Robert Chambers was born in Peebles, Scotland, July 10, 1802, and
died at St. Andrews on March 17, 1871. He was partner with his
brother in the publishing firm of W. & R. Chambers, was editor of
"Chambers's Journal," and was author of several works when he
published anonymously, in October 1844, the work by which his name
will always be remembered, "Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation." His previous works, some thirty in number, did not deal
with science, and his labour in preparing his masterpiece was
commensurate with the courage which such an undertaking involved.
When the book was published, such interest and curiosity as to its
authorship were aroused that we have to go back to the publication
of "Waverley" for a parallel. Little else was talked about in
scientific circles. The work was violently attacked by many hostile
critics, F.W. Newman, author of an early review, being a
conspicuous exception. In the historical introduction to the
"Origin of Species," Darwin speaks of the "brilliant and powerful
style" of the "Vestiges," and says that "it did excellent service
in this country in calling attention to the subject, in removing
prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground for the reception of
analogous views." Darwin's idea of selection as the key to the
history of species does not occur in the "Vestiges," which belongs
to the Lamarckian school of unexamined belief in the hereditary
transmission of the effects of use and disuse.
_I.--The Reign of Universal Law_
The stars are suns, and we can trace amongst them the working of the
laws which govern our sun and his family. In these universal laws we
must perceive intelligence; something of which the laws are but as the
expressions of the will and power. The laws of Nature cannot be regarded
as primary or independent causes of the phenomena of the physical world.
We come, in short, to a Being beyond Nature--its author, its God;
infinite, inconceivable, it may be, and yet one whom these very laws
present to us with attributes showing that our nature is in some way a
faint and far-cast shadow of His, while all the gentlest and the most
beautiful of our emotions lead us to believe that we are as children in
His care and as vessels in His hand. Let it then be understood--and this
for the reader's special attention--that when natural law is spoken of
here, reference is made only to the mode in which the Divine Power is
exercised. It is but another phrase for the action of the ever-present
and sustaining God.
Viewing Nature in this light, the pursuit of science is but the seeking
of a deeper acquaintance with the Infinite. The endeavour to explain any
events in her history, however grand or mysterious these may be, is only
to sit like a child at a mother's knee, and fondly ask of the things
which passed before we were born; and in modesty and reverence we may
even inquire if there be any trace of the origin of that marvellous
arrangement of the universe which is presented to our notice. In this
inquiry we first perceive the universe to consist of a boundless
multitude of bodies with vast empty spaces between. We know of certain
motions among these bodies; of other and grander translations we are
beginning to get some knowledge. Besides this idea of locality and
movement, we have the equally certain one of a former soft and more
diffused state of the materials of these bodies; also a tolerably clear
one as to gravitation having been the determining cause of both locality
and movement. From these ideas the general one naturally suggested to us
is--a former stage in the frame of material things, perhaps only a point
in progress from some other, or a return from one like the
present--universal space occupied with gasiform matter. This, however,
was of irregular constitution, so that gravitation caused it to break up
and gather into patches, producing at once the relative localities of
astral and solar systems, and the movements which they have since
observed, in themselves and with regard to each other--from the daily
spinning of single bodies on their own axes, to the mazy dances of vast
families of orbs, which come to periods only in millions of years.
How grand, yet how simple the whole of this process--for a God only to
conceive and do, and yet for man, after all, to trace out and ponder
upon. Truly must we be in some way immediate to the august Father, who
can think all this, and so come into His presence and council, albeit
only to fall prostrate and mutely adore.
Not only are the orbs of space inextricably connected in the manner
which has been described, but the constitution of the whole is uniform,
for all consist of the same chemical elements. And now, in our version
of the romance of Nature, we descend from the consideration of
orb-filled space and the character of the universal elements, to trace
the history of our own globe. And we find that this falls significantly
into connection with the primary order of things suggested by Laplace's
theory of the origin of the solar system in a vast nebula or fire-mist,
which for ages past has been condensing under the influence of
gravitation and the radiation of its heat.
_II.--History of the Earth's Crust_
When we study the earth's crust we find that it consists of layers or
strata, laid down in succession, the earlier under the influence of
heat, the later under the influence of water. These strata in their
order might be described as a record of the state of life upon our
planet from an early to a comparatively recent period. It is truly such
a record, but not one perfectly complete.
Nevertheless, we find a noteworthy and significant sequence. We learn
that there was dry land long before the occurrence of the first fossils
of land plants and animals. In different geographical formations we
find various species, though sometimes the same species is found in
different formations, having survived the great earth changes which the
record of the rocks indicates. There is an unbroken succession of animal
life from the beginning to the present epoch. Low down, where the
records of life begin, we find an era of backboneless animals only, and
the animal forms there found, though various, are all humble in their
respective lines of gradation.
