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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Life: Its True Genesis + +Author: R. W. Wright + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9307] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 19, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE: ITS TRUE GENESIS *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>Life: Its True Genesis</h1> + +<h2 style="margin-top: .5em">By R. W. Wright</h2> + + + + +<p align="center">[Masoretic Hebrew.]--אֲׁשֶֽר זַרְעוׄ־בִל עַל־הָאָ֑רֶע׃.--</p> + +<p align="center">Οὗ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ χατὰ γένος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. [Septuagint.]</p> + +<p align="center">"Whose general principle of life, each in itself after its own kind, is +upon the earth." [Correct Translation.]</p> + +<h3>Second Edition</h3> + +<h4>1884</h4> + + + +<p align="center">RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED<br /> +TO<br /> +ARTHUR E. HOTCHKISS, ESQ.<br /> +OF CHESHIRE, CONN.</p> + + + + +<h2>Contents.</h2> + + + +<p><a href="#pref">Prefatory</a></p> + +<p>Chapter I. <a href="#01">Introductory.</a><br /> +Chapter II. <a href="#02">Life--Its True Genesis.</a><br /> +Chapter III. <a href="#03">Alternations of Forest Growths.</a><br /> +Chapter IV. <a href="#04">The Distribution and Vitality of Seeds.</a><br /> +Chapter V. <a href="#05">Plant Migration and Interglacial Periods.</a><br /> +Chapter VI. <a href="#06">Distribution and Permanence of Species.</a><br /> +Chapter VII. <a href="#07">What Is Life? Its Various Theories.</a><br /> +Chapter VIII. <a href="#08">Materialistic Theories of Life Refuted.</a><br /> +Chapter IX. <a href="#09">Force-Correlation, Differentiation and Other Life Theories.</a><br /> +Chapter X. <a href="#10">Darwinism Considered from a Vitalistic Stand-point.</a></p> + + + + +<h2>Preface to Second Edition.</h2> + + + +<p>Here is the law of life, as laid down by the eagle-eyed prophet Isaiah, in +that remarkable chapter commencing, "Ho, every one that +thirsteth"--whether it be after knowledge, or any other earthly or +spiritual good--come unto me and I will give you that which you seek. This +is the spirit of the text, and these are the words at the commencement of +the tenth verse:</p> + +<p>"As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not +thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it (<i>the earth</i>) bring forth +and bud (<i>not first bud, bear seed, and then bring forth</i>), that it (<i>the +earth</i>) may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater (<i>man being the +only sower of seed and eater of bread</i>): so shall my Word be (<i>the Word of +Life</i>) that goeth forth out of my mouth (<i>the mouth of the Lord</i>); it +shall not return unto me void (<i>i.e., lifeless</i>), but it shall accomplish +that which I (<i>the Lord Jehovah</i>) please, and it (<i>the living Word</i>) shall +prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."</p> + +<p>This formula of life is as true now as it was over two thousand six +hundred years ago, when it was penned by the divinely inspired prophet, +and it is as true now as it was then, that "Instead of the thorn shall +come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle +tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that +shall not be cut off." That is, as the rains descend and the floods come +and change the face of the earth, a law, equivalent to the divine command, +"Let the earth bring forth," is forever operative, changing the face of +nature and causing it to give expression to new forms of life as the +conditions thereof are changed, and these forms are spoken into existence +by the divine fiat.</p> + +In all the alternations of forest growths that are taking place to-day, on +this continent or elsewhere, this one vital law is traceable everywhere. +<p>In the course of the next year, it will be as palpable in the Island of +Java, recently desolated by the most disastrous earthquake recorded in +history, as in any other portion of the earth, however free from such +volcanic action. On the very spot where mountain ranges disappeared in a +flaming sea of fire, and other ranges were thrown up in parallel lines but +on different bases, and where it was evident that every seed, plant, tree, +and thing of life perished in one common vortex of ruin, animal as well as +vegetable life will make its appearance in obedience to this law, as soon +as the rains shall again descend, cool the basaltic and other rocks, and +the life-giving power referred to by Isaiah once more become operative. +There is no more doubt of this in the mind of the learned naturalist, than +in that of the most devout believer of the Bible, from which this most +remarkable formula is taken.</p> + +<p>We have no disposition to arraign the American and European "Agnostics," +as they are pleased to call themselves, for using the term "Nature" +instead of God, in their philosophical writings.</p> + +<p>As long as they are evidently earnest seekers after <i>Truth</i> as it is to be +found in nature--the work of God--they are most welcome into the temple of +science, and their theories deserve our thoughtful consideration. It is +only when they become dogmatic, and assert propositions that have no +foundation in truth, as we sincerely believe, that we propose to break a +lance at their expense, and lay bare their fallacies. We claim nothing +more for ourself, as a scientific writer, than we are willing and ready to +accord to them. Indeed, we would champion their right to be heard sooner +than we would our own, on the principle that it is our duty to be just to +others before we are generous to ourselves, or those of our own following. +But our Agnostic friends should remember that when they charge us with +being "dogmatic in science," the charge should be made good from a +scientific stand-point, and not merely by the bandying of words.</p> + +<p>When they tell us, for instance, that a toad has hibernated for a million +years in any one of the stratified rocks near the surface of the ground, +we interpose the objection that none of these batrachian forms can exist +for a period of more than twelve months without air and food. And yet they +have been blasted out of cavities in the surface rocks of the earth, where +they have apparently lain for the period named by our scientific friends +referred to. The fault is not ours, but theirs, that they are in error. +Had they determined to study the subject of life, as we have done, from +the Bible as well as from nature, they would have commenced at these +toad-producing rocks, and worked their way upward to the source of all +life, and not downward to the vanishing point--that where animal life +ceases in the azoic rocks. The batrachians are low down in the scale of +nature, but they have a determinate period of existence, as do all other +forms of life. Try your experiments with them; see how long they will live +without light, air, and food. This you can do as well as ourself. Conform +to all the conditions required--the absolute exclusion of light, air, and +food--and you will find that the toughest specimen experimented with is a +dead batrachian inside of one year.</p> + +<p>This experimental test should settle the question of lengthened vitality +between us. There is no miracle about this matter at all, and science +finds no stumbling-block in the way of a complete explication of this +riddle, if, in the light of nature, there be any such riddle. We claim +there is not, when we interpret nature in the light of nature's God. Let +the earth, or rather its silicious and other decaying rocks, bring forth +these batrachian forms. The command is imperative and not dependent upon +any "seed" previously scattered or sown in the earth itself.</p> + +<p>The father of the writer was Superintendent of the Green Mountain Turnpike +Company, extending from Bellows Falls to Rutland, Vt., from 1812 to 1832, +and worked every rod of that road many times over. From our earliest +boyhood we accompanied him on these working trips, attended by a large +force of laboring men, and our attention was early called to the +characteristics of these toad-producing rocks. The rotting slates, shales, +sandstones, shists, and rocks of various kinds, were often ploughed up by +the road-sides, and the <i>débris</i> scraped into the centre of the road-beds; +the heaviest ploughs of that day being used to cut through these wayside +rocks, and often requiring as many as six or eight yoke of oxen to break +the necessary furrow. In many of these decaying slates, shists, sandstones +etc., hundreds of young toads, many of them not more than half an inch in +length, were turned out at different seasons of the year, showing that +they were produced independently of any parent batrachian, there being no +trace of a mother toad in connection with them.</p> + +<p>The parent toads bury themselves in the gardens and ploughed fields in the +early autumn, and if they survive the severity of the winter months, may +propagate their kind the second year, and probably for several years. But +they require remarkably favorable conditions to continue their life for +any considerable number of years in open-field propagation, while under no +circumstances whatever can they make their way into these decaying rocks +in order to propagate their species. The reason why such fresh specimens +appear under these circumstances, and in the cavities of the rocks named, +is conclusively that indicated by the prophet Isaiah, in the text quoted +by us; and when Professor Agassiz was forced to admit that trout must have +made their appearance in the fresh-water streams emptying into Lake +Superior, instead of originating elsewhere, it is to be regretted, for the +sake of science, that he did not boldly enunciate the formula of life as +taught by the eagle-eyed prophet of the Bible, and not as proclaimed by +the owl-eyed professors of the London University College.</p> + +<p>What is true of the trout in these Lake Superior streams, is true of them +almost everywhere, even right in the town of Cheshire, Conn., where we are +inditing this preface, the 10th day of October, 1883. We recently visited +the Rev. David D. Bishop, in the northeastern portion of this township, +where that cultured gentleman was constructing an artificial trout-pond. +It was at a season of the greatest drought known for years in that portion +of the town.</p> + +<p>The point selected for this trout-pond was at the farthest eastern source +of what is known as "Honey Pot" brook in Cheshire, a famous one for trout +in former years. Mr. Bishop proposed to stock his pond with the best spawn +he could procure. We remarked to him that there was no need of that +expense, as no stream ever produced better trout than the "Honey Pot"; and +on closely examining one of the six or eight cold springs developed in his +enclosure, to his surprise, not ours, we discovered several small trout, +not more than six weeks old, as lively as they could well be under the +blasting operations then going on there; while his children were fishing +out from the rocks any number of young frogs (of the common <i>Rana</i> +family), abounding wherever rocks and water make their appearance in +similar localities. This incident was all the more remarkable for the +reason that this small stream, or rather source of one, had been +apparently dry for months, as had been many of the best wells in the town.</p> + +<p>Our well, in the western part of the town, had been dug some six feet +into the solid rock and an inexhaustible supply of the coldest water +secured. We invited our neighbors, those living on both sides of us, as +well as at some distance from us, to come and draw all the water they +wanted, remarking that they might now and then draw up a small frog, +originating therein, but that, by fishing him out of the pail, he would +make his way to the neighboring streams not dry, and would flourish well +enough as one of the <i>Rana</i> family. It was only to our more intelligent +neighbors (such as Mr. Bishop) who had read our work on "Life," that we +stopped to explain this phenomenal fact. And so of all life, wherever it +appears, whether vegetable or animal. Our experiments with mosquitoes are +equally conclusive. Three years ago we took two barrels of rain-water +from our cistern, tightly covered; one barrel we left open to the warm +sun and air, and the other we covered with the finest mosquito netting. +The barrel left open was soon thronged with mosquitoes, constructing +their little rafts of eggs and paving their way for the swarms of young +wigglers that in the course of a week or two made their appearance in the +open barrel in immense numbers. The process by which these wigglers hatch +out into mosquitoes is an interesting one, and will bear the closest +study, as well as scientifically pay for watching the operation. At the +proper time they come to the surface of the water, undergo a palpable +modification in their structure, and beautifully burgeon forth into the +tormenting little insects that they are during the summer and autumn +months in our Northern climate. The object of the covered barrel was to +ascertain whether we could reach the conditions favorable for the +development of this little pest of the <i>Culex</i> family, independently of +the eggs of the insect itself. This required some patience and not a +little care. We knew that an egg dropped through the interstices of the +netting would sink to the bottom of the water and fail to germinate, as +every scientist understanding the process well knows. It must be floated +on the water at first, or until it reaches the point of development into +a wiggler. The first step in the process of its life is as cunningly +devised as the second, and the second as the third, until the +full-fledged mosquito is reached.</p> + +<p>All precautions must be taken against any mistake or error in the +experiment named. But we persevered and found nature responsive to our +demands. Wigglers after awhile made their appearance sparsely in the +covered barrel, but the mosquitoes developed from them proved innocuous of +harm, as we kept the barrel covered, and they were soon drowned in the +water, not having sufficient area of flight to answer the conditions of +their life. We might instance some remarkable discoveries in the vegetable +world, showing conclusively that plants and trees come without seed, and +we feel the more pride in this discovery because we have been assured by +Prof. Othniel C. Marsh, of Yale College, a gentleman highly distinguished +in his specialties, that if we would show that an oak tree came without an +acorn, he would abandon Evolution and accept the exposition given by us of +the Bible genesis; but we have no special ambition to make so eminent a +convert from Herbert Spencer's ranks. He is a much younger man than +ourself, but the great English Evolutionist or Involutionist, whichever he +may ultimately decide to call himself, is about the writer's own age, and, +for special reasons, he would prefer to win him to the vital side of this +question, that he may act with Professor Beale in the great controversy +now waging in England on this subject, and we will assure both Prof. +Marsh, and his friend, Herbert Spencer, that if either of them will show +that an acorn comes without an oak tree, we will abandon any position we +have taken on this subject, and accept theirs, however absurdly (to our +mind) it may have been taken in the past. We know that "tall oaks from +little acorns grow;" but that is when man becomes the sower of seed, and +knows the origin of each specific tree that is brought forth. When we talk +about the squirrel, or the birds becoming the "sowers of seeds," +especially the acorns, we are talking at random, and without any certain +knowledge. This we say with all due deference and respect to our learned +Agnostic friends, and wish they would treat their vitalistic brothers with +the same becoming courtesy.</p> + +<p>In a work which we have now in preparation for the press, to be entitled +"Biodynamics; or, The Laws of Life," we shall give this "seed question" a +more exhaustive inquiry than we have yet done.</p> + +<p>Our proofs in regard to one form of life are equally applicable to any +other plant, insect, or animal, and there is no greater or less mystery in +the life of a blade of grass than in the cedar of Lebanon figuring so +conspicuously in the historic page.</p> + +<p>When the Nile overflowed its banks in ancient times, and caused the young +frogs to swarm up as a pest upon the Egyptians, the same law of life was +operative in that land, as when warm thunder-showers pelt the earth with +us in the summer season, causing hundreds and thousands of these +batrachians to come out of the gritty waysides, and swarm along our +highways and by-ways, leading ignorant and thoughtless people to suppose +that they have rained down from the sky. The simple fact is, that the +earth was commanded to bring them forth, and that great mother of all +vegetable and animal life is obeying the command to-day, just as she did +in the beginning.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest errors that science has yet committed, or rather that +scientific men have stumbled upon, is the theory that all living forms +have appeared but once in time and place, and that they have thence +diffused themselves, in pairs, throughout the globe, as from specific +centres of origin. In the primeval oceans, whenever and wherever the +environing conditions of matter were the same or identical, the like +living forms made their appearance and flourished for hundreds and +thousands of years, and finally disappeared, in a fossilized state, as +their environing conditions were changed. They came not genetically--as in +pairs--but thronged the seas in thousands and millions as the divine edict +went forth.</p> + +<p>As another conclusive proof, to our mind, of the existence of this law of +life, we instance the case of the mango-tree growing in the West India +Islands, especially along the sea-shore, where it becomes the natural +<i>habitat</i> of the oyster. It is the belief of some ignorant persons that +the oyster climbs these trees and deposits its spawn or "spat" upon the +extreme limbs of the same as they bend down toward the water. This is +manifestly an error, and belongs to the same class of fallacies as the +common impression that toads rain down from the sky. The smaller +mango-trees growing about the bays and inlets of these islands, furnish, +as we have said, a natural <i>habitat</i> for the oyster, and as the salt +sea-spray washes their roots and the bark of their trunks, the long +thin-shelled oysters of that region make their appearance thereon without +the presence of spawn, just as they do when old oyster-shells are dumped +along our sand-banks in New England. On these dumped shells oysters will +be produced abundantly, simply because the conditions are favorable, and +not in consequence of the presence of "spat." Oysters have little, if any, +locomotive power, and can no more climb the mango-tree than they can scale +the cliffs of the Azores. The reason why they hang in pendent clusters +from the extreme boughs of the mango in the West India Islands is, that +these boughs are sprayed upon by the rippling waters, and the environing +conditions being favorable, the indifferent oyster of that region makes +its appearance.</p> + +<p>There has been no migration of the oyster from one centre of origin to +another, any more than there has been a transference of the white whale +from the arctic seas to the fiery equator. Every thing has its place in +nature, and comes with or without seed as natural laws determine. During +the last year I have gathered cedar trees that did not make their +appearance till late in August and September, long after the seed of the +previous year had entirely disappeared, and there was no more life in them +than there is in acorns that have crossed the Atlantic a dozen times in +bulk. And the late Henry D. Thoreau, in his "Excursions," says that they +will not stand one such shipment to Europe, and that every acorn that does +not sprout by the end of November of the year it matures, is hopelessly a +dead acorn. This is in harmony with our experience, and we have no doubt +of the correctness of his observations. How absurd, then, to suppose that +acorns can retain their vitality so as to germinate after years of +out-door or other exposure. The seeds of forest-trees that mature in May +and June, or the majority of them at least, have to be planted in those +months, as all persons engaged in forest culture well know. This is +specially true of cedars and oaks, as well as of elms and maples.</p> + +<p>Study the paleontological facts as given by Prof. Frederick McCoy, of the +University of Melbourne, in Australia, a gentleman highly distinguished +for his learning and research. He has explored portions of that continent +as far down as the azoic rocks, and made many important discoveries as to +the past life of the globe. His researches have been especially rich in +the Cambrian or Lower Silurian epochs, and have led to many modifications +in the classification of the various forms of life pervading those earlier +periods, and we may say that the facts he has brought to light tend +strongly to show the correctness of our theory as taken from the biblical +text; as, for instance, the <i>Trilobites</i>, occurring so abundantly in what +is known as the Utica slates. Wherever the slates make their appearance, +whether in Australia, America, or any portion of Europe, this fossil, +characteristic of the Silurian and Devonian systems, appeared, not so much +in time and place as in extended localities and conditions--indicating the +presence of a law of life such as we have enunciated. We once inquired of +the elder Prof. Silliman how long it took for the formation of one of +these periods or systems? His reply was curt and pertinent: "It took long +enough, young man!" That satisfied us at the time, and we have never asked +the question since. It is prying beyond scientific depth, and the ablest +scholars in the world will so regard it in the end.</p> + +<p>All fossils follow the same developmental law, and seem to have been +governed by corresponding conditions everywhere. The doctrine of "<i>similia +similibus gignuntur</i>"--similar conditions producing similar forms--obtains +universally. The <i>Graptolites</i>, occurring in the bituminous shales of the +Silurian sandstone period, afford only another instance of the same law to +which we have called the attention of our readers. In fact, the annals of +natural history abound in the most conclusive proofs, as well in the +fossilized as the living world, of what the paramount text of the Bible +teaches us.</p> + +<p>When Professor Ehrenberg, one of the most distinguished classifiers of +minute forms of life in the world, declared, as he recently did before the +Royal Geographical Society of London, that there was "a great invisible +rock-and earth-forming life in nature," he came pretty near enunciating a +great truth in science; and had he connected his language with the +induction of "environing conditions" and the sequence of life therefrom, +he would have accomplished what we undertook to do in our work begun +several years ago, but not completed and published until 1880. For it will +be seen that we had been gathering the material for "Life: Its True +Genesis" for many years before we sat down to the task of writing it.</p> + +<p>When we said to one of our most intimate college friends that we were less +than six months preparing it for the press, we stated what was literally +true; but we had no intention of giving him to understand that we had +spent only that time in gathering the vast amount of material at our +command--twenty times as much as we could possibly use in the preparation +of such a volume for the press. The long months and even years of toil and +study spent by us in the needful preparation, were a part of the labor, as +every author, writing intelligently on any subject, knows. The immense +amount of care and labor that enabled Hermann von Meyer to prepare his +paper on the <i>Archæopterix</i>, rescued from the lithographic slate, is a +case in point, as showing how small apparently the labor of accomplishing +a great work for science. The time devoted to preparing the paper was +trifling as compared with the result of his achievement. And so with every +one who enters the temple of science with a devout wish to attain success.</p> + +<p>It will be apparent to the religious mind of this country and England, if +not to that of Mr. Tyndall himself, that, if the exegetical rendering we +have extended to the Bible be correct, there is no necessity whatever for +the vast uncomputed periods of time intervening the different geological +strata, to which that scientific gentleman refers in his fanciful musings +upon the Matterhorn!</p> + +<p>Nor is there any such necessity for it, if what Professor Ehrenberg says +be true in regard to the basaltic rocks thrown up by volcanic action in +the Island of St. Paul. For if these rocks possess this mysterious power +of life, He who made them manifestly imparted it. One thing is certain, at +least, the rocks did not make themselves; nor did they impart to +themselves any life-originating power after they were made. The same power +that originated them originated all their characteristic properties, and +the same may be said of Professor Tyndall's "sky-mist" or any other +mistier name suggested by scientific men. We have only to take the +"Thesaurus" of the Silurian period, and connect it with the induction of +the biblical text, and we shall see that the forms characteristic of that +period appeared not only synchronously in time and space, but also in +physical conditions, and consequently, that no immense epochs were +expended in the propagation, of species on the "two-pair" theory of our +materialistic friends. They simply flourished over vast areas for a while, +and were then locked up as fossils where they are now found. How long it +took for this transformation to take place is manifestly beyond any data +we may now have for determining. In the case of some artificial baths in +which crystalline forms appear, we know that it takes only a few weeks at +least, and why should natural processes be any more delinquent or +defective in their operation than those that are purely artificial? +Remember that we are not "musing on the Matterhorn" as was the gifted +English naturalist, but upon the text of the equally gifted Isaiah, and +pondering the works of God as seen by the devout prophet in his day. When +Mr. Tyndall can tell us how long it took God to lift the towering +Matterhorn from its base, he will be in a frame of mind to answer the +other problems involved in the controversy between us. In an instant--the +twinkling of an eye--some of these phenomena have occurred, and recent +events, such as wide volcanic disturbances, show how idle it is for man to +place a limit to the power of the Most High. Even the "red snow," +unmistakably a vegetal formation, appearing at times on the loftier Alps, +is as much a proof of God's power as the ragged mountain peaks on which it +appears--covering vast areas within a few hours' time.</p> + +<p>When such men as the late Professor Silliman, and Professor Dana, Sen'r, +of Yale College, take up the Bible genesis, and speak in high commendation +of its value to science, it is idle for the Agnostics of that or any other +institution of learning to speak sneeringly of their efforts. They both +know (for the elder Benjamin Silliman "still lives") that the first +command of this genesis was, for the earth to bring forth its vegetation, +not from "seed" distinctively so-called, but from the germinal principles +of life therein; what Ehrenberg calls the "rock-and earth-forming life" or +power of life in matter.</p> + +<p>That the second command was, for the waters of the earth to bring forth +their specific forms of life, including the birds; just where science now +asserts they originally came from.</p> + +<p>And that the third command was, for the earth to bring forth the beasts +thereof, and every creeping thing thereon. Here the "rock-and +earth-forming" power of life ceased, and the language of the genesis +changes. It is no longer "Let the earth bring forth," but let the Divine +energy intervene!</p> + +<p>"Let us (the divine Trinity in Unity) make man in our own image"--after +our own conception of what he should be--the being of two worlds, the +material and spiritual; and man was made accordingly. God breathed into +his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a "living soul." This is +the record--brief, grand, historic. No "evolution," no "involution," no +word without sense or meaning. He who was to have dominion, in his limited +sphere, over all the earth, thus came in due time for a wiser and grander +purpose than man has yet seen; but which, in the providence of God and the +light of His word, he will yet come to see, as scientific truth advances +with the march of religious knowledge. Heaven speed the day when this +millennium of truth shall dawn upon us here!</p> + +<p>In this remarkable genesis we have a bridge that spans the chasm between +the man and the anthropoid ape as no other bridge spans it. It is a bridge +over which is flung the living garment of God, and angelic hosts may pass +it to and fro, as well as the master-minds of our own and future ages. It +takes man out of the category of a "beast of the earth," and places him +where all soul-aspiration lifts us--lifts even Robert G. Ingersoll, in his +higher inspirational moods, or will lift him when his extreme material +dogmatisms and false teachings desert him, as we trust they some day will. +Let him read the "Student," by Bulwer, and he will learn how narrowly +Voltaire escaped becoming a "Reformer" in the Church of England, instead +of the violent antagonist he was of the corrupt Church of Rome in France. +We do not make ourselves; it is the environing circumstances and +conditions in which we are placed which oftentimes determine our career +for good or for evil.</p> + +<p>We had proposed embodying in this Preface one or two caustic reviews of +our late work, from an Agnostic source, but have been deterred from so +doing, for the reason that we deem it in bad taste as well as irrelevant +at this late day. We shall be pardoned, however, in alluding to <i>The +National Quarterly Review</i>, for the captious manner in which it treated us +after we had courteously replied to several inquiries made of us in its +two- or three-page review. After complaining that we had been "hailed, by a +class of callow religious critics, as a 'Savior' from scientific error and +enormities," it charged us with certain unscrupulous methods of +criticism,--such as putting language into Mr. Darwin's mouth that he never +thought of uttering, etc., etc. And as this pretentious Quarterly put +several questions to us, such as "When and where the great Evolutionist +had taught any such doctrine as this?" we ventured to reply as courteously +as we knew how. We endeavored to treat our reviewer fairly, as he had +handsomely accorded to us the credit of "searching the fields of natural +science, lance in hand, to deal hard thrusts at impious skeptics, +materialists, and evolutionists--of which Mr. Darwin and Mr. Bastian fare +the most severely." But we had no thought of using these offensive +adjectives toward either of the distinguished gentlemen named, and did not +so use them; however "unscrupulous" our methods may have been in other +respects. Our reply was unnoticed by the bulky Quarterly, and we were +content with knowing that it was received by its editor, and shared the +fate of all intrusive communications which it is easier to throw into the +waste-basket, especially in hot weather, than to answer in the interests +of science, when such answers are difficult to be made. This was the first +and only discussion we attempted to provoke with our "exhaustive +Reviewers," and it will, in all probability, be the last. Little is gained +by these polemical controversies, when conducted in the spirit of +unfairness, or with greater asperity than the true interests of journalism +demand. The beauty of its kindly advice to us, as a "scientific critic," +was that every word of it came back, as a cruel boomerang, into the +writer's own face.</p> + +<p>But this is enough. For the last three years we have been mostly engaged +in writing another book, the character of which is already sufficiently +indicated in this Preface. The reasons why we have been led to adhere to +our original purpose of making this a "Bible Genesis," as <i>The National +Quarterly Review</i> speaks of it, are best known to our more intimate +friends, and we do not propose to disappoint them in their expectations.</p> + +<p>If we have failed to make our theory understood by others, we regret it; +if others fail to understand the inspired text, it is manifestly a matter +for them to regret, and for us to deplore.</p> + +<p>To those who have spoken kindly of "Life: Its True Genesis," we return our +thanks: to those who have extended to it their sharpest criticisms, in +what they believe the true interests of science, we also return our +thanks. We have no fear that Truth will be crushed in this contest:</p> + +<blockquote> "Truth crushed to earth shall heavenward rise again,<br /> +Like wayside flowers that lift their heads, aglow<br /> +With a far sweeter fragrance when they've been<br /> +All rudely trampled on by hostile foe,<br /> +Than when in Flora's gentle arms they've lain<br /> +The long night through, and wake at early dawn<br /> +To greet Aurora--jewelled queen of morn!"</blockquote> + +<p>R. W. Wright.</p> + +<p>West Cheshier, Conn., <i>Oct</i>. 12, 1883.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="pref"></a>Prefatory.</h2> + + + +<p>The office of a preface is twofold; first, to introduce the author to the +public; second, to introduce his work. As the writer seeks no personal +introduction, beyond what a favorable or unfavorable reception of his work +may give him, he leaves the more formal, if not formidable branch of +salutation untouched.</p> + +<p>The work has cost him some labor, as the reader will see. The field he has +traversed is vast and varied, and the facts he has gathered are numerous +and from many and diversified sources--all bearing more or less +conclusively on the one vital point he seeks to establish, viz: <i>That the +primordial germs (meaning germinal principles of life) of all living +things, man alone excepted, are in themselves upon the earth, and that +they severally make their appearance, each after its kind, whenever and +wherever the necessary environing conditions exist</i>.</p> + +<p>The foundation of this emphatic formula we find in the Bible Genesis, in +the words given on our title-page, which are more accurately translated in +the Septuagint, than in our common English version of the Old Testament. +The words are to be found in the 11th verse of the first chapter of +Genesis, and the writer confidently believes that they contain the true +Genesis of Life, although entirely overlooked, heretofore, by both the +biblical and scientific scholar.</p> + +<p>In the work which he here gives to the public, he will endeavor to show +that all the vital phenomena of our globe, with the single exception +named, find their complete explication in this Genesis of Life; and that +we have only to take the scientific Genesis out of some of its more +imposing categories, to make the two either entirely harmonize, or fall +into the same lines of incidence in human thought.</p> + +<p>Science has long taught that the <i>absence</i> of necessary physiological +conditions results everywhere in the <i>disappearance</i> of vital phenomena; +by reversing its logical methods, it will also find that the <i>presence</i> of +these necessary conditions results everywhere in the <i>appearance</i> of vital +phenomena. Take, for instance, the vegetation of Northern Europe, where it +is known that the oak succeeded the pine, and the beech the oak, after +each had held possession of the soil for we know not how many thousand +years. In bringing about the necessary conditions of soil, the pine paved +the way for the oak, and that in turn paved the way for the beech. Neither +sprang from the other, nor did the "selection of the fittest" have +anything to do with the appearance or disappearance of either. Each +yielded fruit "after his kind," whose "seed" (germinal principle of life) +was in itself, i.e., after its own kind, upon the earth, and made its +appearance spontaneously,--that is, without the presence of natural +seed,--whenever the necessary environing conditions favored.</p> + +<p>And the same law of vegetal propagation is everywhere operative to-day, in +the alternations of forest growths, the spontaneous appearance of oak +forests where pine have been cleared away, and <i>vice versa</i>, in some parts +of the country, where heavy forests of oak timber have been felled. So +with the new growths of timber springing up in the paths of tornadoes, +over large burnt districts, in soils brought up from below the last +glacial drift, and in hundreds of other instances which the reader will +find conclusively verified in these pages,--all making their appearance +without the possible intervention of natural seeds.</p> + +<p>The great value of the Septuagint, as compared with other versions of the +Hebrew Bible, will appear from the fact that it is older by many hundred +years than any manuscript copy of the Hebrew text now extant. It was +undoubtedly translated at Alexandria, in Egypt, as early as the third +century before Christ, while the oldest known Hebrew MS. is a Pentateuch +roll dating no further back than A. D. 580. Its translators had before +them much older and more perfect MSS. than any that survived to the time +of the masoretic recension, when an attempt was made to give uniformity to +the readings and renderings of the Hebrew text by means of the vowel +points, diacritical signs, terminal letters, etc., all of which are now +subject to rejection by the best Oriental scholarship.</p> + +<p>According to Irenæus, this Greek version was rendered at the request of +Ptolemy Lagi, in order to add to the treasures of the Alexandrian library, +and it no doubt derived its name from the number of Hebrew and Hellenistic +scholars,--probably the most eminent to be found in that day,--employed +upon the work. The version comes, therefore, with paramount authority to +our own times; and we accept its Greek rendering as the highest and most +conclusive evidence of the authenticity of the text, and the "new genesis +of life" we derive therefrom.</p> + +<p>Σπέρμα (as contained in the Septuagint) has almost an identical +signification with the Hebrew word ZRA. It means the "<i>germ</i> of anything," +or the "germinal principle of life," as contained in anything that lives +or grows. No one will claim that it is used in its literal sense of +"seed," in the text. For, when the divine command was issued, there was no +plant or tree, and, presumably, had been none upon the earth from which +seed could have been derived. The word was used in its larger and more +comprehensive (that is, metaphorical) sense, as the "germinal principle of +life in matter," or precisely in the sense in which the Greek stoics used +it in their philosophy. Both Theophrastus and Diogenes use the terms +σπερματ´κοὶ γόγοι expressing "the <i>laws of generation contained in +matter</i>"--precisely the meaning we attach to it in its textual +connection. The eleventh verse should read, therefore, as follows: "Let +the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree +yielding fruit after his kind, <i>whose germinal principle of life, each in +itself after its kind, is upon the earth</i>"</p> + +<p>We accept this rendering of "the seventy," because they had the most +complete and perfect Hebrew MSS. before them, and were no doubt better +scholars, and far more competent renderers of the original text than the +Masorites who came some seven or eight hundred years after them.</p> + +<p>But this is not the most important point of inquiry in this connection. +The materialistic objector may say: "Admit all this; grant that the true +rendering is here given; grant even that the true law of vegetal +development and growth is here enunciated; what has 'star-eyed science' to +do with the '<i>odium theologicum</i>?'" We answer, nothing. We would bury both +theological rancor and atheistical pretension in the same barrow, and +agree never to "peep and botanize" over their common grave. But if a great +scientific principle--one that fits into all the phenomenal facts of +nature--explains them all, and is, in turn, explained by them--be found in +the Hebrew <i>Hagiographa</i>, of what less value is it to science than if it +had been originally enunciated by Aristotle or Plato? Or--to make the +inquiry still sharper and more emphatic--of what less value is it to +science than if it had originally come from Professor Tyndall or Mr. +Herbert Spencer?</p> + +<p>Take the "biblical genesis" as we have enunciated and explained it--with +all the facts crowded into these explanatory pages--and science has no +longer any genetic mystery to brood over, further than that every +operation of nature is a mystery into which it is useless for scientific +speculation to pry. We know what nature <i>does</i>, or may know it by the +proper scrutiny, but we shall never know the causes of things, any more +than we shall find God at the bottom of Herbert Spencer's crucible, or at +the top of his ladder of synthesis. In the light of the Bible genesis, +science can account for the origin of the stalwart oak or the lordly pine, +without going back to any mycological or cryptogamic forms, to follow down +an ever-changing vital plexus that is as likely to land in a buttonwood +tree as an oak, or in a hemlock as a pine,--in fact, quite as likely to +land in a carnivorous animal as in an insectivorous plant. "Let the earth +bring forth," is still the eternal fiat,--just as implicitly obeyed to-day +as it was in the world's primeval history, when an exuberance of +endogenous vegetation laid the foundation of the coal measures. It +requires no greater effort on the part of nature to produce the pine, the +oak, the beech, the hickory--all of which we see springing directly from +primordial germs to-day--than it did to produce the lowest vegetal +organism, from an invisible, indestructible "vital unit," or Darwinian +gemmule, thousands of years ago.</p> + +<p>He who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, and in whose sight a +thousand years are but as yesterday, knows no such "law of variability" as +our materialistic friends have been spinning for us in their unverified +theories of evolution, natural selection, selection of the fittest, +rejection of the unfit--force-correlations, molecular machinery, +transmutation of physical forces, differentiation, dynamical aggregates, +<i>molécules organiques</i>, potentiated sky-mist, undifferentiated +"life-stuff," and other hylotheistic and purely hypothetical formulæ, +with which the average mind has been well-nigh crazed for the last fifteen +or twenty years.</p> + +<p>Believing that the time has come to call for "a halt" in scientific +speculations, and a return to the phenomenal facts of nature as the true +and only basis on which to formulate the immutable laws of life, matter, +motion, etc., the writer submits this volume with trustful confidence to +the public. [<a href="#foot1">1</a>]</p> + +<p>R. W. Wright.</p> + +<p>West Cheshire, Conn.</p> + + + + + +<h1>True Genesis.</h1> + + + + +<h2><a name="01"></a>Chapter I.</h2> + +<h3>Introductory.</h3> + + + +<p>It is undeniably true that the progress of scientific thought and +speculative inquiry, both in this country and in Europe, is rapidly +tending towards a purely materialistic view of the universe, or one that +utterly excludes the ancient and long-predominating metaphysical +conceptions of Life, to say nothing of the more regnant and universally +prevailing conception of a God. And it is quite as undeniable that the +current of experimental research and investigation is setting, with equal +rapidity, in the same direction. According to the views of many of our +more advanced chemists, physiologists, and other scientific and +speculative writers and thinkers--those whose experimental investigations +have, it is claimed, reached the ultimate implications of all material +substance--there are but two immutable, indestructible, and thoroughly +persistent elements in the universe--<i>Matter</i> and <i>Motion</i>. Everything +else, they confidently assert, is either purely phenomenal, or else +essentially mutable, ephemeral, transitory. Force, according to their +theory, is only another name for motion or its correlates, and, hence, the +two terms are interchangeably used by them in predicating their ultimate +conclusions respecting matter.</p> + +<p>Light, heat, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity, molecular force, +and even life itself, are only so many manifestations or expressions, they +claim, of one and the same force in the universe--<i>Motion</i>, With the +exception of matter, it is the only self-persistent, permanently enduring, +ever active and reactive agency.</p> + +<p>Light, they say, is dependent, heat conditional, electricity and magnetism +more or less phenomenal, chemical affinity and molecular force mere modes +or correlated forms of motion, and all-pervading life itself a mere +postulate of the schools, or at best only the result of the dynamic force +of molecules.</p> + +<p>Deem not this collocation simply a burlesque on Scientific categories. +Professor Bastian, in his great work on the "Beginnings of Life," has +unhesitatingly said: "The 'vitalists' must give up their last +stronghold--we cannot even grant them a right to assume the existence of a +special 'vital force' whose peculiar office it is to effect the +transformation of physical forces. The notion that such a force does +exist, is based on no evidence; it is a mere postulate. The assumption of +its existence carries with it nothing but confusion and contradiction, +because the very supposition that it exists, and does so act, is totally +averse to the general doctrine of the correlation of forces."</p> + +<p>And this defiant challenger of the "vitalists," who thus half-sneeringly +speaks of those who believe that the vital forces of the universe are +among the highest potential factors expressed therein, is one who, for the +last decade and a half, has mostly lived in the ephemeromorphic world, and +who, in diving into the "beginnings of life," has so far lost his way that +the all-glorious end of it is as much an inexplicable mystery to him now, +as when he was more successfully expounding pathological anatomy and +ruthlessly hacking away at anatomical subjects over the dissecting-slab of +the London University College. Had he spent less time over this +dissecting-slab, and more in studying the marvellous manifestations of +life in its outspoken beauty of leaf, bud, flower, fruit--things of not +mere guess and fancy--he would undoubtedly have had a higher appreciation +of what is most vital in nature, and less of what is simply material in a +non-functional sense. With Mr. Herbert Spencer, he gratuitously sneers at +the "old specific-creation hypothesis," or the divine fiat in the +beginning; but without that fiat, where would he find his ephemeromorphs? +or even the dead tissues used in his organic infusions for the vainest of +all human endeavors--that of producing life, or seeking to produce it, <i>de +novo</i>? He is so immeasurably disgusted with the vitalists that he hardly +allows himself to speak of "life" or even use the term "vital" as applied +to its simplest manifestations, without quotationizing them as terms to +provoke both incredulity and derision.</p> + +<p>The world may, however, overlook much of this in him, in view of his past +professional pursuits, as well as in consideration of his eminent services +as a specialist in science. The dissecting-room of a university is not the +most desirable place in the world for profoundly studying the vital forces +of nature. It is too grim and ghastly a repository of dead men's skulls, +and "holes where eyes did once inhabit," in which to regard "life's +enchanting cup" as one sparkling to the brim. Detaching a muscle here, and +laying bare another there; taking out a sightless eye in one subject, and +putting the dissecting-knife deep into the pulseless heart of another; +cutting the fragments of a human body into shreds and tatters over one +dissecting-slab, and loading down another with splintered bones and +mangled hands and limbs, is not exactly the sort of occupation to enkindle +the highest enthusiasm for "life," in any of its more manifold phases in +nature. Too many lifeless notions get crammed into the head--to say +nothing of baffled endeavor in the pursuit--to admit of the more +conclusive and satisfactory inductions respecting living organisms.</p> + +<p>But why should an assumption of the existence of life carry with it any +greater "confusion and contradiction," than a like assumption respecting +either matter or motion? Simply because the materialists insist, in their +logical inductions, upon so distributing the terms of their syllogism that +only a negative conclusion shall follow.</p> + +<p>"Matter and motion," they say, are alone indestructible.</p> + +<p>Life is neither matter nor motion,</p> + +<p>Therefore: Life is not indestructible.</p> + +<p>This syllogism is manifestly unanswerable, if there be no fallacy in the +distribution of its major and minor terms. But wherein lies the +incompatibility of reversing the order of its terms, so as to prove that +neither matter nor motion is indestructible? And would such a judgment, +thus derived, be any more spurious, the process of reasoning any more +illicit, or the conclusion any less unanswerable? We might as well say +that neither matter nor motion is an absolute entity in the universe, +without some apprehensive intelligence, or rational intuition therein, to +embrace them as distinct concepts or objects of thought; nor can either +have the least conceivable attribute without some co-existing intelligence +to ascribe it. For to ascribe an attribute, is to conceive or think of +such attribute. And as our general conceptions are conceded to be +realities, even by the materialists themselves, it necessarily follows +that this conscious <i>ego</i>--this thing that conceives, thinks, ascribes +attributes--is either co-existent with matter, or else antedates it in the +order of existence. And here--at this identical point in the argument--we +are irresistibly forced back, in our inductive processes, to the +theological conception of a God--the one supreme <i>Ego</i> of the +universe--from whom alone all our intuitions of consciousness, as well as +apprehensive intelligence, is derived.</p> + +<p>We can no more get rid of these inductive processes than we can change the +order of nature or reverse the inevitable laws of thought. Hence, we are +constantly driven to formulate the following, or some equivalent +inductions:--</p> + +<p>1. Cause must exist before effect.</p> + +<p>2. Without some vital principle, therefore, preëxisting as a cause, there +can be no life-manifestation.</p> + +<p>3. But there can be no life-manifestation without organic structure.</p> + +<p>4. The reverse of this proposition is also true.</p> + +<p>5. Which, therefore, precedes the other as a cause, and which follows as +an effect?</p> + +<p>6. Nothing can organize itself. To do so, it must contain within itself +both the operating cause and the resulting effect, which is at once an +incongruent and conflictive judgment.</p> + +<p>7. But the thing that organizes must exist before the thing organized, +whether it be a vital principle or an intelligent agency.</p> + +<p>8. Hence Life, either as a preëxisting cause or vital agency, must precede +both animal and vegetal organism. + +Again:--</p> + +<p>9. Cause is that which operates to produce an effect, as effect is that +which is produced by an operating cause.</p> + +<p>10. But whatever operates to produce a life-manifestation must precede it +as an operating cause.</p> + +<p>11. Life, therefore, whether as a blind or intelligent force or agency, +must precede its own manifestation; that is, must exist as an operating +cause before there is any produced effect.</p> + +<p>12. And this is true both as regards physical and moral effects.</p> + +<p>13. Our intuitions, as the final arbiters of judgment, demand this or some +equivalent order as the only one embraced in a logical praxis.</p> + +<p>And since there can be no sound without an ear to appreciate it, so there +be can no matter without an existing <i>ego</i>, in some state of consciousness +in the universe, to apprehend it--to ascribe to it attributes.[<a href="#foot2">2</a>] On what, +therefore, are we to predicate the existence of either matter or motion, +except it be these intuitions of consciousness whose validity, so far as +we have any knowledge whatever on the subject, rests exclusively on that +"breath of life," which was breathed into man when he became a living +soul? But if our intuitions are not realities, then nothing is a reality. +All is as unsubstantial, as vague and shadowy, as Coleridge's "image of a +rock," or Bishop Berkeley's "ghost of a departed quantity," as he once +defined a fluxion. We may, therefore, retort upon Professor Bastian:--The +"materialists," must give up their last stronghold--we cannot even grant +them a right to assume the existence of either matter or motion, since +both manifestly depend, for their slightest manifestation, upon the more +potent agency of "vital force," as expressed in thought, volition, and +consciousness--that triumvirate of the intellectual faculties without +which neither matter nor motion could have so much as a hypothetical +existence.</p> + +<p>The great trouble with Professor Bastian, as with Mr. Herbert Spencer, is +that he advances a purely materialistic hypothesis, and then goes to work, +with his quantitative and conditional restrictions, to eliminate all vital +force from the universe. As he has been no more successful in finding +God--the Infinite source of all life--at the point of his +dissecting-knife, than has the speculative chemist at the bottom of his +crucible, or Mr. Spencer at the top of his ladder of synthesis, he +resolutely grapples with logic, as a last resort, and as remorselessly +syllogizes God out of the universe as he would a mythological demon +infecting the atmosphere of his dissecting-room. In the same way, he +successfully syllogizes all life out of existence: although, in the very +act of constructing his syllogism, he demonstrates its existence as +conclusively as that matter and motion are objective realities in the +world of mind and matter which is about him. He fails to see, however, +that the thing which demonstrates must necessarily precede the thing +demonstrated, as life must necessarily precede its manifestation. In +admitting the existence of "vital manifestation," therefore, he virtually +admits an antecedent vital principle, lying back of an effect as a cause, +which must exclude anything like a contradictory judgment, so long as the +laws of the human mind, in respect to logical antecedents and consequents, +remain as they are.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be the alleged inaccuracies of the Bible Genesis or the +disputes heretofore indulged in respecting the <i>Hagiographa</i>, or "sacred +writings" of the Jews, it will hardly be denied by the Biblical scholar +that some of the most important discoveries in modern science, especially +in the direction of astronomy, as well as in geological research and +inquiry, confirm rather than throw doubt upon their more explicit +utterances. This has been so marked a feature in the controversy, that +whenever scientific speculation has thrown down any fresh gage of battle, +as against the validity of these "sacred writings," the advocates of the +latter have only had to take it up to dispel the mists of controversy and +achieve a more conclusive triumph than ever. For the truth of this +statement it is only necessary for us to instance a few of the more +important facts contained in the Bible Genesis. And should it be found +that the writer of this volume has discovered, in a long overlooked, much +neglected, and inaccurately translated passage of this Genesis, a key that +unlocks the whole "mystery of life," as the great battle is now waging +between the materialists and vitalists of this country and Europe, it will +most conclusively establish the point we shall here make--that in no +equally limited compass, in ancient or modern manuscript or published +volume, since the first dawn of letters to the present time, are there to +be found so many conclusively established facts of genuine scientific +value as in the first chapter of Genesis.</p> + +<p>In dispelling the mists of prejudice, and possibly of doubtful +translation, let us look this "genesis" squarely in the face:--</p> + +<p>1. Take the statement that "in the beginning" the earth was without form +and void, and darkness rested upon the face of the depths. Here is not +only no conflict with science, but the great suggestive fact which led +Laplace to construct his "Nebular Hypothesis," or that magnificent +system of world-structures which regards the universe as originally +consisting of uniformly diffused matter filling all space, and hence +"without form and void," but which subsequently became aggregated by +gravitation into an infinite number of sun-systems, occupying +inconceivably vast areas in space.</p> + +<p>2. Nor can science well afford to cavil at that other most important +suggestive statement that "the spirit of God"--the great formative force +of the universe--moved upon the face of the depths, after which the +evening and the morning were the first day, that is, the first distinctive +epoch in the order of creation. When materialistic science shall define +"gravitation"--the supposed aggregating force of infinitely diffused +matter in space--so as to make it a distinct and separate factor in the +universe from "the spirit of God,"--that spirit which was breathed into +man when he became a living soul, and which, we are told, "upholds the +order of the heavens," then its devotees may sneer at the Bible Genesis, +and the logical deductions to be drawn therefrom.</p> + +<p>3. Again, science can have no conflict with the Bible Genesis, except in +the most hypercritical way, in the affirmative statement that God set two +great lights in the firmament, the one to rule the day and the other to +rule the night; and that "he made the stars also." For it is nowhere +stated that the "greater light" was not made to perform a similar office +for each of the other planets of our system, or that it was not set in the +firmament to adorn the skies of other and far-distant worlds, as "bright +Arcturus, fairest of the stars," adorns our own.</p> + +<p>4. Nor can materialistic science dispute the more explicitly revealed +fact, that the order of creation, so far at least as animal and vegetable +life are concerned, is precisely that to be found in geological +distribution, or as unerringly recorded in the lithographic pages of +nature. And yet nothing was known of these pages--not a leaf had been +turned back--at the time the Bible Genesis was written. So that, whoever +was its author, this precise order of distribution could only have been +"guessed at," setting aside its inspirational claims, by the writer of +this most remarkable genesis.</p> + +<p>5. And again, science can have no successful conflict--certainly none in +which she will ultimately come off victor--in reference to the equally +explicit statement that every living thing, and every living creature, +either yields seed, bears fruit, or brings forth issue, "after his kind," +and distinctively none other. For this would seem to be the one inflexible +law governing all living organisms, from which there can be no divergence +in any such sense as the "scientific genesis," pretentiously so called, +would authoritatively indicate. No "increase in variety," which Mr. +Spencer regards as the "essential characteristic of all progress," will +ever enable us "to gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles."</p> + +<p>6. Nor will materialistic science ever succeed in overthrowing the Bible +theory herein advanced, that "the germs of all living things, man only +excepted, are in themselves (that is, each after its kind) upon the +earth," and that they severally make their appearance whenever the +necessary environing conditions occur. This most remarkable statement of +the Bible genesis will be found to fit into all the vital phenomena +occurring upon our globe, explaining the appearance of infusoria, all +mycological and cryptogamic forms, as well as all vegetal and animal +organisms. All these come from "the earth wherein there is life," and +hence the divine command for the earth "to bring forth" every living thing +(except man) "after his kind."</p> + +<p>But let us embrace, in the proper antithetical summary of statements, some +of the more distinctive points of antagonism between the Bible genesis and +that of materialistic science:--</p> + +<p>THE BIBLE GENESIS.</p> + +<p>1. The Bible Genesis presents the theological conception of a God, or an +Infinite Intelligence in the universe, with whom, as personified, there is +no variableness, neither shadow of turning.</p> + +<p>2. The Bible Genesis represents every living thing as <i>perfect</i> of its +kind, which the earth was commanded to bring forth from seed or "germs," +declared to be in themselves upon the earth.