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By William Irvine "WAI-TER BAGEHOT THE UNIVERSE OP G.B.S. APES, ANGELS, AND VICTORIANS What is the question now placed before society with a assurance the most astounding! The question is this Is man an afe or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. Benjamin Disraeli, in a speech at Oxford, 1864 Apes, Angels, and Victorians The Story of Darwin, Huxley, and Evolution WILLIAM IRVINE McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO APES, ANGE:LS, AND VICTORIANS Copyright 1955 by William Irvine. All rights in this book are reserved. It may not be used for dramatic, motion-, or talking-picture purposes without written authorization from the holder of these rights. Nor may the book or parts thereof be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Trade Department, 330 West 4zd Street, New York 36, New York Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-11269 Published by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Printed in the United States of America For Richard foster Jones 7 wish to than\ the Imperial College of Science for allowing me to read the Huxley Papers, and the American Philosophical Society for allowing me to read the Charles Darwin Papers. I wish also to than\ the Cambridge University Library for sending me microfilms of many unpublished Darwin letters, as well as of the manuscript of his "Autobiography!' I am grateful to all three of these institu- tions for permission to quote from their collections of unpublished materials. 1 am indebted to Lady Nora Barlow for aiding me to gain ac- cess to Darwin letters and manuscripts, to Professor Arthur Giese for checking some of my expositions of biological principles, and to Dr. Walter C. Alvarez for a valuable letter on Darwin's ill-health. CONTENTS PARTI /. Revolution in a Classroom 3 2. A Scientific Odyssey 9 3. A Prophet in His Own Country 26 4. The Tale of an Unlikely Prince 42 5. A Premeditated Romance 57 6. Barnacles and Blasphemy 67 +fi The Most Important Boo\ of the Century 83 8. Convulsions of the National Mind 101 9. An Interlude: Huxley, Kingsley, and the Universe 127 &f. Human Skeletons in Geological Closets 135 *TT Orchids, Politics, and Heredity 151 Z2. The Subject of Subjects 178 JTJ. "I Am Not the Least Afraid of Death" 203 PART II 14+ An Eminent Victorian 233 75. The Metaphysical Society 247 16. The Educator 264 77, Triumphal Progress 289 zS. TA<? Pleasant Avocation of War 311 /p. '77 JF##/ Cultivcr Notre Jardin" 331 Notes 360 Index ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page Charles Darwin and the Beagle 50 Charles and Emma Darwin in 1840 51 Darwin and Huxley in the 1850*5 82 Vanity Fair's Darwin and Huxley, 1871 83 Lyell, Wallace, Gray, and Hooker 210 Darwin and the house at Downe 211 Huxley and the house at Marlborough Place 242 Huxley and the residence at Hodeslea 243 Part One 1 Revolution in a Classroom TN June, 1860, the British Association met at Oxford. Science was JL not very much at home there, and neither was Professor Huxley, Beneath those dreaming spires, he always felt as though he were walking about in the Middle Ages; and Professor Huxley did not approve of the Middle Ages. At Oxford, he feared, ideas were as ivy-covered as the buildings, and minds as empty and dreamy as the spires and quiet country air. Professor Huxley's laboratory was set squarely in the middle of the nineteenth century, in the narrow downtown London thoroughfare of Jermyn Street, which was as crowded and busy as Professor Huxley's own intellect. Reciprocally, Oxford did not feel in the least at home with such people as Professor Huxley. In fact, she felt rather desperately at bay between a Tractarian past and a scientific future. Newman's con- version to Roman Catholicism had opened an abyss of conservatism on one side; now Mr. Darwin's patient and laborious heresy had opened an abyss of liberalism on the other. The ground of sanity seemed narrow indeed. But sanity can always be defended. After in all, there was something obviously ridiculous a heresy about monkeys. Mr. Darwin himself was too ill to attend the meeting of the As- sociationas on a former even more important occasion, when 4 Apes, Angels, and Victorians Joseph Hooker and Sir Charles Lyell had acted in his place. A por- tentous absence from crucial events which deeply concerned him was already making Mr. Darwin a legend. It was just six months since his Origin of Species had appeared. Of course Darwinism was in everybody's mind. It was also on the program. In Section D of the meeting, Dr. Daubeny of Oxford read a paper "On the final causes of sexuality in plants, with special reference to Mr. Darwin's work on The Origin of Species." Huxley was invited to comment by the president but avoided discussion of the vexed issue before "a general audience, in which sentiment would unduly 1 interfere with intellect.