On the Genesis of Species Part 18

Here, surely, we have an instance of an organ preformed, ready beforehand for such action as could never by itself have been the cause of its development,--the action having only been subsequent, not anterior. The Author is not aware what may be the minute structure of the internal ear in the highest apes, but if (as from a.n.a.logy is probable) it is much as in man, then _a fortiori_ we have an instance of _antic.i.p.atory_ development of a most marked and unmistakable kind. And this is not all. There is no {280} reason to suppose that any animal besides man appreciates musical _harmony_. It is certain that no other one _produces_ it.

Mr. Wallace also urges objections drawn from the origin of some of man's mental faculties, such as "the capacity to form ideal conceptions of s.p.a.ce and time, of eternity and infinity--the capacity for intense artistic feelings of pleasure, in form, colour and composition--and for those abstract notions of form and number which render geometry and arithmetic possible," also from the origin of the moral sense.[303]

The validity of these objections is fully conceded by the Author of this book, but he would push it much further, and contend (as has been now repeatedly said), that another law, or other laws, than "Natural Selection"

have determined the evolution of _all_ organic forms, and of inorganic forms also. And it must be contended that Mr. Wallace, in order to be quite self-consistent, should arrive at the very same conclusion, inasmuch as he is inclined to trace all phenomena to the action of superhuman WILL. He says:[304] "If therefore we have traced one force, however minute, to an origin in our own WILL, while we have no knowledge of any other primary cause of force, it does not seem an improbable conclusion that all force may be will-force; and thus, that the whole universe is not merely dependent on, but actually _is_, the WILL of higher intelligences, or of one Supreme Intelligence."

If there is really evidence, as Mr. Wallace believes, of the action of an overruling intelligence in the evolution of the "human form divine;" if we may go so far as this, then surely an a.n.a.logous action may well be traced in the production of the horse, the camel, or the dog, so largely identified with human wants and requirements. And if from other than physical considerations we may believe that such action, though undemonstrable, has been and is; then (reflecting on sensible {281} phenomena the theistic light derived from psychical facts) we may, in the language of Mr. Wallace, "see indications of that power in facts which, by themselves, would not serve to prove its existence."[305]

Mr. Murphy, as has been said before, finds it necessary to accept the wide-spread action of "intelligence" as the agent by which _all_ organic forms have been called forth from the inorganic. But all science tends to unity, and this tendency makes it reasonable to extend to all physical existences a mode of formation which we may have evidence for in any _one_ of them. It therefore makes it reasonable to extend, if possible, the very same agency which we find operating in the field of biology, also to the inorganic world. If on the grounds brought forward the action of intelligence may be affirmed in the production of man's bodily structure, it becomes probable _a priori_ that it may also be predicated of the formative action by which has been produced the animals which minister to him, and all organic life whatsoever. Nay more, it is then congruous to expect a.n.a.logous action in the development of crystalline and colloidal structures, and in that of all chemical compositions, in geological evolutions, and the formation not only of this earth, but of the solar system and whole sidereal universe.

If such really be the direction in which physical science, philosophically considered, points; if intelligence may thus be seen to preside over the evolution of each system of worlds and the unfolding of every blade of gra.s.s--this grand result harmonizes indeed with the teachings of faith that G.o.d acts and concurs, in the natural order, with those laws of the material universe which were not only inst.i.tuted by His will, but are sustained by His concurrence; and we are thus enabled to discern in the natural order, however darkly, the Divine Author of nature--Him in whom "we live, and move, and have our being."

But if this view is accepted, then it is no longer absolutely {282} necessary to suppose that any action different in kind took place in the production of man's body, from that which took place in the production of the bodies of other animals, and of the whole material universe.

Of course, if it _can_ be demonstrated that that difference which Mr.

Wallace a.s.serts really exists, it is plain that we then have to do with facts not only harmonizing with religion, but, as it were, preaching and proclaiming it.

It is not, however, necessary for Christianity that any such view should prevail. Man, according to the old scholastic definition, is "a rational animal" (_animal rationale_), and his animality is distinct in nature from his rationality, though inseparably joined, during life, in one common personality. This animal body must have had a different source from that of the spiritual soul which informs it, from the distinctness of the two orders to which those two existences severally belong.

Scripture seems plainly to indicate this when it says that "G.o.d made man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." This is a plain and direct statement that man's _body_ was _not_ created in the primary and absolute sense of the word, but was evolved from pre-existing material (symbolized by the term "dust of the earth"), and was therefore only _derivatively created_, i.e. by the operation of secondary laws. His _soul_, on the other hand, was created in quite a different way, not by any pre-existing means, external to G.o.d himself, but by the direct action of the Almighty, symbolized by the term "breathing:" the very form adopted by Christ, when conferring the _supernatural_ powers and graces of the Christian dispensation, and a form still daily used in the rites and ceremonies of the Church.

