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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18521-8.txt b/18521-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..010120d --- /dev/null +++ b/18521-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2912 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Expository Outline of the "Vestiges of +the Natural History of Creation", by Anonymous + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Expository Outline of the "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" + With a Notice of the Author's "Explanations:" A Sequel to the Vestiges + +Author: Anonymous + +Release Date: June 6, 2006 [EBook #18521] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EXPOSITORY OUTLINE OF THE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Eva Sweeney, Jamie Atiga and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +AN EXPOSITORY OUTLINE + +OF THE + +"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION;" + +WITH A COMPREHENSIVE AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ARGUMENTS BY WHICH THE +EXTRAORDINARY HYPOTHESES OF THE AUTHOR ARE SUPPORTED AND HAVE BEEN +IMPUGNED, WITH THEIR BEARING UPON THE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL INTERESTS OF +THE COMMUNITY. + +WITH A NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR'S + +"EXPLANATIONS:" + +A SEQUEL TO THE VESTIGES. + + * * * * * + +_Originally printed in a Supplement of_ THE ATLAS _Newspaper of August +30 and December 20, 1845._ + + * * * * * + +LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. J. VINCENT, OXFORD; G. +ANDREWS, DURHAM; J. TEPPELL, NORWICH; BRODIE AND CO., SALISBURY. A. AND +C. BLACK, EDINBURGH; D. ROBERTSON, GLASGOW; A. BROWN AND CO., ABERDEEN. +W. CURRY, JUN., AND CO., DUBLIN. + +1846. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + + * * * * * + +The following tractate first appeared in the form of a literary review +in a supplement of the ATLAS; but two impressions of that journal having +been long since exhausted, and inquiries still continuing numerous and +urgent, the proprietor has granted permission for the article to be +reprinted in a separate, more convenient, and perhaps enduring vehicle +than that of a newspaper. + +Few works of a scientific import have been published that so promptly +and deeply fixed public attention as the _Vestiges of Creation_, or +elicited more numerous replies and sharper critical analysis and +disquisition. Upon so vast a question as the evolution of universal +creation differences of opinion were natural and unavoidable. Many have +disputed the accuracy of some of the author's facts, and the sequence +and validity of his inductive inferences; but few can withhold from him +the praise of a patient and intrepid spirit of inquiry, much occasional +eloquence, and very considerable powers of analysis, systematic +induction, arrangement and combination. + +In what follows the leading objects kept in view have been--first, an +expository outline of the author's facts and argument; next, of the +chief reasons by which they have been impugned by Professor SEDGWICK, +Professor WHEWELL, Mr. BOSANQUET, and others who have entered the lists +of controversy. These arrayed, the concluding purpose fitly followed of +a brief exhibition of the relative strength of the main points in issue, +with their bearing on the moral and religious interests of the +community. + +It is the fourth and latest edition that has been submitted to +investigation. In this impression the author has introduced several +corrections and alterations, without, however, any infringement or +mitigation of its original scope and character. More recently appeared +his "Explanations," a Sequel to the "Vestiges of the Natural History of +Creation;" in which the author endeavours to elucidate and strengthen +his former position. This had become necessary in consequence of the +number of his opponents, and the inquiry and discussion to which the +original publication had given rise. Of this, also, a lengthened review +was given in the ATLAS, which has been included; so that the reader will +now have before him a succinct outline of a novel and interesting topic +of philosophical investigation. + +In the present reprint a few corrections have been made, and the +illustrative table at page 34, and some other additions, introduced. + +_London, January_ 1, 1846. + + + + +AN EXPOSITORY OUTLINE + +OF THE + +"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION." + + +It rarely happens that speculative inquiries in England command much +attention, and the _Vestiges of Creation_ would have probably formed no +exception, had it not been from the unusual ability with which the work +has been executed. The subject investigated is one of vast, almost +universal, interest; for everyone--the low, in common with the high in +intellect--find enigmas in creation that they would gladly have +unriddled, and promptly gather round the oracle who has boldly stepped +forth to cut the knot of their perplexities. The first impression made, +too, is favourable. No very striking originality, eloquence, or genius, +is displayed; yet there is ingenuity; and though the author betrays the +zeal of an advocate, desirous of leading to a determinate and _material_ +conclusion, his address, like that of the apostle of temperance, is +mostly mild and equable, with occasionally a little gentlemanly fervour +to give animation to his discourse. His style is mostly felicitous, +sometimes beautiful, lucid, precise, and elevated. In tone and manner of +execution, in quiet steadiness of purpose, in the firm, intrepid spirit +with which truth, or that which is conceived to be true, is followed, +regardless of startling presentments, the _Vestiges_ call to mind the +_Mecanique Celeste_, or _Système du Monde_. In caution, as in science, +the author is immeasurably inferior to LAPLACE; but in magnitude and +boldness of design he transcends the illustrious Frenchman. LAPLACE +sought no more than to subject the celestial movements to the formulas +of analysis, and reconcile to common observation terrestrial +appearances; but our author is far more ambitious--more venturesome in +aim--which is nothing less than to lift the veil of ISIS, and solve the +phenomena of universal nature. With what success remains to be +considered. That great skill and cleverness, that a very superior +mastery is evinced, we have conceded, and, we will also add, great show +of fairness in treatment and conclusion. + +No partial opening is made; the great design, in all its extent, is +manfully grappled with. The universe is first surveyed, next the mystery +of its origin. After ranging through sidereal space, examining the +bodies found there, their arrangement, formation, and evolution, the +author selects our own planet for especial interrogation. He disembowels +it, scrutinizing the internal evidences of its structure and history, +and thence infers the causes of past vicissitudes, existing relations, +and appearances. These disposed of, the surface is explored, the +phenomena of animal and vegetable existence contemplated, and the +sources of vital action, sexual differences, and diversities of species +assigned. Man, as the supreme head and last work of progressive +creation, challenges a distinct consideration; his history and mental +constitution are investigated, and the relation in which a sublime +reason stands to the instinct of brutes discriminated. The end and +purpose of all appropriately form the concluding theme, which finished, +the curtain drops, and the last sounds heard are that the name of the +Great Unknown will probably never be revealed; that "praise will elicit +no response," nor any "word of censure" be parried or deprecated. + +"Give me," exclaimed ARCHIMEDES, "a fulcrum, and I will raise the +earth." "Give me," says the author of the _Vestiges_, "gravitation and +development, and I will create a universe." ALEXANDER'S ambition was to +conquer a world, our author's is to create one. But he is wrong in +saying that his is the "first attempt to connect the natural sciences +into a history of creation, and thence to eliminate a view of nature as +one grand system of causation." The attempt has been often made, but +utterly failed; its results have been found valueless, hurtful--to have +occupied without enlarging the intellect, and the very effort has long +been discountenanced. Great advances, however, have been made in science +since system-making began to be discredited; nature has been +perseveringly ransacked in all her domains, and many extraordinary +secrets drawn from her laboratory. Astronomy and geology, chemistry and +electricity, have greatly extended the bounds of knowledge; still, we +apprehend, we are not yet sufficiently armed with facts to resolve into +one consistent whole her infinite variety. + +Efforts at generalization, however, and the systematic arrangement of +natural phenomena, are seldom wholly fruitless. If false, they tend to +provoke discussion--to lead to active thought and useful research. A +solitary truth, though new and useful, rarely obtains higher distinction +than to be quietly placed on the rolls of science, while a bold +speculation, traversing the whole field of creation, and smoothing all +its difficulties, satisfies for the moment, and fixes general attention. +Of this the _Vestiges of Creation_ are an example. Without adding to our +positive knowledge by a single new discovery, demonstration, or +experiment, they have excited more interest than the _Principia_ of +NEWTON. From this popular success, if good do not accrue, no great evil +need be anticipated. Hypotheses are most hurtful when accredited by an +irreversible authority--when erected into a tribunal without appeal, +they become the arbitrary dictator in lieu of the handmaid of science. +Discussion and invention, in place of being stimulated, are then +fettered by them; the human mind is enslaved, as Europe was for +centuries by the _Physics_ of ARISTOTLE, and still continues to be in +some of the ancient retreats and conservatories of exploded errors. But +these form the exceptions, not the rule of the age, which is free and +equal inquiry. Errors have ceased to have prescriptive immunities; and +mere conjectures, however sanctioned or plausible, if inconsistent with +science--with the ascertained facts of experiment and observation, are +speedily passed into the region of dreams and chimeras. + +Whether this will be the fate of our author remains to be proved. The +moment selected for his appearance has at least been well chosen. The +_Vestiges_ have the air of novelty, a long time having elapsed since any +one had the hardihood to propound a new system of Nature. In common with +most manifestations of our time, his effort exhibits a marked +improvement on the crudities of his predecessors in the same line of +architectural ambition. Science has been called to his aid, and the +patient ingenuity with which he has sought to make the latest +discoveries subservient to his purpose challenges admiration, if not +acquiescence. Some of our contemporaries have been warmed into almost +theological aversion by the boldness of his conclusions, but we see +little cause for fear, and none for bitterness or apprehension. More +closely Nature is investigated and deeper the impression will become of +her majesty and might. Unlike earthly greatnesses, she loses no +power--no grandeur--no fascination--no prestige, by familiarity. The +greatest philosophers will always rank among her greatest admirers and +most devout and fervent worshippers. + +Had our author proved all he has assumed our faith would not be +lessened, nor our wonder diminished. Whether matter or spirit has been +the world's architect, the astounding miracle of its creation is not the +less. What does it import whether it resulted direct from the fiat of +Omnipotence, or intermediately from the properties He impressed, or the +law of development He prescribed? He who gave the law, who infused the +energies by which Chaos was transmuted into an organized universe, +remains great and inscrutable as ever. + +It is time, however, that we entered upon a more detailed and closer +investigation of the _Vestiges of Creation_. Our purpose is not hastily, +and without examination, to deprecate, deny, or controvert; but +patiently, and without prejudice, to inquire, to submit faithfully and +intelligibly the outlines of a remarkable treatise; describe briefly its +scope and bearing, the arguments by which they are supported, and the +counter reasons by which they appear to be wholly or partially impugned. +Our readers will thus be enabled to appreciate the merits of a +controversy, the most comprehensive and interesting that for a +lengthened period has occupied the attention of the scientific and +intellectual world. + +For greater clearness of exposition we shall endeavour to follow the +order observed by the author in the division and treatment of his +subjects, commencing first with the + + +BODIES OF SPACE. + +The author opens his subject with a brief but luminous outline of the +arrangement and formation of the astral and planetary systems of the +heavens. He first describes the solar system, of which our earth is a +member, consisting of the sun, planets, and satellites with the less +intelligible orbs termed comets, and taking as the uttermost bounds of +this system the orbit of Uranus, it occupies a portion of space not less +than three thousand six hundred millions of miles in diameter. The mind +cannot form an exact notion of so vast an expanse, but an idea of it may +be obtained from the fact, that, if the swiftest racehorse ever known +had began to traverse it at full speed at the time of the birth of +MOSES, he would only yet have accomplished half his journey. Vast as is +the solar system, it is only one of an infinity of others which may be +still more extensive. Our sun is supposed to be a star belonging to a +constellation of stars, each of which has its accompaniment of revolving +planets; and the constellation itself with similar constellations to +form revolving clusters round some mightier centre of attraction; and so +on, each astral combination increasing in number, magnitude, and +complexity, till the mind is utterly lost in the vain effort to grasp +the limitless arrangement. + +Of the stars astronomers can hardly be said to know anything with +certainty. Sirius, which is the most lustrous, was long supposed to be +the nearest and most within the reach of observation, but all attempts +to calculate the distance of that luminary have proved futile. Of its +inconceivable remoteness some notion may be formed by the fact, that the +diameter of the earth's annual orbit, if viewed from it, would dwindle +into an invisible point. This is what is meant by the stars not having, +like the planets, a _parallax_; that is, the earths' orbit, as seen from +them, does not subtend a measurable angle. With two other stars, +however, astronomers have unexpectedly and recently been more fortunate +than with Sirius, and have been able to calculate their distances from +the earth. The celebrated BESSEL, and soon afterwards, the late Mr. +HENDERSON, astronomer royal for Scotland, were the first to surmount the +difficulty that had baffled the telescopic resources of the HERSCHELS. +BESSEL detected a parallax of one-third of a second in the star 61 +Cygni, and in the constellation of the Centaur HENDERSON found another +star whose parallax amounted to one second. Of the million of fixed +glittering points that adorn the sky, these are the only two whose +distances have been calculated, and to express them, miles, leagues, or +orbits seems inadequate. Light, whose speed is known to be 192,000 miles +per second, would be three years in reaching our earth from the star of +HENDERSON; and starting from BESSEL'S star and moving at the same rate +it could only reach us in ten years. These are the nearest stars, but +there are others whose distances are immeasurably greater, and whose +light, though starting from them at the beginning of creation, may not +have reached our globe! + +The stars visible to the eye are about 3,000, but the number increases +with every increase of telescopic power, and may be said to be +innumerable. They are not of uniform lustre or form, but vary in figure +and brightness. Some of them have a _nebulous_ or cloudy appearance; and +there are entire clusters with this dusky aspect, mostly pervaded, +however, with luminous points of more brilliant hue. In the outer fields +of astral space Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL observed a multitude of nebulæ, one +or two of which may be seen by the naked eye. All of them, when seen by +instruments of low power, look like masses of luminous vapour; but some +of them had brighter spots, suggesting to Sir WILLIAM the idea of a +condensation of the nebulous matter round one or more centres. But when +these luminous masses are examined by more powerful instruments many of +them lose their cloudy form, and are resolved into shining points, "like +spangles of diamond dust." It is in this way several nebulæ have yielded +to the gigantic reflector of Lord ROSSE, and others with still greater +optical resources may follow. This brings us to the first questionable +and controversial portion of the _Vestiges_; namely,--the + + +NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. + +It is among the gaseous bodies just described, in the outer boundary of +Nature, which neither telescope nor geometry can well reach, that +speculation has laid its _venue_, and commenced its aerial castles. +LAPLACE was the first to suggest the nebular hypothesis, which he did +with great diffidence, not as a theory proved, or hardly likely, but as +a mathematical possibility or illustration. His range of creation, +moreover, was not so vast as that of our author, which assumes to +compass the entire universe, but was limited to the evolution of the +solar system. The mode in which this might be evolved, LAPLACE thus +explains:-- + +He conjectures that in the original condition of the solar system the +sun revolved upon his axis, surrounded by an atmosphere which, in virtue +of an excessive heat, extended far beyond the orbits of all the planets, +the planets as yet having no existence. The heat gradually diminished, +and as the solar atmosphere contracted by cooling, the rapidity of its +rotation increased by the laws of rotatory motion, and an exterior zone +of vapour was detached from the rest, the central attraction being no +longer able to overcome the increased centrifugal force. The zone of +vapour might in some cases retain its form, as we still see in Saturn's +ring; but more usually the ring of vapour would break into several +masses, and these would generally coalesce into one mass, which would +revolve about the sun. Such portions of the solar atmosphere abandoned +successively at different distances, would form planets in the state of +vapour. These masses of vapour, it appears from mechanical laws, would +have each its rotatory motion, and as the cooling of the vapour still +went on, would each produce a planet that might have satellites and +rings formed from the planet, in the same manner as the planets were +formed from the atmosphere of the sun. + +All the known motions of the solar system are consistent and +reconcileable with this theory of LAPLACE, and upon it the author of the +_Vestiges_ has enlarged and founded his wider scheme of physical +creation. He supposes the void of nature to have been originally filled +with a universal FIRE MIST (p. 30), out of which all the celestial orbs +were made and put in motion. How this mist was put in activity, and +resolved into the luminous and revolving bodies that we now see, and one +of which we inhabit is the first urgent perplexity to surmount in the +conjecture. It is manifest that if a mist filled the entire region of +space, a mist it must for ever remain, unless acted upon by some cause +adequate to give it new action and arrangement. No sun, no stars or +planets could spontaneously emanate from an inert vapour any more than +from nothing. To meet this, his first difficulty, the author supposes +that there were certain _nuclei_, or centres of greater condensation, +analogous to those still remarked in the nebulæ of the heavens, and that +these nuclei, by their superior attractive force, consolidated into +spheres the gaseous matter around them:-- + + "Of nebulous matter," says he, "in its original state we know too + little to enable us to suggest _how nuclei should be established in + it_. But supposing that from a _peculiarity_ in the constitution + nuclei are formed, we know very well how, by the power of + gravitation, the process of an aggregation of the neighbouring + matter to these nuclei should proceed until masses more or less + solid should be detached from the rest. It is a _well-known law in + physics, that when fluid matter collects towards, or meets in a + centre, it establishes a rotatory motion_. See minor results of + this law in the whirlpool and the whirlwind--nay, on so humble a + scale as the water sinking through the aperture of a funnel. It + thus becomes certain, that when we arrive at the stage of a + nebulous star we have a rotation on its axis commenced." + +Up to this, however, the author has proved nothing. The existence of the +fire-mist and nuclei are assumptions only, and the way by which he tries +to account for rotatory motion is clearly erroneous. The aggregation of +matter round the nuclei by gravitation would have no such tendency; no +more than a perfect balance would of itself have a tendency to move +about its fulcrum, or a falling stone to deviate from its vertical +course. Gravitation would indeed compress the particles of matter, but +its tendency and entire action is towards the nucleus; it compresses +them no more on one side of the line of their direction to the centre of +force than on any other side; and hence no _lateral_ or _rotatory +motion_ would ensue. Rotation, therefore, is yet unaccounted for; though +the author says _it is a well-known law in physics_ that when fluid +matter collects towards, or meets in a centre, it establishes a rotatory +motion; and then for illustration refers to a whirlwind or whirlpool. No +such effect would follow the conditions stated, and an entire ignorance +is betrayed of the laws of mechanical philosophy. In the whirlpool and +the whirlwind the gyration is caused by the fluid passing, not _to_ the +centre, but _through_ it and away from it; in the whirlpool downwards +through the place of exit, in the whirlwind upwards to where the vacuum +has caused the rapid aggregation. + +LAPLACE was too able a mathematician to commit these elementary +blunders; he did not assume to account for rotation by inapplicable +laws, but took for granted that the sun revolved upon its axis, and +thence communicated a corresponding motion to the bodies thrown from its +surface. But our author has sought to advance beyond his teacher, and in +this way has shown his ignorance of physics by an egregious mistake. At +this point we might stop, without following the ulterior steps by which +the solar system is made to evolve out of heated vapour. Having got +rotation, though by an impossible process, the author falls into the +illustration already given of the theory of LAPLACE. The rotation of +each nucleus or sun round its axis produces centrifugal force; that +force, by refrigeration, increases beyond the centripetal force of +gravity; in consequence rings are formed and detached from the surface, +whose unequal coherence of parts mostly causes them to break into +separate masses or planets, partaking of the motion of the bodies from +which they have been separated, and these primaries in their turn +becoming centres of gravitation and centrifugal force, throw off their +secondaries, or _moons_. + +In this way the solar system and other systems upon a similar plan of +arrangement, it is conjectured, may have been formed. According to the +author the generative process is still in progress, and new worlds are +in course of being thrown off from new suns in the confines of creation. +These nebulous stars on the outer bounds of space, of varying forms and +brightness, are supposed to be the centres of new systems in different +stages of development, like children of various ages and growth in a +numerous family. This is the author's own illustration (p. 20), and +after giving it he proceeds:-- + + "Precisely thus, seeing in our astral system many thousands of + worlds in all stages of formation, from the most rudimental to that + immediately preceding the present condition of those we deem + perfect, it is unavoidable to conclude that all the perfect have + gone through the various stages which we see in the rudimental. + This leads us at once to the conclusion that the whole of our + firmament was at one time a diffused mass of nebulous matter, + extending through the space which it still occupies. So also, of + _course_, must have been the other astral systems. Indeed, we must + presume the whole to have been originally in one connected mass, + the astral systems being only the first division into parts, and + solar systems the second. + + "The first idea which all this impresses upon us is, that the + formation of bodies in space is _still and at present in progress_. + We live at a time when many have been formed, and many are still + forming. Our own solar system is to be regarded as completed, + supposing its perfection to consist in the formation of a series of + planets, for there are mathematical reasons for concluding that + Mercury is the nearest planet to the sun, which can, according to + the laws of the system, exist. But there are other solar systems + within our astral systems, which are as yet in a less advanced + state, and even some quantities of nebulous matter which have + scarcely begun to advance towards the stellar form. On the other + hand, there are vast numbers of stars which have all the appearance + of being fully formed systems, if we are to judge from the complete + and definite appearance which they present to our vision through + the telescope. We have no means of judging of the _seniority of + systems; but it is reasonable to suppose that among the many, some + are older than ours_. There is, indeed, one piece of evidence for + the probability of the comparative youth of our system, altogether + apart from human traditions and the geognostic appearances of the + surface of our planet. This consists in a thin nebulous matter, + which is diffused around the sun to nearly the orbit of Mercury, of + a very oblately spheroidal shape. This matter, which sometimes + appears to our naked eyes, at sunset, in the form of a cone + projecting upwards in the line of the sun's path, and which bears + the name of the Zodiacal Light, has been thought a residuum or last + remnant of the concentrating matter of our system, and thus may be + supposed to indicate the comparative recentness of the principal + events of our cosmogony. _Supposing the surmise and inference_ to + be correct, and they may be held as so far supported by more + familiar evidence, we might with the more confidence speak of our + system as not amongst the elder born of Heaven, but one whose + various phenomena, physical and moral, as yet lay undeveloped, + while myriads of others were fully fashioned, and in complete + arrangement. Thus, in the sublime chronology to which we are + directing our inquiries, we first find ourselves called upon to + consider the globe which we inhabit as a child of the sun, elder + than Venus and her younger brother Mercury, but posterior in date + of birth to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus; next to regard our + whole system as probably of recent formation in comparison with + many of the stars of our firmament. We must, however, be on our + guard against supposing the earth as a recent globe in our ordinary + conceptions of time. From evidence afterwards to be adduced, it + will be seen that it cannot be presumed to be less than many + hundreds of centuries old. How much older Uranus may be, no one can + tell, far less how much more aged may be many of the stars of our + firmament, or the stars of other firmaments, than ours." + +All this is ingenious and fluently expressed. The author has an easy way +of surmounting his difficulties by the use of such little auxiliary +phrases, as "of course," "it may be surmised," "it is reasonable to +suppose," and so on; which, though trifling in themselves, help him in +their connecting inferences through many embarrassing perplexities. But +his hypothesis is yet unproved; his fire-mist is only a conjecture; his +nuclei, scattered like so many eggs in space out of which future suns +and worlds are in process of incubation, is of the same description, and +rotation, the first step in his process of creation, would not ensue +under the conditions he has assigned. Without dwelling on these +shortcomings, we shall terminate this portion of the author's inquiry +with a few general strictures. First, on its inconsistency with what we +know of the solar system; and, secondly, on its inadequacy to explain +the facts of which we are cognizant on our own globe. + +In the first place, for the hypothesis to be applicable to our system, +it is requisite that the primary and secondary bodies should revolve, +both in their orbits and round their axes, in one direction, and nearly +in one plane. Most of the bodies of the system observe these laws, their +orbits are nearly circular, nearly in the plane of the original equator +of the solar rotation, and in the direction of that rotation. But there +are exceptions; the comets, which intersect the equatorial plane in +every angle of direction form one, and the most distant of the planets +forms another. The satellites of Uranus are retrograde. They move from +east to west in orbits highly inclined to that of their primary, and on +both accounts are exceptions to the order of the other secondary bodies. +Our author is so perplexed by this inconsistency that he first doubts +the fact, and next tries to explain it by alleging that "it may be owing +to a _bouleversement_ of the primary." What is meant by the +_bouleversement_ of a planet none of his critics seem to apprehend, nor +do we. But that the moons of Uranus are contrariwise to those of the +other planets, Sir JOHN HERSCHEL has indubitably established; so that +the author at any rate upon this point has sustained a bouleversement. + +Our own moon forms a third exception to his theory. According to his +system, this satellite is a slip or graft from our planet, and in +constitution, it might be inferred, would partake of the elements of the +parent. But the fact is otherwise. The moon has no atmosphere, no seas, +or rivers, nor any water, and of course totally unfit for human +inhabitants, or organic life of any kind. It must, then, have had a +different origin, or be in some earlier stage of development than that +through which our earth has passed. + +Leaving these exceptions, we may next inquire into the relevant purposes +of the nebular hypothesis, supposing its assumptions acquiesced in. Like +the fanciful theories of the ancient philosophers, it seems only to +involve a profitless topic of controversy, without solving natural +phenomena. It does not unravel the mystery of the beginning, brings us +no nearer to the first creative force. Like a good chemist, previous to +analysis, the author first throws all matter into a state of solution; +but granting him his fire-mist and nuclei in the midst, how or whence +came this condition and arrangement of nature? What was its pre-existing +state? or, if that be answered, how or whence was that preceding state +educed, for it, too, must have had one prior to it? So that the mind +makes no advances by such inquiries, is lost in a maze that can have no +end, because it has no beginning; and, like Noah's messenger, for want +of a resting place, is compelled to return to the first starting point. +Easier, and quite as satisfactory, it seems to believe, as we have been +taught to believe, that the celestial spheres were at once perfect and +entire, projected into space from the hands of the maker, than that they +were elaborated out of luminous vapour by gravity and condensation. +Hopeless inquiry is thus foreclosed, an inquisition that cannot be +answered, silenced, and removed out of the pale of discussion. + +It is not from any attribute of the Deity being impugned that the +hypothesis is objectionable. Design and intelligence in the creation are +left paramount as before, and our impression of the skill exercised, and +the means employed, only transferred to another part of the work. He who +produced the primordial condition the author supposes, who filled space +with such a mist, composed of such materials, subjected to such laws, +such constitution, that sun, moon, and stars necessarily resulted from +them, appears omnipotent as ever. But it does not advance inquiry, nor +assist us in explaining the wonders we contemplate in our own globe. +Suppose a planet formed by the author's process, what kind of a body +would it be? Something, as Professor WHEWELL suggests, resembling a +large meteoric stone. How after wards came this unformed mass to be like +our earth, to be covered with motion and organization, with life and +general felicity? What primitive cause stocked it with plants and +animals, and produced all the surprising and subtle contrivances which +we find in their structure, all the wide and profound mutual dependence +which we trace in their economy? Is it possible to conceive, as the +_Vestiges_ inculcate, that man, with his sentiment and intellect, his +powers and passions, his will and conscience, were also produced as the +ultimate result of vapourous condensation? + +One more conjecture of the author, in this division of his subject, we +shall only notice. It is that "the formation of bodies in space _is +still in progress_." What may be doing in the nebulæ, in the region +scarcely within reach of telescopic vision, in what may be considered +the yet uninclosed and commonable waste of the universe, is a subject, +we suspect, of much obscurity, and respecting which no precise +intelligence has been received; but limiting attention to the solar +system, which is nearer home and more within cognizance, the work seems +finished, perfect, and unchangeable, and, like the Great Architect, made +to endure for ever. This was the conclusion of LAPLACE; he proved that +the state of our system is _stable_; that is, the ellipsis the planets +describe will always remain nearly circular, and the axis of revolution +of the earth will never deviate much from its present position. He also +gave a mathematical proof that this stability is not accidental, but the +result of design, of an arrangement by which the planets all move in the +same direction, in orbits of small eccentricity and slightly inclined to +each other. Reasoning from analogy, as the author of the _Vestiges_ is +prone to do--extending our views from our solar system to other +systems--other suns and revolving planets--it is fair to conclude that +they are not less perfect in arrangement--subject to like conditions of +permanency, and alike exempt from mutation, decay, collision, or +extinction. + +Descending from this high region, we accompany the author to his next +and lower field--the + + +EARTH AND ITS GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. + +Our globe is somewhat less than 8,000 miles in diameter; it is of a +spheroidal form, the equatorial exceeding the polar axis in the +proportion of 300 to 299, and which slight inequality, in consequence of +its diurnal revolution, is necessary to preserve the land near the +equator