and a demonstration; but it is a great mistake to suppose that a theory
may then only be admitted by science when it has been demonstrated.
Bishop Butler tells us that "Probability is the guide of life," and not
less true is it that probability is likewise the guide of science. The
business of science, as of common life, is to estimate correctly the
relative degrees of probability presented by this and that theory or
hypothesis; when once a theory or hypothesis is demonstrated it ceases
to be a matter of scientific inquiry, and becomes a matter of scientific
fact. Thus received, we have to consider the doctrine of evolution as
certainly standing in the first rank of scientific theories in respect
of probability sustained by evidence, although no less certainly not
demonstrated as a matter of scientific fact. But when a theory has been
raised to such a level of probability as this, it is, for all practical
purposes, as good as a demonstration. Thus, in the particular instance
before us, even if the sceptical demand for evidence, which from the
nature of the case is clearly impossible, were granted, and if we could
actually observe the transmutation of species, the fact would not exert
any further influence on the progress of science than is now exerted by
the large and converging bodies of evidence which leave no other
rational theory open to us than that such transmutation has taken place.
Therefore, it seems to me, the hypercritical objection which we are
considering is really founded on a misconception of scientific method,
and of what it is that justifies a scientific doctrine. Assuredly, in
the case of every theory, as distinguished from a demonstration, there
must always be a proportion between the evidence of and the warrant for
the proposition which the theory states; and if gauged by this simple
rule the warrant for accepting the theory of evolution is now estimated
by the judgment of all scientifically trained minds as so high, that by
no additional evidence could it be placed higher without becoming a full
demonstration. Or, otherwise stated, as a theory the doctrine of descent
is now in the topmost position of probability, so that by no amount of
additional evidence could it be raised higher without ceasing to be a
probability and becoming a certainty. That is to say, we do not need any
more evidence in any of the lines of evidence to add to the strength of
our belief in, as distinguished from our knowledge of, the truth of
evolution. For the strength of our conviction could not be increased by
the discovery of any additional number of connecting links among fossil
species, further facts relating to geographical distribution, to
morphology, classification, embryology, or any of the other lines of
evidence which have been mentioned; no further evidence the same in kind
is now competent to raise in degree the probability which has already
been raised, as far as from its very nature as a probability it can be
raised.
I have no doubt, however, that the principal obstacle which the doctrine
of evolution encounters in the popular mind is not one of reason, but of
sentiment. It is thought that the conception of man being a lineal
descendant of the monkey is a conception which is degrading to the
dignity of the former animal. Now this obstacle being, as I have said, a
matter of feeling or sentiment, as such I am not able to meet it. If you
think that man is shown to be any less human because his origin is now
shown to have been derivative, I cannot change that decision on your
part; I can only express dissent from it on my own. But although I
cannot affect your sentiments in this matter, I may be permitted to
point out that, as they are only sentiments, they are quite worthless as
arguments or guides to truth. I have yet to learn that the "dignity of
man" is a matter of any concern to our Mother Nature, who in all her
dealings appears, to say the least, to treat us in rather a
matter-of-fact sort of way. Indeed, so far is she from respecting our
ideas of "dignity," that whenever these ideas have been applied to any
of her processes, the progress of science has been destined rudely to
dispel them. Thus, for instance, when the sun-spots were first observed
they were indignantly denied by the Aristotelians, on the ground of its
being "impossible that the eye of the universe could suffer from
ophthalmia;" and when Kepler made his great discovery of the accelerated
and retarded motion of the planets in different parts of their orbits,
many persons refused to entertain the conception, on the ground that it
was "undignified" for heavenly bodies to hurry and slacken their pace in
accordance with Kepler's law. This now seems most absurd to us; but to
posterity it will not seem nearly so much so as that, notwithstanding
such precedents, persons should still be found to object to Darwin's
discovery, not because they were anxious to maintain the dignity of the
heavenly bodies, but because they were so ludicrously anxious to
maintain the dignity of their own! Good it is for man, puffed up with
such silly pride, that Nature teaches him humility.
