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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - - - - -Title: Pioneers of Evolution from Thales to Huxley - With an Intermediate Chapter on the Causes of Arrest of the Movement - - -Author: Edward Clodd - - - -Release Date: April 24, 2012 [eBook #39526] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION FROM THALES -TO HUXLEY*** - - -E-text prepared by Albert László, eagkw, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (http://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 39526-h.htm or 39526-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39526/39526-h/39526-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39526/39526-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - http://archive.org/details/pioneersofevolutclod - - -Transcriber's note: - - Text in italics has been surrounded with underscores - (_italics_). - - - - - -[Illustration: C. Darwin] - - -PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION FROM THALES TO HUXLEY - -With an Intermediate Chapter on the Causes of Arrest of the Movement - -by - -EDWARD CLODD - -President of the Folk-Lore Society -Author of the Childhood of the World, -The Story of Creation, -The Story of Primitive Man, etc. - -With Portraits - - - - - - - -New York -D. Appleton and Company -1897 - -Copyright, 1897, -by D. Appleton and Company. - - - - - To MY BELOVED - - A. A. L. - - WHOSE FELLOWSHIP AND HELP - - HAVE SWEETENED LIFE. - - - - -PREFACE. - - -This book needs only brief introduction. It attempts to tell the story -of the origin of the Evolution idea in Ionia, and, after long arrest, -of the revival of that idea in modern times, when its profound and -permanent influence on thought in all directions, and, therefore, on -human relations and conduct, is apparent. - -Between birth and revival there were the centuries of suspended -animation, when the nepenthe of dogma drugged the reason; the Church -teaching, and the laity mechanically accepting, the sufficiency of the -Scriptures and of the General Councils to decide on matters which lie -outside the domain of both. Hence the necessity for particularizing the -causes which actively arrested advance in knowledge for sixteen hundred -years. - -In indicating the parts severally played in the Renascence of Evolution -by a small group of illustrious men, the writer, through the courtesy of -Mr. Herbert Spencer, has been permitted to see the original documents -which show that the theory of Evolution as a whole; i. e., as dealing -with the non-living, as well as with the living, contents of the -Universe, was formulated by Mr. Spencer in the year preceding the -publication of the Origin of Species. - - ROSEMONT, TUFNELL PARK, LONDON, N., - _14th December, 1896_. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PART I. - PAGE - PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION FROM THALES TO LUCRETIUS--B. C. - 600-A. D. 50 1 - - - PART II. - - THE ARREST OF INQUIRY--A. D. 50-A. D. 1600. - - 1. FROM THE EARLY CHRISTIAN PERIOD TO THE TIME - OF AUGUSTINE--A. D. 50-A. D. 400 37 - - 2. FROM AUGUSTINE TO LORD BACON--A. D. 400-A. D. 1600 73 - - - PART III. - - THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE--A. D. 1600 ONWARD 99 - - - PART IV. - - MODERN EVOLUTION-- - - 1. DARWIN AND WALLACE 126 - - 2. HERBERT SPENCER 175 - - 3. THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 201 - - INDEX 267 - - - - - "Nature, which governs the whole, will soon change all things which - thou seest, and out of their substance will make other things, and - again other things from the substance of them, in order that the - world may be ever new." - _Marcus Aurelius_, vii, 25. - - - - -PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. - - - - -_PART I._ - -PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION FROM THALES TO LUCRETIUS. - -B. C. 600-A. D. 50. - - "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but - having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them."--HEBREWS - xi. 13. - - -"One event is always the son of another, and we must never forget the -parentage," said a Bechuana chief to Casalis the missionary. The -barbarian philosopher spoke wiser than he knew, for in his words lay -that doctrine of continuity and unity which is the creed of modern -science. They are a suitable text to the discourse of this chapter, the -design of which is to bring out what the brilliancy of present-day -discoveries tends to throw into shadow, namely, the antiquity of the -ideas of which those discoveries are the result. Although the Theory of -Evolution, as we define it, is new, the speculations which made it -possible are, at least, twenty-five centuries old. Indeed, it is not -practicable, since the remote past yields no documents, to fix their -beginnings. Moreover, charged, as they are, with many crudities, they -are not detachable from the barbaric conceptions of the Universe which -are the philosophies of past, and the legends of present, times. - -Fontenelle, a writer of the last century, shrewdly remarked that "all -nations made the astounding part of their myths while they were savage, -and retained them from custom and religious conservatism." For, as -Walter Bagehot argues in his brilliant little book on Physics and -Politics, and as all anthropological research goes to prove, the lower -races are non-progressive both through fear and instinct. And the -majority of the members of higher races have not escaped from the -operation of the same causes. Hence the persistence of coarse and -grotesque elements in speculations wherein man has made gradual approach -to the truth of things; hence, too--the like phenomena having to be -interpreted--the similarity of the explanation of them. And as primitive -myth embodies primitive theology, primitive morals, and primitive -science, the history of beliefs shows how few there be who have escaped -from the tyranny of that authority and sanctity with which the lapse of -time invests old ideas. - -Dissatisfaction is a necessary condition of progress; and -dissatisfaction involves opposition. As Grant Allen puts it, in one -of his most felicitous poems: - - If systems that be are the order of God, - Revolt is a part of the order. - -Hence a stage in the history of certain peoples when, in questioning -what is commonly accepted, intellectual freedom is born. Such a stage -was markedly reached whenever, for example, an individual here and there -challenged the current belief about the beginnings and nature of things, -beliefs held because they were taught, not because their correspondence -with fact had been examined. - -A pioneer (French, _pionnier_; Italian, _pedone_; from Latin _pedes_) -is, literally, a foot-soldier; one who goes before an army to clear the -road of obstructions. Hence the application of the term to men who are -in the van of any new movement; hence its special fitness in the present -connection, as designating men whose speculations cut a pathway through -jungles of myth and legend to the realities of things. The Pioneers of -Evolution--the first on record to doubt the truth of the theory of -special creation, whether as the work of departmental gods or of one -Supreme Deity, matters not--lived in Greece about the time already -mentioned; six centuries before Christ. Not in the early stages of the -Evolution idea, in the Greece limited, as now, to a rugged peninsula in -the southeastern corner of Europe and to the surrounding islands, but in -the Greece which then included Ionia, on the opposite seaboard of Asia -Minor. - -From times beyond memory or record, the islands of the Ægean had been -the nurseries of culture and adventure. Thence the maritime inhabitants -had spread themselves both east and west, feeding the spirit of inquiry, -and imbibing influences from older civilizations, notably of Egypt and -Chaldæa. But, mix as they might with other peoples, the Greeks never -lost their own strongly marked individuality, and, in imparting what -they had acquired or discovered to younger peoples, that is, younger in -culture, they stamped it with an impress all their own. - -At the later period with which we are dealing, refugees from the -Peloponnesus, who would not submit to the Dorian yoke, had been long -settled in Ionia. To what extent they had been influenced by contact -with their neighbours is a question which, even were it easy to answer, -need not occupy us here. Certain it is that trade and travel had widened -their intellectual horizon, and although India lay too remote to touch -them closely (if that incurious, dreamy East had touched them, it would -have taught them nothing), there was Babylonia with her star-watchers, -and Egypt with her land-surveyors. From the one, these Ionians probably -gained knowledge of certain periodic movements of some of the heavenly -bodies; and from the other, a few rules of mensuration, perchance a -little crude science. But this is conjecture. For all the rest that she -evolved, and with which she enriched the world, ancient Greece is in -debt to none. - -While the Oriental shrunk from quest after causes, looking, as Professor -Butcher aptly remarks in his Aspects of the Greek Genius, on "each fresh -gain of earth as so much robbery of heaven," the Greek eagerly sought -for the law governing the facts around him. And in Ionia was born the -idea foreign to the East, but which has become the starting-point of all -subsequent scientific inquiry--the idea that Nature works by fixed laws. -Sir Henry Maine said that "except the blind forces of Nature, nothing -moves which is not Greek in its origin," and we feel how hard it is to -avoid exaggeration when speaking of the heritage bequeathed by Greece as -the giver of every fruitful, quickening idea which has developed human -faculty on all sides, and enriched every province of life. Amid -serious defects of character, as craftiness, avariciousness, and -unscrupulousness, the Greeks had the redeeming grace of pursuit after -knowledge which naught could baffle (Plato, Republic, vol. iv, p. 435), -and that healthy outlook on things which saved them from morbid -introspection. There arose among them no Simeon Stylites to mount -his profitless pillar; no filth-ingrained fakir to waste life in -contemplating the tip of his nose; no schoolman to idly speculate how -many angels could dance upon a needle's point; or to debate such fatuous -questions as the language which the saints in heaven will speak after -the Last Judgment. - -In his excellent and cautious survey of Early Greek Philosophy, which we -mainly follow in this section, Professor Burnet says that the real -advance made by the Ionians was through their "leaving off telling -tales. They gave up the hopeless task of describing what was when as yet -there was nothing, and asked instead what all things really are now." -For the early notions of the Greeks about nature, being an inheritance -from their barbaric ancestors, were embodied in myths and legends -bearing strong resemblance to those found among the uncivilized tribes -of Polynesia and elsewhere in our day. For example, the old nature-myth -of Cronus separating heaven and earth by the mutilation of Uranus occurs -among Chinese, Japanese, and Maoris, and among the ancient Hindus and -Egyptians. - -The earliest school of scientific speculation was at Miletus, the most -flourishing city of Ionia. Thales, whose name heads the list of the -"Seven Sages," was its founder. As with other noted philosophers of this -and later periods, neither the exact date of his birth nor of his death -are known, but the sixth century before Christ may be held to cover the -period when he "flourished." - -That "nothing comes into being out of nothing, and that nothing passes -away into nothing," was the conviction with which he and those who -followed him started on their quest. All around was change; everything -always becoming something else; "all in motion like streams." There must -be that which is the vehicle of all the changes, and of all the motions -which produce them. _What_, therefore, was this permanent and primary -substance? in other words, of what is the world made? And Thales, -perhaps through observing that it could become vaporous, liquid, -and solid in turn; perhaps--if, as tradition records, he visited -Egypt--through watching the wonder-working, life-giving Nile; perhaps as -doubtless sharing the current belief in an ocean-washed earth, said that -the primary substance was WATER. Anaximander, his friend and pupil, -disagreeing with what seemed to him a too concrete answer, argued, in -more abstract fashion, that "the material cause and first element of -things was the Infinite." This material cause, which he was the first -thus to name, "is neither water nor any other of what are now called the -_elements_" (we quote from Theophrastus, the famous pupil of Aristotle, -born at Eresus in Lesbos, 371 B. C.). Perhaps, following Professor -Burnet's able guidance through the complexities of definitions, the term -BOUNDLESS best expresses the "one eternal, indestructible substance out -of which everything arises, and into which everything once more -returns"; in other words, the exhaustless stock of matter from which the -waste of existence is being continually made good. - -Anaximander was the first to assert the origin of life from the -non-living, i. e., "the moist element as it was evaporated by the sun," -and to speak of man as "like another animal, namely, a fish, in the -beginning." This looks well-nigh akin to prevision of the mutability of -species, and of what modern biology has proved concerning the marine -ancestry of the highest animals, although it is one of many ancient -speculations as to the origin of life in slimy matter. And when -Anaximander adds that "while other animals quickly find food for -themselves, man alone requires a prolonged period of suckling," he -anticipates the modern explanation of the origin of the rudimentary -family through the development of the social instincts and affections. -The lengthening of the period of infancy involves dependence on the -parents, and evolves the sympathy which lies at the base of social -relations. (Cf. Fiske's Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, vol. ii, pp. 344, -360.) - -In dealing with speculations so remote, we have to guard against reading -modern meanings into writings produced in ages whose limitations of -knowledge were serious, and whose temper and standpoint are wholly alien -to our own. For example, shrewd as are some of the guesses made by -Anaximander, we find him describing the sun as "a ring twenty-eight -times the size of the earth, like a cartwheel with the felloe hollow and -full of fire, showing the fire at a certain point, as if through the -nozzle of a pair of bellows." And if he made some approach to truer -ideas of the earth's shape as "convex and round," the world of his day, -as in the days of Homer, thought of it as flat and as floating on the -all-surrounding water. The Ionian philosophers lacked not insight, but -the scientific method of starting with working hypotheses, or of -observation before theory, was as yet unborn. - -In this brief survey of the subject there will be no advantage in -detailing the various speculations which followed on the heels of those -of Thales and Anaximander, since these varied only in non-essentials; -or, like that of Pythagoras and his school, which Zeller regards as -the outcome of the teachings of Anaximander, were purely abstract and -fanciful. As is well known, the Pythagoreans, whose philosophy was -ethical as well as cosmical, held that all things are made of numbers, -each of which they believed had its special character and property. A -belief in such symbols as entities seems impossible to us, but its -existence in early thought is conceivable when, as Aristotle says, they -were "not separated from the objects of sense." Even in the present -day, among the eccentric people who still believe in the modern sham -agnosticism, known as theosophy, and in astrology, we find the delusion -that numbers possess inherent magic or mystic virtues. So far as the -ancients are concerned, "consider," as Mr. Benn remarks in his Greek -Philosophers (vol. i, p. 12), "the lively emotions excited at a time -when multiplication and division, squaring and cubing, the rule of -three, the construction and equivalence of figures, with all their -manifold applications to industry, commerce, fine arts, and tactics, -were just as strange and wonderful as electrical phenomena are to us ... -and we shall cease to wonder that a mere form of thought, a lifeless -abstraction, should once have been regarded as the solution of every -problem; the cause of all existence; or that these speculations were -more than once revived in after ages." - -Xenophanes of Colophon, one of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor, -deserves, however, a passing reference. He, with Parmenides and Zeno, -are the chief representatives of the Eleatic school, so named from -the city in southwestern Italy where a Greek colony had settled. The -tendency of that school was toward metaphysical theories. He was the -first known observer to detect the value of fossils as evidences of the -action of water, but his chief claim to notice rests on the fact that, -passing beyond the purely physical speculations of the Ionian school, he -denied the idea of a primary substance, and theorized about the nature -and actions of superhuman beings. Living at a time when there was a -revival of old and gross superstitions to which the vulgar had recourse -when fears of invasions arose, he dared to attack the old and persistent -ideas about the gods, as in the following sentences from the fragments -of his writings: - -"Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all things that are a shame -and a disgrace among men, theft and adulteries and deception of one -another." - -"There never was nor will be a man who has clear certainty as to what I -say about the gods and about all things; for even if he does chance to -say what is right, yet he himself does not know that it is so. But all -are free to guess." - -"Mortals think that the gods were born as they are, and have senses and -a voice and body like their own. So the Ethiopians make their gods black -and snub-nosed; the Thracians give theirs red hair and blue eyes." - -"There is one god, the greatest among gods and men, unlike mortals both -in mind and body." - -Had such heresies been spoken in Athens, where the effects of a -religious revival were still in force, the "secular arm" of the archons -would probably have made short work of Xenophanes. But in Elea, or in -whatever other colony he may have lived, "the gods were left to take -care of themselves." - -Greater than the philosophers yet named is Heraclitus of Ephesus, -nicknamed "the dark," from the obscurity of his style. His original -writings have shared the fate of most documents of antiquity, and exist, -like many of these, only in fragments preserved in the works of other -authors. Many of his aphorisms are indeed dark sayings, but those that -yield their meaning are full of truth and suggestiveness. As for -example: - -"The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears." - -"You will not find out the boundaries of soul by travelling in any -direction." - -"Man is kindled and put out like a light in the nighttime." - -"Man's character is his fate." - -But these have special value as keys to his philosophy: - -"You cannot step twice into the same rivers; for fresh waters are ever -flowing in upon you." - -"Homer was wrong in saying: 'Would that strife might perish from among -gods and men!' He did not see that he was praying for the destruction of -the universe; for, if his prayer were heard, all things would pass -away." - -Flux or movement, says Heraclitus, is the all-pervading law of things, -and in the opposition of forces, by which things are kept going, there -is underlying harmony. Still on the quest after the primary substance -whose manifestations are so various, he found it in FIRE, since "the -quantity of it in a flame burning steadily appears to remain the same; -the flames seems to be what we call a 'thing.' And yet the substance of -it is continually changing. It is always passing away in smoke, and its -place is always being taken by fresh matter from the fuel that feeds it. -This is just what we want. If we regard the world as an 'ever-living -fire'--'this order, which is the same in all things, and which no one of -gods or men has made'--we can understand how fire is always becoming all -things, while all things are always returning to it." And as is the -world, so is man, made up, like it, both soul and body, of the fire, the -water, and the earth. We are and are not the same for two consecutive -moments; "the fire in us is perpetually becoming water, and the water -earth, but as the opposite process goes on simultaneously we appear to -remain the same." - -As speculation advanced, it became more and more applied to details, -theories of the beginnings of life being followed by theories of the -origin of its various forms. This is a feature of the philosophy of -Empedocles, who flourished in the fifth century B. C. The advance of -Persia westward had led to migrations of Greeks to the south of Italy -and Sicily, and it was at Agrigentum, in that island, that Empedocles -was born about 490. He has an honoured place among the earliest who -supplanted _guesses_ about the world by _inquiry_ into the world itself. -Many legends are told of his magic arts, one of which, it will be -remembered, Matthew Arnold makes an occasion of some fine reflections in -his poem Empedocles in Etna. The philosopher was said to have brought -back to life a woman who apparently had been dead for thirty days. As he -ascends the mountain, Pausanias of Gela, with an address to whom the -poem of Empedocles opens, would fain have his curiosity slaked as to -this and other marvels reported of him: - - Ask not the latest news of the last miracle, - Ask not what days and nights - In trance Pantheia lay, - But ask how thou such sights - May'st see without dismay; - Ask what most helps when known, thou son of Anchitus. - -His speculations about things, like those of Parmenides before him and -of Lucretius after him, are set down in verse. From the remains of his -Poem on Nature we learn that he conceived "the four roots of all things" -to be FIRE, AIR, EARTH, and WATER. They are "fools, lacking far-reaching -thoughts, who deem that what before was not comes into being, or that -aught can perish and be utterly destroyed." Therefore the "roots" or -elements are eternal and indestructible. They are acted upon by two -forces, which are also material, LOVE and STRIFE; the one a uniting -agent, the other a disrupting agent. From the four roots, thus operated -upon, arise "the colours and forms" of living things; trees first, both -male and female, then fragmentary parts of animals, heads without necks, -and "eyes that strayed up and down in want of a forehead," which, -combined together, produced monstrous forms. These, lacking power to -propagate, perished, and were replaced by "whole-natured" but sexless -"forms" which "arose from the earth," and which, as Strife gained the -upper hand, became male and female. Herein, amidst much fantastic -speculation, would appear to be the germ of the modern theory that the -unadapted become extinct, and that only the adapted survive. Nature -kills off her failures to make room for her successes. - -Anaxagoras, who was a contemporary of Empedocles, interests us because -he was the first philosopher to repair to Athens, and the first sufferer -for truth's sake of whom we have record in Greek annals. Because he -taught that the sun was a red-hot stone, and that the moon had plains -and ravines in it, he was put upon his trial, and but for the influence -of his friend, the famous Pericles, might have suffered death. -Speculations, however bold they be, pass unheeded till they collide -with the popular creed, and in thus attacking the gods, attack a -seemingly divinely settled order. Athens then, and long after, while -indifferent about natural science, was, under the influence of the -revival referred to above, actively hostile to free thinking. The -opinions of Anaxagoras struck at the existence of the gods and emptied -Olympus. If the sky was but an air-filled space, what became of Zeus? if -the sun was only a fiery ball, what became of Apollo? Mr. Grote says -(History of Greece, vol. i, p. 466) that "in the view of the early -Greek, the description of the sun, as given in a modern astronomical -treatise, would have appeared not merely absurd, but repulsive and -impious; even in later times, Anaxagoras and other astronomers incurred -the charge of blasphemy for dispersonifying HÄ“lios." Of Socrates, who -was himself condemned to death for impiety in denying old gods and -introducing new ones, the same authority writes: "Physics and astronomy, -in his opinion, belonged to the divine class of phenomena, in which -human research was insane, fruitless, and impious." So Demos and his -"betters" clung, as the majority still cling, to the myths of their -forefathers. They repaired to the oracles, and watched for the will of -the gods in signs and omens. - -In his philosophy Anaxagoras held that there was a portion of everything -in everything, and that things are variously mixed in infinite numbers -of seeds, each after its kind. From these, through the action of an -external cause, called NOUS, which also is material, although the -"thinnest of all things and the purest," and "has power over all -things," there arose plants and animals. It is probable, as Professor -Burnet remarks, "that Anaxagoras substituted NOUS, still conceived as a -body, for the LOVE and STRIFE of Empedocles simply because he wished to -retain the old Ionic doctrine of a substance that 'knows' all things, -and to identify this with the new theory of a substance that 'moves' all -things." - -Thus far speculation has run largely on the origin of life forms, but -now we find revival of speculation about the nature of things generally, -and the formulation of a theory which links Greek cosmology with early -nineteenth-century science with Dalton's ATOMIC THEORY. Democritus -of Abdera, who was born about 460 B. C., has the credit of having -elaborated an atomic theory, but probably he only further developed what -Leucippus had taught before him. Of this last-named philosopher nothing -whatever is known; indeed, his existence has been doubted, but it counts -for something that Aristotle gives him the credit of the discovery, and -that Theophrastus, in the first book of his Opinions, wrote of Leucippus -as follows: "He assumed innumerable and ever-moving elements, namely, -the atoms. And he made their forms infinite in number, since there -was no reason why they should be of one kind rather than another, and -because he saw that there was unceasing becoming and change in things. -He held, further, that _what is_ is no more real than _what is not_, -and that both are alike causes of the things that come into being; for -he laid down that the substance of the atoms was compact and full, and -he called them _what is_, while they moved in the void which he called -_what is not_, but affirmed to be just as real as _what is_." Thus did -"he answer the question that Thales had been the first to ask." - -Postponing further reference to this theory until the great name of -Lucretius, its Roman exponent, is reached, we find a genuine scientific -method making its first start in the person of Aristotle. This -remarkable man, the founder of the experimental school, and the Father -of Natural History, was born 384 B. C. at Stagira in Macedonia. In his -eighteenth year he left his native place for Athens, where he became a -pupil of Plato. Disappointed, as it is thought, at not succeeding his -master in the Academy, he removed to Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, -where he received an invitation from Philip of Macedon to become tutor -to his son, the famous Alexander the Great. When Alexander went on his -expedition to Asia, Aristotle returned to Athens, teaching in the -"school" which his genius raised to the first rank. There he wrote the -greater part of his works, the completion of some of which was stopped -by his death at Chalcis in 322. The range of his studies was boundless, -but in this brief notice we must limit our survey--and the more so -because Aristotle's speculations outside natural history abound in -errors--to his pioneer work in organic evolution. Here, in the one -possible method of reaching the truth, theory follows observation. -Stagira lay on the Strymonic gulf, and a boyhood spent by the seashore -gave Aristotle ample opportunity for noting the variations, and withal -gradations, between marine plants and animals, among which last-named it -should be noted as proof of his insight that he was keen enough to -include sponges. Here was laid the foundation of a classification of -life-forms on which all corresponding attempts were based. Then, he -saw, as none other before him had seen, and as none after him saw for -centuries, the force of heredity, that still unsolved problem of -biology. Speaking broadly of his teaching, the details of which would -fill pages, its main features are (1) His insistence on observation. In -his History of Animals he says "we must not accept a general principle -from logic only, but must prove its application to each fact. For it is -in facts that we must seek general principles, and these must always -accord with facts. Experience furnishes the particular facts from which -induction is the pathway to general laws." (2) His rejection of chance -and assertion of law, not, following a common error, of law personified -as cause, but as the term by which we express the fact that certain -phenomena always occur in a certain order. In his Physics Aristotle says -that "Jupiter rains not that corn may be increased, but from necessity. -Similarly, if some one's corn is destroyed by rain, it does not rain -for this purpose, but as an accidental circumstance. It does not appear -to be from fortune or chance that it frequently rains in winter, but -from necessity." (3) On the question of the origin of life-forms he was -nearest of all to its modern solution, setting forth the necessity "that -germs should have been first produced, and not immediately animals; and -that soft mass which first subsisted was the germ. In plants, also, -there is purpose, but it is less distinct; and this shows that plants -were produced in the same manner as animals, not by chance, as by the -union of olives with grape vines. Similarly, it may be argued, that -there should be an accidental generation of the germs of things, but he -who asserts this subverts Nature herself, for Nature produces those -things which, being continually moved by a certain principle contained -in themselves, arrive at a certain end." In the eagerness of theologians -to discover proof of a belief in one God among the old philosophers, the -references made by Aristotle to a "perfecting principle," an "efficient -cause," a "prime mover," and so forth, have been too readily construed -as denoting a monotheistic creed which, reminding us of the "one god" -of Xenophanes, is also akin to the Personal God of Christianity. "The -Stagirite," as Mr. Benn remarks (Greek Philosophers, vol. i, p. 312), -"agrees with Catholic theism, and he agrees with the First Article of -the English Church, though not with the Pentateuch, in saying that God -is without parts or passions, but there his agreement ceases. Excluding -such a thing as divine interference with all Nature, his theology, of -course, excludes the possibility of revelation, inspiration, miracles, -and grace." He is a being who does not interest himself in human -affairs. - -But, differ as the commentators may as to Aristotle's meaning, his -assumed place in the orthodox line led, as will be seen hereafter, to -the acceptance of his philosophy by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in the -fourth century, and by other Fathers of the Church, so that the mediæval -theories of the Bible, blended with Aristotle, represent the sum of -knowledge held as sufficient until the discoveries of Copernicus in the -sixteenth century upset the Ptolemaic theory with its fixed earth and -system of cycles and epicycles in which the heavenly bodies moved. He -thereby upset very much besides. Like Anaximander and others, Aristotle -believed in spontaneous generation, although only in the case of certain -animals, as of eels from the mud of ponds, and of insects from putrid -matter. However, in this, both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and many -men of science down to the latter part of the seventeenth century, -followed him. For example, Van Helmont, an experimental chemist of that -period, gave a recipe for making fleas; and another scholar showed -himself on a level with the unlettered rustics of to-day, who believe -that eels are produced from horse hairs thrown into a pond. - -Of deeper interest, as marking Aristotle's prevision, is his -anticipation of what is known as Epigenesis, or the theory of the -development of the germ into the adult form among the higher individuals -through the union of the fertilizing powers of the male and female -organs. This theory, which was proved by the researches of Harvey, the -discoverer of the circulation of the blood, and is accepted by all -biologists to-day, was opposed by Malpighi, an Italian physician, born -in 1628, the year in which Harvey published his great discovery, and by -other prominent men of science down to the last century. Malpighi and -his school contended that the perfect animal is already "preformed" in -the germ; for example, the hen's egg, before fecundation, containing an -excessively minute, but complete, chick. It therefore followed that in -any germ the germs of all subsequent offspring must be contained, and -in the application of this "box-within-box" theory its defenders even -computed the number of human germs concentrated in the ovary of mother -Eve, estimating these at two hundred thousand millions! - -When the "preformation" theory was revived by Bonnet and others -in the eighteenth century, Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles -Darwin, passed the following shrewd criticism on it: "Many ingenious -philosophers have found so great difficulty in conceiving the manner of -reproduction in animals that they have supposed all the numerous progeny -to have existed in miniature in the animal originally created. This -idea, besides its being unsupported by any analogy we are acquainted -with, ascribes a greater continuity to organized matter than we can -readily admit. These embryons ... must possess a greater degree of -minuteness than that which was ascribed to the devils who tempted St. -Anthony, of whom twenty thousand were said to have been able to dance -a saraband on the point of a needle without the least incommoding each -other." - -Although no theistic element could be extracted by the theologians -of the early Christian Church from the systems of Empedocles and -Democritus, thereby securing them a share in the influence exercised by -the great Stagirite, they were formative powers in Greek philosophy, -and, moreover, have "come by their own" in these latter days. Their -chief representative in what is known as the Post-Aristotelian period is -Epicurus, who was born at Samos, 342 B. C. As with Zeno, the founder of -the Stoic school, his teaching has been perverted, so that his name has -become loosely identified with indulgence in gross and sensual living. -He saw in pleasure the highest happiness, and therefore advocated the -pursuit of pleasure to attain happiness, but he did not thereby mean the -pursuit of the unworthy. Rather did he counsel the following after pure, -high, and noble aims, whereby alone a man could have peace of mind. It -is not hard to see that in the minds of men of low ideals the tendency -towards passivity which lurked in such teaching would aid their sliding -into the pursuit of mere animal enjoyment; hence the gross and limited -association of the term Epicurean. Epicurus accepted the theory of -Leucippus, and applied it all round. The _fainéant_ gods, who dwell -serenely indifferent to human affairs, and about whom men should -therefore have no dread; all things, whether dead or living, even -the ideas that enter the mind; are alike composed of atoms. He also -accepted the theory broached by Empedocles as to the survival of fit and -capable forms after life had arrived at these through the processes of -spontaneous generation and the production of monstrosities. Adopting the -physical speculations of these forerunners, he made them the vehicle of -didactic and ethical philosophies which inspired the production of the -wonderful poem of Lucretius. - -Between this great Roman and Epicurus--a period of some two -centuries--there is no name of sufficient prominence to warrant -attention. The decline of Greece had culminated in her conquest by the -semi-barbarian Mummius, and in her consequent addition to the provinces -of the Roman Empire. What life lingered in her philosophy within her own -borders expired with the loss of freedom, and the work done by the -Pioneers of Evolution in Greece was to be resumed elsewhere. In the -few years of the pre-Christian period that remained the teaching of -Empedocles, and of Epicurus as the mouthpiece of the atomic theory, was -revived by Lucretius in his De Rerum Natura. Of that remarkable man but -little is recorded, and the record is untrustworthy. He was probably -born 99 B. C., and died--by his own hand, Jerome says, but of this there -is no proof--in his forty-fourth year. It is difficult, taking up his -wonderful poem, to resist the temptation to make copious extracts -from it, since, even through the vehicle of Mr. Munro's exquisite -translation, it is probably little known to the general reader in these -evil days of snippety literature. But the temptation must be resisted, -save in moderate degree. - -With the dignity which his high mission inspires, Lucretius appeals to -us in the threefold character of teacher, reformer, and poet. "First, by -reason of the greatness of my argument, and because I set the mind free -from the close-drawn bonds of superstition; and next because, on so dark -a theme, I compose such lucid verse, touching every point with the grace -of poesy." As a teacher he expounds the doctrines of Epicurus concerning -life and nature; as a reformer he attacks superstition; as a poet he -informs both the atomic philosophy and its moral application with -harmonious and beautiful verse swayed by a fervour that is akin to -religious emotion. - -Discussing at the outset various theories of origins, and dismissing -these, notably that which asserts that things came from nothing--"for if -so, any kind might be born of anything, nothing would require seed," -Lucretius proceeds to expound the teaching of Leucippus and other -atomists as to the constitution of things by particles of matter ruled -in their movements by unvarying laws. This theory he works all round, -explaining the processes by which the atoms unite to carry on the birth, -growth, and decay of things, the variety of which is due to variety of -form of the atoms and to differences in modes of their combination; the -combinations being determined by the affinities or properties of the -atoms themselves, "since it is absolutely decreed what each thing can -and what it cannot do by the conditions of Nature." Change is the law of -the universe; what is, will perish, but only to reappear in another -form. Death is "the only immortal"; and it is that and what may follow -it which are the chief tormentors of men. "This terror of the soul, -therefore, and this darkness, must be dispelled, not by the rays of -the sun or the bright shafts of day, but by the outward aspect and -harmonious plan of Nature." Lucretius explains that the soul, which he -places in the centre of the breast, is also formed of very minute atoms -of heat, wind, calm air, and a finer essence, the proportions of which -determine the character of both men and animals. It dies with the body, -in support of which statement Lucretius advances seventeen arguments, so -determined is he to "deliver those who through fear of death are all -their lifetime subject to bondage." - -These themes fill the first three books. In the fourth he grapples with -the mental problems of sensation and conception, and explains the origin -of belief in immortality as due to ghosts and apparitions which appear -in dreams. "When sleep has prostrated the body, for no other reason -does the mind's intelligence wake, except because the very same images -provoke our minds which provoke them when we are awake, and to such a -degree that we seem without a doubt to perceive him whom life has left, -and death and earth gotten hold of. This Nature constrains to come to -pass because all the senses of the body are then hampered and at rest -throughout the limbs, and cannot refute the unreal by real things." - -In the fifth book Lucretius deals with origins--of the sun, the moon, -the earth (which he held to be flat, denying the existence of the -antipodes); of life and its development; and of civilization. In -all this he excludes design, explaining everything as produced and -maintained by natural agents, "the masses, suddenly brought together, -became the rudiments of earth, sea, and heaven, and the race of living -things." He believed in the successive appearance of plants and animals, -but in their arising separately and directly out of the earth, "under -the influence of rain and the heat of the sun," thus repeating the old -speculations of the emergence of life from slime, "wherefore the earth -with good title has gotten and keeps the name of mother." He did not -adopt Empedocles's theory of the "four roots of all things," and -he will have none of the monsters--the hippogriffs, chimeras, and -centaurs--which form a part of the scheme of that philosopher. These, -he says, "have never existed," thus showing himself far in advance of -ages when unicorns, dragons, and such-like fabled beasts were seriously -believed to exist. In one respect, more discerning than Aristotle, he -accepts the doctrine of the survival of the fittest as taught by the -sage of Agrigentum. For he argues that since upon "the increase of some -Nature set a ban, so that they could not reach the coveted flower of -age, nor find food, nor be united in marriage," ... "many races of -living things have died out, and been unable to beget and continue -their breed." Lucretius speaks of Empedocles in terms scarcely less -exaggerated than those which he applied to Epicurus. The latter is -"a god" "who first found out that plan of life which is now termed -wisdom, and who by tried skill rescued life from such great billows -and such thick darkness and moored it in so perfect a calm and in so -brilliant a light, ... he cleared men's breasts with truth-telling -precepts, and fixed a limit to lust and fear, and explained what was the -chief good which we all strive to reach." As to Empedocles, "that great -country (Sicily) seems to have held within it nothing more glorious than -this man, nothing more holy, marvellous, and dear. The verses, too, of -this godlike genius cry with a loud voice, and make known his great -discoveries, so that he seems scarcely born of a mortal stock." - -Continuing his speculations on the development of living things, -Lucretius strikes out in bolder and original vein. The past history of -man, he says, lies in no heroic or golden age, but in one of struggle -out of savagery. Only when "children, by their coaxing ways, easily -broke down the proud temper of their fathers," did there arise the -family ties out of which the wider social bond has grown, and softening -and civilizing agencies begin their fair offices. In his battle for food -and shelter, "man's first arms were hands, nails and teeth and stones -and boughs broken off from the forests, and flame and fire, as soon -as they had become known. Afterward the force of iron and copper was -discovered, and the use of copper was known before that of iron, as its -nature is easier to work, and it is found in greater quantity. With -copper they would labour the soil of the earth and stir up the billows -of war.... Then by slow steps the sword of iron gained ground and the -make of the copper sickle became a byword, and with iron they began to -plough through the earth's soil, and the struggles of wavering man were -rendered equal." As to language, "Nature impelled them to utter the -various sounds of the tongue, and use struck out the names of things." -Thus does Lucretius point the road along which physical and mental -evolution have since travelled, and make the whole story subordinate to -the high purpose of his poem in deliverance of the beings whose career -he thus traces from superstition. Man "seeing the system of heaven and -the different seasons of the years could not find out by what causes -this was done, and sought refuge in handing over all things to the gods -and supposing all things to be guided by their nod." Then, in the sixth -and last book, the completion of which would seem to have been arrested -by his death, Lucretius explains the "law of winds and storms," of -earthquakes and volcanic outbursts, which men "foolishly lay to the -charge of the gods," who thereby make known their anger. - - So, loath to suffer mute, - We, peopling the void air, - Make Gods to whom to impute - The ills we ought to bear; - With God and Fate to rail at, suffering easily. - -And what a motley crowd of gods they were on whose caprice or -indifference he pours his vials of anger and contempt! The tolerant -pantheon of Rome gave welcome to any foreign deity with respectable -credentials; to Cybele, the Great Mother, imported in the shape of a -rough-hewn stone with pomp and rejoicings from Phrygia 204 B. C.; to -Isis, welcomed from Egypt; to Herakles, Demeter, Asklepios, and many -another god from Greece. But these were dismissed from a man's thought -when the prayer or sacrifice to them had been offered at the due season. -They had less influence on the Roman's life than the crowd of native -godlings who were thinly disguised fetiches, and who controlled every -action of the day. For the minor gods survive the changes in the -pantheon of every race. Of the Greek peasant of to-day Mr. Rennel Rodd -testifies, in his Custom and Lore of Modern Greece, that much as he -would shudder at the accusation of any taint of paganism, the ruling of -the Fates is more immediately real to him than divine omnipotence. Mr. -Tozer confirms this in his Highlands of Turkey. He says: "It is rather -the minor deities and those associated with man's ordinary life that -have escaped the brunt of the storm, and returned to live in a dim -twilight of popular belief." In India, Sir Alfred Lyall tells us that, -"even the supreme triad of Hindu allegory, which represents the almighty -powers of creation, preservation, and destruction, have long ceased to -preside actively over any such corresponding distribution of functions." -Like limited monarchs, they reign, but do not govern. They are -superseded by the ever-increasing crowd of godlings whose influence -is personal and special, as shown by Mr. Crooke in his instructive -Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India. - -The old Roman catalogue of spiritual beings, abstractions as they -were, who guarded life in minute detail, is a long one. From the -_indigitamenta_, as such lists are called, we learn that no less than -forty-three were concerned with the actions of a child. When the farmer -asked Mother Earth for a good harvest, the prayer would not avail unless -he also invoked "the spirit of breaking up the land and the spirit of -ploughing it crosswise; the spirit of furrowing and the spirit of -ploughing in the seed; and the spirit of harrowing; the spirit of -weeding and the spirit of reaping; the spirit of carrying corn to the -barn; and the spirit of bringing it out again." The country, moreover, -swarmed with Chaldæan astrologers and casters of nativities; with -Etruscan haruspices full of "childish lightning-lore," who foretold -events from the entrails of sacrificed animals; while in competition -with these there was the State-supported college of augurs to divine the -will of the gods by the cries and direction of the flight of birds. Well -might the satirist of such a time say that the "place was so densely -populated with gods as to leave hardly room for the men." - -It will be seen that the justification for including Lucretius among the -Pioneers of Evolution lies in his two signal and momentous contributions -to the science of man; namely, the primitive savagery of the human race, -and the origin of the belief in a soul and a future life. Concerning the -first, anthropological research, in its vast accumulation of materials -during the last sixty years, has done little more than fill in the -outline which the insight of Lucretius enabled him to sketch. As to the -second, he anticipates, well-nigh in detail, the ghost-theory of the -origin of belief in spirits generally which Herbert Spencer and Dr. -Tylor, following the lines laid down by Hume and Turgot (see p. 255), -have formulated and sustained by an enormous mass of evidence. The -credit thus due to Lucretius for the original ideas in his majestic -poem--Greek in conception and Roman in execution--has been obscured in -the general eclipse which that poem suffered for centuries through its -anti-theological spirit. Grinding at the same philosophical mill, -Aristotle, because of the theism assumed to be involved in his -"perfecting principle," was cited as "a pillar of the faith" by the -Fathers and Schoolmen; while Lucretius, because of his denial of design, -was "anathema maranatha." Only in these days, when the far-reaching -effects of the theory of evolution, supported by observation in every -branch of inquiry, are apparent, are the merits of Lucretius as an -original seer, more than as an expounder of the teachings of Empedocles -and Epicurus, made clear. - - * * * * * - -Standing well-nigh on the threshold of the Christian era, we may pause -to ask what is the sum of the speculation into the causes and nature of -things which, begun in Ionia (with impulse more or less slight from the -East, in the sixth century before Christ), by Thales, ceased, for many -centuries, in the poem of Lucretius, thus covering an active period of -about five hundred years. The caution not to see in these speculations -more than an approximate approach to modern theories must be kept in -mind. - -1. There is a primary substance which abides amidst the general flux of -things. - -_All modern research tends to show that the various combinations of -matter are formed of some _prima materia_. But its ultimate nature -remains unknown._ - -2. Out of nothing comes nothing. - -_Modern science knows nothing of a beginning, and, moreover, holds -it to be unthinkable. In this it stands in direct opposition to the -theological dogma that God created the universe out of nothing; a dogma -still accepted by the majority of Protestants and binding on Roman -Catholics. For the doctrine of the Church of Rome thereon, as expressed -in the Canons of the Vatican Council, is as follows: "If any one -confesses not that the world and all things which are contained in it, -both spiritual and mental, have been, in their whole substance, produced -by God out of nothing; or shall say that God created, not by His free -will from all necessity, but by a necessity equal to the necessity -whereby He loves Himself, or shall deny that the world was made for the -glory of God: let him be anathema."_ - -3. The primary substance is indestructible. - -_The modern doctrine of the Conservation of Energy teaches that both -matter and motion can neither be created nor destroyed._ - -4. The universe is made up of indivisible particles called atoms, whose -manifold combinations, ruled by unalterable affinities, result in the -variety of things. - -_With modifications based on chemical as well as mechanical changes -among the atoms, this theory of Leucippus and Democritus is confirmed. -(But recent experiments and discoveries show that reconstruction of -chemical theories as to the properties of the atom may happen.)