from inundation by the sea. The mean density or average weight +of the earth is, in proportion to that of distilled water, as 5.66 to 1. +So that its specific gravity is considerably less than that of tin, the +lightest of the metals, but exceeds that of granite, which is three +times heavier than water. + +Descending below the surface, the first sensation that strikes is the +increase of temperature. This is so rapid, that for every one hundred +feet of sinking we obtain an increase of more than one degree of +Fahrenheit's thermometer. If there be no interruption to this law, and +no reason exists to conclude there is, it is manifest that at the depth +of a few miles we must reach an intensity of heat utterly unbearable. +Hence it follows that by no improvements in machinery can mining +operations be carried down to a great depth below the surface. The +greatest depth yet penetrated does not exceed three thousand feet, and +forms a very small advance towards the earth's centre, distant 4,000 +miles. + +Geologists, however, without penetrating far into the earth, have found +means for obtaining an insight for several miles into its interior +structure, and armed with hammer, chisel, and climbing hook, they +explore the beetling sea-cliff, traverse the deepest valleys, and scale +the highest mountains, carefully examining their formation, disposition, +and substance, and are thus enabled to obtain some knowledge of the +earth's stomach, as it were, by scrutinising the deposits and eruptive +ejectments on its surface. For example, we come to a mountain composed +of a particular substance with strata or beds of other rock lying +against its sloped sides; we, of course, infer that the substance of the +mountain dips away under the strata that we see lying against it. +Suppose that we walk away from the mountain across the turned-up edges +of the stratified rocks, and that for many miles we continue to pass +over other stratified rocks, all disposed in the same way, till we begin +to cross the opposite edges of the same beds; after which we pass over +these rocks all in reverse order, till we come to another extensive +mountain composed of similar materials to the first, and shelving away +under the strata in the same way; we should then infer that the +stratified rocks occupied a basin formed by the rocks of these two +mountains, and by calculating the thickness right through these strata +could say to what depths the rock of the mountain extended below. In +this way has the interior of the globe been examined, and its contents +and arrangement, for several miles below the surface, ascertained. The +result of such inspection we leave the author of the _Vestiges_ to +describe:-- + + "It appears that the basis rock of the earth, as it may be called, + is of hard texture, and crystalline in its constitution. Of this + rock, granite may be said to be the type, though it runs into many + varieties. Over this, except in the comparatively few places where + it projects above the general level in mountains, other rocks are + disposed in sheets or strata, with the appearance of having been + deposited originally from water. But these last rocks have nowhere + been allowed to rest in their original arrangement. Uneasy + movements from below have broken them up in great inclined masses, + while in many cases there has been projected through the rents + rocky matter more or less resembling the great inferior crystalline + mass. This rocky matter must have been in a state of fusion from + heat at the time of its projection, for it is often found to have + run into and filled up lateral chinks in these rents. There are + even instances where it has been rent again, and a newer melted + matter of the same character sent through the opening. Finally, in + the crust as thus arranged, there are, in many places, chinks + containing veins of metal. Thus, there is first a great inferior + mass, composed of crystalline rock, and probably resting + immediately on the fused and expanded matter of the interior: next, + layers or strata of aqueous origin; next, irregular masses of + melted inferior rock that have been sent up volcanically and + confusedly at various times amongst the aqueous rocks, breaking up + these into masses, and tossing them out of their original levels." + +This, we believe, is a correct outline of the crust of the earth, so far +as it has been possible to observe it. It exhibits extraordinary signs +of commotion and vicissitude; the lowest rocks indicating a previous +condition of igneous fusion; those above them of aqueous solution. Fire +and water have thus been the chief tellurian anarchists, and the shaking +of continents and the constant shifting of level in sea and land still +continue to attest their restless energies. That igneous matter has, +during many periods, been protruded from below--that mountains have +risen in succession from the sea, and injected their molten substance +through cracks and fissures of superincumbent strata--are facts resting +on indubitable evidence. Many masses of granite became the solid bottom +of some portions of the sea before the secondary strata were laid +gradually upon them. The granite of Mont Blanc rose during a recent +tertiary period. "We can prove," says Professor SEDGWICK, "more than +mere shiftings of level, and that many portions of sea and land have +entirely changed their places. The rocks at the top of Snowdon are full +of petrified sea-shells; the same may be said of some high crests of the +Alps, Pyrenees, and Andes. We have proof demonstrative that many parts +of Scotland, and that all England, formed, during many ages, the solid +bottom of the sea. It may be true that the antagonist powers of nature +during the human period have reached a kind of balance. But during all +geological periods there have been such long intervals of repose, or of +such gradual movements, that we may trace the history of the earth in +the successive deposits formed in the waters of the sea." This is the +great business of geology. + +Although at first sight the interior of the earth appears a confused +scene, after careful observation we readily detect in it a regularity +and order from which much instructive light is thrown on its past +vicissitudes. The deposition of the aqueous rocks and the projection of +the volcanic have unquestionably taken place since the settlement of the +earth in its present form. They are, indeed, of an order of events which +are going on under the agency of intelligible causes, down to the +present day. We may therefore consider these generally as recent +transactions. But advancing to the far distant antecedent era of its +existence, we may consider it to have been a globe of its present size +enveloped in the crystalline rock already described, with the waters of +the present seas and the present atmosphere around it, though these were +probably in considerably different conditions, both as to temperature +and their constituent materials, from what they now are. We may thus +presume that, without this primitive case of granitic texture, the great +bulk of the matters of our earth were agglomerated, whether in a fluid +or solid state is uncertain; but there cannot be any doubt that they +continue to exist in a condition of great heat and compression, having a +mean density of more than double that of the minerals on the surface. + +Judging from the results and still observable conditions, it may be +inferred that the heat retained in the interior of the globe was more +intense, or had greater freedom to act, in some places than in others. +These become the scenes of volcanic operations, and in time marked their +situations by the extrusion from below of trap and basalts--rocks +composed of the crystalline matter, fused by intense heat, and developed +on the surface in various conditions, according to the particular +circumstances under which it was sent up; some, for example, being +thrown up under water, and some in the open air, which contingencies +would make considerable difference in its texture and appearance. It +would, however, be a mistake to infer that, previous to these eruptions, +the earth was a smooth ball, with air and water playing round it. +Geology tells us plainly that there were great irregularities--lofty +mountains, interspersed with deep seas--and by which, perhaps, the +mountains were wholly or partially covered. But it is a fact worthy of +observation that the solids of our globe cannot for a moment be exposed +to water or the atmosphere without becoming liable to change. They +instantly begin to wear down. The matter so worn off being carried into +the neighbouring depths and there deposited, became the components of +the successive series of stratified rocks, extending from the basal +envelope of granite to the earth's surface, and which it will be proper +briefly to describe. + + +DEPOSITS OR ROCK FORMATIONS. + +The first of the series is the _Gneis and Mica Slate System_, of which +examples are exposed to view in the Highlands of Scotland and the west +of England. These earliest stratified rocks contain no matters which are +not to be found in the primitive granite. They are the same in +material--silica, mica, quartz, or hornblende--but changed into new +forms and combinations, and hence called by Mr. LYELL metamorphic rocks. +Some of them are composed exclusively of one of the materials of +granite; the _mica schist_, for example, of mica; the _quartz rocks_, +of quartz. In the metamorphic rocks no organic remains have been found, +and they are geologically below all the rocks that do contain traces of +animal life. + +From the primary rocks we pass into the next ascending series, called +the _Clay Slate and Grauwacke Slate System_, which in some places is +found resting immediately on the granite, the antecedent bed being there +wanting. This deposit has been well examined, because some of its slate +beds have been extensively quarried for domestic purposes. By some +geologists it is called the _Silurian System_, it being largely +developed at the surface of a district of western England formerly +occupied by the Silures. It is found also in North Wales and in the +north of England, in beds of great thickness, and in Scotland, but there +the Silurian rocks are more feebly represented. + +The _Old Red Sandstone, or Devonian System_, comes next. It forms the +material of the grand and rugged mountains which fringe many parts of +our Highland coasts, and ranges, on the south flank of the Grampians, +from the eastern to the western sea of Scotland. There is no part of +geology and science more clear than that which refers to the ages of +mountains. It is as certain that the Grampian mountains are older than +the Alps and Apennines, as it is that civilisation had reached Italy and +enabled her to subdue the world, while Scotland was the abode of +barbarism. The Pyrenees, Carpathians, and other ranges of continental +Europe are all younger than these Scotch hills, or even the +insignificant Mendip Hills of southern England. Stratification tells +this tale as plainly, and more truly, than LIVY tells the story of the +Roman republic. It tells us that at the time when the Grampians sent +streams and detritus to straits where now the valleys of the Forth and +Clyde meet, the greater part of Europe was a wide ocean. + +The last three series of strata contain the remains of the earliest +occupants of the globe, and of which we shall soon speak. They are of +enormous thickness--in England, not much less than 30,000 feet, or +nearly six miles. + +We have now arrived at the secondary rocks, of which the lowest group is +the _Carboniferous Formation_, so called from its remarkable feature of +numerous interspersed beds of coal. It commences with beds of the +mountain limestone, which in England attains a depth of 800 yards. Coal +is altogether composed of the matter of a terrestrial vegetation, +transmuted by putrefaction of a peculiar kind beneath the surface of +water, and in the absence of air. From examples seen at the present day +at the mouths of such rivers as the Mississippi, which traverse +extensive sylvan regions, it is thought that the vegetation, the rubbish +of decayed forests, was carried by rivers into estuaries, and there +accumulated into vast natural rafts, until it sank to the bottom, where +an overlayer of sand or mud would prepare it for becoming a stratum of +coal. Others conceive that the vegetation first went into the condition +of peat moss, that a sink in a level then exposed it to be overrun by +the sea and covered with a layer of sand or mud; that a subsequent +uprise made the mud dry land, and fitted it to bear a new forest, which +afterwards, like its predecessors, became a bed of peat--that, in short, +by repetitions of this process the alternate layers of coal, sand and +shell constituting the carboniferous group were formed. + +The _Magnesian Limestone_ deposits succeed the carboniferous, and +sometimes pass into them by insensible gradations. In the south of +England they are represented by conglomerates, and partly composed of +the solid and more or less rounded fragments of the older strata. They +afford a proof of what geologists have often occasion to remark of the +long periods of time during which the ancient works of nature were +perfected; for the older rocks were solid as they are now, and their +organic remains petrified at the time these conglomerates were forming. + +We can only briefly glance at the remaining chapters of geological +history. The _New Red Sandstone_ forms the base of the great central +plains of England, and is surmounted by the oliferous marls and red +arenaceous beds which pass under the succession of great oolitic +terraces that stretch across England from the coasts of Dorsetshire to +the north-eastern coast of Yorkshire. It marks the commencement of an +important era, being the strata in which land animals are first found. +The _Oolte System_ which follows marks the beginning of mammalia, and in +some of its beds in Buckinghamshire are found the exuviæ of tropical +trees. Near Weymouth, in the well-known dirt beds, are found trees with +their silicified trunks growing up in the position of nature, and their +roots embedded in the soil on which they grew. + +Next we have the chalk or _Cretaceous Formation_, that makes such a +conspicuous figure in England. The celebrated cliffs of Dover are of +this era. It forms a stripe from Yorkshire to Kent, and is found in +France, Germany, Russia, and in North America. The English chalk beds +are 1,200 feet thick, showing the considerable depth of the ocean in +which they were formed. Their origin has been a questionable topic; they +were thought to be formed from the detritus of coral reefs, but +Professor EHRENBERG has recently announced, as the result of his +microscopical researches, that chalk is composed partly of inorganic +particles and partly of shells of inconceivable minuteness, a cubic inch +of the substance containing about ten millions of them. + +In the hollows of the chalk-beds have been formed series of +strata--clay, limestone, marl alternating--to which the name of the +_Tertiary System_ has been given. It is irregularly distributed over +vast surfaces of all our continents, and must be considered as the beds +of estuaries left at the conclusion of the cretaceous period. London and +Paris rest on basins of this formation, and another such basin extends +from near Winchester under Southampton, and reappears in the Isle of +Wight. + +We hasten upward to the _Diluvial System_, which brings us near to the +present surface. To this era is referred the erratic blocks, or gigantic +boulder stones, which have been driven by floods across our continents, +or drifted in icebergs over valleys, and perched sometimes on mountain +tops. To it also must be referred the _till_ of Scotland and the great +brown clay of England, and our vast beds of gravel and superficial +rubbish, connected with the deluvium in the history of _ossiferous +caverns_, of which that examined by Dr. BUCKLAND at Kirkdale is an +example. They occur in the calcareous strata, as the great caverns +generally do, and have in all instances been naturally closed up till +the period of their discovery. At Kirkdale the remains of twenty-four +species of animals were found--namely, pigeon, lark, raven, duck, +partridge, mouse, water-rat, rabbit, hare, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, +elephant, weasel, fox, wolf, deer, ox, horse, bear, tiger, hyena. From +many of the bones of the gentler of these animals being found in a +broken state, it is supposed that the cave was the haunt of hyenas and +other predaceous animals, by which the smaller ones had been consumed. + +We come last to the _Modern_ or _Superficial Formation_, of which the +best specimen is the great Bedford level, that spreads over the lower +lands of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Lincolnshire, consisting of +accumulations of silt, drifted matter, and bog-earth, some of which +began before the earliest periods of British history. When these +accumulations are removed by artificial means, we find below sometimes +shells of recent species, and the remains of an old estuary, sometimes +sand-banks, gravel beds, stumps of trees, and masses of drifted wood. On +this recent surface are found skulls of a living species of European +bear, skeletons of the Arctic wolf, European beaver and wild boar, and +numerous horns and bones of the roebuck and red deer, and of the +gigantic stag or Irish elk. They testify to a zoology on the verge of +that now prevailing or melting into it. In corresponding deposits of +North America are found remains of the mammoth, mastadon, buffalo, and +other animals of extinct or living species. + +Considering it best not to interrupt the description of the successive +formations, this is almost the only allusion that has been made to the +fossils which constitute so important a part of geological science. It +is now to be explained that from an early period, that is, from the +metamorphic deposit to the close of the rock series, each formation is +found to enclose remains of the organic beings, plants, and animals, +which flourished upon earth during the time they were forming; and these +organisms, or such parts of them as were of sufficient solidity, have +been in many instances preserved with the utmost fidelity, although for +the most part converted into the substance of the enclosing mineral. The +rocks may be thus said to form a kind of history of the organic +departments of nature apparently from near their beginning to the +present time. It is upon the commencement and progress of life under +these circumstances that the author of the _Vestiges of Creation_ has +put forth some of his most startling and controversial propositions; but +before noticing them it will be useful to prepare the way by shortly +describing the gradations of organic existences, following the same +order as observed in the rock series, by beginning with the lowest or +humblest forms of organization. + + +RISE AND PROGRESS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. + +The interior of the earth reveals wonders not less impressive than those +of the skies. We have seen in the last section how the crust of our +globe is composed of successive layers or tiers of strata, rising +upward, terrace upon terrace, till we reach the present vegetable mould +or superficial platform of animated existence. In the aggregate these +formations or systems, marking the several epochs in nature's +development, may extend to a depth, as Dr. BUCKLAND conjectures, of ten +or fifteen miles below the surface, and each may be considered a vast +cemetery or graveyard, entombing the remains of ages long anterior to +human creation. We, in fact, live upon a pile of worlds, and +anticipating the future from past records and from changes still +manifest from the shallowing soundings of neighbouring seas, it is not +improbable that the existing scene of bustle may have heaped upon it as +many superincumbent masses as the lowest of the rocks enclosing the +vestiges of life. + +If not with a kind of awe, it must have certainly been with intense +curiosity that the first investigators of fossilology looked upon the +earliest forms of animated being of which we have any traces as existing +upon this globe. These first denizens, however, seem to have been of a +simple structure and humble order, not fit to play high class +characters. No land animals are found among them, none which could +breathe the atmosphere, none but tenants of the water, and even animals +so high in the scale as fish were wanting. In popular language, the +earliest fossils are corals and shellfish. + +But to make the subject generally intelligible it will be necessary +first to define the orders of the animal kingdom. CUVIER was the first +to give a philosophical view of the animal world in reference to the +plan on which each animal is constructed. According to him there are +four forms on which animals have been modelled, and of which ulterior +divisions are only slight modifications founded on the development or +addition of some parts that do not produce any essential change of +structure. + +The four great branches of the animal world are the _vertebrata_, +_mollusca_, _articulata_, and _radiata_. The _vertebrata_ are those +animals which (as man and other sucklers, birds and fishes) have a +backbone and a skull with lateral appendages, within which the viscera +are excluded, and to which the muscles are attached. The _mollusca_ or +soft animals have no bony skeleton; the muscles are attached to the +skin, which often include stony plates called shells; such mollusca are +shell-fish, others are cuttle-fish, and many pulpy sea animals. The +_articulata_ consist of crustacea (lobsters, &c.), insects, spiders, and +annulos worms, which, like the other classes of this branch, consist of +a head and a number of successive portions of the body jointed together, +whence the name. Finally the _radiata_ include the animals known under +the name of zoophytes. + +Now it is fossils of the _radiata_ division of the animal kingdom that +are found in the lowest stratified rocks, polypiaria and crinodia, the +first including various forms of these extraordinary animals +(corallines) which still abound in tropical seas, often obstructing the +course of the mariner, and even laying the foundation of new continents. +The crinoids are an early and simple form of the large family of +star-fishes; the animal is little more than a stomach, surrounded by +tentacula to provide itself with food, and mounted upon a many-jointed +stalk, so as to resemble a flower upon its stem. Along with these in the +slate system are a few lowly genera of crustacea, and of a higher class, +the mollusca, and the existence of these imply the contemporary +existence of certain humbler forms of life, vegetable and animal, for +their subsistence, forming a scene approaching to what is found in seas +of the present day, excepting that fishes, nor any higher vertebrata, as +yet roamed the marine wilds. + +The animal species of this era seem to have been few in number, and +almost the whole had become extinct before the next group of strata had +been formed. In the Silurian deposit the vestiges of life become more +abundant, the number of species extended, and important additions made +in the traces of sea plants and fishes. Remains of fishes have been +detected in rocks immediately over the Aymestry limestone, being +apparently the first examples of vertebrated animals which breathed upon +our planet. (p. 64). The cephaloda, represented in our era by the +nautilus and cuttle-fish, pertain to the Silurian formation, and are the +most highly organised of the mollusca, possessing in some families an +internal bony skeleton, together with a heart and a head with mandibles +not unlike those of the parrot. + +In the Old Red Sandstone the same marine specimens are continued with +numerous additions. Several of the strata are crowded with remains of +fish, showing that the seas in which these beds were deposited had +swarmed with that class of inhabitants. The predominating kinds are of +an inferior model to the two orders which afterwards came into +existence, and still are the principal fishes of our seas; the former +are covered with integuments of a considerably different character from +the true scales covering the latter, and which orders, from their form +of organization, are named stenoid and cycloid. + +Up to the present we find proofs of the general uniformity of organic +life over the surface of the earth at the time when each particular +system of rocks was formed. The types of being formed in the old red as +in preceding deposits, are identical in species with the remains that +occur in the corresponding class of rocks in Brittany, the Hartz, +Norway, Russia, and North America; attesting the similarity and almost +universality, if not contemporary character, of terrestrial changes. A +few other geological facts may be here mentioned for recollection, and +which throw light on the marine animal and vegetable forms of this and +preceding eras. First there was comparatively an absence of salt in the +early ocean; and next the temperature of the earth is conjectured to +have been higher, and perhaps almost uniform throughout. The higher +temperature of the primeval times is attributed to the greater proximity +or intensity of the globe's internal heat, and which, poured through +cracks and fissures of the lately concreted crust, M. BRONGNIART +supposes to have been sufficiently great to overpower the ordinary +meteorological influences and spread a tropical climate all over its +surface. + +It must be further borne in mind that as yet no _land animals or +plants_ existed, and for this presumable reason, that dry land had not +appeared. It is only in the next or carboniferous formation that +evidence is traced of island or continent. As a consequence of this +emergence there was fresh water; for rain, instead of returning to the +sea, as formerly, was collected in channels of the earth and became +springs, rivers, and lakes. It was made a receptacle for an advance in +organism, and land plants became a conspicuous part of the new creation. + +According to the _Vestiges of Creation_, terrestrial botany began with +classes of comparatively simple forms and structure. In the ranks of the +vegetable kingdom the lowest place is taken by plants of cellular +tissue, and which have no flowers, as lichens, mosses, fungi, ferns, and +sea-weeds. Above these stand plants with vascular tissue, bearing +flowers, and of which there are two subdivisions: first, plants having +one seed-lobe, and in which the new matter is added within, of which the +cane and palm are examples; second, plants having two seed lobes, and in +which the new matter is added on the outside under the bark, of which +the pine, elm, oak, and all the British forest trees are examples. Now +the author of the _Vestiges_ states that two-thirds of the plants of +this era belong to the cellular kind, but to this one of his ablest +critics (_Edinburgh Review_ for July) demurs, asserting that the +carboniferous epoch shows a gorgeous _flora_--that the first fruits of +vegetable nature were not rude, ill-fashioned forms, but in magnificence +and complexity of structure equal to any living types, and that the +forest approached the rank and complicated display of a tropical jungle, +where the prevalence of great heat with great moisture, combined with +the fact that the atmosphere contained a greater proportion of the +natural food of plants, must undoubtedly have forcibly stimulated +vegetation, and in quantity and luxuriance of growth, if not fineness of +organization, produced it in rich abundance. The earth, it is likely, +was one vast forest, which would perform a most important part for the +good of its future inhabitants, helping to purge the air of its excess +of carbonic acid, by which the earth's surface would be prepared for its +new occupants. + +The animal remains of this era are not numerous in comparison with those +that go before or follow. Contrary to what the author of the _Vestiges_ +supposes (p. 111), insects were already buzzing in the air; there were, +however, no crawling reptiles on the ground, and it is a doubtful point +whether birds cheered the ancient forests with their song. But fishes +reached their most perfect organic type. They were the lords of +creation, and had a structure in conformity with their high office. +Since then the class has increased in its species, but has degenerated +to a less noble type. + +In the next formation, the New Red Sandstone, reptiles make their +appearance. They are considered next to fishes in the zoological scale. +So nearly are they sometimes connected, that it is doubtful to which +class they belong. Many reptiles are also amphibious, adapted either to +water or land. The surface of the globe abounded in large flat, muddy +shores, and was suited to the new order of visitants called into +existence. + +In the Oolite System, mostly consisting of calcareous beds, mammals make +their appearance. Some additions were made to the reptile form. One +animal (the behemite) appeared, but terminated in the next era. In the +following series of rocks mammals increase in abundance. The advance in +land animals is less marked, but considerable in the tertiary strata. +The tapir forms a conspicuous type. One animal of the kind was eighteen +feet long, and had a couple of tusks turning down from the lower jaw, by +which it could attach itself, like the walrus, to a bank, while its body +floated in the water. Many animals of a former period disappear, and are +replaced by others belonging to still existent families--elephant, +hippopotamus, and rhinoceros--though extinct as species. Some of these +forms are startling from their size. The great mastadon was a species of +elephant living on aquatic plants, and reaching the height of twelve +feet. The mammoth was another elephant, and supposed to have survived +till comparatively recent times. The megatherium is an incongruity of +nature, of gigantic proportions, yet ranking in a much humbler order +than the elephant, that of the edenta, to which the sloth, ant-eater, +and armadilla belong. The megatherium had a skeleton of enormous +solidity, with an armour-clad body, and five toes, terminating in huge +claws to grasp the branches on which it fed. Finally, beside the dog, +cat, squirrel, and bear, we have offered to us, for the first time, +oxen, deer, camel, and other specimens of the rumantia. Traces of the +quadrumane, or monkey, have been found in the older tertiaries of +France, India, and England. So that we may now be said to have arrived +at the zoological forms not long antecedent to the appearance of the +chief of all, bimana, or man, and shall here pause to consider the +conclusions of the author of the _Vestiges of Creation_ on the origin of +the organic existences that have been successively exhibited. + +It will be convenient, however, first to introduce a synoptic view of +the evolutions of the earth as set forth in this and the preceding +section. For this purpose the author has introduced a parallel table, +exhibiting on one side a scale of animal life beginning with the +humblest and ascending to the highest species; and on the other side the +successive series of rock formations, in which their fossiliferous +remains have been found up to the present superficial deposits of the +globe. Objections have been made to the correctness of the author's +analogies, scale, and his classification of animals, the chief of which +will be adverted to in the next section; but the table is essential, as +presenting at one view an outline of the hypothesis he has sought to +establish. + + +SCALE OF ANIMAL KINGDOM. ORDER OF ANIMALS IN ASCENDING SERIES FOETAL HUMAN BRAIN + OF ROCKS. RESEMBLES, IN + _Invertebrata._ + 1 Infusoria _Traces of Infusoria_(?) 