But, before leaving this subject, I should like further to point out
that those who advance this preposterous objection from dignity appear
to forget one all-important point, viz., that whether or not the monkey
is the parent of the man, the man is certainly made in every way to
_look like_ a child of the monkey. For it is a matter of anatomical
demonstration, that in all the features of our bodily structure--even up
to our brains--we more closely resemble the man-like apes than the
man-like apes resemble the lower quadrumana. And I beg it to be
remembered that the tremendous significance of this fact can only be
duly appreciated by those who know the astounding complexity of our
bodily structure. Those who are ignorant of human anatomy cannot form
any adequate--probably not even an approximate--conception of its
intricacy. Yet we find that this terrifically intricate organisation is
repeated down to all the minute bones and muscles, blood-vessels, nerves
and viscera, in the bodies of the higher apes. Here, then, I say, we
have a fact--or rather let me say a hundred thousand facts--which cannot
possibly be attributed to chance. As reasonable beings we must conclude
that there has been some definite cause for this extraordinary imitation
by the most highly organised being in creation of the next most highly
organised. And if we reject the natural explanation of hereditary
descent from a common ancestry, we can only suppose that the Deity, in
creating man, took the most scrupulous pains to make him in the image of
the ape. This, I say, is a matter of undeniable fact--supposing the
creation theory true--and as a matter of fact, therefore, it calls for
explanation. Why should God have thus conditioned man as an elaborate
copy of the ape, when we know from the rest of creation how endless are
His resources in the invention of types?
I present the matter thus to show that even the weight of sentiment is
not all on the side of special creation. Look on this picture and on
this:--
The Creator has exhibited the extraordinary and unaccountable design of
casting the complex structure of man in the same mould that He had just
previously used to cast the complex structure of the ape.
"When I view all beings, not as special creations, but as the lineal
descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of
the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become
ennobled.... There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several
powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms
or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according
to the first law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved."
THE END.
LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.
* * * * *
NATURE SERIES.
POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS IN PHYSICAL
SCIENCE. By Sir WILLIAM THOMSON, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Fellow of
St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and Professor of Natural Philosophy in
the University of Glasgow. With Illustrations. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. Vol.
I. CONSTITUTION OF MATTER. 6_s._
ON THE ORIGIN AND METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS. By Sir JOHN LUBBOCK,
Bart., F.R.S., M.P., D.C.L., LL.D. With numerous Illustrations. Third
Edition. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
ON BRITISH WILD FLOWERS CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO INSECTS. By Sir JOHN
LUBBOCK, Bart., F.R.S., M.P., D.C.L., LL.D. With Illustrations. Fourth
Edition. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._
FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND LEAVES. By Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, F.R.S., &c. Second
Edition. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._
THE TRANSIT OF VENUS. By G. FORBES, M.A., Professor of Natural
Philosophy in the Andersonian University, Glasgow. Illustrated. Crown
8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
THE COMMON FROG. By ST. GEORGE MIVART, F.R.S., Lecturer in Comparative
Anatomy at St. Mary's Hospital. With numerous Illustrations. Crown
8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
POLARISATION OF LIGHT. By W. SPOTTISWOODE, F.R.S. With Illustrations.
Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
THE SCIENCE OF WEIGHING AND MEASURING, AND THE STANDARDS OF MEASURE
AND WEIGHT. By H. W. CHISHOLM, Warden of the Standards. With numerous
Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._
HOW TO DRAW A STRAIGHT LINE: a Lecture on Linkages. By A. B. KEMPE.
With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._
LIGHT: A Series of Simple, Entertaining, and Inexpensive Experiments
in the Phenomena of Light, for the Use of Students of every age. By A.
M. MAYER and C. BARNARD. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 2_s._
6_d._
SOUND: A Series of Simple, Entertaining, and Inexpensive Experiments
in the Phenomena of Sound, for the Use of Students of every age. By A.
M. MAYER, Professor of Physics in the Stevens Institute of Technology,
&c. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
SEEING AND THINKING. By Professor W. K. CLIFFORD, F.R.S. With
Diagrams. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
DEGENERATION. By Professor E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. With
Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._
FASHION IN DEFORMITY, as Illustrated in the Customs of Barbarous and
Civilized Races. By Professor FLOWER. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo.