_ - -5. Change is the law of things, and is brought about by the play of -opposing forces. - -_Modern science explains the changes in phenomena as due to the -antagonism of repelling and attracting modes of motion; when the latter -overcome the former, equilibrium will be reached, and the present state -of things will come to an end._ - -6. Water is a necessary condition of life. - -_Therefore life had its beginnings in water; a theory wholly indorsed by -modern biology._ - -7. Life arose out of non-living matter. - -_Although modern biology leaves the origin of life as an insoluble -problem, it supports the theory of fundamental continuity between the -inorganic and the organic._ - -8. Plants came before animals: the higher organisms are of separate sex, -and appeared subsequent to the lower. - -_Generally confirmed by modern biology, but with qualification as to the -undefined borderland between the lowest plants and the lowest animals. -And, of course, it recognises a continuity in the order and succession -of life which was not grasped by the Greeks. Aristotle and others before -him believed that some of the higher forms sprang from slimy matter -direct._ - -9. Adverse conditions cause the extinction of some organisms, thus -leaving room for those better fitted. - -_Herein lay the crude germ of the modern doctrine of the "survival of -the fittest."_ - -10. Man was the last to appear, and his primitive state was one of -savagery. His first tools and weapons were of stone; then, after the -discovery of metals, of copper; and, following that, of iron. His body -and soul are alike compounded of atoms, and the soul is extinguished at -death. - -_The science of Prehistoric Archæology confirms the theory of man's slow -passage from barbarism to civilization; and the science of Comparative -Psychology declares that the evidence of his immortality is neither -stronger nor weaker than the evidence of the immortality of the lower -animals._ - - * * * * * - -Such, in very broad outline, is the legacy of suggestive theories -bequeathed by the Ionian school and its successors, theories which fell -into the rear when Athens became a centre of intellectual life in which -discussion passed from the physical to those ethical problems which lie -outside the range of this survey. Although Aristotle, by his prolonged -and careful observations, forms a conspicuous exception, the fact abides -that insight, rather than experiment, ruled Greek speculation, the -fantastic guesses of parts of which themselves evidence the survival of -the crude and false ideas about earth and sky long prevailing. The more -wonderful is it, therefore, that so much therein points the way along -which inquiry travelled after its subsequent long arrest; and the more -apparent is it that nothing in science or art, and but little in -theological speculations, at least among us Westerns, can be understood -without reference to Greece. - - -TABLE. - - ------------+-------------+-----------+------------------------------- - | |Approximate| - NAME. | Place. | date | Speciality. - | | B. C. | - ------------+-------------+-----------+------------------------------- - Thales. |Miletus | 600 |Cosmological } - | (Ionia). | | Theory as to} - | | | the Primary } Water. - | | | Substance } - Anaximander.| " | 570 | " the Boundless. - Anaximenes. | " | 500 | " Air. - Pythagoras. |Samos (near | 500 | " Numbers: - | the Ionian | | "a Cosmos built - | coast). | | up of - | | | geometrical - | | | figures," - | | | or (Grote, - | | | Plato, i, 12) - | | | "generated - | | | out of number." - Xenophanes. |Colophon | 500 | Founder of the - | (Ionia). | | Eleatic school. - Heraclitus. |Ephesus | 500 | " Fire. - | (Ionia). | | - Empedocles. |Agrigentum | 450 | " Fire, Air, Earth, - | (Sicily). | | and Water: - | | | ruled by Love - | | | and Strife. - Anaxagoras. |Clazomenae | 450 | Nous. - | (Ionia). | | - Leucippus | | | - Democritus. |Abdera | 460 |Formulators of the Atomic - | (Thrace). | | Theory. - Aristotle. |Stagira | 350 |Naturalist. - | (Macedonia).| | - Epicurus. |Samos. | 300 |Expounder of the Atomic - | | | Theory and Ethical - | | | Philosopher. - Lucretius. |Rome. | 50 |Interpreter of Epicurus and - | | | Empedocles: the first - | | | Anthropologist. - ------------+-------------+-----------+------------------------------- - - - - -_Part II._ - -THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. - -A. D. 50-A. D. 400. - - -1. _From the Early Christian Period to the Time of Augustine._ - - "A revealed dogma is always opposed to the free research that may - contradict it. The result of science is not to banish the divine - altogether, but ever to place it at a greater distance from the - world of particular facts in which men once believed they saw - it."--RENAN, Essay on Islamism and Science. - -A detailed account of the rise and progress of the Christian religion is -not within the scope of this book. But as that religion, more especially -in the elaborated theological form which it ultimately assumed, became -the chief barrier to the development of Greek ideas; except, as has been -remarked, in the degree that these were represented by Aristotle, and -brought into harmony with it; a short survey of its origin and early -stages is necessary to the continuity of our story. - -The history of that great movement is told according to the bias of the -writers. They explain its rapid diffusion and its ultimate triumph over -Paganism as due either to its Divine origin and guidance; or to the -favourable conditions of the time of its early propagation, and to that -wise adaptation to circumstances which linked its fortunes with those -of the progressive peoples of Western Europe. In the judgment of every -unofficial narrator, this latter explanation best accords with the facts -of history, and with the natural causes which largely determine success -or failure. The most partisan advocates of its supernatural, and -therefore special, character have to show reason why the fortunes of the -Christian religion have varied like those of other great religions, both -older and younger than it; why, like Buddhism, it has been ousted from -the country in which it rose; and why, in competition with Brahmanism, -as Sir Alfred Lyall testifies in his Asiatic Studies (p. 110), and with -Mohammedanism in Africa, it has less success than these in the mission -fields where it comes into rivalry with them. Riven into wrangling -sects from an early period of its history, it has, while exercising a -beneficent influence in turbulent and lawless ages, brought not "peace -on earth, but a sword." It has been the cause of undying hate, of bloody -wars, and of persecutions between parties and nations, whose animosity -seems the deeper when stirred by matters which are incapable of proof. -As Montaigne says, "Nothing is so firmly believed as that which -is least known." To bring the Christian religion, or, rather, its -manifold forms, from the purest spiritualistic to such degraded type -as exists, for example, in Abyssinia, within the operation of the law -which governs development, and which, therefore, includes partial and -local corruption; is to make its history as clear as it is profoundly -instructive; while, to demand for it an origin and character different -in kind from other religions, is to import confusion into the story of -mankind, and to raise a swarm of artificial difficulties. "If," as John -Morley observes in his criticism of Turgot's dissertation upon The -Advantages that the Establishment of Christianity has conferred upon the -Human Race (Miscell., vol. ii, p. 90), "there had been in the Christian -idea the mysterious self-sowing quality so constantly claimed for it, -how came it that in the Eastern part of the Empire it was as powerless -for spiritual or moral regeneration as it was for political health and -vitality; while in the Western part it became the organ of the most -important of all the past transformations of the civilized world? Is not -the difference to be explained by the difference in the surrounding -medium, and what is the effect of such an explanation upon the -supernatural claims of the Christian idea?" Its inclusion as one of -other modes, varying only in degree, by which man has progressed from -the "ape and tiger" stage to the highest ideals of the race, makes clear -what concerns us here, namely, its attitude toward secular knowledge, -and the consequent serious arrest of that knowledge. That a religion -which its followers claim to be of supernatural origin, and secured from -error by the perpetual guidance of a Holy Spirit, should have opposed -inquiry into matters the faculty for investigating which lay within -human power and province; that it should actually have put to death -those who dared thus to inquire, and to make known what they had -discovered; is a problem which its advocates may settle among -themselves. It is no problem to those who take the opposite view. - -In outlining the history of Christianity stress will be here laid only -upon those elements which caused it to be an arresting force in man's -intellectual development, and, therefore, in his spiritual emancipation -from terrors begotten of ignorance. It does not fall within our survey -to speak of that primary element in it which was before all dogma, and -which may survive when dogma has become only a matter of antiquarian -interest. That element, born of emotion, which, as a crowd of kindred -examples show, incarnates, and then deifies the object of its worship, -was the belief in the manifestation of the divine through the human -Jesus who had borne men's griefs, carried their sorrows, and offered -rest to the weary and heavy-laden. For no religion--and here Evolution -comes in as witness--can take root which does not adapt itself to, and -answer some need of, the heart of man. Hence the importance of study of -the history of all religions. - -Evolution knows only one heresy--the denial of continuity. Recognising -the present as the outcome of the past, it searches after origins. It -knows that both that which revolts us in man's spiritual history has, -alike with that which attracts, its place, its necessary place, in the -development of ideas, and is, therefore, capable of explanation from -its roots upward. For this age is sympathetic, not flippant. It looks -with no favour on criticism that is only destructive, or on ridicule or -ribaldry as modes of attack on current beliefs. Hence we have the modern -science of comparative theology, with its Hibbert Lectures, and Gifford -Lectures, which are critical and constructive; as opposed to Bampton -Lectures, Boyle and Hulse Lectures, which are apologetic, the speaker -holding an official brief. Of the Boyle Lecturers, Collings the "Deist" -caustically said that nobody doubted the existence of the Deity till -they set to work to prove it. Religions are no longer treated as true or -false, as inventions of priests or of divine origin, but as the product -of man's intellectual speculations, however crude or coarse; and of his -spiritual needs, no matter in what repulsive form they are satisfied. -For "proofs" and "evidences" we have substituted explanations. - -Nevertheless, so strong, often so bitter, are the feelings aroused over -the most temperate discussion of the origin of Christianity that it -remains necessary to repeat that to explain is not to attack, and that -to narrate is not to apportion blame, for no religion can do aught than -reflect the temper of the age in which it flourishes. - -Let us now summarize certain occurrences which, although familiar -enough, must be repeated for the clear understanding of their effects. - -Some sixty years after the death of Lucretius there happened, in the -subsequent belief of millions of mankind, an event for which all that -had gone before in the history of this planet is said to have been a -preparation. In the fulness of time the Omnipotent maker and ruler of a -universe to which no boundaries can be set by human thought, sent to -this earth-speck no less a person than His Eternal Son. He was said to -have been born, not by the natural processes of generation, but to have -been incarnated in the womb of a virgin, retaining his divine nature -while subjecting it to human limitations. This he had done that he -might, as sinless man, become an expiatory sacrifice to offended deity, -and to the requirements of divine justice, for the sins which the human -race had committed since the transgression of Adam and Eve, or which men -yet to be born might commit. - -The "miraculous" birth of Jesus took place at Nazareth in Galilee, in -the reign of Cæsar Augustus, about 750 A. U. C., as the Romans reckoned -time. Tradition afterward fixed his birthday on the 25th December, -which, curiously enough, although, perhaps, explaining the choice, was -the day dedicated to the sun-god Mithra, an Oriental deity to whom -altars had been raised and sacrifices performed, with rites of baptisms -of blood, in hospitable Rome. - -Jesus is said to have lived in the obscurity of his native mountain -village till his thirtieth year. Except one doubtful story of his going -to Jerusalem with his parents when he was twelve years old, nothing is -recorded in the various biographies of him between his birth and his -appearance as a public teacher. Probably he followed his father's trade -as a carpenter. The event that seems to have called him from home was -the preaching of an enthusiastic ascetic named John the Baptist. At his -hands Jesus submitted to the baptismal rite, and then entered on his -career, wandering from place to place. The fragments of his discourses, -which have survived in the short biographies known as the Gospels, show -him to have been gifted with a simple, winning style, and his sermons, -brightened by happy illustration or striking parable, went home to the -hearts of his hearers. Women, often of the outcast class, were drawn -to him by the sympathy which attracted even more than his teaching. -Among a people to whom the unvarying order of Nature was an idea -wholly foreign--for Greek speculations had not penetrated into -Palestine--stories of miracle-working found easy credit, falling in, as -they did, with popular belief in the constant intervention of deity. -Thus, to the reports of what Jesus taught were added those of the -wonders which he had wrought, from feeding thousands of folk with a few -loaves of bread to raising the dead to life. His itinerant mission -secured him a few devoted followers from various towns and villages, -while the effect of success upon himself was to heighten his own -conception of the importance of his work. The skill of the Romans in -fusing together subject races had failed them in the case of the Jews, -whose belief in their special place in the world as the "chosen people" -never forsook them. Nor had their misfortunes weakened their belief that -the Messiah predicted by their prophets would appear to deliver them, -and plant their feet on the neck of the hated conqueror. This hope, -as became a pious Jew, Jesus shared, but it set him brooding on -some nobler, because more spiritual, conception of it than his -fellow-countrymen nurtured. Finally, it led him to the belief, fostered -by the ambition of his nearer disciples, which was, however, material in -its hopes, that he was the spiritual Messiah. In that faith he repaired -to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover feast when the city was crowded -with devotees, that he might, before the chief priests and elders, make -his appeal to the nation. According to the story, his daring in clearing -the holy temple of money-changers and traders led to his appearance -before the Sanhedrin, the highest judicial council; his plainness of -speech raised the fury of the sects; and when, dreaming of a purer -faith, he spoke ominous words about the destruction of the temple, the -charge of blasphemy was laid against him. His guilt was made clear to -his judges when, answering a question of the high priest, he declared -himself to be the Messiah. This, involving claim to kingship over the -Jews, and therefore rebellion against the Empire, was made the plea of -haling him before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, for trial. Pilate, -looking upon the whole affair as a local _émeute_, was disinclined to -severity, but nothing short of the death of Jesus as a blasphemer -(although his chief offence appears to have been his disclaimer of -earthly sovereignty) would satisfy the angry mob. Amidst their taunts -and jeers he was taken to a place named Calvary, and there put to death -by the torturing process of crucifixion, or, the particular mode not -being clear, of transfixion on a stake. - -This tragic event, on which, as is still widely held, hang the destinies -of mankind to the end of time, attracted no attention outside Judæa. In -the Roman eye, cold, contemptuous, and practical, it was but the -execution of a troublesome fanatic who had embroiled himself with his -fellow-countrymen, and added the crime of sedition to the folly of -blasphemy. Pilate himself passed on, without more ado, to the next duty. -Tradition, anxious to prove that retribution followed his criminal act, -as it was judged in after-time to be, tells how he flung himself in -remorse from the mountain known as Pilatus, which overlooks the lake of -Lucerne. With truer insight, a striking modern story, L'Etui de Nacre, -by Anatole France, makes Pilate, on his retirement to Sicily in old age, -thus refer to the incident in conversation with a Roman friend who had -loved a Jewish maiden. - - "A few months after I had lost sight of her I heard by accident that - she had joined a small party of men and women who were following a - young Galilean miracle-worker. His name was Jesus, he came from - Nazareth, and he was crucified for I don't know what crime. Pontius, - do you remember this man? Pontius Pilate knit his brow, and put his - hand to his forehead like one who is searching his memory; then - after a few moments of silence: 'Jesus,' murmured he, 'Jesus of - Nazareth. No, I don't remember him.'" - -On the third day after his death, Jesus is said to have risen from the -grave, and appeared to a faithful few of his disciples. On the fortieth -day after his resurrection he is said to have ascended to heaven. Both -these statements rest on the authority of the biographies which were -compiled some years after his death. Jesus wrote nothing himself; -therefore the "brethren," as his intimate followers called one another, -had no other sacred books than those of the Old Testament. They believed -that Jesus was the Messiah predicted in Daniel and some of the -apocryphal writings, and they cherished certain "logia" or sayings of -his which formed the basis of the first three Gospels. The earliest of -these, that bearing the name of Mark, probably took the shape in which -we have it (some spurious verses at the end excepted) about 70 A. D. -The fourth Gospel, which tradition attributes to John, is generally -believed to be half a century later than Mark. It seems likely that the -importance of collecting the words of Jesus into any permanent form did -not occur to those who had heard them, because the belief in his speedy -return was all-powerful among them, and their life and attitude toward -everything was shaped accordingly. - -Without sacred books, priesthood, or organization, these earliest -disciples, whom the fate of their leader had driven into hiding for a -time, gathered themselves into groups for communion and worship. "In -the church of Jerusalem," says Selden in his Table Talk (xiv), "the -Christians were but another sect of Jews that did believe the Messias -was come." From that sacred city there went forth preachers of this -simple doctrine through the lands where Greek-speaking Jews, known as -those of the Dispersion, had been long settled. These formed a very -important element in the Roman Empire, being scattered from Asia Minor -to Egypt, and thence in all the lands washed by the Mediterranean. As -their racial isolation and national hopes made them the least contented -among the subject-peoples, a series of tolerant measures securing them -certain privileges, subject to loyal behaviour, had been prudently -granted by their Roman masters. The new teaching spread from Antioch to -Alexandria and Rome. But early in the onward career of the movement a -division broke out among the immediate disciples of Jesus which ended in -lasting rupture. A distinguished convert had been won to the faith in -the person of the Apostle Paul. He is the real founder of Christianity -as a more or less systematized creed, and all the development of dogma -which followed are integral parts of the structure raised by him. He -converted it from a local religion into a widespread faith. This came -about, at the start, through his defeat of the narrower section headed -by Peter, who would have compelled all non-Jewish converts to submit to -the rite of circumcision. - -The unity of the Empire gave Christianity its chance. Through the -connection of Eurasia from the Euphrates to the Atlantic by magnificent -roads, communication between peoples followed the lines of least -resistance. Happily for the future of Christianity, the early -missionaries travelled westward, in the wake of the dispersed Jews, -along the Mediterranean seaboard, and thus its fortunes became -identified with the civilizing portion of mankind. Had they travelled -eastward, it might have been blended with Buddhism, or, as its Gnostic -phases show, become merged in Oriental mysticism. The story of progress -ran smoothly till A. D. 64, when we first hear of the "Christians"--for -by such name they had become known--in "profane" history, as it was once -oddly called. Tacitus, writing many years after the event, tells how on -the night of the 18th July, in the sixty-fourth year of our era, a -fierce fire broke out in Rome, causing the destruction of magnificent -buildings raised by Augustus, and of priceless works of Greek art. -Suspicion fell on Nero, and he, as has been suggested, was instigated by -his wife Poppaea Sabina, an unscrupulous woman, and, according to some -authorities, a convert to Judaism, "to put an end to the common talk, by -imputing the fire to others, visiting, with a refinement of punishment, -those detestable criminals who went by the name of Christians. The -author of that denomination was Christus, who had been executed in the -time of Tiberius, by the procurator, Pontius Pilate." Tacitus goes on -to describe Christianity as "a pestilent superstition," and its -adherents as guilty of "hatred to the human race." The indictment, on -the face of it, seems strange, but it has an explanation, although the -Christians were brutally murdered on the charge of arson, and not of -superstition. So far as religious persecution went, they suffered this -first at the hands of Jews, the Empire intervening to protect them. -Broadly speaking, the Roman note was toleration. Throughout the -Empire religion was a national affair, because it began and ended -with the preservation of the State. Thereupon it was the binding -duty--_religio_--of every citizen to pay due honour to the protecting -gods on whose favour the safety of the State depended. That done, a man -might believe what he chose. Polytheism is, from its nature, easy-going -and tolerant; so long as there was no open opposition to the authorized -public worship, the worshipper could explain it any way he chose. In -Greece a man "might believe or disbelieve that the Mysteries taught the -doctrine of immortality; the essential thing was that he should duly -sacrifice his pig." In Rome, that vast Cosmopolis, "the ordinary pagan -did not care two straws whether his neighbour worshipped twenty gods or -twenty-one." Why should he care? - -Now, against all this, the Christians set their faces sternly, and the -result was to make them regarded as anti-patriotic and anti-social. -Their success among the lower classes had been rapid. Christianity -levelled all distinctions: it welcomed the master and his slave, the -outcast and the pure: it treated woman as the spiritual equal of man: it -held out to each the hope of a future life. Thus far, all was to the -good, although the old Mithraic religion had done well-nigh as much. But -Christianity held aloof from the common social life, putting itself out -of touch with the manifold activity of Rome. It sought to apply certain -maxims of Jesus literally; it discouraged marriage, it brought disunion -into family life; it counselled avoidance of service in the army or -acceptance of any public office. This general attitude was wholly due to -the belief that with the return of Jesus, the end of the world was -at hand. For Jesus had foretold his second coming, and the earliest -epistles of the apostles bade the faithful prepare for it. Here there -was no continuing city; citizenship was in heaven, for the kingdom of -Christ was not of this world. Therefore to give thought to the earthly -and fleeting was folly and impiety, for who would care to heap up -wealth, to strive for place or to pursue pleasure, or to search after -what men called "wisdom," when these imperilled the soul, and blocked -the way to heaven? - -The prejudice created by this belief, expressed in such direct action as -refusal to worship the guardian gods and the "genius" of the Emperor, -was deepened by ugly, although baseless, rumours as to the cruel and -immoral things done by the Christians at their secret meetings. And so -it came to pass that Tacitus spoke of Christianity in the terms quoted; -that Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius (who refers to it only once in his -Meditations) dismissed it with a scornful phrase; that the common people -called it atheistic; and that, finally, it became a proscribed and -persecuted religion. - -Further than this there is no need to pursue its career until, with -wholly changed fortunes, we meet it as a tolerated religion under a -so-called Christian Emperor. The object in tracing it thus far is to -indicate how enthusiasts, thus filled with an anti-worldly spirit, would -become and remain an arresting force against the advance of inquiry and, -therefore, of knowledge; and how, as their religion gathered power, and -itself became worldly in policy, it would the more strongly assert -supremacy over the reason. For intellectual activity would lead to -inquiry into the claims and authority of the Church, and inquiry, -therefore, was the thing to be proscribed. Then, too, the committal of -the floating biographies of Jesus to written form, and their grouping, -with the letters of the apostles, into one more or less complete -collection, to be afterward called the New Testament (a collection held -to embrace, as the theory of inspiration became formulated, all that it -is needful for man to know), would create a further barrier against -intellectual activity. Then, as Christianity came into nearer touch with -the enfeebled remnants of Greek philosophy, and with other foreign -influences shaping its dogmas, discussions about the person of Christ -became active. The simple fluent creed of the early Christians took -rigid form in the subtleties of the Nicene Creed, and as "Very God of -Very God" the final appeal was, logically, to the words of Jesus. Hence -another barrier against inquiry. - -Conflict has never arisen on the ethical sayings of Jesus, which, making -allowance for the impracticableness of a few, place him high among the -sages of antiquity. Comparing their teaching with his, it is easy to -group together maxims which do not yield to the more famous examples in -the Sermon on the Mount as guides to conduct, or as inspiration to high -ideals. The "golden rule" is anticipated by Plato's "Thou shalt not take -that which is mine, and may I do to others as I would that they should -do to me" (Jowett's translation, v, p. 483). And it is paralleled by -Isocrates, a contemporary of Plato, in those words spoken by the King -Nicocles when addressing his governors, "You should be to others what -you think I should be to you." But if there was nothing new in what -Jesus taught, there was freshness in the method. Conflict is waged only -over statements the nature and limits of which might be expected from -the place and age when they were delivered. They who hold that Jesus was -God the Son Eternal, and therefore incapable of error, may reconcile, as -best they can with this, his belief in the mischievous delusions of his -time. If they say that so much of this as may be reported in the records -of his life are spurious, they throw the whole contents of the gospels -into the melting-pot of criticism. - -Taking the narratives as we have them, documents stamped with the -hall-mark of the centuries, "declaring," as a body of clergymen -proclaimed recently, "incontrovertibly the actual historical truth in -all records, both of past events, and of the delivery of predictions to -be thereafter fulfilled," we learn that Jesus accepted the accuracy of -the sacred writings of his people; that he spoke of Moses as the author -of the Pentateuch; that he referred to its legends as dealing with -historical persons, and as reporting actual events. All these beliefs -are refuted by the critical scholarship of to-day. We need not go to -Germany for the verdict; it is indorsed by eminent Hebraists, officials -of the Church of England. Canon Driver, Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, -says that "like other people, the Jews formed theories to account for -the beginnings of the earth and man"; that "they either did this for -themselves, or borrowed from their neighbours," and that "of the -theories current in Assyria and Phoenicia fragments have been preserved -which exhibit parts of resemblance to the Bible narratives sufficient to -warrant the inference that both are derived from the same cycle of -traditions." If, therefore, the cosmogonic and other legends are -inspired, so must also the common original of these and their -corresponding stories be inspired. The matter might be pursued through -the patriarchal age to the eve of the Exodus, showing that, here also, -the mythical element is dominant; the existence of Abraham himself -dissolving in the solution of the "higher criticism." As to the -Pentateuch, the larger number of scholars place its composition, in the -form in which we have it--older documents being blended therein--about -the sixth and fifth centuries B. C. - -Jesus spoke of the earth as if it were flat, and the most important -among the heavenly bodies. Knowledge of the active speculations that -went on centuries before his time on the Ionian seaboard; prevision of -what secrets men would wrest from the stars centuries hence--of neither -did he dream. That Homer and Virgil had sung; that Plato had discoursed; -that Buddha had founded a religion with which his, when Western activity -met Eastern passivity, would vainly compete; these, and aught else that -had moved the great world without, were unknown to the Syrian teacher. - -Jesus believed in an arch-fiend, who was permitted by Omnipotence, the -Omnipotence against which he had rebelled, to set loose countless -numbers of evil spirits to work havoc on men and animals. Jesus also -believed in a hell of eternal torment for the wicked; and in a heaven of -unending happiness for the good. There is no surer index of the -intellectual stage of any people than the degree in which belief in the -supernatural, and, especially in the activity of supernatural agents, -rules their lives. The lower we descend, the more detailed and familiar -is the assumption of knowledge of the behaviour of these agents, and of -the nature of the places they come from or haunt. Of this, mediæval -speculations on demonology, and modern books of anthropology, supply any -number of examples. Here we are concerned only with the momentous fact -that belief in demoniacal activity pervades the New Testament from -beginning to end, and, therefore, gave the warrant for the unspeakable -cruelties with which that belief has stained the annals of Christendom. -John Wesley was consistent when he wrote that "Giving up the belief in -witchcraft was in effect giving up the Bible," and it may be added that -giving up belief in the devil is giving up belief in the atonement--the -central doctrine of the Christian faith. To this the early Christians -would have subscribed: so, also, would the great Augustine, who said -that "nothing is to be accepted save on the authority of Scripture, -since greater is that authority than all the powers of the human mind"; -so would all who have followed him in ancient confessions of the faith. -It is only the amorphous form of that faith which, lingering on, anæmic -and boneless, denies by evasion. - -But they who abandon belief in maleficent demons and in witches; as -also, for this follows, in beneficent agents, as angels; land themselves -in serious dilemma. For to this are such committed. If Jesus, who came -"that he might destroy the works of the devil," and who is reported, -among other proofs of his divine ministry, to have cast out demons from -"possessed" human beings, and, in one case, to have permitted a crowd of -the infernal agents to enter into a herd of swine; if he verily believed -that he actually did these things; and if it be true that the belief is -a superstition limited to the ignorant or barbaric mind; _what value can -be attached to any statement that Jesus is reported to have made about a -spiritual world_? - -Here then (1) in the attitude of the early Christians toward all mundane -affairs as of no moment compared with those affecting their souls' -salvation; (2) in the assumed authority of Scripture as a full -revelation of both earthly and heavenly things; and (3) in the assumed -infallibility of the words of Jesus reported therein; we have three -factors which suffice to explain why the great movement toward discovery -of the orderly relations of phenomena was arrested for centuries, and -theories of capricious government of the universe sheltered and upheld. - -While, as has been said, the unity of the Empire secured Christianity -its fortunate start; the multiform elements of which the Empire was made -up--philosophic and pagan--being gradually absorbed by Christianity, -secured it acceptance among the different subject-peoples. The break up -of the Empire secured its supremacy. - -The absorption of foreign ideas and practices by Christianity, largely -through the influence of Hellenic Jews, was an added cause of arrest of -inquiry. The adoption of pagan rites and customs, resting, as these -did, on a bedrock of barbarism, dragged it to a lower level. The -intrusion of philosophic subtleties led to terms being mistaken for -explanations: as Gibbon says, "the pride of the professors and of their -disciples was satisfied with the science of words." The inchoate and -mobile character of Christianity during the first three centuries gave -both influences--pagan and philosophic--their opportunity. For long -years the converts scattered throughout the Empire were linked together, -in more or less regular federation, by the acknowledgment of Christ as -Lord, and by the expectation of his second coming. There was no official -priesthood, only overseers--"episkopoi"--for social purposes, who made -no claims to apostolic succession; no formulated set of doctrines; no -Apostles' Creed; no dogmas of baptismal regeneration or of the real -presence; no worship or apotheosis of Mary as the Mother of God; no -worship of saints or relics. - -_On the philosophic side_, it was the Greek influence in the person of -the more educated converts that shaped the dogmas of the Church and -sought to blend them with the occult and mysterious elements in Oriental -systems, of which modern "Theosophy" is the tenuous parody. That old -Greek habit of asking questions, of seeking to reach the reason of -things, which, as has been seen, gave the great impulse to scientific -inquiry, was as active as ever. Appeals to the Old Testament touched not -the Greek as they did the Jewish Christian, and the Canon of the New -Testament was as yet unsettled. Strange as it may seem in view of the -assumed divine origin of the Gospels and Epistles, human judgment took -upon itself to decide which of them were, and which were not, an -integral part of supernatural revelation. The ultimate verdict, so far -as the Western Church was concerned, was delivered by the Council of -Carthage in the early part of the fifth century. There arose a school of -Apologists, founders of theology, who, to quote Gibbon, "equipped the -Christian religion for the conquest of the Roman world by changing it -into a philosophy, attested by Revelation. They mingled together the -metaphysics of Platonism, the doctrine of the Logos, which came from the -Stoics, morality partly Platonic, partly Stoic, methods of argument and -interpretation learnt from Philo, with the pregnant maxims of Jesus and -the religious language of the Christian congregations." Thus the road -was opened for additions to dogmatic theology, doctrines of the Trinity, -of the Virgin Birth, and whatever else could be inferentially extracted -from the Scriptures, and blended with foreign ideas. The growing -complexity of creed called for interpretation of it, and this obviously -fell to the overseers or bishops, chosen for their special gifts of "the -grace of the truth." These met, as occasion required, to discuss -subjects affecting the faith and discipline of the several groups. Among -such, precedence, as a matter of course, would be accorded to the -overseer of the most important Christian society in the Empire; and -hence the prominence and authority, from an early period, of the bishop -of Rome. In the simple and business-like act of his election as chairman -of the gatherings lay the germ of the audacious and preposterous claims -of the Papacy. - -_On the pagan side_, the course of development is not so easily traced. -To determine when and where this or that custom or rite arose is now -impossible; indeed, we may say, without exaggeration, that it never -arose at all, because the conditions for its adoption were present -throughout in human tendencies. The first Christian disciples were Jews: -and the ritual which they followed was the direct outcome of ideas -common to all barbaric religions, so that certain of the pagan rites and -ceremonies with which they came in contact in all parts of the Empire -fitted in with custom, tradition, and desire. And this applies, with -stronger force, to the converts scattered from Edessa, east of the -Euphrates, to the Empire's westernmost limits in Britain. Moreover, we -know that a policy of adaptation and conciliation wisely governed the -ruling minds of the Church, in whom, stripped of all the verbiage about -them as semi-inspired successors of the apostles, there was deep-seated -superstition. Paganism might, in its turn, be suppressed by Imperial -edict, but it had too much in common with the later forms of -Christianity not to survive in fact, however changed in name. - -It may be taken as a truism that in the ceremonies of the higher -religions there are no inventions, only survivals. This fact sent -thinkers like Hobbes, and dealers in literary antiquities of the type of -Burton, Bishop Newton, and, notablest of all, Conyers Middleton, on the -search after parallels, which have received astonishing confirmation in -our day. Burton sees the mimicry of the "arch-deceiver in the strange -sacraments, the priests, and the sacrifices," as the Romanist -missionaries to Tibet saw the same diabolical parody of their rites in -Buddhist temples. But Hobbes, with the sagacity which might be expected -of him, recognises the continuity of ideas: "_mutato nomine tantum_; -Venus and Cupid (Hobbes might have added Isis and Horus) appearing as -'the Virgin Mary and her Sonne,' and the Αποθέωσις of the Heathen -surviving in the Canonization of Saints. The carrying of the Popes 'by -Switzers under a Canopie' is a 'Relique of the Divine Honours given to -Cæsar'; the carriage of Images in _Procession_ 'a Relique of the Greeks -and Romans.' ... 'The Heathen had also their _Aqua Lustralis_, that is -to say, _Holy Water_. The Church of Rome imitates them also in their -_Holy Dayes_. They had their _Bacchanalia_, and we have our _Wakes_ -answering to them; They their _Saturnalia_, and we our Carnevalls and -Shrove-tuesdays liberty of Servants; They their Procession of Priapus, -we our fetching-in, erection, and dancing about _May-Poles_; and Dancing -is one kind of worship; They had their Procession called _Ambarvalia_, -and we our Procession about the Fields in the _Rogation week_.'" - -Middleton examined the matter on the spot, and in his celebrated Letter -from Rome gives numerous examples of "an exact CONFORMITY between POPERY -and PAGANISM." Since few read his book now-a-days, some of these may be -cited, because their presence goes far to explain why the conglomerate -religion which Christianity had become was proof against ideas spurned -alike by pagans and ecclesiastics. Visiting the place for classical -study, and "not to notice the fopperies and ridiculous ceremonies of the -present Religion," Middleton soon found himself "still in old Heathen -Rome," with its rituals of primitive Paganism, as if handed down by an -uninterrupted succession from the priests of old to the priests of new -Rome. The "smoak of the incense" in the churches transports him to the -temple of the Paphian Venus described by Virgil (Æneid, I, 420); the -surpliced boy waiting on the priest with the thurible reminds him of -sculptures on ancient bas-reliefs representing heathen sacrifice, with a -white-clad attendant on a priest holding a little chest or box in his -hand. The use of holy water suggests numerous parallels. At the entrance -to Pagan temples stood vases of holy liquid, a mixture of salt and -common water; and, on bas-reliefs, the aspergillum or brush for the -ceremony of sprinkling is carved. In the annual festival of the -benediction of horses, when the animals were sent to the convent of St. -Anthony to be sprinkled (Middleton had his own horses thus blest "for -about eighteenpence of our money") there is the survival of a ceremony -in the Circensian games. In the lamps and wax candles before the shrines -of the Madonna and Saints he is reminded of a passage in Herodotus as to -the use of lights in the Egyptian temples, while we know that lamps to -the Madonna took the place of those before the images of the Lares, -whose chapels stood at the corners of the streets. The Synod of Elviri -(305 A. D.) forbade the lighting of wax candles during the day in -cemeteries lest the spirits of the saints should be disquieted, but the -custom was too deeply rooted to be abolished. As for votive offerings, -Middleton truly says that "no one _custom of antiquity_ is so frequently -mentioned by all their writers" ... "but the most common of all -_offerings_ were _pictures_ representing the history of the miraculous -cure or deliverance vouchsafed upon the vow of the donor." Of which -offerings, the _blessed Virgin_ is so sure always to carry off the -greatest share, that it may be truly said of her what _Juvenal_ says of -the _Goddess Isis_, whose religion was at that time in the greatest -vogue in _Rome_, that the "_painters got their livelihood out of her_." -Middleton tells the story from Cicero which, not without covert -sympathy, Montaigne quotes in his Essay on Prognostications. Diagoras, -surnamed the Atheist, being found one day in a temple, was thus -addressed by a friend: "You, who think the gods take no care of human -affairs, do not you see here by this number of pictures how many people, -for the sake of their vows, have been saved in storms at sea, and got -safe into harbour?" "Yes," answered Diagoras, "I see how it is; for -those are never painted who happen to be drowned." There is nothing new -under the sun. Horace (Odes, Bk. I, v) tells of the shipwrecked sailor -who hung up his clothes as a thank-offering in the temple of the sea-god -who had preserved him; Polydorus Vergilius, who lived in the early part -of the sixteenth century, that is, some 1,500 years after Horace, -describes the classic custom of _ex voto_ offerings at length, while -Pennant the antiquary, describing the well of Saint Winifred in -Flintshire in the last century, tells of the votive offerings, in the -shape of crutches and other objects, which were hung about it. To this -day the store is receiving additions. The sick crowd thither as of old -they crowded into the temples of Æsculapius and Serapis; mothers bring -their sick children as in Imperial Rome they took them to the Temple of -Romulus and Remus. A draught of water from the basin near the bath, or a -plunge in the bath itself, is followed by prayers at the altar of the -chapel which incloses the well. When the saint's feast-day is held, the -afflicted gather to kiss the reliquary that holds her bones. Perhaps one -of the most pathetic sights in Catholic churches, especially in -out-of-the-way villages, is the altars on which are hung votive -offerings, rude daubs depicting the disease or danger from which the -worshipper has been delivered. - -As to the images, tricked out in curious robes and gewgaws, Middleton -"could not help recollecting the picture which old Homer draws of _Q. -Hecuba of Troy_, prostrating herself before the _miraculous Image of -Pallas_," while his wonder at the Loretto image of the "Queen of Heaven" -with "a face as black as a Negus" reminds him of the reference in Baruch -to the idols black with the "perpetual smoak of lamps and incense." In -his Hibbert Lectures Professor Rhys refers to churches dedicated to -Notre Dame in virtue of legends of discovery of images of the Virgin on -the spot. These were usually of wood, which had turned black in the -soil. Such a black "Madonna" was found near Grenoble, in the commune of -La Zouche. Then, in the titles of the new deities, Middleton correctly -sees those of the old. The Queen of Heaven reminds him of Astarte or -Mylitta; the Divine Mother of the Magna Mater, the "great mother" of -Oriental cults. In other attributes of Mary, lineal descendant of Isis, -there survive those of Venus, Lucina, Cybele, or Maria. He gives amusing -examples of myths and misreadings through which certain "saints" have a -place in the Roman Calendar. He apparently knew nothing of the strange -confusion by which Buddha appears therein under the title of Saint -Josaphat; but he tells how, by misinterpretation of a boundary stone, -Proefectus Viarum, an overseer of highways, became S. Viar; how S. -Veronica secured canonization through a blunder over the words Vera -Icon: still more droll, how hagiology includes both a mountain and a -mantle! - -The marks of hands or feet on rocks, said to be made by the apparition -of some saint or angel, call to mind "the impression of Hercules' feet -on a stone in Scythia"; the picture of the Virgin, which came from -heaven, suggests the descent of Numa's shield "from the clouds"; that of -the weeping Madonna the statue of Apollo, which Livy says wept for -three successive days and nights; while the periodical miracle of the -liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius is obviously paralleled in -the incidents named by Horace on his journey to Brundusium, when the -priests of the temple at Gnatia sought to persuade him that "the -frankincense used to dissolve and melt miraculously without the help of -fire" (Sat., v, 97-100). - -Middleton, and those of his school, thought that they were near primary -formations when they struck on these suggestive classic or pagan -parallels to Christian belief and custom. But in truth they had probed -a comparatively recent layer; since, far beneath, lay the unsuspected -prehistoric deposits of barbaric ideas which are coincident with, -and composed of, man's earliest speculations about himself and his -surroundings. When, however, we borrow an illustration from geology, it -must be remembered that our divisions, like those into which the strata -of the globe are separated, are artificial. There is no real detachment. -The difference between former and present methods of research is -that nowadays we have gone further down for discovery of the common -materials of which barbaric, pagan, and civilized ideas are compounded. -They arise in the comparison which exists in the savage mind between the -living and the non-living, and in the attribution of like qualities to -things superficially resembling one another; hence belief in their -efficacy, which takes active form in what may be generally termed magic. -For example, the rite of baptism is explained when we connect it with -barbaric lustrations and water-worship generally; as also that of the -Eucharist by reference to sacrificial feasts in honour of the gods; -feasts at which they were held to be both the eaters and the eaten. -Middleton, himself a clergyman, shows perplexity when watching the -elevation of the host at mass. He lacked that knowledge of the origin of -sacramental rites which study of barbaric customs has since supplied. -In Mr. Frazer's Golden Bough, the "central idea" of which is "the -conception of the slain god," he shows at what an early stage in his -speculations man formulated the conception of deity incarnated in -himself, or in plant or animal, and as afterward slain, both the -incarnation and the death being for the benefit of mankind. The god is -his own sacrifice, and in perhaps the most striking form, as insisted -upon by Mr. Frazer, he is, as corn-spirit, killed in the person of his -representative; the passage in this mode of incarnation to the custom -of eating bread sacramentally being obvious. The fundamental idea of -this sacramental act, as the mass of examples collected by Mr. Frazer -further goes to show, is that by eating a thing its physical and mental -qualities are acquired. So the barbaric mind reasons, and extends the -notion to all beings. To quote Mr. Frazer: "By eating the body of the -god he shares in the god's attributes and powers. And when the god is a -corn-god, the corn is his proper body; when he is a vine-god, the juice -of the grape is his blood; and so by eating the bread and drinking the -wine the worshipper partakes of the real body and blood of his god. Thus -the drinking of wine in the rites of a vine-god like Dionysus is not an -act of revelry; it is a solemn sacrament." It is, perhaps, needless to -point out that the same explanation applies to the rites attaching to -Demeter, or to add what further parallels are suggested in the belief -that Dionysus was slain, rose again, and descended into Hades to bring -up his mother Semele from the dead. This, however, by the way. What -has to be emphasized is, that in the quotation just given we have -transubstantiation clearly anticipated as the barbaric idea of eating -the god. In proof of the underlying continuity of that idea two -witnesses--Catholic and Protestant--may be cited. - -The Church of Rome, and in this the Greek Church is at one therewith, -thus defines the term transubstantiation in the Canon of the Council of -Trent: - - "If any one shall say that in the most holy sacrament of the - Eucharist there remains the substance of bread and wine together - with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny - that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the - bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the - blood, the species of bread and wine alone remaining--which - conversion the Catholic Church most fittingly calls - Transubstantiation--let him be anathema." - -The Church of England, through the medium of a letter to a well-known -newspaper, the British Weekly (29th August, 1895), supplies the -following illustration of the position of its "High" section, and this, -it is interesting to note, from the church of which Mr. Gladstone's son -is rector, and in which the distinguished statesman himself often reads -the lessons: - - "A few Sundays ago--8 o'clock celebration of Holy Communion. Rector, - officiating