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diff --git a/2927-h/2927-h.htm b/2927-h/2927-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5490973 --- /dev/null +++ b/2927-h/2927-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1005 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Darwinian Hypothesis, by Thomas H. 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Huxley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Darwinian Hypothesis + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: November, 2001 [Etext #2927] +[Most recently updated: October 30, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS *** + + + + +This eBook was converted to HTML, with additional editing, by Jose Menendez +from the text edition produced by Amy E. Zelmer. + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>The Darwinian Hypothesis<a href="#fn-1" name="fnref-1" id="fnref-1"><sup>*</sup></a></h1> + +<h2>by Thomas H. Huxley</h2> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"> +<b>DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.</b> +</p> + +<p> +<big><big>T</big></big>HERE is a growing immensity in the speculations of +science to which no human thing or thought at this day is comparable. Apart +from the results which science brings us home and securely harvests, there is +an expansive force and latitude in its tentative efforts, which lifts us out of +ourselves and transfigures our mortality. We may have a preference for moral +themes, like the Homeric sage, who had seen and known much:— +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“Cities of men<br /> +And manners, climates, councils, governments”; +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +yet we must end by confession that +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“The windy ways of men<br /> +Are but dust which rises up<br /> +And is lightly laid again,” +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +in comparison with the work of nature, to which science testifies, but which +has no boundaries in time or space to which science can approximate. +</p> + +<p> +There is something altogether out of the reach of science, and yet the compass +of science is practically illimitable. Hence it is that from time to time we +are startled and perplexed by theories which have no parallel in the contracted +moral world; for the generalizations of science sweep on in ever-widening +circles, and more aspiring flights, through a limitless creation. While +astronomy, with its telescope, ranges beyond the known stars, and physiology, +with its microscope, is subdividing infinite minutiae, we may expect that our +historic centuries may be treated as inadequate counters in the history of the +planet on which we are placed. We must expect new conceptions of the nature and +relations of its denizens, as science acquires the materials for fresh +generalizations; nor have we occasion for alarms if a highly advanced +knowledge, like that of the eminent Naturalist before us, confronts us with an +hypothesis as vast as it is novel. This hypothesis may or may not be +sustainable hereafter; it may give way to something else, and higher science +may reverse what science has here built up with so much skill and patience, but +its sufficiency must be tried by the tests of science alone, if we are to +maintain our position as the heirs of Bacon and the acquitters of Galileo. We +must weigh this hypothesis strictly in the controversy which is coming, by the +only tests which are appropriate, and by no others whatsoever. +</p> + +<p> +The hypothesis to which we point, and of which the present work of Mr. Darwin +is but the preliminary outline, may be stated in his own language as +follows:—“Species originated by means of natural selection, or +through the preservation of the favoured races in the struggle for life.” +To render this thesis intelligible, it is necessary to interpret its terms. In +the first place, what is a species? The question is a simple one, but the right +answer to it is hard to find, even if we appeal to those who should know most +about it. It is all those animals or plants which have descended from a single +pair of parents; it is the smallest distinctly definable group of living +organisms; it is an eternal and immutable entity; it is a mere abstraction of +the human intellect having no existence in nature. Such are a few of the +significations attached to this simple word which may be culled from +authoritative sources; and if, leaving terms and theoretical subtleties aside, +we turn to facts and endeavour to gather a meaning for ourselves, by studying +the things to which, in practice, the name of species is applied, it profits us +little. For practice varies as much as theory. Let the botanist or the +zoologist examine and describe the productions of a country, and one will +pretty certainly disagree with the other as to the number, limits, and +definitions of the species into which he groups the very same things. In these +islands, we are in the habit of regarding mankind as of one species, but a +fortnight’s steam will land us in a country where divines and savants, +for once in agreement, vie with one another in loudness of assertion, if not in +cogency of proof, that men are of different species; and, more particularly, +that the species negro is so distinct from our own that the Ten Commandments +have actually no reference to him. Even in the calm region of entomology, +where, if anywhere in this sinful world, passion and prejudice should fail to +stir the mind, one learned coleopterist will fill ten attractive volumes with +descriptions of species of beetles, nine-tenths of which are immediately +declared by his brother beetle-mongers to be no species at all. +</p> + +<p> +The truth is that the number of distinguishable living creatures almost +surpasses imagination. At least a hundred thousand such kinds of insects alone +have been described and may be identified in collections, and the number of +separable kinds of living things is underestimated at half a million. Seeing +that most of these obvious kinds have their accidental varieties, and that they +often shade into others by imperceptible degrees, it may well be imagined that +the task of distinguishing between what is permanent and what fleeting, what is +a species and what a mere variety, is sufficiently formidable. +</p> + +<p> +But is it not possible to apply a test whereby a true species may be known from +a mere variety? Is there no criterion of species? Great authorities affirm that +there is—that the unions of members of the same species are always +fertile, while those of distinct species are either sterile, or their +offspring, called hybrids, are so. It is affirmed not only that this is an +experimental fact, but that it is a provision for the preservation of the +purity of species. Such a criterion as this would be invaluable; but, +unfortunately, not only is it not obvious how to apply it in the great majority +of cases in which its aid is needed, but its general validity is stoutly +denied. The Hon. and Rev. Mr. Herbert, a most trustworthy authority, not only +asserts as the result of his own observations and experiments that many hybrids +are quite as fertile as the parent species, but he goes so far as to assert +that the particular plant <i>Crinum capense</i> is much more fertile when +crossed by a distinct species than when fertilised by its proper pollen! On the +other hand, the famous Gaertner, though he took the greatest pains to cross the +primrose and the cowslip, succeeded only once or twice in several years; and +yet it is a well-established fact that the primrose and the cowslip are only +varieties of the same kind of plant. Again, such cases as the following are +well established. The female of species A, if crossed with the male of species +B, is fertile; but, if the female of B is crossed with the male of A, she +remains barren. Facts of this kind destroy the value of the supposed criterion. +</p> + +<p> +If, weary of the endless difficulties involved in the determination of species, +the investigator, contenting himself with the rough practical distinction of +separable kinds, endeavours to study them as they occur in nature—to +ascertain their relations to the conditions which surround them, their mutual +harmonies and discordances of structure, the bond of union of their parts and +their past history, he finds himself, according to the received notions, in a +mighty maze, and with, at most, the dimmest adumbration of a plan. If he starts +with any one clear conviction, it is that every part of a living creature is +cunningly adapted to some special use in its life. Has not his Paley told him +that that seemingly useless organ, the spleen, is beautifully adjusted as so +much packing between the other organs? And yet, at the outset of his studies, +he finds that no adaptive reason whatsoever can be given for one-half of the +peculiarities of vegetable structure; he also discovers rudimentary teeth, +which are never used, in the gums of the young calf and in those of the foetal +whale; insects which never bite have rudimental jaws, and others which never +fly have rudimental wings; naturally blind creatures have rudimental eyes; and +the halt have rudimentary limbs. So, again, no animal or plant puts on its +perfect form at once, but all have to start from the same point, however +various the course which each has to pursue. Not only men and horses, and cats +and dogs, lobsters and beetles, periwinkles and mussels, but even the very +sponges and animalcules commence their existence under forms which are +essentially undistinguishable; and this is true of all the infinite variety of +plants. Nay, more, all living beings march side by side along the high road of +development, and separate the later the more like they are; like people leaving +church, who all go down the aisle, but having reached the door some turn into +the parsonage, others go down the village, and others part only in the next +parish. A man in his development runs for a little while parallel with, though +never passing through, the form of the meanest worm, then travels for a space +beside the fish, then journeys along with the bird and the reptile for his +fellow travellers; and only at last, after a brief companionship with the +highest of the four-footed and four-handed world, rises into the dignity of +pure manhood. No competent thinker of the present day dreams of explaining +these indubitable facts by the notion of the existence of unknown and +undiscoverable adaptations to purpose. And we would remind those who, ignorant +of the facts, must be moved by authority, that no one has asserted the +incompetence of the doctrine of final causes, in its application to physiology +and anatomy, more strongly than our own eminent anatomist, Professor Owen, who, +speaking of such cases, says (<i>On the Nature of Limbs</i>, pp. 39, 40): +“I think it will be obvious that the principle of final adaptations fails +to satisfy all the conditions of the problem.” +</p> + +<p> +But, if the