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+Project Gutenberg's Illustrations of Universal Progress, by Herbert Spencer
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Illustrations of Universal Progress
+       A Series of Discussions
+
+Author: Herbert Spencer
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2012 [EBook #39977]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF UNIVERSAL PROGRESS ***
+
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+Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, tallforasmurf and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
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+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+In this etext, the oe ligature is shown as [oe].
+
+While proofing and formatting this document the Project Gutenberg team
+noted and corrected 23 typographical errors, for example "Beauieu" for
+"Beaulieu". All were deemed trivial and their correction had no effect
+on the sense of the text.
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+
+
+
+
+                      ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                           OF
+
+                   UNIVERSAL PROGRESS;
+
+                A Series of Discussions.
+
+
+                           BY
+                    HERBERT SPENCER,
+
+                        AUTHOR OF
+    "THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY," "SOCIAL STATICS,"
+  "ESSAYS, MORAL, POLITICAL AND AESTHETIC," "EDUCATION,"
+          "FIRST PRINCIPLES," ETC., ETC., ETC.
+
+
+                          WITH
+
+   _A NOTICE OF SPENCER'S "NEW SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY."_
+
+
+                        NEW YORK:
+                D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
+                   443 & 445 BROADWAY.
+                          1865.
+
+
+
+
+                WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+             PUBLISHED BY D. APPLETON & CO.
+
+  _EDUCATION--INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND PHYSICAL._ 1 vol., 12mo. Cloth,
+      $1.25.
+
+  _A NEW SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY._ Vol. I. _FIRST PRINCIPLES._ Large 12mo.
+      503 pages. Cloth $2.00.
+
+  _PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY._ In Quarterly Parts, by Subscription. $2.00
+      per year.
+
+                           NOW IN PRESS:
+
+  _ESSAYS--MORAL, POLITICAL, AND AESTHETIC._ 1 vol., large 12mo. Cloth.
+
+        _Copies sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price._
+
+        ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by
+                         D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
+  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
+                      Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+       AMERICAN NOTICE
+
+            OF A
+
+  NEW SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY.
+
+             BY
+
+      HERBERT SPENCER.
+
+
+The author of the following work, Mr. Herbert Spencer, of England, has
+entered upon the publication of a new philosophical system, so original and
+comprehensive as to deserve the attention of all earnest inquirers. He
+proposes nothing less than to unfold such a complete philosophy of Nature,
+physical, organic, mental and social, as Science has now for the first time
+made possible, and which, if successfully executed, will constitute a
+momentous step in the progress of thought.
+
+His system is designed to embrace five works; each a distinct treatise, but
+all closely connected in plan, and treating of the following subjects in
+the order presented: 1st, First Principles; 2d, Principles of Biology; 3d,
+Principles of Psychology; 4th, Principles of Sociology; 5th, Principles of
+Morality. The opening work of the series--_First Principles_--though
+somewhat of an introductory character, is an independent and completed
+argument. It consists of two parts: first, "The Unknowable," and second,
+"The Laws of the Knowable." Unattractive as these titles may seem, they
+indicate a discussion of great originality and transcendent interest.
+
+When public consideration is invited to a system of philosophy so extended
+as to comprehend the entire scheme of nature and humanity, and so bold as
+to deal with them in the ripest spirit of science, it is natural that many
+should ask at the outset how the author stands related to the problem of
+Religion. Mr. Spencer finds this the preliminary question of his
+philosophy, and engages with it at the threshold of his undertaking. Before
+attempting to work out a philosophical scheme, he sees that it is at first
+necessary to find how far Philosophy can go and where she must stop--the
+necessary limits of human knowledge, or the circle which bounds all
+rational and legitimate investigation; and this opens at once the profound
+and imminent question of the spheres and relation of Religion and Science.
+
+Mr. Spencer is a leading representative of that school of thinkers which
+holds that, as man is finite, he can grasp and know only the finite;--that
+by the inexorable conditions of thought all real knowledge is relative and
+phenomenal, and hence that we cannot go behind phenomena to find the
+ultimate causes and solve the ultimate mystery of being. In such assertions
+as that "God cannot by any searching be found out;" that "a God understood
+would be no God at all;" and that "to think God _is_ as we think Him to be
+is blasphemy," we see the recognition of this idea of the inscrutableness
+of the Absolute Cause. The doctrine itself is neither new nor limited to a
+few exceptional thinkers. It is widely affirmed by enlightened science, and
+pervades nearly all the cultivated theology of the present day. Sir William
+Hamilton and Dr. Mansel are among its recent and ablest expounders. "With
+the exception," says Sir William Hamilton, "of a few late absolutist
+theorizers in Germany, this is perhaps the truth of all others most
+harmoniously reechoed by every philosopher of every school;" and among
+these he names Protagoras, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Melanchthon, Scaliger,
+Bacon, Spinoza, Newton, and Kant.
+
+But though Mr. Spencer accepts this doctrine, he has not left it where he
+found it. The world is indebted to him for having advanced the argument to
+a higher and grander conclusion--a conclusion which changes the
+philosophical aspect of the whole question, and involves the profoundest
+consequences. Hamilton and Mansel bring us, by their inexorable logic, to
+the result that we can neither know nor conceive the Infinite, and that
+every attempt to do so involves us in contradiction and absurdity; but
+having reached this vast negation, their logic and philosophy break down.
+Accepting their conclusions as far as they go, Mr. Spencer maintains the
+utter incompleteness of their reasoning, and, pushing the inquiry still
+farther, he demonstrates that though we cannot grasp the Infinite in
+_thought_, we can realize it in _consciousness_. He shows that though by
+the laws of thinking we are rigorously prevented from forming a
+_conception_ of that Incomprehensible, Omnipotent Power by which we are
+acted upon in all phenomena, yet we are, by the laws of thought, equally
+prevented from ridding ourselves of the _consciousness_ of this Power. He
+proves that this consciousness of a Supreme Cause is not _negative_, but
+_positive_--that it is indestructible, and has a higher certainty than any
+other belief whatever. The Unknowable, then, in the view of Mr. Spencer, is
+not a mere term of negation, nor a word employed only to express our
+ignorance, but it means that Infinite Reality, that Supreme but Inscrutable
+Cause, of which the universe is but a manifestation, and which has an
+ever-present disclosure in human consciousness.
+
+Having thus found an indestructible basis in human nature for the religious
+sentiment, Mr. Spencer next shows that all religions rest upon this
+foundation, and contain a fundamental verity--a soul of truth, which
+remains when their conflicting doctrines and discordant peculiarities are
+mutually cancelled. In the lower and grosser forms of religion this truth
+is but dimly discerned, but becomes ever clearer the more highly the
+religion is developed, surviving every change, and remaining untouched by
+the severest criticism.
+
+Mr. Spencer then proceeds to demonstrate that all science tends to
+precisely the same great conclusion;--in all directions investigation leads
+to insoluble mystery. Alike in the external and the internal worlds, the
+man of science sees himself in the midst of perpetual changes of which he
+can discover neither the beginning nor the end. If he looks inward, he
+perceives that both ends of the thread of consciousness are beyond his
+grasp. If he resolve the appearances, properties, and movements of
+surrounding things into manifestations of Force in Space and Time, he still
+finds that Force, Space, and Time pass all understanding. Thus do all lines
+of argument converge to the same conclusion. Whether we scrutinize internal
+consciousness or external phenomena, or trace to their root the faiths of
+mankind, we reach that common ground where all antagonisms disappear--that
+highest and most abstract of all truths, which is affirmed with equal
+certainty by both religion and science, and in which may be found their
+full and final reconciliation.
+
+It is perhaps hardly just to Mr. Spencer to state his position upon this
+grave subject without giving also the accompanying reasoning; but so
+compressed and symmetrical is his argument that it cannot be put into
+narrower compass without mutilation. To those interested in the advance of
+thought in this direction, we may say that the discussion will be found
+unsurpassed in nobleness of aim, eloquence of statement, philosophic
+breadth, and depth and power of reasoning.
+
+This portion of the work embraces five chapters, as follows: I. Religion
+and Science; II. Ultimate Religious Ideas; III. Ultimate Scientific Ideas;
+IV. The Relativity of all Knowledge; V. The Reconciliation.
+
+The second and larger portion of _First Principles_ Mr. Spencer designates
+"The Laws of the Knowable." By these he understands those fundamental and
+universal principles reached by scientific investigation, which underlie
+all phenomena, and are necessary to their explanation. Certain great laws
+have been established which are found equally true in all departments of
+nature, and these are made the foundation of his philosophy. The sublime
+idea of the Unity of the Universe, to which science has long been tending,
+Mr. Spencer has made peculiarly his own. Through the vast diversities of
+nature he discerns a oneness of order and method, which necessitates but
+one philosophy of being; the same principles being found to regulate the
+course of celestial movement, terrestrial changes, and the phenomena of
+life, mind, and society. These may all be comprehended in a single
+philosophical scheme, so that each shall throw light upon the other, and
+the mastery of one help to the comprehension of all.
+
+To Mr. Spencer the one conception which spans the universe and solves the
+widest range of its problems--which reaches outward through boundless space
+and back through illimitable time, resolving the deepest questions of life,
+mind, society, history, and civilization, which predicts the glorious
+possibilities of the future, and reveals the august method by which the
+Divine Power works evermore,--this one, all-elucidating conception, is
+expressed by the term EVOLUTION. To this great subject he has devoted his
+remarkable powers of thought for many years, and stands toward it not only
+in the relation of an expositor, but also in that of a discoverer.
+
+The fact that all living beings are developed from a minute structureless
+germ has long been known, while the law which governs their evolution--that
+the change is ever from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous--has been
+arrived at within a generation. But this fact of growth is by no means
+limited to the physical history of plants and animals--it is exemplified
+upon a far more extended scale. Astronomers hold that the solar system has
+gone through such a process, and Geologists teach that the earth has had
+its career of evolution. Animals have a mental as well as a physical
+development, and there is also a progress of knowledge, of religion, of the
+arts and sciences, of institutions, manners, governments, and civilization
+itself. Mr. Spencer has the honour of having first established the
+universality of the principle by which all these changes are governed. The
+law of evolution, which has been hitherto limited to plants and animals, he
+demonstrates to be the law of _all_ evolution. This doctrine is unfolded in
+the first Essay of the present volume, and is more or less fully
+illustrated in the others; but it will be found elaborately worked out in
+the second part of _First Principles_.
+
+The course of the discussion in this part of the work will be best shown by
+enumerating the titles to the chapters, which are as follows: I. Laws in
+General; II. The Law of Evolution; III. The Same continued; IV. The Causes
+of Evolution; V. Space, Time, Matter, Motion, and Force; VI. The
+Indestructibility of Matter; VII. The Continuity of Motion; VIII. The
+Persistence of Force; IX. The Correlation and Equivalence of Forces; X. The
+Direction of Motion; XI. The Rhythm of Motion; XII. The Conditions
+Essential to Evolution; XIII. The Instability of the Homogeneous; XIV. The
+Multiplication of Effects; XV. Differentiation and Integration; XVI.
+Equilibration; XVII. Summary and Conclusion.
+
+A most interesting and fruitful field of thought, it will be seen, is here
+traversed by our author, and the latest and highest questions of science
+are discussed under novel aspects and in new relations. Not only do the
+pages abound with acute suggestions and fresh views, but the entire
+argument, in its leading demonstrations, and the full breadth of its
+philosophic scope, is stamped with a high originality.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having thus determined the sphere of philosophy and ascertained those
+fundamental principles governing all orders of phenomena which are to be
+subsequently used for guidance and verification, the author proceeds to the
+second work of the series, which is devoted to Biology, or the Science of
+Life. He regards life not as a foreign and unintelligible something, thrust
+into the scheme of nature, of which we can know nothing save its mystery,
+but as an essential part of the universal plan. The harmonies of life are
+regarded as but phases of the universal harmony, and Biology is studied by
+the same methods as other departments of science. The great truths of
+Physics and Chemistry are applied to its elucidation; its facts are
+collected, its inductions established, and constantly verified by the first
+principles laid down at the outset. Apart from its connections with the
+philosophical system, of which it forms a part, this work will have great
+intrinsic interest. Nothing was more needed than a compact and
+well-digested statement of those general principles of life to which
+science has arrived, and Mr. Spencer's presentation is proving to be just
+what is required. Some idea of his mode of treating the subject may be
+formed by glancing over a few of his first chapter-headings. PART FIRST: I.
+Organic Matter; II. The Actions of Forces on Organic Matter; III. The
+Reactions of Organic Matter on Forces; IV. Proximate Definition of Life; V.
+The Correspondence between Life and its Circumstances; VI. The Degree of
+Life Varies with the Degree of Correspondence; VII. Inductions of Biology.
+PART SECOND: I. Growth; II. Development; III. Function; IV. Waste and
+Repair; V. Adaptation; VI. Individuality; VII. Genesis; VIII. Heredity; IX.
+Variation; X. Genesis, Heredity and Variation; XI. Classification; XII.
+Distribution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the scheme of nature Mind is ever associated with Life. The third
+division of this philosophical system will therefore be Psychology, or the
+Science of Mind. This great subject will be considered, not by the narrow
+methods usual with metaphysicians, but in its broadest aspects as a phase
+of nature's order--to be studied by observation and induction through the
+whole range of psychical manifestation in animated beings. The subject of
+mind will be regarded in the light of the great truths of Biology
+previously established; the connections of mind and life will be traced;
+the progress of mentality as exhibited in the animal grades, and the
+evolution of the intellectual faculties in man will be delineated and the
+cooperation of mind and nature in the production of ideas and intelligence
+unfolded. We have no work upon mind of this comprehensive and thoroughly
+scientific character: the materials are abundant, and the necessity of
+their organization is widely recognized. That Mr. Spencer is eminently the
+man to perform this great task is proved by the fact that he is already the
+author of the most profound and able contribution to the advancement of
+psychological science that has appeared for many years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the true philosophic order, Biology and Psychology prepare the way for
+the study of social science, and hence the fourth part of Mr. Spencer's
+system will treat of Sociology, or the natural laws of society. As a
+knowledge of individuals must precede an understanding of their mutual
+relations, so an exposition of the laws of life and mind, which constitute
+the science of human nature, must precede the successful study of social
+phenomena. In this part will be considered the development of society, or
+that intellectual and moral progress which depends upon the growth of human
+ideas and feelings in their necessary order. The evolution of political,
+ecclesiastical, and industrial organizations will be traced, and a
+statement made of those principles underlying all social progress, without
+which there can be no successful regulation of the affairs of society. Mr.
+Spencer's mind has long been occupied with these important questions, as
+the reader will find by referring to his able work upon "Social Statics,"
+published several years ago.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lastly, in Part Fifth, Mr. Spencer proposes to consider the _Principles of
+Morality_, bringing to bear the truths furnished by Biology, Psychology,
+and Sociology, to determine the true theory of right living. He will show
+that the true moral ideal and limit of progress is the attainment of an
+equilibrium between constitution and conditions of existence, and trace
+those principles of private conduct, physical, intellectual, moral, and
+religious that follow from the conditions to complete individual life.
+Those rules of human action which all civilized nations have registered as
+essential laws--the inductions of morality--will be delineated, and also
+those mutual limitations of men's actions necessitated by their coexistence
+as units of society, which constitute the foundation of justice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It cannot be doubted that the order here indicated, as it corresponds to
+the method of nature, is the one which Philosophy must pursue in the
+future. It combines the precision of science with the harmony and unity of
+universal truth. The time is past when Biology can be considered with no
+reference to the laws of Physics; Mind with no reference to the science of
+Life, and Sociology, without having previously mastered the foregoing
+subjects. The progress of knowledge is now toward more definite,
+systematic, and comprehensive views, while it is the highest function of
+intellect to coordinate and bind together its isolated and fragmentary
+parts. In carrying out his great plan, therefore, Mr. Spencer is but
+embodying the large philosophical tendencies of the age.
+
+If it is urged that his scheme is too vast for any one man to accomplish,
+it may be replied: 1st. That it is not intended to treat the various
+subjects exhaustively, but only to state general principles with just
+sufficient details for their clear illustration. 2d. A considerable portion
+of the work is already issued, and much more is ready for publication,
+while the author is still in the prime of life. 3d. It must be remembered
+that intellects occasionally appear, endowed with that comprehensive grasp
+and high organizing power which fits them for vast undertakings. The reader
+will find at the close of the volume Mr. Spencer's Prospectus of his
+system. That he who has so clearly mapped out his work is the proper one to
+execute it, we think will be fully apparent to all who peruse the present
+volume.
+
+An impression prevails with many that Mr. Spencer belongs to the positive
+school of M. Auguste Comte. This is an entire misapprehension; but the
+position having been assumed by several of his reviewers, he repels the
+charge in the following letter, which appeared in the _New Englander_ for
+January, 1864.
+
+_To the Editor of the New Englander_:
+
+SIR:--While recognizing the appreciative tone and general candour of
+the article in your last number, entitled "Herbert Spencer on Ultimate
+Religious Ideas," allow me to point out one error which pervades it.
+The writer correctly represents the leading positions of my argument,
+but he inadvertently conveys a wrong impression respecting my
+tendencies and sympathies. He says of me, "the spirit of his philosophy
+is evidently that of the so-called positive method which has now many
+partial disciples, as well as many zealous adherents among the thinkers
+of England." Further on I am tacitly classed with "the English admirers
+and disciples of the great Positivist;" and it is presently added that
+"in Mr. Spencer we have an example of a positivist, who does not treat
+the subject of religion with supercilious neglect." Here and
+throughout, the implication is that I am a follower of Comte. This is a
+mistake. That M. Comte has given a general exposition of the doctrine
+and method elaborated by science, and has applied to it a name which
+has obtained a certain currency, is true. But it is not true that the
+holders of this doctrine and followers of this method are disciples of
+M. Comte. Neither their modes of inquiry nor their views concerning
+human knowledge in its nature and limits are appreciably different from
+what they were before. If they are Positivists it is in the sense that
+all men of science have been more or less consistently Positivists; and
+the applicability of M. Comte's title to them no more makes them his
+disciples than does its applicability to the men of science who lived
+and died before M. Comte wrote, make them his disciples.
+
+My own attitude toward M. Comte and his partial adherents has been all
+along that of antagonism. In an essay on the "Genesis of Science,"
+published in 1854, and republished with other essays in 1857, I have
+endeavoured to show that his theory of the logical dependence and
+historical development of the sciences is untrue. I have still among my
+papers the memoranda of a second review (for which I failed to obtain a
+place), the purpose of which was to show the untenableness of his
+theory of intellectual progress. The only doctrine of importance in
+which I agree with him--the relativity of all knowledge--is one common
+to him and sundry other thinkers of earlier date; and even this I hold
+in a different sense from that in which he held it. But on all points
+that are distinctive of his philosophy, I differ from him. I deny his
+Hierarchy of the Sciences. I regard his division of intellectual
+progress into the three phases, theological, metaphysical, and
+positive, as superficial. I reject utterly his Religion of Humanity.
+And his ideal of society I hold in detestation. Some of his minor views
+I accept; some of his incidental remarks seem to me to be profound, but
+from everything which distinguishes Comteism as a system, I dissent
+entirely. The only influence on my own course of thought which I can
+trace to M. Comte's writings, is the influence that results from
+meeting with antagonistic opinions definitely expressed.
+
+Such being my position, you will, I think, see that by classing me as a
+Positivist, and tacitly including me among the English admirers and
+disciples of Comte, your reviewer unintentionally misrepresents me. I
+am quite ready to bear the odium attaching to opinions which I do hold;
+but I object to have added the odium attaching to opinions which I _do
+not_ hold. If, by publishing this letter in your forthcoming number,
+you will allow me to set myself right with the American public on this
+matter, you will greatly oblige me. I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
+
+                                                       HERBERT SPENCER.
+
+We take the liberty of making an extract from a private letter of Mr.
+Spencer, which contains some further observations in the same connection:
+
+"There appears to have got abroad in the United States, a very
+erroneous impression respecting the influence of Comte's writings in
+England. I suppose that the currency obtained by the words 'Positivism'
+and 'Positivist,' is to blame for this. Comte having designated by the
+term Positive Philosophy all that body of definitely-established
+knowledge which men of science have been gradually organizing into a
+coherent body of doctrine, and having habitually placed this in
+opposition to the incoherent body of doctrine defended by theologians,
+it has become the habit of the theological party to think of the
+antagonist scientific party under this title of Positivists applied to
+them by Comte. And thus, from the habit of calling them Positivists
+there has grown up the assumption that they call themselves
+Positivists, and that they are the disciples of Comte. The truth is
+that Comte and his doctrines receive here scarcely any attention. I
+know something of the scientific world in England, and I cannot name a
+single man of science who acknowledges himself a follower of Comte, or
+accepts the title of Positivist. Lest, however, there should be some
+such who were unknown to me, I have recently made inquiries into the
+matter. To Professor Tyndall I put the question whether Comte had
+exerted any appreciable influence on his own course of thought: and he
+replied, 'So far as I know, my own course of thought would have been
+exactly the same had Comte never existed.' I then asked, 'Do you know
+any men of science whose views have been affected by Comte's writings?'
+and his answer was: 'His influence on scientific thought in England is
+absolutely _nil_.' To the same questions Prof. Huxley returned, in
+other words, the same answers. Professors Huxley and Tyndall, being
+leaders in their respective departments, and being also men of general
+culture and philosophic insight, I think that, joining their
+impressions with my own, I am justified in saying that the scientific
+world of England is wholly uninfluenced by Comte. Such small influence
+as he has had here has been on some literary men and historians--men
+who were attracted by the grand achievements of science, who were
+charmed by the plausible system of scientific generalizations put forth
+by Comte, with the usual French regard for symmetry and disregard for
+fact, and who were, from their want of scientific training, unable to
+detect the essential fallaciousness of his system. Of these the most
+notable example was the late Mr. Buckle. Besides him, I can name but
+seven men who have been in any appreciable degree influenced by Comte;
+and of these, four, if not five, are scarcely known to the public."
+
+Mr. Spencer's philosophical series is published by D. Appleton & Co., New
+York, in quarterly parts (80 to 100 pages each), by subscription, at two
+dollars a year. "_First Principles_" is issued in one volume, and four
+parts of Biology have appeared. We subjoin some notices of his philosophy
+from American and English reviews.
+
+
+  _From the National Quarterly Review_ (American.)
+
+Comte thus founded social science, and opened a path for future
+discoverers; but he did not perceive, any more than previous inquirers,
+the fundamental law of human evolution. It was reserved for Herbert
+Spencer to discover this all-comprehensive law which is found to
+explain alike all the phenomena of man's history and all those of
+external nature. This sublime discovery, that the universe is in a
+continuous process of evolution from the homogeneous to the
+heterogeneous, with which only Newton's law of gravitation is at all
+worthy to be compared, underlies not only physics, but also history. It
+reveals the law to which social changes conform.
+
+
+  _From the Christian Examiner._
+
+Reverent and bold--reverent for truth, though not for the forms of
+truth, and not for much that we hold true--bold in the destruction of
+error, though without that joy in destruction which often claims the
+name of boldness;--these works are interesting in themselves and in
+their relation to the current thought of the time. They seem at first
+sight to form the turning point in the positive philosophy, but closer
+examination shows us that it is only a new and marked stage in a
+regular growth. It is the positive philosophy reaching the higher
+relations of our being, and establishing what before it ignored because
+it had not reached, and by ignoring seemed to deny. This system
+formerly excluded theology and psychology. In the works of Herbert
+Spencer we have the rudiments of a positive theology and an immense
+step toward the perfection of the science of psychology.... Such is a
+brief and meagre sketch of a discussion which we would commend to be
+followed in detail by every mind interested in theological studies.
+Herbert Spencer comes in good faith from what has been so long a
+hostile camp, bringing a flag of truce and presenting terms of
+agreement meant to be honourable to both parties: let us give him a
+candid hearing.... In conclusion, we would remark that the work of
+Herbert Spencer referred to (First Principles) is not mainly
+theological, but will present the latest and broadest generalizations
+of science, and we would commend to our readers this author, too little
+known among us, as at once one of the clearest of teachers and one of
+the wisest and most honourable of opponents.
+
+
+  _From the New Englander._
+
+Though we find here some unwarranted assumptions, as well as some grave
+omissions, yet this part (Laws of the Knowable) may be considered, upon
+the whole, as a fine specimen of scientific reasoning. Considerable
+space is devoted to the "Law of Evolution" the discovery of which is
+the author's chief claim to originality, and certainly evinces great
+power of generalization. To quote the abstract definition without a
+full statement of the inductions from which it is derived would convey
+no fair impression of the breadth and strength of the thought which it
+epitomizes. Of Mr. Spencer's general characteristics as a writer, we
+may observe that his style is marked by great purity, clearness, and
+force; though it is somewhat diffuse, and the abstract nature of some
+of his topics occasionally renders his thought difficult of
+apprehension. His treatment of his subjects is generally thorough and
+sometimes exhaustive; his arguments are always ingenious if not always
+convincing; his illustrations are drawn from almost every accessible
+field of human knowledge, and his method of "putting things" is such as
+to make the most of his materials. He is undoubtedly entitled to a high
+rank among the speculative and philosophic writers of the present
+day....
+
+In Mr. Spencer we have the example of a positivist, who does not treat
+the subject of religion with supercilious neglect, and who illustrates
+by his own method of reasoning upon the highest objects of human
+thought, the value of those metaphysical studies which it is so much
+the fashion of his school to decry. For both these reasons the volume,
+which we now propose to examine, deserves the careful attention of the
+theologian who desires to know what one of the strongest thinkers of
+his school, commonly thought atheistic in its tendencies, can say in
+behalf of our ultimate religious ideas. For if we mistake not, in spite
+of the very negative character of his own results, he has furnished
+some strong arguments for the doctrine of a positive Christian
+theology. We shall be mistaken if we expect to find him carelessly
+passing these matters by (religious faith and theological science) as
+in all respects beyond knowledge and of no practical concern. On the
+contrary, he gives them profound attention, and arrives at conclusions
+in regard to them which even the Christian theologian must allow to
+contain a large measure of truth. While showing the _unsearchable
+nature_ of the ultimate facts on which religion depends, he
+demonstrates their _real existence_ and their great importance.... In
+answering these questions Mr. Spencer has, we think, arrived nearer to
+a true philosophy than either Hamilton or Mansel. At least he has
+indicated in a more satisfactory manner than they have done, the
+positive datum of consciousness that the unconditioned, though
+inscrutable, _exists_. It may be said that Mr. Spencer is not
+chargeable with excluding God from the universe, or denying all
+revelation of Him in His works, since he earnestly defends the truth
+that an inscrutable power is shown to _exist_. We certainly would not
+charge him with theoretical atheism, holding as he does this ultimate
+religious idea.
+
+
+  _From the North American Review._
+
+The law of organic development announced in the early part of the
+present century, by Goethe, Schelling, and Von Baer, and vaguely
+expressed in the formula, that "evolution is always from the homogenous
+to the heterogeneous, and from the simple to the complex," has recently
+been extended by Herbert Spencer so as to include all phenomena
+whatsoever. He has shown that this law of evolution is the law of _all_
+evolution. Whether it be in the development of the earth or of life
+upon its surface, in the development of Society, of government, of
+manufactures, of commerce, of language, literature, science and art,
+this same advance from the simple to the complex, through successive
+differentiations, holds uniformly. The stupendous induction from all
+classes of phenomena by which Mr. Spencer proceeds to establish and
+illustrate his theorem cannot be given here.
+
+
+  _From the Christian Spectator_ (_English_).
+
+Mr. Spencer claims for his view that it is not only a religious
+position, but preeminently _the_ religious position; and we are most
+thoroughly disposed to agree with him, though we think he does not
+appreciate the force of his own argument, nor fully understand his own
+words. For let us now attempt to realize the meaning of this fact, of
+which Mr. Spencer and his compeers have put us in possession; let us
+endeavour to see whether its bearings are really favorable or adverse
+to religion. They are put forward indeed avowedly as adverse to any
+other religion than a mere reverential acquiescence in ignorance
+concerning all that truly exists; but it appears to us that this
+supposed opposition to religion arises from the fact that the doctrine
+itself is so profoundly, so intensely, so overwhelmingly religious,
+nay, so utterly and entirely CHRISTIAN, that its true meaning could not
+be seen for very glory. Like Moses, when he came down from the Mount,
+this positive philosophy comes with a veil over its face, that its too
+divine radiance may be hidden for a time. This is Science that has been
+conversing with GOD, and brings in her hand His law written on tables
+of stone.
+
+
+  _From the Reader._
+
+To answer the question of the likelihood of the permanence of Mr.
+Mill's philosophic reign, ... we should have to take account, among
+other things, of the differences from Mr. Mill already shown by the
+extraordinarily able and peculiarly original thinker whose name we have
+associated with Mr. Mill's at the head of this article. We may take
+occasion, at another time, to call attention to these speculations of
+Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose works in the meantime, and especially that
+new one whose title we have cited, we recommend to all those select
+readers whose appreciation of masterly exposition, and great reach and
+boldness of generalization, does not depend on their mere disposition
+to agree with the doctrines propounded.
+
+
+  _From the British Quarterly Review._
+
+Complete in itself, it is at the same time but a part of a whole,
+which, if it should be constructed in proportion, will be ten times as
+great. For these First Principles are merely the foundation of a system
+of philosophy, bolder, more elaborate and comprehensive, perhaps, than
+any other which has been hitherto designed in England.... Widely as it
+will be seen we differ from the author on some points, we very
+sincerely hope he may succeed in accomplishing the bold and magnificent
+project he has mapped out.
+
+
+  _From the Cornhill Magazine._
+
+Our "Survey," superficial as it is, must include at least the mention
+of a work so lofty in aim, and so remarkable in execution as the system
+of Philosophy which Mr. Herbert Spencer is issuing to subscribers....
+In spite of all dissidence respecting the conclusions, the serious
+reader will applaud the profound earnestness and thoroughness with
+which these conclusions are advocated; the universal scientific
+knowledge brought to bear on them by way of illustration, and the acute
+and subtle thinking displayed in every chapter.
+
+
+  _From the Parthenon._
+
+By these books he has wedged his way into fame in a manner distinctly
+original, and curiously marked.... There is a peculiar charm in this
+author's style, in that it sacrifices to no common taste, while at the
+same time it makes the most abstruse questions intelligible.... The
+book, if it is to be noticed with the slightest degree of fairness,
+requires to be read and re-read, to be studied apart from itself and
+with itself. For whatever may be its ultimate fate--although as the
+ages go on it shall become but as the lispings of a little child, a
+little more educated than other lisping children of the same time--this
+is certain, that, as a book addressed to the present, it lifts the mind
+far above the ordinary range of thought, suggests new associations,
+arranges chaotic pictures, strikes often a broad harmony, and even
+moves the heart by an intellectual struggle as passionless as fate, but
+as irresistible as time.
+
+
+  _From the Critic._
+
+Mr. Spencer is the foremost mind of the only philosophical school in
+England which has arrived at a consistent scheme... Beyond this school
+we encounter an indolent chaotic eclecticism. Mr. Spencer claims the
+respect due to distinct and daring individuality; others are echoes or
+slaves. Mr. Spencer may be a usurper, but he has the voice and gesture
+of a king.
+
+
+  _From the Medico-Chirurgical Review._
+
+Mr. Spencer is equally remarkable for his search after first
+principles; for his acute attempts to decompose mental phenomena into
+their primary elements; and for his broad generalizations of mental
+activity, viewed in connection with nature, instinct, and all the
+analogies presented by _life_ in its universal aspects.
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S PREFACE.
+
+
+The essays contained in the present volume were first published in the
+English periodicals--chiefly the Quarterly Reviews. They contain ideas of
+permanent interest, and display an amount of thought and labor evidently
+much greater than is usually bestowed on review articles. They were written
+with a view to ultimate republication in an enduring form, and were issued
+in London with several other papers, under the title of "Essays;
+Scientific, Political, and Speculative," first and second series;--the
+former appearing in 1857, and the latter in 1863.
+
+The interest created in Mr. Spencer's writings by the publication in this
+country of his valuable work on "Education," and by criticisms of his other
+works, has created a demand for these discussions which can only be
+supplied by their republication. They are now, however, issued in a new
+form, and are more suited to develop the author's purpose in their
+preparation; for while each of these essays has its intrinsic and
+independent claims upon the reader's attention, they are all at the same
+time but parts of a connected and comprehensive argument. Nearly all of Mr.
+Spencer's essays have relations more or less direct to the general doctrine
+of Evolution--a doctrine which he has probably done more to unfold and
+illustrate than any other thinker. The papers comprised in the present
+volume are those which deal with the subject in its most obvious and
+prominent aspects.
+
+Although the argument contained in the first essay on "Progress; its Law
+and Cause," has been published in an amplified form in the author's "First
+Principles," it has been thought best to prefix it to the present
+collection as a key to the full interpretation of the other essays.
+
+To those who read this volume its commendation will be superfluous; we will
+only say that those who become interested in his course of thought will
+find it completely elaborated in his new System of Philosophy, now in
+course of publication.
+
+The remaining articles of Mr. Spencer's first and second series will be
+shortly published, in a volume entitled "Essays; Moral, Political, and
+AEsthetic."
+
+  NEW YORK, _March_, 1864.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+    I.  Progress: Its Law and Cause,                       1
+   II.  Manners and Fashion,                              61
+  III.  The Genesis of Science,                          116
+   IV.  The Physiology of Laughter,                      194
+    V.  The Origin and Function of Music,                210
+   VI.  The Nebular Hypothesis,                          239
+  VII.  Bain on the Emotions and the Will,               300
+ VIII.  Illogical Geology,                               325
+   IX.  The Development Hypothesis,                      377
+    X.  The Social Organism,                             384
+   XI.  Use and Beauty,                                  429
+  XII.  The Sources of Architectural Types,              434
+ XIII.  The Use of Anthropomorphism,                     440
+
+
+
+
+I. PROGRESS: ITS LAW AND CAUSE.
+
+
+The current conception of Progress is somewhat shifting and indefinite.
+Sometimes it comprehends little more than simple growth--as of a nation in
+the number of its members and the extent of territory over which it has
+spread. Sometimes it has reference to quantity of material products--as
+when the advance of agriculture and manufactures is the topic. Sometimes
+the superior quality of these products is contemplated: and sometimes the
+new or improved appliances by which they are produced. When, again, we
+speak of moral or intellectual progress, we refer to the state of the
+individual or people exhibiting it; while, when the progress of Knowledge,
+of Science, of Art, is commented upon, we have in view certain abstract
+results of human thought and action. Not only, however, is the current
+conception of Progress more or less vague, but it is in great measure
+erroneous. It takes in not so much the reality of Progress as its
+accompaniments--not so much the substance as the shadow. That progress in
+intelligence seen during the growth of the child into the man, or the
+savage into the philosopher, is commonly regarded as consisting in the
+greater number of facts known and laws understood: whereas the actual
+progress consists in those internal modifications of which this increased
+knowledge is the expression. Social progress is supposed to consist in the
+produce of a greater quantity and variety of the articles required for
+satisfying men's wants; in the increasing security of person and property;
+in widening freedom of action: whereas, rightly understood, social progress
+consists in those changes of structure in the social organism which have
+entailed these consequences. The current conception is a teleological one.
+The phenomena are contemplated solely as bearing on human happiness. Only
+those changes are held to constitute progress which directly or indirectly
+tend to heighten human happiness. And they are thought to constitute
+progress simply _because_ they tend to heighten human happiness. But
+rightly to understand progress, we must inquire what is the nature of these
+changes, considered apart from our interests. Ceasing, for example, to
+regard the successive geological modifications that have taken place in the
+Earth, as modifications that have gradually fitted it for the habitation of
+Man, and as _therefore_ a geological progress, we must seek to determine
+the character common to these modifications--the law to which they all
+conform. And similarly in every other case. Leaving out of sight
+concomitants and beneficial consequences, let us ask what Progress is in
+itself.
+
+In respect to that progress which individual organisms display in the
+course of their evolution, this question has been answered by the Germans.
+The investigations of Wolff, Goethe, and Von Baer, have established the
+truth that the series of changes gone through during the development of a
+seed into a tree, or an ovum into an animal, constitute an advance from
+homogeneity of structure to heterogeneity of structure. In its primary
+stage, every germ consists of a substance that is uniform throughout, both
+in texture and chemical composition. The first step is the appearance of a
+difference between two parts of this substance; or, as the phenomenon is
+called in physiological language, a differentiation. Each of these
+differentiated divisions presently begins itself to exhibit some contrast
+of parts; and by and by these secondary differentiations become as definite
+as the original one. This process is continuously repeated--is
+simultaneously going on in all parts of the growing embryo; and by endless
+such differentiations there is finally produced that complex combination of
+tissues and organs constituting the adult animal or plant. This is the
+history of all organisms whatever. It is settled beyond dispute that
+organic progress consists in a change from the homogeneous to the
+heterogeneous.
+
+Now, we propose in the first place to show, that this law of organic
+progress is the law of all progress. Whether it be in the development of
+the Earth, in the development of Life upon its surface, in the development
+of Society, of Government, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language,
+Literature, Science, Art, this same evolution of the simple into the
+complex, through successive differentiations, holds throughout. From the
+earliest traceable cosmical changes down to the latest results of
+civilization, we shall find that the transformation of the homogeneous into
+the heterogeneous, is that in which Progress essentially consists.
+
+With the view of showing that _if_ the Nebular Hypothesis be true, the
+genesis of the solar system supplies one illustration of this law, let us
+assume that the matter of which the sun and planets consist was once in a
+diffused form; and that from the gravitation of its atoms there resulted a
+gradual concentration. By the hypothesis, the solar system in its nascent
+state existed as an indefinitely extended and nearly homogeneous medium--a
+medium almost homogeneous in density, in temperature, and in other physical
+attributes. The first advance towards consolidation resulted in a
+differentiation between the occupied space which the nebulous mass still
+filled, and the unoccupied space which it previously filled. There
+simultaneously resulted a contrast in density and a contrast in
+temperature, between the interior and the exterior of this mass. And at the
+same time there arose throughout it rotatory movements, whose velocities
+varied according to their distances from its centre. These differentiations
+increased in number and degree until there was evolved the organized group
+of sun, planets, and satellites, which we now know--a group which presents
+numerous contrasts of structure and action among its members. There are the
+immense contrasts between the sun and planets, in bulk and in weight; as
+well as the subordinate contrasts between one planet and another, and
+between the planets and their satellites. There is the similarly marked
+contrast between the sun as almost stationary, and the planets as moving
+round him with great velocity; while there are the secondary contrasts
+between the velocities and periods of the several planets, and between
+their simple revolutions and the double ones of their satellites, which
+have to move round their primaries while moving round the sun. There is the
+yet further strong contrast between the sun and the planets in respect of
+temperature; and there is reason to suppose that the planets and satellites
+differ from each other in their proper heat, as well as in the heat they
+receive from the sun.
+
+When we bear in mind that, in addition to these various contrasts, the
+planets and satellites also differ in respect to their distances from each
+other and their primary; in respect to the inclinations of their orbits,
+the inclinations of their axes, their times of rotation on their axes,
+their specific gravities, and their physical constitutions; we see what a
+high degree of heterogeneity the solar system exhibits, when compared with
+the almost complete homogeneity of the nebulous mass out of which it is
+supposed to have originated.
+
+Passing from this hypothetical illustration, which must be taken for what
+it is worth, without prejudice to the general argument, let us descend to a
+more certain order of evidence. It is now generally agreed among geologists
+that the Earth was at first a mass of molten matter; and that it is still
+fluid and incandescent at the distance of a few miles beneath its surface.
+Originally, then, it was homogeneous in consistence, and, in virtue of the
+circulation that takes place in heated fluids, must have been comparatively
+homogeneous in temperature; and it must have been surrounded by an
+atmosphere consisting partly of the elements of air and water, and partly
+of those various other elements which assume a gaseous form at high
+temperatures. That slow cooling by radiation which is still going on at an
+inappreciable rate, and which, though originally far more rapid than now,
+necessarily required an immense time to produce any decided change, must
+ultimately have resulted in the solidification of the portion most able to
+part with its heat--namely, the surface. In the thin crust thus formed we
+have the first marked differentiation. A still further cooling, a
+consequent thickening of this crust, and an accompanying deposition of all
+solidifiable elements contained in the atmosphere, must finally have been
+followed by the condensation of the water previously existing as vapour. A
+second marked differentiation must thus have arisen: and as the
+condensation must have taken place on the coolest parts of the
+surface--namely, about the poles--there must thus have resulted the first
+geographical distinction of parts. To these illustrations of growing
+heterogeneity, which, though deduced from the known laws of matter, may be
+regarded as more or less hypothetical, Geology adds an extensive series
+that have been inductively established. Its investigations show that the
+Earth has been continually becoming more heterogeneous in virtue of the
+multiplication of the strata which form its crust; further, that it has
+been becoming more heterogeneous in respect of the composition of these
+strata, the latter of which, being made from the detritus of the older
+ones, are many of them rendered highly complex by the mixture of materials
+they contain; and that this heterogeneity has been vastly increased by the
+action of the Earth's still molten nucleus upon its envelope, whence have
+resulted not only a great variety of igneous rocks, but the tilting up of
+sedimentary strata at all angles, the formation of faults and metallic
+veins, the production of endless dislocations and irregularities. Yet
+again, geologists teach us that the Earth's surface has been growing more
+varied in elevation--that the most ancient mountain systems are the
+smallest, and the Andes and Himalayas the most modern; while in all
+probability there have been corresponding changes in the bed of the ocean.
+As a consequence of these ceaseless differentiations, we now find that no
+considerable portion of the Earth's exposed surface is like any other
+portion, either in contour, in geologic structure, or in chemical
+composition; and that in most parts it changes from mile to mile in all
+these characteristics.
+
+Moreover, it must not be forgotten that there has been simultaneously going
+on a gradual differentiation of climates. As fast as the Earth cooled and
+its crust solidified, there arose appreciable differences in temperature
+between those parts of its surface most exposed to the sun and those less
+exposed. Gradually, as the cooling progressed, these differences became
+more pronounced; until there finally resulted those marked contrasts
+between regions of perpetual ice and snow, regions where winter and summer
+alternately reign for periods varying according to the latitude, and
+regions where summer follows summer with scarcely an appreciable variation.
+At the same time the successive elevations and subsidences of different
+portions of the Earth's crust, tending as they have done to the present
+irregular distribution of land and sea, have entailed various modifications
+of climate beyond those dependent on latitude; while a yet further series
+of such modifications have been produced by increasing differences of
+elevation in the land, which have in sundry places brought arctic,
+temperate, and tropical climates to within a few miles of each other. And
+the general result of these changes is, that not only has every extensive
+region its own meteorologic conditions, but that every locality in each
+region differs more or less from others in those conditions, as in its
+structure, its contour, its soil. Thus, between our existing Earth, the
+phenomena of whose varied crust neither geographers, geologists,
+mineralogists, nor meteorologists have yet enumerated, and the molten globe
+out of which it was evolved, the contrast in heterogeneity is sufficiently
+striking.
+
+When from the Earth itself we turn to the plants and animals that have
+lived, or still live, upon its surface, we find ourselves in some
+difficulty from lack of facts. That every existing organism has been
+developed out of the simple into the complex, is indeed the first
+established truth of all; and that every organism that has existed was
+similarly developed, is an inference which no physiologist will hesitate to
+draw. But when we pass from individual forms of life to Life in general,
+and inquire whether the same law is seen in the _ensemble_ of its
+manifestations,--whether modern plants and animals are of more
+heterogeneous structure than ancient ones, and whether the Earth's present
+Flora and Fauna are more heterogeneous than the Flora and Fauna of the
+past,--we find the evidence so fragmentary, that every conclusion is open
+to dispute. Two-thirds of the Earth's surface being covered by water; a
+great part of the exposed land being inaccessible to, or untravelled by,
+the geologist; the greater part of the remainder having been scarcely more
+than glanced at; and even the most familiar portions, as England, having
+been so imperfectly explored that a new series of strata has been added
+within these four years,--it is manifestly impossible for us to say with
+any certainty what creatures have, and what have not, existed at any
+particular period. Considering the perishable nature of many of the lower
+organic forms, the metamorphosis of many sedimentary strata, and the gaps
+that occur among the rest, we shall see further reason for distrusting our
+deductions. On the one hand, the repeated discovery of vertebrate remains
+in strata previously supposed to contain none,--of reptiles where only fish
+were thought to exist,--of mammals where it was believed there were no
+creatures higher than reptiles,--renders it daily more manifest how small
+is the value of negative evidence.
+
+On the other hand, the worthlessness of the assumption that we have
+discovered the earliest, or anything like the earliest, organic remains, is
+becoming equally clear. That the oldest known sedimentary rocks have been
+greatly changed by igneous action, and that still older ones have been
+totally transformed by it, is becoming undeniable. And the fact that
+sedimentary strata earlier than any we know, have been melted up, being
+admitted, it must also be admitted that we cannot say how far back in time
+this destruction of sedimentary strata has been going on. Thus it is
+manifest that the title, _Palaeozoic_, as applied to the earliest known
+fossiliferous strata, involves a _petitio principii_; and that, for aught
+we know to the contrary, only the last few chapters of the Earth's
+biological history may have come down to us. On neither side, therefore, is
+the evidence conclusive. Nevertheless we cannot but think that, scanty as
+they are, the facts, taken altogether, tend to show both that the more
+heterogeneous organisms have been evolved in the later geologic periods,
+and that Life in general has been more heterogeneously manifested as time
+has advanced. Let us cite, in illustration, the one case of the
+_vertebrata_. The earliest known vertebrate remains are those of Fishes;
+and Fishes are the most homogeneous of the vertebrata. Later and more
+heterogeneous are Reptiles. Later still, and more heterogeneous still, are
+Mammals and Birds. If it be said, as it may fairly be said, that the
+Palaeozoic deposits, not being estuary deposits, are not likely to contain
+the remains of terrestrial vertebrata, which may nevertheless have existed
+at that era, we reply that we are merely pointing to the leading facts,
+_such as they are_.
+
+But to avoid any such criticism, let us take the mammalian subdivision
+only. The earliest known remains of mammals are those of small marsupials,
+which are the lowest of the mammalian type; while, conversely, the highest
+of the mammalian type--Man--is the most recent. The evidence that the
+vertebrate fauna, as a whole, has become more heterogeneous, is
+considerably stronger. To the argument that the vertebrate fauna of the
+Palaeozoic period, consisting, so far as we know, entirely of Fishes, was
+less heterogeneous than the modern vertebrate fauna, which includes
+Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals, of multitudinous genera, it may be replied,
+as before, that estuary deposits of the Palaeozoic period, could we find
+them, might contain other orders of vertebrata. But no such reply can be
+made to the argument that whereas the marine vertebrata of the Palaeozoic
+period consisted entirely of cartilaginous fishes, the marine vertebrata of
+later periods include numerous genera of osseous fishes; and that,
+therefore, the later marine vertebrate faunas are more heterogeneous than
+the oldest known one. Nor, again, can any such reply be made to the fact
+that there are far more numerous orders and genera of mammalian remains in
+the tertiary formations than in the secondary formations. Did we wish
+merely to make out the best case, we might dwell upon the opinion of Dr.
+Carpenter, who says that "the general facts of Palaeontology appear to
+sanction the belief, that _the same plan_ may be traced out in what may be
+called _the general life of the globe_, as in _the individual life_ of
+every one of the forms of organized being which now people it." Or we might
+quote, as decisive, the judgment of Professor Owen, who holds that the
+earlier examples of each group of creatures severally departed less widely
+from archetypal generality than the later ones--were severally less unlike
+the fundamental form common to the group as a whole; that is to
+say--constituted a less heterogeneous group of creatures; and who further
+upholds the doctrine of a biological progression. But in deference to an
+authority for whom we have the highest respect, who considers that the
+evidence at present obtained does not justify a verdict either way, we are
+content to leave the question open.
+
+Whether an advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is or is not
+displayed in the biological history of the globe, it is clearly enough
+displayed in the progress of the latest and most heterogeneous
+creature--Man. It is alike true that, during the period in which the Earth
+has been peopled, the human organism has grown more heterogeneous among the
+civilized divisions of the species; and that the species, as a whole, has
+been growing more heterogeneous in virtue of the multiplication of races
+and the differentiation of these races from each other.
+
+In proof of the first of these positions, we may cite the fact that, in the
+relative development of the limbs, the civilized man departs more widely
+from the general type of the placental mammalia than do the lower human
+races. While often possessing well-developed body and arms, the Papuan has
+extremely small legs: thus reminding us of the quadrumana, in which there
+is no great contrast in size between the hind and fore limbs. But in the
+European, the greater length and massiveness of the legs has become very
+marked--the fore and hind limbs are relatively more heterogeneous. Again,
+the greater ratio which the cranial bones bear to the facial bones
+illustrates the same truth. Among the vertebrata in general, progress is
+marked by an increasing heterogeneity in the vertebral column, and more
+especially in the vertebrae constituting the skull: the higher forms being
+distinguished by the relatively larger size of the bones which cover the
+brain, and the relatively smaller size of those which form the jaw, &c.
+Now, this characteristic, which is stronger in Man than in any other
+creature, is stronger in the European than in the savage. Moreover, judging
+from the greater extent and variety of faculty he exhibits, we may infer
+that the civilized man has also a more complex or heterogeneous nervous
+system than the uncivilized man: and indeed the fact is in part visible in
+the increased ratio which his cerebrum bears to the subjacent ganglia.
+
+If further elucidation be needed, we may find it in every nursery. The
+infant European has sundry marked points of resemblance to the lower human
+races; as in the flatness of the alae of the nose, the depression of its
+bridge, the divergence and forward opening of the nostrils, the form of the
+lips, the absence of a frontal sinus, the width between the eyes, the
+smallness of the legs. Now, as the developmental process by which these
+traits are turned into those of the adult European, is a continuation of
+that change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous displayed during the
+previous evolution of the embryo, which every physiologist will admit; it
+follows that the parallel developmental process by which the like traits of
+the barbarous races have been turned into those of the civilized races, has
+also been a continuation of the change from the homogeneous to the
+heterogeneous. The truth of the second position--that Mankind, as a whole,
+have become more heterogeneous--is so obvious as scarcely to need
+illustration. Every work on Ethnology, by its divisions and subdivisions of
+races, bears testimony to it. Even were we to admit the hypothesis that
+Mankind originated from several separate stocks, it would still remain
+true, that as, from each of these stocks, there have sprung many now widely
+different tribes, which are proved by philological evidence to have had a
+common origin, the race as a whole is far less homogeneous than it once
+was. Add to which, that we have, in the Anglo-Americans, an example of a
+new variety arising within these few generations; and that, if we may trust
+to the description of observers, we are likely soon to have another such
+example in Australia.
+
+On passing from Humanity under its individual form, to Humanity as socially
+embodied, we find the general law still more variously exemplified. The
+change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is displayed equally in
+the progress of civilization as a whole, and in the progress of every tribe
+or nation; and is still going on with increasing rapidity. As we see in
+existing barbarous tribes, society in its first and lowest form is a
+homogeneous aggregation of individuals having like powers and like
+functions: the only marked difference of function being that which
+accompanies difference of sex. Every man is warrior, hunter, fisherman,
+tool-maker, builder; every woman performs the same drudgeries; every family
+is self-sufficing, and save for purposes of aggression and defence, might
+as well live apart from the rest. Very early, however, in the process of
+social evolution, we find an incipient differentiation between the
+governing and the governed. Some kind of chieftainship seems coeval with
+the first advance from the state of separate wandering families to that of
+a nomadic tribe. The authority of the strongest makes itself felt among a
+body of savages as in a herd of animals, or a posse of schoolboys. At
+first, however, it is indefinite, uncertain; is shared by others of
+scarcely inferior power; and is unaccompanied by any difference in
+occupation or style of living: the first ruler kills his own game, makes
+his own weapons, builds his own hut, and economically considered, does not
+differ from others of his tribe. Gradually, as the tribe progresses, the
+contrast between the governing and the governed grows more decided. Supreme
+power becomes hereditary in one family; the head of that family, ceasing to
+provide for his own wants, is served by others; and he begins to assume the
+sole office of ruling.
+
+At the same time there has been arising a co-ordinate species of
+government--that of Religion. As all ancient records and traditions prove,
+the earliest rulers are regarded as divine personages. The maxims and
+commands they uttered during their lives are held sacred after their
+deaths, and are enforced by their divinely-descended successors; who in
+their turns are promoted to the pantheon of the race, there to be
+worshipped and propitiated along with their predecessors: the most ancient
+of whom is the supreme god, and the rest subordinate gods. For a long time
+these connate forms of government--civil and religious--continue closely
+associated. For many generations the king continues to be the chief priest,
+and the priesthood to be members of the royal race. For many ages religious
+law continues to contain more or less of civil regulation, and civil law to
+possess more or less of religious sanction; and even among the most
+advanced nations these two controlling agencies are by no means completely
+differentiated from each other.
+
+Having a common root with these, and gradually diverging from them, we find
+yet another controlling agency--that of Manners or ceremonial usages. All
+titles of honour are originally the names of the god-king; afterwards of
+God and the king; still later of persons of high rank; and finally come,
+some of them, to be used between man and man. All forms of complimentary
+address were at first the expressions of submission from prisoners to their
+conqueror, or from subjects to their ruler, either human or
+divine--expressions that were afterwards used to propitiate subordinate
+authorities, and slowly descended into ordinary intercourse. All modes of
+salutation were once obeisances made before the monarch and used in worship
+of him after his death. Presently others of the god-descended race were
+similarly saluted; and by degrees some of the salutations have become the
+due of all.[A] Thus, no sooner does the originally homogeneous social mass
+differentiate into the governed and the governing parts, than this last
+exhibits an incipient differentiation into religious and secular--Church
+and State; while at the same time there begins to be differentiated from
+both, that less definite species of government which rules our daily
+intercourse--a species of government which, as we may see in heralds'
+colleges, in books of the peerage, in masters of ceremonies, is not without
+a certain embodiment of its own. Each of these is itself subject to
+successive differentiations. In the course of ages, there arises, as among
+ourselves, a highly complex political organization of monarch, ministers,
+lords and commons, with their subordinate administrative departments,
+courts of justice, revenue offices, &c., supplemented in the provinces by
+municipal governments, county governments, parish or union governments--all
+of them more or less elaborated. By its side there grows up a highly
+complex religious organization, with its various grades of officials, from
+archbishops down to sextons, its colleges, convocations, ecclesiastical
+courts, &c.; to all which must be added the ever multiplying independent
+sects, each with its general and local authorities. And at the same time
+there is developed a highly complex aggregation of customs, manners, and
+temporary fashions, enforced by society at large, and serving to control
+those minor transactions between man and man which are not regulated by
+civil and religious law. Moreover it is to be observed that this ever
+increasing heterogeneity in the governmental appliances of each nation, has
+been accompanied by an increasing heterogeneity in the governmental
+appliances of different nations; all of which are more or less unlike in
+their political systems and legislation, in their creeds and religious
+institutions, in their customs and ceremonial usages.
+
+  [A] For detailed proof of these assertions see essay on _Manners and
+      Fashion_.
+
+Simultaneously there has been going on a second differentiation of a more
+familiar kind; that, namely, by which the mass of the community has been
+segregated into distinct classes and orders of workers. While the governing
+part has undergone the complex development above detailed, the governed
+part has undergone an equally complex development, which has resulted in
+that minute division of labour characterizing advanced nations. It is
+needless to trace out this progress from its first stages, up through the
+caste divisions of the East and the incorporated guilds of Europe, to the
+elaborate producing and distributing organization existing among ourselves.
+Political economists have long since described the evolution which,
+beginning with a tribe whose members severally perform the same actions
+each for himself, ends with a civilized community whose members severally
+perform different actions for each other; and they have further pointed out
+the changes through which the solitary producer of any one commodity is
+transformed into a combination of producers who, united under a master,
+take separate parts in the manufacture of such commodity. But there are yet
+other and higher phases of this advance from the homogeneous to the
+heterogeneous in the industrial organization of society.
+
+Long after considerable progress has been made in the division of labour
+among different classes of workers, there is still little or no division of
+labour among the widely separated parts of the community; the nation
+continues comparatively homogeneous in the respect that in each district
+the same occupations are pursued. But when roads and other means of transit
+become numerous and good, the different districts begin to assume different
+functions, and to become mutually dependent. The calico manufacture locates
+itself in this county, the woollen-cloth manufacture in that; silks are
+produced here, lace there; stockings in one place, shoes in another;
+pottery, hardware, cutlery, come to have their special towns; and
+ultimately every locality becomes more or less distinguished from the rest
+by the leading occupation carried on in it. Nay, more, this subdivision of
+functions shows itself not only among the different parts of the same
+nation, but among different nations. That exchange of commodities which
+free-trade promises so greatly to increase, will ultimately have the effect
+of specializing, in a greater or less degree, the industry of each people.
+So that beginning with a barbarous tribe, almost if not quite homogeneous
+in the functions of its members, the progress has been, and still is,
+towards an economic aggregation of the whole human race; growing ever more
+heterogeneous in respect of the separate functions assumed by separate
+nations, the separate functions assumed by the local sections of each
+nation, the separate functions assumed by the many kinds of makers and
+traders in each town, and the separate functions assumed by the workers
+united in producing each commodity.
+
+Not only is the law thus clearly exemplified in the evolution of the social
+organism, but it is exemplified with equal clearness in the evolution of
+all products of human thought and action, whether concrete or abstract,
+real or ideal. Let us take Language as our first illustration.
+
+The lowest form of language is the exclamation, by which an entire idea is
+vaguely conveyed through a single sound; as among the lower animals. That
+human language ever consisted solely of exclamations, and so was strictly
+homogeneous in respect of its parts of speech, we have no evidence. But
+that language can be traced down to a form in which nouns and verbs are its
+only elements, is an established fact. In the gradual multiplication of
+parts of speech out of these primary ones--in the differentiation of verbs
+into active and passive, of nouns into abstract and concrete--in the rise
+of distinctions of mood, tense, person, of number and case--in the
+formation of auxiliary verbs, of adjectives, adverbs, pronouns,
+prepositions, articles--in the divergence of those orders, genera, species,
+and varieties of parts of speech by which civilized races express minute
+modifications of meaning--we see a change from the homogeneous to the
+heterogeneous. And it may be remarked, in passing, that it is more
+especially in virtue of having carried this subdivision of function to a
+greater extent and completeness, that the English language is superior to
+all others.
+
+Another aspect under which we may trace the development of language is the
+differentiation of words of allied meanings. Philology early disclosed the
+truth that in all languages words may be grouped into families having a
+common ancestry. An aboriginal name applied indiscriminately to each of an
+extensive and ill-defined class of things or actions, presently undergoes
+modifications by which the chief divisions of the class are expressed.
+These several names springing from the primitive root, themselves become
+the parents of other names still further modified. And by the aid of those
+systematic modes which presently arise, of making derivations and forming
+compound terms expressing still smaller distinctions, there is finally
+developed a tribe of words so heterogeneous in sound and meaning, that to
+the uninitiated it seems incredible that they should have had a common
+origin. Meanwhile from other roots there are being evolved other such
+tribes, until there results a language of some sixty thousand or more
+unlike words, signifying as many unlike objects, qualities, acts.
+
+Yet another way in which language in general advances from the homogeneous
+to the heterogeneous, is in the multiplication of languages. Whether as Max
+Mueller and Bunsen think, all languages have grown from one stock, or
+whether, as some philologists say, they have grown from two or more stocks,
+it is clear that since large families of languages, as the Indo-European,
+are of one parentage, they have become distinct through a process of
+continuous divergence. The same diffusion over the Earth's surface which
+has led to the differentiation of the race, has simultaneously led to a
+differentiation of their speech: a truth which we see further illustrated
+in each nation by the peculiarities of dialect found in several districts.
+Thus the progress of Language conforms to the general law, alike in the
+evolution of languages, in the evolution of families of words, and in the
+evolution of parts of speech.
+
+On passing from spoken to written language, we come upon several classes of
+facts, all having similar implications. Written language is connate with
+Painting and Sculpture; and at first all three are appendages of
+Architecture, and have a direct connection with the primary form of all
+Government--the theocratic. Merely noting by the way the fact that sundry
+wild races, as for example the Australians and the tribes of South Africa,
+are given to depicting personages and events upon the walls of caves, which
+are probably regarded as sacred places, let us pass to the case of the
+Egyptians. Among them, as also among the Assyrians, we find mural paintings
+used to decorate the temple of the god and the palace of the king (which
+were, indeed, originally identical); and as such they were governmental
+appliances in the same sense that state-pageants and religious feasts were.
+Further, they were governmental appliances in virtue of representing the
+worship of the god, the triumphs of the god-king, the submission of his
+subjects, and the punishment of the rebellious. And yet again they were
+governmental, as being the products of an art reverenced by the people as a
+sacred mystery. From the habitual use of this pictorial representation
+there naturally grew up the but slightly-modified practice of
+picture-writing--a practice which was found still extant among the Mexicans
+at the time they were discovered. By abbreviations analogous to those still
+going on in our own written and spoken language, the most familiar of these
+pictured figures were successively simplified; and ultimately there grew up
+a system of symbols, most of which had but a distant resemblance to the
+things for which they stood. The inference that the hieroglyphics of the
+Egyptians were thus produced, is confirmed by the fact that the
+picture-writing of the Mexicans was found to have given birth to a like
+family of ideographic forms; and, among them, as among the Egyptians, these
+had been partially differentiated into the _kuriological_ or imitative, and
+the _tropical_ or symbolic: which were, however, used together in the same
+record. In Egypt, written language underwent a further differentiation:
+whence resulted the _hieratic_ and the _epistolographic_ or _enchorial_:
+both of which are derived from the original hieroglyphic. At the same time
+we find that for the expression of proper names which could not be
+otherwise conveyed, phonetic symbols were employed; and though it is
+alleged that the Egyptians never actually achieved complete alphabetic
+writing, yet it can scarcely be doubted that these phonetic symbols
+occasionally used in aid of their ideographic ones, were the germs out of
+which alphabetic writing grew. Once having become separate from
+hieroglyphics, alphabetic writing itself underwent numerous
+differentiations--multiplied alphabets were produced; between most of
+which, however, more or less connection can still be traced. And in each
+civilized nation there has now grown up, for the representation of one set
+of sounds, several sets of written signs used for distinct purposes.
+Finally, through a yet more important differentiation came printing; which,
+uniform in kind as it was at first, has since become multiform.
+
+While written language was passing through its earlier stages of
+development, the mural decoration which formed its root was being
+differentiated into Painting and Sculpture. The gods, kings, men, and
+animals represented, were originally marked by indented outlines and
+coloured. In most cases these outlines were of such depth, and the object
+they circumscribed so far rounded and marked out in its leading parts, as
+to form a species of work intermediate between intaglio and bas-relief. In
+other cases we see an advance upon this: the raised spaces between the
+figures being chiselled off, and the figures themselves appropriately
+tinted, a painted bas-relief was produced. The restored Assyrian
+architecture at Sydenham exhibits this style of art carried to greater
+perfection--the persons and things represented, though still barbarously
+coloured, are carved out with more truth and in greater detail: and in the
+winged lions and bulls used for the angles of gateways, we may see a
+considerable advance towards a completely sculptured figure; which,
+nevertheless, is still coloured, and still forms part of the building. But
+while in Assyria the production of a statue proper seems to have been
+little, if at all, attempted, we may trace in Egyptian art the gradual
+separation of the sculptured figure from the wall. A walk through the
+collection in the British Museum will clearly show this; while it will at
+the same time afford an opportunity of observing the evident traces which
+the independent statues bear of their derivation from bas-relief: seeing
+that nearly all of them not only display that union of the limbs with the
+body which is the characteristic of bas-relief, but have the back of the
+statue united from head to foot with a block which stands in place of the
+original wall. Greece repeated the leading stages of this progress. As in
+Egypt and Assyria, these twin arts were at first united with each other and
+with their parent, Architecture, and were the aids of Religion and
+Government. On the friezes of Greek temples, we see coloured bas-reliefs
+representing sacrifices, battles, processions, games--all in some sort
+religious. On the pediments we see painted sculptures more or less united
+with the tympanum, and having for subjects the triumphs of gods or heroes.
+Even when we come to statues that are definitely separated from the
+buildings to which they pertain, we still find them coloured; and only in
+the later periods of Greek civilization does the differentiation of
+sculpture from painting appear to have become complete.
+
+In Christian art we may clearly trace a parallel re-genesis. All early
+paintings and sculptures throughout Europe were religious in
+subject--represented Christs, crucifixions, virgins, holy families,
+apostles, saints. They formed integral parts of church architecture, and
+were among the means of exciting worship; as in Roman Catholic countries
+they still are. Moreover, the early sculptures of Christ on the cross, of
+virgins, of saints, were coloured: and it needs but to call to mind the
+painted madonnas and crucifixes still abundant in continental churches and
+highways, to perceive the significant fact that painting and sculpture
+continue in closest connection with each other where they continue in
+closest connection with their parent. Even when Christian sculpture was
+pretty clearly differentiated from painting, it was still religious and
+governmental in its subjects--was used for tombs in churches and statues of
+kings: while, at the same time, painting, where not purely ecclesiastical,
+was applied to the decoration of palaces, and besides representing royal
+personages, was almost wholly devoted to sacred legends. Only in quite
+recent times have painting and sculpture become entirely secular arts. Only
+within these few centuries has painting been divided into historical,
+landscape, marine, architectural, genre, animal, still-life, &c., and
+sculpture grown heterogeneous in respect of the variety of real and ideal
+subjects with which it occupies itself.
+
+Strange as it seems then, we find it no less true, that all forms of
+written language, of painting, and of sculpture, have a common root in the
+politico-religious decorations of ancient temples and palaces. Little
+resemblance as they now have, the bust that stands on the console, the
+landscape that hangs against the wall, and the copy of the _Times_ lying
+upon the table, are remotely akin; not only in nature, but by extraction.
+The brazen face of the knocker which the postman has just lifted, is
+related not only to the woodcuts of the _Illustrated London News_ which he
+is delivering, but to the characters of the _billet-doux_ which accompanies
+it. Between the painted window, the prayer-book on which its light falls,
+and the adjacent monument, there is consanguinity. The effigies on our
+coins, the signs over shops, the figures that fill every ledger, the coats
+of arms outside the carriage panel, and the placards inside the omnibus,
+are, in common with dolls, blue-books, paper-hangings, lineally descended
+from the rude sculpture-paintings in which the Egyptians represented the
+triumphs and worship of their god-kings. Perhaps no example can be given
+which more vividly illustrates the multiplicity and heterogeneity of the
+products that in course of time may arise by successive differentiations
+from a common stock.
+
+Before passing to other classes of facts, it should be observed that the
+evolution of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous is displayed not only
+in the separation of Painting and Sculpture from Architecture and from each
+other, and in the greater variety of subjects they embody, but it is
+further shown in the structure of each work. A modern picture or statue is
+of far more heterogeneous nature than an ancient one. An Egyptian
+sculpture-fresco represents all its figures as on one plane--that is, at
+the same distance from the eye; and so is less heterogeneous than a
+painting that represents them as at various distances from the eye. It
+exhibits all objects as exposed to the same degree of light; and so is less
+heterogeneous than a painting which exhibits different objects and
+different parts of each object as in different degrees of light. It uses
+scarcely any but the primary colours, and these in their full intensity;
+and so is less heterogeneous than a painting which, introducing the primary
+colours but sparingly, employs an endless variety of intermediate tints,
+each of heterogeneous composition, and differing from the rest not only in
+quality but in intensity. Moreover, we see in these earliest works a great
+uniformity of conception. The same arrangement of figures is perpetually
+reproduced--the same actions, attitudes, faces, dresses. In Egypt the modes
+of representation were so fixed that it was sacrilege to introduce a
+novelty; and indeed it could have been only in consequence of a fixed mode
+of representation that a system of hieroglyphics became possible. The
+Assyrian bas-reliefs display parallel characters. Deities, kings,
+attendants, winged figures and animals, are severally depicted in like
+positions, holding like implements, doing like things, and with like
+expression or non-expression of face. If a palm-grove is introduced, all
+the trees are of the same height, have the same number of leaves, and are
+equidistant. When water is imitated, each wave is a counterpart of the
+rest; and the fish, almost always of one kind, are evenly distributed over
+the surface. The beards of the kings, the gods, and the winged figures, are
+everywhere similar: as are the manes of the lions, and equally so those of
+the horses. Hair is represented throughout by one form of curl. The king's
+beard is quite architecturally built up of compound tiers of uniform curls,
+alternating with twisted tiers placed in a transverse direction, and
+arranged with perfect regularity; and the terminal tufts of the bulls'
+tails are represented in exactly the same manner. Without tracing out
+analogous facts in early Christian art, in which, though less striking,
+they are still visible, the advance in heterogeneity will be sufficiently
+manifest on remembering that in the pictures of our own day the composition
+is endlessly varied; the attitudes, faces, expressions, unlike; the
+subordinate objects different in size, form, position, texture; and more or
+less of contrast even in the smallest details. Or, if we compare an
+Egyptian statue, seated bolt upright on a block, with hands on knees,
+fingers outspread and parallel, eyes looking straight forward, and the two
+sides perfectly symmetrical in every particular, with a statue of the
+advanced Greek or the modern school, which is asymmetrical in respect of
+the position of the head, the body, the limbs, the arrangement of the hair,
+dress, appendages, and in its relations to neighbouring objects, we shall
+see the change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous clearly
+manifested.
+
+In the co-ordinate origin and gradual differentiation of Poetry, Music and
+Dancing, we have another series of illustrations. Rhythm in speech, rhythm
+in sound, and rhythm in motion, were in the beginning parts of the same
+thing, and have only in process of time become separate things. Among
+various existing barbarous tribes we find them still united. The dances of
+savages are accompanied by some kind of monotonous chant, the clapping of
+hands, the striking of rude instruments: there are measured movements,
+measured words, and measured tones; and the whole ceremony, usually having
+reference to war or sacrifice, is of governmental character. In the early
+records of the historic races we similarly find these three forms of
+metrical action united in religious festivals. In the Hebrew writings we
+read that the triumphal ode composed by Moses on the defeat of the
+Egyptians, was sung to an accompaniment of dancing and timbrels. The
+Israelites danced and sang "at the inauguration of the golden calf. And as
+it is generally agreed that this representation of the Deity was borrowed
+from the mysteries of Apis, it is probable that the dancing was copied from
+that of the Egyptians on those occasions." There was an annual dance in
+Shiloh on the sacred festival; and David danced before the ark. Again, in
+Greece the like relation is everywhere seen: the original type being there,
+as probably in other cases, a simultaneous chanting and mimetic
+representation of the life and adventures of the god. The Spartan dances
+were accompanied by hymns and songs; and in general the Greeks had "no
+festivals or religious assemblies but what were accompanied with songs and
+dances"--both of them being forms of worship used before altars. Among the
+Romans, too, there were sacred dances: the Salian and Lupercalian being
+named as of that kind. And even in Christian countries, as at Limoges, in
+comparatively recent times, the people have danced in the choir in honour
+of a saint. The incipient separation of these once united arts from each
+other and from religion, was early visible in Greece. Probably diverging
+from dances partly religious, partly warlike, as the Corybantian, came the
+war dances proper, of which there were various kinds; and from these
+resulted secular dances. Meanwhile Music and Poetry, though still united,
+came to have an existence separate from dancing. The aboriginal Greek
+poems, religious in subject, were not recited, but chanted; and though at
+first the chant of the poet was accompanied by the dance of the chorus, it
+ultimately grew into independence. Later still, when the poem had been
+differentiated into epic and lyric--when it became the custom to sing the
+lyric and recite the epic--poetry proper was born. As during the same
+period musical instruments were being multiplied, we may presume that music
+came to have an existence apart from words. And both of them were beginning
+to assume other forms besides the religious. Facts, having like
+implications might be cited from the histories of later times and peoples:
+as the practices of our own early minstrels, who sang to the harp heroic
+narratives versified by themselves to music of their own composition: thus
+uniting the now separate offices of poet, composer, vocalist, and
+instrumentalist. But, without further illustration, the common origin and
+gradual differentiation of Dancing, Poetry, and Music will be sufficiently
+manifest.
+
+The advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is displayed not only
+in the separation of these arts from each other and from religion, but also
+in the multiplied differentiations which each of them afterwards undergoes.
+Not to dwell upon the numberless kinds of dancing that have, in course of
+time, come into use; and not to occupy space in detailing the progress of
+poetry, as seen in the development of the various forms of metre, of rhyme,
+and of general organization; let us confine our attention to music as a
+type of the group. As argued by Dr. Burney, and as implied by the customs
+of still extant barbarous races, the first musical instruments were,
+without doubt, percussive--sticks, calabashes, tom-toms--and were used
+simply to mark the time of the dance; and in this constant repetition of
+the same sound, we see music in its most homogeneous form.
+
+The Egyptians had a lyre with three strings. The early lyre of the Greeks
+had four, constituting their tetrachord. In course of some centuries lyres
+of seven and eight strings were employed. And, by the expiration of a
+thousand years, they had advanced to their "great system" of the double
+octave. Through all which changes there of course arose a greater
+heterogeneity of melody. Simultaneously there came into use the different
+modes--Dorian, Ionian, Phrygian, AEolian, and Lydian--answering to our keys;
+and of these there were ultimately fifteen. As yet, however, there was but
+little heterogeneity in the time of their music.
+
+Instrumental music during this period being merely the accompaniment of
+vocal music, and vocal music being completely subordinated to words, the
+singer being also the poet, chanting his own compositions and making the
+lengths of his notes agree with the feet of his verses,--there unavoidably
+arose a tiresome uniformity of measure, which, as Dr. Burney says, "no
+resources of melody could disguise." Lacking the complex rhythm obtained by
+our equal bars and unequal notes the only rhythm was that produced by the
+quantity of the syllables and was of necessity comparatively monotonous.
+And further, it may be observed that the chant thus resulting, being like
+recitative, was much less clearly differentiated from ordinary speech than
+is our modern song.
+
+Nevertheless, in virtue of the extended range of notes in use, the variety
+of modes, the occasional variations of time consequent on changes of metre,
+and the multiplication of instruments, music had, towards the close of
+Greek civilization, attained to considerable heterogeneity--not indeed as
+compared with our music, but as compared with that which preceded it. As
+yet, however, there existed nothing but melody: harmony was unknown. It was
+not until Christian church-music had reached some development, that music
+in parts was evolved; and then it came into existence through a very
+unobtrusive differentiation. Difficult as it may be to conceive _a priori_
+how the advance from melody to harmony could take place without a sudden
+leap, it is none the less true that it did so. The circumstance which
+prepared the way for it was the employment of two choirs singing
+alternately the same air. Afterwards it became the practice--very possibly
+first suggested by a mistake--for the second choir to commence before the
+first had ceased; thus producing a fugue.
+
+With the simple airs then in use, a partially harmonious fugue might not
+improbably thus result: and a very partially harmonious fugue satisfied the
+ears of that age, as we know from still preserved examples. The idea having
+once been given, the composing of airs productive of fugal harmony would
+naturally grow up; as in some way it _did_ grow up out of this alternate
+choir-singing. And from the fugue to concerted music of two, three, four,
+and more parts, the transition was easy. Without pointing out in detail the
+increasing complexity that resulted from introducing notes of various
+lengths, from the multiplication of keys, from the use of accidentals, from
+varieties of time, and so forth, it needs but to contrast music as it is,
+with music as it was, to see how immense is the increase of heterogeneity.
+We see this if, looking at music in its _ensemble_, we enumerate its many
+different genera and species--if we consider the divisions into vocal,
+instrumental, and mixed; and their subdivisions into music for different
+voices and different instruments--if we observe the many forms of sacred
+music, from the simple hymn, the chant, the canon, motet, anthem, &c., up
+to the oratorio; and the still more numerous forms of secular music, from
+the ballad up to the serenata, from the instrumental solo up to the
+symphony.
+
+Again, the same truth is seen on comparing any one sample of aboriginal
+music with a sample of modern music--even an ordinary song for the piano;
+which we find to be relatively highly heterogeneous, not only in respect of
+the varieties in the pitch and in the length of the notes, the number of
+different notes sounding at the same instant in company with the voice, and
+the variations of strength with which they are sounded and sung, but in
+respect of the changes of key, the changes of time, the changes of _timbre_
+of the voice, and the many other modifications of expression. While between
+the old monotonous dance-chant and a grand opera of our own day, with its
+endless orchestral complexities and vocal combinations, the contrast in
+heterogeneity is so extreme that it seems scarcely credible that the one
+should have been the ancestor of the other.
+
+Were they needed, many further illustrations might be cited. Going back to
+the early time when the deeds of the god-king, chanted and mimetically
+represented in dances round his altar, were further narrated in
+picture-writings on the walls of temples and palaces, and so constituted a
+rude literature, we might trace the development of Literature through
+phases in which, as in the Hebrew Scriptures, it presents in one work
+theology, cosmogony, history, biography, civil law, ethics, poetry; through
+other phases in which, as in the Iliad, the religious, martial, historical,
+the epic, dramatic, and lyric elements are similarly commingled; down to
+its present heterogeneous development, in which its divisions and
+subdivisions are so numerous and varied as to defy complete classification.
+Or we might trace out the evolution of Science; beginning with the era in
+which it was not yet differentiated from Art, and was, in union with Art,
+the handmaid of Religion; passing through the era in which the sciences
+were so few and rudimentary, as to be simultaneously cultivated by the same
+philosophers; and ending with the era in which the genera and species are
+so numerous that few can enumerate them, and no one can adequately grasp
+even one genus. Or we might do the like with Architecture, with the Drama,
+with Dress.
+
+But doubtless the reader is already weary of illustrations; and our promise
+has been amply fulfilled. We believe we have shown beyond question, that
+that which the German physiologists have found to be the law of organic
+development, is the law of all development. The advance from the simple to
+the complex, through a process of successive differentiations, is seen
+alike in the earliest changes of the Universe to which we can reason our
+way back; and in the earliest 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 civilized 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 organization; 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, from this uniformity of procedure, may we not infer some
+fundamental necessity whence it results? May we not rationally seek for
+some all-pervading principle which determines this all-pervading process of
+things? Does not the universality of the _law_ imply a universal _cause_?
+
+That we can fathom such cause, noumenally considered, is not to be
+supposed. To do this would be to solve that ultimate mystery which must
+ever transcend human intelligence. But it still may be possible for us to
+reduce the law of all Progress, above established, from the condition of an
+empirical generalization, to the condition of a rational generalization.
+Just as it was possible to interpret Kepler's laws as necessary
+consequences of the law of gravitation; so it may be possible to interpret
+this law of Progress, in its multiform manifestations, as the necessary
+consequence of some similarly universal principle. As gravitation was
+assignable as the _cause_ of each of the groups of phenomena which Kepler
+formulated; so may some equally simple attribute of things be assignable as
+the cause of each of the groups of phenomena formulated in the foregoing
+pages. We may be able to affiliate all these varied and complex evolutions
+of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, upon certain simple facts of
+immediate experience, which, in virtue of endless repetition, we regard as
+necessary.
+
+The probability of a common cause, and the possibility of formulating it,
+being granted, it will be well, before going further, to consider what must
+be the general characteristics of such cause, and in what direction we
+ought to look for it. We can with certainty predict that it has a high
+degree of generality; seeing that it is common to such infinitely varied
+phenomena: just in proportion to the universality of its application must
+be the abstractness of its character. We need not expect to see in it an
+obvious solution of this or that form of Progress; because it equally
+refers to forms of Progress bearing little apparent resemblance to them:
+its association with multiform orders of facts, involves its dissociation
+from any particular order of facts. Being that which determines Progress of
+every kind--astronomic, geologic, organic, ethnologic, social, economic,
+artistic, &c.--it must be concerned with some fundamental attribute
+possessed in common by these; and must be expressible in terms of this
+fundamental attribute. The only obvious respect in which all kinds of
+Progress are alike, is, that they are modes of _change_; and hence, in some
+characteristic of changes in general, the desired solution will probably be
+found. We may suspect _a priori_ that in some law of change lies the
+explanation of this universal transformation of the homogeneous into the
+heterogeneous.
+
+Thus much premised, we pass at once to the statement of the law, which is
+this:--_Every active force produces more than one change--every cause
+produces more than one effect._
+
+Before this law can be duly comprehended, a few examples must be looked at.
+When one body is struck against another, that which we usually regard as
+the effect, is a change of position or motion in one or both bodies. But a
+moment's thought shows us that this is a careless and very incomplete view
+of the matter. Besides the visible mechanical result, sound is produced;
+or, to speak accurately, a vibration in one or both bodies, and in the
+surrounding air: and under some circumstances we call this the effect.
+Moreover, the air has not only been made to vibrate, but has had sundry
+currents caused in it by the transit of the bodies. Further, there is a
+disarrangement of the particles of the two bodies in the neighbourhood of
+their point of collision; amounting in some cases to a visible
+condensation. Yet more, this condensation is accompanied by the
+disengagement of heat. In some cases a spark--that is, light--results, from
+the incandescence of a portion struck off; and sometimes this incandescence
+is associated with chemical combination.
+
+Thus, by the original mechanical force expended in the collision, at least
+five, and often more, different kinds of changes have been produced. Take,
+again, the lighting of a candle. Primarily this is a chemical change
+consequent on a rise of temperature. The process of combination having once
+been set going by extraneous heat, there is a continued formation of
+carbonic acid, water, &c.--in itself a result more complex than the
+extraneous heat that first caused it. But accompanying this process of
+combination there is a production of heat; there is a production of light;
+there is an ascending column of hot gases generated; there are currents
+established in the surrounding air. Moreover, the decomposition of one
+force into many forces does not end here: each of the several changes
+produced becomes the parent of further changes. The carbonic acid given off
+will by and by combine with some base; or under the influence of sunshine
+give up its carbon to the leaf of a plant. The water will modify the
+hygrometric state of the air around; or, if the current of hot gases
+containing it come against a cold body, will be condensed: altering the
+temperature, and perhaps the chemical state, of the surface it covers. The
+heat given out melts the subjacent tallow, and expands whatever it warms.
+The light, falling on various substances, calls forth from them reactions
+by which it is modified; and so divers colours are produced. Similarly even
+with these secondary actions, which may be traced out into ever-multiplying
+ramifications, until they become too minute to be appreciated. And thus it
+is with all changes whatever. No case can be named in which an active force
+does not evolve forces of several kinds, and each of these, other groups of
+forces. Universally the effect is more complex than the cause.
+
+Doubtless the reader already foresees the course of our argument. This
+multiplication of results, which is displayed in every event of to-day, has
+been going on from the beginning; and is true of the grandest phenomena of
+the universe as of the most insignificant. From the law that every active
+force produces more than one change, it is an inevitable corollary that
+through all time there has been an ever-growing complication of things.
+Starting with the ultimate fact that every cause produces more than one
+effect, we may readily see that throughout creation there must have gone
+on, and must still go on, a never-ceasing transformation of the homogeneous
+into the heterogeneous. But let us trace out this truth in detail.[B]
+
+  [B] A correlative truth which ought also to be taken into account
+      (that the state of homogeneity is one of unstable equilibrium),
+      but which it would greatly encumber the argument to exemplify in
+      connection with the above, will be found developed in the essay
+      on _Transcendental Physiology_.
+
+Without committing ourselves to it as more than a speculation, though a
+highly probable one, let us again commence with the evolution of the solar
+system out of a nebulous medium.[C] From the mutual attraction of the atoms
+of a diffused mass whose form is unsymmetrical, there results not only
+condensation but rotation: gravitation simultaneously generates both the
+centripetal and the centrifugal forces. While the condensation and the rate
+of rotation are progressively increasing, the approach of the atoms
+necessarily generates a progressively increasing temperature. As this
+temperature rises, light begins to be evolved; and ultimately there results
+a revolving sphere of fluid matter radiating intense heat and light--a sun.
+
+  [C] The idea that the Nebular Hypothesis has been disproved because
+      what were thought to be existing nebulae have been resolved into
+      clusters of stars is almost beneath notice. _A priori_ it was
+      highly improbable, if not impossible, that nebulous masses should
+      still remain uncondensed, while others have been condensed
+      millions of years ago.
+
+There are good reasons for believing that, in consequence of the high
+tangential velocity, and consequent centrifugal force, acquired by the
+outer parts of the condensing nebulous mass, there must be a periodical
+detachment of rotating rings; and that, from the breaking up of these
+nebulous rings, there must arise masses which in the course of their
+condensation repeat the actions of the parent mass, and so produce planets
+and their satellites--an inference strongly supported by the still extant
+rings of Saturn.
+
+Should it hereafter be satisfactorily shown that planets and satellites
+were thus generated, a striking illustration will be afforded of the highly
+heterogeneous effects produced by the primary homogeneous cause; but it
+will serve our present purpose to point to the fact that from the mutual
+attraction of the particles of an irregular nebulous mass there result
+condensation, rotation, heat, and light.
+
+It follows as a corollary from the Nebular Hypothesis, that the Earth must
+at first have been incandescent; and whether the Nebular Hypothesis be true
+or not, this original incandescence of the Earth is now inductively
+established--or, if not established, at least rendered so highly probable
+that it is a generally admitted geological doctrine. Let us look first at
+the astronomical attributes of this once molten globe. From its rotation
+there result the oblateness of its form, the alternations of day and night,
+and (under the influence of the moon) the tides, aqueous and atmospheric.
+From the inclination of its axis, there result the precession of the
+equinoxes and the many differences of the seasons, both simultaneous and
+successive, that pervade its surface. Thus the multiplication of effects is
+obvious. Several of the differentiations due to the gradual cooling of the
+Earth have been already noticed--as the formation of a crust, the
+solidification of sublimed elements, the precipitation of water, &c.,--and
+we here again refer to them merely to point out that they are simultaneous
+effects of the one cause, diminishing heat.
+
+Let us now, however, observe the multiplied changes afterwards arising from
+the continuance of this one cause. The cooling of the Earth involves its
+contraction. Hence the solid crust first formed is presently too large for
+the shrinking nucleus; and as it cannot support itself, inevitably follows
+the nucleus. But a spheroidal envelope cannot sink down into contact with a
+smaller internal spheroid, without disruption; it must run into wrinkles as
+the rind of an apple does when the bulk of its interior decreases from
+evaporation. As the cooling progresses and the envelope thickens, the
+ridges consequent on these contractions must become greater, rising
+ultimately into hills and mountains; and the later systems of mountains
+thus produced must not only be higher, as we find them to be, but they must
+be longer, as we also find them to be. Thus, leaving out of view other
+modifying forces, we see what immense heterogeneity of surface has arisen
+from the one cause, loss of heat--a heterogeneity which the telescope shows
+us to be paralleled on the face of the moon, where aqueous and atmospheric
+agencies have been absent.
+
+But we have yet to notice another kind of heterogeneity of surface
+similarly and simultaneously caused. While the Earth's crust was still
+thin, the ridges produced by its contraction must not only have been small,
+but the spaces between these ridges must have rested with great evenness
+upon the subjacent liquid spheroid; and the water in those arctic and
+antarctic regions in which it first condensed, must have been evenly
+distributed. But as fast as the crust grew thicker and gained corresponding
+strength, the lines of fracture from time to time caused in it, must have
+occurred at greater distances apart; the intermediate surfaces must have
+followed the contracting nucleus with less uniformity; and there must have
+resulted larger areas of land and water. If any one, after wrapping up an
+orange in wet tissue paper, and observing not only how small are the
+wrinkles, but how evenly the intervening spaces lie upon the surface of the
+orange, will then wrap it up in thick cartridge-paper, and note both the
+greater height of the ridges and the much larger spaces throughout which
+the paper does not touch the orange, he will realize the fact, that as the
+Earth's solid envelope grew thicker, the areas of elevation and depression
+must have become greater. In place of islands more or less homogeneously
+scattered over an all-embracing sea, there must have gradually arisen
+heterogeneous arrangements of continent and ocean, such as we now know.
+
+Once more, this double change in the extent and in the elevation of the
+lands, involved yet another species of heterogeneity, that of coast-line. A
+tolerably even surface raised out of the ocean, must have a simple, regular
+sea-margin; but a surface varied by table-lands and intersected by
+mountain-chains must, when raised out of the ocean, have an outline
+extremely irregular both in its leading features and in its details. Thus
+endless is the accumulation of geological and geographical results slowly
+brought about by this one cause--the contraction of the Earth.
+
+When we pass from the agency which geologists term igneous, to aqueous and
+atmospheric agencies, we see the like ever-growing complications of
+effects. The denuding actions of air and water have, from the beginning,
+been modifying every exposed surface; everywhere causing many different
+changes. Oxidation, heat, wind, frost, rain, glaciers, rivers, tides,
+waves, have been unceasingly producing disintegration; varying in kind and
+amount according to local circumstances. Acting upon a tract of granite,
+they here work scarcely an appreciable effect; there cause exfoliations of
+the surface, and a resulting heap of _debris_ and boulders; and elsewhere,
+after decomposing the feldspar into a white clay, carry away this and the
+accompanying quartz and mica, and deposits them in separate beds,
+fluviatile and marine. When the exposed land consists of several unlike
+formations, sedimentary and igneous, the denudation produces changes
+proportionably more heterogeneous. The formations being disintegrable in
+different degrees, there follows an increased irregularity of surface. The
+areas drained by different rivers being differently constituted, these
+rivers carry down to the sea different combinations of ingredients; and so
+sundry new strata of distinct composition are formed.
+
+And here indeed we may see very simply illustrated, the truth, which we
+shall presently have to trace out in more involved cases, that in
+proportion to the heterogeneity of the object or objects on which any force
+expends itself, is the heterogeneity of the results. A continent of complex
+structure, exposing many strata irregularly distributed, raised to various
+levels, tilted up at all angles, must, under the same denuding agencies,
+give origin to immensely multiplied results; each district must be
+differently modified; each river must carry down a different kind of
+detritus; each deposit must be differently distributed by the entangled
+currents, tidal and other, which wash the contorted shores; and this
+multiplication of results must manifestly be greatest where the complexity
+of the surface is greatest.
