variously recorded in lower and higher religions. Its conception grows
partly out of the feelings of awe and terror inspired by great works of
nature such as the thunder-storm, the cyclone, and the volcano, while the
orderly and regular workings of even everyday nature seem to demonstrate
the direct control of the powers who rule man as well. The savage sees his
crops destroyed by a tempest or drought; he attributes the disaster to the
particular powers concerned with such things whom he must have angered
unwittingly, and whom he must propitiate by sacrifice or penitence. His
individual and tribal acts do not always accomplish the desired ends, and
again the laws of infinite and ultimate powers must have been contravened,
as he interprets the situation. Therefore his whole religious
consciousness was exerted in the direction of finding out what was the
ultimate constitution of nature, with which human activities must
harmonize if they are to be successful. Bound by custom and convention and
biological law, he looks about wonderingly to find the external authority
for his bonds. To his mind this authority must be the host of spirits and
gods who had made him and the things of his world. It is in this way that
so many ethical elements have found places in religious doctrines, to be
viewed as absolute rules of conduct coming from outside of nature, and not
from nature itself, in the way the earlier sections of this chapter have
shown.
Let us now summarize the results of the foregoing brief survey, conducted
by the identical methods employed for the analysis of other bodies of
fact. We have sought for those characteristics which are common to all
religions of whatever time and place and race. Combined with many
secondary and adventitious elements of other fields of thought and action,
such as social, political, ethical, and psychological factors, they have
proved to be the three essential beliefs in God or gods, human
responsibility, and immortality. As a veritable backbone, they underlie
and support the whole body of religious doctrine and organs of thought
formed about them. We have seen, furthermore, that a natural explanation
of the way these elements have originated can be discovered by the
comparative student of religion, who describes also how they have
variously evolved among different peoples. In all of this we have not
questioned at any time the validity or reality of any one of these
concepts; to ask whether or not they correspond actually to the truth is
beyond our purpose, which is simply and solely to inquire whether even
these mental conceptions furnish evidence of their evolution in the course
of time. I believe that such evidence is found, and I believe also that
this discovery must be of the greatest importance to everyone in
formulating a system of religious belief, but the construction of this is
not the task of science as such. Every individual must work out his own
relation to the world on the basis of knowledge as complete as he can make
it, but every individual must accomplish this end for himself. Because no
two men can be exactly alike in temperament, intellect, and social
situation, it is impossible for entire agreement in religious faith to
exist. One's outlook upon the whole universe is and must be an individual
matter; science and evolution are of overwhelming value, not by directing
the mind to adopt this or that attitude toward the unseen, but by
providing the seeker after the truth with definite knowledge about the
things of the world, so that his position may be taken on the sound basis
of reasonable and common-sensible principles.
* * * * *
When we take up science and philosophy, or knowledge as a whole, after
religion, it may seem that we have reversed the proper sequence. There are
many reasons for following this course, inasmuch as "knowledge" is the
all-inclusive category of thought; our world is after all a world of
individual consciousness and ideas. In dealing with religion, ethics,
social organization, and human culture, we have been concerned with the
evolution of so many departments of thought and action; and now we are to
develop a final conception of evolution as a universal process in the
progress of all knowledge.
Let us look back over the history of mathematics. The primitive human
individual did not need to count. He dealt with things as he met them, and
he disposed of them singly and individually. A squirrel does not count the
nuts it gathers; it simply accumulates a store, and it perishes or
survives according to its instinctive ability to do this. Just so was
primitive man. The savage, when he organized the first formed tribes,
learned to count the days of a journey and the numbers engaged on opposite
sides in battle. He employed the "score" of his fingers and toes, and our
use of this very word is a survival of such a primitive method of
counting. The abacus of the Roman and Chinese extended the scope of simple
mathematical operations as it employed more symbolic elements. With the
development of Arabic notation capable of indefinite expansion, the
science progressed rapidly, and in the course of long time it has become
the higher calculus of to-day. The conceptions of geometry have likewise
evolved until to-day mathematicians speak of configurated bodies in fourth
and higher dimensions of space, which are beyond the powers of perception,
even though in a sense they exist conceptually. The behavior of
geometrical examples in one dimension leads to the characteristics of
bodies in two dimensions. Upon these facts are constructed the laws of
three-dimensional space which serve to carry mathematical thought to the
remoter conceptual spaces of which we have spoken. It may seem that we are
recording only one phase of mental evolution, but in fact we are dealing
with a larger matter, namely, with the progressive evolution of knowledge
in the Kantian category of number.
