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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/2928-0.txt b/2928-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80d508c --- /dev/null +++ b/2928-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,820 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and Life: Mr. Darwin's “Origin of Species”, by Thomas H. 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: Time and Life: Mr. Darwin's “Origin of Species” + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: November, 2001 [EBook #2928] +[Most recently updated: November 19, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND LIFE: MR. DARWIN'S “ORIGIN OF SPECIES” *** + + + + +Produced by Amy E. Zelmer. + + + + +Time and Life* + +MR. DARWIN’S “ORIGIN OF SPECIES” + +by Thomas H. Huxley + + + + +Everyone knows that that superficial film of the earth’s substance, +hardly ten miles thick, which is accessible to human investigation, is +composed for the most part of beds or strata of stone, the consolidated +muds and sands of former seas and lakes, which have been deposited one +upon the other, and hence are the older the deeper they lie. These +multitudinous strata present such resemblances and differences among +themselves that they are capable of classification into groups or +formations, and these formations again are brigaded together into still +larger assemblages, called by the older geologists, primary, secondary, +and tertiary; by the moderns, palaeozoic, mesozoic, and cainozoic: the +basis of the former nomenclature being the relative age of the groups +of strata; that of the latter, the kinds of living forms contained in +them. + +Though but a film if compared with the total diameter of our planet, +the total series of formations is vast indeed when measured by any +human standard, and, as all action implies time, so are we compelled to +regard these mineral masses as a measure of the time which has elapsed +during their accumulation. The amount of the time which they represent +is, of course, in the inverse proportion of the intensity of the forces +which have been in operation. If, in the ancient world, mud and sand +accumulated on sea-bottoms at tenfold their present rate, it is clear +that a bed of mud or sand ten feet thick would have been formed then in +the same time as a stratum of similar materials one foot thick would be +formed now, and _vice versa_. + +At the outset of his studies, therefore, the physical geologist had to +choose between two hypotheses; either, throughout the ages which are +represented by the accumulated strata, and which we may call _geologic +time_, the forces of nature have operated with much the same average +intensity as at present, and hence the lapse of time which they +represent must be something prodigious and inconceivable, or, in the +primeval epochs, the natural powers were infinitely more intense than +now, and hence the time through which they acted to produce the effects +we see was comparatively short. + +The earlier geologists adopted the latter view almost with one consent. +For they had little knowledge of the present workings of nature, and +they read the records of geologic time as a child reads the history of +Rome or Greece, and fancies that antiquity was grand, heroic, and +unlike the present because it is unlike his little experience of the +present. + +Even so the earlier observers were moved with wonder at the seeming +contrast between the ancient and the present order of nature. The +elemental forces seemed to have been grander and more energetic in +primeval times. Upheaved and contorted, rifted and fissured, pierced by +dykes of molten matter or worn away over vast areas by aqueous action, +the older rocks appeared to bear witness to a state of things far +different from that exhibited by the peaceful epoch on which the lot of +man has fallen. + +But by degrees thoughtful students of geology have been led to perceive +that the earliest efforts of nature have been by no means the grandest. +Alps and Andes are children of yesterday when compared with Snowdon and +the Cumberland hills; and the so-called glacial epoch—that in which +perhaps the most extensive physical changes of which any record +remaining occurred—is the last and the newest of the revolutions of the +globe. And in proportion as physical geography—which is the geology of +our own epoch—has grown into a science, and the present order of nature +has been ransacked to find what, _hibernice_, we may call precedents +for the phenomena of the past, so the apparent necessity of supposing +the past to be widely different from the present has diminished. + +The transporting power of the greatest deluge which can be imagined +sinks into insignificance beside that of the slowly floating, slowly +melting iceberg, or the glacier creeping along at its snail’s pace of a +yard a day. The study of the deltas of the Nile, the Ganges, and the +Mississippi has taught us how slow is the wearing action of water, how +vast its effects when time is allowed for its operation. The reefs of +the Pacific, the deep-sea soundings of the Atlantic, show that it is to +the slow-growing coral and to the imperceptible animalcule, which lives +its brief space and then adds its tiny shell to the muddy cairn left by +its brethren and ancestors, that we must look as the agents in the +formation of limestone and chalk, and not to hypothetical oceans +saturated with calcareous salts and suddenly depositing them. + +And while the inquirer has thus learnt that existing forces—_give them +time_—are competent to produce all the physical phenomena we meet with +in the rocks, so, on the other side, the study of the marks left in the +ancient strata by past physical actions shows that these were similar +to those which now obtain. Ancient beaches are met with whose pebbles +are like those found on modern shores; the hardened sea-sands of the +oldest epochs show ripple-marks, such as may now be found on every +sandy coast; nay, more, the pits left by ancient rain-drops prove that +even in the very earliest ages, the “bow in the clouds” must have +adorned the palaeozoic firmament. So that if we could reverse the +legend of the Seven Sleepers,—if we could sleep back through the past, +and awake a million ages before our own epoch, in the midst of the +earliest geologic times,—there is no reason to believe that sea, or +sky, or the aspect of the land would warn us of the marvellous +retrospection. + +Such are the beliefs which modern physical geologists hold, or, at any +rate, tend towards holding. But, in so doing, it is obvious that they +by no means prejudge the question, as to what the physical condition of +the globe may have been before our chapters of its history begin, in +what may be called (with that licence which is implied in the +often-used term “prehistoric epoch”) “pre-geologic time.” The views +indicated, in fact, are not only quite consistent with the hypothesis, +that, in the still earlier period referred to, the condition of our +world was very different; but they may be held by some to necessitate +that hypothesis. The physical philosopher who is accurately acquainted +with the velocity of a cannon-ball, and the precise character of the +line which it traverses for a yard of its course, is necessitated by +what he knows of the laws of nature to conclude that it came from a +certain spot, whence it was impelled by a certain force, and that it +has followed a certain trajectory. In like manner, the student of +physical geology, who fully believes in the uniformity of the general +condition of the earth through geologic time, may feel compelled by +what he knows of causation, and by the general analogy of nature, to +suppose that our solar system was once a nebulous mass; that it +gradually condensed, that it broke up into that wonderful group of +harmoniously rolling balls we call planets and satellites, and that +then each of these underwent its appointed metamorphosis, until at last +our own share of the cosmic vapour passed into that condition in which +we first meet with definite records of its state, and in which it has +since, with comparatively little change, remained. + +The doctrine of uniformity and the doctrine of progression are, +therefore, perfectly consistent; perhaps, indeed, they might be shown +to be necessarily connected with one another. + +If, however, the condition of the world, which has obtained throughout +geologic time, is but the sequel to a vast series of changes which took +place in pre-geologic time, then it seems not unlikely that the +duration of this latter is to that of the former as the vast extent of +geologic time is to the length of the brief epoch we call the +historical period; and that even the oldest rocks are records of an +epoch almost infinitely remote from that which could have witnessed the +first shaping of our globe. + +It is probable that no modern geologist would hesitate to admit the +general validity of these reasonings when applied to the physics of his +subject, whence it is the more remarkable that the moment the question +changes from one of physics and chemistry to one of natural history, +scientific opinions and the popular prejudices, which reflect them in a +distorted form, undergo a sudden metamorphosis. Geologists and +palaeontologists write about the “beginning of life” and the +“first-created forms of living beings,” as if they were the most +familiar things in the world; and even cautious writers seem to be on +quite friendly terms with the “archetype” whereby the Creator was +guided “amidst the crash of falling worlds.” Just as it used to be +imagined that the ancient world was physically opposed to the present, +so it is still widely assumed that the living population of our globe, +whether animal or vegetable, in the older epochs, exhibited forms so +strikingly contrasted with those which we see around us, that there is +hardly anything in common between the two. It is constantly tacitly +assumed that we have before us all the forms of life which have ever +existed; and though the progress of knowledge, yearly and almost +monthly, drives the defenders of that position from their ground, they +entrench themselves in the new line of defences as if nothing had +happened, and proclaim that the _new_ beginning is the _real_ +beginning. + +Without for an instant denying or endeavouring to soften down the +considerable positive differences (the negative ones are met by another +line of argument) which undoubtedly obtain between the ancient and the +modern worlds of life, we believe they have been vastly overstated and +exaggerated, and this belief is based upon certain facts whose value +does not seem to have been fully appreciated, though they have long +been more or less completely known. + +The multitudinous kinds of animals and plants, both recent and fossil, +are, as is well known, arranged by zoologists and botanists, in +accordance with their natural relations, into groups which receive the +names of sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, families, genera and species. +Now it is a most remarkable circumstance that, viewed on the great +scale, living beings have differed so little throughout all geologic +time that there is no sub-kingdom and no class wholly extinct or +without living representatives. + +If we descend to the smaller groups, we find that the number of orders +of plants is about two hundred; and I have it on the best authority +that not one of these is exclusively fossil; so that there is +absolutely not a single extinct ordinal type of vegetable life; and it +is not until we descend to the next group, or the families, that we +find types which are wholly extinct. The number of orders of animals, +on the other hand, may be reckoned at a hundred and twenty, or +thereabouts, and of these, eight or nine have no living +representatives. The proportion of extinct ordinal types of animals to +the existing types, therefore, does not exceed seven per cent.—a +marvellously small proportion when we consider the vastness of geologic +time. + +Another class of considerations—of a different kind, it is true, but +tending in the same direction—seems to have been overlooked. Not only +is it true that the general plan of construction of animals and plants +has been the same in all recorded time as at present, but there are +particular kinds of animals and plants which have existed throughout +vast epochs, sometimes through the whole range of recorded time, with +very little change. By reason of this persistency, the typical form of +such a kind might be called a “persistent type,” in contradistinction +to those types which have appeared for but a short time in the course +of the world’s history. Examples of these persistent types are abundant +enough in both the vegetable and the animal kingdoms. The oldest group +of plants with which we are well acquainted is that of whose remains +coal is constituted; and as far as they can be identified, the +carboniferous plants are ferns, or club-mosses, or Coniferae, in many +cases generically identical with those now living! + +Among animals, instances of the same kind may be found in every +sub-kingdom. The _Globigerina_ of the Atlantic soundings is identical +with that which occurs in the chalk; and the casts of lower silurian +_Foraminifera_, which Ehrenberg has recently described, seem to +indicate the existence at that remote period of forms singularly like +those which now exist. Among the corals, the palaeozoic _Tabulata_ are +constructed on precisely the same type as the modern millepores; and if +we turn to molluscs, the most competent malacologists fail to discover +any generic distinction between the _Craniae_, _Lingulae_ and +_Discinae_ of the silurian rocks and those which now live. Our existing +_Nautilus_ has its representative species in every great formation, +from the oldest to the newest; and _Loligo_, the squid of modern seas, +appears in the lias, or at the bottom of the mesozoic series, in a +form, at most, specifically different from its living congeners. In the +great assemblage of annulose animals, the two highest classes, the +insects and spider tribe, exhibit a wonderful persistency of type. The +cockroaches of the carboniferous epoch are exceedingly similar to those +which now run about our coal-cellars; and its locusts, termites and +dragon-flies are closely allied to the members of the same groups which +now chirrup about our fields, undermine our houses, or sail with swift +grace about the banks of our sedgy pools. And, in like manner, the +palaeozoic scorpions can only be distinguished by the eye of a +naturalist from the modern ones. + +Finally, with respect to the _Vertebrata_, the same law holds good: +certain types, such as those of the ganoid and placoid fishes, having +persisted from the palaeozoic epoch to the present time without a +greater amount of deviation from the normal standard than that which is +seen within the limits of the group as it now exists. Even among the +_Reptilia_—the class which exhibits the largest proportion of entirely +extinct forms of any one type,—that of the _Crocodilia_, has persisted +from at least the commencement of the mesozoic epoch up to the present +time with so much constancy, that the amount of change which it +exhibits may fairly, in relation to the time which has elapsed, be +called insignificant. And the imperfect knowledge we have of the +ancient mammalian population of our earth leads to the belief that +certain of its types, such as that of the _Marsupialia_, have persisted +with correspondingly little change through a similar range of time. + +Thus it would appear to be demonstrable, that, notwithstanding the +great change which is exhibited by the animal population of the world +as a whole, certain types have persisted comparatively without +alteration, and the question arises, What bearing have such facts as +these on our notions of the history of life through geological time? +The answer to this question would seem to depend on the view we take +respecting the origin of species in general. If we assume that every +species of animal and of plant was formed by a distinct act of creative +power, and if the species which have incessantly succeeded one another +were placed upon the globe by these separate acts, then the existence +of persistent types is simply an unintelligible irregularity. Such +assumption, however, is as unsupported by tradition or by Revelation as +it is opposed by the analogy of the rest of the operations of nature; +and those who imagine that, by adopting any such hypothesis, they are +strengthening the hands of the advocates of the letter of the Mosaic +account, are simply mistaken. If, on the other hand, we adopt that +hypothesis to which alone the study of physiology lends any +support—that hypothesis which, having struggled beyond the reach of +those fatal supporters, the Telliameds and Vestigiarians, who so nearly +caused its suffocation by wind in early infancy, is now winning at +least the provisional assent of all the best thinkers of the day—the +hypothesis that the forms or species of living beings, as we know them, +have been produced by the gradual modification of pre-existing +species—then the existence of persistent types seems to teach us much. +Just as a small portion of a great curve appears straight, the apparent +absence of change in direction of the line being the exponent of the +vast extent of the whole, in proportion to the part we see; so, if it +be true that all living species are the result of the modification of +other and simpler forms, the existence of these little altered +persistent types, ranging through all geological time, must indicate +that they are but the final terms of an enormous series of +modifications, which had their being in the great lapse of pregeologic +time, and are now perhaps for ever lost. + +In other words, when rightly studied, the teachings of palaeontology +are at one with those of physical geology. Our farthest explorations +carry us back but a little way above the mouth of the great river of +Life: where it arose, and by what channels the noble tide has reached +the point when it first breaks upon our view, is hidden from us. + + +The foregoing pages contain the substance of a lecture delivered before +the Royal Institution of Great Britain many months ago, and of course +long before the appearance of the remarkable work on the “Origin of +Species” just published by Mr. Darwin, who arrives at very similar +conclusions. Although, in one sense, I might fairly say that my own +views have been arrived at independently, I do not know that I can +claim any equitable right to property in them; for it has long been my +privilege to enjoy Mr. Darwin’s friendship, and to profit by +corresponding with him, and by, to some extent, becoming acquainted +with the workings of his singularly original and well-stored mind. It +was in consequence of my knowledge of the general tenor of the +researches in which Mr. Darwin had been so long engaged; because I had +the most complete confidence in his perseverance, his knowledge, and, +above all things, his high-minded love of truth; and, moreover, because +I found that the better I became acquainted with the opinions of the +best naturalists regarding the vexed question of species, the less +fixed they seemed to be, and the more inclined they were to the +hypothesis of gradual modification, that I ventured to speak as +strongly as I have done in the final paragraphs of my discourse. + +Thus, my daw having so many borrowed plumes, I see no impropriety in +making a tail to this brief paper by taking another handful of feathers +from Mr. Darwin; endeavouring to point out in a few words, in fact, +what, as I gather from the perusal of his book, his doctrines really +are, and on what sort of basis they rest. And I do this the more +willingly, as I observe that already the hastier sort of critics have +begun, not to review my friend’s book, but to howl over it in a manner +which must tend greatly to distract the public mind. + +No one will be better satisfied than I to see Mr. Darwin’s book +refuted, if any person be competent to perform that feat; but I would +suggest that refutation is retarded, not aided, by mere sarcastic +misrepresentation. Every one who has studied cattle-breeding, or turned +pigeon-fancier, or “pomologist,” must have been struck by the extreme +modifiability or plasticity of those kinds of animals and plants which +have been subjected to such artificial conditions as are imposed by +domestication. Breeds of dogs are more different from one another than +are the dog and the wolf; and the purely artificial races of pigeons, +if their origin were unknown, would most assuredly be reckoned by +naturalists as distinct species and even genera. + +These breeds are always produced in the same way. The breeder selects a +pair, one or other, or both, of which present an indication of the +peculiarity he wishes to perpetuate, and then selects from the +offspring of them those which are most characteristic, rejecting the +others. From the selected offspring he breeds again, and, taking the +same precautions as before, repeats the process until he has obtained +the precise degree of divergence from the primitive type at which he +aimed. + +If he now breeds from the variety thus established for some +generations, taking care always to keep the stock pure, the tendency to +produce this particular variety becomes more and more strongly +hereditary; and it does not appear that there is any limit to the +persistency of the race thus developed. + +Men like Lamarck, apprehending these facts, and knowing that varieties +comparable to those produced by the breeder are abundantly found in +nature, and finding it impossible to discriminate in some cases between +varieties and true species, could hardly fail to divine the possibility +that species even the most distinct were, after all, only exceedingly +persistent varieties, and that they had arisen by the modification of +some common stock, just as it is with good reason believed that +turnspits and greyhounds, carrier and tumbler pigeons, have arisen. + +But there was a link wanting to complete the parallel. Where in nature +was the analogue of the breeder to be found? How could that operation +of selection, which is his essential function, be carried out by mere +natural agencies? Lamarck did not value this problem; neither did he +admit his impotence to solve it; but he guessed a solution. Now, +guessing in science is a very hazardous proceeding, and Lamarck’s +reputation has suffered woefully for the absurdities into which his +baseless suppositions led him. + +Lamarck’s conjectures, equipped with a new hat and stick, as Sir Walter +Scott was wont to say of an old story renovated, formed the foundation +of the biological speculations of the “Vestiges,” a work which has done +more harm to the progress of sound thought on these matters than any +that could be named; and, indeed, I mention it here simply for the +purpose of denying that it has anything in common with what essentially +characterises Mr. Darwin’s work. + +The peculiar feature of the latter is, in fact, that it professes to +tell us what in nature takes the place of the breeder; what it is that +favours the development of one variety into which a species may run, +and checks that of another; and, finally, shows how this natural +selection, as it is termed, may be the physical cause of the production +of species by modification. + +That which takes the place of the breeder and selector in nature is +Death. In a most remarkable chapter, “On the Struggle for Existence,” +Mr. Darwin draws attention to the marvellous destruction of life which +is constantly going on in nature. For every species of living thing, as +for man, “_Eine Bresche ist ein jeder Tag_.”—Every species has its +enemies; every species has to compete with others for the necessaries +of existence; the weakest goes to the wall, and death is the penalty +inflicted on all laggards and stragglers. Every variety to which a +species may give rise is either worse or better adapted to surrounding +circumstances than its parent. If worse, it cannot maintain itself +against death, and speedily vanishes again. But if better adapted, it +must, sooner or later, “improve” its progenitor from the face of the +earth, and take its place. If circumstances change, the victor will be +similarly supplanted by its own progeny; and thus, by the operation of +natural causes, unlimited modification may in the lapse of long ages +occur. + +For an explanation of what I have here called vaguely “surrounding +circumstances,” and of why they continually change—for ample proof that +the “struggle for existence” is a very great reality, and assuredly +_tends_ to exert the influence ascribed to it—I must refer to Mr. +Darwin’s book. I believe I have stated fairly the position upon which +his whole theory must stand or fall; and it is not my purpose to +anticipate a full review of his work. If it can be proved that the +process of natural selection, operating upon any species, can give rise +to varieties of species so different from one another that none of our +tests will distinguish them from true species, Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis +of the origin of species will take its place among the established +theories of science, be its consequences whatever they may. If, on the +other hand, Mr. Darwin has erred, either in fact or in reasoning, his +fellow-workers will soon find out the weak points in his doctrines, and +their extinction by some nearer approximation to the truth will +exemplify his own principle of natural selection. + +In either case the question is one to be settled only by the +painstaking, truth-loving investigation of skilled naturalists. It is +the duty of the general public to await the result in patience; and, +above all things, to discourage, as they would any other crimes, the +attempt to enlist the prejudices of the ignorant, or the +uncharitableness of the bigoted, on either side of the controversy. + + + * “Macmillan’s Magazine,” December 1859. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and Life: Mr. Darwin's “Origin of Species”, by Thomas H. Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND LIFE: MR. DARWIN'S “ORIGIN OF SPECIES” *** + +***** This file should be named 2928-0.txt or 2928-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/2/2928/ + +Produced by Amy E. 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Huxley</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and Life: Mr. Darwin's “Origin of Species”, by Thomas H. 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: Time and Life: Mr. Darwin's “Origin of Species” + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: November, 2001 [EBook #2928] +[Most recently updated: November 19, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND LIFE: MR. DARWIN'S “ORIGIN OF SPECIES” *** + + + + +Produced by Amy E. Zelmer. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>Time and Life<a href="#fn-1" name="fnref-1" id="fnref-1"><sup>*</sup></a></h1> + +<h3>MR. DARWIN’S<br />“ORIGIN OF SPECIES”</h3> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Thomas H. Huxley</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p> +Everyone knows that that superficial film of the earth’s substance, +hardly ten miles thick, which is accessible to human investigation, is composed +for the most part of beds or strata of stone, the consolidated muds and sands +of former seas and lakes, which have been deposited one upon the other, and +hence are the older the deeper they lie. These multitudinous strata present +such resemblances and differences among themselves that they are capable of +classification into groups or formations, and these formations again are +brigaded together into still larger assemblages, called by the older +geologists, primary, secondary, and tertiary; by the moderns, palaeozoic, +mesozoic, and cainozoic: the basis of the former nomenclature being the +relative age of the groups of strata; that of the latter, the kinds of living +forms contained in them. +</p> + +<p> +Though but a film if compared with the total diameter of our planet, the total +series of formations is vast indeed when measured by any human standard, and, +as all action implies time, so are we compelled to regard these mineral masses +as a measure of the time which has elapsed during their accumulation. The +amount of the time which they represent is, of course, in the inverse +proportion of the intensity of the forces which have been in operation. If, in +the ancient world, mud and sand accumulated on sea-bottoms at tenfold their +present rate, it is clear that a bed of mud or sand ten feet thick would have +been formed then in the same time as a stratum of similar materials one foot +thick would be formed now, and <i>vice versa</i>. +</p> + +<p> +At the outset of his studies, therefore, the physical geologist had to choose +between two hypotheses; either, throughout the ages which are represented by +the accumulated strata, and which we may call <i>geologic time</i>, the forces +of nature have operated with much the same average intensity as at present, and +hence the lapse of time which they represent must be something prodigious and +inconceivable, or, in the primeval epochs, the natural powers were infinitely +more intense than now, and hence the time through which they acted to produce +the effects we see was comparatively short. +</p> + +<p> +The earlier geologists adopted the latter view almost with one consent. For +they had little knowledge of the present workings of nature, and they read the +records of geologic time as a child reads the history of Rome or Greece, and +fancies that antiquity was grand, heroic, and unlike the present because it is +unlike his little experience of the present. +</p> + +<p> +Even so the earlier observers were moved with wonder at the seeming contrast +between the ancient and the present order of nature. The elemental forces +seemed to have been grander and more energetic in primeval times. Upheaved and +contorted, rifted and fissured, pierced by dykes of molten matter or worn away +over vast areas by aqueous action, the older rocks appeared to bear witness to +a state of things far different from that exhibited by the peaceful epoch on +which the lot of man has fallen. +</p> + +<p> +But by degrees thoughtful students of geology have been led to perceive that +the earliest efforts of nature have been by no means the grandest. Alps and +Andes are children of yesterday when compared with Snowdon and the Cumberland +hills; and the so-called glacial epoch—that in which perhaps the most +extensive physical changes of which any record remaining occurred—is the +last and the newest of the revolutions of the globe. And in proportion as +physical geography—which is the geology of our own epoch—has grown +into a science, and the present order of nature has been ransacked to find +what, <i>hibernice</i>, we may call precedents for the phenomena of the past, +so the apparent necessity of supposing the past to be widely different from the +present has diminished. +</p> + +<p> +The transporting power of the greatest deluge which can be imagined sinks into +insignificance beside that of the slowly floating, slowly melting iceberg, or +the glacier creeping along at its snail’s pace of a yard a day. The study +of the deltas of the Nile, the Ganges, and the Mississippi has taught us how +slow is the wearing action of water, how vast its effects when time is allowed +for its operation. The reefs of the Pacific, the deep-sea soundings of the +Atlantic, show that it is to the slow-growing coral and to the imperceptible +animalcule, which lives its brief space and then adds its tiny shell to the +muddy cairn left by its brethren and ancestors, that we must look as the agents +in the formation of limestone and chalk, and not to hypothetical oceans +saturated with calcareous salts and suddenly depositing them. +</p> + +<p> +And while the inquirer has thus learnt that existing forces—<i>give them +time</i>—are competent to produce all the physical phenomena we meet with +in the rocks, so, on the other side, the study of the marks left in the ancient +strata by past physical actions shows that these were similar to those which +now obtain. Ancient beaches are met with whose pebbles are like those found on +modern shores; the hardened sea-sands of the oldest epochs show ripple-marks, +such as may now be found on every sandy coast; nay, more, the pits left by +ancient rain-drops prove that even in the very earliest ages, the “bow in +the clouds” must have adorned the palaeozoic firmament. So that if we +could reverse the legend of the Seven Sleepers,—if we could sleep back +through the past, and awake a million ages before our own epoch, in the midst +of the earliest geologic times,—there is no reason to believe that sea, +or sky, or the aspect of the land would warn us of the marvellous +retrospection. +</p> + +<p> +Such are the beliefs which modern physical geologists hold, or, at any rate, +tend towards holding. But, in so doing, it is obvious that they by no means +prejudge the question, as to what the physical condition of the globe may have +been before our chapters of its history begin, in what may be called (with that +licence which is implied in the often-used term “prehistoric +epoch”) “pre-geologic time.” The views indicated, in fact, +are not only quite consistent with the hypothesis, that, in the still earlier +period referred to, the condition of our world was very different; but they may +be held by some to necessitate that hypothesis. The physical philosopher who is +accurately acquainted with the velocity of a cannon-ball, and the precise +character of the line which it traverses for a yard of its course, is +necessitated by what he knows of the laws of nature to conclude that it came +from a certain spot, whence it was impelled by a certain force, and that it has +followed a certain trajectory. In like manner, the student of physical geology, +who fully believes in the uniformity of the general condition of the earth +through geologic time, may feel compelled by what he knows of causation, and by +the general analogy of nature, to suppose that our solar system was once a +nebulous mass; that it gradually condensed, that it broke up into that +wonderful group of harmoniously rolling balls we call planets and satellites, +and that then each of these underwent its appointed metamorphosis, until at +last our own share of the cosmic vapour passed into that condition in which we +first meet with definite records of its state, and in which it has since, with +comparatively little change, remained. +</p> + +<p> +The doctrine of uniformity and the doctrine of progression are, therefore, +perfectly consistent; perhaps, indeed, they might be shown to be necessarily +connected with one another. +</p> + +<p> +If, however, the condition of the world, which has obtained throughout geologic +time, is but the sequel to a vast series of changes which took place in +pre-geologic time, then it seems not unlikely that the duration of this latter +is to that of the former as the vast extent of geologic time is to the length +of the brief epoch we call the historical period; and that even the oldest +rocks are records of an epoch almost infinitely remote from that which could +have witnessed the first shaping of our globe. +</p> + +<p> +It is probable that no modern geologist would hesitate to admit the general +validity of these reasonings when applied to the physics of his subject, whence +it is the more remarkable that the moment the question changes from one of +physics and chemistry to one of natural history, scientific opinions and the +popular prejudices, which reflect them in a distorted form, undergo a sudden +metamorphosis. Geologists and palaeontologists write about the “beginning +of life” and the “first-created forms of living beings,” as +if they were the most familiar things in the world; and even cautious writers +seem to be on quite friendly terms with the “archetype” whereby the +Creator was guided “amidst the crash of falling worlds.” Just as it +used to be imagined that the ancient world was physically opposed to the +present, so it is still widely assumed that the living population of our globe, +whether animal or vegetable, in the older epochs, exhibited forms so strikingly +contrasted with those which we see around us, that there is hardly anything in +common between the two. It is constantly tacitly assumed that we have before us +all the forms of life which have ever existed; and though the progress of +knowledge, yearly and almost monthly, drives the defenders of that position +from their ground, they entrench themselves in the new line of defences as if +nothing had happened, and proclaim that the <i>new</i> beginning is the +<i>real</i> beginning. +</p> + +<p> +Without for an instant denying or endeavouring to soften down the considerable +positive differences (the negative ones are met by another line of argument) +which undoubtedly obtain between the ancient and the modern worlds of life, we +believe they have been vastly overstated and exaggerated, and this belief is +based upon certain facts whose value does not seem to have been fully +appreciated, though they have long been more or less completely known. +</p> + +<p> +The multitudinous kinds of animals and plants, both recent and fossil, are, as +is well known, arranged by zoologists and botanists, in accordance with their +natural relations, into groups which receive the names of sub-kingdoms, +classes, orders, families, genera and species. Now it is a most remarkable +circumstance that, viewed on the great scale, living beings have differed so +little throughout all geologic time that there is no sub-kingdom and no class +wholly extinct or without living representatives. +</p> + +<p> +If we descend to the smaller groups, we find that the number of orders of +plants is about two hundred; and I have it on the best authority that not one +of these is exclusively fossil; so that there is absolutely not a single +extinct ordinal type of vegetable life; and it is not until we descend to the +next group, or the families, that we find types which are wholly extinct. The +number of orders of animals, on the other hand, may be reckoned at a hundred +and twenty, or thereabouts, and of these, eight or nine have no living +representatives. The proportion of extinct ordinal types of animals to the +existing types, therefore, does not exceed seven per cent.