</p> + +<p>3. The Bible Genesis represents God as causing to grow, out of the ground, +every tree that is "pleasant to the sight and good for food," also every +plant of the field "before it was in the earth," and every herb of the +field "before it grew."</p> + +<p>4. The Bible Genesis represents God as causing the waters of the earth to +bring forth abundantly great whales and every living creature that moveth +therein, and every winged fowl that flieth above the earth in the open +firmament of heaven.</p> + +<p>5. The Bible Genesis represents God as causing the earth to bring forth +every living creature "after his kind," enumerating them in the order in +which they appear in geological distribution.</p> + +<p>6. The Bible Genesis represents God as making man in his own image, after +he had commanded the waters and the earth to bring forth abundantly of +every other living creature.</p> + +<p>7. The Bible Genesis represents God as breathing into man "the breath of +life," and he became a "living soul,"</p> + +<p>8. The Bible Genesis represents God as creating the earth for the abode of +man--giving him dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, +the beasts of the earth, and of every living thing that creepeth upon the +face of the earth.</p> + +<p>9. The Bible genesis represents God as exercising a moral government over +man, to the exclusion of every other living creature.</p> + +<p>10. In fine, the Bible Genesis represents man as only "a little lower than +the angels."</p> + +<p> +THE SCIENTIFIC GENESIS.</p> + +<p>1. The Scientific genesis virtually eliminates the idea of a God from the +universe, by assigning to natural causes all the diversified and +myriad-formed phases and changes that have taken place therein, extending +through an infinite duration of past time, and constantly confronted by an +infinite duration of time to come.</p> + +<p>2. The Scientific Genesis represents every living thing as more or less +<i>imperfect</i> of its kind, but advancing towards perfection by some +underlying law of variability or selection of the fittest, or by gradual +development from lower into higher organisms.</p> + +<p>3. The Scientific Genesis emphatically repudiates the idea of any divine +agency in the growth of plants and trees, and insists that "life," in all +its manifold phases, is only "an undiscovered correlative of motion," or, +at best, only a sort of <i>tertium quid</i> between matter and motion.</p> + +<p>4. The Scientific Genesis represents all fishes, amphibia, reptiles, +birds, etc., as travelling along their respective lines of developmental +progress and differentiation, from points far back in geologic time, and +constantly working their way up from cold and flabby creatures into those +of higher cerebral activity, and brighter and more varied life, until +gigantic winged reptiles mounted into the air and became birds.</p> + +<p>5. The Scientific Genesis attributes the appearance of every living +creature upon the earth to a law of "evolution," by which one thing +constantly overlaps another, forming a sort of stairway for lower +organisms to climb into higher, without regard to "kind," or even orders, +genera, or species.</p> + +<p>6. The Scientific Genesis distinctly takes issue with that of the Bible +respecting the divine origin of man, and insists that he has been climbing +up from protoplasmic matter, through a thousand other and lower organisms, +until he finally leaped from an anthropoid ape into man.</p> + +<p>7. The Scientific Genesis emphatically repudiates the idea of a soul as +thus derived, and even insists that "conscience," the highest known +moral factor in the universe, is only a modified expression of the +social instincts of the lower animals--the difference being in degree +only, not in kind.</p> + +<p>8. The Scientific Genesis promptly takes issue with this creative plan and +purpose--insisting, in the dazzling speculations and fancies of its +adherents, that well known physical and physiological laws have worked out +all these phenomenal aspects and changes, and that these laws are wholly +indifferent as to whether man shall have dominion over the shark and the +tiger, or they dominion over him.</p> + +<p>9. The Scientific Genesis illogically insists that "natural laws,"--those +expressing no sovereign will, and having "no seat in the bosom of +God"--are fully adequate for the government of man, he exercising to that +end all the higher powers with which, by evolutional changes, he has +become endowed.</p> + +<p>10. While the Scientific Genesis represents him as only a little higher +than the apes!</p> + +<p>And yet no scientific authority has ever been claimed for these sacred +Hebrew writings. They were simply designed as a rule of human faith and +conduct, ostensibly having the divine sanction, and containing historical, +devotional, didactic, and prophetical writings, to be read through, at +least once a year, in the Jewish synagogues.</p> + +<p>But the most important of these antithetical statements, so far at least +as modern scientific research and inquiry are concerned, is that which +represents the germs of all living things--man alone excepted--as being +implanted in the earth itself. We take the definition of the Hebrew word +<i>ZRA</i>, translated "seed" in the 11th verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis, +from Professor Edward Leigh, of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in his "Critica +Sacra," first published in 1662:--"<i>Sparsit, asparsit, cum aspersione +fudit, diffudit</i>," etc, that is, "something sown, scattered, universally +diffused, everywhere implanted," as a germ in the earth. That the Hebrew +word <i>ZRA</i>. does not mean, in this connection, the seed of a plant or +tree, is manifest from the fact that the first plant or tree, from which +"seed" could have been derived, had not yet appeared upon the earth.</p> + +<p>The exact translation is, "whose primordial germs are in themselves (that +is, each after its kind) upon the earth," implanted therein, as the +"<i>diversa diversorum viventium primordia</i>" of Dr. William Harvey, were +originally implanted in the earth. This illustrious physician and +biologist, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, not only taught +the doctrine expressed in his phrase "<i>omne vivum ex ovo</i>," but that of +"primordial germs"--living indestructible "principles of life"--existing +in the earth itself. For it is evident that he uses the word "egg," in its +more general sense, as designating any material substance capable of +receiving his "primordium" (first principle of life) and developing itself +into a living organism.</p> + +<p>The whole controversy, as at present conducted by the materialists and +vitalists, resolves itself into this one question:--Whether life springs +from what Dr. Harvey calls a "primordium,"--a pre-existing vital germ or +unit--or whether it originates <i>de novo</i>, as the materialists assert, from +infusions contained in their experimental flasks, or from plastide +particles contained in protoplasmic matter, or from the still more daring +hypothesis of "molecular machinery" as worked by molecular force? It is +certain that the materialistic theory is quite as inexplicable, on the +basis of analogical reasoning and microscopical investigation, as that +indicated in the Bible Genesis; while the vitalistic theory would seem to +be more in harmony with vital phenomena, and hence the more rational +hypothesis of the two. Besides, the Bible Genesis answers to the logical +necessity of predicating a determinate cause for each and every vital +effect, or each living organism apparently springing from plasmic +conditions or mere structureless matter. Whenever the seeds of plants or +trees are actually planted or sown in the earth, this logical necessity +rests on an induction impregnably laid in cause and effect; while the +materialistic dogma, <i>nihil ex nihilo</i>, would necessitate a like induction +wherever seed is not sown. In either case the change that ensues is +manifestly due to vital properties, whether the same be inhering in the +seed, or in necessary environing conditions. And the vital processes are +the same, with the single difference as to actual environment.</p> + +<p>The germ in the seed is capable of assimilating, by well-determined and +thoroughly specialized processes, the nutrient matter contained in its +environment, precisely as the "primordial germ" develops under its +environing conditions. From the moment they strike their rootlets into the +ground, the processes of development and growth are the same. The only +point, however, necessary to make in this connection, is, that when we go +back to the first living organism of a species--its primordially developed +form--we necessarily reach environing conditions within which there is no +such thing as a germ-cell with an exterior environment corresponding to +the testa of seeds, or to any conceivable notion we may have of seeds +themselves.</p> + +<p>At this point--one not merely theoretical, or speculatively possible only, +but absolutely fixed and determinable in our backward survey of the vital +forces of nature--we find individual parentage lost in a natural matrix, +or in the vital principle implanted as a "primordium," in the earth +itself. To this inevitable induction of Dr. Harvey we are all driven in +the end, by those intuitive processes of reasoning which are hardly less +conclusive than mathematical induction itself. We may call these +"primordia viventium" plastide particles, bioplasts, vital units, or +whatsoever we will,--the name is nothing, the working process is +everything. Scientific speculation accomplishes nothing, therefore, by its +new terminology, except it be to confound the ignorant and astonish the +wise. To call the homogeneous basis of an egg "blastima," and its germinal +point a "blastid," is all well enough in its way; but it adds no new +knowledge, nor additional wealth of language, wherewith to predicate vital +theories, whether they relate to the progeny of a hen-coop or the lair of +a tiger in an Indian jungle.</p> + +<p>Teach us to know what nature <i>does</i>, not what she <i>is</i>; and whatever of +"divine revelation" is vouchsafed us, whether it be found in the majestic +"Poem of the Dawn," attributed to the inspired pen of Moses, in the +"myriad-minded Shakespeare," or the irradiated and deeply-prophetic soul +of a Shelley, let us accept it with thanks, if not to the inspired authors +themselves, at least to "the great Giver of life" who imparted their +inspiration.</p> + +<p>We accept the theory of "primordial germs," not simply because it is +contained in the Bible Genesis, nor because it was conceived by the great +and gifted Harvey as a possible solution of the whole difficulty, but +because it presents, as we have before said, a satisfactory explanation of +all the phenomenal facts of life with which we are acquainted. If Mr. +Herbert Spencer will descend from his stilted theory of "molecular +machinery worked by molecular force," and tell us what it all means; and, +at the same time, turn us out a single plastide particle, or fungus spore, +by any generating process referable to "the machinery" in question, we +will as devoutly worship Matter and Motion as ever ancient Egyptian did +the god Osiris. But until he does this, we prefer to accept the positive +assurance of Professor Lionel S. Beale, a far more competent authority to +speak of hypothetical molecules, that none of the "forces possessed by the +molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the universe was composed" +ever produced a vital manifestation, or succeeded in "making life a slave +to force." We shall consider this question of "molecular force" in its +proper place, and with reference to the different theories of life +advanced by the materialists, without pursuing it further in this +connection.</p> + +<p>The evidence we shall present in reference to the alternations of forest +growths, and the impossibility of accounting for them on any theory of +seed-distribution--alternations covering, in many instances, independent +forests springing up on a vast scale--and the still wider dispersion of +domestic weeds, grasses, forage plants, etc. in localities where they were +never known before, will be conclusive, we think, of the correctness of +our position, that the Bible Genesis contains <i>the true key to the mystery +of life</i>. Bear in mind that the true theory of life, whenever it shall be +reached in human conception and formulated into definitely-known processes +of action, must satisfactorily explain all life-manifestations, as +Newton's theory of gravitation accounts for the movements of all celestial +bodies. And the simpler the theory when once formulated--the more +perfectly it falls into the grooves of definitely-expressed thought, and +the more harmoniously it adapts itself to all vital manifestations--the +more conclusive must be the induction on which it rests.[<a href="#foot3">3</a>] The emphatic +statement that the "primordial germs" of all living things are in the +earth, from the lowest infusorial form to the highest vital organism below +"specifically-created" man, when supplemented by the scientific statement +that "vital units" make their appearance whenever environing conditions +favor, is conclusively a theory which accounts for all the +life-manifestations heretofore occurring upon our globe.</p> + +<p>And this theory falls at once into the necessary categories of human +thought. Life, as generally defined, is a state of organized being wherein +there is functional activity; while a state, or <i>status</i>, is an incidence +determined by environing conditions. But back of each of these--life and +its <i>status</i>--there must lie some efficient cause, producing, in the first +instance, the environing conditions, and then the functional activity +dependent on organization. To assume that this efficient cause is simply +the effect or result of organization--one of its dependent conditions--is +begging the whole question, and, at the same time, discarding a very +important element in the problem--that of conditional environment. What +this efficient cause <i>is</i>, is a question that awakens no responsive +inquiry. It strikes its roots too deeply into the intuitions of +consciousness for the soul to give back an intelligible reply. Certain it +is that neither metaphysical speculation, nor scientific inquiry, will +ever enable us to reach the roots of this question, or extract from them +the first quantitive essence of life itself.</p> + +<p>We shall also consider, in their proper place, the various theories of +life which have been advanced from time to time by the materialists, in +their avowed hostility to current religious beliefs, and especially those +founded on the sacred Hebrew writings, and the supplementary teachings of +the New Testament. And to show the extent of this hostility, and the real +<i>animus</i> of those waging it, it is only necessary to refer to the great +central doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures, that Life--natural, spiritual, +eternal--is "the gift of God." And this is the grand corner-stone of all +religious edifices--those erected by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the +Phoenicians, the Greeks, and even the inhabitants of farther India. +Materialistic science must, therefore, deal its first and most effective +blows at "Life," either as a theory to be resolutely assailed and +overthrown, or else thoroughly ignored and set aside, in the more imposing +and august temple of Science. Hence, the reader will find, in none of the +great encyclopedias prepared under the supervision of scientific men, the +slightest mention whatever of "Life" as a subject worthy of consideration +at their hands. It finds, of course, its meagre definitional place in the +dictionaries, but the bulky and more exhaustive encyclopedias have no room +for it, except as it may be defined, under some correlate of motion, as +"the latent possibility of a nebula," or of "undifferentiated primeval +mist," originally pervading the interplanetary spaces.</p> + +<p>We have no disposition to charge such materialists as Professors Tyndall, +Bastian, Haeckel, Virchow, and Mr. Herbert Spencer, with directing their +experimental batteries against the phenomenal facts of "life" for the +purpose of overthrowing the foundations of religious faith and belief in +the world. They are all eminent scientists, and apparently earnest seekers +after truth in the several directions in which their respective paths of +investigation have been pursued. But they manifestly array their opinions +against the vitalists on the assumption that there is no scientific value +whatever in the many and singularly diversified statements respecting +"life" in both the Old and New Testaments. And this, it may be claimed, is +necessitated by the generally accepted dogma, that science and religion +are more or less hostile, the former resting on the inexorable logic of +facts only, and the latter entirely on <i>pre</i>conceived and <i>pre</i>judicial +notions respecting faith and belief. To this position of theirs we have no +objection to make, so long as they subject their scientific statements to +the one rigid ordeal of positively ascertained facts. But when they set +themselves to spinning their theories of life on the strength of "nebular +potentialities," and the possibilities of "undifferentiated sky mist," we +must insist that they are infinitely wider of the mark than the +theologians who claim that the great formative power of the universe is +God, and that his "spirit," and not gravitation, "upholds the order of the +heavens:"--certainly much wider of the mark than was Pope, when he wrote +of the universe:--</p> + +<p> "All are but parts of one stupendous whole, + Whose body nature is, and God the soul."</p> + +<p>The truth is, that religion is quite as much the handmaid of science as +science can be said to be the handmaid of religion. She breathes far more +household laws for her devotees, if she does not veil her "sacred fires" +more modestly from the sight of men. She is certainly less dogmatic, less +dictatorial, less abounding in positive assertion, than what now passes +for "science," in the popular estimation. Perhaps Mr. Herbert Spencer +represents the scientific side of a greater number of questions agitating +the public mind to-day, than any other one man, and he is still +industriously engaged in solving, or endeavoring to solve, a greater +number of social problems. And yet the most enthusiastic admirer of this +gentleman will be forced to admit, when driven to the wall of actual +controversy, that one-half, if not two-thirds, of his more formidable +statements, put forth in the name of science, remain undemonstrated as +scientific truths. We are thankful enough, however, for the one-third he +has vouchsafed us to let the other two-thirds pass as the dogmatic +achievements of his wonderfully gifted pen.</p> + +<p>Professor Beale asks the question, whether "a man who has the gift of +science must ever be wanting in the gift of faith?" It is certain that +this inquiry sharply emphasizes the antagonism at present existing between +materialistic science and religious faith. But there is only one reason +why this antagonism should be continued, and that is, the persistent claim +of science to superior recognition in all cases where there is the +slightest apparent conflict between the two. Certainly no man ever did +more to popularize the genuine truths of science in this country than +Professor Agassiz, or worked more successfully to that end. He was willing +to place the decorative wreath on the starry forehead of science, but +refused to pluck from the soul "the starry eyes of faith and hope," that +man might be dwarfed down to the "nearest of kin" to the anthropoid ape.</p> + +<p>When we come to this assumed relationship in genetic types, we have not so +much as laid the first abutment of the bridge by which these revivers of +Lucretian materialism would span the chasm between mind and matter, +between the spiritual and physical side of man, between dark brute sense +and "a soul as white as heaven." For going back to undifferentiated +primeval mist, and following down the whole line of vital phenomena, from +whatever subtle molecular combinations their first manifestation may have +arisen, until we reach the highest differentiated organism below man, we +shall find the chasm between the physical and the psychical not a +thousandth part spanned. And even if man, with the assistance of all the +maleficent spirits that "walk the air both when we wake and sleep," could +span this chasm, it would be only by another bridge of Mirza across which +no daring mortal could ever pass.</p> + +<p>Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his "Principles," thinks he has mastered the +necessary psychological, if not mechanical, engineering for the successful +construction of this bridge. In that branch of his work entitled the +"Principles of Psychology," he so far abandons the exact scientific method +as to take up psychical phenomena, and deal with them genetically, as he +would with the phenomenal manifestations of organic life, in the +continuous chain of ideas every where presented as consecutive thoughts in +the universe. He finds, or claims to find, in these psychical +manifestations, a constant tendency towards differentiation--towards +advanced and continuously advancing differences, varieties, and new modes +of thought--the same as, or similar to, those taking place in living +organisms. He accordingly assumes, for the science of mind, as complete a +foundation on which to base the doctrine of "evolution," as in the case of +either physical or physiological science. But he is no less troubled, in +this psychological realm, with divergent varieties, and exceptional +variations and changes, than when he plants himself on the more solid +substratum of life in the abounding realm of nature. His psychological +differentiations present too many and constantly-shifting divergencies and +re-divergences--exceptional branchings in one direction, and still more +exceptional in another--to admit of any sufficiently potentiated +potentiality for bridge timber. The arch to such a bridge would have to +abut, according to Professor Tyndall, on a vital foundation at one end, +and spring from undifferentiated sky-mist at the other.</p> + +<p>The bridge will never be built.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="02"></a>Chapter II.</h2> + +<h3>Life--Its True Genesis.</h3> + + + +<p>The profound Newton did not attempt to show what the gravitative force of +the universe was. He bore himself more modestly, only endeavoring to show +that such a force existed, and that it accounted for all the movements of +celestial bodies, even to their slightest perturbations. He frankly +admitted his inability to determine what this force was, but by +observations and calculations made with the greatest care, he ascertained +that its action upon matter was proportional to its mass directly, and to +the square of its distance inversely; and, with the requisite data and the +principles of pure geometry, he demonstrated that this mysterious +force--utterly inapproachable by human conception in its mystery--not only +governs and controls the movements of all the mighty masses of matter +rolling in space, but transmits its influence--not successively, but +instantly and without diminution--to the smallest conceivable molecule on +the outlying boundaries of the universe. In the same calm and +comprehensive spirit, if it be possible for us to reach it, let us look +upon this mysterious force called "life," not to show that it is simply a +"correlate" of this or that motion (a thing utterly impossible of +demonstration, if it actually exists), but to ascertain how and in what +way it acts, and by what known law, if any, it is governed.</p> + +<p>In all the vast realm of Reality there is no more conclusive and palpable +fact than that "life" exists--appearing wherever the bright light flashes, +the loving raindrop falls, the dancing brook ripples, the sparkling +streamlet murmurs, and the broad river flows to mingle with the sea. All +along this bright pathway of sunlight and cool translucent wave, this +wonderful principle of vitality manifests itself in all-glorious +life--filling the air with balmy odors; making perennial bud, leaf and +flower, speeding from sire to son, from heart to heart, from spirit to +spirit, from age to age, from time into eternity.[<a href="#foot4">4</a>] For like all living +principles, in this realm of Reality, it cannot die. It is immortal in its +primal source, immortal all along its bright pathway, immortal as it flows +onward to eternity, immortal in its return to the bosom of God. It is no +postulate, no corollary, no mere hypothetical judgment; no "undiscovered +correlative of motion," no "baseless fabric of a vision"--but the one +grand comprehensive <i>Datum</i> on which all the objective, as well as +subjective, data of the universe rest. It is the same "spirit that moved +upon the face of the depths," in that majestic Dawn of Creation when the +"evening and the morning were the first day;" the same spirit that +"upholds the order of the heavens;" that pervades the vast realm of +Reality, that flashes in the bright sunlight, descends in the loving +raindrop, ripples in the dancing brook, sparkles in the murmuring stream, +and forever flows onward bearing its primal fulness to the sea.</p> + +<p>To deny the existence of this vital principle because we cannot bottle it +up in our airless flasks: to reduce it to some unknown correlate of motion +because it constantly defies our poor mental grasp; to insist upon its +artificial production because elementary substances may be chemically +handled in our laboratories--is the same sort of preposterous folly that +Newton would have been guilty of, had he attempted to show that there was +no such thing as "gravity" in the universe; that it was only some +undiscovered correlative of a thermal limit,--some unknown molecular +complexity or entanglement in cosmic ether--some spontaneously occurring +affinity or antagonism of ethereal molecules in the interplanetary +spaces--some "potentiated potentiality" of mere sky-mist,--conditions of +which he could have had no experimental knowledge, nor have given the +slightest analogical proof. That we are justified in thus partially +travestying the technical methods of some of our modern scientists, so +called--especially those of the materialistic school--those advocating a +purely physical theory of life, we need only quote a sentence or two from +Professor Lionel S. Beale, of King's College, London. This eminent +physiologist, in his recent work on "The Mystery of Life," says: +"Notwithstanding all that has been asserted to the contrary, not one vital +action has yet been accounted for by physics and chemistry. The assertion +that life is correlated force rests upon assertion alone, and we are just +as far from an explanation of vital phenomena by force-hypotheses as we +were before the discovery of the doctrine of the correlation of forces." +And he further adds that each additional year's labor, in this special +field of investigation, "only confirms him more strongly than ever in the +opinion that the physical doctrine of life cannot be sustained."</p> + +<p>Many able and eminently learned physiologists have been disposed to +recognize the presence of pre-existing "germs" in the earth, but not to +the extent of accounting for all life-manifestations therein, as the +doctrine is conclusively taught in the Bible Genesis. The language of this +genesis is too clear and explicit to be misunderstood, in its proper +renderings. It especially emphasizes the remarkable and most extraordinary +statement, at least for the period in which it was written, that all life +comes primordially from the waters and the earth. Note the order in which +the command "to bring forth" was issued:--</p> + +<p>1. Let the earth bring forth its vegetation.</p> + +<p>2. Let the waters bring forth the fishes, the amphibia, the reptiles, <i>the +fowl of the air</i>.</p> + +<p>3. Let the earth bring forth the beast, the cattle, every living creature, +and everything that creepeth upon the earth--each after his kind.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Let us make man in our own image</i>.</p> + +<p>And this is the precise order in which the Scientific genesis proceeds, +with all the lithographic pages of nature turned back for its inspection. +Before vegetation there could have been no animal life upon the globe. +This fact is most conclusively proved, not only by geographic and +paleontologic records, but by legitimate induction. From the highly +crystalline, and, for the most part, non-fossiliferous era, far back in +the Laurentian period, down, in the order of time, to the modern or +post-tertiary period, there is one continuous history of +life-manifestations, written upon the stratified rocks, in the order of +the Bible Genesis. Was this mere guess and fancy on the part of the +writer, even to the seemingly improbable element wherein is assigned the +origin of the "fowl of the air?" Bear in mind that nothing was known of +geological distribution at the time this most remarkable genesis was +written. Had there been, it is certain that the careful and painstaking +Hesiod, who suffered no important fact of the <i>Cosmos</i> to escape him, +would have given us some hint of it in his "Works and Days;" for Greece +was, even in his early day, largely the recipient of Phoenician learning +and literature, as she was certainly Phoenicia's foster-child in letters.</p> + +<p>But the more conclusive proofs of the correctness of the order of +creation, as given in the Bible Genesis, are to be found in the accurate +observations of modern geological science. Before there could have +appeared in the primeval oceans any living organism, even the lowest +primordial forms of crustacea, there must have been marine +vegetation--that springing from inorganic matter and laying the foundation +of organic life. Plants originate in, and are solely nourished by, +inorganic substances; or, to speak more definitely, they originate from +primordial germs--the first elementary principles of life--whenever +inorganic conditions favor, and, assimilating air, water, and other +inorganic materials, convert them into organic substances, or such as +answer to the conditions of organic life. In doing this, they take up and +decompose carbonic acid, retain the carbon, and give off oxygen--a vital +process not known to occur in the case of animal life. That their +primordial germs, or vital units, are in the earth, as the Bible Genesis +declares, is conclusively shown by the experimental processes first +successfully entered upon by the Abbé Spallanzani, Charles Bonnet, and +others, and more recently renewed and advocated by M. Pasteur, and his +co-laborers in super-heated flask experimentation, as well as logically +established by inductive methods.</p> + +<p><i>Nihil ex nihilo</i> is conceded to be as conclusive an induction as <i>omne +vivum ex vivo.</i> That is, as without some chemical unit--some primary least +considered as a whole--there can be no chemical action, so without some +vital unit, in the same primary sense, there can be no vital +manifestation. The doctrine of "chemical units" is universally conceded, +and that of "morphological units" almost as universally claimed. What +greater incongruity is there, then, in assuming the presence between the +two of a physiological or vital unit? [<a href="#foot5">5</a>] At all events, it is as +impossible to demonstrate the non-existence of the one unit as the other. +And so long as legitimate induction supports the doctrine of the Bible +Genesis, it is useless to indulge in a contrary assumption which is wholly +without verification or proof.</p> + +<p>But to return to land vegetation. This appeared and flourished throughout +the Devonian period, if not anterior to it, and long before the appearance +of batrachian reptiles and other low air-breathing forms of life. In fact, +there could have been no life-breathing atmosphere until the earlier land +vegetation had whipped out its more destructive elements, and paved the +way, in necessary conditions, for the appearance of air-breathing animals. +Hence the command for the earth to bring forth both marine and land +vegetation--the vegetation of the earth--before there was any similar +command respecting either marine or land forms of organic life. But by +what logical method was this exact order inferred in the Bible Genesis? +Neither the Jews, nor their earlier Hebrew ancestors, nor the Phoenicians +before or after them, were in any sense of the word metaphysicians; nor +did their language admit of those nicer distinctions and speculative +conclusions which would have enabled any writer using it, thousands of +years ago, to draw the commanding induction contained in this remarkable +genesis. There is nothing in the incomparable methods of M. Comte, or the +metaphysical spirit of Herbert Spencer, in his most daring speculations, +which gives the world a more legitimate and conclusive induction than is +contained in this simple statement of the order of creation. That it +should have been a mere piece of guess-work on the part of Moses, or any +other writer of his time,--covering, as it does, so many particularities +of statement, all according with the exact observations of geologic +science, and supported by paleontologic records,--requires quite as much +credulity of judgment as to accept it for divinely inspired truth. A +disciple of M. Comte might object to this conclusion as susceptible of two +interpretations, the one a legitimate induction, and the other not. But +the mind of the profounder reasoner would accept the interpretation which +is supported by the higher reason, and validated by the greater number of +conclusively-established facts. In the case of a strongly intuitive mind, +it might be possible to guess the exact order of three or four apparently +disconnected events, but to arbitrarily associate with them other and more +distinctively subordinate occurrences, like the appearance or +disappearance of whole groups and classes of plants and animals, the +supposition that guess-work, and not positive information, governed in the +formation of a judgment, is at once rejected because of its utter +incredibility.</p> + +<p>It is not our purpose, however, either to affirm or dis-affirm the +inspirational claims of the Bible Genesis. We simply take its language as +we find it, stript of its Masoretic renderings and irrational +interpretations, and unhesitatingly aver that the three Hebrew words, +translated in our common version--"whose seed is in itself upon the earth" +--contains, when properly rendered, the key that unlocks the whole +"mystery of life," or, as Dr. Gull emphasizes it, "the grand <i>questio +vexata</i> of the day." It expressly declares that "the primordial germs of +all plant-life (and, inferentially of all life) are in themselves (<i>i.e.</i> +each after its kind) upon the earth," and we have only to supplement this +physiological statement with the "necessary incidence of conditions," as +formulated by the physicists, to explain every phenomenal fact of life +hitherto occurring upon our globe.</p> + +<p>Take all the hints as to the spontaneous origin of life to be met with in +Aristotle; all those subsequently repeated by Lucretius and Ovid; all the +experiments of the renowned Abbé Spallanzani--all the alleged "fantastic +assumptions" of M. Bonnet--all the theories of "panspermism," by +whomsoever advocated--all the fortuitous aggregations of "<i>molecules +organiques,</i>" as put forth by the French school of materialists--all the +<i>primordia viventium</i> of the gifted Harvey--all the "molecular machinery" +and "undiscovered correlates of motion" formulated by Herbert Spencer and +Professor Bastian--in fine, all the more brilliant theories of life ever +spun from the recesses of the human brain,--and we shall find that they +all fit into the three simple Hebrew words to be found in the Bible +Genesis, <i>and all are explained by them.</i> We say <i>all</i>, with one exception +only--that of man. And how inconceivably grand and majestic this +exception! The crowning work of creation was MAN. He came from no "muddy +vesture of decay;" no mere life-creating fiat spoke him into existence. He +who was to have "dominion over all the earth"--who was to be created only +a little lower than the angels--"in the image of God created He him." And, +breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, <i>he became a living soul</i>!</p> + +<p>Here is the "bridge" over which the "evolutionist" may pass, if he will, +without wearing either the dunce's cap or the ass's ears. It spans the +chasm between the anthropoid ape and man as no other bridge can span it. +Across this bridge is flung the living garment of God, and how grandly, +yet reverently and humbly, did the profound Newton cross it! Oh, ye +defiant iconoclasts of sublime faith in the "old doctrines;" ye who talk +so flippantly of the "potentialities of life in a nebula;" who sit on the +awe-inspiring Matterhorn, at high noon, and muse in sadness over "the +primordial formless fog," teeming with all the mighty possibilities of +myriads of sun-systems like our own; and, musing, sneer, if you can, at +the idea of a "specific creation" in the beginning--of an Infinite +Intelligence that directs and superintends all! Because <i>you</i> cannot +annihilate matter, nor conceive of its annihilation in the infinitessimal +compass of <i>your</i> brain, is that any reason why Infinite power and +intelligence may not have spoken it into existence at <i>His</i> sovereign and +commanding will? If man would presumptuously press towards the threshold +of the Infinite, let him do it reverently, and with humility of spirit, +and not as one "that vaunteth himself of strength," or "multiplieth words +without knowledge."</p> + +<p>But let us examine the Bible Genesis a little further in this direction. +It is said in the second verse of the first chapter that "the spirit of +God moved upon the face of the waters," that is, upon the face of the +abyss--the chaotic mass at creation--the earth "without form and void."</p> + +<p>What is here meant by "the spirit of God," is that life-giving breath or +power of God which operates (continuously operates) <i>to impart life to +inanimate nature.</i>[<a href="#foot6">6</a>] From the connection in which it here stands it means +this, as in other connections it means the power which operates +(continuously operates) to produce whatever is noble and good (God-like) +in man. There is no implication in the text that this life-giving +principle or power was suspended in the act of creation. On the contrary, +there is abundant evidence in nature to show that it is just as operative +now as it was in the beginning. One of the definitions given by Professor +Gibbs of this spirit is, "that which operates throughout inanimate +nature," not that which once operated, and then forever ceased its +operations. And Professor Gibbs no doubt meant by "nature," in this +connection, not only all the physical phenomena she presents, but the +aggregate or sum total of all her phenomena, whether active or passive, +animate or inanimate, embracing the world of matter or the world of +mind.[<a href="#foot7">7</a>] "All are but parts of one stupendous whole,"--not a part nature, +and a part not nature.</p> + +<p>Again, in the eleventh verse, it is distinctly declared that the <i>ZRA</i>. +the "germinal principle of life," is in the earth, producing each living +thing, at least in the vegetable world, after its kind, that is, after its +own class, order, genera, species. Hence, the three distinct and separate +commands given to the earth, or to the earth and its waters, "to bring +forth." No such command would have been given to the earth, had it not +first received its <i>baptism of life</i> from God--in other words, derived the +animating principle of life from the source of all Life.</p> + +<p>And hence, also, the two separate averments in the second chapter of +Genesis, both entirely meaningless apart from the construction we here +give it, that "out of the ground made the Lord God to grow" the +vegetation of the earth, and "out of the ground" produced he (or caused +to be produced) every beast of the field, etc.,--all of which has a +definite and comprehensive significance in this one sense only, that the +animating principle of life is in the earth, as the language of this most +remarkable genesis implies. And this seems to have been the patristic +idea, namely, that law and regularity, not arbitrary intervention, nor +any specific act of creation, were what governed in the case of both +vegetal and animal life.</p> + +<p>St. Augustine says: "In prima institutione naturæ non quseritur +miraculum, sed quid natura rerum habeat." And it is certain that both St. +Thomas Aquinas and St. Basil held the same view. And they further held +that the animating principle of life once implanted in nature, held good +for all time. But we are not seeking for early and mediæval authority. +What we propose to show is, that nature is still implicitly obeying just +such a law as that implied in the command given her "to bring forth," +however doubtful may be the authority on which it rests, in the opinion of +our modern scientists.</p> + +<p>And how completely does this genesis of life take man out of the +definitional formula embracing the "beasts of the earth." From the lowest +vertebrate, in Mr. Darwin's plexus, to the highest quadrumane (his nearest +allied type to man), covering almost an infinite variety of distinct +living forms, the distance to be traversed, in order to reach man, is +hardly more than one-third the length of the still unlinked and +uncompleted chain. In the average capacity of the monkey's brain-chamber, +to say nothing of his other characteristic differences, the distance is +not half traversed. As a "beast of the earth," he remains allied to his +own type, and nothing higher. Both Darwin's vertebral <i>plexus</i>, and +Herbert Spencer's "line of individuation," must begin with the lancelet +and its disputed head, and end in the Catarrhine or Old World monkey. No +<i>a priori</i> induction will ever extend this line <i>or plexus</i> to man. The +developmental chain, if indeed there be one, has no congenital link that +will either drag man down to the "beast of the earth," or lift the latter +up to the transcendent plane of humanity. Each must remain specifically in +his own type, whatever may be their vertical tendencies, upwards or +downwards.[<a href="#foot8">8</a>] And this word "type" implies a fundamental ground-plan--an +archetype--an original conception of what each should unconditionally be, +and what plane each should as unconditionally occupy. Man's place in +nature can never be changed or modified by materialistic speculations. +Whatever theories the materialists may spin into the unsubstantial warp +and woof of their scientific formulæ respecting life, will never stand +before the tenacious and stubborn physiological facts which almost any +thoroughly-informed and well-read scholar of nature may readily present +against them.</p> + +<p>Even the wild Indian of our prairies has a more rational conception of +life and its accountabilities, than some of these learned professors +whose theoretical conclusions we find it imperative to handle. With all +his rude, rough nature, hanging like so many mental clogs about him, +this unlettered savage recognizes the fact that the earth is the +<i>genetrix omnium viventium</i>, or the living <i>mother</i> on whose bosom he +shall rest when his spirit has passed to the happy hunting-fields +beyond. Unlettered as he is, and unread in any genesis of life, he fails +not to perceive that the earth is forever teeming with the germinal +principles of life, and that when his prairie fires have invaded the +forests in which he had previously hunted the deer, other and different +forest growths are constantly making their appearance, without any +apparent intervention of seeds, but not without the supervisional care +and direction of the Great Spirit,--while many of his hardier prairie +grasses have disappeared, only to give place to the more nutritious +<i>gramma</i> coveted by his favorite game.</p> + +<p>And here we may as well anticipate an objection which will be raised +against the presence of this animating principle of life in the earth, as +to meet and answer it further on in the argument. But as the objection to +which we refer is one of those dragon's teeth we do not care to leave +behind us, we will meet it at the very threshold of the controversy. It +will probably be admitted that the vegetation of the earth may appear in +the way and manner indicated in the biblical genesis, the same as +infusorial forms appear in super-heated and hermetically-sealed flasks. +But how about the preëxisting germs or vital units of the mastodon, the +megatherium, and other gigantic mammiferous quadrupeds of the Eocene +period? From what experimental flasks, in the great laboratory of nature, +did they first make their appearance? The objection is a legitimate one, +and we will answer it.</p> + +<p>But first, let us do so from the materialist's own stand-point. Time, they +all agree, is practically infinite--past time, as well as future; while +matter is susceptible of an infinite number of diverse movements, changes, +modifications, combinations, etc.,[<a href="#foot9">9</a>] chemically as well as molecularly +considered. This, they claim, is not a mere hypothetical judgment, but a +mathematically demonstrable proposition. Grant it for the sake of the +argument, and then see if the mastodon does not promptly emerge from some +one of their "experimental flasks," as they choose to put it.</p> + +<p>For if the number of these diverse movements, changes, modifications, +etc., of matter, have been infinite, in its progress from the lowest +statical to the highest dynamical manifestation, then every possible, as +well as conceivable, form of matter, must have existed somewhere, and at +some time, in nature, even to its highest and most potentially endowed +plasmic form in which there is life. And if this be true, and the +materialists will not deny but rather affirm it, then the inter-uterine +conditions of matter, in the case of all animals (the mastodon included), +as well as the inter-cellular conditions in the case of all plant-life, +must have existed, with their necessary environments, somewhere and at +some time, in the all-hutched laboratory of nature. Hence, in the infinite +number of these changes and combinations--in the countless collocations of +molecules and chemically changed conditions of matter, we have the +possibilities of all terrestrial life-manifestations, as we have, in the +infinite number of cosmical changes, the possibilities of all planetary, +cometary, and asteroidal manifestations. For whenever these vital changes +occur, the life-manifestations dependent thereon, must as inevitably +follow as that infinitely diffused matter should be aggregated by gravity, +or by what Humboldt calls, in his "Cosmos," the "world-arranging +Intelligence" of the universe.</p> + +<p>Who shall say, then, that in that immensely remote and long-protracted +era--the Eocene period--in which the gigantic elephantoids first made +their appearance, there did not exist somewhere, in some one of nature's +more cunning and prolific recesses, the exact plasmic conditions necessary +for the appearance of the mastodon? If they existed anywhere (which is +concessively possible), with the necessary environment (also concessively +possible), then the mastodon could no more help wallowing out of his +essential plasma than the earth can help responding to its axial motion. +All things are framed in the prodigality of nature, and she never commits +an abortion upon herself. If both the conditions and necessary environment +were at any time present, as they must have been on the materialistic +theory, the mastodon is just as easily accounted for as the first fungus, +or the first fungus-spore. [<a href="#foot10">10</a>]</p> + +<p>All physicists, as well as physiologists, agree that individual species of +both plants and animals have <i>disappeared</i> from the earth for the want of +the "necessary conditions" under which they once lived and flourished. +What greater fallacy is there, then, in the assumption that they +originally <i>appeared</i> from the presence of these identical conditions, +whatever they may have been, and whenever they may have occurred? We put +this question not simply because the Bible Genesis asserts that "<i>out of +the ground</i> made the Lord God to grow" every plant of the field "before it +was in the earth," as well as every herb of the field "before it grew;" +nor because it declares that their primordial germs are in the earth; nor +because it speaks of the earth as containing within itself the "animating +principle of life." But we put it on the irrefragable logic of the +materialist's own premises and conclusions. They may use other and +different physiological terms from what we should care to employ, but +their "correlates of motion," their "molecular force," their "highly +differentiated life-stuff," etc., may possibly mean nothing more than what +we mean by "vital units," "vital forces," "vital conditions," etc. Their +preference for the terms they employ, over essential "qualities" or +"properties" of matter, is entirely due to the obvious invalidity of their +conclusions, except as their physical theory of life may help them out of +an unpleasant dilemma. "Force" is a more convenient term on which to +allege the <i>de novo</i> origin of life--its spontaneous manifestation in +their experimental flasks--than any vital principle primarily inhering in +matter, and manifesting itself whenever conditions favor. It is to +validate their own reasoning that they construct their fallacious +force-premises, from which to draw their materialistic inductions. In +other words, theirs is the fallacy of <i>non causa pro causa,</i> or that +vicious process of reasoning which alleges some other than the real cause +of vital manifestation, and fastens induction where none is legitimately +inferable. </p> + +<p>Burdach, Buffon, Pouchet, Needham, and other professed vitalists, agree +that in all life-manifestations there must be some preëxisting vital force +or principle, without which no living thing, whether plant or animal, can +come into existence.[<a href="#foot11">11</a>] M. Pouchet says: "I have always thought that +organized beings were animated by forces which are in no way reducible to +physical or chemical forces." The Abbé Needham is satisfied to formulate a +"force végetative," so far as plant-life is concerned; Buffon invariably +falls back on vital force or energy; and Burdach on a "force plastique," +which is essentially inseparable from nature in her vital manifestations. +According to the latter, the whole universe is an "<i>organisme absolu</i>" +constantly endowed with life, and giving expression to it in all +conceivable directions. And all that these vitalists need, to give a full +interpretation to their facts of observation, is to supplement their +theories with the Bible declaration that the animating principle of life +is in the earth, from which all living things make their appearance, each +distinctively after its own kind, whenever environing conditions favor. +For they severally recognize these "necessary conditions" as inseparable +from all vital manifestation.</p> + +<p>An effort has been made to show that Goethe was the great inspired prophet +of the doctrine of "Evolution," as a ceaselessly progressive +transformation of one thing into another, in the metamorphoses of plants +and animals; and Haeckel quotes this passage from him as entirely +conclusive of this point: "Thus much we should have gained (towards +solving the problem of life) that all the more perfect organic beings, +among which we include fishes, amphibians, birds, mammals (and at the head +of the latter, man), to be formed according to an archetype, [<a href="#foot12">12</a>] which +merely fluctuates more or less in its ever persistent parts, and moreover, +day by day, completes and transforms itself by means of reproduction." But +this attempt to give a poetic glorification to Haeckelism in Goethe's +speculations, and bring his commanding name into support of the evolution +theory of development, will prove utterly futile in the light of his +"archetype," and the persistency with which he concedes that nature +adheres to perfected forms.</p> + +<p>Goethe accepts the doctrine of <i>vis centripeta</i>, beyond the influence of +which no developmental progress can be made in the way of diversifying or +variegating ideal types. In other words, he virtually fixes limits to +variability, from the outermost circumference of which reversion must +inevitably take place. His whole doctrine may be summed up generally, if +not specially, in these words: "The animal is fashioned <i>by</i> circumstances +<i>to</i> circumstances," as the eagle to the air and mountain top, the mole to +the loose soil in which it burrows, the seal to the water in which he +frolics, and the bat to the cave, the twilight, and the night air. We +should rather say that the animal is fashioned, after the Great +Architect's pattern, <i>to</i> circumstances, and is only varied <i>by</i> +circumstances, and that within the narrowest limits of variability. For +the most that Goethe means by his "archetype" is an ideal pattern, after +which, or on which, a natural group of plants or animals has been +fashioned within the limits of possible variability. But by whose mind, or +rather within whose mind, was this ideal pattern--this essential +archetype--fashioned? Whence this ideal type, this natural group, this +<i>Archeus</i> pervading all nature and fashioning all organic matter? Not from +the mind of Goethe certainly, nor from that of Aristotle or Lucretius, but +from the one supreme mind of the universe, in which the groups of all +living things were originally fashioned in the archetypal world--that +world "which," according to Bolingbroke, "contains intelligibly all that +is contained sensibly in our world."</p> + +<p>This archetypal doctrine of Goethe, coupled, as he couples it, with the +influences of environment, or necessary external conditions, with typical +modifications only, while it entirely harmonizes with the Bible genesis of +types (everything modeled after its kind), is far from aiding, or in any +way abetting, the materialistic hypothesis of Haeckel, unless we make +nature at once the creator and modifier of her own archetype. And even +then the variability of species remains unaccounted for, except as we +attribute to nature a <i>purpose</i> to modify persistent forms under a law +that is immutable even in its variability. For the assumption of an +archetype carries with it an archetypal plan and purpose, with a degree of +intelligence, either in or above nature, capable at once of conceiving the +type and determining the limits of its variability. The question is not, +therefore, as many may seem to think, whether species originate by miracle +or by law, but whether laws and causes can exist independently of any +predetermining will or agency in the universe.</p> + +<p>Our language, and that of all civilized peoples on the globe, must be +thoroughly recast, not only in its philological and etymological +character, but in its ideologic, etiologic, and other significations, +before we can successfully fall back on an antecedent cause without an +effect, or an effect without an antecedent cause. Besides, the human mind +would have to undergo as complete a subversion of structure as language +itself, before any such attempt at recasting it, on the basis of modern +materialistic ideas, could possibly prove successful. And then, at least +one-third of our language would have to disappear in this iconoclastic +reform. For instance, take any well-tabulated synopsis of our categories +and their relations, and they would nearly all have to be recast or +entirely abandoned. Time, space, matter, motion, intellect, abstract +ideas, volitions, affections, etc., with their several correlates or +co-relations, would all have to undergo a thorough recasting process. The +personal, intersocial, sympathetic, moral, and religious relations and +obligations, would have to be summarily set aside for future revision, if +not for sweeping rejection. All our ideas of life, materiality, +spirituality, animality, vegetability, sensibility, etc., would have to +fall into greater or less desuetude, the language disappearing with the +ideas. All the words expressing our ideas of a superhuman agency, of God, +angels, heaven, revelation, religious doctrines, sentiments, acts of +worship, piety, human accountability to divine institutions, rites, +ceremonies, etc.,--to say nothing of maleficent spirits, mythological and +other fabulous divinities, entering so largely into the spirit and +machinery of all our best poetry--would utterly disappear from our +language. All our churches, minsters, chapels, tabernacles, cathedrals, +and temples erected to the "living God," embracing the finest and most +majestic architecture of the world, would have to succumb to the +iconoclastic zeal of these materialistic reformers. The ten categories of +Aristotle would disappear in the one category of Haeckel, or possibly the +two categories of Bastian--Matter and Motion! Philologically speaking, we +should all be at sea, drifting, like a set of deaf-mutes, on a wide and +inaudible ocean--all inarticulate, tongue-tied, voiceless--with only the +screeching of the sea-mew, or some other sepulchral bird of the night, to +greet us as in wide-mouthed derision of our speechlessness and folly.</p> + +<p>But let us see how the incontestible facts of nature, and the truths of +science, fit into the three simple Hebrew words referring to "germs," or +the germinal principle of life, instead of the natural "seeds" of plants +or trees. We have given what we claim to be the true rendering of these +words. To show how perfectly they harmonize with all the phenomenal +manifestations of life in nature, we hurriedly pass to our third chapter.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="03"></a>Chapter III.</h2> + +<h3>Alternations of Forest Growths.</h3> + + + +<p>No fact has more profoundly puzzled the vegetable physiologist than the +alternations of forest growths which are everywhere occurring without the +apparent interposition of natural seeds, and which have been considered as +wholly inexplicable except as one unsatisfactory theory after another has +been suggested to account for the wide dissemination and distribution of +their seeds. We have had any number of these theories, more or less +ingeniously constructed, but it is safe to say that none of them +satisfactorily accounts for more than a very limited number of the +phenomena presented. It is only within a comparatively recent period that +these alternations of timber growth have attracted the attention of +scientific men; consequently little more than crude suggestions and +ill-digested facts are at the command of the general reader and writer. +And yet the facts themselves, such as they are, would fill a dozen volumes +of the size of Dr. Hough's recent "Report upon American Forestry." We can +only give a few of the more important facts we have gathered, and many of +these are so deficient in necessary detail that their value is greatly +lessened for scientific uses. This is especially true of nearly all those +noticed and collated by Dr. Hough, in his report to the United States +Commissioner of Agriculture, made in 1877, in which the alternations in +question are referred to at length, but no new suggestions presented, nor +any very important new facts given.</p> + +<p>If our construction of the Bible genesis be the correct one, it will, we +think, be unhesitatingly admitted that all the facts collected and +collated by Dr. Hough, together with others more carefully noticed by our +ablest writers on vegetable physiology, not only harmonize with this +ancient Hebrew text, but so completely fit into it, both in its +implications and explications, that adverse criticism will be awed into +silence rather than provoked into any new controversy on the subject. This +remarkable genesis declares that the germs of all living things are in +themselves upon the earth--"upon the face of all the earth." It is true +that this declaration, as contained in the 11th verse of the first chapter +of Genesis, is textually limited to the vegetation of the earth; but the +further emphatic statement that "the animating principle of life" is in +the earth, coupled with the more substantive fact that God commanded the +waters and the earth to bring forth abundantly of every living creature, +with the single exception of man, conclusively extends the language of the +11th verse to whatever vegetable and animal life the earth was +specifically directed to "bring forth." It is our purpose to consider, in +this connection, not only the various facts noticed and theories suggested +by our ablest writers and thinkers on the subject of seed-distribution, +but to ascertain, as far as possible, to what extent their several facts +and theories harmonize with natural phenomena, and at the same time +determine what disposition should be made of them in the light of this new +genesis, herein for the first time disclosed.