BL 263 .D2 1901 Dadson, A. J. Evolution, and its bearing on religions m Ih EVOLUTION, AND ITS BEARING ON RELIGIONS HAECKEL'S PEDIGREE OF MAN. Si I ft Soft Animals (Stolluscsj 5 | h l] p.- EVOLUTION, AND ITS BEARING ON RELIGIONS BY A. J. DADSON WITH FIVE PLATES NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1 90 1 PRINTED BY Cowan & Co. Ltd. PERTH CONTENTS CHAP. rACB I. ANCIENT EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT 9 II. INORGANIC FORMATION 17 III. ORGANIC FORMATION 24 IV. PALAEONTOLOGY 5 1 V. EMBRYOLOGY 72 VI. RUDIMENTARY ORGANS 83 vii. darwin's law 86 viii. the soul ioo IX. EVOLUTION OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS - - - - 115 X. JESUS - - - 139 XI. PRE-CHRISTIAN CIVILISATION .... I4 y .XII. DECADENCE OF ROME 1 73 XIII. FROM THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY TO CONSTANTINE l8l XIV. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 1 97 XV. FROM CONSTANTINE TO THE CRUSADES - - 209 XVI. CRUSADES TO REFORMATION • - - - 228 XVII. MODERN CHRISTIANITY 238 PREFACE Under the title, "Evolution and Religion," part of this book was published in 1893. The chapters on Evolution have been revised, to the extent necessitated by fresh discovery and the increased knowledge of recent years. The remainder has been treated in a somewhat different manner, and almost entirely rewritten ; so that the present volume, " Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions," is substantially a new book. The subject of Evolution has been before the world for over two thousand years ; but it is only within the last half century that its great and far-reaching con- sequences have been appreciated. The genius and labours of Darwin shed a great light upon the mind, and created a revolution in thought upon some of the most momentous and serious subjects. It is true that long before his time the theory of gradual development had been accepted by the thinking few; but it was owing to his discoveries that it received wide public recognition, and became incorporated in the body of organised knowledge. Other thinkers had divined the truth that the organic, like the inorganic, has arisen from the operation of an all-embracing mechanical law. It was reserved for Darwin to prove it, by discovering the natural law under the operation of which the living world in all its forms has arisen. The powerful interests involved in the ultimate con- sequences of such views becoming accepted by the public, raised a violent storm of opposition which had an educational effect contrary to that intended and hoped for by the opponents of Evolution. It was seen that the truth of the theory was making progress among all classes ; and in the hope of saving the great interests from complete wreck, Darwin was appealed to, and 5 6 Preface asked to give his great authority to the view that man, at least, was exempt from the evolutionary theory, and had been specially created. Darwin's reply is well known. He could not regard man's origin as the result of special creation. He, like every other creature, was the product of Evolution, and had arisen through many gradations from lower animal forms. There was, there- fore, no escaping the obligation to apply the law of Evolution to man's mental, moral, and religious progress, since it would manifestly be absurd to credit his animal ancestors with these endowments. To thoughtful minds it became evident that this necessitated a readjustment of our mental attitude towards the specific forms of religious belief current among us, the fruits of which are now seen in many directions. Once establish the truth that man, as a part of Universal Nature, has been gradually evolved, through long ages, from the lowest forms of organic life by the operation of the great mechanical law of Evolution, which embraces all things, and is, in accordance with that law, still progressing to greater and higher degrees of complexity and perfection, and it is seen how deep and far-reaching must be the effect. The object of this book is to awaken interest in the subject in the mind of the intelligent reading public, and to endeavour to show that every form of belief which is built upon material other than that which is supplied by natural law has no scientific validity ; and must undergo modification from time to time, and be finally rejected when it is plainly understood to contra- dict or disagree with the laws of Nature, which are the supreme arbiters in all human affairs. It is seen to be, not a question as to whether or not we would continue the preservation of forms of belief, with which may be associated some of the happiest elements of our emotional life, past and present, but rather one over which we have little or no control ; and, whether we will it or not, that which does not conform to, or is found to be inconsistent with, the advance of scientific culture is destined to fall out of regard, and eventually die. The rationale of it Preface 7 seems to be, that the human path is lighted for us, and guided by the laws of Nature, and in so far as we follow that light we tread on firm ground ; but the moment we abandon that trusty guide and step aside, we are in an unknown region, and may have to retrace every step we take. History shows how largely the human mind has been engrossed with the problem of its relation to the Uni- verse, and it bears evidence to the melancholy fact that all attempts to solve the mystery on supernatural lines have been rendered untenable by the advance of scientific research. The utterances of some of the best minds of our age express the futility of continuing to base our hopes of enlightenment upon assumptions which have no foundation in the verifiable facts of existence ; and which more and more diverge from, and fall out of co-ordination with, those facts as time goes on, and our knowledge of the orderly course of Nature is increased and strengthened by extended observation and new discovery. All the explanations of man's place in Nature and his relation to the Unknown Power, which are based on those assumptions, have been discredited, and it is perhaps scarcely an exaggeration to say that they now form but a comparatively small part of the intellectual life of the thinking part of the world. Some of those who recognise the futility of evolving from the imagina- tion inconsistent and meaningless explanations, never- theless hold that the need to the great majority of some kind of concrete form of faith makes it a duty to refrain from criticising it by the light of positive knowledge. In reply to this, it may be urged that faith is largely a matter dependent upon early teaching and custom ; and when it is succeeded by reasoned scepticism, the latter will bring its own mental compensation for any emotional loss that may be sustained. Moreover, as truth has for us an indestructible significance, inasmuch as it is the ideal goal and object of all endeavour, to follow it according to our lights, under all circumstances, would appear to override all other considerations ; and to connive at its suppression in the interests of a back- 8 Preface ward stage in progress