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9^q The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [No...
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF PEOGRESS.* TTVUT'very ...
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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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"Natural Selection''— Whose Is Xt? Mil ....
brates -the idea of the . " development J ) lieory . " . In , other writers that ;^> could ^ uuiet ^ te , clid space' permit ,: tHe doctrAne , m question is { ntidenfeftiy ^ liugeft to ,. " . . . ... " " ... ' . " ¦ . ¦ "' ., , " , ^ . , ..-J ^ large portion of tar : Hubert S * enc ^ s " Psy ^ ology . > s an admirable exposition of development" as manifested in . ^ rumated nature ; arid , we may add , his essays on *' Progress ; its Law . Cause , " and ( we believe ) " Modern Astronomy , " are no less wasterly expositions of that principle at work in the material universe ; audthe merit of these productions , is in no AVay diminished by the fact that , the " Vestiges '" wa > published first . Having . published . Mr . DABWiN- ' sgenerotis recognition of Mr , Matthew ' s labours , and , as we hope , satisfied , everybody concerned , we proceed to offer some additional remarks on the theory itself . - - ¦ .
_ _ _ ,.. „ It is not sufficient to say that there is a law by the operation of which variety of structure * in animals is produced and in-ogressive development is brought about . This teaches us nothing . We want to know not only that animals are modifiable , but what is the modus operancli ; what is the agency instrumental in accomplishing this modification and developments We will endeavoiir to . inakc this clear . Animals try to adapt themselves to circumstances , and these to themselves in : the best way they can for their own good ; any mental advantagesin an animal Would prompt , and suggest a better use of its bodily organs for accomplishing its own good ; and this would tend to improve its physical organism , that is , make it better suited for rendering the external world subservient to the
satisfaction of needs ; and , again , this improved bodily comformation would react upon and improve its mental capacity , by gaining it additional experiences . The same may be said luutcdi . s r » ntauchn of any bodily advantages that an animal might possess : and the effects of this would of course be accumulative in the race . Now there are animal' forms better suited than others for rendering the external '' world subservient to needs , and towards these' superior types it would be the tendency of the causes indicated to make the others approximate . Take one of those humble creatures resembling jelly , thrusting forth a part of itself , and attaching this to the surface it is upon to drag itself alongy , \ mnnnrig itself round its food , and extruding the refuse through its sides , thus improvising loco-? It is easil
niotire organs , stomach , and vent , as occasi & h require . y eoneeivable how such a creature as this , under the operation of the causes referred to , and the infinite variety of influencps and conditions to he found in the world , wouldj in the course of time , acquire a permanent sac , or stomach , with limbs just where they would TSe wanted ; iMiuiely , in the neighbourhood of its moiith , thus p erving ; the double purpose of locomotives andfeeders . Equally e ^ sy is it to conceive how the same causes ( the necessity of food-seeking being- one of the principal , agencies at work ) would tend to make the limbs become better suited , arid better p laced for locomotio-n ; in other words , to make the cephalopdd approximate towards the quadruped ; just as the same causes , the same necessity of foodthe external world subservient
seeking ; the pame efforts to render to the" satisfaction of needs , would tend to make the quadruped approximate towards the biped with ' the front pair of limbs converted into arms terminating in hands . In the same way , and by an extension of the principle in a diversified application of means , " we see the inventive brain of man fertile in exppdients for renderingexternal things snbservierit to the satisfaction of needs , contriving artificial organs of locomotion , anirl of vision in steam-engines , telescopes , and microscopes . Whero his mental ; capacity has not been adequate to the invention of these artificial prolongations of natural organs , wp find the , organs themselves tinder the' Operation , of the influences arid conditions ; noting upon them : greatly developed in whole tribes of ; fai * -sightod , swiftfooted , savages . ' One thing is s § lf oviddnt : th ' ero are tho " coninthe world for tho anhhais in itand
difcuras of e ' xisterice" . nw ; it is perfectly intelligjhlo . and conceivable that ajrjr primitiyo animal typV should , in tho iriannpr explained , work itj ? to these conditions , and developo and diversify itself in confornjity with thena ; whiio tho fact of the variety of animals i * totally inexpiioable by any other moans . Anothor thing is equally sclt evident , that : ( this viow as muob . nioi ' o consistent and' rational , is much less disparaging to theism , than tho wild idea that each epeoies of , animals was , from tiin ' d to timo , mado out of olny or out Qf * -t-X ( Lotiimg f ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ' ' i . ' W < J'ft & va to add ^ in oonolusion , that ono of th , o i > asflages in l ) r BiiE ^ s worki' ^ xtrabted in tiiii : l ' asti week ' s artiolo , is not liis ' oSvn oombositiiim . Ktit ^ as tdkon front anbthdlr writer , a'h'd in , sortp ' fl by himlii'liiy bo ' iblc without ' q . uotiitxdn Imairljts . Up write ?! las , that ho " m ' fiU ^ uliy ' dlidol' sds' t ]( io ' paragtdph , " we dtecl . so . that having mado it'hKi o ^ ti . in ' . dvorv stinso ' , to ! oiitioise , it wnk to oimoifie ham .
