Chapter II: Rome and Pantheism (1)

Evolution would after all be a poor doctrine if it did not affect human affairs at every touch and turn. I propose to devote the second chapter of this Appendix to the consideration of an aspect of Evolution which will always interest a very large number of people--the development of the relation that may exist between religion and science.

If the Church of Rome would only develop some doctrine or, I know not how, provide some means by which men like myself, who cannot pretend to believe in the miraculous element of Christianity, could yet join her as a conservative stronghold, I, for one, should gladly do so. I believe the difference between her faith and that of all who can be called gentlemen to be one of words rather than things. Our practical working ideal is much the same as hers; when we use the word "gentleman" we mean the same thing that the Church of Rome does; so that, if we get down below the words that formulate her teaching, there are few points upon which we should not agree. But, alas! words are often so very important.

How is it possible for myself, for example, to give people to understand that I believe in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception or in the Lourdes miracles? If the Pope could spare time to think about so insignificant a person, would he wish me to pretend such beliefs or think better of me if I did pretend them? I should be sorry to see him turn suddenly round and deny his own faith, and I am persuaded that, in like manner, he would have me continue to hold my own in peace; nevertheless, the duty of subordinating private judgment to the avoidance of schism is so obvious that, if we could see a practicable way of bridging the gulf between ourselves and Rome, we should be heartily glad to bridge it.

I speak as though the Church of Rome was the only one we can look to. I do not see how it is easy to dispute this. Protestantism has been tried and failed; it has long ceased to grow, but it has by no means ceased to disintegrate. Note the manner in which it is torn asunder by dissensions, and the rancour which these dissensions engender--a rancour which finds its way into the political and social life of Europe, with incalculable damage to the health and well-being of the world. Who can doubt but that there will be a split even in the Church of England ere so many years are over? Protestantism is like one of those drops of glass which tend to split up into minuter and minuter fragments the moment the bond that united them has been removed. It is as though the force of gravity had lost its hold, and a universal power of repulsion taken the place of attraction. This may, perhaps, come about some day in the material as well as in the spiritual and political world, but the spirit of the age is as yet one of aggregation; the spirit of Protestantism is one of disintegration. I maintain, therefore, that it is not likely to be permanent.

All the great powers of Europe have from numberless distinct tribes become first a few kingdoms or dukedoms, then two or three nations, and now homogeneous wholes, so that there is no chance of their further dismemberment through internal discontent; a process which has been going on for so many hundreds of years all over Europe is not likely to be arrested without ample warning. True, during the Roman Empire the world was practically bonded together, yet broke in pieces again; but this, I imagine, was because the bonding was prophetic and superficial rather than genuine. Nature very commonly makes one or two false starts, and misses her aim a time or two before she hits it. She nearly hit it in the time of Alexander the Great, but this was a short-lived success; in the case of the Roman Empire she succeeded better and for longer together. Where Nature has once or twice hit her mark as near as this she will commonly hit it outright eventually; the disruption of the Roman Empire, therefore, does not militate against the supposition that the normal condition of right-minded people is one which tends towards aggregation, or, in other words, towards compromise and the merging of much of one's own individuality for the sake of union and concerted action.

See, again, how Rome herself, within the limits of Italy, was an aggregation, an aggregation which has now within these last few years come together again after centuries of disruption; all middle-aged men have seen many small countries come together in their own lifetime, while in America a gigantic attempt at disruption has completely failed. Success will, of course, sometimes attend disruption, but on the whole the balance inclines strongly in favour of aggregation and homogeneity; analogy points in the direction of supposing that the great civilized nations of Europe, as they are the coalition of subordinate provinces, so must coalesce themselves also to form a larger, but single empire. Wars will then cease, and surely anything that seems likely to tend towards so desirable an end deserves respectful consideration.

The Church of Rome is essentially a unifier. It is a great thing that nations should have so much in common as the acknowledgment of the same tribunal for the settlement of spiritual and religious questions, and there is no head under which Christendom can unite with as little disturbance as under Rome. Nothing more tends to keep men apart than religious differences; this certainly ought not to be the case, but it no less certainly is, and therefore we should strain many points and subordinate our private judgment to a very considerable extent if called upon to do so. A man, under these circumstances, is right in saying he believes in much that he does not believe in. Nevertheless there are limits to this, and the Church of Rome requires more of us at present than we can by any means bring ourselves into assenting to.

It may be asked, Why have a Church at all? Why not unite in community of negation rather than of assertion? When I wrote 'Evolution, Old and New,' three years ago, I thought, as now, that the only possible Church must be a development of the Church of Rome; and seeing no chance of agreement between avowed free-thinkers, like myself, and Rome (for I believed Rome immovable), I leaned towards absolute negation as the best chance for unity among civilized nations; but even then, I expressed myself as "having a strong feeling as though Professor Mivart's conclusion is true, that 'the material universe is always and everywhere sustained and directed by an infinite cause, for which to us the word mind is the least inadequate and misleading symbol.'"[384]

I had hardly finished 'Evolution, Old and New,' before I began to deal with this question according to my lights, in a series of articles upon God[385] which appeared in the 'Examiner' during the summer of 1879, and I returned to the same matter more than once in 'Unconscious Memory,' my next succeeding work. The articles I intend recasting and rewriting, as they go upon a false assumption; but subsequent reflection has only confirmed me in the general result I arrived at--namely, the omnipresence of mind in the universe.

I have therefore come to see that we can go farther than negation, and in this case--a positive expression of faith as regards an invisible universe of some sort being possible--a Church of some sort is also possible, which shall formulate and express the general convictions as regards man's position in respect of this faith. I think the instinct which has led so many countries towards a double legislative chamber, and ourselves, till at any rate quite recently, to a double system of jurisprudence, law and equity, was not arrived at without having passed through the stages of reason and reflection. There are a variety of delicate, almost intangible, questions which belong rather to conscience than to law, and for which a Church is a fitter tribunal--at any rate for many ages hence--than a parliament or law court. There is room, therefore, for both a State and a Church, each of which should be influenced by the action of the other.