is to retard the advance of know- ledge, in proportion as the perpetuation of fallacies is thereby secured. If the only true light is that which is afforded by science, and the verifiable laws of Nature are the only solid foundations on which we can build, no apology will be needed for treating the subject of religion, in its positive forms, by those rational methods which alone we recognise as permissible in all other subjects of inquiry. Looking back upon past and discarded creeds, on the specific promises of which millions of human beings founded their happiness and hopes, we of a more en- lightened age can appreciate the effect of the growth of knowledge in disclosing their unsubstantial and erroneous character, though they were matters of the deepest im- port to those generations. We have not reached finality ; indeed, civilised man is only yet in his infancy ; and as we, with our greater and truer knowledge of Nature, look back upon the beliefs of past ages, so will our descendants in a still more enlightened age in the future look back upon those which are current amongst the majority to-day. And so probably will it ever be in the ascending scale of complex human life. To eliminate superstition and supernaturalism as a creed is one of the aids, perhaps the greatest, to intellectual growth and purity of mind, on which welfare and progress depend. This is the justification for seeking to rationalise religious belief, by subjecting it to the judgment of reason, which is the only reliable guide given to man. ARTHUR J. DADSON. Farningham, Kent. EVOLUTION, AND ITS BEARING ON RELIGIONS CHAPTER I ANCIENT EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT ABOUT fifty years ago, the author of "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation " began that famous work by referring to the size of the earth as being familiar knowledge. In like manner we may now say, in regard to the age of the earth, it is common knowledge that, so far from being some six thousand years old, we must reckon it by many millions at least. The vast age of our globe few now dispute ; and we may fairly assume that the theory of gradual development is now accepted by the majority of thoughtful, educated people. The Doctrine of Evolution is not an original product of modern science ; it was an important feature in ancient Greek philosophy ; and we meet with it as far back as 460 B.C., in the writings of Democritus and others. Only a few fragments of the works of that eminent thinker have come down to us ; but from them we learn his theory of the Universe. He taught that there is nothing in Nature but atoms and space. Atoms are the ultimate material of all things, including all the faculties and affections of mind or spirit throughout the animal kingdom. They possess, as an inseparable quality of their nature, motion, which, like the atoms themselves, is eternal. Both are self-existent, uncaused, and have existed from eternity. The atoms are 9 io Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions invisible, but solid and impenetrable ; and by their infinite combinations all things are produced — mineral, vegetable, and animal. Not a single atom in the Universe can be at rest for the smallest fraction of time ; such a state would destroy its character, which is eternal. Motion imparts to the atoms a tendency to combine in certain aggre- gates, but under all forms of combination motion persists. Every state of existence, organic and inor- ganic, is the result of special concurrence of the atoms, appropriate to each state ; and as the totality of Nature is due to the atoms, and their infinite variety of com- bination alone, it follows that what we call life and death are changes of form only — distribution and combination of the atoms, reproduction and decay ; and every organic existence is continuously passing through one or the other of these states. The condition known as life is one in which the atoms are combining ; that of death in which they are disuniting ; but in both conditions, the nature of the atoms remains unchanged. There is no such thing as qualitative change ; all growth and decay are merely the compounding and separating of atoms. No organism can possess any powers which are not derived from the motion of the atoms, and their infinite com- plexity of structure. It follows from the foregoing that at birth no new force can be brought into existence, neither can any be annihilated at death. The popular notions, therefore, which regard the human soul as an entity are erroneous, since they presuppose the creation of a new force at birth, and the vanishing of that entity and force from the earth at death. Matter is a constant quantity, so also is force. Both are incapable of diminution or augmentation. Everything happens from necessity, under the pressure of atomic force ; and worlds, infinite in number, are ever in process of growth or decay. By a me- chanical necessity, everything that is, is as it is, and could not be otherwise. Democritus would not admit that the formation of worlds and all they contain was in any way due to reason, and absolutely denied the Ancient Evolutionary Thought n necessity for presupposing the existence of an ordaining Intelligence. He was, of course, opposed to the popular theology of his day, and was looked upon as an extreme sceptic, and reviled accordingly. The theology has long since passed away, but his philosophy has lived, and is bearing fruit to-day in various departments of Philosophy and Science. " The theory of chemistry, as it now exists, essentially includes his views." During this period, and down to the time of the Christian era, the intellectual activity of the Greeks was very great ; and in the monumental works which those illustrious thinkers gave to the world, the subject of evolution occupies a prominent place. 1 The crude notions of the priests regarding the origin and constitu- tion of the Universe, which satisfied the people, could not, of course, find any favour with men so intellectually endowed as were the sages of Greece. The prevailing belief of the structure of the world was similar in regard to magnitude and character to that given by Moses. Man was surrounded by all sorts of invisible agencies and supernatural wonders ; and his chief object in life was to protect himself against their evil influence. A few miles above the earth was situated Olympus, the abode of the principal god, Zeus, who, sur- rounded by his inferior gods and their wives and mistresses, indulged in various acts of human crime and passion. The stars were supposed to be the light of heaven shining through the rents in the floor. The gods occasionally came down from their abodes and mixed with the daughters of men, and kings and chiefs, in consequence, claimed celestial descent on the paternal side. This theological explanation of the Universe was held from time immemorial in great veneration by the in- habitants of the islands of the Mediterranean and the surrounding countries. And great was the wrath of the people, led by the theologians, against the philosophers of Greece for daring to question the religion of their forefathers. Many were despoiled of their goods as a punishment, and others banished or put to death. 