"W e ^' anWt , itKe ^ ftrte , s 3 e tho : p 0 rttnenoy '' pf Jiis"lett ^ r ,, , wliip 1 i . ho begins ' wit ^^ a ^ hffth & f'SvQ ^ . 'havb . MUA iiatf " to eri'or . ^ ioh ho verV muoli l ^ gr ^' ts , TltoMsp' ' it was ^ inglto' his own ohvolessV ness ? ' Ho tfe ^ tefsA' " ' ^^ ^ ^^^^?^ s iVe'ii' abpVA , wlaigh only " show ' s that tnero a \ e ° tWb '^ 6 rs ' o « s'insioaa . of bnq resppnsiblo for a . statonxent , tho royowo of diapassionato ana p ^ llosopliip ButwOTr to ¦• «« : & -v % m ! im ; . % kiM fiiaf'iifeSvW totalW' ^ WmffiAt . and'" tliit- % & rF ^« : V & i ' o &^ n ' to
to % \ ifflVMnl ' . \ Wtf - -imp 6 vtmco : ^\ m 0 Wf « iSown tho f « k i 4 r |« w low ^ pip ^ iyMJw :. ww » bi ] iityf ) mig : ht'biingi bbout ithei lattor ditlbrentiation , and not the * i' opWv'i' ^' - 'JAlfehS Wo ^ atbcl » wlVoth " of tho peolimvitloe . ; of Jho '
Ainerican ppwtion of the Anglo-Saxon race at the present day , which differentiate : [ iiUeiu S ' roxi \ English people , were , according to his view , brought , $ boutby a , spaeial , and ; - instantaneous miracle , or by the opSrfftiQn . of . nRitsural causes' in . tlio course of a few generationsand if by a sudden miracle , he might , as . he appears to be in the secret of these thing- !* , have kindly fa voured us with , thh datp ; but if through the gradual modification produced by the influences and conditions at work , then he might have enlightened us touching , the extent to which such modification may go ; whether there * is aiiy ultima Tinea beyond which it cannot go , and where this is to bo fixed : or whether , on the other hand , this inodifiability may not go to an indefinite extent , according to the potency of the influences and conditions in operation ; and lastly , whether ho does not consider this ' vie \ v as consistent with the theory of Ornnipotence , " as the supposition that each sort ( or so-called species ) of animal was created , as occasion required , out of clay or out of nothing , and if not , why not P
I > r . J ^ ree hot only appropriates the composition of others as his own , but hesecms to have taken Mr . DAHWix ' syiews on tinist and at second hand from , some other writer , otherwise he could hardly fall into the , misrepresentatiohs he does ( for we suppose he would not misrepresent intehtionally ) , at , for instance , p . 108 , where by lonving out the time of sleep , he makes it appear as if Mr . Darwin had said that sleep itself was a habit ; though , in bur opinion , and in the sense that Pascax called nature a " first habit , " we believe that this description of sleep is correct : and again at j ) . 160 , where he treats the . Darwinian theory as teaching that the hexagonal form of cells in a honfeycoinb is due to pressure , when pressure is neithev directly nor indirectly alluded to . But to point out , all these misrepresentations ^ vould be to cite almost every argument ; , in . the " origin of species " with which the doctor attempts to deal .