I do not say that I personally should like to see the Church of Rome as at present constituted in the position which I should be glad to see attained by an ideal Church. If it were in that position I would attack it to the utmost of my power; but I have little hesitation in thinking that the world with a very possible feasible Church, would be better than the world with no Church at all; and, if so, I have still less hesitation in concluding, for the reasons already given, that it is to Rome we must turn as the source from which the Church of the future is to be evolved, if it is to come at all.

For the new, if it is to strike deep root and be permanent, must grow out of the old, without too violent a transition. Some violence there will always be, even in the kindliest birth; but the less the better, and a leap greater than the one from Judaism to Christianity is not desirable, even if it were possible. As a free-thinker, therefore, but also as one who wishes to take a practical view of the manner in which things will, and ought to go, I neither expect to see the religions of the world come once for all to an end with the belief in Christianity--which to me is tantamount to saying with Rome--nor am I at all sure that such a consummation is more desirable than likely to come about. The ultimate fight will, I believe, be between Rome and Pantheism; and the sooner the two contending parties can be ranged into their opposite camps by the extinction of all intermediate creeds, the sooner will an issue of some sort be arrived at. This will not happen in our time, but we should work towards it.

When it arrives, what is to happen? Is Pantheism to absorb Rome, and, if so, what sort of a religious formula is to be the result? or is Rome so to modify her dogmas that the Pantheist can join her without doing too much violence to his convictions? We who are outside the Church's pale are in the habit of thinking that she will make little if any advances in our direction. The dream of a Pantheistic Rome seems so wild as hardly to be entertained seriously; nevertheless I am much mistaken if I do not detect at least one sign as though more were within the bounds of possibility than even the most sanguine of us could have hoped for a few years back. We do not expect the Church to go our whole length; it is the business of some to act as pioneers, but this is the last function a Church should assume. A Church should be as the fly-wheel of a steam-engine, which conserves, regulates and distributes energy, but does not originate it. In all cases it is more moral and safer to be a little behind the age than a little in front of it; a Church, therefore, ought to cling to an old-established belief, even though her leaders know it to be unfounded, so long as any considerable number of her members would be shocked at its abandonment. The question is whether there are any signs as though the Church of Rome thought the time had come when she might properly move a step forward, and I rejoice to think, as I have said above, that at any rate one such sign--and a very important one--has come under my notice.

In his Encyclical of August 4, 1879, the Pope desires the Bishops and Clergy to restore the golden wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, and to spread it far and wide. "Vos omnes," he writes, "Venerabiles Fratres, quam enixe hortamur ut ad Catholicae fidei tutelam et decus, ad societatis bonum, ad scientiarum omnium incrementum auream Sancti Thomae sapientiam restituatis, et quam latissime propagetis." He proceeds then with the following remarkable passage: "We say the wisdom of St. Thomas. For whatever has been worked out with too much subtleness by the doctors of the schools, or handed down inconsiderately, whatever is not consistent with the teachings of a later age, or finally, is in any way NOT PROBABLE, We in no wise intend to propose for acceptance in these days."[386]

It would be almost possible to suppose that these words had been written inadvertently, so the Pope practically repeats them thus: "We willingly and gratefully declare that whatsoever can be excepted with advantage, is to be excepted, no matter by whom it has been invented."[387]

The passage just quoted is so pregnant that a few words of comment may be very well excused. In the first place, I cannot but admire the latitude which the Pope not only tolerates, but enjoins: he defines nothing, but declares point blank that if we find anything in St. Thomas Aquinas "not consistent with the assured teachings of a later age, or finally IN ANY WAY NOT PROBABLE"--(what is not involved here?)--we are "in no wise to suppose" that it is being proposed for our acceptance. But it is a small step from allowing latitude in accepting or rejecting the parts of St. Thomas Aquinas which conflict with the assured result of later discoveries to allowing a similar latitude in respect, we will say, of St. Jude; and if of St. Jude, then of St. James the Less; and if of St. James the Less, then surely ere very long of St. James the Greater and St. John and St. Paul; nor will the matter stop there. How marvellously closely are the two extremes of doctrine approaching to one another! We, on the one hand, who begin with _tabulae rasae_ having made a clean sweep of every shred of doctrine, lay hold of the first thing we can grasp with any firmness, and work back from it. We grope our way to evolution; through this to purposive evolution; through this to the omnipresence of mind and design throughout the universe; what is this but God? So that we can say with absolute freedom from _equivoque_ that we are what we are through the will of God. The theologian, on the other hand, starts with God, and finds himself driven through this to evolution, as surely as we found ourselves driven through evolution to the omnipresence of God.

Let us look a little more closely at the ground which the Church of Rome and the Evolutionist hold in common. St. Paul speaks of there being "one body and one spirit," and of one God as being "above all, and through all, and in you all."[388] Again, he tells us that we are members of God's body, "of his flesh and of his bones;"[389] in another place he writes that God has reconciled us to himself, "in the body of his flesh,"[390] and in yet another of the Spirit of God "dwelling in us."[391] St. Paul indeed is continually using language which implies the closest physical as well as spiritual union between God and those at any rate of mankind who were Christians. Then he speaks of our "being builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit,"[392] and of our being "filled with the fulness of God."[393] He calls Christian men's bodies "temples of the Holy Spirit,"[394] in fact it is not too much to say that he regarded Christian men's limbs as the actual living organs of God himself, for the expressions quoted above--and many others could be given--come to no less than this. It follows that since any man could unite himself to "the flesh and bones" of God by becoming a Christian, Paul had a perception of the unity at any rate of human life; and what Paul admitted I am persuaded the Church of Rome will not deny.