1 See article on " Evolution " in " Encyclopaedia Britannica." 12 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions Belief in such a system necessarily precluded all inquiry and progress among the people ; but the intel- lectual horizon was widening in all directions when Aristotle appeared, 384 B.C. Before his time Greek philosophy had been purely speculative. He was the first to practise the true method of scientific research by patient observation of the facts of Nature around him. He is called the founder of the Inductive method. He accepted the Evolutionary theory in principle, and by his labours in every known field of inquiry, he collected an immense number of facts bearing upon and support- ing the Theory of Universal Development. Dr. Draper 1 truly says all the modern advances in science are due to the Inductive philosophy established by Aristotle. For his fundamental views of Nature, Aristotle was greatly indebted to Democritus, and invariably speaks of him with great respect. The idea of the organic arising from the inorganic was familiar to him. In his treatise "On the Parts of Animals," he explains the distinction between tissues and organs, and shows how the latter are built up from the former, and the former from the simple elements, heat, etc. " Out of the elements are formed the homo- geneous substances or tissues ; out of these are formed the organs ; out of the organs the organised being." Next he treats of the soul or " vital principle," which he asserts to be common to all living beings, including man. And even what we call inanimate nature is endowed with the same principle. The soul is not a separate entity, dwelling in the body during life, and leaving it for an eternal existence at death, but is rather a part of the universal soul or " vital principle," which, though it lives in the race — the universal, it dies in the individual — the particular. The Ethical end of man he believed to be happiness, which was to be attained by Justice and Culture. He was acquainted with over five hundred species of animals, and by close observation and dissection had discovered many rudimentary organs and their causes. The germs of the " Origin of Species " are plainly discernible in his 1 " Conflict between Religion and Science," p. 23. Ancient Evolutionary Thought 13 works. He believed in the gradual development of all things, and rejected the notion that Nature works by fits and starts, or what in recent years have been called catastrophes. " He concluded that everything is ready to burst into life, and that the various organic forms presented to us by Nature are those which existing conditions permit ; should the conditions change, the forms will also change. Hence there is an unbroken chain from the simple elements through plants and animals up to man, the different groups merging by insensible shades into each other." 1 " With regard to the history of Evolution, it is es- pecially noticeable that Aristotle traced it in the most diverse classes of animals, especially in connection with the lower animals, with several of the most remarkable facts which we have rediscovered only towards the middle of the present century. Some of his theoretical thoughts are of special interest, because they indicate a right fundamental principle of the nature of the processes of evolution. " He conceives the evolution of the individual to be a new formation, in which the several parts of the body develop one after the other. According to him, when the human or animal individual develops either within the mother's body or out of it in the egg } the heart is formed first, and is the beginning and the centre of the body. After the heart is formed the other organs appear; of them the interior precede the exterior, and the upper, or those above the diaphragm, precede the lower, or those below it. The brain is formed at a very early stage, and out of it grow the eyes. This assertion is indeed quite accurate. On trying to obtain from these statements of Aristotle an idea of his conception of the processes of evolution, we find that they indicate a faint presentiment of that theory of evolution whicn is now called Epi- genesis, and which Wolff, some two thousand years later, first proved. It is especially remarkable that Aristotle altogether denied the eternity of the individual. He admitted that the kind of species, formed from indi- 1 Dr. Draper, " Conflict between Religion and Science," p. 23. 14 Evolution^ and its Bearing on Religions viduals of the same kind, might possibly be eternal, but asserted that the individual itself was transient, that it came into being anew in the act of generation, and perished at death." 1 These are, indeed, grand results to have arrived at nearly 2,200 years ago ; and yet only within the present century have they borne any fruit. The evolutionary idea was present to many of the great minds of antiquity, as may be seen from isolated expressions scattered through their writings. Cicero says, " One eternal and immutable law embraces all things and all times." In this we have the scientific conception of modern times, as opposed to the anthropomorphical ideas of the theologians, that a personal will directly superintends every event, however small. In the writings of Zeno, the founder of the ethical School of Philosophy in Greece, we find the most comprehensive and advanced views : " We must remember," he says, " that everything around us is in Mutation ; decay follows reproduction, and reproduction decay, and it is useless to repine at death in a world where everything is dying. As a cataract shows from year to year an invariable shape, though the water composing it is perpetually changing, so the aspect of Nature is nothing more than a flow of matter, present- ing an impermanent form. The Universe, considered as a whole, is unchangeable. Nothing is eternal but space, atoms, force. The forms of Nature that we see are essentially transitory, they must all pass away. " We must bear in mind that the majority of men are im- perfectly educated, and hence we must not needlessly offend the religious ideas of our age. It is enough for us ourselves to know that though there is a Supreme Power there is no Supreme Being. There is an invisible principle, but not a personal God, to whom it would be not so much blasphemy as absurdity to impute the forms, the sentiments, the passions of man. All revelation is necessarily a mere fiction. That which men call chance is only the effect of an unknown cause. Even of chance there is a law. There is no such thing as Providence, for Nature proceeds under irresistible laws, and in this respect the Universe is only a vast automatic engine. The vital force which pervades the world the illiterate call God. The soul of man is a spark of the vital flame, the general vital principle. Like heat, it passes from one to another, and is finally reabsorbed or reunited in the universal 1 E. Haeckel, "The Evolution of Man," vol. i., pp. 27-29. Ancient Evolutionary Thought 15 