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August 20,1853^ T H E h E A D E R. 813
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Development Hypothesis Of The "Vesti...
¦ our ' allusion was not ; to such passages , for we consider them as the reverse of . pious , being what Emerson energetically calls , " a mush of concession " to Orthodoxy . It seems as if the outcry raised against the author , while not convincing him that his book was irreligious , had frightened him into deference for a religion not his own . Hence , if we are right , the increased and , positively unpleasant recurrence of these semblances of orthodoxy . The author should have boldly taken his stand ufson his own convictions , trusting to their truth for victory—to their sincerity for respect . In the course of our review , we shall endeavour to indicate the effect which this timidity has had in leading him still further away from the true conception of the Development Hypothesis , bringing into greater prominence the theologico-metaphysical error with , which he started . At present we will confine ourselves to his statement of the hypothesis .
It is unnecessaryto go seriatim through the chapters of so well-known a book ; enough if we bring together certain passages , giving an exposition of his doctrine . Having sketched the Development Hypothesis , as illustrated in Astronomy and Geology , he comes to the consideration of the origin of living beings : — " The idea has several times arisen , that some natural course was observed in the production of organic things , and this even before we were permitted to attain clear conclusions regarding inorganic nature . It was always set quickly aside , as unworthy of serious consideration . The case is different now , when we bad admitted law in the whole domain of the inorganic . There are even some considerations on the very threshold of the question , which appear to throw the balance
of likelihood strongly on the side of natural causes , however difficult it may be to say what these causes were . The production of the organic world is , we see , mixed up with the production of the physical . It is mixed in the sense of actual connexion and dependence ; and it is mixed in regard to time , for the one class of phenomena commenced , whenever the other had arrived at a point which favoured or admitted of it j life , as it were , pressed in as soon as there were suitable conditions , and , once it had commenced , the two classes of phenomena went on , hand in band , together . It is surely very unlikely , a priori , that in two classes of phenomenaj to all appearance perfectly co-ordinate , and for certain intimately connected , there should have been tioo totally distinct modes ofthe exercise of the divine pozoer . Were such the case , it would form a most extraordinary > and what to philosophic
consideration ought to be a most startling exception , from that which we otherwise observe of . the character of the divine procedure in the universe . Further , let us consider the comparative character of the two classes of phenomena , for comparison may of course be legitimate until the natural system is admitted . The absurdities into which we should thus be led must strike every reflecting mind . The Eternal : Sovereign arranges a solar or an astral system , by dispositions imparted primordially to matter ; he causes , by the same majestic means , vast oceans to form and continents to rise , and all the grand meteoric agencies to proceed in ceaseless alternation , so as to fit the earth for a residence of organic beings . But when , in the course of these operations , fuci and corals are to be for the first time placed in those oceans , a change in his plan of administration is required . It is not easy
to say what is presumed to be the mode of his operations . The ignorant believe the very hand of Deity to be at work . Amongst the learned , we hear of ' creative fiats , ' ' interferences , ' ' interpositions of the creative energy / all of fihem very obscure phrases , apparently not susceptible of a scientific explanation , but all tending simply to this , —that the work was done in a marvellous way , and not in the way of nature . Let the contrast between the two propositions be well marked . According to the first , all is done by the continuous energy of the divine will , —a power which has no regnrd to great or small : according to the second , there is a
procedure strictly resembling that of a human being in tho management of his ufliiirs . And not only on this one occasion , but all along the stretch of geological time , this special attention is needed whenever a new family of organisms is to bo introduced : a new fiat for fishes , another for reptiles , a third for birds ; nay , taking up tho present views of geologists as to species , such an event as the commencement of a certain cephalopod , one with a few new nodulosities and corrugations upon its slid ] , would , on this theory , require the particular care of that same Almighty who willed at once tho whole moans by which infinity was replenished with its worlds I "
This passage sufficiently rescues the hypothesis from any charge of Atheism . In both theories it is the creative energy at work ; the only question with which philosophy concerns itself boing one of process . Of course novelty is to vulgar minds tantamount to infidelity . " Precisely as , with respect to tho motions of tho heavenly bodies , tho geocentric theory was that which tho appearances first suggested , and therefore was first embrace d by man . It took some timo to introduce tho heliocentric theory , oven after it had been established by proof . So is there a force of prejudice to be overcome Jii tliiH ease , before any now hypothesis on the subject can expect to bo fairly judged . ' t lias even been said that to presume a creation of living beings as a series of natural events , is equivalent to superseding tho whole doctrine of tho divine