Granted that Paul's notion of the unity of all mankind in one spirit animating, or potentially animating the whole was mystical, I submit that the main difference between him and the Evolutionist is that the first uses certain expressions more or less prophetically, and without perhaps a full perception of their import; while the second uses the same expressions literally, and with the ordinary signification attached to the words that compose them. It is not so much that we do not hold what Paul held, but that we hold it with the greater definiteness and comprehension which modern discovery has rendered possible. We not only accept his words, but we extend them, and not only accept them as articles of faith to be taken on the word of others, but as so profoundly entering into our views of the world around us that that world loses the greater part of its significance if we may not take such sayings as that "we are God's flesh and his bones" as meaning neither more nor less than what appears upon the face of them. We believe that what we call our life is part of the universal life of the Deity--which is literally and truly made manifest to us in flesh that can be seen and handled--ever changing, but the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.

So much for the closeness with which we have come together on matters of fact, and now for the _rapprochement_ between us in respect of how much conformity is required for the sake of avoiding schism. We find ourselves driven through considerations of great obviousness and simplicity to the conclusion that a man both may and should keep no small part of his opinions to himself, if they are too widely different from those of other people for the sake of union and the strength gained by concerted action; and we also find the Pope declaring of one of the brightest saints and luminaries of the Church that we need not follow him when it is plainly impossible for us to do so. Is it so very much to hope that ere many years are over the approximation will become closer still?

I have sometimes imagined that the doctrine of Papal Infallibility may be the beginning of a way out of the difficulty, and that its promoters were so eager for it, rather for the facilities it afforded for the repealing of old dogmas than for the imposition of new ones. The Pope cannot, even now, under any circumstances, declare a dogma of the Church to be obsolete or untrue, but I should imagine he can, in council, _ex cathedra_, modify the interpretation to be put upon any dogma, if he should find the interpretation commonly received to be prejudicial to the good of the Church: and if so, the manner in which Rome can put herself more in harmony with the spirit of recent discoveries, without putting herself in an illogical position, is not likely to escape eyes so keen as those of the Catholic hierarchy. No sensible man will hesitate to admit that many an interpretation which was natural to and suitable for one age is unnatural to and unsuitable for another; as circumstances are always changing, so men's moods and the meanings they attach to words, and the state of their knowledge changes; and hence, also, the interpretation of the dogmas in which their conclusions are summarized. There is nothing to be ashamed of or that needs explaining away in this; nothing can remain changeless under changed conditions; and that institution is most likely to be permanent which contains provision for such changes as time may prove to be expedient, with the least disturbance. I can see nothing, therefore, illogical or that needs concealment in the fact of an infallible Pope putting a widely different interpretation upon a dogma now, to what a no less infallible Pope put upon the same dogma fifteen hundred, or even fifteen years ago; it is only right, reasonable, and natural that this should be so. The Church of England may have made no provision for the virtual pruning off of dogmas that have become rudimentary, but the Encyclical from which I have just quoted leads me to think that the Church of Rome has found one, and, in her own cautious way, is proceeding to make use of it. If so, she may possibly in the end get rid of Protestantism by putting herself more in harmony with the spirit of the age than Protestantism can do. In this case, the spiritual reunion of Christendom under Rome ceases to be impossible, or even, I should think improbable. I heartily wish that my conjecture concerning future possibilities is not unfounded.

Scientists have been right in preaching evolution, but they have preached it in such a way as to make it almost as much of a stumbling-block as of an assistance. For though the fact that animals and plants are descended from a common stock is accepted by the greater and more reasonable part of mankind, these same people feel that the evidence in favour of design in the universe is no less strong than that in favour of evolution, and our scientists, for the most part, uphold a theory of evolution of which the cardinal doctrine is that design and evolution have nothing to do with one another; the jar they raise, therefore, is as bad as the jar they have allayed.

It has been the object of the foregoing work to show that those who take this line are wrong, and that evolution not only tolerates design, but cannot get on without it. The unscrupulousness with which I have been attacked, together with the support given me by the general public, are sufficient proofs that I have not written in vain.

FOOTNOTES:

[384] P. 371.

[385] Published as "God the Known and God the Unknown" in 1909. (Fifield.)

[386] "Sapientiam Sancti Thomae dicimus: si quid enim est a doctoribus scholasticis vel nimia subtilitate quaesitum, vel parum considerate traditum, si quid cum exploratis posterioris aevi doctrinis minus cohaerens, vel denique quoque modo non probabile, id nullo pacto in animo est aetate nostra ad imitandum proponi."

[387] "Edicimus libenti gratoque animo excipiendum esse quidquid utiliter fuerit a quopiam inventum atque excogitatum."

[388] Eph. iv. 3, 4, 5.

[389] Eph. v. 30.

[390] Col. i. 22.

[391] Rom. viii. 2.

[392] Eph. ii. 22.

[393] Eph. iii. 19.

[394] 1 Cor. vii. 19.

INDEX

ABORTION, neutralization of working bees an act of, 250

Accessory touches, varying Buffon on, 92

Accident, many of our best thoughts come thoughtlessly, 48, 384

---- profiting by, 51, 53

---- and discovery of theory connecting meteors with comets, 53

---- shaking the bag to see what will come out, 53

---- effects of, transmitted to offspring, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 224

---- and design, the line between these hard to draw, 384

Accidental variations thrown for as with dice, 3

Accumulation of variations, C. Darwin deals with the, and not with
the origin of, 340, 341

---- of small divergencies, Buffon on the, 103

Accurate, survival of fittest more accurate than Nat. Sel. and
_sometimes_ equally convenient, 9, 354, 365

Act of Parliament, Natural Selection compared to a certain kind of, 358

Age, old, the phenomena of, 67, 204, 381

Aggregation, the spirit of the age tends towards, 397, 398

Ahead, no organism sees very far, 44, 48, 54, 384

Aldrovandus, Buffon on the learned, 93

Alive, when we must not say that an animal is alive (to be
retracted), 279

Allen, Grant, on 'Evolution, Old and New,' 386-388

---- on the decay of criticism, 388

---- calls Evolutionism "an almost exclusively English impulse," 393

Alternations of fat and lean years, Buffon on, 125

Amoeba, the, did not conceive the idea of an eye and work towards
it, 43, 44, 384