principle from which it came. Hence we must not expect annihila- tion, but reunion ; and as the tired man looks forward to the insensibility of sleep, so the philosopher, weary of the world, should look forward to the tranquillity of extinction." He further says, however, that " of these things we can have no certain knowledge, since it is not only unphilosophical but futile to inquire into first causes ; we can deal only with the phenomenal. Man cannot ascertain absolute truth ; we are incapable of perfect knowledge ; and even if the truth be in our possession, we cannot be sure of it." x It will be noticed that Zeno uses the words " annihilation " and " extinction " in two different senses. No part of us can be annihilated, but simply changed in form. The bodily part at death rejoins the matter of the world from which it was taken and built up, while the vital force, according to him, in like manner goes back to the universal force, and is re- absorbed. This change of form produces extinction of consciousness ; and this appears to be the sense in which he uses the word "extinction," or its equiva- lent. Everything about the individual becomes reabsorbed in the universal. The Greek thinker here foreshadows the modern doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, supposing the " vital energy " to be a manifestation of general physical force. So far, then, we see that the universal law of Evolution, by which worlds and all they contain are produced, was known to the ancients. Beginning with matter and force, they had evolved the theory that from these two elements all Nature has arisen in one continuous, unbroken chain, the last link of which is man. All the forms of Nature have arisen by imperceptible degrees, the higher from the lower, without the slightest break in the whole series of being, both organic and inorganic. This grand and true conception was given to the world in the early days of recorded history. It died like every other great discovery of 1 Dr. Draper's " Conflict between Religion and Science," pp. 24, 25. 1 6 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions ancient times, and lay buried for over 1,800 years, not a trace of it being discernible during that long period. The rediscovery was reserved for the latter part of the eighteenth century. CHAPTER II INORGANIC FORMATION In 1755 Kant, the great German philosopher, published his " General History of Nature, and Theory of the Heavens." In this work Kant makes a bold attempt to explain the mechanical origin of the Universe, according to Newton's principles, by a natural course of develop- ment, to the exclusion of all miracles. His " Cosmo- logical Gas Theory " has since been fully established by Laplace and Herschel. Kant held that in inorganic nature there was no necessity to conceive of any direct- ing intelligence, that mechanical laws were alone sufficient to account for everything. All phenomena, he maintains, are explicable by mere mechanism, and require no inter- vention of a will or final purpose. That is to say, in the world of not-living matter — as it appears to us— we can explain all phenomena by the action alone of well-known mechanical laws, which act of necessity, under the pres- sure of persistent force ; and that it is needless to introduce into this part of nature at least any inter- vention whatsoever from a Superintending Intelligence, which people generally call God. Kant admitted, and indeed insisted on, the all -suffici- ency of this mechanism to produce the whole of inorganic nature. But when we come to living, or organic nature, Kant doubted if a Newton would ever arise to reduce the mysterious complexity of living forms to mechanical laws. He could not conceive it possible for the mind of man to penetrate into Nature's workshop, and discover the processes by which a blade of grass, for example, is made to grow otherwise than by an intelligent principle working for the accomplishment of a specific end — or, in other words, by the will of God. He did not deny to human reason the right to investigate and explain, if 17 B 1 8 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions possible, all phenomena mechanically ; but he believed that the limited power of man precluded all possibility of conceiving of organic nature otherwise than from a teleological point of view. While, however, expressing his inability to imagine that the mechanical laws of form and growth in organic nature would ever be discovered, if indeed they existed, he is forced by the necessity of thought on the subject into views which plainly foreshadow, if they do not distinctly contain, the theory of descent. The most im- portant and remarkable of these passages occurs in his " Methodical System of the Teleological Faculty of Judgment," which appeared in 1790 in the " Criticism of the Faculty of Judgment.' 7 "It is," he says, "desirable to examine the great domain of organised nature by means of a methodical comparative anatomy, in order to discover whether we may not find in it something re- sembling a system, and that, too, in connection with the mode of generation, so that we may no longer be compelled to stop short with a mere consideration of forms as they are— which gives us no insight into their generation— and need no longer give up in despair all hope of gaining a full insight into this department of Nature. The agreement of so many kinds of animals in a certain common plan of structure, which seems to be visible not only in their skeletons, but also in the arrangement of the remaining parts— so that a wonderfully simple typical form, by the shortening and lengthening of some parts, and by the suppression and develop- ment of others, might be able to produce an immense variety of species— gives us a ray of hope, though feeble, that here perhaps some result may be obtained, by the application of the principle of the mechanism of Nature, without which, in fact, no science can exist. This analogy of forms (in so far as they seem to have been produced in accordance with a common prototype, notwithstanding their great variety) strengthens the supposition that they have an actual blood relationship due to origination from a common parent — a supposition which is arrived at by observation of the graduated approximation of one class of animals to another, beginning with the one in which the principle of purposiveness seems to be most conspicuous — that is, man — and extending down to the polyps, and from this even down to mosses and lichens, and arriving finally at raw matter, the lowest stage of Nature observable by us. From this matter and its forces the whole apparatus of Nature seems to have descended according to mechanical laws (such as those which she follows in the production of crystals) ; yet this apparatus, as seen in organic beings, is so incomprehensible to us that we feel ourselves compelled to conceive for it a different principle. But it Inorganic Formation 19 would seem that the archaeologist of Nature is at liberty to regard the great Family of creatures (for as a Family we must conceive it, if the above-mentioned continuous and