authorship of organic nature With such a notion infesting the mind , it must of course '»() almost hopeless that tho question should bo candidly entertained . Thoro can , in i" < alil ; y , be no reason adduced ibr holding this us necessarily following from tho idea <> r organic creation in the manner of law , or by a natural method , any more than '[ "in a similar view of inorganic creation . Tho wholo aim of science from the bep ninnp lms boon to ascertain law ; one sot of phenomena aftor another has boon boug ht umlor this conception , without our over fooling that God was less the J | Uoi \ iblo creator of his own world . It seems strango that a stand should appear iiocoHsary at this particular point in 1-ho march of science . Perhaps if our ordinary 1 lls r <* spcc . t . ing natural law were more just , tho difficulty might ; bo lessoned . It
" (; be RufHeiently impressed that . tho wholo ideu relates only to t \\ o vioda in which tho Doity has been pleased to manifest hjs power , in the external world . It 'iivoH th « absolute- fact of bin authorship of and supremacy over nature , precisely wlicro it was ; only telling \ xn that , instead of dealing with tho natural world as a "' man boing trufHcn with liw own affairs , adjusting each circumstance to a relation mui (» tiH > r oircuinsfcances an they emerge , in tho mode befitting his finite capacity , ' reator bus originally conceived , and huico sustained , arrangements fitted to Ntsrvo in X \ general Hiifncioney for all contingencies ; himself , of course , necessarily iviufr ; , j ]| H ( 1 ( , j l mTangOU 1 Onti ^ u ; , the only moans by which they could ho , oven Ioi > ii moment , uphold . " Considering tho great unity of . Nature—considering how all organic
forms resemble each other , both in the past and the present , we may well say with the author , — " Can we be content to assume— -for , after all , it is assumption—that a series of miraculous creations was invariably to be in the manner of a piecing oil and blending from one to another , ' vfhen we have the alternative of presuming ( grant it were to be left to presumption alone ) that these connexions are only memorials of a natural law presiding over the development of the whole organic creation , and making ; it one and not many things ? "We can only wonder that a man learned in the subject can see such a difficulty as he has here stated , and find it more easily passed over than tbe bare fact that certain mammalia have not changed for three thousand years , — -for such is the only difficulty he states on the other side .
"It must further be recollected , that we are not only to account for the origination of organic being upon this little planet , third of a series which is but one of hundreds of thousands of series , the whole of which again form but one portion of an apparently infinite globe-peopled space , where all seems analogous . We have to suppose , that every one of these numberless globes is either a theatre of organic being , or in the way of becoming so . This is a conclusion which every addition to our knowledge makes only the more . irresistible . Is it conceivable , as a fitting mode of exercise for creative intelligence , that it should be constantly paying a special attention to the creation of species , as they may be required in each situation throughout those worlds at particular times ? Is such an idea accordant with our general conception of the dignity , not to speak of the power , of the Great Author ? Yet such is the notion which we must form , if we adhere to the doctrine of special exercise . "
Elsewhere the author thus , in one decisive passage , expounds his doctrine : — - "In physiology , particularly , a phenomenon of slow and gradual movement inusfc ever have an advantage over one wbich consists in a great and sudden effect , because all the observable processes in physiology are of the former character . Supposing that the reproduction of living beings—say , for example , trees—were , from the invisibility of the seed , amongst the unsolved problems of science—suppose that , every part of the process being inscrutable prior to the appearance of the young plant above the soil , it were assumed and held forth , that plants were produced all at once , whether by natural or non-natural forces , would it not be felt as a great relief from the unsatisfactory state in which this explanation would leave us , if a
Sclileiden or a Brown were at length to announce that he had detected the process of germination , a process of slow and gradual steps , each one leading ontoanother ? Would not even a well-supported hypothesis as to the deposition of seed , the penetration of sap , the expansion and bursting of the germ , and the sprouting forth of the stalk , be greatly preferable to remaining under some hazy , unsupported notion as to a miracle being required for every individual plant ? It is , then , as , in addition to all special evidences in its favour , the simplest explanation—as an explanation involving slow and gradual movement , " such as we usually see in nature—as an explanation appealing to and allying itself with science , instead of resting on a dogmatic assumption of ignorance , that I bring forward on this momentous occasion the principle of progressive development .