1 Gneiss and Mica\ + Slate System \ + 2 Polypi Polypiaria \ \ + 5 Echinodermata Echinodermata \ \ + { 7 Brachiopoda {15-20 Brachiopoda} Crustacea } 2 Clay Slate System \ 1st month, typically, +Moll-{ 9 Pteropoda Artic-{Crustacea Pteropoda } / } that of an +usca {10 Gasteropoda ulata {12-14 Gasteropoda} Annelides / / avertebrated animal + {11 Cephalopoda {Annelides Cephalopoda} \ / + } 3 Silurian system / + _Vertebrata._ { _Remains of Fishes_ / / + { Fishes of low type; \ \ + 32-36 Fishes { heterocercal; allied } 4 Old Red Sandstone } 2nd month, that of a fish; + { to crustacea / / + { Sauroid Fishes \ + 37 Batrachia (frogs, &c.) Batrachia \ + } 5 Carboniferous + 39 Sauria (lizards, &c.) Sauria / formation + 40 Chelonia (tortoises) Chelonia / 3rd month, that of a turtle; + 41-46 Birds _Footsteps of Birds_ 6 New Red Sandstone 4th month, that of a bird; + 47 Cetacea (dolphins, whales, &c.) _Bones of a \ + Cetaceous Animal_ } 7 Oolite + _Bones of a Marsupial_ / + 8 Chalk + 48 Pachydermata (tapirs, &c.) Pachydermata \ + 49 Edentata (sloths) Edentata \ + 50 Rodentia (squirrels, hare, &c.) Rodentia \ 5th month, that of a rodent; + 51 Marsupialia (opossums, &c.) Marsupialia \ + 52 Ruminantia (oxen, stag, &c.) Ruminantia \ 6th month, that of a ruminant; + 53 Amphibia (seals) } 9 Tertiary + 54 Digitigrada (dog, cat, &c.) Digitigrada / 7th month, that of a digitigrade animal; + 55 Plantigrada (bear, &c.) Plantigrada / + 56 Insectivora (shrew, &c.) Insectivora / + 57 Cheiroptera (bats) Cheiroptera / + 58 Quadrumana (apes) Quadrumana / 8th month, that of the quadrumana; + 29 Bimana (man) Bimana 10 Superficial deposits 9th month, attains full human character. + + + +TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES. + +In the two last sections we have gone through the earth's geological +history, first of the changes in its physical structure, next of the +mutations in the organic forms that have, in serial order, appeared in +the successive strata of its external envelope, from the period of that +far distant crisis when it was a molten globe on which its primitive +granitic covering was just beginning to concrete, in consequence of +abating heat, until we have arrived at the first prognostic signs of +approaching human existence. + +The rock upon rock of vast thickness, by which the earth's crust, +through countless ages, has been formed, unquestionably constitutes a +most extraordinary phenomenon of physical creation, but hardly so +marvellous and incomprehensible as the beginning, progress, and end of +the divers orders of marine and terrestrial beings that filled each +world of life. It is to geologists, to PLAYFAIR, HUTTON, LYELL, +BUCKLAND, SEDGWICK, OWEN, and other great names, native and foreign, to +whom we are indebted for this singular revelation of Nature's works. It +is their unwearied research that has opened to us the surprising +spectacle we have attempted briefly to describe of the diversified +groups of species which have, in the course of the earth's history, +succeeded each other at vast intervals of time; one set of animals and +plants wholly or partly disappearing from the face of our planet, and +others, which apparently did not before exist, becoming the only or +predominant occupants of the globe. + +Now the great question arises--whence, by what power, or by what law, +were these reiterated transitions brought about? Were the organized +species of one geological epoch, by some long-continued agency of +natural causes, transmuted into other and succeeding species? or were +there an extinction of species, and a replacement of them by others, +through special and miraculous acts of creation? or, lastly, did species +gradually degenerate and die out from the influence of the altered and +unfavourable physical conditions in which they were placed, and be +supplanted by immigrants of different species, and to which the new +conditions were more congenial? + +The last, we confess, is the view to which we are most inclined--first, +because we think a transmutation of species, from a lower to a higher +type, has not been satisfactorily proved; and second, because of the +strong impression we entertain, that the universe, subject to certain +cyclical and determinate mutations, was made complete at first, with +self-subsisting provisions for its perpetual renewal and conservation. +We shall advert to this matter hereafter; but at present it is the +conclusions of the author of the _Vestiges_ that claim consideration. He +adopts the first interpretation of animal phenomena, namely, that there +has been a transmutation of species, that the scale of creation has been +gradually advancing in virtue of an inherent and organic law of +development. Nature, he contends, began humbly; her first works were of +simple form, which were gradually meliorated by circumstances favourable +to improvement, and that everywhere animals and plants exhibit traces of +a parallel advance of the physical conditions and the organic structure. +The general principle, he inculcates, is, that each animal of a higher +kind, in the progress of its embryo state, passes through states which +are the final condition of the lower kind; that the higher kinds of +animals came later, and were developed from the lower kinds, which came +earlier in the series of rock formations, by new peculiar conditions +operating upon the embryo, and carrying it to a higher stage. These +conclusions the author maintains geology has established, and of the +results thence derived he gives the subjoined recapitulation:-- + + "In pursuing the progress of the development of both plants and + animals upon the globe, we have seen an advance in both cases, from + simple to higher forms of organization. In the botanical department + we have first sea, afterwards land plants; and amongst these the + simpler (cellular and cryptogamic) before the more complex. In the + department of zoology, we see, first, traces all but certain of + infusoria [shelled animalculæ]; then polypiaria, crinoidea, and + some humble forms of the articulata and mollusca; afterwards higher + forms of the mollusca; and it appears that these existed for ages + before there were any higher types of being. The first step forward + gives fishes, the humblest class of the vertebrata; and, moreover, + the earliest fishes partake of the character of the lower + sub-kingdom, the articulata. Afterwards come land animals, of which + the first are reptiles, universally allowed to be the type next in + advance from fishes, and to be connected with these by the links of + an insensible gradation. From reptiles we advance to birds, and + thence to mammalia, which are commenced by marsupialia, + acknowledgedly low forms in their class. That there is thus a + progress of some kind, the most superficial glance at the + geological history is sufficient to convince us." + +Now this appears plausible and conclusive, but the correctness of the +recapitulation here made, and its conformity to actual nature, have been +sharply disputed. It may be true that sea plants came first, but of this +there is no proof; and of land plants there is not a shadow of evidence +that the simpler forms came into being before the more complex: the +simple and complex forms are found together in the more ancient _flora_. +It is true that we first see polypiaria, crinoidea, articulata, and +mollusca, but not exactly in the order stated by the author. It is true +that the next step gives us fishes, but it is not true that the earliest +fishes link on to the lower sub-kingdom, the articulata. It is true that +we afterwards find reptiles, but those which first appear belong to the +highest order of the class, and show no links of an insensible gradation +into fishes. In the tertiary deposit of the London clay the evidence of +concatenation entirely fails. Among the millions of organic forms, from +corals up to mammalia of the London and Paris basins, hardly a single +secondary species is found. In the south of France it is said that two +or three secondary species struggle into the tertiary strata; but they +form a rare and evanescent exception to the general rule. Organic nature +at this stage seems formed on a new pattern--plants as well as animals +are changed. It might seem as if we had been transported to a new +planet; for neither in the arrangement of the genera and the species, +nor in their affinities with the types of a pre-existing world, is there +any approach to a connected chain of organic development. + +For some discrepancies the author endeavours to account, and it is fair +to give his explanation:-- + + "Fossil history has no doubt still some obscure passages; and these + have been partially adverted to. Fuci, the earliest vegetable + fossils as yet detected, are not, it has been remarked, the lowest + forms of aquatic vegetation; neither are the plants of the + coal-measures the very lowest, though they are a low form, of land + vegetation. There is here in reality no difficulty of the least + importance. The humblest forms of marine and land vegetation are of + a consistence to forbid all expectation of their being preserved in + rocks. Had we possessed, contemporaneously with the fuci of the + Silurians, or the ferns of the carboniferous formation, fossils of + higher forms respectively, _equally unsubstantial_, but which had + survived all contingencies, then the absence of mean forms of + similar consistency might have been a stumbling-block in our + course; but no such phenomena are presented. The blanks in the + series are therefore no more than blanks; and when a candid mind + further considers that the botanical fossils actually present are + all in the order of their organic development, the whole phenomena + appear exactly what might have been anticipated. It is also + remarked, in objection, that the mollusca and articulata appear in + the same group of rocks (the slate system) with polypiaria, + crinoidea, and other specimens of the humblest sub-kingdom; some of + the mollusca, moreover, being cephalopods, which are the highest of + their division in point of organization. Perhaps, in strict fact, + the cephalopoda do not appear till a later time, that of the + Silurian rocks. But even though the cephalopoda could be shewn as + pervading all the lowest fossiliferous strata, what more would the + fact denote than that, in the first seas capable of sustaining any + kind of animal life, the creative energy advanced it, in the space + of one formation, (no one can say how long a time this might be,) + to the highest forms possible in that element, excepting such as + were of vertebrate structure. It may here be inquired if geologists + are entitled to set so high a value as they do upon the point in + the scale of organic life which is marked by the upper forms of the + mollusca. It will afterwards be seen that this is a low point + compared with the whole scale, if we are to take as a criterion + that parity of development which has been observed in the embryo of + one of the higher animals. _The human embryo passes through the + whole space representing the invertebrate animals in the first + month, a mere fraction of its course._ There is indeed a remarkably + rapid change of forms in such an embryo at first: the rapidity, + says Professor Owen, is 'in proportion to the proximity of the ovum + to the commencement of its development;' and, conformable to this + fact, we find the same zoologist stating that, in the lowest + division of the animal kingdom, (the Acrita of his arrangement,) + there is a much quicker advance of forms towards the next above it, + than is to be seen in subsequent departments. There is, indeed, to + the most ordinary observation, a rapidity and force in the + productive powers of the lowest animals, which might well suggest + an explanation of that rush of life which seems to be indicated in + the slate and Silurian rocks. With regard to the so-called early + occurrence of fishes partaking of the saurian character, I would + say that their occurrence a full formation after the earliest and + simplest fishes, is, considering how little we know of the space of + time represented by a formation, not early: their being later in + any degree is the fact mainly important. The subsequent rise of + new orders of fishes, fully piscine in character, may be explained + by the supposition of their having been developed, as is most + likely, from a different portion of the inferior sub-kingdom. In + short, all the objections which have been made to the great fact of + a general progress of organic development throughout the geological + ages, will be found, on close examination, to refer merely to + doubtful appearances of small moment, which vanish into nothing + when rightly understood." + +Upon some of the chief points here involved, it may be remarked that the +most eminent physiologists are not agreed; they are not agreed that +animals can be arranged in a series, passing from lower to higher; nor +that animals of a higher kind in the embryo state pass through the +successive stages of the lower kinds; the character of these stages, in +the asserted doctrine, being taken from the brain and heart, and man +being the highest point of the series. There are physiologists too who +deny that the brain of the human embryo at any period, however early, +resembles the brain of any mollusk or of any articulata. It never, they +assert, passes through a stage comparable or analogous to a permanent +condition of the same organ in any invertebrate animal; and in like +manner the spinal cord in the human vertebræ at no period agrees with +the corresponding part of the lower kind of animals. The moment it +becomes visible in the human embryo, it is entirely dorsal in position; +while in mollusks and articulatas a great part, or nearly the whole, is +ventral. The same is true of the heart, or centre of the vascular +system, which has always a different relative position in the great +nervous centre in the human embryo from what it has in any articulate +animal, and in most mollusks. + +A second position in the _Vestiges_ appears not to have been +established--namely, as to the uniform geological arrangement of +different organic structures. It is not true that _only_ the lowest +forms of animal life are found in the lowest fossiliferous rocks, and +that the more complicated structures are gradually and exclusively +developed among the higher bands in what might be called a natural +ascending scale. On the contrary, the predaceous cephalopods and the +highly organized crustaceous are among the oldest fossils. Such appears +to be the order of nature as evidenced by facts, and it must be +admitted, however repugnant to preconceived notions or mere mortal +conjectural amendments. + +In the third place the evidence seems to preponderate in favour of +_permanency of species_. There can be no doubt that both plants and +animals may, by the influence of breeding, and of external agents +operating upon their constitution, be greatly modified, so as to give +rise to varieties and races different from what before existed. But +there are limits to such modifications, as in the different kind and +breed of dogs; and no organized beings can, by the mere working of +natural causes, be made to pass from the type of one species to that of +another. A wolf by domestication, for example, can never become a dog, +nor the ourang-outang by the force of external circumstances be brought +within the circle of the human species. + +In this opinion Mr. LYELL, Dr. PRICHARD, and Mr. LAWRENCE, concur. The +general conclusion at which they have arrived is, that there is a +capacity in all species to accommodate themselves to a certain extent to +a change of external circumstances; this extent varying greatly +according to the species. There may thus be changes of appearance or +structure, and some of these changes are transmissible to the offspring; +but the mutations thus superinduced are governed by certain laws, and +confined within certain limits. Indefinite divergence from the original +type is not possible, and the extreme limit of possible variation may +usually be reached in a short period of time; in short, Professor +WHEWELL concludes (_Indications of Creation_, p. 56), _that every +species has a real existence in nature_, and a transmutation from one to +another does not exist. Thus for example, CUVIER remarks that, +notwithstanding all the differences of age, appearance and habits, which +we find in the dogs of various races and countries, and though we have +(in the Egyptian mummies) skeletons of this animal as it existed 3,000 +years ago, the relation of the bones to each other remains essentially +the same; and with all the varieties of their shape and size, there are +characters which resist all the influences, both of external nature, of +human intercourse, and of time. + +What varieties, again, in the forms of the different breeds of horses +and horned cattle; racers, hunters, coach horses, dray horses, and +ponies; short-horns and long-horns, Devons and Herefords, polled +galloways and Shetlands; how unlike are the unimproved breeds of cattle +as they existed a century ago before the march of agricultural +improvement began, and how different were most of these as then existing +in what may be called the normal state from the wild cattle produced in +Chillington Park. It has been found, however, when external and +artificial conditions are removed, and these different breeds are +allowed to run wild, as in the Pampas and Australia, no matter what the +diversity of size, shape, and colour of the domestic breeds, they +reverted in their wild state, in these respects, to their primitive +types. + +So again with regard to cultivated vegetables and flowers. How different +are the species of the red cabbage and the cauliflower; who would have +expected them to be varieties of the wild _brassica oleracea_? Yet from +that they have been derived by cultivation. They have, however, a +tendency like animals to revert to the original type, or, in the +gardener's phrase, to degenerate, which it requires the utmost care on +his part to counteract. When left to a state of nature, they speedily +lose their acquired forms, properties and character, and regain those of +the original species. + +If species be permanent--if no education or training can educe new +kinds--if the higher classes of animals are not the results of +meliorations of the lower--whence did they come? This question we are +not bound to answer. It might be as reasonably asked, whence did the +lower classes come? Geology, like other sciences, does not conduct us to +the _beginning_, it only takes up creation at certain ulterior stages of +development. The changes and construction of the globe may have been +different in different parts; it has not been proved that geological +revolutions have been either universal or contemporary. There may have +been climates and regions adapted to the existence of the higher class +of land animals, while contemporarily therewith other portions of the +globe might be undergoing changes beneath the ocean. It is not +improbable that the human species dwelt nearly stationary for ages on +the old continents of Africa and Asia, while Europe and America were +covered with water. Supposing these new continents formed, either by the +gradual subsidence of the sea or the rising of its bed, successive +inhabitants would follow in the order presented by existing organic +remains. While covered by the sea, what now form Europe and America +could only be peopled by marine animals; but as the land rose or the +waters subsided into their ocean channels, and dry land appeared, +reptiles and amphibiæ might become the occupants; next, as the earth +became drier and more salubrious, the new continent would be resorted to +by terrestrial animals; in a still more advanced stage of purification +and salubrity, man himself, as the lord of all the preceding classes of +immigrants, would take possession, and as he still continues the living +occupant it is premature to look for his petrifaction. + + +ORIGIN OF THE ANIMATED TRIBES. + +Science has mastered many perplexities, but is almost powerless as ever +in generation. All that lives, and still more all that moves, must have +a pre-existing germ formed independently of the created being, but which +is essential to its existence, and fixes the type of organization. The +old adage--_omne animal ab ovo_--may be taken as generally true. But +though every animal has its primordial egg or germ, all germs are not +identical. In the beginning of life there are other organic elements +besides the ovum. Partly on direct proof and partly on good analogy, it +may be inferred that these differ in different species--that each in the +first stages of existence is bound by a different and immutable mode of +development--and, if so, there can be no embryotic identity. "By no +change of conditions," says Dr. CLARKE, "can two ova of animals of the +same species be developed into different animal species; neither by any +provision of identical conditions can two ova of different species be +developed into animals of the same kind." If these views be right, and +we believe them to be so, there cannot be a transmutation of species +under the influence of external circumstances. + +Baffled in the effort either to create species or organically to change +them, attempts have been made to approach nearer to the source of +vitality, and explain the chemical, electric, or mechanical laws by +which the vital principle is influenced. For this purpose various +hypotheses have been put forth; one is the noted conjecture of Lord +MONBODDO, that man is only an advanced development of the chimpanzee or +ourang-outang. A second explanation is that given by LAMARCK, who +surmised, and with much ingenuity attempted to prove, that one being +advanced in the course of generations into another, in consequence +merely of the experience of wants calling for the exercise of faculties +in a particular direction, by which exercise new developments of organs +took place, ending in variations sufficient to constitute new species. +In this way the swiftness of the antelope, the claws and teeth of the +lion, the trunk of the elephant, the long neck of the giraffe have been +produced, it is supposed, by a certain plastic character in the +construction of animals, operated upon for a long course of ages by the +attempts which these animals make to attain objects which their previous +organization did not place within their reach. This is what is meant by +the hypothesis of _progressive tendencies_, and which requires for its +validity not only the assumption of a mere capacity for change, but of +active principles conducive to improvement and the attainment of higher +powers and faculties. More recently ST. HILAIRE has published a paper in +which he speaks of the immutability of species as a conviction that is +on the decline, and that the age of CUVIER is on the close. Carried away +by what Professor PHILLIPS has called a poetical conjecture that cannot +be proved, this writer propounded the speculation that the present +crocodiles are really the offspring of crocodilian reptiles, the +difference being merely the effect of physical conditions, especially +operating during long geological periods upon one original race. The +human species, he contends, are but an advanced development of the +higher order of the monkey tribe, and that the negroes are degenerating +towards that type again. According to him the sivatherium--a fossil +animal that had been found in the Himalaya mountains--was the primeval +type that time had fined down into the giraffe from long-continued +feeding on the branches of trees. Dr. FALCONER and Capt. CAUTLEY, +however, have shown that anatomical proofs are all against this +inference, but if any doubt remained it must yield to the fact, that +among the _fauna_ of the Sewalik hills the sivatherium and the giraffe +were contemporaries. + +The author of the _Vestiges of Creation_ has put forth an hypothesis +founded on the preceding conjectures, but more compact and conclusive. +He is, as we have seen, in favour of the progressive change of species, +adopting the notion that men once had tails, and that the rudiments of +this condal appendage are found in an undeveloped state in the _os +coccygis_ (p. 199.) His leading idea of the progress of organic life is +that the "_simplest and most primitive type under a law to which that of +like production is subordinate, gave birth to the type next above it; +that this again produced the next higher, and so on to the very +highest_, the stages of advance being in all cases very small--namely, +from one species only to another; so that the phenomenon has always been +of a modest and simple character." (p. 231.) The arguments by which the +author endeavours to prove his hypothesis may be thus compressed. + +According to him foetal development is a science, illustrated by +HUNTER'S great collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, and +established by the conclusions of ST. HILAIRE and TIEDMANN. Its primary +positions are--1. That the embryos of all animals are not +distinguishably different from each other; and, 2. That those of all +animals pass through a series of phases of development, each of which is +the type or analogue of the permanent configuration of tribes inferior +to it in the scale. Higher the order of animals, the more numerous its +stages of progress. Man himself is not exempt from this law. His first +foetal form is that which is permanent in the animalcule; it next passes +through ulterior stages, resembling successively a fish, a reptile, a +bird, and the lower mammalia before it attains its specific maturity. +The period of gestation determines the species; protract it, and the +species is advanced to a higher class. This might be done by the force +of certain conditions operating upon the system of the mother. Give good +conditions and the young she produces will improve in development; give +bad conditions and it will recede. Cases of monstrous birth in the human +species are appealed to, in which the most important organs are left +imperfectly developed; the heart, for instance, having sometimes +advanced no further than the three-chambered or reptile form, while +there are instances of that organ being left in the two-chambered or +fish-like form. These defects arise from a failure of the power of +development in the mother, occasioned by misery or bad health, and they +are but the converse of those conditions that carry on species to +species. The _differences of sexes_ is the result of foetal progress +only one degree less marked than that of a change of species. Sex is +fully ascertained to be a matter of development. All beings are at one +stage of the embryotic progress _female_. A certain number of them are +afterwards advanced to the more powerful sex. For proof of this, the +economy of bees is cited; when they wish to raise a queen-bee, or true +female, they prepare for the larva a more commodious cell, and feed it +with delicate food. But we shall here stop to remark on the author's +argument up to this point. + +It is manifest, according to his hypothesis, that neither sex nor +species depend on the ancestral germ, but simply on physical conditions +and mechanical development. But eminent physiologists deny that the +facts are such as he has stated; they deny, as we have stated in a +former section, that the foetal progress is such as the _Vestiges_ +represent them to be; they deny that the human embryo, for example, +exhibits in successive stages the form of fish, lizard, bird, beast: on +the contrary, they contend that it is only in the earliest period of the +organic germ, when the manifestations are almost too obscure for +microscopic sense, that any resemblance exists; that immediately the +organic germ becomes sensible to observation, sex and species are found +to be fixed. Take, for example, the vertebrata; in these, by some +mysterious bond of union, the organic globules are seen to arrange +themselves into two nearly parallel rows. We may then say that the keel +of the animal is laid down, and in it we have the first rudiments of a +backbone and a continuous spinal chord. But during the progress and +completion of this first organic process no changes have been observed +assimilating the nascent embryo to any of the inferior animals. The next +series of changes in the germinal membrane are of two kinds--in one the +nervous system, the organs of motion, the intestinal canal, the heart +and blood-vessels are manifested; the other set of changes, which are +subsequent, produce the perfection of the animal and determine its sex. +All these manifestations result from germinal appendages that cannot be +severed or changed without ruin to the embryo, and the conditions +essential to life as the structure advances are due temperature, due +nutriment of the nervous organs, and due access to the atmospheric air. +Without, therefore, pursuing further this part of the inquiry, we shall +remark that the question at issue between the _Vestiges_ and its +opponents is one of facts--of conflicting evidence--to be tried by the +jury of the public, or rather by those who, from science or professional +pursuits, are competent to form an authoritative opinion. Our own +conclusion is, that in face of the testimony adduced against it, the +author's hypothesis is not yet established. + +For proof that species do change, and that even new species have been +actually and recently produced, the author has adduced statements +certainly as questionable and little satisfactory as his representation +of foetal phenomena. We can only briefly enumerate them. First we are +told that oats sown at midsummer, if kept cropped down, so as to be +prevented shooting into ear, and then allowed to remain in the ground +over winter, will spring up next year in the form of rye (p. 226). This +need not be disputed about; the experiment can be easily tried; but if +rye were the result, it would be no conclusive proof of a translation of +species. Perhaps the oat-plants perished under the operation of repeated +cuttings, and the rye seed was dormant in the earth and sprung up in its +place; or, if not so, oats and rye may not be different species, only +varieties of the same species. They are scarcely more dissimilar than +the primrose, the cowslip, and the oxlip, which have all been raised +from the seed of the same plant, and are now regarded by botanists as +varieties instead of species. + +When lime is laid on waste ground we are told that white clover will +spring up spontaneously, and in situations where no clover-seed could +have been left dormant in the soil (p. 182). But how is this to be +proved? It is certain that seeds will remain dormant in the soil for +centuries, and then spring up the first year the soil is turned up by +the plough. Some seeds have retained their vitality for thousands of +years in the old tombs of Egypt; they have been repeatedly brought to +England, sown, and produced good wheat. + +We are next told that wild pigs never have the measles, they are +produced by a _hyatid_ and the result of domestication; that a _tinea_ +is found in dressed wool that does not exist in its unwashed state; that +a certain insect disdains all food but chocolate, and that the larva of +_oinopota cellaris_ only lives in wine and beer. All these are articles +manufactured by man, and are adduced as proofs of animal life, +independent of any primordial egg. The entoza are dwelt upon; they are +creatures living in the interior of other animals, of which the +tape-worm that infests the human body is a melancholy instance. In +these illustrations we think the author has some show of reason, for we +feel convinced that there is such a thing as spontaneous generation from +the inorganic substance, wisely provided for clearing the earth of +noxious effluvia and putrid matter, and converting them into new +elements conducive to health and life. We believe in this source of +vitality from its wisdom and necessity, its necessity and wisdom, in our +estimate, being strong presumptive proofs of its existence in harmony +with the general forecast and economy of nature. Of the self-originating +spring of life, some of the examples adduced by the author are proofs, +and of which we have familiar illustrations in cheese-mites, maggots in +carrion, and the green fly that breeds so profusely in weak and decaying +vegetation; in all which by some inscrutable law the organic germ, +without an antecedent, appears to evolve from the dead or putrifying +mass for its riddance and transmutation. + +Conceding, however, thus far to the author, we are not prepared to admit +that the creative powers of Messrs. CROSSE and WEEKES has been +established. These gentlemen are said (p. 190) to have introduced a +stranger in the animal kingdom, a species of _acarus_ or mite amidst a +solution of silica submitted to the electric current. The insects +produced by the action of a galvanic battery continued for eleven months +are represented as minute and semi-transparent, and furnished with long +bristles. One of the creatures resulting from this elaborate term of +gestation was observed in the very act of emerging, in its first-born +nudity, and sought concealment in a corner of the apparatus. Some of +them were observed to go back into the parent fluid and occasionally +they devoured each other; and soon after they were called to life, they +were disposed to multiply their species in the common way! So much for +the experiment; against its verity it is alleged, first, that the +_Acarus Crossii_ are not a new species, or if new, that neither Mr. +CROSSE nor Mr. WEEKES, who repeated Mr. CROSSE'S experiment, produced +them, but only aided by the voltaic battery the development of the +insects from their eggs. Such a mode of generation is contrary to all +human experience, and can only be believed in on the strongest +corroborative proof. + +Neither by chemistry nor galvanism can man, we apprehend, be more than +instrumental and co-operative, not originally and independently +creative. In almost every form of life, whether animal or vegetable, art +can multiply varieties,--can train, direct--but cannot form new species. +This is the mockery of science. With all its invention and resource, it +cannot produce organic originals. It can rear a crab-apple into a +golden-pippin, or wild sea-weed into a luxuriant cabbage; it can raise +infinite varieties of roses, tulips, and pansies, but can create no new +plant, fruit, or flower. Man can make a steam-engine, or a watch, but he +cannot make a fly, a midge, or blade of grass. He is an ingenious +compiler, but not a creator; and his powers of manufacture and +conversion are restricted within narrow boundaries. He cannot wander far +in the indulgence of his fancies without being recalled, and compelled +to return to the first models set by the Great Architect. The further he +strays from primitive types in the effort to improve, by crossing, +cutting, and grafting, and proportionably less becomes the procreative +force. Hybrids are notoriously sterile. Garden fruit is not permanent, +and requires to be renewed from seed. The law seems universal in plants +and animals, that the vital energy or germ is less forcible and prolific +in the pampered and artificial, than in the natural and wild races. + + +HYPOTHESIS OF THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. + +It is ascertained that the basis of all vegetable and animal substances +consists in nucleated cells--that is, cells having granules within them. +Nutriment is converted into these before being assimilated by the +system. It has likewise been noted that the globules of the blood are +reproduced by the expansion of contained granules; "they are, in short," +says the _Vestiges_, "_distinct organisms multiplied by the same +fissiporous generation_. So that all animated nature may be said to be +based on this mode of origin; _the fundamental form of organic being is +a globule, having a new globule forming within itself_, by which it is +in time discharged, and which is again followed by another and another, +in endless succession. It is of course obvious, that if these globules +could be produced by any process from inorganic elements, we should be +entitled to say that the fact of a transit from the inorganic to the +organic had been witnessed." (p. 176.) "Globules," the author +continues, "can be produced in albumen by electricity. _If_, therefore, +these globules be identical with the cells which are now held to be +reproductive, it _might_ be said that the production of albumen by +artificial means is the only step in the process wanting. This has not +yet been effected." (p. 177.) + +These are the advances towards generation by chemistry and electricity. +The process, however, according to this detail, appears still far from +complete. Albumen is to be produced "by artificial means;" and even then +we should doubt entire success. Chemists have long commanded the power +to resolve the seeds of animal and vegetable life into their elements; +they have analysed them, and shown the exact weight and proportion of +each constituent; but they never could put them together again, or, by +any similar compound produce the primordial egg or organic germ, from +which a living being would arise. A connecting link--a vital spark, or +animating soul--is always wanting to complete the existence of the +Prometheus of the laboratory. Mark, too, the "_if_," and the "_might_," +in this most lame and impotent hypothesis:--"_If_, therefore, these +globules be identical with the cells which are held to be reproductive, +it _might_ be said," &c. Globules can be easily produced; the passage of +the electric fluid through water will produce aerial globules in rapid +and expansive movement; boys can produce them with suds and a +tobacco-pipe in rapid succession, each, for aught we know, containing a +"granule" that multiplies by "fissiporous generation." But these are not +organic globules, and the author has committed the great perversion in +language or logic of confounding the organic globule of life with the +inorganic globule of a chemist. His theory is more fanciful than that of +LAMARCK, from whom it is derived, and who had, at least, his _petit +corps gelatineux_ to begin with--to commence weaving organic tissue +from--but our author's organic globule is not so substantive a +conception; and as he does not pretend to be able to produce even this +by physical means, he has not made a single step in generation. + +This we consider the least satisfactory and successful portion of the +author's work. It assigns no intelligible cause for the origin of +life--it only _begs the question_, by the substitution of one mystery +for another. His law of DEVELOPMENT is of the same description,--without +sense or significancy, unsupported by applicable facts, and is not so +comprehensible a cause of vital changes as LAMARCK'S assigned +progressive tendencies of animals to master the appliances essential to +their wants. + + +ANIMAL AFFINITIES, INSTINCT, AND REASON. + +The scheme of the _Vestiges_ is uniformly and consistently worked out; +all phenomena are resolved into gravitation and development--the first +as the law of inorganic, the latter of organic matter. By the last, +however, no new principle is revealed, only a new phrase devised, by the +amplified application of which the author's entire system may be said to +be _begged_ rather than proved; since development is used in a sense +implying an indefinite power of animate and inanimate creation; so that +at last we make no new discovery, only grasp a new nomenclature. + +But the author is always interesting, either by the novel display of +facts or the ingenious concatenation of plausibilities. Consistently +with his fundamental notion of animal transmutation, he tries to prove a +family likeness or affinity from the humblest to the highest species. In +this way he seeks to explain the marvel with respect to the huge bulk of +many of the tertiary mammalia--the mammoth, mastadon, and megatherium; +they were in immediate descent from the cetacea, or whale and dolphin +tribe. (p. 267.) Again, human reason is considered no exclusive gift; it +exists subordinately in the instinct of brutes, and is alleged to be +nothing more than a mode of operation peculiar to the faculties in a +humble state of endowment, or early stage of development. CUVIER and +NEWTON are only intellectual expansions of a clown; and this notion is +extended to moral obliquities, the wicked man being characterised as one +"whose highest moral feelings are rudimental." (p. 358.) From a like +principle the writer concurs with Dr. PRICHARD, that mankind may have +had a common origin; that there exists no diversities of colour or +osseous structure not referable to climatable or other plastic agencies +influencing the development of the different races, commencing with the +lowest, or Negro tribe, and ascending upward through the intermediate +aboriginal American, Mongolian, and Malay, to the last and most perfect +stage of the Caucasian type. + +Into the verity of these conclusions we are not called upon to enter; +they have been long in controversy, involve a great array of facts and +inductive inferences, and we have only referred to them as corollaries +or collaterals of the author's hypothetical fabric. + + +RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TENDENCIES. + +We have no charge of impiety to bring against the _Vestiges_. Final +causes, or to express ourselves more intelligibly, a _purpose_ in +creation, is nowhere impugned. The Deity is not degraded by +impersonification in the form and frailties of mortality, but everywhere +the author reverently bows to that august and unsearchable name, +acknowledges the grand and benevolent design--the admirable adaptation +of every created thing to its end and place, and finally concludes in a +strain of grateful and exulting Optimism, that we confess we have not +fully arrived at--namely, that everything "is very good." (p. 387.) From +this impression we have only one constructive drawback to notice in the +author's mechanical but fanciful constitution of the universe, by which +a special Providence in the government of the world seems to be +dispensed with, and the Almighty is placed in the sinecure position of +the Grand Elector of the Abbe SIEYES, with nothing to do. But no divine +attribute is abscinded--no glory of Omnipotence dimmed--whether it +pleases him to rule by direct interpositions of power, or his own +pre-ordained eternal laws. + +Still less can we detect in the speculative inquiries of the _Vestiges_ +conclusions hostile to the moral and social interests of the community. +Men are formed to be what they are; vice and crime are the fruits of +malorganization, and malorganization is the result of the unfavourable +conditions in which the subject of it has been placed, prior or +subsequent to birth. These are the author's leading metaphysical +inculcations. They impose grave duties upon individuals and upon +society, rightly understood and applied, but we cannot discern a hurtful +tendency in them. They are useful knowledge, knowledge that it would be +well for parents and rulers to master, by showing the importance of +education, of favourable circumstances, and of good moral and physical +training, for rearing happy, well-ordered, and virtuous members of the +community. Supreme in intelligence, man, we firmly believe, is not less +supremely blessed in the means of felicity, provided his real nature and +position in the scheme of creation were understood, recognised, and +carried out. He has his place, his office, and his destiny; he is no +enigma but as an individual; "in the mass," as the author emphatically +remarks, "he is a mathematical problem." His conduct is uniform and +consistent; the result of known and ascertainable causes--causes +calculable and predicable in their consequences, as the statistics of +crime have incontestibly established. + + +GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ON THE VESTIGES. + +The heavens are wonderful, and the earth is wonderful, and man, who, by +force of intellect, has sought to comprehend the immensity of one and +unravel the formation of the other, is hardly less wonderful than +either. Still the great mystery remains unriddled; our researches have +brought us no nearer the beginning, and the first cause of all continues +unapproachable and undefinable as ever. Instead of explaining physical +creation, we begin with it; we take the existence of matter for granted, +and its attributes for granted, and forthwith begin to fabricate a +universe, without first ascertaining whence was matter, or whence the +laws by which it is impressed, and has been governed in its evolutions. + +Nature's greatest phenomena are the celestial spaces and the bodies that +fill them; our own planet and its living occupants. Upon each of these, +their commencement and subsequent vicissitudes, the _Vestiges of +Creation_ have propounded an hypothesis, but one mystery is only sought +to be explained by another still more mysterious. For the fiat of a +Creator chemical affinities and mechanical laws have been substituted, +but aided by these the author has failed to produce a world such as we +find it. Hence we are again driven upon the old tradition, the old +sacred authority, that the world was created out of nothing; and this is +as easy to comprehend as the solution of the _Vestiges_, that it sprang +from that which is certainly next to nothing--a heated fog or universal +fire-mist. + +When the author deals with the facts of science he interests and +instructs, but when he speculates he only amuses or perplexes, without +advancing knowledge. His terse and luminous description of the astral +firmament deeply impresses with the might and the magnitude of the vast +design; but when he attempts to account for the elimination of suns and +worlds, their formation and arrangement, we are struck by the puerile +folly of his conjectural presumptions. + +Descending from this august and glittering canopy to our own planet, we +are not less astonished by the exhibition of the extraordinary +revolutions it has undergone. Geology is the true historian of the +earth. Conducted by the lights it affords, we see an eternity of ages +has rolled before us; we discover a series of worlds rising through the +depths of ocean from the central sphere of heat, amidst boiling floods +and volcanic fires, each new platform of existence, that countless +periods of time had been requisite to form, peopled with its own +congenial forms of organic life, mostly commencing with the simpler, and +ascending by almost imperceptible gradations to the higher and more +complex structures of being. We are struck by the correspondence, by the +_pari passu_ development and formation of the earth's crust and organic +existences, and we are apt hastily to conclude that a relation has +subsisted between them, that contemporary changes have been cause and +effect, and that the improvement of the earth produced the correlative +improvement in animals and plants. + +This forms the author's second questionable hypothesis; it is plausible, +but false--repugnant to fact and correct observation. We have no +credible evidence that species have changed, or are changeable by the +utmost efforts of art or favouring conditions; all we can effect is to +improve them within definite limits, but not alter their characteristic +types; and we have certain proof that neither man nor the animal nearly +next to him in organization, has changed either in habits, disposition, +form, or osseus structure during the last 3,000 years. Resemblance is no +proof of identity; and hence, though species run into each other by +almost inappreciable shades of difference, it is no proof that they are +derivative, or other than isolated and self-dependent creations. That +they are such, and shall continue such, seems a fixed canon of Nature, +who, apparently, has prescribed to each its circle of amendment and +range, that like shall beget like--that nought organic shall exist +without ancestral germ--and that the variety of species which +constitutes the beauty and order of nature shall by no chance, +contrivance, or mingling of races, be confounded. + +Geological facts are in favour of this conclusion. They attest the +appearance of new species, not their improvement. In each species a +gradation of improvement, approximating from a lower to the next higher +organism, is not perceptible; but each seems to have been made perfect +at first, and most suited to the co-existent state of the earth. The +earliest reptiles were not reptiles of inferior structure; nor the +earliest fishes, birds, or beasts. They were adapted, as we now find +them, to their precise sphere of existence, without progressive +aptitude, preparatory to a higher and translated condition of being. +Geology rather points to the extinction and degeneracy of species than +their improvement; and the fossils of the old red sandstone, and of the +carboniferous formation, attest a loftier and more magnificent creation +of both marine and land products than any now subsisting. + +For these and other reasons before adduced, we dismiss the hypothesis of +animal transmutation as unproved and untenable. It pleases and satisfies +superficial views, but confronted with the facts of nature, it vanishes +like a baseless vision. Man is _sui generis_, sole and exclusive in +organization, without pre-existing type or affinity to other species; +and his alleged recent metamorphosis from a monkey, and his first and +far more distant one from a snail or a tadpole, are paradoxes only +worthy of idle debating clubs. + +Having attempted to unfold the progression of species by his law of +development, the author next essays to explain the commencement of the +vital principle itself. But here, too, he must have a beginning, and his +"organic globule" answers a similar purpose, in deducing the mystery of +life, as his nuclei in the "nebular hypothesis." In both the perplexity +and real difficulty is not solved or mastered, but evaded. But we have +already remarked on the point, and shall only observe that when the +author can elicit _thought_ from inorganic matter, either by chemistry +or galvanism, we shall think he has made a step in creation. Until then +he does not advance, only deceives himself and readers by verbal +subtleties and baseless suppositions. + +Apart from its hypotheses, the _Vestiges_ form a valuable and +interesting work. It is the most complete, elaborate, and--with all its +faults of detail, logic, and inference--the most scientific expositor of +universal nature yet offered to the world. But its hypotheses are +unwarranted, not inductively derived, and can have no hold on men of +science, supported as they mostly are by fanciful analogies, facts +misunderstood or misstated, and illustrations selected without +discrimination or applicability. Theories do sometimes conduce to the +discovery of truth, but are often obstructive; occupy the mind, like +theological controversy, without advancing science; and are viewed with +the same aversion by the philosopher that the political abstractions +tendered to the multitude by the demagogue are viewed by the patriotic +legislator. + +The work, however, will live, and deserves to live. The temple of nature +has been looked into, not profoundly, perhaps, nor always successfully; +but in a fearless spirit, and with a highly-accomplished mind. Had the +divine COSMOS been more fully dwelt upon and depicted--had the harmony, +beauty, and beneficence of creation been more fully and exclusively +displayed--we should have been more gratified; but we are thankful, in +the main, for what we have received. An impulse has been given to +popular inquiry, and a vast field for discussion opened, from which we +can prospectively discern neither less love for man, nor reverence for +God. + +Who the author is we have no certain knowledge. It is not, we suspect, +Lord KING, nor Lord THURLOW, nor Lady BYRON; but it may be the author of +the _Essay on the Formation of Opinions_, and of the _Principle of +Representation_. Mr. BAILEY, of Sheffield, though little known, +possesses the fine reasoning powers, intellectual grasp, independence of +research, abstract analysis, and attic style, that would qualify him to +produce the _Vestiges of Creation_, though we never heard that he is a +great natural philosopher. But, as just hinted, deep science is not +evinced by the _Vestiges_, only an able, systematic, and tasteful +arrangement of its distant and recent advances. + + + + +"EXPLANATIONS:" + +A SEQUEL TO THE + +"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION." + +(_From the_ ATLAS _of December 20, 1845._) + + +So many strong objections had been arrayed against the _Vestiges of +Creation_, that the author was called upon to elucidate and reinforce +his argument, or abandon the ground he had taken up. The more candid and +equitable of his judges--those who were disposed to try him upon the +merits, and independently test the claims of his inquiry, as in fairness +it ought to be, as strictly a scientific speculation, regardless of any +constructive bearings it might have on current opinions or +prejudices--could not arrive at any more favourable conclusion than that +he had failed to establish his hypotheses. Indeed this was the only +verdict that could be safely delivered in. The impugners of the work +were in the same helpless predicament as its author, who had, however, +more venturously presumed to unravel unsearchable mysteries, concerning +which, in the existing state of science, men can only conjecture, +wonder, and adore, utterly unable to affirm or deny aught respecting +them. What, for instance, with the remotest semblance of certainty, can +be predicated of the stellar orbs? Is it not idle almost to speculate on +the impenetrable secret of their origin when their very existence is +undefinable--when their end, their glittering discs, and all but +immeasurable distances are wholly unapproachable? Nor hardly less beyond +our grasp is the commencement of organic existences. We do pride +ourselves on recent advances to the sources of entity; we tear up the +dead, we torture the living, and sedulously chronicle every beat of the +heart and vibration of the brain to slake an insatiable curiosity, yet +how unsatisfactory our reach towards the hidden springs of life--how +limited our attainments, when the creation of a single blade of grass, +the humblest worm, a poor beetle, or gadfly, would baffle the utmost +structural skill of the greatest philosopher! Into the fathomless depths +of our own globe we have also essayed to penetrate. Poor beings! of +three score and ten, whose utmost historical span extends only to some +thousands of years, have sought to trammel up the terrene vicissitudes +of millions of ages anterior to their own existence! Does not this +savour of a vain research, or of a laudable thirst for knowledge? + +Over all these dark and solemn inscrutabilities, however, the _Vestiges_ +undertook to throw a glare of light, to reveal their beginning, +progression, order, relations, and law of development. Although daring +in aim, the attempt was not to be wholly deprecated. While religious +freedom had been secured, philosophy had become timid, official, and +timeserving; retentive as FONTENELLE of the truths within its grasp, and +fearful to give utterance to aught that might disturb the stillness of +the temple, the lecture-room, or fashionable auditory. Modern teachers +had been used so long to the Baconian go-cart, that they had become as +apprehensive of losing the inductive clue as the PALINURUSES of old of +the sight of the directing shore. But the time had arrived when it +seemed expedient to relax the strictness of the investigative rule, and +afford scope for a more systematic, if not speculative research. Science +had made great acquisitions, and it seemed desirable, if only for +experiment sake, to see what kind of FRANKENSTEIN would result from the +architectural union of her scattered limbs. This formed the scope of the +_Vestiges of Creation_; novelties were not propounded, only a portentous +skeleton raised from the truths physical astronomy, geology, chemistry, +physiology, and natural history had established. Does the author recoil +from his work? No; these _Explanations_ attest that he is steadfast in +the worship of the idol of his brain. He retracts nothing, he +re-asserts, elucidates, and often dexterously turns the weapons of the +most formidable and orthodox of his adversaries against them, by showing +from their writings that they had, in detail at least, acquiesced in +the truths that they now, in a generalised form, seek to controvert and +repudiate. So much adroitness and pertinacity in the author can hardly +fail to provoke resistance, if not asperity, despite of the +imperturbable temper in which he maintains the combat. The learned have +been disturbed in their daily routine, by the discharge from an unknown +hand, of a massive pyrites, that has diffused as much consternation +among the herd of modish elocutionists, college tutors, and chimpanzee +professors, as Jove's ligneous projectile among the lieges of the +standing pool. For this commotion we have, on a former occasion, +conceded that there existed valid reasons, and we hasten to see the way +in which they have been met in the rejoinder before us; contenting +ourselves, as we needs must, by briefly noticing some of the salient +points of the controversy. + +First of the Nebular Hypothesis. The chief objection to this theory is, +that the existence of nebulous matter in the heavens is disproved by the +discoveries made by the telescope of the Earl of ROSSE. By the reach of +this wondrous tube, masses of light, rendered apparently nebulous by +their vast distance, have been resolved into clusters of stars, and +thence the assumption seemed unwarrantable that any luminous matter, +different from the solid bodies composing planetary systems existed in +the heavenly spaces. But to this the author replies, that there are two +classes of nebulæ--one resolvable into constellations--another +comparatively near, that remains unaffected by telescopic power, and +that until this last description can be separated, the nebular +hypothesis is not disproved. It is thus brought to an issue of facts, +both as to the existence of nebulæ of this latter kind, and the optical +power to resolve them into distinct stars. + +But the author can hardly claim this negative success in grappling with +a second objection--namely, his assumed origin of _rotatory motion_. +According to him, a confluence of atoms round a spherical centre of +attraction, would cause the agglomerated mass to revolve upon its axis +in the manner of our earth. This was denied by everybody the least +acquainted with the laws of motion; and thus did one of his imaginary +solutions of a great phenomenon of the universe fall dead to the ground. +This he now seems to concede, but in a sentence unintelligible to us, +in which an undoubted physical law is spoken of as only an _abstract +truth_ (p. 20). He obviously still clings to his first mistaken +inference, and calls to his aid Professor NICHOL, whom he has also +pressed into his service to help him over the last-mentioned difficulty +by the Professor's affirmation of a diversity of nebulous clusters. But +the Professor does not commit himself to the extent of the author; his +aqueous whirlpool is cited from HERSCHEL, only in illustration, and +correctly said to be produced by the unequal force of convergence of a +fluid to a common centre. But the author's nuclei, disposed in his +notable "fire-mist," did not act with unequal force on the ambient +vapour, and whose central convergence in consequence, would not produce +rotation or motion of any kind. This was the real matter in question, +the author was taken up on his own premises, and the results he assumed +to follow from them proved to be inconsistent with the unquestionable +laws of gravitating matter. + +He has gone over the geological portion of his subject with much care, +but if competent, it would be impossible within our narrow limits to +accompany him; nor could the discussion be made either interesting or +intelligible except to the scientific, who have devoted attention to an +extremely curious, but still obscure and unsettled field of +investigation. He has elaborately cleared up many points, and +successfully, we think, answered some weighty objections, but we are not +yet converts to his theory of organic development. One passage we shall +extract; after adverting to the facts established by powerful evidence, +that during the long term of the earth's existence, strata of various +thickness were deposited in seas composed of matter worn away from the +previous rocks; that these strata by volcanic agency were raised into +continents, or projected into mountain chains, and that sea and land +have been constantly interchanging conditions. He continues:-- + + "The remains and traces of plants and animals found in the + succession of strata show that, while these operations were going + on, the earth gradually became the theatre of organic being, simple + forms appearing first, and more complicated afterwards. _A time + when there was no life_ is first seen. We then _see life begin, and + go on_; but whole ages elapsed before man came to crown the work of + nature. This is a wonderful revelation to have come upon the men of + our time, and one which the philosophers of the days of Newton + could never have expected to be vouchsafed. The great fact + established by it is, that the organic creation, as we now see it, + was not placed upon the earth at once; it observed a PROGRESS. Now + we can _imagine_ the Deity calling a young plant or animal into + existence instantaneously; but we see that he does not usually do + so. The young plant and also the young animal go through a series + of conditions, advancing them from a mere germ to the fully + developed repetition of the respective parental forms. So, also, we + can _imagine_ Divine power evoking a whole creation into being by + one word; but we find that such had not been his mode of working in + that instance, for geology fully proves that organic creation + passed through a series of stages before the highest vegetable and + animal forms appeared. Here we have the first hint of organic + creation having arisen in the manner of natural order. The analogy + does not prove identity of causes, but it surely points very + broadly to natural order or law having been the mode of procedure + in both instances." + +To the allusion in the last sentence there can be no demur; that +there is "natural order or law" in creation who will contest? But it +is the author's law and the author's order that are in dispute--his +transmutation of species, the higher classes emerging from and +partly annihilating the lower, under meliorated conditions of being. +That the simpler form of organic life should first appear; that +remains of invertebrated animals should be first found; then, with +these, fish, being the lowest of the vertebrated; next, reptiles and +birds, which occupy higher grades; and finally, along with the rest, +mammifers, the highest of all--all this appears natural enough. _How +could it be otherwise?_ When the earth was a slimy bed, what but the +lowest forms of life--the mollusca, and other soft animals, without +bony structure--could possibly live in or occupy it? During the +carboniferous era, when the earth was enveloped in an atmosphere of +hydrogen, vegetation might thrive; but man, and animals like +him, dependent on vital air, could not exist; nor are remains of +them found in this epoch of the globe's vicissitudes. All this +is comprehensible. But the perplexing inquiry is, whence did +the successive grades of animals emerge? That they could not +contemporaneously exist; when the whole earth was a shoreless sea, +and that animals could not live is certain; but were they created in +succession by the Divine fiat, or did they emerge, as our author +supposes and elaborately tries to prove, from the humblest primitive +forms, by an inscrutable law of progression--evidenced, he contends, +by geological facts--though by some his facts are disputed--and +certainly not confirmed by any animal changes observable within the +limits of human experience? + +There is another alternative offers, which would dispense both with the +author's hypothesis and the need of successive organic creations by a +special Providence. Is it a geological fact, since life began, that the +earth has _simultaneously_ undergone throughout its entire surface the +revolutions assigned to it? May it not always, from that period, have +consisted, as it now does, of water and dry land, alternately changing +their sites, but always apart, and allowing of the contemporary +existence on some portion of its surface of all the varieties of tribes +ever found upon it? The fossiliferous rocks that formed the primeval +sea-beds could only be deposited by the abrasion from the anterior and +higher rocks. It has always appeared to us that this conjecture is +worthy of consideration, and, if found tenable, would reconcile many +perplexities. + +Upon subjects so obscure, and to which the human intellect has been only +recently directed, it is not surprising that men of science have not +arrived at uniformity of conclusion. Unable to reconcile phenomena with +positive knowledge, there are names of no mean repute who would reserve +certain domains of creation as the fields of special interventions. To +this class Dr. WHEWELL appears to belong, who assumes that "events not +included in the _course of nature_ have formerly taken place." In the +same way Professor SEDGWICK, to account for the appearance of certain +animals, says, "They were not called into being by any law of nature, +but by a power above nature." He adds, "they were created by the hand of +GOD, and adapted to the conditions of the period." To this the author of +the _Vestiges_ assents, with the explanation (p. 134) that their +existence was not the result of a "special exertion of power to meet +special conditions," but of an antecedent and primitive law of +development suited to the new exigencies, and emanating from the +Creator. This, he contends, does not lower our estimate of the Divine +character; and, in proof, cites Dr. DODDRIDGE, who cannot be suspected +of irreverence. "When we assert," says the pious and amiable author, "a +perpetual Divine agency, we readily acknowledge that matters are so +contrived as not to need a Divine interposition in a different manner +from that in which it had been constantly exerted. And it must be +evident that an unremitting energy, displayed in such circumstances, +_greatly exalts our idea of God, instead of depressing it_; and, +therefore, by the way, is so much more likely to be true." Against +constructive inferences it is urged, in the _Explanations_-- + + "As to results which may flow from any particular view which reason + may show as the best supported, I must firmly protest against any + assumed title in an opponent to pronounce what these are. The first + object is to ascertain truth. No truth can be derogatory to the + presumed fountain of all truth. The derogation must lie in the + erroneous construction which a weak human creature puts upon the + truth. And practically it is the true infidel state of mind which + prompts apprehension regarding any fact of nature, or any + conclusion of sound argument." + +The writer then quotes Sir JOHN HERSCHELL as having some years ago +announced views strictly conformable to those subsequently taken of +organic creation in the _Vestiges_:-- + + "'For my part,' says Sir John, 'I cannot but think it an inadequate + conception of the Creator, to assume it as granted that his + combinations are exhausted upon any one of the theatres of their + former exercise, though, in this, as in all his other works, we are + led, by _all analogy_, to suppose that he operates through a series + of intermediate causes, and that, in consequence, _the origination + of fresh species, could it ever come under our cognizance, would be + found to be a natural, in contradistinction to a miraculous + process_,--although we perceive no indications of any process + actually in progress which is likely to issue in such a result. In + his address to the British Association at Cambridge, (1845), he + said with respect to the author's hypothesis of the first step of + organic creation--'The transition from an inanimate crystal to a + globule capable of such endless organic and intellectual + development, is as great a step--as unexplained a one--as + unintelligible to us--and in any sense of the word as _miraculous_, + as the immediate creation and introduction upon earth, of every + species and every individual would be!'" + +The Rev. Dr. PYE SMITH is next adduced:-- + + "'Our most deeply investigated views of the Divine Government,' + says he, 'lead to the conviction that it is exercised in the way of + _order_, or what we usually call _law_. God reigns according to + immutable principles, that is _by law_, in _every part of his + kingdom--the mechanical, the intellectual, and the moral_; and it + appears to be most clearly a position arising out of that fact, + that _a comprehensive germ which shall necessarily evolve all + future developments_, down to the minutest atomic movements, is a + more suitable attribution to the Deity, than the idea of a + necessity for irregular interferences.'" + +Lastly, the reviewer of the _Vestiges_ in _Blackwood's Magazine_, who is +understood to be a naturalist of distinguished ability, expresses +himself in an equally decided manner:-- + + "To reduce to a system the acts of creation, or the development of + the several forms of animal life, no more impeaches the authorship + of creation, than to trace the laws by which the world is upheld, + and its phenomena perpetually renewed. The presumption naturally + rises in the mind, that the same Great Being would adopt the same + mode of action in both cases.... To a mind accustomed, as is every + educated mind, to regard the operations of Deity as essentially + differing from the limited, sudden, evanescent impulses of a human + agent, it is distressing to be compelled to picture to itself, the + power of God as put forth _in any other manner than in those slow, + mysterious, universal laws, which have so plainly an eternity to + work in;_ it pains the imagination to be obliged to assimilate + those operations, for a moment, to the brief energy of a human + will, or the manipulations of a human hand.... No, there is nothing + atheistic, nothing irreligious, in the attempt to conceive + creation, as well as reproduction, carried on by universal laws." + +We have dwelt so much upon this matter because it is one in which +popular feelings are likely to be most deeply interested. We shall give +the author, too, the benefit of his _Explanations_ on another point, +elucidating his former statement of the transmutation of a crop of oats +into a crop of rye:-- + + "'At the request,' says Dr. Lindley, 'of the Marquis of Bristol, + the Reverend Lord Arthur Hervey, in the year 1843, sowed a handful + of oats, treated them in the manner recommended, by continually + stopping the flowering stems, and the produce, in 1844, has been + for the most part ears of a very slender barley, having much the + appearance of rye, with a little wheat, and some oats; samples of + which are, by the favour of Lord Bristol, now before us.' The + learned writer then adverts to the 'extraordinary, but certain + fact, that in orchidaceous plants, forms just as different as + wheat, barley, rye, and oats, have been proved by the most rigorous + evidence, to be accidental variations of one common form, brought + about no one knows how, but before our eyes, and rendered + permanent by equally mysterious agency. Then says Reason, if they + occur in orchidaceous plants, why should they not also occur in + corn plants? for it is not likely that such vagaries will be + confined to one little group in the vegetable kingdom; it is more + rational to believe them to be a part of the _general system_ of + creation.... How can we be _sure_, that wheat, rye, oats, and + barley, are not all accidental off-sets from some unsuspected + species?'" + +It may be so; but this would only prove that the "unsuspected species" +included greater varieties, not that a really defined species was +transmutable into another. But it is a point upon which no satisfactory +result can be arrived at, since naturalists are not agreed in the +classification of species, nor what attributes constitute one. + +The Broomfield experiment is again brought forward, as decisive of the +power to originate new life from inorganic elements. It will be +remembered that Mr. WEEKES, of Sandwich, continued during three years to +subject solutions to electric action, and invariably found insects +produced in these instances, while they as invariably failed to appear +where the electric action was not employed, but every other condition +fulfilled. In a letter to the author of the _Vestiges_--two are +inserted, one on the independent generation of fungi--Mr. WEEKES says-- + + "One hundred and sixty-six days from the commencement of the + experiment--the first acari seen in connexion therewith, six in + number and nearly full-grown, were discovered on the outside of the + open glass vessel. On removing two pieces of card which had been + laid over the mouth of this vessel, several fine specimens were + found inhabiting the under surfaces, and others completely + developed and in active motion here and there within the glass. + Making my visit at an hour when a more favourable light entered the + room, swarms of acari were found on the cards, about the glass + tumbler, both within and without, and also on the platform of the + apparatus. At this identical hour Dr. J. Black favoured me with a + call, inspected the arrangements, and received six living specimens + of the acarus produced from solution in the open vessel." + +Specimens of the insect were sent to Paris, when they set a whole +conclave of philosophers a-laughing, because they were found to contain +ova. Other specimens were sent to London, but there their fate was +sealed by their being found to be, not a new species, but one then +abundant in the country. For ourselves we think the experiment not +conclusive. We adopt HUME'S principle. All but universal experience +having established that life is _ex ovo_ only, we must have a +proportionate body of counter evidence to establish a different mode of +generation. At all events, Mr. WEEKES'S protracted gestation of 166 days +by his galvanic battery is not likely, in the existing rage for +despatch, to supersede the existing routine of reproduction. + + +LONDON: PRINTED BY C. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/18521-8.zip b/18521-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9543a79 --- /dev/null +++ b/18521-8.zip diff --git a/18521.txt b/18521.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b7fb95 --- /dev/null +++ b/18521.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2912 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Expository Outline of the "Vestiges of +the Natural History of Creation", by Anonymous + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Expository Outline of the "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" + With a Notice of the Author's "Explanations:" A Sequel to the Vestiges + +Author: Anonymous + +Release Date: June 6, 2006 [EBook #18521] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EXPOSITORY OUTLINE OF THE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Eva Sweeney, Jamie Atiga and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +AN EXPOSITORY OUTLINE + +OF THE + +"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION;" + +WITH A COMPREHENSIVE AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ARGUMENTS BY WHICH THE +EXTRAORDINARY HYPOTHESES OF THE AUTHOR ARE SUPPORTED AND HAVE BEEN +IMPUGNED, WITH THEIR BEARING UPON THE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL INTERESTS OF +THE COMMUNITY. + +WITH A NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR'S + +"EXPLANATIONS:" + +A SEQUEL TO THE VESTIGES. + + * * * * * + +_Originally printed in a Supplement of_ THE ATLAS _Newspaper of August +30 and December 20, 1845._ + + * * * * * + +LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. J. VINCENT, OXFORD; G. +ANDREWS, DURHAM; J. TEPPELL, NORWICH; BRODIE AND CO., SALISBURY. A. AND +C. BLACK, EDINBURGH; D. ROBERTSON, GLASGOW; A. BROWN AND CO., ABERDEEN. +W. CURRY, JUN., AND CO., DUBLIN. + +1846. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + + * * * * * + +The following tractate first appeared in the form of a literary review +in a supplement of the ATLAS; but two impressions of that journal having +been long since exhausted, and inquiries still continuing numerous and +urgent, the proprietor has granted permission for the article to be +reprinted in a separate, more convenient, and perhaps enduring vehicle +than that of a newspaper. + +Few works of a scientific import have been published that so promptly +and deeply fixed public attention as the _Vestiges of Creation_, or +elicited more numerous replies and sharper critical analysis and +disquisition. Upon so vast a question as the evolution of universal +creation differences of opinion were natural and unavoidable. Many have +disputed the accuracy of some of the author's facts, and the sequence +and validity of his inductive inferences; but few can withhold from him +the praise of a patient and intrepid spirit of inquiry, much occasional +eloquence, and very considerable powers of analysis, systematic +induction, arrangement and combination. + +In what follows the leading objects kept in view have been--first, an +expository outline of the author's facts and argument; next, of the +chief reasons by which they have been impugned by Professor SEDGWICK, +Professor WHEWELL, Mr. BOSANQUET, and others who have entered the lists +of controversy. These arrayed, the concluding purpose fitly followed of +a brief exhibition of the relative strength of the main points in issue, +with their bearing on the moral and religious interests of the +community. + +It is the fourth and latest edition that has been submitted to +investigation. In this impression the author has introduced several +corrections and alterations, without, however, any infringement or +mitigation of its original scope and character. More recently appeared +his "Explanations," a Sequel to the "Vestiges of the Natural History of +Creation;" in which the author endeavours to elucidate and strengthen +his former position. This had become necessary in consequence of the +number of his opponents, and the inquiry and discussion to which the +original publication had given rise. Of this, also, a lengthened review +was given in the ATLAS, which has been included; so that the reader will +now have before him a succinct outline of a novel and interesting topic +of philosophical investigation. + +In the present reprint a few corrections have been made, and the +illustrative table at page 34, and some other additions, introduced. + +_London, January_ 1, 1846. + + + + +AN EXPOSITORY OUTLINE + +OF THE + +"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION." + + +It rarely happens that speculative inquiries in England command much +attention, and the _Vestiges of Creation_ would have probably formed no +exception, had it not been from the unusual ability with which the work +has been executed. The subject investigated is one of vast, almost +universal, interest; for everyone--the low, in common with the high in +intellect--find enigmas in creation that they would gladly have +unriddled, and promptly gather round the oracle who has boldly stepped +forth to cut the knot of their perplexities. The first impression made, +too, is favourable. No very striking originality, eloquence, or genius, +is displayed; yet there is ingenuity; and though the author betrays the +zeal of an advocate, desirous of leading to a determinate and _material_ +conclusion, his address, like that of the apostle of temperance, is +mostly mild and equable, with occasionally a little gentlemanly fervour +to give animation to his discourse. His style is mostly felicitous, +sometimes beautiful, lucid, precise, and elevated. In tone and manner of +execution, in quiet steadiness of purpose, in the firm, intrepid spirit +with which truth, or that which is conceived to be true, is followed, +regardless of startling presentments, the _Vestiges_ call to mind the +_Mecanique Celeste_, or _Systeme du Monde_. In caution, as in science, +the author is immeasurably inferior to LAPLACE; but in magnitude and +boldness of design he transcends the illustrious Frenchman. LAPLACE +sought no more than to subject the celestial movements to the formulas +of analysis, and reconcile to common observation terrestrial +appearances; but our author is far more ambitious--more venturesome in +aim--which is nothing less than to lift the veil of ISIS, and solve the +phenomena of universal nature. With what success remains to be +considered. That great skill and cleverness, that a very superior +mastery is evinced, we have conceded, and, we will also add, great show +of fairness in treatment and conclusion. + +No partial opening is made; the great design, in all its extent, is +manfully grappled with. The universe is first surveyed, next the mystery +of its origin. After ranging through sidereal space, examining the +bodies found there, their arrangement, formation, and evolution, the +author selects our own planet for especial interrogation. He disembowels +it, scrutinizing the internal evidences of its structure and history, +and thence infers the causes of past vicissitudes, existing relations, +and appearances. These disposed of, the surface is explored, the +phenomena of animal and vegetable existence contemplated, and the +sources of vital action, sexual differences, and diversities of species +assigned. Man, as the supreme head and last work of progressive +creation, challenges a distinct consideration; his history and mental +constitution are investigated, and the relation in which a sublime +reason stands to the instinct of brutes discriminated. The end and +purpose of all appropriately form the concluding theme, which finished, +the curtain drops, and the last sounds heard are that the name of the +Great Unknown will probably never be revealed; that "praise will elicit +no response," nor any "word of censure" be parried or deprecated. + +"Give me," exclaimed ARCHIMEDES, "a fulcrum, and I will raise the +earth." "Give me," says the author of the _Vestiges_, "gravitation and +development, and I will create a universe." ALEXANDER'S ambition was to +conquer a world, our author's is to create one. But he is wrong in +saying that his is the "first attempt to connect the natural sciences +into a history of creation, and thence to eliminate a view of nature as +one grand system of causation." The attempt has been often made, but +utterly failed; its results have been found valueless, hurtful--to have +occupied without enlarging the intellect, and the very effort has long +been discountenanced. Great advances, however, have been made in science +since system-making began to be discredited; nature has been +perseveringly ransacked in all her domains, and many extraordinary +secrets drawn from her laboratory. Astronomy and geology, chemistry and +electricity, have greatly extended the bounds of knowledge; still, we +apprehend, we are not yet sufficiently armed with facts to resolve into +one consistent whole her infinite variety. + +Efforts at generalization, however, and the systematic arrangement of +natural phenomena, are seldom wholly fruitless. If false, they tend to +provoke discussion--to lead to active thought and useful research. A +solitary truth, though new and useful, rarely obtains higher distinction +than to be quietly placed on the rolls of science, while a bold +speculation, traversing the whole field of creation, and smoothing all +its difficulties, satisfies for the moment, and fixes general attention. +Of this the _Vestiges of Creation_ are an example. Without adding to our +positive knowledge by a single new discovery, demonstration, or +experiment, they have excited more interest than the _Principia_ of +NEWTON. From this popular success, if good do not accrue, no great evil +need be anticipated. Hypotheses are most hurtful when accredited by an +irreversible authority--when erected into a tribunal without appeal, +they become the arbitrary dictator in lieu of the handmaid of science. +Discussion and invention, in place of being stimulated, are then +fettered by them; the human mind is enslaved, as Europe was for +centuries by the _Physics_ of ARISTOTLE, and still continues to be in +some of the ancient retreats and conservatories of exploded errors. But +these form the exceptions, not the rule of the age, which is free and +equal inquiry. Errors have ceased to have prescriptive immunities; and +mere conjectures, however sanctioned or plausible, if inconsistent with +science--with the ascertained facts of experiment and observation, are +speedily passed into the region of dreams and chimeras. + +Whether this will be the fate of our author remains to be proved. The +moment selected for his appearance has at least been well chosen. The +_Vestiges_ have the air of novelty, a long time having elapsed since any +one had the hardihood to propound a new system of Nature. In common with +most manifestations of our time, his effort exhibits a marked +improvement on the crudities of his predecessors in the same line of +architectural ambition. Science has been called to his aid, and the +patient ingenuity with which he has sought to make the latest +discoveries subservient to his purpose challenges admiration, if not +acquiescence. Some of our contemporaries have been warmed into almost +theological aversion by the boldness of his conclusions, but we see +little cause for fear, and none for bitterness or apprehension. More +closely Nature is investigated and deeper the impression will become of +her majesty and might. Unlike earthly greatnesses, she loses no +power--no grandeur--no fascination--no prestige, by familiarity. The +greatest philosophers will always rank among her greatest admirers and +most devout and fervent worshippers. + +Had our author proved all he has assumed our faith would not be +lessened, nor our wonder diminished. Whether matter or spirit has been +the world's architect, the astounding miracle of its creation is not the +less. What does it import whether it resulted direct from the fiat of +Omnipotence, or intermediately from the properties He impressed, or the +law of development He prescribed? He who gave the law, who infused the +energies by which Chaos was transmuted into an organized universe, +remains great and inscrutable as ever. + +It is time, however, that we entered upon a more detailed and closer +investigation of the _Vestiges of Creation_. Our purpose is not hastily, +and without examination, to deprecate, deny, or controvert; but +patiently, and without prejudice, to inquire, to submit faithfully and +intelligibly the outlines of a remarkable treatise; describe briefly its +scope and bearing, the arguments by which they are supported, and the +counter reasons by which they appear to be wholly or partially impugned. +Our readers will thus be enabled to appreciate the merits of a +controversy, the most comprehensive and interesting that for a +lengthened period has occupied the attention of the scientific and +intellectual world. + +For greater clearness of exposition we shall endeavour to follow the +order observed by the author in the division and treatment of his +subjects, commencing first with the + + +BODIES OF SPACE. + +The author opens his subject with a brief but luminous outline of the +arrangement and formation of the astral and planetary systems of the +heavens. He first describes the solar system, of which our earth is a +member, consisting of the sun, planets, and satellites with the less +intelligible orbs termed comets, and taking as the uttermost bounds of +this system the orbit of Uranus, it occupies a portion of space not less +than three thousand six hundred millions of miles in diameter. The mind +cannot form an exact notion of so vast an expanse, but an idea of it may +be obtained from the fact, that, if the swiftest racehorse ever known +had began to traverse it at full speed at the time of the birth of +MOSES, he would only yet have accomplished half his journey. Vast as is +the solar system, it is only one of an infinity of others which may be +still more extensive. Our sun is supposed to be a star belonging to a +constellation of stars, each of which has its accompaniment of revolving +planets; and the constellation itself with similar constellations to +form revolving clusters round some mightier centre of attraction; and so +on, each astral combination increasing in number, magnitude, and +complexity, till the mind is utterly lost in the vain effort to grasp +the limitless arrangement. + +Of the stars astronomers can hardly be said to know anything with +certainty. Sirius, which is the most lustrous, was long supposed to be +the nearest and most within the reach of observation, but all attempts +to calculate the distance of that luminary have proved futile. Of its +inconceivable remoteness some notion may be formed by the fact, that the +diameter of the earth's annual orbit, if viewed from it, would dwindle +into an invisible point. This is what is meant by the stars not having, +like the planets, a _parallax_; that is, the earths' orbit, as seen from +them, does not subtend a measurable angle. With two other stars, +however, astronomers have unexpectedly and recently been more fortunate +than with Sirius, and have been able to calculate their distances from +the earth. The celebrated BESSEL, and soon afterwards, the late Mr. +HENDERSON, astronomer royal for Scotland, were the first to surmount the +difficulty that had baffled the telescopic resources of the HERSCHELS. +BESSEL detected a parallax of one-third of a second in the star 61 +Cygni, and in the constellation of the Centaur HENDERSON found another +star whose parallax amounted to one second. Of the million of fixed +glittering points that adorn the sky, these are the only two whose +distances have been calculated, and to express them, miles, leagues, or +orbits seems inadequate. Light, whose speed is known to be 192,000 miles +per second, would be three years in reaching our earth from the star of +HENDERSON; and starting from BESSEL'S star and moving at the same rate +it could only reach us in ten years. These are the nearest stars, but +there are others whose distances are immeasurably greater, and whose +light, though starting from them at the beginning of creation, may not +have reached our globe! + +The stars visible to the eye are about 3,000, but the number increases +with every increase of telescopic power, and may be said to be +innumerable. They are not of uniform lustre or form, but vary in figure +and brightness. Some of them have a _nebulous_ or cloudy appearance; and +there are entire clusters with this dusky aspect, mostly pervaded, +however, with luminous points of more brilliant hue. In the outer fields +of astral space Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL observed a multitude of nebulae, one +or two of which may be seen by the naked eye. All of them, when seen by +instruments of low power, look like masses of luminous vapour; but some +of them had brighter spots, suggesting to Sir WILLIAM the idea of a +condensation of the nebulous matter round one or more centres. But when +these luminous masses are examined by more powerful instruments many of +them lose their cloudy form, and are resolved into shining points, "like +spangles of diamond dust." It is in this way several nebulae have yielded +to the gigantic reflector of Lord ROSSE, and others with still greater +optical resources may follow. This brings us to the first questionable +and controversial portion of the _Vestiges_; namely,--the + + +NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. + +It is among the gaseous bodies just described, in the outer boundary of +Nature, which neither telescope nor geometry can well reach, that +speculation has laid its _venue_, and commenced its aerial castles. +LAPLACE was the first to suggest the nebular hypothesis, which he did +with great diffidence, not as a theory proved, or hardly likely, but as +a mathematical possibility or illustration. His range of creation, +moreover, was not so vast as that of our author, which assumes to +compass the entire universe, but was limited to the evolution of the +solar system. The mode in which this might be evolved, LAPLACE thus +explains:-- + +He conjectures that in the original condition of the solar system the +sun revolved upon his axis, surrounded by an atmosphere which, in virtue +of an excessive heat, extended far beyond the orbits of all the planets, +the planets as yet having no existence. The heat gradually diminished, +and as the solar atmosphere contracted by cooling, the rapidity of its +rotation increased by the laws of rotatory motion, and an exterior zone +of vapour was detached from the rest, the central attraction being no +longer able to overcome the increased centrifugal force. The zone of +vapour might in some cases retain its form, as we still see in Saturn's +ring; but more usually the ring of vapour would break into several +masses, and these would generally coalesce into one mass, which would +revolve about the sun. Such portions of the solar atmosphere abandoned +successively at different distances, would form planets in the state of +vapour. These masses of vapour, it appears from mechanical laws, would +have each its rotatory motion, and as the cooling of the vapour still +went on, would each produce a planet that might have satellites and +rings formed from the planet, in the same manner as the planets were +formed from the atmosphere of the sun. + +All the known motions of the solar system are consistent and +reconcileable with this theory of LAPLACE, and upon it the author of the +_Vestiges_ has enlarged and founded his wider scheme of physical +creation. He supposes the void of nature to have been originally filled +with a universal FIRE MIST (p. 30), out of which all the celestial orbs +were made and put in motion. How this mist was put in activity, and +resolved into the luminous and revolving bodies that we now see, and one +of which we inhabit is the first urgent perplexity to surmount in the +conjecture. It is manifest that if a mist filled the entire region of +space, a mist it must for ever remain, unless acted upon by some cause +adequate to give it new action and arrangement. No sun, no stars or +planets could spontaneously emanate from an inert vapour any more than +from nothing. To meet this, his first difficulty, the author supposes +that there were certain _nuclei_, or centres of greater condensation, +analogous to those still remarked in the nebulae of the heavens, and that +these nuclei, by their superior attractive force, consolidated into +spheres the gaseous matter around them:-- + + "Of nebulous matter," says he, "in its original state we know too + little to enable us to suggest _how nuclei should be established in + it_. But supposing that from a _peculiarity_ in the constitution + nuclei are formed, we know very well how, by the power of + gravitation, the process of an aggregation of the neighbouring + matter to these nuclei should proceed until masses more or less + solid should be detached from the rest. It is a _well-known law in + physics, that when fluid matter collects towards, or meets in a + centre, it establishes a rotatory motion_. See minor results of + this law in the whirlpool and the whirlwind--nay, on so humble a + scale as the water sinking through the aperture of a funnel. It + thus becomes certain, that when we arrive at the stage of a + nebulous star we have a rotation on its axis commenced." + +Up to this, however, the author has proved nothing. The existence of the +fire-mist and nuclei are assumptions only, and the way by which he tries +to account for rotatory motion is clearly erroneous. The aggregation of +matter round the nuclei by gravitation would have no such tendency; no +more than a perfect balance would of itself have a tendency to move +about its fulcrum, or a falling stone to deviate from its vertical +course. Gravitation would indeed compress the particles of matter, but +its tendency and entire action is towards the nucleus; it compresses +them no more on one side of the line of their direction to the centre of +force than on any other side; and hence no _lateral_ or _rotatory +motion_ would ensue. Rotation, therefore, is yet unaccounted for; though +the author says _it is a well-known law in physics_ that when fluid +matter collects towards, or meets in a centre, it establishes a rotatory +motion; and then for illustration refers to a whirlwind or whirlpool. No +such effect would follow the conditions stated, and an entire ignorance +is betrayed of the laws of mechanical philosophy. In the whirlpool and +the whirlwind the gyration is caused by the fluid passing, not _to_ the +centre, but _through_ it and away from it; in the whirlpool downwards +through the place of exit, in the whirlwind upwards to where the vacuum +has caused the rapid aggregation. + +LAPLACE was too able a mathematician to commit these elementary +blunders; he did not assume to account for rotation by inapplicable +laws, but took for granted that the sun revolved upon its axis, and +thence communicated a corresponding motion to the bodies thrown from its +surface. But our author has sought to advance beyond his teacher, and in +this way has shown his ignorance of physics by an egregious mistake. At +this point we might stop, without following the ulterior steps by which +the solar system is made to evolve out of heated vapour. Having got +rotation, though by an impossible process, the author falls into the +illustration already given of the theory of LAPLACE. The rotation of +each nucleus or sun round its axis produces centrifugal force; that +force, by refrigeration, increases beyond the centripetal force of +gravity; in consequence rings are formed and detached from the surface, +whose unequal coherence of parts mostly causes them to break into +separate masses or planets, partaking of the motion of the bodies from +which they have been separated, and these primaries in their turn +becoming centres of gravitation and centrifugal force, throw off their +secondaries, or _moons_. + +In this way the solar system and other systems upon a similar plan of +arrangement, it is conjectured, may have been formed. According to the +author the generative process is still in progress, and new worlds are +in course of being thrown off from new suns in the confines of creation. +These nebulous stars on the outer bounds of space, of varying forms and +brightness, are supposed to be the centres of new systems in different +stages of development, like children of various ages and growth in a +numerous family. This is the author's own illustration (p. 20), and +after giving it he proceeds:-- + + "Precisely thus, seeing in our astral system many thousands of + worlds in all stages of formation, from the most rudimental to that + immediately preceding the present condition of those we deem + perfect, it is unavoidable to conclude that all the perfect have + gone through the various stages which we see in the rudimental. + This leads us at once to the conclusion that the whole of our + firmament was at one time a diffused mass of nebulous matter, + extending through the space which it still occupies. So also, of + _course_, must have been the other astral systems. Indeed, we must + presume the whole to have been originally in one connected mass, + the astral systems being only the first division into parts, and + solar systems the second. + + "The first idea which all this impresses upon us is, that the + formation of bodies in space is _still and at present in progress_. + We live at a time when many have been formed, and many are still + forming. Our own solar system is to be regarded as completed, + supposing its perfection to consist in the formation of a series of + planets, for there are mathematical reasons for concluding that + Mercury is the nearest planet to the sun, which can, according to + the laws of the system, exist. But there are other solar systems + within our astral systems, which are as yet in a less advanced + state, and even some quantities of nebulous matter which have + scarcely begun to advance towards the stellar form. On the other + hand, there are vast numbers of stars which have all the appearance + of being fully formed systems, if we are to judge from the complete + and definite appearance which they present to our vision through + the telescope. We have no means of judging of the _seniority of + systems; but it is reasonable to suppose that among the many, some + are older than ours_. There is, indeed, one piece of evidence for + the probability of the comparative youth of our system, altogether + apart from human traditions and the geognostic appearances of the + surface of our planet. This consists in a thin nebulous matter, + which is diffused around the sun to nearly the orbit of Mercury, of + a very oblately spheroidal shape. This matter, which sometimes + appears to our naked eyes, at sunset, in the form of a cone + projecting upwards in the line of the sun's path, and which bears + the name of the Zodiacal Light, has been thought a residuum or last + remnant of the concentrating matter of our system, and thus may be + supposed to indicate the comparative recentness of the principal + events of our cosmogony. _Supposing the surmise and inference_ to + be correct, and they may be held as so far supported by more + familiar evidence, we might with the more confidence speak of our + system as not amongst the elder born of Heaven, but one whose + various phenomena, physical and moral, as yet lay undeveloped, + while myriads of others were fully fashioned, and in complete + arrangement. Thus, in the sublime chronology to which we are + directing our inquiries, we first find ourselves called upon to + consider the globe which we inhabit as a child of the sun, elder + than Venus and her younger brother Mercury, but posterior in date + of birth to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus; next to regard our + whole system as probably of recent formation in comparison with + many of the stars of our firmament. We must, however, be on our + guard against supposing the earth as a recent globe in our ordinary + conceptions of time. From evidence afterwards to be adduced, it + will be seen that it cannot be presumed to be less than many + hundreds of centuries old. How much older Uranus may be, no one can + tell, far less how much more aged may be many of the stars of our + firmament, or the stars of other firmaments, than ours." + +All this is ingenious and fluently expressed. The author has an easy way +of surmounting his difficulties by the use of such little auxiliary +phrases, as "of course," "it may be surmised," "it is reasonable to +suppose," and so on; which, though trifling in themselves, help him in +their connecting inferences through many embarrassing perplexities. But +his hypothesis is yet unproved; his fire-mist is only a conjecture; his +nuclei, scattered like so many eggs in space out of which future suns +and worlds are in process of incubation, is of the same description, and +rotation, the first step in his process of creation, would not ensue +under the conditions he has assigned. Without dwelling on these +shortcomings, we shall terminate this portion of the author's inquiry +with a few general strictures. First, on its inconsistency with what we +know of the solar system; and, secondly, on its inadequacy to explain +the facts of which we are cognizant on our own globe. + +In the first place, for the hypothesis to be applicable to our system, +it is requisite that the primary and secondary bodies should revolve, +both in their orbits and round their axes, in one direction, and nearly +in one plane. Most of the bodies of the system observe these laws, their +orbits are nearly circular, nearly in the plane of the original equator +of the solar rotation, and in the direction of that rotation. But there +are exceptions; the comets, which intersect the equatorial plane in +every angle of direction form one, and the most distant of the planets +forms another. The satellites of Uranus are retrograde. They move from +east to west in orbits highly inclined to that of their primary, and on +both accounts are exceptions to the order of the other secondary bodies. +Our author is so perplexed by this inconsistency that he first doubts +the fact, and next tries to explain it by alleging that "it may be owing +to a _bouleversement_ of the primary." What is meant by the +_bouleversement_ of a planet none of his critics seem to apprehend, nor +do we. But that the moons of Uranus are contrariwise to those of the +other planets, Sir JOHN HERSCHEL has indubitably established; so that +the author at any rate upon this point has sustained a bouleversement. + +Our own moon forms a third exception to his theory. According to his +system, this satellite is a slip or graft from our planet, and in +constitution, it might be inferred, would partake of the elements of the +parent. But the fact is otherwise. The moon has no atmosphere, no seas, +or rivers, nor any water, and of course totally unfit for human +inhabitants, or organic life of any kind. It must, then, have had a +different origin, or be in some earlier stage of development than that +through which our earth has passed. + +Leaving these exceptions, we may next inquire into the relevant purposes +of the nebular hypothesis, supposing its assumptions acquiesced in. Like +the fanciful theories of the ancient philosophers, it seems only to +involve a profitless topic of controversy, without solving natural +phenomena. It does not unravel the mystery of the beginning, brings us +no nearer to the first creative force. Like a good chemist, previous to +analysis, the author first throws all matter into a state of solution; +but granting him his fire-mist and nuclei in the midst, how or whence +came this condition and arrangement of nature? What was its pre-existing +state? or, if that be answered, how or whence was that preceding state +educed, for it, too, must have had one prior to it? So that the mind +makes no advances by such inquiries, is lost in a maze that can have no +end, because it has no beginning; and, like Noah's messenger, for want +of a resting place, is compelled to return to the first starting point. +Easier, and quite as satisfactory, it seems to believe, as we have been +taught to believe, that the celestial spheres were at once perfect and +entire, projected into space from the hands of the maker, than that they +were elaborated out of luminous vapour by gravity and condensation. +Hopeless inquiry is thus foreclosed, an inquisition that cannot be +answered, silenced, and removed out of the pale of discussion. + +It is not from any attribute of the Deity being impugned that the +hypothesis is objectionable. Design and intelligence in the creation are +left paramount as before, and our impression of the skill exercised, and +the means employed, only transferred to another part of the work. He who +produced the primordial condition the author supposes, who filled space +with such a mist, composed of such materials, subjected to such laws, +such constitution, that sun, moon, and stars necessarily resulted from +them, appears omnipotent as ever. But it does not advance inquiry, nor +assist us in explaining the wonders we contemplate in our own globe. +Suppose a planet formed by the author's process, what kind of a body +would it be? Something, as Professor WHEWELL suggests, resembling a +large meteoric stone. How after wards came this unformed mass to be like +our earth, to be covered with motion and organization, with life and +general felicity? What primitive cause stocked it with plants and +animals, and produced all the surprising and subtle contrivances which +we find in their structure, all the wide and profound mutual dependence +which we trace in their economy? Is it possible to conceive, as the +_Vestiges_ inculcate, that man, with his sentiment and intellect, his +powers and passions, his will and conscience, were also produced as the +ultimate result of vapourous condensation? + +One more conjecture of the author, in this division of his subject, we +shall only notice. It is that "the formation of bodies in space _is +still in progress_." What may be doing in the nebulae, in the region +scarcely within reach of telescopic vision, in what may be considered +the yet uninclosed and commonable waste of the universe, is a subject, +we suspect, of much obscurity, and respecting which no precise +intelligence has been received; but limiting attention to the solar +system, which is nearer home and more within cognizance, the work seems +finished, perfect, and unchangeable, and, like the Great Architect, made +to endure for ever. This was the conclusion of LAPLACE; he proved that +the state of our system is _stable_; that is, the ellipsis the planets +describe will always remain nearly circular, and the axis of revolution +of the earth will never deviate much from its present position. He also +gave a mathematical proof that this stability is not accidental, but the +result of design, of an arrangement by which the planets all move in the +same direction, in orbits of small eccentricity and slightly inclined to +each other. Reasoning from analogy, as the author of the _Vestiges_ is +prone to do--extending our views from our solar system to other +systems--other suns and revolving planets--it is fair to conclude that +they are not less perfect in arrangement--subject to like conditions of +permanency, and alike exempt from mutation, decay, collision, or +extinction. + +Descending from this high region, we accompany the author to his next +and lower field--the + + +EARTH AND ITS GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. + +Our globe is somewhat less than 8,000 miles in diameter; it is of a +spheroidal form, the equatorial exceeding the polar axis in the +proportion of 300 to 299, and which slight inequality, in consequence of +its diurnal revolution, is necessary to preserve the land near the +equator from inundation by the sea. The mean density or average weight +of the earth is, in proportion to that of distilled water, as 5.66 to 1. +So that its specific gravity is considerably less than that of tin, the +lightest of the metals, but exceeds that of granite, which is three +times heavier than water. + +Descending below the surface, the first sensation that strikes is the +increase of temperature. This is so rapid, that for every