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diff --git a/42466-0.txt b/42466-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbcbbb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/42466-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4156 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42466 *** + + FACTS AND FANCIES + + IN + + MODERN SCIENCE: + + STUDIES OF THE RELATIONS OF SCIENCE TO + PREVALENT SPECULATIONS AND + RELIGIOUS BELIEF. + + _BEING THE LECTURES ON THE SAMUEL A. CROZER FOUNDATION + IN CONNECTION WITH THE CROZER THEOLOGICAL + SEMINARY, FOR 1881._ + + BY + J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S. ETC. + + PHILADELPHIA: + AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, + 1420 CHESTNUT STREET. + + + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by the + AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + + WESTCOTT & THOMSON, + _Stereotypers and Electrotypers, Philada_. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The object before the mind of the author in preparing these Lectures +was to present a distinct and rational view of the present relation of +scientific thought to the religious beliefs of men, and especially to +the Christian revelation. + +The attempt to make science, or speculations based on science, +supersede religion is one of the prevalent fancies of our time, and +pervades much of the popular literature of the day. That such attempts +can succeed the author does not believe. They have hitherto given +birth only to such abortions as Positivism, Nihilism, and Pessimism. + +There is, however, a necessary relation and parallelism of all truths, +physical and spiritual; and it is useful to clear away the apparent +antagonisms which proceed from partial and imperfect views, and to +point out the harmony which exists between the natural and the +spiritual--between what man can learn from the physical creation, and +what has been revealed to him by the Spirit of God. To do this with as +much fairness as possible, and with due regard to the present state of +knowledge and to the most important difficulties that are likely to be +met with by honest inquirers, is the purpose of the following pages. + +It is proper to add that, in order to give completeness to the +discussion, it has been necessary to introduce, in some of the +lectures, topics previously treated of by the author, in a similar +manner, in publications bearing his name. + + J. W. D. + + APRIL, 1882. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + LECTURE I. + GENERAL RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND AGNOSTIC SPECULATION 9 + + + LECTURE II. + THE SCIENCE OF LIFE AND MONISTIC EVOLUTION 47 + + + LECTURE III. + EVOLUTION AS TESTED BY THE RECORDS OF THE ROCKS 103 + + + LECTURE IV. + THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 137 + + + LECTURE V. + NATURE AS A MANIFESTATION OF MIND 175 + + + LECTURE VI. + SCIENCE AND REVELATION 219 + + + + +LECTURE I. + +GENERAL RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND AGNOSTIC SPECULATION. + + +The infidelity and the contempt for sacred and spiritual things which +pervade so much of our modern literature are largely attributable to +the prevalence of that form of philosophy which may be designated as +Agnostic Evolution, and this in its turn is popularly regarded as a +result of the pursuit of physical and natural science. The last +conclusion is obviously only in part, if at all, correct, since it is +well known that atheistic philosophical speculations were pursued, +quite as boldly and ably as now, long before the rise of modern +science. Still, it must be admitted that scientific discoveries and +principles have been largely employed in our time to give form and +consistency to ideas otherwise very dim and shadowy, and thus to +rehabilitate for our benefit the philosophical dreams of antiquity in +a more substantial shape. In this respect the natural sciences--or, +rather, the facts and laws with which they are conversant--merely +share the fate of other things. Nothing, however indifferent in +itself, can come into human hands without acquiring thereby an +ethical, social, political, or even religious, significance. An ounce +of lead or a dynamite cartridge may be in itself a thing altogether +destitute of any higher significance than that depending on physical +properties; but let it pass into the power of man, and at once +infinite possibilities of good and of evil cluster round it according +to the use to which it may be applied. This depends on essential +powers and attributes of man himself, of which he can no more be +deprived than matter can be denuded of its inherent properties; and if +the evils arising from misuse of these powers trouble us, we may at +least console ourselves with the reflection that the possibility of +such evils shows man to be a free agent, and not an automaton. + +All this is eminently applicable to science in its relation to +agnostic speculations. The material of the physical and natural +sciences consists of facts ascertained by the evidence of our senses, +and for which we depend on the truthfulness of those senses and the +stability of external nature. Science proceeds, by comparison of +these facts and by inductive reasoning, to arrange them under certain +general expressions or laws. So far all is merely physical, and need +have no connection with our origin or destiny or relation to higher +powers. But we ourselves are a part of the nature which we study; and +we cannot study it without more or less thinking our own thoughts into +it. Thus we naturally begin to inquire as to origins and first causes, +and as to the source of the energy and order which we perceive; and to +these questions the human mind demands some answer, either actual or +speculative. But here we enter into the domain of religious thought, +or that which relates to a power or powers beyond and above nature. +Whatever forms our thoughts on such subjects may take, these depend, +not directly on the facts of science, but on the reaction of our minds +on these facts. They are truly anthropomorphic. It has been well said +that it is as idle to inquire as to the origin of such religious ideas +as to inquire as to the origin of hunger and thirst. Given the man, +they must necessarily exist. Now, whatever form these philosophical or +religious ideas may take--whether that of Agnosticism or Pantheism or +Theism--science, properly so called, has no right to be either praised +or blamed. Its material may be used, but the structure is the work of +the artificer himself. + +It is well, however, to carry with us the truth that this border-land +between science and religion is one which men cannot be prevented from +entering; but what they may find therein depends very much on +themselves. Under wise guidance it may prove to us an Eden, the very +gate of heaven, and we may acquire in it larger and more harmonious +views of both the seen and the unseen, of science and of religion. +But, on the other hand, it may be found to be a battle-field or a +bedlam, a place of confused cries and incoherent ravings, and strewn +with the wrecks of human hopes and aspirations. + +There can be no question that the more unpleasant aspect of the matter +is somewhat prevalent in our time, and that we should, if possible, +understand the causes of the conflict and the confusion that prevail, +and the way out of them. To do this it will be necessary first to +notice some of the incidental or extraneous causes of difficulty and +strife, and then to inquire more in detail as to the actual bearing +of the scientific knowledge of nature on Agnosticism. + +One fruitful cause of difficulty in the relations of science and +religion is to be found in the narrowness and incapacity of +well-meaning Christians who unnecessarily bring the doctrines of +natural and revealed religion into conflict, by misunderstanding the +one or the other, or by attaching obsolete scientific ideas to Holy +Scripture, and identifying them with it in points where it is quite +non-committal. Much mischief is also done by a prevalent habit of +speaking of all, or nearly all, the votaries of science as if they +were irreligious. + +A second cause is to be found in the extravagant speculations indulged +in by the adherents of certain philosophical systems. Such +speculations often far overpass the limits of actual scientific +knowledge, and are yet paraded before the ignorant as if they were +legitimate results of science, and so become irretrievably confounded +with it in the popular mind. + +A third influence, more closely connected with science itself, arises +from the rapidity of the progress of discovery and of the practical +applications of scientific facts and principles. This has unsettled +the minds of men, and has given them the idea that nothing is beyond +their reach. There is thus a vague notion that science has overcome so +many difficulties, and explained so many mysteries, that it may +ultimately satisfy all the wants of man and leave no scope for +religious belief. Those who know the limitations of our knowledge of +material things may not share this delusion; but there is reason to +fear that many, even of scientific men, are carried away by it, and it +widely affects the minds of general readers. + +Again, science has in the course of its growth become divided into a +great number of small specialties, each pursued ardently by its own +votaries. This is beneficial in one respect; for much more can be +gained by men digging downward, each on his own vein of valuable ore, +than by all merely scraping the surface. But the specialist, as he +descends fathom after fathom into his mine, however rich and rare the +gems and metals he may discover, becomes more and more removed from +the ordinary ways of men, and more and more regardless of the products +of other veins as valuable as his own. The specialist, however +profound he may become in the knowledge of his own limited subject, is +on that very account less fitted to guide his fellow-men in the +pursuit of general truth. When he ventures to the boundaries between +his own and other domains of truth, or when he conceives the idea that +his own little mine is the sole deposit of all that requires to be +known, he sometimes makes grave mistakes; and these pass current for a +time as the dicta of high scientific authority. + +Lastly, the lowest influence of all is that which sometimes regulates +what may be termed the commercial side of science. Here the demand is +very apt to control the supply. New facts and legitimate conclusions +cannot be produced with sufficient rapidity to satisfy the popular +craving, or they are not sufficiently exciting to compete with other +attractions. Science has then to enter the domain of imagination, and +the last new generalization--showy and specious, but perhaps baseless +as the plot of the last new novel--brings grist to the mill of the +"scientist" and his publisher. + +Only one permanent and final remedy is possible for these evils, and +that is a higher moral tone and more thorough scientific education on +the part of the general public. Until this can be secured, true +science is sure to be surrounded with a mental haze of vague +hypotheses clothed in ill-defined language, and which is mistaken by +the multitude for science itself. Yet true science should not be held +responsible for this, except in so far as its material is used to +constitute the substance of the pseudo-gnosis which surrounds it. +Science is in this relation the honest householder whose goods may be +taken by thieves and applied to bad uses, or the careful amasser of +wealth which may be dissipated by spendthrifts. + +It may be said that if these statements are true, the ordinary reader +is helpless. How can he separate the true from the false? Must he +resign himself to the condition of one who either believes on mere +authority or refuses to believe anything? or must he adopt the +attitude of the Pyrrhonist who thinks that anything may be either true +or false? But it is true, nevertheless, that common sense may suffice +to deliver us from much of the pseudo-science of our time, and to +enable us to understand how little reason there is for the conflicts +promoted by mere speculation between science and other departments of +legitimate thought and inquiry. + +In illustrating this, we may in the present lecture consider that form +of sceptical philosophy which in our time is the most prevalent, and +which has the most specious air of dependence on science. This is the +system of Agnosticism combined with evolution of which Mr. Herbert +Spencer is the most conspicuous advocate in the English-speaking +world. This philosophy deals with two subjects--the cause or origin of +the universe and of things therein, and the method of the progress of +all from the beginning until now. Spencer sees nothing in the first of +these but mere force or energy, nothing in the second but a +spontaneous evolution. All beyond these is not only unknown, but +unknowable. The theological and philosophical shortcomings of this +doctrine have been laid bare by a multitude of critics, and I do not +propose to consider it in these relations so much as in relation to +science, which has much to say with respect to both force and +evolution. + +An agnostic is literally one who does not know; and, were the word +used in its true and literal sense, Agnosticism would of necessity be +opposed to science, since science is knowledge and quite incompatible +with the want of it. But the modern agnostic does not pretend to be +ignorant of the facts and principles of science. What he professes not +to know is the existence of any power above and beyond material +nature. He goes a little farther, however, than mere absence of +knowledge. He holds that of God nothing can be known; or he may put it +a little more strongly, in the phrase of his peculiar philosophy, by +saying that the existence of a God or of creation by divine power is +"unthinkable." It is in this that he differs from the old-fashioned +and now extinct atheist, who bluntly denied the existence of a God. +The modern agnostic assumes an attitude of greater humility and +disclaims the actual denial of God. Yet he practically goes farther, +in asserting the impossibility of knowing the existence of a Divine +Being; and in taking this farther step Agnosticism does more to +degrade the human reason and to cut it off from all communion with +anything beyond mere matter and force, than does any other form of +philosophy, ancient or modern. + +Yet in this Agnosticism there is in one point an approximation to +truth. If there is a God, he cannot be known directly and fully, and +his plans and procedure must always be more or less incomprehensible. +The writer of the book of Job puts this as plainly as any modern +agnostic in the passage beginning "Canst thou by searching find out +God?"--literally, "Canst thou sound the depths of God?"--and a still +higher authority informs us that "no man hath seen God"--that is, +known him as we know material things. In short, absolutely and +essentially God is incomprehensible; but this is no new discovery, and +the mistake of the agnostic lies in failing to perceive that the same +difficulty stands in the way of our perfectly knowing anything +whatever. We say that we know things when we mean that we know them in +their properties, relations, or effects. In this sense the knowledge +of God is perfectly possible. It is impossible only in that other +sense of the word "know"--if it can have such a sense--in which we are +required to know things in their absolute essence and thoroughly. Thus +the term "agnostic" contains an initial fallacy in itself; and this +philosophy, like many others, rests, in the first instance, on a mere +jugglery of words. The real question is, "Is there a God who manifests +himself to us mediately and practically?" and this is a question which +we cannot afford to set aside by a mere play on the meanings of the +verb "to know." + +If, however, any man takes this position and professes to be incapable +of knowing whether or not there is any power above and behind +material things, it will be necessary to begin with the very elements +of knowledge, and to inquire if there is anything whatever that he +really knows and believes. + +Let us ask him if he can subscribe to the simple creed expressed in +the words "I am, I feel, I think." Should he deny these propositions, +then there is no basis left on which to argue. Should he admit this +much of belief, he has abandoned somewhat of his agnostic position; +for it would be easy to show that in even uttering the pronoun "I" he +has committed himself to the belief in the unknowable. What is the +_ego_ which he admits? Is it the material organism or any one of its +organs or parts? or is it something distinct, of which the organism is +merely the garment, or outward manifestation? or is the organism +itself anything more than a bundle of appearances partially known and +scarcely understood by that which calls itself "I"? Who knows? And if +our own personality is thus inscrutable, if we can conceive of it +neither as identical with the whole or any part of the organism nor as +existing independently of the organism, we should begin our +Agnosticism here, and decline to utter the pronoun "I" as implying +what we cannot know. Still, as a matter of faith, we must hold fast to +the proposition "I exist" as the only standpoint for science, +philosophy, or common life. If we are asked for evidence of this +faith, we can appeal only to our consciousness of effects which imply +the existence of the _ego_, which we thus have to admit or suppose +before we can begin to prove even its existence. + +This fact of the mystery of our own existence is full of material for +thought. It is in itself startling--even appalling. We feel that it is +a solemn, a dreadful, thing to exist, and to exist in that limitless +space and that eternal time which we can no more understand than we +can our own constitution, though our belief in their existence is +inevitable. Nor can we divest ourselves of anxious thoughts as to the +source, tendencies, and end of our own being. Here, in short, we +already reach the threshold of that dread unknown future and its +possibilities, the realization of which by hope, fear, and imagination +constitutes, perhaps, our first introduction to the unseen world as +distinguished from the present world of sense. The agnostic may smile +if he pleases at religion as a puerile fancy, but he knows, like other +men, that the mere consciousness of existence necessarily links +itself with a future--nay, unending--existence, and that any being +with this consciousness of futurity must have at least a religion of +hope and fear. In this we find an intelligible reason for the +universality of religious ideas in relation to a future life. Even +where this leads to beliefs that may be called superstitious, it is +more reasonable than Agnosticism; for it is surely natural that a +being inscrutable by himself should be led to believe in the existence +of other things equally inscrutable, but apparently related to +himself. + +But the thinking "I" dwells in the midst of what we term external +objects. In a certain sense it treats the parts of its own bodily +organism as if they were things external to it, speaking of "my hand," +"my head," as if they were its property. But there are things +practically infinite beyond the organism itself. We call them objects +or things, but they are only appearances; and we know only their +relations to ourselves and to each other. Their essence, if they have +any, is inscrutable. We say that the appearances indicate matter and +energy, but what these are essentially we know not. We reduce matter +to atoms, but it is impossible for us to have any conception of an +atom or of the supposed ether, whether itself in some sense atomic or +not, including such atoms. Our attempts to form rational conceptions +of atoms resolve themselves into complex conjectures as to vortices of +ethers and the like, of which no one pretends to have any distinct +mental picture; yet on this basis of the incomprehensible rests all +our physical science, the first truths in which are really matters of +pure faith in the existence of that which we cannot understand. Yet +all men would scoff at the agnostic who on this account should express +unbelief in physical science. + +Let us observe here, further, that since the mysterious and +inscrutable "I" is surrounded with an equally mysterious and +inscrutable universe, and since the _ego_ and the external world are +linked together by indissoluble relations, we are introduced to +certain alternatives as to origins. Either the universe or "nature" is +a mere phantom conjured up by the _ego_, or the _ego_ is a product of +the universe, or both are the result of some equally mysterious power +beyond us and the material world. Neither of these suppositions is +absurd or unthinkable; and, whichever of them we adopt, we are again +introduced to what may be termed a religion as well as a philosophy. +On one view, man becomes a god to himself; on another, nature becomes +his god; on the third, a Supreme Being, the Creator of both. All three +religions exist in the world in a vast variety of forms, and it is +questionable if any human being does not more or less give credence to +one or the other. + +Scientific men, even when they think proper to call themselves +idealists, must reject the first of the above alternatives, since they +cannot doubt the objective existence of external nature, and they know +that its existence dates from a time anterior to our possible +existence as human beings. They may hold to either of the others; and, +practically, the minds of students of science are divided between the +idea of a spontaneous evolution of all things from self-existent +matter and force, and that of the creation of all by a self-existent, +omnipotent, and all-wise Creator. From certain points of view, it may +be of no consequence whether a scientific man holds one or other of +these views. Self-existent force or power, capable of spontaneous +inception of change, and of orderly and infallible development +according to laws of its own imposition or enactment, which is +demanded on the one hypothesis, scarcely differs from the conception +of an intelligent Creator demanded on the other, while it is, to say +the least, equally incomprehensible. It is, besides, objectionable to +science, on the ground that it requires us to assume properties in +matter and energy quite at variance with the results of experience. +The remarkable alternative presented by Tyndall in his Belfast Address +well expresses this: "Either let us open our doors freely to the +conception of creative acts, or, abandoning them, let us radically +change our notions of matter." The expression "creative acts" here is +a loose and not very accurate one for the operation of creative power. +The radical change in "our notions of matter" involves an entire +reversal of all that science knows of its essential properties. This +being understood, the sentence is a fair expression of the dilemma in +which the agnostic and the materialist find themselves. + +Between the two hypotheses above stated there is, however, one +material and vital difference, depending on the nature of man himself. +The universe does not consist merely of insensate matter and force and +automatic vitality; there happens to be in it the rational and +consciously responsible being man. To attribute to him an origin from +mere matter and force is not merely to attach to them a fictitious +power and significance: it is also to reject the rational probability +that the original cause must be at least equal to the effects +produced, and to deprive ourselves of all communion and sympathy with +nature. Further, wherever the "presence and potency" of human reason +resides, there seems no reason to prevent our searching for and +finding it in the only way in which we can know anything, in its +properties and effects. The dogma of Agnosticism, it is true, refuses +to permit this search after God, but it does so with as little reason +as any of those self-constituted authorities that demand belief +without questioning. Nay, it has the offensive peculiarity that in the +very terms in which it issues its prohibition it contradicts itself. +The same oracle which asserts that "the power which the universe +manifests to us is wholly inscrutable" affirms also that "we must +inevitably commit ourselves to the hypothesis of a first cause." Thus +we are told that a power which is "manifest" is also "inscrutable," +and that we must "commit ourselves" to a belief in a "first cause" +which on the hypothesis cannot be known to exist. This may be +philosophy of a certain sort, but it certainly should not claim +kinship with science. + +Perhaps it may be well here to place in comparison with each other the +doctrine of the agnostic philosophy as expounded by Herbert Spencer, +and that of Paul of Tarsus--an older, but certainly a not less acute, +thinker--and we may refer to their utterances respecting the origin of +the universe. + +Spencer says: "The verbally intelligent suppositions respecting the +origin of the universe are three: (1) It is self-existent; (2) It is +self-created; (3) It is created by an external agency." On these it +may be remarked that the second is scarcely even "verbally +intelligent;" it seems to be a contradiction in terms. The third +admits of an important modification, which was manifest to Spinosa if +not to Spencer--namely, that the Creator may--nay, must--be not merely +"external," but within the universe as well. If there is a God, he +must be _in_ the universe as a pervading power, and in every part of +it, and must not be shut out from his own work. This mistaken +conception of God as building himself out of his own universe and +acting on it by external force is both irrational and unscientific, +being, for example, quite at variance with the analogy of force and +life. Rightly understood, therefore, Spencer's alternatives resolve +themselves into two--either the universe is self-existent, or it is +the work of a self-existent Creator pervading all things with his +power. Of these, Spencer prefers the first. Paul, on the other hand, +referring to the mental condition of the civilized heathens of his +time, affirms that rationally they could believe only in the +hypothesis of creation. He says of God: "His invisible things, even +his eternal power and divinity, can be perceived (by the reason), +being understood by the things that are made." Let us look at these +rival propositions. Is the universe self-existent, or does it show +evidence of creative power and divinity? + +The doctrine that the universe is self-existent may be understood in +different ways. It may mean either an endless succession of such +changes as we now see in progress, or an eternity of successive cycles +proceeding through the course of geological ages and ever returning +into themselves. The first is directly contrary to known facts in the +geological history of the earth, and cannot be maintained by any one. +The second would imply that the known geological history is merely a +part of one great cycle of an endless series, and of which an infinite +number have already passed away. It is evident that this infinite +succession of cycles is quite as incomprehensible as any other +infinite succession of things or events. But, waiving this objection, +we have the alternative either that all the successive cycles are +exactly alike--which could not be, in accordance with evolution, nor +with the analogy of other natural cycles--or there must have been a +progression in the successive cycles. But this last supposition would +involve an uncaused beginning somewhere, and this of such a character +as to determine all the successive cycles and their progress; which +would again be contrary to the hypothesis of self-existence. It is +useless, however, to follow such questions farther, since it is +evident that this hypothesis accounts for nothing and would involve us +in absolute confusion. + +Let us turn now to Paul's statement. This has the merit, in the first +place, of expressing a known fact--namely, that men do infer power and +divinity from nature. But is this a mere superstition, or have they +reason for it? If the universe be considered as a vast machine +exceeding all our powers of calculation in its magnitude and +complexity, it seems in the last degree absurd to deny that it +presents evidence of "power." Dr. Carpenter, in a recent lecture, +illustrates the position of the agnostic in this respect by supposing +him to examine the machinery of a great mill, and, having found that +this is all set in motion by a huge iron shaft proceeding from a brick +wall, to suppose that this shaft is self-acting, and that there is no +cause of motion beyond. But when we consider the variety and the +intricacy of nature, the unity and the harmony of its parts, and the +adaptation of these to an incalculable number of uses, we find +something more than power. There is a fitting together of things in a +manner not only above our imitation, but above our comprehension. To +refer this to mere chance or to innate tendencies or potencies of +things we feel to be but an empty form of words; consequently, we are +forced to admit superhuman contrivance in nature, or what Paul terms +"divinity." Further, since the history of the universe goes back +farther than we can calculate, and as we can know nothing beyond the +First Cause, we infer that the Power and Divinity which we have +ascertained in nature must be "eternal." Again, since the creative +power must at some point in past time have spontaneously begun to act, +we regard it as a "living" power, which is the term elsewhere used by +Paul in expressing the idea of "personality" as held by theologians. +Lastly, if everything that we know thus testifies to an eternal power +and divinity, to maintain that we can know nothing of this First Cause +must be simply nonsense, unless we are content to fall back on +absolute nihilism, and hold that we know nothing whatever, either +relatively or absolutely; but in this case not only is science +dethroned, but reason herself is driven from her seat, and there is +nothing left for us to discuss. Paul's idea is thus perfectly clear +and consistent, and it is not difficult to see that common sense must +accept this doctrine of an Eternal Living Power and Divinity in +preference to the hypothesis