matter, but with Hartley and Bonnet, both of them stout champions of
Christianity. Moreover, Archbishop Whately’s essay is little better
than an expansion of the first paragraph of Hume’s famous essay on
the Immortality of the Soul:—“By the mere light of reason it seems
difficult to prove the immortality of the soul; the arguments for it
are commonly derived either from metaphysical topics, or moral, or
physical. But it is in reality the Gospel, and the Gospel alone, that
has brought _life and immortality to light_.” It is impossible to
imagine that a man of Whately’s tastes and acquirements had not read
Hume or Hartley, though he refers to neither.
[24] “Essay on the First Principles of Government.” Second edition,
1771, p. 13.
[25] “Utility of Establishments,” in “Essay on First Principles of
Government,” p. 198, 1771.
[26] In 1732 Doddridge was cited for teaching without the Bishop’s
leave, at Northampton.
[27] The recent proceedings of the House of Commons throw a doubt,
which it is to be hoped may speedily be removed, on the accuracy of
this statement. (September 1881.)
[28] “Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe,” _Recherches
sur les ossemens fossiles_, Ed. iv. t. i. p. 185.
[29] “On the Eclipses of Agathocles, Thales, and Xerxes,”
_Philosophical Transactions_, vol. cxliii.
[30] There is every reason to believe that living plants, like living
animals, always respire, and, in respiring, absorb oxygen and give off
carbonic acid; but, that in green plants exposed to daylight or to
the electric light, the quantity of oxygen evolved in consequence of
the decomposition of carbonic acid by a special apparatus which green
plants possess exceeds that absorbed in the concurrent respiratory
process.
[31] Darwin, “Insectivorous Plants,” p. 289.
[32] I purposely assume that the air with which the bean is supplied in
the case stated contains no ammoniacal salts.
[33] The recent researches of Pringsheim have raised a host of
questions as to the exact share taken by chlorophyll in the chemical
operations which are effected by the green parts of plants. It may
be that the chlorophyll is only a constant concomitant of the actual
deoxidising apparatus.
[34] “Researches in the Life-history of a Cercomonad: a Lesson in
Biogenesis;” and “Further Researches in the Life-history of the
Monads.”—“Monthly Microscopical Journal,” 1873.
[35] Excellently described by Stein, almost all of whose statements I
have verified.
[36] “Histoire des Sciences Naturelles,” i. p. 152.
[37] The text I have followed is that given by Aubert and Wimmer,
“Aristoteles Thierkunde; kritisch berichtigter Text mit deutschen
Uebersetzung;” but I have tried here and there to bring the English
version rather closer to the original than the German translation,
excellent as it is, seems to me to be.
[38] In modern works on Veterinary Anatomy the lungs are sometimes
described as two lobes of a single organ.
[39] “Histoire des Sciences Naturelles.”—t. i. p. 130.
[40] “Aristotle, a Chapter from the History of Science.”
[41] I quote, here and always, Cousin’s edition of the works of
Descartes, as most convenient for reference. It is entitled “Œuvres
complètes de Descartes,” publiées par Victor Cousin. 1824.
[42] “Les Passions de l’Âme,” Article xxxiii.
[43] “Recherches physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort.” Par Xav.
Bichat. Art. Sixième.
[44] Locke (_Human Understanding_, Book II., chap. viii. 37) uses
Descartes’ illustration for the same purpose, and warns us that “most
of the ideas of sensation are no more the likeness of something
existing without us than the names that stand for them are the likeness
of our ideas, which yet, upon hearing, they are apt to excite in us,” a
declaration which paved the way for Berkeley.
[45] “Passions de l’Âme,” Art. xxxvi.
[46] “Quamcumque Bruti actionem, velut automati mechanici motum
artificialem, in eo consistere quod se primò sensibile aliquod spiritus
animales afficiens, eosque introrsum convertens, _sensionem_ excitat,
à qua mox iidem spiritus, velut undulatione reflexâ denuo retrorsum
commoti atque pro concinno ipsius fabricæ organorum, et partium ordine,
in certos nervos musculosque determinati, respectivos _membrorum motus_
perficiunt.”—WILLIS: “De Animâ Brutorum,” p. 5, ed. 1763.
[47] “Les Passions de l’Âme,” xlii.
[48] Haller, “Primæ Lineæ,” ed. iii. “Sensus Interni,” dlviii.
[49] “Réponse de M. Descartes à M. Morus.” 1649. “Œuvres,” tome x. p.
204. “Mais le plus grand de tous les préjugés que nous ayons retenus de
notre enfance, est celui de croire que les bêtes pensent,” etc.