Analogies, false, all words are apt to turn out to be, 365

Animals, contracts among, Dr. E. Darwin on, 205

Ape, the, and man, 90

Apes and monkeys, Buffon on, 153

---- and children fall on all-fours at the approach of danger, 312

Apparentibus, _de non_, _et non existentibus, &c._, 36

Appearances, rather superficial, our only guide to
classification, 34, 35, 36, 198, 204

Appetency, Paley's argument against the view that structures have been
developed through, 22, 45

Aristides, C. Darwin as just as, 363

Aristotle denied teleology, 4

Artificial and real foot, differences between, 25

Asceticism, virtue errs on the side of excess rather than on that of, 35

Ass, the, and horse, Buffon's pregnant passage on their
relationship, 80, 90, 91, 100, 101, 142, 143, 155, 164, 311

Authority, a hard thing to weigh, 253

BACON, F., on evolution, 69

Balzac, quotation from, on memory and instinct, 67

Bark, Erasmus Darwin's theory of, 208

Beaver, trowel incorporated into the beaver's organism, 8

Bees, neutralization of working, an act of abortion, 250

Beetles, Madeira, Lamarck and C. Darwin's views of their winglessness
compared, 373, 380

Begin, How could the eye _begin_? 46, 47

Beginnings, of complex structures, a difficulty in the way of natural
selection, 21, 22

---- difficulty of accounting for, 46, 47

---- a matter of conjecture and inference, 48

Behind, more moral to be behind the age than in front of it, 401

Best, making the best of whatever power one has, 50

Bird, how birds became web-footed, 48, 49, 51

---- a, will modify its nest a little, under altered circumstances, 55

---- Buffon on, 170, &c.

---- nests, Dr. Erasmus Darwin's failure to connect the power to make
them with memory, 201, 203

---- aquatic and wading, Lamarck on, 305

Bishop, and Eveque, common derivation of, 355

Blindfolded, we are so far, that we can see a few steps in front,
but no more, 44

---- us, C. Darwin has almost ostentatiously, 346

Blindly, forces interacting blindly, 59

Body and mind, Lamarck on, 338, 339, 341

Brain, Lamarck had brain upon the brain, 36

---- Buffon on the, 131, 133, &c.

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but, &c., 315

Breeding, and feeding, 222

Brown-Sequard, his experiments on guinea-pigs' legs, 303

Buds, individuality of, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on the, 207, 208

Buffalo, Buffon on the, 148, &c.

Buffon, profoundly superficial, 34

---- _plus il a su, plus il a pu, &c._, 44

---- _dans l'animal il y a moins de jugement que de sentiment_, 51

---- ignorance concerning, 61

---- memoir of, 74, &c.

---- on glory, genius, and style, 76, 77

---- ironical character of his work and method (_see_ Irony), 78,
&c., 171

---- on the ass, horse, and zebra, 80, 90, 91, 100, 101, 142,
143, 155, 164, 311

---- would not play the part of Rousseau or Voltaire, 81

---- Sir W. Jardine on, and the Sorbonne, 82

---- regards all animal and vegetable life as from one common source, 90

---- if a single species has ever been found under domestication,
&c., 91

---- on plaisanterie, and the learned Aldrovandus, 93, &c.

---- his compromise, 92

---- accessory touches, 92

---- "_especially_" the same, 96

---- fluctuation of opinion an unfounded charge, 97, &c., 164

---- on the accumulation of small divergencies, 103

---- began preaching evolution almost on his first page, 104

---- chapter on the _degeneration des animaux_, equivalent to "on
descent with modification," 104, &c.

---- difference of opinion between him and Erasmus Darwin and
Lamarck, 105

---- probably did not differ from Lamarck, 105

---- on direct action of changed conditions, 105, 145, 147

---- on man and the lower animals, 108

---- on classification, 108, 109, 141

---- on animals and plants, 109, 110

---- on reason and instinct, 110, 115

---- on final causes (the pig), 118, &c.

---- on hybridism, 117, 118

---- rudimentary organs, 120

---- on animals under domestication, 121, &c., 148

---- deals with these early, as giving him the best opportunities
for illustrating the theory of evolution, 276

---- approaches natural selection in his "by _some chance_ common
enough in Nature," 122

---- preaching on the hare when he should have preached on the rabbit
out of pure love of mischief, 123

---- resumption of feral characteristics, 123

---- on the geometrical ratio of increase, 123, &c.

---- alternation of fat and lean years, 125

---- equilibrium of Nature, 125

---- "au reel," 126

---- on violent death, 126

---- on sensation, 126, &c.

---- on the interaction of organ and sense, 127

---- the carnivora, 126

---- his criterion of what name a thing is to bear, 127

---- his criterion of perception and sensation, 127

---- on the unity of the individual, 127, 128

---- satirizes our habit of judging all things by our own standards, 129

---- the diaphragm, 129

---- on the stock and the diaphragm, 130

---- distinction between perception and sensation, 129, 130

---- on the meninges, 132

---- on the brain, 131, 133, &c.

---- on scientific orthodoxy and mystification, 138

---- on the relativity of science, 140

---- on nomenclature and knowledge, 141

---- on the genus _felis_, 143

---- on the lion and the tiger, 143, 145

---- on the animals of the old and new world, 145, &c.

---- on changed geographical distribution of land and water, 145, 164

---- on extinct species, 146

---- hates the new world, 146

---- on heredity and habit, 148, 159, 160, 161, 162

---- approaches Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, _re_ the Buffalo, Camel,
and Llama, 148, 160, 161

---- on oneness of personality between parents and offspring, 151

---- on the organic and inorganic, 153, &c.

---- on apes and monkeys, 153, &c.

---- on the causes or means of the transformation of species, 159, &c.