+
+It is out of the question here to trace in detail the genesis of those
+endless complications described by Geology and Physical Geography: else we
+might show how the general truth, that every active force produces more
+than one change, is exemplified in the highly involved flow of the tides,
+in the ocean currents, in the winds, in the distribution of rain, in the
+distribution of heat, and so forth. But not to dwell upon these, let us,
+for the fuller elucidation of this truth in relation to the inorganic
+world, consider what would be the consequences of some extensive cosmical
+revolution--say the subsidence of Central America.
+
+The immediate results of the disturbance would themselves be sufficiently
+complex. Besides the numberless dislocations of strata, the ejections of
+igneous matter, the propagation of earthquake vibrations thousands of miles
+around, the loud explosions, and the escape of gases; there would be the
+rush of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to supply the vacant space, the
+subsequent recoil of enormous waves, which would traverse both these oceans
+and produce myriads of changes along their shores, the corresponding
+atmospheric waves complicated by the currents surrounding each volcanic
+vent, and the electrical discharges with which such disturbances are
+accompanied. But these temporary effects would be insignificant compared
+with the permanent ones. The complex currents of the Atlantic and Pacific
+would be altered in direction and amount. The distribution of heat achieved
+by these ocean currents would be different from what it is. The arrangement
+of the isothermal lines, not even on the neighbouring continents, but even
+throughout Europe, would be changed. The tides would flow differently from
+what they do now. There would be more or less modification of the winds in
+their periods, strengths, directions, qualities. Rain would fall scarcely
+anywhere at the same times and in the same quantities as at present. In
+short, the meteorological conditions thousands of miles off, on all sides,
+would be more or less revolutionized.
+
+Thus, without taking into account the infinitude of modifications which
+these changes of climate would produce upon the flora and fauna, both of
+land and sea, the reader will see the immense heterogeneity of the results
+wrought out by one force, when that force expends itself upon a previously
+complicated area; and he will readily draw the corollary that from the
+beginning the complication has advanced at an increasing rate.
+
+Before going on to show how organic progress also depends upon the
+universal law that every force produces more than one change, we have to
+notice the manifestation of this law in yet another species of inorganic
+progress--namely, chemical. The same general causes that have wrought out
+the heterogeneity of the Earth, physically considered, have simultaneously
+wrought out its chemical heterogeneity. Without dwelling upon the general
+fact that the forces which have been increasing the variety and complexity
+of geological formations, have, at the same time, been bringing into
+contact elements not previously exposed to each other under conditions
+favourable to union, and so have been adding to the number of chemical
+compounds, let us pass to the more important complications that have
+resulted from the cooling of the Earth.
+
+There is every reason to believe that at an extreme heat the elements
+cannot combine. Even under such heat as can be artificially produced, some
+very strong affinities yield, as for instance, that of oxygen for hydrogen;
+and the great majority of chemical compounds are decomposed at much lower
+temperatures. But without insisting upon the highly probable inference,
+that when the Earth was in its first state of incandescence there were no
+chemical combinations at all, it will suffice our purpose to point to the
+unquestionable fact that the compounds that can exist at the highest
+temperatures, and which must, therefore, have been the first that were
+formed as the Earth cooled, are those of the simplest constitutions. The
+protoxides--including under that head the alkalies, earths, &c.--are, as a
+class, the most stable compounds we know: most of them resisting
+decomposition by any heat we can generate. These, consisting severally of
+one atom of each component element, are combinations of the simplest
+order--are but one degree less homogeneous than the elements themselves.
+More heterogeneous than these, less stable, and therefore later in the
+Earth's history, are the deutoxides, tritoxides, peroxides, &c.; in which
+two, three, four, or more atoms of oxygen are united with one atom of metal
+or other element. Higher than these in heterogeneity are the hydrates; in
+which an oxide of hydrogen, united with an oxide of some other element,
+forms a substance whose atoms severally contain at least four ultimate
+atoms of three different kinds. Yet more heterogeneous and less stable
+still are the salts; which present us with compound atoms each made up of
+five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve, or more atoms, of three, if not more,
+kinds. Then there are the hydrated salts, of a yet greater heterogeneity,
+which undergo partial decomposition at much lower temperatures. After them
+come the further-complicated supersalts and double salts, having a
+stability again decreased; and so throughout. Without entering into
+qualifications for which we lack space, we believe no chemist will deny it
+to be a general law of these inorganic combinations that, _other things
+equal_, the stability decreases as the complexity increases.
+
+And then when we pass to the compounds of organic chemistry, we find this
+general law still further exemplified: we find much greater complexity and
+much less stability. An atom of albumen, for instance, consists of 482
+ultimate atoms of five different kinds. Fibrine, still more intricate in
+constitution, contains in each atom, 298 atoms of carbon, 40 of nitrogen, 2
+of sulphur, 228 of hydrogen, and 92 of oxygen--in all, 660 atoms; or, more
+strictly speaking--equivalents. And these two substances are so unstable as
+to decompose at quite ordinary temperatures; as that to which the outside
+of a joint of roast meat is exposed. Thus it is manifest that the present
+chemical heterogeneity of the Earth's surface has arisen by degrees, as the
+decrease of heat has permitted; and that it has shown itself in three
+forms--first, in the multiplication of chemical compounds; second, in the
+greater number of different elements contained in the more modern of these
+compounds: and third, in the higher and more varied multiples in which
+these more numerous elements combine.
+
+To say that this advance in chemical heterogeneity is due to the one cause,
+diminution of the Earth's temperature, would be to say too much; for it is
+clear that aqueous and atmospheric agencies have been concerned; and,
+further, that the affinities of the elements themselves are implied. The
+cause has all along been a composite one: the cooling of the Earth having
+been simply the most general of the concurrent causes, or assemblage of
+conditions. And here, indeed, it may be remarked that in the several
+classes of facts already dealt with (excepting, perhaps, the first), and
+still more in those with which we shall presently deal, the causes are more
+or less compound; as indeed are nearly all causes with which we are
+acquainted. Scarcely any change can with logical accuracy be wholly
+ascribed to one agency, to the neglect of the permanent or temporary
+conditions under which only this agency produces the change. But as it does
+not materially affect our argument, we prefer, for simplicity's sake, to
+use throughout the popular mode of expression.
+
+Perhaps it will be further objected, that to assign loss of heat as the
+cause of any changes, is to attribute these changes not to a force, but to
+the absence of a force. And this is true. Strictly speaking, the changes
+should be attributed to those forces which come into action when the
+antagonist force is withdrawn. But though there is an inaccuracy in saying
+that the freezing of water is due to the loss of its heat, no practical
+error arises from it; nor will a parallel laxity of expression vitiate our
+statements respecting the multiplication of effects. Indeed, the objection
+serves but to draw attention to the fact, that not only does the exertion
+of a force produce more than one change, but the withdrawal of a force
+produces more than one change. And this suggests that perhaps the most
+correct statement of our general principle would be its most abstract
+statement--every change is followed by more than one other change.
+
+Returning to the thread of our exposition, we have next to trace out, in
+organic progress, this same all-pervading principle. And here, where the
+evolution of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous was first observed, the
+production of many changes by one cause is least easy to demonstrate. The
+development of a seed into a plant, or an ovum into an animal, is so
+gradual, while the forces which determine it are so involved, and at the
+same time so unobtrusive, that it is difficult to detect the multiplication
+of effects which is elsewhere so obvious. Nevertheless, guided by indirect
+evidence, we may pretty safely reach the conclusion that here too the law
+holds.
+
+Observe, first, how numerous are the effects which any marked change works
+upon an adult organism--a human being, for instance. An alarming sound or
+sight, besides the impressions on the organs of sense and the nerves, may
+produce a start, a scream, a distortion of the face, a trembling consequent
+upon a general muscular relaxation, a burst of perspiration, an excited
+action of the heart, a rush of blood to the brain, followed possibly by
+arrest of the heart's action and by syncope: and if the system be feeble,
+an indisposition with its long train of complicated symptoms may set in.
+Similarly in cases of disease. A minute portion of the small-pox virus
+introduced into the system, will, in a severe case, cause, during the first
+stage, rigors, heat of skin, accelerated pulse, furred tongue, loss of
+appetite, thirst, epigastric uneasiness, vomiting, headache, pains in the
+back and limbs, muscular weakness, convulsions, delirium, &c.; in the
+second stage, cutaneous eruption, itching, tingling, sore throat, swelled
+fauces, salivation, cough, hoarseness, dyspn[oe]a, &c.; and in the third
+stage, [oe]dematous inflammations, pneumonia, pleurisy, diarrh[oe]a,
+inflammation of the brain, ophthalmia, erysipelas, &c.: each of which
+enumerated symptoms is itself more or less complex. Medicines, special
+foods, better air, might in like manner be instanced as producing
+multiplied results.
+
+Now it needs only to consider that the many changes thus wrought by one
+force upon an adult organism, will be in part paralleled in an embryo
+organism, to understand how here also, the evolution of the homogeneous
+into the heterogeneous may be due to the production of many effects by one
+cause. The external heat and other agencies which determine the first
+complications of the germ, may, by acting upon these, superinduce further
+complications; upon these still higher and more numerous ones; and so on
+continually: each organ as it is developed serving, by its actions and
+reactions upon the rest, to initiate new complexities. The first pulsations
+of the f[oe]tal heart must simultaneously aid the unfolding of every part.
+The growth of each tissue, by taking from the blood special proportions of
+elements, must modify the constitution of the blood; and so must modify the
+nutrition of all the other tissues. The heart's action, implying as it does
+a certain waste, necessitates an addition to the blood of effete matters,
+which must influence the rest of the system, and perhaps, as some think,
+cause the formation of excretory organs. The nervous connections
+established among the viscera must further multiply their mutual
+influences: and so continually.
+
+Still stronger becomes the probability of this view when we call to mind
+the fact, that the same germ may be evolved into different forms according
+to circumstances. Thus, during its earlier stages, every embryo is
+sexless--becomes either male or female as the balance of forces acting upon
+it determines. Again, it is a well-established fact that the larva of a
+working-bee will develop into a queen-bee, if, before it is too late, its
+food be changed to that on which the larvae of queen-bees are fed. Even more
+remarkable is the case of certain entozoa. The ovum of a tape-worm, getting
+into its natural habitat, the intestine, unfolds into the well-known form
+of its parent; but if carried, as it frequently is, into other parts of the
+system, it becomes a sac-like creature, called by naturalists the
+_Echinococcus_--a creature so extremely different from the tape-worm in
+aspect and structure, that only after careful investigations has it been
+proved to have the same origin. All which instances imply that each advance
+in embryonic complication results from the action of incident forces upon
+the complication previously existing.
+
+Indeed, we may find _a priori_ reason to think that the evolution proceeds
+after this manner. For since it is now known that no germ, animal or
+vegetable, contains the slightest rudiment, trace, or indication of the
+future organism--now that the microscope has shown us that the first
+process set up in every fertilized germ, is a process of repeated
+spontaneous fissions ending in the production of a mass of cells, not one
+of which exhibits any special character: there seems no alternative but to
+suppose that the partial organization at any moment subsisting in a growing
+embryo, is transformed by the agencies acting upon it into the succeeding
+phase of organization, and this into the next, until, through
+ever-increasing complexities, the ultimate form is reached. Thus, though
+the subtilty of the forces and the slowness of the results, prevent us from
+_directly_ showing that the stages of increasing heterogeneity through
+which every embryo passes, severally arise from the production of many
+changes by one force, yet, _indirectly_, we have strong evidence that they
+do so.
+
+We have marked how multitudinous are the effects which one cause may
+generate in an adult organism; that a like multiplication of effects must
+happen in the unfolding organism, we have observed in sundry illustrative
+cases; further, it has been pointed out that the ability which like germs
+have to originate unlike forms, implies that the successive transformations
+result from the new changes superinduced on previous changes; and we have
+seen that structureless as every germ originally is, the development of an
+organism out of it is otherwise incomprehensible. Not indeed that we can
+thus really explain the production of any plant or animal. We are still in
+the dark respecting those mysterious properties in virtue of which the
+germ, when subject to fit influences, undergoes the special changes that
+begin the series of transformations. All we aim to show, is, that given a
+germ possessing these mysterious properties, the evolution of an organism
+from it, probably depends upon that multiplication of effects which we have
+seen to be the cause of progress in general, so far as we have yet traced
+it.
+
+When, leaving the development of single plants and animals, we pass to that
+of the Earth's flora and fauna, the course of our argument again becomes
+clear and simple. Though, as was admitted in the first part of this
+article, the fragmentary facts Palaeontology has accumulated, do not clearly
+warrant us in saying that, in the lapse of geologic time, there have been
+evolved more heterogeneous organisms, and more heterogeneous assemblages of
+organisms, yet we shall now see that there _must_ ever have been a tendency
+towards these results. We shall find that the production of many effects by
+one cause, which, as already shown, has been all along increasing the
+physical heterogeneity of the Earth, has further involved an increasing
+heterogeneity in its flora and fauna, individually and collectively. An
+illustration will make this clear.
+
+Suppose that by a series of upheavals, occurring, as they are now known to
+do, at long intervals, the East Indian Archipelago were to be, step by
+step, raised into a continent, and a chain of mountains formed along the
+axis of elevation. By the first of these upheavals, the plants and animals
+inhabiting Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, and the rest, would be subjected to
+slightly modified sets of conditions. The climate in general would be
+altered in temperature, in humidity, and in its periodical variations;
+while the local differences would be multiplied. These modifications would
+affect, perhaps inappreciably, the entire flora and fauna of the region.
+The change of level would produce additional modifications: varying in
+different species, and also in different members of the same species,
+according to their distance from the axis of elevation. Plants, growing
+only on the sea-shore in special localities, might become extinct. Others,
+living only in swamps of a certain humidity, would, if they survived at
+all, probably undergo visible changes of appearance. While still greater
+alterations would occur in the plants gradually spreading over the lands
+newly raised above the sea. The animals and insects living on these
+modified plants, would themselves be in some degree modified by change of
+food, as well as by change of climate; and the modification would be more
+marked where, from the dwindling or disappearance of one kind of plant, an
+allied kind was eaten. In the lapse of the many generations arising before
+the next upheaval, the sensible or insensible alterations thus produced in
+each species would become organized--there would be a more or less complete
+adaptation to the new conditions. The next upheaval would superinduce
+further organic changes, implying wider divergences from the primary forms;
+and so repeatedly.
+
+But now let it be observed that the revolution thus resulting would not be
+a substitution of a thousand more or less modified species for the thousand
+original species; but in place of the thousand original species there would
+arise several thousand species, or varieties, or changed forms. Each
+species being distributed over an area of some extent, and tending
+continually to colonize the new area exposed, its different members would
+be subject to different sets of changes. Plants and animals spreading
+towards the equator would not be affected in the same way with others
+spreading from it. Those spreading towards the new shores would undergo
+changes unlike the changes undergone by those spreading into the mountains.
+Thus, each original race of organisms, would become the root from which
+diverged several races differing more or less from it and from each other;
+and while some of these might subsequently disappear, probably more than
+one would survive in the next geologic period: the very dispersion itself
+increasing the chances of survival. Not only would there be certain
+modifications thus caused by change of physical conditions and food, but
+also in some cases other modifications caused by change of habit. The fauna
+of each island, peopling, step by step, the newly-raised tracts, would
+eventually come in contact with the faunas of other islands; and some
+members of these other faunas would be unlike any creatures before seen.
+Herbivores meeting with new beasts of prey, would, in some cases, be led
+into modes of defence or escape differing from those previously used; and
+simultaneously the beasts of prey would modify their modes of pursuit and
+attack. We know that when circumstances demand it, such changes of habit
+_do_ take place in animals; and we know that if the new habits become the
+dominant ones, they must eventually in some degree alter the organization.
+
+Observe, now, however, a further consequence. There must arise not simply a
+tendency towards the differentiation of each race of organisms into several
+races; but also a tendency to the occasional production of a somewhat
+higher organism. Taken in the mass these divergent varieties which have
+been caused by fresh physical conditions and habits of life, will exhibit
+changes quite indefinite in kind and degree; and changes that do not
+necessarily constitute an advance. Probably in most cases the modified type
+will be neither more nor less heterogeneous than the original one. In some
+cases the habits of life adopted being simpler than before, a less
+heterogeneous structure will result: there will be a retrogradation. But it
+_must_ now and then occur, that some division of a species, falling into
+circumstances which give it rather more complex experiences, and demand
+actions somewhat more involved, will have certain of its organs further
+differentiated in proportionately small degrees,--will become slightly more
+heterogeneous.
+
+Thus, in the natural course of things, there will from time to time arise
+an increased heterogeneity both of the Earth's flora and fauna, and of
+individual races included in them. Omitting detailed explanations, and
+allowing for the qualifications which cannot here be specified, we think it
+is clear that geological mutations have all along tended to complicate the
+forms of life, whether regarded separately or collectively. The same causes
+which have led to the evolution of the Earth's crust from the simple into
+the complex, have simultaneously led to a parallel evolution of the Life
+upon its surface. In this case, as in previous ones, we see that the
+transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous is consequent upon
+the universal principle, that every active force produces more than one
+change.
+
+The deduction here drawn from the established truths of geology and the
+general laws of life, gains immensely in weight on finding it to be in
+harmony with an induction drawn from direct experience. Just that
+divergence of many races from one race, which we inferred must have been
+continually occurring during geologic time, we know to have occurred during
+the pre-historic and historic periods, in man and domestic animals. And
+just that multiplication of effects which we concluded must have produced
+the first, we see has produced the last. Single causes, as famine, pressure
+of population, war, have periodically led to further dispersions of mankind
+and of dependent creatures: each such dispersion initiating new
+modifications, new varieties of type. Whether all the human races be or be
+not derived from one stock, philology makes it clear that whole groups of
+races now easily distinguishable from each other, were originally one
+race,--that the diffusion of one race into different climates and
+conditions of existence, has produced many modified forms of it.
+
+Similarly with domestic animals. Though in some cases--as that of
+dogs--community of origin will perhaps be disputed, yet in other cases--as
+that of the sheep or the cattle of our own country--it will not be
+questioned that local differences of climate, food, and treatment, have
+transformed one original breed into numerous breeds now become so far
+distinct as to produce unstable hybrids. Moreover, through the
+complications of effects flowing from single causes, we here find, what we
+before inferred, not only an increase of general heterogeneity, but also of
+special heterogeneity. While of the divergent divisions and subdivisions of
+the human race, many have undergone changes not constituting an advance;
+while in some the type may have degraded; in others it has become decidedly
+more heterogeneous. The civilized European departs more widely from the
+vertebrate archetype than does the savage. Thus, both the law and the cause
+of progress, which, from lack of evidence, can be but hypothetically
+substantiated in respect of the earlier forms of life on our globe, can be
+actually substantiated in respect of the latest forms.
+
+If the advance of Man towards greater heterogeneity is traceable to the
+production of many effects by one cause still more clearly may the advance
+of Society towards greater heterogeneity be so explained. Consider the
+growth of an industrial organization. When, as must occasionally happen,
+some individual of a tribe displays unusual aptitude for making an article
+of general use--a weapon, for instance--which was before made by each man
+for himself, there arises a tendency towards the differentiation of that
+individual into a maker of such weapon. His companions--warriors and
+hunters all of them,--severally feel the importance of having the best
+weapons that can be made; and are therefore certain to offer strong
+inducements to this skilled individual to make weapons for them. He, on the
+other hand, having not only an unusual faculty, but an unusual liking, for
+making such weapons (the talent and the desire for any occupation being
+commonly associated), is predisposed to fulfil these commissions on the
+offer of an adequate reward: especially as his love of distinction is also
+gratified. This first specialization of function, once commenced, tends
+ever to become more decided. On the side of the weapon-maker continued
+practice gives increased skill--increased superiority to his products: on
+the side of his clients, cessation of practice entails decreased skill.
+Thus the influences that determine this division of labour grow stronger in
+both ways; and the incipient heterogeneity is, on the average of cases,
+likely to become permanent for that generation, if no longer.
+
+Observe now, however, that this process not only differentiates the social
+mass into two parts, the one monopolizing, or almost monopolizing, the
+performance of a certain function, and the other having lost the habit, and
+in some measure the power, of performing that function; but it tends to
+imitate other differentiations. The advance we have described implies the
+introduction of barter,--the maker of weapons has, on each occasion, to be
+paid in such other articles as he agrees to take in exchange. But he will
+not habitually take in exchange one kind of article, but many kinds. He
+does not want mats only, or skins, or fishing gear, but he wants all these;
+and on each occasion will bargain for the particular things he most needs.
+What follows? If among the members of the tribe there exist any slight
+differences of skill in the manufacture of these various things, as there
+are almost sure to do, the weapon-maker will take from each one the thing
+which that one excels in making: he will exchange for mats with him whose
+mats are superior, and will bargain for the fishing gear of whoever has the
+best. But he who has bartered away his mats or his fishing gear, must make
+other mats or fishing gear for himself; and in so doing must, in some
+degree, further develop his aptitude. Thus it results that the small
+specialities of faculty possessed by various members of the tribe, will
+tend to grow more decided. If such transactions are from time repeated,
+these specializations may become appreciable. And whether or not there
+ensue distinct differentiations of other individuals into makers of
+particular articles, it is clear that incipient differentiations take place
+throughout the tribe: the one original cause produces not only the first
+dual effect, but a number of secondary dual effects, like in kind, but
+minor in degree. This process, of which traces may be seen among groups of
+schoolboys, cannot well produce any lasting effects in an unsettled tribe;
+but where there grows up a fixed and multiplying community, these
+differentiations become permanent, and increase with each generation. A
+larger population, involving a greater demand for every commodity,
+intensifies the functional activity of each specialized person or class;
+and this renders the specialization more definite where it already exists,
+and establishes it where it is nascent. By increasing the pressure on the
+means of subsistence, a larger population again augments these results;
+seeing that each person is forced more and more to confine himself to that
+which he can do best, and by which he can gain most. This industrial
+progress, by aiding future production, opens the way for a further growth
+of population, which reacts as before: in all which the multiplication of
+effects is manifest. Presently, under these same stimuli, new occupations
+arise. Competing workers, ever aiming to produce improved articles,
+occasionally discover better processes or raw materials. In weapons and
+cutting tools, the substitution of bronze for stone entails upon him who
+first makes it a great increase of demand--so great an increase that he
+presently finds all his time occupied in making the bronze for the articles
+he sells, and is obliged to depute the fashioning of these to others: and,
+eventually, the making of bronze, thus gradually differentiated from a
+pre-existing occupation, becomes an occupation by itself.
+
+But now mark the ramified changes which follow this change. Bronze soon
+replaces stone, not only in the articles it was first used for, but in many
+others--in arms, tools, and utensils of various kinds; and so affects the
+manufacture of these things. Further, it affects the processes which these
+utensils subserve, and the resulting products--modifies buildings,
+carvings, dress, personal decorations. Yet again, it sets going sundry
+manufactures which were before impossible, from lack of a material fit for
+the requisite tools. And all these changes react on the people--increase
+their manipulative skill, their intelligence, their comfort,--refine their
+habits and tastes. Thus the evolution of a homogeneous society into a
+heterogeneous one, is clearly consequent on the general principle, that
+many effects are produced by one cause.
+
+Our limits will not allow us to follow out this process in its higher
+complications: else might we show how the localization of special
+industries in special parts of a kingdom, as well as the minute subdivision
+of labour in the making of each commodity, are similarly determined. Or,
+turning to a somewhat different order of illustrations, we might dwell on
+the multitudinous changes--material, intellectual, moral,--caused by
+printing; or the further extensive series of changes wrought by gunpowder.
+But leaving the intermediate phases of social development, let us take a
+few illustrations from its most recent and its passing phases. To trace the
+effects of steam-power, in its manifold applications to mining, navigation,
+and manufactures of all kinds, would carry us into unmanageable detail. Let
+us confine ourselves to the latest embodiment of steam-power--the
+locomotive engine.
+
+This, as the proximate cause of our railway system, has changed the face of
+the country, the course of trade, and the habits of the people. Consider,
+first, the complicated sets of changes that precede the making of every
+railway--the provisional arrangements, the meetings, the registration, the
+trial section, the parliamentary survey, the lithographed plans, the books
+of reference, the local deposits and notices, the application to
+Parliament, the passing Standing-Orders Committee, the first, second, and
+third readings: each of which brief heads indicates a multiplicity of
+transactions, and the development of sundry occupations--as those of
+engineers, surveyors, lithographers, parliamentary agents, share-brokers;
+and the creation of sundry others--as those of traffic-takers,
+reference-takers. Consider, next, the yet more marked changes implied in
+railway construction--the cuttings, embankings, tunnellings, diversions of
+roads; the building of bridges and stations; the laying down of ballast,
+sleepers, and rails; the making of engines, tenders, carriages and waggons:
+which processes, acting upon numerous trades, increase the importation of
+timber, the quarrying of stone, the manufacture of iron, the mining of
+coal, the burning of bricks: institute a variety of special manufactures
+weekly advertised in the _Railway Times_; and, finally, open the way to
+sundry new occupations, as those of drivers, stokers, cleaners,
+plate-layers, &c., &c. And then consider the changes, more numerous and
+involved still, which railways in action produce on the community at large.
+The organization of every business is more or less modified: ease of
+communication makes it better to do directly what was before done by proxy;
+agencies are established where previously they would not have paid; goods
+are obtained from remote wholesale houses instead of near retail ones; and
+commodities are used which distance once rendered inaccessible. Again, the
+rapidity and small cost of carriage tend to specialize more than ever the
+industries of different districts--to confine each manufacture to the parts
+in which, from local advantages, it can be best carried on. Further, the
+diminished cost of carriage, facilitating distribution, equalizes prices,
+and also, on the average, lowers prices: thus bringing divers articles
+within the means of those before unable to buy them, and so increasing
+their comforts and improving their habits. At the same time the practice of
+travelling is immensely extended. Classes who never before thought of it,
+take annual trips to the sea; visit their distant relations; make tours;
+and so we are benefited in body, feelings, and intellect. Moreover, the
+more prompt transmission of letters and of news produces further
+changes--makes the pulse of the nation faster. Yet more, there arises a
+wide dissemination of cheap literature through railway book-stalls, and of
+advertisements in railway carriages: both of them aiding ulterior progress.
+
+And all the innumerable changes here briefly indicated are consequent on
+the invention of the locomotive engine. The social organism has been
+rendered more heterogeneous in virtue of the many new occupations
+introduced, and the many old ones further specialized; prices in every
+place have been altered; each trader has, more or less, modified his way of
+doing business; and almost every person has been affected in his actions,
+thoughts, emotions.
+
+Illustrations to the same effect might be indefinitely accumulated. That
+every influence brought to bear upon society works multiplied effects; and
+that increase of heterogeneity is due to this multiplication of effects;
+may be seen in the history of every trade, every custom, every belief. But
+it is needless to give additional evidence of this. The only further fact
+demanding notice, is, that we here see still more clearly than ever, the
+truth before pointed out, that in proportion as the area on which any force
+expends itself becomes heterogeneous, the results are in a yet higher
+degree multiplied in number and kind. While among the primitive tribes to
+whom it was first known, caoutchouc caused but a few changes, among
+ourselves the changes have been so many and varied that the history of them
+occupies a volume.[D] Upon the small, homogeneous community inhabiting one
+of the Hebrides, the electric telegraph would produce, were it used,
+scarcely any results; but in England the results it produces are
+multitudinous. The comparatively simple organization under which our
+ancestors lived five centuries ago, could have undergone but few
+modifications from an event like the recent one at Canton; but now the
+legislative decision respecting it sets up many hundreds of complex
+modifications, each of which will be the parent of numerous future ones.
+
+  [D] "Personal Narrative of the Origin of the Caoutchouc, or
+      India-Rubber Manufacture in England." By Thomas Hancock.
+
+Space permitting, we could willingly have pursued the argument in relation
+to all the subtler results of civilization. As before, we showed that the
+law of Progress to which the organic and inorganic worlds conform, is also
+conformed to by Language, Sculpture, Music, &c.; so might we here show that
+the cause which we have hitherto found to determine Progress holds in these
+cases also. We might demonstrate in detail how, in Science, an advance of
+one division presently advances other divisions--how Astronomy has been
+immensely forwarded by discoveries in Optics, while other optical
+discoveries have initiated Microscopic Anatomy, and greatly aided the
+growth of Physiology--how Chemistry has indirectly increased our knowledge
+of Electricity, Magnetism, Biology, Geology--how Electricity has reacted on
+Chemistry and Magnetism, developed our views of Light and Heat, and
+disclosed sundry laws of nervous action.
+
+In Literature the same truth might be exhibited in the manifold effects of
+the primitive mystery-play, not only as originating the modern drama, but
+as affecting through it other kinds of poetry and fiction; or in the still
+multiplying forms of periodical literature that have descended from the
+first newspaper, and which have severally acted and reacted on other forms
+of literature and on each other. The influence which a new school of
+Painting--as that of the pre-Raffaelites--exercises upon other schools; the
+hints which all kinds of pictorial art are deriving from Photography; the
+complex results of new critical doctrines, as those of Mr. Ruskin, might
+severally be dwelt upon as displaying the like multiplication of effects.
+But it would needlessly tax the reader's patience to pursue, in their many
+ramifications, these various changes: here become so involved and subtle as
+to be followed with some difficulty.
+
+Without further evidence, we venture to think our case is made out. The
+imperfections of statement which brevity has necessitated, do not, we
+believe, militate against the propositions laid down. The qualifications
+here and there demanded would not, if made, affect the inferences. Though
+in one instance, where sufficient evidence is not attainable, we have been
+unable to show that the law of Progress applies; yet there is high
+probability that the same generalization holds which holds throughout the
+rest of creation. Though, in tracing the genesis of Progress, we have
+frequently spoken of complex causes as if they were simple ones; it still
+remains true that such causes are far less complex than their results.
+Detailed criticisms cannot affect our main position. Endless facts go to
+show that every kind of progress is from the homogeneous to the
+heterogeneous; and that it is so because each change is followed by many
+changes. And it is significant that where the facts are most accessible and
+abundant, there are these truths most manifest.
+
+However, to avoid committing ourselves to more than is yet proved, we must
+be content with saying that such are the law and the cause of all progress
+that is known to us. Should the Nebular Hypothesis ever be established,
+then it will become manifest that the Universe at large, like every
+organism, was once homogeneous; that as a whole, and in every detail, it
+has unceasingly advanced towards greater heterogeneity; and that its
+heterogeneity is still increasing. It will be seen that as in each event of
+to-day, so from the beginning, the decomposition of every expended force
+into several forces has been perpetually producing a higher complication;
+that the increase of heterogeneity so brought about is still going on, and
+must continue to go on; and that thus Progress is not an accident, not a
+thing within human control, but a beneficent necessity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few words must be added on the ontological bearings of our argument.
+Probably not a few will conclude that here is an attempted solution of the
+great questions with which Philosophy in all ages has perplexed itself. Let
+none thus deceive themselves. Only such as know not the scope and the
+limits of Science can fall into so grave an error. The foregoing
+generalizations apply, not to the genesis of things in themselves, but to
+their genesis as manifested to the human consciousness. After all that has
+been said, the ultimate mystery remains just as it was. The explanation of
+that which is explicable, does but bring out into greater clearness the
+inexplicableness of that which remains behind. However we may succeed in
+reducing the equation to its lowest terms, we are not thereby enabled to
+determine the unknown quantity: on the contrary, it only becomes more
+manifest that the unknown quantity can never be found.
+
+Little as it seems to do so, fearless inquiry tends continually to give a
+firmer basis to all true Religion. The timid sectarian, alarmed at the
+progress of knowledge, obliged to abandon one by one the superstitions of
+his ancestors, and daily finding his cherished beliefs more and more
+shaken, secretly fears that all things may some day be explained; and has a
+corresponding dread of Science: thus evincing the profoundest of all
+infidelity--the fear lest the truth be bad. On the other hand, the sincere
+man of science, content to follow wherever the evidence leads him, becomes
+by each new inquiry more profoundly convinced that the Universe is an
+insoluble problem. Alike in the external and the internal worlds, he sees
+himself in the midst of perpetual changes, of which he can discover neither
+the beginning nor the end. If, tracing back the evolution of things, he
+allows himself to entertain the hypothesis that all matter once existed in
+a diffused form, he finds it utterly impossible to conceive how this came
+to be so; and equally, if he speculates on the future, he can assign no
+limit to the grand succession of phenomena ever unfolding themselves before
+him. On the other hand, if he looks inward, he perceives that both
+terminations of the thread of consciousness are beyond his grasp: he cannot
+remember when or how consciousness commenced, and he cannot examine the
+consciousness that at any moment exists; for only a state of consciousness
+that is already past can become the object of thought, and never one which
+is passing.
+
+When, again, he turns from the succession of phenomena, external or
+internal, to their essential nature, he is equally at fault. Though he may
+succeed in resolving all properties of objects into manifestations of
+force, he is not thereby enabled to realize what force is; but finds, on
+the contrary, that the more he thinks about it, the more he is baffled.
+Similarly, though analysis of mental actions may finally bring him down to
+sensations as the original materials out of which all thought is woven, he
+is none the forwarder; for he cannot in the least comprehend
+sensation--cannot even conceive how sensation is possible. Inward and
+outward things he thus discovers to be alike inscrutable in their ultimate
+genesis and nature. He sees that the Materialist and Spiritualist
+controversy is a mere war of words; the disputants being equally
+absurd--each believing he understands that which it is impossible for any
+man to understand. In all directions his investigations eventually bring
+him face to face with the unknowable; and he ever more clearly perceives it
+to be the unknowable. He learns at once the greatness and the littleness of
+human intellect--its power in dealing with all that comes within the range
+of experience; its impotence in dealing with all that transcends
+experience. He feels, with a vividness which no others can, the utter
+incomprehensibleness of the simplest fact, considered in itself. He alone
+truly _sees_ that absolute knowledge is impossible. He alone _knows_ that
+under all things there lies an impenetrable mystery.
+
+
+
+
+II. MANNERS AND FASHION.
+
+
+Whoever has studied the physiognomy of political meetings, cannot fail to
+have remarked a connection between democratic opinions and peculiarities of
+costume. At a Chartist demonstration, a lecture on Socialism, or a _soiree_
+of the Friends of Italy, there will be seen many among the audience, and a
+still larger ratio among the speakers, who get themselves up in a style
+more or less unusual. One gentleman on the platform divides his hair down
+the centre, instead of on one side; another brushes it back off the
+forehead, in the fashion known as "bringing out the intellect;" a third has
+so long forsworn the scissors, that his locks sweep his shoulders. A
+considerable sprinkling of moustaches may be observed; here and there an
+imperial; and occasionally some courageous breaker of conventions exhibits
+a full-grown beard.[E] This nonconformity in hair is countenanced by
+various nonconformities in dress, shown by others of the assemblage. Bare
+necks, shirt-collars _a la_ Byron, waistcoats cut Quaker fashion,
+wonderfully shaggy great coats, numerous oddities in form and colour,
+destroy the monotony usual in crowds. Even those exhibiting no conspicuous
+peculiarity, frequently indicate by something in the pattern or make-up of
+their clothes, that they pay small regard to what their tailors tell them
+about the prevailing taste. And when the gathering breaks up, the varieties
+of head gear displayed--the number of caps, and the abundance of felt
+hats--suffice to prove that were the world at large like-minded, the black
+cylinders which tyrannize over us would soon be deposed.
+
+  [E] This was written before moustaches and beards had become common.
+
+The foreign correspondence of our daily press shows that this relationship
+between political discontent and the disregard of customs exists on the
+Continent also. Red republicanism has always been distinguished by its
+hirsuteness. The authorities of Prussia, Austria, and Italy, alike
+recognize certain forms of hat as indicative of disaffection, and fulminate
+against them accordingly. In some places the wearer of a blouse runs a risk
+of being classed among the _suspects_; and in others, he who would avoid
+the bureau of police, must beware how he goes out in any but the ordinary
+colours. Thus, democracy abroad, as at home, tends towards personal
+singularity.
+
+Nor is this association of characteristics peculiar to modern times, or to
+reformers of the State. It has always existed; and it has been manifested
+as much in religious agitations as in political ones. Along with dissent
+from the chief established opinions and arrangements, there has ever been
+some dissent from the customary social practices. The Puritans,
+disapproving of the long curls of the Cavaliers, as of their principles,
+cut their own hair short, and so gained the name of "Roundheads." The
+marked religious nonconformity of the Quakers was accompanied by an
+equally-marked nonconformity of manners--in attire, in speech, in
+salutation. The early Moravians not only believed differently, but at the
+same time dressed differently, and lived differently, from their fellow
+Christians.
+
+That the association between political independence and independence of
+personal conduct, is not a phenomenon of to-day only, we may see alike in
+the appearance of Franklin at the French court in plain clothes, and in the
+white hats worn by the last generation of radicals. Originality of nature
+is sure to show itself in more ways than one. The mention of George Fox's
+suit of leather, or Pestalozzi's school name, "Harry Oddity," will at once
+suggest the remembrance that men who have in great things diverged from the
+beaten track, have frequently done so in small things likewise. Minor
+illustrations of this truth may be gathered in almost every circle. We
+believe that whoever will number up his reforming and rationalist
+acquaintances, will find among them more than the usual proportion of those
+who in dress or behaviour exhibit some degree of what the world calls
+eccentricity.
+
+If it be a fact that men of revolutionary aims in politics or religion, are
+commonly revolutionists in custom also, it is not less a fact that those
+whose office it is to uphold established arrangements in State and Church,
+are also those who most adhere to the social forms and observances
+bequeathed to us by past generations. Practices elsewhere extinct still
+linger about the headquarters of government. The monarch still gives assent
+to Acts of Parliament in the old French of the Normans; and Norman French
+terms are still used in law. Wigs, such as those we see depicted in old
+portraits, may yet be found on the heads of judges and barristers. The
+Beefeaters at the Tower wear the costume of Henry VIIth's body-guard. The
+University dress of the present year varies but little from that worn soon
+after the Reformation. The claret-coloured coat, knee-breeches, lace shirt
+frills, ruffles, white silk stockings, and buckled shoes, which once formed
+the usual attire of a gentleman, still survive as the court-dress. And it
+need scarcely be said that at _levees_ and drawing-rooms, the ceremonies
+are prescribed with an exactness, and enforced with a rigour, not elsewhere
+to be found.
+
+Can we consider these two series of coincidences as accidental and
+unmeaning? Must we not rather conclude that some necessary relationship
+obtains between them? Are there not such things as a constitutional
+conservatism, and a constitutional tendency to change? Is there not a class
+which clings to the old in all things; and another class so in love with
+progress as often to mistake novelty for improvement? Do we not find some
+men ready to bow to established authority of whatever kind; while others
+demand of every such authority its reason, and reject it if it fails to
+justify itself? And must not the minds thus contrasted tend to become
+respectively conformist and nonconformist, not only in politics and
+religion, but in other things? Submission, whether to a government, to the
+dogmas of ecclesiastics, or to that code of behaviour which society at
+large has set up, is essentially of the same nature; and the sentiment
+which induces resistance to the despotism of rulers, civil or spiritual,
+likewise induces resistance to the despotism of the world's opinion. Look
+at them fundamentally, and all enactments, alike of the legislature, the
+consistory, and the saloon--all regulations, formal or virtual, have a
+common character: they are all limitations of men's freedom. "Do
+this--Refrain from that," are the blank formulas into which they may all be
+written: and in each case the understanding is that obedience will bring
+approbation here and paradise hereafter; while disobedience will entail
+imprisonment, or sending to Coventry, or eternal torments, as the case may
+be. And if restraints, however named, and through whatever apparatus of
+means exercised, are one in their action upon men, it must happen that
+those who are patient under one kind of restraint, are likely to be patient
+under another; and conversely, that those impatient of restraint in
+general, will, on the average, tend to show their impatience in all
+directions.
+
+That Law, Religion, and Manners are thus related--that their respective
+kinds of operation come under one generalization--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 enough back into the ages of
+primeval Fetishism, it becomes manifest that originally Deity, Chief, and
+Master of the ceremonies were identical. To make good these positions, and
+to show their bearing on what is to follow, it will be necessary here to
+traverse ground that is in part somewhat beaten, and at first sight
+irrelevant to our topic. We will pass over it as quickly as consists with
+the exigencies of the argument.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That the earliest social aggregations were ruled solely by the will of the
+strong man, few dispute. That from the strong man proceeded not only
+Monarchy, but the conception of a God, few admit: much as Carlyle and
+others have said in evidence of it. If, however, those who are unable to
+believe this, will lay aside the ideas of God and man in which they have
+been educated, and study the aboriginal ideas of them, they will at least
+see some probability in the hypothesis. Let them remember that before
+experience had yet taught men to distinguish between the possible and the
+impossible; and while they were ready on the slightest suggestion to
+ascribe unknown powers to any object and make a fetish of it; their
+conceptions of humanity and its capacities were necessarily vague, and
+without specific limits. The man who by unusual strength, or cunning,
+achieved something that others had failed to achieve, or something which
+they did not understand, was considered by them as differing from
+themselves; and, as we see in the belief of some Polynesians that only
+their chiefs have souls, or in that of the ancient Peruvians that their
+nobles were divine by birth, the ascribed difference was apt to be not one
+of degree only, but one of kind.
+
+Let them remember next, how gross were the notions of God, or rather of
+gods, prevalent during the same era and afterwards--how concretely gods
+were conceived as men of specific aspects dressed in specific ways--how
+their names were literally "the strong," "the destroyer," "the powerful
+one,"--how, according to the Scandinavian mythology, the "sacred duty of
+blood-revenge" was acted on by the gods themselves,--and how they were not
+only human in their vindictiveness, their cruelty, and their quarrels with
+each other, but were supposed to have amours on earth, and to consume the
+viands placed on their altars. Add to which, that in various mythologies,
+Greek, Scandinavian, and others, the oldest beings are giants; that
+according to a traditional genealogy the gods, demi-gods, and in some cases
+men, are descended from these after the human fashion; and that while in
+the East we hear of sons of God who saw the daughters of men that they were
+fair, the Teutonic myths tell of unions between the sons of men and the
+daughters of the gods.
+
+Let them remember, too, that at first the idea of death differed widely
+from that which we have; that there are still tribes who, on the decease of
+one of their number, attempt to make the corpse stand, and put food into
+his mouth; that the Peruvians had feasts at which the mummies of their dead
+Incas presided, when, as Prescott says, they paid attention "to these
+insensible remains as if they were instinct with life;" that among the
+Feejees it is believed that every enemy has to be killed twice; that the
+Eastern Pagans give extension and figure to the soul, and attribute to it
+all the same substances, both solid and liquid, of which our bodies are
+composed; and that it is the custom among most barbarous races to bury
+food, weapons, and trinkets along with the dead body, under the manifest
+belief that it will presently need them.
+
+Lastly, let them remember that the other world, as originally conceived, is
+simply some distant part of this world--some Elysian fields, some happy
+hunting-ground, accessible even to the living, and to which, after death,
+men travel in anticipation of a life analogous in general character to that
+which they led before. Then, co-ordinating these general facts--the
+ascription of unknown powers to chiefs and medicine men; the belief in
+deities having human forms, passions, and behaviour; the imperfect
+comprehension of death as distinguished from life; and the proximity of the
+future abode to the present, both in position and character--let them
+reflect whether they do not almost unavoidably suggest the conclusion that
+the aboriginal god is the dead chief: the chief not dead in our sense, but
+gone away carrying with him food and weapons to some rumoured region of
+plenty, some promised land, whither he had long intended to lead his
+followers, and whence he will presently return to fetch them.
+
+This hypothesis once entertained, is seen to harmonize with all primitive
+ideas and practices. The sons of the deified chief reigning after him, it
+necessarily happens that all early kings are held descendants of the gods;
+and the fact that alike in Assyria, Egypt, among the Jews, Ph[oe]nicians,
+and ancient Britons, kings' names were formed out of the names of the gods,
+is fully explained. The genesis of Polytheism out of Fetishism, by the
+successive migrations of the race of god-kings to the other world--a
+genesis illustrated in the Greek mythology, alike by the precise genealogy
+of the deities, and by the specifically asserted apotheosis of the later
+ones--tends further to bear it out. It explains the fact that in the old
+creeds, as in the still extant creed of the Otaheitans, every family has
+its guardian spirit, who is supposed to be one of their departed relatives;
+and that they sacrifice to these as minor gods--a practice still pursued by
+the Chinese and even by the Russians. It is perfectly congruous with the
+Grecian myths concerning the wars of the Gods with the Titans and their
+final usurpation; and it similarly agrees with the fact that among the
+Teutonic gods proper was one Freir who came among them by adoption, "but
+was born among the _Vanes_, a somewhat mysterious _other_ dynasty of gods,
+who had been conquered and superseded by the stronger and more warlike Odin
+dynasty." It harmonizes, too, with the belief that there are different gods
+to different territories and nations, as there were different chiefs; that
+these gods contend for supremacy as chiefs do; and it gives meaning to the
+boast of neighbouring tribes--"Our god is greater than your god." It is
+confirmed by the notion universally current in early times, that the gods
+come from this other abode, in which they commonly live, and appear among
+men--speak to them, help them, punish them. And remembering this, it
+becomes manifest that the prayers put up by primitive peoples to their gods
+for aid in battle, are meant literally--that their gods are expected to
+come back from the other kingdom they are reigning over, and once more
+fight the old enemies they had before warred against so implacably; and it
+needs but to name the Iliad, to remind every one how thoroughly they
+believed the expectation fulfilled.
+
+All government, then, being originally that of the strong man who has
+become a fetish by some manifestation of superiority, there arises, at his
+death--his supposed departure on a long projected expedition, in which he
+is accompanied by his slaves and concubines sacrificed at his tomb--there
+arises, then, the incipient division of religious from political control,
+of civil rule from spiritual. His son becomes deputed chief during his
+absence; his authority is cited as that by which his son acts; his
+vengeance is invoked on all who disobey his son; and his commands, as
+previously known or as asserted by his son, become the germ of a moral
+code: a fact we shall the more clearly perceive if we remember, that early
+moral codes inculcate mainly the virtues of the warrior, and the duty of
+exterminating some neighbouring tribe whose existence is an offence to the
+deity.
+
+From this point onwards, these two kinds of authority, at first complicated
+together as those of principal and agent, become slowly more and more
+distinct. As experience accumulates, and ideas of causation grow more
+precise, kings lose their supernatural attributes; and, instead of
+God-king, become God-descended king, God-appointed king, the Lord's
+anointed, the viceregent of heaven, ruler reigning by Divine right. The old
+theory, however, long clings to men in feeling, after it has disappeared in
+name; and "such divinity doth hedge a king," that even now, many, on first
+seeing one, feel a secret surprise at finding him an ordinary sample of
+humanity. The sacredness attaching to royalty attaches afterwards to its
+appended institutions--to legislatures, to laws. Legal and illegal are
+synonymous with right and wrong; the authority of Parliament is held
+unlimited; and a lingering faith in governmental power continually
+generates unfounded hopes from its enactments. Political scepticism,
+however, having destroyed the divine _prestige_ of royalty, goes on ever
+increasing, and promises ultimately to reduce the State to a purely secular
+institution, whose regulations are limited in their sphere, and have no
+other authority than the general will. Meanwhile, the religious control has
+been little by little separating itself from the civil, both in its essence
+and in its forms. While from the God-king of the savage have arisen in one
+direction, secular rulers who, age by age, have been losing the sacred
+attributes men ascribed to them; there has arisen in another direction, the
+conception of a deity, who, at first human in all things, has been
+gradually losing human materiality, human form, human passions, human modes
+of action: until now, anthropomorphism has become a reproach.
+
+Along with this wide divergence in men's ideas of the divine and civil
+ruler has been taking place a corresponding divergence in the codes of
+conduct respectively proceeding from them. While the king was a
+deputy-god--a governor such as the Jews looked for in the Messiah--a
+governor considered, as the Czar still is, "our God upon Earth,"--it, of
+course, followed that his commands were the supreme rules. But as men
+ceased to believe in his supernatural origin and nature, his commands
+ceased to be the highest; and there arose a distinction between the
+regulations made by him, and the regulations handed down from the old
+god-kings, who were rendered ever more sacred by time and the accumulation
+of myths. Hence came respectively, Law and Morality: the one growing ever
+more concrete, the other more abstract; the authority of the one ever on
+the decrease, that of the other ever on the increase; originally the same,
+but now placed daily in more marked antagonism.
+
+Simultaneously there has been going on a separation of the institutions
+administering these two codes of conduct. While they were yet one, of
+course Church and State were one: the king was arch-priest, not nominally,
+but really--alike the giver of new commands and the chief interpreter of
+the old commands; and the deputy-priests coming out of his family were thus
+simply expounders of the dictates of their ancestry: at first as
+recollected, and afterwards as ascertained by professed interviews with
+them. This union--which still existed practically during the middle ages,
+when the authority of kings was mixed up with the authority of the pope,
+when there were bishop-rulers having all the powers of feudal lords, and
+when priests punished by penances--has been, step by step, becoming less
+close. Though monarchs are still "defenders of the faith," and
+ecclesiastical chiefs, they are but nominally such. Though bishops still
+have civil power, it is not what they once had. Protestantism shook loose
+the bonds of union; Dissent has long been busy in organizing a mechanism
+for the exercise of religious control, wholly independent of law; in
+America, a separate organization for that purpose already exists; and if
+anything is to be hoped from the Anti-State-Church Association--or, as it
+has been newly named, "The Society for the Liberation of Religion from
+State Patronage and Control"--we shall presently have a separate
+organization here also.
+
+Thus alike in authority, in essence, and in form, political and spiritual
+rule have been ever more widely diverging from the same root. That
+increasing division of labour which marks the progress of society in other
+things, marks it also in this separation of government into civil and
+religious; and if we observe how the morality which forms the substance of
+religions in general, is beginning to be purified from the associated
+creeds, we may anticipate that this division will be ultimately carried
+much further.
+
+Passing now to the third species of control--that of Manners--we shall find
+that this, too, while it had a common genesis with the others, has
+gradually come to have a distinct sphere and a special embodiment. Among
+early aggregations of men before yet social observances existed, the sole
+forms of courtesy known were the signs of submission to the strong man; as
+the sole law was his will, and the sole religion the awe of his supposed
+supernaturalness. Originally, ceremonies were modes of behaviour to the
+god-king. Our commonest titles have been derived from his names. And all
+salutations were primarily worship paid to him. Let us trace out these
+truths in detail, beginning with titles.
+
+The fact already noticed, that the names of early kings among divers races
+are formed by the addition of certain syllables to the names of their
+gods--which certain syllables, like our _Mac_ and _Fitz_, probably mean
+"son of," or "descended from"--at once gives meaning to the term _Father_
+as a divine title. And when we read, in Selden, that "the composition out
+of these names of Deities was not only proper to Kings: their Grandes and
+more honorable Subjects" (no doubt members of the royal race) "had
+sometimes the like;" we see how the term _Father_, properly used by these
+also, and by their multiplying descendants, came to be a title used by the
+people in general. And it is significant as bearing on this point, that
+among the most barbarous nation in Europe, where belief in the divine
+nature of the ruler still lingers, _Father_ in this higher sense is still a
+regal distinction. When, again, we remember how the divinity at first
+ascribed to kings was not a complimentary fiction but a supposed fact; and
+how, further, under the Fetish philosophy the celestial bodies are believed
+to be personages who once lived among men; we see that the appellations of
+oriental rulers, "Brother to the Sun," &c., were probably once expressive
+of a genuine belief; and have simply, like many other things, continued in
+use after all meaning has gone out of them. We may infer, too, that the
+titles God, Lord, Divinity, were given to primitive rulers literally--that
+the _nostra divinitas_ applied to the Roman emperors, and the various
+sacred designations that have been borne by monarchs, down to the still
+extant phrase, "Our Lord the King," are the dead and dying forms of what
+were once living facts. From these names, God, Father, Lord, Divinity,
+originally belonging to the God-king, and afterwards to God and the king,
+the derivation of our commonest titles of respect is clearly traceable.
+
+There is reason to think that these titles were originally proper names.
+Not only do we see among the Egyptians, where Pharaoh was synonymous with
+king, and among the Romans, where to be Caesar, meant to be Emperor, that
+the proper names of the greatest men were transferred to their successors,
+and so became class names; but in the Scandinavian mythology we may trace a
+human title of honour up to the proper name of a divine personage. In
+Anglo-Saxon _bealdor_, or _baldor_, means _Lord_; and Balder is the name of
+the favourite of Odin's sons--the gods who with him constitute the Teutonic
+Pantheon. How these names of honour became general is easily understood.
+The relatives of the primitive kings--the grandees described by Selden as
+having names formed on those of the gods, and shown by this to be members
+of the divine race--necessarily shared in the epithets, such as _Lord_,
+descriptive of superhuman relationships and nature. Their ever-multiplying
+offspring inheriting these, gradually rendered them comparatively common.
+And then they came to be applied to every man of power: partly from the
+fact that, in these early days when men conceived divinity simply as a
+stronger kind of humanity, great persons could be called by divine epithets
+with but little exaggeration; partly from the fact that the unusually
+potent were apt to be considered as unrecognized or illegitimate
+descendants of "the strong, the destroyer, the powerful one;" and partly,
+also, from compliment and the desire to propitiate.
+
+Progressively as superstition diminished, this last became the sole cause.
+And if we remember that it is the nature of compliment, as we daily hear
+it, to attribute more than is due--that in the constantly widening
+application of "esquire," in the perpetual repetition of "your honour" by
+the fawning Irishman, and in the use of the name "gentleman" to any
+coalheaver or dustman by the lower classes of London, we have current
+examples of the depreciation of titles consequent on compliment--and that
+in barbarous times, when the wish to propitiate was stronger than now, this
+effect must have been greater; we shall see that there naturally arose an
+extensive misuse of all early distinctions. Hence the facts, that the Jews
+called Herod a god; that _Father_, in its higher sense, was a term used
+among them by servants to masters; that _Lord_ was applicable to any person
+of worth and power. Hence, too, the fact that, in the later periods of the
+Roman Empire, every _ man saluted his neighbour as _Dominus_ and _Rex_.
+
+But it is in the titles of the middle ages, and in the growth of our modern
+ones out of them, that the process is most clearly seen. _Herr_, _Don_,
+_Signior_, _Seigneur_, _Sennor_, were all originally names of rulers--of
+feudal lords. By the complimentary use of these names to all who could, on
+any pretence, be supposed to merit them, and by successive degradations of
+them from each step in the descent to a still lower one, they have come to
+be common forms of address. At first the phrase in which a serf accosted
+his despotic chief, _mein herr_ is now familiarly applied in Germany to
+ordinary people. The Spanish title _Don_, once proper to noblemen and
+gentlemen only, is now accorded to all classes. So, too, is it with
+_Signior_ in Italy. _Seigneur_, and _Monseigneur_, by contraction in
+_Sieur_ and _Monsieur_, have produced the term of respect claimed by every
+Frenchman. And whether _Sire_ be or be not a like contraction of _Signior_,
+it is clear that, as it was borne by sundry of the ancient feudal lords of
+France, who, as Selden says, "affected rather to bee stiled by the name of
+_Sire_ than Baron, as _Le Sire de Montmorencie_, _Le Sire de Beaulieu_, and
+the like," and as it has been commonly used to monarchs, our word _Sir_,
+which is derived from it, originally meant lord or king. Thus, too, is it
+with feminine titles. _Lady_, which, according to Horne Tooke, means
+_exalted_, and was at first given only to the few, is now given to all
+women of education. _Dame_, once an honourable name to which, in old books,
+we find the epithets of "highborn" and "stately" affixed, has now, by
+repeated widenings of its application, become relatively a term of
+contempt. And if we trace the compound of this, _ma Dame_, through its
+contractions--_Madam_, _ma'am_, _mam_, _mum_, we find that the "Yes'm" of
+Sally to her mistress is originally equivalent to "Yes, my exalted," or
+"Yes, your highness." Throughout, therefore, the genesis of words of honour
+has been the same. Just as with the Jews and with the Romans, has it been
+with the modern Europeans. Tracing these everyday names to their primitive
+significations of _lord_ and _king_, and remembering that in aboriginal
+societies these were applied only to the gods and their descendants, we
+arrive at the conclusion that our familiar _Sir_ and _Monsieur_ are, in
+their primary and expanded meanings, terms of adoration.
+
+Further to illustrate this gradual depreciation of titles, and to confirm
+the inference drawn, it may be well to notice in passing, that the oldest
+of them have, as might be expected, been depreciated to the greatest
+extent. Thus, _Master_--a word proved by its derivation and by the
+similarity of the connate words in other languages (Fr., _maitre_ for
+_master_; Russ., _master_; Dan., _meester_; Ger., _meister_) to have been
+one of the earliest in use for expressing lordship--has now become
+applicable to children only, and under the modification of "Mister," to
+persons next above the labourer. Again, knighthood, the oldest kind of
+dignity, is also the lowest; and Knight Bachelor, which is the lowest order
+of knighthood, is more ancient than any other of the orders. Similarly,
+too, with the peerage: Baron is alike the earliest and least elevated of
+its divisions. This continual degradation of all names of honor has, from
+time to time, made it requisite to introduce new ones having that
+distinguishing effect which the originals had lost by generality of use;
+just as our habit of misapplying superlatives has, by gradually destroying
+their force, entailed the need for fresh ones. And if, within the last
+thousand years, this process has produced effects thus marked, we may
+readily conceive how, during previous thousands, the titles of gods and
+demi-gods came to be used to all persons exercising power; as they have
+since come to be used to persons of respectability.
+
+If from names of honour we turn to phrases of honour, we find similar
+facts. The Oriental styles of address, applied to ordinary people--"I am
+your slave," "All I have is yours," "I am your sacrifice"--attribute to the
+individual spoken to the same greatness that _Monsieur_ and _My Lord_ do:
+they ascribe to him the character of an all-powerful ruler, so immeasurably
+superior to the speaker as to be his owner. So, likewise, with the Polish
+expressions of respect--"I throw myself under your feet," "I kiss your
+feet." In our now meaningless subscription to a formal letter--"Your most
+obedient servant,"--the same thing is visible. Nay, even in the familiar
+signature "Yours faithfully," the "yours," if interpreted as originally
+meant, is the expression of a slave to his master.
+
+All these dead forms were once living embodiments of fact--were primarily
+the genuine indications of that submission to authority which they verbally
+assert; were afterwards naturally used by the weak and cowardly to
+propitiate those above them; gradually grew to be considered the due of
+such; and, by a continually wider misuse, have lost their meanings, as
+_Sir_ and _Master_ have done. That, like titles, they were in the beginning
+used only to the God-king, is indicated by the fact that, like titles, they
+were subsequently used in common to God and the king. Religious worship has
+ever largely consisted of professions of obedience, of being God's
+servants, of belonging to him to do what he will with. Like titles,
+therefore, these common phrases of honour had a devotional origin.
+
+Perhaps, however, it is in the use of the word _you_ as a singular pronoun
+that the popularizing of what were once supreme distinctions is most
+markedly illustrated. This speaking of a single individual in the plural,
+was originally an honour given only to the highest--was the reciprocal of
+the imperial "we" assumed by such. Yet now, by being applied to
+successively lower and lower classes, it has become all but universal. Only
+by one sect of Christians, and in a few secluded districts, is the
+primitive _thou_ still used. And the _you_, in becoming common to all ranks
+has simultaneously lost every vestige of the honour once attaching to it.
+
+But the genesis of Manners out of forms of allegiance and worship, is above
+all shown in men's modes of salutation. Note first the significance of the
+word. Among the Romans, the _salutatio_ was a daily homage paid by clients
+and inferiors to superiors. This was alike the case with civilians and in
+the army. The very derivation of our word, therefore, is suggestive of
+submission. Passing to particular forms of obeisance (mark the word again),
+let us begin with the Eastern one of baring the feet. This was, primarily,
+a mark of reverence, alike to a god and a king. The act of Moses before the
+burning bush, and the practice of Mahometans, who are sworn on the Koran
+with their shoes off, exemplify the one employment of it; the custom of the
+Persians, who remove their shoes on entering the presence of their monarch,
+exemplifies the other. As usual, however, this homage, paid next to
+inferior rulers, has descended from grade to grade. In India, it is a
+common mark of respect; a polite man in Turkey always leaves his shoes at
+the door, while the lower orders of Turks never enter the presence of their
+superiors but in their stockings; and in Japan, this baring of the feet is
+an ordinary salutation of man to man.
+
+Take another case. Selden, describing the ceremonies of the Romans,
+says:--"For whereas it was usual either to kiss the Images of their Gods,
+or adoring them, to stand somewhat off before them, solemnly moving the
+right hand to the lips, and then, casting it as if they had cast kisses, to
+turne the body on the same hand (which was the right forme of Adoration),
+it grew also by custom, first that the emperors, being next to Deities, and
+by some accounted as Deities, had the like done to them in acknowledgment
+of their Greatness." If, now, we call to mind the awkward salute of a
+village school-boy, made by putting his open hand up to his face and
+describing a semicircle with his forearm; and if we remember that the
+salute thus used as a form of reverence in country districts, is most
+likely a remnant of the feudal times; we shall see reason for thinking that
+our common wave of the hand to a friend across the street, represents what
+was primarily a devotional act.
+
+Similarly have originated all forms of respect depending upon inclinations
+of the body. Entire prostration is the aboriginal sign of submission. The
+passage of Scripture, "Thou hast put all under his feet," and that other
+one, so suggestive in its anthropomorphism, "The Lord said unto my Lord,
+sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool,"
+imply, what the Assyrian sculptures fully bear out, that it was the
+practice of the ancient god-kings of the East to trample upon the
+conquered. And when we bear in mind that there are existing savages who
+signify submission by placing the neck under the foot of the person
+submitted to, it becomes obvious that all prostration, especially when
+accompanied by kissing the foot, expressed a willingness to be trodden
+upon--was an attempt to mitigate wrath by saying, in signs, "Tread on me if
+you will." Remembering, further, that kissing the foot, as of the Pope and
+of a saint's statue, still continues in Europe to be a mark of extreme
+reverence; that prostration to feudal lords was once general; and that its
+disappearance must have taken place, not abruptly, but by gradual
+modification into something else; we have ground for deriving from these
+deepest of humiliations all inclinations of respect; especially as the
+transition is traceable. The reverence of a Russian serf, who bends his
+head to the ground, and the salaam of the Hindoo, are abridged
+prostrations; a bow is a short salaam; a nod is a short bow.
+
+Should any hesitate to admit this conclusion, then perhaps, on being
+reminded that the lowest of these obeisances are common where the
+submission is most abject; that among ourselves the profundity of the bow
+marks the amount of respect; and lastly, that the bow is even now used
+devotionally in our churches--by Catholics to their altars, and by
+Protestants at the name of Christ--they will see sufficient evidence for
+thinking that this salutation also was originally worship.
+
+The same may be said, too, of the curtsy, or courtesy, as it is otherwise
+written. Its derivation from _courtoisie_, courteousness, that is,
+behaviour like that at court, at once shows that it was primarily the
+reverence paid to a monarch. And if we call to mind that falling upon the
+knees, or upon one knee, has been a common obeisance of subjects to rulers;
+that in ancient manuscripts and tapestries, servants are depicted as
+assuming this attitude while offering the dishes to their masters at table;
+and that this same attitude is assumed towards our own queen at every
+presentation; we may infer, what the character of the curtsy itself
+suggests, that it is an abridged act of kneeling. As the word has been
+contracted from _courtoisie_ into curtsy; so the motion has been contracted
+from a placing of the knee on the floor, to a lowering of the knee towards
+the floor. Moreover, when we compare the curtsy of a lady with the awkward
+one a peasant girl makes, which, if continued, would bring her down on both
+knees, we may see in this last a remnant of that greater reverence required
+of serfs. And when, from considering that simple kneeling of the West,
+still represented by the curtsy, we pass Eastward, and note the attitude of
+the Mahomedan worshipper, who not only kneels but bows his head to the
+ground, we may infer that the curtsy also, is an evanescent form of the
+aboriginal prostration.
+
+In further evidence of this it may be remarked, that there has but recently
+disappeared from the salutations of men, an action having the same
+proximate derivation with the curtsy. That backward sweep of the foot with
+which the conventional stage-sailor accompanies his bow--a movement which
+prevailed generally in past generations, when "a bow and a scrape" went
+together, and which, within the memory of living persons, was made by boys
+to their schoolmaster with the effect of wearing a hole in the floor--is
+pretty clearly a preliminary to going on one knee. A motion so ungainly
+could never have been intentionally introduced; even if the artificial
+introduction of obeisances were possible. Hence we must regard it as the
+remnant of something antecedent: and that this something antecedent was
+humiliating maybe inferred from the phrase, "scraping an acquaintance;"
+which, being used to denote the gaining of favour by obsequiousness,
+implies that the scrape was considered a mark of servility--that is, of
+_serf_-ility.
+
+Consider, again, the uncovering of the head. Almost everywhere this has
+been a sign of reverence, alike in temples and before potentates; and it
+yet preserves among us some of its original meaning. Whether it rains,
+hails, or shines, you must keep your head bare while speaking to the
+monarch; and on no plea may you remain covered in a place of worship. As
+usual, however, this ceremony, at first a submission to gods and kings, has
+become in process of time a common civility. Once an acknowledgment of
+another's unlimited supremacy, the removal of the hat is now a salute
+accorded to very ordinary persons, and that uncovering, originally reserved
+for entrance into "the house of God," good manners now dictates on entrance
+into the house of a common labourer.
+
+Standing, too, as a mark of respect, has undergone like extensions in its
+application. Shown, by the practice in our churches, to be intermediate
+between the humiliation signified by kneeling and the self-respect which
+sitting implies, and used at courts as a form of homage when more active
+demonstrations of it have been made, this posture is now employed in daily
+life to show consideration; as seen alike in the attitude of a servant
+before a master, and in that rising which politeness prescribes on the
+entrance of a visitor.
+
+Many other threads of evidence might have been woven into our argument. As,
+for example, the significant fact, that if we trace back our still existing
+law of primogeniture--if we consider it as displayed by Scottish clans, in
+which not only ownership but government devolved from the beginning on the
+eldest son of the eldest--if we look further back, and observe that the old
+titles of lordship, _Signor_, _Seigneur_, _Sennor_, _Sire_, _Sieur_, all
+originally mean, senior, or elder--if we go Eastward, and find that
+_Sheick_ has a like derivation, and that the Oriental names for priests, as
+_Pir_, for instance, are literally interpreted _old man_--if we note in
+Hebrew records how primeval is the ascribed superiority of the first-born,
+how great the authority of elders, and how sacred the memory of
+patriarchs--and if, then, we remember that among divine titles are "Ancient
+of Days," and "Father of Gods and men;"--we see how completely these facts
+harmonize with the hypothesis, that the aboriginal god is the first man
+sufficiently great to become a tradition, the earliest whose power and
+deeds made him remembered; that hence antiquity unavoidably became
+associated with superiority, and age with nearness in blood to "the
+powerful one;" that so there naturally arose that domination of the eldest
+which characterizes all history, and that theory of human degeneracy which
+even yet survives.
+
+We might further dwell on the facts, that _Lord_ signifies high-born, or,
+as the same root gives a word meaning heaven, possibly heaven-born; that,
+before it became common, _Sir_ or _Sire_, as well as _Father_, was the
+distinction of a priest; that _worship_, originally worth-ship--a term of
+respect that has been used commonly, as well as to magistrates--is also our
+term for the act of attributing greatness or worth to the Deity; so that to
+ascribe worth-ship to a man is to worship him. We might make much of the
+evidence that all early governments are more or less distinctly theocratic;
+and that among ancient Eastern nations even the commonest forms and customs
+appear to have been influenced by religion. We might enforce our argument
+respecting the derivation of ceremonies, by tracing out the aboriginal
+obeisance made by putting dust on the head, which probably symbolizes
+putting the head in the dust: by affiliating the practice prevailing among
+certain tribes, of doing another honour by presenting him with a portion of
+hair torn from the head--an act which seems tantamount to saying, "I am
+your slave;" by investigating the Oriental custom of giving to a visitor
+any object he speaks of admiringly, which is pretty clearly a carrying out
+the compliment, "All I have is yours."
+
+Without enlarging, however, on these and many minor facts, we venture to
+think that the evidence already assigned is sufficient to justify our
+position. Had the proofs been few or of one kind, little faith could have
+been placed in the inference. But numerous as they are, alike in the case
+of titles, in that of complimentary phrases, and in that of
+salutes--similar and simultaneous, too, as the process of depreciation has
+been in all of these; the evidences become strong by mutual confirmation.
+And when we recollect, also, that not only have the results of this process
+been visible in various nations and in all times, but that they are
+occurring among ourselves at the present moment, and that the causes
+assigned for previous depreciations may be seen daily working out other
+ones--when we recollect this, it becomes scarcely possible to doubt that
+the process has been as alleged; and that our ordinary words, acts, and
+phrases of civility were originally acknowledgments of submission to
+another's omnipotence.
+
+Thus the general doctrine, that all kinds of government exercised over men
+were at first one government--that the political, the religious, and the
+ceremonial forms of control are divergent branches of a general and once
+indivisible control--begins to look tenable. When, with the above facts
+fresh in mind, we read primitive records, and find that "there were giants
+in those days"--when we remember that in Eastern traditions Nimrod, among
+others, figures in all the characters of giant, king, and divinity--when we
+turn to the sculptures exhumed by Mr. Layard, and contemplating in them the
+effigies of kings driving over enemies, trampling on prisoners, and adored
+by prostrate slaves, then observe how their actions correspond to the
+primitive names for the divinity, "the strong," "the destroyer," "the
+powerful one"--when we find that the earliest temples were also the
+residences of the kings--and when, lastly, we discover that among races of
+men still living, there are current superstitions analogous to those which
+old records and old buildings indicate; we begin to realize the probability
+of the hypothesis that has been set forth.
+
+Going back, in imagination, to the remote era when men's theories of things
+were yet unformed; and conceiving to ourselves the conquering chief as
+dimly figured in ancient myths, and poems, and ruins; we may see that all
+rules of conduct whatever spring from his will. Alike legislator and judge,
+all quarrels among his subjects are decided by him; and his words become
+the Law. Awe of him is the incipient Religion; and his maxims furnish its
+first precepts. Submission is made to him in the forms he prescribes; and
+these give birth to Manners. From the first, time develops political
+allegiance and the administration of justice; from the second, the worship
+of a being whose personality becomes ever more vague, and the inculcation
+of precepts ever more abstract; from the third, forms of honour and the
+rules of etiquette.
+
+In conformity with the law of evolution of all organized bodies, that
+general functions are gradually separated into the special functions
+constituting them, there have grown up in the social organism for the
+better performance of the governmental office, an apparatus of law-courts,
+judges, and barristers; a national church, with its bishops and priests;
+and a system of caste, titles, and ceremonies, administered by society at
+large. By the first, overt aggressions are cognized and punished; by the
+second, the disposition to commit such aggressions is in some degree
+checked; by the third, those minor breaches of good conduct, which the
+others do not notice, are denounced and chastised. Law and Religion control
+behaviour in its essentials: Manners control it in its details. For
+regulating those daily actions which are too numerous and too unimportant
+to be officially directed, there comes into play this subtler set of
+restraints. And when we consider what these restraints are--when we analyze
+the words, and phrases, and salutes employed, we see that in origin as in
+effect, the system is a setting up of temporary governments between all men
+who come in contact, for the purpose of better managing the intercourse
+between them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the proposition, that these several kinds of government are
+essentially one, both in genesis and function, may be deduced several
+important corollaries, directly bearing on our special topic.
+
+Let us first notice, that there is not only a common origin and office for
+all forms of rule, but a common necessity for them. The aboriginal man,
+coming fresh from the killing of bears and from lying in ambush for his
+enemy, has, by the necessities of his condition, a nature requiring to be
+curbed in its every impulse. Alike in war and in the chase, his daily
+discipline has been that of sacrificing other creatures to his own needs
+and passions. His character, bequeathed to him by ancestors who led similar
+lives, is moulded by this discipline--is fitted to this existence. The
+unlimited selfishness, the love of inflicting pain, the bloodthirstiness,
+thus kept active, he brings with him into the social state. These
+dispositions put him in constant danger of conflict with his equally savage
+neighbour. In small things as in great, in words as in deeds, he is
+aggressive; and is hourly liable to the aggressions of others like natured.
+Only, therefore, by the most rigorous control exercised over all actions,
+can the primitive unions of men be maintained. There must be a ruler
+strong, remorseless, and of indomitable will; there must be a creed
+terrible in its threats to the disobedient; and there must be the most
+servile submission of all inferiors to superiors. The law must be cruel;
+the religion must be stern; the ceremonies must be strict.
+
+The co-ordinate necessity for these several kinds of restraint might be
+largely illustrated from history were there space. Suffice it to point out,
+that where the civil power has been weak, the multiplication of thieves,
+assassins, and banditti, has indicated the approach of social dissolution;
+that when, from the corruptness of its ministry, religion has lost its
+influence, as it did just before the Flagellants appeared, the State has
+been endangered; and that the disregard of established social observances
+has ever been an accompaniment of political revolutions. Whoever doubts the
+necessity for a government of manners proportionate in strength to the
+co-existing political and religious governments, will be convinced on
+calling to mind that until recently even elaborate codes of behaviour
+failed to keep gentlemen from quarrelling in the streets and fighting duels
+in taverns; and on remembering further, that even now people exhibit at the
+doors of a theatre, where there is no ceremonial law to rule them, a degree
+of aggressiveness which would produce confusion if carried into social
+intercourse.
+
+As might be expected, we find that, having a common origin and like general
+functions, these several controlling agencies act during each era with
+similar degrees of vigour. Under the Chinese despotism, stringent and
+multitudinous in its edicts and harsh in the enforcement of them, and
+associated with which there is an equally stern domestic despotism
+exercised by the eldest surviving male of the family, there exists a system
+of observances alike complicated and rigid. There is a tribunal of
+ceremonies. Previous to presentation at court, ambassadors pass many days
+in practising the required forms. Social intercourse is cumbered by endless
+compliments and obeisances. Class distinctions are strongly marked by
+badges. The chief regret on losing an only son is, that there will be no
+one to perform the sepulchral rites. And if there wants a definite measure
+of the respect paid to social ordinances, we have it in the torture to
+which ladies submit in having their feet crushed. In India, and indeed
+throughout the East, there exists a like connection between the pitiless
+tyranny of rulers, the dread terrors of immemorial creeds, and the rigid
+restraint of unchangeable customs: the caste regulations continue still
+unalterable; the fashions of clothes and furniture have remained the same
+for ages; suttees are so ancient as to be mentioned by Strabo and Diodorus
+Siculus; justice is still administered at the palace-gates as of old; in
+short, "every usage is a precept of religion and a maxim of jurisprudence."
+
+A similar relationship of phenomena was exhibited in Europe during the
+Middle Ages. While all its governments were autocratic, while feudalism
+held sway, while the Church was unshorn of its power, while the criminal
+code was full of horrors and the hell of the popular creed full of terrors,
+the rules of behaviour were both more numerous and more carefully conformed
+to than now. Differences of dress marked divisions of rank. Men were
+limited by law to a certain width of shoe-toes; and no one below a
+specified degree might wear a cloak less than so many inches long. The
+symbols on banners and shields were carefully attended to. Heraldry was an
+important branch of knowledge. Precedence was strictly insisted on. And
+those various salutes of which we now use the abridgments were gone through
+in full. Even during our own last century, with its corrupt House of
+Commons and little-curbed monarchs, we may mark a correspondence of social
+formalities. Gentlemen were still distinguished from lower classes by
+dress; people sacrificed themselves to inconvenient requirements--as
+powder, hooped petticoats, and towering head-dresses; and children
+addressed their parents as _Sir_ and _Madam_.
+
+A further corollary naturally following this last, and almost, indeed,
+forming part of it, is, that these several kinds of government
+decrease in stringency at the same rate. Simultaneously with the
+decline in the influence of priesthoods, and in the fear of eternal
+torments--simultaneously with the mitigation of political tyranny, the
+growth of popular power, and the amelioration of criminal codes; has taken
+place that diminution of formalities and that fading of distinctive marks,
+now so observable. Looking at home, we may note that there is less
+attention to precedence than there used to be. No one in our day ends an
+interview with the phrase "your humble servant." The employment of the word
+_Sir_, once general in social intercourse, is at present considered bad
+breeding; and on the occasions calling for them, it is held vulgar to use
+the words "Your Majesty," or "Your Royal Highness," more than once in a
+conversation. People no longer formally drink each other's healths; and
+even the taking wine with each other at dinner has ceased to be
+fashionable. The taking-off of hats between gentlemen has been gradually
+falling into disuse. Even when the hat is removed, it is no longer swept
+out at arm's length, but is simply lifted. Hence the remark made upon us by
+foreigners, that we take off our hats less than any other nation in
+Europe--a remark that should be coupled with the other, that we are the
+freest nation in Europe.
+
+As already implied, this association of facts is not accidental. These
+titles of address and modes of salutation, bearing about them, as they all
+do, something of that servility which marks their origin, become
+distasteful in proportion as men become more independent themselves, and
+sympathise more with the independence of others. The feeling which makes
+the modern gentleman tell the labourer standing bareheaded before him to
+put on his hat--the feeling which gives us a dislike to those who cringe
+and fawn--the feeling which makes us alike assert our own dignity and
+respect that of others--the feeling which thus leads us more and more to
+discountenance all forms and names which confess inferiority and
+submission; is the same feeling which resists despotic power and
+inaugurates popular government, denies the authority of the Church and
+establishes the right of private judgment.
+
+A fourth fact, akin to the foregoing, is, that these several kinds of
+government not only decline together, but corrupt together. By the same
+process that a Court of Chancery becomes a place not for the administration
+of justice, but for the withholding of it--by the same process that a
+national church, from being an agency for moral control, comes to be merely
+a thing of formulas and tithes and bishoprics--by this same process do
+titles and ceremonies that once had a meaning and a power become empty
+forms.
+
+Coats of arms which served to distinguish men in battle, now figure on the
+carriage panels of retired grocers. Once a badge of high military rank, the
+shoulder-knot has become, on the modern footman, a mark of servitude. The
+name Banneret, which once marked a partially-created Baron--a Baron who had
+passed his military "little go"--is now, under the modification of Baronet,
+applicable to any one favoured by wealth or interest or party feeling.
+Knighthood has so far ceased to be an honour, that men now honour
+themselves by declining it. The military dignity _Escuyer_ has, in the
+modern Esquire, become a wholly unmilitary affix. Not only do titles, and
+phrases, and salutes cease to fulfil their original functions, but the
+whole apparatus of social forms tends to become useless for its original
+purpose--the facilitation of social intercourse. Those most learned in
+ceremonies, and most precise in the observance of them, are not always the
+best behaved; as those deepest read in creeds and scriptures are not
+therefore the most religious; nor those who have the clearest notions of
+legality and illegality, the most honest. Just as lawyers are of all men
+the least noted for probity; as cathedral towns have a lower moral
+character than most others; so, if Swift is to be believed, courtiers are
+"the most insignificant race of people that the island can afford, and with
+the smallest tincture of good manners."
+
+But perhaps it is in that class of social observances comprehended under
+the term Fashion, which we must here discuss parenthetically, that this
+process of corruption is seen with the greatest distinctness. As contrasted
+with Manners, which dictate our minor acts in relation to other persons,
+Fashion dictates our minor acts in relation to ourselves. While the one
+prescribes that part of our deportment which directly affects our
+neighbours; the other prescribes that part of our deportment which is
+primarily personal, and in which our neighbours are concerned only as
+spectators. Thus distinguished as they are, however, the two have a common
+source. For while, as we have shown, Manners originate by imitation of the
+behaviour pursued _towards_ the great; Fashion originates by imitation _of_
+the behaviour of the great. While the one has its derivation in the titles,
+phrases, and salutes used _to_ those in power; the other is derived from
+the habits and appearances exhibited _by_ those in power.
+
+The Carib mother who squeezes her child's head into a shape like that of
+the chief; the young savage who makes marks on himself similar to the scars
+carried by the warriors of his tribe (which is probably the origin of
+tattooing); the Highlander who adopts the plaid worn by the head of his
+clan; the courtiers who affect greyness, or limp, or cover their necks, in
+imitation of their king; and the people who ape the courtiers; are alike
+acting under a kind of government connate with that of Manners, and, like
+it too, primarily beneficial. For notwithstanding the numberless
+absurdities into which this copyism has led the people, from nose-rings to
+ear-rings, from painted faces to beauty-spots, from shaven heads to
+powdered wigs, from filed teeth and stained nails to bell-girdles, peaked
+shoes, and breeches stuffed with bran,--it must yet be concluded, that as
+the strong men, the successful men, the men of will, intelligence, and
+originality, who have got to the top, are, on the average, more likely to
+show judgment in their habits and tastes than the mass, the imitation of
+such is advantageous.
+
+By and by, however, Fashion, corrupting like these other forms of rule,
+almost wholly ceases to be an imitation of the best, and becomes an
+imitation of quite other than the best. As those who take orders are not
+those having a special fitness for the priestly office, but those who see
+their way to a living by it; as legislators and public functionaries do not
+become such by virtue of their political insight and power to rule, but by
+virtue of birth, acreage, and class influence; so, the self-elected clique
+who set the fashion, gain this prerogative, not by their force of nature,
+their intellect, their higher worth or better taste, but gain it solely by
+their unchecked assumption. Among the initiated are to be found neither the
+noblest in rank, the chief in power, the best cultured, the most refined,
+nor those of greatest genius, wit, or beauty; and their reunions, so far
+from being superior to others, are noted for their inanity. Yet, by the
+example of these sham great, and not by that of the truly great, does
+society at large now regulate its goings and comings, its hours, its dress,
+its small usages. As a natural consequence, these have generally little or
+none of that suitableness which the theory of fashion implies they should
+have. But instead of a continual progress towards greater elegance and
+convenience, which might be expected to occur did people copy the ways of
+the really best, or follow their own ideas of propriety, we have a reign of
+mere whim, of unreason, of change for the sake of change, of wanton
+oscillations from either extreme to the other--a reign of usages without
+meaning, times without fitness, dress without taste. And thus life _a la
+mode_, instead of being life conducted in the most rational manner, is life
+regulated by spendthrifts and idlers, milliners and tailors, dandies and
+silly women.
+
+To these several corollaries--that the various orders of control exercised
+over men have a common origin and a common function, are called out by
+co-ordinate necessities and co-exist in like stringency, decline together
+and corrupt together--it now only remains to add that they become needless
+together. Consequent as all kinds of government are upon the unfitness of
+the aboriginal man for social life; and diminishing in coerciveness as they
+all do in proportion as this unfitness diminishes; they must one and all
+come to an end as humanity acquires complete adaptation to its new
+conditions. That discipline of circumstances which has already wrought out
+such great changes in us, must go on eventually to work out yet greater
+ones. That daily curbing of the lower nature and culture of the higher,
+which out of cannibals and devil worshippers has evolved philanthropists,
+lovers of peace, and haters of superstition, cannot fail to evolve out of
+these, men as much superior to them as they are to their progenitors. The
+causes that have produced past modifications are still in action; must
+continue in action as long as there exists any incongruity between man's
+desires and the requirements of the social state; and must eventually make
+him organically fit for the social state. As it is now needless to forbid
+man-eating and Fetishism, so will it ultimately become needless to forbid
+murder, theft, and the minor offences of our criminal code. When human
+nature has grown into conformity with the moral law, there will need no
+judges and statute-books; when it spontaneously takes the right course in
+all things, as in some things it does already, prospects of future reward
+or punishment will not be wanted as incentives; and when fit behaviour has
+become instinctive, there will need no code of ceremonies to say how
+behaviour shall be regulated.
+
+Thus, then, may be recognised the meaning, the naturalness, the necessity
+of those various eccentricities of reformers which we set out by
+describing. They are not accidental; they are not mere personal caprices,
+as people are apt to suppose. On the contrary, they are inevitable results
+of the law of relationship above illustrated. That community of genesis,
+function, and decay which all forms of restraint exhibit, is simply the
+obverse of the fact at first pointed out, that they have in two sentiments
+of human nature a common preserver and a common destroyer. Awe of power
+originates and cherishes them all: love of freedom undermines and
+periodically weakens them all. The one defends despotism and asserts the
+supremacy of laws, adheres to old creeds and supports ecclesiastical
+authority, pays respect to titles and conserves forms; the other, putting
+rectitude above legality, achieves periodical instalments of political
+liberty, inaugurates Protestantism and works out its consequences, ignores
+the senseless dictates of Fashion and emancipates men from dead customs.
+
+To the true reformer no institution is sacred, no belief above criticism.
+Everything shall conform itself to equity and reason; nothing shall be
+saved by its prestige. Conceding to each man liberty to pursue his own ends
+and satisfy his own tastes, he demands for himself like liberty; and
+consents to no restrictions on this, save those which other men's equal
+claims involve. No matter whether it be an ordinance of one man, or an
+ordinance of all men, if it trenches on his legitimate sphere of action, he
+denies its validity. The tyranny that would impose on him a particular
+style of dress and a set mode of behaviour, he resists equally with the
+tyranny that would limit his buyings and sellings, or dictate his creed.
+Whether the regulation be formally made by a legislature, or informally
+made by society at large--whether the penalty for disobedience be
+imprisonment, or frowns and social ostracism, he sees to be a question of
+no moment. He will utter his belief notwithstanding the threatened
+punishment; he will break conventions spite of the petty persecutions that
+will be visited on him. Show him that his actions are inimical to his
+fellow-men, and he will pause. Prove that he is disregarding their
+legitimate claims--that he is doing what in the nature of things must
+produce unhappiness; and he will alter his course. But until you do
+this--until you demonstrate that his proceedings are essentially
+inconvenient or inelegant, essentially irrational, unjust, or ungenerous,
+he will persevere.
+
+Some, indeed, argue that his conduct _is_ unjust and ungenerous. They say
+that he has no right to annoy other people by his whims; that the gentleman
+to whom his letter comes with no "Esq." appended to the address, and the
+lady whose evening party he enters with gloveless hands, are vexed at what
+they consider his want of respect, or want of breeding; that thus his
+eccentricities cannot be indulged save at the expense of his neighbours'
+feelings; and that hence his nonconformity is in plain terms selfishness.
+
+He answers that this position, if logically developed, would deprive men of
+all liberty whatever. Each must conform all his acts to the public taste,
+and not his own. The public taste on every point having been once
+ascertained, men's habits must thenceforth remain for ever fixed; seeing
+that no man can adopt other habits without sinning against the public
+taste, and giving people disagreeable feelings. Consequently, be it an era
+of pig-tails or high-heeled shoes, of starched ruffs or trunk-hose, all
+must continue to wear pig-tails, high-heeled shoes, starched ruffs, or
+trunk-hose to the crack of doom.
+
+If it be still urged that he is not justified in breaking through others'
+forms that he may establish his own, and so sacrificing the wishes of many
+to the wishes of one, he replies that all religious and political changes
+might be negatived on like grounds. He asks whether Luther's sayings and
+doings were not extremely offensive to the mass of his contemporaries;
+whether the resistance of Hampden was not disgusting to the time-servers
+around him; whether every reformer has not shocked men's prejudices, and
+given immense displeasure by the opinions he uttered. The affirmative
+answer he follows up by demanding what right the reformer has, then, to
+utter these opinions; whether he is not sacrificing the feelings of many to
+the feelings of one: and so proves that, to be consistent, his antagonists
+must condemn not only all nonconformity in actions, but all nonconformity
+in thoughts.
+
+His antagonists rejoin that _his_ position, too, may be pushed to an
+absurdity. They argue that if a man may offend by the disregard of some
+forms, he may as legitimately do so by the disregard of all; and they
+inquire--Why should he not go out to dinner in a dirty shirt, and with an
+unshorn chin? Why should he not spit on the drawing-room carpet, and
+stretch his heels up to the mantel-shelf?
+
+The convention-breaker answers, that to ask this, implies a confounding of
+two widely-different classes of actions--the actions that are _essentially_
+displeasurable to those around, with the actions that are but
+_incidentally_ displeasurable to them. He whose skin is so unclean as to
+offend the nostrils of his neighbours, or he who talks so loudly as to
+disturb a whole room, may be justly complained of, and rightly excluded by
+society from its assemblies. But he who presents himself in a surtout in
+place of a dress-coat, or in brown trousers instead of black, gives offence
+not to men's senses, or their innate tastes, but merely to their
+prejudices, their bigotry of convention. It cannot be said that his costume
+is less elegant or less intrinsically appropriate than the one prescribed;
+seeing that a few hours earlier in the day it is admired. It is the implied
+rebellion, therefore, that annoys. How little the cause of quarrel has to
+do with the dress itself, is seen in the fact that a century ago black
+clothes would have been thought preposterous for hours of recreation, and
+that a few years hence some now forbidden style may be nearer the
+requirements of Fashion than the present one. Thus the reformer explains
+that it is not against the natural restraints, but against the artificial
+ones, that he protests; and that manifestly the fire of sneers and angry
+glances which he has to bear, is poured upon him because he will not bow
+down to the idol which society has set up.
+
+Should he be asked how we are to distinguish between conduct that is
+_absolutely_ disagreeable to others, and conduct that is _relatively_ so,
+he answers, that they will distinguish themselves, if men will let them.
+Actions intrinsically repugnant will ever be frowned upon, and must ever
+remain as exceptional as now. Actions not intrinsically repugnant will
+establish themselves as proper. No relaxation of customs will introduce the
+practice of going to a party in muddy boots, and with unwashed hands; for
+the dislike of dirt would continue were Fashion abolished to-morrow. That
+love of approbation which now makes people so solicitous to be _en regle_
+would still exist--would still make them careful of their personal
+appearance--would still induce them to seek admiration by making themselves
+ornamental--would still cause them to respect the natural laws of good
+behaviour, as they now do the artificial ones. The change would simply be
+from a repulsive monotony to a picturesque variety. And if there be any
+regulations respecting which it is uncertain whether they are based on
+reality or on convention, experiment will soon decide, if due scope be
+allowed.
+
+When at length the controversy comes round, as controversies often do, to
+the point whence it started, and the "party of order" repeat their charge
+against the rebel, that he is sacrificing the feelings of others to the
+gratification of his own wilfulness, he replies once for all that they
+cheat themselves by mis-statements. He accuses them of being so despotic,
+that, not content with being masters over their own ways and habits, they
+would be masters over his also; and grumble because he will not let them.