[50] Malebranche states the view taken by orthodox Cartesians in
1689 very forcibly: “Ainsi dans les chiens, les chats, et les autres
animaux, il n’y a ny intelligence, ny âme spirituelle comme on l’entend
ordinairement. Ils mangent sans plaisir; ils crient sans douleur; ils
croissent sans le sçavoir; ils ne désirent rien; ils ne connoissent
rien; et s’ils agissent avec adresse et d’une manière qui marque
l’intelligence, c’est que Dieu les faisant pour les conserver, il a
conformé leurs corps de telle manière, qu’ils évitent organiquement,
sans le sçavoir, tout ce qui peut les détruire et qu’ils semblent
craindre.” (“Feuillet de Conches. Méditations Métaphysiques et
Correspondance de N. Malebranche. Neuvième Méditation.” 1841.)
[51] See the remarkable essay of Göltz, “Beiträge zur Lehre von den
Functionen der Nervencentren des Frosches,” published in 1869. I have
repeated Göltz’s experiments, and obtained the same results.
[52] “De l’Automatisme de la Mémoire et du Souvenir, dans le
Somnambulisme pathologique.” Par le Dr. E. Mesnet, Médecin de l’Hôpital
Saint-Antoine. “L’Union Médicale,” Juillet 21 et 23, 1874. My attention
was first called to a summary of this remarkable case, which appeared
in the “Journal des Débats” for the 7th of August 1874, by my friend
General Strachey, F.R.S.
[53] Those who have had occasion to become acquainted with the
phenomena of somnambulism and of mesmerism, will be struck with the
close parallel which they present to the proceedings of F. in his
abnormal state. But the great value of Dr. Mesnet’s observations lies
in the fact that the abnormal condition is traceable to a definite
injury to the brain, and that the circumstances are such as to keep
us clear of the cloud of voluntary and involuntary fictions in which
the truth is too often smothered in such cases. In the unfortunate
subjects of such abnormal conditions of the brain, the disturbance of
the sensory and intellectual faculties is not unfrequently accompanied
by a perturbation of the moral nature, which may manifest itself in a
most astonishing love of lying for its own sake. And, in this respect,
also, F.’s case is singularly instructive, for though, in his normal
state, he is a perfectly honest man, in his abnormal condition he is
an inveterate thief, stealing and hiding away whatever he can lay
hands on, with much dexterity, and with an absurd indifference as to
whether the property is his own or not. Hoffman’s terrible conception
of the “Doppelt-gänger” is realised by men in this state—who live two
lives, in the one of which they may be guilty of the most criminal
acts, while, in the other, they are eminently virtuous and respectable.
Neither life knows anything of the other. Dr. Mesnet states that he
has watched a man in his abnormal state elaborately prepare to hang
himself, and has let him go on until asphyxia set in, when he cut him
down. But on passing into the normal state the would-be suicide was
wholly ignorant of what had happened. The problem of responsibility is
here as complicated as that of the prince-bishop, who swore as a prince
and not as a bishop. “But, highness, if the prince is damned, what will
become of the bishop?” said the peasant.
[54] “Lay Sermons, Essays and Reviews,” p. 355.
[55] “Essai de Psychologie,” chap. xxvii.
[56] In justice to Reid, however, it should be stated that the chapters
on sensation in the “Essays on the Intellectual Powers” (1785) exhibit
a great improvement. He is, in fact, in advance of his commentator, as
the note to Essay II. chap. ii. p. 248 of Hamilton’s edition shows.
[57] Haller, amplifying Descartes, writes in the “Primæ Lineæ,”
CCCLXVI.—“Non est adeo obscurum sensum omnem oriri ab objecti
sensibilis impressione in nervum quemcumque corporis humani, et eamdem
per eum nervum ad cerebrum pervenientem tunc demum representari animæ,
quando cerebrum adtigit. Ut etiam hoc falsum sit animam inproximo per
sensoria nervorumque ramos sentire.”... DLVII.—“Dum ergo sentimus
quinque diversissima entia conjunguntur: corpus quod sentimus:
organi sensorii adfectio ab eo corpore: cerebri adfectio a sensorii
percussione nata: in anima nata mutatio: animæ denique conscientia et
sensationis adperceptio.” Nevertheless, Sir William Hamilton gravely
informs his hearers:—“We have no more right to deny that the mind feels
at the finger points, as consciousness assures us, than to assert
that it thinks exclusively in the brain.”—“Lecture on Metaphysics and
Logic,” ii. p. 128. “We have no reason whatever to doubt the report
of consciousness, that we actually perceive at the external point of
sensation, and that we perceive the material reality.”—_Ibid._ p. 129.
[58] “Observations on Man,” vol. i. p. 11.
[59] _Ibid._ p. 8. The speculations of Bonnet are remarkably similar
to those of Hartley; and they appear to have originated independently,
though the “Essai de Psychologie” (1754) is of five years’ later date
than the “Observations on Man” (1749).