of Spencer. + +So far we have considered the general bearing of agnostic and theistic +theories on our relations to nature; but if we are to test these +theories fully by scientific considerations, we must look a little +more into details. The existences experimentally or inductively known +to science may be grouped under three heads--matter, energy, and law; +and each of these has an independent testimony to give with reference +to its origin and its connection with a higher creative power. + +Matter, it is true, occupies a somewhat equivocal place in the +agnostic philosophy. According to Spencer, it is "built up or +extracted from experiences of force," and it is only by force that it +"demonstrates itself to us as existing." This is true; but that which +"demonstrates itself to us as existing" must exist, in whatever way +the demonstration is made, and Spencer does not, in consequence of the +lack of direct evidence, extend his Agnosticism to matter, though he +might quite consistently do so. In any case, science postulates the +existence of matter. Further, science is obliged to conceive of matter +as composed of atoms, and of atoms of different kinds; for atoms +differ in weight and in chemical properties, and these differences are +to us ultimate, for they cannot be changed. Thus science and practical +life are tied down to certain predetermined properties of matter. We +may, it is true, in future be able to reduce the number of kinds of +matter, by finding that some bodies believed to be simple are really +compound; but this does not affect the question in hand. As to the +origin of the diverse properties of atoms, only two suppositions seem +possible: either in some past period they agreed to differ and to +divide themselves into different kinds suitable in quantity and +properties to make up the universe, or else matter in its various +kinds has been skilfully manufactured by a creative power. + +But there is a scientific way in which matter may be resolved into +force. An iron knife passed through a powerful magnetic current is +felt to be resisted, as if passing through a solid substance, and this +resistance is produced merely by magnetic attraction. Why may it not +be so with resistance in general? To give effect to such a +supposition, and to reconcile it with the facts of chemistry and of +physics, it is necessary to suppose that the atoms of matter are +merely minute vortices or whirlwinds set up in an ethereal medium, +which in itself, and when at rest, does not possess any of the +properties of matter. That such an ethereal medium exists we have +reason to believe from the propagation of light and heat through +space, though we know little, except negatively, of its properties. +Admitting, however, its existence, the setting up in it of the various +kinds of vortices constituting the atoms of different kinds of matter +is just as much in need of a creative power to initiate it as the +creation of matter out of nothing would be. Besides this, we now have +to account for the existence of the ether itself; and here we have the +disadvantage that this substance possesses none of the properties of +ordinary matter except mere extension; that, in so far as we know, it +is continuous, and not molecular; and that, while of the most +inconceivable tenuity, it transmits vibrations in a manner similar to +that of a body of the extremest solidity. It would seem, also, to be +indefinite in extent and beyond the control of the ordinary natural +forces. In short, ether is as incomprehensible as Deity; and if we +suppose it to have instituted spontaneously the different kinds of +matter, we have really constituted it a god, which is what, in a loose +way, some ancient mythologies actually did. We may, however, truly say +that this modern scientific conception of the practically infinite and +all-pervading ether, the primary seat of force, brings us nearer than +ever before to some realization of the Spiritual Creator. + +But to ether both science and Agnosticism must superadd energy--the +entirely immaterial something which moves ether itself. The rather +crude scientific notion that certain forces are "modes of motion" +perhaps blinds us somewhat to the mystery of energy. Even if we knew +no other form of force than heat, which moves masses of matter or +atoms, it would be in many respects an inscrutable thing. But as +traversing the subtle ether in such forms as radiant heat, light, +chemical force, and electricity, energy becomes still more mysterious. +Perhaps it is even more so in what seems to be one of its primitive +forms--that of gravitation, where it connects distant bodies +apparently without any intervening medium. Facts of this kind appear +to bring us still nearer to the conception of an all-pervading +immaterial creative power. + +But perhaps what may be termed the determinations of force exhibit +this still more clearly, as a very familiar instance may show. Our +sun--one of a countless number of similar suns--is to us the great +centre of light and heat, sustaining all processes, whether merely +physical or vital, on our planet. It was a grand conception of certain +old religions to make the sun the emblem of God, though sun-worship +was a substitution of the creature for the Creator, and would have +been dispelled by modern discovery. But our sun is not merely one of +countless suns, some of them of greater magnitude, but it is only a +temporary depository of a limited quantity of energy, ever dissipating +itself into space, calculable as to its amount and duration, and known +to depend for its existence on gravitative force. We may imagine the +beginning of such a luminary in the collision of great masses of +matter rushing together under the influence of gravitation, and +causing by their impact a conflagration capable of enduring for +millions of years. Yet our imagining such a rude process for the +kindling of the sun will go a very little way in accounting for all +the mechanism of the solar system and things therein. Further, it +raises new questions as to the original condition of matter. If it was +originally in one mass, whence came the incalculable power by which it +was rent into innumerable suns and systems? If it was once universally +diffused in boundless space, when and how was the force of gravity +turned on, and what determined its action in such a way as to +construct the existing universe? This is only one of the simplest and +baldest possible views of the intricate determinations of force +displayed in the universe, yet it may suffice to indicate the +necessity of a living and determining First Cause. + +The fact that all the manifestations of force are regulated by law by +no means favors the agnostic view. The laws of nature are merely +mental generalizations of our own, and, so far as they go, show a +remarkable harmony between our mental nature and that manifested in +the universe. They are not themselves powers capable of producing +effects, but merely express what we can ascertain of uniformity of +action in nature. The law of gravitation, for example, gives no clew +to the origin of that force, but merely expresses its constant mode of +action, in whatever way that may have been determined at first. Nor +are natural laws decrees of necessity. They might have been +otherwise--nay, many of them may be otherwise in parts of the universe +inaccessible to us, or they may change in process of time; for the +period over which our knowledge extends may be to the plans of the +Creator like the lifetime of some minute insect which might imagine +human arrangements of no great permanence to be of eternal duration. + +Unless the laws of nature were constant, in so far as our experience +extends, we could have no certain basis either for science or for +practical life. All would be capricious and uncertain, and we could +calculate on nothing. Law thus adapts the universe to be the residence +of rational beings, and nothing else could. Viewed in this way, we see +that natural laws must be, in their relation to a Creator, voluntary +limitations of his power in certain directions for the benefit of his +creatures. To secure this end, nature must be a perfect machine, all +the parts of which are adjusted for permanent and harmonious action. +It may perhaps rather be compared to a vast series of machines, each +running independently like the trains on a railway, but all connected +and regulated by an invisible guidance which determines the time and +the distance of each, and the manner in which the less urgent and less +important shall give place to others. Even this does not express the +whole truth; for the harmony of nature must be connected with constant +change and progress toward higher perfection. Does this conception of +natural law give us any warrant for the idea that the universe is a +product of chance? Is it not the highest realization of all that we +can conceive of the plans of superhuman intelligence? + +The stupid notion--still lingering in certain quarters--that when +anything has been referred to a natural law or to a secondary cause +under law, God may be dispensed with in relation to that thing, is +merely a survival of the superstition that divine action must be of +the nature of a capricious interference. The true theistic conception +of law is that already stated, of a voluntary limitation of divine +power in the interest of a material cosmos and its intelligent +inhabitants. Nor is the permanence of law dependent on necessity or on +mere mechanical routine, but on the unchanging will of the Legislator; +while the countless varieties and vicissitudes of nature depend, not +on caprice or on accidental interference, but on the interactions and +adjustments of laws of different grades, and so numerous and varied in +their scope and application and in the combinations of which they are +capable that it is often impossible for finite minds to calculate +their results. + +If, now, in conclusion, we are asked to sum up the hypotheses as to +the origin of natural laws and of the properties and determinations of +matter and force, we may do this under the following heads: + +1. Absolute creation by the will of a Supreme Intelligence, +self-existent and omnipotent. This may be the ultimate fact lying +behind all materials, forces, and laws known to science. + +2. Mediate creation, or the making of new complex products with +material already created and under laws previously existing. This is +applicable not so much to the primary origin of things as to their +subsequent determinations and modifications. + +3. Both of the above may be included under the expression "creation by +law," implying the institution from the first of fixed laws or modes +of action not to be subsequently deviated from. + +4. Theistic evolution, or the gradual development of the divine plans +by the apparently spontaneous interaction of things made. This is +universally admitted to occur in the minor modifications of created +things, though of course it can have no place as a mode of explaining +actual origins, and it must be limited within the laws of nature +established by the Creator. Practically, it might be difficult to make +any sharp distinctions between such evolution and mediate creation. + +5. Agnostic and monistic evolution, which hold the spontaneous +origination and differentiation of things out of primitive matter and +force, self-existent or fortuitous. The monistic form of this +hypothesis assumes one primary substance or existence potentially +embracing all subsequent developments. + +These theories are, of course, not all antagonistic to one another. +They resolve themselves into two groups, a theistic and an atheistic. +The former includes the first four; the latter, the fifth. Any one who +believes in God may suppose a primary creation of matter and energy, a +subsequent moulding and fashioning of them mediately and under natural +law, and also a gradual evolution of many new things by the +interaction of things previously made. This complex idea of the origin +of things seems, indeed, to be the rational outcome of Theism. It is +also the idea which underlies the old record in the book of Genesis, +where we have first an absolute creation, and then a series of +"makings" and "placings," and of things "bringing forth" other things, +in the course of the creative periods. + +On the other hand, Agnosticism postulates primary force or forces +self-existent and including potentially all that is subsequently +evolved from them. The only way in which it approximates to theism is +in its extreme monistic form, where the one force or power supposed +to underlie all existence is a sort of God shorn of personality, will, +and reason. + +The actual relations of these opposing theories to science cannot be +better explained than by a reference to the words of a leading monist, +whose views we shall have to notice in the next lecture. "If," says +Haeckel, "anybody feels the necessity of representing the origin of +matter as the work of a supernatural creative force independent of +matter itself, I would remind him that the idea of an immaterial force +creating matter in the first instance is an article of faith which has +nothing to do with science. Where faith begins, science ends." + +Precisely so, if only we invert the last sentence and say, "Where +science ends, faith begins." It is only by faith that we know of any +force, or even of the atoms of matter themselves, and in like manner +it is "by faith we know that the creative ages have been constituted +by the word of God."[1] The only difference is that the monist has +faith in the potency of nothing to produce something, or of something +material to exist for ever and to acquire at some point of time the +power spontaneously to enter on the process of development; while the +theist has faith in a primary intelligent Will as the Author of all +things. The latter has this to confirm his faith--that it accords with +what we know of the inertia of matter, of the constancy of forces, and +of the permanence of natural law, and is in harmony with the powers of +the one free energy we know--that of the human will. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Epistle to Hebrews, xi. 3. + + + + +LECTURE II. + +THE SCIENCE OF LIFE AND MONISTIC EVOLUTION. + + +In the last lecture we have noticed the general relations of agnostic +speculations with natural science, and have exposed their failure to +account for natural facts and laws. We may now inquire into their mode +of dealing with the phenomena of life, with regard to the supposed +spontaneous evolution of which, and its development up to man himself, +so many confident generalizations have been put forth by the agnostic +and monistic philosophy. + +In the earlier history of modern natural science, the tendency was to +take nature as we find it, without speculation as to the origin of +living things, which men were content to regard as direct products of +creative power. But at a very early period--and especially after the +revelations of geology had disclosed a succession of ascending +dynasties of life--such speculations, which, independently of science, +had commended themselves to the poetical and philosophical minds of +antiquity, were revived. In France more particularly, the theories of +Buffon, Lamarck, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire opened up these exciting +themes, and they might even then have attained to the importance they +have since acquired but for the great and judicial intellect of +Cuvier, which perceived their futility and guided the researches of +naturalists into other and more profitable fields. The next stimulus +to such hypotheses was given by the progress of physiology, and +especially by researches into the embryonic development of animals and +plants. Here it was seen that there are homologies and likenesses of +plan linking organisms with each other, and that in the course of +their development the more complex creatures pass through stages +corresponding to the adult condition of lower forms. The questions +raised by the geographical distribution of animals, as ascertained by +the numerous expeditions and scientific travellers of modern times, +tended in the same direction. The way was thus prepared for the broad +generalizations of Darwin, who, seizing on the idea of artificial +selection as practised by breeders of animals and plants, and +imagining that something similar takes place in the natural struggle +for existence, saw in this a plausible solution for the question of +the progress and the variety of organized beings. + +The original Darwinian theory was soon found to be altogether +insufficient to account for the observed facts, because of the +tendency of the bare struggle for existence to produce degradation +rather than elevation; because of the testimony of geology to the fact +that introduction of new species takes place in times of expansion +rather than of struggle; because of the manifest tendency of the +breeds produced by artificial selection to become infertile and die +out in proportion to their deviation from the original types; and +because of the difficulty of preventing such breeds from reverting to +the original forms, which seem in all cases to be perfectly +equilibrated in their own parts and adapted to external nature, so +that varieties tend, as if by gravitative law, to fall back into the +original moulds. A great variety of other considerations--as those of +sexual selection, reproductive acceleration and retardation, periods +of more and less rapid evolution, innate tendency to vary at +particular times and in particular circumstances--have been imported +into the original doctrine. Thus the original Darwinism is a thing of +the past, even in the mind of its great author, though it has proved +the fruitful parent of a manifold progeny of allied ideas which +continue to bear its name. In this respect Darwinism is itself +amenable to the law of evolution, and has been continually changing +its form under the influence of the controversial struggles which have +risen around it. + +Darwinism was not necessarily atheistic or agnostic. Its author was +content to assume a few living beings or independent forms to begin +with, and did not propose to obtain them by any spontaneous action of +dead matter, nor to account for the primary origin of life, still less +of all material things. In this he was sufficiently humble and honest; +but the logical weakness of his position was at once apparent. If +creation was needed to give a few initial types, it might have +produced others also. The followers of Darwin, therefore, more +especially in Germany, at once pushed the doctrine back into +Agnosticism and Monism, giving to it a greater logical consistency, +but bringing it into violent conflict with theism and with common +sense. + +Darwin himself early perceived that his doctrine, if true, must apply +to man--in so far, at least, as his bodily frame is concerned. Man is +in this an animal, and closely related to other animals. To have +claimed for him a distinct origin would have altogether discredited +the theory, though it might be admitted that, man having appeared, his +free volition and his moral and social instincts would at once +profoundly modify the course of the evolution. On the other hand, the +gulf which separates the reason and the conscience of man from +instinct and the animal intelligence of lower creatures opposed an +almost impassable barrier to the union of man with lower animals; and +the attempt to bridge this gulf threatened to bring the theory into a +deadly struggle with the moral, social, and religious instincts of +mankind. In face of this difficulty, Darwin and most of his followers +adopted the more daring course of maintaining the evolution of the +whole man from lower forms, and thereby entered into a warfare, which +still rages, with psychology, ethics, philology, and theology. + +It is easy for shallow evolutionists unaware of the tendencies of +their doctrine, or for latitudinarian churchmen careless as to the +maintenance of truth if only outward forms are preserved and +comprehension secured, to overlook or make light of these antagonisms, +but science and common sense alike demand a severe adherence to +truth. It becomes, therefore, very important to ascertain to what +extent we are justified in adopting the agnostic evolution in its +relation to life and man on scientific grounds. Perhaps this may best +be done by reviewing the argument of Haeckel in his work on the +evolution of man--one of the ablest, and at the same time most +thorough, expositions of monistic evolution as applied to lower +animals and to men. + +Ernst Haeckel is an eminent comparative anatomist and physiologist, +who has earned a wide and deserved reputation by his able and +laborious studies of the calcareous sponges, the radiolarians, and +other low forms of life. In his work on _The Evolution of Man_ he +applies this knowledge to the solution of the problem of the origin of +humanity, and sets himself not only to illustrate, but to "prove," the +descent of our species from the simplest animal types, and even to +overwhelm with scorn every other explanation of the appearance of man +except that of spontaneous evolution. He is not merely an +evolutionist, but what he terms a "monist," and the monistic +philosophy, as defined by him, includes certain negations and certain +positive principles of a most comprehensive and important character. +It implies the denial of all spiritual or immaterial existence. Man is +to the monist merely a physiological machine, and nature is only a +greater self-existing and spontaneously-moving aggregate of forces. +Monism can thus altogether dispense with a Creative Will as +originating nature, and adopts the other alternative of self-existence +or causelessness for the universe and all its phenomena. Again, the +monistic doctrine necessarily implies that man, the animal, the plant, +and the mineral are only successive stages of the evolution of the +same primordial matter, constituting thus a connected chain of being, +all the parts of which sprang spontaneously from each other. Lastly, +as the admixture of primitive matter and force would itself be a sort +of dualism, Haeckel regards these as ultimately one, and apparently +resolves the origin of the universe into the operation of a +self-existing energy having in itself the potency of all things. After +all, this may be said to be an approximation to the idea of a Creator, +but not a living and willing Creator. Monism is thus not identical +with pantheism, but is rather a sort of atheistic monotheism, if such +a thing is imaginable; and vindicates the assertion attributed to a +late lamented physical philosopher--that he had found no atheistic +philosophy which had not a God somewhere. + +Haeckel's own statement of this aspect of his philosophy is somewhat +interesting. He says: "The opponents of the doctrine of evolution are +very fond of branding the monistic philosophy grounded upon it as +'materialism' by comparing _philosophical_ materialism with the wholly +different and censurable _moral_ materialism. Strictly, however, our +'monism' might as accurately or as inaccurately be called spiritualism +as materialism. The real materialistic philosophy asserts that the +phenomena of vital motion, like all other phenomena of motion, are +effects or products of matter. The other opposite extreme, +spiritualistic philosophy, asserts, on the contrary, that matter is +the product of motive force, and that all material forms are produced +by free forces entirely independent of the matter itself. Thus, +according to the materialistic conception of the universe, matter +precedes motion or active force; according to the spiritualistic +conception of the universe, on the contrary, active force or motion +precedes matter. Both views are dualistic, and we hold them both to be +equally false. A contrast to both is presented in the _monistic_ +philosophy, which can as little believe in force without matter as in +matter without force." + +It is evident that if Haeckel limits himself and his opponents to +matter and force as the sole possible explanations of the universe, he +may truly say that matter is inconceivable without force and force +inconceivable without matter. But the question arises, What is the +monistic power beyond these--the "power behind nature"? and as to the +true nature of this the Jena philosopher gives us only vague +generalities, though it is quite plain that he cannot admit a +Spiritual Creator. Further, as to the absence of any spiritual element +from the nature of man, he does not leave us in doubt as to what he +means; for immediately after the above paragraph he informs us that +"the 'spirit' and the 'mind' of man are but forces which are +inseparably connected with the material substance of our bodies. Just +as the motive-power of our flesh is involved in the muscular +form-element, so is the thinking force of our spirit involved in the +form-element of the brain." In a note appended to the passage, he says +that monism "conceives nature as one whole, and nowhere recognizes any +but mechanical causes." These assumptions as to man and nature +pervade the whole book, and of course greatly simplify the task of the +writer, as he does not require to account for the primary origin of +nature, or for anything in man except his physical frame; and even +this he can regard as a thing altogether mechanical. + +It is plain that we might here enter our dissent from Haeckel's +method, for he requires us, before we can proceed a single step in the +evolution of man, to assume many things which he cannot prove. What +evidence is there, for example, of the possibility of the development +of the rational and moral nature of man from the intelligence and the +instinct of the lower animals, or of the necessary dependence of the +phenomena of mind on the structure of brain-cells? The evidence, so +far as it goes, seems to tend the other way. What proof is there of +the spontaneous evolution of living forms from inorganic matter? +Experiment so far negatives the possibility of this. Even if we give +Haeckel, to begin with, a single living cell or granule of protoplasm, +we know that this protoplasm must have been produced by the agency of +a living vegetable cell previously existing; and we have no proof +that it can be produced in any other way. Again, what particle of +evidence have we that the atoms or the energy of an incandescent +fire-mist have in them anything of the power or potency of life? We +must grant the monist all these postulates as pure matters of faith, +before he can begin his demonstration; and, as none of them are +axiomatic truths, it is evident that so far he is simply a believer in +the dogmas of a philosophic creed, and in this respect weak as other +men whom he affects to despise. + +We may here place over against his authority that of another eminent +physiologist, of more philosophic mind, Dr. Carpenter, who has +recently said: "As a physiologist I must fully recognize the fact that +the physical force exerted by the body of man is not generated _de +novo_ by his will, but is derived directly from the oxidation of the +constituents of his food. But, holding it as equally certain--because +the fact is capable of verification by every one as often as he +chooses to make the experiment--that in the performance of every +volitional movement physical force is put in action, directed, and +controlled by the individual personality or _ego_, I deem it as absurd +and illogical to affirm that there is no place for a God in nature, +originating, directing, and controlling its forces by his will, as it +would be to assert that there is no place in man's body for his +conscious mind." + +Taking Haeckel on his own ground, as above defined, we may next +inquire as to the method which he employs in working out his argument. +This may be referred to three leading modes of treatment, which, as +they are somewhat diverse from those ordinarily familiar to logicians +and are extensively used by evolutionists, deserve some illustration, +more especially as Haeckel is a master in their use. + +An eminent French professor of the art of sleight-of-hand has defined +the leading principle of jugglers to be that of "appearing and +disappearing things;" and this is the best definition that occurs to +me of one method of reasoning largely used by Haeckel, and of which we +need to be on our guard when we find him employing, as he does in +almost every page, such phrases as "it cannot be doubted," "we may +therefore assume," "we may readily suppose," "this afterward assumes +or becomes," "we may confidently assert," "this developed directly," +and the like, which in his usage are equivalent to the "_Presto!