connected relationship has a real foundation) as having sprung from the immediate results of her earliest revolutions, judging from all the laws of their mechanism known to or conjectured by him." In this passage Kant explicitly expresses himself in favour of the view that the mechanical laws prevailing in the formation of inanimate nature will ultimately be found to be the efficient cause in the production of the organic world. Subsequent research and obser- vation have proved the sagacity and depth of his penetration. Kant, one of the deepest thinkers of modern times, assumed that the Universe of worlds, suns, moons, stars, comets, etc., was, at an inconceivably remote period, a formless mass of fiery mist— a kind of gaseous chaos infinitely extended, out of which all the heavenly bodies, as far as the mind can conceive of their existence, have been formed by the operation of well-known mathematico- astronomical laws. This Cosmical Gas Theory of the development of the Universe, as we have said above, has since been proved to be true by Laplace, Herschel, and others. It harmonises with all the series of phenomena at present known to us, and is generally accepted by competent inquirers. It must not be supposed, however, that this theory touches the real origin of the Universe, either in regard to matter or motion. We are as incapable of conceiving a first beginning to the Universe as we are of a final end ; both are alike unthinkable, at least in the present state of our knowledge, and, as it would appear, our faculties of knowing. The late G. H. Lewes said, speaking of the boundary of the knowable set by the conditions of thought, " To know more we must be more." Whether in the course of long ages continuous evolution will ultimately make us " more," and enable us to transcend the present limits, we cannot say. At present the Infinite hems us in on all sides, and we can only deal with the finite in time and space, though under an unavoidable necessity of postulating the Infinite 22 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions The sun may in time absorb all the planets, and the whole mass reach a state of complete equilibrium or quiescence ; but that it can remain so for ever in a Universe where innumerable other systems are in motion, and acting upon the solar mass, is, we may speculatively assume, impossible. Hence there cannot be Universal Death ; while one system is dying, another is slowly emerging from death or quiescence by the action of surrounding motion. 1 On this subject see Mr. Herbert Spencer's " First Principles." These are subjects, however, too far-reaching and speculative to supply us with data for exact knowledge ; and, moreover, such speculations are not germane to our purpose. Disregarding the question as to the origin of motion, resulting in the formation of the celestial bodies as a whole, it may be assumed that the Nebular hypothesis is true, and that all the bodies in our solar system were at one time a diffused mass of fiery mist, filling the entire space within the circumference of its area. By the action of well-known mechanical laws this fiery mist must have become differentiated into the various planets, etc., forming the solar system, including, of course, the earth. In course of time the mist became denser and denser, until, having passed through the various stages, the outer crust became solidified and hard, and eventually was fitted for the abode and sustenance of life. The manner in which the sun and all the other bodies composing our system were formed from the fiery mist is not hypothetical, but well established by the known laws of Nature operating to that end. The whole structure, etc., of the solar system is the result of those laws by which the mechanism could have been pre- dicted by man. From the persistence of matter and force the sun, planets, moons, etc., arose from that attenuated gas as a matter of necessity, independently altogether of any external power. The inherent forces 1 We are probably on the eve of new discoveries respecting that mysterious substance ether, which may greatly extend the boundary of our knowledge of this and many other subjects. Inorganic Formation 23 of eternal matter are here all-sufficient to produce the mechanical phenomena; and not only is this evident, but the introduction of any other agency becomes an impossibility in thought. It is sufficient for the purpose in view to state known facts without going into elaborate details, our object not being to teach science. CHAPTER III ORGANIC FORMATION It is to Casper Friedrich Wolff, who was born in Berlin in 1733, that the world is indebted for the true theory of evolution. Previous to his discovery, it was believed that the germ contained the whole individual, and that it grew by an unfolding, as it were, of the various parts. According to this theory, all the organs are existent in the germ, and as the embryo grows, the organs all undergo a process of development simultaneously. The word evolution really accurately describes this process, and is more properly applicable to it than to the process established by Wolff", and known as Epigenesis. This, which is now known to be the true method of growth, is exactly the reverse of the germ development idea described above. Wolff discovered that the germ is primitively homo- geneous, and grows by additions from without, the various organs becoming formed and differentiated step by step, until the animal or plant is complete in form. The process is precisely similar in both animal and vegetable. The primitive germ is, in plain language, nothing but a tiny speck of undifferentiated matter, too small to be seen by the naked eye ; to this speck are added others of similar character, and as it grows in size, the formation and differentiation of the organs go on, until they are all fully formed, and the structure of the animal or plant is completed. " The special novelty of Wolffs discovery consisted mainly in this, that he showed that the germinal part of the bird's egg forms a layer of united granules or organised particles (cells of the modern histologist) presenting at first no semblance of the form or structure of the future embryo, but gradually converted by various morphological changes in the formative material, which 24 Organic Formation 25 are all capable of being traced by observation into the several rudimentary organs and systems of the embryo. Wolff further showed that the growing parts of plants owe their origin to organised particles or cells, so that he was led to the great generalisation that the processes of embryonic formation, and of adult growth and nutrition, are all of a like nature in both plants and animals." 