</p> + +<p>Professor George P. Marsh, in his work on "Man and Nature," in which he +treats largely of forestry in Europe, says that "when a forest old enough +to have witnessed the mysteries of the Druids is felled, trees of other +species spring up in its place; and when they, in their turn, fall before +the axe, sometimes even as soon as they have spread their protecting shade +over the surface, the germs which their predecessors had shed, perhaps +centuries before, sprout up, and in due time, if not choked by other trees +belonging to a later stage in the order of natural succession, restore +again the original wood. In these cases, the seeds of the new crop may +have been brought by the wind, by birds, by quadrupeds, or by other +causes; but, in many instances, <i>this explanation is not probable</i>." It is +manifest that Professor Marsh uses the word "germs," in this connection, +in the sense of seeds only; for no seed-bearing trees "shed" any other +germs than the natural seeds they bear. And while he admits that, in many +instances, the generally accepted theory concerning the dissemination of +seeds is not a probable one, he still clings to the exploded notion that +vegetable physiology furnishes a record of "numerous instances where seeds +have grown after lying dormant for ages in the earth." He further says, in +the same connection, that "their vitality seems almost imperishable while +they remain in the situations in which nature deposits them;" although he +is reluctant to accept the accounts of "the growth of seeds which had lain +for ages in the ashy dryness of the Egyptian catacombs," believing that +they should be received with great caution, if not rejected altogether. +But why he should scruple about receiving these speculative accounts of +ancient Egyptian cereals, which are sometimes hawked about the country for +two and three dollars a seed, and, in the same breath, accept the absurder +theory that seeds may lie dormant for ages in soils where the hardest and +most enduring woods will utterly perish and disappear in a few brief +years, is wholly inexplicable to us, except as an hypothesis to force a +conclusion, or to account for the otherwise unaccountable alternations of +forest growths.</p> + +<p>But the idea that nature has any cunning devices by which she may hide +seeds away where they will remain "almost imperishable" for ages, is not +entirely new with Professor Marsh, nor is it any suggestion that would +be protected by copyright. In finding the winds, birds, quadrupeds, and +other assumed agencies of distribution improbable, he seeks, with Dr. +Dwight, for "the seeds of an ancient vegetation," and, finding none by +actual observation, concludes that nature has some occult, and +thoroughly surreptitious, method of hiding them away, even in soils +below the last glacial drift, where no microscope can possibly reach +them. As the accounts of seeds taken from the mummy-cases of Egypt may +answer the purposes of those seeking to palm off some new cereal as a +nine-days wonder on the ignorant, so these speculations about the +indestructibility of seeds, when hidden away by nature, may answer a +like purpose in imposing upon the over-credulous; but they will hardly +be accepted by the intelligent, much less the scientific, in the light +of all the facts herein given. The simple truth is that all seeds are +speedily perishable by out-door exposure. We hardly know a single seed +that will survive beyond the second year when subjected to such +exposure. If they do not germinate the first year, their vitality is +utterly gone the second year, as hopelessly so as if they had been cast +into the fire and consumed to ashes.</p> + +<p>But there is a large class of vegetable phenomena which wholly excludes +the idea of this wonderful vitality of seeds. It is well known that soil +brought up from deep wells and other excavations, often produces plants +entirely unlike the prevailing local flora. This soil has been brought up, +in many instances, from beneath the last glacial drift, where it must have +remained for not less than a quarter of a million years at the lowest +calculation, and may have remained for millions of years, if not longer; +and yet the same singular phenomenon is presented. Exposed to the sun's +rays, and the fructifying influences of showers and dews, the soil +burgeons forth into an independent flora, and such as are nowhere to be +found in the surrounding locality. The writer, in digging a well in +Waukesha, Wis.,--a place now famous for the curative properties of its +waters--in 1847, struck soil at a depth of about thirty-five feet--that +which was evidently ante-glacial. The place is some twenty miles back from +Milwaukee, and the whole section, far into the interior of the state from +Lake Michigan, is one of drift, covering the primeval soil at various +depths, from a few feet up to a hundred or more; and the imbedded soil +must have remained in its place for untold ages. And yet, it was no sooner +brought to the surface than it produced several small plants that were +wholly unlike the prevailing local flora; although, unfortunately, they +did not sufficiently mature to enable us to determine their genera and +species. Considerable portions of this soil were dried and subjected by +us, and the late Dr. John A. Savage, then president of Carroll College, to +microscopic examination, but without discovering the slightest trace of +any seed, or anything resembling seed, in the several portions carefully +examined. The soil, however, contained, in its imbedded place, several +large Norway spruce logs, in a more or less perfect state of preservation. +But there were no cones, nor chits to cones, to be found in it, although +the most rigid examination was made at the time to discover them. That the +seeds of these delicate little plants should have survived the wreck of +this ancient Norwegian forest, or the drift from one, and burst forth into +newness of life after hundreds of thousands, not to say millions of years, +is decidedly too large a draft upon our credulity to be honored "without +sight." But we will return to the alternations of forest growths.</p> + +<p>It is within a comparatively recent period that extensive areas of +hemlock, in Greene and Ulster Counties, N.Y., were cut off to supply the +neighboring tanneries with bark. These clearings were no sooner made than +oak, chestnut, birch, and other trees of deciduous foliage, sprang up and +entirely usurped the place of the hemlock; for the reason, no doubt, that +the soil had become chemically unbalanced for the growth of the latter, +while its condition was entirely favorable for the development of the +"germs" (not the natural seed) of the former. These changes in timber +growths have been widely noticed in all parts of this country, as well as +in Europe, but the universal supposition has been that they came from the +natural seeds of their respective localities, those either scattered by +the winds, or borne thither by the birds, by quadrupeds, or by some other +natural agency. No one has suggested the theory of "primordial germs" or +"vital units," or come any nearer to it than Dr. Dwight did in suggesting +"the seeds of an ancient vegetation." The great truth of the Bible genesis +has been wholly overlooked by reason of a faulty translation in the first +instance, as taken from the Masoretic renderings of the sixth century, and +implicitly followed since.</p> + +<p>In 1845, a violent tornado swept a wide strip of forest in Northern New +York, from the more thickly settled portions of Jefferson County to Lake +Champlain. The timber that succumbed to the force of the tornado, and +growing at various points along its track, was mainly beech, maple, birch, +ash, hemlock, spruce, etc.; but it was rarely replaced, at any point, by +the same timber, in the growths that almost immediately followed. The +trees that are now growing along the track of the tornado are principally +poplar, cherry, birch, and a little beech and ironwood: no ash, maple, +spruce, or hemlock, except here and there, at considerable intervals, a +tree or two which may have been replaced by natural seed. The important +fact noticeable, in this connection, is that the aggressive timber--that +replacing the old--entirely usurped the place of the evergreen growths, +supplanting them with those that were wholly deciduous. Besides, it does +not appear that the poplar, the cherry, and the ironwood, which were +altogether aggressive, previously grew near enough to the track of the +tornado to have possibly supplied the seed necessary for their appearance +and growth.</p> + +<p>The fact was specially noticeable at the time, and has been widely +communicated since, that the white oak timber cut off at Valley Forge for +fuel and other army purposes in the American camp, in the winter of +1777-78, was succeeded by black oak, hickory, chestnut, etc.--the white +oak entirely disappearing, although by far the most favorably situated for +propagation by seed. But the alternations of forest growths had attracted +too little attention at that time to render the meagre facts given of any +special value to scientific men. If the usurping timber had grown in the +immediate neighborhood (a fact not stated), it might have come from +natural seeds, and not from primordial germs under "favoring conditions."</p> + +<p>In the Ohio Agricultural Report of 1872, an account is given of a +storm-track, in that state, which swept for a considerable distance, and +was violent enough to bear down all the timber before it. It is stated +that the path of this tornado (which must have occurred many years ago) +"had grown up with black-walnut, another and different growth from that +prostrated by the force of the storm." In this instance, there were no +neighboring trees, except perhaps at distant intervals, from which the +nuts of the black-walnut could have been derived, unless they had been +promiscuously strewn by the tornado along its entire track. But it is, +unfortunately, not stated that the tornado occurred at that opportune +season of the year when the nuts were properly matured for planting.</p> + +<p>In many parts of the United States, particularly in the South and West, +the paths of local tornadoes--those sweeping the native forests long +before the axe of civilization invaded them--may still be traced by the +alternations of timber growths, extending for long distances, and +through forests where there were no neighboring trees from which it was +possible that their seeds could have been derived. One of these +tornadoes the writer traced many years ago (as early as 1837) in South +Alabama, and he is satisfied, both from observation and reading, that +the instances are rare, if not altogether exceptional, where the clean +path of a tornado, through any of our primitive forests, has been +succeeded by the same growth of timber as that borne down by the winds. +Where the path of this ancient tornado of Alabama swept through a pine +forest, a clean growth of oak was buttressed on either side by pine; +and <i>vice versa</i>, where it swept an oak forest. And it is certain that +the tornado, whenever it may have occurred, could have exhibited no such +discriminating freak as alternately to distribute acorns in pine +growths, and pine cones in oak growths, either to make good a scientific +theory or balk an unscientific one.</p> + +<p>Professor Agassiz, in passing through a dense young spruce forest some +years ago, on the south shore of Lake Superior, noticed that the ground +was thickly strewn with fallen birch trunks, showing that their place had +been but recently usurped by the spruce; and he supposed that the birch +had first succumbed to the force of the winds, and the spruce promptly +taken its place, since, as a general rule, an evergreen growth succeeds a +deciduous, and <i>vice versa.</i> We have any number of well authenticated +facts similar to this stated by Professor Agassiz, but we cannot give +place to them, in this connection, without greatly exceeding our limits.</p> + +<p>Dr. Franklin B. Hough, in his recent "Report upon American Forestry," to +which we have already referred, says: "It is not unusual to observe in the +swamps of the northern states, an alternation of growth taking place +without human agency. Extensive tracts of tamarack (<i>Larix Americana</i>) may +be seen in northern Wisconsin that are dying out, and being succeeded by +the balsam fir (<i>Abies balsamea</i>), which may be probably caused by the +partial drainage of the swamps, from the decay or removal of a fallen tree +that had obstructed the outlet." The writer of this work resided for a +period of ten years or more in Wisconsin, and during that time traversed +extensive portions of its territory, both before and after it became a +state. As early as 1844, the extensive tamarack swamps of that region were +manifestly dying out for the want of the proper nutritious elements in the +soil, and the balsam fir rapidly taking its place, especially where the +accumulations of soil, resulting from decayed vegetation, were favorable +for its appearance. The drainage of the swamps had not been thought of at +that time, nor had the swamps themselves been disposed of, to any +considerable extent, by the federal government. They were subsequently +granted to the state for educational purposes, and afterwards purchased up +in the interest of speculative parties.</p> + +<p>But the decay of the tamarack had really commenced long before population +found its way, in any considerable numbers, into that section of the +country; and the balsam fir had begun its usurpation, in many of the +swamps, long prior to the advent there of the white man. Neither +artificial drainage, nor accidental drainage, had anything to do with the +appearance of the balsam fir, or the disappearance of the tamarack. The +latter was manifestly dying out for the want of the proper nutriment, and +the former coming in for the reason that the soil was chemically balanced +for the development of its "primordial germs"--those everywhere implanted +in the earth, to await the necessary conditions for their development and +growth. The natural seeds of this balsam fir were not present in either +the first, second, or third tamarack swamp in which this alternation of +growth originally took place. The change commenced as soon as conditions +favored, and not before. It is safe to say that, in none of these tamarack +swamps, was there a single balsam fir cone, or a single chit to a cone, +nor had there probably been for thousands of years, before the time when +the first balsam fir made its appearance in that section. They came, as +all primordial forests come, from germs, not from the seeds of trees. +Universally, the germ precedes the tree, as the tree precedes the seed, in +all vegetal growths, from the lowest cryptogam to the lordliest conifer of +the Pacific slope. Otherwise, we should be logically driven back to an act +of "specific creation," which the materialist stoutly rejects, and the +Bible genesis nowhere affirms.</p> + +<p>Mr. George B. Emerson, in his valuable work on the "Trees and Shrubs of +Massachusetts," suggests as a cause (undoubtedly the true one) for the +dying out of old forests, "the exhaustion of the nutritious elements of +the soil required for their vigorous and successful growth." But he is +evidently at fault in his speculations as to the alternations of forest +growths. The Cretan labyrinth that everywhere confronts him is the +"seed-theory," which is so inextricable to him that he constantly +stumbles, as one scientifically blind, yet eager to lead the blind. All +the phenomenal facts with which he deals admirably fit into the Bible +genesis, but he fails to see it because the sublime truth (with him) lies +locked up in an unmeaning translation. He is indefatigable, however, in +his hunt after seeds where there are no seeds, and in his jumps at +conclusions where there are manifestly no data to justify them.</p> + +<p>He says: "Nature points out in various ways, and the observation of +practical men has almost uniformly confirmed the conclusion to which the +philosophical botanist has come from theoretical considerations, that a +rotation of crops is as important in the forests as in the cultivated +fields." And he supplements this statement (measurably a true one) by +adding that "a pine forest is often, without the agency of man, succeeded +by an oak forest, <i>where there were a few oaks previously scattered +through the woods to furnish seed.</i>" This is a very cautious, as well as +circumspect, statement; but one that Mr. Emerson would not have made, had +his experience and observation been that of Professor Agassiz, Professor +Marsh, and others we might name. His few oaks previously scattered through +the woods are no doubt among the "theoretical considerations" taken into +account by him, as a philosophical botanist rather than a practical one. +They were necessary for the extreme caution with which he would state a +proposition when its "conditioning facts" were not fully known by him. His +anxiety to account for the appearance of an oak forest in the place of a +pine, where the latter had been cut off, was commendable enough to justify +him in a pretty broad supposition, but not in any such general statement +as he here makes. Had he consulted any of the older inhabitants of +Westford, Littleton, and adjoining towns, in his own state, he would have +found that not a few oak forests had succeeded the pine without the +intervention of "scattered oaks," or even scattered acorns, in the +localities named. Nor would his "squirrel-theory" of distribution have +been very confidently adhered to, fifty years ago, in localties where the +shagbark walnut was almost as abundant as the white oak itself. No +squirrel will gather acorns where he can possibly get hickory nuts, and +few will gather hickory nuts where the larger and thinner-shelled walnuts +are to be had for the picking. The squirrel is provident, but no more so +than he is fastidious in the choice of his food. He never plants acorns +except for his own gratification, and is never gratified with indifferent +food so long as he can command that which is to his liking.</p> + +<p>In further speaking of the "exhausted elements" of the soil--those +necessary for the food of trees as well as plants, and without which they +inevitably perish and disappear--Mr. Emerson says; "This is clearly +indicated in what is constantly going on in the forests, particularly the +fact which I have already stated, and which is abundantly confirmed by my +correspondents, that a forest of one kind is frequently succeeded <i>by a +spontaneous growth of trees of another kind.</i>" In the sense in which he +manifestly uses the term "spontaneous" in this connection, his new forest +might be accounted for on the theory of "primordial germs," but not on +that of "seeds;" for few trees or shrubs in Massachusetts bear winged +seeds, or possess any other means of dispersion (the <i>Acer</i> family +excepted) than those common to our general forest growths. Spontaneity, in +a strictly scientific sense, is not predicable upon the artificial or +chance sowing of either acorns, hickory nuts, or the chits to pine cones. +A spontaneous growth implies a process which is neither usual nor +accidental--a growth without external cause, but from inherent natural +tendency--and it is questionable whether there is any such process in +nature. It belongs to the same class of idle speculations as "spontaneous +generation" in the infusorial world--a subject that will be considered as +we advance in this work.</p> + +<p>Our vegetable physiologists, Mr. Emerson among the number, are simply +unfortunate in their use of terms--those expressing even the commonest +operations of nature. In their genesis of plants and trees they need to +adhere a little more closely to the genesis of induction, and use language +in harmony with the phenomenal facts and characteristics which they are +called upon to explain. But Mr. Emerson was not alone at fault in this +almost universal slip of the scientific pen. He quotes from a letter of +Mr. P. Sanderson, of East Whately, Mass., in which the writer says: "There +is an instance on my farm of spruce and hackmatack being succeeded by a +spontaneous growth of maple wood;" and he adds that "instances are also +mentioned by him (Mr. Sanderson) of beech and maple succeeding oaks; oaks +following pines, and the reverse; hemlock succeeded by white birch in cold +places, and by hard maple in warm ones; beech succeeded by maple, elm, +etc; and, in fact, the occurrence was so common that surprise was +expressed at the asking of the question."</p> + +<p>These several alternations in timber growths, effectually vouched for by +Mr. Emerson, occurring "spontaneously" as stated, can hardly be accounted +for on any other theory than the presence of "germs" and "favoring +conditions," such as we have named in connection with the Bible genesis. +They might possibly be explained on the theory of "scattered seeds," if +the several growths had made their appearance gradually, and not +"spontaneously," as stated. The misfortune with Mr. Emerson, as well as +with his several "reliable correspondents," was, that his facts are too +meagrely imparted, in the necessary details, to draw any satisfactory +conclusions from them--such as the nearness or distance of surrounding +trees of the same species, and the possible chances of their seeds taking +lodgment in the soil from which they grew. But, fortunately, there are +facts, and those abundantly substantiated, which entirely negative the +presence of seeds in the soils where these "spontaneous growths" are said +to have appeared. In some instances, they cover large tracts of land, at +distances of thirty, forty, fifty, and even hundreds of miles, from any +native forest from which seed could have been derived.</p> + +<p>Dr. Dwight, in the second volume of his "Travels," mentions visiting a +town in Vermont (Panton, near Vergennes), in which a piece of land that +had been once cultivated, but was afterwards permitted to lie waste, +"yielded a thick and vigorous growth of hickory, <i>where there was not a +single hickory tree in any original forest within fifty miles of the +place</i>." Of this piece of land he says: "The native growth here was white +pine, of which I did not see a single stem in the whole grove of hickory." +He is greatly puzzled to account for this isolated growth of hickory, but +readily concludes that "the fruit was too heavy to be carried fifty miles +by birds; besides" he adds, "it is not eaten by any bird indigenous to +Vermont." And even if the birds had carried the nuts thither, not one of +them could have been planted there unless the nut-eating bird had been +caught and destroyed on the spot, and the nut released from its crop. This +might account for the appearance of a single tree, but not for a "whole +grove of hickory;" and the squirrels certainly could not have been +provident enough to plant any considerable grove in this particular +locality, and nowhere else within fifty miles of it. The winds could not +have borne them that distance without dropping a single nut by the way, +and there is only one supposition left, which is that indicated in the +Bible genesis.</p> + +<p>While Dr. Dwight emphatically rejects the "transportation theory," he +imagined he had solved the difficulty in his suggestion "that the +cultivation of the land had brought up the seeds of a former forest, +within the limits of vegetation, and given them an opportunity to +vegetate." But the utter absurdity of this theory may be demonstrated by +any one inside of two years, by placing hickory nuts, in different soils, +at a depth to which an ordinary plough-point would reach in cultivation; +and then, at the end of the second year, examining those that did not +germinate the first year. The commonest observer of a hickory forest knows +that if the fallen nuts do not germinate the first year, their vitality is +utterly and hopelessly gone. It makes no difference whether you leave the +nuts on the ground where they fall, or place them one inch or twenty +inches beneath the soil, the result will be the same. At the end of two +years, you can pulverize them between thumb and finger almost as easily as +so much dried loam. The idea of deriving a new forest from such nuts, is +hardly less absurd than that of emptying the Egyptian catacombs of their +old mummy-cases, in the expectation of seeing a race of Theban kings +stalking the earth as before the foundations of either Carthage or Rome +were laid.</p> + +<p>Dr. Dwight was a very close and accurate observer of nature, and suffered +few of even the minor points of detail to escape him. In the same work, as +well as in the same connection, he gives an account of another forest, +which he supposes sprang spontaneously from "the seeds of an ancient +vegetation." He says: "A field about five miles from Northampton (Mass.), +on an eminence called 'Rail Hill,' was cultivated about a century ago +(<i>circiter</i> 1720). The native growth here, and in all the surrounding +region, was wholly oak, chestnut, etc. As the field belonged to my +grandfather, I had the best opportunity of learning its history. It +contained about five acres, in the form of an irregular parallelogram. As +the savages rendered the cultivation dangerous, it was given up. On this +ground there sprang up a grove of white pines, covering the field and +retaining its figure exactly. So far as I remember, there was not in it a +single oak or chestnut tree;" and he adds, "<i>there was not a single pine +whose seeds were, or, probably, had for ages been, sufficiently near to +have been planted on this spot</i>." He supposes, however, that the "seeds" +(pine cone chits) had lain dormant for ages before cultivation brought +them up "within the limits of vegetation."</p> + +<p>As early as 1807, Judge Peters, of Philadelphia, became satisfied that all +that elevated region around the head waters of the Delaware, Alleghany, +and Genesee Rivers, then covered with heavy growths of hemlock, or with +forests of beech and sugar-maple, was originally an oak forest, probably +covering most of that entire region. And Mr. John Adlum, of Havre de +Grace, Md., who originally surveyed the lands south of the great bend of +the Susquehanna, between that river and the Delaware, conceived the same +idea as early as 1788. The section surveyed by him was chiefly covered +with beech and sugar-maple; in fact, it was in what was called, at the +time, "the beech and sugar-maple country." He drew his inferences from the +fact that he found, here and there, at irregular intervals, red and white +oaks growing to an enormous size, none being less than sixteen feet, and +many measuring twenty-two feet or more, in circumference five feet above +the ground. He says that "the hemlock in this region seems to have +succeeded the oak, while the beech and maple no doubt succeeded the +hemlock." This last inference would seem to have been made from the fact +that clumps of large hemlock trees were, at that time, still growing at +intervals among the larger deciduous trees.</p> + +<p>Indeed, there is no better established fact in vegetable physiology than +that of these alternations of forest growths. They sometimes come on +gradually, but, in a majority of instances, they make their appearance at +once on the cutting off of old forests, in the tracks of tornadoes, or +where fire has devastated extensive regions of timber. From the facts +which have been gathered, it is difficult to determine any regular order +of alternation, except that oaks and other deciduous trees succeed the +different varieties of pine and other evergreen growths, and, perhaps, +<i>vice versa</i>. In Dr. Hough's report upon American Forestry, he makes a +brief summary of the order of these alternations in different sections of +the country, on the authority of persons apparently more or less +well-informed on the subject, but by no means accurate observers. He says +that in the region about Green Bay, Wis., overrun by the fires of 1871, +"dense growths of poplars and birches have sprung up, and are growing +rapidly;" but he omits the most important fact of all, in his failure to +state the previous growths of timber, or whether there were any +neighboring growths of poplar along the track of the burnt district from +which seed might have been derived.</p> + +<p>Here are some of his more important statements:--</p> + +<p>"At Clarksville, Ga., oak and hickory lands, when cleared, invariably grew +up with pine. This is true of that region of country generally."</p> + +<p>"At Aiken, S.C., the long-leaf pine is succeeded by oaks and other +deciduous trees, and <i>vice versa</i>."</p> + +<p>"In Bristol County, Mass., in some cases, after pines have been cut off, +oak, maple, and birch have sprung up abundantly."</p> + +<p>"In Hancock County, Ill., oaks have been succeeded by hickories."</p> + +<p>"In East Hamburgh, Erie County, N.Y., a growth of hemlock, elm, and soft +maple, was succeeded by beech, soft maple, and hard maple, but a good deal +more of the last named than any other."</p> + +<p>This is the general character of the summary given, and if its object were +simply to show the fact that these alternations actually took place (one +that nobody has disputed in the last half century), his chapter on the +"Alternations of Forest Growths," is a scientific success. The information +really desired in these cases, was that imparted by Dr. Dwight in his +suggestive work of travel, in which all the incidental facts and +surrounding circumstances are fully given. It does not appear from any of +the foregoing statements, given as a specimen, that there were any +neighboring trees sufficiently near to have supplied seed for the new +forests taking the place of the old,--manifestly the most important +physiological fact connected with the whole inquiry, whether looking to +proper forest-management, or to future "schools of forestry," certain to +be established in this country, as they have been in most of the leading +countries of Europe.</p> + +<p>It is, however, stated by Dr. Hough, in his voluminous report, that, "in +New England, the pine (without giving its varieties) is often succeeded by +the white birch, and, in New Jersey, by the oak; the succession of oak by +pine, and the reverse, in the southern states." And it is further stated, +without reference to the nature and quality of the different soils, or the +absence or presence of neighboring seed-trees, that "poplars and other +soft woods are very often found coming up in pine districts that have been +ravaged by fire." "We have noticed," he continues, "in Nebraska, ash, elm, +and box-elder following cottonwood. In the natural starting of timber in +the prairie region of Illinois, where the stopping of fires allowed, we +often see a hazel coppice; after a time the cratægus, and finally the +oaks, black-walnuts, and other timber. These growths are often quite +aggressive on the prairies. In Florida, the black-jack oak usually takes +the place of the long-leaf pine." In all these cases, the contiguousness +of similar, or dissimilar growths, is not stated.</p> + +<p>He nevertheless cites a most important fact respecting the alternations of +timber growth, noticed by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in his overland journey +from Montreal to the Arctic Ocean, in 1789, who found, in the vicinity of +Slave Lake, that the banks were covered with large quantities of burnt +wood lying on the ground, where young poplar trees had sprung up +immediately after the destruction of the previous growths by fire. In +noticing this fact, the indefatigable English explorer remarks: "It is a +very curious and extraordinary circumstance that land covered with spruce, +pine, and white birch, when laid waste by fire, should subsequently +produce nothing but poplars, <i>where none of that species of tree was +previously to be found"</i>. But facts of a similar character are too +numerous and well-authenticated to be questioned by any intelligent +authority. And they all point to but one solution--that of primordial +germs quickened into life by the necessary environing conditions. The +appearance of a single poplar in the locality named, or even a dozen of +them for that matter, might be accounted for on the theory that a bird of +passage had dropped them there after the fire; but, under no conceivable +circumstances, could the dispersion of the requisite amount of seed to +plant an extensive burnt district, along the banks of Slave Lake, have +occurred on any other theory than that emphatically set forth, as a +physiological fact, in the Bible genesis.</p> + +<p>There is manifestly importance enough attaching to this subject to justify +a much wider range of observation and inquiry than has yet been made. Pine +forests have been cut off in Alabama and Georgia, covering extensive +areas, where there was not a single oak tree in a circuit of miles; and +yet the oak has promptly made its appearance, in several varieties, over +the whole cleared district. And it is entirely safe to say that, had the +ground been thoroughly examined, from the surface to ten feet below it, +after the pine had been felled, not the first sign of an acorn could have +been met with anywhere within the whole area of the clearing, no matter +whether it covered ten acres, twenty, or a hundred. The paths of the +tornadoes we have referred to conclusively show this. The new-born +forests, in these cases, do not come from seed, but from the living, +indestructible, vital principles implanted in the earth, before it was +specifically commanded to "bring forth," in the language of the Bible +genesis. The "materialists," like Professor Bastian, Herbert Spencer, and +others, may sneer at this declaration, but let them advance some rational +theory to the contrary, to account for these alternations of forest +growths, before they lay bare the joints of their scientific armor too +confidently to the thrusts of the next new-comer in the field of +scientific investigation. Sneers are cheap weapons--the mere side-arms of +pretension and frippery--but they never bear so deadly a gibe as when +effectually turned on the sneerer.</p> + +<p>Professor Moritz Wagner, in his description of Mount Ararat, mentions "a +singular phenomenon," to which his guide drew his attention, "in the +appearance of several plants on soil lately thrown up by an earthquake, +which grew nowhere else on the mountain, and had never been observed in +this (that) region before." This writer, thereupon, goes into a +disquisition upon the vitality of long-buried seeds, but only to mar the +value of his very important observation. The fact that these new plants +were rejected by the other soil of the mountain--that not thrown up by the +earthquake--is the only other observation of value made by this writer. +And the importance of this one observation lies in the apparent, if not +conclusive fact, that the conditions of the other soil of the mountain +were not favorable for the development of the primordial germs, or vital +units, contained in that which was thrown up by the earthquake, a +circumstance that most materially strengthens the view we have taken, as +all candid and impartial readers will agree.</p> + +<p>Mr. Darwin inadvertently makes a very material concession in favor of the +theory we have advanced, although unconscious of any such theory, except +that so broadly and unqualifiedly put forth by the "panspermists" as to +meet with a ready refutation. He is laboring, of course, to strengthen his +position that nature eternally works to get rid of her imperfect forms, or +to ensure "the survival of the fittest." But while his facts accomplish +little in this direction, they establish much in another, as the reader +will see. He says: "In Staffordshire, on an estate of a relative, where I +had ample means of investigation, there was a large and extremely barren +heath, which had never been touched by the hand of man; but several +hundred acres of exactly the same nature had been enclosed twenty-five +years before, and planted with scotch fir. The change in the native +vegetation of the planted part of the heath was most remarkable--more than +is generally seen in passing from one quite different soil to another; not +only the proportional numbers of the heath plants were wholly changed, +<i>but twelve species of plants </i> (not including grasses and sedges) +flourished in the plantation which could not be found on the heath." + +The attempt is here made, by Mr. Darwin, to convey an altogether different +meaning to his facts than what they will warrant, even as adroitly handled +by him. No heath plants were "wholly changed" in characteristics, but only +in proportional numbers; nor did the "twelve new species of plants" make +their appearance by virtue of any law of variability or selection of the +fittest. The growth of scotch fir had simply changed the conditions of the +soil, so that certain varieties of heath growth disappeared for the want +of "necessary conditions," and certain varieties of forest growth made +their appearance because conditions favored. Similar, if not greater +changes, are constantly occurring in hundreds of localities in New +England, where choked and worn-out pasture lands are left, untouched by +the hand of man, to grow up as best they may into new forests. The +open-field plants and shrubs entirely disappear, as the stronger and more +aggressive trees, taking root in favoring soils, advance in the struggle +for supremacy, while the less hardy and more modest plants--those quietly +seeking shelter in the woods--make their appearance, because they find, +beneath the shade of the usurping forest, the precise conditions necessary +for their more successful growth.</p> + +<p>No perishable seeds have been awakened from their "sleep of untold +centuries" by these changed conditions of the soil; but nature, everywhere +obeying the divine mandate, brings forth her implanted life in all its +bountiful diversity of stalk, leaf, bud, bough, blossom, fruit,--not in +obedience to man's husbandry alone, but because, as the "vicar of God," +she must provide for her benefice. "Let the earth bring forth" is the +eternal fiat. Nature forever heeds it, and forever obeys it. "Oh, ye blind +guides, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, doubt it if ye will." But +forget not that nature has her "compunctious visitings," and will rise up +in insurrection against you. Nothing in her breast lies dormant for ages, +or even for an hour. Her appointed times and seasons forbid it. If the +butterfly does not sport in her sunshine to-day, it is because it lies +dead in its golden-colored shroud, and can never become a butterfly. In +all her profusion and prodigality--flinging her glittering jewels, even in +mid-winter, over all her enamored woods, and causing her little fountains +to leap up from their crystal beds in delight, that they may be frozen, +mid-air, into more sparkling jets--she exhibits no such munificence as in +her unsparing prodigality of life. To be prodigal in this was the first +command she received, and her great heart constantly throbs to give it +expression. And in all this she simply obeys a kindly law which has been +implanted in her bosom, and can never be displanted. She has no need of +seeds in her cunning laboratory to perpetuate plant-life, and only yields +them to man for use, and not abuse. He can utilize them if he will, so +that all things of beauty and golden-fruited promise shall be his. In the +language of her greatest and most profoundly philosophical poet,--</p> + +<blockquote> "Nature never lends<br /> +The smallest scruple of her excellence,<br /> +But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines<br /> +Herself the glory of a creditor--<br /> +<i>Both thanks and use</i>."</blockquote> + +<p>Those who think, therefore, to make nature a debtor, by reversing her laws +of propagation and making her dependent on what she bestows in use, will +never find out the smallest scruple of her excellence, nor add to her +glory as a creditor. All things are framed in her prodigality, and the +seeds of plants and trees are no exception to the quality of her +bestowals. We may reason, syllogize, speculate as we will, the first plant +and the first tree were not nature's thankless bastards, but her +legitimate and loving offspring. She engendered them in her own fruitful +breast, and her "copy is eterne."</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="04"></a>Chapter IV.</h2> + +<h3>The Distribution and Vitality of Seeds.</h3> + + + +<p>Few questions have attracted more attention among vegetable physiologists, +of late years, than the dispersion and migration of seeds from place to +place in the earth, and it is safe to say that none has been more +unsatisfactorily answered. In the case of quite a number of plants and +trees, special contrivances would seem to have been provided by nature for +insuring their dispersion, as well as migration. With a small number of +plants, for instance, the seeds are discharged for short distances by the +explosive force of their seed-vessels, when properly matured; an equally +small number have certain membranous contrivances, called "wings," by +which they may be borne still greater distances; others, again, are +provided with light feathery tufts, to which the seed is attached, and +these may be carried by the winds several miles before finding a lodgment +in the soil; while many others are inclosed in prickly and barb-pointed +coverings by which they attach themselves to animals, and even birds, and +may be transported to almost any distance. But with the great majority of +plants and trees, as the seeds fall so they lie, and must continue to lie +until they either germinate or perish, or are accidentally dispersed or +scattered by some extrinsic agency. The anxiety of speculative botanists +to account for the recognized alternations of forest and other growths, +have led to the different theories of transportation we have named; and +when these theories have been supplemented by the alleged wonderful +vitality of seeds, in the cunning recesses in which nature manages to +conceal them, they imagine the whole difficulty solved, when, in point of +fact, it remains wholly unsolved.</p> + +<p>This theory of the "wonderful vitality" of seeds is simply one, as we +have said, to force a conclusion--to get rid of a lion in the scientific +path. Professor Marsh, with other eminent and scholarly writers on +vegetable physiology, scouts the idea that the seeds of some of our +cereal crops have been preserved for three or four thousand years in the +"ashy dryness" of the Egyptian catacombs. But what better repository in +which to preserve them? Certainly, none of our modern granaries, with all +their machinery for keeping the grain dry, or from over-heating. Nor are +the catacombs to be despised, as compared with any out-door means of +storage yet suggested by the wit of man. The only means nature has of +storage, or rather of preservation by storage, is to welcome the seed +back to her bosom--the earth from which its parent-seed sprang--where it +may be speedily quickened into life, and bear "other grain," not itself. +For "that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die;" and much +more is that dead which is not quickened. Whenever seed is thus returned +to nature's bosom--all-palpitating as it is with life--whether it +quickens or not, it dies; and there is no resurrection for dead seed from +the earth, any more than there is for the occupants of the exhumed +mummy-cases of ancient Thebes.</p> + +<p>The belief in this wonderful vitality of seeds, in the positions in which +nature deposits them, is pretty much on a par with that which assigns a +thousand years to the life of a crow. As nobody but the scholastic fool in +the fable has ever attempted to verify the correctness of this latter +belief, so it is safe to assume that the experiment of verifying the +former will not be successfully undertaken within the next thousand years, +to say the least. It is well known that the vitality of seeds (so far, at +least, as nature handles them) depends, upon her cunning contrivances for +their preservation, as well as their dispersion. But many seeds, in which +these contrivances would seem to be the most perfect, will not germinate +after the second year, and few will do so to advantage after the third or +fourth year, even when they have been kept under the most favorable +circumstances, or in uniform dryness and temperature. Farmers, who have +had practical experience in this matter, and care little for what is +merely theoretical, will never plant seed that is three or four years old +when they can get that of the previous year's growth. It is certain that +no hickory nut will retain its vitality beyond the first year of its +exposure to a New England soil and climate, and few seeds are better +protected by nature against such exposure; and it is equally questionable +whether the chits to Dr. Dwight's pine cones would have had any better +chance of survival at the time the Indians infested the neighborhood of +Northampton, and regularly fired the woods every autumn.</p> + +<p>Although Professor Marsh confidently says, in his work on. "Man and +Nature," that "the vitality of seeds seems almost imperishable while they +remain in the situations in which nature deposits them," he will no doubt +admit that this statement rests on no experimental knowledge, but simply +on the hypothesis that the new forests and new species of plants to which +he refers, originated from seeds, and not from primordial germs everywhere +implanted in the earth. Dr. G. Chaplin Child, who swallows the "Egyptian +wheat" story, mummy-cases and all, in speaking of some of the English +"dykes" or mound-fences which have existed from time well-nigh immemorial, +says: "No sooner are these dykes leveled than the seeds of wild flowers, +which must have lain in them for ages, sprout forth vigorously, just as if +the ground had been recently sown with seed." He also mentions, as a more +or less remarkable fact, "that a house, which was known to have existed +for two hundred years, was pulled down, and, no sooner was the surface soil +exposed to the influence of light and moisture, than it became covered +with a crop of wild-mustard or charlock." And he instances these facts to +show that the seeds of this charlock, and these dyke plants, had lain +dormant in the soil from the time the dykes were built, and the house +erected. But these physiological facts, however well authenticated they +may have been, are no more conclusive of the presence of dormant seed, +than the appearance of the common plantain about a recently built +dwelling-house, where none ever grew before, is proof that the seeds of +this common household plant had lain dormant for ages before the house was +erected. We cannot tell why this common plant follows the domestic +household, any more than we can tell why rats follow civilization. But +they are both sufficiently annoying at times, to satisfy us that they <i>do</i> +follow, however inexplicable the reason may be.</p> + +<p>The same writer further says, in connection with the foregoing statements: +"Instances (of the vitality of seeds) might easily be multiplied almost +indefinitely, but we shall be satisfied with noticing one of a very +extraordinary kind. In the time of the Emperor Hadrian, a man died soon +after he had eaten plentifully of raspberries. He was buried at +Dorchester. About twenty-eight years ago, the remains of this man, +together with coins of the Roman Emperor, were discovered in a coffin (!) +at the bottom of a barrow, thirty feet under the surface. The man had thus +lain undisturbed for some 1700 years. But the most curious circumstance +connected with the case was, that <i>the raspberry seeds were recovered from +the stomach</i> (!) and sown in the garden of the Horticultural Society, +where they germinated and grew into healthy bushes," Here is +circumstantiality enough to satisfy the most unlimited skepticism, +provided that the facts were satisfactorily vouched for by the living, and +the record left by the dead were sufficiently explicit in detail, and +conclusive in identity of subject. Then to suggest even a reasonable doubt +would, we admit, be equivalent to making truth a circumstantial liar.</p> + +<p>But this most remarkable story will bear repetition, with a few running +comments. "The man (presumably a Roman soldier) died seventeen hundred +years ago." This is not unlikely. "He died of eating too plentifully of +raspberries;" a circumstance not altogether improbable. "He was buried at +Dorchester;" where, of course, there were no records of deaths and burials +kept at the time, and hence, we should have to question the record, if one +were presented. "He was also buried in a coffin, or, at least, dug up in +one." This statement must be received <i>cum grano</i>. The Romans never used +coffins, and, under the empire, they burnt most of their dead. After a +battle, however, they generally piled them up in heaps, and, where there +was a lack of fuel to burn them, they covered them with the surface soil, +taking good care to put a Roman coin in each soldier's mouth, so that he +might pay the ferryman in Hades. "There was thirty-five feet of surface +soil shoveled on top of this particular Roman,"--showing that he was a +very consequential personage in camp. No wonder, then, that all these nice +particularities of statement should have been circumstantially noted in +the commanding general's "order of the day," and thus been handed down to +posterity for the future advancement of science! "He had lain undisturbed +for nearly two thousand years." Almost any one would have done so, with +that amount of surface soil shoveled on top of him. "The seeds were +recovered from his stomach;" that is, after improvidently snatching away +the Roman soldier's life, they took good care to preserve their own, as +well as the stomach in which they were deposited. "The seeds were planted +in the Horticultural Society's garden, where they flourished vigorously."</p> + +<p>All these circumstantially narrated facts (?) were gathered (by somebody) +about forty years ago. In what authentic and satisfactorily verified +record are they to be found to-day? The writer gives us no clue. The +stomach, the coffin, the Roman coins, some of the wonderfully preserved +seeds, as well as the <i>obolus</i> in the mouth of the dead soldier, should be +found somewhere. They could not have disappeared in a night. If they had +withstood the relentless tooth of time for seventeen hundred years, in the +surface soil of Dorchester, the last forty years ought not to have +obliterated all trace of them. The story is simply too incredible for +belief, if printed in forty "Great Architects of Nature."</p> + +<p>From 1847 to 1851, the writer went into any number of Wisconsin +mounds--those not essentially dissimilar from the Roman barrows in +England--in company with the late I. A. Lapham, of Milwaukee; and the idea +of finding any human stomach, with or without seeds in it--with probably +not half the time intervening between burial and exhumation, as in the +case of this Roman soldier--would have been instantly rejected by the +distinguished archaeologist accompanying us. Indeed, had any such +discovery been made, he would have unhesitatingly pronounced the mound +tampered with for the purposes of imposition. It is possible that surface +soil, containing some raspberry seeds, may have been taken to the +"Horticultural Society's garden" to which Dr. Child refers, and planted +there as stated; but that they were from a human stomach that had lain +buried for seventeen hundred years in the surface soil of England, or any +other country, is simply preposterous. It caps the climax of all the +wonderful "seed-stories" yet manufactured for the scientific mind to +wrestle with. It is easy enough to find soil about old stumps, and fallen +trunks and branches of trees, which will produce raspberries, either with +or without the presence of seed. And soil might have been taken from the +bottom of this Dorchester barrow which produced them. But the appearance +of the bushes must have depended on the conditions of the soil, not on +seeds eaten by a Roman soldier nearly two thousand years ago. That version +of the story must be summarily dismissed the attention of scientific men.</p> + +<p>Professor Marsh, in the work to which we have already several times +alluded, says: "When newly cleared ground is burnt over in the United +States, the ashes are hardly cold before they are covered with a crop of +fire-weed, a tall herbaceous plant, very seldom growing under other +circumstances, and often not to be found for a distance of many miles from +the clearing." The botanical name of this plant is <i>Erechthites +hieracifolia</i>, and it is well known to the botanists of New England. Its +seeds are almost as destructible by fire as thistle-down itself; and it is +not to be supposed that any of the seeds borne by the winds or by birds, +and scattered through the clearing before it was burned, could have +survived the intense heat to which they must have been subjected in the +burning off of a heavy and dense growth of felled timber. The seeds, if +any, must have been scattered after the fire, and not before it. But these +heavy clearings--those in which we have witnessed the most abundant crops +of fire-weed--are generally burnt off in the early spring, when there are +no seeds to be scattered, as all those of the previous year's growth find +their proper lodgment in the soil before the winter fully closes in. The +seeds for which Professor Marsh would have to search, therefore, would be +those <i>grown in some corresponding latitude, or plant zone, in the +southern hemisphere</i>, not within thousands of miles from the clearing in +which they so promptly make their appearance.</p> + +<p>Professor Marsh suggests, however, that they may have come from "the +deeply buried seeds of a former vegetation, quickened into life by the +heat." But had he examined these plants, in their incipient stages of +growth, he would have found that they sprung directly from the surface of +the burnt soil, their initial rootlets hardly extending to the depth of +two-thirds of an inch below it, and where they must have utterly perished +from the heat. The theory he suggests is the only possible one, he thinks, +to account for the mystery, and hence its suggestion by him. But he has +only to pass one of the delicate seeds of this plant through the flame of +a candle to see that it instantly perishes by fire. His suggested theory +must be abandoned, therefore, and that of the Bible genesis accepted in +its place.</p> + +<p>The fact is, and it ought to be well known to the closer student of +nature, that the fire-weed makes its appearance in the "conditions" of +the burnt soil, just as stramonium does in the conditions of the soil +where a coal-pit has been recently burned; that is, not from seed, but +from "vital units," or germs, everywhere present in the earth--those +taking advantage of environing conditions, just as <i>Bacteria</i> or +<i>Torultz</i> spring from the proper organic infusions. And the young shoots +of stramonium, in a recently burned coal-pit, will be found to spring +directly from the surface of the burnt ground, where all seeds and living +organism must have perished in the heat, and not at any considerable +depth below it. Their first appearance is on the immediate surface of the +burnt ground, the same as in the case of fire-weed, and at a time when +there were no seeds to be distributed, except such as must have come from +the southern hemisphere, or been casually picked up by birds, and taken +their slim chances of survival after passing through the natural +"gristmills" of the birds. And even this supposition, would only account +for the appearance of a single stramonium plant or two, not for a thick +bed of it covering the entire ground. The theory of seed-distribution, in +this and other cases, is wholly out of the question; as much so as when +white clover makes its appearance on a closely-grazed prairie, hundreds +of miles away from where there has been a single sprig of clover growing +in a thousand years. Every closely observant person, living for any +length of time on our western prairies, is familiar with the fact that +when the rank and hardier grasses, usually growing thereon, are +effectually fed down by stock, and especially by sheep, the prairie +grasses disappear, and the ground at once comes in with white clover, and +the other nutritious gramma or grasses of our common pasture lands. No +seed has been sown in these localities, and none could have been found +had every square inch of the surface soil been examined by the most +powerful microscope. The white clover and these nutritious grasses make +their appearance on these prairies, just as the first sprig of vegetation +did on the earth, not from seed, but from preëxisting vital units or +primordial germs, implanted therein from the beginning, and awaiting the +necessary conditions for their development and growth.</p> + +<p>The "bird theory" is the one almost universally relied upon for the +explanation of these phenomena, where the seeds distributed, or supposed +to be distributed, are not winged. But we are satisfied that birds perform +no such important office, in the matter of seed-distribution, as is +generally attributed to them. We have examined, during the past two +seasons, a large number of bird-droppings, and find our previous +impressions respecting them fully verified. With all the more delicate +seeds--those of our common field grasses and weeds--the chances are a +thousand to one that none of them will ever pass the cloaca of the bird +eating them, in any condition to germinate. All seed-eating birds are also +gravel-eaters; and the pebbles and gravel they eat are mostly silex, or +the material from which our best buhrstones are made. These pass into the +gizzard, or pyloric division of the bird's stomach, where they are +utilized, the same as we utilize our buhrstones. The gizzard has sharply +corrugated interior walls, extremely thick and muscular, which +involuntarily contract and expand, giving the bird a tremendous grinding +power over his food, considering the size of his grinding apparatus. The +seeds--all the seeds, in fact, he eats--pass at once into his crop, or the +natural "hopper" to his "gristmill," where they undergo a moistening or +macerating process previous to being ground into the finest pulp in the +gizzard. As a general rule, all the seeds a bird eats are ground into this +pulpy state before they pass into the intestinal canal, extending from the +gizzard to the cloaca. The hard, semi-translucent, and highly elastic +outer coating of most small seeds, may be measurably preserved in its +passage through the gizzard, and, resuming its oval shape in the thinner +pulpy mass contained in the upper portion of the intestine, present the +appearance of seed in the cloacal discharges, and thus deceive the casual +observer. But the use of a spatula and a small piece of polished stone +slab will show that the entire discharge is excrementitious matter, with +the single exception of this silicious coating of the seeds.</p> + +<p>The case is different, however, with the fruit-eating birds. The fruits +they consume are retained but a comparatively short time in the crop, pass +hurriedly through the gizzard, and no doubt carry along with them some of +the smaller seeds of berries, and now and then the pit of a cherry or +small plum. The gizzard, in these cases, is simply gorged with the pulp +and juices of the fruit, its muscular action more or less relaxed, and +some of the seeds consequently escape the grinding process they would +otherwise undergo. And yet we are satisfied that a majority of these seeds +even, are more or less thoroughly triturated by a healthy gravel-eating +bird. This would certainly be the case if they were retained for any +length of time in the pyloric division of the bird's stomach. All birds +have gizzards, but their grinding capacity depends very much on the +character of the food they eat. Birds of prey, and others subsisting +mostly or entirely on animal food, have thin, membranous, and +comparatively flabby gizzards; while those living on hard grains and seeds +have extremely thick, powerful, and muscular ones,--those capable of +crushing up and thoroughly triturating all the food they take into their +crops. These gizzards are nature's gristmills, and they grind exceedingly +fine. If any seed escapes, it is because the mill has been flooded by the +bird, and not because of any defect in the grinding apparatus.</p> + +<p>These birds are not, therefore "natural sowers of seeds," as Professor +Marsh and some others claim; but are, at most, only accidental or +chance-sowers. Nature never designed that they should do anything more +than consume the food they eat, or submit it to the proper action of their +digestive organs. It might as well be claimed that the secretary bird is a +"natural sower of serpents," as that many of the grain-eating birds are +"the natural sowers of seeds." The theory is too foraminated--too full of +loopholes and unsatisfactory conditions--to be accepted as an explanation +of the more general phenomena presented. The fruit-eating quadrupeds are, +relatively, far better sowers of seeds than the birds, for they eat fruit +without sending their grists to mill. Dr. Dwight rejected the +transportation theory as early as 1820, and Professor Marsh gives any +number of cases where it was necessary for him to abandon it. And yet some +of our ablest writers, publishing works of quite recent date, adhere to it +as the only theory that accounts for all the phenomena presented.