Natural science began with the savage's rough classification of the things
with which he dealt in everyday life. As facts accumulated, lifeless
objects were grouped apart from living organisms, and in time two great
divisions of natural science took form. Physics, chemistry, astronomy,
geology, and the like describe the concrete world of matter and energy,
while the biological sciences deal with the structure, development,
interrelationships, and vital activities of animals and plants. Surely
knowledge has evolved with the advance in all of these subjects from
decade to decade and from year to year. And just as surely must evolution
continue, for the world has not stopped developing, and therefore the
great principles of science must undergo further changes, even though they
are the best summaries that can be formulated at the present time.
Philosophy deals with general conceptions of the universe. When we look
back through the ages we find men picturing the world as an aggregate of
diverse and uncorrelated elements--earth, air, fire, and water. The
synthesis of facts and the construction of general principles down through
Bacon, Newton, and Schopenhauer to modern world conceptions results in the
unification of all--"the choir of heaven and furniture of earth." The
lineal descendant of the long line of ancestral philosophies is the monism
which sees no difference between the living and lifeless worlds save that
of varying combinations of ultimate elements which are conceived as
uniform "mind-stuff" everywhere. Whether or not this universal conception
of totality is true, remains for the future to show. For us the important
truth is that here, as in all other departments of knowledge, evolution
proves to be real.
* * * * *
In closing the present description of the basis, nature, and scope of the
doctrine of evolution, I find great difficulty in choosing the right words
for a concise statement of the larger values and results of this
department of science. So much might be said, and yet it is not fitting
for the investigator to preach unduly. The lessons of the doctrine must be
brought home to each individual through personal conviction. But because I
firmly believe in the truth of the statement made in the opening pages,
namely, that science and its results are of practical human value, it is
in a sense my duty as an advocate of evolution to make this plain.
The method of science is justified of its fruits. At the very beginning we
learned how, and how only, sure knowledge can be obtained and how it
differs from a belief which may or may not correspond with the truth.
Based upon facts of smaller or larger groups, scientific laws are so many
summaries of past experience, and they describe in concise conceptual
shorthand the manifold happenings of nature. Their difference from belief
inheres in their ability to serve as guides for everyday and future
experience. This entire volume is a plea for the employment of
common-sense as we look upon and interpret the world in which we have our
places and in which we must play our rôles. Our search for truth will be
rewarded in so far as we organize our common-sense observations into clear
conceptions of the laws of nature's order.
The doctrine of evolution enjoins us to learn the rules of the great game
of life which we must play, as science reveals them to us. It is well to
remember that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but because
evolution is true always and everywhere, an understanding of its workings
in any department of thought and life clears the vision of other realms of
knowledge and action. Perhaps the greatest lesson is at the same time the
most practical one. It is that, however much we may concern ourselves with
ultimate matters, our immediate duties are here and now, and we cannot
escape them without giving up our right to a place in nature. We are
taught by science that we live under the control of certain fundamental
biological, social, and ethical laws; we might well wish that they were
otherwise, but having recognized them we have no recourse save to obey
them. Evolution as a complete doctrine commands every one to live a life
of service as full as hereditary endowments and surrounding circumstances
will permit. Thus we are taught that the immediate problems of life ought
to concern us more than questions as to the ultimate nature of the
universe and of existence.
Every one can find something worth while in the lessons of evolution,
summarized in the foregoing statements. The atheist, who declines to
personify the ultimate powers of the universe, may, nevertheless, find
direction for his life in the principles brought to light by science. The
agnostic, who doubts the validity of many conventional dicta that may not
seem well grounded, can also find something to believe and to obey.