[60] “An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common
Sense,” chap. ii. § 2. Reid affirms that “it is genius, and not the
want of it, that adulterates philosophy, and fills it with error and
false theory;” and no doubt his own lucubrations are free from the
smallest taint of the impurity to which he objects. But, for want of
something more than that sort of “common sense,” which is very common
and a little dull, the contemner of genius did not notice that the
admission here made knocks so big a hole in the bottom of “common sense
philosophy,” that nothing can save it from foundering in the dreaded
abyss of Idealism.
[61] The following diagrammatic scheme may help to elucidate the theory
of sensation:—
Mediate Knowledge
┌────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┐ Immediate
Sensiferous Apparatus Knowledge
┌─────────────────────┴────────────────────┐ ┌───────┴───────┐
Objects of sense │ Receptive Transmissive Sensificatory │ Sensations and
│(Sense Organ) (Nerve) (Sensorium) │ other States of
│ │ Consciousness
│ │
Hypothetical │ │ Hypothetical
Substance of │ │ Substance of
Matter │ │ Mind
└──────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┘ └───────┬───────┘
Physical World Mental World
└───────┬───────┘└────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┘
Not Self Self
└───────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘ └───────┬───────┘
Non-Ego or Object Ego or Subject
Immediate knowledge is confined to states of consciousness, or, in
other words, to the phenomena of mind. Knowledge of the physical
world, or of one’s own body and of objects external to it, is a system
of beliefs or judgments based on the sensations. The term “self” is
applied not only to the series of mental phenomena which constitute the
ego, but to the fragment of the physical world which is their constant
concomitant. The corporeal self, therefore, is part of the non-ego;
and is objective in relation to the ego as subject.
[62] “Chaque fibre est une espèce de touche ou de marteau destiné à
rendre un certain ton.”—Bonnet, “Essai de Psychologie,” chap. iv.
[63] The “Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium,” which Dr. George
Ent extracted from him and published in 1651.
[64] “De Generatione Animalium,” lib ii. cap. x.
[65] “De Generatione,” lib. ii. cap. iv.
[66] “Cependant, pour revenir aux formes ordinaires ou aux âmes
matérielles, cette durée qu’il leur faut attribuer à la place de celle
qu’on avoit attributée aux atomes pourroit faire douter si elles ne
vont pas de corps en corps; ce qui seroit la métempsychose, à peu
près comme quelques philosophes ont cru la transmission du mouvement
et celle des espèces. Mais cette imagination est bien éloignée de la
nature des choses. Il n’y a point de tel passage; et c’est ici où les
transformations de Messieurs Swammerdam, Malpighi, et Leewenhoek, qui
sont des plus excellens observateurs de notre tems, sont venues à mon
secours, et m’ont fait admettre plus aisément, que l’animal, et toute
autre substance organisée ne commence point lorsque nous le croyons, et
que sa generation apparente n’est qu’une développement et une espèce
d’augmentation. Aussi ai je remarqué que l’auteur de la “Recherche de
la Verité,” M. Regis, M. Hartsocker, et d’autres habiles hommes n’ont
pas été fort éloignés de ce sentiment.” Leibnitz, “Système nouveau
de la Nature,” 1695. The doctrine of “Emboîtement” is contained in
the “Considérations sur le principe de vie,” 1705; the preface to the
“Theodicée,” 1710; and the “Principes de la Nature et de la Grace” (§
6), 1718.
[67] “Il est vrai que la pensée la plus raisonnable et la plus conforme
à l’experience sur cette question très difficile de la formation du
fœtus; c’est que les enfans sont déja presque tout formés avant même
l’action par laquelle ils sont conçus; et que leurs mères ne font que
leur donner l’accroissement ordinaire dans le temps de la grossesse.”
“De la Recherche de la Verité,” livre ii. chap. vii. p. 334, 7th ed.,
1721.
[68] The writer is indebted to Dr. Allen Thomson for reference to
the evidence contained in a note to Haller’s edition of Boerhaave’s
“Prælectiones Academicæ,” vol. v. pt ii. p. 497, published in 1744,
that Haller originally advocated epigenesis.
[69] “Considérations sur les Corps organisés,” chap. x.
[70] Bonnet had the courage of his opinions, and in the “Palingénésie
Philosophique,” part vi. chap, iv., he develops a hypothesis which
he terms “évolution naturelle;” and which, making allowance for his
peculiar views of the nature of generation, bears no small resemblance
to what is understood by “evolution” at the present day:—
“Si la volonté divine a créé par un seul Acte l’Universalité des êtres,
d’où venoient ces plantes et ces animaux dont Moyse nous decrit la
Production au troisieme et au cinquieme jour du renouvellement de notre
monde?