—a marvellously +small proportion when we consider the vastness of geologic time. +</p> + +<p> +Another class of considerations—of a different kind, it is true, but +tending in the same direction—seems to have been overlooked. Not only is +it true that the general plan of construction of animals and plants has been +the same in all recorded time as at present, but there are particular kinds of +animals and plants which have existed throughout vast epochs, sometimes through +the whole range of recorded time, with very little change. By reason of this +persistency, the typical form of such a kind might be called a +“persistent type,” in contradistinction to those types which have +appeared for but a short time in the course of the world’s history. +Examples of these persistent types are abundant enough in both the vegetable +and the animal kingdoms. The oldest group of plants with which we are well +acquainted is that of whose remains coal is constituted; and as far as they can +be identified, the carboniferous plants are ferns, or club-mosses, or +Coniferae, in many cases generically identical with those now living! +</p> + +<p> +Among animals, instances of the same kind may be found in every sub-kingdom. +The <i>Globigerina</i> of the Atlantic soundings is identical with that which +occurs in the chalk; and the casts of lower silurian <i>Foraminifera</i>, which +Ehrenberg has recently described, seem to indicate the existence at that remote +period of forms singularly like those which now exist. Among the corals, the +palaeozoic <i>Tabulata</i> are constructed on precisely the same type as the +modern millepores; and if we turn to molluscs, the most competent malacologists +fail to discover any generic distinction between the <i>Craniae</i>, +<i>Lingulae</i> and <i>Discinae</i> of the silurian rocks and those which now +live. Our existing <i>Nautilus</i> has its representative species in every +great formation, from the oldest to the newest; and <i>Loligo</i>, the squid of +modern seas, appears in the lias, or at the bottom of the mesozoic series, in a +form, at most, specifically different from its living congeners. In the great +assemblage of annulose animals, the two highest classes, the insects and spider +tribe, exhibit a wonderful persistency of type. The cockroaches of the +carboniferous epoch are exceedingly similar to those which now run about our +coal-cellars; and its locusts, termites and dragon-flies are closely allied to +the members of the same groups which now chirrup about our fields, undermine +our houses, or sail with swift grace about the banks of our sedgy pools. And, +in like manner, the palaeozoic scorpions can only be distinguished by the eye +of a naturalist from the modern ones. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, with respect to the <i>Vertebrata</i>, the same law holds good: +certain types, such as those of the ganoid and placoid fishes, having persisted +from the palaeozoic epoch to the present time without a greater amount of +deviation from the normal standard than that which is seen within the limits of +the group as it now exists. Even among the <i>Reptilia</i>—the class +which exhibits the largest proportion of entirely extinct forms of any one +type,—that of the <i>Crocodilia</i>, has persisted from at least the +commencement of the mesozoic epoch up to the present time with so much +constancy, that the amount of change which it exhibits may fairly, in relation +to the time which has elapsed, be called insignificant. And the imperfect +knowledge we have of the ancient mammalian population of our earth leads to the +belief that certain of its types, such as that of the <i>Marsupialia</i>, have +persisted with correspondingly little change through a similar range of time. +</p> + +<p> +Thus it would appear to be demonstrable, that, notwithstanding the great change +which is exhibited by the animal population of the world as a whole, certain +types have persisted comparatively without alteration, and the question arises, +What bearing have such facts as these on our notions of the history of life +through geological time? The answer to this question would seem to depend on +the view we take respecting the origin of species in general. If we assume that +every species of animal and of plant was formed by a distinct act of creative +power, and if the species which have incessantly succeeded one another were +placed upon the globe by these separate acts, then the existence of persistent +types is simply an unintelligible irregularity. Such assumption, however, is as +unsupported by tradition or by Revelation as it is opposed by the analogy of +the rest of the operations of nature; and those who imagine that, by adopting +any such hypothesis, they are strengthening the hands of the advocates of the +letter of the Mosaic account, are simply mistaken. If, on the other hand, we +adopt that hypothesis to which alone the study of physiology lends any +support—that hypothesis which, having struggled beyond the reach of those +fatal supporters, the Telliameds and Vestigiarians, who so nearly caused its +suffocation by wind in early infancy, is now winning at least the provisional +assent of all the best thinkers of the day—the hypothesis that the forms +or species of living beings, as we know them, have been produced by the gradual +modification of pre-existing species—then the existence of persistent +types seems to teach us much. Just as a small portion of a great curve appears +straight, the apparent absence of change in direction of the line being the +exponent of the vast extent of the whole, in proportion to the part we see; so, +if it be true that all living species are the result of the modification of +other and simpler forms, the existence of these little altered persistent +types, ranging through all geological time, must indicate that they are but the +final terms of an enormous series of modifications, which had their being in +the great lapse of pregeologic time, and are now perhaps for ever lost. +</p> + +<p> +In other words, when rightly studied, the teachings of palaeontology are at one +with those of physical geology. Our farthest explorations carry us back but a +little way above the mouth of the great river of Life: where it arose, and by +what channels the noble tide has reached the point when it first breaks upon +our view, is hidden from us. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +The foregoing pages contain the substance of a lecture delivered before the +Royal Institution of Great Britain many months ago, and of course long before +the appearance of the remarkable work on the “Origin of Species” +just published by Mr. Darwin, who arrives at very similar conclusions. +Although, in one sense, I might fairly say that my own views have been arrived +at independently, I do not know that I can claim any equitable right to +property in them; for it has long been my privilege to enjoy Mr. Darwin’s +friendship, and to profit by corresponding with him, and by, to some extent, +becoming acquainted with the workings of his singularly original and +well-stored mind. It was in consequence of my knowledge of the general tenor of +the researches in which Mr. Darwin had been so long engaged; because I had the +most complete confidence in his perseverance, his knowledge, and, above all +things, his high-minded love of truth; and, moreover, because I found that the +better I became acquainted with the opinions of the best naturalists regarding +the vexed question of species, the less fixed they seemed to be, and the more +inclined they were to the hypothesis of gradual modification, that I ventured +to speak as strongly as I have done in the final paragraphs of my discourse. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, my daw having so many borrowed plumes, I see no impropriety in making a +tail to this brief paper by taking another handful of feathers from Mr. Darwin; +endeavouring to point out in a few words, in fact, what, as I gather from the +perusal of his book, his doctrines really are, and on what sort of basis they +rest. And I do this the more willingly, as I observe that already the hastier +sort of critics have begun, not to review my friend’s book, but to howl +over it in a manner which must tend greatly to distract the public mind. +</p> + +<p> +No one will be better satisfied than I to see Mr. Darwin’s book refuted, +if any person be competent to perform that feat; but I would suggest that +refutation is retarded, not aided, by mere sarcastic misrepresentation. Every +one who has studied cattle-breeding, or turned pigeon-fancier, or +“pomologist,” must have been struck by the extreme modifiability or +plasticity of those kinds of animals and plants which have been subjected to +such artificial conditions as are imposed by domestication. Breeds of dogs are +more different from one another than are the dog and the wolf; and the purely +artificial races of pigeons, if their origin were unknown, would most assuredly +be reckoned by naturalists as distinct species and even genera. +</p> + +<p> +These breeds are always produced in the same way. The breeder selects a pair, +one or other, or both, of which present an indication of the peculiarity he +wishes to perpetuate, and then selects from the offspring of them those which +are most characteristic, rejecting the others. From the selected offspring he +breeds again, and, taking the same precautions as before, repeats the process +until he has obtained the precise degree of divergence from the primitive type +at which he aimed. +</p> + +<p> +If he now breeds from the variety thus established for some generations, taking +care always to keep the stock pure, the tendency to produce this particular +variety becomes more and more strongly hereditary; and it does not appear that +there is any limit to the persistency of the race thus developed. +</p> + +<p> +Men like Lamarck, apprehending these facts, and knowing that varieties +comparable to those produced by the breeder are abundantly found in nature, and +finding it impossible to discriminate in some cases between varieties and true +species, could hardly fail to divine the possibility that species even the most +distinct were, after all, only exceedingly persistent varieties, and that they +had arisen by the modification of some common stock, just as it is with good +reason believed that turnspits and greyhounds, carrier and tumbler pigeons, +have arisen. +</p> + +<p> +But there was a link wanting to complete the parallel. Where in nature was the +analogue of the breeder to be found? How could that operation of selection, +which is his essential function, be carried out by mere natural agencies? +Lamarck did not value this problem; neither did he admit his impotence to solve +it; but he guessed a solution. Now, guessing in science is a very hazardous +proceeding, and Lamarck’s reputation has suffered woefully for the +absurdities into which his baseless suppositions led him. +</p> + +<p> +Lamarck’s conjectures, equipped with a new hat and stick, as Sir Walter +Scott was wont to say of an old story renovated, formed the foundation of the +biological speculations of the “Vestiges,” a work which has done +more harm to the progress of sound thought on these matters than any that could +be named; and, indeed, I mention it here simply for the purpose of denying that +it has anything in common with what essentially characterises Mr. +Darwin’s work. +</p> + +<p> +The peculiar feature of the latter is, in fact, that it professes to tell us +what in nature takes the place of the breeder; what it is that favours the +development of one variety into which a species may run, and checks that of +another; and, finally, shows how this natural selection, as it is termed, may +be the physical cause of the production of species by modification. +</p> + +<p> +That which takes the place of the breeder and selector in nature is Death. In a +most remarkable chapter, “On the Struggle for Existence,” Mr. +Darwin draws attention to the marvellous destruction of life which is +constantly going on in nature. For every species of living thing, as for man, +“<i>Eine Bresche ist ein jeder Tag</i>.”—Every species has +its enemies; every species has to compete with others for the necessaries of +existence; the weakest goes to the wall, and death is the penalty inflicted on +all laggards and stragglers. Every variety to which a species may give rise is +either worse or better adapted to surrounding circumstances than its parent. If +worse, it cannot maintain itself against death, and speedily vanishes again. +But if better adapted, it must, sooner or later, “improve” its +progenitor from the face of the earth, and take its place. If circumstances +change, the victor will be similarly supplanted by its own progeny; and thus, +by the operation of natural causes, unlimited modification may in the lapse of +long ages occur. +</p> + +<p> +For an explanation of what I have here called vaguely “surrounding +circumstances,” and of why they continually change—for ample proof +that the “struggle for existence” is a very great reality, and +assuredly <i>tends</i> to exert the influence ascribed to it—I must refer +to Mr. Darwin’s book. I believe I have stated fairly the position upon +which his whole theory must stand or fall; and it is not my purpose to +anticipate a full review of his work. If it can be proved that the process of +natural selection, operating upon any species, can give rise to varieties of +species so different from one another that none of our tests will distinguish +them from true species, Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis of the origin of species +will take its place among the established theories of science, be its +consequences whatever they may. If, on the other hand, Mr. Darwin has erred, +either in fact or in reasoning, his fellow-workers will soon find out the weak +points in his doctrines, and their extinction by some nearer approximation to +the truth will exemplify his own principle of natural selection. +</p> + +<p> +In either case the question is one to be settled only by the painstaking, +truth-loving investigation of skilled naturalists. It is the duty of the +general public to await the result in patience; and, above all things, to +discourage, as they would any other crimes, the attempt to enlist the +prejudices of the ignorant, or the uncharitableness of the bigoted, on either +side of the controversy. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-1" id="fn-1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1">*</a> +“Macmillan’s Magazine,” December 1859. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and Life: Mr. Darwin's “Origin of Species”, by Thomas H. Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND LIFE: MR. DARWIN'S “ORIGIN OF SPECIES” *** + +***** This file should be named 2928-h.htm or 2928-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/2/2928/ + +Produced by Amy E. 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Huxley + + + + + [footnote] *"Macmillan's Magazine", December 1859. + +EVERYONE knows that that superficial film of the earth's substance, +hardly ten miles thick, which is accessible to human investigation, is +composed for the most part of beds or strata of stone, the consolidated +muds and sands of former seas and lakes, which have been deposited one +upon the other, and hence are the older the deeper they lie. These +multitudinous strata present such resemblances and differences among +themselves that they are capable of classification into groups or +formations, and these formations again are brigaded together into still +larger assemblages, called by the older geologists, primary, secondary, +and tertiary; by the moderns, palaeozoic, mesozoic, and cainozoic: the +basis of the former nomenclature being the relative age of the groups +of strata; that of the latter, the kinds of living forms contained in +them. + +Though but a film if compared with the total diameter of our planet, the +total series of formations is vast indeed when measured by any human +standard, and, as all action implies time, so are we compelled to +regard these mineral masses as a measure of the time which has elapsed +during their accumulation. The amount of the time which they represent +is, of course, in the inverse proportion of the intensity of the forces +which have been in operation. If, in the ancient world, mud and sand +accumulated on sea-bottoms at tenfold their present rate, it is clear +that a bed of mud or sand ten feet thick would have been formed then in +the same time as a stratum of similar materials one foot thick would be +formed now, and 'vice versa'. + +At the outset of his studies, therefore, the physical geologist had to +choose between two hypotheses; either, throughout the ages which are +represented by the accumulated strata, and which we may call 'geologic +time', the forces of nature have operated with much same average +intensity as at present, and hence the lapse of time which they +represent must be something prodigious and inconceivable, or, in the +primeval epochs, the natural powers were infinitely more intense than +now, and hence the time through which they acted to produce the effects +we see was comparatively short. + +The earlier geologists adopted the latter view almost with one consent. +For they had little knowledge of the present workings of nature, and +they read the records of geologic time as a child reads the history of +Rome or Greece, and fancies that antiquity was grand, heroic, and +unlike the present because it is unlike his little experience of the +present. + +Even so the earlier observers were moved with wonder at the seeming +contrast between the ancient and the present order of nature. The +elemental forces seemed to have been grander and more energetic in +primeval times. Upheaved and contorted, rifted and fissured, pierced +by dykes of molten matter or worn away over vast areas by aqueous +action, the older rocks appeared to bear witness to a state of things +far different from that exhibited by the peaceful epoch on which the +lot of man has fallen. + +But by degrees thoughtful students of geology have been led to perceive +that the earliest efforts of nature have been by no means the +grandest. Alps and Andes are children of yesterday when compared with +Snowdon and the Cumberland hills; and the so-called glacial epoch--that +in which perhaps the most extensive physical changes of which any +record remaining occurred--is the last and the newest of the +revolutions of the globe. And in proportion as physical +geography--which is the geology of our own epoch--has grown into a +science, and the present order of nature has been ransacked to find +what, 'hibernice', we may call precedents for the phenomena of the +past, so the apparent necessity of supposing the past to be widely +different from the present has diminished. + +The transporting power of the greatest deluge which can be imagined +sinks into insignificance beside that of the slowly floating, slowly +melting iceberg, or the glacier creeping along at its snail's pace of a +yard a day. The study of the deltas of the Nile, the Ganges, and the +Mississippi has taught us how slow is the wearing action of water, how +vast its effects when time is allowed for its operation. The reefs of +the Pacific, the deep-sea soundings of the Atlantic, show that it is to +the slow-growing coral and to the imperceptible animalcule, which lives +its brief space and then adds its tiny shell to the muddy cairn left by +its brethren and ancestors, that we must look as the agents in the +formation of limestone and chalk, and not to hypothetical oceans +saturated with calcareous salts and suddenly depositing them. + +And while the inquirer has thus learnt that existing forces--'give them +time'--are competent to produce all the physical phenomena we meet with +in the rocks, so, on the other side, the study of the marks left in the +ancient strata by past physical actions shows that these were similar +to those which now obtain. Ancient beaches are met with whose pebbles +are like those found on modern shores; the hardened sea-sands of the +oldest epochs show ripple-marks, such as may now be found on every +sandy coast; nay, more, the pits left by ancient rain-drops prove that +even in the very earliest ages, the "bow in the clouds" must have +adorned the palaeozoic firmament. So that if we could reverse the +legend of the Seven Sleepers,--if we could sleep back through the past, +and awake a million ages before our own epoch, in the midst of the +earliest geologic times,--there is no reason to believe that sea, or +sky, or the aspect of the land would warn us of the marvellous +retrospection. + +Such are the beliefs which modern physical geologists hold, or, at any +rate, tend towards holding. But, in so doing, it is obvious that they +by no means prejudge the question, as to what the physical condition of +the globe may have been before our chapters of its history begin, in +what may be called (with that licence which is implied in the often-used +term "prehistoric epoch") "pre-geologic time." The views indicated, in +fact, are not only quite consistent with the hypothesis, that, in the +still earlier period referred to, the condition of our world was very +different; but they may be held by some to necessitate that hypothesis. +The physical philosopher who is accurately acquainted with the velocity +of a cannon-ball, and the precise character of the line which it +traverses for a yard of its course, is necessitated by what he knows of +the laws of nature to conclude that it came from a certain spot, whence +it was impelled by a certain force, and that it has followed a certain +trajectory. In like manner, the student of physical geology, who fully +believes in the uniformity of the general condition of the earth +through geologic time, may feel compelled by what he knows of causation, +and by the general analogy of nature, to suppose that our solar system +was once a nebulous mass; that it gradually condensed, that it broke up +into that wonderful group of harmoniously rolling balls we call planets +and satellites, and that then each of these underwent its appointed +metamorphosis, until at last our own share of the cosmic vapour passed +into that condition in which we first meet with definite records of its +state, and in which it has since, with comparatively little change, +remained. + +The doctrine of uniformity and the doctrine of progression are, +therefore, perfectly consistent; perhaps, indeed, they might be shown +to be necessarily connected with one another. + +If, however, the condition of the world, which has obtained throughout +geologic time, is but the sequel to a vast series of changes which took +place in pre-geologic time, then it seems not unlikely that the +duration of this latter is to that of the former as the vast extent of +geologic time is to the length of the brief epoch we call the +historical period; and that even the oldest rocks are records of an +epoch almost infinitely remote from that which could have witnessed the +first shaping of our globe. + +It is probable that no modern geologist would hesitate to admit the +general validity of these reasonings when applied to the physics of his +subject, whence it is the more remarkable that the moment the question +changes from one of physics and chemistry to one of natural history, +scientific opinions and the popular prejudices, which reflect them in a +distorted form, undergo a sudden metamorphosis. Geologists and +palaeontologists write about the "beginning of life" and the +"first-created forms of living beings," as if they were the most +familiar things in the world; and even cautious writers seem to be on +quite friendly terms with the "archetype" whereby the Creator was +guided "amidst the crash of falling worlds." Just as it used to be +imagined that the ancient world was physically opposed to the present, +so it is still widely assumed that the living population of our globe, +whether animal or vegetable, in the older epochs, exhibited forms so +strikingly contrasted with those which we see around us, that there is +hardly anything in common between the two. It is constantly tacitly +assumed that we have before us all the forms of life which have ever +existed; and though the progress of knowledge, yearly and almost +monthly, drives the defenders of that position from their ground, they +entrench themselves in the new line of defences as if nothing had +happened, and proclaim that the 'new' beginning is the 'real' +beginning. + +Without for an instant denying or endeavouring to soften down the +considerable positive differences (the negative ones are met by another +line of argument) which undoubtedly obtain between the ancient and the +modern worlds of life, we believe they have been vastly overstated and +exaggerated, and this belief is based upon certain facts whose value +does not seem to have been fully appreciated, though they have long +been more or less completely known. + +The multitudinous kinds of animals and plants, both recent and fossil, +are, as is well known, arranged by zoologists and botanists, in +accordance with their natural relations, into groups which receive the +names of sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, families, genera and species. +Now it is a most remarkable circumstance that, viewed on the great +scale, living beings have differed so little throughout all geologic +time that there is no sub-kingdom and no class wholly extinct or +without living representatives. + +If we descend to the smaller groups, we find that the number of orders +of plants is about two hundred; and I have it on the best authority +that not one of these is exclusively fossil; so that there is +absolutely not a single extinct ordinal type of vegetable life; and it +is not until we descend to the next group, or the families, that we +find types which are wholly extinct. The number of orders of animals, +on the other hand, may be reckoned at a hundred and twenty, or +thereabouts, and of these, eight or nine have no living representatives. +The proportion of extinct ordinal types of animals to the existing +types, therefore, does not exceed seven per cent.--a marvellously small +proportion when we consider the vastness of geologic time. + +Another class of considerations--of a different kind, it is true, but +tending in the same direction--seems to have been overlooked. Not only +is it true that the general plan of construction of animals and plants +has been the same in all recorded time as at present, but there are +particular kinds of animals and plants which have existed throughout +vast epochs, sometimes through the whole range of recorded time, with +very little change. By reason of this persistency, the typical form of +such a kind might be called a "persistent type," in contradistinction +to those types which have appeared for but a short time in the course of +the world's history. Examples of these persistent types are abundant +enough in both the vegetable and the animal kingdoms. The oldest group +of plants with which we are well acquainted is that of whose remains +coal is constituted; and as far as they can be identified, the +carboniferous plants are ferns, or club-mosses, or Coniferae, in many +cases generically identical with those now living! + +Among animals, instances of the same kind may be found in every +sub-kingdom. The 'Globigerina' of the Atlantic soundings is identical +with that which occurs in the chalk; and the casts of lower silurian +'Foraminifera', which Ehrenberg has recently described, seem to +indicate the existence at that remote period of forms singularly like +those which now exist. Among the corals, the palaeozoic 'Tabulata' are +constructed on precisely the same type as the modern millepores; and if +we turn to molluscs, the most competent malacologists fail to discover +any generic distinction between the 'Craniae', 'Lingulae' and +'Discinae' of the silurian rocks and those which now live. Our +existing 'Nautilus' has its representative species in every great +formation, from the oldest to the newest; and 'Loligo', the squid of +modern seas, appears in the lias, or at the bottom of the mesozoic +series, in a form, at most, specifically different from its living +congeners. In the great assemblage of annulose animals, the two highest +classes, the insects and spider tribe, exhibit a wonderful persistency +of type. The cockroaches of the carboniferous epoch are exceedingly +similar to those which now run about our coal-cellars; and its locusts, +termites and dragon-flies are closely allied to the members of the same +groups which now chirrup about our fields, undermine our houses, or +sail with swift grace about the banks of our sedgy pools. And, in like +manner, the palaeozoic scorpions can only be distinguished by the eye +of a naturalist from the modern ones. + +Finally, with respect to the 'Vertebrata', the same law holds good: +certain types, such as those of the ganoid and placoid fishes, having +persisted from the palaeozoic epoch to the present time without a +greater amount of deviation from the normal standard than that which is +seen within the limits of the group as it now exists. Even among the +'Reptilia'--the class which exhibits the largest proportion of entirely +extinct forms of any one type,--that of the 'Crocodilia', has persisted +from at least the commencement of the Mesozoic epoch up to the present +time with so much constancy, that the amount of change which it exhibits +may fairly, in relation to the time which has elapsed, be called +insignificant. And the imperfect knowledge we have of the ancient +mammalian population of our earth leads to the belief that certain of +its types, such as that of the 'Marsupialia', have persisted with +correspondingly little change through a similar range of time. + +Thus it would appear to be demonstrable, that, notwithstanding the great +change which is exhibited by the animal population of the world as a +whole, certain types have persisted comparatively without alteration, +and the question arises, What bearing have such facts as these on our +notions of the history of life through geological time? The answer to +this question would seem to depend on the view we take respecting the +origin of species in general. If we assume that every species of +animal and of plant was formed by a distinct act of creative power, and +if the species which have incessantly succeeded one another were placed +upon the globe by these separate acts, then the existence of persistent +types is simply an unintelligible irregularity. Such assumption, +however, is as unsupported by tradition or by Revelation as it is +opposed by the analogy of the rest of the operations of nature; and +those who imagine that, by adopting any such hypothesis, they are +strengthening the hands of the advocates of the letter of the Mosaic +account, are simply mistaken. If, on the other hand, we adopt that +hypothesis to which alone the study of physiology lends any +support--that hypothesis which, having struggled beyond the reach of +those fatal supporters, the Telliameds and Vestigiarians, who so nearly +caused its suffocation by wind in early infancy, is now winning at +least the provisional assent of all the best thinkers of the day--the +hypothesis that the forms or species of living beings, as we know them, +have been produced by the gradual modification of pre-existing +species--then the existence of persistent types seems to teach us +much. Just as a small portion of a great curve appears straight, the +apparent absence of change in direction of the line being the exponent +of the vast extent of the whole, in proportion to the part we see; so, +if it be true that all living species are the result of the modification +of other and simpler forms, the existence of these little altered +persistent types, ranging through all geological time, must indicate +that they are but the final terms of an enormous series of +modifications, which had their being in the great lapse of pregeologic +time, and are now perhaps for ever lost. + +In other words, when rightly studied, the teachings of palaeontology are +at one with those of physical geology. Our farthest explorations carry +us back but a little way above the mouth of the great river of Life: +where it arose, and by what channels the noble tide has reached the +point when it first breaks upon our view, is hidden from us. + +The foregoing pages contain the substance of a lecture delivered before +the Royal Institution of Great Britain many months ago, and of course +long before the appearance of the remarkable work on the "Origin of +Species" just published by Mr. Darwin, who arrives at very similar +conclusions. Although, in one sense, I might fairly say that my own +views have been arrived at independently, I do not know that I can +claim any equitable right to property in them; for it has long been my +privilege to enjoy Mr. Darwin's friendship, and to profit by +corresponding with him, and by, to some extent, becoming acquainted with +the workings of his singularly original and well-stored mind. It was +in consequence of my knowledge of the general tenor of the researches +in which Mr. Darwin had been so long engaged; because I had the most +complete confidence in his perseverance, his knowledge, and, above all +things, his high-minded love of truth; and, moreover, because I found +that the better I became acquainted with the opinions of the best +naturalists regarding the vexed question of species, the less fixed +they seemed to be, and the more inclined they were to the hypothesis of +gradual modification, that I ventured to speak as strongly as I have +done in the final paragraphs of my discourse. + +Thus, my daw having so many borrowed plumes, I see no impropriety in +making a tail to this brief paper by taking another handful of feathers +from Mr. Darwin; endeavouring to point out in a few words, in fact, +what, as I gather from the perusal of his book, his doctrines really +are, and on what sort of basis they rest. And I do this the more +willingly, as I observe that already the hastier sort of critics have +begun, not to review my friend's book, but to howl over it in a manner +which must tend greatly to distract the public mind. + +No one will be better satisfied than I to see Mr. Darwin's book refuted, +if any person be competent to perform that feat; but I would suggest +that refutation is retarded, not aided, by mere sarcastic +misrepresentation. Every one who has studied cattle-breeding, or +turned pigeon-fancier, or "pomologist," must have been struck by the +extreme modifiability or plasticity of those kinds of animals and +plants which have been subjected to such artificial conditions as are +imposed by domestication. Breeds of dogs are more different from one +another than are the dog and the wolf; and the purely artificial races +of pigeons, if their origin were unknown, would most assuredly be +reckoned by naturalists as distinct species and even genera. + +These breeds are always produced in the same way. The breeder selects a +pair, one or other, or both, of which present an indication of the +peculiarity he wishes to perpetuate, and then selects from the +offspring of them those which are most characteristic, rejecting the +others. From the selected offspring he breeds again, and, taking the +same precautions as before, repeats the process until he has obtained +the precise degree of divergence from the primitive type at which he +aimed. + +If he now breeds from the variety thus established for some generations, +taking care always to keep the stock pure, the tendency to produce this +particular variety becomes more and more strongly hereditary; and it +does not appear that there is any limit to the persistency of the race +thus developed. + +Men like Lamarck, apprehending these facts, and knowing that varieties +comparable to those produced by the breeder are abundantly found in +nature, and finding it impossible to discriminate in some cases between +varieties and true species, could hardly fail to divine the possibility +that species even the most distinct were, after all, only exceedingly +persistent varieties, and that they had arisen by the modification of +some common stock, just as it is with good reason believed that +turnspits and greyhounds, carrier and tumbler pigeons, have arisen. + +But there was a link wanting to complete the parallel. Where in nature +was the analogue of the breeder to be found? How could that operation +of selection, which is his essential function, be carried out by mere +natural agencies? Lamarck did not value this problem; neither did he +admit his impotence to solve it; but he guessed a solution. Now, +guessing in science is a very hazardous proceeding, and Lamarck's +reputation has suffered woefully for the absurdities into which his +baseless suppositions led him. + +Lamarck's conjectures, equipped with a new hat and stick, as Sir Walter +Scott was wont to say of an old story renovated, formed the foundation +of the biological speculations of the 'Vestiges', a work which has done +more harm to the progress of sound thought on these matters than any +that could be named; and, indeed, I mention it here simply for the +purpose of denying that it has anything in common with what essentially +characterises Mr. Darwin's work. + +The peculiar feature of the latter is, in fact, that it professes to +tell us what in nature takes the place of the breeder; what it is that +favours the development of one variety into which a species may run, +and checks that of another; and, finally, shows how this natural +selection, as it is termed, may be the physical cause of the production +of species by modification. + +That which takes the place of the breeder and selector in nature is +Death. In a most remarkable chapter, 'On the Struggle for Existence', +Mr. Darwin draws attention to the marvellous destruction of life which +is constantly going on in nature. For every species of living thing, +as for man, "Eine Bresche ist ein jeder Tag."--Every species has its +enemies; every species has to compete with others for the necessaries +of existence; the weakest goes to the wall, and death is the penalty +inflicted on all laggards and stragglers. Every variety to which a +species may give rise is either worse or better adapted to surrounding +circumstances than its parent. If worse, it cannot maintain itself +against death, and speedily vanishes again. But if better adapted, it +must, sooner or later, "improve" its progenitor from the face of the +earth, and take its place. If circumstances change, the victor will be +similarly supplanted by its own progeny; and thus, by the operation of +natural causes, unlimited modification may in the lapse of long ages +occur. + +For an explanation of what I have here called vaguely "surrounding +circumstances," and of why they continually change--for ample proof +that the "struggle for existence" is a very great reality, and +assuredly 'tends' to exert the influence ascribed to it--I must refer to +Mr. Darwin's book. I believe I have stated fairly the position upon +which his whole theory must stand or fall; and it is not my purpose to +anticipate a full review of his work. If it can be proved that the +process of natural selection, operating upon any species, can give rise +to varieties of species so different from one another that none of our +tests will distinguish them from true species, Mr. Darwin's hypothesis +of the origin of species will take its place among the established +theories of science, be its consequences whatever they may. If, on the +other hand, Mr. Darwin has erred, either in fact or in reasoning, his +fellow-workers will soon find out the weak points in his doctrines, and +their extinction by some nearer approximation to the truth will +exemplify his own principle of natural selection. + +In either case the question is one to be settled only by the +painstaking, truth-loving investigation of skilled naturalists. It is +the duty of the general public to await the result in patience; and, +above all things, to discourage, as they would any other crimes, the +attempt to enlist the prejudices of the ignorant, or the +uncharitableness of the bigoted, on either side of the controversy. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Time and Life by Thomas H. Huxley + |