</p> + +<p>Professor George Thurber, in speaking of the dissemination of seeds, finds +other agencies therefor than winds, birds, quadrupeds, etc., such as we +have already named. For instance, he claims that rivers, ocean currents, +mountain torrents, and even wars, contribute largely towards their +dispersion and dissemination throughout different parts of the earth. All +this may be true to a limited extent; but none of these enumerated +agencies will account for more than a very few of the many +well-authenticated facts we have given, and many others that might be +given, if our limits permitted. Among the instances where wars have had, +or are claimed to have had, an important agency in the distribution of +seeds throughout an invaded country, he mentions the fact that "after our +late civil war, a little leguminous plant (<i>Lespedeza striata</i>) sprang +up all over the southern states," and adds, "that it was not known how it +came, or where from, but its native country is Japan." In some parts of +the South it is known as "Japan clover," and is highly valued as a forage +plant. But the war had nothing more to do with the appearance of this +plant "all over the southern states," than the changes of the moon, or the +phenomenal man therein. The plant had been noticed in certain localities +in the South before the war, but the circumstance of its very general +appearance throughout a large area of that section of country, was not +particularly noticed until the confederate troops began to move from one +southern state to another, when, finding it a valuable forage plant, they +naturally enough regarded it as a providential dispensation, especially in +those sections where other forage plants and nutritious gramma were not +abundant. But this plant would have made its appearance just the same had +the war never been thought of as a possible remedy for aggressive +legislation, however real or imaginary it may have been.</p> + +<p>It can be easily accounted for, however, on the theory we have +suggested--that of the germinal principle of life implanted in the earth, +as the Bible genesis indubitably indicates. The plant in question has long +been a native of Japan, which lies in the same warm temperate zone as the +southern states. The same general hygrometric and thermometric conditions +prevail throughout the two countries or sections of country. These, added +to the necessary telluric conditions, give the required moisture, heat, +and soil-constituents for the development of the Japan clover in the +South, the same as it was originally developed in its native country. And +it is just as much native to the South now, as it was hundreds or +thousand's of years ago to Japan. It did not come from seeds scattered by +war, or any other imaginable agency of man, but from the indestructible, +vital units or germs implanted in the earth itself. Had the plant appeared +in any one locality, or even in half a dozen separate localities, in the +South, it might possibly have been accounted for on the theory of +Professor Thurber. But its simultaneous appearance over "all the southern +states," as he puts it, absolutely negatives any such theory. Neither +winds, river or ocean currents, casual mountain torrents, birds, +quadrupeds, war, or even man himself, could have effected this sudden and +wide distribution of the plant in question. It came as did all other +plant-life, in the first instance, from geographical conditions--those +favoring the development of primordial germs--just as the different +organic infusions, experimentally prepared by the physiologist, produce +their respective forms of infusorial life; each distinctive form depending +on the chemical conditions of the infusion at the time the microscopic +examination is made. Change the conditions, or defer the examination until +the conditions themselves are changed, and other and different forms of +life will make their appearance, in harmony with the physiological law we +have named.</p> + +<p>This wonderful play of the vital forces of nature is no less dependant on +"conditions"--on the necessary pre-existing plasma, chemically balanced +soils, organic solutions, etc.--than the alleged "dynamical aggregates," +"<i>molecules organiques</i>," "plastide particles," or "highly differentiated +life-stuff," insisted upon by the physicists, in their materialistic +theories of life. These physicists make even the slightest change in +developmental phases--whether statical, as in the case of crystals, or +dynamical, as in the case of living organisms--to depend on physical +conditions,--those aiding and abetting what they call the "molecular play +of physical forces." But with their theory that matter and motion are the +only self-subsistent, indestructible elements in the universe, what +"molecular play" can be attributed to matter but that which is derived +from motion, or some one of its alleged correlates? We can only imagine +two sorts of motion as possible metaphysical conceptions in connection +with matter--<i>molar</i> motion, or that relating to matter moving in mass, +and <i>molecular</i> motion, or that relating to the movements of matter in its +unaggregated form, or as confined to molecules.</p> + +<p>But motion itself is not an absolute entity. It is not so much even as a +collocating or placing force of matter itself. It is, at best, only a +mechanical impulse imparted by one moving body to another; or, more +accurately speaking, a continuous change of place in a moving body. In +other words, it is simply a <i>process</i> or <i>mode</i> of action, and stands in +about the same relation to matter as <i>growth</i> does to a living plant or +tree. Independently of matter it has no existence, either objectively or +subjectively, or even as a metaphysical conception. To allege its +indestructibility, as the physicists do, is simply to predicate an +additional property of indestructible matter. We may call it +"force"--something that constantly expends itself in a moving body--but +it is utterly incapable of definition, or of conception even, except as +it stands related to such moving body. All the marvellous "correlates of +motion," therefore, producing such wonderful effects upon matter, in +both its molar and molecular states or conditions, are nothing more nor +less than vague and inconclusive inductions, derived from premises +having, at best, nothing but a relative existence in a universe of +moving matter. It would be decidedly better to agree with Haeckel, that +matter is the only actual existence, than to predicate of matter a +co-existent and wholly inexplicable "somewhat," whereon to base a purely +physical hypothesis of life.</p> + +<p>But let us return from this slight digression. The beautiful and purely +local fern (<i>Schizoea pusilla</i>) growing in the pine barrens of New Jersey, +affords quite as conclusive proof of the correctness of the Bible genesis +of life as the phenomenal appearance of Japan clover in the South. It was +at one time supposed that this most delicate and beautiful of all our +ferns was peculiar to the New Jersey pine barrens. But it has been +ascertained that it grows quite as abundantly in similar barrens in New +Zealand, which are in the south temperate zone, at about the same latitude +south, that these pine barrens of New Jersey occupy in the temperate zone +north. So that, at whatever period this fern originally made its +appearance in either locality, it unquestionably found the exact +thermometric, hygrometric, telluric, and other conditions necessary for +the development of its vital germs. Take any accurate, or even +half-accurate, chart of plant distribution on the earth's surface, and it +will be found that, everywhere, under the same favoring conditions, plants +of the same genera and species make their appearance independently of any +known processes of dissemination in the case of seeds. The distribution is +not one of seeds, but rather of geographical conditions--thermometric, +hygrometric, telluric, and possibly chemical. And this is true of all +vegetation, whether growing in the same plant zones, in high latitudes, at +high altitudes, or under one degree of temperature and moisture or +another. Whenever the telluric conditions are the same or similar, in the +respective localities named, and the temperature and moisture correspond, +the necessary plant distribution follows in obedience to the divine +mandate--"Let the earth bring forth." This is the one uniform law that +governs everywhere, and the only one that accounts for all the diversified +manifestations of plant-life, now, as heretofore, taking place upon our +globe. And the same is measurably true of animal life. It accounts for the +appearance of every form of life in organic infusions; for <i>Bacteria</i> in +the blood, <i>Torulæ</i> in the tissues, plastide particles, morphological +cells, and every other vital manifestation, from the smallest conceivable +"unit" of life in protaplasmic matter, to the lordliest and most defiant +forest oak that ever bared its arms to the storms and tempests of +centuries. A purely materialistic science may perk its head with an air of +affected incredulity, and superciliously turn aside from this hypothesis, +because it does not shock our veneration for the Sacred Scriptures, but +let its special advocates advance some more consistent and rational +life-theory than that of "molecular machinery worked by molecular force," +or content themselves, with Dr. Gull, in confessing that they are unable +to draw the first line between "living matter" and "dead matter," as they +absurdly use these terms.</p> + +<p>It is conceded that much extravagant speculation has been wasted upon this +question of the distribution of seeds. The ambition of each new writer has +seemingly been to hit upon some new theory of distribution. The "bird +theory" is a failure, as we have shown; nor do they invariably fly due +east or west, so as to supply the several climatic zones with their +respective vegetations. The same is true of the "squirrel theory," for +this nimble little rodent is as likely to head north or south as to follow +the course of the sun; the "wind theory" is subject to too many shifts and +changes to be accounted a reliable agency; the "river-and-ocean-current +theories" are still less satisfactory, since rivers flow in diverse +directions, and ocean currents bear with safety only their own aquatic +plants; the "mummy-case theory" is hardly an accredited agency, and the +"war theory" is attended with too much destruction of life to be safely +relied on as conserving the vital forces of nature. The climatic zones, +and high and low altitudes, have still to be consulted to get at the real +causes of distribution, or such as conclusively satisfy the scientific +mind. For no single plant is really a cosmopolite. They are simply the +habitats of their own separate zones, except as high altitudes are +reached, and climatic and other conditions favor the appearance of such +vegetation as belongs to other plant zones. If we would find the more +common plants and weeds of New England in North Carolina or Tennessee, we +must go into the mountainous regions of those states, at an altitude which +compensates for the difference in latitude, and where the influencing +conditions of plant-life are essentially the same. In such localities, we +shall find the same household plants, garden weeds, and general +vegetation, as in higher northern latitudes, not because their seeds have +been borne thither from New England or elsewhere, but because the same +climatic, telluric and other conditions prevail as in the more northern +localities. And these conditions are what determine the development and +growth of local vegetations.</p> + +<p>And so of the alpine firs, grasses, harebells, lichens, mosses, etc. Their +seeds have not been scattered, by any known agencies, over intervening +regions, for thousands of miles or more, in order to find lodgment on +these lofty mountain cones; but, conditions being the same, the same +vegetable growths appear. This is nature's method of propagating "vital +units" and diversifying plant-life--geographical conditions everywhere +determining the proper distribution. But if nature is so prolific of vital +resources, in the propagation of plant-life, what need has she of natural +seeds? We anticipate this inquiry only to answer it; for we recognize it +as a legitimate one in this connection. Our answer is that the seeds are +given for the use of man, that he may control and utilize vegetation, and +not have to depend on more or less uncertain conditions. Agricultural +chemistry must be carried to a much higher degree of perfection than it is +likely to reach in the next ten centuries at least, to determine whether +any particular plat of ground has been chemically balanced for the growth +of wheat, to the exclusion of other cereal crops. Besides, the process of +soil-balancing might be altogether too expensive to be indulged in by +judicious husbandry. These chemical conditions admit of too many possible +failures, in balancing even the smallest patch of ground, to justify +experiments in the direction named. Seeds also subserve the important +subsidiary purpose of supplying food for many birds and animals, more or +less useful to man.</p> + +<p>But chemistry has its limits as to usefulness in all human laboratories. +As man's wisdom is limited, so is his power over the elementary forces of +nature confined to very narrow boundaries. It is given to him to search +out many inventions, and to pry, thus far and no farther, into the secrets +of nature, or, more properly speaking, into the secrets of God. There is +no doubt that if our chemico-molecular theorists respecting +life-phenomena, could produce, in their laboratories, the exact +inter-uterine plasma, or plasmic conditions, of an animal--any animal, in +fact--and continue these conditions during the proper period of gestation, +they <i>might</i> produce life <i>de novo</i>.[<a href="#foot13">13</a>] But the most daring physicist +would stand aghast at the bare proposal of such an experiment. Neither his +knowledge of chemistry, nor the present uncertain value attaching to +"molecular machinery," would justify him, for a moment, in entering upon +such a purely tentative and empirical an undertaking.</p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to assume that the same law of vital force governs +in the appearance and geographical distribution of <i>fungi</i>, as universally +obtains in the higher and more complex vegetal growths. And although it +may be difficult, in some instances, to draw the precise line between +certain low mycological forms and the amoeboid and some other primitive +manifestations of animal life, yet all vegetable physiologists agree in +assigning a purely vegetable origin to all the primary groups of +fungi--their general cellular character determining their proper place in +classification. And in all their extended family groups, pervading nature +as widely as animal and vegetable life, we find that uniform chemical and +other conditions produce uniform mycological results. Spores are no more +necessary for their appearance, in the first instance, than acorns are +essential to the appearance of an oak forest when it succeeds the pine. +Wherever the necessary conditions of moisture and heat are found to +obtain, in connection with decayed or decaying substances, the particular +form of fungus indicated thereby, whether parasitic or non-parasitic, will +make its appearance. Continuously damp walls, or wall-paper, will produce +them in specific variety, not because their invisible spores are flying +about in the atmosphere to find appropriate lodgment, but because the +necessary conditions obtain for their manifestation, or for the +development of their vital units--those everywhere diffused, and ready to +burgeon forth from the proper matrix, or from certain nutrient conditions +to be met with in all vegetable substances, after the process of decay has +commenced. Some orders appear only in a single matrix, but the greater +part of them flourish on different decaying substances.</p> + +<p>Dr. M.C. Cooke, in speaking of non-parasitic fungi, and especially of +moulds, says: "It would be far more difficult to mention substances on +which they are never developed than to indicate where they have been +found." The parasitic fungi, however, generally confine themselves to +certain special plants, and rarely to any other. It is only the condition +of these special plants, when affected by decay, that seems favorable for +their development; not because their spores (assuming that all fungi come +from spores,) possess the intelligence to fly about and hunt up the proper +nutrient matter on which to subsist during their developmental progress +from specific spores into genetic forms of life. The rust or blight of +grain is not the cause, therefore, but rather the result, of the common +disease known as "blight." Without some excess or deficiency of absorption +and elaboration in the growth of grain or plants--something essentially +disturbing their normal and harmonious processes of development--no +mycological forms would appear on their stems or roots, nor would they +develop themselves on their fading leaves or congested and decaying fruit. +To say that there is any intelligent preference in these fungi--the +different species of <i>Mucor</i>, for instance--for disgusting offal over +decaying fruit, bread, paste, preserves, etc., is to predicate a higher +degree of intelligence of fungus spores than of the average brute +creation, with all its wonderful instincts for guidance.</p> + +<p>We might refer to other classes of fungi developing themselves in the +testa of hard seeds, and in the interior of acorns, sweet chestnuts, +etc.,--those in which there is no discoverable external opening by the aid +of the microscope--to show the absolute absurdity of the theory that the +spores of fungi, including the non-parasitic and other autonomous moulds, +go madly foraging about the country in pursuit of decaying cocoanuts, +apples, pears, plums, oranges, etc., and even committing their +depredations on hermetically canned fruits, the concealed honeycomb of +beehives, the pupa of moths, and whatever else they may intelligently +select as a desirable matrix or habitat. No such theory as this will stand +the test of thorough research and investigation, in any mycological +direction. Fungi everywhere make their initial appearance in the +conditions of decay, as plants and trees originally make theirs in the +environing conditions of vital manifestation. That our life-giving +atmosphere--the "<i>pater omnipotens Æther</i>" of Virgil, "descending into the +bosom of his joyous spouse (the earth) in fructifying showers, and great +himself, mingling with her great body" for the development of all things +of life--should be so immeasurably thronged with death-pursuing fungi that +myriads of their spores might dance without jostling on the point of a +cambric needle, is infinitely more fanciful than the conceptions of the +poet, in personifying the atmosphere as "father Æther," and the earth as +his "joyous spouse." But life, with its "pardlike spirit, beautiful and +swift," has reached its highest conceptions in the mind of the poet, not +in the speculations of the scientist. What a "mingled yarn," spun from +many-colored yet invisible threads, is it in the creative mind of a +Shakespeare, and how it looms up into "a dome of many-colored glass, +staining the white radiance of eternity," under the magic touch of a +Shelley! And yet how is it dwarfed down to a contemptible piece of +"molecular machinery" by the scientist--one so utterly contemptible in its +manifestations that it is ordered to take "a back seat" in this universe +of all-potential matter and motion!</p> + +<p>Dr. Cooke, in his "Handbook of British Fungi," virtually concedes that the +spores of the large puff-ball (<i>Lycoperdon giganteum</i>), as well as those +of mushrooms, truffles, and other edible fungi (those with whose methods +of propagation man is best acquainted), may be produced artificially. But +the process by which their production is thus effected, is more properly a +natural than an artificial one. In speaking of truffle-grounds, he says +(quoting from Broome) "that whenever a plantation of beech, or beech and +fir, is made in the chalky districts of Salisbury Plain, after the lapse +of a few years truffles are produced, and that the plantations continue +productive for a period of from ten to fifteen years, after which they +cease to be so." No truffle spores were planted in these cases, but the +conditions of the soil, interlaced by the roots and shaded by the branches +of the young beech trees, or the beech and fir, became favorable for the +development of truffle "germs," and they made their appearance just as +mushrooms do in caves and other places, where artificial beds are made and +chemically balanced for their development and growth. And the reason why +they disappeared, after a period of ten or fifteen years, was simply +because the proper nutriment of the soil was exhausted, and not in +consequence of its being too deeply shaded by the growing trees. One +uniform rule would seem to govern in the culture of this much-coveted +fungus. Wherever the necessary environing conditions obtain, they +<i>appear</i>, and wherever these conditions fail, they <i>disappear</i>, +notwithstanding the most persistent efforts to save them by watering the +soil with fresh infusions of the plant. In proof of this, one form of +truffle (<i>Tuber æstivum</i>) appears under beech trees, another form (<i>Tuber +macrosporum</i>) under oak trees, and still a third form (<i>Tuber brumale</i>) +under oaks and white poplars; showing that so slight a change in soil +conditions as that resulting from the presence of poplars among oaks, +produces a very material change in the character of the fungus--one +amounting to a specific difference in variety.</p> + +<p>The process of artificially producing mushroom spores is a very simple +one, and may be easily followed. You have only to collect a quantity of +horse-droppings, mingle with them some common road sand, place them under +cover, see that they are well beaten down in order to prevent +over-heating--turning them occasionally for the same purpose--and in due +time they will generate sufficient spores for a dozen mushroom beds of the +ordinary size. The reason for their appearance is the same as that +governing truffle spores--they come whenever conditions favor, that is, +whenever the soil is chemically balanced for their development and growth. +In other words, they come because it is just as impossible for them not to +come, in their proper environing conditions, as it is for the earth, in +its present cosmical relations, not to respond to its axial rotation. "Let +the earth bring forth" is just as much an outspoken law of nature, and one +as inexorably obeyed, as that unerring force of gravity which led +Leverrier, in the faith of his inductions, to indicate the precise point +in the heavens where the far-off planet, now bearing his name, might be +seen by the required telescope.</p> + +<p>Dr. Cooke, quoting Mr. Cuthill's directions for producing mushroom spores, +says: "These little collections of horse-droppings and road sand, if kept +dry in shed, hole, or corner, under cover, will, in a short time, generate +plenty of spawn, and will be ready to spread on the surface of the bed in +early autumn." The collections should, of course, be made in the early +summer. But it is no part of our object to indicate, in this connection, +the process of truffle or mushroom culture. We merely refer to the methods +to show that the vital units, or germinal principles of life, in the case +of fungi, are just as dependent on "conditions" for their development, as +were the primordial germs of the gigantic cryptogams of the carboniferous +era. These primordial germs, or the <i>ZRA</i> of the Bible genesis, must have +preceded the first fungous growth, as they preceded the first +spore-bearing cryptogam.</p> + +<p>M. Gasparin, in his report on the production of truffles, made to the +great "Paris Exposition" of 1855, refers to the "natural truffle-grounds +at Vaucluse," where the "common oak produces truffles like the evergreen +oak;" although, in other localities, owing no doubt to the different +conditions of the soil, those gathered at the base of the one species of +oak differ very materially from those gathered at the base of the other. +All these experimental results, and many others we might give in +connection with the culture of edible fungi, point to the conditions of +the soil, produced by natural rather than artificial means, as +all-essential for the propagation of fungus spores, as well as their +development into full-sized plants. The cultivation of other and minuter +fungi, for scientific purposes, need not be referred to in this +connection. The same general observations will be found to apply in the +case of all the experiments tried, although some very curious and +remarkable modifications occur where pseudospores are to be found in the +micelium of different plants. Nearly all these fungi have their own +parasites, originating undoubtedly in the diseased conditions of the plant +from which they derive their nutriment. Indeed, all fungi, whether +parasitic or non-parasitic, have their origin, more or less definitely +occurring, in decay. It is no more true that death is a necessity of life, +than that life is an equal necessity of death. As out of the dead past +springs the eternally living present, so from the "muddy vesture of decay" +spring all the marvellous powers of reproduction with which nature was +endowed from the beginning.</p> + +<p>But it is unnecessary to dwell longer on the spores of fungi. As with the +seeds of plants and trees, these spores never had an existence, and never +could have had one, before the first independent fungus appeared to +produce them. The fungus before the spore is the inevitable induction. No +distinction between necessary and contingent truth can ever take a +stronger hold than this on the human mind. Whence, then, the <i>first</i> +fungus? or whence, rather, all those colonies, families, orders, +divisions, and countless distinct individuals, extant everywhere, in the +mycological world? The answer we shall give will be anticipated from what +we have already so confidently affirmed. Life comes from Life, as spirit +comes from God. And when "the spirit of God" moved upon the face of the +depths--upon the face of all the earth--at whatever stage in the progress +of our planet, from its original form to its present myriad-thronged +condition of life, that transcendent event occurred, <i>Nature</i>, as we +half-idolatrously worship her, received her first baptism of life, and her +solemn consecration as "the vicar of God." No wonder, then, that at that +ecstatic moment, when the ineffably bright mantle, fringed with "the white +radiance of eternity," fell upon her, "the morning stars sang together and +all the sons of God shouted for joy." And nature has been true to both her +baptism and her consecration. She claims no worship, no adoration, no +idolatrous homage from man, but continually sends up her eternal chant and +choral anthem of praise to the great Giver of life. Every flower of the +field, every blade of grass, every stream that mirrors the heavens above +her, every mountain top from which she points an index finger, every +breeze in which she whispers, and every cataract in which she speaks, all +proclaim the power, the wisdom, the goodness of God--the source of all +life in the universe, from the minutest spore to all-inventive, +soul-endowed man.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="05"></a>Chapter V.</h2> + +<h3>Plant Migration and Interglacial Periods.</h3> + + + +<p>Among the leading propositions laid down by Arthur Renfrey, Esq., F.R.S. +etc., etc., in the able article prepared by him for "The Physical Atlas of +Natural Phenomena," by Alexander Keith Johnston, Edinburg Edition, 1856, +on "The Geographical Distribution of the most Important Plants Yielding +Food," are the following:--</p> + +<p>1. "The primary condition of the existence of any species of plant, is its +absolute creation, of which we know nothing.</p> + +<p>2. "But we assume each species to have been <i>created but once in time and +in place</i>, and that its present diffusion is the result of its own law of +reproduction under the favorable or restrictive influences of laws +external to it.[<a href="#foot14">14</a>]</p> + +<p>3. "The most important of external laws are those relating to climate, +since <i>any species can flourish only within narrower or wider, but always +fixed limits, of temperature, humidity etc</i>.,</p> + +<p>4. "The climate depends primarily on latitude, since this indicates +distance from the source of heat, and the degree of obliquity of the +heating rays."</p> + +<p>There are other governing conditions, of course, such as the average +rain-fall, distance from the equator, the elevation above the sea level in +the various mountain systems of vegetation, etc., including the +hygrometric, thermometric, telluric, and other conditions, of the several +localities in which the different species of vegetation make their +appearance.</p> + +<p>But why should this distinguished naturalist insist upon the specific +creation of either plants or animals? No scientific work of any paramount +value confines the creative power of the universe to such narrow and +restricted limits. Nor is there a particle of evidence to be drawn from +the Bible that either plants or animals primarily originated in pairs. +"Let the earth bring forth" is a command without limitation, or +restriction, as to time, place, or number; and there is no reason to +doubt that myriads of living forms swarmed everywhere, at first as now, +in nature.</p> + +<p>The idea, as expressed by Mr. Renfrey, that they were specifically created +at one time and place only, whether in pairs, tens, twenties, or hundreds, +is neither a rational one, nor has it any experience-argument or +scientific authority on which to stand. Take, for instance, an +experience-argument directly in point:--When the salt wells were first +bored at Syracuse, N.Y., and the salt water was suffered to flow in waste +over the low grounds about the salt-works, the small saline plants +peculiar to salt-marshes in the warm temperate zone made their appearance, +not in pairs, tens or hundreds, but in thousands rather, and have +nourished there ever since. They came because conditions favored; because +a salt-marsh had been artificially produced hundreds of miles away from +the sea coast. This is only one of a large number of cases--more than we +have room to specify in this connection--showing that wherever man, +artificially or otherwise, produces the necessary conditions of +plant-life, nature responds to the germinal law precisely as she did +millions of years ago when the first salt-marsh favored the appearance of +these saline plants--such as grow under no other conditions or +circumstances.</p> + +<p>But this idea of plants coming primarily from a single pair of +progenitors, and each primordial pair branching off into diversified +offspring, as in the case of the cabbage, assumed to be the original +ancestor of all the turnips and ruta-bagas, may be an article of botanical +faith, but never of experimental proof. "<i>Entia non sunt multiplicanda +præter necessitatem</i>" is an old and well-approved maxim, applicable alike +to the countless myriads of living organisms, as to the innumerable +crystalline forms to be found everywhere in nature. Nothing is produced +without the necessary conditions on which its production depends. +"Necessity," in its primitive signification, is a term of the very widest +meaning, and most universal application. It applies as well to the course +of nature as to the course of human events--to the laws of vegetable and +animal growth as to the inevitable march and order of celestial movements. +As applied to any form of life-manifestation it implies a law of +development and growth, as well as the physiological conditions without +which vital manifestations are impossible. For law, in a physiological +sense, is that mode of vital action by which effects are invariably and +inevitably produced.[<a href="#foot15">15</a>] And this law is just as dependent on necessary +vital conditions as vital manifestations are dependent on a physiological +law. There must always be this reciprocal dependence and relationship +between conditioning causes and effects. Whenever and wherever the +necessary vital conditions exist, the physiological law takes effect, and +the requisite vital manifestation is witnessed. And this is no doubt as +true of animal as of vegetable life.</p> + +<p>The earth's surface has been divided into eight separate zones, each of +which is distinguished by its peculiar or characteristic fauna and flora. +Their order, measured from the geographical equator, is as follows;</p> + +<pre> 1. The Equatorial Zone, extending from 0° to 15°. + 2. " Tropical " " " 15° " 23°. + 3. " Sub-tropical " " " 23° " 34°. + 4. " Warm Temperate " " " 34° " 45°. + 5. " Cold " " " 45° " 58°. + 6. " Sub-arctic " " " 58° " 66°. + 7. " Arctic " " " 66° " 72°. + 8. " Polar " " " 72° " 82°.</pre> + +<p>These several zones become sixteen in number when considered with +reference to both the northern and southern hemispheres. And a like +division of isothermals is made in the case of all our mountain systems, +extending in both directions from the equator. In ascending our +equatorial, tropical, and sub-tropical mountains, we find, of course, at +their several bases, the temperature of the zones in which they +respectively lie; from two thousand to three thousand feet, we reach the +next higher zone, and so on, at about the same ratio of altitude, until we +ascend to the polar zone or the line of perpetual ice and snow. The peak +of Teneriffe, for instance, lies in the sub-tropical zone, but, at the +elevation named, we meet with the vegetation which characterizes the warm +temperate zone. And this holds true of all our mountain systems, in all +latitudes, and at all altitudes, in all parts of the globe.</p> + +<p>They all present the same or strikingly similar characteristics in plant +life, with such variations and modifications only as might be accounted +for, were all the influencing conditions and surrounding circumstances, +modifying geographical distribution, known to us. From the lowest to the +highest regions in which vegetation flourishes, this rule, with slight +exceptions only, will be found to obtain, and it is in this direction that +the observations of the scientific, as well as practical botanist, should +hereafter be extended.</p> + +<p>Humboldt noticed this characteristic feature of the earth's vegetation +quite early in his explorations, and accordingly divided the tropical +mountains, as the earth's surface was then divided, into three separate +zones, the tropical, the temperate, and the frigid. But a closer +classification now distinguishes them into the same number of zones as are +marked, in approximate isotherms, on the earth's surface. Mr. Renfrey +gives us further statistics of great value respecting these several plant +zones of the globe, all of which fit so admirably into our theory of +plant-distribution, that we can hardly see how the most prejudiced mind +can resist the force of its application. Among the most important of these +statistical facts are tables giving the comparative rain-falls in the +different plant zones of the old and new worlds, and the classes of +vegetation peculiar to each of them.</p> + +<p>The Equatorial zone, for instance, is characterized by extreme luxuriance +in growth, owing no doubt to the great heat and abundant moisture therein, +and exhibits a vegetation which is peculiar to itself, and which could +only thrive under the hygrometric, thermometric, telluric, and other +conditions of that extensive zone.</p> + +<p>The Tropical zones (those north and south of the equator) are +characterized by a more abundant and diversified underwood, and, while +retaining some of the equatorial forms, present fewer parasites and less +rapid and luxuriant growths. They contain many plants and trees which are +peculiar to their own limits, and these are generally the hardiest and +most abundant. All equatorial forms disappear in these zones, that is do +not pass into the sub-tropical zones. And these characteristics obtain in +both the northern and southern tropical zones, as well as in the mountain +systems within the equatorial regions.</p> + +<p>The Sub-tropical zones, while retaining some of the more marked forms and +general features of the tropical zones, such as palms, bananas, etc., +exhibit the most striking characteristics of their own, consisting of a +greater abundance of forest trees, especially those having broad, leathery +and shining leaves, like the magnolias, the different species of laurels, +and plants of the myrtle family. The tropical forms all disappear in these +zones, as the equatorial do in the tropical zones.</p> + +<p>The Warm Temperate zones exhibit the same disposition to retain some of +the hardier and more abundant sub-tropical forms that characterize the +other zones, in respect to their adjoining isotherms. But the trees and +plants peculiar to this zone north, (and the same is no doubt true of the +corresponding zone south), are more numerous, and embrace a wider range of +deciduous, as well as evergreen growths. Evergreen shrubs, heaths, +cistusses, and leguminous plants are everywhere more abundant. The marked +characteristic of these zones is that the trees, plants, and arborescent +grasses differ more widely in their general character, as well as run more +extensively into varieties.</p> + +<p>The Cold Temperate zones retain many of the deciduous trees of the warm +temperate, but with less conspicuous blossoms, while a stronger tendency +is shown toward social conifers, and the trunks of the deciduous trees are +more profusely overrun with mosses, lichens, etc. These zones are also +abundant in grasses.</p> + +<p>The Sub-arctic zone north largely retains its hold upon the social +conifers, giving place, northward, on this continent, as well as in Europe +and Asia, to birch and alder, alternating with willows where the soil is +sufficiently moist. Green pastures are still abundant, and showy flowering +herbs abound during the brief spring, summer, and autumn months.</p> + +<p>The Arctic zone retains few of the sub-arctic forms and its vegetation +generally corresponds to what we call alpine shrubs, grasses, etc.</p> + +<p>The North Polar zone shows few signs of vegetation and is thought to be +entirely devoid of shrubs. A few small herbacious perennials of the most +extreme dwarf habit, with a few lichens and mosses, constitute its entire +vegetation.</p> + +<p>There are some seeming exceptions to these general statements respecting +plant-distribution, but they are hardly exceptions when we consider the +elevation at which any one species, as the birches for instance, may +appear, as they frequently do, in three several zones.</p> + +<p>From these facts, gathered from the highest authorities, and well-attested +on all hands, what general conclusions, if any, are to be drawn? Before +answering this inquiry, let us proceed to state what conclusions <i>have</i> +been drawn. According to all the authorities we have examined on the +distribution of plant life; on the migration of plants and animals; on +climate and time as affecting the transference of isothermal and +isochimenal lines; on glacial and inter-glacial periods (with one +important exception only), the assumption maintained is substantially that +of Mr. Renfrey, that "each species of plant and animal was created but +once in time and place," and that its present diffusion is the result of +its "own law of reproduction under the favorable or restrictive influences +of laws external to it." In other words, they insist upon original +plant-centres, without definitely stating when or where they occurred, and +that from these centres both plants and animals have migrated to all parts +of the globe where they now appear, even crossing the equatorial zones +where they could not live for a single day. This migration theory they +attempt to explain in a way that is altogether more ingenious than +satisfactory.</p> + +<p>The important exception to which we refer is that of Professor Agassiz, as +reported by his associate professor of Harvard University, Mr. Asa Gray, +in his "Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism." In this work +Professor Gray says of his late distinguished associate, that so far as he +was aware, Professor Agassiz was the only leading naturalist "who did not +take into his very conception of a species, explicitly or by implication, +the notion of a material connection resulting from the descent of the +individuals composing it from a common stock, of a local origin."</p> + +<p>And Professor Gray adds this further testimony to the closeness of his +associate's observations, in considering the very point here under +consideration: "Agassiz wholly eliminates community of descent from his +idea of species, and even conceives a species to have been as numerous in +individuals, and as widely spread over space, or as segregated in +discontinuous spaces, from the first to the later periods." And this view +is undoubtedly the correct one. At all events, it entirely harmonizes with +the facts of the biblical genesis, and obviates the necessity of +accounting for the appearance of the same genera and species of plants or +animals in the southern as in the northern hemispheres; in fact, their +appearance in all parts of the globe, in corresponding isotherms, and +under similar conditions of moisture and soil-constituents.</p> + +<p>Wherever the hygrometric, thermometric, telluric, and other conditions +favor, the class of vegetation indicated by the presence of these +conditions makes its appearance, just as the fire-weed makes its +appearance in our warm temperate zone, not from the presence of seed, but +simply the presence of "conditions"--the <i>pro</i>vision of man harmonizing +with the <i>pre</i>vision of nature. In the same way the "Japan clover" made +its appearance, as Professor Thurber states, "all over the southern +states" during the late civil war, not from the migration of plants, but +the presence of natural conditions.[<a href="#foot16">16</a>]</p> + +<p>The numerous facts we have already given, and many others that might be +arrayed in advocacy of our position, taken in connection with the general +facts here presented in regard to plant-distribution, all point directly +to climatal and soil conditions as the real cause of dissemination, and +not to their migration from continent to continent, and across vast +intervening seas and oceans, as the theory of Professor Gray and others +would require us to believe. Take the case of the <i>Schizoea pusilla</i> of +the New Jersey pine barrens, to which we have already referred, growing in +similar barrens in New Zealand, and how are we to account for their +antipodal appearance upon the globe? Professor Thurber refers to this +plant as a "purely local fern" of New Jersey, and says it was for a long +time supposed to be peculiar to that state until it was ascertained that +it grew in New Zealand. Whether this plant "travelled" from New Zealand to +New Jersey, or journeyed in the opposite direction, none of these +"specific-centre" gentlemen can well inform us. Professor Agassiz would +have said that it might have appeared, in numerous individuals, in both +localities at the same time, or at different times, as conditions favored; +and this would have been an exact scientific statement, no doubt, of the +fact. Mr. Arthur Renfrey, and those who accept his scientific formulæ, +must insist that this most beautiful of all our ferns was such a "favorite +child of nature" that she condescended to create it <i>twice</i> "in time and +place," instead of only <i>once</i>. It is a poor rule, they may say, that has +no exceptions in phenomenal manifestation.</p> + +<p>Professor Gray may insist that such a phenomenon as this requires belief +in the supernatural, and that migration by ocean-currents is the more +rational theory of the two. But M. Alphonse de Candolle--quite as high +authority as we can quote--has come to the conclusion that marine +currents, and all other suggested means of distant transportation, "have +played only a very small part in the actual dispersion of species," even +across narrow channels and the near arms of seas. But why should the +appearance of this fern at opposite points of the globe, with thousands of +miles of ocean and continent intervening, be any more supernatural than +the presence of <i>Bacteria</i> or <i>Torulæ</i>[<a href="#foot17">17</a>] in different organic +infusions? If the vital units of these <i>infusoriæ</i>, are present in +experimental infusion, as Professor Bastian virtually admits, why may not +the vital germs or units of this <i>Schizoea pusilla</i> have made their +appearance, in developmental forms, both in New Zealand and New Jersey, at +the same or different periods of time? If Professor Gray regards the +microscopical forms in organic infusions, or the statical forms in +inorganic solutions, as supernatural, or as above the powers of nature, +then we have no exceptions to make to his position. First, prove that +these vital manifestations of nature are above the powers with which she +has been endowed, or was originally endowed and we will concede the +question of supernaturalness, and drop all exceptions to his line of +argument. Whenever a dynamic law, or a statical, is found to be uniformly +operative under a given set of conditions, we had supposed the operation +not to be above the powers of nature, but in entire accord with them, and +hence not supernatural.</p> + +<p>But let us see into what an inextricable labyrinth of difficulty we are +led by this theory of plant-migration from the equatorial to the +sub-arctic zone, and <i>vice-versa,</i> and even beyond the equator to the +sub-antarctic zone, and still <i>vice versa</i>. Before proceeding to consider +the probable duration of the several geographical epochs, called glacial +periods, on which their theory of plant-migration depends, or considering +the evidence touching these glacial periods, we will state their position +in regard to these possible migrations as briefly and concisely as we know +how. Mr. Darwin's solution of this problem is the generally accepted one +of the evolutionists, as well as most of the present scientific world. As +the truth, or rather the falsity, of his pet theory of evolution depended +on the satisfactory solution of this vexed problem, it became necessary +for him to give his best and entire mental energies to the gigantic task +which was, by universal consent, assigned him. The reader shall see how +admirably the thermal equator is crossed by Mr. Darwin, with his vast +swarms of flies, mosquitoes, insectivorous and other plants, forest trees, +anthropoid apes, and general menagerie of wild animals, such as would +gladden the heart of the "great American showman" beyond the most +extravagant comparison.</p> + +<p>The question, bear in mind, which he was specially called upon to solve, +was how the temperate forms north--those, for instance, of the warm and +cold temperate zones--managed to cross the thermal equator, and invade the +corresponding zones in the southern hemisphere; just as though there was +any more necessity of determining this question than the opposite one, of +how the southern forms came to invade the northern hemisphere. We will +give his solution of this problem in his own language, that we may not be +charged with misrepresentation.</p> + +<p>He says, in speaking of the glacial periods: "As the cold became more and +more intense, we know that arctic forms invaded the temperate regions; +and, from the facts just given, there can hardly be a doubt that some of +the more vigorous, dominant, and widest-spread temperate forms invaded the +equatorial lowlands. The inhabitants (flora and fauna) of these hot +lowlands would at the same time have migrated to the tropical and +sub-tropical regions of the south; for the southern hemisphere was at this +period warmer. On the decline of the glacial period, as both hemispheres +gradually recovered their former temperatures, the northern forms living +on the lowlands under the equator would have been driven to their former +homes or have been destroyed, being replaced by the equatorial forms +returning from the south. Some, however, of the northern temperate forms +would almost certainly have ascended any adjoining highland, where, if +sufficiently lofty, they would have long survived, like the arctic forms +on the mountains of Europe.</p> + +<p>"In the regular course of events the southern hemisphere would, in its +turn, be subject to a severe glacial period, with the northern hemisphere +rendered warmer; and then the southern temperate forms would invade the +equatorial lowlands. The northern forms which had before been left on the +mountains would now descend and mingle with the southern forms. These +latter, when the warmth returned, would return to their former homes, +leaving some few species on the mountains, and carrying southward with +them some of the northern temperate forms, which had descended from their +mountain fastnesses. Thus we should have some few species identically the +same in the northern and southern temperate zones, and on the mountains of +the intermediate tropical regions."</p> + +<p>We are sorry to spoil so ingenious a theory as this to account for +plant-migration from the temperate zones north to the corresponding zones +south. But in spite of all the great names which will frown down upon us +in the attempt, we are obliged to demolish this altitudiness structure, +even at the risk of its tumbling about our own ears.</p> + +<p>But first let us lay down a few undeniable propositions, on the +strength of which this ingenious and purely speculative theory of Mr. +Darwin must rest:--</p> + +<p>1. It is universally conceded by the scientific world that these glacial +epochs, however many of them there may have been in the past and however +few there may be in the future, depend, for their occurrence, upon the +maxima of eccentricity in the earth's orbit about the sun.</p> + +<p>2. The actual amount of heat which the earth annually receives from the +sun is in no way affected by the eccentricity of its orbit. It is a +constant quantity, and only unequally distributed on the earth's surface, +being neither increased nor diminished, as our winters occur in aphelion +or perihelion.</p> + +<p>3. The actual amount of ice-cap accumulated about the two poles of the +earth, is also a constant quantity. And to measure the severity of any +glacial epoch, we have only to determine the exact amount of ice (not +altogether an impossible problem) about the two poles at any given time, +and then determine the effect of its entire transference from one pole to +the other.</p> + +<p>4. It is not probable that the present ice-cap of the south pole extends +continuously and permanently much farther north than 80° or 81°. Mt. +Erebus, in Victoria Land, lies in about this latitude, and it was only a +few years since that the coast line of that island or continent was +traversed, by English exploring vessels, from Mt. Erebus to a point some +ten or twelve degrees further north. [<a href="#foot18">18</a>]</p> + +<p>5. But if we estimate the southern cap as extending continuously to 75°, +what would be the effect of its transference at once to the ice-cap of the +north pole? Would it extend it, after assuming its proper glacial slope, +below 60°, a point falling within the present subarctic zone? The utmost +limit to which Mr. Croll, in his great work on "Climate and Time," +conceives it possible that it should extend, in any glacial epoch, is to +55°, or about the northern boundary of England.</p> + +<p>Now unless the astronomers and physicists are all at sea about the causes +of glaciation, the warm temperate zone can never be pushed any further +south than the tropical zone, nor the cold temperate any further than the +sub-tropical. This would be the extreme limit. Mr. Croll says, in speaking +of these glacial periods; "It is, of course, absurd to suppose that an +ice-cap could ever actually reach down to the equator. It is probable that +the last great ice-cap of the glacial epoch nowhere reached half way to +the equator. Our cap (that of Europe) must therefore, terminate at a +moderately high latitude." And if the gulf stream flows southward during +the glacial period north, as he supposes probable, the cap on this +continent would probably terminate at the same moderately high latitude. +Assuming that Mr. Croll's estimate is the more probable one, it would only +push the cold temperate zone down to the line of the Gulf States; the warm +temperate, to the southern line of Mexico; the sub-tropical, to the +Central American States, and the tropical to the United States of +Columbia, Venezuela, and Guiana.</p> + +<p>Suppose, then, that some seven hundred thousand years ago, more or less, +when the North Pole had fully donned the earth's ice-cap, with all the +isothermal and isochimenal changes thereby effected, what must have been +the line of march taken by our northern vegetal and animal forms to escape +the cataclysm of ice and snow then impending? Manifestly, they would have +flocked, first to the Gulf states, then to Mexico, and afterwards to the +Central American states; but none of them could ever have been crowded +through the Isthmus of Panama, since at the height of the last glaciation, +that portion of the continent must have been the tropical barrier to our +northern forms, as it is now the equatorial barrier.</p> + +<p>For the sake of the argument, however, we will suppose the northern +ice-cap to have been even more imperative in its demands than Mr. Croll +has deemed possible, driving some of our warm and cold temperate forms +down into the lowlands of Columbia, Venezuela, etc., in the extreme +northern portions of South America. But how would these forms have +managed, even then, to cross the thermal equator and secure a permanent +habitat in the present warm and cold temperate zones of that continent? +Manifestly, this question has never been practically solved, nor is it +ever likely to be in our day or generation. It is nevertheless susceptible +of solution, as Mr. Darwin thinks, by easy mental processes. We have only +to take a bird's eye view of the situation, and mentally follow these +forms in their long geographical tramp from the northern to the southern +hemisphere.</p> + +<p>They must have started, of course, some twenty thousand years or more +before the earth reached its last superior limit of eccentricity. At that +distant epoch the sub-arctic breezes must have been blowing pretty stiffly +in our present temperate latitudes, and these forms would have been +constrained, in due time, to seek a more congenial isotherm. They must +accordingly have set out on their expedition, at about the period +indicated, with the prospect of a long and tedious journey before them. +Some twenty thousand years must have transpired before they reached the +line of the present Gulf states, and it would have taken as many more +years for them to deploy to the right and successfully enter the Mexican +states. In another twenty thousand years or so they might have doubled +Vera Cruz, and headed, in a southeasterly direction, for the Central +American states. The thermal equator would by this time have reached a +point some thirty degrees south of the geographical equator, while the +northern ice-cap would have swept down upon the traditional "hub of the +universe," or some ten or twelve degrees in excess of Mr. Croll's +calculations.</p> + +<p>To have accomplished this grand glaciatorial feat the North Pole must have +donned some twenty times the amount of ice now about both poles of the +earth, and so changed the earth's centre of gravity as to have inundated +every foot of land on its habitable surface. But if this terrible +catastrophy had been avoided, and some of our extreme northern forms had +forced their way through the Isthmus into the lowlands of Columbia, they +must have done so at their greatest possible peril, even if they had +reached the base of Old Mt. Tolima in advance of the thermal equator, now +fleeing in dismay before the southern Ice-monarch, with all his +isochimenal hosts in mad pursuit of their invaders. And if these +adventurous northern forms had succeeded in ascending Mt. Tolima, they +could never have got down again, with the assistance of forty glaciations.</p> + +<p>But we can imagine Mr. Darwin promptly snatching his pen to show the +stupidity of these northern forms in not climbing Popocatepetl or some +other lofty mountain in Central America or Mexico, on their retreat before +the still advancing thermal equator. But how this would have helped them +to cross the geographical equator, we fail to see. When Mr. Darwin, and +the eminent corps of geologists and physicists accepting his solution of +this "vexed question," can make a "warm term" south <i>succeed</i> a "cold +term" north, we shall have no difficulty in solving the problem ourself. +But, unfortunately, the two terms--the cold one north and the warm one +south--are simultaneous in occurrence, and the same causes which forced +these northern invaders into the tropics, when they followed <i>after</i> the +thermal equator, would have driven them ignominously back again <i>before</i> +it. The climbing of mountains would only have prolonged their disaster. +For after the glaciation north comes the glaciation south, and unless our +cold temperate zone were pushed down beyond the geographical equator, none +of its living forms could ever have reached the corresponding zone in the +southern hemisphere.</p> + +<p>But as this "migration theory" is one of paramount importance to modern +science, and especially to "Darwinism," [<a href="#foot19">19</a>] distinctively so called, let +us, at the risk of repetition and tediousness, propose a scientific +expedition for the better solution of this problem. To do this, we propose +to cut loose from our stupid predecessors, the plants and animals, and +invite Mr. Darwin and some of his more distinguished European +contemporaries, not omitting Professors Gray, Winchell, Yeomans, and some +few other American admirers of his, to accompany us on a fresh expedition +from the warm and cold temperate zones north to the corresponding zones +south, <i>purely in the interest of science</i>. To make it certain that the +time fixed upon for this "expedition" to start, will not escape their +attention, we will state what many of them already well know, that the +present eccentricity of the earth's orbit is very low, being only 0.0168, +and that, in the year of our Lord 851,800, it will reach its next superior +limit, with a few intervening oscillations of such minimum value as to +render it hardly worth our while to start before that time.</p> + +<p>We shall be obliged, of course to invite our distinguished European party +to join us on this side of the Atlantic, as their own narrow and +contracted continent furnishes no proper field for determining the problem +in question. We shall insist upon one condition only: "<i>That they shall +never leave the warm temperate zone in which we shall set out on our +expedition, except to pass halfway into an adjoining zone as is the habit, +at times, with plants and animals</i>." This condition will have to be +rigidly observed, otherwise our expedition would be of no scientific value +to future generations. As we shall have plenty of time to provide the +necessary outfit, we will appoint Mr. Darwin purveyor-general of the +party, and hold him responsible for any misadventure.</p> + +<p>We will arrange for the expedition to start in the early autumn of the +year of our Lord 831,800, or about twenty thousand years before the earth +shall reach its next superior limit of eccentricity,--all of us eager, of +course, to brave the climatic vicissitudes of the journey, and to solve +the "great problem of the ages," which is, to determine how the gigantic +elephantoids of the Eocene period managed to cross the thermal equator, +and pass into the present arctic regions of our globe.</p> + +<p>As "the king never dies," so the old southern Ice-monarch will be +succeeded by the young northern one, at about the period named. We shall +then have a decided advantage over our predecessors, the plants and +animals, in their journey southward, since we shall know the exact route +they took, and need only follow it. Presumably they had no such +information, nor had they either chart or compass to guide them,--a +circumstance which Mr. Darwin has not sufficiently taken into account in +predicating intelligence of his favorite pedestrians. Besides, these +vegetal and animal forms had one difficulty to encounter which we shall +not experience. With all the northern forms driven down into the Central +American states, they must have been sadly crowded for room, especially +near the Isthmus. The social conifers must have monopolized all the more +favored sites on the mountain sides and tops, while the humbler denizens +of the forest must have contented themselves with still more limited +quarters. The more impatient animals, for lack of necessary forage, must +have crowded through the Isthmus only to be driven back by the tropical +heats to their proper isotherms.