_" of +the conjurer, and which, while we are looking at one structure or +animal, enable him to persuade us that it has been suddenly +transformed into something else. + +In tracing the genealogy of man he constantly employs this kind of +sleight-of-hand in the most adroit manner. He is perhaps describing to +us the embryo of a fish or an amphibian, and, as we become interested +in the curious details, it is suddenly by some clever phrase +transformed into a reptile or a bird; and yet, without rubbing our +eyes and reflecting on the differences and difficulties which he +neglects to state, we can scarcely doubt that it is the same animal, +after all. + +The little lancelet, or _Amphioxus_ (see Fig. 1), of the European +seas--a creature which was at one time thought to be a sea-snail, but +is really more akin to fishes--forms his link of connection between +our "fish-ancestors" and the invertebrate animals. So important is it +in this respect that our author Waxes eloquent in exhorting us to +regard it "with special veneration" as representing our "earliest +Silurian vertebrate ancestors," as being of "our own flesh and blood," +and as better worthy of being an object of "devoutest reverence" than +the "worthless rabble of so-called 'saints.'" In describing this +animal he takes pains to inform us that it is more different from an +ordinary fish than a fish is from a man. Yet, as he illustrates its +curious and unique structure, before we are aware, the lancelet is +gone and a fish is in its place, and this fish with the potency to +become a man in due time. Thus a creature intermediate in some +respects between fishes and mollusks, or between fishes and worms, but +so far apart from either that it seems but to mark the width of the +gap between them, becomes an easy stepping-stone from one to the +other. + + [Illustration: FIG. 1. + + The Lancelet (_Amphioxus_), the supposed earliest type of + vertebrate animal, and, according to Haeckel, the ancestor of + man. The figure is a section enlarged to twice the natural + size. + + _a_, mouth; + _b_, anus; + _c_, gill-opening; + _d_, gill; + _e_, stomach; + _f_, liver; + _g_, intestine; + _h_, gill-cavity; + _i_, notochord, or rudimentary back-bone; + _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, arteries and veins.] + +In like manner, the ascidians, or sea-squirts--mollusks of low grade, +or, as Haeckel prefers to regard them, allied to worms--are most +remote in almost every respect from the vertebrates. But in the young +state of some of these creatures, and in the adult condition of one +animal referred to this group (_Appendicularia_), they have a sort of +swimming tail, which is stiffened by a rod of cartilage to enable it +to perform its function, and which for a time gives them a certain +resemblance to the lancelet or to embryo fishes; and this usually +temporary contrivance--curious as an imitative adaptation, but of no +other significance--becomes, by the art of "appearing and +disappearing," a rudimentary backbone, and enables us at once to +recognize in the young ascidian an embryo man. + +A second method characteristic of the book, and furnishing, indeed, +the main basis of its argument, is that of considering analogous +processes as identical, without regard to the difference of the +conditions under which they may be carried on. The great leading use +of this argument is in inducing us to regard the development of the +individual animal as the precise equivalent of the series of changes +by which the species was developed in the course of geological time. +These two kinds of development are distinguished by appropriate names. +_Ontogenesis_ is the embryonic development of the individual animal, +and is, of course, a short process, depending on the production of a +germ by a parent animal or parent pair, and the further growth of this +germ in connection more or less with the parent or with provision made +by it. This is, of course, a fact open to observation and study, +though some of its processes are mysterious and yet involved in doubt +and uncertainty. _Phylogenesis_ is the supposed development of a +species in the course of geological time and by the intervention of +long series of species, each in its time distinct and composed of +individuals each going regularly through a genetic circle of its own. + +The latter is a process not open to observation within the time at our +command--purely hypothetical, therefore, and of which the possibility +remains to be proved; while the causes on which it must depend are +necessarily altogether different from those at work in ontogenesis, +and the conditions of a long series of different kinds of animals, +each perfect in its kind, are equally dissimilar from those of an +animal passing through the regular stages from infancy to maturity. +The similarity, in some important respects, of ontogenesis to +phylogenesis was inevitable, provided that animals were to be of +different grades of complexity, since the development of the +individual must necessarily be from a more simple to a more complex +condition. On any hypothesis, the parallelism between embryological +facts and the history of animals in geological time affords many +interesting and important coincidences. Yet it is perfectly obvious +that the causes and the conditions of these two successions cannot +have been the same. Further, when we consider that the embryo-cell +which develops into one animal must necessarily be originally +distinct in its properties from that which develops into another kind +of animal, even though no obvious difference appears to us, we have no +ground for supposing that the early stages of all animals are alike; +and when we rigorously compare the development of any animal whatever +with the successive appearance of animals of the same or similar +groups in geological time, we find many things which do not +correspond--not merely in the want of links which we might expect to +find, but in the more significant appearance, prematurely or +inopportunely, of forms which we would not anticipate. Yet the main +argument of Haeckel's book is the quiet assumption that anything found +to occur in ontogenetic development must also have occurred in +phylogenesis, while manifest difficulties are got rid of by assuming +atavisms and abnormalities. + +A third characteristic of the method of the book is the use of certain +terms in peculiar senses, and as implying certain causes which are +taken for granted, though their efficacy and their mode of operation +are unknown. The chief of the terms so employed are "heredity" and +"adaptation." "Heredity" is usually understood as expressing the +power of permanent transmission of characters from parents to +offspring, and in this aspect it expresses the constancy of specific +forms; but, as used by Haeckel, it means the transmission by a parent +of any exceptional characters which the individual may have +accidentally assumed. "Adaptation" has usually been supposed to mean +the fitting of animals for their place in nature, however that came +about; as used by Haeckel, it imports the power of the individual +animal to adapt itself to changed conditions and to transmit these +changes to its offspring. Thus in this philosophy the rule is made the +exception and the exception the rule by a skilful use of familiar +terms in new senses; and heredity and adaptation are constantly +paraded as if they were two potent divinities employed in constantly +changing and improving the face of nature. + +It is scarcely too much to say that the conclusions of the book are +reached almost solely by the application of the above-mentioned +peculiar modes of reasoning to the vast store of facts at command of +the author, and that the reader who would test these conclusions by +the ordinary methods of judgment must be constantly on his guard. +Still, it is not necessary to believe that Haeckel is an intentional +deceiver. Such fallacies are those which are especially fitted to +mislead enthusiastic specialists, to be identified by them with proved +results of science, and to be held in an intolerant and dogmatic +spirit. + +Having thus noticed Haeckel's assumptions and his methods, we may next +shortly consider the manner in which he proceeds to work out the +phylogeny of man. Here he pursues a purely physiological method, only +occasionally and slightly referring to geological facts. He takes as a +first principle the law long ago formulated by Hunter, _Omne vivum ex +ovo_--a law which modern research has amply confirmed, showing that +every animal, however complex, can be traced back to an egg, which in +its simplest state is no more than a single cell, though this cell +requires to be fertilized by the addition of the contents of another +dissimilar cell, produced either in another organ of the same +individual or in a distinct individual. This process of fertilization +Haeckel seems to regard as unnecessary in the lowest forms of life; +but, though there are some simple animals in which it has not been +recognized, analogy would lead us to believe that in some form it is +necessary in all. Haekel's monistic view, however, requires that in +the lowest forms it should be absent and should have originated +spontaneously, though how does not seem to be very clear, as the +explanation given of it by him amounts to little more than the +statement that it must have occurred. Still, as a "dualistic" process +it is very significant with reference to the monistic theory. + +Much space is, of course, devoted to the tracing of the special +development or ontogenesis of man, and to the illustration of the fact +that in the earlier stages of this development the human embryo is +scarcely distinguishable from that of lower animals. We may, indeed, +affirm that all animals start from cells which, in so far as we can +see, are similar to each other, yet which must include potentially the +various properties of the animals which spring from them. As we trace +them onward in their development, we see these differences manifesting +themselves. At first all pass, according to Haeckel, through a stage +which he calls the "gastrula," in which the whole body is represented +by a sort of sac, the cavity of which is the stomach and the walls of +which consist of two layers of cells. It should be stated, however, +that many eminent naturalists dissent from this view, and maintain +that even in the earliest stages material differences can be observed. +In this they are probably right, as even Haeckel has to admit some +degree of divergence from this all-embracing "gastræa" theory. +Admitting, however, that such early similarity exists within certain +limits, we find that, as the embryo advances, it speedily begins to +indicate whether it is to be a coral-animal, a snail, a worm, or a +fish. Consequently, the physiologist who wishes to trace the +resemblances leading to mammals and to man has to lop off one by one +the several branches which lead in other directions, and to follow +that which conducts by the most direct course to the type which he has +in view. In this way Haeckel can show that the embryo _Homo sapiens_ +is in successive stages so like to the young of the fish, the reptile, +the bird, and the ordinary quadruped that he can produce for +comparison figures in which the cursory observer can detect scarcely +any difference. + +All this has long been known, and has been regarded as a wonderful +evidence of the homology or unity of plan which pervades nature, and +as constituting man the archetype of the animal kingdom--the highest +realization of a plan previously sketched by the Creator in many ruder +and humbler forms. It also teaches that it is not so much in the mere +bodily organism that we are to look for the distinguishing characters +of humanity as in the higher rational and moral nature. + +But Haeckel, like other evolutionists of the monistic and agnostic +schools, goes far beyond this. The ontogeny, on the evidence of +analogy, as already explained, is nothing less than a miniature +representation of the phylogeny. Man must in the long ages of +geological time have arisen from a monad, just as the individual man +has in his life-history arisen from an embryo-cell, and the several +stages through which the individual passes must be parallel to those +in the history of the race. True, the supposed monad must have been +wanting in all the conditions of origin, sexual fertilization, +parental influence, and surroundings. There is no perceptible relation +of cause and effect, any more than between the rotation of a +carriage-wheel and that of the earth on its axis. The analogy might +prompt to inquiries as to common laws and similarities of operation, +but it proves nothing as to causation. + +In default of such proof, Haeckel favors us with another analogy, +derived from the science of language. All the Indo-European languages +are believed to be descended from a common ancestral tongue, and this +is analogous to the descent of all animals from one primitive species. +But unfortunately the languages in question are the expressions of the +voice and the thought of one and the same species. The individuals +using them are known historically to have descended by ordinary +generation from a common source, and the connecting-links of the +various dialects are unbroken. The analogy fails altogether in the +case of species succeeding each other in geological time, unless the +very thing to be proved is taken for granted in the outset. + +The actual proof that a basis exists in nature for the doctrine of +evolution founded on these analogies, might be threefold. _First._ +There might be changes of the nature of phylogenesis going on under +our own observation, and even a very few of these would be sufficient +to give some show of probability. Elaborate attempts have been made to +show that variations, as existing in the more variable of our +domesticated species, lead in the direction of such changes; but the +results have been unsatisfactory, and our author scarcely condescends +to notice this line of proof. He evidently regards the time over which +human history has extended as too short to admit of this kind of +demonstration. _Secondly._ There might be in the existing system of +nature such a close connection or continuous chain of species as might +at least strengthen the argument from analogy; and undoubtedly there +are many groups of closely allied species, or of races confounded with +true specific types, which it might not be unreasonable to suppose of +common origin. These are, however, scattered widely apart; and the +contrary fact of extensive gaps in the series is so frequent, that +Haeckel is constantly under the necessity of supposing that multitudes +of species, and even of larger groups, have perished just where it is +most important to his conclusion that they should have remained. This +is, of course, unfortunate for the theory; but then, as Haeckel often +remarks, "we must suppose" that the missing links once existed. But, +_thirdly_, these gaps which now unhappily exist may be filled up by +fossil animals; and if in the successive geological periods we could +trace the actual phylogeny of even a few groups of living creatures, +we might have the demonstration desired. But here again the gaps are +so frequent and so serious that Haeckel scarcely attempts to use this +argument further than by giving a short and somewhat imperfect summary +of the geological succession in the beginning of his second volume. In +this he attempts to give a continuous series of the ancestors of man +as developed in geological time; but, of twenty-one groups which he +arranges in order from the beginning of the Laurentian to the modern +period, at least ten are not known at all as fossils, and others do +not belong, so far as known, to the ages to which he assigns them. +This necessity of manufacturing facts does not speak well for the +testimony of geology to the supposed phylogeny of man. + +In point of fact, it cannot be disguised that, though it is possible +to pick out some series of animal forms, like the horses and camels +referred to by some palæontologists, which simulate a genetic order, +the general testimony of palæontology is, on the whole, adverse to the +ordinary theories of evolution, whether applied to the vegetable or to +the animal kingdom. This the writer has elsewhere endeavored to show; +but he may refer here to the labors of Barrande, perhaps unrivalled in +extent and accuracy, which show that in the leading forms of life in +the older geological formations the succession is not such as to +correspond with any of the received theories of derivation.[2] Even +evolutionists, when sufficiently candid, admit their case not proven +by geological evidence. Gaudry, one of the best authorities on the +Tertiary mammalia, admits the impossibility of suggesting any possible +derivation for some of the leading groups, and Saporta, Mivart, and Le +Conte fall back on periods of rapid or paroxysmal evolution scarcely +differing from the idea of creation by law, or mediate creation, as it +has been termed. + +Thus the utmost value which can be attached to Haeckel's argument from +analogy would be that it suggests a possibility that the processes +which we see carried on in the evolution of the individual may, in the +laws which regulate them, be connected in some way more or less close +with those creative processes which on the wider field of geological +time have been concerned in the production of the multitudinous forms +of animal life. That Haeckel's philosophy goes but a very little way +toward any understanding of such relations, and that our present +information, even within the more limited scope of biological science, +is too meagre to permit of safe generalization, will appear from the +consideration of a few facts taken here and there from the multitude +employed by him to illustrate the monistic theory. + +When we are told that a moner or an embryo-cell is the early stage of +all animals alike, we naturally ask, Is it meant that all these cells +are really similar, or is it only that they appear similar to us, and +may actually be as profoundly unlike as the animals which they are +destined to produce? To make this question more plain, let us take the +case as formally stated: "From the weighty fact that the egg of the +human being, like the egg of all other animals, is a simple cell, it +may be quite certainly inferred that a one-celled parent-form once +existed, from which all the many-celled animals, man included, +developed." + +Now, let us suppose that we have under our microscope a one-celled +animalcule quite as simple in structure as our supposed ancestor. +Along with this we may have on the same slide another cell, which is +the embryo of a worm, and a third, which is the embryo of a man. All +these, according to the hypothesis, are similar in appearance; so that +we can by no means guess which is destined to continue always an +animalcule, or which will become a worm or may develop into a poet or +a philosopher. Is it meant that the things are actually alike or only +apparently so? If they are really alike, then their destinies must +depend on external circumstances. Put either of them into a pond, and +it will remain a monad. Put either of them into the ovary of a complex +animal, and it will develop into the likeness of that animal. But such +similarity is altogether improbable, and it would destroy the argument +of the evolutionist. In this case he would be hopelessly shut up to +the conclusion that "hens were before eggs;" and Haeckel elsewhere +informs us that the exactly opposite view is necessarily that of the +monistic evolutionist. Thus, though it may often be convenient to +speak of these three kinds of cells as if they were perfectly similar, +the method of "disappearance" has immediately to be resorted to, and +they are shown to be, in fact, quite dissimilar. There is, indeed, +the best ground to suppose that the one-celled animals and the +embryo-cells referred to, have little in common except their general +form. We know that the most minute cell must include a sufficient +number of molecules of protoplasm to admit of great varieties of +possible arrangement, and that these may be connected with most varied +possibilities as to the action of forces. Further, the embryo-cell +which is produced by a particular kind of animal, and whose +development results in the reproduction of a similar animal, must +contain potentially the parts and structures which are evolved from +it; and fact shows that this may be affirmed of both the embryo and +the sperm-cells where there are two sexes. Therefore it is in the +highest degree probable that the eggs of a worm and those of man, +though possibly alike to our coarse methods of investigation, are as +dissimilar as the animals that result from them. If so, the "egg may +be before the hen;" but it is as difficult to imagine the spontaneous +production of the egg which is potentially the hen as of the hen +itself. Thus the similarity of the eggs and early embryos of animals +of different grades is apparent only; and this fact, which embodies a +great, and perhaps insoluble, mystery, invalidates the whole of +Haeckel's reasoning on the alleged resemblances of different kinds of +animals in their early stages. + +A second difficulty arises from the fact that the simple embryo-cell +of any of the higher animals rapidly produces various kinds of +specialized cells different in structure and appearance and capable of +performing different functions, whereas in the lower forms of life +such cells may remain simple or may merely produce several similar +cells little or not at all differentiated. This objection, whenever it +occurs, Haeckel endeavors to turn by the assertion that a complex +animal is merely an aggregate of independent cells, each of which is a +sort of individual. He thus tries to break up the integrity of the +complex organism and to reduce it to a mere swarm of monads. He +compares the cells of an organism to the "individuals of a savage +community," who, at first separate and all alike in their habits and +occupations, at length organize themselves into a community and assume +different avocations. Single cells, he says, at first were alike, and +each performed the same simple offices of all the others. "At a later +period isolated cells gathered into communities; groups of simple +cells which had arisen from the continued division of a single cell +remained together, and now began gradually to perform different +offices of life." + +But this is a mere vague analogy. It does not represent anything +actually occurring in nature, except in the case of an embryo produced +by some animal which already shows all the tissues which its embryo is +destined to reproduce. Thus it establishes no probability of the +evolution of complex tissues from simple cells, and leaves altogether +unexplained that wonderful process by which the embryo-cell not only +divides into many cells, but becomes developed into all the variety of +dissimilar tissues evolved from the homogeneous egg; but evolved from +it, as we naturally suppose, because of the fact that the egg +represents potentially all these tissues as existing previously in the +parent organism. + +But if we are content to waive these objections or to accept the +solutions given of them by the "appearance-and-disappearance" +argument, we still find that the phylogeny, unlike the ontogenesis, is +full of wide gaps only to be passed _per saltum_ or to be accounted +for by the disappearance of a vast number of connecting-links. Of +course, it is easy to suppose that these intermediate forms have been +lost through time and accident, but why this has happened to some +rather than to others cannot be explained. In the phylogeny of man, +for example, what a vast hiatus yawns between the ascidian and the +lancelet, and another between the lancelet and the lamprey! It is true +that the missing links may have consisted of animals little likely to +be preserved as fossils; but why, if they ever existed, do not some of +them remain in the modern seas? Again, when we have so many species of +apes and so many races of men, why can we find no trace, recent or +fossil, of that "missing link" which we are told must have existed, +the "ape-like men," known to Haeckel as the "Alali," or speechless +men? + +A further question which should receive consideration from the monist +school is that very serious one, Why, if all is "mechanical" in the +development and actions of living beings, should there be any progress +whatever? Ordinary people fail to understand why a world of mere dead +matter should not go on to all eternity obeying physical and chemical +laws without developing life; or why, if some low form of life were +introduced capable of reproducing simple one-celled organisms, it +should not go on doing so. + +Further, even if some chance deviations should occur, we fail to +perceive why these should go on in a definite manner producing not +only the most complex machines, but many kinds of such machines--on +different plans, but each perfect in its way. Haeckel is never weary +of telling us that to monists organisms are mere machines. Even his +own mental work is merely the grinding of a cerebral machine. But he +seems not to perceive that to such a philosophy the homely argument +which Paley derived from the structure of a watch would be fatal: "The +question is whether machines (which monists consider all animals to +be, including themselves) infinitely more complicated than watches +could come into existence without design somewhere"[3]--that is, by +mere chance. Common sense is not likely to admit that this is +possible. + + [Illustration: FIG. 2. + + Impression of five fingers and five toes of an Amphibian of + the Lower Carboniferous Age, from the lowest Carboniferous + beds in Nova Scotia--an evidence of the fact that the number + five was already selected for the hands and feet of the + earliest known land vertebrates, and that the decimal system + of notation, with all that it involves to man, was determined + in the Palæozoic Age. The upper figure natural size, the lower + reduced.] + +The difficulties above referred to relate to the introduction of life +and of new species on the monistic view. Others might be referred to +in connection with the production of new organs. An illustration is +afforded, among others, by the discussion of the introduction of the +five fingers and toes of man, which appear to descend to us +unchanged from the amphibians or batrachians of the Carboniferous +period. In this ancient age of the earth's geological history, feet +with five toes appear in numerous species of reptilians of various +grades (Fig. 2). They are preceded by no other vertebrates than +fishes, and these have numerous fin-rays instead of toes. There are no +properly transitional forms either fossil or recent. How were the +five-fingered limbs acquired in this abrupt way? Why were they five +rather than any other number? Why, when once introduced, have they +continued unchanged up to the present day? Haeckel's answer is a +curious example of his method: "The great significance of the five +digits depends on the fact that this number has been transmitted from +the Amphibia to all higher vertebrates. It would be impossible to +discover any reason why in the lowest Amphibia, as well as in reptiles +and in higher vertebrates up to man, there should always originally be +five digits on each of the anterior and posterior limbs, if we denied +that heredity from a common five-fingered parent-form is the efficient +cause of this phenomenon; heredity can alone account for it. In many +Amphibia certainly, as well as in many higher vertebrates, we find +less than five digits. But in all these cases it can be shown that +separate digits have retrograded, and have finally been completely +lost. The causes which affected the development of the five-fingered +foot of the higher vertebrates in this amphibian form from the +many-fingered foot (or properly fin), must certainly be found in the +adaptation to the totally altered functions which the limbs had to +discharge during the transition from an exclusively aquatic life to +one which was partially terrestrial. While the many-fingered fins of +the fish had previously served almost exclusively to propel the body +through the water, they had now also to afford support to the animal +when creeping on the land. This effected a modification both of the +skeleton and of the muscles of the limbs. The number of fin-rays was +gradually lessened, and was finally reduced to five. These five +remaining rays were, however, developed more vigorously. The soft +cartilaginous rays became hard bones. The rest of the skeleton also +became considerably more firm. The movements of the body became not +only more vigorous, but also more varied;" and the paragraph proceeds +to state other ameliorations of muscular and nervous system supposed +to be related to or caused by the improvement of the limbs. + +It will be observed that in the above extract, under the formula "the +causes which affected the development of the five-fingered foot ... +must certainly be found," all that other men would regard as demanding +proof is quietly assumed, and the animal grows before our eyes from a +fish to a reptile as under the wand of a conjurer. Further, the +transmission of the five toes is attributed to heredity or unchanged +reproduction, but this, of course, gives no explanation of the +original formation of the structure, nor of the causes which prevented +heredity from applying to the fishes which became amphibians and +acquired five toes, or to the amphibians which faithfully transmitted +their five toes, but not their other characteristics. + +It is perhaps scarcely profitable to follow further the criticism of +this extraordinary book. It may be necessary, however, to repeat that +it contains clear, and in the main accurate, sketches of the +embryology of a number of animals, only slightly colored by the +tendency to minimize differences. It may also be necessary to say that +in criticising Haeckel we take him on his own ground--that of a +monist--and have no special reference to those many phases which the +philosophy of evolution assumes in the minds of other naturalists, +many of whom accept it only partially or as a form of mediate creation +more or less reconcilable with theism. To these more moderate views no +reference has been made, though there can be no doubt that many of +them are quite as assailable as the position of Haeckel in point of +argument. It may also be observed that Haeckel's argument is almost +exclusively biological and confined to the animal kingdom, and to the +special line of descent attributed to man. The monistic hypothesis +becomes, as already stated, still less tenable when tested by the +facts of palæontology. Hence most of the palæontologists who favor +evolution appear to shrink from the extreme position of Haeckel. +Gaudry, one of the ablest of this school, in his recent work on the +development of the Mammalia, candidly admits the multitude of facts +for which derivation will not account, and perceives in the grand +succession of animals in time the evidence of a wise and far-reaching +creative plan, concluding with the words: "We may still leave out of +the question the processes by which the Author of the world has +produced the changes of which palæontology presents the picture." In +like manner, the Count de Saporta in his _World of Plants_ closes his +summary of the periods of vegetation with the words: "But if we ascend +from one phenomenon to another, beyond the sphere of contingent and +changeable appearance, we find ourselves arrested by a Being +unchangeable and supreme, the first expression and absolute cause of +all existence, in whom diversity unites with unity, an eternal +problem, insoluble to science, but ever present to the human +consciousness. Here we reach the true source of the idea of religion, +and there presents itself distinctly to the mind that conception to +which we apply instinctively the name of God." + +Thus these evolutionists, like many others in this country and in +England, find a _modus vivendi_ between evolution and theism. They +have committed themselves to an interpretation of nature which may +prove fanciful and evanescent, and which certainly up to this time +remains an hypothesis, ingenious and captivating, but not fortified by +the evidence of facts. But in doing so they are not prepared to +accept the purely mechanical creed of the monist, or to separate +themselves from those ideas of morality, of religion, and of sonship +to God which have hitherto been the brightest gems in the crown of man +as the lord of this lower world. Whether they can maintain this +position against the monists, and whether they will be able in the end +to retain any practical form of religion along with the doctrine of +the derivation of man from the lower animals, remains to be seen. +Possibly before these questions come to a final issue the philosophy +of evolution may itself have been "modified" or have given place to +some new phase of thought. + +One curious point in this connection, to which little attention has +been given by evolutionists, is that to which Herbert Spencer has +given the name of "direct equilibration," though he is sufficiently +wise not to invite too much attention to it. This is the balance of +parts and forces within the organism itself. The organism is a complex +machine; and if its parts have been put together by chance and are +drifting onward in the path of evolution, there must of necessity be a +continual struggle going on between the different organs and +functions, each tending to swallow up the others and each struggling +for its own existence. This resolution of the body of each animal into +a house divided against itself is at first sight so revolting to +common sense and right feeling that few like to contemplate it. Roux +and other recent writers, however, especially in Germany, have brought +it into prominence, and it is no doubt a necessary consequence of the +evolutionary idea, though altogether at variance with the theory of +intelligent design, which supposes the animal machine put together +with care and for a purpose, and properly adjusted in all its parts. +On the hypothesis of evolution, the animal thus ceases to be, in the +proper sense of the term, even a machine, and becomes a mere mass of +conflicting parts depending for any constancy they may have on a +chance balancing of hostile forces, without any compelling power to +bring them together at first, or any means to bind them to joint +action in the system. The more such a doctrine is considered, the more +difficult does it seem to believe in the possibility of its truth. +Evolution has already reduced the cosmos into chaos, the harmony of +the universe into discord; but it seems past belief to introduce this +into the microcosm itself, and to see nothing in its exquisite +adjustments except the momentary equilibrium of a well-balanced fight. +Geological history also adds to the absurdity of such a view by +showing the marvellous permanence of many forms of life which have +continued to perpetuate themselves through almost immeasurable ages +without material changes, thus proving unanswerably the perfect +adjustment of their parts. + +Viewed rightly, this direct equilibration of the parts of the animal +seems to throw the greatest possible doubt on the capacity of any form +of evolution to produce new species. It is certain, from the facts +collected by Mr. Darwin himself in his work on animals under +domestication, that when man disturbs the balance of any organism by +changing in any way the relations of its parts, he introduces elements +of instability and weakness, which, despite the efforts of nature to +correct the evils resulting, speedily lead to degeneracy, infertility, +and extinction. Mr. T. Warren O'Neil of Philadelphia has recently +argued this point with much ability,[4] and has shown, on the +testimony of Darwin's facts, that unless "natural selection" is a +much more skilful breeder than man, and possesses some secrets not yet +discovered by us, the effects of this imaginary power would lead, not +to the production of new species, but merely to the extinction of +those already existing. In short, all the evidence goes to show +that--so beautifully balanced are the parts of the organism--any +excess or deficiency in any of them, when artificially or accidentally +introduced, brings in elements not only of instability, but of decay +and destruction. This subject is deserving of a more full treatment +than it can receive here, but enough has been said to show that in +this evolutionists have unwittingly furnished us with a new +confirmation of the theory of intelligent design. + +In some places there are in Haeckel's book touches of a grim humor +which are not without interest, as showing the subjective side of the +monistic theory and illustrating the attitude of its professors to +things held sacred by other men. For example, the following is the +introduction to the chapter headed "From the Primitive Worm to the +Skulled Animal," and which has for its motto the lines of Goethe +beginning: + + "Not like the gods am I! full well I know; + But like the worms which in the dust must go." + +"Both in prose and poetry man is very often compared to a worm; 'a +miserable worm,' 'a poor worm,' are common and almost compassionate +phrases. If we cannot detect any deep phylogenetic reference in this +zoological metaphor, we might at least safely assert that it contains +an unconscious comparison with a low condition of animal development +which is interesting in its bearing on the pedigree of the human +race." + +If Haeckel were well read in Scripture, he might have quoted here the +melancholy confession of the man of Uz: "I have said to the worm, Thou +art my mother and my sister." But, though Job, like the German +professor, could humbly say to the worm, "Thou art my mother," he +could still hold fast his integrity and believe in the fatherhood of +God. + +The moral bearing of monism is further illustrated by the following +extract, which refers to a more advanced step of the evolution--that +from the ape to man--and which shows the honest pride of the worthy +professor in his humble parentage: "Just as most people prefer to +trace their pedigree from a decayed baron, or if possible from a +celebrated prince, rather than from an unknown humble peasant, so they +prefer seeing the progenitor of the human race in an Adam degraded by +the fall, rather than in an ape capable of higher development and +progress. It is a matter of taste, and such genealogical preferences +do not, therefore, admit of discussion. It is more to my individual +taste to be the more highly-developed descendant of an ape, who in the +struggle for existence had developed progressively from lower mammals +as they from still lower vertebrates, than the degraded descendant of +an Adam, Godlike but debased by the fall, who was formed from a clod +of earth, and of an Eve created from a rib of Adam. As regards the +celebrated 'rib,' I must here expressly add, as a supplement to the +history of the development of the skeleton, that the number of ribs is +the same in man and in woman.[5] In the latter as well as in the +former the ribs originate from the skin-fibrous layer, and are to be +regarded phylogenetically as lower or ventral vertebræ."[6] + +There is no accounting for tastes, yet we may be pardoned for +retaining some preference for the first link of the old Jewish +genealogical table: "Which was the son of Adam, which was the son of +God." As to the "debasement" of the fall, it is to be feared that the +aboriginal ape would object to bearing the blame of existing human +iniquities as having arisen from any improvement in his nature and +habits; and it is scarcely fair to speak of Adam as "formed from a +_clod_ of earth," which is not precisely in accordance with the +record. As to the "rib," which seems so offensive to Haeckel, one +would have thought that he would, as an evolutionist, have had some +fellow-feeling in this with the writer of Genesis. The origin of sexes +is one of the acknowledged difficulties of the hypothesis, and, using +his method, we might surely "assume," or even "confidently assert," +the possibility that, in some early stage of the development, the +unfinished vertebral arches of the "skin-fibrous layer" might have +produced a new individual by a process of budding or gemmation. Quite +as remarkable suppositions are contained in some parts of his own +volumes, without any special divine power for rendering them +practicable. Further, if only an individual man originated in the +first instance, and if he were not provided with a suitable spouse, he +might have intermarried with the unimproved anthropoids, and the +results of the evolution would have been lost. Such considerations +should have weighed with Haeckel in inducing him to speak more +respectfully of Adam's rib, especially in view of the fact that in +dealing with the hard question of human origin the author of Genesis +had not the benefit of the researches of Baer and Haeckel. He had, no +doubt, the advantage of a firm faith in the reality of that Creative +Will which the monistic prophets of the nineteenth century have +banished from their calculations. Were Haeckel not a monist, he might +also be reminded of that grand doctrine of the lordship and +superiority of man based on the fact that there was no "help meet for +him;" and the foundation of the most sacred bond of human society on +the saying of the first man: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh +of my flesh." But monists probably attach little value to such ideas. + +It may be proper to add here that in his references to Adam, Haeckel +betrays a weakness not unusual with his school, in putting a false +gloss on the old record of Genesis. The statement that man was formed +from the dust of the ground implies no more than the production of his +body from the common materials employed in the construction of other +animals; this also in contradistinction from the higher nature derived +from the inbreathing or inspiration of God. The precise nature of the +method by which man was made or created is not stated by the author of +Genesis. Further, it would have been as easy for Divine Power to +create a pair as an individual. If this was not done, and if after the +lesson of superiority taught by the inspection of lower animals, and +the lesson of language taught by naming them, the first man in his +"deep sleep" is conscious of the removal of a portion of his own +flesh, and then on awaking has the woman "brought" to him, all this is +to teach a lesson not to be otherwise learned. The Mosaic record is +thus perfectly consistent with itself and with its own doctrine of +creation by Almighty Power. + +I have quoted the above passages as examples of the more jocose vein +of the Jena physiologist; but they constitute also a serious +revelation of the influence of his philosophy on his own mind and +heart, in lowering both to a cold, mechanical, and unsympathetic view +of man and nature. This is especially serious when we remember how +earnestly in a recent address he advocated the teaching of the methods +and results of this book, as those which, in the present state of +knowledge, should supersede the Bible in our schools. We may well say, +with his great opponent on that occasion, that if such doctrines +should be proved to be true, the teaching of them might become a +necessity, but one that would bring us face to face with the darkest +and most dangerous moral problem that has ever beset humanity; and +that so long as they remain unproved it is both unwise and criminal to +propagate them among the mass of men as conclusions which have been +demonstrated by science. + +In conclusion, we may notice shortly a few of the consequences of the +monistic evolution as held by Haeckel and others. Doctrines are +perhaps not to be judged by the consequences--at least, by the +immediate consequences--of their acceptance. Yet if their logical +consequences are such as to introduce confusion into our higher ideas +and sentiments, we have reason to hesitate as to their adoption--if on +no other ground, because we ourselves are a part of nature and should +be in harmony with any true explanation of it. + +We may affirm in this connection that agnostic evolution reduces all +our science to mere evanescent anthropomorphic fancies; so that, like +a parasite, it first supports itself on the strength and substance of +science, and then strangles it to death. Physical science is a product +of our thinking as to external things. If, therefore, the thinking +brain and the external nature which it studies are both of them the +fortuitous products of blind tendencies in a process of continuous +flux and vicissitude, our science can embody no elements of eternal +truth nor any conceptions as to the plans of a higher creative reason. +In that case it is absolutely worthless, and a pure waste of time and +energy, except in so far as it may yield any temporary material +advantages. + +Further, the agnostic evolution thus leaves us as orphans in the midst +of a cold and insensate nature. We are no longer dwellers in our +Father's house, beautiful and fitted for us, but are thrown into the +midst of a hideous conflict of dead forces, in which we must finally +perish and be annihilated. In a struggle so hopeless it is a mere +mockery to tell us that in millions of years something better may +come out of it, for we know that this will be of no avail to us, and +we feel that it is impossible. Thus the agnostic philosophy, if it be +once accepted as true, seriously raises the question whether life is +worth living. + +But if worth living, then it must be for the immediate and selfish +gratification of our desires and passions; and since we are deprived +of God and conscience, and right and wrong, and future reward or +punishment, and all men are alike in this position, there can be +nothing left for us but to rend and fight with our fellows for such +share of good as may fall to us in the deadly struggle, that we may +reach such happiness as may be possible for us in such an existence, +ere we drift into nonentity. Here, again, we are told that the +struggle will some time lead to the survival of the fittest, and that +the fittest may inaugurate a new and better reign of peace. But the +world has already lasted countless ages without arriving at this +result. It cannot concern me individually, any more than what happens +to-day concerns the extinct ichthyosaur or the megatherium. All that +is left for me is to "eat and drink, for to-morrow I die." + +If any one thinks that this is an exaggerated picture of the effects +of agnostic evolution as applied to man, I may refer him to the study +of Herbert Spencer's recent work _The Data of Ethics_, which has +contributed very much to open the eyes of thoughtful men to the depth +of spiritual, moral, and even social and political, ruin into which we +shall drift under the guidance of this philosophy. In this work the +data of ethics are reduced to the one consideration of what is +"pleasurable" to ourselves and others, and it is admitted that our +ideas of conscience, duty, and even of social obligation, are merely +fictions of temporary use until the time shall come when what is +pleasurable to ourselves shall coincide with what is pleasurable to +others; and this is to come, not out of the love of God and the +influence of his Spirit, but out of the blind struggle of opposing +interests. It has been well said that this system of morals--if it can +be dignified with such a name--is inferior, logically and practically, +not only to the "supernatural ethics" which it boastfully professes to +replace, but to the ethics of Aristotle and Cicero, and that "it will +not supersede revelation, nor is it likely to displace the old data of +ethics, whether Greek, Roman, or English." Independently of its +antagonism to theism and Christianity, it is foredoomed by the common +sense and the right feeling of even imperfect human nature. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Those who wish to understand the real bearings of palæontology on +evolution should study Barrande's _Memoirs on the Silurian Trilobites, +Cephalopods, and Brachiopods_. + +[3] Beckett, _Origin of the Laws of Nature_. + +[4] _Refutation of Darwinism_, Philadelphia, 1880. + +[5] It was scarcely necessary to refer to this childish objection +unless the individual skeleton of Adam had been in question. + +[6] Rather, "vertebral arches." + + + + +LECTURE III. + +EVOLUTION AS TESTED BY THE RECORDS OF THE ROCKS. + + +Having discussed those vague analogies and fanciful pedigrees by which +it has been attempted to drag the science of Biology into the service +of Agnostic Evolution, we may now turn to another science--that of the +earth--and inquire how far it justifies us in affirming the +spontaneous evolution of plants and animals in the progress of +geological time. This subject is one which would require a lengthy +treatise for its full development, and it cannot be pursued in the +most satisfactory way without much previous knowledge of geological +facts and principles, and of the classification of animals and plants. +On the present occasion it must therefore be treated in the most +general possible manner, and with reference merely to the results +which have been reached. There is the more excuse for this mode of +treatment that, in works already published and widely circulated,[7] +I have endeavored to present its details in a popular form to general +readers. + +Geological investigation has disclosed a great series of stratified +rocks composing the crust of the earth, and formed at successive +times, chiefly by the agency of water. These can be arranged in +chronological order; and, so arranged, they constitute the physical +monuments of the earth's history. We must here take for granted, on +the testimony of geology, that the accumulation of this series of +deposits has extended over a vast lapse of time, and that the +successive formations contain remains of animals and plants from which +we can learn much as to the succession of life on the earth. Without +entering into geological details, it may be sufficient to present in +tabular form (see p. 107) the grand series of formations, with the +general history of life as ascertained from them. + + TABULAR VIEW OF GEOLOGICAL PERIODS AND OF LIFE-EPOCHS. + + +---------------------------------------+---------------+--------------+ + | | ANIMAL | VEGETABLE | + | GEOLOGICAL PERIODS. | LIFE. | LIFE. | + +---------------------------------------+---------------+--------------+ + | | | | + | CAINOZOIC or NEOZOIC. | | | + | | Age of _Man_ | | + | { _Post- { Recent. | and _Modern | | + | { Tertiary_ { Post-Glacial. | Mammals_. | | + | { or _Modern_ | | Age of | + | { |Age of _Extinct|_Angiosperms_ | + | { { Pleistocene, or | Mammals_. | and _Palms_. | + | { _Tertiary_ { Pliocene. | (Earliest | | + | { { Miocene. | Placental | | + | { { Eocene. | Mammals.) | | + | | | | + +---------------------------------------+---------------+--------------+ + | | | | + | MESOZOIC. | | | + | { { Upper, | | (Earliest | + | { _Cretaceous_ { Lower, or Neocomian. | | Modern | + | { | Age of | Trees.) | + | { | _Reptiles_ | | + | { { Oolite. | and _Birds_. | | + | { _Jurassic_ { Lias. | | Age of | + | { | | _Cycads_ and | + | { { Upper, | (Earliest | _Pines_. | + | { _Triassic_ { Middle, or | Marsupial | | + | { { Muschelkalk. | Mammals.) | | + | { { Lower. | | | + | | | | + +---------------------------------------+---------------+--------------+ + | | | | + | PALÆOZOIC. | | | + | { { Upper, | | | + | { { Middle, or Magnesian | | | + | { _Permian_ { Limestone. |(Earliest True | | + | { { Lower. | Reptiles.) | | + | { | | | + | { { Upper Coal-Formation.| | | + | { _Carboni- { Coal-Formation. | | | + | { ferous_ { Carboniferous | | | + | { { Limestone. | | | + | { { Lower Coal-Formation.| Age of | Age of | + | { | _Amphibians_ |_Acrogens_ and| + | { _Erian_ { Upper. | and _Fishes_. |_Gymnosperms_.| + | { or { Middle. | | | + | { _Devonian_ { Lower. | | | + | { | | | + | { { Upper, | | | + | { _Silurian_ { Lower, or | Age of | | + | { { Siluro-Cambrian. | _Mollusks_, | (Earliest | + | { | _Corals_ and |Land Plants.) | + | { { Upper. |_Crustaceans_. |Age of _Algæ_.| + | { _Cambrian_ { Middle. | | | + | { { Lower. | | | + | | | | + +---------------------------------------+---------------+--------------+ + | | | | + | EOZOIC. | | | + | { _Huronian_ { Upper. | | | + | { { Lower. | Age of | Indications | + | { | _Protozoa_. | of Plants | + | { { Upper, or Norian. | (First Animal | not | + | { _Laurentian_ { Middle, | Remains.) | determinable.| + | { { Lower, or Bojian. | | | + | | | | + +---------------------------------------+---------------+--------------+ + +In the oldest rocks known to geologists--those of the Eozoic +time--some indications of the presence of life are found. Great beds +of limestone are contained in these formations, vast quantities of +carbon in the form of graphite, and thick beds of iron-ore. All these +are known, from their mode of occurrence in later deposits, to be +results, direct or indirect, of the agency of life; and if they +afforded no traces of organic forms, still their chemical character +would convey a presumption of their organic origin. But additional +evidence has been obtained in the presence of certain remarkable +laminated forms penetrated by microscopic tubes and canals, and which +are supposed to be the remains of the calcareous skeletons of +humbly-organized animals akin to the simplest of those now living in +the sea. Such animals--little more than masses of living animal +jelly--now abound in the waters, and protect themselves by secreting +calcareous skeletons, often complex and beautiful, and penetrated by +pores, through which the soft animal within can send forth minute +thread-like extensions of its body, which serve instead of limbs. The +Laurentian fossil known as _Eozoon Canadense_ (see Fig. 3) may have +been the skeleton of such a lowly-organized animal; and if so, it is +the oldest living thing that we know. But if really the skeleton or +covering of such an animal, _Eozoon_ is larger than any of its +successors, and quite as complex as any of them. There is nothing to +show that it could have originated from dead matter by any +spontaneous action, any more than its modern representatives could do +so. There is no evidence of its progress by evolution into any higher +form, and the group of animals to which it belongs has continued to +inhabit the ocean throughout geological time without any perceptible +advance in rank or complexity of structure. If, then, we admit the +animal nature of this earliest fossil, we can derive from it no +evidence of monistic evolution; and if we deny its animal nature, we +are confronted with a still graver difficulty in the next succeeding +formations. + + [Illustration: FIG. 3. + + 1. Small specimen of _Eozoon Canadense_, weathered out from + the containing rock, and showing its laminated structure. + + 2. Casts of irregular or acervaline chambers of upper part + (magnified). + + 3. Surface of a cast of a flat chamber, showing its + constituent chamberlets (magnified). + + 4. Section of casts of flat chambers (magnified). From the + Laurentian of Canada.] + +Between the rocks which contain _Eozoon_ and the next in which we find +any abundant remains of life, there is a gap in geological history, +either destitute of evidence of life or showing nothing materially in +advance of _Eozoon_. In the Cambrian Age, however, we obtain a vast +and varied accession of life. Here we find evidence that the sea +swarmed with living creatures near akin to those which still inhabit +it, and nearly as varied. Referring merely to leading groups, we have +here the soft shellfishes and the worms, the ordinary shellfishes, the +sea-stars, and the corals, with the sponges. In short, had we been +able to drop our dredge into the Cambrian or Lower Silurian ocean, we +should have brought up representatives of all the leading types of +invertebrate life that exist in the modern seas--different, it is +true, in details of structure from those now existing, but constructed +on the same principles and filling the same places in nature. + +If we inquire as to the history of this swarming marine life of the +early Palæozoic, we find that its several species, after enduring for +a longer or a shorter time, one by one became extinct and were +replaced by others belonging to the same groups. Thus there is in each +great group a succession of new forms, distinct as species, but not +perceptibly elevated in the scale of being. In many cases, indeed, the +reverse seems to be the case; for it is not unusual to find the +successive dynasties of life in any one family manifesting degradation +rather than elevation. New, and sometimes higher, forms, it is true, +appear in the progress of time, but it is impossible, except by +violent suppositions, to connect them genetically with any +predecessors. The succession throughout the Palæozoic presents the +appearance rather of the unchanged persistence of each group under a +succession of specific forms, and the introduction from time to time +of new groups, as if to replace others which were in process of decay +and disappearance. + +In the later half of the Palæozoic we find a number of higher forms +breaking upon us with the same apparent suddenness as in the case of +the early Cambrian animals. Fishes appear, and soon abound in a great +variety of species, representing types of no mean rank, but, +singularly enough, belonging, in many cases, to groups now very rare; +while the commoner tribes of modern fish do not appear. On the land, +batrachian reptiles now abound, some of them very high in the +sub-class to which they belong. Scorpions, spiders, insects, and +millipedes appear, as well as land-snails, and this not in one +locality only, but over the whole northern hemisphere. At the same +time, the land appears clothed with an exuberant vegetation--not of +the lowest types nor of the highest, but of intermediate forms, such +as those of the pines, the club-mosses, and the ferns, all of which +attained in those days to magnitudes and numbers of species +unsurpassed, and in some cases unequalled, in the modern world. Nor do +they show any signs of an unformed or imperfect state. Their seeds +and spores, their fruits and spore-cases, are as elaborately +constructed, the tissues and forms of their stems and leaves as +delicate and beautiful, as in any modern plants. So with the compound +eyes and filmy wings of insects, the teeth, bones, and scales of +batrachians and fishes; all are as perfectly finished, and many quite +as complex and elegant, as in the animals of the present day (Figure +4). + + [Illustration: FIG. 4. + + Restoration (by _G. F. Matthew_) of a Trilobite + (_Paradoxides_) from the Lower Cambrian, as an evidence of the + existence of crustacean animals of high type and great + complexity in this early age. If such animals were evolved + from Protozoa by slow and gradual changes, the time required + would be greater than that which intervened between the + Cambrian period and the present time.] + +This wonderful Palæozoic Age was, however, but a temporary state of +the earth. It passed away, and was replaced by the Mesozoic, +emphatically the reign of reptiles, when animals of that type attained +to colossal magnitude, to variety of function and structure, to +diversity of habitat in sea and on land, altogether unexampled in +their degraded descendants of modern times. Sea-lizards of gigantic +size swarmed everywhere in the waters. On land, huge quadrupeds, like +Atlantosaurus and Iguanodon and Megalosaurus, greatly exceeded the +elephants of later times; while winged reptiles--some of them of small +size, others with wings twenty feet in expanse--flitted in the air. +Strangely enough, with these reptilian lords appeared a few small and +lowly mammals, forerunners of the coming age. Birds also make their +appearance, and at the close of the period forests of broad-leaved +trees altogether different from those of the Palæozoic Age, and +resembling those of our modern woods, appear for the first time over +great portions of the northern hemisphere. + +The Cainozoic, or Tertiary, is the age of mammals and of man. In it +the great reptilian tyrants of the Mesozoic disappear, and are +replaced on land and sea by mammals or beasts of the same orders with +those now living, though differing as to genera and species (see Fig. +5). So greatly, indeed, did mammalian life abound in this period that +in the middle part of the Tertiary most of the leading groups were +represented by more numerous species than at present; while many +groups then existing have now no representatives. At the close of this +great and wonderful procession of living beings comes man himself--the +last and crowning triumph of creation; the head, thus far, of life on +the earth. + +I have merely glanced at the leading events of this wonderful history, +because its details may be found in so many manuals and popular works +on geology. But if we imagine this great chain of life extending over +periods of enormous duration in comparison with the short span of +human history, presenting to the naturalist hosts of strange forms +which he could scarcely have imagined in his dreams, we may understand +how exciting have been these discoveries crowded within the lives of +two generations of geologists. Further, when we consider that the +general course of this great development of life, beginning with +Protozoa and ending with man, is from below upward--from the more +simple to the more complex--and that there is of necessity, in this +grand growth of life through the ages, a likeness or parallelism to +the growth of the individual animal from its more simple to its more +complex state, we can understand how naturalists should fancy that +here they have been introduced to the workshop of Nature, and that +they can discover how one creature may have been developed from +another by spontaneous evolution. + + [Illustration: FIG. 5. + + Skeleton of the American Mastodon, illustrating the number and + wide distribution of elephantine animals of the three genera + _Dinotherium_, _Mastodon_, and _Elephas_ in the later Tertiary + Age. Gaudry, the most eminent modern authority on these + animals, remarks that the facts at present known do not + "permit us to indicate any relation of descent between the + elephantine animals and those of other orders known to us at + present."] + +Many naturalists like Darwin and Haeckel, as well as philosophers like +Herbert Spencer, are quite carried away by this analogy, and appear +unable to perceive that it is merely a general