+He merely asks the same freedom which they exercise; they, however, propose
+to regulate his course as well as their own--to cut and clip his mode of
+life into agreement with their approved pattern; and then charge him with
+wilfulness and selfishness, because he does not quietly submit! He warns
+them that he shall resist, nevertheless; and that he shall do so, not only
+for the assertion of his own independence, but for their good. He tells
+them that they are slaves, and know it not; that they are shackled, and
+kiss their chains; that they have lived all their days in prison, and
+complain at the walls being broken down. He says he must persevere,
+however, with a view to his own release; and in spite of their present
+expostulations, he prophesies that when they have recovered from the fright
+which the prospect of freedom produces, they will thank him for aiding in
+their emancipation.
+
+Unamiable as seems this find-fault mood, offensive as is this defiant
+attitude, we must beware of overlooking the truths enunciated, in dislike
+of the advocacy. It is an unfortunate hindrance to all innovation, that in
+virtue of their very function, the innovators stand in a position of
+antagonism; and the disagreeable manners, and sayings, and doings, which
+this antagonism generates, are commonly associated with the doctrines
+promulgated. Quite forgetting that whether the thing attacked be good or
+bad, the combative spirit is necessarily repulsive; and quite forgetting
+that the toleration of abuses seems amiable merely from its passivity; the
+mass of men contract a bias against advanced views, and in favour of
+stationary ones, from intercourse with their respective adherents.
+"Conservatism," as Emerson says, "is debonnair and social; reform is
+individual and imperious." And this remains true, however vicious the
+system conserved, however righteous the reform to be effected. Nay, the
+indignation of the purists is usually extreme in proportion as the evils to
+be got rid of are great. The more urgent the required change, the more
+intemperate is the vehemence of its promoters. Let no one, then, confound
+with the principles of this social nonconformity the acerbity and the
+disagreeable self-assertion of those who first display it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The most plausible objection raised against resistance to conventions, is
+grounded on its impolicy, considered even from the progressist's point of
+view. It is urged by many of the more liberal and intelligent--usually
+those who have themselves shown some independence of behaviour in earlier
+days--that to rebel in these small matters is to destroy your own power of
+helping on reform in greater matters. "If you show yourself eccentric in
+manners or dress, the world," they say, "will not listen to you. You will
+be considered as crotchety, and impracticable. The opinions you express on
+important subjects, which might have been treated with respect had you
+conformed on minor points, will now inevitably be put down among your
+singularities; and thus, by dissenting in trifles, you disable yourself
+from spreading dissent in essentials."
+
+Only noting, as we pass, that this is one of those anticipations which
+bring about their own fulfilment--that it is because most who disapprove
+these conventions do not show their disapproval, that the few who do show
+it look eccentric--and that did all act out their convictions, no such
+inference as the above would be drawn, and no such evil would
+result;---noting this as we pass, we go on to reply that these social
+restraints, and forms, and requirements, are not small evils, but among the
+greatest. Estimate their sum total, and we doubt whether they would not
+exceed most others. Could we add up the trouble, the cost, the jealousies,
+vexations, misunderstandings, the loss of time and the loss of pleasure,
+which these conventions entail--could we clearly realize the extent to
+which we are all daily hampered by them, daily enslaved by them; we should
+perhaps come to the conclusion that the tyranny of Mrs. Grundy is worse
+than any other tyranny we suffer under. Let us look at a few of its hurtful
+results; beginning with those of minor importance.
+
+It produces extravagance. The desire to be _comme il faut_, which underlies
+all conformities, whether of manners, dress, or styles of entertainment, is
+the desire which makes many a spendthrift and many a bankrupt. To "keep up
+appearances," to have a house in an approved quarter furnished in the
+latest taste, to give expensive dinners and crowded _soirees_, is an
+ambition forming the natural outcome of the conformist spirit. It is
+needless to enlarge on these follies: they have been satirized by hosts of
+writers, and in every drawing-room. All that here concerns us, is to point
+out that the respect for social observances, which men think so
+praiseworthy, has the same root with this effort to be fashionable in mode
+of living; and that, other things equal, the last cannot be diminished
+without the first being diminished also. If, now, we consider all that this
+extravagance entails--if we count up the robbed tradesmen, the stinted
+governesses, the ill-educated children, the fleeced relatives, who have to
+suffer from it--if we mark the anxiety and the many moral delinquencies
+which its perpetrators involve themselves in; we shall see that this regard
+for conventions is not quite so innocent as it looks.
+
+Again, it decreases the amount of social intercourse. Passing over the
+reckless, and those who make a great display on speculation with the
+occasional result of getting on in the world to the exclusion of much
+better men, we come to the far larger class who, being prudent and honest
+enough not to exceed their means, and yet having a strong wish to be
+"respectable," are obliged to limit their entertainments to the smallest
+possible number; and that each of these may be turned to the greatest
+advantage in meeting the claims upon their hospitality, are induced to
+issue their invitations with little or no regard to the comfort or mutual
+fitness of their guests. A few inconveniently-large assemblies, made up of
+people mostly strange to each other or but distantly acquainted, and having
+scarcely any tastes in common, are made to serve in place of many small
+parties of friends intimate enough to have some bond of thought and
+sympathy. Thus the quantity of intercourse is diminished, and the quality
+deteriorated. Because it is the custom to make costly preparations and
+provide costly refreshments; and because it entails both less expense and
+less trouble to do this for many persons on a few occasions than for few
+persons on many occasions; the reunions of our less wealthy classes are
+rendered alike infrequent and tedious.
+
+Let it be further observed, that the existing formalities of social
+intercourse drive away many who most need its refining influence: and drive
+them into injurious habits and associations. Not a few men, and not the
+least sensible men either, give up in disgust this going out to stately
+dinners, and stiff evening-parties; and instead, seek society in clubs, and
+cigar-divans, and taverns. "I'm sick of this standing about in
+drawing-rooms, talking nonsense, and trying to look happy," will answer one
+of them when taxed with his desertion. "Why should I any longer waste time
+and money, and temper? Once I was ready enough to rush home from the office
+to dress; I sported embroidered shirts, submitted to tight boots, and cared
+nothing for tailors' and haberdashers' bills. I know better now. My
+patience lasted a good while; for though I found each night pass stupidly,
+I always hoped the next would make amends. But I'm undeceived. Cab-hire and
+kid gloves cost more than any evening party pays for; or rather--it is
+worth the cost of them to avoid the party. No, no; I'll no more of it. Why
+should I pay five shillings a time for the privilege of being bored?"
+
+If, now, we consider that this very common mood tends towards
+billiard-rooms, towards long sittings over cigars and brandy-and-water,
+towards Evans's and the Coal Hole, towards every place where amusement may
+be had; it becomes a question whether these precise observances which
+hamper our set meetings, have not to answer for much of the prevalent
+dissoluteness. Men must have excitements of some kind or other; and if
+debarred from higher ones will fall back upon lower. It is not that those
+who thus take to irregular habits are essentially those of low tastes.
+Often it is quite the reverse. Among half a dozen intimate friends,
+abandoning formalities and sitting at ease round the fire, none will enter
+with greater enjoyment into the highest kind of social intercourse--the
+genuine communion of thought and feeling; and if the circle includes women
+of intelligence and refinement, so much the greater is their pleasure. It
+is because they will no longer be choked with the mere dry husks of
+conversation which society offers them, that they fly its assemblies, and
+seek those with whom they may have discourse that is at least real, though
+unpolished. The men who thus long for substantial mental sympathy, and will
+go where they can get it, are often, indeed, much better at the core than
+the men who are content with the inanities of gloved and scented
+party-goers--men who feel no need to come morally nearer to their fellow
+creatures than they can come while standing, tea-cup in hand, answering
+trifles with trifles; and who, by feeling no such need, prove themselves
+shallow-thoughted and cold-hearted.
+
+It is true, that some who shun drawing-rooms do so from inability to bear
+the restraints prescribed by a genuine refinement, and that they would be
+greatly improved by being kept under these restraints. But it is not less
+true that, by adding to the legitimate restraints, which are based on
+convenience and a regard for others, a host of factitious restraints based
+only on convention, the refining discipline, which would else have been
+borne with benefit, is rendered unbearable, and so misses its end. Excess
+of government variably defeats itself by driving away those to be governed.
+And if over all who desert its entertainments in disgust either at their
+emptiness or their formality, society thus loses its salutary influence--if
+such not only fail to receive that moral culture which the company of
+ladies, when rationally regulated, would give them, but, in default of
+other relaxation, are driven into habits and companionships which often end
+in gambling and drunkenness; must we not say that here, too, is an evil not
+to be passed over as insignificant?
+
+Then consider what a blighting effect these multitudinous preparations and
+ceremonies have upon the pleasures they profess to subserve. Who, on
+calling to mind the occasions of his highest social enjoyments, does not
+find them to have been wholly informal, perhaps impromptu? How delightful a
+picnic of friends, who forget all observances save those dictated by good
+nature! How pleasant the little unpretended gatherings of book-societies,
+and the like; or those purely accidental meetings of a few people well
+known to each other! Then, indeed, we may see that "a man sharpeneth the
+countenance of his friend." Cheeks flush, and eyes sparkle. The witty grow
+brilliant, and even the dull are excited into saying good things. There is
+an overflow of topics; and the right thought, and the right words to put it
+in, spring up unsought. Grave alternates with gay: now serious converse,
+and now jokes, anecdotes, and playful raillery. Everyone's best nature is
+shown; everyone's best feelings are in pleasurable activity; and, for the
+time, life seems well worth having.
+
+Go now and dress for some half-past eight dinner, or some ten o'clock "at
+home;" and present yourself in spotless attire, with every hair arranged to
+perfection. How great the difference! The enjoyment seems in the inverse
+ratio of the preparation. These figures, got up with such finish and
+precision, appear but half alive. They have frozen each other by their
+primness; and your faculties feel the numbing effects of the atmosphere the
+moment you enter it. All those thoughts, so nimble and so apt awhile since,
+have disappeared--have suddenly acquired a preternatural power of eluding
+you. If you venture a remark to your neighbour, there comes a trite
+rejoinder, and there it ends. No subject you can hit upon outlives half a
+dozen sentences. Nothing that is said excites any real interest in you; and
+you feel that all you say is listened to with apathy. By some strange
+magic, things that usually give pleasure seem to have lost all charm.
+
+You have a taste for art. Weary of frivolous talk, you turn to the table,
+and find that the book of engravings and the portfolio of photographs are
+as flat as the conversation. You are fond of music. Yet the singing, good
+as it is, you hear with utter indifference; and say "Thank you" with a
+sense of being a profound hypocrite. Wholly at ease though you could be,
+for your own part, you find that your sympathies will not let you. You see
+young gentlemen feeling whether their ties are properly adjusted, looking
+vacantly round, and considering what they shall do next. You see ladies
+sitting disconsolately, waiting for some one to speak to them, and wishing
+they had the wherewith to occupy their fingers. You see the hostess
+standing about the doorway, keeping a factitious smile on her face, and
+racking her brain to find the requisite nothings with which to greet her
+guests as they enter. You see numberless traits of weariness and
+embarrassment; and, if you have any fellow feeling, these cannot fail to
+produce a feeling of discomfort. The disorder is catching; and do what you
+will you cannot resist the general infection. You struggle against it; you
+make spasmodic efforts to be lively; but none of your sallies or your good
+stories do more than raise a simper or a forced laugh: intellect and
+feeling are alike asphyxiated. And when, at length, yielding to your
+disgust, you rush away, how great is the relief when you get into the fresh
+air, and see the stars! How you "Thank God, that's over!" and half resolve
+to avoid all such boredom for the future!
+
+What, now, is the secret of this perpetual miscarriage and disappointment?
+Does not the fault lie with all these needless adjuncts--these elaborate
+dressings, these set forms, these expensive preparations, these many
+devices and arrangements that imply trouble and raise expectation? Who that
+has lived thirty years in the world has not discovered that Pleasure is
+coy; and must not be too directly pursued, but must be caught unawares? An
+air from a street-piano, heard while at work, will often gratify more than
+the choicest music played at a concert by the most accomplished musicians.
+A single good picture seen in a dealer's window, may give keener enjoyment
+than a whole exhibition gone through with catalogue and pencil. By the time
+we have got ready our elaborate apparatus by which to secure happiness, the
+happiness is gone. It is too subtle to be contained in these receivers,
+garnished with compliments, and fenced round with etiquette. The more we
+multiply and complicate appliances, the more certain are we to drive it
+away.
+
+The reason is patent enough. These higher emotions to which social
+intercourse ministers, are of extremely complex nature; they consequently
+depend for their production upon very numerous conditions; the more
+numerous the conditions, the greater the liability that one or other of
+them will be disturbed, and the emotions consequently prevented. It takes a
+considerable misfortune to destroy appetite; but cordial sympathy with
+those around may be extinguished by a look or a word. Hence it follows,
+that the more multiplied the _unnecessary_ requirements with which social
+intercourse is surrounded, the less likely are its pleasures to be
+achieved. It is difficult enough to fulfil continuously all the
+_essentials_ to a pleasurable communion with others: how much more
+difficult, then, must it be continuously to fulfil a host of
+_non-essentials_ also! It is, indeed, impossible. The attempt inevitably
+ends in the sacrifice of the first to the last--the essentials to the
+non-essentials. What chance is there of getting any genuine response from
+the lady who is thinking of your stupidity in taking her in to dinner on
+the wrong arm? How are you likely to have agreeable converse with the
+gentleman who is fuming internally because he is not placed next to the
+hostess? Formalities, familiar as they may become, necessarily occupy
+attention--necessarily multiply the occasions for mistake,
+misunderstanding, and jealousy, on the part of one or other--necessarily
+distract all minds from the thoughts and feelings that should occupy
+them--necessarily, therefore, subvert those conditions under which only any
+sterling intercourse is to be had.
+
+And this indeed is the fatal mischief which these conventions entail--a
+mischief to which every other is secondary. They destroy those highest of
+our pleasures which they profess to subserve. All institutions are alike in
+this, that however useful, and needful even, they originally were, they not
+only in the end cease to be so, but become detrimental. While humanity is
+growing, they continue fixed; daily get more mechanical and unvital; and by
+and by tend to strangle what they before preserved. It is not simply that
+they become corrupt and fail to act; they become obstructions. Old forms of
+government finally grow so oppressive, that they must be thrown off even at
+the risk of reigns of terror. Old creeds end in being dead formulas, which
+no longer aid but distort and arrest the general mind; while the
+State-churches administering them, come to be instruments for subsidizing
+conservatism and repressing progress. Old schemes of education, incarnated
+in public schools and colleges, continue filling the heads of new
+generations with what has become relatively useless knowledge, and, by
+consequence, excluding knowledge which is useful. Not an organization of
+any kind--political, religious, literary, philanthropic--but what, by its
+ever-multiplying regulations, its accumulating wealth, its yearly addition
+of officers, and the creeping into it of patronage and party feeling,
+eventually loses its original spirit, and sinks into a mere lifeless
+mechanism, worked with a view to private ends--a mechanism which not merely
+fails of its first purpose, but is a positive hindrance to it.
+
+Thus is it, too, with social usages. We read of the Chinese that they have
+"ponderous ceremonies transmitted from time immemorial," which make social
+intercourse a burden. The court forms prescribed by monarchs for their own
+exaltation, have, in all times and places, ended in consuming the comfort
+of their lives. And so the artificial observances of the dining-room and
+saloon, in proportion as they are many and strict, extinguish that
+agreeable communion which they were originally intended to secure. The
+dislike with which people commonly speak of society that is "formal," and
+"stiff," and "ceremonious," implies the general recognition of this fact;
+and this recognition, logically developed, involves that all usages of
+behaviour which are not based on natural requirements, are injurious. That
+these conventions defeat their own ends is no new assertion. Swift,
+criticising the manners of his day, says--"Wise men are often more uneasy
+at the over-civility of these refiners than they could possibly be in the
+conversation of peasants and mechanics."
+
+But it is not only in these details that the self-defeating action of our
+arrangements is traceable: it is traceable in the very substance and nature
+of them. Our social intercourse, as commonly managed, is a mere semblance
+of the reality sought. What is it that we want? Some sympathetic converse
+with our fellow-creatures: some converse that shall not be mere dead words,
+but the vehicle of living thoughts and feelings--converse in which the eyes
+and the face shall speak, and the tones of the voice be full of
+meaning--converse which shall make us feel no longer alone, but shall draw
+us closer to another, and double our own emotions by adding another's to
+them. Who is there that has not, from time to time, felt how cold and flat
+is all this talk about politics and science, and the new books and the new
+men, and how a genuine utterance of fellow-feeling outweighs the whole of
+it? Mark the words of Bacon:--"For a crowd is not a company, and faces are
+but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is
+no love."
+
+If this be true, then it is only after acquaintance has grown into
+intimacy, and intimacy has ripened into friendship, that the real communion
+which men need becomes possible. A rationally-formed circle must consist
+almost wholly of those on terms of familiarity and regard, with but one or
+two strangers. What folly, then, underlies the whole system of our grand
+dinners, our "at homes," our evening parties--assemblages made up of many
+who never met before, many others who just bow to each other, many others
+who though familiar feel mutual indifference, with just a few real friends
+lost in the general mass! You need but look round at the artificial
+expressions of face, to see at once how it is. All have their disguises on;
+and how can there be sympathy between masks? No wonder that in private
+every one exclaims against the stupidity of these gatherings. No wonder
+that hostesses get them up rather because they must than because they wish.
+No wonder that the invited go less from the expectation of pleasure than
+from fear of giving offence. The whole thing is a gigantic mistake--an
+organized disappointment.
+
+And then note, lastly, that in this case, as in all others, when an
+organization has become effete and inoperative for its legitimate purpose,
+it is employed for quite other ones--quite opposite ones. What is the usual
+plea put in for giving and attending these tedious assemblies? "I admit
+that they are stupid and frivolous enough," replies every man to your
+criticisms; "but then, you know, one must keep up one's connections." And
+could you get from his wife a sincere answer, it would be--"Like you, I am
+sick of these frivolities; but then, we must get our daughters married."
+The one knows that there is a profession to push, a practice to gain, a
+business to extend: or parliamentary influence, or county patronage, or
+votes, or office, to be got: position, berths, favours, profit. The other's
+thoughts runs upon husbands and settlements, wives and dowries. Worthless
+for their ostensible purpose of daily bringing human beings into
+pleasurable relations with each other, these cumbrous appliances of our
+social intercourse are now perseveringly kept in action with a view to the
+pecuniary and matrimonial results which they indirectly produce.
+
+Who then shall say that the reform of our system of observances is
+unimportant? When we see how this system induces fashionable extravagance,
+with its entailed bankruptcy and ruin--when we mark how greatly it limits
+the amount of social intercourse among the less wealthy classes--when we
+find that many who most need to be disciplined by mixing with the refined
+are driven away by it, and led into dangerous and often fatal courses--when
+we count up the many minor evils it inflicts, the extra work which its
+costliness entails on all professional and mercantile men, the damage to
+public taste in dress and decoration by the setting up of its absurdities
+as standards for imitation, the injury to health indicated in the faces of
+its devotees at the close of the London season, the mortality of milliners
+and the like, which its sudden exigencies yearly involve;--and when to all
+these we add its fatal sin; that it blights, withers up, and kills, that
+high enjoyment it professedly ministers to--that enjoyment which is a chief
+end of our hard struggling in life to obtain--shall we not conclude that to
+reform our system of etiquette and fashion, is an aim yielding to few in
+urgency?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There needs, then, a protestantism in social usages. Forms that have ceased
+to facilitate and have become obstructive--whether political, religious, or
+other--have ever to be swept away; and eventually are so swept away in all
+cases. Signs are not wanting that some change is at hand. A host of
+satirists, led on by Thackeray, have been for years engaged in bringing our
+sham-festivities, and our fashionable follies, into contempt; and in their
+candid moods, most men laugh at the frivolities with which they and the
+world in general are deluded. Ridicule has always been a revolutionary
+agent. That which is habitually assailed with sneers and sarcasms cannot
+long survive. Institutions that have lost their roots in men's respect and
+faith are doomed; and the day of their dissolution is not far off. The time
+is approaching, then, when our system of social observances must pass
+through some crisis, out of which it will come purified and comparatively
+simple.
+
+How this crisis will be brought about, no one can with any certainty say.
+Whether by the continuance and increase of individual protests, or whether
+by the union of many persons for the practice and propagation of some
+better system, the future alone can decide. The influence of dissentients
+acting without co-operation, seems, under the present state of things,
+inadequate. Standing severally alone, and having no well-defined views;
+frowned on by conformists, and expostulated with even by those who secretly
+sympathize with them; subject to petty persecutions, and unable to trace
+any benefit produced by their example; they are apt, one by one, to give up
+their attempts as hopeless. The young convention-breaker eventually finds
+that he pays too heavily for his nonconformity. Hating, for example,
+everything that bears about it any remnant of servility, he determines, in
+the ardour of his independence, that he will uncover to no one. But what he
+means simply as a general protest, he finds that ladies interpret into a
+personal disrespect. Though he sees that, from the days of chivalry
+downwards, these marks of supreme consideration paid to the other sex have
+been but a hypocritical counterpart to the actual subjection in which men
+have held them--a pretended submission to compensate for a real domination;
+and though he sees that when the true dignity of women is recognised, the
+mock dignities given to them will be abolished; yet he does not like to be
+thus misunderstood, and so hesitates in his practice.
+
+In other cases, again, his courage fails him. Such of his
+unconventionalities as can be attributed only to eccentricity, he has no
+qualms about: for, on the whole, he feels rather complimented than
+otherwise in being considered a disregarder of public opinion. But when
+they are liable to be put down to ignorance, to ill-breeding, or to
+poverty, he becomes a coward. However clearly the recent innovation of
+eating some kinds of fish with knife and fork proves the fork-and-bread
+practice to have had little but caprice for its basis, yet he dares not
+wholly ignore that practice while fashion partially maintains it. Though he
+thinks that a silk handkerchief is quite as appropriate for drawing-room
+use as a white cambric one, he is not altogether at ease in acting out his
+opinion. Then, too, he begins to perceive that his resistance to
+prescription brings round disadvantageous results which he had not
+calculated upon. He had expected that it would save him from a great deal
+of social intercourse of a frivolous kind--that it would offend the fools,
+but not the sensible people; and so would serve as a self-acting test by
+which those worth knowing would be separated from those not worth knowing.
+But the fools prove to be so greatly in the majority that, by offending
+them, he closes against himself nearly all the avenues though which the
+sensible people are to be reached. Thus he finds, that his nonconformity is
+frequently misinterpreted; that there are but few directions in which he
+dares to carry it consistently out; that the annoyances and disadvantages
+which it brings upon him are greater than he anticipated; and that the
+chances of his doing any good are very remote. Hence he gradually loses
+resolution, and lapses, step by step, into the ordinary routine of
+observances.
+
+Abortive as individual protests thus generally turn out, it may possibly be
+that nothing effectual will be done until there arises some organized
+resistance to this invisible despotism, by which our modes and habits are
+dictated. It may happen, that the government of Manners and Fashion will be
+rendered less tyrannical, as the political and religious governments have
+been, by some antagonistic union. Alike in Church and State, men's first
+emancipations from excess of restriction were achieved by numbers, bound
+together by a common creed or a common political faith. What remained
+undone while there were but individual schismatics or rebels, was effected
+when there came to be many acting in concert. It is tolerably clear that
+these earliest instalments of freedom could not have been obtained in any
+other way; for so long as the feeling of personal independence was weak and
+the rule strong, there could never have been a sufficient number of
+separate dissentients to produce the desired results. Only in these later
+times, during which the secular and spiritual controls have been growing
+less coercive, and the tendency towards individual liberty greater, has it
+become possible for smaller and smaller sects and parties to fight against
+established creeds and laws; until now men may safely stand even alone in
+their antagonism.
+
+The failure of individual nonconformity to customs, as above illustrated,
+suggests that an analogous series of changes may have to be gone through in
+this case also. It is true that the _lex non scripta_ differs from the _lex
+scripta_ in this, that, being unwritten, it is more readily altered; and
+that it has, from time to time, been quietly ameliorated. Nevertheless, we
+shall find that the analogy holds substantially good. For in this case, as
+in the others, the essential revolution is not the substituting of any one
+set of restraints for any other, but the limiting or abolishing the
+authority which prescribes restraints. Just as the fundamental change
+inaugurated by the Reformation, was not a superseding of one creed by
+another, but an ignoring of the arbiter who before dictated creeds--just as
+the fundamental change which Democracy long ago commenced, was not from
+this particular law to that, but from the despotism of one to the freedom
+of all; so, the parallel change yet to be wrought out in this supplementary
+government of which we are treating, is not the replacing of absurd usages
+by sensible ones, but the dethronement of that secret, irresponsible power
+which now imposes our usages, and the assertion of the right of all
+individuals to choose their own usages. In rules of living, a West-end
+clique is our Pope; and we are all papists, with but a mere sprinkling of
+heretics. On all who decisively rebel, comes down the penalty of
+excommunication, with its long catalogue of disagreeable and, indeed,
+serious consequences.
+
+The liberty of the subject asserted in our constitution, and ever on the
+increase, has yet to be wrested from this subtler tyranny. The right of
+private judgment, which our ancestors wrung from the church, remains to be
+claimed from this dictator of our habits. Or, as before said, to free us
+from these idolatries and superstitious conformities, there has still to
+come a protestantism in social usages. Parallel, therefore, as is the
+change to be wrought out, it seems not improbable that it may be wrought
+out in an analogous way. That influence which solitary dissentients fail to
+gain, and that perseverance which they lack, may come into existence when
+they unite. That persecution which the world now visits upon them from
+mistaking their nonconformity for ignorance or disrespect, may diminish
+when it is seen to result from principle. The penalty which exclusion now
+entails may disappear when they become numerous enough to form visiting
+circles of their own. And when a successful stand has been made, and the
+brunt of the opposition has passed, that large amount of secret dislike to
+our observances which now pervades society, may manifest itself with
+sufficient power to effect the desired emancipation.
+
+Whether such will be the process, time alone can decide. That community of
+origin, growth, supremacy, and decadence, which we have found among all
+kinds of government, suggests a community in modes of change also. On the
+other hand, Nature often performs substantially similar operations, in ways
+apparently different. Hence these details can never be foretold.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, let us glance at the conclusions that have been reached. On the
+one side, government, originally one, and afterwards subdivided for the
+better fulfilment of its function, must be considered as having ever been,
+in all its branches--political, religious, and ceremonial--beneficial; and,
+indeed, absolutely necessary. On the other side, government, under all its
+forms, must be regarded as subserving a temporary office, made needful by
+the unfitness of aboriginal humanity for social life; and the successive
+diminutions of its coerciveness in State, in Church, and in Custom, must be
+looked upon as steps towards its final disappearance. To complete the
+conception, there requires to be borne in mind the third fact, that the
+genesis, the maintenance, and the decline of all governments, however
+named, are alike brought about by the humanity to be controlled: from which
+may be drawn the inference that, on the average, restrictions of every kind
+cannot last much longer than they are wanted, and cannot be destroyed much
+faster than they ought to be.
+
+Society, in all its developments, undergoes the process of exuviation.
+These old forms which it successively throws off, have all been once
+vitally united with it--have severally served as the protective envelopes
+within which a higher humanity was being evolved. They are cast aside only
+when they become hindrances--only when some inner and better envelope has
+been formed; and they bequeath to us all that there was in them good. The
+periodical abolitions of tyrannical laws have left the administration of
+justice not only uninjured, but purified. Dead and buried creeds have not
+carried with them the essential morality they contained, which still
+exists, uncontaminated by the sloughs of superstition. And all that there
+is of justice and kindness and beauty, embodied in our cumbrous forms of
+etiquette, will live perennially when the forms themselves have been
+forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE GENESIS OF SCIENCE.
+
+
+There has ever prevailed among men a vague notion that scientific knowledge
+differs in nature from ordinary knowledge. By the Greeks, with whom
+Mathematics--literally _things learnt_--was alone considered as knowledge
+proper, the distinction must have been strongly felt; and it has ever since
+maintained itself in the general mind. Though, considering the contrast
+between the achievements of science and those of daily unmethodic thinking,
+it is not surprising that such a distinction has been assumed; yet it needs
+but to rise a little above the common point of view, to see that no such
+distinction can really exist: or that at best, it is but a superficial
+distinction. The same faculties are employed in both cases; and in both
+cases their mode of operation is fundamentally the same.
+
+If we say that science is organized knowledge, we are met by the truth that
+all knowledge is organized in a greater or less degree--that the commonest
+actions of the household and the field presuppose facts colligated,
+inferences drawn, results expected; and that the general success of these
+actions proves the data by which they were guided to have been correctly
+put together. If, again, we say that science is prevision--is a seeing
+beforehand--is a knowing in what times, places, combinations, or sequences,
+specified phenomena will be found; we are yet obliged to confess that the
+definition includes much that is utterly foreign to science in its ordinary
+acceptation. For example, a child's knowledge of an apple. This, as far as
+it goes consists in previsions. When a child sees a certain form and
+colours, it knows that if it puts out its hand it will have certain
+impressions of resistance, and roundness, and smoothness; and if it bites,
+a certain taste. And manifestly its general acquaintance with surrounding
+objects is of like nature--is made up of facts concerning them, so grouped
+as that any part of a group being perceived, the existence of the other
+facts included in it is foreseen.
+
+If, once more, we say that science is _exact_ prevision, we still fail to
+establish the supposed difference. Not only do we find that much of what we
+call science is not exact, and that some of it, as physiology, can never
+become exact; but we find further, that many of the previsions constituting
+the common stock alike of wise and ignorant, _are_ exact. That an
+unsupported body will fall; that a lighted candle will go out when immersed
+in water; that ice will melt when thrown on the fire--these, and many like
+predictions relating to the familiar properties of things have as high a
+degree of accuracy as predictions are capable of. It is true that the
+results predicated are of a very general character; but it is none the less
+true that they are rigorously correct as far as they go: and this is all
+that is requisite to fulfil the definition. There is perfect accordance
+between the anticipated phenomena and the actual ones; and no more than
+this can be said of the highest achievements of the sciences specially
+characterised as exact.
+
+Seeing thus that the assumed distinction between scientific knowledge and
+common knowledge is not logically justifiable; and yet feeling, as we must,
+that however impossible it may be to draw a line between them, the two are
+not practically identical; there arises the question--What is the
+relationship that exists between them? A partial answer to this question
+may be drawn from the illustrations just given. On reconsidering them, it
+will be observed that those portions of ordinary knowledge which are
+identical in character with scientific knowledge, comprehend only such
+combinations of phenomena as are directly cognizable by the senses, and are
+of simple, invariable nature. That the smoke from a fire which she is
+lighting will ascend, and that the fire will presently boil water, are
+previsions which the servant-girl makes equally well with the most learned
+physicist; they are equally certain, equally exact with his; but they are
+previsions concerning phenomena in constant and direct relation--phenomena
+that follow visibly and immediately after their antecedents--phenomena of
+which the causation is neither remote nor obscure--phenomena which may be
+predicted by the simplest possible act of reasoning.
+
+If, now, we pass to the previsions constituting what is commonly known as
+science--that an eclipse of the moon will happen at a specified time; and
+when a barometer is taken to the top of a mountain of known height, the
+mercurial column will descend a stated number of inches; that the poles of
+a galvanic battery immersed in water will give off, the one an inflammable
+and the other an inflaming gas, in definite ratio--we perceive that the
+relations involved are not of a kind habitually presented to our senses;
+that they depend, some of them, upon special combinations of causes; and
+that in some of them the connection between antecedents and consequents is
+established only by an elaborate series of inferences. The broad
+distinction, therefore, between the two orders of knowledge, is not in
+their nature, but in their remoteness from perception.
+
+If we regard the cases in their most general aspect, we see that the
+labourer, who, on hearing certain notes in the adjacent hedge, can describe
+the particular form and colours of the bird making them; and the
+astronomer, who, having calculated a transit of Venus, can delineate the
+black spot entering on the sun's disc, as it will appear through the
+telescope, at a specified hour; do essentially the same thing. Each knows
+that on fulfilling the requisite conditions, he shall have a preconceived
+impression--that after a definite series of actions will come a group of
+sensations of a foreknown kind. The difference, then, is not in the
+fundamental character of the mental acts; or in the correctness of the
+previsions accomplished by them; but in the complexity of the processes
+required to achieve the previsions. Much of our commonest knowledge is, as
+far as it goes, rigorously precise. Science does not increase this
+precision; cannot transcend it. What then does it do? It reduces other
+knowledge to the same degree of precision. That certainty which direct
+perception gives us respecting coexistences and sequences of the simplest
+and most accessible kind, science gives us respecting coexistences and
+sequences, complex in their dependencies or inaccessible to immediate
+observation. In brief, regarded from this point of view, science may be
+called _an extension of the perceptions by means of reasoning_.
+
+On further considering the matter, however, it will perhaps be felt that
+this definition does not express the whole fact--that inseparable as
+science may be from common knowledge, and completely as we may fill up the
+gap between the simplest previsions of the child and the most recondite
+ones of the natural philosopher, by interposing a series of previsions in
+which the complexity of reasoning involved is greater and greater, there is
+yet a difference between the two beyond that which is here described. And
+this is true. But the difference is still not such as enables us to draw
+the assumed line of demarcation. It is a difference not between common
+knowledge and scientific knowledge; but between the successive phases of
+science itself, or knowledge itself--whichever we choose to call it. In its
+earlier phases science attains only to _certainty_ of foreknowledge; in its
+later phases it further attains to _completeness_. We begin by discovering
+_a_ relation: we end by discovering _the_ relation. Our first achievement
+is to foretell the _kind_ of phenomenon which will occur under specific
+conditions: our last achievement is to foretell not only the kind but the
+_amount_. Or, to reduce the proposition to its most definite
+form--undeveloped science is _qualitative_ prevision: developed science is
+_quantitative_ prevision.
+
+This will at once be perceived to express the remaining distinction between
+the lower and the higher stages of positive knowledge. The prediction that
+a piece of lead will take more force to lift it than a piece of wood of
+equal size, exhibits certainty, but not completeness, of foresight. The
+kind of effect in which the one body will exceed the other is foreseen; but
+not the amount by which it will exceed. There is qualitative prevision
+only. On the other hand, the prediction that at a stated time two
+particular planets will be in conjunction; that by means of a lever having
+arms in a given ratio, a known force will raise just so many pounds; that
+to decompose a specified quantity of sulphate of iron by carbonate of soda
+will require so many grains--these predictions exhibit foreknowledge, not
+only of the nature of the effects to be produced, but of the magnitude,
+either of the effects themselves, of the agencies producing them, or of the
+distance in time or space at which they will be produced. There is not only
+qualitative but quantitative prevision.
+
+And this is the unexpressed difference which leads us to consider certain
+orders of knowledge as especially scientific when contrasted with knowledge
+in general. Are the phenomena _measurable_? is the test which we
+unconsciously employ. Space is measurable: hence Geometry. Force and space
+are measurable: hence Statics. Time, force, and space are measurable: hence
+Dynamics. The invention of the barometer enabled men to extend the
+principles of mechanics to the atmosphere; and Aerostatics existed. When a
+thermometer was devised there arose a science of heat, which was before
+impossible. Such of our sensations as we have not yet found modes of
+measuring do not originate sciences. We have no science of smells; nor have
+we one of tastes. We have a science of the relations of sounds differing in
+pitch, because we have discovered a way to measure them; but we have no
+science of sounds in respect to their loudness or their _timbre_, because
+we have got no measures of loudness and _timbre_.
+
+Obviously it is this reduction of the sensible phenomena it represents, to
+relations of magnitude, which gives to any division of knowledge its
+especially scientific character. Originally men's knowledge of weights and
+forces was in the same condition as their knowledge of smells and tastes is
+now--a knowledge not extending beyond that given by the unaided sensations;
+and it remained so until weighing instruments and dynamometers were
+invented. Before there were hour-glasses and clepsydras, most phenomena
+could be estimated as to their durations and intervals, with no greater
+precision than degrees of hardness can be estimated by the fingers. Until a
+thermometric scale was contrived, men's judgments respecting relative
+amounts of heat stood on the same footing with their present judgments
+respecting relative amounts of sound. And as in these initial stages, with
+no aids to observation, only the roughest comparisons of cases could be
+made, and only the most marked differences perceived; it is obvious that
+only the most simple laws of dependence could be ascertained--only those
+laws which being uncomplicated with others, and not disturbed in their
+manifestations, required no niceties of observation to disentangle them.
+Whence it appears not only that in proportion as knowledge becomes
+quantitative do its previsions become complete as well as certain, but that
+until its assumption of a quantitative character it is necessarily confined
+to the most elementary relations.
+
+Moreover it is to be remarked that while, on the one hand, we can discover
+the laws of the greater proportion of phenomena only by investigating them
+quantitatively; on the other hand we can extend the range of our
+quantitative previsions only as fast as we detect the laws of the results
+we predict. For clearly the ability to specify the magnitude of a result
+inaccessible to direct measurement, implies knowledge of its mode of
+dependence on something which can be measured--implies that we know the
+particular fact dealt with to be an instance of some more general fact.
+Thus the extent to which our quantitative previsions have been carried in
+any direction, indicates the depth to which our knowledge reaches in that
+direction. And here, as another aspect of the same fact, we may further
+observe that as we pass from qualitative to quantitative prevision, we pass
+from inductive science to deductive science. Science while purely inductive
+is purely qualitative: when inaccurately quantitative it usually consists
+of part induction, part deduction: and it becomes accurately quantitative
+only when wholly deductive. We do not mean that the deductive and the
+quantitative are coextensive; for there is manifestly much deduction that
+is qualitative only. We mean that all quantitative prevision is reached
+deductively; and that induction can achieve only qualitative prevision.
+
+Still, however, it must not be supposed that these distinctions enable us
+to separate ordinary knowledge from science; much as they seem to do so.
+While they show in what consists the broad contrast between the extreme
+forms of the two, they yet lead us to recognise their essential identity;
+and once more prove the difference to be one of degree only. For, on the
+one hand, the commonest positive knowledge is to some extent quantitative;
+seeing that the amount of the foreseen result is known within certain wide
+limits. And, on the other hand, the highest quantitative prevision does not
+reach the exact truth, but only a very near approximation to it. Without
+clocks the savage knows that the day is longer in the summer than in the
+winter; without scales he knows that stone is heavier than flesh: that is,
+he can foresee respecting certain results that their amounts will exceed
+these, and be less than those--he knows _about_ what they will be. And,
+with his most delicate instruments and most elaborate calculations, all
+that the man of science can do, is to reduce the difference between the
+foreseen and the actual results to an unimportant quantity.
+
+Moreover, it must be borne in mind not only that all the sciences are
+qualitative in their first stages,--not only that some of them, as
+Chemistry, have but recently reached the quantitative stage--but that the
+most advanced sciences have attained to their present power of determining
+quantities not present to the senses, or not directly measurable, by a slow
+process of improvement extending through thousands of years. So that
+science and the knowledge of the uncultured are alike in the nature of
+their previsions, widely as they differ in range; they possess a common
+imperfection, though this is immensely greater in the last than in the
+first; and the transition from the one to the other has been through a
+series of steps by which the imperfection has been rendered continually
+less, and the range continually wider.
+
+These facts, that science and the positive knowledge of the uncultured
+cannot be separated in nature, and that the one is but a perfected and
+extended form of the other, must necessarily underlie the whole theory of
+science, its progress, and the relations of its parts to each other. There
+must be serious incompleteness in any history of the sciences, which,
+leaving out of view the first steps of their genesis, commences with them
+only when they assume definite forms. There must be grave defects, if not a
+general untruth, in a philosophy of the sciences considered in their
+interdependence and development, which neglects the inquiry how they came
+to be distinct sciences, and how they were severally evolved out of the
+chaos of primitive ideas.
+
+Not only a direct consideration of the matter, but all analogy, goes to
+show that in the earlier and simpler stages must be sought the key to all
+subsequent intricacies. The time was when the anatomy and physiology of the
+human being were studied by themselves--when the adult man was analyzed and
+the relations of parts and of functions investigated, without reference
+either to the relations exhibited in the embryo or to the homologous
+relations existing in other creatures. Now, however, it has become manifest
+that no true conceptions, no true generalizations, are possible under such
+conditions. Anatomists and physiologists now find that the real natures of
+organs and tissues can be ascertained only by tracing their early
+evolution; and that the affinities between existing genera can be
+satisfactorily made out only by examining the fossil genera to which they
+are allied. Well, is it not clear that the like must be true concerning all
+things that undergo development? Is not science a growth? Has not science,
+too, its embryology? And must not the neglect of its embryology lead to a
+misunderstanding of the principles of its evolution and of its existing
+organization?
+
+There are _a priori_ reasons, therefore, for doubting the truth of all
+philosophies of the sciences which tacitly proceed upon the common notion
+that scientific knowledge and ordinary knowledge are separate; instead of
+commencing, as they should, by affiliating the one upon the other, and
+showing how it gradually came to be distinguishable from the other. We may
+expect to find their generalizations essentially artificial; and we shall
+not be deceived. Some illustrations of this may here be fitly introduced,
+by way of preliminary to a brief sketch of the genesis of science from the
+point of view indicated. And we cannot more readily find such illustrations
+than by glancing at a few of the various _classifications_ of the sciences
+that have from time to time been proposed. To consider all of them would
+take too much space: we must content ourselves with some of the latest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Commencing with those which may be soonest disposed of, let us notice first
+the arrangement propounded by Oken. An abstract of it runs thus:--
+
+  Part I. MATHESIS.--_Pneumatogeny_: Primary Art, Primary
+        Consciousness, God, Primary Rest, Time, Polarity, Motion, Man,
+        Space, Point, Line, Surface, Globe, Rotation.--_Hylogeny_:
+        Gravity, Matter, Ether, Heavenly Bodies, Light, Heat, Fire.
+
+  (He explains that MATHESIS is the doctrine of the whole;
+  _Pneumatogeny_ being the doctrine of immaterial totalities,
+  and _Hylogeny_ that of material totalities.)
+
+  Part II. ONTOLOGY.--_Cosmogeny_: Rest, Centre, Motion, Line, Planets,
+        Form, Planetary System, Comets.--_Stoechiogeny_: Condensation,
+        Simple Matter, Elements, Air, Water, Earth.--_Stoechiology_:
+        Functions of the Elements, &c. &c.--_Kingdoms of Nature_:
+        Individuals.
+
+  (He says in explanation that "ONTOLOGY teaches us the phenomena of
+  matter. The first of these are the heavenly bodies comprehended by
+  _Cosmogeny_. These divide into elements--_Stoechiogeny_. The earth
+  element divides into minerals--_Mineralogy_. These unite into one
+  collective body--_Geogeny_. The whole in singulars is the living, or
+  _Organic_, which again divides into plants and animals. _Biology_,
+  therefore, divides into _Organogeny_, _Phytosophy_, _Zoosophy_.")
+
+    FIRST KINGDOM.--MINERALS. _Mineralogy_, _Geology_.
+
+  Part III. BIOLOGY.--_Organosophy_, _Phytogeny_, _Phyto-physiology_,
+  _Phytology_, _Zoogeny_, _Physiology_, _Zoology_, _Psychology_.
+
+A glance over this confused scheme shows that it is an attempt to classify
+knowledge, not after the order in which it has been, or may be, built up in
+the human consciousness; but after an assumed order of creation. It is a
+pseudo-scientific cosmogony, akin to those which men have enunciated from
+the earliest times downwards; and only a little more respectable. As such
+it will not be thought worthy of much consideration by those who, like
+ourselves, hold that experience is the sole origin of knowledge. Otherwise,
+it might have been needful to dwell on the incongruities of the
+arrangements--to ask how motion can be treated of before space? how there
+can be rotation without matter to rotate? how polarity can be dealt with
+without involving points and lines? But it will serve our present purpose
+just to point out a few of the extreme absurdities resulting from the
+doctrine which Oken seems to hold in common with Hegel, that "to
+philosophize on Nature is to re-think the great thought of Creation." Here
+is a sample:--
+
+  "Mathematics is the universal science; so also is Physio-philosophy,
+  although it is only a part, or rather but a condition of the
+  universe; both are one, or mutually congruent.
+
+  "Mathematics is, however, a science of mere forms without substance.
+  Physio-philosophy is, therefore, _mathematics endowed with
+  substance_."
+
+From the English point of view it is sufficiently amusing to find such a
+dogma not only gravely stated, but stated as an unquestionable truth. Here
+we see the experiences of quantitative relations which men have gathered
+from surrounding bodies and generalized (experiences which had been
+scarcely at all generalized at the beginning of the historic period)--we
+find these generalized experiences, these intellectual abstractions,
+elevated into concrete actualities, projected back into Nature, and
+considered as the internal frame-work of things--the skeleton by which
+matter is sustained. But this new form of the old realism, is by no means
+the most startling of the physio-philosophic principles. We presently read
+that,
+
+  "The highest mathematical idea, or the fundamental principle of all
+  mathematics is the zero = 0."...
+
+  "Zero is in itself nothing. Mathematics is based upon nothing, and,
+  _consequently_, arises out of nothing.
+
+  "Out of nothing, _therefore_, it is possible for something to arise;
+  for mathematics, consisting of propositions, is something, in
+  relation to 0."
+
+By such "consequentlys" and "therefores" it is, that men philosophize when
+they "re-think the great thought of creation." By dogmas that pretend to be
+reasons, nothing is made to generate mathematics; and by clothing
+mathematics with matter, we have the universe! If now we deny, as we _do_
+deny, that the highest mathematical idea is the zero;--if, on the other
+hand, we assert, as we _do_ assert, that the fundamental idea underlying
+all mathematics, is that of equality; the whole of Oken's cosmogony
+disappears. And here, indeed, we may see illustrated, the distinctive
+peculiarity of the German method of procedure in these matters--the bastard
+_a priori_ method, as it may be termed. The legitimate _a priori_ method
+sets out with propositions of which the negation is inconceivable; the _a
+priori_ method as illegitimately applied, sets out either with propositions
+of which the negation is _not_ inconceivable, or with propositions like
+Oken's, of which the _affirmation_ is inconceivable.
+
+It is needless to proceed further with the analysis; else might we detail
+the steps by which Oken arrives at the conclusions that "the planets are
+coagulated colours, for they are coagulated light; that the sphere is the
+expanded nothing;" that gravity is "a weighty nothing, a heavy essence,
+striving towards a centre;" that "the earth is the identical, water the
+indifferent, air the different; or the first the centre, the second the
+radius, the last the periphery of the general globe or of fire." To comment
+on them would be nearly as absurd as are the propositions themselves. Let
+us pass on to another of the German systems of knowledge--that of Hegel.
+
+The simple fact that Hegel puts Jacob B[oe]hme on a par with Bacon,
+suffices alone to show that his stand-point is far remote from the one
+usually regarded as scientific: so far remote, indeed, that it is not easy
+to find any common basis on which to found a criticism. Those who hold that
+the mind is moulded into conformity with surrounding things by the agency
+of surrounding things, are necessarily at a loss how to deal with those,
+who, like Schelling and Hegel, assert that surrounding things are
+solidified mind--that Nature is "petrified intelligence." However, let us
+briefly glance at Hegel's classification. He divides philosophy into three
+parts:--
+
+  1. _Logic_, or the science of the idea in itself, the pure idea.
+
+  2. _The Philosophy of Nature_, or the science of the idea considered
+     under its other form--of the idea as Nature.
+
+  3. _The Philosophy of the Mind_, or the science of the idea in its
+     return to itself.
+
+Of these, the second is divided into the natural sciences, commonly so
+called; so that in its more detailed form the series runs thus:--Logic,
+Mechanics, Physics, Organic Physics, Psychology.
+
+Now, if we believe with Hegel, first, that thought is the true essence of
+man; second, that thought is the essence of the world; and that, therefore,
+there is nothing but thought; his classification, beginning with the
+science of pure thought, may be acceptable. But otherwise, it is an obvious
+objection to his arrangement, that thought implies things thought of--that
+there can be no logical forms without the substance of experience--that the
+science of ideas and the science of things must have a simultaneous origin.
+Hegel, however, anticipates this objection, and, in his obstinate idealism,
+replies, that the contrary is true; that all contained in the forms, to
+become something, requires to be thought: and that logical forms are the
+foundations of all things.
+
+It is not surprising that, starting from such premises, and reasoning after
+this fashion, Hegel finds his way to strange conclusions. Out of _space_
+and _time_ he proceeds to build up _motion_, _matter_, _repulsion_,
+_attraction_, _weight_, and _inertia_. He then goes on to logically evolve
+the solar system. In doing this he widely diverges from the Newtonian
+theory; reaches by syllogism the conviction that the planets are the most
+perfect celestial bodies; and, not being able to bring the stars within his
+theory, says that they are mere formal existences and not living matter,
+and that as compared with the solar system they are as little admirable as
+a cutaneous eruption or a swarm of flies.[F]
+
+  [F] It is somewhat curious that the author of "The Plurality of
+      Worlds," with quite other aims, should have persuaded himself
+      into similar conclusions.
+
+Results so outrageous might be left as self-disproved, were it not that
+speculators of this class are not alarmed by any amount of incongruity with
+established beliefs. The only efficient mode of treating systems like this
+of Hegel, is to show that they are self-destructive--that by their first
+steps they ignore that authority on which all their subsequent steps
+depend. If Hegel professes, as he manifestly does, to develop his scheme by
+reasoning--if he presents successive inferences as _necessarily following_
+from certain premises; he implies the postulate that a belief which
+necessarily follows after certain antecedents is a true belief: and, did an
+opponent reply to one of his inferences, that, though it was impossible to
+think the opposite, yet the opposite was true, he would consider the reply
+irrational. The procedure, however, which he would thus condemn as
+destructive of all thinking whatever, is just the procedure exhibited in
+the enunciation of his own first principles.
+
+Mankind find themselves unable to conceive that there can be thought
+without things thought of. Hegel, however, asserts that there _can_ be
+thought without things thought of. That ultimate test of a true
+proposition--the inability of the human mind to conceive the negation of
+it--which in all other cases he considers valid, he considers invalid where
+it suits his convenience to do so; and yet at the same time denies the
+right of an opponent to follow his example. If it is competent for him to
+posit dogmas, which are the direct negations of what human consciousness
+recognises; then is it also competent for his antagonists to stop him at
+every step in his argument by saying, that though the particular inference
+he is drawing seems to his mind, and to all minds, necessarily to follow
+from the premises, yet it is not true, but the contrary inference is true.
+Or, to state the dilemma in another form:--If he sets out with
+inconceivable propositions, then may he with equal propriety make all his
+succeeding propositions inconceivable ones--may at every step throughout
+his reasoning draw exactly the opposite conclusion to that which seems
+involved.
+
+Hegel's mode of procedure being thus essentially suicidal, the Hegelian
+classification which depends upon it, falls to the ground. Let us consider
+next that of M. Comte.
+
+As all his readers must admit, M. Comte presents us with a scheme of the
+sciences which, unlike the foregoing ones, demands respectful
+consideration. Widely as we differ from him, we cheerfully bear witness to
+the largeness of his views, the clearness of his reasoning, and the value
+of his speculations as contributing to intellectual progress. Did we
+believe a serial arrangement of the sciences to be possible, that of M.
+Comte would certainly be the one we should adopt. His fundamental
+propositions are thoroughly intelligible; and if not true, have a great
+semblance of truth. His successive steps are logically co-ordinated; and he
+supports his conclusions by a considerable amount of evidence--evidence
+which, so long as it is not critically examined, or not met by counter
+evidence, seems to substantiate his positions. But it only needs to assume
+that antagonistic attitude which _ought_ to be assumed towards new
+doctrines, in the belief that, if true, they will prosper by conquering
+objectors--it needs but to test his leading doctrines either by other facts
+than those he cites, or by his own facts differently applied, to at once
+show that they will not stand. We will proceed thus to deal with the
+general principle on which he bases his hierarchy of the sciences.
+
+In the second chapter of his _Cours de Philosophie Positive_, M. Comte
+says:--"Our problem is, then, to find the one _rational_ order, amongst a
+host of possible systems."... "This order is determined by the degree of
+simplicity, or, what comes to the same thing, of generality of their
+phenomena." And the arrangement he deduces runs thus: _Mathematics_,
+_Astronomy_, _Physics_, _Chemistry_, _Physiology_, _Social Physics_. This
+he asserts to be "the true _filiation_ of the sciences." He asserts
+further, that the principle of progression from a greater to a less degree
+of generality, "which gives this order to the whole body of science,
+arranges the parts of each science." And, finally, he asserts that the
+gradations thus established _a priori_ among the sciences, and the parts of
+each science, "is in essential conformity with the order which has
+spontaneously taken place among the branches of natural philosophy;" or, in
+other words--corresponds with the order of historic development.
+
+Let us compare these assertions with the facts. That there may be perfect
+fairness, let us make no choice, but take as the field for our comparison,
+the succeeding section treating of the first science--Mathematics; and let
+us use none but M. Comte's own facts, and his own admissions. Confining
+ourselves to this one science, of course our comparisons must be between
+its several parts. M. Comte says, that the parts of each science must be
+arranged in the order of their decreasing generality; and that this order
+of decreasing generality agrees with the order of historic development. Our
+inquiry must be, then, whether the history of mathematics confirms this
+statement.
+
+Carrying out his principle, M. Comte divides Mathematics into "Abstract
+Mathematics, or the Calculus (taking the word in its most extended sense)
+and Concrete Mathematics, which is composed of General Geometry and of
+Rational Mechanics." The subject-matter of the first of these is _number_;
+the subject-matter of the second includes _space_, _time_, _motion_,
+_force_. The one possesses the highest possible degree of generality; for
+all things whatever admit of enumeration. The others are less general;
+seeing that there are endless phenomena that are not cognizable either by
+general geometry or rational mechanics. In conformity with the alleged law,
+therefore, the evolution of the calculus must throughout have preceded the
+evolution of the concrete sub-sciences. Now somewhat awkwardly for him, the
+first remark M. Comte makes bearing upon this point is, that "from an
+historical point of view, mathematical analysis _appears to have risen out
+of_ the contemplation of geometrical and mechanical facts." True, he goes
+on to say that, "it is not the less independent of these sciences logically
+speaking;" for that "analytical ideas are, above all others, universal,
+abstract, and simple, and geometrical conceptions are necessarily founded
+on them."
+
+We will not take advantage of this last passage to charge M. Comte with
+teaching, after the fashion of Hegel, that there can be thought without
+things thought of. We are content simply to compare the two assertions,
+that analysis arose out of the contemplation of geometrical and mechanical
+facts, and that geometrical conceptions are founded upon analytical ones.
+Literally interpreted they exactly cancel each other. Interpreted, however,
+in a liberal sense, they imply, what we believe to be demonstrable, that
+the two had _a simultaneous origin_. The passage is either nonsense, or it
+is an admission that abstract and concrete mathematics are coeval. Thus, at
+the very first step, the alleged congruity between the order of generality
+and the order of evolution, does not hold good.
+
+But may it not be that though abstract and concrete mathematics took their
+rise at the same time, the one afterwards developed more rapidly than the
+other; and has ever since remained in advance of it? No: and again we call
+M. Comte himself as witness. Fortunately for his argument he has said
+nothing respecting the early stages of the concrete and abstract divisions
+after their divergence from a common root; otherwise the advent of Algebra
+long after the Greek geometry had reached a high development, would have
+been an inconvenient fact for him to deal with. But passing over this, and
+limiting ourselves to his own statements, we find, at the opening of the
+next chapter, the admission, that "the historical development of the
+abstract portion of mathematical science has, since the time of Descartes,
+been for the most part _determined_ by that of the concrete." Further on we
+read respecting algebraic functions that "most functions were concrete in
+their origin--even those which are at present the most purely abstract; and
+the ancients discovered only through geometrical definitions elementary
+algebraic properties of functions to which a numerical value was not
+attached till long afterwards, rendering abstract to us what was concrete
+to the old geometers." How do these statements tally with his doctrine?
+Again, having divided the calculus into algebraic and arithmetical, M.
+Comte admits, as perforce he must, that the algebraic is more general than
+the arithmetical; yet he will not say that algebra preceded arithmetic in
+point of time. And again, having divided the calculus of functions into the
+calculus of direct functions (common algebra) and the calculus of indirect
+functions (transcendental analysis), he is obliged to speak of this last as
+possessing a higher generality than the first; yet it is far more modern.
+Indeed, by implication, M. Comte himself confesses this incongruity; for he
+says:--"It might seem that the transcendental analysis ought to be studied
+before the ordinary, as it provides the equations which the other has to
+resolve; but though the transcendental _is logically independent of the
+ordinary_, it is best to follow the usual method of study, taking the
+ordinary first." In all these cases, then, as well as at the close of the
+section where he predicts that mathematicians will in time "create
+procedures of _a wider generality_," M. Comte makes admissions that are
+diametrically opposed to the alleged law.
+
+In the succeeding chapters treating of the concrete department of
+mathematics, we find similar contradictions. M. Comte himself names the
+geometry of the ancients _special_ geometry, and that of moderns the
+_general_ geometry. He admits that while "the ancients studied geometry
+with reference to the _bodies_ under notice, or specially; the moderns
+study it with reference to the _phenomena_ to be considered, or generally."
+He admits that while "the ancients extracted all they could out of one line
+or surface before passing to another," "the moderns, since Descartes,
+employ themselves on questions which relate to any figure whatever." These
+facts are the reverse of what, according to his theory, they should be. So,
+too, in mechanics. Before dividing it into statics and dynamics, M. Comte
+treats of the three laws of _motion_, and is obliged to do so; for statics,
+the more _general_ of the two divisions, though it does not involve motion,
+is impossible as a science until the laws of motion are ascertained. Yet
+the laws of motion pertain to dynamics, the more _special_ of the
+divisions. Further on he points out that after Archimedes, who discovered
+the law of equilibrium of the lever, statics made no progress until the
+establishment of dynamics enabled us to seek "the conditions of equilibrium
+through the laws of the composition of forces." And he adds--"At this day
+_this is the method universally employed_. At the first glance it does not
+appear the most rational--dynamics being more complicated than statics, and
+precedence being natural to the simpler. It would, in fact, be more
+philosophical to refer dynamics to statics, as has since been done." Sundry
+discoveries are afterwards detailed, showing how completely the development
+of statics has been achieved by considering its problems dynamically; and
+before the close of the section M. Comte remarks that "before hydrostatics
+could be comprehended under statics, it was necessary that the abstract
+theory of equilibrium should be made so general as to apply directly to
+fluids as well as solids. This was accomplished when Lagrange supplied, as
+the basis of the whole of rational mechanics, the single principle of
+virtual velocities." In which statement we have two facts directly at
+variance with M. Comte's doctrine;--first, that the simpler science,
+statics, reached its present development only by the aid of the principle
+of virtual velocities, which belongs to the more complex science, dynamics;
+and that this "single principle" underlying all rational mechanics--this
+_most general form_ which includes alike the relations of statical,
+hydrostatical, and dynamical forces--was reached so late as the time of
+Lagrange.
+
+Thus it is _not_ true that the historical succession of the divisions of
+mathematics has corresponded with the order of decreasing generality. It is
+_not_ true that abstract mathematics was evolved antecedently to, and
+independently of concrete mathematics. It is _not_ true that of the
+subdivisions of abstract mathematics, the more general came before the more
+special. And it is _not_ true that concrete mathematics, in either of its
+two sections, began with the most abstract and advanced to the less
+abstract truths.
+
+It may be well to mention, parenthetically, that in defending his alleged
+law of progression from the general to the special, M. Comte somewhere
+comments upon the two meanings of the word _general_, and the resulting
+liability to confusion. Without now discussing whether the asserted
+distinction can be maintained in other cases, it is manifest that it does
+not exist here. In sundry of the instances above quoted, the endeavors made
+by M. Comte himself to disguise, or to explain away, the precedence of the
+special over the general, clearly indicate that the generality spoken of,
+is of the kind meant by his formula. And it needs but a brief consideration
+of the matter to show that, even did he attempt it, he could not
+distinguish this generality, which, as above proved, frequently comes last,
+from the generality which he says always comes first. For what is the
+nature of that mental process by which objects, dimensions, weights, times,
+and the rest, are found capable of having their relations expressed
+numerically? It is the formation of certain abstract conceptions of unity,
+duality and multiplicity, which are applicable to all things alike. It is
+the invention of general symbols serving to express the numerical relations
+of entities, whatever be their special characters. And what is the nature
+of the mental process by which numbers are found capable of having their
+relations expressed algebraically? It is just the same. It is the formation
+of certain abstract conceptions of numerical functions which are the same
+whatever be the magnitudes of the numbers. It is the invention of general
+symbols serving to express the relations between numbers, as numbers
+express the relations between things. And transcendental analysis stands to
+algebra in the same position that algebra stands in to arithmetic.
+
+To briefly illustrate their respective powers;--arithmetic can express in
+one formula the value of a _particular_ tangent to a _particular_ curve;
+algebra can express in one formula the values of _all_ tangents to a
+_particular_ curve; transcendental analysis can express in one formula the
+values of _all_ tangents to _all_ curves. Just as arithmetic deals with the
+common properties of lines, areas, bulks, forces, periods; so does algebra
+deal with the common properties of the numbers which arithmetic presents;
+so does transcendental analysis deal with the common properties of the
+equations exhibited by algebra. Thus, the generality of the higher branches
+of the calculus, when compared with the lower, is the same kind of
+generality as that of the lower branches when compared with geometry or
+mechanics. And on examination it will be found that the like relation
+exists in the various other cases above given.
+
+Having shown that M. Comte's alleged law of progression does not hold among
+the several parts of the same science, let us see how it agrees with the
+facts when applied to separate sciences. "Astronomy," says M. Comte, at the
+opening of Book III., "was a positive science, in its geometrical aspect,
+from the earliest days of the school of Alexandria; but Physics, which we
+are now to consider, had no positive character at all till Galileo made his
+great discoveries on the fall of heavy bodies." On this, our comment is
+simply that it is a misrepresentation based upon an arbitrary misuse of
+words--a mere verbal artifice. By choosing to exclude from terrestrial
+physics those laws of magnitude, motion, and position, which he includes in
+celestial physics, M. Comte makes it appear that the one owes nothing to
+the other. Not only is this altogether unwarrantable, but it is radically
+inconsistent with his own scheme of divisions. At the outset he says--and
+as the point is important we quote from the original--"Pour la _physique
+inorganique_ nous voyons d'abord, en nous conformant toujours a l'ordre de
+generalite et de dependance des phenomenes, qu'elle doit etre partagee en
+deux sections distinctes, suivant qu'elle considere les phenomenes generaux
+de l'univers, ou, en particulier, ceux que presentent les corps terrestres.
+D'ou la physique celeste, ou l'astronomie, soit geometrique, soit
+mechanique; et la physique terrestre."
+
+Here then we have _inorganic physics_ clearly divided into _celestial
+physics_ and _terrestrial physics_--the phenomena presented by the
+universe, and the phenomena presented by earthly bodies. If now celestial
+bodies and terrestrial bodies exhibit sundry leading phenomena in common,
+as they do, how can the generalization of these common phenomena be
+considered as pertaining to the one class rather than to the other? If
+inorganic physics includes geometry (which M. Comte has made it do by
+comprehending _geometrical_ astronomy in its sub-section--celestial
+physics); and if its sub-section--terrestrial physics, treats of things
+having geometrical properties; how can the laws of geometrical relations be
+excluded from terrestrial physics? Clearly if celestial physics includes
+the geometry of objects in the heavens, terrestrial physics includes the
+geometry of objects on the earth. And if terrestrial physics includes
+terrestrial geometry, while celestial physics includes celestial geometry,
+then the geometrical part of terrestrial physics precedes the geometrical
+part of celestial physics; seeing that geometry gained its first ideas from
+surrounding objects. Until men had learnt geometrical relations from bodies
+on the earth, it was impossible for them to understand the geometrical
+relations of bodies in the heavens.
+
+So, too, with celestial mechanics, which had terrestrial mechanics for its
+parent. The very conception of _force_, which underlies the whole of
+mechanical astronomy, is borrowed from our earthly experiences; and the
+leading laws of mechanical action as exhibited in scales, levers,
+projectiles, &c., had to be ascertained before the dynamics of the solar
+system could be entered upon. What were the laws made use of by Newton in
+working out his grand discovery? The law of falling bodies disclosed by
+Galileo; that of the composition of forces also disclosed by Galileo; and
+that of centrifugal force found out by Huyghens--all of them
+generalizations of terrestrial physics. Yet, with facts like these before
+him, M. Comte places astronomy before physics in order of evolution! He
+does not compare the geometrical parts of the two together, and the
+mechanical parts of the two together; for this would by no means suit his
+hypothesis. But he compares the geometrical part of the one with the
+mechanical part of the other, and so gives a semblance of truth to his
+position. He is led away by a verbal delusion. Had he confined his
+attention to the things and disregarded the words, he would have seen that
+before mankind scientifically co-ordinated _any one class of phenomena_
+displayed in the heavens, they had previously co-ordinated _a parallel
+class of phenomena_ displayed upon the surface of the earth.
+
+Were it needful we could fill a score pages with the incongruities of M.
+Comte's scheme. But the foregoing samples will suffice. So far is his law
+of evolution of the sciences from being tenable, that, by following his
+example, and arbitrarily ignoring one class of facts, it would be possible
+to present, with great plausibility, just the opposite generalization to
+that which he enunciates. While he asserts that the rational order of the
+sciences, like the order of their historic development, "is determined by
+the degree of simplicity, or, what comes to the same thing, of generality
+of their phenomena;" it might contrariwise be asserted, that, commencing
+with the complex and the special, mankind have progressed step by step to a
+knowledge of greater simplicity and wider generality. So much evidence is
+there of this as to have drawn from Whewell, in his _History of the
+Inductive Sciences_, the general remark that "the reader has already seen
+repeatedly in the course of this history, complex and derivative principles
+presenting themselves to men's minds before simple and elementary ones."
+
+Even from M. Comte's own work, numerous facts, admissions, and arguments,
+might be picked out, tending to show this. We have already quoted his words
+in proof that both abstract and concrete mathematics have progressed
+towards a higher degree of generality, and that he looks forward to a
+higher generality still. Just to strengthen this adverse hypothesis, let us
+take a further instance. From the _particular_ case of the scales, the law
+of equilibrium of which was familiar to the earliest nations known,
+Archimedes advanced to the more _general_ case of the unequal lever with
+unequal weights; the law of equilibrium of which _includes_ that of the
+scales. By the help of Galileo's discovery concerning the composition of
+forces, D'Alembert "established, for the first time, the equations of
+equilibrium of _any_ system of forces applied to the different points of a
+solid body"--equations which include all cases of levers and an infinity of
+cases besides. Clearly this is progress towards a higher
+generality--towards a knowledge more independent of special
+circumstances--towards a study of phenomena "the most disengaged from the
+incidents of particular cases;" which is M. Comte's definition of "the most
+simple phenomena." Does it not indeed follow from the familiarly admitted
+fact, that mental advance is from the concrete to the abstract, from the
+particular to the general, that the universal and therefore most simple
+truths are the last to be discovered? Is not the government of the solar
+system by a force varying inversely as the square of the distance, a
+simpler conception than any that preceded it? Should we ever succeed in
+reducing all orders of phenomena to some single law--say of atomic action,
+as M. Comte suggests--must not that law answer to his test of being
+_independent_ of all others, and therefore most simple? And would not such
+a law generalize the phenomena of gravity, cohesion, atomic affinity, and
+electric repulsion, just as the laws of number generalize the quantitative
+phenomena of space, time and force?
+
+The possibility of saying so much in support of an hypothesis the very
+reverse of M. Comte's, at once proves that his generalization is only a
+half-truth. The fact is, that neither proposition is correct by itself; and
+the actuality is expressed only by putting the two together. The progress
+of science is duplex: it is at once from the special to the general, and
+from the general to the special: it is analytical and synthetical at the
+same time.
+
+M. Comte himself observes that the evolution of science has been
+accomplished by the division of labour; but he quite misstates the mode in
+which this division of labour has operated. As he describes it, it has
+simply been an arrangement of phenomena into classes, and the study of each
+class by itself. He does not recognise the constant effect of progress in
+each class upon _all_ other classes; but only on the class succeeding it in
+his hierarchical scale. Or if he occasionally admits collateral influences
+and intercommunications, he does it so grudgingly, and so quickly puts the
+admissions out of sight and forgets them, as to leave the impression that,
+with but trifling exceptions, the sciences aid each other only in the order
+of their alleged succession. The fact is, however, that the division of
+labour in science, like the division of labour in society, and like the
+"physiological division of labour" in individual organisms, has been not
+only a specialization of functions, but a continuous helping of each
+division by all the others, and of all by each. Every particular class of
+inquirers has, as it were, secreted its own particular order of truths from
+the general mass of material which observation accumulates; and all other
+classes of inquirers have made use of these truths as fast as they were
+elaborated, with the effect of enabling them the better to elaborate each
+its own order of truths.
+
+It was thus in sundry of the cases we have quoted as at variance with M.
+Comte's doctrine. It was thus with the application of Huyghens's optical
+discovery to astronomical observation by Galileo. It was thus with the
+application of the isochronism of the pendulum to the making of instruments
+for measuring intervals, astronomical and other. It was thus when the
+discovery that the refraction and dispersion of light did not follow the
+same law of variation, affected both astronomy and physiology by giving us
+achromatic telescopes and microscopes. It was thus when Bradley's discovery
+of the aberration of light enabled him to make the first step towards
+ascertaining the motions of the stars. It was thus when Cavendish's
+torsion-balance experiment determined the specific gravity of the earth,
+and so gave a datum for calculating the specific gravities of the sun and
+planets. It was thus when tables of atmospheric refraction enabled
+observers to write down the real places of the heavenly bodies instead of
+their apparent places. It was thus when the discovery of the different
+expansibilities of metals by heat, gave us the means of correcting our
+chronometrical measurements of astronomical periods. It was thus when the
+lines of the prismatic spectrum were used to distinguish the heavenly
+bodies that are of like nature with the sun from those which are not. It
+was thus when, as recently, an electro-telegraphic instrument was invented
+for the more accurate registration of meridional transits. It was thus when
+the difference in the rates of a clock at the equator, and nearer the
+poles, gave data for calculating the oblateness of the earth, and
+accounting for the precession of the equinoxes. It was thus--but it is
+needless to continue.
+
+Here, within our own limited knowledge of its history, we have named ten
+additional cases in which the single science of astronomy has owed its
+advance to sciences coming _after_ it in M. Comte's series. Not only its
+secondary steps, but its greatest revolutions have been thus determined.
+Kepler could not have discovered his celebrated laws had it not been for
+Tycho Brahe's accurate observations; and it was only after some progress in
+physical and chemical science that the improved instruments with which
+those observations were made, became possible. The heliocentric theory of
+the solar system had to wait until the invention of the telescope before it
+could be finally established. Nay, even the grand discovery of all--the law
+of gravitation--depended for its proof upon an operation of physical
+science, the measurement of a degree on the Earth's surface. So completely
+indeed did it thus depend, that Newton _had actually abandoned his
+hypothesis_ because the length of a degree, as then stated, brought out
+wrong results; and it was only after Picard's more exact measurement was
+published, that he returned to his calculations and proved his great
+generalization. Now this constant intercommunion, which, for brevity's
+sake, we have illustrated in the case of one science only, has been taking
+place with all the sciences. Throughout the whole course of their evolution
+there has been a continuous _consensus_ of the sciences--a _consensus_
+exhibiting a general correspondence with the _consensus_ of faculties in
+each phase of mental development; the one being an objective registry of
+the subjective state of the other.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From our present point of view, then, it becomes obvious that the
+conception of a _serial_ arrangement of the sciences is a vicious one. It
+is not simply that the schemes we have examined are untenable; but it is
+that the sciences cannot be rightly placed in any linear order whatever. It
+is not simply that, as M. Comte admits, a classification "will always
+involve something, if not arbitrary, at least artificial;" it is not, as he
+would have us believe, that, neglecting minor imperfections a
+classification may be substantially true; but it is that any grouping of
+the sciences in a succession gives a radically erroneous idea of their
+genesis and their dependencies. There is no "one _rational_ order among a
+host of possible systems." There is no "true _filiation_ of the sciences."
+The whole hypothesis is fundamentally false. Indeed, it needs but a glance
+at its origin to see at once how baseless it is. Why a _series_? What
+reason have we to suppose that the sciences admit of a _linear_
+arrangement? Where is our warrant for assuming that there is some
+_succession_ in which they can be placed? There is no reason; no warrant.
+Whence then has arisen the supposition? To use M. Comte's own phraseology,
+we should say, it is a metaphysical conception. It adds another to the
+cases constantly occurring, of the human mind being made the measure of
+Nature. We are obliged to think in sequence; it is the law of our minds
+that we must consider subjects separately, one after another: _therefore_
+Nature must be serial--_therefore_ the sciences must be classifiable in a
+succession. See here the birth of the notion, and the sole evidence of its
+truth. Men have been obliged when arranging in books their schemes of
+education and systems of knowledge, to choose _some_ order or other. And
+from inquiring what is the best order, have naturally fallen into the
+belief that there is an order which truly represents the facts--have
+persevered in seeking such an order; quite overlooking the previous
+question whether it is likely that Nature has consulted the convenience of
+book-making.
+
+For German philosophers, who hold that Nature is "petrified intelligence,"
+and that logical forms are the foundations of all things, it is a
+consistent hypothesis that as thought is serial, Nature is serial; but that
+M. Comte, who is so bitter an opponent of all anthropomorphism, even in its
+most evanescent shapes, should have committed the mistake of imposing upon
+the external world an arrangement which so obviously springs from a
+limitation of the human consciousness, is somewhat strange. And it is the
+more strange when we call to mind how, at the outset, M. Comte remarks that
+in the beginning "_toutes les sciences sont cultivees simultanement par les
+memes esprits_;" that this is "_inevitable et meme indispensable_;" and how
+he further remarks that the different sciences are "_comme les diverses
+branches d'un tronc unique_." Were it not accounted for by the distorting
+influence of a cherished hypothesis, it would be scarcely possible to
+understand how, after recognising truths like these, M. Comte should have
+persisted in attempting to construct "_une echelle encyclopedique_."
+
+The metaphor which M. Comte has here so inconsistently used to express the
+relations of the sciences--branches of one trunk--is an approximation to
+the truth, though not the truth itself. It suggests the facts that the
+sciences had a common origin; that they have been developing
+simultaneously; and that they have been from time to time dividing and
+sub-dividing. But it does not suggest the yet more important fact, that the
+divisions and sub-divisions thus arising do not remain separate, but now
+and again re-unite in direct and indirect ways. They inosculate; they
+severally send off and receive connecting growths; and the intercommunion
+has been ever becoming more frequent, more intricate, more widely ramified.
+There has all along been higher specialization, that there might be a
+larger generalization; and a deeper analysis, that there might be a better
+synthesis. Each larger generalization has lifted sundry specializations
+still higher; and each better synthesis has prepared the way for still
+deeper analysis.
+
+And here we may fitly enter upon the task awhile since indicated--a sketch
+of the Genesis of Science, regarded as a gradual outgrowth from common
+knowledge--an extension of the perceptions by the aid of the reason. We
+propose to treat it as a psychological process historically displayed;
+tracing at the same time the advance from qualitative to quantitative
+prevision; the progress from concrete facts to abstract facts, and the
+application of such abstract facts to the analysis of new orders of
+concrete facts; the simultaneous advance in generalization and
+specialization; the continually increasing subdivision and reunion of the
+sciences; and their constantly improving _consensus_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To trace out scientific evolution from its deepest roots would, of course,
+involve a complete analysis of the mind. For as science is a development of
+that common knowledge acquired by the unaided senses and uncultured reason,
+so is that common knowledge itself gradually built up out of the simplest
+perceptions. We must, therefore, begin somewhere abruptly; and the most
+appropriate stage to take for our point of departure will be the adult mind
+of the savage.
+
+Commencing thus, without a proper preliminary analysis, we are naturally
+somewhat at a loss how to present, in a satisfactory manner, those
+fundamental processes of thought out of which science ultimately
+originates. Perhaps our argument may be best initiated by the proposition,
+that all intelligent action whatever depends upon the discerning of
+distinctions among surrounding things. The condition under which only it is
+possible for any creature to obtain food and avoid danger is, that it shall
+be differently affected by different objects--that it shall be led to act
+in one way by one object, and in another way by another. In the lower
+orders of creatures this condition is fulfilled by means of an apparatus
+which acts automatically. In the higher orders the actions are partly
+automatic, partly conscious. And in man they are almost wholly conscious.
+
+Throughout, however, there must necessarily exist a certain classification
+of things according to their properties--a classification which is either
+organically registered in the system, as in the inferior creation, or is
+formed by experience, as in ourselves. And it may be further remarked, that
+the extent to which this classification is carried, roughly indicates the
+height of intelligence--that, while the lowest organisms are able to do
+little more than discriminate organic from inorganic matter; while the
+generality of animals carry their classifications no further than to a
+limited number of plants or creatures serving for food, a limited number of
+beasts of prey, and a limited number of places and materials; the most
+degraded of the human race possess a knowledge of the distinctive natures
+of a great variety of substances, plants, animals, tools, persons, &c., not
+only as classes but as individuals.
+
+What now is the mental process by which classification is effected?
+Manifestly it is a recognition of the _likeness_ or _unlikeness_ of things,
+either in respect of their sizes, colours, forms, weights, textures,
+tastes, &c., or in respect of their modes of action. By some special mark,
+sound, or motion, the savage identifies a certain four-legged creature he
+sees, as one that is good for food, and to be caught in a particular way;
+or as one that is dangerous; and acts accordingly. He has classed together
+all the creatures that are _alike_ in this particular. And manifestly in
+choosing the wood out of which to form his bow, the plant with which to
+poison his arrows, the bone from which to make his fish-hooks, he
+identifies them through their chief sensible properties as belonging to the
+general classes, wood, plant, and bone, but distinguishes them as belonging
+to sub-classes by virtue of certain properties in which they are _unlike_
+the rest of the general classes they belong to; and so forms genera and
+species.
+
+And here it becomes manifest that not only is classification carried on by
+grouping together in the mind things that are _like_; but that classes and
+sub-classes are formed and arranged according to the _degrees of
+unlikeness_. Things widely contrasted are alone distinguished in the lower
+stages of mental evolution; as may be any day observed in an infant. And
+gradually as the powers of discrimination increase, the widely contrasted
+classes at first distinguished, come to be each divided into sub-classes,
+differing from each other less than the classes differ; and these
+sub-classes are again divided after the same manner. By the continuance of
+which process, things are gradually arranged into groups, the members of
+which are less and less _unlike_; ending, finally, in groups whose members
+differ only as individuals, and not specifically. And thus there tends
+ultimately to arise the notion of _complete likeness_. For manifestly, it
+is impossible that groups should continue to be sub-divided in virtue of
+smaller and smaller differences, without there being a simultaneous
+approximation to the notion of _no difference_.
+
+Let us next notice that the recognition of likeness and unlikeness, which
+underlies classification, and out of which continued classification evolves
+the idea of complete likeness--let us next notice that it also underlies
+the process of _naming_, and by consequence _language_. For all language
+consists, at the beginning, of symbols which are as _like_ to the things
+symbolized as it is practicable to make them. The language of signs is a
+means of conveying ideas by mimicking the actions or peculiarities of the
+things referred to. Verbal language is also, at the beginning, a mode of
+suggesting objects or acts by imitating the sounds which the objects make,
+or with which the acts are accompanied. Originally these two languages were
+used simultaneously. It needs but to watch the gesticulations with which
+the savage accompanies his speech--to see a Bushman or a Kaffir dramatizing
+before an audience his mode of catching game--or to note the extreme
+paucity of words in all primitive vocabularies; to infer that at first,
+attitudes, gestures, and sounds, were all combined to produce as good a
+_likeness_ as possible, of the things, animals, persons, or events
+described; and that as the sounds came to be understood by themselves the
+gestures fell into disuse: leaving traces, however, in the manners of the
+more excitable civilized races. But be this as it may, it suffices simply
+to observe, how many of the words current among barbarous peoples are like
+the sounds appertaining to the things signified; how many of our own oldest
+and simplest words have the same peculiarity; how children tend to invent
+imitative words; and how the sign-language spontaneously formed by deaf
+mutes is invariably based upon imitative actions--to at once see that the
+notion of _likeness_ is that from which the nomenclature of objects takes
+its rise.
+
+Were there space we might go on to point out how this law of life is
+traceable, not only in the origin but in the development of language; how
+in primitive tongues the plural is made by a duplication of the singular,
+which is a multiplication of the word to make it _like_ the multiplicity of
+the things; how the use of metaphor--that prolific source of new words--is
+a suggesting of ideas that are _like_ the ideas to be conveyed in some
+respect or other; and how, in the copious use of simile, fable, and
+allegory among uncivilized races, we see that complex conceptions, which
+there is yet no direct language for, are rendered, by presenting known
+conceptions more or less _like_ them.
+
+This view is further confirmed, and the predominance of this notion of
+likeness in primitive times further illustrated, by the fact that our
+system of presenting ideas to the eye originated after the same fashion.
+Writing and printing have descended from picture-language. The earliest
+mode of permanently registering a fact was by depicting it on a wall; that
+is--by exhibiting something as _like_ to the thing to be remembered as it
+could be made. Gradually as the practice grew habitual and extensive, the
+most frequently repeated forms became fixed, and presently abbreviated;
+and, passing through the hieroglyphic and ideographic phases, the symbols
+lost all apparent relations to the things signified: just as the majority
+of our spoken words have done.
+
+Observe again, that the same thing is true respecting the genesis of
+reasoning. The _likeness_ that is perceived to exist between cases, is the
+essence of all early reasoning and of much of our present reasoning. The
+savage, having by experience discovered a relation between a certain object
+and a certain act, infers that the _like_ relation will be found in future
+cases. And the expressions we constantly use in our arguments--"_analogy_
+implies," "the cases are not _parallel_," "by _parity_ of reasoning,"
+"there is no _similarity_,"--show how constantly the idea of likeness
+underlies our ratiocinative processes.
+
+Still more clearly will this be seen on recognising the fact that there is
+a certain parallelism between reasoning and classification; that the two
+have a common root; and that neither can go on without the other. For on
+the one hand, it is a familiar truth that the attributing to a body in
+consequence of some of its properties, all those other properties in virtue
+of which it is referred to a particular class, is an act of inference. And,
+on the other hand, the forming of a generalization is the putting together
+in one class, all those cases which present like relations; while the
+drawing a deduction is essentially the perception that a particular case
+belongs to a certain class of cases previously generalized. So that as
+classification is a grouping together of _like things_; reasoning is a
+grouping together of _like relations_ among things. Add to which, that
+while the perfection gradually achieved in classification consists in the
+formation of groups of _objects_ which are _completely alike_; the
+perfection gradually achieved in reasoning consists in the formation of
+groups of _cases_ which are _completely alike_.
+
+Once more we may contemplate this dominant idea of likeness as exhibited in
+art. All art, civilized as well as savage, consists almost wholly in the
+making of objects _like_ other objects; either as found in Nature, or as
+produced by previous art. If we trace back the varied art-products now
+existing, we find that at each stage the divergence from previous patterns
+is but small when compared with the agreement; and in the earliest art the
+persistency of imitation is yet more conspicuous. The old forms and
+ornaments and symbols were held sacred, and perpetually copied. Indeed, the
+strong imitative tendency notoriously displayed by the lowest human races,
+ensures among them a constant reproducing of likenesses of things, forms,
+signs, sounds, actions, and whatever else is imitable; and we may even
+suspect that this aboriginal peculiarity is in some way connected with the
+culture and development of this general conception, which we have found so
+deep and widespread in its applications.
+
+And now let us go on to consider how, by a further unfolding of this same
+fundamental notion, there is a gradual formation of the first germs of
+science. This idea of likeness which underlies classification,
+nomenclature, language spoken and written, reasoning, and art; and which
+plays so important a part because all acts of intelligence are made
+possible only by distinguishing among surrounding things, or grouping them
+into like and unlike;--this idea we shall find to be the one of which
+science is the especial product. Already during the stage we have been
+describing, there has existed _qualitative_ prevision in respect to the
+commoner phenomena with which savage life is familiar; and we have now to
+inquire how the elements of _quantitative_ prevision are evolved. We shall
+find that they originate by the perfecting of this same idea of likeness;
+that they have their rise in that conception of _complete likeness_ which,
+as we have seen, necessarily results from the continued process of
+classification.
+
+For when the process of classification has been carried as far as it is
+possible for the uncivilized to carry it--when the animal kingdom has been
+grouped not merely into quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and insects, but each of
+these divided into kinds--when there come to be sub-classes, in each of
+which the members differ only as individuals, and not specifically; it is
+clear that there must occur a frequent observation of objects which differ
+so little as to be indistinguishable. Among several creatures which the
+savage has killed and carried home, it must often happen that some one,
+which he wished to identify, is so exactly like another that he cannot tell
+which is which. Thus, then, there originates the notion of _equality_. The
+things which among ourselves are called _equal_--whether lines, angles,
+weights, temperatures, sounds or colours--are things which produce in us
+sensations that cannot be distinguished from each other. It is true that we
+now apply the word _equal_ chiefly to the separate phenomena which objects
+exhibit, and not to groups of phenomena; but this limitation of the idea
+has evidently arisen by subsequent analysis. And that the notion of
+equality did thus originate, will, we think, become obvious on remembering
+that as there were no artificial objects from which it could have been
+abstracted, it must have been abstracted from natural objects; and that the
+various families of the animal kingdom chiefly furnish those natural
+objects which display the requisite exactitude of likeness.
+
+The same order of experiences out of which this general idea of equality is
+evolved, gives birth at the same time to a more complex idea of equality;
+or, rather, the process just described generates an idea of equality which
+further experience separates into two ideas--_equality of things_ and
+_equality of relations_. While organic, and more especially animal forms,
+occasionally exhibit this perfection of likeness out of which the notion of
+simple equality arises, they more frequently exhibit only that kind of
+likeness which we call _similarity_; and which is really compound equality.
+For the similarity of two creatures of the same species but of different
+sizes, is of the same nature as the similarity of two geometrical figures.
+In either case, any two parts of the one bear the same ratio to one
+another, as the homologous parts of the other. Given in any species, the
+proportions found to exist among the bones, and we may, and zoologists do,
+predict from any one, the dimensions of the rest; just as, when knowing the
+proportions subsisting among the parts of a geometrical figure, we may,
+from the length of one, calculate the others. And if, in the case of
+similar geometrical figures, the similarity can be established only by
+proving exactness of proportion among the homologous parts; if we express
+this relation between two parts in the one, and the corresponding parts in
+the other, by the formula A is to B as _a_ is to _b_; if we otherwise write
+this, A to B = _a_ to _b_; if, consequently, the fact we prove is that the
+relation of A to B _equals_ the relation of _a_ to _b_; then it is manifest
+that the fundamental conception of similarity is _equality of relations_.
+
+With this explanation we shall be understood when we say that the notion of
+equality of relations is the basis of all exact reasoning. Already it has
+been shown that reasoning in general is a recognition of _likeness_ of
+relations; and here we further find that while the notion of likeness of
+things ultimately evolves the idea of simple equality, the notion of
+likeness of relations evolves the idea of equality of relations: of which
+the one is the concrete germ of exact science, while the other is its
+abstract germ.
+
+Those who cannot understand how the recognition of similarity in creatures
+of the same kind, can have any alliance with reasoning, will get over the
+difficulty on remembering that the phenomena among which equality of
+relations is thus perceived, are phenomena of the same order and are
+present to the senses at the same time; while those among which developed
+reason perceives relations, are generally neither of the same order, nor
+simultaneously present. And if further, they will call to mind how Cuvier
+and Owen, from a single part of a creature, as a tooth, construct the rest
+by a process of reasoning based on this equality of relations, they will
+see that the two things are intimately connected, remote as they at first
+seem. But we anticipate. What it concerns us here to observe is, that from
+familiarity with organic forms there simultaneously arose the ideas of
+_simple equality_, and _equality of relations_.
+
+At the same time, too, and out of the same mental processes, came the first
+distinct ideas of _number_. In the earliest stages, the presentation of
+several like objects produced merely an indefinite conception of
+multiplicity; as it still does among Australians, and Bushmen, and Damaras,
+when the number presented exceeds three or four. With such a fact before us
+we may safely infer that the first clear numerical conception was that of
+duality as contrasted with unity. And this notion of duality must
+necessarily have grown up side by side with those of likeness and equality;
+seeing that it is impossible to recognise the likeness of two things
+without also perceiving that there are two. From the very beginning the
+conception of number must have been, as it is still, associated with the
+likeness or equality of the things numbered. If we analyze it, we find that
+simple enumeration is a registration of repeated impressions of any kind.
+That these may be capable of enumeration it is needful that they be more or
+less alike; and before any _absolutely true_ numerical results can be
+reached, it is requisite that the units be _absolutely equal_. The only way
+in which we can establish a numerical relationship between things that do
+not yield us like impressions, is to divide them into parts that _do_ yield
+us like impressions. Two unlike magnitudes of extension, force, time,
+weight, or what not, can have their relative amounts estimated, only by
+means of some small unit that is contained many times in both; and even if
+we finally write down the greater one as a unit and the other as a fraction
+of it, we state, in the denominator of the fraction, the number of parts
+into which the unit must be divided to be comparable with the fraction.
+
+It is, indeed, true, that by an evidently modern process of abstraction, we
+occasionally apply numbers to unequal units, as the furniture at a sale or
+the various animals on a farm, simply as so many separate entities; but no
+true result can be brought out by calculation with units of this order.
+And, indeed, it is the distinctive peculiarity of the calculus in general,
+that it proceeds on the hypothesis of that absolute equality of its
+abstract units, which no real units possess; and that the exactness of its
+results holds only in virtue of this hypothesis. The first ideas of number
+must necessarily then have been derived from like or equal magnitudes as
+seen chiefly in organic objects; and as the like magnitudes most frequently
+observed were magnitudes of extension, it follows that geometry and
+arithmetic had a simultaneous origin.