doctrine of final causes will not help us to comprehend the +anomalies of living structure, the principle of adaptation must surely lead us +to understand why certain living beings are found in certain regions of the +world and not in others. The palm, as we know, will not grow in our climate, +nor the oak in Greenland. The white bear cannot live where the tiger thrives, +nor <i>vice versa</i>, and the more the natural habits of animal and vegetable +species are examined, the more do they seem, on the whole, limited to +particular provinces. But when we look into the facts established by the study +of the geographical distribution of animals and plants it seems utterly +hopeless to attempt to understand the strange and apparently capricious +relations which they exhibit. One would be inclined to suppose <i>a priori</i> +that every country must be naturally peopled by those animals that are fittest +to live and thrive in it. And yet how, on this hypothesis, are we to account +for the absence of cattle in the Pampas of South America, when those parts of +the New World were discovered? It is not that they were unfit for cattle, for +millions of cattle now run wild there; and the like holds good of Australia and +New Zealand. It is a curious circumstance, in fact, that the animals and plants +of the Northern Hemisphere are not only as well adapted to live in the Southern +Hemisphere as its own autochthones, but are in many cases absolutely better +adapted, and so overrun and extirpate the aborigines. Clearly, therefore, the +species which naturally inhabit a country are not necessarily the best adapted +to its climate and other conditions. The inhabitants of islands are often +distinct from any other known species of animal or plants (witness our recent +examples from the work of Sir Emerson Tennent, on Ceylon), and yet they have +almost always a sort of general family resemblance to the animals and plants of +the nearest mainland. On the other hand, there is hardly a species of fish, +shell, or crab common to the opposite sides of the narrow isthmus of Panama. +Wherever we look, then, living nature offers us riddles of difficult solution, +if we suppose that what we see is all that can be known of it. +</p> + +<p> +But our knowledge of life is not confined to the existing world. Whatever their +minor differences, geologists are agreed as to the vast thickness of the +accumulated strata which compose the visible part of our earth, and the +inconceivable immensity of the time of whose lapse they are the imperfect, but +the only accessible witnesses. Now, throughout the greater part of this long +series of stratified rocks are scattered, sometimes very abundantly, multitudes +of organic remains, the fossilized exuviae of animals and plants which lived +and died while the mud of which the rocks are formed was yet soft ooze, and +could receive and bury them. It would be a great error to suppose that these +organic remains were fragmentary relics. Our museums exhibit fossil shells of +immeasurable antiquity, as perfect as the day they were formed, whole skeletons +without a limb disturbed—nay, the changed flesh, the developing embryos, +and even the very footsteps of primeval organisms. Thus the naturalist finds in +the bowels of the earth species as well defined as, and in some groups of +animals more numerous than, those that breathe the upper air. But, singularly +enough, the majority of these entombed species are wholly distinct from those +that now live. Nor is this unlikeness without its rule and order. As a broad +fact, the further we go back in time the less the buried species are like +existing forms; and the further apart the sets of extinct creatures are the +less they are like one another. In other words, there has been a regular +succession of living beings, each younger set being in a very broad and general +sense somewhat more like those which now live. +</p> + +<p> +It was once supposed that this succession had been the result of vast +successive catastrophes, destructions, and re-creations <i>en masse</i>; but +catastrophes are now almost eliminated from geological, or at least +palaeontological speculation; and it is admitted on all hands that the seeming +breaks in the chain of being are not absolute, but only relative to our +imperfect knowledge; that species have replaced species, not in assemblages, +but one by one; and that, if it were possible to have all the phenomena of the +past presented to us, the convenient epochs and formations of the geologist, +though having a certain distinctness, would fade into one another with limits +as undefinable as those of the distinct and yet separable colours of the solar +spectrum. +</p> + +<p> +Such is a brief summary of the main truths which have been established +concerning species. Are these truths ultimate and irresolvable facts, or are +their complexities and perplexities the mere expressions of a higher law? +</p> + +<p> +A large number of persons practically assume the former position to be correct. +They believe that the writer of the Pentateuch was empowered and commissioned +to teach us scientific as well as other truth, that the account we find there +of the creation of living things is simply and literally correct, and that +anything which seems to contradict it is, by the nature of the case, false. +All the phenomena which have been detailed are, on this view, the immediate +product of a creative fiat and consequently are out of the domain of science +altogether. +</p> + +<p> +Whether this view prove ultimately