> + <p> + But even the modified optimism of the time-honoured thesis of + physico-theology, that the sentient world is, on the whole, regulated by + principles of benevolence, does but ill stand the test of impartial + confrontation with the facts of the case. No doubt it is quite true that + sentient nature affords hosts of examples of subtle contrivances directed + towards the production of pleasure or the avoidance of pain; and it may be + proper to say that these are evidences of benevolence. But if so, why is + it not equally proper to say of the equally numerous arrangements, the no + less necessary result of which is the production of pain, that they are + evidences of malevolence? + </p> + <p> + If a vast amount of that which, in a piece of human workmanship, we should + call skill, is visible in those parts of the organization of a deer to + which it owes its ability to escape from beasts of prey, there is at least + equal skill displayed in that bodily mechanism of the wolf which enables + him to track, and sooner or later to bring down, the deer. Viewed under + the dry light of science, deer and wolf are alike admirable; and, if both + were non-sentient automata, there would be nothing to qualify our + admiration of the action of the one on the other. But the fact that the + deer suffers, while the wolf inflicts suffering, engages our moral + sympathies. We should call men like the deer innocent and good, men such + as the wolf malignant and bad; we should call those who defended the deer + and aided him to escape brave and compassionate, and those who helped the + wolf in his bloody work base and cruel. Surely, if we transfer these + judgments to nature outside the world of man at all, we must do so + impartially. In that case, the goodness of the right hand which helps the + deer, and wickedness of the left hand which eggs on the wolf, will + neutralize one another: and the course of nature will appear to be neither + moral nor immoral, but non-moral. + </p> + <p> + This conclusion is thrust upon us by analogous facts in every part of the + sentient world; yet, mas-much as it not only jars upon prevalent + prejudices, but arouses the natural dislike to that which is painful, much + ingenuity has been exercised in devising an escape from it. + </p> + <p> + CCLXX + </p> + <p> + From the point of view of the moralist the animal world is on about the + same level as a gladiator's show. The creatures are fairly well treated, + and set to fight—whereby the strongest, the swiftest, and the + cunningest live to fight another day. The spectator has no need to turn + his thumbs down, as no quarter is given. He must admit that the skill and + training displayed are wonderful. But he must shut his eyes if he would + not see that more or less enduring suffering is the meed of both + vanquished and victor. And since the great game is going on in every + corner of the world, thousands of times a minute; since, were our ears + sharp enough, we need not descend to the gates of hell to hear— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ....sospiri, pianti, ed alti guai. + Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle +</pre> + <p> + —it seems to follow that, if this world is governed by benevolence, + it must be a different sort of benevolence from that of John Howard. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXI + </p> + <p> + This may not be the best of all possible worlds, but to say that it is the + worst is mere petulant nonsense. A worn-out voluptuary may find nothing + good under the sun, or a vain and inexperienced youth, who cannot get the + moon he cries for, may vent his irritation in pessimistic moanings; but + there can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person that mankind + could, would, and in fact do, get on fairly well with vastly less + happiness and far more misery than find their way into the lives of nine + people out of ten. If each and all of us had been visited by an attack of + neuralgia, or of extreme mental depression, for one hour in every + twenty-four—a supposition which many tolerably vigorous people know, + to their cost, is not extravagant—the burden of life would have been + immensely increased without much practical hindrance to its general + course. Men with any manhood in them find life quite worth living under + worse conditions than these. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXII + </p> + <p> + There is another sufficiently obvious fact, which renders the hypothesis + that the course of sentient nature is dictated by malevolence quite + untenable. A vast multitude of pleasures, and these among the purest and + the best, are superfluities, bits of good which are to all appearance + unnecessary as inducements to live, and are, so to speak, thrown into the + bargain of life. To those who experience them, few delights can be more + entrancing than such as are afforded by natural beauty, or by the arts, + and especially by music; but they are products of, rather than factors in, + evolution, and it is probable that they are known, in any considerable + degree, to but a very small proportion of mankind. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXIII + </p> + <p> + The conclusion of the whole matter seems to be that, if Ormuzd has not had + his way in this world, neither has Ahriman. Pessimism is as little + consonant with the facts of sentient existence as optimism. If we desire + to represent the course of nature in terms of human thought, and assume + that it was intended to be that which it is, we must say that its + governing principle is intellectual and not moral; that it is a + materialized logical process, accompanied by pleasures and pains, the + incidence of which, in the majority of cases, has not the slightest + reference to moral desert That the rain falls alike upon the just and the + unjust, and that those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell were no worse + than their neighbours, seem to be Oriental modes of expressing the same + conclusion. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXIV + </p> + <p> + In the strict sense of the word "nature," it denotes the sum of the + phenomenal world, of that which has been, and is, and will be; and + society, like art, is therefore a part of nature. But it is convenient to + distinguish those parts of nature in which man plays the part of immediate + cause, as something apart; and therefore, society, like art, is usefully + to be considered as distinct from nature. It is the more desirable, and + even necessary, to make this distinction, since society differs from + nature in having a definite moral object; whence it comes about that the + course shaped by the ethical man—the member of society or citizen—necessarily + runs counter to that which tne non-ethical man—the primitive savage, + or man as a mere member of the animal kingdom—tends to adopt. The + latter fights out the struggle for existence to the bitter end, like any + other animal; the former devotes his best energies to the object of + setting limits to the struggle. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXV + </p> + <p> + The first men who substituted the state of mutual peace for that of mutual + war, whatever the motive which impelled them to take that step, created + society. But, in establishing peace, they obviously put a limit upon the + struggle for existence. Between the members of that society, at any rate, + it was not to be pursued <i>à outrance</i>. And of all the + successive shapes which society has taken, that most nearly approaches + perfection in which the war of individual against individual is most + strictly limited. The primitive savage, tutored by Istar, appropriated + whatever took his fancy, and killed whosoever opposed him, if he could. On + the contrary, the ideal of the ethical man is to limit his freedom of + action to a sphere in which he does not interfere with the freedom of + others; he seeks the common weal as much as his own; and, indeed, as an + essential part of his own welfare. Peace is both end and means with him; + and he founds his life on a more or less complete self-restraint, which is + the negation of the unlimited struggle for existence. He tries to escape + from his place in the animal kingdom, founded on the free development of + the principle of non-moral evolution, and to establish a kingdom of Man, + governed upon the principle of moral evolution. For society not only has a + moral end, but in its perfection, social life, is embodied morality. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXVI + </p> + <p> + I was once talking with a very eminent physician* about the vis medicatrix + naturæ. "Stuff!" said he; "nine times out of ten nature does not + want to cure the man: she wants to put him in his coffin." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * The late Sir W. Gull. +</pre> + <p> + CCLXXVII + </p> + <p> + Let us look at home. For seventy years peace and industry have had their + way among us with less interruption and under more favourable conditions + than in any other country on the face of the earth. The wealth of Croesus + was nothing to that which we have accumulated, and our prosperity has + filled the world with envy. But Nemesis did not forget Croesus: has she + forgotten us? + </p> + <p> + CCLXXVIII + </p> + <p> + Judged by an ethical standard, nothing can be less satisfactory than the + position in which we find ourselves. In a real, though incomplete, degree + we have attained the condition of peace which is the main object of social + organization; and, for argument's sake, it may be assumed that we desire + nothing but that which is in itself innocent and praiseworthy—namely, + the enjoyment of the fruits of honest industry. And lo! in spite of + ourselves, we are in reality engaged in an internecine struggle for + existence with our presumably no less peaceful and well-meaning + neighbours. We seek peace and we do not ensue it. The moral nature in us + asks for no more than is compatible with the general good; the non-moral + nature proclaims and acts upon that fine old Scottish family motto, "Thou + shalt starve ere I want." Let us be under no illusions, then. So long as + unlimited multiplication goes on, no social organization which has ever + been devised, or is likely to be devised, no fiddle-faddling with the + distribution of wealth, will deliver society from the tendency to be + destroyed by the reproduction within itself, in its intensest form, of + that struggle for existence the limitation of which is the object of + society. And however shocking to the moral sense this eternal competition + of man against man and of nation against nation may be; however revolting + may be the accumulation of misery at the negative pole of society, in + contrast with that of monstrous wealth at the positive pole; this state of + things must abide, and grow continually worse, so long as Istar holds her + way unchecked. It is the true riddle of the Sphinx; and every nation which + does not solve it will sooner or later be devoured by the monster itself + has generated. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXIX + </p> + <p> + It would be folly to entertain any ill-feeling towards those neighbours + and rivals who, like ourselves, are slaves of Istar; but if somebody is to + be starved, the modern world has no Oracle of Delphi to which the nations + can appeal for an indication of the victim. It is open to us to try our + fortune; and, if we avoid impending fate, there will be a certain ground + for believing: that we are the right people to escape. <i>Securus judical + orbis</i>. + </p> + <p> + To this end, it is well to look into the necessary conditions of our + salvation by works. They are two, one plain to all the world and hardly + needing insistence; the other seemingly not so plain, since too often it + has been theoretically and practically left out of sight The obvious + condition is that our produce snail be better than that of others. There + is only one reason why our goods should be referred to those of our rivals—our + customers must find them better at the price. That means that we must use + more knowledge, skill, and industry in producing them, without a + proportionate increase in the cost of production; and, as the price of + labour constitutes a large element in that cost, the rate of wages must be + restricted within certain limits. It is perfectly true that cheap + production and cheap labour are by no means synonymous; but it is also + true that wages cannot increase beyond a certain proportion without + destroying cheapness. Cheapness, then, with, as part and parcel of + cheapness, a moderate price of labour, is essential to our success as + competitors in the markets of the world. + </p> + <p> + The second condition is really quite as plainly indispensable as the + first, if one thinks seriously about the matter. It is social stability. + Society-is stable when the wants of its members obtain as much + satisfaction as, life being what it is, common sense and experience show + may be reasonably expected. Mankind, in general, care very little for + forms of government or ideal considerations of any sort; and nothing + really stirs the great multitude to break with custom and incur the + manifest perils of revolt except the belief that misery in this world, or + damnation in the next, or both, are threatened by the continuance of the + state of things in which they have been brought up. But when they do + attain that conviction, society becomes as unstable as a package of + dynamite, and a very small matter will produce the explosion which sends + it back to the chaos of savagery. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXX + </p> + <p> + Intelligence, knowledge, and skill are undoubtedly conditions of success; + but of what avail are they likely to be unless they are backed up by + honesty, energy, goodwill, and all the physical and moral faculties that + go to the making of manhood, and unless they are stimulated by hope of + such reward as men may fairly look to? And what dweller in the slough of + want, dwarfed in body and soul, demoralized, hopeless, can reasonably be + expected to possess these qualities? + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXI + </p> + <p> + I am as strongly convinced as the most pronounced individualist can be, + that it is desirable that every man should be free to act in every way + which does not limit the corresponding freedom of his fellow-man. But I + fail to connect that great induction of political science with the + practical corollary which is frequently drawn from it: that the State—that + is, the people in their corporate capacity—has no business to meddle + with anything but the administration of justice and external defence. It + appears to me that the amount of freedom which incorporate society may + fitly leave to its members is not a fixed quantity, to be determined <i>a + priori</i> by deduction from the fiction called "natural rights"; but that + it must be determined by, and vary with, circumstances. I conceive it to + be demonstrable that the higher and the more complex the organization of + the social body, the more closely is the life of each member bound up with + that of the whole; and the larger becomes the category of acts which cease + to be merely self-regarding, and which interfere with the freedom of + others more or less seriously. + </p> + <p> + If a squatter, living ten miles away from any neighbour, chooses to burn + his house down to get rid of vermin, there may be no necessity (in the + absence of insurance offices) that the law should interfere with his + freedom of action; his act can hurt nobody but himself. But if the dweller + in a street chooses to do the same thing, the State very properly makes + such a proceeding a crime, and punishes it as such. He does meddle with + his neighbour's freedom, and that seriously. So it might, perhaps, be a + tenable doctrine, that it would be needless, and even tyrannous, to make + education compulsory in a sparse agricultural population, living in + abundance on the produce of its own soil; but, in a densely populated + manufacturing country, struggling for existence with competitors, every + ignorant person tends to become a burden upon, and, so far, an infringer + of the liberty of, his fellows, and an obstacle to their success. Under + such circumstances an education rate is, in fact, a war tax, levied for + purposes of defence. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXII + </p> + <p> + That State action always has been more or less misdirected, and always + will be so, is, I believe, perfectly true. But I am not aware that it is + more true of the action of men in their corporate capacity than it is of + the doings of individuals. The wisest and most dispassionate man in + existence, merely wishing to go from one stile in a field to the opposite, + will not walk quite straight—he is always going a little wrong, and + always correcting himself; and I can only congratulate the individualist + who is able to say that his general course of life has been of a less + undulatory character. To abolish State action, because its direction is + never more than approximately correct, appears to me to be much the same + thing as abolishing the man at the wheel altogether, because, do what he + will, the ship yaws more or less. "Why should I be robbed of my property + to pay for teaching another man's children?" is an individualist question, + which is not unfrequently put as if it settles the whole business. Perhaps + it does, but I find difficulties in seeing why it should. The parish in + which I live makes me pay my share for the paving and lighting of a great + many streets that I never pass through; and I might plead that I am robbed + to smooth the way and lighten the darkness of other people. But I am + afraid the parochial authorities would not let me off on this plea; and I + must confess I do not see why they should. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXIII + </p> + <p> + I cannot speak of my own knowledge, but I have every reason to believe + that I came into this world a small reddish person, certainly without a + gold spoon in my mouth, and in fact with no discernible abstract or + concrete "rights" or property of any description. If a foot was not set + upon me at once, as a squalling nuisance, it was either the natural + affection of those about me, which I certainly had done nothing to + deserve, or the fear of the law which, ages before my birth, was painfully + built up by the society into which I intruded, that prevented that + catastrophe. If I was nourished, cared for, taught, saved from the + vagabondage of a wastrel, I certainly am not aware that I did anything to + deserve those advantages. And, if I possess anything now, it strikes me + that, though I may have fairly earned my day's wages for my day's work, + and may justly call them my property—yet, without that organization + of society, created out of the toil and blood of long generations before + my time, I should probably have had nothing but a flint axe and an + indifferent hut to call my own; and even those would be mine only so long + as no stranger savage came my way. + </p> + <p> + So that if society, having, quite gratuitously, done all these things for + me, asks me in turn to do something towards its preservation—even if + that something is to contribute to the teaching of other men's children—I + really, in spite of all my individualist learnings, feel rather ashamed to + say no. And, if I were not ashamed, I cannot say that I think that society + would be dealing unjustly with me in converting the moral obligation into + a legal one. There is a manifest unfairness in letting all the burden be + borne by the willing horse. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXIV + </p> + <p> + It is impossible to insist too strongly upon the fact that efficient + teachers of science and of technology are not to be made by the processes + in vogue at ordinary training colleges. The memory loaded with mere + bookwork is not the thing wanted—is, in fact, rather worse than + useless—in the teacher of scientific subjects. It is absolutely + essential that his mind should be full of knowledge and not of mere + learning, and that what he knows should have been learned in the + laboratory rather than in the library. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXV + </p> + <p> + The attempt to form a just conception of the value of work done in any + department of human knowledge, and of its significance as an indication of + the intellectual and moral qualities of which it was the product, is an + undertaking which must always be beset with difficulties, and may easily + end in making the limitations of the appraiser more obvious than the true + worth of that which he appraises. For the judgment of a contemporary is + liable to be obscured by intellectual incompatibilities and warped by + personal antagonisms; while the critic of a later generation, though he + may escape the influence of these sources of error, is often ignorant, or + forgetful, of the conditions under which the labours of his predecessors + have been carried on. He is prone to lose sight of the fact that without + their clearing of the ground and rough-hewing of the foundation-stones, + the stately edifice of later builders could not have been erected. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXVI + </p> + <p> + The vulgar antithesis of fact and theory is founded on a misconception of + the nature of scientific theory, which is, or ought to be, no more than + the expression of fact in a general form. Whatever goes beyond such + expression is hypothesis; and hypotheses are not ends, but means. They + should be regarded as instruments by which new lines of inquiry are + indicated; or by the aid of which a provisional coherency and + intelligibility may be given to seemingly disconnected groups of + phenomena. The most useful of servants to the man of science, they are the + worst of masters. And when the establishment of the hypothesis becomes the + end, and fact is alluded to only so far as it suits the "Idee," science + has no longer anything to do with the business. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXVII + </p> + <p> + Scientific observation tell us that living birds form a group or class of + animals, through which a certain form of skeleton runs; and that this kind + of skeleton differs in certain well-defined characters from that of + mammals. On the other hand, if anyone utterly ignorant of osteology, but + endowed with the artistic sense of form, were set before a bird skeleton + and a mammalian skeleton, he would at once see that the two were similar + and yet different. Very likely he would be unable to give clear expression + to his just sense of the differences and resemblances; perhaps he would + make great mistakes in detail if he tried. Nevertheless, he would be able + to draw from memory a couple of sketches, in which all the salient points + of likeness and unlikeness would be reproduced with sufficient accuracy. + The mere osteologist, however accurately he might put the resemblances and + differences into words, if he lacked the artistic visualising faculty, + might be hopelessly incompetent to perform any such feat; lost in details, + it might not even occur to him that it was possible; or, still more + probably, the habit of looking for differences might impair the perception + of resemblances. + </p> + <p> + Under these circumstances, the artist might be led to higher and broader + views, and thus be more useful to the progress of science than the + osteological expert. Not that the former attains the higher truth by a + different method; for the way of reaching truth is one and indivisible. + Whether he knows it or not, the artist has made a generalization from two + sets of facts, which is perfectly scientific in form; and trustworthy so + far as it rests upon the direct perception of similarities and + dissimilarities. The only peculiarity of the artistic application of + scientific method lies in the artist's power of visualizing the result of + his mental processes, of embodying the facts of resemblance in a visible + "type," and of showing the manner in which the differences may be + represented as modifications of that type; he does, in fact, + instinctively, what an architect, who desires to demonstrate the community + of plan in certain ancient temples, does by the methodical construction of + plans, sections, and elevations; the comparison of which will furnish him + with the "type" of such temples. + </p> + <p> + Thus, what I may term the artistic fashion of dealing with anatomy is not + only perfectly legitimate, but has been of great utility. The harm of it + does not begin until tine attempt is made to get more out of this visual + projection of thought than it contains; until the origin of the notion of + "type" is forgotten and the speculative philosopher deludes himself with + the supposition that the generalization suggested by fact is an "Idea" of + the Pure Reason, with which fact must, somehow or other, be made to agree. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXVIII + </p> + <p> + Flowers are the primers of the morphologist; those who run may read in + them uniformity of type amidst endless diversity, singleness of plan with + complex multiplicity of detail. As a musician might say, every natural + group of flowering plants is a sort of visible fugue, wandering about a + central theme which is never forsaken, however it may, momentarily, cease + to be apparent. + </p> + <p> + CCLXXXIX + </p> + <p> + Like all the really great men of literature, Goethe added some of the + qualities of the man of science to those of the artist, especially the + habit of careful and patient observation of Nature. The great poet was no + mere book-learned speculator. His acquaintance with mineralogy, geology, + botany and osteology, the fruit of long and wide studies, would have + sufficed to satisfy the requirements of a professoriate in those days, if + only he could have pleaded ignorance of everything else. Unfortunately for + Goethe's credit with his scientific contemporaries, and, consequently, for + the attention attracted by his work, he did not come forward as a man of + science until the public had ranged him among the men of literature. And + when the little men have thus classified a big man, they consider that the + last word has been said about him; it appears to the thought hardly decent + on his part if he venture to stray beyond the speciality they have + assigned to him. It does not seem to occur to them that a clear intellect + is an engine capable of supplying power to all sorts of mental factories; + nor to admit that, as Goethe somewhere pathetically remarks, a man may + have a right to live for himself as well as for the public; to follow the + line of work that happens to interest him, rather than that which + interests them. + </p> + <p> + On the face of the matter it is not obvious that the brilliant poet had + less chance of doing good service in natural science than the dullest of + dissectors and nomenclators. Indeed, as I have endeavoured to indicate, + there was considerable reason, a hundred years ago, for thinking that an + infusion of the artistic way of looking at things might tend to revivify + the somewhat mummified body of technical zoology and botany. Great ideas + were floating about; the artistic apprehension was needed to give these + airy nothings a local habitation and a name; to convert vague suppositions + into definite hypotheses. And I apprehend that it was just this service + which Goethe rendered by writing his essays on the intermaxillary bone, on + osteology generally, and on the metamorphoses of plants. + </p> + <p> + CCXC + </p> + <p> + All this is mere justice to Goethe; but, as it is the unpleasant duty of + the historian to do justice upon, as well as to, great men, it behoves me + to add that the germs of the worst faults of later ioeculative + morphologists are no less visible in his writings than their great merits. + In the artist-philosopher there was, at best, a good deal more artist than + philosopher; and when Goethe ventured into the regions which belong to + pure science, this excess of a virtue had all the consequences of a vice. + "Trennen und zahlen lag nicht in meiner Natur," says he; but the mental + operations of which "analysis and numeration" are partial expressions are + indispensable for every step of progress beyond happy glimpses, even in + morphology; while, in physiology and in physics, failure in the most exact + performance of these operations involves sheer disaster, as indeed Goethe + was afforded abundant opportunity of learning. Yet he never understood the + sharp lessons he received, and put down to malice, or prejudice, the + ill-reception of his unfortunate attempts to deal with purely physical + problems. + </p> + <p> + CCXCI + </p> + <p> + There was never any lack of the scientific imagination about the great + anatomist; and the charge of indifference to general ideas, sometimes + brought against him, is stupidly unjust. But Cuvier was one of those + happily endowed persons in whom genius never parts company with + common-sense; and whose perception of the importance of sound method is so + great that they look at even a truth, hit upon by those who pursue an + essentially vicious method, with the sort of feeling with which an honest + trader regards the winnings of a gambler. They hold it better to remain + poor than obtain riches by the road that, as a rule, leads to ruin. + </p> + <p> + CCXCII + </p> + <p> + The irony of history is nowhere more apparent than in science. Here we see + the men, over whose minds the coming events of the world of biology cast + their shadows, doing their best to spoil their case in stating it; while + the man who represented sound scientific method is doing his best to stay + the inevitable progress of thought and bolster up antiquated traditions. + The progress of knowledge during the last seventy years enables us to see + that neither Geoffroy, nor Cuvier, was altogether right nor altogether + wrong; and that they were meant to hunt m couples instead of pulling + against one another. Science has need of servants of very different + qualifications; of artistic constructors no less than of men of business; + of people to design her palaces and of others to see that the materials + are sound and well-fitted together; of some to spur investigators, and of + others to keep their heads cool. The only would-be servants, who are + entirely unprofitable, are those who do not take the trouble to + interrogate Nature, but imagine vain things about her; and spin, from + their inner consciousness, webs, as exquisitely symmetrical as those of + the most geometrical of spiders, but alas! as easily torn to pieces by + some inconsidered bluebottle of a fact. + </p> + <p> + CCXCIII + </p> + <p> + There is always a Cape Horn in one's life that one either weathers or + wrecks one's self on. + </p> + <p> + CCXCIV + </p> + <p> + A Local Museum should be exactly what its name implies, viz., "Local"—illustrating + local Geology, local Botany, local Zoology, and local Archaeology. + </p> + <p> + Such a museum, if residents who are interested in these sciences take + proper pains, may be brought to a great degree of perfection and be unique + of its kind. It will tell both natives and strangers exactly what they + want to know, and possess great scientific interest and importance. + Whereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from New Zealand, Hindoo idols, + sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions, and conch shells—who shall + describe the weary inutility of it? It is really worse than nothing, + because it leads the unwary to look for the objects of science elsewhere + than under their noses. What they want to know is that their "America is + here," as Wilhelm Meister has it. + </p> + <p> + CCXCV + </p> + <p> + A man who speaks out honestly and fearlessly that which he knows, and that + which he believes, will always enlist the good-will and the respect, + however much he may fail in winning the assent, of his fellow men. + </p> + <p> + CCXCVI + </p> + <p> + Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing. + </p> + <p> + CCXCVII + </p> + <p> + I neither deny nor affirm the immortality of man. I see no reason for + believing in it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it. + </p> + <p> + I have no <i>a priori</i> objections to the doctrine. No man who has to + deal daily and hourly with nature can trouble himself about <i>a priori</i> + difficulties. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing + anything else, and I will believe that Why should I not? It is not half so + wonderful as the conservation of force, or the indestructibility of + matter. < + </p> + <p> + Whoso clearly appreciates all that is implied in the falling of a stone + can have no difficulty about any doctrine simply on account of its + marvellousness. But the longer I live, the more obvious it is to me that + the most sacred act of a man's life is to say and to feel, "I believe such + and such to be true." All the greatest rewards and all the heaviest + penalties of existence cling about that act The universe is one and the + same throughout; and if the condition of my success in unravelling some + little difficulty of anatomy or physiology is that I shall rigorously + refuse to put faith in that which does not rest on sufficient evidence, I + cannot believe that the great mysteries of existence will be laid open to + me on other terms. + </p> + <p> + CCXCVIII + </p> + <p> + I cannot conceive of my personality as a thing apart from the phenomena of + my life. When I try to form such a conception I discover that, as + Coleridge would have said, I only hypostatize a word, and it alters + nothing if, with Fichte, I suppose the universe to be nothing but a + manifestation of my personality. I am neither more nor less eternal than I + was before. + </p> + <p> + CCXCIX + </p> + <p> + I do not know whether the animals persist after they disappear or not. I + do not even know whether the infinite difference between us and them may + not be compensated by <i>their</i> persistence and <i>my</i> cessation + after apparent death, just as the humble bulb of an annual fives, whilst + the glorious flowers it has put forth die away. + </p> + <p> + CCC + </p> + <p> + My business is to teach my aspirations to confirm themselves to fact, not + to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations. + </p> + <p> + CCCI + </p> + <p> + Science seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great + truth which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire surrender to + the will of God. Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to + give up every preconceived notion, follow numbly wherever and to whatever + abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to + learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do + this. + </p> + <p> + CCCII + </p> + <p> + There are, however, other arguments commonly brought forward in favour of + the immortality of man, which are to my mind not only delusive but + mischievous. The one is the notion that the moral government of the world + is imperfect without a system of future rewards and punishments. The other + is: that such a system is indispensable to practical morality. I believe + that both these dogmas are very mischievous lies. + </p> + <p> + With respect to the first, I am no optimist, but I have the firmest belief + that the Divine Government (if we may use such a phrase to express the sum + of the "customs of matter") is wholly just The more I know intimately of + the lives of other men (to say nothing of my own), the more obvious it is + to me that the wicked does <i>not</i> flourish nor is the righteous + punished. But for this to be clear we must bear in mind what almost all + forget, that the rewards of life are contingent upon obedience to the <i>whole</i> + Law—physical as well as moral—and that moral obedience will + not atone for physical sin, or <i>vice versa</i>. + </p> + <p> + CCCIII + </p> + <p> + The ledger of the Almighty is strictly kept, and every one of us has the + balance of his operations paid over to him at the end of every minute of + his existence. + </p> + <p> + Life cannot exist without a certain conformity to the surrounding universe—that + conformity involves a certain amount of happiness in excess of pain. In + short, as we live we are paid for living. + </p> + <p> + CCCIV + </p> + <p> + It is to be recollected in view of the apparent discrepancy between men's + acts and their rewards that Nature is juster than we. She takes into + account what a man brings with him into the world, which human justice + cannot do. If I, born a bloodthirsty and savage brute, inheriting these + qualities from others, kill you, my fellow-men will very justly hang me, + but I shall not be visited with the horrible remorse which would be my + real punishment if, my nature being higher, I had done the same thing. + </p> + <p> + CCCV + </p> + <p> + The absolute justice of the system of things is as clear to me as any + scientific fact The gravitation of sin to sorrow is as certain as that of + the earth to the sun, and more so—for experimental proof of the fact + is within reach of us all—nay, is before us all in our own lives, if + we had but the eyes to see it. + </p> + <p> + CCCVI + </p> + <p> + Not only do I disbelieve in the need for compensation, but I believe that + the seeking for rewards and punishments out of this life leads men to a + ruinous ignorance of the fact that their inevitable rewards and + punishments are here. + </p> + <p> + CCCVII + </p> + <p> + If the expectation of hell hereafter can keep me from evil-doing, surely + <i>a fortiori</i> the certainty of hell now will do so? If a man could be + firmly impressed with the belief that stealing damaged him as much as + swallowing arsenic would do (and it does), would not the dissuasive force + of that belief be greater than that of any based on mere future + expectations? + </p> + <p> + CCCVIII + </p> + <p> + As I stood behind the coffin of my little son the other day, with my mind + bent on anything but disputation, the officiating minister read, as a part + of his duty, the words, "If the dead rise not again, let us eat and drink, + for to-morrow we die." I cannot tell you how inexpressibly they shocked + me. Paul had neither wife nor child, or he must have known that his + alternative involved a blasphemy against all that was best and noblest in + human nature. I could have laughed with scorn. What! because I am face to + face with irreparable loss, because I have given back to the source from + whence it came, the cause of a great happiness, still retaining through + all my life the blessings which have sprung and will spring from that + cause, I am to renounce my manhood, and, howling, grovel in bestiality? + Why, the very apes know better, and if you shoot their young the poor + brutes grieve their grief out and do not immediately seek distraction in a + gorge. + </p> + <p> + CCCIX + </p> + <p> + He had intellect to comprehend his highest duty distinctly, and force of + character to do it; which of us dare ask for a higher summary of his life + than that? For such a man there can be no fear in facing the great + unknown, his life has been one long experience of the substantial justice + of the laws by which this world is governed, and he will calmly trust to + them still as he lays his head down for his long sleep. + </p> + <p> + CCCX + </p> + <p> + Whether astronomy and geology can or cannot be made to agree with the + statements as to the matters of fact laid down in Genesis—whether + the Gospels are historically true or not—are matters of + comparatively small moment in the face of the impassable gulf between the + anthropomorphism (however refined) of theology and the passionless + impersonality of the unknown and unknowable which science shows everywhere + underlying the thin veil of phenomena. + </p> + <p> + CCCXI + </p> + <p> + I am too much a believer in Butler and in the great principle of the + "Analogy" that "there is no absurdity in theology so great that you cannot + parallel it by a greater absurdity of Nature" (it is not commonly stated + in this way), to have any difficulties about miracles. I have never had + the least sympathy with the <i>a priori</i> reasons against orthodoxy, and + I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all + the atheistic and infidel school. + </p> + <p> + CCCXII + </p> + <p> + This universe is, I conceive, like to a great game being played out, and + we poor mortals are allowed to take a hand. By great good fortune the + wiser among us have made out some few of the rules of the game, as at + present played. We call them "Laws of Nature," and honour them because we + find that if we obey them we win something for our pains. The cards are + our theories and hypotheses, the tricks our experimental verifications. + But what sane man would endeavour to solve this problem: given the rules + of a game and the winnings, to find whether the cards are made of + pasteboard or gold-leaf? Yet the problem of the metaphysicians is to my + mind no saner. + </p> + <p> + CCCXIII + </p> + <p> + I have not the smallest sentimental sympathy with the negro; don't believe + in him at all, in short. But it is clear to me that slavery means, for the + white man, bad political economy; bad social morality; bad internal + political organisation, and a bad influence upon free labour and freedom + all over the world. + </p> + <p> + CCCXIV + </p> + <p> + At the present time the important question for England is not the duration + of her coal, but the due comprehension of the truths of science, and the + labours of her scientific men. + </p> + <p> + CCCXV + </p> + <p> + It is better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains. + </p> + <p> + CCCXVI + </p> + <p> + A good book is comparable to a piece of meat, and fools are as flies who + swarm to it, each for the purpose of depositing and hatching his own + particular maggot of an idea. + </p> + <p> + CCCXVII + </p> + <p> + Children work a greater metamorphosis in men than any other condition of + life. They ripen one wonderfully and make life ten times better worth + having than it was. + </p> + <p> + CCCXVIII + </p> + <p> + Teach a child what is wise, that is <i>morality</i>, Teach him what is + wise and beautiful, that is <i>religion!