2_s._ 6_d._
CHARLES DARWIN. Memorial Notices reprinted from _Nature_. By THOMAS
HENRY HUXLEY, F.R.S.; G. J. ROMANES, F.R.S.; ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S.;
and W. T. THISELTON DYER, F.R.S. With a Portrait engraved by C. H.
JEENS. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._
ON THE COLOURS OF FLOWERS. As Illustrated in the British Flora. By
GRANT ALLEN. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. By GEORGE J. ROMANES,
M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., Zoological Secretary of the Linnean Society.
2_s._ 6_d._
A CENTURY OF ELECTRICITY. By T. C. MENDENHALL. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._
MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE SECONDARY BATTERIES OF PLANTÉ AND FAURE. By J. H.
GLADSTONE, Ph.D., F.R.S., and ALFRED TRIBE, F. Inst. C.E., Lecturer on
Chemistry at Dulwich College. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._
ON LIGHT. The Burnett Lectures. By GEORGE GABRIEL STOKES, M.A.,
P.R.S., &c., Fellow of Pembroke College, and Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics in the University of Cambridge. Three Courses: I. On the
Nature of Light; II. On Light as a Means of Investigation; III. On the
Beneficial Effects of Light. Crown 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._
CHEMISTRY OF PHOTOGRAPHY. By RAPHAEL MELDOLA, F.R.S., Professor of
Chemistry in the Finsbury Technical College City and Guilds of London
Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education. Crown 8vo. 6_s._
MODERN VIEWS OF ELECTRICITY. By OLIVER J. LODGE, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S.,
Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Liverpool.
With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6_s._ 6_d._
TIMBER AND SOME OF ITS DISEASES. By H. MARSHALL WARD, F.R.S., Fellow
of Christ's College, Cambridge, Professor of Botany at the Royal
Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill. With Illustrations. Crown
8vo. 6_s._
_Others to follow._
MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.
* * * * *
EVERY THURSDAY AFTERNOON, Price 6_d._
(A Specimen Number, post free, 6-1/2_d._ stamps.)
NATURE:
=A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science.=
NATURE contains Original Articles on all subjects coming within the
domain of Science, contributed by the most eminent Scientists,
belonging to all parts of the world.
Reviews, setting forth the nature and value of recent Scientific
works, are written for NATURE by men who are acknowledged masters in
their particular departments.
The Correspondence columns of NATURE, while forming a medium of
Scientific discussion and of intercommunication among the most
distinguished men of Science, have become the recognized organ for
announcing new discoveries and new illustrations of Scientific
principles among observers of Nature all the world over--from Japan to
San Francisco, from New Zealand to Iceland.
The Serial columns of NATURE contain the gist of the most important
Papers that appear in the numerous Scientific Journals which are now
published at home and abroad, in various languages; while longer
Abstracts are given of the more valuable Papers which appear in
foreign Journals.
The Principal Scientific Societies and Academies of the world, British
and foreign, have their transactions regularly recorded in NATURE, the
Editor being in correspondence, for this purpose, with representatives
of Societies in all parts of the world.
Notes from the most trustworthy sources appear each week recording the
latest gossip of the Scientific world at home and abroad.
As questions of Science compass all limits of nationality, and are of
universal interest, a periodical devoted to them may fitly appeal to
the intelligent classes in all countries where its language is read.
The proprietors of NATURE aim so to conduct it that it shall have a
common claim upon all English-speaking peoples. Its articles are brief
and condensed, and are thus suited to the circumstances of an active
and busy people who have little time to read extended and elaborate
treatises.
=Subscriptions to "Nature":=
Yearly 28_s._ | Half-Yearly 14_s._ 6_d._
Quarterly 7_s._ 6_d._
_To the Colonies, United States, the Continent, and all places within
the Postal Union:_
Yearly 30_s._ 6_d._ | Half-Yearly 15_s._ 6_d._
Quarterly 8_s._
P.O.O. to be made payable to MACMILLAN AND CO.
OFFICE: 29 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND