the current belief by laymen and naturalists, was almost unavoidable
so long as the world was considered to be of short duration. But now
that some idea has been acquired of the time that has elapsed since
the beginning of earth-life, we are too apt to assume, without proof,
that the geologic record is so complete, that it would have afforded us
some plain evidence of the mutation of species, if they had undergone
mutation. But the principal cause of our unwillingness to admit that
one species has given birth to other and distinct species, is that
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not
discern the intermediate steps. Just such a difficulty was felt by
many geologists when Lyell first insisted that long lines of inland
cliffs had been produced, and great valleys excavated, by the agencies
which are still at work in the earth. No effort of mind can adequately
grasp the meaning of even ten million of years, nor add up and perceive
the full effects of the many slight variations to which species have
been subjected during an almost infinite number of generations. The
day, however, is not distant, when mankind will have become just as
thoroughly convinced that species have been modified during a long
course of descent, mainly through the Natural Selection of innumerous
successive, slight and favorable variations as they are that the
attraction of gravitation is an important element in the maintenance of
the harmony that exists among the planetary spheres. That the law of
the attraction of gravity, which is perhaps the greatest discovery ever
made by man, is subversive of natural and revealed religion, which was
at one time maintained by a no more distinguished person than Leibnitz,
is now no longer objected to, even though its discoverer was unable
to explain what is the essence of the principle he had discovered.
No nobler conception of Deity could be entertained than that which
attributes to Him the creation of a few original forms capable of
self-development into other and needful forms, or the origination _de
novo_ of these simple forms from inorganic nature. It places a higher
estimate upon His Omnipotence than the belief that He required a fresh
act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws.
That science is as yet unable to throw any light on the far higher
problem of the essence or origin of life, should constitute no valid
objection to the theory of descent.
When all beings are looked upon not as special creations, but as the
lineal descendants of some beings that existed long before the first
bed of ancient Siluria was deposited, they seem to become ennobled.
Judging from the past, we think it safe to conclude that no existing
species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity.
Few, very few living species will transmit progeny of any kind, for the
manner in which all organisms are grouped shows that the majority of
species in each genus, and all the species in many genera, have left
no descendants, but have become utterly extinct. It will only be the
common and widely-spread species, belonging to the larger and dominant
groups within each class, that will ultimately prevail and procreate
new and dominant species. Since all the living forms of life are the
lineal descendants of forms that lived long anterior to the Silurian
epoch, it is reasonably certain that the ordinary succession by
generation has never once been broken, and that no cataclysmic disaster
has laid waste the entire world. Therefore, we may look into the future
with some confidence of an equally secure and inappreciably enduring
earth-life. And as Natural Selection operates solely by and for the
good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to
progress toward perfection.
When we contemplate a tangled bank, with innumerable plants of diverse
kinds, and many-voiced birds singing in concert, or waging destruction
on manifold insects that are flitting about, or the long, slimy
worm that has come up from its underground retreat, we are lost in
wonder and admiration, and can only reflect that these elaborately
constructed forms, so different from each other, and so strangely and
intricately dependent on each other, have all been evolved by laws that
act all around us. These are the laws of Growth with Reproduction;
Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from
the action, direct and indirect, of the conditions of life, and from
use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle
for Existence, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, or Survival
of the Fittest, entailing thereby Divergence of Character and the
Extinction of less-improved forms. And thus, from the war of nature,
and from famine and death, have arisen the higher mammalia, in which
man, the _summa summarum_ of life, is included. He occupies the summit,
toward which the efforts of millions of buried ages seem to have been
tending. There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several
powers, originally breathed, by the operation of the natural laws, into
one or a few forms of life, and that, while the earth, in obedience to
the fixed principle of gravitation, has gone cycling on, endless forms,
most beautiful and most wonderful, have been, and are being, evolved
from so simple a beginning.
[Illustration: PALÆOLITHIC MEN ATTACKING CAVE BEAR.
Mammoth, Woolly Rhinoceros, Musk-Sheep and Irish Stag in Background.]
While thus it has been shown that life has been progressive, successive
forms of life being the result of modification through descent, those
faring the best in the Struggle for Existence surviving, by reason of
some advantage, physical or otherwise, gained over their competitors,
yet little, bearing specially upon man, has been expressed in this
chapter. After he had acquired those intellectual and moral faculties
which largely distinguish him from the lower animals in a state of
nature, he would have been but little liable to have his bodily
structure modified through Natural Selection or any other means,
for man is enabled, through his mental faculties, “to keep with an
unchanged body in harmony with the changing universe.” He has a most
wonderful power of adapting his habits to altered conditions of
life. Tools, weapons and various devices are invented by him for the
procurement of food and bodily defence. And when he migrates into a
colder climate, he uses clothes, builds sheds and makes fire, and by
its aid cooks food that would otherwise be indigestible. The lower
animals, however, must have their bodily structure modified in order
to survive under greatly changed conditions. They must be rendered
stronger, or acquire more effective teeth or claws, or both, if they
would successfully defend themselves from new enemies, or they must be
reduced in proportions, so as to escape detection and danger. When they
remove into colder climates they must become clothed in thicker fur,
or have their constitutions altered, for failure to be thus modified
must ultimately result in their ceasing to exist. But in the case of
man’s intellectual and moral faculties, as has been shown by Wallace,
it is widely different. These faculties are quite variable, and
there is reason to believe that the variations tend to be inherited.
Therefore, if they were formerly of high importance to palæolithic
man and his ape-like progenitors, they would have been perfected or
advanced through Natural Selection. But of the high importance of the
intellectual faculties there can be no question, for man owes to them
in a great measure his preëminent position in the world. It can be seen
that, in the rudest state of society, the individuals who were the most
sagacious, and who were the most skilful in the invention of weapons
or traps, and who were the best able to defend themselves, would rear
the greatest number of offspring, and that the tribes which included
the largest number of men possessed of such superior endowments would
increase in number and eventually supplant the other tribes. Numbers
depend primarily on the means of subsistence, and this on the physical
nature of the country, but in a much higher degree upon the arts
therein practised. As a tribe increases and is victorious, it is often
still further increased by the absorption of other tribes, and after
a time the tribes which are thus absorbed into another tribe assume,
as has been remarked by Mr. Maine in his “Ancient Law,” that they are
the co-descendants of the same ancestors. Stature and strength in the
men of a tribe are also of importance in its success, and these are
dependent in part upon the character and the quantity of food that can
be obtained. Men of the Bronze Period in Europe were supplanted by a
larger-handed and more powerful race, but their success was probably
due in a much higher degree to their superiority in the arts. All that
is known by savages, as inferred from their traditions and from old
monuments, shows that from the most remote times successful tribes
have supplanted others. Relics of extinct tribes have been found on
the wild plains of America and on the isolated islands in the Pacific
Ocean. Civilized nations are everywhere at the present time supplanting
barbarous peoples, excepting where climate opposes a fatal barrier, and
they thus succeed in a great measure, though not exclusively, through
the arts, which are the products of the intellect. With mankind,
then, it is highly probable that the intellectual faculties have been
gradually perfected through Natural Selection. Undoubtedly it would
have been interesting to have traced the development of each separate
faculty from the state in which it exists in the lower animals to
that in which it exists in man, but this would have been a task of
no easy accomplishment. As soon, however, as the progenitors of man
became social, and this probably occurred at a very early period,
the advancement of the intellectual faculties would have been aided
and modified in an important manner, for if one man in a tribe, more
sagacious than his fellows, had invented a new snare or a weapon, or
other means of attack or defence, the plainest self-interest, with no
great help of reasoning power, would have prompted the other members
to have imitated him, and thus all would have been profited. Habitual
practice of each new art must likewise in some slight degree strengthen
the intellect. If the new invention were an important one, the tribe
would increase in numbers, spread and supplant other tribes, and thus
rendered stronger numerically there would be a better chance of the
birth of other superior and inventive members. Should these last be so
fortunate as to leave children to inherit their mental superiority, the
chance of the birth of still more ingenious members would be somewhat
better, and in a very small tribe would be decidedly better.
That primeval man, or his ape-like progenitors, should have become
social, they must have acquired the same instinctive feelings which
impel other animals to live in a body, and they doubtless exhibited
the same general disposition. When separated from their companions,
for whom they would have felt some degree of love, they would have
experienced a feeling of uneasiness. They would have warned each
other of danger, and have given mutual aid in attack or defence. All
this implies some degree of sympathy, fidelity and courage. Such
social qualities, whose paramount importance to the lower animals is
undisputed, were doubtless acquired by the progenitors of men in a
similar manner, namely, through Natural Selection, aided by inherited
habit. In the never-ceasing wars of savages, fidelity and courage are
all-important, and certainly when two tribes of primeval man, living
in the same country, came into competition, the one that contained
the greatest number of courageous, sympathetic and faithful members,
who were ever ready to warn each other of danger, and to assist and
defend each other, would without doubt succeed the best and conquer the
other. The advantage which disciplined soldiers have over undisciplined
hordes follows mainly from the confidence which each soldier has in
his comrades. Obedience is of the highest importance, for any form of
government is better than none. Selfish and contentious people will not
cohere, and without coherence nothing can be effected. Thus, a tribe
possessing these qualities in an eminent degree would spread and be
victorious over other tribes. But, in the course of events, or all past
history is a myth, this successful tribe would in its turn be overcome
by some other more highly-endowed tribe; and thus would the social and
moral qualities tend slowly to advance and be diffused throughout the
world.
Praise and the blame of our fellow-men are much more powerful stimuli
to the development of the social qualities. These virtues are primarily
due to the instinct of sympathy, and this instinct, like all other
social instincts, was doubtlessly acquired through Natural Selection.
How early man’s progenitors, in the course of their development, became
capable of feeling and being impelled by the praise or blame of their
fellow-men, we are unable to say. Even dogs appreciate encouragement,
praise and blame, and it would be strange if such could not be
predicated of beings higher in the scale. The wildest savages feel the
sentiment of glory. This is clearly shown by their preservation of
the trophies of their bravery, by their habit of excessive boasting,
and even by the extreme care they take of their personal appearance
and adornments. Unless, however, they regarded the opinion of their
comrades, such habits would be without meaning and senseless. How far
the savage experiences remorse, is doubtful. He certainly feels shame
and contrition for the breach of some of the lesser rules of his tribe.
It is true that remorse is a deeply-hidden feeling, but it is hardly
credible that a being who will sacrifice his life rather than betray
his tribe, or give himself up as a prisoner rather than violate his
parole, would not feel remorse, though he might, if he failed in a duty
which he held sacred, hide it from view.
Primeval man must have been, at a very remote time, influenced by
the praise and blame of his fellows. That the members of the same
tribe would approve of conduct that appeared for the general good,
and reprobate such as seemed to carry with it evil, there can be no
question. To do good unto others, or to do unto others as you would
that they should do unto you, is the foundation-stone of morality.
It is, therefore, hardly possible to place too high an estimate upon
the importance of the love of praise and fear of blame during rude,
barbaric times, for a man, who was not impelled by any profound
instinctive feeling to sacrifice his life for the good of others, but
who was raised to such a noble action by a sense of glory, would by his
example excite a similar wish for glory in the bosoms of other men,
and would thereby engender and strengthen by exercise the laudable
feeling of admiration. With increased experience and reason, those
more remote consequences of his actions, such as temperance, chastity,
etc., which during his very early times were utterly disregarded, would
come to be highly esteemed or even held sacred. And ultimately there
would have been developed from the social instincts a highly-complex
sentiment which, largely guided by the approbation of his fellow-men,
and ruled by reason, self-interest, and latterly by deep religious
feelings, confirmed by teaching and habit, would constitute his moral
sense or conscience. Although a high standard of morality gives but
little if any advantage to each individual man and his children over
the other men of the same tribe, yet it must be borne in mind that it
is an advancement in the standard of morality and an increase in the
number of well-endowed men that certainly give a telling advantage to a
tribe over another, for the tribe that includes many members who, from
possessing in an eminent degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity,
obedience, courage and sympathy, and who were always prepared to give
aid to each other, and to sacrifice themselves for the common weal,
would be victorious over most other tribes. And this would be Natural
Selection. Tribes at all times throughout the world have supplanted
other tribes. Now, as morality is one element in their success, the
standard of morality and the number of well-endowed men will thus
everywhere tend to rise and increase.
Very difficult it is to form any judgment why one particular tribe and
not another has been successful in the Struggle for Existence and has
risen in the scale of civilization. Many savages are still in the same
condition of degradation as when first discovered. The greatest part
of mankind has never evinced the slightest desire that their civil
institutions should be improved. Progress is not, as we are apt to
consider, the normal rule in human society. Many concurrent favorable
conditions, far too complex to be followed out, seem to determine
human progress. A cool climate, it has been remarked, by leading to
industry and the various arts, has been indispensable thereto, but if
the climate has been too severe, as in the Arctic regions, there is a
check to continual progress. Pressed by hard necessity, the Esquimaux
have succeeded in many ingenious inventions, but they can never attain,
for the reason already assigned, to any very great success. Nomadic
habits, whether along the shores of the sea, or over wide plains, or
through dense tropical forests, have in all cases proved detrimental.
Perhaps, the possession of some property, a fixed abode, and the union
of many families under a leader or chief, are indispensable requisites
for civilization, as such habits almost necessitate the cultivation
of the ground. From some such accident as the falling of the seeds
of a fruit-tree on a heap of refuse and producing an unusually fine
variety may probably have resulted the first steps in cultivation,
for if the fruit were profitable and good for food, it would be a
very dull intellect that could not readily perceive, especially among
a people that had given up a roving habit of life, the advantage
which would accrue from the planting of some more trees of a similar
kind. They would undoubtedly be led to cultivation for themselves by
a simple observation of the plan by which nature contrives in keeping
up a continuation of her many kinds of plants. Instead of dropping the
seeds upon the ground as nature is prone to do, and trusting to their
burial by accident or otherwise, seeing the advantage to be gained
by burying them out of the reach of noxious influences, whether of
climate or animal life, they would soon learn to take the matter of
planting under their own watchful care rather than leave it to the
seemingly thoughtless provision of nature. But the problem of the first
advance of palæolithic man toward civilization, is at present much too
difficult to be solved, for it involves the consideration of certain
elements which we know too little about, and their disentanglement
from others whose value is of recognized significance in the domain of
biological science.
While it has been shown how it has been possible for primeval man
to have acquired a moral sense or conscience, yet it must not be
forgotten that the lower animals, at least such as have come under
the civilizing influence of man, have also come into possession of
the same highly complex sentiment which has been of such inestimable
service to man for his progressive advancement. Other faculties, such
as the powers of imagination, wonder, curiosity, an undefined sense of
beauty, a tendency to imitation, and the love of excitement or novelty,
have also been of immense importance in this direction, for they
could not fail to have led to the most capricious changes of customs
and fashions. Caprice, it has been rather oddly claimed by a recent
writer, is “one of the most remarkable and typical differences between
savages and brutes.” It is not only possible to perceive how it is
that man is capricious, but the lower animals, as has been previously
shown, are capricious in their affections, aversions and sense of
beauty. And there is good reason to suspect that they love novelty
for its own sake. Self-consciousness, individuality, abstraction,
general ideas, etc., which have been held by several recent writers
as making the sole and complete distinction between man and the
brutes, seem useless subjects for discussion, since hardly any two
authors agree in their definitions of these high faculties. In man,
such faculties could not have been fully developed until his mental
powers had advanced to a high state of perfection, and this implies
the use of a highly-developed language. No one supposes that one of
the lower animals reflects whence he comes or whither he goes, or what
is death or what is life, but can one feel sure that an old dog with
an excellent memory, and some power of imagination as shown by his
dreams, never reflects on his past pleasures in the chase? And this
would be a form of self-consciousness. On the contrary, as Büchner ably
remarks, how little can the hard-worked wife of an Australian savage
who scarcely uses any abstract words and whose ability to count does
not extend beyond four, exert her self-consciousness, or reflect on
the origin, nature and aim of her own existence. That animals retain
their mental individuality is unquestioned, for when any voice awakens
a train of old associations in the mind of some favorite dog, as in the
case of my dog Frisky, already referred to, he must have retained his
mental individuality, although every atom of his brain had probably
undergone change more than once during the five or six years he lived
in my family. Animals have some ideas of numbers. The crow has been
known to count as far as the number six, and a dog I once had knew as
well as I did when Saturday came. The sense of beauty, which has been
declared peculiar to man, is innate in birds. Certain bright colors and
certain sounds, when in harmony, excite in them pleasure as they do
in man. The taste for the beautiful, at least so far as female beauty
is concerned, is not of a special nature in the human mind, for it
differs widely in the different races of man, and is not quite the same
even in the different nations of the same race. If we are to judge
from the hideous ornaments and the equally hideous music admired by
most savages, it might be urged that their æsthetic faculty was less
highly developed than it is in some species of birds. No animal, it is
obvious, would be capable of admiring the nocturnal heaven, a beautiful
landscape, or refined music. And this should not be wondered at, for
such high tastes, dependent as they are upon culture and complex
associations, are not even enjoyed by barbarous or by uneducated
persons.