The early fishes were low, both with respect to their class as fishes,
and the order to which they belong--that of the cartilaginous or gristly
fishes. In all the orders of ancient animals there is an ascending
gradation of character from first to last. Further, there is a
succession from low to high types in fossil plants, from the earliest
strata in which they are found to the highest. Several of the most
important living species have left no record of themselves in any
formation beyond what are, comparatively speaking, modern. Such are the
sheep and the goat, and such, above all, is our own species. Compared
with many humbler animals, man is a being, as it were, of yesterday.
Thus concludes the wondrous section of the earth's history which is told
by geology. It takes up our globe at an early stage in the formation of
its crust--conducts it through what we have every reason to believe were
vast spaces of time, in the course of which many superficial changes
took place, and vegetable and animal life was gradually evolved--and
drops it just at the point when man was apparently about to enter on the
scene. The compilation of such a history, from materials of so
extraordinary a character, and the powerful nature of the evidence which
these materials afford, are calculated to excite our admiration, and the
result must be allowed to exalt the dignity of science as a product of
man's industry and his reason.
It is now to be remarked that there is nothing in the whole series of
operations displayed in inorganic geology which may not be accounted for
by the agency of the ordinary forces of Nature. Those movements of
subterranean force which thrust up mountain ranges and upheaved
continents stand in inextricable connection, on the one hand, with the
volcanoes which are yet belching forth lavas and shaking large tracts of
ground, as, on the other, with the primitive incandescent state of the
earth. Those forces which disintegrated the early rocks, of which
detritus formed new beds at the bottom of the sea, are still seen at
work to the same effect.
To bring these truths the more nearly before us, it is possible to make
a substance resembling basalt in a furnace; limestone and sandstone have
both been formed from suitable materials in appropriate receptacles; the
phenomena of cleavage have, with the aid of electricity, been simulated
on a small scale, and by the same agent crystals are formed. In short,
the remark which was made regarding the indifference of the cosmical
laws to the scale on which they operated is to be repeated regarding the
geological.
A common furnace will sometimes exemplify the operation of forces which
have produced the Giant's Causeway; and in a sloping ploughed field
after rain we may often observe, at the lower end of a furrow, a handful
of washed and neatly deposited mud or sand, capable of serving as an
illustration of the way in which Nature has produced the deltas of the
Nile and Ganges. In the ripple-marks on sandy beaches of the present day
we see Nature's exact repetition of the operations by which she
impressed similar features on the sandstones of the carboniferous era.
Even such marks as wind-slanted rain would in our day produce on
tide-deserted sands have been read upon tablets of the ancient strata.
It is the same Nature--that is to say, God through or in the manner of
Nature--working everywhere and in all time, causing the wind to blow,
and the rain to fall, and the tide to ebb and flow, inconceivable ages
before the birth of our race, as now. So also we learn from the conifers
of those old ages that there were winter and summer upon earth, before
any of us lived to liken the one to all that is genial in our own
nature, or to say that the other breathed no airs so unkind as man's
ingratitude. Let no one suppose there is any necessary disrespect for
the Creator in thus tracing His laws in their minute and familiar
operations. There is really no true great and small, grand and familiar,
in Nature. Such only appear when we thrust ourselves in as a point from
which to start in judging. Let us pass, if possible, beyond immediate
impressions, and see all in relation to Cause, and we shall chastenedly
admit that the whole is alike worshipful.
The Creator, then, is seen to have formed our earth, and effected upon
it a long and complicated series of changes, in the same manner in which
we find that he conducts the affairs of Nature before our living eyes;
that is, in the manner of natural law. This is no rash or unauthorised
affirmation. It is what we deduce from the calculation of a Newton and a
Laplace on the one hand, and from the industrious observation of facts
by a Murchison and a Lyell on the other. It is a point of stupendous
importance in human knowledge; here at once is the whole region of the
inorganic taken out of the dominion of marvel, and placed under an idea
of Divine regulation.
_III.--The History of the Earth's Life_
Mixed up, however, with the geological changes, and apparently as final
object connected with the formation of the globe itself, there is
another set of phenomena presented in the course of our history--the
coming into existence, namely, of a long suite of living things,
vegetable and animal, terminating in the families which we still see
occupying the surface. The question arises: In what manner has this set
of phenomena originated? Can we touch at and rest for a moment on the
possibility of plants and animals having likewise been produced in a
natural way, thus assigning immediate causes of but one character for
everything revealed to our sensual observation; or are we at once to
reject this idea, and remain content, either to suppose that creative
power here acted in a different way, or to believe unexaminingly that
the inquiry is one beyond our powers? Taking the last question first, I
would reply that I am extremely loth to imagine that there is anything
in Nature which we should, for any reason, refrain from examining. If we
can infer aught from the past history of science, it is that the whole
of Nature is a legitimate field for the exercise of our intellectual
faculties; that there is a connection between this knowledge and our
well-being; and that, if we may judge from things once despaired of by
our inquiring reason, but now made clear and simple, there is none of
Nature's mysteries which we may not hopefully attempt to penetrate. To
remain idly content to presume a various class of immediate causes for
organic Nature seems to me, on this ground, equally objectionable.