+
+Not only are the first distinct ideas of number co-ordinate with ideas of
+likeness and equality, but the first efforts at numeration displayed the
+same relationship. On reading the accounts of various savage tribes, we
+find that the method of counting by the fingers, still followed by many
+children, is the aboriginal method. Neglecting the several cases in which
+the ability to enumerate does not reach even to the number of fingers on
+one hand, there are many cases in which it does not extend beyond ten--the
+limit of the simple finger notation. The fact that in so many instances,
+remote, and seemingly unrelated nations, have adopted _ten_ as their basic
+number; together with the fact that in the remaining instances the basic
+number is either _five_ (the fingers of one hand) or _twenty_ (the fingers
+and toes); almost of themselves show that the fingers were the original
+units of numeration. The still surviving use of the word _digit_, as the
+general name for a figure in arithmetic, is significant; and it is even
+said that our word _ten_ (Sax. tyn; Dutch, tien; German, zehn) means in its
+primitive expanded form _two hands_. So that originally, to say there were
+ten things, was to say there were two hands of them.
+
+From all which evidence it is tolerably clear that the earliest mode of
+conveying the idea of any number of things, was by holding up as many
+fingers as there were things; that is--using a symbol which was _equal_, in
+respect of multiplicity, to the group symbolized. For which inference there
+is, indeed, strong confirmation in the recent statement that our own
+soldiers are even now spontaneously adopting this device in their dealings
+with the Turks. And here it should be remarked that in this recombination
+of the notion of equality with that of multiplicity, by which the first
+steps in numeration are effected, we may see one of the earliest of those
+inosculations between the diverging branches of science, which are
+afterwards of perpetual occurrence.
+
+Indeed, as this observation suggests, it will be well, before tracing the
+mode in which exact science finally emerges from the merely approximate
+judgments of the senses, and showing the non-serial evolution of its
+divisions, to note the non-serial character of those preliminary processes
+of which all after development is a continuation. On re-considering them it
+will be seen that not only are they divergent growths from a common
+root,--not only are they simultaneous in their progress; but that they are
+mutual aids; and that none can advance without the rest. That completeness
+of classification for which the unfolding of the perceptions paves the way,
+is impossible without a corresponding progress in language, by which
+greater varieties of objects are thinkable and expressible. On the one hand
+it is impossible to carry classification far without names by which to
+designate the classes; and on the other hand it is impossible to make
+language faster than things are classified.
+
+Again, the multiplication of classes and the consequent narrowing of each
+class, itself involves a greater likeness among the things classed
+together; and the consequent approach towards the notion of complete
+likeness itself allows classification to be carried higher. Moreover,
+classification necessarily advances _pari passu_ with rationality--the
+classification of _things_ with the classification of _relations_. For
+things that belong to the same class are, by implication, things of which
+the properties and modes of behaviour--the co-existences and sequences--are
+more or less the same; and the recognition of this sameness of
+co-existences and sequences is reasoning. Whence it follows that the
+advance of classification is necessarily proportionate to the advance of
+generalizations. Yet further, the notion of _likeness_, both in things and
+relations, simultaneously evolves by one process of culture the ideas of
+_equality_ of things and _equality_ of relations; which are the respective
+bases of exact concrete reasoning and exact abstract reasoning--Mathematics
+and Logic. And once more, this idea of equality, in the very process of
+being formed, necessarily gives origin to two series of relations--those of
+magnitude and those of number: from which arise geometry and the calculus.
+Thus the process throughout is one of perpetual subdivision and perpetual
+intercommunication of the divisions. From the very first there has been
+that _consensus_ of different kinds of knowledge, answering to the
+_consensus_ of the intellectual faculties, which, as already said, must
+exist among the sciences.
+
+Let us now go on to observe how, out of the notions of _equality_ and
+_number_, as arrived at in the manner described, there gradually arose the
+elements of quantitative prevision.
+
+Equality, once having come to be definitely conceived, was readily
+applicable to other phenomena than those of magnitude. Being predicable of
+all things producing indistinguishable impressions, there naturally grew up
+ideas of equality in weights, sounds, colours, &c.; and indeed it can
+scarcely be doubted that the occasional experience of equal weights,
+sounds, and colours, had a share in developing the abstract conception of
+equality--that the ideas of equality in size, relations, forces,
+resistances, and sensible properties in general, were evolved during the
+same period. But however this may be, it is clear that as fast as the
+notion of equality gained definiteness, so fast did that lowest kind of
+quantitative prevision which is achieved without any instrumental aid,
+become possible.
+
+The ability to estimate, however roughly, the amount of a foreseen result,
+implies the conception that it will be _equal to_ a certain imagined
+quantity; and the correctness of the estimate will manifestly depend upon
+the accuracy at which the perceptions of sensible equality have arrived. A
+savage with a piece of stone in his hand, and another piece lying before
+him of greater bulk but of the same kind (a fact which he infers from the
+_equality_ of the two in colour and texture) knows about what effort he
+must put forth to raise this other piece; and he judges accurately in
+proportion to the accuracy with which he perceives that the one is twice,
+three times, four times, &c. as large as the other; that is--in proportion
+to the precision of his ideas of equality and number. And here let us not
+omit to notice that even in these vaguest of quantitative previsions, the
+conception of _equality of relations_ is also involved. For it is only in
+virtue of an undefined perception that the relation between bulk and weight
+in the one stone is _equal_ to the relation between bulk and weight in the
+other, that even the roughest approximation can be made.
+
+But how came the transition from those uncertain perceptions of equality
+which the unaided senses give, to the certain ones with which science
+deals? It came by placing the things compared in juxtaposition. Equality
+being predicated of things which give us indistinguishable impressions, and
+no accurate comparison of impressions being possible unless they occur in
+immediate succession, it results that exactness of equality is
+ascertainable in proportion to the closeness of the compared things. Hence
+the fact that when we wish to judge of two shades of colour whether they
+are alike or not, we place them side by side; hence the fact that we
+cannot, with any precision, say which of two allied sounds is the louder,
+or the higher in pitch, unless we hear the one immediately after the other;
+hence the fact that to estimate the ratio of weights, we take one in each
+hand, that we may compare their pressures by rapidly alternating in thought
+from the one to the other; hence the fact, that in a piece of music, we can
+continue to make equal beats when the first beat has been given, but cannot
+ensure commencing with the same length of beat on a future occasion; and
+hence, lastly, the fact, that of all magnitudes, those of _linear
+extension_ are those of which the equality is most accurately
+ascertainable, and those to which by consequence all others have to be
+reduced. For it is the peculiarity of linear extension that it alone allows
+its magnitudes to be placed in _absolute_ juxtaposition, or, rather, in
+coincident position; it alone can test the equality of two magnitudes by
+observing whether they will coalesce, as two equal mathematical lines do,
+when placed between the same points; it alone can test _equality_ by trying
+whether it will become _identity_. Hence, then, the fact, that all exact
+science is reducible, by an ultimate analysis, to results measured in equal
+units of linear extension.
+
+Still it remains to be noticed in what manner this determination of
+equality by comparison of linear magnitudes originated. Once more may we
+perceive that surrounding natural objects supplied the needful lessons.
+From the beginning there must have been a constant experience of like
+things placed side by side--men standing and walking together; animals from
+the same herd; fish from the same shoal. And the ceaseless repetition of
+these experiences could not fail to suggest the observation, that the
+nearer together any objects were, the more visible became any inequality
+between them. Hence the obvious device of putting in apposition, things of
+which it was desired to ascertain the relative magnitudes. Hence the idea
+of _measure_. And here we suddenly come upon a group of facts which afford
+a solid basis to the remainder of our argument; while they also furnish
+strong evidence in support of the foregoing speculations. Those who look
+sceptically on this attempted rehabilitation of the earliest epochs of
+mental development, and who more especially think that the derivation of so
+many primary notions from organic forms is somewhat strained, will perhaps
+see more probability in the several hypotheses that have been ventured, on
+discovering that all measures of _extension_ and _force_ originated from
+the lengths and weights of organic bodies; and all measures of _time_ from
+the periodic phenomena of either organic or inorganic bodies.
+
+Thus, among linear measures, the cubit of the Hebrews was the _length of
+the forearm_ from the elbow to the end of the middle finger; and the
+smaller scriptural dimensions are expressed in _hand-breadths_ and _spans_.
+The Egyptian cubit, which was similarly derived, was divided into digits,
+which were _finger-breadths_; and each finger-breadth was more definitely
+expressed as being equal to four _grains of barley_ placed breadthwise.
+Other ancient measures were the orgyia or _stretch of the arms_, the
+_pace_, and the _palm_. So persistent has been the use of these natural
+units of length in the East, that even now some of the Arabs mete out cloth
+by the forearm. So, too, is it with European measures. The _foot_ prevails
+as a dimension throughout Europe, and has done since the time of the
+Romans, by whom, also, it was used: its lengths in different places varying
+not much more than men's feet vary. The heights of horses are still
+expressed in _hands_. The inch is the length of the terminal joint of _the
+thumb_; as is clearly shown in France, where _pouce_ means both thumb and
+inch. Then we have the inch divided into three _barley-corns_.
+
+So completely, indeed, have these organic dimensions served as the
+substrata of all mensuration, that it is only by means of them that we can
+form any estimate of some of the ancient distances. For example, the length
+of a degree on the Earth's surface, as determined by the Arabian
+astronomers shortly after the death of Haroun-al-Raschid, was fifty-six of
+their miles. We know nothing of their mile further than that it was 4000
+cubits; and whether these were sacred cubits or common cubits, would remain
+doubtful, but that the length of the cubit is given as twenty-seven inches,
+and each inch defined as the thickness of six barley-grains. Thus one of
+the earliest measurements of a degree comes down to us in barley-grains.
+Not only did organic lengths furnish those approximate measures which
+satisfied men's needs in ruder ages, but they furnished also the standard
+measures required in later times. One instance occurs in our own history.
+To remedy the irregularities then prevailing, Henry I. commanded that the
+ulna, or ancient ell, which answers to the modern yard, should be made of
+the exact length of _his own arm_.
+
+Measures of weight again had a like derivation. Seeds seem commonly to have
+supplied the unit. The original of the carat used for weighing in India is
+_a small bean_. Our own systems, both troy and avoirdupois, are derived,
+primarily from wheat-corns. Our smallest weight, the grain, is _a grain of
+wheat_. This is not a speculation; it is an historically registered fact.
+Henry III. enacted that an ounce should be the weight of 640 dry grains of
+wheat from the middle of the ear. And as all the other weights are
+multiples or sub-multiples of this, it follows that the grain of wheat is
+the basis of our scale. So natural is it to use organic bodies as weights,
+before artificial weights have been established, or where they are not to
+be had, that in some of the remoter parts of Ireland the people are said to
+be in the habit, even now, of putting a man into the scales to serve as a
+measure for heavy commodities.
+
+Similarly with time. Astronomical periodicity, and the periodicity of
+animal and vegetable life, are simultaneously used in the first stages of
+progress for estimating epochs. The simplest unit of time, the day, nature
+supplies ready made. The next simplest period, the mooneth or month, is
+also thrust upon men's notice by the conspicuous changes constituting a
+lunation. For larger divisions than these, the phenomena of the seasons,
+and the chief events from time to time occurring, have been used by early
+and uncivilized races. Among the Egyptians the rising of the Nile served as
+a mark. The New Zealanders were found to begin their year from the
+reappearance of the Pleiades above the sea. One of the uses ascribed to
+birds, by the Greeks, was to indicate the seasons by their migrations.
+Barrow describes the aboriginal Hottentot as denoting periods by the number
+of moons before or after the ripening of one of his chief articles of food.
+He further states that the Kaffir chronology is kept by the moon, and is
+registered by notches on sticks--the death of a favourite chief, or the
+gaining of a victory, serving for a new era. By which last fact, we are at
+once reminded that in early history, events are commonly recorded as
+occurring in certain reigns, and in certain years of certain reigns: a
+proceeding which practically made a king's reign a measure of duration.
+
+And, as further illustrating the tendency to divide time by natural
+phenomena and natural events, it may be noticed that even by our own
+peasantry the definite divisions of months and years are but little used;
+and that they habitually refer to occurrences as "before sheep-shearing,"
+or "after harvest," or "about the time when the squire died." It is
+manifest, therefore, that the more or less equal periods perceived in
+Nature gave the first units of measure for time; as did Nature's more or
+less equal lengths and weights give the first units of measure for space
+and force.
+
+It remains only to observe, as further illustrating the evolution of
+quantitative ideas after this manner, that measures of value were similarly
+derived. Barter, in one form or other, is found among all but the very
+lowest human races. It is obviously based upon the notion of _equality of
+worth_. And as it gradually merges into trade by the introduction of some
+kind of currency, we find that the _measures of worth_, constituting this
+currency, are organic bodies; in some cases _cowries_, in others
+_cocoa-nuts_, in others _cattle_, in others _pigs_; among the American
+Indians peltry or _skins_, and in Iceland _dried fish_.
+
+Notions of exact equality and of measure having been reached, there came to
+be definite ideas of relative magnitudes as being multiples one of another;
+whence the practice of measurement by direct apposition of a measure. The
+determination of linear extensions by this process can scarcely be called
+science, though it is a step towards it; but the determination of lengths
+of time by an analogous process may be considered as one of the earliest
+samples of quantitative prevision. For when it is first ascertained that
+the moon completes the cycle of her changes in about thirty days--a fact
+known to most uncivilized tribes that can count beyond the number of their
+fingers--it is manifest that it becomes possible to say in what number of
+days any specified phase of the moon will recur; and it is also manifest
+that this prevision is effected by an opposition of two times, after the
+same manner that linear space is measured by the opposition of two lines.
+For to express the moon's period in days, is to say how many of these units
+of measure are contained in the period to be measured--is to ascertain the
+distance between two points in time by means of a _scale of days_, just as
+we ascertain the distance between two points in space by a scale of feet or
+inches: and in each case the scale coincides with the thing
+measured--mentally in the one; visibly in the other. So that in this
+simplest, and perhaps earliest case of quantitative prevision, the
+phenomena are not only thrust daily upon men's notice, but Nature is, as it
+were, perpetually repeating that process of measurement by observing which
+the prevision is effected. And thus there may be significance in the remark
+which some have made, that alike in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, there is an
+affinity between the word meaning moon, and that meaning measure.
+
+This fact, that in very early stages of social progress it is known that
+the moon goes through her changes in about thirty days, and that in about
+twelve moons the seasons return--this fact that chronological astronomy
+assumes a certain scientific character even before geometry does; while it
+is partly due to the circumstance that the astronomical divisions, day,
+month, and year, are ready made for us, is partly due to the further
+circumstances that agricultural and other operations were at first
+regulated astronomically, and that from the supposed divine nature of the
+heavenly bodies their motions determined the periodical religious
+festivals. As instances of the one we have the observation of the
+Egyptians, that the rising of the Nile corresponded with the heliacal
+rising of Sirius; the directions given by Hesiod for reaping and ploughing,
+according to the positions of the Pleiades; and his maxim that "fifty days
+after the turning of the sun is a seasonable time for beginning a voyage."
+As instances of the other, we have the naming of the days after the sun,
+moon, and planets; the early attempts among Eastern nations to regulate the
+calendar so that the gods might not be offended by the displacement of
+their sacrifices; and the fixing of the great annual festival of the
+Peruvians by the position of the sun. In all which facts we see that, at
+first, science was simply an appliance of religion and industry.
+
+After the discoveries that a lunation occupies nearly thirty days, and that
+some twelve lunations occupy a year--discoveries of which there is no
+historical account, but which may be inferred as the earliest, from the
+fact that existing uncivilized races have made them--we come to the first
+known astronomical records, which are those of eclipses. The Chaldeans were
+able to predict these. "This they did, probably," says Dr. Whewell in his
+useful history, from which most of the materials we are about to use will
+be drawn, "by means of their cycle of 223 months, or about eighteen years;
+for at the end of this time, the eclipses of the moon begin to return, at
+the same intervals and in the same order as at the beginning." Now this
+method of calculating eclipses by means of a recurring cycle,--the _Saros_
+as they called it--is a more complex case of prevision by means of
+coincidence of measures. For by what observations must the Chaldeans have
+discovered this cycle? Obviously, as Delambre infers, by inspecting their
+registers; by comparing the successive intervals; by finding that some of
+the intervals were alike; by seeing that these equal intervals were
+eighteen years apart; by discovering that _all_ the intervals that were
+eighteen years apart were equal; by ascertaining that the intervals formed
+a series which repeated itself, so that if one of the cycles of intervals
+were superposed on another the divisions would fit. This once perceived,
+and it manifestly became possible to use the cycle as a scale of time by
+which to measure out future periods. Seeing thus that the process of so
+predicting eclipses, is in essence the same as that of predicting the
+moon's monthly changes by observing the number of days after which they
+repeat--seeing that the two differ only in the extent and irregularity of
+the intervals, it is not difficult to understand how such an amount of
+knowledge should so early have been reached. And we shall be less
+surprised, on remembering that the only things involved in these previsions
+were _time_ and _number_; and that the time was in a manner self-numbered.
+
+Still, the ability to predict events recurring only after so long a period
+as eighteen years, implies a considerable advance in civilization--a
+considerable development of general knowledge; and we have now to inquire
+what progress in other sciences accompanied, and was necessary to, these
+astronomical previsions. In the first place, there must clearly have been a
+tolerably efficient system of calculation. Mere finger-counting, mere
+head-reckoning, even with the aid of a regular decimal notation, could not
+have sufficed for numbering the days in a year; much less the years,
+months, and days between eclipses. Consequently there must have been a mode
+of registering numbers; probably even a system of numerals. The earliest
+numerical records, if we may judge by the practices of the less civilized
+races now existing, were probably kept by notches cut on sticks, or strokes
+marked on walls; much as public-house scores are kept now. And there seems
+reason to believe that the first numerals used were simply groups of
+straight strokes, as some of the still-extant Roman ones are; leading us to
+suspect that these groups of strokes were used to represent groups of
+fingers, as the groups of fingers had been used to represent groups of
+objects--a supposition quite in conformity with the aboriginal system of
+picture writing and its subsequent modifications. Be this so or not,
+however, it is manifest that before the Chaldeans discovered their _Saros_,
+there must have been both a set of written symbols serving for an extensive
+numeration, and a familiarity with the simpler rules of arithmetic.
+
+Not only must abstract mathematics have made some progress, but concrete
+mathematics also. It is scarcely possible that the buildings belonging to
+this era should have been laid out and erected without any knowledge of
+geometry. At any rate, there must have existed that elementary geometry
+which deals with direct measurement--with the apposition of lines; and it
+seems that only after the discovery of those simple proceedings, by which
+right angles are drawn, and relative positions fixed, could so regular an
+architecture be executed. In the case of the other division of concrete
+mathematics--mechanics, we have definite evidence of progress. We know that
+the lever and the inclined plane were employed during this period: implying
+that there was a qualitative prevision of their effects, though not a
+quantitative one. But we know more. We read of weights in the earliest
+records; and we find weights in ruins of the highest antiquity. Weights
+imply scales, of which we have also mention; and scales involve the primary
+theorem of mechanics in its least complicated form--involve not a
+qualitative but a quantitative prevision of mechanical effects. And here we
+may notice how mechanics, in common with the other exact sciences, took its
+rise from the simplest application of the idea of _equality_. For the
+mechanical proposition which the scales involve, is, that if a lever with
+_equal_ arms, have _equal_ weights suspended from them, the weights will
+remain at _equal_ altitudes. And we may further notice, how, in this first
+step of rational mechanics, we see illustrated that truth awhile since
+referred to, that as magnitudes of linear extension are the only ones of
+which the equality is exactly ascertainable, the equalities of other
+magnitudes have at the outset to be determined by means of them. For the
+equality of the weights which balance each other in scales, wholly depends
+upon the equality of the arms: we can know that the weights are equal only
+by proving that the arms are equal. And when by this means we have obtained
+a system of weights,--a set of equal units of force, then does a science of
+mechanics become possible. Whence, indeed, it follows, that rational
+mechanics could not possibly have any other starting-point than the scales.
+
+Let us further remember, that during this same period there was a limited
+knowledge of chemistry. The many arts which we know to have been carried on
+must have been impossible without a generalized experience of the modes in
+which certain bodies affect each other under special conditions. In
+metallurgy, which was extensively practised, this is abundantly
+illustrated. And we even have evidence that in some cases the knowledge
+possessed was, in a sense, quantitative. For, as we find by analysis that
+the hard alloy of which the Egyptians made their cutting tools, was
+composed of copper and tin in fixed proportions, there must have been an
+established prevision that such an alloy was to be obtained only by mixing
+them in these proportions. It is true, this was but a simple empirical
+generalization; but so was the generalization respecting the recurrence of
+eclipses; so are the first generalizations of every science.
+
+Respecting the simultaneous advance of the sciences during this early
+epoch, it only remains to remark that even the most complex of them must
+have made some progress--perhaps even a greater relative progress than any
+of the rest. For under what conditions only were the foregoing developments
+possible? There first required an established and organized social system.
+A long continued registry of eclipses; the building of palaces; the use of
+scales; the practice of metallurgy--alike imply a fixed and populous
+nation. The existence of such a nation not only presupposes laws, and some
+administration of justice, which we know existed, but it presupposes
+successful laws--laws conforming in some degree to the conditions of social
+stability--laws enacted because it was seen that the actions forbidden by
+them were dangerous to the State. We do not by any means say that all, or
+even the greater part, of the laws were of this nature; but we do say, that
+the fundamental ones were. It cannot be denied that the laws affecting life
+and property were such. It cannot be denied that, however little these were
+enforced between class and class, they were to a considerable extent
+enforced between members of the same class. It can scarcely be questioned,
+that the administration of them between members of the same class was seen
+by rulers to be necessary for keeping their subjects together. And knowing,
+as we do, that, other things equal, nations prosper in proportion to the
+justness of their arrangements, we may fairly infer that the very cause of
+the advance of these earliest nations out of aboriginal barbarism, was the
+greater recognition among them of the claims to life and property.
+
+But supposition aside, it is clear that the habitual recognition of these
+claims in their laws, implied some prevision of social phenomena. Even thus
+early there was a certain amount of social science. Nay, it may even be
+shown that there was a vague recognition of that fundamental principle on
+which all the true social science is based--the equal rights of all to the
+free exercise of their faculties. That same idea of _equality_, which, as
+we have seen, underlies all other science, underlies also morals and
+sociology. The conception of justice, which is the primary one in morals;
+and the administration of justice, which is the vital condition of social
+existence; are impossible, without the recognition of a certain likeness in
+men's claims, in virtue of their common humanity. _Equity_ literally means
+_equalness_; and if it be admitted that there were even the vaguest ideas
+of equity in these primitive eras, it must be admitted that there was some
+appreciation of the equalness of men's liberties to pursue the objects of
+life--some appreciation, therefore, of the essential principle of national
+equilibrium.
+
+Thus in this initial stage of the positive sciences, before geometry had
+yet done more than evolve a few empirical rules--before mechanics had
+passed beyond its first theorem--before astronomy had advanced from its
+merely chronological phase into the geometrical; the most involved of the
+sciences had reached a certain degree of development--a development without
+which no progress in other sciences was possible.
+
+Only noting as we pass, how, thus early, we may see that the progress of
+exact science was not only towards an increasing number of previsions, but
+towards previsions more accurately quantitative--how, in astronomy, the
+recurring period of the moon's motions was by and by more correctly
+ascertained to be nineteen years, or two hundred and thirty-five lunations;
+how Callipus further corrected this Metonic cycle, by leaving out a day at
+the end of every seventy-six years; and how these successive advances
+implied a longer continued registry of observations, and the co-ordination
+of a greater number of facts--let us go on to inquire how geometrical
+astronomy took its rise.
+
+The first astronomical instrument was the gnomon. This was not only early
+in use in the East, but it was found also among the Mexicans; the sole
+astronomical observations of the Peruvians were made by it; and we read
+that 1100 B.C., the Chinese found that, at a certain place, the length of
+the sun's shadow, at the summer solstice, was to the height of the gnomon,
+as one and a half to eight. Here again it is observable, not only that the
+instrument is found ready made, but that Nature is perpetually performing
+the process of measurement. Any fixed, erect object--a column, a dead palm,
+a pole, the angle of a building--serves for a gnomon; and it needs but to
+notice the changing position of the shadow it daily throws, to make the
+first step in geometrical astronomy. How small this first step was, may be
+seen in the fact that the only things ascertained at the outset were the
+periods of the summer and winter solstices, which corresponded with the
+least and greatest lengths of the mid-day shadow; and to fix which, it was
+needful merely to mark the point to which each day's shadow reached.
+
+And now let it not be overlooked that in the observing at what time during
+the next year this extreme limit of the shadow was again reached, and in
+the inference that the sun had then arrived at the same turning point in
+his annual course, we have one of the simplest instances of that combined
+use of _equal magnitudes_ and _equal relations_, by which all exact
+science, all quantitative prevision, is reached. For the relation observed
+was between the length of the sun's shadow and his position in the heavens;
+and the inference drawn was that when, next year, the extremity of his
+shadow came to the same point, he occupied the same place. That is, the,
+ideas involved were, the equality of the shadows, and the equality of the
+relations between shadow and sun in successive years. As in the case of the
+scales, the equality of relations here recognized is of the simplest order.
+It is not as those habitually dealt with in the higher kinds of scientific
+reasoning, which answer to the general type--the relation between two and
+three equals the relation between six and nine; but it follows the
+type--the relation between two and three, equals the relation between two
+and three; it is a case of not simply _equal_ relations, but _coinciding_
+relations. And here, indeed, we may see beautifully illustrated how the
+idea of equal relations takes its rise after the same manner that that of
+equal magnitude does. As already shown, the idea of equal magnitudes arose
+from the observed coincidence of two lengths placed together; and in this
+case we have not only two coincident lengths of shadows, but two coincident
+relations between sun and shadows.
+
+From the use of the gnomon there naturally grew up the conception of
+angular measurements; and with the advance of geometrical conceptions there
+came the hemisphere of Berosus, the equinoctial armil, the solstitial
+armil, and the quadrant of Ptolemy--all of them employing shadows as
+indices of the sun's position, but in combination with angular divisions.
+It is obviously out of the question for us here to trace these details of
+progress. It must suffice to remark that in all of them we may see that
+notion of equality of relations of a more complex kind, which is best
+illustrated in the astrolabe, an instrument which consisted "of circular
+rims, moveable one within the other, or about poles, and contained circles
+which were to be brought into the position of the ecliptic, and of a plane
+passing through the sun and the poles of the ecliptic"--an instrument,
+therefore, which represented, as by a model, the relative positions of
+certain imaginary lines and planes in the heavens; which was adjusted by
+putting these representative lines and planes into parallelism and
+coincidence with the celestial ones; and which depended for its use upon
+the perception that the relations between these representative lines and
+planes were _equal_ to the relations between those represented.
+
+Were there space, we might go on to point out how the conception of the
+heavens as a revolving hollow sphere, the discovery of the globular form of
+the earth, the explanation of the moon's phases, and indeed all the
+successive steps taken, involved this same mental process. But we must
+content ourselves with referring to the theory of eccentrics and epicycles,
+as a further marked illustration of it. As first suggested, and as proved
+by Hipparchus to afford an explanation of the leading irregularities in the
+celestial motions, this theory involved the perception that the
+progressions, retrogressions, and variations of velocity seen in the
+heavenly bodies, might be reconciled with their assumed uniform movement in
+circles, by supposing that the earth was not in the centre of their orbits;
+or by supposing that they revolved in circles whose centres revolved round
+the earth; or by both. The discovery that this would account for the
+appearances, was the discovery that in certain geometrical diagrams the
+relations were such, that the uniform motion of a point would, when looked
+at from a particular position, present analogous irregularities; and the
+calculations of Hipparchus involved the belief that the relations
+subsisting among these geometrical curves were _equal_ to the relations
+subsisting among the celestial orbits.
+
+Leaving here these details of astronomical progress, and the philosophy of
+it, let us observe how the relatively concrete science of geometrical
+astronomy, having been thus far helped forward by the development of
+geometry in general, reacted upon geometry, caused it also to advance, and
+was again assisted by it. Hipparchus, before making his solar and lunar
+tables, had to discover rules for calculating the relations between the
+sides and angles of triangles--_trigonometry_, a subdivision of pure
+mathematics. Further, the reduction of the doctrine of the sphere to the
+quantitative form needed for astronomical purposes, required the formation
+of a _spherical trigonometry_, which was also achieved by Hipparchus. Thus
+both plane and spherical trigonometry, which are parts of the highly
+abstract and simple science of extension, remained undeveloped until the
+less abstract and more complex science of the celestial motions had need of
+them. The fact admitted by M. Comte, that since Descartes the progress of
+the abstract division of mathematics has been determined by that of the
+concrete division, is paralleled by the still more significant fact that
+even thus early the progress of mathematics was determined by that of
+astronomy.
+
+And here, indeed, we may see exemplified the truth, which the subsequent
+history of science frequently illustrates, that before any more abstract
+division makes a further advance, some more concrete division must suggest
+the necessity for that advance--must present the new order of questions to
+be solved. Before astronomy presented Hipparchus with the problem of solar
+tables, there was nothing to raise the question of the relations between
+lines and angles; the subject-matter of trigonometry had not been
+conceived. And as there must be subject-matter before there can be
+investigation, it follows that the progress of the concrete divisions is as
+necessary to that of the abstract, as the progress of the abstract to that
+of the concrete.
+
+Just incidentally noticing the circumstance that the epoch we are
+describing witnessed the evolution of algebra, a comparatively abstract
+division of mathematics, by the union of its less abstract divisions,
+geometry and arithmetic--a fact proved by the earliest extant samples of
+algebra, which are half algebraic, half geometric--we go on to observe that
+during the era in which mathematics and astronomy were thus advancing,
+rational mechanics made its second step; and something was done towards
+giving a quantitative form to hydrostatics, optics, and harmonics. In each
+case we shall see as before, how the idea of equality underlies all
+quantitative prevision; and in what simple forms this idea is first
+applied.
+
+As already shown, the first theorem established in mechanics was, that
+equal weights suspended from a lever with equal arms would remain in
+equilibrium. Archimedes discovered that a lever with unequal arms was in
+equilibrium when one weight was to its arm as the other arm to its weight;
+that is--when the numerical relation between one weight and its arm was
+_equal_ to the numerical relation between the other arm and its weight.
+
+The first advance made in hydrostatics, which we also owe to Archimedes,
+was the discovery that fluids press _equally_ in all directions; and from
+this followed the solution of the problem of floating bodies: namely, that
+they are in equilibrium when the upward and downward pressures are _equal_.
+
+In optics, again, the Greeks found that the angle of incidence is _equal_
+to the angle of reflection; and their knowledge reached no further than to
+such simple deductions from this as their geometry sufficed for. In
+harmonics they ascertained the fact that three strings of _equal_ lengths
+would yield the octave, fifth and fourth, when strained by weights having
+certain definite ratios; and they did not progress much beyond this. In the
+one of which cases we see geometry used in elucidation of the laws of
+light; and in the other, geometry and arithmetic made to measure the
+phenomena of sound.
+
+Did space permit, it would be desirable here to describe the state of the
+less advanced sciences--to point out how, while a few had thus reached the
+first stages of quantitative prevision, the rest were progressing in
+qualitative prevision--how some small generalizations were made respecting
+evaporation, and heat, and electricity, and magnetism, which, empirical as
+they were, did not in that respect differ from the first generalizations of
+every science--how the Greek physicians had made advances in physiology and
+pathology, which, considering the great imperfection of our present
+knowledge, are by no means to be despised--how zoology had been so far
+systematized by Aristotle, as, to some extent, enabled him from the
+presence of certain organs to predict the presence of others--how in
+Aristotle's _Politics_, there is some progress towards a scientific
+conception of social phenomena, and sundry previsions respecting them--and
+how in the state of the Greek societies, as well as in the writings of
+Greek philosophers, we may recognise not only an increasing clearness in
+that conception of equity on which the social science is based, but also
+some appreciation of the fact that social stability depends upon the
+maintenance of equitable regulations. We might dwell at length upon the
+causes which retarded the development of some of the sciences, as for
+example, chemistry: showing that relative complexity had nothing to do with
+it--that the oxidation of a piece of iron is a simpler phenomenon than the
+recurrence of eclipses, and the discovery of carbonic acid less difficult
+than that of the precession of the equinoxes--but that the relatively slow
+advance of chemical knowledge was due, partly to the fact that its
+phenomena were not daily thrust on men's notice as those of astronomy were;
+partly to the fact that Nature does not habitually supply the means, and
+suggest the modes of investigation, as in the sciences dealing with time,
+extension, and force; and partly to the fact that the great majority of the
+materials with which chemistry deals, instead of being ready to hand, are
+made known only by the arts in their slow growth; and partly to the fact
+that even when known, their chemical properties are not self-exhibited, but
+have to be sought out by experiment.
+
+Merely indicating all these considerations, however, let us go on to
+contemplate the progress and mutual influence of the sciences in modern
+days; only parenthetically noticing how, on the revival of the scientific
+spirit, the successive stages achieved exhibit the dominance of the same
+law hitherto traced--how the primary idea in dynamics, a uniform force, was
+defined by Galileo to be a force which generates _equal_ velocities in
+_equal_ successive times--how the uniform action of gravity was first
+experimentally determined by showing that the time elapsing before a body
+thrown up, stopped, was _equal_ to the time it took to fall--how the first
+fact in compound motion which Galileo ascertained was, that a body
+projected horizontally will have a uniform motion onwards and a uniformly
+accelerated motion downwards; that is, will describe _equal_ horizontal
+spaces in _equal_ times, compounded with _equal_ vertical increments in
+_equal_ times--how his discovery respecting the pendulum was, that its
+oscillations occupy _equal_ intervals of time whatever their length--how
+the principle of virtual velocities which he established is, that in any
+machine the weights that balance each other, are reciprocally as their
+virtual velocities; that is, the relation of one set of weights to their
+velocities _equals_ the relation of the other set of velocities to their
+weights;--and how thus his achievements consisted in showing the equalities
+of certain magnitudes and relations, whose equalities had not been
+previously recognised.
+
+When mechanics had reached the point to which Galileo brought it--when the
+simple laws of force had been disentangled from the friction and
+atmospheric resistance by which all their earthly manifestations are
+disguised--when progressing knowledge of _physics_ had given a due insight
+into these disturbing causes--when, by an effort of abstraction, it was
+perceived that all motion would be uniform and rectilinear unless
+interfered with by external forces--and when the various consequences of
+this perception had been worked out; then it became possible, by the union
+of geometry and mechanics, to initiate physical astronomy. Geometry and
+mechanics having diverged from a common root in men's sensible experiences;
+having, with occasional inosculations, been separately developed, the one
+partly in connexion with astronomy, the other solely by analyzing
+terrestrial movements; now join in the investigations of Newton to create a
+true theory of the celestial motions. And here, also, we have to notice the
+important fact that, in the very process of being brought jointly to bear
+upon astronomical problems, they are themselves raised to a higher phase of
+development. For it was in dealing with the questions raised by celestial
+dynamics that the then incipient infinitesimal calculus was unfolded by
+Newton and his continental successors; and it was from inquiries into the
+mechanics of the solar system that the general theorems of mechanics
+contained in the "Principia,"--many of them of purely terrestrial
+application--took their rise. Thus, as in the case of Hipparchus, the
+presentation of a new order of concrete facts to be analyzed, led to the
+discovery of new abstract facts; and these abstract facts having been laid
+hold of, gave means of access to endless groups of concrete facts before
+incapable of quantitative treatment.
+
+Meanwhile, physics had been carrying further that progress without which,
+as just shown, rational mechanics could not be disentangled. In
+hydrostatics, Stevinus had extended and applied the discovery of
+Archimedes. Torricelli had proved atmospheric pressure, "by showing that
+this pressure sustained different liquids at heights inversely proportional
+to their densities;" and Pascal "established the necessary diminution of
+this pressure at increasing heights in the atmosphere:" discoveries which
+in part reduced this branch of science to a quantitative form. Something
+had been done by Daniel Bernoulli towards the dynamics of fluids. The
+thermometer had been invented; and a number of small generalizations
+reached by it. Huyghens and Newton had made considerable progress in
+optics; Newton had approximately calculated the rate of transmission of
+sound; and the continental mathematicians had succeeded in determining some
+of the laws of sonorous vibrations. Magnetism and electricity had been
+considerably advanced by Gilbert. Chemistry had got as far as the mutual
+neutralization of acids and alkalies. And Leonardo da Vinci had advanced in
+geology to the conception of the deposition of marine strata as the origin
+of fossils. Our present purpose does not require that we should give
+particulars. All that it here concerns us to do is to illustrate the
+_consensus_ subsisting in this stage of growth, and afterwards. Let as look
+at a few cases.
+
+The theoretic law of the velocity of sound enunciated by Newton on purely
+mechanical considerations, was found wrong by one-sixth. The error remained
+unaccounted for until the time of Laplace, who, suspecting that the heat
+disengaged by the compression of the undulating strata of the air, gave
+additional elasticity, and so produced the difference, made the needful
+calculations and found he was right. Thus acoustics was arrested until
+thermology overtook and aided it. When Boyle and Marriot had discovered the
+relation between the density of gases and the pressures they are subject
+to; and when it thus became possible to calculate the rate of decreasing
+density in the upper parts of the atmosphere; it also became possible to
+make approximate tables of the atmospheric refraction of light. Thus
+optics, and with it astronomy, advanced with barology. After the discovery
+of atmospheric pressure had led to the invention of the air-pump by Otto
+Guericke; and after it had become known that evaporation increases in
+rapidity as atmospheric pressure decreases; it became possible for Leslie,
+by evaporation in a vacuum, to produce the greatest cold known; and so to
+extend our knowledge of thermology by showing that there is no zero within
+reach of our researches. When Fourier had determined the laws of conduction
+of heat, and when the Earth's temperature had been found to increase below
+the surface one degree in every forty yards, there were data for inferring
+the past condition of our globe; the vast period it has taken to cool down
+to its present state; and the immense age of the solar system--a purely
+astronomical consideration.
+
+Chemistry having advanced sufficiently to supply the needful materials, and
+a physiological experiment having furnished the requisite hint, there came
+the discovery of galvanic electricity. Galvanism reacting on chemistry
+disclosed the metallic bases of the alkalies, and inaugurated the
+electro-chemical theory; in the hands of Oersted and Ampere it led to the
+laws of magnetic action; and by its aid Faraday has detected significant
+facts relative to the constitution of light. Brewster's discoveries
+respecting double refraction and dipolarization proved the essential truth
+of the classification of crystalline forms according to the number of axes,
+by showing that the molecular constitution depends upon the axes. In these
+and in numerous other cases, the mutual influence of the sciences has been
+quite independent of any supposed hierarchical order. Often, too, their
+inter-actions are more complex than as thus instanced--involve more
+sciences than two. One illustration of this must suffice. We quote it in
+full from the _History of the Inductive Sciences_. In Book XI., chap. II.,
+on "The Progress of the Electrical Theory," Dr. Whewell writes:--
+
+  "Thus at that period, mathematics was behind experiment, and a
+  problem was proposed, in which theoretical results were wanted for
+  comparison with observation, but could not be accurately obtained; as
+  was the case in astronomy also, till the time of the approximate
+  solution of the problem of three bodies, and the consequent formation
+  of the tables of the moon and planets, on the theory of universal
+  gravitation. After some time, electrical theory was relieved from
+  this reproach, mainly in consequence of the progress which astronomy
+  had occasioned in pure mathematics. About 1801 there appeared in the
+  _Bulletin des Sciences_, an exact solution of the problem of the
+  distribution of electric fluid on a spheroid, obtained by Biot, by
+  the application of the peculiar methods which Laplace had invented
+  for the problem of the figure of the planets. And, in 1811, M.
+  Poisson applied Laplace's artifices to the case of two spheres acting
+  upon one another in contact, a case to which many of Coulomb's
+  experiments were referrible; and the agreement of the results of
+  theory and observation, thus extricated from Coulomb's numbers
+  obtained above forty years previously, was very striking and
+  convincing."
+
+Not only do the sciences affect each other after this direct manner, but
+they affect each other indirectly. Where there is no dependence, there is
+yet analogy--_equality of relations_; and the discovery of the relations
+subsisting among one set of phenomena, constantly suggests a search for the
+same relations among another set. Thus the established fact that the force
+of gravitation varies inversely as the square of the distance, being
+recognized as a necessary characteristic of all influences proceeding from
+a centre, raised the suspicion that heat and light follow the same law;
+which proved to be the case--a suspicion and a confirmation which were
+repeated in respect to the electric and magnetic forces. Thus again the
+discovery of the polarization of light led to experiments which ended in
+the discovery of the polarization of heat--a discovery that could never
+have been made without the antecedent one. Thus, too, the known
+refrangibility of light and heat lately produced the inquiry whether sound
+also is not refrangible; which on trial it turns out to be.
+
+In some cases, indeed, it is only by the aid of conceptions derived from
+one class of phenomena that hypotheses respecting other classes can be
+formed. The theory, at one time favoured, that evaporation is a solution of
+water in air, was an assumption that the relation between water and air is
+_like_ the relation between salt and water; and could never have been
+conceived if the relation between salt and water had not been previously
+known. Similarly the received theory of evaporation--that it is a diffusion
+of the particles of the evaporating fluid in virtue of their atomic
+repulsion--could not have been entertained without a foregoing experience
+of magnetic and electric repulsions. So complete in recent days has become
+this _consensus_ among the sciences, caused either by the natural
+entanglement of their phenomena, or by analogies in the relations of their
+phenomena, that scarcely any considerable discovery concerning one order of
+facts now takes place, without very shortly leading to discoveries
+concerning other orders.
+
+To produce a tolerably complete conception of this process of scientific
+evolution, it would be needful to go back to the beginning, and trace in
+detail the growth of classifications and nomenclatures; and to show how, as
+subsidiary to science, they have acted upon it, and it has reacted upon
+them. We can only now remark that, on the one hand, classifications and
+nomenclatures have aided science by continually subdividing the
+subject-matter of research, and giving fixity and diffusion to the truths
+disclosed; and that on the other hand, they have caught from it that
+increasing quantitativeness, and that progress from considerations touching
+single phenomena to considerations touching the relations among many
+phenomena, which we have been describing.
+
+Of this last influence a few illustrations must be given. In chemistry it
+is seen in the facts, that the dividing of matter into the four elements
+was ostensibly based upon the single property of weight; that the first
+truly chemical division into acid and alkaline bodies, grouped together
+bodies which had not simply one property in common, but in which one
+property was constantly related to many others; and that the classification
+now current, places together in groups _supporters of combustion_,
+_metallic and non-metallic bases_, _acids_, _salts_, &c., bodies which are
+often quite unlike in sensible qualities, but which are like in the
+majority of their _relations_ to other bodies. In mineralogy again, the
+first classifications were based upon differences in aspect, texture, and
+other physical attributes. Berzelius made two attempts at a classification
+based solely on chemical constitution. That now current, recognises as far
+as possible the _relations_ between physical and chemical characters. In
+botany the earliest classes formed were _trees_, _shrubs_, and _herbs_:
+magnitude being the basis of distinction. Dioscorides divided vegetables
+into _aromatic_, _alimentary_, _medicinal_, and _vinous_: a division of
+chemical character. Caesalpinus classified them by the seeds, and
+seed-vessels, which he preferred because of the _relations_ found to
+subsist between the character of the fructification and the general
+character of the other parts.
+
+While the "natural system" since developed, carrying out the doctrine of
+Linnaeus, that "natural orders must be formed by attention not to one or
+two, but to _all_ the parts of plants," bases its divisions on like
+peculiarities which are found to be _constantly related_ to the greatest
+number of other like peculiarities. And similarly in zoology, the
+successive classifications, from having been originally determined by
+external and often subordinate characters not indicative of the essential
+nature, have been gradually more and more determined by those internal and
+fundamental differences, which have uniform _relations_ to the greatest
+number of other differences. Nor shall we be surprised at this analogy
+between the modes of progress of positive science and classification, when
+we bear in mind that both proceed by making generalizations; that both
+enable us to make previsions differing only in their precision; and that
+while the one deals with equal properties and relations, the other deals
+with properties and relations that approximate towards equality in variable
+degrees.
+
+Without further argument, it will, we think, be sufficiently clear that the
+sciences are none of them separately evolved--are none of them independent
+either logically or historically; but that all of them have, in a greater
+or less degree, required aid and reciprocated it. Indeed, it needs but to
+throw aside theses, and contemplate the mixed character of surrounding
+phenomena, to at once see that these notions of division and succession in
+the kinds of knowledge are none of them actually true, but are simple
+scientific fictions: good, if regarded merely as aids to study; bad, if
+regarded as representing realities in Nature. Consider them critically, and
+no facts whatever are presented to our senses uncombined with other
+facts--no facts whatever but are in some degree disguised by accompanying
+facts: disguised in such a manner that all must be partially understood
+before any one can be understood. If it be said, as by M. Comte, that
+gravitating force should be treated of before other forces, seeing that all
+things are subject to it, it may on like grounds be said that heat should
+be first dealt with; seeing that thermal forces are everywhere in action;
+that the ability of any portion of matter to manifest visible gravitative
+phenomena depends on its state of aggregation, which is determined by heat;
+that only by the aid of thermology can we explain those apparent exceptions
+to the gravitating tendency which are presented by steam and smoke, and so
+establish its universality, and that, indeed, the very existence of the
+solar system in a solid form is just as much a question of heat as it is
+one of gravitation.
+
+Take other cases:--All phenomena recognised by the eyes, through which only
+are the data of exact science ascertainable, are complicated with optical
+phenomena; and cannot be exhaustively known until optical principles are
+known. The burning of a candle cannot be explained without involving
+chemistry, mechanics, thermology. Every wind that blows is determined by
+influences partly solar, partly lunar, partly hygrometric; and implies
+considerations of fluid equilibrium and physical geography. The direction,
+dip, and variations of the magnetic needle, are facts half terrestrial,
+half celestial--are caused by earthly forces which have cycles of change
+corresponding with astronomical periods. The flowing of the gulf-stream and
+the annual migration of icebergs towards the equator, depending as they do
+on the balancing of the centripetal and centrifugal forces acting on the
+ocean, involve in their explanation the Earth's rotation and spheroidal
+form, the laws of hydrostatics, the relative densities of cold and warm
+water, and the doctrines of evaporation. It is no doubt true, as M. Comte
+says, that "our position in the solar system, and the motions, form, size,
+equilibrium of the mass of our world among the planets, must be known
+before we can understand the phenomena going on at its surface." But,
+fatally for his hypothesis, it is also true that we must understand a great
+part of the phenomena going on at its surface before we can know its
+position, &c., in the solar system. It is not simply that, as we have
+already shown, those geometrical and mechanical principles by which
+celestial appearances are explained, were first generalized from
+terrestrial experiences; but it is that the very obtainment of correct
+data, on which to base astronomical generalizations, implies advanced
+terrestrial physics.
+
+Until after optics had made considerable advance, the Copernican system
+remained but a speculation. A single modern observation on a star has to
+undergo a careful analysis by the combined aid of various sciences--has to
+_be digested by the organism of the sciences_; which have severally to
+assimilate their respective parts of the observation, before the essential
+fact it contains is available for the further development of astronomy. It
+has to be corrected not only for nutation of the earth's axis and for
+precession of the equinoxes, but for aberration and for refraction; and the
+formation of the tables by which refraction is calculated, presupposes
+knowledge of the law of decreasing density in the upper atmospheric strata;
+of the law of decreasing temperature, and the influence of this on the
+density; and of hygrometric laws as also affecting density. So that, to get
+materials for further advance, astronomy requires not only the indirect aid
+of the sciences which have presided over the making of its improved
+instruments, but the direct aid of an advanced optics, of barology, of
+thermology, of hygrometry; and if we remember that these delicate
+observations are in some cases registered electrically, and that they are
+further corrected for the "personal equation"--the time elapsing between
+seeing and registering, which varies with different observers--we may even
+add electricity and psychology. If, then, so apparently simple a thing as
+ascertaining the position of a star is complicated with so many phenomena,
+it is clear that this notion of the independence of the sciences, or
+certain of them, will not hold.
+
+Whether objectively independent or not, they cannot be subjectively
+so--they cannot have independence as presented to our consciousness; and
+this is the only kind of independence with which we are concerned. And
+here, before leaving these illustrations, and especially this last one, let
+us not omit to notice how clearly they exhibit that increasingly active
+_consensus_ of the sciences which characterizes their advancing
+development. Besides finding that in these later times a discovery in one
+science commonly causes progress in others; besides finding that a great
+part of the questions with which modern science deals are so mixed as to
+require the co-operation of many sciences for their solution; we find in
+this last case that, to make a single good observation in the purest of the
+natural sciences, requires the combined assistance of half a dozen other
+sciences.
+
+Perhaps the clearest comprehension of the interconnected growth of the
+sciences may be obtained by contemplating that of the arts, to which it is
+strictly analogous, and with which it is inseparably bound up. Most
+intelligent persons must have been, at one time or other, struck with the
+vast array of antecedents pre-supposed by one of our processes of
+manufacture. Let him trace the production of a printed cotton, and consider
+all that is implied by it. There are the many successive improvements
+through which the power-looms reached their present perfection; there is
+the steam-engine that drives them, having its long history from Papin
+downwards; there are the lathes in which its cylinder was bored, and the
+string of ancestral lathes from which those lathes proceeded; there is the
+steam-hammer under which its crank shaft was welded; there are the
+puddling-furnaces, the blast-furnaces, the coal-mines and the iron-mines
+needful for producing the raw material; there are the slowly improved
+appliances by which the factory was built, and lighted, and ventilated;
+there are the printing engine, and the die house, and the colour laboratory
+with its stock of materials from all parts of the world, implying
+cochineal-culture, logwood-cutting, indigo-growing; there are the
+implements used by the producers of cotton, the gins by which it is
+cleaned, the elaborate machines by which it is spun: there are the vessels
+in which cotton is imported, with the building-slips, the rope-yards, the
+sail-cloth factories, the anchor-forges, needful for making them; and
+besides all these directly necessary antecedents, each of them involving
+many others, there are the institutions which have developed the requisite
+intelligence, the printing and publishing arrangements which have spread
+the necessary information, the social organization which has rendered
+possible such a complex co-operation of agencies.
+
+Further analysis would show that the many arts thus concerned in the
+economical production of a child's frock, have each of them been brought to
+its present efficiency by slow steps which the other arts have aided; and
+that from the beginning this reciprocity has been ever on the increase. It
+needs but on the one hand to consider how utterly impossible it is for the
+savage, even with ore and coal ready, to produce so simple a thing as an
+iron hatchet; and then to consider, on the other hand, that it would have
+been impracticable among ourselves, even a century ago, to raise the tubes
+of the Britannia bridge from lack of the hydraulic press; to at once see
+how mutually dependent are the arts, and how all must advance that each may
+advance. Well, the sciences are involved with each other in just the same
+manner. They are, in fact, inextricably woven into this same complex web of
+the arts; and are only conventionally independent of it. Originally the two
+were one. How to fix the religious festivals; when to sow; how to weigh
+commodities; and in what manner to measure ground; were the purely
+practical questions out of which arose astronomy, mechanics, geometry.
+Since then there has been a perpetual inosculation of the sciences and the
+arts. Science has been supplying art with truer generalizations and more
+completely quantitative previsions. Art has been supplying science with
+better materials, and more perfect instruments. And all along the
+interdependence has been growing closer, not only between art and science,
+but among the arts themselves, and among the sciences themselves.
+
+How completely the analogy holds throughout, becomes yet clearer when we
+recognise the fact that _the sciences are arts to each other_. If, as
+occurs in almost every case, the fact to be analyzed by any science, has
+first to be prepared--to be disentangled from disturbing facts by the afore
+discovered methods of other sciences; the other sciences so used, stand in
+the position of arts. If, in solving a dynamical problem, a parallelogram
+is drawn, of which the sides and diagonal represent forces, and by putting
+magnitudes of extension for magnitudes of force a measurable relation is
+established between quantities not else to be dealt with; it may be fairly
+said that geometry plays towards mechanics much the same part that the fire
+of the founder plays towards the metal he is going to cast. If, in
+analyzing the phenomena of the coloured rings surrounding the point of
+contact between two lenses, a Newton ascertains by calculation the amount
+of certain interposed spaces, far too minute for actual measurement; he
+employs the science of number for essentially the same purpose as that for
+which the watchmaker employs tools. If, before writing down his observation
+on a star, the astronomer has to separate from it all the errors resulting
+from atmospheric and optical laws, it is manifest that the
+refraction-tables, and logarithm-books, and formulae, which he successively
+uses, serve him much as retorts, and filters, and cupels serve the assayer
+who wishes to separate the pure gold from all accompanying ingredients.
+
+So close, indeed, is the relationship, that it is impossible to say where
+science begins and art ends. All the instruments of the natural philosopher
+are the products of art; the adjusting one of them for use is an art; there
+is art in making an observation with one of them; it requires art properly
+to treat the facts ascertained; nay, even the employing established
+generalizations to open the way to new generalizations, may be considered
+as art. In each of these cases previously organized knowledge becomes the
+implement by which new knowledge is got at: and whether that previously
+organized knowledge is embodied in a tangible apparatus or in a formula,
+matters not in so far as its essential relation to the new knowledge is
+concerned. If, as no one will deny, art is applied knowledge, then such
+portion of a scientific investigation as consists of applied knowledge is
+art. So that we may even say that as soon as any prevision in science
+passes out of its originally passive state, and is employed for reaching
+other previsions, it passes from theory into practice--becomes science in
+action--becomes art. And when we thus see how purely conventional is the
+ordinary distinction, how impossible it is to make any real
+separation--when we see not only that science and art were originally one;
+that the arts have perpetually assisted each other; that there has been a
+constant reciprocation of aid between the sciences and arts; but that the
+sciences act as arts to each other, and that the established part of each
+science becomes an art to the growing part--when we recognize the closeness
+of these associations, we shall the more clearly perceive that as the
+connexion of the arts with each other has been ever becoming more intimate;
+as the help given by sciences to arts and by arts to sciences, has been age
+by age increasing; so the interdependence of the sciences themselves has
+been ever growing greater, their mutual relations more involved, their
+_consensus_ more active.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In here ending our sketch of the Genesis of Science, we are conscious of
+having done the subject but scant justice. Two difficulties have stood in
+our way: one, the having to touch on so many points in such small space;
+the other, the necessity of treating in serial arrangement a process which
+is not serial--a difficulty which must ever attend all attempts to
+delineate processes of development, whatever their special nature. Add to
+which, that to present in anything like completeness and proportion, even
+the outlines of so vast and complex a history, demands years of study.
+Nevertheless, we believe that the evidence which has been assigned suffices
+to substantiate the leading propositions with which we set out. Inquiry
+into the first stages of science confirms the conclusion which we drew from
+the analysis of science as now existing, that it is not distinct from
+common knowledge, but an outgrowth from it--an extension of the perception
+by means of the reason.
+
+That which we further found by analysis to form the more specific
+characteristic of scientific previsions, as contrasted with the previsions
+of uncultured intelligence--their quantitativeness--we also see to have
+been the characteristic alike in the initial steps in science, and of all
+the steps succeeding them. The facts and admissions cited in disproof of
+the assertion that the sciences follow one another, both logically and
+historically, in the order of their decreasing generality, have been
+enforced by the sundry instances we have met with, in which the more
+general or abstract sciences have been advanced only at the instigation of
+the more special or concrete--instances serving to show that a more general
+science as much owes its progress to the presentation of new problems by a
+more special science, as the more special science owes its progress to the
+solutions which the more general science is thus led to attempt--instances
+therefore illustrating the position that scientific advance is as much from
+the special to the general as from the general to the special.
+
+Quite in harmony with this position 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 harmony 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 civilization these have
+advanced together, acting and reacting upon 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 which we have
+shown that the sciences conform to. From all which we may perceive that the
+sciences can with no greater propriety be arranged in a succession, than
+language, classification, reasoning, art, and science, can be arranged in a
+succession; that, however needful a succession may be for the convenience
+of books and catalogues, it must be recognized merely as a convention; and
+that so far from its being the function of a philosophy of the sciences to
+establish a hierarchy, it is its function to show that the linear
+arrangements required for literary purposes, have none of them any basis
+either in Nature or History.
+
+There is one further remark we must not omit--a remark touching the
+importance of the question that has been discussed. Unfortunately it
+commonly happens that topics of this abstract nature are slighted as of no
+practical moment; and, we doubt not, that many will think it of very little
+consequence what theory respecting the genesis of science may be
+entertained. But the value of truths is often great, in proportion as their
+generality is wide. Remote as they seem from practical application, the
+highest generalizations are not unfrequently the most potent in their
+effects, in virtue of their influence on all those subordinate
+generalizations which regulate practice. And it must be so here. Whenever
+established, a correct theory of the historical development of the sciences
+must have an immense effect upon education; and, through education, upon
+civilization. Greatly as we differ from him in other respects, we agree
+with M. Comte in the belief that, rightly conducted, the education of the
+individual must have a certain correspondence with the evolution of the
+race.
+
+No one can contemplate the facts we have cited in illustration of the early
+stages of science, without recognising the _necessity_ of the processes
+through which those stages were reached--a necessity which, in respect to
+the leading truths, may likewise be traced in all after stages. This
+necessity, originating in the very nature of the phenomena to be analyzed
+and the faculties to be employed, more or less fully applies to the mind of
+the child as to that of the savage. We say more or less fully, because the
+correspondence is not special but general only. Were the _environment_ the
+same in both cases, the correspondence would be complete. But though the
+surrounding material out of which science is to be organized, is, in many
+cases, the same to the juvenile mind and the aboriginal mind, it is not so
+throughout; as, for instance, in the case of chemistry, the phenomena of
+which are accessible to the one, but were inaccessible to the other. Hence,
+in proportion as the environment differs, the course of evolution must
+differ. After admitting sundry exceptions, however, there remains a
+substantial parallelism; and, if so, it becomes of great moment to
+ascertain what really has been the process of scientific evolution. The
+establishment of an erroneous theory must be disastrous in its educational
+results; while the establishment of a true one must eventually be fertile
+in school-reforms and consequent social benefits.
+
+
+
+
+IV. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LAUGHTER.
+
+
+Why do we smile when a child puts on a man's hat? or what induces us to
+laugh on reading that the corpulent Gibbon was unable to rise from his
+knees after making a tender declaration? The usual reply to such questions
+is, that laughter results from a perception of incongruity. Even were there
+not on this reply the obvious criticism that laughter often occurs from
+extreme pleasure or from mere vivacity, there would still remain the real
+problem--How comes a sense of the incongruous to be followed by these
+peculiar bodily actions? Some have alleged that laughter is due to the
+pleasure of a relative self-elevation, which we feel on seeing the
+humiliation of others. But this theory, whatever portion of truth it may
+contain, is, in the first place, open to the fatal objection, that there
+are various humiliations to others which produce in us anything but
+laughter; and, in the second place, it does not apply to the many instances
+in which no one's dignity is implicated: as when we laugh at a good pun.
+Moreover, like the other, it is merely a generalization of certain
+conditions to laughter; and not an explanation of the odd movements which
+occur under these conditions. Why, when greatly delighted, or impressed
+with certain unexpected contrasts of ideas, should there be a contraction
+of particular facial muscles, and particular muscles of the chest and
+abdomen? Such answer to this question as may be possible, can be rendered
+only by physiology.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Every child has made the attempt to hold the foot still while it is
+tickled, and has failed; and probably there is scarcely any one who has not
+vainly tried to avoid winking, when a hand has been suddenly passed before
+the eyes. These examples of muscular movements which occur independently of
+the will, or in spite of it, illustrate what physiologists call
+reflex-action; as likewise do sneezing and coughing. To this class of
+cases, in which involuntary motions are accompanied by sensations, has to
+be added another class of cases, in which involuntary motions are
+unaccompanied by sensations:--instance the pulsations of the heart; the
+contractions of the stomach during digestion. Further, the great mass of
+seemingly-voluntary acts in such creatures as insects, worms, molluscs, are
+considered by physiologists to be as purely automatic as is the dilatation
+or closure of the iris under variations in quantity of light; and similarly
+exemplify the law, that an impression on the end of an afferent nerve is
+conveyed to some ganglionic centre, and is thence usually reflected along
+an efferent nerve to one or more muscles which it causes to contract.
+
+In a modified form this principle holds with voluntary acts. Nervous
+excitation always _tends_ to beget muscular motion; and when it rises to a
+certain intensity, always does beget it. Not only in reflex actions,
+whether with or without sensation, do we see that special nerves, when
+raised to a state of tension, discharge themselves on special muscles with
+which they are indirectly connected; but those external actions through
+which we read the feelings of others, show us that under any considerable
+tension, the nervous system in general discharges itself on the muscular
+system in general: either with or without the guidance of the will. The
+shivering produced by cold, implies irregular muscular contractions, which,
+though at first only partly involuntary, become, when the cold is extreme,
+almost wholly involuntary. When you have severely burnt your finger, it is
+very difficult to preserve a dignified composure: contortion of face, or
+movement of limb, is pretty sure to follow. If a man receives good news
+with neither change of feature nor bodily motion, it is inferred that he is
+not much pleased, or that he has extraordinary self-control--either
+inference implying that joy almost universally produces contraction of the
+muscles; and so, alters the expression, or attitude, or both. And when we
+hear of the feats of strength which men have performed when their lives
+were at stake--when we read how, in the energy of despair, even paralytic
+patients have regained for a time the use of their limbs; we see still more
+clearly the relations between nervous and muscular excitements. It becomes
+manifest both that emotions and sensations tend to generate bodily
+movements, and that the movements are vehement in proportion as the
+emotions or sensations are intense.[G]
+
+  [G] For numerous illustrations see essay on "The Origin and Function
+      of Music."
+
+This, however, is not the sole direction in which nervous excitement
+expends itself. Viscera as well as muscles may receive the discharge. That
+the heart and blood-vessels (which, indeed, being all contractile, may in a
+restricted sense be classed with the muscular system) are quickly affected
+by pleasures and pains, we have daily proved to us. Every sensation of any
+acuteness accelerates the pulse; and how sensitive the heart is to
+emotions, is testified by the familiar expressions which use heart and
+feeling as convertible terms. Similarly with the digestive organs. Without
+detailing the various ways in which these may be influenced by our mental
+states, it suffices to mention the marked benefits derived by dyspeptics,
+as well as other invalids, from cheerful society, welcome news, change of
+scene, to show how pleasurable feeling stimulates the viscera in general
+into greater activity.
+
+There is still another direction in which any excited portion of the
+nervous system may discharge itself; and a direction in which it usually
+does discharge itself when the excitement is not strong. It may pass on the
+stimulus to some other portion of the nervous system. This is what occurs
+in quiet thinking and feeling. The successive states which constitute
+consciousness, result from this. Sensations excite ideas and emotions;
+these in their turns arouse other ideas and emotions; and so, continuously.
+That is to say, the tension existing in particular nerves, or groups of
+nerves, when they yield us certain sensations, ideas, or emotions,
+generates an equivalent tension in some other nerves, or groups of nerves,
+with which there is a connexion: the flow of energy passing on, the one
+idea or feeling dies in producing the next.
+
+Thus, then, while we are totally unable to comprehend how the excitement of
+certain nerves should generate feeling--while, in the production of
+consciousness by physical agents acting on physical structure, we come to
+an absolute mystery never to be solved; it is yet quite possible for us to
+know by observation what are the successive forms which this absolute
+mystery may take. We see that there are three channels along which nerves
+in a state of tension may discharge themselves; or rather, I should say,
+three classes of channels. They may pass on the excitement to other nerves
+that have no direct connexions with the bodily members, and may so cause
+other feelings and ideas; or they may pass on the excitement to one or more
+motor nerves, and so cause muscular contractions; or they may pass on the
+excitement to nerves which supply the viscera, and may so stimulate one or
+more of these.
+
+For simplicity's sake, I have described these as alternative routes, one or
+other of which any current of nerve-force must take; thereby, as it may be
+thought, implying that such current will be exclusively confined to some
+one of them. But this is by no means the case. Rarely, if ever, does it
+happen that a state of nervous tension, present to consciousness as a
+feeling, expends itself in one direction only. Very generally it may be
+observed to expend itself in two; and it is probable that the discharge is
+never absolutely absent from any one of the three. There is, however,
+variety in the _proportions_ in which the discharge is divided among these
+different channels under different circumstances. In a man whose fear
+impels him to run, the mental tension generated is only in part transformed
+into a muscular stimulus: there is a surplus which causes a rapid current
+of ideas. An agreeable state of feeling produced, say by praise, is not
+wholly used up in arousing the succeeding phase of the feeling, and the new
+ideas appropriate to it; but a certain portion overflows into the visceral
+nervous system, increasing the action of the heart, and probably
+facilitating digestion. And here we come upon a class of considerations and
+facts which open the way to a solution of our special problem.
+
+For starting with the unquestionable truth, that at any moment the existing
+quantity of liberated nerve-force, which in an inscrutable way produces in
+us the state we call feeling, _must_ expend itself in some
+direction--_must_ generate an equivalent manifestation of force
+somewhere--it clearly follows that, if of the several channels it may take,
+one is wholly or partially closed, more must be taken by the others; or
+that if two are closed, the discharge along the remaining one must be more
+intense; and that, conversely, should anything determine an unusual efflux
+in one direction, there will be a diminished efflux in other directions.
+
+Daily experience illustrates these conclusions. It is commonly remarked,
+that the suppression of external signs of feeling, makes feeling more
+intense. The deepest grief is silent grief. Why? Because the nervous
+excitement not discharged in muscular action, discharges itself in other
+nervous excitements--arouses more numerous and more remote associations of
+melancholy ideas, and so increases the mass of feelings. People who conceal
+their anger are habitually found to be more revengeful than those who
+explode in loud speech and vehement action. Why? Because, as before, the
+emotion is reflected back, accumulates, and intensifies. Similarly, men
+who, as proved by their powers of representation, have the keenest
+appreciation of the comic, are usually able to do and say the most
+ludicrous things with perfect gravity.
+
+On the other hand, all are familiar with the truth that bodily activity
+deadens emotion. Under great irritation we get relief by walking about
+rapidly. Extreme effort in the bootless attempt to achieve a desired end,
+greatly diminishes the intensity of the desire. Those who are forced to
+exert themselves after misfortunes, do not suffer nearly so much as those
+who remain quiescent. If any one wishes to check intellectual excitement,
+he cannot choose a more efficient method than running till he is exhausted.
+Moreover, these cases, in which the production of feeling and thought is
+hindered by determining the nervous energy towards bodily movements, have
+their counterparts in the cases in which bodily movements are hindered by
+extra absorption of nervous energy in sudden thoughts and feelings. If,
+when walking along, there flashes on you an idea that creates great
+surprise, hope, or alarm, you stop; or if sitting cross-legged, swinging
+your pendent foot, the movement is at once arrested. From the viscera, too,
+intense mental action abstracts energy. Joy, disappointment, anxiety, or
+any moral perturbation rising to a great height, will destroy appetite; or
+if food has been taken, will arrest digestion; and even a purely
+intellectual activity, when extreme, will do the like.
+
+Facts, then, fully bear out these _a priori_ inferences, that the nervous
+excitement at any moment present to consciousness as feeling, must expend
+itself in some way or other; that of the three classes of channels open to
+it, it must take one, two, or more, according to circumstances; that the
+closure or obstruction of one, must increase the discharge through the
+others; and conversely, that if to answer some demand, the efflux of
+nervous energy in one direction is unusually great, there must be a
+corresponding decrease of the efflux in other directions. Setting out from
+these premises, let us now see what interpretation is to be put on the
+phenomena of laughter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That laughter is a display of muscular excitement, and so illustrates the
+general law that feeling passing a certain pitch habitually vents itself in
+bodily action, scarcely needs pointing out. It perhaps needs pointing out,
+however, that strong feeling of almost any kind produces this result. It is
+not a sense of the ludicrous, only, which does it; nor are the various
+forms of joyous emotion the sole additional causes. We have, besides, the
+sardonic laughter and the hysterical laughter, which result from mental
+distress; to which must be added certain sensations, as tickling, and,
+according to Mr. Bain, cold, and some kinds of acute pain.
+
+Strong feeling, mental or physical, being, then, the general cause of
+laughter, we have to note that the muscular actions constituting it are
+distinguished from most others by this, that they are purposeless. In
+general, bodily motions that are prompted by feelings are directed to
+special ends; as when we try to escape a danger, or struggle to secure a
+gratification. But the movements of chest and limbs which we make when
+laughing have no object. And now remark that these quasi-convulsive
+contractions of the muscles, having no object, but being results of an
+uncontrolled discharge of energy, we may see whence arise their special
+characters--how it happens that certain classes of muscles are affected
+first, and then certain other classes. For an overflow of nerve-force,
+undirected by any motive, will manifestly take first the most habitual
+routes; and if these do not suffice, will next overflow into the less
+habitual ones. Well, it is through the organs of speech that feeling passes
+into movement with the greatest frequency. The jaws, tongue, and lips are
+used not only to express strong irritation or gratification; but that very
+moderate flow of mental energy which accompanies ordinary conversation,
+finds its chief vent through this channel. Hence it happens that certain
+muscles round the mouth, small and easy to move, are the first to contract
+under pleasurable emotion. The class of muscles which, next after those of
+articulation, are most constantly set in action (or extra action, we should
+say) by feelings of all kinds, are those of respiration. Under pleasurable
+or painful sensations we breathe more rapidly: possibly as a consequence of
+the increased demand for oxygenated blood. The sensations that accompany
+exertion also bring on hard-breathing; which here more evidently responds
+to the physiological needs. And emotions, too, agreeable and disagreeable,
+both, at first, excite respiration; though the last subsequently depress
+it. That is to say, of the bodily muscles, the respiratory are more
+constantly implicated than any others in those various acts which our
+feelings impel us to; and, hence, when there occurs an undirected discharge
+of nervous energy into the muscular system, it happens that, if the
+quantity be considerable, it convulses not only certain of the articulatory
+and vocal muscles, but also those which expel air from the lungs.
+
+Should the feeling to be expended be still greater in amount--too great to
+find vent in these classes of muscles--another class comes into play. The
+upper limbs are set in motion. Children frequently clap their hands in
+glee; by some adults the hands are rubbed together; and others, under still
+greater intensity of delight, slap their knees and sway their bodies
+backwards and forwards. Last of all, when the other channels for the escape
+of the surplus nerve-force have been filled to overflowing, a yet further
+and less-used group of muscles is spasmodically affected: the head is
+thrown back and the spine bent inwards--there is a slight degree of what
+medical men call opisthotonos. Thus, then, without contending that the
+phenomena of laughter in all their details are to be so accounted for, we
+see that in their _ensemble_ they conform to these general
+principles:--that feeling excites to muscular action; that when the
+muscular action is unguided by a purpose, the muscles first affected are
+those which feeling most habitually stimulates; and that as the feeling to
+be expended increases in quantity, it excites an increasing number of
+muscles, in a succession determined by the relative frequency with which
+they respond to the regulated dictates of feeling.
+
+There still, however, remains the question with which we set out. The
+explanation here given applies only to the laughter produced by acute
+pleasure or pain: it does not apply to the laughter that follows certain
+perceptions of incongruity. It is an insufficient explanation that in these
+cases, laughter is a result of the pleasure we take in escaping from the
+restraint of grave feelings. That this is a part-cause is true. Doubtless
+very often, as Mr. Bain says, "it is the coerced form of seriousness and
+solemnity without the reality that gives us that stiff position from which
+a contact with triviality or vulgarity relieves us, to our uproarious
+delight." And in so far as mirth is caused by the gush of agreeable feeling
+that follows the cessation of mental strain, it further illustrates the
+general principle above set forth. But no explanation is thus afforded of
+the mirth which ensues when the short silence between the _andante_ and
+_allegro_ in one of Beethoven's symphonies, is broken by a loud sneeze. In
+this, and hosts of like cases, the mental tension is not coerced but
+spontaneous--not disagreeable but agreeable; and the coming impressions to
+which the attention is directed, promise a gratification that few, if any,
+desire to escape. Hence, when the unlucky sneeze occurs, it cannot be that
+the laughter of the audience is due simply to the release from an irksome
+attitude of mind: some other cause must be sought.
+
+This cause we shall arrive at by carrying our analysis a step further. We
+have but to consider the quantity of feeling that exists under such
+circumstances, and then to ask what are the conditions that determine the
+direction of its discharge, to at once reach a solution. Take a case. You
+are sitting in a theatre, absorbed in the progress of an interesting drama.
+Some climax has been reached which has aroused your sympathies--say, a
+reconciliation between the hero and heroine, after long and painful
+misunderstanding. The feelings excited by this scene are not of a kind from
+which you seek relief; but are, on the contrary, a grateful relief from the
+painful feelings with which you have witnessed the previous estrangement.
+Moreover, the sentiments these fictitious personages have for the moment
+inspired you with, are not such as would lead you to rejoice in any
+indignity offered to them; but rather, such as would make you resent the
+indignity. And now, while you are contemplating the reconciliation with a
+pleasurable sympathy, there appears from behind the scenes a tame kid,
+which, having stared round at the audience, walks up to the lovers and
+sniffs at them. You cannot help joining in the roar which greets this
+_contretemps_. Inexplicable as is this irresistible burst on the hypothesis
+of a pleasure in escaping from mental restraint; or on the hypothesis of a
+pleasure from relative increase of self-importance, when witnessing the
+humiliation of others; it is readily explicable if we consider what, in
+such a case, must become of the feeling that existed at the moment the
+incongruity arose. A large mass of emotion had been produced; or, to speak
+in physiological language, a large portion of the nervous system was in a
+state of tension. There was also great expectation with respect to the
+further evolution of the scene--a quantity of vague, nascent thought and
+emotion, into which the existing quantity of thought and emotion was about
+to pass.
+
+Had there been no interruption, the body of new ideas and feelings next
+excited, would have sufficed to absorb the whole of the liberated nervous
+energy. But now, this large amount of nervous energy, instead of being
+allowed to expend itself in producing an equivalent amount of the new
+thoughts and emotions which were nascent, is suddenly checked in its flow.
+The channels along which the discharge was about to take place, are closed.
+The new channel opened--that afforded by the appearance and proceedings of
+the kid--is a small one; the ideas and feelings suggested are not numerous
+and massive enough to carry off the nervous energy to be expended. The
+excess must therefore discharge itself in some other direction; and in the
+way already explained, there results an efflux through the motor nerves to
+various classes of the muscles, producing the half-convulsive actions we
+term laughter.
+
+This explanation is in harmony with the fact, that when, among several
+persons who witness the same ludicrous occurrence, there are some who do
+not laugh; it is because there has arisen in them an emotion not
+participated in by the rest, and which is sufficiently massive to absorb
+all the nascent excitement. Among the spectators of an awkward tumble,
+those who preserve their gravity are those in whom there is excited a
+degree of sympathy with the sufferer, sufficiently great to serve as an
+outlet for the feeling which the occurrence had turned out of its previous
+course. Sometimes anger carries off the arrested current; and so prevents
+laughter. An instance of this was lately furnished me by a friend who had
+been witnessing the feats at Franconi's. A tremendous leap had just been
+made by an acrobat over a number of horses. The clown, seemingly envious of
+this success, made ostentatious preparation for doing the like; and then,
+taking the preliminary run with immense energy, stopped short on reaching
+the first horse, and pretended to wipe some dust from its haunches. In the
+majority of the spectators, merriment was excited; but in my friend, wound
+up by the expectation of the coming leap to a state of great nervous
+tension, the effect of the baulk was to produce indignation. Experience
+thus proves what the theory implies: namely, that the discharge of arrested
+feelings into the muscular system, takes place only in the absence of other
+adequate channels--does not take place if there arise other feelings equal
+in amount to those arrested.
+
+Evidence still more conclusive is at hand. If we contrast the incongruities
+which produce laughter with those which do not, we at once see that in the
+non-ludicrous ones the unexpected state of feeling aroused, though wholly
+different in kind, is not less in quantity or intensity. Among
+incongruities that may excite anything but a laugh, Mr. Bain instances--"A
+decrepit man under a heavy burden, five loaves and two fishes among a
+multitude, and all unfitness and gross disproportion; an instrument out of
+tune, a fly in ointment, snow in May, Archimedes studying geometry in a
+siege, and all discordant things; a wolf in sheep's clothing, a breach of
+bargain, and falsehood in general; the multitude taking the law in their
+own hands, and everything of the nature of disorder; a corpse at a feast,
+parental cruelty, filial ingratitude, and whatever is unnatural; the entire
+catalogue of the vanities given by Solomon, are all incongruous, but they
+cause feelings of pain, anger, sadness, loathing, rather than mirth." Now
+in these cases, where the totally unlike state of consciousness suddenly
+produced, is not inferior in mass to the preceding one, the conditions to
+laughter are not fulfilled. As above shown, laughter naturally results only
+when consciousness is unawares transferred from great things to small--only
+when there is what we call a _descending_ incongruity.
+
+And now observe, finally, the fact, alike inferable _a priori_ and
+illustrated in experience, that an _ascending_ incongruity not only fails
+to cause laughter, but works on the muscular system an effect of exactly
+the reverse kind. When after something very insignificant there arises
+without anticipation something very great, the emotion we call wonder
+results; and this emotion is accompanied not by an excitement of the
+muscles, but by a relaxation of them. In children and country people, that
+falling of the jaw which occurs on witnessing something that is imposing
+and unexpected, exemplifies this effect. Persons who have been
+wonder-struck at the production of very striking results by a seemingly
+inadequate cause, are frequently described as unconsciously dropping the
+things they held in their hands. Such are just the effects to be
+anticipated. After an average state of consciousness, absorbing but a small
+quantity of nervous energy, is aroused without the slightest notice, a
+strong emotion of awe, terror, or admiration; joined with the astonishment
+due to an apparent want of adequate causation. This new state of
+consciousness demands far more nervous energy than that which it has
+suddenly replaced; and this increased absorption of nervous energy in
+mental changes, involves a temporary diminution of the outflow in other
+directions: whence the pendent jaw and the relaxing grasp.
+
+One further observation is worth making. Among the several sets of channels
+into which surplus feeling might be discharged, was named the nervous
+system of the viscera. The sudden overflow of an arrested mental
+excitement, which, as we have seen, results from a descending incongruity,
+must doubtless stimulate not only the muscular system, as we see it does,
+but also the internal organs; the heart and stomach must come in for a
+share of the discharge. And thus there seems to be a good physiological
+basis for the popular notion that mirth-creating excitement facilitates
+digestion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Though in doing so I go beyond the boundaries of the immediate topic, I may
+fitly point out that the method of inquiry here followed, is one which
+enables us to understand various phenomena besides those of laughter. To
+show the importance of pursuing it, I will indicate the explanation it
+furnishes of another familiar class of facts.
+
+All know how generally a large amount of emotion disturbs the action of the
+intellect, and interferes with the power of expression. A speech delivered
+with great facility to tables and chairs, is by no means so easily
+delivered to an audience. Every schoolboy can testify that his trepidation,
+when standing before a master, has often disabled him from repeating a
+lesson which he had duly learnt. In explanation of this we commonly say
+that the attention is distracted--that the proper train of ideas is broken
+by the intrusion of ideas that are irrelevant. But the question is, in what
+manner does unusual emotion produce this effect; and we are here supplied
+with a tolerably obvious answer. The repetition of a lesson, or set speech
+previously thought out, implies the flow of a very moderate amount of
+nervous excitement through a comparatively narrow channel. The thing to be
+done is simply to call up in succession certain previously-arranged
+ideas--a process in which no great amount of mental energy is expended.
+Hence, when there is a large quantity of emotion, which must be discharged
+in some direction or other; and when, as usually happens, the restricted
+series of intellectual actions to be gone through, does not suffice to
+carry it off; there result discharges along other channels besides the one
+prescribed: there are aroused various ideas foreign to the train of thought
+to be pursued; and these tend to exclude from consciousness those which
+should occupy it.
+
+And now observe the meaning of those bodily actions spontaneously set up
+under these circumstances. The school-boy saying his lesson, commonly has
+his fingers actively engaged--perhaps in twisting about a broken pen, or
+perhaps squeezing the angle of his jacket; and if told to keep his hands
+still, he soon again falls into the same or a similar trick. Many anecdotes
+are current of public speakers having incurable automatic actions of this
+class: barristers who perpetually wound and unwound pieces of tape; members
+of parliament ever putting on and taking off their spectacles. So long as
+such movements are unconscious, they facilitate the mental actions. At
+least this seems a fair inference from the fact that confusion frequently
+results from putting a stop to them: witness the case narrated by Sir
+Walter Scott of his school-fellow, who became unable to say his lesson
+after the removal of the waistcoat-button that he habitually fingered while
+in class. But why do they facilitate the mental actions? Clearly because
+they draw off a portion of the surplus nervous excitement. If, as above
+explained, the quantity of mental energy generated is greater than can find
+vent along the narrow channel of thought that is open to it; and if, in
+consequence, it is apt to produce confusion by rushing into other channels
+of thought; then by allowing it an exit through the motor nerves into the
+muscular system, the pressure is diminished, and irrelevant ideas are less
+likely to intrude on consciousness.
+
+This further illustration will, I think, justify the position that
+something may be achieved by pursuing in other cases this method of
+psychological inquiry. A complete explanation of the phenomena, requires us
+to trace out _all_ the consequences of any given state of consciousness;
+and we cannot do this without studying the effects, bodily and mental, as
+varying in quantity at each other's expense. We should probably learn much
+if we in every case asked--Where is all the nervous energy gone?
+
+
+
+
+V. THE ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF MUSIC
+
+
+When Carlo, standing, chained to his kennel, sees his master in the
+distance, a slight motion of the tail indicates his but faint hope that he
+is about to be let out. A much more decided wagging of the tail, passing
+by-and-by into lateral undulations of the body, follows his master's nearer
+approach. When hands are laid on his collar, and he knows that he is really
+to have an outing, his jumping and wriggling are such that it is by no
+means easy to loose his fastenings. And when he finds himself actually
+free, his joy expends itself in bounds, in pirouettes, and in scourings
+hither and thither at the top of his speed. Puss, too, by erecting her
+tail, and by every time raising her back to meet the caressing hand of her
+mistress, similarly expresses her gratification by certain muscular
+actions; as likewise do the parrot by awkward dancing on his perch, and the
+canary by hopping and fluttering about his cage with unwonted rapidity.
+Under emotions of an opposite kind, animals equally display muscular
+excitement. The enraged lion lashes his sides with his tail, knits his
+brows, protrudes his claws. The cat sets up her back; the dog retracts his
+upper lip; the horse throws back his ears. And in the struggles of
+creatures in pain, we see that the like relation holds between excitement
+of the muscles and excitement of the nerves of sensation.
+
+In ourselves, distinguished from lower creatures as we are by feelings
+alike more powerful and more varied, parallel facts are at once more
+conspicuous and more numerous. We may conveniently look at them in groups.
+We shall find that pleasurable sensations and painful sensations,
+pleasurable emotions and painful emotions, all tend to produce active
+demonstrations in proportion to their intensity.
+
+In children, and even in adults who are not restrained by regard for
+appearances, a highly agreeable taste is followed by a smacking of the
+lips. An infant will laugh and bound in its nurse's arms at the sight of a
+brilliant colour or the hearing of a new sound. People are apt to beat time
+with head or feet to music which particularly pleases them. In a sensitive
+person an agreeable perfume will produce a smile; and smiles will be seen
+on the faces of a crowd gazing at some splendid burst of fireworks. Even
+the pleasant sensation of warmth felt on getting to the fireside out of a
+winter's storm, will similarly express itself in the face.
+
+Painful sensations, being mostly far more intense than pleasurable ones,
+cause muscular actions of a much more decided kind. A sudden twinge
+produces a convulsive start of the whole body. A pain less violent, but
+continuous, is accompanied by a knitting of the brows, a setting of the
+teeth or biting of the lip, and a contraction of the features generally.
+Under a persistent pain of a severer kind, other muscular actions are
+added: the body is swayed to and fro; the hands clench anything they can
+lay hold of; and should the agony rise still higher, the sufferer rolls
+about on the floor almost convulsed.
+
+Though more varied, the natural language of the pleasurable emotions comes
+within the same generalization. A smile, which is the commonest expression
+of gratified feeling, is a contraction of certain facial muscles; and when
+the smile broadens into a laugh, we see a more violent and more general
+muscular excitement produced by an intenser gratification. Rubbing together
+of the hands, and that other motion which Dickens somewhere describes as
+"washing with impalpable soap in invisible water," have like implications.
+Children may often be seen to "jump for joy." Even in adults of excitable
+temperament, an action approaching to it is sometimes witnessed. And
+dancing has all the world through been regarded as natural to an elevated
+state of mind. Many of the special emotions show themselves in special
+muscular actions. The gratification resulting from success, raises the head
+and gives firmness to the gait. A hearty grasp of the hand is currently
+taken as indicative of friendship. Under a gush of affection the mother
+clasps her child to her breast, feeling as though she could squeeze it to
+death. And so in sundry other cases. Even in that brightening of the eye
+with which good news is received we may trace the same truth; for this
+appearance of greater brilliancy is due to an extra contraction of the
+muscle which raises the eyelid, and so allows more light to fall upon, and
+be reflected from, the wet surface of the eyeball.
+
+The bodily indications of painful emotions are equally numerous, and still
+more vehement. Discontent is shown by raised eyebrows and wrinkled
+forehead; disgust by a curl of the lip; offence by a pout. The impatient
+man beats a tattoo with his fingers on the table, swings his pendent leg
+with increasing rapidity, gives needless pokings to the fire, and presently
+paces with hasty strides about the room. In great grief there is wringing
+of the hands, and even tearing of the hair. An angry child stamps, or rolls
+on its back and kicks its heels in the air; and in manhood, anger, first
+showing itself in frowns, in distended nostrils, in compressed lips, goes
+on to produce grinding of the teeth, clenching of the fingers, blows of the
+fist on the table, and perhaps ends in a violent attack on the offending
+person, or in throwing about and breaking the furniture. From that pursing
+of the mouth indicative of slight displeasure, up to the frantic struggles
+of the maniac, we shall find that mental irritation tends to vent itself in
+bodily activity.
+
+All feelings, then--sensations or emotions, pleasurable or painful--have
+this common characteristic, that they are muscular stimuli. Not forgetting
+the few apparently exceptional cases in which emotions exceeding a certain
+intensity produce prostration, we may set it down as a general law that,
+alike in man and animals, there is a direct connection between feeling and
+motion; the last growing more vehement as the first grows more intense.
+Were it allowable here to treat the matter scientifically, we might trace
+this general law down to the principle known among physiologists as that of
+_reflex action_.[H] Without doing this, however, the above numerous
+instances justify the generalization, that mental excitement of all kinds
+ends in excitement of the muscles; and that the two preserve a more or less
+constant ratio to each other.
+
+  [H] Those who seek information on this point may find it in an
+      interesting tract by Mr. Alexander Bain, on _Animal Instinct and
+      Intelligence_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"But what has all this to do with _The Origin and Function of Music_?" asks
+the reader. Very much, as we shall presently see. All music is originally
+vocal. All vocal sounds are produced by the agency of certain muscles.
+These muscles, in common with those of the body at large, are excited to
+contraction by pleasurable and painful feelings. And therefore it is that
+feelings demonstrate themselves in sounds as well as in movements.
+Therefore it is that Carlo barks as well as leaps when he is let out--that
+puss purrs as well as erects her tail--that the canary chirps as well as
+flutters. Therefore it is that the angry lion roars while he lashes his
+sides, and the dog growls while he retracts his lip. Therefore it is that
+the maimed animal not only struggles, but howls. And it is from this cause
+that in human beings bodily suffering expresses itself not only in
+contortions, but in shrieks and groans--that in anger, and fear, and grief,
+the gesticulations are accompanied by shouts and screams--that delightful
+sensations are followed by exclamations--and that we hear screams of joy
+and shouts of exultation.
+
+We have here, then, a principle underlying all vocal phenomena; including
+those of vocal music, and by consequence those of music in general. The
+muscles that move the chest, larynx, and vocal chords, contracting like
+other muscles in proportion to the intensity of the feelings; every
+different contraction of these muscles involving, as it does, a different
+adjustment of the vocal organs; every different adjustment of the vocal
+organs causing a change in the sound emitted;--it follows that variations
+of voice are the physiological results of variations of feeling; it follows
+that each inflection or modulation is the natural outcome of some passing
+emotion or sensation; and it follows that the explanation of all kinds of
+vocal expression, must be sought in this general relation between mental
+and muscular excitements. Let us, then, see whether we cannot thus account
+for the chief peculiarities in the utterance of the feelings: grouping
+these peculiarities under the heads of _loudness_, _quality_, _or timbre_,
+_pitch_, _intervals_, and _rate of variation_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Between the lungs and the organs of voice, there is much the same relation
+as between the bellows of an organ and its pipes. And as the loudness of
+the sound given out by an organ-pipe increases with the strength of the
+blast from the bellows; so, other things equal, the loudness of a vocal
+sound increases with the strength of the blast from the lungs. But the
+expulsion of air from the lungs is effected by certain muscles of the chest
+and abdomen. The force with which these muscles contract, is proportionate
+to the intensity of the feeling experienced. Hence, _a priori_, loud sounds
+will be the habitual results of strong feelings. That they are so we have
+daily proof. The pain which, if moderate, can be borne silently, causes
+outcries if it becomes extreme. While a slight vexation makes a child
+whimper, a fit of passion calls forth a howl that disturbs the
+neighbourhood. When the voices in an adjacent room become unusually
+audible, we infer anger, or surprise, or joy. Loudness of applause is
+significant of great approbation; and with uproarious mirth we associate
+the idea of high enjoyment. Commencing with the silence of apathy, we find
+that the utterances grow louder as the sensations or emotions, whether
+pleasurable or painful, grow stronger.
+
+That different _qualities_ of voice accompany different mental states, and
+that under states of excitement the tones are more sonorous than usual, is
+another general fact admitting of a parallel explanation. The sounds of
+common conversation have but little resonance; those of strong feeling have
+much more. Under rising ill temper the voice acquires a metallic ring. In
+accordance with her constant mood, the ordinary speech of a virago has a
+piercing quality quite opposite to that softness indicative of placidity. A
+ringing laugh marks an especially joyous temperament. Grief unburdening
+itself uses tones approaching in _timbre_ to those of chanting: and in his
+most pathetic passages an eloquent speaker similarly falls into tones more
+vibratory than those common to him. Now any one may readily convince
+himself that resonant vocal sounds can be produced only by a certain
+muscular effort additional to that ordinarily needed. If after uttering a
+word in his speaking voice, the reader, without changing the pitch or the
+loudness, will _sing_ this word, he will perceive that before he can sing
+it, he has to alter the adjustment of the vocal organs; to do which a
+certain force must be used; and by putting his fingers on that external
+prominence marking the top of the larynx, he will have further evidence
+that to produce a sonorous tone the organs must be drawn out of their usual
+position. Thus, then, the fact that the tones of excited feeling are more
+vibratory than those of common conversation, is another instance of the
+connexion between mental excitement and muscular excitement. The speaking
+voice, the recitative voice, and the singing voice, severally exemplify one
+general principle.
+
+That the _pitch_ of the voice varies according to the action of the vocal
+muscles, scarcely needs saying. All know that the middle notes, in which
+they converse, are made without any appreciable effort; and all know that
+to make either very high or very low notes requires a considerable effort.
+In either ascending or descending from the pitch of ordinary speech, we are
+conscious of an increasing muscular strain, which, at both extremes of the
+register, becomes positively painful. Hence it follows from our general
+principle, that while indifference or calmness will use the medium tones,
+the tones used during excitement will be either above or below them; and
+will rise higher and higher, or fall lower and lower, as the feelings grow
+stronger. This physiological deduction we also find to be in harmony with
+familiar facts. The habitual sufferer utters his complaints in a voice
+raised considerably above the natural key; and agonizing pain vents itself
+in either shrieks or groans--in very high or very low notes. Beginning at
+his talking pitch, the cry of the disappointed urchin grows more shrill as
+it grows louder. The "Oh!" of astonishment or delight, begins several notes
+below the middle voice, and descends still lower. Anger expresses itself in
+high tones, or else in "curses not loud but _deep_." Deep tones, too, are
+always used in uttering strong reproaches. Such an exclamation as "Beware!"
+if made dramatically--that is, if made with a show of feeling--must be many
+notes lower than ordinary. Further, we have groans of disapprobation,
+groans of horror, groans of remorse. And extreme joy and fear are alike
+accompanied by shrill outcries.
+
+Nearly allied to the subject of pitch, is that of _intervals_; and the
+explanation of them carries our argument a step further. While calm speech
+is comparatively monotonous, emotion makes use of fifths, octaves, and even
+wider intervals. Listen to any one narrating or repeating something in
+which he has no interest, and his voice will not wander more than two or
+three notes above or below his medium note, and that by small steps; but
+when he comes to some exciting event he will be heard not only to use the
+higher and lower notes of his register, but to go from one to the other by
+larger leaps. Being unable in print to imitate these traits of feeling, we
+feel some difficulty in fully realizing them to the reader. But we may
+suggest a few remembrances which will perhaps call to mind a sufficiency of
+others. If two men living in the same place, and frequently seeing one
+another, meet, say at a public assembly, any phrase with which one may be
+heard to accost the other--as "Hallo, are you here?"--will have an ordinary
+intonation. But if one of them, after long absence, has unexpectedly
+returned, the expression of surprise with which his friend may greet
+him--"Hallo! how came you here?"--will be uttered in much more strongly
+contrasted tones. The two syllables of the word "Hallo" will be, the one
+much higher and the other much lower than before; and the rest of the
+sentence will similarly ascend and descend by longer steps.
+
+Again, if, supposing her to be in an adjoining room, the mistress of the
+house calls "Mary," the two syllables of the name will be spoken in an
+ascending interval of a third. If Mary does not reply, the call will be
+repeated probably in a descending fifth; implying the slightest shade of
+annoyance at Mary's inattention. Should Mary still make no answer, the
+increasing annoyance will show itself by the use of a descending octave on
+the next repetition of the call. And supposing the silence to continue, the
+lady, if not of a very even temper, will show her irritation at Mary's
+seemingly intentional negligence by finally calling her in tones still more
+widely contrasted--the first syllable being higher and the last lower than
+before.
+
+Now, these and analogous facts, which the reader will readily accumulate,
+clearly conform to the law laid down. For to make large intervals requires
+more muscular action than to make small ones. But not only is the _extent_
+of vocal intervals thus explicable as due to the relation between nervous
+and muscular excitement, but also in some degree their _direction_, as
+ascending or descending. The middle notes being those which demand no
+appreciable effort of muscular adjustment; and the effort becoming greater
+as we either ascend or descend; it follows that a departure from the middle
+notes in either direction will mark increasing emotion; while a return
+towards the middle notes will mark decreasing emotion. Hence it happens
+that an enthusiastic person uttering such a sentence as--"It was the most
+splendid sight I ever saw!" will ascend to the first syllable of the word
+"splendid," and thence will descend: the word "splendid" marking the climax
+of the feeling produced by the recollection. Hence, again, it happens that,
+under some extreme vexation produced by another's stupidity, an irascible
+man, exclaiming--"What a confounded fool the fellow is!" will begin
+somewhat below his middle voice, and descending to the word "fool," which
+he will utter in one of his deepest notes, will then ascend again. And it
+may be remarked, that the word "fool" will not only be deeper and louder
+than the rest, but will also have more emphasis of articulation--another
+mode in which muscular excitement is shown.
+
+There is some danger, however, in giving instances like this; seeing that
+as the mode of rendering will vary according to the intensity of the
+feeling which the reader feigns to himself, the right cadence may not be
+hit upon. With single words there is less difficulty. Thus the "Indeed!"
+with which a surprising fact is received, mostly begins on the middle note
+of the voice, and rises with the second syllable; or, if disapprobation as
+well as astonishment is felt, the first syllable will be below the middle
+note, and the second lower still. Conversely, the word "Alas!" which marks
+not the rise of a paroxysm of grief, but its decline, is uttered in a
+cadence descending towards the middle note; or, if the first syllable is in
+the lower part of the register, the second ascends towards the middle note.
+In the "Heigh-ho!" expressive of mental and muscular prostration, we may
+see the same truth; and if the cadence appropriate to it be inverted the
+absurdity of the effect clearly shows how the meaning of intervals is
+dependent on the principle we have been illustrating.
+
+The remaining characteristic of emotional speech which we have to notice is
+that of _variability of pitch_. It is scarcely possible here to convey
+adequate ideas of this more complex manifestation. We must be content with
+simply indicating some occasions on which it may be observed. On a meeting
+of friends, for instance--as when there arrives a party of much-wished-for
+visitors--the voices of all will be heard to undergo changes of pitch not
+only greater but much more numerous than usual. If a speaker at a public
+meeting is interrupted by some squabble among those he is addressing, his
+comparatively level tones will be in marked contrast with the rapidly
+changing one of the disputants. And among children, whose feelings are less
+under control than those of adults, this peculiarity is still more decided.
+During a scene of complaint and recrimination between two excitable little
+girls, the voices may be heard to run up and down the gamut several times
+in each sentence. In such cases we once more recognise the same law: for
+muscular excitement is shown not only in strength of contraction but also
+in the rapidity with which different muscular adjustments succeed each
+other.
+
+Thus we find all the leading vocal phenomena to have a physiological basis.
+They are so many manifestations of the general law that feeling is a
+stimulus to muscular action--a law conformed to throughout the whole
+economy, not of man only, but of every sensitive creature--a law,
+therefore, which lies deep in the nature of animal organization. The
+expressiveness of these various modifications of voice is therefore innate.
+Each of us, from babyhood upwards, has been spontaneously making them, when
+under the various sensations and emotions by which they are produced.
+Having been conscious of each feeling at the same time that we heard
+ourselves make the consequent sound, we have acquired an established
+association of ideas between such sound and the feeling which caused it.
+When the like sound is made by another, we ascribe the like feeling to him;
+and by a further consequence we not only ascribe to him that feeling, but
+have a certain degree of it aroused in ourselves: for to become conscious
+of the feeling which another is experiencing, is to have that feeling
+awakened in our own consciousness, which is the same thing as experiencing
+the feeling. Thus these various modifications of voice become not only a
+language through which we understand the emotions of others, but also the
+means of exciting our sympathy with such emotions.
+
+Have we not here, then, adequate data for a theory of music? These vocal
+peculiarities which indicate excited feeling, _are those which especially
+distinguish song from ordinary speech_. Every one of the alterations of
+voice which we have found to be a physiological result of pain or pleasure,
+_is carried to its greatest extreme in vocal music_. For instance, we saw
+that, in virtue of the general relation between mental and muscular
+excitement, one characteristic of passionate utterance is _loudness_. Well,
+its comparative loudness is one of the distinctive marks of song as
+contrasted with the speech of daily life; and further, the _forte_ passages
+of an air are those intended to represent the climax of its emotion. We
+next saw that the tones in which emotion expresses itself, are, in
+conformity with this same law, of a more sonorous _timbre_ than those of
+calm conversation. Here, too, song displays a still higher degree of the
+peculiarity; for the singing tone is the most resonant we can make. Again,
+it was shown that, from a like cause, mental excitement vents itself in the
+higher and lower notes of the register; using the middle notes but seldom.
+And it scarcely needs saying that vocal music is still more distinguished
+by its comparative neglect of the notes in which we talk, and its habitual
+use of those above or below them and, moreover, that its most passionate
+effects are commonly produced at the two extremities of its scale, but
+especially the upper one.
+
+A yet further trait of strong feeling, similarly accounted for, was the
+employment of larger intervals than are employed in common converse. This
+trait, also, every ballad and _aria_ carries to an extent beyond that heard
+in the spontaneous utterances of emotion: add to which, that the direction
+of these intervals, which, as diverging from or converging towards the
+medium tones, we found to be physiologically expressive of increasing or
+decreasing emotion, may be observed to have in music like meanings. Once
+more, it was pointed out that not only extreme but also rapid variations of
+pitch, are characteristic of mental excitement; and once more we see in the
+quick changes of every melody, that song carries the characteristic as far,
+if not farther. Thus, in respect alike of _loudness_, _timbre_, _pitch_,
+_intervals_, and _rate of variation_, song employs and exaggerates the
+natural language of the emotions;--it arises from a systematic combination
+of those vocal peculiarities which are the physiological effects of acute
+pleasure and pain.
+
+Besides these chief characteristics of song as distinguished from common
+speech, there are sundry minor ones similarly explicable as due to the
+relation between mental and muscular excitement; and before proceeding
+further, these should be briefly noticed. Thus, certain passions, and
+perhaps all passions when pushed to an extreme, produce (probably through
+their influence over the action of the heart) an effect the reverse of that
+which has been described: they cause a physical prostration, one symptom of
+which is a general relaxation of the muscles, and a consequent trembling.
+We have the trembling of anger, of fear, of hope, of joy; and the vocal
+muscles being implicated with the rest, the voice too becomes tremulous.
+Now, in singing, this tremulousness of voice is very effectively used by
+some vocalists in highly pathetic passages; sometimes, indeed, because of
+its effectiveness, too much used by them--as by Tamberlik, for instance.
+
+Again, there is a mode of musical execution known as the _staccato_,
+appropriate to energetic passages--to passages expressive of exhilaration,
+of resolution, of confidence. The action of the vocal muscles which
+produces this staccato style, is analogous to the muscular action which
+produces the sharp, decisive, energetic movements of body indicating these
+states of mind; and therefore it is that the staccato style has the meaning
+we ascribe to it. Conversely, slurred intervals are expressive of gentler
+and less active feelings; and are so because they imply the smaller
+muscular vivacity due to a lower mental energy. The difference of effect
+resulting from difference of _time_ in music, is also attributable to the
+same law. Already it has been pointed out that the more frequent changes of
+pitch which ordinarily result from passion, are imitated and developed in
+song; and here we have to add, that the various rates of such changes,
+appropriate to the different styles of music, are further traits having the
+same derivation. The slowest movements, _largo_ and _adagio_, are used
+where such depressing emotions as grief, or such unexciting emotions as
+reverence, are to be portrayed; while the more rapid movements, _andante_,
+_allegro_, _presto_, represent successively increasing degrees of mental
+vivacity; and do this because they imply that muscular activity which flows
+from this mental vivacity. Even the _rhythm_, which forms a remaining
+distinction between song and speech, may not improbably have a kindred
+cause. Why the actions excited by strong feeling should tend to become
+rhythmical, is not very obvious; but that they do so there are divers
+evidences. There is the swaying of the body to and fro under pain or grief,
+of the leg under impatience or agitation. Dancing, too, is a rhythmical
+action natural to elevated emotion. That under excitement speech acquires a
+certain rhythm, we may occasionally perceive in the highest efforts of an
+orator. In poetry, which is a form of speech used for the better expression
+of emotional ideas, we have this rhythmical tendency developed. And when we
+bear in mind that dancing, poetry, and music are connate--are originally
+constituent parts of the same thing, it becomes clear that the measured
+movement common to them all implies a rhythmical action of the whole
+system, the vocal apparatus included; and that so the rhythm of music is a
+more subtle and complex result of this relation between mental and muscular
+excitement.
+
+But it is time to end this analysis, which, possibly we have already
+carried too far. It is not to be supposed that the more special
+peculiarities of musical expression are to be definitely explained. Though
+probably they may all in some way conform to the principle that has been
+worked out, it is obviously impracticable to trace that principle in its
+more ramified applications. Nor is it needful to our argument that it
+should be so traced. The foregoing facts sufficiently prove that what we
+regard as the distinctive traits of song, are simply the traits of
+emotional speech intensified and systematized. In respect of its general
+characteristics, we think it has been made clear that vocal music, and by
+consequence all music, is an idealization of the natural language of
+passion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As far as it goes, the scanty evidence furnished by history confirms this
+conclusion. Note first the fact (not properly an historical one, but fitly
+grouped with such) that the dance-chants of savage tribes are very
+monotonous; and in virtue of their monotony are much more nearly allied to
+ordinary speech than are the songs of civilized races. Joining with this
+the fact that there are still extant among boatmen and others in the East,
+ancient chants of a like monotonous character, we may infer that vocal
+music originally diverged from emotional speech in a gradual, unobtrusive
+manner; and this is the inference to which our argument points. Further
+evidence to the same effect is supplied by Greek history. The early poems
+of the Greeks--which, be it remembered, were sacred legends embodied in
+that rhythmical, metaphorical language which strong feeling excites--were
+not recited, but chanted: the tones and the cadences were made musical by
+the same influences which made the speech poetical.
+
+By those who have investigated the matter, this chanting is believed to
+have been not what we call singing, but nearly allied to our recitative;
+(far simpler indeed, if we may judge from the fact that the early Greek
+lyre, which had but _four_ strings, was played in _unison_ with the voice,
+which was therefore confined to four notes;) and as such, much less remote
+from common speech than our own singing is. For recitative, or musical
+recitation, is in all respects intermediate between speech and song. Its
+average effects are not so _loud_ as those of song. Its tones are less
+sonorous in _timbre_ than those of song. Commonly it diverges to a smaller
+extent from the middle notes--uses notes neither so high nor so low in
+_pitch_. The _intervals_ habitual to it are neither so wide nor so varied.
+Its _rate of variation_ is not so rapid. And at the same time that its
+primary _rhythm_ is less decided, it has none of that secondary rhythm
+produced by recurrence of the same or parallel musical phrases, which is
+one of the marked characteristics of song. Thus, then, we may not only
+infer, from the evidence furnished by existing barbarous tribes, that the
+vocal music of pre-historic times was emotional speech very slightly
+exalted; but we see that the earliest vocal music of which we have any
+account, differed much less from emotional speech than does the vocal music
+of our days.
+
+That recitative--beyond which, by the way, the Chinese and Hindoos seem
+never to have advanced--grew naturally out of the modulations and cadences
+of strong feeling, we have indeed still current evidence. There are even
+now to be met with occasions on which strong feeling vents itself in this
+form. Whoever has been present when a meeting of Quakers was addressed by
+one of their preachers (whose practice it is to speak only under the
+influence of religious emotion), must have been struck by the quite unusual
+tones, like those of a subdued chant, in which the address was made. It is
+clear, too, that the intoning used in some churches, is representative of
+this same mental state; and has been adopted on account of the
+instinctively felt congruity between it and the contrition, supplication,
+or reverence verbally expressed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And if, as we have good reason to believe, recitative arose by degrees out
+of emotional speech, it becomes manifest that by a continuance of the same
+process song has arisen out of recitative. Just as, from the orations and
+legends of savages, expressed in the metaphorical, allegorical style
+natural to them, there sprung epic poetry, out of which lyric poetry was
+afterwards developed; so, from the exalted tones and cadences in which such
+orations and legends were delivered, came the chant or recitative music,
+from whence lyrical music has since grown up. And there has not only thus
+been a simultaneous and parallel genesis, but there is also a parallelism
+of results. For lyrical poetry differs from epic poetry, just as lyrical
+music differs from recitative: each still further intensifies the natural
+language of the emotions. Lyrical poetry is more metaphorical, more
+hyperbolic, more elliptical, and adds the rhythm of lines to the rhythm of
+feet; just as lyrical music is louder, more sonorous, more extreme in its
+intervals, and adds the rhythm of phrases to the rhythm of bars. And the
+known fact that out of epic poetry the stronger passions developed lyrical
+poetry as their appropriate vehicle, strengthens the inference that they
+similarly developed lyrical music out of recitative.
+
+Nor indeed are we without evidences of the transition. It needs but to
+listen to an opera to hear the leading gradations. Between the
+comparatively level recitative of ordinary dialogue, the more varied
+recitative with wider intervals and higher tones used in exciting scenes,
+the still more musical recitative which preludes an air, and the air
+itself, the successive steps are but small; and the fact that among airs
+themselves gradations of like nature may be traced, further confirms the
+conclusion that the highest form of vocal music was arrived at by degrees.
+
+Moreover, we have some clue to the influences which have induced this
+development; and may roughly conceive the process of it. As the tones,
+intervals, and cadences of strong emotion were the elements out of which
+song was elaborated; so, we may expect to find that still stronger emotion
+produced the elaboration: and we have evidence implying this. Instances in
+abundance may be cited, showing that musical composers are men of extremely
+acute sensibilities. The Life of Mozart depicts him as one of intensely
+active affections and highly impressionable temperament. Various anecdotes
+represent Beethoven as very susceptible and very passionate. Mendelssohn is
+described by those who knew him to have been full of fine feeling. And the
+almost incredible sensitiveness of Chopin has been illustrated in the
+memoirs of George Sand. An unusually emotional nature being thus the
+general characteristic of musical composers, we have in it just the agency
+required for the development of recitative and song. Intenser feeling
+producing intenser manifestations, any cause of excitement will call forth
+from such a nature, tones and changes of voice more marked than those
+called forth from an ordinary nature--will generate just those
+exaggerations which we have found to distinguish the lower vocal music from
+emotional speech, and the higher vocal music from the lower. Thus it
+becomes credible that the four-toned recitative of the early Greek poets
+(like all poets, nearly allied to composers in the comparative intensity of
+their feelings), was really nothing more than the slightly exaggerated
+emotional speech natural to them, which grew by frequent use into an
+organized form. And it is readily conceivable that the accumulated agency
+of subsequent poet-musicians, inheriting and adding to the products of
+those who went before them, sufficed, in the course of the ten centuries
+which we know it took, to develope this four-toned recitative into a vocal
+music having a range of two octaves.
+
+Not only may we so understand how more sonorous tones, greater extremes of
+pitch, and wider intervals, were gradually introduced; but also how there
+arose a greater variety and complexity of musical expression. For this same
+passionate, enthusiastic temperament, which naturally leads the musical
+composer to express the feelings possessed by others as well as himself, in
+extremer intervals and more marked cadences than they would use, also leads
+him to give musical utterance to feelings which they either do not
+experience, or experience in but slight degrees. In virtue of this general
+susceptibility which distinguishes him, he regards with emotion, events,
+scenes, conduct, character, which produce upon most men no appreciable
+effect. The emotions so generated, compounded as they are of the simpler
+emotions, are not expressible by intervals and cadences natural to these,
+but by combinations of such intervals and cadences: whence arise more
+involved musical phrases, conveying more complex, subtle, and unusual
+feelings. And thus we may in some measure understand how it happens that
+music not only so strongly excites our more familiar feelings, but also
+produces feelings we never had before--arouses dormant sentiments of which
+we had not conceived the possibility and do not know the meaning; or, as
+Richter says--tells us of things we have not seen and shall not see.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Indirect evidences of several kinds remain to be briefly pointed out. One
+of them is the difficulty, not to say impossibility, of otherwise
+accounting for the expressiveness of music. Whence comes it that special
+combinations of notes should have special effects upon our emotions?--that
+one should give us a feeling of exhilaration, another of melancholy,
+another of affection, another of reverence? Is it that these special
+combinations have intrinsic meanings apart from the human
+constitution?--that a certain number of aerial waves per second, followed
+by a certain other number, in the nature of things signify grief, while in
+the reverse order they signify joy; and similarly with all other intervals,
+phrases, and cadences? Few will be so irrational as to think this. Is it,
+then, that the meanings of these special combinations are conventional
+only?--that we learn their implications, as we do those of words, by
+observing how others understand them? This is an hypothesis not only devoid
+of evidence, but directly opposed to the experience of every one. How,
+then, are musical effects to be explained? If the theory above set forth be
+accepted, the difficulty disappears. If music, taking for its raw material
+the various modifications of voice which are the physiological results of
+excited feeling, intensifies, combines, and complicates them--if it
+exaggerates the loudness, the resonance, the pitch, the intervals, and the
+variability, which, in virtue of an organic law, are the characteristics of
+passionate speech--if, by carrying out these further, more consistently,
+more unitedly, and more sustainedly, it produces an idealized language of
+emotion; then its power over us becomes comprehensible. But in the absence
+of this theory, the expressiveness of music appears to be inexplicable.
+
+Again, the preference we feel for certain qualities of sound presents a
+like difficulty, admitting only of a like solution. It is generally agreed
+that the tones of the human voice are more pleasing than any others. Grant
+that music takes its rise from the modulations of the human voice under
+emotion, and it becomes a natural consequence that the tones of that voice
+should appeal to our feelings more than any others; and so should be
+considered more beautiful than any others. But deny that music has this
+origin, and the only alternative is the untenable position that the
+vibrations proceeding from a vocalist's throat are, objectively considered,
+of a higher order than those from a horn or a violin. Similarly with harsh
+and soft sounds. If the conclusiveness of the foregoing reasonings be not
+admitted, it must be supposed that the vibrations causing the last are
+intrinsically better than those causing the first; and that, in virtue of
+some pre-established harmony, the higher feelings and natures produce the
+one, and the lower the other. But if the foregoing reasonings be valid, it
+follows, as a matter of course, that we shall like the sounds that
+habitually accompany agreeable feelings, and dislike those that habitually
+accompany disagreeable feelings.
+
+Once more, the question--How is the expressiveness of music to be otherwise
+accounted for? may be supplemented by the question--How is the genesis of
+music to be otherwise accounted for? That music is a product of
+civilization is manifest; for though savages have their dance-chants, these
+are of a kind scarcely to be dignified by the title musical: at most, they
+supply but the vaguest rudiment of music, properly so called. And if music
+has been by slow steps developed in the course of civilization, it must
+have been developed out of something. If, then, its origin is not that
+above alleged, what is its origin?
+
+Thus we find that the negative evidence confirms the positive, and that,
+taken together, they furnish strong proof. We have seen that there is a
+physiological relation, common to man and all animals, between feeling and
+muscular action; that as vocal sounds are produced by muscular action,
+there is a consequent physiological relation between feeling and vocal
+sounds; that all the modifications of voice expressive of feeling are the
+direct results of this physiological relation; that music, adopting all
+these modifications, intensifies them more and more as it ascends to its
+higher and higher forms, and becomes music simply in virtue of thus
+intensifying them; that, from the ancient epic poet chanting his verses,
+down to the modern musical composer, men of unusually strong feelings prone
+to express them in extreme forms, have been naturally the agents of these
+successive intensifications; and that so there has little by little arisen
+a wide divergence between this idealized language of emotion and its
+natural language: to which direct evidence we have just added the
+indirect--that on no other tenable hypothesis can either the expressiveness
+or the genesis of music be explained.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, what is the _function_ of music? Has music any effect beyond the
+immediate pleasure it produces? Analogy suggests that it has. The
+enjoyments of a good dinner do not end with themselves, but minister to
+bodily well-being. Though people do not marry with a view to maintain the
+race, yet the passions which impel them to marry secure its maintenance.
+Parental affection is a feeling which, while it conduces to parental
+happiness, ensures the nurture of offspring. Men love to accumulate
+property, often without thought of the benefits it produces; but in
+pursuing the pleasure of acquisition they indirectly open the way to other
+pleasures. The wish for public approval impels all of us to do many things
+which we should otherwise not do,--to undertake great labours, face great
+dangers, and habitually rule ourselves in a way that smooths social
+intercourse: that is, in gratifying our love of approbation we subserve
+divers ulterior purposes. And, generally, our nature is such that in
+fulfilling each desire, we in some way facilitate the fulfilment of the
+rest. But the love of music seems to exist for its own sake. The delights
+of melody and harmony do not obviously minister to the welfare either of
+the individual or of society. May we not suspect, however, that this
+exception is apparent only? Is it not a rational inquiry--What are the
+indirect benefits which accrue from music, in addition to the direct
+pleasure it gives?
+
+But that it would take us too far out of our track, we should prelude this
+inquiry by illustrating at some length a certain general law of
+progress;--the law that alike in occupations, sciences, arts, the divisions
+that had a common root, but by continual divergence have become distinct,
+and are now being separately developed, are not truly independent, but
+severally act and react on each other to their mutual advancement. Merely
+hinting thus much, however, by way of showing that there are many analogies
+to justify us, we go on to express the opinion that there exists a
+relationship of this kind between music and speech.
+
+All speech is compounded of two elements, the words and the tones in which
+they are uttered--the signs of ideas and the signs of feelings. While
+certain articulations express the thought, certain vocal sounds express the
+more or less of pain or pleasure which the thought gives. Using the word
+_cadence_ in an unusually extended sense, as comprehending all
+modifications of voice, we may say that _cadence is the commentary of the
+emotions upon the propositions of the intellect_. This duality of spoken
+language, though not formally recognised, is recognised in practice by
+every one; and every one knows that very often more weight attaches to the
+tones than to the words. Daily experience supplies cases in which the same
+sentence of disapproval will be understood as meaning little or meaning
+much, according to the inflections of voice which accompany it; and daily
+experience supplies still more striking cases in which words and tones are
+in direct contradiction--the first expressing consent, while the last
+express reluctance; and the last being believed rather than the first.
+
+These two distinct but interwoven elements of speech have been undergoing a
+simultaneous development. We know that in the course of civilization words
+have been multiplied, new parts of speech have been introduced, sentences
+have grown more varied and complex; and we may fairly infer that during the
+same time new modifications of voice have come into use, fresh intervals
+have been adopted, and cadences have become more elaborate. For while, on
+the one hand, it is absurd to suppose that, along with the undeveloped
+verbal forms of barbarism, there existed a developed system of vocal
+inflections; it is, on the other hand, necessary to suppose that, along
+with the higher and more numerous verbal forms needed to convey the
+multiplied and complicated ideas of civilized life, there have grown up
+those more involved changes of voice which express the feelings proper to
+such ideas. If intellectual language is a growth, so also, without doubt,
+is emotional language a growth.
+
+Now, the hypothesis which we have hinted above, is, that beyond the direct
+pleasure which it gives, music has the indirect effect of developing this
+language of the emotions. Having its root, as we have endeavoured to show,
+in those tones, intervals, and cadences of speech which express
+feeling--arising by the combination and intensifying of these, and coming
+finally to have an embodiment of its own; music has all along been reacting
+upon speech, and increasing its power of rendering emotion. The use in
+recitative and song of inflections more expressive than ordinary ones, must
+from the beginning have tended to develope the ordinary ones. Familiarity
+with the more varied combinations of tones that occur in vocal music, can
+scarcely have failed to give greater variety of combination to the tones in
+which we utter our impressions and desires. The complex musical phrases by
+which composers have conveyed complex emotions, may rationally be supposed
+to have influenced us in making those involved cadences of conversation by
+which we convey our subtler thoughts and feelings.
+
+That the cultivation of music has no effect on the mind, few will be absurd
+enough to contend. And if it has an effect, what more natural effect is
+there than this of developing our perception of the meanings of
+inflections, qualities, and modulations of voice; and giving us a
+correspondingly increased power of using them? Just as mathematics, taking
+its start from the phenomena of physics and astronomy, and presently coming
+to be a separate science, has since reacted on physics and astronomy to
+their immense advancement--just as chemistry, first arising out of the
+processes of metallurgy and the industrial arts, and gradually growing into
+an independent study, has now become an aid to all kinds of
+production--just as physiology, originating out of medicine and once
+subordinate to it, but latterly pursued for its own sake, is in our day
+coming to be the science on which the progress of medicine depends;--so,
+music, having its root in emotional language, and gradually evolved from
+it, has ever been reacting upon and further advancing it. Whoever will
+examine the facts, will find this hypothesis to be in harmony with the
+method of civilization everywhere displayed.
+
+It will scarcely be expected that much direct evidence in support of this
+conclusion can be given. The facts are of a kind which it is difficult to
+measure, and of which we have no records. Some suggestive traits, however,
+may be noted. May we not say, for instance, that the Italians, among whom
+modern music was earliest cultivated, and who have more especially
+practised and excelled in melody (the division of music with which our
+argument is chiefly concerned)--may we not say that these Italians speak in
+more varied and expressive inflections and cadences than any other nation?
+On the other hand, may we not say that, confined almost exclusively as they
+have hitherto been to their national airs, which have a marked family
+likeness, and therefore accustomed to but a limited range of musical
+expression, the Scotch are unusually monotonous in the intervals and
+modulations of their speech? And again, do we not find among different
+classes of the same nation, differences that have like implications? The
+gentleman and the clown stand in very decided contrast with respect to
+variety of intonation. Listen to the conversation of a servant-girl, and
+then to that of a refined, accomplished lady, and the more delicate and
+complex changes of voice used by the latter will be conspicuous. Now,
+without going so far as to say that out of all the differences of culture
+to which the upper and lower classes are subjected, difference of musical
+culture is that to which alone this difference of speech is ascribable; yet
+we may fairly say that there seems a much more obvious connexion of cause
+and effect between these than between any others. Thus, while the inductive
+evidence to which we can appeal is but scanty and vague, yet what there is
+favours our position.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Probably most will think that the function here assigned to music is one of
+very little moment. But further reflection may lead them to a contrary
+conviction. In its bearings upon human happiness, we believe that this
+emotional language which musical culture developes and refines, is only
+second in importance to the language of the intellect; perhaps not even
+second to it. For these modifications of voice produced by feelings, are
+the means of exciting like feelings in others. Joined with gestures and
+expressions of face, they give life to the otherwise dead words in which
+the intellect utters its ideas; and so enable the hearer not only to
+_understand_ the state of mind they accompany, but to _partake_ of that
+state. In short, they are the chief media of _sympathy_. And if we consider
+how much both our general welfare and our immediate pleasures depend upon
+sympathy, we shall recognise the importance of whatever makes this sympathy
+greater. If we bear in mind that by their fellow-feeling men are led to
+behave justly, kindly and considerately to each other--that the difference
+between the cruelty of the barbarous and the humanity of the civilized,
+results from the increase of fellow-feeling; if we bear in mind that this
+faculty which makes us sharers in the joys and sorrows of others, is the
+basis of all the higher affections--that in friendship, love, and all
+domestic pleasures, it is an essential element; if we bear in mind how much
+our direct gratifications are intensified by sympathy,--how, at the
+theatre, the concert, the picture gallery, we lose half our enjoyment if we
+have no one to enjoy with us; if, in short, we bear in mind that for all
+happiness beyond what the unfriended recluse can have, we are indebted to
+this same sympathy;--we shall see that the agencies which communicate it
+can scarcely be overrated in value.
+
+The tendency of civilization is more and more to repress the antagonistic
+elements of our characters and to develope the social ones--to curb our
+purely selfish desires and exercise our unselfish ones--to replace private
+gratifications by gratifications resulting from, or involving, the
+happiness of others. And while, by this adaptation to the social state, the
+sympathetic side of our nature is being unfolded, there is simultaneously
+growing up a language of sympathetic intercourse--a language through which
+we communicate to others the happiness we feel, and are made sharers in
+their happiness.
+
+This double process, of which the effects are already sufficiently
+appreciable, must go on to an extent of which we can as yet have no
+adequate conception. The habitual concealment of our feelings diminishing,
+as it must, in proportion as our feelings become such as do not demand
+concealment, we may conclude that the exhibition of them will become much
+more vivid than we now dare allow it to be; and this implies a more
+expressive emotional language. At the same time, feelings of a higher and
+more complex kind, as yet experienced only by the cultivated few, will
+become general; and there will be a corresponding development of the
+emotional language into more involved forms. Just as there has silently
+grown up a language of ideas, which, rude as it at first was, now enables
+us to convey with precision the most subtle and complicated thoughts; so,
+there is still silently growing up a language of feelings, which
+notwithstanding its present imperfection, we may expect will ultimately
+enable men vividly and completely to impress on each other all the emotions
+which they experience from moment to moment.
+
+Thus if, as we have endeavoured to show, it is the function of music to
+facilitate the development of this emotional language, we may regard music
+as an aid to the achievement of that higher happiness which it indistinctly
+shadows forth. Those vague feelings of unexperienced felicity which music
+arouses--those indefinite impressions of an unknown ideal life which it
+calls up, may be considered as a prophecy, to the fulfilment of which music
+is itself partly instrumental. The strange capacity which we have for being
+so affected by melody and harmony, may be taken to imply both that it is
+within the possibilities of our nature to realize those intenser delights
+they dimly suggest, and that they are in some way concerned in the
+realization of them. On this supposition the power and the meaning of music
+become comprehensible; but otherwise they are a mystery.
+
+We will only add, that if the probability of these corollaries be admitted,
+then music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts--as the one
+which, more than any other, ministers to human welfare. And thus, even
+leaving out of view the immediate gratifications it is hourly giving, we
+cannot too much applaud that progress of musical culture which is becoming
+one of the characteristics of our age.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.
+
+
+Inquiring into the pedigree of an idea is not a bad means of roughly
+estimating its value. To have come of respectable ancestry, is _prima
+facie_ evidence of worth in a belief as in a person; while to be descended
+from a discreditable stock is, in the one case as in the other, an
+unfavorable index. The analogy is not a mere fancy. Beliefs, together with
+those who hold them, are modified little by little in successive
+generations; and as the modifications which successive generations of the
+holders undergo, do not destroy the original type, but only disguise and
+refine it, so the accompanying alterations of belief, however much they
+purify, leave behind the essence of the original belief.
+
+Considered genealogically, the received theory respecting the creation of
+the Solar System is unmistakeably of low origin. You may clearly trace it
+back to primitive mythologies. Its remotest ancestor is the doctrine that
+the celestial bodies are personages who originally lived on the Earth--a
+doctrine still held by some of the negroes Livingstone visited. Science
+having divested the sun and planets of their divine personalities, this old
+idea was succeeded by the idea which even Kepler entertained, that the
+planets are guided in their courses by presiding spirits: no longer
+themselves gods, they are still severally kept in their orbits by gods. And
+when gravitation came to dispense with these celestial steersmen, there was
+begotten a belief, less gross than its parent, but partaking of the same
+essential nature, that the planets were originally launched into their
+orbits from the Creator's hand. Evidently, though much refined, the
+anthropomorphism of the current hypothesis is inherited from the aboriginal
+anthropomorphism, which described gods as a stronger order of men.
+
+There is an antagonist hypothesis which does not propose to honour the
+Unknown Power manifested in the Universe, by such titles as "The
+Master-Builder," or "The Great Artificer;" but which regards this Unknown
+Power as probably working after a method quite different from that of human
+mechanics. And the genealogy of this hypothesis is as high as that of the
+other is low. It is begotten by that ever-enlarging and ever-strengthening
+belief in the presence of Law, which accumulated experiences have gradually
+produced in the human mind. From generation to generation Science has been
+proving uniformities of relation among phenomena which were before thought
+either fortuitous or supernatural in their origin--has been showing an
+established order and a constant causation where ignorance had assumed
+irregularity and arbitrariness. Each further discovery of Law has increased
+the presumption that Law is everywhere conformed to. And hence, among other
+beliefs, has arisen the belief that the Solar System originated, not by
+_manufacture_ but by _evolution_. Besides its abstract parentage in those
+grand general conceptions which positive Science has generated, this
+hypothesis has a concrete parentage of the highest character. Based as it
+is on the law of universal gravitation, it may claim for its remote
+progenitor the great thinker who established that law. The man who gave it
+its general shape, by promulgating the doctrine that stars result from the
+aggregation of diffused matter, was the most diligent, careful, and
+original astronomical observer of modern times. And the world has not seen
+a more learned mathematician than the man who, setting out with this
+conception of diffused matter concentrating towards its centre of gravity,
+pointed out the way in which there would arise, in the course of its
+concentration, a balanced group of sun, planets, and satellites, like that
+of which the Earth is a member.
+
+Thus, even were there but little direct evidence assignable for the Nebular
+Hypothesis, the probability of its truth would still be strong. Its own
+high derivation and the low derivation of the antagonist hypothesis, would
+together form a weighty reason for accepting it--at any rate,
+provisionally. But the direct evidence assignable for the Nebular
+Hypothesis is by no means little. It is far greater in quantity, and more
+varied in kind, than is commonly supposed. Much has been said here and
+there on this or that class of evidences; but nowhere, as far as we know,
+have all the evidences, even of one class, been fully stated; and still
+less has there been an adequate statement of the several groups of
+evidences in their _ensemble_. We propose here to do something towards
+supplying the deficiency: believing that, joined with the _a priori_
+reasons given above, the array of _a posteriori_ reasons will leave little
+doubt in the mind of any candid inquirer.
+
+And first, let us address ourselves to those recent discoveries in stellar
+astronomy, which have been supposed to conflict with this celebrated
+speculation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Sir William Herschel, directing his great reflector to various
+nebulous spots, found them resolvable into clusters of stars, he inferred,
+and for a time maintained, that all nebulous spots are clusters of stars
+exceedingly remote from us. But after years of conscientious investigation,
+he concluded that "there were nebulosities which are not of a starry
+nature;" and on this conclusion was based his hypothesis of a diffused
+luminous fluid, which by its eventual aggregation, produced stars. A
+telescopic power much exceeding that used by Herschel, has enabled Lord
+Rosse to resolve some of the nebulae previously unresolved; and, returning
+to the conclusion which Herschel first formed on similar grounds but
+afterwards rejected, many astronomers have assumed that, under sufficiently
+high powers, every nebula would be decomposed into stars--that the
+resolvability is solely a question of distance. The hypothesis now commonly
+entertained is, that all nebulae are galaxies more or less like in nature to
+that immediately surrounding us; but that they are so inconceivably remote,
+as to look, through an ordinary telescope, like small faint spots. And not
+a few have drawn the corollary, that by the discoveries of Lord Rosse the
+Nebular Hypothesis has been disproved.
+
+Now, even supposing that these inferences respecting the distances and
+natures of the nebulae are valid, they leave the Nebular Hypothesis
+substantially as it was. Admitting that each of those faint spots is a
+sidereal system, so far removed that its countless stars give less light
+than one small star of our own sidereal system; the admission is in no way
+inconsistent with the belief, that stars and their attendant planets have
+been formed by the aggregation of nebulous matter. Though, doubtless, if
+the existence of nebulous matter now in course of concentration be
+disproved, one of the evidences of the Nebular Hypothesis is destroyed; yet
+the remaining evidences remain just as they were. It is a perfectly tenable
+position, that though nebular condensation is now nowhere to be seen in
+progress, yet it was once going on universally. And, indeed, it might be
+argued that the still-continued existence of diffused nebulous matter is
+scarcely to be expected; seeing that the causes which have resulted in the
+aggregation of one mass, must have been acting on all masses, and that
+hence the existence of masses not aggregated would be a fact calling for
+explanation. Thus, granting the immediate conclusions suggested by these
+recent disclosures of the six-feet reflector, the corollary which many have
+drawn is inadmissible.
+
+But we do not grant these conclusions. Receiving them though we have, for
+years past, as established truths, a critical examination of the facts has
+convinced us that they are quite unwarrantable. They involve so many
+manifest incongruities, that we have been astonished to find men of science
+entertaining them even as probable hypotheses. Let us consider these
+incongruities.
+
+In the first place, mark what is inferable from the distribution of nebulae.
+
+  "The spaces which precede or which follow simple nebulae," says
+  Arago, "and, _a fortiori_, groups of nebulae, contain generally few
+  stars. Herschel found this rule to be invariable. Thus, every time
+  that, during a short interval, no star approached, in virtue of the
+  diurnal motion, to place itself in the field of his motionless
+  telescope, he was accustomed to say to the secretary who assisted
+  him, 'Prepare to write; nebulae are about to arrive.'"
+
+How does this fact consist with the hypothesis that nebulae are remote
+galaxies? If there were but one nebula, it would be a curious coincidence
+were this one nebula so placed in the distant regions of space, as to agree
+in direction with a starless spot in our own sidereal system. If there were
+but two nebulae, and both were so placed, the coincidence would be
+excessively strange. What, then, shall we say on finding that there are
+thousands of nebulae so placed? Shall we believe that in thousands of cases
+these far-removed galaxies happen to agree in their visible positions with
+the thin places in our own galaxy? Such a belief is next to impossible.
+Still more manifest does the impossibility of it become when we consider
+the general distribution of nebulae. Besides again showing itself in the
+fact that "the poorest regions in stars are near the richest in nebulae,"
+the law above specified applies to the heavens as a whole. In that zone of
+celestial space where stars are excessively abundant, nebulae are rare;
+while in the two opposite celestial spaces that are furthest removed from
+this zone, nebulae are abundant. Scarcely any nebulae lie near the galactic
+circle (or plane of the Milky Way); and the great mass of them lie round
+the galactic poles. Can this also be mere coincidence? When to the fact
+that the general mass of nebulae are antithetical in position to the general
+mass of stars, we add the fact that local regions of nebulae are regions
+where stars are scarce, and the further fact that single nebulae are
+habitually found in comparatively starless spots; does not the proof of a
+physical connexion become overwhelming? Should it not require an infinity
+of evidence to show that nebulae are not parts of our sidereal system? Let
+us see whether any such infinity of evidence is assignable. Let us see
+whether there is even a single alleged proof which will bear examination.
+
+  "As seen through colossal telescopes," says Humboldt, "the
+  contemplation of these nebulous masses leads us into regions from
+  whence a ray of light, according to an assumption not wholly
+  improbable, requires millions of years to reach our earth--to
+  distances for whose measurement the dimensions (the distance of
+  Sirius, or the calculated distances of the binary stars in Cygnus and
+  the Centaur) of our nearest stratum of fixed stars scarcely suffice."
+
+Now, in this somewhat confused sentence there is expressed a more or less
+decided belief, that the distances of the nebulae from our galaxy of stars
+as much transcend the distances of our stars from each other, as these
+interstellar distances transcend the dimensions of our planetary system.
+Just as the diameter of the Earth's orbit, is an inappreciable point when
+compared with the distance of our Sun from Sirius; so is the distance of
+our Sun from Sirius, an inappreciable point when compared with the distance
+of our galaxy from those far removed galaxies constituting nebulae. Observe
+the consequences of this assumption.
+
+If one of these supposed galaxies is so remote that its distance dwarfs our
+interstellar spaces into points, and therefore makes the dimensions of our
+whole sidereal system relatively insignificant; does it not inevitably
+follow that the telescopic power required to resolve this remote galaxy
+into stars, must be incomparably greater than the telescopic power required
+to resolve the whole of our own galaxy into stars? Is it not certain that
+an instrument which can just exhibit with clearness the most distant stars
+of our own cluster, must be utterly unable to separate one of these remote
+clusters into stars? What, then, are we to think when we find that the same
+instrument which decomposes hosts of nebulae into stars, _fails_ to resolve
+completely our own Milky Way? Take a homely comparison. Suppose a man
+surrounded by a swarm of bees, extending, as they sometimes do, so high in
+the air as to be individually almost invisible, were to declare that a
+certain spot on the horizon was a swarm of bees; and that he knew it
+because he could see the bees as separate specks. Astounding as the
+assertion would be, it would not exceed in incredibility this which we are
+criticising. Reduce the dimensions to figures, and the absurdity becomes
+still more palpable. In round numbers, the distance of Sirius from the
+Earth is a million times the distance of the Earth from the Sun; and,
+according to the hypothesis, the distance of a nebula is something like a
+million times the distance of Sirius.
+
+Now, our own "starry island, or nebula," as Humboldt calls it, "forms a
+lens-shaped, flattened, and everywhere detached stratum, whose major axis
+is estimated at seven or eight hundred, and its minor axis at a hundred and
+fifty times the distance of Sirius from the Earth."[I] And since it is
+concluded that our Solar System is near the centre of this aggregation, it
+follows that our distance from the remotest parts of it is about four
+hundred distances of Sirius. But the stars forming these remotest parts are
+not individually visible, even through telescopes of the highest power.
+How, then, can such telescopes make individually visible the stars of a
+nebula which is a million times the distance of Sirius? The implication is,
+that a star rendered invisible by distance becomes visible if taken two
+thousand five hundred times further off! Shall we accept this implication?
+or shall we not rather conclude that the nebulae are _not_ remote galaxies?
+Shall we not infer that, be their nature what it may, they must be at least
+as near to us as the extremities of our own sidereal system?
+
+  [I] Cosmos. (Seventh Edition.) Vol. i. pp. 79, 80.
+
+Throughout the above argument, it is tacitly assumed that differences of
+apparent magnitude among the stars, result mainly from differences of
+distance. On this assumption the current doctrines respecting the nebulae
+are founded; and this assumption is, for the nonce, admitted in each of the
+foregoing criticisms. From the time, however, when it was first made by Sir
+W. Herschel, this assumption has been purely gratuitous; and it now proves
+to be totally inadmissible. But, awkwardly enough, its truth and its
+untruth are alike fatal to the conclusions of those who argue after the
+manner of Humboldt. Note the alternative.
+
+On the one hand, what follows from the untruth of the assumption? If
+apparent largeness of stars is not due to comparative nearness, and their
+successively smaller sizes to their greater and greater degrees of
+remoteness, what becomes of the inferences respecting the dimensions of our
+sidereal system and the distances of nebulae? If, as has lately been shown,
+the almost invisible star 61 Cygni has a greater parallax than [alpha]
+Cygni, though, according to an estimate based on Sir W. Herschel's
+assumption, it should be about twelve times more distant--if, as it turns
+out, there exist telescopic stars which are nearer to us than Sirius; of
+what worth is the conclusion that the nebulae are very remote, because their
+component luminous masses are made visible only by high telescopic powers?
+Clearly, if the most brilliant star in the heavens and a star that cannot
+be seen by the naked eye, prove to be equidistant, relative distances
+cannot be in the least inferred from relative visibilities. And if so,
+nebulae may be comparatively near, though the starlets of which they are
+made up appear extremely minute.
+
+On the other hand, what follows if the truth of the assumption be granted?
+The arguments used to justify this assumption in the case of the stars,
+equally justify it in the case of the nebulae. It cannot be contended that,
+on the average, the _apparent_ sizes of the stars indicate their distances,
+without its being admitted that, on the average, the _apparent_ sizes of
+the nebulae indicate their distances--that, generally speaking, the larger
+are the nearer, and the smaller are the more distant. Mark, now, the
+necessary inference respecting their resolvability. The largest or nearest
+nebulae will be most easily resolved into stars; the successively smaller
+will be successively more difficult of resolution; and the irresolvable
+ones will be the smallest ones. This, however, is exactly the reverse of
+the fact. The largest nebulae are either wholly irresolvable, or but
+partially resolvable under the highest telescopic powers; while a great
+proportion of quite small nebulae, are easily resolved by far less powerful
+telescopes. An instrument through which the great nebula in Andromeda, two
+and a half degrees long and one degree broad, appears merely as a diffused
+light, decomposes a nebula of fifteen minutes diameter into twenty thousand
+starry points. At the same time that the individual stars of a nebula eight
+minutes in diameter are so clearly seen as to allow of their number being
+estimated, a nebula covering an area five hundred times as great shows no
+stars at all. What possible explanation can be given of this on the current
+hypothesis?
+
+Yet a further difficulty remains--one which is, perhaps, still more
+obviously fatal than the foregoing. This difficulty is presented by the
+phenomena of the Magellanic clouds. Describing the larger of these, Sir
+John Herschel says:--
+
+  "The nubecula major, like the minor, consists partly of large
+  tracts and ill-defined patches of irresolvable nebula, and of
+  nebulosity in every stage of resolution, up to perfectly resolved
+  stars like the Milky Way; as also of regular and irregular nebulae
+  properly so called, of globular clusters in every stage of
+  resolvability, and of clustering groups sufficiently insulated and
+  condensed to come under the designation of 'cluster of
+  stars.'"--"Cape Observations," p. 146.
+
+In his "Outlines of Astronomy," Sir John Herschel, after repeating this
+description in other words, goes on to remark that--
+
+  "This combination of characters, rightly considered, is in a high
+  degree instructive, affording an insight into the probable
+  comparative distance of _stars_ and _nebulae_, and the real brightness
+  of individual stars as compared with one another. Taking the apparent
+  semi-diameter of the nubecula major at three degrees, and regarding
+  its solid form as, roughly speaking, spherical, its nearest and most
+  remote parts differ in their distance from us by a little more than a
+  tenth part of our distance from its centre. The brightness of objects
+  situated in its nearer portions, therefore, cannot be _much_
+  exaggerated, nor that of its remoter _much_ enfeebled, by their
+  difference of distance. Yet within this globular space we have
+  collected upwards of six hundred stars of the seventh, eighth, ninth,
+  and tenth magnitude, nearly three hundred nebulae, and globular and
+  other clusters _of all degrees of resolvability_, and smaller
+  scattered stars of every inferior magnitude, from the tenth to such
+  as by their magnitude and minuteness constitute irresolvable
+  nebulosity, extending over tracts of many square degrees. Were there
+  but one such object, it might be maintained without utter
+  improbability that its apparent sphericity is only an effect of
+  foreshortening, and that in reality a much greater proportional
+  difference of distance between its nearer and more remote parts
+  exists. But such an adjustment, improbable enough in one case, must
+  be rejected as too much so for fair argument in two. It must,
+  therefore, be taken as a demonstrated fact, that stars of the seventh
+  or eighth magnitude, and irresolvable nebula, may co-exist within
+  limits of distance not differing in proportion more than as nine to
+  ten."--"Outlines of Astronomy," pp. 614, 615.
+
+Now, we think this supplies a _reductio ad absurdum_ of the doctrine we are
+combating. It gives us the choice of two incredibilities. If we are to
+believe that one of these nebulae is so remote that its hundred thousand
+stars look like a milky spot, invisible to the naked eye; we must also
+believe that there are single stars so enormous that though removed to this
+same distance they remain visible. If we accept the other alternative, and
+say that many nebulae are no further off than our own stars of the eighth
+magnitude; then it is requisite to say that at a distance not greater than
+that at which a single star is still faintly visible to the naked eye,
+there may exist a group of a hundred thousand stars which is invisible to
+the naked eye. Neither of these positions can be entertained. What, then,
+is the conclusion that remains? This, only:--that the nebulae are not
+further off from us than parts of our own sidereal system, of which they
+must be considered members; and that when they are resolvable into discrete
+masses, these masses cannot be considered as stars in anything like the
+ordinary sense of that word.
+
+And now, having seen the untenability of this idea, rashly espoused by
+sundry astronomers, that the nebulae are extremely remote galaxies; let us
+consider whether the various appearances they present are not reconcileable
+with the Nebular Hypothesis.
+
+Given a rare and widely-diffused mass of nebulous matter, having a
+diameter, say as great as the distance from the Sun to Sirius,[J] what are
+the successive changes that will take place in it? Mutual gravitation will
+approximate its atoms; but their approximation will be opposed by atomic
+repulsion, the overcoming of which implies the evolution of heat. As fast
+as this heat partially escapes by radiation, further approximation will
+take place, attended by further evolution of heat, and so on continuously:
+the processes not occurring separately as here described, but
+simultaneously, uninterruptedly, and with increasing activity. Eventually,
+this slow movement of the atoms towards their common centre of gravity,
+will bring about phenomena of another order.
+
+  [J] Any objection made to the extreme tenuity this involves, is met
+      by the calculation of Newton, who proved that were a spherical
+      inch of air removed four thousand miles from the Earth, it would
+      expand into a sphere more than filling the orbit of Saturn.
+
+Arguing from the known laws of atomic combination, it will happen that when
+the nebulous mass has reached a particular stage of condensation--when its
+internally-situated atoms have approached to within certain distances, have
+generated a certain amount of heat, and are subject to a certain mutual
+pressure (the heat and pressure both increasing as the aggregation
+progresses); some of them will suddenly enter into chemical union. Whether
+the binary atoms so produced be of kinds such as we know, which is
+possible; or whether they be of kinds simpler than any we know, which is
+more probable; matters not to the argument. It suffices that molecular
+combination of some species will finally take place. When it does take
+place, it will be accompanied by a great and sudden disengagement of heat;
+and until this excess of heat has escaped, the newly-formed binary atoms
+will remain uniformly diffused, or, as it were, dissolved in the
+pre-existing nebulous medium.
+
+But now mark what must by-and-by happen. When radiation has adequately
+lowered the temperature, these binary atoms will precipitate; and having
+precipitated, they will not remain uniformly diffused, but will aggregate
+into _flocculi_: just as water, when precipitated from air, collects into
+clouds. This _a priori_ conclusion is confirmed by the observation of those
+still extant portions of nebulous matter which constitute comets; for,
+"that the luminous part of a comet is something in the nature of a smoke,
+fog, or cloud, suspended in a transparent atmosphere, is evident," says Sir
+John Herschel.
+
+Concluding, then, that a nebulous mass will, in course of time, resolve
+itself into flocculi of precipitated denser matter, floating in the rarer
+medium from which they were precipitated, let us inquire what will be the
+mechanical results. We shall find that they will be quite different from
+those occurring in the original homogeneous mass; and also quite different
+from those which would occur among discrete masses dispersed through empty
+space. Bodies dispersed through empty space, would move in straight lines
+towards their common centre of gravity. So, too, would bodies dispersed
+through a resisting medium, provided they were spherical, or of forms
+presenting symmetrical faces to their lines of movement. But _irregular_
+bodies dispersed through a resisting medium, will _not_ move in straight
+lines towards their common centre of gravity. A mass which presents an
+irregular face to its line of movement through a resisting medium, must
+necessarily be deflected from its original course, by the unequal reactions
+of the medium on its different sides. Hence each _flocculus_, as by analogy
+we term one of these precipitated masses of gas or vapour, will acquire a
+movement, not towards the common centre of gravity, but towards one or
+other side of it; and this oblique movement, accelerated as well as changed
+in direction by the increasing centripetal force, but retarded by the
+resisting medium, will result in a spiral, ending in the common centre of
+gravity. Observe, however, that this conclusion, valid as far as it goes,
+by no means proves a common spiral movement of all the flocculi; for as
+they must not only be varied in their forms, but disposed in all varieties
+of position, their respective movements will be deflected, not towards one
+side of the common centre of gravity, but towards various sides. How then
+can there result a spiral movement common to them all? Very simply. Each
+flocculus, in describing its spiral course, must give motion to the rarer
+medium through which it is moving.
+
+Now, the probabilities are infinity to one against all the respective
+motions thus impressed on this rarer medium, exactly balancing each other.
+And if they do not balance each other, the inevitable result must be a
+rotation of the whole mass of the rarer medium in one direction. But
+preponderating momentum in one direction, having caused rotation of the
+medium in that direction, the rotating medium must in its turn gradually
+arrest such flocculi as are moving in opposition, and impress its own
+motion upon them; and thus there will ultimately be formed a rotating
+medium with suspended flocculi partaking of its motion, while they move in
+converging spirals towards the common centre of gravity.
+
+Before comparing these conclusions with the facts, let us pursue the
+reasoning a little further, and observe the subordinate actions, and the
+endless modifications which will result from them. The respective flocculi
+must not only be drawn towards their common centre of gravity, but also
+towards neighbouring flocculi. Hence the whole assemblage of flocculi will
+break up into subordinate groups: each group concentrating towards its
+local centre of gravity, and in so doing acquiring a vortical movement,
+like that subsequently acquired by the whole nebula. Now, according to
+circumstances, and chiefly according to the size of the original nebulous
+mass, this process of local aggregation will produce various results. If
+the whole nebula is but small, the local groups of flocculi may be drawn
+into the common centre of gravity before their constituent masses have
+coalesced with each other. In a larger nebula, these local aggregations may
+have concentrated into rotating spheroids of vapour, while yet they have
+made but little approach towards the general focus of the system. In a
+still larger nebula, where the local aggregations are both greater and more
+remote from the common centre of gravity, they may have condensed into
+masses of molten matter before the general distribution of them has greatly
+altered. In short, as the conditions in each case determine, the discrete
+masses produced may vary indefinitely in number, in size, in density, in
+motion, in distribution.
+
+And now let us return to the visible characters of the nebulae, as observed
+through modern telescopes. Take first the description of those nebulae
+which, by the hypothesis, must be in an early stage of evolution.
+
+  "Among the _irregular nebulae_," says Sir John Herschel, "may be
+  comprehended all which, to _a want of complete, and in most
+  instances, even of partial resolvability_ by the power of the 20-feet
+  reflector, unite such a deviation from the circular or elliptic form,
+  or such a want of symmetry (with that form) as preclude their being
+  placed in Class 1, or that of regular nebulae. This second class
+  comprises many of the most remarkable and interesting objects in the
+  heavens, _as well as the most extensive in respect of the area they
+  occupy_."
+
+And, referring to this same order of objects, M. Arago says:--"The forms of
+very large diffuse nebulae do not appear to admit of definition; they have
+no regular outline."
+
+Now this coexistence of largeness, irresolvability, irregularity, and
+indefiniteness of outline, is extremely significant. The fact that the
+largest nebulae are either irresolvable or very difficult to resolve, might
+have been inferred _a priori_; seeing that irresolvability, implying that
+the aggregation of precipitated matter has gone on to but a small extent,
+will be found in nebulae of wide diffusion. Again, the irregularity of these
+large, irresolvable nebulae, might also have been expected; seeing that
+their outlines, compared by Arago to "the fantastic figures which
+characterize clouds carried away and tossed about by violent and often
+contrary winds," are similarly characteristic of a mass not yet gathered
+together by the mutual attraction of its parts. And once more, the fact
+that these large, irregular, irresolvable nebulae have indefinite
+outlines--outlines that fade off insensibly into surrounding darkness--is
+one of like meaning.
+
+Speaking generally (and of course differences of distance negative anything
+beyond an average statement), the spiral nebulae are smaller than the
+irregular nebulae, and more resolvable; at the same time that they are not
+so small as the regular nebulae, and not so resolvable. This is as,
+according to the hypothesis, it should be. The degree of condensation
+causing spiral movement, is a degree of condensation also implying masses
+of flocculi that are larger, and therefore more visible, than those
+existing in an earlier stage. Moreover, the forms of these spiral nebulae
+are quite in harmony with the explanation given. The curves of luminous
+matter which they exhibit, are _not_ such as would be described by more or
+less discrete masses starting from a state of rest, and moving through a
+resisting medium to a common centre of gravity; but they _are_ such as
+would be described by masses having their movements modified by the
+rotation of the medium.
+
+In the centre of a spiral nebula is seen a mass both more luminous and more
+resolvable than the rest. Assume that, in process of time, all the spiral
+streaks of luminous matter which converge to this centre are drawn into it,
+as they must be; assume further, that the flocculi or other discrete bodies
+constituting these luminous streaks aggregate into larger masses at the
+same time that they approach the central group, and that the masses forming
+this central group also aggregate into larger masses (both which are
+necessary assumptions); and there will finally result a more or less
+globular group of such larger masses, which will be resolvable with
+comparative ease. And, as the coalescence and concentration go on, the
+constituent masses will gradually become fewer, larger, brighter, and more
+densely collected around the common centre of gravity. See now how
+completely this inference agrees with observation. "The circular form is
+that which most commonly characterizes resolvable nebulae," writes Arago.
+"Resolvable nebulae," says Sir John Herschel, "are almost universally round
+or oval." Moreover, the centre of each group habitually displays a closer
+clustering of the constituent masses than elsewhere; and it is shown that,
+under the law of gravitation, which we know extends to the stars, this
+distribution is _not_ one of equilibrium, but implies progressing
+concentration. While, just as we inferred that, according to circumstances,
+the extent to which aggregation has been carried must vary; so we find
+that, in fact, there are regular nebulae of all degrees of resolvability,
+from those consisting of innumerable minute discrete masses, to those in
+which there are a few large bodies worthy to be called stars.
+
+On the one hand, then, we see that the notion, of late years uncritically
+received, that the nebulae are extremely remote galaxies of stars like those
+which make up our own Milky Way, is totally irreconcileable with the
+facts--involves us in sundry absurdities. On the other hand, we see that
+the hypothesis of nebular condensation harmonizes with the most recent
+results of stellar astronomy: nay more--that it supplies us with an
+explanation of various appearances which in its absence would be
+incomprehensible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Descending now to the Solar System, let us consider first a class of
+phenomena in some sort transitional--those offered by comets. In comets we
+have now existing a kind of matter like that out of which, according to the
+Nebular Hypothesis, the Solar System was evolved. For the explanation of
+them, we must hence go back to the time when the substances forming the sun
+and planets were yet unconcentrated.
+
+When diffused matter, precipitated from a rarer medium, is aggregating,
+there are certain to be here and there produced small flocculi, which,
+either in consequence of local currents or the conflicting attractions of
+adjacent masses, remain detached; as do, for instance, minute shreds of
+cloud in a summer sky. In a concentrating nebula these will, in the great
+majority of cases, eventually coalesce with the larger flocculi near to
+them. But it is tolerably evident that some of the remotest of these small
+flocculi, formed at the outermost parts of the nebula, will _not_ coalesce
+with the larger internal masses, but will slowly follow without overtaking
+them. The relatively greater resistance of the medium necessitates this. As
+a single feather falling to the ground will be rapidly left behind by a
+pillow-full of feathers; so, in their progress to the common centre of
+gravity, will the outermost shreds of vapour be left behind by the great
+masses of vapour internally situated. But we are not dependent merely on
+reasoning for this belief. Observation shows us that the less concentrated
+external parts of nebulae, _are_ left behind by the more concentrated,
+internal parts. Examined through high powers, all nebulae, even when they
+have assumed regular forms, are seen to be surrounded by luminous streaks,
+of which the directions show that they are being drawn into the general
+mass. Still higher powers bring into view still smaller, fainter, and more
+widely-dispersed streaks. And it cannot be doubted that the minute
+fragments which no telescopic aid makes visible, are yet more numerous and
+widely dispersed. Thus far, then, inference and observation are at one.
+
+Granting that the great majority of these outlying portions of nebulous
+matter will be drawn into the central mass long before it reaches a
+definite form, the presumption is that some of the very small, far-removed
+portions will not be so; but that before they arrive near it, the central
+mass will have contracted into a comparatively moderate bulk. What now will
+be the characters of these late-arriving portions?
+
+In the first place, they will have extremely eccentric orbits. Left behind
+at a time when they were moving towards the centre of gravity in
+slightly-deflected lines, and therefore having but very small angular
+velocities, they will approach the central mass in greatly elongated
+ellipses; and rushing round it will go off again into space. That is, they
+will behave just as we see comets do; whose orbits are usually so eccentric
+as to be indistinguishable from parabolas.
+
+In the second place, they will come from all parts of the heavens. Our
+supposition implies that they were left behind at a time when the nebulous
+mass was of irregular shape, and had not acquired a definite rotary motion;
+and as the separation of them would not be from any one surface of the
+nebulous mass more than another, the conclusion must be that they will come
+to the central body from various directions in space. This, too, is exactly
+what happens. Unlike planets, whose orbits approximate to one plane, comets
+have orbits that show no relation to each other; but cut the plane of the
+ecliptic at all angles.
+
+In the third place, applying the reasoning already used, these remotest
+flocculi of nebulous matter will, at the outset, be deflected from their
+straight courses to the common centre of gravity, not all on one side, but
+each on such side as its form determines. And being left behind before the
+rotation of the nebula is set up, they will severally retain their
+different individual motions. Hence, following the concentrating mass, they
+will eventually go round it on all sides; and as often from right to left
+as from left to right. Here again the inference perfectly corresponds with
+the facts. While all the planets go round the sun from west to east, comets
+as often go round the sun from east to west as from west to east. Out of
+210 comets known in 1855, 104 are direct, and 106 are retrograde. This
+equality is what the law of probabilities would indicate.
+
+Then, in the fourth place, the physical constitution of comets completely
+accords with the hypothesis. The ability of nebulous matter to concentrate
+into a concrete form, depends on its mass. To bring its ultimate atoms into
+that proximity requisite for chemical union--requisite, that is, for the
+production of denser matter--their repulsion must be overcome. The only
+force antagonistic to their repulsion, is their mutual gravitation. That
+their mutual gravitation may generate a pressure and temperature of
+sufficient intensity, there must be an enormous accumulation of them; and
+even then the approximation can slowly go on only as fast as the evolved
+heat escapes. But where the quantity of atoms is small, and therefore the
+force of mutual gravitation small, there will be nothing to coerce the
+atoms into union. Whence we infer that these detached fragments of nebulous
+matter will continue in their original state. We find that they do so.
+Comets consist of an extremely rare medium, which, as shown by the
+description already quoted from Sir John Herschel, has characters like
+those we concluded would belong to partially-condensed nebulous matter.
+
+Yet another very significant fact is seen in the distribution of comets.
+Though they come from all parts of the heavens, they by no means come in
+equal abundance from all parts of the heavens; but are far more numerous
+about the poles of the ecliptic than about its plane. Speaking generally,
+comets having orbit-planes that are highly inclined to the ecliptic, are
+comets having orbits of which the major axes are highly inclined to the
+ecliptic--comets that come from high latitudes. This is not a necessary
+connexion; for the planes of the orbits _might_ be highly inclined to the
+ecliptic while the major axes were inclined to it very little. But in the
+absence of any habitually-observed relation of this kind, it may safely be
+concluded that, _on the average_, highly-inclined cometary orbits are
+cometary orbits with highly-inclined major axes; and that thus, a
+predominance of cometary orbits cutting the plane of the ecliptic at great
+angles, implies a predominance of cometary orbits having major axes that
+cut the ecliptic at great angles. Now the predominance of highly inclined
+cometary orbits, may be gathered from the following table, compiled by M.
+Arago, to which we have added a column giving the results up to a date two
+years later.
+
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  |  Inclinations.  |Number of Comets |Number of Comets |Number of Comets |
+  |                 |in 1831.         |in 1853.         |in 1855.         |
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  |  Deg. to Deg.   |                 |                 |                 |
+  |  From 0 to 10   |         9       |       19        |       19        |
+  |    " 10  " 20   |        13       |       18        |       19        |
+  |    " 20  " 30   |        10       |       13        |       14        |
+  |    " 30  " 40   |        17       |       22        |       22        |
+  |    " 40  " 50   |        14       |       35        |       36        |
+  |    " 50  " 60   |        23       |       27        |       29        |
+  |    " 60  " 70   |        17       |       23        |       25        |
+  |    " 70  " 80   |        19       |       26        |       27        |
+  |    " 80  " 90   |        15       |       18        |       19        |
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  |      Total      |       137       |       201       |       210       |
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+At first sight this table seems not to warrant our statement. Assuming the
+alleged general relation between the inclinations of cometary orbits, and
+the directions in space from which the comets come, the table may be
+thought to show that the frequency of comets increases as we progress from
+the plane of the ecliptic up to 45 deg., and then decreases up to 90 deg. But this
+apparent diminution arises from the fact that the successive zones of space
+rapidly diminish in their areas on approaching the poles. If we allow for
+this, we shall find that the excess of comets continues to increase up to
+the highest angles of inclination. In the table below, which, for
+convenience, is arranged in inverted order, we have taken as standards of
+comparison the area of the zone round the pole, and the number of comets it
+contains; and having ascertained the areas of the other zones, and the
+numbers of comets they should contain were comets equally distributed, we
+have shown how great becomes the deficiency in descending from the poles of
+the ecliptic to its plane.
+
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  |            |         | Number of  |  Actual   |           | Relative  |
+  |  Between   | Area of | Comets, if | Number of |Deficiency.|Abundance. |
+  |            |  Zone.  |  equally   | Comets.   |           |           |
+  |            |         |distributed.|           |           |           |
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  | Deg.  Deg. |         |            |           |           |           |
+  | 90 and 80  |     1   |        19  |         19|        0  |      11.5 |
+  | 80  "  70  |     2.98|        56.6|         27|       29.6|       5.5 |
+  | 70  "  60  |     4.85|        92  |         25|       67  |       3.12|
+  | 60  "  50  |     6.6 |       125  |         29|       96  |       2.66|
+  | 50  "  40  |     8.13|       154  |         36|      118  |       2.68|
+  | 40  "  30  |     9.42|       179  |         22|      157  |       1.4 |
+  | 30  "  20  |    10.42|       198  |         14|      184  |       0.8 |
+  | 20  "  10  |    11.1 |       210  |         19|      191  |       1.04|
+  | 10  "   0  |    11.5 |       218  |         19|      199  |       1   |
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+In strictness, the calculation should be made with reference, not to the
+plane of the ecliptic, but to the plane of the sun's equator; and this
+might or might not render the progression more regular. Probably, too, the
+progression would be made somewhat different were the calculation based, as
+it should be, not on the inclinations of orbit-planes, but on the
+inclinations of major axes. But even as it is, the result is sufficiently
+significant: since, though the conclusion that comets are 11.5 times more
+abundant about the poles of the ecliptic than about its plane, can be but a
+rough approximation to the truth, yet no correction of it is likely very
+much to change this strong contrast.
+
+What, then, is the meaning of this fact? It has several meanings. It
+negatives the supposition, favoured by Laplace among others, that comets
+are bodies that were wandering in space, or have come from other systems;
+for the probabilities are infinity to one against the orbits of such
+wandering bodies showing any definite relation to the plane of the Solar
+System. For the like reason, it negatives the hypothesis of Lagrange,
+otherwise objectionable, that comets have resulted from planetary
+catastrophes analogous to that which is supposed to have produced the
+asteroids. It clearly shows that, instead of comets being _accidental_
+members of the Solar System, they are _necessary_ members of it--have as
+distinct a structural relation to it as the planets themselves. That comets
+are abundant round the axis of the Solar System, and grow rarer as we
+approach its plane, implies that the genesis of comets has followed some
+_law_--a law in some way concerned with the genesis of the Solar System.
+
+If we ask for any so-called final cause of this arrangement, none can be
+assigned: until a probable use for comets has been shown, no reason can be
+given why they should be thus distributed. But when we consider the
+question as one of physical science, we see that comets are antithetical to
+planets, not only in their great rarity, in their motions as indifferently
+direct or retrograde, in their eccentric orbits, and in the varied
+directions of those orbits; but we see the antithesis further marked in
+this, that while planets have some relation to the plane of nebular
+rotation, comets have some relation to the axis of nebular rotation.[K] And
+without attempting to explain the nature of this relation, the mere fact
+that such a relation exists, indicates that comets have resulted from a
+process of evolution--points to a past time when the matter now forming the
+Solar System extended to those distant regions of space which comets visit.
+
+  [K] It is alike remarkable and suggestive, that a parallel relation
+      exists between the distribution of nebulae and the axis of our
+      galaxy. Just as comets are abundant around the poles of our Solar
+      System, and rare in the neighbourhood of its plane: so are nebulae
+      abundant around the poles of our sidereal system, and rare in the
+      neighbourhood of its plane.
+
+See, then, how differently this class of phenomena bears on the
+antagonistic hypotheses. To the hypothesis commonly received, comets are
+stumbling-blocks: why there should be hundreds (or probably thousands) of
+extremely rare aeriform masses rushing to and fro round the sun, it cannot
+say; any more than it can explain their physical constitutions, their
+various and eccentric movements, or their distribution. The hypothesis of
+evolution, on the other hand, not only allows of the general answer, that
+they are minor results of the genetic process; but also furnishes us with
+something like explanations of their several peculiarities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, leaving these erratic bodies, let us turn to the more familiar and
+important members of the Solar System. It was the remarkable harmony
+subsisting among their movements, which first made Laplace conceive that
+the sun, planets, and satellites had resulted from a common genetic
+process. As Sir William Herschel, by his observations on the nebulae, was
+led to the conclusion that stars resulted from the aggregation of diffused
+matter; so Laplace, by his observations on the structure of the Solar
+System, was led to the conclusion that only by the rotation of aggregating
+matter were its peculiarities to be explained. In his "Exposition du
+Systeme du Monde," he enumerates as the leading evidences of evolution:--1.
+The movements of the planets in the same direction and almost in the same
+plane; 2. The movements of the satellites in the same direction as those of
+the planets; 3. The movement of rotation of these various bodies and of the
+sun in the same direction as the orbitual motions, and in planes little
+different; 4. The small eccentricity of the orbits of the planets and
+satellites, as contrasted with the great eccentricity of the cometary
+orbits. And the probability that these harmonious movements had a common
+cause, he calculates as two hundred thousand billions to one.
+
+Observe that this immense preponderance of probability does not point to a
+common cause under the form ordinarily conceived--an Invisible Power
+working after the method of "a Great Artificer;" but to an Invisible Power
+working after the method of evolution. For though the supporters of the
+common hypothesis may argue that it was necessary for the sake of stability
+that the planets should go round the sun in the same direction and nearly
+in one plane, they cannot thus account for the direction of the axial
+motions. The mechanical equilibrium would not have been at all interfered
+with, had the sun been without any rotatory movement; or had he revolved on
+his axis in a direction opposite to that in which the planets go round him;
+or in a direction at right angles to the plane of their orbits. With equal
+safety the motion of the Moon round the Earth might have been the reverse
+of the Earth's motion round its axis; or the motion of Jupiter's satellites
+might similarly have been at variance with his axial motion; or that of
+Saturn's satellites with his. As, however, none of these alternatives have
+been followed, the uniformity must be considered, in this case as in all
+others, evidence of subordination to some general law--implies what we call
+natural causation, as distinguished from arbitrary arrangement.
+
+Hence the hypothesis of evolution would be the only probable one, even in
+the absence of any clue to the particular mode of evolution. But when we
+have, propounded by a mathematician whose authority is second to none, a
+definite theory of this evolution based on established mechanical laws,
+which accounts for these various peculiarities, as well as for many minor
+ones, the conclusion that the Solar System _was_ evolved becomes almost
+irresistible.
+
+The general nature of Laplace's theory scarcely needs stating. Books of
+popular astronomy have familiarized most readers with his
+conceptions;--namely, that the matter now condensed into the Solar System,
+once formed a vast rotating spheroid of extreme rarity extending beyond the
+orbit of Neptune; that as this spheroid contracted, its rate of rotation
+necessarily increased; that by augmenting centrifugal force its equatorial
+zone was from time to time prevented from following any further the
+concentrating mass, and so remained behind as a revolving ring; that each
+of the revolving rings thus periodically detached, eventually became
+ruptured at its weakest point, and contracting on itself, gradually
+aggregated into a rotating mass; that this, like the parent mass, increased
+in rapidity of rotation as it decreased in size, and, where the centrifugal
+force was sufficient, similarly threw off rings, which finally collapsed
+into rotating spheroids; and that thus out of these primary and secondary
+rings there arose planets and their satellites, while from the central mass
+there resulted the sun. Moreover, it is tolerably well known that this _a
+priori_ reasoning harmonizes with the results of experiment. Dr. Plateau
+has shown that when a mass of fluid is, as far may be, protected from the
+action of external forces, it will, if made to rotate with adequate
+velocity, form detached rings; and that these rings will break up into
+spheroids which turn on their axes in the same direction with the central
+mass. Thus, given the original nebula, which, acquiring a vortical motion
+in the way we have explained, has at length concentrated into a vast
+spheroid of aeriform matter moving round its axis--given this, and
+mechanical principles explain the rest. The genesis of a solar system
+displaying movements like those observed, may be predicted; and the
+reasoning on which the prediction is based is countenanced by
+experiment.[L]
+
+  [L] It is true that, as expressed by him, these propositions of
+      Laplace are not all beyond dispute. An astronomer of the highest
+      authority, who has favoured me with some criticisms on this
+      essay, alleges that instead of a nebulous ring rupturing at one
+      point, and collapsing into a single mass, "all probability would
+      be in favour of its breaking up into many masses." This
+      alternative result certainly seems to be more likely. But
+      granting that a nebulous ring would break up into many masses, it
+      may still be contended that, since the chances are infinity to
+      one against these being of equal sizes and equidistant, they
+      could not remain evenly distributed round their orbit: this
+      annular chain of gaseous masses would break up into groups of
+      masses; these groups would eventually aggregate into larger
+      groups; and the final result would be the formation of a single
+      mass. I have put the question to an astronomer scarcely second in
+      authority to the one above referred to, and he agrees that this
+      would probably be the process.
+
+But now let us inquire whether, besides these most conspicuous
+peculiarities of the Solar System, sundry minor ones are not similarly
+explicable. Take first the relation between the planes of the planetary
+orbits and the plane of the sun's equator. If, when the nebulous spheroid
+extended beyond the orbit of Neptune, all parts of it had been revolving
+exactly in the same plane or rather in parallel planes--if all its parts
+had had one axis; then the planes of the successive rings would have been
+coincident with each other and with that of the sun's rotation. But it
+needs only to go back to the earlier stages of concentration, to see that
+there could exist no such complete uniformity of motion. The flocculi,
+already described as precipitated from an irregular and widely-diffused
+nebula, and as starting from all points to their common centre of gravity,
+must move not in one plane but in innumerable planes, cutting each other at
+all angles.
+
+The gradual establishment of a vortical motion such as we saw must
+eventually arise, and such as we at present see indicated in the spiral
+nebulae, is the gradual approach toward motion in one plane--the plane of
+greatest momentum. But this plane can only slowly become decided. Flocculi
+not moving in this plane, but entering into the aggregation at various
+inclinations, will tend to perform their revolutions round its centre in
+their own planes; and only in course of time will their motions be partly
+destroyed by conflicting ones, and partly resolved into the general motion.
+Especially will the outermost portions of the rotating mass retain for long
+time their more or less independent directions; seeing that neither by
+friction nor by the central forces will they be so much restrained. Hence
+the probabilities are, that the planes of the rings first detached will
+differ considerably from the average plane of the mass; while the planes of
+those detached latest will differ from it less. Here, again, inference to a
+considerable extent agrees with observation. Though the progression is
+irregular, yet on the average the inclinations decrease on approaching the
+sun.
+
+Consider next the movements of the planets on their axes. Laplace alleged
+as one among other evidences of a common genetic cause, that the planets
+rotate in a direction the same as that in which they go round the sun, and
+on axes approximately perpendicular to their orbits. Since he wrote, an
+exception to this general rule has been discovered in the case of Uranus,
+and another still more recently in the case of Neptune--judging, at least,
+from the motions of their respective satellites. This anomaly has been
+thought to throw considerable doubt on his speculation; and at first sight
+it does so. But a little reflection will, we believe, show that the anomaly
+is by no means an insoluble one; and that Laplace simply went too far in
+putting down as a certain result of nebular genesis, what is, in some
+instances, only a probable result. The cause he pointed out as determining
+the direction of rotation, is the greater absolute velocity of the outer
+part of the detached ring. But there are conditions under which this
+difference of velocity may be relatively insignificant, even if it exists:
+and others in which, though existing to a considerable extent, it will not
+suffice to determine the direction of rotation.
+
+Note, in the first place, that in virtue of their origin, the different
+strata of a concentrating nebulous spheroid, will be very unlikely to move
+with equal angular velocities: only by friction continued for an indefinite
+time will their angular velocities be made uniform; and especially will the
+outermost strata, for reasons just now assigned, maintain for the longest
+time their differences of movement. Hence, it is possible that in the rings
+first detached the outer rims may not have greater absolute velocities; and
+thus the resulting planets may have retrograde rotations. Again, the
+sectional form of the ring is a circumstance of moment; and this form must
+have differed more or less in every case. To make this clear, some
+illustration will be necessary. Suppose we take an orange, and assuming the
+marks of the stalk and the calyx to represent the poles, cut off round the
+line of the equator a strip of peel. This strip of peel, if placed on the
+table with its ends meeting, will make a ring shaped like the hoop of a
+barrel--a ring whose thickness in the line of its diameter is very small,
+but whose width in a direction perpendicular to its diameter is
+considerable. Suppose, now, that in place of an orange, which is a spheroid
+of very slight oblateness, we take a spheroid of very great oblateness,
+shaped somewhat like a lens of small convexity. If from the edge or equator
+of this lens-shaped spheroid, a ring of moderate size were cut off, it
+would be unlike the previous ring in this respect, that its greatest
+thickness would be in the line of its diameter, and not in a line at right
+angles to its diameter: it would be a ring shaped somewhat like a quoit,
+only far more slender. That is to say, according to the oblateness of a
+rotating spheroid, the detached ring may be either a hoop-shaped ring or a
+quoit-shaped ring.
+
+One further fact must be noted. In a much-flattened or lens-shaped
+spheroid, the form of the ring will vary with its bulk. A very slender
+ring, taking off just the equatorial surface, will be hoop-shaped; while a
+tolerably massive ring, trenching appreciably on the diameter of the
+spheroid, will be quoit-shaped. Thus, then, according to the oblateness of
+the spheroid and the bulkiness of the detached ring, will the greatest
+thickness of that ring be in the direction of its plane, or in a direction
+perpendicular to its plane. But this circumstance must greatly affect the
+rotation of the resulting planet. In a decidedly hoop-shaped nebulous ring,
+the differences of velocity between the inner and outer surfaces will be
+very small; and such a ring, aggregating into a mass whose greatest
+diameter is at right angles to the plane of the orbit, will almost
+certainly give to this mass a predominant tendency to rotate in a direction
+at right angles to the plane of the orbit. Where the ring is but little
+hoop-shaped, and the difference of the inner and outer velocities also
+greater, as it must be, the opposing tendencies--one to produce rotation in
+the plane of the orbit, and the other rotation perpendicular to it--will
+both be influential; and an intermediate plane of rotation will be taken
+up. While, if the nebulous ring is decidedly quoit-shaped, and therefore
+aggregates into a mass whose greatest dimension lies in the plane of the
+orbit, both tendencies will conspire to produce rotation in that plane.
+
+On referring to the facts, we find them, as far as can be judged, in
+harmony with this view. Considering the enormous circumference of Uranus's
+orbit, and his comparatively small mass, we may conclude that the ring from
+which he resulted was a comparatively slender, and therefore a hoop-shaped
+one: especially if the nebulous mass was at that time less oblate than
+afterwards, which it must have been. Hence, a plane of rotation nearly
+perpendicular to his orbit, and a direction of rotation having no reference
+to his orbitual movement. Saturn has a mass seven times as great, and an
+orbit of less than half the diameter; whence it follows that his genetic
+ring, having less than half the circumference, and less than half the
+vertical thickness (the spheroid being then certainly _as_ oblate, and
+indeed _more_ oblate), must have had considerably greater width--must have
+been less hoop-shaped, and more approaching to the quoit-shaped:
+notwithstanding difference of density, it must have been at least two or
+three times as broad in the line of its plane. Consequently, Saturn has a
+rotatory movement in the same direction as the movement of translation, and
+in a plane differing from it by thirty degrees only.
+
+In the case of Jupiter, again, whose mass is three and a half times that of
+Saturn, and whose orbit is little more than half the size, the genetic ring
+must, for the like reasons, have been still broader--decidedly
+quoit-shaped, we may say; and there hence resulted a planet whose plane of
+rotation differs from that of his orbit by scarcely more than three
+degrees. Once more, considering the comparative insignificance of Mars,
+Earth, Venus, and Mercury, it follows that the diminishing circumferences
+of the rings not sufficing to account for the smallness of the resulting
+masses, the rings must have been slender ones--must have again approximated
+to the hoop-shaped; and thus it happens that the planes of rotation again
+diverge more or less widely from those of the orbits. Taking into account
+the increasing oblateness of the original spheroid in the successive stages
+of its concentration, and the different proportions of the detached rings,
+it seems to us that the respective rotatory motions are not at variance
+with the hypothesis.
+
+Not only the directions, but also the velocities of rotation are thus
+explicable. It might naturally be supposed that the large planets would
+revolve on their axes more slowly than the small ones: our terrestrial
+experiences incline us to expect this. It is a corollary from the Nebular
+Hypothesis, however, more especially when interpreted as above, that while
+large planets will rotate rapidly, small ones will rotate slowly; and we
+find that in fact they do so. Other things equal, a concentrating nebulous
+mass that is diffused through a wide space, and whose outer parts have,
+therefore, to travel from great distances to the common centre of gravity,
+will acquire a high axial velocity in course of its aggregation: and
+conversely with a small mass. Still more marked will be the difference
+where the form of the genetic ring conspires to increase the rate of
+rotation. Other things equal, a genetic ring that is broadest in the
+direction of its plane will produce a mass rotating faster than one that is
+broadest at right angles to its plane; and if the ring is absolutely as
+well as relatively broad, the rotation will be very rapid. These conditions
+were, as we saw, fulfilled in the case of Jupiter; and Jupiter goes round
+his axis in less than ten hours. Saturn, in whose case, as above explained,
+the conditions were less favourable to rapid rotation, takes ten hours and
+a half. While Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, whose rings must have been
+slender, take more than double the time: the smallest taking the longest.
+
+From the planets, let us now pass to the satellites. Here, beyond the
+conspicuous facts commonly adverted to, that they go round their primaries
+in the same directions that these turn on their axes, in planes diverging
+but little from their equators, and in orbits nearly circular, there are
+several significant traits which must not be passed over.
+
+One of them is, that each set of satellites repeats in miniature the
+relations of the planets to the sun, both in the respects just named, and
+in the order of the sizes. On progressing from the outside of the Solar
+System to its centre, we see that there are four large external planets,
+and four internal ones which are comparatively small. A like contrast holds
+between the outer and inner satellites in every case. Among the four
+satellites of Jupiter, the parallel is maintained as well as the
+comparative smallness of the number allows: the two outer ones are the
+largest, and the two inner ones the smallest. According to the most recent
+observations made by Mr. Lassell, the like is true of the four satellites
+of Uranus. In the case of Saturn, who has eight secondary planets revolving
+round him, the likeness is still more close in arrangement as in number:
+the three outer satellites are large, the inner ones small; and the
+contrasts of size are here much greater between the largest, which is
+nearly as big as Mars, and the smallest, which is with difficulty
+discovered even by the best telescopes.
+
+Moreover, the analogy does not end here. Just as with the planets, there is
+at first a general increase of size on travelling inwards from Neptune and
+Uranus, which do not differ very widely, to Saturn, which is much larger,
+and to Jupiter, which is the largest; so of the eight satellites of Saturn,
+the largest is not the outermost, but the outermost save two; so of
+Jupiter's four secondaries, the largest is the most remote but one. Now
+these analogies are inexplicable by the theory of final causes. For
+purposes of lighting, if this be the presumed object of these attendant
+bodies, it would have been far better had the larger been the nearer: at
+present, their remoteness renders them of less service than the smallest.
+To the Nebular Hypothesis, however, these analogies give further support.
+They show the action of a common physical cause. They imply a _law_ of
+genesis, holding in the secondary systems as in the primary system.
+
+Still more instructive shall we find the distribution of the
+satellites--their absence in some instances, and their presence in other
+instances, in smaller or greater numbers. The argument from design fails to
+account for this distribution. Supposing it be granted that planets nearer
+the Sun than ourselves, have no need of moons (though, considering that
+their nights are as dark, and, relatively to their brilliant days, even
+darker than ours, the need seems quite as great)--supposing this to be
+granted; what is to be said of Mars, which, placed half as far again from
+the Sun as we are, has yet no moon? Or again, how are we to explain the
+fact that Uranus has but half as many moons as Saturn, though he is at
+double the distance? While, however, the current presumption is untenable,
+the Nebular Hypothesis furnishes us with an explanation. It actually
+enables us to predict, by a not very complex calculation, where satellites
+will be abundant and where they will be absent. The reasoning is as
+follows.
+
+In a rotating nebulous spheroid that is concentrating into a planet, there
+are at work two antagonist mechanical tendencies--the centripetal and the
+centrifugal. While the force of gravitation draws all the atoms of the
+spheroid together, their tangential momentum is resolvable into two parts,
+of which one resists gravitation. The ratio which this centrifugal force
+bears to gravitation, varies, other things equal, as the square of the
+velocity. Hence, the aggregation of a rotating nebulous spheroid will be
+more or less strongly opposed by this outward impetus of its particles,
+according as its rate of rotation is high or low: the opposition, in equal
+spheroids, being four times as great when the rotation is twice as rapid;
+nine times as great when it is three times as rapid; and so on. Now, the
+detachment of a ring from a planet-forming body of nebulous matter, implies
+that at its equatorial zone the centrifugal force produced by concentration
+has become so great as to balance gravity. Whence it is tolerably obvious
+that the detachment of rings will be most frequent from those masses in
+which the centrifugal tendency bears the greatest ratio to the gravitative
+tendency. Though it is not possible to calculate what proportions these two
+tendencies had to each other in the genetic spheroid which produced each
+planet; it is possible to calculate where each was the greatest and where
+the least. While it is true that the ratio which centrifugal force now
+bears to gravity at the equator of each planet, differs widely from that
+which it bore during the earlier stages of concentration; and while it is
+true that this change in the ratio, depending on the degree of contraction
+each planet has undergone, has in no two cases been the same; yet we may
+fairly conclude that where the ratio is still the greatest, it has been the
+greatest from the beginning. The satellite-forming tendency which each
+planet had, will be approximately indicated by the proportion now existing
+in it between the aggregating power, and the power that has opposed
+aggregation. On making the requisite calculations, a remarkable harmony
+with this inference comes out. The following table shows what fraction the
+centrifugal force is of the centripetal force in every case; and the
+relation which that fraction bears to the number of satellites.
+
+  Mercury. Venus.    Earth.    Mars.    Jupiter.     Saturn.     Uranus.
+
+     1        1        1         1          1           1           1
+    ---      ---      ---       ---        ---         ---         ---
+    362      282      289       326        14          6.2          9
+
+                       1                    4           8       4 (or 6
+                   Satellite.          Satellites.  Satellites  according
+                                                    and three   to
+                                                    rings.      Herschel.)
+
+Thus, taking as our standard of comparison the Earth with its one moon, we
+see that Mercury and Mars, in which the centrifugal force is relatively
+less, have no moons. Jupiter, in which it is far greater, has four moons.
+Uranus, in which it is greater still, has certainly four, and probably more
+than four. Saturn, in which it is the greatest, being nearly one-sixth of
+gravity, has, including his rings, eleven attendants. The only instance in
+which there is imperfect conformity with observation is that of Venus. Here
+it appears that the centrifugal force is relatively a very little greater
+than in the Earth; and according to the hypothesis, Venus ought, therefore,
+to have a satellite. Of this seeming anomaly there are two explanations.
+Not a few astronomers have asserted that Venus _has_ a satellite. Cassini,
+Short, Montaigne of Limoges, Roedkier, and Montbarron, professed to have
+seen it; and Lambert calculated its elements. Granting, however, that they
+were mistaken, there is still the fact that the diameter of Venus is
+variously estimated; and that a very small change in the data would make
+the fraction less instead of greater than that of the Earth. But admitting
+the discrepancy, we think that this correspondence, even as it now stands,
+is one of the strongest confirmations of the Nebular Hypothesis.[M]
+
+  [M] Since this essay was published, the data of the above
+      calculations have been changed by the discovery that the Sun's
+      distance is three millions of miles less than was supposed. Hence
+      results a diminution in his estimated mass, and in the masses of
+      the planets (except the Earth and Moon). No revised estimate of
+      the masses having yet been published, the table is re-printed in
+      its original form. The diminution of the masses to the alleged
+      extent of about one-tenth, does not essentially alter the
+      relations above pointed out.
+
+Certain more special peculiarities of the satellites must be mentioned as
+suggestive. One of them is the relation between the period of revolution
+and that of rotation. No discoverable purpose is served by making the Moon
+go round its axis in the same time that it goes round the Earth: for our
+convenience, a more rapid axial motion would have been equally good; and
+for any possible inhabitants of the Moon, much better. Against the
+alternative supposition, that the equality occurred by accident, the
+probabilities are, as Laplace says, infinity to one. But to this
+arrangement, which is explicable neither as the result of design nor of
+chance, the Nebular Hypothesis furnishes a clue. In his "Exposition du
+Systeme du Monde," Laplace shows, by reasoning too detailed to be here
+repeated, that under the circumstances such a relation of movements would
+be likely to establish itself.
+
+Among Jupiter's satellites, which severally display these same synchronous
+movements, there also exists a still more remarkable relation. "If the mean
+angular velocity of the first satellite be added to twice that of the
+third, the sum will be equal to three times that of the second;" and "from
+this it results that the situations of any two of them being given, that of
+the third can be found." Now here, as before, no conceivable advantage
+results. Neither in this case can the connexion have been accidental: the
+probabilities are infinity to one to the contrary. But again, according to
+Laplace, the Nebular Hypothesis supplies a solution. Are not these
+significant facts?
+
+Most significant fact of all, however, is that presented by the rings of
+Saturn. As Laplace remarks, they are, as it were, still extant witnesses of
+the genetic process he propounded. Here we have, continuing permanently,
+forms of matter like those through which each planet and satellite once
+passed; and their movements are just what, in conformity with the
+hypothesis, they should be. "La duree de la rotation d'une planete doit
+donc etre, d'apres cette hypothese, plus petite que la duree de la
+revolution du corps le plus voisin qui circule autour d'elle," says
+Laplace.[N] And he then points out that the time of Saturn's rotation is to
+that of his rings as 427 to 438--an amount of difference such as was to be
+expected.
+
+  [N] "Mecanique Celeste," p. 346.
+
+But besides the existence of these rings, and their movements in the
+required manner, there is a highly suggestive circumstance which Laplace
+has not remarked--namely, the place of their occurrence. If the Solar
+System was produced after the manner popularly supposed, then there is no
+reason why the rings of Saturn should not have encircled him at a
+comparatively great distance. Or, instead of being given to Saturn, who in
+their absence would still have had eight satellites, such rings might have
+been given to Mars, by way of compensation for a moon. Or they might have
+been given to Uranus, who, for purposes of illumination, has far greater
+need of them. On the common hypothesis, we repeat, no reason can be
+assigned for their existence in the place where we find them. But on the
+hypothesis of evolution, the arrangement, so far from offering a
+difficulty, offers another confirmation. These rings are found where alone
+they could have been produced--close to the body of a planet whose
+centrifugal force bears a great proportion to his gravitative force. That
+permanent rings should exist at any great distance from a planet's body,
+is, on the Nebular Hypothesis, manifestly impossible. Rings detached early
+in the process of concentration, and therefore consisting of gaseous matter
+having extremely little power of cohesion, can have no ability to resist
+the disrupting forces due to imperfect balance; and must, therefore,
+collapse into satellites. A liquid ring is the only one admitting of
+permanence. But a liquid ring can be produced only when the aggregation is
+approaching its extreme--only when gaseous matter is passing into liquid,
+and the mass is about to assume the planetary form. And even then it cannot
+be produced save under special conditions. Gaining a rapidly-increasing
+preponderance, as the gravitative force does during the closing stages of
+concentration, the centrifugal force cannot in ordinary cases cause the
+detachment of rings when the mass has become dense. Only where the
+centrifugal force has all along been very great, and remains powerful to
+the last, as in Saturn, can liquid rings be formed. Thus the Nebular
+Hypothesis shows us why such appendages surround Saturn, but exist nowhere
+else.
+
+And then, let us not forget the fact, discovered within these few years,
+that Saturn possesses a _nebulous_ ring, through which his body is seen as
+through a thick veil. In a position where alone such a thing seems
+preservable--suspended, as it were, between the denser rings and the
+planet--there still continues one of these annular masses of diffused
+matter from which satellites and planets are believed to have originated.
+
+We find, then, that besides those most conspicuous peculiarities of the
+Solar System, which first suggested the theory of its evolution, there are
+many minor ones pointing in the same direction. Were there no other
+evidence, these mechanical arrangements would, considered in their
+totality, go far to establish the Nebular Hypothesis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the mechanical arrangements of the Solar System, turn we now to its
+physical characters; and, first, let us consider the inferences deducible
+from relative specific gravities.
+
+The fact that, speaking generally, the denser planets are the nearer to the
+Sun, is by some considered as adding another to the many indications of
+nebular origin. Legitimately assuming that the outermost parts of a
+rotating nebulous spheroid, in its earlier stages of concentration, will be
+comparatively rare; and that the increasing density which the whole mass
+acquires as it contracts, must hold of the outermost parts as well as the
+rest; it is argued that the rings successively detached will be more and
+more dense, and will form planets of higher and higher specific gravities.
+But passing over other objections, this explanation is quite inadequate to
+account for the facts. Using the Earth as a standard of comparison, the
+relative densities run thus:--
+
+  Neptune.  Uranus.  Saturn. Jupiter.  Mars. Earth.  Venus. Mercury.  Sun.
+    0.14     0.24     0.14     0.24    0.95   1.00    0.92    1.12    0.25
+
+Two seemingly insurmountable objections are presented by this series. The
+first is, that the progression is but a broken one. Neptune is as dense as
+Saturn, which, by the hypothesis, it ought not to be. Uranus is as dense as
+Jupiter, which it ought not to be. Uranus is denser than Saturn, and the
+Earth is denser than Venus--facts which not only give no countenance to,
+but directly contradict, the alleged explanation. The second objection,
+still more manifestly fatal, is the low specific gravity of the Sun. If,
+when the matter of the Sun filled the orbit of Mercury, its state of
+aggregation was such that the detached ring formed a planet having a
+specific gravity equal to that of iron; then the Sun itself, now that it
+has concentrated, should have a specific gravity much greater than that of
+iron; whereas its specific gravity is not much above that of water. Instead
+of being far denser than the nearest planet, it is not one-fourth as dense.
+And a parallel relation holds between Jupiter and his smallest
+satellite.[O]
+
+  [O] The impending revision of the estimated masses of the planets,
+      entailed by the discovery that the Sun's distance is less than
+      was supposed, will alter these specific gravities. It will make
+      most of the contrasts still stronger.
+
+While these anomalies render untenable the position that the relative
+specific gravities of the planets are direct indications of nebular
+condensation; it by no means follows that they negative it. On the
+contrary, we believe that the facts admit of an interpretation quite
+consistent with the hypothesis of Laplace.
+
+There are three possible causes of unlike specific gravities in the members
+of our Solar System:--1. Differences between the kinds of matter or matters
+composing them. 2. Differences between the quantities of matter; for, other
+things equal, the mutual gravitation of atoms will make a large mass denser
+than a small one. 3. Differences between the structures: the masses being
+either solid or liquid throughout, or having central cavities filled with
+elastic aeriform substance. Of these three conceivable causes, that
+commonly assigned is the first, more or less modified by the second. The
+extremely low specific gravity of Saturn, which but little exceeds that of
+cork (and, on this hypothesis, must at his surface be considerably less
+than that of cork) is supposed to arise from the intrinsic lightness of his
+substance. That the Sun weighs not much more than an equal bulk of water,
+is taken as evidence that the matter he consists of is but little heavier
+than water; although, considering his enormous gravitative force, which at
+his surface is twenty-eight times the gravitative force at the surface of
+the Earth, and considering his enormous mass, which is 390,000 times that
+of the Earth, the matter he is made of can, in such case, have no analogy
+to the liquids or solids we know. However, spite of these difficulties, the
+current hypothesis is, that the Sun and planets, inclusive of the Earth,
+are either solid or liquid, or have solid crusts with liquid nuclei: their
+unlike specific gravities resulting from unlikenesses of substance. And
+indeed, at first sight, this would seem to be the only tenable supposition;
+seeing that, unless prevented by some immense resisting force, gravitation
+must obliterate any internal cavity by collapsing the surrounding liquid or
+solid matter.
+
+Nevertheless, that the Earth, in common with other members of the Solar
+System, is solid, or else consists of a solid shell having a cavity
+entirely filled with molten matter, is not an established fact: it is
+nothing but a supposition. We must not let its familiarity and apparent
+feasibility delude us into an uncritical acceptance of it. If we find an
+alternative supposition which, physically considered, is equally possible,
+we are bound to consider it. And if it not only avoids the difficulties
+above pointed out, but many others hereafter to be mentioned, we must give
+it the preference.
+
+Before proceeding to consider what the Nebular Hypothesis indicates
+respecting the internal structures of the Sun and planets, we may state
+that our reasonings, though of a kind not admitting of direct verification,
+are nothing more than deductions from the established principles of
+physics. We have submitted them to an authority not inferior to any that
+can be named; and while unprepared to commit himself to them, he yet sees
+nothing to object.
+
+Starting, then, with a rotating spheroid of aeriform matter, in the later
+stages of its concentration, but before it has begun to take a liquid or
+solid form, let us inquire what must be the actions going on in it. Mutual
+gravitation continually aggregates its atoms into a smaller and denser
+mass; and the aggregating force goes on increasing, as the common centre of
+gravity is approached. An obstacle to concentration, however, exists in the
+centrifugal force, which at this stage bears a far higher ratio to gravity
+than afterwards, and in a gaseous spheroid must produce a very oblate form.
+At the same time, the approximation of the atoms is resisted by a force
+which, in being overcome, is evolved as heat. This heat must be greatest
+where the atoms are subject to the highest pressure--namely, about the
+central parts. And as fast as it escapes into space, further approximation
+and further generation of heat must take place. But in a gaseous spheroid,
+having internal parts hotter than its external parts, there must be some
+circulation. The currents must set from the hottest region to the coolest
+by some particular route; and from the coolest to the hottest by some other
+route. In a very oblate spheroid, the coolest region must be that about the
+equator: the surface there bearing so large a ratio to the mass. Hence
+there will be currents from the centre to the equator, and others from the
+equator to the centre. What will be the special courses of these currents?
+Supposing an original state of rest, about to pass into motion in obedience
+to the disturbing forces, the currents commencing at the centre will follow
+the lines of most rapidly-decreasing density; seeing that the inertia will
+be least in those lines. That is to say, there will be a current from the
+centre towards each pole, along the axis of rotation; and the space thus
+continually left vacant will be filled by the collapse of matter coming in
+at right angles to the axis. The process cannot end here, however. If there
+are constant currents from the centre towards the poles, there must be a
+constant accumulation at the poles; the spheroid will be ever becoming more
+protuberant about the poles than the conditions of mechanical equilibrium
+permit. If, however, the mass at the poles is thus ever in excess, it must,
+by the forces acting on it, be constantly moved over the outer surface of
+the spheroid from the poles towards the equator: thus only can that form
+which rotation necessitates be maintained. And a further result of this
+transfer of matter from the centre, by way of the poles, to the equator,
+must be the establishment of counter-currents from the equator in
+diametrical lines, to the centre.
+
+Mark now the changes of temperature that must occur in these currents. An
+aeriform mass ascending from the centre towards either pole, will expand as
+it approaches the surface, in consequence of the diminution of pressure.
+But expansion, involving an absorption of heat, will entail a diminished
+temperature; and the temperature will be further lowered by the greater
+freedom of radiation into space. This rarefied and cooled mass must be
+still more rarefied and cooled in its progress over the surface of the
+spheroid to the equator. Continually thrust further from the pole by the
+ceaseless accumulation there, it must acquire an ever-increasing rotatory
+motion and an ever-increasing centrifugal force: whence must follow
+expansion and absorption of heat. To the refrigeration thus caused must be
+added that resulting from radiation, which, at each advance towards the
+equator, will be less hindered. And when the mass we have thus followed
+arrives at the equator, it will have reached its maximum rarity and maximum
+coolness. Conversely, every portion of a current proceeding in a
+diametrical direction from the equator to the centre, must progressively
+rise in temperature; in virtue alike of the increasing pressure, the
+gradual arrest of motion, and the diminished rate of radiation. Note,
+lastly, that this circulation will go on, but slowly. As the matter
+proceeding from the equator towards the centre must have its rotatory
+motion destroyed, while that proceeding from the poles to the equator must
+have rotatory motion given to it, it follows that an enormous amount of
+inertia has to be overcome; and this must make the currents so slow as to
+prevent them from producing anything like an equality of temperature.
+
+Such being the constitution of a concentrating spheroid of gaseous matter,
+where will the gaseous matter begin to condense into liquid? The usual
+assumption has been, that in a nebulous mass approaching towards the
+planetary form, the liquefaction will first occur at the centre. We believe
+this assumption is inconsistent with established physical principles.
+
+Observe first that it is contrary to analogy. That the matter of the Earth
+was liquid before any of it became solid, is generally admitted. Where has
+it first solidified? Not at the centre, but at the surface. Now the general
+principles which apply to the condensation of liquid matter into solid,
+apply also to the condensation of gaseous matter into liquid. Hence if the
+once liquid substance of the Earth first solidified at the surface, the
+implication is that its once aeriform substance first liquified at the
+surface.
+
+But we have no need to rest in analogy. On considering what must happen in
+a rotating gaseous spheroid having currents moving as above described, we
+shall see that external condensation is a corollary. A nebulous mass, when
+it has arrived at this stage, will consist of an aeriform mixture of
+various matters; the heavier and more condensible matters being contained
+in the rarer or less condensible, in the same way that water is contained
+in air. And the inference must be, that at a certain stage, some of these
+denser matters will be precipitated in the shape of a cloud.[P]
+
+  [P] The reader will perhaps say that this process is the one
+      described as having taken place early in the history of nebular
+      evolution; and this is true. But the same actions will be
+      repeated in media of different densities.
+
+Now, what are the laws of precipitation from gases? If a gas through which
+some other substance is diffused in a gaseous state, expands in consequence
+of the removal of pressure, it will, when the rarefaction and consequent
+cooling reach a certain point, begin to let fall the suspended substance.
+Conversely, if, a gas, saturated even with some substance, is subject to
+increased pressure, and is allowed to retain the additional heat which that
+pressure generates; so far from letting fall what it contains, it will gain
+the power to take up more. See then, the inference respecting condensation
+in a nebulous spheroid. The currents proceeding from the equator to the
+centre, subject to increasing pressure, and acquiring the heat due both to
+this increasing pressure and to arrested motion, will have no tendency to
+deposit their suspended substances, but rather the reverse: a formation of
+liquid matter at the centre of the mass will be impossible. Contrariwise,
+the gaseous currents moving from the centre to the poles and thence to the
+equator, expanding as they go, first from diminished pressure and
+afterwards from increased centrifugal force; and losing heat, not only by
+expansion, but by more rapid radiation; will have less and less power to
+retain the matter diffused through them. The earliest precipitation will
+take place in the region of extremest rarefaction; namely, about the
+equator. An equatorial belt of cloud will be first formed, and widened into
+a zone, will by-and-by begin to condense into liquid.[Q] Gradually this
+liquid film will extend itself on each side the equator, and encroaching on
+the two hemispheres, will eventually close over at the poles: thus
+producing a thin hollow globe, or rather spheroid, filled with gaseous
+matter. We do not mean that this condensation will take place at the very
+outermost surface; for probably, round the denser gases forming the
+principal mass, there will extend strata of gases too rare and too cool to
+be entangled in these processes. It is the surface of this inner spheroid
+of denser gases to which our reasoning points as the place of earliest
+condensation.
+
+  [Q] The formation of Saturn's rings is thus rendered comprehensible.
+
+The internal circulation we have described, continuing, as it must, after
+the formation of this liquid film, there will still go on the radiation of
+heat, and the progressive aggregation. The film will thicken at the expense
+of the internal gaseous substances precipitated on it. As it thickens, as
+the globe contracts, and as the gravitative force augments, the pressure
+will increase; and the evolution and radiation of heat will go on more
+rapidly. Eventually, however, when the liquid shell becomes very thick, and
+the internal cavity relatively small, the obstacle put to the escape of
+heat by this thick liquid shell, with its slowly-circulating currents, will
+turn the scale: the temperature of the outer surface will begin to
+diminish, and a solid crust will form while the internal cavity is yet
+unobliterated.
+
+"But what," it may be asked, "will become of this gaseous nucleus when
+exposed to the enormous gravitative pressure of a shell some thousands of
+miles thick? How can aeriform matter withstand such a pressure?" Very
+readily. It has been proved that even when the heat generated by
+compression is allowed to escape, some gases remain uncondensible by any
+force we can produce. An unsuccessful attempt lately made at Vienna to
+liquify oxygen, clearly shows this enormous resistance. The steel piston
+employed was literally shortened by the pressure used: and yet the gas
+remained unliquified! If, then, the expansive force is thus immense when
+the heat evolved is dissipated, what must it be when that heat is in great
+measure detained; as in the case we are considering? Indeed, the
+experiments of M. Cagniard de Latour have shown that gases may, under
+pressure, acquire the density of liquids while retaining the aeriform
+state; provided the temperature continues extremely high. In such a case,
+every addition to the heat is an addition to the repulsive power of the
+atoms: the increased pressure itself generates an increased ability to
+resist; and this remains true to whatever extent the compression is
+carried. Indeed, it is a corollary from the persistence of force, that if,
+under increasing pressure, a gas retains all the heat evolved, its
+resisting force is _absolutely unlimited_. Hence, the internal planetary
+structure we have described, is as physically stable a one as that commonly
+assumed.
+
+And now let us see how this hypothesis tallies with the facts. One
+inference from it must be, that large masses will progress towards final
+consolidation more slowly than small masses. Though a large concentrating
+spheroid will, from its superior aggregative force, generate heat more
+rapidly than a small one; yet, having, relatively to its surface, a much
+greater quantity of heat to get rid of, it will be longer than a small one
+in going through the changes we have described. Consequently, at a time
+when the smaller members of our Solar System have arrived at so advanced a
+stage of aggregation as almost to have obliterated their central cavities,
+and so reached high specific gravities; the larger members will still be at
+that stage in which the central cavities bear great ratios to the
+surrounding shells, and will therefore have low specific gravities. This
+contrast is just what we find. The small planets Mercury, Venus, the Earth,
+and Mars, differing from each other comparatively little in density as in
+size, are about four times as dense as Jupiter and Uranus, and seven times
+as dense as Saturn and Neptune--planets exceeding them in size as oranges
+exceed peas; and they are four times as dense as the Sun, which in mass is
+nearly 5,000,000 times greater than the smallest of them.
+
+The obvious objection that this hypothesis does not explain the minor
+differences, serves but to introduce a further confirmation. It may be
+urged that Jupiter is of greater specific gravity than Saturn, though,
+considering his superior mass, his specific gravity should be less; and
+that still more anomalous is the case of the Sun, which, though containing
+a thousand times the matter that Jupiter does, is nearly of the same
+specific gravity. The solution of these difficulties lies in the modifying
+effects of centrifugal force. Had the various masses to be compared been
+all along in a state of rest, then the larger should have been uniformly
+the less dense. But during the concentrating process they have been
+rotating with various velocities. The consequent centrifugal force has in
+each case been in antagonism with gravitation; and, according to its
+amount, has hindered the concentration to a greater or less degree. The
+efficient aggregative force has in each case been the excess of the
+centripetal tendency over the centrifugal. Whence we may infer that
+wherever this excess has been the least, the consolidation must have been
+the most hindered, and the specific gravity will be the smallest. This,
+too, we find to be the fact. Saturn, at whose equator the centrifugal force
+is even now almost one-sixth of gravity, and who, by his numerous
+satellites, shows us how strong an antagonist to concentration it was in
+earlier stages of his evolution, is little more than half as dense as
+Jupiter, whose concentration has been hindered by a centrifugal force
+bearing a much smaller ratio to the centripetal.
+
+On the other hand, the Sun, whose latter stages of aggregation have met
+with comparatively little of this opposition, and whose atoms tend towards
+their common centre with a force ten times as great as that which Jupiter's
+atoms are subject to, has, notwithstanding his immense bulk, reached a
+specific gravity as great as that of Jupiter; and he has done this partly
+for the reason assigned, and partly because the process of consolidation
+has been, and still is, actively going on, while that of Jupiter has long
+since almost ceased.
+
+Before pointing out further harmonies let us meet an objection. Laplace,
+taking for data Jupiter's mass, diameter, and rate of rotation, calculated
+the degrees of compression at the poles which his centrifugal force should
+produce, supposing his substance to be homogeneous; and finding that the
+calculated amount of oblateness was greater than the actual amount,
+inferred that his substance must be denser towards the centre. The
+inference seems unavoidable; is diametrically opposed to the hypothesis of
+a shell of denser matter with a gaseous nucleus; and we confess that on
+first meeting with this fact we were inclined to think it fatal. But there
+is a consideration, apt to be overlooked, which completely disposes of it.
+A compressed elastic medium tends ever with great energy to give a
+spherical figure to the chamber in which it is confined. This truth is
+alike mathematically demonstrable, and recognized in practice by every
+engineer. In the case before us, the expansive power of the gaseous nucleus
+is such as to balance the gravitation of the shell of the planet; and this
+power perpetually strives to make the planet a perfect sphere. Thus the
+tendency of the centrifugal force to produce oblateness, is opposed not
+only by the force of gravity but by another force of great intensity; and
+hence the degree of oblateness produced is relatively small.
+
+This difficulty being as we think, satisfactorily met, we go on to name
+some highly significant facts giving indirect support to our hypothesis.
+And first with respect to the asteroids, or planetoids, as they are
+otherwise called. Now that these have proved to be so numerous--now that it
+has become probable that beyond some sixty already discovered there are
+many more--the supposition of Olbers, that they are the fragments of an
+exploded planet which once occupied the vacant region they fill, has gained
+increased probability. The alternative supposition of Laplace, that they
+are the products of a nebulous ring which separated into many fragments
+instead of collapsing into a single mass, seems inconsistent with the
+extremely various, and in some cases extremely great, inclinations of their
+orbits; as well as with their similarly various and great eccentricities.
+For these the theory of Olbers completely accounts--indeed, it necessarily
+involves them; while at the same time it affords us a feasible explanation
+of meteors, and especially the periodic swarms of them, which would else be
+inexplicable. The fact, inferred from the present derangement of their
+orbits, that if the planetoids once formed parts of one mass, it must have
+exploded myriads of years ago, is no difficulty, but rather the reverse.
+
+Taking Olbers' supposition, then, as the most tenable one, let us ask how
+such an explosion could have occurred. If planets are internally
+constituted as is commonly assumed, no conceivable cause of it can be
+named. A solid mass may crack and fall to pieces, but it cannot violently
+explode. So, too, with a liquid mass covered by a crust. Though, if
+contained in an unyielding shell and artificially raised to a very high
+temperature, a liquid might so expand as to burst the shell and
+simultaneously flash into vapour; yet, if contained in a yielding crust,
+like that of a planet, it would not do so: it would crack the crust and
+give off its expansive force gradually. But the planetary structure above
+supposed, supplies us with all the requisite conditions to an explosion,
+and an adequate cause for it. We have in the interior of the mass, a cavity
+serving as a sufficient reservoir of force. We have this cavity filled with
+gaseous matters of high tension. We have in the chemical affinities of
+these matters a source of enormous expansive power--power capable of being
+quite suddenly liberated. And we have in the increasing heat of the shell,
+consequent on progressing concentration, a cause of such instantaneous
+chemical change and the resulting explosion. The explanation thus supplied,
+of an event which there can be little doubt has occurred, and which is not
+otherwise accounted for, adds to the probability of the hypothesis.
+
+One further evidence, and that not the least important, is deducible from
+geology. From the known rate at which the temperature rises as we pierce
+deeper into the substance of the Earth, it has been inferred that its solid
+crust is some forty miles thick. And if this be its thickness, we have a
+feasible explanation of volcanic phenomena, as well as of elevations and
+subsidences. But proceeding on the current supposition that the Earth's
+interior is wholly filled with molten matter, Prof. Hopkins has calculated
+that to cause the observed amount of precession of the equinoxes, the
+Earth's crust must be at least eight hundred miles thick. Here is an
+immense discrepancy. However imperfect may be the data from which it is
+calculated that the Earth is molten at forty miles deep, it seems very
+unlikely that this conclusion differs from the truth so widely as forty
+miles does from eight hundred. It seems scarcely conceivable that if the
+crust is thus thick, it should by its contraction and corrugation, produce
+mountain chains, as it has done during quite modern geologic epochs. It is
+not easy on this supposition to explain elevations and subsidences of small
+area. Neither do the phenomena of volcanoes appear comprehensible. Indeed
+to account for these, Prof. Hopkins has been obliged to make the gratuitous
+and extremely improbable assumption, that there are isolated lakes of
+molten matter enclosed in this thick crust, and situated, as they must be,
+not far from its outer surface.
+
+But irreconcileable as appear the astronomical with the geological facts,
+if we take for granted that the Earth consists wholly of solid and liquid
+substances, they become at once reconcileable if we adopt the conclusion
+that the Earth has a gaseous nucleus. If there is an internal cavity of
+considerable diameter occupied only by aeriform matter--if the density of
+the surrounding shell is, as it must in that case be, greater than the
+current supposition implies; then there will be a larger quantity of matter
+contained in the equatorial protuberance, and an adequate cause for the
+precession. Manifestly there may be found some proportion between the
+central space and its envelope, which will satisfy the mechanical
+requirements, without involving a thicker crust than geological phenomena
+indicate.[R]
+
+  [R] Since this was written, M. Poinsot has shown that the precession
+      would be the same whether the Earth were solid or hollow.
+
+We conceive, then, that the hypothesis we have set forth, is in many
+respects preferable to that ordinarily received. We can know nothing by
+direct observation concerning the central parts either of our own planet or
+any other: indirect methods are alone possible. The idea which has been
+tacitly adopted, is just as speculative as that we have opposed to it; and
+the only question is, which harmonizes best with established facts. Thus
+compared, the advantage is greatly on the side of the new one. It disposes
+of sundry anomalies, and explains things that seem else incomprehensible.
+We are no longer obliged to assume such wide differences between the
+substances of the various planets: we need not think of any of them as like
+cork or water. We are shown how it happens that the larger planets have so
+much lower specific gravities than the smaller, instead of having higher
+ones, as might have been expected; and we are further shown why Saturn is
+the lightest of all. That Mercury is relatively so much heavier than the
+Sun; that Jupiter is specifically lighter than his smallest satellite; that
+Saturn's rings have a density one and a half times as great as Saturn; are
+no longer mysteries. A feasible cause is assigned for the catastrophe which
+produced the asteroids. And some apparently incongruous peculiarities in
+the Earth's structure are brought to an agreement. May we not say, then,
+that being deducible from the Nebular Hypothesis, this alleged planetary
+structure gives further indirect support to that hypothesis?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In considering the specific gravities of the heavenly bodies, we have been
+obliged to speak of the heat evolved by them. But we have yet to point out
+the fact that in their present conditions with respect to temperature, we
+find additional materials for building up our argument; and these too of
+the most substantial character.
+
+Heat must inevitably be generated by the aggregation of diffused matter
+into a concrete form; and throughout our reasonings we have assumed that
+such generation of heat has been an accompaniment of nebular condensation.
+If, then, the Nebular Hypothesis be true, we ought to find in all the
+heavenly bodies, either present high temperature or marks of past high
+temperature.
+
+As far as observation can reach, the facts prove to be what theory
+requires. Various evidences conspire to show that, below a certain depth,
+the Earth is still molten. And that it was once wholly molten, is implied
+by the circumstance that the rate at which the temperature increases on
+descending below its surface, is such as would be found in a mass that had
+been cooling for an indefinite period. The Moon, too, shows us, by its
+corrugations and its conspicuous volcanoes, that in it there has been a
+process of refrigeration and contraction, like that which had gone on in
+the Earth. And in Venus, the existence of mountains similarly indicates an
+igneous reaction of the interior upon a solidifying crust.
+
+On the common theory of creation, these phenomena are inexplicable. To what
+end the Earth should once have existed in a molten state, incapable of
+supporting life, it cannot say. To satisfy this supposition, the Earth
+should have been originally created in a state fit for the assumed purposes
+of creation; and similarly with the other planets. While, therefore, to the
+Nebular Hypothesis the evidence of original incandescence and still
+continued internal heat, furnish strong confirmation, they are, to the
+antagonist hypothesis, insurmountable difficulties.
+
+But the argument from temperature does not end here. There remains to be
+noticed a more conspicuous and still more significant fact. If the Solar
+System was formed by the concentration of diffused matter, which evolved
+heat while gravitating into its present dense form; then there are certain
+obvious corollaries respecting the relative temperatures of the resulting
+bodies. Other things equal, the latest-formed mass will be the latest in
+cooling--will, for an almost infinite time, possess a greater heat than the
+earlier-formed ones. Other things equal, the largest mass will, because of
+its superior aggregative force, become hotter than the others, and radiate
+more intensely. Other things equal, the largest mass, notwithstanding the
+higher temperature it reaches, will, in consequence of its relatively small
+surface, be the slowest in losing its evolved heat. And hence, if there is
+one mass which was not only formed after the rest, but exceeds them
+enormously in size, it follows that this one will reach an intensity of
+incandescence much beyond that reached by the rest; and will continue in a
+state of intense incandescence long after the rest have cooled.
+
+Such a mass we have in the Sun. It is a corollary from the Nebular
+Hypothesis, that the matter forming the Sun assumed its present concrete
+form, at a period much more recent than that at which the planets became
+definite bodies. The quantity of matter contained in the Sun is nearly five
+million times that contained in the smallest planet, and above a thousand
+times that contained in the largest. And while, from the enormous
+gravitative force of the atoms, the evolution of heat has been intense, the
+facilities of radiation have been relatively small. Hence the
+still-continued high temperature. Just that condition of the central body
+which is a necessary inference from the Nebular Hypothesis, we find
+actually existing in the Sun.
+
+It may be well to consider a little more closely, what is the probable
+condition of the Sun's surface. Round the globe of incandescent molten
+substances, thus conceived to form the visible body of the Sun, there is
+known to exist a voluminous atmosphere: the inferior brilliancy of the
+Sun's border, and the appearances during a total eclipse, alike show
+this.[S] What now must be the constitution of this atmosphere? At a
+temperature approaching a thousand times that of molten iron, which is the
+calculated temperature of the solar surface, very many, if not all, of the
+substances we know as solid, would become gaseous; and though the Sun's
+enormous attractive force must be a powerful check on this tendency to
+assume the form of vapour, yet it cannot be questioned that if the body of
+the Sun consists of molten substances, some of them must be constantly
+undergoing evaporation. That the dense gases thus continually being
+generated will form the entire mass of the solar atmosphere, is not
+probable. If anything is to be inferred, either from the Nebular
+Hypothesis, or from the analogies supplied by the planets, it must be
+concluded that the outermost part of the solar atmosphere consists of what
+are called permanent gases--gases that are not condensible into fluid even
+at low temperatures. If we consider what must have been the state of things
+here, when the surface of the Earth was molten, we shall see that round the
+still molten surface of the Sun, there probably exists a stratum of dense
+aeriform matter, made up of sublimed metals and metallic compounds, and
+above this a stratum of comparatively rare medium analogous to air. What
+now will happen with these two strata? Did they both consist of permanent
+gases, they could not remain separate: according to a well-known law, they
+would eventually form a homogeneous mixture. But this will by no means
+happen when the lower stratum consists of matters that are gaseous only at
+excessively high temperatures. Given off from a molten surface, ascending,
+expanding, and cooling, these will presently reach a limit of elevation
+above which they cannot exist as vapour, but must condense and precipitate.
+Meanwhile the upper stratum, habitually charged with its quantum of these
+denser matters, as our air with its quantum of water, and ready to deposit
+them on any depression of temperature, must be habitually unable to take up
+any more of the lower stratum; and therefore this lower stratum will remain
+quite distinct from it.
+
+  [S] See Herschel's "Outlines of Astronomy."
+
+Since the foregoing paragraph was originally published, in 1858, the
+proposition it enunciates as a corollary from the Nebular Hypothesis, has
+been in great part verified. The marvellous disclosures made by
+spectrum-analysis, have proved beyond the possibility of doubt, that the
+solar atmosphere contains, in a gaseous state, the metals, iron, calcium,
+magnesium, sodium, chromium, and nickel, along with small quantities of
+barium, copper, and zinc. That there exist in the solar atmosphere other
+metals like those which we have on the Earth, is probable; and that it
+contains elements which are unknown to us, is very possible.
+
+Be this as it may, however, the proposition that the Sun's atmosphere
+consists largely of metallic vapours, must take rank as an established
+truth; and that the incandescent body of the Sun consists of molten metals,
+follows almost of necessity. That an _a priori_ inference which probably
+seemed to many readers wildly speculative, should be thus conclusively
+justified by observations, made without reference to any theory, is a
+striking fact; and it gives yet further support to the hypothesis from
+which this _a priori_ conclusion was drawn. It may be well to add that
+Kirchhoff, to whom we owe this discovery respecting the constitution of the
+solar atmosphere, himself remarks in his memoir of 1861, that the facts
+disclosed are in harmony with the Nebular Hypothesis.
+
+And here let us not omit to note also, the significant bearing which
+Kirchhoff's results have on the doctrine contended for in a foregoing
+section. Leaving out the barium, copper, and zinc, of which the quantities
+are inferred to be small, the metals existing as vapours in the Sun's
+atmosphere, and by consequence as molten in his incandescent body, have an
+average specific gravity of 4.25. But the average specific gravity of the
+Sun is about 1. How is this discrepancy to be explained? To say that the
+Sun consists almost wholly of the three lighter metals named, would be
+quite unwarranted by the evidence: the results of spectrum-analysis would
+just as much warrant the assertion that the Sun consists almost wholly of
+the three heavier. Three metals (two of them heavy) having been already
+left out of the estimate because their quantities appear to be small, the
+only legitimate assumption on which to base an estimate of specific
+gravity, is that the rest are present in something like equal amounts. Is
+it then that the lighter metals exist in larger proportions in the molten
+mass, though not in the atmosphere? This is very unlikely: the known
+habitudes of matter rather imply that the reverse is the case. Is it then
+that under the conditions of temperature and gravitation existing in the
+Sun, the state of liquid aggregation is wholly unlike that existing here?
+This is a very strong assumption: it is one for which our terrestrial
+experiences afford no adequate warrant; and if such unlikeness exists, it
+is very improbable that it should produce so immense a contrast in specific
+gravity as that of 4 to 1. The more legitimate conclusion is that the Sun's
+body is not made up of molten matter all through; but that it consists of a
+molten shell with a gaseous nucleus. And this we have seen to be a
+corollary from the Nebular Hypothesis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Considered in their _ensemble_, the several groups of evidences assigned
+amount almost to proof. We have seen that, when critically examined, the
+speculations of late years current respecting the nature of the nebulae,
+commit their promulgators to sundry absurdities; while, on the other hand,
+we see that the various appearances these nebulae present, are explicable as
+different stages in the precipitation and aggregation of diffused matter.
+We find that comets, alike by their physical constitution, their
+immensely-elongated and variously-directed orbits, the distribution of
+those orbits, and their manifest structural relation to the Solar System,
+bear testimony to the past existence of that system in a nebulous form. Not
+only do those obvious peculiarities in the motions of the planets which
+first suggested the Nebular Hypothesis, supply proofs of it, but on closer
+examination we discover, in the slightly-diverging inclinations of their
+orbits, in their various rates of rotation, and their differently-directed
+axes of rotation, that the planets yield us yet further testimony; while
+the satellites, by sundry traits, and especially by their occurrence in
+greater or less abundance where the hypothesis implies greater or less
+abundance, confirm this testimony. By tracing out the process of planetary
+condensation, we are led to conclusions respecting the internal structure
+of planets which at once explain their anomalous specific gravities, and at
+the same time reconcile various seemingly contradictory facts. Once more,
+it turns out that what is _a priori_ inferable from the Nebular Hypothesis
+respecting the temperatures of the resulting bodies, is just what
+observation establishes; and that both the absolute and the relative
+temperatures of the Sun and planets are thus accounted for. When we
+contemplate these various evidences in their totality--when we observe
+that, by the Nebular Hypothesis, the leading phenomena of the Solar System,
+and the heavens in general, are explicable; and when, on the other hand, we
+consider that the current cosmogony is not only without a single fact to
+stand on, but is at variance with all our positive knowledge of Nature; we
+see that the proof becomes overwhelming.
+
+It remains only to point out that 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 artizan, 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 diffused 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 this does the
+fetish of the savage.
+
+
+
+
+VII. BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.
+
+
+After the controversy between the Neptunists and the Vulcanists had been
+long carried on without definite results, there came a reaction against all
+speculative geology. Reasoning without adequate data having led to nothing,
+inquirers went into the opposite extreme, and confining themselves wholly
+to collecting data, relinquished reasoning. The Geological Society of
+London was formed with the express object of accumulating evidence; for
+many years hypotheses were forbidden at its meetings; and only of late have
+attempts to organize the mass of observations into consistent theory been
+tolerated.
+
+This reaction and subsequent re-reaction, well illustrate the recent
+history of English thought in general. The time was when our countrymen
+speculated, certainly to as great an extent as any other people, on all
+those high questions which present themselves to the human intellect; and,
+indeed, a glance at the systems of philosophy that are or have been current
+on the Continent, suffices to show how much other nations owe to the
+discoveries of our ancestors. For a generation or two, however, these more
+abstract subjects have fallen into neglect; and, among those who plume
+themselves on being "practical," even into contempt. Partly, perhaps, a
+natural accompaniment of our rapid material growth, this intellectual phase
+has been in great measure due to the exhaustion of argument, and the
+necessity for better data. Not so much with a conscious recognition of the
+end to be subserved, as from an unconscious subordination to that rhythm
+traceable in social changes as in other things, an era of theorizing
+without observing, has been followed by an era of observing without
+theorizing. During the long-continued devotion to concrete science, an
+immense quantity of raw material for abstract science has been accumulated;
+and now there is obviously commencing a period in which this accumulated
+raw material will be organized into consistent theory. On all
+sides--equally in the inorganic sciences, in the science of life, and in
+the science of society--may we note the tendency to pass from the
+superficial and empirical to the more profound and rational.
+
+In Psychology this change is conspicuous. The facts brought to light by
+anatomists and physiologists during the last fifty years, are at length
+being used towards the interpretation of this highest class of biological
+phenomena; and already there is promise of a great advance. The work of Mr.
+Alexander Bain, of which the second volume has been recently issued, may be
+regarded as especially characteristic of the transition. It gives us in
+orderly arrangement, the great mass of evidence supplied by modern science
+towards the building-up of a coherent system of mental philosophy. It is
+not in itself a system of mental philosophy, properly so called; but a
+classified collection of materials for such a system, presented with that
+method and insight which scientific discipline generates, and accompanied
+with occasional passages of an analytical character. It is indeed that
+which it in the main professes to be--a natural history of the mind.
+
+Were we to say that the researches of the naturalist who collects and
+dissects and describes species, bear the same relation to the researches of
+the comparative anatomist tracing out the laws of organization, which Mr.
+Bain's labours bear to the labours of the abstract psychologist, we should
+be going somewhat too far; for Mr. Bain's work is not wholly descriptive.
+Still, however, such an analogy conveys the best general conception of what
+he has done; and serves most clearly to indicate its needfulness. For as,
+before there can be made anything like true generalizations respecting the
+classification of organisms and the laws of organization, there must be an
+extensive accumulation of the facts presented in numerous organic bodies;
+so, without a tolerably-complete delineation of mental phenomena of all
+orders, there can scarcely arise any adequate theory of the mind. Until
+recently, mental science has been pursued much as physical science was
+pursued by the ancients: not by drawing conclusions from observations and
+experiments, but by drawing them from arbitrary a priori assumptions. This
+course, long since abandoned in the one case with immense advantage, is
+gradually being abandoned in the other; and the treatment of Psychology as
+a division of natural history, shows that the abandonment will soon be
+complete.
+
+Estimated as a means to higher results, Mr. Bain's work is of great value.
+Of its kind it is the most scientific in conception, the most catholic in
+spirit, and the most complete in execution. Besides delineating the various
+classes of mental phenomena as seen under that stronger light thrown on
+them by modern science, it includes in the picture much which previous
+writers had omitted--partly from prejudice, partly from ignorance. We refer
+more especially to the participation of bodily organs in mental changes;
+and the addition to the primary mental changes, of those many secondary
+ones which the actions of the bodily organs generate. Mr. Bain has, we
+believe, been the first to appreciate the importance of this element in our
+states of consciousness; and it is one of his merits that he shows how
+constant and large an element it is. Further, the relations of voluntary
+and involuntary movements are elucidated in a way that was not possible to
+writers unacquainted with the modern doctrine of reflex action. And beyond
+this, some of the analytical passages that here and there occur, contain
+important ideas.
+
+Valuable, however, as is Mr. Bain's work, we regard it as essentially
+transitional. It presents in a digested form the results of a period of
+observation; adds to these results many well-delineated facts collected by
+himself; arranges new and old materials with that more scientific method
+which the discipline of our times has fostered; and so prepare the way for
+better generalizations. But almost of necessity its classifications and
+conclusions are provisional. In the growth of each science, not only is
+correct observation needful for the formation of true theory; but true
+theory is needful as a preliminary to correct observation. Of course we do
+not intend this assertion to be taken literally; but as a strong expression
+of the fact that the two must advance hand in hand. The first crude theory
+or rough classification, based on very slight knowledge of the phenomena,
+is requisite as a means of reducing the phenomena to some kind of order;
+and as supplying a conception with which fresh phenomena may be compared,
+and their agreement or disagreement noted. Incongruities being by and by
+made manifest by wider examination of cases, there comes such modification
+of the theory as brings it into a nearer correspondence with the evidence.
+This reacts to the further advance of observation. More extensive and
+complete observation brings additional corrections of theory. And so on
+till the truth is reached. In mental science, the systematic collection of
+facts having but recently commenced, it is not to be expected that the
+results can be at once rightly formulated. All that may be looked for are
+approximate generalizations which will presently serve for the better
+directing of inquiry. Hence, even were it not now possible to say in what
+way it does so, we might be tolerably certain that Mr. Bain's work bears
+the stamp of the inchoate state of Psychology.
+
+We think, however, that it will not be difficult to find in what respects
+its organization is provisional; and at the same time to show what must be
+the nature of a more complete organization. We propose here to attempt
+this: illustrating our positions from his recently-issued second volume.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it possible to make a true classification without the aid of analysis?
+or must there not be an analytical basis to every true classification? Can
+the real relations of things be determined by the obvious characteristics
+of the things? or does it not commonly happen that certain hidden
+characteristics, on which the obvious ones depend, are the truly
+significant ones? This is the preliminary question which a glance at Mr.
+Bain's scheme of the emotions suggests.
+
+Though not avowedly, yet by implication, Mr. Bain assumes that a right
+conception of the nature, the order, and the relations of the emotions, may
+be arrived at by contemplating their conspicuous objective and subjective
+characters, as displayed in the adult. After pointing out that we lack
+those means of classification which serve in the case of the sensations, he
+says--
+
+  "In these circumstances we must turn our attention to _the manner
+  of diffusion_ of the different passions and emotions, in order to
+  obtain a basis of classification analogous to the arrangement of the
+  sensations. If what we have already advanced on that subject be at
+  all well founded, this is the genuine turning point of the method to
+  be chosen, for the same mode of diffusion will always be accompanied
+  by the same mental experience, and each of the two aspects would
+  identify, and would be evidence of, the other. There is, therefore,
+  nothing so thoroughly characteristic of any state of feeling as the
+  nature of the diffusive wave that embodies it, or the various organs
+  specially roused into action by it, together with the manner of the
+  action. The only drawback is our comparative ignorance, and our
+  inability to discern the precise character of the diffusive currents
+  in every case; a radical imperfection in the science of mind as
+  constituted at present.
+
+  "Our own consciousness, formerly reckoned the only medium of
+  knowledge to the mental philosopher, must therefore be still referred
+  to as a principal means of discriminating the varieties of human
+  feeling. We have the power of noting agreement and difference among
+  our conscious states, and on this we can raise a structure of
+  classification. We recognise such generalities as pleasure, pain,
+  love, anger, through the property of mental or intellectual
+  discrimination that accompanies in our mind the fact of an emotion. A
+  certain degree of precision is attainable by this mode of mental
+  comparison and analysis; the farther we can carry such precision the
+  better; but that is no reason why it should stand alone to the
+  neglect of the corporeal embodiments through which one mind reveals
+  itself to others. The companionship of inward feeling with bodily
+  manifestation is a fact of the human constitution, and deserves to be
+  studied as such; and it would be difficult to find a place more
+  appropriate than a treatise on the mind for setting forth the
+  conjunctions and sequences traceable in this department of nature. I
+  shall make no scruple in conjoining with the description of the
+  mental phenomena the physical appearances, in so far as I am able to
+  ascertain them.
+
+  "There is still one other quarter to be referred to in settling a
+  complete arrangement of the emotions, namely, the varieties of human
+  conduct, and the machinery created in subservience to our common
+  susceptibilities. For example, the vast superstructure of fine art
+  has its foundations in human feeling, and in rendering an account of
+  this we are led to recognise the interesting group of artistic or
+  aesthetic emotions. The same outward reference to conduct and
+  creations brings to light the so-called moral sense in man, whose
+  foundations in the mental system have accordingly to be examined.
+
+  "Combining together these various indications, or sources of
+  discrimination,--outward objects, diffusive mode or expression,
+  inward consciousness, resulting conduct and institutions--I adopt the
+  following arrangement of the families or natural orders of emotion."
+
+Here, then, are confessedly adopted, as bases of classification, the most
+manifest characters of the emotions; as discerned subjectively, and
+objectively. The mode of diffusion of an emotion is one of its outside
+aspects; the institutions it generates form another of its outside aspects;
+and though the peculiarities of the emotion as a state of consciousness,
+seem to express its intrinsic and ultimate nature, yet such peculiarities
+as are perceptible by simple introspection, must also be classed as
+superficial peculiarities. It is a familiar fact that various intellectual
+states of consciousness turn out, when analyzed, to have natures widely
+unlike those which at first appear; and we believe the like will prove true
+of emotional states of consciousness. Just as our concept of space, which
+is apt to be thought a simple, undecomposable concept, is yet resolvable
+into experiences quite different from that state of consciousness which we
+call space; so, probably, the sentiment of affection or reverence is
+compounded of elements that are severally distinct from the whole which
+they make up. And much as a classification of our ideas which dealt with
+the idea of space as though it were ultimate, would be a classification of
+ideas by their externals; so, a classification of our emotions, which,
+regarding them as simple, describes their aspects in ordinary
+consciousness, is a classification of emotions by their externals.
+
+Thus, then, Mr. Bain's grouping is throughout determined by the most
+manifest attributes--those objectively displayed in the natural language of
+the emotions, and in the social phenomena that result from them, and those
+subjectively displayed in the aspects the emotions assume in an analytical
+consciousness. And the question is--Can they be correctly grouped after
+this method?
+
+We think not; and had Mr. Bain carried farther an idea with which he has
+set out, he would probably have seen that they cannot. As already said, he
+avowedly adopts "the natural-history-method:" not only referring to it in
+his preface, but in his first chapter giving examples of botanical and
+zoological classifications, as illustrating the mode in which he proposes
+to deal with the emotions. This we conceive to be a philosophical
+conception; and we have only to regret that Mr. Bain has overlooked some of
+its most important implications. For in what has essentially consisted the
+progress of natural-history-classification? In the abandonment of grouping
+by external, conspicuous characters; and in the making of certain internal,
+but all-essential characters, the bases of groups. Whales are not now
+ranged along with fish, because in their general forms and habits of life
+they resemble fish; but they are ranged with mammals, because the type of
+their organization, as ascertained by dissection, corresponds with that of
+the mammals. No longer considered as sea-weeds in virtue of their forms and
+modes of growth, zoophytes are now shown, by examination of their economy,
+to belong to the animal kingdom.
+
+It is found, then, that the discovery of real relationships involves
+analysis. It has turned out that the earlier classifications, guided by
+general resemblances, though containing much truth, and though very useful
+provisionally, were yet in many cases radically wrong; and that the true
+affinities of organisms, and the true homologies of their parts, are to be
+made out only by examining their hidden structures. Another fact of great
+significance in the history of classification is also to be noted. Very
+frequently the kinship of an organism cannot be made out even by exhaustive
+analysis, if that analysis is confined to the adult structure. In many
+cases it is needful to examine the structure in its earlier stages; and
+even in its embryonic stage. So difficult was it, for instance, to
+determine the true position of the Cirrhipedia among animals, by examining
+mature individuals only, that Cuvier erroneously classed them with
+Mollusca, even after dissecting them; and not until their early forms were
+discovered, were they clearly proved to belong to the Crustacea. So
+important, indeed, is the study of development as a means to
+classification, that the first zoologists now hold it to be the only
+absolute criterion.
+
+Here, then, in the advance of natural-history-classification, are two
+fundamental facts, which should be borne in mind when classifying the
+emotions. If, as Mr. Bain rightly assumes, the emotions are to be grouped
+after the natural-history-method; then it should be the
+natural-history-method in its complete form, and not in its rude form. Mr.
+Bain will doubtless agree in the position, that a correct account of the
+emotions in their natures and relations, must correspond with a correct
+account of the nervous system--must form another side of the same ultimate
+facts. Structure and function must necessarily harmonize. Structures which
+have with each other certain ultimate connexions, must have functions that
+have answering connexions. Structures that have arisen in certain ways,
+must have functions that have arisen in parallel ways. And hence if
+analysis and development are needful for the right interpretation of
+structures, they must be needful for the right interpretation of functions.
+Just as a scientific description of the digestive organs, must include not
+only their obvious forms and connexions, but their microscopic characters,
+and also the ways in which they severally result by differentiation from
+the primitive mucous membrane; so must a scientific account of the nervous
+system, include its general arrangements, its minute structure, and its
+mode of evolution; and so must a scientific account of nervous actions,
+include the answering three elements. Alike in classing separate organisms,
+and in classing the parts of the same organism, the complete
+natural-history-method involves ultimate analysis, aided by development;
+and Mr. Bain, in not basing his classification of the emotions on
+characters reached through these aids, has fallen short of the conception
+with which he set out.
+
+"But," it will perhaps be asked, "how are the emotions to be analyzed, and
+their modes of evolution to be ascertained? Different animals, and
+different organs of the same animal, may readily be compared in their
+internal and microscopic structures, as also in their developments; but
+functions, and especially such functions as the emotions, do not admit of
+like comparisons."
+
+It must be admitted that the application of these methods is here by no
+means so easy. Though we can note differences and similarities between the
+internal formations of two animals; it is difficult to contrast the mental
+states of two animals. Though the true morphological relations of organs
+may be made out by the observations of embryos; yet, where such organs are
+inactive before birth, we cannot completely trace the history of their
+actions. Obviously, too, the pursuance of inquiries of the kind indicated,
+raises questions which science is not yet prepared to answer; as, for
+instance--Whether all nervous functions, in common with all other
+functions, arise by gradual differentiations, as their organs do? Whether
+the emotions are, therefore, to be regarded as divergent modes of action,
+that have become unlike by successive modifications? Whether, as two organs
+which originally budded out of the same membrane, have not only become
+different as they developed, but have also severally become compound
+internally, though externally simple: so two emotions, simple and near akin
+in their roots, may not only have grown unlike, but may also have grown
+involved in their natures, though seeming homogeneous to consciousness. And
+here, indeed, in the inability of existing science to answer these
+questions which underlie a true psychological classification, we see how
+purely provisional any present classification is likely to be.
+
+Nevertheless, even now, classification may be aided by development and
+ultimate analysis to a considerable extent; and the defect in Mr. Bain's
+work is, that he has not systematically availed himself of them as far as
+possible. Thus we may, in the first place, study the evolution of the
+emotions up through the various grades of the animal kingdom: observing
+which of them are earliest and exist with the lowest organization and
+intelligence; in what order the others accompany higher endowments; and how
+they are severally related to the conditions of life. In the second place,
+we may note the emotional differences between the lower and the higher
+human races--may regard as earlier and simpler those feelings which are
+common to both, and as later and more compound those which are
+characteristic of the most civilized. In the third place, we may observe
+the order in which the emotions unfold during the progress from infancy to
+maturity. And lastly, comparing these three kinds of emotional development,
+displayed in the ascending grades of the animal kingdom, in the advance of
+the civilized races, and in individual history, we may see in what respects
+they harmonize, and what are the implied general truths.
+
+Having gathered together and generalized these several classes of facts,
+analysis of the emotions would be made easier. Setting out with the
+unquestionable assumption, that every new form of emotion making its
+appearance in the individual or the race, is a modification of some
+pre-existing emotion, or a compounding of several pre-existing emotions; we
+should be greatly aided by knowing what always are the pre-existing
+emotions. When, for example, we find that very few if any of the lower
+animals show any love of accumulation, and that this feeling is absent in
+infancy--when we see that an infant in arms exhibits anger, fear, wonder,
+while yet it manifests no desire of permanent possession, and that a brute
+which has no acquisitive emotion can nevertheless feel attachment,
+jealousy, love of approbation; we may suspect that the feeling which
+property satisfies, is compounded out of simpler and deeper feelings. We
+may conclude that as, when a dog hides a bone, there must exist in him a
+prospective gratification of hunger; so there must similarly at first, in
+all cases where anything is secured or taken possession of, exist an ideal
+excitement of the feeling which that thing will gratify. We may further
+conclude that when the intelligence is such that a variety of objects come
+to be utilized for different purposes--when, as among savages, divers wants
+are satisfied through the articles appropriated for weapons, shelter,
+clothing, ornament; the act of appropriating comes to be one constantly
+involving agreeable associations, and one which is therefore pleasurable,
+irrespective of the end subserved. And when, as in civilized life, the
+property acquired is of a kind not conducing to one order of
+gratifications, but is capable of administering to all gratifications, the
+pleasure of acquiring property grows more distinct from each of the various
+pleasures subserved--is more completely differentiated into a separate
+emotion.
+
+This illustration, roughly as it is sketched, will show what we mean by the
+use of comparative psychology in aid of classification. Ascertaining by
+induction the actual order of evolution of the emotions, we are led to
+suspect this to be their order of successive dependence; and are so led to
+recognize their order of ascending complexity; and by consequence their
+true groupings.
+
+Thus, in the very process of arranging the emotions into grades, beginning
+with those involved in the lowest forms of conscious activity and end with
+those peculiar to the adult civilized man, the way is opened for that
+ultimate analysis which alone can lead us to the true science of the
+matter. For when we find both that there exist in a man feelings which do
+not exist in a child, and that the European is characterized by some
+sentiments which are wholly or in a great part absent from the savage--when
+we see that, besides the new emotions that arise spontaneously as the
+individual becomes completely organized, there are new emotions making
+their appearance in the more advanced divisions of our race; we are led to
+ask--How are new emotions generated? The lowest savages have not even the
+ideas of justice or mercy: they have neither words for them nor can they be
+made to conceive them; and the manifestation of them by Europeans they
+ascribe to fear or cunning. There are aesthetic emotions common among
+ourselves, that are scarcely in any degree experienced by some inferior
+races; as, for instance, those produced by music. To which instances may be
+added the less marked but more numerous contrasts that exist between
+civilized races in the degrees of their several emotions. And if it is
+manifest, both that all the emotions are capable of being permanently
+modified in the course of successive generations, and that what must be
+classed as new emotions may be brought into existence; then it follows that
+nothing like a true conception of the emotions is to be obtained, until we
+understand how they are evolved.
+
+Comparative psychology, while it raises this inquiry, prepares the way for
+answering it. When observing the differences between races, we can scarcely
+fail to observe also how these differences correspond with differences in
+their conditions of existence, and therefore in their daily experiences.
+Note the contrast between the circumstances and between the emotional
+natures of savage and civilized. Among the lowest races of men, love of
+property stimulates to the obtainment only of such things as satisfy
+immediate desires or desires of the immediate future. Improvidence is the
+rule: there is little effort to meet remote contingencies. But the growth
+of established societies, having gradually given security of possession,
+there has been an increasing tendency to provide for coming years: there
+has been a constant exercise of the feeling which is satisfied by a
+provision for the future; and there has been a growth of this feeling so
+great that it now prompts accumulation to an extent beyond what is needful.
+Note, again, that under the discipline of social life--under a comparative
+abstinence from aggressive actions, and a performance of those
+mutually-serviceable actions implied by the division of labour--there has
+been a development of those gentle emotions of which inferior races exhibit
+but the rudiments. Savages delight in giving pain rather than pleasure--are
+almost devoid of sympathy. While among ourselves philanthropy organizes
+itself in laws, establishes numerous institutions, and dictates countless
+private benefactions.
+
+From which and other like facts, does it not seem an unavoidable inference
+that new emotions are developed by new experiences--new habits of life? All
+are familiar with the truth, that in the individual, each feeling may be
+strengthened by performing those actions which it prompts; and to say that
+the feeling is _strengthened_, is to say that it is in part _made_ by these
+actions. We know further, that not unfrequently, individuals, by
+persistence in special courses of conduct, acquire special likings for such
+courses disagreeable as these may be to others; and these whims, or morbid
+tastes, imply incipient emotions corresponding to these special activities.
+We know that emotional characteristics, in common with all others, are
+hereditary; and the differences between civilized nations descended from
+the same stock, show us the cumulative results of small modifications
+hereditarily transmitted. And when we see that between savage and civilized
+races, which diverged from each other in the remote past, and have for a
+hundred generations followed modes of life becoming ever more unlike, there
+exist still greater emotional contrasts; may we not infer that the more or
+less distinct emotions which characterize civilized races, are the
+organized results of certain daily-repeated combinations of mental states
+which social life involves? Must we not say that habits not only modify
+emotions in the individual, and not only beget tendencies to like habits
+and accompanying emotions in descendants, but that when the conditions of
+the race make the habits persistent, this progressive modification may go
+on to the extent of producing emotions so far distinct as to seem new? And
+if so, we may suspect that such new emotions, and by implication all
+emotions analytically considered, consist of aggregated and consolidated
+groups of those simpler feelings which habitually occur together in
+experience: that they result from combined experiences, and are constituted
+of them.
+
+When, in the circumstances of any race, some one kind of action or set of
+actions, sensation or set of sensations, is usually followed, or
+accompanied by, various other sets of actions or sensations, and so entails
+a large mass of pleasurable or painful states of consciousness; these, by
+frequent repetition, become so connected together that the initial action
+or sensation brings the ideas of all the rest crowding into consciousness:
+producing, in a degree, the pleasures or pains that have before been felt
+in reality. And when this relation, besides being frequently repeated in
+the individual, occurs in successive generations, all the many nervous
+actions involved tend to grow organically connected. They become
+incipiently reflex; and on the occurrence of the appropriate stimulus, the
+whole nervous apparatus which in past generations was brought into activity
+by this stimulus, becomes nascently excited. Even while yet there have been
+no individual experiences, a vague feeling of pleasure or pain is produced;
+constituting what we may call the body of the emotion. And when the
+experiences of past generations come to be repeated in the individual, the
+emotion gains both strength and definiteness; and is accompanied by the
+appropriate specific ideas.
+
+This view of the matter, which we believe the established truths of
+Physiology and Psychology unite in indicating, and which is the view that
+generalizes the phenomena of habit, of national characteristics, of
+civilization in its moral aspects, at the same time that it gives us a
+conception of emotion in its origin and ultimate nature, may be illustrated
+from the mental modifications undergone by animals.
+
+It is well-known that on newly-discovered lands not inhabited by man, birds
+are so devoid of fear as to allow themselves to be knocked over with
+sticks; but that in the course of generations, they acquire such a dread of
+man as to fly on his approach; and that this dread is manifested by young
+as well as old. Now unless this change be ascribed to the killing-off of
+the least fearful, and the preservation and multiplication of the more
+fearful, which, considering the comparatively small number killed by man,
+is an inadequate cause; it must be ascribed to accumulated experiences; and
+each experience must be held to have a share in producing it. We must
+conclude that in each bird that escapes with injuries inflicted by man, or
+is alarmed by the outcries of other members of the flock (gregarious
+creatures of any intelligence being necessarily more or less sympathetic),
+there is established an association of ideas between the human aspect and
+the pains, direct and indirect, suffered from human agency. And we must
+further conclude, that the state of consciousness which impels the bird to
+take flight, is at first nothing more than an ideal reproduction of those
+painful impressions which before followed man's approach; that such ideal
+reproduction becomes more vivid and more massive as the painful
+experiences, direct or sympathetic, increase; and that thus the emotion in
+its incipient state, is nothing else than an aggregation of the revived
+pains before experienced.
+
+As, in the course of generations, the young birds of this race begin to
+display a fear of man before yet they have been injured by him; it is an
+unavoidable inference that the nervous system of the race has been
+organically modified by these experiences: we have no choice but to
+conclude that when a young bird is thus led to fly, it is because the
+impression produced on its senses by the approaching man, entails, through
+an incipiently-reflex action, a partial excitement of all those nerves
+which in its ancestors had been excited under the like conditions; that
+this partial excitement has its accompanying painful consciousness; and
+that the vague painful consciousness thus arising, constitutes emotion
+proper--_emotion undecomposable into specific experiences, and therefore
+seemingly homogeneous_.
+
+If such be the explanation of the fact in this case, then it is in all
+cases. If emotion is so generated here, then it is so generated throughout.
+We must perforce conclude that the emotional modifications displayed by
+different nations, and those higher emotions by which civilized are
+distinguished from savage, are to be accounted for on the same principle.
+And concluding this, we are led strongly to suspect that the emotions in
+general have severally thus originated.
+
+Perhaps we have now made sufficiently clear what we mean by the study of
+the emotions through analysis and development. We have aimed to justify the
+positions that, without analysis aided by development, there cannot be a
+true natural history of the emotions; and that a natural history of the
+emotions based on external characters, can be but provisional. We think
+that Mr. Bain, in confining himself to an account of the emotions as they
+exist in the adult civilized man, has neglected those classes of facts out
+of which the science of the matter must chiefly be built. It is true that
+he has treated of habits as modifying emotions in the individual; but he
+has not recognized the fact, that where conditions render habits persistent
+in successive generations, such modifications are cumulative: he has not
+hinted that the modifications produced by habit are emotions in the making.
+It is true, also, that he occasionally refers to the characteristics of
+children; but he does not systematically trace the changes through which
+childhood passes into manhood, as throwing light on the order and genesis
+of the emotions. It is further true that he here and there refers to
+national traits in illustration of his subject; but these stand as isolated
+facts, having no general significance: there is no hint of any relation
+between them and the national circumstances; while all those many moral
+contrasts between lower and higher races which throw great light on
+classification, are passed over. And once more, it is true that many
+passages of his work, and sometimes, indeed, whole sections of it, are
+analytical; but his analyses are incidental--they do not underlie his
+entire scheme, but are here and there added to it. In brief, he has written
+a Descriptive Psychology, which does not appeal to Comparative Psychology
+and Analytical Psychology for its leading ideas. And in doing this, he has
+omitted much that should be included in a natural history of the mind;
+while to that part of the subject with which he has dealt, he has given a
+necessarily-imperfect organization.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Even leaving out of view the absence of those methods and criteria on which
+we have been insisting, it appears to us that meritorious as is Mr. Bain's
+book in its details, it is defective in some of its leading ideas. The
+first paragraphs of his first chapter, quite startled us by the strangeness
+of their definitions--a strangeness which can scarcely be ascribed to
+laxity of expression. The paragraphs run thus:--
+
+  "Mind is comprised under three heads--Emotion, Volition, and
+  Intellect.
+
+  "EMOTION is the name here used to comprehend all that is understood
+  by feelings, states of feeling, pleasures, pains, passions,
+  sentiments, affections. Consciousness, and conscious states also for
+  the most part denote modes of emotion, although there is such a thing
+  as the Intellectual consciousness.
+
+  "VOLITION, on the other hand, indicates the great fact that our
+  Pleasures and Pains, which are not the whole of our emotions, prompt
+  us to action, or stimulate the active machinery of the living
+  framework to perform such operations as procure the first and abate
+  the last. To withdraw from a scalding heat and cling to a gentle
+  warmth, are exercises of volition."
+
+The last of these definitions, which we may most conveniently take first,
+seems to us very faulty. We cannot but feel astonished that Mr. Bain,
+familiar as he is with the phenomena of reflex action, should have so
+expressed himself as to include a great part of them along with the
+phenomena of volition. He seems to be ignoring the discriminations of
+modern science, and returning to the vague conceptions of the past--nay
+more, he is comprehending under volition what even the popular speech would
+hardly bring under it. If you were to blame any one for snatching his foot
+from the scalding water into which he had inadvertently put it, he would
+tell you that he could not help it; and his reply would be indorsed by the
+general experience, that the withdrawal of a limb from contact with
+something extremely hot, is quite involuntary--that it takes place not only
+without volition, but in defiance of an effort of will to maintain the
+contact. How, then, can that be instanced as an example of volition, which
+occurs even when volition is antagonistic? We are quite aware that it is
+impossible to draw any absolute line of demarcation between automatic
+actions and actions which are not automatic. Doubtless we may pass
+gradually from the purely reflex, through the consensual, to the voluntary.
+Taking the case Mr. Bain cites, it is manifest that from a heat of such
+moderate degree that the withdrawal from it is wholly voluntary, we may
+advance by infinitesimal steps to a heat which compels involuntary
+withdrawal; and that there is a stage at which the voluntary and
+involuntary actions are mixed. But the difficulty of absolute
+discrimination is no reason for neglecting the broad general contrast; any
+more than it is for confounding light with darkness. If we are to include
+as examples of volition, all cases in which pleasures and pains "stimulate
+the active machinery of the living framework to perform such operations as
+procure the first and abate the last," then we must consider sneezing and
+coughing, as examples of volition; and Mr. Bain surely cannot mean this.
+Indeed, we must confess ourselves at a loss. On the one hand if he does not
+mean it, his expression is lax to a degree that surprises us in so careful
+a writer. On the other hand, if he does mean it, we cannot understand his
+point of view.
+
+A parallel criticism applies to his definition of Emotion. Here, too, he
+has departed from the ordinary acceptation of the word; and, as we think,
+in the wrong direction. Whatever may be the interpretation that is
+justified by its derivation, the word Emotion has come generally to mean
+that kind of feeling which is not a direct result of any action on the
+organism; but is either an indirect result of such action, or arises quite
+apart from such action. It is used to indicate those sentient states which
+are independently generated in consciousness; as distinguished from those
+generated in our corporeal framework, and known as sensations. Now this
+distinction, tacitly made in common speech, is one which Psychology cannot
+well reject; but one which it must adopt, and to which it must give
+scientific precision. Mr. Bain, however, appears to ignore any such
+distinction. Under the term "emotion," he includes not only passions,
+sentiments, affections, but all "feelings, states of feeling, pleasures,
+pains,"--that is, all sensations. This does not appear to be a mere lapse
+of expression; for when, in the opening sentence, he asserts that "mind is
+comprised under the three heads--Emotion, Volition, and Intellect," he of
+necessity implies that sensation is included under one of these heads; and
+as it cannot be included under Volition or Intellect, it must be classed
+with Emotion: as it clearly is in the next sentence.
+
+We cannot but think this is a retrograde step. Though distinctions which
+have been established in popular thought and language, are not unfrequently
+merged in the higher generalizations of science (as, for instance, when
+crabs and worms are grouped together in the sub-kingdom _Annulosa_;) yet
+science very generally recognizes the validity of these distinctions, as
+real though not fundamental. And so in the present case. Such community as
+analysis discloses between sensation and emotion, must not shut out the
+broad contrast that exists between them. If there needs a wider word, as
+there does, to signify any sentient state whatever; then we may fitly adopt
+for this purpose the word currently so used, namely, "Feeling." And
+considering as Feelings all that great division of mental states which we
+do not class as Cognitions, may then separate this great division into the
+two orders, Sensations and Emotions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And here we may, before concluding, briefly indicate the leading outlines
+of a classification which reduces this distinction to a scientific form,
+and developes it somewhat further--a classification which, while suggested
+by certain fundamental traits reached without a very lengthened inquiry, is
+yet, we believe, in harmony with that disclosed by detailed analysis.
+
+Leaving out of view the Will, which is a simple homogeneous mental state,
+forming the link between feeling and action, and not admitting of
+subdivisions; our states of consciousness fall into two great
+classes--COGNITIONS and FEELINGS.
+
+COGNITIONS, or those modes of mind in which we are occupied with the
+_relations_ that subsist among our feelings, are divisible into four great
+sub-classes.
+
+_Presentative cognitions_; or those in which consciousness is occupied in
+localizing a sensation impressed on the organism--occupied, that is, with
+the relation between this presented mental state and those other presented
+mental states which make up our consciousness of the part affected: as when
+we cut ourselves.
+
+_Presentative-representative cognitions_; or those in which consciousness
+is occupied with the relation between a sensation or group of sensations
+and the representations of those various other sensations that accompany it
+in experience. This is what we commonly call perception--an act in which,
+along with certain impressions presented to consciousness, there arise in
+consciousness the ideas of certain other impressions ordinarily connected
+with the presented ones: as when its visible form and colour, lead us to
+mentally endow an orange with all its other attributes.
+
+_Representative cognitions_; or those in which consciousness is occupied
+with the relations among ideas or represented sensations: as in all acts of
+recollection.
+
+_Re-representative cognitions_; or those in which the occupation of
+consciousness is not by representation of special relations, that have
+before been presented to consciousness; but those in which such represented
+special relations are thought of merely as comprehended in a general
+relation--those in which the concrete relations once experienced, in so far
+as they become objects of consciousness at all, are incidentally
+represented, along with the abstract relation which formulates them. The
+ideas resulting from this abstraction, do not themselves represent actual
+experiences; but are symbols which stand for groups of such actual
+experiences--represent aggregates of representations. And thus they may be
+called re-representative cognitions. It is clear that the process of
+re-representation is carried to higher stages, as the thought becomes more
+abstract.
+
+FEELINGS, or those modes of mind in which we are occupied, not with the
+relations subsisting between our sentient states, but with the sentient
+states themselves, are divisible into four parallel sub-classes.
+
+_Presentative feelings_, ordinarily called sensations, are those mental
+states in which, instead of regarding a corporeal impression as of this or
+that kind, or as located here or there, we contemplate it in itself as
+pleasure or pain: as when eating.
+
+_Presentative-representative feelings_, embracing a great part of what we
+commonly call emotions, are those in which a sensation, or group of
+sensations or group of sensations and ideas, arouses a vast aggregation of
+represented sensations; partly of individual experience, but chiefly deeper
+than individual experience, and, consequently, indefinite. The emotion of
+terror may serve as an example. Along with certain impressions made on the
+eyes or ears, or both, are recalled in consciousness many of the pains to
+which such impressions have before been the antecedents; and when the
+relation between such impressions and such pains has been habitual in the
+race, the definite ideas of such pains which individual experience has
+given, are accompanied by the indefinite pains that result from inherited
+experience--vague feelings which we may call organic representations. In an
+infant, crying at a strange sight or sound while yet in the nurse's arms,
+we see these organic representations called into existence in the shape of
+dim discomfort, to which individual experience has yet given no specific
+outlines.
+
+_Representative feelings_, comprehending the ideas of the feelings above
+classed, when they are called up apart from the appropriate external
+excitements. As instances of these may be named the feelings with which the
+descriptive poet writes, and which are aroused in the minds of his readers.
+
+_Re-representative feelings_, under which head are included those more
+complex sentient states that are less the direct results of external
+excitements than the indirect or reflex results of them. The love of
+property is a feeling of this kind. It is awakened not by the presence of
+any special object, but by ownable objects at large; and it is not from the
+mere presence of such object, but from a certain ideal relation to them,
+that it arises. As before shown (p. 311) it consists, not of the
+represented advantages of possessing this or that, but of the represented
+advantages of possession in general--is not made up of certain concrete
+representations, but of the abstracts of many concrete representations; and
+so is re-representative. The higher sentiments, as that of justice, are
+still more completely of this nature. Here the sentient state is compounded
+out of sentient states that are themselves wholly, or almost wholly,
+re-representative: it involves representations of those lower emotions
+which are produced by the possession of property, by freedom of action,
+etc.; and thus is re-representative in a higher degree.
+
+This classification, here roughly indicated and capable of further
+expansion, will be found in harmony with the results of detailed analysis
+aided by development. Whether we trace mental progression through the
+grades of the animal kingdom, through the grades of mankind, or through the
+stages of individual growth; it is obvious that the advance, alike in
+cognitions and feelings, is, and must be, from the presentative to the more
+and more remotely representative. It is undeniable that intelligence
+ascends from those simple perceptions in which consciousness is occupied in
+localizing and classifying sensations, to perceptions more and more
+compound, to simple reasoning, to reasoning more and more complex and
+abstract--more and more remote from sensation. And in the evolution of
+feelings, there is a parallel series of steps. Simple sensations;
+sensations combined together; sensations combined with represented
+sensations; represented sensations organized into groups, in which their
+separate characters are very much merged; representations of these
+representative groups, in which the original components have become still
+more vague. In both cases, the progress has necessarily been from the
+simple and concrete to the complex and abstract: and as with the
+cognitions, so with the feelings, this must be the basis of classification.
+
+The space here occupied with criticisms on Mr. Bain's work, we might have
+filled with exposition and eulogy, had we thought this the more important.
+Though we have freely pointed out what we conceive to be its defects, let
+it not be inferred that we question its great merits. We repeat that, as a
+natural history of the mind, we believe it to be the best yet produced. It
+is a most valuable collection of carefully-elaborated materials. Perhaps we
+cannot better express our sense of its worth, than by saying that, to those
+who hereafter give to this branch of Psychology a thoroughly scientific
+organization, Mr. Bain's book will be indispensable.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.
+
+
+That proclivity to generalization which is possessed in greater or less
+degree by all minds, and without which, indeed, intelligence cannot exist,
+has unavoidable inconveniences. Through it alone can truth be reached; and
+yet it almost inevitably betrays into error. But for the tendency to
+predicate of every other case, that which has been found in the observed
+cases, there could be no rational thinking; and yet by this indispensable
+tendency, men are perpetually led to found, on limited experience,
+propositions which they wrongly assume to be universal or absolute. In one
+sense, however, this can scarcely be regarded as an evil; for without
+premature generalizations the true generalization would never be arrived
+at. If we waited till all the facts were accumulated before trying to
+formulate them, the vast unorganized mass would be unmanageable. Only by
+provisional grouping can they be brought into such order as to be dealt
+with; and this provisional grouping is but another name for premature
+generalization.
+
+How uniformly men follow this course, and how needful the errors are as
+steps to truth, is well illustrated in the history of Astronomy. The
+heavenly bodies move round the Earth in circles, said the earliest
+observers: led partly by the appearances, and partly by their experiences
+of central motions in terrestrial objects, with which, as all circular,
+they classed the celestial motions from lack of any alternative conception.
+Without this provisional belief, wrong as it was, there could not have been
+that comparison of positions which showed that the motions are not
+representable by circles; and which led to the hypothesis of epicycles and
+eccentrics. Only by the aid of this hypothesis, equally untrue, but capable
+of accounting more nearly for the appearances, and so of inducing more
+accurate observations--only thus did it become possible for Copernicus to
+show that the heliocentric theory is more feasible than the geocentric
+theory; or for Kepler to show that the planets move round the sun in
+ellipses. Yet again, without the aid of this approximate truth discovered
+by Kepler, Newton could not have established that general law from which it
+follows, that the motion of a heavenly body round its centre of gravity is
+not necessarily in an ellipse, but may be in any conic section. And lastly,
+it was only after the law of gravitation had been verified, that it became
+possible to determine the actual courses of planets, satellites, and
+comets; and to prove that, in consequence of perturbations, their orbits
+always deviate, more or less, from regular curves. Thus, there followed one
+another five provisional theories of the Solar System, before the sixth and
+absolutely true theory was reached. In which five provisional theories,
+each for a time held as final, we may trace both the tendency men have to
+leap from scanty data to wide generalizations, that are either untrue or
+but partially true; and the necessity there is for these transitional
+generalizations as steps to the final one.
+
+In the progress of geological speculation the same laws of thought are
+clearly displayed. We have dogmas that were more than half false, passing
+current for a time as universal truths. We have evidence collected in proof
+of these dogmas; by and by a colligation of facts in antagonism with them;
+and eventually a consequent modification. In conformity with this somewhat
+improved hypothesis, we have a better classification of facts; a greater
+power of arranging and interpreting the new facts now rapidly gathered
+together; and further resulting corrections of hypothesis. Being, as we are
+at present, in the midst of this process, it is not possible to give an
+adequate account of the development of geological science as thus regarded:
+the earlier stages are alone known to us. Not only, however, is it
+interesting to observe how the more advanced views now received respecting
+the Earth's history, have been evolved out of the crude views which
+preceded them; but we shall find it extremely instructive to observe this.
+We shall see how greatly the old ideas still sway, both the general mind,
+and the minds of geologists themselves. We shall see how the kind of
+evidence that has in part abolished these old ideas, is still daily
+accumulating, and threatens to make other like revolutions. In brief, we
+shall see whereabouts we are in the elaboration of a true theory of the
+Earth; and, seeing our whereabouts, shall be the better able to judge,
+among various conflicting opinions, which best conform to the ascertained
+direction of geological discovery.
+
+It is alike needless and impracticable here to enumerate the many
+speculations which were in earlier ages propounded by acute
+men--speculations some of which contained portions of truth. Falling in
+unfit times, these speculations did not germinate; and hence do not concern
+us. We have nothing to do with ideas, however good, out of which no science
+grew; but only with those which gave origin to the system of Geology that
+now exists. We therefore begin with Werner.
+
+Taking for data the appearances of the Earth's crust in a narrow district
+of Germany; observing the constant order of superposition of strata, and
+their respective physical characters; Werner drew the inference that strata
+of like characters succeeded each other in like order over the entire
+surface of the Earth. And seeing, from the laminated structure of many
+formations and the organic remains contained in others, that they were
+sedimentary; he further inferred that these universal strata had been in
+succession precipitated from a chaotic menstruum which once covered our
+planet. Thus, on a very incomplete acquaintance with a thousandth part of
+the Earth's crust, he based a sweeping generalization applying to the whole
+of it. This Neptunist hypothesis, mark, borne out though it seemed to be by
+the most conspicuous surrounding facts, was quite untenable if analyzed.
+That a universal chaotic menstruum should deposit, one after another,
+numerous sharply-defined strata, differing from each other in composition,
+is incomprehensible. That the strata so deposited should contain the
+remains of plants and animals, which could not have lived under the
+supposed conditions, is still more incomprehensible. Physically absurd,
+however, as was this hypothesis, it recognized, though under a distorted
+form, one of the great agencies of geological change--that of water. It
+served also to express the fact that the formations of the Earth's crust
+stand in some kind of order. Further, it did a little towards supplying a
+nomenclature, without which much progress was impossible. Lastly, it
+furnished a standard with which successions of strata in various regions
+could be compared, the differences noted, and the actual sections
+tabulated. It was the first provisional generalization; and was useful, if
+not indispensable, as a step to truer ones.
+
+Following this rude conception, which ascribed geological phenomena to one
+agency, acting during one primeval epoch, there came a greatly-improved
+conception, which ascribed them to two agencies, acting alternately during
+successive epochs. Hutton, perceiving that sedimentary deposits were still
+being formed at the bottom of the sea from the detritus carried down by
+rivers; perceiving, further, that the strata of which the visible surface
+chiefly consists, bore marks of having been similarly formed out of
+pre-existing land; and inferring that these strata could have become land
+only by upheaval after their deposit; concluded that throughout an
+indefinite past, there had been periodic convulsions, by which continents
+were raised, with intervening eras of repose, during which such continents
+were worn down and transformed into new marine strata, fated to be in their
+turns elevated above the surface of the ocean. And finding that igneous
+action, to which sundry earlier geologists had ascribed basaltic rocks, was
+in countless places a source of disturbance, he taught that from it
+resulted these periodic convulsions. In this theory we see:--first, that
+the previously-recognized agency of water was conceived to act, not as by
+Werner, after a manner of which we have no experience, but after a manner
+daily displayed to us; and second, that the igneous agency, before
+considered only as a cause of special formations, was recognized as a
+universal agency, but assumed to act in an unproved way. Werner's sole
+process, Hutton developed from the catastrophic and inexplicable into the
+uniform and explicable; while that antagonistic second process, of which he
+first adequately estimated the importance, was regarded by him as a
+catastrophic one, and was not assimilated to known processes--not
+explained. We have here to note, however, that the facts collected and
+provisionally arranged in conformity with Werner's theory, served, after a
+time, to establish Hutton's more rational theory--in so far, at least, as
+aqueous formations are concerned; while the doctrine of periodic
+subterranean convulsions, crudely as it was conceived by Hutton, was a
+temporary generalization needful as a step towards the theory of igneous
+action.
+
+Since Hutton's time, the development of geological thought has gone still
+further in the same direction. These early sweeping doctrines have received
+additional qualifications. It has been discovered that more numerous and
+more heterogeneous agencies have been at work, than was at first believed.
+The igneous hypothesis has been rationalized, as the aqueous one had
+previously been: the gratuitous assumption of vast elevations suddenly
+occurring after long intervals of quiescence, has grown into the consistent
+theory, that islands and continents are the accumulated results of
+successive small upheavals, like those experienced in ordinary earthquakes.
+
+To speak more specifically, we find, in the first place, that instead of
+assuming the denudation produced by rain and rivers to be the sole means of
+wearing down lands and producing their irregularities of surface,
+geologists now see that denudation is only a part-cause of such
+irregularities; and further, that the new strata deposited at the bottom of
+the sea, are not the products of river-sediment solely, but are in part due
+to the action of waves and tidal currents on the coasts. In the second
+place, we find that Hutton's conception of upheaval by subterranean forces,
+has not only been modified by assimilating these subterranean forces to
+ordinary earthquake-forces; but modern inquiries have shown that, besides
+elevations of surface, subsidences are thus produced; that local upheavals,
+as well as the general upheavals, which raise continents, come within the
+same category; and that all these changes are probably consequent on the
+progressive collapse of the Earth's crust upon its cooling and contracting
+nucleus--the only adequate cause. In the third place, we find that beyond
+these two great antagonist agencies, modern Geology recognises sundry minor
+ones: as those of glaciers and icebergs; those of coral-polypes; those of
+_Protozoa_ having siliceous or calcareous shells--each of which agencies,
+insignificant as it seems, is found capable of slowly working terrestrial
+changes of considerable magnitude. Thus, then, the recent progress of
+Geology has been a still further departure from primitive conceptions.
+Instead of one catastrophic cause, once in universal action, as supposed by
+Werner--instead of one general continuous cause, antagonized at long
+intervals by a catastrophic cause, as taught by Hutton; we now recognize
+several causes, all more or less general and continuous. We no longer
+resort to hypothetical agencies to explain the phenomena displayed by the
+Earth's crust; but we are day by day more clearly perceiving that these
+phenomena have arisen from forces like those now at work, which have acted
+in all varieties of combination, through immeasurable periods of time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having thus briefly traced the evolution of geologic science, and noted its
+present form, let us go on to observe the way in which it is still swayed
+by the crude hypotheses it set out with; so that even now, old doctrines
+that are abandoned as untenable in theory, continue in practice to mould
+the ideas of geologists, and to foster sundry beliefs that are logically
+indefensible. We shall see, both how those simple sweeping conceptions with
+which the science commenced, are those which every student is apt at first
+to seize hold of, and how several influences conspire to maintain the twist
+thus resulting--how the original nomenclature of periods and formations
+necessarily keeps alive the original implications; and how the need for
+arranging new data in some order, naturally results in their being thrust
+into the old classification, unless their incongruity with it is very
+glaring. A few facts will best prepare the way for criticism.
+
+Up to 1839 it was inferred, from their crystalline character, that the
+metamorphic rocks of Anglesea are more ancient than any rocks of the
+adjacent main land; but it has since been shown that they are of the same
+age with the slates and grits of Carnarvon and Merioneth. Again, slaty
+cleavage having been first found only in the lowest rocks, was taken as an
+indication of the highest antiquity: whence resulted serious mistakes; for
+this mineral characteristic is now known to occur in the Carboniferous
+system. Once more, certain red conglomerates and grits on the north-west
+coast of Scotland, long supposed from their lithological aspect to belong
+to the Old Red Sandstone, are now identified with the Lower Silurians.
+
+These are a few instances of the small trust to be placed in mineral
+qualities, as evidence of the ages or relative positions of strata. From
+the recently-published third edition of _Siluria_, may be culled numerous
+facts of like implication. Sir R. Murchison considers it ascertained, that
+the siliceous Stiper stones of Shropshire are the equivalents of the
+Tremadock slates of North Wales. Judged by their fossils, Bala slate and
+limestone are of the same age as the Caradoc sandstone, lying forty miles
+off. In Radnorshire, the formation classed as upper Llandovery rock, is
+described at different spots, as "sandstone or conglomerate," "impure
+limestone," "hard coarse grits," "siliceous grit"--a considerable variation
+for so small an area as that of a county. Certain sandy beds on the left
+bank of the Towy, which Sir R. Murchison had, in his _Silurian System_,
+classed as Caradoc sandstone (evidently from their mineral characters), he
+now finds, from their fossils, belong to the Llandeilo formation.
+Nevertheless, inferences from mineral characters are still habitually drawn
+and received. Though _Siluria_, in common with other geological works,
+supplies numerous proofs that rocks of the same age are often of
+widely-different composition a few miles off, while rocks of widely
+different ages are often of similar composition; and though Sir. R.
+Murchison shows us, as in the case just cited, that he has himself in past
+times been misled by trusting to lithological evidence; yet his reasoning,
+all through _Siluria_, shows that he still thinks it natural to expect
+formations of the same age to be chemically similar, even in remote
+regions. For example, in treating of the Silurian rocks of South Scotland,
+he says:--"When traversing the tract between Dumfries and Moffat in 1850,
+it occurred to me that the dull reddish or purple sandstone and schist to
+the north of the former town, which so resembled the bottom rocks of the
+Longmynd, Llanberis, and St. David's, would prove to be of the same age;"
+and further on he again insists upon the fact that these strata "are
+absolutely of the same composition as the bottom rocks of the Silurian
+region."
+
+On this unity of mineral character it is, that this Scottish formation is
+concluded to be contemporaneous with the lowest formations in Wales; for
+the scanty palaeontological evidence suffices neither for proof nor
+disproof. Now, had there been a continuity of like strata in like order
+between Wales and Scotland, there might have been little to criticise in
+this conclusion. But since Sir R. Murchison himself admits, that in
+Westmoreland and Cumberland, some members of the system "assume a
+lithological aspect different from what they maintain in the Silurian and
+Welsh region," there seems no reason to expect mineralogical continuity in
+Scotland. Obviously therefore, the assumption that these Scottish
+formations are of the same age with the Longmynd of Shropshire, implies the
+latent belief that certain mineral characters indicate certain eras.