</p> + +<p>But our warm temperate zone is now moving southward, and our scientific +expedition is moving with it. The northern Ice-monarch has resumed +absolute sway, and our aphelion distance from the sun has increased some +tens millions of miles. We have, in the mean time, moved down to the line +of the Gulf states, and are deploying to the right in order to make a +triumphant entry into Mexico. Mr. Darwin is daily consulting the +isochimenals, and is confident that our northern ice-cap will equal Mr. +Croll's highest expectations. The news finally reaches us that the Gulf +stream has turned its course southward, and is now pouring its immense +treasures of heat into the South Atlantic, if not turning the African +"horn" and washing the far-off Australian coast. This fact greatly +increases the enthusiasm of our European party, and they hasten forward +into the sub-tropical zone, almost "violating conditions" in their haste +to enter the tropics.</p> + +<p>At length, we crowd the narrow passages of the Isthmus, and the glory of a +warm temperate climate bursts upon our view in the Columbian states, of +South America. <i>The expedition promises to be an entire success</i>. At +least, Mr. Darwin thinks so, and he is now the Sir Oracle of our party. We +deliberately enter the lowlands of Columbia, and make ready to ascend the +sub-tropical mountains--those formerly equatorial--where the "great +scientific problem of the ages" is to be demonstrated. But we are +measuring time by almost <i>Sirius</i> distances, and vast geologic periods +sweep by without apparent record. The northern ice-cap has been a +prodigious one, crowding us nearly down to the geographical equator, with +the advantage we have of appropriating some five and half degrees of the +sub-tropical zone.</p> + +<p>But the year Anno Domini 851,800 finally rolls round, and the maximum of +the earth's ice-cap is reached. Old Mt. Tolima looms up in the distance, +and we soon ascertain that its height is sufficient for all scientific +purposes. Its summit displays a glittering ice-cap, and we are certain to +find the proper isotherm by climbing its umbrageous sides. We accordingly +make haste to reach its base, and get there not a minute too soon; for the +young southern Ice-monarch has stolen a march on the thermal equator, and +is driving it irresistibly back to its old quarters. His march northward +is a continuous triumph and ovation up to 55°, and the heart of Patagonia +is made glad by his near approach. True, the white gates of commerce are +closed about the Horn; but that is no concern of these wild Patagonians. +The aggressive Britton is driven out of New Zealand, and that is another +source of joy to the savage breast. Tasmania would extend a gladder +welcome than all to the Ice-crowned monarch, but alas, not a drop of +Tasmanian blood runs in human veins! Cape Good Hope has now a sub-arctic +climate, and the heart of the wild Kaffir and Zulu rejoices that the +sceptre of "perfidious Albion" is broken.</p> + +<p>The thermal equator at length reaches the base of Mt. Tolima, and hastens +northward to the Isthmus, and thence to Hondurus and New Guatemala, where, +by sheer force of exhaustion, it comes to a halt.</p> + +<p>But, as the equatorial zone extends fifteen degrees both ways from the +thermal equator, its southern limit now rests on the geographical equator, +and accordingly encircles the base of our "mount of refuge." We are now up +this mountain some sixteen thousand feet above the equatorial lowlands, +with the sub-tropical, tropical, and equatorial zones between us and the +possibility of our further migration southward, without violating the +express conditions imposed at the outset of our expedition.</p> + +<p>The fact soon stares us in the face that we have been no more successful, +in our efforts to cross the thermal equator and pass into high southern +latitudes, than the stupid plants and animals before us; and Mr Darwin's +faith in high mountains springing from equatorial lowlands, disappears in +jest and derision as we all good-humoredly agree "to break conditions," +and find our way back to the centres of activity and trade in the Old and +New Worlds, leaving the great scientific problem of the ages to solve +itself as best it may. We accordingly descend from our mountain fastness, +hasten to the coast, and take passage by steamer to Manhattan, the great +commercial metropolis of the world. Here we find that the barometer of +exchange was long ago taken down in London and hung up in New York. The +Old Antiquarian Society rooms are the first object of interest sought by +us. On making our way thither we look for a copy of the <i>Herald</i>, of the +date of our departure, in which we find an account of the scientific +expedition fitted out by us, facetiously termed "<i>The Great Wild-Goose +Chase after the Thermal Equator</i>"--presenting one of the most humorous +bits of sensational pleasantry ever given to the American public.</p> + +<p>But an apology is due the staider reader for the seeming levity of this +narrative adventure. The exposition of Mr. Darwin, though widely accepted +on both sides of the Atlantic by the scientific world, has seemed to us +too trivial for serious reply. If we have leaped over vast periods of +time, it makes no difference with the argument. So long as the thermal +equator, or more properly the equatorial zone, or any part of it, lies +between the warm or cold temperate forms, whether plants or animals, and +their point of destination in the southern hemisphere, they can never +migrate thither, any more than the right whale of the arctic seas can swim +the equatorial oceans. Nothing is gained by going out of the way to climb +mountains, except to hopelessly retard the return of both plants and +animals to their native zones. If we have not demonstrated this fact to +the reader's fullest comprehension, it will be useless for him ever to +write a Q.E.D. at the end of any proposition.</p> + +<p>It is true that some eminent astronomers and physicists hesitate to +accept the theory that these glacial epochs are due to the eccentricity +of the earth's orbit. But the argument favoring it is well fortified and +ably advanced, and if we add to the astronomical considerations involved, +the physical proofs of a change in the earth's centre of gravity, caused +by the excessive accumulation of ice about either pole, and the probable +shifting of the Gulf stream to a southerly direction during the glacial +period north, it is difficult to resist the conviction that the real +cause of glaciation has been suggested in this theory. With all the ice +now accumulated about the south pole transferred to the north pole, it +would make an ice-cap of over thirty miles in thickness at the pole, and +one sloping in all directions southward to about 60°. This accumulation, +it is claimed, would so change the earth's centre of gravity as to cause +all the equatorial warm waters to flow southward instead of northward, as +they now do.</p> + +<p>This would certainly seem to be a most wonderful provision of nature, as +well as one strongly calculated to impress the human mind with the belief +that an Infinite <i>Pre</i>vision lies behind all possible <i>pro</i>vision, whether +witnessed in the heavens or in the earth, in astronomical or physical +phenomena. Everywhere we see infinite perfection, combined with infinite +beneficence, in the adaptation of means to ends. Nothing runs to +waste--all things are conserved for use.</p> + +<p>But in all the outspoken grandeur of the universe, there is nothing so +grand, in exhibition at least, as the simple faith of a child, that "He +who watereth the hills from his chambers," and "causeth the day-spring to +know his place," will watch over the trustful little sleeper during the +darkness and silence of the night.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="06"></a>Chapter VI.</h2> + +<h3>The Distribution and Premanence of Species.</h3> + + + +<p>Professor Gray, in his address before the American Association for the +advancement of science, delivered at Dubuque (Ia.) in 1872, while +remarking upon the wide extent of similar flora in the same plant zones, +says: "If we now compare, as to their flora generally, the Atlantic United +States with Japan, Mantchooria and Northern China,--<i>i.e.</i> Eastern North +America with Eastern North Asia--half the earth's circumference apart, we +find an astonishing similarity." But why astonishing? Had our +distinguished botanical professors, in this country and in Europe, +thoroughly informed themselves as to the climatic conditions, the general +physical features, geographical characteristics, soil-constituents, and +other conditional incidences of this Asiatic region, in the light of all +the physiological facts before them, the circumstance of this great +similarity of flora would have been anything but astonishing. Indeed, the +astonishment, if any, would have been expressed at the want of similarity, +had it been found to exist.</p> + +<p>Ever since 1862, these distinguished professors have had the great +plant-charts of Mr. Arthur Renfrey before them, with the warm temperate +zone north accurately laid down in its proper isotherms, as well as the +different classes of vegetation peculiar to the two regions referred to, +and some general conclusions of value to science might have been drawn +therefrom. Besides, the fact of these similar antipodal flora was well +known to many of them before this chart was issued. They also knew that +all along the higher mountain ranges of this country, as well as in +Europe, the same alpine flora was to be found under the same or similar +alpine conditions. From Mt. St. Elias, in Alaska, to the Central American +States, and thence, through the Isthmus, to the southern extremity of the +Andes in South Patagonia, there is one unbroken line of alpine vegetation +pressing the sides or summits of the loftier mountain ranges, at altitudes +correspondingly varying with the latitudes in which they occur. And the +same is true of the Alps in Europe and the Himalaya ranges in Asia, if not +of all the mountain systems of the globe.</p> + +<p>These, and hundreds of other equally suggestive facts, all pointing to +geographical, climatic, and other influencing conditions, as the real +objective points of inquiry, have been constantly before our botanical +friends; and yet they have been content with Mr. Darwin's theory of +climbing mountains to cross the geographical equator, under the impression +that an enormous ice-cap, or rather prodigious "ice-ulster," would +ultimately drift them into the southern hemisphere, or enable them to +"coast" their way thither with the greatest imaginable ease. But why +insist upon the migration of plants growing in the lowlands and about the +bases and sides of mountains, and not suggest some means of transport for +the equally beautiful flora, known as "alpine," on the mountain summits of +the earth? These are distributed, as we have before shown, over all our +mountain systems, in all latitudes and in all parts of the globe, as well +as in the higher regions of vegetation as we approach the north pole. +Surely, the delicate little harebells of these alpine regions should +attract some interest, if not sympathy, from those who are constantly +hunting up means of transport for the more hardy and robust plants that +seem able to take care of themselves almost anywhere.</p> + +<p>When the next great ice-cap shall sweep down from the north pole upon +these beautiful alpine flowers they will have to travel somewhere. There +is manifestly as much necessity for them to get out of the way as for the +rest of the flora. How will they manage to get down the mountains into the +lowlands, and traverse uncongenial plains and deserts, to find other and +far-distant alpine homes? They can never, of course, get very far away +from the regions skirted by eternal frost, for their cup of joy must be +chaliced by the snow-flake, or their beautiful life is soon ended. But if +all our alpine flora have traveled from one evolutional centre, or have +been "created but once in time and place," how have they managed to cross +the thermal equator and spread themselves out over all the alpine regions +of the globe? We call upon Mr. Darwin and Professor Gray to rise and +explain. Not that we want any explanation, but that their theory of +plant-migration stands sadly in need of one.</p> + +<p>The theory which the Bible genesis suggests to us is fully adequate to the +explanation wanted. It explains not only <i>why</i> these alpine flora appear +where they do, but why they cannot appear anywhere else. It also explains +all the physiological facts to which we have referred in the foregoing +chapters. Wherever the necessary alpine conditions exist the earth +responds to the divine command, and the beautiful little alpine harebell +is cradled into life, and rejoices in the bright embroidery it wears. And +so, wherever streams are turned aside to flow through new meads and +sheltered woods, or over broken and swaly places where cowslips never grew +before, hardly a year will pass before this "wan flower" will hang therein +"its pensive head," while all along the line of the stream the black alder +will make its appearance in the lowlands, no matter how far its current +may be diverted from its original channel, or how distant the supply of +natural seeds. For nature's sternest painter can only delineate her as +"instinct with music and <i>the vital spark</i>."</p> + +<p>If our botanical professors would come forth into the true light of +nature, they should accept the position of pupil to her, and not assert +that of teacher. So long as they continue to peep and botanize upon her +grave, or over ancient mounds and Hadrianic tumuli, they will never find +out the cunning of her processes, much less the means she employs to +accomplish her perfected ends. This modern idolatry of "hypotheses," with +our chronic neglect of what nature <i>does</i>, is the great scientific +stumbling-block of the age in which we live. Our botanists all agree that +certain plants and trees disappear--hopelessly die out--from the +<i>absence</i> of "necessary conditions;" when will they come to recognize the +reverse of this undeniable proposition, and agree that the <i>presence</i> of +necessary conditions may cause the same plants and trees to make their +appearance, that is, spring into life in obedience to some great primal +law, as unerringly obeyed by nature as the attractive force of the +universe itself?</p> + +<p>For nearly half a century the fact has been known that the geographical +distribution of the European flora, and especially that of the British +Islands, was referable to latitude, elevation, and climatic conditions. As +early as 1835, Mr. Hewett Watson, a well-known botanist of that day, in +his published "Remarks on the Geographical Distribution of Plants, in +connection with Latitude, Elevation, and Climate," drew the attention of +the botanical world to this remarkable feature of plant distribution; +while the late Professor Edward Forbes pursued the same line of thought in +his attempt to show how geographical changes had affected plant areas in +Great Britain as far back as the last glacial drift. And yet all our +botanical writers have been steadily persisting on immense +plant-migrations to account for their geographical distribution, and have +given us maps without number to show how the vegetal hosts have traversed +vast continents, swam multitudinous seas, braved the fiery equator, and +scaled the summits of the loftiest Andes. In the mean time, no botanist of +any distinguished note, except M. De Candolle, has confidently ventured to +question this migration theory, so imposing and formidable has been the +array of names which have frowned down, like so many gigantic ghauts, upon +the audacious questioner.</p> + +<p>But the present actual state of knowledge on this subject forbids us any +longer to accept theories for facts, premises for conclusions, or +fallacious reasoning for legitimate induction. Truth and daylight never +meet in a corner, and no one, in our day, need go to the bottom of a well +in search of either. We are forever stumbling over the truth without +knowing it, because our old traditional beliefs, like so many +superannuated grasshoppers, are constantly springing up in our path and +diverting our attention from her. There are physiological facts enough +daily obtruding themselves upon our attention, if we would but notice +them, in the case of wayside plants, garden and household weeds, and the +more aggressive vegetation of worn out pasture-lands, to satisfy us of the +truth of our theory, were it not for the swarms of these old traditional +grasshoppers continually rising into the air before us, and shutting out +the truth as it is in nature. And the worst feature about this whole +business is, that we have come to regard these multitudinous insects as a +delight instead of a burden.</p> + +<p>But it is hardly necessary to pursue this subject further. We have shown, +or shall show in the succeeding pages, that all crystalline forms come +from necessary or favoring statical conditions; that all infusorial forms +come in the same way, only their conditions may be said to be dynamical +rather than statical; that all mycological forms (fungi) are dependent, +for their primary manifestation, on conditions of moisture and decay; that +all plant-life, from the lowest cryptogam to the lordliest conifer, is +dependent on some similar incidence of conditions; that the mastodon, now +only known by his fossil remains, must have wallowed forth from his +"necessary mire" (plasmic conditions) in the Eocene period; and that all +animal life must have come from some underlying law of primordial +conditions, as impressed upon matter, in harmony with the "Divine +Intendment" from the beginning; and that this law is still operative in +the production of new forms of life whenever and wherever the same may +appear. We shall also show that all living organisms, such as seeds, +fungus-spores, morphological cells, etc., perish at a temperature of about +100° C., and that <i>Bacteria, Torulæ</i>, and other infusorial forms, making +their appearance in super-heated flasks, originate not from morphological +cells, plastide particles, bioplasts, or any other vital organism, but +from indestructible vital units, which are everywhere present in the +organic matter of our globe, and ready to burgeon forth into life whenever +the necessary vital conditions exist, and the proper incidences of +environment occur.</p> + +<p>We have also shown that the earth still obeys the divine command to bring +forth, or--if objection be made to this form of statement as +unscientific--still obeys some inexorable underlying law tantamount to +such command, and can no more help "bringing forth," when the necessary +telluric conditions favor, than the cold can help coming out of the north, +or the clouds dropping rain, when the necessary meteorological conditions +occur. Give the future American botanist the physical geography of a +country--its average rain-fall, temperature, etc., and the plant zone in +which it lies, and, whether explored or unexplored, he will give us the +general character of its vegetation, and name most of the plants and trees +peculiar to its soil. And he will do this, not because he has any faith in +the present theories of plant-migration, nor in the necessary distribution +of seeds, but because he will study his favorite science with reference to +latitude, elevation, climate, physical characteristics, rain-fall, +soil-constituents, and other influencing conditions of plant-life.</p> + +<p>But we will now proceed to consider the duration of vegetable species, for +the purpose of showing that the evolutional changes they are undergoing, +if any, must cover infinitely vaster periods of time than we have any data +for determining, to say nothing of the unverified theories the +evolutionists have been spinning for us.</p> + +<p>Our geologic and paleontologic records are becoming richer in materials, +more interesting in details, and more authentic in character, every year. +We are turning back page after page of these lithographic records, only +to find the domain of science widened and deepened in interest as we +advance, or as our rocks are being excavated, our mountains tunneled, our +vast mines explored, and the beds of our rivers and arms of seas +thoroughfared and traversed by the iron rail. Meanwhile, science exhibits +signs of becoming less devoted to new-fangled theories, more exacting in +her demands upon her votaries, and more eager to extend the domain of +facts as the only true basis on which to rest her claims for future +recognition. She is less dogmatic to-day than she was a year ago, and is +likely to become less so a year hence than now. And this is largely due +to her methods of research and inquiry. She is now everywhere sending out +her hardier and more enthusiastic sons into new fields of exploration, to +return laden with ampler materials to build, and richer treasures to +adorn, a temple worthy of her name. In the field of the fossilized fauna +and flora, these treasures are of the highest value and interest, all +indicating not only wide areas of distribution, but immense periods of +time, in which species have existed without any greater changes in +character than the necessary shadings into varieties would seem to +require. For nature everywhere characterizes her methods of production +and reproduction by a loving tendency to diversify and variously adorn +her species, as if to express the infinite conceptions of that power +above her, which "spake and it was done, which commanded and it was +brought forth."</p> + +<p>From the fossilized plants of Atanekerdluk--a flora rich in species and +wonderfully preserved in type--and the Miocene flora of Spitzenburg, to +the southernmost limits of vegetation on the globe, science has reached +out her hands for materials, and gathered them with as much success as +avidity. And all scientific botanists agree in referring these fossilized +forms from the high northern latitudes, to the Miocene period--one so +remote that we can form no adequate conception of it, except as time may +be measured by geologic periods. And these materials show that varieties +of the <i>Sequoia</i>, the tulip-tree, oaks, beeches, walnuts, firs, poplars, +hazelnuts, etc., etc., all flourished in these sub-arctic regions during +the far-distant period we have named. Many of them must have grown on the +spot where their trunks are now to be found, as their roots remain +undisturbed in the soil, as well as at a time when these regions enjoyed a +warm or cold temperate climate. Many of these fossilized and carbonized +forms are identical with the living species of to-day, conclusively +showing that neither natural variation, nor any secondary causes, have +worked out any changes capable of being scientifically expressed in +genetic value.</p> + +<p>There is also abundant evidence to show that many of the present tropical +forms flourished in central and southern Europe as far back as the warm +inter-glacial epoch in the Eocene period. And if these inter-glacial +periods occurred at the lowest minimum limits of eccentricity in the +earth's orbit, as calculated by Leverrier's formulæ, we can have no +conception whatever of the length of time actually intervening the period +named and our present era. Mr. Croll has given us the limits of highest +glaciation covering the last three million years, and shows that there +have been but two periods of superior eccentricity in that time, and can +be only one in the next million years, with but two or three intervening +maxima and minima that may, or may not have been, of any special value. It +is true that he assigns importance to these maxima, as affecting possible +glaciations, but there are other eminent astronomers and physicists who +differ from him, and really attach little or no importance to these of any +other intervening periods of eccentricity. If Mr. Croll is correct in his +theory and estimates, we must separate these superior glacial epochs by an +interval of not less than one million seven hundred thousand years; and +nearly three of these periods must have intervened since some of the +present tropical forms flourished in Europe. And if these forms have +undergone no specific change in all this time, how many years will it +require to work out even <i>one</i> of Mr. Darwin's many evolutional changes?</p> + +<p>The kinship between some of these arctic and sub-arctic fossilized flora +and the living forms of to-day, is so near that they cannot be +distinguished by a single difference. This is true of some of the +varieties of the <i>Sequoia</i> family, the oaks, beeches, firs, hazelnuts, +etc., while others are so nearly identical that it would be difficult to +classify them as separate varieties. At all events, if they cannot be +placed in the list of identical species, they cannot be ruled out of +representative types. But why should our speculative botanists insist upon +these "evolutional changes" in plant-life--these "derivative forms" of +which they are constantly speaking? Paleontological botany has given us +the very highest antiquity of species, and the most that can be claimed is +that nature was just as prolific of diversified forms millions of years +ago as now. Because we, by forcing nature into unnatural, if not +repugnant, alliances, can produce</p> + +<blockquote> --"Streak'd gillyflowers,<br /> +Which some call nature's bastards."</blockquote> + +<p>it is no evidence that she commits any such offence against herself. Her +alliances are all loving ones. She indulges in no forced methods of +propagation. If she produced the <i>Sequoia gigantea</i>, or the great redwood +tree of our California Sierra, as far back as the Crustaceous period, she +has propagated it ever since according to her own loving methods, and it +is idle to talk of the <i>Sequoia Langsdorfii</i> as being the original +ancestor of this tree, or any other distinguished branch of the sequoias. +How much more rational the suggestion of Professor Agassiz that these +trees--the entire family of sequoias--were quite as numerous in +individual varieties at first as now, and that the fruit of the one can +never bear the fruit of the other.</p> + +<p>Again, take the still hardier and more numerous branches of the +<i>Quercus</i> or oak family. M. De Candolle has expended a vast deal of +ingenuity to show that the various members of this old and +ancestrally-knotty family have all descended from two or three of the +hardier varieties. He arrives at this conclusion from a geographical +survey of what he would call the "whole field of distribution," and +"the probable historical connection between these congeneric species." +But science should deal with as few probabilities as possible, +especially where experience furnishes no guide to certainty, and only +the remotest clue to likelihood. We should never predicate +probabilities except on some degree of actual evidence, or some +likelihood of occurrence, falling within the limits, analogically or +otherwise, of human observation and experience. In no other way can we +determine whether an event is probable or not. But here we have not so +much as a probable experience to guide us. Geographical distribution in +the past is hardly a safe criterion to go by, because we can never be +absolutely certain that we have the requisite data on which to form a +determinate judgment. The <i>Quercus robur</i> may furnish the maximum test +to-day, but a few concealed pockets of nature may bring some other +variety of the congeneric species to the front to-morrow, requiring M. +De Candolle to correct his classification. There are no less than +twenty-eight varieties of this one species of oak, all of them conceded +to be spontaneous in origin, and it has been on the earth quite as long +as the more stately tribe of Sequoias. Besides, not more than one +twenty-thousandth part of the earth's surface has been dug over to +determine the extent to which any one of its varieties has flourished +in the past.</p> + +<p>Since these several varieties are only one degree removed from each other, +M. De Candolle supposes divergence to be the natural law which has +governed their growth, and not hereditary fixity. But here again he has +only remote probabilities to work upon, no absolute data. We are still +speaking of his fossilized herbaria, not his modern specimens. These may +show a large number of genetically-connected individuals, or those claimed +to be so connected. And yet no naturalist can be certain that, because +they exhibit similarly marked characteristics, the one ever descended from +the other; for the universal experience-rule still holds good that "like +engenders like," and we search in vain for anything more than a similarity +of <i>idea</i>, or logical connection, which justifies a recognition of the +<i>individuorum similium</i> in Jessieu's definition of species. But similarity +must not be mistaken for absolute likeness, which nowhere exists in +nature. Infinite diversity is the law, absolute identity the rarest +possible exception. No two oak leaves, for instance, in a million will be +found actually alike, although taken from the same tree, or trees of the +same variety; and the same may be said of the segmentation and branching +of their limbs, as well as the striatures of their corticated covering, +<i>Et sic de similibus</i> everywhere, and with respect to every thing. Nature +is more solicitous of diversity and beauty, than of similarity and +tameness of effect, in all her landscape pictures; and the Platonic +conception that "contraries spring from contraries," may be only a +supplementary truth to that of <i>de similibus</i>. In the eye of the soul all +objective existences are discerned in their logical order, or as +consecutive thoughts of the Divine mind, as outspoken in the material +universe. To insist upon cutting down these transcendental forms[<a href="#foot20">20</a>] into +the smallest possible number of similar or identical forms, may be all +well enough to accomplish scientific classification; but the productive +power of nature can never be limited by these mental processes of our own.</p> + +<p>The oak family can be traced back to the Miocene period, and consequently +enjoys quite as high an antiquity as the sequoias. Professor Gray, in +speaking of the <i>Quercus robur</i> and its probable origin, says that it is +"traceable in Europe up to the commencement of the present epoch, looks +eastward, and far into the past on far-distant shores." By "far-distant +shores," he undoubtedly means Northwest America, where its remotest +descendants still flourish. But that these trees should have waded the +Pacific, or sent their acorns on a voyage of discovery after new habitats +on the Asiatic coast, is hardly more probable than Jason's voyage after +the golden fleece, in any other than a highly figurative sense. The +spontaneous appearance of a forest of oaks on the eastern shores of Asia +was just as probable, under favoring conditions--though occurring +subsequently to the time of their appearance on this continent--as that of +the miniature forests of "samphire," or small saline plants, which +spontaneously made their appearance about the salt-works of Syracuse, when +conditions actually favored. The high antiquity of the oak makes no +difference in respect to the principle of dispersion, since geographical +conditions are what govern, and not the theoretical considerations of the +speculative botanist.</p> + +<p>Mr. A. R. Wallace's formula concerning the origin of species, that they +"have come into existence coincident both in time and place with +preëxisting closely-allied species," may or may not be true so far as +individual localization is concerned. But it proves nothing in the way of +original progeny, nor can we, by any actual data before us, satisfactorily +determine, under this formula, which of the two closely-allied species +preceded the other. If they came coincidently, both in time and place, +their existence must have been concurrent, not separated by preëxistence. +The formula may be true to this extent, that the conditions favoring the +appearance of one species may have equally favored what we call a +closely-allied species. But even in this case, the material sequence is +lost, and we have nothing to express a relationship as from parent to +progeny. For, however restricted as to localization, each species +preserves its own characteristics, the similarities always being less than +the dissimilarities. These, and other equally conclusive facts of +observation, led Professor Agassiz to question any necessary genetic +connection between the different species, or between even the same +species, in widely-separated localities; his idea being precisely that +advanced by us in connection with the Bible genesis, that localization +depended on geographical conditions, not on the migration of plants or the +dispersion of seeds.</p> + +<p>The actual geographical distribution of species--any species--does not +depend solely on lines of ancestry, however great their persistence of +specific characters; nor on any principle of natural selection, nor on the +possibility of fertile monstrosities, but on the simple incidence of +conditions; and M. De Candolle, in his "Geographie Botanique," virtually +concedes this, while treating of geographical considerations in connection +with distribution. He in fact says, in so many words, that the actual +distribution of species in the past "seems to have been a consequence of +preceding conditions." [<a href="#foot21">21</a>] And he is forced to this conclusion by his +virtual abandonment of plant-migration, and the alleged means of +seed-distribution.</p> + +<p>The question after all, says Professor Gray, is not "how plants and +animals originated, but how they came to exist where they are, and what +they are." On only one of these points--that of favoring conditions--can +any satisfactory answer be given, except as we defer to the Bible genesis, +which explains all. And the reason is, that we can never determine what +forms are specific without tracing them back to their origin, and this is +impossible. Orders, genera, species, etc., are only so many lines of +thought on which we arrange our classifications, just as the parallel +wires of an abacus, with their sliding balls, are the lines on which we +make our mathematical computations. Agassiz would not allow that varieties +existed in nature, except as man's agency effected them, that is, as they +were brought about by artificial processes.</p> + +<p>These artificial processes are quite numerous, and many of them have been +practised from remote antiquity. But they seem to have no counterpart in +nature, except as insects may contribute to modifications by the +distribution of pollen. But all modifications of this character tend +towards infertility, while few plants accept any fertilizing aid from +other and different species. Any break in their hereditary tendencies, +resulting in a metamorphosis that involves the integrity of their stamens +and pistils, is stoutly resisted by nature. In considering the question of +species, therefore, we should confine our observations to those produced +by natural, not artificial, methods; to plants as propagated by the loving +tendencies of nature, not by the arbitrary and exacting methods of +man--those looking to his gratification only. All these fall into the +category, of "nature's bastards," as Shakespeare happily defines them. In +view of these considerations, and the new methods of classification, such +as grouping genera into families or orders, and these into sub-orders, +tribes, sub-tribes, etc., we can readily understand why the great Harvard +Professor should have wholly eliminated community of descent from his idea +of "species," or hesitated to regard varieties otherwise than as the +result of man's agency.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the whole question of species, as well as varieties, is likely to +undergo material modifications in the future. On some points the botanists +and zoologists differ widely already, many making likeness among +individuals a secondary consideration, and genealogical succession the +absolute test of species. Others, on the contrary, make resemblance the +fundamental rule, and look upon habitual fecundity within hereditary +limits as provisional, or answering to temporary needs only. These +differences of opinion would seem to be the more tenaciously held as the +question of new varieties presses for solution at the hands of nature, +rather than by the agency of man. All these varieties tend less to new +races than to cluster about type-centres, and can go no further than +certain fixed limits of variation, beyond which all oscillations cease. +But none of these questions touch the real marrow of the controversy as to +origin, or aid us in determining the duration of species.</p> + +<p>The presence of the two great families of trees--the sequoias and the +oaks--as far back as the Miocene period, if not extending through the +Eocene into the Cretacious, is conclusive of the point we would make, that +no great evolutional changes have taken place in the last two or three +million years, and none are likely to take place in the next million +years, except that the <i>Sequoia gigantea</i> may drop out, from the vandalism +of man or the next glacial drift.</p> + +<p>M. Ch. Martins, in his "Voyage Botanique én Norwege," says "that each +species of the vegetable kingdom is a kind of thermometer which has its +own zero." It may also be said to have its hygrometric and telluric +gauges, or instruments to determine the necessary conditions of moisture +and soil-constituents. When the temperature is below zero, the +physiological functions of the plant are suspended, either in temporary +hybernation or death. And so when the hygrometric gauge falls below the +point of actual sustentation, the plant shrinks and dies; while, without +the necessary conditions, it would never have made its appearance. There +was nothing more imperative in the command for the earth to bring forth +than the necessary conditions on which plant-life depended in the first +instance, and still depends, as we have endeavored to show.</p> + +<p>Dr. J.G. Cooper, in an interesting article prepared by him at the expense +of the Smithsonian Institute, on the distribution of the forests and trees +of North America, with notes and observations on the physical geography, +climate, etc., of the country, after classifying, arranging, and +tabulating the results of the various observations forwarded to that +institution, indulges in the following general observations: "We have with +a tropical summer a tropical variety of trees, but chiefly of northern +forms. Again, with our arctic winters, we have a group of trees, which, +though of tropical forms, are so adapted to the climate as to lose their +leaves, like the northern forms, in winter. But, here, it must be +distinctly understood, is no alteration <i>produced</i> by climate. Trees are +made for and not <i>by</i> climate, and they keep their characteristics +throughout their whole range, which with some extends through a great +variety of climate." The italics are the authors, and we suppose he means +by "tropical" and "arctic," the sub-tropical and sub-arctic.</p> + +<p>In making his general observations, he had before him large collections of +the leaves, fruits, bark, and wood of trees from all parts of the United +States, including portions of Mexico, the Canadas and Alaska, and +extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But one of the most important +elements--in fact, the <i>most</i> important--is wanting in the tables before +us, and that is, the elevation at which these thousands of specimens were +obtained. So great an oversight as this should not have occurred, although +it may not have been entirely Dr. Cooper's fault. He had his materials to +work upon, and may have done the best that any one could with them. And +yet it is just as important to know at what <i>elevation</i> a particular tree +grows in its own plant zone, as to know whether it comes from a sub-arctic +or sub-tropical region.</p> + +<p>But this was not the comment we designed to make. Dr. Cooper labors, with +most professional botanists, under the delusion that all our plants and +trees originated in some one "centre of creation," at some period or other +in time and place, and have been steadily spreading themselves outward +from that centre until they occupy their present areas of distribution. We +have no objection to his clinging to this superannuated faith and belief, +if he derives any pleasure in flushing up these "traditional +grasshoppers." But we have a right to insist that he shall be logical. He +wants it distinctly understood that trees are made <i>for</i>, and not <i>by</i>, +climate. Then his "centre of creation" should be everywhere, not a +localized one. For he insists that no alteration can be produced by +climate, but that the characteristics of each specific form are preserved +throughout its entire range of distribution. But if these nomadic and +migratory forms have wandered thus far from their centres of creation, it +would seem that the trees had either adapted themselves to the climate, or +the climate to the trees. But our Smithsonian systematizer will allow us +neither horn of this dilemma. He insists that the trees were made for the +climate, and that they have preserved their characteristic features during +their entire ambulation upon the earth's surface.</p> + +<p>With the change of a single monosyllabic predicate, this proposition is +undoubtedly true. We have never heard that plants or trees were "made." +They were ordered "to grow," or rather the earth was commanded to bring +them forth, which is an equivalent induction. And the fact that they grow +now, renders it absolutely certain that they grew at first, when "out of +the ground made the Lord God <i>to grow</i>" every plant of the field, and +every tree that is pleasant to the sight. We accept this genesis for the +want of a better. And if Dr. Cooper will add to his climatic conditions, +the hygrometric and other conditions necessary for the development and +growth of his plants and trees, we will agree with him to the fullest +extent of his novel position--that trees neither adapt themselves to the +climate, nor the climate to the trees; although it is true that trees +modify climate quite as much as they are modified by it. The true +physiological formula is undoubtedly this:--Trees make their appearance +<i>in</i> climatic and other environing conditions, and flourish, without +material change in characteristics, so long as these conditions favor. +<i>Why</i> they make their appearance is not a debatable question, except as we +assume a preëxisting vital principle, and apply to its elucidation our +subtlest dialectical methods. We are told that God commanded the earth to +bring them forth, after <i>his</i> spirit (the animating soul of life) had +moved upon the face of the depths--the chaotic and formless mass of the +earth in the beginning. Plato has uttered no profounder or more +comprehensive truth than this, with all his conceptions of Deity and the +perfect archetypal world after which he conceived our own to be modeled. +Our preference for the Bible genesis over the Platonic conception is, that +it is vastly simpler and constitutes a more objective reality to the human +soul. Besides, we find <i>it true in fact</i>, since the earth is constantly +teeming with life, as if in obedience to some great primal law impressed +upon matter by an infinitely superior intelligence to our own.--</p> + +<blockquote> "If this faith fail,<br /> +The pillar'd firmament is rottenness,<br /> +And earth's base built on stubble."</blockquote> + + + + +<h2><a name="07"></a>Chapter VII.</h2> + +<h3>What Is Life? Its Various Theories.</h3> + + + +<p>The question, "What is life?" does not lie within the province of human +reason, the science of logic, or the intuitions of consciousness, to +determine. It furnishes no objective <i>datum</i> on which to predicate +attributes that are either congruent or diverse. It can only be defined as +the coordination of the <i>vis vitae</i> in nature, which is an undisguised +form of reasoning in a circle. We can ascribe to it only such attributes +as are utterly inconceivable in any other concept or object of thought. It +admits of but one attribution, and that embracing an identical +proposition. To say of life that it is "a coördination of action," might +be true as a partial judgment, but not as a comprehensive one; otherwise, +crystallization would fall under its category, which is manifestly an +illicit induction. It allows, therefore, of no possible explication, +analysis, or separate logical predicament. It stands absolutely alone and +apart by itself--a positive, self-subsistent vital principle, or process +of action, which all physiologists agree, for the sake of convenience and +uniformity of expression, in designating as a <i>power, property, force</i>, +etc., in nature. Whenever questioned as to its origin the subtlest and +profoundest intellects, in all ages of the world, have returned but one +answer: "I know no possible origin but God"--the great primal source of +all life in the universe.</p> + +<p>Among the ancients we find an almost equivalent induction in the phrases, +borrowed by them from the highest antiquity, "<i>Jupiter est genitor</i>," +"<i>Jupiter est quodcunque vivit</i>," etc., which, although uninspired +utterances, strike their roots deeply into the <i>terra incognita</i> of +consciousness, wherein we ascribe to God the "issues of life" as a +paramount theological conception. When the ingenious and learned Frenchman +defined life as "the sum of all the functions by which death is resisted," +he was as conclusively indulging in the <i>argumentum in circulo</i> as if he +had said, "Life is the antithesis of what is not life." This would be as +luminous a definition as that which should make Theism the opposite of +Anti-theism, or the Algebraic statement <i>x-y</i> the antithesis of <i>x+y</i>--one +of no definitional value so long as there is no known quantity expressed +in the formula.</p> + +<p>To begin with begging the question, and then adroitly whipping the +argument about a pivotal point, as a boy would whip a top, may be amusing +enough to the childish mind, but is manifestly making no more progress in +logic than to substitute an ingenious paraphrase of a term for its real +definition. It is a mere verbal feat at best, without the possibility of +reaching any determinate judgment. It is like some of the half-circular +phrases we are likely to meet with in the categories of modern +materialistic science, such as the "correlated correlates of motion," the +"potentiated potentialities of sky-mist," the "undifferentiated +differentialities of life-stuff," called, by special condescension on the +part of the materialists, "life." All of which is an easy logic, but a +whimsical enough way of putting it.</p> + +<p>According to Leibnitz, everything that exists is replete with life, full +of vital activity, if not an actual mass of living individualities. But +this daring hypothesis has ceased to attract the attention it once +received. There are states and conditions of matter in respect to which it +is idle to predicate the <i>vis vitae</i>. For the great bulk of our globe is +made up of the highly crystallized and non-fossiliferous rocks, which +neither contain any elementary principle of life, nor exhibit the +slightest trace of vital organism, even to the minutest living speck or +plastid. During all those vast periods of uncomputed time, covering the +world's primeval history, there was an utter absence of life until the +chief upheavals of the outer strata of our globe, now constituting the +principal mountain chains of its well-defined continents, occurred. In +whatever atomic or molecular theories, therefore, we may indulge, in +respect to the original formation of the earth, the utmost stretch of +empirical science can go no further, in the solution of vital problems, +than to touch the threshold of inorganic matter, where, in our backward +survey of nature, vegetable life begins and animal life ends. All beyond +this point must be given up to other "correlates of motion" than those to +which the materialists specifically assign the beginnings of life.</p> + +<p>The theory of "panspermism," originating with the Abbé Spallanzani in +modern times, and still stoutly advocated by M. Pasteur and some few +others, is manifestly defective in this,--that it goes beyond the +inorganic limit in assigning vital units to all matter, even to its +elemental principles. It is true that they speak of "pre-existing +germs"--"primordial forms of life"--that are "many million times smaller +than the smallest visible insect." But their assumptions go far beyond +the construction we give to the Bible genesis, which merely asserts that +the germinal principle of life--that of every living thing--is in the +earth, or in "the waters and the earth," which were alone commanded "to +bring forth."</p> + +<p>Some of the panspermists have gone so far as to assert that everything +which exists is referable to the <i>vis vitæ</i>--to non-corporeal, yet +extended vital units, mere metaphysical points--like Professor Beale's +bioplasts in the finer nerve-reticulations--or living things endowed with +a greater or less degree of perceptive power. This was the assumption of +the great German philosopher, Leibnitz, who carried the panspermic theory +so far as to accept the more fanciful one of "monads"--those invisible, +ideal, and purely speculative units of Plato, which go to make up the +entire universe, extending even to the ultimate elements, or elements of +elements. Leibnitz says: "As it is with the human soul, which sympathizes +with all the varying states of nature--which mirrors the universe--so it +is with the monads universally. Each--and they are infinitely +numerous--is also a mirror, a centre of the universe, a microcosm: +everything that is, or happens, is reflected in each, but by its own +spontaneous power, through which it holds ideally in itself, as in a +germ, the totality of things."</p> + +<p>But the specific germ theory advanced in the Bible genesis, is capable of +being taken out of the purely speculative region in which "panspermism" +landed the great German philosopher. It is a simple averment that the +animating principle of life is in the earth; that the germs of all living +things, vegetal and animal alike, are implanted therein, and that they +make their appearance, in obedience to the divine command, whenever and +wherever the necessary environing conditions occur. The fact that nature +still obeys this command is proof that she has the power to do so--that +this indestructible vital principle still animates her breast. Innumerable +experiments, as well as phenomenal facts, attest the truth of this genesis +of life, while the researches of Professor Bastian and other eminent +materialists, made in infusorial and cryptogamic directions, confirm +rather than discredit it. The fact that it appears for the first time in +this ancient Hebrew text can detract nothing from its value as a +scientific statement. Granting that panspermism may rest upon a purely +fanciful and unsubstantial basis, it is but fair to concede that its great +advocates have honestly attempted to explain by it all the vital phenomena +occurring in nature, as M. Pasteur is conclusively attempting to do now. +It is certain that the materialists, who are resolutely antagonizing the +panspermic, as well as all other "vital" theories, have not yet gone so +deeply into elementary substance as to shut off all further investigation +in these directions.[<a href="#foot22">22</a>] Neither the lowest primordial cell, nor the least +conceivable molecule, has yet been reached by the aid of the microscope, +any more than the outermost circle of the heavens has been penetrated by +the aid of the telescope. We must stop somewhere, and when we find a +scientifically formulated statement which embraces all vital phenomena, +and satisfactorily accounts for them all, whether it originally came from +Aristotle, from Plato, or from Moses, is a matter of comparatively slight +moment, so far as the scientific world is concerned. At least, it would +seem so to us. But to talk of the <i>de novo</i> origin of "living matter" as +the result of the dynamic force of molecules--themselves concessively +"dead matter"--is to indulge in quite as fanciful a speculation as the +advocates of the panspermic hypothesis have ever ventured to suggest. +Professor Bastian is forced to go back of his infusorial forms and +fungus-germs to a microscopical "pellicle," from which he admits they are +"evolved." But why evolved? Does not the principle of vitality lie back of +the pellicle, as well as the fungus-germ? How absolutely certain is he +that the extremest verge of microscopic investigation has been attained, +in what he is pleased to designate "primary organic forms?" "Evolution" is +a very potential word, and no one may yet know what boundless stores of +absurd theory and metaphysical nonsense are locked up in it![<a href="#foot23">23</a>] He admits +that "evolution," as embracing the idea of "natural selection," can have +nothing to do with the vast assemblage of infusorial and cryptogamic +organisms, until they assume definitely recurring forms, that is, rise +into species and breed true to nature. Then, he agrees with Mr. Darwin, +that the law of vital polarity or "heredity," as he calls it, may come in +and play its part towards effecting evolution, or variability, in both +animal and vegetal organisms, but not before. Why then should he lug in, +or attempt to lug in, the diverse potentialities of this word "evolution," +for the purpose of demonstrating the dynamic law governing the +developmental stages of his microscopic pellicle? This, he will agree, +lies far below the point, in primary organism, where specific identity, or +the law of heredity, asserts its full recognition. All below this +developmental point is inconstancy of specific forms, with no line of +ancestry to be traced anywhere.</p> + +<p>This, Professor Bastian readily concedes, notwithstanding it cuts the +Darwinian <i>plexus</i> squarely in the middle. He says: "Both Gruithuisen and +Tréviranus agree that the infusoria met with have never presented similar +characters when they have been encountered in different infusions; nor +have they been uniform in the same infusion, when different portions of it +have been <i>exposed to the incidence of different conditions</i>. The +slightest variations in the quality or quantity of the materials employed, +are invariably accompanied by the appearance of different organisms--these +being oftentimes strange and peculiar, and unaccompanied by any of the +familiar forms." Other writers of equal eminence in this field of +investigation have not only observed the same characteristics, but +encountered the same difficulties in classification, from the very great +diversity obtaining even in the nearest allied forms. So great is this +diversity, and so multitudinous the different forms, that little certainty +or value can be attached to the classifications already made. Even +Professor O.F. Müller, after he had convinced himself that he had +discovered not less than twelve different species belonging to a single +genus, was subjected to the mortification of seeing Ehrenberg cut them all +down to mere modifications of one and the same species.</p> + +<p>We refer to these several statements of fact for the purpose of +emphasizing the true genesis of life as supplemented by "the incidence of +different conditions," on which all vital manifestations depend. The +presence of the germinal principles of life in the earth is emphatically +averred in the Bible genesis. And we have only to connect the doctrine of +"conditional incidence" with this averment, to account for all the vital +phenomena which so profoundly puzzle these gentlemen while prying into the +mysteries of the ephemeromorphic world. Whatever may be the character of +any infusion, or to whatever incidence of conditions it may be subjected, +it will produce <i>some</i> form of life; not because it contains this or that +morphological cell, destructible at a temperature of 100° C--that to which +it is experimentally subjected before microscopic examination,--but +because every organic infusion, whether undergoing the required heat-test +or not, contains vital units--those as indestructible by heat as by +glacial drift--which burgeon forth into life whenever the proper +conditions of environment obtain. The slightest variation, in either the +quantity or quality of the material employed in the infusion, is, as these +eminent microscopists agree, invariably accompanied by the appearance of +different forms of life, just as the slightest change in soil-conditions, +such as that produced by the presence of one species of tree with another +in natural truffle-grounds, will result in the appearance of another and +altogether different plant, as well as truffle tuber.</p> + +<p>But the theory which the vitalists are more particularly called upon to +combat is that to which the non-vitalists most rigidly adhere; and we +refer to it, in this connection, that the reader may compare its +complexity and involution of statement and idea with the extreme +simplicity of the biblical genesis, as heretofore presented. We give it in +the exact phraseology employed by Professor Bastian: "Living matter is +formed by, or is the result of, certain combinations and rearrangements +that take place <i>in invisible colloidal molecules</i>--a process which is +essentially similar to the mode by which higher organisms are derived from +lower in the pellicle of an organic infusion." This carefully-worded +definition of life, or the origin of "living matter," presents a +hypothetical mode of reasoning which is eminently characteristic of all +materialists. In the stricter definitional sense of the word, there is no +such thing as "living matter" or "dead matter," as we have before claimed. +There are "living organisms" in multitudinous abundance--those resulting +<i>from</i>, not <i>in</i>, the <i>vis vitæ</i>, or the elementary principle of life in +nature--as there are also "dead organisms" in abundance. This +materialistic definition of life, which is not so much as a generic one +even, begins in an absurdity and ends in one. It is agreed that the +"proligerous pellicle" of M. Pouchet, the "plastide particle" of Professor +Bastian, the "monas" of O.F. Müller, the "bioplast" of Professor Beale, +etc., are essentially one and the same thing, except in name. They are +mere moving specks, or nearly spherical particles, which exhibit the first +active movements in organic solutions. They vary in size from the one +hundred-thousandth to the one twenty-thousandth of a second of an inch in +diameter, and appear at first hardly more than moving specks of +semi-translucent mucus. Indeed, Burdach calls them "primordial mucous +layers." But they move, pulsate, swarm into colonies, and act as if they +were guided, not by separate intelligence, but by some master-builder +supervising the whole work of organic structure. This master-builder is +the one "elementary unit of life," which directs the movements of all the +plastide particles, constantly adding to their working force, from the +first primordial mucous layer of the superstructure to the majestic dome +of thought (in the case of man) which crowns the temple of God on +earth.[<a href="#foot24">24</a>]</p> + +<p>But this "pellicle" of Professor Bastian is not mere structureless matter, +any more than the "bioplast" of Professor Beale. The fact that they move, +pulsate, work in all directions, shows that they have the necessary organs +with which to work. These organs may be invisible in the field of the +microscope, but that is no proof that they do not exist. Organs are as +essential for locomotion in a plastide particle as in a mastodon or +megatherium, and if the microscope could only give back the proper +response, we should see them, if not be filled with wonder at the +marvellous perfection of their structure. But into whatever divisions or +classifications we may distinguish or generalize the properties of matter, +we can never predicate <i>vitality</i> of it, any more than we can predicate +<i>intellectuality</i>. Indeed, "intellectual matter" presents no greater +incongruity or invalidity of conception than "vital matter." These +qualifying terms are applied to the known laws and forces of nature, not +to insensate matter. To assert that life results <i>from</i> "certain +combinations and rearrangements of matter," and not <i>in</i> them, is utterly +to confound cause and effect, or so incongruously mingle them together +that no logical distinction between the two can exist as an object of +perception. Without the <i>vis vitæ</i>, or some germinal principle of life, +lying back of these "combinations and rearrangements of matter," and +determining the movements of their constituent molecules, there could be +no vital manifestation, any more than there could be a correlate of a +force without the actual existence of the force itself. [<a href="#foot25">25</a>]</p> + +<p>The materialists give the name of "protoplasm" to that primitive +structureless mass of homogeneous matter in which the lowest living +organisms make their appearance. They claim that this generic substance is +endowed with the property or power of producing life <i>de novo</i>, or, as +Professor Bastian puts it, of "unfolding new-born specks of living matter" +which subsequently undergo certain evolutional changes; but whether they +die in their experimental flasks, or rise into higher and more potentially +endowed forms of life, it is difficult for those following their diagnoses +to determine. They further claim that the same law of vital manifestation +obtains in organic solutions as in the structureless mass they call +"protoplasm." Both are essentially endowed with the same potentiality of +originating life independently of vital units, or <i>de novo</i>, as they more +persistently phrase it. But why speak of <i>unfolding</i> "new-born specks of +living matter?" "To unfold" means to open the folds of something--to turn +them back, get at the processes of their <i>infoldment</i>. It implies a +pre-existing something, inwrapped as a germ in its environment. If not a +germ, what is this pre-existing vital something which their language +implies? Is our scientific technology so destitute of definitional +accuracy that they cannot use half a dozen scientific terms without +committing half that number of down-right scientific blunders? "New-born +specks of living matter" is language that a vitalist might possibly use by +sheer inadvertence; but no avowed materialist, like Professor Bastian, +should trip in this definitional way.