Finally, the orthodox theist of whatever creed may discover cogent reasons
for many of his beliefs like the Golden Rule previously accepted through
convention; and he must surely welcome the fuller knowledge of their sound
basis in the materials and results of comparative analytical study. To
every one, then, science and evolution offer valuable principles of life,
but great as their service has been, their tasks are not yet completed,
and cannot be completed until the end of all knowledge and of time.
INDEX
Achatinellidæ, 103, 104.
Activities, instinctive and reflex, 203, 205, 208;
of familiar animals, 208, 209;
differ from instinct, 209, 210.
Adaptation, universal relation to environment, 15;
principle of, 17;
degenerate forms enlarge our conception of, 50;
results of larval short cuts in development, 71; 109, 213.
Africa, fauna of, 103, 164, 165.
Agassiz, a believer in special creation, 98.
Ages, Palæozoic, 92;
Mesozoic or Secondary, 93, 94;
Cenozoic or Tertiary, 93;
Coal or Carboniferous, 94.
Albumen, of egg, 60.
Alligators, a diverging branch of lizard, 45.
Amoeba, 21, 51, 69;
comparative study of, 203, 205, 231, 247, 251, 254, 257, 258, 259, 265,
266.
Amphibia, frogs, salamanders, a lower class, 45, 62;
order of evolution of, 63;
evolved from fishes, 64;
most primitive backboned animals, 92; 94, 157;
embryos of, 171; 200.
Anatomy, of mind, 202.
Ant-bears, 42.
Anthropoidea, 160.
Anthropology, 177;
methods and results of, 186;
types of, 186, 187;
comparative, of mind, 211.
Anthropometry, 177.
Ants, communities of, 125;
mental life of, 207, 208;
organizations of, 260, 263, 264.
Apes, 158;
susceptible to training, 210;
line from Amoeba, 231.
Appendix, vermiform, 168.
Apteryx, wingless bird of New Zealand, 44, 200.
Arachnida, 49.
Archæopteryx, a famous "link," 99.
Ares, 300.
Armadillo, 42.
"Arts of life," 226-230;
dwellings of men, utensils, 227;
history of clothing, 228;
arts of pleasure, 228-230.
Atom, carbon, 22;
nitrogen, 23;
hydrogen, oxygen, 24;
chemical, 25.
Atua, 301.
Azores, animals of, 103.
Bacteria, amazing production of, 123;
relation of, 127.
Baldwin, 148.
Bandicoot, 42.
Barnacles, really crustacea, 50.
Bats, 41, 94.
"Beagle," 102, 117, 136.
Bear, 38, 39.
Bees, mental life of, 207, 208;
nervous system of, 232, 256, 257;
organizations of, 260, 261, 262;
queen, workers, 262, 263.
Beetles, 67.
Bernier, 183.
Bertillon, 183.
Birds, 44;
have they descended from gill-breathing ancestors? 61;
evolution of, 63;
primitive, 99;
embryos of, 171, 200.
Blastula, 68.
Blumenbach, 183.
Bonnet, 70.
Borneo, 164.
Brachiopods, 95.
Brahma, 299, 304.
Brain, 215, 235-240.
Brontosaurus, 94.
Brown-Séquard, 148.
Buddha, 299.
Buffon, 114, 135.
Butterflies, 67, 206, 207, 259.
Carbohydrate, 23, 24.
Carbon, atom, 22; 25, 27.
Carnivora, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40;
order of, 157.
Caterpillar, larva of, 259.
Cats, Manx, Angora, Persian, 37, 39;
domesticated, 137;
intelligence of, 208, 209.
Cattle, products of human selection, 137;
resemblance, 157.
Cebidæ, true monkeys, 160, 161, 162.
Cells, 19, 20, 21;
sex, 144;
human, composition of, 156;
of ectoderm and endoderm, 255, 256, 257, 258.
Celts, 218.
Cercopithecidæ, 160, 162.
Cerebrum, 215.
Cetacea, 40.
Chemical transformation, 17.
Chick, development of, 60, 61.
Chimpanzee, 163, 164, 195.
Chromatin, 143, 144.