+
+Far more striking instances, however, of the influence of this latent
+belief remain to be given. Not in such comparatively near districts as the
+Scottish lowlands only, does Sir R. Murchison expect a repetition of the
+Longmynd strata; but in the Rhenish provinces, certain "quartzose
+flagstones and grits, like those of the Longmynd," are seemingly concluded
+to be of contemporaneous origin, because of their likeness. "Quartzites in
+roofing-slates with a greenish tinge that reminded us of the lower slates
+of Cumberland and Westmoreland," are evidently suspected to be of the same
+age. In Russia, he remarks that the carboniferous limestones "are overlaid
+along the western edge of the Ural chain by sandstones and grits, which
+occupy much the same place in the general series as the millstone grit of
+England;" and in calling this group, as he does, the "representative of the
+millstone grit," Sir R. Murchison clearly shows that he thinks likeness of
+mineral composition some evidence of equivalence in time, even at that
+great distance. Nay, on the flanks of the Andes and in the United States,
+such similarities are looked for, and considered as significant of certain
+ages. Not that Sir R. Murchison contends theoretically for this relation
+between lithological character and date. For on the page from which we have
+just quoted (_Siluria_, p. 387), he says, that "whilst the soft Lower
+Silurian clays and sands of St. Petersburg have their equivalents in the
+hard schists and quartz rocks with gold veins in the heart of the Ural
+mountains, the equally soft red and green Devonian marls of the Valdai
+Hills are represented on the western flank of that chain, by hard,
+contorted, and fractured limestones." But these, and other such admissions,
+seem to go for little. Whilst himself asserting that the Potsdam-sandstone
+of North America, the Lingula-flags of England, and the alum-slates of
+Scandinavia are of the same period--while fully aware that among the
+Silurian formations of Wales, there are oolitic strata like those of
+secondary age; yet is his reasoning more or less coloured by the
+assumption, that formations of like qualities probably belong to the same
+era. Is it not manifest, then, that the exploded hypothesis of Werner
+continues to influence geological speculation?
+
+"But," it will perhaps be said, "though individual strata are not
+continuous over large areas, yet systems of strata are. Though within a few
+miles the same bed gradually passes from clay into sand, or thins out and
+disappears, yet the group of strata to which it belongs does not do so; but
+maintains in remote regions the same relations to other groups."
+
+This is the generally-current belief. On this assumption the received
+geological classifications appear to be framed. The Silurian system, the
+Devonian system, the Carboniferous system, etc., are set down in our books
+as groups of formations which everywhere succeed each other in a given
+order; and are severally everywhere of the same age. Though it may not be
+asserted that these successive systems are universal; yet it seems to be
+tacitly assumed that they are so. In North and South America, in Asia, in
+Australia, sets of strata are assimilated to one or other of these groups;
+and their possession of certain mineral characters and a certain order of
+superposition are among the reasons assigned for so assimilating them.
+Though, probably, no competent geologist would contend that the European
+classification of strata is applicable to the globe as a whole; yet most,
+if not all geologists, write as though it were so. Among readers of works
+on Geology, nine out of ten carry away the impression that the divisions,
+Primary, Secondary and Tertiary, are of absolute and uniform application;
+that these great divisions are separable into subdivisions, each of which
+is definitely distinguishable from the rest, and is everywhere recognizable
+by its characters as such or such; and that in all parts of the Earth,
+these minor systems severally began and ended at the same time. When they
+meet with the term "carboniferous era," they take for granted that it was
+an era universally carboniferous--that it was, what Hugh Miller indeed
+actually describes it, an era when the Earth bore a vegetation far more
+luxuriant than it has since done; and were they in any of our colonies to
+meet with a coal-bed, they would conclude that, as a matter of course, it
+was of the same age as the English coal-beds.
+
+Now this belief that geologic "systems" are universal, is quite as
+untenable as the other. It is just as absurd when considered _a priori_;
+and it is equally inconsistent with the facts. Though some series of strata
+classed together as Oolite, may range over a wider district than any one
+stratum of the series; yet we have but to ask what were the circumstances
+of its deposit, to see that the Oolitic series, like one of its individual
+strata, must be of local origin; and that there is not likely to be
+anywhere else, a series that exactly corresponds, either in its characters
+or in its commencement and termination. For the formation of such a series
+implies an area of subsidence, in which its component beds were thrown
+down. Every area of subsidence is necessarily limited; and to suppose that
+there exist elsewhere groups of beds completely answering to those known as
+Oolite, is to suppose that, in contemporaneous areas of subsidence, like
+processes were going on. There is no reason to suppose this; but every
+reason to suppose the reverse. That in contemporaneous areas of subsidence
+throughout the globe, the conditions would cause the formation of Oolite,
+or anything like it, is an assumption which no modern geologist would
+openly make: he would say that the equivalent series of beds found
+elsewhere, would very likely be of dissimilar mineral character.
+
+Moreover, in these contemporaneous areas of subsidence, the phenomena going
+on would not only be more or less different in kind; but in no two cases
+would they be likely to agree in their commencements and terminations. The
+probabilities are greatly against separate portions of the Earth's surface
+beginning to subside at the same time, and ceasing to subside at the same
+time--a coincidence which alone could produce equivalent groups of strata.
+Subsidences in different places begin and end with utter irregularity; and
+hence the groups of strata thrown down in them can but rarely correspond.
+Measured against each other in time, their limits will disagree. They will
+refuse to fit into any scheme of definite divisions. On turning to the
+evidence, we find that it daily tends more and more to justify these _a
+priori_ positions. Take, as an example, the Old Red Sandstone system. In
+the north of England this is represented by a single stratum of
+conglomerate. In Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Shropshire, it expands
+into a series of strata from eight to ten thousand feet thick, made up of
+conglomerates, red, green, and white sandstones, red, green, and spotted
+marls, and concretionary limestones. To the south-west, as between
+Caermarthen and Pembroke, these Old Red Sandstone strata exhibit
+considerable lithological changes; and there is an absence of fossil
+fishes. On the other side of the Bristol Channel, they display further
+changes in mineral characters and remains. While in South Devon and
+Cornwall, the equivalent strata, consisting chiefly of slates, schists, and
+limestones, are so wholly different, that they were for a long time classed
+as Silurian. When we thus see that in certain directions the whole group of
+deposits thins out, and that its mineral characters as well as its fossils
+change within moderate distances; does it not become clear that the whole
+group of deposits was a local one? And when we find, in other regions,
+formations analogous to these Old Red Sandstone or Devonian formations; is
+it certain--is it even probable--that they severally began and ended at the
+same time with them? Should it not require overwhelming evidence to make us
+believe as much?
+
+Yet so strongly is geological speculation swayed by the tendency to regard
+the phenomena as general instead of local, that even those most on their
+guard against it seem unable to escape its influence. At page 158 of his
+_Principles of Geology_, Sir Charles Lyell says:--
+
+  "A group of red marl and red sandstone, containing salt and gypsum,
+  being interposed in England between the Lias and the Coal, all other
+  red marls and sandstones, associated some of them with salt, and
+  others with gypsum, and occurring not only in different parts of
+  Europe, but in North America, Peru, India, the salt deserts of Asia,
+  those of Africa--in a word, in every quarter of the globe, were
+  referred to one and the same period.... It was in vain to urge as an
+  objection the improbability of the hypothesis which implies that all
+  the moving waters on the globe were once simultaneously charged with
+  sediment of a red colour. But the rashness of pretending to identify,
+  in age, all the red sandstones and marls in question, has at length
+  been sufficiently exposed, by the discovery that, even in Europe,
+  they belong decidedly to many different epochs."
+
+Nevertheless, while in this and numerous passages of like implication, Sir
+C. Lyell protests against the bias here illustrated, he seems himself not
+completely free from it. Though he utterly rejects the old hypothesis that
+all over the Earth the same continuous strata lie upon each other in
+regular order, like the coats of an onion, he still writes as though
+geologic "systems" do thus succeed each other. A reader of his _Manual_
+would certainly suppose him to believe, that the Primary epoch ended, and
+the Secondary epoch commenced, all over the world at the same time--that
+these terms really correspond to distinct universal eras in Nature. When he
+assumes, as he does, that the division between Cambrian and Lower Silurian
+in America, answers chronologically to the division between Cambrian and
+Lower Silurian in Wales--when he takes for granted that the partings of
+Lower from Middle Silurian, and of Middle Silurian from Upper, in the one
+region, are of the same dates as the like partings in the other region;
+does it not seem that he believes geologic "systems" to be universal, in
+the sense that their separations were in all places contemporaneous? Though
+he would, doubtless, disown this as an article of faith, is not his
+thinking unconsciously influenced by it? Must we not say that though the
+onion-coat hypothesis is dead, its spirit is traceable, under a
+transcendental form, even in the conclusions of its antagonists?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us now consider another leading geological doctrine, introduced to us
+by the cases just mentioned. We mean the doctrine that strata of the same
+age contain like fossils; and that, therefore, the age and relative
+position of any stratum may be known by its fossils. While the theory that
+strata of like mineral characters were everywhere deposited simultaneously,
+has been ostensibly abandoned, there has been accepted the theory that in
+each geologic epoch similar plants and animals existed everywhere; and
+that, therefore, the epoch to which any formation belongs may be known by
+the organic remains contained in the formation. Though, perhaps, no leading
+geologist would openly commit himself to an unqualified assertion of this
+theory, yet it is tacitly assumed in current geological reasoning.
+
+This theory, however, is scarcely more tenable than the other. It cannot be
+concluded with any certainty, that formations in which similar organic
+remains are found, were of contemporaneous origin; nor can it be safely
+concluded that strata containing different organic remains are of different
+ages. To most readers these will be startling propositions; but they are
+fully admitted by the highest authorities. Sir Charles Lyell confesses that
+the test of organic remains must be used "under very much the same
+restrictions as the test of mineral composition." Sir Henry de la Beche,
+who variously illustrates this truth, gives, as one instance, the great
+incongruity there must be between the fossils of our carboniferous rocks
+and those of the marine strata deposited at the same period. But though, in
+the abstract, the danger of basing positive conclusions on evidence derived
+from fossils, is clearly recognized; yet, in the concrete, this danger is
+generally disregarded. The established conclusions respecting the ages of
+strata, take but little note of it; and by some geologists it seems
+altogether ignored. Throughout his _Siluria_, Sir R. Murchison habitually
+assumes that the same, or kindred, species, lived in all parts of the Earth
+at the same time. In Russia, in Bohemia, in the United States, in South
+America, strata are classed as belonging to this or that part of the
+Silurian system, because of the similar fossils contained in them--are
+concluded to be everywhere contemporaneous if they enclose a proportion of
+identical or allied forms. In Russia the relative position of a stratum is
+inferred from the fact that, along with some Wenlock forms, it yields the
+_Pentamerus oblongus_. Certain crustaceans called Eurypteri, being
+characteristic of the Upper Ludlow rock, it is remarked that "large
+Eurypteri occur in a so-called black grey-wacke slate in Westmoreland, in
+Oneida County, New York, which will probably be found to be on the parallel
+of the Upper Ludlow rock:" in which word "probably," we see both how
+dominant is this belief of universal distribution of similar creatures at
+the same period, and how apt this belief is to make its own proof, by
+raising the expectation that the ages are identical when the forms are
+alike. Besides thus interpreting the formations of Russia, England, and
+America, Sir R. Murchison thus interprets those of the antipodes. Fossils
+from Victoria Colony, he agrees with the Government-surveyor in classing as
+of Lower Silurian or Llandovery age: that is, he takes for granted that
+when certain crustaceans and mollusks were living in Wales, certain similar
+crustaceans and mollusks were living in Australia.
+
+Yet the improbability of this assumption may be readily shown from Sir R.
+Murchison's own facts. If, as he points out, the crustacean fossils of the
+uppermost Silurian rocks in Lanarkshire are, "with one doubtful exception,"
+"all distinct from any of the forms on the same horizon in England;" how
+can it be fairly presumed that the forms existing on the other side of the
+Earth during the Silurian period, were nearly allied to those existing
+here? Not only, indeed, do Sir R. Murchison's conclusions tacitly assume
+this doctrine of universal distribution, but he distinctly enunciates it.
+"The mere presence of a graptolite," he says, "will at once decide that the
+enclosing rock is Silurian;" and he says this, notwithstanding repeated
+warnings against such generalizations. During the progress of Geology, it
+has over and over again happened that a particular fossil, long considered
+characteristic of a particular formation, has been afterwards discovered in
+other formations. Until some twelve years ago, Goniatites had not been
+found lower than the Devonian rocks; but now, in Bohemia, they have been
+found in rocks classed as Silurian. Quite recently, the Orthoceras,
+previously supposed to be a type exclusively Palaeozoic, has been detected
+along with mesozoic Ammonites and Belemnites. Yet hosts of such experiences
+fail to extinguish the assumption, that the age of a stratum may be
+determined by the occurrence in it of a single fossil form.
+
+Nay, this assumption survives evidence of even a still more destructive
+kind. Referring to the Silurian system in Western Ireland, Sir R. Murchison
+says, "in the beds near Maam, Professor Nicol and myself collected remains,
+some of which would be considered Lower, and others Upper, Silurian;" and
+he then names sundry fossils which, in England, belong to the summit of the
+Ludlow rocks, or highest Silurian strata; "some, which elsewhere are known
+only in rocks of Llandovery age," that is, of middle Silurian age; and
+some, only before known in Lower Silurian strata, not far above the most
+ancient fossiliferous beds. Now what do these facts prove? Clearly, they
+prove that species which in Wales are separated by strata more than twenty
+thousand feet deep, and therefore seem to belong to periods far more remote
+from each other, were really coexistent. They prove that the mollusks and
+crinoids held characteristic of early Silurian strata, and supposed to have
+become extinct long before the mollusks and crinoids of the later Silurian
+strata came into existence, were really flourishing at the same time with
+these last; and that these last possibly date back to as early a period as
+the first. They prove that not only the mineral characters of sedimentary
+formations, but also the collections of organic forms they contain, depend,
+to a great extent, on local circumstances. They prove that the fossils met
+with in any series of strata, cannot be taken as representing anything like
+the whole Flora and Fauna of the period they belong to. In brief, they
+throw great doubt upon numerous geological generalizations.
+
+Notwithstanding facts like these, and notwithstanding his avowed opinion
+that the test of organic remains must be used "under very much the same
+restrictions as the test of mineral composition," Sir Charles Lyell, too,
+bases positive conclusions on this test: even where the community of
+fossils is slight and the distance great. Having decided that in various
+places in Europe, middle Eocene strata are distinguished by nummulites; he
+infers, without any other assigned evidence, that wherever nummulites are
+found--in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, in Persia, Scinde, Cutch, Eastern
+Bengal, and the frontiers of China--the containing formation is middle
+Eocene. And from this inference he draws the following important
+corollary:--
+
+  "When we have once arrived at the conviction that the nummulitic
+  formation occupies a middle place in the Eocene series, we are struck
+  with the comparatively modern date to which some of the greatest
+  revolutions in the physical geography of Europe, Asia, and northern
+  Africa must be referred. All the mountain chains, such as the Alps,
+  Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Himalayas, into the composition of whose
+  central and loftiest parts the nummulitic strata enter bodily, could
+  have had no existence till after the middle Eocene
+  period."--_Manual_, p. 232.
+
+A still more marked case follows on the next page. Because a certain bed at
+Claiborne in Alabama, which contains "_four hundred_ species of marine
+shells," includes among them the _Cardita planicosta_, "and _some others_
+identical with European species, or very nearly allied to them," Sir C.
+Lyell says it is "highly probable the Claiborne beds agree in age with the
+central or Bracklesham group of England." When we find contemporaneity
+supposed on the strength of a community no greater than that which
+sometimes exists between strata of widely-different ages in the same
+country, it seems very much as though the above-quoted caution had been
+forgotten. It appears to be assumed for the occasion, that species which
+had a wide range in space had a narrow range in time; which is the reverse
+of the fact. The tendency to systematize overrides the evidence, and
+thrusts Nature into a formula too rigid to fit her endless variety.
+
+"But," it may be urged, "surely, when in different places the order of
+superposition, the mineral characters, and the fossils, agree, it may be
+safely concluded that the formations thus corresponding are equivalents in
+time. If, for example, the United States display the same succession of
+Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous systems, lithologically similar, and
+characterized by like fossils, it is a fair inference that these groups of
+strata were severally deposited in America at the same periods that they
+were deposited here."
+
+On this position, which seems a strong one, we have, in the first place, to
+remark, that the evidence of correspondence is always more or less
+suspicious. We have already adverted to the several "idols"--if we may use
+Bacon's metaphor--to which geologists unconsciously sacrifice, when
+interpreting the structures of unexplored regions. Carrying with them the
+classification of strata existing in Europe, and assuming that groups of
+strata in other parts of the world must answer to some of the groups of
+strata known here, they are necessarily prone to assert parallelism on
+insufficient evidence. They scarcely entertain the previous question,
+whether the formations they are examining have or have not any European
+equivalents; but the question is--with which of the European series shall
+they be classed?--with which do they most agree?--from which do they differ
+least? And this being the mode of enquiry, there is apt to result great
+laxity of interpretation. How lax the interpretation really is, may be
+readily shown. When strata are discontinuous, as between Europe and
+America, no evidence can be derived from the order of superposition, apart
+from mineral characters and organic remains; for, unless strata can be
+continuously traced, mineral characters and organic remains are the only
+means of classing them as such or such.
+
+As to the test of mineral characters, we have seen that it is almost
+worthless; and no modern geologist would dare to say it should be relied
+on. If the Old Red Sandstone series in mid-England, differs wholly in
+lithological aspect from the equivalent series in South Devon, it is clear
+that similarities of texture and composition can have no weight in
+assimilating a system of strata in another quarter of the globe to some
+European system. The test of fossils, therefore, is the only one that
+remains; and with how little strictness this test is applied, one case will
+show. Of forty-six species of British Devonian corals, only six occur in
+America; and this, notwithstanding the wide range which the Anthozoa are
+known to have. Similarly of the Mollusca and Crinoidea, it appears that,
+while there are sundry genera found in America that are found here, there
+are scarcely any of the same species. And Sir Charles Lyell admits that
+"the difficulty of deciding on the exact parallelism of the New York
+subdivisions, as above enumerated, with the members of the European
+Devonian, is very great, so few are the species in common." Yet it is on
+the strength of community of fossils, that the whole Devonian series of the
+United States is assumed to be contemporaneous with the whole Devonian
+series of England. And it is partly on the ground that the Devonian of the
+United States corresponds in time with our Devonian, that Sir Charles Lyell
+concludes the superjacent coal-measures of the two countries to be of the
+same age. Is it not, then, as we said, that the evidence in these cases is
+very suspicious?
+
+Should it be replied, as it may fairly be, that this correspondence from
+which the synchronism of distant formations is inferred, is not a
+correspondence between particular species or particular genera, but between
+the general characters of the contained assemblages of fossils--between the
+_facies_ of the two Faunas; the rejoinder is, that though such
+correspondence is a stronger evidence of synchronism it is still an
+insufficient one. To infer synchronism from such correspondence, involves
+the postulate that throughout each geologic era there has habitually
+existed a recognizable similarity between the groups of organic forms
+inhabiting all the different parts of the Earth; and that the causes which
+have in one part of the Earth changed the organic forms into those which
+characterize the next era, have simultaneously acted in all other parts of
+the Earth, in such ways as to produce parallel changes of their organic
+forms. Now this is not only a large assumption to make; but it is an
+assumption contrary to probability. The probability is, that the causes
+which have changed Faunas have been local rather than universal; that hence
+while the Faunas of some regions have been rapidly changing, those of
+others have been almost quiescent; and that when such others have been
+changed, it has been, not in such ways as to maintain parallelism, but in
+such ways as to produce divergence.
+
+Even supposing, however, that districts some hundreds of miles apart,
+furnished groups of strata that completely agreed in their order of
+superposition, their mineral characters, and their fossils, we should still
+have inadequate proof of contemporaneity. For there are conditions, very
+likely to occur, under which such groups might differ widely in age. If
+there be a continent of which the strata crop out on the surface obliquely
+to the line of coast--running, say, west-northwest, while the coast runs
+east and west--it is clear that each group of strata will crop out on the
+beach at a particular part of the coast; that further west the next group
+of strata will crop out on the beach; and so continuously. As the
+localization of marine plants and animals is in a considerable degree
+determined by the nature of the rocks and their detritus, it follows that
+each part of this coast will have its more or less distinct Flora and
+Fauna. What now must result from the action of the waves in the course of a
+geologic epoch? As the sea makes slow inroads on the land, the place at
+which each group of strata crops out on the beach will gradually move
+towards the west: its distinctive fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and
+sea-weeds, migrating with it. Further, the detritus of each of these groups
+of strata will, as the point of outcrop moves westwards, be deposited over
+the detritus of the group in advance of it. And the consequence of these
+actions, carried on for one of those enormous periods required for geologic
+changes, will be that, corresponding to each eastern stratum, there will
+arise a stratum far to the west which, though occupying the same position
+relatively to other beds, formed of like materials, and containing like
+fossils, will yet be perhaps a million years later in date.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But the illegitimacy, or at any rate the great doubtfulness, of many
+current geological inferences, is best seen when we contemplate terrestrial
+changes now going on: and ask how far such inferences are countenanced by
+them. If we carry out rigorously the modern method of interpreting
+geological phenomena, which Sir Charles Lyell has done so much to
+establish--that of referring them to causes like those at present in
+action--we cannot fail to see how improbable are sundry of the received
+conclusions.
+
+Along each line of shore that is being worn away by the waves, there are
+being formed mud, sand, and pebbles. This detritus, spread over the
+neighbouring sea-bottom, has, in each locality, a more or less special
+character; determined by the nature of the strata destroyed. In the English
+Channel it is not the same as in the Irish Channel; on the east coast of
+Ireland it is not the same as on the west coast; and so throughout. At the
+mouth of each great river, there is being deposited sediment differing more
+or less from that of other rivers in colour and quality; forming strata
+that are here red, there yellow, and elsewhere brown, grey, or dirty white.
+Besides which various formations, going on in deltas and along shores,
+there are some much wider and still more contrasted formations. At the
+bottom of the AEgaean Sea, there is accumulating a bed of Pteropod shells,
+which will eventually, no doubt, become a calcareous rock. For some
+hundreds of thousands of square miles, the ocean-bed between Great Britain
+and North America, is being covered with a stratum of chalk; and over large
+areas in the Pacific, there are going on deposits of coralline limestone.
+Thus, throughout the Earth, there are at this moment being produced an
+immense number of strata differing from each other in lithological
+characters. Name at random any one part of the sea-bottom, and ask whether
+the deposit there taking place is like the deposit taking place at some
+distant part of the sea-bottom, and the almost-certainly correct answer
+will be--No. The chances are not in favour of similarity, but very greatly
+against it.
+
+In the order of superposition of strata there is occurring a like variety.
+Each region of the Earth's surface has its special history of elevations,
+subsidences, periods of rest; and this history in no case fits
+chronologically with the history of any other portion. River deltas are now
+being thrown down on formations of quite different ages. While here there
+has been deposited a series of beds many hundreds of feet thick, there has
+elsewhere been deposited but a single bed of fine mud. While one region of
+the Earth's crust, continuing for a vast epoch above the surface of the
+ocean, bears record of no changes save those resulting from denudation;
+another region of the Earth's crust gives proof of various changes of
+level, with their several resulting masses of stratified detritus. If
+anything is to be judged from current processes, we must infer, not only
+that everywhere the succession of sedimentary formations differs more or
+less from the succession elsewhere; but also that in each place, there
+exist groups of strata to which many other places have no equivalents.
+
+With respect to the organic bodies imbedded in formations now in progress,
+the like truth is equally manifest, if not more manifest. Even along the
+same coast, within moderate distances, the forms of life differ very
+considerably; much more on coasts that are remote from each other. Again,
+dissimilar creatures that are living together near the same shore, do not
+leave their remains in the same beds of sediment. For instance, at the
+bottom of the Adriatic, where the prevailing currents cause the deposits to
+be here of mud, and there of calcareous matter, it is proved that different
+species of co-existing shells are being buried in these respective
+formations. On our own coasts, the marine remains found a few miles from
+shore, in banks where fish congregate, are different from those found close
+to the shore, where only littoral species flourish. A large proportion of
+aquatic creatures have structures that do not admit of fossilization; while
+of the rest, the great majority are destroyed, when dead, by the various
+kinds of scavengers that creep among the rocks and weeds. So that no one
+deposit near our shores can contain anything like a true representation of
+the Fauna of the surrounding sea; much less of the co-existing Faunas of
+other seas in the same latitude; and still less of the Faunas of seas in
+distant latitudes. Were it not that the assertion seems needful, it would
+be almost absurd to say, that the organic remains now being buried in the
+Dogger Bank, can tell us next to nothing about the fish, crustaceans,
+mollusks, and corals that are being buried in the Bay of Bengal.
+
+Still stronger is the argument in the case of terrestrial life. With more
+numerous and greater contrasts between the plants and animals of remote
+places, there is a far more imperfect registry of them. Schouw marks out on
+the Earth more than twenty botanical regions, occupied by groups of forms
+so far distinct from each other, that, if fossilized, geologists would
+scarcely be disposed to refer them all to the same period. Of Faunas, the
+Arctic differs from the Temperate; the Temperate from the Tropical; and the
+South Temperate from the North Temperate. Nay, in the South Temperate Zone
+itself, the two regions of South Africa and South America are unlike in
+their mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, mollusks, insects. The shells and
+bones now lying at the bottoms of lakes and estuaries in these several
+regions, have certainly not that similarity which is usually looked for in
+those of contemporaneous strata; and the recent forms exhumed in any one of
+these regions would very untruly represent the present Flora and Fauna of
+the Earth. In conformity with the current style of geological reasoning, an
+exhaustive examination of deposits in the Arctic circle, might be held to
+prove that though at this period there were sundry mammals existing, there
+were no reptiles; while the absence of mammals in the deposits of the
+Galapagos Archipelago, where there are plenty of reptiles, might be held to
+prove the reverse. And at the same time, from the formations extending for
+two thousand miles along the great barrier-reef of Australia--formations in
+which are imbedded nothing but corals, echinoderms, mollusks, crustaceans,
+and fish, along with an occasional turtle, or bird, or cetacean, it might
+be inferred that there lived in our epoch neither terrestrial reptiles nor
+terrestrial mammals.
+
+The mention of Australia, indeed, suggests an illustration which, even
+alone, would amply prove our case. The Fauna of this region differs widely
+from any that is found elsewhere. On land all the indigenous mammals,
+except bats, belong to the lowest, or implacental division; and the insects
+are singularly different from those found elsewhere. The surrounding seas
+contain numerous forms that are more or less strange; and among the fish
+there exists a species of shark, which is the only living representative of
+a genus that flourished in early geologic epochs. If, now, the modern
+fossiliferous deposits of Australia were to be examined by one ignorant of
+the existing Australian Fauna; and if he were to reason in the usual
+manner; he would be very unlikely to class these deposits with those of the
+present time. How, then, can we place confidence in the tacit assumption
+that certain formations in remote parts of the Earth are referable to the
+same period, because the organic remains contained in them display a
+certain community of character? or that certain others are referable to
+different periods, because the _facies_ of their Faunas are different?
+
+"But," it will be replied, "in past eras the same, or similar, organic
+forms were more widely distributed than now." It may be so; but the
+evidence adduced by no means proves it. The argument by which this
+conclusion is reached, runs a risk of being quoted as an example of
+reasoning in a circle. As already pointed out, between formations in remote
+regions there is no means of ascertaining equivalence but by fossils. If,
+then, the contemporaneity of remote formations is concluded from the
+likeness of their fossils; how can it be said that similar plants and
+animals were once more widely distributed, because they are found in
+contemporaneous strata in remote regions? Is not the fallacy manifest? Even
+supposing there were no such fatal objection as this, the evidence commonly
+assigned would still be insufficient. For we must bear in mind that the
+community of organic remains commonly thought sufficient for inferring
+correspondence in time, is a very imperfect community. When the compared
+sedimentary beds are far apart, it is scarcely expected that there will be
+many species common to the two: it is enough if there be discovered a
+considerable number of common genera. Now had it been proved that,
+throughout geologic time, each genus lived but for a short period--a period
+measured by a single group of strata--something might be inferred. But what
+if we learn that many of the same genera continued to exist throughout
+enormous epochs, measured by several vast systems of strata? "Among
+molluscs, the genera _Avicula_, _Modiola_, _Terebratula_, _Lingula_, and
+_Orbicula_, are found from the Silurian rocks upwards to the present day."
+If, then, between the lowest fossiliferous formations and the most recent,
+there exists this degree of community; must we not infer that there will
+probably often exist a degree of community between strata that are far from
+contemporaneous?
+
+Thus the reasoning from which it is concluded that similar organic forms
+were once more widely spread, is doubly fallacious; and, consequently, the
+classifications of foreign strata based on this conclusion are
+untrustworthy. Judging from the present distribution of life, we can
+scarcely expect to find similar remains in geographically remote strata of
+the same age; and where, between the fossils of geographically remote
+strata, we do find much similarity, it is probably often due rather to
+likeness of conditions than to contemporaneity. If from causes and effects
+such as we now witness, we reason back to the causes and effects of past
+epochs, we discover inadequate warrant for sundry of the received
+doctrines. Seeing, as we do, that in large areas of the Pacific this is a
+period characterized by abundance of corals; that in the North Atlantic it
+is a period in which a great chalk-deposit is being formed; and that in the
+valley of the Mississippi it is a period of new coal-basins--seeing also,
+as we do, that in one extensive continent this is peculiarly an era of
+implacental mammals, and that in another extensive continent it is
+peculiarly an era of placental mammals; we have good reason to hesitate
+before accepting these sweeping generalizations which are based on a
+cursory examination of strata occupying but a tenth part of the Earth's
+surface.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the outset, this article was to have been a review of the works of Hugh
+Miller; but it has grown into something much more general. Nevertheless,
+the remaining two doctrines which we propose to criticise, may be
+conveniently treated in connection with his name, as that of one who fully
+committed himself to them. And first, a few words with regard to his
+position.
+
+That he was a man whose life was one of meritorious achievement, every one
+knows. That he was a diligent and successful working geologist, scarcely
+needs saying. That with indomitable perseverance he struggled up from
+obscurity to a place in the world of literature and science, shows him to
+have been highly endowed in character and intelligence. And that he had a
+remarkable power of presenting his facts and arguments in an attractive
+form, a glance at any of his books will quickly prove. By all means, let us
+respect him as a man of activity and sagacity, joined with a large amount
+of poetry. But while saying this we must add, that his reputation stands by
+no means so high in the scientific world as in the world at large. Partly
+from the fact that our Scotch neighbours are in the habit of blowing the
+trumpet rather loudly before their notabilities--partly because the
+charming style in which his books are written has gained him a large circle
+of readers--partly, perhaps, through a praiseworthy sympathy with him as a
+self-made man; Hugh Miller has met with an amount of applause which, little
+as we wish to diminish it, must not be allowed to blind the public to his
+defects as a man of science.
+
+The truth is, he was so far committed to a foregone conclusion, that he
+could not become a philosophical geologist. He might be aptly described as
+a theologian studying geology. The dominant idea with which he wrote, may
+be seen in the titles of his books--_Law versus Miracle_,--_Footprints of
+the Creator_,--_The Testimony of the Rocks_. Regarding geological facts as
+evidence for or against certain religious conclusions, it was scarcely
+possible for him to deal with geological facts impartially. His ruling aim
+was to disprove the Development Hypothesis, the assumed implications of
+which were repugnant to him; and in proportion to the strength of his
+feeling, was the one-sidedness of his reasoning. He admitted that "God
+might as certainly have _originated_ the species by a law of development,
+as he _maintains_ it by a law of development; the existence of a First
+Great Cause is as perfectly compatible with the one scheme as with the
+other." Nevertheless, he considered the hypothesis at variance with
+Christianity; and therefore combated with it. He apparently overlooked the
+fact that the doctrines of geology in general, as held by himself, had been
+rejected by many on similar grounds; and that he had himself been
+repeatedly attacked for his anti-Christian teachings. He seems not to have
+perceived that, just as his antagonists were wrong in condemning as
+irreligious, theories which he saw were not irreligious; so might he be
+wrong in condemning, on like grounds, the Theory of Evolution. In brief, he
+fell short of that highest faith, which knows that all truths must
+harmonize; and which is, therefore, content trustfully to follow the
+evidence whithersoever it leads.
+
+Of course it is impossible to criticize his works without entering on this
+great question to which he chiefly devoted himself. The two remaining
+doctrines to be here discussed, bear directly on this question; and, as
+above said, we propose to treat them in connection with Hugh Miller's name,
+because, throughout his reasonings, he assumes their truth. Let it not be
+supposed, however, that we shall aim to prove what he has aimed to
+disprove. While we purpose showing that his arguments against the
+Development Hypothesis are based on invalid assumptions; we do not purpose
+showing that the opposing arguments are based on valid assumptions. We hope
+to make it apparent that the geological evidence at present obtained, is
+insufficient for either side; further, that there seems little probability
+of sufficient evidence ever being obtained; and that if the question is
+eventually decided, it must be decided on other than geological data.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first of the current doctrines to which we have just referred, is, that
+there occur in the records of former life on our planet, certain great
+blanks--that though, generally, the succession of fossil forms is tolerably
+continuous, yet that at two places there occur wide gaps in the series
+whence it is inferred that, on at least two occasions, the previously
+existing inhabitants of the Earth were almost wholly destroyed, and a
+different class of inhabitants created. Comparing the general life on the
+Earth to a thread, Hugh Miller says:--
+
+  "It is continuous from the present time up to the commencement of
+  the Tertiary period; and then so abrupt a break occurs, that, with
+  the exception of the microscopic diatomaceae to which I last evening
+  referred, and of one shell and one coral, not a single species
+  crossed the gap. On its further or remoter side, however, where the
+  Secondary division closes, the intermingling of species again begins,
+  and runs on till the commencement of this great Secondary division;
+  and then, just where the Palaeozoic division closes, we find another
+  abrupt break, crossed, if crossed at all,--for there still exists
+  some doubt on the subject,--by but two species of plant."
+
+These breaks are considered to imply actual new creations on the surface of
+our planet; not only by Hugh Miller, but by the majority of geologists. And
+the terms Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cainozoic, are used to indicate these
+three successive systems of life. It is true that some accept this belief
+with caution: knowing how geologic research has been all along tending to
+fill up what were once thought wide breaks. Sir Charles Lyell points out
+that "the hiatus which exists in Great Britain between the fossils of the
+Lias and those of the Magnesian Limestone, is supplied in Germany by the
+rich fauna and flora of the Muschelkalk, Keuper, and Bunter Sandstein,
+which we know to be of a date precisely intermediate." Again he remarks
+that "until lately the fossils of the coal-measures were separated from
+those of the antecedent Silurian group by a very abrupt and decided line of
+demarcation; but recent discoveries have brought to light in Devonshire,
+Belgium, the Eifel, and Westphalia, the remains of a fauna of an
+intervening period." And once more, "we have also in like manner had some
+success of late years in diminishing the hiatus which still separates the
+Cretaceous and Eocene periods in Europe." To which let us add that since
+Hugh Miller penned the passage above quoted, the second of the great gaps
+he refers to has been very considerably narrowed by the discovery of strata
+containing Palaeozoic genera and Mesozoic genera intermingled. Nevertheless,
+the occurrence of two great revolutions in the Earth's Flora and Fauna
+appears still to be held by many; and geologic nomenclature habitually
+assumes it.
+
+Before seeking a solution of these phenomena, let us glance at the several
+minor causes that produce breaks in the geological succession of organic
+forms: taking first, the more general ones which modify climate, and,
+therefore, the distribution of life. Among these may be noted one which has
+not, we believe, been named by writers on the subject. We mean that
+resulting from a certain slow astronomic rhythm, by which the northern and
+southern hemispheres are alternately subject to greater extremes of
+temperature. In consequence of the slight ellipticity of its orbit, the
+Earth's distance from the sun varies to the extent of some 3,000,000 of
+miles. At present, the aphelion occurs at the time of our northern summer;
+and the perihelion during the summer of the southern hemisphere. In
+consequence, however, of that slow movement of the Earth's axis which
+produces the precession of the equinoxes, this state of things will in time
+be reversed: the Earth will be nearest to the sun during the summer of the
+northern hemisphere, and furthest from it during the southern summer or
+northern winter. The period required to complete the slow movement
+producing these changes, is nearly 26,000 years; and were there no
+modifying process, the two hemispheres would alternately experience this
+coincidence of summer with the least distance from the sun, during a period
+of 13,000 years. But there is also a still slower change in the direction
+of the axis major of the Earth's orbit; from which it results that the
+alternation we have described is completed in about 21,000 years. That is
+to say, if at a given time the Earth is nearest to the sun at our
+mid-summer, and furthest from the sun at our mid-winter: then, in 10,500
+years afterwards, it will be furthest from the sun at our mid-summer, and
+nearest at our mid-winter.
+
+Now the difference between the distances from the sun at the two extremes
+of this alternation, amounts to one-thirtieth; and hence, the difference
+between the quantities of heat received from the sun on a summer's day
+under these opposite conditions amounts to one-fifteenth. Estimating this,
+not with reference to the zero of our thermometers, but with reference to
+the temperature of the celestial spaces, Sir John Herschel calculates "23 deg.
+Fahrenheit as the least variation of temperature under such circumstances
+which can reasonably be attributed to the actual variation of the sun's
+distance." Thus, then, each hemisphere has at a certain epoch, a short
+summer of extreme heat, followed by a long and very cold winter. Through
+the slow change in the direction of the Earth's axis, these extremes are
+gradually mitigated. And at the end of 10,500 years, there is reached the
+opposite state--a long and moderate summer, with a short and mild winter.
+At present, in consequence of the predominance of sea in the southern
+hemisphere, the extremes to which its astronomical conditions subject it,
+are much ameliorated; while the great proportion of land in the northern
+hemisphere, tends to exaggerate such contrast as now exists in it between
+winter and summer: whence it results that the climates of the two
+hemispheres are not widely unlike. But 10,000 years hence, the northern
+hemisphere will undergo annual variations of temperature far more marked
+than now.
+
+In the last edition of his _Outlines of Astronomy_, Sir John Herschel
+recognizes this as an element in geological processes: regarding it as
+possibly a part-cause of those climatic changes indicated by the records of
+the Earth's past. That it has had much to do with the larger changes of
+climate of which we have evidence, seems unlikely, since there is reason to
+think that these have been far slower and more lasting; but that it must
+have entailed a rhythmical exaggeration and mitigation of the climates
+otherwise produced, seems beyond question. And it seems also beyond
+question that there must have been a consequent rhythmical change in the
+distribution of organisms--a rhythmical change to which we here wish to
+draw attention, as one cause of minor breaks in the succession of fossil
+remains. Each species of plant and animal, has certain limits of heat and
+cold within which only it can exist; and these limits in a great degree
+determine its geographical position. It will not spread north of a certain
+latitude, because it cannot bear a more northern winter, nor south of a
+certain latitude, because the summer heat is too great; or else it is
+indirectly restrained from spreading further by the effect of temperature
+on the humidity of the air, or on the distribution of the organisms it
+lives upon.
+
+But now, what will result from a slow alteration of climate, produced as
+above described? Supposing the period we set out from is that in which the
+contrast of seasons is least marked, it is manifest that during the
+progress towards the period of the most violent contrast, each species of
+plant and animal will gradually change its limits of distribution--will be
+driven back, here by the winter's increasing cold, and there by the
+summer's increasing heat--will retire into those localities that are still
+fit for it. Thus during 10,000 years, each species will ebb away from
+certain regions it was inhabiting; and during the succeeding 10,000 years
+will flow back into those regions. From the strata there forming, its
+remains will disappear; they will be absent from some of the supposed
+strata; and will be found in strata higher up. But in what shapes will they
+re-appear? Exposed during the 21,000 years of their slow recession and
+their slow return, to changing conditions of life, they are likely to have
+undergone modifications; and will probably re-appear with slight
+differences of constitution and perhaps of form--will be new varieties or
+perhaps new sub-species.
+
+To this cause of minor breaks in the succession of organic forms--a cause
+on which we have dwelt because it has not been taken into account--we must
+add sundry others. Besides these periodically-recurring alterations of
+climate, there are the irregular ones produced by re-distributions of land
+and sea; and these, sometimes less, sometimes greater, in degree, than the
+rhythmical changes, must, like them, cause in each region the ebb and flow
+of species; and consequent breaks, small or large as the case may be, in
+the palaeontological series. Other and more special geological changes must
+produce other and more local blanks in the succession of fossils. By some
+inland elevation the natural drainage of a continent is modified; and
+instead of the sediment it previously brought down to the sea, a great
+river begins to bring down sediment unfavourable to various plants and
+animals living in its delta: wherefore these disappear from the locality,
+perhaps to re-appear in a changed form after a long epoch. Upheavals or
+subsidences of shores or sea-bottoms, involving deviations of marine
+currents, must remove the habitats of many species to which such currents
+are salutary or injurious; and further, this re-distribution of currents
+must alter the places of sedimentary deposits, and so stop the burying of
+organic remains in some localities, and commence it in others. Had we
+space, many more such causes of blanks in our palaeontological records might
+be added. But it is needless here to enumerate them. They are admirably
+explained and illustrated in Sir Charles Lyell's _Principles of Geology_.
+
+Now, if these minor revolutions of the Earth's surface produce minor breaks
+in the series of fossilized remains; must not great revolutions produce
+great breaks? If a local upheaval or subsidence causes throughout its small
+area the absence of some links in the chain of fossil forms; does it not
+follow that an upheaval or subsidence extending over a large part of the
+Earth's surface, must cause the absence of a great number of such links
+throughout a very wide area?
+
+When during a long epoch a continent, slowly subsiding, gives place to a
+far-spreading ocean some miles in depth, at the bottom of which no deposits
+from rivers or abraded shores can be thrown down; and when, after some
+enormous period, this ocean-bottom is gradually elevated and becomes the
+site of new strata; it is clear that the fossils contained in these new
+strata are likely to have but little in common with the fossils of the
+strata below them. Take, in illustration, the case of the North Atlantic.
+We have already named the fact that between this country and the United
+States, the ocean-bottom is being covered with a deposit of chalk--a
+deposit that has been forming, probably, ever since there occurred that
+great depression of the Earth's crust from which the Atlantic resulted in
+remote geologic times. This chalk consists of the minute shells of
+Foraminifera, sprinkled with remains of small Entomostraca, and probably a
+few Pteropod-shells: though the sounding lines have not yet brought up any
+of these last. Thus, in so far as all high forms of life are concerned,
+this new chalk-formation must be a blank. At rare intervals, perhaps, a
+polar bear drifted on an iceberg, may have its bones scattered over the
+bed; or a dead, decaying whale may similarly leave traces. But such remains
+must be so rare, that this new chalk-formation, if visible, might be
+examined for a century before any of them were disclosed. If now, some
+millions of years hence, the Atlantic-bed should be raised, and estuary or
+shore deposits laid upon it, these deposits would contain remains of a
+Flora and Fauna so distinct from everything below them, as to appear like a
+new creation.
+
+Thus, along with continuity of life on the Earth's surface, there not only
+_may_ be, but there _must_ be, great gaps, in the series of fossils; and
+hence these gaps are no evidence against the doctrine of Evolution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One other current assumption remains to be criticized; and it is the one on
+which, more than on any other, depends the view taken respecting the
+question of development.
+
+From the beginning of the controversy, the arguments for and against have
+turned upon the evidence of progression in organic forms, found in the
+ascending series of our sedimentary formations. On the one hand, those who
+contend that higher organisms have been evolved out of lower, joined with
+those who contend that successively higher organisms have been created at
+successively later periods, appeal for proof to the facts of Palaeontology;
+which, they say, countenance their views. On the other hand, the
+Uniformitarians, who not only reject the hypothesis of development, but
+deny that the modern forms of life are higher than the ancient ones, reply
+that the Palaeontological evidence is at present very incomplete; that
+though we have not yet found remains of highly-organized creatures in
+strata of the greatest antiquity, we must not assume that no such creatures
+existed when those strata were deposited; and that, probably, geological
+research will eventually disclose them.
+
+It must be admitted that thus far, the evidence has gone in favour of the
+latter party. Geological discovery has year after year shown the small
+value of negative facts. The conviction that there are no traces of higher
+organisms in earlier strata, has resulted not from the absence of such
+remains, but from incomplete examination. At p. 460 of his _Manual of
+Elementary Geology_, Sir Charles Lyell gives a list in illustration of
+this. It appears that in 1709, fishes were not known lower than the Permian
+system. In 1793 they were found in the subjacent Carboniferous system; in
+1828 in the Devonian; in 1840 in the Upper Silurian. Of reptiles, we read
+that in 1710 the lowest known were in the Permian; in 1844 they were
+detected in the Carboniferous; and in 1852 in the Upper Devonian. While of
+the Mammalia the list shows that in 1798 none had been discovered below the
+middle Eocene; but that in 1818 they were discovered in the Lower Oolite;
+and in 1847 in the Upper Trias.
+
+The fact is, however, that both parties set out with an inadmissible
+postulate. Of the Uniformitarians, not only such writers as Hugh Miller,
+but also such as Sir Charles Lyell,[T] reason as though we had found the
+earliest, or something like the earliest, strata. Their antagonists,
+whether defenders of the Development Hypothesis or simply Progressionists,
+almost uniformly do the like. Sir R. Murchison, who is a Progressionist,
+calls the lowest fossiliferous strata, "Protozoic." Prof. Ansted uses the
+same term. Whether avowedly or not, all the disputants stand on this
+assumption as their common ground.
+
+  [T] Sir Charles Lyell is no longer to be classed among
+      Uniformitarians. With rare and admirable candour he has, since
+      this was written, yielded to the arguments of Mr. Darwin.
+
+Yet is this assumption indefensible, as some who make it very well know.
+Facts may be cited against it which show that it is a more than
+questionable one--that it is a highly improbable one; while the evidence
+assigned in its favour will not bear criticism.
+
+
+Because in Bohemia, Great Britain, and portions of North America, the
+lowest unmetamorphosed strata yet discovered, contain but slight traces of
+life, Sir R. Murchison conceives that they were formed while yet few, if
+any, plants or animals had been created; and, therefore, classes them as
+"Azoic." His own pages, however, show the illegitimacy of the conclusion
+that there existed at that period no considerable amount of life. Such
+traces of life as have been found in the Longmynd rocks, for many years
+considered unfossiliferous, have been found in some of the lowest beds; and
+the twenty thousand feet of superposed beds, still yield no organic
+remains. If now these superposed strata throughout a depth of four miles,
+are without fossils, though the strata over which they lie prove that life
+had commenced; what becomes of Sir R. Murchison's inference? At page 189 of
+_Siluria_, a still more conclusive fact will be found. The "Glengariff
+grits," and other accompanying strata there described as 13,500 feet thick,
+contain no signs of contemporaneous life. Yet Sir R. Murchison refers them
+to the Devonian period--a period that had a large and varied marine Fauna.
+How then, from the absence of fossils in the Longmynd beds and their
+equivalents, can we conclude that the Earth was "azoic" when they were
+formed?
+
+"But," it may be asked, "if living creatures then existed, why do we not
+find fossiliferous strata of that age, or an earlier age?" One reply is,
+that the non-existence of such strata is but a negative fact--we have not
+found them. And considering how little we know even of the two-fifths of
+the Earth's surface now above the sea, and how absolutely ignorant we are
+of the three-fifths below the sea, it is rash to say that no such strata
+exist. But the chief reply is, that these records of the Earth's earlier
+history have been in great part destroyed, by agencies that are ever
+tending to destroy such records.
+
+It is an established geological doctrine, that sedimentary strata are
+liable to be changed, more or less completely, by igneous action. The rocks
+originally classed as "transition," because they were intermediate in
+character between the igneous rocks found below them, and the sedimentary
+strata found above them, are now known to be nothing else than sedimentary
+strata altered in texture and appearance by the intense heat of adjacent
+molten matter; and hence are renamed "metamorphic rocks." Modern researches
+have shown, too, that these metamorphic rocks are not, as was once
+supposed, all of the same age. Besides primary and secondary strata that
+have been transformed by igneous action, there are similarly-changed
+deposits of tertiary origin; and that, even for a quarter of a mile from
+the point of contact with neighbouring granite. By this process fossils are
+of course destroyed. "In some cases," says Sir Charles Lyell, "dark
+limestones, replete with shells and corals, have been turned into white
+statuary marble, and hard clays, containing vegetable or other remains,
+into slates called mica-schist or hornblende-schist; every vestige of the
+organic bodies having been obliterated."
+
+Again, it is fast becoming an acknowledged truth, that igneous rock, of
+whatever kind, is the product of sedimentary strata that have been
+completely melted. Granite and gneiss, which are of like chemical
+composition, have been shown, in various cases, to pass one into the other:
+as at Valorsine, near Mont Blanc, where the two, in contact, are observed
+to "both undergo a modification of mineral character. The granite still
+remaining unstratified, becomes charged with green particles; and the
+talcose gneiss assumes a granitiform structure without losing its
+stratification." In the Aberdeen-granite, lumps of unmelted gneiss are
+frequently found; and we can ourselves bear witness that on the banks of
+Loch Sunart, there is ample proof that the granite of that region, when it
+was molten, contained incompletely-fused clots of sedimentary strata. Nor
+is this all. Fifty years ago, it was thought that all granitic rocks were
+primitive, or existed before any sedimentary strata; but it is now "no easy
+task to point out a single mass of granite demonstrably more ancient than
+all the known fossiliferous deposits."
+
+In brief, accumulated evidence clearly shows, that by contact with, or
+proximity to, the molten matter of the Earth's nucleus, all beds of
+sediment are liable to be actually melted, or partially fused, or so heated
+as to agglutinate their particles; and that according to the temperature
+they have been raised to, and the circumstances under which they cool, they
+assume the forms of granite, porphyry, trap, gneiss, or rock otherwise
+altered. Further, it is manifest that though strata of various ages have
+been thus changed, yet that the most ancient strata have been so changed to
+the greatest extent: both because they have habitually lain nearer to the
+centre of igneous agency; and because they have been for a longer period
+liable to the effects of this agency. Whence it follows, that sedimentary
+strata passing a certain antiquity, are unlikely to be found in an
+unmetamorphosed state; and that strata much earlier than those are certain
+to have been melted up. Thus if, throughout a past of indefinite duration,
+there had been at work those aqueous and igneous agencies which we see
+still at work, the state of the Earth's crust might be just what we find
+it. We have no evidence which puts a limit to the period throughout which
+this formation and destruction of strata has been going on. For aught the
+facts prove, it may have been going on for ten times the period measured by
+our whole series of sedimentary deposits.
+
+Besides having, in the present appearances of the Earth's crust, no data
+for fixing a commencement to these processes--besides finding that the
+evidence permits us to assume such commencement to have been inconceivably
+remote, as compared even with the vast eras of geology; we are not without
+positive grounds for inferring the inconceivable remoteness of such
+commencement. Modern geology has established truths which are
+irreconcilable with the belief that the formation and destruction of strata
+began when the Cambrian rocks were formed; or at anything like so recent a
+time. One fact from _Siluria_ will suffice. Sir R. Murchison estimates the
+vertical thickness of Silurian strata in Wales, at from 26,000 to 27,000
+feet, or about five miles; and if to this we add the vertical depth of the
+Cambrian strata, on which the Silurians lie conformably, there results, on
+the lowest computation, a total depth of seven miles.
+
+Now it is held by geologists, that this vast accumulation of strata must
+have been deposited in an area of gradual subsidence. These strata could
+not have been thus laid on each other in regular order, unless the Earth's
+crust had been at that place sinking, either continuously or by very small
+steps. Such an immense subsidence, however, must have been impossible
+without a crust of great thickness. The Earth's molten nucleus tends ever,
+with enormous force, to assume the form of a regular oblate spheroid. Any
+depression of its crust below the surface of equilibrium, and any elevation
+of its crust above that surface, have to withstand immense resistance. It
+follows inevitably that, with a thin crust, nothing but small elevations
+and subsidences would be possible; and that, conversely, a subsidence of
+seven miles implies a crust of comparatively great strength, or, in other
+words, of great thickness. Indeed, if we compare this inferred subsidence
+in the Silurian period, with such elevations and depressions as our
+existing continents and oceans display, we see no evidence that the Earth's
+crust was appreciably thinner then than now. What are the implications? If,
+as geologists generally admit, the Earth's crust has resulted from that
+slow cooling which is even still going on--if we see no sign that at the
+time when the earliest Cambrian strata were formed, this crust was
+appreciably thinner than now; we are forced to conclude that the era during
+which it acquired that great thickness possessed in the Cambrian period,
+was enormous as compared with the interval between the Cambrian period and
+our own. But during the incalculable series of epochs thus inferred, there
+existed an ocean, tides, winds, waves, rain, rivers. The agencies by which
+the denudation of continents and filling up of seas have all along been
+carried on, were as active then as now. Endless successions of strata must
+have been formed. And when we ask--Where are they? Nature's obvious reply
+is--They have been destroyed by that igneous action to which so great a
+part of our oldest-known strata owe their fusion or metamorphosis.
+
+Only the last chapter of the Earth's history has come down to us. The many
+previous chapters, stretching back to a time immeasurably remote, have been
+burnt; and with them all the records of life we may presume they contained.
+The greater part of the evidence which might have served to settle the
+Development-controversy, is for ever lost; and on neither side can the
+arguments derived from Geology be conclusive.
+
+"But how happen there to be such evidences of progression as exist?" it may
+be asked. "How happens it that, in ascending from the most ancient strata
+to the most recent strata, we do find a succession of organic forms, which,
+however irregularly, carries us from lower to higher?" This question seems
+difficult to answer. Nevertheless, there is reason for thinking that
+nothing can be safely inferred from the apparent progression here cited.
+And the illustration which shows as much, will, we believe, also show how
+little trust is to be placed in certain geological generalizations that
+appear to be well established. With this somewhat elaborate illustration,
+to which we now pass, our criticisms may fitly conclude.
+
+Let us suppose that in a region now covered by wide ocean, there begins one
+of those great and gradual upheavals by which new continents are formed. To
+be precise, let us say that in the South Pacific, midway between New
+Zealand and Patagonia, the sea-bottom has been little by little thrust up
+towards the surface, and is about to emerge. What will be the successive
+phenomena, geological and biological, which are likely to occur before this
+emerging sea-bottom has become another Europe or Asia?
+
+In the first place, such portions of the incipient land as are raised to
+the level of the waves, will be rapidly denuded by them: their soft
+substance will be torn up by the breakers, carried away by the local
+currents, and deposited in neighbouring deeper water. Successive small
+upheavals will bring new and larger areas within reach of the waves; fresh
+portions will each time be removed from the surfaces previously denuded;
+and further, some of the newly-formed strata, being elevated nearly to the
+level of the water, will be washed away and re-deposited. In course of
+time, the harder formations of the upraised sea-bottom will be uncovered.
+These being less easily destroyed, will remain permanently above the
+surface; and at their margins will arise the usual breaking down of rocks
+into beach-sand and pebbles. While in the slow process of this elevation,
+going on at the rate of perhaps two or three feet in a century, most of the
+sedimentary deposits produced will be again and again destroyed and
+reformed; there will, in those adjacent areas of subsidence which accompany
+areas of elevation, be more or less continuous successions of sedimentary
+deposits.
+
+And now what will be the character of these new strata? They will
+necessarily contain scarcely any traces of life. The deposits that had
+previously been slowly formed at the bottom of this wide ocean, would be
+sprinkled with fossils of but few species. The oceanic Fauna is not a rich
+one; its hydrozoa do not admit of preservation; and the hard parts of its
+few kinds of molluscs and crustaceans and insects are mostly fragile.
+Hence, when the ocean-bed was here and there raised to the surface--when
+its strata of sediment with their contained organic fragments were torn up
+and long washed about by the breakers before being re-deposited--when the
+re-deposits were again and again subject to this violent abrading action by
+subsequent small elevations, as they would mostly be; what few fragile
+organic remains they contained, would be in nearly all cases destroyed.
+Thus such of the first-formed strata as survived the repeated changes of
+level, would be practically "azoic;" like the Cambrian of our geologists.
+When by the washing away of the soft deposits, the hard sub-strata had been
+exposed in the shape of rocky islets, and a footing had thus been
+furnished, the pioneers of a new life might be expected to make their
+appearance. What would they be? Not any of the surrounding oceanic species,
+for these are not fitted for a littoral life; but species flourishing on
+some of the far-distant shores of the Pacific. Of such the first to
+establish themselves would be sea-weeds and zoophytes; both because their
+swarming spores and gemmules would be the most readily conveyed with
+safety, and because when conveyed they would find fit food. It is true that
+Cirrhipeds and Lamellibranchs, subsisting on the minute creatures which
+everywhere people the sea, would also find fit food.
+
+But passing over the fact that the germs of such higher forms are neither
+so abundant nor so well fitted to bear long voyages, there is the more
+important fact that the individuals arising from these germs can reproduce
+only sexually, and that this vastly increases the obstacles to the
+establishment of their races. The chances of early colonization are
+immensely in favour of species which, multiplying by agamogenesis, can
+people a whole shore from a single germ; and immensely against species
+which, multiplying only by gamogenesis, must be introduced in considerable
+numbers that some may survive, meet, and propagate. Thus we infer that the
+earliest traces of life left in the sedimentary deposits near these new
+shores, will be traces of life as humble as that indicated in the most
+ancient rocks of Great Britain and Ireland. Imagine now that the processes
+we have briefly indicated, continue--that the emerging lands become wider
+in extent, and fringed by higher and more varied shores; and that there
+still go on those ocean-currents which, at long intervals, convey from far
+distant shores immigrant forms of life. What will result? Lapse of time
+will of course favour the introduction of such new forms: admitting, as it
+must, of those combinations of fit conditions, which, under the law of
+probabilities, can occur only at very distant intervals. Moreover, the
+increasing area of the islands, individually and as a group, implies
+increasing length of coast; from which there follows a longer line of
+contact with the streams and waves that bring drifting masses; and,
+therefore, a greater chance that germs of fresh life will be stranded.
+
+And once more, the comparatively-varied shores, presenting physical
+conditions that change from mile to mile, will furnish suitable habitats
+for more numerous species. So that as the elevation proceeds, three causes
+conspire to introduce additional marine plants and animals. To what classes
+will the increasing Fauna be for a long period confined? Of course, to
+classes of which individuals, or their germs, are most liable to be carried
+far away from their native shores by floating sea-weed or drift-wood; to
+classes which are also least likely to perish in transit, or from change of
+climate; and to those which can best subsist around coasts comparatively
+bare of life. Evidently, then, corals, annelids, inferior molluscs, and
+crustaceans of low grade, will chiefly constitute the early Fauna. The
+large predatory members of these classes, will be later in establishing
+themselves; both because the new shores must first become well peopled by
+the creatures they prey on, and because, being more complex, they or their
+ova must be less likely to survive the journey, and the change of
+conditions.
+
+We may infer, then, that the strata deposited next after the almost "azoic"
+strata, would contain the remains of invertebrata, allied to those found
+near the shores of Australia and South America. Of such invertebrate
+remains, the lower beds would furnish comparatively few genera, and those
+of relatively low types; while in the upper beds the number of genera would
+be greater, and the types higher: just as among the fossils of our Silurian
+system. As this great geologic change slowly progressed through its long
+history of earthquakes, volcanic disturbances, minor upheavals and
+subsidences--as the extent of the archipelago became greater and its
+smaller islands coalesced into larger ones, while its coast line grew still
+longer and more varied, and the neighbouring sea more thickly inhabited by
+inferior forms of life; the lowest division of the vertebrata would begin
+to be represented. In order of time, fish would naturally come after the
+lower invertebrata: both as being less likely to have their ova transported
+across the waste of waters, and as requiring for their subsistence a
+pre-existing Fauna of some development. They might be expected to make
+their appearance along with the predaceous crustaceans; as they do in the
+uppermost Silurian rocks.
+
+And here, too, let us remark, that as, during this long epoch we have been
+describing, the sea would have made great inroads on some of the newly
+raised lands that had remained stationary; and would probably in some
+places have reached masses of igneous or metamorphic rocks; there might, in
+course of time, arise by the decomposition and denudation of such rocks,
+local deposits coloured with oxide of iron, like our Old Red Sandstone. And
+in these deposits might be buried the remains of the fish then peopling the
+neighbouring sea.
+
+Meanwhile, how would the surfaces of the upheaved masses be occupied? At
+first their deserts of naked rocks and pebbles would bear only the humblest
+forms of vegetal life, such as we find in grey and orange patches on our
+own rugged mountain sides; for these alone could flourish on such surfaces,
+and their spores would be the most readily transported. When, by the decay
+of such protophytes, and that decomposition of rock effected by them, there
+had resulted a fit habitat for mosses; these, of which the germs might be
+conveyed in drifted trees, would begin to spread. A soil having been
+eventually thus produced, it would become possible for plants of higher
+organization to find roothold; and as in the way we have described the
+archipelago and its constituent islands grew larger, and had more
+multiplied relations with winds and waters, such higher plants might be
+expected ultimately to have their seeds transferred from the nearest lands.
+After something like a Flora had thus colonized the surface, it would
+become possible for insects to exist; and of air-breathing creatures,
+insects would manifestly be among the first to find their way from
+elsewhere.
+
+As, however, terrestrial organisms, both vegetal and animal, are much less
+likely than marine organisms to survive the accidents of transport from
+distant shores; it is clear that long after the sea surrounding these new
+lands had acquired a varied Flora and Fauna, the lands themselves would
+still be comparatively bare; and thus that the early strata, like our
+Silurians, would afford no traces of terrestrial life. By the time that
+large areas had been raised above the ocean, we may fairly suppose a
+luxuriant vegetation to have been acquired. Under what circumstances are we
+likely to find this vegetation fossilized? Large surfaces of land imply
+large rivers with their accompanying deltas; and are liable to have lakes
+and swamps. These, as we know from extant cases, are favourable to rank
+vegetation; and afford the conditions needful for preserving it in the
+shape of coal-beds. Observe, then, that while in the early history of such
+a continent a carboniferous period could not occur, the occurrence of a
+carboniferous period would become probable after long-continued upheavals
+had uncovered large areas. As in our own sedimentary series, coal-beds
+would make their appearance only after there had been enormous
+accumulations of earlier strata charged with marine fossils.
+
+Let us ask next, in what order the higher forms of animal life would make
+their appearance. We have seen how, in the succession of marine forms,
+there would be something like a progress from the lower to the higher:
+bringing us in the end to predaceous molluscs, crustaceans, and fish. What
+are likely to succeed fish? After marine creatures, those which would have
+the greatest chance of surviving the voyage would be amphibious reptiles:
+both because they are more tenacious of life than higher animals, and
+because they would be less completely out of their element. Such reptiles
+as can live in both fresh and salt water, like alligators; and such as are
+drifted out of the mouths of great rivers on floating trees, as Humboldt
+says the Orinoco alligators are; might be early colonists.
+
+It is manifest, too, that reptiles of other kinds would be among the first
+vertebrata to people the new continent. If we consider what will occur on
+one of those natural rafts of trees, soil, and matted vegetable matter,
+sometimes swept out to sea by such currents as the Mississippi, with a
+miscellaneous living cargo; we shall see that while the active,
+hot-blooded, highly-organized creatures will soon die of starvation and
+exposure, the inert, cold-blooded ones, which can go long without food,
+will live perhaps for weeks; and so, out of the chances from time to time
+occurring during long periods, reptiles will be the first to get safely
+landed on foreign shores: as indeed they are even now known sometimes to
+be. The transport of mammalia being comparatively precarious, must, in the
+order of probability, be longer postponed; and would, indeed, be unlikely
+to occur until by the enlargement of the new continent, the distances of
+its shores from adjacent lands had been greatly diminished, or the
+formation of intervening islands had increased the chances of survival.
+
+Assuming, however, that the facilities of immigration had become adequate;
+which would be the first mammals to arrive and live? Not large herbivores;
+for they would be soon drowned if by any accident carried out to sea. Not
+the carnivora; for these would lack appropriate food, even if they outlived
+the voyage. Small quadrupeds frequenting trees, and feeding on insects,
+would be those most likely both to be drifted away from their native lands
+and to find fit food in a new one. Insectivorous mammals, like in size to
+those found in the Trias and the Stonesfield slate, might naturally be
+looked for as the pioneers of the higher vertebrata. And if we suppose the
+facilities of communication to be again increased, either by a further
+shallowing of the intervening sea and a consequent multiplication of
+islands, or by an actual junction of the new continent with an old one,
+through continued upheavals; we should finally have an influx of the larger
+and more perfect mammals.
+
+Now rude as is this sketch of a process that would be extremely elaborate
+and involved, and open as some of its propositions are to criticisms which
+there is no space here to meet; no one will deny that it represents
+something like the biologic history of the supposed new continent. Details
+apart, it is manifest that simple organisms, able to flourish under simple
+conditions of life, would be the first successful immigrants; and that more
+complex organisms, needing for their existence the fulfilment of more
+complex conditions, would afterwards establish themselves in something like
+an ascending succession. At the one extreme we see every facility. The new
+individuals can be conveyed in the shape of minute germs; these are
+infinite in their numbers; they are diffused in the sea; they are
+perpetually being carried in all directions to great distances by
+ocean-currents; they can survive such long journeys unharmed; they can find
+nutriment wherever they arrive; and the resulting organisms can multiply
+asexually with great rapidity.
+
+At the other extreme, we see every difficulty. The new individuals must be
+conveyed in their adult forms; their numbers are, in comparison, utterly
+insignificant; they live on land, and are very unlikely to be carried out
+to sea; when so carried, the chances are immense against their escape from
+drowning, starvation, or death by cold; if they survive the transit, they
+must have a pre-existing Flora or Fauna to supply their special food; they
+require, also, the fulfilment of various other physical conditions; and
+unless at least two individuals of different sexes are safely landed, the
+race cannot be established. Manifestly, then, the immigration of each
+successively higher order of organisms, having, from one or other
+additional condition to be fulfilled, an enormously-increased probability
+against it, would naturally be separated from the immigration of a lower
+order by some period like a geologic epoch.
+
+And thus the successive sedimentary deposits formed while this new
+continent was undergoing gradual elevation, would seem to furnish clear
+evidence of a general progress in the forms of life. That lands thus raised
+up in the midst of a wide ocean, would first give origin to unfossiliferous
+strata; next, to strata containing only the lowest marine forms; next, to
+strata containing higher marine forms, ascending finally to fish; and that
+the strata above these would contain reptiles, then small mammals, then
+great mammals; seems to us to be demonstrable from the known laws of
+organic life.
+
+And if the succession of fossils presented by the strata of this supposed
+new continent, would thus simulate the succession presented by our own
+sedimentary series; must we not say that our own sedimentary series very
+possibly records nothing more than the phenomena accompanying one of these
+great upheavals? We think this must be considered not only possible, but
+highly probable: harmonizing as it does with the unavoidable conclusion
+before pointed out, that geological changes must have been going on for a
+period immeasurably greater than that of which we have records. And if the
+probability of this conclusion be admitted, it must be admitted that the
+facts of Palaeontology can never suffice either to prove or disprove the
+Development Hypothesis; but that the most they can do is, to show whether
+the last few pages of the Earth's biologic history are or are not in
+harmony with this hypothesis--whether the existing Flora and Fauna can or
+can not be affiliated upon the Flora and Fauna of the most recent geologic
+times.
+
+
+
+
+IX. THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS.
+
+
+In a debate upon the development hypothesis, lately narrated to me by a
+friend, one of the disputants was described as arguing, that as, in all our
+experience, we know no such phenomenon as transmutation of species, it is
+unphilosophical to assume that transmutation of species ever takes place.
+Had I been present, I think that, passing over his assertion, which is open
+to criticism, I should have replied that, as in all our experience we have
+never known a species _created_, it was, by his own showing,
+unphilosophical to assume that any species ever had been created.
+
+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?
+
+Doubtless many will reply that they can more easily conceive ten millions
+of special creations to have taken place, than they can conceive that ten
+millions of varieties have arisen by successive modifications. All such,
+however, will find, on inquiry, that they are under an illusion. This is
+one of the many cases in which men do not really believe, but rather
+_believe they believe_. It is not that they can truly conceive ten millions
+of special creations to have taken place, but that they _think they can do
+so_. Careful introspection will show them that they have never yet realized
+to themselves the creation of even _one_ species. If they have formed a
+definite conception of the process, let them tell us how a new species is
+constructed, and how it makes its appearance. Is it thrown down from the
+clouds? or must we hold to the notion that it struggles up out of the
+ground? Do its limbs and viscera rush together from all the points of the
+compass? or must we receive the old Hebrew idea, that God takes clay and
+moulds a new creature? If they say that a new creature is produced in none
+of these modes, which are too absurd to be believed; then they are required
+to describe the mode in which a new creature _may_ be produced--a mode
+which does _not_ seem absurd: and such a mode they will find that they
+neither have conceived nor can conceive.
+
+Should the believers in special creations consider it unfair thus to call
+upon them to describe how special creations take place, I reply, that this
+is far less than they demand from the supporters of the Development
+Hypothesis. They are merely asked to point out a _conceivable_ mode. On the
+other hand, they ask, not simply for a _conceivable_ mode, but for the
+_actual_ mode. They do not say--Show us how this _may_ take place; but they
+say--Show us how this _does_ take place. So far from its being unreasonable
+to put the above question, it would be reasonable to ask not only for a
+_possible_ mode of special creation, but for an _ascertained_ mode; seeing
+that this is no greater a demand than they make upon their opponents.
+
+And here we may perceive how much more defensible the new doctrine is than
+the old one. 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. Though, from the impossibility
+of getting at a sufficiency of facts, they are unable to trace the many
+phases through which any existing species has passed in arriving at its
+present form, or to identify the influences which caused the successive
+modifications; yet, they can show that any existing species--animal or
+vegetable--when placed under conditions different from its previous ones,
+_immediately begins to undergo certain changes of structure fitting it for
+the new conditions_. They can show that in successive generations these
+changes continue, until ultimately the new conditions become the natural
+ones. They can show that in cultivated plants, in 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 that it is a matter of dispute whether some of these
+modified forms _are_ varieties or separate species. They can show, too,
+that the changes daily taking place in ourselves--the facility that attends
+long practice, and the loss of aptitude that begins when practice
+ceases--the strengthening of passions habitually gratified, and the
+weakening of those habitually curbed--the development of every faculty,
+bodily, moral, or intellectual, according to the use made of it--are all
+explicable on this same principle. And thus they can show that throughout
+all organic nature there _is_ at work a modifying influence of the kind
+they assign as the cause of these specific differences: an influence which,
+though slow in its action, does, in time, if the circumstances demand it,
+produce marked changes--an influence which, to all appearance, would
+produce in the millions of years, and under the great varieties of
+condition which geological records imply, any amount of change.
+
+Which, then, is the most rational hypothesis?--that of special creations
+which has neither a fact to support it nor is even definitely conceivable;
+or that of modification, which is not only definitely conceivable, but is
+countenanced by the habitudes of every existing organism?
+
+That by any series of changes a protozoon should ever become a mammal,
+seems to those who are not familiar with zoology, and who have not seen how
+clear becomes the relationship between the simplest and the most complex
+forms when intermediate forms are examined, a very grotesque notion.
+Habitually looking at things rather in their statical than in their
+dynamical aspect, they never realize the fact that, by small increments of
+modification, any amount of modification may in time be generated. That
+surprise which they feel on finding one whom they last saw as a boy, grown
+into a man, becomes incredulity when the degree of change is greater.
+Nevertheless, abundant instances are at hand of the mode in which we may
+pass to the most diverse forms, by insensible gradations. Arguing the
+matter some time since with a learned professor, I illustrated my position
+thus:--You admit that there is no apparent relationship between a circle
+and an hyperbola. The one is a finite curve; the other is an infinite one.
+All parts of the one are alike; of the other no two parts are alike. The
+one incloses a space; the other will not inclose a space though produced
+for ever. Yet opposite as are these curves in all their properties, they
+may be connected together by a series of intermediate curves, no one of
+which differs from the adjacent ones in any appreciable degree. Thus, if a
+cone be cut by a plane at right angles to its axis we get a circle. If,
+instead of being perfectly at right angles, the plane subtends with the
+axis an angle of 89 deg. 59', we have an ellipse, which no human eye, even when
+aided by an accurate pair of compasses, can distinguish from a circle.
+Decreasing the angle minute by minute, the ellipse becomes first
+perceptibly eccentric, then manifestly so, and by and by acquires so
+immensely elongated a form, as to bear no recognisable resemblance to a
+circle. By continuing this process, the ellipse passes insensibly into a
+parabola; and ultimately, by still further diminishing the angle, into an
+hyperbola. Now here we have four different species of curve--circle,
+ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola--each having its peculiar properties and
+its separate equation, and the first and last of which are quite opposite
+in nature, connected together as members of one series, all producible by a
+single process of insensible modification.
+
+But the blindness of those who think it absurd to suppose that complex
+organic forms may have arisen by successive modifications out of simple
+ones, becomes astonishing when we remember that complex organic forms are
+daily being thus produced. A tree differs from a seed immeasurably in every
+respect--in bulk, in structure, in colour, in form, in specific gravity, in
+chemical composition: differs so greatly that no visible resemblance of any
+kind can be pointed out between them. Yet is the one changed in the course
+of a few years into the other: changed so gradually, that at no moment can
+it be said--Now the seed ceases to be, and the tree exists. What can be
+more widely contrasted than a newly-born child and the small,
+semi-transparent, gelatinous spherule constituting the human ovum? The
+infant is so complex in structure that a cyclopaedia is needed to describe
+its constituent parts. The germinal vesicle is so simple that it may be
+defined in a line. Nevertheless, a few months suffice to develop the one
+out of the other; and that, too, by a series of modifications so small,
+that were the embryo examined at successive minutes, even a microscope
+would with difficulty disclose any sensible changes. That the uneducated
+and the ill-educated should think the hypothesis that all races of beings,
+man inclusive, may in process of time have been evolved from the simplest
+monad, a ludicrous one, is not to be wondered at. But for the physiologist,
+who knows that every individual being is so evolved--who knows further,
+that in their earliest condition the germs of all plants and animals
+whatever are so similar, "that there is no appreciable distinction amongst
+them which would enable it to be determined whether a particular molecule
+is the germ of a conferva or of an oak, of a zoophyte or of a man;"[U]--for
+him to make a difficulty of the matter is inexcusable. Surely if a single
+cell may, when subjected to certain influences, become a man in the space
+of twenty years; there is nothing absurd in the hypothesis that under
+certain other influences, a cell may in the course of millions of years
+give origin to the human race. The two processes are generically the same;
+and differ only in length and complexity.
+
+  [U] Carpenter.
+
+We have, indeed, in the part taken by many scientific men in this
+controversy of "Law _versus_ Miracle," a good illustration of the tenacious
+vitality of superstitions. Ask one of our leading geologists or
+physiologists whether he believes in the Mosaic account of the creation,
+and he will take the question as next to an insult. Either he rejects the
+narrative entirely, or understands it in some vague non-natural sense. Yet
+one part of it he unconsciously adopts; and that, too, literally. For
+whence has he got this notion of "special creations," which he thinks so
+reasonable, and fights for so vigorously? Evidently he can trace it back to
+no other source than this myth which he repudiates. He has not a single
+fact in nature to quote in proof of it; nor is he prepared with any chain
+of abstract reasoning by which it may be established. Catechise him, and he
+will be forced to confess that the notion was put into his mind in
+childhood as part of a story which he now thinks absurd. And why, after
+rejecting all the rest of this story, he should strenuously defend this
+last remnant of it as though he had received it on valid authority, he
+would be puzzled to say.
+
+
+
+
+X. THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.
+
+
+Sir James Macintosh got great credit for the saying, that "constitutions
+are not made, but grow." In our day, the most significant thing about this
+saying is, that it was ever thought so significant. As from the surprise
+displayed by a man at some familiar fact, you may judge of his general
+culture; so from the admiration which an age accords to a new thought, its
+average degree of enlightenment may be inferred. That this apophthegm of
+Macintosh should have been quoted and re-quoted as it has, shows how
+profound has been the ignorance of social science. A small ray of truth has
+seemed brilliant, as a distant rushlight looks like a star in the
+surrounding darkness.
+
+Such a conception could not, indeed, fail to be startling when let fall in
+the midst of a system of thought to which it was utterly alien. Universally
+in Macintosh's day, things were explained on the hypothesis of manufacture,
+rather than that of growth: as indeed they are, by the majority, in our own
+day. It was held that the planets were severally projected round the sun
+from the Creator's hand; with exactly the velocity required to balance the
+sun's attraction. The formation of the Earth, the separation of sea from
+land, the production of animals, were mechanical works from which God
+rested as a labourer rests. Man was supposed to be moulded after a manner
+somewhat akin to that in which a modeller makes a clay-figure. And of
+course, in harmony with such ideas, societies were tacitly assumed to be
+arranged thus or thus by direct interposition of Providence; or by the
+regulations of law-makers; or by both.
+
+Yet that societies are not artificially put together, is a truth so
+manifest, that it seems wonderful men should have ever overlooked it.
+Perhaps nothing more clearly shows the small value of historical studies,
+as they have been commonly pursued. You need but to look at the changes
+going on around, or observe social organization in its leading
+peculiarities, to see that these are neither supernatural, nor are
+determined by the wills of individual men, as by implication historians
+commonly teach; but are consequent on general natural causes. The one case
+of the division of labour suffices to show this. It has not been by command
+of any ruler that some men have become manufacturers, while others have
+remained cultivators of the soil. In Lancashire, millions have devoted
+themselves to the making of cotton-fabrics; in Yorkshire, another million
+lives by producing woollens; and the pottery of Staffordshire, the cutlery
+of Sheffield, the hardware of Birmingham, severally occupy their hundreds
+of thousands. These are large facts in the structure of English society;
+but we can ascribe them neither to miracle, nor to legislation. It is not
+by "the hero as king," any more than by "collective wisdom," that men have
+been segregated into producers, wholesale distributors, and retail
+distributors.
+
+The whole of our industrial organization, from its main outlines down to
+its minutest details, has become what it is, not simply without legislative
+guidance, but, to a considerable extent, in spite of legislative
+hindrances. It has arisen under the pressure of human wants and activities.
+While each citizen has been pursuing his individual welfare, and none
+taking thought about division of labour, or, indeed, conscious of the need
+for it, division of labour has yet been ever becoming more complete. It has
+been doing this slowly and silently: scarcely any having observed it until
+quite modern times. By steps so small, that year after year the industrial
+arrangements have seemed to men just what they were before--by changes as
+insensible as those through which a seed passes into a tree; society has
+become the complex body of mutually-dependent workers which we now see. And
+this economic organization, mark, is the all-essential organization.
+Through the combination thus spontaneously evolved, every citizen is
+supplied with daily necessaries; while he yields some product or aid to
+others. That we are severally alive to-day, we owe to the regular working
+of this combination during the past week; and could it be suddenly
+abolished, a great proportion of us would be dead before another week
+ended. If these most conspicuous and vital arrangements of our social
+structure, have arisen without the devising of any one, but through the
+individual efforts of citizens to satisfy their own wants; we may be
+tolerably certain that the less important arrangements have similarly
+arisen.
+
+"But surely," it will be said, "the social changes directly produced by
+law, cannot be classed as spontaneous growths. When parliaments or kings
+order this or that thing to be done, and appoint officials to do it, the
+process is clearly artificial; and society to this extent becomes a
+manufacture rather than a growth." No, not even these changes are
+exceptions, if they be real and permanent changes. The true sources of such
+changes lie deeper than the acts of legislators. To take first the simplest
+instance. We all know that the enactments of representative governments
+ultimately depend on the national will: they may for a time be out of
+harmony with it, but eventually they must conform to it. And to say that
+the national will finally determines them, is to say that they result from
+the average of individual desires; or, in other words--from the average of
+individual natures. A law so initiated, therefore, really grows out of the
+popular character.
+
+In the case of a Government representing a dominant class, the same things
+holds, though not so manifestly. For the very existence of a class
+monopolizing all power, is due to certain sentiments in the commonalty. But
+for the feeling of loyalty on the part of retainers, a feudal system could
+not exist. We see in the protest of the Highlanders against the abolition
+of heritable jurisdictions, that they preferred that kind of local rule.
+And if to the popular nature, must thus be ascribed the growth of an
+irresponsible ruling class; then to the popular nature must be ascribed the
+social arrangements which that class creates in the pursuit of its own
+ends. Even where the Government is despotic, the doctrine still holds. The
+character of the people is, as before, the original source of this
+political form; and, as we have abundant proof, other forms suddenly
+created will not act, but rapidly retrograde to the old form. Moreover,
+such regulations as a despot makes, if really operative, are so because of
+their fitness to the social state. His acts being very much swayed by
+general opinion--by precedent, by the feeling of his nobles, his
+priesthood, his army--are in part immediate results of the national
+character; and when they are out of harmony with the national character,
+they are soon practically abrogated.
+
+The failure of Cromwell permanently to establish a new social condition,
+and the rapid revival of suppressed institutions and practices after his
+death, show how powerless is a monarch to change the type of the society he
+governs. He may disturb, he may retard, or he may aid the natural process
+of organization; but the general course of this process is beyond his
+control. Nay, more than this is true. Those who regard the histories of
+societies as the histories of their great men, and think that these great
+men shape the fates of their societies, overlook the truth that such great
+men are the products of their societies. Without certain
+antecedents--without a certain average national character, they could
+neither have been generated nor could have had the culture which formed
+them. If their society is to some extent re-moulded by them, they were,
+both before and after birth, moulded by their society--were the results of
+all those influences which fostered the ancestral character they inherited,
+and gave their own early bias, their creed, morals, knowledge, aspirations.
+So that such social changes as are immediately traceable to individuals of
+unusual power, are still remotely traceable to the social causes which
+produced these individuals, and hence, from the highest point of view, such
+social changes also, are parts of the general developmental process.
+
+Thus that which is so obviously true of the industrial structure of
+society, is true of its whole structure. The fact that "constitutions are
+not made, but grow," is simply a fragment of the much larger fact, that
+under all its aspects and through all its ramifications, society is a
+growth and not a manufacture.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A perception that there exists some analogy between the body politic and a
+living individual body, was early reached; and from time to time
+re-appeared in literature. But this perception was necessarily vague and
+more or less fanciful. In the absence of physiological science, and
+especially of those comprehensive generalizations which it has but recently
+reached, it was impossible to discern the real parallelisms.
+
+The central idea of Plato's model Republic, is the correspondence between
+the parts of a society and the faculties of the human mind. Classifying
+these faculties under the heads of Reason, Will, and Passion, he classifies
+the members of his ideal society under what he regards as three analogous
+heads:--councillors, who are to exercise government; military or executive,
+who are to fulfil their behests; and the commonalty, bent on gain and
+selfish gratification. In other words, the ruler, the warrior, and the
+craftsman, are, according to him, the analogues of our reflective,
+volitional, and emotional powers. Now even were there truth in the implied
+assumption of a parallelism between the structure of a society and that of
+a man, this classification would be indefensible. It might more truly be
+contended that, as the military power obeys the commands of the Government,
+it is the Government which answers to the Will; while the military power is
+simply an agency set in motion by it. Or, again, it might be contended that
+whereas the Will is a product of predominant desires, to which the Reason
+serves merely as an eye, it is the craftsmen, who, according to the alleged
+analogy, ought to be the moving power of the warriors.
+
+Hobbes sought to establish a still more definite parallelism: not, however
+between a society and the human mind, but between a society and the human
+body. In the introduction to the work in which he developes this
+conception, he says--
+
+  "For by art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMONWEALTH,
+  or STATE, in Latin CIVITAS, which is but an artificial man; though of
+  greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection
+  and defence it was intended, and in which the _sovereignty_ is an
+  artificial _soul_, as giving life and motion to the whole body; the
+  _magistrates_ and other _officers_ of judicature and execution,
+  artificial _joints_; _reward_ and _punishment_, by which, fastened to
+  the seat of the sovereignty, every joint and member is moved to
+  perform his duty, are the _nerves_, that do the same in the body
+  natural; the _wealth_ and _riches_ of all the particular members are
+  the _strength_; _salus populi_, the _people's safety_, its
+  _business_; _counsellors_, by whom all things needful for it to know
+  are suggested unto it, are the _memory_; _equity_ and _laws_ an
+  artificial _reason_ and _will_; _concord_, _health_; _sedition_,
+  _sickness_; _civil war_, _death_,"
+
+And Hobbes carries this comparison so far as actually to give a drawing of
+the Leviathan--a vast human-shaped figure, whose body and limbs are made up
+of multitudes of men. Just noting that these different analogies asserted
+by Plato and Hobbes, serve to cancel each other (being, as they are, so
+completely at variance), we may say that on the whole those of Hobbes are
+the more plausible. But they are full of inconsistencies. If the
+sovereignty is the _soul_ of the body politic, how can it be that
+magistrates, who are a kind of deputy-sovereigns, should be comparable to
+_joints_? Or, again, how can the three mental functions, memory, reason,
+and will, be severally analogous, the first to counsellors, who are a class
+of public officers, and the other two to equity and laws, which are not
+classes of officers, but abstractions? Or, once more, if magistrates are
+the artificial joints of society, how can reward and punishment be its
+nerves? Its nerves must surely be some class of persons. Reward and
+punishment must in societies, as in individuals, be _conditions_ of the
+nerves, and not the nerves themselves.
+
+But the chief errors of these comparisons made by Plato and Hobbes, lie
+much deeper. Both thinkers assume that the organization of a society is
+comparable, not simply to the organization of a living body in general, but
+to the organization of the human body in particular. There is no warrant
+whatever for assuming this. It is in no way implied by the evidence; and is
+simply one of those fancies which we commonly find mixed up with the truths
+of early speculation. Still more erroneous are the two conceptions in this,
+that they construe a society as an artificial structure. Plato's model
+republic--his ideal of a healthful body politic--is to be consciously put
+together by men; just as a watch might be: and Plato manifestly thinks of
+societies in general as thus originated. Quite specifically does Hobbes
+express this view. "For by _art_," he says, "is created that great
+LEVIATHAN called a COMMONWEALTH." And he even goes so far as to compare the
+supposed social contract, from which a society suddenly originates, to the
+creation of a man by the divine fiat. Thus they both fall into the extreme
+inconsistency of considering a community as similar in structure to a human
+being, and yet as produced in the same way as an artificial mechanism--in
+in nature, an organism; in history, a machine.
+
+Notwithstanding errors, however, these speculations have considerable
+significance. That such analogies, crudely as they are thought out, should
+have been alleged by Plato and Hobbes and many others, is a reason for
+suspecting that _some_ analogy exists. The untenableness of the particular
+comparisons above instanced, is no ground for denying an essential
+parallelism; for early ideas are usually but vague adumbrations of the
+truth. Lacking the great generalizations of biology, it was, as we have
+said, impossible to trace out the real relations of social organizations to
+organizations of another order. We propose here to show what are the
+analogies which modern science discloses to us.
+
+Let us set out by succinctly stating the points of similarity and the
+points of difference. Societies agree with individual organisms in four
+conspicuous peculiarities:--
+
+  1. That commencing as small aggregations, they insensibly augment in
+     mass: some of them eventually reaching ten thousand times what
+     they originally were.
+
+  2. That while at first so simple in structure as to be considered
+     structureless, they assume, in the course of their growth, a
+     continually-increasing complexity of structure.
+
+  3. That though in their early, undeveloped states, there exists in
+     them scarcely any mutual dependence of parts, their parts
+     gradually acquire a mutual dependence; which becomes at last so
+     great, that the activity and life of each part is made possible
+     only by the activity and life of the rest.
+
+  4. That the life and development of a society is independent of, and
+     far more prolonged than, the life and development of any of its
+     component units; who are severally born, grow, work, reproduce,
+     and die, while the body politic composed of them survives
+     generation after generation, increasing in mass, completeness of
+     structure, and functional activity.
+
+These four parallelisms will appear the more significant the more we
+contemplate them. While the points specified, are points in which societies
+agree with individual organisms, they are points in which individual
+organisms agree with each other, and disagree with all things else. In the
+course of its existence, every plant and animal increases in mass, in a way
+not parallelled by inorganic objects: even such inorganic objects as
+crystals, which arise by growth, show us no such definite relation between
+growth and existence as organisms do. The orderly progress from simplicity
+to complexity, displayed by bodies politic in common with all living
+bodies, is a characteristic which distinguishes living bodies from the
+inanimate bodies amid which they move. That functional dependence of parts,
+which is scarcely more manifest in animals or plants than nations, has no
+counterpart elsewhere. And in no aggregate except an organic, or a social
+one, is there a perpetual removal and replacement of parts, joined with a
+continued integrity of the whole.
+
+Moreover, societies and organisms are not only alike in these
+peculiarities, in which they are unlike all other things; but the highest
+societies, like the highest organisms, exhibit them in the greatest degree.
+We see that the lowest animals do not increase to anything like the sizes
+of the higher ones; and, similarly, we see that aboriginal societies are
+comparatively limited in their growths. In complexity, our large civilized
+nations as much exceed primitive savage tribes, as a vertebrate animal does
+a zoophyte. Simple communities, like simple creatures, have so little
+mutual dependence of parts, that subdivision or mutilation causes but
+little inconvenience; but from complex communities, as from complex
+creatures, you cannot remove any considerable organ without producing great
+disturbance or death of the rest. And in societies of low type, as in
+inferior animals, the life of the aggregate, often cut short by division or
+dissolution, exceeds in length the lives of the component units, very far
+less than in civilized communities and superior animals; which outlive many
+generations of their component units.
+
+On the other hand, the leading differences between societies and individual
+organisms are these:--
+
+1. That societies have no specific external forms. This, however, is a
+point of contrast which loses much of its importance, when we remember that
+throughout the vegetal kingdom, as well as in some lower divisions of the
+animal kingdom, the forms are often very indefinite--definiteness being
+rather the exception than the rule; and that they are manifestly in part
+determined by surrounding physical circumstances, as the forms of societies
+are. If, too, it should eventually be shown, as we believe it will, that
+the form of every species of organism has resulted from the average play of
+the external forces to which it has been subject during its evolution as a
+species; then, that the external forms of societies should depend, as they
+do, on surrounding conditions, will be a further point of community.