</i> + </p> + <p> + CCCXIX + </p> + <p> + People may talk about intellectual teaching, but what we principally want + is the moral teaching. + </p> + <p> + CCCXX + </p> + <p> + We are in the midst of a gigantic movement greater than that which + preceded and produced the Reformation, and really only the continuation of + that movement But there is nothing new in the ideas which lie at the + bottom of the movement, nor is any reconcilement possible between free + thought and traditional authority. One or other will have to succumb after + a struggle of unknown duration, which will have as side issues vast + political and social troubles. I have no more doubt that free thought will + win in the long run than I have that I sit here writing to you, or that + this free thought will organize itself into a coherent system, embracing + human life and the world as one harmonious whole. But this organization + will be the work of generations of men, and those who further it most will + be those who teach men to rest in no lie, and to rest in no verbal + delusions. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXI + </p> + <p> + Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is + ever done in this world by hesitation. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXII + </p> + <p> + The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and + injustice by being damnably sentimental. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXIII + </p> + <p> + Without seeing any reason to believe that women are, on the average, so + strong physically, intellectually, or morally, as men, I cannot shut my + eyes to the fact that many women are much better endowed in all these + respects than many men, and I am at a loss to understand on what grounds + of justice or public policy a career which is open to the weakest and most + foolish of the male sex should be forcibly closed to women of vigour and + capacity. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXIV + </p> + <p> + We have heard a great deal lately about the physical disabilities of + women. Some of these alleged impediments, no doubt, are realty inherent in + their organization, but nine-tenths of them are artificial—the + products of their modes of life. I believe that nothing would tend so + effectually to get rid of these creations of idleness, weariness, and that + "over stimulation of the emotions" which, in plainer-spoken days, used to + be called wantonness, than a fair share of healthy work, directed towards + a definite object, combined with an equally fair share of healthy play, + during the years of adolescence; and those who are best acquainted with + the acquirements of an average medical practitioner will find it hardest + to believe that the attempt to reach that standard is like to prove + exhausting to an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated young woman. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXV + </p> + <p> + The only good that I can see in the demonstration of the truth of + "Spiritualism" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide. + Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a + "medium" hired at a guinea a séance. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXVI + </p> + <p> + I ask myself—suppose you knew that by inflicting prolonged pain on + 100 rabbits you could discover a way to the extirpation of leprosy, or + consumption, or locomotor ataxy, or of suicidal melancholia among human + beings, dare you refuse to inflict that pain? Now I am quite unable to say + that I dare. That sort of daring would seem to me to be extreme moral + cowardice, to involve gross inconsistency. + </p> + <p> + For the advantage and protection of society, we all agree to inflict pain + upon man—pain of the most prolonged and acute character—in our + prisons, and on our battlefields. If England were invaded, we should have + no hesitation about inflicting the maximum of suffering upon our invaders + for no other object than our own good. + </p> + <p> + But if the good of society and of a nation is a sufficient plea for + inflicting pain on men, I think it may suffice us for experimenting on + rabbits or dogs. + </p> + <p> + At the same time, I think that a heavy moral responsibility rests on those + who perform experiments of the second kind. + </p> + <p> + The wanton infliction of pain on man or beast is a crime; pity is that so + many of those who (as I think rightly) hold this view, seem to forget that + the criminality lies in the wantonness and not in the act of inflicting + pain <i>per se</i>. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXVII + </p> + <p> + The one condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth and + intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot give + these, but it can cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever + station of society they are to be found, and the universities ought to be + and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXVIII + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact, men sin, and the consequences of their sins affect + endless generations of their progeny. Men are tempted, men are punished + for the sins of others without merit or demerit of their own; and they are + tormented for their evil deeds as long as their consciousness lasts. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXIX + </p> + <p> + I find that as a matter of experience, erroneous beliefs are punished, and + right beliefs are rewarded—though very often the erroneous belief is + based on a more conscientious study of the facts than right belief. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXX + </p> + <p> + If we are to assume that anybody has designedly set this wonderful + universe going, it is perfectly clear to me that he is no more entirely + benevolent and just in any intelligible sense of the words, than that he + is malevolent and unjust. Infinite benevolence need not have invented pain + and sorrow at all—infinite malevolence would very easily have + deprived us of the large measure of content and happiness that falls to + our lot After all, Butler's "Analogy" is unassailable, and there is + nothing in theological dogmas more contradictory to our moral sense, than + is to be found in the facts of nature. From which, however, the Bishop's + conclusion that the dogmas are true doesn't follow. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXI + </p> + <p> + It appears to me that if every person who is engaged in an industry had + access to instruction in the scientific principles on which that industry + is based; in the mode of applying these principles to practice; in the + actual use of the means and appliances employed; in the language of the + people who know as much about the matter as we do ourselves; and lastly, + in the art of keeping accounts, Technical Education would have done all + that can be required of it. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXII + </p> + <p> + Though under-instruction is a bad thing, it is not impossible that + over-instruction may be worse. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXIII + </p> + <p> + There are two things I really care about—one is the progress of + scientific thought, and the other is the bettering of the condition of the + masses of the people by bettering them in the way of lifting themselves + out of the misery which has hitherto been the lot of the majority of them. + Posthumous fame is not particularly attractive to me, but, if I am to be + remembered at all, I would rather it should be as "a man who did his best + to help the people" than by other title. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXIV + </p> + <p> + I am of opinion that our Indian Empire is a curse to us. But so long as we + make up our minds to hold it, we must also make up our minds to do those + things which are needful to hold it effectually, and in the long-run it + will be found that so doing is real justice both for ourselves, our + subject population, and the Afghans themselves. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXV + </p> + <p> + The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn + peace and self-respect. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXVI + </p> + <p> + The more rapidly truth is spread among mankind the better it will be for + them. Only let us be sure that it is truth. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXVII + </p> + <p> + Your astonishment at the tenacity of life of fallacies, permit me to say, + is shockingly unphysiological. They, like other low organisms, are + independent of brains, and only wriggle the more, the more they are + smitten on the place where the brains ought to be. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXVIII + </p> + <p> + I don't know what you think about anniversaries. I like them, being always + minded to drink my cup of life to the bottom, and take my chance of the + sweets and bitters. + </p> + <p> + CCCXXXIX + </p> + <p> + Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life—the + jamming common-sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest. + </p> + <p> + CCCXL + </p> + <p> + Life is like walking along a crowded street—there always seem to be + fewer obstacles to getting along on the opposite pavement—and yet, + if one crosses over, matters are rarely mended. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLI + </p> + <p> + The great thing one has to wish for as time goes on is vigour as long as + one lives, and death as soon as vigour flags. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLII + </p> + <p> + Whether motion disintegrates or integrates is, I apprehend, a question of + conditions. A whirlpool in a stream may remain in the same spot for any + imaginable time. Yet it is the effect of the motion of the particles of + the water in that spot which continually integrate themselves into the + whirlpool and disintegrate themselves from it The whirlpool is permanent + while the conditions last, though its constituents incessantly change. + Living bodies are just such whirlpools. Matter sets into them in the shape + of food,—sets out of them in the shape of waste products. Their + individuality lies in the constant maintenance of a characteristic form, + not in the preservation of material identity. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLIII + </p> + <p> + Most of us are idolators, and ascribe divine powers to the abstractions + "Force," "Gravity," "Vitality," which our own brains have created. I do + not know anything about "inert" things in nature. If we reduce the world + to matter and motion, the matter is not "inert," inasmuch as the same + amount of motion affects different kinds of matter in different ways. To + go back to my own illustration. The fabric of the watch is not inert, + every particle of it is in violent and rapid motion, and the winding-up + simply perturbs the whole infinitely complicated system in a particular + fashion. Equilibrium means death, because life is a succession of changes, + while a changing equilibrium is a contradiction m terms. I am not at all + clear that a living being is comparable to a machine running down. On this + side of the question the whirlpool affords a better parallel than the + watch. If you dam the stream above or below; the whirlpool dies; just as + the living being does if you cut off its food, or choke it with its own + waste products. And if you alter the sides or bottom of the stream you may + kill the whirlpool, just as you kill the animal by interfering with its + structure. Heat and oxidation as a source of heat appear to supply energy + to the living machine, the molecular structure of the germ furnishing the + "sides and bottom of the stream," that is, determining the results which + the energy supplied shall produce. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLIV + </p> + <p> + I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion + so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution—intelligible + to the young. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLV + </p> + <p> + Government by average opinion is merely a circuitous method of going to + the devil; those who profess to lead but in fact slavishly follow this + average opinion are simply the fastest runners and the loudest squeakers + of the herd which is rushing blindly down to its destruction. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLVI + </p> + <p> + It's very sad to lose your child just when he was beginning to bind + himself to you, and I don't know that it is much consolation to reflect + that the longer he had wound himself up in your heart-strings the worse + the tear would have been, which seems to have been inevitable sooner or + later. One does not weigh and measure these things while grief is fresh, + and in my experience a deep plunge into the waters of sorrow is the + hopefullest way of getting through them on to one's daily road of life + again. No one can help another very much in these crises of life; but love + and sympathy count for something. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLVII + </p> + <p> + There is amazingly little evidence of "reverential care for unoffending + creation" in the arrangements of nature, that I can discover. If our ears + were sharp enough to hear all the cries of pain that are uttered in the + earth by men and beasts, we should be deafened by one continuous scream! + </p> + <p> + And yet the wealth of superfluous loveliness in the world condemns + pessimism. It is a hopeless riddle. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLVIII + </p> + <p> + A man who has only half as much food as he needs is indubitably starved, + even though his short rations consist of ortolans and are served upon gold + plate. + </p> + <p> + CCCXLIX + </p> + <p> + Economy does not lie in sparing money, but in spending it wisely. + </p> + <p> + CCCL + </p> + <p> + We men of science, at any rate, hold ourselves morally bound to "try all + things and hold fast to that which is good"; and among public benefactors, + we reckon him who explodes old error, as next in rank to him who discovers + new truth. + </p> + <p> + CCCLI + </p> + <p> + Whatever Linnæus may say, man is not a rational animal—especially + in his parental capacity. + </p> + <p> + CCCLII + </p> + <p> + The inquiry into the truth or falsehood of a matter of history is just as + much a question of pure science as the inquiry into the truth or falsehood + of a matter of geology, and the value of evidence in the two cases must be + tested in the same way. If anyone tells me that the evidence of the + existence of man in the miocene epoch is as good as that upon which I + frequently act every day of my life, I reply that this is quite true, but + that it is no sort of reason for believing in the existence of miocene + man. + </p> + <p> + Surely no one but a born fool can fail to be aware that we constantly, and + in very grave conjunctions, are obliged to act upon extremely bad + evidence, and that very often we suffer all sorts of penalties in + consequence. And surely one must be something worse than a born fool to + pretend that such decision under the pressure of the enigmas of life ought + to have the smallest influence in those judgments which are made with due + and sufficient deliberation. + </p> + <p> + CCCLIII + </p> + <p> + 1. The Church founded by Jesus has <i>not</i> made its way; has <i>not</i> + permeated the world—but <i>did</i> become extinct in the country of + its birth—as Nazarenism and Ebionism. + </p> + <p> + 2. The Church that did make its way and coalesced with the State in the + 4th century had no more to do with the Church founded by Jesus than + Ultra-montanism has with Quakerism. It is Alexandrian Judaism and + Neoplatonistic mystagogy, and as much of the old idolatry and demonology + as could be got in under new or old names. + </p> + <p> + 3. Paul has said that the Law was schoolmaster to Christ with more truth + than he knew. Throughout the Empire the synagogues had their cloud of + Gentile hangers-on—those who "feared God"—and who were fully + prepared to accept a Christianity, which was merely an expurgated Judaism + and the belief in Jesus as the Messiah. + </p> + <p> + 4. The Christian "Sodalitia" were not merely religious bodies, but + friendly societies, burial societies, and guilds. They hung together for + all purposes—the mob hated them as it now hates the Jews in Eastern + Europe, because they were more frugal, more industrious, and lived better + lives than their neighbours, while they stuck together like Scotchmen. + </p> + <p> + If these things are so—and I appeal to your knowledge of history + that they are so—what has the success of Christianity to do with the + truth or falsehood of the story of Jesus? + </p> + <p> + CCCLIV + </p> + <p> + It is Baur's great merit to have seen that the key to the problem of + Christianity lies in the Epistle to the Galatians. No doubt he and his + followers rather overdid the thing, but that is always the way with those + who take up a new idea. + </p> + <p> + CCCLV + </p> + <p> + If a man cannot do brain work without stimulants of any kind, he had + better turn to hand work—it is an indication on Nature's part that + she did not mean him to be a head worker. + </p> + <p> + CCCLVI + </p> + <p> + It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for our + beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts. + </p> + <p> + CCCLVII + </p> + <p> + Even the best of modern civilisations appears to me to exhibit a condition + of mankind which neither embodies any worthy ideal nor even possesses the + merit of stability. I do not hesitate to express my opinion that, if there + is no hope of a large improvement of the condition of the greater part of + the human family; if it is true that the increase of knowledge, the + winning of a greater dominion over Nature which is its consequence, and + the wealth which follows upon that dominion, are to make no difference in + the extent and the intensity of Want, with its concomitant physical and + moral degradation, among the masses of the people, I should hail the + advent of some kindly comet, which would sweep the whole affair away, as a + desirable consummation. + </p> + <p> + What profits it to the human Prometheus that he has stolen the fire of + heaven to be his servant, and that the spirits of the earth and of the air + obey him, if the vulture of pauperism is eternally to tear his very vitals + and keep him on the brink of destruction? + </p> + <p> + CCCLVIII + </p> + <p> + No induction, however broad its basis, can confer certainty—in the + strict sense of the word. The experience of the whole human race through + innumerable years has shown that stones unsupported fall to the ground, + but that does not make it certain that any day next week unsupported + stones will not move the other way. All that it does justify is the very + strong expectation, which hitherto has been invariably verified, that they + will do just the contrary. + </p> + <p> + Only one absolute certainty is possible to man—namely, that at any + given moment the feeling which he has exists. + </p> + <p> + All other so-called certainties are beliefs of greater or less intensity. + </p> + <p> + CCCLIX + </p> + <p> + Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of + exclusively human manufacture—and very much to our credit. + </p> + <p> + CCCLX + </p> + <p> + There is nothing of permanent value (putting aside a few human + affections), nothing that satisfies quiet reflection—except the + sense of having worked according to one's capacity and light, to make + things clear and get rid of cant and shams of all sorts. That was the + lesson I learned from Carlyle's books when I was a boy, and it has stuck + by me all my life. + </p> + <p> + You may make more of failing to get money, and of succeeding in getting + abuse—until such time in your life (if you are teachable) you have + ceased to care much about either. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXI + </p> + <p> + The doctrine of the conservation of energy tells neither one way nor the + other [on the doctrine of immortality]. Energy is the cause of movement of + body, i.e. things having mass. States of consciousness have no mass, even + if they can be conceded to be movable. Therefore even if they are caused + by molecular movements, they would not in any way affect the store of + energy. + </p> + <p> + Physical causation need not be the only kind of causation, and when + Cabanis said that thought was a function of the brain, in the same way as + bile secretion is a <i>function</i> of the liver, he blundered + philosophically. Bile is a product of the transformation of material + energy. But in the mathematical sense of the word "function" thought may + be a function of the brain. That is to say, it may arise only when certain + physical particles take on a certain order. + </p> + <p> + By way of a coarse analogy, consider a parallel-sided piece of glass + through which light passes. It forms no picture. Shape it so as to be a + bi-convex, and a picture appears in its focus. + </p> + <p> + Is not the formation of the picture a "function" of the piece of glass + thus shaped? + </p> + <p> + So, from your own point of view, suppose a mind-stuff—[—Greek—]—a + noumenal cosmic light such as is shadowed in the fourth gospel. The brain + of a dog will convert it into one set of phenomenal pictures, and the + brain of a man into another. But in both cases the result is the + consequence of the way in which the respective brains perform their + "function." + </p> + <p> + CCCLXII + </p> + <p> + The actions we call sinful are as much the consequence of the order of + nature as those we call virtuous. They are part and parcel of the struggle + for existence through which all living things have passed, and they have + become sins because man alone seeks a higher life in voluntary + association. + </p> + <p> + Therefore the instrument has never been marred; on the contrary, we are + trying to get music out of harps, sacbuts, and psalteries, which never + were in tune and seemingly never will be. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXIII + </p> + <p> + I have always been, am, and propose to remain a mere scholar. All that I + have ever proposed to myself is to say, this and this I have learned; thus + and thus have I learned it: go thou and learn better; but do not thrust on + my shoulders the responsibility for your own laziness if you elect to + take, on my authority, conclusions, the value of which you ought to have + tested for yourself. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXIV + </p> + <p> + There is endless backwoodsman's work yet to be done. If "those also serve + who only stand and wait," still more do those who sweep and cleanse; and + if any man elect to give his strength to the weeder's and scavenger's + occupation, I remain of the opinion that his service should be counted + acceptable, and that no one has a right to ask more of him than faithful + performance of the duties he has undertaken. I venture to count it an + improbable suggestion that any such person—a man, let us say, who + has well-nigh reached his threescore years and ten, and has graduated in + all the faculties of human relationships; who has taken his share in all + the deep joys and deeper anxieties which cling about them; who has felt + the burden of young; lives entrusted to his care, and has stood alone with + his dead before the abyss of the eternal—has never had a thought + beyond negative criticism. It seems to me incredible that such an one can + have done his day's work, always with a light heart, with no sense of + responsibility, no terror of that which may appear when the factitious + veil of Isis—the thick web of fiction man has woven round nature—is + stripped off. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXV + </p> + <p> + If the doctrine of a Providence is to be taken as the expression, in a way + "to be understanded of the people," of the total exclusion of chance from + a place even in the most insignificant corner of Nature, if it means the + strong conviction that the cosmic process is rational, and the faith that, + throughout all duration, unbroken order has reigned in the universe, I not + only accept it, but I am disposed to think it the most important of all + truths. As it is of more consequence for a citizen to know the law than to + be personally acquainted with the features of those who will surely carry + it into effect, so this very positive doctrine of Providence, in the sense + defined, seems to me far more important than all the theorems of + speculative theology. If, further, the doctrine is held to imply that, in + some indefinitely remote past aeon, the cosmic process was set going by + some entity possessed of intelligence and foresight, similar to our own in + kind, however superior in degree, if, consequently, it is held that every + event, not merely in our planetary speck, but in untold millions of other + worlds, was foreknown before these worlds were, scientific thought, so far + as I know anything about it, has nothing to say about that hypothesis. It + is, in fact, an anthropomorphic rendering of the doctrine of evolution. + </p> + <p> + It may be so, but the evidence accessible to us is, to my mind, wholly + insufficient to warrant either a positive or a negative conclusion. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXVI + </p> + <p> + It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration + recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, + and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might or what might + not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point + should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXVII + </p> + <p> + Belief in majorities is not rooted in my breast, and if all the world were + against me the fact might warn me to revise and criticise my opinions, but + would not in itself supply a ghost of a reason for forsaking them. For + myself I say deliberately, it is better to have a millstone tied round the + neck and be thrown into the sea than to share the enterprises of those to + whom the world has turned, and will turn, because they minister to its + weaknesses and cover up the awful realities which it shudders to look at. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXVIII + </p> + <p> + Moral duty consists in the observance of those rules of conduct which + contribute to the welfare of society, and by implication, of the + individuals who compose it. + </p> + <p> + The end of society is peace and mutual protection, so that the individual + may reach the fullest and highest life attainable by man. The rules of + conduct by which this end is to be attained are discoverable—like + the other so-called laws of Nature—by observation and experiment, + and only in that way. + </p> + <p> + Some thousands of years of such experience have led to the + generalisations, that stealing and murder, for example, are inconsistent + with the ends of society. There is no more doubt that they are so than + that unsupported stones tend to fall. The man who steals or murders, + breaks his implied contract with society, and forfeits all protection. He + becomes an outlaw, to be dealt with as any other feral creature. Criminal + law indicates the ways which have proved most convenient for dealing with + him. + </p> + <p> + All this would be true if men had no "moral sense" at all, just as there + are rules of perspective which must be strictly observed by a draughtsman, + and are quite independent of his having any artistic sense. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXIX + </p> + <p> + The moral sense is a very complex affair—dependent in part upon + associations of pleasure and pain, approbation and disapprobation formed + by education in early youth, but in part also on an innate sense of moral + beauty and ugliness (how originated need not be discussed), which is + possessed by some people in great strength, while some are totally devoid + of it—just as some children draw, or are enchanted by music while + mere infants, while others do not know "Cherry Ripe" from "Rule + Britannia," nor can represent the form of the simplest thing to the end of + their lives. + </p> + <p> + Now for this last sort of people there is no reason why they should + discharge any moral duty, except from fear of punishment in all its + grades, from mere disapprobation to hanging, and the duty of society is to + see that they live under wholesome fear of such punishment short, sharp, + and decisive. + </p> + <p> + For the people with a keen innate sense of moral beauty there is no need + of any other motive. What they want is knowledge of the things they may do + and must leave undone, if the welfare of society is to be attained. Good + people so often forget this that some of them occasionally require hanging + almost as much as the bad. + </p> + <p> + If you ask why the moral inner sense is to be (under due limitations) + obeyed; why the few who are steered by it move the mass in whom it is + weak? I can only reply by putting another question—Why do the few in + whom the sense of beauty is strong—Shakespeare, Raffaele, Beethoven, + carry the less endowed multitude away? But they do, and always will. + People who overlook that fact attend neither to history nor to what goes + on about them. + </p> + <p> + Benjamin Franklin was a shrewd, excellent, kindly man. I have great + respect for him. The force of genial common-sense respectability could no + further go. George Fox was the very antipodes of all this, and yet one + understands how he came to move the world of his day, and Franklin did + not. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXX + </p> + <p> + As to whether we can fulfil the moral law, I should say hardly any of us. + Some of us are utterly incapable of fulfilling its plainest dictates. As + there are men born physically cripples, and intellectually idiots, so + there are some who are moral cripples and idiots, and can be kept straight + not even by punishment. For these people there is nothing but shutting up, + or extirpation. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXI + </p> + <p> + The cardinal fact in the University questions appears to me to be this: + that the student to whose wants the mediæval University was + adjusted, looked to the past and sought book-learning, while the modern + looks to the future and seeks the knowledge of things. + </p> + <p> + The mediæval view was that all knowledge worth having was explicitly + or implicitly contained in various ancient writings; in the Scriptures, in + the writings of the greater Greeks, and those of the Christian Fathers. + Whatever apparent novelty they put forward, was professedly obtained by + deduction from ancient data. + </p> + <p> + The modern knows that the only source of real knowledge lies in the + application of scientific methods of enquiry to the ascertainment of the + facts of existence; that the ascertainable is infinitely greater than the + ascertained, and that the chief business of the teacher is not so much to + make scholars as to train pioneers. + </p> + <p> + From this point of view, the University occupies a position altogether + independent of that of the coping-stone of schools for general education, + combined with technical schools of Theology, Law, and Medicine. It is not + primarily an institution for testing the work of schoolmasters, or for + ascertaining the fitness of young men to be curates, lawyers, or doctors. + </p> + <p> + It is an institution in which a man who claims to devote himself to + Science or Art, should be able to find some one who can teach him what is + already known, and train him in the methods of knowing more. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXII + </p> + <p> + The besetting sin of able men is impatience of contradiction and of + criticism. Even those who do their best to resist the temptation, yield to + it almost unconsciously and become the tools of toadies and flatterers. + "Authorities," "disciples." and "schools" are the curse of science; and do + more to interfere with the work of the scientific spirit than all its + enemies. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXIII + </p> + <p> + People never will recollect, that mere learning and mere cleverness are of + next to no value in life, while energy and intellectual grip, the things + that are inborn and cannot be taught, are everything. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXIV + </p> + <p> + In my opinion a man's first duty is to find a way of supporting himself, + thereby relieving other people of the necessity of supporting him. + Moreover, the learning to do work of practical value in the world, in an + exact and careful manner, is of itself a very-important education, the + effects of which make themselves felt in all other pursuits. The habit of + doing that which you do not care about when you would much rather be doing + something else, is invaluable. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXV + </p> + <p> + Success in any scientific career requires an unusual equipment of + capacity, industry and energy. If you possess that equipment you will find + leisure enough after your daily commercial work is over, to make an + opening in the scientific ranks for yourself. If you do not, you had + better stick to commerce. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is less to be desired than the fate of a young man, who, as the + Scotch proverb says, in 'trying to make a spoon spoils a horn' and becomes + a mere hanger-on in literature or in science, when he might have been a + useful and a valuable member of Society in other occupations. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXVI + </p> + <p> + Playing Providence is a game at which one is very apt to burn one's + fingers. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXVII + </p> + <p> + I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has + been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application + of scientifc methods of investigation to all the problems with which the + human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional + beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXVIII + </p> + <p> + Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a + Messiah. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXIX + </p> + <p> + I have not the slightest doubt about the magnitude of the evils which + accrue from the steady increase of European armaments; but I think that + this regrettable fact is merely the superficial expression of social + forces, the operation of which cannot be sensibly affected by agreements + between Governments. + </p> + <p> + In my opinion it is a delusion to attribute the growth of armaments to the + "exactions of militarism." The "exactions of industrialism," generated by + international commercial competition, may, I believe, claim a much larger + share in prompting that growth. Add to this the French thirst for revenge, + the most just determination of the German and Italian peoples to assert + their national unity; the Russian Panslavonic fanaticism and desire for + free access to the western seas; the Papacy steadily fishing in the + troubled waters for the means of recovering its lost (I hope for ever + lost) temporal possessions and spiritual supremacy; the "sick man," kept + alive only because each of his doctors is afraid of the other becoming his + heir. + </p> + <p> + When I think of the intensity of the perturbing agencies which arise out + of these and other conditions of modern European society, I confess that + the attempt to counteract them by asking Governments to agree to a maximum + military expenditure, does not appear to me to be worth making; indeed I + think it might do harm by leading people to suppose that the desires of + Governments are the chief agents in determining whether peace or war shall + obtain in Europe. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXX + </p> + <p> + I am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the + white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And + the importance of scientific method in modern practical life—always + growing and increasing—is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation + of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are + the strength of the priests. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXXI + </p> + <p> + There is such a thing as a science of social life, for which, if the term + had not been so helplessly degraded, Politics is the proper name. + </p> + <p> + Men are beings of a certain constitution, who, under certain conditions, + will as surely tend to act in certain ways as stones will tend to fall if + you leave them, unsupported. The laws of their nature are as invariable as + the laws of gravitation, only the applications to particular cases offer + worse problems than the case of the three bodies. + </p> + <p> + The Political Economists have gone the right way to work—the way + that the physical philosopher follows in all complex affairs—by + tracing out the effects of one great cause of human action, the desire of + wealth, supposing it to be unchecked. + </p> + <p> + If they, or other people, have forgotten that there are other potent + causes of action which may interfere with this, it is no fault of + scientific method but only their own stupidity. + </p> + <p> + Hydrostatics is not a "dismal science," because water does not always seek + the lowest level—e.g. from a bottle turned upside down, if there is + a cork in the neck! + </p> + <p> + There is much need that somebody should do for what is vaguely called + "Ethics" just what the Political Economists have done. Settle the question + of what will be done under the unchecked action of certain motives, and + leave the problem of "ought" for subsequent consideration. + </p> + <p> + For, whatever they ought to do, it is quite certain the majority of men + will act as if the attainment of certain positive and negative pleasures + were the end of action. + </p> + <p> + We want a science of "Eubiotics" to tell us exactly what will happen if + human beings are exclusively actuated by the desire of well-being in the + ordinary sense. Of course the utilitarians have laid the foundations of + such a science, with the result that the nicknamer of genius called this + branch of science "pig philosophy," making just the same blunder as when + ne called political economy "dismal science." + </p> + <p> + "Moderate well-being" may be no more the worthiest end of life than + wealth. But if it is the best to be had in this queer world—it may + be worth trying for. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXXII + </p> + <p> + Those who wish to attain to some clear and definite solution of the great + problems which Mr. Darwin was the first person to set before us in later + times must base themselves upon the facts which are stated in his great + work, and, still more, must pursue their inquiries by the methods of which + he was so brilliant an exemplar throughout the whole of his life. You must + have his sagacity, his untiring search after the knowledge of fact, his + readiness always to give up a preconceived opinion to that which was + demonstrably true, before you can hope to carry his doctrines to their + ultimate issue; and whether the particular form in which he has put them + before us may be such as is finally destined to survive or not is more, I + venture to think, than anybody is capable at this present moment of + saying. But this one thing is perfectly certain—that it is only by + pursuing his methods, by that wonderful single-mindedness, devotion to + truth, readiness to sacrifice all things for the advance of definite + knowledge, that we can hope to come any nearer than we are at present to + the truths which he struggled to attain. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXXIII + </p> + <p> + Dean Stanley told me he thought being made a bishop destroyed a man's + moral courage. I am inclined to think that the practice of the methods of + political leaders destroys their intellect for all serious purposes. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXXIV + </p> + <p> + It is one of the most saddening things in life that, try as we may, we can + never be certain of making people happy, whereas we can almost always be + certain of making them unhappy. + </p> + <p> + CCCLXXXV + </p> + <p> + Men, my dear, are very queer animals, a mixture of horse-nervousness, + ass-stubbornness and camel-malice—-with an angel bobbing about + unexpectedly like the apple in the posset, and when they can do exactly as + they please, they are very hard to drive. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Aphorisms and Reflections from the +Works of T. H. Huxley, by T. H. 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