minister (Hawarden Church). - - "When the point was reached for the communicants to partake, cards - containing a hymn to be sung after Communion were distributed among - the congregation. This hymn opened with the following couplet:-- - - Jesu, mighty Saviour, - Thou art _in_ us now. - - And my attention was arrested by an asterisk referring to a - footnote. The word 'in,' in the second line, was printed in italics, - and the note intimated that those who had _not_ communicated should - sing '_with_' instead of '_in_,' i. e. those who had taken the - consecrated elements to sing 'Thou art _in_ us now,' and those who - had not, to sing 'Thou art _with_ us now.'" - -Whether, therefore, the cult be barbaric or civilized, we find theory -and practice identical. The god is eaten so that the communicant thereby -becomes a "partaker of the divine nature." - -In the gestures denoting _sacerdotal benediction_ we have probably an -old form of averting the evil eye; in the act of _breathing_ on a bishop -at the service of consecration there was the survival of belief in -transference of spiritual qualities, the soul being, as language -evidences, well-nigh universally identified with breath. The modern -spiritualist who describes apparitions as having the "consistency of -cigar-smoke," is one with the Congo negroes who leave the house of -the dead unswept for a time lest the dust should injure the delicate -substance of the ghost. The inhaling of the last breath of the dying -Roman by his nearest kinsman has parallel in the breathing of the risen -Jesus on his disciples that they might receive the Holy Ghost (John xx, -22). In the offering of _prayers for the dead_; in the _canonization_ -and _intercession_ of _saints_; in the _prayers_ and _offerings_ at the -_shrines of the Virgin_ and _saints_, and at the _graves of martyrs_; -there are the manifold forms of that great cult of the departed which is -found throughout the world. To this may be linked the _belief in -angels_, whether good or bad, or guardian, because the element common to -the whole is animistic, the peopling of the heavens above, as well as -the earth beneath, with an innumerable company of spiritual beings -influencing the destinies of men. Well might Jews and Moslems reproach -the Christians, as they did down to the eighth century, with having -filled the world with more gods than they had overthrown in the pagan -temples; while we have Erasmus, in his Encomium Moriae, when reciting -the names and functions of saints, adding that "as many things as we -wish, so many gods have we made." Closely related to this group of -beliefs is the _adoration of relics_, the vitality of which has springs -too deep in human nature to be wholly abolished, whether we carry about -us a lock from the hair of some dead loved one, or read of the fragments -of saints or martyrs which lie beneath every Catholic altar, or of the -skull-bones of his ancestor which the savage carries about with him as a -charm. Then there is the long list of _church festivals_, the reference -of which to pagan prototypes is but one step toward their ultimate -explanation in nature-worship; there are the _processions_ which are the -successors of Corybantic frenzies, and, more remotely, of savage dances -and other forms of excitation; there is that now somewhat casual belief -in the _Second Advent_ which is a member of the widespread group wherein -human hopes fix eyes on the return of long-sleeping heroes; of Arthur -and Olger Dansk, of Väinämöinen and Quetzalcoatl, of Charlemagne and -Barbarossa, of the lost Marko of Servia and the lost King Sebastian. We -speak of it as "casual," because among the two hundred and eighty-odd -sects scheduled in Whitaker's Almanack the curious in such inquiries -will note only three distinctive bodies of Adventists. - -All changes in popular belief have been, and, practically, remain -superficial; the old animism pervades the higher creeds. In our own -island, for example, the Celtic and pre-Celtic paganism remained -unleavened by the old Roman religion. The legions took back to Rome the -gods which they brought with them. The names of Mithra and Serapis occur -on numerous tablets, the worship of the one--that "Sol invictus" whose -birthday at the winter solstice became (see p. 42) the anniversary -of the birth of Christ--had ranged as far west as South Wales and -Northumberland; while the foundations of a temple to the other have been -unearthed at York. The chief Celtic gods, in virtue of common attributes -as elemental nature-deities, were identified with certain _dii majores_ -of the Roman pantheon, and the _deae matres_ equated with the gracious -or malevolent spirits of the indigenous faith. But the old names were -not displaced. Neither did the earlier Christian missionaries effect any -organic change in popular beliefs, while, during the submergence of -Christianity under waves of barbaric invasion, there were infused into -the old religion kindred elements from oversea which gave it yet more -vigorous life. The eagle penetration of Gibbon detected this persistent -element at work when he described the sequel to the futile efforts of -Theodosius to extirpate paganism. The ancestor worship which lay at the -core of much of it took shape among the Christianized pagans in the -worship of martyrs and in the scramble after their relics. The bodies of -prophets and apostles were discovered by the strangest coincidences, and -transported to the churches by the Tiber and the Bosphorus, and although -the supply of these more important remains was soon exhausted, there -was no limit to the production of relics of their person or belongings, -as of filings from the chains of S. Peter, and from the gridiron of S. -Lawrence. The catacombs yielded any number of the bodies of martyrs, and -Rome became a huge manufactory to meet the demands for wonder-working -relics from every part of Christendom. A sceptical feeling might be -aroused at the claims of a dozen abbeys to possession of the veritable -crown of thorns wherewith the majesty of the suffering Christ was -mocked, but it was silenced before the numerous fragments of his cross, -since ingenuity has computed that this must have contained at least one -hundred and eighty million cubic millemetres, whereas the total cubic -volume of all the known relics is but five millions. "It must," remarks -Gibbon (Decline and Fall, end of chap. xxviii), "ingeniously be -confessed that the ministers of the Catholic Church imitated the profane -model which they were impotent to destroy. The most respectable bishops -had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully -renounce the superstitions of paganism if they found some resemblance, -some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion of -Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the -Roman Empire, but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the -arts of their vanquished rivals." - -Enough has been said on a topic to which prominence has been given -because it brings into fuller relief the fact that in a religion for -which its apologists claim divine origin and guidance "to the end of -the world" we have the same intrusion of the rites and customs of -lower cults which marks other advanced faiths. Hence, science and -superstition being deadly foes, the explanation of that hostile -attitude toward inquiry and that dread of its results which marked -Christianity down to modern times. While the intrusion of corrupting -elements presents difficulties which the theory of the supernatural -history of Christianity alone creates, it accords with all that might -be predicted of a religion whose success was due to its early escape -from the narrow confines of Judaism; and to its fortunate contact with -the enterprising peoples to whom the civilization of Europe and the -New World is due. - - -2. _From Augustine to Lord Bacon._ - -A. D. 400-A. D. 1600. - -The foregoing slight outline of the causes which operated for centuries -against the freedom of the human mind will render it needless to follow -the history of the development of Christian polity and dogma--the -temporalizing of the one, and the crystallizing of the other. Yet one -prominent actor in that history demands a brief notice, because of the -influence which his teaching wielded from the fifth to the fifteenth -centuries. The annals of the churches in Africa, along whose northern -shores Christianity had spread early and rapidly, yield notable names, -but none so distinguished as that of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo from 395 -to 430 A. D. This greatest of the Fathers of the Church sought, as has -been remarked already, to bring the system of Aristotle, the greatest of -ancient naturalists, into line with Christian theology. His range of -study was well-nigh as wide as that of the famous Stagirite, but we are -here concerned only with so much of it as bears on an attempt to graft -the development theory on the dogma of special creation. Augustine, -accepting the Old Testament cosmogony as a revelation, believed -that the world was created out of nothing, but, this initial paradox -accepted, he argued that God had endowed matter with certain powers of -self-development which left free the operation of natural causes in the -production of plants and animals. With this, however, as already noted, -he held, with preceding philosophers and with his fellow-theologians, -the doctrine of spontaneous generation. It explained to him the -existence of apparently purposeless creatures, as flies, frogs, mice, -etc. "Certain very small animals," he says, "may not have been created -on the fifth and sixth days, but may have originated later from -putrefying matter." Not till the seventeenth century did the experiments -of Redi refute a doctrine which had held part of the biological field -for above two thousand years, and which still has adherents. Of course -Augustine, as do modern Catholic biologists, excepted man from the -operation of secondary causes, and held that his soul was created by -the direct intervention of the Creator. Augustine's concessions are, -therefore, more seeming than real, and, moreover, we find him denying -the existence of the antipodes on the ground that Scripture is silent -about them, and also, that if God had placed any races there, they could -not see Christ descending at his second coming. To Augustine the air was -full of devils who are the cause of "all diseases of Christians." In -other words, he was not ahead of the illusions of his age. Then, too, he -shows that allegorizing spirit which was manifest in Greece a thousand -years earlier; the spirit which reads hidden meanings in Homer, in -Horace, and in Omar Khayyám; and which, in the hands of present-day -Gnostics, mostly fantastic or illiterate cabalists, converts the plain -narratives of Old and New Testaments into vehicles of mysterious types -and esoteric symbols. It is in such allegorical vein that Augustine -explains the outside and inside pitching of the ark as typifying the -safety of the Church from the leaking-in of heresy; while the ghastly -application of symbolical exegetics is seen in his citation of the words -of Jesus, "Compel them to come in," as a Divine warrant for the -slaughter of heretics. - -We shall meet with no other such commanding figure in Church history -till nine hundred years have passed, when Thomas Aquinas, the "Angel of -the Schools," appears, but although that period marks no advance of the -Church from her central position, it witnessed changes in her fortune -through the intrusion of a strange people into her territory and -sanctuaries. - - * * * * * - -Perhaps there are few events in history more impressive than the -conversion of the wild and ignorant Arab tribes of the seventh century -from stone-worship to monotheism. The series of conquests which followed -had also, as an indirect and unforeseen result, effects of vast -importance in the revival and spread of Greek culture from the Tigris to -the Guadalquivir. It is not easy, neither does the inquiry fall within -our present purpose, to discover the special impulses which led -Mohammed, the leader of the movement, to preach a new faith whose one -creed, stripped of all subtleties, was the unity of God. Large numbers -of Jews and Christians had settled in Arabia long before his time, and -he had become acquainted with the narrowness of the one, and with the -causes of the wranglings of the other, riven, as these last-named were, -into sects quarrelling over the nature of the Person of Christ. These, -and the fetichism of his fellow-countrymen, may, perhaps, have impelled -him to start a crusade the mandate for which he, in fanatic impulse, -believed came from heaven. The result is well known. The hitherto -untamed nomads became the eager instruments of the prophet. Under his -leadership, and that of the able Khalifs who succeeded him, the flag of -Islam was carried from East to West, till within one hundred years of -the flight of Mohammed from Mecca (622 A. D.) it waved from the Indian -Ocean to the Atlantic. With the conquest of Syria there was achieved -one of the greatest and most momentous of triumphs in the capture of -Jerusalem, and the seizure of sites sanctified to Christians by -association with the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. -Only a few years before (614 A. D.), the holy city had been taken by -Chosroes; the sacred buildings raised over the venerated tomb had been -burned, and the cross--a spurious relic--carried off by the Persian -king. These places have been, as it were, the cockpit of Christendom -from the time of the siege of Jerusalem under Titus to that of the -Crimean war, when blood was spilt like water in a conflict stirred by -squabbles between Latin and Greek Christians over possession of the key -of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. In the Church of the Holy -Sepulchre these sectaries are still kept from flying at one another's -throats by the muskets of Mohammedan soldiers. - -The Arabian conquest of Persia followed that of Syria. The turn of Egypt -soon came, the city of Alexandria being taken in 640, seven years after -the prophets' death. Since the loss of Greek freedom, and the decay of -intellectual life at Athens, that renowned place had become, notably -under the Ptolemies, the chief home of science and philosophy. Through -the propagandism of Christianity among the Hellenized Jews, of whom, as -of Greeks, large numbers had settled there, it was also the birthplace -of dogmatic theology, and, therefore, the fountain whence welled the -controversies whose logomachies were the gossip of the streets of -Constantinople and the cause of bloody persecution. After a few years' -pause, the Saracens (Ar., _sharkiin_, orientals) resumed their -conquering march. They captured and burnt Carthage, another famous -centre of Christianity, and then crossed over to Spain. In "the fair and -fertile isle of Andalusia" the Gothic king Roderick was aroused from his -luxurious life in Toledo to lead his army in gallant, but vain, attempt -to repel the infidel invaders. So rapid was their advance that in six -years they had subdued the whole of Spain, the north and northwestern -portions excepted, for the hardy Basque mountaineers maintained their -independence against the Arabs, as they had maintained it against Celt, -Roman, and Goth. Only before the walls of Tours did the invaders meet -with a rebuff from Charles Martel and his Franks, which arrested their -advance in Western Europe; as, in a more momentous defeat before -Constantinople by Leo III. in 718, fourteen years earlier, the torrent -of Mohammedan conquest was first checked. - -Enough, however, of Saracenic wars and their destructive work, which, if -tradition lies not, included the burning of the remnants of the vast -Alexandrian library. "A revealed dogma is always opposed to the free -research that may contradict it," and Islam has ever been a worse foe to -science than Christianity. Its association, as a religion, with the -renaissance of knowledge, was as wholly accidental as the story of it is -interesting. - -Under the Sassanian kings, Persia had become an active centre of -intellectual life, reaching the climax of its Augustan age in the reign -of Chosroes. Jew, Greek, and Christian alike had welcome at his court, -and translations of the writings of the Indian sages completed the -eclecticism of that enlightened monarch. Then came the ruthless Arab, -and philosophy and science were eclipsed. But with the advent of the -Abbaside Khalifs, who number the famous Haroun al-Raschid among them, -there came revival of the widest toleration, and consequent return of -intellectual activity. Baghdad arose as the seat of empire. Situated on -the high road of Oriental commerce, along which travelled foreign ideas -and foreign culture, that city became also the Oxford of her time. -Arabic was the language of the conquerors, and into that poetic, but -unphilosophic, tongue, Greek philosophy and science were rendered. Under -the rule of those Khalifs, says Renan, "nontolerant, nonreluctant -persecutors," free thought developed; the _Motecallenim_ or "disputants" -held debates, where all religions were examined in the light of reason. -Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, and Ptolemy were text-books in the colleges, -the repute of whose teachers brought to Baghdad and Naishapur (dear to -lovers of "old" Khayyám) students westward from Spain, and eastward from -Transoxiana. - -"Arab" philosophy, therefore, is only a name. It has been well -described as "a system of Greek thought expressed in a Semitic tongue; -and modified by Oriental influences called into existence by the -patronage of the more liberal princes, and kept alive by the zeal of a -small band of thinkers." In the main, it began and ended with the study -of Aristotle, commentaries on whom became the chief work of scholars, at -whose head stands the great name of Averroes. Through these--a handful -of Jews and Moslems--knowledge of Greek science, of astronomy, algebra, -chemistry, and medicine, was carried into Western Europe. By the latter -half of the tenth century, one hundred and fifty years after the -translation of Aristotle into Arabic, Spain had become no mean rival of -Baghdad and Cairo. Schools were founded; colleges to which the Girton -girls of the period could repair to learn mathematics and history were -set up by lady principals; manufactures and agriculture were encouraged; -and lovely and stately palaces and mosques beautified Seville, Cordova, -Toledo, and Granada, which last-named city the far-famed Alhâmra or Red -Fortress still overlooks. Seven hundred years before there was a public -lamp in London, and when Paris was a town of swampy roadways bordered -by windowless dwellings, Cordova had miles of well-lighted, well-paved -streets; and the constant use of the bath by the "infidel" contrasted -with the saintly filth and rags which were the pride of flesh-mortifying -devotees and the outward and odorous signs of their religion. The pages -of our dictionaries evidence in familiar mathematical and chemical -terms; in the names of the principal "fixed" stars; and in the words -"admiral" and "chemise"; the influence of the "Arab" in science, war, -and dress. - -It forms no part of our story to tell how feuds between rival dynasties -and rival sects of Islam, becoming more acute as time went on, enabled -Christianity to recover lost ground, and, in the capture of Granada in -1492, to put an end to Moorish rule in Spain. Before that event, a -knowledge of Greek philosophy had been diffused through Christendom by -the translation of the works of Avicenna, Averroes, and other scholars, -into Latin. That was about the middle of the twelfth century, when -Aristotle, who had been translated into Arabic some three centuries -earlier, also appeared in Latin dress. The detachment of any branch of -knowledge from theology being a thing undreamed of, the deep reverence -in which the Stagirite was held by his Arabian commentators ultimately -led to his becoming "suspect" by the Christians, since that which -approved itself to the followers of Mohammed must, _ipso facto_, be -condemned by the followers of Jesus. Hence came reaction, and recourse -to the Scriptures as sole guide to secular as well as sacred knowledge; -recourse to a method which, as Hallam says, "had not untied a single -knot, or added one unequivocal truth to the domain of philosophy." - -So far as the scanty records tell (for we may never know how much was -suppressed, or fell into oblivion, under ecclesiastical frowns and -threats; nor how many thinkers toiled in secret and in dread), none -seemed possessed either of courage or desire to supplement the revealed -word by examination into things themselves. To supplant it was not -dreamed of. But, in the middle of the thirteenth century, one notable -exception occurred in the person of Roger Bacon, sometimes called Friar -Bacon in virtue of his belonging to the order of Franciscans. He was -born in 1214 at Ilchester, in Somerset, whence he afterward removed to -Oxford, and thence to Paris. That this remarkable and many-sided man, -classic and Arabic scholar, mathematician, and natural philosopher, -has not a more recognised place in the annals of science is strange, -although it is, perhaps, partly explained by the fact that his writings -were not reissued for more than three centuries after his death. He has -been credited with a number of inventions, his title to which is however -doubtful, although the doubt in nowise impairs the greatness of his -name. He shared the current belief in alchemy, but made a number of -experiments in chemistry pointing to his knowledge of the properties of -the various gases, and of the components of gunpowder. If he did not -invent spectacles, or the microscope and telescope, he was skilled in -optics, and knew the principles on which those instruments are made, -as the following extract from his Opus Majus shows: "We can place -transparent bodies in such a form and position between our eyes and -other objects that the rays shall be refracted and bent toward any place -we please, so that we shall see the object near at hand, or at a -distance, under any angle we please; and thus from an incredible -distance we may read the smallest letters, and may number the smallest -particles of sand, by reason of the greatness of the angle under which -they appear." He knew the "wisdom of the ancients" in the cataloguing of -the stars, and suggested a reform of the calendar--following the then -unknown poet-astronomer of Naishapur. But he believed in astrology, that -bastard science which from remotest times had ruled the life of man, and -which has no small number of votaries among ourselves to this day. Roger -Bacon's abiding title to fame rests, however, on his insistence on -the necessity of experiment, and his enforcement of this precept by -practice. As a mathematician he laid stress on the application of this -"first of all the sciences"; indeed, as "preceding all others, and as -disposing us to them." His experiments, both from their nature and the -seclusion in which they were made, laid him open to the charge of black -magic, in other words, of being in league with the devil. This, in the -hands of a theology thus "possessed," became an instrument of awful -torture to mankind. Roger Bacon's denial of magic only aggravated his -crime, since in ecclesiastical ears, this was tantamount to a denial of -the activity, nay more, of the very existence of Satan. So, despite -certain encouragement in his scientific work from an old friend who -afterward became Pope Clement IV., for whose information he wrote his -Opus Majus, he was, on the death of that potentate, thrown into prison, -whence tradition says he emerged, after ten years, only to die. - -The theories of mediæval schoolmen--a monotonous record of unprogressive -ideas--need not be scheduled here, the more so as we approach the period -of discoveries momentous in their ultimate effect upon opinions which -now possess only the value attaching to the history of discredited -conceptions of the universe. Commerce, more than scientific curiosity, -gave the impetus to the discovery that the earth is a globe. Trade with -the East was divided between Genoa and Venice. These cities were rivals, -and the Genoese, alarmed at the growing success of the Venetians, -resolved to try to reach India from the west. Their schemes were -justified by reports of land indications brought by seamen who had -passed through the "Pillars of Hercules" to the Atlantic. The sequel is -well known. Columbus, after clerical opposition, and rebuffs from other -states, "offering," as Mr. Payne says, in his excellent History of -America, "though he knew it not, the New World in exchange for three -ships and provisions for twelve months," finally secured the support of -the Spanish king, and sailed from Cadiz on the 3d of August, 1492. On -11th of October he sighted the fringes of the New World, and believing -that he had sailed from Spain to India, gave the name West Indies to the -island-group. America itself had been discovered by roving Norsemen five -hundred years before, but the fact was buried in Icelandic tradition. -Following Columbus, Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese, set sail in 1497, and -taking a southerly course, doubled the Cape of Good Hope. Twenty-two -years later, Ferdinand Magellan started on a voyage more famous than -that of Columbus, since his ambition was to sail round the world, and -thus complete the chain of proof against the theory of its flatness. For -"though the Church hath evermore from Holy Writ affirmed that the earth -should be a widespread plain bordered by the waters, yet he comforted -himself when he considered that in the eclipses of the moon the shadow -cast of the earth is round; and as is the shadow, such, in like manner, -is the substance." Doubling Cape Horn through the straits that bear his -name, Magellan entered the vast ocean whose calm surface caused him to -call it the Pacific, and after terrible sufferings, he reached the -Ladrone Islands where, either at the hands of a mutinous crew, or of -savages, he was killed. His chief lieutenant, Sebastian d'Eleano, -continued the voyage, and after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, brought -the San Vittoria--name of happy omen--to anchor at St. Lucar, near -Seville, on 7th of September, 1522. Brought, too, the story of a -circumnavigated globe, and of new groups of stars never seen under -northern skies. - -The scene shifts, for the time being, from the earth to the heavens. The -Church had barely recovered from the blow struck at her authority on -matters of secular knowledge, when another dealt, and that by an -ecclesiastic, Copernicus, Canon of Frauenburg, in Prussia. But before -pursuing this, some reference to the revolt against the Church of Rome, -which is the great event of the sixteenth century, is necessary, if only -to inquire whether the movement known as the Reformation justified its -name as freeing the intellect from theological thraldom. Far-reaching as -were the areas which it covered and the effects which it wrought, its -quarrel with the Church of Rome was not because of that Church's -attitude toward freedom of thought. On the Continent it was a protest of -nobler minds against the corruptions fostered by the Papacy; in England, -it was personal and political in origin, securing popular support by its -anti-sacerdotal character, and its appeal to national irritation against -foreign control. But, both here and abroad, it sought mending rather -than ending; "not to vary in any jot from the faith Catholic." It -disputed the claim of the Church to be the sole interpreter of -Scripture, and contended that such interpretation was the right and duty -of the individual. But it would not admit the right of the individual to -call in question the authority of the Bible itself: to that book alone -must a man go for knowledge of things temporal as of things spiritual. -So that the Reformation was but an exchange of fetters, or, as Huxley -happily puts it, the scraping of a little rust off the chains which -still bound the mind. "Learning perished where Luther reigned," said -Erasmus, and in proof of it we find the Reformer agreeing with his -coadjutor, Melanchthon, in permitting no tampering with the written -Word. Copernicus notwithstanding, they had no doubt that the earth was -fixed and that sun and stars travelled round it, because the Bible said -so. Peter Martyr, one of the early Lutheran converts, in his Commentary -on Genesis, declared that wrong opinions about the creation as narrated -in that book would render valueless all the promises of Christ. Wherein -he spoke truly. As for the schoolmen, Luther called them "locusts, -caterpillars, frogs, and lice." Reason he denounced as the "arch whore" -and the "devil's bride," Aristotle is a "prince of darkness, horrid -impostor, public and professed liar, beast, and twice execrable." -Consistently enough, Luther believed vehemently in a personal devil, and -in witches; "I would myself burn them," he says, "even as it is written -in the Bible that the priests stoned offenders." To him demoniacal -possession was a fact clear as noonday: idiocy, lunacy, epilepsy and all -other mental and nervous disorders were due to it. Hence, a movement -whose intent appeared to be the freeing of the human spirit riveted more -tightly the bolts that imprisoned it; arresting the physical explanation -of mental diseases and that curative treatment of them which is one of -the countless services of science to suffering mankind. To Luther, the -descent of Christ into hell, which modern research has shown to be a -variant of an Orphic legend of the underworld, was a real event, Jesus -going thither that he might conquer Satan in a hand-to-hand struggle. - -Therefore, freedom of thought, as we define it, had the bitterest foe in -Luther, although, in his condemnation of "works," and his fanatical -dogma of man's "justification by faith alone," which made him reject the -Epistle of James as one "of straw," and as unworthy of a place in the -Canon, he unwittingly drove in the thin end of the rationalist wedge. -The Reformers had hedged the canonical books with theories of verbal -inspiration which extended even to the punctuation of the sentences. -They thus rendered intelligent study of the Bible impossible, and did -grievous injury to a collection of writings of vast historical value, -and of abiding interest as records of man's primitive speculations and -spiritual development. But Luther's application of the right of private -judgment to the omission or addition of this or that book into a canon -which had been closed by a Council of the Church, surrendered the whole -position, since there was no telling where the thing might stop. - -Copernicus waited full thirty years before he ventured to make his -theory public. The Ptolemaic system, which assumed a fixed earth with -sun, moon, and stars revolving above it, had held the field for about -fourteen hundred years. It accorded with Scripture; it was adopted -by the Church; and, moreover, it was confirmed by the senses, the -correction of which still remains, and will long remain, a condition of -intellectual advance. Little wonder is it, then, that Copernicus -hesitated to broach a theory thus supported, or that, when published, it -was put forth in tentative form as a possible explanation more in accord -with the phenomena. A preface, presumably by a friendly hand, commended -the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies to Pope Paul III. It urged that -"as in previous times others had been allowed the privilege of feigning -what circles they chose in order to explain the phenomena," Copernicus -"had conceived that he might take the liberty of trying whether, on the -supposition of the earth's motion, it was possible to find better -explanations than the ancient ones of the revolutions of the celestial -orbs." A copy of the book was placed in the hands of its author only a -few hours before his death on 23d of May, 1543. - -This "upstart astrologer," this "fool who wishes to reverse the entire -science of astronomy," for "sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua -commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth"--these are Luther's -words--was, therefore, beyond the grip of the Holy Inquisition. But a -substitute was forthcoming. Giordano Bruno, a Dominican monk, had added -to certain heterodox beliefs the heresy of Copernicanism, which he -publicly taught from Oxford to Venice. For these cumulative crimes he -was imprisoned and, after two years, condemned to be put to death -"as mercifully as possible and without the shedding of his blood," a -Catholic euphemism for burning a man alive. The murder was committed in -Rome on 17th of February, 1600. - -The year 1543 marks an epoch in biology as in astronomy. As shown in the -researches of Galen, an Alexandrian physician of the second century, -there had been no difficulty in studying the structure of the lower -animals, but, fortified both by tradition and by prejudice, the Church -refused to permit dissection of the human body, and in the latter part -of the thirteenth century, Boniface VIII. issued a Bull of the major -excommunication against offenders. Prohibition, as usual, led to -evasion, and Vesalius, Professor of Anatomy in Padua University, -resorted to various devices to procure "subjects," the bodies of -criminals being easiest to obtain. The end justified the means, as he -was able to correct certain errors of Galen, and to give the _quietus_ -to the old legend, based upon the myth of the creation of Eve, that man -has one rib less than woman. This was among the discoveries announced in -his De Corporis Humani Fabrica, published when he was only twenty-eight -years of age. The book fell under the ban of the Church because Vesalius -gave no support to the belief in an indestructible bone, nucleus of the -resurrection body, in man. The belief had, no doubt, near relation to -that of the Jews in the _os sacru_, and may remind us of Descartes' -fanciful location of the soul in the minute cone-like part of the brain -known as the _conarium_, or pineal gland. On some baseless charge of -attempting the dissection of a living subject, the Inquisition haled -Vesalius to prison, and would have put him to death "as mercifully as -possible," but for the intervention of King Charles V. of Spain, to -whom Vesalius had been physician. Returning in October, 1564, from a -pilgrimage taken, presumably, as atonement for his alleged offence, he -was shipwrecked on the coast of Zante, and died of exhaustion. - -While the heretical character and tendencies of discoveries in astronomy -and anatomy awoke active opposition from the Church, the work of men of -the type of Gesner, the eminent Swiss naturalist, and of Caesalpino, -professor of botany at Padua, passed unquestioned. No dogma was -endangered by the classification of plants and animals. But when a -couple of generations after the death of Copernicus had passed, the -Inquisition found a second victim in the famous Galileo, who was born at -Pisa in 1564. After spending some years in mechanical and mathematical -pursuits, he began a series of observations in confirmation of the -Copernican theory, of the truth of which he had been convinced in early -life. With the aid of a rude telescope, made by his own hands, he -discovered the satellites of Jupiter; the moon-like phases of Venus and -Mars; mountains and valleys in the moon; spots on the sun's disk; and -the countless stars which composed the luminous band known as the Milky -Way. Nought occurred to disturb his observations till, in a work on the -Solar Spots, he explained the movements of the earth and of the heavenly -bodies according to Copernicus. On the appearance of that book the -authorities contented themselves with a caution to the author. But -action followed his supplemental Dialogue on the Copernican and -Ptolemaic Systems. Through that convenient medium which the title -implies, Galileo makes the defender of the Copernican theory an easy -victor, and for this he was brought before the Inquisition in 1633. -After a tedious trial, and threats of "rigorous personal examination," -a euphemism for "torture," he was, despite the plea--too specious to -deceive--that he had merely put the _pros_ and _cons_ as between the -rival theories, condemned to abjure all that he had taught. There is a -story, probably fictitious, since it was first told in 1789, that when -the old man rose from his knees, he muttered his conviction that the -earth moves, in the words "e pur si muove." As a sample of the arguments -used by the ecclesiastics when they substituted, as rare exception, the -pen for the faggot, the reasoning advanced by one Sizzi against the -existence of Jupiter's moons, may be cited. "There are seven windows -given to animals in the domicile of the head, through which the air is -admitted to the tabernacle of the body, viz.: two nostrils, two eyes, -two ears, and one mouth. So, in the heavens, as in a macrocosm, or -great world, there are two favourable stars, Jupiter and Venus; two -unpropitious, Mars and Saturn; two luminaries, the sun and moon, and -Mercury alone undecided and indifferent. From these and many other -phenomena of Nature, which it were tedious to enumerate, we gather that -the number of planets is necessarily seven. Moreover, the satellites are -invisible to the naked eye, and, therefore, can exercise no influence -over the earth, and would, of course, be useless; and, therefore, do not -exist." - -In this brief summary of the attitude of the Church toward science, it -is not possible, and if it were so, it is not needful, to refer in -detail to the contributions of the more speculative philosophers, who, -although they made no discoveries, advocated those methods of research -and directions of inquiry which made the discoveries possible. Among -these a prominent name is that of Lord Bacon, whose system of -philosophy, known as the Inductive, proceeds from the collection, -examination and comparison of any group of connected facts to the -relation of them to some general principle. The universal is thus -explained by the particular. But the inductive method was no invention -of Bacon's; wherever observation or testing of a thing preceded -speculation about it, as with his greater namesake, there the Baconian -system had its application. Lord Bacon, moreover, undervalued Greek -science; he argued against the Copernican theory; and either knew -nothing of, or ignored, Harvey's momentous discovery of the circulation -of the blood. A more illustrious name than his is that of René -Descartes, a man who combined theory with observation; "one who," in -Huxley's words, "saw that the discoveries of Galileo meant that the -remotest parts of the universe were governed by mechanical laws, while -those of Harvey meant that the same laws presided over the operations of -that portion of the world which is nearest to us, namely, our own bodily -frame." The greatness of this man, a good Catholic, whom the Jesuits -charged with Atheism, has no mean tribute in his influence on an equally -remarkable man, Benedict Spinoza. Spinoza reduced the Cartesian analysis -of phenomena into God, mind and matter to one phenomenon, namely, God, -of whom matter and spirit, extension and thought, are but attributes. -His short life fell within the longer span of Newton's, whose strange -subjection to the theological influences of his age is seen in this -immortal interpreter of the laws of the universe wasting his later -years on an attempt to interpret unfulfilled prophecy. These and others, -as Locke, Leibnitz, Herder, and Schelling, like the great Hebrew leader, -had glimpses of a goodly land which they were not themselves to enter. -But, perhaps, in the roll of illustrious men to whom prevision came, -none have better claim to everlasting remembrance than Immanuel Kant. -For in his Theory of the Heavens, published in 1755, he anticipates that -hypothesis of the origin of the present universe which, associated with -the succeeding names of Laplace and Herschel, has, under corrections -furnished by modern physics, common acceptance among us. Then, as shown -in the following extract, Kant foresees the theory of the development of -life from formless stuff to the highest types: "It is desirable to -examine the great domain of organized beings by means of a methodical -comparative anatomy, in order to discover whether we may not find in -them something resembling a system, and that too in connection with -their mode of generation, so that we may not be compelled to stop short -with a mere consideration of forms as they are--which gives no insight -into their generation--and need not despair of gaining a full insight -into this department of Nature. The agreement of so many kinds of -animals in a certain common plan of structure, which seems to be visible -not only in their skeletons, but also in the arrangement of the other -parts--so that a wonderfully simple typical form, by the shortening or -lengthening of some parts, and by the suppression and development of -others, might be able to produce an immense variety of species--gives us -a ray of hope, though feeble, that here perhaps some results may be -obtained, by the application of the principle of the mechanism of -Nature; without which, in fact, no science can exist. This analogy of -forms (in so far as they seem to have been produced in accordance with -a common prototype, notwithstanding their great variety) strengthens -the supposition that they have an actual blood-relationship, due to -derivation from a common parent; a supposition which is arrived at by -observation of the graduated approximation of one class of animals to -another, beginning with the one in which the principle of purposiveness -seems to be most conspicuous, namely, man, and extending down to the -polyps, and from these even down to mosses and lichens, and arriving -finally at raw matter, the lowest stage of Nature observable by us. From -this raw matter and its forces, the whole apparatus of Nature seems to -have been derived according to mechanical laws (such as those which -resulted in the production of crystals); yet this apparatus, as seen in -organic beings, is so incomprehensible to us, that we feel ourselves -compelled to conceive for it a different principle. But it would seem -that the archæologist of Nature is at liberty to regard the great -Family of creatures (for as a Family we must conceive it, if the -above-mentioned continuous and connected relationship has a real -foundation) as having sprung from their immediate results of her -earliest revolutions, judging from all the laws of their mechanisms -known to or conjectured by him." - -In our arrival at the age of these seers, we feel the play of a freer, -purer air; a lull in the miasmatic currents that bring intolerance on -their wings. The tolerance that approaches is due to no surrender of its -main position by dogmatic theology, but to that larger perception of the -variety and complexity of life, ignorance of, or wilful blindness to, -which is the secret of the survival of rigid opinion. The demonstration -of the earth's roundness; the discovery of America; the growing -conception of inter-relation between the lowest and the highest -life-forms; the slow but sure acceptance of the Copernican theory; and, -above all, the idea of a Cosmos, an unbroken order, to which every -advance in knowledge contributes, justified and fostered the free play -of the intellect. Foreign as yet, however, to the minds of widest -breadth, was the conception of the inclusion of MAN himself in the -universal order. Duality--Nature overruled by supernature--was the -unaltered note; the supernature as part of Nature a thing undreamed of. -Nor could it be otherwise while the belief in diabolical agencies still -held the field, sending wretched victims to the stake on the evidence of -conscientious witnesses, and with the concurrence of humane judges. -Animism, the root of all personification, whether of good or evil, had -lost none of its essential character, and but little of its vigour. - -"I flatter myself," says Hume, in the opening words of the essay upon -Miracles, in his Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, "that I have -discovered an argument of a like nature (he is referring to Archbishop -Tillotson's argument on Transubstantiation) which, if just, will, -with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kind of -superstitious delusion, and, consequently, will be useful as long as the -world endures." Hume certainly did not overrate the force of the blow -which he dealt at supernaturalism, one of a series of attacks which, in -France and Britain, carried the war into the camp of the enemy, and -changed its tactics from aggressive to defensive. But none the less is -it true that the "superstitious delusions" against which he planted his -logical artillery were killed neither by argument nor by evidence. -Delusion and error do not perish by controversial warfare. They perish -under the slow and silent operation of changes to which they are unable -to adapt themselves. The atmosphere is altered: the organism can neither -respond nor respire; therefore, it dies. Thus, save where lurks the -ignorance which is its breath of life, has wholly perished belief in -witchcraft; thus, too, is slowly perishing belief in miracles, and, with -this, belief in the miraculous events, the incarnation, resurrection, -and ascension of Jesus, on which the fundamental tenets of Christianity -are based, and in which lies so largely the secret of its long hostility -to knowledge. - - - - -_PART III._ - -THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE. - -A. D. 1600 ONWARDS. - - "Though science, like Nature, may be driven out with a fork, - ecclesiastical or other, yet she surely comes back again."--HUXLEY, - Prologue to Collected Essays, vol. v. - - -The exercise of a more tolerant spirit, to which reference has been -made, had its limits. It is true that Dr. South, a famous divine, -denounced the Royal Society (founded 1645) as an irreligious body; -although a Dr. Wallis, one of the first members, especially declared -that "matters of theology" were "precluded": the business being "to -discourse and consider of philosophical inquiries and such as related -thereunto; as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, -Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments; with the -state of these studies, and their cultivation at home and abroad." -Regardless of South and such as agreed with him, Torricelli worked at -hydrodynamics, and discovered the principle of the barometer; Boyle -inquired into the law of the compressibility of gases; Malpighi examined -minute life-forms and the structure of organs under the microscope; Ray -and Willughby classified plants and animals; Newton theorized on the -nature of light; and Roemer measured its speed; Halley estimated the -sun's distance, predicted the return of comets, and observed the -transits of Venus and Mercury; Hunter dissected specimens, and laid the -foundations of the science of comparative anatomy; and many another -illustrious worker contributed to the world's stock of knowledge -"without let or hindrance," for in all this "matters of theology were -precluded." - -But the old spirit of resistance was aroused when, after a long lapse of -time, inquiry was revived in a branch of science which, it will be -noticed, has no distinct place in the subjects dealt with by the Royal -Society at the start. That science was Geology; a science destined, in -its ultimate scope, to prove a far more powerful dissolvent of dogma -than any of its compeers. - -It seems strange that the discovery of the earth's true shape and -movements was not sooner followed by investigation into her contents, -but the old ideas of special creation remained unaffected by these and -other discoveries, and the more or less detailed account of the process -of creation furnished in the book of Genesis sufficed to arrest -curiosity. In the various departments of the inorganic universe the -earth was the last to become subject of scientific research; as in study -of the organic universe, man excluded himself till science compelled his -inclusion. - -After more than two thousand years, the Ionian philosophers "come to -their own" again. Xenophanes of Colophon has been referred to as -arriving, five centuries B. C., at a true explanation of the imprints of -plants and animals in rocks. Pythagoras, who lived before him, may, if -Ovid, writing near the Christian era, is to be trusted, have reached -some sound conclusions about the action of water in the changes of land -and sea areas. But we are on surer ground when we meet the geographer -Strabo, who lived in the reign of Augustus. Describing the countries in -which he travelled, he notes their various features, and explains the -causes of earthquakes and allied phenomena. Then eleven hundred years -pass before we find any explanation of like rational character supplied. -This was furnished by the Arabian philosopher, Avicenna, whose theory of -the origin of mountains is the more marvellous when we remember what -intellectual darkness surrounded him. He says that "mountains may be due -to two different causes. Either they are effects of upheavals of the -crust of the earth, such as might occur during a violent earthquake, or -they are the effect of water, which, cutting for itself a new route, has -denuded the valleys, the strata being of different kinds, some soft, -some hard. The winds and waters disintegrate the one, but leave the -other intact. Most of the eminences of the earth have had this latter -origin. It would require a long period of time for all such changes to -be accomplished, during which the mountains themselves might be somewhat -diminished in size. But that water has been the main cause of these -effects is proved by the existence of fossil remains of aquatic and -other animals on many mountains" (cf. Osborn's From the Greeks to -Darwin, p. 76). A similar explanation of fossils was given by the -engineer-artist Leonardo de Vinci in the fifteenth century, and by the -potter Bernard Palissy, in the sixteenth century; but thence onward, -for more than a hundred years, the earth was as a sealed book to man. -The earlier chapters of its history, once reopened, have never been -closed again. Varied as were the theories of the causes which wrought -manifold changes on its surface, they agreed in demanding a far longer -time-history than the Church was willing to allow. If the reasoning of -the geologists was sound, the narrative in Genesis was a myth. Hence -the renewal of struggle between the Christian Church and Science, -waged, at first, over the six days of the Creation. - -Here and there, in bygone days, a sceptical voice had been raised in -denial of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Such was that of La -Peyrère who, in 1655, published an instalment of a work in which he -anticipated what is nowadays accepted, but what then was akin to -blasphemy to utter. For not only does he doubt whether Moses had any -hand in the writings attributed to him: he rejects the orthodox view of -suffering and death as the penalties of Adam's disobedience; and gives -rationalistic interpretation of the appearance of the star of Bethlehem, -and of the darkness at the Crucifixion. But La Peyrère became a Roman -Catholic, and, of course, recanted his opinions. Then, nearer the time -when controversy on the historical character of the Scriptures was -becoming active, one Astruc, a French physician, suggested, in a work -published in 1753, that Moses may have used older materials in his -compilation of the earlier parts of the Pentateuch. - -But, practically, the five books included under that name, were believed -to have been written by Moses under divine authority. The statement in -Genesis that God made the universe and its contents, both living and -non-living, in six days of twenty-four hours each, was explicit. Thus -interpreted, as their plain meaning warranted, Archbishop Usher made his -famous calculation as to the time elapsing between the creation and the -birth of Christ. Dr. White, in his important Warfare of Science with -Theology, gives an amusing example of the application of Usher's method -in detail. A seventeenth century divine, Dr. Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor -of Cambridge University, computed that "man was created by the Trinity -on 23d October, 4004 B. C., at nine o'clock in the morning." The same -theologian, who, by the way, was a very eminent Hebrew scholar, -following the interpretation of the great Fathers of the Church, -"declared, as the result of profound and exhaustive study of the -Scriptures, that 'heaven and earth, centre and circumference, and clouds -full of water, were created all together, in the same instant.'" - -The story of the Deluge was held to furnish sufficing explanation of the -organic remains yielded by the rocks, but failing this, a multitude of -fantastic theories were at hand to explain the fossils. They were said -to be due to a "formative quality" in the soil; to its "plastic virtue"; -to a "lapidific juice"; to the "fermentation of fatty matter"; to "the -influence of the heavenly bodies," or, as the late eminent naturalist, -Philip Gosse, seriously suggested in his whimsical book Omphalos: an -Attempt to untie the Geological Knot, they were but simulacra wherewith -a mocking Deity rebuked the curiosity of man. Every explanation, save -the right and obvious one, had its defenders, because it was essential -to support some theory to rebut the evidence supplied by remains of -animals as to the existence of death in the world before the fall of -Adam. Otherwise, the statements in the Old Testament, on which the -Pauline reasoning rested, were baseless, and to discredit these was -to undermine the authority of the Scriptures from Genesis to the -Apocalypse. No wonder, therefore, that theology was up in arms, or that -it saw in geology a deadlier foe than astronomy had seemed to be in ages -past. The Sorbonne, or Faculty of Theology, in Paris burnt the books of -the geologists, banished their authors, and, in the case of Buffon, the -famous naturalist, condemned him to retract the awful heresy, which was -declared "contrary to the creed of the Church," contained in these -words: "The waters of the sea have produced the mountains and valleys -of the land; the waters of the heavens, reducing all to a level, will at -last deliver the whole land over to the sea, and the sea successively -prevailing over the land, will leave dry new continents like those which -we inhabit." So the old man repeated the submission of Galileo, and -published his recantation: "I declare that I had no intention to -contradict the text of Scripture; that I believe most firmly all therein -related about the creation, both as to order of time and matter of fact. -I abandon everything in my book respecting the formation of the earth, -and generally all which may be contrary to the narrative of Moses." That -was in the year 1751. - -If the English theologians could not deliver heretics of the type of -Buffon to the secular arm, they used all the means that denunciation -supplied for delivering them over to Satan. Epithets were hurled at -them; arguments drawn from a world accursed of God levelled at them. -Saint Jerome, living in the fourth century, had pointed to the cracked -and crumpled rocks as proof of divine anger: now Wesley and others saw -in "sin the moral cause of earthquakes, whatever their natural cause -might be," since before Adam's transgression, no convulsions or -eruptions ruffled the calm of Paradise. Meanwhile, the probing of the -earth's crust went on; revealing, amidst all the seeming confusion of -distorted and metamorphosed rocks, an unvarying sequence of strata, and -of the fossils imbedded in them. Different causes were assigned for the -vast changes ranging over vast periods; one school believing in the -action of volcanic and such like catastrophic agents; another in -the action of aqueous agents, seeing, more consistently, in present -operations the explanation of the causes of past changes. But there -was no diversity of opinion concerning the extension of the earth's -time-history and life-history to millions on millions of years. - -So, when this was to be no longer resisted, theologians sought some -basis of compromise on such non-fundamental points as the six days of -creation. It was suggested that perhaps these did not mean the seventh -part of a week, but periods, or eons, or something equally elastic; and -that if the Mosaic narrative was regarded as a poetic revelation of the -general succession of phenomena, beginning with the development of order -out of chaos, and ending with the creation of man, Scripture would be -found to have anticipated or revealed what science confirms. It was -impossible, so theologians argued, that there could be aught else than -harmony between the divine works and the writings which were assumed to -be of divine origin. Science could not contradict revelation, and -whatever seemed contradictory was due to misapprehension either of the -natural fact, or to misreading of the written word. But although the -story of the creation might be clothed, as so exalted and moving a theme -warranted, in poetic form, that of the fall of Adam and of the drowning -of his descendants, eight persons excepted, must be taken in all its -appalling literalness. Confirmation of the Deluge story was found in -the fossil shells on high mountain tops; while as for the giants of -antediluvian times, there were the huge bones in proof. Some of these -relics of mastodon and mammoth were actually hung up in churches as -evidence that "there were giants in those days"! Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire -tells of one Henrion, who published a book in 1718 giving the height of -Adam as one hundred and twenty-three feet nine inches, and of Eve as -one hundred and eighteen feet nine inches, Noah being of rather less -stature. But to parley with science is fatal to theology. Moreover, -arguments which involve the cause they support in ridicule may be left -to refute themselves. And while theology was hesitating, as in the -amusing example supplied by Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible -(published in 1863) wherein the reader, turning up the article "Deluge," -is referred to "Flood," and thence to "Noah"; archæology produced the -Chaldæan original of the legend whence the story of the flood is -derived. With candour as commendable as it is rare, the Reverend -Professor Driver, from whom quotation has been made already, admits that -"read without prejudice or bias, the narrative of Genesis i. creates an -impression at variance with the facts revealed by science"; all efforts -at reconciliation being only "different modes of obliterating the -characteristic features of Genesis, and of reading into it a view which -it does not express." - -While the ground in favour of the literal interpretation of Genesis was -being contested, an invading force, that had been gathering strength -with the years, was advancing in the shape of the science of Biology. -The workers therein fall into two classes: the one, represented by -Linnaeus and his school, applied themselves to the classifying and -naming of plants and animals; the other, represented by Cuvier and his -school, examined into structure and function. Anatomy made clear the -machinery: physiology the work which it did, and the conditions under -which the work was done. Then, through comparison of corresponding -organs and their functions in various life-forms, came growing -perception of their unity. But only to a few came gleams of that unity -as proof of common descent of plant and animal, for, save in scattered -hints of inter-relation between species, which occur from the time of -Lord Bacon onward, the theory of their immutability was dominant until -forty years ago. - -Four men form the chief vanguard of the biological movement. "Modern -classificatory method and nomenclature have largely grown out of the -work of Linnaeus; the modern conception of biology, as a science, and -of its relation to climatology, geography, and geology, are as largely -rooted in the labours of Buffon; comparative anatomy and palæontology -owe a vast debt to Cuvier's results; while invertebrate zoology and the -revival of the idea of Evolution are intimately dependent on the results -of the work of Lamarck. In other words, the main results of biology up -to the early years of this century are to be found in, or spring out of, -the works of these men." - -Linnaeus, son of a Lutheran pastor, born at Roeshult, in Sweden, in -1707, had barely passed his twenty-fifth year before laying the -ground-plan of the system of classification which bears his name, a -system which advance in knowledge has since modified. Based on external -resemblances, its formulation was possible only to a mind intent on -minute and accurate detail, and less observant of general principles. In -brief, the work of Linnaeus was constructive, not interpretative. Hence, -perhaps, conjoined to the theological ideas then current, the reason -why the larger question of the fixity of species entered not into his -purview. To him each plant and animal retained the impress of the -Creative hand that had shaped it "in the beginning," and, throughout -his working life, he departed but slightly from the plan with which he -started, namely, "reckoning as many species as issued in pairs" from the -Almighty fiat. - -Not so Buffon, born on his father's estate in Burgundy in the same year -as Linnaeus, whom he survived ten years, dying in 1788. His opinions, -clashing as they did with orthodox creeds, were given in a tentative, -questioning fashion, so that where ecclesiastical censure fell, retreat -was easier. As has been seen in his submission to the Sorbonne, he was -not of the stuff of which martyrs are made. Perhaps he felt that the -ultimate victory of his opinions was sufficiently assured to make -self-sacrifice needless. But, under cover of pretence at inquiry, his -convictions are clear enough. He was no believer in the permanent -stability of species, and noted, as warrant of this, the otherwise -unexplained presence of aborted or rudimentary structures. For example, -he says, "the pig does not appear to have been formed upon an original, -special, and perfect plan, since it is a compound of other animals; it -has evidently useless parts, or rather, parts of which it cannot make -any use, toes, all the bones of which are perfectly formed, and which, -nevertheless, are of no service to it. Nature is far from subjecting -herself to final causes in the formation of her creatures." Then, -further, as showing his convictions on the non-fixity of species, he -says, how many of them, "being perfected or degenerated by the great -changes in land and sea, by the favours or disfavours of Nature, by -food, by the prolonged influences of climate, contrary or favourable, -are no longer what they formerly were." But he writes with an eye on the -Sorbonne when, hinting at a possible common ancestor of horse and ass, -and of ape and man, he slyly adds that since the Bible teaches the -contrary, the thing cannot be. Thus he attacked covertly; by adit, not -by direct assault; and to those who read between the lines there was -given a key wherewith to unlock the door to the solution of many -biological problems. Buffon, consequently, was the most stimulating and -suggestive naturalist of the eighteenth century. There comes between him -and Lamarck, both in order of time and sequence of ideas, Erasmus -Darwin, the distinguished grandfather of Charles Darwin. - -Born at Eton, near Newark, in 1731, he walked the hospitals at London -and Edinburgh, and settled, for some years, at Lichfield, ultimately -removing to Derby. Since Lucretius, no scientific writer had put his -cosmogonic speculations into verse until Dr. Darwin made the heroic -metre, in which stereotyped form the poetry of his time was cast, the -vehicle of rhetorical descriptions of the amours of flowers and the -evolution of the thumb. The Loves of the Plants, ridiculed in the Loves -of the Triangles in the Anti-Jacobin, is not to be named in the same -breath, for stateliness of diction, and majesty of movement, as the De -rerum Natura. But both the prose work Zoonomia and the poem The Temple -of Nature (published after the author's death in 1802) have claim -to notice as the matured expression of conclusions at which the -clear-sighted, thoughtful, and withal, eccentric doctor had arrived in -the closing years of his life. Krause's Life and Study of the Works of -Erasmus Darwin supplies an excellent outline of the contents of books -which are now rarely taken down from the shelves, and makes clear that -their author had the root of the matter in him. His observations and -reading, for the influence of Buffon and others is apparent in his -writings, led him to reject the current belief in the separate creation -of species. He saw that this theory wholly failed to account for the -existence of abnormal forms, of adaptations of the structure of organs -to their work, of gradations between living things, and other features -inconsistent with the doctrine of "let lions be, and there were lions." -His shrewd comment on the preformation notion of development has been -quoted (p. 20). The substance of his argument in support of a "physical -basis of life" is as follows: "When we revolve in our minds the -metamorphosis of animals, as from the tadpole to the frog; secondly, the -changes produced by artificial cultivation, as in the breeds of horses, -dogs, and sheep; thirdly, the changes produced by conditions of climate -and of season, as in the sheep of warm climates being covered with hair -instead of wool, and the hares and partridges of northern climates -becoming white in winter; when, further, we observe the changes of -structure produced by habit, as seen especially by men of different -occupations; or the changes produced by artificial mutilation and -prenatal influences, as in the crossing of species and production of -monsters; fourth, when we observe the essential unity of plan in all -warm-blooded animals--we are led to conclude that they have been alike -produced from a similar living filament." The concluding words of this -extract make remarkable approach to the modern theory of the origin of -life in the complex jelly-like protoplasm, or, as some call it, nuclein -or nucleoplasm. And, on this, Erasmus Darwin further remarks: "As the -earth and ocean were probably peopled with vegetable productions long -before the existence of animals, and many families of these animals long -before other animals of them, shall we conjecture that one and the same -kind of living filament is and has been the cause of all organic life?" -Nor does he make any exception to this law of organic development. He -quotes Buffon and Helvetius to the effect--"that many features in the -anatomy of man point to a former quadrupedal position, and indicate that -he is not yet fully adapted to the erect position; that, further, man -may have arisen from a single family of monkeys, in which, accidentally, -the opposing muscle brought the thumb against the tips of the fingers, -and that this muscle gradually increased in size by use in successive -generations." While we who live in these days of fuller knowledge -of agents of variation may detect the _minus_ in all foregoing -speculations, our interest is increased in the thought of their near -approach to the cardinal discovery. And a rapid run through the later -writings of Dr. Darwin shows that there is scarcely a side of the great -theory of Evolution which has escaped his notice or suggestive comment. -Grant Allen, in his excellent little monograph on Charles Darwin, says -that the theory of "natural selection was the only cardinal one in the -evolutionary system on which Erasmus Darwin did not actually forestall -his more famous and greater namesake. For its full perception, the -discovery of Malthus had to be collated with the speculations of -Buffon." - -In the Historical Sketch on the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of -Species, which Darwin prefixed to his book, he refers to Lamarck as "the -first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention;" -rendering "the eminent service of arousing attention to the probability -of all change in the organic, as well as in the inorganic world, being -the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition." Lamarck was -born at Bezantin, in Picardy, in 1744. Intended for the Church, he -chose the army, but an injury resulting from a practical joke cut short -his career as a soldier. He then became a banker's clerk, in which -occupation he secured leisure for his favourite pursuit of natural -history. Through Buffon's influence he procured a civil appointment, -and ultimately became a colleague of Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire in -the Museum of Natural History at Paris. Of Cuvier it will here suffice -to say that he remained to the end of his life a believer in special -creation, or, what amounts to the same thing, a series of special -creations which, he held, followed the catastrophic annihilations -of prior plants and animals. Although orthodox by conviction, his -researches told against his tenets, because his important work in the -reconstruction of skeletons of long extinct animals laid the foundation -of palæontology. - -To Lamarck, says Haeckel, "will always belong the immortal glory of -having for the first time worked out the Theory of Descent as an -independent scientific theory of the first order, and as the -philosophical foundation of the whole science of Biology." He taught -that in the beginnings of life only the very simplest and lowest -animals and plants came into existence; those of more complex structure -developing from these; man himself being descended from ape-like -mammals. For the Aristotelian mechanical figure of life as a ladder, -with its detached steps, he substituted the more appropriate figure of -a tree, as an inter-related organism. He argued that the course of the -earth's development, and also of all life upon it, was continuous, and -not interrupted by violent revolutions. In this he followed Buffon and -Hutton. Buffon, in his Theory of the Earth, argues that "in order to -understand what had taken place in the past, or what will happen in the -future, we have but to observe what is going on in the present." This -is the keynote of modern geology. "Life," adds Lamarck, "is a purely -physical phenomenon. All its phenomena depend on mechanical, physical, -and chemical causes which are inherent in the nature of matter itself." -He believed in a form of spontaneous generation. Rejecting Buffon's -theory of the direct action of the surroundings as agents of change in -living things, he sums up the causes of organic evolution in the -following propositions: - -1. Life tends by its inherent forces to increase the volume of each -living body and of all its parts up to a limit determined by its own -needs. - -2. New wants in animals give rise to new movements which produce organs. - -3. The development of these organs is in proportion to their employment. - -4. New developments are transmitted to offspring. - -The second and third propositions were illustrated by examples which -have, with good reason, provoked ridicule. Lamarck accounts for the long -neck of the giraffe by that organ being continually stretched out to -reach the leaves at the tree-tops; for the long tongue of the ant-eater -or the woodpecker by these creatures protruding it to get at food in -channel or crevice; for the webbed feet of aquatic animals by the -outstretching of the membranes between the toes in swimming; and for the -erect position of man by the constant efforts of his ape-like ancestors -to keep upright. The legless condition of the serpent which, in the -legend of the Garden of Eden, is accounted for on moral grounds, is -thus explained by Lamarck: "Snakes sprang from reptiles with four -extremities, but having taken up the habit of moving along the earth and -concealing themselves among bushes, their bodies, owing to repeated -efforts to elongate themselves and to pass through narrow spaces, have -acquired a considerable length out of all proportion to their width. -Since long feet would have been very useless, and short feet would have -been incapable of moving their bodies, there resulted a cessation of use -of these parts, which has finally caused them to totally disappear, -although they were originally part of the plan of organization in these -animals." The discovery of an efficient cause of modifications, which -Lamarck refers to the efforts of the creatures themselves, has placed -his speculations in the museum of biological curiosities; but sharp -controversy rages to-day over the question raised in Lamarck's fourth -proposition, namely, the transmission of characters acquired by the -parent during its lifetime to the offspring. This burning question -between Weismann and his opponents, involving the serious problem of -heredity, will remain unsettled till a long series of observations -supply material for judgment. - -Lamarck, poor, neglected, and blind in his old age, died in 1829. Both -Cuvier, who ridiculed him, and Goethe, who never heard of him, passed -away three years later. The year following his death, when Darwin was an -undergraduate at Cambridge, Lyell published his Principles of Geology, -a work destined to assist in paving the way for the removal of one -difficulty attending the solution of the theory of the origin of -species, namely, the vast period of time for the life-history of -the globe which that theory demands. As Lyell, however, was then a -believer--although, like a few others of his time, of wavering type--in -the fixity of species, he had other aims in view than those to which his -book contributed. But he wrote with an open mind, not being, as Herbert -Spencer says of Hugh Miller, "a theologian studying geology." Following -the theories of uniformity of action laid down by Hutton, by Buffon, and -by that industrious surveyor, William Smith, who travelled the length -and breadth of England, mapping out the sequence of the rocks, and -tabulating the fossils special to each stratum, Lyell demonstrated in -detail that the formation and features of the earth's crust are -explained by the operation of causes still active. He was one among -others, each working independently at different branches of research; -each, unwittingly, collecting evidence which would help to demolish old -ideas, and support new theories. - -A year after the Principles of Geology appeared, there crept unnoticed -into the world a treatise, by one Patrick Matthew, on Naval Timber and -Arboriculture, under which unexciting title Darwin's theory was -anticipated. Of this, however, as of a still earlier anticipation, more -presently. About this period Von Baer, in examining the embryos of -animals, showed that creatures so unlike one another in their adult -state as fishes, lizards, lions, and men, resemble one another so -closely in the earlier stages of their development that no differences -can be detected between them. But Von Baer was himself anticipated by -Meckel, who wrote as follows in 1811: "There is no good physiologist who -has not been struck, incidentally, by the observation that the original -form of all organisms is one and the same, and that out of this one -form, all, the lowest as well as the highest, are developed in such a -manner that the latter pass through the permanent forms of the former as -transitory stages" (Osborn's From the Greeks to Darwin, p. 212). In -botany Conrad Sprengel, who belongs to the eighteenth century, had shown -the work effected by insects in the fertilization of plants. Following -his researches, Robert Brown made clear the mode of the development of -plants, and Sir William Hooker traced their habits and geographical -distribution. Von Mohl discovered that material basis of both plant and -animal which he named "protoplasm." In 1844, nine years before Von Mohl -told the story of the building-up of life from a seemingly structureless -jelly, a book appeared which critics of the time charged with "poisoning -the fountains of science, and sapping the foundations of religion." This -was the once famous Vestiges of Creation, acknowledged after his death -as the work of Robert Chambers, in which the origin and movements of the -solar system were explained as determined by uniform laws, themselves -the expression of Divine power. Organisms, "from the simplest and -oldest, up to the highest and most recent," were the result of an -"inherent impulse imparted by the Almighty both to advance them from the -several grades and modify their structure as circumstances required." -Although now referred to only as "marking time" in the history of the -theory of Evolution, the book created a sensation which died away only -some years after its publication. Darwin remarks upon it in his -Historical Sketch that although displaying "in the earlier editions -little accurate knowledge and a great want of scientific knowledge, it -did excellent service in this country in calling attention to the -subject, in removing prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground for the -reception of analogous views." - -Three years after the Vestiges, there was, although none then knew it, -or knowing the fact, would have admitted it, more "sapping of the -foundations" of orthodox belief, when M. Boucher de Perthes exhibited -some rudely-shaped flint implements which had been found at intervals in -hitherto undisturbed deposits of sand and gravel--old river beds--in the -Somme valley, near Abbeville, in Picardy. For these rough stone tools -and weapons, being of human workmanship, evidenced the existence of -savage races of men in Europe in a dim and dateless past, and went far -to refute the theories of his paradisiacal state on that memorable "23 -October, 4004 B. C.," when, according to Dr. Lightfoot's reckoning (see -p. 103), Adam was created. While the pickaxe, in disturbing flint knives -and spearheads, that had lain for countless ages, was disturbing much -besides, English and German philosophers were formulating the imposing -theory which, under the name of the Conservation of Energy, makes clear -the indestructibility of both matter and motion. Then, to complete the -work of preparation effected by the discoveries now briefly outlined, -there appeared, in a now defunct newspaper, the Leader, in its issue of -20th of March, 1852, an article by Herbert Spencer on the Development -Hypothesis, in which the following striking passage occurs: "Those who -cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported -by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no -facts at all. Like the majority of men who are born to a given belief, -they demand the most rigorous proof of any adverse belief, but assume -that their own needs none. Here we find, scattered over the globe, -vegetable and animal organisms numbering, of the one kind (according to -Humboldt) some 320,000 species, and of the other, some 2,000,000 species -(see Carpenter); and if to these we add the numbers of animal and -vegetable species that have become extinct, we may safely estimate the -number of species that have existed, and are existing, on the earth, at -not less than _ten millions_. Well, which is the most rational theory -about these ten millions of species? Is it most likely that there have -been ten millions of special creations? or is it most likely that by -continual modifications, due to change of circumstances, ten millions of -varieties have been produced, as varieties are being produced still?... -Even could the supporters of the Development Hypothesis merely show -that the origination of species by the process of modification is -conceivable, they would be in a better position than their opponents. -But they can do much more than this. They can show that the process of -modification has effected, and is effecting, decided changes in all -organisms subject to modifying influences.... They can show that in -successive generations these changes continue, until ultimately the new -conditions become the natural ones. They can show that in cultivated -plants, domesticated animals, and in the several races of men, such -alterations have taken place. They can show that the degrees of -difference so produced are often, as in dogs, greater than those on -which distinctions of species are in other cases founded. They can show, -too, that the changes daily taking place in ourselves--the facility that -attends long practice, and the loss of aptitude that begins when -practice ceases--the strengthening of passions habitually gratified, and -the weakening of those habitually curbed--the development of every -faculty, bodily, moral, or intellectual, according to the use made of -it--are all explicable on this same principle. And thus they can show -that throughout all organic nature there is at work a modifying -influence of the kind they assign as the cause of these specific -differences; an influence which, though slow in its action, does, in -time, if the circumstances demand it, produce marked changes--an -influence which, to all appearance, would produce in the millions of -years, and under the great varieties of condition which geological -records imply, any amount of change." - -This quotation shows, as perhaps no other reference might show, how, by -the middle of the present century, science was trembling on the verge of -discovery of that "modifying influence" of which Mr. Spencer speaks. -That discovery made clear how all that had preceded it not only -contributed thereto, but gained a significance and value which, apart -from it, could not have been secured. When the relation of the several -parts to the whole became manifest, each fell into its place like the -pieces of a child's puzzle map. - - -LEADING MEN OF SCIENCE. - -A. D. 800 TO A. D. 1800. - - --------------------+-----------------+------+------------------------ - | Place and date | | - NAME. | of birth. | Died.| Speciality. - --------------------+-----------------+------+------------------------ - Geber (Djafer). |Mesopotamia, | .... |Earliest known Chemist. - | 830. | | - Avicenna (Ibu Sina).|Bokhara, 980. | 1037 |Expositor of Aristotle; - | | | Physician and - | | | Geologist. - Averroes (Ibu |Spain, 1126. | 1198 |Translator and - Roshd). | | | Commentator of - | | | Aristotle. - Roger Bacon. |Ilchester, 1214. | 1292 |First English - | | | Experimentalist. - Christopher |Genoa, 1445. | 1506 |Discoverer of America, - Columbus. | | | 1492. - Vasco de Gama. |Sines, 1469. | 1525 |Sailed round the South - |(Portugal.) | | of Africa, 1497. - Ferdinand Magellan. |Ville de | 1521 |Circumnavigator of - | Sabroza, 1470. | | the Globe, 1519. - Nicholas Copernicus.|Thorn, 1473. | 1543 |Discoverer of the Sun - |(Prussia.) | | as the Centre of our - | | | System. - Andreas Vesalius. |Brussels, 1514. | 1564 |Human Anatomist. - Conrad Gesner. |Zurich, 1516. | 1565 |Classification of - | | | Plants and Animals. - Andrew Caesalpino. |Arezzo, 1519. | 1603 |Comparative Botanist. - |(Tuscany.) | | - Tycho Brahe. |Knudstrup, | 1601 |Collector of - | 1546. | | Astronomical Data. - |(Sweden.) | | - Giordano Bruno. |Nola, 1550. | 1600 |Expounder of the - | | | Copernican System - | | | and Philosopher. - Francis, Lord Bacon.|London, 1561. | 1626 |Expounder of the - | | | Inductive Philosophy. - Galileo Galilei. |Pisa, 1564. | 1642 |Numerous Astronomical - | | | Discoveries. - Johann Kepler. |Würtemburg, | 1630 |Discoverer of the - | 1571. | | Three Laws of - | | | Planetary Movements. - Thomas Hobbes. |Malmesbury, | 1679 |One of the Founders - | 1588. | | of Modern Ethics. - René Descartes. |La Haye, 1596. | 1650 |Resolution of all - |(Touraine.) | | Phenomena into Terms - | | | of Matter and Motion. - | | | (Dualism.) - Benedict Spinoza. |Amsterdam, | 1677 |Resolution of all - | 1632. | | Phenomena into Terms - | | | of Substance=God. - | | | (Monism.) - John Locke. |Wrington, 1632. | 1704 |Moral Philosopher. - |(Somerset.) | | - Gottfrid Wilhelm |Leipsic, 1646. | 1716 |Philosopher and - Leibnitz. | | | Mathematician. - Sir Isaac Newton. |Woolsthorpe, | 1727 |Expounder of the Law - | 1642. | | of Gravitation. - |(Lincoln.) | | - Edmund Halley. |London, 1656. | 1741 |Astronomer. - David Hartley. |Illingworth, | 1757 |Psychology of Man. - | 1705. | | - Carl von Linnaeus. |Roeshult, 1707. | 1778 |Systematic Botany and - |(Sweden.) | | Zoology. - Count de Buffon. |Burgundy, | 1788 |Contributions from - | 1707. | | Biology toward Theory - | | | of Evolution and - | | | Geology. - David Hume. |Edinburgh, | 1776 |Philosophy of the - | | | Anti-supernatural; - | 1711. | | all Science Converging - | | | in Man. - Immanuel Kant. |Königsberg, | 1804 |Formulator of the - | 1724. | | Nebular Theory. - James Hutton. |Edinburgh, | 1797 |Geologist: - | 1726. | | Uniformitarian. - Erasmus Darwin. |Elton, 1731. | 1802 |(_See_ BUFFON.) - |(Lincolnshire.) | | - Sir William |Hanover, 1738. | 1822 |Astronomer. - Herschel. | | | - Jean Baptiste |Bazantium, | 1829 |Biologist: Contributions - Lamarck. | 1744. | | against fixity - | | | of Species. - Marquis de Laplace. |Beaumont-en-Ange,| 1827 |Expounder of the - | 1749. | | Nebular Theory. - Conrad Sprengel. |Pomerania, | 1833 |Botanist. - | 1766. | | - John Dalton. |Eaglesfield, | 1844 |Formulator of the - | 1767. | | Modern Atomic - |(Cumberland.) | | Theory. - Baron Cuvier. |Montbeliard, | 1832 |Palæontologist and - | 1769. | | Anatomist. - Geoff. St. Hilaire. |Etampes, 1772. | 1844 |Zoologist. - Alexander von | Berlin, 1769. | 1859 |Explorer. - Humboldt. | | | - William Smith. |Churchill, 1769. | 1840 |Geologist: mapped - |(Oxon.) | | Strata of Great - | | | Britain. - Boucher de Perthes. |1788. | 1868 |Discoverer of Evidences - | | | of Man's - | | | Antiquity. - Sir William Hooker. |Norwich, 1785. | 1865 |Botanist. - Sir Charles Lyell. |Kinnordy, | 1875 |Geologist: developed - | 1797. | | Hutton's Theory. - |(Forfarshire.) | | - Ernst von Baer. |Esthonia, 1792. | 1876 |Embryologist: Law of - | | | Organic Development. - Sir Richard Owen. |Lancaster, 1804. | 1892 |Palæontologist. - Hugo von Mohl. |Germany, 1805. | 1872 |Discoverer of - | | | Protoplasm. - Theodor Schwann. |Neuss, 1810. | 1882 |Founder of the Cell - |(Prussia.) | | Theory. - Hermann von |Potsdam, 1821. | 1894 |Formulator of the - Helmholtz. | | | Doctrine of the - | | | Conservation of - | | | Energy. - --------------------+-----------------+------+------------------------ - - - - -_PART IV._ - -MODERN EVOLUTION. - - -1. _Darwin and Wallace._ - - We have to deal with Man as a product of Evolution; with Society as - a product of Evolution; and with Moral Phenomena as products of - Evolution.--HERBERT SPENCER, Principles of Ethics, § 193. - -CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN (the second name was rarely used by him) was born -at Shrewsbury on the 12th of February, 1809. He came of a long line of -Lincolnshire yeomen, whose forbears spelt the name variously, as Darwen, -Derwent, and Darwynne, perhaps deriving it from the river of kindred -name. His father was a kindly, prosperous doctor, of sufficient -scientific reputation to secure his election into the Royal Society, -although that coveted honour was then more easily obtained than now. Of -the more famous grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, the reminder suffices that -both his prose and poetry were vehicles of suggestive speculations on -the development of life-forms. Dealing with bald facts and dates for -clearance of what follows, it may be added that Charles Darwin was -educated at the Grammar School of his native town; that he passed thence -to Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities; was occupied as volunteer -naturalist on board the Beagle from December, 1831, till October, -1836; that he published his epoch-making Origin of Species in November, -1859; and that he was buried by the side of Sir Isaac Newton in -Westminster Abbey on the 26th of April, 1882. - -[Illustration: Alfred R. Wallace] - -As with not a few other men of "light and leading," neither school nor -university did much for him, nor did his boyhood give indication of -future greatness. In his answers to the series of questions addressed to -various scientific men in 1873 by his distinguished cousin, Francis -Galton, he says: "I consider that all I have learnt of any value has -been self-taught," and he adds that his education fostered no methods of -observation or reasoning. Of the Shrewsbury Grammar School, where, after -the death of his mother (daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the celebrated -potter), in his ninth year, he was placed as a boarder till his -sixteenth year, he tells us, in the modest and candid Autobiography -printed in the Life and Letters, "nothing could have been worse for the -development of my mind." All that he was taught were the classics, and -a little ancient geography and history; no mathematics, and no modern -languages. Happily, he had inherited a taste for natural history and for -collecting, his spoils including not only shells and plants, but also -coins and seals. When the fact that he helped his brother in chemical -experiments became known to Dr. Butler, the head-master, that desiccated -pedagogue publicly rebuked him "for wasting time on such useless -subjects." Then his father, angry at finding that he was doing no good -at school, reproved him for caring for nothing but shooting, dogs, and -rat-catching, and declared that he would be a disgrace to the family! He -sent him to Edinburgh University with his brother to study medicine, but -Darwin found the dulness of the lectures intolerable, and the sight of -blood sickened him, as it did his father. Although the effect of the -"incredibly" dry lectures on geology made him--the future Secretary of -the Geological Society!--vow never to read a book on the science, or in -any way study it, his interest in biological subjects grew, and its -first fruits were shown in a paper read before the Plinian Society at -Edinburgh in 1826, in which he reported his discovery that the so-called -ova of _Flustra_, or the sea-mat, were larvæ. - -But his father had to accept the fact that Darwin disliked the idea of -being a doctor, and fearing that he would degenerate into an idle -sporting man, proposed that he should become a clergyman! Darwin says -upon this:-- - - I asked for some time to consider, as from what little I had heard - or thought on the subject I had scruples about declaring my belief - in all the dogmas of the Church of England, though otherwise I liked - the thought of being a country clergyman. Accordingly I read with - care Pearson on the Creed, and a few other books on divinity; and, - as I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of - every word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our creed must - be fully accepted. Considering how fiercely I have been attacked by - the orthodox, it seems ludicrous that I once intended to be a - clergyman. Nor was this intention and my father's wish ever - formally given up, but died a natural death when, on leaving - Cambridge, I joined the Beagle as naturalist. If the phrenologists - are to be trusted, I was well fitted in one respect to be a - clergyman. A few years ago the secretaries of a German psychological - society asked me earnestly by letter for a photograph of myself; and - some time afterwards I received the proceedings of one of the - meetings, in which it seemed that the shape of my head had been the - subject of a public discussion, and one of the speakers declared - that I had the bump of reverence developed enough for ten priests. - -The result was that early in 1828 Darwin went to Cambridge, the three -years spent at which were "time wasted, as far as the academical studies -were concerned." His passion for shooting and hunting led him into -a sporting, card-playing, drinking company, but science was his -redemption. No pursuit gave him so much pleasure as collecting beetles, -of his zeal in which the following is an example: "One day, on tearing -off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; -then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so I -popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! it -ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was -forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one." - -Happily for his future career, and therefore for the interests of -science, Darwin became intimate with men like Whewell, Henslow, and -Sedgwick, while the reading of Humboldt's Personal Narrative, and of Sir -John Herschel's Introduction to Natural Philosophy, stirred up in him -"a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble -structure of Natural Science." The vow to eschew geology was quickly -broken when he came under the spell of Sedgwick's influence, but it -was the friendship of Henslow that determined his after career, and -prevented him from becoming the "Rev. Charles Darwin." For on his return -from a geological tour in Wales with Sedgwick he found a letter from -Henslow awaiting him, the purport of which is in the following -extract:-- - -"I have been asked by Peacock (Lowndean Professor of Astronomy at -Cambridge) to recommend him a naturalist as companion to Captain -Fitz-Roy, employed by Government to survey the southern extremity of -America. I have stated that I consider you to be the best-qualified -person I know of who is likely to undertake such a situation." - -In connection with this the following memorandum from Darwin's -pocket-book of 1831 is of interest:--"Returned to Shrewsbury at end of -August. Refused offer of voyage." - -This refusal was given at the instance of his father, who objected -to the scheme as "wild and unsettling, and as disreputable to his -character as a clergyman"; but he soon yielded on the advice of his -brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, and on Darwin's plea that he "should -be deuced clever to spend more than his allowance whilst on board the -Beagle." On this his father answered with a smile, "But they tell me -you are very clever." It is amusing to find that Darwin narrowly escaped -being rejected by Fitz-Roy, who, as a disciple of Lavater, doubted -whether a man with such a nose as Darwin's "could possess sufficient -energy and determination for the voyage." - -The details of that voyage, the first of the two memorable events in -Darwin's otherwise unadventurous life, are set down in delightful -narrative in his Naturalist's Voyage Round the World, and it will -suffice to quote a passage from the autobiography bearing on the -significance of the materials collected during his five years' absence. - - During the voyage of the Beagle I had been deeply impressed by - discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil animals covered - with armour like that on the existing armadillos; secondly, by the - manner in which closely allied animals replace one another in - proceeding southwards over the continent; and thirdly, by the South - American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos - Archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which they differ - slightly on each island of the group, none of the islands appearing - to be very ancient in a geological sense. It was evident that such - facts as these, as well as many others, could only be explained on - the supposition that species gradually became modified; and the - subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that "none of the - evolutionary theories then current in the scientific world" could - account for the innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind - are beautifully adapted to their habits of life.... I had always - been much struck by such adaptations, and until these could be - explained, it seemed to me almost useless to endeavour to prove by - indirect evidence that species have been modified.... In October, - 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic - inquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and - being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which - everywhere goes on, from long-continued observations of the habits - of plants and animals, it at once struck me that under these - circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and - unfavourable ones destroyed. The result of this would be the - formation of new species. - -Shortly after his return he settled in London, prepared his journal and -manuscripts of observations for publication, and opened, he says, under -date of July, 1837, "my first note-book for facts in relation to the -origin of species, about which I had long reflected, and never ceased -working for the next twenty years." He acted for two years as one of the -honorary secretaries of the Geological Society, which brought him into -close relations with Lyell, and, as his health then allowed him to go -into society, he saw a good deal of prominent literary and scientific -contemporaries. - -In the autumn of 1842, two years and eight months after his marriage -with his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, who died in October last (1896), -Darwin removed from London, the air and social demands of which were -alike unsuited to his health, and finally fixed upon a house in the -secluded village of Down, near Beckenham, where he spent the rest of his -days. Henceforth the life of Darwin is merged in the books in which, -from time to time, he gave the result of his long years of patient -observation and inquiry, from the epoch-making Origin to the monograph -on earthworms. With bad health, apparently due to gouty tendencies -aggravated by chronic sea-sickness during his voyage; with nights that -never gave unbroken sleep; and days that were never passed without -prostrating pain; he might well have felt justified in doing nothing -whatever. But he was saved from the accursed monotony of a wealthy -invalid's life by his insatiate delight in searching for that solution -of the problem of the mutability of species which time would not fail to -bring. In this, he tells us, he forgot his "daily discomfort," and thus -was delivered from morbid introspection. - -Darwin worked at his rough notes on the variation of animals and plants -under domestication, adding facts collected by "printed enquiries, by -conversations with skilful breeders and gardeners, and by extensive -reading," gleams of light coming till he says that he is "almost -convinced that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) -immutable." But he was still groping in the dark as to the application -of selection to wild plants and animals, until, as remarked above, the -chance reading of Malthus suggested a working theory. A brief sketch of -this theory, written out in pencil in 1842, was elaborated in 1844 into -an essay of two hundred and thirty pages. The importance attached to -this was shown in a letter which Darwin then addressed to his wife, -charging her, in the event of his death, to apply £400 to the expense of -publication. He also named certain competent men from whom an editor -might be chosen, preference being given to Sir Charles (then Mr. Lyell, -at whose advice Darwin began to write out his views on a scale three or -four times as extensive as that in which they appeared in the Origin of -Species.) Their publication in an abstract form was hastened by the -receipt, in June, 1858, of a paper, containing "exactly the same -theory," from Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace at Ternate in the Moluccas. This -reference to that distinguished explorer, will, before the story of the -coincident discovery is further told, fitly introduce a sketch of his -career. - -ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE was born at Usk, in Monmouthshire, on the 8th of -January, 1823. He was educated at Hereford Grammar School, and in his -fourteenth year began the study of land-surveying and architecture under -an elder brother. Quick-witted and observing, he studied a great deal -more on his own account in his journeyings over England and Wales, -the results of which abide in the wide range of subjects--scientific, -political, and social--engaging his active pen from early manhood to the -present day. - -About 1844 he exchanged the theodolite for the ferule, and became -English master in the Collegiate School at Leicester, in which town he -found a congenial friend in the person of his future fellow-traveller, -Henry Walter Bates. Bates was then employed in his father's hosiery -warehouse, from which he escaped, as often as the long working hours -then prevailing allowed, into the fields with his collecting-box. Both -schoolmaster and shopman were ardent naturalists, Mr. Wallace, as he -tells us, being at that time "chiefly interested in botany," but he -afterward took up his friend's favourite pursuit of entomology. The -writer, when preparing his memoir of Bates (which prefaces a reprint of -the first edition of the delightful Naturalist on the Amazons), learned -from Mr. Wallace that in early life he did not keep letters from Bates -and other correspondents. But, fortunately, among Bates's papers, there -was a bundle of interesting letters from Wallace written between June, -1845, and October, 1847, from Neath, in South Wales, to which town he -had removed. In one of these, dated the 9th of November, 1845, Wallace -asks Bates if he had read the Vestiges of the Natural History of -Creation, and a subsequent letter indicates that Bates had not formed a -favourable opinion of the book. A later letter is interesting as -conveying an estimate of Darwin. "I first," Wallace says, "read Darwin's -Journal three or four years back, and have lately re-read it. As the -journal of a scientific traveller, it is second only to Humboldt's -Personal Narrative; as a work of general interest, perhaps supporter to -it. He is an ardent admirer and most able supporter of Mr. Lyell's -views. His style of writing I very much admire, so free from all labour, -affectation, or egotism, yet so full of interest and original thought." - -But, of still greater moment, is a letter in which Wallace tells Bates -that he begins "to feel dissatisfied with a mere local collection. I -should like to take some one family to study thoroughly, principally -with a view to the theory of the origin of species." The two friends had -often discussed schemes for going abroad to explore some virgin region, -nor could their scanty means prevent the fulfilment of a scheme which -has enriched both science and the literature of travel. The choice of -country to explore was settled by Wallace's perusal of a little book -entitled A Voyage up the River Amazons, including a Residence in Pará, -by W. H. Edwards, an American tourist, published in Murray's Family -Library, in 1847. In the autumn of that year Wallace proposed a joint -expedition to the river Amazons for the purpose of exploring the Natural -History of its banks; the plan being to make a collection of objects, -dispose of the duplicates in London to pay expenses, and gather facts, -as Mr. Wallace expressed it in one of his letters, "towards solving the -problem of the origin of species." - -The choice was a happy one, for, except by the German zoologist Von -Spix, and the botanist Von Martius in 1817-20, and subsequently by Count -de Castelnau, no exploration of a region so rich and interesting to the -biologist had been attempted. Early in 1848 Bates and Wallace met in -London to study South American animals and plants in the principal -collections, and afterward went to Chatsworth to gain information about -orchids, which they proposed to collect in the moist tropical forests -and send home. - -On 26th of April, 1848, they embarked at Liverpool in a barque of only -192 tons burden, one of the few ships then trading to Pará, to which -seaport of the Amazons region a swift passage, "straight as an arrow," -brought them on 28th of May. - -The travellers soon settled in a _rocinha_, or country-house, a mile and -half from Pará, and close to the forest, which came down to their doors. -Like other towns along the Amazons, Pará stands on ground cleared from -the forest that stretches, a well-nigh pathless jungle of luxuriant -primeval vegetation, two thousand miles inland. In that paradise of the -naturalist, the collectors gathered consignments which met with ready -sale in London, and thus spent a couple of years in pursuits moderately -remunerative and wholly pleasurable, till, on reaching Barra, at the -mouth of the Rio Negro, one thousand miles from Pará, in March, 1850, -Bates and Wallace, who was accompanied by his younger brother, parted -company, "finding it more convenient to explore separate districts and -collect independently." Wallace took the northern parts and tributaries -of the Amazons, and Bates kept to the main stream, which, from the -direction it seems to take at the fork of the Rio Negro, is called the -Upper Amazons or the Solimoens. Different in character and climatic -conditions from the Lower Amazons, it flows through a "vast plain about -a thousand miles in length, and five hundred or six hundred miles in -breadth covered with one uniform, lofty, impervious, and humid forest." -Bates stayed in the country till June, 1859, but Wallace left in 1852, -and in the following year published an account of his journey under the -title of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. That book was written -under the serious disadvantage of the destruction of the greater part of -the notes and specimens by the burning of the ship in which Mr. Wallace -took passage on his homeward voyage. That it remains one of the select -company of works of travel for which demand is continuous is evidenced -in a reprint which appeared in 1891. If it affords few hints of the -author's bent of mind toward the question of the origin of species, it -shows what interest was being aroused within him over the allied subject -of the geographical distribution of plants and animals which Mr. Wallace -was to make so markedly his own. - -In 1854 he sailed for the Malay Archipelago, where nearly eight years -were spent in exploring the region from Sumatra to New Guinea. The large -and varied outcome of that labour was embodied in numerous papers -communicated to learned societies and scientific journals, and in a -series of delightful books from The Malay Archipelago, first published -in 1869, to Island Life, published in 1880. Among the minor results -of his extensive travels--for all else that Wallace did pales before -the great discovery which links his name with Darwin's--was the -establishment of a line, known as "Wallace's," which divides the Malay -Archipelago into two main groups, "Indo-Malaysia and Austro-Malaysia, -marked by distinct species and groups of animals." That line runs -through a deep channel separating the islands of Bali and Lombok; the -plants and animals on which, although but fifteen miles of water -separate them, differ from each other even more than do the islands of -Great Britain and Japan. "A similar line, but somewhat farther east, -divides on the whole the Malay from the Papuan races of man." - -Among the more fugitive contributions which mark Mr. Wallace's approach -to a solution of the problem in quest of which he and Bates went to the -Amazons is a paper On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of -New Species, published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, -1855. In this he shows that some form of evolution of one species from -another is needed to explain the geological and geographical facts of -which examples are given. - -In the interesting preface to the reprint of the famous paper On the -Tendencies of Varieties to depart Indefinitely from the Original Type, -Mr. Wallace recites the several researches which he made in quest of -that "form" till, when lying ill with fever at Ternate, in February, -1858, something led him to think of the "positive checks" described by -Malthus in his Essay on Population, a book which he had read some years -before. Oddly enough, therefore, the honours lie with the maligned -Haileybury Reverend Professor of Political Economy in furnishing both -Darwin and Wallace with the clue. The "positive checks"--war, disease, -famine--Wallace felt must act even more effectively on the lower animals -than on man, because of their more rapid rate of multiplication. And he -tells us, in the prefatory note to a reprint of his paper, "there -suddenly flashed on me the _idea_ of the survival of the fittest, and in -the two hours that elapsed before my ague fit was over I had thought out -the whole of the theory, and in the two succeeding evenings wrote it out -in full and sent it by the next post to Mr. Darwin," asking him, if he -thought well of the essay, to send it to Lyell. This Darwin did with the -following remarks: "Your words have come true with a vengeance--that I -should be forestalled.... I never saw a more striking coincidence; if -Wallace had my MS. sketch written out in 1842, he could not have made a -better short abstract! Even his terms now stand as heads of my chapters. -Please return me the MS., which he does not say he wishes me to -publish; but I shall, of course, at once write and offer to send to -any journal. So all my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be -smashed, though my book, if it will ever have any value, will not be -deteriorated, as all the labour consists in the application of the -theory." Darwin came out well in this business. For to have hit upon a -theory which interprets so large a question as the origin and causes of -modification of life-forms; to keep on turning it over and over again in -the mind for twenty long years; to spend the working hours of every day -in collection and verification of facts for and against it; and then to -have another man launching a "bolt from the blue" in the shape of a -paper with exactly the same theory, might well disturb even a -philosopher of Darwin's serenity. - -However, both Hooker and Lyell had read his sketch a dozen years before, -and it was arranged by them, not as considering claims of priority, -which have too often been occasion of unworthy wrangling, but in the -"interests of science generally," that an abstract of Darwin's -manuscript should be read with Wallace's paper at a meeting of the -Linnæan Society on the 1st of July, 1858. The full title of the joint -communication was On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties, and on -the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Selection. Sir -Joseph Hooker, describing the gathering, says that "the interest excited -was intense, but the subject was too novel and too ominous for the old -school to enter the lists before armouring. After the meeting it was -talked over with bated breath. Lyell's approval, and perhaps, in a small -way mine, as his lieutenant in the affair, rather overawed the Fellows, -who would otherwise have flown out against the doctrine. We had, too, -the vantage ground of being familiar with the authors and their theme." -Nothing can deprive Mr. Wallace of the honour due to him as the -co-originator of the theory, which, regarded in its application to the -origin, history, and destiny of man, involves the most momentous changes -in belief, and there may be fitly quoted here his own modest and, -doubtless, correct, assessment of limitations which in no wise -invalidate his high claims. In the Preface to his Contributions to the -Theory of Natural Selection (1870), Mr. Wallace says the book will prove -that he both saw at the time the value and scope of the law which he had -discovered, and has since been able to apply to some purpose in a few -original lines of investigation. "But," he adds, "here my claims cease. -I have felt all my life, and I still feel, the most sincere satisfaction -that Mr. Darwin had been at work long before me, and that it was not -left for me to attempt to write the Origin of Species. I have long since -measured my own strength, and know full well that it would be quite -unequal to that task. Far abler men than myself may confess that they -have not that untiring patience in accumulating, and that wonderful -skill in using, large masses of facts of the most varied kind--that wide -and accurate physiological knowledge--that acuteness in devising and -skill in carrying out experiments, and that admirable style of -composition at once clear, persuasive, and judicial--qualities which, in -their harmonious combination, mark out Mr. Darwin as the man, perhaps of -all men now living, best fitted for the great work he has undertaken -and accomplished." - -In a letter to Wallace dated 20th April, 1870, Darwin says, "There has -never been passed on me, or, indeed, on any one, a higher eulogium than -yours. I wish that I fully deserved it. Your modesty and candour are -very far from new to me. I hope it is a satisfaction to you to -reflect--and very few things in my life have been more satisfactory to -me--that we have never felt any jealousy towards each other, though in -one sense rivals. I believe I can say this of myself with truth, and I -am absolutely sure it is true of you." - - * * * * * - -But on one question, and that round which discussion still rages, the -friends were poles asunder. There had been correspondence between them -as to the bearing of the theory of natural selection on man, and in -April, 1869, Darwin wrote, "As you expected, I differ grievously from -you, and I am very sorry for it. I can see no necessity for calling in -an additional and proximate cause in regard to man." In the fifteenth -chapter of his comprehensive book on Darwinism, Wallace admits the -action of natural selection in man's physical structure. This structure -classes him among the vertebrates; the mode of human suckling classes -him among the mammals; his blood, his muscles, and his nerves, the -structure of his heart with its veins and arteries, his lungs and his -whole respiratory and circulatory systems, all closely correspond to -those of other mammals, and are often almost identical with them. He -possesses the same number of limbs, terminating in the same number of -digits, as belong fundamentally to the mammals. His senses are identical -with theirs, and his organs of sense are the same in number and occupy -the same relative position. Every detail of structure which is common to -the mammalia as a class is found also in man, while he differs from -them only in such ways and degrees as the various species or groups of -mammals differ from each other. He is, like them, begotten by sexual -conjugation; like them, developed from a fertilized egg, and in his -embryonic condition passes through stages recapitulating the variety of -enormously remote ancestors of whom he is the perfected descendant. -Full-grown, he appears as most nearly allied to the anthropoid or -man-like apes; so much does his skeleton resemble theirs that, comparing -him with the chimpanzee, we find, with very few exceptions, bone for -bone, differing only in size, arrangement, and proportion. - -Mr. Wallace, therefore, rejected the idea of man's special creation "as -being entirely unsupported by facts, as well as in the highest degree -improbable." _But he would not allow that natural selection explains the -origin of man's spiritual and intellectual nature._ These, he argues, -"must have had another origin, and for this origin we can only find an -adequate cause in the unseen universe of Spirit." More detailed -treatment of this argument will be given further on; here reference is -made to it as furnishing the explanation why Mr. Wallace kept not his -"first estate," and dropped out of the ranks of Pioneers of Evolution. -Many subjects, as hinted above, have occupied his facile pen--land -nationalization, causes of depression in trade, labourers' allotments, -vaccination, _et hoc genus omne_; showing, at least, the prominence -which all social matters occupy in the minds of the leading exponents of -the theory of Evolution. For of this, as will be seen, both Herbert -Spencer and Huxley supply cogent examples in their application of that -theory to human interests. But it is as a defender, although on lines of -his own not wholly orthodox, of supernaturalism, with attendant beliefs -in miracles and the grosser forms of spiritualism, that Mr. Wallace -appears in the character of opponent to the inclusion of man's psychical -nature as a product of Evolution. - -The arresting influence of these views when backed by honest, sincere, -and eminent men of the type of Mr. Wallace, and when also supported by -several prominent men of science, renders it desirable to show that -modern psychism is but savage animism "writ large," and wholly -explicable on the theory of continuity. In his book on Miracles and -Modern Spiritualism, of which a revised edition, with chapters on -Apparitions and Phantasms, was issued in 1895, Mr. Wallace contends that -"Spiritualism, if true, furnishes such proofs of the existence of -ethereal beings and of their power to act upon matter, as must -revolutionise philosophy. It demonstrates the actuality of forms of -matter and modes of being before inconceivable; it demonstrates mind -without brain, and intelligence disconnected from what we know as the -material body; and it thus cuts away all presumption against our -continued existence after the physical body is disorganised and -dissolved. Yet more, it demonstrates, as completely as the fact can be -demonstrated, that the so-called dead are still alive; that our friends -are still with us, though unseen, and guide and strengthen us when, -owing to absence of proper conditions, they cannot make their presence -known. It thus furnishes a _proof_ of a future life which so many crave, -and for want of which so many live and die in anxious doubt, so many in -positive disbelief. It substitutes a definite, real, and practical -conviction for a vague, theoretical, and unsatisfying faith. It -furnishes actual knowledge on a matter of vital importance to all men, -and as to which the wisest men and most advanced thinkers have held, and -still hold, that no knowledge was attainable." - -This claim, this tremendous claim, on behalf of the phenomena of -spiritualism to supply an answer to "the question of questions; the -ascertainment of man's relation to the universe of things; whence our -race has come; to what goal we are tending," rests on the assumption -with which Mr. Wallace starts, "Spiritualism, _if true_." - -The essay from which the above passages are quoted is preceded by -references in detail to a considerable number of cases of "the -appearance of preterhuman or spiritual beings," the evidence of which -"is as good and definite as it is possible for any evidence of any fact -to be." These ghost-stories, contrasted with the full-flavoured eerie -tales of old, are feebly monotonous. The apparatus of the medium is -limited: the phenomena are largely of the "horse-play" order. Through -the whole series we vainly seek for some ennobling and exalting -conception of a life beyond, some glimpses "behind the veil," only to -find that the shades are but diluted or vulgarized parodies of -ourselves; or that "the filthy are filthy still," like the departed -bargee whose "communicating intelligence" (we quote from a recent book -on spiritualism entitled The Great Secret) was as coarse-mouthed as when -in the flesh. In considering, if it be deemed worth while, the evidence -of genuineness of the occurrences, we are thrown, not on the honesty, -but on the competency of the witnesses. The most eminent among these -show themselves persons of undisciplined emotions. The distinguished -physicist, Professor Oliver Lodge, who has been described to the writer -by an intimate friend of the Professor as "longing to believe -something," argues that in dealing with psychical phenomena, a hazy, -muzzy state of mind is better than a mind "keenly awake" and "on the -spot" (see Address to the Society for Psychical Research, Proceedings, -part xxvi, pp. 14, 15). With this may be compared a Mohammedan receipt -for summoning spirits given in Klunzinger's Upper Egypt (p. 386): "Fast -seven days in a lonely place, and take incense with you. Read a chapter -1001 times from the Koran. That is the secret, and you will see -indescribable wonders; drums will be beaten beside you, and flags -hoisted over your head, and you will see spirits." Thus have the dreamy -Oriental Moslem and the self-hypnotized Western professor met together -to elicit truth from trance. - -Concerning the competence of Mr. Wallace himself to weigh, unbiassed, -the evidence which comes before him, it suffices to cite the case of -Eusapia Paladino, a Neapolitan "medium," who, in the words of one of -her most ardent dupes, became "the unexpected instrument of driving -conviction as to the reality of psychical manifestations by the -invisible into the minds of many scientists." A number of distinguished -savants testified to the genuineness of the woman's performances in -Professor Richet's cottage on the Ile Roubant in the autumn of 1893. It -was the serious and complete conviction of all of them (Lodge, Richet, -Ochorowicz, and others) that "on no single occasion during the -occurrence of an event recorded by them was a hand of Eusapia's -free to execute any trick whatever." Mr. Maskelyne, such testimony -notwithstanding, declared that the whole business was "the sorriest of -trickeries," and, to the credit of the Society for Psychical Research, -it undertook the expense of bringing Eusapia to England for the purpose -of testing the genuineness of her doings. She was taken to a house in -Cambridge, and detected as a vulgar impostor. Yet Mr. Wallace, in the -new edition of his Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, describes all the -phenomena occurring at Professor Richet's house as "not explicable -as the result of any known physical causes," and, in a subsequent -explanatory letter to the Daily Chronicle of 24th of January, 1896, -expresses the opinion that "the Cambridge experiments, so far as they -are recorded, only prove that Eusapia _might_ have deceived, not that -she actually and _consciously_ did so." The integrity of Mr. Wallace is -not to be doubted, but what becomes of his competence to judge when -prejudice blinds itself to facts? Spiritualism, _if true_, demonstrates -this and that about the unseen; but spiritualism, _proved to be untrue_, -lacks half the dexterity of an astute conjurer, and the whole of -his honesty. Every scientific man recognises the doctrine of the -Conservation of Energy as a fundamental canon. But with those who regard -the phenomena of Spiritualism as "not explicable" except by supernatural -causes, it would seem that that doctrine, as also the not unimportant -conditions of Time and Space, count for nothing. When we read their -reports of the behaviour of mediums who project (of course, in the dark) -"abnormal temporary prolongations" like pseudopodia, we should feel -alike depressed and confounded were there not abundant proofs what -wholly untrustworthy observers scientific specialists can be outside -their own domain. As the writer has remarked elsewhere, minds of this -type must be built in water-tight compartments. They show how, even in -the higher culture, the force of a dominant idea may suspend or -narcotize the reason and judgment, and contribute to the rise and spread -of another of the epidemic delusions of which history supplies warning -examples. - -They also show that man's senses have been his arch-deceivers, and his -preconceptions their abettors, throughout human history; that advance -has been possible only as he has escaped through the discipline of the -intellect from the illusive impressions about phenomena which the senses -convey. Upon this matter the words of the late Dr. Carpenter may be -quoted, words the more weighty because they are the utterance of a man -whose philosophy was influenced by deep religious convictions: "With -every disposition to accept facts when I could once clearly satisfy -myself that they were facts, I have had to come to the conclusion that -whenever I have been permitted to employ such tests as I should employ -in any scientific investigation, there was either intentional deception -on the part of interested persons, or else self-deception on the part -of persons who were very sober-minded and rational upon all ordinary -affairs of life." He adds further: "It has been my business lately to -inquire into the mental condition of some of the individuals who have -reported the most remarkable occurrences. I cannot--it would not be -fair--say all I could with regard to that mental condition; but I can -only say this, that it all fits in perfectly well with the result of my -previous studies upon the subject, viz., that there is nothing too -strange to be believed by those who have once surrendered their judgment -to the extent of accepting as credible things which common sense tells -us are entirely incredible." - -The fact abides that the great mass of supernatural beliefs which have -persisted from the lower culture till now, and which are still held by -an overwhelming majority of civilized mankind, are referable to causes -concomitant with man's mental development: causes operative throughout -his history. The low intellectual environment of his barbaric past -was constant for thousands of years, and his adaptation thereto was -complete. The intrusion of the scientific method in its application to -man disturbed that equilibrium. But this, as yet, only superficially. -Like the foraminifera that persist in the ocean depths, the great -majority of mankind have remained, but slightly, if at all, modified; -thus illustrating the truth of the doctrine of evolution in their -psychical history. (For that doctrine does not imply all-round -continuous advance. "Let us never forget," Mr. Spencer says in Social -Statics, "that the law is--adaptation to circumstances, be they what -they may.") Therefore the superstitions that still dominate the life of -man, even in so-called civilized centres, are no stumbling-blocks to -us. They are supports along the path of inquiry, because we account for -their persistence. Thought and feeling have a common base, because man -is a unit, not a duality. But the exercise of the one has been active -from the beginnings of his history--indeed we know not at what point -backward we can classify it as human or quasi-human--while the other, -speaking comparatively, has but recently been called into play. So far -as its influence on the modern World goes, may we not say that it began -at least in the domain of scientific naturalism with the Ionian -philosophers? Emotionally, we are hundreds of thousands of years old; -rationally, we are embryos. - -In other words, man wondered countless ages before he reasoned; because -feeling travels along the line of least resistance, while thought, or -the challenge by inquiry--therefore the assumption that there may be two -sides to a question--must pursue a path obstructed by the dominance of -custom, the force of imitation, and the strength of prejudice and fear. -It is here that anthropology, notably that psychical branch of it -comprehended under folk-lore, takes up the cue from the momentous -doctrine of heredity; explains the persistence of the primitive; and -the causes of man's tardy escape from the illusions of the senses, -and the general conservatism of human nature. "Born into life! in -vain, Opinions, those or these, unalter'd to retain the obstinate -mind decrees," as in the striking illustration cited in Heine's -Travel-Pictures. "A few years ago Bullock dug up an ancient stone idol -in Mexico, and the next day he found that it had been crowned during -the night with flowers. And yet the Spaniard had exterminated the old -Mexican religion with fire and sword, and for three centuries had been -engaged in ploughing and harrowing their minds and implanting the -seed of Christianity." The causes of error and delusion, and of -the spiritual nightmares of olden time, being made clear, there is -begotten a generous sympathy with that which empirical notions of -human nature attributed to wilfulness or to man's fall from a high -estate. Superstitions which are the outcome of ignorance can only -awaken pity. Where the corrective of knowledge is absent, we see that -it could not be otherwise. Where that corrective is present, but -either perverted or not exercised, pity is supplanted by blame. In -either case, we learn that the art of life largely consists in that -control of the emotions and that diversion of them into wholesome -channels, which the intellect, braced with the latest knowledge, can -alone effect. - -Therefore, discarding theories of revelation, spiritual illumination, -and other assumed supra-mundane sources of knowledge, sufficing causes -of abnormal mental phenomena are found in abnormal working of the mental -apparatus. The investigation of hallucinations (Lat. _alucinor_, to -wander in mind) leaves no doubt that they are the effect of a morbid -condition of that intricate, delicately poised structure, the nervous -system, under which objects are seen and sensations felt when no -corresponding impression has been made through the medium of the senses. -When the nervous system is out of gear, voices, whether divine or of the -dead, may be heard; and actual figures may be seen. A mental image -becomes a visual image; an imagined pain a real pain, as the great -physiologist, John Hunter, testified when he said, "I am confident that -I can fix my attention to any part until I have a sensation in that -part." Shakespere portrays the like condition when Macbeth attempts to -clutch the dagger wherewith to stab Duncan: - - There's no such thing; - It is the bloody business which informs - Thus to mine eyes. - -This abnormal state, which sees things having no existence outside the -"mind's eye," is no respecter of persons; the savage and the civilized -are alike its victims. It may be organic or functional. Organic, when -disease is present; functional, through excessive fatigue, lack of food -or sleep, or derangement of the digestive system, causing the patient, -as Hood says, "to think he's pious when he's only bilious." Under such -conditions, hallucinations of all sorts possess the mind; hallucinations -from which the true peptic, who, as Carlyle says, "has no system," is -delivered. Only the mentally anæmic, the emotionally overwrought, the -unbalanced, and the epileptic, are the victims, whether of the lofty -illusions of august visions such as carried Saint Paul, Saint Theresa, -and Joan of Arc, into the presence of the holiest; or hallucination of -drowned cat, thin and "dripping with water," born of the disordered -nerves of Mrs. Gordon Jones. To quote from Dr. Gower's Bowman Lecture -(Nature, 4th July, 1895) on Subjective Visual Sensations, such as -accompany fits, when, e. g., sensations of sight occur without the -retina being stimulated: - - The spectra perceived before epileptic fits vary widely. They may be - stars or sparks, spherical luminous bodies, or mere flashes of - light, white or coloured, still or in movement. Often they are more - elaborate, distinct visions of faces, persons, objects, places. They - may be combined with sensations from the other special senses, as - with hearing and smell. In one case a warning, constant for years, - began with thumping in the chest ascending to the head, where it - became a beating sound. Then two lights appeared, advancing nearer - with a pulsating motion. Suddenly these disappeared and were - replaced by the figure of an old woman in a red cloak, always the - same, who offered the patient something that had the smell of - Tonquin beans, and then he lost consciousness. Such warnings may be - called psychovisual sensations. The psychical element may be very - strong, as in one woman whose fits were preceded by a sudden - distinct vision of London in ruins, the river Thames emptied to - receive the rubbish, and she the only survivor of the inhabitants. - -Had a man of lesser renown and mental calibre than Mr. Wallace thrown -the weight of his testimony into the scales in favour of spiritualism, -there would have been neither necessity nor excuse for this digression. -But both these pleas prevail when we find the co-formulator of the -Darwinian theory among mediums and their dupes. The respectful -attention which his words command: the tremendous claims which he makes -on behalf of the phenomena at _séances_ as proving the existence of soul -apart from body after death, and as revealing the conditions under which -it lives, have made incumbent the foregoing attempt to indicate what -other explanation is given of those phenomena, showing how these fall in -with all we know of man's tendencies to imperfect observation and -self-deception, and with all that history tells of the persistence of -animistic ideas. - -A salutary lesson on the use and misuse of the imagination is thus -taught. That which, under wholesome restraint, is the initiative and -incentive of inquiry, of enterprise, and of noble ideas; unrestricted, -leads the dreamer and the enthusiast into ingulfing quicksands of -illusions and delusions. Hence the necessity of curbing a faculty so -that in unison with reason, it works toward definite ends within the -domain, marking man's limits of service. As Dr. Maudsley reminds us in -his sane and sober book on Natural Causes and Supernatural Seeming, "not -by standing out of Nature in the ecstasy of a rapt and over-strained -idealism of any sort, but by large and close and faithful converse with -Nature and human nature in all their moods, aspects, and relations, is -the solid basis of fruitful ideas and the soundest mental development -laid. The endeavour to stimulate and strain any mental function to an -activity beyond the reach and need of a physical correlate in external -nature, and to give it an independent value, is certainly an endeavour -to go directly contrary to the sober and salutary method by which solid -human development has taken place in the past, and is taking place in -the present." - - * * * * * - -The story of Darwin's work must now be resumed. Shortly after the -Linnæan meeting, he prepared a series of chapters which, always regarded -by him as an "Abstract," ultimately took book form, and was published, -under the title of the Origin of Species, on the 24th of November, 1859. - -The story of the reception of the work is admirably told by Huxley in -the chapter which he contributed to Darwin's Life and Letters, and it -may be commended as useful reading to a generation which, drinking-in -Darwinism from its birth, will not readily understand how such storm and -outcry as rent the air, both in scientific as well as clerical quarters, -could have been raised. "In fact," says Huxley, "the contrast between -the present condition of public opinion upon the Darwinian question; -between the estimation in which Darwin's views are now held in the -scientific world; between the acquiescence, or, at least, quiescence, of -the theologian of the self-respecting order at the present day, and the -outburst of antagonism on all sides in 1858-59, when the new theory -respecting the origin of species first became known to the older -generation to which I belong, is so startling that, except for -documentary evidence, I should be sometimes inclined to think my -memories dreams." The like reflection arises when we consider the -indifference with which books of the most daring and revolutionary -character, both in theology and morals, are treated nowadays, in -contrast to the uproar which greeted such a _brutum fulmen_ as Essays -and Reviews. As for Colenso's Pentateuch, and books of its type, -orthodoxy has long taken them to its bosom. - -So far as the larger number of naturalists, and of the intelligent -public who followed their lead, were concerned, there was an absolutely -open mind on the question of the mutation of species. There had been, -as the foregoing sections of this book have shown, a long time of -preparation and speculation. We certainly find the keynote of Evolution -in Heraclitus, and more than two thousand years after his time Herbert -Spencer, above all men, had removed it from the empirical stage, and -placed it on a base broad as the facts which supported it. But it needed -the leaven of the human and personal to stir it into life, and touch -man in his various interests; and not all that Mr. Spencer had done -in application of the theory of development to social questions and -institutions could avail much till Darwin's theory gave it practical -shape. Dissertations on the passage of the "homogeneous to the -heterogeneous"; explanations of the theory of the evolution of complex -sidereal systems out of diffused vapours of seemingly simple texture, -interested people only in a vague and wondering fashion. But when Darwin -illustrated the theory of the modification of life-forms by familiar -examples gathered from his own experiments and observations, and from -intercourse with breeders of pigeons, horses, and dogs, this went to -men's "business and bosoms," and if the vulgar interpreted Darwinism, -as some, who should know better, interpret it even now, as explaining -man's descent from a monkey, or how a bear became a whale by taking to -swimming, the thoughtful accepted it as a master-key unlocking not the -mystery of origins or of causes of variations, but the mystery of the -ceaselessly-acting agent which, operating on favourable variations, has -brought about myriads of species from simple forms. - -As Huxley reminds us in the passage quoted above, the attitude of the -clergy toward the theory of Evolution has undergone an astounding -change. Dr. Whewell remarked that every great discovery in science has -had to pass through three stages. First, people said, "It is absurd"; -then they said, "It is contrary to the Bible"; finally, they said, "We -always knew that it was so." Thus it has been with Evolution. It is -calmly discussed; even claimed as a "defender of the faith," at Church -Congresses nowadays. It was not so in the sixties. Here and there a -single voice was raised in qualified sympathy--Charles Kingsley showed -more than this--but both in the Old and the New World the "drum -ecclesiastic" was beaten. Cardinal Manning declared Darwinism to be a -"brutal philosophy, to wit, there is no God and the ape is our Adam." -Protestant and Catholic agreed in condemning it as "an attempt to -dethrone God"; as "a huge imposture," as "tending to produce disbelief -of the Bible," and "to do away with all idea of God," as "turning the -Creator out of doors." Such are fair samples to be culled from the -anthology of invective which was the staple content of nearly every -"criticism." Occasionally some parody of reasoning appears when the -"argument" is advanced that there is "a simpler explanation of the -presence of these strange forms among the works of God in the fall of -Adam," but even this pseudo-concession to logic is rare; and one divine -had no hesitation in predicting the fate of Darwin and his followers in -the world to come. "If," said a Dr. Duffield in the Princeton Review, -"the development theory of the origin of man shall, in a little while, -take the place--as doubtless it will--with other exploded scientific -speculations, then they who accept it with its proper logical -consequences will, in the life to come, have their portion with those -who in this life 'know not God and obey not the Gospel of His Son.'" But -the most notable attack came from Samuel Wilberforce, then Bishop of -Oxford, in the Quarterly Review of July, 1860. "It is," said Huxley, in -his review of Haeckel's Evolution of Man, "a production which should be -bound in good stout calf, or better, asses' skin, by the curious -book-collector, together with Brougham's attack on the undulatory -theory of light when it was first propounded by Young." The bishop -declared "the principle of natural selection to be absolutely -incompatible with the word of God" and as "contradicting the revealed -relations of creation to its Creator." If by "revealed relations" and -the "word of God" the Bible is intended, the evolutionist is in -agreement with the bishop. But, at this time of day, it seems scarcely -worth while to shake the dust off articles which have gone the way of -all purely controversial matter, and justification for reference to them -lies only in the fact that the contest between the biologists and the -bishops is not yet ended. - -In contrast to all this, and in evidence of the compromise by which -theology is vainly striving to justify itself, are these vague sentences -from Archdeacon Wilson's address at the Church Congress at Shrewsbury in -the autumn of 1896: "It is scarcely too much to say that the Theistic -Evolutionist cannot be otherwise than a practical Trinitarian, and -cannot find a difficulty in the Incarnation or in the doctrine of the -Holy Spirit." "Christian doctrine, apart from the statement of -historical facts, is the attempt to create out of Christ's teaching, a -philosophy of life which shall satisfy these needs (i. e., the needs of -humanity), and it will therefore remain the same in substance. But the -form in which that doctrine will be presented must change with man's -intellectual environment. The bearing of Evolution on Christian -doctrine is, therefore, in a word, to modify, not the doctrine, but the -form in which it is expressed." - -Postponing the story of the famous debate between Wilberforce and -Huxley, the reception accorded to the Origin of Species by Darwin's -scientific contemporaries may be noted. Herbert Spencer's position, as -will be shown later on, was already distinctive: he was a Darwinian -before Darwin. Hooker, Huxley,--who said that he was prepared to go to -the stake, if needs be, in support of some parts of the book,--Bates, -and Lubbock were immediate converts; so were Asa Gray and Lyell, but -with reservations, for Lyell, whose creed was Unitarian, never wholly -accepted the inclusion of man, "body, soul, and spirit," as the outcome -of natural selection. Henslow and Pictet went one mile, but refused to -go twain; Agassiz, Murray, and Harvey would have none of the new heresy; -neither would Adam Sedgwick, who wrote a long protest to Darwin, couched -in loving terms, and ending with the hope that "we shall meet in -heaven." The attitude of Owen, if apparently neutral or tentative in -open conversation, was, as an anonymous critic, deadly hostile. Although -it is not included in the list of his writings given in the Life by his -grandson, he is known to have been the author of the critique on the -Origin of Species in the Edinburgh Review of April, 1860. - -At the outset of the article he speaks of Darwin's "seduction" of -"several, perhaps the majority of our younger naturalists" by the -homoeopathic form of the transmutation of species presented to them -under the phrase of natural selection.... "Owen has long stated his -belief that some pre-ordained law or secondary cause is operative in -bringing about the change ... we therefore regard the painstaking and -minute comparison by Cuvier of the osteological and every other -character that could be tested in the mummified ibis, cat, or crocodile -with those of species living in his time; and the equally philosophical -investigation of the polyps operating at an interval of thirty thousand -years in the building-up of coral reefs by the profound palæontologist -of Neuchâtel (Agassiz is here referred to), as of far truer value in -reference to the inductive determination of the question of the origin -of species than the speculations of Demailler, Buffon, Lamarck, -'Vestiges,' Baden Powell, or Darwin" (p. 532). - -Entangled in the meshes of this theory of a "pre-ordained law," which -seems to bear some relation to Aristotle's "perfecting principle," and -is in close alliance with the teaching of the great Cuvier, at whose -feet Owen had sat, he remained to the end of his life a type of arrested -development. While the Church cited him as an authority against the -Darwinian theory, especially in its application to man's descent, there -remained in the memory of his brother savants his lack of candour in -never withdrawing the statement made by him, and demonstrated by Huxley -as untrue, that the "hippocampus minor" in the human brain is absent -from the brain of the ape. - -As for the reception of the book abroad, the French savants were -somewhat coy, but the Germans, with Haeckel at their head, were -enthusiastic. Darwin had, like all prophets, more honour in other -countries than in his own, Evolution being rechristened _Darwinismus_. -Translation after translation of the Origin followed apace, and the -personal interest that gathered round the central idea led to the -perusal of the book by people who had never before opened a scientific -treatise. Punch seized on it as subject of caricature; and writers of -light verse found welcome material for "chaff" which the winds of -oblivion have blown away, a stanza here and there surviving, as in Mr. -Courthope's Aristophanic lines: - - Eggs were laid as before, but each time more and more varieties - struggled and bred, - Till one end of the scale dropped its ancestor's tail, and the other - got rid of his head. - From the bill, in brief words, were developed the Birds, unless our - tame pigeons and ducks lie; - From the tail and hind legs, in the second-laid eggs, the apes.--and - Professor Huxley! - -Heeding neither squib, satire, nor sermon, Darwin, in the quiet of his -Kentish home, went on rearranging old materials, collecting new -materials, and verifying both, the outcome of this being his works on -the Fertilization of Orchids and the Variation of Plants and Animals -under Domestication, published in 1862 and 1867 respectively. Between -these dates Huxley's Man's Place in Nature--logical supplement to the -Origin of Species--appeared. But of this more anon. - -Meanwhile, as already named, Mr. Patrick Matthew had in the Gardener's -Chronicle of 7th April, 1860, drawn attention to an appendix to his book -on Naval Timber and Arboriculture published in 1831, in which he -anticipated Darwin and Wallace's theory as follows: - -"The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised life may, in -part, be traced to the extreme fecundity of Nature, who, as before -stated, has in all the varieties of her offspring a prolific power much -beyond (in many cases a thousandfold) what is necessary to fill up -the vacancies caused by senile decay. As the field of existence is -limited and pre-occupied, it is only the hardier, more robust, -better-suited-to-circumstance individuals, who are able to struggle -forward to maturity, these inhabiting only the situations to which they -have superior adaptation and greater power of occupancy than any other -kind; the weaker and less circumstance-suited being prematurely -destroyed. This principle is in constant action; it regulates the -colour, the figure, the capacities, and instincts; those individuals in -each species whose colour and covering are best suited to concealment or -protection from enemies, or defence from inclemencies or vicissitudes of -climate, whose figure is best accommodated to health, strength, defence, -and support; whose capacities and instincts can best regulate the -physical energies to self-advantage according to circumstances--in such -immense waste of primary and youthful life those only come to maturity -from the strict ordeal by which Nature tests their adaptation to -her standard of perfection and fitness to continue their kind by -reproduction" (pp. 384, 385). - -While speaking of difficulty in understanding some passages in Mr. -Matthew's appendix, Darwin says that "the full force of the principle of -natural selection" is there, and, in referring to it in a letter to -Lyell, he adds that "one may be excused in not having discovered the -fact in a work on Naval Timber!" - -Five years after this, another pre-Darwinian was unearthed, and, like -Patrick Matthew, in unsuspected company. Dr. W. C. Wells read a paper -before the Royal Society in 1813 on a White Female Part of whose Skin -resembles that of a Negro, but this was not published till 1818, when it -formed part of a volume including the author's famous Two Essays upon -Dew and Single Vision. In his Historical Sketch Darwin says that Wells -"distinctly recognises the principle of natural selection, and this is -the first recognition which has been indicated; but he applies it only -to the races of man, and to certain characters alone.... Of the -accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first few and -scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa, some one would be -better fitted than the others to bear the diseases of the country. This -race would consequently multiply, while the others would decrease; not -only from their inability to sustain the attacks of disease, but from -their incapacity of contending with their more vigorous neighbours." - -When the simplicity of the long-hidden solution is brought home, we can -understand Huxley's reflection on mastering the central idea of the -Origin: "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!" Twelve years -elapsed before Darwin followed up his world-shaking book with the -Descent of Man. But the ground had been prepared for its reception in -the decade between 1860 and 1870. Quoting Grant Allen's able summary of -the advance of the theory of Evolution in his Charles Darwin: "One by -one the few scientific men who still held out were overborne by -the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh instances of -transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored countries -kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species and -varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his First -Principles, his Biology, and the remodelled form of his Psychology; -Huxley brought out Man's Place in Nature, the Lectures on Comparative -Anatomy, and the Introduction to the Classification of Animals; Wallace -produced his Malay Archipelago and his Contributions to the Theory of -Natural Selection (Bates, we may here add to Mr. Allen's list, published -his paper on Mimicry in 1861, and his Naturalist on the Amazons in -1863); and Galton wrote his admirable work on Hereditary Genius, of -which his own family is so remarkable an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had -long since signified their warm adhesion. At Oxford, Rolleston was -bringing up a fresh generation of young biologists in the new faith; at -Cambridge, Darwin's old university, a whole school of brilliant and -accurate physiologists was beginning to make itself both felt and heard. -In the domain of anthropology, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the -new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations into -the Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man. All -these diverse lines of thought both showed the widespread influence of -Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, -in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. -And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilized -world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement -was well in progress, everywhere the impulse sent forth from the quiet -Kentish home was permeating and quickening the entire pulse of -intelligent humanity." - -The Origin of Species, as we have seen, was intended as a rough draft or -preliminary outline of the theory of natural selection. The materials -which Darwin had collected in support of that theory being enormous, the -several books which followed between 1859 and 1881, the year before his -death, were expansions of hints and parts of the pioneer book. The last -to appear was that treating of The Formation of Vegetable Mould through -the Action of Worms. It embodied the results of experiments which had -been carried on for more than forty years, since, as far back as 1837, -Darwin read a paper on the subject before the Geological Society. -Reference to it recalls a story, characteristic of Darwin's innate -modesty, told to the writer by the present John Murray. Darwin called on -the elder Murray (presumably some time in 1880), and after fumbling in -his coat-tail pocket, drew out a packet, which he handed to Murray with -the timidity of an unfledged author submitting his first manuscript. "I -have brought you," he said, "a little thing of mine on the action of -worms on soil," and then paused as if in doubt whether Murray would care -to run the risk of bringing out the book! One story leads to another, -and our second relates to the burial of Darwin in Westminster Abbey. -Among the signatures of members of Parliament, requesting Dean Bradley's -consent to Darwin's interment there, was that of Mr. Richard B. Martin, -partner in the well-known bank of that name, trading under the sign of -the "Grasshopper." In his history of this old institution Mr. John B. -Martin prints the following letter, which was received on the 27th of -April, 1882, the day after Darwin's funeral.-- - - SIRS--We have this day drawn a check for the sum of £280, which - closes our account with your firm. Our reasons for thus closing an - account opened so very many years ago are of so exceptional a kind - that we are quite prepared to find that they are deemed wholly - inadequate to the result.... They are entirely the presence of Mr. - R. B. Martin at Westminster Abbey, not merely as giving sanction to - the same as an individual, but appearing as one of the deputation - from a Society which has especially become the indorser and - sustainer of Mr. Darwin's theories. - ---- & Co. - -The accordance of a resting-place to Darwin's remains among England's -illustrious dead in that Valhalla, was an irenicon from Theology to one -whose theories, pushed to their logical issues, have done more than any -other to undermine the supernatural assumptions on which it is built. -Not that Darwin was a man of aggressive type. If he speaks on the high -matters round which, like planet tethered to sun, the spirit of man -revolves by irresistible attraction, it is with hesitating voice and -with no deep emotion. A man of placid temper, in whom the observing -faculties were stronger than the reflective, he was content to collect -and co-ordinate facts, leaving to others the work of pointing out their -significance, and adjusting them, as best they could, to this or that -theory. It would be unjust to say of him what John Morley says of -Voltaire, that "he had no ear for the finer vibrations of the spiritual -voice," but we know from his own confessions, what limitations hemmed in -his emotional nature. The Life and Letters tells us that he was glad, -after the more serious work and correspondence of the day were over, to -listen to novels, for which he had a great love so long as they ended -happily, and contained "some person whom one can thoroughly love, if a -pretty woman, so much the better." But strangely enough, he lost all -pleasure in music, art, and poetry after thirty. When at school he -enjoyed Thomson, Byron, and Scott; Shelley gave him intense delight, and -he was fond of Shakespeare, especially the historical plays; but in his -old age he found him "so intolerably dull that it nauseated me." - - This curious and lamentable loss of the higher æsthetic tastes - is all the odder, as books on history, biographies, and travels - (independently of any scientific facts which they may contain), and - essays on all sorts of subjects, interest me as much as ever they - did. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding - general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should - have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone on which the - higher tastes depend I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more - highly organised or better constituted than mine would not, I - suppose, have thus suffered; and, if I had to live my life again, I - would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music - at least once every week, for perhaps the parts of my brain now - atrophied would thus have been kept active through use. The loss of - these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious - to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by - enfeebling the emotional part of our nature. - -It is often said that a man's religion concerns himself only. So far as -the value of the majority of people's opinions on such high matters -goes, this is true; but it is a shallow saying when applied to men whose -words carry weight, or whose discoveries cause us to ask what is their -bearing on the larger questions of human relations and destinies to -which past ages have given answers that no longer satisfy us, or that -are not compatible with the facts discovered. Whatever silence Darwin -maintained in his books as to his religious opinions, intelligent -readers would see that unaggressive as was the mode of presentments of -his theory, it undermined current beliefs in special providence, -with its special creations and contrivances, and therefore in the -intermittent interference of a deity; thus excluding that supernatural -action of which miracles are the decaying stock evidence. - -Nor could they fail to ask whether the theory of natural selection by -"descent with modification" was to apply to the human species. And when -Darwin, already anticipated in this application by his more daring -disciples, Professors Huxley and Haeckel, published his Descent of -Man, with its outspoken chapter on the origin of conscience and -the development of belief in spiritual beings, a belief subject to -periodical revision as knowledge increased, it was obvious that the -bottom was knocked out of all traditional dogmas of man's fall and -redemption, of human sin and divine forgiveness. Therefore, what Darwin -himself believed was a matter of moment. His answers to inquiries which -were made public during his lifetime told us that while the varying -circumstances and modes of life caused his judgment to often fluctuate, -and that while he had never been an atheist in the sense of denying the -existence of a God, "I think," he says, "that generally (and more and -more as I grow older) but not always, an agnostic would be the most -correct description of my state of mind." The chapter on Religion, -although a part of the autobiography, is printed separately in the Life -and Letters. As the following quotation shows, it is interesting as -detailing a few of the steps by which Darwin reached that suspensive -stage. - - Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and I remember - being heartily laughed at by several of the officers (though - themselves orthodox) for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable - authority on some point of morality. I suppose it was the novelty of - the argument that amused them. But I had gradually come by this - time--i. e., 1836 to 1839--to see that the Old Testament was no more - to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos. The question, - then, continually rose before my mind, and would not be banished--is - it credible that if God were now to make a revelation to the Hindoos - he would permit it to be connected with the belief in Vishnu, Siva, - etc., as Christianity is connected with the Old Testament? This - appeared to me utterly incredible. - - By further reflecting that the clearest evidence would be requisite - to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity - is supported--and that the more we know of the fixed laws of Nature - the more incredible do miracles become--that the men at that time - were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost incomprehensible - by us, that the Gospels can not be proved to have been written - simultaneously with the events, that they differ in many important - details, far too important, as it seems to me, to be admitted as the - usual inaccuracies of eye-witnesses: by such reflections as these, - which I give not as having the least novelty or value, but as they - influenced me, I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a - divine revelation. The fact that many false religions have spread - over large portions of the earth like wildfire had some weight with - me. - - But I was very unwilling to give up my belief; I feel sure of this, - for I can well remember often and often inventing day-dreams of - old letters between distinguished Romans, and manuscripts being - discovered at Pompeii or elsewhere, which confirmed in the most - striking manner all that was written in the Gospels. But I found it - more and more difficult, with free scope given to my imagination, to - invent evidence which would suffice to convince me. Thus disbelief - crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The - rate was so slow that I felt no distress. - - Although I did not think much about the existence of a personal God - until a considerably later period of my life, I will here give the - vague conclusions to which I have been driven. The old argument from - design in Nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so - conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been - discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful - hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent - being, like the hinge of a door by a man. There seems to be no more - design in the variability of organic beings, and in the action of - natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows. But I - have discussed this subject at the end of my book on the Variation - of Domesticated Animals and Plants, and the argument there given has - never, as far as I can see, been answered. - -Without doubt, the influence of the conclusions deducible from the -theory of Evolution are fatal to belief in the supernatural. When we say -the supernatural, we mean that great body of assumptions out of which -are constructed all theologies, the essential element in these being the -intimate relation between spiritual beings, of whom certain qualities -are predicated, and man. These beings have no longer any place in the -effective belief of intelligent and unprejudiced men, because they are -found to have no correspondence with the ascertained operations of -Nature. - -[Illustration: Herbert Spencer] - - -2. _Herbert Spencer._ - -Contact with many "sorts and conditions of men" brings home the need of -ceaselessly dinning into their ears the fact that _Darwin's theory deals -only with the evolution of plants and animals from a common ancestry. -It is not concerned with the origin of life itself, nor with those -conditions preceding life which are covered by the general term_, -Inorganic Evolution. Therefore, it forms but a very small part of the -general theory of the origin of the earth and other bodies, "as the sand -by the seashore innumerable," that fill the infinite spaces. - -We have seen that speculation about the universe had its rise in Ionia. -After centuries of discouragement, prohibition, and, sometimes, actual -persecution, it was revived, to advance, without further serious arrest, -some three hundred years ago. A survey of the history of philosophies of -the origin of the cosmos from the time of the renascence of inquiry, -shows that the great Immanuel Kant has not had his due. As remarked -already, he appears to have been the first to put into shape what is -known as the nebular theory. In his General Natural History and Theory -of the Celestial Bodies; or an Attempt to Account for the Constitution -and the Mechanical Origin of the Universe upon Newtonian Principles, -published in 1775, he "pictures to himself the universe as once an -infinite expansion of formless and diffused matter. At one point of this -he supposes a single centre of attraction set up, and shows how this -must result in the development of a prodigious central body, surrounded -by systems of solar and planetary worlds in all stages of development. -In vivid language he depicts the great world-maelstrom, widening the -margins of its prodigious eddy in the slow progress of millions of -ages, gradually reclaiming more and more of the molecular waste, and -converting chaos into cosmos. But what is gained at the margin is lost -in the centre; the attractions of the central systems bring their -constituents together, which then, by the heat evolved, are converted -once more into molecular chaos. Thus the worlds that are lie between -the ruins of the worlds that have been and the chaotic materials of the -worlds that shall be; and in spite of all waste and destruction, Cosmos -is extending his borders at the expense of Chaos." - -Kant's speculations were confirmed by the celebrated mathematician, -Laplace. He showed that the "rings" rotate in the same direction as the -central body from which they were cast off; sun, planets, and moons -(those of Uranus excepted) moving in a common direction, and almost in -the same plane. The probability that these harmonious movements are the -effects of like causes he calculated as 200,000 billions to one. - -The observations of the famous astronomer, Sir William Herschel, which -resulted in the discovery of binary or double stars, of star-clusters, -and cloud-like nebulæ (as that term implies) were further confirmations -of Kant's theory. And such modifications in this as have been made -by subsequent advance in knowledge, notably by the doctrine of the -Conservation of Energy (the hypothesis of Kant and Laplace being based -on gravitation alone), affect not the general theory of the origin -of the heavenly bodies from seemingly formless, unstable, and -highly-diffused matter. The assumption of primitive unstableness and -unlikeness squares with the unequal distribution of matter; with the -movements of its masses in different directions, and at different rates; -and with the ceaseless redistribution of matter and motion. For all -changes of states are due to the rearrangement of the atoms of which -matter is made up, resulting in the evolution of the seeming like into -the actual unlike; of the simple into the more and more complex, -till--speaking of the only planet of whose life-history we can have -knowledge--with the cooling of the earth to a temperature permitting of -the evolution of living matter, the highest complexity is reached in -the infinitely diverse forms of plants and animals. Therefore, as our -knowledge of matter is limited to the changes of which we assume it to -be the vehicle, it would seem that science reduces the Universe to the -intelligible concept of Motion. - -Since the great discovery by Kirchoff, in 1859, of the meaning of the -dark lines that cross the refracted sun-rays, the spectroscope has come -as powerful evidence in support of the nebular theory, while the -photographic plate is a scarcely less important witness. The one has -demonstrated that many nebulæ, once thought to be star-clusters, are -masses of glowing hydrogen and nitrogen gases; that, to quote the -striking communication made by the highest authority on the subject, Dr. -Huggins, in his Presidential Address to the British Association, 1891, -"in the part of the heavens within our ken, the stars still in the early -and middle stages of evolution exceed greatly in number those which -appear to be in an advanced condition of condensation." The other, -recording infallible vibrations on a sensitive plate, and securing -accurate registration of the impressions, reveals, as in Dr. Roberts's -grand photograph of the nebula in Andromeda, a central mass round which -are distinct rings of luminous matter, these being separated from the -main body by dark rifts or spaces. To quote Dr. Huggins once more, "We -seem to have presented to us some stage of cosmical Evolution on a -gigantic scale." - -The great fact that lies at the back of all these confirmations of the -nebular theory is the fundamental identity of the stuff of which the -universe is made; a fact which entered into the prevision of the Ionian -cosmologists. Dr. Huggins says that "if the whole earth were heated to -the temperature of the sun, its spectrum would resemble very closely the -solar spectrum." - -In referring to this, there may be carrying of "owls to Athens," but -that re-statements may sometimes be needful has illustration in Lord -Salisbury's Presidential Address to the British Association, 1894, -wherein the assumed absence of oxygen and nitrogen in the sun's spectrum -is adduced as an argument against the theory of the common origin of the -bodies of the solar system. Speaking of the predominant proportion of -oxygen in the solid and liquid substances of the earth, and of the -predominance of nitrogen in our atmosphere, his lordship asked, "if the -earth be a detached bit whisked off the mass of the sun, as cosmogonists -love to tell us, how comes it that, in leaving the sun, we cleaned him -out so completely of his nitrogen and oxygen that not a trace of these -gases remains behind to be discovered even by the searching vision of -the spectroscope?" If Lord Salisbury had consulted Dr. Huggins, or some -foreign astronomer of equal rank, as Dunér or Scheiner, he would not -have put a question exposing his ignorance, and unmasking his prejudice. -These authorities would have told him that when a mixture of the -incandescent vapours of the metals and metalloids (or non-metallic -elementary substances, to which class both oxygen and nitrogen belong), -or their compounds, is examined with the spectroscope, the spectra of -the metalloids always yield before that of the metals. Hence the absence -of the lines of oxygen and other metalloids, carbon and silicon -excepted, among the vast crowd of lines in the solar spectrum. Then, -too, in extreme states of rarefaction of the sun's absorbing layer, the -absorption of the oxygen is too small to be sensible to us. - -"While the genesis of the Solar System, and of countless other systems -like it, is thus rendered comprehensible, the ultimate mystery continues -as great as ever. The problem of existence is not solved: it is simply -removed further back. The Nebular Hypothesis throws no light on the -origin of diffused matter; and diffused matter as much needs accounting -for as concrete matter. The genesis of an atom is not easier to conceive -than the genesis of a planet. Nay, indeed, so far from making the -universe a less mystery than before, it makes it a greater mystery. -Creation by manufacture is a much lower thing than creation by -evolution. A man can put together a machine; but he cannot make a -machine develop itself. The ingenious artisan, able as some have been so -far to imitate vitality as to produce a mechanical pianoforte player, -may in some sort conceive how, by greater skill, a complete man might be -artificially produced; but he is unable to conceive how such a complex -organism gradually arises out of a minute structureless germ. That our -harmonious universe once existed potentially as formless diffuse matter, -and has slowly grown into its present organized state, is a far more -astonishing fact than would have been its formation after the artificial -method vulgarly supposed. Those who hold it legitimate to argue from -phenomena to noumena, may rightly contend that the Nebular Hypothesis -implies a First Cause as much transcending 'the mechanical God of Paley' -as does the fetish of the savage." - -This quotation is from an essay on the Nebular Hypothesis, which -appeared in the Westminster Review of July, 1858, and which must, -therefore, have been written before the eventful date of the reading -of Darwin and Wallace's memorable paper before the Linnæan Society. -The author of that essay is Mr. Herbert Spencer, and the foregoing -extract from it may fitly preface a brief account of his life-work in -co-ordinating the manifold branches of knowledge into a synthetic whole. -In erecting a complete theory of Evolution on a purely scientific -basis "his profound and vigorous writings," to quote Huxley, "embody -the spirit of Descartes in the knowledge of our own day." Laying the -foundation of his massive structure in early manhood, Mr. Spencer has -had the rare satisfaction of placing the topmost stone on the building -which his brain devised and his hand upreared. While the sheets of this -little book are being passed for press, there arrives the third volume -of the Principles of Sociology, which completes Mr. Spencer's Synthetic -Philosophy. In the preface to this, the venerable author says: - -"On looking back over the six-and-thirty years which I have passed since -the Synthetic Philosophy was commenced, I am surprised at my audacity -in undertaking it, and still more surprised by its completion. In 1860 -my small resources had been nearly all frittered away in writing and -publishing books which did not repay their expenses; and I was suffering -under a chronic disorder, caused by overtax of brain in 1855, which, -wholly disabling me for eighteen months, thereafter limited my work to -three hours a day, and usually to less. How insane my project must have -seemed to onlookers, may be judged from the fact that before the first -chapter of the first volume was finished, one of my nervous breakdowns -obliged me to desist. - -"But imprudent courses do not always fail. Sometimes a forlorn hope -is justified by the event. Though, along with other deterrents, many -relapses, now lasting for weeks, now for months, and once for years, -often made me despair of reaching the end, yet at length the end is -reached. Doubtless in earlier years some exultation would have resulted; -but as age creeps on feelings weaken, and now my chief pleasure is in my -emancipation. Still there is satisfaction in the consciousness that -losses, discouragements, and shattered health have not prevented me -from fulfilling the purpose of my life." - -These words recall a parallel invited by Gibbon's record of his -feelings on the completion of his immortal work, when walking under the -acacias of his garden at Lausanne, he pondered on the "recovery of his -freedom, and perhaps the establishment of his fame," but with a "sober -melancholy" at the thought that "he had taken an everlasting leave of an -old and agreeable companion." - -HERBERT SPENCER, spiritual descendant--_longo intervallo_--of Heraclitus -and Lucretius, was born at Derby on the 27th of April, 1820. His father -was a schoolmaster; a man of scientific tastes, and, it is interesting -to note, secretary of the Derby Philosophical Association founded by -Erasmus Darwin. In Mr. Spencer's book on Education there are hints of -his inheritance of the father's bent as an observer and lover of Nature -in the remark that, "whoever has not in youth collected plants and -insects, knows not half the halo of interest which lanes and hedgerows -can assume." He was articled in his seventeenth year to a railway -engineer, and followed that profession until he was twenty-five. During -this period he wrote various papers for the Civil Engineers' and -Architects' Journal, and, what is of importance to note, a series of -letters to the Nonconformist in 1842 on The Proper Sphere of Government -(republished as a pamphlet in 1844), in which "the only point of -community with the general doctrine of Evolution is a belief in the -modifiability of human nature through adaptation to conditions, and a -consequent belief in human progression." After giving up engineering, -Mr. Spencer joined the staff of the Economist, and while thus employed, -published, in 1850, his first important book, Social Statics, or the -Conditions essential to Human Happiness specified, and the first of -them developed. In a footnote to the later editions of this work Mr. -Spencer points out a brace of paragraphs in the chapter on General -Considerations in which "may be seen the first step toward the general -doctrine of Evolution. After referring to the analogy between the -subdivision of labour, which goes on in human society as it advances; -and the gradual diminution in the number of like parts and the -multiplication of unlike parts which are observable in the higher -animals; Mr. Spencer says: - -"Now, just the same coalescence of like parts and separation of unlike -ones--just the same increasing subdivision of function--takes place in -the development of society. The earliest social organisms consist almost -wholly of repetitions of one element. Every man is a warrior, hunter, -fisherman, builder, agriculturist, toolmaker. Each portion of the -community performs the same duties with every other portion; much as -each slice of the polyp's body is alike stomach, muscle, skin, and -lungs. Even the chiefs, in whom a tendency towards separateness of -function first appears, still retain their similarity to the rest in -economic respects. The next stage is distinguished by a segregation of -these social units into a few distinct classes--warriors, priests, and -slaves. A further advance is seen in the sundering of the labourers into -different castes, having special occupations, as among the Hindoos. And, -without further illustration, the reader will at once perceive, that -from these inferior types of society up to our own complicated and more -perfect one, the progress has ever been of the same nature. While he -will also perceive that this coalescence of like parts, as seen in the -concentration of particular manufactures in particular districts, and -this separation of agents having separate functions, as seen in the more -and more minute division of labour, are still going on. - -"Thus do we find, not only that the analogy between a society and a -living creature is borne out to a degree quite unsuspected by those who -commonly draw it, but also that the same definition of life applies to -both. This union of many men into one community--this increasing mutual -dependence of units which were originally independent--this formation of -a whole consisting of unlike parts--this growth of an organism, of which -one portion cannot be injured without the rest feeling it--may all be -generalized under the law of individuation. The development of society, -as well as the development of man and the development of life generally, -may be described as a tendency to individuate--_to become a thing_. And -rightly interpreted, the manifold forms of progress going on around us -are uniformly significant of this tendency." - -_Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto_: "I am a man and nothing -human is foreign to me." This oft-quoted saying of the old farmer in the -Self-Tormentor of Terence might be affixed as motto to Herbert Spencer's -writings from the tractate on the Proper Sphere of Government to the -concluding volume of the Principles of Sociology. For thought of human -interests everywhere pervades them; social and ethical questions are -kept in the van throughout. Philosophy is brought from her high seat to -mix in the sweet amenities of home, in the discipline of camp, in the -rivalry of market; and linked to conduct. Conduct is defined as "acts -adjusted to ends," the perfecting of the adjustment being the highest -aim, so that "the greatest totality of life in self, in offspring, and -in fellow-men" is secured, the limit of evolution of conduct not being -reached, "until, beyond avoidance of direct and indirect injuries to -others, there are spontaneous efforts to further the welfare of others." -Emerson puts this ideal into crisp form when he speaks of the time in -which a man shall care more that he wrongs not his neighbour than that -his neighbour wrongs him; then will his "market-cart become a chariot of -the sun." - -That humanity is the pivot round which Mr. Spencer's philosophic system -revolves is seen in the earliest Essays, and notably in his making -mental evolution the subject of the first instalment of his Synthetic -Philosophy. For, in the Principles of Psychology, published in 1855, he -limits feeling or consciousness to animals possessing a nervous system, -and traces its beginnings in the "blurred, undetermined feeling -answering to a single pulsation or shock" (as for example, to go no -lower down the life-scale, in the medusa or jelly-fish), to its highest -form as self-consciousness, or knowing that we know, in man. This -dominant element in Mr. Spencer's philosophy secures it a life and -permanence which, had it been restricted to explaining the mechanics of -the inorganic universe, it could never have possessed. It has been -observed how the Darwinian theory aroused attention in all quarters -because it touched human interests on every side. And, although less -obvious to the multitude, the Synthetic Philosophy, dealing with all -cosmic processes as purely mechanical problems, interprets "the -phenomena of life (excluding the question of its origin), mind, and -society, in terms of matter and motion." Anticipating the levelling -of epithets against such apparent materializing of mental phenomena -involved in that method, Spencer remarks on the dismay with which men, -who have not risen above the vulgar conception which unites with matter -the contemptuous epithets "gross" and "brute," regard the proposal to -reduce the phenomena of Life, of Mind, and of Society, to a level which -they think so degraded. "Whoever remembers that the forms of existence -which the uncultivated speak of with so much scorn, are shown by the -man of science to be the more marvellous in their attributes the more -they are investigated, and are also proved to be in their ultimate -natures absolutely incomprehensible--as absolutely incomprehensible -as sensation, or the conscious something which perceives it--whoever -clearly recognises this truth, will see that the course proposed does -not imply a degradation of the so-called higher, but an elevation of -the so-called lower. Perceiving, as he will, that the Materialist -and Spiritualist controversy is a mere war of words,--in which the -disputants are equally absurd, each thinking that he understands that -which it is impossible for any man to understand,--he will perceive how -utterly groundless is the fear referred to. Being fully convinced that -no matter what nomenclature is used, the ultimate mystery must remain -the same, he will be as ready to formulate all phenomena in terms of -Matter, Motion, and Force, as in any other terms; and will rather indeed -anticipate, that only in a doctrine which recognises the Unknown Cause -as co-extensive with all orders of phenomena, can there be a consistent -Religion, or a consistent Philosophy." - -This is clear enough; yet such is the crass density of some objectors -that eighteen years after the above was written, Mr. Spencer, in -answering criticisms on First Principles, had to rebut the charge that -he believed matter to consist of "space-occupying units, having shape -and measurement." - -The Principles of Psychology was both preceded and followed by a series -of essays in which the process of change from the "homogeneous to the -heterogeneous," i. e., from the seeming like to the actual unlike, was -expounded. Mr. Spencer tells us that in 1852 he first became acquainted -with Von Baer's Law of Development, or the changes undergone in each -living thing, from the general to the special, during its advance -from the embryonic to the fully-formed state. That law confirmed the -prevision indicated in the passages quoted above from Social Statics, -and impressed him as one of the three doctrines which are indispensable -elements of the general theory of Evolution. The other two are the -Correlation of the Physical Forces, or the transformation of different -modes of motion into other modes of motion, as of heat or light into -electricity, and so forth, in Proteus-like fashion; and the Conservation -of Energy, or the indestructibility of matter and motion, whatever -changes or transformations these may undergo. - -In permitting the quotation of the useful abstract of the Synthetic -Philosophy which, originally drawn up for the late Professor Youmans, -was imbodied in a letter to the Athenæum of 22d of July, 1882, Mr. -Spencer was good enough to volunteer the following details to the -writer:-- - -"You are probably aware that the conception set forth in that abstract -was reached by slow steps during many years. These steps occurred as -follows:-- - - 1850. Social Statics: especially chapter General Considerations. - (Higher human Evolution.) - - 1852. March. Development Hypothesis, in the Leader. (Evolution of - species, _vid. ante_, p. 111.) - - 1852. April. Theory of Population, etc., in Westminster Review. - (Higher human Evolution.) - - 1854. July. The Genesis of Science in British Quarterly Review. - (Intellectual Evolution.) - - 1855. July. Principles of Psychology. (Mental Evolution in general.) - - 1857. April. Progress: its Law and Cause: Westminster Review. - (Evolution at large.) - - 1857. April. Ultimate Laws of Physiology. National Review. (Another - factor of Evolution at large.) - -"From these last two Essays came the inception of the Synthetic -Philosophy. The first programme of it was drawn up in January, 1858." ... - -When seeing Mr. Spencer on the subject of this letter, he took the -further trouble to point out certain passages in the essays originally -comprised in the one volume edition of 1858 which contain germinal ideas -of his synthesis. That they are his selection will add to the interest -and value of their quotation, revealing, as perchance they may, a -fragment of the autobiography which it is an open secret Mr. Spencer -has written. - -"That Law, Religion, and Manners are thus related--that their respective -kinds of operation come under one generalisation--that they have in -certain contrasted characteristics of men a common support and a common -danger--will, however, be most clearly seen on discovering that they -have a common origin. Little as from present appearances we should -suppose it, we shall yet find that at first, the control of religion, -the control of laws, and the control of manners, were all one control. -However incredible it may now seem, we believe it to be demonstrable -that the rules of etiquette, the provisions of the statute-book, and the -commands of the decalogue, have grown from the same root. If we go far -back enough into the ages of primeval Fetishism, it becomes manifest -that originally Deity, Chief, and Master of the Ceremonies were -identical" (Essays, vol. i, 1883 edition; Manners and Fashion, p. 65). - -"Scientific advance is as much from the special to the general as from -the general to the special. Quite in harmony with this we find to be the -admissions that the sciences are as branches of one trunk, and that they -were at first cultivated simultaneously; and this becomes the more -marked on finding, as we have done, not only that the sciences have -a common root, but that science in general has a common root with -language, classification, reasoning, art; that throughout civilisation -these have advanced together, acting and reacting on each other just -as the separate sciences have done; and that thus the development of -intelligence in all its divisions and subdivisions has conformed to this -same law to which we have shown the sciences conform" (Ib. The Genesis -of Science, pp. 191, 192). - -(In correspondence with this, recognising that the same method has to be -adopted in all inquiry, whether we deal with the body or the mind, the -following may be quoted from Hume's Treatise on Human Nature. - -"'Tis evident that all the sciences have a relation, greater or less, -to human nature; and that, however wide any of them may seem to run -from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even -_Mathematics_, _Natural Philosophy_, and _Natural Religion_ are in some -measure dependent on the science of MAN, since they lie under the -cognisance of men, and are judged of by their powers and qualities.) - -"The analogy between individual organisms and the social organisms -is one that has in all ages forced itself on the attention of the -observant.... While it is becoming clear that there are no such special -parallelisms between the constituent parts of a man and those of a -nation, as have been thought to exist, it is also becoming clear that -the general principles of development and structure displayed in all -organised bodies are displayed in societies also. The fundamental -characteristic both of societies and of living creatures is, that they -consist of mutually dependent parts; and it would seem that this -involves a community of various other characteristics.... Meanwhile, if -any such correspondence exists, it is clear that Biology and Sociology -will more or less interpret each other. - -"One of the positions we have endeavoured to establish is, that -in animals the process of development is carried on, not by -differentiations only, but by subordinate integrations. Now in the -social organism we may see the same duality of process; and further, it -is to be observed that the integrations are of the same three kinds. -Thus we have integrations that arise from the simple growth of adjacent -parts that perform like functions; as, for instance, the coalescence of -Manchester with its calico-weaving suburbs. We have other integrations -that arise when, out of several places producing a particular commodity, -one monopolises more and more of the business, and leaves the rest to -dwindle; as witness the growth of the Yorkshire cloth districts at the -expense of those in the west of England.... And we have yet those -other integrations that result from the actual approximation of the -similarly-occupied parts, whence results such facts as the concentration -of publishers in Paternoster Row, of lawyers in the Temple and -neighbourhood, of corn merchants about Mark Lane, of civil engineers in -Great George Street, of bankers in the centre of the city" (Essays, -vol. iii, 1878 edition; Transcendental Physiology, pp. 414-416). - -But, divested of technicalities, and summarized in words to be -"understanded of the people," the following quotation from the Essay on -Progress: Its Law and Cause, gives the gist of the Synthetic Philosophy: - -"We believe we have shown beyond question that that which the German -physiologists (Von Baer, Wolff, and others) have found to be the law of -organic development (as of a seed into a tree, and of an egg into an -animal), is the law of all development. The advance from the simple to -the complex, through a process of successive differentiations (i. e., -the appearance of differences in the parts of a seemingly like -substance), is seen alike in the earliest changes of the Universe to -which we can reason our way back; and in the earlier changes which we -can inductively establish; it is seen in the geologic and climatic -evolution of the Earth, and of every single organism on its surface; it -is seen in the evolution of Humanity, whether contemplated in the -civilised individual, or in the aggregation of races; it is seen in the -evolution of Society in respect alike of its political, its religious, -and its economical organisation; and it is seen in the evolution of all -those endless concrete and abstract products of human activity which -constitute the environment of our daily life. From the remotest past -which Science can fathom, up to the novelties of yesterday, that in -which Progress essentially consists, is the transformation of the -homogeneous into the heterogeneous" (Essays, vol. i, 1883, p. 30). - -To this may fitly follow the "succinct statement of the cardinal -principles developed in the successive works," which Mr. Spencer, as -named above, prepared for Professor Youmans. - -1. Throughout the universe in general and in detail there is an -unceasing redistribution of matter and motion. - -2. This redistribution constitutes evolution when there is a predominant -integration of matter and dissipation of motion, and constitutes -dissolution when there is a predominant absorption of motion and -disintegration of matter. - -3. Evolution is simple when the process of integration, or the formation -of a coherent aggregate, proceeds uncomplicated by other processes. - -4. Evolution is compound, when along with this primary change from an -incoherent to a coherent state, there go on secondary changes due to -differences in the circumstances of the different parts of the -aggregate. - -5. These secondary changes constitute a transformation of the -homogeneous into the heterogeneous--a transformation which, like the -first, is exhibited in the universe as a whole and in all (or nearly -all) its details; in the aggregate of stars and nebulæ; in the planetary -system; in the earth as an inorganic mass; in each organism, vegetal or -animal (Von Baer's law otherwise expressed); in the aggregate of -organisms throughout geologic time; in the mind; in society; in all -products of social activity. - -6. The process of integration, acting locally as well as generally, -combines with the process of differentiation to render this change -not simply from homogeneity to heterogeneity, but from an indefinite -homogeneity to a definite heterogeneity; and this trait of increasing -definiteness, which accompanies the trait of increasing heterogeneity, -is, like it, exhibited in the totality of things and in all its -divisions and subdivisions down to the minutest. - -7. Along with this redistribution of the matter composing any evolving -aggregate there goes on a redistribution of the retained motion of its -components in relation to one another; this also becomes, step by step, -more definitely heterogeneous. - -8. In the absence of a homogeneity that is infinite and absolute, that -redistribution, of which evolution is one phase, is inevitable. The -causes which necessitate it are these-- - -9. The instability of the homogeneous, which is consequent upon the -different exposures of the different parts of any limited aggregate to -incident forces. - -The transformations hence resulting are-- - -10. The multiplication of effects. Every mass and part of a mass on -which a force falls subdivides and differentiates that force, which -thereupon proceeds to work a variety of changes; and each of these -becomes the parent of similarly-multiplying changes; the multiplication -of them becoming greater in proportion as the aggregate becomes more -heterogeneous. And these two causes of increasing differentiations are -furthered by-- - -11. Segregation, which is a process tending ever to separate unlike -units and to bring together like units--so serving continually to -sharpen, or make definite, differentiations otherwise caused. - -12. Equilibration is the final result of these transformations which an -evolving aggregate undergoes. The changes go on until there is reached -an equilibrium between the forces which all parts of the aggregate are -exposed to and the forces these parts oppose to them. - -Equilibration may pass through a transition stage of balanced motions -(as in a planetary system) or of balanced functions (as in a living -body) on the way to ultimate equilibrium; but the state of rest in -inorganic bodies, or death in organic bodies, is the necessary limit of -the changes constituting evolution. - -13. Dissolution is the counter-change which sooner or later every -evolved aggregate undergoes. Remaining exposed to surrounding forces -that are unequilibrated, each aggregate is ever liable to be dissipated -by the increase, gradual or sudden, of its contained motion; and -its dissipation, quickly undergone by bodies lately animate, and -slowly undergone by inanimate masses, remains to be undergone at an -indefinitely remote period by each planetary and stellar mass, which -since an indefinitely distant period in the past has been slowly -evolving; the cycle of its transformations being thus completed. - -14. This rhythm of evolution and dissolution, completing itself -during short periods in small aggregates, and in the vast aggregates -distributed through space completing itself in periods immeasurable by -human thought, is, so far as we can see, universal and eternal--each -alternating phase of the process predominating now in this region of -space and now in that, as local conditions determine. - -15. All these phenomena, from their great features down to their -minutest details, are necessary results of the persistence of force -under its forms of matter and motion. Given these as distributed through -space, and their quantities being unchangeable, either by increase or -decrease, there inevitably result the continuous redistributions -distinguishable as evolution and dissolution, as well as all these -special traits above enumerated. - -16. That which persists unchanging in quantity, but ever changing in -form, under these sensible appearances which the universe presents -to us, transcends human knowledge and conception--is an unknown and -unknowable power, which we are obliged to recognise as without limit in -space and without beginning or end in time. - -All that is comprised in the dozen volumes which, exclusive of the minor -works and the Sociological Tables, form the great body of the Synthetic -Philosophy, is the expansion of this abstract. The general lines -laid down in that Philosophy have become a permanent way along which -investigation will continue to travel. The revisions which may be called -for will not affect it fundamentally, being limited to details, more -especially in the settlement of the relative functions of individuals -and communities, and cognate questions. Into these we cannot enter here. -Suffice it, that to those who have the rare possession of sound mental -peptics, no more nutritive diet can be recommended than is supplied by -First Principles and the works in which its theses are developed. For -those who, blessed with good digestion, lack leisure, there is provided -in a convenient volume the excellent epitome which Mr. Howard Collins -has prepared. - -The prospectus of the then proposed issue of the series of works which, -beginning with First Principles, ends with the Principles of Sociology -(1862-1896), was issued by Mr. Spencer in March, 1860. Through his -courtesy the writer has seen the documents which prove that the first -draft of that prospectus was written out on the 6th of January, 1858, -and that it was the occasion of an interesting correspondence between -Mr. Spencer and his father--mainly in the form of questions from the -latter--during that month. The record of these facts is of some moment -as evidencing that the scheme of the Synthetic Philosophy took definite -shape in 1857. Therefore, the Theory of Evolution, dealing with the -universe _as a whole_, was formulated some months before the publication -of the Darwin-Wallace paper, in which only _organic evolution_ was -discussed. The Origin of Species, as the outcome of that paper, showed -that the action of natural selection is a sufficing cause for the -production of new life-forms, and thus knocked the bottom out of the old -belief in special creation. - -The general doctrine of Evolution, however, is not so vitally related to -that of natural selection that the two stand or fall together. The -evidence as to the connection between the succession of past life-forms -which, regard being had to the well-nigh obliterated record, has been -supplied by the fossil-yielding rocks; and the evidence as to the -unbroken development of the highest plants and animals from the lowest -which more and more confirms the theory of Von Baer; alike furnish a -body of testimony placing the doctrine of Organic Evolution on a -foundation that can never be shaken. And, firm as that, stands the -doctrine of Inorganic Evolution upon the support given by modern science -to the speculations of Immanuel Kant. - -There is the more need for laying stress on this because recent -discussions, revealing divided opinions among biologists as to the -sufficiency of natural selection as a cause of all modifications in the -structure of living things, lead timid or half-informed minds to hope -that the doctrine of Evolution may yet turn out not to be true. It is in -such stratum of intelligence that there lurks the feeling, whenever -some old inscription or monument verifying statements in the Bible is -discovered, that the infallibility of that book has further proof. For -example, until the present year, not a single confirmatory piece of -evidence as to the story of the Exodus was forthcoming from Egypt -itself. Even the inscription which has come to light does not, in the -judgment of such an expert as Dr. Flinders Petrie, supply the exact -confirmation desired. But let that irrefragable witness appear, and -while the historian will welcome it as evidence of the sojourn of the -Israelites in Egypt, thus throwing light on the movements of races, and -adding to the historical value of the Pentateuch; the average orthodox -believer will feel a vague sort of satisfaction that the foundations of -his belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation are somehow strengthened. - -[Illustration: T. H. Huxley] - - -3. _Thomas Henry Huxley._ - -THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY was born at Ealing, on the 4th of May, 1825. -Montaigne tells us that he was "borne between eleven of the clock and -noone," and, with like quaint precision, Huxley gives the hour of his -birth as "about eight o'clock in the morning." Speaking of his first -Christian name, he humorously said that, by curious chance, his parents -chose that of the particular apostle with whom, as the doubting member -of the twelve, he had always felt most sympathy. - -Concerning his father, who was "one of the masters in a large -semi-public school" (the father of Herbert Spencer, it will be -remembered, was also a schoolmaster), Huxley has little to say in the -slight autobiographical sketch reprinted as an introduction to the first -volume of the Collected Essays. On that side, he tells us, he could find -hardly any trace in himself, except a certain faculty for drawing, and -a certain hotness of temper. "Physically and mentally," he was the son -of his mother, "a slender brunette, of an emotional and energetic -temperament." His school training was brief and profitless; his tastes -were mechanical, and but for lack of means, he would have started life -in the same profession which Herbert Spencer followed till he forsook -Messrs. Fox's office for journalism. So, with a certain shrinking from -anatomical work, Huxley studied medicine for a time under a relative, -and in his seventeenth year entered the Charing Cross Hospital School as -a student. In those days there was no instruction in physics, and only -in such branch of chemistry as dealt with the nature of drugs. _Non -multa, sed multum_, and what was lacking in breadth was, perhaps, gained -in thoroughness. Huxley had as excellent a teacher in Wharton Jones as -the latter had a promising pupil in Huxley, and in working with the -microscope, the evidence of that came in his discovery of a certain -root-sheath in the hair, which has since then been known as "Huxley's -layer." - -Up to the time of his studentship, he had been left, intellectually, -altogether to his own devices. He tells us that he was a voracious and -omnivorous reader, "a dreamer and speculator of the first water, well -endowed with that splendid courage in attacking any and every subject -which is the blessed compensation of youth and inexperience." Among -the books and essays that impressed him were Guizot's History of -Civilization; and Sir William Hamilton's essay On the Philosophy of the -Unconditioned which he accidentally came upon in an odd volume of the -Edinburgh Review. This, he adds, was "devoured with avidity," and it -stamped upon his mind the strong conviction "that on even the most -solemn and important of questions, men are apt to take cunning phrases -for answers; and that the limitation of our faculties, in a great number -of cases, renders real answers to such questions, not merely actually -impossible, but theoretically inconceivable." Thus, before he was out of -his teens, the philosophy that ruled his life-teaching was taking -definite shape. - -In 1845, he won his M. B. London with honours in anatomy and physiology, -and after a few months' practice at the East End, applied, at the -instance of his senior fellow-student, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph -Fayrer, for an appointment in the medical service of the Navy. At the -end of two months he was fortunate enough to be entered on the books of -Nelson's old ship, the Victory, for duty at Haslar Hospital. His -official chief was the famous Arctic Explorer, Sir John Richardson, -through whose recommendation he was appointed, seven months later, -assistant surgeon of the Rattlesnake. That ship, commanded by Captain -Owen Stanley, was commissioned to survey the intricate passage within -the Barrier Reef skirting the eastern shores of Australia, and to -explore the sea lying between the northern end of that reef and New -Guinea. It was the best apprenticeship to what was eventually the work -of Huxley's life--the solution of biological problems and the indication -of their far-reaching significance. Darwin and Hooker had passed through -a like marine curriculum. The former served as naturalist on board the -Beagle when she sailed on her voyage round the world in 1831; the latter -as assistant-surgeon on board the Erebus on her Antarctic Expedition in -1839. Fortune was to bring the three shoulder to shoulder when the -battle against the theory of the immutability of species was fought. - -During his four-years' absence Huxley, in whom the biologist dominated -the doctor, made observations on the various marine animals collected. -These he sent home to the Linnæan Society in vain hope of acceptance. -A more elaborate paper to the Royal Society, communicated through -the Bishop of Norwich (author of a book on birds, and father of Dean -Stanley), secured the coveted honour of publication, and on Huxley's -return in 1850 a "huge packet of separate copies" awaited him. It dealt -with the anatomy and affinities of the Medusæ, and the original research -which it evidenced justified his election in 1851 to the fellowship of -the society whose presidential chair he was in after years to adorn. -He would seem to have won the blue ribbon of science _per saltum_. -Probably, so far as their biological value is concerned, nothing that -he did subsequently has surpassed his contributions to scientific -literature at that period; but if his services to knowledge had been -limited to the class of work which they represent, he would have -remained only a distinguished specialist. Further recognition of his -well-won position came in the award of the society's royal medal. But -fellowships and medals keep no wolf from the door, and Huxley was a poor -man. After vain attempts to obtain, first, a professorship of physiology -in England, and then a chair of natural history at Toronto (Tyndall was -at the same time an unsuccessful candidate for the chair of physics in -the same university), a settled position was secured by Sir Henry de -la Beche's offer of the professorship of palæontology and of the -lectureship on natural history in the Royal School of Mines, vacated -by Edward Forbes. That was in 1854. Between that date and the time of -his return Huxley had contributed a number of valuable papers on the -structure of the invertebrates, and on histology, or the science of -tissues. But these, while adding to his established qualifications for -a scientific appointment, demand no detailed reference here. With both -chairs there was united the curatorship of the fossil collections in -the Museum of Practical Geology, and these, with the inspectorship of -salmon fisheries, which office he accepted in 1881, complete the list of -Huxley's more important public appointments. He surrendered them all in -1885, having reached the age at which, as he jocosely remarked to the -writer, "Every scientific man ought to be poleaxed." Perhaps he dreaded -the conservatism of attitude, the non-receptivity to new ideas, which -often accompany old age. But for himself such fears were needless. He -was never of robust constitution; in addition to the lasting effects -of an illness in boyhood, Carlyle's "accursed Hag," dyspepsia, which -troubled both Darwin and Bates for the rest of their lives after their -return from abroad, troubled him. Therefore, considerations of health -mainly prompted the surrender of his varied official responsibilities, -the loyal discharge of which met with becoming recognition in the grant -of a pension. This secured a modest competence in the evening of life -to one who had never been wealthy, and who had never coveted wealth. To -Huxley may fitly be applied what Faraday said of himself, that