</p> + +<p>"Living matter," <i>born</i> of what? Certainly not of <i>dead</i> matter. Death +quickens nothing into life, not even the autonomous moulds of the grave. +It implies the absence of all vitality--a state or condition of matter in +which all vital functions have been suspended, have utterly ceased, if, +indeed, they ever existed. It behooves the materialists to use language +with more precision and accuracy than this. "Dead matter," whatever the +phrase may imply, can bear nothing, produce nothing, quicken nothing. The +pangs of death once past, the pangs of life cease. Nor is there any birth +from unquickened matter. Animals <i>bear</i> young, trees <i>bear</i> fruit, but +force <i>produces</i> results. What then quickens protoplasmic matter? Neither +vital force, nor vegetative force, if we are to credit the materialists. +They would scorn to postulate such a theory, or accept any such absurd +remnant of the old vitalistic school. It is rather "molecular force"--a +physical, not a vital unit--that gives us these "new-born specks of living +matter." [<a href="#foot26">26</a>] This is what they would all assert at once, in their +enthusiasm to enlighten us on a new terminology.</p> + +<p>But "molecular force" fails to give us any additional enlightenment on the +subject we are investigating. It is even less satisfactory than "atomic +force," or "elementary force"--that which may be considered as inhering in +the elementary particles from which both atoms and molecules are derived. +And since both the ultimate atom and the ultimate molecule lie beyond +microscopic reach, the assumption that vital phenomena are the result of +either molecular force or atomic force, rests upon no other basis than +that of imaginary hypothesis. To postulate any such theory of life, is +going beyond the limits of experimental research and inquiry, and hence +adopting an unscientific method. At what point the smallest living +organism is launched into existence--started on its life-journey--no one +is confident enough to assert. The materialist is just as dumb on this +subject as the vitalist; and the only advantage he can have over his +antagonist is to stand on this extreme verge of attenuated matter, and +deny the existence of any force beyond it. The postulation by him of +molecular force at this point, is virtually an abandonment of the whole +controversy. He ceases to be a materialist the moment he passes the +visible boundaries of matter, in search of anything like "undifferentiated +sky-mist" beyond it.</p> + +<p>All that we definitely know is that certain conditions of protoplasmic +matter, of organic solutions, of soil-constituents, etc., produce certain +forms of life; and, in the case of solutions, certain low forms of life: +But whether the lower rise, by any insensible gradations, into the higher, +more complex, and definitely expressed forms of life, is altogether +unknown. That any such gradations can be traced from the lowest vital +unit, in the alleged collocations of molecules, is not yet claimed. These +primordial collocations, like the lowest living organisms, lie beyond the +microscopic aids to vision, so that the ultimate genesis of life remains +as much a mystery as ever--becomes, in fact, a mere speculative +hypothesis. And when it comes to this sort of speculation, the materialist +is just as much in the dark as the vitalist, and neither can have any +advantage over the other, except as the one may adopt the analytic, and +the other the synthetic method.</p> + +<p>This is the materialistic argument covering the <i>de novo</i> origin of living +organisms:--There is no greater microscopical evidence, they assert, that +these organisms come from pre-existing invisible germs or vital units, +than that crystals are produced in a similar manner--that is, come from +pre-existing invisible germs of crystals. But this is overlooking all +generic distinction in respect to processes or modes of action. Crystals +are inorganic matter which <i>form</i>, do not <i>grow</i>. They are mere +symmetrical arrangements, not organic growths; and are produced by some +law akin to chemical affinity, acting on the molecules of their +constituent mass. They possess no vital function. They show no beginning +or cessation of life. But, once locked up in their geometric solids, they +remain permanently enduring forms--concessively inorganic, not +functionally-endowed, matter. To speak, therefore, of the "germs of +crystals," is using language that has no appreciable significance to us. +Germs are embryonic, and imply a law of growth--a process of assimilation, +not of mere aggregation.</p> + +<p>But, at the risk of being tedious, let us extend this argument of the +materialists a little further: The only difference, they will still +insist, between the preëxisting germs of crystals and plants--or the only +difference essentially worth noticing--is that crystalline particles of +matter are endowed with much less potentiality of undergoing diversified +forms and structural changes than the more highly favored vital particles, +such as the proligerous pellicle, the bioplast, the plastide, etc. The one +represents mere crystallizable matter, the other the more complex +colloidal or albuminoid substance, or that capable of producing a much +greater number of aggregates. The analogies, they concede, end here. But +the difference is world-wide when we come to processes--the true +experimental test in all classification. Crystallizable substances +<i>crystallize</i>--that is all. They pass into a fixed and immovable state, +and mostly into one as enduring as adamant; while colloidal or albuminoid +matter (laboratory protoplasm) takes on no fixed forms--only those that +are ephemeral, merely transitory. This is so marked a feature, in respect +to all the primordial forms of life, that Professor Bastian gives them the +more distinctive name of "ephemeromorphs," in place of <i>infusoria</i>. But +all these primordial forms grow--develop into vital activity. Not so with +a solitary crystal. Everywhere the statical unit <i>forms</i>, the dynamical +unit <i>grows</i>; the one aggregates, the other assimilates; the one +solidifies, the other opens up into living tissue; the one rests in the +embrace of eternal silence, the other breaks the adamantine doors, and +makes nature resonant with praise.</p> + +<p>Great stress is laid by the materialists on the changeability of certain +microscopic forms, and the startling metamorphoses they apparently undergo +in different infusions, especially those forms having developmental +tendencies towards fungi and certain low forms of algæ. They attribute +their different modes of branching, articulation, segmentation of +filaments, etc., both to intrinsic tendencies and extrinsic causes, the +latter depending, no doubt, in a great measure upon the chemical changes +constantly taking place in their respective infusions. These intrinsic +tendencies, they would have us believe, depend upon the dynamic force of +molecules, rather than any vital unit, or even change in elementary +conditions. But "Dynamism" simply implies that force inheres in, or +appertains to, all material substance, without specifically designating +either the quantity or quality of the inhering force. If these +materialists, therefore, use the terms "dynamic force," in this +connection, in the sense in which we use vital force, or in the sense in +which they use "statical force" as applied to the formation of crystals, +in contradistinction from "dynamical force" as applied to living +organisms, we have no special objection to urge against this particular +formula. It presents no such formidable antagonism as the vitalists would +expect to encounter from them.</p> + +<p>M. Dutrochet is approvingly quoted by Professor Bastian, as asserting that +he could produce different genera of mouldiness (low mycological forms) +<i>at will</i>, by simply employing different infusions. This is unquestionably +true, with certain limitations. And the chief limitation is as to <i>his</i> +(M. Dutrochet's) will. He might "will," for instance, to plant one field +with corn and another with potatoes, but if the husbandman he employed to +do the planting should happen to plant the one crop where he had willed to +plant the other, and corn should grow where potatoes were planted, and +<i>vice versa</i>, then he might be said to have produced corn <i>at will</i>. And +so of his infusions. No change in their conditions enabled him to produce +one species, much less a genus, of mouldiness in preference to another, by +any change in the infusions employed by him. The power which implants life +in the mycological world, implants it in every other world, from that +without beginning to that without end. And this implanted life is quite as +complete in one form as another,--</p> + +<blockquote> "As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,<br /> +As the rapt seraph that adores and burns."</blockquote> + +<p>All that the materialists can claim respecting man's agency in the +production of life is, that he may take advantage of the uniform laws of +nature, so far as they are known to him, planting seeds here, changing +chemical conditions there, using different infusions in his experimental +flasks,--organic or inorganic, as he may choose--and then await the +action of these uniform laws. He will find them operative everywhere, and +if he studies them deeply enough, he will find that they are not so much +the laws of nature as they are the laws of nature's God.</p> + +<p>Professor Bastian thinks he has conclusive evidence that what he calls +"new-born specks of living matter" are produced <i>de novo</i>, that is, +independently of any conceivable germ or germinal principle of life +implanted in nature. But he confounds this implanted principle of life +with the living organism it produces. His morphological cells, as well as +plastide particles, are among these living organisms, as is conclusively +shown by his own experiments. These all perish in his super-heated flasks. +But the vital principle that produced them--that which becomes germinal +under the proper conditional incidences--he can no more destroy by +experimentation than he can create a new world or annihilate the old one. +His flask experiments, therefore, prove nothing; and all this talk about +<i>de novo</i> production is the sheerest scientific delusion. For, were it +possible to destroy every plant, tree, shrub, blade of grass, weed, seed, +underground root, nut, and tuber to-day, the earth would teem with just as +diversified a vegetation as ever to-morrow. A few trees, like the gigantic +conifers of the Pacific slope, might not make their appearance again, and +some plants might drop out of the local flora; but the <i>Pater omnipotens +Æther</i> of Virgil, would descend into the bosom of his joyous spouse (the +earth), and, great himself, mingle with her great body, in all the +prodigality, profusion, and wealth of vegetation as before.[<a href="#foot27">27</a>]</p> + +<p>But these defiant challengers of the vitalists, who refuse us even the +right to assume the existence of a special "vital force" in nature, are +anything but consistent in their logical deductions. For while they +resolutely deny the invasion of vital germs in their experimental flasks, +they talk as flippantly of the "germs of crystals," and their presence in +saline and other solutions, as if there were no scientific formula more +satisfactorily generalized than that establishing their existence. Even +Professor Bastian speaks of "germs," in a general sense, as if they +thronged the earth, air, water, and even the stratified rocks, in +countless and unlimited numbers. But we fail to see that any of his +accurately obtained results determine their exclusion from the +experimental media employed by him for that purpose. His unit of value is +a morphological cell, a derivative organism rather than a primary vital +unit; and all organisms are, as we have before said, destructible by heat. +Professor Agassiz is pretty good authority for doubting the existence of +such a cell. The difficulty of assigning to it any definitional value is, +that it lies too near the ultimate implications of matter--those shadowy +and inexplicable confines not yet reached--to admit of any scientific +explication necessarily resting on objective data. If they mean by "germs" +primary organic cells, then none exist in their super-heated infusions, +and they are logical enough in rejecting the idea of their invasion. But +in assuming the cell to be the ultimate unit of value, is where they trip +in attribution, and stumble upon a partial judgment only.</p> + +<p>The only value attaching to their theory of crystalline germs is, that it +conclusively establishes the law of uniformity by which all structural +forms are determined, whether they originate in organic infusions or +inorganic solutions--in protoplasm or protoprism. The crystalline system +presents no variability in types, but a rigid adherence to specific forms +of definitely determined value. Whatever geometrical figure any particular +crystal assumed at first, it has continued to assume ever since, and will +forever assume hereafter. As a primary conception of the "Divine +Intendment" (to speak after the manner of Leibnitz) it can neither change +itself, nor become subject to any law of change, or variability, from +eternally fixed types. And this is as demonstrably true of all living +types, after reaching the point of heredity, as of the countless +crystalline forms that go to make up the principal bulk of our planet. In +this light, and as affording this conclusive induction, the crystalline +argument of the materialists has its value.</p> + +<p>The materialists should not too mincingly chop logic over the validity of +their own reasoning. If they force upon us their conclusions respecting +statical aggregates, or crystalline forms, let them accept the inductions +that inevitably follow in the case of dynamical aggregates, or living +organisms. Beggars of conditions should not be choosers of conditions, +nor should they be al lowed to dodge equivalent judgments where the +validity of one proposition manifestly rests upon that of another. If +they insist upon the presence of a chemical unit, or, worse still, a +crystalline "germ" or unit, in the case of statical aggregations, they +are effectually estopped from denying the presence of vital units in +dynamical aggregations. And if they further force upon us the conviction +that the process of aggregation, when once determined, remains in the one +case, eternally fixed and certain, they should not be permitted to turn +round and insist that, in the other case, there is nothing fixed and +certain, but all is variability, change, uncertainty of specific forms. +If vital units have only a hypothetical existence, then chemical units, +statical units, and morphological units, should fall into the same +categories of judgment.</p> + +<p>A great deal of needless ingenuity has been wasted, both by the vitalists +and materialists, in formulating impossible definitions of life--in +attempts to tell us what life is. But Mr. Herbert Spencer is believed, by +his many admirers, to have hit upon the precise explanatory phrases +necessary to convey its true definitional meaning. He defines it as "<i>the +continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations</i>." This +definition, when first formulated, was received by all the materialists of +Europe with the wildest enthusiasm. It was absolutely perfect. All the +phenomenal facts of life fitted into it, as one box, in a nest of them, +fitted into another. The universal world was challenged to show that any +other phenomenal fact than the one of life would fit into this prodigious +formula of Mr. Spencer. The London "Times" tried its hand on it, but only +in a playful way. It said: "All the world, or at least all living things, +are nothing but large boxes containing an infinite number of little boxes, +one within the other, and the least and tiniest box of all contains the +germ,"--the elementary principle of life. But this was hardly a legitimate +characterization. A nest of boxes presents no idea of "continuous +adjustment," nor are the internal relations of one box adjusted to the +external relations of another. The definition is really that of a piece of +working machinery--any working machinery--and was designed to cover Mr. +Spencer's theory of "molecular machinery" as run by molecular force.</p> + +<p>But the earth presents the most perfect adjustment of internal relations +to those that are external, and it continuously presents them. Even the +upheaval of its fire-spitting mountains affords the highest demonstration +of the adjustment of its inner terrestrial forces to those that are purely +external; and much more does it show the adjustment of its internal to its +external relations. There is a continuous adaptation of means to ends, of +causes to effects, of adjustments to re-adjustments, in respect to the +characteristics of the earth's surface--its physical configuration, the +distribution of its fluids and solids, its fauna and flora, its +hygrometric and thermometric conditions, its ocean, wind, and +electro-magnetic currents, and even its meteorological manifestations--all +showing a continuous adjustment of interior to exterior conditions or +relations. The earth should, therefore, fall under the category of "life," +according to Herbert Spencer's definitional formula. And so should an +automatic dancing-jack that is made to run by internal adjustments to +external movements or manifestations. There are any number of Professor +Bastian's "ephemoromorphs" that do not live half as long as one of these +automatic dancing-jacks will run, and so long as they run, the adjustment +of their internal to their external relations is continuous.</p> + +<p>The success of Mr. Spencer's definition of "life" encouraged Professor +Bastian to try his hand at it, with this definitional result: "Life," he +says, "is an unstable collocation of Matter (with a big M), capable of +growing by selection and interstitial appropriation of new matter (what +new matter?) which then assumes similar qualities, of continually varying +in composition in response to variations of its Medium (another big M), +and which is capable of self-multiplication by the separation of portions +of its own substance."</p> + +<p>It shall not be our fault if the reader fails to understand this +definition--to untwist this formidable formula of life. And we can best +aid him by grammatically analyzing its structure. And,</p> + +<p>1. "Life is capable of growing." We are glad to know this. As a vitalist +it enables us to take a step towards the front--gets us off the "back +seat" to which we were summarily ordered at the outset of this inquiry. We +let its "unstable collocation" pass for what it is worth, and stick to our +grammatical analysis.</p> + +<p>2. "Life grows--is capable of doing something." This assurance positively +encourages us.</p> + +<p>3. "It grows by selection and interstitial appropriation." This is still +more encouraging. It emboldens us to take a second step forward. Life, we +feel, is increasing in potentiality.</p> + +<p>4. "By appropriation it enables <i>new matter to assume similar qualities +to old matter</i>." This makes us more confident than ever; we take another +step forward--are half disposed to take two of them. Life is getting to +be almost a "potentiated potentiality," to adopt the style of +materialistic phrases.</p> + +<p>5. "It causes matter <i>to continually vary in composition.</i>" Bravo! we +unhesitatingly take two steps forward on the strength of this most +comforting assurance. Life is assuredly getting the upperhand of +Matter (with a big M.) It is no longer a mere "undiscovered correlate +of motion"--a hypothetical slave to matter only. It wrestles with +it--throws it into the shade. We involuntarily take several more +steps forward.</p> + +<p>6. "Life is capable of self-multiplication"--has almost a creative +faculty. Here we interject a perfect bravura of "bravoes," and, +stepping boldly up to the front, demand of Professor Bastian to "throw +up the sponge," take a back seat, and there--formulate us a new +definition of "life."</p> + +<p>But our London University materialist is not entirely satisfied with his +own definition, or at least with the moral effect of it. He thinks that +all these attempts to define life as a non-entity only, tend to keep up +the demoralizing idea that it is an actual entity. We entirely agree with +him in this conclusion. The infelicity and entire inconclusiveness of the +definition he has vouchsafed us can hardly have any other effect. He sees +this himself, and hence this foot-note to his great work on +Ephemeromorphs: "Inasmuch as no life can exist without an organism, of +which it is the phenomenal manifestation, so it seems comparatively +useless to attempt to define this phenomenal manifestation alone--and, +what is worse, such attempts tend to keep up the idea that life is an +independent entity."</p> + +<p>It may be objected that our grammatical analysis of the professor's +definition of life is unfair, since he manifestly intended that it should +cover a "living thing," and not "life" as an abstract, term. Our reply to +this is, that he makes no distinction between the two. Life, with him, is +simply a phenomenal manifestation. The two are correlative terms; so that +his definition of the one must necessarily be the definition of the other, +either as an identical or partial judgment. But let us take his definition +entirely out of its abstract sense, and run it into the concrete. The able +pathological anatomist of the London University college is a "living +thing." He is, therefore, presumably a phenomenal manifestation. He is +capable of growing, by "selection and interstitial appropriation," in +reputation at least, if not in the direction of "an independent entity." +His work of twelve hundred pages, covering his laborious delvings into the +ephemeromorphic world, is conclusive on this point. As a phenomenal +manifestation alone, any attempt to define either him or his professional +labors, may be worse than useless, since it would tend to keep up the idea +that he is an actual London entity. We are very confident that he is not a +London non-entity, but are willing to agree that he is either the one or +the other. The flaw that we are after lies in his interstitial logic, not +in the hallucination in which he indulges respecting nonentities. His +assumption that life cannot exist without an organism, of which it is the +phenomenal manifestation, is what we propose to deal with.</p> + +<p>Now, directly the reverse of this proposition is what is true. An organism +cannot exist without life or an independent vital principle in nature, any +more than celestial bodies can be held in their place independently of +gravitation. The vital principle that organizes must precede the thing +organized or the living organism, as the great formative principle of the +universe (call it the will of God, gravitation or what you may) must have +existed before the first world-aggregation. In logic, we must either +advance or fall back--insist upon precedence being given to cause over +effect, or deny their relative connection altogether. The organism is the +phenomenal manifestation, not the vital principle which organizes it. To +say that there can be no <i>manifestation</i> of life without an organism is +true; but to assume that the vital principle which organizes is dependent +on its own organism for its manifestation is absurd. It would be the +lesser fallacy to deny the phenomenal fact altogether, and insist that +cause and effect are mere intellectual aberrations, or such absurd mental +processes as find no correlative expression in nature, as that embodying +the idea of either an antecedent or a consequent.</p> + +<p>"Plato lived." He ate, he drank, he talked divinely. He was the occupant +of an admirably constructed life-mansion; one that St. Paul would have +looked upon as "the temple of God," and all the world would have +recognized as a god-like temple. His head was a study for the Greek +chisel; none was ever more perfectly modeled, or artistically executed. +All agreed in this. And yet it was not the <i>habitat</i> but the <i>habitant</i> +that attracted the admiration of the Greek mind; enkindled its highest +enthusiasm; drew all the schools of philosophy, about him at once. It was +the lordly occupant of the temple, the indwelling <i>Archeus</i>, presiding +over all the organic phenomena and directing all the dynamic powers +therein, which was so profoundly present in the living Plato. Even +Professor Haeckel, of the famous University of Jena, would not deny this, +with all that his new terms "ontogeny" and "phylogeny" may imply. When +potential life passed over into actual life in the individual Plato, it +was not the pabulum that assimilated the man, but the man the pabulum. If +this were not so, then the mere potentiality of growing, as in the case +of plants and animals, would be all there is to distinguish the +phenomenal manifestation of a Plato from that of a mole or a +cabbage-stalk. In other words, if the animating principle of life--or, as +the Bible has it, the "animating soul of life"--is not what manifests +itself in material embodiment, but the reverse, what can Professor +Haeckel mean by his new term "phylogeny," which ought to cover the lines +of descent in all organic beings?</p> + +<p>If it be a question of mere pabulum, it is altogether <i>mal posé</i>. Pabulum +is nothing without a preëxisting "something" to dispose of it. It is not +so much as a jelly-mass breakfast for one of Professor Haeckel's +"protamoebæ;" for if it were served up in advance, there would be none of +his little non-nucleated jelly-eaters to partake of it, much less any of +his "protogenes." As the famous Mrs. Glass would say, in her "hand-book of +cookery," if you want a delightful "curry," first catch your hare. But our +ingenious professor of Jena dispenses with both the hare and the curry, in +serving up his pabulum to the "protamoebæ." The improvident pabulum +"evolves" its own eaters, and then, spider-like, is eviscerated by them, +as was Actaeon by his own hounds. As Life, therefore, begins in the +tragedy of Mount Cithæron, it is to be hoped it will end in the delights +of Artemis and her bathing nymphs.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="08"></a>Chapter VIII.</h2> + +<h3>Materialistic Theories of Life Refuted.</h3> + + + +<p>The methods by which the advocates of a purely physical origin of life +seek to establish the correctness of their conclusions, are unfortunately +not always attended by uniform results in experimentation. They subject +their solutions of organic matter to a very high temperature by means of +super-heated flasks, the tubes to which are so packed in red-hot materials +that whatever air may enter them shall encounter a much greater degree of +heat than that indicated by boiling water. At this temperature (100° +C--212° F) they assume that all living organisms perish, especially when +the solutions containing them have been kept, for the space of fifteen or +twenty minutes, at this standard point of heat. But, in the light of all +the experiments which have been made in this direction, there is some +doubt as to the entire correctness of their assumption. That many, if not +most living organisms, perish at a temperature of 100° C, there is little +or no doubt; but that there are some which are much more tenacious of +life, that is, possess greater vital resistance to heat, is equally +unquestionable.</p> + +<p>M. Pasteur, for instance, mentions the spores of certain fungi which are +capable of germinating after an exposure of some minutes to a temperature +of 120° to 125° C. (248-257° F), while the same spores entirely lose their +germinating power after an exposure for half an hour or more to a slightly +higher temperature. Dr. Grace-Calvert, in a paper on "The Action of Heat +on Protoplasmic Life," recently published in the proceedings of the Royal +Society, asserts that certain "black vibrios" are capable of resisting the +action of fluids at a temperature as high as 300° F, although exposed +therein for half an hour or more. But none of these crucial tests, however +diverse in experimental results, really touch the all-important question +in controversy. They all relate either to living organisms, or to the +seeds and spores of vegetation, not to living indestructible +"germs"--invisible vital units--declared to be in the earth itself.</p> + +<p>We use the term "vital unit" in the same restricted sense in which the +materialists speak of "chemical units," "morphological units," etc., which +they admit are invisible in the microscopic field, and hence they can have +no positive information as to their destructibility or indestructibility +by heat. That this vital unit lies, in its true functional tendencies, +between the chemical and morphological units--manifesting itself in the +conditions of the one and resulting in the structural development of the +other--is no new or startling theory, but one that has been more or less +obscurely hinted at by Leibnitz, and even acknowledged as possible by +Herbert Spencer. It is this vital unit that assimilates or aggregates +protoplasmic matter into the morphological cell, or the initial organism +in a vital structure, or an approach towards structural form. +Morphological cells are not therefore "units," considered as the least of +any given whole, nor are they mere structureless matter, or any more +homogeneous in character than in substance. Different chemical solutions +give rise to different morphological cells, as differently constituted +soils produce different vegetal growths. Change the chemical conditions in +any solution or infusion, and you change the entire morphological +character of the infusoria appearing therein.[<a href="#foot28">28</a>] The cells are living +organisms springing from vital units, and can no more manifest themselves +independently of these units than life can manifest itself independently +of an actual organism. And they make their appearance in the proper +environing conditions, just as the oak comes from its primordial germ or +vital unit in the chemically changed conditions of the soil. Everywhere +the vital germ or unit precedes the vital growth as the plant or tree +precedes the natural seeds it bears.</p> + +<p>This is not only the logical order, but the exact scientific method of +vital manifestation and growth. In this truth lies the whole mystery of +vegetal and animal life as hitherto manifested on our globe, with the +single exception of man whose crowning distinction it was to receive "a +living soul." This may be rejected as a scientific statement, but its +verification will appear in the very act of its rejection. Pry as deeply +as we may into the <i>arcana</i> of nature in search of exact scientific truth, +and we shall ultimately land in one or the other of these +propositions,--either that nature was originally endowed with some occult +and unknown power "to bring forth," which power is either continuously +inherent or continuously imparted, or else "specific creation" was the +predetermined plan and purpose, with no higher or more specialized animal +or vegetal forms than were specifically created in the beginning. +Otherwise, we are inevitably forced back, by our mental processes, which +we cannot resist, upon an effect without a cause--a physical law of the +universe without any conceivable law-giver--an all-pervading, +all-energizing principle of matter which must have existed as a cause +infinitely anterior to its first effect. And this is forcing language into +such crazy and paralytic conclusions as to utterly destroy its efficiency +as a vehicle of thought.</p> + +<p>To conceive of the existence of the universe, or of any possible law that +may be operative therein, without an adequate antecedent cause, is as +metaphysically impossible as to conceive of substance without form, space +without extension, or a God who has been superceded in the universe by the +operation of his own laws. For if the world-ordaining and world-arranging +intelligence of the universe has ceased to ordain and arrange,--if all +things therein have been left to the operation of fixed and eternally +unchangeable laws--then no further supervisional direction is required on +the part of either an infinite or a finite intelligence, and our idea of a +God must disappear in the paramount induction of a universe which has +successfully risen up in insurrection against its own maker and lawgiver, +if it has not remorselessly consigned him to some inconceivable limbo +outside of the universe itself. But this Titanic, and worse than satanic, +insurrection on the part of a universe of matter and motion, is only the +conjectural coinage of the human brain--the wild supposition hazarded by +the materialistic mind--and fortunately has no conceivable counterpart +outside of it.</p> + +<p>But the palpable blunder, in materialistic science, consists in its +overlooking the necessary outgrowth of theological ideas in the human +mind--as conclusively a phenomenal fact of nature as the invariable +uniformity of astronomical movements, the ebb and flow of the tides, or +the electro-magnetic waves of the earth itself. And nature furnishes no +greater clue to the one set of phenomena than the other. For when we say +that bodies act one upon another by the force of gravity, we are no nearer +an explication of the force itself, than we should be were we to allege +any corresponding manifestation on the part of the human mind. Kant says; +"We cannot conceive of the existence of matter without the forces of +attraction and repulsion--the conflict of two elementary forces in the +universe;" much less can we have any conception of the elementary forces +themselves. Science can, therefore, assign no more conclusive reason for +overlooking psychical manifestations than physical phenomena. Nor is the +one set of phenomena any more marvellous in its manifestations than the +other. They may both furnish food for speculative thought and inquiry, and +yet the nearer we get to the ultimate implications of either, the more +completely are we lost in Professor Tyndall's "primordial haze," from +which he assumes that the universe, and all the phenomenal manifestations +therein, originally came.</p> + +<p>But however rapidly these materialistic theories may disappear in the +scientific waste-basket of the future, there is one sublime verity that +will stand the test of all time, and that is, that the moral universe of +God is no less complete, in the Divine Intendment, than the physical +universe, while the latter is so inter-correlated and inter-tissued with +the former, in all its conceivable relations, that it can no more exist +independently of its correlative, than matter can exist independently of +space, or time independently of eternity. [<a href="#foot29">29</a>]</p> + +<p>According to this view of Leibnitz, all living organisms have their own +essence, or essential qualities and characteristics. They have been from +all eternity in the "Divine Intendment," and can undergo no changes or +modifications which shall make them essentially different from what they +were in the beginning, or are now. This is not only true of the "germs" +that are "in themselves upon the earth," but of every living thing, +whether lying within or beyond the telescopic or microscopic limits. As a +law of causation, as well as of consecutive thought, there must be in the +order of life (all life) a continuous chain of ideas linking the past to +the present, the present to the future, and the future to eternity. But +that this continuous chain is dependent on mere physical changes or +manifestations, is a logical induction utterly incapable of being +exhibited in scientific formulæ. The higher and more satisfactory +induction is that which places cause before effect, the Maker before the +made, the Creator before the creature, and so on, in the analogical order, +till the smallest conceivable "vital unit" is reached in the universe of +organic matter. To begin, therefore, with microscopic observation, at a +point in the ephemeromorphic world where that optical instrument fails to +give back any intelligible answer, and synthetically follow this chain of +causation upward and outward to Dr. Tyndall's "fiery cloud of mist," in +which it is assumed that all the diversified possibilities and +potentialities of the universe once lay latent, may answer the logical +necessities of the "Evolution" theory, but will never satisfy the +inductive processes of a Plato, a Leibnitz, or a Newton.</p> + +<p>Professor Tyndall, in speaking of his "fiery-cloud" theory, says: "Many +who hold the hypothesis of natural evolution would probably assent to the +position (his position) that at the present moment all our philosophy, all +our poetry, all our science, all our art,--Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, and +a Da Vinci--are potential in the fires of the sun." But, to be consistent +in their inductions, they should proclaim themselves sun-worshippers at +once, and ascribe to that transcendent luminary all the potentialities of +a universe</p> + +<p> "Fresh-teeming from the hand of God."</p> + +<p>But what possible advantage, we would ask, can this physical hypothesis of +life have over that which ascribes to God the issues of all life in the +universe, from the highest to the lowest living organism? We can +positively conceive of none but that of placing the cosmological cart +before the horse, and so harnessing "cause and effect" <i>in tandem</i>, that +the latter shall uniformly precede the former in the chain of logical +induction. As a dialectical feat, in exhibiting the higher possibilities +of logic, it may have its advantages in subordinating the facts of science +to the higher illuminations of fancy, and thus resting the basis of +reality on the ever-changing and ever-shifting assumptions of the human +mind. For the materialistic theories of to-day are not those of yesterday, +nor is there any certainty that they will be those of to-morrow. They are +almost as fantastic and variable as the forms of the kaleidoscope, +although, as a general rule, they lack the symmetrical arrangements and +proportions of that scientific toy.</p> + +<p>Professor Bastian, in considering the heterogenetic phenomena of "living +matter," is obliged to fall back, near the end of his great work, on "the +countless myriads of living units which have been evolved (?) in the +different ages of the world's history." But by what process a "vital +unit" can be <i>evolved</i>, he does not condescend to tell us. He has no +"primordial formless fog" to fall back upon as has Professor Tyndall, nor +can he imagine anything beyond the least of possible conceptions in a +chemical, morphological, or vital unit. A "unit" can neither be evolved +nor involved; it admits of no square, no multiple, no differentiation; it +is simply the ever-potent unit of "organic polarity," by which it +multiplies effects, but can never be multiplied itself. The chief fault +that we have to find with the London University professor is that he +confounds a morphological cell with a morphological unit, and insists +upon drawing unwarrantable conclusions therefrom. His "countless myriads +of living units" are all well enough in their way. That they exist in the +earth, and are constantly developed into innumerable multitudes of living +organisms, of almost inconceivable variety, in both the animal and +vegetal world, is true, as he half-reluctantly admits in almost the +identical language we here use.</p> + +<p>And he also admits that morphological cells, when once formed, continue to +grow by their own individual power or inherent tendency. But before they +can manifest any such inherent tendency, they must be developed from the +vital units that lie back of them, and on which their manifestation +unquestionably depends. The only doubt that can possibly exist on this +point is, that the process of development cannot be determined by +microscopic examination. But we may as well assume the presence of vital +units in the case of dynamical aggregates, as for Professor Bastian to +insist upon crystalline units in the case of statical aggregates or +crystals. Both processes, in their initial stages of development, lie +beyond the reach of human scrutiny, and all that we know, or possibly can +know, is, that certain inorganic conditions are favorable for the +development of crystals, as certain organic conditions are favorable for +the development of morphological cells. Beyond this Professor Bastian +knows nothing--we know nothing.</p> + +<p>Professor Beale, in his recent work on "the Mystery of Life"--one that is +now justly attracting very wide attention--says: "Between the two sets of +phenomena, physical and vital, not the faintest analogy can be shown to +exist. The idea of a particle of muscular or nerve tissue being formed by +a process akin to crystallization, appears ridiculous to any one who has +studied the two classes of phenomena, or is acquainted with the structure +of these tissues." And he quietly, yet effectively, ridicules the idea +that the ultimate molecules of matter--substantially the same matter, in +fact--have the power to arrange themselves, independently of vital +tendency, alternately into a dog-cell or a man-cell, according to the +specific direction they may take, or the incidence of conditions they may +undergo, in their primary movement. And for the benefit of Professor +Beale, behind whose "bioplasts," we place the "vital unit"--not a variable +but a constant unit--we would have him bear in mind (what he so well +knows) that the finest fibres that go to make up these tissues lie quite +beyond the microscopic limit in their interlaced and spirally-coiled +reticulations, so that nothing can be predicated of their ultimate +contexture, any more than of the ultimate distribution of matter itself. +He has himself traced these wonderfully minute nerve-ramifications under +glasses of the highest magnifying power, and knows that their ultimate +distribution cannot be reached. Let him come out then, as the ablest +vitalist now living, and boldly assert the presence of the man-<i>unit</i> and +the dog-<i>unit,</i> instead of falling back on his bioplastic spinners and +weavers of tissue, which are only the servants and willing workers of the +one integral unit, or life-directing force, within. It is far more +rational, and, at the same time, more accordant with strict scientific +methods, to attribute these muscular and nerve reticulations to a single +direct cause, than to a multitude of secondary causes.</p> + +<p>There is a world-wide difference between the dog-<i>ego</i> and the man-<i>ego;</i> +but the physical differences are not by any means the greatest. The +bioplastic spinners and weavers work as obediently for the one +master-<i>ego</i> as the other. They never stop to inquire how far they shall +differentiate this vital tissue or that, or in what direction even they +shall work. Not a thread is spun nor a shuttle thrown that is not directed +by the one head-webster of vital tissue. These obedient bioplasts +determine nothing, direct nothing. Each works in his own cell as +obediently as a galley-slave. All specific modifications, all determinate +movements, all molecular arrangements, all multiplications of bioplastic +force, are the work of the one vital webster, or principle of life, +within--that which shapes all, directs all, determines all. And this is +true from the first or embryological inception of the dog-unit or "germ," +until the real occupant of the dog-tenement dismisses his bioplastic +weavers, and lies down to die. And so of all vital units. Each determines +its own structural form, and unchangeably retains it to the end, even to +the slightest impression of a scar inflicted years and years before. The +occupant of this dog-mansion has dismissed one set of bioplastic weavers +after another; has thrown aside this spun tissue and that warp and woof of +woven texture, time and time again, so that the dog of to-day is not the +same <i>physical</i> dog of a year ago; and yet he has the same affection for +his master, carries with him the same scar received twenty years before in +the chase, gives the same glad bark of welcome as his owner nears home, +exhibits the same characteristic wag in his tail, and, lying down to +sleep, dreams of the once happy chase in which he is no longer able to +engage. This continuous presence of the same dog, through all these twenty +years of physical change--the old dog reappearing in the new, a dozen +times over--is what we mean by the constantly differentiating yet +undifferentiated "dog-unit."</p> + +<p>Those who attempt to bisect this vital unit, divide it up into one +fractional part after another, until it shall represent a million +bioplastic workers in as many different cells, are committing the same +sort of folly--in principle at least, if not in practice--as that which +led the simple-minded daughters of Pelias to cut up their father, in the +expectation of boiling the old bioplasts into new, and then, by the +cunning aid of Medea, who directed the operation, reuniting them into the +one Peliastic-unit they so much delighted to honor. But this first and +only recorded attempt at differentiating a vital unit disastrously failed, +as the reader of ancient myths well knows, although the experiment was +conducted by the most careful and loving hands. The necessary chemical +re-agents to reproduce life, as well as the necessary processes of +producing it <i>de novo</i> have not yet been ascertained, nor is it likely +they ever will be. And herein lies the most marked distinction between +crystallizable matter and living substance.</p> + +<p>And yet there is no evidence that the vital principle perishes in the +destruction of its temporary organism. It is not the material seed that +germinates, but the vital principle it contains, bursting forth from its +environment into newness of life. All that can be alleged of either boiled +or calcined seeds is, that the material substances of which they were +composed are so changed in their chemical constituents, or molecular +adjustment, that they are no longer capable of developing, or being +developed, into a living organism. "Principles never die," and this is as +true of the vital principles in nature, as those obtaining in ethics and +morals. Were it possible to restore the exact chemical conditions and +constituent particles of the boiled or calcined seed, there is no more +doubt that nature would respond to the environing conditions, and give +forth the proper expression of plant-life, than there is that crystals of +spar would make their appearance in an overcharged bath chemically +prepared for that purpose. It is not the albuminous substance enclosed in +the seed, but the vital principle therein--that continuously imparted to +nature from the great vital fountain of the universe--which burgeons forth +into life whenever and wherever the required conditions obtain.</p> + +<p>In proof of this statement, we might instance any number of cases where +recently abandoned brick-yards and other clayey excavations, were situated +at considerable distances from any natural water-courses, or fish-stocked +ponds, from which spawn could have been derived, and yet these excavations +have no sooner been filled with permanently standing rain water, than +certain small fishes of the <i>Cyprinidae</i> and other families, have made +their appearance therein.[<a href="#foot30">30</a>] Nobody has thought of stocking these +standing pools of water with the fish in question, nor has there been any +surface overflow to account for their presence, nor any other apparent +means of transportation, if we except the fish-catching birds, and they +generally swallow their food in the water or on the nearest tree to the +point of capture. Any theory accounting for the presence of spawn is, +therefore, out of the question. This spawn must have traversed hard clay +deposits for the distance of half a mile or more to make their appearance +in these waters. The only possible explanation of this class of phenomena, +and they are by no means infrequent, is to be found in "favoring +conditions" and the "presence of vital units." They are primordial +manifestations of life, and such as would have made their appearance in +any corresponding latitude of the southern hemisphere, under the same +favoring conditions.</p> + +<p>And this is true of all living organisms from the lowest morphological +cell, in the ichthyologic world, to the highest and lordliest conifer that +grows. Their spawn and seeds are perishable by heat, but the vital +principle that organizes them is as imperishable in one element as +another. No seven-times heated furnace, much less the experimental flasks +of the physicist, will affect a vital principle of nature any more than a +May-morning puff of the east wind would shake Olympus. And all the +countless myriads of vital units in nature are now manifesting themselves +in animal and vegetal forms, under favoring conditions, the same as in +those far-distant epochs of the world's history when a more exuberant +vegetation prevailed, if not a more abounding animal life. The same +persistent, ever-acting law of vital development and growth has been +present, in all conditions and circumstances of matter, ever since the +detritus of the silicious rocks felt the first influence of the rains, the +dews, and the sunlight. Then the earth commenced "to bring forth the +grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-trees yielding fruit, after +his kind;" and in their growth was laid the foundation of animal life. +Whether there was any audible or inaudible command of God uttered at the +time, is not the question. It is the <i>fact</i> of vital growth that we are +after, and not the command. The geologic records attest the fact, as well +as the ever-acting vital law; and it is enough for us to know, with sturdy +old Richard Hooker, that all law--and especially all <i>vital</i> law--"has her +seat in the bosom of God, and her voice is the harmony of the world."</p> + +<p>Professor Beale, while resolutely combating the physical hypothesis of +life, is not a little unfortunate in his use of scientific terms. He is +constantly using those of "living matter" and "dead matter," as if they +contained no fatal concession to the materialists, with which to +completely overthrow his own ultimate conclusions as to life. For he gains +nothing by merely substituting "bioplasm" and "bioplasts" for "protoplasm" +and "plastide particles." The essential plasma in both cases is the same, +and behind each lies the vital unit or principle therein manifested--the +invisible, indestructible germ or ZRA of the Bible genesis. Living +organisms come, of course, from this essential plasma, but without an +elementary principle or vital unit therein, there would be no "bioplasts," +in the sense in which Professor Beale uses this term. These bioplasts are +living organisms which take up nutrient matter and convert it by +assimilation into tissues, nerves, fibres, bones, etc.--into the higher +and more complex organs that go to make up living structure. This +mysterious transmutation of one thing into another, as organic matter into +living organisms, is due to a vitally implanted principle, not to these +little bioplasts, or mere epithelial and other tools with which the vital +principle works. To apply the term "living matter" to the tools with which +a living structure is built up, is to lose sight of the master-mechanic +using them for an apparently intelligent purpose. The microscope may +demonstrate that these little bioplasts throb--have life; but there is no +intelligent purpose manifested by them except as they are moved by an +unseen hand that conclusively directs the whole structural work--builds up +the one complete symmetrical structure, not its thousand independent parts +having no relation to a general plan. The future lord and occupant of the +mansion is presumably present, and if he uses tools that "throb and have +life," it is because everything he touches is quickened into life that it +may be the more obedient to his will. If this structure be the +soul-endowed one of man, the vital principle imparted is that which +fashions the epithelial tools, and uses them, as well in laying the +embryological foundation, as in crowning its work with that many-colored +"dome of thought flashing the white radiance of eternity."</p> + +<p>Mr. Joseph Cook, who enthusiastically follows Professor Beale in his +theory of life, in one of his "Boston Monday Lectures," says; "It is +beyond contradiction that we know that these little points ('bioplasts') +of structureless matter spin the threads, and weave the warp and woof, of +organisms." With all due respect to this distinguished lecturer, we must +except to not less than three points in as many lines of his +over-confident statement. In the first place, we know nothing respecting +the "beginnings of life," which may not be contradicted with some show of +reason. Take his own definition of "bioplasts," as copied from Professor +Beale, coupled with what they both term "nutrient matter" and "germinal +matter," or bioplasm, and this confident assertion of his will land him at +once where the highest powers of the microscope fail to give back any +intelligible answer, or where neither assertion nor contradiction avails +anything. A bioplast, they tell us, is a germinal point in germinal matter +or bioplasm. It is also assumed that the central portion of every cell in +an organic tissue is a bioplast. Here this wonderful little weaver of +tissue sits spinning his threads and weaving them into the warp and woof +of "formed matter"--that which, according to Professor Beale, becomes +"dead matter" as soon as it is woven! But it is admitted that the nerve +fibres constitute an uninterrupted network which admits of no +endings--that is, whose ultimate reticulations lie beyond the microscopic +limit. But there is a cell in every hundredth part of an inch of these +ultimate reticulations, in each of which one of these bioplastic weavers +sits plying his threads into the warp and woof of nerve tissue, if not of +nerve force. What is known of these little weavers, either by Mr. Joseph +Cook or Professor Lionel S. Beale? Manifestly nothing, unless they have +been specially favored with microscopes of over 2,800 diameters--the +highest yet made,--and have fathomed the ultimate implications of nerve +force; an assumption on the part of the Boston lecturer to which we are +bound to except.</p> + +<p>Nor are these "bioplasts" mere structureless matter, however minute they +may be as "little points." They differ only from "morphological cells," in +the definitional language employed by different theorists, and lack the +all-essential accuracy of distinction necessary to scientific +classification. To define a bioplast as a germinal point in germinal +matter, or bioplasm, is to draw no satisfactory line of distinction +between the two, except that the one is a mere aggregation of the other. A +germinal mass is only made up of germinal points--those considered as the +least of any given whole--however infinitesimal they may be in theoretical +statement. If any germinal point in germinal matter, therefore, be a +bioplast, then every germinal point, to the extent of making up its entire +mass, must be a bioplast; and the distinction between the two becomes +merely verbal, and without generic signification. But every morphological +cell is conceded to be an organism, whether it lie within or beyond the +microscopic limit. And it invariably exhibits a greater or less amount of +cellular activity at its centre. It grows rather than spins; it builds up +tissue, rather than weaves it into warp and woof; it assimilates nutritive +matter rather than plies a loom in any conceivable sense in which we may +view that industrial machine. No matter what we may call this point of +vital activity in a cell--whether it be a bioplast, a plastid, a +physiological unit, or a granule of "elementary life-stuff"--it simply +performs the one single function of life to which it is specifically +assigned in the process of "building up" any one identical individual of a +species, whether it be a man, an ape, a tree, or a parasitic fungus. The +very admission that the bioplast spins, makes it an organism, and not mere +structureless matter. For the first thread it spins is manifestly for its +own covering or the ornamentation of its own cell-walls. And to speak of +these as "structureless matter" is to confound all scientific sense, as +well as meaning.</p> + +<p>The third objection to Mr. Cook's statement is, that if bioplasts spin, it +is as dependent, and not as independent machines or agencies. There are +millions of these bioplasts--taking the word in the sense in which +Professor Beale uses it--in every living organism considered as a +biological whole. In the case of man, there are millions of them within a +comparatively small compass; and each has its own cell to which its +specific work is assigned. Now, these germinal points, or bioplasts, in +each of these myriads of cells, work, not separately and independently, +like so many oysters in their respective shells, but harmoniously and +together, as if under the supervisional direction of one supreme architect +and builder. This builder is that one elementary principle of life, +appertaining to each specific individual as a species, with which nature +was endowed from the beginning, and which, in the case of man, was a +direct emanation from Deity. It is this vital principle manifesting itself +<i>in</i> all living organisms, not <i>from</i> them; directing Professor Beale's +"bioplastic weavers," not directed by them; availing itself of necessary +plasmic conditions, if not giving rise to them in the first instance; +observing no developmental processes by which one form of life laps over +upon another, and following no order but that of universal harmony in the +Divine intendment. There is struggle and rivalry for existence, even among +the same classes, orders, genera, and species, and the smallest and +weakest must give place to the largest and strongest everywhere, and <i>vice +versa</i>, as Time, the greatest of all rodents, gnaws away at the mystical +tree of life. But in every living organism, from the lowest and simplest +to the highest and most complex, all bioplastic spinners of filamentous +tissue, all plastide weavers of membranous or spun matter, all epithelial +bobbin-runners, and other anatomical helpers and workers, perform their +respective tasks under the special supervision we have named, that is, +under the higher unit of life. They all work for the advancement and +well-being of the higher organism of which they form a component and +necessarily subordinate part.</p> + +<p>The fact that Professor Beale has discovered that what he calls bioplasm +and germinal points or bioplasts may take on a distinct and separate color +from tissue, when subjected to a solution of carmine in ammonia, is no +evidence that he has penetrated the adytum of this sacred temple of Life, +wherein lies the "mystery of mysteries." It is an important discovery so +far as tracing tissue is concerned, but it admits him into no higher +mystery within the temple built by God than another may attain to by the +accidental discovery that the tissues may take on the same color in some +other solution--by no means an improbable discovery. Carmine in ammonia is +not the only solution that may aid science in the investigations now being +carried forward by the vitalists and non-vitalists with so much bitterness +and asperity of feeling between them; and now that Professor Beale has +made <i>his</i> happy discovery, it is by no means certain that some other +equally persistent worker in this interesting field of inquiry may not hit +upon quite as happy a discovery in the same or some equivalent +direction--one that shall throw the bioplasmic theory as far into the +shade as Mr. Cook thinks the bioplasts have already thrown the cells. + +But decidedly the most objectionable statement of Professor Beale, +although one confidently re-affirmed by our "Boston Monday Lecturer," is +that which makes bioplasm and bioplasts the only "living matter." We have +already referred to the phrases "living matter" and "non-living matter" as +altogether objectionable in biological statement, since they are more than +half-way concessions to the materialists, who contemptuously order the +vitalists to take a "back seat" in the discussions now going forward as to +the true origin of life. But the objection we here make is less technical, +and touches a far more vital point in the inquiry. It is true that +Professor Beale speaks of "formed matter," as if it were a peculiar +something--a sort of <i>tertium quid</i>--between living and non-living matter. +But he distinctly avers that the substance which turns red in his carmine +solutions is the "only living matter," and hence asserts, inferentially at +least, that all other matter, in any and every living organism, is "dead +matter." But we may just as confidently aver that no matter is living in +any vital organism which has not been assimilated and built up into living +membranous tissue capable of responding (in the case of man) to his will, +as well as performing the autonomous functions of plants and the lower +animals. For all these membranous tissues are innumerably thronged with +bioplasts or plastide particles, not for the purposes of obedience to +man's will, or of performing any autonomous function, but simply to supply +the tissues with the necessary nutrient matter to make up for the constant +waste that is going on in a healthy living organ. This waste is very much +greater than has heretofore been supposed, so that the man or animal of +to-day may be an entirely distinct and separate one, considered +materially, from that of a year or more ago. And this averment would have +a decided advantage over Professor Beale's, since, in meeting a friend, we +might be certain that four-fifths of him at least was alive, while the +other one-fifth was industriously at work to keep him alive, instead of a +stalking corpse, as he would otherwise be, upon the street. Besides, it +would obviate the necessity, on the part of the vitalists, of giving +themselves four-fifths away to the materialists, as Professor Beale +virtually does in the argument.