one hundred +feet of sinking we obtain an increase of more than one degree of +Fahrenheit's thermometer. If there be no interruption to this law, and +no reason exists to conclude there is, it is manifest that at the depth +of a few miles we must reach an intensity of heat utterly unbearable. +Hence it follows that by no improvements in machinery can mining +operations be carried down to a great depth below the surface. The +greatest depth yet penetrated does not exceed three thousand feet, and +forms a very small advance towards the earth's centre, distant 4,000 +miles. + +Geologists, however, without penetrating far into the earth, have found +means for obtaining an insight for several miles into its interior +structure, and armed with hammer, chisel, and climbing hook, they +explore the beetling sea-cliff, traverse the deepest valleys, and scale +the highest mountains, carefully examining their formation, disposition, +and substance, and are thus enabled to obtain some knowledge of the +earth's stomach, as it were, by scrutinising the deposits and eruptive +ejectments on its surface. For example, we come to a mountain composed +of a particular substance with strata or beds of other rock lying +against its sloped sides; we, of course, infer that the substance of the +mountain dips away under the strata that we see lying against it. +Suppose that we walk away from the mountain across the turned-up edges +of the stratified rocks, and that for many miles we continue to pass +over other stratified rocks, all disposed in the same way, till we begin +to cross the opposite edges of the same beds; after which we pass over +these rocks all in reverse order, till we come to another extensive +mountain composed of similar materials to the first, and shelving away +under the strata in the same way; we should then infer that the +stratified rocks occupied a basin formed by the rocks of these two +mountains, and by calculating the thickness right through these strata +could say to what depths the rock of the mountain extended below. In +this way has the interior of the globe been examined, and its contents +and arrangement, for several miles below the surface, ascertained. The +result of such inspection we leave the author of the _Vestiges_ to +describe:-- + + "It appears that the basis rock of the earth, as it may be called, + is of hard texture, and crystalline in its constitution. Of this + rock, granite may be said to be the type, though it runs into many + varieties. Over this, except in the comparatively few places where + it projects above the general level in mountains, other rocks are + disposed in sheets or strata, with the appearance of having been + deposited originally from water. But these last rocks have nowhere + been allowed to rest in their original arrangement. Uneasy + movements from below have broken them up in great inclined masses, + while in many cases there has been projected through the rents + rocky matter more or less resembling the great inferior crystalline + mass. This rocky matter must have been in a state of fusion from + heat at the time of its projection, for it is often found to have + run into and filled up lateral chinks in these rents. There are + even instances where it has been rent again, and a newer melted + matter of the same character sent through the opening. Finally, in + the crust as thus arranged, there are, in many places, chinks + containing veins of metal. Thus, there is first a great inferior + mass, composed of crystalline rock, and probably resting + immediately on the fused and expanded matter of the interior: next, + layers or strata of aqueous origin; next, irregular masses of + melted inferior rock that have been sent up volcanically and + confusedly at various times amongst the aqueous rocks, breaking up + these into masses, and tossing them out of their original levels." + +This, we believe, is a correct outline of the crust of the earth, so far +as it has been possible to observe it. It exhibits extraordinary signs +of commotion and vicissitude; the lowest rocks indicating a previous +condition of igneous fusion; those above them of aqueous solution. Fire +and water have thus been the chief tellurian anarchists, and the shaking +of continents and the constant shifting of level in sea and land still +continue to attest their restless energies. That igneous matter has, +during many periods, been protruded from below--that mountains have +risen in succession from the sea, and injected their molten substance +through cracks and fissures of superincumbent strata--are facts resting +on indubitable evidence. Many masses of granite became the solid bottom +of some portions of the sea before the secondary strata were laid +gradually upon them. The granite of Mont Blanc rose during a recent +tertiary period. "We can prove," says Professor SEDGWICK, "more than +mere shiftings of level, and that many portions of sea and land have +entirely changed their places. The rocks at the top of Snowdon are full +of petrified sea-shells; the same may be said of some high crests of the +Alps, Pyrenees, and Andes. We have proof demonstrative that many parts +of Scotland, and that all England, formed, during many ages, the solid +bottom of the sea. It may be true that the antagonist powers of nature +during the human period have reached a kind of balance. But during all +geological periods there have been such long intervals of repose, or of +such gradual movements, that we may trace the history of the earth in +the successive deposits formed in the waters of the sea." This is the +great business of geology. + +Although at first sight the interior of the earth appears a confused +scene, after careful observation we readily detect in it a regularity +and order from which much instructive light is thrown on its past +vicissitudes. The deposition of the aqueous rocks and the projection of +the volcanic have unquestionably taken place since the settlement of the +earth in its present form. They are, indeed, of an order of events which +are going on under the agency of intelligible causes, down to the +present day. We may therefore consider these generally as recent +transactions. But advancing to the far distant antecedent era of its +existence, we may consider it to have been a globe of its present size +enveloped in the crystalline rock already described, with the waters of +the present seas and the present atmosphere around it, though these were +probably in considerably different conditions, both as to temperature +and their constituent materials, from what they now are. We may thus +presume that, without this primitive case of granitic texture, the great +bulk of the matters of our earth were agglomerated, whether in a fluid +or solid state is uncertain; but there cannot be any doubt that they +continue to exist in a condition of great heat and compression, having a +mean density of more than double that of the minerals on the surface. + +Judging from the results and still observable conditions, it may be +inferred that the heat retained in the interior of the globe was more +intense, or had greater freedom to act, in some places than in others. +These become the scenes of volcanic operations, and in time marked their +situations by the extrusion from below of trap and basalts--rocks +composed of the crystalline matter, fused by intense heat, and developed +on the surface in various conditions, according to the particular +circumstances under which it was sent up; some, for example, being +thrown up under water, and some in the open air, which contingencies +would make considerable difference in its texture and appearance. It +would, however, be a mistake to infer that, previous to these eruptions, +the earth was a smooth ball, with air and water playing round it. +Geology tells us plainly that there were great irregularities--lofty +mountains, interspersed with deep seas--and by which, perhaps, the +mountains were wholly or partially covered. But it is a fact worthy of +observation that the solids of our globe cannot for a moment be exposed +to water or the atmosphere without becoming liable to change. They +instantly begin to wear down. The matter so worn off being carried into +the neighbouring depths and there deposited, became the components of +the successive series of stratified rocks, extending from the basal +envelope of granite to the earth's surface, and which it will be proper +briefly to describe. + + +DEPOSITS OR ROCK FORMATIONS. + +The first of the series is the _Gneis and Mica Slate System_, of which +examples are exposed to view in the Highlands of Scotland and the west +of England. These earliest stratified rocks contain no matters which are +not to be found in the primitive granite. They are the same in +material--silica, mica, quartz, or hornblende--but changed into new +forms and combinations, and hence called by Mr. LYELL metamorphic rocks. +Some of them are composed exclusively of one of the materials of +granite; the _mica schist_, for example, of mica; the _quartz rocks_, +of quartz. In the metamorphic rocks no organic remains have been found, +and they are geologically below all the rocks that do contain traces of +animal life. + +From the primary rocks we pass into the next ascending series, called +the _Clay Slate and Grauwacke Slate System_, which in some places is +found resting immediately on the granite, the antecedent bed being there +wanting. This deposit has been well examined, because some of its slate +beds have been extensively quarried for domestic purposes. By some +geologists it is called the _Silurian System_, it being largely +developed at the surface of a district of western England formerly +occupied by the Silures. It is found also in North Wales and in the +north of England, in beds of great thickness, and in Scotland, but there +the Silurian rocks are more feebly represented. + +The _Old Red Sandstone, or Devonian System_, comes next. It forms the +material of the grand and rugged mountains which fringe many parts of +our Highland coasts, and ranges, on the south flank of the Grampians, +from the eastern to the western sea of Scotland. There is no part of +geology and science more clear than that which refers to the ages of +mountains. It is as certain that the Grampian mountains are older than +the Alps and Apennines, as it is that civilisation had reached Italy and +enabled her to subdue the world, while Scotland was the abode of +barbarism. The Pyrenees, Carpathians, and other ranges of continental +Europe are all younger than these Scotch hills, or even the +insignificant Mendip Hills of southern England. Stratification tells +this tale as plainly, and more truly, than LIVY tells the story of the +Roman republic. It tells us that at the time when the Grampians sent +streams and detritus to straits where now the valleys of the Forth and +Clyde meet, the greater part of Europe was a wide ocean. + +The last three series of strata contain the remains of the earliest +occupants of the globe, and of which we shall soon speak. They are of +enormous thickness--in England, not much less than 30,000 feet, or +nearly six miles. + +We have now arrived at the secondary rocks, of which the lowest group is +the _Carboniferous Formation_, so called from its remarkable feature of +numerous interspersed beds of coal. It commences with beds of the +mountain limestone, which in England attains a depth of 800 yards. Coal +is altogether composed of the matter of a terrestrial vegetation, +transmuted by putrefaction of a peculiar kind beneath the surface of +water, and in the absence of air. From examples seen at the present day +at the mouths of such rivers as the Mississippi, which traverse +extensive sylvan regions, it is thought that the vegetation, the rubbish +of decayed forests, was carried by rivers into estuaries, and there +accumulated into vast natural rafts, until it sank to the bottom, where +an overlayer of sand or mud would prepare it for becoming a stratum of +coal. Others conceive that the vegetation first went into the condition +of peat moss, that a sink in a level then exposed it to be overrun by +the sea and covered with a layer of sand or mud; that a subsequent +uprise made the mud dry land, and fitted it to bear a new forest, which +afterwards, like its predecessors, became a bed of peat--that, in short, +by repetitions of this process the alternate layers of coal, sand and +shell constituting the carboniferous group were formed. + +The _Magnesian Limestone_ deposits succeed the carboniferous, and +sometimes pass into them by insensible gradations. In the south of +England they are represented by conglomerates, and partly composed of +the solid and more or less rounded fragments of the older strata. They +afford a proof of what geologists have often occasion to remark of the +long periods of time during which the ancient works of nature were +perfected; for the older rocks were solid as they are now, and their +organic remains petrified at the time these conglomerates were forming. + +We can only briefly glance at the remaining chapters of geological +history. The _New Red Sandstone_ forms the base of the great central +plains of England, and is surmounted by the oliferous marls and red +arenaceous beds which pass under the succession of great oolitic +terraces that stretch across England from the coasts of Dorsetshire to +the north-eastern coast of Yorkshire. It marks the commencement of an +important era, being the strata in which land animals are first found. +The _Oolte System_ which follows marks the beginning of mammalia, and in +some of its beds in Buckinghamshire are found the exuviae of tropical +trees. Near Weymouth, in the well-known dirt beds, are found trees with +their silicified trunks growing up in the position of nature, and their +roots embedded in the soil on which they grew. + +Next we have the chalk or _Cretaceous Formation_, that makes such a +conspicuous figure in England. The celebrated cliffs of Dover are of +this era. It forms a stripe from Yorkshire to Kent, and is found in +France, Germany, Russia, and in North America. The English chalk beds +are 1,200 feet thick, showing the considerable depth of the ocean in +which they were formed. Their origin has been a questionable topic; they +were thought to be formed from the detritus of coral reefs, but +Professor EHRENBERG has recently announced, as the result of his +microscopical researches, that chalk is composed partly of inorganic +particles and partly of shells of inconceivable minuteness, a cubic inch +of the substance containing about ten millions of them. + +In the hollows of the chalk-beds have been formed series of +strata--clay, limestone, marl alternating--to which the name of the +_Tertiary System_ has been given. It is irregularly distributed over +vast surfaces of all our continents, and must be considered as the beds +of estuaries left at the conclusion of the cretaceous period. London and +Paris rest on basins of this formation, and another such basin extends +from near Winchester under Southampton, and reappears in the Isle of +Wight. + +We hasten upward to the _Diluvial System_, which brings us near to the +present surface. To this era is referred the erratic blocks, or gigantic +boulder stones, which have been driven by floods across our continents, +or drifted in icebergs over valleys, and perched sometimes on mountain +tops. To it also must be referred the _till_ of Scotland and the great +brown clay of England, and our vast beds of gravel and superficial +rubbish, connected with the deluvium in the history of _ossiferous +caverns_, of which that examined by Dr. BUCKLAND at Kirkdale is an +example. They occur in the calcareous strata, as the great caverns +generally do, and have in all instances been naturally closed up till +the period of their discovery. At Kirkdale the remains of twenty-four +species of animals were found--namely, pigeon, lark, raven, duck, +partridge, mouse, water-rat, rabbit, hare, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, +elephant, weasel, fox, wolf, deer, ox, horse, bear, tiger, hyena. From +many of the bones of the gentler of these animals being found in a +broken state, it is supposed that the cave was the haunt of hyenas and +other predaceous animals, by which the smaller ones had been consumed. + +We come last to the _Modern_ or _Superficial Formation_, of which the +best specimen is the great Bedford level, that spreads over the lower +lands of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Lincolnshire, consisting of +accumulations of silt, drifted matter, and bog-earth, some of which +began before the earliest periods of British history. When these +accumulations are removed by artificial means, we find below sometimes +shells of recent species, and the remains of an old estuary, sometimes +sand-banks, gravel beds, stumps of trees, and masses of drifted wood. On +this recent surface are found skulls of a living species of European +bear, skeletons of the Arctic wolf, European beaver and wild boar, and +numerous horns and bones of the roebuck and red deer, and of the +gigantic stag or Irish elk. They testify to a zoology on the verge of +that now prevailing or melting into it. In corresponding deposits of +North America are found remains of the mammoth, mastadon, buffalo, and +other animals of extinct or living species. + +Considering it best not to interrupt the description of the successive +formations, this is almost the only allusion that has been made to the +fossils which constitute so important a part of geological science. It +is now to be explained that from an early period, that is, from the +metamorphic deposit to the close of the rock series, each formation is +found to enclose remains of the organic beings, plants, and animals, +which flourished upon earth during the time they were forming; and these +organisms, or such parts of them as were of sufficient solidity, have +been in many instances preserved with the utmost fidelity, although for +the most part converted into the substance of the enclosing mineral. The +rocks may be thus said to form a kind of history of the organic +departments of nature apparently from near their beginning to the +present time. It is upon the commencement and progress of life under +these circumstances that the author of the _Vestiges of Creation_ has +put forth some of his most startling and controversial propositions; but +before noticing them it will be useful to prepare the way by shortly +describing the gradations of organic existences, following the same +order as observed in the rock series, by beginning with the lowest or +humblest forms of organization. + + +RISE AND PROGRESS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. + +The interior of the earth reveals wonders not less impressive than those +of the skies. We have seen in the last section how the crust of our +globe is composed of successive layers or tiers of strata, rising +upward, terrace upon terrace, till we reach the present vegetable mould +or superficial platform of animated existence. In the aggregate these +formations or systems, marking the several epochs in nature's +development, may extend to a depth, as Dr. BUCKLAND conjectures, of ten +or fifteen miles below the surface, and each may be considered a vast +cemetery or graveyard, entombing the remains of ages long anterior to +human creation. We, in fact, live upon a pile of worlds, and +anticipating the future from past records and from changes still +manifest from the shallowing soundings of neighbouring seas, it is not +improbable that the existing scene of bustle may have heaped upon it as +many superincumbent masses as the lowest of the rocks enclosing the +vestiges of life. + +If not with a kind of awe, it must have certainly been with intense +curiosity that the first investigators of fossilology looked upon the +earliest forms of animated being of which we have any traces as existing +upon this globe. These first denizens, however, seem to have been of a +simple structure and humble order, not fit to play high class +characters. No land animals are found among them, none which could +breathe the atmosphere, none but tenants of the water, and even animals +so high in the scale as fish were wanting. In popular language, the +earliest fossils are corals and shellfish. + +But to make the subject generally intelligible it will be necessary +first to define the orders of the animal kingdom. CUVIER was the first +to give a philosophical view of the animal world in reference to the +plan on which each animal is constructed. According to him there are +four forms on which animals have been modelled, and of which ulterior +divisions are only slight modifications founded on the development or +addition of some parts that do not produce any essential change of +structure. + +The four great branches of the animal world are the _vertebrata_, +_mollusca_, _articulata_, and _radiata_. The _vertebrata_ are those +animals which (as man and other sucklers, birds and fishes) have a +backbone and a skull with lateral appendages, within which the viscera +are excluded, and to which the muscles are attached. The _mollusca_ or +soft animals have no bony skeleton; the muscles are attached to the +skin, which often include stony plates called shells; such mollusca are +shell-fish, others are cuttle-fish, and many pulpy sea animals. The +_articulata_ consist of crustacea (lobsters, &c.), insects, spiders, and +annulos worms, which, like the other classes of this branch, consist of +a head and a number of successive portions of the body jointed together, +whence the name. Finally the _radiata_ include the animals known under +the name of zoophytes. + +Now it is fossils of the _radiata_ division of the animal kingdom that +are found in the lowest stratified rocks, polypiaria and crinodia, the +first including various forms of these extraordinary animals +(corallines) which still abound in tropical seas, often obstructing the +course of the mariner, and even laying the foundation of new continents. +The crinoids are an early and simple form of the large family of +star-fishes; the animal is little more than a stomach, surrounded by +tentacula to provide itself with food, and mounted upon a many-jointed +stalk, so as to resemble a flower upon its stem. Along with these in the +slate system are a few lowly genera of crustacea, and of a higher class, +the mollusca, and the existence of these imply the contemporary +existence of certain humbler forms of life, vegetable and animal, for +their subsistence, forming a scene approaching to what is found in seas +of the present day, excepting that fishes, nor any higher vertebrata, as +yet roamed the marine wilds. + +The animal species of this era seem to have been few in number, and +almost the whole had become extinct before the next group of strata had +been formed. In the Silurian deposit the vestiges of life become more +abundant, the number of species extended, and important additions made +in the traces of sea plants and fishes. Remains of fishes have been +detected in rocks immediately over the Aymestry limestone, being +apparently the first examples of vertebrated animals which breathed upon +our planet. (p. 64). The cephaloda, represented in our era by the +nautilus and cuttle-fish, pertain to the Silurian formation, and are the +most highly organised of the mollusca, possessing in some families an +internal bony skeleton, together with a heart and a head with mandibles +not unlike those of the parrot. + +In the Old Red Sandstone the same marine specimens are continued with +numerous additions. Several of the strata are crowded with remains of +fish, showing that the seas in which these beds were deposited had +swarmed with that class of inhabitants. The predominating kinds are of +an inferior model to the two orders which afterwards came into +existence, and still are the principal fishes of our seas; the former +are covered with integuments of a considerably different character from +the true scales covering the latter, and which orders, from their form +of organization, are named stenoid and cycloid. + +Up to the present we find proofs of the general uniformity of organic +life over the surface of the earth at the time when each particular +system of rocks was formed. The types of being formed in the old red as +in preceding deposits, are identical in species with the remains that +occur in the corresponding class of rocks in Brittany, the Hartz, +Norway, Russia, and North America; attesting the similarity and almost +universality, if not contemporary character, of terrestrial changes. A +few other geological facts may be here mentioned for recollection, and +which throw light on the marine animal and vegetable forms of this and +preceding eras. First there was comparatively an absence of salt in the +early ocean; and next the temperature of the earth is conjectured to +have been higher, and perhaps almost uniform throughout. The higher +temperature of the primeval times is attributed to the greater proximity +or intensity of the globe's internal heat, and which, poured through +cracks and fissures of the lately concreted crust, M. BRONGNIART +supposes to have been sufficiently great to overpower the ordinary +meteorological influences and spread a tropical climate all over its +surface. + +It must be further borne in mind that as yet no _land animals or +plants_ existed, and for this presumable reason, that dry land had not +appeared. It is only in the next or carboniferous formation that +evidence is traced of island or continent. As a consequence of this +emergence there was fresh water; for rain, instead of returning to the +sea, as formerly, was collected in channels of the earth and became +springs, rivers, and lakes. It was made a receptacle for an advance in +organism, and land plants became a conspicuous part of the new creation. + +According to the _Vestiges of Creation_, terrestrial botany began with +classes of comparatively simple forms and structure. In the ranks of the +vegetable kingdom the lowest place is taken by plants of cellular +tissue, and which have no flowers, as lichens, mosses, fungi, ferns, and +sea-weeds. Above these stand plants with vascular tissue, bearing +flowers, and of which there are two subdivisions: first, plants having +one seed-lobe, and in which the new matter is added within, of which the +cane and palm are examples; second, plants having two seed lobes, and in +which the new matter is added on the outside under the bark, of which +the pine, elm, oak, and all the British forest trees are examples. Now +the author of the _Vestiges_ states that two-thirds of the plants of +this era belong to the cellular kind, but to this one of his ablest +critics (_Edinburgh Review_ for July) demurs, asserting that the +carboniferous epoch shows a gorgeous _flora_--that the first fruits of +vegetable nature were not rude, ill-fashioned forms, but in magnificence +and complexity of structure equal to any living types, and that the +forest approached the rank and complicated display of a tropical jungle, +where the prevalence of great heat with great moisture, combined with +the fact that the atmosphere contained a greater proportion of the +natural food of plants, must undoubtedly have forcibly stimulated +vegetation, and in quantity and luxuriance of growth, if not fineness of +organization, produced it in rich abundance. The earth, it is likely, +was one vast forest, which would perform a most important part for the +good of its future inhabitants, helping to purge the air of its excess +of carbonic acid, by which the earth's surface would be prepared for its +new occupants. + +The animal remains of this era are not numerous in comparison with those +that go before or follow. Contrary to what the author of the _Vestiges_ +supposes (p. 111), insects were already buzzing in the air; there were, +however, no crawling reptiles on the ground, and it is a doubtful point +whether birds cheered the ancient forests with their song. But fishes +reached their most perfect organic type. They were the lords of +creation, and had a structure in conformity with their high office. +Since then the class has increased in its species, but has degenerated +to a less noble type. + +In the next formation, the New Red Sandstone, reptiles make their +appearance. They are considered next to fishes in the zoological scale. +So nearly are they sometimes connected, that it is doubtful to which +class they belong. Many reptiles are also amphibious, adapted either to +water or land. The surface of the globe abounded in large flat, muddy +shores, and was suited to the new order of visitants called into +existence. + +In the Oolite System, mostly consisting of calcareous beds, mammals make +their appearance. Some additions were made to the reptile form. One +animal (the behemite) appeared, but terminated in the next era. In the +following series of rocks mammals increase in abundance. The advance in +land animals is less marked, but considerable in the tertiary strata. +The tapir forms a conspicuous type. One animal of the kind was eighteen +feet long, and had a couple of tusks turning down from the lower jaw, by +which it could attach itself, like the walrus, to a bank, while its body +floated in the water. Many animals of a former period disappear, and are +replaced by others belonging to still existent families--elephant, +hippopotamus, and rhinoceros--though extinct as species. Some of these +forms are startling from their size. The great mastadon was a species of +elephant living on aquatic plants, and reaching the height of twelve +feet. The mammoth was another elephant, and supposed to have survived +till comparatively recent times. The megatherium is an incongruity of +nature, of gigantic proportions, yet ranking in a much humbler order +than the elephant, that of the edenta, to which the sloth, ant-eater, +and armadilla belong. The megatherium had a skeleton of enormous +solidity, with an armour-clad body, and five toes, terminating in huge +claws to grasp the branches on which it fed. Finally, beside the dog, +cat, squirrel, and bear, we have offered to us, for the first time, +oxen, deer, camel, and other specimens of the rumantia. Traces of the +quadrumane, or monkey, have been found in the older tertiaries of +France, India, and England. So that we may now be said to have arrived +at the zoological forms not long antecedent to the appearance of the +chief of all, bimana, or man, and shall here pause to consider the +conclusions of the author of the _Vestiges of Creation_ on the origin of +the organic existences that have been successively exhibited. + +It will be convenient, however, first to introduce a synoptic view of +the evolutions of the earth as set forth in this and the preceding +section. For this purpose the author has introduced a parallel table, +exhibiting on one side a scale of animal life beginning with the +humblest and ascending to the highest species; and on the other side the +successive series of rock formations, in which their fossiliferous +remains have been found up to the present superficial deposits of the +globe. Objections have been made to the correctness of the author's +analogies, scale, and his classification of animals, the chief of which +will be adverted to in the next section; but the table is essential, as +presenting at one view an outline of the hypothesis he has sought to +establish. + + +SCALE OF ANIMAL KINGDOM. ORDER OF ANIMALS IN ASCENDING SERIES FOETAL HUMAN BRAIN + OF ROCKS. RESEMBLES, IN + _Invertebrata._ + 1 Infusoria _Traces of Infusoria_(?) 