he had -"no time to make money." And yet, to his abiding discredit, the present -editor of Punch allowed his theological animus, which had already been -shown in abortive attempts in the pages of that "facetious" journal to -appraise a Roman Catholic biologist at the expense of Huxley, to further -degrade itself by affixing the letters "L. S. D." to his name in a -character-sketch. - -His public life may be said to date from 1854. The duties which he then -undertook included the delivery of a course of lectures to working men -every alternate year. Some of these--models of their kind--have been -reissued in the Collected Essays. Among the most notable are those on -Our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature. At the -outset of his public career lecturing was as distasteful to him as in -earlier years the trouble of writing was detestable. But mother wit and -"needs must" trained him in a short time to win the ear of an audience. -One evening in 1852 he made his début at the Royal Institution, and the -next day he received a letter charging him with every possible fault -that a lecturer could commit--ungraceful stoop, awkwardness in use of -hands, mumbling of words, or dropping them down the shirt front. The -lesson was timely, and its effect salutary. Huxley was fond of telling -this story, and it is worth recording--if but as encouragement to -stammerers who have something to say--at what price he "bought this -freedom" which held an audience spellbound. How he thus held it in -later years they will remember who in the packed theatre of the Royal -Institution listened on the evening of Friday, 9th of April, 1880, to -his lecture On the Coming of Age of the Origin of Species. - -In 1856 Huxley visited the glaciers of the Alps with Tyndall, the result -appearing in their joint authorship of a paper on Glacial Phenomena in -the Philosophical Transactions of the following year. But this was a -rare interlude. What time could be wrested from daily routine was given -to the study of invertebrate and vertebrate morphology, palæontology, -and ethnology, familiarity with which was no mean equipment for the -conflict soon to rage round these seemingly pacific materials when -their deep import was declared. The outcome of such varied industry is -apparent to the student of scientific memoirs. But a recital of the -titles of papers contributed to these, as e. g., On Ceratodus, -Hyperodapedon Gordoni, Hypsilophodon, Telerpeton, and so forth, will not -here tend to edification. The original and elaborate investigations -which they embody have had recognition in the degrees and medals -which decorated the illustrious author. But it is not by these that -Huxley's renown as one of the most richly-endowed and widely-cultured -personalities of the Victorian era will endure. They might sink into -the oblivion which buries most purely technical work without in any -way affecting that foremost place which he fills in the ranks of -philosophical biologists both as clear-headed thinker and luminous -interpreter. - -In this high function the publication of the Origin of Species gave -him his opportunity. That was in 1859. As with Hooker and Bates, his -experiences as a traveller, and, more than this, his penetrating inquiry -into significances and relations, prepared his mind for acceptance of -the theory of descent with modification of living forms from one stock. -Hence the mutability, as against the old theory of the fixity, of -species. - -In the chapter On the Reception of the Origin of Species, which Huxley -contributed to Darwin's Life and Letters, he gives an interesting -account of his attitude toward that burning question. He says-- - - * * * * * - -"I think that I must have read the Vestiges (see p. 119) before I left -England in 1846, but if I did the book made very little impression upon -me, and I was not brought into serious contact with the 'species' -question until after 1850. At that time I had long done with the -Pentateuchal cosmogony which had been impressed upon my childish -understanding as Divine truth with all the authority of parents and -instructors, and from which it had cost me many a struggle to get free. -But my mind was unbiassed in respect of any doctrine which presented -itself if it professed to be based on purely philosophical and -scientific reasoning.... I had not then and I have not now the smallest -_a priori_ objection to raise to the account of the creation of animals -and plants given in Paradise Lost, in which Milton so vividly embodies -the natural sense of Genesis. Far be it from me to say that it is untrue -because it is impossible. I confine myself to what must be regarded as a -modest and reasonable request for some particle of evidence that the -existing species of animals and plants did originate in that way as a -condition of my belief in a statement which appears to me to be highly -improbable.... - -"And by way of being perfectly fair, I had exactly the same answer to -give to the evolutionists of 1851-58. Within the ranks of the biologists -of that time I met with nobody, except Dr. Grant, of University College, -who had a word to say for Evolution, and his advocacy was not calculated -to advance the cause. Outside these ranks the only person known to me -whose knowledge and capacity compelled respect, and who was at the same -time a thoroughgoing evolutionist, was Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose -acquaintance I made, I think, in 1852, and then entered into the bonds -of a friendship which I am happy to think has known no interruption. -Many and prolonged were the battles we fought on this topic. But even my -friend's rare dialectic skill and copiousness of apt illustration could -not drive me from my agnostic position. I took my stand upon two -grounds: firstly, that up to that time the evidence in favour of -transmutation was wholly insufficient; and secondly, that no suggestion -respecting the causes of the transmutation assumed which had been made -was in any way adequate to explain the phenomena. Looking back at the -state of knowledge at that time, I really do not see that any other -conclusion was justifiable. - -"As I have already said, I imagine that most of those of my -contemporaries who thought seriously about the matter were very -much in my own state of mind--inclined to say to both Mosaists and -Evolutionists 'A plague on both your houses!' and disposed to turn aside -from an interminable and apparently fruitless discussion to labour in -the fertile fields of ascertainable fact. And I may therefore further -suppose that the publication of the Darwin and Wallace papers in 1858, -and still more that of the Origin in 1859, had the effect upon them of -the flash of light, which to a man who has lost himself in a dark night -suddenly reveals a road which, whether it takes him straight home or -not, certainly goes his way. That which we were looking for and could -not find was a hypothesis respecting the origin of known organic forms -which assumed the operation of no causes but such as could be proved to -be actually at work. We wanted, not to pin our faith to that or any -other speculation, but to get hold of clear and definite conceptions -which could be brought face to face with facts, and have their validity -tested. The Origin provided us with the working hypothesis we sought. -Moreover, it did the immense service of freeing us for ever from the -dilemma--refuse to accept the creation hypothesis, and what have you to -propose that can be accepted by any cautious reasoner? In 1857 I had no -answer ready, and I do not think that any one else had. A year later -we reproached ourselves with dulness for being perplexed by such an -inquiry. My reflection, when I first made myself master of the central -idea of the Origin was 'How extremely stupid not to have thought of -that!' I suppose that Columbus's companions said much the same when he -made the egg stand on end. The facts of variability, of the struggle for -existence, of adaptation to conditions, were notorious enough, but none -of us had suspected that the road to the heart of the species problem -lay through them, until Darwin and Wallace dispelled the darkness, and -the beacon-fire of the Origin guided the benighted." - -But the disciple soon outstripped the master. As was said of Luther in -relation to Erasmus, Huxley hatched the egg that Darwin laid. For in the -Origin of Species the theory was not pushed to its obvious conclusion: -Darwin only hinted that it "would throw much light on the origin of -man and his history." His silence, as he candidly tells us in the -Introduction to the Descent of Man, was due to a desire "not to add to -the prejudices against his views." No such hesitancy kept Huxley silent. -In the spirit of Plato's Laws, he followed the argument whithersoever it -led. In 1860 he delivered a course of lectures to working-men On the -Relations of Man to the Lower Animals, and in 1862, a couple of lectures -on the same subject at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. -The important and significant feature of these discourses was the -demonstration that no cerebral barrier divides man from apes; that -the attempt to draw a psychical distinction between him and the lower -animals is futile; and that "even the highest faculties of feeling and -of intellect begin to germinate in lower forms of life." The lectures -were published in 1863 in a volume entitled Evidence as to Man's Place -in Nature; and it was with pride warranted by the results of subsequent -researches that Huxley, in a letter to the writer, thus refers to the -book when arranging for its reissue among the Collected Essays-- - - I was looking through Man's Place in Nature the other day. I do not - think there is a word I need delete, nor anything I need add, except - in confirmation and extension of the doctrine there laid down. That - is great good fortune for a book thirty years old, and one that a - very shrewd friend of mine implored me not to publish, as it would - certainly ruin all my prospects. - -The sparse annotations to the whole series of reprinted matter show that -the like permanence attends all his writings. And yet, true workman, -with ideal ever lying ahead, as he was, he remarked to the writer that -never did a book come hot from the press, but he wished that he could -suppress it and rewrite it. - -But before dealing with the momentous issues raised in Man's Place in -Nature, we must return to 1860. For that was the "Sturm und Drang" -period. Then, at Oxford, "home of lost causes," as Matthew Arnold -apostrophizes her in the Preface to his Essays in Criticism, was fought, -on Saturday, 30th of June, a memorable duel between biologist and -bishop; perhaps in its issues, more memorable than the historic -discussion on the traditional doctrine of special creation between -Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in the French Academy in 1830. - -Both Huxley and Wilberforce were doughty champions. The scene of combat, -the Museum Library, was crammed to suffocation. Fainting women were -carried out. There had been "words" between Owen and Huxley on the -previous Thursday. Owen contended that there were certain fundamental -differences between the brains of man and apes. Huxley met this with -"direct and unqualified contradiction," and pledged himself to "justify -that unusual procedure elsewhere." No wonder that the atmosphere was -electric. The bishop was up to time. Declamation usurped the vacant -place of argument in his speech, and the declamation became acrid. He -finished his harangue by asking Huxley whether he was related by his -grandfather's or grandmother's side to an ape. "The Lord hath delivered -him into my hands," whispered Huxley to a friend at his side, as he rose -to reply. After setting his opponent an example in demonstrating his -case by evidence which, although refuting Owen, evoked no admission of -error from him then or ever after, Huxley referred to the personal -remark of Wilberforce. And this is what he said-- - - I asserted, and I repeat, that a man has no reason to be ashamed of - having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I - should feel shame in recalling, it would be a _man_, a man of - restless and versatile intellect, who, not content with an equivocal - success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific - questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure - them by an aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his - hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions, and - skilled appeals to religious prejudice. - -Perhaps the best comment on a piece of what is now ancient history is to -quote the admissions made by Lord Salisbury--a rigid High Churchman--in -his presidential address to the British Association in this same city of -Oxford in 1894-- - - Few now are found to doubt that animals separated by differences far - exceeding those that distinguish what we know as species have yet - descended from common ancestors.... Darwin has, as a matter of fact, - disposed of the doctrine of the immutability of species. - -Few, also, are now found to doubt not only that doctrine, but also the -doctrine that all life-forms have a common origin; plants and animals -being alike built-up of matter which is identical in character. This -doctrine, to-day a commonplace of biology, was, thirty years ago, rank -heresy, since it seemed to reduce the soul of man to the level of his -biliary duct. Hence the Oxford storm was but a capful of wind compared -with that which raged round Huxley's lecture on The Physical Basis of -Life delivered, thus aggravating the offence, on a "Sabbath" evening in -Edinburgh in 1868. People had settled down, with more or less vague -understanding of the matter, into quiescent acceptance of Darwinism. And -now their somnolence was rudely shaken by this Southron troubler of -Israel, with his production of a bottle of solution of smelling salts, -and a pinch or two of other ingredients, which represented the -elementary substances entering into the composition of every living -thing from a jelly-speck to man. Well might the removal of the stopper -to that bottle take their breath away! Microscopists, philosophers -"so-called," and clerics alike raised the cry of "gross materialism," -never pausing to read Huxley's anticipatory answer to the baseless -charge, an answer repeated again and again in his writings, as in the -essay of Descartes' Discourse touching the method of using one's reason -rightly, and in his Hume. In season and out of season he never wearies -in insisting that there is nothing in the doctrine inconsistent with the -purest idealism. "All the phenomena of Nature are, in their ultimate -analysis, known to us only as facts of consciousness." The cyclone thus -raised travelled westward on the heels of Tyndall, when in 1874 he -asserted the fundamental identity of the organic and inorganic; dashing, -as his Celtic blood stirred him, the statements with a touch of poetry -in the famous phrase that "the genius of Newton was potential in the -fires of the sun." - -The ancient belief in "spontaneous generation," which Redi's experiments -upset, was the subject of Huxley's Presidential Address to the British -Association in 1870. But while he showed how subsequent investigation -confirmed the doctrine of Abiogenesis, or the non-production of living -from dead matter, he made this statement in support of Tyndall's creed -as to the fundamental unity of the vital and the non-vital. - -"Looking back through the prodigious vista of the past, I find no record -of the commencement of life, and therefore I am devoid of any means of -forming a definite conclusion as to the conditions of its appearance. -Belief, in the scientific sense of the word, is a serious matter, and -needs strong foundations. To say, therefore, in the admitted absence of -evidence, that I have any belief as to the mode in which the existing -forms of life have originated, would be using words in a wrong sense. -But expectation is permissible where belief is not; and if it were given -to me to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time to the -still more remote period when the earth was passing through physical and -chemical conditions which it can no more see again than a man can recall -his infancy, I should expect to be a witness of the evolution of living -protoplasm from non-living matter. I should expect to see it appear -under forms of great simplicity, endowed, like existing fungi, with the -power of determining the formation of new protoplasm from such matters -as ammonium carbonates, oxalates, and tartrates, alkaline and earthy -phosphates, and water, without the aid of light. That is the expectation -to which analogical reasoning leads me; but I beg you once more to -recollect that I have no right to call my opinion anything but an act of -philosophical faith." - -Huxley was the Apostle Paul of the Darwinian movement, and one main -result of his active propagandism was to so effectively prepare the way -for the reception of the profounder issues involved in the theory of the -origin of species, that the publication of Darwin's Descent of Man in -1871 created mild excitement. And the weight of his support is the -greater because he never omitted to lay stress on the obscurity which -still hides the causes of variation which, it must be kept in mind, -natural selection cannot bring about, and on which it can only act. He -insists on the non-implication of the larger theory with its subordinate -parts, or with the fate of them. The "doctrine of Evolution is a -generalisation of certain facts which may be observed by any one who -will take the necessary trouble." The facts are those which biologists -class under the heads of Embryology and Palæontology, to the conclusions -from which "all future philosophical and theological speculations will -have to accommodate themselves." - -That is the direction of the revolution to which the publication of -Man's Place in Nature gave impetus; and it is in the all-round -application of the theory of man's descent that Huxley stands foremost, -both as leader and lawgiver. Mr. Spencer has never shrunk from -controversy, but he has not forsaken the study for the arena, and hence -his influence, great and abiding as it is, has been less direct and -personal than that of his comrade, "ever a fighter," who, in Browning's -words, "marched breast forward." Man's Place in Nature was the first of -a series of deliverances upon the most serious questions that can occupy -the mind; and its successors, the brilliant monograph on Hume, published -in 1879, and the Romanes Lecture on Evolution and Ethics, delivered at -Oxford, 18th of May, 1893, are but expansions of the thesis laid down in -that wonderful little volume; wonderful in the prevision which fills it, -and in the justification which it has received from all subsequent -research, notably in psychology. - -If the propositions therein maintained are unshaken, then there is no -possible reconciliation between Evolution and Theology, and all the -smooth sayings in attempted harmonies between the two, of which -Professor Drummond's Ascent of Man is a type, and in speeches at Church -Congresses of which that delivered by Archdeacon Wilson (see p. 161) is -a type, do but hypnotize the "light half-believers of our casual -creeds." To some there are "signs of the times" which point to -approaching acquiescence in the sentiment of Ovid, paralleled by a -famous passage in Gibbon, that "the existence of the gods is a matter of -public policy, and we must believe it accordingly." It looks like the -prelude to surrender of what is the cardinal dogma of Christianity when -we read in the Archdeacon's address that "the theory of Evolution is -indeed fatal to certain _quasi_-mythological doctrines of the Atonement -which once prevailed, but it is in harmony with its spirit." For those -doctrines, as the Venerable apologist may learn from the evidence in -Frazer's Golden Bough (chap. iii, _passim_), are wholly mythological, -because barbaric. But, in truth, there is not a dogma of Christendom, -not a foundation on which the dogma rests, that Evolution does not -traverse. The Church of England adopts "as thoroughly to be received -and believed," the three ancient creeds, known as the Apostles', the -Athanasian, and the Nicene. There is not a sentence in any one of these -which finds confirmation; and only a sentence or two that find neither -confirmation nor contradiction, in Evolution. - -The question, on which reams of paper have been wasted, lies in a -nutshell. The statements in the Creeds profess to have warrant in the -direct words of the Bible; or in inferences drawn from those words, as -defined by the Councils of the Church. The decisions of these Councils -represent the opinion of the majority of fallible men composing those -assemblies, and no number of fallible parts can make an infallible -whole. As Selden quaintly puts it (Table Talk, xxx, Councils), "they -talk (but blasphemously enough) that the Holy Ghost is president of -their General Councils, when the truth is the odd man is still the Holy -Ghost." With this same "odd man" rested the decision as to what books -should be included or excluded from the collection on which the Church -bases its authority and formulates its creeds. So, in the last result, -both sets of questions are settled by a human tribunal employing a -circular argument. But, dismissing this for the moment, let us see to -what issues the controversy is narrowed, to quote Huxley's words -(written in 1871), by "the spontaneous retreat of the enemy from -nine-tenths of the territory which he occupied ten years ago." - -The battle has no longer to be fought over the question of the -fundamental identity of the physical structure of man and of the -anthropoid apes. The most enlightened Protestant divines accept this as -proven; and not a few Catholic divines are adopting an attitude toward -it which is only the prelude to surrender. Matters must have moved apace -in the Church which Huxley, backed by history, describes as "that -vigorous and consistent enemy of the highest intellectual, moral, and -social life of mankind," to permit the Roman Catholic Professor of -Physics in the University of Notre Dame, America, to parley as follows: - -"Granting that future researches in palæontology, anthropology, and -biology, shall demonstrate beyond doubt that man is genetically related -to the inferior animals, and we have seen how far scientists are from -such a demonstration (?), there will not be, even in such an improbable -event, the slightest ground for imagining that then, at last, the -conclusions of science are hopelessly at variance with the declarations -of the sacred text, or the authorised teachings of the Church of Christ. -All that would logically follow from the demonstration of the animal -origin of man, would be a modification of the traditional view regarding -the origin of the body of our first ancestor. We should be obliged to -revise the interpretation that has usually been given to the words of -Scripture which refer to the formation of Adam's body, and read these -words in the sense which Evolution demands, a sense which, as we have -seen, may be attributed to the words of the inspired record, without -either distorting the meaning of terms, or in any way doing violence to -the text" (Evolution and Dogma. By the Reverend J. A. Zahm, Ph. D., -C.S.C., pp. 364, 365). - -Upon this suggested revision of writings which are claimed as forming -part of a divine revelation, one of the highest authorities, Francisco -Suarez, thus refers, in his Tractatus de Opere sex Dierum, to the -elastic interpretation given in his time to the "days" in the first -chapter of Genesis. "It is not probable that God, in inspiring Moses to -write a history of the Creation, which was to be believed by ordinary -people, would have made him use language the true meaning of which it -was hard to discover, and still harder to believe." Three centuries have -passed since these wise words were penned, and the reproof which they -convey is as much needed now as then. - -In near connection with the question of man's origin is that of his -antiquity. The existence of his remains, rare as they are everywhere, in -deposits older than the Pleistocene or Quaternary Epoch is not proven. -This applies to the remarkable fragments found by Dr. Dubois in Java, -the character of which, in the judgment of several palæontologists, -indicates the nearest approach between man and ape hitherto discovered. -But the evidence of the physical relation of these two being conclusive, -the exact place of man in the earth's time-record is rendered of -subordinate importance. - -The theologians have come to their last ditch in contesting that the -mental differences between man and the lower animals are fundamental, -being differences of kind, and therefore that no gradual process from -the mental faculties of the one to those of the other has taken place. -This struggle against the application of the theory of Evolution to -man's intellectual and spiritual nature will be long and stubborn. It -is a matter of life and death to the theologian to show that he has in -revelation, and in the world-wide belief of mankind in spiritual -existences without, and in a spirit or soul within, evidence of the -supernatural. The evolutionist has no such corresponding deep concern. -When the argument against him is adduced from the Bible, he can only -challenge the ground on which that book is cited as divine authority, or -as an authority at all. Granting, for the sake of argument, that a -revelation has been made, the writings purporting to contain it must -comply with the twofold condition attaching to it, namely, that it makes -known matters which the human mind could not, unaided, have found out; -and that it embodies those matters in language as to the meaning of -which there can be no doubt whatever. If there be any sacred books which -comply with these conditions, they have yet to be discovered. - -When the argument against the evolutionist is drawn from human -testimony, he does not dispute the existence of the belief in a soul and -in all the accompanying apparatus of the supernatural; but he calls in -the anthropologist to explain how these arose in the barbaric mind. - -Meanwhile, let us summarize the evidence which points to the psychical -unity between man and the lower life-forms. As stated on p. 187, Mr. -Herbert Spencer traces the gradual evolution of consciousness from "the -blurred, indeterminate feeling which responds to a single nerve -pulsation or shock." There is no trace of a nervous system in the -simplest organisms, but this counts for little, because there are also -no traces of a mouth, or a stomach, or limbs. In these seemingly -structureless creatures every part does everything. The amoeba eats and -drinks, digests and excretes, manifests "irritability," that is, -responds to the various stimuli of its surroundings, and multiplies, -without possessing special organs for these various functions. Division -of labour arises at a slightly higher stage, when rudimentary organs -appear; the development of function and organ going on simultaneously. - -Speaking broadly, the functions of living things are threefold: they -feed; they reproduce; they respond to their "environment," and it is -this last-named function--communication with surroundings--which is the -special work of the nervous system. It was an old Greek maxim that "a -man may once say a thing as he would have said it: he cannot say it -twice." This is the warrant for transferring a few sentences on the -origin of the nerves from my Story of Creation. They are but a meagre -abstract of Mr. Spencer's long, but luminous exposition of the subject. - -"As every part of an organism is made up of cells, and as the functions -govern the form of the cells, the origin of nerves must be due to a -modification in cell shape and arrangement, whereby certain tracts or -fibres of communication between the body and its surroundings are -established. - -"But what excited that modification? The all-surrounding medium, without -which no life had been, which determined its limits, and _touches_ it at -every point with its throbs and vibrations. In the beginnings of a -primitive layer or skin manifested by creatures a stage above the -lowest, unlikenesses would arise, and certain parts, by reason of their -finer structure, would be the more readily stimulated by, and the more -quickly responsive to, the ceaseless action of the surroundings, the -result being that an extra sensitiveness along the lines of least -resistance would be set up in those more delicate parts. These, -developing, like all things else, by use, would become more and more the -selected paths of the impulses, leading, as the molecular waves thrilled -them, to structural changes or modification into nerve-cells, and -nerve-fibres, of increasing complexity as we ascend the scale of life. -The entire nervous system, with its connections; the brain and all the -subtle mechanism with which it controls the body; the organs of the -senses alike begin as sacs formed by infoldings of the primitive outer -skin." - -Biologists are agreed that a certain stage in the organization of the -nervous system--the germs of which, we saw, are visible in the quivering -of an amoeba, and probably in plants as well as animals--must be reached -before consciousness is manifest. Obscurity still hangs round the stage -at which mere irritability passes into sensibility, but so long as the -continuity of development is clear, the gradations are of lesser -importance. And, for the present purpose, there is no need to descend -far in the life-scale; if the psychical connection between man and the -mammals immediately beneath him is proven, the connection of the mammals -with the lowest invertebrate may be assumed as also established. -Speaking only of vertebrates, the brain being, whether in fish or man, -the organ of mental phenomena, how far does its structure support or -destroy the theory of mental continuity? In Man's Place in Nature, and -its invaluable supplement, the second part of the monograph on Hume, -this subject is expounded by Huxley with his usual clearness. In the -older book he traces the gradual modification of brain in the series of -backboned animals. He points out that the brain of a fish is very small -compared with the spinal cord into which it is continued, that in -reptiles the mass of brain, relatively to the spinal cord, is larger, -and still larger in birds, until among the lowest mammals, as the -opossums and kangaroos, the brain is so increased in proportion as to be -extremely different from that of fish, bird, or reptile. Between these -marsupials and the highest or placental mammals, there occurs "the -greatest leap anywhere made by Nature in her brain work." Then follows -this important statement in favour of continuity. - -"As if to demonstrate, by a striking example, the impossibility of -erecting any cerebral barrier between man and the apes, Nature has -provided us, in the latter animals, with an almost complete series of -gradations from brains little higher than that of a Rodent to brains -little lower than that of Man." After giving technical descriptions -in proof of this, and laying special stress on the presence of the -structure known as the "hippocampus minor" in the brain of man as well -as of the ape--in the denial of which Owen cut such a sorry figure, -Huxley adds: - -"So far as cerebral structure goes, therefore, it is clear that Man -differs less from the Chimpanzee or the Orang than these do even -from the Monkeys, and that the difference between the brains of the -Chimpanzee and of Man is almost insignificant when compared with that -between the Chimpanzee brain and that of a Lemur.... Thus, whatever -system of organs be studied, the comparison of their modifications in -the ape series leads to one and the same result,--that the structural -differences which separate Man from the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee are -not so great as those which separate the Gorilla from the lower apes. -But in enunciating this important truth I must guard myself against a -form of misunderstanding which is very prevalent ... that the structural -differences between man and even the highest apes are small and -insignificant. Let me then distinctly assert, on the contrary, that they -are great and significant; that every bone of a Gorilla bears marks by -which it might be distinguished from the corresponding bone of a Man; -and that, in the present creation, at any rate, no intermediate link -bridges over the gap between _Homo_ and _Troglodytes_. It would be no -less wrong than absurd to deny the existence of this chasm; but it is at -least equally wrong and absurd to exaggerate its magnitude, and, resting -on the admitted fact of its existence, to refuse to inquire whether it -is wide or narrow. Remember, if you will, that there is no existing link -between Man and the Gorilla, but do not forget that there is a no less -sharp line of demarcation, a no less complete absence of any traditional -form, between the Gorilla and the Orang, or the Orang and the Gibbon." - -The brains of man and ape being fundamentally the same in structure, it -follows that the functions which they perform are fundamentally the -same. The large array of facts mustered by a series of careful observers -prove how futile is the argument which, in his pride of birth, man -advances against psychical continuity. Vain is the search after boundary -lines between reflex action and instinct, and between instinct and -reason. Barriers there are between man and brute, for articulate speech -and the consequent power to transmit experiences has set up these, and -they remain impassable. "The potentialities of language, as the vocal -symbol of thought, lay in the faculty of modulating and articulating the -voice. The potentialities of writing, as the visual symbol of thought, -lay in the hand that could draw, and in the mimetic tendency which we -know was gratified by drawing as far back as the days of Quaternary man" -(Huxley's Essays on Controverted Questions, p. 47). But these specially -human characteristics are no sufficing warrant for denying that the -sensations, emotions, thoughts, and volitions of man vary in kind from -those of the lower creation. "The essential resemblances in all points -of structure and function, so far as they can be studied, between the -nervous system of man and that of the dog, leave no reasonable doubt -that the processes which go on in the one are just like those which take -place in the other. In the dog, there can be no doubt that the nervous -matter which lies between the retina and the muscles undergoes a series -of changes, precisely analogous to those which, in the man, give rise -to sensation, a train of thought, and volition." This passage occurs -in Huxley's Reply to Mr. Darwin's Critics, which appeared in the -Contemporary Review, 1871, and it may be supplemented by a quotation -from the chapter on The Mental Phenomena of Animals in his Hume. "It -seems hard to assign any good reason for denying to the higher animals -any mental state or process in which the employment of the vocal or -visual symbols of which language is composed is not involved; and -comparative psychology confirms the position in relation to the rest of -the animal world assigned to man by comparative anatomy. As comparative -anatomy is easily able to show that, physically, man is but the last -term of a long series of forms, which lead, by slow gradations, from the -highest mammal to the almost formless speck of living protoplasm, which -lies on the shadowy boundary between animal and vegetable life; so, -comparative psychology, though but a young science, and far short of her -elder sister's growth, points to the same conclusion." - -Within recent years the psychologists are doing remarkable work in -attacking the problem of the mechanics of mental operations, and already -in Europe and America some thirty laboratories have been started for -experimental work. The subject is somewhat abstruse for detailed -reference here, and it must suffice to say that the psychologist, -beginning with observations upon himself, measuring, for example, "the -degree of sensibility of his own eye to luminous irritations, or of his -own skin to pricking, passes on to like inquiry into the numerical -relations between the energy of the stimuli of light, sound, and so -forth, and the energy of the sensations which they arouse in the -nerve-channels." An excellent summary, with references to the newest -authorities on the subject, is given by Prince Kropotkin in the -Nineteenth Century of August, 1896. - -All this, to the superficial onlooker, seems rank materialism. But we -cannot think without a brain any more than we can see without eyes, and -any inquiry into the operation of the organ of thought must run on the -same lines as inquiry into the operations of any other organ of the -body. And the inquiry leaves us at the point whence we began in so -far as any light is thrown on the connection between the molecular -vibrations in nerve-tissue and the mental processes of which they are -the indispensable accompaniment. Changes take place in some of the -thousands of millions of brain-cells in every thought that we think, and -in every emotion that we feel, but the nexus remains an impenetrable -mystery. Nevertheless, if we may not say that the brain secretes thought -as we say that the liver secretes bile, we may also not say that the -mind is detachable from the nervous system, and that it is an entity -independent of it. Were it this, not only would it stand outside the -ordinary conditions of development, but it would also maintain the -equilibrium which a dose of narcotics or of alcohol, or which starvation -and gorging alike rapidly upset. - -In his posthumous essay On the Immortality of the Soul, Hume says: -"Matter and spirit are at bottom equally unknown, and we cannot -determine what qualities inhere in the one or in the other." That is the -conclusion to which the wisest come. And in the ultimate correlation of -the physical and psychical lies the hope of arrival at that terminus -of unity which was the dream of the ancient Greeks, and to which all -inquiry makes approach. How, in these matters, philosophy is at one, is -again seen in Huxley's admission that "in respect of the great problems -of philosophy, the post-Darwinian generation is, in one sense, exactly -where the præ-Darwinian generations were. They remain insoluble. But the -present generation has the advantage of being better provided with the -means of freeing itself from the tyranny of certain sham solutions." - -Science explains, and, in explaining, dissipates the pseudo-mysteries by -which man, in his myth-making stage, when conception of the order of the -universe was yet unborn, accounted for everything. But she may borrow -the Apostle's words, "Behold! I show you a mystery," and give to them a -profounder meaning as she confesses that the origin and ultimate destiny -of matter and motion; the causes which determine the behaviour of atoms, -whether they are arranged in the lovely and varying forms which mark -their crystals, or whether they are quivering with the life which is -common to the amoeba and the man; the conversion of the inorganic into -the organic by the green plant, and the relation between nerve-changes -and consciousness; are all impenetrable mysteries. - -In his speech on the commemoration of the jubilee of his Professorship -in the University of Glasgow last year, Lord Kelvin said, "I know no -more of electric and magnetic force, or of the relation between ether, -electricity, and ponderable matter, or of chemical affinity than I knew -and tried to teach my students of natural philosophy fifty years ago in -my first session as professor." - -This recognition of limitations will content those who seek not "after a -sign". For others, that search will continue to have encouragement not -only from the theologian, but from the pseudo-scientific who have -travelled some distance with the Pioneers of Evolution, but who refuse -to follow them further. In each of these there is present the -"theological bias" whose varied forms are skilfully analyzed by Mr. -Spencer in his chapter under that heading in the Study of Sociology. -This explains the attitude of various groups which are severally -represented by Mr. St. George Mivart, and the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter; -by Professor Sir Geo. G. Stokes, and Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace. The -first-named is a Roman Catholic; the second was a Unitarian; the third -is an orthodox Churchman, and the fourth, as already seen, is a -Spiritualist. In his Genesis of Species, Mr. Mivart contends that "man's -body was evolved from pre-existing material (symbolised by the term -'dust of the earth'), and was therefore only derivatively created, -i. e., by the operation of secondary laws," but that "his soul, on the -other hand, was created in quite a different way ... by the direct -action of the Almighty (symbolised by the term breathing)," p. 325. In -his Mental Physiology, Dr. Carpenter postulates an Ego or Will which -presides over, without sharing in, the causally determined action of the -other mental functions and their correlated bodily processes; "an entity -which does not depend for its existence on any play of physical or vital -forces, but which makes these forces subservient to its determinations" -(p. 27). Professor Mivart actually cites St. Augustine and Cardinal -Newman as authorities in support of his theory of the special creation -of the soul. He might with equal effect subpoena Dr. Joseph Parker or -General Booth as authorities. Dr. Carpenter argued as became a good -Unitarian. In his Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology, Professor Stokes -asserts, drawing "on sources of information which lie beyond man's -natural powers," in other words, appealing to the Bible, that God made -man immortal and upright, and endowed him with freedom of the will. As, -without the exercise of this, man would have been as a mere automaton, -he was exposed to the temptation of the devil, and fell. Thereby he -became "subject to death like the lower animals," and by the "natural -effect of heredity," transmitted the taint of sin to his offspring. The -eternal life thus forfeited was restored by the voluntary sacrifice of -Christ, but can be secured only to those who have faith in him. This -doctrine, which is no novel one, is known as "conditional immortality." -Professor Stokes attaches "no value to the belief in a future life by -metaphysical arguments founded on the supposed nature of the soul -itself," and he admits that the purely psychic theory which would -discard the body altogether in regard to the process of thought is beset -by very great difficulties. So he once more has recourse to "sources of -information which lie beyond man's natural powers." Following up certain -distinctions between "soul" and "spirit" drawn by the Apostle Paul in -his tripartite division of man, Professor Stokes, somewhat in keeping -with Dr. Carpenter, assumes an "Ego, which, on the one hand, is not -to be identified with thought, which may exist while thought is in -abeyance, and which may, with the future body of which the Christian -religion speaks, be the medium of continuity of thought.... What -the nature of this body might be we do not know; but we are pretty -distinctly informed that it would be something very different from that -of our present body, very different in its properties and functions, and -yet no less our own than our present body." "Words, words, words," as -Hamlet says. - -Reference has been made in some fulness to Mr. Wallace's limitations of -the theory of natural selection in the case of man's mental faculties. -We must now pursue this somewhat in detail, reminding the reader of Mr. -Wallace's admission that, "provisionally, the laws of variation and -natural selection ... may have brought about, first, that perfection of -bodily structure in which man is so far above all other animals, and, in -co-ordination with it, the larger and more developed brain by means of -which he has been able to subject the whole animal and vegetable -kingdoms to his service." But, although Mr. Wallace rejects the theory -of man's special creation as "being entirely unsupported by facts, as -well as in the highest degree improbable," he contends that it does not -necessarily follow that "his mental nature, even though developed _pari -passu_ with his physical structure, has been developed by the same -agencies." Then, by the introduction of a physical analogy which is no -analogy at all, he suggests that the agent by which man was upraised -into a kingdom apart bears like relation to natural selection as the -glacial epoch bears to the ordinary agents of denudation and other -changes in producing new effects which, though continuous with preceding -effects, were not due to the same causes. - -Applying this "argument" (drawn from natural causes), as Mr. Wallace -names it, "to the case of man's intellectual and moral nature," he -contends that such special faculties as the mathematical, musical, and -artistic (is this faculty to be denied the nest-decorating bower bird?), -and the high moral qualities which have given the martyr his constancy, -the patriot his devotion, and the philanthropist his unselfishness, are -due to a "spiritual essence or nature, superadded to the animal nature -of man." We are not told at what stage in man's development this was -inserted; whether, once and for all, in "primitive" man, with -potentiality of transmission through Palæolithic folk to all succeeding -generations; or whether there is special infusion of a "spiritual -essence" into every human being at birth. - -Any perplexity that might arise at the line thus taken by Mr. Wallace -vanishes before the fact, already enlarged upon, that the author of the -Malay Archipelago and Island Life has written a book on Miracles and -Modern Spiritualism in defence of both. The explanation lies in that -duality of mind which, in one compartment, ranks Mr. Wallace foremost -among naturalists, and, in the other compartment, places him among the -most credulous of Spiritualists. - -Despite this, Mr. Wallace has claims to a respectful hearing and to -serious reply. Fortunately, he would appear to furnish the refutation to -his own argument in the following paragraph from his delightful -Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection: - -"From the time when the social and sympathetic feelings came into -operation and the intellectual and moral faculties became fairly -developed, man would cease to be influenced by natural selection in -his physical form and structure. As an animal he would remain almost -stationary, the changes in the surrounding universe ceasing to produce -in him that powerful modifying effect which they exercise on other -parts of the organic world. But, from the moment that the form of his -body became stationary, his mind would become subject to those very -influences from which his body had escaped; every slight variation in -his mental and moral nature which should enable him better to guard -against adverse circumstances and combine for mutual comfort and -protection would be preserved and accumulated; the better and higher -specimens of our race would therefore increase and spread, the lower and -more brutal would give way and successively die out, and that rapid -advancement of mental organisation would occur which has raised the very -lowest races of man so far above the brutes (although differing so -little from some of them in physical structure), and, in conjunction -with scarcely perceptible modifications of form, has developed the -wonderful intellect of the European races" (pp. 316, 317, Second -Edition, 1871). - -This argument has suggestive illustration in the fifth chapter of the -Origin of Species. Mr. Darwin there refers to a remark to the following -effect made by Mr. Waterhouse: "_A part developed in any species in an -extraordinary degree or manner in comparison with the same part in -allied species tends to be highly variable._" This applies only where -there is unusual development. "Thus, the wing of a bat is a most -abnormal structure in the class of mammals; but the rule would not apply -here, because the whole group of bats possesses wings; it would apply -only if some one species had wings developed in a remarkable manner in -comparison with the other species of the same genus." And when this -exceptional development of any part or organ occurs, we may conclude -that the modification has arisen since the period when the several -species branched off from the common progenitor of the genus; and this -period will seldom be very remote, as species rarely endure for more -than one geological period. - -How completely this applies to man, the latest product of organic -evolution. The brain is that part or organ in him which has been -developed "in an extraordinary degree, in comparison with the same part" -in other Primates, and which has become _highly variable_. Whatever may -have been the favouring causes which secured his immediate progenitors -such modification of brain as advanced him in intelligence over "allied -species," the fact abides that in this lies the explanation of their -after-history; the arrest of the one, the unlimited progress of the -other. Increasing intelligence at work through vast periods of time -originated and developed those social conditions which alone made -possible that progress which, in its most advanced degree, but a small -proportion of the race has reached. For in this question of mental -differences the contrast is not between man and ape, but between man -savage and civilized; between the incapacity of the one to count beyond -his fingers, and the capacity of the other to calculate an eclipse of -the sun or a transit of Venus. It would therefore seem that Mr. -Wallace should introduce his "spiritual essence, or nature," in the -intermediate, and not in the initial stage. - -As answer to Mr. Wallace's argument that in their large and -well-developed brains, savages "possess an organ quite disproportioned -to their requirements," Huxley cites Wallace's own remarks in his paper -on Instinct in Man and Animals as to the considerable demands made by -the needs of the lower races on their observing faculties which call -into play no mean exercise of brain function. - -"Add to this," Huxley says, "the knowledge which a savage is obliged to -gain of the properties of plants, of the characters and habits of -animals, and of the minute indications by which their course is -discoverable; consider that even an Australian can make excellent -baskets and nets, and neatly fitted and beautifully balanced spears; -that he learns to use these so as to be able to transfix a quartern loaf -at sixty yards; and that very often, as in the case of the American -Indians, the language of a savage exhibits complexities which a -well-trained European finds it difficult to master; consider that every -time a savage tracks his game, he employs a minuteness of observation, -and an accuracy of inductive and deductive reasoning which, applied to -other matters, would assure some reputation, and I think one need ask no -further why he possesses such a fair supply of brains."