Civilization, a product of evolution, 272.
Classes, 32.
Classification, 32.
Clifford, 238.
Coccyx, 168.
Communities, cell, 258;
insect, 258, 260-264.
Comparative anatomy, 35, 37, 39;
any form will disclose development, 57;
amphibia evolved from fishes, 64;
Law of Recapitulation, 66;
insects arisen from wormlike ancestors, 67;
larvæ of insects, 67;
higher animals evolved from two-layered saccular ancestors, 68; 70, 71;
supplements comparative embryology, 72;
appearance of great classes of vertebrates, 94;
proves order of evolution, 163.
Composition, chemical, 15.
Compounds, organic, 29.
Conger-eel, 123, 124, 127.
Consanguinity, essential likeness, 54.
Conscience, 287.
Consciousness, human, 234, 235.
Crabs, 48, 49, 66;
hermit, 66.
Crustacea, lobsters, crabs, 48, 49;
barnacles, 49, 50; 82.
Cuvier, 158, 78;
a believer in special creation, 79.
Curve of error, 120.
Cyclones, 85.
Cyclostomes, 156.
Daphnia, 205.
Darwin, Charles, 80, 100, 102, 115, 116, 117;
Origin of Species, 116, 124, 130, 132, 135;
Erasmus, 135, 136, 138, 142, 143.
Deer, 42;
fossil, of North America, 97, 98.
Development, 54;
a natural process, 56.
De Vries, 145, 146;
his mutation theory, 147, 148.
Dinosaurs, 94.
Distribution, geographical, 32.
Dogs, 38, 39;
embryo of, 66;
varied forms of, 137;
pointer, sheep-dog, instincts of, 208;
intelligence of, 208, 209.
Dubois, 173.
Ducksbill, or Ornithorhynchus, bottom of mammalian scale, 43.
Ducksworth, 184.
Eagle, 44.
Earthquake, 85.
Echidna, bottom of mammalian scale, 43.
Ectoderm, 255.
Egg, of common fowl, 60;
of frog, 68;
nuclei contains factors of development, 71; 144, 145;
human, 231.
Eimer, 148.
Elements, chemical, 15.
Elephant, 41;
place in zoölogical science, 95; 96, 97;
age of, 124.
Embryo, of frog, 58;
of chick, 60-62, 63, 64, 65;
embryos of carnivora, rodents, hoofed animals alike in earlier
development, 65;
of cat, dog, rat, sheep, rabbit, squirrel, cattle, pig, 65;
of skate, shark, hammerhead, 66;
the human, 168, 170, 171;
of birds, reptiles, amphibia, 171;
human hemispheres of brain like adult cat or dog, 215.
Embryology, 32, 33, 34;
of no form fully understood, 57;
general principles of, 57-67;
embryonic agreement, 65;
of insects, 67;
weight of facts of, 69;
comparative, a distinct division of zoölogy, 70, 71; 76, 94, 100;
evidence of, 170;
of mind, 202, 214;
in early stages of human, no nervous system present, 214;
development of, 215.
English sparrow, 123, 127.
Environment, 111, 112;
influences of, 126;
determines mode of life of a race, 213.
Epoch, Glacial, 86;
Silurian and Devonian, rich array of types, 93;
Cenozoic, 96.
Erosion, 89.
Eskimo, picture-writing, 223.
Ethics, 281;
biological, 283;
natural, 284;
evolution of, 285.
Ethnology, 177.
Evolution, the Doctrine of, 1;
is it a science, 3;
the conception of, 8;
organic, 10-12; 31, 32;
evidence of, 54, 95;
of amphibia, 62;
of birds, 63;
of protozoa, 69;
theory of, supported by palæontology, 76;
cosmic, 84;
biological evidence of, 91;
three important elements of, 109;
adaptation, variation and inheritance, 110;
mechanical, 109;
dynamics of, 109;
second element of, 122;
human, 150-196; 174;
physical, of man, falls into two groups, 153;
of human races, 176;
racial, 177, 178;
mental, 197-240;
human faculty as a product of, 212;
mental as real as physical, 214;
of brain, 214-217;
of art of writing, 223;
method of mental, 231;
social, 241;
of societies of insects, 258;
human, biological interpretation of, 267-274;
of higher human life, 278-311;
of ethics, 285;
final conception of, 307-311.