resemblance between +processes altogether different in their nature, and therefore in +their causes. The greater part, however, of the more experienced +palæontologists, or students of fossils, have long ago seen that in +the larger field of the earth's history there is very much that cannot +be found in the narrower field of the development of the individual +animal; and they have endeavored to reduce the succession of life to +such general expressions as shall render it more comprehensible and +may at length enable us to arrive at explanations of its complex +phenomena. Of these general expressions or conclusions I may state a +few here, as apposite to our present subject, and as showing how +little of real support the facts of the earth's history give to the +pseudo-gnosis of monistic evolution. + +1. The chain of life in geological time presents a wonderful testimony +to the reality of a beginning. Just as we know that any individual +animal must have had its birth, its infancy, its maturity, and will +reach an end of life, so we trace species and groups of species to +their beginning, watch their culmination, and perhaps follow them to +their extinction. It is true that there is a sense in which geology +shows "no sign of a beginning, no prospect of an end;" but this is +manifestly because it has reached only a little way back toward the +beginning of the earth as a whole, and can see in its present state no +indication of the time or manner of the end. But its revelation of the +fact that nearly all the animals and plants of the present day had a +very recent beginning in geological time, and its disclosure of the +disappearance of one form of life after another as we go back in time, +till we reach the comparatively few forms of life of the Lower +Cambrian, and finally have to rest over the solitary grandeur of +_Eozoon_, oblige it to say that nothing known to it is self-existent +and eternal. + +2. The geological record informs us that the general laws of nature +have continued unchanged from the earliest periods to which it relates +until the present day. This is the true "uniformitarianism" of geology +which holds to the dominion of existing causes from the first. But it +does not refuse to admit variations in the intensity of these causes +from time to time, and cycles of activity and repose, like those that +we see on a small scale in the seasons, the occurrence of storms, or +the paroxysms of volcanoes. When we find that the eyes of the old +trilobites have had lenses and tubes similar to those in the eyes of +modern crustaceans, we have evidence of the persistence of the laws of +light. When we see the structures of Palæozoic leaves identical with +those of our modern forests, we know that the arrangements of the +soil, the atmosphere, and the rain were the same at that ancient time +as at present. Yet, with all this, we also find evidence that +long-continued periods of physical quiescence were followed by great +crumplings and foldings of the earth's crust, and we know that this +also is consistent with the operation of law; for it often happens +that causes long and quietly operating prepare for changes which may +be regarded as sudden and cataclysmic. + +3. Throughout the geological history there is progress toward greater +complexity and higher grade, along with degradation and extinction. +Though experience shows that it may be quite possible that new +discoveries may enable us to trace some of the higher forms of life +farther back than we now find them, yet there can be no question that +in the progress of geological time lower types have given place to +higher, less specialized to more specialized. Curiously enough, no +evidence proves this more clearly than that which relates to the +degradation of old forms. When, for example, the reptiles of the +Mesozoic Age were the lords of creation, there was apparently no place +for the larger Mammalia which appear at the close of the reptile +dynasty. So in the Palæozoic, when trees of the cryptogamous type +predominated, there seems to have been no room in nature for the +forests of modern type which succeeded them. Thus the earth at every +period was fully peopled with living beings--at first with low and +generalized structures which attained their maxima at early stages and +then declined, and afterward with higher forms which took the places +of those that were passing away. These latter, again, though their +dominion was taken from them, were continued in lower positions under +the new dynasties. Thus none of the lower types of life introduced was +finally abandoned, but, after culminating in the highest forms of +which it was capable, each was still continued, though with fewer +species and a lower place. Examples of this abound in the history of +all the leading groups of animals and plants. + +4. There is thus a continued plan and order in the history of life +which cannot be fortuitous. The chance interaction of organisms and +their environment, even if we assume the organisms and environment as +given to us, could never produce an orderly continuous progress of the +utmost complexity in its detail, and extending through an enormous +lapse of time. It has been well said that if a pair of dice were to +turn up aces a hundred times in succession, any reasonable spectator +would conclude that they were loaded dice; so if countless millions of +atoms and thousands of species, each including within itself most +complex arrangement of parts, turn up in geological time in perfectly +regular order and a continued gradation of progress, something more +than chance must be implied. It is to be observed here that every +species of animal or plant, of however low grade, consists of many +co-ordinated parts in a condition of the nicest equilibrium. Any +change occurring which produces unequal or disproportionate +development, as the experience of breeders of abnormal varieties of +animals and plants abundantly proves, imperils the continued existence +of the species. Changes must, therefore, in order to be profitable, +affect the parts of the organism simultaneously and symmetrically. The +chances of this may well be compared to the casting of aces a +hundred times in succession, and are so infinitely small as to be +incredible under any other supposition than that of intelligent +design. + + [Illustration: FIG. 6. + + Group of Plants (restored) from the Devonian period, + illustrating the complexity and beauty of the earliest known + land vegetation, though many of the leading forms of modern + plants are unknown in this very ancient period.] + +5. The progress of life in geological time. Just as the growth of +trees is promoted or arrested by the vicissitudes of summer and +winter, so in the course of the geological history there have been +periods of pause and acceleration in the work of advancement. This is +in accordance with the general analogy of the operations of nature, +and is in no way at variance with the doctrine of uniformity already +referred to. Nor has it anything in common with the unfounded idea, at +one time entertained, of successive periods of entire destruction and +restoration of life. Prolific periods of this kind appear in the +marine invertebrates of the early Cambrian, the plants (Figure 6) and +fishes of the Devonian, the batrachians of the Carboniferous, the +reptiles of the Trias, the broad-leaved trees of the Cretaceous, and +the mammals of the early Tertiary. A remarkable contrast is afforded +by the later Tertiary and modern time, in which, with the exception of +man himself, and perhaps a very few other species, no new forms of +life have been introduced, while many old forms have perished. This +is somewhat unfortunate, since, in such a period of stagnation as that +in which we live, we can scarcely hope to witness either the creation +or the evolution of a new species. Evolutionists themselves--those, at +least, who are willing to allow their theory to be at all modified by +facts--now perceive this; and hence we have the doctrine, advanced by +Mivart, Le Conte, and others, of "critical periods," or periods of +rapid evolution alternating with others of greater quiescence. It is +further to be observed here that in a limited way and with reference +to certain forms of life we can see a reason for these intermittent +creations. The greater part of the marine fossils known to us are from +rocks now raised up in our continents, and they lived at periods when +the continents were submerged. Now, in geological time these periods +of submergence alternated with others of elevation; and it is manifest +that each period of continental submergence gave scope for the +introduction of numbers of new marine species, while each continental +elevation, on the other hand, gave opportunity for the increase of +land-life. Further, periods when a warm climate prevailed in the +arctic regions--periods when plants such as now live in temperate +regions could enjoy six months of continuous sunshine--were eminently +favorable to the development of such plants, and were utilized for the +introduction of new floras, which subsequently spread to the +southward. Thus we see physical changes occurring in an orderly +succession and made subservient to the progress of life. + +6. There is no direct evidence that in the course of geological time +one species has been gradually or suddenly changed into another. Of +the latter we could scarcely expect to find any evidence in fossils; +but of the former, if it had occurred, we might expect to find +indications in the history of some of the numerous species which have +been traced through successive geological formations. Species which +thus continue for a great length of time usually present numerous +varietal forms which have sometimes been described as new species; but +when carefully scrutinized they are found to be merely local and +temporary, and to pass into each other. On the other hand, we +constantly find species replaced by others entirely new, and this +without any transition. The two classes of facts are essentially +different; and though it is possible to point out in the newer +geological formations some genera and species allied to others which +have preceded them, and to suppose that the later forms proceeded from +the earlier, still, when the connecting-links cannot be found, this is +mere supposition, not scientific certainty. Further, it proceeds on +the principle of arbitrary choice of certain forms out of many without +any evidence of genetic connection. The worthlessness of such +derivation is well shown in a case which has often been paraded as an +illustration of evolution--the supposed genealogy of the horse. In +America a series of horse-like animals has been selected, beginning +with the _Orohippus_ of the Eocene, and these have been marshalled as +the ancestors of the fossil horses of America; for there are no native +horses in America in the modern period. Yet this is purely arbitrary, +and dependent merely on a succession of genera more and more closely +resembling the modern horse being procurable from successive Tertiary +deposits, often widely separated in time and place. In Europe, on the +other hand, the ancestry of the horse has been traced back to +_Palæotherium_--an entirely different form--by just as likely +indications. Both genealogies can scarcely be true, and there is no +actual proof of either. The existing American horses, which are of +European parentage, are, according to the theory, descendants of +_Palæotherium_, not of _Orohippus_; but if we had not known this on +historical evidence, there would have been nothing to prevent us from +tracing them to the latter animal. This simple consideration alone is +sufficient to show that such genealogies are not of the nature of +scientific evidence. + +It is further to be observed that some of the ablest palæontologists, +and those who have enjoyed the largest opportunities of observation +and comparison, attach no value whatever to theories of evolution as +accounting for the origin of species. One of these is Joachim +Barrande, the palæontologist of Bohemia, and the first authority in +Europe on the fossils of the older formations. Barrande, like some +other eminent palæontologists, has the misfortune to be an unbeliever +in the modern gospel of evolution, but he has certainly labored to +overcome his doubts with greater assiduity than even many of the +apostles of the new doctrine; and if he is not convinced, the +stubbornness of the facts he has had to deal with must bear the +blame. In connection with his great and classical work on the Silurian +fossils of Bohemia, it has been necessary for him to study the similar +remains of every other country; and he has used this immense mass of +material in preparing statistics of the population of the Palæozoic +world more perfect than any other naturalist has been able to produce. +In successive memoirs he has applied these statistical results to the +elucidation of the history of the oldest group of crustaceans--the +trilobites--and the highest group of the mollusks--the cephalopods. In +his latest memoir of this kind he takes up the brachiopods, or +lamp-shells, a group of bivalve shellfishes very ancient and very +abundantly represented in all the older formations of every part of +the world, and which thus affords the most ample material for tracing +its evolution, with the least possible difficulty in the nature of +"imperfection of the record." + +Barrande, in the publication before us, discusses the brachiopods with +reference, first, to the variations observed within the limits of the +species, eliminating in this way mere synonyms and varieties mistaken +for species. He also arrives at various important conclusions with +reference to the origin of species and varietal forms, which apply to +the cephalopods and trilobites as well as to the brachiopods, and some +of which, as the writer has elsewhere shown, apply very generally to +fossil animals and plants. One of these is that different +contemporaneous species, living under the same conditions, exhibit +very different degrees of vitality and variability. Another is the +sudden appearance at certain horizons of a great number of species, +each manifesting its complete specific characters. With very rare +exceptions, also, varietal forms are contemporaneous with the normal +form of their specific type, and occur in the same localities. Only in +a very few cases do they survive it. This and the previous results, as +well as the fact that parallel changes go on in groups having no +direct reaction on each other, prove that variation is not a +progressive influence, and that specific distinctions are not +dependent on it, but on the "sovereign action of one and the same +creative cause," as Barrande expresses it. These conclusions, it may +be observed, are not arrived at by that "slap-dash" method of mere +assertion so often followed on the other side of these questions, but +by the most severe and painstaking induction, and with careful +elaboration of a few apparent exceptions and doubtful cases. + +His second heading relates to the distribution in time of the genera +and species of brachiopods. This he illustrates with a series of +elaborate tables, accompanied by explanation. He then proceeds to +consider the animal population of each formation, in so far as +brachiopods, cephalopods, and trilobites are concerned, with reference +to the following questions: (1) How many species are continued from +the previous formation unchanged? (2) How many may be regarded as +modifications of previous species? (3) How many are migrants from +other regions where they have been known to exist previously? (4) How +many are absolutely new species? These questions are applied to each +of fourteen successive formations included in the Silurian of Bohemia. +The total number of species of brachiopods in these formations is six +hundred and forty, giving an average of 45.71 to each, and the results +of accurate study of each species in its characters, its varieties, +its geographical and geological range, are expressed in the following +short statement, which should somewhat astonish those gentlemen who +are so fond of asserting that derivation is "demonstrated" by +geological facts: + + 1. Species continued unchanged 28 per cent. + 2. Species migrated from abroad 7 " + 3. Species continued with modification 0 " + 4. New species without known ancestors 65 " + ------------- + 100 per cent. + +He shows that the same or very similar proportions hold with respect +to the cephalopods and trilobites, and, in fact, that the proportion +of species in the successive Silurian faunæ which can be attributed to +descent with modification is absolutely _nil_. He may well remark that +in the face of such facts the origin of species is not explained by +what he terms _les élans poétiques de l'imagination_. + +The third part of Barrande's memoir, relating to the comparison of the +Silurian brachiopods of Bohemia with those of other countries, though +of great scientific interest, and important in extending the +conclusions of his previous chapters, does not so nearly concern our +present subject. + +I have thought it well to direct attention to these memoirs of +Barrande, because they form a specimen of conscientious work with the +view of ascertaining if there is any basis in nature for the doctrine +of spontaneous evolution of species, and, I am sorry to say, a +striking contrast to the mixture of fact and fancy on this subject +which too often passes current for science in England, America, and +Germany. Barrande's studies are also well deserving the attention of +our younger men of science, as they have before them, more especially +in the widely-spread Palæozoic formations of America, an admirable +field for similar work. In an appendix to his first chapter Barrande +mentions that the three men who in their respective countries are the +highest authorities on Palæozoic brachiopods, Hall, Davidson, and De +Koninck, agree with him in the main in his conclusions, and he refers +to an able memoir by D'Archiac in the same sense, on the cretaceous +brachiopods. + +It should be especially satisfactory to those naturalists who, like +the writer, had failed to see in the palæontological record any good +evidence for the production of species by those simple and ready +methods in vogue with most evolutionists, to note the extension of +actual facts with respect to the geological dates and precise +conditions of the introduction of new forms, and to find that these +are more and more tending to prove the existence of highly complex +creative laws in connection with the great plan of the Creator as +carried out in geological time. These new facts should also warn the +ordinary reader of the danger of receiving without due caution those +general and often boastful assertions respecting these great and +intricate questions made by persons not acquainted with their actual +difficulty, or by enthusiastic speculators disposed to overlook +everything not in accordance with their preconceived ideas. + +It may be asked, Is there, then, no place in the geological record +even for theistic evolution? This it would be rash to affirm. We can +only say that up to this time there is no proof of it. If nature has +followed this method, she seems carefully to have concealed the +process. If such changes have occurred as to evolve from a species, +say of mollusk or coral, belonging to one geological period some form +found in another period, and recognized as a distinct species, we have +to suppose that the capacity for such change was in some way implanted +in the species on its creation, and ready to be developed under +favorable conditions or in the lapse of time. For example, we may +suppose that a plant originating in the long arctic summers of a warm +period might, on migrating southward into the alternations of day and +night, undergo material changes. A marine animal long confined to a +limited sea-basin might, on being permitted to expand over a wide +submerged continent, be greatly modified in its structure and habits. +Up to a certain point we know that such changes have occurred, and +Barrande himself has largely illustrated them. As an example which I +have myself studied, I may refer to the common shells known on our +coasts as sand-clams (_Mya truncata and Mya arenaria_). The former +species, in the cold waters of the Glacial Age, assumed a short form +which it still retains in the arctic regions, and occasionally in the +colder waters of the more temperate regions, though there a more +elongated form prevails. Evidently the two forms are interchangeable +according to the temperature of the water. Still, if we could imagine +a permanent refrigeration over all the area occupied by the animal, +the short form only might survive, and might be supposed to be a +distinct species. This did not occur, however, even in the Glacial +Age, and is not likely to occur. Further, the allied, though quite +distinct, species _Mya arenaria_ has lived with the other through all +the long duration of the Post-Pliocene and modern periods, and, though +having its own range of varietal forms, has preserved its +distinctness. Cases of this kind are obviously of the nature of +varietal, not specific, change. + +In conclusion, the whole of the facts and laws above detailed point to +a predetermined plan and to an intelligent Creator, of whose laws and +modes of procedure we may learn much by patient and careful study. +This surely gives a great additional interest to that marvellous story +of the earth which in these last days has been revealed to us by the +study of the rocks. We may also infer that not one method only but +many have been employed in replenishing the earth at first with living +beings, and in adding to these from time to time. To what extent we +may be able to understand these, time and future discoveries will +show. In the mean time, we can only suggest such general theories as +those referred to in the first of these lectures, but can affirm that +Agnostic Evolution is altogether abortive in its attempts to solve the +problem of the chain of life in geological time. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] _Story of the Earth_, _Origin of the World_, _Chain of Life in +Geological Time_. + + + + +LECTURE IV. + +THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. + + +Man, when regarded merely as an organism, is closely related to the +lower animals. His body is constructed on the same general plan with +theirs. More especially, he is near akin to the other members of the +class Mammalia. But we must not forget that even as an animal man is +somewhat widely separated from his humbler relations (see Fig. 7). It +is easy to say that every bone, every muscle, every convolution of his +brain, has its counterpart in the corresponding parts of an orang or a +gorilla. But, admitting this, it is also true that every one of these +parts is different, and that the aggregate of all the differences +mounts up to an enormous sum-total, more especially in relation to +habits and to capacities for action. Those remarkable homologies or +likenesses of plan which obtain in the animal kingdom are very +wonderful, and the study of them greatly enlarges our conceptions of +the unity of nature; but we must never forget that such general +agreements in plan cover the most profound differences in detail and +in adaptation to use, and that, while they indicate a common type, +this may rather point to a unity of design than to a mere accidental +unity of descent. + + [Illustration: FIG. 7. + + Man and his "poor relation," the gorilla. (_After Huxley._) + The head of the gorilla, with immense jaws and small + brain-case, its huge spines on the neck, its long arms, its + elongated pelvis, and its hand-like feet, with its incapacity + to assume the erect position, indicate its ordinal difference + from man, and the necessity of many intermediate forms, still + unknown, to connect the two species.] + +There is a method, well known to natural science, for measuring and +indicating the divergence of man from his nearest allies. This is the +application of those principles of classification which, though of +essential importance in science, are by some modern students of nature +strangely overlooked or misunderstood. Perhaps in nothing has the +progress of ideas of evolution made a more injurious impress on the +advance of knowledge than in the manner in which it has caused many +eminent and able naturalists to diverge from all logical propriety in +their ideas of classification. Still, in so far as man is concerned, +there are some facts of this kind which are indisputable. He certainly +constitutes a distinct species, including many races, which all, +however, have common specific characters. On the other hand, no one +pretends that he is _conspecific_ with any lower animal. All +naturalists would now deride the stories, at one time current, that +gorillas and chimpanzees are degraded races of men. On the other +hand, even Haeckel admits that there is a wide gap, unfilled by any +recent or any fossil creature, between man and the highest apes. +Again, no _generic_ relationship can be claimed as between man and the +lower animals. He presents such structural differences as entitle him +to rank by himself in the genus _Homo_. Still further, the ablest +naturalists, before the rise of Darwinism, held that man was entitled +to be placed in a separate family or order from the apes. Modern +evolutionists prefer to fall back on the old arrangement of Linnæus, +and to place man and apes together in the group of Primates, which, +however, Linnæus would not have regarded as precisely of the same +value with an order as now held. In this those of them who have +sufficient ability to comprehend the facts of the case are undoubtedly +warped in judgment by the tendency of their philosophy to magnify +resemblances and to minimize differences; while the herd of feebler +men have their ideas of classification thoroughly confused by the +doctrine which they have received as a creed dictated by authority, +and to which they adhere under the influence of fear. In point of +fact, the differences between man and any other animal are so wide +that they warrant a distinction, not merely specific and generic, but +of a family and an ordinal character. + +Perhaps the best way to appreciate this will be to suppose that man +has become extinct, and that in some future geological period his +fossil remains are studied by some new race of intelligent beings, and +compared with those of the lower animals his contemporaries. Let us +suppose that they have disinterred a human skull or the bones of a +human foot. From the foot they would learn that man is not an arboreal +animal, but intended to walk erect on the ground. They could infer +from this certain structures and uses of the vertebral column and of +the anterior limbs different from those found in apes, and which would +certainly induce them to conclude that they had obtained remains +indicating a new order of mammals. If they had found the foot alone, +they might doubt whether the possessor of this strange and +highly-specialized organ had been carnivorous or herbivorous, more +nearly allied to the bears or to the monkeys. Should they now find the +skull, these doubts would be solved, and they would know that the new +animal was somewhat nearer to the apes than to the bears, but still +at a very remote distance from them, and this indicated by +peculiarities of brain-case, jaws, and teeth, proving divergences in +function still wider than those apparent in the structures. They would +also plainly perceive that to link man with his nearest mammalian +allies would require the discovery of several missing links. + +When we consider the psychological endowments of man, his divergence +from lower animals becomes immensely greater. In his external senses +and in the perceptions derived through them it is true he resembles +the brutes. There is also much in common with them in his appetites +and emotions, and in some of the lower manifestations of intelligence. +But he adds to this a higher reason, which causes his actions to be +differently determined from theirs; and this higher reason, or +spiritual nature, leads him to abstract ideas, to consciousness, to +notions of right and of wrong, to ideas of higher spiritual beings and +of futurity altogether unknown to lower animals. This divine reason, +in connection with special vocal contrivances, also bestows on him the +gift of speech. Nor can speech be reduced to a mere imitation of +natural sounds; for, granting that these sounds may be the raw +material of speech, yet man is enabled to apply this to the expression +of ideas in a manner altogether peculiar to himself. Scientific +precision obliges us to recognize these differences, and to admit that +they place man on an entirely different plane from the lower animals. + +Perhaps the expression "a different plane" is scarcely correct, for +man can exist on many different planes--a fact which has produced some +confusion in the minds of naturalists not versed in psychological +questions, though, when rightly considered, it marks very strongly the +distinction between the man and the mere animal. + +The lower animals are tied up by invariable instincts to certain lines +of action which keep all the individuals of any species on nearly the +same level, except where some little disturbance may be caused by man +in his processes of domestication. But with man it is quite different. +He is emancipated from the bond of instinct, and left free to follow +the guidance of his own will, determined by his own reason. It follows +that the habits and the actions of a man depend on what he knows and +believes, and on the deductions of his reason from these premises. +Without knowledge, culture, and training, man is more helpless than +any brute. With the noblest and highest capacities, he may devise and +follow habits of life more base than those of any mere animal. Thus +there is an almost immeasurable difference between the Godlike height +to which man can attain by the right use of his powers and the depth +to which ignorance and depravity may degrade him. It follows that the +degradation of the lower races of men is as strong a proof of the +difference between man and the lower animals as is the elevation of +the higher races. Both are characteristic of a being emancipated from +the control of instinct, knowing good and evil, free to choose, and +differing in these respects from every other creature on earth. Such +is man as we find him; and we may well ask by what process animal +instinct could ever spontaneously develop human freedom and human +reason. + +But we might have evidence of such a process, however strange and +improbable it might at first sight appear. We might be able to trace +man back in history or by prehistoric remains to greater and greater +approximation to the lower animals, and might thus bridge over the +great chasm now existing between man and beast. It may be instructive, +therefore, to glance at what geology discloses as to the origin of man +and his first appearance on the earth. + +In the older geological formations no remains of man or of his works +have been found. Nor do we expect to find them, for none of the +animals more nearly related to man then existed, and the condition of +the earth was probably not suited to them. Nor do we find human +remains even in the earlier Tertiary. Here also we do not expect them, +for the Mammalia of those times were all specifically distinct from +those of the modern world. It is only in the Pliocene period that we +begin to find modern species of mammals. Here, therefore, we may look +for human remains; but we do not find them as yet, and it is only at +the close of the Pliocene, or even after the succeeding Glacial +period, that we find undoubted traces of man. Let us glance at the +significance of this. + +Mammalian life probably culminated or attained to its maximum in the +Miocene and the early Pliocene periods. Then there were more numerous, +larger, and better-developed quadrupeds on our continents than we now +find. For example, the elephants, the noblest of the mammals, are at +present represented by two species confined to India and parts of +Africa.