---- on generic (as well as specific) differences, 164

---- on plants under domestication, 167

---- on pigeons and fowls, 169

---- on birds, 170, &c.

---- the assistance he rendered to Lamarck, 237, 258

---- Isidore Geoffroy's failure to understand, 328

---- Colonel, 75

Bulk, a _sine qua non_ for success in literature or science, 315

Bull running, Tutbury, and Erasmus Darwin, 187

CAMEL, Buffon on the hereditary ills of the, 161

Cant, and rudimentary organs, 38

Captandum, all good things are done ad, 85

Carnivora, Buffon on the, 126

Carriage, Dr. Erasmus Darwin's, 181

Cat, family, Buffon on the, 142, &c.

---- with a mane and long tail, 143

Cataclysms, the good cells that get exterminated during the cataclysms
of our own development, 75

Catastrophes, Lamarck on, 277

Causes, or "means," of modification, 301

---- C. Darwin says that Buffon has not entered on the, 104, &c.

---- C. Darwin gets us into a fog about, 345, &c.

Change, under changed circumstances, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 318

Charity, the greatest of these is, 77

Church, a, like a second chamber, 400

---- the world better with than without, 400

---- should be like the fly-wheel of a steam engine, 104

_Circonstances_ (_see_ Conditions of Existence), Lamarck on, 268, 281

Circumstance, suiting power, a, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 318-321

Classification, rather superficial appearances our best guide
to, 34, 35, 36, 198, 204

---- Buffon on, 108, 109, 141

Clear, an ineradicable tendency to make things, 92

Clifford, Professor, on "Design," 6, 7

Climbing plants, the movements of, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on, 209

Coherency, the persistency of ideas the best argument in support of
their legitimate connection, 23

Coleridge, on "Darwinising," 21

Common terms, our, involve the connection between memory and
heredity, 201, 205

---- descent, the "hidden bond" of Lamarck, as also of C. Darwin, 271

Comparative anatomy, Lamarck on, 266, &c.

Complex structures, the incipiency of, a difficulty in the way of the
natural selection view of evolution, 21, 22

Compromise, Buffon's, 92

Conditions of existence, the very essence of condition involves that
there shall be penalty in case of non-fulfilment, 352, 376, 377

---- and the winglessness of Madeira beetles, 373, &c.

---- according to C. Darwin, "include" and yet "are fully embraced by"
natural selection, 355

---- identical with "natural selection," 351-354

---- Etienne Geoffroy, and Lamarck on, 326, 327, 328

---- Buffon on the, 103;
difference between Buffon's and Lamarck's view of their action, 105

---- direct action of changed, Buffon on the, 145, 147, 160

---- Lamarck on, 105, 268, 270, 271, 275, 277, 278, 281, 291,
292, 294, 295, 298, 299, 300, &c.

Continuity in discontinuity, and _vice versa_, 47

Contracts of animals, Dr. E. Darwin on the, 205

Contrivance, does organism show signs of this? 2

Convenient, not only _sometimes_, but always, more, 365

Corkscrew for corks, and lungs for respiration, Prof. Clifford on, 7.
See also p. 58

---- we should have grown a, if drawing corks had been important
to us, 7

Creator, a, who is not an organism, unintelligible, 6, 11, 24

Criticising, difficulty of, without knowing more than the mere facts
which are to be criticised, 172

Criticism, Miss Seward's, on Dr. Darwin's "Elegy," 189

---- Grant Allen on the decay of, 388

Crux, the, of the early evolutionist, 35

Cuttle-fish, natural selection like the secretion of a, 332

DAMNATION, praising with faint, 111

Darwin, Charles, on the eye, denies design, 8

---- declares variation to be the cause of variation, 8, 347, 369

---- and blind chance working on whither; the accumulation of
innumerable lucky accidents, 41, 42

---- our indebtedness to, 62, 66, 335

---- has adopted one half of Isidore Geoffroy's conclusion without
verifying either, 83

---- on Buffon's fluctuation of opinion, 97

---- on Isidore Geoffroy, 97

---- his assertion that Buffon has not entered on the "causes or
means" of transformation, 104

---- his meagre notice of his grandfather, 196

---- his treatment of the author of the "Vestiges of Creation," 65,
247, 248

---- attributes the characteristics of neuter insects to natural
selection, 249

---- his treatment of Lamarck, 249, 250, 251, 298, 314, 376

---- "great is the power of steady misrepresentation," 251

---- his "happy simplicity" about animals and plants under
domestication, 276

---- his notice of Mr. Patrick Matthew in the imperfect historical
sketch which he has prefaced to the "Origin of Species," 315, 316

---- points of agreement between him and Lamarck, 335-337

---- sees no broad principle underlying variation, 339

---- dwells on the accumulation of variations, the origination of
which he leaves unaccounted for, 340, 341

---- his variations being due to no general underlying principle, will
not tend to appear in definite directions, nor to many individuals
at a time, nor to be constant for long together, 342

---- speaks of natural selection as a cause of modification, while
declaring it to be a means only, 345, &c.

---- his explanation of this, 384, &c.

---- his dilemma, as regards the "Origin of Species," 346

---- declares the fact of variation to be the cause of variation,
8, 347, 369

---- if he had told us more of what Buffon, &c., said, and where
they were wrong, he would have taken a course, &c., 357

---- on the ease with which we can hide our ignorance under a cloud
of words, 358

---- apologizes for having underrated the frequency and importance
of variation due to spontaneous variability, 358

---- his "Origin of Species" like the opinion of a lawyer who wanted
to leave loopholes, or an Act of Parliament full of repealed and
inserted clauses, 358

---- accused of confusion and inaccuracy of thought, 359

---- as just as Aristides himself, 364

---- most candid literary opponent in the world, 364

---- declares Nature to be the most important means of modification,
and variation to be the cause of variations, 369

---- like a will-o'-the-wisp, 372

---- disuse, the main agent in reducing wings of Madeira beetles, 377

---- how he and Lamarck treat the winglessness of Madeira beetles
respectively, 373-380

---- an example of his "manner," 378

---- the way in which he met "Evolution, Old and New," 393

Darwin, Erasmus, never quite recognized design, 39

---- ignorance concerning, 61

---- on reason and instinct, 115, &c.

---- life of, 173, &c.

---- in Nottingham market-place, 182, 184, 197

---- and Dr. Johnson, 184, 185

---- and Tutbury bull running, 187

---- his poetry about the pump, and illustration, 84, 193

---- should have given his evolution theory a book to itself, 197

---- had no wish to see far beyond the obvious, 197

---- must be admitted to have missed detecting Buffon's
humour, 83, 84, 197

---- did not attribute instincts and structures to memory pure
and simple, 198

---- on the reasoning powers of animals, and on instinct, 201, 205

---- his failure to connect memory and instinct, as with birds'
nests, 201-203

---- failed to see the four main propositions which I contended
for in "Life and Habit," 37, 203, 204

---- on the analogies between animal and vegetable life, 206, &c.

---- on sensitive plants, 206, 210

---- on the individuality of buds, and his theory of bark, 207, 208

---- on the movements of climbing plants, 209

---- on the oneness of personality between parents and offspring, 214;
the embryo not a new animal, 215

---- on animals under domestication, 223

---- on the effects of accidents transmitted to offspring, 224

---- sees struggle, and hence modification, turn mainly round three
great wants, 226, 229, 257, 279

---- on desire as a means of modification, 226, 228, 259

---- by a slip approaches the error of his grandson, 227, 228

---- on embryonic metamorphoses, 230, 231

---- believed animals and plants to be descended from a common
stock, 233

---- and Lamarck compared, 257

---- on the struggle of existence, and the survival of the
fittest, 227, 232, 259

Darwin, Mrs. Erasmus, death-bed of, 178

Darwin, Francis, mentioned, 109

---- his interesting lecture, 206

---- does not use the expression "natural selection," 368

Darwinising, Coleridge on, 21

Darwinism, the old Darwinism involves desire, invention, and design, 58

---- modern, falling into disfavour, 60

---- and evolution not to be confounded, 360, 361

Day, the portrait of, by Wright of Derby, 180

Death, violent, Buffon on, 126

---- of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 193, 194

Death-bed of Mrs. Erasmus Darwin, 178

Deed, illustration drawn from a very intricate, 28

Definite, with Lamarck the variations are, 341, 344

_Degenerations_, 87

Demand and supply, like power and desire, 222, 300

Demonstrative case, "this demonstrative case of neuter insects,
&c.," 249, 298, 314

Descent, with modification, spoken of as though synonymous with
natural selection, 248, 356

Design, and organism, shall we or shall we not connect these ideas? 2

---- Aristotle denied, Plato upheld, Haeckel on, 4

---- Prof. Clifford's denial of, 6, 7

---- does certainly involve a designer who has an organism, who
can think, and make mistakes, 6, 24

---- a belief in both design and evolution, commonly held to
be incompatible, 9

---- Sir W. Thomson and Sir J. Herschel on, 11

---- Paley on, 12, &c.

---- light thrown by embryology on the method of, 25

---- G. H. Lewes opposes, 26

---- the three positions in respect to, taken by Charles Darwin,
Paley, and the earlier evolutionists, 31

---- the first evolutionists did not see that their view of
evolution involved design, 34

---- from within as much design as from without, 36

---- was equivalent to theological design, with the early
evolutionists, 36

---- if each step is taken designedly, the whole is done
designedly, 52, 384

---- and accident, the line between them hard to draw; shaking
the bag, &c., 53, 384

---- instinct originated in, 54

---- as much lost sight of with old-established forms of the
steam-engine as with birds' nests or the wheel, 55

---- Dr. E. Darwin's failure to see that evolution involves design, 195

---- we feel the want of, as much as we do of evolution, 407

---- evolution not only tolerates, but cannot get on without, 408

Designer, "I believe in an organic and tangible designer of every
complex structure," 6

---- "where is he? show him to us," &c., 29, 30

---- the, of any organism, the organism itself, 30, 31, 40

Desire and power, interaction of, 44, 45, 47, 127, 217, 221, 300, 322

---- and power, like wealth, 222

---- as a means of modification, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on, 226, 228, 259

Development, the history of organic, the history of a moral struggle, 45

---- always due to making the best of the present, 50

Devils, 20,000, dancing a saraband on the point of a needle, 216

Dew drop, or lens, the, and Lord Rosse's telescope, 44, 47

Diaphragm, Buffon on the, 129

Dice, accidental variations thrown for as with, 3

Difference between animal and ordinary mechanism, 24

---- the main, between the manufacture of tools and that of organs, 39

Dilemma, C. Darwin's, 346

Direct action of changed conditions, Buffon on the, 105, 145, 147, 160

Discontinuity in continuity, 47

Disease, accidents followed by, 303

Disintegration, Protestantism tends towards, 397

Distribution, geographical, changed, Buffon on, 145, 164

Disuse, and the winglessness of Madeira beetles, we are almost surprised
to find that they are connected at all, 375

---- the main agent in reducing the wings of Madeira beetles, 377

---- some examples of the effect of, adduced by Lamarck, 378

Dog, Buffon on the, 120

---- Lamarck on the various breeds of the, 297

Domestication, a single case of a species formed under domestication
sufficient to remove the _a priori_ difficulty from a
comprehensive theory of evolution, 90, 91, 311

---- plants under, Buffon on, 167, &c.

---- Buffon on animals under, 103, 120, &c., 148, &c., 159, &c., 276

---- animals under, Dr. Erasmus Darwin on, 223

---- animals under, Buffon on, 121, &c., 148, 276

---- C. Darwin on, 276

---- animals and plants under, Lamarck on, 275, 293, 296, 297, 300

---- animals and plants under, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 324

Door, the doing anything well will open the door for doing
something else, 51

Ducks, our domesticated, why they cannot fly like wild ones, 296, 309

EARN, "you are but doing your best to earn an honest living," 29

Ears are never found in a rudimentary condition, 379

Eat, or be eaten, 177

Effort, Paley's argument that structures have not been developed
through, 22, 45

---- too much, as vicious as indolence, 35

---- "neither too much nor too little," 50

---- Herculean, condemned, 197

Egyptian mummies, Lamarck on, 274, 275

Embryology, the light it throws upon the mode in which organisms
have been designed, 25

Embryonic metamorphoses, Erasmus Darwin on, 230, 231

Embryonic development, Lamarck on, 289

Encyclical, the Pope's, on St. Thomas Aquinas, 402, &c.

Endeavour, Paley's argument against the view that structures have
been developed through, 22, 45

Endowment, the new orthodoxy, which is clamouring for, 360

English wines, Dr. Erasmus Darwin's preference for, 175

Environment. _See_ Conditions of Existence

Equilibrium, the, of Nature, Buffon on the, 125

Err, the power to, rated highly, 29

---- "it is on this margin that we may err or wander," 50

---- virtue ever errs on the side of excess, 35

Error, importance of, dependent on the distance, rather than the
direction, 50

"Especially" the same, 92, 96

Ethiopian, the, can change his skin, if it becomes worth his while
to try long enough, 40

Eveque and bishop, common derivation of, 355

Everlasting, God, how far, 32

Evolution, commonly held incompatible with design, 9

---- Paley, its first serious opponent in England, 21

---- Sir Walter Raleigh on, 21, 70

---- must stand or fall according as it rests on a purposive
foundation or no, 60

---- brief summary of its six principal stages, 62, &c.

---- Bacon on, 69

---- the theory of, as apart from the evidence in support of it, 332

---- C. Darwin and Lamarck are equally intent upon establishing
the same theory of evolution, 335-337

---- and Darwinism, not to be confounded, 360, 361

---- Rome and Pantheism meet in, 403

Evolutionists, the early, did not know that they accepted teleology, 34

---- the early, saw design, only as design by the God of theologians, 36

Experience and instinct, Mr. Patrick Matthew on, 322

Extinct species, Lamarck on, 277

---- Buffon on, 146, 277

Eye, no creature that had nothing like an eye ever set itself to
conceive one and grow one, 44, 387

---- Paley asks "how will our philosopher get an eye?" 46

---- of flat fish, Lamarck on the, 307

---- Lamarck on the, of underground and cave-inhabiting animals, 378

---- disappear and reappear in the scale of organism according to the
power of using them, 379

FAITH, forms of, or faiths of form, &c., 339

Familiarity, with a little, such superficial objections will be
forgotten, 367

Far ahead, no organism ever saw an improvement a long way off and made
towards it, 43, 44, 48, 49, 54, 384

Father, the man who could be father of such a son and retain his
affection, &c., 76

Factors, there have been two, of modification, one producing and the
other accumulating variations, 227

Fecundity, alternate years of, Buffon on, 125

Feeding and breeding, 222

Feel, if plants and animals look as if they feel, let us say
they feel, 198

Feeling, there is more feeling than reason in animals, 51

Feral characteristics, resumption of, Buffon on, 123

Final causes, the doctrine of, as commonly held in the time of the
early evolutionists, 34, 36

---- Buffon on, 118, &c.

Fitness, the cause of, more important than the fact that fitness is
commonly fit, and therefore successful, 351

Flat fish, Lamarck on the eyes of, 307

Fluctuation of opinion, C. Darwin on Buffon's, the charge
refuted, 97, &c., 164, 166

Fontenelle, on theories, 22

Foot, and model of foot, differences between, 24

Forms of faith, or faiths of form, &c., 339

Four main points which the early evolutionists failed to see in
their connection and bearing on each other, 37, 203

Four main principles, the, which I contended for in "Life and
Habit," 37, 203, 380, 381

Fowls and pigeons, Buffon on, 169

GARNETT, Mr. R., and "Darwinising," 21

Genius, Mr. Allen says I am a, 388

Gentleman, the Church of Rome means the same by the word as we do, 395

Geoffroy, Etienne, how small a way he goes, 196

---- and Isidore, trimmers, 328

---- on Buffon, 328

---- on conditions of existence, 326, 327

---- declares against Lamarck's hypothesis, 328

---- his position, 325-328

Geoffroy, Isidore, on evolution and final causes, 9

---- on Buffon's fluctuation of opinion, 98, &c., 164, 166

---- points out the difference between the views of Buffon
and Lamarck, 105

---- statement that Buffon's opinions fluctuated again refuted, 166

---- and Lamarck's hypothesis, 244-246, 329

---- on Buffon, 328

---- his position, 329

Genealogical order, Lamarck on, 264

---- C. Darwin on, 265

Generation more remarkable than reason, Hume on, 233

Generic differences (as well as specific), Buffon on, 164

Genius, a supreme capacity for taking pains, 76

Geographical distribution, changed, Buffon on, 145, &c., 164

Geometrical ratio of increase, Buffon on, 123

---- Lamarck, on, 280

---- Patrick Matthew on, 320, 321

Germ of oak indistinguishable from that of a man, 334

Germans, Buffon on the, 93

Glory "comes after labour if she can," &c., 76

Go away, because their uncles, aunts, 376

God, embodied in living forms, and dwelling in them, 31

---- how far everlasting, invisible, imperishable, omnipotent, &c., 32

---- the unseen parts of, are as a deep-buried history, 33

Goethe, as an evolutionist, 71

Gradations infinitely subtle, 87

Grant Allen, on "Evolution, Old and New," 386-388

---- on the decay of criticism, 388

---- says that "Evolutionism is an almost exclusively English
impulse," 393

Greyhound or racehorse, the well-adapted form of the, 359

Growth attended at each step by a felicitous tempering of two
antagonistic principles, 35

Gueneau de Montbeillard, 172, 173

HABIT," "Life and. _See_ "Life and Habit."

---- rudimentary organs repeated through mere force of, 38, 39

---- Buffon on, 148, 159, 160, 161, 162

---- a second Nature, Lamarck on, 300

Habits, or use, and organ, Lamarck on the interaction of, 292, 311

Haeckel, on design, 4, 5

---- on Goethe as an evolutionist, 71

---- does not appear to know of Buffon as an evolutionist, 71, 393

---- his surprising statement concerning Lamarck, 73

---- his ignorance concerning Erasmus Darwin, 73, 393

---- on Lamarck, 246, 247

---- A. R. Wallace's review of his "Evolution of Man," 382, 384

Hamlet, the "Origin of Species" like "Hamlet" without Hamlet, 363

Handiest, a man should do whatever comes handiest, 51, 52

Hare, Buffon on the, 123, &c.

Hartmann's philosophy of the unconscious, and "Life and Habit," 56, 57

Hearing, when we once reach animals so low as to have no organ of,
we lose this organ for good and all, 379

Heredity and habit, Buffon on, 148, 159, 160, 161, 162

---- only another term for unknown causes, unless the "Life and Habit"
theory be adopted, 384

Hering, Professor, referred to, 66, 67

---- his theory as given in "Nature" by Ray Lankester, 198-200

Herschel, Sir John, compares natural selection to the Laputan
method of making books, 10

Higgling and haggling of the market, 50

History of the universe, each organism is a, from its own point
of view, 31

Horse and ass, Buffon's most pregnant passage on the, 80, 90, 91,
100, 101, 142, 143, 155, 164, 311

---- and man, skeleton of the, 88, 89

---- and zebra, Buffon on the, example of irony, 80, 155, 164

Hume, his saying that generation is more remarkable than reason, 233

Huxley, Professor, referred to, 93

---- pointed out to Professor Mivart the difficulty in the way of
natural selection, 344

---- his ignorance concerning the earlier history of evolution, 392, 393

Hybridism, Buffon on, 117, 118

Hybrids, sterility of, Lamarck on, and C. Darwin on, 272, 273

IDEAS, the bond or nexus of our, 23, 29, 30

Ignorance, the prevailing, concerning the earlier evolutionists, 61

---- it is easy to hide our, under such expressions as "plan of
creation," or natural selection, 358

Imitation, instinct not referable to, as maintained by Erasmus
Darwin, 202

Immutability of species and design commonly accepted together, 9, 10

Improvements, small successive, in man's inventions, 44, 46,
47, 54, 55, 384

Inaccuracy of thought, C. Darwin accused of, 359

Incipiency, of complex structures, a difficulty in the way of the
Natural selection view of evolution, 21, 22

Incorporate, the designer is, with the organism, 30

Increase, geometrical ratio of Buffon on the, 123

---- Lamarck on, 280

---- Patrick Matthew on, 320, 321

Indefinite, with C. Darwin the variations are, 342, 344

Indifference, I say I am more indifferent than I think I am, whether
mind is or is not the least misleading symbol for the cause that
sustains the universe, 371

Indirect action of conditions of existence according to
Lamarck, 294, 299, 306. (_See_ "Conditions of Existence")

Individuality, Buffon on, 128

---- of buds, Erasmus Darwin on the, 207, 208

---- our, a _consensus_, or full-flowing river, 318

Infallibility, possible results of the doctrine of Papal, 406

Insectivorous plants, Erasmus Darwin on, 206

Instep, ligament that binds the tendons of the, Paley on the, 22

Instinct, present, does not bar its having arisen in reason and
reflection, 53, 54

---- returns to its earlier phase, _i. e._ to reason on the presence
of the unfamiliar, 54, 55, 56

---- and reason, Buffon on, 110-116

---- Darwin, Erasmus, on, 115, 116, 204

---- not referable to imitation, as maintained by Erasmus Darwin, 202

---- is reason become habitual, 203

---- reason perfected and got by rote, 256

---- and reason, Lamarck on, 256, 257, 274

---- referred to experience and memory, by Patrick Matthew, 322

Insult, "Evolution, Old and New," not intended as an insult to men
of science, 392

Interaction of want and power, 44, 45, 47, 217, 218, 221, 300, 323

---- of body and mind, Lamarck on the, 338, 339, 341

Interesting, the more interesting the animal the more evolution Buffon
puts into his account of it, 84

Intermediate forms, Lamarck on, 283, 286

---- C. Darwin, 284, 285

Inventions, small successive improvements in man's, and development of,
analogous to that of organism, 44, 46, 47, 54, 55, 384

Irony, good-natured and the reverse, 91

---- an apology for, and explanation how far it is legitimate, 111, 112

---- Buffon's, 78, &c., 91, 92, 93, 155, 157, 163, 164

JARDINE, Sir W., on Buffon's character, 82

Johnson, Dr., and Erasmus Darwin, 184, 185

Joints, Paley on the human, 19, 20

Juggle, Paley's argument a juggle, unless man has had a _bona fide_
personal, and therefore organic designer, 14, 16

KNEE-PAN, Paley on the human, 18

Knowledge, nomenclature mistaken for, 141

LABOUR, glory comes after, if she can, 76

Lamarck, had brain upon the brain, 36

---- never quite recognized design, 39

---- Haeckel's surprising statement concerning, 73

---- wherein he mainly differs from Buffon, 105

---- memoir of, 235

---- his connection with Buffon, as tutor to his son, &c., 237, 258

---- his daughters, 242, 253

---- his poverty and blindness, 242, 253

---- Isidore Geoffroy on, bad caricature of his teaching, 244-246

---- Haeckel on, 246, 247

---- never seriously discussed, 247

---- "the well-known doctrine of," C. Darwin's reference
to, 249, 250, 251, 298, 314, 376

---- on the opposition his theory met with, 252

---- too old to have begun his unequal contest, 253

---- on the feeling of animals, 254, 255

---- too theory-ridden, 254

---- misled by Buffon (query), 255