9^Q The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [No...
9 ^ q The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Noy . 24 , 1860 .
The Philosophy Of Peogress.* Ttvut'very ...
THE PHILOSOPHY OF PEOGRESS . * TTVUT ' very few persons ti'ouble themselves with philosophic politics _ t > now-iidays ; and , indeed , the present age may be said to be worse oft in this respeet than the last , or the eighteenth contury coniiueuccd and ended with philosophical treatises on government . Vv'luitwas ' 'sown in the last century has been reaped in this , and the doctrine of Free Trade , now so universally ^ received , must be acknowledged to owe their origin to Adam Smith , aiul still earlier , to Mandevillo , Patterson , and even , it is said , to u Sheridan , who held office under James the Second . Social science has become a , cant phrase ; and \ -erbose enthusiasts
have rendered it distasteful , insomuch that whenever it is used tha idea of a small , thick , ill-printed volume rises to one ' s mind , whore crude dogmas are poured out with a fatal fluency that wearies , but aeklom impresses , and . never convinces . . For this reason sociology , or the science of social life , has fallen greatly into neglect ; and it is to be regretted that it has so , for , after Divine subjects , it is the most important that can obtain the attention of intelligent men . We have always combated tho injurious lines Johnson foisted into Goldsmith ' s poem , and by no im-ans agroe with . tlw exclamation of lt small of tt-H that human lioavts onduve , Ci'hafc part' which kings or laws can cause or oiu-fl . "
Considoniig ; that all that man eats , dnnks , wears , or wants ; and much of what ho believes , thinks , feels , and suffers , arc greatly affected by laws , and the conduct of tho governing class , it is pretty evident wb should , endeavour to discover on what principles we should legislate . ' ° Mr . Slack has given us a great deal of asnistance to this end in this readable and clever littlo work , which is neither printed in small tvpo , nor composed in sloppy Knpflish , with redundant verbosity . * He is evidently a pvactisod politician as well as author , and ajithough he is an earnest and delinite thinker , his feeling in tempered with philosophy ; rtnd us ho knows Hint every question has several sides , he rnnn a-muck at nothing . His book- is that of an oxporienccd ns wollas of a scholastic writer ; and of one who loolcs to tho poswiblo as well as tho right . Ho lms no lnc-k . of detifrminntknrwit ' ho has ( lino no hoedless onthusiusni , winch would push abstract viglrts into impossible positions . I To spenks as one experioncbd in tho world ' s procpodings , n « well n * one loiivnod jn llio
theories of human progTOs » ' ,. , , ,, Ho giVos ns nineteen pleasantly-wvittuii and excoodmgly vnluuUlc chapters on the f , m « eat topics of" the timo , in which ho treat hoi tho dominion of law ; change , tho law of prngrenn , tho doctnno of rights , aviso of liberty , the position of wonuin , tho relation of political economy to Modal science , domocracy , workmen s combinations ; education , Hbojial ovjIh , intcrnntiounl relations , and tho lii'bspoctrt < yf'political thought and uction . Those uro each and all important topics , ana tlioso who hnvy in any way to considor tliem cannot do bettor than give Mr . Slack s m > ok a HDoetly poruiial y rind' tho pevusul , wo iterate , may bo Hpcedy , for tho sfcvlo Vvovnavkably blpav , succinct , im'd tolUng-. Thovo wo m it evidences (> f yevyVWo vouding 1 ; atul tho illustrations aro not oonfinod to th ^ c tjakon from tlio works of tho yhiloMophloril ppliwoiann , but 6 Hfieii « t 6 tHe ^ obtsi'daaayiflts , and thihlcon * of all ol » iH » Dfi . ,
tho | tirjtuihent ! 3 " atid' ) winoipWtidf this work , whioh in tho main wo WrcJewiih , but'hieroly to recommend to thoao reaclora WI 19 aye pur-Wixiig W Kind , flTflSifty / ftWl ? Vxoy oiiglit to be aoquftintod witn . We may take 1 a tlirthev opporfcomty of inquiring 1 into some ol tno uootrinofc comtainod ^ tho work , jwdporoUanoo of combating aomo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 24, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24111860/page/8/
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