A Library Edition or this work, with portraits,.,is published by Mr. Grant Richards, 48, Leicester Square, London, w.e., price Five Shillings net. IONEERS OF EVOLUTION

FROM THALES TO HUXLEY

WITH AN INTERMEDIATE CHAPTEl( ON THE CAUSES OF ARREST OF THE MOVEMENT

pv EDWARD eLODD"

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Tills book needs only brief introduction. It attempts to tell the story of the origin of the Evolution idea in Ionia, and, after long arrest, of the revival of that idea in modern times, when its profound and permanent influence on thought in all directions, and, therefore, on human relations and conduct, is apparent. _ Between birth and revival there were the centuries of suspended animation, when the nepenthe of dogma drugged the reason; the Church teaching. and the laity mechanicany accepting, the sufficiency of the Scriptures and of the General Councils to decide on matters which lie outside the domain of both. Hence the necessity for particularising the causes which actively arrested advance in knowledge for sixteen hundred ye.a~s. In indicating the parts severally played :inthe Renascence of Evolution by a small group of illustrious men, the writer, through the courtesy of Mr. Herbert Spencer, has been permitted to see the original docu .. , ments, which show that the theory of Evolution as a whole-i. I.. as dealing with the non-living. as well as 6 PREFACE the living, contents of the Universe-was formulated by Mr. Spencer in the year preceding the publication of. the Origin of Species.

ROSEMONT, TUFNEI.L PARK, LONDON, N. I4th December, J 8r;6. CONTENTS • PART I l'ION .... 0' EVOLUTION, nOM TIIALII TO LUCIITIU_I.C. 600- 4.0. So

PART II

Til. AIIUT 0' INQUI.V-4.D. ~4.D. 1600 I ••-'OM Till EAILV,ell.IITIAN PIlIOD TO Till TIMI 0' AUGUSTINI-A.D. 5O-A.D. 400 I. '10M AUOUSTIIU TO Lo.D BACON-A.D. ~A.D. 1600

PART III

Till RINAICINCI 0' ScIINCI-A..D. 1600 ONWA.DiS

PART IV

.IODIIN EYOLUTION-

I. DA.WIII AND WALLACI I. nlUIiT SPSNCU j. THOMAS nlNIV lIulLn

INDEX .. Nature, which coverns the whole. will soon change al\ thines which tholl saest, and out of their sub&tance will make other things, and again other things r,om the substance orthem, In order that the world may be ever new." -A/arcus Aurelius, vii. 25. PART I

PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION FROM THALES TO LUCRETIUS

B.C. 600-".D. 50

II Thelll aU died in raith, not havin!: received the promise., but bavin!: &eeD them afar off, and were p<:rsUlVled or lhem."-IlI!.Bll.Kws Iri. IJ.

II ON~ event is always the .on of escaped from the operation of the same another, and we must never forget the causes. Hence the persistence of coarse parentage," said a Bechuana chief to and grotesque elements in speculations Casalis the missionary. The barbarian whert:in man has made gradual approach philosopher spoke wiser than he knew, to the truth of things; hence, too-the for in his words lay that doctrine of con­ like phenomena having to be interpreted tinuity and unity which is the creed of -the similarity of the explanation of modem Icience. They are a suitable them. And as primitive myth embodies text to the discourse of this chapter, the primitive theology, primitive morals, and design of which is to bring out what primitive science, the history of beliefs the brilliancy of present-day discoveries shows how few tbere be who have tends to throw into shadow-namely, the escaped from tbe tyranny of that autho­ antiquity of the ideas of which those rity and sanctity "'ith which the lapse of discoveries are the result. Although the time invests old ideas. Theory of Evolution, as we define it, is Dissatisfaction is a necessary con4ition new, the speCUlations which made it of progress; and dissatisfaction involves po~sible are, At least, twenty-five centuries opposition. As Grant Allen puts it, in (lId. Indeed, it is not practicable, since one of his most felicitous poems: the remot.) past yields no documents, .. If .,stems that be are the order 0('God. to fil( their beginnings. Moreover, Revolt is a part ur the order." chnrged, as they are, with many crudities, Hence a stage in the history of certain they are not detachable from the bar­ peoples when, in questioning "'hat is b.mc conccl?tions of the universe "'hich commonly accepted, intellectual freedom are the phtlosophies 0( past and the is born. Such a stage was, markedly, legends of present timeS: reached whenever, for example, an indi­ Fontenelle, a writer of the last century, vidual here and there challenged the shrewdly remarked that II all nations current belief about the beginnings and made the astounding part of their myths nature of things, beliefs held because while they were savage, and retained they were taught, not because their them from custom and religious· con­ correspondence with fact had been servatism. N For, as Walter Bagehot examined. argues ill h is brilliant little book on A pioneer (French, piolflfier; Italian, l'h,vsiu Qlft/ Polifiu, and as all anthropo­ let/one; from Latin let/u) is, literally, a logical research goes to prove, the lower Coot-soldier; one who goes before an races are non-progressive both through army to clear the road of obstructions. fear and instinct. And the maioritv of Hence the application of the term to 10 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION movement; hence its special fitness in other, a fe~ rules of m~nsuration, per. the present connection, as designating chance a bttle crude sCIence. But this men whose speculations cut a pathway is conjecture. .'or all the rest that she through jungles of myth and legend to evolved, and with which she enri..:hed the realities of things. The Pioneers of the world, ancient Greece it in deot to Evolution.,..-the tirst on record to doubt none. the truth of the theory of special While the Oriental shrunk from quest creation, whether as the work of depart­ after causes, looking, as Professor mental gods or of one Supreme Deity Butcher aptly remarks in his As/Wls oj matters not-lived in Greece about the lite Grtei Genius, on .. each fresh gain time already mentioned-six centuries of earth as so much robbery of heaven," before Christ. Not, in the early stages the Greek eagerly sought for the law . of the Evolution idea, in the Greece governing the facts around him. And limited, as now, to a rugged peninsula in in Ionia was born the idea foreign to the the south-eastern corner of Europe and East, but which has become the starting· to the surrounding islands j but in the point of all subsequent scientific inquiry­ Greece which then included Ionia, on the idea that Nature works by fixed laws. the opposite sea-board of Asia Minor. Sir Henry Maine said that II except tbe From times beyond memory or record blind forces of Nature nothing m.>vc. the islands -of the lEgean had been the which is not Greek in its origin," and we nurseries of culture and adventure. feel how hard it is to avoid exaggeration Thence the. maritime inhabitants bad . when speaking oCthe heritage bequeathed spread themselves. both east and west, by Greece as the giver of every fruitful, feeding the spirit of inquiry, and im­ quickening idea which has developed bibing influences from older civilisations, human faculty on all sides, and enriched notably of Egypt and Chaldaa But, every province of life. Amid serious mix as they might with other peoples, defects of character, as craftiness, ava­ the Greeks never lost their own strongly­ riciousness, and U1l5Crupulousness, the marked individuality, and in imparting Greeks had tbe redeeming grace of what they had acquired or discovered to pursuit after knowledge which nought younger peoples-that is, younger in could baffle (Plato, Bepu/JIit, iv., -US), culture-they stamped it with an impress and that healthy outlook on things which all their own. saved them from morbid introspection. ,At the later period with which we are There arose among them no Simeon dealing, refugees from the Peloponnesus, Stylites to mount his profitless pillar i no who would not submit to the Dorean filth-engrained fakir to waste life in con­ yoke, had been long setUed in Ionia. templating the tip of his nose j no school­ To what extent they had been influenced man to idly swculate how many angels by contact with their neighbours is a could dance upon a needle'. point, or to question which, even were it easy to debate such fatuous question. as the answer, . need not occupy us here. language which the saints in heaven will Certain it is that trade and travel had speak after the Last Judgment. widened their intellectual horizon, and, In his excellent and cautious survey .although India lay too remote to touch of Early GreeJ Philosophy, which we them closely (if that incurious, dreamy mainly follow in this section., Professor East had. touched them, it would have Burnet says that the real advance madt: taught them nothing), there was Baby­ by the Ionians was through their" leaving lonia with her star-watchers, and Egypt olf telling tales. They gave up the with her land-surveyors. From the one, hopeless task of descrioing what was these Ionians probably gained knowledge when as yet there was nothing, and asked of certain periodic movements of some instead what all things really are now." of the heavenly bodies; and from the For the early notioDl of the Greeks TJlALES TO LUCRETIUS .. about nature, being an inheritance from Aristotle, born at Eresus in Lesbos, 37' tllp-ir barbarie ancestors, were embodied B.C.)_ Perhaps, follo .... ing Professor in myths and legend» bearing strong re­ Burnet's able guidance through the com­ semblance to those found among the plexities of definitions, the term BOUND­ uncivilised tribel of Polynesia and else­ LESS best expresses the "one t:ternal, where in our d~y. For example, the old indestructible substance out or which nature-myth of Cronus separating heaven everything arises, and into which every­ and earth by the mutilation of Uranus thing once more returns "j in other words, occurs among Chinese, Japanese, and the exhaustless stock of matter from Maoris, and among the ancient Hindus .... hich . the waste of existt:nce is being and Egyptians. continually made good. The earliest achool of lCientific Anaximander was the first to assert apeculation .... as at Miletus, the most the origin of life from the non-living, U. flourishing city of Ionia. Thales, whose "the moist element as it was evaporated name heads the list of the "Seven Sages," by the IUn," and to speak of man as was itl founder. A ..... ith other noted " like another animal-namely, a fish, in philosophers of this and later period!, the beginning." This looks well-nigh the exact date neither of hi. birth nor of akin to prevision' of the mutability of hi. death is known, but the .ixth century species, and of what modern biology has before Christ may be held to cover the proved concerning the marine ancestry period when he "flourished." of the highest animals, althQugh is is That" nothing comes into being out one of many ancient speculatiuns as to of nothing, and that nothing passes the origin of life in slimy mattt:r. And away into nothing," was the conviction when Anaximander adds that, "while with which he, and those who followed other animals quickly find food for him, started on their quest. All around themselves, man alone requires a pr~ was change: everything alwaya becoming longed period of suckling," he anticipates something else; II all in motion like the modem explanation of the origin of streams. " There must be that which is the rudimentary family through the the vehicle of all the changes, and of all development of the social instincts and the motions which produce tbem. WAaI, affections. The lengthening of the period therefure, was this permanent and primary of infancy involves dependence 00 the substance 1 in other words, of what is parents, and evoh:es the sympathy which the world made 1 And Thate., perhaps lies at the base of social relations (rp­ through observing that it could become Fiske's Olli/ints of C"s",ie Philosophy, ii. vaporous, liquid, and solid in tum; 344. 360). perhaps-if, as tradition records, he In dealing with speculations so remote, visited Egy~-thro\lgh. watching the we have to guard against reading modem wonder-workmg, life-giving Nile j perhaps, meanings into writings produced in ages as doubtless sharing the current belief whose limitations of knowledge '''ere in an ocean-washed earth; said that the serious, and whose temper and stand­ primary substance was WATF.R. point are whoUy alien to our own. For Anaximander, his friend and pupil, example, shrewd as are some of the disagreeing with what seemed to him a guesses made by Anaximander, we find too concrete answer, argued, in more him describing the sun as .. a ring' abstract fashion, that" the material cause twenty-eight times the size of the earth, and first element of things was the like a cart-wheel with the feUoe hoUow Infinite." This material cause, which and full of fire, showing the fire at a he was the first thus to name, .. is neither certain point, as if through the nozzle water nor any other of 1\·hat are now of a pair of bellows. • And if he made called the ~/t11UlIls· (we quote from some approach to truer ideas of the Theophrastus, the famous pupil of earth's shape as .. convex and round,". 12 PIONEERS OF EYOLUTION

the world of his day, as in the days of He, with Parmenides and Zeno, are the Homer, thought of it as Bat, and as chief representatives oC the Eleatic floating on the all-surrounding water. school, so named from the city in lOuth· The Ionian philosophers lacked not western Italy where a Greek colony had insight, but the scientific method of settled. The tendency oC that school starting with working hypotheses, or of was towards metaphysical theories. He observation before theory, was as yet was the first known observer to detect unborn. the value of fossils as evidences or the In this brief survey of the subject action of water; but his chief claim to there will be no advantage in detailing notice rests on the fact that, passing the various speculations which followed beyond the purely physical specUlations on the heels of those of Thales and or the Ionian school, he denied the idea Anaximander, since these varied only in of a primary substance, IU\d theorised non-essentials; or, like that of Pythagoras about the nature and actions of luper­ and his school, which Zeller regards as human beings. Living at a time when an outcome of the teaching of Anaxi- ~here was a revival of old and gross , mander, were purely abstract and fanciful. superstitions to which the vulgar had As is well known, the Pythagoreans, recourse when fears of invasions arose, whose philosophy was ethical as well as he dared to attack the old and persistent cosmical, held that all things are made ideas about the gods, as in the following of numbers, each of which was credited sentences from the fragments of hi. with special character and property. A writings:- belief in such symbols as entities seems .. Homer and Hesiod have ascribed impossible to us, but its existence in to the gods aU things that are a shame early thought is conceivable, when, as and a disgrace among men, theft and Aristotle says, they were" not separated adulteries and deception of one another. It from the objects of sense." Even at .. There never was nor will be a man the present day, among the eccentric who has clear certainty as to what I say people who still believe in the modem about the gods and about all things; for, sham Gnosticism known as Theosophy, even if he does chance to say what it and in Astrology, we find the delusion right, yet he himself does not know that that numbers possess inherent magic or it is so. But all are Cree to guess." mystic virtues. So far as the an~ient5 .. Mortals think that the gods are born are concerned, .. consider the lively as they are, and have senses, and a voice emotions excited at a time when multi­ and body like their own. So the Ethio­ plication and division, squaring and pians make their gods black and snub­ cubiJrg, the rule of three, the construc­ nosed; the Thracians give theirs red tion and equiValence of figures, with all hair and blue eyes." their manifold applications to industry, " There is one god, the greatest among commerce, fine art, and tactics, were gods and men, unlike mortals both in just as strange and wonderful as electrical mind and body." Had such heresies phenomena are to us ...... and we shall been spoken in Athens, where the effects cease to wonder that a mere form of of the religious revival of the sixth thought, a lifeless abstraction, should century were still unspent, the" secular ., once have been regarded as the solution arm" of the archons would probably . of every problem, the cause of aU exist­ have made short work of Xenophanes. ence; or that these speculations were But in Elea, or in whatever other colony more than once revived in after ages" he may have lived, .. the gods are left (Benn, Greek PhilosD!Mrs, i. 12). to take care of themselves." Xenophanes of Colophon, one of the Greater than the philosophers yet twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor, named is Heraclitus of Ephesus, nick­ deserves, ,however, a passing reference. named II the dark," Crom the obscurity THALES TO LUCRETIUS I)

of hit style. Hi. original writings have perpetually becoming water, and the shared the fate of mOlt documentl or water earth, but as the opposite process antiquity, and emt, like many of thete. goes on limultaneously we appear to only in (ragmentl preserved in the worb remain the same-D or other authon. Many of hit aphorisms As speculation adftJlced, it became are indeed dark layings; but thole that more and more applied· to details; yield their meaning are full of truth and . theories of the beginnings of life being suggestiveness. As for eumple- followed by theories oC the origin or illl .. The eyes are more exact witnesses various Corms. This is a feature of the than the ear•. " philosophy of Empedocles. who flourished .. You will not find out the boundaries In the fifth century S.c. The advance or .oul by travelling in any direction." or Persia westward had led to migrations .. Man i. kindled and put out like a oC Greeks to the lOuth of Italy and light in the night-time." Sicily, and it w.. at Agrigentum, in that .. Man'. character i. hi. rate.- island, tbat Empedocles was. born about But these have .pecial value as key. 490. He h .. an honoured place among to hi. philosophy ;- the earliest who .upplanted gwsses about .. You cannot step twice into the same the world by i"lJui,-y into the world riverl; Cor fresh water. are ever Bowing itself. Many legends are told of his in upon you." magic arts, one oC which, it will be .. Homer wal wrong in uying; 'Would remembered, Matthew Arnold makes an that .trif" might perish from among god. occasion of lome fine rc8ections in his and men I' He did not seo that he wu poem, EIII}tdutlts ill EI"a. The philo­ praying for the destruction of the uni· sopher wu said to have brought back to verse; Cor, if hi. prayer were heard, all life a woman who, apparently, had been things would pass away. It dead Cor thirty days. As he ascends ."Iux or movement, "'YI Heraclitus, the mountain, Pausaniu or Gela, with an il the all-pervading law of thin~s, and in address to whom the poem of Empe­ the opposition of forces, by whIch things docles opens, would Cain have his curiosity are kept going, there i. underlying .laked as to this and other marvels re­ harmony. Still on the quest after the ported of him; primary substance whose manifestations are 10 various, he found it in FlU, since Ask Dot the latest news or the last miracle, Ask Dot what dars and ni.:htll II the quantity of it in a flame burning In trance Panthc.. lay, steadily appears to remain the arne; But ask how thoIIsuch Ii&htll the flame seems to be what we call a ).lard .. without dismay l " 'thing,' And yet the substance of it AIIk what most helps when known, tbou 101\ 01 Anchitua. is continually changing. It it always passing away in smoke, and its place it Hi. speculations about things, like always being taken by rresh matter (rom those of Parmenides before him and of the fuel that feeda it. This is just what Lucretius after him, are set down in we wanL If we regard the world as an verse. From the remains of his Poem Off 'ever-living firo'-' this order, which is the Nabl,., we learn that he conceived "the same in aU things, and which no one oC Cour roots of all things" to be FIRE, gods or men has made '-we can under­ Aut, EARTH, and WATER. They are stand how fire is always becoming all II fools, lacking far-reaching thoughts, thin~ while all things are always re­ who deem that what before was not turnmg to iL • And as is the world, so comes into being, or that aught can-. is man, made up, like it, both soul and perish and be utterly destroyed. " There­ body, of the fire, the water, and the earth. fore the "r00t5"and elements are eternal We are and are not the same for two and indestructible. They are acted upon consecutive monlents; II th~ fire in u~ is by two forces, which are also material. 14 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

LoVE and STRIFE; the one a uniting astronomers incurred the charge of blas­ a~ent, the other a disrupting agent. phemy for dispersonifying lIclios." Of From the four roots, thus operated upon, Socrates, who was himself condemned arise" the colours and forms" of living to deathfor impiety in denying old gods things-trees first, both male and female, and introducing new ones, the same then fragmentary parts of animals, heads authority writes: •• Physics and astronomy, without necks, and "eyes that strayed in his opinion, belonged to the divine up and down in want of a forehead," class of phenomena, in which human which, combined together, produced research was insane, fruitless, and im­ monstrous forms. These, lacking power pious." So Demc}s and his II betters .. to propagate, perished, and were replaced clung, as the majority still cling, to the by "whole-natured" but sexless" forms" myths of their forefathers. They re­ which "arose from the earth," and paired to the oracles, and watched for which, as Strife gained the upper hand, the will of the gods in signs and omens. became male and female. Herein, amid In his philosophy Anaxagoras held that much fantastic speculation, would appear there was a portion of everything in to be the germ of the modem theory everything, and that things are variously that the unadapted become extinct, and mixed in infinite numbers of seeds, each that only the adapted survive. Nature after its kind. From these, through the kills off her failures to make room for action of an external cause, called Nous, her successes. which also is material, although the Anaxagoras, who was a contemporary " thinnest of all things and the purest," of Empedocles, interests us because he and II has power over all thing5," there was the first philosopher to repair to arose plants and animals. It is probable, Athens, and the first sufferer for truth's as Professor Burnet remarks, .. that sake of whom we have a record in Greek Anaxagoras substituted Nous, still con­ annals. Because he taught that the sun ceived as a body, for the LoVE and was a red-hot stone, and that the moon STRIFE of Empedoc1es, simply Lecause had plains and ravines in it, he was put he wished to retain the old Ionic upon his trial, and but for the influence doctrine of a substance that • knows • of his friend, the famous Pericles, might all things, and to identify this with the have suffered death. Speculations, how­ new theory of a substance that • moves' ever bold they be, pass unheeded till all things_" they collide with the popula! creed, and, Thus far speculation has run largely in thus attacking the gods, attack a on the origin of life-forms, but now we seemingly i:livinely settled order. Athens find revival of speculation alJout the then, and long after, while indifferent nature of things generally, and the about natural science, was, under the formulation of a theory of the influence of the revival referred to above, constituti6n of matter which links actively hostile to~ free thinking. The Greek cosmology with Dalton's ATOMIC opinions of Anaxagoras struck at the THEOR.Y. Democritus of Abdera, who existence of the gods and emptied was born about 460 B.C., has the credit Olympus. If the sky was but an air­ of having elaborated an atomic theory, filled space, what became of Zeus? If but probably he only further developed the sun was only a fiery ball, what became what Leucippus had taught before him. of Apollo? Mr. Grote says (History of Of this last-named philosopht:r nothing Greece, i. 466) that, "in the view of the whatever is known; indeed, his existence early Greek, the description of the sun, has been doubted, but it counts for some­ as given in a modern astronomical thing that Aristotle givt:s him the credit treatise, would ha\-e appeared not merely of the discovery, and that Tbeo[,hrastus, absurd, but repulsive and impious j even in the first book of his Opinions, wrote in later times Anaxa!!oras and other of Leucioous as follows: .. He assumed THALES TO LUCRE17US IS

innumerable and ever-moving elements-­ gave Aristotle ample opportunity for namely, the atom')' And he made their noting the variations, and withal grada­ forms infinite in number, since there was tions, between marine plants and ani­ no reason why they should be of one mals, among which last-named it should kind rather than another, and because be noted as proof of his insight that he he law that there was unceasing be­ was keen enough to include sponges_ coming and change in things. He held" Here was laid the foundation of a classi­ further, that what ;s is no more real than fication of life-forms on which aU corre­ whal is "01, and that both are alike­ sponding attempts were based. Then, causes of the things that come into he saw, as none other before him had being; for he laid down that the lub­ leen, and JlS none after him saw for stance of the atom I was compact and centuries, the force of heredity, that still ful~ and he called them what is, while unsolved problem of biology. Speaking they moved in the void which he called broadly of his teaching, the details of wllal ;1 nol, but affirmed to be just as which would fill pages, its main features real as what is." Thus did "he answer are (I) His insistence on observation. the question that Thales had been the In his Hislory 0/ Animals he say.: first to ask." .. We must not accept a general principle Postponing further reference 'to this from logic only, but must prove its theory until the great name of Lucretius, application to each fact. For it is in itl Roman exponent, i, reached, we find facts that we must seek general principles, a genuine Icientific method making its and these must always accord with facts. first start in the person of Aristotle. This Experience furnishes the particular facts remarkable man; the founder of the from which induction is the pathway to experinlental Ichool and the Father of general laws." (2) His rejection of Natural History, wal born 384 B.C. at chance and assertion of law, not, follow­ Stagira in Macedonia. In his eighteenth ing a common error of law, personified year he left his native place for Athens, as cause, but as the term by which we where he became a pupil of Plato. express the fact that certain phenomena Disappointed, as it is thought, at not always occur in a certain order. In his succeeding his master in the academy, Physics Aristotle says that .. Zeus rains he removed SO Mytilene in the island of not that com may be increased, but Lesbos, where he received an invitation from necessity. Similarly, if some one's from Philip of Macedon to become com is destroyed by rain, it does not rain tutor to his IOn, the famous Alexander for this purpose, but as an accidental the Great. When Alexander went on circumstance. It does not appear to be his expedition to Asia, Aristotle returned from (ortune or chance that it frequently to Athens, teaching in the "school" rains in winter, but from necessity." (3) which his genius raised to the first rank. On the question of the -origin of life­ There he wrote the ~reater part of forms he was nearest of all to its modem his works, the completlon of some of solution, setting forth the necessity '. that which was stopped by his death at Chalcis germs should have been first produced, in 322. The range of his studies "'as and not immediately animals; and that boundless, but in this brief notice we soft mass ~'hich first subsisted was the must limit our survey-and, the more germ. In plants, also, there is purpose, so because Aristotle's speCUlations out. but it is kss distinct; and this shows side natural history abound in errors-­ that plants were produced in the same to his pioneer \'I'ork in organic evolution. manner as animals, not by-chance, as by Here, in the one possible method of the' union of o!i,oes with grape vines. reaching the: truth, theory follows obser­ Similarly, it lOay be argued that there vation. Stagira lay on the Strymonic should be an accidental generat~on of 2ulf. and a boyhood SDent by the seashore the I!~rms oC thin!!!: but he who A"-",,,rU 16 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

this subverts Nature herself, for Nature Helmont, an experimental chemist of produces those things which, being con­ that period, gave a recipe Cor making tinually moved by a certain principle fleas; and another scholar showed him­ contained in themselves, arrive at a self on a level with the unlettered rustics certain end." In the eagerness of theo­ of to-day, who believe that eel. are logians to discover proof of a belief in produced from horse-hairs thrown into ... one God among the old philosophies, pond. the references made by Aristotle to a Of deeper interest, as marking Aris- "'perfecting principle," an "efficient 10tle's prevision, is his anticipation oC cause," a "prime mover," and so forth, what is known as Epigenesis, or the have been too readily construed as de­ theory of the development of the germ noting a Monotheistic creed, which, re­ into the adult Corm among the higher minding us of the "one god" of Xeno­ individuals through the union of the phanes, is also akin to the Personal God fertilising powers of the male and Cemale of Christianity. "The Stagirite," as Mr. organs. This theory, which was proved Benn remarks (Greek Philos., i. 352), by the researches of Harvey, the dis­ "agrees with Catholic theism, and he coverer of the circulation oC tre blood, agrees with the First Article of the and is II:ccepted by all biologist. to-day, English Church, though not with the was opposed by Malpigh~ an Italian Pentateuch, in saying that God i~ with­ physician, born in 16:18, the year in out parts or passions; but there his agree­ which Harvey published his great dis­ ment ceases. Excluding such a thing as covery, and by other prominent men . divine interference with nature, his theo­ of science down to the last century. logy of course excludes the possibility Malpighi and his school contended that of revelation, inspiration, miracles, and the perfect animal is already "preformed" grace." He is a being who "does not in the germ; for example, the hen'. egg, interest himself in human affairs." before fecundation, containing an ex­ But, differ as the commentators may cessively minute, but complete, chick. as to what Aristotle meant, his assum_ It therefore followed that in any germ place in the orthodox line led, as will be the germs of all subsequent offspring seen hereafter, to the acceptance of his must be contained, and in the application philosophy by Augustine, Bishop of of this "box-within· box" theory its de­ Hippo, in the fourth century, and by fenders even computed the number of other Fathers of the Church, so that the human germs concentrated in the ovary mediawal theories of the Bible, blended of mother Eve, estimating these at two with Aristotle, represent the sum. of hundred thousand millions! knowledge held as sufficient until the When the "preformation" theory was discoveries of Copernicus in the six­ revived by Bonnet and others in the teenth century upset the Ptolemaic eighteenth century, Erasmus Darwin, theory, with its fixed earth, and system grandfather of Charles Darwin, passed of cycles and epicycles in which the the following shrewd criticism on it:­ heavenly bodies moved. He thereby "Many ingenious' philosophers have upset very much besides. Like Anaici­ found so great a difficulty in conceiving manderand others, Aristotle believed in the manner of reproduction in animals spontaneous generation, although only in that they have supposed all the numerous the case of certain animals, as of eels progeny to have existed in miniature in from the mud of ponds, and of insects the animal originally created. ThiJ from putrid matter. However, in this, idea, besides its being unsupported by both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, any analogy we are acquainted with, and many men of science down to the ascribes a greater continuity to organised latter part of the seventeenth century, matter than we can readily admit. These followed him. For example, Van embryons ...... must possess a greater THALES T().LUCRETIUS '7 degree of minutenea. than that which ethical philosophies which inspired the Wal ascribed to the devils who tempted productlon of the wonderful poem of St. Anthony, of whom twenty thousand Lucretius. _ were .aid to have been able to dance a Bet .... een this grea\ Roman and Epi­ uraband on the point of a needle with­ curus-a period of some two centuries out the least incommoding each other." . -there is no ftame of sufficient promi­ Although no theistic element could be nence to warrant attention. The decline extracted by the theologian. of the of Greece had culminated in her conquest Early Christlan'\iurch from the .ys(ems by the semi-barbarian Mummius, and in of Empedocle. a..,;. LDemocrituSt thereby her consequent addition to the provinces lecuring them a Inlre in the influence of the Roman Empire. What life lin­ exercised by the great Stagirite, they gered in her philosophy within her own were formative power. in Greek philo borders expired. with the loss of freedom, sophy, and, moreover, have .. come by and the work done by the Pioneers or their own" in these latter days. Their Evolution in Greece was to be resumed chief representative in what i. known as elsewhere. In the fe .... years of the pre­ the Post-Aristotelian ~riod i. Epicurus, Christian period that remained, the who Wal born at Samos, 342 B.C. A. teaching of Empedocles, and of Epicurus with Zeno. the founder of the Stoic as the mouthpiece of the atomic theory, school, hi. teaching hal been perverted, was revived by Lucretius in his De Rerum 10 that his name has become loosl:ly Nalu,a. Of that remarkable man but identified with indulgence in gross and little is recorded, and the record is un­ lensualliving. He sa .... in pleasure the trustworthy. He was probably born 99 highest happiness, and therefore advo­ B.C., and died-by his own hand, Jerome cated the pursuit of pleasure to attain says, but of this there is no proof-in happiness j but he did not thereby mean his forty-fourth year. It is difficult, the pursuit of the unworthy. Rather taking up his wonderful poem, to resist did he counsel the following after pure, temptation to make copious extracts from high, and noble aims, whereby alone a it, since, even through the vehicle of man could have peace of mind. It is Mr. Munro's exquisite translation, it is not hard to see that in the minds of men probably little known to the general of low ideals the tendency towards reader 10 these evil days of snippety passivity which lurked in such teaching literature. But the temptation must be would aid their sliding into the pursuit resisted save in moderate degree. of mere animal enjoyment; hence the With the dignity which his high gross' and limited association of the term mission inspires, Lucretius appeals to us Epicurean. Epicurus accepted the theory in the threefold character of teacher, of Leucippus, and applied it all round. ..reformer, and poet. .. First, by reason The jai,,/anl gods, who dwell serenely of the greatness of my argument, and indilTerent to human affairs, and about because I set the mind free from the wbom men should therefore have no close-drawn bonds of superstition; and dread j all thingl\ whether dead or living j next because, on so dark a theme, I even the ideas that enter the mind j are compose such lucid verse, touching every alike composed of atoms. He also ac­ point with the grace of poesy." As a cepted the theory broached by Empe­ teacher he expounds the doctrines or~ doc1cs as to the survival of tit and Epicurus concerning liCe and nature; lj capable forms, after life had arrived at a reformer he attacks superstition; as a these through the processes of sponta­ poet he informs both the atomic philo­ neous generation and the production of sophy and its moral application with monstrosities. Adopting the physical harmonious and beautiful verse swayed speculations of these forerunners, he by a fervour that is akin to religious made them the vehicle of didactic and emotion. 18 1'I0NEERS OF EVOLUTION

Discussing at the outset various theories images provoke our minds which prm'oke of origins, and dismissing these, notably them when we are awake, and to such a that which asserts that things came from degree that we seem without a doubt to nothing-for, if so, l' any kind might be . perceive him whom life bas left, and horn of anything, nothing would require death and earth gotten hold of. This seed "-Lucretius proceeds to expound nature constrains to come to pass, be­ the teaching of Leucippus and other cause all the senses of the body are th.:n atomists as to the constilt!tion of things hampered and at rest throughout the by particles of matter ruled in their move­ limbs, and cannot refute the unreal by ments by unvarying laws. This theory real things" (if. bk. i. 134, 135 i h·. 462- he works al1 round, explaining the pro­ 468 i v. 1169-1176). cesses by which the atoms unite to carry In the fifth book Lucretius deals with on the birth, growth, and decay of origins--of the sun, the moon, the earth things, the variety of which is due to (which he held to be flat, den)'ing the variety of form of the atoms and to existence of the antipodes); of life and differences in modes of their combina­ its development; and of civilisation. tion; the combinations being determined In all this he excludes design, explaining by the affinities or properties of the everything as produced and maintained atoms themselves, "since it is absolutely by natural agents i "the masses, suddenly decreed, what each thing can and what brought together, became the rudiments it cannot do, by the conditions of of earth, sea. and heave:\, and the race nature." Change is the law of the uni­ of living things." He believed in the verse; what is will perish, but only to successive appearance of plants and ani­ reappear in another form. Death is mals, but in their arising separately and .. the only immortal"; and it is that and directly out of the eart h, .. under the what may follow it which are the chief influence of rain and the heat of the tormentors of mep. "This terror of the sun," thus repeating the old speculations soul, therefore, and this darkness, must of the emergence of life from slime, be dispelled, 110t by the rays of the sun " wherefore the earth with good title h:ll or the bright shafts of day, but by the gotten and keeps the name of mother." outward aspect and harmonious plan of He did not adopt Empedocles' theory nature." Lucretius explains that the of the" four roots of all things," and he soul, which he places in the centre of will have none of the monsters-the the breast, is also formed of very minute hippogriffs, chimeras, and centaurs­ atoms of heat, wind, calm air, and a which form a part of the scheme of that finer essence, the proportions of which philosopher. These, he says, "have determine the character of both men never existed," thus showing himself far and animals. It dies with the body, in in advance of ages when unicorns, support of which statement Lucretius dragons, and suchlike fabled Leasts were advances seventeen arguments, so deter­ seriously believed to exist. In one re­ mined is he to .. deliver those who, spect, more discerning than Aristotle, he through fear of death, are al1 their life­ accepts the doctrine of the survival of time subject to bondage." the fittest as taught by the sage of These themes fin the first three books. Agrigentum. For he argues that since In the fourth he grappies with the mental upon" the increase o( some nature ~et a pr.$lblems of sensation and conception, ban, so that they could not reach the and explains the origin of belief in coveted flower of age, nor find (non, nor immortality as due to ghosts and appari­ be united in marriage ...... many races tions which appear in dreams. " Wben of living things have died out, and been sleep has prostrated the body, for no unable to beget and continue their breed." other reason does the mind's intelligence Lucretius speaks of Empedocles in terms wake, . except because the very sanle $carcely less exaggerated than those TIIALES TO LlICRETllIS r9 which he appli~d to Epicurus. The does Lucretius point the road along latter il .. a god who first found out that which physical and mental evolution plan o( life which is nolt' termed wbidom, have .ince travelled, and make the whole and who by trwd ,kill rescued life from .tory lubordinate to the high purpose ol luch great billowl and luch thick dark· his poem in deliverance of the beings, ness, and moored it in 10 perfect a calm whose career he thus traces, from super'­ and in 10 brilliant a light ...... he cleared .tition. Man," seeing the system ol men'l breastl with truth-telling precepts, heaven and the difft:rent seasons of the and fixed a limit to IUit and (ear, and year, could not find out by what causes explained what wal the chief good this was done, and sought refuge in which we all Itrive to rt:ach." As to handin~ over all things to the gods and Empedocles, "that great country (Sicily) SUpposing all things to be guided by leems to have held within it nothing their nod." Then, in the sixth and last more glorious than this man, nothing book, the completioQ or which would more holy, marvellous, and dear. The acem to have been arrested by his death, verses, too, of this god-like genius t;ry Lucretius explains the "law of winds and with a loud voice, and make known hiS storms," of eartllquakes and volcanic great discoveries, .0 that he aceml outbursts, which men U foolishly lay to .carcely born of a mortal .tock-" the charge of the gods," who thereby Continuing hi, speculations on the make known their anger. development of living things, Lucretius So, loath to auffer mute, strike. out in bolder and original vein. We, peopling the void air, The past history of man, he lays, liel Make Goda to whom to impute in no heroic or golden age, but in ono The ills we ought to bear ; of struggle out of lavagery. Only when With God and Fale to rail at, lufferi", easily. "children, by their coaxing ways, easily And what a motley crowd or god. broke down the proud temper of their they were on whose caprice or in­ fathers," did there arise the family tiel difference he poun his vials of anger out of which the wider locial bond has and contempt 1 ~ tolerant pantheon grown, and .oftening and civilising of Rome gave welcome to any foreign a~cncie, begin their rair ·offices. In deity with respectable credentials; to hiS battle (or food and .helter, II man's Cybele, the Great Mother, imported in first arms were hands, nails, and teeth, the shape of a rough-hewn stone with and stonel and boughs broken of froll) . pomp and rejoicings from Phrygia 204 the forests, and flame and fire, as soon B.C.; to Isis, welcomed from Egypt; to .s they had become known. Afterwards Henkles, Demeter, Asklepios, and many the force of iron and copper was dis­ another god from Greece. But these covered, and the use of copper was were dismissed from a man'. thought known before that of iron, as its nature when the prayer or lacrifice to them is easier to work, and it is found in had been offered at the due s'!ason. greater quantity. With copper they They had less influence on the toman's would labour the soil of the earth and life than the crowd of native godlings atir up the billows of war .•.••. Then by who were thinly-disguiscd fetishes, and slow steps the aword of iron gained who controlled every action of the day. ground, and the make of the copper For the ·minor gods lurvive the changes sickle became a byword. and with iron in the pantheon of every race. Of the they began to plough through the earth's Greek peasant of to-<1ay Mr. Rennell soil. nnd the struggles of wavering man Rodd testifies, in his C.ulo",s a"tI Lon of were rendered equaL" As to Innguage, ~IoJ"" Gnut, that, much as he would "nature impelled them to uller the shudder at the accusation of Any taint variolls sounds of the ton~e, and use of paganism, the ruling of the Fates is struck out the names of thmgs." Thus more immediately. real to him than 20 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION ------divine omnipotence. Mr. Tozer con­ for including Lucre~us among the firms this in his Higltlands of Turkey. Pioneers of Evolution lies in hiS two He says: "It is rather the minor deities signal and momentous contributions to and those associated with man's ordinary the science of man; namely, the life that have escaped the brunt of the primitive savagery of the human race, storm, and returned to live in a dim and the origin of the belief in a soul twilight of popular belief." In India, and a future life. Concerning the fiN, Sir Alfred Lyall tells us that" even the anthropological research, in its ,'ast supreme triad of Hindu allegory, which accumulation oC materials during the represents the almighty powers of creation, last sixty years, has done little more than preservation and destruction, have long fill in the outline which t:le insight of ceased to preside actively over any such Lucretius enabled him to sketch. As corresponding distribution of functions." to the second, he anticipates, well-nigh Like limited monarchs, they reign, but in detail, the ghost-theory of the origin do not govern; They are superseded by of belief in spirits generally which the ever-increasing crowd of godlings Herbert Spencer and Dr. Tylor, follow­ whose influence is personal and special, ing the lines laid down by Hume and as shown by Mr. Crooke in his instruc­ Turgot (see Part IV., sec. 3), have formu­ . tive Introduction to tlte Popular Religion lated, and sustained by an enormous mass and Folk-lore of Nortltern India. of evidence. The credit thus due to The old Roman catalogue of spiritual Lucretius for the original ideas in his beings, abstractions as they were, who majestic poem-Greek in conception, guarded life in minute detail, is a long and Roman in execution-has been 01> one. From the indigitamenta, as such scured in the general eclipse which that lists are called, we learn that no less poem suffered for centuries through its than forty-three were concerned with anti-theological spirit. Grinding at the the actions of a child. When the same philosophical mill, Aristotle, be­ farmer asked Mother Earth for a good cause of the theism assumed to be in­ harvest, the. pray~r would not avail volved in his" perfecting principle," wa~ unless he also' invoked "the spirit of cited as .. a pillar of the faith" by tho.: breaking up the land and the spirit of Fathers and Schoolmen; while Lucre­ ploughing it crosswise; the spirit of tius, because of his denial of design, furrowing and the spirit of ploughing in was "anathema maranatha." Only in the' seed; and the spirit of harrowing; these days, when the far-reaching effects the spirit of weeding and the spirit of of the Theory of Evolution, supporkd reaping; the spirit of carrying corn to by observation in every branch of in­ the barn; and. the spirit of bringing it quiry, are apparent, are the merits of out again." The country, moreover, Lucretius as an original seer, more than swarmed with Chaldaean astrologers and as an expounder of the teachings of casters of -nativities; with Etruscan Empedocles and Epicurus, made cJt'.ar. haruspices full of "childish lightning­ lore," who foretold events from the Standing well-nigh on the threshold of entrails of sacrificed animals; while in the Christian era, we may pause to ask competition with the~e there was the what is the sum of the speculation into State supported college of augurs to the causes and nature of things which, divine the will of the gods by the cries, begun in Ionia (with impulse more or and direction of the flight, of birds. less slight from the East, in the sixth cen­ Well might the satirist of such a time tury before Christ) by Thales, ceased, for say that the "place was so densely many centuries, in the poem of Lucre­ populated with gods as to leave hardly tius, thus covering an active period of ro~m for the men." about five hundred years. The caution ,It will -be seen that the justification not to see in these specUlations more THALES TO LUCRETIUS 2. than an approximate approach to modem plunomena as dUI 10 llu anlagonism 0/ theories must be kept in mind. repelling a1ld al/ratling tnIIdes of IM/i01l ; J. There i. a primary lubstance which whe" lhe latler owr(Ofllt llu former, abides amid the general flux of things. lIJul1ibrium will be reathed aNi lhe All modem ,.,sea,t" lends 10 SMw Ilial present Ila/e 0/ tllings will tome '" a" llu VQ"iJus tombinalions of mall" a" Ind. /orm,d O/Iom, prima materia. Bul i/.l 6. Water is a necessary condition or ullimal' natu" "",ai,,1 un/mown. life. 2. Out of nothing comes nothing. TlurtfOr'l lift IIat/ ils hginllillKs ill Modem sd"'(1 knows nol"ing oj a waler; a lheory wholly mt/oTstd by beginning, anti, mo"IJfJt" "olds il 10 !I, motkrn biology. unlhidabl,. In IIIis il Ilandl in diretl 7. Life arose out of non-living matter. o/,polilion 10 llu lluologital dogma Ilial Allho,/g" modlrn biology ltaVts 1M God lreal,d tIu IIntVer'S' oul of noilling " origin of lifo as a" illsoluoll probltm, il II dogma ltil/ at(tpled by IhI majo,,'1y of SlIpporlS llu tluory of fonda·menlal to'" Proleslanls and binding on Roman linuity between Iht inorgallit and 1M Calholks. Fo, llu dotlrine ojllu Churc" orga"it. oj Rom, llureon, as expressed in llu 8. Plants came before animals; the Canons of IhI Valitan Couna1, ;s as higher organism. are of separate sex, and fol/ows :-" If anyone tonfisses nol Ihal appeared subsequent to the lower. IhI world and al/ Ihings whk" a" ton­ Generally amjirmed by mod"" biology. Illined in ii, bol" s/,irilllal and menial, bill wil" qllaljfira/io" as 10 lhe unikjined hav, hen, in II~i, tuholl subslantt, pro­ borderland be!wem llu lowesl p/anls and, d/I(td b)' God oul of nolhing; or shall the lowest a"imals. And, of tourse, il say Ihal God (real,d, nol by His frtl will rt(ognises a ronlilluily ill llu order a"d /rom all nutlsity, bill by a nectssity eqllal slIcttlsio" of life whir" wal nol !(1'asped 10 IhI tttlftSsity where!>y He IlJfJts Hims,1f, by 1M Greells. Arislotle a"d olhers "'­ or shal/ deny Ihal 1M world was madt fo", him b,liefJed Ilial some ojllu high" for 1M glory 0/ God: lei "im h forms sp,ang from slimy mailer diretl. analhnna." 9. Adverse conditions cause the ex­ 3. The primary substance i. inde­ tinction of some organisms, thus leaving .tructible. room for those better fitted . Till ",oJem dO(I,,'nl of 1M Conserva­ .lIertin /ay llu (TIlde prm of Ihe modem lion of Energy learlles thai bol" mailer dotln'ne of IIze II sun,it'al o/Ihe jillesl." and molioll tall ",il"er b, trealed "01' 10. Man was the last to appear, and dlslrowd. his primitive state was one of savagery. 4. 'rhe universe is made up of indi­ His first tools and weapons were or visible particle!! called atoms, whose stone; then, after the discovery of manifold combinations, ruled by un­ metals, of copper; and, following that, of alterable affinities, result in the variety iron. His body and soul are alike com­ ofthlOgs. ., pounded of atoms, and the soul IS ex­ ",111 modjfiralions based 011 d,e",ka} as tinguished at death. nltl/ as mtd/Qnt(al thangtS "mong tM Tlu scien(t 0/ Prthislo,,'t ArcAa%D "Mns, Ihis Iheory of Leurl/,/,lIs and Dmlo­ ({mjiN1ls tile lheory 0/ man's slow jass0i." mlns is ((Injirmtti. (Bill rt(tllt t.T/e";' frQ11l barba,,'sm to eMlisalion; a"d 1M mtnls alld diS(lJfJtries IAMu tllat rt(()ff­ scien(t of C_paralit't Psyrhology dedarts SI'II(/;01l of rh""kal theon,s as to th, thaI Ihe tfJIiJen(t of /us im_lality is pro/'trlies 0/111, alom may IIa/,ptl'.) "tilher slron!;er "0' u'ealler Ilian llu S. Change is the law of things. and is eviden(l o/'he immorlality of llu lower brought about by the play of opposing animals. forces. Nodem S(I,n(l I.l:flalllS llu tllan;;es ill Such, in very broad outline, is the 22 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION legacy of suggestive theories bequeathed of parts of which themselves eviJence by the Ionian school and its successors, the survival of the crude and false ideas theories which fell into the rear when about earth and sky Ion;:: prt:vailin~. Athens became a centre of intellectual The more wonderful is it, therefore, life in which discussion passed from the that so much therein points the way physical to those ethical problems which along which inquiry travelled after its lie outside the range of this survey. subsequent long arrest; and the more Although Aristotle, by his prolonged apparent is it that nothing in the history and careful observations, forms a con­ of science or art, and but little in theo­ spicuous exception, the fact abides that logical speculations, at least among us insight, rather than experiment, ruled Westerns, can be understood without Greek speculation, th~ fantastic guesses reference to Greece.