[8] In the Middle Tertiary there were, in addition to the +ordinary elephants, two other genera, Mastodon and Dinotherium, and +there were many species which were distributed over the whole northern +hemisphere. The sub-Himalayan deposits of India alone have, I believe, +afforded seven species, some of them of grander dimensions than either +of those now existing. We have no trustworthy evidence as yet that man +lived at this period. If he had, he either would have required the +protection of a special Eden, or would have needed superhuman strength +and sagacity. + +But the grand mammalian life of the Middle Tertiary was destined to +die out. At the close of the Pliocene came an age of refrigeration, +when arctic cold crept down over our continents far to the south, and +when most of the animals suited to temperate climates were either +frozen out or driven southward. During, or closing, this period was +also a great submergence of the continents, which must have been +equally destructive to mammalian life, and which extended over both +Eurasia and America till the summits of some of the highest hills were +under water. Attempts have been made to show that man existed before +or during the Glacial Age, but this is very unlikely, and, as I have +elsewhere argued, the evidence adduced to prove so great antiquity of +man, whether in America or Europe, has altogether broken down.[9] + +At the close of the Glacial period the continents re-emerged and +became more extensive than at present. Survivors of the Pliocene +species, as well as other species not previously known, spread +themselves over this new land. It would appear that it was in this +"Post-Glacial" period that man made his appearance, and that he was +then contemporary with many large animals now extinct, and was the +possessor of wider continental areas than his descendants now enjoy. +To this age belong those human bones and implements found in the older +cave and gravel deposits of Europe, and which are referred to those +palæolithic or palæocosmic ages which preceded the dawn of history in +Europe and the arrival therein of the present European races. The +occupation of Europe, and probably of Western Asia, by these oldest +tribes of men was closed by a subsidence or submergence at the end of +that "second continental period," as it has been called by Lyell,[10] +in which they lived. When the land was restored to its present +condition, they were replaced by the ancestors of the present European +races. + +It may be well here to tabulate that later portion of the earth's +geological history in which man appeared, more especially as it is +sometimes arranged in a manner not suited to convey a correct +impression of the actual succession. It will be seen by the general +table given in the last lecture that the latest of the Tertiary ages +is that known as the Pleistocene or Post-Pliocene, and this, with the +succeeding modern period, may be best arranged as follows: + + I. PLEISTOCENE, including-- + + (_a_) _Early Pleistocene_, or First Continental Period. Land + very extensive, moderate climate. + + (_b_) _Later Pleistocene_, or Glacial (including Dawkins' + "Mid-Pleistocene"). In this there was a great prevalence of + cold and glacial conditions, and a great submergence of the + northern land. + + II. MODERN, or Period of Man and Modern Mammals, including-- + + (_a_) _Post-Glacial_, or Second Continental Period, in which + the land was again very extensive, and palæocosmic man was + contemporary with some great mammals--as the mammoth, now + extinct--and the area of land in the northern hemisphere was + greater than at present. (This represents the Late + Pleistocene of Dawkins.) It was terminated by a great and + very general subsidence, accompanied by the disappearance of + palæocosmic man and some large Mammalia, and which may be + identical with the historical deluge.[11] + + (_b_) _Recent_, when the continents attained their present + levels, existing races of men colonized Europe, and living + species of mammals. This includes both the Prehistoric and + the Historic Period. + +The palæocosmic men of the above table are the oldest certainly known +to us, and it has been truly said of them that they are so closely +related to modern races that, on any hypothesis of gradual evolution, +we must look for the transition from apes to men not merely in the +Eocene Tertiary, but even in the Mesozoic--that is, in formations +vastly older than any containing any remains so far as known either of +man or of apes. That these most ancient men were in truth most truly +human, and that they presented no transition to lower animals, will +appear from the following notices, which I condense from a work of my +own in which these subjects are more fully treated: + +The beautiful work of Lartet and Christy has vividly portrayed to us +the antiquities of the limestone plateau of the Dordogne--the ancient +Aquitania--remains which recall to us a population of Horites, or +cave-dwellers, of a time anterior to the dawn of history in France, +living much like the modern hunter-tribes of America, and, as already +stated, possibly contemporary--in their early history, at least--with +the mammoth and its extinct companions of the later Post-Pliocene +forests. We have already noticed the arts and implements of these +people, but what manner of people were they in themselves? The answer +is given to us by the skeletons found in the cave of Cro-magnon. This +cavern is a shelter or hollow under an overhanging ledge of limestone, +and excavated originally by the action of the weather on a softer bed. +It fronts the south-west and the little river Vezère; and, having +originally been about eight feet high and nearly twenty deep, must +have formed a cosey shelter from rain or cold or summer sun, and with +a pleasant outlook from its front. All rude races have much sagacity +in making selections of this sort. Being nearly fifty feet wide, it +was capacious enough to accommodate several families, and when in use +it no doubt had trees or shrubs in front, and may have been further +completed by stones, poles, or bark placed across the opening. It +seems, however, in the first instance to have been used only at +intervals, and to have been left vacant for considerable portions of +time. Perhaps it was visited only by hunting-or war-parties. But +subsequently it was permanently occupied, and this for so long a time +that in some places ashes and carbonaceous matter a foot and a half +deep, with bones, implements, etc., were accumulated. By this time the +height of the cavern had been much diminished, and, instead of +clearing it out for future use, it was made a place of burial, in +which four or five individuals were interred. Of these, two were men, +one of great age, the other probably in the prime of life. A third was +a woman of about thirty or forty years of age. The other remains were +too fragmentary to give very certain results. + +These bones, with others to be mentioned in connection with them, +unquestionably belong to the oldest human inhabitants known in Western +Europe. They have been most carefully examined by several competent +anatomists and archæologists, and the results have been published +with excellent figures in the _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ_. They are, +therefore, of the utmost interest for our present purpose, and I shall +try so to divest the descriptions of anatomical details as to give a +clear notion of their character. The 'Old Man of Cro-magnon' was of +great stature, being nearly six feet high. More than this, his bones +show that he was of the strongest and most athletic muscular +development--a Samson in strength; and the bones of the limbs have the +peculiar form which is characteristic of athletic men habituated to +rough walking, climbing, and running, for this is, I believe, the real +meaning of the enormous strength of the thigh-bone and the flattened +condition of the leg in this and other old skeletons. It occurs to +some extent, though much less than in this old man, in American +skeletons. His skull presents all the characters of advanced age, +though the teeth had been worn down to the sockets without being lost; +which, again, is the character of some, though not of all, aged Indian +skulls. The skull proper, or brain-case, is very long--more so than in +ordinary modern skulls--and this length is accompanied with a great +breadth; so that the brain was of greater size than in average modern +men, and the frontal region was largely and well developed. In this +respect this most ancient skull fails utterly to vindicate the +expectations of those who would regard prehistoric men as approaching +to the apes. It is at the opposite extreme. The face, however, +presented very peculiar characters. It was extremely broad, with +projecting cheek-bones and heavy jaw, in this resembling the coarse +types of the American face, and the eye-orbits were square and +elongated laterally. The nose was large and prominent, and the jaws +projected somewhat forward. This man, therefore, had, as to his +features, some resemblance to the harsher type of American +physiognomy, with overhanging brows, small and transverse eyes, high +cheek-bones, and coarse mouth. He had not lived to so great an age +without some rubs, for his thigh-bone showed a depression which must +have resulted from a severe wound--perhaps from the horn of some wild +animal or the spear of an enemy. + +The woman presented similar characters of stature and cranial form +modified by her sex, and must in form and visage have been a veritable +squaw, who, if her hair and complexion were suitable, would have +passed at once for an American Indian woman, of unusual size and +development. Her head bears sad testimony to the violence of her age +and people. She died from the effects of a blow from a stone-headed +pogamogan or spear, which has penetrated the right side of the +forehead with so clean a fracture as to indicate the extreme rapidity +and force of its blow. It is inferred from the condition of the edges +of this wound that she may have survived its infliction for two weeks +or more. If, as is most likely, the wound was received in some sudden +attack by a hostile tribe, they must have been driven off or have +retired, leaving the wounded woman in the hands of her friends to be +tended for a time, and then buried, either with other members of her +family or with others who had perished in the same skirmish. Unless +the wound was inflicted in sleep, during a night-attack, she must have +fallen, not in flight, but with her face to the foe, perhaps aiding +the resistance of her friends or shielding her little ones from +destruction. With the people of Cro-magnon, as with the American +Indians, the care of the wounded was probably a sacred duty, not to be +neglected without incurring the greatest disgrace and the vengeance of +the guardian spirits of the sufferers. + +The skulls of these people have been compared to those of the modern +Esthonians or Lithuanians; but on the authority of M. Quatrefages it +is stated that, while this applies to the probably later race of small +men found in some of the Belgian caves, it does not apply so well to +the people of Cro-magnon. Are, then, these people the types of any +ancient, or of the most ancient, European race? One answer is given by +the remarkable skeleton of Mentone, in the South of France, found +under circumstances equally suggestive of great antiquity (Figure 8). +Dr. Rivière, in a memoir on this skeleton illustrated by two beautiful +photographs, shows that the characters of the skull and of the bones +of the limbs are precisely similar to those of the Cro-magnon +skeleton, indicating a perfect identity of race, while the objects +found with the skeleton are similar in character. + +The ornaments of Cro-magnon were perforated shells from the Atlantic +and pieces of ivory. Those at Mentone were perforated Neritinæ from +the Mediterranean and canine-teeth of the deer. In both cases there +was evidence that these ancient people painted themselves with red +oxide of iron; and, as if to complete the similarity, the Mentone man +had an old healed-up fracture of the radius of the left arm, the +effect of a violent blow or of a fall. Skulls found at Clichy and +Grenelle in 1868 and 1869 are described by Professor Broca and Mr. +Fleurens as of the same general type, and the remains found at +Gibraltar and in the cave of Paviland, in England, seem also to have +belonged to the same race. The celebrated Engis skull, believed to +have belonged to a contemporary of the mammoth, is also precisely of +the same type, though less massive than that of Cro-magnon; and, +lastly, even the somewhat degraded Neanderthal skull, found in a cave +near Dusseldorf, though, like that of Clichy, inferior in frontal +development, is referable to the same peculiar long-headed style of +man, in so far as can be judged from the portion that remains. + + [Illustration: FIG. 8. + + Portion of the skeleton of the fossil man of Mentone. This + skeleton was discovered by Dr. Rivière under about twenty feet + of accumulated débris. It belongs to the palæocosmic age, and + illustrates the high type, physically, of the man of that + period. The skeleton, like others of that age, indicates a man + of great stature and muscular vigor, and with brain above the + average size. (_After Rivière._)] + +Let it be observed, then, that these skulls are probably the oldest +known in the world, and they are all referable to one race of men; and +let us ask what they tell as to the position and character of +palæolithic man. The testimony is here fortunately wellnigh unanimous. +Huxley, who well compares some of the peculiar features of these +ancient skulls and skeletons to those of Australians and other rude +tribes, and of the ancient Danes of Borroby--a people not improbably +allied to the Esthonians and Fins--remarks that the manner in which +the individual heads of the most homogeneous rude races differ from +each other "in the same characters, though perhaps not to the same +extent with the Engis and Neanderthal skulls, seems to prohibit any +cautious reasoner from affirming the latter to have necessarily been +of distinct races." My own experience in American skulls, and the +still larger experience of Dr. Wilson, fully confirm the wisdom of +this caution.... He adds: "Finally, the comparatively large cranial +capacity of the Neanderthal skull, overlaid though it may be by +pithecoid, bony walls, and the completely human proportions of the +accompanying limb-bones, together with the very fair development of +the Engis skull, clearly indicate that the first traces of the +primordial stock whence man has been derived need no longer be sought +by those who entertain any form of the doctrine of progressive +development in the newest Tertiaries, but that they may be looked for +in an epoch more distant from that of the _Elephas primigenius_ than +that is from us." If he had possessed the Cro-magnon and Mentone +skulls at the time when this was written, he might well have said +immeasurably distant from the time of the _Elephas primigenius_. +Professor Broca, who seems by no means disinclined to favor a simian +origin for men, has the following general conclusions, which refer to +the Cro-magnon skulls: "The great volume of the brain, the development +of the frontal region, the fine elliptical profile of the anterior +portion of the skull, and the orthognathous form of the upper facial +region, are incontestably evidence of superiority which are met with +usually only in the civilized races. On the other hand, the great +breadth of face, the alveolar prognathism, the enormous development of +the ascending ramus of the lower jaw, the extent and roughness of the +muscular insertions, especially of the masticatory muscles, give rise +to the idea of a violent and brutal race." + + [Illustration: FIG. 9. + + Three bone harpoons. The upper is from Kent's Cavern, Torquay, + and perhaps the oldest known, being of the mammoth age. The + second is from Denmark, and is neocosmic, though prehistoric. + The third is modern, from Tierra del Fuego. They show the + similarity of bone implements in all ages of the world. The + earliest had already attained as much perfection as the + material permitted with reference to the use intended.] + +He adds that this apparent antithesis, seen also in the limbs as well +as in the skull, accords with the evidence furnished by the associated +weapons and implements of a rude hunter-life, and at the same time of +no mean degree of taste and skill in carving and other arts (see Fig. +9). He might have added that this is precisely the antithesis seen in +the American tribes, among whom art and taste of various kinds, and +much that is high and spiritual even in thought, coexisted with +barbarous modes of life and intense ferocity and cruelty. The god and +the devil were combined in these races, but there was nothing of the +mere brute. + +Rivière remarks, with expressions of surprise, the same contradictory +points in the Mentone skeleton. Its grand development of brain-case +and high facial angle--even higher, apparently, than in most of these +ancient skulls--combined with other characters which indicate a low +type and barbarous modes of life. + +Another point which strikes us in reading the descriptions, and which +deserves the attention of those who have access to the skeletons, is +the indication which they seem to present of an extreme longevity. The +massive proportions of the body, the great development of the muscular +processes, the extreme wearing of the teeth among a people who +predominantly lived on flesh and not on grain, the obliteration of the +sutures of the skull, along with indications of slow ossification of +the ends of the long bones, point in this direction, and seem to +indicate a slow maturity and great length of life in this most +primitive race. + +The picture would be incomplete did we not add that in France and +Belgium, in the immediately succeeding or reindeer age, these gigantic +and magnificent men seem to have been superseded by a feebler race of +smaller stature and with shorter heads; so that we have, even in these +oldest days, the same contrasts so plainly perceptible in the races of +the North of Europe and the North of America in historical times +(Figure 10). + + [Illustration: FIG. 10. + + Section of the cave of Frontal, in Belgium. (_After Dupont._) + _a_, limestone; _b_, deposit of mud of the mammoth age, on + which rests a bed of gravel, _c_, and above this there was, in + modern times, a mass of fallen débris, _d_, up to the dotted + line. On removing this, a hearth was found at _e_, on which + were numerous bones of modern animals, the remains of funeral + feasts. The cave was closed with a flat stone, and within were + skeletons, stone implements, ornaments, and pottery of the + "neolithic" age. Under these was undisturbed earth of the + palæolithic, or mammoth age. The facts show the succession, in + Belgium, of palæocosmic or antediluvian men and of neocosmic + men allied to the Basques or to the Laps, and all this + previous to the advent of the modern races.] + +It is further significant that there are some indications to show that +the larger and nobler race was that which inhabited Europe at the time +of its greatest elevation above the sea and greatest horizontal +extent, and when its fauna included many large quadrupeds now extinct. +This race of giants was thus in the possession of a greater +continental area than that now existing, and had to contend with +gigantic brute rivals for the possession of the world. It is also not +improbable that this early race became extinct in Europe in +consequence of the physical changes which occurred in connection with +the subsidence which reduced the land to its present limits, and +that the dwarfish race which succeeded came in as the appropriate +accompaniment of a diminished land-surface and a less genial climate +in the early modern period. Both of these races are properly +palæolithic, and are supposed to antedate the period of polished +stone; but this may, to a great extent, be a prejudice of collectors, +who have arrived at a foregone conclusion as to the distinctness of +these periods (Figure 11). Judging from the great cranial capacity of +the older race and the small number of their skeletons found, it would +be fair to suppose that they represent rude outlying tribes belonging +to races which elsewhere had attained to greater culture. + + [Illustration: FIG. 11. + + Flint arrow-heads found together in a modern Indian deposit in + Canada, and showing the coincidence in time of rude and + finished flint weapons, or that among all savages using + chipped flint, the palæolithic and neolithic ages are + contemporaneous.] + +Lastly, both of these old European races were Turanian, Mongolian, or +American in their head-forms and features, as well as in their habits, +implements, and arts. To illustrate this, in so far as the older of +the two races is concerned, I have carefully compared collections of +American Indian skulls with casts and figures representing the form +and dimensions of some of the oldest European crania above referred +to. Some of the American skulls may fairly be compared in their +characters with the Mentone skull, and others with those of +Cro-magnon, Engis, and Neanderthal; and so like are some of the Huron, +Iroquois, and other northern American skulls to these ancient European +relics and others of their type, that it would be difficult to affirm +that they might not have belonged to near relatives. On the other +hand, the smaller and shorter heads of the race of the reindeer age in +Europe may be compared with the Laps, and with some of the more +delicately formed Algonquin and Chippewayan skulls in America. If, +therefore, the reader desires to realize the probable aspect of the +men of Cro-magnon, of Mentone, or of Engis, I may refer him to modern +American heads. So permanent is this great Turanian race, out of which +all the other races now extant seem to have been developed, in the +milder and more hospitable regions of the Old World, while in northern +Asia and in America it has retained to this day its primitive +characters. + +The reader, reflecting on what he has learned from history, may be +disposed here to ask, Must we suppose Adam to have been one of these +Turanian men, like old men of Cro-magnon? In answer, I would say that +there is no good reason to regard the first man as having resembled a +Greek Apollo or an Adonis. He was probably of sterner and more +muscular mould. But the gigantic palæolithic men of the European caves +are more probably representatives of that fearful and powerful race +who filled the antediluvian world with violence, and who reappear in +postdiluvian times as the Anakim and traditional giants, who +constitute a feature in the early history of so many countries. +Perhaps nothing is more curious in the revelations as to the most +ancient cave-men than that they confirm the old belief that there were +'giants in those days.' + +And now let us pause for a moment to picture these so-called +palæolithic men. What could the old man of Cro-magnon have told us had +we been able to sit by his hearth and listen understandingly to his +speech?--which, if we may judge from the form of his palate-bones, +must have resembled more that of the Americans or Mongolians than of +any modern European people. He had, no doubt, travelled far, for to +his stalwart limbs a long journey through forests and over plains and +mountains would be a mere pastime. He may have bestridden the wild +horse, which seems to have abounded at the time in France, and he may +have launched his canoe on the waters of the Atlantic. His experience +and memory might extend back a century or more, and his traditional +lore might go back to the times of the first mother of our race. Did +he live in that wide Post-Pliocene continent which extended westward +through Ireland? Did he know and had he visited the nations that lived +in the valley of the great Gihon, that ran down the Mediterranean +Valley, or on that nameless river which flowed through the Dover +Straits? Had he visited or seen from afar the great island Atlantis, +whose inhabitants could almost see in the sunset sky the islands of +the blest? Or did he live at a later time, after the Post-Pliocene +subsidence, and when the land had assumed its present form? In that +case he could have told us of the great deluge, of the huge animals of +the antediluvian World--known to him only by tradition--and of the +diminished strength and longevity of men in his comparatively modern +days. We can but conjecture all this. But, mute though they may be as +to the details of their lives, the man of Cro-magnon and his +contemporaries are eloquent of one great truth, in which they coincide +with the Americans and with the primitive men of all the early ages. +They tell us that primitive man had the same high cerebral +organization which he possesses now, and, we may infer, the same high +intellectual and moral nature, fitting him for communion with God and +headship over the lower world. They indicate, also, like the +Mound-builders, who preceded the North American Indian, that man's +earlier state was the best--that he had been a high and noble creature +before he became a savage. It is not conceivable that their high +development of brain and mind could have spontaneously engrafted +itself on a mere brutal and savage life. These gifts must be remnants +of a noble organization degraded by moral evil. They thus justify the +tradition of a Golden and Edenic Age, and mutely protest against the +philosophy of progressive development as applied to man, while they +bear witness to the identity in all important characters of the oldest +prehistoric men with that variety of our species which is at the +present day at once the most widely extended and the most primitive in +its manners and usages. + +Thus it would appear that these earliest known men are not +specifically distinct from ourselves, but are a distinct race, most +nearly allied to that great Turanian stock which is at the present +day, and has apparently from the earliest historic times been, the +most widely spread of all. Though rude and uncultured, they were not +either physically or mentally inferior to the average men of to-day, +and were indeed in several respects men of high type, whose great +cranial capacity might lead us to suppose that their ancestors had +recently been in a higher state of civilization than themselves. It +is, however, possible that this characteristic was rather connected +with great energy and physical development than with high mental +activity. + +To the hypothesis of evolution, as applied to man, these facts +evidently oppose great difficulties. They show that such modern +degraded races as the Fuegians or the Tasmanians cannot present to us +the types of our earlier ancestors, since the latter were men of a +different and higher style. Nor do these oldest known men present any +approximation in physical characters to the lower animals. Further, we +may infer from their works, and from what we know of their beliefs +and habits, that they were not creatures of instinct, but of thought +like ourselves, and that materialistic doctrines of automatism and +brain-force without mind would be quite as absurd in their application +to them as to their modern representatives. + +It is not too much to say that, in presence of these facts, the +spontaneous origin of man from inferior animals cannot be held as a +scientific conclusion. It may be an article of faith in authority, or +a superstition or an hypothesis, but is in no respect a result of +scientific investigation into the fossil remains of man. But if man is +not such a product of spontaneous evolution, he must have been created +by a Being having a higher reason and a greater power than his own; +and the ancestry of the agnostic, and the rational powers which he +exercises, constitute the best refutation of his own doctrine. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] The Ceylon elephant is by some believed to be distinct, but is +probably a variety of the Indian species. + +[9] _Fossil Men_ (London, 1880), Appendix. + +[10] The first continental period was that of the earlier Pliocene. + +[11] The precise date in years assignable to this event geology cannot +determine; but I have elsewhere shown that the actual antiquity of the +palæocosmic or antediluvian man has been greatly exaggerated. + + + + +LECTURE V. + +NATURE AS A MANIFESTATION OF MIND. + + +The subjects already discussed should have prepared us to regard +nature as not a merely fortuitous congeries of matter and forces, but +as embodying plan, design, and contrivance; and we may now inquire as +to the character of these, considered as possible manifestations of +mind in nature. The idea that nature is a manifestation of mind, is +ancient, and probably universal. It proceeds naturally from the +analogy between the operations of nature and those which originate in +our own will and contrivance. When men begin to think more accurately, +this idea acquires a deeper foundation in the conclusion that nature, +in all its varied manifestations, is one vast machine too great and +complex for us to comprehend, and implying a primary energy infinitely +beyond that of man; and thus the unity of nature points to one +Creative Mind. + +Even to savage peoples, in whose minds the idea of unity has not +germinated, or from whose traditions it has been lost, a spiritual +essence appears to underlie all natural phenomena, though they may +regard this as consisting of a separate spirit or manitou for every +material thing. In all the more cultivated races the ideas of natural +religion have taken more definite forms in their theology and +philosophy. Dugald Stewart has well expressed the more scientific form +of this idea in two short statements: + +"1. Every effect implies a cause. + +"2. Every combination of means to an end implies intelligence." + +The theistic aspect of the doctrine had, as we have seen in a previous +lecture, been already admirably expressed by Paul in his Epistle to +the Romans. Writing of what every heathen must know of mind in nature, +he says: "The invisible things of him since the creation of the world +are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, +even his eternal power and divinity." The two things which, according +to him, every intelligent man must perceive in nature are, first, +power above and beyond that of man, and, secondly, superhuman +intelligence. Even Agnostic Evolution cannot wholly divest itself of +the idea of mind in nature. Its advocates continually use terms +implying contrivance and plan when speaking of nature; and Spencer +appears explicitly to admit that we cannot divest ourselves of the +notion of a First Cause. Even those writers who seek to shelter +themselves under such vague and unmeaning statements as that human +intelligence must be potentially present in atoms or in the solar +energy, are merely attributing superhuman power and divinity to atoms +and forces. + +Nor can they escape by the magisterial denunciation of such ideas as +"anthropomorphic" fancies. All science must in this sense be +anthropomorphic, for it consists of what nature appears to us to be +when viewed through the medium of our senses, and of what we think of +nature as so presented to us. The only difference is this--that if +Agnostic Evolution is true, Science itself only represents a certain +stage of the development, and can have no actual or permanent truth; +while, if the theistic view is correct, then the fact that man himself +belongs to the unity of nature and is in harmony with its other parts +gives us some guarantee for the absolute truth of scientific facts and +principles. + +We may now consider more in detail some of the aspects under which +mind presents itself in nature. + +1. It may be maintained that nature is an exhibition of regulated and +determined power. The first impression of nature presented to a mind +uninitiated in its mysteries is that it is a mere conflict of opposing +forces; but so soon as we study any natural phenomena in detail, we +see that this is an error, and that everything is balanced in the +nicest way by the most subtle interactions of matter and force. We +find also that, while forces are mutually convertible and atoms +susceptible of vast varieties of arrangement, all this is determined +by fixed law and carried out with invariable regularity and constancy. + +The vapor of water, for example, diffused in the atmosphere, is +condensed by extreme cold and falls to the ground in snowflakes. In +these, particles of water previously kept asunder by heat are united +by cohesive force; and the heat has gone on other missions. But these +particles do not merely unite: they geometrize. Like well-drilled +soldiers arranging themselves in ranks, they form themselves, +according to regular axes of attraction, in lines diverging at an +angle of sixty degrees; and thus the snowflakes are hexagonal plates +and six-rayed stars, the latter often growing into very complex +shapes, but all based on the law of attraction under angles of sixty +degrees (see Fig. 12). The frost on the window-panes observes the same +law, and so does every crystallization of water where it has scope to +arrange itself in accordance with its own geometry. But this law of +crystallization gives to snow and ice their mechanical properties, and +is connected with a multitude of adjustments of water in the solid +state to its place in nature. The same law, varied in a vast number of +ways in every distinct substance, builds up crystals of all kinds and +crystalline rocks, and is connected with countless adaptations of +different kinds of matter to mechanical and chemical uses in the arts. +It is easy to see that all this might have been otherwise--nay, that +it must have been otherwise--but for the institution of many and +complex laws. + + [Illustration: FIG. 12. + + Snowflakes copied from nature under the microscope, and + serving to illustrate the geometrical arrangement of molecules + of water in crystallizing. _a_, _b_, simple stars; _c_, _d_, + hexagonal plates; _e_, _f_, rays of large and complex + star-shaped flakes. The law of arrangement of the molecules is + that of attraction in the lines of three axes at angles of + sixty degrees, and the varieties are produced by differences + in temperature and rate of supply of material.] + +A lump of coal at first suggests little to excite interest or +imagination; but the student of its composition and microscopic +structure finds that it is an accumulation of vegetable matter +representing the action of the solar light on the leaves of trees of +the Palæozoic Age. It thus calls up images of these perished forests +and of the causes concerned in their production and growth, and in the +accumulation and preservation of their buried remains. It further +suggests the many ways in which this solar energy, so long sealed up, +can be recalled to activity in heat, gaslight, steam, and electric +light, and how remarkably these things have been related to the wealth +and the civilization of modern nations. An able writer of the agnostic +school, in a popular lecture on coal, has his imagination so +stimulated by these thoughts that he apostrophizes "Nature" as the +cunning contriver who stored up this buried sunlight by her strange +and mysterious alchemy, kept it quietly to herself through all the +long geological periods when reptiles and brute mammals were lords of +creation, and through those centuries of barbarism when savage men +roamed over the productive coal-districts in ignorance of their +treasures, and then revealed her long-hidden stores of wealth and +comfort to the admiring study of science and civilization, and for the +benefit of the millions belonging to densely-peopled and progressive +nations; It is plain that "Nature" in such a connection represents +either a poetical fiction, a superstitious fancy, or an intelligent +Creative Mind. It is further evident that such Creative Mind must be +in harmony with that of man, though vastly greater in its scope and +grasp in time and space. + +Even the numerical relations observed in nature teach the same lesson. +The leaves of plants are not arranged at random, but in a series of +curiously-related spirals, differing in different plants, but always +the same in the same species and regulated by definite laws. Similar +definiteness regulates the ramification of plants, which depends +primarily on the arrangement of the leaves. The angle of ramification +of the veins of the leaf is settled for each species of plant; so are +the numbers of parts in the flower and the angular arrangement of +these parts. It is the same in the animal kingdom, such numbers as 5, +6, 8, 10 being selected to determine the parts in particular animals +and portions of animals. Once settled, these numbers are wonderfully +permanent in geological time. The first known land reptiles appear in +the Carboniferous period, and they have normally five toes; these +appear in the earliest known species in the lowest beds of the +Carboniferous. Their predecessors, the fishes, had numerous fin-rays; +but when limbs for locomotion on land were contrived, the number five +was adopted as the typical one. It still persists in the five toes and +fingers of man himself. From these, as is well known, our decimal +notation is derived. It did not originate in any special fitness of +the number ten, but in the fact that men began to reckon by counting +their ten fingers. Thus the decimal system of arithmetic, with all +that follows from it, was settled millions of years ago, in the +Carboniferous period, either by certain low-browed and unintelligent +batrachians or by their Maker. + +2. Nature presents to us very remarkable revelations of dissimilar and +widely-separated matters and forces. I have referred to the numerical +arrangement of the leaves of plants; but the leaf itself, in its +structure and functions, is one of the most remarkable things in +nature. Composed of layers of loosely-placed living cells with +air-spaces between them; enclosed above and below with a transparent +epidermis, the spaces between the cells communicating with the +atmosphere without by means of microscopic pores guarded by +cunningly-contrived valves opening or closing according to the +hygrometric state of the air; connected with the stem of the plant by +a system of tubes strengthened with spiral fibres within,--the +structure of the leaf is, mechanically considered, of extreme beauty +and complexity. But its living functions are still more wonderful. +Receiving the water from the soil with such materials as it brings +thence in solution, and absorbing carbonic dioxide and ammonia from +the air, the living protoplasm of the leaf-cells has the power of +chemically changing all these substances, and of producing from them +those complicated and otherwise inimitable organic compounds of which +the tissues of the plant are built up. The force by which this is done +is that of the solar heat and light, both admitted freely into the +interior of the leaf through the transparent epidermis, and therein +imprisoned, so as to constitute a powerful storehouse of evaporation +and chemical energy. In this way all the materials available for the +maintenance of life, whether vegetable or animal, are produced, and no +other structure than the living vegetable cell, as it exists in the +leaf, has the power to effect these miracles of transmutation. Here, +let it be observed, we have the vegetable cell placed in relation with +the system of the plant, with the soil, with the atmosphere and its +waters, with the distant sun itself and the properties of its emitted +energies. Let it further be observed that, on the one hand, the +chemistry involved in this is of a character altogether different from +that which applies to inorganic matter, and, on the other, the +products derived from a very few elements embrace all that vast +variety of compounds which we observe in plants and animals, and which +constitute the material of one of the most complex of sciences--that +of organic chemistry. Finally, these complicated structures were +produced and all their relations set up at a very early geological +period. In so far as we can judge from their remains and the results +effected, the leaves of the Palæozoic period were functionally as +perfect as their modern successors (see Figs. 13, 14). Of course, the +agnostic evolutionist may, if he pleases, attribute all this to +fortuitous interactions of the sun, the atmosphere, and the earth, and +may provide for what these fail to explain by the assumption of +potentialities equivalent to the things produced. But the +probability of such an hypothesis becomes infinitely small when we +consider the variety and the diversity of things and forces which must +have conspired to produce the results observed, and to maintain them +so constantly, and yet with so much difference in circumstances and +details. It is a relief to turn from such bewildering and gratuitous +suppositions to the theory which supposes a designing Creative Mind. + + [Illustration: FIG. 13. + + Section of the leaf of a Cycad, being one of the most ancient + styles of leaf of which the structure is known. _a_, upper + epidermis; _b_, upper layer of cells, with grains of + chlorophyll; _c_, lower layer of cells, with chlorophyll; _d_, + lower epidermis; _e_, stomata, or breathing-pores, with + contractile cells for opening and closing.] + + [Illustration: FIG. 14. + + Foliage from the coal-formation, showing some of the forms of + leaves instrumental in accumulating the carbon of our + coal-beds, by their action on the atmosphere under the + influence of sunlight.] + +From the boundless variety of illustrations which the animal kingdom +presents I may select one--the contrivances by means of which marine +animals are enabled to float or balance themselves in the waters. The +_Pearly Nautilus_ (see Fig. 15) is one of the most familiar, and also +one of the most curious. Its coiled shell is divided by partitions +into air-chambers so proportioned that the buoyancy of the air is +sufficient to counterpoise in sea-water the weight of the animal. +There are also contrivances by which the density of the contained air +and of the body of the animal can be so modified as slightly to +disturb this equilibrium, and to enable the creature to rise or sink +in the waters. It would be tedious to describe, without adequate +illustrations, all the machinery connected with these adjustments. +It is sufficient for our purpose to know that they are provided in +such a manner that the animal is practically exempted from the +operation of the force of gravity. In the modern seas these provisions +are enjoyed by only a few species of the genera _Nautilus_ and +_Spirula_; but in former geological ages, more numerous, as well as +larger and more complex, forms existed. Further, this contrivance is +very old. We find in the _Orthoceratites_ and their allies of the +earliest Silurian formations these arrangements in their full +perfection, and in some forms[12] even more complex than in later +types. + + [Illustration: FIG. 15. + + Section of the Pearly Nautilus and its shell, showing that the + animal occupies only the outer chamber, the others being + filled with air and acting as a float whose buoyancy can be + modified by the action of the tube, or siphuncle, passing + through the chambers.] + +The peculiar contrivances observed in the nautilus and its allies are +possessed by no other mollusks, but there is another group of somewhat +lower grade, that of the _Ianthinæ_, or violet snails, in which +flotation is provided for in another way (see Fig. 16). In these +animals the shell is perfectly simple, though light, and the floating +apparatus consists in a series of horny air-vesicles attached to what +is termed the "foot" of the animal, and which are increased in number +to suit its increasing weight as it grows in size. There are some +reasons to believe that this entirely different contrivance is as +old in geological time as the chambered shell of the nautiloid +animals. It was, indeed, in all probability, more common and adapted +to larger animals in the Silurian period than at present. + + [Illustration: FIG. 16. + + _Ianthina_, or Violet Snail, attached to a float composed of + horny hollow vesicles, to the under side of which its eggs are + attached. When hatched, each young animal develops a small + float similar to that of the parent.] + +Another curious instance--not, so far as yet known, existing at all in +the modern world--is that of the remarkable stalked star-fish +described by Professor Hall under the name _Camerocrinus_, and whose +remains are found in the Upper Silurian rocks. The Crinoids, or +feather-stars, are well-known inhabitants of the seas, in both ancient +and modern times; but previous to Professor Hall's discovery they were +known only as animals attached by flexible stems to the sea-bottom or +creeping slowly by means of their radiating arms. It was not suspected +that any of them had committed themselves to the mercy of the +currents, suspended from floats. It appears, however, that this was +actually realized in the Upper Silurian period, when certain animals +of this group developed a hollow calcareous vesicle forming a +balloon-shaped float, from which they could hang suspended in the +water and float freely (see Fig. 17). So far as known, this +remarkable contrivance was temporary, and probably adapted to some +peculiarities of the habits and food of these animals occurring only +in the geological period in which they existed. + + [Illustration: FIG. 17. + + _Camerocrinus_, reduced in size (as restored by Hall). This is + a crinoid, or feather-star, of the Upper Silurian period, + floating by means of a hollow balloon-shaped structure divided + into chambers and formed of calcareous plates.] + +Examples of this sort of adjustment are found in other types of animal +life. In the beautiful Portuguese man-of-war (_Physalia_) and its +allies flotation is provided for by membranous or cartilaginous sacs +or vesicles filled with air, and which are the common support of +numerous individuals which hang from them (see Fig. 18). In some +allied creatures the buoyancy required is secured by little vesicles +filled with oil secreted by the animals themselves. + +In each of these cases we have a skilful adaptation of means to ends. +The float is so constructed as to avail itself of the properties of +gases and liquids, and the apparatus is framed on the most scientific +principles and in the most artistic manner. That this apparatus grows +and is not mechanically put together, and that in each case the +instincts and the habits of the animal have been correlated with it, +can scarcely be held by the most obtuse intellect to invalidate the +evidence of intelligent design. + + [Illustration: FIG. 18. + + The _Physalia_, or "Portuguese man-of-war" of the Atlantic, + being a colony of animals provided with long tentacles used as + fishing-lines, and hanging from a membranous float with a + crest, or "sail," on the top, and a pointed end which, being + turned from side to side, serves as a rudder.] + +3. Structures apparently the most simple, and often heedlessly spoken +of as if they involved no complexity, prove, on examination, to be +intricate and complex almost beyond conception. In nothing, perhaps, +is this better seen than in that much-abused protoplasm which has been +made to do duty for God in the origination of life, but which is +itself a most laboriously manufactured material. Albumen, or white of +egg--which is otherwise named "protoplasm"--is a very complicated +substance both chemically and in its molecular arrangements, and when +endowed with life it presents properties altogether inscrutable. It is +easy to say that the protoplasm of an egg or of some humble animalcule +or microscopic embryo is little more than a mass of structureless +jelly; yet, in the case of the embryo, a microscopic dot of this +apparently structureless jelly must contain all the parts of the +future animal, however complex; but how we may never know, and +certainly cannot yet comprehend. + +There are minute animalcules belonging to the group of flagellate +Infusoria, some of which, under ordinary microscopic powers, appear +merely as moving specks, and show their actual structures only under +powers of two thousand diameters, or more; yet these animals can be +seen to have an outer skin and an inner mass, to have pulsating sacs +and reproductive organs, and threadlike flagella wherewith to swim. +Their eggs are, of course, much smaller than themselves--so much so +that some of them are probably invisible under the highest powers yet +employed. Each of them, however, is potentially an animal, with all +its parts represented structurally in some way. Nor need we wonder at +this. It has been calculated that a speck scarcely visible under the +most powerful microscope may contain two million four hundred thousand +molecules of protoplasm.[13] If each of these molecules were a brick, +there would be enough of them to build a terrace of twenty-five good +dwelling-houses. But this is supposing them to be all alike; whereas +we know that the molecules of albumen are capable of being of very +various kinds. Each of these molecules really contains eight hundred +and eighty-two ultimate atoms--namely, four hundred of carbon, three +hundred and ten of hydrogen, one hundred and twenty of oxygen, fifty +of nitrogen, and two of sulphur and phosphorus. Now, we know that +these atoms may be differently arranged in different molecules, +producing considerable difference of properties. Let us try, then, to +calculate of how many differences of arrangement the atoms of one +molecule of protoplasm are susceptible, and then to calculate of how +many changes these different assemblages are capable in a microscopic +dot composed of two million four hundred thousand of them. It is +scarcely necessary to say that such a calculation, in the multitudes +of possibilities involved, transcends human powers of imagination; yet +it answers questions of mechanical and chemical grouping merely, +without any reference to the additional mystery of life. Let it be +observed that this vastly complex material is assumed as if there were +nothing remarkable in it, by many of those theorists who plausibly +explain to us the spontaneous origin of living things. But nature, in +arranging all the parts of a complicated animal beforehand in an +apparently structureless microscopic ovum, has all these vast numbers +to deal with in working out the exact result; and this not in one case +merely, but in multitudes of cases involving the most varied +combinations. We can scarcely suppose the atoms themselves to have the +power of thus unerringly marshalling themselves to work out the +structures of organisms infinitely varied, yet all alike after their +kinds. If not, then "Nature" must be a goddess gifted with superhuman +powers of calculation and marvellous deftness in arranging invisible +atoms. + +4. The beauty of form, proportion, and coloring that abounds in nature +affords evidence of mind. Herculean efforts have been made by modern +evolutionists to eliminate altogether the idea of beauty from nature, +by theories of sexual selection and the like, and to persuade us that +beauty is merely utility in disguise, and even then only an accidental +coincidence between our perceptions and certain external things. But +in no part of their argument have they more signally failed in +accounting for the observed facts, and in no part have they more +seriously outraged the common sense and natural taste of men. In point +of fact, we have here one of those great correlations belonging to the +unity of nature--that indissoluble connection which has been +established between the senses and the æsthetic sentiments of man and +certain things in the external world. But there is more in beauty than +this merely anthropological relation. Certain forms, for example, +adopted in the skeletons of the lower animals are necessarily +beautiful because of their geometrical proportions. Certain styles of +coloring are necessarily beautiful because of harmonies and contrasts +which depend on the essential properties of the waves of light. Beauty +is thus in a great measure independent of the taste of the spectator. +It is also independent of mere utility, since, even if we admit that +all these combinations of forms, motions, and colors which we call +beautiful are also useful, it is easy to perceive that the end could +often be attained without the beauty. + +It is a curious fact that some of the simplest animals--as, for +example, sponges and Foraminifera,--are furnished with the most +beautiful skeletons. Nothing can exceed the beauty of form and +proportions in the shells of some Foraminifera and Polycistina, or in +the skeletons of some silicious sponges (see Fig. 19), while it is +obvious that these humble creatures, without brains and external +senses, can neither contrive nor appreciate the beauty with which they +are clothed. Further, some of these structures are very old +geologically. The sponge whose skeleton his known as "Venus's +flower-basket" produces a structure of interwoven silicious threads +exquisite in its beauty and perfect in its mechanical arrangements +for strength (Figure 20). Even in the old Cambrian rocks there are +remains of sponges which seem already to have practically solved the +geometrical problems involved in the production of these wonderful +skeletons; and with a Chinese-like persistency, having attained to +perfection, they have adhered to it throughout geological time. Nor is +there anything of mere inorganic crystallization in this. The silica +of which the skeletons are made is colloidal, not crystalline, and the +forms themselves have no relations to the crystalline axes of silica. +Such illustrations might be multiplied to any extent, and apply to all +the beauties of form, structure, and coloring which abound around us +and far excel our artificial imitations of them. + + [Illustration: FIG. 19. + + Magnified portion of a silicious sponge, showing the principle + of construction of the hexactinellid sponges, with six-rayed + spicules joined together and strengthened with diagonal + braces. (_After Zittel._)] + + [Illustration: FIG. 20. + + _Euplectella_, or "Venus's flower-basket," a silicious sponge, + showing its general form. (Reduced, from _Am. Naturalist_, + vol. iv.)] + +5. The instincts of the lower animals imply a Higher Intelligence. +Instinct, in the theistic view of nature, can be nothing less than a +divine inspiration placing the animal in relation with other things +and processes, often of the most complex character, and which it could +by no means have devised for itself. Further, instinct is in its very +essence a thing unimprovable. Like the laws of nature, it operates +invariably; and if diminished or changed, it would prove useless for +its purpose. It is not, like human inventions, slowly perfected under +the influence of thought and imagination, and laboriously taught by +each generation to its successors: it is inherited by each generation +in all its perfection, and from the first goes directly to its end as +if it were a merely physical cause. + +The favorite explanation of instinct from the side of Agnostic +Evolution is that it originated in the struggle for existence of some +previous generation, and was then perpetuated as an inheritance. But, +like most of the other explanations of this school, this quietly takes +for granted what should be proved. That instinct is hereditary is +evident; but the question is, How did it begin? and to say simply that +it did begin at some former period is to tell us nothing. From a +scientific point of view, the invariable operation of any natural law +affords no evidence of any gradual or sudden origination of it at any +point of past time; and when such law is connected with a complicated +organism and various other laws and processes of the external world, +the supposition of its slowly arising from nothing through many +generations of animals becomes too intricate to be credible. Instinct +must have originated in a perfect condition, and with the organism and +its environment already established. I may borrow here an apposite +illustration from recent papers on the unity of nature by the Duke of +Argyll, which deserve careful study by any one who values common-sense +views of this subject. The example which I select is that of the +action of a young merganser in its effort to elude pursuit: + +"On a secluded lake in one of the Hebrides, I observed a dun-diver, or +female of the red-breasted merganser (_Mergus serrator_), with her +brood of young ducklings. On giving chase in the boat we soon found +that the young, although not above a fortnight old, had such +extraordinary powers of swimming and diving that it was almost +impossible to capture them. The distance they went under water, and +the unexpected places in which they emerged, baffled all our efforts +for a considerable time. At last one of the brood made for the shore, +with the object of hiding among the grass and heather which fringed +the margin of the lake. We pursued it as closely as we could; but when +the little bird gained the shore, our boat was still about twenty +yards off. Long drought had left a broad margin of small flat stones +and mud between the water and the usual bank. I saw the little bird +run up about a couple of yards from the water, and then suddenly +disappear. Knowing what was likely to be enacted, I kept my eye fixed +on the spot; and when the boat was run upon the beach, I proceeded to +find and pick up the chick. But, on reaching the place of +disappearance, no sign of the young merganser was to be seen. The +closest scrutiny, with the certain knowledge that it was there, failed +to enable me to detect it. Proceeding cautiously forward, I soon +became convinced that I had already overshot the mark; and, on turning +round, it was only to see the bird rise like an apparition from the +stones and, dashing past the stranded boat, regain the lake, where, +having now recovered its wind, it instantly dived and disappeared. The +tactical skill of the whole of this manoeuvre, and the success with +which it was executed, were greeted with loud cheers from the whole +party; and our admiration was not diminished when we remembered that, +some two weeks before that time, the little performer had been coiled +up inside the shell of an egg, and that about a month before it was +apparently nothing but a mass of albumen and of fatty oils." + +On this the duke very properly remarks that any idea of training and +experience is absolutely excluded, because it "assumes the +pre-existence of the very powers for which it professes to account." +He then turns to the idea that animals are merely automata or +"machines." Here it is to be observed that the essential idea of a +machine is twofold. First, it is a merely mechanical structure put +together to do certain things; secondly, it must be related to a +contriver and constructor. If we think proper to call the young +merganser a machine, we must admit both of these characters, more +especially as the