Chapter XII: Theology and Evolution (3)

[144] Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 102, and Ann. Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. xx. p. 110.

[145] See Catalogue, vol. iii. p. 469.

[146] Ibid. vol. v. p. 311.

[147] Ibid. p. 345.

[148] Ibid. p. 13.

[149] Ibid. p. 21.

[150] See Catalogue, vol. v. p. 24.

[151] Ibid. p. 52.

[152] Ibid. p. 109.

[153] Ibid. vol. vi. 208.

[154] Ibid. vol. viii. p. 507.

[155] Ibid. p. 509.

[156] Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 482

[157] "Origin of Species," 5th edition, 1869, p. 454.

[158] "Origin of Species," 5th edition, p. 459.

[159] See Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., July 1870, p. 37.

[160] Professor Huxley's Lectures on the Elements of Comp. Anat. p. 184.

[161] For an enumeration of the more obvious homological relationships see Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. for August 1870, p. 118.

[162] See Ann. and Mag, of Nat. Hist., July 1870.

[163] Treatise on the Human Skeleton, 1858.

[164] Hunterian Lectures for 1864.

[165] Linnæan Transactions, vol. xxv. p. 395, 1866.

[166] Hunterian Lectures for 1870, and Journal of Anat. for May 1870.

[167] See a Paper on the "Axial Skeleton of the Urodela," in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 266.

[168] Just as Button's superfluous lament over the unfortunate organization of the sloth has been shown, by the increase of our knowledge, to have been uncalled for and absurd, so other supposed instances of non-adaptation will, no doubt, similarly disappear. Mr. Darwin, in his "Origin of Species," 5th edition, p. 220, speaks of a woodpecker (_Colaptes campestris_) as having an organization quite at variance with its habits, and as never climbing a tree, though possessed of the special arboreal structure of other woodpeckers. It now appears, however, from the observations of Mr. W. H. Hudson, C.M.Z.S., that its habits are in harmony with its structure. See Mr. Hudson's third letter to the Zoological Society, published in the Proceedings of that Society for March 24, 1870, p. 159.

[169] Dr. Cobbold has informed the Author that he has never observed a planaria divide spontaneously, and he is sceptical as to that process taking place at all. Dr. H. Charlton Bastian has also stated that, in spite of much observation, he has never seen the process in _vorticella_.

[170] Professor Huxley's Hunterian Lecture, March 16, 1868.

[171] Ibid. March 18.

[172] "Principles of Biology," vol. ii. p. 105.

[173] "Principles of Biology," vol. ii. p. 203.

[174] Quoted by H. Stannius in his "Handbuch der Anatomie der Wirbelthiere," Zweite Auflage, Erstes Buch, § 7, p. 17.

[175] In his last Hunterian Course of Lectures, 1869.

[176] "The Science of Abnormal Forms."

[177] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 322; and "Origin of Species," 5th edition, 1869, p. 178.

[178] A remarkable woman exhibited in London a few years ago.

[179] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 328.

[180] "Ueber das Gliedmaassenskelet der Enaliosaurier, Jenaischen Zeitschrift," Bd. v. Heft 3, Taf. xiii.

[181] In his work on the Carpus and Tarsus.

[182] An excellent specimen displaying this resemblance is preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

[183] Phil. Trans. 1867, p. 353.

[184] Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 255.

[185] Ibid. p. 351.

[186] "Hist. Générale des Anomalies," t. i. p. 228. Bruxelles, 1837.

[187] Nov. Comment. Petrop. t. ix. p. 269.

[188] Read on June 2, 1868, before the Massachusetts Medical Society. See vol. ii. No. 3.

[189] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 322.

[190] "Lectures on Surgical Pathology," 1853, vol. i. p. 18.

[191] "Lectures on Surgical Pathology," 1853, vol. i. p. 22.

[192] See "Medico-Chirurgical Transactions," vol. xxv. (or vii. of 2nd series), 1842, p. 100, Pl. III.

[193] Med.-Chirurg. Trans, vol. xxv. (or vii. of 2nd series), 1842, p. 122.

[194] See _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_ for April 5, 1866, vol. lxxiv. p. 189.

[195] "Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 180.

[196] See the "Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xi. June 5, 1867.

[197] "Habit and Intelligence," vol. i. p. 75.

[198] Ibid. p. 112.

[199] Ibid. p. 170.

[200] "Habit and Intelligence," vol. i. p. 229.

[201] It is hardly necessary to say that the Author does not mean that there is, in addition to a real objective crystal, another real, objective separate thing beside it, namely the "force" directing it. All that is meant is that the action of the crystal in crystallizing must be _ideally_ separated from the crystal itself, not that it is _really_ separate.