TABLE

Approximate NAMS. PLACK. Date SPECIALITY. I B.C.

lIIiletus Thales 600 Cosmol~ical Th~ory as to) Water (Ionia) the Primary Subslance Anaxim,mder .. 570 .. the Boundless Anaximenes .. 500 .. Air Pythagoras Sam os (near the 500 .. Num!.erl: Ionian coast) Iia Ctl~lnu, huilt up of I:""motrical fig· url"s," or (Grut~. I'lalo. i.12) "gen· er31ed out of nUnl' ber" Xenophanes Colophon 500 Founder of the (Ionia) Elt,atic School Heraclitus Ephesus 500 II hrc (Ionia) Empedocles Al:rigentum 450 Fire.Air, Earth. (Sicily) .. and WaIN: I ruled by Love and Strife Anaxagoras Oazomenae 450 ,. NOll. (Ionia) Leucippns ...... Democritus Abdera 460 }Formulators of the Atomie Theory (Thrace) Aristotle Stagira 350 Naturalist (Macedonia) Epicarus Sarno" 300 I Expounder of the Atomic Theory and ~hic.1 philosopher Lucretius Rome 50 Interpreter of Epicnrus and Empedocl"": the I first Anthropologi;t PART II

THE ARREST OF INQUIRY

A.D. SO-A.D. 40,)

r. From Ihe Early Chrislian Period 10 Ihe Tillie of AU,(JIstille

.. A revealed dOJ:l1Ul il IlwlY. opposed to the (tee rest.... rch thaI may cc.nlradict iL The result o( lCience I. not to ban,"" lhe divine aho;:elher, but ever to place it at a 1:'C:lllcr di~lance from ll ..: worl.1 o( particular facts in which men once believed they laW il."-R~;~'\s, Essay on IslallliSlIl .."J SOl"".

A DETAILED account o( the rise and has been ousted from the country in progress o( the Christian religion is not which it rose i and why, in competition within the scope of this book. But as with Brahmanism, as Sir Alfred Lyall that religion, more especially in the testifies in his Asiatic Studies (p. 110), elaborated theological (orm which it and with Mohammedanism in Africa, it ultimately assumed, became the chief has less success than these in the barrier to the development of Greek mission fields where it comes into ideas; except, as has been remarked, rivalry with them. Riven into wrangling in the degree that these were represented sects from an early period of its history, by Aristotle, and brought into harmony it has, while exercising a beneficent with it; a short survey of its origin and influence in turbulent and lawless ages, early stages is necessary to the continuity brought not .. peace on earth, but a of our atory. sword." It has been thl! cause of un­ The history o( that great movement is dying hate, of bloody wars, and of per­ told according to t!"le bias of the writers. secutions between parties and nations, They explain its rapid diffusion and its whose animosity seems the deeper when ultimate triumph over Paganism as due stirred by matters which are incapable either to its divine origin and guidance, of proof. As Montaigne says, "Nothin~ or to the favourable conditions of the is so firmly believed as that which is time of its early propagation, and to that least known." To bring the Christian wise adaptation to circumstances which religion, or rather, its manifold forms, linked its (ortunes with those of the (rom the purest spiritualistic to such progressive peoples o( Western Europe. degraded type as exists, for examyle, in In the judgment of every unofficial Abyssinia, within the operation of the narrator this latter explanation best law which governs development, and accords 1\·ith the facts of history and 1\'hich, therefore, includes putial and with the natural causes which largely local corruption, is to make its history determine success or failure. The most as clear AS it is profoundly instructive; , partisan advocates of its supernatural while to demand for it an origin and And, therefore, special character, have character different in kind from other to show reason why the fortunes of the religions is to import confusion into the Christian religion ha\'e varied like those story of mankind, and' to raise a swarm of other great religions, both older and of artificial difficulties. "If," as John Youru!er than it: whv. like Buddhism. it Morlev observes in his criticism or 24 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

Turgot's dissertation upon "The Ad­ kindred examples show, incarnates and vantages that the Establishment of then deifies the object of its worship, Christianity has conferred upon the was the belief in the manifestation of the Human RAce" (~Iiscell. ii. 90), II there divine through the human Jesus, who had been in the Christian idea the had borne men's griefs, carried their mysterious self-sowing quality so con­ sorrows, and offered rest to the weary stantly claimed for it, how came it that and heavy-laden. For no religion-and in the Eastern part of the Empire it here Evolution comes in as witncss­ was as powerless for spiritual or moral can take root which does not adapt regeneration as it was for political health itself to, and answer some need of, the' and vitality; while in the Western part heart of man. Hence the importance it became the organ of the most im­ of study of the history of all rdigions. portant of all the past transformations of Evdlution knows only one heresy­ the civilised world? Is not the differ­ the denial of continuity. Recognising ence to be explained by the difference the present as the outcome of the in the surrounding medium, and what past, it searches after origins. It knolVs is the effect of such an explanation that that which revolts us in man's upon the supernatural claims of the spiritual history has, alike \\;th that Christian idea?" Its inclusion as one which attracts, its place, its necessary of other modes, varying only in degree, place, in the development of ideas, nnd by which man has progressed from the is, therefore, capable of explanation "ape and tiger" stage to the highest from its roots upwards. For this age ideals of the race, makes clear what is sympathetic, not flippant. . It looks concerns us here-namely, its attitude with no favour on criticism that is only towards secular knowledge, and the destructive, or on ridicule or ribaldry as consequent serious arrest of that know­ modes of attack on current Leliefs. ledge. That a religion which its followers Hence we have the modern science of claim to be of supernatural origin, and comparative theology, with its Hibbert secured from error by the perpetual Lectures and Gifford Lectures, which guidance of a Holy Spirit, should have are critical and constructive; as opposed opposed inquiry into matters the faculty to Bampton Lectures, Boyle and Hulse for investigating which lay within human Lectures, which are apologetic, the power and province; that it should speaker holding an official brief. Of actually have put to death those who the Boyle Lectures, Collins the " Deist" dared thus to inquire, and to make caustically said that nobody doubted known what they had discovered; is a the existence of the Deity till they set problem which its advocates may settle to work to prove it. Religions are no among themselves. It is no problem to longer treated as true or false, as in­ those who take the opposite view. ventions of priests or of divine origin, In outlining the history of Christianity but as the product of man's intellectual stress will be here laid only upon those speculations, however crude or coarse; elements which caused it to be an and of his spiritual needs, no matter in arresting force in man's intellectual what repulsive form they are satisfied. development, and, therefore, in his For" proofs" and" evidences" we have spiritual emancipatioI\ from terrors be­ substituted explanations. Nevertheless, gotten of ignorance. It does not fall so strong, often so bitter, are the feelings within our survey to speak of that aroused over the most temperate dis­ primary element in it which was before cussion of the origin of Christianity all dogma, and which may survive when that it remains necessary to repeat that dogma has become only a matter of to explain is not to attal k and that to antiquarian interest. That element, narrate is not to apportion blame. For born of emotion, which, as a crowd of no religion can do aught than reflect the THE ARREST OF INQUIRY

temper of the age in which it flourishes. from home was the preaching of an Let u. now lummarise certain occur­ enthusiastic ascetic named John the rence. which, although familiar enough, Baptist. At ~s hands Jesus 1Ub­ must be repeated for the clear under­ mitted to the baptismal rite, and then standing of their effects. entered on his career, wandering from Some sixty years after the death of place to . place. The fragments of his Lucretius there happ'ened, in the lub-. discourses, which have survived in the leqllcnt belief of nullions of mankind, short biographies known as the GospelS; an event for which all that bad gone show him to have been gifted with a before in the history of this planet i. simple, winning style, and his sermons, laid to have been a preparation. In brightened by happy iIlustration or the fulnells of time the Omnipotent striking parable, went home to ~he hearts maker and ruler of a universe to which of his hearers. Women, often of the no boundaries Can be let by ~uman outcast class, were drawn to him by the . thought lent to this earth-speck no less sympathy which attracted even more • person than Hi. Eternal Son. He than his teaching. Among a people was laid to have been born, not by the to whom the unvary:ng order of nature natural processes of generation, but to was an idea wholly foreign-for Greek have \jeen incarnated in th" womb of a Ipeculations had not penetrated into virgin, retaining hi. divine nature while Palestine--stories of miracle-working subjecting it to human limitations. This found easy credit, falling-in, as they did, he had done that he might, as.. lin- with popular belief in the constant in­ 1e51 man, become an expiatory sacrifice tervention of deity. Thus to the reports to offended deity, and to the require­ of what Jesus taught were added those ments of divine justice, for the sins of the wonders which he had wrought, which the human race had committed from feeding thousands of Colk with a since the transgression of Adam and few loaves of bread to raising the dead Eve, or which men yet to be born might to life. His itinerant mission secured commit. him a few devoted followers from various The "miraculous u birth of Jesus took towns and villages; while the effect of place at Namreth in Galilee, in the success upon himself was to heigh'ten his rcib'll of Cresar Augustus, about 750 own conception of the importance of his A.V.C., al the Romans reckoned time. work. The skill of the Romans in fusing Tradition afterwards fixed his birthday together subject-races had failed them in on the 25th December, which, curiously the case of the Jews, whose belief in enough, although, perhaps, explaining their special place in the world as the . the choice, was the day dedicated to the .. chosen people" never forsook them. lun-god Mithra, an Oriental deity to Nor had their misfortunes weakened whom altars had been raised and sacri­ their belief that the Messiah predicted fices performed, with rites of baptisms by their prophets would appear to deliver of blood, in hospitable Rome. them, and plant their feet on the neck Jesus is said to have lived in the of the hated conqueror. This hope. as obscurity of his native mountain village became a pious Jew, Jesus shared, but till his thirtieth year. Except one it set him brooding on somt: llobler, doubtful story of his going to Jerusalem because more spiritual, conception of it with his parents when he was twelve than his fellow-countrymen nurtured. years old, nothing is recorded in the }<'inally, it led him to the belief, fostered various biographies ot him between his by the ambition of his nearer disciples, birth and his appearance as a public which was, however, material in its hopes, teacher. Probably be followed his that he was the spiritUal Messiah. In father's trade as a carpenter. The that faith he repaired to Jerusalem at the event that seems to have called him time of the Passover feast when the city PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION was crowded with devotees, that he might, to the incident in conversation with a before the chief priests and elders, make Roman friend who had loved a Jewish his appeal to the nation. According to maiden ;- the story, his daring in clearing the holy " A (ew months after I had lost .il;ht o( her I temple of moneychangers and traders led heard by accident that she had joined a 1m all to his appearance before the Sanhedrin, party o( men and women who were following a young Galilean miracle-worker. II;' name wu the highest judicial council; his plain· Jesus, he came from Nazareth, and he Wl\I ness of speech raised the fury of the crucified (or I don't know "'hM crime. l'ontiu5, sects; and when, dreaming of a purer do you remember this man 7' Pontius Pilate faith, he spoke ominous words about the knit his brow, and put hi. hand to hi. forehead destruction of the temple, the charge of like one who is searching his memory; then, after a few moments of silence: U Jesu;. " murmured blasphemy was laid against him. His he, "lesus of Nazardh. No,l don't remember guilt was made clear to his judges when, him.' answering a question of the high priest, On the third day after his death Jesus he declared himself to be the Messiah. is said to have risen from the grave and This, involving claim to kingship over appeared to a faithful few of his disciples. the Jews, and therefore rebellion against On the fortieth day after his resurrection the Empire, was made the plea of haling he is said to have ascended to heavt!n. hiin before the Roman governor, Pontius Both these statements rest on the Pilate, for trial. Pilate, looking upon authority of the biographies which were the whole affair as a local IIII~ut~, was compiled some years after his death, disinclined to severity, but nothing short Jesus wrote nothing himself; therefore of the death of Jesus as a blasphemer the" brethren," as his intimate followers (although his chief offence appears to called one another, had no other sacred have been his disclaimer of earthly books than those of the Old Testament, sovereignty) would satisfy the angry mob. They believed that J eSU5 was the Messiah Amidst their taunts and jeers he was predicted in Daniel and some of thl! taken to a place named Calvary and apocryphal writings, and they cherished there put to death by the torturing certain" logia " or sayin;;s of his which process of crucifixion, or, the particular formed the basis of the first three mode not being clear, of transfixion on Gospels. The earliest of these, that a stake. bearing the name of Mark, probably The tragic event, on which, as is still took the shape in which we have it (some widely held, hang the destinies of man­ spurious verses at the end excepted) kind to the end of time, attracted no about 70 A.D. The fourth Gospel, which attention outside J ud::ea. In the Roman tradition attributes to John, is generally eye, cold, contemptuous, and practical, believed to be half a century later than it was but the execution of a troublesome Mark. It seems likely that the impor­ fanatic who had embroiled himself with tance of collecting the words of Jesus his fello~-coimtrymen, and added the into any permanent form did not occur crime of sedition to the folly of !>Ias­ to those who had heard them, because phemy. Pilate himself passed on, the belief in his spee,\,- return was al1- without more ado, to the next duty. powerful among them, and their life Tradition, anxious to prove that retribu­ arid attitude towards everything shaped tion followed his criminal nct, as it was accordingly, judged in after-time to be, tells how he Without sacred books, priesthood. or flung himself in remorse from the moun­ organisation, these earliest disciples, tain known as Pilatus, which overlooks whom the fate of the leader had dri ven the Jake of Lucerne. With truer insight, into hiding for a time, gathered them­ a striking modern story, L' Elui de Nacre, selves into groups for communion and by Anatole France, makes Pilate, on his worship. "In the church of Jeru­ retirement to Sicily in old age, thus refer salem," says Selden in his Tabk Ta/~ TilE ARREST- OF INQUIRY 27

"(xiv.), .. the Christians were but another in Oriental mysticism. The story 0( lect of Jews that did believe the Messias progress ran smoothly till A.D. 6.. when was com~." From that sacred city there we first hear o( the" Christians "-(or went forth preachers of this simple doc­ by such name they bad become known trine through the land$ where Greek­ -in" profane" history, as it was once ftl>cakin;t Jews, known as those of the oddly called. Tacitus, writing many l>ispersion, had ken long lettled. years after the event, tells how, on the 'Ine~c formed a very important element night of the 18th July, in the sixty-fourth in thl! Roman Empire, being scattered year of our era, a fierce fire broke out from Mia Minor to Egypt, and thence in Rome, causing the destruction of in all the hnds washed by the Mediter­ magnificent buildings raised by Augustu!l, rallt~an. A, thdr racial isolation and and of priceless ,,;orks of Greek art. national hopes made them the least Suspicion fell on Nero, aDd he, as has contented alllong the subject·peoples, a been suggested, was instigated by his wife, leries of tolerant measures securing them Popp:.!a Sabina, an unscrupulous woman certain privileges, subject to loyal be­ and, according to some authorities,.a haviour, had ken prudently granted by convert to Judaism, "to put an end to their Roman ma1ters. 'Ine new teaching the common talk by imputing the fire to spread from Antioch to Alexandria and others, visiting, with a refinement of Rome. J3ut early in the onward career punishment, those detestable criMinals (}f the movement a division broke out who went by the name of Christians. llmon;; the immediate disciples of Jesus The author of that denomination was which ended in lasting rupture. A dis­ Christus, who had been executed in the tinguished convert had been won to time of Tiberius, by the procurator, the faith in the person of the Apostle Pontius Pilate. If Tacitus goes on to Paul He is the real founder of Chrilr describe Christianity as "a pestilent tianity as a more or less Iystematised Superstition," and its adherents as guilty creed, and all the developments of dogma of .. hatred to the human race."· The which followed are integral parts of the indictment. on the face . of it, seems structure raised by him. He converted str.mge, but it has an explanation, it from a local religion into a widespread although the Christians were brutally faith. This came about, at the start, murdered on the charge of arson, and through his defeat of the narrower not of superstition. So far as religious section headed by Pder, who would persecution went, they suffered this first have compelled all non·Jewish con­ at the hands of Jews, the Empire inter­ verts to submit to the rite of circum­ vening to protect them. Broadly jipeak­ cision. ing, the Roman note was toleration. The unity of the Empire gave Chris­ Throughout the Empire religion was a tianity its chance•. Through the con­ national affair, because it began and nection of Eurasia from the Euphrates to ended \'lith the preservation of the State. the Atlantic by magnificent roads, com­ Thereupon it was the binding d'lty­ Ulunicntion between peoples followed rtligi~of every citizen to pay due the lines of least resistance. Happily honour to the protecting gods on whose for the future of Christianity, the e:uly favour the safety of the StJ.te depended. missionaries tra\'elled westward, in the That done, a man might believe what he wake of thtl dispersed Jews, along the chose. Polytheism is, from its nature, Mediterranean seaboard, and thus its easy·going and tolerant: so lang as fortunes became identified with the civi­ there. was no open opposition to the lising portion of mankind. Had they authorised public worship, the wor­ lra\'c1lcd eastward, it might have been shipper could explain it any _oay he blt'nded with Buddhism, or, as its chose. In Greece a man " might believe Al)Tlostic phases show, bt.-come meq;ed or disbelieve that the Mysteries taught 28 PIONEERS OF EV('LUTION tht! doctrine of immortality; the essen· of Christianity in the terms quoted; that tial thing was that he should duly Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius (who sacrifice his pig." In Rome, that nst refen to it only once in his Jlldilah','lfJ) Cosmopolis, II the ordinary pag:m did dismissed it with a scornful phrase; that not care two straws whether his neigh. the common people called it atheistic; bour worshipped twenty gods or twenty· that, finally, it became a proscribed and one." Why should he care? perSecuted religion. Now, against al\ this the Christians Further than this there is no need to set their faces sternl\', and the result was pursue its career until, with whollychan~ed to make them regarded as anti·patriotic fortunes, we mcet it as a toleratt:d and anti·social. Their success among religion under a so-call~d Christi.1n the lower classes had been rapid. Chris· Emperor. 1'he object in tracin; it thus tianity levcl\ed all distinctions: it far is to indicate how enthusilst~, thus welcomed the master and his slave, the filled with an anti-worldly spirit, would outcast and the pure: it treated woman become and remain an arresting force as the spiritual equal of man: it held against the advance of inquiry and, Ol1t to each the hope of a future life. therefore, of knowledge; and how, as Thus far all was to the good, although their religion gathered power, and itself the old Mithraic religion had done wel\· became worldly in policy, it would the nigh as much. But Christianity had held more strongly assert supremacy O\'<:r aloof from the common social life, the reason. For intelb:tual :\cti\'ity putting itself out of touch with the mani· would lead to inquiry into the claims and fold activity of Rome. It sought to authority of the Church, and inquiry, apply certain maxims of Jesus literally j therefore, was the thin;; to' be proscri be,\. it discouraged marriage, it brought dis· Then, too, the committal of the floating union into family life; it counselled biographies of Jesus to written form, avoidance of service in the army, of accep­ and their grouping, with the letters of the tance of any public office. This general apostles, into one more or less compkte attitude was wholly due to the belief collection, to be afterwards called the that with the return of Jesus the end of New Testament (a collection held tn the world was at hand. For Jesus had embrace, as the theory of inspiration foretold his second coming, and the became formulated, all that it is needful earliest epistles of the apostles bade the for man to know), would create a further faithful prepare for it. Here there was barrier against intellectual activity. Then, no continuing city; citizenship was in as Christianity came into nearer touch heave.n. for the kingdom of Christ was with the enfeebled remnants of Greek not of this world. Therefore, to gi\'e philosophy, and with other fureign in­ thought to the earthly and fleeting was fluences shaping its dogma's, discussions folly and impiety; for who would care to about the person of Christ became acti\·e. heap up wealth, to strive for place or to The simple, fluent creed of the early pursue pleasure, or to search after what Christians took rigid form in the subtk'­ men call "wisdom," when these im· ties of the Nicene Creed, and as .. Very perilled the soul and blocked the way to God of Very God" the final appeal was, hea\'en? _ logically, to the words of Jesus. lIence The prejudice created by this belief, another barrier against inquiry. expressed in such direct action as refusal Conflict has never arisen on the ethical to worship the guardian gods and the sayings of Jesus, lI'hich, making allowance " genius" of the Emperor, was deepened for the impracticableness of a few, place by ugly, although baseless, rumours as to him high among the sages of antiquity. the cruel and immoral things done by Comparing their teaching with hi!!, it is the Christians at their secret meetings. easy to group together maxims which do And so it came to nass that Tacitus snoke not yield to the more famous exanlf>lc. THE ARREST OF INQUIRY

in the Sermon on the Mount u guides current in Assyria and Phrenicia· frag­ to conduct, or u inspiration to high ments have been preserved .-hich exhibit ideals. 1be" golden rule" is anticipated points of resemblance to the Bible narra­ by Plato's .. Thou shalt not take that tives sufficient to warrant the inference which i. mine, and may I do to other. that both are derived from the &aIDe as I would that they should do to me" cycle of traditions.· If, tberefore, the (Jowett, Trans. v. 483). And it i.e cosmogonic and other legends are in­ parallded by Isocrates, a contemporary spired, so must also t~e common original of Plato, in these words, which he puts of these and their corresponding stories . into the mouth of King Nicocles, when be inspired. The matter might be addressing governorl: .. You should be pursued through the patriarchal age to to others what you think I should be the eve of the Exodus, showing that to you." But if there was nothing new here also the mythical element is domi­ in what Jesus taught, there was freshness nant, the existence of Abraham him­ in the method. Contlict is 1I'aged only lieU dissolving in the solution of the over statements the nature and limits of "higher criticism." As to the Pentateuch. which might be expected from the place the larger number of scholars place its and age" hen they were delivered. They composition, in the form in which we "'ho hold that Jesus was God the Son have it--older documents being blended Eternal, and therefore incapable of error, therein-about the sixth and fifth cen­ may reconcile, as best they can with turies B.c. this, his belief in the mischievous delu­ Jesus spoke of the earth as if it were sions of his time. If they say that so flat and the most important among the mUl:h of this as may be reported in the heavenly bodies. Knowledge of the records of his life are spurious, they active speculations that went on centuries t1I1IJW the whole contents of the before his time on the Ionian seaboard j go!'pels into the melting-pot of criticism. prevision of what secrets men would Taking the narratives as we have them, wrest from the stars centuries hence-of documents stamped with the hall-marlt neither did he dream. That Homer and of the centuries, "declaring, OJ as a body Virgil had sung; that Plato had dis­ of clergymen proclaimed recently, .. in­ coursed j that Buddha ~ad founded a contro\'crtibly the actual historical truth religion with which his, when Western in all records, both of past events Ilnd activity met Eastern passivity, would of the delivery of predictions to be vainly compete: these, and aught else thereafter fulfilled," we learn that Jesus that has moved the great world without, accepted the accuracy of the sacred were unknown to the Syrian teacher, 1I'ritings of his people j that he spoke of Jesus believed in an arch-fiend, who Moses as the author of the Pentateuch j was permitted by Omnipotence, the that he referred to its legends as dealing Omnipotence against ""hicb be had re­ 1I'ith historical persons, and as reporting belled, to set loose countless num be:s of actual events. All these beliefs are evil spirits to work havoc on men and refuted by the critical scholarship of to­ animals. Jesus also believed in a hell of day. We need not go to Germany for eternal torment for the wicked, and in the verdict j it is endorsed by eminent Ii henen of unending happiness ror the Heblaists, officials of the Church of good. There is no surer index or the England. Canon Driver, Professor of intellectual st.1ge of any people than the Hebrew at Oxford, says that, "like other degree in ... hich belief in the supema\ural, people, the Jews formed theories to and especially in the activity of super­ account for the beginnings of the eartb natural agents, rules their lives. The and man "; that" they either did this for lower we descend, the more detailed and themseh'es, or borrowed from their familiar is the assumption of knowledge neighbours,· ad that ." of the theories of the behaviour of these agents, and of PIONEERS OF E VOLt/T/ON the nature of the places they come from in the assumed authority of Scripture as or haunt. Of this, medireval speculations a full revelation of both. earthly and on demonology, and modem books of heavenly things, and (3) in the assumed anthropology, supply any number of infallibility of the words of Jesus reported examples. Here we are concerned only therein; we have three factors which with the momentous fact that belief in suffice to expl:tin why the great move­ demoniacal activity pervades the New ment towards discovery of the orderly Testament from beginning to end, and, relations of phenomena was arrested for therefore, gave the warrant for the un­ centuries, and theories of capricious speakable cruelties with which that belief government of the universe shdtercd has stained the annals of Christendom. and upheld. John Wesley was consistent when he While, as ha.~ been said, the unity of wrote that "Giving up the belief in witch­ the Empire secured Christianity its (or· craft was, in effect, giving up the Bible"; tunate start, the multiform elements of and it may be added that giving up which the Empire was made up­ belief in the devil is, practically, giving philosophic and PJgan-being gn\dually up belief in the atonement-the central absorbed by Christianity, secured it doctrine of the Christian faith. To this acceptance among the different subject­ the early Christians would have sub­ peoples. The break-up of the Empire scribed; so, also, would the great secured its supremacy. Augustine, who said that "nothing is to The absorption of foreign ideas and be accepted save on the authority of practices by Christianity, largely through Scripture, since greater is that authority the influence of Hellenic Jews, WIlS an than all the powers of the human mind"; added cause of arrest of inquiry. The so would all who have followed him in adoption of pagan rites and customs, ancient confessions of the faith. It is resting, as these did, on the bed-rock of only the amorphous form of that faith barbarism, dragged it to & lower le,-c\. which, lingering on, aruemic and bone­ The intrusiun of philosophic 5uLtleties less, denies by evasion. led to terms being mistaken for explana­ But they who abandon belief in male­ tions: as Gibbon says, .. the pride of ficent demons and witches; as also, for the professors and of their disciples was this follows, in beneficent agents, as satisfied with the science of words." angels; - land themselves in serious The inchoate and mobile character of dilemma. For to this are such com­ Christianity during the first tbree cen­ mitted. If Jesus, who came "that he turies gave both influences-ragan and might destroy the works of the devil," philosophic-their opportunity. For long and who is reported, among other proofs years tbe converts scatten:d throughout of his divine ministry, to have cast out the Empire were linked together, in more demons from "possessed" human beings, or less regular federation, Ly the acknow· and,inonecase, to have permitted a crowd ledgment of Christ as Lord, and Ly the of the infernal agents to enter into a hud expectation of bis 5ec(Jnd cuming. of swine; if he verily believed that he There was no official pril~thood, only actually did these things; and if it be overseers-" episkopoi" for social pur­ true that the belief is a superstition poses, who made no claims to apostolic limited to the ignorant or barbaric mind, succession; no formulated set of doc­ what value can be attached to any state­ trines; no Apostles' Creed; no dogmas ment/hat Jesus is reported /0 have made of baptismal regeneration or of the real about a spiniual world 1 presence; no worship or apotheosis of Here, .then, (i) in the attitude of the Mary as the Mother of God; no worship early Christians towards all mundane of saints or rdics. affairs as of no moment compared with On the philosoplzic sirk, it was the those affecting their soul's salvation; (z) Greek influence.in the person of the THE ARREST OF INQUIRY 31 nore educated converts that shaped the Empire i and hence the prominence and log mas of the Church and sought to authority, from an early period, of the )lcnd them with the occult and mys­ bishop of Rome. In the liimple and :erioul elements in Oriental Iystems, of business-like act of his election as chair­ which modern .. Theosophy" is the man of the gatherings lay the germ o( lenuous parody. That old Greek habit the audacious and preposterous claims i)f asking questions, of seeking to reach of the Papacy. the reason of things, which, as has been . On the pagan sitle, the course of de­ seen, gave the great impulse to scientific velopment is not &0 easily traced. To inquiry, was as active al ever. Appeals determine when and where this or that to the Old Testament touched not the custOin or rite arose is now impossible; Greek as they did the Jewish Christian, indeed, we may say, without exaggeration, and the Canon of th!) New Testament that it never arose at all, because the was as yet unsettled. Strange as it may conditions (or its adoption were present leem in view of the assumed divine throughout in human tendencies. The origin of the Gospels and Epistles, first Christian disciples were Jews i and human judgment took upon itself to the ritual which they followed was the decide which of them were, and which direct outcome of ideas common to aU were not, an integral part of supernatural barbaric religions, so that certain of the revelation. The ultimate vl.'rdict, 10 far pagan rites and ceremonies with which as the Western Church was concerned, they came in contact in all parts o( the was dd;verf:d by the Council of Carthage Empire fitted-in with custom, tradition, in the early part of the fifth century. and desire. And this !Wplies, with There arose a Ichool of Apologists, stronger force, to the converts scattered founders of theology, who, to quote (rom Edcssa, east of the Euphrates, to Gibbon, "equipped the Christian religion the Empire's westernmost limits in (or the conquest of the Roman world by Britain. Moreover, we know that a changing it into a philosophy, attested policy of adaptation and conciliation by Revelation. They mingled together wisely governed the ruling minds of the the metaphysics of l'latonism, the doc­ Chorch, in whom, stripped of all the trine of the Logos, which came from the verbiage about them as semi-inspired Stoics, morality partly Platonic, partly successors of the apostles, there was Stoic, methods of argument and inter­ deep -seated superstition. Paganism pretation learnt from l'hilo, with the might, in its tum, be suppressed by pregnant maxims of Jesus and the reli­ Imperial edict, bout it had too much in gious language of the Christian tOngre­ common with the latter forms of Chris­ I!ations." Thus the road was opened tianity not to survive in fact, however for additions to dogmatic theology, doc­ changed in name. trines of the Trinity, of the Virgin Birth, It may be taken as a truism that in and whatever else could be inferentially the ceremonies of the higher religions extracted from the Scriptures and there are no inventions, only survi°lals. blended with foreign ideas. The ~row­ This fact set thinkers like Hobbes, and ing complexity of creed called (or mter­ dealers in antiquities of the type of pretation of it, and this obviously fell to Burton, Bishop Newton, and, notablest the overseers or bishops, chosen for their of all, Conyers Middleton, on the search special gifts o( .. the grace of the truth." after parallels, ,,-hich have received These met, as occasions required, to astonishing confirmation in our day. discuss subjects alTecting the faith and Burton sees the mimicry of the" arch­ discipline o( the several groups. Among deceiver in the strange sacraments, the luch, precedence, as a matter of course, priests, and the sacrifices," as the would be accorded to the overseer of the Romanist missionaries to Tibet saw the most important Christian society in the same diabolical parody of their rites in PIONEERS OF EVOLU110N

Buddhist temples. But Hobbes, with him of aculptures on ancient bas-reliei~ the sagacity which might be expected of ~ representing heathen sacrifice. with .1:\ him, recognises the continuity of ideas: I white

affairs, do not you see here by this Hibb,rt Lectures Professor Rhys Davids number of pictures bow many people, refers to cburches dedicated to Notre for the sake of their vows, have been Dame in virtue oC legends concerning the laved in storms at lea, and got into discovery of images of the Virgin on the harbour ?" .. Yes," answered Diagoras, spot. These were usually of wood, which .. I see how it is; (or those are never had turned black in tbe soil. Such a black painted who bappen to be drowned." .. Madonna" was (ound near Grenoble, There i. nothing new under the 11In., in the commune of La louche. Then, Horace (Odes, bk. i., v.) tells of the in the titles of the new deities, Middleton Ihipwrecked sailor who hung up hi. correctly lees those o( the old. The clothes AI a thank-olTering in the temple Queen of Heaven reminds bim of Astarte o( the lea-god who had preserved him; or Mylitta; the Divine Mother of the Polydorus Vergilius, who lived in the Magna Mater, the .. great mother" of early part of the lixteenth century-that Oriental cults. In other attributes of is, lome 1,500 years after Horace­ Marr, lineal descendant of Isis, there describes the classic custom of ,% volo lurvlve those of Venus, Lucina, Cybele, olTerings at length; while Pennant the or Maria. He gives amusing examples antiguary, describinl? the well of Saint of myths and misreadings through which Wimfred in F1intshlfe in the last cen· certain .. saints" have a place in the tury, tells o( the votive offerings, in the Roman Calendar. He apparently knew shape of crutches and other objects, nothing of tbe strange confusion by which which were hung about it. To this day Buddha appears therein under the title the store is receiving additions. The of Saint Josaphat; but he tells how, by sick crowd thither as oC old they crowded misinterpretation of a boundary stone into the temples of iEsculapius and (Praefectu-S.), Viarum, an 'overseer of Sera pis; mothers bring thei~ sick children highways, became S. Viar; how S. as in Imperial Rome they took them to Veronica secured canonisation through the Temple of Romulus and Remus. a blunder over the words Vera Icon: A draught of water from the basin near still more droll, bow hagiology includes the 'bath, or a plunge in the bath itself, both a mountain and a mantel I is followed by prayers at the altar of the The marks of bands or feet on rocks, chapel which encloses the well. When said to be made by the apparition of the saint's (east-day is held, the afflicted some saint or angel, call to mind .. the gather to kiss the reliquary that holds impression of Hercules' feet on a stone her hones. Perhaps one of the most in Scythia "; the picture of the Virgin, pathetic sights in Catholic churches. which came from heaven, suggests the especially in out-of-the-way villages, is descent of Numa's shield" from the the altars on which are hung votive clouds "; that of the weeping Madonna otTering~, rude daubs depicting the the statue of Apolla, which Livy says disease or danger from which the wept for three successive days and nights; worshipper has been delivered. wbile tbe periodical miracle of the lique­ As to the images, tricked-out in curious faction of the blood of St. Januirius is robes and gewgaws, Middleton II could obviously paralleled in the incidents not help recollecting the. picture which named by Horace on his journey to old J lamer draws of Q. Hem"a of Troy, Brundusium, when the priests of the prostlJ.ting herself before the ",;,amIOlls temple at Gnatia sought to persuade him Jlllag, of Pallas," while his wonder at that" the frankincense used to dissolve the Loretto image o( tbe ., Queen of and melt miraculously witbout the help Heaven" with" a (ace as black as a of fire" (Sal. v. 97-100). Negus II reminds bim of the reference in Middleton, and those of bis school, Baruch to the idols black with the" per­ thought that they were near primary petual smoak o( lamps and incense. • In his formations when they struck on these 34 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION suggest1ve classic or pagan parallels to eating bread sacramentally being obviou!. Christian belief and custom. But in truth The fundamental idea of this sacramental they had probed a comparatively recent act, as the mass of examples collected layer; since, far beneath, lay the un­ by Mr. Frazer further goes to show, is suspected prehistoric deposits of barbaric that by eating a thing its physical and ideas which are coincident with, and mental qualities are acquired. So the composed of, man's earliest speculations barbaric mind reasons, and extends the about himself and his surroundings. notions to all beings. To quote Mr. When, however, we borrow an illustration Frazer: II By eating the body of thtl god from geology, it must be remembered he shares in the god's attributes and that our divisions, like those into which powers. And when the god is a cor~ the strata of the globe are separated, are god, the corn is his proper body; wh~F artificial. There is no real detachment. he is a vine-god, the juice of the: grape fhe difference between former and is his blood; and so, by eating the bread present methods of research is that now­ and drinking the wine, the worshipper a-days we have gone further down for partakes of the real body and blood of discovery of the common materials of his god. Thus the drinking of wine in which barbaric, pagan, and civilised ideas the rites of a wine-god like Dionysus is are compounded. They arise in the not an act of revelry; it is a solemn comparison which exists in the savage sacrament." It is, perhaps, needless to mind between the living and the non­ point out that the same explanation living, and. in the attribution of like applies to the rites attaching to iJemeter, qualities to things superficially resembling or to add what further parallels are one another; hence belief in their efficacy, suggested in the belief that Dionysus which takes active form in what may be was slain, rose again, and descended into generally termed magic. For example, Hades to bring up his mother Semdl! the rite of baptism is eltplained when we from the dead. This, however, oy the connect it with barbaric lustrations and way. What has to be empha~ised is, water-worship generally; as also that of that in the quotation just given we have the Eucharist by reference to sacrificial transubstantiation clearly anticipated as feasts in honour of the gods; feasts at the barbaric idea of eating the gr)d_ In which they were held to be both the proof of the underlying continuity of eaters and the eaten. Middleton, him­ that idea two witnessc~-Catholic and self a clergyman, shows perplexity when Protestant-may be cited. watching the elevation of the host at The Church of Rome-and in this the mass. He lacked that knowledge of the Greek Church is at one therewith-thu. origin of sacramental rites which study defines the term transubstantiation in the of barbaric customs has since supplied. Canon of the Council of Trent:- In Mr. Frazer's' Goldell Bough, the If anyone shall ""y that in the most h',ly " central idea" of which is "the concep­ sacrament of the Euchari;t there remains the tion of the slain god," he shows at what suhstanee of bread and wine together with the an early stage in his speculations man body and blood of our Lord J

illustration of &he position of its "High· manifold forms of that great cult of the section, and this, it is interesting to note, departed which is found throughout the from the church of which Mr. Gladstone's world. To this may be linked the IJtliel IOn is rector, and in which the dis­ in angels, whether good or bad, or tinguished statesman himself often read guardian, because the element common _ the le550ns :- to the whole is animistic, the peopling of the heavens above, aslell as the earth A few Sundarl -e0-8 o'clock celebration 01 beneath, with an innumerable company lIuly C,mmunlOn. Ilcctor officiatin, miniltcr of spiritual beings influencing the des­ (lbw.nlen Church). , W hen V,. point wal reachcd row the communi· tinies of men. Well might Jews and cantl to parlake, oords containine a hymn to be Moslems reproach the Christians, as I\lnr artc, Communion were diauibuted amone they did down to the eighth century, Ihe congrel:"lion. Thil hymn opened with the with baving filled the world with more rullowine couplel 1- gods dun they had overthrown in the .. J_a, mighty Saviour, 'rholl an i" UI now." pagan temples; while we have Erasmus, In his E"comjum Mon'ae, when reciting And my attentioD ... an_ted by an asterisk rderrine to a rootDole. The word" in," iD the the names and functions of saints, IIecond line, was printed in italic., and the Dote adding that" as many things as we wish Intimated thai tbOle who had .01 communicated 10 lI1any gods have we made." Closely Ihould line .. flli/4" inatead of .. tit "-t.,., -related to this group or beliefs is the thoac wbo had taken the cOJUecrated clementa 10 linr .. Thou a,1 i. a. DOW," and Ihoac who atioralioll 01 relits, the vitality of which had not to line .. Tholl arl flli/4 UI now." has springs too deep in human nature to be wholly abolished, whether we carry Whether, therefore, the cult be bar­ about us a lock from the hair of some baric or civilised, we find theory and dead loved one, or read of the fragments practice identical. The god is eaten so of saints or martyrs which lie beneath that the communicant thereby becomes every Catholic altar, or or the skull·bones a .. partaker of the divine nature." of his ancestor which the savage carries In the gestures denoting sam,dolal about with him as a charm. Then there 6enedklioll we have probably an old form is the long list of (hunll ftshvals, the of averting the evil eye. in the IJrtalhing reference of which to pagan prototypes on a bishop at a service of consecration is but one step towards their ultimate there was the survival of belief in trans­ explanation. of nature·worship; there are ference of spiritual qualities, the soul the proasslons which are the successors being, as language evidences, well·nigh of Corybantic frenzies, and, more re­ universally identified with breath. The motely, of savage dances and other modem spiritualist lI'ho describes appari­ forms of excitation; there is that now tions as havinJ the "coosistency of lomewhat casual belief in the Stcona cigar,smoke" is oDe with the Congo Amnl which is a member of the wide­ negroes who leave the house or the dead spread group wherein human hope3 fix unswept for a time lest the dust should eyes on the return of long-sleeping injure the delicate substance of the heroes. of Arthur and Olger Dansk, oC ghost. The inhaling of the last breath Yiiinamoinenand Quetzalcoatl, of Charle­ of the dying Roman by his nearest kins­ magne and Barbarossa, of the lost Marko man bas parallel in the breathing of the of Servia and the lost King Sebastian. risen Jesus on his disciples that they We speak of it as .. casual,· because· might receive the Holy Ghost Gobn xx. among the two hundred and eighty odd 12). In the offering of prayer, lur I)" sects scheduled in W,tilaAu'S Almanoa tltad; in the mllo",saholl and ;IIltr«ssio" the curious in such inquiries will note of sa;IIls; in the Imyers and offirings at only three distinctive bodies of Adven· the sAn'IIts of Iltt J'i,gi" and saillls, and tists. at the graws 01 fNlIT/)'rs " there are the All changes in popular belief have been. PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION and practically remain, superficial; the Christendom. A sceptical feeling might old animism pervades the higher creeds. be aroused at the c1.1ims of a -dolen In our own island, for example, the abbeys to possession of the veritab!e Celtic and pre-Celtic paganism remained crown of thorns wherewith the majesty unleavened by the old Roman religion. of the suffering Christ was mocked; but The legions took back to Rome the gods it was silenced before the numerous which they brought with them. The fragments of his cross, since ingenuity names of Mithra and Serapis occur on has computed that this must have con­ numerous tablets, the worship of the one tained at least one hundred and eighty -that" Sol invictus " whose birthday at million cubic millimetres, whereas the the winter solstice became (see p. 25) total cubic volume of all the known the anniversary of the birth of Christ­ relics is but five millions. .. It must.· had ranged as far west as South Wales remarks Gibbon (Dedi"e a"d F

2. From AUglisline IfJ LoTti Baff1n

A.D. 400-A.D. 1600 The foregoing ,light outline of the ments of Redi refute a doctrine which cau~el which operated for centuries has htld part of the biological field for against the freedom of the human mind about two thousand years, and which will render it needless to follow the still has adherents. Of course Augus­ history of the development of Christian tine, as do modem Catholic biologists, polity and dogma-the temporalising oC excepted man from the operation of the one, and the crystallising of the other. secondary causes, and held that his lOul Yet one prominent actor in that history was created by the direct intervention of demands a brief notice, because oC the the Creator. Augustine'S concessions influence which his teaching wielded from are, therefore, more seellling than real, the fifth to the fifteenth centuries. The and, moreover, we find him denying the annals of the churches in Africa, along existence of the antipodes on the ground whose northern Ihorel Christianity had that Scripture is silent about them, and spread early and rapidly, yield notable also that, if God had placed any races names, but none so distinguished as that there, they could not see Christ descend­ of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo from 39S ing at his second coming. To Augustine to 430 A.D. This greatest of the Fathers the air was full of devils, who are the of the Church sought, as has been re­ cause of II all diseases of Christians." marked already, to bring the system of In other words, he was not ahead of the Aristotle, the greatest of ancient natural­ illusions of his age. Then, too, he ists, into line with Christian theology. shows -tbat a1legorising spirit which was IIis range of study was well-nigh as wide manifest in Greece a thousand years as that of the famous Stagirite, but we earlier j the spirit which reads hidden are here concerned only with 80 much of meanings in Homer, in Horace, and in it as bears on an attempt to graft the Omar Khayyam j and which, in the development theory on the dogma of hands of present-day Gnostics, mostly Ipecial creation. Augustine, accepting fantastic or illiterate cabalists, converts tho Old Testament cosmogony as a the plain narratives of the Old and New revelation, believed that the world was Testaments into vehicles of mysterious created out of nothing; but, this initial types and esoteric symbols. It is in p.lradox accepted, he argued that God such allegorical vein that Augustine had endowed matter with certain powers explains the outside and inside pitching of self-development which left free the of the ark as typif};ng the safety of the operation of natural causes in the pro­ Church from the leaking-in of heresy; duction of plants and animals. With while the ghastlr application of sym­ this, however, as already noted, he held, bolical exegetics IS seen in his citation of with preceding philosophers and with the words of ] esus, II Compel them to his fellow-theologians, the doctrine of come in," as a divine warrant for the spontaneous generation. It explained to slaughter of heretics. him the existence of app.lrently purpose­ We shall meet with no other such less creatures, as Hies, frogs, mice, etc. commanding figure in Church history II Certain very small animals," he says, till nine hundred years have passed. II may not have been created on the fifth when Thomas Aquinas, the II Angel of and sixth days, but may have originated the Schools," appears. But, although later from putrefying matter." Not till that period marks no advance of the the seventeenth century did the experi- Church from her central position, it PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

_witnessed changes in her fortune through by the Persian king. These places have the intrusion of a strange people into been, as it were, the cockpit of Christen. her territory and sanctuaries. dom from the time of the siege oC Jerusalem under Titus to that of the Perhaps there are few events in history Crimean War, when blood was spilt like more impressive than the conversion of water in a conflict served by squabbles the wild and ignorant Arab tribes of the between Latin and Greek Christians over seventh century from stone-worship to possession oC the key oC the Church of monotheism. The series of conquests the Nativity at Bethlehem. In the which followed had also, as an indirect • Church of the Holy Sepulchre these and unforeseen result, effects of vast im­ sectaries are still kept from flying at one portance in the revival and spread of another's throats by the muskets of Greek culture from the Tigris to the Mohammedan soldiers. Guadalquivir. It is not easy, neither The Arabian conquest of Persia fol­ does the inquiry fall within our present lowed that of Syria. The tum of Egypt purpose, to disc9ver the special impulses soon came, the city of Alexandria being which led Mohammed, the leader of the taken in 640, seven years aner the ~ovement, to preach a new faith whose prophet's death. Since the loss of Greek one creed, stripped of all subtleties, was freedom, and the decay of intellectual the unity of God. Large numbers of life at Athens, that renowned place had Jews and Christians had settled in Arabia become, notably under the Ptolemies, the long before his time, and he had become chief home of science and philosophy. acquainted with the narrowness of the Through the propagandism of Chris­ one, and with the causes of the wrang­ tianity among the Hellenised Jews, of lings of the other, riven, as these L1.St­ whom, as of Greeks, large numbers had named were, into sects quarrelling over settled there, it was also the birthplace the nature of the Person of Christ. of dogmatic theology, and, therefore, the These, and the fetishism of his fellow­ fountain whence welled the controversies countrymen, may, perhaps, have impelled whose logomachies were the gossip of him to start a crusade the mandate for the streets of Constantinople and the which he, in fanatic impulse, believed cause of bloody persecution. After a came from heaven. The result is well few years' pause, the Saracens (Ar. known. The hitherto untamed nomads slzarkiin, orientals) resumed their con­ became the eager instruments of the quering march. They captured and prophet. Under his leadership, and that burnt Carthage, another famous centre of of the able Khalifs who succeeded him, Christianity, and then crossed over to the flag of Islam was carried from East Spain. In" the fair and fertile isle of to West, till within one hundred years of Andalusia" the Gothio king Roderick the flight of Mohammed from Mecca was aroused from his luxurious life in (662 A.D.) it waved from the Indian Toledo to lead his army in gallant, but Ocean to the Atlantic. With the con­ vain, attempt to repel the infidel invaders quest of Syria there was achieved one of So rapid was their advance that in six the greatest and most momentous of years they had subdued the whole of triumphs in the capture of Jerusalem, Spain, the north and north-western and the seizure of sites sanctified to portions excepted, for the hardy Basque Christians by associat~on with the cruci­ mountaineers maintained their indepen­ fixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. dence against the Arabs, as they had Only a few years before (614 A.D.) the maintained it against Celt, Roman, and holy city had been taken by Chosroes; Goth. Only before the walls of Tours the sacred buildings raised over the did the invaders meet with a rebuff from venerated tomb had been burned, and Charles Martel and his Franks, which the cross--a Spltrious relic~ed off arrested their advance in Western t"/lE ARREST OF INQUIRY 39

Europe; as in a more momentous defeat .. Arab .. p!lilO5Ophy, therefore, is only before Constantinople by Leo III. in a name. It has been well described as 718, fourteen yean eallier, the torrent II a system of Greek thought expressed in of Mohammedan conquest was first a Semitic tongue; and modified by checked. Oriental influences called into existence Enough, however, of Saracenic wars by the patronage of the more liberal and their destructive work, which, if princes, and kept alive by the zeal of tradition lies not, included the burning a small band of thinkers." In the main, of the remnants of the last Alexandrian it began and ended with the study of library. II A revealed dogma is alway. Aristotle, commentaries on whom became opposed to the free research that may the chief work of scholars, at whose head contradict it," and blam has ever been stands the great name of Averroes. a worse foe to science than Christianity. Through these-a handful of Jews and Its association, as a religion, with the MO$lems-knowledge of Greek science, renaissance of knowledge was as wholly of astronomy, algebra, chemistry, and accidental as the story of it is in­ medicine, was carried into Western teresting. Europe. By the latter half of the tenth Under the Sassanian kings, Persia had century, one hundred and fifty Yeals become an active centre of intellectual after the translation of Aristotle into life, reaching the climax of its Augustan Arabic, Spain had become no mean rival age in the reign of Chosroes. Jew, of Baghdad and Cairo. Schools were Greek, and Christian alike had welcome founded; colleges to which the Girton at hi. court, and translations of the girls of the period could repair to learn writings of the Indian sages completed mathematics and history were let up by the eclecticism of that enlightened lady principals; manufactures and agri­ monarch. Then came the ruthless culture were encouraged; and lovely and Arab, and philosophy and science were stately palaces and mosques beautified eclipsed. But with the advent of the Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and Granada, Abbaside Khalifs, who number the which last-named city the far-famed famous Jlaroun al-Raschid among them, AlhAmbra or Red Fortress still overlooks. there came revival of the widest tolera­ Seven hundred years before there waS a tion, and consequent return of intellec>­ public lamp in London, and when Paris tual activity. Baghdad arose as the leat was a town of swampy roadways, bordered of Empire. Situated on the high road by windowless dwellings, Cordova had of Oriental commerce, along which miles of well-lighted, well-paved streets; travelled foreign ideas and foreign culture, and the constant use of the bath by the that city became also the Oxford of her .. infidel II contrasted with the saintly time. Arabic was the language of the filth and rags which were the pride of conquerors, and into that poetic but un­ flesh-mortifying devotees and the out­ philosophic tongue Greek philosophy ward and odorous signs of their religion. And science were rendered. Under the The pages of our dictionaries evidence rule of those Khalifs, says Renan, .. now in familiar mathematical and chemical tolerant, now reluctant persecutors," free terms; in the names of the principal thought developed; the 1Iloluallt1lim II fixed· stan; and in the words .. ad­ or .. disputants" held debates, \\ here all miral N and .. chemise -; the influence of religions were examined in the light of the II Arab n in science, war, and dress. reason. Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, and It forms no part of our story to tell Ptolemy were text-books in the colleges, how feuds between rival dynasties and the repute of whose teachers brought to rival sects of Islam, becoming more Baghdad and Naishapur (dear to lovers of acute as time went on, enabled Chris­ "old Khayyam") students westward from tianity to recover lost ground, and, in Spain, and eastward from Transoxiana. the capture of Granada in 1.92. to put PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION an end to Moorish rule in Spain. Bcfore doubtful, although the doubt in nowise that event a knowledge of Greek philo­ impairs the greatness of the name. He sophy had been diffused through Chris­ shared the current belief in alcheml' tendom by the translation of the works but made a number of experiments In of Avicenna, Averroes,and other scholars, chemistry pointing to his knowledge of into Latin. That was about the middle the properties of the various gases, and of the twelfth century, when Aristotle, of the components of gunpowder. If who had been translated into Arabic he did not invent spectacles, or the some three centuries earlier, also appeared microscope and telescope, he 1\O as skilled in Latin dress. The detachment of any in optics, and knew the principles on branch of knowledge from theology which those instruments are made, as being a thing undreamed of, the deep the following extract from his Opus reverence in which the Stagirite was held .AEajus shows: "We can puce trans­ by his Arabian commentators ultimately parent bodies in such a form and led to his becoming" suspect" by the position between our eyes and other Christians, since that which approved objects that the rays shall be refracted itself to the followers of Mohammed and bent towards any place we please, must, ipso facto, be condemned by the so that we shall see the object near at followers of Jesus. Hence came re­ hand, or at a distance, under any angle action, and recourse to the Scriptures as we please; and thus from an incredible sole guide to secular as well as sacred distance we may read the smallest letters, knowledge; recourse to a method which, and may nwnber the smallest particles as Hallam says, "had not untied a of sand, by reason of the greatness of the single knot, or added one unequivocal angle under which they appear." He truth to the domain of philosophy." knew the" wisdom of the ancients" in So far as the scanty records tell (for the cataloguing of the stars, and suggested we may never know how much was a reform of the calendar-following the suppressed, or fell into oblivion, under then unknown poet astronomer of Nai­ ecclesiastical frowns and threats; nor shapur. But he belie,oed in astrology, how many thinkers toiled in secret and that bastard science which from remotest in dread), none seemed possessed either times had ruled the life of man, and of courage or desire to supplement the which has no small number of ,"otaries revealed word by examination into things among ourselves to this day. Ro;;er themselves. To supplant it was not Bacon's abiding title to fame rests, how­ dreamed of. But in the middle of the ever, on his insistence on the necessity thirteenth century one notable exception of experiment, and his enforcement of occurred in the person of Roger Bacon, this precept by practice. As a mathe- sometimes called Friar Bacon in virtue . matician he laid stress on the application of his belonging to the order of Fran­ of this" first of all the sciences ':; indeed, ciscans. He was born in 12 14 at as "preceding all others, and as dis­ llchester, in Somerset, whence he after­ posing us to them." His experiments, wards removed to Oxford, and thence to both from their nature and the seclusion Paris. That this remarkable and many­ in which they were made, laid him open sided man, classic 'and Arabic scholar, to the charge of black magic-in other mathematician, and natural philosopher, words, of being in league with the devil. has not more recognised place in the This, in the hands of a theology thus annals of science is strange, although it .. possessed," became an instrument of is, perhaps, partly explained by the fact awful torture to mankind. Roger that his writings were not reissued for Bacon's denial of magic only aggravated more than three centuries after his death. his crime, since in ecclesiastical ears He has been credited with a number of this was tantamount to a denial of the inventions, his title to which is, however, activity, nay more, of the very existence, THE ARREST OF INQUIRY 41

of Satan. So, despite certain encourage­ the theory of its flatness. For" though ment in his lCientitic work (rom an old the Church hath evermore from Holy friend, who afterwards became Pope Writ affirmed that the earth should be a Clement IV., for whose information he widespread plain bordered by the waters, wrote hi. Opus Majus, he was, on the yet he comforted himself when he con­ death of that potentate, thrown into sidered that in the eclipses of the moon prison, whence tradition uys he emerged, the shadow cast of the earth is round; after ten years, only to die. and as is the shadow, such, in like The theories of media:val echoolmen manner, is the substance." Doubling -a monotonous record of unprogressive Cape Horn through the straits that bear ideas-need not be scheduled here, the his name, Magellan entered the vast more so as we approach the period of ocean whose calm surface caused him to discoveries momentous in their ultimate call it the Pacific, and, after terrible effect upon opinions which now possess sufferings, reached the Ladrone Islands. only the value attaching to the history of where, either at the hands of a mutinous discredited conceptions of the universe. crew or of savages, he was killed. His Commerce, more than Icientific curiosity, chief lieutenant, Sebastian d'Eleano, con­ gave the impetus to the discovery that the tinued the voyage, and, after rounding earth is a globe. Trade with the East the Cape of Good Hope, brought the was divided between Genoa and Venice. Sa,. Yil/oritJ-name of happy omen-to These cities were rivals, and the Genoese, anchor at St. Lucar, near Seville, on alarmed at the growing success of the 7th September, 1532. Brought, too, the Venetians, resolved to try to reacti story of a circumnavigated globe, and of India from the West. Their schemes new groups of stars never seen under were justified by reports of land indica­ northern skies. tions brought by seamen who had passed The scene shifts, for the time being, through the II Pillar•. of Hercules" to from the earth to the heavens. The the Atlantic. The sequel is well known. Church had barely recovered from the Columbus, after clerical opposition, and blow struck at her authority on matters rebuffs from other states, II offering," as of secular knowledge, when another is Mr. Payne s~)'&, in his excellent History dealt, and that by an ecclesiastic, C~ oj Amlnca, II though he knew it not, the pernicus, Canon of Frauenburg, in New World in exchange for three ships Prussia. But before pursuing this, some and provisions for twelve months," finally reference to the revolt against the secured the support of the Spanish king, Church of Rome, which is the great . and sailed from Cadiz on the 3rd August, event of the sixteenth cel'ltury, is neces­ 1492. On 11th October he sighted the sary, if only to inquire whether the fringes of the New World, and, believing movement known as the Reformatiun that he had sailed from Spain to India, justified its name as freeing the intellect gave the name West Indies to the island­ from theological thraldom. Far-reaching group. America itself had been dis­ as were the areas which it covered and covered by roving Norsemen five hundred the effects which it wrought, its qU&1rre1 years before, hut the fact was buried in with the Church of Rome was not Icelandic tradition. Following Colum­ because of that Church's attitude towards bu~, Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese, set freedom of thought. On the Continent sail in 1497, and, taking a southerly it was a protest of nobler minds against course, doubled the Cape of Good Hope. the corruptions fostered by the Papacy; Twenty-two years later, Ferdinand Magel­ in England it was personal and political lan started on a voyage ~re famous in origin. securing popular support by than that of Columbus, since his ambi­ its anti-sacerdotal character, and its tion was to sail round the world, and appeal to national irritation against thus complete the chain of proof agalnst forei~ control. llut, both here and ~ PIONEERS OF ErOLUTIO.V abroad, it sought mending rather than countless services of science to sulTering ending; "not to vary in any jot from mankind. To Luther, the descent of the faith Catholic." It disputed the Christ into hell, which modem research claim of the Church to be the sole in­ had shown to be a variant of an Orphic terpreter of Scripture, and contended legend of the underworld, was a red' that such interpretation was the right event, Jesus going thither that he might and duty of the individual. But it conquer Satan in a hand-ta-hand would not admit the right of the indio struggle. vidual to call in question the authority Therefore, freedom of thought, as we of the Bible itself: to that book alone define it, had the bitterest foe in Luther, must a man go for knowledge of things although, in his condemnation of temporal as of things spiritual. So that "works," and his fanatical dogma of the Reformation was but an exchange of man's "justification by faith ahne," fetters, or, as Huxley happily puts it, the which made him reject the Epistle of scraping of a little rust off the chains James as one "of straw," and as un· which still bound the mind. " Learning worthy of a place in the Canon, he perished where Luther reigned," said unwittingly drove in the thin end oC the Erasmus, and in proof of it we find the rationalist wedge. The Reformers had Reformer agreeing with his coadjutor, hedged the canonical books lI·ith theories Melancthon, in permitting no tampering of verbal inspiration which extended with the written Word. Copernicus not· even to the punctuation of the sentences. withstanding, they had no doubt that They thus rendered intelligent 'tudy of the earth was fixed, and that sun and the Bible impossible, and did grievous stars travelled round it, because the injury to a collection of writings oC vast Bible said so. Peter Martyr, one of the historical value, and oC abiding interest early Lutheran converts, in his Com­ as records of man's primitive speculations mentary on Genesis, declared that and spiritual development. But Luther'. wrong opinions about the creation as application of the right of private jud~. narrated in that book would render ment to the omission or addition of thIS valueless all the promises of Christ. or that book into a canon which had Wherein he spoke truly. As for the been closed by a Council of the Church, school men, Luther called them" locusts, surrend.:red the whole position, since there caterpillars, frogs, and lice." Reason he was no telling where the thing mioht stop. denounced as the" arch whore" and the Copernicus waited full thirty years "devil's bride"j Aristotle is a "prince before he ventured to make his theory of darkness, horrid impostor, public and public. The Ptolemaic system, whicb professed liar, beast, and twice execrable." assumed a fixed earth with sun, moop. Consistently enough, Luther believed and stars revolving above it, had herd vehemently in a personal devil, and in the field for about Courteen hundred witches j "I would myself bum them," years. It accorded with Scripture i it he says, "even as it is written in the was adopted by the Church; and, mor& Bible that the priests stoned offenders." over, it was confirmed by the senses, the To him- demoniacal possession was a correction of which still remains, and fact clear as noonday: idiocy, lunacy, will long remain, a condition of intellec· epilepsy, and all other mental and tual advance. Little wonder is it, then. nervous disorders, were due to it. Hence, that Copernicus hesitated to broach a a movement whose" intent appeared to theory thus supported, or that, when be the freeing of the human spirit riveted published, it was put forth in tentative more tightly the bolts that imprisoned it j form as a possible explanation more in arresting the physical explanation of accord with the phenomena. A preface, mental diseases and that curative treat· presumably by a friendly hand, com­ ment d them which is one of the mended the RtVo/uliofls of 1M J/rtl'l't"iJ THE ARREST OF INQUIRY 43

B()(/ul to Pope Paul III. It urged that. to correct certain erron of Galen. and to .. as in previous times othen bad been giye the pUhll to the old legend, based allowed the privilege of feigning wbat upon the myth of the creation of Eve, circles they chose in order to explain that man has one rib less than Wo!lUD. tbe phenomena," Copernicus .. h3d con­ This was among the w..ooveries an­ ceived that he might take the liberty of nounced in his De Corporis H~ma"; trying whether, on the supposition or the F~,ua, published wben he was only eartb's motion, it was possible to find twenty-eight yean of age. The book better expLmations than tbe ancient ones fell under the ban of tbe Chl1rch because. or the revolution. of the celestial orbs." Vesalius gave no support to the belief in A copy of the book was placed in an indestructible bone, nucleus of the the hands of its author only a few resurrection body, in man. The belief houn before his death on 23rd May, had, no doubt, near relation to that of 1543· tbe Jews in the til lan-lI", and may Thi... upstart astrologer "; this II fool' remind ns of Descartes' fanciful loca­ wbo wishes to reverse tbe entire science tion of the soul in the minute cone-like of astronomy," for .. sacred Scripture part of the brain known as the cq"uium, tells u. that JOSNIA commanded the sun or pineal gland. On some baseless to lland ltill, and Dot the earth "-these charge of attempting the dissection of a are Luther's word. - was, therefore, living subject, the Inquisition haled beyond the grip of the Holy Inquisi­ Vesalius to prison, and would have put tion. But a substitute was forthcoming. him to death .. as merciful1yas possible" Giord.mo Bruno, a Dominican monk. but forthe intervention or King Charles V. had added to certain heterodox beliefs of Spain, to whom Vesalius bad been the heresy of Copernicanism, which he physician. Returning in October, r 5640 publicly taught from Oxford to Venice. from a pilgrimage taken, presumably, as For these cumulative crime. he was atonement for his alleged offence, he was imprisoned and, after two years, con­ shipwrecked on the coast of Zante, and demned to be put to death .. as merci­ died of exhaustion. fully as possible and without the shedding While the heretical character and ten­ of his blood," a Catholic euphemism for dencies of discoYeries in 3.Stronomy and burning a man alive. The murder was anatomy awoke active opposition from the committed in Rome on 17th February, Churcb, the work of men of the type of 1600. Gesner, the etninent S,,-iss naturalist, and The year I 543 marks an epoch in of Czsalpino, professor of botany at biology as in astronomy. As shown in Padua, passed unquestioned. No dogma tbe researches of Galen, an Alexandrian was endangered by the classification or pbysician of the second century, there plants and animals. But when a couple bad been no difficulty in studying the of generations after the death of Coper­ structure of the lower animals, but, nicus had passed, the Inquisition fouod (ortified both by tradition and by pre­ a tsecond victim in the Camous Galileo, judice, the Church refused to permit dis­ who ... as born at PisJ. in 1564- A:ter section of the human body, and in the spending some years in mechanical and latter part of the thirteenth century mathematical pursuits, he began a series Boniface VIII. issued a Bull of the of observations in confirmation of the major excommunication against offenders. Copernican theory, of the truth of which Probibition, as usual, led to evasion, and be had been convinced in early life. Vesalius, Professor of Anatomy in Padua With the aid of a rude telescope. made University, resorted to various devices by his own hands, he discovered the to procure "subjects," the bodies of satellites of Jupiter; the moon-like criminals being easiest to obtain. The phases of Venus and Mars; mountains end ju;:tified the means, as he was aule and nlleys in the mooo j spots on the 44 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION sun's disc; and the countless stars which course, be useless; and, therefore, dQ compose the luminous band known as not exist." 1 the Milky Way. Nought occurred to In this brief summlrY of the attitude disturb his observations till, in a work of the Church towards science it is not on the Solar SpolS, he explained the possible, and, if it were so, it is not movements of the earth and of the needfu~ to refer in detail to the con· heavenly bodies according to Copernicus. tributions of the more speculative philo­ On the appearance of that book the sophers, who, although they made no authorities' contented themselves with discoveries, advocated those methods of a caution to the author. But action research and directions of inquiry which followed his supplemental Dialo,1jU1! on renderedthe discoveries possible. Among lhe Copernican and Ptolemaic S)'stems. these a prominent n:lme is that of Lord Through that convenient medium which Bacon, whose system of philosophy, the title implies, Galileo makes the known as the inductive, proceeds from defender of the Copernican theory an the collection, examination, and com­ easy victor, and for this he was parison of any group of connected facts brought before the Inquisition in to the relation of them to some general 1633. After a tedious trial, and principle. The univclsal is thus ex­ threats of "rigorous personal examina­ plained by the particular. But the in­ tion," a euphemism for" torture," he was, ductive method was no invention of despite the plea-too specious to deceive Bacon's; wherever observation or testing -that he had merely put the pros and of a thing preceded speculation about it, cons as between the rival theories, con­ as with his greater namesake, there the demned to abjure all that he had taught. Baconian system had its application. There is a story, probably fictitious, since Lord Bacon, moreover, undervalued it was first told in 1 789, that when the Greek science; he argued against the old man rose from his knees he muttered Copernican theory; and either knew his conviction that the earth moves, in nothing of or ignored Harvey's momen­ the words "e pur si muove." As a tous discovery of the circulation of the sample of the arguments used by the blood. A more illustrious name than ecclesiastics when they substituted, as his is that of Rene Descartes, a man rare exception, the pen for the faggot, who combined theory with observation; the reasoning advanced by one Sizzi "one who," in Huxley'S word5, "saw against the existence of Jupiter's moons that the discoveries of Galileo meant may be cited: "There are seven win­ that the remotest parts of the universe dows given to animals in the domicile of were governed by mechanical laws, while the head, through which the air is ad­ those of Harvey meant that the same mitted to the tabernacle of the body, viz.: laws presided over the operations of that two nostrils, two eyes, two ears, and one portion of the world which is nearest to mouth. So, in the heavens, as in a us-namely, our own bodily frame." The macrocosm, or great world, there are greatness of this man, a good Catholic, two favourable stars, Jupiter and Venus; whom the Jesuits charged with Atheism, two unpropitious, Mars and Saturn; two has no mean tribute ill his influence on luminaries, the sun and moon, and an equally remarkable man, Benedict Mercuryalone undecided and indifferent. Spinoza. Spinoza reduced the Cartesian From these and many other phenomena analysis of phenomena into God, mind, of nature, which it were tedious to and matter, toone phenomenon-namely, enumerate, we gather that the number of God, of whom matter and spirit, ex­ planets is necessarily seven. Moreover, tension and thought, are but attributes. the satellites are invisible to the naked His short life fell within the longer eye, and, therefore, can exercise no span of Newton's, whose strange put>­ influence over the earth, and would, of jection to the theological influences of THE ARREST OF INQUIRY 45 his age i. lCen in this immortal inter­ common prototype, notwithstanding their preter o( the laws o( the universe wasting great variety) strengthens the supposition his later years on an attempt to interpret thatthey ha ve an actual blood-relationship, unfulfilled prophecy. These and others, due to derivation from a common parent; as Locke, Lelbnitz, Herder, and Schel­ • supposition which is arrived at by ling, like the great Hebrew leader, had observation of the graduated approxima­ glimpses of • goodly.land which they tion of one class of animals to another, were not themselves to enter. But, beginning with the one in which the perhaps, in the roll of illustrious men to . principle of purposiveness seems to be whom prevision came, none have better most conspicuous-namely, man--and claim to everlasting remembrance than extending down to the polyps, and (rom Immanuel Kant. For in his Theory of these even down to mosses and lichens, lhe Heavens, published in J7SS, he and arriving finally at raw matter, the anticipates that hypothesis o( the origin lowest stage of Nature observable by us. of the present universe which, associated From this raw matter and its forces, the with the succeeding names o( Laplace whole apparatus of Nature seems to have and Jlersche~ has, under corrections been derived according to mechanical furnished by modem physics, common laws (such as those which resulted in acceptance among us. Then, as shown the production of crystals); yet this in the (0110 wing extract, Kant foresees apparatus, as seen in organic beings, is the theory of the development of life 10 incomprehensible to us that we feel (rom (ormless stuff to the highest types: ourselves compelled to conceive (or it a .. It is desirable to examine the great different prinCiple. But it would seem domain of organised beings by means of that the archzologist of Nature is at a methodical comparative anatomy, in liberty to regard the great Family of order to discover whether we may not creatures (for as a Family we must find in them something resembling a conceive it, if the above·mentioned con­ system, and that. too, in connection with tinuous and connected relationship has their mode of generation, so that we may a real (oundation) as having sprung from not be compelled to stop· short with a the immediate results of her earliest mere considemtion of (orms as they are revolutions, judging from all the laws· of -which gives no insight into their gene­ their mechanisms known to o~ con­ ration-and need not despair of gaining jectured by him." a full insight into this department of In our arrival at the age of these seen Nature. The agreement of so many 'We feel the play of a (reer, purer air j a kinds of animals in a certain common lull in the miasmatic currents that bring plan of structure, which seems to be intolerance on their wings. The tole­ visible not only in their skeletons, but rance that approaches is due to no also in the arrant;ement of the other surrender of its main position by dog­ parts-so that a wonderfully simple matic theology, but to that larger percep­ typical form, by the shortening or length­ tion of the variety and complexity of ening of some parts, and by the sup­ life, ignorance of, or wilful blindnes'l to, pression and development of others, which is the secret of the survival of might be able to produce an immense rigid opinion. The demonstration of variety of species-gives us a ray of the earth's roundness j the discovery of t.ope, though feeble, that here perhaps America; the growing conception of some results may be obtained, by the inter-relation between the lowest and al?plication of the principle of the mecha­ the highest life-forms; the slow but sure msm of Nature j without which, in fact. acceptance of the Copernican theory; no science can exist. This analogy of and, above a~ the idea of a Cosmos, an forms (in so far as they seem to have unbroken order, to which every advance been produced in actOrdance with a in knowledge contributes, justified and 46 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION fostered the free play of the intellect Hume certainly did not overrate the Foreign as yet, however, to the minds force of the blow which he dealt at of widest breadth was the conception supernaturalism, one of a series of of the inclusion of MAN himself in the attacks which, in France and Britain, universal order. Duality-nature over­ carried the war into the camp of the ruled by supernature-was the unaltered enemy, and changed its tactics from note; the supernature as part of nature aggressive to defensive. But none the a thing undreamed of. Nor could it be less is it true that the .. superstitious otherwise while the belief in diabolical delusions" against which he planted his agencies still held the field, sending logical artillery were killed neither by wretched victims to the stake on the argument nor by evidence. Delusion evidence of conscientious witnesses, and error do not perish by controversiat and with the concurrence of humane warfare. They perish under the slow judges. Animism, the root of all per­ and silent operation of changes to which sonification, whether of good or evil, had they are unable to adapt themselves. lost none of its essential character, and The atmosphere is altered: the organ· but little of its vigour. ism can neither respond nor respire; " I flatter myself," says Hume, in the therefore, it dies. Thus, save where opening words of the essay upon "Mira­ lurks the ignorance which is its breath cles," in his Inquiry Concerning Huma" of life, has wholly perished belief in Understanding. "that I have discovered witchcraft; thus, too, is slowly perishing an argument of a like nature [he is refer­ belief in miracles, and, with this, belief ring to Archbishop Tillotson's argument in the miraculous events, the incarna­ on Transubstantiation] which, if just, tion, resurrection, and ascension or will, with the wise and learned, be an Jesus, 00 which the fundamental tenets everlasting check to all kinds of super­ of Christianity are based, and in which stitious delusion, and, consequently, will lies so largely the secret of its long he useful as long as the world endures." hostility to knowledge. PART III

THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE

A.D. 1600 ONWAIlDS

.. Thoal:h Scknce, like Natare, ma), be drivcn oat with a fork, ecclesiastical or otber, yet &be IOrely comel b&«:k ~aiD."-HuXL&Y, Pr.t"r'M" C.t1N1etl EU471, Yo1 Y.

THit exercise of a more tolerant spirit, But the old Ipirit of resistance was to which reference has been made, had aroused when, after a long lapse of time, its limits. It is true that Dr. South, a inquiry was revived in a branch of science (amoul divine, denounced the Royal which, it will be noticed, has no distinct Society (founded 1645) as an irreligious place in the subjects dealt with by the body; although a Dr. Wallis, one of the Royal Society at the start. That science first members, especially declared that was Geology, a science destined, in its It matters ohheology " were" precluded"; ultimate ICOpe, to prove a far more the business being It to discourse and powerful dissolvent of dogma than any consider of philosophical inquiries and of its compeers. such as related tht:reunto; as Physick, It seems strange that the discovery of Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navi­ the earth', true shape and movements gation, Staticks, Magnetics, Chymicks, was not sooner followed by investigation and Natural Experiments; with the into her contents, but the old ideas of Itate of tht:lie studies, and their culti­ special creation remained unaffected by vation at home and abroad." Regardless these and other discoveries, and the of South and luch as agreed with him, more or less detailed account of the Torricelli worked at hydrodynamics, and process of creation furnished in the book discovered the principle of the barometer; of Genesis sufficed to arrest curiosity. Boyle inquired into the law of the com­ In the various departments of the in­ pressibility of gases; Malphigi examined organic universe the earth was the last minute life-forms and the structure of to become the subject of scientific organs under the microscope; Ray and research; as, in study of the organic Willoughby classified plants and animals; universe, man excluded himself till Newton theorised on the nature of light, science compelled his inclusion. and Roemer measured its speed; Halley After more than two thousand years, estimated the sun's distance, predicted the Ionian philosophers .. came to their the return of cornets, and observed the own • again. Xenophanes of Colophon transits of Venus and Mercury; Hunter has been referred to as arrivin~ fiTe dissected specimens, and laid the founda­ centuries B.c., at a true explanatIon of tions of the science of comparative the imprints of plants and animals in anatomy; and many another illustrious rocks. Pythagoras, who lived before worker contributed to the world·s stock him, may, if 0\;<1, writing near the of knowledge" without let or hindrance," Christian era, is to be trusted, have (or in all this II matters of theology were reached some sound conclusions about precluded" the action of water in the changes of PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION land and sea areas. But we are on Science, waged, at first, over the six days surer ground when we meet the geo­ of the Creation. grapher Strabo, who lived in the reign Here and there, in bygone days, a of Augustus. Describing the countries sceptical voice had been raised in denial in which he travelled, he notes their of the Mosaic authorship of the Penta­ various features, and explains the causes teuch. Such was that of La Peyrere, of earthquakes and allied phenomena. who, in 1655, published an instalment'of Then eleven hundred years pass before a work in which he anticipated what is we find any explanation of like rational nowadays accepted, but what then was character supplied. This was furnished akin to blasphemy to utter. For not by the Arabian philosopher, Avicenna, only does he doubt whether Moses had whose theory of the origin of mountains is any hand in the writings attrih, .ted to the more marvellous when we remember him; he rejects the orthodox view of what intellectual darkness surrounded suffering and death as the penalties of him. He says that" mountains may be Adam's disobedience, and gives rational­ due to two different causes. Either they istic interpretation of the appearance of are effects of upheavals of the crust of the star of Bethlehem, and of the dark­ the earth, such as might occur during a ness at the Crucifixion. But La Peyrere violent earthquake, or they are the effect became a Roman Catholic, and, of course, of water, which, cutting for itself a new recanted his opinions. Then, nearer the route, has denuded the valleys, the strata time when controversy on the historical being of different kinds, some soft, some character of the Scriptures was becoming hard. The winds and waters disintegrate active, one Astruc, a French physician, the one, but leave the other intact. Most suggested, in a work published in 1753, of the eminences of the earth have had that Moses may have used older mate· this latter origin. It would require a rials in his compilation of the earlier long period of time for all such changes parts of the Pentateuch. to be accomplished, during which the But, practically, the five books in· mountains themselves might be some­ cluded under that name were be1ie\'ed what diminished in size. But that water to have been written by Moses under has been the main cause of these effects divine authority. The statement in is proved by the existence of fossil re­ Genesis, that God made the universe mains of aquatic and other animals on and its contents, both living and non­ many mountains" (cp. Osborn's From the living, in six days of twenty-four hours GreeRs to Darwin, p. 76). A similar each, was explicit. Thus interpreted, as explanation of fossils was given by the their plain meaning warranted, Arch­ engineer-artist Leonardo de Vinci in the bishop Usher made his famous calcula­ fifteenth century, and by the potter tion as to the time elapsing between the Bernard Palissy in the sixteenth century; creation and the birth of Christ. Dr. but thence onwards, for more than a White, in his important 1Vaifare oj hundred years, the earth was as a sealed Science with Theology, gives an amusing book to man. The earlier chapters of example of the application of Usher's its history, once .eopened, have never method in detail. A seventeenth-century been'dosed again. Varied as were the divine, Dr. Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor theories of the causes which wrought of Cambridge University, computed that manifold changes on its surface, they .. man was created by the Trinity on agreed in demanding a far longer time­ 23rd October, 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock history than the Church was willing to in the morning." The same theologian, allow. If the reasoning of the geologists who, by the way, was a very eminent was sound, the narrative in Genesis was Hebrew scholar, following the interpre­ a myth. Hence the renewal of struggle tation of the great Fathers of the between the Christian Church and Church" declared, as the result of pro- THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE 49 found and exhaustive ltudy of the Scrip­ published his recantation: "I declare tures, that • heaven and earth, centre that I had no intention to contradict the and circumference, and clouds full of text of Scripture; that I believe most water, were created all together, in the firmly all therein related about the lame instanL' " - creation, both as to order of time and The ItOry of the Deluge was held to matter of fact. I abandon everything furnish lufficing explanation of the in my book respecting the formation of organic remains yielded by the rocka; the earth, and generally all which may but, failing this, a multitude of fmtastic be contrary to the narrative of Moses." theories were at hand to explain the That was in the year 1751. fossils. They were laid to be due to a If the English theologians could not .. formative quality" in the soil; to its deliver heretics of the type of Buffon to .. plastic virtue"; to a "lapidilic juice"; the secular arm, they used all the means the .. fermentation of fatty matter"; that denunciation supplied for delivering to "the influence of the heavenly bodies, .. them over to Satan. Epithets were or, as the last eminent naturalist, Philip hurled at them i arguments drawn from Gosse, seriously suggested in hi. whimSI­ a world accursed of God levelled at cal book, O"'Ilta/os: A" AHem,::o U"lie them. Saint Jerome, living in the fourth tlu GeD/oCZeal K"ol, they were but century, had pointed to the cracked and simulacra wherewith a mocking Deity crumpled rocks as proof of divine anger; rebuked the 'curiosity of man. Every now Wesley and others saw in "sin the explanation, save the right and obvious moral cause of earthquakes, whatever one, had its defenders, because it was their natural cause might be," since essential to support lome theory to rebut before Adam's transgression no convul­ the evidence lupplied by remains of sions or eruptions ruffled the calm or animals as to the existence of death in Paradise. Meanwhile, the probing of the world before the fall of Adam. the earth's crust went on i revealing, Otherwise, the statements in the Old amidst all the seeming confusion of Testament, on which the Pauline reason­ distorted and metamorphosed rocks, an ing rested, were baseless, and to discredit unvarying sequence of strata, and of the these was to undermine the authority fossils embedded in them. Different of the Scriptures. from Genesis to the causes were assigned for the vast changes Apocalypse. No wonder, therefore, that ranging over vast periods i one school theology was up in arms, or that it saw believing in the action of volcanic and in geology a deadlier foe than astro­ such-like catastrophic agents i another in nomy had seemed to be in af:es past. the action of aqueous agents, seeing, The Sorbonne, or Faculty of Theology, more consistently, in present operations in Paris, burnt the books of the geologists, the explanation of the causes of past banished their authors, and, in the case changes. But there was no diversity of of Buffon, the famous naturalist, con­ opinion concerning the extension of the demned him to retract the awful heresy, earth's time-history and life-history to which w:\S declared .. contrary to the millions on millions of years. creed of the Church," contained in these So, when this was to be no longer words: It The waters of the sea have resisted, theologians sought some basis produced the mountains and valleys of of compromise on such non-fundamental the land; the waters of the heavens, points as the six days of creation. It reducing all to a level, will at last deliver was suggested that perhaps these did not the whole land over to the sea; and the mean the seventh part of a week. but . sea, successively prevailing over the land, periods, zons, or something equally will leave dry new Continents like those elastic; and that, if the Mosaic narTlltive which we inhabit." So the old man was regarded as a poetic revelation or repeated the submission of Galilee, and the general succession of phenomena, 50 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION beginning with the development of order pression at variance with the facts re­ out of chaos, and ending with the creation vealed by science"j all efforts at recon­ of man, Scripture would be found to ciliation being only" different modes of have anticipated or revealed what science obliterating the characteristic features of confirms. It was impossible, so theo­ Genesis, and of reading into it a view logians argued, that there could be aught which it does not express." else than harmony between the divine While the ground in favour of the works and the writings which were literal interpretation of Genesis was assumed to be of divine origin. Science being contested, an im·ading furce, that could not contradict revelation, and what­ had been gathering strength with the years, ever seemed contradictory was due to was advancing in the shape of the science misapprehension either. of the natural of Biology. The workers therein fall fact or to misreading of the written into two classes: the one, represented by word. But although the story of the Linnreus and his school, applied them­ creation might be clothed, as so exalted selves to the classifying and naming of and moving a theme warranted, in poetic plants and animals; the other, repre­ form, that of the fall of Adam and of sented by Cuvier and his school, examined the drowning of his descendants, eight into structure and function. Anatomy persons excepted, must be taken in all made clear the machinery; physiology its appalling literalness. Confirmation the work which it did, and the conditions of the Deluge story was found in the under which the work was done. Then, fossil shells on high mountain tops j through comparison of corresponding while as for the giants of antediluvian organs and their functions in various times, there were the huge bones in life-forms, came growing perception of proof. Some of these relics of mastodo:1 their unity. But only to a few came and mammoth were actually hung up in gleams of that unity as proof of common churches as evidence that "there were descent of plant and animal, for, save in giants in those days"! Geoffroy Saint­ scattered hints of inter-relation between Hilaire tells of one Henrion, who pub­ species, which occur from the time of lished a book in 1718, giving the height Lord Bacon onw:uds, the theory of their of Adam as one hundred and twenty­ immutability was dominant until forty three feet nine inches, and of Eve as years ago. one hundred and eighteen feet nine Four men form the chief vanguard inches, Noah being of rather less stature. of the biological movement. .. Modem But to parley with science is fatal to classificatory method and nomenclature theology. Moreover, arguments which have largely grown out of the work of involve the cause they support in ridicule Linnreus j the modem conception of may be left to refute themselves. And biology as a science, and of its relation while theology was hesitating, as in the to climatology, geography, and geology, amusing example supplied by Dr. William are as largely rooted in the labours of Smitn's Dic/ionary ofthe Bible (published Buffon j comparative anatomy and pa\:e­ in 1863), wherein the reader, turning ontology owe a vast idea to Cuvier's up the article "Deluge," is referred results j while invertebrate zoology and to "Flood," and thence to .. Noah "j the revival of the idea of Evolution are archreology produced the Chaldean intimately dependent on the results of original of the legend whence the story the work of Lamarck. In other words, of the flood is deriveci With candour the main results of biology up to the as commendable as it is rare, the Rever­ early years of this century are to be end Professor Driver, from whom quota­ found in, or spring out of, the works of tion has been xnade already, admits that, these men." "read without prejudice or bias, the Linnreus, son of a Lutheran pastor, narrative of Genesis i. creates an im- .born at Roeshult, in Sweden, in 1707. THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE 51

had oorely passed hi. twenty-fifth year formation of her creatures." Then, before laying the ground-plan of the further, as showing his convictions on .ystem of c1.1Ssification which bears his the non-fixity of species, he says, how name, a .ystem which advance in know­ many of them, .. being perfected or ledge hal .ince modified. Based on degenerated by the great changes in external resemblances, its formulation land and sea, by the favours or di~ was possible only to a mind intent on favours of Nature, by food, by the pro­ minute and accurate detail, and less longed influences of climate, contrary or observant of general principles_ In favourable, are no longer what they brief, the work of Linnzus was con­ formerly were." But he writes with an structive, not interpretative_ Hence, eye on the Sorbonne when, hinting at a perhaps, conjoined to the theological possible common ancestor of horse and Ideas then current, the reason why the ass, and of ape and man, he slyly adds larger question of the fixity of .pecies that, since the Bible teaches the contrary, entered not into his purview. To him the thing cannot be. Thus he attacked each plant and animal retained the im­ covertly; by adit, not by direct assault; press of the creative hand that had and to those who read between the lines Ihaped it .. in the beginning," and there was given a key wherewith to throughout his working life he departed unlock the door to the solution of man,. but slightly from the plan with which he biological problems. Butron, conse­ Ilarted-namely, If reckoning as many quently, was the most stimulating and species as issued in pairs" from the suggestive naturalist of the eighteenth Almighty fiat. century. There comes between him Not so DulTon. born on his father's and Lamarck, both in order of time ,-"d estate in Burgund\' in the same year as sequence of ideas, Erasmus Darwin, the Linnreus, whom he survived ten years, distinguished grandfather of' Charles dying in 1788. His opinions, clashing Darwin. as the, did with orthodox creeds, were Bom at Elton, near Newark, in 1731, given m a tentative, questioning fashion, he walked the hospitals at London and so that where ecclesiastical censure fell, Edinburgh, and settled for some years retreat was easier. As has been seen in at Lichfield; ultimately removing to his submission to the Sorbonne, he was Derby. Since Lucretius, no scientific not of the stull' of which martyrs are writer had put his cosmogonic specula­ made. Perhaps he felt that the ultimate tions into verse until Dr. Darwin made . Yictory of his opinions was sufficiently the heroic metre, in which stereotyped assured to make self-sacrifice needless. form the poetry of his time was cast, the But, under cover of pretence at inquiry, vehicle of rhetorical descriptions of the his convictions are clear enough. He amours of flowers and the evolution of was no believer in the permlUlent stability the thumb. TIte.l«Jts of 1M P/affls, of species, and noted, as warrant of this, ridiculed in TIte.l«Jts of 1M Tr;anc!es the otherwise unexplained presence of in the Aff/i-.!.uobi", is not to be named aborted or rudimentnry structures. For in the same breath, for stateliness of example, he says: II The pig does not diction and majesty of movement, as appear to- have been formed upon an the De nnlm Nahlra. But both the orirnal, special, and perfect plan, since prose work Z'.IJonomia and the poem T1zt it IS a compound of other animals; it Ttmf'/, of Naillre (published after the has evidently useless parts, or rather author's death in 1802) have claim to parts of which it cannot make any use; notice as the matured expression of con­ toes, all the bones of which are perfectly clusions at which the clear-sighted, formed, and which, nevertheless, are of thoughtful, and withal eccentric doctor no service to it. Nature is far from sub­ had arrived in the closing years of his jecting herself to final causes in the life. Krause's L"ft "fIIl SNtly of lite 52 PJONEERS OF EVOLUTJON