3 Wolff's discovery shared the fate of other great discoveries ; it was rejected for many years by those whose special business it should have been to investigate and recognise its truth. It was not until sixty years after he first published it that it gained acceptance, and was finally established. The slow growth of knowledge is nowhere more painfully shown than in the fact, that scientific men even will resist and reject for a time new discoveries which upset any theory that they have come to regard as true. Fortunately for progress, however, the scientific man's objection ceases the moment his reason is convinced. With him the objection is intel- lectual rather than emotional ; with the theologian it is exactly the reverse. The latter feels, the former thinks ; hence the never-ending conflict between religion and science. The theory of evolution by Epigenesis was now be- coming a subject of inquiry ; and in the works of many eminent biologists of this period there are numerous isolated passages which express in more or less definite language a knowledge of the true process. But there was no systematic study of the subject as an organic whole, embracing the unity of Nature, until the great French scientist, Jean Lamarck, appeared. He was born in 1744, and stands at the head of the men of his period as a biologist and a thinker. And perhaps even at the present day no name, except that of our immortal Darwin, stands higher than his. In 1 801, he published his theory, but treated it more fully in his " Philosophic Zoologique," published in 1809. Haeckel says : " This admirable work is the first connected exposition of the Theory of Descent carried out strictly into all its consequences." Cuvier was his great opponent, and in 1 " Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. viii., p. 165. 26 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions consequence of the authority he exercised as a naturalist, Lamarck's discoveries made no progress for nearly half a century. Naturalists were still under the influence of the Biblical History of Creation ; and the whole force of social pressure was brought to bear upon Lamarck and his " impious " theory. It is a mere truism to say that had he lived a few years earlier he would have been burnt alive at the stake, as the noble-hearted Bruno and many others had been before him. The following quotation from Haeckel will enable the reader to judge of the great value of Lamarck's labours : "According to him, there is no essential difference between animate and inanimate Nature ; all Nature is a single world of connected phenomena, and the same causes which form and trans- form inanimate natural bodies are alone those which are at work in animate Nature. Hence we must apply the same methods of investigation and explanation to both. Life is only a physical phenomenon. The conditions of internal and external form of all organisms, plants, and animals, with man at their head, are to be explained, like those of minerals and other inanimate natural bodies, only by natural causes {causes efficientes), without the additions of purposive causes {causes finales). The same is true of the origin of the various species. Without contradicting Nature, we can neither assume for them one original act of creation, nor repeated new creations, as implied in Cuvier's ' Doctrine of Catastrophes,' but only a natural, uninterrupted, and necessary evolution. The entire course of the evolution of the earth and its inhabitants is continuous and connected. All the various species of animals and plants which we now see around us, or which ever existed, have developed in a natural manner from previously existing different species ; all are descendants of a single ancestral form, or at least from a few common forms. The most ancient ancestral forms must have been very simple organisms, of the lowest grade, and must have originated from inorganic matter by means of spontaneous generation. Adaptation through practice and habit to the changing external condition of life has ever been the cause of changes in the nature of organic species, and heredity caused the transmission of these modifications to their descendants." l In Lamarck we no longer have glimpses here and there of the doctrine of development, as is the case with the whole of his predecessors, but a coherent and ex- haustive exposition of the entire field of evolution, from 1 " Evolution of Man," pp. 24, 25, Organic Formation 27 atoms and molecules up to man. The following quota- tion from his " Philosophic Zoologique " contains a con- cise statement of some of the most important principles of monistic Biology : " The systematic division of classes, orders, families, genera, and species, as well as their designations, are the arbitrary and artificial productions of man. The kinds or species of organisms are of unequal age, developed one after the other, and show only a relative and temporary persistence. Species arise out of varieties. The differences in the conditions of life have a modifying influence on the organisation, the general form, and the parts of animals, and so has the use or disuse of organs. In the first beginning, only the very simplest and lowest animals and plants came into existence ; those of a more complex organisation only at a later period. The course of the earth's development, and that of its organic inhabitants, was continuous, not interrupted by violent revolutions. Life is purely a physical phenomenon. All the phenomena of life depend on mechanical, physical, and chemical causes, which are inherent in the nature of matter itself. The simplest animals and the simplest plants, which stand at the lowest point in the scale of organisation, have originated, and still originate, by spontaneous generation. All animate natural bodies or organisms are subject to the same laws as inanimate natural bodies or inorgana. The ideas and actions of the understanding are the motional phenomena of the central nervous system. The will is, in truth, never free. Reason is only a higher degree of development and combination of judgments." Referring to this passage, Haeckel says : " These are indeed astonishingly bold, grand, and far-reaching views, and were expressed by Lamarck sixty years ago ; in fact, at a time when their establishment by a mass of facts was not nearly as possible as it is in our day. Indeed, Lamarck's work is really a complete and strictly monistic (mechanical) system of Nature, and all the important general principles of monistic Biology are already enunciated by him ; the unity of the active causes in organic and inorganic nature ; the ultimate explanation of these causes in the chemical and physical properties of matter itself ; the absence of a special vital power, or of an organic final cause ; the derivation of all organisms from some few, most simple original forms, which have come into existence by spontaneous generation out of in- organic matter ; the coherent course of the whole earth's history ; the absence of violent cataclysmic revolutions ; and in general the inconceivableness of any miracle, of any supernatural interference, in the natural course of the development of matter." x 1 "The History of Creation,'' vol. i., p. 112, 28 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions In the above quotation from Lamarck, and Haeckel's acceptance of the views therein expressed, there are two points of exceptional importance, viz., the denial of freedom of the will, and the assertion that origination of life by spontaneous generation is