" The proposition determined on after much consideration is , that the several series of animated beings , from the simplest and oldest up to tbe highest and most recent , are , under tbe providence of God , the results , first , of an impulse which has been imparted to the forms of life , advancing them , in definite times , hy generation , through grades of organization terminating in the highest dicotyledons and vertebrata , these grades being few in number , and generally marked by intervals of organic character which we find to bo a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities ; second , of another impulse connected witJi the vital forces , tending in the
course of generations , to modify organic structures in accordance with external circumstances , as food , the nature of the habitat and the meteoric agencies , these being the ' adaptations' of the natural theologian . We may contemplate those phenomena as ordained to taTce place in every situation , and at every time , where and when the requisite materials and conditions are presented—in other orbs as well as in this—in any geographical area of this globe which may tit any time arise—observing only the variations duo to difference of materials and of conditions "
We have italicized certain phrases in this extract , desiring to call tho reader ' s particular attention to them , for therein lies tho primary error of the author ' s doctrine , to which wo shall hereafter recur . Tho opponents of the Development Hypothesis always lay groat stress on the objection , that we have no evidence of any transition having taken place . There is no recorded fact of a fish having been developed into a reptile , and so on . On this tho author remarks : —
" With regard to grade , it must be admitted at once that , in Nature ' s government , there is no observable appearance of such promotions . But it may bo asked , if , supposing such events to bo within tho scopo of nature , wo are necessarily to expect to seo thorn take place , or even to bear of them having been recorded ? To sottlo this question , let us first inquire into the proportion of the number of tlicso grades to tho space of timo believed to be represented in tho f basil iferoiw scries of rocks . Mr . Lyell tells us that tho spaco botwoen our nun and boiuo of the remote star-clusters , of which tho distance to Sirius ( not less than nineteen millions of
millions of miles ) is but a fraction , may no more- than compare with tho space of time which baa probably elapsed since tho origin of the coralline liniestono over which tho Niagara is precipitated at tho Falls . Now , tho number of grades of what may bo called tho first degree ( transitions from class to class ) passed through by tho vertobrata hihoo thoir origin in tho early rocks is , at tho utimwf ; , I href ; . Such a leap in organic progress has , therefore , only taken placo onca hi man ;/ millions of millions of years . If such bo tho case , all chanco of such gru < lo l . ransitkmn being witnessed within tho four thousand yearn of historical Immunity becomes ho attenuated as scarcely to havo an existence . "
Elsewhere , — " Wo seo this persistency , and think it fixed , exactly an men havo hitherto noon tho solar position in tho universe . We advance- among tho stars at tho rate of two millions of millions of inilun a year ; but astronomers toll us that it would tako ninety millions of years to onablo uk to pass through tho wholo , oven at thin rapid rate . Well , therefore , might tho unassiHtod oyo and unoxmnining infcollect prosumo tho placo of tho solar ttyutum to bis fixed , for it is evident thnt no human tradition could record changes indicating tho translation . ' Vofc < lo wo pasn on to Horeulos , although forty couturioB failoil to ronanrk tho circiiiiwtanco . So mny opecifio din-
August 20,1853^ T H E H E A D E R. 813
August 20 , 1853 ^ T H E h E A D E R . 813
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 20, 1853, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20081853/page/21/
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