JVorRS tlf Erasmus Darwin supplies an them, shall we conjecture that one and excellent outline of the contents of books the same kind of living filament is and which are now rarely taken down from has been the cause of all organic life?" the shelves, and makes clear that their Nor does he make any exception to this author had the root of the matter in him. law of organic development. He quotes His observations and readmg-for the Buffon and Helvetius to the effect­ influence of Buffon and others is appa· .. that many features in the anatomy or rent in his writings-led him to reject man point to a former quadrupedal the current belief in the separate creation position, and indicate that he is not yet of species. He saw that this theory fully adapted to the erect position; that, wholly failed to account for the existence further, man may have arisen from a of abnormal forms, of adaptations of the single family of monkeys, in which, structure of organs to their work, of accidentally, the opposing muscle brought gradations between living things, and the thumb against the tips of the fingers, other features inconsistent with the doc­ and that this muscle gradually increased trine of "let lions be, and there were in size by use in successive generations." lions." His shrewd comment on the While we who live in these days of fuller preformation notion of development has knowledge of agents of variation may been quoted (pp. 16, I 7). The su bstance detect the minus in all foregoing specu· of his argument in support of a "physical lations, our interest is increased in the basis of life" is as follows: "When we thought of their near approach to the revolve in our minds the metamorphoses cardinal discovery. And a rapid run of animals, as from the tadpole to the through the later writings of Dr. Darwin frog; secondly, the changes produced shows that there is scarcely a sitle of by artificial cultivation, as in the breeds the great theory of Evolution which has of horses, dogs, and sheep; thirdly, the escaped his notice or suggestivecomment. changes produced by conditions of Grant Allen, in his excellent little mono­ climate and of season, as in the sheep graph on Charles Darwin, says that the of warm climates being covered with theory of" natural selection was the only hair instead of wool, and the hares and cardinal one in the evolutionary system partridges of northern climates becoming on which Erasmus Darwin did not white in winter; when, further, we ob­ actually forestall his more famous and serve the changes of structure produced greater namesake. For its full percep­ by habit, as seen especially by men of tion, the discovery of Malthus had to different occupations; or the changes be collated with the speculations of produced by artificial mutilation and Buffon." prenatal influences, as in the crossing of In the "Historical Sketch on the species md production of monsters; Progress of Opinion on the Origin of fourthly, when we observe the essential Species," which Darwin prefixed to his unity of plan in all warm-blooded animals book, he refers to Lamarck as "the -we are led to conclude that they have first man whose conclusions on the sub­ been alike produced from a similar living ject excited much attention "; rendering filament." The concluding words of .. the eminent service of arousing atten­ this extract make remarkable approach tion to the probability of all change in to the modem theory of the origin of the organic as well as in the inorganic life in the complex jelly-like protoplasm. world being the result of law, and not And, on this, Erasmus' Darwin further of miraculous interposition." Lamarck remarks: "As the earth and ocean were was born at Bezantin, in Picardy, in probably peopled with vegetable pro­ 1744. Intended for the Church, he ductions long before the existence of chose the army, but an injury resulting animals, and many families of these from a practical joke cut short his career animals long before other families of as a soldier. He then became a banker'. THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE 53 clerk, in which occupation he secured in a form of spontaneous generation. leisure for his favourite pursuit o(rutural Rejecting Buffon's theory of the direct history. Through Buffon'. influence he action o( the surroundings as agents 0( procured a civil appointment, and ulti­ change in living things, he sums up the mately became a colleague o( Cuvier causes of organic evolution in the (011011'­ and Geoffroy St. Hilaire in the Museum ing propositions :- o( Natural History at Paris. Of Cuvier I. Life tends by its inherent forces to it will here luffice to lay that he remained increase the volume of each living body, to the end of his life a believer in special and of all its p:uts, up to a living deter­ creation, or, what amounts to the same mined by its own needs. thing, a series of special creations, which, 2. New wants in animals give rise to he held, followed the catastrophic anni­ new movements which produce organs. hilations o( prior plants and animals. 3. The development of these organs Although orthodox by conviction, his is in proportion to their employment. researches told against his tenets, because 4- New developments are transmitted his important work in the recon­ to offspring. struction o( skeletons of long extinct The second and third propositions animals laid the foundation of pa1reon­ were illustrated by examples which have, tology. with good reason, provoked ridicule. To Lamarck, says Haeckel, .. will Lamarck accounts for the long neck of always belong the immortal glory o( the giraffe by that organ being con­ having for the first time worJced out the tinually stretched out to reach the leaves theory o( Descent as an independent at the tree-tops j (or the long tongue of the scientific theory of the first order, and as ant-eater or the wood·peeker by these the philosophical (oundation of the creatures protruding it to get at food in whole science of Biology." He taught channel or crevice i for the webbed feet that in the beginnings of life only the of aquatic animals by the outstretching very simplest and lowest animals and of the membranes between the toes in plants came into existence; those of swimming j and for the erect position of more complex structure developing from man by the constant efforts of his ape­ these; man himself being descended like ancestors to keep upright. The from ape-like mammals. For the Aris­ legless condition of the serpent, which, totelian mechanical figure of life as a in the legend o( the garden of Eden, is ladder, with its detached steps, he sub­ accounted for on moral grounds, is thus stituted the more appropriate figure of explained by Lamarck: .. Snake~ sprang a tree, as"an inter·related organism. He from reptiles with four extremities; but, argued that the course of the earth's having taken up the habit of moving development, an(J also of all life upon along the earth and concealing them­ it, was continuous, and not interrupted by selves among bushes, their bodies, owing violent revolutions. In this he followed to repeated efforts to elongate themselves Buffon and Hutton. Buffon, in his and to pass through narrow spaces, have Tluory oJ 1111 Earlll, argues that .. in acquired a considerabll! length out of all order to understand what had taken proportion to their width. Sin:e long place in the past, or what will happen (eet would have been very useless, and an the future, we have but to observe short feet would have been incapable of what is going on in the present." This is moving their bodies, there resulted a the keynote of modem geology. "Life," cessation of use of these parts, which adds Lamarck, .. is a purely physical has finally caused them to totally dis­ phenomenon. All its phenomena de­ appear, although they were originally pend on mechanical, physical, and part of the p!.ln of organisation in these chemical causes which are inherent in animals." The discovery of an "efficient the nature of matter itself. .. He believed cause of modifications, which Lamarck 54 PIOXEERS OF ErOLf.7ION

refers to the efforts of the creatures them­ world a treati~ by one ratri.:k ~I.lt:hew, seh-es, has pl.u:eJ. his ~ul.ltions in the on .,:nul Ti... ~, au A,Mri.",~"'rr, museum of biolo,;iw curiosities; but under "'hich unexciting title Duwin'. sh..lIp contro\-ersy nges to-day o\-er the theory 11'"15 antici~ted.. Of this, how. question nised in Lun.ud.'s founn pro­ ewr, as of a still eaIlier anticipation. position-n.J.mely, the tnnsmission of more presently. About this period von characters acquired by the parent during B.ler, in e..umining the embryos of its lifetime to the offspring, This burning aninuls, show-ed th.lt creatures 50 unlike question hetween Weismann and his one another in their aJu!t lute as t1,;h~'So opponents, invohing the serious problem liurds, lions, and men, re;;cmb!e one of heredity, wi!! remain unsettled till a =other so closely in the earlier sw.ges of long series of obsen'":ltions supply Ul3.terUl their de\-ek'pment th.lt no differences f0r jud;ment. can be d,~!<::Cted betw-t,,<:n them.. Eut Lamarck., poor, nassist in pa\ing the ,..y for the such a mUlller that the Lmer pus remo\-;u of one difficulty attending the through the penn.ment f('rms of the solution of L'le theory of the origin of former as tr.lI1Sitory sta;es" (o..oorn's spp:1rhic.l.l dis:ribut;on. Yon ~Iuhl Spencer $..1)'"5 Hugh ~liller,.-as, .. a L'leo- d,sco\-ered th.1t m.ltcrul b.lsis of b ..th 10',;i:m studying !:7~:~"'.;y-" F o::owing the r:ol:lt and anim;;.1 whi.:h he D-1.1.lcd theorY tlf unif0rmit... of action LUd G0'11'"Tl .. protopLlsm," In IS,U. nine yeaTS by Hutton, by Bufron. and by that in­ hef,lre \'"Dn ~Iohl to!d the story of the dustrious sun-eyor, Wi!.lia.m Smith, ,.-ho bui!ding-up of life from a seeming!, tn\'"el:ed the length and breadth of stnlctureless jelly, a book J.r;--ea.red which Engl.md. mapping out L'le sequence of i critics at the time WfbN "-I:h "poison­ the rocks and tabulating t!:te fossils if'g the fount.llns of science and sarring speci.U to each stntum, Lyell demon­ thl! f0unJ..ltions of re!:,:i0n." TIus,.-u strated in detail that the formations and the once f.lUlOUS ItIf:~,"t'S cf Crrllti.. ", features of the earth's crust are expl.llned ack.nowleJ~ after his d&:h as the by the opention of Cluses still acti\'"e. work of Robert Ch.1m b.:rs, in wbi.::.'l the ,He 1f:lS one among others, each working ori,;in and movements of the sol.lr independently at differ'ent branches of S)'"5tem were expLllncd as d~:er::nineJ by rese.m:h; each, un,.-jttingly, collecting uniform L1ws, t!:tems.cl\'cs the u?Ces.s:<>D endence ,.-hich "'ould help to demolish of Dime po.. er, Or;:m:sms, -(rom the 01.1 ideas and supp:-.rt new theories. sim?!est a.."lJ oldest u;> tv t!:te t-..i.;he:st A yeu after t!:te Pn'>:.l/:a ".! &,,:,~ and most recen:," were the result of an appeared there crept unnoticed into the .. inherent impulse imp.uted by tbe THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE 55

Almighty both to advance them from cavalierly reject the theory or Evolution, the several grades and modify their as not adequately supported by facts, Itructure as circumstances required.· teem quite to forget that their Olm Although now referred to only as" mark­ theory is supported by no facti at all. ing time" in the history of the theory Like the majority of men who are born of Evolution, the book created a sensa­ to a given belief. they demand the most tion which died away only lome years rigorous proof of any adverse belie~ but after itl publication. Darwin remarks assume that their own needs none. Here upon it in his" historical sketch." that, we find, scattered over the globe, veg60 although displaying .. in the earlier table and 'animal organisms numbering, edition. little accurate knowledge and a of the one kind (according to Humboldt) great want of lCientific knowledge, it did some 320.000 species. and of the other excellent service in this country in some 2.000,000 species (see Carpenter) ; calling attention to the subject, in and if to these we add the numbers of removing prejudice. and in thus pre­ animal and vegetable species that have paring the ground (or the reception of become extinct, we may safely estimate analogous view •. " the number of species that have existed, .fhree years aner the Yesli;:es. although and are existing. on the earth, at not less . nOlle then knew it, or. knowing the than 'len mil/ions. Well, which is the fact, '/I'ould have admitted it. there most rational theory about these ten was more" lapping of the foundations .. millions of species? Is it most likely of orthodox belief, when M. Boucher de that there have been ten millions of Perthes exhibited some rudely-shaped special creations? or is it most likely flint imph:ments which had be~ found that by continual modifications. due to at intervals in hitherto undisturbed change of circumstances, ten millions of deposits of sand and gravel-old river varieties have been produced, as varieties beds-in the Somme valley. near Abbe­ are being produced still? ...... Even ville. in Picardy. For these rough stone could the supporters or the Development tool' and weapons, being of human Hypothesis merely show that the origina­ workmanship. evidenced the existence tion of species by the process of modifi­ of savage races of men in Europe in a cation is conceivable. they would be in dim and dateless past, and went far to a better position than their opponents. refute the theories of his paradisaical But they can do much more than this. ltate on that memorable" 23 October, They can show that the process or modi­ 4004 B.C .... when. according to Dr. Light­ fication has etl'ected, and is etl'ecting, foot's reckoning (see p. 48). Adam was decided changes in all organisms subject created. While the pickaxe, in disturbing to modifying influences ...... They can flint knives &nd spearheads that had bin show that in successive generations these for countless ages, was disturbing much changes continue, until ultimately the besides. English&nd German philosophers new conditions become the natural ones. were formulating the imposing theory They tan show that in cultivated plants, which. under the name o( the Conserva­ domesticated animals. &nd in the several tion or Energy. makes clear the inde­ races of men, such alterations have taken structibility of both matter &nd motion. place. They can show that the degrees Then, to complete the work of prepara­ of ditrerence so produced are often, as in tion etl'ected by the discoveries here dogs, greater than those on which dis- ,. briefly outlined, there appeared, in • tinctions of species are in other cases defunct newspaper. the uade,.. in its founded. They can show. too. that the issue or 20th March, 18S2. an article by changes daily taking place in ourselvcs­ Herbert Spencer on the" Development the facility that attends long· practice, Hypothesis," in which the following and the loss of aptitude that begins when striking passage occurs: It Those who practice ceases-the strengthening or PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION passions habitually gratified, and the lo;;ical records imply, any amount of weakening of those habitually curbed­ change." the development of every faculty, bodily, . This quotation shows, as perhaps no moral, or intellectual, according to the other reference might show, how, by the use made of it-are all explicable on this middle of the present century, science same principle. And thus they can show was trembling on the verge of discovery that throughout all organic nature there of that II modifying influence" of "'hich is at work a modifying influence of the Mr. Spencer speaks. That discovery kind they assign as the cause of these made clear how all that had preceded it specific differences; an influence which, not only contributed thereto, but gained though slow in its action, does, in time, a significance and value which, apart if the circumstances demand it, produce from it, could not have been secured. marked changes-an influence which, When the relation of the several parts to to all - appearance, would produce in the whole became manifest, each fdl into ~he n1i1lions of years, and under the its place like the pieces of a child's great varieties of condition which geo- puule map.

LEADING MEN OF SCIENCB

A.D. Soo-A.D. 1800

,_ NAMK. BIRTH. SPIICIALITY. ,______I __ P_LA __ CK __ A_N_D __ D_A_T_K __ O_F_I __D_IK_D_·I------.------

Geber (Djafer) Mesopotamia, 830 Earliest known Chemist Avicenna (Ibu Sinal llokhara, 980 Expositor of Aristotle; Physician and Geologist " Averroes (Ibu Roshd) Spain, 1126 Translator and Commentator of Aris- lotle Roger Bacon IIchester, 1214 Firsl Engli,h Experimentalist Christopher Columbus Genoa, 1445 Discm-erer of America, 149z Vasco de Gama Sines, 1469 (Portugal) Sailed round the south of Africa, 1497 Ferdinand Magellan Vine de Sabroza, "1470 Circumnavi!!ator or the Glube, 1519 Nicholas Copernic'.. Thorn, 1473 (Prussia) Discoverer of the Sun as the Centre of our System Andreas Vesalius Brussels, 1514 Human Anatomy Conrad Gesner Zurich, 1516 Classific~ti"n of Plants and Animals Andrew Caesalpino Arezzo, 1519 (Tuscany) Comparative Botanist Trcho Brahe Knudstrup, 1546 con ector of Astronomical Data (Sweden) Giordano Bruno Nola, 1550 1600 Expounder of the Copernican System, and Philosopher Francis, Lord Bacon London, 1561 1626 Expounder of the Inductive Philo- sophy " Galileo Galilei Pisa, 1564 Numerous Astronomical Discoverie. Johann Kepler \\'Urtemburg, 1571 Discoverer of the Three La..... of Planetary MO\'ementa William Harvey Folkestone, 1578 Discovered the Circulation of the Blood Thomas Hobbes Malmesbury, 1578 One of the Founder. of Modem Ethics THE RENASCENCE OF SCIENCE 57

LEADING MEl( or SciENCE-Continued.

'LACa AND DATa o. DIED. SPECIALITY. r I ••TII. 1------La'llaye. 15'}6 Resolution of all Phenomena in (Tourainel termloC MatLer and ~Iotion (Dual­ ism) Benedict Spinoza Amlterdam•• 633 Resolution of all Phenomena in term, of S ubsllDce == God (~Io­ nism) John Locke Wrinl:ton •• 63z Moral Philosopher (Somerset) Gottfried Wilhelm Lei psic, .646 Philosopher and Mathematician Leibnita SirI.aac Newton Woollthorpe ••643 Expoander of tbe Law of Gravitation (Lincoln) Edmund lIaUey London •• 656 ·74' Astronomer Vavid lIartley Illingworth. 1705 ·757 I'.ychology of Man Carl 90n Linna:uI Roc&hult • • 707 .778 Sptematic Botany and Zoology (Sweden) Count de ButTon Burgund>( 1707 .788 Contributions from Biology and Geology towards Theory 01 Evolu­ tion David lIume Edinburl:h, '711 1776 Philusophy 01 the Anti· Super. nataral, conver!:in!: ir, Man Immanuel Kant Kiinig,burg. '724 .804 Formulator of the Nebular Theory james lIulton Edinburl:h. '726 1797 Geologist: Uniformitarian };rumul Darwin Elton, '731 .!Ioz (Se6 Buffon) (Lincolnshire) Jean Bapt!.te Lamarck Bezantin, 1744 •829 Biologist: Contributions ...oainst Theory of Fixity of Species Sir WilJiam lIerachcl lIanover, 173S _ .822 Astronomer Marcluis de Laplace Beaumont en - Ange, .827 Expounder of the Nebular Theory '749 Conrad Spren~l Pomerania. '766 .83J Botanist John Valton Eag-Ies/ie\d. '767 ·844 Formulator of the Modern Atomic (Cumberland) Theory Baron Cuvil'r !olontbcliard. '769 1832 Palzontologist and Anatom;'t GeotT. St. Ililaire Etampes. '773 .844 Zoologist Alexander Yon lIum· Berlin, '769 • .859 Explorer bolt William Smith ChurchiJI, .769 (Oxon) .3.40 Geologist: mapped strata of Great Britain Boucher d, Perthe. Rethel, .788 1868 Discoverer of Evidences of Man', Antiquity Sir WilJiam lIooker Norwich, .785 •865 Botanist Sir Charlca LyeU Kinnordy, '797 .875 GeolO!:ist I dneloped HunGn's (Forfarshire) Theory Ernst 90n Baer Esthonia, .792 18]6 Embryologist; Law of Organic Development Sir Richard Owen Lancaster, • S04 .892 Palzontologist lIul:o 90n Mohl Germany, .!IoS .872 Discoverer of Protoplasm Tbcodor Schwann NeuII, .8.0 (l'ru.s.sia) .8l!2 Founder of the Cell Theory Hermann Yon .Uelm. Potsdam, .8u .894 F ormul"tor of the Voctrine of the holll Coll5ClY&tion fIl Ene,g-y PART IV

MODERN EVOLUTION

I. Danv", a"d IVaI/act

.. \Ye have to deal with lIIan as a product of Evolution; with Society u • product of F'·olu· tion; anJ with Moral Phenomena as products of Evolution."-lIKROltRT SPENCI!R, Pr'''''I'lS -1 Elkirs, § 193.

CHARl.ES ROBERT DARWIN (the second 1873 by his distinguished cousin, Francis name was rarely used by him) was born Galton, he says: "I consider that all I at Shrewsbury on the 12th February, have learnt of any value has been self­ 18°9. He came of a long line of Lincoln­ taught"; and he adds that his education shire yeomen, whose forbears spelt the fostered no methods of observation or name variously, as Darwen, Darw

main groups, Indo-Malaysia and Austro­ to Mr. Darwin," asking him, if he thought .Malaysia, marked by distinct species and well of the essay, to send it to Lyell. groups of animals. That line runs This Darwin did with the fo\lol\-ing through a deep channel leparating the remarks: .. Your words have come true islands of nali and Lombok; the plants with a revenge-that· I should be (ore­ and animals on which, although but stalled•.•.... I never saw a more striking fifteen miles of water separated them, coincidence; if Wallace had my MS. differ from each other even more than do sketch written out in 184%, he could not the islands 'of Great Britain and Japan. have made a better short a~tract! .. A similar line, but lomewhat farther Even his tenns now stand as heads of east, divides on the whole the Malay my chapters. Please return me the MS., from the FapuaD races of man." which he does not say he wishes me to Among the more fugitive contributions publish; but I 5hal~ of course, at once which marked Mr. Wallace'. approach to write and olTer to send to any journal. a .()Iution of the problem in quest of So all my originality, whatever it may which he and Bates went to the Amazons amount to, will be smashed, though my is AJaper, On 1M Law w..ik.t .tas Regu­ book, if it will ever have any value, will late 1M Introdu(fion 01 Ntw Spedtl, not be deteriorated, as all the labour published in the Annals and AIagazine consists in the application of the theory." 01 Natural l/istory, 18SS. In this he Darwin came out well in this business. shows that some form of evolution of For to have hit upon a theory which one species from another is needed to interprets so large a question as the explain the geological and geographical origin and causes of modification of !ife­ facts of which examples are given. forms; to keep on turning it over and In the interesting preface to the reprint over again in the mind for twenty long of the famous paper, On t..ie Tenden(les years; to spend the working hours of 01 VaT/eties 10 Deparl II/definitely Irom every day in collection and verification 1M Original Ii'pe, Mr. Wallace recites of facts for and against it; and then the several researches which he made in to have another man launching a " bolt quest of that" form" till, when lying ill from the blue" in the shape of a paper with fevcr at Ternate, in February, 18S8, with exactly the same theory, might well something led him to think of the disturb even A philosopher of Darwin's II positive checks" described by Malthus serenity. in his Essay on Populalio", A book However, both Hooker and Lyell had which he had read lome years before. read his sketch a dozen years before, and Oddly enough, therefore, the honours lie it was arranged by them, not as con­ with the maligned Haileybury Reverend sidering claims of priority, which have Professor of Political Economy in fur­ too often been occasion of unworthy nishing both Darwin and Wallace with wrangling, but in the" interests of science the clue. The" positive checks "-war, generally," that ~n abstract of Darwin's disease, famine-Wallace felt must act manuscript should be read with Walbce's even more effectively on the lower paper at a meeting of the Linnean lUlimals than on man, because of their Society on the 1st July, 1858. The full more rapid rate of multiplication. And title of the joint communicatioll was, he tells us, in the prefatory note to a 0" l..ie Ttndmdes 01 StUltS 10 Form reprint of his paper, II there suddenly Vanehts, and on 1M Po-petualion 01 flashed on me the ;dfa of the survival of Vane/ill lind Sj¥aeS by Natural &1«­ the fittest, IUld in the two hours that lio1l_ Sir Joseph Hook.er, describin.; the elapsed before my ague fit was over I g.lthering, says that" the interest excited had thought out the whole of the theory, was intensc, but the subject W.lS too IUld in the two succeed in/? evenings wrote novel and too ominous for the old school it out in full and sent it Dr the next post to enter the lists before armouring. PIONEER~ OF EVOLUTION ------After the meeting it was talked over with I wish that I fully deserved it. Your bated breath. Lyell's approval, and, modesty and candour are very far (rom perhaps, in a small way mine, as his new to me. I hope it is a satisfaction to lieutenant in the affair, rather overawe~ you to reflect-and very few things in the Fellows, who would otherwise ha,'ve my life have been more satisfactory to flown out against the doctrine. We had, me-that we have never (e1t any jealousy too, the vantage ground of being familiar towards each other, though in one sense with the authors and their theme." rivals. I believe I can say this of my­ Nothing can deprive Mr. Wallace of the self with truth, and I am absolutely lure honour due to him as the co-originator of it is true of you." the theory, which, regarded in its applica­ tion to the origin, history, and destiny ) But on one question, and that round of man, involves the most momentous ~which discussion still rages, the friends changes in belief; and there may be fitly Were poles asunder. There had been quoted here his own modest, and doubt­ torrespondence between them as to the less correct, assessment of limitations bearing of the theory of natural selection which in. no wise invalidate his high on man, and in April, 1869, Darwin claims. In the Preface to his Contribu­ wrote: "As you expected, I differ tions to the Theory of Natural Selection grievously from you, and I am very (1870) Mr. Wallace says the book will sotTy for it. I can see no necessity for prove that he saw at the time both the calling in an additional and proximate value and scope of the law which he had cause in regard to man." In the fifteenth discovered, and has since been able to chapter of his comprehensive book on apply to some purpose in a few original Darwinism, Wallace admits the action lines of investigation. " But," he adds, of natural selection in man's physical "here my claims cease. I have felt all structure. This structure classes him my life, and I still feel, the most sincere among the vertebrates; the mode of satisfaction that Mr. Darwin had been at human suckling classes him among the work long before me, and that it was not mamm,ls; his blood, his muscles, and left for me to attempt to write the Origin his nerves, the structure of his heart with of Species. I have long since measured its veins and arteries, his lungs and his my own strength, and know full weIJ whole re~piratory and circulatory systems, that it would be quite unequal to that all closely correspond to those of other task. Far abler men than myself may mammals, and are often almost identical confess that they have not that untiring with them. He possessesthesamenumber patience in accumulating, and that won­ of limbs, terminating in the same derful skill in using, large masses of number Cif digits, as belong funda­ facts of the most varied kind-that wide mentaIly to the mammals. His senses and accurate physiological knowledge­ are identical with theirs, and his organs that acuteness in devising and skill in of sense are the same in number and carrying out experiments, and that ad­ occupy the same relative position. Every mirable style of composition at once detail of structure which is common te­ clear, persuasive, and judicial-qualities the Mammalia as a class is found also in which, in their harmonious combination, man, while he differs from them only in mark out Mr. Darwin as the man, per­ such ways and degrees as the varioul haps of all men now living, best fitted species or groups of mammals differ from for the great work he has undertaken each other. He is, like them, begotten and accomplished." by sexual conjugation; like them, de­ In a letter to Wallace, dated 20th veloped from a fertilised egg, and in . April, 1870, Darwin says: "There has his embryonic condition passes through never been passed on me, or, indeed, on stages recapitUlating the variety of enor­ anyone, a higher eulogium than yours. mously remote ancestors of whom he is IfODERN EVOLlITION the perfected descendant. Full-grown, Mode,." S/iri/ualiJm, of which a revist:d he appear. as most nearly allied to the edition, WIth chapters on Apparitions and anthropoid or man·like apes; 10 much Phantasms, was issued in 1895, M.r. does his skeleton resemble theirs that, Wallace contends that II Spiritualism, if comparing him with the chimpanzee, we true, furnishes such proofs of the exis­ find, with very few exceptions, bone for tence of ethereal bemgs, and o( their bone, differing only in lize, arrangement, power to act upon matter, as must revo­ and proportion. lutionise philosophy. It demonstrates Mr. Wallace, therefore, rejected the the actuality of forms of matter and idea of man', special creation" as being· modes of being before inconceivable; entirely unsupported by facts, as well as it demonstrates mind without brain, and in the highest degree improbable." Bul intelligence disconnected from what we III would nol aI/ott! Ihal nalural st/eclion know as the material body; and it thus explains the origin of man', spin'lIIal and cuts away all presumption against our ;nlel/(c/ual naluTI. These, he ILrgues, continued existence after the physical II must have had another origin, and for body is disorganised and dissolved. Yet this origin we can only find an adequate more, it demonstrates, as completely as cause in the \Inseenuniverse or Spirit." the fact can be demonstrated, that the More detailed treatment of this argu· slH'.alled dead are still alive; that our ment will be given further on; here frienfls are still with us, though unseen, reference is made to it as furnishing the and guide and strengthen us when, owing explanation why Mr. Wallace kept not to absence of proper conditions, they his II first estate," and dropped out of cannot make their presence known. It the ranks of Pioneers of Evolution. thus furnishes a proof of a future life. Many .ubject~, as hinted above, have which 50 many crave, and for want of occupied his facile pen-land nationali· which 10 many live and die in anxious lation, causes of depression in trade, doutt, so many in positive disbelief. It labourers' allotments, "accination, It /we substitutes Ii" definite, real, and practical rOlus omnl; showing, at least, the pro­ conviction for a vague, theoretical, and minence which all social matters occupy unsatisfying faith. It furnishes actual in the minds of the leading exponents of knowledge on a matter of vital importance the theory of Evolution. For of this, as to all men, and as to which the wisest will be leen, both H.erbert Spencer and men and most advanced thinkers have Huxley supply cogent examples in their held, and still hold, that no knowledge application of that theory to human was attainaLle." interests. But it is asa defender, This claim, this tremendous claim, although on lines of his own nut wholly on behalf of the phenomena of spirit­ orthodox, of supernaturalism, with atten· ualism to supply an answer to II the dant beliefs in miracles and the grosser question of questions: the ascertainment forms of spiritualism, that Mr. Wallace of man's relation to the universe of appears in the character of opponent to things; whence our race has come; to the inclusion of man's physical nature c" what goal we are tending," rests on the a product of Evolution. assumption with which Mr. Wallace The arresting influence of these views, starts-" Spiritualism, if IruI." \\' hen backed by honest, sincere, lUld The essay (rom which the above pas­ eminent men of the type of Mr. Wallace, sages are quoted is preceded by re­ and when also supported by several ferences in detail to a considerable prominent men of science, renders it number of cases of II the appearance of desirable to show that modern psychism preterhuman or spiritual beings," the is but savage animism It writ large," and evidence of which II is as good and wholly explicable on the theory of con­ definite as it is possible for any evidence tinuity. In his book on Miracles anti of any fact to be. .. These ghost stories. r PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

contr3.Sted with the full-flavoured eerie dupes, became the .. unexpected instru­ tales of old, are feebly monotonous. The ment of driving conviction as to the apparatus of the medium is limited; the reality of psychical manifestations by phenomena are largely of the .. horse­ the invisible into the minds of many play" order. Through the whole series scientists." A number of distinguished we vainly seek for some ennobling and savants testified to the genuineness of exalting conception of a life beyond, the woman's performances in Professor some glimpses "behind the veil," only Richet's cottage on the lIe Roubant in to find that the shades are but diluted the autumn of 1893. It was the serious or vulgarised parodies of ourselves; or and complete conviction of all of them that" the filthy are filthy still," like the (Lodge, Richet, Ochorowicz, and otht:rs) departed bargee whose" communicating that "on no single occasion during the intelligence" (we quote from a recent occurrence of an event recorded by them book on spiritualism entitled The Great was a hand of Eusapia's free to uecute Scent) was as coarse-mouthed as when any trick whatever." Mr. Maskclyne, in the flesh. In considering, if it be such testimony notwithstandin~, declared deemed worth while, the evidence of that the whole business was II the sorriest genuineness of the occurrences, we are of trickeries," and, to the credit of the thrown, not on the honesty, but on the Society for Psychical Research, it under­ competency, of the witnesses. The most took the expense .f bringing Eusapia to eminent among these show themselves England for the purpose of testing the persons of undisciplined emotions. The genuineness of her doings. She was _ distinguished physicist, Professor Oliver taken to a house in Cambridge, and Lodge, who has been described to the detected as a vulgar impostor. Yet Mr. writer by an intimate friend of the Pro­ Wallace, in the new edition of hi. fessor as "longing to believe some­ lIfirac/es and lIfodern Spin'/ualism, des­ thing," argues that in dealing with cribes all the phenomena occurring at psychical phenomena a hazy, muzzy Professor Richet's house as "not ex­ state of mind is better than a mind plicable as the result of any known .. keenly awake" and "on the spot" (see physical causes," and, in a subsequent .. Address "to the Society for Psy­ explanatory letter to the Daily Chronicle chical Research, Proceedings, part xxvi., of 24th January, 1896, expresses the pp. 14, 15). With this may be com­ opinion that .. the Cambridge experi­ pared a Mohammedan receipt for sum­ ments; so far as they are recorded, only moning spirits given in Klunzinger's prove that Eusapia might have deceived, Upper Egypt (p. 386) : " Fast seven days not that she actually and (()nsciously did in a lonely place, and take incense with so." The integrity of Mr. Wallace is you. Read a chapter 1,001 times from not to be doubted, but what becomes of the Koran. That is the secret, and you his competence to judge when prejudice will see indescribable wonders; drums blinds itself to facts? Spiritualism. i/ will be beaten beside you, and flags true, demonstrates this and that about hoisted over YOl,lr head, and you will see the unseen; but spiritualism, Ir{}fJed to spirits." Thus have the dreamy Oriental oe-un/rue, lacks half the dexterity of an Moslem and the self-hypnotised Western astute conjurer, and the whole of his professor met together to elicit truth honesty. Every scientific man recognises from trance. the doctrine of the Conservation of Concerning the competence of Mr. Energy as a fundamental canon. But Wallace himself to weigh, unbiassed, the with those who regard the phenomena evidence which comes before him, it of spiritualism as .. not explicable ~ suffices to cite the case of Eusapia except by supernatural causes, it would Paladino, a Neapolitan" medium," who, seem that that doctrine, as also the in the words of one of her most ardent not unimportant conditions of Time and MODERN EVOLUTION