+
+2. That though the living tissue whereof an individual organism consists,
+forms a continuous mass, the living elements of a society do not form a
+continuous mass; but are more or less widely dispersed over some portion of
+the Earth's surface. This, which at first sight appears to be a fundamental
+distinction, is one which yet to a great extent disappears when we
+contemplate all the facts. For, in the lower divisions of the animal and
+vegetal kingdoms, there are types of organization much more nearly allied,
+in this respect, to the organization of a society, than might be
+supposed--types in which the living units essentially composing the mass,
+are dispersed through an inert substance, that can scarcely be called
+living in the full sense of the word. It is thus with some of the
+_Protococci_ and with the _Nostoceae_, which exist as cells imbedded in a
+viscid matter. It is so, too, with the _Thalassicollae_--bodies that are
+made up of differentiated parts, dispersed through an undifferentiated
+jelly. And throughout considerable portions of their bodies, some of the
+_Acalephae_ exhibit more or less distinctly this type of structure.
+
+Indeed, it may be contended that this is the primitive form of all
+organization; seeing that, even in the highest creatures, as in ourselves,
+every tissue developes out of what physiologists call a blastema--an
+unorganized though organizable substance, through which organic points are
+distributed. Now this is very much the case with a society. For we must
+remember that though the men who make up a society, are physically separate
+and even scattered; yet that the surface over which they are scattered is
+not one devoid of life, but is covered by life of a lower order which
+ministers to their life. The vegetation which clothes a country, makes
+possible the animal life in that country; and only through its animal and
+vegetal products can such a country support a human society. Hence the
+members of the body politic are not to be regarded as separated by
+intervals of dead space; but as diffused through a space occupied by life
+of a lower order. In our conception of a social organism, we must include
+all that lower organic existence on which human existence, and therefore
+social existence, depends. And when we do this, we see that the citizens
+who make up a community, may be considered as highly vitalized units
+surrounded by substances of lower vitality, from which they draw their
+nutriment: much as in the cases above instanced. Thus, when examined, this
+apparent distinction in great part disappears.
+
+3. That while the ultimate living elements of an individual organism, are
+mostly fixed in their relative positions, those of the social organism are
+capable of moving from place to place, seems a marked disagreement. But
+here, too, the disagreement is much less than would be supposed. For while
+citizens are locomotive in their private capacities, they are fixed in
+their public capacities. As farmers, manufacturers, or traders, men carry
+on their business at the same spots, often throughout their whole lives;
+and if they go away occasionally, they leave behind others to discharge
+their functions in their absence. Each great centre of production, each
+manufacturing town or district, continues always in the same place; and
+many of the firms in such town or district, are for generations carried on
+either by the descendants or successors of those who founded them. Just as
+in a living body, the cells that make up some important organ, severally
+perform their functions for a time and then disappear, leaving others to
+supply their places; so, in each part of a society, the organ remains,
+though the persons who compose it change. Thus, in social life, as in the
+life of an animal, the units as well as the larger agencies formed of them,
+are in the main stationary as respects the places where they discharge
+their duties and obtain their sustenance. And hence the power of individual
+locomotion does not practically affect the analogy.
+
+4. The last and perhaps the most important distinction, is, that while in
+the body of an animal, only a special tissue is endowed with feeling; in a
+society, all the members are endowed with feeling. Even this distinction,
+however, is by no means a complete one. For in some of the lowest animals,
+characterized by the absence of a nervous system, such sensitiveness as
+exists is possessed by all parts. It is only in the more organized forms
+that feeling is monopolized by one class of the vital elements. Moreover,
+we must remember that societies, too, are not without a certain
+differentiation of this kind. Though the units of a community are all
+sensitive, yet they are so in unequal degrees. The classes engaged in
+agriculture and laborious occupations in general, are much less
+susceptible, intellectually and emotionally, than the rest; and especially
+less so than the classes of highest mental culture. Still, we have here a
+tolerably decided contrast between bodies politic and individual bodies.
+And it is one which we should keep constantly in view. For it reminds us
+that while in individual bodies, the welfare of all other parts is rightly
+subservient to the welfare of the nervous system, whose pleasurable or
+painful activities make up the good or evil of life; in bodies politic, the
+same thing does not hold, or holds to but a very slight extent. It is well
+that the lives of all parts of an animal should be merged in the life of
+the whole; because the whole has a corporate consciousness capable of
+happiness or misery. But it is not so with a society; since its living
+units do not and cannot lose individual consciousness; and since the
+community as a whole has no corporate consciousness. And this is an
+everlasting reason why the welfare of citizens cannot rightly be sacrificed
+to some supposed benefit of the State; but why, on the other hand, the
+State is to be maintained solely for the benefit of citizens. The corporate
+life must here be subservient to the lives of the parts; instead of the
+lives of the parts being subservient to the corporate life.
+
+Such, then, are the points of analogy and the points of difference. May we
+not say that the points of difference serve but to bring into clearer light
+the points of analogy. While comparison makes definite the obvious
+contrasts between organisms commonly so called, and the social organism; it
+shows that even these contrasts are not so decided as was to be expected.
+The indefiniteness of form, the discontinuity of the parts, the mobility of
+the parts, and the universal sensitiveness, are not only peculiarities of
+the social organism which have to be stated with considerable
+qualifications; but they are peculiarities to which the inferior classes of
+animals present approximations. Thus we find but little to conflict with
+the all-important analogies. That societies slowly augment in mass; that
+they progress in complexity of structure; that at the same time their parts
+become more mutually dependent; that their living units are removed and
+replaced without destroying their integrity; and further, that the extents
+to which they display these peculiarities are proportionate to their vital
+activities; are traits that societies have in common with organic bodies.
+And these traits in which they agree with organic bodies and disagree with
+all other things--these traits which in truth specially characterize
+organic bodies, entirely subordinate the minor distinctions: such
+distinctions being scarcely greater than those which separate one half of
+the organic kingdom from the other. The _principles_ of organization are
+the same; and the differences are simply differences of application.
+
+Here ending this general survey of the facts which justify the comparison
+of a society to a living body; let us look at them in detail. We shall find
+that the parallelism becomes the more marked the more closely it is traced.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The lowest animal and vegetal forms--_Protozoa_ and _Protophyta_--are
+chiefly inhabitants of the water. They are minute bodies, most of which are
+made individually visible only by the microscope. All of them are extremely
+simple in structure; and some of them, as the _Rhizopods_, almost
+structureless. Multiplying, as they ordinarily do, by the spontaneous
+division of their bodies, they produce halves, which may either become
+quite separate and move away in different directions, or may continue
+attached. By the repetition of this process of fission, aggregations of
+various sizes and kinds are formed. Among the _Protophyta_ we have some
+classes, as the _Diatomaceae_ and the Yeast-plant, in which the individuals
+may be either separate, or attached in groups of two, three, four, or more;
+other classes in which a considerable number of individual cells are united
+into a thread (_Conferva_, _Monilia_); others in which they form a net work
+(_Hydrodictyon_); others in which they form plates (_Ulva_); and others in
+which they form masses (_Laminaria_, _Agaricus_): all which vegetal forms,
+having no distinction of root, stem, or leaf, are called _Thallogens_.
+Among the _Protozoa_ we find parallel facts. Immense numbers of
+_Am[oe]ba_-like creatures, massed together in a framework of horny fibres,
+constitute Sponge. In the _Foraminifera_, we see smaller groups of such
+creatures arranged into more definite shapes. Not only do these almost
+structureless _Protozoa_ unite into regular or irregular aggregations of
+various sizes; but among some of the more organized ones, as the
+_Vorticellae_, there are also produced clusters of individuals, proceeding
+from a common stock. But these little societies of monads, or cells, or
+whatever else we may call them, are societies only in the lowest sense:
+there is no subordination of parts among them--no organization. Each of the
+component units lives by and for itself; neither giving nor receiving aid.
+There is no mutual dependence, save that consequent on mere mechanical
+union.
+
+Now do we not here discern analogies to the first stages of human
+societies? Among the lowest races, as the Bushmen, we find but incipient
+aggregation: sometimes single families; sometimes two or three families
+wandering about together. The number of associated units is small and
+variable; and their union inconstant. No division of labour exists except
+between the sexes; and the only kind of mutual aid is that of joint attack
+or defence. We see nothing beyond an undifferentiated group of individuals,
+forming the germ of a society; just as in the homogeneous groups of cells
+above described, we see only the initial stage of animal and vegetal
+organization.
+
+The comparison may now be carried a step higher. In the vegetal kingdom we
+pass from the _Thallogens_, consisting of mere masses of similar cells, to
+the _Acrogens_, in which the cells are not similar throughout the whole
+mass; but are here aggregated into a structure serving as leaf, and there
+into a structure serving as root: thus forming a whole in which there is a
+certain subdivision of functions among the units; and therefore a certain
+mutual dependence. In the animal kingdom we find analogous progress. From
+mere unorganized groups of cells, or cell-like bodies, we ascend to groups
+of such cells arranged into parts that have different duties. The common
+Polype, from whose substance may be separated individual cells which
+exhibit, when detached, appearances and movements like those of the
+solitary _Am[oe]ba_, illustrates this stage. The component units, though
+still showing great community of character, assume somewhat diverse
+functions in the skin, in the internal surface, and in the tentacles. There
+is a certain amount of "physiological division of labour."
+
+Turning to societies, we find these stages paralleled in the majority of
+aboriginal tribes. When, instead of such small variable groups as are
+formed by Bushmen, we come to the larger and more permanent groups formed
+by savages not quite so low, we begin to find traces of social structure.
+Though industrial organization scarcely shows itself, except in the
+different occupations of the sexes; yet there is always more or less of
+governmental organization. While all the men are warriors and hunters, only
+a part of them are included in the council of chiefs; and in this council
+of chiefs some one has commonly supreme authority. There is thus a certain
+distinction of classes and powers; and through this slight specialization
+of functions, is effected a rude co-operation among the increasing mass of
+individuals, whenever the society has to act in its corporate capacity.
+Beyond this analogy in the slight extent to which organization is carried,
+there is analogy in the indefiniteness of the organization. In the _Hydra_,
+the respective parts of the creature's substance have many functions in
+common. They are all contractile; omitting the tentacles, the whole of the
+external surface can give origin to young _hydrae_; and when turned inside
+out, stomach performs the duties of skin, and skin the duties of stomach.
+In aboriginal societies such differentiations as exist are similarly
+imperfect. Notwithstanding distinctions of rank, all persons maintain
+themselves by their own exertions. Not only do the head men of the tribe,
+in common with the rest, build their own huts, make their own weapons, kill
+their own food; but the chief does the like. Moreover, in the rudest of
+these tribes, such governmental organization as exists is very inconstant.
+It is frequently changed by violence or treachery, and the function of
+ruling assumed by other members of the community. Thus between the rudest
+societies and some of the lowest forms of animal life there is analogy
+alike in the slight extent to which organization is carried, in the
+indefiniteness of this organization, and in its want of fixity.
+
+A further complication of the analogy is at hand. From the aggregation of
+units into organized groups, we pass to the multiplication of such groups,
+and their coalescence into compound groups. The _Hydra_, when it has
+reached a certain bulk, puts forth from its surface a bud, which, growing
+and gradually assuming the form of the parent, finally becomes detached;
+and by this process of gemmation, the creature peoples the adjacent water
+with others like itself. A parallel process is seen in the multiplication
+of those lowly-organized tribes above described. One of them having
+increased to a size that is either too great for co-ordination under so
+rude a structure, or else that is greater than the surrounding country can
+supply with game and other wild food, there arises a tendency to divide;
+and as in such communities there are ever occurring quarrels, jealousies,
+and other causes of division, there soon comes an occasion on which a part
+of the tribe separates under the leadership of some subordinate chief, and
+migrates. This process being from time to time repeated, an extensive
+region is at length occupied with numerous separate tribes descended from a
+common ancestry. The analogy by no means ends here. Though in the common
+_Hydra_, the young ones that bud out from the parent soon become detached
+and independent; yet throughout the rest of the class _Hydrozoa_, to which
+this creature belongs, the like does not generally happen. The successive
+individuals thus developed continue attached; give origin to other such
+individuals which also continue attached; and so there results a compound
+animal. As in the _Hydra_ itself, we find an aggregation of units which,
+considered separately, are akin to the lowest _Protozoa_; so here, in a
+_Zoophyte_, we find an aggregation of such aggregations. The like is also
+seen throughout the extensive family of _Polyzoa_ or _Molluscoida_. The
+Ascidian Mollusks, too, in their many varied forms, show us the same thing:
+exhibiting, at the same time, various degrees of union subsisting among the
+component individuals. For while in the _Salpae_ the component individuals
+adhere so slightly that a blow on the vessel of water in which they are
+floating will separate them; in the _Botryllidae_ there exists a vascular
+connexion between them, and a common circulation.
+
+Now in these various forms and degrees of aggregation, may we not see
+paralleled the union of groups of connate tribes into nations? Though in
+regions where circumstances permit, the separate tribes descended from some
+original tribe, migrate in all directions, and become far removed and quite
+separate; yet, in other cases, where the territory presents barriers to
+distant migration, this does not happen: the small kindred communities are
+held in closer contact, and eventually become more or less united into a
+nation. The contrast between the tribes of American Indians and the
+Scottish clans, illustrates this. And a glance at our own early history, or
+the early histories of continental nations, shows this fusion of small
+simple communities taking place in various ways and to various extents. As
+says M. Guizot, in his history of "The Origin of Representative
+Government,"--
+
+  "By degrees, in the midst of the chaos of the rising society, small
+  aggregations are formed which feel the want of alliance and union
+  with each other.... Soon inequality of strength is displayed among
+  neighbouring aggregations. The strong tend to subjugate the weak, and
+  usurp at first the rights of taxation and military service. Thus
+  political authority leaves the aggregations which first instituted
+  it, to take a wider range."
+
+That is to say, the small tribes, clans, or feudal unions, sprung mostly
+from a common stock, and long held in contact as occupants of adjacent
+lands, gradually get united in other ways than by mere adhesion of race and
+proximity.
+
+A further series of changes begins now to take place; to which, as before,
+we shall find analogies in individual organisms. Returning again to the
+_Hydrozoa_, we observe that in the simplest of the compound forms, the
+connected individuals developed from a common stock, are alike in
+structure, and perform like functions: with the exception, indeed, that
+here and there a bud, instead of developing into a stomach, mouth, and
+tentacles, becomes an egg-sac. But with the oceanic _Hydrozoa_, this is by
+no means the case. In the _Calycophoridae_, some of the polypes growing from
+the common germ, become developed and modified into large, long, sack-like
+bodies, which by their rhythmical contractions move through the water,
+dragging the community of polypes after them. In the _Physophoridae_, a
+variety of organs similarly arise by transformation of the budding polypes;
+so that in creatures like the _Physalia_, commonly known as the "Portuguese
+Man-of-war," instead of that tree-like group of similar individuals forming
+the original type of the class, we have a complex mass of unlike parts
+fulfilling unlike duties. As an individual _Hydra_ may be regarded as a
+group of _Protozoa_, which have become partially metamorphosed into
+different organs; so a _Physalia_ is, morphologically considered, a group
+of _Hydrae_ of which the individuals have been variously transformed to fit
+them for various functions.
+
+This differentiation upon differentiation, is just what takes place in the
+evolution of a civilized society. We observed how, in the small communities
+first formed, there arises a certain simple political organization--there
+is a partial separation of classes having different duties. And now we have
+to observe how, in a nation formed by the fusion of such small communities,
+the several sections, at first alike in structures and modes of activity,
+gradually become unlike in both--gradually become mutually-dependent parts,
+diverse in their natures and functions.
+
+The doctrine of the progressive division of labour, to which we are here
+introduced, is familiar to all readers. And further, the analogy between
+the economical division of labour and the "physiological division of
+labour," is so striking, as long since to have drawn the attention of
+scientific naturalists: so striking, indeed, that the expression
+"physiological division of labour," has been suggested by it. It is not
+needful, therefore, that we should treat this part of our subject in great
+detail. We shall content ourselves with noting a few general and
+significant facts, not manifest on a first inspection.
+
+Throughout the whole animal kingdom, from the _C[oe]lenterata_ upwards, the
+first stage of evolution is the same. Equally in the germ of a polype and
+in the human ovum, the aggregated mass of cells out of which the creature
+is to arise, gives origin to a peripheral layer of cells, slightly
+differing from the rest which they include; and this layer subsequently
+divides into two--the inner, lying in contact with the included yelk, being
+called the mucous layer, and the outer, exposed to surrounding agencies,
+being called the serous layer: or, in the terms used by Prof. Huxley, in
+describing the development of the _Hydrozoa_--the endoderm and ectoderm.
+This primary division marks out a fundamental contrast of parts in the
+future organism. From the mucous layer, or endoderm, is developed the
+apparatus of nutrition; while from the serous layer, or ectoderm, is
+developed the apparatus of external action. Out of the one arise the organs
+by which food is prepared and absorbed, oxygen imbibed, and blood purified;
+while out of the other arise the nervous, muscular, and osseous systems, by
+whose combined actions the movements of the body as a whole are effected.
+Though this is not a rigorously-correct distinction, seeing that some
+organs involve both of these primitive membranes, yet high authorities
+agree in stating it as a broad general distinction.
+
+Well, in the evolution of a society, we see a primary differentiation of
+analogous kind; which similarly underlies the whole future structure. As
+already pointed out, the only manifest contrast of parts in primitive
+societies, is that between the governing and the governed. In the least
+organized tribes, the council of chiefs may be a body of men distinguished
+simply by greater courage or experience. In more organized tribes, the
+chief-class is definitely separated from the lower class, and often
+regarded as different in nature--sometimes as god-descended. And later, we
+find these two becoming respectively freemen and slaves, or nobles and
+serfs. A glance at their respective functions, makes it obvious that the
+great divisions thus early formed, stand to each other in a relation
+similar to that in which the primary divisions of the embryo stand to each
+other. For, from its first appearance, the class of chiefs is that by which
+the external acts of the society are controlled: alike in war, in
+negotiation, and in migration. Afterwards, while the upper class grows
+distinct from the lower, and at the same time becomes more and more
+exclusively regulative and defensive in its functions, alike in the persons
+of kings and subordinate rulers, priests, and military leaders; the
+inferior class becomes more and more exclusively occupied in providing the
+necessaries of life for the community at large. From the soil, with which
+it comes in most direct contact, the mass of the people takes up and
+prepares for use, the food and such rude articles of manufacture as are
+known; while the overlying mass of superior men, maintained by the working
+population, deals with circumstances external to the
+community--circumstances with which, by position, it is more immediately
+concerned. Ceasing by-and-by to have any knowledge of, or power over, the
+concerns of the society as a whole, the serf-class becomes devoted to the
+processes of alimentation; while the noble class, ceasing to take any part
+in the processes of alimentation, becomes devoted to the co-ordinated
+movements of the entire body politic.
+
+Equally remarkable is a further analogy of like kind. After the mucous and
+serous layers of the embryo have separated, there presently arises between
+the two, a third, known to physiologists as the vascular layer--a layer out
+of which are developed the chief blood-vessels. The mucous layer absorbs
+nutriment from the mass of yelk it encloses; this nutriment has to be
+transferred to the overlying serous layer, out of which the nervo-muscular
+system is being developed; and between the two arises a vascular system by
+which the transfer is effected--a system of vessels which continues ever
+after to be the transferrer of nutriment from the places where it is
+absorbed and prepared, to the places where it is needed for growth and
+repair. Well, may we not trace a parallel step in social progress?
+
+Between the governing and the governed, there at first exists no
+intermediate class; and even in some societies that have reached
+considerable sizes, there are scarcely any but the nobles and their kindred
+on the one hand, and the serfs on the other: the social structure being
+such, that the transfer of commodities takes place directly from slaves to
+their masters. But in societies of a higher type, there grows up between
+these two primitive classes, another--the trading or middle class. Equally,
+at first as now, we may see that, speaking generally, this middle class is
+the analogue of the middle layer in the embryo. For all traders are
+essentially distributors. Whether they be wholesale dealers, who collect
+into large masses the commodities of various producers; or whether they be
+retailers, who divide out to those who want them, the masses of commodities
+thus collected together; all mercantile men are agents of transfer from the
+places where things are produced to the places where they are consumed.
+Thus the distributing apparatus of a society, answers to the distributing
+apparatus of a living body; not only in its functions, but in its
+intermediate origin and subsequent position, and in the time of its
+appearance.
+
+Without enumerating the minor differentiations which these three great
+classes afterwards undergo, we will merely note that throughout, they
+follow the same general law with the differentiations of an individual
+organism. In a society, as in a rudimentary animal, we have seen that the
+most general and broadly contrasted divisions are the first to make their
+appearance; and of the subdivisions it continues true in both cases, that
+they arise in the order of decreasing generality.
+
+Let us observe next, that in the one case as in the other, the
+specializations are at first very incomplete; and become more complete as
+organization progresses. We saw that in primitive tribes, as in the
+simplest animals, there remains much community of function between the
+parts that are nominally different--that, for instance, the class of chiefs
+long remain industrially the same as the inferior class; just as in a
+_Hydra_, the property of contractility is possessed by the units of the
+endoderm as well as by those of the ectoderm. We noted also how, as the
+society advanced, the two great primitive classes partook less and less of
+each other's functions. And we have here to remark, that all subsequent
+specializations are at first vague, and gradually become distinct. "In the
+infancy of society," says M. Guizot, "everything is confused and uncertain;
+there is as yet no fixed and precise line of demarcation between the
+different powers in a state." "Originally kings lived like other
+landowners, on the incomes derived from their own private estates." Nobles
+were petty kings; and kings only the most powerful nobles. Bishops were
+feudal lords and military leaders. The right of coining money was possessed
+by powerful subjects, and by the Church, as well as by the king. Every
+leading man exercised alike the functions of landowner, farmer, soldier,
+statesman, judge. Retainers were now soldiers, and now labourers, as the
+day required. But by degrees the Church has lost all civil jurisdiction;
+the State has exercised less and less control over religious teaching; the
+military class has grown a distinct one; handicrafts have concentrated in
+towns; and the spinning-wheels of scattered farmhouses have disappeared
+before the machinery of manufacturing districts. Not only is all progress
+from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous; but at the same time it is from
+the indefinite to the definite.
+
+Another fact which should not be passed over, is that in the evolution of a
+large society out of an aggregation of small ones, there is a gradual
+obliteration of the original lines of separation--a change to which, also,
+we may see analogies in living bodies. Throughout the sub-kingdom
+_Annulosa_, this is clearly and variously illustrated. Among the lower
+types of this sub-kingdom, the body consists of numerous segments that are
+alike in nearly every particular. Each has its external ring; its pair of
+legs, if the creature has legs; its equal portion of intestines, or else
+its separate stomach; its equal portion of the great blood-vessel, or, in
+some cases, its separate heart; its equal portion of the nervous cord, and,
+perhaps, its separate pair of ganglia. But in the highest types, as in the
+large _Crustacea_, many of the segments are completely fused together; and
+the internal organs are no longer uniformly repeated in all the segments.
+Now the segments of which nations at first consist, lose their separate
+external and internal structures in a similar manner. In feudal times, the
+minor communities governed by feudal lords, were severally organized in the
+same rude way; and were held together only by the fealty of their
+respective rulers to some suzerain. But along with the growth of a central
+power, the demarcations of these local communities disappeared; and their
+separate organizations merged into the general organization. The like is
+seen on a larger scale in the fusion of England, Wales, Scotland, and
+Ireland; and, on the Continent, in the coalescence of provinces into
+kingdoms. Even in the disappearance of law-made divisions, the process is
+analogous. Among the Anglo-Saxons, England was divided into tithings,
+hundreds, and counties: there were county courts, courts of hundred, and
+courts of tithing. The courts of tithing disappeared first; then the courts
+of hundred, which have, however, left traces; while the county-jurisdiction
+still exists.
+
+But chiefly it is to be noted, that there eventually grows up an
+organization which has no reference to these original divisions, but
+traverses them in various directions, as is the case in creatures belonging
+to the sub-kingdom just named; and, further, that in both cases it is the
+sustaining organization which thus traverses old boundaries, while in both
+cases it is the governmental, or co-ordinating organization in which the
+original boundaries continue traceable. Thus, in the highest _Annulosa_,
+the exo-skeleton and the muscular system, never lose all traces of their
+primitive segmentation; but throughout a great part of the body, the
+contained viscera do not in the least conform to the external divisions.
+Similarly, with a nation, we see that while, for governmental purposes,
+such divisions as counties and parishes still exist, the structure
+developed for carrying on the nutrition of society, wholly ignores these
+boundaries: our great cotton-manufacture spreads out of Lancashire into
+North Derbyshire; Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire have long divided the
+stocking-trade between them; one great centre for the production of iron
+and iron-goods, includes parts of Warwickshire, Staffordshire,
+Worcestershire; and those various specializations of agriculture which have
+made different parts of England noted for different products, show no more
+respect to county-boundaries than do our growing towns to the boundaries of
+parishes.
+
+If, after contemplating these analogies of structure, we inquire whether
+there are any such analogies between the processes of organic change, the
+answer is--yes. The causes which lead to increase of bulk in any part of
+the body politic, are of like nature with those which lead to increase of
+bulk in any part of an individual body. In both cases the antecedent is
+greater functional activity, consequent on greater demand. Each limb,
+viscus, gland, or other member of an animal, is developed by exercise--by
+actively discharging the duties which the body at large requires of it; and
+similarly, any class of labourers or artisans, any manufacturing centre, or
+any official agency, begins to enlarge when the community devolves on it an
+increase of work. In each case, too, growth has its conditions and its
+limits. That any organ in a living being may grow by exercise, there needs
+a due supply of blood: all action implies waste; blood brings the materials
+for repair; and before there can be growth, the quantity of blood supplied
+must be more than that requisite for repair.
+
+So is it in a society. If to some district which elaborates for the
+community particular commodities--say the woollens of Yorkshire--there
+comes an augmented demand; and if, in fulfilment of this demand, a certain
+expenditure and wear of the manufacturing organization are incurred; and
+if, in payment for the extra supply of woollens sent away, there comes back
+only such quantity of commodities as replaces the expenditure, and makes
+good the waste of life and machinery; there can clearly be no growth. That
+there may be growth, the commodities obtained in return must be more than
+sufficient for these ends; and just in proportion as the surplus is great
+will the growth be rapid. Whence it is manifest that what in commercial
+affairs we call _profit_, answers to the excess of nutrition over waste in
+a living body. Moreover, in both cases, when the functional activity is
+high and the nutrition defective, there results not growth but decay. If in
+an animal, any organ is worked so hard that the channels which bring blood
+cannot furnish enough for repair, the organ dwindles; and if in the body
+politic, some part has been stimulated into great productivity, and cannot
+afterwards get paid for all its produce, certain of its members become
+bankrupt, and it decreases in size.
+
+One more parallelism to be here noted, is, that the different parts of the
+social organism, like the different parts of an individual organism,
+compete for nutriment; and severally obtain more or less of it according as
+they are discharging more or less duty. If a man's brain be overexcited, it
+will abstract blood from his viscera and stop digestion; or digestion
+actively going on, will so affect the circulation through the brain as to
+cause drowsiness; or great muscular exertion will determine such a quantity
+of blood to the limbs, as to arrest digestion or cerebral action, as the
+case may be. So, likewise, in a society, it frequently happens that great
+activity in some one direction, causes partial arrests of activity
+elsewhere, by abstracting capital, that is commodities: as instance the way
+in which the sudden development of our railway-system hampered commercial
+operations; or the way in which the raising of a large military force
+temporarily stops the growth of leading industries.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The last few paragraphs introduce the next division of our subject. Almost
+unawares we have come upon the analogy which exists between the blood of a
+living body, and the circulating mass of commodities in the body politic.
+We have now to trace out this analogy from its simplest to its most complex
+manifestations.
+
+In the lowest animals there exists no blood properly so called. Through the
+small aggregation of cells which make up a _Hydra_, permeate the juices
+absorbed from the food. There is no apparatus for elaborating a
+concentrated and purified nutriment, and distributing it among the
+component units; but these component units directly imbibe the unprepared
+nutriment, either from the digestive cavity or from each other. May we not
+say that this is what takes place in an aboriginal tribe? All its members
+severally obtain for themselves the necessaries of life in their crude
+states; and severally prepare them for their own uses as well as they can.
+When there arises a decided differentiation between the governing and the
+governed, some amount of transfer begins between those inferior
+individuals, who, as workers, come directly in contact with the products of
+the earth, and those superior ones who exercise the higher functions--a
+transfer parallel to that which accompanies the differentiation of the
+ectoderm from the endoderm. In the one case, as in the other, however, it
+is a transfer of products that are little if at all prepared; and takes
+place directly from the unit which obtains to the unit which consumes,
+without entering into any general current.
+
+Passing to larger organisms--individual and social--we find the first
+advance upon this arrangement. Where, as among the compound _Hydrozoa_,
+there is an aggregation of many such primitive groups as form _Hydrae_; or
+where, as in a _Medusa_, one of these groups has become of great size;
+there exist rude channels running throughout the substance of the body: not
+however, channels for the conveyance of prepared nutriment, but mere
+prolongations of the digestive cavity, through which the crude
+chyle-aqueous fluid reaches the remoter parts, and is moved backwards and
+forwards by the creature's contractions. Do we not find in some of the more
+advanced primitive communities, an analogous condition? When the men,
+partially or fully united into one society, become numerous--when, as
+usually happens, they cover a surface of country not everywhere alike in
+its products--when, more especially, there arise considerable classes that
+are not industrial; some process of exchange and distribution inevitably
+arises. Traversing here and there the earth's surface, covered by that
+vegetation on which human life depends, and in which, as we say, the units
+of a society are imbedded, there are formed indefinite paths, along which
+some of the necessaries of life occasionally pass, to be bartered for
+others which presently come back along the same channels. Note, however,
+that at first little else but crude commodities are thus
+transferred--fruits, fish, pigs or cattle, skins, etc.: there are few, if
+any, manufactured products or articles prepared for consumption. And note
+further, that such distribution of these unprepared necessaries of life as
+takes place, is but occasional--goes on with a certain slow, irregular
+rhythm.
+
+Further progress in the elaboration and distribution of nutriment, or of
+commodities, is a necessary accompaniment of further differentiation of
+functions in the individual body or in the body politic. As fast as each
+organ of a living animal becomes confined to a special action, it must
+become dependent on the rest for all those materials which its position and
+duty do not permit it to obtain for itself; in the same way that, as fast
+as each particular class of a community becomes exclusively occupied in
+producing its own commodity, it must become dependent on the rest for the
+other commodities it needs. And, simultaneously, a more
+perfectly-elaborated blood will result from a highly-specialized group of
+nutritive organs, severally adapted to prepare its different elements; in
+the same way that the stream of commodities circulating throughout a
+society, will be of superior quality in proportion to the greater division
+of labour among the workers. Observe, also, that in either case the
+circulating mass of nutritive materials, besides coming gradually to
+consist of better ingredients, also grows more complex. An increase in the
+number of the unlike organs which add to the blood their waste matters, and
+demand from it the different materials they severally need, implies a blood
+more heterogeneous in composition--an _a priori_ conclusion which,
+according to Dr. Williams, is inductively confirmed by examination of the
+blood throughout the various grades of the animal kingdom. And similarly,
+it is manifest that as fast as the division of labour among the classes of
+a community, becomes greater, there must be an increasing heterogeneity in
+the currents of merchandise flowing throughout that community.
+
+The circulating mass of nutritive materials in individual organisms and in
+social organisms, becoming alike better in the quality of its ingredients
+and more heterogeneous in composition, as the type of structure becomes
+higher; eventually has added to it in both cases another element, which is
+not itself nutritive, but facilitates the process of nutrition. We refer,
+in the case of the individual organism, to the blood-discs; and in the case
+of the social organism, to money. This analogy has been observed by Liebig,
+who in his "Familiar Letters on Chemistry," says:
+
+  "Silver and gold have to perform in the organization of the State,
+  the same function as the blood corpuscles in the human organization.
+  As these round discs, without themselves taking an immediate share in
+  the nutritive process, are the medium, the essential condition of the
+  change of matter, of the production of the heat, and of the force by
+  which the temperature of the body is kept up and the motions of the
+  blood and all the juices are determined, so has gold become the
+  medium of all activity in the life of the State."
+
+And blood-corpuscles being like money in their functions, and in the fact
+that they are not consumed in nutrition, he further points out, that the
+number of them which in a considerable interval flows through the great
+centres, is enormous when compared with their absolute number; just as the
+quantity of money which annually passes through the great mercantile
+centres, is enormous when compared with the total quantity of money in the
+kingdom. Nor is this all. Liebig has omitted the significant circumstance,
+that only at a certain stage of organization does this element of the
+circulation make its appearance. Throughout extensive divisions of the
+lower animals, the blood contains no corpuscles; and in societies of low
+civilization, there is no money.
+
+Thus far, we have considered the analogy between the blood in a living body
+and the consumable and circulating commodities in the body politic. Let us
+now compare the appliances by which they are respectively distributed. We
+shall find in the development of these appliances, parallelisms not less
+remarkable than those above set forth. Already we have shown that, as
+classes, wholesale and retail distributors discharge in a society, the
+office which the vascular system discharges in an individual creature; that
+they come into existence later than the other two great classes, as the
+vascular layer appears later than the mucous and serous layers; and that
+they occupy a like intermediate position. Here, however, it remains to be
+pointed out that a complete conception of the circulating system in a
+society, includes not only the active human agents who propel the currents
+of commodities, and regulate their distribution; but includes, also, the
+channels of communication. It is the formation and arrangement of these, to
+which we now direct attention.
+
+Going back once more to those lower animals in which there is found nothing
+but a partial diffusion, not of blood, but only of crude nutritive fluids,
+it is to be remarked that the channels through which the diffusion takes
+place, are mere excavations through the half-organized substance of the
+body: they have no lining membranes, but are mere _lacunae_ traversing a
+rude tissue. Now countries in which civilization is but commencing, display
+a like condition: there are no roads properly so called; but the wilderness
+of vegetal life covering the earth's surface, is pierced by tracks, through
+which the distribution of crude commodities takes place. And while in both
+cases, the acts of distribution occur only at long intervals (the currents,
+after a pause, now setting towards a general centre, and now away from it),
+the transfer is in both cases slow and difficult. But among other
+accompaniments of progress, common to animals and societies, comes the
+formation of more definite and complete channels of communication.
+Blood-vessels acquire distinct walls; roads are fenced and gravelled. This
+advance is first seen in those roads or vessels that are nearest to the
+chief centres of distribution; while the peripheral roads and peripheral
+vessels, long continue in their primitive states. At a yet later stage of
+development, where comparative finish of structure is found throughout the
+system as well as near the chief centres, there remains in both cases the
+difference, that the main channels are comparatively broad and straight,
+while the subordinate ones are narrow and tortuous in proportion to their
+remoteness.
+
+Lastly, it is to be remarked that there ultimately arise in the higher
+social organisms, as in the higher individual organisms, main channels of
+distribution still more distinguished by their perfect structures, their
+comparative straightness, and the absence of those small branches which the
+minor channels perpetually give off. And in railways we also see, for the
+first time in the social organism, a specialization with respect to the
+directions of the currents--a system of double channels conveying currents
+in opposite directions, as do the arteries and veins of a well-developed
+animal.
+
+These parallelisms in the evolutions and structures of the circulating
+systems, introduce us to others in the kinds and rates of the movements
+going on through them. In the lowest societies, as in the lowest creatures,
+the distribution of crude nutriment is by slow gurgitations and
+regurgitations. In creatures that have rude vascular systems, as in
+societies that are beginning to have roads and some transfer of commodities
+along them, there is no regular circulation in definite courses; but
+instead, periodical changes of the currents--now towards this point, and
+now towards that. Through each part of an inferior mollusk's body, the
+blood flows for a while in one direction, then stops, and flows in the
+opposite direction; just as through a rudely-organized society, the
+distribution of merchandise is slowly carried on by great fairs, occurring
+in different localities, to and from which the currents periodically set.
+Only animals of tolerably complete organizations, like advanced
+communities, are permeated by constant currents that are definitely
+directed. In living bodies, the local and variable currents disappear when
+there grow up great centres of circulation, generating more powerful
+currents, by a rhythm which ends in a quick, regular pulsation. And when in
+social bodies, there arise great centres of commercial activity, producing
+and exchanging large quantities of commodities, the rapid and continuous
+streams drawn in and emitted by these centres, subdue all minor and local
+circulations: the slow rhythm of fairs merges into the faster one of weekly
+markets, and in the chief centres of distribution, weekly markets merge
+into daily markets; while in place of the languid transfer from place to
+place, taking place at first weekly, then twice or thrice a week, we
+by-and-by get daily transfer, and finally transfer many times a day--the
+original sluggish, irregular rhythm, becomes a rapid, equable pulse.
+
+Mark, too, that in both cases the increased activity, like the greater
+perfection of structure, is much less conspicuous at the periphery of the
+vascular system. On main lines of railway, we have, perhaps, a score trains
+in each direction daily, going at from thirty to fifty miles an hour; as,
+through the great arteries, the blood rushes rapidly in successive gushes.
+Along high roads, there move vehicles conveying men and commodities with
+much less, though still considerable, speed, and with a much less decided
+rhythm; as, in the smaller arteries, the speed of the blood is greatly
+diminished, and the pulse less conspicuous. In parish-roads, narrow, less
+complete, and more tortuous, the rate of movement is further decreased and
+the rhythm scarcely traceable; as in the ultimate arteries. In those still
+more imperfect by-roads which lead from these parish-roads to scattered
+farmhouses and cottages, the motion is yet slower and very irregular; just
+as we find it in the capillaries. While along the field-roads, which, in
+their unformed, unfenced state, are typical of _lacunae_, the movement is
+the slowest, the most irregular, and the most infrequent; as it is, not
+only in the primitive _lacunae_ of animals, and societies, but as it is also
+in those _lacunae_ in which the vascular system ends among extensive
+families of inferior creatures.
+
+Thus, then, we find between the distributing systems of living bodies and
+the distributing systems of bodies politic, wonderfully close parallelisms.
+In the lowest forms of individual and social organisms, there exist neither
+prepared nutritive matters nor distributing appliances; and in both, these,
+arising as necessary accompaniments of the differentiation of parts,
+approach perfection as this differentiation approaches completeness. In
+animals, as in societies, the distributing agencies begin to show
+themselves at the same relative periods, and in the same relative
+positions. In the one, as in the other, the nutritive materials circulated,
+are at first crude and simple, gradually become better elaborated and more
+heterogeneous, and have eventually added to them a new element facilitating
+the nutritive processes. The channels of communication pass through similar
+phases of development, which bring them to analogous forms. And the
+directions, rhythms, and rates of circulation, progress by like steps to
+like final conditions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We come at length to the nervous system. Having noticed the primary
+differentiation of societies into the governing and governed classes, and
+observed its analogy to the differentiation of the two primary tissues
+which respectively develope into organs of external action and organs of
+alimentation; having noticed some of the leading analogies between the
+development of industrial arrangements and that of the alimentary
+apparatus; and having, above, more fully traced the analogies between the
+distributing systems, social and individual; we have now to compare the
+appliances by which a society, as a whole, is regulated, with those by
+which the movements of an individual creature are regulated. We shall find
+here, parallelisms equally striking with those already detailed.
+
+The class out of which governmental organization originates, is, as we have
+said, analogous in its relations to the ectoderm of the lowest animals and
+of embryonic forms. And as this primitive membrane, out of which the
+nervo-muscular system is evolved, must, even in the first stage of its
+differentiation, be slightly distinguished from the rest by that greater
+impressibility and contractility characterizing the organs to which it
+gives rise; so, in that superior class which is eventually transformed into
+the directo-executive system of a society (its legislative and defensive
+appliances), does there exist in the beginning, a larger endowment of the
+capacities required for these higher social functions. Always, in rude
+assemblages of men, the strongest, most courageous, and most sagacious,
+become rulers and leaders; and, in a tribe of some standing, this results
+in the establishment of a dominant class, characterized on the average by
+those mental and bodily qualities which fit them for deliberation and
+vigorous combined action. Thus that greater impressibility and
+contractility, which in the rudest animal types characterize the units of
+the ectoderm, characterize also the units of the primitive social ectoderm;
+since impressibility and contractility are the respective roots of
+intelligence and strength.
+
+Again, in the unmodified ectoderm, as we see it in the _Hydra_, the units
+are all endowed both with impressibility and contractility; but as we
+ascend to higher types of organization, the ectoderm differentiates into
+classes of units which divide those two functions between them: some,
+becoming exclusively impressible, cease to be contractile; while some,
+becoming exclusively contractile, cease to be impressible. Similarly with
+societies. In an aboriginal tribe, the directive and executive functions
+are diffused in a mingled form throughout the whole governing class. Each
+minor chief commands those under him, and if need be, himself coerces them
+into obedience. The council of chiefs itself carries out on the
+battle-field its own decisions. The head chief not only makes laws, but
+administers justice with his own hands. In larger and more settled
+communities, however, the directive and executive agencies begin to grow
+distinct from each other. As fast as his duties accumulate, the head chief
+or king confines himself more and more to directing public affairs, and
+leaves the execution of his will to others: he deputes others to enforce
+submission, to inflict punishments, or to carry out minor acts of offence
+and defence; and only on occasions when, perhaps, the safety of the society
+and his own supremacy are at stake, does he begin to act as well as direct.
+As this differentiation establishes itself, the characteristics of the
+ruler begin to change. No longer, as in an aboriginal tribe, the strongest
+and most daring man, the tendency is for him to become the man of greatest
+cunning, foresight, and skill in the management of others; for in societies
+that have advanced beyond the first stage, it is chiefly such qualities
+that insure success in gaining supreme power, and holding it against
+internal and external enemies. Thus that member of the governing class who
+comes to be the chief directing agent, and so plays the same part that a
+rudimentary nervous centre does in an unfolding organism, is usually one
+endowed with some superiorities of nervous organization.
+
+In those somewhat larger and more complex communities possessing, perhaps,
+a separate military class, a priesthood, and dispersed masses of population
+requiring local control, there necessarily grow up subordinate governing
+agents; who as their duties accumulate, severally become more directive and
+less executive in their characters. And when, as commonly happens, the king
+begins to collect round himself advisers who aid him by communicating
+information, preparing subjects for his judgment, and issuing his orders;
+we may say that the form of organization is comparable to one very general
+among inferior types of animals, in which there exists a chief ganglion
+with a few dispersed minor ganglia under its control.
+
+The analogies between the evolution of governmental structures in
+societies, and the evolution of governmental structures in living bodies,
+are, however, more strikingly displayed during the formation of nations by
+the coalescence of small communities--a process already shown to be, in
+several respects, parallel to the development of those creatures that
+primarily consist of many like segments. Among other points of community
+between the successive rings which make up the body in the lower
+_Articulata_, is the possession of similar pairs of ganglia. These pairs of
+ganglia, though united together by nerves, are very incompletely dependent
+on any general controlling power. Hence it results that when the body is
+cut in two, the hinder part continues to move forward under the propulsion
+of its numerous legs; and that when the chain of ganglia has been divided
+without severing the body, the hind limbs may be seen trying to propel the
+body in one direction, while the fore limbs are trying to propel it in
+another. Among the higher _Articulata_, however, a number of the anterior
+pairs of ganglia, besides growing larger, unite in one mass; and this great
+cephalic ganglion, becoming the co-ordinator of all the creature's
+movements, there no longer exists much local independence.
+
+Now may we not in the growth of a consolidated kingdom out of petty
+sovereignties or baronies, observe analogous changes? Like the chiefs and
+primitive rulers above described, feudal lords, exercising supreme power
+over their respective groups of retainers, discharge functions analogous to
+those of rudimentary nervous centres; and we know that at first they, like
+their analogues, are distinguished by superiorities of directive and
+executive organization. Among these local governing centres, there is, in
+early feudal times, very little subordination. They are in frequent
+antagonism; they are individually restrained chiefly by the influence of
+large parties in their own class; and are but imperfectly and irregularly
+subject to that most powerful member of their order who has gained the
+position of head suzerain or king. As the growth and organization of the
+society progresses, these local directive centres fall more and more under
+the control of a chief directive centre. Closer commercial union between
+the several segments, is accompanied by closer governmental union; and
+these minor rulers end in being little more than agents who administer, in
+their several localities, the laws made by the supreme ruler: just as the
+local ganglia above described, eventually become agents which enforce, in
+their respective segments, the orders of the cephalic ganglion.
+
+The parallelism holds still further. We remarked above, when speaking of
+the rise of aboriginal kings, that in proportion as their territories and
+duties increase, they are obliged not only to perform their executive
+functions by deputy, but also to gather round themselves advisers to aid
+them in their directive functions; and that thus, in place of a solitary
+governing unit, there grows up a group of governing units, comparable to a
+ganglion consisting of many cells. Let us here add, that the advisers, and
+chief officers who thus form the rudiment of a ministry, tend from the
+beginning to exercise a certain control over the ruler. By the information
+they give and the opinions they express, they sway his judgment and affect
+his commands. To this extent he therefore becomes a channel through which
+are communicated the directions originating with them; and in course of
+time, when the advice of ministers becomes the acknowledged source of his
+actions, the king assumes very much the character of an automatic centre,
+reflecting the impressions made on him from without.
+
+Beyond this complication of governmental structure, many societies do not
+progress; but in some, a further development takes place. Our own case best
+illustrates this further development, and its further analogies. To kings
+and their ministries have been added, in England, other great directive
+centres, exercising a control which, at first small, has been gradually
+becoming predominant: as with the great governing ganglia that especially
+distinguish the highest classes of living beings. Strange as the assertion
+will be thought, our Houses of Parliament discharge in the social economy,
+functions that are in sundry respects comparable to those discharged by the
+cerebral masses in a vertebrate animal. As it is in the nature of a single
+ganglion to be affected only by special stimuli from particular parts of
+the body; so it is in the nature of a single ruler to be swayed in his acts
+by exclusive personal or class interests. As it is in the nature of an
+aggregation of ganglia, connected with the primary one, to convey to it a
+greater variety of influences from more numerous organs, and thus to make
+its acts conform to more numerous requirements; so it is in the nature of a
+king surrounded by subsidiary controlling powers, to adapt his rule to a
+greater number of public exigencies. And as it is in the nature of those
+great and latest-developed ganglia which distinguish the higher animals, to
+interpret and combine the multiplied and varied impressions conveyed to
+them from all parts of the system, and to regulate the actions in such way
+as duly to regard them all; so it is in the nature of those great and
+latest-developed legislative bodies which distinguish the most advanced
+societies, to interpret and combine the wishes and complaints of all
+classes and localities, and to regulate public affairs as much as possible
+in harmony with the general wants.
+
+The cerebrum co-ordinates the countless heterogeneous considerations which
+affect the present and future welfare of the individual as a whole; and the
+legislature co-ordinates the countless heterogeneous considerations which
+affect the immediate and remote welfare of the whole community. We may
+describe the office of the brain as that of _averaging_ the interests of
+life, physical, intellectual, moral, social; and a good brain is one in
+which the desires answering to these respective interests are so balanced,
+that the conduct they jointly dictate, sacrifices none of them. Similarly,
+we may describe the office of a Parliament as that of _averaging_ the
+interests of the various classes in a community; and a good Parliament is
+one in which the parties answering to these respective interests are so
+balanced, that their united legislation concedes to each class as much as
+consists with the claims of the rest. Besides being comparable in their
+duties, these great directive centres, social and individual, are
+comparable in the processes by which their duties are discharged.
+
+It is now an acknowledged truth in psychology, that the cerebrum is not
+occupied with direct impressions from without, but with the ideas of such
+impressions: instead of the actual sensations produced in the body, and
+directly appreciated by the sensory ganglia or primitive nervous centres,
+the cerebrum receives only the representations of these sensations; and its
+consciousness is called _representative_ consciousness, to distinguish it
+from the original or _presentative_ consciousness. Is it not significant
+that we have hit on the same word to distinguish the function of our House
+of Commons? We call it a _representative_ body, because the interests with
+which it deals--the pains and pleasures about which it consults--are not
+directly presented to it, but represented to it by its various members; and
+a debate is a conflict of representations of the evils or benefits likely
+to follow from a proposed course--a description which applies with equal
+truth to a debate in the individual consciousness. In both cases, too,
+these great governing masses take no part in the executive functions. As,
+after a conflict in the cerebrum, those desires which finally predominate,
+act on the subjacent ganglia, and through their instrumentality determine
+the bodily actions; so the parties which, after a parliamentary struggle,
+gain the victory, do not themselves carry out their wishes, but get them
+carried out by the executive divisions of the Government. The fulfilment of
+all legislative decisions still devolves on the original directive
+centres--the impulse passing from the Parliament to the Ministers, and from
+the Ministers to the King, in whose name everything is done; just as those
+smaller, first-developed ganglia, which in the lowest vertebrata are the
+chief controlling agents, are still, in the brains of the higher
+vertebrata, the agents through which the dictates of the cerebrum are
+worked out.
+
+Moreover, in both cases these original centres become increasingly
+automatic. In the developed vertebrate animal, they have little function
+beyond that of conveying impressions to, and executing the determinations
+of, the larger centres. In our highly organized government, the monarch has
+long been lapsing into a passive agent of Parliament; and now, ministers
+are rapidly falling into the same position.
+
+Nay, between the two cases there is a parallelism, even in respect of the
+exceptions to this automatic action. For in the individual creature, it
+happens that under circumstances of sudden alarm, as from a loud sound
+close at hand, an unexpected object starting up in front, or a slip from
+insecure footing, the danger is guarded against by some quick involuntary
+jump, or adjustment of the limbs, that takes place before there is time to
+consider the impending evil, and take deliberate measures to avoid it: the
+rationale of which is, that these violent impressions produced on the
+senses, are reflected from the sensory ganglia to the spinal cord and
+muscles, without, as in ordinary cases, first passing through the cerebrum.
+In like manner, on national emergencies, calling for prompt action, the
+King and Ministry, not having time to lay the matter before the great
+deliberative bodies, themselves issue commands for the requisite movements
+or precautions: the primitive, and now almost automatic, directive centres,
+resume for a moment their original uncontrolled power. And then, strangest
+of all, observe that in either case there is an afterprocess of approval or
+disapproval. The individual on recovering from his automatic start, at once
+contemplates the cause of his fright; and, according to the case, concludes
+that it was well he moved as he did, or condemns himself for his groundless
+alarm. In like manner, the deliberative powers of the State, discuss, as
+soon as may be, the unauthorized acts of the executive powers; and,
+deciding that the reasons were or were not sufficient, grant or withhold a
+bill of indemnity.[V]
+
+  [V] It may be well to warn the reader against an error fallen into by
+      one who criticised this essay on its first publication--the error
+      of supposing that the analogy here intended to be drawn, is a
+      specific analogy between the organization of society in England,
+      and the human organization. As said at the outset, no such
+      specific analogy exists. The above parallel, is one between the
+      most-developed systems of governmental organization, individual
+      and social; and the vertebrate type is instanced, merely as
+      exhibiting this most-developed system. If any specific comparison
+      were made, which it cannot rationally be, it would be to some
+      much lower vertebrate form than the human.
+
+Thus far in comparing the governmental organization of the body politic
+with that of an individual body, we have considered only the respective
+co-ordinating centres. We have yet to consider the channels through which
+these co-ordinating centres receive information and convey commands. In the
+simplest societies, as in the simplest organisms, there is no "internuncial
+apparatus," as Hunter styled the nervous system. Consequently, impressions
+can be but slowly propagated from unit to unit throughout the whole mass.
+The same progress, however, which, in animal-organization, shows itself in
+the establishment of ganglia or directive centres, shows itself also in the
+establishment of nerve-threads, through which the ganglia receive and
+convey impressions, and so control remote organs. And in societies the like
+eventually takes place.
+
+After a long period during which the directive centres communicate with
+various parts of the society through other means, there at last comes into
+existence an "internuncial apparatus," analogous to that found in
+individual bodies. The comparison of telegraph-wires to nerves, is familiar
+to all. It applies, however, to an extent not commonly supposed. We do not
+refer to the near alliance between the subtle forces employed in the two
+cases; though it is now held that the nerve-force, if not literally
+electric, is still a special form of electric action, related to the
+ordinary form much as magnetism is. But we refer to the structural
+arrangements of our telegraph-system. Thus, throughout the vertebrate
+sub-kingdom, the great nerve-bundles diverge from the vertebrate axis, side
+by side with the great arteries; and similarly, our groups of
+telegraph-wires are carried along the sides of our railways. The most
+striking parallelism, however, remains. Into each great bundle of nerves,
+as it leaves the axis of the body along with an artery, there enters a
+branch of the sympathetic nerve; which branch, accompanying the artery
+throughout its ramifications, has the function of regulating its diameter
+and otherwise controlling the flow of blood through it according to the
+local requirements. Analogously, in the group of telegraph-wires running
+alongside each railway, there is one for the purpose of regulating the
+traffic--for retarding or expediting the flow of passengers and
+commodities, as the local conditions demand. Probably, when our now
+rudimentary telegraph-system is fully developed, other analogies will be
+traceable.
+
+Such, then, is a general outline of the evidence which justifies, in
+detail, the comparison of societies to living organisms. That they
+gradually increase in mass; that they become little by little more complex;
+that at the same time their parts grow more mutually dependent; and that
+they continue to live and grow as wholes, while successive generations of
+their units appear and disappear; are broad peculiarities which bodies
+politic display, in common with all living bodies; and in which they and
+living bodies differ from everything else. And on carrying out the
+comparison in detail, we find that these major analogies involve many minor
+analogies, far closer than might have been expected. To these we would
+gladly have added others. We had hoped to say something respecting the
+different types of social organization, and something also on social
+metamorphoses; but we have reached our assigned limits.
+
+
+
+
+XI. USE AND BEAUTY
+
+
+In one of his essays, Emerson remarks, that what Nature at one time
+provides for use, she afterwards turns to ornament; and he cites in
+illustration the structure of a sea-shell, in which the parts that have for
+a while formed the mouth are at the next season of growth left behind, and
+become decorative nodes and spines.
+
+It has often occurred to me that this same remark might be extended to the
+progress of Humanity. Here, too, the appliances of one era serve as
+embellishments to the next. Equally in institutions, creeds, customs, and
+superstitions, we may trace this evolution of beauty out of what was once
+purely utilitarian.
+
+The contrast between the feeling with which we regard portions of the
+Earth's surface still left in their original state, and the feeling with
+which the savage regarded them, is an instance that naturally comes first
+in order of time. If any one walking over Hampstead Heath, will note how
+strongly its picturesqueness is brought out by contrast with the
+surrounding cultivated fields and the masses of houses lying in the
+distance; and will further reflect that, had this irregular gorse-covered
+surface extended on all sides to the horizon, it would have looked dreary
+and prosaic rather than pleasing; he will see that to the primitive man a
+country so clothed presented no beauty at all. To him it was merely a haunt
+of wild animals, and a ground out of which roots might be dug. What have
+become for us places of relaxation and enjoyment--places for afternoon
+strolls and for gathering flowers--were his places for labour and food,
+probably arousing in his mind none but utilitarian associations.
+
+Ruined castles afford an obvious instance of this metamorphosis of the
+useful into the beautiful. To feudal barons and their retainers, security
+was the chief, if not the only end, sought in choosing the sites and styles
+of their strongholds. Probably they aimed as little at the picturesque as
+do the builders of cheap brick houses in our modern towns. Yet what where
+erected for shelter and safety, and what in those early days fulfilled an
+important function in the social economy, have now assumed a purely
+ornamental character. They serve as scenes for picnics; pictures of them
+decorate our drawing-rooms; and each supplies its surrounding districts
+with legends for Christmas Eve.
+
+Following out the train of thought suggested by this last illustration, we
+may see that not only do the material exuviae of past social states become
+the ornaments of our landscapes; but that past habits, manners, and
+arrangements, serve as ornamental elements in our literature. The tyrannies
+that, to the serfs who bore them, were harsh and dreary facts; the feuds
+which, to those who took part in them, were very practical life-and-death
+affairs; the mailed, moated, sentinelled security that was irksome to the
+nobles who needed it; the imprisonments, and tortures, and escapes, which
+were stern and quite prosaic realities to all concerned in them; have
+become to us material for romantic tales--material which when woven into
+Ivanhoes and Marmions, serves for amusement in leisure hours, and become
+poetical by contrast with our daily lives.
+
+Thus, also, is it with extinct creeds. Stonehenge, which in the hands of
+the Druids had a governmental influence over men, is in our day a place for
+antiquarian excursions; and its attendant priests are worked up into an
+opera. Greek sculptures, preserved for their beauty in our galleries of
+art, and copied for the decoration of pleasure grounds and entrance halls,
+once lived in men's minds as gods demanding obedience; as did also the
+grotesque idols that now amuse the visitors to our museums.
+
+Equally marked is this change of function in the case of minor
+superstitions. The fairy lore, which in past times was matter of grave
+belief, and held sway over people's conduct, has since been transformed
+into ornament for _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, _The Tempest_, _The Fairy
+Queen_, and endless small tales and poems; and still affords subjects for
+children's story-books, themes for ballets, and plots for Planche's
+burlesques. Gnomes, and genii, and afrits, losing all their terrors, give
+piquancy to the woodcuts in our illustrated edition of the _Arabian
+Nights_. While ghost-stories, and tales of magic and witchcraft, after
+serving to amuse boys and girls in their leisure hours, become matter for
+jocose allusions that enliven tea-table conversation.
+
+Even our serious literature and our speeches are very generally relieved by
+ornaments drawn from such sources. A Greek myth is often used as a parallel
+by which to vary the monotony of some grave argument. The lecturer breaks
+the dead level of his practical discourse by illustrations drawn from
+bygone customs, events, or beliefs. And metaphors, similarly derived, give
+brilliancy to political orations, and to _Times_ leading articles.
+
+Indeed, on careful inquiry, I think it will be found that we turn to
+purposes of beauty most bygone phenomena that are at all conspicuous. The
+busts of great men in our libraries, and their tombs in our churches; the
+once useful but now purely ornamental heraldic symbols; the monks, nuns,
+and convents, that give interest to a certain class of novels; the bronze
+mediaeval soldiers used for embellishing drawing-rooms; the gilt Apollos
+that recline on time-pieces; the narratives that serve as plots for our
+great dramas; and the events that afford subjects for historical
+pictures;--these and such like illustrations of the metamorphosis of the
+useful into the beautiful, are so numerous as to suggest that, did we
+search diligently enough, we should find that in some place, or under some
+circumstances, nearly every notable product of the past has assumed a
+decorative character.
+
+And here the mention of historical pictures reminds me that an inference
+may be drawn from all this, bearing directly on the practice of art. It has
+of late years been a frequent criticism upon our historical painters, that
+they err in choosing their subjects from the past; and that, would they
+found a genuine and vital school, they must render on canvas the life and
+deeds and aims of our own time. If, however, there be any significance in
+the foregoing facts, it seems doubtful whether this criticism is a just
+one. For if it be the process of things, that what has performed some
+practical function in society during one era, becomes available for
+ornament in a subsequent one; it almost follows that, conversely, whatever
+is performing some practical function now, or has very recently performed
+one, does not possess the ornamental character; and is, consequently,
+inapplicable to any purpose of which beauty is the aim, or of which it is a
+needful ingredient.
+
+Still more reasonable will this conclusion appear, when we consider the
+nature of this process by which the useful is changed into the ornamental.
+An essential pre-requisite to all beauty is _contrast_. To obtain artistic
+effect, light must be put in juxtaposition with shade, bright colours with
+dull colours, a fretted surface with a plain one. _Forte_ passages in music
+must have _piano_ passages to relieve them; concerted pieces need
+interspersing with solos; and rich chords must not be continuously
+repeated. In the drama we demand contrast of characters, of scenes, of
+sentiment, of style. In prose composition an eloquent passage should have a
+comparatively plain setting; and in poems great effect is obtained by
+occasional change of versification. This general principle will, I think,
+explain the transformation of the bygone useful into the present beautiful.
+It is by virtue of their contrast with our present modes of life, that past
+modes of life look interesting and romantic. Just as a picnic, which is a
+temporary return to an aboriginal condition, derives, from its
+unfamiliarity, a certain poetry which it would not have were it habitual;
+so, everything ancient gains, from its relative novelty to us, an element
+of interest. Gradually as, by the growth of society, we leave behind the
+customs, manners, arrangements, and all the products, material and mental,
+of a bygone age--gradually as we recede from these so far that there arises
+a conspicuous difference between them and those we are familiar with; so
+gradually do they begin to assume to us a poetical aspect, and become
+applicable for ornament. And hence it follows that things and events which
+are close to us, and which are accompanied by associations of ideas not
+markedly contrasted with our ordinary associations are relatively
+inappropriate for purposes of art.
+
+
+
+
+XII. THE SOURCES OF ARCHITECTURAL TYPES.
+
+
+When lately looking through the gallery of the Old Water-Colour Society, I
+was struck with the incongruity produced by putting regular architecture
+into irregular scenery. In one case, where the artist had introduced a
+perfectly symmetrical Grecian edifice into a mountainous and somewhat wild
+landscape, the discordant effect was particularly marked. "How very
+unpicturesque," said a lady to her friend, as they passed; showing that I
+was not alone in my opinion. Her phrase, however, set me speculating. Why
+unpicturesque? Picturesque means, like a picture--like what men choose for
+pictures. Why then should this be not fit for a picture?
+
+Thinking the matter over, it seemed to me that the artist had sinned
+against that unity which is essential to a good picture. When the other
+constituents of a landscape have irregular forms, any artificial structure
+introduced must have an irregular form, that it may seem _part_ of the
+landscape. The same general character must pervade it and surrounding
+objects; otherwise it, and the scene amid which it stands, become not _one_
+thing but _two_ things; and we say it looks out of place. Or, speaking
+psychologically, the associated ideas called up by a building with its
+wings, windows, and all its parts symmetrically disposed, differ widely
+from the ideas associated with an entirely irregular landscape; and the one
+set of ideas tends to banish the other.
+
+Pursuing the train of thought, sundry illustrative facts came to my mind. I
+remembered that a castle, which is more irregular in outline than any other
+kind of building, pleases us most when seated amid crags and precipices;
+while a castle on a plain seems an incongruity. The partly-regular and
+partly-irregular forms of our old farm-houses, and our gabled gothic manors
+and abbeys, appear quite in harmony with an undulating, wooded country. In
+towns we prefer symmetrical architecture; and in towns it produces in us no
+feeling of incongruity, because all surrounding things--men, horses,
+vehicles--are symmetrical also.
+
+And here I was reminded of a notion that has frequently recurred to me;
+namely, that there is some relationship between the several kinds of
+architecture and the several classes of natural objects. Buildings in the
+Greek and Roman styles seem, in virtue of their symmetry, to take their
+type from animal life. In the partly-irregular Gothic, ideas derived from
+the vegetable world appear to predominate. And wholly irregular buildings,
+such as castles, may be considered as having inorganic forms for their
+basis.
+
+Whimsical as this speculation looks at first sight, it is countenanced by
+numerous facts. The connexion between symmetrical architecture and animal
+forms, may be inferred from the _kind_ of symmetry we expect, and are
+satisfied with, in regular buildings. Thus in a Greek temple we require
+that the front shall be symmetrical in itself, and that the two flanks
+shall be alike; but we do not look for uniformity between the flanks and
+the front, nor between the front and the back. The identity of this
+symmetry with that found in animals is obvious. Again, why is it that a
+building making any pretension to symmetry displeases us if not quite
+symmetrical? Probably the reply will be--Because we see that the designer's
+idea is not fully carried out; and that hence our love of completeness is
+offended. But then there come the further questions--How do we know that
+the architect's conception was symmetrical? Whence comes this notion of
+symmetry which we have, and which we attribute to him? Unless we fall back
+upon the old doctrine of innate ideas, we must admit that the idea of
+bilateral symmetry is derived from without; and to admit this is to admit
+that it is derived from the higher animals.
+
+That there is some relationship between Gothic architecture and vegetable
+forms is a position generally admitted. The often-remarked analogy between
+a groined nave and an avenue of trees with interlacing branches, shows that
+the fact has forced itself on men's observation. It is not only in this
+analogy, however, that the kinship is seen. It is seen still better in the
+essential characteristic of Gothic; namely, what is termed its _aspiring_
+tendency. That predominance of vertical lines which so strongly
+distinguishes Gothic from other styles, is the most marked peculiarity of
+trees, when compared with animals or rocks. To persons of active
+imagination, a tall Gothic tower, with its elongated apertures and clusters
+of thin projections running from bottom to top, suggests a vague notion of
+growth.
+
+Of the alleged connexion between inorganic forms and the wholly irregular
+and the castellated styles of building, we have, I think, some proof in the
+fact that when an edifice is irregular, the _more_ irregular it is the more
+it pleases us. I see no way of accounting for this fact, save by supposing
+that the greater the irregularity the more strongly are we reminded of the
+inorganic forms typified, and the more vividly are aroused the agreeable
+ideas of rugged and romantic scenery associated with those forms.
+
+Further evidence of these several relationships of styles of architecture
+to classes of natural objects, is supplied by the kinds of decoration they
+respectively represent. The public buildings of Greece, while characterized
+in their outlines by the bilateral symmetry seen in the higher animals,
+have their pediments and entablatures covered with sculptured men and
+beasts. Egyptian temples and Assyrian palaces, while similarly symmetrical
+in their general plan, are similarly ornamented on their walls and at their
+doors. In Gothic, again, with its grove-like ranges of clustered columns,
+we find rich foliated ornaments abundantly employed. And accompanying the
+totally irregular, inorganic outlines of old castles, we see neither
+vegetable nor animal decorations. The bare, rock-like walls are surmounted
+by battlements, consisting of almost plain blocks, which remind us of the
+projections on the edge of a rugged cliff.
+
+But perhaps the most significant fact is the harmony that may be observed
+between each type of architecture and the scenes in which it is indigenous.
+For what is the explanation of this harmony, unless it be that the
+predominant character of surrounding things has, in some way, determined
+the mode of building adopted?
+
+That the harmony exists is clear. Equally in the cases of Egypt, Assyria,
+Greece, and Rome, town life preceded the construction of the symmetrical
+buildings that have come down to us. And town life is one in which, as
+already observed, the majority of familiar objects are symmetrical. We
+instinctively feel the naturalness of this association. Out amid the
+fields, a formal house, with a central door flanked by an equal number of
+windows to right and left, strikes us as unrural--looks as though
+transplanted from a street; and we cannot look at one of those stuccoed
+villas, with mock windows carefully arranged to balance the real ones,
+without being reminded of the suburban residence of a retired tradesman.
+
+In styles indigenous in the country, we not only find the general
+irregularity characteristic of surrounding things, but we may trace some
+kinship between each kind of irregularity and the local circumstances. We
+see the broken rocky masses amid which castles are commonly placed,
+mirrored in their stern, inorganic forms. In abbeys, and such-like
+buildings, which are commonly found in comparatively sheltered districts,
+we find no such violent dislocations of masses and outlines; and the
+nakedness appropriate to the fortress is replaced by decorations reflecting
+the neighbouring woods. Between a Swiss cottage and a Swiss view there is
+an evident relationship. The angular roof, so bold and so
+disproportionately large when compared to other roofs, reminds one of the
+adjacent mountain peaks; and the broad overhanging eaves have a sweep and
+inclination like those of the lower branches of a pine tree. Consider, too,
+the apparent kinship between the flat roofs that prevail in Eastern cities,
+interspersed with occasional minarets, and the plains that commonly
+surround them, dotted here and there by palm trees. You cannot contemplate
+a picture of one of these places, without being struck by the predominance
+of horizontal lines, and their harmony with the wide stretch of the
+landscape.
+
+That the congruity here pointed out should hold in every case must not be
+expected. The Pyramids, for example, do not seem to come under this
+generalization. Their repeated horizontal lines do indeed conform to the
+flatness of the neighbouring desert; but their general contour seems to
+have no adjacent analogue. Considering, however, that migrating races,
+carrying their architectural systems with them, would naturally produce
+buildings having no relationship to their new localities; and that it is
+not always possible to distinguish styles which are indigenous, from those
+which are naturalized; numerous anomalies must be looked for.
+
+The general idea above illustrated will perhaps be somewhat misinterpreted.
+Possibly some will take the proposition to be that men _intentionally_ gave
+to their buildings the leading characteristics of neighbouring objects. But
+this is not what is meant. I do not suppose that they did so in times past,
+any more than they do so now. The hypothesis is, that in their choice of
+forms men are unconsciously influenced by the forms encircling them. That
+flat-roofed, symmetrical architecture should have originated in the East,
+among pastoral tribes surrounded by their herds and by wide plains, seems
+to imply that the builders were swayed by the horizontality and symmetry to
+which they were habituated. And the harmony which we have found to exist in
+other cases between indigenous styles and their localities, implies the
+general action of like influences. Indeed, on considering the matter
+psychologically, I do not see how it could well be otherwise. For as all
+conceptions must be made up of images, and parts of images, received
+through the senses--as it is impossible for a man to conceive any design
+save one of which the elements have come into his mind from without; and as
+his imagination will most readily run in the direction of his habitual
+perceptions; it follows, almost necessarily, that the characteristic which
+predominates in these habitual perceptions must impress itself on his
+design.
+
+
+
+
+XIII. THE USE OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM.
+
+
+That long fit of indignation which seizes all generous natures when in
+youth they begin contemplating human affairs, having fairly spent itself,
+there slowly grows up a perception that the institutions, beliefs, and
+forms so vehemently condemned are not wholly bad. This reaction runs to
+various lengths. In some, merely to a comparative contentment with the
+arrangements under which they live. In others to a recognition of the
+fitness that exists between each people and its government, tyrannical as
+that may be. In some, again, to the conviction, that hateful though it is
+to us, and injurious as it would be now, slavery was once beneficial--was
+one of the necessary phases of human progress. Again, in others, to the
+suspicion that great benefit has indirectly arisen from the perpetual
+warfare of past times; insuring as this did the spread of the strongest
+races, and so providing good raw material for civilization. And in a few
+this reaction ends in the generalization that all modes of human thought
+and action subserve, in the times and places in which they occur, some
+useful function: that though bad in the abstract, they are relatively
+good--are the best which the then existing conditions admit of.
+
+A startling conclusion to which this faith in the essential beneficence of
+things commits us, is that the religious creeds through which mankind
+successively pass, are, during the eras in which they are severally held,
+the best that could be held; and that this is true, not only of the latest
+and most refined creeds, but of all, even to the earliest and most gross.
+Those who regard men's faiths as given to them from without--as having
+origins either directly divine or diabolical, and who, considering their
+own as the sole example of the one, class all the rest under the other,
+will think this a very shocking opinion. I can imagine, too, that many of
+those who have abandoned current theologies, and now regard religions as so
+many natural products of human nature--men who, having lost that antagonism
+towards their old creed which they felt while shaking themselves free from
+it, can now see that it was highly beneficial to past generations, and is
+beneficial still to a large part of mankind;--I can imagine even these
+hardly prepared to admit that all religions, down to the lowest Fetichism,
+have, in their places, fulfilled useful functions. If such, however, will
+consistently develop their ideas, they will find this inference involved.
+
+For if it be true that humanity in its corporate as well as in its
+individual aspect, is a growth and not a manufacture, it is obvious that
+during each phase men's theologies, as well as their political and social
+arrangements, must be determined into such forms as the conditions require.
+In the one case as in the other, by a tentative process, things from time
+to time re-settle themselves in a way that best consists with national
+equilibrium. As out of plots and the struggles of chieftains, it
+continually results that the strongest gets to the top, and by virtue of
+his proved superiority ensures a period of quiet, and gives society time to
+grow; as out of incidental expedients there periodically arise new
+divisions of labour, which get permanently established only by serving
+men's wants better than the previous arrangements did; so, the creed which
+each period evolves is one more in conformity with the needs of the time
+than the creed which preceded it. Not to rest in general statements,
+however, let us consider why this must be so. Let us see whether, in the
+genesis of men's ideas of deity, there is not involved a necessity to
+conceive of deity under the aspect most influential with them.
+
+It is now generally admitted that a more or less idealized humanity is the
+form which every conception of a personal God must take. Anthropomorphism
+is an inevitable result of the laws of thought. We cannot take a step
+towards constructing an idea of God without the ascription of human
+attributes. We cannot even speak of a divine will without assimilating the
+divine nature to our own; for we know nothing of volition save as a
+property of our own minds.
+
+While this anthropomorphic tendency, or rather necessity, is manifested by
+themselves with sufficient grossness--a grossness that is offensive to
+those more advanced--Christians are indignant at the still grosser
+manifestations of it seen among uncivilized men. Certainly, such
+conceptions as those of some Polynesians, who believe that their gods feed
+on the souls of the dead, or as those of the Greeks, who ascribed to the
+personages of their Pantheon every vice, from domestic cannibalism
+downward, are repulsive enough. But if, ceasing to regard these notions
+from the outside, we more philosophically regard them from the inside--if
+we consider how they looked to believers, and observe the relationships
+they bore to the natures and needs of such; we shall begin to think of them
+with some tolerance. The question to be answered is, whether these beliefs
+were beneficent in their effects on those who held them; not whether they
+would be beneficent for us, or for perfect men; and to this question the
+answer must be that while absolutely bad, they were relatively good.
+
+For is it not obvious that the savage man will be most effectually
+controlled by his fears of a savage deity? Must it not happen, that if his
+nature requires great restraint, the supposed consequences of
+transgression, to be a check upon him, must be proportionately terrible;
+and for these to be proportionately terrible, must not his god be conceived
+as proportionately cruel and revengeful? Is it not well that the
+treacherous, thievish, lying Hindoo should believe in a hell where the
+wicked are boiled in cauldrons, rolled down mountains bristling with
+knives, and sawn asunder between flaming iron posts? And that there may be
+provided such a hell, is it not needful that he should believe in a
+divinity delighting in human immolations and the self-torture of fakirs?
+Does it not seem clear that during the earlier ages in Christendom, when
+men's feelings were so hard that a holy father could describe one of the
+delights of heaven to be the contemplation of the torments of the
+damned--does it not seem clear that while the general nature was so
+unsympathetic, there needed, to keep men in order, all the prospective
+tortures described by Dante, and a deity implacable enough to inflict them?
+
+And if, as we thus see, it is well for the savage man to believe in a
+savage god, then we may also see the great usefulness of this
+anthropomorphic tendency; or, as before said, necessity. We have in it
+another illustration of that essential beneficence of things visible
+everywhere throughout nature. From this inability under which we labour to
+conceive of a deity save as some idealization of ourselves, it inevitably
+results that in each age, among each people, and to a great extent in each
+individual, there must arise just that conception of deity best adapted to
+the needs of the case. If, being violent and bloodthirsty, the nature be
+one calling for stringent control, it evolves the idea of a ruler still
+more violent and bloodthirsty, and fitted to afford this control. When, by
+ages of social discipline, the nature has been partially humanized, and the
+degree of restraint required has become less, the diabolical
+characteristics before ascribed to the deity cease to be so predominant in
+the conception of him. And gradually, as all need for restraint disappears,
+this conception approximates towards that of a purely beneficent necessity.
+Thus, man's constitution is in this, as in other respects, self-adjusting,
+self-balancing. The mind itself evolves a compensating check to its own
+movements; varying always in proportion to the requirement. Its centrifugal
+and its centripetal forces are necessarily in correspondence, because the
+one generates the other. And so we find that the forms of both religious
+and secular rule follow the same law. As an ill-controlled national
+character produces a despotic terrestrial government, so also does it
+produce a despotic celestial government--the one acting through the senses,
+the other through the imagination; and in the converse case the same
+relationship holds good.
+
+Organic as this relationship is in its origin, no artificial interference
+can permanently affect it. Whatever perturbations an external agency may
+seem to produce, they are soon neutralized in fact, if not in appearance. I
+was recently struck with this in reading a missionary account of the
+"gracious visitations of the Holy Spirit at Vewa," one of the Feejee
+islands. Describing a "penitent meeting," the account says:--
+
+  "Certainly the feelings of the Vewa people were not ordinary. They
+  literally roared for hours together for the disquietude of their
+  souls. This frequently terminated in fainting from exhaustion, which
+  was the only respite some of them had till they found peace. They no
+  sooner recovered their consciousness than they prayed themselves
+  first into an agony, then again into a state of entire
+  insensibility."
+
+Now these Feejee islanders are the most savage of all the uncivilized
+races. They are given to cannibalism, infanticide, and human sacrifices;
+they are so bloodthirsty and so treacherous, that members of the same
+family dare not trust each other; and, in harmony with these
+characteristics, they have for their aboriginal god, a serpent. Is it not
+clear then, that these violent emotions which the missionaries describe,
+these terrors and agonies of despair which they rejoiced over, were nothing
+but the worship of the old god under a new name? Is it not clear that these
+Feejees had simply understood those parts of the Christian creed which
+agree in spirit with their own--the vengeance, the perpetual torments, the
+diabolism of it; that these, harmonizing with their natural conceptions of
+divine rule, were realized by them with extreme vividness; and that the
+extremity of the fear which made them "literally roar for hours together,"
+arose from the fact that while they could fully take in and believe the
+punitive element, the merciful one was beyond their comprehension? This is
+the obvious inference. And it carries with it the further one, that in
+essence their new belief was merely their old one under a new form--the
+same substantial conception with a different history and different names.
+
+However great, therefore, may be the seeming change adventitiously produced
+in a people's religion, the anthropomorphic tendency prevents it from being
+other than a superficial change--insures such modifications of the new
+religion as to give it all the potency of the old one--obscures whatever
+higher elements there may be in it until the people have reached the
+capability of being acted upon by them: and so, re-establishes the
+equilibrium between the impulses and the control they need. If any one
+requires detailed illustrations of this, he will find them in abundance in
+the history of the modifications of Christianity throughout Europe.
+
+Ceasing then to regard heathen theologies from the personal point of view,
+and considering them solely with reference to the function they fulfil
+where they are indigenous, we must recognise them in common with all
+theologies, as good for their time and places; and this mental necessity
+which disables us from conceiving a deity save as some idealization of
+ourselves, we must recognise as the agency by which harmony is produced and
+maintained between every phase of human character and its religious creed.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+A
+
+  Abstract and concrete, relations of, 174.
+
+  Actions, voluntary and involuntary, 319.
+
+  Analogies of the rudest societies to the lowest forms of life, 398,
+    402.
+
+  Analogies of function between living beings and societies, 410.
+
+  Annulosa, structure of compared to that of nations, 408, 422.
+
+  Anthropomorphism, necessity of, 422.
+
+  Architectural ideas, origin of, 439.
+
+  Architecture, relationship to natural objects, 435; illustrations of,
+    435-437; town, why symmetrical, 435; country, why irregular, 437.
+
+  Arts, interconnexion of, 187.
+
+  Astronomic influences upon climate produce breaks in geological
+    succession, 356.
+
+  Automatic actions of men and governments, 426.
+
+  Australia, fauna of, 350.
+
+
+B
+
+  Bain "On the Emotions and Will," estimate of, 302.
+
+  Beauty, its evolution from utility, 429, 433.
+
+  Beliefs, how to judge of them, 442.
+
+  Bow, derivation of the, 78.
+
+  Breaks in the geological record, Hugh Miller upon, 355; produced by
+    astronomic causes, 356; by re-distributions of land and sea, 359.
+
+  Buildings related to landscape, 438; cause of incongruities in, 438;
+    relation unintentional, 439.
+
+
+C
+
+  Cambrian rocks, inference from their thickness, 366.
+
+  Calculus, origin of, 158.
+
+  Castles, built with no reference to art, 430.
+
+  Cause, single, produces more than one effect, 32; illustrated in
+    geological phenomena, 35; in chemical, 40; in organic evolution,
+    42; in social progress, 50; in use of locomotive engine, 53.
+
+  Central America, effects of subsidence of, 38.
+
+  Centrifugal force and condensation, 287.
+
+  Cerebrum, analogy of to houses of parliament, 423, 426.
+
+  Circulation in animal bodies and bodies politic, 410, 411; rates of
+    movement in, 417; of money and blood-discs, 414.
+
+  Classifications of science, progress of, 183; what they indicate,
+    125; Oken's, 125; Hegel's, 128; Comte's, 131; serial arrangement
+    vicious, 144.
+
+  Classification, the mental process in, 147; advances with
+    rationality, 157; how it has aided science, 182; of the cognitions,
+    321; of the feelings, 323; in Psychology, for the present must be
+    provisional, 300, 301.
+
+  Climate, changes in, produced by astronomic rhythm, 356; by
+    re-distributions of land and sea, 359.
+
+  Comets, formation of, 256; orbits of, 258; distribution of, 259, 261.
+
+  Common knowledge, nature of, 117; relation of, to science, 118, 122.
+
+  Comte's hierarchy of the sciences, 131.
+
+  Consciousness, mystery of, 197.
+
+  Condensation of nebula, 250.
+
+  Contrast, its relation to beauty, 432.
+
+  Creeds suited to the age that holds them, 441, 443.
+
+  Curtsy, origin of, 79.
+
+
+D
+
+  Densities of the planets, 278-280.
+
+  Development hypothesis, neither proved nor disproved by Paleontology,
+    367, 376; defense of, 379.
+
+  Direct creation inconceivable, 378; no examples of, 377; origin of
+    the notion, 383.
+
+
+E
+
+  Earth, internal constitution of, 290.
+
+  Earth's crust, 5; contraction of, 35.
+
+  Ectoderm social and embryonic, 419.
+
+  Education, bearing of evolution of science upon, 193.
+
+  Emotions in animals, genesis of, 315.
+
+  Emotional language, 232; importance of, 235, 238.
+
+  Engine, locomotive, results of invention of, 53.
+
+  Equality, origin of notion of, 152,158; of things and relations, 153.
+
+  Evolution of the emotions, 311.
+
+  Evolution of governmental and nervous structures, 420.
+
+
+F
+
+  Fashion, origin of, 90; corruption of, 91.
+
+  Feeling and action, relation of, 199, 208.
+
+  Feeling, mystery of, 197; effects of surplus in producing laughter,
+    201; why it disturbs the intellect, 207.
+
+  Feeling a stimulus to muscular action, 211, 220; shown in loudness of
+    voice, 215; in quality or timbre, 215; in pitch, 216; in intervals,
+    217; in variability of pitch, 219; relation of, to vocal sounds in
+    ourselves, 220; in others, 220; causes prostration, 222;
+    classification of the feelings, 323.
+
+  Feejee islanders, penitent meeting among, 444.
+
+  Final cause, 262, 272, 275, 293.
+
+  Fossils as tests of age and position, 339, 347.
+
+  Function of music, 231-235.
+
+
+G
+
+  Generalizations, premature, use of, 323; as seen in history of
+    Astronomy, 326; in Geology, 327.
+
+  Genesis of new emotions in civilization, 313; in animals, 315.
+
+  Geological evidence, value of, 8.
+
+  Geologic "systems," are they universal? 335-339.
+
+  Geometry, origin of, 158, 167.
+
+  God, origin of the conception of, 65.
+
+  Gothic architecture, source of, 435, 436.
+
+  Government, rise of, 12, 69, 92; three-fold nature of, 13, 65, 83;
+    separation of civil from religious, 69; early need of severe, 85;
+    progressive amelioration of, 88; course of all, 114; results from
+    national character, 387.
+
+  Great men, relation of to social changes, 388.
+
+  Greek and Roman architecture, derivation of, 435.
+
+
+H
+
+  Heathen theologies, estimate of, 44.
+
+  Heat of heavenly bodies, source of, 292.
+
+  Hegel's classification of philosophy, 128.
+
+  History as commonly studied, small, value of, 385.
+
+  Hobb's parallelism of society and the human body, 389.
+
+  Homogeneous, change of to heterogeneous, 3; seen in genesis of solar
+    system, 3; in phenomena of earth's crust, 5; in the advance of life
+    in general, 7; in the progress of man, 10; in growth of
+    civilization, 12; in government, 13; in language, 17; in painting
+    and sculpture, 20; in poetry, music, and dancing, 24; cause of this
+    universal change, 32.
+
+  Hutton's geological system, 327; contrast of the modern with, 330.
+
+  Hydra compared with primitive tribes, 401, 407, 412, 420.
+
+  Hydrozoa, analogies of, 401, 403, 412.
+
+
+I
+
+  Industrial organization, 385.
+
+  Industrial arrangements, development of compared with that of the
+    alimentary organs, 410.
+
+  Insensible modifications effect great changes, 379; illustrated by
+    geometrical curves, 318; by physiological development, 382.
+
+  Internal structure of sun and planets, 281-286.
+
+
+K
+
+  King's councils compared to ganglia, 421, 423.
+
+  Knowledge, experience the source of all, 126; relations of various
+    kinds of, 167.
+
+
+L
+
+  Language, differentiation of, 17; origin of written, 18; origin of
+    verbal, 149; origin of emotional, 220.
+
+  La Place's theory of planetary evolution, 263-265.
+
+  Laughter, common explanations of, 194; movements in, 200; groups of
+    muscles successively affected in, 201; caused by incongruities,
+    203; facilitates digestion, 207.
+
+  Law, origin of, 70.
+
+  Likeness and unlikeness, recognition of, the basis of classification,
+    147; the basis of language, 149; of reasoning, 150; of art, 151;
+    leads to science, 152.
+
+  Logic, how evolved, 158.
+
+  Lyell, Sir Charles, criticism upon, 338, 342.
+
+
+M
+
+  Man, progress of, 10.
+
+  Manners, genesis of, 77; decline of the influence of, 89; conformity
+    in manners leads to extravagance, 99; conformity in, decreases
+    social intercourse, 100; defeats the true end of social life, 102,
+    107.
+
+  Mathematics, how evolved, 158.
+
+  Mechanics, rise of science of, 168.
+
+  Mineral qualities of rocks untrustworthy tests of age or position,
+    332.
+
+  Miller Hugh, estimate of, 352.
+
+  Motion of nebulous matter, 251-253.
+
+  Morality, origin of, 70.
+
+  Muscular movements, cause of, 195; arrested by feeling, 199; in
+    laughter purposeless, 201; of animals when excited, 211; variations
+    of, produce changes of voice, 214.
+
+  Music, increasing heterogeneity of, 26; relation of mental to
+    muscular excitement, the source of, 214; theory of, 221-224; its
+    history confirms the theory, 224-228; negative proof of theory of,
+    228-231.
+
+  Murchison Sir R. I., criticism upon his "Siluria," 332, 340, 363,
+    366.
+
+
+N
+
+  Nebula, are they parts of our siderial system? 243, 249; condensation
+    of, 250; motion in, 251; significance of forms of, 254; structure
+    of spiral, 254.
+
+  Nebular hypothesis, 3, 34; its high derivation, 239; it explains
+    cometary phenomena, 262.
+
+  Negative facts in geology, small value of, 362-365.
+
+  Nervous system, effects of excitement in, 195; directions of
+    discharge of excitement in, 197; course of discharge unguided by
+    purpose, 201.
+
+  Number, origin of conception of, 154.
+
+
+O
+
+  Oken's classification of knowledge, 125.
+
+
+P
+
+  Painting and sculpture, origin of, 20.
+
+  Paleontology neither proves nor disproves development, 367, 376.
+
+  Picturesque, meaning of, 433.
+
+  Planetoids, origin of 289.
+
+  Plato's model republic, central idea of, 388.
+
+  Previsions and ordinary knowledge, 117; previsions known as science,
+    118; common and scientific, 123; when quantitative arose, 158;
+    increase in precision, 171.
+
+  Primary divisions of a germ and of a society, 404-407.
+
+  Progress, current meaning of, 1; present inquiry concerning, 2; law
+    of progress exemplified in the genesis of solar system, 3; in the
+    phenomena of the earth's crust, 5; in the advance of life in
+    general, 7; in the history of man, 10; in the growth of
+    civilization, 12; in government, 13; in language, 17; in painting
+    and sculpture, 20; in poetry, music, and dancing, 24; statement of
+    the principle which determines progress of every kind, 32; the
+    principle of progress illustrated in geological phenomena, 35; in
+    chemical, 40; in organic evolution, 42; in social advancement, 50;
+    in use of locomotive engine, 54; this principle does not explain
+    things in themselves, 58; progress of science, 141; of astronomical
+    discovery, 165, 171.
+
+  Progress of animals and societies in forming channels of
+    communication, 416.
+
+  Psychology, relation of English thought to, 301; classification in,
+    for the present, must be provisional, 300, 301.
+
+
+R
+
+  Reasoning, nature of, 150; basis of, 154; advances with
+    classification, 157.
+
+  Reformers, eccentricities of, 61; why necessary, 93; not selfish, 95,
+    97; difficulties of social, 110.
+
+  Reform, how is it to be effected? 111.
+
+  Religion aided by inquiry, 58.
+
+  Religious ideas, account of primitive, 66.
+
+
+S
+
+  Saturn, rings of, 276.
+
+  Satellites, distribution of, 272-276.
+
+  Savage men need a savage deity, 443.
+
+  Science, limits of, 58; definition of, 119; when complete, 120; test
+    of the depth of, 122; slow growth of, 123; duplex progress of, 141;
+    ultimate analysis of exact, 160.
+
+  Sciences, early simultaneous advance of, 165; not independent of each
+    other, 186; aid each other by analogies, 181; mutual influence of
+    modern, 178.
+
+  Sculpture and painting, origin of, 20.
+
+  Solar System, movements of planets on their axes in, 267-271.
+
+  Strata now forming, lithological differences in, 347; differences in
+    the order of superposition of, 348; differences in the organic
+    remains of, 349.
+
+  Societies and individual organisms, points of agreement between,
+    391-393; differences of, examined, 393-397.
+
+  Social intercourse, philosophy of, 105.
+
+  Social changes, true source of, 386.
+
+  Spectrum analysis, 295.
+
+  Spiral nebula, 255.
+
+  Steam-engine, multiplied effects of, 53.
+
+  Sun, constitution of, 294, 296; relation of plane of its equator to
+    plane of planetary orbits, 266.
+
+
+T
+
+  Telegraph wires, comparison of to nerves, 427.
+
+  Titles, derivation of, 72; depreciation of, 74.
+
+  Truth, ultimate test of, 130.
+
+
+U
+
+  Useful passes into the beautiful, 430, 433.
+
+
+V
+
+  Voice, cause of loudness of, 215; cause of quality of, 215; of pitch
+    of, 216; intervals in, 217; variability of the pitch of, 219.
+
+  Voluntary and involuntary actions, 319.
+
+
+W
+
+  Werner's system of Geology, 328; contrast of, with the modern system,
+    330.
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Illustrations of Universal Progress, by
+Herbert Spencer
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