“Abuserois-je de la liberté de conjectures si je disois, que les
Plantes et les Animaux qui existent aujourd’hui sont parvenus par une
sorte d’evolution naturelle des Etres organisés qui peuplaient ce
premier Monde, sorti immédiatement des MAINS du CREATEUR?...
“Ne supposons que trois révolutions. La Terre vient de sortir des MAINS
du CREATEUR. Des causes preparées par sa SAGESSE font développer de
toutes parts les Germes. Les Etres organisés commencent à jouir de
l’existence. Ils étoient probablement alors bien différens de ce qu’ils
sont aujourd’hui. Ils l’etoient autant que ce premier Monde différoit
de celui que nous habitons. Nous manquons de moyens pour juger de ces
dissemblances, et peut-être que le plus habile Naturaliste qui auroit
été placé dans ce premier Monde y auroit entièrement méconnu nos
Plantes et nos Animaux.”
[71] “Ce mot (germe) ne désignera pas seulement un corps organisé
_réduit en petit_; il désignera encore toute espèce de _préformation
originelle dont un Tout organique pent résulter comme de son principe
immédiat_.”—“Palingénésie Philosophique,” part x. chap. ii.
[72] “M. Cuvier considérant que tous les êtres organisés sont dérivés
de parens, et ne voyant dans la nature aucune force capable de produire
l’organisation, croyait à la pré-existence des germes; non pas à la
pré-existence d’un être tout formé, puisqu’il est bien évident que
ce n’est que par des développemens successifs que l’être acquiert
sa forme; mais, si l’on peut s’exprimer ainsi, à la pré-existence
du _radical de l’être_, radical qui existe avant que la série des
évolutions ne commence, et qui remonte certainement, suivant la belle
observation de Bonnet, à plusieurs generations.”—Laurillard, “Éloge de
Cuvier,” note 12.
[73] “Histoire Naturelle,” tom. ii. ed. ii. 1750, p. 350.
[74] _Ibid._ p. 351.
[75] See particularly Buffon, _l.c._ p. 41.
[76] “Exercitationes de Generatione.” Ex. 62, “Ovum esse primordium
commune omnibus animalibus.”
[77] In some cases of sexless multiplication the germ is a
cell-aggregate—if we call germ only that which is already detached from
the parent organism.
[78] Harvey, “Exercitationes de Generatione.” Ex. 45, “Quænam sit pulli
materia et quomodo fiat in Ovo.”
[79] Not yet actually demonstrated in the case of phænogamous plants.
[80] As Buffon has well said:—“L’idée de ramener l’explication de tous
les phénomènes à des principes mecaniques est assurement grande et
belle, ce pas est le plus hardi qu’on peut faire en philosophie, et
c’est Descartes qui l’a fait.”—_l.c._ p. 50.
[81] “Principes de la Philosophie,” Troisième partie, § 45.
[82] “Ethices,” Pars tertia, Præfatio.
[83] “Système de la Nature.” “Essai sur la Formation des Corps
Organisés,” 1751, xiv.
[84] “Considérations Philosophiques sur la gradation naturelle des
formes de l’être; ou les essais de la nature qui apprend à faire
l’homme,” 1768.
[85] “Recherches sur les causes des principaux faits physiques,” par
J. B. Lamarck. Paris. Seconde année de la République. In the preface,
Lamarck says that the work was written in 1776, and presented to the
Academy in 1780; but it was not published before 1794, and, at that
time, it presumably expressed Lamarck’s mature views. It would be
interesting to know what brought about the change of opinion manifested
in the “Recherches sur l’organisation des corps vivants,” published
only seven years later.
[86] See the “Historical Sketch” prefixed to the last edition of the
“Origin of Species.”
[87] “First Principles” and “Principles of Biology,” 1860-1864.
[88] “Generelle Morphologie,” 1866.
[89] “Il s’agit donc de prouver que la série qui constitute l’échelle
animale réside essentiellement dans la distribution des masses
principales qui la composent et non dans celle des espèces ni même
toujours dans celle des genres.”—“Phil. Zoologique,” chap. v.
[90] Philosophie Zoologique, première partie, chap. iii.
[91] “Entwurf einer Darstellung der zwischen dem Embryozustande
der höheren Thiere und dem permanenten der niederen stattfindenden
Parallele,” “Beyträge zur Vergleichenden Anatomie,” Bd. ii. 1811.
[92] “Origin of Species,” ed. 1, p. 457.
[93] _Ibid._ p. 458.
[94] “Origin of the Species,” p. 431.
[95] “Origin of Species,” ed. 1, p. 463.
[96] “Discours de la Méthode,” 6^e partie, Ed. Cousin, p. 193.
[97] _Ibid._ pp. 193 and 211.
[98] “De la Formation du Fœtus.”
[99] “Theoria Generationis,” 1759.
[100] “Anatomie générale,” i. p. liv.
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