Space, count for nothing. When we m, that there is nothing too strange to read their reports of the behaviour of be believed by those who have once mediums who project (of course, in the lurrendered their judgment to the extent dark) .. abnormal temporary prolonga· of accepting as credible things which tions It like pseudopodia, we should feel common sense tells us are entirely in­ alike depressed and confounded were there credible.It Dot abundant proofs what wholly un­ The fact abides that the great mass of trustworthy observers scientific specialists supernatural beliefs which have persisted can be outside their own domain. A3 from the lower culture till now, and the writer has remarked elsewhere, minds which are Itill held by an overwhelming of this type must be built in watertight majority of civilised mankind, are re­ compartments. They show how, even ferable to causes concomitant with man'. in the higher culture, the force of a mental development; causes operative dominant idea may suspend or narcotise throughout his history. The low intel­ the reason and judgment, and con­ lectual -environment of his barbaric past tribute to the rise and spread of another was constant for thousands of years, and of the epidemic delusions of which his adaptation thereto was complete. , history supplies warning examples. The intru ;iol) of the scientific method They also show that man'. senses in its application to man disturbed that have been his arch-deceivers, and his equilibrium. But this, as yet, only super· preconceptions their abettors, through­ ficially. Like the foraminifera that per­ out human history; that advance has list in the ocean depths, the great been possible only as he has escaped majority of mankind have remained but through the discipline of the· intellect slightly, if at all, modified; thus illus­ from the illusive impressions about phe­ trating the truth of the doctrine of evo­ nomena which the lenses convey. Upon lution in their psychical history. (For thi. matter the words of the late Dr. that doctrine does not imply all-round, Carpenter may be quoted, words the continuous advance. " Let us never for­ more weighty because they are the get," Mr. Spencer says in Social Statics, utterance of a man whose philosophy "that the law is-adaptation to circum­ was influenced by deep religious con­ stances, be they what they may_") There­ victions: II With every disposition to fore the superstitions that still dominate accept facts when I could once clearly the life of man, even in 1io-called civi­ latisfy myself that they were facts; I lised centres, arc no stumbling-blocks to have had to come to the conclusion that, us_ Theyare supports along the path whenever 1 have been permitted to of inquiry, because we account for their employ such tests as 1 should employ in persistence. Thought and feeling have any scientific investigation, there was a COmmon base, because man is a unit, either intentional deception on the part not a duality. But the exercise of the of interested persons, or else self-decep­ one has been active from the beginnings tion on the part of persons "oho were of his history-indeed we know not at very sober-minded and rational upon an what pOint backwards we can classify it ordinary atrairs of life." He adds as human or quasi-human-_ohile' the further: .. It has been my busin~ lately other, speaking comparatively, has but to inquire into the mental condition of recently been called into play. So far as lome of the individuals _oho have re­ its influence on the modem .oorld goes, ported the most remarkable occurrences. may we not say that it began at l~t in I cannot-it would no: be fair.-:say all I the domain of scientific naturalism with could with regard to that mental con­ the Ionian philosophers? Emotionally, dition; but I can only say this, that it we are hundreds of thousands of years all fits an perfectly well with the result of old; rationally, we are embryos_ my previous ltudies upon the subject- In other words, man wondered count· 68 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION less ages before he reasoned; because ledge, sufficing causes of abnormal feeling travels along the line of least re­ mental phenomena are found in abnor· sistance, while thought, or the challenge mal working of the mental apparatus. by inquiry-therefore the assumption The investigation of hallucinations (Lat. that there may be two sides to a question aludnor, to wander in mind) leaves no -must pursue a path obstructed by the doubt that they are the etrl."Ct of a morbid dominance of custom, the force of imita­ condition of that intricate, delicately tion, and the strength of prejudice and poised structure, the nervous system, fear. It is here that anthropology, nota­ under which objects are seen and sensa­ bly that psychical branch of it compre­ tions (eIt when no correspondin~ im­ hended under folk-lore, takes up the cue pression has been made through the from the momentous doctrine of here­ medium of the senses. When the dity; explains the persistence of the nervous system is out of gear, "oices, primitive; and the causes of man's tardy whether di"ine or of the dead, may be escape from the illusions of the senses, heard; and actual figures may be seen. and the general conservatism of human A mental image becomes a visual image; nature. .. Born into life! in vain, an imagined pain a real pain, as the Opinions, those or these, unalter'd to great physiologist, John Hunter, testified retain the obstinate miud decrees," as in when he said: .. I am confident that I the striking illustration cited in Heine's can fix my attention to any part until I Travel-Pictures. .. A few years ago have a sensation in that part." Shake­ Bullock dug up an ancient stone idol in speare portrays the like condition when Mexico, and the next day he_ found that Macbeth attempts to clutch the dagger it had been crowned during the night wherewith to stab Duncan: with flowers. And yet the Spaniard had exterminated the old Mexican religion .. There'. no such thing; It i. the bloody business which informs with fire and sword, and for three ThllJ to mine eyes." centuries had been engaged in ploughing and harrowing their minds and im­ This abnormal state, which sees thin~s planting the seed of Christianity." The having no existence outside the" mind's causes of error and delusion, and of the eye," is no respecter of persons; the spiritual nightmares of olden time, being savage and the civilised are alike its made clear, there is begotten a generous victims. It may be organic or funG.!ional. sympathy with that which empirical Organic, when disease is present; func­ notions of human nature attributed to tional, through excessive fatigue, lack of wilfulness or to man's fall from a high food or sleep, or derangement of the estate. Superstitions which are the out­ digestive system, causing the patient, as come of ignorance can only awaken pity. Hood says, "to think he's plOu~ when Where the corrective of knowledge is he's only bilious." Under such con­ absent, we see that it could not be ditions, hallucinations of all sort, otherwise. Where that corrective is possess the mind; hallucinations from present, but either perverted or nut which the true peptic, who, as Carlyle exercised, pity is supplanted by blame. says, "has no system," is delivered. In either case, we learn that the art of Only t~e mentally an;emic, the emo­ life largely consists in that control of the tionally overwrought, the unbalanced, emotions and that diversion of them and the epileptic are the victims, into wholesome channels which the in­ whether of the lofty illusions o( august tellect, braced with the latest knowledge, visions such as carried Saint rau~ can alone effect. Saint Theresa, and Joan of Arc into the Therefore, discarding theories of reve­ presence of the holiest; or hallucina­ lation, spiritual illumination, and other tion of dro90'Tled cat, thin and" dripping assumed supramundane sowces of know- with 'water," born of the disordered MODERN EVOLUTION nerves of Mrs. Gordon Jones. To is the initiative and incentive of inquiry, quote from Dr. Gower's Bowman of enterprise, and of noble ideals; un­ Lecture (Nature, 4th July, 1895) on restricted, leads the dreamer and the .. Subjective Visual Sensations," luch as enthusiast into engulfing quicksands of accompany fits, when, I.C., lensations of illusions and delusions. Hence the si~ht occur without the retina being necessity of curbing a faculty so that, in stimulated :- unison with reason, it works towards The lpedra peruind before epileptic fits nry definite ends within the domain, marking widely. Th"r may be llA,. or lparka, apherical man's limits ofservice. As Dr. Maudsley luminous bod,es or mere /luhes of light, while reminds us in his sane and sober book or coloured, It ill or in movemenL Often tht!y are more elaborate, diatinct "i.ionl of faces, on Natural Causes ana Supernatural perlOns, objects, places. They may be com· Seelll""r, .. not by standing out o( n:lture bined with sensat,onl from the other lpecial in the ecstasy of a rapt and over-strained sensei, u with hearin\: and lmelL In one ease idealism of any sort, but by large and close a warnin!:. conatant for ru", began witb thump. In\: In the cheat ascend,"\: to the head, where it and faithful converse with nature and became a beating sound. Then Iwo lights human nature in all their moods, aspects, appeared, advancing nearer with a palsating and relations, is the solid basis of fruitful motion. Suddenly Ihese disappeared and were ideals and the soundest mental develop­ replaced by the /i!:ure of an old woman in a red cloak, alwaYI the ..me, who offered Ihe Pltient ment laid. The endeavour to stimulate IOmethin&, that had the ImeU of Tonquin beanl, and strain any mental (unction to an and then he 100t conscioaanell. Such warnings activity beyond the reach and need of a may be called psychoviaual aenaatioftL The physical correlate in external nature, and psychical elemenl may be ¥cry Itrong, U in one woman whose /ill were preceded by a ludden to give it an independent value, is cer· distinct "i,lon of London in ruina, the river tainly an endeavour to go directly con· Thalnes emptied to receive the rubbiAh, and she trary to the sober and salutary method Ihe only lurvivur of the Inhabitantl. by which solid human development has I lad a man of lesser renown and taken place in the past, and is taking mental calibre than Mr. Wallace thrown place in the present." the weight of his testimony into the scales in favour of spiritUalism, there The story of Darwin's work must now would have been neither necessity nor be resumed. Shortly after the Linnean excuse for this digression. But both meeting he prepared a series of chapters these pleas prevail when we find the co­ which, always regarded by him as an formulator of the Darwinian theory II Abstract, II ultimately took book form, among mediums and their dupes. The and was published, under the title of respectful attention which his words Tlu On~"n of Spedes, on the 24th Novem· command; the tremendous claims which ber, 1859. he makes on behalf of the phenomena The story of the reception of the work at sla1lfts as proving the existence of is admirably told by Huxley in the soul apart from body after death, and as chapter which he contributed to Darwin's revealing the conditions under which it hf, ana hllers, and it may be com· lives, have made incumbent the fore­ mended as useful reading to a generation going attempt to indicate what other which, drinking-in Darwinism from its explanation is given to those phenomena, birth, will not readily understand how showing how these fall in with all we such storm and outcry as rent the air, know of man's tendencies to imperfect both in scientific as well as clerical observation and self-deception, and with quarters, could have been raised. II In all that history tells of the persistence of fact," says Huxley, II the contrast between animistic ideas. the present condition of public opinion A salutary lesson on the use and mis­ upon the Darwinian question; between use of the imagination is thus taught. the estimation in which Darwin's views That which. under wholesome restraint, are now held in the scientific world. PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

between t':le acquiescence, or at least course with breeden of pigeom, hofSl!S, quiescence, of the theologian of the seIC­ and dogs, this weot to men's" business respecting order at the present day, and and bosoms," and if the vulgar tnterpreted the outburst of antagonism on all sides Darwinism, as some, who should kno,., in 1858-59, when the new theory re­ better, interpret it even no,." as explaining specting the origin of species first became man's descent from a monkey, or ho,., a known to the older generation to which bear became a ,.,hale by taking to swim· I belong, is so startling that, except for ming, the thoughtful accepted it as a documentary evidence, I should be some­ master-key unlocking not the mystery of times inclined to think my memories origins or of causes of variations, but the dreams." The like reflection arises when mystery of the ceaselessly-acting agent we consider the indilTerence with which which, operating on favourable varia I ions, books of the most daring and revolu­ has brought about myriads of specie. tionary character, both in theology and from simple forms. morals, are treatp.d nowadays, in contrast As Huxley reminds us in the passage to the uproar which greeted such a brutum quoted above, the attitude of the clergy fulmen as Essays and Reviews. As for towards the theory of Evolution has Colenso's Pm/a/tuck, and books of its undergone an astounding change. Dr. type, orthodoxy has long taken them to Whewell remarked that every great dis­ its bosom. covery in science has had to pass through So far as the larger number of natural· three stages. First, people said, "It is ists, and of the intelligent public who absurd "; then they said, "It is contrary followed their lead, were concerned, to the Bible"; finally, they said, "We there was an absolutely open mind on always kne,., that it was so." Thus it the question of the mutation of species. has been with Evolution. It is calmly There had been, as the foregoing sections discussed; even claimed as a " defender of this book have shown, a long time of the faith," at Church Congresses now· of preparation and speculation. We adays. It was not so in the sixties. Here certainly find the keynote of Evolution in and there a single voice was raised in Heraclitus, and more than two thousand qualified sympathy-Car>on Tristram and years after his time Herbert Spencer, Charles Kingsley showed more than this above all men, had removed it from the -but both in the Old and the New World empirical stage, and placed it on a base the" drnCl ecclesiastic" was beaten. Car· broad as the facts which supported it. dinal Manning declared Darwinism to be But it needed "the leaven of the human a "brutal philosophy-to wit, there is no and personal to stir it into life, and touch God, and the ape is our Adam." Pro­ man in his various interests; and not all testant and Catholic agreed in condemn­ that Mr. Spencer had done in application ing it as .. an attempt to dethrone God "; of the theory of development to social as "a huge imposture," as .. tending to questions and institutions could avail produce disbelief of the Bible," and" to much till Darwin's theory gave it practical do away with all idea of God," as .. turn­ shape. Dissertations on the passage of ing the Creator out of doors." Such the" homogeneous to the heterogeneous"; are fair samples to be culled (rom the explanations of the theory of the evolu­ anthology of invective which was the tion of complex sidereal systems out of staple content of nearly every "criticism." diffused vapours of seemingly simple Occasionally some parody o( reasoning texture, interested people only in a vague appears when the "argument" is advanced -and wondering fashion. But when that there is "a simpler explanation o( Darwin illustrated the theory of the the presence of these strange (orms modification of life-forms by familiar among the works of God in the (all of examples gathered from his own experi­ Adam"; but even this pseudo-concession nlp-ots and observations, and from inter- to logic is rare. and one divine had flO MODERN EVOLtlTION ,1 hesitation in predicting the Cate of phiIOIOphy o( life which shall satisfy Darwin and hit followers in the world these needs (i.e., the needs o( humanity), to come. .. If," laid a Dr. Duffield in and it will thereCore remain the same in the PdllCellJ1J Rt1Jitw, .. the develop­ .ubstance. But the Corm in which that ment theory of the origin of man 5hal~ doctrine will be presentC­ modify, not the doctrine, but the form quences wil~ in the life to come, have in which it is expressed. " their portion with those who in this life Postponing the ltory oC the Camous • know not God and obey not the Gospel debate between Wilberforce and Huxley, of His Son.'" But the mOlt notable the reception accorded to the Origi" oj attack came (rom Samuel Wilberforce, Species by Darwin', scientific contempo­ then Bishop o( Oxford, in the Quarlerly rarie. may be noted. Herbert Spencer's Rt1Jjew of July, .860. "It is," said position, as will be shown later on, was Huxley, in his review o( Haeckel'. already distinctive: he wasan Evolutionist Evolution of AltJ", .. a production which before Darwin. Hooker, Huxley-who .hould be bound in good atout calC, or said that he was prepared to go to the better, asses' skin, by the curious book­ ltake, if. needs be. in support of some collector, together with Brougham'. parts oC the book-Bates, and Lubbock attack on the undulatory theory o( light were immediate converts j so were Asa "'hen it was first propounded by Young." Gray and Lyell, but with reservations, The Bishop declared "the principle of (or Lyell, whose creed was Unitarian, natural selection to be absolutely incom­ neve:' wholly accepted the inclusion of patible with the word of God," and as man, .. body, soul, and spirit," as the "contradicting the revealed relations of outcome o( natural selection. Henslow creation to its Cr.!ator." If by "revealed and Pictet went one mile, but refused to relations" and the" word o( God" the go twain; Agassiz, Murray, and Harvey Bible is intended, the evolutionist is in would have none of the new heresy; agreement with the Bishop. But at this neither would Adam Sedgwick, who time of day it seems scarcely worth while wrote a long protest to Darwin, couched to shake the dust off articles which have in loving termll, and ending with the hope gone the way o( all purely controversial that .. we shall meet in heaven." The matter, and justification for rercn:nce to attitude of Owen, if apparently neutral them lies only in the fact that the contest or tentative in open conversation, was, between the biologists and the bishops as an anonymous critic, deadly hostile. is not yet ended. Although it is not included in the list of In contrast to all this, and in evidence his writings given in the Lift by his of the compromise by which theology· grandson, he is known to have been the is vainly striving to justify .itself, are author of the critique on the Ongi" of these vague sentences from Archdeacon· Spmls in the Edi"lNrc" Rt1Jiew of April, Wilson's address at the Church Congress 1860, and to ha\Oe inspired the article at Shre\\'sbury in the autumn of .896: contributed by Bishop Wilberforce to the .. It is scarcely too much to say that the Quarltrly Rt1Jit1l1. Theistic E\'olutionist cannot be other­ At the outset of the Edi,wurc" article wise than a practical Trinitarian, and he speaks of Darwin's .. seduction· o( cannot find a difficulty in the Incarnation .. several, perhaps the majority of our or in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. II younger naturalistll," by the homceopathic U Christian doctrine, apart from the state­ form of the transmutation of species pre­ ruent of historical Caclll, is the attempt sented to them under the phrase of natural to create out of Christ's teaching a selection.._._ .... Owen has long stated his PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION belief that some pre-

or defence rrom inclemencies or vicissi­ the central idea of the Ong,;,: .. How tudes of climate, whose figure is best ac­ extremely stupid not to have thought commod.1ted to health, strength, defence, of that!" Twelve years elapsed before and support; whosecapacitiel anJ in­ Darwin followed up his world-shaking atincts can best regulate the physical book with the Desant oj AIa". But the energies to lelf-advant.1ge according to ground had been prepared for its rece~ circumstances-in such immense waste tion in the decade between 1860 and or primary and youthful lire those only 1870. Quoting Grant Alleh'. able come to maturity rrom the Itrict ordeal summary of the advance of the theory by which Nature tests their adaptation to . of Evolution in his Charles Da1'1lJi" : her standard of perfection and fitness to "One by one the few scientific men who continue their kind by reproduction" still held out were overborne by the (pp- 384, 385). weight of evidence. Geology kept While speaking of difficulty in under­ supplying fresh instances of transitional standing lome passages in Mr. Matthew'1 forms; the progress of research in un­ appendix, Darwin sayl that "the full explored countries kept adding to our force of the principle or natural Idee­ knowledge of existing intermediate species tion" il there, and, in referring to it in a and varieties. During those ten years letter to Lyell, he adds that "one may be Herbert Spencer published his Fint excu~ed in not having discovered the Principles, his BiomD',and the remodelled fact in a work on Naval Timb" /" form of his Psychol0D' j Huxley brought Five years after this another pre­ out Afan's Place ;" Nature, the Leduns Darwinian was unearthed, and, like on Comparative Analomy, and the InITo­ Patrick Matthew, in unsuspected com­ dudion 10 lhe Classification of Animals; pany. Dr. W. C. Wells read a paper Wallace produced his Malay AT(/Zipdago before the Royal Society in 18'3 on A and his Contributions 10 lhe Theory oj Whill Female, Part of whose Sldn 1'1- Natural Slledio" [Bates, we may here umbles that oj a Nep-0j but this was not add to Mr. Allen's list, published his published till 1818, when it formed part paper on Afimtcry in 186., and his of a volume including the author's Naturalist on the Amazons in 1863]; famous Two Essays up"n Dew and Single and Galton wrote.his admirable work on Visio". In his II Historical Sketch" Hendilary Genius, of which his own Darwin says that Wells "distinctly recog­ family is so remarkable an instance. nises the principle of natural selection, Tyndall and Lewes had long since signi­ and this is the first recognition which has fied their warm adhesion. At Oxford, been indicated; but he applies it only to Ro\1eston was bringing up a fresh gencra­ the races of man, and to certain characters tion of young biologists in the new faith; alone •.••... Of the accidental varieties of at Cambridge, Darwin's own university, man, which would occur among the first a whole school of brilliant and accurate few and scattered inhabitants of the physiologists was beginning to make middle regions of Africa, some one would itself both felt and heard. In the be better fitted than the others to bear aomain of anthropology Tylor was wel­ the diseases of the country. This race coming the assistance of the new ideas, would consequently multiply, while the while Lubbock was engaged od his others would decrease i not only from kindred investigations into the Ong,·" oj their inability to sustain the attacks of Cit,ilisatiOfl a"d lhe Primitive Conditio" disease, but from their incapacity of oj Man. All these diverse lines of contending with fheir more vigorous thought both showed the widespread neighbours." influence of Darwin's first great work, Whcn the simplicity of the long-hidden and led up to. the preparation of his solution is brought home, we can under­ second, in which he dealt with the Itand Huxley's reflection on mastering history and development of the human 74 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

race. And what was thus true of Eng­ the sum 0( £280, which closes our account with land was equally true of the civilised yoar firm. Our reasons for thus closing an ac<:ount opened so very many years al:o are o( so world, regarded as a whole: everywhere exceptional a kind that we are quite p~pared to the great evolutionary movement was find that tbey are deemed wholly in~dcquate 10 well in progress, everywhere the impulse Ihe resulL ...... They are entirely the prcs<:nce 0( sent forth from the quiet Kentish home Mr. R. n. Martin al Westminster Ab~y, not merely as giving ...... ction 10 the same .. &A was permeating and quickening the individual, but appearing as one of the deputalion entire pulse of intelligent humanity." (rom a Society whicb ru.. especially ~ome thO' The Origin of Spedes, as we have endorser and sustainer of Mr. Varwin'. thenriet. seen, was intended as a rough draft or -&Co. preliminary outline of the theory of The accordance of a resting-place to natural selection. The materials which Darwin's remains among Eng1.lIld's illus­ Darwin had collected in support of that trious dead in that Valhalla was an theory being enormous, the several books irenicon from Theology to one 1\·hose which followed between 1859 and 1881, theories, pushed to their logical issues, the year before his death, were expansions have done more than any other to under·' of hints and parts of the pioneer book. mine the supernatural assumptions on The last to appear was that treating of which it is built Not that Darwin was TheFormation of Vegetable JJIould through a man of aggressive type. If he speaks the Action of Worms. It embodied the on the high matters round 1\'hich, like results of experiments which had been planet tethered to sun, the spirit of man carried on for more than forty years, revolves by irresistible attraction, it is with since as far back as 1837 Darwin read hesitating voice and with no deep emotion. a paper on the subject before the Geo­ A man of placid temper, in whom the logical Society. Reference to it recalls observing faculties were stronger than a story, characteristic of Darwin's innate the reflective, he was content to collect modesty, told to the writer by the present and c<>-ordinate facts, leaving to others John Murray. Darwin called on the the work of pointing out their signi ficance, elder Murray (presumably some time in and adjusting them, as best they could, 1880), and, after fumbling in his coat-tail to this or that theory. It would be pocket, drew out a 'pacht, which he unjust to say of him what John Morley handed to Murray with the timidity of says of Voltaire, that "he had no ear for an unfledged author submitting his first the finer vibrations of the spiritual voice"; manuscript. "I have brought you," he but we know from his o'/\'n confessions said, "a little thing of mine on the action what limitations hemmed-in his emotional of worms on soil," and then paused as nature. The Lift anti ulters tell us if in doubt whether Murray would care that he was glad, after the more serious to run the risk of bringing out the book! work and correspondence of the day One story leads to another, and our were over, to listen to novels, for which second relates to the burial of Darwin in he had a great love so long as they ended Westminster Abbey. Among the signa­ happily, and contained .. some person tures of members of Parliament, request­ whom one can thoroughly love-if a pretty ing Dean Bradley'S consent to Darwin's woman, so much the better." But, interment there, was that of Mr. Richard strangely enough, he lost al\ pleasure in B. Martin, partner in the well-known music, art, and poetry after thirty. When bank of that name, trading under the at school he enjoyed Thomson, Byron, sign of the "Grasshopper." In his and Scott; Shelley gave him intense history CJC this old institution Mr. John B. delight, and he was fond of Shakespeare, Martin prints the following letter, which especially the historical plays; but in was received on the 27th April, 1882, his old age he found him "so intolerably the day after Darwin's funeral:- dull that he nauseated me." SIRS-We have this day drawn a check for This CUlioas and lamentable 10M of the bii:her MODERN EYOLUTION 71 nthet\c tastes .. all the addu, .. booka Oft obvious that the bottom was knocked hiltory, biographies, and trave" (indepmdentl1 out of all traditional dogmas of man's of any lCien tifu: racu w hicb they rna, contain I, ...d c_,. on aU IIOI'Ia of nbjccta, mtuest me Call and redemption. of human lin and .. much .. e9U they did. 1II, mind &em1& to divine forgiveness. Therefore, what have b«ome a ldnd 01 InaCbine (~ crindint: Darwin himself believed was a matter I:eneral lawl out of large collectionl oflacla; LuI of momenL His answers to inquiries .. hy thil ahould have callied thc atrophY of that part of the brAin alone on whicb the h'l:her lUtes which were made public during. his life­ depend I caMot coneeive. A maD ..ith a mind time told us that, while the varying more hil;hly orl:"niseirituaI OIristianity .. a divine melalion. The 6.ct that many false religions ha..., spread 09"' ... r;:e bein~5, a belief subject to penodica1 portions of the urth like ..ildfue bad _ revision as knowledge increased, it was ..eight with me. PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

But I was very unwilling to give up my belief; covertd by the genual term, Inorganic I feel sure of this, for I can well rem em ber often Evolution. Therefore, it forms but & and often inventing day.dreams of old letters between distinguished Romans, and manuscripts very small part of the general theory of being discovered at Pompeii or elsewhere, which the origin of the earth and other bodies, confirmed in the most striking manner all that "as the sand by the seashore innumer­ was written in the Gospels. But I found it more able," that fill the infinite spaces. and more difficult, with free scope given to my imaginati"n, to invent ,evidence which would We have seen that speculation about suffice to convince me. Thus disbelief crept the universe had its rise in Ionia. After over me at a very slow rate, but was at last centuries of discouragement, prohibition, complete. The rate was so slow that 1 felt no and, sometimes, actual persecution, it distress. Although I did not think much about the was revived, to advance, without further existence of a personal God until a considerably - serious arrest, some three hundred ycars later period of my life, I will here give the vag-ue ago. A sun'ey of the history of philoso­ conclusions to which I have been driven. The phies of the origin of the cosmos from old argument from design in Nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, the time of the renascence of in'luiry fails, now that the law of natural selection has shows that the great Immanuel Kant been discovered. We can no longer argue that, has not had his due. As remarked for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve already, he appears to have been the first shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by a man. There to put into shape what is known as the seems to be no more design in the variability of nebular theory. In his Cmera/l\alural organic beings, and in the action of natural History and Theory of II~ CtltSlial selection, than in the course which the wind - Bodies; Or, An AI/empt 10 Ac(ou"t fo, blows. But I have discussed this suLject at the end of my book on the Variation of /Jomesticated II~ Conslilution and t/~ Jf(r/ulfIi(a/ Animals and Plants, and the argument there On:r;in of the U"iverse "po" i'rtUlloniafl given has never, as far as I can see, been Pn""ciples, published in '775, he "pic· answered. tures to himself the universe as once Without doubt, the influence of the an infinite expansion of formless and conclusions deducible frum the theory diffused matter. At one point of thi3 of Evolution is fatal to belief in the he supposes a single centre of attraction supernatural. When we say the super· set up, and shows how this must result natural, we mean that great body of in the deyelopment of a prodigious cen­ assumptions out of which are constructed tral body, surrounded by systems of all theologies, the essential element in solar and planetary worlds in all 5t.1;:e5 these being the intimate relation between of development. In vivid language he spiritual beings, of whom certain qualities depicts the great world-maelstrom, widen­ are predicated, and man. These beings ing the margins of its prodi;;ious eddy in have no longer any place in the effective the slow progress of millions of ages, belief of intelligent and unprejudiced gradually reclaiming more and more of men, because they are found to have no the molecular waste, and converting correspondence with the ascertained chaos into cosmos. But ",-hat is gained operations of nature. at the margin is lost in the centre; the attractions of the central systems bring z. Herbert Spencer. their constituents together, which then, by the heat evolved, are converted once -Contact with many "sorts and con­ more into molecular chaos. Thus the ditions of men" brings home the need worlds that are lie between the ruins of of ceaselessly dinning into their ears the the worlds that have been and the chaotic fact that Darwin's theory deals only with materials of the worlds that shall be; the evolution of plants and animals from and, in spite of all waste and destruction, a common ancestry. It is not concerned Cosmos is extending his borders at the with the on'gin of lift itsel/, nor with expense of Chaos." tllOse conditions preceding lift which are Kant's speculations were confirmed MODERN EVOLUTION " by the celebrated mathematician, La· spectroscope has come as powerful evi­ place. He .howed that the "rings" dence in support of the nebular theory, rotate in the same direction as the cen­ while the photographic plate is a scarcely tral body from which they \vere cast off; less important witness. The one has lun, planets, and moon. (those of Uranus demonstrated that many nebula!, once excepted) moving in a common direction, thought to be star-clusters, are masses of and almost in the same plane. The glowing hydrogen and nitrogen gases j probability that these harmonious move­ that, to quote the striking communica­ ments are the effects of like causes he tion made by the highest authority on calculated as 200,000 billions to one. the subject, Dr. Huggins, in his Presi­ The observations of the famous astro­ dential Address to the British Associa­ nomer, Sir William Hersche~ which tion, 1891, "in the part of the heavens resulted in the discovery of binary or within our ken, the stars still in the double ltars, of star-clusters, and cloud­ early and middle stages of evolution like nebula!

Lordship asked: "If the earth be a may in some sort conceive how, by detached bit whisked off the mass of the greater skill, a complete man might be sun, as cosmogonists love to tell us, how artificially produced; but he is unable comes it that, in leaving the sun, we to conceive how such a complclC cleaned him out so completely of his organism gradually arises out of a minute nitrogen and oxygen that not a trace of structureless goq-m. That our harmonious these gases remain behind to be dis­ universe once existed potentially as covered even by the searching vision of formless diffused matter, and has ~Iowly the spectroscope?" If Lord Salisbury had grown into its present organised itate, i~ consulted Dr. Huggins, or some foreign a far more astonishing Llet than woulJ astronomer of equal rank, as Dum!r or have been its formation after the anilkial Scheiner, he would not have put a method vulgarly supposed. Those who question exposing his ignorance and hold it legitimate to argue from phe­ unmasking his prejudice. These autho­ nomena to noumena may rightly cun· rities would have told him that when a tend that the Nebular Hypothesis implies mixture of the incandescent vapours of a First Cause as much transcending 'thl! the metals and metalloids (or non­ mechanical God of Paley' as does the metallic elementary substances, to which fetish of the savage." class both oxygen and nitrogen belong), This quotation is from an es~ay on or their compounds, is examined with the "Nebular Hypothesis," which ap­ the spectroscope, the spectra of the peared in the IVtslmi"sltr Rroinv oC metalloids always yields before that of July, 1858, and which must, therefort', the metals. Hence the absence of the have been written before the eventful lines of oxygen and other metalloids, date of the reading of Darwin 8nJ carbon and silicon excepted, among the Wallace's memorable paper before the vast crowd of lines in the solar spectrum. Linn:can Society. The author of that Then, too, in the extreme states of rare­ essay is Mr. Herbert Spencer, and the faction of the sun's absorbing layer, the foregoing extract from it may litly pre absorption of the oxygen is too small face a brief account of his life-work in to be sensible to us. co-ordinating the manifold branches 01 " While the genesis of the Solar knowledge into a synthetic whole. In System, and of countless other systems erecting a complete theory of Evolution like it, is thus rendered comprehensible, on a purely scientific basis II his pro­ the ultimate mystery continues as great found and vigorous writings," to quote as ever. The problem of existence is Huxley, "embody the spirit of Des­ not solved; it is simply removed further cartes in the knowledge of our own day." back. The Nebular Hypothesis throws Laying the foundation of his massive no light on the origin of diffused matter; structure in early manhood, Mr. Spencer and diffused matter as much needs has had the rare satisfaction of placing accounting for as concrete matter. The the topmost stone on the building which genesis of an atom is not easier to his brain devised and his hand upreared. conceive than the genesis of a planet. While the sheets of this little book are Nay, indeed, so far from making the being passed for press there arrives the universe a less mystery than before, it third volume of the Pn'nci/'itl of Soeio- makes it a greater mystery. Creation 10K)', which completes Mr. Spencer's by manufacture is a much lower thing II Synthetic Philosophy." In the prerace than creation by Evolution. A man to this the venerable author says :- can put together a machine, but he II On looking back over the silC-and­ cannot make a machine develop itself. thirty years which I have passed since The ingenious artisan, able as some the • Synthetic Philosophy' 'I\'as com­ have been so far to imitate vitality as to menced, I am surprised at my audar-ity produce a mechanical pianoforte player, in undertaking it, and still more lUI· MODERN E VOLCITION 79 priledbyits completion. In I 86o my small youth collected plants and insects knows resources had been nurly all frittered not half the halo of interest which lanes away in writing and publishing books ~d hedgerows can assume.· He was which did not repay their expenses; and articled in his seventeenth .fear to a I was sutTering under a chronic disorder. railway engineer. and followed that p~ caused by overtax of brain. in 1855. Cession until he was twenty-five. During which, wholly disabling me for eighteen this period he wrote various papers for month~, thereafter limited my work to the Civil Encinuri antl Ardziltflr three hours a day. and usually to l~s. !Qtlrnal and, what is of importance to 1I0w insane my project must have note, a series of letters to the Non(Qn­ seemed to onlookers may be judged· /or",;sl in 1842 on .. The Proper Sphere from the (act that before the first of Government" (republished as a pamph­ chapter o( the first volume was finished let in 1844), in which" the only point of one of my nervous breakdowns obliged community with the general doctrine of me to desist." Evolution is a belief in the modifi;\bility II But imprudent courses do not always of human nature through adaptation to fail. Sometimes a forlorn hope is justified conditions, and a consequent belief in by 'he event. Though, along with other human progression." After giving up deterrents, many relapses, now lasting engineering. Mr. Spencer joined the for weeks, now for months, and once (or ItatT 01 the Efon()11lisl, and while thus years, often made me despair of reaching employed published, in 1850, his first the end, yet at length the cnd i. re.lched. important book. Sodal Slatks, (Jf" 1M Doubtless in earlier years some exulta­ Condillons essmliallo Huma" Happ;Nss tion would have resulted; but as age Spedfied, and the first of ,hem Dtvtloptd. creeps on feelinp! weaken, and now my In a footnote to the later editions of chief pleasure IS in mr emancipation. this work Mr. Spencer points out a Still there is satisfaction In the conscious­ brace 01 paragraphs in the chapter on ness that losses, discouragements. and .. General Considerations • in which shattered health have not prevented me .. may be seen the first step towards the from fulfilling the purpose of my life." general doctrine of Evolution." After These words recall a parallel invited referring to the analogy between the sub­ by Gibbon's record of his feelings on the division of labour, which goes on in completion of his immortal work. when, human society as it advances, and the walking under the acacias of his garden gradual diminution in the number of like at Lausanne, he pondered on the parts and the multiplical'ion of unlike II recovery of his freedom, and perhaps parts which are observable in the higher the establishment of his fame," but with animals, Mr. Spencer says:- a "sober melancholy" at the thought II Now, just the same coalt:Scence of that II he had taken an everlasting leave like parts and separation of unlike on~ of an old and agreeable companion." -just the same increasing subdivision HItRBKRT SPENCER, spiritual descen­ of Cunction-takes place in the deve1o!, dant-Iongo inltTVa/lO-()f Heraclitus ment of society. The earliest social and Lucretius, was born at Derby on organisms consist almost wholly of repe­ the 27th April. 18:0. His father was a titions of one element. Every man is a schoolmaster, a man of scientific tastes, warrior, hunter, fisherman, builder; agri­ and, it is interesting to note, secretary of culturist, toolmaker. Each portion of the Derby Philosophical A~sociation the community performs the same duties founded by Erasmus Darwin. In Mr. with every other portion; much .as each Spencer's book on Edllfaho" there are slice of the polyp·s body is alike stomach, hmts of his inheritance of the father's muscle. skin, and lungs. Even the bent as an observer and lover of nature chiefs, in whom a tendency towards in the remark tbat II whoever has not in separateness of function first appears, 80 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION still retain their similarity to the rest in thought of human interests everywhere economic respects. The next stage is pervades them; social and ethical distinguished by a segregation of these questions are kept in the van through­ social units into a few distinct classes­ out. Philosophy is brought from her warriors, priests, and slaves. A further high seat to mix in the sweet amt:nities advance is seen in the sundering of the of home, in the discipline of camp, in labourers into different castes, having the rivalry of market; and linked to special occupations, as among the Hin­ conduct. Conduct is defined as .. acts doos. And, without further illustration, adjusted to ends," the perfecting of the the reader will at once perceive that adjustment being the highest aim, so from these inferior types of society, up to that" the greatest totality of lile ill sdf, our own complicated and more perfect in offspring, and in fellow-men" is one, the progress has ever been of the secured, the limit of evolution of conduct same nature. While he will also per­ not being reached" until, beyond avoid­ ceive that this coalescence of like parts, ance of direct and indirect injuries to as seen in the concentration of particu­ others, there are spontaneous efforts to lar manufacturers in particular districts, further the welfare of others." Emerson and this separation of agents having puts this ideal into crisp form when he separate functions, as seen in the more speaks of the time in which a man shall and more minute division of labour, are care more that he wrongs not his neigh. still going on. bour than that his neighbour wrongs "Thus do we find, not only that the him; then will his" market-cart become analogy between a society and a living a chariot of the sun." creature is borne out to a degree quite That humanity is the pivot round unsuspected by those who commonly which Mr. Spencer's philosophic system draw it, but also that the same definition revolves is seen in the earliest Essa)'s, of life applies to both. This union of and notably in his making mental evo­ many men into one community-this lution the subject of the first instalment increasing mutual dependence of units of his Synthetic Philosophy. For, in which were originally independent-this the Pn'flciples if Ps)'ch%gy, published formation of a whole consisting of unlike in 1855, he limits feeling or conscious­ parts-this growth of an organism, of ness to animals possessing a nervous which one portion cannot be injured system, and traces its beginnings in the without the rest feeling it-may all be "blurred, undetermined feeling answer­ generalised under the law of individua­ ing to a single pulsation or shock" (as, tion. The development of society, as for example, to go no lower down the well as the development of man and the life-scale, in the medusa, or jelly-fish), to development of life generally, may be its highest form as self-consciousness, or described as a tendency to individuate­ knowing that we know, in man. This to become a thing-. And, rightly inter­ dominant element in Mr. Spencer's preted, th~ manifold forms of progress philosophy secures it a life and per­ going on around us are uniformly signifi­ manence which, had it been restricted cant of this tendency." to explaining the mechanics of the Homo sum: human; nihil a me alienum inorganic universe, it could never have puto: "I am a man, and nothing human possessed. It has been observed how is foreign to me." This oft-quoted the Darwinian theory aroused attention saying of the old farfner in the Self­ in all quarters because it touched human Tormentor of Terenc~ might be affixed interests on every side. And, although as motto to Herbert Spencer's writings less obvious to the multitude, the Syn­ from the tractate on the Proper Sphere thetic Philosophy, dealing with all cos­ if Government to the concluding volume mic processes as purely mechanical of the Pnnciples if Sociolog-y. For problems, interprets "the phenomena of MODERN EYOLUTION . III life (excluding the question of its origin), consist of ".pace-occupying units, baving mind, and lociety, in terms of matter shape and measurement;" and motion. .. Anticipating the levelling The P,indples of Psyw/Qgy was of epithets against luch apparent mate­ both preceded and followed by a seriea rialising of mental phenomena involved of essays in which the process oC change in that method, Spencer remarks on the from the" homogeneous to the hetero­ dismay with which men, who have not geneous"-i.e., from the seeming like to risen above the vulgar conception which the actual unlike-was expounded. Mr. unites with matter the contemptuous Spencer tells us that in 1852 he first epithets .. gross Hand .. brute," regard became acquainted with von Baer's Law the proposal to reduce the phenomena· of Development, or the changes under­ oC LiCe, oC Mind, and oC Society, to a gone in each living thing, from the level which they think .0 degraded. general to the special, during its advance .. Whoever remembers that the Corms of from the embryonic to the fully-formed existence whiCh the uncultivated speak atate. That law confirmed the prevision oC with 10 much acorn are shown by indicated in the passagea quoted above the man of lCience to be the more froat Social Slalks, and impressed him marvellous in their attributes the more as one of the three doctrines which are they are investigated, and are also proved indispensable elements oC the general to be in their ultimate natures absolutely theory of Evolution. The other two are incomprehensible-as absolutely incom· the Correlation oC the Physical Forces, or prt:hensible as sensation, or the con· the transformation of different modea of acious something which perceives it­ motion into other modes of motion, as whoever clearly recognises this truth will of heat or light into electricity, and so see that the course proposed does not forth, in Proteus-like fashion; and the imply a degradation oC the so-called Conservation of Energy, or the indes­ higher, but an elevation oC the so-c:alled tructibility of matter and motion, what­ lower. Perceiving, as he will, that ~he ever changes or transformations these Materialist and Spiritualist controversy may undergo. is .. mere war oC words-in which In permitting the quotation of the the disputants arc equally absurd, each useful abstract of the Synthetic Philo­ thinking that he understands that which sophy which, originally drawn up for the it is impossible Cor anr man to under­ late Professor Youmans, was embodied stand-he will perceive how utterly in a letter to the A IluntZum oC July 22nd, groundless is the fear referred to. Being 1882, Mr. Spencer was good enough to fully convinced that, no matter what volunteer the following details to the nomenclature is used, the ultimate writer:- mystery must remain the same, he will "You are probably aware that the be as ready to formulate all phenomena conception set forth in that abstract was in terms oC Matter, Motion, and Force, reached by slow steps during many years. as in any other terms; and will rather These steps occurred as follows :- indeed anticipate that only in a doctrine which recognises the Unknown Cause 1850' Sodal S/alks: especially chap­ as co-extensive with all orders of pheno­ ter 'General Considerations.' mena can there be a consistent religion (Higher human Evolution.) or a consistent philosophy." 1852. March. 'Development Hypo­ This is clear enough; yet such. is the thesis,' in the Leade,. (Evo­ crass density of some objectors that lution of Species), vid. Gnle, eighteen years. after the above was p. III. written Mr. Spencer, in answering criti· 1852. April. 'Theory oC Population,' cisms on First Pn"ncipltS, had to rebut etc., in IVa/millsl" Rroinv. the chargt' that he believed matter to (High.:r human Evolution.) Sz PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