Factors, primary, secondary, 110;
three kinds, 111;
congenital, 113.
Falls of St. Anthony, 86.
Fishes, lowest among common vertebrates, 46;
trunk-fish, cow-fish, puff-fish, mouse-fish, flounder, 46;
most primitive backboned animals, 92; 94; 157;
embryos of, 171.
Fiske, 139.
Flies, may, 259.
Flounder, a variant of the fish theme, 66.
Fossilization, conditions of, 77-78.
Fossils, 73-105;
remains of, 73;
groups, 77; 78, 79;
order of succession, 91;
oldest rocks devoid of, 92;
forms, 99.
Fowl, game cock, 138;
pigeons, 138.
Frog, 45;
eggs of, larva, development of, 58, 59, 60, 68.
Galapagos Islands, 102, 103, 104.
Galton, 142, 147;
heredity of mental qualities, 232.
Gametes, 252.
Gastrula, 68.
Gemmules, 143.
Genera, 32.
Generation, spontaneous, 78.
Geographical distribution, 32.
Geological agencies, rain, rivers, glaciers, 88;
construction, volcanoes, 88.
Geology, data of, 83, 84.
Germ, Bonnet's idea of, 70;
cells, 144, 146;
plasm, 145, 146.
Gibbon, 163.
Gills, 58, 62.
Gill-slits, bars, clefts, 61, 62, 64;
in embryos of lizards, birds, mammals, 69; 171.
Giraffe, 133.
Glaciers, alterations made by, 87.
Goats, 157.
Gorilla, 163, 165, 195.
Grand Cañon of the Colorado, 85, 90.
Gravitation, 155.
Guinea-pigs, Brown-Séquard's, 148.
Gulick, 103.
Haeckel, 63, 71, 184.
Hæmoglobin, 22.
Hapalidæ, 160.
Harvey, 70.
Hawaiian Islands, 103;
snails of, 104.
Heredity, 142;
a real human process, 175;
instinct determined by, 206;
Anglo-Saxon, 213;
of mental qualities, 232.
Heron, 44.
Hesperornis, 99.
Hippopotamus, 42.
Hominidæ, 160.
Homo sapiens, 183.
Hoofed animals, 95, 96, 97.
Hornets, communities of, larvæ of, 260.
Horse, 41, 42, 65;
place of in zoölogical science, 95, 96;
development of, 97;
perfection of one type of, 136, 157; 167;
intelligence of, 209.
House-fly, eggs of, 67.
Human faculty, 212;
its three constituents, 212.
Huxley, 6, 26, 30, 63, 184.
Hydra, 50, 51, 52, 53, 68, 69;
comparative study of, 204, 205, 206; 254;
cells of, 255; 256, 257, 258, 261, 262, 263, 265, 266.
Hydrogen, 25, 27.
Hyracotherium, 96.
Ichthyornis, 99.
Ichthyosaurus, 94.
Indians, American, pictography of, 223, 224;
of Brazil, 227;
life of, 272.
Individual development, a résumé of history of species, 63.
Inertia, 155.
Infant, human, activities of, 216.
Ingestive structures, 17.
Inheritance, 110, 131;
biological laws of, 142;
paternal and maternal basis of, 144; 145;
Mendelian phenomena of, 146;
Galton's Law of, 147;
laws of, in mental phenomena, 203;
strength of, in mental traits, 232;
physical, provides mechanism of intellect, 233.
Insects, butterflies, beetles, bees, grasshoppers, spiders, scorpions, 49;
66;
eggs of common house-fly, 67; 82;
nervous mechanism of, 205;
communities of, 207, 258-260, 267;
nervous system of, 256, 257.
Instinct, determined by heredity, 206;
of higher animals, 208;
differs from intelligence in degree, 210.
Intelligence, 203;
in mental life of communal insects, 207.