With respect to the other question the idea has several times arisen
that some natural course was observed in the production of organic
things, and this even before we were permitted to attain clear
conclusions regarding inorganic nature. It was always set quickly aside
as unworthy of serious consideration. The case is different now, when we
have admitted law in the whole domain of the inorganic.
Otherwise, the absurdities into which we should be led must strike every
reflecting mind. The Eternal Sovereign arranges a solar or an astral
system, by dispositions imparted primordially to matter; he causes, by
the same means, vast oceans to join and continents to rise, and all the
grand meteoric agencies to proceed in ceaseless alternation, so as to
fit the earth for a residence of organic beings. But when, in the course
of these operations, fuci and corals are to be, for the first time,
placed in these oceans, a change in his plan of administration is
required. It is not easy to say what is presumed to be the mode of his
operations. The ignorant believe the very hand of Deity to be at work.
Amongst the learned, we hear of "creative fiats," "interferences,"
"interpositions of the creative energy," all of them very obscure
phrases, apparently not susceptible of a scientific explanation, but all
tending simply to this: that the work was done in a marvellous way, and
not in the way of Nature.
But we need not assume two totally distinct modes of the exercise of the
divine power--one in the course of inorganic nature and the other in
intimately connected course of organic nature.
Indeed, when all the evidence is surveyed, it seems difficult to resist
the impression that vestiges, at least, are seen of the manner and
method of the Creator in this part of His work. It appears to be a case
in which rigid proof is hardly to be looked for. But such evidences as
exist are remarkably consistent and harmonious. The theory pointed to
consorts with everything else which we have learned accurately regarding
the history of the universe. Science has not one positive affirmation on
the other side. Indeed, the view opposed to it is not one in which
science is concerned; it appears as merely one of the prejudices formed
in the non-age of our race.
For the history, then, of organic nature, I embrace, not as a proved
fact, but as a rational interpretation of things as far as science has
revealed them, the idea of progressive development. We contemplate the
simplest and most primitive types of being as giving birth to a type
superior to it; this again producing the next higher, and so on to the
highest. We contemplate, in short, a universal gestation of Nature, like
that of the individual being, and attended as little by circumstances of
a miraculous kind as the silent advance of an ordinary mother from one
week to another of her pregnancy.
Thus simple--after ages of marvelling--appears organic creation, while
yet the whole phenomena are, in another point of view, wonders of the
highest kind, being the undoubted results of ordinances arguing the
highest attributes of foresight, skill and goodness on the part of their
Divine Author.
If, finally, we study the mind of man, we find that its Almighty Author
has destined it, like everything else, to be developed from inherent
qualities.
Thus the whole appears complete on one principle. The masses of space
are formed by law; law makes them in due time theatres of existence for
plants and animals; sensation, disposition, intellect, are all in like
manner sustained in action by law.
It is most interesting to observe into how small a field the whole of
the mysteries of Nature thus ultimately resolve themselves. The
inorganic has been thought to have one final comprehensive
law--gravitation. The organic, the other great department of mundane
things, rests in like manner on one law, and that is--development. Nor
may even these be after all twain, but only branches of one still more
comprehensive law, the expression of a unity flowing immediately from
the One who is first and last.
_IV.--The Future and its Meaning_
The question whether the human race will ever advance far beyond its
present position in intellect and morals is one which has engaged much
attention. Judging from the past, we cannot reasonably doubt that great
advances are yet to be made; but, if the principle of development be
admitted, these are certain, whatever may be the space of time required
for their realisation. A progression resembling development may be
traced in human nature, both in the individual and in large groups of
men. Not only so, but by the work of our thoughtful brains and busy
hands we modify external nature in a way never known before. The
physical improvements wrought by man upon the earth's surface I conceive
as at once preparations for, and causes of, the possible development of
higher types of humanity, beings less strong in the impulsive parts of
our nature, more strong in the reasoning and moral, more fitted for the
delights of social life, because society will then present less to dread
and more to love.
The history and constitution of the world have now been hypothetically
explained, according to the best lights which a humble individual has
found within the reach of his perceptive and reasoning faculties.
We have seen a system in which all is regularity and order, and all
flows from, and is obedient to, a divine code of laws of unbending
operation. We are to understand from what has been laid before us that
man, with his varied mental powers and impulses, is a natural problem of
which the elements can be taken cognisance of by science, and that all
the secular destinies of our race, from generation to generation, are
but evolutions of a law statuted and sustained in action by an all-wise
Deity.
There may be a faith derived from this view of Nature sufficient to
sustain us under all sense of the imperfect happiness, the calamities,
the woes and pains of this sphere of being. For let us but fully and
truly consider what a system is here laid open to view and we cannot
well doubt that we are in the hands of One who is both able and willing
to do us the most entire justice. Surely, in such a faith we may well
rest at ease, even though life should have been to us but a protracted
malady. Thinking of all the contingencies of this world as to be in time
melted into or lost in some greater system, to which the present is only
subsidiary, let us wait the end with patience and be of good cheer.