1854. July. • The Genesis of Science' (Essays, vol. i., I 833 edition; II Manners in British Quarterly Rroiew. and Fashion," p. 65)· (Intellectual Evolution.) II Scientific advance is as much from 1855. July. Principles of Psychology. the special to the general as from the (Mental Evolution in general.) general to the special. Quite in harmony J 857. April. • Progress: its Law and with this we find to be the admissions Cause': rVertminster Rrz,jew. that the sciences are as branches of one (Evolution at large.) trunk, and that they were at first culti· 1357. April. 'Ultimate Laws of Phy­ vated simultaneously; and this becomes siology.' National Rroiew. the more marked on finding, as we have (Another factor of Evolution done, not only that the sciences ha \'e a at large.) common root, but that science in general has a common root with language, classi· " From these last two Essays came the fication, reasoning, art; that throughout inception of the Synthetic Philosophy. civilisation these have advanced together, The first programme of it was drawn up acting and reacting on each other just in January, 1858." ...... as the separate sciences have done; and When seeing Mr. Spencer on the that thus the development of intdligence subject of this letter, he took the further in all its divisions and subdivisions has trouble to point out certain passages in conformed to this same law to which we the essays originally comprised in the have shown the sciences conform" (ib., one-volume edition of 1858 which "The Genesis of Science," pp. 191,192). contain germinal ideas of his synthesis. (In correspondence with this, recog· That they are his selection will add to nising that the same method has to be the interest and value of their quotation, adopted in all inquiry, whether we deal revealing, as perchance they may, a with the body or the mind, the fragment of the autobiography which following may be quoted from Burne', it is an open secret Mr. Spencer has Treatise on Hllman Nature: II 'Tis -written :- evident that all the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human "That Law, Religion, and Manners nature; and that, however wide any of are thus related-that their respective them may seem to run from it, they kinds of operation come' under one stil1 return back by one pas<;age or generalisation-that they have in certain another. Even lIlalhemalia.Nalurai contrasted characteristics of men a com­ Phi/usoph)', and Natural Relliion arc in mon support and a common danger­ some measure dependent on the science wil1, however, be most clearly seen on of MAN, since they lie under the cogni· discovering that they have a common sance of men, and are judged of uy their origin. Little as from present appear­ powers and qualities.") ances we should suppose it, we shal1 yet "The analogy between individual find that, at first, the control of religion, organisms and the social organisms is the control of laws, and the control of one that has in all ages forced it'lc1f on manners, were all one control. However the attention of the observant. .... ,. While incredible it may now seem, we believe it is becoming clear that there are no it to be demonstrable that the rules of such special parallelisms between the etiquette, the provisions of the statute­ constituent parts of a man and tho~e of book, and the commands of the deca­ a nation, as have been thought to exist, logue, have grown from the same root it is also becoming clear that the general If we go far back enough into the ages principles of development and structure of primreval fetishism, it becomes mani­ displayed in all organised bodies are fest that original1y Deity, Chief, and displayed in societies also. The fllnda· Master oi the Ceremonies were identical" mental characteristic both of societies MODERN EVOLUTION and ol living creatures il. that they con­ organic development (as oC seed into & list ol mutually dependent parts j and it tree. and of an egg into an animal) is would seem that this involves a com­ the law oC an development. The advance munity ol various other characteristics_ Cram the simple to the complex, througb ...... Meanwhile. iC any .uch correspond­ a process of luccessive differentiations ence exists, it is dear that Biology and (;.e., the appearance of dilJ'erences in the Sociology will more or le .. interpret each parts of a seemingly like substance). is other. seen alike in the earliest changes of the .. One of the positions we have endea­ universe to which we can reason our way voured to establish is, that in animals back, and in the earlier changes which the process of development is carried on, we can inductively establish; it is seen not by differentiations only. but by in the geologic and climatic evolution subordinate integrations. Now in the of the earth. and of every single organism IOcial organism 'We may lee the same on its lurface; it is seen in the evolution duality of process; and. further. it is to oC Humanity, whether contemplated in be observed that the integrations are of the civilised individual or in the aggre the lame three kind.. Thus we have gation of races; it is seen in the evolu­ integration. that arise Crom the simple tion of society in respect alike of its growth of adjacent parts that perform political, its religious, and its e'cono­ like functions; as. for instance. the mical organisation; and it is lieen in the coalescence oC Manchester with its evolution of all those endless concrete calico-weaving suburbs. We have other and abstract products of human activity integrations that arise when, out oC which constitute the environment of our ,evera) places producing a particular daily life. From the remotest past which commodity. one monopolises more and Science can (athom. up to the novelties more of the business, and leaves the rest oC yesterday. that in which progress to dwindle j as witness the growth oC essentially consists is the transformation the Yorkshire doth districts at the ex­ of the homogeneous into the hetero­ pense of those in the west oC England• geneous" (Essays. voL i.; 1883; p. 30)...... And we have yet those other inte­ grations that result Crom the actual To this may fitly CoUow the" succinct approximation of the limilarly-occupied statement of the cardinal principles parts, whence result such lacts as the developed in the successive works· concentration of publi&herl in Paternoster which Mr. Spencer, as named above, Row. of lawyers in the Temple and prepared (or Professor Youmans :- neighbourhood. of com merchants about I. Throughout tbe universe in general, Mark Lane, of civil engineers in Creat and in detail, there is an unceasing ~ Ceorge Street, of banker. in the centre distribution o( matter and motion. of the city N (Essays. vol. iii., 1878 2. Thisredistribution constitutesevolu­ edition; .. Transcendl'ntal Physiology.· tion when tbere is a predominant integra­ pp. 414-4 16). tion o( matter and dissipation o( motion, Dut, divested oC technicalities, and and constitutes t!:ssolution when there is summarised in words to be .. under­ a predominant absorption of motion and .tanded of the people." the following disintegration oC matter. ' quotation from the ESSQ)' on .. Progress: 3. Evolution is simple when the pro­ its Law and Cause," gives the gist of the cess of integration, or the formation of Synthetic Philosophy :- a coherent aggregate, proceeds uncom­ plicated by other processes.. "We believe we have shown beyond 4. Evolution is compound when, along question that that which the Cerman with this primary change from an inco­ physiologists (von Raer. Wolff, and herent to • coherent state, there go on others) have found to be the law of secondary changes due to differences in PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION the circumstances of the different parts the parent of similarly - mult;plyin,. of the aggregate. changes; the mulliplication of thel~ 5. These secondary changes constitute becoming greater in proportion as the a transformation of the homogeneous into aggregate becomes more heterogeneous. the heterogeneous-a transformation And these two causes of incn:asing which, like the first, is exhibited in the differentiations are furthered by universe as a whole, and in all (or I I. Segregation, which is a proce,s nearly all) its details; in the aggregate tending e\'er to separate unlike units of stars and nebula:; in the planetary and to bring together like units; so system; in the earth as an inorganic serving continually to sharpen, or make ,nass; in each organism, vegetal or definite, differentiations otherwise caused. animal (von Baer's law otherwise ex­ 12. Equilibration is the final result of pressed); in the aggregate of organisms these transformations 1\'hich an evolving throughout geologic time; in the mind; aggregate undergoes. The changes go in society; in all products of social on until there is reached an equildJrium activity. between the forces which all parts of 6. The process of integration, acting the aggregate are exposed to and the locally as well as generally, combines forces these parts oppose to them. with the process of differentiation to Equilibration may pass through a render this change not simply from transition stage of bllanced motions (as homogeneity to heterogeneity, but from in a planetary system) or of balanced an indefinite homogeneity to a definite functions (as in a li\'ing body) on the heterogeneity; and this trait of increas­ way to ultimate equilibrium; but the ing definiteness, which accompanies the state of rest in inorganic bodies, or trait of increasing heterogeneity, is, like death in organic bodies, is the necessary it, exhibited in the totality of things, and limit of the changes constituting evo­ in all its divisions and subdivisions down lution. to the minutest. 13. Dissolution is the counter-change 7. Along with this redistribution of which sooner or later every evolved the matter composing any evolving aggre­ aggregate undergoes. Remaining exposed gate there goes on a redistribution of to surrounding forces that are unequili­ the retained motion of its components brated, each aggregate is ever liable tl) in relation to one another; this also be dissipated by the increase, gradual or becomes, step by step, more definitely sudden, of its contained motion; and heterogeneous. its dissipation, quickly undergone by 8. In the absence of a homogeneity bodies lately animate, and slowly under­ that is infinite and absolute, that redis­ gone by inanimate masses, remain, to tribution, of which evolution is one be undergone at an indefinitely remote phase, is inevitable. The causes which period by each planetary and stellar necessitate it are these :- mass, which since an indefinitely distant 9. The instabili ty of the homogeneous, period in the past has been slowly which is consequent upon the different evolving; the cycle of its transforma· exposures of the different parts of any tions being thus completed. limited aggregate to incident forces. 14. This rhythm of evolution and The transformations hence resulting dissolution, completing itself during are:- short periods in small aggregate" and 10. The multiplication of effects. in the vast aggregates distributed through Every mass and part of a mass on space completing itself in periods im­ which a force falls subdivides and measurable by human thought, is, so dilferentiates that force, which there- far as we can see, universal and eternal t upon proceeds to work a variety of --each alternating phase of the process changes; and each of these becomes predominating now in this region of MODERN EVOLUTION IS lpace and now in that, as local con­ issued by Mr. Spencer in March, 1860. ditions determine. Through his courtesy the writer has seen I S. All these phenomena, from their the documents which prove that the first great featurel down to their minutest draft of that prospectus was written out details, are necessary result. of the per­ on the 6th January, 1858, and that it listence of force under its forms of was the occasion of an interesting corre­ matter and motion. Given these as spondence between Mr. Spencer and his distributed through space, and their father-mainly in the form of questions quantities being unchangeable, either by from the latter-during that month. increase or decrease, there inevitably The record of these facts is of some result the continuous redistributions moment as evidencing that the scheme distinguishable as tvolution and dis­ of the Synthetic Philosophy took definite solution, as well as all these Ipecial shape in 18S7. Therefore, the Theory traits above enumerated. of Evolution, dealing with the universe 16. That which persists unchanging tiS a whole, was formulated some months in quantity, but ever changing in form, before the publication of the Darwin­ under these sensible appearances which Wallace paper, in which only organk the universe presents to us, transcends tVoluhOIl was discussed. The On"gin oJ human knowledge and conception-is SImes, as the outcome of that paper, an unknown and unknowable power, ihowed that the action of natural selec­ which we are obliged to recognise as tion is a sufficing cause for the production without limit in space and without of new life-forms, and thus knocked the beginning or end in time. bottom out of the old belief in special All that il comprised in the dozen creation. volumes which, exclusive of the minor The general doctrine of Evolution, works and the SodologJi:al Tab/tI, form the however, is not so vitally related to that ~eat body of the Synthetic Philosophy, of natural selection that the two stand IS the expansion of this abstract. The or fall together. The evidence as to general lines laid down in that Philo­ the connection between the succession sophy have become a permanent way of past life-forms which, regard being along which investigation will continue had to the well-nigh obliterated record, to travel. The revisions which may be has been supplied by the fossil-yielding called for will not affect it fundamentally, rocks j and the evidence as to the un­ being limited to details, more especially broken development of the highest in the settlement of the relative functions plants and animals from the lowest, of individuals and communities, and which more and more confirms the cognate questions. Into these we theory of von Baer j alike furnish a cannot enter here. Suffice it that to body of testimony placing the doctrine those who have the nre possession of of Organic Evolution on a foundation lound mental peptics, no more nutritive that can never be shaken. And, firm diet can be recommended than is as that, stands the doctrine of Inorganic supplied by First Printiplel and the Evolution upon the support given by works in which its theses are developed. modem science to the speculations oC For those who, blessed with good diges­ Immanuel Kant. tion, lack leisure, there is provided in a There is the more need for laying convenient volume the excenent epitome stress on this because recent dis-:ussions, which Mr. Howard Collins has pre­ revealing divided opinions among biolo­ pared. gists as to the sufficiency of natural The prospectus of the then proposed selection as a cause of all modifications issue of the series of works which, begin­ in the structure of living things, lead ning with First Pri"aplts, ends with the timid or half-informed minds to hope /'nona/Itt'" Sonoloc (1862-1896), was that the doctrine of Evolution may ret 86 rIONEERS OF EVOLUTION tum out not to be true. It is in such mentally," he was the son of his mother, stratum of intelligence that there lurks "a slender brunette, of an emotiunal the feding, whenever sqmc old inscrip­ and energetic temperament." His school tion or monument verifying statements training was brief and profitless; his in the Bible is discovered, that the tastes were mechanical, and, but fur lack infallibility of that book has further of mean!\, he would have started life in proof. For example, until the present the same profession which Herbat year, not a single confirmatory piece of Spencer followed till he forsook Messrs. evidence as to the story of the Exodus Fox's office for journalism. So, "'ith a was forthcoming from Egypt itself. Even certain shrinking from anatomical work, the inscription which has come to light Huxley studied medicine for a tillle does not, in the judgment of such an under a relative, and in his seventel'nth expert as Dr. Flinders Petrie, supply the year entered the Charing Cross Huspital exact confirmation desired. But let th.1t School as a student. In those days irrefragable witness appear, and while there was no instruction in physic!, and the historian will welcome it as evidence only in such branch of chemistry as of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt­ dealt with the nature of drugs. N"" thus throwing light on the movements of mulla, uti mllilum, and what was lacking races, and adding to the historical value in breadth was, perhaps, gained in of the Pentateuch-the average orthodox thoroughness. Huxley had as excellent believer will feel a vague sort of satis· a teacher in Wharton Jones as the latter faction that the foundations of his belief had a promising pupil in Huxley, and in the Trinity and the Incarnation are in working with the microscope, the somehow strengthened. evidence of that came in his discovery of a certain root-sheath in the hair, 3. Thomas Henry .Huxley. which has since then been known as .. Huxley'S layer," THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY was born at Up to the time of his Itudentship he Ealing on May 4th, 1825. Montaigne had been left, intellectually, altogether tells us that he was "borne between to his own devices. He teUs us that he eleven of the clock and noone," and, was a voracious and omnivorous reader, with like quaint precision. Huxley gives " a dreamer and speculator of the first the hour of his birth as "about eight water, well endowed with that splendid o'clock in the morning." Speaking of courage in attacking any and every sulJ.. his first Christian name, he humorously ject which is the blessed compensation said that, by curious chance, his parents of youth and inexperience." Among chose that of the particular apostle with the books and essays that impressed him whom, as the doubting member of the were Guizot's History of Civilisatio" twelve, he had always felt most sym­ and Sir William Hamilton'. essay, .. On pathy. the Philosophy of the Unconditioned," Concerning his father, who was "one which he accidentally came upon in an of the masters in a large semi-public odd volume of the Etiinburg" Rroit1t1. school" (the father of Herbert Spencer, This, he adds, was If devoured with it will be remembered, was also a school­ avidity," and it stamped upon his mind master), Huxley has little to say in the strong conviction .. that on even the slight autobiographical sketch the most solemn and important of que!to reprinted as an introduction to the first tions men are apt to take cunning volume of the Collec(eti Essays. On phrases for answers, and that the limita­ that side, he tells us, he could find tion of our faculties, in a great number hardly any trace in himself, except a of cases, renders real answers to such certain faculty for drawing, and a c~rtain questions not merely actually impossible, hotness of temper. "Physically and but theoretically inconceivable." 1bus, ~/ODERN E VOLUTfON 8; before he was out of his teens, the packet of separate copies" awaited him. philosophy that ruled hi, Jife-teaching It dealt with the anatomy and affinities was taking definite ihape. of the Medu~ and the original research In 1845 he won his M.B. London which it evidenced justified his election with honours in anatomy and physiology, in 18S1 to the fellowship of the societt and after a few months' practice at the whose presidential chair he was in aftet East-end applied, at the Instance of his years to adorn. He would seem to senior fellow-student, Mr. (afterwards have won the blue ribbon of scienc.! Sir) Joseph fayrer, for an appointment pe,. lallum. Probably, &0 far ,as their in the medical service of the Navy. At biological value is concerned, nothin~ the end of two months he was fortunate' that he did subsequently has surpassed enough to be entered on the books of his contributions to. scientific literature Nelson's old ship, the Victory, for duty at that period; but if his services to at Haslar Hospital. His official chief knowledge had been limited to the class was the famous Arctic explorer, Sir of work which they represent, he would John Richardson, through whose recom­ have remained only a distinguished mendation he was appointed, seven Ipecialist. Further recognition of his months later, assistant lurgeon of the well-won position came in the award or Ralllullakt. That ship, commanded by the society's royal medal. But fellow­ Captain Owen Stanley, was commissioned ships and medals keep no wolf from the to survey the intricate passage within door, an.d Huxley was a poor man. the Barrier Reef skirting the eastern After vain attempts to obtain, first, a shores of Australia, and to explore the professorship of physiology in England, sea lying between the northern end of and then a chair of natural history at that reef and New Guinea. It was the Toronto (Tyndall was at the same time best apprenticeship to what was even­ an unsuccessful candidate for the chair tually the work of Huxley'. Jife-the of physics in the same university), a solution of biological problems and the settled position was secured by Sir indication of their far-reaching signifi­ Henry de la Beche's olfer of the pro­ cance. Darwin and Hooker had passed fessorship of palreontology, and of the through a like marine curriculum. The lectureship on natural history in ,the former served as naturalist on board the Royal School of Mines, vacated bt JJeagll when she sailed on her voyage Edward Forbes. That was in 18S4- round the world in 1831; the latter as Between that date and the time of his assistant-surgeon on board the Ereblll return Huxley had contributed a number on her Antarctic Expedition in 1839. of valuable papers on the structure of Fortune was to bring the three shoulder the invertebrates, and on histology, at to shoulder when the battIe against the the science of tissues. But these, while theory of the immutability of species was adding to his established qualification! fought. for a scientific appointment, demand no During his four years' absence Huxley, detailed reference here. With both in whom the biologist dominated the chairs there was united the curatorship doctor, made observations on the various of the fossil collections in the Museum marine animals collected. These he of Practical Geology, and these,' with sent home to the Linnean Society in the inspectorship of salmon fisheri~ the vain hope of acceptance. A more which office he accepted in 1881, com­ elaborate paper to the Royal Society, plete the list of Huxley's more importan~ communicated through the Bishop of public appointments. He surrendered Norwich (author of a book on birds, them all in I88S, having reached the and father of Dean Stanley). secured .~e at which, as he jocosely remarked to the coveted honour of publication, and the writer, "every scientific man ought on Huxley's return in 1850 & .. huge to be poleaxed." Perhaps he dreaded Btl PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION the conservatism of attitude, the non­ front. The lesson was timc:1y, and its receptivity to new ideas, which often effect salutary. Huxley was fond of accompany old age. But for himself telling this story, and it is worth recording such fears were needless. He was never -if but as encouragement to stammerers of robust constitution; in addition to who have something to say-at what the lasting effects of an illness in boy­ price he "bought this freedom" which hood, Carlyle's "accursed Hag," dys­ held an audience spellbound. How he pepiia, which troubled both Darwin thus held it in bter years they will and Bates for the rest of their lives after remember who, in the packed theatre their return from abroad, troubled him. of the Royal Institution, listened, on Therefore considerations of health the evening of Friday, April 9th, 1830, mainly prompted the surrender of his to his lecture, .. On the Coming of Age varied official responsibilities, the loyal of the Origin of Species." discharge of which met with becoming In 1856 Huxley visited the glacien recognition in the grant of a pension. of the Alps with Tynda1\, the result This secured a modest competence in appearing in their joint author~hip of a the evening of life to one who had never paper on .. Glacial Phenomena" in the been wealthy, and who had never coveted Philosophical Transactions of the fo1\ow­ wealth. To Huxley may fitly be applied ing year. But this was a rare interlude. what Faraday said of himself, that he What time could be wrested from daily had "no time to make money." And routine was given to the study of in­ yet, to his abiding discredit, the present vertebrate and vertebrate morphology, editor of Pundt allowed his theological pal:eontology, and ethnology, familiarity animus, which had already been shown with which was no mean equipment for in abortive attempts in the pages of that the conflict soon to rage round these " facetious" journal to appraise a Roman seemingly pacific materials when their Catholic biologist at the expense of deep import was declared. The out· Huxley, to further degrade itself by come of such varied industry is apparent affixing the letters" LS.D." to his name to the student of scientific memoirs. in a character-sketch. But a recital of the titles of papers con­ IJis public life may be said to date tributed to these, as, t .. ~., .. On Cl·ra. from 1854. The duties which he then todus," .. Hyperodapcdon Gordoni," undertook included the delivery of a "Hypsilophodon," .. Tderpeton," and ~o course of lectures to working men every forth, will not here tend to edification. alternate year. Some of these-models The original and elaborate investigations of their kind-have been reissued in the which they embody have had recognition Collected Essays. Among the most in the degrees and medals which notable are those on "Our Knowledge decorated the illustrious author. But of the Causes of the Phenomena of it is not by these that Huxley's renown Organic Nature." At the outset of his as one of the most richly-endowed public career lecturing was as distasteful and widely - cultured personalities of to him as in earlier years the trouble of the Victorian era will endure. They writing was detestable. But mother wit might sink into oblivion which buries and "needs must" trained him in a most purely technical work without in short time to win the ear of an audience. any way affecting that foremost place One evening in 1852 he made his d/:bul which he fills in the ranks of philc»­ at the Royal Institution, and the next sophical biologists both as clear-headed day he received a letter charging him thinker and lum;nous interpreter. with every possible fault that a lecturer In this high function the publication could commit-ungraceful stoop, awk­ of the On"gin of Sf'tciu gave him his wardness in use of hands, mumbling of opportunity. That was in 1859. As words, or dropping them down the shiq with Hooker and Bates, his experi<:nces MODERN IWOLUTION 1-' \

as 11 traveller, and, more than this, his University College, who had a word to penetrating inquiry into significances say (or Evolution, and his advocacy was and relations, prepared his mind (or not calculated to advance the cause. acceptance o( the theory of descent Outside these ranks the only person with modification of living forms from known to me whose knowledge and one Btock. Hence the mutability, as capacity compelled respect, and who was against the old theory of the .fixity, of at the saine time a thoroughgoing evo­ species. lutionist, was Mr. Herbert Spencer, In the chapter," On the Reception whose acquaintance I made, I think, in of the Origin of Species," which Huxley 185%, and then entered into the bonds contributed to Darwin'. Life and Lel/u's, of a friendship which l am happy to he gives an interesting account o( his think has known no interruption. Many attitude toward. that burning question. and prolonged were the battles we (ought lie says:- on this topic. But even my friend's rare dia,lectic skill and copiousness of .. I think that 1 must have read the apt illustration could not drive me from r,sligll (see p. 109) before I left my agnostic position. I took my stand England in 1846, but if I did the book upon two grounds: firstly, that up to made very little impression upon me, that time the evidence in favour o( and I was not brought into serious transmutation was wholly insufficient; contact with the ' species' question and, secondly, that no suggestion respect­ until after 18S0. At that time I had ing the causes of the transmutation long done with the Pentateuchal cos­ assumed which had been made was in mogony which had been impressed upon any way adequate to explain the pheno­ my childish understanding as Divine mena. Looking back at the state of truth with all the authority of parents knowledge at that time, I really do not and instructors, and from which it had see that any other conclusion was justi­ cost me many a struggle to get free. fiable. But my mind was unbiassed in respect " As I have already said, I imagine that of any doctrine which presented itself most of those of my contemporaries who if it professed to. be based on purely thought seriously about the matter were philosophical and scientific reasoning. very much in my own state of mind­ ...... I had not then, and I have not now, inclined to say to both Mosaists and the smallest a priori objection to raise Evolutionists, 'A plague on both your to the account of the creation of animals houses I' and disposed to tum aside from and plants givenin Paradise Losl, in which an interminable and apparently fruitless Milton so vividly embodies the natural discussion to labour in the fertile fields aense of Genesis. Far be it from me of ascertainable facts. And I may there­ to say that it is untrue because it is im­ fore further suppose that the publication possible.. I confine myself to what of the Darwin and Wallace papers ill must be regarded as a modest and 1858, and still more that of the On'gi,. reasonable request for some particle of in 1859, had the effect upon them of the evidence that the existin~ species of flash of light, which to a man who has animals and plants did origlOate in that lost himself in a dark night sud~:'1lly way as a condition of my belief in a reveals a road which, whether it takes statement which appears to me to be him straight home or not, certainly goes highly improbable ...... his way. Th1t which we were looking II And, by way of being perfectly fair, for and could not find was a hypothesis I had exactly the same answer to give to respecting the origin of known organic the evolutionists of 1851-58. Within forms which assumed the operation of the ranks of the biologists of that time I no causes but such as could be proved met with nobody, except Dr. Grant, of to be actually at work. We wanted, not PlONEER.,S OF EVOLUTION .

to pin our faith to that or any other that no cerebral barrier divides min speculation, but to get hold of clear and from apes i that the attempt to draw a definite conceptions which could be psychical distinction between him and brought face to face with facts, and have the lower animals is futile i and that their validity tested. The Origin pro­ .. even the highest faculties of feeling vided us with the working hypothesis we and of intellect begin to germinate in sought. Moreover, it did the immense lower forms of life." The lectures were service of freeing us for ever from the published in 1863 in a volume entitled dilemma-Refuse to accept the creation Evidenct as 10 AIan's Platt in l\'aturt . hypothesis, and what have you to propose and it was with pride warranted by th~ that can be accepted by any cautious results of subsequent researches that reasoner? In 1857 I had no answer Huxley, in a letter to the ..·riter, thlls ready, and I do not think that anyone refers to the book when arranging fur else had. A year later we reproached its reissue among the Colleded EISa)·s :_ ourselves with dulness for being per­ I was looking througb lIta,,', Pla(l j" Nalur. plexed by such an inquiry. My reflec­ the other day, I do not think there is a word tion, when I first made myself master of ~ need de1et~, nor anything. I need add, excopt the central idea of the Ongin, was: •How lD confinnallon and extensIOn "f the doctrine there laid down. That is great I!ood fvrtune for extremely stupid not to have thought of a oook thirty years old, and "ne that a wer, that!' I suppose that Columbus's com­ shrewd friend of mine implored me not to panions said much the same when he publish, as it would certamly ruin all my made the egg stand on end. The facts prospects. of variability, of the struggle for exist­ The sparse annotations to the whole ence, of adaptation to conditions, were series of reprinted matter show that the notorious enough, but none of us had like permanence attends all his writings. suspected that the road to the heart of And yet, true workman, with ideal ever the species problem lay through them, lying ahead, as he was, he remarked to until Darwin and Wallace dispelled the the writer that never did a book come darkness, and the beacon-fire of the hot from the press but he wished that Ongin guided the benighted." he could suppress it and rewrite it. But the disciple soon outstripped the But before dealing with the momentous master. As was said of Luther in relation issues raised in Alan's Plact in l\'alurt to Erasmus, Huxley hatched the egg we must return to 1860. For that was that Darwin laid. For in the Origin of the" Sturm und Drang" period. Then, Species the theory was not pushed to at Oxford, II home of lost causes," as its obvious conclusion: Darwin only Matthew Arnold apostrophises her in hinted that it "would throw much light the Preface to his Essa)·s in Criticism, on the origin of man and his history." was fought, on Saturday, 30th June, a His silence, as he candidly tells us in memorable duel between biologist and the Introduction to the Descen' of }YIan, bishop i perhaps in its issues more was due to a desire" not to add to the memorable than the historic discussion prejudices against his views." No such on the traditional doctrine of special hesitancy kept Huxley silent. In the creation between Cuvier and Geoffroy spirit of Plato's Laws, he followed the Saint-Hilaire in the French Academy in argument whithersoever it led. In 1860 183°' he delivered a course of lectures to Both Huxley and Wilberfurce were working men "On the Relations of Man doughty champions. The scene of com· to the Lower Animals," and in 1862 a bat, the Museum Library, was crammed couple of lectures on the same subject at to suffocation. Fainting women were the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. carried out. There had been II words" The important and significant feature between Owen and Huxley on the of these discourses was the demonstration previous Thursday. Owen contended MODERN EVOLUTION .... '. 91 that there were certain fundamental identical in character. This doctrine, difference. between. the brains of man to-day a commonplace of biology, was, and apes. Huxley met this with" direct thirty yeaB ago, rank heresy, since it and unqualified contradiction," and seemed to reduce the lOul of man to the pledged himself to .. justify that unusual level of his biliary duct. Hence the procedure elsewhere." No wonder that Oxford storm was but a capful of wind the atmosphere was electric. The bishop compared with that which raged round was up to time. Declamation usurped Huxley'. lecture on TM Physical Bani the vacant place of argument in his of Lift, delivered, thus aggravating the .peech, and the declamation bec."\me offence, on a "Sabbath" evening in acrid. He finished hi. harangue by Edinburgh in 1 868. People had settled asking Huxley whether he was related by down, with more or leu vague under­ his grandfather'. or grandmother'. lide .. tanding of the matter, into quiescent to an ape. .. The Lord hath delivered acceptance of D:uwinism. And now him into my hand!," whispered Huxley their somnolence was rudely shaken by to a friend at his .ide, as he rose to this Southron troubler of Israel, with reply. After .etting his opponent an his production of a bottle of solution of example in demonstrating hiS case by smelling salts, and a pinch or two of evidence which, although refuting Owen, other ingredients, which represented the evoked no admission of error from him elementary substances entering into the then or ever after, Huxley ref~rred to composition of every living thing from the personal remark of Wil;;enorce. a jelly-speck to man. Well might the And this is what he said :- removal of the stopper to that bottle take their breath away I Microscopists, I asserted, and I repeat, that • man hat no reason to be ashamed o( h.ving an ape (or bis philosophers .. so-called," and clerics "anMather. If tbere were .n .ncestor wbom I alike raised the cry of II gross material­ .hould (eel lhame in recalling, it would be • ism," never pausing to read Huxley'S ",11"_ man o( Ie.tleu .nd versatile intellect, anticipatory answer to the baseless who, not (ontent with .ucceu in ·bi. own .phere o( activity, plunge. Into scientific que.­ charge, an answer repeated again and lIona with which be bas no real .cqu.intance, again in his writings, as in the essay on only to obscure them by an aimleu rhetoric, .nd Descartes's Dis(ou,s, ToU(hing 1M Method distract the attention of hit heare,. (rom the 0/ Using 0,,1', ReasM Righlly, and in his real point at iaue by eloquent digression. and .killed appeals to religioas prejudice. HilmI. In season and out of season he never wearies in insisting that there is Perhaps the best comment on a piece nothing in tbe doctrine inconsistent with of what ts now ancient history is to quote the purest idealism. .. All the pheno­ the admissions made by Lord Salisbury mena of nature are, in their ultimate -a rigid High Churchman-in his analysis, known to us only as facts of l'rtsidtnh'al AdJrtss to the British Asso­ consciousness." The cyclone thus raised ciation in this. same city of Oxford in travelled westward on the heels of Tyn­ 1894:- dall, when in 1874 he asserted the Few now .re found to doubt that animals fundamental identity of the oa"ganic and sep"rated by difference. far exceeding those th.t inorganic; dashing, as his Celtic blood distinguish what we know as species bue yet stirred him, the statements with a touch descended ('OlD common .ncestors...... Darwin of poetry in the famous phrase that" the ha~. as a maUer of fact, disposed of tbe doctrine o( tbe immutability o( lpeaes. genius of Newton was potential in the fires of the sun. II Few, also. are now found to doubt The ancient belief in "spontaneous not only that doctrine, but also tbe generation," which Redi's experiments doctrine that all life-forms have a upset, was the subject of Huxley's common origin j plants and animals Pnsidmh"aJ AdtiTtss to the British Ass0- beinS alike built up of matter which is ciation in 1870' But-while he showed PIONEER:~ 9F' r::VOLUTION

how subsequent investigation confirmed omitted to lay stress on the obscurity the doctrine of Abiogenesis, or the non­ which still hides the causes of variation production of living from dead matter, "'hich, it must be kept in mind, natural he made this statement in support of selection cannot bring about, and on Tyndall's creed as to the fundamental which it can only act. He insists on unity of the vital and the non-vital :- the non-implication of the larger theory " Looking back through the prodigious with its subordinate parts, or with the vista of the past, I find no record of the fate of them. The" doctrine of Evolu· commencement of life, and therefore I tion is a generalisation of certain facts am devoid of any means of forming a which may be obser... t:d by anyone who definite conclusion as to the conditions will take the necessary troul,le." The of its appearance. Belief, in the scientific facts are those which biologists class sense of the word, is a serious matter, under the heads of Embryology and and needs strong foundations. To say, Palreontology, to the conclusions from therefore, in the admitted absence of which "all future philosophical and evidence, that I have any belief as to theological speculations will have to the mode in which the existing forms of accommodate themselves." life have originated would be using That is the direction of the re"olution words in a wrong sense. But expecta­ to which the publication of Ala,,'s l'Iarr tion is permissible where belief is not; in l\'ature gave impetus; and it is in and if it were given to me to look beyond the all· round application of the theory the abyss of geologically recorded time of man', descent that H IIxky stands to the still more remote period when foremost, both as leader and lawgiver. the earth was passing through physical Mr. Spencer has never shrunk from con· and chemical conditions which it can troversy, but he has not forsaken the no more see again than a man can study for the arena, and hence hi. recall his infancy, I should expect to be influence, great and abiding as it is, has a witness of the evolution of living been less direct and personal than that protoplasm from non-living matter. I of his comrade, "ever a fighter," who, shou1d expect to see it appear under in Browning'S words, "marched breast forms of great simplicity, endowed, like forward." lIfa,,'s Plare in l\'alurt was existing fungi, with the power of deter­ the first of a series of deliverances upon mining the formation of new protoplasm the most serious questions that can from such matters as ammonium carbo­ occupy the mind; and its successors, nates, oxalates, and tartrates, alkaline and the brilliant monograph on llumt, pub­ earthy phosphates, and water, without lished in 1879, and the Romanet the aid of light. That is the expectation Lecture on Evolution and Etlzia, de­ to which analogical reasoning leads me; livered at Oxford 18th May, 1893, are but I beg you once more to recollect but expansions of the thesis laid down that I have no right to call my opinion in that wonderful little volume; won· anything but an act of philosophical derful in the prevision which fills it, faith." and in the justification which it has Huxley was the Apostle Paul of the received from all subsequent research, Darwinian movement, and one main notably in psychology. result of his active propagandism was If the propositions therein maintained to so effectively prepare the way for the are unshaken, then there is no possible reception of the profounder issues in- reconciliation between E"olution and . volved in the theory. of the origin of Theology, and all the smooth sayings species that the publication of Darwin's in attempted harmonies between the Descent oillfan in 1871 created mild two, of which Professor Drummond', excitement. And the weight of his Ascent of lIfan is a type, and in support is the greater because he never speeches at Church Congres~es of whid. MOll!.RN EVOL1{/j'ION 93 that delivered by Archdeacon nrg;on With this same .. odd rnan" rested the (Ice p. 71) is a type, do but hypnotise decision as to what books should be in­ the "light half-believers of our casual cluded or excluded from the coIlection creedL" To lome there are "signs of on which the Church bases its authority the times" which point to approaching and formulates its creeds. So. in the ,.cquiescence in the sentiment of Ovid, last result, both sets of questions are paraIlcIed by a (amous passage in lettled by a human tribunal employing Gibbon, that "the existence of the a circular argument. But, dismissing gods is a matter o( public policy, and this for the moment, let us see to what we must believe it accordingly." It issues the controversy is narrowed, to looks like the prelude to surrender of quote Huxley'. words (written in 1871), what is the cardinal dogma of Chris­ by "the spontaneous retreat of the tianity when we read in the Arch­ enemy from nine-tenths of the territory deacon's address that "the theory of which he occupied ten years ago." Evolution is indeed fatal to certain The battle has no longer to be fought fuasi-mythological doctrines of the over the question of the fundamental Atonement which once prevailed, but it identity of the physical structure of man is in harmony with its spirit." For and of the anthropoid apes. The most those doctrines, as the venerable apolo­ enlightened Protestant divines accept gist may learn from the evidence in this as proven, and not a few Catholic hazer's Colatll J]ough (chap. iii. passim), divines are adopting an attitude towards are wholly mythological, because bar­ it which is only the prelude to surrender. baric. But, in truth, there is not a Matttrs must have moved apace in the dogma of Christendom, not a founda­ Church which Huxley, backed by history, tion on which the dogma rests, that describes as II that vigorous and con­ Evolution does not traverse. The sistent enemy of the highest intellectual, Church o( England adopts, II as tho­ moral, and social life of mankind," to roughly to be received and believed," permit the Roman Catholic Professor of the three ancient creeds, known as the Physics in the University of Notre Dame, Al'0stles', the Athanasian, and the America, to parley as follows ;- N Icene. There is not a sentence in any one of these which finds confirmation j II Granting that future researches in and only a lentence or two that find palreontology, anthropology, and biology neither confirmation nor contradiction, shall demonstrate beyond doubt that in Evolution. man is genetically related to the inferior The question, on which reams of animals, and we have seen how (ar scien­ paper have been wa~ted, lies in a nut­ tists are from such a demonstration (?). shell. The statements in the Creeds there will not be, even it) such an im­ profess to have warrant in the direct probable event, the slightest ground (or words of the Bible j or in inferences Imagining that then, at last, the conclu­ drawn from those words, as defined by sions of science are hopelessly at variance the Councils of the Church. The with the declarations of the sacred text, decisions of these Councils represent or the authorised teachings of the (;hurch the opinion of the majority of fallible of Christ All that would logically men composing those assemblies, and follow from the demonstration of the no number of fallible parts can make animal origin of man would be a modi­ an infaIlible whole. As SeIden quaintly fication of the traditional view regarding puts it (T~/' Ta/Il, xxx. II COWlcils "), the origin of the body of our first II they talk (but blasphemously enough) ancestor. We should be obliged to that the Holy Ghost is president of revise the interpretation that has usually their General Councils, when the truth been given to the words of Scripture su", the odd man is still the Holy.Ghost." I whlcll refer to the formation of Adam', PIONEERS ,-

94 PIONEiJ.'.-c:onfirmed ., F~TION ------~~·~on- ~------body, and read these words in the sense dea•• to the theologian to show that he whi4:h Evolution demands, a sense which, has in revelation, and in the world-wide as we have seen, may be attributed to belief of mankind in spiritual existences the words of the inspired record, without without, and in a spirit or soul within, either distorting the meaning of terms, evidence of the 5upernatural. The or in any way doing violence to the text II evolutionist has no such corresponding (Evolution anti Dogma, by the Reverend deep concern. When the argument J. A. Zahm, Ph.D., C.S.C., pp. 364, 365). against him is adduced from the Bible, he can only challenge the grounds on Upon this suggested revision of writ­ which that book is cited as divine ings which are claimed as forming part authority, or as an authority at alL of a divine revelation, one of the highest Granting, for the sake of argument, that authorities, Francisco Suarez, thus refers, a revelation has been made, the writing' in his Tractatus tie Opere sex DienJm, to purporting to contain it must comply the elastic interpretation given in his with the twofold condition attaching to time to the" days" in the first chapter it-namely, that it makes known matters of Genesis. "It is not probable that which the human mind could not, God, in inspiring Moses to write a unaided, have found out; and that it history of the Creation, which was to be embodies those matters in language as believed by ordinary people, would have to the meaning of which there can be made him use language the true meaning no doubt whatever. If there be any of which it was hard to discover, and sacred books which comply with these still harder to believe." Three centuries conditions, they have yet to be dis­ have passed since these wise words were covered. penned, and the reproof which they When the argument against the evolu­ convey is as much needed now as then. tionist is drawn from hum.m testimony, In near connection with the question he does not dispute the existence of the of man's origin is that of his antiquity. belief in a soul and in al\ the accompany­ The existence of his remains, rare as they ing apparatus of the supernatural; but are everywhere, in deposits older than the he calls in the anthropologist to explain Pleistocene or Quaternary epoch, is now how these arose in the barbaric mind. proven. This applies to the remarkable Meanwhile, let us summarise the fragments found by Dr. Dubois in Java, evidence which points to the psychical the chalacter of which, in the judgment unity between man and the lower life­ of several palreontologists, indicates the forms. As state!;! on p. 80, Mr. Herbert nearest approach between man and ape Spencer traces the gradual evolution o( hitherto discovered. But the evidence consciousness from "the blurred, inde­ of the physical relation of these two terminate feeling which responds to a being conclusive, the exact place of man single nerve pulsation or shock." There in the earth's time-record is rendered of is no trace of a nervous system in the subordinate importance. simplest organisms, but this counts (or The,_theolo~ians have come to their little, because there are also no traces of last ditch.jn contesting that the mental a mouth, or a stomach, or limbs. In differences between man and the lower these seemingly structureles5 creatures animals are fundamental, beingdifferences every part does everything. The amreba 't)fidrid, and therefore _that no gradual eats and drinks, digests and excretes, process from the mental faculties of the manifests "irritability"-that is, responds one to those of the other has taken place. to the various stimuli of its surroundings, This struggle against the application of and multiplies, without possessing special the theory of Evolution to man's intel­ organs for these various functions. Divi­ lectual and spiritual nature will be long sion of labour arises at a slightly ~~~ and stubborn. It is a matter of life y.nd stage, when rudimentary organs aw.- MODE/lN EVOLUTION 9S th~ development" oC Cunction and organ the body j the organs oC the senses . alike gomg o~ simultaneously. begin as sacs Cormed by inColdi~gs of Speakmg broadly, the Cunctions oC the primitive outer skin." living things are threefold: they Ceed j they reproduce; they respond to their Biologists are agreed that • certain "environment, " and It is this last-named stage in the organisation of the nervous .~s.tem7the germs oC which, we saw, are Cunction~ommunication with surround­ ings-which is the special work oC the VISIble 10 the quivering oC an amreba, nt:r'oul system. It was an old Greek and probably in plants a~ well as animals -must be reached before consciousness m~xim that "a man may once say a thmg as he would have said it: he can­ is manifest. Obsc?rity still hangs round not Illy it twice." This is the warrant the Itage at which mere irritability Cor transferring a Cew lentences on the passel i~to .sensibility, but so long a, origin oC the nerves Crom my Story of the contl~ulty oC development is clear, Creation. They are but a meagre abstract the gradations are oC lesser importance. oC Mr. Spencer's long but luminoul And, Cor the present purpose, there is no need to descend Car in the life-scale • exposition oC the subject :- iC the psychical connection between ~ "AI every part oC an organism is made a,:,d ~he mammals immediately beneath up of cells, and as the Cunctions govern him 15 proven, the connection of the the form oC the cells, the origin oC nerves mammals with the lowest invertebrate must be due to a modification in cell may be assumed as also established. ihape and arrangement, whereby certain Speaking only oC vertebrates, the brain tracts or fibres of communication between being, whether in fish or man, the organ the body and its surroundings are estab­ of mental phenomena, how far does its lished." structure support or destroy the theory " Dut what excited that modification 1 of mental continuity? In Ma,,'s Piau The a.1I-surrounding medium without i" Nature, and its invaluable supplement, which no life had been, whi~h deter­ the second part of the monograph on JIumt, this subject is expounded by mi!1ed !ts ~imits, and /OU(MJ it at every pomt With Its throbs and vibrations. In Huxley with his usual clearness. In the thl! beginnings of a primitive layer or older ~k he traces the gradual modifi­ skin" manifested by creatures a stage cation oC brain in the series of back boned above the lowest, unlikenesses would animals. He points out that the brain arise, and certain parts, by reason oC of.& fish is very small compared with the tht:ir finer structure, would be the more spma~ cord .into which it is continued, readily stimulated by, and ihe -more that 10 reptiles the mass oC brain rela­ quickly responsive to, the ceaseless ti!ely to th~ spi~1 cord, is large:, and Itlll larger 10 birds, until among the ac~ion oC the surrounding:;, the result lowest mammals, as the opossums and bem~ that an extra sensitiveness along the lmes of least resistance would be kangaroos, the brain is so increased in proportion as to be extremely different set up in tho~e m?re delicate parts. These, developmg, like all things else, .from that oC fish, bird, or reptile. by use, would become more and more Between these marsupials and the high­ est or placental mammals there Occurs ~he selected paths of the impulses, lead­ mg, as the molecular waves thrilled them, II the greatest leap anywhere made by !o structural changes or -modification Nature in her brain work. n Then !nto n.erve-<:ells, and nerve-fibres, oC Collows this important statement in Increasmg complexity as we ascend the favour oC continuity:- sc.ale .0C life. T~e entire nervous system, .. As if to d~mons~D:t~ by a striking With Its connections; the brain and a1lthe example, the Imposslblhty oC erecting subtle mechanism with which it controls anr cerebral barrier between man and PIONEERS (}l" EVOLUTION the apes, Nature has pro\;ded us, in the there is a no less sharp line oC demarca­ latter animals, with an almost complete tion~ ~ no less complete absence of any series of gradations from brains lit.tle traditIOnal form, between the gorilla higher than that of a rodent to brams and the orang, or the orang and the little lower than that of man." gibbon." The brains of man and ape being After giving technical descriptions in fundamentally the Slme in structure, it proof of this, and laying special stress on follows that the functions which they the presence of the structure known as the perform are fundamentally the same. .. hippocampus minor" in the brain of The large array of facts mustered by a man as well as of the ape-in the denial series of careful observers proves ho .... of which Owen cut such a sorry figure­ futile is the argument which, in his pride Huxley adds;- of birth, man advances against psychical "So far as cerebral structure goes, continuity. Vain is the search after therefore, it is clear that man differs less boundary lines between reflex action from the chimpanzee or the orang than and instinct, and between instinct and these do even from the monkeys, and reason. Barriers there are between man that the difference between the brains of and brute, for articulate speech and the the chimpanzee and of man is almost consequent power to transmit experiencel insignificant when compared with that has set up these, and they rei: a:n im­ between the chimpanzee brain and that passable. "The potentialities of lan­ of a lemur...... Thus, whatever system guage, as the vocal symbol of thought, of organs be studied, the comparison of lay in the faculty of modulating and their modifications in the ape series articulating the voice. The potentialities leads to one and the same result-that of writing, as the visual symbol of the structural differences which separate thought, lay in the hand that could man from the gorilla and the chim­ draw, and in the mimetic tendency panzee are not so great as those which which we know was gratified by drawing separate the gorilla from the lower apes. as far back as the days of Quaternary But in enunciating this important truth man" (Huxley's Essa)'s on Conlrtn'trlttl I must guard myself against a form of Questions, p. 47). But these specially misunderstanding which is very preva­ human characteristics are no sufficing lent...... that the structural differences warrant for denying that the sensattons, between man and even the highest apes emotions, thoughts, and volitions of are small and insignificant. Let me then man vary in kind from those of the distinctly assert, on the contrary, that lower creation. "The essential resem­ they are great and significant; that every blances in all points of structure and .bone of a gorilla bears marks by which function, so far as they can be studied, it might be di

was yet unborn, accounted {or every­ earth '), and was therefore only deriva­ thing. But she may borrow the Apostle's tively created-i.e., by the operation of words, " Behold I I show you a mystery," secondary laws," but that "his sou~ and give to them a pro{ounder meaning on the other hand, was created in as she confesses that the origin and quite a different way ...... by the direct ultimate destiny of matter and motion, action of the Almighty (symbolised the causes which determine the be­ by the term 'breathing')" (p. 32S). haviour of atoms- -whether they are In his .llfenlal PIz)'Si%l:Y Dr. Car­ arranged in the lovely and varying forms penter postulates an Ego or Will, which which mark their crystals, or whether presides over, without sharing in, the they are quivering with the life which is causaIJy determined action of the common to the amreba and the man­ other mental functions and their corre­ the conversion of the inorganic into the lated bodily processes; "an entity which organic by the green plant, and the rela­ does not depend (or its existence on any tion between nerve-changes and con­ play o( physical or vital forces, but which sciousness, are all impenetrable mysteries. makes these forces subservient to its In his speecl"\ on the commemoration determinations" (p. :I 7 ). Professor of the jubilee of his Professorship in Mivart actuaIJy cites St. Augustine and the University of Glasgow in 1895 Cardinal Newman as authorities in Lord Kelvin said: "I know no more support of his theory of the special of electric and magnetic force, or of the creation of the soul. He might with relation between ether, electricity, and equal etTect have subprenaed Dr. Joseph ponderable matter, or of chemical affinity, Parker or General Booth as authorities. than I knew arid tried to teach my Dr. Carpenter argued as became a good students of natural philosophy fifty years Unitarian. In his Gifford Lectures 011 ago, in my first session as professor." l\ratural Tlzto!og)', Professor Stokes This recognition of limitations will asserts, drawing "on sources of informa­ content those who seek not II after a tion which lie beyond man's natural "iign." For others, that search will con­ powers "-in other words, appealing to tinue to have encouragement, not only the Bible-that God made man immortal from the theologian, but from the and upright, and endowed him with pseudo-scientific who have traveIJed freedom of the will. As, without the 'some distance with the Pioneers of exercise of this, man would have been Evolution, but who refuse to folJow as a mere automaton, he was exposed them further. In each of these there to the temptation of the devil, and fell. is present the "theological bias" whose Thereby he became II subject to death varied forms are skilfulJy analysed by like the lower Ilnimals," and by the Mr. Spencer in his chapter under that II natural etTect of heredity" transmitted heading in the Study of Sociology. This the taint of sin to his offspring. The explains the attitude of various groups eternal life thus forfeited was restored by which are severaJly represented by the late the voluntary sacrifice of Christ, but can Mr. St. George lvIivart and the late Dr. be secured only to those lI'ho have faith W. B. Carpenter; by Professor Sir in him. This doctrine, ",hich is no George G. Stokes and Mr. Alfred Russel novel one, is known as .. conditional WaIJace. The first-named is a Roman immortality." Professor Stokes attaches Catnolic; the second was a Unitarian; II no value to the belief in a future life the third is an orthodox Churchman; by metaphysical argumenu founded on and the fourth, as already seen, is a the supposed nature of the soul it~elf," Spiritualist. In his Genesis of Species and he admits that" the purely psychic Mr. l\1ivart contended that" man's body theory which would discard the body was evolved from pre-existing material altogether in regard to the process of (symbolised by the term 'dust of. the thought is beset by very great difficulties. .. MODERN EYOLUTION