[202] "Origin of Species," 5th edition, 1869, p. 577.

[203] Vol. ii. p. 122.

[204] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i p. 295.

[205] "Natural Selection," p. 350.

[206] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii.

[207] See 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 214.

[208] Page 103.

[209] I have not the merit of having noticed this inconsistency; it was pointed out to me by my friend the Rev. W. W. Roberts.

[210] Vol. i. p. 215.

[211] "Malay Archipelago," vol. ii. p. 365.

[212] "The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man," p. 261. Longmans, 1870.

[213] "Primitive Man," p. 248.

[214] "Fiji and the Fijians," vol. i. p. 183.

[215] "Essays," Second Series, vol. ii. p. 13.

[216] See No. 117, July 1869, p. 272.

[217] _Macmillan's Magazine_, No. 117, July 1869.

[218] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 403.

[219] Ibid. p. 366.

[220] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 402.

[221] See _Fortnightly Review_, New Series, vol. iii. April 1868, p. 352.

[222] This appeared in the _Rivista Contemporanea Nazionale Italiana_, and was translated and given to the English public in _Scientific Opinion_ for September 29, October 6, and October 13, 1869, pp. 365, 391, and 407.

[223] See _Scientific Opinion_, of October 13, 1869, p. 407.

[224] See _Scientific Opinion_ of September 29, 1869, p. 366.

[225] _Fortnightly Review_, New Series, vol. iii. April 1868, p. 508.

[226] _Scientific Opinion_, of October 13, 1869, p. 408.

[227] _Fortnightly Review_, New Series, vol. iii. April 1868, p. 509.

[228] "Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière," tome ii. 1749, p. 327. "Ces liqueurs séminales sont toutes deux un extrait de toutes les parties du corps," &c.

[229] See _Nature_, March 3, 1870, p. 454. Mr. Wallace says (referring to Mr. Croll's paper in the _Phil. Mag._), "As we are now, and have been for 60,000 years, in a period of low eccentricity, _the rate of change of species during that time may be no measure of the rate that has generally obtained in past geological epochs_."

[230] "Habit and Intelligence," vol. i. p. 344.

[231] If anyone were to contend that beside the opium there existed a real distinct objective entity, "its soporific virtue," he would be open to ridicule indeed. But the constitution of our minds is such that we cannot but distinguish ideally a thing from its even essential attributes and qualities. The joke is sufficiently amusing, however, regarded as the solemn enunciation of a mere truism.

[232] Noticed by Professor Owen in his "Archetype," p. 76. Recently it has been attempted to discredit Darwinism in France by speaking of it as "_de la science mousseuse!_"

[233] "Lay Sermons," p. 342.

[234] Introductory Lecture of February 14, 1870, pp. 24-30, Figs. 1-4. (Churchill and Sons.)

[235] See especially "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. chap. xviii.

[236] "Origin of Species," 5th edition, pp. 323, 324.

[237] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 2.

[238] Ibid. p. 25.

[239] Ibid. p. 151.

[240] Ibid. p. 157.

[241] Ibid. p. 158.

[242] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 291.

[243] Though hardly necessary, it may be well to remark that the views here advocated in no way depend upon the truth of the doctrine of Spontaneous Generation.

[244] Vol. iii. p. 808.

[245] This is hardly an exact representation of Mr. Darwin's view. On his theory, if a favourable variation happens to arise (the external circumstances remaining the same), it will yet be preserved.

[246] See 2nd edition, p. 113.

[247] "Essays, Philosophical and Theological," Trübner and Co., First Series, 1866, p. 190. "Every relative disability may be read two ways. A disqualification in the nature of thought for knowing _x_ is, from the other side, a disqualification in the nature of _x_ from being known. To say then that the First Cause is wholly removed from our apprehension is not simply a disclaimer of faculty on our part: it is a charge of inability against the First Cause too. The dictum about it is this: 'It is a Being that may exist out of knowledge, but that is precluded from entering within the sphere of knowledge.' We are told in one breath that this Being must be in every sense 'perfect, complete, total--including in itself all power, and transcending all law' (p. 38); and in another that this perfect and omnipotent One is totally incapable of revealing any one of an infinite store of attributes. Need we point out the contradictions which this position involves? If you abide by it, you deny the Absolute and Infinite in the very act of affirming it, for, in debarring the First Cause from self-revelation, you impose a limit on its nature. And in the very act of declaring the First Cause incognizable, you do not permit it to remain unknown. For that only is unknown, of which you can neither affirm nor deny any predicate; here you deny the power of self-disclosure to the 'Absolute,' of which therefore something is known;--viz., that nothing can be known!"