That the first man should have had this double origin agrees with what we now experience. For supposing each human soul to be directly and immediately created, yet each human body is evolved by the ordinary operation of natural physical laws. [Page 283]

Professor Flower in his Introductory Lecture[306] (p. 20) to his course of Hunterian Lectures for 1870 well observes: "Whatever man's place may be, either _in_ or _out_ of nature, whatever hopes, or fears or feelings about himself or his race he may have, we all of us admit that these are quite uninfluenced by our knowledge of the fact that each individual man comes into the world by the ordinary processes of generation, according to the same laws which apply to the development of all organic beings whatever, that every part of him which can come under the scrutiny of the anatomist or naturalist, has been evolved according to these regular laws from a simple minute ovum, indistinguishable to our senses from that of any of the inferior animals. If this be so--if man is what he is, notwithstanding the corporeal mode of origin of the individual man, so he will a.s.suredly be neither less nor more than man, whatever may be shown regarding the corporeal origin of the whole race, whether this was from the dust of the earth, or by the modification of some pre-existing animal form."

Man is indeed compound, in him two distinct orders of being impinge and mingle; and with this an origin from two concurrent modes of action is congruous, and might be expected _a priori_. At the same time as the "soul"

is "the form of the body," the former might be expected to modify the latter into a structure of harmony and beauty standing alone in the organic world of nature. Also that, with the full perfection and beauty of that soul, attained by the concurrent action of "Nature" and "Grace," a character would be formed like nothing else which is visible in this world, and having a mode of action different, inasmuch as complementary to all inferior modes of action.

Something of this is evident even to those who approach the subject from the point of view of physical science only. Thus Mr. Wallace observes,[307]

that on his view man is to be placed "apart, as not only the head and {284} culminating point of the grand series of organic nature, but as in some degree _a new and distinct order of being_.[308] From those infinitely remote ages when the first rudiments of organic life appeared upon the earth, every plant and every animal has been subject to one great law of physical change. As the earth has gone through its grand cycles of geological, climatal, and organic progress, every form of life has been subject to its irresistible action, and has been continually but imperceptibly moulded into such new shapes as would preserve their harmony with the ever-changing universe. No living thing could escape this law of its being; none (except, perhaps, the simplest and most rudimentary organisms) could remain unchanged and live amid the universal change around it."

"At length, however, there came into existence a being in whom that subtle force we term _mind_, became of greater importance than his mere bodily structure. Though with a naked and unprotected body, _this_ gave him clothing against the varying inclemencies of the seasons. Though unable to compete with the deer in swiftness, or with the wild bull in strength, _this_ gave him weapons with which to capture or overcome both. Though less capable than most other animals of living on the herbs and the fruits that unaided nature supplies, this wonderful faculty taught him to govern and direct nature to his own benefit, and make her produce food for him when and where he pleased. From the moment when the first skin was used as a covering; when the first rude spear was formed to a.s.sist in the chase; when fire was first used to cook his food; when the first seed was sown or shoot planted, a grand revolution was effected in nature, a revolution which in all the previous ages of the earth's history had had no parallel, for a being had arisen who was no longer necessarily subject to change with the changing universe, a being who was in some degree superior to nature, inasmuch as he knew how to control and regulate her action, and could {285} keep himself in harmony with her, not by a change in body, but by an advance in mind."

"On this view of his special attributes, we may admit 'that he is indeed a being apart.' Man has not only escaped 'Natural Selection' himself, but he is actually able to take away some of that power from nature which before his appearance she universally exercised. We can antic.i.p.ate the time when the earth will produce only cultivated plants and domestic animals; when man's selection shall have supplanted 'Natural Selection;' and when the ocean will be the only domain in which that power can be exerted."

Baden Powell[309] observes on this subject: "The relation of the animal man to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual man, resembles that of a crystal slumbering in its native quarry to the same crystal mounted in the polarizing apparatus of the philosopher. The difference is not in physical nature, but in investing that nature with a new and higher application. Its continuity with the material world remains the same, but a new relation is developed in it, and it claims kindred with ethereal matter and with celestial light."

This well expresses the distinction between the merely physical and the hyperphysical natures of man, and the subsumption of the former into the latter which dominates it.

The same author in speaking of man's moral and spiritual nature says,[310]

"The a.s.sertion in its very nature and essence refers wholly to a DIFFERENT ORDER OF THINGS, apart from and transcending any material ideas whatsoever." Again[311] he adds, "In proportion as man's _moral_ superiority is held to consist in attributes _not_ of a _material_ or corporeal kind or origin, it can signify little how his _physical_ nature may have originated."

Now physical science, as such, has nothing to do with the soul of man which is hyperphysical. That such an ent.i.ty exists, that the correlated {286} physical forces go through their Protean transformations, have their persistent ebb and flow outside of the world of WILL and SELF-CONSCIOUS MORAL BEING, are propositions the proofs of which have no place in this work. This at least may however be confidently affirmed, that no reach of physical science in any coming century will ever approach to a demonstration that countless modes of being, as different from each other as are the force of gravitation and conscious maternal love, may not co-exist. Two such modes are made known to us by our natural faculties only: the physical, which includes the first of these examples; the hyperphysical, which embraces the other. For those who accept revelation, a third and a distinct mode of being and of action is also made known, namely, the direct and immediate or, in the sense here given to the term, the supernatural. An a.n.a.logous relations.h.i.+p runs through and connects all these modes of being and of action. The higher mode in each case employs and makes use of the lower, the action of which it occasionally suspends or alters, as gravity is suspended by electro-magnetic action, or the living energy of an organic being restrains the inter-actions of the chemical affinities belonging to its various const.i.tuents.

Thus conscious will controls and directs the exercise of the vital functions according to desire, and moral consciousness tends to control desire in obedience to higher dictates.[312] The action of living {287} organisms depends upon and subsumes the laws of inorganic matter. Similarly the actions of animal life depend upon and subsume the laws of organic matter. In the same way the actions of a self-conscious moral agent, such as man, depend upon and subsume the laws of animal life. When a part or the whole series of these natural actions is altered or suspended by the intervention of action of a still higher order, we have then a "miracle."

In this way we find a perfect harmony in the double nature of man, his rationality making use of and subsuming his animality; his soul arising from direct and immediate creation, and his body being formed at first (as now in each separate individual) by derivative or secondary creation, through natural laws. By such secondary creation, _i.e._ by natural laws, for the most part as yet unknown but controlled by "Natural Selection," all the various kinds of animals and plants have been manifested on this planet. That Divine action has concurred and concurs in these laws we know by deductions from our primary intuitions; and physical science, if unable to demonstrate such action, is at least as impotent to disprove it.

Disjoined from these deductions, the phenomena of the universe present an aspect devoid of all that appeals to the loftiest aspirations of man, that which stimulates his efforts after goodness, and presents consolations for unavoidable shortcomings. Conjoined with these same deductions, all the harmony of physical nature and the constancy of its laws are preserved unimpaired, while the reason, the conscience, and the aesthetic instincts are alike gratified. We have thus a true reconciliation of science and religion, in which each gains and neither loses, one being complementary to the other.

Some apology is due to the reader for certain observations and arguments which have been here advanced, and which have little in the shape of novelty to recommend them. But after all, novelty can hardly be predicated of the views here criticised and opposed. Some of these seem almost a {288} return to the "fortuitous concourse of atoms" of Democritus, and even the very theory of "Natural Selection" itself--a "survival of the fittest"--was in part thought out not hundreds but _thousands_ of years ago. Opponents of Aristotle maintained that by the accidental occurrence of combinations, organisms have been preserved and perpetuated such as final causes, did they exist, would have brought about, disadvantageous combinations or variations being speedily exterminated. "For when the very same combinations happened to be produced which the law of final causes would have called into being, those combinations which proved to be advantageous to the organism were preserved; while those which were not advantageous perished, and still perished like the minotaurs and sphinxes of Empedocles."[313]

In conclusion, the Author ventures to hope that this treatise may not be deemed useless, but have contributed, however slightly, towards clearing the way for peace and conciliation and for a more ready perception, of the harmony which exists between those deductions from our primary intuitions before alluded to, and the teachings of physical science, as far, that is, as concerns the evolution of organic forms--_the genesis of species_.

The aim has been to support the doctrine that these species have been evolved by ordinary _natural laws_ (for the most part unknown) controlled by the _subordinate_ action of "Natural Selection," and at the same time to remind some that there is and can be absolutely nothing in physical science which forbids them to regard those natural laws as acting with the Divine concurrence and in obedience to a creative fiat originally imposed on the primeval Cosmos, "in the beginning," by its Creator, its Upholder, and its Lord.

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INDEX.

A.

Aard-Vark, 174.

Absolute creation, 252.

Acanthometrae, 186.

Acrodont teeth, 148.

Acts formally moral, 195.

Acts materially moral, 195.

Adductor muscles, 79.

Aga.s.siz, Professor, 271.

Aged, care of, 192.

Aggregational theory, 163.

Algoa Bay, cat of, 98.

Allantois, 82.

Amazons, b.u.t.terflies of, 85.

Amazons, cholera in the, 192.

American b.u.t.terflies, 29.

American maize, 100.

American monkeys, 226.

Amiurus, 147.

Amphibia, 109.

a.n.a.logical relations, 157.

Ancon sheep, 100, 103, 227.

Andrew Murray, Mr., 83.

Angora cats, 175.

Animal's sufferings, 260.

Ankle bones, 158.

Annelids undergoing fission, 169, 211.

Annulosa, eye of, 76.

Anoplotherium, 109.

Anteater, 83.

Antechinus, 82.

Antenna, of orchid, 56.

Anthropomorphism, 258.

Ape's s.e.xual characters, 49.

Apostles' Creed, 245.

Appendages of lobster, 161.

Appendages of Normandy pigs, 99.

Appendages of turkey, 100.