1 Gneiss and Mica\ + Slate System \ + 2 Polypi Polypiaria \ \ + 5 Echinodermata Echinodermata \ \ + { 7 Brachiopoda {15-20 Brachiopoda} Crustacea } 2 Clay Slate System \ 1st month, typically, +Moll-{ 9 Pteropoda Artic-{Crustacea Pteropoda } / } that of an +usca {10 Gasteropoda ulata {12-14 Gasteropoda} Annelides / / avertebrated animal + {11 Cephalopoda {Annelides Cephalopoda} \ / + } 3 Silurian system / + _Vertebrata._ { _Remains of Fishes_ / / + { Fishes of low type; \ \ + 32-36 Fishes { heterocercal; allied } 4 Old Red Sandstone } 2nd month, that of a fish; + { to crustacea / / + { Sauroid Fishes \ + 37 Batrachia (frogs, &c.) Batrachia \ + } 5 Carboniferous + 39 Sauria (lizards, &c.) Sauria / formation + 40 Chelonia (tortoises) Chelonia / 3rd month, that of a turtle; + 41-46 Birds _Footsteps of Birds_ 6 New Red Sandstone 4th month, that of a bird; + 47 Cetacea (dolphins, whales, &c.) _Bones of a \ + Cetaceous Animal_ } 7 Oolite + _Bones of a Marsupial_ / + 8 Chalk + 48 Pachydermata (tapirs, &c.) Pachydermata \ + 49 Edentata (sloths) Edentata \ + 50 Rodentia (squirrels, hare, &c.) Rodentia \ 5th month, that of a rodent; + 51 Marsupialia (opossums, &c.) Marsupialia \ + 52 Ruminantia (oxen, stag, &c.) Ruminantia \ 6th month, that of a ruminant; + 53 Amphibia (seals) } 9 Tertiary + 54 Digitigrada (dog, cat, &c.) Digitigrada / 7th month, that of a digitigrade animal; + 55 Plantigrada (bear, &c.) Plantigrada / + 56 Insectivora (shrew, &c.) Insectivora / + 57 Cheiroptera (bats) Cheiroptera / + 58 Quadrumana (apes) Quadrumana / 8th month, that of the quadrumana; + 29 Bimana (man) Bimana 10 Superficial deposits 9th month, attains full human character. + + + +TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES. + +In the two last sections we have gone through the earth's geological +history, first of the changes in its physical structure, next of the +mutations in the organic forms that have, in serial order, appeared in +the successive strata of its external envelope, from the period of that +far distant crisis when it was a molten globe on which its primitive +granitic covering was just beginning to concrete, in consequence of +abating heat, until we have arrived at the first prognostic signs of +approaching human existence. + +The rock upon rock of vast thickness, by which the earth's crust, +through countless ages, has been formed, unquestionably constitutes a +most extraordinary phenomenon of physical creation, but hardly so +marvellous and incomprehensible as the beginning, progress, and end of +the divers orders of marine and terrestrial beings that filled each +world of life. It is to geologists, to PLAYFAIR, HUTTON, LYELL, +BUCKLAND, SEDGWICK, OWEN, and other great names, native and foreign, to +whom we are indebted for this singular revelation of Nature's works. It +is their unwearied research that has opened to us the surprising +spectacle we have attempted briefly to describe of the diversified +groups of species which have, in the course of the earth's history, +succeeded each other at vast intervals of time; one set of animals and +plants wholly or partly disappearing from the face of our planet, and +others, which apparently did not before exist, becoming the only or +predominant occupants of the globe. + +Now the great question arises--whence, by what power, or by what law, +were these reiterated transitions brought about? Were the organized +species of one geological epoch, by some long-continued agency of +natural causes, transmuted into other and succeeding species? or were +there an extinction of species, and a replacement of them by others, +through special and miraculous acts of creation? or, lastly, did species +gradually degenerate and die out from the influence of the altered and +unfavourable physical conditions in which they were placed, and be +supplanted by immigrants of different species, and to which the new +conditions were more congenial? + +The last, we confess, is the view to which we are most inclined--first, +because we think a transmutation of species, from a lower to a higher +type, has not been satisfactorily proved; and second, because of the +strong impression we entertain, that the universe, subject to certain +cyclical and determinate mutations, was made complete at first, with +self-subsisting provisions for its perpetual renewal and conservation. +We shall advert to this matter hereafter; but at present it is the +conclusions of the author of the _Vestiges_ that claim consideration. He +adopts the first interpretation of animal phenomena, namely, that there +has been a transmutation of species, that the scale of creation has been +gradually advancing in virtue of an inherent and organic law of +development. Nature, he contends, began humbly; her first works were of +simple form, which were gradually meliorated by circumstances favourable +to improvement, and that everywhere animals and plants exhibit traces of +a parallel advance of the physical conditions and the organic structure. +The general principle, he inculcates, is, that each animal of a higher +kind, in the progress of its embryo state, passes through states which +are the final condition of the lower kind; that the higher kinds of +animals came later, and were developed from the lower kinds, which came +earlier in the series of rock formations, by new peculiar conditions +operating upon the embryo, and carrying it to a higher stage. These +conclusions the author maintains geology has established, and of the +results thence derived he gives the subjoined recapitulation:-- + + "In pursuing the progress of the development of both plants and + animals upon the globe, we have seen an advance in both cases, from + simple to higher forms of organization. In the botanical department + we have first sea, afterwards land plants; and amongst these the + simpler (cellular and cryptogamic) before the more complex. In the + department of zoology, we see, first, traces all but certain of + infusoria [shelled animalculae]; then polypiaria, crinoidea, and + some humble forms of the articulata and mollusca; afterwards higher + forms of the mollusca; and it appears that these existed for ages + before there were any higher types of being. The first step forward + gives fishes, the humblest class of the vertebrata; and, moreover, + the earliest fishes partake of the character of the lower + sub-kingdom, the articulata. Afterwards come land animals, of which + the first are reptiles, universally allowed to be the type next in + advance from fishes, and to be connected with these by the links of + an insensible gradation. From reptiles we advance to birds, and + thence to mammalia, which are commenced by marsupialia, + acknowledgedly low forms in their class. That there is thus a + progress of some kind, the most superficial glance at the + geological history is sufficient to convince us." + +Now this appears plausible and conclusive, but the correctness of the +recapitulation here made, and its conformity to actual nature, have been +sharply disputed. It may be true that sea plants came first, but of this +there is no proof; and of land plants there is not a shadow of evidence +that the simpler forms came into being before the more complex: the +simple and complex forms are found together in the more ancient _flora_. +It is true that we first see polypiaria, crinoidea, articulata, and +mollusca, but not exactly in the order stated by the author. It is true +that the next step gives us fishes, but it is not true that the earliest +fishes link on to the lower sub-kingdom, the articulata. It is true that +we afterwards find reptiles, but those which first appear belong to the +highest order of the class, and show no links of an insensible gradation +into fishes. In the tertiary deposit of the London clay the evidence of +concatenation entirely fails. Among the millions of organic forms, from +corals up to mammalia of the London and Paris basins, hardly a single +secondary species is found. In the south of France it is said that two +or three secondary species struggle into the tertiary strata; but they +form a rare and evanescent exception to the general rule. Organic nature +at this stage seems formed on a new pattern--plants as well as animals +are changed. It might seem as if we had been transported to a new +planet; for neither in the arrangement of the genera and the species, +nor in their affinities with the types of a pre-existing world, is there +any approach to a connected chain of organic development. + +For some discrepancies the author endeavours to account, and it is fair +to give his explanation:-- + + "Fossil history has no doubt still some obscure passages; and these + have been partially adverted to. Fuci, the earliest vegetable + fossils as yet detected, are not, it has been remarked, the lowest + forms of aquatic vegetation; neither are the plants of the + coal-measures the very lowest, though they are a low form, of land + vegetation. There is here in reality no difficulty of the least + importance. The humblest forms of marine and land vegetation are of + a consistence to forbid all expectation of their being preserved in + rocks. Had we possessed, contemporaneously with the fuci of the + Silurians, or the ferns of the carboniferous formation, fossils of + higher forms respectively, _equally unsubstantial_, but which had + survived all contingencies, then the absence of mean forms of + similar consistency might have been a stumbling-block in our + course; but no such phenomena are presented. The blanks in the + series are therefore no more than blanks; and when a candid mind + further considers that the botanical fossils actually present are + all in the order of their organic development, the whole phenomena + appear exactly what might have been anticipated. It is also + remarked, in objection, that the mollusca and articulata appear in + the same group of rocks (the slate system) with polypiaria, + crinoidea, and other specimens of the humblest sub-kingdom; some of + the mollusca, moreover, being cephalopods, which are the highest of + their division in point of organization. Perhaps, in strict fact, + the cephalopoda do not appear till a later time, that of the + Silurian rocks. But even though the cephalopoda could be shewn as + pervading all the lowest fossiliferous strata, what more would the + fact denote than that, in the first seas capable of sustaining any + kind of animal life, the creative energy advanced it, in the space + of one formation, (no one can say how long a time this might be,) + to the highest forms possible in that element, excepting such as + were of vertebrate structure. It may here be inquired if geologists + are entitled to set so high a value as they do upon the point in + the scale of organic life which is marked by the upper forms of the + mollusca. It will afterwards be seen that this is a low point + compared with the whole scale, if we are to take as a criterion + that parity of development which has been observed in the embryo of + one of the higher animals. _The human embryo passes through the + whole space representing the invertebrate animals in the first + month, a mere fraction of its course._ There is indeed a remarkably + rapid change of forms in such an embryo at first: the rapidity, + says Professor Owen, is 'in proportion to the proximity of the ovum + to the commencement of its development;' and, conformable to this + fact, we find the same zoologist stating that, in the lowest + division of the animal kingdom, (the Acrita of his arrangement,) + there is a much quicker advance of forms towards the next above it, + than is to be seen in subsequent departments. There is, indeed, to + the most ordinary observation, a rapidity and force in the + productive powers of the lowest animals, which might well suggest + an explanation of that rush of life which seems to be indicated in + the slate and Silurian rocks. With regard to the so-called early + occurrence of fishes partaking of the saurian character, I would + say that their occurrence a full formation after the earliest and + simplest fishes, is, considering how little we know of the space of + time represented by a formation, not early: their being later in + any degree is the fact mainly important. The subsequent rise of + new orders of fishes, fully piscine in character, may be explained + by the supposition of their having been developed, as is most + likely, from a different portion of the inferior sub-kingdom. In + short, all the objections which have been made to the great fact of + a general progress of organic development throughout the geological + ages, will be found, on close examination, to refer merely to + doubtful appearances of small moment, which vanish into nothing + when rightly understood." + +Upon some of the chief points here involved, it may be remarked that the +most eminent physiologists are not agreed; they are not agreed that +animals can be arranged in a series, passing from lower to higher; nor +that animals of a higher kind in the embryo state pass through the +successive stages of the lower kinds; the character of these stages, in +the asserted doctrine, being taken from the brain and heart, and man +being the highest point of the series. There are physiologists too who +deny that the brain of the human embryo at any period, however early, +resembles the brain of any mollusk or of any articulata. It never, they +assert, passes through a stage comparable or analogous to a permanent +condition of the same organ in any invertebrate animal; and in like +manner the spinal cord in the human vertebrae at no period agrees with +the corresponding part of the lower kind of animals. The moment it +becomes visible in the human embryo, it is entirely dorsal in position; +while in mollusks and articulatas a great part, or nearly the whole, is +ventral. The same is true of the heart, or centre of the vascular +system, which has always a different relative position in the great +nervous centre in the human embryo from what it has in any articulate +animal, and in most mollusks. + +A second position in the _Vestiges_ appears not to have been +established--namely, as to the uniform geological arrangement of +different organic structures. It is not true that _only_ the lowest +forms of animal life are found in the lowest fossiliferous rocks, and +that the more complicated structures are gradually and exclusively +developed among the higher bands in what might be called a natural +ascending scale. On the contrary, the predaceous cephalopods and the +highly organized crustaceous are among the oldest fossils. Such appears +to be the order of nature as evidenced by facts, and it must be +admitted, however repugnant to preconceived notions or mere mortal +conjectural amendments. + +In the third place the evidence seems to preponderate in favour of +_permanency of species_. There can be no doubt that both plants and +animals may, by the influence of breeding, and of external agents +operating upon their constitution, be greatly modified, so as to give +rise to varieties and races different from what before existed. But +there are limits to such modifications, as in the different kind and +breed of dogs; and no organized beings can, by the mere working of +natural causes, be made to pass from the type of one species to that of +another. A wolf by domestication, for example, can never become a dog, +nor the ourang-outang by the force of external circumstances be brought +within the circle of the human species. + +In this opinion Mr. LYELL, Dr. PRICHARD, and Mr. LAWRENCE, concur. The +general conclusion at which they have arrived is, that there is a +capacity in all species to accommodate themselves to a certain extent to +a change of external circumstances; this extent varying greatly +according to the species. There may thus be changes of appearance or +structure, and some of these changes are transmissible to the offspring; +but the mutations thus superinduced are governed by certain laws, and +confined within certain limits. Indefinite divergence from the original +type is not possible, and the extreme limit of possible variation may +usually be reached in a short period of time; in short, Professor +WHEWELL concludes (_Indications of Creation_, p. 56), _that every +species has a real existence in nature_, and a transmutation from one to +another does not exist. Thus for example, CUVIER remarks that, +notwithstanding all the differences of age, appearance and habits, which +we find in the dogs of various races and countries, and though we have +(in the Egyptian mummies) skeletons of this animal as it existed 3,000 +years ago, the relation of the bones to each other remains essentially +the same; and with all the varieties of their shape and size, there are +characters which resist all the influences, both of external nature, of +human intercourse, and of time. + +What varieties, again, in the forms of the different breeds of horses +and horned cattle; racers, hunters, coach horses, dray horses, and +ponies; short-horns and long-horns, Devons and Herefords, polled +galloways and Shetlands; how unlike are the unimproved breeds of cattle +as they existed a century ago before the march of agricultural +improvement began, and how different were most of these as then existing +in what may be called the normal state from the wild cattle produced in +Chillington Park. It has been found, however, when external and +artificial conditions are removed, and these different breeds are +allowed to run wild, as in the Pampas and Australia, no matter what the +diversity of size, shape, and colour of the domestic breeds, they +reverted in their wild state, in these respects, to their primitive +types. + +So again with regard to cultivated vegetables and flowers. How different +are the species of the red cabbage and the cauliflower; who would have +expected them to be varieties of the wild _brassica oleracea_? Yet from +that they have been derived by cultivation. They have, however, a +tendency like animals to revert to the original type, or, in the +gardener's phrase, to degenerate, which it requires the utmost care on +his part to counteract. When left to a state of nature, they speedily +lose their acquired forms, properties and character, and regain those of +the original species. + +If species be permanent--if no education or training can educe new +kinds--if the higher classes of animals are not the results of +meliorations of the lower--whence did they come? This question we are +not bound to answer. It might be as reasonably asked, whence did the +lower classes come? Geology, like other sciences, does not conduct us to +the _beginning_, it only takes up creation at certain ulterior stages of +development. The changes and construction of the globe may have been +different in different parts; it has not been proved that geological +revolutions have been either universal or contemporary. There may have +been climates and regions adapted to the existence of the higher class +of land animals, while contemporarily therewith other portions of the +globe might be undergoing changes beneath the ocean. It is not +improbable that the human species dwelt nearly stationary for ages on +the old continents of Africa and Asia, while Europe and America were +covered with water. Supposing these new continents formed, either by the +gradual subsidence of the sea or the rising of its bed, successive +inhabitants would follow in the order presented by existing organic +remains. While covered by the sea, what now form Europe and America +could only be peopled by marine animals; but as the land rose or the +waters subsided into their ocean channels, and dry land appeared, +reptiles and amphibiae might become the occupants; next, as the earth +became drier and more salubrious, the new continent would be resorted to +by terrestrial animals; in a still more advanced stage of purification +and salubrity, man himself, as the lord of all the preceding classes of +immigrants, would take possession, and as he still continues the living +occupant it is premature to look for his petrifaction. + + +ORIGIN OF THE ANIMATED TRIBES. + +Science has mastered many perplexities, but is almost powerless as ever +in generation. All that lives, and still more all that moves, must have +a pre-existing germ formed independently of the created being, but which +is essential to its existence, and fixes the type of organization. The +old adage--_omne animal ab ovo_--may be taken as generally true. But +though every animal has its primordial egg or germ, all germs are not +identical. In the beginning of life there are other organic elements +besides the ovum. Partly on direct proof and partly on good analogy, it +may be inferred that these differ in different species--that each in the +first stages of existence is bound by a different and immutable mode of +development--and, if so, there can be no embryotic identity. "By no +change of conditions," says Dr. CLARKE, "can two ova of animals of the +same species be developed into different animal species; neither by any +provision of identical conditions can two ova of different species be +developed into animals of the same kind." If these views be right, and +we believe them to be so, there cannot be a transmutation of species +under the influence of external circumstances. + +Baffled in the effort either to create species or organically to change +them, attempts have been made to approach nearer to the source of +vitality, and explain the chemical, electric, or mechanical laws by +which the vital principle is influenced. For this purpose various +hypotheses have been put forth; one is the noted conjecture of Lord +MONBODDO, that man is only an advanced development of the chimpanzee or +ourang-outang. A second explanation is that given by LAMARCK, who +surmised, and with much ingenuity attempted to prove, that one being +advanced in the course of generations into another, in consequence +merely of the experience of wants calling for the exercise of faculties +in a particular direction, by which exercise new developments of organs +took place, ending in variations sufficient to constitute new species. +In this way the swiftness of the antelope, the claws and teeth of the +lion, the trunk of the elephant, the long neck of the giraffe have been +produced, it is supposed, by a certain plastic character in the +construction of animals, operated upon for a long course of ages by the +attempts which these animals make to attain objects which their previous +organization did not place within their reach. This is what is meant by +the hypothesis of _progressive tendencies_, and which requires for its +validity not only the assumption of a mere capacity for change, but of +active principles conducive to improvement and the attainment of higher +powers and faculties. More recently ST. HILAIRE has published a paper in +which he speaks of the immutability of species as a conviction that is +on the decline, and that the age of CUVIER is on the close. Carried away +by what Professor PHILLIPS has called a poetical conjecture that cannot +be proved, this writer propounded the speculation that the present +crocodiles are really the offspring of crocodilian reptiles, the +difference being merely the effect of physical conditions, especially +operating during long geological periods upon one original race. The +human species, he contends, are but an advanced development of the +higher order of the monkey tribe, and that the negroes are degenerating +towards that type again. According to him the sivatherium--a fossil +animal that had been found in the Himalaya mountains--was the primeval +type that time had fined down into the giraffe from long-continued +feeding on the branches of trees. Dr. FALCONER and Capt. CAUTLEY, +however, have shown that anatomical proofs are all against this +inference, but if any doubt remained it must yield to the fact, that +among the _fauna_ of the Sewalik hills the sivatherium and the giraffe +were contemporaries. + +The author of the _Vestiges of Creation_ has put forth an hypothesis +founded on the preceding conjectures, but more compact and conclusive. +He is, as we have seen, in favour of the progressive change of species, +adopting the notion that men once had tails, and that the rudiments of +this condal appendage are found in an undeveloped state in the _os +coccygis_ (p. 199.) His leading idea of the progress of organic life is +that the "_simplest and most primitive type under a law to which that of +like production is subordinate, gave birth to the type next above it; +that this again produced the next higher, and so on to the very +highest_, the stages of advance being in all cases very small--namely, +from one species only to another; so that the phenomenon has always been +of a modest and simple character." (p. 231.) The arguments by which the +author endeavours to prove his hypothesis may be thus compressed. + +According to him foetal development is a science, illustrated by +HUNTER'S great collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, and +established by the conclusions of ST. HILAIRE and TIEDMANN. Its primary +positions are--1. That the embryos of all animals are not +distinguishably different from each other; and, 2. That those of all +animals pass through a series of phases of development, each of which is +the type or analogue of the permanent configuration of tribes inferior +to it in the scale. Higher the order of animals, the more numerous its +stages of progress. Man himself is not exempt from this law. His first +foetal form is that which is permanent in the animalcule; it next passes +through ulterior stages, resembling successively a fish, a reptile, a +bird, and the lower mammalia before it attains its specific maturity. +The period of gestation determines the species; protract it, and the +species is advanced to a higher class. This might be done by the force +of certain conditions operating upon the system of the mother. Give good +conditions and the young she produces will improve in development; give +bad conditions and it will recede. Cases of monstrous birth in the human +species are appealed to, in which the most important organs are left +imperfectly developed; the heart, for instance, having sometimes +advanced no further than the three-chambered or reptile form, while +there are instances of that organ being left in the two-chambered or +fish-like form. These defects arise from a failure of the power of +development in the mother, occasioned by misery or bad health, and they +are but the converse of those conditions that carry on species to +species. The _differences of sexes_ is the result of foetal progress +only one degree less marked than that of a change of species. Sex is +fully ascertained to be a matter of development. All beings are at one +stage of the embryotic progress _female_. A certain number of them are +afterwards advanced to the more powerful sex. For proof of this, the +economy of bees is cited; when they wish to raise a queen-bee, or true +female, they prepare for the larva a more commodious cell, and feed it +with delicate food. But we shall here stop to remark on the author's +argument up to this point. + +It is manifest, according to his hypothesis, that neither sex nor +species depend on the ancestral germ, but simply on physical conditions +and mechanical development. But eminent physiologists deny that the +facts are such as he has stated; they deny, as we have stated in a +former section, that the foetal progress is such as the _Vestiges_ +represent them to be; they deny that the human embryo, for example, +exhibits in successive stages the form of fish, lizard, bird, beast: on +the contrary, they contend that it is only in the earliest period of the +organic germ, when the manifestations are almost too obscure for +microscopic sense, that any resemblance exists; that immediately the +organic germ becomes sensible to observation, sex and species are found +to be fixed. Take, for example, the vertebrata; in these, by some +mysterious bond of union, the organic globules are seen to arrange +themselves into two nearly parallel rows. We may then say that the keel +of the animal is laid down, and in it we have the first rudiments of a +backbone and a continuous spinal chord. But during the progress and +completion of this first organic process no changes have been observed +assimilating the nascent embryo to any of the inferior animals. The next +series of changes in the germinal membrane are of two kinds--in one the +nervous system, the organs of motion, the intestinal canal, the heart +and blood-vessels are manifested; the other set of changes, which are +subsequent, produce the perfection of the animal and determine its sex. +All these manifestations result from germinal appendages that cannot be +severed or changed without ruin to the embryo, and the conditions +essential to life as the structure advances are due temperature, due +nutriment of the nervous organs, and due access to the atmospheric air. +Without, therefore, pursuing further this part of the inquiry, we shall +remark that the question at issue between the _Vestiges_ and its +opponents is one of facts--of conflicting evidence--to be tried by the +jury of the public, or rather by those who, from science or professional +pursuits, are competent to form an authoritative opinion. Our own +conclusion is, that in face of the testimony adduced against it, the +author's hypothesis is not yet established. + +For proof that species do change, and that even new species have been +actually and recently produced, the author has adduced statements +certainly as questionable and little satisfactory as his representation +of foetal phenomena. We can only briefly enumerate them. First we are +told that oats sown at midsummer, if kept cropped down, so as to be +prevented shooting into ear, and then allowed to remain in the ground +over winter, will spring up next year in the form of rye (p. 226). This +need not be disputed about; the experiment can be easily tried; but if +rye were the result, it would be no conclusive proof of a translation of +species. Perhaps the oat-plants perished under the operation of repeated +cuttings, and the rye seed was dormant in the earth and sprung up in its +place; or, if not so, oats and rye may not be different species, only +varieties of the same species. They are scarcely more dissimilar than +the primrose, the cowslip, and the oxlip, which have all been raised +from the seed of the same plant, and are now regarded by botanists as +varieties instead of species. + +When lime is laid on waste ground we are told that white clover will +spring up spontaneously, and in situations where no clover-seed could +have been left dormant in the soil (p. 182). But how is this to be +proved? It is certain that seeds will remain dormant in the soil for +centuries, and then spring up the first year the soil is turned up by +the plough. Some seeds have retained their vitality for thousands of +years in the old tombs of Egypt; they have been repeatedly brought to +England, sown, and produced good wheat. + +We are next told that wild pigs never have the measles, they are +produced by a _hyatid_ and the result of domestication; that a _tinea_ +is found in dressed wool that does not exist in its unwashed state; that +a certain insect disdains all food but chocolate, and that the larva of +_oinopota cellaris_ only lives in wine and beer. All these are articles +manufactured by man, and are adduced as proofs of animal life, +independent of any primordial egg. The entoza are dwelt upon; they are +creatures living in the interior of other animals, of which the +tape-worm that infests the human body is a melancholy instance. In +these illustrations we think the author has some show of reason, for we +feel convinced that there is such a thing as spontaneous generation from +the inorganic substance, wisely provided for clearing the earth of +noxious effluvia and putrid matter, and converting them into new +elements conducive to health and life. We believe in this source of +vitality from its wisdom and necessity, its necessity and wisdom, in our +estimate, being strong presumptive proofs of its existence in harmony +with the general forecast and economy of nature. Of the self-originating +spring of life, some of the examples adduced by the author are proofs, +and of which we have familiar illustrations in cheese-mites, maggots in +carrion, and the green fly that breeds so profusely in weak and decaying +vegetation; in all which by some inscrutable law the organic germ, +without an antecedent, appears to evolve from the dead or putrifying +mass for its riddance and transmutation. + +Conceding, however, thus far to the author, we are not prepared to admit +that the creative powers of Messrs. CROSSE and WEEKES has been +established. These gentlemen are said (p. 190) to have introduced a +stranger in the animal kingdom, a species of _acarus_ or mite amidst a +solution of silica submitted to the electric current. The insects +produced by the action of a galvanic battery continued for eleven months +are represented as minute and semi-transparent, and furnished with long +bristles. One of the creatures resulting from this elaborate term of +gestation was observed in the very act of emerging, in its first-born +nudity, and sought concealment in a corner of the apparatus. Some of +them were observed to go back into the parent fluid and occasionally +they devoured each other; and soon after they were called to life, they +were disposed to multiply their species in the common way! So much for +the experiment; against its verity it is alleged, first, that the +_Acarus Crossii_ are not a new species, or if new, that neither Mr. +CROSSE nor Mr. WEEKES, who repeated Mr. CROSSE'S experiment, produced +them, but only aided by the voltaic battery the development of the +insects from their eggs. Such a mode of generation is contrary to all +human experience, and can only be believed in on the strongest +corroborative proof. + +Neither by chemistry nor galvanism can man, we apprehend, be more than +instrumental and co-operative, not originally and independently +creative. In almost every form of life, whether animal or vegetable, art +can multiply varieties,--can train, direct--but cannot form new species. +This is the mockery of science. With all its invention and resource, it +cannot produce organic originals. It can rear a crab-apple into a +golden-pippin, or wild sea-weed into a luxuriant cabbage; it can raise +infinite varieties of roses, tulips, and pansies, but can create no new +plant, fruit, or flower. Man can make a steam-engine, or a watch, but he +cannot make a fly, a midge, or blade of grass. He is an ingenious +compiler, but not a creator; and his powers of manufacture and +conversion are restricted within narrow boundaries. He cannot wander far +in the indulgence of his fancies without being recalled, and compelled +to return to the first models set by the Great Architect. The further he +strays from primitive types in the effort to improve, by crossing, +cutting, and grafting, and proportionably less becomes the procreative +force. Hybrids are notoriously sterile. Garden fruit is not permanent, +and requires to be renewed from seed. The law seems universal in plants +and animals, that the vital energy or germ is less forcible and prolific +in the pampered and artificial, than in the natural and wild races. + + +HYPOTHESIS OF THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. + +It is ascertained that the basis of all vegetable and animal substances +consists in nucleated cells--that is, cells having granules within them. +Nutriment is converted into these before being assimilated by the +system. It has likewise been noted that the globules of the blood are +reproduced by the expansion of contained granules; "they are, in short," +says the _Vestiges_, "_distinct organisms multiplied by the same +fissiporous generation_. So that all animated nature may be said to be +based on this mode of origin; _the fundamental form of organic being is +a globule, having a new globule forming within itself_, by which it is +in time discharged, and which is again followed by another and another, +in endless succession. It is of course obvious, that if these globules +could be produced by any process from inorganic elements, we should be +entitled to say that the fact of a transit from the inorganic to the +organic had been witnessed." (p. 176.) "Globules," the author +continues, "can be produced in albumen by electricity. _If_, therefore, +these globules be identical with the cells which are now held to be +reproductive, it _might_ be said that the production of albumen by +artificial means is the only step in the process wanting. This has not +yet been effected." (p. 177.) + +These are the advances towards generation by chemistry and electricity. +The process, however, according to this detail, appears still far from +complete. Albumen is to be produced "by artificial means;" and even then +we should doubt entire success. Chemists have long commanded the power +to resolve the seeds of animal and vegetable life into their elements; +they have analysed them, and shown the exact weight and proportion of +each constituent; but they never could put them together again, or, by +any similar compound produce the primordial egg or organic germ, from +which a living being would arise. A connecting link--a vital spark, or +animating soul--is always wanting to complete the existence of the +Prometheus of the laboratory. Mark, too, the "_if_," and the "_might_," +in this most lame and impotent hypothesis:--"_If_, therefore, these +globules be identical with the cells which are held to be reproductive, +it _might_ be said," &c. Globules can be easily produced; the passage of +the electric fluid through water will produce aerial globules in rapid +and expansive movement; boys can produce them with suds and a +tobacco-pipe in rapid succession, each, for aught we know, containing a +"granule" that multiplies by "fissiporous generation." But these are not +organic globules, and the author has committed the great perversion in +language or logic of confounding the organic globule of life with the +inorganic globule of a chemist. His theory is more fanciful than that of +LAMARCK, from whom it is derived, and who had, at least, his _petit +corps gelatineux_ to begin with--to commence weaving organic tissue +from--but our author's organic globule is not so substantive a +conception; and as he does not pretend to be able to produce even this +by physical means, he has not made a single step in generation. + +This we consider the least satisfactory and successful portion of the +author's work. It assigns no intelligible cause for the origin of +life--it only _begs the question_, by the substitution of one mystery +for another. His law of DEVELOPMENT is of the same description,--without +sense or significancy, unsupported by applicable facts, and is not so +comprehensible a cause of vital changes as LAMARCK'S assigned +progressive tendencies of animals to master the appliances essential to +their wants. + + +ANIMAL AFFINITIES, INSTINCT, AND REASON. + +The scheme of the _Vestiges_ is uniformly and consistently worked out; +all phenomena are resolved into gravitation and development--the first +as the law of inorganic, the latter of organic matter. By the last, +however, no new principle is revealed, only a new phrase devised, by the +amplified application of which the author's entire system may be said to +be _begged_ rather than proved; since development is used in a sense +implying an indefinite power of animate and inanimate creation; so that +at last we make no new discovery, only grasp a new nomenclature. + +But the author is always interesting, either by the novel display of +facts or the ingenious concatenation of plausibilities. Consistently +with his fundamental notion of animal transmutation, he tries to prove a +family likeness or affinity from the humblest to the highest species. In +this way he seeks to explain the marvel with respect to the huge bulk of +many of the tertiary mammalia--the mammoth, mastadon, and megatherium; +they