to be true or false, it is, at any rate, not +at present supported by what is commonly regarded as logical proof, even if it +be capable of discussion by reason; and hence we consider ourselves at liberty +to pass it by, and to turn to those views which profess to rest on a scientific +basis only, and therefore admit of being argued to their consequences. And we +do this with the less hesitation as it so happens that those persons who are +practically conversant with the facts of the case (plainly a considerable +advantage) have always thought fit to range themselves under the latter +category. +</p> + +<p> +The majority of these competent persons have up to the present time maintained +two positions,—the first, that every species is, within certain defined +or definable limits, fixed and incapable of modification; the second, that +every species was originally produced by a distinct creative act. The second +position is obviously incapable of proof or disproof, the direct operations of +the Creator not being subjects of science; and it must therefore be regarded as +a corollary from the first, the truth or falsehood of which is a matter of +evidence. Most persons imagine that the arguments in favour of it are +overwhelming; but to some few minds, and these, it must be confessed, +intellects of no small power and grasp of knowledge, they have not brought +conviction. Among these minds, that of the famous naturalist Lamarck, who +possessed a greater acquaintance with the lower forms of life than any man of +his day, Cuvier not excepted, and was a good botanist to boot, occupies a +prominent place. +</p> + +<p> +Two facts appear to have strongly affected the course of thought of this +remarkable man—the one, that finer or stronger links of affinity connect +all living beings with one another, and that thus the highest creature grades +by multitudinous steps into the lowest; the other, that an organ may be +developed in particular directions by exerting itself in particular ways, and +that modifications once induced may be transmitted and become hereditary. +Putting these facts together, Lamarck endeavoured to account for the first by +the operation of the second. Place an animal in new circumstances, says he, and +its needs will be altered; the new needs will create new desires, and the +attempt to gratify such desires will result in an appropriate modification of +the organs exerted. Make a man a blacksmith, and his brachial muscles will +develop in accordance with the demands made upon them, and in like manner, says +Lamarck, “the efforts of some short-necked bird to catch fish without +wetting himself have, with time and perseverance, given rise to all our herons +and long-necked waders.” +</p> + +<p> +The Lamarckian hypothesis has long since been justly condemned, and it is the +established practice for every tyro to raise his heel against the carcass of +the dead lion. But it is rarely either wise or instructive to treat even the +errors of a really great man with mere ridicule, and in the present case the +logical form of the doctrine stands on a very different footing from its +substance. +</p> + +<p> +If species have really arisen by the operation of natural conditions, we ought +to be able to find those conditions now at work; we ought to be able to +discover in nature some power adequate to modify any given kind of animal or +plant in such a manner as to give rise to another kind, which would be admitted +by naturalists as a distinct species. Lamarck imagined that he had discovered +this <i>vera causa</i> in the admitted facts that some organs may be modified +by exercise; and that modifications, once produced, are capable of hereditary +transmission. It does not seem to have occurred to him to inquire whether there +is any reason to believe that there are any limits to the amount of +modification producible, or to ask how long an animal is likely to endeavour to +gratify an impossible desire. The bird, in our example, would surely have +renounced fish dinners long before it had produced the least effect on leg or +neck. +</p> + +<p> +Since Lamarck’s time, almost all competent naturalists have left +speculations on the origin of species to such dreamers as the author of the +“Vestiges,” by whose well-intentioned efforts the Lamarckian theory +received its final condemnation in the minds of all sound thinkers. +Notwithstanding this silence, however, the transmutation theory, as it has been +called, has been a “skeleton in the closet” to many an honest +zoologist and botanist who had a soul above the mere naming of dried plants and +skins. Surely, has such an one thought, nature is a mighty and consistent +whole, and the providential order established in the world of life must, if we +could only see it rightly, be consistent with that dominant over the multiform +shapes of brute matter. But what is the history of astronomy, of all the +branches of physics, of chemistry, of medicine, but a narration of the steps by +which the human mind has been compelled, often sorely against its will, to +recognize the operation of secondary causes in events where ignorance beheld an +immediate intervention of a higher power? And when we know that living things +are formed of the same elements as the inorganic world, that they act and react +upon it, bound by a thousand ties of natural piety, is it probable, nay is it +possible, that they, and they alone, should have no order in their seeming +disorder, no unity in their seeming multiplicity, should suffer no explanation +by the discovery of some central and sublime law of mutual connexion? +</p> + +<p> +Questions of this kind have assuredly often arisen, but it might have been long +before they received such expression as would have commanded the respect and +attention of the scientific world, had it not been for the publication of the +work which prompted this article. Its author, Mr. Darwin, inheritor of a once +celebrated name, won his spurs in science when most of those now distinguished +were young men, and has for the last 20 years held a place in the front ranks +of British philosophers. After a circumnavigatory voyage, undertaken solely for +the love of his science, Mr. Darwin published a series of researches which at +once arrested the attention of naturalists and geologists; his generalizations +have since received ample confirmation, and now command universal assent, nor +is it questionable that they have had the most important influence on the +progress of science. More recently Mr. Darwin, with a versatility which is +among the rarest of gifts, turned his attention to a most difficult question of +zoology and minute anatomy; and no living naturalist and anatomist has +published a better monograph than that which resulted from his labours. Such a +man, at all events, has not entered the sanctuary with unwashed hands, and when +he lays before us the results of 20 years’ investigation and reflection +we must listen even though we be disposed to strike. But, in reading his work +it must be confessed that the attention which might at first be dutifully, soon +becomes willingly, given, so clear is the author’s thought, so outspoken +his conviction, so honest and fair the candid expression of his doubts. Those +who would judge the book must read it; we shall endeavour only to make its line +of argument and its philosophical position intelligible to the general reader +in our own way. +</p> + +<p> +The Baker-street Bazaar has just been exhibiting its familiar annual spectacle. +Straight-backed, small-headed, big-barrelled oxen, as dissimilar from any wild +species as can well be imagined, contended for attention and praise with sheep +of half-a-dozen different breeds and styes of bloated preposterous pigs, no +more like a wild boar or sow than a city alderman is like an ourang-outang. The +cattle show has been, and perhaps may again be, succeeded by a poultry show, of +whose crowing and clucking prodigies it can only be certainly predicated that +they will be very unlike the aboriginal <i>Phasianus gallus</i>. If the seeker +after animal anomalies is not satisfied, a turn or two in Seven Dials will +convince him that the breeds of pigeons are quite as extraordinary and unlike +one another and their parent stock, while the Horticultural Society will +provide him with any number of corresponding vegetable aberrations from +nature’s types. He will learn with no little surprise, too, in the course +of his travels, that the proprietors and producers of these animal and +vegetable anomalies regard them as distinct species, with a firm belief, the +strength of which is exactly proportioned to their ignorance of scientific +biology, and which is the more remarkable as they are all proud of their skill +in <i>originating</i> such “species.” +</p> + +<p> +On careful inquiry it is found that all these, and the many other artificial +breeds or races of animals and plants, have been produced by one method. The +breeder—and a skilful one must be a person of much sagacity and natural +or acquired perceptive faculty—notes some slight difference, arising he +knows not how, in some individuals of his stock. If he wish to perpetuate the +difference, to form a breed with the peculiarity in question strongly marked, +he selects such male and female individuals as exhibit the desired character, +and breeds from them. Their offspring are then carefully examined, and those +which exhibit the peculiarity the most distinctly are selected for breeding, +and this operation is repeated until the desired amount of divergence from the +primitive stock is reached. It is then found that by continuing the process of +selection—always breeding, that is, from well-marked forms, and allowing +no impure crosses to interfere,—a race may be formed, the tendency of +which to reproduce itself is exceedingly strong; nor is the limit to the amount +of divergence which may be thus produced known, but one thing is certain, that, +if certain breeds of dogs, or of pigeons, or of horses, were known only in a +fossil state, no naturalist would hesitate in regarding them as distinct +species. +</p> + +<p> +But, in all these cases we have <i>human interference</i>. Without the breeder +there would be no selection, and without the selection no race. Before +admitting the possibility of natural species having originated in any similar +way, it must be proved that there is in nature some power which takes the place +of man, and performs a selection <i>sua sponte</i>. It is the claim of Mr. +Darwin that he professes to have discovered the existence and the <i>modus +operandi</i> of this natural selection, as he terms it; and, if he be right, +the process is perfectly simple and comprehensible, and irresistibly deducible +from very familiar but well nigh forgotten facts. +</p> + +<p> +Who, for instance, has duly reflected upon all the consequences of the +marvellous struggle for existence which is daily and hourly going on among +living beings? Not only does every animal live at the expense of some other +animal or plant, but the very plants are at war. The ground is full of seeds +that cannot rise into seedlings; the seedlings rob one another of air, light +and water, the strongest robber winning the day, and extinguishing his +competitors. Year after year, the wild animals with which man never interferes +are, on the average, neither more nor less numerous than they were; and yet we +know that the annual produce of every pair is from one to perhaps a million +young,—so that it is mathematically certain that, on the average, as many +are killed by natural causes as are born every year, and those only escape +which happen to be a little better fitted to resist destruction than those +which die. The individuals of a species are like the crew of a foundered ship, +and none but good swimmers have a chance of reaching the land. +</p> + +<p> +Such being unquestionably the necessary conditions under which living creatures +exist, Mr. Darwin discovers in them the instrument of natural selection. +Suppose that in the midst of this incessant competition some individuals of a +species (A) present accidental variations which happen to fit them a little +better than their fellows for the struggle in which they are engaged, then the +chances are in favour, not only of these individuals being better nourished +than the others, but of their predominating over their fellows in other ways, +and of having a better chance of leaving offspring, which will of course tend +to reproduce the peculiarities of their parents. Their offspring will, by a +parity of reasoning, tend to predominate over their contemporaries, and there +being (suppose) no room for more than one species such as A, the weaker variety +will eventually be destroyed by the new destructive influence which is thrown +into the scale, and the stronger will take its place. Surrounding conditions +remaining unchanged, the new variety (which we may call B)—supposed, for +argument’s sake, to be the best adapted for these conditions which can be +got out of the original stock—will remain unchanged, all accidental +deviations from the type becoming at once extinguished, as less fit for their +post than B itself. The tendency of B to persist will grow with its persistence +through successive generations, and it will acquire all the characters of a new +species. +</p> + +<p> +But, on the other hand, if the conditions of life change in any degree, however +slight, B may no longer be that form which is best adapted to withstand their +destructive, and profit by their sustaining, influence; in which case if it +should give rise to a more competent variety (C), this will take its place and +become a new species; and thus, by <i>natural selection</i>, the species B and +C will be successively derived from A. +</p> + +<p> +That this most ingenious hypothesis enables us to give a reason for many +apparent anomalies in the distribution of living beings in time and space, and +that it is not contradicted by the main phenomena of life and organization +appear to us to be unquestionable; and so far it must be admitted to have an +immense advantage over any of its predecessors. But it is quite another matter +to affirm absolutely either the truth or falsehood of Mr. Darwin’s views +at the present stage of the inquiry. Goethe has an excellent aphorism defining +that state of mind which he calls <i>Thätige Skepsis</i>—active doubt. +It is doubt which so loves truth that it neither dares rest in doubting, nor +extinguish itself by unjustified belief; and we commend this state of mind to +students of species, with respect to Mr. Darwin’s or any other +hypothesis, as to their origin. The combined investigations of another 20 years +may, perhaps, enable naturalists to say whether the modifying causes and the +selective power, which Mr. Darwin has satisfactorily shown to exist in nature, +are competent to produce all the effects he ascribes to them, or whether, on +the other hand, he has been led to over-estimate the value of his principle of +natural selection, as greatly as Lamarck overestimated his <i>vera causa</i> of +modification by exercise. +</p> + +<p> +But there is, at all events, one advantage possessed by the more recent writer +over his predecessor. Mr. Darwin abhors mere speculation as nature abhors a +vacuum. He is as greedy of cases and precedents as any constitutional lawyer, +and all the principles he lays down are capable of being brought to the test of +observation and experiment. The path he bids us follow professes to be, not a +mere airy track, fabricated of ideal cobwebs, but a solid and broad bridge of +facts. If it be so, it will carry us safely over many a chasm in our knowledge, +and lead us to a region free from the snares of those fascinating but barren +Virgins, the Final Causes, against whom a high authority has so justly warned +us. “My sons, dig in the vineyard,” were the last words of the old +man in the fable; and, though the sons found no treasure, they made their +fortunes by the grapes. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-1" id="fn-1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1">*</a> +<i>Times</i>, December 26th, 1850. +</p> + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Darwinian Hypothesis, by Thomas H. Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS *** + +***** This file should be named 2927-h.htm or 2927-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/2/2927/ + +This eBook was converted to HTML, with additional editing, by Jose Menendez +from the text edition produced by Amy E. 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