_MAN IN NATURE._
Few words are used among us more loosely than "nature." Sometimes
it stands for the material universe as a whole. Sometimes it is
personified as a sort of goddess, working her own sweet will with
material things. Sometimes it expresses the forces which act on matter,
and again it stands for material things themselves. It is spoken of as
subject to law, but just as often natural law is referred to in terms
which imply that nature itself is the lawgiver. It is supposed to be
opposed to the equally vague term "supernatural"; but this term is used
not merely to denote things above and beyond nature, if there are such,
but certain opinions held respecting natural things. On the other hand,
the natural is contrasted with the artificial, though this is always
the outcome of natural powers, and is certainly not supernatural.
Again, it is applied to the inherent properties of beings for which we
are unable to account, and which we are content to say constitute their
nature. We cannot look into the works of any of the more speculative
writers of the day without meeting with all these uses of the word, and
have to be constantly on our guard lest by a change of its meaning we
shall be led to assent to some proposition altogether unfounded.
For illustrations of this convenient though dangerous ambiguity, I
may turn at random to almost any page in Darwin's celebrated work on
the "Origin of Species." In the beginning of Chapter III. he speaks
of animals "in a state of nature" that is, not in a domesticated or
artificial condition, so that here nature is opposed to the devices
of man. Then he speaks of species as "arising in nature," that is,
spontaneously produced in the midst of certain external conditions
or environment outside of the organic world. A little farther on he
speaks of useful varieties as given to man by "the hand of Nature,"
which here becomes an imaginary person; and it is worthy of notice
that in this place the printer or proof-reader has given the word an
initial capital, as if a proper name. In the next section he speaks
of the "works of Nature" as superior to those of art. Here the word
is not only opposed to the artificial, but seems to imply some power
above material things and comparable with or excelling the contriving
intelligence of man. I do not mean by these examples to imply that
Darwin is in this respect more inaccurate than other writers. On the
contrary, he is greatly surpassed by many of his contemporaries in
the varied and fantastic uses of this versatile word. An illustration
which occurs to me here, as at once amusing and instructive, is an
expression used by Romanes, one of the cleverest of the followers of
the great evolutionist, and which appears to him to give a satisfactory
explanation of the mystery of elevation in nature. He says, "Nature
selects the best individuals out of each generation to live." Here
nature must be an intelligent agent, or the statement is simply
nonsensical. The same alternative applies to much of the use of the
favourite term "natural selection." In short, those who use such modes
of expression would be more consistent if they were at once to come
back to the definition of Seneca, that nature is "a certain divine
purpose manifested in the world."
The derivation of the word gives us the idea of something produced
or becoming, and it is curious that the Greek _physis_, though
etymologically distinct, conveys the same meaning--a coincidence which
may perhaps lead us to a safe and serviceable definition. Nature,
rightly understood, is, in short, an orderly system of things in time
and space, and this not invariable, but in a state of constant movement
and progress, whereby it is always becoming something different
from what it was. Now man is placed in the midst of this orderly,
law-regulated yet ever progressive system, and is himself a part of
it; and if we can understand his real relations to its other parts, we
shall have made some approximation to a true philosophy. The subject
has been often discussed, but is perhaps not yet quite exhausted.[212]
[212] "Man's Place in Nature," _Princeton Review_, November, 1878. "The
Unity of Nature," by the Duke of Argyll, 1884, may be considered as
suggestive of the thoughts of this chapter.
Regarding man as a part of nature, we must hold to his entering into
the grand unity of the natural system, and must not set up imaginary
antagonisms between man and nature as if he were outside of it. An
instance of this appears in Tyndall's celebrated Belfast address,
where he says, in explanation of the errors of certain of the older
philosophers, that "the experiences which formed the weft and woof of
their theories were chosen not from the study of nature, but from that
which lay much nearer to them--the observation of Man": a statement
this which would make man a supernatural, or at least a preternatural
being. Again, it does not follow, because man is a part of nature,
that he must be precisely on a level with its other parts. There are
in nature many planes of existence, and man is no doubt on one of its
higher planes, and possesses distinguishing powers and properties of
his own. Nature, like a perfect organism, is not all eye or all hand,
but includes various organs, and so far as we see it in our planet, man
is its head, though we can easily conceive that there may be higher
beings in other parts of the universe beyond our ken.
The view which we may take of man's position relatively to the beings
which are nearest to him, namely, the lower animals, will depend on our
point of sight--whether that of mere anatomy and physiology, or that
of psychology and pneumatology as well. This distinction is the more
important, since, under the somewhat delusive term "biology," it has
been customary to mix up all these considerations, while, on the other
hand, those anatomists who regard all the functions of organic beings
as merely mechanical and physical, do not scruple to employ this term
biology for their science, though on their hypothesis there can be no
such thing as life, and consequently the use of the word by them must
be either superstitious or hypocritical.
Anatomically considered, man is an animal of the class _Mammalia_.
In that class, notwithstanding the heroic efforts of some modern
detractors from his dignity to place him with the monkeys in the
order _Primates_, he undoubtedly belongs to a distinct order. I have
elsewhere argued that, if he were an extinct animal, the study of
the bones of his hand, or of his head, would suffice to convince
any competent palæontologist that he represents a distinct order,
as far apart from the highest apes as they are from the carnivora.
That he belongs to a distinct family no anatomist denies, and the
same unanimity of course obtains as to his generic and specific
distinctness. On the other hand, no zoological systematist now doubts
that all the races of men are specifically identical. Thus we have the
anatomical position of man firmly fixed in the system of nature, and
he must be content to acknowledge his kinship not only with the higher
animals nearest to him, but with the humblest animalcule. With all he
shares a common material and many common features of structure.
When we ascend to the somewhat higher plane of physiology we find in
a general way the same relationship to animals. Of the four grand
leading functions of the animal, nutrition, reproduction, voluntary
motion, and sensation, all are performed by man as by other animals.
Here, however, there are some marked divergences connected with special
anatomical structures, on the one hand, and with his higher endowments
on the other. With regard to food, for example, man might be supposed
to be limited by his masticatory and digestive apparatus to succulent
vegetable substances. But by virtue of his inventive faculties he is
practically unlimited, being able by artificial processes to adapt the
whole range of vegetable and animal food substances to his use. He is
very poorly furnished with natural tools to aid in procuring food,
as claws, tusks, etc., but by invented implements he can practically
surpass all other creatures. The long time of helplessness in infancy,
while it is necessary for the development of his powers, is a practical
disadvantage which leads to many social arrangements and contrivances
specially characteristic of man. Man's sensory powers, while inferior
in range to those of many other animals, are remarkable for balance
and completeness, leading to perceptions of differences in colours,
sounds, etc., which lie at the foundation of art. The specialization
of the hand again connects itself with contrivances which render an
animal naturally defenceless the most formidable of all, and an animal
naturally gifted with indifferent locomotive powers able to outstrip
all others in speed and range of locomotion. Thus the physiological
endowments of man, while common to him with other animals, and in
some respects inferior to theirs, present in combination with his
higher powers points of difference which lead to the most special and
unexpected results.
In his psychical relations, using this term in its narrower sense, we
may see still greater divergencies from the line of the lower animals.
These may no doubt be connected with his greater volume of brain; but
recent researches seem to show that brain has more to do with motory
and sensory powers than with those that are intellectual, and thus,
that a larger brain is only indirectly connected with higher mental
manifestations. Even in the lower animals it is clear that the ferocity
of the tiger, the constructive instinct of the beaver, and the sagacity
of the elephant depend on psychical powers which are beyond the reach
of the anatomist's knife, and this is still more markedly the case in
man. Following in part the ingenious analysis of Mivart, we may regard
the psychical powers of man as reflex, instinctive, emotional, and
intellectual; and in each of these aspects we shall find points of
resemblance to other animals, and of divergence from them. In regard
to reflex actions, or those which are merely automatic, inasmuch
as they are intended to provide for certain important functions
without thought or volition, their development is naturally in the
inverse ratio of psychical elevation, and man is consequently, in
this respect, in no way superior to lower animals. The same may be
said with reference to instinctive powers, which provide often for
complex actions in a spontaneous and unreasoning manner. In these
also man is rather deficient than otherwise; and since, from their
nature, they limit their possessors to narrow ranges of activity, and
fix them within a definite scope of experience and efficiency, they
would be incompatible with those higher and more versatile inventive
powers which man possesses. The comb-building instinct of the bee, the
nest-weaving instinct of the bird, are fixed and invariable things,
obviously incompatible with the varied contrivance of man; and while
instinct is perfect within its narrow range, it cannot rise beyond this
into the sphere of unlimited thought and contrivance. Higher than mere
instinct are the powers of imagination, memory, and association, and
here man at once steps beyond his animal associates, and develops these
in such a variety of ways, that even the rudest tribes of men, who
often appear to trust more to these endowments than to higher powers,
rise into a plane immeasurably above that of the highest and most
intelligent brutes, and toward which they are unable, except to a very
limited degree, to raise those of the more domesticable animals which
they endeavour to train into companionship with themselves. It is,
however, in these domesticated animals that we find the highest degree
of approximation to ourselves in emotional development, and this is
perhaps one of the points that fits them for such human association. In
approaching the higher psychical endowments, the affinity of man and
the brute appears to diminish and at length to cease, and it is left to
him alone to rise into the domain of the rational and ethical.
Those supreme endowments of man we may, following the nomenclature of
ancient philosophy and of our Sacred Scriptures, call "pneumatical" or
spiritual. They consist of consciousness, reason, and moral volition.
That man possesses these powers every one knows; that they exist or can
be developed in lower animals no one has succeeded in proving. Here,
at length, we have a severance between man and material nature. Yet it
does not divorce him from the unity of nature, except on the principles
of atheism. For if it separates him from animals, it allies him with
the Power who made and planned the animals. To the naturalist the fact
that such capacities exist in a being who in his anatomical structure
so closely resembles the lower animals, constitutes an evidence of the
independent existence of those powers and of their spiritual character
and relation to a higher power which, I think, no metaphysical
reasoning or materialistic scepticism will suffice to invalidate. It
would be presumption, however, from the standpoint of the naturalist
to discuss at length the powers of man's spiritual being. I may refer
merely to a few points which illustrate at once his connection with
other creatures, and his superiority to them as a higher member of
nature.
And, first, we may notice those axiomatic beliefs which lie at the
foundation of human reasoning, and which, while apparently in harmony
with nature, do not admit of verification except by an experience
impossible to finite beings. Whether these are ultimate truths, or
merely results of the constitution bestowed on us, or effects of the
direct action of the creative mind on ours, they are to us like the
instincts of animals infallible and unchanging. Yet, just as the
instincts of animals unfailingly connect them with their surroundings,
our intuitive beliefs fit us for understanding nature and for existing
in it as our environment. These beliefs also serve to connect man with
his fellow man, and in this aspect we may associate with them those
universal ideas of right and wrong, of immortality, and of powers above
ourselves, which pervade humanity.
Another phase of this spiritual constitution is illustrated by the
ways in which man, starting from powers and contrivances common to
him and animals, develops them into new and higher uses and results.
This is markedly seen in the gift of speech. Man, like other animals,
has certain natural utterances expressive of emotions or feelings. He
can also, like some of them, imitate the sounds produced by animate
or inanimate objects; while the constitution of his brain and vocal
organs gives him special advantages for articulate utterance. But when
he develops these gifts into a system of speech expressing not mere
sounds occurring in nature, but by association and analogy with these,
properties and relations of objects and general and abstract ideas,
he rises into the higher sphere of the spiritual. He thus elevates a
power of utterance common to him with animals to a higher plane, and
connecting it with his capacity for understanding nature and arriving
at general truths, asserts his kinship to the great creative mind, and
furnishes a link of connection between the material universe and the
spiritual Creator.
The manner of existence of man in nature is as well illustrated by
his arts and inventions as by anything else; and these serve also
to enlighten us as to the distinction between the natural and the
artificial. Naturalists often represent man as dependent on nature
for the first hints of his useful arts. There are in animal nature
tailors, weavers, masons, potters, carpenters, miners, and sailors,
independently of man, and many of the tools, implements, and machines
which he is said to have invented were perfected in the structures
of lower animals long before he came into existence. In all these
things man has been an assiduous learner from nature, though in some of
them, as for example in the art of aërial navigation, he has striven
in vain to imitate the powers possessed by other animals. But it may
well be doubted whether man is in this respect so much an imitator as
has been supposed, and whether the resemblance of his plans to those
previously realized in nature does not depend on that general fitness
of things which suggests to rational minds similar means to secure
similar ends. But in saying this we in effect say that man is not only
a part of nature, but that his mind is in harmony with the plans of
nature, or, in other words, with the methods of the creative mind. Man
is also curiously in harmony with external nature in the combination
in his works of the ideas of plan and adaptation, of ornament and
use. In architecture, for example, devising certain styles or orders,
and these for the most part based on imitations of natural things; he
adapts these to his ends, just as in nature types of structure are
adapted to a great variety of uses, and he strives to combine, as in
nature, perfect adaptation to use with conformity to type or style. So,
in his attempts at ornament he copies natural forms, and uses these
forms to decorate or conceal parts intended to serve essential purposes
in the structure. This is at least the case in the purer styles of
construction. It is in the more debased styles that arches, columns,
triglyphs, or buttresses are placed where they can serve no useful
purpose, and become mere excrescences. But in this case the abnormality
resulting breeds in the beholder an unpleasing mental confusion, and
causes him, even when he is unable to trace his feelings to their
source, to be dissatisfied with the result. Thus man is in harmony with
that arrangement of nature which causes every ornamental part to serve
some use, and which unites adaptation with plan.
The following of nature must also form the basis of those fine arts
which are not necessarily connected with any utility, and in man's
pursuit of art of this kind we see one of the most recondite and at
first sight inexplicable of his correspondences with the other parts
of nature; for there is no other creature that pursues art for its
own sake. Modern archæological discovery has shown that the art of
sculpture began with the oldest known races of man, and that they
succeeded in producing very accurate imitations of natural objects.
But from this primitive starting-point two ways diverge. One leads to
the conventional and the grotesque, and this course has been followed
by many semi-civilized nations. Another leads to accurate imitation of
nature, along with new combinations arising from the play of intellect
and imagination. Let us look for a moment at the actual result of the
development of these diverse styles of art, and at their effect on the
culture of humanity as existing in nature. We may imagine a people who
have wholly discarded nature in their art, and have devoted themselves
to the monstrous and the grotesque. Such a people, so far as art is
concerned, separates itself widely from nature and from the mind of the
Creator, and its taste and possibly its morals sink to the level of the
monsters it produces. Again, we may imagine a people in all respects
following nature in a literal and servile manner. Such a people would
probably attain to but a very moderate amount of culture, but having a
good foundation, it might ultimately build up higher things. Lastly,
we may fancy a people who, like the old Greeks, strove to add to the
copying of nature a higher and ideal beauty by combining in one the
best features of many natural objects, or devising new combinations
not found in nature itself. In the first of these conditions of art
we have a falling away from or caricaturing of the beauty of nature.
In the second we have merely a pupilage to nature. In the third we
find man aiming to be himself a creator, but basing his creations on
what nature has given him. Thus all art worthy of the name is really a
development of nature. It is true the eccentricities of art and fashion
are so erratic that they may often seem to have no law. Yet they are
all under the rule of nature; and hence even uninstructed common
sense, unless dulled by long familiarity, detects in some degree their
incongruity, and though it may be amused for a time, at length becomes
wearied with the mental irritation and nervous disquiet which they
produce.
I may be permitted to add that all this applies with still greater
force to systems of science and philosophy. Ultimately these must be
all tested by the verities of nature to which man necessarily submits
his intellect, and he who builds for aye must build on the solid ground
of nature. The natural environment presents itself in this connection
as an educator of man. From the moment when infancy begins to exercise
its senses on the objects around, this education begins training the
powers of observation and comparison, cultivating the conception of
the grand and beautiful, leading to analysis and abstract and general
ideas. Left to itself, it is true this natural education extends but
a little way, and ordinarily it becomes obscured or crushed by the
demands of a hard utility, or by an artificial literary culture, or by
the habitude of monstrosity and unfitness in art. Yet, when rightly
directed, it is capable of becoming an instrument of the highest
culture, intellectual, æsthetic, and even moral. A rational system of
education would follow nature in the education of the young, and drop
much that is arbitrary and artificial. Here I would merely remark,
that when we find that the accurate and systematic study of nature
trains most effectually some of the more practical powers of mind, and
leads to the highest development of taste for beauty in art, we see in
this relation the unity of man and nature, and the unity of both with
something higher than either.
It may, however, occur to us here, that when we consider man as an
improver and innovator in the world, there is much that suggests a
contrariety between him and nature, and that, instead of being the
pupil of his environment, he becomes its tyrant. In this aspect man,
and especially civilized man, appears as the enemy of wild nature, so
that in those districts which he has most fully subdued, many animals
and plants have been exterminated, and nearly the whole surface has
come under his processes of culture, and has lost the characteristics
which belonged to it in its primitive state. Nay more, we find that by
certain kinds of so called culture man tends to exhaust and impoverish
the soil, so that it ceases to minister to his comfortable support, and
becomes a desert. Vast regions of the earth are in this impoverished
condition, and the westward march of exhaustion warns us that the time
may come when even in comparatively new countries, like America, the
land will cease to be able to sustain its inhabitants. Behind this
stands a still farther and portentous possibility. The resources of
chemistry are now being taxed to the utmost to discover methods by
which the materials of human food may be produced synthetically, and we
may possibly, at some future time, find that albumen and starch may be
manufactured cheaply from their elements by artificial processes. Such
a discovery might render man independent of the animal and vegetable
kingdoms. Agriculture might become an unnecessary and unprofitable
art. A time might come when it would no longer be possible to find on
earth a green field, or a wild animal; and when the whole earth would
be one great factory, in which toiling millions were producing all the
materials of food, clothing, and shelter. Such a world may never exist,
but its possible existence may be imagined, and its contemplation
brings vividly before us the vast powers inherent in man as a subverter
of the ordinary course of nature. Yet even this ultimate annulling of
wild nature would be brought about not by anything preternatural in
man, but simply by his placing himself in alliance with certain natural
powers and agencies, and by their means attaining dominion over the
rest.
Here there rises before us a spectre which science and philosophy
appear afraid to face, and which asks the dread question,--What is the
cause of the apparent abnormality in the relations of man and nature?