were in immediate descent from the cetacea, or whale and dolphin +tribe. (p. 267.) Again, human reason is considered no exclusive gift; it +exists subordinately in the instinct of brutes, and is alleged to be +nothing more than a mode of operation peculiar to the faculties in a +humble state of endowment, or early stage of development. CUVIER and +NEWTON are only intellectual expansions of a clown; and this notion is +extended to moral obliquities, the wicked man being characterised as one +"whose highest moral feelings are rudimental." (p. 358.) From a like +principle the writer concurs with Dr. PRICHARD, that mankind may have +had a common origin; that there exists no diversities of colour or +osseous structure not referable to climatable or other plastic agencies +influencing the development of the different races, commencing with the +lowest, or Negro tribe, and ascending upward through the intermediate +aboriginal American, Mongolian, and Malay, to the last and most perfect +stage of the Caucasian type. + +Into the verity of these conclusions we are not called upon to enter; +they have been long in controversy, involve a great array of facts and +inductive inferences, and we have only referred to them as corollaries +or collaterals of the author's hypothetical fabric. + + +RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TENDENCIES. + +We have no charge of impiety to bring against the _Vestiges_. Final +causes, or to express ourselves more intelligibly, a _purpose_ in +creation, is nowhere impugned. The Deity is not degraded by +impersonification in the form and frailties of mortality, but everywhere +the author reverently bows to that august and unsearchable name, +acknowledges the grand and benevolent design--the admirable adaptation +of every created thing to its end and place, and finally concludes in a +strain of grateful and exulting Optimism, that we confess we have not +fully arrived at--namely, that everything "is very good." (p. 387.) From +this impression we have only one constructive drawback to notice in the +author's mechanical but fanciful constitution of the universe, by which +a special Providence in the government of the world seems to be +dispensed with, and the Almighty is placed in the sinecure position of +the Grand Elector of the Abbe SIEYES, with nothing to do. But no divine +attribute is abscinded--no glory of Omnipotence dimmed--whether it +pleases him to rule by direct interpositions of power, or his own +pre-ordained eternal laws. + +Still less can we detect in the speculative inquiries of the _Vestiges_ +conclusions hostile to the moral and social interests of the community. +Men are formed to be what they are; vice and crime are the fruits of +malorganization, and malorganization is the result of the unfavourable +conditions in which the subject of it has been placed, prior or +subsequent to birth. These are the author's leading metaphysical +inculcations. They impose grave duties upon individuals and upon +society, rightly understood and applied, but we cannot discern a hurtful +tendency in them. They are useful knowledge, knowledge that it would be +well for parents and rulers to master, by showing the importance of +education, of favourable circumstances, and of good moral and physical +training, for rearing happy, well-ordered, and virtuous members of the +community. Supreme in intelligence, man, we firmly believe, is not less +supremely blessed in the means of felicity, provided his real nature and +position in the scheme of creation were understood, recognised, and +carried out. He has his place, his office, and his destiny; he is no +enigma but as an individual; "in the mass," as the author emphatically +remarks, "he is a mathematical problem." His conduct is uniform and +consistent; the result of known and ascertainable causes--causes +calculable and predicable in their consequences, as the statistics of +crime have incontestibly established. + + +GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ON THE VESTIGES. + +The heavens are wonderful, and the earth is wonderful, and man, who, by +force of intellect, has sought to comprehend the immensity of one and +unravel the formation of the other, is hardly less wonderful than +either. Still the great mystery remains unriddled; our researches have +brought us no nearer the beginning, and the first cause of all continues +unapproachable and undefinable as ever. Instead of explaining physical +creation, we begin with it; we take the existence of matter for granted, +and its attributes for granted, and forthwith begin to fabricate a +universe, without first ascertaining whence was matter, or whence the +laws by which it is impressed, and has been governed in its evolutions. + +Nature's greatest phenomena are the celestial spaces and the bodies that +fill them; our own planet and its living occupants. Upon each of these, +their commencement and subsequent vicissitudes, the _Vestiges of +Creation_ have propounded an hypothesis, but one mystery is only sought +to be explained by another still more mysterious. For the fiat of a +Creator chemical affinities and mechanical laws have been substituted, +but aided by these the author has failed to produce a world such as we +find it. Hence we are again driven upon the old tradition, the old +sacred authority, that the world was created out of nothing; and this is +as easy to comprehend as the solution of the _Vestiges_, that it sprang +from that which is certainly next to nothing--a heated fog or universal +fire-mist. + +When the author deals with the facts of science he interests and +instructs, but when he speculates he only amuses or perplexes, without +advancing knowledge. His terse and luminous description of the astral +firmament deeply impresses with the might and the magnitude of the vast +design; but when he attempts to account for the elimination of suns and +worlds, their formation and arrangement, we are struck by the puerile +folly of his conjectural presumptions. + +Descending from this august and glittering canopy to our own planet, we +are not less astonished by the exhibition of the extraordinary +revolutions it has undergone. Geology is the true historian of the +earth. Conducted by the lights it affords, we see an eternity of ages +has rolled before us; we discover a series of worlds rising through the +depths of ocean from the central sphere of heat, amidst boiling floods +and volcanic fires, each new platform of existence, that countless +periods of time had been requisite to form, peopled with its own +congenial forms of organic life, mostly commencing with the simpler, and +ascending by almost imperceptible gradations to the higher and more +complex structures of being. We are struck by the correspondence, by the +_pari passu_ development and formation of the earth's crust and organic +existences, and we are apt hastily to conclude that a relation has +subsisted between them, that contemporary changes have been cause and +effect, and that the improvement of the earth produced the correlative +improvement in animals and plants. + +This forms the author's second questionable hypothesis; it is plausible, +but false--repugnant to fact and correct observation. We have no +credible evidence that species have changed, or are changeable by the +utmost efforts of art or favouring conditions; all we can effect is to +improve them within definite limits, but not alter their characteristic +types; and we have certain proof that neither man nor the animal nearly +next to him in organization, has changed either in habits, disposition, +form, or osseus structure during the last 3,000 years. Resemblance is no +proof of identity; and hence, though species run into each other by +almost inappreciable shades of difference, it is no proof that they are +derivative, or other than isolated and self-dependent creations. That +they are such, and shall continue such, seems a fixed canon of Nature, +who, apparently, has prescribed to each its circle of amendment and +range, that like shall beget like--that nought organic shall exist +without ancestral germ--and that the variety of species which +constitutes the beauty and order of nature shall by no chance, +contrivance, or mingling of races, be confounded. + +Geological facts are in favour of this conclusion. They attest the +appearance of new species, not their improvement. In each species a +gradation of improvement, approximating from a lower to the next higher +organism, is not perceptible; but each seems to have been made perfect +at first, and most suited to the co-existent state of the earth. The +earliest reptiles were not reptiles of inferior structure; nor the +earliest fishes, birds, or beasts. They were adapted, as we now find +them, to their precise sphere of existence, without progressive +aptitude, preparatory to a higher and translated condition of being. +Geology rather points to the extinction and degeneracy of species than +their improvement; and the fossils of the old red sandstone, and of the +carboniferous formation, attest a loftier and more magnificent creation +of both marine and land products than any now subsisting. + +For these and other reasons before adduced, we dismiss the hypothesis of +animal transmutation as unproved and untenable. It pleases and satisfies +superficial views, but confronted with the facts of nature, it vanishes +like a baseless vision. Man is _sui generis_, sole and exclusive in +organization, without pre-existing type or affinity to other species; +and his alleged recent metamorphosis from a monkey, and his first and +far more distant one from a snail or a tadpole, are paradoxes only +worthy of idle debating clubs. + +Having attempted to unfold the progression of species by his law of +development, the author next essays to explain the commencement of the +vital principle itself. But here, too, he must have a beginning, and his +"organic globule" answers a similar purpose, in deducing the mystery of +life, as his nuclei in the "nebular hypothesis." In both the perplexity +and real difficulty is not solved or mastered, but evaded. But we have +already remarked on the point, and shall only observe that when the +author can elicit _thought_ from inorganic matter, either by chemistry +or galvanism, we shall think he has made a step in creation. Until then +he does not advance, only deceives himself and readers by verbal +subtleties and baseless suppositions. + +Apart from its hypotheses, the _Vestiges_ form a valuable and +interesting work. It is the most complete, elaborate, and--with all its +faults of detail, logic, and inference--the most scientific expositor of +universal nature yet offered to the world. But its hypotheses are +unwarranted, not inductively derived, and can have no hold on men of +science, supported as they mostly are by fanciful analogies, facts +misunderstood or misstated, and illustrations selected without +discrimination or applicability. Theories do sometimes conduce to the +discovery of truth, but are often obstructive; occupy the mind, like +theological controversy, without advancing science; and are viewed with +the same aversion by the philosopher that the political abstractions +tendered to the multitude by the demagogue are viewed by the patriotic +legislator. + +The work, however, will live, and deserves to live. The temple of nature +has been looked into, not profoundly, perhaps, nor always successfully; +but in a fearless spirit, and with a highly-accomplished mind. Had the +divine COSMOS been more fully dwelt upon and depicted--had the harmony, +beauty, and beneficence of creation been more fully and exclusively +displayed--we should have been more gratified; but we are thankful, in +the main, for what we have received. An impulse has been given to +popular inquiry, and a vast field for discussion opened, from which we +can prospectively discern neither less love for man, nor reverence for +God. + +Who the author is we have no certain knowledge. It is not, we suspect, +Lord KING, nor Lord THURLOW, nor Lady BYRON; but it may be the author of +the _Essay on the Formation of Opinions_, and of the _Principle of +Representation_. Mr. BAILEY, of Sheffield, though little known, +possesses the fine reasoning powers, intellectual grasp, independence of +research, abstract analysis, and attic style, that would qualify him to +produce the _Vestiges of Creation_, though we never heard that he is a +great natural philosopher. But, as just hinted, deep science is not +evinced by the _Vestiges_, only an able, systematic, and tasteful +arrangement of its distant and recent advances. + + + + +"EXPLANATIONS:" + +A SEQUEL TO THE + +"VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION." + +(_From the_ ATLAS _of December 20, 1845._) + + +So many strong objections had been arrayed against the _Vestiges of +Creation_, that the author was called upon to elucidate and reinforce +his argument, or abandon the ground he had taken up. The more candid and +equitable of his judges--those who were disposed to try him upon the +merits, and independently test the claims of his inquiry, as in fairness +it ought to be, as strictly a scientific speculation, regardless of any +constructive bearings it might have on current opinions or +prejudices--could not arrive at any more favourable conclusion than that +he had failed to establish his hypotheses. Indeed this was the only +verdict that could be safely delivered in. The impugners of the work +were in the same helpless predicament as its author, who had, however, +more venturously presumed to unravel unsearchable mysteries, concerning +which, in the existing state of science, men can only conjecture, +wonder, and adore, utterly unable to affirm or deny aught respecting +them. What, for instance, with the remotest semblance of certainty, can +be predicated of the stellar orbs? Is it not idle almost to speculate on +the impenetrable secret of their origin when their very existence is +undefinable--when their end, their glittering discs, and all but +immeasurable distances are wholly unapproachable? Nor hardly less beyond +our grasp is the commencement of organic existences. We do pride +ourselves on recent advances to the sources of entity; we tear up the +dead, we torture the living, and sedulously chronicle every beat of the +heart and vibration of the brain to slake an insatiable curiosity, yet +how unsatisfactory our reach towards the hidden springs of life--how +limited our attainments, when the creation of a single blade of grass, +the humblest worm, a poor beetle, or gadfly, would baffle the utmost +structural skill of the greatest philosopher! Into the fathomless depths +of our own globe we have also essayed to penetrate. Poor beings! of +three score and ten, whose utmost historical span extends only to some +thousands of years, have sought to trammel up the terrene vicissitudes +of millions of ages anterior to their own existence! Does not this +savour of a vain research, or of a laudable thirst for knowledge? + +Over all these dark and solemn inscrutabilities, however, the _Vestiges_ +undertook to throw a glare of light, to reveal their beginning, +progression, order, relations, and law of development. Although daring +in aim, the attempt was not to be wholly deprecated. While religious +freedom had been secured, philosophy had become timid, official, and +timeserving; retentive as FONTENELLE of the truths within its grasp, and +fearful to give utterance to aught that might disturb the stillness of +the temple, the lecture-room, or fashionable auditory. Modern teachers +had been used so long to the Baconian go-cart, that they had become as +apprehensive of losing the inductive clue as the PALINURUSES of old of +the sight of the directing shore. But the time had arrived when it +seemed expedient to relax the strictness of the investigative rule, and +afford scope for a more systematic, if not speculative research. Science +had made great acquisitions, and it seemed desirable, if only for +experiment sake, to see what kind of FRANKENSTEIN would result from the +architectural union of her scattered limbs. This formed the scope of the +_Vestiges of Creation_; novelties were not propounded, only a portentous +skeleton raised from the truths physical astronomy, geology, chemistry, +physiology, and natural history had established. Does the author recoil +from his work? No; these _Explanations_ attest that he is steadfast in +the worship of the idol of his brain. He retracts nothing, he +re-asserts, elucidates, and often dexterously turns the weapons of the +most formidable and orthodox of his adversaries against them, by showing +from their writings that they had, in detail at least, acquiesced in +the truths that they now, in a generalised form, seek to controvert and +repudiate. So much adroitness and pertinacity in the author can hardly +fail to provoke resistance, if not asperity, despite of the +imperturbable temper in which he maintains the combat. The learned have +been disturbed in their daily routine, by the discharge from an unknown +hand, of a massive pyrites, that has diffused as much consternation +among the herd of modish elocutionists, college tutors, and chimpanzee +professors, as Jove's ligneous projectile among the lieges of the +standing pool. For this commotion we have, on a former occasion, +conceded that there existed valid reasons, and we hasten to see the way +in which they have been met in the rejoinder before us; contenting +ourselves, as we needs must, by briefly noticing some of the salient +points of the controversy. + +First of the Nebular Hypothesis. The chief objection to this theory is, +that the existence of nebulous matter in the heavens is disproved by the +discoveries made by the telescope of the Earl of ROSSE. By the reach of +this wondrous tube, masses of light, rendered apparently nebulous by +their vast distance, have been resolved into clusters of stars, and +thence the assumption seemed unwarrantable that any luminous matter, +different from the solid bodies composing planetary systems existed in +the heavenly spaces. But to this the author replies, that there are two +classes of nebulae--one resolvable into constellations--another +comparatively near, that remains unaffected by telescopic power, and +that until this last description can be separated, the nebular +hypothesis is not disproved. It is thus brought to an issue of facts, +both as to the existence of nebulae of this latter kind, and the optical +power to resolve them into distinct stars. + +But the author can hardly claim this negative success in grappling with +a second objection--namely, his assumed origin of _rotatory motion_. +According to him, a confluence of atoms round a spherical centre of +attraction, would cause the agglomerated mass to revolve upon its axis +in the manner of our earth. This was denied by everybody the least +acquainted with the laws of motion; and thus did one of his imaginary +solutions of a great phenomenon of the universe fall dead to the ground. +This he now seems to concede, but in a sentence unintelligible to us, +in which an undoubted physical law is spoken of as only an _abstract +truth_ (p. 20). He obviously still clings to his first mistaken +inference, and calls to his aid Professor NICHOL, whom he has also +pressed into his service to help him over the last-mentioned difficulty +by the Professor's affirmation of a diversity of nebulous clusters. But +the Professor does not commit himself to the extent of the author; his +aqueous whirlpool is cited from HERSCHEL, only in illustration, and +correctly said to be produced by the unequal force of convergence of a +fluid to a common centre. But the author's nuclei, disposed in his +notable "fire-mist," did not act with unequal force on the ambient +vapour, and whose central convergence in consequence, would not produce +rotation or motion of any kind. This was the real matter in question, +the author was taken up on his own premises, and the results he assumed +to follow from them proved to be inconsistent with the unquestionable +laws of gravitating matter. + +He has gone over the geological portion of his subject with much care, +but if competent, it would be impossible within our narrow limits to +accompany him; nor could the discussion be made either interesting or +intelligible except to the scientific, who have devoted attention to an +extremely curious, but still obscure and unsettled field of +investigation. He has elaborately cleared up many points, and +successfully, we think, answered some weighty objections, but we are not +yet converts to his theory of organic development. One passage we shall +extract; after adverting to the facts established by powerful evidence, +that during the long term of the earth's existence, strata of various +thickness were deposited in seas composed of matter worn away from the +previous rocks; that these strata by volcanic agency were raised into +continents, or projected into mountain chains, and that sea and land +have been constantly interchanging conditions. He continues:-- + + "The remains and traces of plants and animals found in the + succession of strata show that, while these operations were going + on, the earth gradually became the theatre of organic being, simple + forms appearing first, and more complicated afterwards. _A time + when there was no life_ is first seen. We then _see life begin, and + go on_; but whole ages elapsed before man came to crown the work of + nature. This is a wonderful revelation to have come upon the men of + our time, and one which the philosophers of the days of Newton + could never have expected to be vouchsafed. The great fact + established by it is, that the organic creation, as we now see it, + was not placed upon the earth at once; it observed a PROGRESS. Now + we can _imagine_ the Deity calling a young plant or animal into + existence instantaneously; but we see that he does not usually do + so. The young plant and also the young animal go through a series + of conditions, advancing them from a mere germ to the fully + developed repetition of the respective parental forms. So, also, we + can _imagine_ Divine power evoking a whole creation into being by + one word; but we find that such had not been his mode of working in + that instance, for geology fully proves that organic creation + passed through a series of stages before the highest vegetable and + animal forms appeared. Here we have the first hint of organic + creation having arisen in the manner of natural order. The analogy + does not prove identity of causes, but it surely points very + broadly to natural order or law having been the mode of procedure + in both instances." + +To the allusion in the last sentence there can be no demur; that +there is "natural order or law" in creation who will contest? But it +is the author's law and the author's order that are in dispute--his +transmutation of species, the higher classes emerging from and +partly annihilating the lower, under meliorated conditions of being. +That the simpler form of organic life should first appear; that +remains of invertebrated animals should be first found; then, with +these, fish, being the lowest of the vertebrated; next, reptiles and +birds, which occupy higher grades; and finally, along with the rest, +mammifers, the highest of all--all this appears natural enough. _How +could it be otherwise?_ When the earth was a slimy bed, what but the +lowest forms of life--the mollusca, and other soft animals, without +bony structure--could possibly live in or occupy it? During the +carboniferous era, when the earth was enveloped in an atmosphere of +hydrogen, vegetation might thrive; but man, and animals like +him, dependent on vital air, could not exist; nor are remains of +them found in this epoch of the globe's vicissitudes. All this +is comprehensible. But the perplexing inquiry is, whence did +the successive grades of animals emerge? That they could not +contemporaneously exist; when the whole earth was a shoreless sea, +and that animals could not live is certain; but were they created in +succession by the Divine fiat, or did they emerge, as our author +supposes and elaborately tries to prove, from the humblest primitive +forms, by an inscrutable law of progression--evidenced, he contends, +by geological facts--though by some his facts are disputed--and +certainly not confirmed by any animal changes observable within the +limits of human experience? + +There is another alternative offers, which would dispense both with the +author's hypothesis and the need of successive organic creations by a +special Providence. Is it a geological fact, since life began, that the +earth has _simultaneously_ undergone throughout its entire surface the +revolutions assigned to it? May it not always, from that period, have +consisted, as it now does, of water and dry land, alternately changing +their sites, but always apart, and allowing of the contemporary +existence on some portion of its surface of all the varieties of tribes +ever found upon it? The fossiliferous rocks that formed the primeval +sea-beds could only be deposited by the abrasion from the anterior and +higher rocks. It has always appeared to us that this conjecture is +worthy of consideration, and, if found tenable, would reconcile many +perplexities. + +Upon subjects so obscure, and to which the human intellect has been only +recently directed, it is not surprising that men of science have not +arrived at uniformity of conclusion. Unable to reconcile phenomena with +positive knowledge, there are names of no mean repute who would reserve +certain domains of creation as the fields of special interventions. To +this class Dr. WHEWELL appears to belong, who assumes that "events not +included in the _course of nature_ have formerly taken place." In the +same way Professor SEDGWICK, to account for the appearance of certain +animals, says, "They were not called into being by any law of nature, +but by a power above nature." He adds, "they were created by the hand of +GOD, and adapted to the conditions of the period." To this the author of +the _Vestiges_ assents, with the explanation (p. 134) that their +existence was not the result of a "special exertion of power to meet +special conditions," but of an antecedent and primitive law of +development suited to the new exigencies, and emanating from the +Creator. This, he contends, does not lower our estimate of the Divine +character; and, in proof, cites Dr. DODDRIDGE, who cannot be suspected +of irreverence. "When we assert," says the pious and amiable author, "a +perpetual Divine agency, we readily acknowledge that matters are so +contrived as not to need a Divine interposition in a different manner +from that in which it had been constantly exerted. And it must be +evident that an unremitting energy, displayed in such circumstances, +_greatly exalts our idea of God, instead of depressing it_; and, +therefore, by the way, is so much more likely to be true." Against +constructive inferences it is urged, in the _Explanations_-- + + "As to results which may flow from any particular view which reason + may show as the best supported, I must firmly protest against any + assumed title in an opponent to pronounce what these are. The first + object is to ascertain truth. No truth can be derogatory to the + presumed fountain of all truth. The derogation must lie in the + erroneous construction which a weak human creature puts upon the + truth. And practically it is the true infidel state of mind which + prompts apprehension regarding any fact of nature, or any + conclusion of sound argument." + +The writer then quotes Sir JOHN HERSCHELL as having some years ago +announced views strictly conformable to those subsequently taken of +organic creation in the _Vestiges_:-- + + "'For my part,' says Sir John, 'I cannot but think it an inadequate + conception of the Creator, to assume it as granted that his + combinations are exhausted upon any one of the theatres of their + former exercise, though, in this, as in all his other works, we are + led, by _all analogy_, to suppose that he operates through a series + of intermediate causes, and that, in consequence, _the origination + of fresh species, could it ever come under our cognizance, would be + found to be a natural, in contradistinction to a miraculous + process_,--although we perceive no indications of any process + actually in progress which is likely to issue in such a result. In + his address to the British Association at Cambridge, (1845), he + said with respect to the author's hypothesis of the first step of + organic creation--'The transition from an inanimate crystal to a + globule capable of such endless organic and intellectual + development, is as great a step--as unexplained a one--as + unintelligible to us--and in any sense of the word as _miraculous_, + as the immediate creation and introduction upon earth, of every + species and every individual would be!'" + +The Rev. Dr. PYE SMITH is next adduced:-- + + "'Our most deeply investigated views of the Divine Government,' + says he, 'lead to the conviction that it is exercised in the way of + _order_, or what we usually call _law_. God reigns according to + immutable principles, that is _by law_, in _every part of his + kingdom--the mechanical, the intellectual, and the moral_; and it + appears to be most clearly a position arising out of that fact, + that _a comprehensive germ which shall necessarily evolve all + future developments_, down to the minutest atomic movements, is a + more suitable attribution to the Deity, than the idea of a + necessity for irregular interferences.'" + +Lastly, the reviewer of the _Vestiges_ in _Blackwood's Magazine_, who is +understood to be a naturalist of distinguished ability, expresses +himself in an equally decided manner:-- + + "To reduce to a system the acts of creation, or the development of + the several forms of animal life, no more impeaches the authorship + of creation, than to trace the laws by which the world is upheld, + and its phenomena perpetually renewed. The presumption naturally + rises in the mind, that the same Great Being would adopt the same + mode of action in both cases.... To a mind accustomed, as is every + educated mind, to regard the operations of Deity as essentially + differing from the limited, sudden, evanescent impulses of a human + agent, it is distressing to be compelled to picture to itself, the + power of God as put forth _in any other manner than in those slow, + mysterious, universal laws, which have so plainly an eternity to + work in;_ it pains the imagination to be obliged to assimilate + those operations, for a moment, to the brief energy of a human + will, or the manipulations of a human hand.... No, there is nothing + atheistic, nothing irreligious, in the attempt to conceive + creation, as well as reproduction, carried on by universal laws." + +We have dwelt so much upon this matter because it is one in which +popular feelings are likely to be most deeply interested. We shall give +the author, too, the benefit of his _Explanations_ on another point, +elucidating his former statement of the transmutation of a crop of oats +into a crop of rye:-- + + "'At the request,' says Dr. Lindley, 'of the Marquis of Bristol, + the Reverend Lord Arthur Hervey, in the year 1843, sowed a handful + of oats, treated them in the manner recommended, by continually + stopping the flowering stems, and the produce, in 1844, has been + for the most part ears of a very slender barley, having much the + appearance of rye, with a little wheat, and some oats; samples of + which are, by the favour of Lord Bristol, now before us.' The + learned writer then adverts to the 'extraordinary, but certain + fact, that in orchidaceous plants, forms just as different as + wheat, barley, rye, and oats, have been proved by the most rigorous + evidence, to be accidental variations of one common form, brought + about no one knows how, but before our eyes, and rendered + permanent by equally mysterious agency. Then says Reason, if they + occur in orchidaceous plants, why should they not also occur in + corn plants? for it is not likely that such vagaries will be + confined to one little group in the vegetable kingdom; it is more + rational to believe them to be a part of the _general system_ of + creation.... How can we be _sure_, that wheat, rye, oats, and + barley, are not all accidental off-sets from some unsuspected + species?'" + +It may be so; but this would only prove that the "unsuspected species" +included greater varieties, not that a really defined species was +transmutable into another. But it is a point upon which no satisfactory +result can be arrived at, since naturalists are not agreed in the +classification of species, nor what attributes constitute one. + +The Broomfield experiment is again brought forward, as decisive of the +power to originate new life from inorganic elements. It will be +remembered that Mr. WEEKES, of Sandwich, continued during three years to +subject solutions to electric action, and invariably found insects +produced in these instances, while they as invariably failed to appear +where the electric action was not employed, but every other condition +fulfilled. In a letter to the author of the _Vestiges_--two are +inserted, one on the independent generation of fungi--Mr. WEEKES says-- + + "One hundred and sixty-six days from the commencement of the + experiment--the first acari seen in connexion therewith, six in + number and nearly full-grown, were discovered on the outside of the + open glass vessel. On removing two pieces of card which had been + laid over the mouth of this vessel, several fine specimens were + found inhabiting the under surfaces, and others completely + developed and in active motion here and there within the glass. + Making my visit at an hour when a more favourable light entered the + room, swarms of acari were found on the cards, about the glass + tumbler, both within and without, and also on the platform of the + apparatus. At this identical hour Dr. J. Black favoured me with a + call, inspected the arrangements, and received six living specimens + of the acarus produced from solution in the open vessel." + +Specimens of the insect were sent to Paris, when they set a whole +conclave of philosophers a-laughing, because they were found to contain +ova. Other specimens were sent to London, but there their fate was +sealed by their being found to be, not a new species, but one then +abundant in the country. For ourselves we think the experiment not +conclusive. We adopt HUME'S principle. All but universal experience +having established that life is _ex ovo_ only, we must have a +proportionate body of counter evidence to establish a different mode of +generation. At all events, Mr. WEEKES'S protracted gestation of 166 days +by his galvanic battery is not likely, in the existing rage for +despatch, to supersede the existing routine of reproduction. + + +LONDON: PRINTED BY C. 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VI.--Condition of Classes Superior to Common Labourers--General +View of Society in Great Britain. + + +PART II. + +Chap. I.--General Views--Modern Theories of Society--Effect and +Paramount Importance of Moral Causes. + +Chap. II.--Economical Causes--Population--Theory of Malthus. + +Chap. III.--Economical Causes, continued--Revolution in the Course of +Industry effected by Machinery--Extension of Manufactures--Factory +System, &c. + +Chap. IV.--Foreign Competition. + + +PART III. + +Chap. I.--Free Trade, Corn Laws. + +Chap. II.--Free Trade, continued--New Tariff, Provisions, Sugar, &c. +Reciprocity System--Commercial Treaties. + +Chap. III.--Taxation. + +Chap. IV.--Currency and Banking. + +Chap. V.--Emigration. + +Chap. VI.--Poor Laws. + +Chap. VII.--Sanitary and Building Regulations, &c. + +Chap. VIII.--Education. + +Chap. 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