*' Thereupon, Sir Richard Owen, the great- est anatomist of his time, rose and announced that he "wished to approach the subject in the spirit of the philosopher.** In other words, 2 he intended, as in his anonymous review of a few months before, to strike from under the cloak of scientific impartiality. "There were facts," he felt, "by which the public could come to some conclusion with regard to the probabilities of the truth of Mr. Darwin's theory." He then declared that the brain of the gorilla "presented more dif- ferences, as compared with the brain of man, than it did when com- pared with the brains of the very lowest and most problematical of the quadrumana." Huxley rose, gave Owen's words "a direct and unqualified con- tradiction," pledged himself to "justify that unusual procedure else- 1 where/* and sat down. The effect was as though he had challenged Owen to a duel, and infinitely more dramatic than an immediate refutation, however convincing, would have been, though that duly appeared in the dignified pages of The Natural History Review? Between Darwin and anti-Darwin the lines of battle were now drawn. The program of the Association encouraged peace on Friday, but the air was filled with rumors. A general clerical attack was to be made on Saturday, when a somewhat irrelevant American was to speak on the "Intellectual Development of Europe considered with reference to the views of Mr. Darwin." The Bishop of Oxford was arming in his tent and Owen was at his elbow, whispering the secret weaknesses of the enemy. Quite unaware that his larger des- tiny awaited him in a lecture room next day, Huxley had decided not to witness the onslaught. He was very tired, and eager to rejoin his wife at Reading. He knew that the Bishop was an able contro- Revolution in a Classroom 5 versialist and felt that prevailing sentiment was strongly against the Darwinians. On Friday evening he met the much reviled evolutionist Robert Chambers in the street, and on remarking that he did not see the good of staying "to be episcopally pounded," was beset with such remonstrances and talk of desertion that he exclaimed, "Oh! if you are going to take it that way, I'll come and have my share of 4 what is going on." Perhaps revolutions often have their quiet beginnings in the class- room, but they seldom have their turbulent crises there. Saturday, June 30, 1860, was the exception. The Museum Lecture Room proved too small for the crowd, and the meeting was moved to a larger place, into which 700 people were packed. The ladies, in bright sum- mer dresses and with fluttering handkerchiefs, lined the windows. 6 The clergy, "shouting lustily for the Bishop," occupied the center of the room, and behind them a small group of undergraduates waited to cheer for the little known champions of "the monkey theory." On the platform, among others, sat the American Dr. Draper, the Bishop, Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and, as president of the section, Darwin's old teacher Henslow. Dr. Draper had the compound misfortune to be at once a bore and the center of this exciting debate, having chosen to pick up the burning question of the day by its biggest and hottest handle. His American accent added a quaint remoteness to his metaphysical fulminations. "I can still hear," writes one witness, "the American accents of Dr. Draper's opening address when he asked *Air we a " 6 fortuitous concourse of atoms ?' But had he luxuriated in the com- bined gifts of Webster and Emerson, he would still have seemed an irrelevance. The audience wanted British personalities, not Yankee ponderosities; and they had already smelled blood. Dr. Draper droned away for an hour, and then the discussion be- gan. It was evident that the audience had tolerated its last bore. Three men spoke and were shouted down in nine minutes. One had at- tempted to improve on Darwin with a mathematical demonstration. 7 "Let this point A be man and that point B be the mawnkey." He was promptly overwhelmed with cries of "mawnkey." And now there were loud demands for the Bishop. He courteously deferred to Professor Beale and then, with the utmost good humor, rose to speak. 6 Apes, Angels, and Victorians Bishop Wilberforce, widely known as "Soapy Sam/' was one of those men whose moral and intellectual fibers have been permanently loosened by the early success and applause of a distinguished under- graduate career.