In attempting to solve this question, we must admit that the position
of man, even here, is not without natural analogies. The stronger
preys upon the weaker, the lower form gives place to the higher,
and in the progress of geological time old species have died out in
favour of newer, and old forms of life have been exterminated by later
successors. Man, as the newest and highest of all, has thus the natural
right to subdue and rule the world. Yet there can be little doubt that
he uses this right unwisely and cruelly, and these terms themselves
explain why he does so, because they imply freedom of will. Given a
system of nature destitute of any being higher than the instinctive
animal, and introduce into it a free rational agent, and you have at
once an element of instability. So long as his free thought and purpose
continue in harmony with the arrangements of his environment, so long
all will be harmonious; but the very hypothesis of freedom implies that
he can act otherwise, and so perfect is the equilibrium of existing
things, that one wrong or unwise action may unsettle the nice balance,
and set in operation trains of causes and effects producing continued
and ever-increasing disturbance. Thus the most primitive state of man,
though destitute of all mechanical inventions, may have been better in
relation to the other parts of nature than any that he has subsequently
attained to. His "many inventions" have injured him in his natural
relations. This "fall of man" we know as a matter of observation and
experience has actually occurred, and it can be retrieved only by
casting man back again into the circle of merely instinctive action,
or by carrying him forward until, by growth in wisdom and knowledge, he
becomes fitted to be the lord of creation. The first method has been
proved unsuccessful by the rebound of humanity against all the attempts
to curb and suppress its liberty. The second has been the effort of
all reformers and philanthropists since the world began, and its
imperfect success affords a strong ground for clinging to the theistic
view of nature, for soliciting the intervention of a Power higher than
man, and for hoping for a final restitution of all things through the
intervention of that Power. Mere materialistic evolution must ever and
necessarily fail to account for the higher nature of man, and also for
his moral aberrations. These only come rationally into the system of
nature under the supposition of a Higher Intelligence, from whom man
emanates, and whose nature he shares.
But on this theistic view we are introduced to a kind of unity and of
evolution for a future age, which is the great topic of revelation, and
is not unknown to science and philosophy, in connection with the law
of progress and development deducible from the geological history, in
which an ascending series of lower animals culminates in man himself.
Why should there not be a new and higher plane of existence to be
attained to by humanity--a new geological period, so to speak, in
which present anomalies shall be corrected, and the grand unity of the
universe and its harmony with its Maker fully restored. This is what
Paul anticipates when he tells us of a "pneumatical" or spiritual body,
to succeed to the present natural or "psychical" one, or what Jesus
Himself tells us when He says that in the future state we shall be like
to the angels. Angels are not known to us as objects of scientific
observation, but such an order of beings is quite conceivable, and
this not as supernatural, but as part of the order of nature. They are
created beings like ourselves, subject to the laws of the universe,
yet free and intelligent and liable to error, in bodily constitution
freed from many of the limitations imposed on us, mentally having
higher range and grasp, and consequently masters of natural powers not
under our control. In short, we have here pictured to us an order of
beings forming a part of nature, yet in their powers as miraculous to
us as we might be supposed to be to lower animals, could they think of
such things. This idea of angels bridges over the great natural gulf
between humanity and deity, and illustrates a higher plane than that of
man in his present state, but attainable in the future. Dim perceptions
of this would seem to constitute the substratum of the ideas of the
so-called polytheistic religions. Christianity itself is in this aspect
not so much a revelation of the supernatural as the highest bond of
the great unity of nature. It reveals to us the perfect Man, who is
also one with God, and the mission of this Divine Man to restore the
harmonies of God and humanity, and consequently also of man with his
natural environment in this world, and with his spiritual environment
in the higher world of the future. If it is true that nature now groans
because of man's depravity, and that man himself shares in the evils
of this disharmony with nature around him, it is clear that if man
could be restored to his true place in nature he would be restored
to happiness and to harmony with God, and if, on the other hand, he
can be restored to harmony with God, he will then be restored also to
harmony with his natural environment, and so to life and happiness and
immortality. It is here that the old story of Eden, and the teaching
of Christ, and the prophecy of the New Jerusalem strike the same note
which all material nature gives forth when we interrogate it respecting
its relations to man. The profound manner in which these truths appear
in the teaching of Christ has perhaps not been appreciated as it
should, because we have not sought in that teaching the philosophy of
nature which it contains. When He points to the common weeds of the
fields, and asks us to consider the garments more gorgeous than those
of kings in which God has clothed them, and when He says of these same
wild flowers, so daintily made by the Supreme Artificer, that to-day
they are, and to-morrow are cast into the oven, He gives us not merely
a lesson of faith, but a deep insight into that want of unison which,
centring in humanity, reaches all the way from the wild flower to the
God who made it, and requires for its rectification nothing less than
the breathing of that Divine Spirit which first evoked order and life
out of primeval chaos.
References:--Articles in _Princeton Review_ on Man in Nature and on
Evolution. "The Story of the Earth and Man." London, 1890. "Modern
Ideas of Evolution." London, 1891. Nature as an Educator. _Canadian
Record of Science_, 1890.
INDEX OF PRINCIPAL TOPICS.
Air-breathers, their Origin and History, 257, 303.
Alpine and Arctic Plants, their Geological History, 425.
American Stone Age, 464.
Animals, their Apparition and Succession, 169.
---- their Geological History, 176, 187, 194.
---- Permanent Forms of, 87, 180.
Anthropic Age, 461.
Antiquity of Man, 469.
Arctic Climates in the Past, 213.
Atlantic, its Origin and History, 57.
---- Cosmical Functions of, 72.
---- its Influence on Climate, 81.
---- Deposits in, 83.
---- Migrations across, 84.
---- Future of, 90.
Azores, their Animals, 408.
Baphetes planiceps, 263.
Bay of Fundy, its Deposits, 312.
---- Footprints on Shores of, 311.
Bermudas, their Flora, etc., 85.
Boulders, Belts of, on Lower St. Lawrence, 345.
Boulder-Clay, Nature, etc., of, 360.
Cave Men, 476.
Cannstadt Race, 474
Chaos, Vision of, 90.
Chronology of Pleistocene, 470.
Climate, its Causes, 81.
---- as related to Plants, 215.
Climatal Changes, 382.
Coal, its Nature and Structure, 235.
---- its Origin and Growth, 233.
---- Summary of Facts relating to, 241.
---- of Mesozoic and Tertiary, 249.
---- its Connection with Erect Forests, 296.
Continents and Islands, 402.
---- Permanence of, 31, 403.
Contrast of land and sea-borne Ice, 360.
Cordilleran Glaciers, 369.
Cromagnon Race, 474.
Crust and Sub-crust, 62.
Dawn of Life, 95.
Deluge, The, 467.
Dendrerpeton Acadianum, 270.
Determination in Nature, 329.
Development of Life, 23.
---- Laws of, 194.
Distribution of Animals and Plants, 401.
Drift of Western Canada, 369
Early Man, 459.
Engis Race, 472.
Eozoon, Discovery of, 111.
---- Nature of, 112.
---- Contemporaries of, 129.
---- Teachings of, 135.
Eozoon, Preservation of and Structure, 143.
Eyes, earliest Types of, 331.
Evolution, its partial Character, 188.
Flora of White Mountains, 421.
Floras originate in the Arctic, 297.
Floating Ice, 360.
Footprints of Reptiles, 260.
---- of Limulus, 319.
Fossils, Preservation of, 136.
Fucoids, 311.
Galapagos, how Peopled, 412.
Geographical Changes and Climate, 390.
Geological Record, Imperfection of, 40.
Glaciers, Work of, 353.
Glacial Period, Conditions of, 375.
Gulf Stream, 388.
Hydrous Silicates, 144.
Huronian as a Geological System, 104.
Hylonomus Lyelli, 279.
Icebergs, their Nature and Work, 348.
Ice Age, the, 343.
Imperfection of the Geological Record, 40.
Land and Water, 58.
Land Snails, Earliest, 247.
Labyrinthodonts, their Origin and History, 265.
Laurentian System, 97.
---- Life in the, 107.
Laurentide Glaciers, 364, 368.
Leda Clay of Lower St. Lawrence, 365.
Life, First Appearance of, 19, 96, 157.
Limbs, the Earliest, 337.
Limulus, Footprints of, 319.
Magmas under Crust of the Earth, 63.
Mammoth Age, 466.
Man in Nature, 484.
---- Early, 461.
---- an Imitator of Natural Objects, 490.
---- at War with other Natural Agencies, 495.
---- in harmony with Nature, 496.
Markings, Footprints, etc., 301.
---- Rill and Rain, etc., 317.
Microsauria, 279.
Migrations of Plants, 434.
Millipedes of Carboniferous Age, 295.
Mineral Charcoal, 237.
Missouri Coteau, 271.
Mountains, Origin of, 33.
---- Classes of, 66.
Mount Washington, 426.
Nature, Various Senses of the Term, 483.
Neanthropic Age, 472.
Ocean, the Atlantic, 58, 67.
Oceanic Islands, 407.
Palanthropic Age, 462.
Permanence of Continents, 31, 403.
---- of Animal Forms, 87, 180.
Plants, Geological History of, 202.
---- as Indicators of Time and Climate, 229.
---- of the Erian, Carboniferous, etc., 202.
---- of the Pleistocene, 439.
Pleistocene, Tabular View of, 472.
Polygenesis of Species, 418.
Pre-determination in Nature, 329.
Primitive Rocks, 16.
Protozoa, their Place in Nature, 152.
Pseudo-Fucoids, 318.
Pupa vetusta, 288.
Races of Early Men, 474.
Rill Marks, 317.
Scorpions, Carboniferous, 295.
Sigillariæ, Erect, 276.
Sorde, Cave of, 476.
Species, Permanence of, 87, 180.
---- Origin of, 418.
Sponges in Cambro-Silurian, 46.
Spore-cases in Coal, 234.
Stigmaria, 246.
Stone Age in America, 464.
Terraces of Lower St Lawrence, 346.
Tides of the Bay of Fundy, 312.
Time, Geological, 416.
Tracks of Animals, 51.
Trees, Erect, with Animal Remains, 276.
Tuckerman's Ravine, 427.
Underclays, their Origin and Nature, 236.
Vegetable Life, the Earliest, 338.
Vegetable Kingdom, its History, 202.
Vertebrates, History of, 183.
Vision of Creation, 90.
Worlds, the Making of, 9, 14.
Worm Tracks, 318.
White Mountains, 426.
Zoological Regions, 405.
=SCIENCE IN BIBLE LANDS.=
Modern Science in Bible Lands. By Sir J. W. Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D.,
F.R.S. With Maps and Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
The special object of the work, the author tells us, is "to notice
the light which the scientific explorations of the countries of
the Bible may throw on the character and statements of the book."
It contains much interesting and valuable matter, and Sir J. W.
Dawson's opinions and explanations will doubtless meet with the
respect and attention which they merit.--_Academy_, London.
Will add to Professor Dawson's deservedly high reputation as a
scientist, and will be found to possess the same fascination for
the reader that has characterized his previous works.... The work
is not only a most interesting and valuable one from a scientific
point of view, but will prove a notable addition to Biblical
literature.--_Boston Traveller._
One of the most valuable of recent books for Bible students.... This
volume is a treatment at once scientific, and in the best sense
popular, of such phases of Bible lands as most impressed themselves
on the professor's mind when journeying in the East.--_Boston
Advertiser._
At once intensely interesting and instructive.--_Albany Press._
The author writes delightfully, even in his technical passages. His
book gives freshness to antiquity, and his personal adventures
and experiences, though told modestly, show him to be heroic as a
student of science and religion--_Philadelphia Bulletin._
A very interesting and instructive work.... Not its least charm
is the agreeable style in which it is written, and which makes
portions of it read like pages from a romance--_New York Sun._
A valuable book with a valuable aim.... The whole book is vigorous,
clear, strong, and adds another word of deep and honest thought to
correct errors, dissipate doubts, and stimulate faith.--_Zion's
Herald_, Boston.
A work of great scientific and Biblical value.--_Lutheran Observer_,
Philadelphia.
The book is plain, straightforward, and interesting, and its
scientific facts and deductions are of value.--_Western Christian
Advocate_, Cincinnati.
Professor Dawson in this volume adds to his well-earned fame, and we
predict for it an extensive sale.--_Evangelist_, New York.
Of priceless value for those who would read with understanding the
only real history the world has ever had, or will have, of the
first three thousand years of man's life in the world.--_Standard_,
Chicago.
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
_The above work in for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by the
publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada,
or Mexico, on receipt of price._
=THE EARTH AND MAN.=
The Story of the Earth and Man. By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.,
Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University, Montreal. New
Edition with Corrections and Additions. With a Colored Diagram and
Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
This little book is, on the whole, the best popular geology that has
ever come from the press. The subject is one that possesses the
strongest possible interest for the writer and awakens his greatest
enthusiasm. One of the strongest and most interesting chapters in
the volume is the first of the two on primitive man. The whole
book is remarkable for its simplicity, clearness, interest, and
vitality.--_Mail and Express_, N. Y.
The work is full of absorbing interest.--_Toledo Blade._
The book is a recognized authority on the subject of which it treats,
and worthy of a place in the library.--_S. S. Journal_, N. Y.
We advise any of our readers who have been carried away with the
evolution craze as something that indicates advanced thinking to
read this most valuable work.--_Christian Standard_, Cincinnati, O.
An excellent summary of geological history.--_Boston Literary World._
The author is an able opponent of the theories of the evolutionists,
and his discussion of the theme is interesting. His account of the
lowest and earliest form of animal life as exemplified in what he
calls the "dawn animal," found by him in fossil state in Canada, is
of special interest.--_Brooklyn Eagle._
The last two chapters of the work on "Primitive Man" contain an
unanswerable argument against the Darwinian theory of evolution,
and will be found invaluable by all who are called to face
that phase of modern infidelity. We most earnestly commend the
volume.--_Chicago Interior._
This work has stood the test of criticism, and has won its way to
the position of a standard text-book. The learned author does not
accept theories for scientific facts, nor permit himself to be led
away by mere clamor. He goes to the bottom of things, and gets at
the truth if possible. He does not presume to build a scientific
system upon finely wrought suppositions. What is known of the
history of the earth and man the student will find in this book.
It comes up to date with its facts. We do not know its equal as
a text-book on this subject. It is sufficiently illustrated, and
beautifully printed, and has a copious index.--_San Francisco
Christian Advocate._
We cannot but give the greatest respect to the writer of this book,
who presents so vividly the history of the world's progress, and we
cannot but express admiration for that clear and precise style he
possesses.--_N. Y. Times._
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, N. Y.
[hand] Harper & Brothers _will send the above work, postage prepaid, to
any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price._
=THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD.=
The Origin of the World, according to Revelation and Science. By J. W.
Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
The revised work is a cyclopædia that will be welcome to all who
desire a reconciliation of science and religion, in which the
Scriptures retain their authority. The appendices contain valuable
scientific criticism, and the treatise meets the controversy as it
is to-day.--_North American_, Philadelphia, Pa.
To all reverent students of the Bible this work will prove a valuable
boon in enabling them to determine the precise import of Biblical
references to creation, and how these may be harmonized with
modern discovery.... In an appendix the volume furnishes several
short essays on special points collateral to the general subject,
and important to the solution of some of its phases.--_N. Y.
Evangelist._
Briefly described, the book is a singularly suggestive study of the
first chapter of Genesis considered as an inspired revelation in
the light of modern science.--_Evening Post_, N. Y.
The book will commend itself to both scholars and the common people;
for, while the latter can understand, the former can enjoy
it.--_The Churchman_, N. Y.
Although most scientists and many theologians will doubtless differ
with the author's conclusions, yet he has shown so much ingenuity
and care in sustaining them, and is so evidently inspired by a
regard for what he desires to be the truth, that his book will
command the attention of candid inquirers of whatever shade of
belief.--_Boston Globe._
Mr. Dawson has devoted much study to the treatment of the subject
discussed in this volume. He has sought to get at the truth
alone.... The writer's style is clear and vigorous, and he has
patiently wrought out his theories from a wide and comprehensive
range of observation.--_Union-Argus_, Brooklyn, N. Y.
The work treats of the mystery of "origins," the beginning of
creation, the "desolate void," the various created objects light,
land, plants, animals, and finally man, whose unity of origin
and antiquity are made the subject of two chapters. An appendix,
containing short essays on special points, is a valuable feature of
the book.--_Observer_, N. Y.
Whether the reader accepts Dr. Dawson's conclusions or not,
he will find the work a wonderfully suggestive study, and
singularly fair in its treatment of the opinions and theories it
antagonizes.--_Free Press_, Detroit, Mich.
As a summary of creation, the book is lively and fresh. It will be
found interesting and profitable to all students of this alluring
theme.--_Christian Advocate_, N. Y.
At least no student of theology can afford not to possess this most
excellent work.--_Pittsburg Dispatch._
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, N. Y.
[hand] Harper & Brothers _will send the above work, postage prepaid, to
any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price._
IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE BOOKS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS.
The Geographical Distribution of Animals. With a Study of the
Relations of Living and Extinct Faunas, as elucidating the Past
Changes of the Earth's Surface. By Alfred Russel Wallace. With
Colored Maps and numerous Illustrations. 2 vols., Cloth, $10 00.
The Earth. By Élisée Reclus. With 234 Maps and Illustrations, and 23
Page Maps printed in Colors. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00; Half Calf, $7 25.
The Ocean, Atmosphere, and Life. By Élisée Reclus. With 250 Maps or
Figures, and 27 Maps printed in Colors. 8vo, Cloth, $6 00; Half
Calf, $8 25.
The Atmosphere. Translated from the French of Camille Flammarion.
With 10 Chromo-lithographs, and 86 Wood-cuts. Royal 8vo, Cloth,
$6 00; Half Calf, $8 25.
Cosmos: a Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. By
Alexander Von Humboldt. Translated from the German by E. C. Otté.
2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 00.
Geological History: Chapters from the Physical History of the Earth.
By Arthur Nicols, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75.
A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago. A Narrative
of Travel and Exploration from 1878 to 1883. By Henry O. Forbes,
F.R.G.S., etc. Many Illustrations and Colored Maps. 8vo, Cloth,
$5 00.
The Voyage of the "Challenger." The Atlantic: A Preliminary
Account of the General Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S.
"Challenger" during the Year 1873 and the Early Part of the Year
1876. By Sir C. Wyville Thomson, Knt., LL.D., F.R.S.,etc. With many
Colored Maps, Charts, and Illustrations. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth,
$12 00.
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
_The above works are for sate, by all booksellers, or will be sent
by the publisher, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States,
Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of price._
* * * * *
Transcriber Note
All images were obtained from The Internet Archive. A clearer version
of the illustration of Hylonomus Lyelli (facing p. 257) was obtained
from Plate 9, The Coal Measures Amphibia of North America, by Roy Lee
Moodie. Illustrations were repositioned so as to not split paragraphs.
Hyphenation was standardized to the most prevalent form and several
presumed typos were corrected.