Invertebrates, lower animals devoid of backbone, 47;
structural plan, 48;
branches of, 49;
groups, two layer animals, 50;
hydra, sea-anemones, soft-polyps, 50;
more complicated, 68;
palæontological materials, 82;
evolution of lowest members, 92.
Jaguar, 101.
Jastrow, 294.
Java, 173.
Jellyfish, 81.
Jordan, David Starr, 123.
Kangaroo, 42.
Keane, 185.
Lamarck, 115, 133, 135.
Lampreys, 156.
Language, most important single possession of mankind, 218.
Laplace, 29.
Larvæ, of lobster, 66;
of insects, 67;
of ground wasp, 207;
of caterpillar, 259;
of wasps, 260.
Lavoisier, 29.
Law of Recapitulation, 66;
stated by Von Baer and Haeckel, 71.
Lemurs, 158, 160, 161, 195.
Life, what is it? 27.
Limestone, 89, 90.
Links, 99.
Linnæus, 79, 158, 183.
Lions, 101;
environment of, 112.
Lizard, nearest form to remote ancestor, 45.
Lobsters, 66;
larvæ of, 66.
Lyell, 80, 107, 135, 136.
MacDougal, 148.
Madagascar, 161.
Mallock, 295.
Malthus, 136.
Mammalia,
lower orders of, 42;
their own mode of growing up, 64;
embryos of, 64; 97;
members of class differ, 157, 158; 200;
order of mentality, 203.
Mammals, 40, 43, 157;
embryo of, 171.
Mammoth, 97.
Marmosets, 161.
Marquesas, 103.
Marsupials, 104.
Mastodon, 97.
Mechanism,
organic, 14;
living, 110.
Melanesia, 103.
Mendel, Gregor, 145;
his law, 146; 147, 148.
Mentality, human, 233.
Metazoa, 254.
Mice, 41, 134;
field, 139.
Miller, 293.
Mind,
anatomy of, 202;
human, differs only in degree, 203; 210, 211;
embryology of, 214;
palæontology of, 217;
and matter inseparable, 234-237.
Missing links, 77.
Moeritherium, a significant fossil, 97.
Molecule, protein, 22, 23, 24.
Mollusks, 81, 82;
connecting widely separated ages, 95.
Monkeys, 158.
Morgan, Lloyd, 148.
Morphology, 32.
Moths, 67.
Müller, 293.
Mutation theory, 146.
Naegeli, 143, 148.
Natural Selection,
doctrine of, 116, 117, 118;
the struggle for existence, 124, 125;
simply trial and error, 131;
Darwin recognized it as incomplete, 142;
germ-plasm theory supplements, 145.
Nebula, gaseous, 84.
Nervous systems, 201, 202, 205, 206, 211;
of worker-bee, 232.
Niagara, 85, 86, 89.
Ontogeny, recapitulates phylogeny, 63.
Orang-outang, 163, 164.
Orders, 32.
Organic, 15;
systems, 17;
transformation, analogies of, 43,
a real and natural process, 55, 56, 76;
mechanism, alteration of, 55.
Organisms,
living, 14;
analysis of, 16; 17, 18, 19, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32;
characteristic early stages, 55;
are they adapted by circumstances? 109;
environment, 111;
physical heritage of, 113;
variation of, 119;
difference, 121;
universal conflict of, 127;
change, 130;
human, 32, 156, 159, 165-171;
nervous system of, 201;
psychical characteristics of, 202;
many-celled, 257.
Organs, 16, 17, 28;
of human body, 156.
Origin of Species, 136, 149.
Origination of new parts, 109.
Osborn, 148.
Ostrich, 44.
Over production, 122-124, 129.
Owls, horned, of Arizona, 45; 139.
Palæontology, 32, 34, 73, 74, 76;
evidence of, not complete, 80, 81;
table of facts of, 91; 94;
second division of evidence, 95;
does it throw light on antiquity of man? 155;
of mind, 202, 203, 217.
Paludina, 95.
Partulæ, 103.
Pearson, Karl, 6, 7, 142, 147;
heredity of mental qualities, 232.
Penguin, a counterpart of the seal, 44.