[248] Loc. cit. p. 108.

[249] Loc. cit. p. 43.

[250] Loc. cit. p. 46.

[251] Mr. J. Martineau, in his "Essays," vol. i. p. 211, observes, "Mr. Spencer's conditions of pious worship are hard to satisfy; there must be between the Divine and human no communion of thought, relations of conscience, or approach of affection." ... "But you cannot constitute a religion out of mystery alone, any more than out of knowledge alone; nor can you measure the relation of doctrines to humility and piety by the mere amount of conscious darkness which they leave. All worship, being directed to what is _above_ us and transcends our comprehension, stands in presence of a mystery. But not all that stands before a mystery is worship."

[252] "Lay Sermons," p. 20.

[253] Loc. cit. p. 109.

[254] Loc. cit. p. 111.

[255] In this criticism on Mr. Herbert Spencer, the Author finds he has been anticipated by Mr. James Martineau. (See "Essays," vol. i. p. 208.)

[256] Loc. cit. p. 29.

[257] The Author means by this, that it is _directly_ and _immediately_ the act of God, the word "supernatural" being used in a sense convenient for the purposes of this work, and not in its ordinary theological sense.

[258] The phrase "order of nature" is not here used in its theological sense as distinguished from the "order of grace," but as a term, here convenient, to denote actions not due to direct and immediate Divine intervention.

[259] "A Free Examination of Darwin's Treatise," p. 29, reprinted from the _Atlantic Monthly_ for July, August, and October, 1860.

[260] "Origin of Species," 5th edition, p. 571.

[261] "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 431.

[262] The Rev. Baden Powell says, "All sciences approach perfection as they approach to a unity of first principles,--in all cases recurring to or tending towards certain high elementary conceptions which are the representatives of the unity of the great archetypal ideas according to which the whole system is arranged. Inductive conceptions, very partially and imperfectly realized and apprehended by human intellect, are the exponents in our minds of these great principles in nature."

"All science is but the partial reflexion in the _reason of man_, of the great all-pervading _reason of the universe_. And thus the _unity_ of science is the reflexion of the _unity_ of nature, and of the _unity_ of that supreme reason and intelligence which pervades and rules over nature, and from whence all reason and all science is derived." (Unity of Worlds, Essay i., § ii.; Unity of Sciences, pp. 79 and 81.) Also he quotes from Oersted's "Soul in Nature" (pp. 12, 16, 18, 87, 92, and 377). "If the laws of reason did not exist in nature, we should vainly attempt to force them upon her: if the laws of nature did not exist in our reason, we should not be able to comprehend them." ... "We find an agreement between our reason and works which our reason did not produce." ... "All existence is a dominion of reason." "The laws of nature are laws of reason, and altogether form an endless unity of reason; ... one and the same throughout the universe."

[263] In the same way Mr. Lewes, in criticising the Duke of Argyll's "Reign of Law" (_Fortnightly Review_, July 1867, p. 100), asks whether we should consider that man wise who spilt a gallon of wine in order to fill a wineglass? But, because we should not do so, it by no means follows that we can argue from such an action to the action of God in the visible universe. For the man's object, in the case supposed, is simply to fill the wine-glass, and the wine spilt is so much loss. With God it may be entirely different in both respects. All these objections are fully met by the principle thus laid down by St. Thomas Aquinas: "Quod si aliqua causa particularis deficiat a suo effectu, hoc est propter aliquam causam particularem impediantem quæ continetur sub ordine causæ universalis. Unde effectus ordinem causæ universalis nullo modo potest exire." ... "Sicut indigestio contingit præter ordinem virtutis nutritivæ ex aliquo impedimento, puta ex grossitie cibi, quam necesse est reducere in aliam causam, et sic usque ad causam primam universalem. Cum igitur Deus sit prima causa universalis non unius generi tantum, sed universaliter totius entis, impossibile est quod aliquid contingat præter ordinem divinæ gubernationis; sed ex hoc ipso quod aliquid ex unâ parte videtur exire ab ordine divinæ providentiæ, quo consideratur secundam aliquam particularem causam, necesse est quod in eundem ordinem relabatur secundum aliam causam."--_Sum. Theol_. p. i. q. 19, a. 6, and q. 103, a. 7.

[264] "Unity of Worlds," Essay ii., § ii., p. 260.

[265] See the exceedingly good passage on this subject by the Rev. Dr. Newman, in his "Discourses for Mixed Congregations," 1850, p. 345.

[266] See Mr. G. H. Lewes's "Sea-Side Studies," for some excellent remarks, beginning at p. 329, as to the small susceptibility of certain animals to pain.

[267] "Philosophy of Creation," Essay iii., § iv., p. 480.

[268] It seems almost strange that modern English thought should so long hold aloof from familiar communion with Christian writers of other ages and countries. It is rarely indeed that acquaintance is shown with such authors, though a bright example to the contrary was set by Sir William Hamilton. Sir Charles Lyell (in his "Principles of Geology," 7th edition, p. 35) speaks with approval of the early Italian geologists. Of Vallisneri he says, "I return with pleasure to the geologists of Italy who preceded, as has been already shown, the naturalists of other countries in their investigations into the ancient history of the earth, and who still maintained a decided pre-eminence. They refuted and ridiculed the physico-theological systems of Burnet, Whiston, and Woodward; while Vallisneri, in his comments on the Woodwardian theory, remarked how much the interests of religion, as well as of those of sound philosophy, had suffered by perpetually mixing up the sacred writings with questions of physical science." Again, he quotes the Carmelite friar Generelli, who, illustrating Moro before the Academy of Cremona in 1749, strongly opposed those who would introduce the supernatural into the domain of nature. "I hold in utter abomination, most learned Academicians! those systems which are built with their foundations in the air, and cannot be propped up without a miracle, and I undertake, with the assistance of Moro, to explain to you how these marine monsters were transported into the mountains by natural causes."

Sir Charles Lyell notices with exemplary impartiality the spirit of intolerance on both sides. How in France, Buffon, on the one hand, was influenced by the theological faculty of the Sorbonne to recant his theory of the earth, and how Voltaire, on the other, allowed his prejudices to get the better, if not of his judgment, certainly of his expression of it. Thinking that fossil remains of shells, &c., were evidence in favour of orthodox views, Voltaire, Sir Charles Lyell (Principles, p. 56) tells us, "endeavoured to inculcate scepticism as to the real nature of such shells, and to recall from contempt the exploded dogma of the sixteenth century, that they were sports of nature. He also pretended that vegetable impressions were not those of real plants." ... "He would sometimes, in defiance of all consistency, shift his ground when addressing the vulgar; and, admitting the true nature of the shells collected in the Alps and other places, pretend that they were Eastern species, which had fallen from the hats of pilgrims coming from Syria. The numerous essays written by him on geological subjects were all calculated to strengthen prejudices, partly because he was ignorant of the real state of the science, and partly from his bad faith." As to the harmony between many early Church writers of great authority and modern views as regards certain matters of geology, see "Geology and Revelation," by the Rev. Gerald Molloy, D.D., London, 1870.

[269] "De Genesi ad Litt.," lib. v., cap. v., No. 14 in Ben. Edition, voi. iii. p. 186.

[270] Lib. cit., cap. xxii., No. 44.

[271] Lib. cit., "De Trinitate," lib. iii., cap. viii, No. 14.

[272] Lib. cit., cap. ix., No. 16.

[273] St. Thomas, Summa, i., quest. 67, art. 4, ad 3.

[274] Primæ Partis, vol. ii., quest. 74, art. 2.

[275] Lib. cit., quest. 71, art. 1.

[276] Lib. cit., quest. 45, art. 8.

[277] _Vide_ In Genesim Comment, cap. i.

[278] Roger Bacon, Opus tertium, c. ix. p. 27, quoted in the _Rambler_ for 1859, vol. xii. p. 375.

[279] See _Nature_, June and July, 1870. Those who, like Professors Huxley and Tyndall, do not accept his conclusions, none the less agree with him in principle, though they limit the evolution of the organic world from the inorganic to a very remote period of the world's history. (See Professor Huxley's address to the British Association at Liverpool, 1870, p. 17.)

[280] "Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic," vol. i. Lecture ii., p. 40.

[281] In the same way that an undue cultivation of any one kind of knowledge is prejudicial to philosophy. Mr. James Martineau well observes, "Nothing is more common than to see maxims, which are unexceptionable as the assumptions of particular sciences, coerced into the service of a universal philosophy, and so turned into instruments of mischief and distortion. That "we can know nothing but phenomena,"--that "causation is simply constant priority,"--that "men are governed invariably by their interests," are examples of rules allowable as dominant hypotheses in physics or political economy, but exercising a desolating tyranny when thrust on to the throne of universal empire. He who seizes upon these and similar maxims, and carries them in triumph on his banner, may boast of his escape from the uncertainties of metaphysics, but is himself all the while the unconscious victim of their very vulgarest deception." ("Essays," Second Series, _A Plea for Philosophical Studies_, p. 421.)

[282] Lecky's "History of Rationalism," vol. i. p. 73.