bird is in every way a more marvellous machine than +any of human construction. He concludes his notice of this case with +the following suggestive words: + +"This is a method of escape which cannot be resorted to successfully +except by birds whose coloring is adapted to the purpose by a close +assimilation with the coloring of surrounding objects. The old bird +would not have been concealed on the same ground, and would never +itself resort to the same method of escape. The young, therefore, +cannot have been instructed in it by the method of example. But +the small size of the chick, together with its obscure and +curiously-mottled coloring, are specially adapted to this mode of +concealment. The young of all birds which breed upon the ground are +provided with a garment in such perfect harmony with surrounding +effects of light as to render this manoeuvre easy. It depends, however, +wholly for its success upon absolute stillness. The slightest motion at +once attracts the eye of any enemy which is searching for the young. +And this absolute stillness must be preserved amidst all the emotions +of fear and terror which the close approach of the object of alarm +must, and obviously does, inspire. Whence comes this splendid, even if +it be unconscious, faith in the sufficiency of a defence which it must +require such nerve and strength of will to practise? No movement, not +even the slightest, though the enemy should seem about to trample on +it,--such is the terrible requirement of nature, and by the child of +nature implicitly obeyed. Here, again, beyond all question, we have an +instinct as much born with the creature as the harmonious tinting of +its plumage, the external furnishing being inseparably united with the +internal furnishing of mind which enables the little creature in very +truth to 'walk by faith, and not by sight.' Is this automatism? Is this +machinery? Yes, undoubtedly, in the sense explained before--that the +instinct has been given to the bird in precisely the same sense in +which its structure has been given to it; so that anterior to all +experience, and without the aid of instruction or of example, it is +inspired to act in this manner on the appropriate occasion arising." + +Lastly, the reason of man himself is an actual illustration of mind in +nature. Here we raise a question which should perhaps have been +considered earlier: Is man himself actually a part of what we call +nature? We are so accustomed to the distinction between things natural +and things artificial that we are liable to overlook this essential +question. Is nature the universe outside of us, containing the things +that we study and which constitute our environment? Are we elevated on +a pedestal, so to speak, above nature? or, on the other hand, does +nature include man himself? In that haze or fog of ideas which +environs modern evolutionism, it is not wonderful that this question +escapes notice, and that the most contradictory utterances are given +forth. Tyndall--by no means the most foggy of the agnostics--may +afford an instance. He remarks respecting the philosophers of +antiquity:[14] "The experiences which formed the weft and woof of +their theories were drawn, not from the study of nature, but from that +which lay much closer to them-the observation of man.... Their +theories accordingly took an anthropomorphic form." Here we see that +in the view of the writer man is distinct from and outside of nature, +and so much out of harmony with it that the observation of him leads +to false conclusions, stigmatized, accordingly, as "anthropomorphic." +In this case man must be supernatural, and preternatural as well. But +it is Tyndall's precise object to show us that there is nothing +supernatural either in man or elsewhere. The contradiction is an +instructive example of the delusions which sometimes pass for science. + +If, with Tyndall, we are to place man outside of nature, then the +human mind at once becomes to us a supernatural intelligence. But +truth forbids such a conclusion. The reason of man, however beyond the +intelligence of lower animals, so harmonizes with natural laws that +it is evidently a part of the great unity of nature, and we can no +more dissociate the mind of man from nature than from his own animal +body. If we could do so, we might have ground to distrust the validity +of all our conclusions as to nature, and thus to cut away the +foundations of science; and what remained of philosophy and religion +would be preternatural, in the bad sense of destroying the unity of +nature and imperilling our confidence in the unity of the Creator +himself. + +In connection with this we have cause to consider the true meaning and +use of two terms often hurled at theists as weapons of attack. + +The word "anthropomorphic" is a term of reproach for our interpreting +nature in harmony with our own thoughts or our own constitution. But +if man is a part of nature, he must be a competent interpreter of it. +If he is not a part of nature, then, whether we make him godlike or a +demon, we have, in him, to deal with something supernatural. It is +true that in a certain sense he is above nature, but not in any sense +which so dissociates him from it as to prevent him from rationally +thinking of it in his own thoughts and speaking of it in his own form +of words. So true is this that no writers are more anthropomorphic in +their modes of speaking of nature than those who most strongly +denounce anthropomorphism. Even the celebrated definition of life by +Herbert Spencer cannot escape this tincture. "Life," he says, "is the +continuous adjustment of internal to external conditions." Now, the +essence of this definition lies in the word "adjustment." But to +adjust is to arrange, adapt, or fit--all purely human and intelligent +actions. Nothing, therefore, could be more anthropomorphic than such a +statement. As theists we need not complain of this, but surely as +agnostics we should decidedly object to it. + +The other word whose meaning it is necessary to consider is +"supernatural," which it might be well, perhaps, to follow the example +of the New Testament in avoiding altogether as a misleading term. If +by supernatural we mean something outside of and above nature and +natural law, there is really no such thing in the universe. There may +be that which is "spiritual," as distinguished from that which is +natural in the material sense; but the spiritual has its own laws, +which are not in conflict with those of the natural. Even God cannot +in this sense be said to be supernatural, since his will is +necessarily in conformity with natural law. Yet this absurd sense of +the term "supernatural" is constantly forced upon us by so-called +advanced thinkers, and employed as an argument against theism. The +only true sense in which any being or any thing can be said to be +supernatural is that in which we use it with reference to the original +creation of matter and force and the institution of natural law. The +power which can do these things is above nature, but not outside of +it; for matter, energy, and law must be included in, and in harmony +with, the Creative Will. + +To return from this digression. If man is a part of nature, we can see +how it is that he conforms to natural law, not merely in his bodily +organization and capabilities, but in his mind and habits of thought, +so that he can comprehend nature and employ it for his purposes. Even +his moral and his religious ideas must in this case be conformed to +his conditions of existence as a part of nature. We have here also the +surest guarantee of the correctness of our conclusions respecting the +laws of nature. In like manner, there is here a sense in which man is +above nature, because he is placed at the head of it. In another +sense he is inferior to the aggregate of nature, because, as Agassiz +well puts it, there is in the universe a "wealth of endowment of the +most comprehensive mental manifestations which man can never fully +comprehend." + +Still further, if the universe has been created, then, just as its +laws must be in harmony with the will of the Creator, so must our +mental constitution; and man, as a reasoning and conscious being, must +be made in the image of his Maker. If we discard the idea of an +intelligent Creator, then mind and all its powers must be potentially +in the atoms of matter or in the forces which move them; but this is a +mere form of words signifying nothing, or, if it has any significance, +this is contrary to science, since it bestows on matter properties +which experiment does not show it to possess. Thus the existence of +man is not only a positive proof of the presence of mind in nature, +but affords the strongest possible proof of a higher Creative Mind, +from which that of man emanates. The power which originated and +sustains the universe must be at least as much greater and more +intelligent than man as the universe is greater than man in the power +and the contrivance which it indicates. Thus we return to the Pauline +idea--that the power and the divinity of the Creator are shown by the +things he has made. Legitimate science can say nothing more, and can +say nothing less. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] As _Piloceras_, for example. + +[13] I am indebted for these figures to my friend Dr. S. P. Robins of +Montreal. + +[14] Belfast Address. + + + + +LECTURE VI. + +SCIENCE AND REVELATION. + + +Thus far we have proceeded solely on scientific grounds, and have seen +that Monism and Agnosticism fail to account for nature. We may +therefore feel ourselves justified in assuming, as the only promising +solution of the enigma of existence, the being of a Divine Creator. +But this does not wholly exhaust the relations of science to religion. +When Science has led us into the presence of the Creator, she has +brought us to the threshold of religion, and there she suggests the +possibility that the spirit of man may have other relations with God +beyond those established by merely physical law. Science may venture +to say: "If all nature expresses the will of the Creator as carried +out in his laws, if the instinct of lower animals is an inspiration of +God, should we not expect that there will be laws of a higher order +regulating the free moral nature of man, and that there will be +possibilities of the reason of man communicating with, or receiving +aid from, the Supreme Intelligence?" Science undoubtedly suggests this +much to our reason, and the suggestion has commended itself to most of +the greater and clearer minds that have studied nature, whatever their +religious beliefs or their want of them. + +It may thus be allowable for us, without encroaching on the domain of +theology, to inquire to what extent scientific principles and +scientific habits of thought agree with or diverge from the religious +beliefs of men. I do not propose to enter here into the inquiry as to +the accordance of the Bible with the earth's geological history, or +that of its representations of nature with the facts as held by +science. These subjects I have fully discussed in other works, which +are sufficiently accessible.[15] I shall merely refer to certain +general relations of science to the probability of a divine +revelation, and to the character of such revelation. + +As to what is termed natural religion, enough has already been said. +If nature testifies to the being of God, and if the reason and the +conscience implanted in man, "accusing and excusing" one another, +constitute a law of God within him, regulating in some degree his +relations to God and to his fellow-men, we have a sufficient basis for +the natural religion which more or less actuates the conduct of every +human being. The case is different with revealed religion. Here we +have an apparent interference on the part of the Creator with his own +work, an additional intervention in one department to effect results +which elsewhere are worked out by the ordinary operation of natural +law. In revelation, therefore, we may have something, quite out of the +ordinary course of nature. On the other hand, it is possible that even +here we may have something more in harmony with natural laws than at +first sight appears. + +It cannot truly be said that a revelation from God to man is +improbable from the point of view of science. Physical laws and brute +instincts are in their nature unvarying, and neither require nor admit +of intervention. But the reason and the will of free agents are in +this respect different. Though necessarily under law, they can judge +and decide between one law and another, and can even evade or +counteract one law by employing another, or can resolve to be +disobedient. Rational free agents may thus enter into courses not in +harmony with their own interests or their relations to their +surroundings. Hence, so soon as it pleased God to introduce in any +part of the universe a free rational will gifted with certain powers +over lower nature, only two courses were possible: either God must +leave such free agent wholly to his own devices, making him a god on a +small scale, and so far practically abdicating in his favor, or he +must place him under some law, and this not of the nature of mere +physical compulsion--which, on the hypothesis, would be +inadmissible--but in the nature of requirements addressed to his +reason and his conscience. Hence we might infer _a priori_ the +probability of some sort of communication between God and man. +Further, did we find such rational creature beginning, on his +introduction into the world, to mar the face of nature, to inflict +unnecessary suffering or injury on lower creatures or on members of +his own species, to disregard the moral instincts implanted in him, or +to disown the God who had created him, we should still more distinctly +perceive the need of revelation. This would in such case be no more +at variance with science or with natural law than the education given +by wise parents to their children, or the laws promulgated by a wise +government for the guidance of its subjects, both of which are, and +are intended to be, interventions affecting the ordinary course of +affairs. + +Of necessity, all this proceeds on the supposition that there is a +God. But in certain discussions now prevalent as to the "origin of +religion," it is customary quietly to assume that there is no God to +be known, and consequently that religion must be a mere gratuitous +invention of man. It is not too much to say, however, that any +scientific conception of the unity of nature and of man's place in it +must forbid our making atheistic assumptions. If man were a mere +product of blind, unintelligent chance, the idea of a God was not +likely ever to have occurred to him, still less to have become the +common property of all races of men. In like manner, there is no +scientific basis for the assumption that man originated in a low and +bestial type, and that his religion developed itself by degrees from +the instincts of lower animals, from which man is supposed to have +originated. Such suppositions are unscientific (1) because no ancient +remains of such low forms of man are known; (2) because the lowest +types of man now extant can be proved to be degraded descendants of +higher types; (3) because, if man had originated in a low condition, +this would not have diminished the probability of a divine revelation +being given to promote his elevation. + +On the other hand, it is a sad reality that man tends to sink from +high ideal morality and reason into debasing vices and gross +superstitions that are not natural, but which, on the contrary, place +him at variance with natural as well as with moral law. Thus the +actual and the possible debasement of man, instead of proving his +bestial origin, only increases the need of a divine revelation for his +improvement. + +But, supposing the need of a revelation to be admitted, other +questions might arise as to its mode. Here the anticipations of +science would be guided by the analogy of nature. We should suppose +that the revelation would be made through the medium of the beings it +was intended to affect. It would be a revelation impressed on human +minds and expressed in human language. It might be in the form of +laws with penalties attached, or in that of persuasions addressed to +the reason and the sentiments. It would probably be gradual and +progressive--at first simple, and later more complex and complete. It +would thus become historical, and would be related to the stages of +that progress which it was intended to promote. It would necessarily +be incomplete, more especially in its earlier portions, and it would +always be under the necessity of more or less rudely representing +divine and heavenly things by earthly figures. Being human in its +medium, it would have the characteristics and the idiosyncrasies of +man to a certain extent, except in so far as it might please God to +communicate it directly through a perfect humanity identified with +divinity, or through higher and more perfect intelligences than man. + +We should further expect that such revelation would not conflict with +what is good in natural religion or in the natural emotions and +sentiments of man; that it would not contradict natural facts or laws; +and that it would take advantage of the familiar knowledge of mankind +in order to illustrate such higher spiritual truths as cannot be +expressed in human language. Such a revelation would of necessity +require that we should receive it in faith, but faith resting on +evidence derived from things known, and from the analogy of the +revelation itself with what God reveals in nature. It would be no valid +objection to such a revelation to say that it is anthropomorphic, +since, in the nature of the case, it must come through man and be +suited to man; nor would it be any valid objection that it is +figurative, for truth as to spiritual realities must always be +expressed in terms of known phenomena of the natural world. + +It has been objected, though not on behalf of science, that such a +revelation, if it related to things discoverable by man, would be +useless, while, if it related to things not discoverable, it could not +be understood. This is, however, a mere play upon words, and reminds +one of the doctrine attributed to the Arabian caliph with reference to +the Alexandrian Library: If its books contain what is written in the +Koran, they are useless; if anything different, they are injurious; +therefore let them be destroyed. It would indeed be subversive of all +education, human as well as divine; for the essence of this is to take +advantage of what the pupil knows, and to build on it acquirements +which, unaided, he could not have attained. + +But, though all may agree as to the possibility, or even the +probability, of a revelation, many may dissent from particular dogmas +contained in or implied by the particular form of revelation in which +Christians believe. It is true that this dissent is based, not so much +on science as on alleged opposition to human sentiments; but it is +more or less supposed to be reinforced by scientific facts and laws. +Of doctrines supposed to be objectionable from these points of view, I +may name the reality of miracles and of prophecy; the efficacy of +prayer and of atonement or sacrifice; and the permanence of the +consequences of sin. Admitting that these doctrines are not original +discoveries of man, but revealed to him, and that they are not founded +on science, it may nevertheless be easily shown that they are in +harmony with the analogy of nature in a greater degree than either +their friends or their opponents usually suppose. + +Miracles--or "signs," as they are more properly called in the New +Testament--are sometimes stated to imply suspension of natural law. If +they were such, and were alleged to be produced by any power short of +that of the Lawmaker himself, they would be incredible; and if +asserted to be by his power, they would be so far incredible as +implying changeableness, and therefore imperfection. It may be +affirmed, however, of the miracles recorded in Scripture, that they do +not require suspension of natural laws, but merely modifications of +the operation and peculiar interactions of these. Many of them, +indeed, profess to be merely unusual natural effects arranged for +special purposes, and depending for their miraculous character on +their appositeness in time to certain circumstances. This is the case, +for instance, with the plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, +and the supply of quails to the Israelites. Miracles, whether +performed as attestations of revelation or as works of mercy or of +judgment, belong to the domain of natural law, but to those operations +of it which are beyond human control or foresight. Their nature in +this respect we can understand by considering the many operations +possible to civilized men which may appear miraculous to a savage, and +which, from his point of view, may be amply sufficient as evidence of +the superior knowledge and power of him who performs them. That one +man should be able instantaneously to transmit his thoughts to another +situated a thousand miles away was, until the invention of the +electric telegraph, impossible. The actual performance of such an +operation would have been as much a miracle as the communication of +thought from one planet to another would be now. But if man can thus +work miracles, why should not the Almighty do so, when higher moral +ends are to be served by apparent interference with the ordinary +course of matter and force? Admitting the existence of God, physical +science can have nothing to say against miracles. On the contrary, it +can assure us of the probability that if God reveals himself to us at +all by natural means, such revelation will probably be miraculous. + +If the possibility of God communicating with his rational creatures be +conceded, then the objections taken to prophecy lose all value. If +anything known to God and unknown to man can be revealed, things past +and future may be revealed as well as things present. Science abounds +in prophecy. All through the geological history there have been +prophetic types, mute witnesses to coming facts. Minute disturbances +of heavenly bodies, altogether inappreciable by the ordinary +observer, enable the astronomer to predict the discovery of new +planets. A line in a spectrum, without significance to the +uninitiated, foretells a new element. The merest fragment, sufficient +only for microscopic examination, enables the palæontologist to +describe to incredulous auditors some organism altogether unknown in +its entire structures. What possible reason can there be for excluding +such indications of the past and the future from a revelation made by +him who knows perfectly the end from the beginning, and to whom the +future results of human actions to the end of time must be as evident +as the simplest train of causes and effects is to us? It is Huxley, I +think, who says that if the laws affecting human conduct were fully +known to us, it would have been possible to calculate a thousand years +ago the exact state of affairs in Britain at this moment. Probably +such a calculation might be too complicated for us, even if the data +were given; but it cannot be too complicated for the Divine Mind, and +possibly might even be mastered by some intelligences in the universe +subject to God, but higher than man. + +That there should be suffering at all in the universe is, no doubt, a +mysterious thing; but the fact is evident, and certain benefits which +flow from it are also evident. Indeed, we fail to see how a world of +sentient beings could continue to exist, unless the penalty of +suffering were attached to natural law. Further, all such penalties +are, in consequence of the permanence of matter and the conservation +of force, necessarily permanent, unless in cases where some reaction +sets in under the influence of some other law or force than that which +brings the penalty. Even in this case, the effect of any violation of +any natural law is eternal and infinite. No sane man doubts this in +the case of what may be called sins against natural laws; but many, +with strange inconsistency, doubt and disbelieve it in the higher +domain of morals. If we were for a moment to admit the materialist's +doctrine that appetites, passions, and sentiments are merely effects +of physical changes in nerve-cells, then we should be shut up to the +conclusion that the effects of any derangement of these must be +perpetual and coextensive with the universe. Why should it be +otherwise in things belonging to the domains of reason and conscience? +Further, if natural laws are the expression of the will of the +Creator, and if these unfailingly assert themselves, and must do so, +in order to the permanence of the material universe, would not analogy +teach that, unless the Supreme Being is wholly bound up in material +processes, and is altogether indifferent to moral considerations, the +same regularity and constancy must prevail in the spiritual world? + +This question is closely connected with the ideas of sacrifice and +atonement. Nothing is more certain in physics than that action and +reaction are equal, and that no effect can be produced without an +adequate cause. It results from this that every action must involve a +corresponding expenditure of matter and force. Anything else would be +pure magic; which, we know, is nonsense. Thus every intervention on +behalf of others must imply a corresponding sacrifice. We cannot raise +a fallen child or aid the poor or the hungry without a sacrifice of +power or means proportioned to the result. So, in the moral world, +degradation cannot be remedied nor punishment averted without +corresponding sacrifice; and this, it may be, on the part of those who +are in no degree blameworthy. If men have fallen into moral evil and +God proposes to elevate them from this condition, this must be done +by some corresponding expenditure of force, else we have one of those +miracles which would imply a subversion of law of the most portentous +kind. The moral stimulus given by the sacrifice itself is a secondary +consideration to this great law of equivalency of cause and effect. +There is, therefore, a perfect conformity to natural analogy in the +Christian idea of the substitution of the pure and perfect Man for the +sinner, as well as in that of the putting forth of the divine power +manifested in him to raise and restore the fallen. + +The efficacy of prayer is one of the last things that a scientific +naturalist should question, if he is at the same time a theist. Prayer +is itself one of the laws of nature, and one of those that show in the +finest way how higher laws override and modify those that are lower. +The young ravens, we are told, cry to God; and so they literally do; +and their cry is answered, for the parent-ravens, cruel and voracious, +under the impulse of a God-given instinct range over land and water +and exhaust every energy that they may satisfy that cry. The bleat of +the lamb will not only meet with response from the mother-ewe, but +will even exercise a physiological effect in promoting the secretion +of milk in her udder. The mother who hears the cry of her child, +crushed under some weighty thing which has fallen on it, will never +pause to consider that it is the law of gravitation which has caused +the accident; she will defy the law of gravitation, and if necessary +will pray any one who is near to help her. Prayer, in short, is a +natural power so important that without it the young of most of the +higher animals would have little chance of life; and it triumphs over +almost every other natural law which may stand in its way. If, then, +irrational animals can overcome the forces of dead nature in answer to +prayer; if man himself, in answer to the cry of distress, can do +things in ordinary circumstances almost impossible,--how foolish is it +to suppose that this link of connection cannot subsist between God and +his rational offspring! One wonders that any man of science should for +a moment entertain such an idea, if, indeed, he has any belief +whatever in the existence of a God. + +There is another aspect of prayer insisted on in revelation on which +the observation of nature throws some light. In the case of animals, +there must be a certain relation between the one that prays and the +one that answers--a filial relation, perhaps--and in any case there +must be a correspondence between the language of prayer and the +emotions of the creature appealed to. Except in a few cases where +human training has modified instinct, the cry of one species of animal +awakes no response in another of a different kind. So prayer to God +must be in the Spirit of God. It must also be the cry of real need, +and with reference to needs which have his sympathy. There is a prayer +which never reaches God, or which is even an abomination to him; and +there is prayer prompted by the indwelling Spirit of God, which cannot +be uttered in human words, yet will surely be answered. All this is so +perfectly in accordance with natural analogies, that it strikes one +acquainted with nature as almost a matter of course. + +In tracing these analogies, I do not desire to imply that natural +science can itself teach us religion, or that it is to afford the test +of what is true in spiritual things. I have merely wished to direct +attention to obvious analogies between things natural and things +spiritual, which show that there is no such antagonism between +science and revelation as many suppose, and that, in grand essential +laws and principles, it may be true that earth is + + "But the shadow of heaven, and things therein + Each to the other like more than on earth is thought." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[15] More especially in _The Origin of the World_ (London and New +York, 1877). + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious typographical errors were repaired. Hyphenation variants used +equally were retained (back-bone and backbone, thread-like and +threadlike). + +Original had chapter title pages before the start of each chapter, +resulting in duplication of chapter titles. Those duplications have +been removed. + +Original contents erroneously indicated Lecture VI began on page 217. +This has been corrected to page 219. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facts and fancies in modern science, by +John William Dawson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42466 *** |