</p> + +<p>The too rude touch of a child's hand will rob the canary bird of its +life--stifle its musical throat, hush its most ecstatic note, still its +exquisite song, and render forever mute and silent its voice. But where +are Professor Beale's bioplasts which, but a moment before, were not only +weaving the nerves, tissues, muscles, bones, and even the wonderful +plumage of this canary bird, but plying the invisible threads of +song--throwing off its chirps, carols, trills, quavers, airs, overtures +and brilliant <i>roulades</i>, as if the little vocalist had caught its +inspiration from the very skies? Where, we repeat, are these bioplasts +now? They are all quietly and industriously at work as before. The +occupant of the song-mansion is gone, but not one of these bioplasts has +dropped a clew, thrown down a shuttle, abandoned a loom, or fled in dismay +to the core of its cell. They still pulsate, throb, throw off tissue. No +chemical change has yet intervened to break down their cell-walls, or +interfere with the occupations assigned them. The machinery that ran their +looms is stopped--that is all. The invisible shuttles have ceased to +ply--the meshes of their tangled webs are broken--the more delicate +threads of song are snapped in sunder, but the bioplastic spinners and +weavers are all there. Not one of them has been displaced from its seat, +nor in any way disturbed or molested in its work. If they are conscious of +any danger, it is that the occupant of this little song-mansion has +suddenly stepped out--is no longer present to direct their tasks. The icy +hand of decay and death will soon be upon them--these poor bioplastic +weavers of tissue--but the vocal spark, the "bright gem instinct with +music," is beyond the reach of these dusky messengers. <i>Where</i> it is, not +man, but the Giver of all life knows. We only know, when our faith is +uplifted by inspiration, that--</p> + +<blockquote> "The soul of music never dies,<br /> + Nor slumbers in its shell;<br /> +'Tis sphere-descended from the skies,<br /> + And thence returns to dwell."</blockquote> + + + + +<h2><a name="09"></a>Chapter IX.</h2> + +<h3>Force-Correlation, Differentiation and Other Life Theories.</h3> + + + +<p>Among the more startling, if not decidedly brilliant, vital theories which +have been advanced within the last few years, is that which makes life an +"undiscovered correlative of force." Those who have the reputation of +being the profoundest thinkers and delvers in the newly-discovered realm +of Force-correlation in Europe, and who have more or less modestly +contributed to that reputation themselves, have evidently thought to +eclipse, if not to entirely throw into the shade, the great exploit of +Leverrier, in pointing out the exact place in their empirical heavens +where the superior optics of some future observer shall behold, in all its +glory, this "undiscovered correlative of force," which they have indicated +as lying within the higher possibilities and potentialities of matter. +Precisely what they mean by this undiscovered correlate, is what puzzles +us quite as much to determine as it does the materialists to explain. Were +they to define life as an "undiscovered force" simply, their definition +would manifestly lack in brilliancy what it would conclusively make up in +precision and accuracy of definitional statement. But such a poor +metaphrastic and half-circular exposition of vital force would never +answer the necessities of that profounder profundity required for the +success of modern scientific treatises. Hence the interpolation of this +"correlative" of theirs. Let us ascertain, if we can, what it means, since +they are so chary of informing us themselves.</p> + +<p>A "correlate" of a thing--any thing--simply implies the reciprocal +relation it bears to some other thing. As a cognate term it expresses +nothing, can express nothing, but reciprocity of relationship, such as +father to son, brother to sister, uncle to aunt, nephews to nieces, etc. +As applied to vital force, it means nothing more nor less than that this +particular force stands in some sort of relationship to the other forces +of nature, or, as they would have us believe, the <i>material</i> forces of +nature. And the simple strength or potentiality of this relationship is +what makes all the difference between the severally related forces of the +universe, since it would be as impossible to differentiate a fixed +relationship as to change the nature of vital units. But whether vital +force, as a distinct correlate, is paternal or filial, brotherly or +sisterly, avuncular or amital in its relationship, is not stated. The +scientific formula, however, may be stated thus: As A (chemical force) is +to B (molecular force) so is C (a third known force) to <i>x</i> (the vital or +unknown force); so that, by multiplying the antecedents and consequents +together, and eliminating the value of <i>x</i>, we may mathematically obtain +the value of vital force.</p> + +<p>But to eliminate the value of <i>x</i> is what troubles them. Herbert Spencer +has tried his hand at it, but failed to express life under any higher +correlation than "molecular force;" nor can he definitely inform us +whether either force is third or fourth cousin to the other. But he +manifestly regards their relationship as constituting either a very +attractive or highly repulsive force. In his vexation at not finding the +value of <i>x</i>, he is driven from mathematical to mechanical biology, and +gives us this new definitional value of life--that singularly +contumacious quantity which so persistently refuses to be eliminated in +scientific equations: "Life is molecular machinery worked by molecular +force." But as Professor Beale has utterly demoralized, if not +demolished, this machinery, in his recent treatise on "The Mystery of +Life," we will spare it any further blows, and proceed to the +consideration of "molecular force."</p> + +<p>Before we proceed however, to the consideration of this force, let us +definitely understand the meaning of the terms we shall be called upon +to use. We can have no difficulty in understanding the meaning of +"molecular attraction," or that force acting immediately on the +integrant molecules or particles of a body, as distinguished from the +attraction of gravitation which acts at unlimited distances. But when it +comes to ascribing other and higher manifestations of power to +molecules, such as have not been scientifically shown to exist, we must +feel our way with caution, and demand of these pretentious molecules, or +rather of their materialistic backers, a reason for the faith, or rather +force, that is in them.</p> + +<p>It is agreed by all physicists, as well as chemists, that a "molecule" is +the smallest conceivable quantity of a simple or compound substance, as an +"atom" is the smallest conceivable quantity of an element which enters +into combination with other elements to form material substance. For +instance, the smallest conceivable quantity of water is a molecule, while +the smallest conceivable quantity of either of the two elements of which +water is composed, is an atom. In every molecule of water, therefore, +there are three elementary atoms, two of hydrogen and one of oxygen. And +since a molecule, as a general rule, contains two or more atoms, and may +contain many of them, why not predicate dynamic force of the atoms, which +lie one step nearer the elementary forces of nature? For the mightiest +forces of nature lie in these elements, when forced into unnatural +alliances, or chained up in durance vile. It is in the elements of matter, +and not in its molecules, that this tremendous dynamic force resides. Man, +knowing this, harnesses them into his service, first by forcing them into +unnatural alliances, as in the case of charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre, +and then successfully pitting them in conflict against the rocks and the +general inertia of matter. To charge all the destructive work they do on +the innocent and harmless molecules, which are two steps removed from the +actual force expended, is drawing conclusions from the sheerest +hypothetical data. It is the office of "molecular force," if there is any +meaning to the term beyond what is expressed by "molecular attraction," to +conserve matter--bind rocks together, not rend them in sunder.</p> + +<p>If the dynamic forces of nature lie pent up in the molecules, then man +must array molecular force against molecular force in order to rend rocks +and tear mountains in sunder. This theory of molecular force, as extended +to vital physics in the force-doctrine of life, is irreconcilably at war +with the principal phenomena of life, and should be classed with the other +undiscovered correlates of force, which Professor Beale speaks of as "the +fictions of a mechanical imagination." The truth is that these much abused +and much slandered molecules are the most innocent and harmless things in +nature. They never become destructive unless some other force than that +inhering in themselves drags them into its service and hurls them along a +devastating path. Of themselves, they are the very quintessence of +quiessence in the universe, and, when formed in nature's laboratory, at +once seek quiet and loving companionship with kindred molecules, and +retain it forever afterwards. The idea that they should break away from +their loving molecular embrace, and, by any process of differentiation or +constructive agency of their own, seek an alliance with some living +dog-germ in order to be built up into living dog-tissue, presents about as +perverse and wayward an impulse on the part of matter as can well be +imagined by the scientific mind. That the dog-germ should seek to get hold +of, and differentiate them, we can well understand. The Circean witchery +and enticement is all on the part of the dog-germ, not in the inclination +of the molecules.</p> + +<p>If there is any truth in this molecular-force-theory of life, it is about +time for us to discard some of the old categories respecting matter, +motion, and life, and substitute new ones in their place. In the +multiplicity of new scientific terms constantly springing up for +recognition in these days, there ought to be no difficulty in expressing +the true categories, and assigning to them their proper definitional +value. To include physical force, chemical force, molecular force, and +vital force all under one and the same category, and then interpret their +several modes of action on any theory of force-correlation, is not +emancipating language from the gross thraldom into which their "molecular +machinery" has driven it. Besides, there is moral force, mental force, the +force of will, the force of reason, the force of honesty, the force of +fraud, etc., and any number of other forces, all possessing more or less +impetus or momentum, and capable of binding or coercing persons and +things, in all their diversified relations, correlations, incidences, +coincidences, affinities, antagonisms, and so on through an interminable +chapter of interchangeable predications. All these different expressions +of force are to be tethered together--definitionally bound hand and +foot--under the one explanatory head of "force-correlation." We protest +against the labor of thus unifying all the natural forces of the universe, +even if it were practicable under scientific methods.</p> + +<p>But Professor Tyndall denies that "molecular groupings" and "molecular +motions" explain anything--account for anything--in the way of explicating +life-manifestations, or determining what life is.[<a href="#foot31">31</a>] And it would be +difficult to cite a stronger and more determined materialist as authority +on the point we are considering. He says: "If love were known to be +associated with a right-handed spiral motion of the molecules of the +brain, and hate with the left-handed, we should remain as ignorant as +before, as to the cause of motion." But there is no proof that the +molecules of the brain manifest any other motions than those necessary for +keeping up the normal condition of health and vital activity in the brain +itself. No one can be certain that he has seen these molecules in a state +of mental activity; for where portions of the human brain have been +exposed to microscopic examination, even in perfect states of +consciousness on the part of those whose brains have been laid bare, there +can be no certainty that the molecular action, if any, is referable to one +set of movements more than another. And even in the case of animalcules, +as seen in the object glass of the microscope, there is no absolute +certainty that their quick, darting or jerking movements are due to any +life-manifestation, as heretofore assumed. Some quite as well defined +forms are entirely motionless, and if all were so, it would be idle to +predicate vitality of them.[<a href="#foot32">32</a>] These infinitessimal and constantly +varying forms, many of them not the one hundred-thousandth part of an inch +in length, to say nothing of their other dimensions, may owe their +oscillations, wave movements, darting and other manifestations, and even +their molecular arrangements and rearrangements, to other causes than +those strictly "vital." And it should be borne in mind that their actual +movements are just as much exaggerated under the microscope as their real +dimensions. But as they make their appearance in organic infusions only, +they are presumably vital organisms rather than fomentative or mere +filamentous yeast-manifestations.</p> + +<p>Professor Huxley, while conceding that molecular changes may take place +under environing life-conditions, or in protoplasmic matter, denies that +the "primordial cells" possesses in any degree the characteristics of a +"machine," nor can they undergo any differentiating process by which the +character of their manifestations can be changed. And he even denies to +them the poor right to originate or in any way modify their own plasma. He +says: "They are no more the producers of vital phenomena, than the shells +scattered in orderly line along the sea-beach are the instruments by which +the gravitative force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like these, the +cells mark only where the vital tides have been, and how they have acted." +This is undoubtedly true of all cells in which the vital or functional +office has ceased, as in the case of Professor Beale's "formed matter." +The cells are the result of the vital principle that lies behind them, and +simply indicate where life exists, or has manifestly ceased to exist. +Where the vital currents have ceased to flow, the wreck of primordial +cells is quite as wide and disastrous as where millions of sea-shells have +been strewn along a desolated and storm-swept sea-beach. They all come, +both the cells and shells, from the preëxisting vital units, or +determinate germs, that fall into their own incidences of movement, +without any concurrence of physical conditions beyond their own inherent +tendency to development. For "conditions" do not determine life; they only +favor its manifestation.</p> + +<p>But some of the materialists claim that what we call "vital units," or +invisible, indestructible germs,[<a href="#foot33">33</a>] are at best only "physical +relations;" that they have nothing more than a hypothetical existence, +without any independent recognizable quality justifying our conclusions +respecting them. But may not this identical language be retortively +suggested in the case of their "correlates of force?" What more than a +hypothetical existence have they? Certainly their enthusiasm to get rid of +all vital conditions or manifestations, is quite as marked a feature in +their speculations respecting life as any enthusiasm we have shown in the +verification of vital phenomena, on the established law of cause and +effect. They insist upon this law in the case of statical aggregates, and +even assign absolute identity of attributes; but when it comes to +dynamical aggregates, they fall back on partial identity only, and deny +the presence of the law altogether.</p> + +<p>Nor are they any more felicitous in their treatment of other points in +controversy. In speaking of his "plastide particles," Professor Bastian, +the most defiant challenger of vitalistic propositions now living, says: +"Certain of these particles, through default of <i>necessary conditions,</i> +never actually develop into higher modes of being." Here he makes the +absence of "necessary conditions" the cause of non-development, while he +stoutly denies that the presence of such "conditions" give rise to the +development of a pre-existing vital unit. And yet, strange to say, he +speaks of the elemental origin of "living matter" as "having probably +taken place on the surface of our globe since the far-remote period when +such matter was first engendered." But how his "sum-total of external +conditions," acting upon <i>dead</i> matter, can "engender" <i>living</i> matter, is +one of those "related heterogenetic phenomena" which he does not +condescend to explain. It is by this sort of scientific verbiage that he +gets rid of the pre-existing vital principle, or germinal principle of +life, which the biblical genesis declares to be in the earth itself.</p> + +<p>To be entirely consistent with himself, he should deny the existence of +this germinal principle in the seeds of plants themselves, and insist upon +the sum-total of external conditions as the cause of all +life-manifestations, in the vegetal as in the animal world. There can be +no inherent tendency, he should insist, in the seed itself towards +structural development, but only external conditions acting upon "dead +matter," in heterogentic directions. The shooting down of the radicle or +undeveloped root, and the springing up of the plumule or undeveloped +stalk, is accordingly due to no vital principle in the seed, but to the +complexity or entanglement of the molecules wrapped up in their +integumentary environment. And this, or some similar fortuitous +entanglement of molecules, should account for all life-manifestations, as +well as all life-tendencies, in nature. These molecular entanglements +should, therefore, be infinite in number, as well as in fortuitous +complexity, to account for all the myriad forms of life "engendered from +dead matter" in the material universe.</p> + +<p>For if there is any one thing that the materialists insist upon more +resolutely than another, it is the fortuitousness of nature--the +happening by chance of whatever she does. Formerly it used to be the +"fortuitous concourse of atoms;" now it is the "fortuitous aggregate of +molecules." By what accidental or fortuitous happening the atoms have +dropped out of their scientific categories, and the molecules have been +advanced to their commanding place in <i>absolute accidentalness</i>, is one +of those unassignable causes in which they apparently so much delight. We +can only account for it on the supposition that they have all become +worshippers of that blind and accidental Greek goddess, who bore the horn +of Amalthea and plentifully endowed her followers with a wealth of +language and other much-coveted gifts, but not with the most desirable +knack at disposing of them.</p> + +<p>The true cause of vital phenomena manifestly depends on these two +conditions--the presence of the specific vital unit, and the necessary +environing plasma, or nutrient matter, for its primary development. +Without the presence of both of these conditions, or conditioning +incidences, there can be no life-manifestation anywhere. And we do not see +that anything is gained, even in the matter of scientific nomenclature, by +merely substituting "molecular force" for "vital force," in the +explication of vital phenomena. Even granting that molecular changes do +take place during the development of the vital units in their necessary +plasmic environment; it by no means follows that these changes are not +dependent on the vital principle <i>as it acts</i>, rather than on the +molecules <i>as they act</i>,[<a href="#foot34">34</a>] The higher force should always subordinate +the lower in all metamorphic, as well as other processes, of nature. It is +the vital principle that differentiates matter--the aggregate of +molecules--not matter differentiating the vital principle. No "molécules +organiques" can ever differentiate an ape-unit into a man-unit, any more +than Professor Tyndall can fetch a Plato out of mere sky-mist. Once an +ape-unit, always an ape-unit; once a man-unit, eternally a man-unit.</p> + +<p>Let the vitalists stick to this proposition--this eternally fixed <i>unit</i> +as "<i>une idée dans l'entendement de Dieu," </i> (to use a better French +expression than English)--and they can fight the materialists off their +own ground anywhere. The one sublime verity of the universe is that +"life exists," and that it has existed from all eternity <i>as possible</i> +in the Divine mind, and in the Divine mind alone. If materialistic +science is disposed to butt its head against this impregnable +proposition, it can do so. The proposition will stand, whatever may +happen to the inconsiderate head.</p> + +<p>For science may press her devotees into as many different pursuits as +there are starting-points to an azimuth circle, and command them to search +and find out the ultimate causes of things in the universe, but the +forever narrowing circle in one direction, and the forever widening one in +the other, would utterly baffle all their attempted research. Whether they +descended into the microscopic world, with its myriad-thronged conditions +of life, or passed upward and outward, in <i>Sirius-</i>distances, to the +irresolvable nebulæ, where other and perhaps brighter stars might burst +upon their view--gleaming coldly and silently down the still enormous +fissures and chasms in the heavens--the result would be the same. Wider +and wider fields of observation might open upon their view, as the stellar +swarms thickened and the power of human vision failed, but the +uranological expedition would return no wiser than when it started, and +Science would still be confronted with the same illimitability of space, +the same infinitude of matter, and the same incomprehensibility of the +world-arranging intelligence that lies beyond. For He who hath garnished +the heavens by his spirit--who divideth the sea with his power, and +hangeth the earth upon nothing--"<i>holdeth back the face of his throne and +spreadeth his cloud upon it</i>."</p> + +<p>What if, in one direction, we should find those inconceivably small +specks, or mere bioplastic points, which we call "living matter," or, in +the other direction, those inconceivably vast world-forming masses which +we call "dead matter," who shall say that "the secret places of the Most +High" are not hidden from us, or that when the spirit of God first moved +through these vast fissures and chasms in the heavens upon the face of all +matter, there was not imparted to it that "animating principle of life" of +which the biblical genesis speaks, and which we everywhere see manifesting +itself in nature? Surely this inquiry is not one to be superciliously set +aside by the materialists, after the failure of their uranological +expedition, on the ground that it does not furnish food enough for +scientific contemplation, without such physiological fancies as their +specialists have been giving us in the shape of force-correlations and +molecular theories of life.</p> + +<p>But speaking of the higher forces as subordinating the lower, suggests +that there should be something more definitely explained regarding the +hypothesis of "differentiation," on which Mr. Herbert Spencer hangs so +much of his mathematical faith in the true explication of vital +phenomena. The term "differentiation" is not so formidable as it might +seem to the general reader at first sight. As applied to physiological +problems it should have the same determinate value, in expressing +functional differences, as in the higher operations of mathematics. +Nothing can, of course, differentiate itself, nor can any two things +differentiate each other, even when functionally allied. The actual +coëfficient sought is the difference effected, in functional value, in +one of two independent variables. For all formulæ in differentiation are +constructed on the hypothesis that only one of two variables suffers +change. The differential coëfficient has yet to be determined which shall +express the developmental changes in two variables at once. When, +therefore, we attempt to extend the formulæ of differentiation to plant +and animal life, we are confronted by a very formidable difficulty at the +outset--the impossibility of determining an invariable coëfficient for +any two variables. Besides, all attempts at differentiating an ape-unit +into anything else than an ape-unit would be as impossible as to multiply +or divide cabbages by turnips, or sparrows by sparrowhawks. Such +divisions would give us no quotients, any more than their +differentiations would give us a coëfficient. Physiological +differentiation will, therefore, never help us out of fixed species or +nearly allied types. We can bridge no specific differences by it. In the +differentiation of the horse and the ass for instance, the superior blood +will predominate in the preservation of types, and even the mule will +kick against further differentiation. Nature would so utterly abhor the +practice as resolutely to slam the door in Mr. Spencer's face, if the +obstinacy of the mule did not kick it off its hinges.</p> + +<p>And nature would be quite as intractable in the case of +"force-correlation," another of Mr. Spencer's redoubtable phrases. This +term is quite recent in its application to animate objects, nor has it +been long applied to inanimate. It is claimed to be a recently discovered +force, and is one that the materialists have seized upon as the Herculean +club with which to smite all vital theories to the earth. Its meaning, so +far as it has any, is not difficult to get at. The simplest way to explain +it, however, is the best. The reader is to understand that when he rubs +two flat sticks together, the heat thereby engendered is not the result of +friction, as all the world has heretofore supposed, but that the amount of +force expended in rubbing the right-hand stick against the left-hand +stick, is, by some law of versability, not over-well defined, transferred +to the two sticks, and gets so entangled between their surfaces that it +can only reappear in another and altogether different kind of force. When +it leaves the hands and passes into the two sticks, it is, as the +materialists assert, vital force. But as no force can be annihilated, the +conclusive assumption is that it still exists somewhere. All of it, in the +first place, went into the two flat sticks, and, when there, <i>ceased to be +vital force.</i> Some of it disappeared, of course, in overcoming the inertia +of the sticks, but the bulk of it became entangled with the superficial +molecules of the two sticks, and reappeared as <i>heat</i>--another name for +molecular force.</p> + +<p>This is what is meant by the "differentiation" of vital force into +molecular force, and <i>vice versa</i>. But by what process of rubbing, under +this law of versability, molecular force can be reversed, or +differentiated back into vital force, Mr. Spencer has not condescended to +inform us. The simple truth is, and the materialists will be forced to +admit it in the end, that there is no verification of this theory beyond +that of mere force-equivalence. For instance, it has been experimentally +determined that a certain amount of fuel expended in heat is equivalent to +a certain amount of mechanical force, not mechanical <i>work</i>, as M. Carnot +puts it. For force is not expended in work until it is actually generated, +and the amount generated, not that expended in work, is the real +equivalence of the heat produced from fuel.</p> + +<p>Another problem is presented when it comes to determining the amount of +generated force necessary to run a piece of machinery which shall +accomplish a given amount of mechanical work.</p> + +<p>A far better phrase to express this equivalence of force has been +suggested and used by several writers in what is called the "Transmutation +of Force." For there is no correlation, or reciprocal relation, between +heat as originally produced by the consumption of fuel and the force as +engendered in steam before it is transmuted into work. Nor is there any +real equivalence as between the two forces after its transmutation. A very +large per centage of heat is lost in its transmutation from a latent form +in fuel to an active or available form in steam, and a still greater loss +in its transmission into work by machinery. Theoretically, there may be +such an equivalence as that named, but practically it is impossible to +realize it. And a theory that is impossible of realization is of no +practical utility in itself, and of little value as the basis of further +theory. If, then, the theory of force equivalence is a failure in +practical application, it furnishes a very poor basis on which to +predicate force-correlation, or the doctrine of reciprocal forces. It is +estimated, for instance, that a pound weight falling seven hundred and +seventy-two feet, will, in striking the earth, impart to it a degree of +heat equivalent to raising one pound of water 1° F. But the heat thus +imparted can never be so utilized as to raise a pound weight seven hundred +and seventy-two feet into the air.</p> + +<p>This shows that there is no actual reciprocity of relationship between the +force as originally engendered and finally expended in work. Nor can it be +shown that the original force is transmuted or changed into another and +different kind of force by the operation. The force generated and the +force expended are essentially one and the same, as much so as that +transmitted from the power to the weight by means of a rope and pulley. +And the quality of the force is not changed, whether the weight be lifted +by machinery or the human hand. Force, in its mechanical sense, is that +power which produces motion, or an alteration in the direction of motion, +and is incapable of being specialized, except in a highly figurative +sense, into a thousand and one correlates of motion. But these +miscellaneous and figurative forces are not what we are considering. The +doctrine of force-correlation takes no such wide and comprehensive sweep. +It embraces neither the force of wit, nor the force of folly; but +mechanical force and its equivalents. The force exercised by the human +hand in lifting a weight either with or without rope and pulley is, in +every definitional sense of the word, mechanical force. For the arm and +hand are only the implements, or mechanical contrivances of nature, by +which the will-power transmutes itself into work, or, more properly +speaking, transmits itself from the point of force-generation to that of +force-expenditure. And this is precisely the office performed by all +mechanical contrivances for the transmission--not transmutation--of force. +And the most perfect machine is that which transmits the engendered force, +with the least possible waste or abandonment, to its point of ultimate +expenditure in work.</p> + +<p>All these hypothetical correlates of force, therefore, predicated upon the +doctrine of force-transmutation, have no foundation in fact, since the +force transmitted from the point of generation to the point of expenditure +undergoes no change but that of direction, in its passage along rope, +wire, belt, pulley, shafting, etc. A man whose limbs have been paralyzed, +may still will to remove mountains. The will-power is the same, but the +mechanical contrivances for its transmission are wanting. Of the actual +point or centre of this force-generation, in the case of the will-power, +we know nothing; but the moment the power is started on its way towards +the point of force-expenditure, whether it traverses the nerves and +tissues of the brain, or the right arm or the left, or a crowbar or +pickaxe, it is in no sense distinguishable from the force that traverses a +rope and pulley. Nor is there any evidence that it undergoes molecular +changes, or becomes modified or conditioned by any nearly or remotely +related force, as it darts along the nerves, runs through the contracted +tissues, electrifies the crowbar, or flashes into work from the point of a +pickaxe. Whatever produces, or tends to produce, motion, or an alteration +in its direction, is mechanical force, no matter from what force-centre it +may start. When we can definitely determine the centre of vital force, as +exercised in building up vital structure, <i>not in wielding pickaxes</i>, it +is to be hoped we shall be able to distinguish, by the proper correlates, +vital force from that which is mechanical. But the task is manifestly a +hopeless one with the materialists.</p> + +<p>Professor Beale positively denies that there are any such physical +force-relations as those claimed by the materialists, and asserts that +vital force bears no relation, or correlation, to either chemical or +physical force; that the one is a distinct and separate factor from the +other, and cannot be interpreted in the same force-formulæ. He says: "The +idea of motion, or heat, or light, or electricity <i>forming</i> or <i>building</i> +up, or <i>constructing</i> any texture capable of fulfilling a definite +purpose, seems absurd, and opposed to all that is known, and yet is the +notion continually forced upon us, that vitality, which does construct, is +but a correlate of ordinary energy or motion."</p> + +<p>But after devoting so much time to "force-correlation," and +"force-differentiation," the advocates of "molecular-machinery" may feel +themselves neglected if we dismiss their favorite hobby without further +notice. The precise parentage of this term is disputed, but it has any +number of <i>putative</i> fathers. We have spoken of the size of the molecules +themselves, and the numbers of them that might be huddled together on the +point of a cambric needle without jostling. Let us now consider the size +of a molecular machine. For each molecule runs its own machine, and is +provident enough to see that they do not jostle. In fact, it is a very +nice question in physics, whether the machines do not run the molecules, +instead of the prevailing opposite opinion that the molecules run the +machines. Unfortunately, the question is one that can never be determined. +The requisite scientific data will forever be wanting.</p> + +<p>But Professor James C. Maxwell, now, or quite recently, filling the chair +of experimental physics in the University of Cambridge, England, has +furnished us with <i>approximate</i> calculations. On the strength of his +approximations we will proceed to consider the dimensions of these +wonderful little machines. And first, it may be axiomatically laid down +that these molecular machines, which either run the molecules or are run +by them, can never exceed the size of their respective molecules. +Conceding, then, that each one of these machines exactly fits into its own +molecule, so as to present identically the same dimensions--as well as +their largest possible dimensions--it would require two millions of them, +placed in a row, to make one millimetre, or the one three hundred and +ninety-four thousandths of an inch in length, or seven hundred and +eighty-eight billions of them to make one inch! Who will ever be staggered +at <i>Sirius</i>-distances, after this? And who will deny that an infinite +world lies below the point of our microscopic vision, if not an Infinite +kingdom and throne beyond our telescopic glance?</p> + +<p>But, following the same high authority in experimental physics, let us +consider the aggregate weight of these molecular machines. We will not +marshal their aggregate numbers in a row, for an array of forty billions +of them would make too insignificant a figure for inspection; but simply +give their actual weight as computed under the French or metric system. +Take, then, a million million million million of these machines, throwing +in molecules and all, and they will weigh, if there is no indiscreet +kicking of the beam, just a fraction between four and five grammes, or--to +differentiate the weights--a small fraction over one-tenth of an ounce!</p> + +<p>But why not get down to the atoms, of which the molecules are only the +theoretical congeries, and marshal the "atomic forces" into line? These +embryonic atoms are much the braver warriors, and, when summoned to do +battle, spring, lithe and light-armed, against the elemental foe. They are +no cowardly molecules, these atoms, but make war against Titans, as well +as Titanic thrones and powers. The elements recognize them as their body +guardsmen, their corps of invincible lancers, their bravest and best +soldiers in fight. And they are wholly indifferent as to the legions of +molecules arrayed against them, and would as soon hurl a mountain of them +into the sea as to sport with a zephyr or caper with the east wind. Why +not summon these countless myriads of bright and invincible spearmen, to +batter down the walls of this Cretan labyrinth of Life? An army of these +would be worth all the molecules that Professor Maxwell could array in +line, in a thousand years. No life-problem need remain unsolved with their +bright spears to drive the tenebrious mists before them. Even Professor +Tyndall's "fog-banks of primordial haze" would be ignominiously scattered +in flight before these atomic legions. Let our materialistic friends +summon them, then, to their aid. The field of controversy will never be +won by their molecular "Hessians." The ineffably bright lancers that stand +guard over the elemental hosts are the light brigade with which to rout +the vitalistic enemy. Advance them then to the front, and, beneath the +shadowy wing of pestilence or some other appalling ensign of destruction, +the abashed vital squadrons will flee in dismay.</p> + +<p>But let us pass from scientific speculations to alleged scientific facts. +In a paper read by Dr. Hughes Bennett before the Royal Society of +Edinburgh, in 1861, its author says: "The first step, in the process of +organic formation, is the production of an organic fluid; the second, the +precipitation of organic molecules, from which, according to the molecular +law of growth, all other textures are derived either directly or +indirectly." Here again the molecules, and not the elementary atoms, are +advanced to the front, and not a little anxiety is shown, in a +definitional way, to identify vital processes of growth with crystalline +processes of formation. But Dr. Bennett entirely mistakes, as well as +misstates, the process of vital development, if he does not overlook the +law governing the formation of crystals. There can be no symmetrically +arranged solids in an inorganic fluid without the presence of some law, or +principle, definitely determining, not the "precipitation," but the +"formation," of crystals. The inorganic particles are not precipitated or +thrown downward, any more than they are sublevated or thrown upward. The +process is one of formation, not precipitation. Every crystallographer, +not hampered by materialistic views and anti-vital theories, admits the +presence of a fixed and determinate law governing each crystalline system, +whatever may be the homologous parts or the unequal axes it represents.</p> + +<p>And so of the equally undeviating law of vital growth. Life comes from no +mere "precipitation of organic molecules," as Dr. Bennett would have us +believe. If so, what is it that precipitates the molecules? They can +hardly be said to precipitate themselves. To precipitate, in a chemical +sense, is to be thrown down, or caused to be thrown down, as a substance +from its solution. What, then, causes the molecules to be thus +precipitously thrown down from a fluid to a solid, or a semi-solid, state? +It cannot be from any blind or inconsiderate haste on the part of the +molecules themselves. There must be some independent principle, or law of +nature--one presupposing an intelligent law-giver--to effect the +"precipitating process," if any such really exists.</p> + +<p>But it does not exist. The first step is one of development and +growth--the manifestation of functional activity--the building up of +organic or cellular tissue. The exact process, in the case of seed-bearing +plants and trees, is well known. All those familiar with the +characteristic differences of seeds, their chemical constituents, their +tegumentary coverings, rudimentary parts, etc., thoroughly understand the +process in its outward manifestation. There is no precipitation of +molecules as in an organic fluid, unless the albumen lying between the +embryo and testa of the seeds, and constituting the nutriment on which the +plant feeds during its primary stages of growth, can be called a fluid. It +throws none of its characteristic ingredients downward any more than +upward. Indeed the greater tendency of its molecules is upward rather than +downward, in the "molecular processes" (vital ones) by which the embryonic +cell is started upon its career of plant-life. The celebrated Dr. Liebig +says of this albuminous environment: "It is the foundation, the +starting-point, of the whole series of peculiar tissues which constitute +those organs which are the seat of all vital actions." In the case of +animal life, this albumen abounds in the serum of the blood, enters +largely into the chyle and lymph, goes to build up the tissues and +muscles, and is the chief ingredient of the nerves, glands, and even the +brain itself. And in all these developmental stages, its tendency is to +coagulate rather than precipitate. In its coagulated condition, it dries +to a hard, partially translucent and friable state, and is more or less +insoluble in water, and entirely so at a temperature from 140° to 160° F.</p> + +<p>When the seed is planted or placed in water, it first commences to swell +from the absorption of the water or moisture of the ground by the pores of +its external covering, the favorable temperature being from 60° to 80° F. +It gradually expands until its outer membranes burst, and its initial +rootlets clasp their hold upon the earth. From this point its several +stages of development are well known to the ordinary observer. Here the +first step is absorption and expansion, not precipitation. There is also a +change in chemical conditions, the water at least being decomposed. For it +would seem to be a law of vegetal growth that reproduction should begin in +decomposition and decay. The Apostle's description of the "death of the +grain," as symbolizing the death of man, in his first Epistle to the +Corinthians, points conclusively in this direction. It is in the +decomposition and decay of the grain that the implanted germ is quickened +into life--ascends into the bright light, the warm sunshine, the +refreshing presence of showers and dews. In this way it fulfils its +providential purpose of yielding to the sower the more munificent life +which he is forever seeking to attain.</p> + +<p>Its germination is the springing up of the inner living principle of the +grain, not its outer envelope or dead husk. This disappears in decay, +except the small nutrient portion within which the germinal principle of +life would seem to reside, and which undergoes a thorough chemical change +in the process of passing from death unto life, or being assimilated and +taken up into the new living structure. The Apostle's comparison +distinctly marks these several changes as the one process of passing from +death unto life. He saw in this wonderful provision of nature, the still +more wonderful prevision of God. To his mind it was over the debris of the +dead past that the living present is constantly marching towards a higher +and more perfect life--the ultimate fruition and joy of an eternal home in +the skies! And he saw that the two grand instrumentalities and +co-accessory agencies to this end, were Life and Death, both equally +constant and active, like all the other instrumentalities and governing +agencies of the universe. Life is forever unlocking the portals of the +present to youth and vigor; Death is forever closing them to age and +decrepitude. This divine prevision thus becomes the wisest and most +beneficent provision. Without life there would be no such thing as death, +and without death no such thing as this grand succession and march of +life--this passing from out the Shadow into the Day.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="10"></a>Chapter X.</h2> + +<h3>Darwinism Considered from a Vitalistic Stand-Point.</h3> + + + +<p>Granting that the assumption of Darwinism rests, as claimed, on the fixed +and inflexible adaptation of means to ends, in the diversified yet +measurably specialized processes of nature, there is no logical deduction +to be drawn therefrom but that which traces the representatives of all the +great types of the animal kingdom to one single source, and that not the +Sovereign Intelligence of the Universe, but a mere "ovule in protoplasm," +or what may be defined, in its unaggregated form, as an inconceivably +small whirligig, having motion on a central axis, but whether an +independent motion of its own, or one derived from an Infinite +Intelligence, the Darwinian systematizers are not bold enough to aver. +They have too many <i>a priori</i> scruples either to assert the one +proposition or to deny the other. What set this little whirligig in motion +is a mystery that lies beyond the purview of science, so called, and into +the depths of this infinitessimal and most mysterious little chamber they +refuse to go.</p> + +<p>They search not for the evidence of an Infinite Intelligence in the +outermost circle of the heavens where the highest is to be found, and +where a bound is set that we may not pass, but shutting their eyes to all +the grander evidences of such an Intelligence, they dive down into the +infinitessimal realm of nature and assume to dig out the sublimer secrets +of the universe there. And this is their grand discovery: That this +infinitessimal whirligig of theirs has not only whirled man into +existence, but the entire circle of the heavens, with the innumerable host +of stars that march therein, and all the boundless systems of worlds that +roll in space. With this subordination of the Infinite to the +infinitessimal, of intelligence to insensate matter, of divine energy, so +to speak, to blind molecular force, they are satisfied; and, like the mole +in the fable, conceive their little molecule to be the only possible +creator of a stupendous universe.</p> + +<p>Scrutinize my propositions closely, and see if I am guilty of misstating +theirs. Their new theory is only a slight modification of an old one, or +the old adage, <i>omne vivum ex ovo</i>--all life is from an egg. For they +assert that every living thing primordially proceeds from an ovule in +protoplasm, the essential part of the protoplasmic egg, so to speak, being +this little <i>ovum</i> or cellule, from which have issued all possible +organisms in both the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Nor is this theory +essentially confined to organic matter. A scientific coördination of its +several known parts, or alleged functions, extends the operations of this +infinitessimal whirligig to the plastic or uniformly diffused state of all +matter, from which has been evolved, in an infinite duration of past time, +not only life in its highest manifestations, but a universe so +stupendously grand that no amount of human intelligence can grasp the +first conception of it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Emerson--our Ralph Waldo--virtually accepts this theory of +development, substituting, however, a stomach for an ovule, and the +reverse of the Darwinian proposition, in what he is pleased to call "the +incessant opposition of nature to everything hurtful." It is not the +"selection of the fittest" but the "rejection of the unfit," by which "a +beneficent necessity (I use his language) is always bringing things +right." "It is in the stomach of plants," he says, "that development +begins, and ends in the circles of the universe." "'Tis a long way," he +admits, "from the gorilla to the gentleman--from the gorilla to Plato, +Newton, Shakespeare--to the sanctities of religion, the refinements of +legislation, the summits of science, art, poetry."</p> + +<p>Few persons, I take it, will dispute this proposition. The road is a long +one and beset with all sorts of thorns and briars, such as Mr. Emerson's +philosophy will hardly eradicate from the wayside. Even the most refined +empiricism will find it difficult to stomach his stomachic theory of the +universe, which lands all atomic or corpuscular philosophy in a digestive +sac, such as Jack Falstaff bore about him with its measureless capacity +for potations and Eastcheap fare. It is a road too in which Mr. Emerson's +philosophy will get many sharp raps from an external world of phenomena, +in the futility of both his and the Darwinian hypothesis to explain away +the independent origination of certain species of plants and animals--new +varieties still springing into existence, under favorable conditions, in +obedience to the divine fiat, "Let the earth bring forth."</p> + +<p>In laying the foundations of this new science, if science it shall be +called, we must insist that the course of nature is uniform, and that, +however extended our generalizations in any one of her lines of +uniformity, all intermediate, as well as ultimate propositions, must not +only be stated with the utmost scientific accuracy, but the logical +deductions therefrom must also be uniform, or lie in the path of +uniformity. The earliest and latest inductions must either coincide or +approximate the same end. No links must be broken, no chasms bridged, in +the scientific series. There must be a distinct and separate link +connecting each preceding and each succeeding one in the chain. The lowest +known mammal must be found in immediate relationship with his higher +congener or brother, not in any remote cousinship. There must be no +saltatory progress--no leaping over intermediate steps or degrees. The +heights of science are not to be scaled <i>per saltum</i>, except as degrees +may sometimes be conferred by our universities.[<a href="#foot35">35</a>]</p> + +<p>There are some fish-like animals, say our Darwinian systematizers, like +the Lepidosirens and their congeners, with the characteristics of +amphibians; and hence they infer that by successive deviations and +improvements the lower order has risen into the higher. But out of what +page in the volume of nature, in the countless leaves we have turned back, +has the immediate congener dropped, that we are obliged to look for the +relationship in thirty-fourth cousins? We might as well say that some of +the <i>Infusoria</i> possess the same or similar characteristics, and predicate +relationship between them and the amphibians; for giants sometimes spring +from dwarfs and dwarfs from giants. At all events, our diagnoses must be +freed from these intermediate breaks or failures in the chain of +continuity, or the doctrine of descent must tumble with the imaginary +foundations on which it is built. And bear in mind that the most +enthusiastic Darwinist is forced to admit that there are still rigid +partitions between the lower and higher organisms that have not been +pierced by the light of scientific truth, but they assume that future +discoveries and investigations will solve the difficulty. But science, +inflexible as she is, or ought to be, in her demands, admits of no +assumptions, much less sanctions such exceptions and deviations as we +constantly find in the Darwinian path of continuity. The eye of +imagination can supply nothing to her vision. She is eagle-eyed, and soars +into the bright empyrean--does not dive into quagmires and the slime of +creation after truth.</p> + +<p>But let us see how Mr. Darwin bridges one of the very first chasms he +meets with in constructing his chain of generation. He goes back to the +first link, or to what he calls primordial generation. Here the leap is +from inorganic matter to the lowest form of organic life--from inanimate +to animate dust. The chasm is immense, as all will agree. But he bridges +it by falling back on his infinitessimal whirligig--his <i>primum +mobile</i>--or on the motions of elements as yet inaccessible, except to the +eye of imagination. For even Plato's monad, or ultimate atom, was not +matter itself, being indivisible, but rather a formal unit or primary +constituent of matter, which, like Mr. Darwin's whirligig in its +unaggregated form, admits of neither a maximum nor a minimum of +comprehension; but rests entirely on imaginary hypothesis. And we may here +add that a system which begins in imaginary hypotheses and ends in +them--as that of bridging the chasmal difference between a gorilla and a +Plato--can be dignified into a science only by a still greater stretch of +the imagination--that of bridging the difference between the Darwinian +zero and his ninety degrees of development in a Darwin himself!</p> + +<p>Bear in mind, as we proceed, that the function of an argument in +philosophy, as in logic, is to prove that a certain relation exists +between two concepts or objects of thought, when that relation is not +self-evident. In the Darwinian chain we have, as the first link, organic +life springing from inorganic matter, without the slightest relation +existing between the two, except what may be universally predicated of +matter itself, whether animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic; and +there is no other affirmative premise, expressing their agreement as +extremes, that can possibly admit of an affirmative conclusion. The parts +are so separated in thought that no metaphysical or ideal distinction +exists to coordinate them in classification. We are simply forced back, in +our attempt at classification, upon the intuitions of consciousness, where +reason manifestly ceases to enforce its inductions.</p> + +<p>And here the human mind intuitively springs an objection which is at once +aimed at the very citadel of Darwinism. On what rests the validity of +these intuitions except it be that "breath of life," which, as we have +before said, was breathed into man when he became a living soul? If we +follow the divine record, instead of these blind systematizers leading the +blind, we shall have no difficulty in establishing the validity of these +intuitions--the highest potential factors this side of Deity to be found +anywhere in the universe. For if our intuitions are not to be relied +upon--if their objects and perceptions are to be discarded as +unreliable--then there can be no agreement or disagreement between any two +ideas presented, objectively or subjectively, to the human mind. No +processes of mental analysis or ratiocination, like those pursued in the +elementary methods of Euclid, can present the basis of an intellectual +judgment, or lay the foundation of the slightest faith or belief in the +world. To deny the primary perception of truth by intuition is as fatal to +"Evolution" as to the sublimer teachings of the Bible Genesis.</p> + +<p>But from the very nature of our being, as well as the primary <i>datum</i> of +consciousness itself, we must rest the validity of these intuitions on +something, and that, something more than a finite intelligence; and since +science, with all her knowledge methodically digested and arranged, +furnishes no clue to the mystery, we are left to the higher sources of +inspiration to reach it. And this inspiration, however it may be derived, +necessarily becomes a part of our intuitions, since it addresses itself to +the strongest possible cravings of the human soul, and is accepted as its +inseparable companion and guest.</p> + +<p>Shall we build our faith then on the Divine Word,--on the Word that was in +the beginning with God, and, when incarnate, <i>was</i> God,--or on Mr. +Darwin's little whirligig that originally set everything in motion, and +has only to go on <i>ad infinitum</i> to whirl us out a God, as it has already +whirled us out a Darwinian universe without one. For if this ovulistic +whirligig has bridged the chasmal difference between protoplasm and man, +since the transition from inorganic matter to organic life, the process +has only to be indefinitely extended to bridge the chasm between man and +Deity, or between finite and infinite intelligence. This gives us nature +evolving a God, instead of the doctrine of the old Theogonies, of a God +presiding from all eternity over nature; one "who laid the foundations of +the earth that it should not be removed forever; who stretchest out the +heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the +waters; who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire."</p> + +<p>These evolutionists manifestly get the cart before the horse in their +category of cosmological events. It is not inert matter organizing itself +into life, nor any mode of physical or chemical action, nor any mere +manifestation of motion or of heat, nor any other conceivable correlation +of natural forces. None of these has enabled us to penetrate the +mysterious <i>inner-chamber</i> of life itself. For reasons obviously connected +with our own welfare, He, from whom alone are "the issues of life," seems +to have ordained that we should fathom the depths of both physical and +chemical force, and beneficently wield and direct them to our own uses. +But this vital force; this something that stands apart from and is +essentially different from all other kinds of force, is of a nature that +baffles all our efforts to approach. The power to grasp it, or even to +penetrate in the slightest degree its mysteries, is delegated to none. All +attempts to lay bare this principle of vitality, or level the barriers +that separate it from physical or chemical action, have utterly failed. We +know no more of its essence now than was known a thousand years ago, and +know no less than will be known a thousand years hence. To become masters +of the mystery, we must enter the impenetrable veil within which the +Infinite Intelligence of the universe presides,--who, we are told, +"sendeth forth his spirit, and we are created, who taketh away our breath, +we die and return to our dust." [<a href="#foot36">36</a>] + +We are just as much bewildered in respect to this vital principle in our +classifications of the myriads of little creatures careering over the +field of the microscope, as when we turn to the most marked formations of +genera and species in geological distribution. The great trouble with Mr. +Darwin's <i>vinculum</i> is, that its weakest links are precisely where the +strongest should be found, and <i>vice versa</i>. With a candor rarely +displayed by a writer who is spinning a theory, he admits this. The +geological record is not what he would have it to be. Whole chapters are +gone where they are most needed, and nature's lithography seems constantly +at fault. Independent species are now and then springing up where +derivatives should be looked for, while derivatives are everywhere +disappearing in non-derivatives. Many of the middle Tertiary <i>molusca</i>, +and a large proportion of the later Tertiary period, are specifically +identical with the living species, of to-day. What has "natural selection" +been doing for this family in the last million years or more? Manifestly +nothing, and less than nothing, for some of the species have dropped out +altogether.</p> + +<p>These facts, and hundreds of others like them, are constantly obtruding +themselves upon our attention to show, in harmony with the Bible Genesis, +the immutability of species--the absolute fixity of types--rather than +their variability, as claimed. If nature abhors anything more than a +<i>vacuum</i>, it is manifestly any marked transition from fixed types, and she +thunders her edicts against it in the non-fertility of all hybrids. The +doctrine of variation lacks the all-essential element of continuity, and +is oftener at war with the theory of the "selection of the fittest," than +it is with the selection of the "unfit." The leap from Lepidosirens to +Amphibians is no greater than the interval between any two species of +animals or plants yet discovered, either fossil or living. The intervals +are as numerous as the species themselves, and everywhere constitute great +and sudden leaps, or such transitional changes as "natural selection" +could not have effected independently of intervening forms--those that +nowhere exist in nature, and never have existed, if we are to credit +geologic and paleontologic records. There is everywhere similarity of +structure, but not identity; and the nearer we approach to identity of +structure the wider the divergence in similarity of characteristics. A +bird may be taught to talk and sing snatches of music. But no monkey has +ever been able to articulate human sounds, much less give them rhythmical +utterance.</p> + +<p>Take the case of the wild pigeon, a subject that especially delights Mr. +Darwin. Most of the deviations are confined to the domesticated breeds, +and none of these rank in strength, hardiness, capability of flight, or +symmetry of structure, with the wild or typical bird. There are +well-defined deviations, but no sensible improvements, except to the eye +of the bird-fancier. The deviations are simply entailed weaknesses, or the +very reverse of what should appear from the "selection of the fittest." +The fact undeniably is, that these variations are almost wholly +abnormal--mere exaggerated characteristics, induced in the first instance, +perhaps, by high cultivation and close in-and-in breeding.</p> + +<p>Turn these abnormal varieties loose, let them go back to the aboriginal +stock, and these characteristics will rapidly disappear; that is, they +will ultimately lose themselves or melt away in the original type. Mr. +Darwin admits that the tendency will be to reversion, but he insists, +manifestly without any positive proof therefor, that the greater tendency +is to new centres of attraction, and not necessarily the primitive one. +But this is mere assumption--sheer begging the question on his +part,--since all the oscillations are incontestibly about the original or +type centre.</p> + +<p>The same may be said of the typical races of men, like the negro and wild +Indian of our prairies. You may lift them out of their primitive +condition--temporarily suspend, if you please so to put it, their +primordial attraction,--but, left again to themselves, they will go back +to the original type; that is, their offspring will again infest the +jungles and roam their native hunting-grounds. The process here is the +very reverse of the Darwinian theory. Reversion, as a rule, follows the +degeneracy of types, instead of there being any favorable homogeneous +result, springing from a new centre of attraction. The Indian makes a +splendid savage, but a very poor white man. Think of Red Jacket taking the +part of Mercutio in the play or enacting the more valiant <i>role</i> of +Falstaff in King Henry the Fourth. An infusion of white blood does not +help the matter, but rather makes it worse. Generally, the meanest Indian +on the continent is your half-breed, and among the negroes there is no +term so expressive of the contempt of that race, as that applied by them +to a mulatto. The present condition of Mexico affords a striking +exemplification of this law of reversion. The inheritable characteristics +or variations, produced from an infusion of Spanish blood, are rapidly +disappearing--the native blood whipping out the European. The potency is +in the inferior blood, simply because it is the predominating one. The +result has been no homogeneous new race, but a reversion, now manifestly +in progress, to the type centre or aboriginal stock. And the curse +pronounced by Ezekiel upon mongrel tribes--"woe unto the mingled peoples" +may have a significance in this connection worth considering; but it +manifestly falls outside the scope of our present inquiry.</p> + +<p>In considering the embryological structure of man, and the homologies he +therein presents to the lower animals, Mr. Darwin thus conclusively (in +his judgment) remarks: "We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy +quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in +his habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World."</p> + +<p>But Mr. Darwin's pronominal "we," in this connection, admits of +qualification. He can hardly speak for all the scientific world at once. +The philosophical maxim of Sir Isaac Newton--<i>hypotheses non fingo</i>--I +build no hypotheses, make no suppositions, but adhere to facts--has a few +followers still left. But what are Mr. Darwin's facts? Has he yet +discovered the caudal man, except as the ever-fertile Mr. Stanley heard of +one in Africa? And where is his monkey that first lost the prehensile +power to climb trees? For bear in mind that it was the loss of this +prehensile power that resulted in the caudal atrophy of our monkey +progenitors, <i>who became men simply because they were tailless monkeys!</i> +They had lost their power to climb trees, and accordingly had no longer +any use for tails to let themselves down from the limbs. A "beneficent +necessity" therefore, according to Mr. Emerson, dropped the tail as +something decidedly "unfit." For the simplest tyro in Darwinian philosophy +will see that the loss of the Catarrhine monkey's tail, if it ever +occurred, could not have resulted from the "selection of the fittest." The +deeper Emersonian philosophy of the "rejection of the unfit," affords the +only solution of the difficulty, and then only on the assumption that the +tail is an unfit appendage for the monkey.</p> + +<p>With the loss of his tail, in the light of this new genesis, the monkey +necessarily ceased to be arboreal in his habits. He could no longer +subsist on the fruits and nuts of trees, or take refuge therein from his +enemies. He had to go to work and make weapons to defend himself--to +construct tools--make and set traps, live on his wits, and not on his +prehensile power to climb trees. He soon discovered, of course, that the +longest pole knocked the persimmon. This was his first intellectual stride +towards the future Edison. From the simplest sort of Grahamitic +philosopher he passed into the robust, beef-eating Englishman. But this +was not all. As an arboreal gymnast, he was manifestly on his way to more +masterly feats of agility than ever,--those dependent, not on muscular +function, but on the nervous action of the brain and spinal marrow. +Necessity became with him the "mother of invention," and how admirably he +improved under this maternal instructor we are left to infer from the +paramount conclusion of Mr. Darwin, <i>that the demoralized monkey became +the incipient man</i>!</p> + +<p>But this conclusively accounts for only one of the many anatomical +differences between man and his caudal progenitor. For why should the +loss of his tail have resulted in the changed chemistry of the monkey's +brain? or in the increased involutions of his brain even? The specific +differences between the present and ancestral types are very numerous +and demand separate classification. Their variability runs through every +bone, muscle, tissue, fibre, nerve. Their blood corpuscles are not the +same. The chemistry of their bones essentially differs. The nerves are +differently bundled and differently strung. In intonations of +voice--symmetry of arms, legs, chest--hairlessness of body, and aquatic +and land habits, the frog is a much nearer approach to man than the +monkey, as all caricaturists, delineating aldermanic proportions, will +agree. And Mr. Darwin might have immortalized himself by deriving the +builders of the ancient pile-habitations and other primitive water-rats +and croakers of the Swiss lakes, from this tailless batrachian. For +everybody knows, or thinks he knows, how the frog lost his tail. If he +didn't wag it off, he certainly absorbed its waggishness as a +distinguishing characteristic of the "coming man"--the future Artemas +Wards and Mark Twains of the race. This ancestral origin will also +account for the otherwise unaccountable proclivity of all human +juveniles to play at the game of leap-frog! Besides, it would have +relieved Mr. Darwin from one of the greatest perplexities he has had to +encounter. As he derives man from a hairy quadruped, the absence of hair +on the human body, is a phenomenal fact that gives him great trouble. He +agrees that it does not result from "natural selection," as he says "the +loss of hair is an inconvenience and probably an injury to man." Nor +does he suppose it to result from what he calls "correlated +development." He is more puzzled over this problem of divestiture than +any other, and finds the solution of it only in "sexual selection." That +is, he assumes that among our semi-human progenitors, far back in the +Tertiary or some other period, some female monkeys were less hirsute +than others, and that they naturally preferred males possessing similar +characteristics. These divergencies were thus commenced, and, by +continuous "sexual selection," the infirmity (for such he regards the +loss of hair) was propagated until the race was almost entirely denuded +or bereft of this covering. In the same way he accounts for nearly all +the differentiations of the race, among the various tribes now or +formerly inhabiting the earth. All have sprung from the same semi-human +progenitors--<i>apes that lost their capacity to subsist as apes, and +hence found it necessary to subsist as men</i>!</p> + +<p>The law of degeneracy has, therefore, had quite as much to do with human +origins as that of progressive development. In fact, it is the paramount +law from a Darwinian stand-point. For the loss of hair and of the +prehensile power to climb trees are both conceded by Mr. Darwin to be +serious defects and drawbacks in the ape family.</p> + +<p>But the law of sexual selection, as treated by the evolutionists, is not +scientifically accurate, nor is it true in fact. The loving tendency of +nature is to opposites, not likes. The positive and negative poles are +those that play into each other with most marvellous effect. Each repels +its like and rushes to the embrace of its opposite. Extremes lovingly meet +everywhere. A brunette selects a blonde and a blonde a brunette, as a +general rule in matrimony. A tall man or woman, with rare exceptions, +chooses a short companion for life. Dark eyes delight in those that are +light, and <i>vice-versa</i>. Everywhere nature seeks diversity, not +similitude. The gayest and brightest feathered songster craves +companionship in modest and unobtrusive colors. Diversity is the law of +life, as equality, or versimilitude, is that of death. Neither natural +selection, nor sexual selection, runs counter to this law. If Mr. Darwin's +theory were true, that likes selected likes, then the two marked extremes +which should have characterized the race, soon after its emergence from +the semi-human state, should have been giants and pigmies, Gargantuas and +Lilliputs. Otherwise "sexual selection," as treated by its author, plays +no intelligible part in the economy of nature, except to counterbalance +variability, not to propagate it.</p> + +<p>But the Darwinian assumption that the primeval man, or his immediate +ape-like progenitor, came through "natural selection," that is, through +the "survival of the fittest," is subject to one or two other objections +which we shall briefly notice. And the first objection is not altogether +a technical one. The term "fittest," as applied to a monkey, has at once +a definite and comprehensive significance to us. It implies the presence +of whatever is most perfect of its kind in the monkey <i>as</i> a monkey, and +not in the monkey <i>as</i> something else than a monkey. They are all +admirably adapted for climbing trees; and it is this adaptation that +secures them safety, or complete immunity, in shelter from their +enemies. To say that nature selects the fittest for them--for any +species of monkey--by converting their forefeet into rudimentary hands, +with a loss of prehension and no corresponding advantages in locomotion, +is to use language without any appreciable significance to us. We can +only say that what is fittest for the monkey is ill-fitted for man, and +the reverse. This is all we can definitely predicate of them, from what +we know of their anatomical structure, and the diversified uses to which +it may be put.</p> + +<p>The fact is, as the Bible genesis shows, that every living thing is +perfect of its kind, and whatever is perfect admits of no Darwinian +variations or improvements for the better. And the simple statement of +this undeniable proposition is, we submit, a complete refutation of +Darwinism. When the waters and the earth were commanded to bring forth +abundantly of every living creature and every living thing, "it was so, +and God saw that it was good," that is, everything perfect of its kind, +and in its kind. With this single limitation as to kind, a rattlesnake is +no less perfect than a Plato or a John Howard.</p> + +<p>When we consider man's upright position; the firmness and steadiness with +which he plants his foot upon the earth; when we examine the mechanism of +his hand, and the wonderful and almost unlimited range it possesses for +diversified use; when we see how ill-fitted he is for climbing trees, yet +how express and admirable for climbing among the stars, even to the +outermost milky-way, the idea that what is fittest for him is fit for the +chattering monkey, is too absurd to give us pause. And yet how does Mr. +Darwin know that the monkey has been climbing up, all these hundred +thousand or million years, into man, as one of the congenital freaks of +nature, and not man shambling down into the monkey as a reverse +congenital freak. Children have sometimes been born with a singular +resemblance to the ape family, but no ape has ever, to Mr. Darwin's +knowledge, produced issue more manlike than itself. The divergencies run +the wrong way to meet the conditions of the development theory. We have +had nearly five thousand years in which to mark these transitional +changes, and yet the monkey of to-day is identical with that painted on +the walls of ancient Meroe. In all this time he has made no advance in +the genetic relation; and if we turn back the lithographic pages of +nature for a hundred times five thousand years, we shall find no +essential departure from aboriginal types.</p> + +<p>But the Darwinian hypothesis admits of a more conclusive answer than we +have yet given. Past time, it will be conceded, is theoretically if not +actually infinite; and in all past time, nature has been tugging away at +Mr. Darwin's problem of the "survival of the fittest." It is no two +hundred and fifty thousand years, nor two hundred and fifty millions, but +an infinite duration of past time that covers the period in which she has +been wrestling with this problem. How successfully has she solved it? In +the Darwinian sense of the term "fittest," she has not so much as stated +her first equation or extracted the root of her first power. She is +manifestly as much puzzled over the problem as Mr. Darwin himself. He +fails to see that the "survival of the fittest," necessarily implies, or +carries with it, the correlative proposition,--the "non-survival of the +unfit." And when such a law has been operative for an infinite duration of +past time, the "unfit," however infinitely distributed at first, should +have disappeared altogether, many thousands, if not millions, of years +ago. If the evolutionists are dealing with vast problems, and assigning to +nature, unlimited factors to express the totality of her unerring +operations, they must be careful to limit the time in which any one of her +given labors is to be accomplished. If she makes any progress at all, an +infinite duration of past time should enable her to complete her work just +as effectually as an infinite duration of time to come.</p> + +<p>But by what law of "natural selection," appertaining to a single pair of +old world monkeys, have their offspring advanced to this regal state of +manhood, while all other pairs have remained stationary, or precisely +where they were two hundred and fifty thousand years ago or more? Why +this exceptional divergence in the case of a single pair of monkeys? Why +this anomalous, aberrant, and thoroughly eccentric movement on the part +of nature? We had supposed that her operations were uniform--conformable +to fixed laws of movement. The doctrine of the "survival of the fittest" +implies this. Why then, should nature, in her unerring operations, have +selected the fittest in respect to a single pair of Catarrhine monkeys, +and at the same time rejected the fittest in the case of a million other +pairs? If she had selected only the fittest in respect to this old world +stock of monkeys, the entire Catarrhine family should have disappeared +in the next higher or fitter group--a group nowhere to be found in +geological distribution. The break between man and this Catarrhine +monkey covers quite a series of links in the genetic vinculum;[<a href="#foot37">37</a>] and +yet between the two we find no high form of a low type fitting into a +low form of a high type, as we manifestly should, to account for all the +diversified changes that must have taken place in the interim. And what +is true of the types is measurably true of the classes within the types, +as well as of the orders within the classes. Wide deviations in forms, +as in characteristics, would seem to be the invariable rule; the +blending of type into type, except perhaps in remote relationships, is +nowhere visible.</p> + +<p>But if "variation" and "natural selection" have played important parts in +the economy of nature, why may not "specific creation" have played <i>its</i> +part also? Positive science can hardly flatter itself with the belief that +it is rolling back the mystery of the universe to a point beyond which +"specific creation" might not have commenced, or the divine fiat been put +forth. To believe in the possibility of a rational synthesis, limited to +sensible experience, or phenomenal facts within our reach, that shall +climb from law to law, or from concrete fact to abstract conception, until +it shall reach the <i>Ultima Thule</i> of all law, is to carry the faith of the +scientist beyond the most transcendental belief of the theologian, and +make him a greater dupe to his illusions than was ever cloistered in a +monastery or affected austerity therein as a balm to the flesh. We may +substitute new dogmatisms for old ones, but we can never postulate a +principle that shall make the general laws of nature any less mysterious +than the partial or exceptional, or that shall in the long run, render +"natural selection" any more comprehensible, or acceptable to the rational +intuition, than "specific creation." For while one class of scientists is +climbing the ladder of synthesis, by assigning a reason for a higher law +that may be predicated of a lower, we shall find the broader and more +analytical mind accepting the higher mystery for the lower, and, by +divesting its faith of all metaphysical incumbrance, landing in the belief +of an all-encompassing law, which shall comprehend the entire assemblage +of known laws and facts in the universe. And the natural drift of the +human mind is ever towards this abstract conception--this one +all-encompassing law of the universe. It steadily speculates in this +direction, and some of the highest triumphs of our age, in physical as +well as metaphysical science, are measurably due to this tendency. The +scientific mind is not confined wholly to experimental research. It is +stimulated to higher contemplations, and is constantly disposed to make +larger and more comprehensive groupings of analogous facts. It is fast +coming to regard light, heat, electricity, magnetism, gravitation, +chemical affinity, molecular force, and even Mr. Darwin's little +whirligig, as only so many manifestations or expressions of one and the +same force in the universe--that ultimate, all-encompassing, divine force +(not to speak unscientifically) that upholds the order of the heavens, +"binds the sweet influences of the Pleiades, brings forth Mazzaroth in his +season, and guides Arcturus with his suns."</p> + +<p>It is the boast of the Darwinian systematizers that their development +theory not only harmonizes with, but admirably supplements and out-rounds +the grander speculation of Laplace, termed the "Nebular Hypothesis," which +regards the universe as having originally consisted of uniformly diffused +matter, filling all space, which subsequently became aggregated by +gravitation, much after the manner of Mr. Darwin's little whirligig, into +an infinite number of sun-systems, occupying inconceivably vast areas in +space. Of the correctness of this hypothesis it is unnecessary to speak. +It is to the Darwinian speculation what the infinite is to the +infinitessimal, and we only refer to it to bring out the vastness of the +conception as compared to the latter theory, and to predicate thereon the +more conclusive induction that an Infinite Intelligence directs and +superintends all.</p> + +<p>In an area in the Milky-way not exceeding one-tenth of the moon's disc, +Mr. Herschel computes the number of stars at not less than twenty +thousand, with clusters of nebulae lying still beyond. As we know that no +bodies shining by reflected light could be visible at such enormous +distances, we are left to conclude that each of these twinkling points is +a sun, dispensing light and heat to probably as many planets as hold their +courses about the central orb in our own system. From the superior +magnitude of many of the stars, as compared with the sun, we may +reasonably infer that many of these vast sun-systems occupy a much larger +field in space than our own. This would give an area in space of not less +than six thousand millions of miles as the field occupied by each of these +sun-systems. And as the distance between each of these systems and its +nearest neighbor is probably not less than that of our sun from the +nearest star, we have the enormous and inconceivable distance of not less +than nineteen billions of miles separating each one of these twenty +thousand stars or sun-systems, occupying a space in the heavens apparently +no bigger than a man's hand. And yet Infinity, as we apprehend the term, +lies beyond this vast cluster of constellated worlds! Where is Mr. +Darwin's little whirligig in the comparison, or Mr. Emerson's vegetal +stomach, or Mr. Herbert Spencer's "potential factors," to express the +sum-total of all this totality,--this gigantic assemblage of stars +clustered about a single point in the Milky-way? The human mind absolutely +reels--staggers bewildered and amazed--under the load of conceptions +imposed by these few twinkling stars, and is ready to exclaim,--</p> + +<blockquote> "Oh, star-eyed Science, hast thou wandered there,<br /> +To waft us back a message of despair?"</blockquote> + +<p>But when we reflect that all this vast aggregation of sun systems, visible +in the telescopic field, is not stationary, but is revolving with +inconceivable rapidity about some unknown and infinitely remote centre of +the universe, how immeasurably vast does the conception become, and how +unutterably puerile and fatuous the thought of <i>Mr. Darwin's little +whirligig as the author of it all!</i> No wonder the inspired Psalmist +exclaims; "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth +his handiwork." But listen to the Darwinian exclamation: "The heavens +declare the glory of my little whirligig, and the firmament showeth the +immensity of my little ovules." With the veil of faith and inspiration +lifted, the words of the Psalmist swell into the highest cherubic anthem, +while those of Mr. Darwin hardly rise above the squeak of a mole burrowing +beneath the glebe!</p> + +<p>And what presumptuous mortal shall say that this infinitely remote centre +of the universe, around which revolves this infinite number of +sun-systems, is not the seat and throne of the Infinite One himself--the +Sovereign Intelligence and Power of the universe, directing and upholding +all? We know that some of the stars are travelling about this central +point of the heavens at a pace exceeding 194,000 miles an hour, or with +nearly three times the rapidity of our earth in its orbit. That there must +be infinite power, not physical, at this unknown centre of the universe, +to hold these myriads of sun-systems in their courses, is a logical +induction as irrefragable as that the sun holds his planets in their +orbits. And if infinite power is predicable upon this central point, why +not infinite intelligence also? Intelligence, we know, controls and +utilizes all power in this world; why not all power in the universe? It +can utilize every drop of water that thunders down Niagara to-day, as it +has already seized upon the lightnings of heaven to make them our +post-boy. This is what finite intelligence--that insignificant factor that +science would eliminate from the universe--can do; then what may not +Infinite Intelligence accomplish?</p> + +<p>But the Darwinian systematizers object that science must limit itself to a +coordination of the known relations of things in the universe, or deal +only with phenomenal facts, not dogmatisms; forgetting that they dogmatize +quite as extensively, in constructing their chain of generation, as the +theologians do in adhering to the Bible genesis. No theologian objects to +a rational synthesis of phenomena, limited to sensible experience; but, in +climbing from law to law, he reasonably enough insists, that, when +concrete facts rise into abstract conceptions, the highest round in the +ladder shall not be knocked out for the accommodation of Robert G. +Ingersoll or any other boasted descendant of a gorilla. And he also +insists that when <i>a priori</i> speculation is lost in abstract conceptions, +the highest must necessarily press alone upon the intuitions of +consciousness, where all generalizations cease, and all synthesis is +undeniably at an end. Here, in this mysterious chamber of the soul, we +stand silent and alone, with only dim and shadowy phantoms about us, as if +in the august presence of Deity itself.</p> + +<p>But how does scientific speculation propose to stifle these intuitions of +consciousness--reduce them to the least of all potential factors in the +universe? We will take the very latest of these speculations. In +supplementing both the Darwinian theory and the grander speculation of +Laplace, the scientists, so called, tell us that the process of +aggregation, or the turning out of new worlds in the universe, is still +going on; but that the time is coming when all the primeval potency or +energy, originally inhering in diffused matter, will have exhausted itself +in actual energy, and that then all light, life and motion in the +universe, will cease and be at an end. This dissipation of potential +energy is to result, they say, in a played-out universe, as it has already +resulted, they claim, in a played-out moon, if not countless other +heavenly bodies.[<a href="#foot38">38</a>] All the exterior planets, or a majority of them at +least, are to be placed in this category of dismantled worlds, or those in +which all life has hopelessly ceased and become extinct. All has utterly +disappeared, or, to paraphrase one of Pope's couplets,</p> + +<blockquote> "Beast, bird, fish, insect--what no eye can scan,<br /> +Nor glass can reach--from zoophyte to man."</blockquote> + +<p>All these dismantled planets, and satellites to planets, are only so many +immense cinders--mere refuse slag--of no conceivable interest to science, +except to predicate the ultimate conclusion--"a played-out universe, +resulting from a played-out potency within the universe." The magnificent +clockwork of the heavens will then have run down, with no Darwinian +whirligig to wind it up again, and the terrible reality of Byron's dream, +which it would seem was not all a dream, be realized in the bright sun +extinguished, the stars darkling the eternal space, rayless and pathless, +and the icy earth swung blind and blackening in the moonless air.</p> + +<p>Oh, if this be star-eyed science, give us anything in place of it! +Blear-eyed bigotry in his cloistered den, mumbling unintelligible prayers, +and believing that man is to be saved, not by what he does, but by a +<i>credo</i> only, is far preferable to it. But oh, how unspeakably preferable +the simple faith of the star-led Magi, who</p> + +<p> "Deeming the light that in the east was seen + An earnest and a prophecy of rest + To weary wanderers, such as they had been,"</p> + +<p>came on that bleak December night, 1880 years ago, to pay their homage to +the Christ-child--the long expected Messiah--the Redeemer of the world!</p> + + + + + + +<h2><a href="notes"></a>Footnotes</h2> + + + +<p><a name="foot1"></a>1. : It may be proper, however, to state that the tenth and concluding + chapter was originally written as a lecture, and delivered about a + year ago in New Haven, Boston, and at other points. A request for its + publication has induced the author to place it in this volume, with + the portion referring to the Bible genesis omitted. It will be found + germane to the general subject.</p> + +<p><a name="foot2"></a>2. : "Without this latent presence of the 'I am,' all modes of existence + in the external world flit before us as colored shadows, with no + greater depth, root, or fixure, than the image of a rock hath in the + gliding stream, or the rainbow on the fast-sailing rain + storm."--<i>Coleridge's</i> "<i>Comments on Essays</i>."</p> + +<p><a name="foot3"></a>3. : And science that is not purely inductive--i.e. primarily based on + the inviolability of our intuitions--is no science at all, but the + sheerest possible speculation.</p> + +<p><a name="foot4"></a>4. : This presence of an active living principle in nature, one originally + assigned as the "<i>divina particula auræ</i>" of every living thing, is + frequently referred to in the higher inspirational moods of our + poets. Wordsworth exquisitely refers to it in the following lines of + his "Excursion:"--</p> + +<blockquote class="verse"> "To every form of being is assigned<br /> + An <i>active</i> principle: howe'er removed<br /> + From sense and observation, it subsists<br /> + In all things, in all nature, in the stars<br /> + Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds; <br /> + In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone<br /> + That paves the brooks."</blockquote> + +<p><a name="foot5"></a>5. : The existence of vital units is conceded by some of the staunchest + materialists, such as Herbert Spencer, Professor Bastian and others. + Professor Bastian says: "The countless myriads of living units which + have been evolved in different ages of the world's history, must, in + each period, have given rise to innumerable multitudes of what have + been called 'trees of life.'" He insists, however, that they have + been "evolved" from something, or by some unknown process. But we + shall show further on that a "unit" can neither be <i>evolved</i> nor + <i>involved</i>, and that this is as true of vital units as of the + mathematical or chemical unit. Neither evolution nor involution will + ever effect the value of a unit.</p> + +<p><a name="foot6"></a>6. : According to Aristotle, the great world-<i>ordainer</i> is the constant + world-<i>sustainer</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="foot7"></a>7. : The definition which Professor Robinson, in his Lexicon of the New + Testament, gives of the word σπερμα, as connected with the "divine + life," entirely harmonizes with this view of the subject. He says: Trop. + I John 3, 9, πἃς ό γεγενημένος ἐκ του ϑεου σπέρμα ἀυτον (ϑεὄν) εν ᾶντῶ πενεὶ + <i>i.e.</i> the germ or principle of divine life through which he + is begotten of god, το πνεὒμα.</p> + +<p><a name="foot8"></a>8. : Professor Schmidt, of the University of Strasburg, who insists that + species are only relatively stable, admits that they remain + persistent as long as they exist under the same external conditions. + Time is, therefore, not a factor in the mutation of species. Nor are + environing conditions factors, except as a failure of conditions + results in the disappearance of species, as the presence of + conditions results in their appearance.</p> + +<p><a name="foot9"></a>9. : Says M. Ch. Bonnet, in his "La Palingéuésie Philosophique;" "Il est + de la plus parfaite évidence que la matiere est susceptible d'une + infinité de mouvemens divers, et de modifications diverses," and this + is the universal claim of the materialists.</p> + +<p><a name="foot10"></a>10. : Professor Burdach (as trad, par Jourdan), in speaking of the + productive power of nature, says, "Limitée quant á l' étendue de ses + manifestations, elle continue toujottrs d' agir pour la conservation + de ce qui a été créé, et, quoiqu' elle ne maintenue les formes + organiques supérieures que par la seule propagation, il ne répugne + point au bon sens de penser qu' aujourd' hui encore elle a la + puissance de produire les formes inférieures avec des eléments + hétérogénes, comme elle a créé originairement tout ce qui posséde l' + organisation." This shows that its author believed in the + possibility of the "superior organic forms," like the mastodon, + megatherium, etc. from the "heterogenetic elements"--those + undergoing every conceivable change--as well as the "inferior + forms." At all events, it is a legitimate induction from + materialistic premises.</p> + +<p><a name="foot11"></a>11. : This point is conclusively made by Professor Burdach, who says (we + quote from Jourdan); "La tendance interieure á la configuration + existe avant sa manifestation." And by his <i>tendance interieure</i> he + must mean some vital or other law, equivalent to an <i>entia</i> in + matter, which results <i>in</i>, not <i>from</i> manifestation.</p> + +<p><a name="foot12"></a>12. : Goethe borrowed his idea of an archetypal world from Plato and the + Eleatic school. They held that the world was originated, and not + eternal; that it was framed by the Creator after a perfect + archetype, one eternally existing in the divine mind, if not an + actual soul-world of which our own is but the reflex.</p> + +<p><a name="foot13"></a>13. : In a note to Prof. Bastian's "Beginnings of Life" (vol II. p. 537) + an important fact is mentioned as obtained from the writings of Dr. + Schneider, to wit, that <i>Nematoids</i> (microscopical forms) may be + "obtained at will," almost as readily as mushrooms, by a process + entirely independent of spores. For instance, small pieces of beef + were carefully examined to see if they contained any of the ova of + Nematoids, and, finding none, they were buried in a small quantity + of earth (also carefully examined for the presence of Nematoids or + their ova) in a gallipot. "After three weeks," says Prof. B. "this + earth was found to be absolutely swarming with two kinds of + Nematoids--quite different from any forms which I had previously, + seen, although I had been seeking them for more than two years + previously in all sorts of situations." The reason why he had not + found them previously, was because the "necessary conditions" for + their appearance had not been obtained by him, or he had not sought + for them in their proper environment. They were not produced "at + will," but were the natural outgrowth of conditions, as much so as + the spores of fungi, which make their appearance whenever and + wherever the necessary environing conditions exist. According to Dr. + Gros, it takes about three weeks for these Nematoid forms to develop + into a reproductive state.</p> + +<p><a name="foot14"></a>14. : The necessity of turning plants and animals into "tramps" is just as + great in the case of "Evolution" as in that of "specific creation in + pairs." In both cases, we must insist upon geneological + consanguinity. For the chances of any two highly specialized forms, + originally starting on different lines of divergence, and ultimately + reaching individual identity, both in form and characteristics, is + an impossible problem in the determination of chances. Consequently, + Mr. Darwin finds the necessity of accounting for the presence of + northern forms in the southern hemisphere, and the reverse, just as + great as in the Linnæan theory, which was fully accepted by Cuvier.</p> + +<p><a name="foot15"></a>15. : Burdach, in his "<i>Traité Physiologie" (Trad. par Jourdan</i>. 1837) + says: "Effectivement nous rencontrons des traces de vie dans toute + existence quelconque." This is as broad a panspermic statement as + can be made, and is only true of inorganic matter so far as + vegetable life is concerned, including such infusorial, mycologic, + and cryptogamic forms as may lie so near to the "force vegetative" + of Needham as to be indistinguishable from it.</p> + +<p><a name="foot16"></a>16. : In the case of volcanic islands, the upheavals were undoubtedly + accompanied by deposits of mud, sand (ocean detritus), marine + vegetation, and more or less animal matter, and these organic + substances were washed down by the rains into the broken valleys and + plains below, when land vegetation almost immediately made its + appearance; not because seeds may have drifted thither by any of the + different agencies that have been mentioned, but because organic + matter can no more help bringing forth life in some form, when + conditions favor, than salt water, when exposed to evaporation, can + help crystallizing into its symmetrically-arranged salts. And the + same would be true of all the coral islands, bringing up the organic + matter of the sea to the influence of the light, the rains, and the + dews. The islands thus formed in the Pacific Ocean begin to exhibit + vegetable life almost as soon as they make their appearance above + the reefs, and a line of sea-beach is formed about them.</p> + +<p><a name="foot17"></a>17. : These, while presenting the most varied and diverse forms of + infusorial life, are nevertheless the most constant and abundant + type. They abound more or less in all organic infusions. Ehrenberg, + however, holds that they are no more animal than vegetal forms. They + vary in length from 1/15000 to 1/2000 of an inch, and are + consequently too minute to be satisfactorily classified in respect + to all their diversified characteristics.</p> + +<p><a name="foot18"></a>18. : The extent of the southern ice-cap may at least be approximately + reached from explorations already made. Capt. Weddell, in 1823, + extended his explorations southward to within about 15° of the + south pole, where he found an open sea. Capt. Ross, in 1842, + approached to within about 13° of the same pole, without serious + obstruction. It is true that, in the following year, he encountered + ice barriers near the line of the antarctic circle, but they were + floating barriers coming down from Weddell's open sea. Capt. + Wilkes, in 1840, explored a considerable portion of the Antarctic + Continent, lying almost entirely within the antarctic circle. Other + explorations have been made, showing that the southern ice-cap does + not probably extend, continuously at least, much farther north than + 78° or 80°, or to within some ten or twelve degrees of the south + pole, independently of the packs of drifting ice in the otherwise + open seas.</p> + +<p><a name="foot19"></a>19. : The truth or falsity of "Evolution" depends entirely on the + successful solution of this problem, for the chances are + quintillions to ones that no two identical forms could have + originated from different centres, or from the same centre on + divergent lines, and ever reached identically the same results. And + how any two forms should happen to be sexually paired, on the same + or different lines of divergence, is one of those inexplicable + mysteries which must puzzle Herbert Spencer in all his labyrinthian + searches into "Force-correlation," "Differentiation," "the Dynamic + Force of Molecules," etc., etc. However successful he may be in + other directions, he will inevitably fail in this. We must fall back + on the grand Old Bible genesis for the solution of this difficulty, + where every living thing was commanded to produce seed, or multiply + and replenish the waters and the earth with offspring.</p> + +<p><a name="foot20"></a>20. : These transcendental or ideal forms may be said to correspond to the + "spiritual essences" of Plato. They are the eternal, immutable + principles which are discernible to the eye of the soul, as the + sensible objects they represent are discernible to the eye of the + body. Modern metaphysics may deem them mere abstractions, but a + higher realistic philosophy will treat them as substantive forms, of + which the objective reality is but the shadow.</p> + +<p><a name="foot21"></a>21. : Herbert Spencer may be quoted as authority on this point. He says: + "There is invariably, and necessarily, a conformity between the + vital functions of any organism, and the <i>conditions</i> in which it is + placed ... We find that every animal is limited to a certain range + of climate; every plant to certain zones of latitude and elevation." + And the same law holds good as to the marine fauna and flora, each + specific form being confined to its own sea-depth, or distance north + or south from the thermal equator.</p> + +<p><a name="foot22"></a>22. : Speaking of the ultimate principles or elements of matter, Plato is + quoted by Humboldt as exclaiming with modest diffidence, "God alone, + and those whom he loves among men, know what they are." It is only + those who seek to eliminate God from the universe that speak with + confident flippancy on the subject of molecular machinery and + force-correlations.</p> + +<p><a name="foot23"></a>23. : As long as the evolutionists cannot agree among themselves as to + what constitutes the process of evolution, it can hardly be expected + that the public will accept their speculations as conclusive + inductions. Professor Bastian, who strongly commits himself to the + doctrine, thinks the word "evolution" arbitrary and open to many + objections, while Mr. Herbert Spencer says;--"The antithetical word + Involution would much more truly express the nature of the process."</p> + +<p><a name="foot24"></a>24. : "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of + God dwelleth in you?" 1 Cor. 3. xvi.</p> + +<p><a name="foot25"></a>25. : Dr. Drysdale, in his work on the "Protoplasmic Theory of Life," + says: "Matter cannot change its state of motion or rest without the + influence of some force from without. True spontaneity of movement + is, therefore, just as impossible to it as to what we call dead + matter.... So we are compelled to admit the existence of an exciting + cause in the form of some force from without to give the initial + impulse in all vital actions." In all life-manifestations, this + "force from without," must be a pre-existing vital principle + operating to effect the otherwise impossible change in matter.</p> + +<p><a name="foot26"></a>26. : A favorite set-phrase of Professor Bastian in speaking of + morphological cells or "units," as he sometimes calls them.</p> + +<p><a name="foot27"></a>27. : That great and justly celebrated naturalist, Buffon, in speaking of + the universal origination of the lower forms of animal life by a + process termed, in his time, "spontaneous generation," says: "There + are, perhaps, as many living things, both animal and vegetable, + which are produced by the fortuitous aggregations of 'molécules + organiques,' as there are others which reproduce themselves by a + constant succession of generations." It is said that Buffon was for + some time associated with the Abbé Needham in his experiments in + vital directions, and was much influenced by them. So that it is by + no means certain that he did not accept the Abbé's "force + végétative" in place of his more materialistic views respecting + "molécules organiques." At all events, his statement that as many + living things appear in nature independently of reproducing causes + as by successive generation, is no doubt true.</p> + +<p><a name="foot28"></a>28. : M. Tréviranus, who followed Spallanzani and M. Bonnet in these flask + experimentations, first noticed the important fact that the + animalculæ appearing in different organic infusions, depended on + the nature and quality of the infusions themselves, and that the + changed conditions of the same infusion produced new and independent + forms of life.</p> + +<p><a name="foot29"></a>29. : Leibnitz, as quoted by M. Bonnet, says:--"Que l'Entendement Divin + étoit la religion éternelle des Essences; parce que tout ce qui + existe existoit comme de toute éternité comme possible ou en idée + dans l'entendement de Dieu. J'exprimerai cette vérité sublime en + d'autres termes: le plan entier d'univers existoit de toute Eternité + dans l'entendement du Suprême Architecte. Tou tes les parties de + l'univers et jusqu' an moindre atome étoient deffinés dans ce plan. + Tous les changemens qui devoient survenir aux différentes pieces de + ce Tout immense y avoient aussi leurs représentations. Chaque etre y + étoit figuré par ses characteres propres: et l'acte par lequel la + Souveraine Puissance a réalisé ce plan, est ce que nous nommons la + Création."</p> + +<p><a name="foot30"></a>30. : Here is a fact given us by Dr. F. Hall, of Wallingford, Conn.: In a + peat meadow in that town, owned by him, which was at no time subject + to overflow, a large quantity of peat had been removed at different + intervals of time, when the excavations naturally filled with water. + In these excavations there appeared not only the <i>Cyprinidae</i> in + considerable numbers, but fresh water clams which grew to be as + large as those in the most favored streams. They made their + appearance the very first season after the peat was removed, and + have flourished there ever since. In no other portions of the meadow + were there any fish or clams ever noticed before, nor was there any + other source of water-supply than the rain-falls in that locality.</p> + +<p><a name="foot31"></a>31. : Professor Beale, in one of his very latest works says: "Of the + chemical and physical forms of energy something is known, but of + the relationship of the so called <i>vital</i> energy, nothing has + been proved. We only know that the influence it exerts is + altogether different from that which has been traced to physical + and chemical energy."</p> + +<p><a name="foot32"></a>32. : It is admitted, even in the case of <i>Bacteria</i>, whose movements are + the most uniform, that they are sometimes so inert and languid as to + show no movements at all; while, at other times, they exhibit mere + Brownian movements or those no more nearly allied to "life" than the + minute particles of carbon escaping from the flame of a kerosene + lamp. And among the most distinguished microscopists, it is a + question whether these infusorial forms, those exhibiting the most + active oscillations, are really vegetal or animal in origin; in + other words, whether they are <i>Fungus-spores</i> or <i>Torula</i>-cells, or + whether they may not be some intermediate forms.</p> + +<p><a name="foot33"></a>33. : The difficulty of assigning any definitional value to a "primordial + germ" is due to the vagueness of idea attached to it in the popular + mind, as well as to the diversified theories and speculations of the + scientists concerning the origin of life. We can only define it as a + "vital unit," as the chemist defines his smallest conceivable + quantity--his "primary least"--of an element, as a "chemical unit."</p> + +<p><a name="foot34"></a>34. : Let two comrades be shot at the same instant in battle, the one + through the heart, and the other through the arm, shattering it + badly. What is there to prevent the surgeon from taking a piece of + bone out of the arm of the man shot through the heart and instantly + killed, and using it to make good the arm of the man still living? + Apparently nothing but that the dead man's bone will not knit. He + may not have been dead five minutes, and Professor Beale's bioplasts + might still be at work spinning matter and weaving tissue for the + integrity of the displaced bone. Why will it not knit? Simply + because the vital principle that differentiates matter is gone--can + no longer act. If the integrity of the bone depended on the action + of the molecules, and not on the vital principle, there is no reason + why this experiment should not be a success. For the molecules are + all there, and their action will not be disturbed for hours after + the death of the man shot through the heart.</p> + +<p><a name="foot35"></a>35. : It is safe to adhere to the Leibnitzian axiom, <i>Natura non agit + saltatim</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="foot36"></a>36. : One of the most cultured classes of Christian believers in our day, + holds that "all life is from the Lord;" that "He is the fountain, + and we only the streams thence." And this, they claim, is true of + all life. To "take away our breath," therefore, is to cut off this + stream perpetually flowing from its invisible source--the fountain + of all Life. When scientific methods substitute for a first cause a + mere resultant effect, all primary principles disappear in their + intermediates.</p> + +<p><a name="foot37"></a>37. : Professor Marsh, of Yale College, has predicted that the "missing + link" will be found in Borneo--evidently not crediting Mr. Stanley's + statement about its presence in the interior of Africa. But one + "missing link" is hardly enough; there ought to be an extensive + family of them to complete Mr. Darwin's plexus. From the lowest + genetic form to the anthropoid ape is a distance which does not half + cover the length of this plexus--the immense gap between the monkey + and the man being decidedly the greater length of chain. And yet the + first half of the chain is traversed by innumerable forms--millions + of links, so to speak. How, then, is the greater length of the + plexus to be covered by a single "missing link?" A long line of + caudal ancestry must be dug up, therefore, in Borneo, and shipped to + the Peabody Museum, before this tremendous stretch in the chain of + animated nature is satisfactorily accounted for. Borneo must be + exceedingly rich in osteologic remains, even to bridge the chasm + between its own ourang-outangs and the Dyaks, or aboriginal + inhabitants, of that island.</p> + +<p><a name="foot38"></a>38. : This daring hypothesis of the materialists is so utterly repugnant + to all our ideas of a perfected Cosmos, that we have no patience + with those advancing it. It is, at best, speculation run mad, and is + based on no other assumption than that of the inherent + imperfectibility of the universe as it came from the hand of God, or + from the dynamic play of molecules extending throughout vast + geognostic epochs.</p> + +<p> From a materialistic stand-point this assumption of imperfectibility + inevitably runs into the <i>reductio ad absurdum</i>. For if, in the play + of the material forces of the universe, an infinite duration of past + time has effected nothing but mutually disturbing and re-adjusting + movements and relations among cosmical bodies, then an infinite + duration of time to come can effect nothing but similarly mutual + adjustments and re-adjustments in respect to such bodies. With an + infinity of time, space, matter and motion, everywhere presenting a + unity of phenomena in the universe, "there can never be anything," + according to the great Stagirite, "unconnected or out of place, as + in a bad tragedy." Conservation must, therefore, be the rule, and + desinence the impossible exception.</p> + +<p> But these adherents of inherent imperfectibility instance the fact + of vanished and variable stars, as well as those that have suddenly + appeared, and, after brief periods of intense brilliancy, as + suddenly disappeared, to show that there are mighty disturbances in + the sidereal heavens which entirely negative the idea of + "conservation" as a geognostic law. But the phenomena of variable + stars, with all their apparent irregularity of motion and + fluctuations in luminosity, are now being traced to definite and + well-determined laws of motion, if not of light, while the theory of + extinguished and disappearing stars belongs exclusive to the age of + Tycho Brahe. Where there is one self-luminious body (or sun) in the + interstellary spaces, there are probably not less than forty + non-luminous or dark cosmical bodies revolving about their + respective centres of light and heat, as the attending planets + revolve about the common centre of gravity in our own system. And + this is especially true of that vast and fathomless star-stratum, + called the Milky-way, in which most of these peculiar phenomena + occur, with the exception of the variable stars only.</p> + +<p> That stars should vary in their intensity of light by the probable + transits of these dark cosmical bodies across their discs, is no + matter of wonder or astonishment: on the contrary, it is surprising + that these sidereal phenomena do not occur with much greater + frequency. This would inevitably be the case if the planes of + revolution, in the case of these non-luminous bodies about their + central orbs, were coincident with the lines of vision from our own + planet--a circumstance by no means improbable from the vastness of + the sidereal heavens and the innumerable hosts of stars marching + therein. Besides, these periodical variations may be accounted for + in part--especially in the case of double stars--from their apparent + rather than real change of place in the heavens. For if our + sun-system is travelling towards a point in the constellation + Hercules at the rate of 194 thousand miles an hour (the rapidity of + Arcturus' flight), it is impossible to determine, in the present + state of astronomical knowledge, whether the apparent change of + place in any star is real or merely optical. But, in the case of + double stars, each is travelling (independently of its other + motions) about the common centre of gravity obtaining in its own + system, and these relative movements may account for the greater or + less intensity of light as the two stars, viewed as one, present a + greater or less area of luminosity in their united surfaces.</p> + +<p> The assumed revolution of one of these stars about the other--thus + destroying all the known analogies of the universe, as exemplified + in our own system--may be accounted for in the same way. With + stupendous planetary systems revolving about each of these + apparently double stars, they must respectively have a revolution, + real as well as apparent, about their own centres of gravity--not + one and the same centre, but different and far distant centres. + Lying in nearly the same line of vision, with planes of movement at + right angles with it, they would necessarily present the appearance + of one star revolving about the other--an <i>apparent</i> motion only.</p> + +<p> And the writer here ventures an explanation of the phenomena of + <i>temporary</i> stars, or those making their appearance in the heavens, + flaming up into stars of the first, second and third magnitudes, and + then disappearing altogether. The most remarkable of these stars, or + <i>apparent</i> stars, was that of Tycho Brahe in 1572, presenting its + maximum brilliancy at the very first, but gradually diminishing in + size until the end of seventeen months, when it disappeared, without + change of place, from the heavens. This temporary star was visible + in Cassiopeia, on the verge of the Milky-way, within whose swarm of + stellar worlds most of these apparent stars have made their + appearance. Tycho Brahe, in seeking to account for this stellar + phenomenon, advanced the theory that stars might be "formed and + molded out of cosmical vapor," or "vapory celestial matter," as the + elder Herschel put it, "which becomes luminous as it condenses + (conglomerates) into fixed stars." But any such rapid condensation + of "vapory matter," in the light of Laplace's "nebular theory," is + manifestly too absurd for scientific recognition. A more + satisfactory explanation may be here suggested:--Supposing the + apparent relative position of any six or seven stars of the sixth + magnitude in the Milky-way, should be so changed by the combined + motions of our sun-system and of the stars themselves, as to throw + them into one and the same line of vision, but so clustered together + as to show their several star-discs as one, we should unquestionably + have a star of the first magnitude, which would continue as long as + this extraordinary stellar conjunction should last. As one after + another of these stars should fall out of line, by reason of the + combined motions named, the apparent star would be diminished from + the first to the second magnitude, and so on until it reached the + sixth magnitude, when it would pass beyond the reach of unaided + human vision. But as the star of Tycho Brahe suddenly appeared at + its fullest brilliancy, it may be objected that this suggested + theory fails to meet the required conditions.</p> + +<p> As 18,000,000, out of the 20,000,000, of telescopic stars lie in the + Milky-way, it is not by any means improbable that such a conjunction + of stars may occur therein as often at least as once or twice in a + century. We certainly see brilliant patches of closely-crowded + stars, in great numbers, in this galactic zone, and the fact that + these temporary stars almost uniformly appear in that zone renders + the suggestion here made quite as rational, in the way of + speculation at least, as that of "vapory celestial matter" suddenly + condensed into a star of the first magnitude, as Sir. William + Herschel would have us believe was possible, if not probable.</p> + +<p> Besides, it is a definitely ascertained fact that such clusters of + stars, lying in almost the same line of vision, exist in various + parts of the heavens, which present to the naked eye the appearance + of a star of the fourth or fifth magnitude, and probably would, if + more thickly clustered, present that of a star of the first + magnitude. But powerful telescopes resolve them into a large number + of stars, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth magnitude. One such + cluster in Andromeda's girdle has been resolved into not less than + fifteen hundred small stars of very low magnitude, and pretty widely + scattered in the telescopic field. Alexander Von Humboldt, in + speaking of stars that have thus disappeared, says that "their + disappearance may be the result of their motion as much as of any + diminution of their photometric processes (whether on their surfaces + or in their photospheres), as would render the waves of light too + weak too excite the organs of sight." And he adds: "What we no + longer see is not necessarily annihilation," repeating at the same + time the question of Pliny--"<i>Stellæ an obirent nascerenturve?</i>"</p> + +<p> But another, and (to our mind) more satisfactory, explanation of + these stellar phenomena, may be hazarded in this connection: There + are, for instance, in the Milky-way, among the more brilliant + clusters of stars, dark granular spots, of greater or less + magnitude, in which the most powerful telescopes show no glints or + traces of stars. They are among Humboldt's smaller "fissures or + chasms in the heavens," in which he asserts that there is a great + paucity of stars, or none at all. Now, if one of these thick stellar + clusters, which show to the naked eye as a single star, should, by + the combined cosmical movements of our sun-system and the stellar + group in question, pass into the field of one of these small rents + or "fissures" in the galactic curtain--that lying in front of the + stellar cluster--it would immediately show as a star of possibly the + first magnitude, and would continue to shine as a star of that + magnitude so long as it remained in the field of the narrow rent or + fissure. It would shine out suddenly like a star through a rift in + the clouds of a dark night, and disappear as soon as it had + traversed, or apparently traversed, the rift in question. This + galactic curtain, it should be borne in mind, is made up of + 18,000,000 of stars, or sun-systems, and not less than 720,000,000 + dark cosmical bodies revolving about their respective centres of + gravity. If the "nebular theory" of the universe be true, this is + unquestionably the exact condition of things in the Milky-way. Of + the more distant stars in this crowded galaxy, we can only catch, + even in the telescopic field, mere glints of light as the + intervening swarms of stellar and planetary worlds thicken in the + foreground and shut out the more distant view. It is only through + these rents and fissures in this great galactic curtain that the + brighter stellar clusters beyond can ever be seen; and these glints + of far distant light, showing dimly through this curtain, may + account for the peculiar <i>milky</i> appearance of the galaxy, arising + from the loss of chromatic power in the full beams themselves. It + was undoubtedly through one of these rents in the galactic curtain + that the condensed starry cluster of Tycho Brahe suddenly made its + appearance in the outer fringes of the Milky-way, and remained + visible for a period of seventeen months.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life: Its True Genesis, by R. W. Wright + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE: ITS TRUE GENESIS *** + +This file should be named 8litg10h.htm or 8litg10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8litg11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8litg10ah.htm + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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