[283] "Lectures on University Subjects," by J. H. Newman, D.D., p. 322.

[284] Loc. cit. p. 324.

[285] Thus Professor Tyndall, in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ of June 15, 1868, speaking of physical science, observes, "The _logical feebleness_ of science is not sufficiently borne in mind. It keeps down the weed of superstition, not by logic, but by slowly rendering the mental soil unfit for its cultivation."

[286] By this it is not, of course, meant to deny that the existence of God can be demonstrated so as to demand the assent of the intellect taken, so to speak, by itself.

[287] See some excellent remarks in the Rev. Dr. Newman's Parochial Sermons--the new edition (1869), vol. i. p. 211.

[288] _American Journal of Science_, July 1860, p. 143, quoted in Dr. Asa Gray's pamphlet, p. 47.

[289] See _The Academy_ for October 1869, No. 1, p. 13.

[290] Professor Huxley goes on to say that the mechanist may, in turn, demand of the teleologist how the latter knows it was so intended. To this it may be replied he knows it as a necessary truth of reason deduced from his own primary intuitions, which intuitions cannot be questioned without _absolute_ scepticism.

[291] The Professor doubtless means the _direct_ and _immediate_ result. (See Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. v. p. 90.)

[292] "Natural Selection," p. 280.

[293] Dr. Asa Gray, _e.g._, has thus understood Mr. Darwin. The Doctor says in his pamphlet, p. 38, "Mr. Darwin uses expressions which imply that the natural forms which surround us, because they have a history or natural sequence, could have been only generally, but not particularly designed,--a view at once superficial and contradictory; whereas his true line should be, that his hypothesis concerns the _order_ and not the _cause_, the _how_ and not the _why_ of the phenomena, and so leaves the question of design just where it was before."

[294] "All science is but the partial reflexion in the _reason of man_, of the great all-pervading _reason of the universe_. And the _unity_ of science is the reflexion of the _unity_ of nature and of the _unity_ of that supreme reason and intelligence which pervades and rules over nature, and from whence all reason and all science is derived." (Rev. Baden Powell, "Unity of the Sciences," Essay i. § ii. p. 81.)

[295] "The Reign of Law," p. 40.

[296] Though Mr. Darwin's epithets denoting design are metaphorical, his admiration of the result is unequivocal, nay, enthusiastic!

[297] See "Habit and Intelligence," vol. i. p. 348.

[298] The term, as before said, not being used in its ordinary theological sense, but to denote an immediate Divine action as distinguished from God's action through the powers conferred on the physical universe.

[299] See "Natural Selection," pp. 332 to 360.

[300] Loc. cit., p. 349.

[301] See Professor Huxley's "Lessons in Elementary Physiology," p. 218.

[302] It may be objected, perhaps, that excessive delicacy of the ear might have been produced by having to guard against the approach of enemies, some savages being remarkable for their keenness of hearing at great distances. But the perceptions of _intensity_ and _quality_ of sound are very different. Some persons who have an extremely acute ear for delicate sounds, and who are fond of music, have yet an incapacity for detecting whether an instrument is slightly out of tune.

[303] Loc. cit., pp. 351, 352.

[304] Loc. cit., p. 368.

[305] Loc. cit., p. 350.

[306] Published by John Churchill.

[307] Natural Selection, p. 324.

[308] The italics are not Mr. Wallace's.

[309] "Unity of Worlds," Essay ii. § ii. p. 247.

[310] Ibid. Essay i. § ii. p. 76.

[311] Ibid. Essay iii. § iv. p. 466.

[312] A good exposition of how an inferior action has to yield to one higher is given by Dr. Newman in his "Lectures on University Subjects," p. 372. "What is true in one science, is dictated to us indeed according to that science, but not according to another science, or in another department.

"What is certain in the military art, has force in the military art, but not in statesmanship; and if statesmanship be a higher department of action than war, and enjoins the contrary, it has no force on our reception and obedience at all. And so what is true in medical science, might in all cases be carried out, _were_ man a mere animal or brute without a soul; but since he is a rational, responsible being, a thing may be ever so true in medicine, yet may be unlawful in fact, in consequence of the _higher_ law of morals and religion coming to some different conclusion."

[313] Quoted from the _Rambler_ of March 1860, p. 364: [Greek: "Hopou men oun hapanta sunebê, hôsper kain ei heneka tou egineto, tauta men esôthê apo tou automatou sustanta epitêdeiôs hosa de mê houtôs apôleto kai apollutai, kathapeo Empedoklês legei ta bougenê kai androprôra.]"--ARIST. _Phys._ ii. c. 8.

End of Project Gutenberg's On the Genesis of Species, by St. George Mivart