still going on. The so-called freedom of the will is, indeed, a scientific im- possibility, and the continuous origin of life during the period of organic existence on the earth is necessitated by the Doctrine of Evolution. If evolution is true, so also is, it would appear, the theory that the development of life from inorganic matter takes place to-day, and has taken place con- tinually and uninterruptedly since the earth first arrived at a condition favourable for the production of life. Masses of structureless matter possessing life are found all over the world, and especially at great sea depths. Evolution supposes that from this primitive living sub- stance the whole of organic nature has arisen, including man himself. It seems unreasonable, if not impossible, to suppose that while some of the simple organisms developed into higher and more complex forms, eventu- ally, through unimaginably long periods of time, producing all the varieties of animals and plants known to us, others should have remained during all these long ages in a stationary condition. If the lowest forms of life of to-day, the monera, began their ancestral life contemporaneously with man, then the former have made absolutely no progress, while the latter has passed through an infinite variety of forms in the gradual ascent to his present marvellously complex and perfect structure ; and yet both have been subject to similar — we might say the same — conditions. The fundamental principle of evolution negatives the possi- bility of such a theory being true. Either the origin of life from inorganic matter — or what is called spontaneous generation — has occurred throughout organic existence, and is occurring at the present time, or the doctrine of evolution is not true. From this position it appears there is no escape. The whole history of science and philosophy cannot show a bolder or more uncompromising investigator and Organic Formation 29 expounder of scientific truth than Lamarck. He makes no attempt, as many, indeed most, scientific men do, to propitiate the popular religious bodies by deprecating continually the idea that any antagonism can exist between the truths of Nature and " revelation." He had the courage of his convictions, and did not concern himself in any way with the latter. Like all his pre- decessors, he paid the penalty of his devotion to truth by having every path closed against him, and his life was one long and incessant struggle for the bare neces- saries of existence. He died, in 1829, in the midst of the deepest poverty, having some fifteen years previously completely lost his eyesight. He was pursued and persecuted on all sides for proclaiming his grand discovery of the mechanism and unity of Nature. The following extract from his writings will show that he did not shrink from carrying out his theory into all its consequences, and proclaiming the kinship of man himself with the lower animals ; and that at a time when the so-called scientific knowledge of the age re- jected with scorn and contempt the theory as applied to even the lower forms of life. " It would be an easy task," wrote Lamarck, in 1809, "to show that the characteristics in the organisation of man, on account of which the human species and races are grouped as a distinct family, are all results of former changes and occupation, and of acquired habits, which have come to be distinctive of individuals of his kind. When, compelled by circumstances, the most highly developed apes accustomed themselves to walking erect, they gained the ascendant over the other animals. The absolute advantage they enjoyed, and the new requirements imposed on them, made them change their mode of life, which resulted in the gradual modifica- tion of their organisation, and in their acquiring many new qualities, and among them the wonderful power of speech.' ; It can well be imagined the reception such a bold declaration would meet with eighty odd years ago, when the science of biology was in its infancy, and those possessing the greatest authority were earnestly con- cerned in making the subject of their study in all respects square with the Bible. There was no one so poor in intellect that he could not sit in judgment on such 30 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions " absurdities," and laugh at the solitary unknown thinker, whose poverty all the more rendered him a safe and easy object of ridicule. Little could the Church fore- see the consequences to her which were ultimately to flow from Lamarck's despised doctrine. The most celebrated of the Nature-philosophers in France at this time was Etienne Geoffrey de St. Hilaire, who, in all essentials, adopted Lamarck's theory of descent, though differing from him somewhat in details. He was Cuvier's most prominent opponent, and a memorable contest took place between them in 1830 in the French Academy. Cuvier maintained that the earth had undergone a series of catastrophes, or cataclysmic revolutions, which at each occurrence destroyed every form of life ; and that each catastrophe was succeeded by an entirely new creation of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. This was an assumption which was supposed to save the credit of the Biblical account of creation ; and it met with great favour from all except the very few great thinkers who were capable of understanding the theory of descent. The audience of scientists was well acquainted with Cuvier's views in all their details ; and it is not at all surprising, therefore, that the verbal victory should have been awarded to him. Geoffrey had not only to break new ground, but the facts with which he had to deal were not so obvious to the eye and understanding as those which were at the command of Cuvier. The induction of facts was too meagre to appeal to the judgment of those who approached the subject for the first time ; and Cuvier was able to impress his audience with the conviction that the Nature-philosophers were not justified in drawing such comprehensive conclusions from the empirical knowledge which was then in their possession. Cuvier's victory over Geoffrey de St. Hilaire on this memorable occasion prevented all further study of the theory for thirty years. Goethe, although in his eighty-first year at the time, took the deepest interest in the discussion, as the following anecdote, related by Soret, shows. Organic Formation 31 " Monday, Aug. 2, 1830. — The news of the outbreak of the Revolution arrived in Weimar to-day, and has caused great excite- ment. In the course of the afternoon I went to Goethe. ' Well ! ' he exclaimed as I entered, ' what do you think of this great event ? The volcano has burst forth, all is in flames, and there are no more negotiations behind closed doors.' ' A dreadful affair, 5 I answered ; ' but what else could be expected under the circumstances, and with such a ministry, except that it would end in the expulsion of the present royal family ? ' ' We do not seem to understand each other, my dear friend,' replied Goethe. ' I am not speaking of those people at all ; I am interested in something very different. I mean the dispute between Cuvier and Geoffrey de Saint Hilaire, which has broken out in the Academy, and which is of such great importance to science.' This remark of Goethe's came upon me so unexpectedly that I did not know what to say, and my thoughts for some minutes seemed to have come to a complete standstill. 