So he once more has recourse to "lOurces the ordinary agents of denudation and of information which lie beyond man'. other changes in producing new effects natural powers." Following up certain which, though continuous with preceding distinctions between "soul" and "spirit­ effects, were not due to the same causes. drawn by the Apostle Paul in his tripar. Applying this "argument· (drawn tite division of man, Professor Stokes, (rom natural causes), as Mr. WalIa.ce somewhat in keeping with Dr. Carpenter, names it, .. to the case o( man'. intellec­ assumes an "ego, which, on the one tual and moral nature," he contends that hand, is not to be identified with thought, such lpecial faculties as the mathemati­ which may exist while thought is in cal, musical, and artistic (is this faculty abeyance, and which may, with the to be denied the nest-decorating bower future body of which the Christian bird 1), and the high moral qualities religion speaks, be the medium of which have given the martyr his con­ continuity of thought•...... What the stancy, the patriot his devoti:.m, and the nature of this body might be we do not philanthropist his unselfishness, are due know j but we are pretty distinctly to a .. spiritual essence or nature, super­ informed that it would be something added to the animal nature of man." very different from that of our {,resent We are not told at what stage in man's body, very different in its properties and development this was inserted; whether functions, and yet no less our own than once and for all, in "primitive" man, our present body." .. Words, words, with potentiality of transmission through words," as Hamlet says. palreolithic folk to all succeeding genera Reference has been made in some tions; or whether there is special infu­ furness to Mr. Wallace's limitations of sion of a .. spiritual essence" into every the theory of natural selection in the human being at birth. case of man's mental faculties. We Any perplexity that might arise at the must now pursue this somewhat in line thus taken by Mr. Wallace vanishes detail, reminding the reader of Mr. before the fact, already enlarged upon, Wallace'. admission that, .. provisionally, that the author of the ilfalay Ardz/frlagfJ the laws of variation and natural selection and Island Lift bas written a book on •.••.. may have brought about, first, that ilIira(/es and ilIode", Spiritualism in perfection of bodily structure in which defence of both. The explanation lies man is 10 far above all other animals, in that duality of mind which, in one and, in co-ordination with it, the larger compartment, ranks Mr. Wallace fore­ and more developed brain by means of most among naturalists, and, in the other which he has been able to subject the compartment, places him .among the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms most credulous of Spiritualists. to his service." But, although Mr. Despite this, Mr. Wallace has claims Wallace rejects the theory of man's to a respectful hearing and to serious Rpecial creation as .. being entirely un­ reply. }o'ortunately, he would appear to supported by facts, as well as in the furnish the refutation to his own argu­ highest degree improbable," he contends ment in the following paragraph frorT' his that it does not necessarily follow that delightful C01Iln"buliQ1ls ID llu TMD'Y oj .. his mental nature, even though deve­ Natural Selee/IOn .- loped Ian· lassu with his physical ~ structure, has been developed by the .. From the time when the social and same agencies." Then, by the introduc­ sympathetic feelings came into operation tion of a physical analogy which is Ill) and the intellectual and moral faculties analogy at all, he suggests that the agent became fairly developed. man would by which man was upraised into a king­ cease to be influenced by ilatural selec­ dom apart hears like relation to natural tion in his physical form and structure. lelection as the glacial epoch bears to & an animal he would remain almost 100 PIONEERS OF E VOLVTION

stationary, the changes in the surround­ this period will seldom be very remote, ing universe ceasing to produce in him as species rarely endure for mort: than that powerful modifying effect which one geological period. they exercise on other parts of the How completely this applies to man, organic world. But, from the moment the latest product of organic evolution. that the form of his body became The brain is that part or orli-ln in him stationary, his mind would becomt: sub­ which has been developed .. in an extra· ject to those very influences from which ordinary degree, in comparison with the his body had escaped; every slight same part" in other primates, and which variation in his mental and moral nature has become highly f)an"ab!~. Whatever which should enable him better to guard may have been the favouring causes against adverse circumstances and com­ which secured his immediate progenitors bine for mutual comfort and protection such modification of brain as advanced would be preserved and accumulated; him in intelligence over "allied species," the better and higher specimens of our the fact abides that in this lies the race would therefore increase and spread, explanation of thdr after-history; the the lower and more brutal would give arrest of the one, the unlimited progress way and successively die out, and that of the other. Increasing intelligence rapid advancement of· mental organisa­ at work through vast pt:riods of time tion would occur which has raised the originated and developed those social very lowest races of man so· far above conditions which alone made possible the brutes (although differing so little that progress which, in its most advanced from some of them in physical structure), degree, but a small proportion of the and, in conjunction with scarcely per­ race has reached. For in this question ceptible modifications of form, has of mental differences the contrast is not developed the wonderful intellect of the between man and ape, but between man European races" (pp. 316,317, second savage and civilised; between the edition, 1871). incapacity of the one to count beyond his fingers, and the capacity of the other This argument has suggestive illustra­ to calculate an eclipse of the sun or a tion in the fifth chapter of the On"gin of transit of Venus. It would therefore Spm·es. Mr. Darwin there refers to a seem that Mr. Wallace should introduce remark to the following effect made by his" spiritual essence or nature" in the Mr. \Vaterhouse: "A pari developed ;11 intermediate, and not in the initial, stage. any species in an extraordinary degree or As answer to Mr. Wallace's argument, manner in companion with the same pari that in their large and well-de\'doped in allied species tends to be highly variable." brains savages .. possess an organ quite This applies only where there is unusual disproportioned to their requirements," development. "Thus, the wing of a bat Huxley cites Wallace's own remarks in is a most abnormal structure in the class his paper on Instinct in /lfan and Animals of mammals; but the rule would not as to the considerable demands made apply here, because the whole group of by the needs of the lower races on their bats possesses wings; it would apply observing faculties which call into pia,. only if some one species had wings no mean exercise of brain function. developed in a remarkable manner in "Add to this," Huxley says, "the --comparison with the other species of the knowledge which a savage is obliged til same genus." And when this exceptional gain of the properties of plants, of the development of any part or organ occurs, characters and habits of animals, and of we may conclude that the modification the minute indications by which their has arisen since the period when the course is discoverable; consider that several species branched off from the even an Australian can make excellent common progenitor of the genus; ~nd baskets and nets, and neatly fitted and MODERN. EYOLUTION 101 beautifully balanced apears; that he in its ideas about Sptnts and their learns to use these 10 as to be able to behaviour. A man falls asleep and transfix a quartem loaf at sixty yards; dreams certain things; on waking, he and that very often, as in the case or the believes that these things actually hap­ American Indian!!, the language of a pened; and he therefore concludes that lavage exhibits complexities which a the dead who came to him or to ,,-hom well-trained European finds it difficult he went in his dreams are alive; that to master; consider that every time a the friend or foe whom he knows to be lavage tracks his game he employs a Car away, but with whom he feasted or minuteness of observation and an fought in dreamland, came to him. HE accuracy of inductive and deductive sees another man ran into a swoon 01 reasoning which, applied to other matters, trance that may lay him seemingly life­ would assure lome reputation, and I less for hours, or even days; he himself think one need. ask no further why he may be attacked by deranging fevers and possesses luch a fair lupply of brams." see visions stranger than those which a •..... But Mr. Wallace's objection "applies healthy person sees; shadows of himself quite as strongly to the lower ammals. and of objects, both living and not Surely a wolf must have too much brain, living, follow or precede him, and or else how is it that a dog, with onl,· lengthen or shorten in the withdrawing the lame quantity and form of brain, IS or advancing light; the still water throws able to develop such singular intelli­ back images of himself; the hillsides gence ? The wolC atands to the dog in resound with mocking echoes of his the lame relation as the lavage to the words and of sounds around him; and man; and therefore, if Mr. Wallace'. it is these and allied phenomena which doctrine holds good, a higher power have given rise to the notion of" another must have superintended the breeding self," to use Mr. Spencer's convenient up of wolves from some inferior stock, term, or of a number of selves that are in order to prepare them to become sometimes outside the man and some­ dogs" (Cn'h"fjlltl and AdJresstl, p. 293). times inside him, as to whicb the bar­ After all is laid, perhaps the eITective baric mind is never sure. Outside him, refutation oC the belief in a spiritual however, when the man is sleeping, so entity superadded in man is found in the that he must not be awakened, lest the explanatIOn of the origin of that belief .. other self" be hindered from returning; which anthropology supplies. or when he is sick, or in the toils of the The thl-ory of the ongin and growth medicine-man, who may hold the" other of the belief in louIs and spiritual beings self" in his power, as in the curious soul­ generally, and in a future life, which has trap of the Polynesians-a series of been put into coherent form by Spencer cocoa-nut rings-in which the sorcerer and Tylor, is based upon an enormous makes believe to catch and detain the m:\ss of evidence gathered by travellers soul of an oITender or sick person. among existing basbaric peoples-evi­ When Dr. Catat and his companions, dence agreeing in character with that MM. Maistre and Foucart, were explor­ which results from investigations into ing the .. Bara" country on the west beliefs of past races in varying stages oC coast of Madagascar, the peoplq, sud­ culture. Only brief reference to it here denly became hostile. On the previous is necessary, but the merest outline suC- day the travellers, not without difficulty, , fices to show from what obvious pheno­ had photographed the royal family, and Olena the conception of a soul was now found themselves accused of taking derived-a conception oC which all the souls of the natives with the object. subsequent forms are but elaborated of selling them when they retumed to copies. As in other matters, crude France. Denial was of no avail; analogies have &Uided tile basbaric mind following the co"stom of the Ma.1agasays, PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION they were compelled to catch the souls, sCK:alled .. primitive" man. .. The which were then put into a basket, and Indian does not see any sh .... p line ordered by Dr. Catat to return to their of distinction such as we see between respective owners (Timu, 24th March, man and other animals, betWl.'ell one J 89 1 ). kind of animal and another, or between Although the difference presented by animals-man included-and inanimate such phenomena and by death is that it objects. On the contrary, to the Indian is abiding, while they are temporary, to all objects, animate and inanimate, seem the barbaric mind the difference is in exactly of the same nature, except that degree, and not in kind. True, the they differ in the accident of bodily .. other self" has left the body, and will form. Every object in the whole world never return to it; but it exists, for it is a being, consisting of a body and appears in dreams and hallucinations, spirit, and differs from cvery other ohject and therefore is believed to revisit its in no respect except that of bodily furm, ancient paunts, as well as to tarry often and in the greater or lesser degn'e of near the exposed or buried body. The brute power and brute cunnin~ c. 'n~e­ nebulous theories which identified the quent on the difference of boJlly forlll soul with breath, and shadow, and reflec­ and bodily habits. Our ne~t step, tion, slowly condensed into theories of . therefore, is to note that animals, l,tkr semi-sul:>stantiality still charged with than men, and even inanimate obje'cts, ethereal conceptions, resulting in the have spirits which ditTer not at all in curious amalgam which, in the minds of kind from those of mcn." cultivated persons, whenever they strive The importance of the evidence to envisage the idea, represents the dis­ gathered by anthropology in SUPIHj/'t embodied soul. of man's inel usion in the general t.)(t:~, y Therefore, in vain may we seek for of evolution is ever becoming mnre points of difference in our comparison manifest. For it has brought witness to of primitive ideas of the origin and continuity in organic development at the nature of the suul with the later ideas. point where a break has been as~ullll'\l. The copious literature to which these and driven home the fact that, if Emlu, have l:iven birth is represented in the tion operates anywhere, it operates C\'t:ry' bibliography appended to Mr. Alger's where. And operates, too, in ~lH h • work on Theoriu of a Future Life, by way that every part co-operates in the 4.977 books, exclusive of many pub­ discharge of a universal process. Ht:nce lished since his list was compiled. Save it meets the divisions l\'hich mark oppo, in refinement of detail such as a higher sition to it by the transcendent power of culture secures, what is there to choose unity. between the four souls of the Hidatsa Until the past half·century man Indians, the two souls of the Gold Coast excepted himself, sa\-e in crude and nativ"!s, and the tripartite division of superficial fashion, from that investiga­ man by Rabbis, Platonists, and Paulin­ tion which, for long periods, he ha~ ists, which are but the savage other·self made into the earth beneath him and "writ large"? Their common source is the heavens above him. This tardy in man's general animistic interpretation inq11iry into the history of his OI'l"TJ kind, of nature, which is a vera causa, super- and its place in the orJ..:r and ~uccession -5eding the need for the assumptions of of life, as well as its relation to the lo.... er which Mr. Wallace's is a type. As an animals, between whom and itself, &5 excellent illustration of what is meant has been shown, the barbaric mind 1~5 by ~nimism, we may cite what Mr. much in common, is due, so rar as Everard im Thurn has to sa"! ahout the Christendom is concerned (and the like Indians of Guiana, who are, presum­ cause applies, mutatis mutandis, in non­ ably, a good many steps removed from Christian civilised communities), to the MODERN EYOLUTION 10) subjection of the intellect to preconceived universe. And, although, as coming theorics based on the authority accorded nearer home, with consequent greater to ancient legends about man. These chance o( intrusion of elements o( legends, invClted with the sanctity with friction, the like applies to the discoveries which time endows the past, finally of geology. Apart froOm intellectual became integral parts of sacred litera­ apathy, which explains much, the impact tures, to question which was as super­ o( these discoveries on traditional fluous as It was impious. Thus it has beliefs was softened by the buffers come to pass that the only being compe­ which a moderating spirit o( criticism tent to inquire into his own antecedents interposed in the shape of superficial bas looked at his history through the dis­ II reconciliations" emptying the old cos­ torting prism of a mythopa:ic past I mo~ony of all its poetry, and therefore Pt:rhaps, in the long run, the gain bas o( Its value as a k~y to primitive ideas, exceeded the 1055. For, in the prece­ and converting it into bastanl ,cience. dence of study of other sciences more Thus a temporary, becau5e ~rtificial, remote from man'. II business and unity was set up. But with the evidence bosom," there hal been rendered possible supplied by study of the ancient life a more dispa.~sionate treatment of matters whose remains are imbedded in the charged with profounder issues. Since fossil-yielding strata, that unity is shivered. the Church, however she may conveni­ In a scripture that II cannot be broken· ently ignore the fact as concession after there was read the story of conflict and r:onccssion is wrung from her, has never death reons before man appeared. llackened in jealousy of the advance of Between" this record and that which secular knowledge, it "as well (or human spoke of pain and death as the conse­ progress that those subjects o( inquiry quences of man's d".obedience to the which affected orthodox views only frivolous prohibition of an anthropo­ indirectly were first prosecuted. The morphic God there is nQ possible recon­ brilliant discoveries in astronomy, to ciliation.

which the Copernican theory gave To the evidence (rom 0 fossiliferous impetus, although they displaced the beds was added evidence from old river­ earth from its assumed supremacy among gravels and limestone caverns. The the bodies in sl,>8ce, did not apparently relics extracted from the stalagmitic affect the doctnne of the supremacy of deposits in Kent's Hole, near Torquay, man as the creature of Oi vine interventIon, had" lain unheeded for some yurs saYe as the centre (or wbom the scheme of as II curios,· when M. Boucher de redemption had been formulated II in Perthes saw in the worked fints of a the counsels of the Trinity,~ and the somewhat rougher type, which he found tragedy of the self-sacrifice of God the mingled with the bones oC rhinoceroses, Son enacted on earth. The surrender cave-bears, mammoths, or woolly-haired or negation of any fundamental dogma elephants, and other mammals, in the of Christian theology was not involved It drift" or gravel-pits of Abbeville, in in the abandonment of the statement in Picardy, the proofs of man's primitive the Bible as to the dominant position savagery, so far as Western Europe was of the earth in relation to the sun and concerned. The presence of '~ese other self-luminous stars. To our own rudely

year before the publication of the Origin mode of progress no chili,ed people has 0/ Spmes. Similar materials have been been the exception, as, notaLly in tho: case unearthed from every part of the globe of the Hebrews, was once thought-" the habitable once or inhabitable now. They correspondence between the old Israelitic confirm the speculations of Lucretius as and other archaic forms of theology to a universal makeshift with stone, bone, extending to details." hom, and suchlike accessible or pliable While, therefore, the discoveries of substances during the ages that preceded astronomers and geologists have ken the discovery of metals. Therefore the disintegrating agencies upon old beliefs, existence of a Stone Age at one period the discoveries classed under the general or another, where now an Age of Iron term Anthropological are acting as more (following an Age of Bronze) prevails, powerful solvents on every opinion of is an established canon of archreological the past. Showing on what mythical science. From this follows the inference f,mndation the story of the folll of man that man's primitive condition was that rests, Anthropology has utterly demo­ which corresponds to the lowest type lished the raison d'Nn of the doctrine extant, the Australian and Papuan ; that of his redemption-the keystone of the the farther back inquiry is pushed such fabric. It has penetrated the mists of culture as exists is found to ha\'e been antiquity, and traced the myth of a for­ preceded by barbarism; and that the feited Paradise, of the Creation, the savage races of to-day represent, not a Deluge, and other legends, to their degradation to which man, as the result birthplaces in the valley of the Euphrates of a fall from primeval purity and Eden­ or the uplands of Persia; legends whose like ease, has sunk, but a condition out earliest inscribed records are on Acca,] ian of which all races above the savage have tablets, or in the scriptures of Zarathw.tra. emerged. It has, in the spirit of the commenlled While Prehistoric Archreology, with Bereans, "searched" those and other its enormous mass of mat~n'al remains scri ptures, finding therein Ie~ends of gathered from "dens and caves of the founders of ancient faiths cobnate to earth," from primitive workshops, from those which in the cour~e of the rude tombs and temples, thus adds its centuries gathered round Jesus of Nal.a­ testimony to the "great cloud of wit­ reth; it has collated the rites and cere­ nesses," immalcn'al remains, potent as monies of many a barbaric theDlog-y embodying the thought of man, are with those of old-world religions-Brah­ brought by the twin sciences of Com­ manic, Buddhistic, Christian-and found parative Mythoiogy and Folk-lore, and 'only such differences between them as Comparative Theology-remains of para­ are referable to the higher or the lower mount value, because existing to this culture. For the hi~tory of superstitions day in hitherto unsuspected form, as is included in the history of beliefs; the survivals in beliefs and rites and customs. superstitions being the germ-plasm of Readers of Tylor's Pn'mifiz'e Culture, which all beliefs above the lowest are with its wealth of facts and their signi­ the modified products, Belief incarnates ficance, and of Lyall's Asiatic Studits, in word or act. In the one we have the wherein is described the making of charm, the invocation, and the dogma; myths to this day in the heart of India, in the other the ritual and ceremony. ----need not be told how the slow zigzag .. A ritual system," Profes~or Robertson' advance of man in material things has Smith remarks, .. must always remain its parallel in the stages of his intdlectual materialistic, even if its materialism is and spiritual advance all the world over; disguised under the cloak of mysticism.· from the lower animism to the higher And it is with the incarnated ide.a5, un­ conception of deity; from bewildering influenced by the particular creed in gnesses to assuring cer>.ainties. To this connection with which it finds them, AI0DEJrN EYOLUTION lOS that Anthropology deals. Its method is Education Act in 1870 brought the that oC biology. Without bias, without problt:m of popular culture to the (ront. assumptioru of relative truth or falsity, The wave of enthusiasm carried a group the Anthropologist .earches into origins, of distinguished liberal candidates to traces variations, compares and classifies, the polls, and Huxley was elected a and relates the several families to one member of the School Board (or London. ordinal group. He must be what wu Then, although in not so acute a (orm said oC Dante, .. a theol~n to whom as now, the religious difficulty was the no dogma is foreign." UnCortunately, sole cause o( any serious division, and this method, whose application to the Huxley'S attitude therein puzzled a good physical .ciences is unchallenged, is, many people because he advocated the when applied to belieCs, regarded as one· retention of the Bible in the schools. of attack. instead of being one oC expla­ Those who should have known him nation. But this should not deter j and better thought that he was (to quote iC in analysing a belief we kill a supersti­ (rom one of his letters to the writer) tion, this does but show what mortality .. a hypocrite, or simply a (001." .. Bu,," lay at its core. For error cannot survive he adds, .. my meaning wu that the dissection. Moreover, as John Morley mass o( the people should not be puts it, .. to tamper with veracity is to deprived o( the one great literature tamper with the vital force of human which is open· to them, nor shut out progress." Therefore, delivering im­ (rom the perception o( its place in the partial judgment, the·verdict of Anthro­ whole past history o( civilised mankind." pology upon the whole matter is that the He lamented, as every thoughtful person claims of Christian theologians to a - must lament, the decay o( Bible reading special and divine origin of their religion in this generation, while, at the same are reCuted by the accordant evidence time, he advocated the more strenuously of the latest utterances of a science its detachment (rom the glosses and whose main concern is with the origin, theological inCerences which do irrepar­ nature, and destiny of man. able injury to a literature whose value The extension of the comparative cannot be overrated. method to the various products of man's For Huxley was well read in history, intellectual and spiritual nature is the and, therefore, he would. not trust the logical sequence to the adoption of that clergy as interpreters o( the Bible. After method throughout every department of repeating in the Prologue to his Essays the universe. Of course it starts with .,. COfl/rowrld Ques/ions what~he had the assumption oC differences in things, said about the book in his article on the else it would be superfluous. But it School Boards in Cn~iques and Addnsses, equally starts with the assumption of he adds: .. I laid stress on the neces­ resemblances, and in every case it has sity of placing such instruction in lay brought out the fact that the differences hands j m the hope and belief that it are superficial, and that the resemblances would thus gradually accommodate itself are Cundamental. to the coming changes o( opinion j that All this bears closely on Huxley'S the theology and the legend would drop work. The impulse thereto has come more and more out of sight, while the largely from the evidence focussed in perennially interesting, historical, literary, Mllfl'S Pia" i,. Nil/un, evidence of and ethical contents would come .more which the material of the writings of and more into view." his later years is the expansion. The Subsequent events have justified cultivation of intellect and character had neither the hope nor the belie! Had always been a favourite theme with him, Huxley lived to see that all the sectaries, and the interest was widened when the while quarrelling as to the particular passing of Mr. Forster's ElementU}' dogmas which may be deduced from 106 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION

the Bible, agree in refusing to use it the writer, wherein Hw:ley refers to hi~ other than as an instrument for the retirement (rom official life, he says :- teaching of dogma, he would probably I was 10 ill that I thought "'ith Hamlet, "the have come to see that the only solu­ rest is silence." But my wiry constitution hu tion in the interests of the young is its une"pectedly weathered the It{)rm, and I have exclusion from the schools. Never has every reason to believe that with rcnunci .• ti' .• n of any collection of writings, whose mis· the devil and all hi. work. (i.I., public .~al.inl:' dinin!,:, and bein!: dined, etc.) my faculties nlay cellaneous, unequal, and often discon­ be ummpaired for a good ape II ,et. And ... h,·ther nected character is obscured by the my lease is 10nl: or short, me .. n to dc\"ote common title .. Bible" which covers them 10 the work I be""n in the paper on the them, had such need for deliverance " Eyolution of Ther.I,'b')· ... from the so-called .. believers" in it Its That essay was first pubhshed in two value is only to be realised in the degree sections in the ]\.l"neteOltlr Cellfury', 1836, that theories of its inspiration are aban­ and was the sequel to the eighth chapter doned. Then only is it possible to treat of his IIume. The Romanes Lecture it like any other literature of the kind; supplemented the last chapter of that to discriminate between the coarse and book. All these are acccssiblo! enough barbaric features which evidence the to render superfluous any abstract of humanness of its origin, and th~ loftier their contents. But the tribute due to features of its later portions which also David Hume, who may well-nigh claim evidence how it falls into line with other place among the few but tit company 01 witnesses of man's gradual ethical and pioneers, warrants reference to his anti spiritual development. cipation of accepted theories of tht Huxley'S breadth of view, his sym­ origin of belief in spiritual beings in pathy with every branch of culture, his his Natural Jlistory of RtI,;,-.,·01t, pu~ advocacy of literary in unison with lished in 1757. He says: .. There is scientific training, fitted him supremely an universal tendency among mankind for the work of the School Board; but to conceive all beings like themselves, its demands were too severe on a man and to transfer to every object those never physically strong, and he was qualities with which they are familiarly forced to resign. However, he was acquainted, and of which they are inti- thereby set free for other work, which matelyconscious ...... Theunk"o~t·1I (austs could be only effectively done by which continually employ their thought, exchanging the arena for the study. appearing always in the same aspect, are The earliest important outcome of that all apprehended to be of the ~ame kin..! relief was the monograph on .lIume, or species. Nor is it long before we published in 1879, and the latest was ascribe to them thought and reason and the Romanes lecture on Evolution and passion, and sometimes even the limbs Ethics, which was delivered in the Shel­ and figures of men, in order to bring donian Theatre at Oxford on the 18th them nearer to a resemblance with our­ May, 1893. Between the two lie a selves." In his address to the Sorbonne valuable series of papers dealing with on The Su(ctssive AdvallCts oflhe Jlumall the Evolution of Theology and cognate hlind, delivered in 1750, Turgot expresses subjects. In all these we have the the same idea, touching, as Jahn Morley application oT the theory of Evolution says in his essay on that statesman, .. the " to the explanation of the origin of beliefs root of most of the wrong thinking that apd of the basis of morals. To quote has been as a manacle to science." the saying attributed to Liebnitz, both The foregoing, and passages of a like Spencer and Huxley, and all who follow order, are made by II uxley the text of them, care for "science only because it his elaborations of the several stages of enables them to speak with authority in theological evolution, the one note of all philosophy and religion." In a letter to of which is the continuity of belid in MODERN EVOLUTION )0,

supernatural intervention. But more tht!m to be bttter Christians than they important than the decay of that wt:re a hundred years ago." Certain beth:f. which is the prelude to decay of extremists excepted, they are keeping belief in deity itsc:lf as commonly defined, dogma in the background, and are Ia)'ing is the resulting transfer of the foundation stress on the socialism which it is con­ of morals-in other words, of motives tt:nded was at the heart of the teaching to conduct, from a theological to a .ocial of Jesus. Wisely. if not very consistently. basis. Theology is not morality; indeed. they are seeking alliance with the liberal it is, too often, immorality. It is con­ movements whose aim i, the" abolition cerned with man's relations to the gods of privilege." The liberal theologians in whom he believes; while morals are in the face of the varying ethicai concerned with man's rdation. to his ltandards whicn mark the Old Testa­ fdlowi. The one looks heavenward, ment and the Ne ..... no longer insist 011 wondering what due. shall be paid the the absoluteness of moral codes, and so gods to win their smiles or ward off fall into line with the evolutionist in his their frowns. In old Rome sandilas theory of their relativeness. For society, or holiness was, according to Cicero, in its advance from lower to higher con­ .. the knowledge of the rites which had ceptions of duty. completely reverses its to be performed." These done. the ethics. looking back with horror on that gods were expected to do their part. which was once permittt!d and unques­ So in new Rome, when the Catholic tioned. . has attended mass. his share in the It is with this checking of .. the ape contract is ended. Worship and sacri­ and tiger." and this fostering of the fice. as mere acts towards supernatural .. angel" in man. that Huxley dealt in beings. may be consonant with any his Romlnes Lecture. There was much number of lapses in conduct. Morality. unintelligent, and some wilful. misuDder­ on the other hand. looks earthward. and standing of his argument, else a pro­ is prompted to action solely by what is minent Catholic biologist would hardly due (rom a man to his fellow·men, or have welcomed it as a possible prelude from his fellow·men to him. Its founda­ to Huxley'S submission to the Church. tion. therefore. is not in supernatural Yet the reasoning was clear enough, and beliefs. but in social instincts. All sin in nowise contravened the application of is thus resolved into an anti·social act: Evolution to morals. Huxley showt!d a wrong done by man to man. that Evolution is both (osmkal and This is not mt:rely readjustment; it is ,Ihital. Cosmi( Evollllio" has resultt:d revolution. }<'or it is the rejection of in the universe with its non· living and theology with its appeals to human obli­ living contents, and since, dealing with gation to deity. and to man's hopes of the conditions which obtain on out future reward or fears of future punish­ planet, there is not sufficient elbow·room ment l and it is the acceptance of wholly or food for all the offspring of living secular motives as incentives to right things, the result is a furious struggle in action. Those motives, having their which the strong win and transmit their foundation in the physical. mental, advantages to their descendants. Nature and moral results or our deeds, rest on is wholly selfish; the race is to th~ swift, a stable basis. No longer interlaced and the battle to the strong. with the unstable theological. they But there are limits set tothat struggle neither abide nor perish with it. And by man in the substitution, also ",;thin one redeeming feature of our time is limits, of social progress for cosmic that the Churches are beginning to see progress. In this Elhkal EvolulUl" this, and to be affected. by it. John selfishness is so far checked as to permit Morley caustically remarks that "the Fups.of human.~ini;s to ~ve together efforts of the heterodox have taught In anuty, recogrusmg certain common 108 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION rights, which restrain the self-regarding the fate of man. Which things are fact impulses. For, in the words of Marcus as well as allegory; and time is on Aurelius, "that which is not good for the side of the bacteria. For as the swarm is not good for the bee" our life is but a temporary arrest of (Md., vi. 54). Huxley aptly likens this the universal mo\'ement towards diss()­ counter-process to the action of a lution, so naught in our actions can gardener in dealing with a piece of arrest the destiny o( our kind. Huxlt:y waste ~round. He stamps out the thus puts it in the concluding sentences weeds, and plants fragrant flowers and of his Preface-\\~tten in July, 189t. useful fruits. But he must not relax one year before hIS death-to the rt..~ his efforts, otherwise the weeds will issue of Et'o/ufion and Ethics:- return, and the untended plants will be "Th~t man, as a 'political animal,' is choked and perish. So in conduct. For the common weal, in which the susceptible of a vast amollnt of improve­ unit shares, thus blending the selfish and ment, by education, by instruction, and the unselfish motives, men check their by the application of his intt:lligence to natural impulses. The emotions and the adaptation of the conditions of life affections which they share with the to his higher needs, I entertain not the lower social animals, only in higher slightest doubt. But, so long as he degree, are co-operative, and largely help remains liable to error, intt:llectual or the development of family tribal and moral; so long as he is compelled to be national life. But once iet the~e be perpetually on guard against the cosmic weakened, and society becomes a bear­ forces, whose ends are not his ends, garden. Force being the dominant without and within himself· so long as he. is haunted by fac~or i~ life, the struggle for existence in~xpugnable revives m all its primitive violence and memones and ho"e1ess a~pirations; so atavism asserts its power. Ther~fore, long as the recognition of his intellectual although he do the best that in him lies limitations (orces him to acknowled"e man can only set limits to that struggl~ his in~apacity to pt!nctrate the m)'slt:~y for the ethica! process is an integral part of eXIstence; the prospect of attaining of the cosmic powers, " just as the untroubled happiness, or of a state , governor' !n a steam-engine is part of which can, even remutely, deserve tI,e the mechanism of the engine." As with title of perfection, appt:ars to me to t)f~ society, so with its units: there is no as misleading an illusion as ever was truce in the contest. Dr. Plimmer an dangled before the eyes of poor hUnI<1nit)". eminent bacteriologist, describes td the And the.rc ~ave been many of thelll. writer the action of a kind of yeast That whIch lies before the human rare upon a species of Daphnia, or water­ is a constant struggle to main!;lin a;d flea. Metschnikoff observed that these improve, in opposition to the State (I( yeast-cells, which enter with the animal's Nature, the State of Art of an or"ani~d polity; in which, and by which, man ~ood, pe~etrate the intestines, and get mto the tissues. They are there seized may develop a worthy civilisation, upon by t.he leuko~ytes, which gather ~apabl~ of . maintaining and constantly ImprovIng Itself, until the evolution of ~ound t~e mvaders m laager fashion, as if seemmgly endowed with conscious­ ?ur globe shall have entered so far upon Its downward course that the cosmic ness,s? marvellous ~s the strategy. If process resumes its sway; and, once they ~n,. the J?aphma. re~overs; if they lose, It dies. In a SimIlar manner in more, the State of Nature prel'ails over ourselves certain leukocytes (phagocytes) the surface of our planet. " accumulate at any point of invasion, and But only those or low ideals would pick up the living bacteria," and in the seek in this impermanenct: of thinp:, luccess or failure of their attack lies excuse for inaction j or, won.e, for &elf. MODERN EVOLUTION 109 indulgence. The world will last a very relation to subjects seemingly diverse. long time yet, and afford scope for battle And this comes out clearly and strongly against the wrongs done by man to man. in the more orderly arrangement of the Even were it and ourselves to perish to­ material in the new issue of Col/«t(,1 morrow, our duty is clear while the Essays. chance of doing it may be aUf!. Cli/Tord These show what an omnivorous -dead before hill prime, before the rich reader he was; how well equipped in promise of his genius had its full fruitage classics, theology, and general literature, -speaking of the inevitable end of the in addition to subjects distinctly his own. earth "and all the consciousness of He sympathised with every branch of men," reminds us, in his essay on culture. As contrasted with physical The First and Last Catastrophe, that we science, he said, "Nothing would grieve are helped in facing the fact "by the me more than to see literary training words of Spinoza: • The free man thinks other than a very prominent branch of of nothing so little as of death, and his education." One comer of his library wisdom is a meditation, not of death, was filled with a strange company of but of life.''' "Our interest," Cli/Tord antiq uated books of orthodox type; adds, "lies with so much of the past as this he called "the condemned cell. II may serve to guide our actions in the When looking at the" strange bed­ present, and to intensify our pious fellows" that slept on the shelves, the allegiance to the fathers who have gone writer asked -Huxley what author had before us and the brethren who are with most influenced a style y.hose clearness us ; and our interest lies with so much and vigour, nevertheless, seem un­ of the future as we may hope will be borrowe~; and he at once named the appreciably a/Tected by our good actions masculine and pellucid Leviathan or now. Do I seem to say, • Let us eat Hobbes. He had the happy faculty of and drink, for to-morrow we die'? Far rapidly assimilating what he read; of from it; on the contrary, I say, I Let us clearly grasping an opponent's standpoint; take hands and help, for this day we are and what is a man's salvation nowadays, alive together.''' freedom from that curse of specialism Evolu/i01f and Ethks was Huxley's whic h kills all sense of proportion last important deliverance, since the and reduces its slave to the level or the completIOn of his reply to Mr. Balfour's machine-hand that spends his life in II quaintly entitled" Foundations of making the heads of screws. He believed Btliif was arrested by his death on the in .. scepticism as the highest duty, and 30th June, 1895. in blind faith as the one unpardonable In looking through the Col/ec/ed sin." II And," he says, "it cannot be Essays, which represent his non-tech­ otherwise, for every great advance in nical contributions to knowledge, there natural knowledge has involved the may be regret that lhroughout his life absolute rejection of authority, the circumstances were against his doing any cherishing of the keenest scepticism, piece of long-sustained work, such as the annihilation of the spirit of blind that which, for example, the affluence faith; and the most ardent votary of and patience of Darwm permitted him science holds his firmest conviction~ to do. But until Huxley's later years, not because the men he most venerates and, indeed, through broken health to balds them, not because their verity is the end, his work outside official demands testified by portents and wonders, but had to be done fitfully and piecemeal, or because his experience teach~ him not at all. Notwithstanding this, it bas that whenever he chooses to bring the unity which is inspired by a central these convictions into contact with their idea. The application of the theory of primary source, Nature-whenever he evolution all !ound imparts a quality of thi..Y)ks tit to test them by appealing to 110 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION experiment and to observation-Nature Thus have the Pioneers of Evolution, will confirm them. The man of 5cience clear-sighted and sure-footed, led us by has learned to believe in justification, ways undreamed-of at the start to a g0ists. the public ear. His deep religious That extension was ine\'itablc. The old feeling kept him in sympathetic touch theologies of civilised race" uSlful in with his fellows. Ever present to him their day, because answering, huwever was "that consciousness of the limita­ imperfectly, to pcrmanult needs of tion of man, that sense of an open human nature, no longer ,ulilec. Their secret which he cannot penetrate, in dogmas are traced as the lineal dL'scL'n· which lies the -essence of all religion." dants of barbaric conct'[,tions; their In one of his replies to a prominent ritual is becoming an archxI)1"e:ical exponent of the Comtian philosophy, curiosity. They have no an~wer to tho that" incongruous mixture of bad science qu-:stions propounded by the growing with eviscerated papistry," as he calls it, intelligence of our time; neithn can Huxley protests against the idea that the they satisfy the emotions whi(h they but teaching of science is wholly negati\"e. feebly discipline, Their I,lace is bein; slowly, but surely, and more crfcctiH"ly, 1 venture, be says, to count it an improbable fIlled by a tht:ory \\ hich, interpreting suggestion tbat anyone who h.s graduated in all the faculties of human rcialiun,hips; who has the" mighty sum of things," suustitul<:!t taken his share in all the doop joys and deeper clear conccptions of unbroken oT

AIOU', '4 Bacon, Rt ,..:.!er. 40 Abi()l:~n~.i., 92 Bact~ria and leukocytes, 1c.'J AlJraham,29 Bagehof, Mr., 9 Adam, (all Clf, 49; Itature of, So Baghdad,39 Advent, the Secund, 211, 35 Balfour, A. j., log A':gran, the, 10 llaptism, on.:in o( rite of, 34 Agassiz, 71 Bares, 11. W., 61, 62, 71, 73, 88 Air u primary lubatance, 13 Bealtle, voy"ge of the, 59, 60 Alexander the Great, IS Benn, A. W., 12, 16 I\lexnndria, the conquest of, 3S1 philOli()o Bi6le, Di,lilmary "IIAe, SO hical achools of, 38 Biology, advance in study of, So AI f.egorical method, 37 Black magic. 40 Allen, Grant, 9, 52, 73 Body and mind, mYlitery of connectioll Amazons, rh'er, 61 between, 97 America, diacovery of, 41 Bone. resunection, 43 Amreba, the, 94 Bonnet, Charles, 19 Anatomy, comparative, 96 Breathing, Iym bolism of, 35 -- human, 43 Bruno, Giordano, 43 Anaxagoru, 14 Buddha. 33 Anaximander, II, 16 Buffon, place of, in theory of Evolution. SI Anceltor.wonhip, 35 -- submission to the Sorbonne, 49 Anti"", belief in, 3J Burnet, Prof., 10. II, '4 Ammism, 36, 46, 102, 106 Burton'. A"a/omy, 31 Anthropology and beliefin the soul, 101 Butcber. Prof., 10 -- and duemu of the Fall and the Re- demption, 103, 104 CIESALPINO, 43 -- and man', place in Evolution, 103 Canon of the Bible, 3', 42 Antioch, 27 Carpenter, Dr., 67, 93 Ape and man, brain of, 96 Carthage, 38 -- Ireneral relation of, 96 -- Council of. 31 Aquinu, Thomas, 16, 37 Casalis, I\Ir•• 9 Arab conquest, 38 Celtic religion. 36 -- philosophy, 39 Chald:n,IO Arcb-fiend, 29 • Chambers, Robert, 54 Aristotle, IS, 16, ZO, 21, 22, 37, 39.40,42. Chosroel, 38, 39 72 Christianity and Anthropolo!:Y, lOS Arnold, Mal\bew, 13, 90 --anti-social nature of, zg- Auml DI.l/an, Drummond'" 92 --causes of success Clf, 27. JIl Asklepios, 19 --opposition to inquiry. 24 Aatruc, Dr., 48 --origin of, 23 Athen., 2Z, intellectual decay in, 38 --~ elements in. 31-36 -- persecution in, 14 -- f'hllosophic elements in, 30, ;;1 -- r .. lieiou. revival in, 12. 14 -- polytheism of, 35 Atomic theory, 14 -- varying fortunes of, 23 Atonement, doctrine 01 the. and Anthro- Chri.tians, persecution of, 27 pology, 104 Church Congress and Evolution, 70, 92 Aueurs,20 Circumnavigation 01 the globe, 41 Augustine, St, 16, 30, 37 Clifford, frof.• log Augustus, C~s.'\l, 2S, 27 Collins, 24 Aurelius, Marcus. 2:1. 108 Colophon, II AYenDe',39 Columbus. Christopher, 41 Avicenna,48 CommllDion at lIawardeD Church" 35 Comtism. 110 BACON. Lord, 44, So Conduct. bases of, So, 106 112 INDEX

Consciousness, evolution of, So, 95 -- ethical, 107 -- self., So -- inclusion of man in, 10Z Conservation of energy, 21, 55, 66, 77 -- inorganic, 76 Copernicus, 16,42, 43 --organic, S5 Correlation of forces, 81 EzO()lulUnt and E,IIia, Huxley on, 92, 106 Cosmic Evolution, 107 Councils, general, 93 FAI.L, doctrine of the, and anthropolOl:)', Creation, days of, 48, 49 103 Credulity of the learned, 66 Fire as primary substance, I] Creeds, 28, 93 Firsl Principles, 73, 81 Criticism of religions, features of modern, 24 Fiske, Professor, II Cronus, myth of, II Flint implements, 10] Cross, relics 01 the, 36 Folk·lore, value of study of, 104 Crown 01 thoms, 36 Fontenelle, 9 Cuvier, 53, 54. 72 Fossils, theories about, 49 -- and GeolTrey St. Hilaire, 90 Cybele,19 GALE!'l,43 Galileo, discoveries and persecution of, 4], Dalton, John, 14,57 44 Daphnia, Dr. Plimmer on, 108 Geology, effect of study of, 47 Darwin, Charles, 5~1, 69-76 -- Principles of, 54 --Life and Leiters of, 58, 69 Gesner, 43 -- religious belief of, 75 Gibbon, 30, 31, 36, 93 -- Erasmus, 16,51 Gladstone, Mr., 35 Days of creation, 48, 49 Gnosticism, 27 De Gama, Vasco, 41 Gods in Rome, 19, 20 Deluge, 49, So, 104 Colden Bough, The, 34, Demeter, 19, 34 Gospels, origin of, 26 Democritus, 14, 17, 21 Gosse, P. H., 49 Demons, 29, 30, 37, 42 Gower, Dr., 6g De Perthes, Boucher, 55, 103 Granada, 39 De Rerum "{alura, 17 Greece, 10 DesQrtes, 43, 44, 91 --conquest and intell~ctaal decline of, 17 Descent into Hell, 42 Greek phllo<;ophen, TaLle of, 21 Descent of lIfan, 73,75, 9z Greeks, early conception of «u(h !,y, II, U Development, law of, 81 --search of, for the primary su l;stance, II Devil, 29, 40, 41 Grote, 14 De Vinci, Leonardo, 48 Diagoras, 32, 33 . HARCKKL, 53, 75 Dictionary of Ihe Bible, 50 Hallucinations, 67, 68 Dionysus, 34 Hartley, 57 Dispersion of the Jews, 30, 38 Haruspiccs, 20 Dogma and Evolution, 92 Harvey, William, 16, 44 Driver, Rev. Canon, 29, 50 Heine's Travel·p,d"res, 68 Dubois, Dr., 94 Hellenic JeWI, 30, 3S Duner, Professor, 78 Helmholtz, 57 Henrion,50 EARTH as "element," 13 Heraciitas, 12, 13 Earth, Greek notions about the, II, 12 Herakles, 19 Education and dogma, 105 Herodotus, 32 Egypt, 10, II, 38 Herschel, Sir William, 45, 77 Eleatic school, 12 Hesiod,l2 Elviri, Synod of, 32 .. Hippocampus minor," 96 Embryology, 54, 92 Hobl;es' Ln;iafnan, 31, 32, lOt) Empedocles, 13, 17, 19 Holy Communion, bar!'aric ori,;io of rite 0(, Ephesus, 12 34,3S Epictetus, 28 Homer, 12, 13,37 Epicurus, 17, 19 Hooker, Sir Joseph, 63, 71 Epigenesis, 16 --Sir William, 54 Ethical evolution, 108 Horace, 33, 37 . Etruscan haruspices, 20 IIll!;gins, Dr. Wm., 77 . Eve, stature of, 50 Humanity and Evolution, 83 Evil eye, 35 Humboldt, 55,61 Evolution and dogma, 92 Hume, 46, Sol, 106 --c;osmic, 107 Hatton, 54 INDEX II)

Hasley, 440 69, 71, 86-110 ManiD, R. a, 74 )!artyr, Pet"", 42 INDICITA.JfF..vTA,2O )fa..kelyne, .Ir., 66 Inductive PhilO6Ophy, !he, 44 .Iattn, indestractiLility of, II Inquisition, the, 4)' 44 --Iivinl: and non·lh·u,::, 21.92 I nat inct, 96 --mystery 0(, 78. 81, 91, 97 Ionia, 10, 11,29 Matthew. J'atrick, S40 72 Ionian "'hool, II, 12 Maudsley, Dr., 69 ha, 19,33 M_iab, Jewish belief in. 25.16 Metals, age of, 19, ai, 104 JUOMII, ST., 17,49 Middleton, Conye", 31-,H Jeru5lllem, early disciple8 ofJesu at, 26 M iJetlll, II -- fall 0(, 38 Mi'-lMle,...J M..u,.." S/u-i/... linrI, 6S. en -Jesus a" 25 Mithra worship, as, 28, ]6 Je8U, aummary 01 lile 01, 15,16 .fivart, PraL SL George. 98 --auperstitilJD shared by, 29,30 Mohammed, 38 Jew .. Hellenic, or 01 the bi.persion, 30. 38 Montaigne. 23, 32 Morality, essential nat1Ue of, 107 KAIfT, 45, 76, 1.5 Morals and Evolation, 106 Kelvin, Lord, 98 --adentific base 0(, 107 Kent'. lIole, 103 Morley, John, 13, 740 lOS, 107 Khalif., 38 )Iotion. c:oocept 0(, 77 Kirchoff, 77 --indestractibility aI, 21 Kropotkin, Prince, 97 --m),tery of. 78, 81, 91, 97 Mystencs. Greek, 27 LAM.UClt, 51 )!ystery 01 matter. 78, II, 9 1, 97 Language, 96 -- motion. 78. 81. 91, 97 La Peyrere," Myth, primitive, (eatures 0(, 9 Laplace, 45, 77 Lelbnitz, 57, 106 NIlllt1L4 in Andromeda, 77 Leo 111., 39 Nebular theory, 4S, 78 L'Efwi tU NIInY, 26 NuvOQS system, disorden o( the, 68 Leudppu., 14, 17, 21 -- origin 01 the. 9S Leukocytes, 108 New Teotament, c::a.non 0(, 31, 42 Lif~ ."t/ [JII"" Darwin'.. 58, 69,75 --origin aI, 28 Lll!htfoot, Dr., 48, 55 Nicene Creed. 28. 93 Linnreu., 50 Nil'" 01 Anaugoras, 14 Linnean Society, lamoD' meetin!: at, 63, 78 Namben in primitive thought. la Livin!: and non· liviD!: matter, connec:tiaa -- Pythagorean theory of, u, U between, ai, 92 Locke, 45 OIlGANIC EvoIatioD, 85 Lod!:e, Prof. Oliver, 66 Origi•• , SI«"I, 64, 71, go Love u an .. element." '4 -- puhlicatiOll 0(, 69 Lubbock, Si, John, 73 -- reception 0(, 69, ,I Lucretius, 15, 17-ao. IS, 104 Osborn, I'rofesaor, ... 54 Luther, 42 Ovid,93 Lyall, Sir Alfred, to. 23, 104 Owen, Sir IUcbard. attitude or. towards Lyell, Sir Charles, 54, 60, ,I Darwin', theory, 71, go - review of the {)riel.• " Sj«in, ,I MADONNA,32 Maine, Sir lIenry, 10 PALADINO, ElISapia. 66 Malpi!:hi, 16 Pala:ontology,92 Malthu:! on PqpJ4Ii6w, 52, 60, 63 Pantheon, Roman, 19,20 Man ao

',Plato, 10, 29, 90 St. Hilaire, So, 53 iPolytheism, feature of, 27 Stokes, Sir G. G" 98 -- in Christianity, 35 Stone, a~es of, 19,21, 10J Pontius Pilate, 26, 27 Strabo,48 ·Preformation theory, 16 Strife &S an U dement;' '4 ,Primary suhstance, 21 Struggle for life, 60, 6 J, 107 ,-- search after, II Suarez, Francisco, 94 ;Protoplasm, 54 Synthetic Philosophy, ,8 ~Psychic,,1 Research, Society for, 6(, -- abstract of the, 8J-85 IPsychology, experimental, 97 -- first draft of, 85 .-- Principlu of, So, HI 'Ptolemaic System, 16, 42 TABLE of Gr""k Philosoph"rs, 22 'Pythagoras, I2 Tacitus, 27 Pythagorean theory of numbers, 12, %3 Thales, II, 12, 15 Theologyand Evolution, final i",ue between, REDI, experiments of, 91 94 Reformation non.intellectual, 43 Theophrastu., II, 14 -- charackr of the, 41 Theosophy, 12 Relics, wor.hip of, 35 Transubstantiation, ori!:in of belief in, 34 Rhys, Professor, 33 Tur!:ot, 24, 106 Rodd, Rennell, 19 Tylor, Dr., 73, 101, 104 Roman doctrine of transubstantiation, 34 Tyndall, Professor, 87, liS, 91 Rome, hishop of, 3' -- gods in, 19,70 USHER, Archbi,hop, 48 -- polytheism of, 27 Royal Societ y, 47 VAN IIEI.MO:-T, 16 Vatican Council on Creation, 21 SACRAMENTS, barbaric origin of, 34, 35 Vesaliu5,43 Saints, fictitious, 33 Vatig'! 0/ Creation, 54, 61, 89 Salisbury, Lord, Presidmtial Address of, Vircin Mary, 32 77,91 Virg'ins, Bla('k, 33 Samos, 17, 22 Visual scmatinni, subjecti"e, 68 Saracens, 38 Von Eaer, 54, 57, HI, "J,lIS Savages, brain of, 100 Von Mohl, 54, 57 Scheiner, Professor, ,8 Votive offerings, J2 School Boarels, 105 Schwam), Theodor, 57 WALLACP., Alfred Russel, 61-69 Science, Leading men of, 56, 57 -- as lJiolog'i.'It. 6 .. Sedgwick, 71 -- as spiritualist, 6S-69 Selden, 26, 93 -- theory of origin of sl"'ciel ide"liC.11 Serapis,36 with Darwin'., 6J Sin, essence of, 107 u Wallace'. Lin~'" 6% Sizzi,44 Water as primary lulatanee, II Smith, Professor Robertson, 104 Water· worship, 32, 33 -- William (geologist), 54 \Veismann, 54 Social Statia, 79 Wells, Dr. W. C" 73 Society, evolution of, 79, 82 W~ley, John, 30, 49 -- modificat;"n of stru~gle in, loS \Yhewcll, Dr., 70 Sodology, Fri,uiples of, So, 85 White, Dr., 48 '-- Study of, 98 Wilberforce, Bi.hop, and the OriCi,. -t Socrates, 14 Specier, 71 Solar spectrum, lines in, 77 -- and Huxley, 90 Sorbonne, the, 49, 106 Wil50n, Archde:u:on; 71,93 Soul, origin of belief in, 101, IOZ Winifred's Well, St., 33 -- l,9cation of, 43 Witchcraft, belief in, JO ------,.Lucretius on location of, 18 -- eauieS of decay "C Lelief in, 4" Spain, intellectual advancing, 39 W_s, Darwin on the ""clu,,. -/, 74 Spectroscope, the, 77 , Spencer, Herbert, 20, 54,55,71,76-86,98, XENOPHA~ES. 13, 16 , 101, 106 . Spinoza,44 ZAHM, Professor, 94 Spiritualism, 65-69 Zeller, 13 Spontaneous generation, 16, 37 leno, J3 Sprengel, 54, 57 THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LI!.I1TED. Registfred OjJiCt-J 7, Johnson's C-Ourt, Fleet Street, London, E.c.

Chairman: GLORGII: JACOB HOLVOAKE. Jlonorary Associates: I.ESLIB: SUPHEN L!:ONAltD Huxu;v ED. WI!:STEUIAItCX EDWARD CLODD ERNST H.U:CKEL PAUL CARUS J. M. ROIlEltTSON W. C. COUl'LAND F. J. GOULD STANTON ColT W. R. W. SULLIVAN J. G. R. FORLCNG A Brief Statement of the Objects and Methods of the Association. The .. SpIrIt or Ratlonallsm." THE prevalence of the" spirit of Rationalism," as Mr. Lecky has called it, is one of the chief features distinguishing modern from medi:eval thought and life. This spirit has permeated all nations and all classes comprised in the world of Western Civilisation. It is not any definite and reasoned doctrine, but simply a iceptical altitude towards magic and miracles, assumptions of occult power and insight on the part of men, and alleged divine interferences. We believe that this spirit of Rationalism is closely connected with the progress of modem science and critical research. The" spirit" assumes unconsciously and as a general, practical· rule that uniformity of nature which science and research repeatedly prove to exist in particular cases. In other words, it assumes that exceptional occurrences are due to unfamiliar combinations of familiar conditions, and do not require superhuman conscious agency to account for thelll. nut the spirit of Rationalism is, after all, only a mental tendency. As such, it is liable to exist in the modem mind side by side with the supernaturalism of a pre-scientific age. It does so "OJ;~picuously under present-day Protestantism. Most Protestants arc Rationalists h. tllCir attitude towards contemporary instances of alleged miracle and inspiration. They are Rationalists in theirattitude towards the sacred literatures of Buddhists, Brahmans, Parsees, and Mohammedans, and towards the distinctive tcachings of the Church of Rome. As regards the narrative and tht:Ology contained in the Bible, however, they are not Rationalists, but at best compromisers between traditional reverence and scientific inquiry. Thus, wrule the spirit of Rationalism is rife, the attempt \0 raise Rationalism into a consistent rule of the intellectual life is extremely unpopular, having to face both active opposition and ..·idesprt:ad indilfcn:nce. That, ul:vertheles:;. is the aim of the Rationalist Fr.:ss &"SOCioltion" Limited. THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, li",ild

Embodiment or the Rationalistic Spirit. The physical sciences are, within their respective limits, the most consistent embodiments of the spirit of Rationalism. Astronomy, geology, and biology have successively broken away from Biblical tradition. They have become genuine sciences through an exercise of the freest and most serious inquiry, combined with the expectation of discovering natural uniformities where men formerly saw nothing but supernatural mysteries. But the special sciences belong primarily to specialists. What the average thinking man requires is a good synopsis of the object-matter and results of science, an insight into its nature and methods, and a habit of mind which will enabl'! him to form sensible and serviceable judgments as to the many questions which cannot yet (and perhaps never can) be decided with scientific accuracy_ Thus the spirit of Rationalism has needed to embody itself, not only in science and exact research, but in certain types of human thought which form, as it were, the atmosphere of science. Among the more highly-<:ultivated intellects it ha~ gi"cn rise to the various schools of modem philosophy. Among the people and ccrt.lin of their democratic leaders it has given rise to the various parties of modern Freethought. Philosophy is, on the whole, somewhat conservative, although it is far more anxious to conserve the wide outlook of Plato and Aristotle than the theology of Paul and Augustine. The tendency of popular Freethought is mort: revolutionary and impatient for a new start in human ideas. With the spread of education and democracy, however, these two types of advanc4td thought must increasingly coalesce. In coalescing, Freethought should gain breadth of view and lose the II scoffing" habit which only hardens foes and alienates many who would otherwise be friends. Philosophy, on the other hand, should gain a certain down­ rightness and relation to practical life which it generally lacks, and at the same time learn to relinquish such speculations as are not even possessed of probability in the light of experience and science. To temper Freethought with philosophy, and to assist in freeing philosophy from all academic trammels and fanciful excrescences, are among the objects for which the R. P. A. has been formed. The Limits or Compromise. The semi-philosophic works which have acquired wide popularity in recent yean are those which have set forth some new compromise (or what has really amounted to a compromise) between certain tenets of Christianity and certain views of modem science. We believe that this accommodJting spirit, though a long way in advance of the spirit of sheer intolerance, lags equally far behind the philosophic spirit of truth seeking. Compromise is inevitable, and, to a certain extent, salutary, in politics. This is because political measures have to be adjusted to the existing views of the most influential body of citizens, no matter whether those views be sound or the reverse. But the very fact which makes compromise legitimate in politics makes it illegitimate as regards religious and abstract social questions. Thus a consistent Rationalism is the direct antithesis, the uncompromising rejection, of that religious faith which deems it necessary to accept traditional and reputedly sacred opinions, without seriously inquiring into their evidential value. In saying this, we do not, of course, mean that all traditional religious opinions are necessarily to be rejected, nor do we °Pretend to be in a position to teach the whole philosophy of Rationalism. That is still in the making, -and it is that which the R_ P_ A. must help, directly or indirectly, to make. Our contention is that the appeal to experience and reason must alone decide what elements of traditional Christianity are worthy to be retained, and that theological dogmas and scriptural prejudices must lJe THE RATIONAliST PRESS ASSOCIATION, limiktl allowed no more influence over the philosophic thinker than has the legend of creation contained in the book of Genesis over the present-day astronomer or geologist. After careful consideration, aided by the advice of several well-known thinkers, the following definition of Rationalism has been adopted and embodied in the Memorandum of Association:- . .. Ralionalism may ~e difined as 1114 ""nlaJ altitude which IInreurvedly (uftjls 1114 supremtUY of reason anti aims al eSlablishing a syslem oj philosophy anti elhks "erifiable 6.1' ,xpen'tlff, anti independenl of all arbilra? assumplions or aul!zon'/y." In making direct mention of ethic. we wish to accentuate the fact that the philosophy of Rationalism cannot fail to have important bearings on human conduct, which will, we believe, be far more beneficent in the long run than those of traditional theology. The Need or Propaganda. Although the spirit of Rationalism has permeated the Protestant clergy, c0n­ forming and non-conformist alike, and, in many cases, the preachers- are more liberal-minded than their flocks, professional needs naturally make them, as a body, hostile to Rationalism in anr consistent shape. They and theiz lay 6upporters spare neither pains nor money In promulgating views which, though differing widely according to the church or sect from which they proceed, agree in attributing unique authority and surpassing excellence to the Christian religion, and defending, rather than dispassionately inquiring into, its supposed essentials. Many powerful associations, among which the Religious Tract Society and the Society Cor Promoting, Christian Knowledge are perhaps the most widely known, are carried on largely with the object of vindicating Christian tradition against Rationalist criticism. Philosophic Rationalists, on the other hand, have been disposed to trust to the progres~ oC science and the ultimate triumph oC truth, and have made comparatively little effort to propagate their opinions. It is believed that the R. P. A. will be a means oC arousing and directing the energies of such torpid sympathisers, Concerted action among Rationalists was never more needed than now, in face oC the present widespread reaction towards relatively irrational beliefs and practices. This reaction show. itself in the disposition to assert the sufficiency of instinct and sentiment, as well as to magnify the claims oC custom, ritual, and authority, while making light of reason, evading the duty of critical inquiry, and ignoring the need oC a broad human and scientific outlook, such as oonstructive philosophic thought alone can give. The cause oC Rationalism cannot be assisted more materially than by promoting the publication and distribution oC works which the! organised weight of religious prejudice, the stolid indifference oC the general public to philosophic inquiry, and the consequent policy oC the popular press and the booksellers, all tend to discourage,­ if not to taboo-provided, of course, that such works have intrinsic value. Publications or the R. P. A" Ltd. Works of a serious, and especially those of a seriously philosophic character, are heavily handicapped in the competition Cor popular Cavour. Still more is this the case when such works soberly advocate unpopular views. The notion that the most successful books are the best may be partially true as regards 1I'orks oC imagination. It is very far indeed from being true as regards works oC research and retlection. THE RATIONAliST PRESS ASSOCIATION, Limikd

In these cas~s the author has usu'llly to pul)lish the book at his own expens<-', and, even should it acquire a steady sale, it is long before the outlay is ~couped. If he cannot make the outlay, the probability is that his book, even though valuaLle in its~lf, will never see the light. Recognising these facts, the R. P. A. seeks to afford practical encouragement to authors, and especially youn~ authors, who are cap.ll,lt· of serious research or of hard thinking, and to be a means of bringins their wrilin;;, into circulation. Conditions of Membership. The Rationalist Press Association, Ltd., is "a Company Limited by Guarant..-I', and not having a Capital divided into shares." It is a propagandist, not a ('''"l, mercial, undertaking. Each member becomes liable for a sum 1101 Uddin.'; 0111 pOlilld, in the case of the Association being wound up; but nen should the necessity for winding up occur (a highly improbable contingency), it is nut likely that the members would be called upon for the amount of their guarantee, as tl.e: Directors intend to refrain from embarking on any undertaking for "hi('h pl'cuniary provision has not been made. Any person above the age of twenty-one may, with the consent of the Boanl, become a member, on payment of an annual subscription of ",,1 Ins lira" jiZ'1 shillings. The subscription is payable in advance in the month of January of (";leh year. A member may, on his own application, retire from the Association upon giving one month's previous notice in writing to the Secretary. Every member may vote, in person or by proxy, at any General Meeting of the Association. A member will receive a copy of each new publication of the Association, post free, provided the total value of the publications forwarded during the year does not exceed the amount of his or her subscription for that year. Donations and Bequests. It is hoped that all who are in fact Rationalists will give their o[><:n support to the Association, and take part so far as possible in its mCcling~; but s},mpatlii,er!l who do not wish to be incorporated as members, or who prdt:r to conct

_For furlher particulars addnss-The Secretary, CHARLES E. HooPl:a., I7,/ohllSOll'S Courl, Flut Street, LondIJII, E.C .AlJVERTISRMENTS

The Faith of an Agnostic; OR, FIRST ESSAYS IN RATIONALISM. By GEORGE FORESTER.

The author ClI!lY. to let lortb In limple language wbat be conceivCl to be tbe pomtion 01 the modern Acnootic. lie it at paiDi to point out that the Agnostic: poIition is DOl merely a neboativlI one, but involves the JIOIIitive assertion 01 tnatb within Ihe Iimiu ollhe knowable. The Lonk is at once a defence o( thOIC whu reject the lupernaturalara 01 what tbc author Itylel .. Church Chrilaianity," and a cunHal invitation to all thOle wbo bave out giveD thou~ht to these creat questions to do 10 with an open mind. COllTiNn. Introductory Tbe Pouible Ilehind the Veil 1'he Old Enicma Not whal it Satisfy inc, but wbat ia True The Conflict between Sclenee and Relil:iun Th"uchts in a Meat-market An OLject LeSiOn Tbe Immaterial The reniJtence 01 Docmatic TheolOl:)' Social Evolution: A Study in Pteudo-science A Man·made Marvel Some OIJ Riddle. _ An After Lif,

.. Th. ou.hor'. pooition ...111 and de... ", defended. .. Abl, rcuoaed. and ....Ied wid, .....,..,ioC Ii.w. end h•• fit .. with an evident .mc.ri" lbaa command, .... ·-$clll""...... poet. "-Liwr;H1 M ...... ". .. Suui•• I, yet _ RaIoasI, _podia&."-Lilwa" C.id..

Naw AND RaVISKD EDITION Now RUDY. The Logic of Death. By G. 1. 1I0LYOAKE. This pamphlet Is now wued in two edition.--one without cover at JeL, or by post J~d.; the other witb cover, on luperior paper, at 3d., or by post 3~cl.

Cluth II. net, by pott IL 3<1.1 paper 6<1. net, by poSlIl<.l. Just Islued, price 211., by poal 2~d. On the Progress or CHRISTIANITY LIBERTY OF THOUGHT AND During Queen Vlotorla's Reign. BUDDHISM Ily CONSTANCE E. I'LUlolPTRE. By LUDWIG BOCHNER (A"I_"""'_ ~ ltI.ttw-j. A Comparilon between the Religious Tolera. uon o( the Eighteenth and Nineteentb Centuries • This~, Is es~l1y suited (or wide circ~Ja. -Rationaliainjf Inflaencel within th' Chun:hcs tloD, belne iDSUIrctive ratber than atguftlentatiye. durin~ QlIeen Vicloria'. Reicn-DicrcuioD OD .5 copies or more will be supplied &1 the rate 01 the hosing Wave 01 Religious Reaction-On the one penny each, carriage to be paid by pur. Full Uevelopment 01 Rationalism beyond the chaser. The carriage OD 25 copies !s4d., and Churcbes dlllinl: Queen Victoria's Reign. lor each subsequent 25 copies .211. _

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Now Ready. Price 65. net, by post !is. 4d. A Short History of Christianity. By JOHN 11. ROBERTSON.

CONTENTS. Part I.-PrimItive ChrIstianity Part III.-Medleval ChrIstianIty.

CHAYI1IR I.-THR BKGINNINGS. CHAPTER I.-EXPANSION AND Oi

CHAPTKIl II.-RKLATIONS OF CHURCH AND The Physical Sciences-Philosoph,. CO!Imic STATL and ~Ioral-Biblical and Hi,torical Criticism. Persecutions - Establishment and Creed. CHAPTKI. IlL-POPULAR ACCEPTANCE. Making- Reaction under Juli.o-Re·estab­ Catholic Christianit,. - Protestant Or;" lishmeot: Disestablishment of Pagaoism. tianity-Greek Christianity.

CHAPTKIl III.-FAILUIlK WITH SURVIVAL. CHAPTKR IV.-THR RELATIO~ TO PROGUS5. Moral Int1uence-Intellectual Influence­ The Overthrow of Arianism-The Cost of Conclusion and PrDl:Dosii. Orthodoxy-Mon.l and Intellectual Stagnation -The Social Failure. SYNOPSIS or LITauToRR. !NOEL

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PROFESSOR BUCHNER'S LAST WORK.

CHEAP EDITION NOW READY. LAST WORDS ON MATERIALISM AND KINDRED SUB3ECTa

Jly PROFESSOR LUDWIG JlOCIINEK.

With Portrait of the Author and & Biographical Sketch by his bl"Other, PaorlSllOa Aux JluCHlfaL

Price 2s. net, by post 2s. tOd.

Immediately ~f()re hi. death in 1899 raonssoa BucHlIn gathered together the many_,. In which he had defended and dc:Yeloped bis view I, and left them (or publication under the title 01 In, Dimsl, dw 11'"""11/. Tbe nsay. haYe now bero lranslaled into English by )Ir. J05.,1I MCCUK, ander the title 01 Lilli W.".ds M lila/tria/is",. Many of these papers deal, as the title indicatel, with the absorbing question of Materialism; but lil:ht is thrown upon it froID all sides cJ lCience and philOIOphy. and a namber 01 ethical and historical que5tiona are includod.

The Education Bill and Religious Equality.

Ju.t Publiihed, price 6d. net, by poIt Sd.; cloth, 11. nct, by post II. 3d. The Bible tn• School " A QUESTION OF ETHICS. BY, J. ALLANSON PICTON (Formerly M.P. lor Leicester, and one 01 the rust memben 01 the. London School Board).. Thi. is a Ilirring appeal on a question 01 \'aSt political and social importance to Bnglishmen. Mr. l'iclon maintain. that the pre~nt Bible teaching in Board IChools practically amounts to the teaching of dOl:mas common to the Evangelical sects. It is anfair to lOeb ralepeyen as disbelieYe those dOl:mas; demoralising 10 lueb teachers as, leCret1y dOD bting the evantelical view. are COD­ ItnUned to hide their doubts I injurious to the children themsel .. es in many _ya. In a conspk:noas notice 01 the booklet the liI~ WIIrl" o~"CI: .. Mr. Picton has in his pamphlet done much ..more than argue tbe question as to Bihle teaching in Jloud schools. Incideatally be has disc:assed the cunwtion of the Christian rcli!;ion at the present day in the \icbt 01 the advances made in Biblical c:rlticilm, and 10 many minds his conclusions and the ineYitable inferences to}le drawD &0lIl them are 'Wliing indeed. ..

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WITH MUSIC, cloth gilt, 8vo., 23S pp., price 35., by post 35. 4d. Hymns of Modern Thought. EDITED BY THE MUSICAL EDITOR OF .. ETIIICAL SONGS." A Collection of 206 poems embodying moral aspiration without theological dogma. Intended {or the use of Ethical and Ratiunalistic Societie •• Lahour Chur"h~. rtc. Th'! !'!u.ic of the first 189 poems is adapted for con~rer:atinnal use; while the IIVll!'u and ANTHR'U (.. rn,inl: the last part of the book are more suitahle for those services which are assi.ted hy a choir. The tunes are partly original, partly selected from those of well· known Church cnmpo.., ... u .... The poems have hf!cn admirably chosen..... An u 1 bis is an admirahle hymft.boe-It. rna.l'1e til" on • admirahle addition (0 c:xislinlO:: compilations of the kind, n,)~1 plan.••.• Has a bett... chan..:e of ralh J:tUIV ttt .... " which ~h("luld find morc and mnre favour as time goes on, t"o~ hymnaties have wbi,h rept.. ",nt any fl.rm vi d .. r ... . min.alioll.ali~m ; for it c.dude.. nutlilOl Lut du~m •• afld ~~~4c~r~vn~e l~e~~~:l~: a~~I;~t~:~i:r~~~:r::;l:bal~~ ~;JI~et the fedines which itl bcauliflll son". lilt are romm(,n le\.'lllal t~ndenci~s of the da.y. ··-JVo'",i,.st~r GtUIIiI. 1o Ih~ whom denominations dl~Ullitc.··-j,.'I'_.'"

II A handsomely.printerl and tas:efully.preSl!nled bo~ k, likely to win the interest of a goodly Dumber of ~ol-,If!. If An attempt. and a cleW'r one. in a dir~tit)n in .... Many of Mi~s Trcup's lunes are singularly well. whkh ~omethinc "ill have to l.c «'one cr. 101'" ,f 11\ mn· adapted 10 tbe words" ith which she connects them. oloq is to kCCf) p:u.:e with mr"-I ... rn devtl!'lnpmeuLS of r.ll· This is ~specially the ea~~ when she has to deal with some ,iou", tboul!ht and feeling. .... 'J he lJ"Ielodl~ are len.,.!I,. unusual metres. "-Li/~rary World. gl.»OCl and \\el!.chonn."-C},wr, Jew" ...".

In Three Parts, price IS. each, by post Ii. 2d.; the three post free 35. 4d. Every=day Songs. MUSIC BY E. JOSEPHINE TROUP. A Collection of forty-six two-part Songs, with Pianoforte Accompaniment. For Boys and Girls, in three boolts, of which the first is intended (or seninlS, the ..,.,ond (or children somewhat younger, and the third for juniors. The wnrds han been sp"cially selected (nr the use of Liberal Schools and Ethical Cla'Se.;, ,md, though simple, OJe worthy to h"ld a place in a child's memory. Such well·known pieces (among Ethical circles) as .. The City o( Li~ht," .. Raise your Standard, Brothers," .. Spring Song," .. Echoes," and" T

JUST OUT, price is. 6d. net, by post 19. 8d. An Ethical Calendar. WITH A PRACTICAL THOUGHT FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR . .. An admirable collection of the wise sayings into it. Men and women would he all tloe CL some of the wisest in al\ ages. Theie better if they pondered over the thuught all'A:,,<1 "ih".. ~~for every day .are taken from the Scrip­ to each day as one of the urliest duLie. of th .. t 'tures, rom poets, phIlosophers, and sa!:e. of day."-Leicester Chronuu. our ow and of past times. The compilation to ... , Pee made with great discrimination, and .. ChoseD with more than ordinary IUcceoS in ,after mach research, and the book will afford putting together so many morsela of wisdom."­ pleasure and profit to al\ who choose to look Scotsman.

London: WATTS & Co., 17, johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C. ADYEf{"JrJSEMENTS I 10. ETHIC-S. 10.

AN ORGAN OF TIlE ETHICAL MOVEMENT. A Oritical and Oonstructive Weekly Journal for Rationalists.

In the remarkaLle decay o( dogmatic beliefs Enllcs is also an organ of lI.e Ethical .Ilu,'e­ In our day there must be thousands who would , men!. It containl articles eYery week Ly the appreciate an entirdy ansecturian-both ia the chief lectore,. of the Movement iIi illu>lration rdil:ioul and political sense-weekly journal. or construction of ethical triDciples. It has no Practically our whole periodical literature may dogmas except the belie that we caD prumote be ,li"i,led Into two classel-the entertaining character and conduct by purely homan and 8,,<1 the propagandist. Bot the con.tructive natural means, withoat any reference to luper­ j ,urnal. lire alwaYI publilhed in the interest 01 natural beliefs. Several columns in ~h i~sue ""ne definite political, or economic, or religious are devoted to the work of the Ethical Societies, . I, "Iy. There il a crying need (or a journal that and there is a complete list of the Sunday ... ill lurvey the even" of the week and the prob­ lectures at an the Societies in London and lhe leml of the hoar Irom the .ole point of view 01 province.. ft,oral principle. It is the aim of ETHtCS to A SPECtMEN COpy WILL va SENT POST FKEa lupply ti,is want. ON IlECEIPT or A IlEQUI!ST fOil OHIl. Price One Penny Weekly. with postage, l}S'd.; or (including postage) JS. 3d. per half year, 61. 6d. per year. l'aLIi.hed by THB ETIIICAL WORLD PUBLISHING Co., LTD., 17,Johnaon'ICoart, Fleet Street, LC.

Now READY, cloth, price 25., by post 25. 3d. The Children's Book or Moral Lessons. By F. J. GOULD. , Second Series: Kindness-Work and Duty. q,ples of the First Series. uniform with the Second, may stlll be had, price 25., by post 2s. 3d. The Two Series post rree 46. 4d. AOKNTS FOR 1'HB RATIONALIST PRItSS A5SOCIATIOlf, LTD.: WATTS &: CO., 17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET. LONDOX. E.C.

25. 6d. net., by post 25. 9d. THE ROADMAKERS, AND OTHER POEMS. Dy HARROLD JOHNSON.

Thr vulume Includes "The House of Life. N a collection of poems suggested by the symbolical paint in!:. of G. F. WaUs, R.A.; "The Angelus," "The Sower," "The Gleaners," etc., luggested by pointings of J. F. Millet; impressions of Shakespeare', women, and many other poems. It Is prefaced by an appreciative lIote froni Mr. G. F. Watts. Londun; WATTS &: Co., 17. JohnSon'. Court. Fleet Street. LC. ADvERri'.J:::AfE:yrs UNION OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. Hea.dquarters :-19, BUCKINGHAM STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.

Secretary: MISS FLORENCE WINTERBOTTOM.

THE GKNEItAL AIMS OF THE UNION ARK :- (a) By purely nalllral and human means to help men to lovr, know, an,l d" the rio;ht. (6) To emphasise the moral factor in all prrsonal, social, political, nati"Ml, and international relations. (e) To aninn that moral ideas and the moral life are independent of belief. a. to the ultimate nature of things and as to a life after death. (d) To as;ist in deVeloping the science of ethics.

The following Societies belong to the Union of Ethical Societies, alld h"I,1 regular w,·ckly mcctill~"-

Society. Place turd Ti"" D/ ~"ttli"A.·' S«n/47· The South wndon Surrey Masonic Hall, Mr. Hanold Johnson. EthiCilI ~uciet)'. CamL~r",eJl New Road. S. E. Liud!of"Y kva.1, Sunday, 7 p.rn. WorcC'jle:r P.u", Surrey. The East London Bromley Vestry H.\1I, AIr. G. Spiller. 1:thical Svciety. Hvw Road, 1-.:. ~4, Pnn',e o( \\ alc~ KOlal'. Sunday, 7 p.m. Baltcr!loe.l Ila,k. ~. W. The West London Kemington Town Hall, Mr. \\'. SanJ~n. Ethical Society. Kenloington, W. 18, Hr)'nmat'r kH.... ~J, Sunday,II.15:1..m. li.dtter:.ea. 1'ark, ;-,. W. The St. Pancfas Stanley Hall, Mr. G. A. ~lTIilh, Ethical SoCidY. J unclion 'Rvad, N. Danmoulh Park L0t'i.,:t!', !:Junda}', 11.15 a.m.. N.W. The Battcrsea Upper Town Hall. Mr. PIJiiip Thoma..... Ethical Society. Lnender Hill, S.\V. I). ku:-.halll koad, SUflclay, 11.15 a.m. :Si"htin~ ... le Lall~,~. W. The Greenwich 72, Croom's Hill, Mr. Sam. J. Hn.'I~r, Ethical Society, <;reenwich, S. E. 88, Nurmdn J< ...... J. Sunday, 7.15 p.m. Grccm"i"h, S.I-:. The WimLledon 6, nr~dway. \\'jmbledon. Mr. F. S.!dJW"~II. E.thical Socidy. Sunday. 7 p.m. 26. Princ~'s R'YoHt.".W. WiruLIIfdOft. The Forest Gate Earlh~m Hall (c1o!C' to) The ';~cretary, E.thical Church. G.E.R. & M.& L. t.S. kyo SIS. can 1)/ f.a.r1ham Hall. SundaY,.7 p.m. •· ....Jrlut Gate, E. The Hamfl!\tead Tlle Con~rvatoire:. MlS§ J. GQwa. Ethical Institute. S .... is!, COltage. 27, Greene-ro(t GauJene. Sunday, ",'5 Lm. N.W. The Belfast York Slr~t Lecture H;,II, Mr. G. H. GilJil.rnI. Ethical Society. Belfast. 40. Sr. Iv~ G.,d~n •. Sunday, 3.45 p.OL StranmllJes Road. tklfa.tlt. The BirrnilJgham Bristol Street Board Schools. Mr. F. A. !.a

For Particulars of Lectures, Classes, and Circulating Library at I9. Buckingh~m Street, address the Secretary. 3L 6d. net, b~ , '-\. 2L 8d. poat Cr. ~R, B·ALFOURJS Atu_. CRITICALLY EXAMINED.

CoNTun:- Preliminary Science and Theology l'hilOIOphic Doubt . Miracles and Natural La.. PhilolOphy and SupernatllJ'alilm PhilOlO'phy and Rationalism Rationalism and Ethics AuthOrity and Reason Freewill and Ethical Sanctiona Mr. Balfour's Provisional Unification Rationalism and Art PhilOIOphy and Christianity Rationalism and Reuon Summary oC the Arl:ument Acml'lwl"l RaliDtlalisl PreSl ASJtKialilm, Limited: WATTS & Co., 17, ]ohnlOn'. Court, Fleet Street, London, E.e.

JUST PUBLISHED. Svo, 3S. 6d. Det. AND THE ERROR OF MORAL NERVE LITERARY VERDICTS.

By FURNEAUX JORDAN. F.R.e.S., S_.H_ ',../1,- #/A ../~ IQ 1M BI,.",'''C''_ R"Y.I SIId.ty _/ArtUu, A "tAn #/ "ClI4r«IWM . S.... I,. Bid)' .,.4 1'.... II/~.·

All the Incident. of Intelligent life are the outcome of living nerve·matler. With the ascent oC weicht and complication in the nerve·structures throughout animal life there is a correspond inc ascent DC Intelligence, morals, and emotions. A dog's brain determines a dog'. character; a man'. brain determines a man', character; Danish character is based on Danish nerve I Spanish character on Spanish nerve. Endowments, propensities, tempera. ments, and so forth, are propertiea of the brain. II, for esample. there is no poetry· mllUer, or eloquence· matter. or music·matter in the brain, there is no poetry. or eloquence, or music in the character. These truths of Naturalism-which is not necelo urily Materialism-are beld to be primary, fundamental, and self.evident. yet they are practically ignored in literature and in current opinion. Illustrations bearing on the question are cited from Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Mill, Tennyson, Carlyle. Emerson. Goldwin Smith. Tylor, Dill. and otbers. SpeCUlative thought and techniCl!llanguage are expresaly avoided.

Oli.;""1 II/1M /'r,SI:- .. A WTY able and IUR"KOItI"" book. "-C1Alr-II"..14. "Somooltho incidental oboenatio"lIhow mach ahrewd " 80ldly ori~inal and remarkably lucid •••• 'r'lr.1\1r.y.f,., -!pen"", and Huxl-v. lIf- InNan,..-· \" y b:'"~c '! ~:h!:d-;~~lbi!t:r!:.C: ~=.::~ "Inelpl. p.. Iy century that we quote it iD fulL "--GlHVtii... ban tb~ "We regan! M,. per on tho origiD 01 moral "If ~r .. Ionian', .. ,\,)fl: ...11 nene as of overwbelmin~ interest, and we were COIIStant17 ,r lempted 10 tum back to .. from tho other MCIioaa of lbe "'bl... book,·-Lit....,. Wwld. I'D 01' u Plenty oIlluma and ~eDty II CICCIOSiou r.. critical pqnacity."- it....,. c;., ....

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~titural Religion: AN INQUIRY INTO THE REALITY OF DIVINE REVELATION. Thoroughly Revised and brought up to date by the Author, In some eases entirely fresh sections being added. "With an admirable enterprise, admirahly seconded by the author of Su/,

------_.. _--_._---- .. The boldest, the brigh'~-st, the mo,t varied and informing of any work of the kind extant."-G. J. IloLYOAKE (in Preface to BClti.,h editi(,n).

80 large pages, with wrapper, price 6d., by post 8d. A New Catechis11f: By M. :,1. MANGASARIAN. With Preratory Note by George Jacob Holyoake.

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CoNTItNTS:- Naroral Selection , ,Family Sexual Selection Diflicollies of the Tbeo,. Facts which onlv F The Evoluti... How is O· reproductions of standa''-"",'''ilos sopkical Classics, etc.

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