... But Mr. -Wallace's objection "applies quite as strongly to the lower animals. -Surely a wolf must have too much brain, or else how is it that a dog, -with only the same quantity and form of brain, is able to develop such -singular intelligence? The wolf stands to the dog in the same relation -as the savage to the man; and therefore, if Mr. Wallace's doctrine holds -good, a higher power must have superintended the breeding up of wolves -from some inferior stock, in order to prepare them to become dogs" -(Critiques and Addresses, p. 293). - -After all is said, perhaps the effective refutation of the belief in a -spiritual entity superadded in man is found in the explanation of the -origin of that belief which anthropology supplies. - -The theory of the origin and growth of the belief in souls and spiritual -beings generally, and in a future life, which has been put into coherent -form by Spencer and Tylor, is based upon an enormous mass of evidence -gathered by travellers among existing barbaric peoples; evidence -agreeing in character with that which results from investigations into -beliefs of past races in varying stages of culture. Only brief reference -to it here is necessary, but the merest outline suffices to show -from what obvious phenomena the conception of a soul was derived, a -conception of which all subsequent forms are but elaborated copies. As -in other matters, crude analogies have guided the barbaric mind in its -ideas about spirits and their behaviour. A man falls asleep and dreams -certain things; on waking, he believes that these things actually -happened; and he therefore concludes that the dead who came to him or to -whom he went in his dreams, are alive; that the friend or foe whom he -knows to be far away, but with whom he feasted or fought in dreamland, -came to him. He sees another man fall into a swoon or trance that may -lay him seemingly lifeless for hours or even days; he himself may be -attacked by deranging fevers and see visions stranger than those which -a healthy person sees; shadows of himself and of objects, both living -and not living, follow or precede him and lengthen or shorten in the -withdrawing or advancing light; the still water throws back images of -himself; the hillsides resound with mocking echoes of his words and of -sounds around him; and it is these and allied phenomena which have given -rise to the notion of "another self," to use Mr. Spencer's convenient -term, or of a number of selves that are sometimes outside the man and -sometimes inside him, as to which the barbaric mind is never sure. -Outside him, however, when the man is sleeping, so that he must not be -awakened, lest this "other self" be hindered from returning; or when he -is sick, or in the toils of the medicine-man, who may hold the "other -self" in his power, as in the curious soul-trap of the Polynesians--a -series of cocoa-nut rings--in which the sorcerer makes believe to catch -and detain the soul of an offender or sick person. When Dr. Catat and -his companions, MM. Maistre and Foucart were exploring the "Bara" -country on the west coast of Madagascar the people suddenly became -hostile. On the previous day the travellers, not without difficulty, -had photographed the royal family, and now found themselves accused of -taking the souls of the natives with the object of selling them when -they returned to France. Denial was of no avail; following the custom of -the Malagasays, they were compelled to catch the souls, which were then -put into a casket, and ordered by Dr. Catat to return to their -respective owners (Times, 24th March, 1891). - -Although the difference presented by such phenomena and by death is -that it is abiding, while they are temporary, to the barbaric mind the -difference is in degree, and not in kind. True, the "other self" has -left the body, and will never return to it; but it exists, for it -appears in dreams and hallucinations, and therefore is believed to -revisit its ancient haunts, as well as to tarry often near the exposed -or buried body. The nebulous theories which identified the soul with -breath, and shadow, and reflection, slowly condensed into theories of -semi-substantiality still charged with ethereal conceptions, resulting -in the curious amalgam which, in the minds of cultivated persons, -whenever they strive to envisage the idea, represents the disembodied -soul. - -Therefore, in vain may we seek for points of difference in our -comparison of primitive ideas of the origin and nature of the soul with -the later ideas. The copious literature to which these have given birth -is represented in the bibliography appended to Mr. Alger's work on -Theories of a Future Life, by 4977 books, exclusive of many published -since his list was compiled. Save in refinement of detail such as a -higher culture secures, what is there to choose between the four souls -of the Hidatsa Indians, the two souls of the Gold Coast natives, and the -tripartite division of man by Rabbis, Platonists, and Paulinists, which -are but the savage other-self "writ large"? Their common source is in -man's general animistic interpretation of Nature, which is a _vera -causa_, superseding the need for the assumptions of which Mr. Wallace's -is a type. As an excellent illustration of what is meant by animism, we -may cite what Mr. Everard im Thurn has to say about the Indians of -Guiana, who are, presumably, a good many steps removed from so-called -"primitive" man. "The Indian does not see any sharp line of distinction -such as we see between man and other animals, between one kind of animal -and another, or between animals--man included--and inanimate objects. On -the contrary, to the Indian all objects, animate and inanimate, seem -exactly of the same nature, except that they differ in the accident of -bodily form. Every object in the whole world is a being, consisting of -a body and spirit, and differs from every other object in no respect -except that of bodily form, and in the greater or lesser degree of brute -power and brute cunning consequent on the difference of bodily form and -bodily habits. Our next step, therefore, is to note that animals, other -than men, and even inanimate objects, have spirits which differ not at -all in kind from those of men." - -The importance of the evidence gathered by anthropology in support of -man's inclusion in the general theory of evolution is ever becoming -more manifest. For it has brought witness to continuity in organic -development at the point where a break has been assumed, and driven home -the fact that if Evolution operates anywhere, it operates everywhere. -And operates, too, in such a way that every part co-operates in the -discharge of a universal process. Hence it meets the divisions which -mark opposition to it by the transcendent power of unity. - -Until the past half-century, man excepted himself, save in crude and -superficial fashion, from that investigation which, for long periods, -he has made into the earth beneath him and the heavens above him. This -tardy inquiry into the history of his own kind, and its place in the -order and succession of life, as well as its relation to the lower -animals, between whom and itself, as has been shown, the barbaric mind -sees much in common, is due, so far as Christendom is concerned (and -the like cause applies, _mutatis mutandis_, in non-Christian civilized -communities), to the subjection of the intellect to pre-conceived -theories based on the authority accorded to ancient legends about man. -These legends, invested with the sanctity with which time endows the -past, finally became integral parts of sacred literatures, to question -which was as superfluous as it was impious. Thus it has come to pass -that the only being competent to inquire into his own antecedents has -looked at his history through the distorting prism of a mythopoeic past! - -Perhaps, in the long run, the gain has exceeded the loss. For, in the -precedence of study of other sciences more remote from man's "business -and bosom," there has been rendered possible a more dispassionate -treatment of matters charged with profounder issues. Since the Church, -however she may conveniently ignore the fact as concession after -concession is wrung from her, has never slackened in jealousy of the -advance of secular knowledge, it was well for human progress that those -subjects of inquiry which affected orthodox views only indirectly were -first prosecuted. The brilliant discoveries in astronomy, to which the -Copernican theory gave impetus, although they displaced the earth from -its assumed supremacy among the bodies in space, did not apparently -affect the doctrine of the supremacy of man as the centre of Divine -intervention, as the creature for whom the great scheme of redemption -had been formulated "in the counsels of the Trinity," and the tragedy of -the self-sacrifice of God the Son enacted on earth. The surrender or -negation of any fundamental dogma of Christian theology was not involved -in the abandonment of the statement in the Bible as to the dominant -position of the earth in relation to the sun and other self-luminous -stars. To our own time the increase of knowledge concerning the myriads -of sidereal systems which revolve through space is not held to be -destructive of those dogmas, but held, rather, to supply material for -speculation as to the probable extension of Divine paternal government -throughout the universe. And, although, as coming nearer home, with -consequent greater chance of intrusion of elements of friction, the like -applies to the discoveries of geology. Apart from intellectual apathy, -which explains much, the impact of these discoveries on traditional -beliefs was softened by the buffers which a moderating spirit of -criticism interposed in the shape of superficial "reconciliations" -emptying the old cosmogony of all its poetry, and therefore of its value -as a key to primitive ideas, and converting it into bastard science. -Thus a temporary, because artificial, unity, was set up. But with the -evidence supplied by study of the ancient life whose remains are -imbedded in the fossil-yielding strata, that unity is shivered. In a -Scripture that "cannot be broken" there was read the story of conflict -and death æons before man appeared. Between this record, and that which -spoke of pain and death as the consequences of man's disobedience to the -frivolous prohibition of an anthropomorphic God, there is no possible -reconciliation. - -To the evidence from fossiliferous beds was added evidence from old -river-gravels and limestone caverns. The relics extracted from the -stalagmitic deposits in Kent's Hole, near Torquay, had lain unheeded -for some years save as "curios," when M. Boucher des Perthes saw in the -worked flints of a somewhat rougher type which he found mingled with the -bones of rhinoceroses, cave-bears, mammoths, or woolly-haired elephants, -and other mammals in the "drift" or gravel-pits of Abbeville, in -Picardy, the proofs of man's primitive savagery, so far as Western -Europe was concerned. The presence of these rudely-chipped flints had -been noticed by M. de Perthes in 1839, but he could not persuade savants -to admit that human hands had shaped them, until these doubting Thomases -saw for themselves like implements _in situ_ at a depth of seventeen -feet from the original surface of the ground. That was in 1858: a year -before the publication of the Origin of Species. Similar materials have -been unearthed from every part of the globe habitable once or inhabited -now. They confirm the speculations of Lucretius as to a universal -makeshift with stone, bone, horn, and such-like accessible or pliable -substances during the ages that preceded the discovery of metals. -Therefore, the existence of a Stone Age at one period or another where -now an Age of Iron (following an Age of Bronze) prevails, is an -established canon of archæological science. From this follows the -inference that man's primitive condition was that which corresponds to -the lowest type extant, the Australian and Papuan; that the further back -inquiry is pushed such culture as exists is found to have been preceded -by barbarism; and that the savage races of to-day represent not a -degradation to which man, as the result of a fall from primeval purity -and Eden-like ease, has sunk, but a condition out of which all races -above the savage have emerged. - -While Prehistoric Archæology, with its enormous mass of _material_ -remains gathered from "dens and caves of the earth," from primitive -work-shops, from rude tombs and temples, thus adds its testimony to the -"great cloud of witnesses"; _immaterial_ remains, potent as embodying -the thought of man, are brought by the twin sciences of Comparative -Mythology and Folklore, and Comparative Theology--remains of paramount -value, because existing to this day in hitherto unsuspected form, as -survivals in beliefs and rites and customs. Readers of Tylor's Primitive -Culture, with its wealth of facts and their significance; and of Lyall's -Asiatic Studies, wherein is described the making of myths to this day in -the heart of India; need not be told how the slow zigzag advance of man -in material things has its parallel in the stages of his intellectual -and spiritual advance all the world over; from the lower animism to -the higher conception of deity; from bewildering guesses to assuring -certainties. To this mode of progress no civilized people has been the -exception, as notably in the case of the Hebrews, was once thought--"the -correspondence between the old Israelitic and other archaic forms of -theology extending to details." - -While, therefore, the discoveries of astronomers and geologists have -been disintegrating agencies upon old beliefs, the discoveries classed -under the general term Anthropological are acting as more powerful -solvents on every opinion of the past. Showing on what mythical -foundation the story of the fall of man rests, Anthropology has utterly -demolished the _raison d'être_ of the doctrine of his redemption--the -keystone of the fabric. It has penetrated the mists of antiquity, and -traced the myth of a forfeited Paradise, of the Creation, the Deluge, -and other legends, to their birthplaces in the valley of the Euphrates -or the uplands of Persia; legends whose earliest inscribed records are -on Accadian tablets, or in the scriptures of Zarathustra. It has in the -spirit of the commended Bereans, "searched" those and other scriptures, -finding therein legends of founders of ancient faiths cognate to those -which in the course of the centuries gathered round Jesus of Nazareth; -it has collated the rites and ceremonies of many a barbaric theology -with those of old-world religions--Brahmanic, Buddhistic, Christian--and -found only such differences between them as are referable to the higher -or the lower culture. For the history of superstitions is included in -the history of beliefs; the superstitions being the germ-plasm of -which all beliefs above the lowest are the modified products. Belief -incarnates itself in word or act. In the one we have the charm, the -invocation, and the dogma; in the other the ritual and ceremony. "A -ritual system," Professor Robertson Smith remarks, "must always remain -materialistic, even if its materialism is disguised under the cloak of -mysticism." And it is with the incarnated ideas, uninfluenced by -the particular creed in connection with which it finds them, that -anthropology deals. Its method is that of biology. Without bias, without -assumptions of relative truth or falsity, the anthropologist searches -into origins, traces variations, compares and classifies, and relates -the several families to one ordinal group. He must be what was said of -Dante, "a theologian to whom no dogma is foreign." Unfortunately, this -method, whose application to the physical sciences is unchallenged, is, -when applied to beliefs, regarded as one of attack, instead of being one -of explanation. But this should not deter; and if in analyzing a belief -we kill a superstition, this does but show what mortality lay at its -core. For error cannot survive dissection. Moreover, as John Morley puts -it, "to tamper with veracity is to tamper with the vital force of human -progress." Therefore, delivering impartial judgment, the verdict of -anthropology upon the whole matter is that the claims of Christian -theologians to a special and divine origin of their religion are refuted -by the accordant evidence of the latest utterances of a science whose -main concern is with the origin, nature, and destiny of man. - -The extension of the comparative method to the various products of -man's intellectual and spiritual nature is the logical sequence to the -adoption of that method throughout every department of the universe. Of -course it starts with the assumption of differences in things, else it -would be superfluous. But it equally starts with the assumption of -resemblances, and in every case it has brought out the fact that the -differences are superficial, and that the resemblances are fundamental. - -All this bears closely on Huxley's work. The impulse thereto has come -largely from the evidence focussed in Man's Place in Nature, evidence of -which the material of the writings of his later years is the expansion. -The cultivation of intellect and character had always been a favourite -theme with him, and the interest was widened when the passing of Mr. -Forster's Elementary Education Act in 1870 brought the problem of -popular culture to the front. The wave of enthusiasm carried a group of -distinguished liberal candidates to the polls, and Huxley was elected a -member of the School Board for London. Then, although in not so acute a -form as now, the religious difficulty was the sole cause of any serious -division, and Huxley's attitude therein puzzled a good many people -because he advocated the retention of the Bible in the schools. Those -who should have known him better thought that he was (to quote from one -of his letters to the writer) "a hypocrite, or simply a fool." "But," he -adds, "my meaning was that the mass of the people should not be deprived -of the one great literature which is open to them, nor shut out from -the perception of its place in the whole past history of civilised -mankind." He lamented, as every thoughtful person must lament, the -decay of Bible reading in this generation, while, at the same time, he -advocated the more strenuously its detachment from the glosses and -theological inferences which do irreparable injury to a literature whose -value cannot be overrated. - -For Huxley was well read in history, and therefore he would not trust -the clergy as interpreters of the Bible. After repeating in the Prologue -to his Essays on Controverted Questions what he had said about the book -in his article on the School Boards in Critiques and Addresses, he adds, -"I laid stress on the necessity of placing such instruction in lay -hands; in the hope and belief that it would thus gradually accommodate -itself to the coming changes of opinion; that the theology and the -legend would drop more and more out of sight, while the perennially -interesting historical, literary, and ethical contents would come more -and more into view." - -Subsequent events have justified neither the hope nor the belief. Had -Huxley lived to see that all the sectaries, while quarrelling as to the -particular dogmas which may be deduced from the Bible, agree in refusing -to use it other than as an instrument for the teaching of dogma, he -would probably have come to see that the only solution in the interests -of the young, is its exclusion from the schools. Never has any -collection of writings, whose miscellaneous, unequal, and often -disconnected character is obscured by the common title "Bible" which -covers them, had such need for deliverance from the so-called -"believers" in it. Its value is only to be realized in the degree that -theories of its inspiration are abandoned. Then only is it possible to -treat it like any other literature of the kind; to discriminate between -the coarse and barbaric features which evidence the humanness of its -origin, and the loftier features of its later portions which also -evidence how it falls into line with other witnesses of man's gradual -ethical and spiritual development. - -Huxley's breadth of view, his sympathy with every branch of culture, his -advocacy of literary in unison with scientific training, fitted him -supremely for the work of the School Board, but its demands were too -severe on a man never physically strong, and he was forced to resign. -However, he was thereby set free for other work, which could be only -effectively done by exchanging the arena for the study. The earliest -important outcome of that relief was the monograph on Hume, published in -1879, and the latest was the Romanes lecture on Evolution and Ethics, -which was delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford on the 18th of -May, 1893. Between the two lie a valuable series of papers dealing with -the Evolution of Theology and cognate subjects. In all these we have the -application of the theory of Evolution to the explanation of the origin -of beliefs and of the basis of morals. To quote the saying attributed to -Leibnitz, both Spencer and Huxley, and all who follow them, care for -"science only because it enables them to speak with authority in -philosophy and religion." In a letter to the writer, wherein Huxley -refers to his retirement from official life, he says:-- - - I was so ill that I thought with Hamlet, "the rest is silence." But - my wiry constitution has unexpectedly weathered the storm, and I - have every reason to believe that with renunciation of the devil and - all his works (i. e., public speaking, dining, and being dined, - etc.) my faculties may be unimpaired for a good spell yet. And - whether my lease is long or short, I mean to devote them to the work - I began in the paper on the Evolution of Theology. - -That essay was first published in two sections in the Nineteenth -Century, 1886, and was the sequel to the eighth chapter of his Hume. The -Romanes Lecture supplemented the last chapter of that book. All these -are accessible enough to render superfluous any abstract of their -contents. But the tribute due to David Hume, who may well-nigh claim -place among the few but fit company of Pioneers, warrants reference -to his anticipation of accepted theories of the origin of belief in -spiritual beings in his Natural History of Religion, published in 1757. -He says: "There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all -beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities -with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are -intimately conscious.... The _unknown causes_ which continually employ -their thought, appearing always in the same aspect, are all apprehended -to be of the same kind or species. Nor is it long before we ascribe to -them thought, and reason, and passion, and sometimes even the limbs and -figures of men, in order to bring them nearer to a resemblance with -ourselves." In his address to the Sorbonne on The Successive Advances of -the Human Mind, delivered in 1750, Turgot expresses the same idea, -touching, as John Morley says in his essay on that statesman, "the root -of most of the wrong thinking that has been as a manacle to science." - -The foregoing, and passages of a like order, are made by Huxley the text -of his elaborations of the several stages of theological evolution, the -one note of all of which is the continuity of belief in supernatural -intervention. But more important than the decay of that belief which is -the prelude to decay of belief in deity itself as commonly defined, is -the resulting transfer of the foundation of morals, in other words, of -motives to conduct, from a theological to a social base. Theology is not -morality; indeed, it is, too often, immorality. It is concerned with -man's relations to the gods in whom he believes; while morals are -concerned with man's relations to his fellows. The one looks heavenward, -wondering what dues shall be paid the gods to win their smiles or ward -off their frowns. In old Rome _sanctitas_ or holiness, was, according to -Cicero, "the knowledge of the rites which had to be performed." These -done, the gods were expected to do their part. So in new Rome, when the -Catholic has attended mass, his share in the contract is ended. Worship -and sacrifice, as mere acts toward supernatural beings, may be -consonant with any number of lapses in conduct. Morality, on the other -hand, looks earthward, and is prompted to action solely by what is -due from a man to his fellow-men, or from his fellow-men to him. Its -foundation therefore is not in supernatural beliefs, but in social -instincts. All sin is thus resolved into an anti-social act: a wrong -done by man to man. - -This is not merely readjustment; it is revolution. For it is the -rejection of theology with its appeals to human obligation to deity, and -to man's hopes of future reward or fears of future punishment; and it is -the acceptance of wholly secular motives as incentives to right action. -Those motives, having their foundation in the physical, mental, and -moral results of our deeds, rest on a stable basis. No longer interlaced -with the unstable theological, they neither abide nor perish with it. -And one redeeming feature of our time is that the churches are beginning -to see this, and to be effected by it. John Morley caustically remarks -that "the efforts of the heterodox have taught them to be better -Christians than they were a hundred years ago." Certain extremists -excepted, they are keeping dogma in the background, and are laying -stress on the socialism which it is contended was at the heart of the -teaching of Jesus. Wisely, if not very consistently, they are seeking -alliance with the liberal movements whose aim is the "abolition of -privilege." The liberal theologians, in the face of the varying ethical -standards which mark the Old Testament and the New, no longer insist on -the absoluteness of moral codes, and so fall into line with the -evolutionist in his theory of their relativeness. For society in its -advance from lower to higher conceptions of duty, completely reverses -its ethics, looking back with horror on that which was once permitted -and unquestioned. - -It is with this checking of "the ape and tiger," and this fostering of -the "angel" in man, that Huxley dealt in his Romanes Lecture. There was -much unintelligent, and some wilful, misunderstanding of his argument, -else a prominent Catholic biologist would hardly have welcomed it as a -possible prelude to Huxley's submission to the Church. Yet the reasoning -was clear enough, and in no wise contravened the application of -Evolution to morals. Huxley showed that Evolution is both _cosmical_ and -_ethical_. _Cosmic Evolution_ has resulted in the universe with its -non-living and living contents, and since, dealing with the conditions -which obtain on our planet, there is not sufficient elbow-room or food -for all the offspring of living things, the result is a furious -struggle in which the strong win and transmit their advantages to their -descendants. Nature is wholly selfish; the race is to the swift, and the -battle to the strong. - -But there are limits set to that struggle by man in the substitution, -also within limits, of social progress for cosmic progress. In this -_Ethical Evolution_ selfishness is so far checked as to permit groups -of human beings to live together in amity, recognising certain common -rights, which restrain the self-regarding impulses. For, in the words of -Marcus Aurelius, "that which is not good for the swarm is not good for -the bee" (Med., vi, 54). Huxley aptly likens this counter-process to the -action of a gardener in dealing with a piece of waste ground. He stamps -out the weeds, and plants fragrant flowers and useful fruits. But he -must not relax his efforts, otherwise the weeds will return, and the -untended plants will be choked and perish. So in conduct. For the common -weal, in which the unit shares, thus blending the selfish and the -unselfish motives, men check their natural impulses. The emotions and -affections which they share with the lower social animals, only in -higher degree, are co-operative, and largely help the development of -family, tribal, and national life. But once we let these be weakened, -and society becomes a bear-garden. Force being the dominant factor in -life, the struggle for existence revives in all its primitive violence, -and atavism asserts its power. Therefore, although he do the best that -in him lies, man can only set limits to that struggle, for the ethical -process is an integral part of the cosmic powers, "just as the -'governor' in a steam-engine is part of the mechanism of the engine." -As with society, so with its units: there is no truce in the contest. -Dr. Plimmer, an eminent bacteriologist, describes to the writer the -action of a kind of yeast upon a species of Daphnia, or water-flea. -Metschnikoff observed that these yeast-cells, which enter with the -animal's food, penetrate the intestines, and get into the tissues. They -are there seized upon by the leukocytes, which gather round the invaders -in larger fashion, as if seemingly endowed with consciousness, so -marvellous is the strategy. If they win, the Daphnia recovers; if they -lose, it dies. "In a similar manner in ourselves certain leukocytes -(phagocytes) accumulate at any point of invasion, and pick up the living -bacteria," and in the success or failure of their attack lies the fate -of man. Which things are fact as well as allegory; and time is on the -side of the bacteria. For as our life is but a temporary arrest of the -universal movement toward dissolution, so naught in our actions can -arrest the destiny of our kind. Huxley thus puts it in the concluding -sentences of his Preface--written in July, 1894, one year before his -death--to the reissue of Evolution and Ethics: - -"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 the 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. 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 organised polity; in which, and by which, -man may develop a worthy civilisation, 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." - -But only those of low ideals would seek in this impermanence of things -excuse for inaction; or worse, for self-indulgence. The world will last -a very long time yet, and afford scope for battle against the wrongs -done by man to man. Even were it and ourselves to perish to-morrow, our -duty is clear while the chance of doing it may be ours. Clifford,--dead -before his prime, before the rich promise of his genius had its full -fruitage,--speaking of the inevitable end of the earth "and all the -consciousness of men" reminds us, in his essay on The First and Last -Catastrophe, that we are helped in facing the fact "by the words of -Spinoza: 'The free man thinks of nothing so little as of death, and his -wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.'" "Our interest," -Clifford adds, "lies with so much of the past as may serve to guide our -actions in the present, and to intensify our pious allegiance to the -fathers who have gone before us and the brethren who are with us; and -our interest lies with so much of the future as we may hope will be -appreciably affected by our good actions now. Do I seem to say, 'Let us -eat and drink, for to-morrow we die?' Far from it; on the contrary I -say, 'Let us take hands and help, for this day we are alive together.'" - -Evolution and Ethics was Huxley's last important deliverance, since the -completion of his reply to Mr. Balfour's "quaintly entitled" Foundations -of Belief was arrested by his death on the 30th of June, 1895. - -In looking through the Collected Essays, which represent his -non-technical contributions to knowledge, there may be regret that -throughout his life circumstances were against his doing any piece of -long-sustained work, such as that which, for example, the affluence and -patience of Darwin permitted him to do. But until Huxley's later years, -and, indeed, through broken health to the end, his work outside -official demands had to be done fitfully and piecemeal, or not at all. -Notwithstanding this, it has the unity which is inspired by a central -idea. The application of the theory of evolution all round imparts a -quality of relation to subjects seemingly diverse. And this comes out -clearly and strongly in the more orderly arrangement of the material in -the new issue of Collected Essays. - -These show what an omnivorous reader he was; how well equipped in -classics, theology, and general literature, in addition to subjects -distinctly his own. He sympathized with every branch of culture. As -contrasted with physical science, he said, "Nothing would grieve me more -than to see literary training other than a very prominent branch of -education." One corner of his library was filled with a strange company -of antiquated books of orthodox type; this he called "the condemned -cell." When looking at the "strange bedfellows" that slept on the -shelves, the writer asked Huxley what author had most influenced a style -whose clearness and vigour, nevertheless, seems unborrowed; and he at -once named the masculine and pellucid Leviathan of Hobbes. He had the -happy faculty of rapidly assimilating what he read; of clearly grasping -an opponent's standpoint; and what is a man's salvation nowadays, -freedom from that curse of specialism which kills all sense of -proportion, and reduces its slave to the level of the machine-hand -that spends his life in making the heads of screws. He believed in -"scepticism as the highest duty, and in blind faith as the one -unpardonable sin." "And," he adds, "it cannot be otherwise, for every -great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection -of authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation -of the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary of science -holds his firmest convictions, not because the men he most venerates -holds them; not because their verity is testified by portents and -wonders; but because his experience teaches him that whenever he chooses -to bring these convictions into contact with their primary source, -Nature--whenever he thinks fit to test them by appealing to experiment -and to observation--Nature will confirm them. The man of science has -learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification." -Therefore he nursed no illusions; would not say that he knew when he did -not or could not know, and bidding us follow the evidence whithersoever -it leads us, remains the surest-footed guide of our time. Such -leadership is his, since he has gone on "from strength to strength." The -changes in the attitude of man toward momentous questions which new -evidence and the _zeit-geist_ have effected, have been approaches to the -position taken by Huxley since he first caught the public ear. His deep -religious feeling kept him in sympathetic touch with his fellows. Ever -present to him was "that consciousness of the limitation of man, that -sense of an open secret which he cannot penetrate, in which lies the -essence of all religion." In one of his replies to a prominent exponent -of the Comtian philosophy, that "incongruous mixture of bad science with -eviscerated papistry," as he calls it, Huxley protests against the idea -that the teaching of science is wholly negative. - - I venture, he says, to count it an improbable suggestion that any - one who 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. - -That is the Agnostic position as he defined it; an attitude, not a -creed; and if he refused to affirm, he equally refused to deny. - - * * * * * - -Thus have the Pioneers of Evolution, clear-sighted and sure-footed, led -us by ways undreamed-of at the start to a goal undreamed-of by the -earliest among them. To have halted on the route when the graver -difficulties of the road began would have made the journey futile, and -have left their followers in the wilds. Evolution, applied to everything -up to man, but stopping at the stage when he appears, would have -remained a fascinating study, but would not have become a guiding -philosophy of life. It is in the extension of its processes as -explanation of all that appertains to mankind that its abiding value -consists. That extension was inevitable. The old theologies of civilized -races, useful in their day, because answering, however imperfectly, to -permanent needs of human nature, no longer suffice. Their dogmas are -traced as the lineal descendants of barbaric conceptions; their ritual -is becoming an archæological curiosity. They have no answer to the -questions propounded by the growing intelligence of our time; neither -can they satisfy the emotions which they but feebly discipline. Their -place is being slowly, but surely, and more effectively, filled by a -theory which, interpreting the "mighty sum of things," substitutes clear -conceptions of unbroken order and relation between phenomena, in place -of hazy conceptions of intermittent interferences; a theory which gives -more than it takes away. For if men are deprived of belief in the -pseudo-mysteries coined in a pre-scientific age, their wonder is -fed, and their inquiry is stimulated, by the consciousness of the -impenetrable mysteries of the Universe. - - - - -INDEX - - - Abdera, 16. - Abiogenesis, 216. - Abraham, 54. - Adam, fall of, 104. - ---- stature of, 107. - Advent, the Second, 50, 70. - Ægean, the, 3. - Agassiz, 162. - Agrigentum, 13. - Air as primary substance, 13. - Alexander the Great, 17. - Alexandria, conquest of, 77. - ---- philosophical schools of, 77. - Allegorical method, 75. - Allen, Grant, 2, 113, 167. - Amazons, river, 136. - America, discovery of, 84. - Amoeba, the, 224. - Anatomy, comparative, 230. - ---- human, 90. - Anaxagoras, 14. - Anaximander, 7, 20. - Ancestor-worship, 70. - Andromeda, nebula in, 178. - Angels, belief in, 69. - Animism, 69, 97, 244, 255. - Anthropology and belief in the soul, 241. - ---- and dogmas of the Fall and the Redemption, 247, 250. - ---- and man's place in Evolution, 245. - Antioch, 47. - Ape and man, brain of, 227. - ---- general relation of, 228. - Aquinas, Thomas, 20, 75. - Arab conquest, 76. - ---- philosophy, 79. - Arch-fiend, 54. - Aristotle, 17-19, 20, 32, 35, 36, 74, 80, 81, 87, 163. - Arnold, Matthew, 13, 213. - Ascent of Man, Drummond's, 219. - Asklepios, 29. - Astruc, Dr., 103. - Athens, intellectual decay in, 35, 77. - ---- persecution in, 14. - ---- religious revival in, 11. - Atomic theory, 16. - Atonement, doctrine of the, and - Anthropology, 250. - Augurs, 31. - Augustine, St., 20, 55, 74. - Augustus, Cæsar, 42, 48. - Aurelius, Marcus, 51, 259. - Averroes, 80. - Avicenna, 101. - - Bacon, Lord, 93, 108. - Bacon, Roger, 82. - Bacteria and leukocytes, 260. - Bagehot, Mr., 2. - Baghdad, 79. - Balfour, A. J., 262. - Baptism, origin of rite of, 66. - Bates, H. W., 134, 136, 162, 167, 208. - Beagle, voyage of the, 131. - Benn, A. W., 9, 19. - Bible, Dictionary of the, 107. - Biology, advance in study of, 108. - Black magic, 83. - Body and mind, mystery of connection between, 231. - Bone, resurrection, 90. - Bonnet, Charles, 21. - "Boundless," the, 7. - Breathing, symbolism of, 69. - Bruno, Giordano, 89. - Buddha, 64. - Buffon, place of, in theory of Evolution, 110. - ---- submission to the Sorbonne, 104. - Burnet, Prof., 5, 7, 16. - Burton's Anatomy, 60. - Butcher, Prof., 4. - - Caesalpino, 91. - Cairo, 80. - Canon of the Bible, 58, 88. - Carpenter, Dr., 150, 233. - Carthage, 78. - ---- Council of, 58. - Casalis, Mr., 1. - Catat, Dr., 242. - Celtic religion, 70. - Chaldæa, 4. - Chambers, Robert, 119. - Charles Martel, 78. - Chosroes, 77, 79. - Christianity and Anthropology, 251. - ---- anti-social nature of, 50. - ---- causes of success of, 48, 56. - ---- opposition to inquiry, 40. - ---- origin of, 37. - ---- pagan elements in, 59-73. - ---- philosophic elements in, 57. - ---- polytheism of, 69. - ---- varying fortunes of, 38. - Christians, persecution of, 49. - Church Congress and Evolution, 159, 219. - Circumnavigation of the globe, 85. - Clifford, Prof., 261. - Collings, 41. - Colophon, 9. - Columbus, Christopher, 84. - Communion at Hawarden Church, 68. - Comtism, 264. - Conduct, bases of, 186, 254. - Consciousness, evolution of, 187, 224. - ---- self-, 187. - Conservation of energy, 33, 120, 149, 177. - Copernicus, 20, 86. - Cordova, 80. - Correlation of forces, 189. - Cosmic Evolution, 258. - Councils, general, 220. - Courthope, W. J., 164. - Creation, days of, 103, 106. - Credulity of the learned, 148. - Creeds, 52, 220. - Criticism of religions, features of modern, 40. - Cronus, myth of, 56. - Crooke, Mr., 30. - Cross, relics of the, 72. - Crown of thorns, 72. - Cuvier, 114, 117, 163. - ---- and Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 214. - Cybele, 29. - - Dalton, John, 16, 125. - Daphnia, Dr. Plimmer on, 260. - Darwin, Charles, 126-134, 157-175. - ---- Life and Letters of, 127, 157. - ---- religious belief of, 173. - ---- Erasmus, 21, 111. - Days of creation, 102, 106. - De Gama, Vasco, 85. - Deluge, 104, 107, 250. - Demeter, 29, 67. - Democritus, 16, 22, 33. - Demons, 55, 75, 87. - De Perthes, Boucher, 120, 248. - De Rerum Natura, 24. - Descartes, 91, 94, 216. - Descent into Hell, 88. - Descent of Man, 167, 172, 218. - Development, law of, 189. - Devil, 54, 83. - De Vinci, Leonardo, 102. - Diagoras, 63. - Dictionary of the Bible, 107. - Dionysus, 67. - Dispersion of the Jews, 56, 77. - Dogma and Evolution, 220. - Driver, Rev. Canon, 53, 107. - Dubois, Dr., 222. - Dunér, Professor, 179. - - Earth as "element," 13. - ---- Greek notions about the, 6, 8. - Education and dogma, 253. - Egypt, 4, 6, 7. - ---- conquest of, 77. - Eleatic school, 10. - Elviri, Synod of, 62. - Embryology, 118, 218. - Empedocles, 13, 22, 27. - Ephesus, 11. - Epictetus, 51. - Epicurus, 22, 27. - Epigenesis, 21. - Ethical Evolution, 259. - Etruscan haruspices, 31. - Eve, stature of, 107. - Evil eye, 69. - Evolution and dogma, 220. - ---- cosmic, 258. - ---- ethical, 258. - ---- inclusion of man in, 245. - ---- inorganic, 175. - ---- organic, 200. - Evolution and Ethics, Huxley on, 219, 254. - - Fall, doctrine of the, and anthropology, 247. - Fire, as primary substance, 12. - First Principles, 167, 188. - Fiske, Professor, 8. - Flint implements, 248. - Folk-lore, value of study of, 249. - Fontenelle, 2. - Fossils, theories about, 104. - Frazer, J. G., 66, 220. - - Galen, 90. - Galileo, discoveries and persecution of, 91. - Geology, effect of study of, 100. - ---- revival of study of, 100. - ---- principles of, 117. - Gesner, 91. - Gibbon, 57, 58, 72, 219. - Gladstone, Mr., 68. - Gnosticism, 48. - Gods in Rome, 29. - Golden Bough, The, 66, 220. - Gospels, origin of, 46. - Gosse, P. H., 104. - Gower, Dr., 155. - Granada, 80. - Greece, 3. - ---- conquest and intellectual decline of, 23. - Greek philosophers, Table of, 36. - Greeks, early conception of earth by, 6, 8. - ---- search of, for the primary substance, 6. - Grote, 15. - - Haeckel, 115, 164. - Hallucinations, 153. - Haroun al-Raschid, 79. - Hartley, 124. - Haruspices, 31. - Harvey, William, 21, 93. - Hawarden Church, Communion at, 68. - Heine's Travel-Pictures, 153. - Hellenized Jews, 56, 77. - Helmholtz, 125. - Henrion, 107. - Heraclitus, 11. - Herakles, 29. - Herodotus, 62. - Herschel, Sir William, 95, 177. - Hesiod, 10. - Hippocampus minor, 227. - Hobbes' Leviathan, 60, 263. - Holy Communion, barbaric origin of rite of, 66, 68. - Homer, 8, 10, 12, 75. - Hooker, Sir Joseph, 141, 162. - ---- Sir William, 119. - Horace, 63, 75. - Huggins, Dr. Wm., 178. - Humanity and Evolution, 192. - Humboldt, 121, 135. - Hume, 97, 192, 216, 255. - Hutton, 115. - Huxley, 94, 157, 159, 201-266. - - Indigitamenta, 30. - Inductive philosophy, the, 93. - Inquisition, the, 89, 91. - Instinct, 229. - Ionia, 3, 4, 6, 32. - Isis, 29, 62. - - Jerome, St., 24, 105. - Jerusalem, early disciples of Jesus at, 47. - ---- fall of, 77. - ---- Jesus at, 44. - Jesus, summary of life of, 42-46. - ---- superstition shared by, 53-56. - Jews, Hellenized, or of the Dispersion, 56, 77. - - Kant, 94, 175, 200. - Kelvin, Lord, 233. - Kent's Hole, 248. - Khalifs, 76. - Kirchoff, 178. - Kropotkin, Prince, 231. - - Lamarck, 114. - Language, 229. - La Peyrère, 102. - Laplace, 95, 176. - Leading Men of Science, Table of, 123-125. - Leibnitz, 124, 254. - Leo III., 78. - L'Etui de Nacre, 45. - Leucippus, 16, 23, 33, 36. - Leukocytes, 260. - Life and Letters, Darwin's, 127, 157, 173. - Lightfoot, Dr., 103, 120. - Linnaeus, 108. - Linnæan Society, famous meeting at, 141, 181. - Living and non-living matter, connection between, 34, 216. - Locke, 94. - Lodge, Prof. Oliver, 147. - Love as an "element," 14. - Lubbock, Sir John, 168. - Lucretius, 17, 23, 24-29, 41, 248. - Luther, 87. - Lyall, Sir Alfred, 30, 38, 249. - Lyell, Sir Charles, 117, 134, 162. - - Madonna, 64. - Magellan, 85. - Maine, Sir Henry, 5. - Malay Archipelago, 138. - Malpighi, 21. - Malthus on Population, 119, 133, 139. - Man and Evolution, 97, 143, 218, 227, 236. - ---- and ape, brain of, 227. - ---- and ape, general structure of, 143. - ---- antiquity of, 222. - ---- inclusion of, in Evolution, 233. - ---- lower animals and, 218, 227. - ---- primitive state of, 248. - ---- suckling, period of, 8. - Manning, Cardinal, 160. - Man's Place in Nature, 164, 167, 213, 218, 252. - Marcus Aurelius, 51, 259. - Martin, R. B., 169. - Martyr, Peter, 87. - Maskelyne, Mr., 148. - Matter, indestructibility of, 33. - ---- living and non-living, 34, 217. - ---- mystery of, 180, 188, 216, 232. - Matthew, Patrick, 118, 165. - Maudsley, Dr., 156. - Meckel, 118. - Messiah, Jewish belief in, 44, 46. - Metals, age of, 28, 35, 248. - Middleton, Conyers, 60. - Miletus, 6. - Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 145, 237. - Mithra worship, 42, 50, 71. - Mivart, Prof. St. George, 233. - Mohammed, 76. - Montaigne, 38, 62. - Morality, essential nature of, 256. - Morals and Evolution, 254. - ---- scientific base of, 256. - Morley, John, 39, 170, 251, 257. - Motion, concept of, 178. - ---- indestructibility of, 33. - ---- mystery of, 180, 187, 216, 232. - Mummius, 23. - Munro, Mr., 24. - Mysteries, Greek, 49. - Mystery of matter, 231. - ---- motion, 186, 187, 216, 232. - Myth, primitive, features of, 2. - - Nebula in Andromeda, 178. - Nebular theory, 94, 180. - Nero, 48. - Nervous system, disorders of the, 153. - ---- origin of the, 225. - New Testament, canon of, 58, 88. - ---- origin of, 51. - Nicene Creed, 52, 220. - Nous of Anaxagoras, 16. - Numbers, in primitive thought, 9. - ---- Pythagorean theory of, 9, 36. - - Organic Evolution, 200. - Origin of species, 142, 168, 211. - ---- publication of, 157. - ---- reception of, 157, 162. - Osborn, Prof., 102, 119. - Ovid, 219. - Owen, Sir Richard, attitude of, towards Darwin's theory, 162, 214. - ---- review of the Origin of Species, 162. - - Pagan elements in Christianity, 59-73. - Paladino, Eusapia, 148. - Palæontology, 218. - Palissy, Bernard, 102. - Pantheon, Roman, 29. - Papacy, origin of the, 58. - Paul, St., 47. - Pausanias, 13. - Pentateuch, 103. - Pericles, 14. - Persia, intellectual activity in, 79. - Perthes, Boucher de, 120, 125, 248. - Petrie, Prof. Flinders, 201. - Philo, 58. - Philosophy, synthetic, 181, 195, 199. - Photography in Science, 178. - Physical Basis of Life, Huxley on, 215. - Pineal gland, theory of soul in, 91. - Plato, 5, 52, 212. - Polytheism, feature of, 49. - ---- in Christianity, 71. - Pontius Pilate, 44, 48. - Poppaea, Sabina, 48. - Preformation theory, 21. - Primary substance, 33. - ---- search after, 6. - Protoplasm, 119. - Psychical Research, Society for, 148. - Psychology, experimental, 230. - ---- Principles of, 187, 189. - Ptolemaic System, 20, 88. - Punch, 206. - Pythagoras, 9. - Pythagorean theory of numbers, 9, 36. - - Redi, experiments of, 216. - Reformation, non-intellectual, 88. - ---- character of the, 86. - Relics, collection of, 71. - ---- worship of, 70. - Revelations, condition of, 223. - Rhys, Professor, 64. - Rodd, Rennell, 29. - Roman doctrine of transubstantiation, 67. - Rome, bishop of, 58. - ---- fire in, 48. - ---- gods in, 29. - ---- polytheism of, 49. - Royal Society, 99. - - Sacraments, barbaric origin of, 65-68. - Saints, fictitious, 64. - Salisbury, Lord, Presidential Address of, 179, 215. - Samos, 22, 36. - Sanctitas, 256. - Saracens, 78. - Savages, brain of, 240. - Scheiner, Professor, 179. - School Boards, 252. - Schwann, Theodor, 125. - Science, Leading men of, 123-125. - Second Coming of Jesus, 50, 70. - Sedgwick, 162. - Selden, 47, 220. - Serapis, 71. - Sin, essence of, 257. - Sizzi, 92. - Smith, Professor Robertson, 250. - ---- William (geologist), 118. - Social Statics, 184. - Society, evolution of, 184, 193. - ---- modification of struggle in, 259. - Sociology, Principles of, 186, 199. - ---- study of, 233. - Socrates, 15. - Solar spectrum, lines in, 178. - Sorbonne, the, 104, 256. - Soul, origin of belief in, 241-245. - ---- location of, 91. - ---- Lucretius on location of, 25. - Spain, intellectual advance in, 80. - Spectroscope, the, 178. - Spencer, Herbert, 31, 118, 121, 162, 175-201, 233, 241, 254. - Spinoza, 94. - Spiritualism, 145, 156. - Spontaneous generation, 20, 74. - Sprengel, 119, 125. - St. Hilaire, 107, 114. - Stagira, 17. - Stokes, Sir G. G., 234. - Stone, ages of, 28, 35, 248. - Strabo, 101. - Strife as an "element," 14. - Struggle for life, 131, 140, 258. - Suarez, Francisco, 222. - Synthetic philosophy, 182. - ---- abstract of the, 195, 199. - ---- first draft of, 199. - - Table of Greek Philosophers, 36. - ---- of leading men of science, 123-125. - Tacitus, 48. - Thales, 6, 8, 17. - Theology and Evolution, final issue between, 223. - Theophrastus, 7, 16. - Theosophy, 9. - Tozer, Mr., 30. - Transubstantiation, origin of belief in, 67. - Turgot, 39, 256. - Tylor, Dr., 168, 241, 246. - Tyndall, Professor, 205, 207, 216. - - Usher, Archbishop, 103. - - Van Helmont, 20. - Vatican Council on Creation, 33. - Vesalius, 90. - Vestiges of Creation, 119, 135, 209. - Virgin Mary, 60. - Virgins, Black, 64. - Visual sensations, subjective, 154. - Von Baer, 118, 125, 189, 194, 200. - Von Mohl, 119, 125. - Votive offerings, 62. - - Wallace, Alfred Russel, 134-157. - ---- as biologist, 143. - ---- as spiritualist, 145-157. - ---- limitation of natural selection to man's physical structure, 144, - 235-241. - ---- theory of origin of species identical with Darwin's, 140. - "Wallace's Line," 139. - Water as primary substance, 7. - Water-worship, 61, 63. - Weismann, 117. - Wells, Dr. W. C., 166. - Wesley, John, 55, 105. - Whewell, Dr., 159. - White, Dr., 103. - Wilberforce, Bishop, and the Origin of Species, 160. - ---- and Huxley, 213. - Wilson, Archdeacon, 161, 219. - Winifred's Well, St., 63. - Witchcraft, belief in, 55. - ---- causes of decay of belief in, 98. - Worms, Darwin on the Action of, 168. - - Xenophanes, 9, 19. - - Zahm, Professor, 222. - Zeller, 9. - Zeno, 10. - - -THE END. - - - - -D. APPLETON AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. - -THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES. - -NOW READY. - - - _THE BEGINNINGS OF ART._ By ERNST GROSSE, Professor of Philosophy in - the University of Freiburg. A new volume in the Anthropological - Series, edited by Professor FREDERICK STARR. Illustrated. 12mo. - Cloth. $1.75. - -This is an inquiry into the laws which control the life and development -of art, and into the relations existing between it and certain forms of -civilization. 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APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. - - - - - * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber's note: - -A few punctuation errors have been corrected silently. - -The following corrections were made on the page indicated: - - 10 "Then" changed to "The" (The tendency of that school) - - 15 "news" changed to "new" (introducing new ones) - - 36 "Anaximender" changed to "Anaximander" (TABLE) - - 120 "95" changed to "103" (see p. 103) - - 124 "Renè" changed to "René" (René Descartes) - - 191 "Cermonies" changed to "Ceremonies" (Master of the Ceremonies) - - 239 "genius" changed to "genus" (of the same genus) - - 254 "Liebnitz" changed to "Leibnitz" (attributed to Leibnitz) - - 259 "we" added and "we" changed to "be" (once we let these be - weakened) - - 263 "pelluccid" changed to "pellucid" (the masculine and pellucid - Leviathan) - - 271 "Linnean" changed to "Linnæan" in the index (Linnæan Society, - famous) - - 278 "enthusiams" changed to "enthusiasms" (will arouse many - enthusiasms). - -Otherwise this text has been preserved as in the original, including -archaic and inconsistent spelling and hyphenation. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION FROM THALES TO -HUXLEY*** - - -******* This file should be named 39526-0.txt or 39526-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/5/2/39526 - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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