'The affair is of the utmost importance,' he continued, 'and you cannot form any idea of what I felt on receiving the news of the meeting on the 19th. In Geoffrey de Saint Hilaire we have now a mighty ally for a long time to come. But I see also how great the sympathy of the French scientific world must be in this affair, for, in spite of the terrible political excitement, the meeting on the 19th was attended by a full house. The best of it is, how- ever, that the synthetic treatment of Nature, introduced into France by Geoffrey, can now no longer be stopped. This matter has now become public through the discussions in the Academy, carried on in the presence of a large audience ; it can no longer be referred to secret committees, or be settled or suppressed behind closed doors.' ' : In the following quotation from Goethe's poem, "The Metamorphosis of Animals," his view of the processes of organic growth is clearly stated. "All members develop themselves according to eternal laws, And the rarest form mysteriously preserves the primitive type. Form therefore determines the animal's way of life, And in turn the way of life powerfully reacts upon all form. Thus the orderly growth of form is seen to hold, Whilst yielding to change from externally acting causes." 1 Goethe includes man in the series of organic develop- ment. Man, he maintained, is a product of a lower animal form, and is the last link in the chain of animal evolution. While Goethe was thinking out some of the most im- 1 Haeckel's " History of Creation," vol. i., p. 89. 32 Evolution, and its Bearing on Religions portant laws of evolution, another great German wasat the same time engaged in similar studies, and quite in- dependently of each other both arrived at the same results. G. R. Treviranus published " The Biology and Philosophy of Animate Nature," in 1802 ; and from the following extract it will be seen that the_ mechanical processes of evolution were well known to him. " Every form of life can be produced by physical forces in one of two ways : either by coming into being out of formless matter, or by modification of an already existing form by a continued process of shaping. In the latter case the cause of this modifica- tion may lie either in the influence of a dissimilar male generative matter upon the female germ, or in the influence of other powers which operate only after procreation. In every living being there exists the capability of an endless variety of form-assumptions ; each possesses the power to adapt its organisation to the changes of the outer world, and it is this power put into action by the change of the Universe that has raised the simple zoophytes of the primitive world to continually higher stages of organisation, and has introduced a countless variety of species into animate Nature. . . . These zoophytes are the original forms out of which all the organisms of the higher classes have arisen by gradual development. We are further of opinion that every species, as well as every individual, has certain periods of growth, of bloom, and of decay, but that the decay of a species is degeneration, not dissolution, as in the case of the individual. From this it appears to us to follow that it was not the great catastrophes of the earth (as is generally supposed) which destroyed the animals of the primitive world, but that many survived them, and it is more probable that they have disappeared from existing Nature, because the species to which they belonged have completed the circles of their existence, and have been changed into other kinds. . . . Every inquiry into the influence of the whole of Nature on the living world must start from the principle that all living forms are products of physical influences, which are acting even now, and are changed only in degree, or in direction. " Haeckel, from whose " History of Creation " the above extracts are taken, remarks : "When Treviranus, in this and other passages, points to de- generation as the most important cause of the transformation of the animal and vegetable species, he does not understand by it what is now commonly called degeneration. With him ' degeneration ' is exactly what we now call adaptation or modification, by the action of external formative forces. That Treviranus explained Organic Formation 33 this transformation of organic species by adaptation, and its pre- servation by inheritance, and thus the whole variety of organic forms, by the inter-action of adaptation and inheritance, is clear also from several other passages. How profoundly he grasped the mutual dependence of all living creatures on one another, and in general the universal connection between cause and effect — that is, the monistic causal connection between all members and parts of the Universe — is further shown, among others, by the following- remarks in his ' Biology' : — ' The living individual is dependent upon the species, the species upon the .fauna, the fauna upon the whole of animate nature, and the latter upon the organism of the earth. The individual possesses indeed a peculiar life, and so far forms its own world. But just because its life is limited it constitutes at the same time an organ in the general organism. Every living body exists in consequence of the Universe, but the Universe, on the other hand, exists in consequence of it.' It is self-evident that so profound and clear a thinker as Treviranus, in accordance with this grand mechanical conception of the Universe, could not admit for man a privileged and exceptional position in Nature, but assumed his gradual development from lower animal forms. And it is equally self-evident, on the other hand, that he did not admit a chasm between organic and inorganic nature, but main- tained the absolute unity of the organisation of the whole Universe." 1 Again, Oken, who was perhaps the most eminent of the German Nature-philosophers, says in his " Outlines of the Philosophy of Nature," "Life originates from original slime." ..." Every organic thing has arisen out of slime, and is nothing but slime in different forms. This primitive slime originated in the sea, from inorganic matter in the course of planetary evolution." ..." Man has been developed, not created." Neither Oken, nor Goethe, nor Treviranus would admit that man occupied any privileged or exceptional position in Nature, or in any way differed from the rest of the organic world, in the processes of gradual development from lower to higher forms. Even in their day, when biology was almost an unknown science, they saw no justification for such an assumption, opposed as it was to every fact within their knowledge, and to all rational and philosophical thought upon the subject. Man is no exception to the general law of development; he, like the rest of the living world, has come up from that slime, 3 Haeckel's